The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Journey to Freedom serves as an exclusive extension of the Living Boldly with Purpose podcast series—a platform that inspires powerful transformation and growth. Journey freedom is a podcast hosted by Brian E. Arnold. The Journey to Freedom is an our best life blueprint exclusively designed for black men where we create a foundational freedom plan. There are five pillars: Identity, Trust, Finances, Health and Faith.
The Journey to Freedom Podcast
The End Game Matters Just As Much As The Beginning
What does the journey from military service to mental health entrepreneurship look like? In this revealing conversation, Navy veteran Marcus Norman takes us through his remarkable path from Caribbean roots to owning multiple businesses across diverse industries.
Marcus shares the invaluable gift his father gave him - not money or property, but the ability to think critically through any situation. This skill has allowed him to navigate entrepreneurial waters from real estate and ATMs to cannabis and now mental health services. His perspective challenges conventional wisdom about business ownership: "Everyone talks about entrepreneurship, but no one ever thinks of the endpoint. Successful people know when to get in and they know when to get out."
We explore the profound decision to sell his real estate holdings to purchase a mental health franchise - a strategic move that expanded his impact from serving a handful of property locations to reaching across entire communities. This shift wasn't merely financial but mission-driven, addressing the growing mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic.
The discussion doesn't shy away from hard truths about healthcare disparities. Marcus reveals disturbing insights about how medical professionals are sometimes trained to perceive pain tolerance differently based on race, and how financial barriers and stigma create additional obstacles to mental healthcare access, particularly for communities of color.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Marcus offers clear guideposts: understand how a business generates revenue, evaluate whether the leadership team's expertise aligns with the industry, and assess if you're receiving appropriate value for your investment. His practical advice that research time should correlate with financial investment respects entrepreneurs at every level.
Ultimately, Marcus leaves us with a powerful call to action that transcends business: "It's not your fault if you were born into difficult circumstances. It is your fault if you stay there." Ready to change your circumstances and perhaps create impact through entrepreneurship? This conversation might be your first step.
Everyone talks about owning a business. Entrepreneurship is the way right, but no one ever thinks of the end point, and one of the things that you see successful people do is they know when to get in and they know when to get out.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome to another edition of the Journey to Freedom program, our Journey to Freedom podcast. I am Dr B, I am your host and excited about another episode. You know, marcus, I don't know if you know this, but in 2024, my goal was to interview 100 Black men that are doing some things in our country that are exciting, and so we got to 105 episodes this year. We've already done 15. Just some amazing people, which today you folks will absolutely hear from the best of the best, and one of the things, some of the themes that have come out of last year, is one that, at least for most of the black men, I used to think oh, this is just a silly thing that we sometimes wanna see somebody in the space that we're trying to evolve in, that looks like us, because we spent so many years not seeing people. I think we got athletics taken care of, think we got the music industry taken care of, but in some of the other spaces we're still not seeing a lot of folks. And I said, well, that's not important to me, right? And then I ended up going to this whole podcast started because I went to a. It was a trust leadership conference in Minnesota. Four or 500 people that were there. It just enjoyed it tremendously, got some great information about how to lead with trust. Can you only 30 folks of color in the room and I'm counting right, like it's not important, I'm actually counting how many folks are in the room that looks like me and they're wondering why we're not getting some of this information that is so vitally important.
Speaker 2:Because it seems like our culture doesn't do a whole lot when it comes to, you know, trusting. You know I think a lot of us have learned how to trust, but I think sometimes we don't trust ourselves. We don't trust our women, we don't trust, you know, our other, each other, we don't trust some of the, some of the other cultures that are out there. What a great place for us to kind of start with building that trust and doing some of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to take 15 men to Alabama at the end of this month and we're going to go through a whole civil rights victory tour and kind of understand the giants of the shoulders of the giants that we stood on and all the things that they went through. That take away some of our excuses as to why we don't succeed. The other thing I think this podcast does that. It takes away some of the excuses. Whether I've talked to a gentleman who had fathers that were, you know, that were in prison, or you know single moms, or I had an attorney who robbed a bank, we just been having a fun time, you know, and now he's a successful minister and you just go, wow. There's so many people from all over the country who are doing some amazing things, and today is not no exception Today.
Speaker 2:We have Marcus on today, and what's incredible about Marcus is that he's a business owner, he's an entrepreneur, he is working and only in the space that sometimes you don't see a lot of black people in the mental health industry and helping folks that need to learn what it is that may be the trauma that has happened to them and be able to focus on how do I move forward, kind of like we do in this podcast, but on a different level, on a level that increases our ability to be successful or happy or have joy.
Speaker 2:You know, I think success is one of those things that we get to determine for ourselves what that means. But success also leaves clues. Success isn't, you know, sitting home watching TV, wishing your life was better. Success is going out there and living within purpose. You know, I spend my time saying you know, how do I help people, especially men now, as I've created Journey to Freedom, become a person they need to be in order to do what God put them on the search to do. And when we do that, what I found, marcus, you know I'll hear from you on this, but I haven't met anybody who isn't willing to serve others that gets to live in purpose.
Speaker 2:And so it's so fun to see what that service is like and how we can serve others, and there's so many ways to do it. It's not, you know, you have to go out there at a soup kitchen and you know, get a ladle and put soup in a bowl for the homeless. And what I was talking to our last guest about was, you know, some of us need to create businesses and need to create wealth in order to serve others, because it's really hard to serve others sometimes when you don't have any means to be able to do it. And so if we can help that through the people that we hire, if we can do that through the people that we work with, if we can do that with the people and the money that we make so that we can give, I think that's a way to serve others so.
Speaker 2:Marcus, thank you for being on today thank you for spending an hour with me. Uh, and, being one of our year, I think you're number 16 in 2025 already, so we're flying through. I thought I was only going to do 100, but no, after I heard 100, I got to do way more, because there's so many great stories out there, so I'd love for you to start with your story. Uh, start you. I'd love for you to start with your story. I can tell everybody. You can start from your mama's womb up to now or somewhere in between, and then it's so important that we get to see.
Speaker 2:Like I said, what others have done so that we can feel like, hey man, if Marcus can do it, I can do it. And we both know that you know the especially in the industry. He's in right. He said well, I don't really. I got hold on my secrets because I don't want anybody to be in the mental health space. There's plenty of room in the mental health space.
Speaker 2:A lot of people to be in. I promise you that, because we all, instead of being we'll talk about health a little bit but instead of being this black man who's scared to go get help when I need it, I hope that you will say wait a minute, if there's a place for me to go, and maybe I can even get a therapist that looks and understands me then we're gonna be in a good space. So, marcus, glad to tell your story and then we'll chop it up right after that.
Speaker 1:No, that's fine. Thank you for the introduction and sharing your history and sharing why you started. It's so important to see others like you said, others that look like you, doing the things and being in the spaces that you want to do. So I thank you, brother, for taking the step and doing what you do to give back in this way, because it's necessary. There's a huge need for it, and so for me. You know, my start came from the Virgin Islands.
Speaker 1:I'm originally born and raised on a small island called St Croix in the Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, and made my way here via the United States military. I'm a Navy veteran. I served in, served my country for eight years and then got out of the military because I realized that it was time for me to do something else and coming from. But you don't quite know what that something else is right. A lot of times when you and I think it's almost a form of PTSD A lot of times when you encounter a veteran, you, they, they describe themselves by what they did or who they use, and they, they make that their personality. Well, I used to be a master chief, I used to be a gunner's mate. I used to do this. I used to do these things. I've been to this part of the world because of who I used to be.
Speaker 1:And to me that's a form of PTSD. And when I got out I realized the military is something I did. It's not who I am, and so in coming out, I had to learn who Marcus was. I had to cut my hair, I had to try different styles, I put color in my hair, I tried spikes, I tried the Mohawk, because, coming straight out of high school from the Virgin Islands, where I was under my parents' stewardship, and then being autonomous in the, you know, somewhat autonomous, mostly autonomous to make decisions, good or bad or indifferent, without, you know, guidance from family, but from other leaders, and so that that kind of the leadership and the skill building and what I did in the Navy is paramount to who I am.
Speaker 1:But that continuous development and relearning what Marcus wants to do in the world came after the military. And that was a turning point for me because I had to, like I said, I had to rediscover myself and find out what my purpose was. And I've been all over the world. I've been to Guam, I've flown through Hawaii, flown through Japan, I've been to East coast, west coast, been to Seattle, washington, um Virginia, groton, connecticut, um Kings Bay, georgia. So I've been, I've been some unique places, um, and you know it, it, it. It humbles me now to see where I've been and where I am today, because I've always in at the core of it. Like you said in in your conversation, your introduction, earlier, most successful people are serve, are serving they have a people are serving they have a heart for service.
Speaker 1:They have a heart for giving. They have a heart for others. No one goes broke giving by giving right. You can't give away too much, and so you don't hear about that, and so that really, especially in this phase of my life, is really at the core front. And I I've dug a little deeper and I asked myself I try to ask myself every day if I died today, what would people write on my tombstone?
Speaker 2:about me yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, because it doesn't matter. People don't remember what you say. People always remember how you made them feel, because feelings last longer than what you say. People will forget. You know that that that cuss out at the at the barbecue, right, people will forget what you say, but they'll never forget. Every time I see that guy I'm pissed off. So you want to make sure that if you die today, today, what they will put on your headstone is something you want people to remember you for yeah, and I live by that today, and so I've had different experiences in various businesses.
Speaker 1:Um, because when I got out, I had to work a nine to five, but I realized early on that a nine to five wasn't cutting it. Your employer, my employer, our employer, isn't going to pay you the kind of wages and compensation that you probably deserve, and I learned that business was a different path and, to me at the time, a better path to impact and creating impact in the world. I don't want to be a part of of of of something. I want to start it, I want to do it, I want to be the initiate, I want to, I want to pave the way in the in, the in, in a path that not too many has traveled. I have businesses in the ATM business, I own a portfolio of ATMs, a portfolio of real estate, and dove into the cannabis space a couple years ago and I've been doing that for some time. And then, like, like yourself, I'm podcasting, and now my latest venture is mental health and I purchased a mental health franchise.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of a 3000 foot view of Marcus in the beginning. The Caribbean, the young Caribbean Islander, you know, hanging out, going to school and smoking ganja every day. You know, hanging out, going to school and smoking ganja every day. I'm kidding, I didn't smoke ganja in that Caribbean culture. Right From a very relaxed upbringing to now, you know a businessman, and there's not too many entrepreneurs at least there weren't too many entrepreneurs that influenced me growing up, and so business was something I had to discover on my own, and I've been learning ever since, and so that's the 3,000 foot view of then Marcus to now Marcus, and so that's who I am.
Speaker 2:So you graduated high school, or what equivalent to high school In the islands, and then you came, went to the straight into the military yes sir, and then you learn whatever you learn in the military.
Speaker 2:so you get out eight years is longer than a lot of people do so and you're there, uh, and then you get out and go. Okay, now, what am I supposed to do, right, if you go, if you try all these different things because we're all searching for what brings us happiness and joy, during that time your identity was shaped, who Marcus is, and for some people, our identity is shaped because of other people and other influences and people that are around us. What do you think are the kind of the greatest contributors to the identity that you now hold as who Marcus is?
Speaker 1:Some of the big, great question, um, some of the biggest contributors to who Marcus is is, first and foremost, my father. Um, I was raised and grew up primarily with my father, and so he has been the first and most impactful person in my life. He was the start of it and the catalyst to a lot of the thoughts that I have and the perspectives that I have today, and so one of the things that I tell people about my father is to give a basic point my dad is still alive to this day, but my dad, he didn't give me an inheritance, he didn't leave me money, he didn't leave me riches or wealth or a business, but one of the things he did was give me the ability to critically think through problems, and I think that's what's lacking in some people is the ability to take something, break it down to its finest parts. The ability to take something, break it down to its finest parts, its simplest parts, to where you can understand it and then rebuild it in your own way, and so that has paid dividends throughout my military career and throughout my adult years. As I go through life, I've never again I named various industries real estate, cannabis, business, atms, now mental health. None of those industries are related, right, and so what I've never held myself back from. Typically, you see, people kind of stay in one lane. Because my father impacted me to critically think I've never stayed in one lane, I don't have to and I've never been limited in that way. I can enter a space, I can be thrown out in the middle of the woods and thrive and survive, and that's because I was able to critically think. So I'll say that, right, the military does its due. But that was the first and still prevalent and the most impactful thing to me today that I still use to this day.
Speaker 1:Because your ability to critically think, to walk into a room and assess what's happening in this room in order to make an educated decision on whether are you going to be the leader in that space? Are you going to be the leader in that space? Are you going to be a learner in that space? Are you going to sit down and be quiet? And you realize the people in the room may be smarter than you. So it's wise for someone who acknowledges their capacity and the room that they're in to humble themselves and say I'm going to just listen and learn.
Speaker 1:And not everyone can make that connection. Some people just barge into a room and assume that they're the leader because of X, y and Z, but that's not always the case and that's not always a marker for good leadership or good business. You want to be able to assess every space and the people you interact with, because everybody's different, people are different, spaces are different, and so critically thinking really has been impactful in all facets of my life so, as I'm thinking about your story and, and you said, you've been in different spaces that aren't related, and whether it's your pursuit of purpose or your pursuit of excellence, or your pursuit of service, why, help me understand in those different industries, what made you decide I need to switch, like why didn't you want to to dig more into real estate because you know a lot of people can be successful and they love it to death in real estate?
Speaker 2:Or why did you not buy another thousand ATMs and have your life be pretty much an ATM machine? What made you pursue where you're at now?
Speaker 1:Great question, great question. What made me pursue where I am now is everyone talks about starting a business, owning a business, entrepreneurship is the way Right, but no one ever thinks of the end point, and one of the things that you see successful people do is they know when to get in and they know when to get out, know when to get out. And so I'll give you a great example. I owned real estate before I owned this mental health franchise and bought into it, and so one of the things people do is, like you said, they buy real estate and they buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, and that's all I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:That's very one dimensional. Well, if you have a couple properties that are worth $300,000, and here's another business that, at its current valuation, is worth $500,000 and has a higher yield and less inventory right, because your property, the real estate, the tangible real estate, is inventory right, that's a physical thing that you can touch, whereas I can own a franchise virtually and have low inventory or virtually no inventory almost, and that is yielding $500,000. So that was the question I had to ask myself, right, and most people don't think that sometimes, in business, leveling up is still business, and so if I liquidate this asset to buy into this newer asset that's higher yielding, then that's.
Speaker 1:I'm still in business, I'm still moving. But the problem is we want to hold on to stuff, we want to hoard stuff, and that's not how. That's not necessarily. That's not the path that was destined for me. That is a path, right, you can just do your one lane and do real estate and real estate only, and that's fine. But what you'll find is there are other avenues, other vehicles, and you should keep an open mind to other things and don't let the one thing hold you back from looking into another space. And so that was my path.
Speaker 1:My path is I'm going to level up and think about the end. I'm going to sell a real estate, or some of the real estate, so that I can buy into something bigger and I can create impact on a bigger scale. Because if I own five properties, I can only impact the location of where those properties are and that's it, whereas virtually now I can cover a whole zip code or several zip codes or several cities in a state. So now my reach is bigger and now I'm able to create a bigger impact and help more people, because my practice is now virtual and expanding and growing, and clients are finding me from all over the world. I'm being introduced to new people, new, new youths, new teenagers, new adults that have some of the most horrendous problems that we're facing in society did it and I can help them, and so that's why it's leveling up, thinking about the end. Sorry, I'll end with this.
Speaker 1:There was a major real estate firm here that has now almost fell off the map, because when she built this real estate empire and she was big, she was on the news, she was on the radio, she was everywhere, and she built it to the point where now she's ready to sell and so she's listing her business for sale. She had locations in North Carolina, she had locations in Washington DC and she had several locations in Virginia, and she's ready to sell the practice, the real estate business. Well, she found a buyer and the buyer says well, your name's everywhere, your name is on the door, your name and face is on the pamphlets. We can't buy this business because everything you've bought, everything has your face on it and I can't buy into this because it's your face. And when you leave, what happens, then it's your face. And when you leave, what happens? Then. So she spends millions of dollars revamping everything brochures, tv ads, commercials revamp millions to rebrand it and change the name. Well, guess what? She did all of that and then lost the buyer anyway. All of that, and then lost the buyer anyway, and she went from this huge, huge real estate empire to you. Don't even hear about her anymore. She's still there if you look for her.
Speaker 1:But she didn't think about the end. No one keeps the end in mind. What is the end play in this? Why am I doing this? There has to be an end, because life is not infinite for you and me. So what's the end game? And so that's how I think I want to end that train of thought and leave your audience with that train of thought. Think about the end when you get into something.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well and I love leveling up, I mean that makes so much sense that hey, okay, I got five properties. Well, five properties are serving five families, especially if they're single family residents right. I guess if they're apartment complexes they could serve more. But then you think okay, not only can.
Speaker 2:I level up but I can serve and make impact on more people.
Speaker 2:And then you think of, I think, the most successful people that I've interviewed, the most successful people that I know, the most successful people I see find what the problem is and find ways to solve it.
Speaker 2:You know, and so there is a huge problem in our country if we want to move into, like health, and you know not only how big is the health industry physical health, you know where we try to stay alive, but then we're really finding out even more about the mental health side of things. And so you don't have to be and this is a great for you guys that are watching Marcus doesn't have to be a therapist or a doctor to impact in the mental health space. Right, he has to be able to give an avenue for being able to. Maybe you can talk about what you see in the mental health space that is so needed that you're able to provide because you're doing services like this. What's happening with our country? What's happening with our awareness, even and you know us even as black men not willing to go to the doctor or go see people when we need to, maybe kind of help us understand this a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, great question. So what we're dealing with is, I think COVID accelerated a lot of things, and it accelerated the lack of concern and care that we were placing on not only our kids, but adults as well as families as well. Covid exposed what was already lingering, and so we've been dealing with a mental health problem for years, as well as fighting against what you mentioned the stereotype of Black men and women not wanting to go to the doctors or the dentist and having a real, real, real, innate fear of, you know, practitioners. One of the things that one of the therapists I work with shared with me is they are actually trained, and doctors are actually trained that African-Americans are have a higher pain tolerance than their Caucasian counterparts. This is taught to doctors, and so doctors who are now practicing and out in the field have a misconception, a conception about you, a belief system about you, that you can tolerate more pain. So instead of, hey, you're coming to me with a, with a pain or sore, um, I'm going to wait and see, because you're African-American and I've been trained that you can tolerate more pain, instead of just giving you and helping you deal with the pain at the lowest point before it gets into something major. And so, just like mental health, I think there is a misconception that people are just going to figure it out weak if you go to a therapist.
Speaker 1:So that's one side of the coin. The other side is finance. Right, how do you pay for mental health services? Because practitioners and I can't speak for the United States, but I can speak for my area practitioners are ridiculous. The competition, the individual practitioner that is out there charges higher fees that are just out of this world, and they make it so unaffordable, so unencouraging, to seek you out professionally that that's disheartening. So now there's the stigma and the stereotype that one has to deal with with even thinking about seeing a practitioner. But the other side of the coin is how can I financially afford this practitioner? Right and so, and, and the world is evolving and we're trying right.
Speaker 1:This recently happened to me, where I went to go see my medical provider and it was my dentist, and they did all this work on my teeth and corrected some things, and then, after they did the work, a month later, realized that they don't accept my insurance, and so now I'm looking at a bill that is 10 times what I expected to pay and the work is already done. And so imagine that in a therapist space where you go see a therapist who has no concept, because these therapists that I'm seeing here, they're not trained on insurance or billing or any of this they're coming out of school ready to talk to you about what's going on and the traumas and the issues that you've been facing, but they have no comprehension of the backstory, of how to help you, not just mentally, but make sure I take care of you financially, because that's going to stress you out. If I sat there and talked to you for 60 minutes and then I send you a bill for $200, you've just reinitiated the stress and now I probably more times nine times out of ten I have to cancel services. I can't afford you and you didn't tell me in advance of the session that my insurance lapsed, my policy canceled or my co-pay is something outrageous that I didn't plan for. After the fact, not before, and that's not okay. That's before and that's not okay. That's not acceptable, that's not okay and just I had, and I really applaud this.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of parents stepping up and they're pushing for their children and pushing for their kids to get into therapy and I really, really admire the parents that step forward and do this. But when I talk to those parents and I listen to those parents I also hear how beat down and tired and exhausted they are. And I'm not looking for extra money, but just like on an airplane, you have to put your oxygen mask on first before you help others. And we're not doing well. We're not doing well as a society, we're not doing well as a culture and we often especially young mothers and all the mothers in between they put others first instead of themselves. And I try to talk to those women and say, listen, you have to take care of you. You can't, you cannot. You're doing a great job by putting your daughter or your son getting them with a practitioner, a therapist, who can help them deal with their stuff. But you have some stuff that you need to work through to be not only better for them but better for you. And they push it off. They brush it off I'll deal with that later, I'll deal with that some other time as if tomorrow is guaranteed right, and so it's sad.
Speaker 1:One of the things I learned that was unique in this space is that in my state I can't speak for everyone's state, but in my state, a 14-year-old and older can seek out a therapist and receive counseling and therapy without a consenting adult.
Speaker 1:Now, I said the word seek out. I, as a practitioner, I as a business owner, still have to connect and contact and speak to an adult, but I don't have to disclose anything to that parent about what is discussed in that therapeutic session. So a child. And it was the most incredible thing and I didn't realize it until after I had already scheduled this young lady. But this client, this young girl, reached out, found our website, called us, scheduled an appointment, provided her insurance card, took a picture back in front, received the intake form, the intake form that you have to fill out to say what you're dealing with, what's going on, how can we help you. She filled out the intake form, everything, and then, at the end of it, the tail end. I asked her what's your age? And she's 14. I didn't know my social security number until I was out of the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no exactly this young lady sought out therapy because she knew she needed to speak to a professional on her own.
Speaker 2:We live in this world. That is not, and we think, as parents, that we can handle all these things. But when I was a kid, the biggest thing I was concerned about is when the street light came on, I had to be home. That's what I was thinking about. We had a phone in the house.
Speaker 1:It was on the wall that everybody picked up.
Speaker 2:It wasn't in our hands, we didn't have social media, that we were trying to deal with everybody who's willing to say anything about me at that age because they can hide behind a computer. And then we think as parents we can handle. And I can remember, like when I think of a therapist, when you know that was unheard of for any child to ever need one. But my therapist for me in many cases was my family, the family that I got to hang with. My grandpa, you know, owned a dairy and you know he would. You know, when I spent summers at his house, I would get on the tractor with him and we would talk all day as we were going back and forth on the tractor, right because I had access to a family member that could deal.
Speaker 2:But I don't know how many adults today have, are capable or have the capacity to deal with some of this stuff that happens on social media or the relationships these kids are having, or what they're seeing on television and trying to solve world problems. Right, because I had no idea what was going on in Israel when I was 14 years old. Right, but every kid today who's 14 years old knows everything that's going on in the whole world and then they're trying to deal with those things.
Speaker 1:On that point right. So one, the family ecosystem has changed. You have kids that are grown, married adults have their own kids and want to come back home to have the family help and assist them with child raising right Rearing their grandchildren. The parents don't want to participate. Grandparents are done. They're fed up. They're like I did mine. It's time for you to do yours. Don't be calling me. They want nothing to do, like the days of old, to assist with upbringing and the family dynamic. So the family dynamic is broken and it's divided and separated. You also have the other flip side of the coin, where kids don't want to come home and take care of their parents. They leave the nest and they go so far away that coming home is not even advantageous to come home and deal with an aging parent. So now you have an aging parent who relies on government assistance and government programs and government aid and everything to take care of them, because none of the family dynamic is there that was originally there around your time and my time, and so that's broken. And you're right. You're so right, it's really bad. And you're right, you're so right, it's really bad.
Speaker 1:And also, too, it's important to have friends that hold space for you. It's absolutely important to have those core friends that if you say a word, they will drop everything and make time for you. It's also important to, as that friend, to recognize where your limit is at and say listen brother, listen sister, I'll always hold space for you, but what you're dealing with right now is out of my depth and so we need to stop. We need to have healthy relationships, friendships where your friend will be there for you and hold space for you but also acknowledge that they have a limit and instead of saying, hey, you're dealing with a lot, let me take you out to drink, let me take you out for some smokes, let's go get some weed, a bag of weed, because those are gateways, right?
Speaker 1:We need the kind of friends that will say listen, man, what you're dealing with right now is intense and I really am not able to help you. Let me pay for your first three therapy sessions at this therapist company that I know about. Let me pay for your first three sessions. If you want to leave, it's all on me, bro, I got you no matter what the cost, but I want to get you help. But that's the kind of relationship. So the family dynamic needs to change and the individual we need to recognize. We can hold space for people and we should hold space for people, but realize where your limit is and then say hey, let me get you some help.
Speaker 2:Well, the stigma is that if I go there, somehow I'm crazy or somehow I'm less than I'm, you know, less than I couldn't do it, especially as a black man. Right, I'm not as good as somebody else is because I need to work through some things that are going on, and I think that's maybe starting to change a little bit, but I do see that a lot. I mean, I think that therapy session is the barbershop, where we talk about athletes and everywhere else, but we don't really talk about, hey, my wife's getting ready to leave me, or I don't have any money and I don't know what to do. And everybody's counting on me, not just my immediate family, but my extended family, is all you know. I've been taking care of them for so long and they think I'm gonna, and they have all this pressure on them to be able to perform, and then, well, I can't go see somebody because what will they think of me?
Speaker 2:so you know, do you see that starting to change a little bit, or is it still a fight to be able to get folks in to see people?
Speaker 1:it's. I think it's changing people. The the projection for mental health services is up and to the right.
Speaker 1:So there's that there's a huge need for mental health and it's growing Services and it's growing. And the other side, there is some change, but it's not enough. And it's not enough because, again, the professionals that are coming into the space. I sought out some therapy services here in my area and the professionals are running late to the sessions. They're showing up and they're performing sessions while they're grocery shopping Right, so they got their phone doing a therapeutic session with you on their phone and they're at the grocery store shopping, or the worst one, they're in bed right, they're in bed. They're laid up, bonnet on nightgown on or the camera's off, right, and so that's a problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:That's a huge problem. When you have someone on edge, the last thing you need is to not show up and to not show up in your best self for them. And I don't even call that my competition, because I don't allow that in this practice. I don't allow that at all. If I discover that a client tells me that you showed up to their session with a bonnet on and your nightgown on, your pajamas on, and you, you can't work. I can't work with you. People need you to show up as a professional. You are, and so there is change, but it needs to be a huge change. It needs to be a huge overhaul of the professional side and where and how people can acquire services. And I don't want to say government intervention, because government intervention can be a bad thing. Too much government intervention can be a bad thing. So I don't want to say it needs to be on a government level, but there needs to be a resource, a one stop shop, like podcasts, like yourself, like what you're doing, right, you know, companies need to reach out.
Speaker 1:The age of NBC and CNBC. The media, the traditional media, is dying, yeah, absolutely. And so the age of influencers is significant. I think it happened a couple months ago. Cnbc had released a major breaking news article and it only got 250,000 views. And then an influencer released the same article and it got 2.2 million views. So what you're doing and there needs to be some kind of connection, that relationship between an influencer and people that you trust and people that are trusted within your community that relationship needs to thicken and not get thinner, because that is how you reach the masses and let people know what's available to them.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, and I can see where. Maybe it's the people who don't have the money or the means or the funds that have to deal with. Well, you know, I guess my insurance will only pay for three therapies at this clinic or whatever it is, and then you end up with somebody who they hired that is going to be in the bed with the boner or something. So I can't imagine the person who's paying premium dollar getting that kind of service and being okay with it, like you or me. If we showed up for, you know, a therapy session and my guy was at the, if my guy was at the grocery store shopping for groceries and I'm trying to have a conversation with him, I'd be like, dude, we're going to, we're going to stop this session right now, and then I'll either come back to you because I know it was a fluke and you know your baby needed milk and you must have to get formula or something, and it was, you know, emergency you know your baby needed milk, and you must have to get formula or something.
Speaker 2:And it was, you know, emergency, it was a one-off right, or we're just I'll find somebody else. You know, because you paid for it, you get what I love to do, because I know we're talking about the therapy side, but I'd love to spend some time talking about the business side and maybe talk about finances and money. And you know I have a lot of people that are saying, well, I want to get into something that I can feel good that I'm in it, but I also want to know that I can make some money in it and you know that it could be purposeful. And so maybe you know, talk a little bit about. You know your thought process of what it takes to become a person who is able to buy a business. What are some of the like? Do you have to be willing to go through failures and what are the?
Speaker 2:risks of doing it. Because I think some people say, well, I'm just going to go buy something and it's going to run. You know, I know you and I both know it don't work like that. But that's how some people you know, even in real estate, right, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go flip right and then, without doing the research and without figuring out what it's all about, kind of talk to us about that business mindset you have to have and that risk tolerance.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so great question. The things that stick out to me when evaluating any business first and foremost is do you understand the business right? Do you understand how this business makes money? That's the Kevin O'Leary Shark Tank 101, right? The 101 level is understanding how this business makes money. If you have no idea how this business generates $500,000 a year, you should not even consider buying that business. And so that's number one, forgive me, and one of the things I consider whenever I buy into a business or franchise. And number two is, for me, the, the what am I getting for my investment?
Speaker 1:And so I'll touch on the cannabis business that I franchise, that I bought into. And so the cannabis franchise it's a mobile kiosk vending machine with blockchain technology that has age verification technology, patented to not accidentally dispense to minors. And so you've taken something very old school, which is a vending machine, and you've modernized it to the 21st century and the teenage consumer, the young consumer, that 21 plus consumer, because you've added touchscreens and digital, a digital footprint. It's searchable on Google and you've merged two industries that typically couldn't have come together before. And when I bought that business, one of the things I had to consider, you have to consider, is the leaders, and so when I bought into that business, I looked at the team surrounding that business and so that's the second part. You have to look at the people in the industry and look at who they are and look at what they do and how they make this thing move and how they drive this machine forward. This thing move and how they drive this machine forward. The CEO of the franchise has a master's degree in cybersecurity with a, with a civil, a civil and electrical engineering background, so that fits with what he's trying to do.
Speaker 1:There's a. There's another company that's trying to take over the social media space. It's called Fanbase, and I was looking at that company to invest in. But again, I looked at the CEO of that company and his background is music. He's a social media. He's starting a social media business that doesn't hold you back. The algorithm doesn't hold you back, it doesn't restrict you, it doesn't limit you and allows everybody to make money quote, unquote, right, and so that's great and that sounds good, but your background is music. You've worked with top music professionals and producing music and artists in the music business and I can see some relation to social media there, but your background is music. So that was why I didn't invest, because you're not from this industry.
Speaker 1:The second part is your competition is meta, I know You're going to go up against the company that's your competition and you're trying to knock them out, a company that's worth billions.
Speaker 1:You're going to try and compete with them with millions, and you're supposedly going to do what right. And so those are the things that I look at in the business. And so, buying into a mental health space, you want to know what you're going to get for your money. You want to vet the company, make sure you understand how you make money and if it doesn't make sense, don't, don't pass gold, do not collect $200. And you want to look at the support that you're going to get for your money and you want to make sure that the support equals the level of of franchise fee and royalties that you're going to pay, right. And then for me, buying into a franchise, which is this above all significance, is um, can I run this business autonomously one day, without me having to physically step in? And so a lot of people jump on the Chick-fil-A franchise because it's a $10,000 investment or or investment. But Chick-fil-A, in the beginning at least, doesn't allow you to not be involved in the business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to be there.
Speaker 1:You got to be there, you got to show up, you got to run things, you got to hire, you're involved.
Speaker 1:And if that's not appealing to you, you should not buy into any business that you're going to have to run the day to day. And so those are three of the things that I consider when investing in a business. Do I understanding how it makes money, understanding the leaders to make sure that they align with the space? And then, lastly, is is it worth the money? Am I getting an equal return on my money for what I'm paying for? Because you're getting, you're supposed to get some proven professionals that are going to help you and guide you and make sure you don't fail.
Speaker 1:So, there's a safety net there, but if you don't follow the other two steps, that safety net doesn't matter, because if you're not in the space you can't catch me. But what am I getting for my money? What am I getting for my investment and so the business operations? What is the system that I'll be using? What is the software? How easy is it to use? How difficult is it to use? How does that integrate with my bank account? How does the company operate? Do I have to physically own an office or can I operate virtually? Understanding the deeper portions of value and what do I get for my investment is huge. Business is not hard. It just takes time and a lot of practice.
Speaker 2:And I've had years of practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have these guys who will. You know my experience with it. I was a landscaper and I was really good at being a landscaper. So I'm going to open up a landscaping business. Well, what do you know about business and what are you going to like your personal development portion of whatever you buy, whatever you get into, has to be great. I think you have to have great mentors and you have to have people that can help you along the way Just because you're good at something. Michael Jordan is a very good basketball player, probably one of the best that ever lived. I don't know how good of a coach he is. He can't coach things that only he could do Right. His talent was one thing, but we have so many people who do that. You know.
Speaker 2:I can remember my wife wanting to start an embroidery business. She loves to sew and she's great at making bags and can even sell bags. But that doesn't mean she's ready for a business where we go, buy $50,000, $100,000 worth of equipment and then go now, what Well have you thought about? Like, how many machines do you have to have? You know, how many clients do you have to have to make those machines profitable? And you know, I think so many people don't go through that research phase of it, or especially like on the franchise. I mean there's so many franchises that will call you or say, if you got this investment, well, we'll show you it's cookie cutter.
Speaker 2:But if you hate the business and you, they want you to be there, like if you like, you said chick-fil-a, you don't, you don't want you. All you want is the money that chick-fil-a brings. But you don't want to deal with the whole bunch. You hate kids, you hate teenagers, you hate. You know it's going to be a long road. You know how long in your mind, like before you buy a business. How long is that research process? I know it's probably different for every business, but there's got to be like a minimum of like how much time you spend before you jump right in, Unless something just jumps on you. You've already been doing it, but your first one.
Speaker 1:So time to me is equivalent to the investment.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:A couple thousand dollars that's that's not a whole lot of time required. Thousand dollars that's that's not a whole lot of time required. Real estate Real estate took, you know, several months, right, based off availability and how much free time that you were willing to commit to it, right. And then, excuse me, a franchise with employees and staff and contractors and CPAs and bookkeepers and, you know, assistants and a team that took almost a year of research, only because it was the first one and the investment was significant, yeah, and so it deserves that. It deserves that right, that amount of time, that amount of due diligence. And to me, even with, you know, an eight-month runway of research, that was still, in my opinion, fast, because there were some other things pressing me forward to accelerate and move the time horizon sooner than I would have liked, but we press forward and move forward with it, and so, when it comes to business, you really have to dedicate the amount of time, that of your investment, and so that differs from person to person.
Speaker 1:Prime example, and this is the best example I could think of If you have a thousand dollars and you have a job that pays you $10 an hour, you and you've amassed a thousand dollars. That's a lot of of effort on your part. So a thousand dollars because you only get paid $10 an hour, that it takes you a long time and a lot of sweat and a lot of tears and a lot of long nights and a lot of shifts and a lot of early mornings to acquire that Versus. For others, that's one paycheck, and so you have to assess personally what this is worth for you. Yeah, right, that amount of money, and are you willing to part with it?
Speaker 1:And for someone who makes $10 an hour, that's really difficult, right. I don't want to be insensitive to hard the hard worker and people watching your show, um, and so you. But you really have to really shift your mind and say this took me a long time, so that has to be taken care of when I research this business to invest this money, because it really took me a long time to get this, and so that has an impact on how much research you give to any business that you want to buy into and invest in. When I researched the ATM business, it took me a month, right, and I remember the young lady it took me a month Right, and I remember the young lady I was dating at the time.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation with her. Today, the next month, 30 days, less than 30 days later, I had my first ATM delivered, shipped, programmed and installed. That's an investment, but it didn't take me that long because the investment was worth it. To me and for some people, $2,000 is a tax refund. A single mom I don't even know I haven't talked to my CPA yet, but I think the tax credit for kids I think you're getting what $1,000 per child this year. So invest that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's not money that you, you expect, and so many people you know think about the. Well, I can't wait so I can go spend. You know that that's why our economy is where it is, because when we get all that stimulus money in 2020, you know how long? You know, I heard somebody tell me about like a trickle up there and he said that we that money within five years, all that stimulus money, trickled up to the top 1% because everybody who got the check spent it instead of investing it.
Speaker 1:Right, In their business.
Speaker 2:It's that whole mindset of of what that, what that means to be able to invest in a business and you think of I love your ATM, you know, acknowledge it because, hey, you know that wasn't. If that business fails because I'm sure you've had some that fails you're okay with the investment you put into it because the reward is so great that can come from it. But a person who works so hard for whatever that investment is, all they're thinking about is the time that I spent trying to gain this money.
Speaker 2:If I lose it, then I'm going to have to in their mindset, right do all that over again in order to create that amount of money. And if it took them 10 years to raise that money, they're thinking this is a, this is all or nothing right now. And so the research, because I don't have another 10 years to make this money back if something happens, right, so awesome. So yeah, man, we've been talking for like 56 minutes. It's been amazing. What have I not asked you? That you want to make sure that the audiences that listen to this know about and that you want to get to? Is there some things that you would want them to know? Please let us know.
Speaker 1:So I'd like to leave your audience with this that there's information out there. We're still in the information age and you don't have to live with the circumstances you're in. It's not your fault if you were born into difficult circumstances. It is your fault if you stay there. So if you don't like your situation, you don't like your circumstances, you don't like where you are in life, change, change it. You can change. You're not a tree. You're not rooted in. You can change it today, and so you know.
Speaker 1:Great podcasts like this is putting out quality content for viewers to gain free access to. Right. This is this doesn't cost you anything and it's knowledge to expand your mind, hopefully even just a little bit, and they don't cost you nothing. And and and put down the phone and stop watching these. I don't watch sports. I don't. I don't watch basketball football none of it. Why would I watch someone who's already making millions? And so I tell my, my partners and everyone that knows me. I tell them I will watch sports when I own the team, right, but I'm not making no money. They're making money for me watching why? Why am I wasting time on the Kardashians? Why am I wasting time on all these people who are already highly successful. Put it down. Find great podcasts like this. Find great podcasts like mine. It's a gentleman-style podcast God, family, finance, self. Look for the big microphone. We're putting out great information to change the narrative and change your tomorrow to make it a little better.
Speaker 2:Thank you for that. And what a great analogy. If you're listening to this, that means you want to make a difference in your life. That means that you want to make a difference in your life. That means that you want to make a change. Somebody sent you here because you can, and I encourage you to find those associations, find those people. Reach out to people that you see. So many people want to serve others, so many people want to help you if you're willing to do it. People want to help you if you're willing to do it.
Speaker 2:But we don't want to spend a whole bunch of time with these people who are wanting to say, hey, make me a millionaire. Why I watch all of my. You know my reels on facebook and tick tock and you know and I'm not saying that stuff's not entertaining, because it may be, I don't know, because I don't watch, like you know, just reels of people. I don't do it, that's not a time for that, you know. But if you truly want to watch, I get, you know, just real as the people. I don't do it, that's not a time for that, you know. But if you truly want to make a difference, you know, I would say hit, subscribe, hit, you know, the notification button, because I I promise you with the interviews that I'm doing it. No wonder, if you are a black man, or even you know a person of color saying I need to see somebody who looks like me doing the thing, you will find it here.
Speaker 2:But, more importantly than that, because it doesn't matter what race you are, what color you are, what you're doing, the principles, laws and concepts that we've been talking about today are across the board. If you're willing to put in the energy and the effort, uh, you can own businesses. You can, you know, make more money than you've ever made in your life before. You can, you know, if there's mental health issues that you believe hey, I just got to get rid of this thing that keeps coming back, you have somebody that you can reach out to. And so, again, marcus, thank you for being on today. Thank you for spending your time with us. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate that you're willing to do that with us, for us and around us as we move forward. And so thank you, guys, for another edition of the Journey to Freedom podcast. We look forward to seeing you. Don't forget you are God's greatest gift. He loves you, if you allow him to.
Speaker 2:And we'll look forward to talking to you on the next one. You guys have an amazing, awesome day. Thank you, marcus, you.