Brand Building: Encourages Black travelers to explore global opportunities and highlights the economic power of Black travelers.

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.
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 are you doing, Lawrence?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
All right? All right, so thank you, thank you so
much for having me. Just a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
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 (01:34):
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 (01:54):
So I'm gonna tell you something, brother, there's no joke, brother,
electrical engineering the Georgia Tech, that fifteen hundred SAT school
you got to got to have for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, there's a lot of I made it out. I
made it out, but it's done well. For my career.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Well, it's good, it's good, it's good. You know 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. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
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

(02:48):
and with that we did SAP implementations. So basically I
wanted to 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 I was like, hey, guys,

(03:09):
I'm tired.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I quick, you know, I'm gona tell youself this found
this sounds very famili 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,

(03:33):
you know all the things that people tell you you're
supposed to be doing in life, and then all of
a sudden, but you're not happy.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Talk about that transition, because that's when you start talking
to your friends and they started asking you what's wrong?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Man?

Speaker 1 (03:49):
You got everything you want. Great job, you know, you're
graduating from a great school, So why you trip it?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Right?

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Right right?

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

Speaker 1 (04:05):
This is my main compainsays 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 that you went to from Boston to Georgia Tech,
one of the top premier engineering schools in the country.

(04:28):
But then all of a sudden, it's just my future. Yeah,
floorish yours down.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
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

(04:54):
a break because there's a lot of work as well too,
And so even my girlfriend at the time, right, I said, hey,
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 fam is from rob Batos, so going back
and forth there and I think I mentioned to you
before I was in a program called Summer Search, and

(05:16):
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,

(05:36):
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.

(05:58):
Now 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

(06:18):
used 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.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Wow. 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,

(06:49):
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 (07:00):
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 is 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

(07:23):
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 there'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

(07:45):
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 We started talking

(08:07):
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,

(08:29):
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 is about.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
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 what I was
just talking about, the relaxation and the comfort zone. There

(09:02):
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

(09:27):
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

(09:49):
become when they feel tourists abuse the culture and I
respect the culture. Follow with more detail on that, because
I also want to talk about blind 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

(10:11):
and maturing to understand the value of travel.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
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

(10:35):
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

(10:56):
like you know what is it? It's racist as apple pie, right,
Like that's the core of a 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,

(11:16):
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. Amazing,
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

(11:38):
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 (11:48):
Absolutely talking to my man, Lawrence Phillips, green Book, green
Book Global. Now let's talk about Black Ambition. Black Ambition.
Felicia Hatcher could producer director of this program, which is
founded by Pharrell Williams, has been distributing millions of dollars.
It's fifty years is gonna happen in Miami and you're

(12:10):
gonna go down there. Tell us about your relationship with
Black Ambition and how in what significant role is playing
in your brand.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
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 sad, Let me just keep grinding.
I applied the second time, still got another note and

(12:39):
I was like, oh, dang, 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 (12:47):
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 (13:01):
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

(13:22):
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 past that first round,

(13:46):
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 was like a three week program
that all about wealth this 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

(14:06):
life changing for me. 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

(14:26):
a multi week process. But the end of it, my
wife statement was I'm 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

(14:48):
black women are black men, and so we have a
safe space for us to 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, 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

(15:11):
community's restoration. We need healing, 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's those
are all the different elements of how just that part
of the program is super impactful.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
For I know you have an app. How can we
reach out to you and start using your services? Lawrence?

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, So if you go to iOS or Android and
type in green Book Global, you will find the iosp
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.
Partner with Expedia. I went through the Expedy Accelerator and
I've done multiple campaigns and partnerships with them. So I'm

(15:54):
looking forward to really twenty twenty six and continue.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
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 harget. Okay, so
how are you marketing it. What how are you getting

(16:18):
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 (16:27):
Yeah, I mean, so we are unapologetically black and all
about safety. So I think there's there's richest 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

(16:49):
social media has done that for us, right, So we
have over one hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram
and just those videos going viral. And also we've been
in the game for a while, right, So twenty fifteen
it's when 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 Brazil and I ran to someone for a travel

(17:10):
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
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 get you know, that opportunity to
get those many eyeballs, and we're just offering something that's

(17:31):
not available in the market, Like you can't find the
twoes that we have in the market outside of our app.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
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.

(17:58):
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 (18:12):
Yes, absolutely, So I always thought, like you know, sometimes
people like, why aren't you calling it the Black Book? Right, Like,
so 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. It's

(18:33):
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 tribal 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 continue on that
legacy but in a mobile app, and so we also

(18:55):
do it outside of the US as well. So we
have a lot of tools dedicated to the US, but
we also have a lot of like for example, AI
can build you and that tenerrate to Paris in about
thirty seconds right using the reviews from our app. So
we definitely continuing the legacy. But that also is what
emboded me and gave me the permission, if you will,
to be unapologetically black, because we're continuing the legacy of

(19:17):
the Green Book just in an app form.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, in technology and technology, which is important. So give
me an example of how your app works. Dan, 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 that I

(19:46):
can get great food or great hotel stay, a great
vacation activity, talk to me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
So I'll give you maybe a couple of examples. So
the first one, which is really our flagship product, is
our Driving while Black road Trip Planner. So literally, if
you go onto the app, there's a road trip, there's
a car icon there because relating again to like driving
will 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,

(20:14):
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'll 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 meants average four dot O to four point five

(20:35):
and 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 road
trip 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. So we have twenty five hundred

(20:57):
of the top black on 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 trying to not maybe red. So
one city in particular, Vidora, Texas, is one that is
kind of renowned for its being in sundown town. Uh.
And so if literally if you're driving through by door,

(21:20):
you can actually hit a button and say avoid, and
our app will actually re route you around y door
and it'll give you the turn by turn navigation.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
He let me let me just let me correct here.
It's Vida buy no via textass right outside the bone,
that's via the right via the Texas I'm gonna Houston,
Texas born Oh okay, y to Texas is right between. Absolutely,
that's 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 Louisiama. First cit

(21:48):
you're gonna look at it's gonna be Vida, and then
you 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 (22:07):
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 renowned for a sundown town and 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

(22:28):
same bier am I saying it right? Is the recent
reviews don't don't seem like much a change from what
I've said.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
I don't think if I don't think people of color
want I want to test it out. Let's put it
that way, because we just blow on past that little city,
like I said, Beaumont, 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 ten West and take your Sanatoia then their passo.
Next thing you know, you're in Los Angeles. So I

(23:01):
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, a long 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 a using modern technology, correct.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Absolutely, and so like that's our flags, your product. But
then internationally, we don't have a roach your planet. 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,

(23:45):
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 a 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 people's trips. You'll

(24:06):
give you specific information outside of those scores too, and
then we have AI for you.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Let me just let everybody know you cause who I'm
talking to her 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 travel insights from the black perspective. I want to

(24:36):
keep emphasizing that being the person as I remember when
I left five BM I was, I left and pursued
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 here, and they understood that there are certain
communities right now where people live on one side of

(24:58):
the track and other people live on the others side of
the trade. You 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 THEIRMO on your platform?

Speaker 2 (25:19):
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

(25:39):
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
the work 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

(26:01):
black travelers spent 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.

(26:23):
And I'm from Boston too. I ain't never stepped foot
in Portland, Maine. It's still like two years ago, and
I'm from Boston, right, and so Portland's predominantly Maine'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 it
a little bit. And I had an amazing time when
I was there, right, And so we spent about maybe

(26:46):
four or five days built out in that 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 black

(27:08):
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 you're 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, that's going
to be kind of the goal that we have long
term to really bring about systemic change on a destination level,

(27:28):
because if we can get our community 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.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Wow thinking the Lawrence Phillips. He's part of the Black
Ambition event. But more importantly, this is a program where
he tried three times. The third time to be a
part of this program. They rejected them twice, which is
a testament to what we talk about on Money Making
Conversation Masterclass. You know, just because somebody said no doesn't
mean they said no to you. Just know that at

(28:00):
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. Then know the resistance, the

(28:24):
people telling you, asking you, questioning your decisions happen all
the time. But he has a great app travel app.
You know he's based now 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 winter time. It is just like

(28:45):
a Christmas card. Thank you, my man Lawrence Phillips for
coming on Money Making Conversations Master Play. This has been
Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald. Thanks to
I Guess and our audience. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to
listen or registered to be a guest on my show.
Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,

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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: Encourages Black travelers to explore global opportunities and highlights the economic power of Black travelers.