EP.17 – Vision, Grit, and Capital: Richard Powell’s Billion-Dollar Journey

The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast presents Richard Powell as this episode's guest.

In this powerful episode of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast, host Roy Richardson and co-host Sean Murphy sit down with Richard Powell, a Jamaican-born entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor whose journey has included elite athletics, Harvard academia, and billion-dollar business ventures.

Richard shares his inspiring path from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to becoming a Young Global Leader recognized by the World Economic Forum. From co-founding a $100 million company during the dot-com era to scaling Zero Chaos into one of the fastest-growing minority-owned businesses in the U.S., his story is one of grit, vision, and purpose.

As Founder and Executive Chairman of APC Holdings and Co-Founder of Project Black at Ariel Alternatives, Richard is on a mission to uplift diverse communities through strategic capital deployment. He discusses his involvement with the Billion Dollar Roundtable, emphasizing that DEI is not just a social cause; it’s smart business.

Key Takeaways

• Resilience in Capital Raising: Why persistence is the real currency.
• Leadership Philosophy: Balancing visionary thinking with disciplined execution.
• Emerging Trends: AI, energy transition, and democratizing private markets.
• DYCM Power: A multibillion-dollar solar manufacturing initiative creating 2,000+ U.S. jobs.
• Personal Growth: How parenting sharpened his intuition and presence as a leader.
• Purpose-Driven Business: Creating jobs and uplifting communities through strategic capital deployment.
• DEI as Smart Strategy: Why supplier diversity is an economic imperative for Fortune 500 companies.
• Books That Matter: Titles like Shoe Dog and Mindset that shaped Richard’s leadership journey.
• Advice for Entrepreneurs: Understand your “why” and pursue entrepreneurship with passion, not just profit.

Don't miss the opportunity to be inspired by Richard's story. Tune in now to hear about his incredible journey.

Connect with Richard Powell

• Website: https://www.apch.com
• LinkedIn: Richard M. Powell
• Instagram: @richardpowell.investor
• Facebook: richmpowell
• YouTube: @richmpowell

If you found Richard's episode of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast inspiring, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform. This way, you won't miss out on future episodes featuring other dynamic business leaders.

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The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, a Cybersecurity Firm that caters to the information security needs of small—and medium-sized businesses.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast
• 0:36 Welcoming Richard Powell
• 1:31 Capital vs. Kids: What's Harder?
• 1:50 The Road Not Taken: From Soccer to Academia
• 2:38 The Importance of Family and Gratitude
• 3:13 Early Life in Jamaica
• 9:45 Choosing Academics Over Athletics
• 11:14 Jamaican Heritage & Leadership Style
• 12:23 Harvard Startup & Dot-Com Lessons
• 14:56 Leadership Through Influence
• 17:46 From Wall Street to Zero Chaos
• 22:01 Purpose-Driven Investing
• 23:35 Billion Dollar Roundtable Explained
• 28:24 Persistence in Capital Raising
• 31:13 Vision vs. Execution
• 33:27 Emerging Trends in Business
• 36:56 DYCM Power & Energy Independence
• 42:32 Legacy & Dream Board of Advisors
• 47:04 Advice for Young Entrepreneurs
• 49:17 Lessons from Mistakes
• 51:45 Parenting & Presence
• 54:48 Books That Shaped His Journey
• 58:12 Humility & Greatness: Why Messi?
• 1:00:38 Fun Facts & Favorites
• 1:04:12 Closing Reflections
• 1:06:05 Be a Guest

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Welcome to this edition of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, joined by my awesome co-host, Sean Murphy.

SPEAKER_02: 0:25

What's up? What's up?

SPEAKER_00: 0:27

This podcast is brought to you by Aurora Infotech, a cybersecurity firm helping small and medium sized businesses stay secure in today's digital world. Our guest today is someone who's built a billion dollar business, raised game changing investment funds, and still finds time to mentor the next generation of leaders. He's the founder and executive chairman of APC Holdings, and he's passionate about creating opportunities for minority owned enterprises. He's been featured in Inc. Magazine, CNBC, and recognized by the World Economic Forum as a young global leader. But beyond all the accolades, he's a down-to-earth guy with a powerful story. Please join us in welcoming Richard Powell, or as his friends call him, Richie. Richie, welcome. It's great to have you here. We're excited to dive into your journey and share it with our listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Happy to be here and really honored that you and Sean asked me to join.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

We're really happy you could find the time, sir, to actually be here with us. So, Richard, you've been a Harvard grad, a global investor, and a dad. Tell us, what's harder, raising capital or raising kids?

SPEAKER_01: 1:42

By far, I would say raising kids, harder than raising capital, but both very fulfilling, very rewarding.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50

Also, you were scouted by a European soccer club. Do you ever wonder what it would have been

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

like if you'd gone pro? Yeah, Sean, you know that part of my story and the direct answer is yes. And that's actually something I thought about more in the past, not as much anymore today when you get to a point where if you don't regret where you are today, right? You don't regret any of the decisions that led to it and what caused you to be here. But certainly there was a period of time where I thought about what it would be like to not just pursue my dreams of being a professional athlete. I could have actually at one time been playing in the World Cup and running in the Olympics.

SPEAKER_00: 2:38

So what's one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

Well, I think... to be surprised to learn about a few things. One, I think people would be surprised to realize how much time and energy I spend being a father first before anything else. For me, it all starts at a home of two beautiful kids, Alina and Alex. And that's the number one priority and everything else, right? When that foundation is there, right? Everything else comes after that.

SPEAKER_02: 3:13

Well, listen, let's run it back a little bit here. I want to talk about how it started. I know how it started. You know, I'm looking across the street here and remember 23 years ago when we first met. And it has been an incredible journey for me to get to know you and to know this awesome story. And now that we're going to be able to share this with other folks. But like I said, you've had this incredible journey growing up in Spanish town, Jamaica. to becoming a Harvard grad and a global investor. Take us back to those early days, around the time when you used to drive in a car with your mom when she was looking at the audit reports and things like that. I remember that story and it's so cool, man. But tell us, you know, what was life like growing up and what sparked that ambition for you to pursue something bigger like you have?

SPEAKER_01: 4:09

I appreciate that, Shawn. You're going way back now. Grew up in a very humble family. We lived in Spanish Town, Jamaica. It was the first capital of Jamaica. It was where the Spanish actually made the capital when they conquered Jamaica in the 1500s, and then it subsequently became Kingston. But a part of that was it was a little cheaper to live in Spanish Town and Kingston. So both of my parents worked very, very hard, but were definitely from a middle class background, definitely not upper class. And what I remember most was how supportive my parents were of me and my two brothers. I'm the eldest of three. We're a very tight-knit family. And one of my brothers that's a year younger than I am. And what I would remember most about those early days are the sacrifices that my parents made. to drive us to school an hour in the opposite direction of work, right, in the mornings, the sacrifices for the extracurricular activities. And it really honed just a certain level of gratitude, right, for my parents and their support of whatever it is whatever needed to be done, whatever it took for their kids to have the best opportunity to live a successful and rewarding life. That's the most important thing that I remember growing up. Yes, I remember driving across the island with my dad, who was a salesman for an auto and parts company in Jamaica. So some of his customers were hours and hours away from where we lived and ended up making that a fun trip, driving across the island. but driving hours and hours away from home, right? Because he had to work. I remember the sacrifices my mom made to put her career second, because raising kids and being closer to the kids, she was a teacher before she was an accountant. So there was always a little bit element of a teacher in her as we were growing up. And she made a lot of sacrifices for her corporate career, for her kids in exchange, right? For her corporate career. So growing up was filled with a lot of gratitude for supportive parents that really helped in many, many ways, intangible and tangible, as their kids were trying to succeed and build a better life.

SPEAKER_02: 6:40

I can attest to that. Back in 2015, we would get together in your office, me, you, and a couple of other guys looking to buy some companies. So we would all have the plan. Every Friday we'd come together, and everybody had to bring an idea to the table because we were going to go buy a company. I was going to run it. And I would go to your office, and I'd see your parents in the office. And I'm like, what are your parents doing here? He's like, oh, yeah, they're working with Yousef with his company. I'm like, really? And they're like, yeah, they work together and all of that stuff. And I did that for about two months in my oldest office. was seven years old, just starting to get into youth sports and stuff like that. And I was like, man, that's what I want. I want that. I want to be involved with my kids' lives like that. And so I turned the switch. I called Richie. I was like, man, I'm going to sit tight on the investment right now. I want to be at my kids' sports events and their recitals. I don't want to be on no plane, train, automobile trying to find an investment idea. I want to sit at home. And I have never missed one of my kids' practice or a game or recital, whatever. And so I That is a true statement about what he just said about his parents. And even today, we just got finished from asking him, like, how are your parents doing? Well, they're still working with Yosef, you know what

SPEAKER_01: 8:12

I mean? In disclosure, so my dad and Yosef run a family business. My mom also works in finance for the business, and they supply equipment to the Caribbean. And they're doing some big things, not just supply equipment, but that business is a means to have a foundation that is helping youth and helping kids with scholarships to finish high school in the Caribbean So the business has helped to create the opportunity to impact more kids' lives in the Caribbean, and we're very grateful for that. But yes, today my family still works closely together, and I would still consider my parents a big part of the support system and network.

SPEAKER_00: 8:50

And those values, obviously, that, you know, we've all had a little bit of that in our lives, right? But I'm sure you're moving that forward now with your kids. A lot of the values that your parents instilled in you?

SPEAKER_01: 9:06

Yeah, 100%. That's right. I look back at some of the decisions my parents made with a different lens now as a parent and even have more gratitude for some of those things. I was complaining when I had to drive 45 minutes on traffic here in Orlando because it was the wrong time of day on I-4. And I remember, I'm like, we did double that every single day Right? Just basic little things like that, right? So, yes, I am trying to learn and be as good a parent to my kids as I felt like my parents were for us.

SPEAKER_00: 9:44

Good. And I'll come back to that here in a second, but I want to touch on, you know, Growing up in Jamaica and what that has done for you, and now fast forward a bit, you were excelling in sports and even scouted by PSV Eindhoven, which is one of the famous Dutch soccer teams. And you actually went over there for a while with them. But what... Was it that made you choose academics over athletics?

SPEAKER_01: 10:13

Sure, Roy. There's a whole story there, but the answer to your question is very short. My parents said, you are not staying over there to go play sports. You're coming back here to finish school. And that one made it very short. And listen, you know, I don't fault my parents, you know, for that decision at the time, you know. I still think it was the right decision. I was able to, because of strong academics, get scholarships to some of the best schools in the United States. And it would have been very, very difficult to turn that down, right, for the chance of making it big, right, in sports. And we all know the famous stories about athletes that get one injury that could totally change the trajectory of their career. Very short-lived careers. Yeah, exactly. And so I don't regret it, but it was a very quick decision with my parents that notwithstanding their interest in having you stay here and be a professional athlete, you're coming to finish school, right? And that's the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:14

I hear you. And, you know, as a fellow Caribbean Islander, I'm going to ask you, and I'm going to go into my Caribbean twang a little bit here, but how has your Jamaican heritage, and let's call it your brothopsy, right, influenced your leadership and investment philosophy? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

I think it has in a positive way, Roy. And I'll just give you a couple examples. We were talking about it earlier. The multi-ethnic background, right? I feel like I can relate to black, white, Latin, and Indian, and Asian backgrounds, cultures, nuances, idiosyncrasies. I believe that's made me a better investor. Because at the end of the day, investing is a people business. And it's about your ability to connect with people. It's about your ability to build trust and influence and cultural sensitivity, right? Helps to build trust very quickly. So one immediate way from the Caribbean roots, because the Caribbean is a very much a melting pot, a very diverse place is what I was about to say. I believe that that could be an asset in the investing business.

SPEAKER_02: 12:22

Got it, got it. Well, listen, let's transition and let's talk about how you scaled your first, well, it wasn't your first because didn't you start your first company when you were 15? Yes. Yes. But let's talk about, let's talk about the, let's talk about the one at Harvard, you know, before Mark Zuckerberg did what he did, but let's talk about your venture at Harvard. You co-founded a hundred million dollar company while you were at Harvard. What was that experience like?

SPEAKER_01: 12:52

It was interesting. It was in the time of the dot-com bubble. And I would tell you in the most succinct way, what it was like was a blur, right? But in two or three years, we were living the dream, building a business that, yes, had about a$100 million offer on the table before the dot-com bubble burst, right, and crashed. And I would tell you, I learned a lot today. through that experience that helped me today in business. One of the most valuable lessons that I believe I learned there was that's the first time when we were executing on our plan, the bubble had crashed, the NASDAQ had popped, And the second round of funding was not going to come, even though we did everything the investors asked us to do. The investors were having problems in their own portfolio. I had to look at employees, look them dead in the face and tell them, I don't know where the paycheck is coming from in two weeks. I was 19 years old looking at grown men and women who believed in this vision, believed in this dream, and that was a life-altering experience, right? And something that today I believe has made me a better investor because I can look at an entrepreneur and I can understand with sincerity the blood, sweat, tears, and pain that has gone into building this business in a way that not just your average Harvard grad that works in finance on Wall Street can really even relate to let alone understand or have a sensitivity around so that's one example of a lesson that came from that early experience that still stays with me today but it was surreal it was a time where you know as a college kid anything is possible we're living big dreams we're working in the same offices that yahoo had started in over in silicon valley and um And that experience taught me some very, very valuable lessons that still impact my thinking today.

SPEAKER_02: 14:55

Got it. Talk about, so those are the experiences, but the leadership style, give me a little bit more about that, the leadership style that you got out of that time and those situations.

SPEAKER_01: 15:09

Sure. And I think this is well known, but Harvard, and in particular Harvard Business School, teaches a lot with the case method, right? And what that means is it teaches a lot that leadership is really about building consensus as a team, right? And not all the time as a leader do you have to have all the answers, right? But you have to be able to know how to get the best out of a group of people to make decisions. And a lot of times the perspective you get from a group of people makes better decisions than any one person could make on their own, right? from Harvard and MIT, there was a concept of really ingrained in my leadership style that the ability to influence is a big part of leadership and literally started a journey of mine, even mentally and out of intellectual curiosity, going down a path of understanding the art of influence and how inextricably tied influence is to leadership.

SPEAKER_02: 16:17

Got it. I love what you said about consensus and not everything has to be ready And I thought that I'd read something. I think Ben Horowitz talked about that in his book, maybe. Am I wrong? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01: 16:34

There is a construct, yes. In today's day and age, it is better to execute, make a decision, and iterate than take time and procrastinate and stall to perfect it. And it's one of the counterintuitive ways philosophies of building very valuable companies, right? You don't need everything to be perfect. You just need to be able to iterate very quickly and get closer and closer and closer to what it is that your customers want and will pay for.

SPEAKER_00: 17:09

And I think in today's business age, and particularly with entrepreneurs, that message needs to come across more, right? Because, I mean, we tend to get stuck in this it has to be perfect before we can get it out there. And not only with the business, but even in terms of decisions that we make about the business about, you know, whether it's from a diversification standpoint, whether it's new product, new services, et cetera, launching and getting those out tends to be very, very long, long-winded approaches and opportunities are lost, right? So Richard, let's talk about, and really incredible in terms of what you did while you were at Harvard and the leadership examples you gave there, but tell us a little bit about, you know, going from Harvard to Zero Chaos.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

Well, yes, that's a journey. It had a brief stint working on Wall Street for some big banks. I really felt like it was important to understand how the game was played at the big level, in the big leagues. And with a little bit of experience under my belt there and a partner that I still talk to today, who's a couple of years older than me, said, let's go, let's go, let's take this leap. Let's start the journey of investing in private businesses and owning private businesses as a means to create wealth and have impact. We moved to Orlando and acquired Zero Chaos a year and a half after moving to Orlando. And the Orlando decision was great. It was part business, part personal. We saw the growth of Florida and the growth of central Florida in particular as an area that was underlooked by a lot of the big investment firms, the big Wall Street firms. So it was a very welcoming place for us as we came in here to try and set up shop. And also I knew that my family would eventually migrate from Jamaica, but they would go no more north, right, than Florida, right, and Orlando being, they wouldn't even go to Georgia. Right? Because of how cold it gets there in the winter. So Orlando became a good place as a home-based business and personal. And the Zero Chaos story, which is a whole topic in and of itself, was born out of that Harvard network. It was actually through a lot of networking that my partner and I connected with a Harvard graduate here in Orlando that would eventually be the CEO, right, of Zero Chaos.

UNKNOWN: 19:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 19:48

And Zero Chaos actually became one of the largest minority-owned businesses in the US. As a matter of fact, one year, it was the largest minority-owned business. So, you know, what were the key decisions that fueled that growth?

SPEAKER_01: 20:02

Yeah, and just to be clear, it certainly was one of the fastest growing. It was the fastest minority-owned business ever. to get to a billion dollars, but it definitely wasn't the largest. There's some very well-run businesses. The largest one technically, I think, is Worldwide Technology, an IT service business founded by David Saywood out of St. Louis. But Zero Chaos absolutely was the fastest to scale to a billion dollars in the US. We're very proud of that. Did that in less than five years. But I like to say that I'm a big fan of and a big supporter of all the minority-owned businesses in America that are doing great things. You have some very well-run minority-owned businesses out there, but what we did with Zero Chaos definitely was special.

SPEAKER_00: 20:51

Nice. And how did that success influence your transition into private equity and the founding of APC Holdings?

SPEAKER_01: 20:58

Sure. Yeah, so APC Holdings was founded before. Zero Chaos was our first investment, right? So just to be clear, it was more... It was more the evolution of APC that would occur because of Zero Chaos. So APC was founded to do exactly what we did with Zero Chaos, and we manifested exactly what we set out to do with Zero Chaos, and that created a model, created a blueprint that we would then evolve, tweak, enhance, and scale to be doing some of the very interesting, very large projects we're doing today.

SPEAKER_02: 21:35

Awesome. Well, I could have swore I read in Black Enterprise back in the day that y'all were number one for the year. But, you know, we love David as well. I cannot believe how big he's gotten.

SPEAKER_01: 21:46

Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 21:46

$20 billion. That's dear to you because, again, we've talked about it for 20-something years. And you're not just about investment, investment, and investments. You are into social impact, and you want to make a difference in our community and our world. You raised the capital to empower these minority-owned businesses. What inspired that mission for you?

SPEAKER_01: 22:27

Yeah, thanks, Sean. I appreciate you asking that because you are 100% right. This is not just about profit. There's a bigger purpose here. And for me, what drives me mainly is job creation and the ability to economically uplift communities and even nations if more and more people would be inspired and replicate what it is we're trying to do. And that is more important to me than the profits. But the purpose is about changing the narrative on what it means to be a diverse entrepreneur in America, changing the narrative on what we can do for ourselves and our community, relying on less and less government support or input to effectuate the future that we want to see for our kids and their kids. So job creation, impacting communities economically, that is really the passion that fuels the business.

SPEAKER_02: 23:34

I remember when you called me back in 2020, or I may have called you, and it was during COVID, and you bought STI. And you're like, man, I'm buying this call center. That's based out of the Northeast. We've got a huge presence in the Philippines or somewhere over in that part of the world. And you're like, I want to move forward. Some of the operations, a big portion of the operations to the state so that we can give people jobs, man. And then, you know, things happen with the economy. I'm not quite sure what happened with that because it was during the middle of COVID when all of this stuff was taking place. And so it was just not that the timing may have been wrong for that opportunity. And I know that, again, I've. We're going to go into something else in here. I'm going to ask you a question about the Billion Dollar Club. I had never heard of the Billion Dollar Club. Billion Dollar Roundtable? The Billion Dollar Roundtable. That's right. That's right. I'd never heard of it. You told me about it. And you told me about that 15 years ago. And I can recall you calling me and saying, Sean, I don't care how you get to Atlanta or how you get to Miami, but you need to come check out the billion dollar round. And just to see what's going on in corporate America as far as people wanting to invest in our communities, man. And so anyway, tell me how you got started. you know, involved with the Roundtable and your passion

SPEAKER_00: 25:02

behind it. What it's all about. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 25:04

exactly. That's a great point. What it's all about.

SPEAKER_01: 25:06

We'll spend a little bit of time on that. So the Billion Dollar Roundtable is a group of committed Fortune 500 firms that want to be intentional about supporting diverse businesses. And it's not altruism, right? And in today's day and age, there's been a lot of talk, a lot of pushback, right, on DEI. At the concept, at the core of it, this is economic equity. and good business sense for large companies to realize that their consumers are increasingly diverse. Their consumers are increasingly changing, right, as the demographics of the U.S. change, right? So this is not about handouts. This is not about set asides. This is about smart business practices by the Microsofts, the Walmarts, the GEs, the Ford Motor companies of the world, because they're seeing what the future of their customer is looking like and how that customer is changing. And they want to be able to adapt to the needs of those changing consumers. Fundamentally, this is economically driven. This is not social. This is not a non-profit organization. I push back on people who say DEI doesn't make sense. No. DEI makes a lot of sense. It makes business sense. It's just all about consumers. This is not all about a handout for a particular community or anything like that. If you believe that more and more people are Yeah. in the U.S. are going to be of various ethnic backgrounds or mixed backgrounds, this makes sense. So fundamentally, this is an economic imperative that these large corporations have seen and realized, and now they get together, they come together, they trade best practices, they trade ideas on which vendors are the ones that are ready to scale and handle a big contract, but that is what it is. A group of very smart Fortune 500 firms that realize that this is good business sense.

SPEAKER_02: 27:04

And with that, again, you've been involved 15 plus years and you brought me along all of those years. So I'm familiar with it. There is some frustration to the DEI model from the past. And you're a hugely success story of that. But for you, there are countless other failures that haven't been able to live up to what the companies are looking for as far as bringing good sound operational leadership skills to the table when we're talking about bringing services to those organizations. And so I commend you for that. And again, it's something that, you know, we talk about zero chaos, I can recall, I know this is your podcast, but I get to say a few things here. But I can recall hearing the story, you know, you're getting this gigantic deal with a Fortune 500 company. I said, hey, we're going to take you along with us around the globe and help set up operations because you all had your stuff together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:07

That was IBM,

SPEAKER_02: 28:08

yeah. You all had your stuff together, though. It wasn't them saying, get your stuff together first. No, you went to them prepared, and it made their decision to bring you along with them that much easier. So anyway, back to you, Roy.

SPEAKER_00: 28:23

So first of all, incredible and really great to hear that, particularly with the Billion Dollar Club, that there are these large corporations that are getting together and do things for smart business sense, particularly as it relates to know supporting minority entrepreneurs and diversity etc but i want to shift gears a bit and talk about mindset and we we spoke earlier and you intrigued me with with a number of things and one of the things you said was persistence is the real currency in capital raising can you share a moment when you when you almost gave up

SPEAKER_01: 28:58

oh yeah there are there are tons of those right it's um If you recall some of the books that I'd put in the document you asked me to prepare, Phil Knight's book is a great example of that. Success in entrepreneurship is being on the brink of failure a number of times, but not giving up to see it succeed. There have been countless examples. Let's use the example we've been talking about before, right? Zero chaos. We were days away from closing. One of our large investors had backed out for a number of reasons and we were half a million dollars short on a transaction that needed to close. The sellers were getting very frustrated and weren't sure we were gonna be able to pull it off. And we had to ask one of our local investors here to step in on a weekend to wire us money by Monday But that went right, right down to the wire, right? Having a big gap in terms of what we needed to be able to pull off that transaction. And that was, you know, 20 plus years ago and there are, you know, countless examples since. But yes, there's a, if you're not, comfortable hearing the word no, and if you're not comfortable having a certain level of determination and grit as it relates to, you know, raising capital and meeting deadlines, right? You know, you might want to think about how you approach, right, the business of buying companies.

SPEAKER_00: 30:30

Well, and I think that translates into... almost anything, right? I mean, you shared a story with me before, Sean, about one of your first jobs here and where it came down to, I believe it was a Friday afternoon and you were going to be out the door and all of a sudden, you know, two people you had worked with called in and took you over the hump. And I think as whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're a business person driven, if you don't have those uncomfortable moments, how do you say, the appreciation for, the future appreciation is less, if that makes sense. And so Richard, how do you balance visionary thinking with disciplined execution?

SPEAKER_01: 31:16

Yeah, right. That's a great question. That's a whole topic of a whole podcast, right? That's a very, no, that's a very, very

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

good question. Note to

SPEAKER_01: 31:23

Sean, we'll have him back. But it's real and it's something we talk about as you learn leadership styles. One of the things that I would say is how you balance that is having a good team, right? Because oftentimes people that are excellent at either can't by almost definition, the way their brain is wired, do both very well, right? And so a big part of it is having the balance of where can you be visionary and run with that, but who is the one following up on the execution? So that to me is a real, discipline that successful entrepreneurs have to learn and have to master. Obviously, there are people that have done it at the highest level, but in general, one of the ways to balance that is to have a good team that helps to keep you accountable and operates in a highly functioning way and environment. One of my favorite books that wasn't on the list there, though, is the is the dysfunctions of a team, right? And it's an amazing book around the five things that if you can overcome, you can build high-performing teams, right? And one of them is that accountability, right? And so that's one of the, simplest ways that I believe entrepreneurs and leaders can balance visionary thinking and discipline execution is making sure that you're setting up a team of people with accountability to be able to do

SPEAKER_00: 32:53

both. And then trust has to play a major role in that.

SPEAKER_01: 32:55

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 32:57

I think a lot of times we And speaking with business leaders and entrepreneurs and others who have made it, I mean, the most successful people that I know surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are, who can get things done. And then you have those where I think sort of shoot themselves in the foot because they believe sometimes they have to be the smartest person at the top.

SPEAKER_02: 33:27

We talked about... We talked about emerging trends, what's new in the marketplace and things like that. You mentioned that AI... Energy transition, which I love your DYCM power that you're investing in and you're building out. And also about, this is another cool one that I really like, the democratization of private markets. So tokenizing things and stuff like that. That is all over. All three of these. Energy, you don't hear that much about it. It's something that I don't see on the news a lot. But which of these trends excite you the most and why?

SPEAKER_01: 34:10

Sean, as you know, all three of them I could talk about for a long time. I think everybody realizes that AI is going to change the way we do things, operate in almost any industry. There's going to be some impact of AI in that industry. But if I had to pick one to talk about the most, I'm not going to do the obvious one, AI. I'm probably going to talk about democratizing our private markets. And the reason I mention that, and this is something that is on the topic of the biggest investment firms in the world, the Blackstones and the Black Rocks and the Goldman Sachses. I believe that too few people have really had access to the American dream and the ability to really create wealth by owning assets, right? In America today, baby boomers are retiring 8,000 a day. There's tens of trillions of dollars of wealth transfer that is going to occur over the next couple of decades here in America. And that wealth transfer done properly could actually be very, very helpful in democratizing wealth, right? And helping to... and helping to create impact in communities, rebuild, if you will, diverse communities, enhance a lot of the the reversing of the income inequality, right? That is happening here where the rich is getting richer and the poor are struggling and a one paycheck away from being out on the street. And the middle class. Yes, it's shrinking, right? So that's what this topic, you know, done properly, democratizing private markets in a sustainable way. could be actually a very powerful trend that's just as powerful as anything else in helping to curb, reset, and or reshape what the income inequality looks like in the US today. But just think about that as a big, powerful trend. 8,000 baby boomers a day are retiring in the US. And the wealth that is being transferred to other generations, people who need to buy those assets because they don't want to hand the business down to their kids because they know the kids might run into the ground in two years after that, et cetera. So again, Sean, we could spend five minutes on any one of those topics. I just wanted to choose that one as one that I think is very fascinating.

SPEAKER_02: 36:56

Well, good. I still want you to talk about one of the other ones because I love DYCM and what you got going on there. I remember I was looking at you this morning. I pulled up the email where you sent me the deck back in March of 24 when you're like hey man I got this deal going on big huge deal so tell us about you know DYCM and what's going on there where you're at with

SPEAKER_01: 37:20

that I appreciate it and like I said Sean you know a lot about the things I'm working on that's not necessarily public to everybody so but I'm happy you're asking we have the website and I'm very passionate about this project so what DYCM is is we are bringing back manufacturing to the US. This is something that the current administration is very, very clued in on. I would like to say, and this is not a political comment, I would like to say that should be important to any political party, right? That's in power, right? Can we be bringing back and reshoring these critical skills and these critical jobs? But didn't this come out of Biden, the

SPEAKER_02: 38:00

ERA or ERC? It came out of IRA. You mentioned that this came out of the Biden administration, which would work it up for

SPEAKER_01: 38:06

you. Right, and again, there's been a lot of talk, right, on... Republicans and Democrats and the ways in which they disagree, I like to find the commonality. And I'd like to say, despite all of the disagreement and differences, the one things that Republicans and Democrats should agree on is that creating jobs in America are good for America and its economy and its countries. And I don't think that anybody would disagree with that on whether you're blue or... Hopefully not. Well, yeah, yeah, hopefully not. You never know. You never know, right? But, you know, Shame on him. So the reality of it is this is not a political commentary. Where we are today, right, is... It is very, very critical for people to take the risk to make the investments into critical industries that allow America to control some of its own destiny. Investing in America's manufacturing capability is one thing. This particular project is not only doing that, but it is also investing in America's energy independence. We are short on energy. The grid is constrained. Anything we're looking to do to be a leader in AI, AI and data centers require a lot of power, right? Building new schools on a grid. How are you getting power to those schools so that the kids can power their laptops? So the energy independence combined with the bringing back of manufacturing and creating jobs in real communities here in America, DYCM is doing both. And you can even play it further, right? And if you understand what's happening now so much of our supply is coming from China. It's not even coming from an ally or a friend. It's one thing to say you're bringing back jobs that is being done in countries that are friendly and aligned to the US, right? Canada or Mexico, pick some other ones, the UK. No, right? We're trying to change a very, very critical flow, right, of dollars because we're right now very reliant on one of our most contentious And I

SPEAKER_00: 40:20

would say it's... from that aspect, it's also important from a security perspective.

SPEAKER_01: 40:25

100%. 100%. So this is about job creation, economic impact, energy resilience, security, energy security, national security. Especially when it

SPEAKER_00: 40:37

comes

SPEAKER_01: 40:37

to infrastructure. 100%. So as Sean said, this project sits right in the middle of that. It's a multi-billion dollar project. We have global partners in place. And what I'm most excited about, as you guys have heard me say before, is the almost 2,000 jobs we're going to create in the Southeast US with this project. So yes, it will be a very good project when it gets done. It's taken a lot of time to get to where it is. There have been stops and starts because of the uncertainty around tariffs and around the big, beautiful bill, et cetera. But the fundamental thesis, going back to what we talked about earlier, building businesses that are solving customers' problems, the fundamental thesis This is as powerful as ever. U.S. energy producers want to see this solution in the market, and we're very close to being able to finalize the entire capital stack, close on the project, and start shipping panels from Alabama end of next year.

SPEAKER_00: 41:38

And I would venture to say that while we talk right now about the U.S., You know, even our neighbors to the south, a lot of the Caribbean islands are facing a lot of energy challenges where a project like this could play a big role as well. 100%.

SPEAKER_01: 41:58

Yeah, and by the way, it's the start of a number of things we could be doing in a similar vein, but again... What it really starts with is a big, bold, billion-dollar ambition to solve a multi-billion-dollar problem in the U.S. for large customers. And then we reverse engineer and say, okay, this is the problem. Do we have the resources, the relationships, and the capital to solve that problem for customers? It just turns out our customers are some of the biggest energy producers and users in the country.

SPEAKER_00: 42:32

Cool. Well, let's bring it home. You know, I want to focus a little bit here on legacy and vision. And, you know, that's always important from various aspects. But, you know, if you could be remembered for one contribution, business or personal, what would it be and why? I

SPEAKER_01: 42:55

would want to be remembered for inspiring people a whole new generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, public servants, and otherwise, to dream big, challenge existing norms, and live the life of their dreams.

SPEAKER_00: 43:17

Nice. And if you had the ability to put together a platform a dream board of advisors of people both from the past or present, who would you put on your board and why? What would that dream board of what you call of contributors look like?

SPEAKER_01: 43:45

Sure. That's an interesting list. I think, you know, you're asking me sort of a trick question here because I love reading. Right. I love learning about people's stories and what inspired them to do uncommon things. In fact, this summer I had my kids read a biography and they got to choose. My son did Nelson Mandela.

SPEAKER_00: 44:07

Nice.

SPEAKER_01: 44:08

Right. And my daughter did. Powerful. My daughter did Simone Biles. Right. And so I had them do that, not just reading the fiction. fictional books and they're good readers they read you know three books a month and um and so for me I think the combination of people would be an eclectic one, right? For me, but I'll give you some specific names. Nelson Mandela would certainly be on the list, right? And his example around uniting people, right? Behind a shared purpose. Warren Buffett, for sure, right? As in my opinion, the greatest investor, right? That's ever lived. And I would probably add in an athlete, right? Or two, because of my background. So Lionel Messi or Usain Bolt, right? For global excellence, right? And really, you know that I can talk about sports a lot. I love sports. Both Usain Bolt and Messi have one thing in common, and they talk a lot about the work and the preparation that goes into people looking at them as an overnight success, right? And how much time they put into being an overnight, the 17 years that went into being an overnight success, right? I'd probably add a gentleman by the name of Reginald Lewis. who people in the US would relate to, but at one time was the first black person to do a billion dollar private equity deal. And this was decades ago and really ushered in a whole generation of entrepreneurs like Robert Smith, the richest black man in the U.S. right now, and others that were inspired by his story. And then I would go, if you pick some historical figures, there's a lot of interesting things I think we could learn from people like an Alexander the Great or a Marcus Aurelius. And one of the things people don't realize is how some of these leaders were thrust into that role and the aid that they were doing some very amazing things, right? So there's a lot to learn from some of those people on resilience, adaptability, right? And leadership, you know, et cetera.

SPEAKER_02: 46:18

And Reginald Lewis, a billion dollars in the 90s, early 90s was like, you know, what Elon Musk is talking about these days. But there's a couple of things that I want to do, Roy, that I think we need to do. One of the things that we want to do with the podcast is to touch emerging leaders. Um, and, and so let me ask, you know, you said that you invest, you invest in trust before transactions. And that, that, that to me, man, that, that just says so much. And again, um, you know, everything I know about you, we've been, we've been friends for 20 something years. I know you're in France have been business partners for just as long. And, you know, most people don't have, it's life is usually transactional. That's what we've, you know, we see a lot of that. What, Advice would you give to young entrepreneurs today?

SPEAKER_01: 47:09

Sure. The first thing that I hopefully think is an inspiring message to young entrepreneurs is, what is your why? Really question why you're doing this. Because unfortunately, a lot of people, a lot of young entrepreneurs are doing it for the wrong reasons. And they're doing it because they realize that the richest man in the world started a couple of companies, right? And if he can be, and that's what I want to do. I want to make money, so I want to start. But the path of entrepreneurship is not for everybody, right? And you can be wildly successful without having to be an entrepreneur, right? Entrepreneur is not the only path to be creating millions of dollars in this day and age. So really question the why. Are you obsessed with solving customers' problems and creating something that's a little bit different than what is out there? And does that drive you? Is that fun? Is that challenge exciting to you? Just like a professional athlete or your kids or your kids or my kids that are playing sports and they're dying and they're sweating and they're starving and they come home and they're exhausted, but they would do it again tomorrow because they love it. Is that the approach you're taking to business and entrepreneurship? And if not, It might not be the path for everybody. Kevin O'Leary is big on this, right? That not everybody has the DNA and the mindset to be a successful entrepreneur and know your lane. There's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with, and you can make millions, right? There's nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur if you don't feel as if you have the right mindset for it. So that's the, again, we could go on that. That could be a whole podcast, right, Sean, on advice for young entrepreneurs. But the one thing, as you asked me, What is your why? Well, maybe they'll come back and hear the

SPEAKER_00: 49:11

podcast. Definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_02: 49:15

I have like four segments already. And let me ask you this. And I know you don't. You know, the rearview mirror is smaller than the window ahead, right? And you're not a guy that looks and wallow in the past. But if you could go back and change one thing in your journey, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01: 49:35

That's a great... You're exactly right, Sean. You almost preempted my answer to the question because you know... I knew you would. That's why I wanted you to give us something. Yeah, yeah. Fair, fair. I don't spend a lot of time looking in the rearview mirror. We can't. Yeah, yeah. We can't. No, we can't. You have to learn from it and move on.

SPEAKER_02: 49:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_01: 49:55

Making mistakes is not a problem. That's right. Did you learn from them and are you moving on and is it helping you to be better? But if I had to pick one, I would tell you I... I'd be a lot more intentional about investing in and developing my subjective skill sets as a leader. Say that more about that. Yes, my subjective versus objective. So I relied heavily on my command of numbers and finance and and making sure the numbers don't lie. There's purity in the numbers and they don't lie. And in this business, and I believe in any business, it's the balance of the subjective and the objective, the tangible, intangible, the numbers and the intuition. And I never relied as much or even invested enough in understanding the value of the softer skills, the intuition, the reading people, the just being able to follow your gut and say, you know what, despite what the numbers are saying, that's not a person we can trust, right, et cetera. And so some of my pain painful lessons in business have been because I did not listen to that or did not invest in that. And the numbers were right. The people were wrong. And the business did not perform right as we expected it to.

SPEAKER_02: 51:21

I want you to talk being very,

SPEAKER_01: 51:23

very candid. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 51:24

absolutely. You know, the cool thing about that, you and I connected back in 19. You flew up to Greensboro at the Leadership

SPEAKER_03: 51:32

Institute,

SPEAKER_02: 51:33

where we did a lot of work around that. And I appreciate, you know, I can recall back 20 years ago, we were talking Tony Robbins, right? But look, let's go back to, you said something that, man, I'm like, okay, I want to hear more about this. You said your kids and going to functions with them helped you with the intuition part and reading the room. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_01: 51:59

Yeah, yeah. Sure, Sean. That's cool. Yes, it's powerful. But one of the things that I realize and then my journey as a leader over indexing on that sort of analytical side of the brain, show me the data, show me the data. One of the things that kids do for all of us, I'm not the only parent in here and you're a parent listening to this, is it makes you very present. Right. It makes you very, very present in that moment because kids can feel If you're there, but you're not really there, right? And your kid will look at you. If you're sitting beside him, he's like, Daddy, you're not paying me any attention. You're not here. I need you here because your mind is somewhere else. And kids can do that, right? And so one of the things kids have taught me is to be a lot more present. And then with that presence comes learnings and insight. Yes. that you could not get because your mind was literally halfway across the world or somewhere else. And so I was a victim of that before, having so many things going on at one time that my mind just was not right here in the moment. Your time sharing. Yes, yes, yes. And so reading a room, It's almost been like the rooms now are, you know, 1080p HD, right, versus black and white before, because what I'm seeing with that presence is very different. I'm now actually focusing on somebody's body language, not just what they're saying. Before, I would only hear what they're saying. I wouldn't even see them because I wasn't even looking at them. My mind was somewhere else, right? Right, right, right. helping to develop that aspect that I believe is helping to make better business decisions.

SPEAKER_00: 53:47

And that goes a long way. Actually, I sat in a session this week with a gentleman who wrote a book about, you know, being a disciplined listener. And he touched on that same topic with his own kid, you know, and, you know, the importance of being there and for them when they need you listening and being attentive, because as they grow older, resentment starts setting in right and and and so you you got to break that cycle at some point in terms of you know you want that in the future um you know they're they're um how do you say uh uh they want to know that when they're when they're speaking with you you're really dialed into them right um so you you've you've drawn lessons from and you might you talked about your books and stuff earlier and and by the way a very impressive list um i i have some catching up to do i have a I have to admit. But you've drawn lessons from books like Shoe Dog and Principles. Which one shaped your journey the most?

SPEAKER_01: 54:55

Sure. I'm going to pick two or three, but I'll be quick in telling you the different answers because at different moments in time, different ones were that little shift. So in the beginning, when I was 12 years old, a mentor of mine in Jamaica was a successful investor, introduced me to Warren Buffett. So there was a book, The Making of an American Capitalist. I think it was by Lowenstein, but it was a book on Warren Buffett. And at the time, one of the most comprehensive, almost biography-like books on Warren Buffett. Absolutely, in the first 15 years, I'm going to segment my mid-40s life into three segments. In the first 15 years, that probably was one of the most impactful books that I read. In that second segment, 15 to 30, in my early 20s, I was introduced, and Sean brought it up earlier, to Tony Robbins and Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins. At that time in my mid-20s, started to change my whole world around... that internal personal growth and that journey. And so I've been a student of that since my early twenties. And that was a very impactful one at the time. I'm sorry

SPEAKER_02: 56:13

for cutting you off, but I got to say something to the audience about that. Because you have been a disciple of Tony's for a long time and this personal growth and development is just as important as going to the gym. And a lot of us don't think that, and I want that to be something that if there's a takeaway, that that is just as important as you know, the numbers or going to the gym or eating healthy. So anyway, I'm sorry for cutting you off, but

SPEAKER_01: 56:47

I wanted to definitely jump on that. Yeah, no, absolutely. 100%, right? And so if I look at my third phase now, right, and say in the last 10 plus years, what book has been very impactful on me and caused another little shift in my outlook, it's Mindset. Mindset. The book Mindset. Now, again, as you know, I try to read at least four or five books a year, so could go into a lot more, but I just picked three from three distinctly different parts of my journey that I think the audience would be inspired by. But as you also know, on a regular basis, I'm fascinated with a topic around cognitive biases and how we make decisions. I'm fascinated with how the mind works, and I'm fascinated with the art of leadership and influence and persuasion. So I'm a big fan of a lot of the latest research and writings that come out about how to be a better leader, right, and a better influencer. That whole topic of leadership and leadership development is a fascinating one for me.

SPEAKER_00: 57:57

And one that we certainly need to have you back to speak about because you you started you know earlier going on and and bringing up some topics there that i think would be really really oh yeah no doubt i would love to to be able to share that um richard um you know if you could sit down with one person from your dream board and we talked about this dream board before um you know who would it be and and and and why

SPEAKER_01: 58:22

yeah this might sound um this might sound a little funny but um i i would Of all of those people that I would sit down with and really spend some time getting to know and talk about it, probably would be Lionel Messi. Of all of them. And there's one particular reason. Because of how humble he is, despite his global stardom and face. And the humility, almost as a character trait, is counterintuitive for somebody like him. We're used to global celebrities like this naturally having a little bit of an edge or an ego, et cetera. And he is, if you follow him, and that's why Warren Buffett would be a close second, for who they are, right? And how down to earth they would be sitting down there in Messi's instance, drinking a Pepsi. He wouldn't drink a Coke because he's sponsored by Pepsi. And in Warren Buffett's instance, drinking a Coca-Cola because he owns a lot of the shares, right? And drinks it every day. And you'd have conversations with these people that would be so inspiring. But the humility, and Buffett talks about this a lot, but the humility of these people which again is counterintuitive to some of their peers. But it's fascinating to me to unpack and learn about how that as a part of their DNA actually helps make them who they are, right? In terms of that success, right? And legendary status in their respective field. Is this Messi of FC Miami?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:06

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Lionel Messi. What are we doing? We went to the University of Miami. We don't know nobody that's connected to the... We got to go look him up. We got to look him up. We got to go look him up. Absolutely. So when he comes back the next time, he could talk about that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:19

There you go.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:20

Absolutely. Well, if you know, Chase is a big sponsor. If you have any contacts there and into Miami Stadium, I'm sure there are people within your UM alumni network that are connected down there. That's something to think about. We'll get three tickets. That would be

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:37

awesome. Before we transition here towards the closing, I want to just go through some fun facts and favorites here. And Sean, I'm going to propose we sort of round robin these. You can go with the first one.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:55

The favorite productivity hack. Your go-to.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:02

My go-to productivity hack is but now I would say Gemini. Okay. I find it a little more intelligent than ChatGPT at the moment for some of the questions that I ask it. But it definitely has been very helpful. Very

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:19

good. Even after 5.0.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:23

Yeah, yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:23

yeah. Look, he has some experience. No, no, no,

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:27

listen. I'll show you this. Look at the top of my thing. There's Chat, there's Gemini, Perplexity. You don't use Grunt? I haven't yet. I tried, but literally three of them are at the top of my favorite apps, right? Perplexity is a very interesting one. Why? Because it's apparently the most intelligent of all of them. It's almost like an aggregator of what a lot of the other ones would say. It's called Perplexity. To be downloaded. Yeah, Perplexity AI. You check that one out. But yeah, so for now, Gemini, that's what I said for now because it could change in two weeks, right? All

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:59

right, so let's take it back down to the islands. What's your favorite Jamaican dish?

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:05

All right, favorite Jamaican dish. would probably be Gunga Pea Soup. Did y'all have a lot of

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:12

that when you went to your

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:13

40-year reunion a couple of weeks ago? I had some, yeah. Okay, got it. I had some Gunga Pea Soup, a good soup. And Gunga Peas is like, in Latin culture, they call it gandulas. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a soup made with that particular pea.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:26

And the flavoring with the scotch bonnet pepper and everything like that. Oh, you're speaking my language.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:34

Okay.

UNKNOWN: 1:02:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:36

A month ago, you were in Jamaica for your reunion and for an investment conference. And then you were telling us earlier about being in Ghana. What's the one thing you always travel with outside of your phone?

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:53

What I always travel with is my travel-sized Tempur-Pedic pillow.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:59

My travel-sized Tempur-Pedic pillow. Got it.

UNKNOWN: 1:03:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:01

Very

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:02

cool.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:02

Probably take a lesson from that. I've stopped in many places where the pillow was really overused. Yeah, I hear you. It

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:08

affects my sleep. Yeah, I hear you. So it's one that just fits right in the carry-on and doesn't take

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:13

too much. Nice, nice. Okay, most surprising lesson learned from a mentor?

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:17

Surprising? Yes. Lesson learned from a mentor? At the time, I thought it was surprising. Now I would say I didn't know how I lived without it before, but it's... Many times in life, both your personal life and business life, it is better to be rich than to be right. And so in marriage, it's like it's better to be happy than be right. Yes. And sometimes you have to make a trade-off. Amen to that. There's a lot of times you could win the argument, but did you really win? It's better to lose the battle than the war. So it's sometimes better to be happy than be right, better to be rich than be right. Sounded a little funny to me when I heard it, but as I've been processing it and utilizing it, it's very true.

UNKNOWN: 1:04:11

Nice.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:12

Well, you know, Richard, this has been amazing. And, you know, first and foremost, thank you for your time. Thank you for your wisdom. No, no. And thank you for being as humble as you are. And also for sharing with us. I mean, what an amazing, I would call this fellowship. in terms of us getting together and you being able to share with our audience your journey, but also the things that drive you and I would say the sound advice that others can follow to become successful. Like everyone else, everybody faces adversity, but it's how you get up when you're kicked down And stand back up and face it is what really matters. Sean, you want some closing words?

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:05

No, you know, I'm a huge fan. I've been a fan a long time. And I've had the privilege of getting these stories for 20 plus years, man. I remember when he wrote his book, you know, what, 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago. CNBC, 12 years ago. You know, back in the day, this goes back where they featured him. And I still think that enough folks don't know who he is. And you're talking about an incredible story. And an incredible story from an incredible individual.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:39

Well, no, I appreciate it, guys. I'm happy I got to share some of this. For me, the passion is really inspiring the audience, the people listening, to hopefully take one or two nuggets away, right, that can change your lives. And definitely look forward to being back to talk about some of those other topics that we didn't have time to get into today. We will make that happen. Yeah, of course. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, brother. It's been great, man.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:04

Hey,

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:04

same

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:04

here, man.

UNKNOWN: 1:06:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:06

Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders podcast. Are you a business owner or leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest on our program. Our goal is simple. We provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you got started, the challenges you faced along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you or you know someone who fits these criteria, then be sure to get in touch with us by visiting our website linked in the episode description below. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next episode goes live. Or if you'd rather listen to us during your car rides, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using your podcatcher. Thanks again and remember, keep crushing it.