March 14, 2022 • 28 mins
Today Big Court talks about his journey of becoming Master P's protege, how he became the real estate mogul he is, and all the lessons he learned from his failure.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to another episode of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood.
(00:23):
Our next guest is a man who has made it
from the hood to the mansion lifestyle we all dream of.
Starting his career in the entertainment industry as a rapper,
he quickly became the protege of music mogul Master P.
He eventually transitions to becoming an actor and a film producer,
and he's also venturing into the podcast space with his
(00:43):
own podcast, Holding Court. All of this while being a
real estate tycoon and entering into various business ventures in
his background, Money Movers, let's welcome the big risk taker
entrepreneur Big Court. Hey, Big Court, how are you doing
good good? I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.
I'm really excited to hear more about your background and
(01:06):
all the moves you've been making across all these different industries.
We love a diverse entrepreneur. Thank you for having me, man,
it's a it's a blessing to be here. I appreciate you,
and especially you know, I feel like your story is
very inspiring for so many people who come from humble
beginnings and have taken the time to really expand their
portfolios and build wealth, not only for yourself but for
(01:27):
your family. So I think there's a lot of young
people that can learn from your experience, your drive, and
your entrepreneurship, hustle and grind. So that being said, take
us to the beginning. Tell us, um about where you
got your start, and share a little bit about how
you grew up. I appreciate that. A matter of fact,
I just want to say, that's like one of the
(01:47):
best introductions I've ever had on the interview. So appreciate
and if you deserve it, you deserve it. These are
all your accolades. Appreciate that. Thank you, Thank you. Um. Well,
I'm going to raise in Kansas City, Zuri. So, I'm
a Midwest boy. Um. I was actually born in Kansas City,
Kansas at KU Medical Center. Grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.
(02:08):
I'm an only child. I grew up in only child
I'm from a neighborhood that they called the Folk Block
uh in Kansas City, and I just grew up mainly
just me, my mom and my grandmother. Um. I was
raised by strong women. I was raised where education was
a focal point in the household. My grandmother she used
to uh, she used to mandate me to read the
(02:30):
dictionary and the encyclopedia. So when I was a kid,
she's getting out there encyclopedias, exact encyclopedia. This new generation
don't know that. They don't know that encyclopedias. And so
my grandmother, when she would go to work, she would
make me read the dictionary, and then she would come
home and quiz me on the spelling and uh, the
(02:53):
definitions of the words. And my grandmother and my mother,
they were they always would get me on diction and
my nunciation and speaking well and all of that. So
I grew up in a household with love. To be
very honest with you, I wasn't raised on survival. I
was raised on love. It yields a big difference of character,
you know. Um Uh. So I had a great childhood. Um,
(03:16):
Fortunately I don't have I didn't come from poverty, even
though we were in the hood. I had a great childhood.
My mother provided. Again, I'm an only child, so I
was spoiled. But you know, at some point you have
to go outside. So I was born in the seventies,
grew up in the eighties and the nineties, so uh,
you know, with the emergence of crack cocaine and gained
(03:37):
infiltrating the inner city, you have to learn how to
navigate all of that. Yeah, So the environment becomes hostile.
So even though I have this type of living in
my household, I still have to go and deal with
the you know, the outside. So, you know, I start
losing friends early to death, to prison, especially lee with
(04:00):
the the mandatory minimums of the drug laws, the Drake
Coney and drug laws, um. And so that kind of
sparks something to me where I wanted to go a
different direction, you know. Um, So I can't kind of
say actually being around so much death actually probably saved
my life. But that's hard at a young age too,
(04:22):
and I know a lot of our youth have to
deal with that. It's it's hard to shoulder that it
is it is. It's you don't realize the emotional and
mental toll that it takes on you until you get older.
When I look back on it, there's a there's it
changes you, and I think maybe it's a level of
PTSD that you have to deal with or maybe that
you suppress. UM, and it breeds a coldness, be very
(04:46):
honest with you. Um, you become desensitized to death. You
become desensitized to a lot of things that grief. Yeah. Absolutely,
But at the same time, like I I mean, this
is we're seg here. But you know, also like I
think in your case, like it sparked something in you
that was like, hey, I need a different life. And
(05:07):
I'm sure has really been helpful in creating this grind
and spirit and drive for you to create so much
more opportunity in your own life for sure. Uh. And
my mother instilled that in me as well. My mother
always put in me that I could do whatever I wanted.
So she always uh she read this. Um. She instilled
this confidence that I always had in myself, regardless of
(05:29):
what it was. UM. I kind of had an entrepreneurial
spirit even as a kid. UM. I used to want
to be a basketball player, um like most kids in
the hood. UM. And I also used to be good
with the BMX bikes. So as a kid, I was
like designing my own sneakers and designing my own my
own bidy bicycle thinking that one day I was gonna,
(05:53):
you know, be be like Michael Jordan's or or or
have my own bike line. So um yeah, you know
my mother and still that. So how did you make
this segue into music and becoming a rapper with no
limit master p those are big names in the business,
that's that's no small fee. Um. You know, coming from
Kansas City, there wasn't a big industry. Uh you know
(06:16):
now people, some people watching have to understand, this is
before social media, so uh you know, it wasn't like
now where anybody could just be anybody like but then
you really had to put in the groundwork. You really
had especially coming from a city that wasn't l A
or New York. Um, it was hard. Um. So basically
(06:37):
I started getting into music because I was an artist.
I could draw really well. I used to write my
mom poetry. Um. And I think being able to articulate,
being able to uh kind of um excel at creative writing.
I think it was a natural transition and getting into
some form of written expression. And I was inspired by
(06:58):
iced T easy yetto Boys in w A. I was
blown away by gangster rap and then it was also
mirroring what I was seeing when I left my house
again became so you become intrigued by that, you know,
as a youngster in the city, in the city, in
the hood, you become intrigued by that. So, um, I
(07:20):
felt like it was attractive, and I started getting into music.
I had a group called C C. G Um in
n We signed with No Limit Records. We were featured
on the Down South Hustlers compilation which would go back then. Yeah,
we were on the song R I P. And then
even past that, I went on to uh have my
(07:41):
own independent label even still, and I released several you know, um,
what could be considered hood classics under my own label.
Yeah yeah, even as a teenager. I was thinking like
that as a teenager young adult. Um, and that's when
I started coming into a little bit of money. Wow. Okay,
(08:02):
So now you've got some hood classics under your belt.
People in the streets know who you are, and you've
taken the twist to launch your own label like that.
People weren't doing that all that often there. So what
was it that was really driving you to set out
on your own entrepreneurial path. Um. I think it was
Obviously it was the influence of MASTERP you know who who.
(08:25):
Once I signed and once we cultivated relationship, he became
kind of like the big brother I never had. Um
So I'm emulating his moves. Also, you know, I had
a child very young. I had my first child at sixteen.
Um So defensive urgency of figuring something out. I did
graduate high school. Um So, I graduated high school. I
(08:50):
had some other struggles before the end because I had
went to jail at fifteen and all of that, but
um the sense of urgency is what it was. You know.
It was understanding that I have a family now playtime
is over. Um, and just wanted my life to be different.
You know. I was always a dreamer. Always tell people
that it starts with just the dream starts in your head.
(09:12):
You know, once you start thinking, like people, really you
do manifest these things we attract you. So I always
dreamed outside of my environment outside of Kansas City. Always
pictured myself, you know, driving nice cars and living in
big houses and just doing things that I had no
reference point of doing. But I just see, I knew
(09:33):
I could see on TV. I'm like, Okay, they do it,
so why can't I. Yeah, So a lot of it
just started here, just wanting something more for myself. So
I love that, and I love hearing black men talk
about the power of manifesting your dreams. Like sometimes people
gloss over that, but like there's so much power in
the power of your thoughts and words to like really
(09:53):
help you create your reality. Like your dreams should be
your reality. So I appreciate you sing that. So now
let's move on, right, You've now diversified and you have
so many different entrepreneurial pursuits under your belt. What came
next after after the music industry, Well, once I started
getting a little money in the music industry, I buy
(10:15):
my first investment problems. Now this is where I tell people,
sometimes all you have to do is show up. You know,
it's education is important. Okay, I'm never gonna under my education.
That doesn't always equate to success. A lot of times
you have people that have the education, but it's a
difference between knowledge and apply knowledge. So, um, you may
(10:38):
get the knowledge by not getting your head knocks, but
then you're able to apply once you get it. About
my first investment property, I think I bought it for
like seventeen thousand dollars. It was in my neighborhood. Um,
so I put another I don't know, maybe fifteen thousand
into it, and I think I rented it out for
like seven hundred dollars a month. Right, So this is
Kansas City and the night. So I remember thinking like, uh,
(11:02):
um damn, it's gonna take me a long time to
get my money to recoup my money, right. And so
I had no knowledge of credit. I had no knowledge
of um leveraging. I had no knowledge of relationships with banks,
none of that. Like, all I knew was buy low
and sell high. And that was pretty much, uh me
(11:26):
exercising a business acumen from the streets that are So
I started buying the houses because the older guys, some
of the o g s in my house that were hustling,
they would buy houses. So I figure, uh, you know,
let me go ahead and do what the older guys
in my neighborhood are doing. So I bought my first
house and then I was like okay. So I remember thinking, well,
(11:50):
I'm getting seven hundred dollars a month. This is a
volume game, so let me see if I can get tent.
Let me shoot for ten and then that gives me
six seven thousand this month because after the cash flow,
I knew nothing about equity. I didn't even have that
language or understand So by the time I got to
about I got to eleven houses that were free and clear. Okay,
(12:13):
eleven houses, though that that's huge. So you're just buying
house after house in the neighborhood, Like, that's a pretty
strong move. Yeah. I guess looking back on it, it was,
um yeah, I was buying them free and clear, and
I was actually I was probably I kind of developed
a business model in my head. I wouldn't go over
(12:34):
maybe because then I started learning about comps. Again, I
have no training in real estate. When I started, right,
I didn't know about comps. I didn't know about apraisals anything.
I just knew that, Okay, I know what these houses
rent for in this area. So how old are you
when you had all these homes? Well, by the time
I reached um eleven, I was probably about twenty two. Wow,
(12:56):
that's really young. Yeah, And I loved me. I asked
that because as oftentimes, you know, people in the audience
are listening, and I think you know what holds people
back from making the first step is they're like, I
need more information, I need to be more experienced. I
need another mentor I need this, And like when you
hear your story, you're like, listen, sometimes you just have
to go out on blind faith and you're gonna make mistakes.
(13:17):
But there you were twenty two with eleven houses. Yeah,
you you have to You're going to make mistakes. That's
you know. Uh, success is a culmination of failures. So
you have to embrace those mistakes. You're going to make them.
But that's how you get to the mastery level. It's
just like riding a bike. You don't pick a bike
up and then just start riding it. Like I've got
(13:37):
my scars. I still have, like you know, forty year
old scars from learning to ride a bike, but you
learn from it. And guess what, I'm a great bike rider, Eggs,
I'll learned how to ride a bike in one day.
So I don't know about that. Tell me more. Tell
me some more about some of the failures that you'd
experienced in your years in real ustrates, especially in the
(13:58):
early early years, although there could be some in the
later years that might be more important as well. The
rmy of that is, I didn't take any else in
my early years. It was later. Uh, yeah, I started
what I started expanding. So by the time, well, so
I have to tell you this. So when I got
to eleven houses, UM, I hooked up with a local
(14:21):
credit union and it was a lady that worked in
uh she worked in business lending. Um. We had a
conversation and she was impressed that I had eleven houses.
She was like free and clear. I was like yeah.
She was like, so you don't know how much equity
you have. I was like, what is equity? Needless to say, Um,
she really taught me. Her and I have a half brother. Um,
(14:42):
they really taught me about the leveraging part of it.
Because probably within maybe two months, I had like a
nine hundred thousand dollar line of credit over my house.
So I had this in my early twenties. So so
I want to stop there because like that's a really
important part because you went from I bought all these houses,
I had these assets. I didn't really know what that meant.
(15:04):
I just know that I was getting income. But then
by able to by being able to reach out and
find people who are at that point where a little
bit smarter than you, they put you onto Hey, I
can get a line of credit for almost like a
million dollars, which can help me increase the value of
my assets. I have more moveability to move around and
make other things, because sometimes other people's money can be
(15:27):
an asset to building your portfolio. And that's when I
learned about other people's money. Yes, yes, once they told
me that. They once, you know, they took me under
their wings. The important part lesson than that, was you know, understanding.
I know what I don't know, and I find the
people who do know, you know. So uh, yeah, they
took me under their wings. They taught me about hey,
(15:49):
this is cool that you did that, but you use
other people's money. That's how reach people. And you know,
the credit conversation in our community is so interesting because
I feel like when I grew up, you know, same
thing in my family. My family was very you know,
don't overspend. They were conscious about being like frugal and
fiscally responsible. But credit was this weird thing where it
was like, don't ruin your credit. So I almost feared credit,
(16:12):
you know, because I didn't want to have bad credit
or mess up somehow. But then it took me a
while to understand that credit can be your friend. Credit
can be the ultimate leverager. Absolutely, you have to owe
some one. You have to one in order to make
itself viable in that space, you know. Uh. And that's
the other part of it. You're right. A lot of
people in our community, probably not so much now, but
(16:35):
that generation that you speak on, you know, they want
everything paid for. They don't want to owe anyone. But
you have to owe someone, you know. Um uh. So
what I end up doing is once I got the
line of credit, I end up going to Atlanta and
I end up getting into real estate in Atlanta. Now
this was around the two thousand seven, two thousand eight,
(16:56):
you remember that. So, uh, timing was horrible. Oh wait yeah, okay,
now the markets are just that's gotta be okay, So
let's hear this story already counting for you. So I
have I have almost a million dollars in in in credit.
Now I'm learning about other type of loans. I'm learning
Now I'm understanding that when you walk into bank, those
(17:19):
people are there to sell you products. You start understanding that,
you know the relationship with banking and all of that.
Um So, my credit was a one I had access
to pretty much anything I wanted. I go to Atlanta,
I buy up everything. I'm indicator, I'm I'm just down
there acting to food right, so um time and couldn't
(17:42):
be uh no than ever right. So probably about eight
or nine months into that is when that whole bubble
bursted and I wind up being so upside down in
those Atlanta properties where many people were of course, so
I end up short selling probably eight of them. I
(18:04):
led another maybe too, going to foreclosure. I had. It
was nothing I could do. I had to take it
on the end um. But luckily, uh, prior to that,
I had I had set up companies. See when I
first started, all my real estate, all my properties were
in my name. I didn't even know. This is so important,
This is so important to share because this is like
(18:26):
how you set the foundations for building smart businesses, you know,
taking yourself out of it and realizing that it's a
company in and of itself. So tell me more about
how you set this up. If you noticed the through line.
A lot of my knowledge came from mistakes. Everything that
I do care for mistakes. So all my properties wearing
my name, so I soon had to learn to create
(18:48):
a company. I created a couple of ll l C
s uh incorporations and I have properties for different reasons
under those entities. So in Atlanta, same thing. You know,
I had those under entities, and you know, I took
a huge loss. I lost probably shoot over a million
dollars um uh in Atlanta alone. That's not counting what
(19:08):
I had lost in Kansas City as well. So that
was my first introduction into understanding businesses. Like a figure eight,
it's up and down and you have to be able
to take the hits because I took them. Okay, I
took them. And there was a domino effect with that
because I had business credit cards and I had business
lines of credit that were connected to these assets that
(19:29):
I no longer had, but I still had the debt
of those assets. So um, it was. It was tricky
for me during that time. So I had to learn that.
So I learned how to be successful. Then I had
to learn how to fit yeah, and talk about mentally.
You know, that was a really tough time for so
many people, Like all across the country, people lost their shirts,
(19:51):
their confidence, Like families were like, what was it that
helped you to understand this idea that business is sort
of secular and really like keep your focus on you know,
just being positive and that you can work through it.
That's hard. That's hard. That's where your your mental dexterity
and your your emotional fortitude and your faith and all
(20:11):
of that is really tested, you know. But sometimes you
just have to put your faith in God and do
the best that you can. That's all any of us
can do. You can learn from your mistakes and try
to proceed forward with this new knowledge. And you know,
you understand as an entrepreneur, most people that I know
that are successful. I know some really wealthy people and
(20:33):
they're brown people, black people, and most most of us
that come into some money lose it at some point
and then get it back because we don't come from
financial literacy. We're not brought up in that. We're not
taught that. We're learning on the job. So I know
people that have, you know, come into millions, millions of
dollars more money than I ever have, and they've loved
(20:55):
it due to different, you know, reasons or whatever the
case may be. So that's you know, Uh, that's an
important part of that journey to success too, is understanding
the failures, uh and being able to absorb it because
you're going to get them on any level. It's only
not till you get to wealth. When you get to
like you know Oprah's you know Gates, you don't feel
(21:19):
those losses. But until you know there's a difference between
wealth and being rich, you know, you know, rich rich
obtains and wealth sustains is a difference. That's right, And
I love like, this is what I love about the
Money Means podcast, having those conversations because it's not just
about you know, building check to check. We're really helping
to understand and explore how we can build generational wealth
(21:42):
in our communities. And that comes with you know, business advice,
but also like a mental mindset that can help us
excel and get to the next level. So I love that,
Big Court. Now, Big Court, tell me about this podcast
that you're doing, because I know that's something that you're
really excited about and you know it's also about educating
other people. So what influence you to start your own podcast? Um? Uh,
(22:04):
kind of somewhat like you guys, I wanted to get
a positive message out there. You know, of course I
want to entertain people, but I built it um predicated
on bringing in a lot of the legends, like your
masterpiece and Jay Princes your iced teas. These are all
people I've had on my show. To be able to
give them their flowers now and to be able to
(22:24):
share the journey, I think it's important when people you know,
a lot of times people see the finished result, you know,
they see the end result, but you're more inspired by
the struggle. You know, coming through the struggle. What was
the beginning? You know, what was what did it take?
What was the road like up to this point? Because uh,
you know, not everybody makes it to that that that
elite circle like that, and just not everybody's story gets told.
(22:46):
But it's like so much learning and hearing stories and
you know, people who have made it and people who
we even haven't. You know, I just love conversations like this.
I think we can learn so much from so many people.
But the reason I started the Holding Court podcast was
that's that's part of the narrative as well as to
preach ownership of business. I owned the podcast in essence,
(23:09):
a podcast becomes an advertising agency, so it's just another
leg in my you know, um entrepreneurial portfolio. And uh also,
like I said, to bring going people like Jay Prince,
Iced Tea, master p a lot of the legends to
be able to give their their their story to the
to the listener as well, and also to promote my
(23:31):
own products because like I said, I come from entrepreneurialship.
So I created my own supplement as well. You know,
so I'm I'm like a dietary supplement. Yes, yes, I
created that as well, so, which is called true muscle sports.
So a lot of our stuff is sponsoring wing. Huh.
It's clearly not working, right, you know. That's what I
(23:55):
gotta I gotta tweak. I gotta tweak the formula a
little bit, you know. Also, yeah, so and that, and
I did that because I always tell people invest in
things that you love, you know, invest in things that
you love, and you will succeed at it because you'll
put the time into it. You know, if you you
can't do things for money. You know, if you chase money,
you'll never catch it. You know, money's lack of show.
(24:15):
See this because it's so funny. You know, the older
and older we get and the more entrepreneurs we see
on here, and like that's like the epitome of something
Oprah would say. Oprah will say, you know, I've never
done anything for the money, blah blah blah, and it's
like it's a really it's a really hard thing for
people to wrap their head around. And I just love
diving into that because what it really means, and what
(24:36):
you're saying is if you're passionate about something and you
like supplements and working out, that it doesn't become a
job and people gravitate. That's, you know, and it's hard
when you hear Oprah say it, but when you know,
we see successful people who are saying it that, Like,
I really hope that people understand what that means and
how to really embody that in your life. It's the
(24:57):
most important thing, I mean, because like you said, when
you're passionate about it, you will put the time into it,
because you know, when you're trying to build something, it's
gonna take time. Most times, it doesn't just happen like that.
It's not instant gratifications. So you know, if you're just
doing it for the money, when when you don't yield
the results quickly, you're gonna stop. You're not gonna put
the time into it because you're just chasing something that
(25:18):
you're not getting. You're not getting the results you want.
But when it's a passion, when you love it, it's
not work. You're just doing what feels natural to you
and the money will come. So the same thing with
the podcast. UM. I would go live on on Facebook
a lot on social media, and it was my followers
that urged me like, hey man, we love your message,
you know, and I love giving the message. See. I
(25:39):
love UM sharing knowledge, wisdom and understanding. So it doesn't
feel dutiful to me, you know. So I would be
doing it if there were no money involved. The same
thing with working out UM. It's just something that I
enjoy doing and especially getting the message of any business
that I created at this point in my life, I
try to have a message to it as well, especially
to our communities. So when you talk about healthy living,
(26:01):
I created that brand and I try to get the
message of healthy living out to us as Black people,
mainly because we're already predisposed to a lot of health
elements due to you know, bad diet, sometimes genetic disposition. UM.
So a lot of those things can be prevented with
healthy diet and exercise. So any business that I create,
there is a message behind it as well. Oh that's great,
(26:23):
because I definitely definitely know, especially for the African American population,
Like it's much education we can get on longevity, healthy diets,
and lifestyles. Like I just want to say, yeah, you know,
I tell education, especially coming from the neighborhood, you know,
(26:44):
like educate yourself to anything that you want to do. Like,
success happens differently for everybody. So I could break down
intricacies and I could break down how to step by step,
but that may not be for you. That may not
be how it happens to you. So it starts with
the this. You know, you just have to start, you know,
and you will find your way in whatever it is
(27:05):
you want to do. I love that, and I think
that's great advice to entrepreneurs of all ages. You just
have to start, start, educate yourself and just keep going.
I think that's it. You just keep going every day,
you know, set daily goals so that you're making progress,
and you know, you look back and you're like, wow,
I did that, all right? What's yeah? You live long
(27:27):
enough to teach you how to live. Oh, you live
life long enough, it'll teach you how to live. I
like that. That's a good one. Okay, I gotta remember
that big Court. Thank you so much for your time today.
You were truly an entrepreneurial mastermind and I really appreciate
you sharing your journey with us here um inspiring so
many that said, would you mind sticking around and really
(27:47):
getting into the weeds with us about starting a podcast
mentorship and how we can go about being entrepreneurs ourselves.
We'd love to hear more from you. Absolutely, thank you
for having me. I appreciate thank you, Thank you. Well,
that's it for this episode of the Money Moves Podcast
powered by Greenwood Money Movers. Thank you for joining us,
and be sure to tune in next time. We've got
(28:09):
a lot more coming up that you won't want to
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is an I Heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive
(28:30):
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Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to another episode of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood.
(00:23):
Our next guest is a man who has made it
from the hood to the mansion lifestyle we all dream of.
Starting his career in the entertainment industry as a rapper,
he quickly became the protege of music mogul Master P.
He eventually transitions to becoming an actor and a film producer,
and he's also venturing into the podcast space with his
(00:43):
own podcast, Holding Court. All of this while being a
real estate tycoon and entering into various business ventures in
his background, Money Movers, let's welcome the big risk taker
entrepreneur Big Court. Hey, Big Court, how are you doing
good good? I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.
I'm really excited to hear more about your background and
(01:06):
all the moves you've been making across all these different industries.
We love a diverse entrepreneur. Thank you for having me, man,
it's a it's a blessing to be here. I appreciate you,
and especially you know, I feel like your story is
very inspiring for so many people who come from humble
beginnings and have taken the time to really expand their
portfolios and build wealth, not only for yourself but for
(01:27):
your family. So I think there's a lot of young
people that can learn from your experience, your drive, and
your entrepreneurship, hustle and grind. So that being said, take
us to the beginning. Tell us, um about where you
got your start, and share a little bit about how
you grew up. I appreciate that. A matter of fact,
I just want to say, that's like one of the
(01:47):
best introductions I've ever had on the interview. So appreciate
and if you deserve it, you deserve it. These are
all your accolades. Appreciate that. Thank you, Thank you. Um. Well,
I'm going to raise in Kansas City, Zuri. So, I'm
a Midwest boy. Um. I was actually born in Kansas City,
Kansas at KU Medical Center. Grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.
(02:08):
I'm an only child. I grew up in only child
I'm from a neighborhood that they called the Folk Block
uh in Kansas City, and I just grew up mainly
just me, my mom and my grandmother. Um. I was
raised by strong women. I was raised where education was
a focal point in the household. My grandmother she used
to uh, she used to mandate me to read the
(02:30):
dictionary and the encyclopedia. So when I was a kid,
she's getting out there encyclopedias, exact encyclopedia. This new generation
don't know that. They don't know that encyclopedias. And so
my grandmother, when she would go to work, she would
make me read the dictionary, and then she would come
home and quiz me on the spelling and uh, the
(02:53):
definitions of the words. And my grandmother and my mother,
they were they always would get me on diction and
my nunciation and speaking well and all of that. So
I grew up in a household with love. To be
very honest with you, I wasn't raised on survival. I
was raised on love. It yields a big difference of character,
you know. Um Uh. So I had a great childhood. Um,
(03:16):
Fortunately I don't have I didn't come from poverty, even
though we were in the hood. I had a great childhood.
My mother provided. Again, I'm an only child, so I
was spoiled. But you know, at some point you have
to go outside. So I was born in the seventies,
grew up in the eighties and the nineties, so uh,
you know, with the emergence of crack cocaine and gained
(03:37):
infiltrating the inner city, you have to learn how to
navigate all of that. Yeah, So the environment becomes hostile.
So even though I have this type of living in
my household, I still have to go and deal with
the you know, the outside. So, you know, I start
losing friends early to death, to prison, especially lee with
(04:00):
the the mandatory minimums of the drug laws, the Drake
Coney and drug laws, um. And so that kind of
sparks something to me where I wanted to go a
different direction, you know. Um, So I can't kind of
say actually being around so much death actually probably saved
my life. But that's hard at a young age too,
(04:22):
and I know a lot of our youth have to
deal with that. It's it's hard to shoulder that it
is it is. It's you don't realize the emotional and
mental toll that it takes on you until you get older.
When I look back on it, there's a there's it
changes you, and I think maybe it's a level of
PTSD that you have to deal with or maybe that
you suppress. UM, and it breeds a coldness, be very
(04:46):
honest with you. Um, you become desensitized to death. You
become desensitized to a lot of things that grief. Yeah. Absolutely,
But at the same time, like I I mean, this
is we're seg here. But you know, also like I
think in your case, like it sparked something in you
that was like, hey, I need a different life. And
(05:07):
I'm sure has really been helpful in creating this grind
and spirit and drive for you to create so much
more opportunity in your own life for sure. Uh. And
my mother instilled that in me as well. My mother
always put in me that I could do whatever I wanted.
So she always uh she read this. Um. She instilled
this confidence that I always had in myself, regardless of
(05:29):
what it was. UM. I kind of had an entrepreneurial
spirit even as a kid. UM. I used to want
to be a basketball player, um like most kids in
the hood. UM. And I also used to be good
with the BMX bikes. So as a kid, I was
like designing my own sneakers and designing my own my
own bidy bicycle thinking that one day I was gonna,
(05:53):
you know, be be like Michael Jordan's or or or
have my own bike line. So um yeah, you know
my mother and still that. So how did you make
this segue into music and becoming a rapper with no
limit master p those are big names in the business,
that's that's no small fee. Um. You know, coming from
Kansas City, there wasn't a big industry. Uh you know
(06:16):
now people, some people watching have to understand, this is
before social media, so uh you know, it wasn't like
now where anybody could just be anybody like but then
you really had to put in the groundwork. You really
had especially coming from a city that wasn't l A
or New York. Um, it was hard. Um. So basically
(06:37):
I started getting into music because I was an artist.
I could draw really well. I used to write my
mom poetry. Um. And I think being able to articulate,
being able to uh kind of um excel at creative writing.
I think it was a natural transition and getting into
some form of written expression. And I was inspired by
(06:58):
iced T easy yetto Boys in w A. I was
blown away by gangster rap and then it was also
mirroring what I was seeing when I left my house
again became so you become intrigued by that, you know,
as a youngster in the city, in the city, in
the hood, you become intrigued by that. So, um, I
(07:20):
felt like it was attractive, and I started getting into music.
I had a group called C C. G Um in
n We signed with No Limit Records. We were featured
on the Down South Hustlers compilation which would go back then. Yeah,
we were on the song R I P. And then
even past that, I went on to uh have my
(07:41):
own independent label even still, and I released several you know, um,
what could be considered hood classics under my own label.
Yeah yeah, even as a teenager. I was thinking like
that as a teenager young adult. Um, and that's when
I started coming into a little bit of money. Wow. Okay,
(08:02):
So now you've got some hood classics under your belt.
People in the streets know who you are, and you've
taken the twist to launch your own label like that.
People weren't doing that all that often there. So what
was it that was really driving you to set out
on your own entrepreneurial path. Um. I think it was
Obviously it was the influence of MASTERP you know who who.
(08:25):
Once I signed and once we cultivated relationship, he became
kind of like the big brother I never had. Um
So I'm emulating his moves. Also, you know, I had
a child very young. I had my first child at sixteen.
Um So defensive urgency of figuring something out. I did
graduate high school. Um So, I graduated high school. I
(08:50):
had some other struggles before the end because I had
went to jail at fifteen and all of that, but
um the sense of urgency is what it was. You know.
It was understanding that I have a family now playtime
is over. Um, and just wanted my life to be different.
You know. I was always a dreamer. Always tell people
that it starts with just the dream starts in your head.
(09:12):
You know, once you start thinking, like people, really you
do manifest these things we attract you. So I always
dreamed outside of my environment outside of Kansas City. Always
pictured myself, you know, driving nice cars and living in
big houses and just doing things that I had no
reference point of doing. But I just see, I knew
(09:33):
I could see on TV. I'm like, Okay, they do it,
so why can't I. Yeah, So a lot of it
just started here, just wanting something more for myself. So
I love that, and I love hearing black men talk
about the power of manifesting your dreams. Like sometimes people
gloss over that, but like there's so much power in
the power of your thoughts and words to like really
(09:53):
help you create your reality. Like your dreams should be
your reality. So I appreciate you sing that. So now
let's move on, right, You've now diversified and you have
so many different entrepreneurial pursuits under your belt. What came
next after after the music industry, Well, once I started
getting a little money in the music industry, I buy
(10:15):
my first investment problems. Now this is where I tell people,
sometimes all you have to do is show up. You know,
it's education is important. Okay, I'm never gonna under my education.
That doesn't always equate to success. A lot of times
you have people that have the education, but it's a
difference between knowledge and apply knowledge. So, um, you may
(10:38):
get the knowledge by not getting your head knocks, but
then you're able to apply once you get it. About
my first investment property, I think I bought it for
like seventeen thousand dollars. It was in my neighborhood. Um,
so I put another I don't know, maybe fifteen thousand
into it, and I think I rented it out for
like seven hundred dollars a month. Right, So this is
Kansas City and the night. So I remember thinking like, uh,
(11:02):
um damn, it's gonna take me a long time to
get my money to recoup my money, right. And so
I had no knowledge of credit. I had no knowledge
of um leveraging. I had no knowledge of relationships with banks,
none of that. Like, all I knew was buy low
and sell high. And that was pretty much, uh me
(11:26):
exercising a business acumen from the streets that are So
I started buying the houses because the older guys, some
of the o g s in my house that were hustling,
they would buy houses. So I figure, uh, you know,
let me go ahead and do what the older guys
in my neighborhood are doing. So I bought my first
house and then I was like okay. So I remember thinking, well,
(11:50):
I'm getting seven hundred dollars a month. This is a
volume game, so let me see if I can get tent.
Let me shoot for ten and then that gives me
six seven thousand this month because after the cash flow,
I knew nothing about equity. I didn't even have that
language or understand So by the time I got to
about I got to eleven houses that were free and clear. Okay,
(12:13):
eleven houses, though that that's huge. So you're just buying
house after house in the neighborhood, Like, that's a pretty
strong move. Yeah. I guess looking back on it, it was,
um yeah, I was buying them free and clear, and
I was actually I was probably I kind of developed
a business model in my head. I wouldn't go over
(12:34):
maybe because then I started learning about comps. Again, I
have no training in real estate. When I started, right,
I didn't know about comps. I didn't know about apraisals anything.
I just knew that, Okay, I know what these houses
rent for in this area. So how old are you
when you had all these homes? Well, by the time
I reached um eleven, I was probably about twenty two. Wow,
(12:56):
that's really young. Yeah, And I loved me. I asked
that because as oftentimes, you know, people in the audience
are listening, and I think you know what holds people
back from making the first step is they're like, I
need more information, I need to be more experienced. I
need another mentor I need this, And like when you
hear your story, you're like, listen, sometimes you just have
to go out on blind faith and you're gonna make mistakes.
(13:17):
But there you were twenty two with eleven houses. Yeah,
you you have to You're going to make mistakes. That's
you know. Uh, success is a culmination of failures. So
you have to embrace those mistakes. You're going to make them.
But that's how you get to the mastery level. It's
just like riding a bike. You don't pick a bike
up and then just start riding it. Like I've got
(13:37):
my scars. I still have, like you know, forty year
old scars from learning to ride a bike, but you
learn from it. And guess what, I'm a great bike rider, Eggs,
I'll learned how to ride a bike in one day.
So I don't know about that. Tell me more. Tell
me some more about some of the failures that you'd
experienced in your years in real ustrates, especially in the
(13:58):
early early years, although there could be some in the
later years that might be more important as well. The
rmy of that is, I didn't take any else in
my early years. It was later. Uh, yeah, I started
what I started expanding. So by the time, well, so
I have to tell you this. So when I got
to eleven houses, UM, I hooked up with a local
(14:21):
credit union and it was a lady that worked in
uh she worked in business lending. Um. We had a
conversation and she was impressed that I had eleven houses.
She was like free and clear. I was like yeah.
She was like, so you don't know how much equity
you have. I was like, what is equity? Needless to say, Um,
she really taught me. Her and I have a half brother. Um,
(14:42):
they really taught me about the leveraging part of it.
Because probably within maybe two months, I had like a
nine hundred thousand dollar line of credit over my house.
So I had this in my early twenties. So so
I want to stop there because like that's a really
important part because you went from I bought all these houses,
I had these assets. I didn't really know what that meant.
(15:04):
I just know that I was getting income. But then
by able to by being able to reach out and
find people who are at that point where a little
bit smarter than you, they put you onto Hey, I
can get a line of credit for almost like a
million dollars, which can help me increase the value of
my assets. I have more moveability to move around and
make other things, because sometimes other people's money can be
(15:27):
an asset to building your portfolio. And that's when I
learned about other people's money. Yes, yes, once they told
me that. They once, you know, they took me under
their wings. The important part lesson than that, was you know, understanding.
I know what I don't know, and I find the
people who do know, you know. So uh, yeah, they
took me under their wings. They taught me about hey,
(15:49):
this is cool that you did that, but you use
other people's money. That's how reach people. And you know,
the credit conversation in our community is so interesting because
I feel like when I grew up, you know, same
thing in my family. My family was very you know,
don't overspend. They were conscious about being like frugal and
fiscally responsible. But credit was this weird thing where it
was like, don't ruin your credit. So I almost feared credit,
(16:12):
you know, because I didn't want to have bad credit
or mess up somehow. But then it took me a
while to understand that credit can be your friend. Credit
can be the ultimate leverager. Absolutely, you have to owe
some one. You have to one in order to make
itself viable in that space, you know. Uh. And that's
the other part of it. You're right. A lot of
people in our community, probably not so much now, but
(16:35):
that generation that you speak on, you know, they want
everything paid for. They don't want to owe anyone. But
you have to owe someone, you know. Um uh. So
what I end up doing is once I got the
line of credit, I end up going to Atlanta and
I end up getting into real estate in Atlanta. Now
this was around the two thousand seven, two thousand eight,
(16:56):
you remember that. So, uh, timing was horrible. Oh wait yeah, okay,
now the markets are just that's gotta be okay, So
let's hear this story already counting for you. So I
have I have almost a million dollars in in in credit.
Now I'm learning about other type of loans. I'm learning
Now I'm understanding that when you walk into bank, those
(17:19):
people are there to sell you products. You start understanding that,
you know the relationship with banking and all of that.
Um So, my credit was a one I had access
to pretty much anything I wanted. I go to Atlanta,
I buy up everything. I'm indicator, I'm I'm just down
there acting to food right, so um time and couldn't
(17:42):
be uh no than ever right. So probably about eight
or nine months into that is when that whole bubble
bursted and I wind up being so upside down in
those Atlanta properties where many people were of course, so
I end up short selling probably eight of them. I
(18:04):
led another maybe too, going to foreclosure. I had. It
was nothing I could do. I had to take it
on the end um. But luckily, uh, prior to that,
I had I had set up companies. See when I
first started, all my real estate, all my properties were
in my name. I didn't even know. This is so important,
This is so important to share because this is like
(18:26):
how you set the foundations for building smart businesses, you know,
taking yourself out of it and realizing that it's a
company in and of itself. So tell me more about
how you set this up. If you noticed the through line.
A lot of my knowledge came from mistakes. Everything that
I do care for mistakes. So all my properties wearing
my name, so I soon had to learn to create
(18:48):
a company. I created a couple of ll l C
s uh incorporations and I have properties for different reasons
under those entities. So in Atlanta, same thing. You know,
I had those under entities, and you know, I took
a huge loss. I lost probably shoot over a million
dollars um uh in Atlanta alone. That's not counting what
(19:08):
I had lost in Kansas City as well. So that
was my first introduction into understanding businesses. Like a figure eight,
it's up and down and you have to be able
to take the hits because I took them. Okay, I
took them. And there was a domino effect with that
because I had business credit cards and I had business
lines of credit that were connected to these assets that
(19:29):
I no longer had, but I still had the debt
of those assets. So um, it was. It was tricky
for me during that time. So I had to learn that.
So I learned how to be successful. Then I had
to learn how to fit yeah, and talk about mentally.
You know, that was a really tough time for so
many people, Like all across the country, people lost their shirts,
(19:51):
their confidence, Like families were like, what was it that
helped you to understand this idea that business is sort
of secular and really like keep your focus on you know,
just being positive and that you can work through it.
That's hard. That's hard. That's where your your mental dexterity
and your your emotional fortitude and your faith and all
(20:11):
of that is really tested, you know. But sometimes you
just have to put your faith in God and do
the best that you can. That's all any of us
can do. You can learn from your mistakes and try
to proceed forward with this new knowledge. And you know,
you understand as an entrepreneur, most people that I know
that are successful. I know some really wealthy people and
(20:33):
they're brown people, black people, and most most of us
that come into some money lose it at some point
and then get it back because we don't come from
financial literacy. We're not brought up in that. We're not
taught that. We're learning on the job. So I know
people that have, you know, come into millions, millions of
dollars more money than I ever have, and they've loved
(20:55):
it due to different, you know, reasons or whatever the
case may be. So that's you know, Uh, that's an
important part of that journey to success too, is understanding
the failures, uh and being able to absorb it because
you're going to get them on any level. It's only
not till you get to wealth. When you get to
like you know Oprah's you know Gates, you don't feel
(21:19):
those losses. But until you know there's a difference between
wealth and being rich, you know, you know, rich rich
obtains and wealth sustains is a difference. That's right, And
I love like, this is what I love about the
Money Means podcast, having those conversations because it's not just
about you know, building check to check. We're really helping
to understand and explore how we can build generational wealth
(21:42):
in our communities. And that comes with you know, business advice,
but also like a mental mindset that can help us
excel and get to the next level. So I love that,
Big Court. Now, Big Court, tell me about this podcast
that you're doing, because I know that's something that you're
really excited about and you know it's also about educating
other people. So what influence you to start your own podcast? Um? Uh,
(22:04):
kind of somewhat like you guys, I wanted to get
a positive message out there. You know, of course I
want to entertain people, but I built it um predicated
on bringing in a lot of the legends, like your
masterpiece and Jay Princes your iced teas. These are all
people I've had on my show. To be able to
give them their flowers now and to be able to
(22:24):
share the journey, I think it's important when people you know,
a lot of times people see the finished result, you know,
they see the end result, but you're more inspired by
the struggle. You know, coming through the struggle. What was
the beginning? You know, what was what did it take?
What was the road like up to this point? Because uh,
you know, not everybody makes it to that that that
elite circle like that, and just not everybody's story gets told.
(22:46):
But it's like so much learning and hearing stories and
you know, people who have made it and people who
we even haven't. You know, I just love conversations like this.
I think we can learn so much from so many people.
But the reason I started the Holding Court podcast was
that's that's part of the narrative as well as to
preach ownership of business. I owned the podcast in essence,
(23:09):
a podcast becomes an advertising agency, so it's just another
leg in my you know, um entrepreneurial portfolio. And uh also,
like I said, to bring going people like Jay Prince,
Iced Tea, master p a lot of the legends to
be able to give their their their story to the
to the listener as well, and also to promote my
(23:31):
own products because like I said, I come from entrepreneurialship.
So I created my own supplement as well. You know,
so I'm I'm like a dietary supplement. Yes, yes, I
created that as well, so, which is called true muscle sports.
So a lot of our stuff is sponsoring wing. Huh.
It's clearly not working, right, you know. That's what I
(23:55):
gotta I gotta tweak. I gotta tweak the formula a
little bit, you know. Also, yeah, so and that, and
I did that because I always tell people invest in
things that you love, you know, invest in things that
you love, and you will succeed at it because you'll
put the time into it. You know, if you you
can't do things for money. You know, if you chase money,
you'll never catch it. You know, money's lack of show.
(24:15):
See this because it's so funny. You know, the older
and older we get and the more entrepreneurs we see
on here, and like that's like the epitome of something
Oprah would say. Oprah will say, you know, I've never
done anything for the money, blah blah blah, and it's
like it's a really it's a really hard thing for
people to wrap their head around. And I just love
diving into that because what it really means, and what
(24:36):
you're saying is if you're passionate about something and you
like supplements and working out, that it doesn't become a
job and people gravitate. That's, you know, and it's hard
when you hear Oprah say it, but when you know,
we see successful people who are saying it that, Like,
I really hope that people understand what that means and
how to really embody that in your life. It's the
(24:57):
most important thing, I mean, because like you said, when
you're passionate about it, you will put the time into it,
because you know, when you're trying to build something, it's
gonna take time. Most times, it doesn't just happen like that.
It's not instant gratifications. So you know, if you're just
doing it for the money, when when you don't yield
the results quickly, you're gonna stop. You're not gonna put
the time into it because you're just chasing something that
(25:18):
you're not getting. You're not getting the results you want.
But when it's a passion, when you love it, it's
not work. You're just doing what feels natural to you
and the money will come. So the same thing with
the podcast. UM. I would go live on on Facebook
a lot on social media, and it was my followers
that urged me like, hey man, we love your message,
you know, and I love giving the message. See. I
(25:39):
love UM sharing knowledge, wisdom and understanding. So it doesn't
feel dutiful to me, you know. So I would be
doing it if there were no money involved. The same
thing with working out UM. It's just something that I
enjoy doing and especially getting the message of any business
that I created at this point in my life, I
try to have a message to it as well, especially
to our communities. So when you talk about healthy living,
(26:01):
I created that brand and I try to get the
message of healthy living out to us as Black people,
mainly because we're already predisposed to a lot of health
elements due to you know, bad diet, sometimes genetic disposition. UM.
So a lot of those things can be prevented with
healthy diet and exercise. So any business that I create,
there is a message behind it as well. Oh that's great,
(26:23):
because I definitely definitely know, especially for the African American population,
Like it's much education we can get on longevity, healthy diets,
and lifestyles. Like I just want to say, yeah, you know,
I tell education, especially coming from the neighborhood, you know,
(26:44):
like educate yourself to anything that you want to do. Like,
success happens differently for everybody. So I could break down
intricacies and I could break down how to step by step,
but that may not be for you. That may not
be how it happens to you. So it starts with
the this. You know, you just have to start, you know,
and you will find your way in whatever it is
(27:05):
you want to do. I love that, and I think
that's great advice to entrepreneurs of all ages. You just
have to start, start, educate yourself and just keep going.
I think that's it. You just keep going every day,
you know, set daily goals so that you're making progress,
and you know, you look back and you're like, wow,
I did that, all right? What's yeah? You live long
(27:27):
enough to teach you how to live. Oh, you live
life long enough, it'll teach you how to live. I
like that. That's a good one. Okay, I gotta remember
that big Court. Thank you so much for your time today.
You were truly an entrepreneurial mastermind and I really appreciate
you sharing your journey with us here um inspiring so
many that said, would you mind sticking around and really
(27:47):
getting into the weeds with us about starting a podcast
mentorship and how we can go about being entrepreneurs ourselves.
We'd love to hear more from you. Absolutely, thank you
for having me. I appreciate thank you, Thank you. Well,
that's it for this episode of the Money Moves Podcast
powered by Greenwood Money Movers. Thank you for joining us,
and be sure to tune in next time. We've got
(28:09):
a lot more coming up that you won't want to
miss out. Thank you so much for tuning in Money
Moves audience. If you want more or a recap of
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