Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Michael Woodward.
Mr. Woodward began his interest in real estate renovations as a youth, working with his grandfather, father, and great-uncle doing handyman and maintenance services. He also studied architectural design in high school, taking first place at county and state-level housing design competitions. After graduation, he enrolled in the architectural design program at Miami-Dade Community college. He also purchased his first property and renovated it himself at just 20 years old. He then took his aspiration to become an architect to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fl where he majored in Architecture and minored in African American Studies.
After much consideration, the future graduate of Florida A&M University decided to change his major from architecture; though, he never lost his passion for the real estate profession. He eventually graduated with undergraduate degrees in History, Geography, and Secondary Education. He was able to complete the triple degree in 3.5 years. He also has a Masters Degree in Applied Social Science with a concentration in African American History and an Add-on in Educational Leadership. This was completed while engaging in an 18year career in the education-al system and investing in real estate. Mr. Woodward is currently pursuing his PhD in History and Humanities at Clark-Atlanta University. He has completed all of his coursework and his comprehensive exams. The dissertation is all that remains between now and graduation.
Utilizing all of his prior knowledge and experience in real estate, Mr. Woodward was able to turn a hobby and part time residual income opportunity into an incorporated business. After 2 years of being incorporated, Michael decided to leave the education profession. Nine years later, Woodward Property Group (www.woodwardpropertygroup.com), a full service home improvement and property management company is still going strong. In addition to being a leader in the property management and renovation business, we are contractors for Lowes Stores under their kitchen a bathroom renovation program. We have 7 stores on the east side of Atlanta and we have an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau as well as multiple partnerships throughout the Atlanta Area.
He is also the founder and CEO of Alpha Educational Consultants, Inc. (www.aecga.com a company that was started in graduate school as a tutoring company for K-12 students and college students. To-date it has expanded to assist individuals in all areas of real estate such as purchasing, renovation, cost calculations and profit maximization.
Additionally, he is The Director of The LEAD Foundation (www.theleadfoundation.org), LEAD, standing for Leadership Education and Development is an organization designed to teach soft skills to middle and High school students such as leadership skills, interviewing skills, test taking skills, oratorical skills, etc. Under the foundation, students are able to learn financial planning, college preparation and selection, take college tours, and attend workshops on college campuses. Additionally, students earn college scholarships and laptop computers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashaan McDonald. Our host a weekly Money
Making Conversations Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click to
be a guest button and submit your information. My guest
(00:23):
today is a natural born entrepreneur and community leader. He
is two successful companies we're going to discuss, and this
journey from low income housing to academic entrepreneur and community
community success is very motivating. That includes a full service
home improvement and property management company. And he is the
(00:44):
founder and CEO of Alpha Educational Consultants, Inc. Please welcome
to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Michael Woodwood.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
How you doing, Michael, I'm doing great. Man. Well, I
tell you, every time you read that thing, it sounds
like you're talking about somebody.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Just stop that now. I would let everybody know Michael
is a person that I you know, you meet people
and you become inspired by their personality, their story, and
I have to I interviewed them on one of my
other platforms, and I said, Michael, Atlanta and everybody on
the streaming platform we got to hear your story, man,
because you are very impressive. Now. Now you started out
(01:22):
in Florida, correct, tell us your story.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, I started out in Miami, Florida, and a little
part of the town of Miami called Liberty City, which
is a lower socioeconomic part of this city. And from
there I spreaded my roots out into Tallahassee, Florida, through
Florida and m University, and then I eventually settled here
(01:46):
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
That's the cliffno version, You're just gonna just blow past
all this other stuff. You know, he went from low
income next year he had fam you now in Atlanta
and he's a real estate tackle. Good night, folks, Michael,
you do my audience like that. You go back, take
your behind back delivery City. Go back, delivery City. Start
(02:09):
talking about them pickle fed feats that you were eating
as a kid. Come on now, talk to us.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Hey, I didn't know if y'all was ready.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
For all that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I thought that was gonna be part of your question.
Now you know what I mean. But I mean I
could go back and dress that, you know, to circle back.
I started out in Liberty City and we were in
the small part of the Liberty City called the Poking
(02:39):
Bean Projects, that's the nickname. It was one of the
worst projects in Miami. And my grandmother was the candy
lady there in the Poking Bean Projects. And as Shaw said,
we we we we sold out of that house in
the project pickle pig feets, We sold clips you want
(03:00):
to call them sludgy water ice, you know, depending on
where you go in the country. I ain't got boogie now,
I know people call it different things, but we called
we called them frozen cups. And then of course you
had all the nickel candies and penny cookies and all
that kind of stuff. So that's where I learned a
(03:22):
little business. You know. I learned how to deal with people,
treat people good, and you know, a matter of fact,
I learned how to help people because even though it
was illegal, we all know that that's still helping the community.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
But you're living in the food desk. Is though you're
living in the food desert.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Now, yeah, exactly, you're in the food desert, and you know, so,
you know, I learned a lot from that experience, and
you know, so many of those those attributes that I
had or I learned, I still carry with me today.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, Now, the interesting thing I bought you is that
you spent some time in the military.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Correct very brief.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, yeah, Now I did get out.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That was my ticket out of the hood, right, And
my parents were poor. Well, I didn't think they could
afford college, and you know, I wasn't enough with here.
I didn't pay attention to all the financial aid stuff
and the scholarship information. You know, I was busy chasing girls,
and I worked, and I kept a pocket full of
money and things like that, and that's that's what I
focused on. So I had to pay the piper, so
(04:26):
to speak.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, you know, the interesting thing about you is that
along the way in your conversation, you know, I just
see your personality. You know, you never felt like where
you was at and the slang way with me, I
grew up in the hood. But all I have is
just great stories about the hood, you know. You know,
I can just laugh and laugh and laugh. And so
many times you just hear people when you go to
(04:49):
the media talk about the hood like it's dangerous. And
I'm not saying any place is dangerous. Let's be real. Now,
they are celebrities who go on trips, come back in
their houses robbed. Okay, so so know that. But what
I'm just telling you is that it just felt like
a lot of love in your community. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, in our community, we had a lot of love.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We had adults that made sure that the children were
supposed to do what they were supposed to do. Sometimes
you know, you see you know, miss Flag or mister
Flag whatever, you know, neighbor, they sitting on a porch,
they give you a couple of coins. You know, you
went to your friend house and it was five thirty
six o'clock. You just want to play ball, but Mama say, hey,
(05:33):
come on in here. Were about to eat first, right,
you know. So, you know, I grew up in that
village concept. So even as an adult today, I have
that village mentality that we're all together, We in this together.
And you know, many times poor people they don't realize
they're poor. Everybody in the same boat, you know. So
(05:56):
that's the way I was raised. Most of my friends
were poor. We had a few peopeople that were outliers.
You know that that parents did really, really well but
the majority of my friends were poor. Even though you know,
let me be clear, we did move out of the projects,
but we lived a couple blocks away from the project.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right, We're still same black people. We're still so same
black people. You know, everybody's still black.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Man. That happened to me, brother, everybody's still black. Everybody's
shooting bad. But we did. We did what we had
to do to survive. And so even when I went
to college, anybody who knows me at FAMU, they would
tell you they knew me for two reasons. One, I
had a little boy I was walking around campus with
all the time. You know, that was my son. I
(06:39):
was a teen father, and I took them to school
with me, so they knew me because of him. But
they also knew because my house was always open. I
knew how to cook, so I would cook for a
lot of my friends, and and people at fam you
that they knew that's what you do. You want to
have good time, go over there. You know we're gonna
be watching the game, we're gonna be grilling, We're gonna
(06:59):
do those things because I had again goes back to
that work ethic that I learned from grandmother and business,
so I was able to get the higher paying jobs
in college and most of my college friends, so I
was able to afford to open my doors to different people.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
See isn't that story much better than the story you
opened up with. Now let's go to the entrepreneurial side.
You know when you first started getting into renovations and
home ownership, and that started in your college days, correct, Correct?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That started in my college days. At twenty years old,
I bought my first piece of property. It was a duplex.
I renovated one side and rented it out and that
tenant paid the mortgage for me. So, you know, I was,
I was a little ahead of my time, you know,
where most of my friends still lived at home with
their parents and a few might have had apartments here
(07:51):
and there. But I had a house, right house I was,
And I went to community college while I had my house.
And then you know, I bought another house. And so
about twenty three years old, I was on my way
to just building a little real estate portfolio.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And you know, you know, you know, you know, you
know our friends now, you know, come on now, Michael,
come on brother, Look at your clothes, man, look at
what you ride. Now, come on, man, what you doing, brother?
Spend some of that money on you? Talk to us
about that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That's what I was about to get into. What a ride? No,
you know, one of the mistakes I made, and I
tell people all the time, you know, one of the
mistakes I made. I always had a new car every year.
I don't know, man, I probably had some kind of
fixed a fixation on that new car. Sent So I
(08:46):
bought a new car every year, you know. And I
had a car, had trucks. I had a lot of
vehicles like that. Had I not made those poor decisions,
my portfolio would be would be better today, be a
lot stronger. So when I teach young people about, you know,
investment strategies and how to get rich quick, one of
(09:07):
the first things I tell them is, don't buy stupid stuff.
You know, you don't have to have the latest automobile
and the name brand clothes. Past that stuff up. You'll
pass that up and build your real estate portfolio. Don't
do stupid stuff. Don't go to the club and buy
the bar trying to impress your frame. Those are the
(09:29):
things you do. Those are the steps you have to
take if you want to be rich in the end
or you want to have a nice real estate portfolio
where you can retire early.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
But you know, but you know it, but you know,
but that's a young person. Like you said, you're taking
care of your son and fam. You you know, you
got a small real estate portfolio. But the only advice
you got you gotta get that new cost smell. You
gotta get that new cost smell. And I understand that. Man,
when you you know something, when you come from that's
(10:02):
basically when you come from nothing, and you really, you know,
if something drives you to at least make you feel
good about yourself. So I'm not mad at you. I'm
not mad at you. Weren't born with a self respoon
and so along the way, you have to be able
to satisfy your work ethic, your success. And those automobiles
(10:23):
were goals setters for you. That's how I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It as because if.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You could buy that, that means that you're winning. And
if you're winning, that means that you can set new
goals because along the way, you never stop moving forward.
Talk to us about that, Michael.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, So you know, I had my cars, and I
worked a little bit in corporate. I worked at law
on law firms and going to work. I had a
nice car, but I tell you my car didn't line
up nearly as close to some of these lawyers I saw.
You know, I had a nice little Lissa on top
of the line, and you know I had a nice
(11:01):
truck and all that kind of stuff. But then cats
they drive it like ferraris and test the wolfsters, and
you know, their admins are driving fancy cars. And I said,
I can't live my life like this. I need to
be on that level. What is it that they did
to get where they are? And how can I get there?
(11:22):
That was my billion dollar question?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And what was your answer?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I knew through education I can do it. I knew
through education I can do it. And that's why I
ended up at Florida and M University. And you know,
I didn't necessarily take the road because my goal was
to go and do architecture, finish architecture, and be a
(11:48):
real estate attorney. And that's how I was going to
get rich. That was my goal. And I ran into
one of my great professors. He was coming home from
his PhD up in Indiana, so we were only a
year a year and a half apart in age, but
he was finishing his PHDN. He was my professor, and
(12:09):
he asked me. He said, why do you want to
go to law school? I said, because I want to
make some money. He said, well, do you want to
make money? Well, at first I told him I want
to make a difference. You know, we never tell a
person the real truth. You can try to.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Get I want to make a difference a law and order,
a difference save my people, save my people, to.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Be politically correct. He said, so do you want to
make a difference do you want to make some money?
I said, well, I kind of want to do both.
He said, well, I'm gonna tell you. He said, unless
you at the top of your law school, you're not
gonna be Johnny Cochran. He said, you're gonna end up
down there at the county working one hundred plus cases,
(12:51):
one hundred hours a week, and you're gonna be overwhelmed.
He said, you can become a college professor, and you
can make the same amount of money and work half
amount of time. And and I did not believe him,
but he gave me his book. He say, take this
book and look at it. It's called Occupational Outlook Handbook.
(13:12):
I took that book Home. But that book by the
stickers and yellow pages. I know I'm telling my age here.
You know, hopefully all your listeners know what the yellow
pages are, but you know that book was sticking to
yellow page. But any profession you can imagine if you
looked it up, it gave you all the information for
that particular profession. And that was the greatest probably book
(13:36):
I ever read. And that's it was. It was just
life changing.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And that's why I decided to do a career in
education versus one in law.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Cool that thought because the story of him becoming a
Lows contractor. When we get back now, this personality has
paid off of him over and over again. Michael Woodwood.
This man is very special. He's risen through the ranks
and he's telling the story on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(14:33):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Welcome back to money making conversations masterclass. Like I said,
my guest is a natural born entrepreneur and community leader.
He's a full service home improvement and property management company.
Tell us about that, Michael.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Your company, well, my company was born out of some
things I learned as a use. When I was young,
I went to work with my grandfather. My grandfather was
the head groundskeeper for or the head maintenance guy for
the in Palm Beach where all the all the rich
(15:16):
folks were, and so on saturdays, that's how we get
my little hustle money is. I would go to work
with him and he would teach me how to fix
on houses or work on houses. Him and my great uncle.
You know, they worked me all day man, and you know,
from son up to sundown, give me ten dollars. But
(15:37):
I was happy. I could go to the moves and
hang out with my cousins and.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
All that you are telling you, you give you work
a black kid today, that's up and down, and they
will be fighting you.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Right. There had to be some kind of child labor
law by lot.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Up Continue, sir, continue.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So that's how I learned how to work on houses.
And then you know, my parents they would always let
me test stuff up in the house and fix it.
You know, my dad was of the notion that if
it's not broke, we're not gonna call anybody. We're gonna
try to fix it first, you know, and it's gonna
be good and broke by the time we actually have
to call somebody. So I learned. I learned how to
(16:29):
fix a lot of things at a young age. So
that's how I was able to just you know, dive
right into the real estate thing. So you know, as
we continue along, I I would buy rental properties. Every
few years, I'd buy another one, another one as I
went through my career as an educator, and then eventually
I rose to the position of assistant principle and I
(16:52):
was making more money on my rental properties then as
an assistant principal. So you know, many days I would
be working at night painting, putting in floors, you know,
renovating kitchens, things like that, and then I come to
teach school kids the next day, you know, coach wrestling,
coach football. But I'd be I'd be doing all those things.
(17:14):
And that's how I really got into the business. And
it came to a point where I made a choice,
and you know, I decided to leave the school system,
and that's how I ended up starting Woodward Property Group.
I left just to manage my business, my my properties,
and then I would through social media just start posting
(17:36):
jobs and people start calling it, you know, like hey,
I saw that you did this job on one of
your properties. You know, you renovate that kitchen? Can you
do mine? Can you do my bathroom?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And that's that's exactly how it started.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Just you know, you want to loose top contractors. How
did that come about? Because you know so many you know,
minority businesses are trying to seek a relationship with companies
like that. How were you able to pull that off?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Man? This is funny. I have to set this one
up for you because this what involves you. Actually you
didn't even know. And I found this out today when
I send out the marketing. I have a buddy and
I'm gonna drop his name. His name's Keith Fowler. Keith
Fowler is a contractor. And you know he was good
(18:32):
at fixing stuff or renovating. He was better than me
because he did this. That's all he's done all his life. See,
I did this part time for twenty years, but he
did it all his life. So anyway, I ended up
doing some work for this guy that was a marketing
district director for los and he liked my work on
(18:53):
his house and he said, hey, don't you want to
come work for loads? I say, I tried to get on,
but you know, y'all never called me up. You said
you was full. I wanted to be installed. He said, oh, no,
you don't want to be an installer. You want to
do our kitchen in the bathroom design. I said, okay,
I'll come kitchen in the bathroom. You know how a
(19:13):
land is people talk, man, everybody just you know, say
they gonna do this and do that, and now don't
do nothing. But they called me up. Long story short,
they called me up, and I go down in an
interview and the guy asked me, not him, but another
guy asked me. He said, do you know how to
build kitchens? I said, yeah, I know how to build kitchens.
You know I build bathrooms. Yes, I could be a bathroom.
(19:34):
Can you build high end kitchens? I'm saying in my mind, hey,
I ain't not a build no high end kitchen. And
I don't know what he talking about a high end kitchen.
You know. So my answer was, yeah, I could build
a high end kitchen.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes, yes, we gonna.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Take you off. So I went to my buddy, who
I know does high end kitchen because he does custom work.
And he told me today that he did some work
at your house a number of years ago. When he
saw the marketing that I put out today about me
being on the show. He said, yeah, I've been there
with Sean McDonald's top about this pantry form. I built
(20:14):
the pantry form.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And absolutely, absolutely, absolutely absolutely that's awesome. That's awesome. Tell
him a coffee. I may need his services again.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
No, you ain't call to him, no more to me,
because you.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Because you're high end that, because you're high in that.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So I went to him. I said, look, Keith, I
got this problem, man, I got this account with Lows
and they want me to do a high end kitchen.
But I don't know if I could do high end kitchen.
He said, ah, man, don't worry about it. I help you. Yeah,
I know. That's why I came to you, relationship relationships.
(20:56):
So I got that contract and here and I did
so many kitchen man, it's just not funny. We did
so many kitchens to hidden kitchens, you know, like I
told you from the projects, Man, I ain't never know
they had two hundred thousand dollars kitchens.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yes they do, Yes do. And I'm gonna tell you something.
My wife loves that pantry. She loves that. That pantry
is beautiful. I'm gonna tell you, man, that loves she loves.
That's our favorite. That's one of our favorite parts of
our house, that pantry. Just let him know that he
went in there. This a little narrow room that he Man,
everything works in that little room, you know, walks away.
(21:32):
It's one of them showcase rooms. You look, coming come
on in my pantry.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Okay, I know it's good. He does great work, man.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, But you know the thing about it, Michael, what
the story I wanted people to hear that you're telling
people is that, first of all, you have not changed.
You're the same young man that they pickle pig feet.
Now he got mad at me, y'all because I told
everybody I eat chiddlings. Then he gonna look at me
like I got a problem. You eat chitlings. Yes, I
(22:01):
eat chitlings, But he eat pickle big feat. He also
eats with a pepmin stick in the middle. See Beman
stick in the middle. He is by this country as
you can get. I don't know how you can get
that deep in Florida and be that country, but they
found the way down at Liberty City. But the beauty
of him is that he has a massed of real
estate portfolio. He has a property management company. And I
(22:25):
know we have a few minutes left, but I gotta
let everybody here about how you take students to HPCUS
and you educate people about the students and young people
about the opportunities on campus. Out your doll out your pocket.
Tell us about that as we exit the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Interview, Sir, Yeah, what I did was every year of
my twenty year career in the education, I took students
on college tours. We took students on summer programs which
would occur on different college campuses, and we teach a math,
science technology so STEM programs. But one of the things
(23:02):
I've learned from my tutoring service was that a lot
of students need to set foot on campus to understand.
Because I taught at Northcross High School, right I had
students that had never been to the AU Center, and
that was just unimaginable to me. But then I can
(23:23):
look back at my past being from Miami, I didn't
think college was possible for me. Yes, Fam, you came
down and they played in the Orange Bowl, and we
had the band that you used tocumb and had a
parade and all that. But going to college was just
a dream and college was far from me from Miami. Fam,
you is, you know, a six eight hour drive from Miami.
(23:46):
But these folks from North Cross not going to the
h I mean the Au Center thirty minutes down. So
we started off taking them there and then as we
grew with our men were in programmed. We met with
the kids every Saturday and Sunday and we groomed them
for college so that their choices would be college, military,
(24:07):
or trade school. Those were their their choices. So we
prepared them from middle school all the way through high school,
and we met with them in the fall and in
the summer. We took them to football games, we took
them on college tours, and you know, we had a
ninety nine point nine percent success rate. Every kid went
(24:28):
to college for our program, and the only one that
didn't go to college they went to culinary school. But
all of our kids went to congradulate. So that's what
I did, and I've given every spring break and every
summer as an educated to those kids. We've had some
(24:50):
great times, some great buses.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can you tell everybody about your website, your property management website,
your renovation website. I got to close out to show, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Sir, madam, what property dot com? What propertygroup dot com?
Is the website Woodwork Propertygroup dot com? And you can
find us there and now I will definitely return your call.
We return calls the same day.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
My brother, You're special. I appreciate you coming on the
show again. Money Making Conversations Massacreare you one of a kind?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I thank you, yes, sir, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
This has been another edition of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episodes
or want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversations.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(25:45):
your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
This has been another edition of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(26:08):
your gifts.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Keep winning.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
H
Hi, I am Rashaan McDonald. Our host a weekly Money
Making Conversations Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click to
be a guest button and submit your information. My guest
(00:23):
today is a natural born entrepreneur and community leader. He
is two successful companies we're going to discuss, and this
journey from low income housing to academic entrepreneur and community
community success is very motivating. That includes a full service
home improvement and property management company. And he is the
(00:44):
founder and CEO of Alpha Educational Consultants, Inc. Please welcome
to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Michael Woodwood.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
How you doing, Michael, I'm doing great. Man. Well, I
tell you, every time you read that thing, it sounds
like you're talking about somebody.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Just stop that now. I would let everybody know Michael
is a person that I you know, you meet people
and you become inspired by their personality, their story, and
I have to I interviewed them on one of my
other platforms, and I said, Michael, Atlanta and everybody on
the streaming platform we got to hear your story, man,
because you are very impressive. Now. Now you started out
(01:22):
in Florida, correct, tell us your story.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yes, I started out in Miami, Florida, and a little
part of the town of Miami called Liberty City, which
is a lower socioeconomic part of this city. And from
there I spreaded my roots out into Tallahassee, Florida, through
Florida and m University, and then I eventually settled here
(01:46):
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
That's the cliffno version, You're just gonna just blow past
all this other stuff. You know, he went from low
income next year he had fam you now in Atlanta
and he's a real estate tackle. Good night, folks, Michael,
you do my audience like that. You go back, take
your behind back delivery City. Go back, delivery City. Start
(02:09):
talking about them pickle fed feats that you were eating
as a kid. Come on now, talk to us.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Hey, I didn't know if y'all was ready.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
For all that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I thought that was gonna be part of your question.
Now you know what I mean. But I mean I
could go back and dress that, you know, to circle back.
I started out in Liberty City and we were in
the small part of the Liberty City called the Poking
(02:39):
Bean Projects, that's the nickname. It was one of the
worst projects in Miami. And my grandmother was the candy
lady there in the Poking Bean Projects. And as Shaw said,
we we we we sold out of that house in
the project pickle pig feets, We sold clips you want
(03:00):
to call them sludgy water ice, you know, depending on
where you go in the country. I ain't got boogie now,
I know people call it different things, but we called
we called them frozen cups. And then of course you
had all the nickel candies and penny cookies and all
that kind of stuff. So that's where I learned a
(03:22):
little business. You know. I learned how to deal with people,
treat people good, and you know, a matter of fact,
I learned how to help people because even though it
was illegal, we all know that that's still helping the community.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
But you're living in the food desk. Is though you're
living in the food desert.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Now, yeah, exactly, you're in the food desert, and you know, so,
you know, I learned a lot from that experience, and
you know, so many of those those attributes that I
had or I learned, I still carry with me today.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, Now, the interesting thing I bought you is that
you spent some time in the military.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Correct very brief.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Okay, yeah, Now I did get out.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That was my ticket out of the hood, right, And
my parents were poor. Well, I didn't think they could
afford college, and you know, I wasn't enough with here.
I didn't pay attention to all the financial aid stuff
and the scholarship information. You know, I was busy chasing girls,
and I worked, and I kept a pocket full of
money and things like that, and that's that's what I
focused on. So I had to pay the piper, so
(04:26):
to speak.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, you know, the interesting thing about you is that
along the way in your conversation, you know, I just
see your personality. You know, you never felt like where
you was at and the slang way with me, I
grew up in the hood. But all I have is
just great stories about the hood, you know. You know,
I can just laugh and laugh and laugh. And so
many times you just hear people when you go to
(04:49):
the media talk about the hood like it's dangerous. And
I'm not saying any place is dangerous. Let's be real. Now,
they are celebrities who go on trips, come back in
their houses robbed. Okay, so so know that. But what
I'm just telling you is that it just felt like
a lot of love in your community. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, in our community, we had a lot of love.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
We had adults that made sure that the children were
supposed to do what they were supposed to do. Sometimes
you know, you see you know, miss Flag or mister
Flag whatever, you know, neighbor, they sitting on a porch,
they give you a couple of coins. You know, you
went to your friend house and it was five thirty
six o'clock. You just want to play ball, but Mama say, hey,
(05:33):
come on in here. Were about to eat first, right,
you know. So, you know, I grew up in that
village concept. So even as an adult today, I have
that village mentality that we're all together, We in this together.
And you know, many times poor people they don't realize
they're poor. Everybody in the same boat, you know. So
(05:56):
that's the way I was raised. Most of my friends
were poor. We had a few peopeople that were outliers.
You know that that parents did really, really well but
the majority of my friends were poor. Even though you know,
let me be clear, we did move out of the projects,
but we lived a couple blocks away from the project.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right, We're still same black people. We're still so same
black people. You know, everybody's still black.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Man. That happened to me, brother, everybody's still black. Everybody's
shooting bad. But we did. We did what we had
to do to survive. And so even when I went
to college, anybody who knows me at FAMU, they would
tell you they knew me for two reasons. One, I
had a little boy I was walking around campus with
all the time. You know, that was my son. I
(06:39):
was a teen father, and I took them to school
with me, so they knew me because of him. But
they also knew because my house was always open. I
knew how to cook, so I would cook for a
lot of my friends, and and people at fam you
that they knew that's what you do. You want to
have good time, go over there. You know we're gonna
be watching the game, we're gonna be grilling, We're gonna
(06:59):
do those things because I had again goes back to
that work ethic that I learned from grandmother and business,
so I was able to get the higher paying jobs
in college and most of my college friends, so I
was able to afford to open my doors to different people.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
See isn't that story much better than the story you
opened up with. Now let's go to the entrepreneurial side.
You know when you first started getting into renovations and
home ownership, and that started in your college days, correct, Correct?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That started in my college days. At twenty years old,
I bought my first piece of property. It was a duplex.
I renovated one side and rented it out and that
tenant paid the mortgage for me. So, you know, I was,
I was a little ahead of my time, you know,
where most of my friends still lived at home with
their parents and a few might have had apartments here
(07:51):
and there. But I had a house, right house I was,
And I went to community college while I had my house.
And then you know, I bought another house. And so
about twenty three years old, I was on my way
to just building a little real estate portfolio.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And you know, you know, you know, you know, you
know our friends now, you know, come on now, Michael,
come on brother, Look at your clothes, man, look at
what you ride. Now, come on, man, what you doing, brother?
Spend some of that money on you? Talk to us
about that.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That's what I was about to get into. What a ride? No,
you know, one of the mistakes I made, and I
tell people all the time, you know, one of the
mistakes I made. I always had a new car every year.
I don't know, man, I probably had some kind of
fixed a fixation on that new car. Sent So I
(08:46):
bought a new car every year, you know. And I
had a car, had trucks. I had a lot of
vehicles like that. Had I not made those poor decisions,
my portfolio would be would be better today, be a
lot stronger. So when I teach young people about, you know,
investment strategies and how to get rich quick, one of
(09:07):
the first things I tell them is, don't buy stupid stuff.
You know, you don't have to have the latest automobile
and the name brand clothes. Past that stuff up. You'll
pass that up and build your real estate portfolio. Don't
do stupid stuff. Don't go to the club and buy
the bar trying to impress your frame. Those are the
(09:29):
things you do. Those are the steps you have to
take if you want to be rich in the end
or you want to have a nice real estate portfolio
where you can retire early.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
But you know, but you know it, but you know,
but that's a young person. Like you said, you're taking
care of your son and fam. You you know, you
got a small real estate portfolio. But the only advice
you got you gotta get that new cost smell. You
gotta get that new cost smell. And I understand that. Man,
when you you know something, when you come from that's
(10:02):
basically when you come from nothing, and you really, you know,
if something drives you to at least make you feel
good about yourself. So I'm not mad at you. I'm
not mad at you. Weren't born with a self respoon
and so along the way, you have to be able
to satisfy your work ethic, your success. And those automobiles
(10:23):
were goals setters for you. That's how I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It as because if.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You could buy that, that means that you're winning. And
if you're winning, that means that you can set new
goals because along the way, you never stop moving forward.
Talk to us about that, Michael.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, So you know, I had my cars, and I
worked a little bit in corporate. I worked at law
on law firms and going to work. I had a
nice car, but I tell you my car didn't line
up nearly as close to some of these lawyers I saw.
You know, I had a nice little Lissa on top
of the line, and you know I had a nice
(11:01):
truck and all that kind of stuff. But then cats
they drive it like ferraris and test the wolfsters, and
you know, their admins are driving fancy cars. And I said,
I can't live my life like this. I need to
be on that level. What is it that they did
to get where they are? And how can I get there?
(11:22):
That was my billion dollar question?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And what was your answer?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I knew through education I can do it. I knew
through education I can do it. And that's why I
ended up at Florida and M University. And you know,
I didn't necessarily take the road because my goal was
to go and do architecture, finish architecture, and be a
(11:48):
real estate attorney. And that's how I was going to
get rich. That was my goal. And I ran into
one of my great professors. He was coming home from
his PhD up in Indiana, so we were only a
year a year and a half apart in age, but
he was finishing his PHDN. He was my professor, and
(12:09):
he asked me. He said, why do you want to
go to law school? I said, because I want to
make some money. He said, well, do you want to
make money? Well, at first I told him I want
to make a difference. You know, we never tell a
person the real truth. You can try to.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Get I want to make a difference a law and order,
a difference save my people, save my people, to.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Be politically correct. He said, so do you want to
make a difference do you want to make some money?
I said, well, I kind of want to do both.
He said, well, I'm gonna tell you. He said, unless
you at the top of your law school, you're not
gonna be Johnny Cochran. He said, you're gonna end up
down there at the county working one hundred plus cases,
(12:51):
one hundred hours a week, and you're gonna be overwhelmed.
He said, you can become a college professor, and you
can make the same amount of money and work half
amount of time. And and I did not believe him,
but he gave me his book. He say, take this
book and look at it. It's called Occupational Outlook Handbook.
(13:12):
I took that book Home. But that book by the
stickers and yellow pages. I know I'm telling my age here.
You know, hopefully all your listeners know what the yellow
pages are, but you know that book was sticking to
yellow page. But any profession you can imagine if you
looked it up, it gave you all the information for
that particular profession. And that was the greatest probably book
(13:36):
I ever read. And that's it was. It was just
life changing.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And that's why I decided to do a career in
education versus one in law.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Cool that thought because the story of him becoming a
Lows contractor. When we get back now, this personality has
paid off of him over and over again. Michael Woodwood.
This man is very special. He's risen through the ranks
and he's telling the story on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(14:33):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Welcome back to money making conversations masterclass. Like I said,
my guest is a natural born entrepreneur and community leader.
He's a full service home improvement and property management company.
Tell us about that, Michael.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Your company, well, my company was born out of some
things I learned as a use. When I was young,
I went to work with my grandfather. My grandfather was
the head groundskeeper for or the head maintenance guy for
the in Palm Beach where all the all the rich
(15:16):
folks were, and so on saturdays, that's how we get
my little hustle money is. I would go to work
with him and he would teach me how to fix
on houses or work on houses. Him and my great uncle.
You know, they worked me all day man, and you know,
from son up to sundown, give me ten dollars. But
(15:37):
I was happy. I could go to the moves and
hang out with my cousins and.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
All that you are telling you, you give you work
a black kid today, that's up and down, and they
will be fighting you.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Right. There had to be some kind of child labor
law by lot.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Up Continue, sir, continue.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So that's how I learned how to work on houses.
And then you know, my parents they would always let
me test stuff up in the house and fix it.
You know, my dad was of the notion that if
it's not broke, we're not gonna call anybody. We're gonna
try to fix it first, you know, and it's gonna
be good and broke by the time we actually have
to call somebody. So I learned. I learned how to
(16:29):
fix a lot of things at a young age. So
that's how I was able to just you know, dive
right into the real estate thing. So you know, as
we continue along, I I would buy rental properties. Every
few years, I'd buy another one, another one as I
went through my career as an educator, and then eventually
I rose to the position of assistant principle and I
(16:52):
was making more money on my rental properties then as
an assistant principal. So you know, many days I would
be working at night painting, putting in floors, you know,
renovating kitchens, things like that, and then I come to
teach school kids the next day, you know, coach wrestling,
coach football. But I'd be I'd be doing all those things.
(17:14):
And that's how I really got into the business. And
it came to a point where I made a choice,
and you know, I decided to leave the school system,
and that's how I ended up starting Woodward Property Group.
I left just to manage my business, my my properties,
and then I would through social media just start posting
(17:36):
jobs and people start calling it, you know, like hey,
I saw that you did this job on one of
your properties. You know, you renovate that kitchen? Can you
do mine? Can you do my bathroom?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
And that's that's exactly how it started.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Just you know, you want to loose top contractors. How
did that come about? Because you know so many you know,
minority businesses are trying to seek a relationship with companies
like that. How were you able to pull that off?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Man? This is funny. I have to set this one
up for you because this what involves you. Actually you
didn't even know. And I found this out today when
I send out the marketing. I have a buddy and
I'm gonna drop his name. His name's Keith Fowler. Keith
Fowler is a contractor. And you know he was good
(18:32):
at fixing stuff or renovating. He was better than me
because he did this. That's all he's done all his life. See,
I did this part time for twenty years, but he
did it all his life. So anyway, I ended up
doing some work for this guy that was a marketing
district director for los and he liked my work on
(18:53):
his house and he said, hey, don't you want to
come work for loads? I say, I tried to get on,
but you know, y'all never called me up. You said
you was full. I wanted to be installed. He said, oh, no,
you don't want to be an installer. You want to
do our kitchen in the bathroom design. I said, okay,
I'll come kitchen in the bathroom. You know how a
(19:13):
land is people talk, man, everybody just you know, say
they gonna do this and do that, and now don't
do nothing. But they called me up. Long story short,
they called me up, and I go down in an
interview and the guy asked me, not him, but another
guy asked me. He said, do you know how to
build kitchens? I said, yeah, I know how to build kitchens.
You know I build bathrooms. Yes, I could be a bathroom.
(19:34):
Can you build high end kitchens? I'm saying in my mind, hey,
I ain't not a build no high end kitchen. And
I don't know what he talking about a high end kitchen.
You know. So my answer was, yeah, I could build
a high end kitchen.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes, yes, we gonna.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Take you off. So I went to my buddy, who
I know does high end kitchen because he does custom work.
And he told me today that he did some work
at your house a number of years ago. When he
saw the marketing that I put out today about me
being on the show. He said, yeah, I've been there
with Sean McDonald's top about this pantry form. I built
(20:14):
the pantry form.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And absolutely, absolutely, absolutely absolutely that's awesome. That's awesome. Tell
him a coffee. I may need his services again.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
No, you ain't call to him, no more to me,
because you.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Because you're high end that, because you're high in that.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So I went to him. I said, look, Keith, I
got this problem, man, I got this account with Lows
and they want me to do a high end kitchen.
But I don't know if I could do high end kitchen.
He said, ah, man, don't worry about it. I help you. Yeah,
I know. That's why I came to you, relationship relationships.
(20:56):
So I got that contract and here and I did
so many kitchen man, it's just not funny. We did
so many kitchens to hidden kitchens, you know, like I
told you from the projects, Man, I ain't never know
they had two hundred thousand dollars kitchens.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Yes they do, Yes do. And I'm gonna tell you something.
My wife loves that pantry. She loves that. That pantry
is beautiful. I'm gonna tell you, man, that loves she loves.
That's our favorite. That's one of our favorite parts of
our house, that pantry. Just let him know that he
went in there. This a little narrow room that he Man,
everything works in that little room, you know, walks away.
(21:32):
It's one of them showcase rooms. You look, coming come
on in my pantry.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Okay, I know it's good. He does great work, man.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, But you know the thing about it, Michael, what
the story I wanted people to hear that you're telling
people is that, first of all, you have not changed.
You're the same young man that they pickle pig feet.
Now he got mad at me, y'all because I told
everybody I eat chiddlings. Then he gonna look at me
like I got a problem. You eat chitlings. Yes, I
(22:01):
eat chitlings, But he eat pickle big feat. He also
eats with a pepmin stick in the middle. See Beman
stick in the middle. He is by this country as
you can get. I don't know how you can get
that deep in Florida and be that country, but they
found the way down at Liberty City. But the beauty
of him is that he has a massed of real
estate portfolio. He has a property management company. And I
(22:25):
know we have a few minutes left, but I gotta
let everybody here about how you take students to HPCUS
and you educate people about the students and young people
about the opportunities on campus. Out your doll out your pocket.
Tell us about that as we exit the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Interview, Sir, Yeah, what I did was every year of
my twenty year career in the education, I took students
on college tours. We took students on summer programs which
would occur on different college campuses, and we teach a math,
science technology so STEM programs. But one of the things
(23:02):
I've learned from my tutoring service was that a lot
of students need to set foot on campus to understand.
Because I taught at Northcross High School, right I had
students that had never been to the AU Center, and
that was just unimaginable to me. But then I can
(23:23):
look back at my past being from Miami, I didn't
think college was possible for me. Yes, Fam, you came
down and they played in the Orange Bowl, and we
had the band that you used tocumb and had a
parade and all that. But going to college was just
a dream and college was far from me from Miami. Fam,
you is, you know, a six eight hour drive from Miami.
(23:46):
But these folks from North Cross not going to the
h I mean the Au Center thirty minutes down. So
we started off taking them there and then as we
grew with our men were in programmed. We met with
the kids every Saturday and Sunday and we groomed them
for college so that their choices would be college, military,
(24:07):
or trade school. Those were their their choices. So we
prepared them from middle school all the way through high school,
and we met with them in the fall and in
the summer. We took them to football games, we took
them on college tours, and you know, we had a
ninety nine point nine percent success rate. Every kid went
(24:28):
to college for our program, and the only one that
didn't go to college they went to culinary school. But
all of our kids went to congradulate. So that's what
I did, and I've given every spring break and every
summer as an educated to those kids. We've had some
(24:50):
great times, some great buses.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Can you tell everybody about your website, your property management website,
your renovation website. I got to close out to show, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Sir, madam, what property dot com? What propertygroup dot com?
Is the website Woodwork Propertygroup dot com? And you can
find us there and now I will definitely return your call.
We return calls the same day.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
My brother, You're special. I appreciate you coming on the
show again. Money Making Conversations Massacreare you one of a kind?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I thank you, yes, sir, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
This has been another edition of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episodes
or want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversations.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(25:45):
your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
This has been another edition of money Making Conversation Masterclass
hosted by me Rashawn McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you our listening to
audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
I want to be a guest on the show, visit
Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
(26:08):
your gifts.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Keep winning.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
H
Host
Rushion McDonald
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