October 13, 2024 • 31 mins
Dennis discusses the many ways he works with the community to grow people and Detroit businesses, his childhood experiences that give him a unique perspective, and his current ventures.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Light Up the D focus on what's happening
in our community from the people who make it Happenque's
your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, and welcome to another episode of Light Up
the D. I'm your host, Colleen Grant, and I'm really
excited about our guest today.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It's Dennis W.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Archer Junior. And you might be familiar with his name,
but I'll tell you it's difficult to put into words
so much about him, to introduce him, because he has
his hand in so many things in the community. But
let me give you a little hint about Dennis Archer Junior.
He's the chairman and CEO of sixteen forty two Ventures,
which is the parent company to a number of operating
(00:42):
companies in strategic investments. Just name a few, Archer Corporate Services,
Ignition Media Group, and hopefully you've had the chance to
enjoy Central Kitchen and Bar Downtown. Sixteen forty two's wide
ranging investments fall into many industry verticals from tech to
alternative healthcare, film production, hospitality, and of course real estate,
(01:03):
among others, but it is hard to quantify in this
brief bio. The many areas that Dennis is involved in,
but what I'll tell you rises to the top that
I love is his commitment to serving the community, which
he does not only through his businesses by employing people,
growing talent, and opening many doors to give more people
a wider range of opportunities, but also the many civic
(01:25):
and philanthropic organizations he's involved with that serve the community.
Dennis received both undergraduate and law degrees from.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
The University of Michigan. For those of you who are.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Fans and Gobo and resides in Detroit with his two
wonderful sons. He can be found at Dennis Archer Junior
dot com. Please join me in welcoming Dennis Archer Junior.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It sounds way more impressive than it actually is.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I'll tell you I am not kidding.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
When I was looking through like I said Dennis Archer
Junior dot com, I was like, where do I even begin.
You do so much in the community, and your history
is so rich in the community for a wide variety
of reasons, and not just your familial relationships, but you yourself.
Things you've created yourself, that you've developed. Why don't we
(02:11):
just start back at the beginning, though, so we can
give people some context. How do you think your childhood
experiences have contributed to who you've become today and how
you operate?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Wow, I guess it would depend how far back and
which experiences, But generally as a child I had two
great examples my mother and father, who both had tremendous
work ethic. Both encouraged me to do my best in school,
(02:45):
neither pressured me. They were both lawyers, they were both
judges and elected officials, but there was no pressure to
go into the law I did anyway, and there's no
pressure to go into politics, which I'm getting other pressures
to do that, but not for my family. So I
would say with formatively work ethic, one of the most
(03:09):
important things, I would say those treating all people the same.
My father, who I would tag along with to the
office on the weekends, and ultimately I worked at some
of his places of business, and definitely as he moved
around as a politician, it wouldn't matter if it was
President Clinton and Vice President Gore who we were friendly
(03:31):
with from a family perspective, or the porter at the
airport or the shoeshine guy in the lobby of the
office building. He treated everybody the same, and I have
likewise had that indoctrinated on how I approach people, and
it's very organic and natural. I've got a very wide
(03:53):
range of friends. I think if anyone would come to
any of my larger gatherings I love to entertain, you
will get people from all walks of life. They get
invited to come to that event. And that to me,
that networking and building relationships has really been the foundation
of any modicable success that I've had to date has
(04:15):
been as results of relationships. I really cherish them all.
I water all of those flowers on a regular basis,
and I think that coming out of my childhood seeing
my parents entertain, see seeing them develop and nurture relationships,
I would say it's probably the single most contributing factor.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Do you think the fact that they didn't put pressure
on you is part of why you didn't rebel against
that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I had not thought about that. I don't think that's
the case. I just think that, you know, I did
matriculate from undergraduate school into law school. I think at
the time, the mindset was you had to get a
graduate degree in order to go along, you know, a
successful track at that time, and that is just what
I knew. I mean, both my parents were lawyers. My
(05:05):
mother's sister, Mott, and her husband were lawyers. My mom's
grandfather was a lawyer. Her father worked in my dad's
a law firm. So I was just surrounded by lawyers
and doctors, and the doctor thing didn't interest me. I
don't like blood. I don't like getting shot or getting
my blood taken right now. And so I pursued that.
(05:27):
And even in law school, all four years of high
school in the summer, all four years of college in
the summer, and the first two summers of law school,
I always worked at law firms. But I was always
a hustler. I mean I was removing snow. In our neighborhood.
The street borders were white stones, and everyone wanted to
(05:51):
keep their stones painted freshly white. So I had a
paint can and a brush, and I would go knock
on people's door and ask them do they want me
to paint their rocks? I think if you go look
at sixteen forty two ventures dot Com, you'll see on
that site, you know, the narrative starts out with those
rocks and driving through that neighborhood and one of my
(06:12):
dear friends, his father had four or five dealerships and
his best friend was the president of a bank and
was a business guy. And you know, he approached me
one day said what are you going to do? You
know this upcoming summer so, you know, go back to
work at a law firm. He's like, why are you
doing that?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
How old were you at this time?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I was in my early twenties.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And he said, on summer after summer.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Law firms, eight ten summers in a row.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
At that point I did. I was making my own money,
meeting people. It was interesting, but I never wanted if
I was going to be and I found this out
in law school, if I was going to be a
practicing attorney, it would have either been some sort of
mergers and acquisitions or a criminal Because I worked for
a criminal attorney. He represented like the biggest drug dealers
(07:02):
and any politicians that got accused of something criminal. He
was the top guy's name was Cornelius Pitts for years
and that I found that extraordinarily exhilarating. But the guy says,
his name was Charles Allen, and he said, why don't
you work with me for the summer. You're painting rocks,
you're cutting grass, You're doing all this sort of stuff.
You're moving snow out of driveways. You obviously have some
(07:25):
sort of innate business thing going on. So he his
Grammart Reality Advisors. He offered me a job the last
summer of law school. And I was going back to
law school for one last semester, graduating in December. And
I worked with him doing on distressed real estate assets.
(07:46):
And I worked half the summer in Detroit and half
the summer in Richmond, Virginia. And he made me a
job offer when I got to law school. So I
graduated in December, took the bar exam, flunked it, said
forget it, I'm not practicing now anyway, and started working
for him, and it was fantastic. An interesting part about that
relationship back to relationships is and this is why you
(08:09):
know for your listeners, Zach and whoever else is is
tuning in. You can never you have to. The more
you keep track of who your relationships are and who
are in that galaxy around you, you never know when
you can pull from it. So here's an example. So
when I was in law school about to finish. I
was working for the summer with Charles about to graduate
(08:31):
and then come work for him, and a friend of mine,
Brian mathis one of the smartest guys I know. He's
on Wall Street in New York now. And there's another
guy named Mike who we all went to Michigan. They
were older. His coach in Little League ended up being
Tom Monahan's one of his best friends, and went to
go work at Domino's Pizza. Mike was now in Africa
(08:54):
advising US companies on how to do business in Sub
Saharan Africa, and so Brian, being the brainchild, says, you know,
ding dong, Basically, you're in Africa trying to advise businesses
on how to do business in Africa. Your main man
is at Domino's Pizza. Why don't we take Domino's Pizza
(09:15):
to Africa? And I forgot how I got pulled into
the conversation, but we were all they were just out
of school and I was just graduating from the school.
So we were like, great idea, but we have no dough.
So I went to Charles Allen, who I was going
to go work for. I said, hey, you know, there's
an opportunity that could present itself for us to introduce
Domino's pizza in South Africa. And you know, I think
(09:38):
it's going to be a substantial fee to buy the
rights of the country. Would you be interested? He says, yeah,
So we negotiated. I think it's four hundred fifty thousand dollars.
He paid it all. I mean, none of let's that
had any money. And we opened four or five stores
in South Africa. So I went back and forth and
had chance to visit there. The guy named Paul, who
(10:00):
was amazing, was the head of international development for Dominos.
He and I went over a couple of times. It
was an amazing experience. All back to rooted in relationships. Right.
No one was a pizza guy. No one had studied
you know, fast food or hospitality. But I knew a
guy with the money. They knew the guy with the relationship.
The other guy knew Africa. We put it all together
(10:23):
and there it was.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So I mean, that's like master connecting, you know, because
you have to be able to see the network and
how it fits together.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah. I mean I think that if you were to
look at you mentioned a couple of businesses, a few
Archer Corporate Services. We just celebrated our twentieth year congratulation
and we were in Belleville with the corporate office downtown
and we were a house and distribute marketing collateral on
behalf of the fortune one hundred. It's not sexy. No
one's ever heard of it. You guys don't want to
(10:51):
come visit our warehouse in Belleville. Trust me, it's very nice,
but it's in the middle of nowhere. But even with
that business, I had a law school buddy who Brad Keewell,
who were very good friends to this day. I saw
the two weeks ago in Chicago, but we played against
each other in tennis and high school and we knew
(11:12):
of each other. We went to Michigan undergrad and really
fell apart in terms of seeing each other, and then
we went to law school. And in law school we
took a negotiations class from JJ White, who was one
of the co authors of the most recent UCC uniform
FOREM commercial codes. But in that class, at the end
of it, for your final grade, you're giving a set
(11:33):
of circumstances. Their two teams, and you have your circumstances,
you don't have theirs, and you have to negotiate for
the best outcome. The whole thing is videotaped. So Brad
was on the other side. So we got cool and
we remained close. So fast forward twenty two or twenty
three years. Three years ago, Brad called me and said,
do you know anything about the fulfillment business? Said?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
No?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Why? So Brad is in YPO Young President's Organization and
they're at a co where people from around the country
go and they meet and they share each other's challenges
and they helping, they advise each other. And one of
the guys said, yeah, you know a lot of my
clients are talking to me about supplier diversity and you know,
the opportunity in the future of doing business with them.
(12:16):
They're trying to open doors to people of color and
more women to get them in business. And he said,
I can't figure out how to do anything with this.
And this is the guy went to William and Mary.
He's pasty white, aw ahead, no eyebrows, and he basically
was like, I don't know, I don't know any black people.
I don't know anybody of color. And so Brad says, hey,
you know, I got a friend in Detroit. He's tied
(12:37):
end with the automotives. He's looking to do something entrepreneurial.
And by the way, this is when I'm station manager
for Radio one. So I've got three properties. I've got
I don't remember, sixty five or seventy employees. We're doing decent,
you know, revenue, great, ebadah. So I'm having fun as
you know, great, great job. But we went to lunch
(12:58):
with this guy, dinner with this guy at Baco, and
I grabbed my partner of twenty years, Mike Carr. We've
been looking to do something together. I said, Mike, let's
just go to the dinner and here what this guy
has to say. That was in two thousand and three,
and in two thousand and five we got our first
piece of business from General Motors, And so that came
from Brad, my relationship in law school, having a relationship
(13:20):
with this guy from YPO, and pulling us all together.
And so I wish I could say that it was
one hundred percent just grind, and of course it was
hard work. We had failures along the way, but I
could tell you countless stories like that and things that
I've done where it has been rooted in just relationships
(13:41):
coming together. I mean, I'll give you one more central
kitchen and bar, six sixty Woodward Avenue for those of
you who haven't been there. We just celebrated nine years
in August and about eleven years ago. Friends of ours.
There's like eight or nine guys that this was like
the seventeenth year this year that we we go on
vacation together last week in July and we talked business
(14:05):
and you know, among these a little monkey business. As
we've gotten older, the monkey business has subsided. But in
that particular year, we're waiting in the pool and I says, yeah,
I think we should put a restaurant downtown, Dan Gilbert.
It's moving people here. There's more young people downtown. There's
not enough for them to do. What do you guys think?
And literally in the pool, everyone's like, I'm in, I'm in,
(14:25):
I'm in, And you know, I forget how much. It's
one point five or six million bucks, no debt. We
all just threw money and we opened a restaurant. It's
been successful for nine years. But that is just a
group of friends that just said, hey, you know, we
should just do this, that we think it'll work, and
we did it, and so all rooted in relationships and friendships.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I think part of what when I listened to you
speak about, like what makes you different in a couple
of different ways. You mean you're talking about you know,
these all these relationships that have kind of opened opportunities
for you that you've maintained the relationships and then the
things come about. But I think one of the things
that as I watch you and listen to you talk
(15:05):
and I go, what is the difference, is that a
lot of people would would be fearful of entering into
sectors that they know nothing about, you know, like when
you talk about Archer corporate services and the things that
you do, like that's a whole new industry that is
pretty random for you to get involved in, you know,
and say, yes, I'm going to open this whole new
business and I have no clue, you know anything about
(15:27):
this this product category. And now I'm going to open
a restaurant. I have no no understanding of the restaurant industry.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Or maybe maybe you you know, maybe you do.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Have some sort of background in it, but not like, uh,
where you're operating the business? How do you how what
makes you the fearless person that you've indicated you are
with all the different ventures that you well.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
I think fearless I would be giving myself too much credit.
I think that some level of fear and anxiety is
good no matter how successful you get. I mean in
the in the instant of as people talk about Central
and it being great and it being successful, you know,
from a critical standpoint, and then from a fiscal standpoint.
(16:11):
They don't mention sauce, which was my first point my
first business and hospitality, which failed. Learned a lot from it,
you know, from management, banking relationships, physical plant of the place,
not being structurally sound. I mean, everything that could have
gone wrong went wrong. But I did that in my
(16:32):
twenties and I learned from it. Archer Corporate Services was
much more calculated, you know. We thoroughly investigated the opportunity.
There was no other player that was minority owned in
the country doing this work, and we felt that we had,
because of my background of Mike's background, a decent shot.
(16:53):
But I didn't quit my job at Radio one until
we got our first deal with General Motors, and so
I knew at least that was I think a three
or five year deal at the beginning that would allow
me to be on that company's payroll and so it
wasn't until then that I stepped away, so that was
much more calculated. But there are things you know that
(17:15):
I do now that everything is a calculate at risk,
and it's very interesting when you're talking about risk. This morning,
Gary Torgo, who's chairman of Huntington Bank, invited me to
spend some time with Wolver Ross, whose billionaire investor and
former Secretary of Commerce under Donald Trump. And he's out
(17:38):
with his new book and I think it's called Risk
and Reward or something like that, and I got to
sign copy of the book, sat in the front row,
got a chance to talk to mister Ross for a
little bit afterwards. But he talks about the same thing.
I mean, you just got to do it. And one
of my dear friends, Brad who I mentioned from Tennis
and Negotiations, who brought us together other his biggest critique
(18:02):
of any entrepreneurs that they wait too long and they
try to identify every which reason why it won't work
instead of just doing it. He's always just like, if
you got an idea, just try it, try it immediately.
If it doesn't work, then move on to the next one.
And so the diversity, and the things that I've either
(18:23):
invested in or principally participated in are a large part
because people either they have expertise in it and I
bought into the belief that they know what they're doing,
or the idea is one that's so good, and then
you know, I trust the person that's at the helm.
You know, you've heard people say all the time, you
bet on the jockey, not the horse, right. And one
(18:44):
of the things that mister Ross said this morning was
just that he always looked to identify because Gary Torgo
is a fireside chat like we're doing here, and Gary said, well,
how do you identify the deals that you want to
invest in? And he says, I look kit to see
if I can trust the person with whom I'm investing,
(19:06):
and if I can trust that person. And he was
saying the same thing the jockey over the horse, but
in his own way. And so I just try to
follow that, follow that rule.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
What are some of the things that you're working on
that are most interest to you?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, I guess a few things at the moment. One,
we just opened the Vinyl Society, which is in downtown
Detroit New Cocktail Lounge where this is I think week fifteen.
I'm gonna stop counting after a while, but I think
we're almost four months old and things are going well there.
But the bigger picture base on where we're located is
that that is in area known as Paradise Valley now.
(19:47):
And for the listeners that may not be aware, when
black folks moved to Detroit in the you know, from
the twenties through the sixties to take automotive jobs. You know,
it was advertise in the South, come up to Detroit
and you can make a dollar a day working for
Henry Ford and the plants. And so there was a
great migration the black folks that came to the Detroit
area to take those jobs. They could work alongside people
(20:10):
in the plants, but they could not live in their neighborhoods.
So a segregated neighborhood called Black Bottom developed and it
was now over near like the Lafayette Park area up
through Werner and that's where black folks lived. Now, you
need it somewhere to work and play and where you're
working in the plan but play and shopping areas of commerce.
(20:32):
So Paradise Valley developed where there were black owned hotels
and clubs, and the dentists was there, and the hospital
was there. Really everything you would need commercially. The grocery
store was in Paradise Valley, in this area of black commerce,
and it as what happens in most cities around the country,
urban renewal happens and gentrification, and the Freeway three seventy
(20:55):
five came down Ford Field was built, and so the
designated this area in twenty fourteen or so as Paradise Valley.
It's not exactly where it was, it's you know, the board,
it's bordering close, not too far. And so then you
put an RFP out to market seven properties, and part
(21:18):
of responding to that RFP you had to articulate how
you were going to infuse the history of Paradise Valley
into your project. And so I bid on a couple
of buildings. Was fortunate enough to win the bid, and
we had the whole team of investors was all black,
(21:39):
The lawyer on the deal was black. All the tenants
in the building are black, and so it really to me,
I'm very proud of that. And now I'm chairman of
the board of the nonprofit that now supports the entire
neighborhood and so we're in the process of raising money
to beautify, maintain, and program the entire broader neighborhood. So
(21:59):
having my business and now my corporate headquarters in that neighborhood,
historic black commercial community, and then being responsible for the
maintenance of the neighborhood as a whole is really prideful.
I've been on the board of Jalen Rose's Leadership Academy
for a number of years. Really love the work that
we're doing there. Jalen came to me, I went to
(22:21):
Detroit Country Day Schools, fortunate enough to go there, my
kids are there, but Jalen said, I want to do
a Detroit Country Day for inner city black families. So
I said them all in. So I'm happy with the
work we're doing there. Very challenging educating kids, particularly post
COVID has become even more challenging, and even more so
(22:42):
in the urban environment. And so that work is gratifying
because we're able to do good work and have tremendous
success stories. So I enjoy that. I'm leaving you to
go to a board meeting. Actually, oh right, that's great.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What do you think are some of the hardest things
that you're working on today.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
What makes it? I mean, I think education is difficult.
I think hiring across the board in today's environment is
difficult for a couple of reasons. One since COVID, the
whole kind of work from home thing and having a
hybrid environment is tough. Now at Archer Corporate Services, everybody
(23:22):
comes in every day, I mean unless you live out
of state, and we have two or three people that
live out of state, but everybody comes into the office
every day, and ignition, we have a hybrid environment. But
even in all of those environments, it's tough because the
weight of it is really with the employee. Because there's
(23:43):
so much opportunity. Now I'm partners with the founder some
of the founders of Angie's List, and they have a
new company called Make My Move, and that's taking advantage
of the sixty million of remote workers that are now
so because of what happened during COVID, and so now
they can go work anywhere. So they're using the same
(24:05):
algorithms that they had with the Angie's List to match Dennis,
who's not a handyman with a plumber, to match Jackson
Michigan with Colleen who can work anywhere. But likes Jackson
because it's you can be on a lake and it's
the cost of living, it's cheap, and it's close to
airport or whatever are your characteristics, and so that sort
(24:27):
of trying to operate in that environment as someone trying
to build a corporate culture is tough across the board.
I think from a hospitality standpoint, one of the premises
when we opened Central was that there were not a
lot of newer style restaurants downtown. You had Joe Muhror's,
you had the Caucaus Club, you had the London Chop House,
(24:49):
which are still stalwarts today. But if you're twenty years
old one, you can't afford to go to those places.
And that's just not You're not looking for that dark,
woody steak, heavy food vibe. So when we opened Central,
it was basically US and Jeremy open Townhouse. Within a
month of Us Selden had been open or open around
(25:10):
the time in Dime Store and that was it, and
Writing Company and that was it for a while. Fast forward,
I can't even people are telling me these new places
that are opening. I used to go to every opening,
support every owner and chef. They're opening so fast now
you can't. What that has done is that there's only
so many people that want to work in hospitality. And so,
(25:31):
you know, trying to cultivate the culture within hospitality, get
good people, pay great right great rates to keep the
good people is I guess another challenge, I would say,
but it's one that we're having fun with. I mean, tomorrow,
I'm hosting a lunch at Wayne County Community College District
because they have an amazing culinary program. So I'm taking
(25:53):
a bunch of my peers, they're either chefs, managers or
owners of restaurants, to the school to say, hey, let's
all work with this institution so that they can cultivate
a bench for all of us, you know, a pipeline
of people who are they're obviously interested in hospitality because
you're enrolled here, and so you know, wherever there's a problem,
there's a solution.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, And you identify the problem, then you look for
where you can find the solution.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah. So you know you just said that you're you know,
creating a bench by working with a collegiate organization. And
I think that's one of the things that you've demonstrated
to and all the things that I've read about you
as well. Dennis is working with people to give them
opportunity and open doors for people. Talk a little bit
about how important that is to you.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I mean, well, first of all, anybody, I mean, you've
heard all of the different analogies and metaphors about being
in the room or sitting having a seat at the table.
I mean, it's really incoming upon those of us who
are able to be in those rooms to bring people along.
I mean, you hear stories, unfortunately all the time. I
hear them about women all the time about you know,
(26:58):
I'll say, why don't you talk to so and so?
You know, she's in a great position to help you
all she doesn't help women, you know. And then there
are some certain black folks who who don't. They've gotten
to a place where they're successful and they could be helpful,
and they don't. And I guess that's something else that
I learned from both of my parents, particularly from my
(27:18):
father giving the roles that he's had, is that it's
really incumbent upon you if you're in a position to help,
that you do help. And so I fortunately spend and
fortunately I have a great staff to help me do this.
But spend a lot of my day doing that, whether
it's making a phone call on behalf of somebody. I
mean today I drove here on the phone with a
(27:39):
potential tenant for a landlord that I've got nothing to
do financially with, but happens to be in Paradise Valley
trying to convince that tenant to go into his building.
I have nothing to do with it financially. It's just
the right thing to do. But I'm a believer that
I'm not even I wouldn't say a believer in what
goes around comes around. That's not why I do it.
(28:01):
I happen to find pleasure in helping people, and so
you know, even more so or ahead of like my success,
I mean, I really find pleasure and being able to
do that for people.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I mean, again, you just gave an example of how
you made it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You're making connections to lift people up, right, Yeah, So
what is what does the future look like for you?
Are you going to continue in the verticals you're in
or are you looking for new and different opportunities.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
What's going to keep you happy and motivated.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
What's going to keep me happy and motivated is to
know at some point I will have my yacht outside
of outside of my hut on some beach. It could
be a hut. I don't need much.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Sorry, hold on, I don't see you in a hut.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Well, you know, if you have a yacht and you
can have a hut. No, but seriously, I mean i'd
lie like doing what I'm doing. I mean, I don't.
I don't see. I'm still relatively young in the scheme
of things. I don't have any idea about retirement. There's
no vertical or business that I'm yearning to get in
that I'm not already in. I think the most important
(29:10):
thing that I can do right now for myself and
my sanity and then to allow me to do what
I love, which to help other people, is to make
sure that I have phenomenal leadership and a bench within
each of my organizations. And so we are well along
that way. And I think that my immediate goals over
the next twelve to eighteen months is to have that
(29:32):
in place, because when those foundations are set, then I
can be more explorative as relates to looking at other opportunities.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
What do you think the most important thing you can
be teaching your sons these days are.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Have fun, work as hard as you can. You should
have fun, and you should treat everybody the same and
with respect. I mean, that's still the one lesson that
resonates with me to this day. And it's funny because
as my mother asked my oldest son, Trey, who's now
at the Raw School business, he's a sophomore, something about
(30:07):
what he liked about his first year, and his response
was the relationships that I've made and that I'm maintaining.
So she called me immediately and she said, did you
tell him to say that? I said no, but he's
obviously he's listening and he's observing. It's in the genes,
it is in the jeans.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I love it, so so nice talking with you today, Dennis,
such a pleasure. Our guest today has been Detis Archer Junior.
He's chairman and CEO of sixteen forty two ventures. Thank
you so much for that.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
This was great.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Thank you for having we could talk to you for
hours and hours and hours. I feel like I'll come back.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
We'll do a part too.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
We haven't even scratched the surface. So thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
This has been light up the d a community, a
fierce program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
Welcome to Light Up the D focus on what's happening
in our community from the people who make it Happenque's
your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, and welcome to another episode of Light Up
the D. I'm your host, Colleen Grant, and I'm really
excited about our guest today.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It's Dennis W.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Archer Junior. And you might be familiar with his name,
but I'll tell you it's difficult to put into words
so much about him, to introduce him, because he has
his hand in so many things in the community. But
let me give you a little hint about Dennis Archer Junior.
He's the chairman and CEO of sixteen forty two Ventures,
which is the parent company to a number of operating
(00:42):
companies in strategic investments. Just name a few, Archer Corporate Services,
Ignition Media Group, and hopefully you've had the chance to
enjoy Central Kitchen and Bar Downtown. Sixteen forty two's wide
ranging investments fall into many industry verticals from tech to
alternative healthcare, film production, hospitality, and of course real estate,
(01:03):
among others, but it is hard to quantify in this
brief bio. The many areas that Dennis is involved in,
but what I'll tell you rises to the top that
I love is his commitment to serving the community, which
he does not only through his businesses by employing people,
growing talent, and opening many doors to give more people
a wider range of opportunities, but also the many civic
(01:25):
and philanthropic organizations he's involved with that serve the community.
Dennis received both undergraduate and law degrees from.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
The University of Michigan. For those of you who are.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Fans and Gobo and resides in Detroit with his two
wonderful sons. He can be found at Dennis Archer Junior
dot com. Please join me in welcoming Dennis Archer Junior.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
It sounds way more impressive than it actually is.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I'll tell you I am not kidding.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
When I was looking through like I said Dennis Archer
Junior dot com, I was like, where do I even begin.
You do so much in the community, and your history
is so rich in the community for a wide variety
of reasons, and not just your familial relationships, but you yourself.
Things you've created yourself, that you've developed. Why don't we
(02:11):
just start back at the beginning, though, so we can
give people some context. How do you think your childhood
experiences have contributed to who you've become today and how
you operate?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Wow, I guess it would depend how far back and
which experiences, But generally as a child I had two
great examples my mother and father, who both had tremendous
work ethic. Both encouraged me to do my best in school,
(02:45):
neither pressured me. They were both lawyers, they were both
judges and elected officials, but there was no pressure to
go into the law I did anyway, and there's no
pressure to go into politics, which I'm getting other pressures
to do that, but not for my family. So I
would say with formatively work ethic, one of the most
(03:09):
important things, I would say those treating all people the same.
My father, who I would tag along with to the
office on the weekends, and ultimately I worked at some
of his places of business, and definitely as he moved
around as a politician, it wouldn't matter if it was
President Clinton and Vice President Gore who we were friendly
(03:31):
with from a family perspective, or the porter at the
airport or the shoeshine guy in the lobby of the
office building. He treated everybody the same, and I have
likewise had that indoctrinated on how I approach people, and
it's very organic and natural. I've got a very wide
(03:53):
range of friends. I think if anyone would come to
any of my larger gatherings I love to entertain, you
will get people from all walks of life. They get
invited to come to that event. And that to me,
that networking and building relationships has really been the foundation
of any modicable success that I've had to date has
(04:15):
been as results of relationships. I really cherish them all.
I water all of those flowers on a regular basis,
and I think that coming out of my childhood seeing
my parents entertain, see seeing them develop and nurture relationships,
I would say it's probably the single most contributing factor.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Do you think the fact that they didn't put pressure
on you is part of why you didn't rebel against
that opportunity.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
I had not thought about that. I don't think that's
the case. I just think that, you know, I did
matriculate from undergraduate school into law school. I think at
the time, the mindset was you had to get a
graduate degree in order to go along, you know, a
successful track at that time, and that is just what
I knew. I mean, both my parents were lawyers. My
(05:05):
mother's sister, Mott, and her husband were lawyers. My mom's
grandfather was a lawyer. Her father worked in my dad's
a law firm. So I was just surrounded by lawyers
and doctors, and the doctor thing didn't interest me. I
don't like blood. I don't like getting shot or getting
my blood taken right now. And so I pursued that.
(05:27):
And even in law school, all four years of high
school in the summer, all four years of college in
the summer, and the first two summers of law school,
I always worked at law firms. But I was always
a hustler. I mean I was removing snow. In our neighborhood.
The street borders were white stones, and everyone wanted to
(05:51):
keep their stones painted freshly white. So I had a
paint can and a brush, and I would go knock
on people's door and ask them do they want me
to paint their rocks? I think if you go look
at sixteen forty two ventures dot Com, you'll see on
that site, you know, the narrative starts out with those
rocks and driving through that neighborhood and one of my
(06:12):
dear friends, his father had four or five dealerships and
his best friend was the president of a bank and
was a business guy. And you know, he approached me
one day said what are you going to do? You
know this upcoming summer so, you know, go back to
work at a law firm. He's like, why are you
doing that?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
How old were you at this time?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I was in my early twenties.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And he said, on summer after summer.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Law firms, eight ten summers in a row.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
At that point I did. I was making my own money,
meeting people. It was interesting, but I never wanted if
I was going to be and I found this out
in law school, if I was going to be a
practicing attorney, it would have either been some sort of
mergers and acquisitions or a criminal Because I worked for
a criminal attorney. He represented like the biggest drug dealers
(07:02):
and any politicians that got accused of something criminal. He
was the top guy's name was Cornelius Pitts for years
and that I found that extraordinarily exhilarating. But the guy says,
his name was Charles Allen, and he said, why don't
you work with me for the summer. You're painting rocks,
you're cutting grass, You're doing all this sort of stuff.
You're moving snow out of driveways. You obviously have some
(07:25):
sort of innate business thing going on. So he his
Grammart Reality Advisors. He offered me a job the last
summer of law school. And I was going back to
law school for one last semester, graduating in December. And
I worked with him doing on distressed real estate assets.
(07:46):
And I worked half the summer in Detroit and half
the summer in Richmond, Virginia. And he made me a
job offer when I got to law school. So I
graduated in December, took the bar exam, flunked it, said
forget it, I'm not practicing now anyway, and started working
for him, and it was fantastic. An interesting part about that
relationship back to relationships is and this is why you
(08:09):
know for your listeners, Zach and whoever else is is
tuning in. You can never you have to. The more
you keep track of who your relationships are and who
are in that galaxy around you, you never know when
you can pull from it. So here's an example. So
when I was in law school about to finish. I
was working for the summer with Charles about to graduate
(08:31):
and then come work for him, and a friend of mine,
Brian mathis one of the smartest guys I know. He's
on Wall Street in New York now. And there's another
guy named Mike who we all went to Michigan. They
were older. His coach in Little League ended up being
Tom Monahan's one of his best friends, and went to
go work at Domino's Pizza. Mike was now in Africa
(08:54):
advising US companies on how to do business in Sub
Saharan Africa, and so Brian, being the brainchild, says, you know,
ding dong, Basically, you're in Africa trying to advise businesses
on how to do business in Africa. Your main man
is at Domino's Pizza. Why don't we take Domino's Pizza
(09:15):
to Africa? And I forgot how I got pulled into
the conversation, but we were all they were just out
of school and I was just graduating from the school.
So we were like, great idea, but we have no dough.
So I went to Charles Allen, who I was going
to go work for. I said, hey, you know, there's
an opportunity that could present itself for us to introduce
Domino's pizza in South Africa. And you know, I think
(09:38):
it's going to be a substantial fee to buy the
rights of the country. Would you be interested? He says, yeah,
So we negotiated. I think it's four hundred fifty thousand dollars.
He paid it all. I mean, none of let's that
had any money. And we opened four or five stores
in South Africa. So I went back and forth and
had chance to visit there. The guy named Paul, who
(10:00):
was amazing, was the head of international development for Dominos.
He and I went over a couple of times. It
was an amazing experience. All back to rooted in relationships. Right.
No one was a pizza guy. No one had studied
you know, fast food or hospitality. But I knew a
guy with the money. They knew the guy with the relationship.
The other guy knew Africa. We put it all together
(10:23):
and there it was.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So I mean, that's like master connecting, you know, because
you have to be able to see the network and
how it fits together.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah. I mean I think that if you were to
look at you mentioned a couple of businesses, a few
Archer Corporate Services. We just celebrated our twentieth year congratulation
and we were in Belleville with the corporate office downtown
and we were a house and distribute marketing collateral on
behalf of the fortune one hundred. It's not sexy. No
one's ever heard of it. You guys don't want to
(10:51):
come visit our warehouse in Belleville. Trust me, it's very nice,
but it's in the middle of nowhere. But even with
that business, I had a law school buddy who Brad Keewell,
who were very good friends to this day. I saw
the two weeks ago in Chicago, but we played against
each other in tennis and high school and we knew
(11:12):
of each other. We went to Michigan undergrad and really
fell apart in terms of seeing each other, and then
we went to law school. And in law school we
took a negotiations class from JJ White, who was one
of the co authors of the most recent UCC uniform
FOREM commercial codes. But in that class, at the end
of it, for your final grade, you're giving a set
(11:33):
of circumstances. Their two teams, and you have your circumstances,
you don't have theirs, and you have to negotiate for
the best outcome. The whole thing is videotaped. So Brad
was on the other side. So we got cool and
we remained close. So fast forward twenty two or twenty
three years. Three years ago, Brad called me and said,
do you know anything about the fulfillment business? Said?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
No?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Why? So Brad is in YPO Young President's Organization and
they're at a co where people from around the country
go and they meet and they share each other's challenges
and they helping, they advise each other. And one of
the guys said, yeah, you know a lot of my
clients are talking to me about supplier diversity and you know,
the opportunity in the future of doing business with them.
(12:16):
They're trying to open doors to people of color and
more women to get them in business. And he said,
I can't figure out how to do anything with this.
And this is the guy went to William and Mary.
He's pasty white, aw ahead, no eyebrows, and he basically
was like, I don't know, I don't know any black people.
I don't know anybody of color. And so Brad says, hey,
you know, I got a friend in Detroit. He's tied
(12:37):
end with the automotives. He's looking to do something entrepreneurial.
And by the way, this is when I'm station manager
for Radio one. So I've got three properties. I've got
I don't remember, sixty five or seventy employees. We're doing decent,
you know, revenue, great, ebadah. So I'm having fun as
you know, great, great job. But we went to lunch
(12:58):
with this guy, dinner with this guy at Baco, and
I grabbed my partner of twenty years, Mike Carr. We've
been looking to do something together. I said, Mike, let's
just go to the dinner and here what this guy
has to say. That was in two thousand and three,
and in two thousand and five we got our first
piece of business from General Motors, And so that came
from Brad, my relationship in law school, having a relationship
(13:20):
with this guy from YPO, and pulling us all together.
And so I wish I could say that it was
one hundred percent just grind, and of course it was
hard work. We had failures along the way, but I
could tell you countless stories like that and things that
I've done where it has been rooted in just relationships
(13:41):
coming together. I mean, I'll give you one more central
kitchen and bar, six sixty Woodward Avenue for those of
you who haven't been there. We just celebrated nine years
in August and about eleven years ago. Friends of ours.
There's like eight or nine guys that this was like
the seventeenth year this year that we we go on
vacation together last week in July and we talked business
(14:05):
and you know, among these a little monkey business. As
we've gotten older, the monkey business has subsided. But in
that particular year, we're waiting in the pool and I says, yeah,
I think we should put a restaurant downtown, Dan Gilbert.
It's moving people here. There's more young people downtown. There's
not enough for them to do. What do you guys think?
And literally in the pool, everyone's like, I'm in, I'm in,
(14:25):
I'm in, And you know, I forget how much. It's
one point five or six million bucks, no debt. We
all just threw money and we opened a restaurant. It's
been successful for nine years. But that is just a
group of friends that just said, hey, you know, we
should just do this, that we think it'll work, and
we did it, and so all rooted in relationships and friendships.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I think part of what when I listened to you
speak about, like what makes you different in a couple
of different ways. You mean you're talking about you know,
these all these relationships that have kind of opened opportunities
for you that you've maintained the relationships and then the
things come about. But I think one of the things
that as I watch you and listen to you talk
(15:05):
and I go, what is the difference, is that a
lot of people would would be fearful of entering into
sectors that they know nothing about, you know, like when
you talk about Archer corporate services and the things that
you do, like that's a whole new industry that is
pretty random for you to get involved in, you know,
and say, yes, I'm going to open this whole new
business and I have no clue, you know anything about
(15:27):
this this product category. And now I'm going to open
a restaurant. I have no no understanding of the restaurant industry.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Or maybe maybe you you know, maybe you do.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Have some sort of background in it, but not like, uh,
where you're operating the business? How do you how what
makes you the fearless person that you've indicated you are
with all the different ventures that you well.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
I think fearless I would be giving myself too much credit.
I think that some level of fear and anxiety is
good no matter how successful you get. I mean in
the in the instant of as people talk about Central
and it being great and it being successful, you know,
from a critical standpoint, and then from a fiscal standpoint.
(16:11):
They don't mention sauce, which was my first point my
first business and hospitality, which failed. Learned a lot from it,
you know, from management, banking relationships, physical plant of the place,
not being structurally sound. I mean, everything that could have
gone wrong went wrong. But I did that in my
(16:32):
twenties and I learned from it. Archer Corporate Services was
much more calculated, you know. We thoroughly investigated the opportunity.
There was no other player that was minority owned in
the country doing this work, and we felt that we had,
because of my background of Mike's background, a decent shot.
(16:53):
But I didn't quit my job at Radio one until
we got our first deal with General Motors, and so
I knew at least that was I think a three
or five year deal at the beginning that would allow
me to be on that company's payroll and so it
wasn't until then that I stepped away, so that was
much more calculated. But there are things you know that
(17:15):
I do now that everything is a calculate at risk,
and it's very interesting when you're talking about risk. This morning,
Gary Torgo, who's chairman of Huntington Bank, invited me to
spend some time with Wolver Ross, whose billionaire investor and
former Secretary of Commerce under Donald Trump. And he's out
(17:38):
with his new book and I think it's called Risk
and Reward or something like that, and I got to
sign copy of the book, sat in the front row,
got a chance to talk to mister Ross for a
little bit afterwards. But he talks about the same thing.
I mean, you just got to do it. And one
of my dear friends, Brad who I mentioned from Tennis
and Negotiations, who brought us together other his biggest critique
(18:02):
of any entrepreneurs that they wait too long and they
try to identify every which reason why it won't work
instead of just doing it. He's always just like, if
you got an idea, just try it, try it immediately.
If it doesn't work, then move on to the next one.
And so the diversity, and the things that I've either
(18:23):
invested in or principally participated in are a large part
because people either they have expertise in it and I
bought into the belief that they know what they're doing,
or the idea is one that's so good, and then
you know, I trust the person that's at the helm.
You know, you've heard people say all the time, you
bet on the jockey, not the horse, right. And one
(18:44):
of the things that mister Ross said this morning was
just that he always looked to identify because Gary Torgo
is a fireside chat like we're doing here, and Gary said, well,
how do you identify the deals that you want to
invest in? And he says, I look kit to see
if I can trust the person with whom I'm investing,
(19:06):
and if I can trust that person. And he was
saying the same thing the jockey over the horse, but
in his own way. And so I just try to
follow that, follow that rule.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
What are some of the things that you're working on
that are most interest to you?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, I guess a few things at the moment. One,
we just opened the Vinyl Society, which is in downtown
Detroit New Cocktail Lounge where this is I think week fifteen.
I'm gonna stop counting after a while, but I think
we're almost four months old and things are going well there.
But the bigger picture base on where we're located is
that that is in area known as Paradise Valley now.
(19:47):
And for the listeners that may not be aware, when
black folks moved to Detroit in the you know, from
the twenties through the sixties to take automotive jobs. You know,
it was advertise in the South, come up to Detroit
and you can make a dollar a day working for
Henry Ford and the plants. And so there was a
great migration the black folks that came to the Detroit
area to take those jobs. They could work alongside people
(20:10):
in the plants, but they could not live in their neighborhoods.
So a segregated neighborhood called Black Bottom developed and it
was now over near like the Lafayette Park area up
through Werner and that's where black folks lived. Now, you
need it somewhere to work and play and where you're
working in the plan but play and shopping areas of commerce.
(20:32):
So Paradise Valley developed where there were black owned hotels
and clubs, and the dentists was there, and the hospital
was there. Really everything you would need commercially. The grocery
store was in Paradise Valley, in this area of black commerce,
and it as what happens in most cities around the country,
urban renewal happens and gentrification, and the Freeway three seventy
(20:55):
five came down Ford Field was built, and so the
designated this area in twenty fourteen or so as Paradise Valley.
It's not exactly where it was, it's you know, the board,
it's bordering close, not too far. And so then you
put an RFP out to market seven properties, and part
(21:18):
of responding to that RFP you had to articulate how
you were going to infuse the history of Paradise Valley
into your project. And so I bid on a couple
of buildings. Was fortunate enough to win the bid, and
we had the whole team of investors was all black,
(21:39):
The lawyer on the deal was black. All the tenants
in the building are black, and so it really to me,
I'm very proud of that. And now I'm chairman of
the board of the nonprofit that now supports the entire
neighborhood and so we're in the process of raising money
to beautify, maintain, and program the entire broader neighborhood. So
(21:59):
having my business and now my corporate headquarters in that neighborhood,
historic black commercial community, and then being responsible for the
maintenance of the neighborhood as a whole is really prideful.
I've been on the board of Jalen Rose's Leadership Academy
for a number of years. Really love the work that
we're doing there. Jalen came to me, I went to
(22:21):
Detroit Country Day Schools, fortunate enough to go there, my
kids are there, but Jalen said, I want to do
a Detroit Country Day for inner city black families. So
I said them all in. So I'm happy with the
work we're doing there. Very challenging educating kids, particularly post
COVID has become even more challenging, and even more so
(22:42):
in the urban environment. And so that work is gratifying
because we're able to do good work and have tremendous
success stories. So I enjoy that. I'm leaving you to
go to a board meeting. Actually, oh right, that's great.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What do you think are some of the hardest things
that you're working on today.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
What makes it? I mean, I think education is difficult.
I think hiring across the board in today's environment is
difficult for a couple of reasons. One since COVID, the
whole kind of work from home thing and having a
hybrid environment is tough. Now at Archer Corporate Services, everybody
(23:22):
comes in every day, I mean unless you live out
of state, and we have two or three people that
live out of state, but everybody comes into the office
every day, and ignition, we have a hybrid environment. But
even in all of those environments, it's tough because the
weight of it is really with the employee. Because there's
(23:43):
so much opportunity. Now I'm partners with the founder some
of the founders of Angie's List, and they have a
new company called Make My Move, and that's taking advantage
of the sixty million of remote workers that are now
so because of what happened during COVID, and so now
they can go work anywhere. So they're using the same
(24:05):
algorithms that they had with the Angie's List to match Dennis,
who's not a handyman with a plumber, to match Jackson
Michigan with Colleen who can work anywhere. But likes Jackson
because it's you can be on a lake and it's
the cost of living, it's cheap, and it's close to
airport or whatever are your characteristics, and so that sort
(24:27):
of trying to operate in that environment as someone trying
to build a corporate culture is tough across the board.
I think from a hospitality standpoint, one of the premises
when we opened Central was that there were not a
lot of newer style restaurants downtown. You had Joe Muhror's,
you had the Caucaus Club, you had the London Chop House,
(24:49):
which are still stalwarts today. But if you're twenty years
old one, you can't afford to go to those places.
And that's just not You're not looking for that dark,
woody steak, heavy food vibe. So when we opened Central,
it was basically US and Jeremy open Townhouse. Within a
month of Us Selden had been open or open around
(25:10):
the time in Dime Store and that was it, and
Writing Company and that was it for a while. Fast forward,
I can't even people are telling me these new places
that are opening. I used to go to every opening,
support every owner and chef. They're opening so fast now
you can't. What that has done is that there's only
so many people that want to work in hospitality. And so,
(25:31):
you know, trying to cultivate the culture within hospitality, get
good people, pay great right great rates to keep the
good people is I guess another challenge, I would say,
but it's one that we're having fun with. I mean, tomorrow,
I'm hosting a lunch at Wayne County Community College District
because they have an amazing culinary program. So I'm taking
(25:53):
a bunch of my peers, they're either chefs, managers or
owners of restaurants, to the school to say, hey, let's
all work with this institution so that they can cultivate
a bench for all of us, you know, a pipeline
of people who are they're obviously interested in hospitality because
you're enrolled here, and so you know, wherever there's a problem,
there's a solution.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, And you identify the problem, then you look for
where you can find the solution.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah. So you know you just said that you're you know,
creating a bench by working with a collegiate organization. And
I think that's one of the things that you've demonstrated
to and all the things that I've read about you
as well. Dennis is working with people to give them
opportunity and open doors for people. Talk a little bit
about how important that is to you.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I mean, well, first of all, anybody, I mean, you've
heard all of the different analogies and metaphors about being
in the room or sitting having a seat at the table.
I mean, it's really incoming upon those of us who
are able to be in those rooms to bring people along.
I mean, you hear stories, unfortunately all the time. I
hear them about women all the time about you know,
(26:58):
I'll say, why don't you talk to so and so?
You know, she's in a great position to help you
all she doesn't help women, you know. And then there
are some certain black folks who who don't. They've gotten
to a place where they're successful and they could be helpful,
and they don't. And I guess that's something else that
I learned from both of my parents, particularly from my
(27:18):
father giving the roles that he's had, is that it's
really incumbent upon you if you're in a position to help,
that you do help. And so I fortunately spend and
fortunately I have a great staff to help me do this.
But spend a lot of my day doing that, whether
it's making a phone call on behalf of somebody. I
mean today I drove here on the phone with a
(27:39):
potential tenant for a landlord that I've got nothing to
do financially with, but happens to be in Paradise Valley
trying to convince that tenant to go into his building.
I have nothing to do with it financially. It's just
the right thing to do. But I'm a believer that
I'm not even I wouldn't say a believer in what
goes around comes around. That's not why I do it.
(28:01):
I happen to find pleasure in helping people, and so
you know, even more so or ahead of like my success,
I mean, I really find pleasure and being able to
do that for people.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I mean, again, you just gave an example of how
you made it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You're making connections to lift people up, right, Yeah, So
what is what does the future look like for you?
Are you going to continue in the verticals you're in
or are you looking for new and different opportunities.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
What's going to keep you happy and motivated.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
What's going to keep me happy and motivated is to
know at some point I will have my yacht outside
of outside of my hut on some beach. It could
be a hut. I don't need much.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Sorry, hold on, I don't see you in a hut.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Well, you know, if you have a yacht and you
can have a hut. No, but seriously, I mean i'd
lie like doing what I'm doing. I mean, I don't.
I don't see. I'm still relatively young in the scheme
of things. I don't have any idea about retirement. There's
no vertical or business that I'm yearning to get in
that I'm not already in. I think the most important
(29:10):
thing that I can do right now for myself and
my sanity and then to allow me to do what
I love, which to help other people, is to make
sure that I have phenomenal leadership and a bench within
each of my organizations. And so we are well along
that way. And I think that my immediate goals over
the next twelve to eighteen months is to have that
(29:32):
in place, because when those foundations are set, then I
can be more explorative as relates to looking at other opportunities.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
What do you think the most important thing you can
be teaching your sons these days are.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Have fun, work as hard as you can. You should
have fun, and you should treat everybody the same and
with respect. I mean, that's still the one lesson that
resonates with me to this day. And it's funny because
as my mother asked my oldest son, Trey, who's now
at the Raw School business, he's a sophomore, something about
(30:07):
what he liked about his first year, and his response
was the relationships that I've made and that I'm maintaining.
So she called me immediately and she said, did you
tell him to say that? I said no, but he's
obviously he's listening and he's observing. It's in the genes,
it is in the jeans.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
I love it, so so nice talking with you today, Dennis,
such a pleasure. Our guest today has been Detis Archer Junior.
He's chairman and CEO of sixteen forty two ventures. Thank
you so much for that.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
This was great.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Thank you for having we could talk to you for
hours and hours and hours. I feel like I'll come back.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
We'll do a part too.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
We haven't even scratched the surface. So thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
This has been light up the d a community, a
fierce program from iHeartMedia Detroit. If your organization would like
to get on the program, email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia
dot com. Here are all episodes on this station's podcast page.
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