Don Peoples (5:32)

Well, great. So I appreciate we didn't know it. He's.

John Hope Bryant (5:35)

For those listening to this, I don't know if I did. I mentioned that Don Peoples is a brother, right? He's black. He's not black for a living. He's a great developer who happens to be black. He's a great leader who Happens to be black, but he's proud of his heritage and so am I. He's African American. Okay. Don Peebles.

Don Peoples (5:52)

Absolutely. And in fact, I grew up during the civil Rights movement. I was born in 1960 in Washington, D.C. seat of our government, where many of the major protests and demonstrations and the fight in the halls of our government took place. I remember when Dr. King was assassinated. I was watching television about the assassination, but. And then the riots that followed were in my community. My mother had to drive me through a commercial corridor near our home and have me duck down so that I wouldn't be hit as a little boy. And. But. And then, you know, I remember Robert Kennedy's assassination as well. I remember how, you know, and Malcolm X's focus, but I remember that, you know, there was a time of struggle in the country for us to have equal access to just basic civil rights and how we had to fight for those. And now our fight continues to be for economic opportunity. And Dr. King understood it. I remember his quote. It was, what good does it serve for the Negro to have a seat at the lunch counter when they can't afford to buy a hamburger? And so that was all the relevance here about economic empowerment. And so he started the Poor People's March and. And. And ultimately economic as that's poor people's initiative and so forth, to reset the table economically in the country because our democracy is a capitalistic democracy, was that economic opportunity must lead the way. He set the pathway for Andrew Young and then Maynard Jackson before him. And what happened? Yes, and initially through Hartsville, now Hartsville Jackson Airport, where as mayor, he had a vision for Atlanta to be a global city and having an international airport and got a lot of support throughout the state for that. But then people didn't realize what he had. Part of his plan was to make it an economic engine, and he had to fight to make it. To protect the opportunity for minority business contracting, he required 35% to be for minority contracting for black contractors. And ultimately he fought, won that. And that started the pathway of creating significant black wealth in Atlanta. And it made Atlanta the Mecca for black economic empowerment. But others followed him and followed Ambassador Young. Marion Barry in Washington, D.C. harold Washington in Chicago, in New Orleans, Tom Bradley in la. So as you. So that civil rights generation knocked down these barriers economically for businesses like mine or Bob Johnson at bet, which would not have been possible if it wasn't for him getting the cable television franchise for Washington, D.C. so the political power in the 1970s and 80s was used to help generate Economic empowerment.

John Hope Bryant (9:22)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (9:23)

And that's how I got started. Without that, and without that mindset, it would have never happened. So I grew up in D.C. my mother and I. My parents got divorced when I was five. My mother and I moved to Detroit.

John Hope Bryant (9:37)

Mine till you had five.

Don Peoples (9:38)

Okay. And then in 19. And so in 1968, when I was eight, my mother and I moved to Detroit for her to start a new life. And, and, and she, her sister was living in Detroit because her husband was doing his internship from residency in medicine. So my mother was a secretary at the Urban League and on Capitol Hill in D.C. so she went to night school, got a real estate license, and she started working in real estate in Detroit. And then within a couple of years had her own real estate brokerage business. And that was an environment of black entrepreneurship with Detroit. And I remember my best friend, who's still one of my best friends in life. You know, I met him when I think I was 10. And we were best buddies. His father, Barry Gordy, my friend Kerry Gordy. So Barry founded Motown and, and was running Motown, which was in Detroit at the time. And I remember the fact that there was a black man running, found it and ran Motown was very inspirational to me. And it showed me early on that there was no limitation. So anyway, I went back to Washington D.C. my mother thought I should get involved in politics, told me I needed to. The city in 1974, when we had moved back, was getting the right to elect its own government. And for the first time, because before it was all appointed by the President of the United States, including the mayor. So she wanted. Yeah. So the thing about D.C. didn't have any rights to vote and elect. The citizens of 700,000 residents could not vote for anybody. Wow. And so they, in 74, they got the right to elect their own government. And so that was a big deal there. And so my mother told me that I needed to go and volunteer and work for one of the candidates who was running for chairman of the city Council. Her former boss at the Washington D.C. urban League, Guy named Sterling Tucker. And then I could pick somebody else. And I was upset with her that she was taking up my summer for this. And so I did some research and I picked the most radical candidates. And it was Marion Barry who was running for the City Council. And he was, he. He was a part of the civil rights movement. He was co founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC and was very active in the civil rights movement and then also the fight for economic inclusion. So at 14 years old. I volunteer for his campaign. He won. Sterling Tucker won. They were. Since it was a new government, Barry drew, they drew straws for terms. Whether it was two or four years, he got a short straw. So he ran. Two years later. I was more active in his campaign and got to know a little bit better. I was one of the, you know, advanced people for him. And, and then when I was on my way to college and I spent my last two years, my mother was big on politics so she had me become a page one of her, you know, she used her relationships on Capitol Hill. I got appointed a page, spent my last two years of high school going to school at the top floor of the Library of Congress from 6am to 10:30 and then walking across the street and working in the US Capitol. So I was a page on the floor of the House of Representatives under Tip O'Neill, the Speaker@ the time. And then I worked in the offices of Charlie Rangel, Ron Dellums and John Conyer. So I got a good sense of politics. So Barry and Sterling Tucker run for mayor to unseat the first elected mayor. So it's three way race and Barry runs, I go off to college in the primary, he wins. And then I'm in college at Rutgers, going into studying pre med. And then after that, after my first year I quit, went back to D.C. and started working.

John Hope Bryant (13:31)

You start, you study pre med. Why?

Don Peoples (13:33)

My uncle was a. I was very close to him. He was a role model and he was a doctor and he was telling me not to go into medicine, but I wanted to go into medicine because I want to. Look, my mother and I struggle financially. I wanted to have what would be a stable income stream. I really wasn't driven to try to be ultra rich. I was driven to have a nice stable lifestyle, be able to take care of myself, take care of my family and that be good and then maybe and invest in real estate over time and make some money doing that. But after my first year I decided that it wasn't for me and I decided to go back to D.C. and start working in the real estate business. And I became a sales agent. But interest rates were 20 plus percent. It was 1979 so I could sell.

John Hope Bryant (14:21)

Slow that down. Hold on. People need to hear that. Slow that down. First of all, Ambassador Young and you have something in common, Don. You have a lot in common. But one thing, his father was a dentist and had a nice middle class lifestyle, wanted his sons to be dentists and his brother became a dentist. But Ambassador Young, after studying it for a bit was like, no, that's your dream. That's not mine. I don't want to be a dentist. I respect your dad. Thank you. I want to be a pastor and I want to a preacher. And then when he. When he told his dad he was going to follow Dr. King, his dad, like, literally rolled his eyes and like, you, what have I done with. What have I done with my. With sacrificing my life? Of course, the rest is history of all that Ambassador Young did with his life, which is the legacy, really, the living legacy of his family. You could have been a doctor because you saw somebody who was a role model, who you admired, your uncle, and that was enough for you. You model what you see. We talked about. We talked earlier about the power of words and the power of what we see and what we feel and what we hear in our lives and how that influences us positively and negatively. Your uncle influenced you so much. You went to pre med, to school to maybe frame your whole life. And luckily you had a strong constitution. Your mother also. What's her name?

Don Peoples (15:38)

God rest Yvonne. Yvonne Willoughby Poole.

John Hope Bryant (15:43)

Yvonne Willoughby Pool. Let's say her name and let it live in history because without her, you wouldn't be you. I say my mother's name, Juanita Smith, because she reminds me of your story, the same story. Divorced five years, you know, at age five, went to go do her own thing, went to go live with my auntie, not really my auntie girl, her girlfriend to save to. To build her, to buy her first home. Now, on your story, your mother interceded several times, including getting you a page position, Is that right?

Don Peoples (16:13)

Yeah.

John Hope Bryant (16:13)

I mean, she's a bold, audacious, strong willed woman, it sounds like. Is that right?

Don Peoples (16:20)

Yes, she was. And she was very big on exposing me to what the world had to offer. And so she really worked very hard to let me know what was out there. And so every chance she could get, she would introduce me to someone else. And she was working in D.C. she met a real estate developer who was pretty successful and asked if he would meet with me for lunch one day. And he did. And I got a chance to meet with a very successful developer over lunch when I was maybe 16.

John Hope Bryant (16:55)

Wow. How did your mother know? First of all, she's still with us.

Don Peoples (17:00)

No, she passed away about 12 years ago.

John Hope Bryant (17:03)

Okay. My mother passed away a year. They've both been promoted. Hopefully they're cooking. Cooking gumbo together in heaven. But she, But. But she certainly left a great legacy with you. So how did she know? Don to that relationship, capital and exposure was so important. Was there something on in her life and the way she grew up that made this obvious?

Don Peoples (17:26)

Yeah, it's an interesting story, actually, because she learned it from her father, my grandfather, and he was from North Carolina. Move. He and his brothers moved up to D.C. first New York and then D.C. for better opportunities. He got a job as a doorman at Warwick Park Hotel. And he worked as a doorman for 41 years. And. But he. D.C. was, you know, the government town, so he got to know many of the members of Congress and political people. And so. And then he would take my. My grandparents had five daughters. My mother was a middle one and. And my grandmother died when my mother was a teenager. So my grandfather really took care of his daughters, worked around the clock, but he would bring them to the hotel on Sundays for, you know, a, you know, like a brunch. So they could dress up in a little dresses and then go and sit down and the segregated area of the hotel, but sit down in it and. And see something different. But. So he was all about exposing them. But also when, you know, one of the. My father, for example, when he needed a job, he was a. When my parents got married, he was an. He was a car mechanic. And so to make more money, he needed a job. My grandfather asked a congressman to do him a favor and help him get a job, which he did. Got a job in the federal government. My. My. Another one of his daughter's husbands was going to law school. Needed a job that could work, you know, at night and make money. Got him a government job as an elevator operator. And so. So he used his relationships to help his family.

John Hope Bryant (19:23)

Yes.

Don Peoples (19:24)

And. And that was as a doorman, to be able to do that. So it was all about exposure. So my mother taught me. Because of what she did, is she generally, you know, she was a relationship builder. So it was never kind of about something for her. Yeah, it was how could she offer some value or help somebody else.

John Hope Bryant (19:45)

Yes.

Don Peoples (19:45)

And then build up a relationship. And one day, if she needed help with me or something, she could.

John Hope Bryant (19:52)

Yes.

Don Peoples (19:53)

And. And so I learned the value of relationships myself and. And that, you know, like, I learned it was more valuable for me to build. Learn politics and build a relationship with Barry than it was to earn some money. So I was doing it on a volunteer basis, so. But I benefit. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Barry. It'd be no chance.

John Hope Bryant (20:20)

Really. Yeah, I think.

Don Peoples (20:22)

And I think I'm a capable person, but, yeah, I Mean, so Barry, I go back to D.C. barry is mayor and everybody. And so he's. He's mayor and he is in his first term. And I'm working as a real estate agent. And then I end up going to work for my mother as an appraiser because she had a consulting business and then worked as a subcontractor for another company. My aspirations were to have my own appraisal business. Barry's running for reelection. I'm 22 years old, and I understood politics, so I said, okay, I'm going to help him. I lived in War 3, which had a big white population, and he had struggled over War three. So I did a Meet the Mayor event with several of the community leaders. And so we had this large gathering of residents. And then I also did a fundraiser for him. He was running against Patricia Roberts Harris, who had served in President Carter's administration as secretary of HUD and hew. So everybody thought Barry would lose, and. And I thought he would win. And so I did a fundraiser for him to get. Two days after the primary, I scheduled it for. Because he could. You could deficit spend in D.C. you could run up a campaign debt. And so. And so I sent out an invitation to everybody who had given Harris more than $1,000 and then other supporters, and I got a little host committee together of more, you know, mature, more experienced people than me. And, and. And we did this event at the Capitol Hilton in D.C. on 16th and K. And, you know, we were kind of struggling a little bit to, you know, but, you know, and at one point they were. The campaign was going to cancel it, but I got them to stick it out. So Barry wins. He beats her by four to one, crushes her.

John Hope Bryant (22:12)

Wow.

Don Peoples (22:13)

Wow. So two days later, we have our event. It's so big that they were bringing in extra tables because all the people who had given her Harris money were trying to redeem themselves with him, raised a huge amount of money, and I got the chance to introduce him, and that showed him that I was no longer the little teenage guy that he had had, you know, working as his advanced person, as a volunteer. But I was now somebody that could be helpful to him.

John Hope Bryant (22:46)

Yes.

Don Peoples (22:46)

Within a matter of months, one of the camp, one of the campaign team members called me. And what happened is many of the people in the campaign transitioned to work in the government. So one of them called me and offered me a position on. As president of the real Estate Commission. And ultimately I spoke to a person at the head of boards and commissions, and she said that that wasn't the right position. I wasn't qualified for that position because you had to be a broker, and I was only a sales agent. But a Property Assessment Appeal Board would be good for me. But they had just filled all the slots in the. In the. And the appointees on the mayor's desk. And my mother had served on that board, so I knew that board. So I called the deputy mayor, who happened to have been the mayor's campaign manager from the time he ran for City Council. And I was right. So I knew since I was 14 years old. And I went and met with him and asked to meet with him, and I made my case, and he said, okay, let me look into it. A couple days later, the woman called me back and said, oh, my God, I just want to. I've got good news for you. I went into the mayor's office and I told him, mary, you were such an impressive young man that we had to appoint you, and he has nominated you for the Property Assessment Appeal Board. And I thanked her. I knew she didn't do it, but I thanked her for it and thanked her for her support and so forth. And so I served on the board. The following year. The chairman's position was. The chairman term had expired, and I asked Barry not to reappoint him. And I asked Barry to pick somebody else. And I made a deal with one of the older members on the board to. To pick him, but he didn't want to. He said he didn't want to do it. So I told the mayor, my first choice was this guy, right? But if he's not going to do it, I'd like to do it.

John Hope Bryant (24:40)

How are you?

Don Peoples (24:42)

I was 23.

John Hope Bryant (24:43)

I love it.

Don Peoples (24:44)

And. And his deputy mayor gave me instructions on how to make it easier for the mayor to get some of the people that I had met during the fundraising and so forth, who the respect it to call the mayor and say they thought I'd do a good job, which I did. And so Barry told me that, well, you know, that you're. The guy was supporting. His name is Ted Wade. He said, you know, that he is. He's been trying to get to meet with me, and he's been asking and he's been telling people to call me because he wants to be chairman, right? I said, but he told me he didn't want it. He says, well, he can't be trusted. So he says, so let me think about it, Don, and I'll get back to you. I met with him in his big office and so forth, and Because I've been on the hill, I was accustomed to the big offices. So it was still. I was a little nervous, but I wasn't as intimidated because I'd been exposed to it. But I was very humble and respectful. But because of the deputy mayor, he taught me, he said, look, you have to make, you're 23 years old. You have to make this. This is the most powerful board in the city. You make this easier for the mayor because him appointing a 23 year old young black man, that's not easy to oversee all these white real estate property owners. Yep. So you got to make it easier. And he showed me how. And because of that, Barry calls me up and says, hey, I'm gonna, you know, announce your appointment tomorrow.

John Hope Bryant (26:16)

Wow.

Don Peoples (26:17)

Get to come down to city hall and. And you know, and he asked his assistant what time was it and so on. He said, she'll give you all the details and I'll see you then. And so came in and he announced my appointment and then swore me in.

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Don Peoples (28:07)

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Don Peoples (28:14)

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John Hope Bryant (28:28)

Couple things that jump out. By the way, I've got My own Mary and Barry stories. Our. Our backgrounds parallel so much. And Marion Barry helped Operation Hope. When we went into Anacostia, he was a leader of one of the wards there, Ward 8.

Don Peoples (28:43)

Ward 8, Anacostia.

John Hope Bryant (28:44)

And I put a hope inside my first Hope Center. We have a. We have 1500 now. My first on the ground Hope center, which was Eat with E Trade, we built on Good Hope Road, I believe it was called, or it was Hope Road.

Don Peoples (28:58)

My first building that I built was on Martin Luther King Avenue, just south of Good Hope Grove.

John Hope Bryant (29:05)

Wow. Coincidence is God's way. Remaining anonymous.

Don Peoples (29:09)

Yeah.

John Hope Bryant (29:09)

But to stay focused on this incredible story of yours, your mother taught you something else. And it's something that Ambassador Young has said that I'm going to repeat. Men and women fail for three reasons. Arrogance, pride and greed. And a quote that I use that I did not create, but I use. And Bash Young loves this quote from that I use all the time, which is talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always leave even your adversary with their dignity. Humility, stepping over mess, not in it. Humility is really an underrated quality. And you said about five minutes ago, basically paraphrasing, being smart wasn't enough. You said, I know I was smart. I knew I was sharp. But I'm not going to get this position just because I'm smart, just because I'm worthy. I need to have relationship capital. I need to understand. I need to read the tea leaves. I need to read the room. I need to make sure I've got the right people pitching for me, vouching for me. I need to make the job for the mayor easier to tell me, to empower me. Am I saying that right?

Don Peoples (30:18)

You're saying it exactly right.

John Hope Bryant (30:21)

And there's some lessons here for the audience on success. And I. We're not just storytelling here. We're giving you a narrative and an inside channel. And again, keep in mind that Don and I are two of the largest people who happen to be of African American descent in the country who are running big books of real estate and businesses with hundreds of employees. I don't know how many employees you have, don. I've got 400. But, you know, we're, we're, you know, this didn't happen by accident. And a lot of his story. So a lot of successes. It's just good habits. It's good habits and discipline and execution. But good habits is a big part of this. Don had good habits from an early age. And for anybody who's having a child or thinking about it, first of all, you should delay it as long as you can because you want to make sure you have maturity to give to that child. But you can't be a baby mama or baby daddy. You have to be a mother and a father. If Don had a baby mama, he'd have been screwed. If he had a baby mama, in other words, I got you, but I had you. But I've got no, whatever the streets chase you, run you, I, I, you know, I'm sort of concerned about you, but I'm not responsible for you. No, no, no. He had a mother. I had a mother. He talked about his grandfather. You know, I know my grandfather, R.B. smith. I know my second great grandfather, George Young, fought in the Civil War, protected Memphis. Know your story. Know your story. And if you're gonna have a child, be a mother and or father be parents, because that's often who your, your children are most influenced by. And so if it wasn't for your mother being your advocate and I think your grandfather, you said opening those doors in D.C. before her, you wouldn't be who you are today.

Don Peoples (32:17)

No. And look, also my father, I mean my father and I had a good relationship overall and, and I got my work ethic from him. Not only did he work his full time job at the government, he also kept a part time job as a car mechanic and set up his own little business in the garage of our house. And so he always was willing to work for what he wanted and he worked to provide and he had this great work ethic. And one of the things I think about pride and I look at it, I think in some regards, like my father and I think my grandfather did the same thing. My father was more so what, he grew up very hard and segregated rural Virginia. And so he didn't want to ask anybody for anything. His whole thing is, I'll do it myself and if I can't provide it for me myself, then I'm not, I don't need it. But I learned a lot from him. And also my, my mother's four sisters, they, you know, all got married, three of their husbands, the one that was a doctor, the other one a lawyer, the other one a school teacher. I learned from each one of them and they were models for me and role models for me. And I happen to have grown up in an environment, in a family where money was, was not something that was elevated or it was, you know, worshiped. It was more about, hey, you needed to take care of yourself and be supportive of your family, but that they're you know, your, your existence and your, you know, your contributions to our society are very different. And, and they don't. It's not about money. And so I think that that probably helped me quite a bit in terms of being able to be grounded and so on. And one of the interesting lessons I learned, one of the best lessons I learned from Barry is in that, in that election for his first campaign for mayor. And I didn't, I didn't witness this, but I was told this story probably 100 times. So the most prominent black business person in the city of Washington was supporting Sterling Tucker. And he was not just supporting him. He was really speaking very nasty and negative about Barry, saying he, you know, he wasn't articulate because he, you know, grew up in the segregated south. Even though Barry had a, a degree in chemistry and was getting a, a master's in chemistry before he left to fight in the civil rights movement.

John Hope Bryant (34:43)

Right.

Don Peoples (34:44)

But he dogged him, I mean, totally. And, but the bank's biggest customer was the city of Washington, D.C. so when Barry won, this guy was depressed and so he, you know, got up the next day, went to work, got in a little late, and he walks in the reception area of his offices at the bank and Marion Barry is sitting in the reception area.

John Hope Bryant (35:14)

Really?

Don Peoples (35:15)

And he stood up, shook his hand and said, now can I have your support?

John Hope Bryant (35:22)

Wow. Marion Barry did that.

Don Peoples (35:25)

Marion Barry did that.

John Hope Bryant (35:27)

Unbelievable. That's, that's saying something. That's, that's wicked smart.

Don Peoples (35:37)

And that was Bill Fitzgerald, the banker who owned Independence Federal Savings and Bank and Savings and Loan, which was the largest black owned bank in the country at the time.

John Hope Bryant (35:46)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (35:47)

And throughout Barry's campaigns and his, you know, his scandal, it was Bill Fitzgerald who was rock solid for Barry, unyielding, supportive of him from, you know, that point on. And, and it was that what Barry did is he gave this man who was certain that he was going to lose his customer, biggest client, and the mayor of the city was going to put him on his, his shit list and that would have been it. And he wouldn't be able to do business. And instead Barry helped him. And I learned that from Barry. And ultimately we used to play poker as a group and Barry included me in their poker games. And so I became very friendly with a bunch of different black business people because we play poker once a week. And so, and I did that probably from 25 to, you know, 30 something, until I moved down to Miami. So. But I learned that lesson. You cannot be a sore winner. It's bad to Be a sore loser. But it's worse to be a sore winner.

John Hope Bryant (36:57)

That's right. Step over, mess, not in it. And realize that you be careful. The toe you step on, it may be connected to the rear end. You got to kiss later.

Don Peoples (37:06)

Exactly.

John Hope Bryant (37:07)

We're all in this thing together. We're all interconnected. And that is one of the messages that Don and I were both trying to articulate before we got on camera about how we, all of us, everybody, needs to be gracious and find a higher frequency in the coming weeks and months, because there are four countries that want to take us out. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. We're not each other's enemies. That's if you want to have an enemy. I mean, I don't see anybody's my enemy. If you want to say an enemy, that's your enemy. They hope that we hate each other. They hope that we. That we kick it and pick each other, continue to. And so I'm. I'm really hoping that we can find a higher frequency. And now, you know, we've had. We've had a, you know, potentially the election of. Of a lifetime here. And. But as I said to Charlemagne and some others this morning on. We were trading text messages. Where else in the world. Well, first of all, say, where else in the world could you and I, Our stories have come of age, up from literally slavery, where we control our own destiny. But where else in the world could you have a superpower yet alone, the sole superpower, have an election of tens and tens of millions of people? It's transparent, it's passionate, it's vibrant, it's violent, free. It's drama free. It's scandal free. It appears it's unrigged, is unbought. It is what it is. You can like it the outcome and not like the outcome, but it is what it is. And tomorrow, today you get up and you go to work or you go to. You have a conversation about it, and you figure out how you go. But, you know, you. You express yourself in Russia, you just disappear. China, you just disappear. Right. So people. You know, people need to understand that even in the Bible says, you cannot grow except through legitimate suffering. You cannot grow except through what through legitimate suffering. Where would Andrew Young be if he hadn't been fired from the un? Little known story, but he was, you know, this vaulted, successful. You know, he was one of the most powerful black men in America, and. And he was a un. He was the first black UN ambassador in the history of the country, and they fired him for Talking to the Palestinians. Yes, they fired him for talking to the Palestinians. Something that of course is just nothing but common sense. Now you need to talk to everybody. And he had his for a couple days, Don. His head was low and he was wondering what the future held. But he, he realized that God sits on the throne and, and God was not in any way through with him, but rainbows follow storms. And he gets called to become mayor of Atlanta and he wonders whether he should do that. And this older lady says to him, you know boy, we, we wasted our time on you. We had you with Dr. King. We, we supported you, we let you, we, we, we rooted for you and did this, you did that. But then we need you. You just shrug your shoulders. We just wasted our time on you. And that turned him around, that caused him to run for mayor and. Yeah, and, and Don, last story and get back to you because I want to make sure we spend the last 10, 15 minutes on how you came from where you are there to this billion dollar portfolio and where it comes next and how people can get the art of how you did your, your transactions and grew your business. So in, in, in this, in this unique narrative of Ambassador Andrew Young, he, he becomes mayor and, and grows this incredible portfolio of inclusion. Gives the, his phone number to all the business people say if anybody tries to bribe you, whatever you call me if you have any problems at all. He, everybody had his home phone number and he attracted $70 billion of foreign investment to Atlanta on his personal rapport and giving folks his phone number. Now he couldn't have done what he did without Maynard, right? Maynard created black wealth. But Ambassador Young really created the first international city in the South. But it was a lot of his, he will say himself, it wasn't, it wasn't just his successes, it was a lot of his failures. He caught a call from Quincy Jones's dear friend, the black godfather. I knew Clarence, so Clarence called him one day and again I can't say it completely here but I'll. Sorry, is this a crazy Negro? You didn't say Negro. This is a crazy negro running for mayor. Black man running for mayor. Running for Congress actually. In, in Atlanta. Yes. Are you out your mind? Are you out of your dang on mind? Right. If you're crazy enough to run, I'm crazy enough to support you. And did a concert form in the stadium here, filled it up and gave him the campaign money. He was the first congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction. And of course you. Ambassador, congressman, mayor. And we know the rest of the story. But it was not the successes is how he managed the failures. It was gracious when he won and when he lost, but also understanding his story was not over. The narrator, there was, this was a, it was a hundred yard dash, not a marathon. I mean it was a marathon, not 100 yard dash. And it was a long game. So you've been playing the long game in your life and you have said on this call, there's not about permanent friends but permanent interests. Did I get that right?

Don Peoples (42:51)

Yes.

John Hope Bryant (42:52)

And, and, and so you went from that humble beginning and setting it up, the setup and the payoff was that you created now a business that is one of the biggest run runs by a person of color in real estate, I'd argue in the world, but certainly in the U.S. tell us about that business, how you built it, where you are now and where do you want to go and what, and is there a, is there a lesson here for, for folks other than the narrative of your life of how to do a deal that you want them to know?

Don Peoples (43:23)

Sure. I mean, I think the first thing is that you got to prepare yourself to be able to do deals and to prepare yourself to be in business and means how you live your life, how you conduct yourself in terms of building relationships. You want people to root for you. Most of the time people won't root for successful people, but you want them to root for you and you want people to think decently of you and you want to be able to build relationships like I learned from my grandfather and my mother. And so it's building relationships, not making enemies. So the arrogance and having humility instead is very helpful. But building some relationships and learning from other people and reading and understanding the business to being somewhat of a student of it, that puts you in a position to be able to be in the mix and be able to be successful when the opportunity comes and then to put yourself in the mix of where you will see opportunities. I knew that by being in the mix in D.C. politically that was my pathway to being more engaged in the business. Now when I was appraising houses for HUD insured mortgages, that wasn't going to do anything for me, earn a living and me to be, and learn more about real estate, but also be being in touch with, you know, where people are, how they're living and, and, and, and, and, and so on. But it was the Property Assessment Appeals Board that put me in the mix. It paid, you know, $25 an hour. When I met, when we have board meetings, I would have done it and paid them for it because it was all about me learning and being able to be a, you know, a player in the business world. So I was trying to build my own appraisal business because I was a subcontractor for another appraisal company. And I need. I'm. The top clients were hud, one of the top clients for residential. And so I tried. My mother had Housing and Urban Development.

John Hope Bryant (45:23)

For those who don't know that U.S. department of Housing Urban Development.

Don Peoples (45:26)

And they insure mortgages for moderate and low moderate income home purchases. And then they also insure multifamily loans as well. So my mother had done work for them. So I used to go in and drop off her appraisal reports and so forth. So I became friendly with the staff there. So I tried to get on the. On the approved list there, and I couldn't do it. By that time, one of my high school classmates was working for Ron Dellums. So I asked him to ask him to write a letter of recommendation for me and have the congressman sign it. And the congressman signed it. And then I say, and then also, can you make a call for the congressman to speak to the area director for the HUD director for Washington D.C. and put in a good word for me? He did. And I got a meeting with her, spoke to her, and then I stayed in touch. And then, you know, a few months go by, I stay in touch. And then I asked my friend to get the congressman to touch base again. Just see how things are going.

John Hope Bryant (46:29)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (46:29)

And. And that he known. Known me since I was 16 years old, etc, and I'm gonna do a good job. He's confident. So ultimately I got my first client, started my appraisal business. And one of the things that we said was that if he's qualified to be chairman of the Property Assessment appeal board in D.C. that reviews all 165,000 properties in Washington D.C. he should be qualified to appraise some property for HUD. And that was. So it gave me a little bit of a building block. And then I used the relationships and then from there, I guess within the. Yes. So I was building my appraisal business, but I wanted to get into development. So I took a shot at a couple of different deals that were parcels owned by the government where I thought I had an edge and I couldn't. Neither one of them became successful, but I'd assembled investors and all of that.

John Hope Bryant (47:21)

You took a shot. You're in D.C. now, you know all the players. You take a shot, you're on you're chairman of an important committee. You've gotten this relationship through a congressman, you've gotten this deal through hud, you've gotten this. And now you take a shot at properties that you understand, controlled by people who you know. And they didn't happen. The first two deals did not happen.

Don Peoples (47:43)

Right?

John Hope Bryant (47:44)

Please listen to me, everybody. Listen to what Don is saying. This whole fantasy that, that you're going to be a, a, a microwave success story overnight, or that you put a business card and put CEO in your name and, and lease a car and go to some fancy meetings and buy some suits and take an Instagram shot of you being a successful person. That's not the way it works. Only in the dictionary does the word success come before the word work because it's alphabetical. Again, he did everything right, and it still didn't. He said earlier, being smart is not enough. Being confident is not enough. And he didn't give up. He takes no for vitamins, just like me.

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Don Peoples (48:55)

So.

John Hope Bryant (48:55)

Those two deals didn't happen. Continue.

Don Peoples (48:57)

Right? Those two deals didn't happen. And Barry could have made either one of those happen, but he didn't. And for. And I understood why. Different reasons and different politics. So I happen to be in my office, my appraisal office, and I'd sublet some space to a real estate broker. And he comes into my office and he says, hey, I got a piece of property you should look at buy. And I said, okay, where is. He says, anacostia. I said, well, why would I want to own anything in Anacostia? I mean, it's a depressed community. I want to build an office building in downtown D.C. right? Because look, he shows me this letter, and it's a letter on the mayor of Washington DC's letterhead. And the letter starts off, this letter constitutes a commitment on behalf of the District of Columbia government to lease office space in your proposed building. So that letter was written to a white developer, right, who was trying to, who was working on buying this piece of property, Anacostia, from my sub tenant's client.

John Hope Bryant (50:02)

Right.

Don Peoples (50:02)

And. And I said, so what's the issue here? Why, why are you showing it to me? It looks like the deal is all done. He said, well, My client wants $900,000 for this property and the developer won't pay more than 700. And I said, wait a minute. So they're arguing over $200,000. It was like 650. I think it was 650, but were arguing over 200. $250,000.

John Hope Bryant (50:27)

Right.

Don Peoples (50:28)

You're kidding me. And so I look at the letter and I. And I said, can I have a copy of it? And we make a copy of it. And I said, okay, let me get back to you tomorrow. So I called the investors that I'd assembled for the other deal.

John Hope Bryant (50:40)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (50:40)

And I called them up.

John Hope Bryant (50:42)

Didn't happen.

Don Peoples (50:43)

Which failed and didn't happen. Never got it. But I knew them. And I said, how would you like to own 50% of an office building that we will build is pre leased to the District of Columbia for 20 years?

John Hope Bryant (50:56)

Oh, my God. Oh my God.

Don Peoples (50:59)

And they said, well, what's the deal? And I said, well, you guys put up all the money and I bring the deal. I bring the land and I bring the deal. And. And so.

John Hope Bryant (51:08)

And you had owned 20% of that?

Don Peoples (51:10)

No, I don't. I own 50%. Wow.

John Hope Bryant (51:14)

Okay.

Don Peoples (51:15)

And so I set up a meeting with the owner of the property and we had a meeting at the offices of my investors and we laid out the deal. I said, you know who I am. Because by that time I was somewhat prominent. So you know that if the mayor is going to do this for this group, chances are he'll do a deal with me, especially with my partners who are putting up all the money and have the experience. But we can't buy your property until we have a deal with the city. But the price is not an issue. We're going to pay you exactly what you asked for. You want a $900,000? We're going to pay you $900,000. We're going to give you $100,000 deposit, and if we don't close, it's yours. And we calculated what it costs to carry the property. After 90 days, we'll pay to carry the property. You got to give us six months to make our deal. Made a deal, signed a contract. Parton put up the money. And then I wrote a letter to the mayor and I wrote him a letter. In fact, no, I wrote the city council member for that district and the city of Washington's director of, you know, of government services, General services wrote them a letter saying that we own the property. We understood that they were willing to lease it. And the rent that you all are proposing is $22.50 a square foot, triple net. We're going to do a building.

John Hope Bryant (52:38)

Explain triple neck. Don, explain triple net, please.

Don Peoples (52:40)

So triple net means that 22.50 rent to the owner, net means that the tenant has to pay the property taxes, has to pay all operating expenses of the building, insurance, utilities, et cetera. So they have to pay all the expenses so that the developer or the owner of the building gets $22.50 per square foot and a net of all expenses. So the tenant pays all operating expenses.

John Hope Bryant (53:11)

For those listeners who don't. Didn't follow that. Run the tape back, listen to it slowly. That's a brilliant deal because basically that meant that, that Don knew exactly and his investors knew exactly what they would receive in a return net of all expenses that could kill you. Property taxes, things that are, that go up and down, utilities, all that stuff. It was, it was triple. So he had a, he had a 20 year lease with a credit tenant. Credit means somebody you know is credit worthy. The word credit comes on the Latin word credit credibility. You knew the person was credit worthy. It's the government in D.C. doesn't get a better tenant than that 20 year lease. So you can get predictable income which then gives the product, the property a value for 20 years. And he knew exactly what, what net cash flow would come to him and his investors because it's triple net. And as the government goes bankrupt, which was not likely and hasn't. He had a great deal. This wasn't a good deal. This is a great deal. He negotiated up great. He negotiated success up front. He was financially literate, wasn't just a good developer, wasn't just smart, wasn't just lucky. He created his own luck. He was smart and he was financially literate and he understood a budget and the balance sheet and he took risks because he cut the deal before he wrote the letter to the council person or got back to the mayor. He'd already. He was at risk of the deal gone sideways. The mayor changed their mind or city council person decided they didn't like him. He's toast. Okay, go ahead, Don.

Don Peoples (54:33)

So there, and in fact there's some drama to it. So, so we make a deal and so we send the letter to the city. The first argument I had with the investors, there were three white guys and who were real estate investors, two Jewish guys and a Greek guy. And they said, why in the world are we offering $18.75 a square foot? The other, the mayor wrote a letter saying $22.50. This is a minority deal. Those Deals always cost more money. To do business with minorities, you should be charging $25 a foot. I said, no, you don't understand the reality of the world here. And the reality of the world is I've got to be better. There is no way we're going to get this deal if I'm not better. One, I'm black. Two, I'm a friend and ally of the mayor's. So we have to make this where they'd be fools not to take our deal. I said, but we're going to do something smart. We don't spend money, dollars per square foot. We spend absolute dollars. So we're going to double the size of the building, and we're going to have. And we're going to pitch that as a bigger economic development impact on the community, and we're going to commit to 35% or better minority contracting. Wow.

John Hope Bryant (55:54)

Your minority promising minority contracting.

Don Peoples (55:57)

Yes. And. And we were going to build a bigger building. So the mayor. So the. So. So all. So we send the letter to the council member, and probably within. Within almost hours, I get a call from the mayor. And the mayor said, don, what are you doing first? The way it happens is, you know, it's his assistant, Jerry. And she says, don, hold on for the mayor. So, Mayor, Hey, Don, what are you doing over in Anacostia? I mean, council member Nadine Winter just came, just left my office. She was yelling and all crazy in here, saying, you bought this property in Anacostia and now you took it from, you know, some other people who were going to build a building over there. And. And I guess they were friends of hers or something. And I said, well, yeah, Mr. Mayor, I did buy a piece of property. I put it under contract because the city was interested in leasing office space there. And you want to have. You want to help rebuild economic, you know, neglected communities. And I know that you have been an outspoken advocate of economic empowerment for black entrepreneurs. This is Anacostia. Predominantly black community in a commercial quarter Destroyed by the 1968 riots. Been neglected ever since. I'm a black developer, and I figured that it would be better if I built it in a community that's reflective of my people. And I'm doing it, and I'm doing it on better economic terms. And I don't know why she's mad. She should be happy. She's a black council member, and everybody's talking about how you all want to help more black entrepreneurship. Okay, here you go.

John Hope Bryant (57:37)

Here you go.

Don Peoples (57:37)

And he says, yeah, man, she is. She is furious. And, And I said, well. And I shouldn't have said it, but I said it. I said, well, Mr. Mayor, if it's a real problem for you, I could walk from the deal. And then he thought. And he paused for a second, and he said, would you lose money and.

John Hope Bryant (57:55)

A hundred thousand dollars?

Don Peoples (57:56)

I said, yes, miss. May I lose a lot of money and. And lose a big opportunity.

John Hope Bryant (58:01)

Incredibly right.

Don Peoples (58:03)

I said, but, you know, you were, you know, my relationship with you is extremely important to me. And so in this thing, you know what you want to do as a priority. He says, all right, let me think about it. I'll get back to you. And. And then a couple days later, he calls me back up, and I'm all worried, calling back up and say, you know, we're going to go forward with that deal. It's the right thing to do, and you're saving us money and you're doing a better building, and Councilmember Winter is going to need to get over it. Now, I like you to go down and meet with her and try to get her to feel good about this, but you can go there knowing that we're going forward. And, and so I did that, went in and then met with her, got her on board. But like, a couple of weeks later, I get a phone call from a reporter in the Washington Post. I get. And I was out of the office. So I returned the phone call and I called the guy up, and he said, this is Tom Sherwood. I'm an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, because I thought it was a special interest story about a black developer helping the black community. And he says that we want to talk to you about this lease deal that you're doing with the mayor, and that's above market rent. And so, and so he, I want to talk to you about it, and so forth. And I said, well, all right. Well, let me get back to you. So I called the mayor's office, talked to his press secretary, right? She. And then his Intergovernmental affairs person, and they tell me, one, I should do the interview. And then they talked me through how.

John Hope Bryant (59:42)

To do it, right?

Don Peoples (59:43)

And that was my first real interaction with the media. And, and so I do this interview.

John Hope Bryant (59:50)

How old are you at this point?

Don Peoples (59:52)

I was 26.

John Hope Bryant (59:56)

Unbelievable.

Don Peoples (59:58)

And so I go and meet with this guy in my office, and I record the interview, and we do the interview. And I kept saying, well, here's a letter that the mayor sent to some other developer other than me, and it was for 22.50 a square foot.

John Hope Bryant (60:20)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (60:20)

I'm using it. 1875 square foot. My deal is better. So it's. The market was what this person offered and what the city signed a commitment letter for. He just didn't control the property. I figured out how to control the prop by the property. And, you know, and I'm doing it for less money. So that got me some. And I called a couple city council members and they were supportive of me. Me as well. And. And. And so a couple days later, front page of the Washington Post, right next to Ronald Reagan's Iran Contra affair issue, where they're trading, you know, drugs for arms, is my little building in Anacostia. And it was a front page story in the Washington Post, and they were trying to make controversy out of it, but it wasn't. I saw the mayor that. I saw the mayor that day, told me, don't worry about it. But then I go into this prominent restaurant where I started. I'd been going this pop with this Washington local business and political power restaurant called Joe and Mo's.

John Hope Bryant (61:24)

Right.

Don Peoples (61:24)

And that was where, like Bill Fitzgerald, the banker I talked about earlier, would go every day for lunch. And all the power broke. Many of the power brokers would be there for lunch. So I go there. I became more of a regular. So I go in. Bill Fitzgerald standing at the bar, he gets up and he comes over to me and he hands me a glass of champagne and he says, welcome to the club. And. And what he told me is there will be no fans.

John Hope Bryant (61:52)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (61:53)

There will not. There you will not. The Washington Post in the establishment, you are now their target.

John Hope Bryant (61:59)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (61:59)

And you will not have fans, and they will not be in your fan club.

John Hope Bryant (62:03)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (62:04)

And. But you're gonna have to keep going and not let none of this bother you. And you just keep focusing, stay on your point. Don't do anything wrong, and you're fine.

John Hope Bryant (62:16)

Yeah.

Don Peoples (62:16)

But I was, like, worried that my deal was going to blow up. And then Barry said he'd stick it out. And then it was lingering. And then one of the council members who had ran against him and lost said, look, you need to sign the lease now and get it over. Let's just put it into this now. And. And that was it. Got my deal done and signed the lease in 1987. I was just turning 27. And. And then built the building in two years. We brought it in early. And that building was my first building. And I was netting back then about my share was about 400 grand a year. So I no longer had to work for a living. And Then I could start focusing, it was just me, so I could just be helping my mother and I could just focus now on what's the next step. And then from that one building, oh, and I forgot to get it financed. The national bank of Washington did the construction loan, right. And the way I met them is the chairman of the national bank of Washington with Barry's campaign chairperson. So Barry introduced me to him, right. Construction loan and found an insurance company for me to take the construction loan out and repay the construction loan and give me a permanent loan for 10 years. And so just for those to follow.

John Hope Bryant (63:38)

That he had, he purchased it, he needed a banker, a lender to do a construction loan to get the building up. And then with the construction loans, not the final financing, you need a permanent financing, a long term vehicle at permanently fixed rates. So you know what the monthly outflow is because the construction loan often is at adjustable rates and it is not very economical deal. You don't want to keep it long term. But. But he got the construction loan, which is typically, you know, two years or less on a building like that. And, and then he did a permanent loan, which is what the insurance company mentioned, that allowed him to finance it institutionally for the life of the building. Okay, go ahead.

Don Peoples (64:20)

And so that freed me up. And from that one building, it was a $10 million project cost. I built a business where I had about, ultimately about two and a half million square feet of space in D.C. you know, and other sites I could build more. I expanded into Miami and then other parts of the country. And so today we do business in Boston, New York, DC, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Miami, LA, San Francisco, Vegas, and all that from the one building. So we've completed several billion dollars of projects. Our pipeline today is over $6 billion of development projects around the country. I'm trying to get the rights to a site in New York City where from the state government, where I can build the TAL building in the Western hemisphere. It'll be the first skyscraper built by African American developers. It's an 80% black owned building, 2.7 billion to build it, and 1667ft tall, which would make it the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. All that from that one opportunity. And if I didn't get that one opportunity and being prepared to take it, being not worrying about what I was going to get from Barry early, but building a relationship of somebody that I respected and being useful to him, even that building was a source of pride. He did, was there the groundbreaking and that building kick started the revitalization of Anacostia and today Homeland security has a $3 billion headquarters there. The Department of.

John Hope Bryant (66:06)

Is that the building? Homeland Security's building?

Don Peoples (66:09)

No, no, that's not the building. But all of that happened as a result of that first investment catalyst to create all of that economic development. And ironically, the government, after 20 years, the next mayor renewed the lease for 10 years. And then, and then we renovated the building and the city leased it for another 16 years. And my son oversaw the renovations. So I don't have 30 years after me building it. My son who was working, is working in the company, he oversaw the renovation of that building and the city another 16 years. Yeah, and. And still own it today. We still make money off that building and have been making money off that building for 35 plus years.

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John Hope Bryant (67:25)

This has been a master class, everybody. If you did not know anything about real estate development, he just walked you through how he built an empire and he unpacked a critical deal which triggered every other deal in many ways. He talked to you about humble, humble beginnings. He talked to you about his grandfather. His grandfather, a doorman, had relationship capital because everybody coming in out of that hotel, he got to know. He talked about how his mother built relationship capital and his father helped him. His father was a hard worker. Don, your story. My story is so, are so similar in so many ways. We don't have time to go into it, but it's, it is heartwarming to me to, to know because I didn't know all this backstory, how there's so much simpatico here. But he talked about, and this is the most important thing I want people to listen to here. Integrity. Integrity. He could have taken the short route a couple times. He could have been about himself. But he told the mayor, the then mayor, Mary and Barry, if you don't like this deal, now he's got the money at risk. Now this is the second risky thing he done on this property. First of all, he went under the contract without having gone back. He could have gone to the mayor in advance and tried to reassure him that this was a good deal. He could have gone to the city council, purpose person. But by the way, they would have set him up. The reporters then could have suggested this was some kind of a cooked agreement, some kind of a. Not fraud, but bribery or whatever. They could have made something up. Oh, you. You gave them free dinners and lunches or whatever. He stayed clear of all that, did his deal on the. On the. On the strength of the transaction. Went undercut. His competition, could have taken more money, but it wasn't greedy. Undercut it, made it sure it was competitive, tightened it up, put himself at risk because you cannot do anything in life without putting yourself on the front lines. He backed his own deal. Then he went to the mayor. Then he had to wait and said, look, if this doesn't work out, if you don't like it, that's fine with me. I'll. I'll recover. But my relationship with you is that important. I did the same thing with Tony Rester and Michael Araghetti. When I sold Promise Homes company, I could have sold it at a. At a much higher price. I could have sold at a much lower price, but I simply said, whatever you guys want to do, you're my partners here. I want to honor my commitment to you, get you in and out in five years. And ultimately, they did exactly what you did with Mary and Barry. They said, no, we're. We're with you. But I was willing to take much less to keep my word. He did that. That was a big deal I did on Promise Homes company. He did that on his first deal. And the way he did it allowed him to talk to that reporter with a straight face and with integrity, and it was nothing that reporter could do but report the news. I mean, there was no. You couldn't make it up. It was nothing to make up. Now it's. You could. All they did was give you great advertisement on the front page of the local paper, ultimately, and made you the guy, made you part of the club. There's a guy said clearly, welcome to the club you've been hit at. You've been knocked on your head now, welcome to the club. So another message for everybody. I'd rather you respect me and learn to like me than like me and never respect me. And what Don has built is a global reputation of respect. And people also like him. They know when you. When he shakes your hand, you've got a deal. He'll keep his word. He is a man of integrity. So many lessons here you have the, really a master class in up from nothing real estate development and integrity and relationship management. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, with no financial capital at all, work ethic, hustle, your own developed relationship Capital and your own innovation and creativity, you can be immensely successful. Don, on the last couple minutes, we have, what comes next for you? You got your son in your business now. I met him. He's really impressive. I love your whole family. What, what's come next for you and what last piece of wisdom do you want to leave with the audience?

Don Peoples (71:26)

Well, I mean, so. And they both kind of both connected. So I think what was the most, one of the more important things about, you know, my trajectory, aside from the building of relationships and a reciprocal relationship. I always wanted to create value. I didn't ask Barry to mentor me. I made myself valuable to him.

John Hope Bryant (71:44)

Yep.

Don Peoples (71:45)

Valuable as a fundraiser, valuable. Did a great job on the property assessment, appeal, abortion. I told him, you will never get a call about this board. You will never see a bad article about this board, this run. And you will look good and it will respond to the average person because they kowtow to the commercial property owners, but not to the people who voted for Barry. I said, this board will, I will take this board and it will be an asset for you and not a liability. And so I tried to always perform, but, you know, it was my motivation for, to make money was really to be able to pay my bills, to earn a living. It wasn't, hey, I needed to accumulate all these things. It was more about, I wanted to be comfortable, but I also wanted to have a purpose. And a sense of purpose is to knock down these barriers. I mean, Dr. King, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, they didn't fight and struggled so that I could make some more dollars and spend it on myself. You know, Dr. King didn't die and give his life so that people like me could just make some money and, you know, keep it to ourselves. And, and so I feel a greater sense of purpose. And so I use business as a tool of transformation.

John Hope Bryant (73:04)

Mom.

Don Peoples (73:04)

It's a, it's an, a tool where I can provide access to opportunities. And ownership is the essence of power. And so if I want to hire a contractor, I can do that. When I built the last building we did in New York, we just finished a little while ago. I bought it from the city of New York and part of, in a competitive process. And when I, we did the interview, they said, you committed to 20% minority and women owned business contracting. No one's weak. The government can't even get to those numbers. How in the world do you think you're going to get to those numbers? You're not ever going to get to those numbers. And I said, well, we're going to really work hard to try, but I think we'll get to the 20% numbers. And this is our first building in New York and about a 580 million dollar project.

John Hope Bryant (73:50)

Wow.

Don Peoples (73:51)

So I brought in a construction company, a construction manager. It's actually the oldest black owned construction company in the country. McKissack. I brought in Cheryl McKissack and I said look, I want you to oversee the contractor and I want you to make sure that we do better than 20% minority and women owned business contracting. So I'm hiring your company to do that. And so we need to set up a structure and a system that we can excel at. And she said well, how much time are you going to be willing to commit? I said well what do you mean? She said well, one way to do it, part of this is going to be you need to approve every contract so you can push it back. And so ultimately I, we set up a system. I approved every subcontractor. It came with a decision memorandum that I learned from Barry about. Here's, here's a contract, here are the options. And it would tell me who it was, what they did, were they a minority or women owned firm and weren't why not? What were the three bids and so on so I could send it back. And so one of the bill one, one of the contracts we, I looked at was the facade contract got came to me and it was a nominal.

John Hope Bryant (74:59)

Explain what a facade is, Don.

Don Peoples (75:01)

The exterior wall. So it was a historic landmark building that was about 500,000 square feet and the original New York Life Insurance Company headquarters. And so we were restoring the limestone facade around this giant building. And so the contract to restore the exterior walls was 40 some odd million dollars. And so just that contract, just that contract. And so the lowest price was a, was a month with a black owned firm.

John Hope Bryant (75:30)

Okay.

Don Peoples (75:30)

And but the contract that was submitted to me was for the next lowest bidder, a non minority firm. And the reason was because the minority firm couldn't, you know, they, they were not able to bond the job. Yeah, right. They couldn't. They had a bond they could bond. Half of their bonding capacity was about $25 million. And, and the bank would not give us any relief on that on the bond. So the general contractor wanted to pick the non minority firm. But the schedule also, it has a schedule in the contracts and everybody was around the same time period, about two years.

John Hope Bryant (76:12)

Right.

Don Peoples (76:12)

Or so. So I said go back to tell my team, go back to the minority firm and this firm that you want to hire and ask them, does that mean that half the building gets done in a year?

John Hope Bryant (76:24)

Right.

Don Peoples (76:24)

And so they come back and they give us a schedule for half the building. If they only did half, it's about, you know, 14 months or so for each one of them, basically. And the price goes up a little bit. And so I said, okay, we're going to give, we're splitting the building up and we're going to give the minority contractor half and we're going to do the other one half. And while it's going to take us, it's going to cost us a little more money. We're going to make up for it because we're going to finish this at least 8 months earlier on the exterior, so we'll be able to get the windows in and other stuff faster. And, and so we did that and that's how we were able to finish it. So we finished the project and we had 38 and a half percent minority contracting. And I was told I couldn't get 20. But that's why I. A big part of why I do what I do, because it gives me the chance to provide opportunities and set a standard that if my company can do it, then the government should have the expectations of all these other developers, the same thing. And so changing the marketplace and the expectations. But so I think that if you're going to be successful, I think you, of course, you want to operate with integrity. You want to operate with a long term view. My mother taught me to think long term. I mean, that's a big thing for her. Think long term. Not short term, long, long term. Deferred gratification. That's right. And so you want to look at that way, but you have to have a sense of purpose. I think the purpose that I have is that I want to expand economic opportunity for black Americans. And so I'm willing to continue to do this, have significant financial risk to myself to grow the business, because I believe if I keep scaling the business up, it creates more and more opportunity. And then hopefully there are more developers like me and you, John, that will do the same thing. And we can ultimately get our community to a place where we no longer disproportionately carry the burdens of, of poverty, but we become an economic factor in this country and, and then many of the issues that our community confronts will go away because we'll have the financial resources to help ourselves.

John Hope Bryant (78:45)

There's a quote that I love to use, Don. This has been, by the way, this has been absolutely great. This is My technically the longest podcast I've ever done for this series, but it every moment, every minute of it was worthwhile. There's not a moment of it that I think people will not sit on the edge of their seats. I often tell people who don't understand capitalism and free enterprise and they think money is everything. Even if you want to distribute money like a socialist, you have to first collect it like a capitalist. And that, and that 88% of all jobs in America are private sector jobs. So the government gets their money from the private sector. And so if you want to have influence on your government, you want influence on your school district, your board of counselors, your city council, you want to influence on the infrastructure, you want to have influence on the trajectory of your community and your world, you want to become successful, as successful as you can be. You want to be a taxpayer, you want to be on record, you want to have integrity. So people come to you not just for a check, but come for your counsel. They come to you because you build bring credibility to any endeavor you assign your name to. So anybody listening to this, I want you to watch, listen to this two or three times and take notes because he really gave you a master class on how to build something from nothing. Don in the last word here. And by the way, just there's so much here. One of the things that really my heart sung when you said it. You hit 38% of minority contractors versus 20. They told you you couldn't do 20. One of the reasons I stayed and wanted to build my real estate companies was the bigger I made it, the more minority contractors, plumbing, heating, lighting, roofing, landscaping, both employment and contracts, multimillion dollar contracts I could let to people, which is sustainable wealth creation. It's not charity. It's not a one off check or a one off government check or a one off charity check. I can give you a charity check for $1,000 or $10,000 one time maybe, but I can give you a contract for tens of millions of dollars if the business will sustain it and you qualify. That's what we got to get. We got to get enough infrastructure for companies like yours and mine and Russell family and others so that we are collectively doing so much business that we can literally employ not just black America, but underserved America on a sustainable basis. What's the total assets under management right now or how are you? You know, I know private equity looks at this a little differently, but how do you equate your current success platform? Is it the amount of development you've done or assets you own now, what's that benchmark that you have? You can leave the audience with how many employees? You already mentioned cities.

Don Peoples (81:29)

Yeah, As a company, we are focused more on our pipeline because that really drives our revenue.

John Hope Bryant (81:36)

That's 6 billion.

Don Peoples (81:38)

Yes. And our goal is by 2026 that, that we have an ongoing pipeline of about $10 billion. And we just continue to add as we, as we deliver and add and, and so, and as a, and as a development business on that pipeline, our goal has been to do just under. Right around 40% of that in profit. So if we, you know, so that's about $2.4 billion. And so. And that pipeline is about an eight year process. Right. So you're adding and subtracting and, but you from beginning to end, all that within that pipeline now will be completed within eight years or less. And so that's kind of how we measure. And then we have been to grow our business. You know, we really, we, we have developed for sale product, we sold buildings, et cetera. And so now we're building series of businesses now. So one of the businesses that we're doing is a, where we are doing a series 144A offering, which is a private placement that ultimately will probably go public. But of our public private business, which is a big core, about 75% of what we do, which I learned on that first deal, which doing business with the government. So either we're buying buildings sites from the government or we're buying buildings from the government and then redeveloping them. That's about 75% of our business, that part. And that company is called Affirmation Partners. And Raymond James is launching that offering next week. And so that's one of the things that we're building. We're also looking to build a private equity fund business to deploy capital to black entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs who have had very limited access to capital so that we can create more opportunities there. But, and then we have a robust condo development business in Florida. And that was the kind of the keys of our business. But it's about creating, you know, economic performance and, and then, you know, growing our business to keep scaling it up. And, and so, you know, so that's kind of how we measure. But we measure by number of buildings and a number in dollar amounts. I mean that's the best example of kind of measuring us in terms of size.

John Hope Bryant (83:58)

So a developer will develop a project audience for their own account, but also for others. And they deliver those products through a pipeline of a development process, and when they deliver it, they are rewarded for that. And sometimes it's fee income and sometimes it's ownership, and sometimes it's a combination of both. What you've heard is literally a master class. And Don, I he didn't know this. I didn't know this about him. He knows about me. Well, we both started with government service. We volunteered on a committee and we had integrity about that process. We were about giving, not getting. And, but we used, we built relationship capital serving on those volunteer boards. And as he said, we would have paid to be there. This is John O'Brien. It's my friend, Dot Peoples. This is money and wealth. And this is a special episode that I probably is my first other than my, my conversation with Michael Milken probably is my first master class in a certain area. And this is real estate development. Hope you enjoyed it. Share it with everybody you know. Love and light. Let's go. Foreign wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.