Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed T. Dallas Smith.
Founder and CEO of T. Dallas Smith & Company, the largest African American-owned pure tenant rep commercial real estate firm in the U.S. The discussion focused on mentorship, breaking barriers in real estate, and transformative community development.
🔑 Key Themes & Highlights
Breaking Barriers in Commercial Real Estate
- Smith shared his journey as a trailblazer in commercial real estate, overcoming industry challenges as a Black entrepreneur.
- He emphasized the importance of representation and mentorship in helping minorities enter the field.
Transformative Community Development
- His firm is focused on revitalizing marginalized communities through strategic real estate investments.
- He discussed the impact of Microsoft’s land acquisition near Bankhead Highway, which has led to new development opportunities.
Mentorship & Leadership Growth
- Smith launched the Wisdom Circle, a mentorship initiative to educate young professionals about commercial real estate.
- He believes that exposure is key to increasing diversity in the industry.
Atlanta’s Commercial Real Estate Boom
- As President of the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS®, Smith highlighted the $47.6 billion in transactions completed by its members.
- He stressed that brokers play a crucial role in shaping urban development.
📘 About T. Dallas Smith
- Dallas Smith is a visionary leader in commercial real estate, dedicated to mentorship, community uplift, and industry transformation. His firm specializes in tenant representation, office space, industrial facilities, and land acquisitions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop 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 clip the be
a Guest button first to submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Let's get this show roll that I
got a guest on the line. He's a legend to
me in this business and I got to bring him up.
I can't believe I got him on the show, but
he decided to set aside his business schedule to talk
to Rashaan McDonald's Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My Guest company's
mission is to expose and create space for people of
(00:43):
color and commercial real estate, elevate the level of service
by putting clients first, and empower others to expect excellence
without exception. His company has represented the commercial real estate
interests of summer the most notable corporations in the country,
including but not limited to, Airbnb, Saint Jude At and
(01:07):
t Athlete's Foot, Coca Cola, FedEx, IBM, JP, Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Tourists,
and Vera Texts, just to name a few. Please buck
the money Making Conversation master Class. I hope I d
gave him justice in my interview the legendary T. Dallas Smith.
How you doing, sir.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Man, I'm doing wonderful now I got you on the
all Brother, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, you know I appreciate you taking the time
because of the fact that you know when you've done
as much as you said, and you you came right
to the heart of it's about service and about consistency,
and I was in communication tells everybody a little background
about you before we really get into the interview, because
I want to talk about miniorship, I want to talk
about your vision, and I want to talk about moving
(01:55):
into twenty twenty five. How the young people and the
people who are my age well listening to this show
can win.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Is George Dallas Well, we're trying first again. Thank you
man for having me on the show. You know, I
borrow a line from God. I'm going blank on his name,
but he used to say Atlanta born, Atlanta Bread. When
I died, he Atlanta dead. That's me, So you know.
I'm from the west side of Atlanta. Grew up off
the Simpson Road and went to Turner High School East Clement,
(02:25):
then Turner High School, and my family moved when I
was fourteen to College Park. Broke my heart, but I
ended up graduating from Lake Shore High School in College Park.
Didn't know what I really wanted to be when I
grew up. All I knew was I wanted to make
a lot of money. So in nineteen eighty two, I
took a forest magazine and I studied with the richest
(02:45):
people in the world. Did the richest people in the
world in nineteen eighty two did one of four things?
They were in the real estate business, They were in
the oil business, technology, or investments. So again, I'm from
atlant Or would have taken me to Texas. Investments want
to take me to New York. Technology wasn't my thing,
(03:07):
so he left me with real estate. I didn't want
to work on the weekend, so residential was out of
the way.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I like you to you because you tell everybody you
gotta have the standings.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
If you have a dream, Hey, at the end of
the day, you may not know what you want to do.
But I rest assured there's a lot of things you
know you don't want to do. Yes, so I tell
people you don't know, just back into it. So literally
that's what I did. And my sister was happened to
be dating the guy. But I think with Michael hot Tower,
a lot of people know Michael hot Town, and I
joked when I say that story, a lot of people
(03:40):
say he was dating my sister too. But Michael Michael
was the youngest politicist in the United States at one time.
The city council member in College Park called him asking
if he knew somebody. He knew somebody who introduced me
to somebody who ultimately ended up opening the door for
me to get into commercial real estate. And I have
(04:00):
been in this space now Rashon for forty three years.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Brother, Wow, let mesage, Let measure the team commercial real estate.
Explain the audience a difference between you know, commercial real
estate and just you know, home buyer real estate.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely so. First, and then I'll get even more
specific about the peace that I do in commercial. But
residential is just that typical homes or any if it's
less than four units, it's considered residential. Right, Anything over
six units or four units is commercial, but we focus
them primarily office space, industrial space, and raw land. And
(04:39):
we're on the side that we call tenant representation or
occupier services. So what that means is rashan. If you
go to a building, want to lease some space, the
landlord already has a guy in there who's representing his interests. Right,
we're the people who represent your interests or the occupier
of the space. I tell the people, tell you you
(05:00):
never go into court by yourself against somebody else on
the other side. Don't go and do this business by yourself.
And we we help companies save millions of dollars. And
so the companies that you named obviously are large companies,
and obviously they have people professional to be able to
do this kind of work. But this is all we
do twenty four to seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So to measure this, mister Smith, you know because in
real estate, you walk around, you see these buildings empty.
You know, you go, man, they might want to just
give away that space.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know, you know because you hear that. I know
I thought like that, you know, just the buildings empty,
they should be able to just let me go in
there and do my thing. So talk to the audience
about empty buildings don't mean they're gonna cut a deal
for you. The empty building means something to that person
who owns that building. And also talk about the when
you when you rent in a space, how people they
(05:58):
can give you some some some build out and all
those little things that people could look at. Do you
go from that area of conversation to that granular were
you doing the commercial space realm?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Absolutely? Our job is to represent your interest. So the
first question in terms of vacant buildings, you never know.
There are people who will keep their buildings vacant because
it represents the tax right off or loss. Okay, they
may maybe making more money and somewhere else and they
need to defer it, so they want to take a
loss over here because they're making a ton of money
(06:28):
somewhere else. So you never know anybody's tax situations. So
that could be the case. Not always, but that definitely
could be the case. But as it relates to there's
a lot of companies. I won't name the company, but
there's one particular company that we represent it and for
a full floor deal, call it twenty eight thousand square
feet and Ironically, this group knew the person they were
(06:52):
trying to negotiate with. They brought us in and fundamentally,
the difference between the deal that they were going to
get for from their friend and the deal that we
struck with Sean was a difference of three million dollars, right,
so we saved them three million dollars. Three million dollars
can buy you more equipment, hire more employees, can do
(07:14):
a lot of things for a small business, right right,
So that's what we do. Ultimately, at the end of
the day, our goal is to represent your interests and
to help you save money. To make sure that you
have somebody representing everything from the rent, the rental rate,
the incentives that you'll get up front improvements, all of that,
(07:39):
from parking, you name it, if it impacts their business, well,
you know, your space.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Negotiating everything's a journey, you know that T Dallas, Yeah,
you know, no doubt about it. And they you know,
you know the role of mentorship. You know you have
your firm is the largest African American owned, pure tenant
representative commercial real estate firm in the country. So let's
go back to you know when you rint to me,
you know, Rusheon McDonald. You know, I got an idea
(08:06):
for a little restaurant around the coltar. You know they
can you know, I know T Dallas, he's man that's
up to everybody. What mistakes of what do I need
to come to you back then? Because right now you
you huge, and you know you're doing a lot of
large space, a lot of office space, and that that
you built, that reputation. You work with a certain type
(08:26):
of customer now. But just my show, Money Making Conversation
master classes, small entrepreneurs getting in the door trying to
understand how they can become a brick and mortar or
get out of that food truck. What advice or how
to want to approach that next step to Dallas?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, I say the first thing, make sure you get
somebody representing your interests and you know when you would come.
You know, ironically, the very first deal I ever did
was I was a taxi cab company, and I remember
that like it was yesterday. I made hundred dollars off
that transaction, and I say that, you know, I say,
the folks of money, but that three hundred dollars may
(09:06):
as well have been three million dollars because it was
my very first deal, and what I learned was the
ability to have a tax, a trade, to know a
skill set that can help somebody save money and then
doing that I could make some money. So the first
thing is make sure that you get wise counsel and
I don't care what the business is. And we represent
(09:27):
a large, large, large companies, but we also represent some
small companies too, So if you've got an idea, and
I mean it's a small company, we've got say twenty
people at this office. We've got people who are starting.
But the difference here that even people who are starting,
they have the resources that are around them in this office,
people who've been around the business a very long time.
(09:49):
We've got more than one hundred and fifty years of
experience in this office. So we want to be able
to use that for your to your advantage. So making
sure that you've got you know, your P and L
is together to make sure you've got a clear vision
for the next three to five years for what you're
trying to do for your business. And then we're talking
about restaurants, so that's retail space, so office industrial land.
(10:12):
I was real big into retail early on when I
got into business. One of the guys I worked for
was a guy by the name of Herman Russell. Yeah,
if you don't know him, you know, look him up.
We did a lot of retail together. But get counsel first.
Number one, Get counseled. And the other thing that people
they think it's expensive to hire us to do work.
(10:36):
Here's the little secret. The landlords pay us. We get
paid from the landlord because it's a marketing item that's
already a line item. And the thing is, if you
don't use it, you're not going to get the benefit
of it.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Explain it. Explain it to my audience when you say that.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So if you know, I'm a person out there looking
for a space, and so I'm worried about behind you.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, so you drive by, you see a sign that says,
you know, call Rashon McDonald the lease space. And so
they call you direct. Now, mind you, you're representing that
particular landlord. They called you direct, and you're going to
be a nice guy, you know, fun to hang out
with and everything. So all of a sudden, people like you,
(11:21):
and you know what we're gonna do to deal with you?
Now you tell them everything except you're not representing them. Right,
you're representing the landlord. And what happens is if they
go direct with you, you get a larger fee versus
actually it would have been the feet that would have
gone to your broker. They just get to keep it.
(11:43):
So that's the crazy thing about it. It's already a
line item. It's in the marketing line item for the landlord.
So take advantage of that. And again I tell people
all the time, you don't have to call T D.
Allie Smith and Company. I hope you do, but you
don't have to. All I ask you is is make
sure that you have somebody who represents your interest in
(12:05):
the deal.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
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 MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(12:29):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
His firm is the largest African American owned pure tenant
representing commercial real estate firm in the country. As he says,
he's a team of go getters at that office. Networking
is his strong point, dedication, mentorship, support. That's what offers
at his place, and that's why he's been successful over
the years. He has been in the real estate business
(12:55):
over forty years, because he told you, you know, he
didn't want to go Texas for all. He didn't want
to do no finance up in New York. And you know,
he wanted the weekends. He didn't want to work on
the weekend. So home real estate was out. So he
found his dream and he's focused on it. When you
find your dream on you focus on it. People have
to guide you down that path. So minttership plays a role.
(13:18):
Can you tell us how mintship played a role in
your success? T? Dallas Smith?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Absolutely well. The first guy I ever worked for was
a guy named Thomas W. TIFFs with Atlanta Harrison a realty.
He was the one that really taught me the business. Ironically,
I was on the landlord side of it first, so
I represented all of his properties near the airport. He
owned about eighty acres. Work for property was office, industrial,
land and retail. Love him, dearly miss him. He died
(13:47):
some years ago. He was an older white guy and
in fact I was the first black anything he had
ever hired and make the story even more complicated. His
father was the grand Dragon of the Koukus Klan and Tipton.
But tell people all the time, but God, God can
change anybody's heart, and sometimes you just got to get
(14:08):
out of your way and allow God to do what
he's going to do, and don't judge people by anything
other than the content of their character, and allow yourself
to meet them. But he taught me the basis of
the commercial estate business. From there, I went to work
for Cushman and Wakefield. I was the first black broker
Cushman and Wakefield Heart in nineteen eighty nine. There I
(14:30):
got to work with some major players. A guy by
the name of Andy Gertner who was sort of the
godfather of tendant representation in this town. He represented the
largest deals in this town. I mean the Georgia Pacific
Building was a build a suit for him. So he
was that dude. He's still around, a dear, dear friend
(14:50):
and a friend to Tall Smith and Company and definitely
resources to me. And then I worked for Herman Russell Herman.
I started a broker's division from her. When I left
Cushman to Wakefield, I was still in my thirties and
hadn't really got coming into my calling. When you talk
about mentorship. I met a young man by the name
(15:12):
of Leontay Benton who wanted to get into the business.
And I told Leonte like I told fifty people before him.
People come to me were something, Hey, I want to
get in commercial estate. I said, you gotta have a license.
They say, no, I don't. I said, get your license
and we'll talk. So nobody ever came back. So that's
how I literally got rid of people. Yeah, but this
(15:32):
kid I told to get his license. Three weeks he
comes back with his license. Now I'm going like, oh,
what the heck I'm gonna do with this kid. So
literally for two weeks I'm trying to get rid of him.
I got him walking my dog, washing my car, getting
my lunch, getting coffee. He's not going anywhere. Finally I'm
fed up with it. So you know, one day I
was like, man, I'm getting rid of him today. I said, Leon,
(15:54):
say how many square feet in the acre? He said,
I don't know, sir. I said, well you better figure
that out. He comes back forty three, five hundred sixty
square feet, sir, And I was like, yeah, that's right,
I said, give me some coffee. While he went to
get coffee, Ups was delivering a case of water to
the office and as he was putting the water, God
(16:14):
I had this epiphany. God said, Dallas, that was you.
That was you when you got in the real estate
business in nineteen eighty two. But there was nobody who
looked like you who could help you. You can help
that kid, and like anybody was ever able to help you.
And it was literally Raseean at that moment. At that time,
I realized what God had called me to do. Me
(16:35):
and that kid, we've been together now decembery eighteen years.
He's the president of this company now because within two
weeks of that time, God told me to train him
up as a son, for this will be the guy
who will run your business when you turned sixty years on.
And we've been on that plan and I tell you,
he's killing it. He's killing it. He's killing it, and
we're bringing more people up coming behind him. So my
(16:57):
business partners, dex the Warrior, A lot of people in
town know Dexter Nextter. I've been in the business at
the same time. Dexter always represented landlords. I was always
on the tenants side. When I realized he was a
free agent, I said, man, you got to come over
here with me. Brothers. You've been ripping off tennants all
your career. Now you can actually help them up. We're
(17:19):
coming up on fourteen years, agother man. So I say
all this to say, we realize Dex and not being
the two oldest people here. The future of this industry
really depends upon us training people up to do this industry.
And I tell people, this is the only business I
know we're selling. You can be broke on a Friday
and rich on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right right, right right. That's a beautiful thing because you know,
either the thing that I enjoyed first of all, your energy,
you know energy, and I always heard about that was legendary,
Your enthusiasm for life, your ability to communicate, but more
importantly the give back part. I never heard that story
because I always know in my life I'm sitting behind
(17:59):
his mic because there's so many people I always called.
I would say they bumped me. You know, when I
was about to veer off, this is Rachelle. You don't
belong over there. Won't you go back where you're supposed
to be? Okay, okay, I was just testing that. We
thought we're tired of watching you test. Okay, go where
you're supposed to be and so but with that, that
young man is important for people to understand that the
word know and also humbleness is why he hung in
(18:23):
there because so many people want to check. I always
tell people because I started out in entertainment in my career.
I got the degree in mathematics, but I left IBM
to do entertainment, and I always tell people amount of
work I did for free because I wanted people to
see my talent. Even today, I'll take opportunities just to
see how it is. Drive my wife crazy. Of course,
(18:44):
he said you should be charging. I said, well, that's
a relationship I'm building out. It's like a relationship every
time I'm talking to somebody like you as a relationship
that I'm doing. I'm down here. Nobody's paying me a
check to be on this show an hour every Tuesday
and WC okay in Atlanta, Georgia, because I'm getting to
introduce myself and also your individual like you, to the world.
(19:05):
Because my show was broadcast international, is broadcast locally. My
podcast is one point three million downloads a month, and
so that lets me know there's a voice out there,
but your brand t Dallas Smith Brother. You know when
you say forty years man, you you make it seem
like that's a that's a journey of happiness and you
throw faith in there. How powerful is faith in business?
(19:27):
How does that correlate in your life? And how does
that allow it to allow you to be so humble?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Man? Let me tell you something. There's a there's a
TDJ has in his book, the Crushing. He talks about
you can't have fine wine without crushed grapes. Wow. And
we all go through some crushing. So always I had
an ego back in the day that was as big
(19:54):
as this building I'm in. God has a way of
crushing you and bringing you back to a place of
what is really all about. See, it was never really
about all. It was never really about the money. It's
really about you walking in the calling that God has
for you. And then walking in that calling provision comps
(20:17):
and getting knocked to my knees and having to start
all over again was probably the best thing. Not probably,
it was the best thing that ever could have happened
to me, because it had that didn't happen that would
have never met Leonte, and the odds are w you
and I wouldn't be on a song call now talking
about T Dallas Smith and Company. But I'm real clear
(20:41):
faith has everything to do with it. I am the
son of Lena and Glenn Smith. My mother was a
praying woman and always pray for us. We heard over
and over again, you can do through all you can
do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Heard that
(21:01):
my whole life, and I know it as true as
I'm talking to you on this phone that if you hear,
learn the ability to hear God's voice for you. To
this day, people trying to figure out what I'm doing,
and I tell you at the end of the day,
I'm gonna give you the secret shot. I just hear
(21:22):
God's voice and I do what he tells me to do,
period hard stop. And so man, I'm looking at the
stuff we're doing. You wouldn't even believe the stuff that
we're doing. The stuff that comes out of nowhere. I
know it's not out of nowhere. People think it's out
of nowhere. But these relationships, building relationships before you need them,
that's one of my keys. Stay green enough to grow today,
(21:46):
I stop learning. Put me in the box. Bruh. Always
keep something learning, try to get better. I can be
better tomorrow that I am today. That's always my prayer.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
My brother, your humbleness and your storytelling is incredible. I'm
talking to T. Dallas Smith. He began his commercial real
estate career in nineteen eighty two, now today the largest
African American owned firm in the country. My brother, you're
during this, this this this half hour wasn't long enough
(22:18):
for me and you. I'm just gonna let you know that, man,
you know, because we got more stuff to say, but
I got another guest on another half hour of this.
But more importantly, I just want to let you know
that we got to get together off air.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Because I loved it. I'd love to do that because
you one thing that we haven't coming. We both we
both did stand up.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Okay, well I can see I can see the energy there.
But you know I did death jam, I did be
coverfew you know I did all that now.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Man, Yeah, you're a man. Man.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I appreciate you, brother. Thank you for coming on Money
Making Conversation. T. Dallas Smith, and thank your staff man
for connecting us because they reached out to me and
made this happen man, and they did. They do Dylan,
just work your schedule so we can make this interview
happen and it was well worth the wait. My brother,
thank you for.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Coming on money.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Tell us about the class we talked soon.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay, make that money baby all right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Appreciate you. This has been another edition of Money Making
Conversation Masterclass posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to
our guests on the show today and thank you our
listening to audience.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
your gifts. Keep winning.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop 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 clip the be
a Guest button first to submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Let's get this show roll that I
got a guest on the line. He's a legend to
me in this business and I got to bring him up.
I can't believe I got him on the show, but
he decided to set aside his business schedule to talk
to Rashaan McDonald's Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My Guest company's
mission is to expose and create space for people of
(00:43):
color and commercial real estate, elevate the level of service
by putting clients first, and empower others to expect excellence
without exception. His company has represented the commercial real estate
interests of summer the most notable corporations in the country,
including but not limited to, Airbnb, Saint Jude At and
(01:07):
t Athlete's Foot, Coca Cola, FedEx, IBM, JP, Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Tourists,
and Vera Texts, just to name a few. Please buck
the money Making Conversation master Class. I hope I d
gave him justice in my interview the legendary T. Dallas Smith.
How you doing, sir.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Man, I'm doing wonderful now I got you on the
all Brother, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, you know I appreciate you taking the time
because of the fact that you know when you've done
as much as you said, and you you came right
to the heart of it's about service and about consistency,
and I was in communication tells everybody a little background
about you before we really get into the interview, because
I want to talk about miniorship, I want to talk
about your vision, and I want to talk about moving
(01:55):
into twenty twenty five. How the young people and the
people who are my age well listening to this show
can win.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Is George Dallas Well, we're trying first again. Thank you
man for having me on the show. You know, I
borrow a line from God. I'm going blank on his name,
but he used to say Atlanta born, Atlanta Bread. When
I died, he Atlanta dead. That's me, So you know.
I'm from the west side of Atlanta. Grew up off
the Simpson Road and went to Turner High School East Clement,
(02:25):
then Turner High School, and my family moved when I
was fourteen to College Park. Broke my heart, but I
ended up graduating from Lake Shore High School in College Park.
Didn't know what I really wanted to be when I
grew up. All I knew was I wanted to make
a lot of money. So in nineteen eighty two, I
took a forest magazine and I studied with the richest
(02:45):
people in the world. Did the richest people in the
world in nineteen eighty two did one of four things?
They were in the real estate business, They were in
the oil business, technology, or investments. So again, I'm from
atlant Or would have taken me to Texas. Investments want
to take me to New York. Technology wasn't my thing,
(03:07):
so he left me with real estate. I didn't want
to work on the weekend, so residential was out of
the way.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I like you to you because you tell everybody you
gotta have the standings.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
If you have a dream, Hey, at the end of
the day, you may not know what you want to do.
But I rest assured there's a lot of things you
know you don't want to do. Yes, so I tell
people you don't know, just back into it. So literally
that's what I did. And my sister was happened to
be dating the guy. But I think with Michael hot Tower,
a lot of people know Michael hot Town, and I
joked when I say that story, a lot of people
(03:40):
say he was dating my sister too. But Michael Michael
was the youngest politicist in the United States at one time.
The city council member in College Park called him asking
if he knew somebody. He knew somebody who introduced me
to somebody who ultimately ended up opening the door for
me to get into commercial real estate. And I have
(04:00):
been in this space now Rashon for forty three years.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Brother, Wow, let mesage, Let measure the team commercial real estate.
Explain the audience a difference between you know, commercial real
estate and just you know, home buyer real estate.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely so. First, and then I'll get even more
specific about the peace that I do in commercial. But
residential is just that typical homes or any if it's
less than four units, it's considered residential. Right, Anything over
six units or four units is commercial, but we focus
them primarily office space, industrial space, and raw land. And
(04:39):
we're on the side that we call tenant representation or
occupier services. So what that means is rashan. If you
go to a building, want to lease some space, the
landlord already has a guy in there who's representing his interests. Right,
we're the people who represent your interests or the occupier
of the space. I tell the people, tell you you
(05:00):
never go into court by yourself against somebody else on
the other side. Don't go and do this business by yourself.
And we we help companies save millions of dollars. And
so the companies that you named obviously are large companies,
and obviously they have people professional to be able to
do this kind of work. But this is all we
do twenty four to seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So to measure this, mister Smith, you know because in
real estate, you walk around, you see these buildings empty.
You know, you go, man, they might want to just
give away that space.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Man.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know, you know because you hear that. I know
I thought like that, you know, just the buildings empty,
they should be able to just let me go in
there and do my thing. So talk to the audience
about empty buildings don't mean they're gonna cut a deal
for you. The empty building means something to that person
who owns that building. And also talk about the when
you when you rent in a space, how people they
(05:58):
can give you some some some build out and all
those little things that people could look at. Do you
go from that area of conversation to that granular were
you doing the commercial space realm?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Absolutely? Our job is to represent your interest. So the
first question in terms of vacant buildings, you never know.
There are people who will keep their buildings vacant because
it represents the tax right off or loss. Okay, they
may maybe making more money and somewhere else and they
need to defer it, so they want to take a
loss over here because they're making a ton of money
(06:28):
somewhere else. So you never know anybody's tax situations. So
that could be the case. Not always, but that definitely
could be the case. But as it relates to there's
a lot of companies. I won't name the company, but
there's one particular company that we represent it and for
a full floor deal, call it twenty eight thousand square
feet and Ironically, this group knew the person they were
(06:52):
trying to negotiate with. They brought us in and fundamentally,
the difference between the deal that they were going to
get for from their friend and the deal that we
struck with Sean was a difference of three million dollars, right,
so we saved them three million dollars. Three million dollars
can buy you more equipment, hire more employees, can do
(07:14):
a lot of things for a small business, right right,
So that's what we do. Ultimately, at the end of
the day, our goal is to represent your interests and
to help you save money. To make sure that you
have somebody representing everything from the rent, the rental rate,
the incentives that you'll get up front improvements, all of that,
(07:39):
from parking, you name it, if it impacts their business, well,
you know, your space.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Negotiating everything's a journey, you know that T Dallas, Yeah,
you know, no doubt about it. And they you know,
you know the role of mentorship. You know you have
your firm is the largest African American owned, pure tenant
representative commercial real estate firm in the country. So let's
go back to you know when you rint to me,
you know, Rusheon McDonald. You know, I got an idea
(08:06):
for a little restaurant around the coltar. You know they
can you know, I know T Dallas, he's man that's
up to everybody. What mistakes of what do I need
to come to you back then? Because right now you
you huge, and you know you're doing a lot of
large space, a lot of office space, and that that
you built, that reputation. You work with a certain type
(08:26):
of customer now. But just my show, Money Making Conversation
master classes, small entrepreneurs getting in the door trying to
understand how they can become a brick and mortar or
get out of that food truck. What advice or how
to want to approach that next step to Dallas?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah, I say the first thing, make sure you get
somebody representing your interests and you know when you would come.
You know, ironically, the very first deal I ever did
was I was a taxi cab company, and I remember
that like it was yesterday. I made hundred dollars off
that transaction, and I say that, you know, I say,
the folks of money, but that three hundred dollars may
(09:06):
as well have been three million dollars because it was
my very first deal, and what I learned was the
ability to have a tax, a trade, to know a
skill set that can help somebody save money and then
doing that I could make some money. So the first
thing is make sure that you get wise counsel and
I don't care what the business is. And we represent
(09:27):
a large, large, large companies, but we also represent some
small companies too, So if you've got an idea, and
I mean it's a small company, we've got say twenty
people at this office. We've got people who are starting.
But the difference here that even people who are starting,
they have the resources that are around them in this office,
people who've been around the business a very long time.
(09:49):
We've got more than one hundred and fifty years of
experience in this office. So we want to be able
to use that for your to your advantage. So making
sure that you've got you know, your P and L
is together to make sure you've got a clear vision
for the next three to five years for what you're
trying to do for your business. And then we're talking
about restaurants, so that's retail space, so office industrial land.
(10:12):
I was real big into retail early on when I
got into business. One of the guys I worked for
was a guy by the name of Herman Russell. Yeah,
if you don't know him, you know, look him up.
We did a lot of retail together. But get counsel first.
Number one, Get counseled. And the other thing that people
they think it's expensive to hire us to do work.
(10:36):
Here's the little secret. The landlords pay us. We get
paid from the landlord because it's a marketing item that's
already a line item. And the thing is, if you
don't use it, you're not going to get the benefit
of it.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Explain it. Explain it to my audience when you say that.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So if you know, I'm a person out there looking
for a space, and so I'm worried about behind you.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, so you drive by, you see a sign that says,
you know, call Rashon McDonald the lease space. And so
they call you direct. Now, mind you, you're representing that
particular landlord. They called you direct, and you're going to
be a nice guy, you know, fun to hang out
with and everything. So all of a sudden, people like you,
(11:21):
and you know what we're gonna do to deal with you?
Now you tell them everything except you're not representing them. Right,
you're representing the landlord. And what happens is if they
go direct with you, you get a larger fee versus
actually it would have been the feet that would have
gone to your broker. They just get to keep it.
(11:43):
So that's the crazy thing about it. It's already a
line item. It's in the marketing line item for the landlord.
So take advantage of that. And again I tell people
all the time, you don't have to call T D.
Allie Smith and Company. I hope you do, but you
don't have to. All I ask you is is make
sure that you have somebody who represents your interest in
(12:05):
the deal.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
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 MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(12:29):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
His firm is the largest African American owned pure tenant
representing commercial real estate firm in the country. As he says,
he's a team of go getters at that office. Networking
is his strong point, dedication, mentorship, support. That's what offers
at his place, and that's why he's been successful over
the years. He has been in the real estate business
(12:55):
over forty years, because he told you, you know, he
didn't want to go Texas for all. He didn't want
to do no finance up in New York. And you know,
he wanted the weekends. He didn't want to work on
the weekend. So home real estate was out. So he
found his dream and he's focused on it. When you
find your dream on you focus on it. People have
to guide you down that path. So minttership plays a role.
(13:18):
Can you tell us how mintship played a role in
your success? T? Dallas Smith?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Absolutely well. The first guy I ever worked for was
a guy named Thomas W. TIFFs with Atlanta Harrison a realty.
He was the one that really taught me the business. Ironically,
I was on the landlord side of it first, so
I represented all of his properties near the airport. He
owned about eighty acres. Work for property was office, industrial,
land and retail. Love him, dearly miss him. He died
(13:47):
some years ago. He was an older white guy and
in fact I was the first black anything he had
ever hired and make the story even more complicated. His
father was the grand Dragon of the Koukus Klan and Tipton.
But tell people all the time, but God, God can
change anybody's heart, and sometimes you just got to get
(14:08):
out of your way and allow God to do what
he's going to do, and don't judge people by anything
other than the content of their character, and allow yourself
to meet them. But he taught me the basis of
the commercial estate business. From there, I went to work
for Cushman and Wakefield. I was the first black broker
Cushman and Wakefield Heart in nineteen eighty nine. There I
(14:30):
got to work with some major players. A guy by
the name of Andy Gertner who was sort of the
godfather of tendant representation in this town. He represented the
largest deals in this town. I mean the Georgia Pacific
Building was a build a suit for him. So he
was that dude. He's still around, a dear, dear friend
(14:50):
and a friend to Tall Smith and Company and definitely
resources to me. And then I worked for Herman Russell Herman.
I started a broker's division from her. When I left
Cushman to Wakefield, I was still in my thirties and
hadn't really got coming into my calling. When you talk
about mentorship. I met a young man by the name
(15:12):
of Leontay Benton who wanted to get into the business.
And I told Leonte like I told fifty people before him.
People come to me were something, Hey, I want to
get in commercial estate. I said, you gotta have a license.
They say, no, I don't. I said, get your license
and we'll talk. So nobody ever came back. So that's
how I literally got rid of people. Yeah, but this
(15:32):
kid I told to get his license. Three weeks he
comes back with his license. Now I'm going like, oh,
what the heck I'm gonna do with this kid. So
literally for two weeks I'm trying to get rid of him.
I got him walking my dog, washing my car, getting
my lunch, getting coffee. He's not going anywhere. Finally I'm
fed up with it. So you know, one day I
was like, man, I'm getting rid of him today. I said, Leon,
(15:54):
say how many square feet in the acre? He said,
I don't know, sir. I said, well you better figure
that out. He comes back forty three, five hundred sixty
square feet, sir, And I was like, yeah, that's right,
I said, give me some coffee. While he went to
get coffee, Ups was delivering a case of water to
the office and as he was putting the water, God
(16:14):
I had this epiphany. God said, Dallas, that was you.
That was you when you got in the real estate
business in nineteen eighty two. But there was nobody who
looked like you who could help you. You can help
that kid, and like anybody was ever able to help you.
And it was literally Raseean at that moment. At that time,
I realized what God had called me to do. Me
(16:35):
and that kid, we've been together now decembery eighteen years.
He's the president of this company now because within two
weeks of that time, God told me to train him
up as a son, for this will be the guy
who will run your business when you turned sixty years on.
And we've been on that plan and I tell you,
he's killing it. He's killing it. He's killing it, and
we're bringing more people up coming behind him. So my
(16:57):
business partners, dex the Warrior, A lot of people in
town know Dexter Nextter. I've been in the business at
the same time. Dexter always represented landlords. I was always
on the tenants side. When I realized he was a
free agent, I said, man, you got to come over
here with me. Brothers. You've been ripping off tennants all
your career. Now you can actually help them up. We're
(17:19):
coming up on fourteen years, agother man. So I say
all this to say, we realize Dex and not being
the two oldest people here. The future of this industry
really depends upon us training people up to do this industry.
And I tell people, this is the only business I
know we're selling. You can be broke on a Friday
and rich on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Right right, right right. That's a beautiful thing because you know,
either the thing that I enjoyed first of all, your energy,
you know energy, and I always heard about that was legendary,
Your enthusiasm for life, your ability to communicate, but more
importantly the give back part. I never heard that story
because I always know in my life I'm sitting behind
(17:59):
his mic because there's so many people I always called.
I would say they bumped me. You know, when I
was about to veer off, this is Rachelle. You don't
belong over there. Won't you go back where you're supposed
to be? Okay, okay, I was just testing that. We
thought we're tired of watching you test. Okay, go where
you're supposed to be and so but with that, that
young man is important for people to understand that the
word know and also humbleness is why he hung in
(18:23):
there because so many people want to check. I always
tell people because I started out in entertainment in my career.
I got the degree in mathematics, but I left IBM
to do entertainment, and I always tell people amount of
work I did for free because I wanted people to
see my talent. Even today, I'll take opportunities just to
see how it is. Drive my wife crazy. Of course,
(18:44):
he said you should be charging. I said, well, that's
a relationship I'm building out. It's like a relationship every
time I'm talking to somebody like you as a relationship
that I'm doing. I'm down here. Nobody's paying me a
check to be on this show an hour every Tuesday
and WC okay in Atlanta, Georgia, because I'm getting to
introduce myself and also your individual like you, to the world.
(19:05):
Because my show was broadcast international, is broadcast locally. My
podcast is one point three million downloads a month, and
so that lets me know there's a voice out there,
but your brand t Dallas Smith Brother. You know when
you say forty years man, you you make it seem
like that's a that's a journey of happiness and you
throw faith in there. How powerful is faith in business?
(19:27):
How does that correlate in your life? And how does
that allow it to allow you to be so humble?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Man? Let me tell you something. There's a there's a
TDJ has in his book, the Crushing. He talks about
you can't have fine wine without crushed grapes. Wow. And
we all go through some crushing. So always I had
an ego back in the day that was as big
(19:54):
as this building I'm in. God has a way of
crushing you and bringing you back to a place of
what is really all about. See, it was never really
about all. It was never really about the money. It's
really about you walking in the calling that God has
for you. And then walking in that calling provision comps
(20:17):
and getting knocked to my knees and having to start
all over again was probably the best thing. Not probably,
it was the best thing that ever could have happened
to me, because it had that didn't happen that would
have never met Leonte, and the odds are w you
and I wouldn't be on a song call now talking
about T Dallas Smith and Company. But I'm real clear
(20:41):
faith has everything to do with it. I am the
son of Lena and Glenn Smith. My mother was a
praying woman and always pray for us. We heard over
and over again, you can do through all you can
do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Heard that
(21:01):
my whole life, and I know it as true as
I'm talking to you on this phone that if you hear,
learn the ability to hear God's voice for you. To
this day, people trying to figure out what I'm doing,
and I tell you at the end of the day,
I'm gonna give you the secret shot. I just hear
(21:22):
God's voice and I do what he tells me to do,
period hard stop. And so man, I'm looking at the
stuff we're doing. You wouldn't even believe the stuff that
we're doing. The stuff that comes out of nowhere. I
know it's not out of nowhere. People think it's out
of nowhere. But these relationships, building relationships before you need them,
that's one of my keys. Stay green enough to grow today,
(21:46):
I stop learning. Put me in the box. Bruh. Always
keep something learning, try to get better. I can be
better tomorrow that I am today. That's always my prayer.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
My brother, your humbleness and your storytelling is incredible. I'm
talking to T. Dallas Smith. He began his commercial real
estate career in nineteen eighty two, now today the largest
African American owned firm in the country. My brother, you're
during this, this this this half hour wasn't long enough
(22:18):
for me and you. I'm just gonna let you know that, man,
you know, because we got more stuff to say, but
I got another guest on another half hour of this.
But more importantly, I just want to let you know
that we got to get together off air.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Because I loved it. I'd love to do that because
you one thing that we haven't coming. We both we
both did stand up.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Okay, well I can see I can see the energy there.
But you know I did death jam, I did be
coverfew you know I did all that now.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Man, Yeah, you're a man. Man.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I appreciate you, brother. Thank you for coming on Money
Making Conversation. T. Dallas Smith, and thank your staff man
for connecting us because they reached out to me and
made this happen man, and they did. They do Dylan,
just work your schedule so we can make this interview
happen and it was well worth the wait. My brother,
thank you for.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Coming on money.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Tell us about the class we talked soon.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay, make that money baby all right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Appreciate you. This has been another edition of Money Making
Conversation Masterclass posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to
our guests on the show today and thank you our
listening to audience.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Now.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always leave with
your gifts. Keep winning.
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