Brand Building: In 2017 founded Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers, partnered with Expedia.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi. I'm Rashan McDonald host the weekly Money Making Conversation
Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
success stories and start living your own now. If you
want to be a guest on my show, Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and

(00:20):
click the be a Guest button. If you are a
small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or nonprofit I
want you on my show. Now, let's get started. My
guess is the founder of green Book Global, the first
and owner travel review website and mobile app that enables
black travelers to plan trips with confidence and less anxiety

(00:41):
by providing user generated travel insights from the black perspective,
particularly about what it is to be traveling while black.
Green Book Global is to participant in Black Ambition. Let
me tell you about Black Ambition. Black Ambition was founded
by Grammy Award winning artists and producer for Real Williams. Happy.

(01:01):
Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds and mentors
black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future of innovation. Now.
In this fifth year, the program has awarded millions in
capital and support to founders across the industries to discuss
green Book Global and the significance of black ambition. Please
welcome to the Money Making Conversation Masterclass, Lawrence Phillips. How

(01:22):
are you doing, Lawrence?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
All right? All right, so thank you, thank you so
much for having me. Just a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, first of all, let's get a little background on you.
I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and there's some history with
you in Atlanta. Let's talk.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, so I'm actually in the a myself. I went
to Georgia Tech, but I still got a rep hometown first.
So I'm originally from Boston. I grew up in Boston
with the high school in Boston, graduated from a math
science high school. I put Boston on the map. And
then after high school, I graduated and did electrical engineering
at Georgia Tech. So I'm a yellow jacket.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So I'm gonna tell you something, brother, there's no joke. Brother,
electrical engineer in the Georgia Take that fifteen hundred SAT
school you got to got to have for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, there's a lot of I made it out. I
made it out, but it's done well for my career.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well it's good, it's good. It's good. You say electrical engineering, yes, correct, yep. Okay,
now we're talking about spreamebook Global, Yes, a traveling app
so marriage the two for me with that degree plan
and now you're in the traveling business.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. Yeah. So I always heard when I went to
technis like people want the engineering mindset right, and in
college I was like, I never really understood what that meant.
But as I after I graduated from college, I worked
at Accenture doing IT consulting and so I did system integration,
so I didn't do electrical engineering, but the mindset that
I had being an engineer, I went to IT consulting

(02:50):
and with that we did SAP implementations. So basically I
went into different clients, looked at their applications and helped
redesign them and redevelop them for them to make them
more efficient. And so had an amazing career at at Accenture.
About eight or nine years in though I kind of
got burnt out, so they're promoted me to managers. Again,
amazing career, but about three months like, hey guys, i'm tired.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I quick you know, I'm gonna tell you something. This
found this sounds very familiar. I want to cut you
off because I was at IBM. My career is in mathematics,
modern sociology, you know. And there's a creative block because
because I want you to finish your story. But let's
talk about it. Being happy. You know you can be successful,
and you you were being successful, laurn Okay, great job,

(03:34):
you know, all the things that people tell you you're
supposed to be doing in life, and then all was
a sudden but you're not happy.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Talk about that transition, because that's when you start talking
to your friends and they started asking you what's wrong?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Man?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
You got everything you want. Great job, you know, you're
graduating from a great school, So why you trip it?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Right? Right right? I'm not telling you what to quit
their job. It was my personal experience. You don't say
I listen to.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I am, I am, I am. This is my main
compainsa's master class. Lawrence. I'm used to use an example. Brother.
You hear his brother right here. Rashon McDonald did it.
Lawrence Phillis did it? Lawrence Phillis, tell us your job?
How did you go from a guy who was successful,
elevated eight years living the life of everybody there. He
went to from Boston to Georgia Tech, one of the

(04:26):
top premier engineering schools in the country. But then all
of a sudden, it's just my future. Yeah, floorish yours down.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
So actually I was on a private jet and this
last client too. I had to go to my client
side and I said, okay, you know, we're boy from
Boston from the hood and you made it. You want
to little private jet go to me the client. That
was the only time I got on the jet too,
but it was cool. It was one time that's all
I needed. But it really came down to like, hey,
like I'm not like this is great, but I'm not happy,
Like I feel like I needed something more. I needed

(04:55):
a break because there's a lot of work as well too,
And so even my girlfriend at the time, right, I said, hey,
like I'm doing great, but I think I just need
to take a break and travel around the world. Like
it's just something I had a passion for and so
travel's always been something that's been an integral part of me.
So my faing is from barb Batos, so going back
and forth there and I think I mentioned to you
before I was in a program called Summer Search, and

(05:17):
that Summer Search program took basically like kids that are
in people of color in the city and took them
on summer trips into the wilderness, typically for the first year.
So I did like a whole thirty day trip in
the wilderness, like no showers, no bathrooms, ninety plus miles
in the wilderness as a high school kid. And that
really built my resiliency up, just to think, like, hey,

(05:38):
if just because you mean I think it can happen,
doesn't mean it can't, right, So I never would have
thought in a million years I could enjoy a thirty
day camping trip without having a bathroom in sight, right,
And so that confidence is also relaid back over in
my career. I was like, listen, although i might be
doing well, I'm still not happy. And I'm confident enough
to say, hey, I'm gonna put this to the side
and focus what I think will make me happier. And
that was traveling around the world. So I did that. Now,

(06:00):
I made a decent amount of money, but I didn't
have enough money to travel around the world, so I
did hack it as best I could, so Delta had
it around the World flight. So I got a lot
of miles from doing all this traveling, and so it
was actually the year they were ending there around the
World program using miles. That kind of pushed me over
the top. So me and a buddy of mine that
also enjoyed travel, we had enough miles and we used

(06:20):
that to do our big flights across the world. And
so I did thirty plus countries all seven continents including
Antarctica in less than a year. Wow.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Wow, and that experience for a person of color. Okay,
let's talk about these different lanes of activity, these different environments,
these different cultures. What was the reaction to you or
your reaction to these different cultures, because when I travel,
I am exposed to so much and I feel so comfortable. Yeah,

(06:50):
sometimes you ought to don't understand the stress that we
live under. Oh and then you and a person of
color in America versus when you travel, please just discuss
that the reality to my listeners.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, So, I for one, I love culture, right, So
just being able to be respectful but also really like
learn by other people's cultures, I think it's just super amazing.
But you just don't realize like you said, like the
amount of pressure and stressure on in the USA. When
you come out of it, it's like, wait a minute,
I don't have to necessarily worry about this as much, right,
and so like it definitely was a relief, but I

(07:24):
was going also to so many different places. I still
wonder because I'm still from the US. I still have
like that you know, that lens and like, well is
it okay for us? And it's still like it's still
the world, right, So there are some things to be
worried about. But would have made me more profitable was like, hey,
is there a platform that can tell me what it's
like travel well black in some of these cities, what
racism like in some of these cities. And so there's

(07:46):
plenty of like like there's a troop advisors out there,
there's like Yelp and those types of you know, like
even like some of the brands that expeeded, they have
reviews about hotels, but not about the travel well Black experience.
And so that's what I was really looking for. And
so I was like, man, I really wish, you know,
this was out there. And what really pushed me over
the top was I met a young lady in Paris
at a hostel and I talked to me, started talking

(08:08):
about chocolate, and I was like, I love chocolate, like
I love dark chocolate. There's all the different types of chocolates.
And she's like, oh, you should go to Brussels in Belgium.
At that point, I had no idea where Brussels was,
you know where Belgium was. I was like, okay, is
it okay for us? Because she was a black woman,
and she's like, oh, no, you'll be good, You'll be good.
And literally within twenty four hours I was in Brussels.
I needed that co sign to say like, now you're good,

(08:30):
You'll be fine over there, and that's all I needed
to go forward. So that's kind of the ideas, like
that that head and noduct. Now you'll be straight, here's
what's to watch out for, but have a good time.
And that's kind of what the green book Global like
app really.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Is about France Paris. When I was in high school,
I had no clue and I had an opportunity to
take French and I went I would never go to France,
and as an adult, I went to France, and if
I had to do my life all over again, I
would move to France because the culture. That's why I
was just talking about the relaxation, the comfort zone. There

(09:04):
are a lot of people walking around France that look
like US, okay, and really that's what this conversation I
want to make sure people understand, because this interview is
about you. You've established a travel company, it's tied to
a very effective app but we have to understand that
the experience that we often are exposed to in America

(09:28):
is not what we would get when you travel to
South Africa, where I've been, when I went to France,
all the countries I've cruised around the world almost and
every time I go somewhere, the experience is different getting
off a lot. Long as you're respectful, long as you
understand and respect the culture, not walking in looking at
all crazy dressed or disrespectfully dressed. That's when issues have

(09:51):
become when they feel tourists abuse the culture and not
respect the culture. Follow with more detail on that, because
I also want to talk about line you know to
me about the Ambition Black Ambition program, because that is
significant in that conversation, But I want to talk about
the global aspect of you as a young man growing

(10:12):
and maturing to understand the value of travel.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, and so one thing again, being black in America
just makes you look at the world very differently. But
being black and having the US passport around the world
is almost like it's like it's almost like a free
pass in a sense where people just respect at least
previously respecting that blue passport. But also when you're an American
and you're black, because our culture transcends across borders, you

(10:36):
already looked at as cool. We already looked at as
someone they want to be a part of and connect with.
So there's just like this openness and this insight that
they actually want to learn more about you, typically in
a respectful way. But again culture normous make them coming
to play there. But you want to think that living
in the US, you you would you would be caught
up with so much fear in the US that you
would think everybody hates us, just like the US is

(10:57):
like you know what is it? It's racist as apple pie, right,
Like that's the core of unfortunately, with a lot of
things happen in the US with our history. So I
think it's just that fear that we have. And so
that's The idea is that when you go into a
country or a city that's not in the USA and
you're disrespectful, you're open to culture, people bring you in. Again,

(11:18):
I'm not saying it's one hundred percent of the time,
and that's why green Book Global is there, but it's
really encouraging. Mike had an amazing year traveling the world.
Amakes very little hiccups happened with me traveling around the world, right,
And I hear that from tons of other people as well.
So my hope is that this inspires people that give
other countries a chance. The US and you know that's
if that's where you live. Great, There's still things you

(11:39):
can do in the USA too, Don't get me wrong.
Still amazing places there as well. But don't don't think
because you might have these problems in the USA, that's
it's across the world that these things, similar things are happening.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Absolutely. Talking to my man, Lawrence Phillips, green Book, green
Book Global. Now let's talk about Black Ambition. Black Ambition.
Felicia Hatcher, exactive producer, executive director of this program, which
is founded by Pharrell Williams, has been distributing millions of
dollars fifty years is going to happen in Miami and

(12:11):
you're going to go down there. Tell us about your
relationship with Black Ambition and how in what significant role
is playing in your brand.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah. Absolutely so. Black Ambition that you mentioned has been
around for about five years, and so this is my
third time applying. So maybe this is also something that
you know, listeners can can maybe carry something away from.
It's like, I didn't give up. They told me not
the first time, get any little bit of feedback, all right,
I didn't get sulty. I said, let me just keep grinding.
I apply the second time, still got another note and

(12:40):
I was like, oh, daang, you let another of people
in here. Like I think I'm cool, But what I what?
I use that to say? Like, hey, you might think
you better for somebody.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Hopefully you get too far down, Like what do you
what are you applying for? In Black Ambition? First of all,
let's let's get that cleared up. What are you applying for?
What were you applying for that made you apply three times?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well, you apply to get money, right, So that's kind
of the ultimate goal, is that you would get funding
for your your your business and then you get the
exposure of the network, which I can also talk into
as well, but ultimately, like there's a big I think
the first was a million dollars that you would actually
get as a prize winner, and I think they broke
it up in the chunks now, but that's what you're
really applying for. But I think just that the growth

(13:23):
that I had through that period just made me not,
you know, think not not to overstep the value that
I think I'm bringing with my company that other people are.
I'm bringing more value or better value in different areas, right,
And so that really gave me humility saying like, hey,
you didn't get it the second time, but I'm still
going to continue to apply and say this is how
I grew the third time. Finally got pasted that first round,

(13:47):
got it to the semi finals, which I semi finals,
let's do it winning. And then one of the things
that they have, which is optional, was called the Evolt
Evoke Wellness program. It's like a three week program that's
all about wellness. And it was something that you know,
typical accelerators that I've been in, they don't have that, right,
and I thought that thing it was life changing for me.

(14:09):
It really just made me unpack myself in a way
that I thought I've already done. And so I would
say that my main takeaway was like my white statement
for me personally, and essentially they had to go through
this exercise where you had to like pick a couple
of words and then you had to do a couple
of pages and again it was a multi week process.
But the end of it, my wife statement was I'm

(14:31):
a protective and innovative steward of black restoration and healing.
And so that is what the essence of Green Book
Global is. It's all about being innovative where technology. We're
trying to make sure we stay with AI and use
technology to our advantage. We're protective of our black community,
right we need to protection our black women are black men,
and so we have a safe space for us to

(14:53):
be ourselves but also to learn from each other steward.
Like I, although I feel like so much has been
pushed into me from God, from my family, from my friends,
from my environment, that I don't really think this is
my own. This is me just being a good steward
of what God has given me. And so I'm just
trying to, you know, do good by that and then
restoration and healing like the Black community's restoration. We need healing,

(15:14):
and so we want to make sure that in a
way that we can do it in the travel space,
because when you travel, it really is a mental health
kind of uplift. You can kind of refill your cup
and travel. So that those are all the different elements
of how just that part of the program is super
impactful for me.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Cool. Let's talk about a couple of things for getting detail.
Now we talk about Black Ambition. The fifth annual Black
Ambition Day will be in Miami November fourteenth and the fifteenth,
and so that's important that if you're in the Miami
area or going down in Miambi area, please the Black
Ambition Day is November fourteenth and fifteenth in Miami. Now,

(15:52):
I know you have an app. How can we reach
out to you and start using your services? Lawrence?

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, So if you go to iows or Android and
type of green Book Global, you will find the io
step and Android app there. We actually had over one
hundred and fifty thousand downloads just this year. We ranked
top thirty in the App Store for travel this year
as well. Partnering with Expedia, I went through the Expedy Accelerator.
I've done multiple campaigns and partnerships with them, so I'm

(16:19):
looking forward to really twenty twenty six and continue.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Excuse me, Lawrence, excuse me, Laurence. I did love people
who are humble. We've had over one hundred and fifty
thousand downloads this year, you know, brother, congratulations, thank you,
thank you, congratulations the team off the hardwet. Okay, so
how are you marketing it?

Speaker 2 (16:41):
What?

Speaker 1 (16:42):
How are you getting the word out that you can
achieve such a significant download number for a new app,
and a travel app in a very competitive field.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean, so we are unapologetically black and all
about safety. So I think there's there's riches and niches, right,
So we're I'm very comfortable. It took a while. I'm
not gonna lie the evolution of just being unapologetically saying
where a black travel review app. You know, we want
all users to you know, get insights from it, but
our target demographic are black travelers, and so really our

(17:14):
social media has done that for us. Right, So we
have over one hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram,
about forty forty five thousand on TikTok and just those
videos going viral. And also we've been in the game
for a while, right, So twenty fifteen is when the
I did happen. Took until twenty eighteen for the website
to be stable and all through. At that time, I'm
posting on social media getting really Actually I went to

(17:35):
Brazil about three weeks me like a month ago, and
I ran to someone for a travel conference and they said, hey,
I actually used your app like eight years ago, and
I've been following your journey, right, And so people have
been followed our journey as we've kind of grew. And
so I think being in the game long enough and
just leveraging social media to allow us to get that
exposure has been why you know, we've been able to

(17:57):
get you know, that opportunity to get those eyeballs. And
we're just offering something that's not available in the market,
Like you can't find the twoes that we have in
the market outside of our app.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Don't go anywhere. We will be right back with more
insights from Money Making Conversation master Class. Welcome back to
Money Making Conversation master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.

(18:29):
Let's get back into it let's talk about the history
of the Green Book. We have to talk about the
history the significance of it. You are a modern day
version of it because you're using the app, but it
was started why back in the day the floor.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, absolutely, So I always thought it, Like you know,
sometimes people like, why don't you call it the Black Book? Right, Like,
so there's there's a history behind while we're called the
Green Book. So Victor Hugo Green and Alma Green essentially
started the Green Book. So it was actually a physical
book that was distributed between nineteen thirty six and nineteen
sixty six in the USA to help black people travel safely.

(19:03):
It's really about driving while black, right, So it told
you what restaurants you can go to, hotels, gas stations,
even towns to avoid. It really was like that Black
travel Bible. And so again Sundowntowns was something on the list, right,
but it had a directory of restaurants and hotels where
you can stay safely. And so we're continuing that legacy
but in a mobile app. And so we also do

(19:26):
it outside of the US as well. So we have
a lot of tools dedicated to the US travel, but
we also have a lot of like for example, AI
can build you and intenerate to Paris in about thirty
seconds right using the reviews from our app. So we
definitely continue in the legacy. But that also is what
inmvoted me and gave me the permission, if you will,
to be unapologetically black, because we're continuing the legacy of

(19:47):
the Green Book just in an app form.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, and technology and technology, which is important. So give
me an example of how your app works, Dan, how
you know you know I'm a black person and let's
use you. You know, I'm not trying to point out
anything in a landmark a place you shouldn't go, But
how exactly does your app work when I come on
as a traveler looking for places where I feel comfortable

(20:16):
that I can get great food or great hotel, stay,
a great vacation activity. Talk to me.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah, So I'll give you maybe a couple of examples.
So the first one, which is really our flagship product,
is our Driving Wild Black road Trip Planner. So literally,
if you go onto the app, there's a road trip,
there's a car icon, there be re leaning into like
Driving Wild Black, especially in the USA, and you'll see
a map of the United States. You also see a
lot of pins that represent different colors. So you'll have green, yellow,

(20:44):
and red. So green means great. And so these are
scores that happen from black people that have been to
these cities, right, and so it's on a five star scale.
So I always say this, We don't encourage or discourage
anyone to go anywhere. We're just giving you information that
you typically won't have to make a more well informed decision.
So green means great, it's four point five or above.
Yellow means average four dot to four point five, and

(21:06):
below it four you're red. And so it's not necessarily
as black friendly per our community, but also could be
a sundowntown. And so you go on that roadchip planner,
you can plan a trip, let's say from Atlanta to Houston.
You'll be able to see all these pins colors of
cities that you're going through. In two you also can
out on black on the restaurants onto your right as well.

(21:27):
So we have twenty five hundred to the top black
owned the restaurants. We partnered with another company called eat
Oprah and they have about twenty thousand black on the
restaurants and we took like you know, the krem de
la creme of all those restaurants and put them on
our app. But you also have cities that, again while
you're traveling, may be red. So one city in particular, Vydora, Texas,
is one that is kind of renowned for as being
in sundown town. And so if you literally, if you're

(21:49):
driving through vy Door, you can actually hit a button
and say avoid, and our app will actually re route
you around vy Door and it'll give you the turn
by turn navigation.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Let me let me just let me correct here. It's
Vida buy via the Texas right outside the bone. That's
viaa Via the Texas. I'm gonna Houston, Texas born ok
Y to Texas is right between absolutely as East Texas.
Brother Vida. Even to this day, that's sad. We can
talk about it as soon as you get outside across the
border of Lake Charles Louisama. First that you're gonna look

(22:19):
at it's gonna be Vita, and then you go hit
the Beaumont. If Beaumont you're ninety miles from home, Houston, Texas.
That's how I used to see it. And so yes,
it has always had a reputation, whether it's uh deserved
or not. Of being a place that people of color
should feel uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right. And so another thing with the app too is
we try to get recent reviews, right. So for example,
I think I had a recent one from Coleman, Alabama
that was now for a sundown town in the black
family stayed there and they said, Hey, felt a little awkward,
but we were okay, right, And so the whole idea
is like we have a historical view of it, we
also want to get recent reviews to say, hey, has
the town changed or is it still about the same

(23:01):
I'm saying it is. The recent reviews don't don't seem
like much a change from what I've said.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
I don't think if I don't think people of color
want to test it out. Let's put it that way,
because we just blow on past that little city, like
I said, Beaumart, then you hit the Golden Triangle, then
you're in Baytown. Then you're in Houston, Texas. And if
you got to go to Sanatoia, you just stay. I
t in West and take your Sanatoio. Then they passle
next thing you know, you're in Los Angeles. So I

(23:32):
just want to let you know I truly understand exactly
that sounds fantastic because when you travel man, you know
he's running out of the gas. Along gas, you're trying
to get someplace to eat. You want to go in
places that you feel want your business, not staring at
you because of the color of your skin. And that's
what Green Book Global gives you using modern technology.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Correct, absolutely, and so like that's our flags your product.
But then internationally, we don't have a roach your plant.
But you can look at cities, right, so Paris, if
you look at Paris, for example, we got two hundred
reviews on Paris from black people. And so what makes
it unique is that we don't review hotels or restaurants,
you might offer those, but we review cities. So every
city has a Black Friendly score based off our community, right,

(24:15):
so Paris would have one, London has one. I mean
we have tons, thousands of reviews on the app, and
so that's the way you can use it internationally too,
So if you're thinking about the city to travel to
in Europe or in Asia or even in Africa Australia,
like we have reviews and Black Friendly scores based on
our community, and then they also have like recommendations and
warnings as well. So you actually can see pictures from

(24:36):
people's trips. You'll give you specific information outside of those
scores too, and then we have AI we can plan
it review.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
And let me just let everybody know who I'm talking to.
That Lawrence, I'm talking Lawrence Phillips. He's the founder of
green book Global, the first and only travel review website
and mobile app that enables black travels to plan trips
with confidence and less anxiety by providing user generated traveling
sights from the black perspective. I want to keep emphasizing

(25:07):
that being the person as I remember when I left
five Am I was, I left and pursue a career
as a stand up comedian. And so I've been on
into a lot of cities, and I'm gonna tell you,
I've been in cities where black people did walk on
the certain side of the street. I'm gonna tell you.
And so because that's the community that they grew up in,
and they understood that there are certain communities right now
where people live on one side of the track and

(25:29):
other people live on the other side of the track.
It just understood, is understood. And so but I do
know this. When you develop a platform like this and
you start signaling out good and bad. Have any cities
reached out to you and try to change their moo
on your platform?

Speaker 2 (25:49):
So it kind of the reverse is what happens. We
actually talk to cities about their Black friendly scores and say, hey, like,
we can work with you to help your city become
you better rated. And so that's actually part of our
strategy for systemic change. Right. So Part one is making
sure black people feel more comfortable to travel, because we
deserve it, right, We deserve to travel wherever we want

(26:10):
to go. And I understand that there's fears and concerns,
and so green Book Global is first trying to help
kind of reduce that fear and increase that confidence when
you travel. Part two for the systemic change is really
direct with destinations to help them be more black friendly.
And so that might be with marketing materials, but there's
also a lot of data that shows that US based

(26:32):
black travelers spend over one hundred and forty billion dollars
on travel each year, and so with that there's a
monetary value to being inclusive, and so that's what we're
pushing with destinations to say, hey, not only should you
be inclusive, but it actually pays you to be inclusive.
And so an example of that is Portland, Maine. That's
been our long term part of the last two years.

(26:54):
And I'm from Boston too, and I never stepped foot
in Portland, Maine. It's still like two years ago. And
I'm from Boston, right, and so Portland's predominantly Main's is
predominantly it's like one of the whitest states in America.
And so I already had my preconceived notions about Portland, Maine,
like I don't really know how to like think about
a little bit. And I had an amazing time when
I was there, right, And so we spent about maybe

(27:16):
four or five days built out in a tenterary, talked
about the black history, and so we did some social
media content rants and ads on our app as well,
and people started going to Portland and people are like,
oh my gosh, Portland's actually kind of amazing, right, And
so it's the whole idea of just being able to
have a pathway to talk to destinations that want more
travelers there to understand that there is power in that

(27:38):
black travel dollar. But now we can say, well, what
are you doing for the black community. If we were
to come there, right, like, do you have your version
of Black Wall Street where your black owned businesses, because
that's what our consumers are, our travelers are going to
want to see. If you don't have that, well, maybe
talk to us next year when you do. Right, Like,
that's going to be kind of the goal that we
have long term to really bring about systemic change on
a destination level, because if we can get our community

(28:01):
to really book on our app be part of our
community on the app, right, we have more leverage to
talk to destinations and that can drive systemic change in
those places. Wow.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Speaking the Lawrence Phillips, he's part of the fifth annual
Black Ambition event that's happening in Miami November fourteenth and fifteenth.
But more importantly, this is a program where he tried
three times, the third time to be a part of
this program. They rejected him twice, which is a testament
to what we talk about our Money Making Conversation masterclass.
You know, just because somebody says no doesn't mean they

(28:32):
said no to you. Just saying no that at that time,
and you're up against a lot of the world is
about competition. If you're not willing to compete then stay employed,
staying there for the hour job. There's nothing wrong with it.
But when you get in an entrepreneurial space, the competition
goes through the roof and you have to be prepared
to understand that because you are now in a competitive world.

(28:55):
Then know the resistance, the people telling you, asking you,
questioning your decisions, happened all the time. But he has
a great app, travel app. You know he's based down
in Atlanta, Georgia tech graduate by way of Boston six
one seven area code. I know it by the way.
I have been to Portland, Maine, beautiful state, going to

(29:18):
winter time. It is just like a Christmas card. Thank you,
my man, Lawrence Phillips for coming on Money Making Conversations
master class. Fantastic interview.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Thank you, thank you for having me. Just appreciate the
opportunity to be on here and just hey.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
This has been Money Making Conversations against audience.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Visit money Making.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Conversation dot com to listen or registered to be against
on my show. Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning

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Episode Transcript

Host

Shirley Strawberry

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Brand Building: In 2017 founded Green Book Global, a travel review platform for Black travelers, partnered with Expedia.