May 26, 2025 • 61 mins
Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
all right, all right, what's going on?
Everybody out there is ronbrown, lmt, the people's fitness
professional co-host.
I don't know where he is.
It's all good, the show must goon.
Uh, that's my partner, soyou'll see him probably later or
you'll see him tomorrow.
Thanks for y'all for checkingout tonight's podcast.
I really appreciate you.
(00:32):
Tonight is all about Blackexcellence.
We have Dr Paul Dyer here todayand Donovan Black.
What's going on?
What's going on everybody?
How y'all doing Wonderful,wonderful.
Oh, that's peace.
That that's peace.
Thank you for coming out thisevening.
Really appreciate you.
Um, I I got a little bit ofinformation about you.
However, um, before we getstarted, I'm gonna.
(00:56):
Everyone already knows dr pauldyer anyway.
They've been watching the show.
They know who he is.
He's a regular.
Thank you for supporting thechannel, dr paul dyer, and
believing in this um becoming amovement.
It seems like um and uh reallyappreciate you and thank you for
bringing donovan black with us.
(01:18):
So I don't know if you wouldlike to lead tonight's podcast
and ask the questions?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
in a way I do, and I and the reason why, and it
thanks everyone for coming on.
But today was going to be aboutblack excellence.
We've been talking about thebrain and the emotions and and
donald can tell you about a lotof emotions that he had with his
company that he started.
But but we go through the brain, we go through how it affects
(01:47):
you, we go through how it canthrow you off.
We've talked about how it canderail you.
We talked about how it canaffect your whole body as an
organism, right, your synapses,everything about the brain
through neuroscience.
(02:09):
And we've talked to some amazingpeople about how we as a people
, as Black people, as acommunity, we fall short because
we're not understanding thepieces, because we're not
understanding the pieces, we'renot putting the pieces together
or we're not hearing enoughpeople talk about how those
(02:33):
pieces can work.
Even through man, I work sohard or I'm tired and maybe I
should give up and I get angryand I get sad and I get a lot of
things.
And I'm going to tell you,donovan Black has been through
all of that and he started thefirst black Electric car company
(03:03):
.
Ok, that in itself.
So, donovan, you take it fromthere and tell them about what
you started, and we'll go fromthere and then you can tell them
about your struggles in yourown way, because I think people
don't hear enough of the glorystory.
I think they hear too much ofthe glory story.
(03:24):
I think they hear too much ofthe sad story.
Yeah Well, in 2025, we like tosay let's celebrate our people,
to say that let's do this too.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So thank you.
Thank you for the greatintroduction.
Technically, I'm not the first.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, you're talking about the older gentleman back
before Ford.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Not just those guys.
There's several other blackautomotive electric vehicle
companies out now.
I'm not sure if my registrationpredates them, but I know a lot
of my engineering did but did,but uh, at least a few I know of
(04:08):
.
There may be some out there Ihaven't heard of, but long, long
and short of it, uh, CRPatterson was the first
automotive black uh company inAmerica.
It was uh Patterson Sons andthen Greenfield Automotive, but
they were in Ohio, very smallfactory.
(04:31):
Matter of fact, the whole reasonfactories are internalized as
they are is because CR Pattersonwas sold a very small building,
you know, being a black man, in1838 when he started.
It started as a coach buildingcompany.
So they would buy, you know,really nice coaches and then do
(04:54):
what we do as black people makeit better, you know, put, make
the seats plusher, thesuspension softer, better horses
better, ornate elements on itand such.
And then when he got intoautomotive it was in the 1900s,
early 1900s, and uh, his factorywas every.
Everything was internalized uh,engine crafting, uh,
(05:18):
transmission axles, everythingwas in one building.
Um, it got to the point wherethere were tents outside the
building because people weresleeping to wait to get to the
next shift because he ran threeshifts for 24 hours, and this is
what Henry Ford gleaned fromthat company.
He saw that they internalizedeverything.
They didn't share theirinnovations with anyone else and
(05:39):
if they did, they licensed themand all their workers wanted to
work there.
Why did they want to work there?
Because he's a black man likeme.
He's down on the factory floorlooking at stuff.
He's in and around.
So I wanted to bring that back,um, but I also wanted to bring
to our community um and I'mgoing to get into the the mental
struggles I wanted to bring toour community manufacturing back
(06:00):
and not just manufacturing, youknow, shoes or T-shirts or
popping up a hair salon Alltalents I have.
I was born an artist.
My mother father, my mothermodel, became a cosmetologist.
Later my dad sang, did music.
He also modeled and did hair,sold T-shirts, you know, sold
(06:22):
art.
You know my mother, she didinterior design.
So multi-talented.
You know I could have done anynumber of things, but the most
impactful to our community, Ibelieve, is developing something
that we buy and it has to be amajor purchase, high ticket item
.
You know it couldn't be, youknow, just laptops or computers,
(06:43):
which I'll later get into inthe company, but right now it's
automotive vehicles and thereason being you want the next
generations to say I can be anautomotive engineer.
Yeah, you could be anautomotive engineer.
You could be beyond thestereotypes we have as well as
you can go into the marketingaspect.
(07:03):
You could go into the communitypart where we have accelerators
and programs within highschools and colleges, you know,
all the way down to theworkforce development part,
where we're not only employingpeople, we're trying to turn
them into first generation homebuyers, first generation sending
(07:29):
their kids to college by havinga mandatory minimum instead of
the 68,000 for automotive worker.
We're starting at 75 with thisyour similar dental health
packages.
But the mental, the mentalaspect of it is imagine being a
young person in the nineties.
(07:52):
You get this idea that you wantto do something impactful, you
want to use your artisticengineering skills or go in that
direction.
But you don't come from afamily middle class, you don't
come from generational wealth.
You got to work and grind toget to where you want to get to.
And mental struggle is JordanPeterson has a talk about this
(08:16):
and the hardest thing is to becreative and broke.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, let me ask you this.
I want to interject.
So where are you from?
Where are you from and whatgeneration did you come up?
Are you an 80s baby, 90s baby?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
we're winning the Olympics.
All the time Russia's bad,china's the enemy.
You know GI Joe's awesome If ithad explosions in it.
It was a movie, you know,that's the era.
Oh, and R&B was the best everin the 90s, disco and the R&B,
70s and early blues and stuff.
(09:04):
They're on a level of their own.
They're in different classes tome, but R&B to me if I could
play it.
I can't sing it, but if it wasKC JoJo or I was just thinking
of that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So it's KC and JoJo.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Or Black Creek, or you know, it was the joint.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Okay, yeah, you're getting ready to go into it.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Washington DC.
Born and raised, lived inseveral parts from the lowest
income areas to the highestincome areas in Washington.
Even lived in Maryland and someparts of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What part of Maryland .
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Prince George's County.
You know Temple Hills, oxonHill, my grandmother lived in
Capitol Heights.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So I was in Maryland and DC every summer when I was a
kid.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, same.
Because of the income bracketwe were in, sometimes during the
summer we got to go live with afamily member for a while,
while, you know, parents work adouble job, you know, and trying
to pursue their dream.
And watching that, you know,coming up and watching that,
(10:21):
watching the perseverance andendurance of both my parents.
They were both like when theywent to high school, they were
top of their class.
Watching that, you know, comingup and watching that, watching
the perseverance and enduranceof both my parents.
They were both like when theywent to high school, they were
top of their class.
I can't remember what the titleis, but like, literally, they
were both the smartest kids intheir school, you know.
And you know just tried toexcel, try to be the best that
they could be and put theirtalents out there.
But being a parent through the80s and 90s most people don't
(10:43):
realize it was kind of tough,you know, especially a black
parent with no collegiatebackground, just high school.
And taking the trades at thehigh school taught you.
But you're going through an erawhere we're transitioning from
computers to college based toget your trade.
Your trade don't mean anything.
(11:03):
You got that degree and thatwas happening through that era.
So I watched my parentsstruggle, you know, take night
classes and things like that,while I'm out here enjoying the
fruits of for lack of a betterword hood life and then not
realizing my potential Notrealizing my potential, but
(11:26):
realizing my potential I used itin the streets to maximize
manipulation.
It all came crashing down.
Then I had to sit down for awhile, came back out, rocked out
with electrical engineering andmechatronics how long were you
sitting?
For Two and a half years,rocked out with electrical
engineering and mechatronics,and been going since then.
How long were you sitting?
For Two and a half years?
(11:49):
Not, not, not long.
I had a.
I had the strictest judge inWashington DC, judge Winfield.
When I first met her, she toldme she gave over 15000 man hours
of jail time alone that week.
Gave over 15,000 man hours ofjail time alone that week, so.
But she had over like 250letters sent to her from
(12:14):
community people, not justfriends, like teachers,
ex-bosses, anybody that talkedto me that had some title of
note, all the way up to a fewpeople in the mayor's office at
that time.
And so instead of giving mewhat she would have, which was
(12:40):
15 years, she gave me five and Itook it as a blessing and
haven't done anything, or evenattempted to try to do anything,
to go back in that direction.
I found that this is Americayou could go from.
I hate to go political, but wehave a sitting president with
several divots.
You could go from bad to goodand make it great.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Donovan, sometimes, when we talk about the brain and
rewiring the brain we've talkedabout that in this show what
was?
If you can remember, youprobably could.
What was the switch between I'mgoing to change my thought
process or I already had mythought process and I just was
(13:29):
not focused.
What was yours?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Mine was.
I had the right motivation andthought process.
I was applying it to the wrongthing.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So you were just not focused on the right thing.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, and what made me focus on the right thing was
it was several articles that hadhappened at the time.
It was like 2004 to 2005.
Yeah, three, four or five.
There were several articles Iread.
Like I had a cellmate who wasvery.
He had a portfolio, a $1.
(14:21):
Million dollar stock portfolio,and he showed me more than what
I knew how to read-Corps orS-Corps or LLC, and not to
establish a company, but tounderstand how.
Because he would always ask methings about what I was doing
and why, and he then would giveme a counter where you could
(14:41):
have did this and gained that.
And he then would give me acounter where you could have did
this and gain that.
And that was the turning point.
That's when I realized, oh crapI was.
I've wasted about seven yearson the wrong road.
I need to turn around and goback.
(15:03):
Go the other way.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I made that transition.
You know that's so, with thattransition, the greatest thing
about transition.
So did you understand thetransition?
Or, and you just enhanced it,or was there a transition and
then you knew that information,you kept rolling with it,
because now you built it intothis thing.
(15:32):
We'll get there later, but thatchange, I think people are
still struggling with the trends.
The trends, what's the word I'mlooking for, ron?
Transformation.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The transformation.
Yeah, so from what I'mgathering right, you moved
through Washington DC aroundthat time.
So, like how I normally do theinterviews is like I take a
person through like their wholelife, almost right, and then
it's like an introduction so youwere in Washington DC.
(16:06):
I always kind of bring up thatera where there was a lot of
drugs around and all that crackand all that, because in my era
we were impacted by that.
For the most part, everyonearound my age range, we were
impacted by it, except forsomeone who I just had on
recently.
He was 37 and he said thatdidn't really impact his life so
(16:27):
much.
Uh, but he's 37.
So he, he's a little, he's alittle younger.
So, um, but I know washingtondc and new york had a tight
connection when it came, when itcame to yeah, that baltimore dc
drugs and all of that.
So so did you get caught up intothat, and then that's what
(16:48):
landed you in prison.
Did you did you had to sit down?
Did you have to sit down, maybein the 90s or the 2000s?
What led up to that point?
Because you know you, becauseyou had mom, you had dad, but
they were out a lot, right?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So yeah, you had mom, you had dad, but they were out
a lot, right.
So, yeah, so prior to that, uh,let's rewind.
Uh, let's go 90s.
Uh, in the 90s, my parents hadsplit up and my mother was, you
know, raising this on its own.
I have oldest and youngestsister.
Oldest sister is one year olderthan me, my young sister seven
years younger than me.
And we would my mom would, wouldwork a lot, a lot.
(17:32):
We were latchkey kids, you know.
We came home, we rode the busto school, um, we go.
Our grandparents live aroundthe corner, so we go around the
house, you know, sometimes, um,we made our own dinners, you
know, and like dinner, dinner,like it wasn't no microwave,
nothing like right food, youknow.
And then, um, my mother starteddating and first guy she
(17:55):
started dating, this guy cool,really cool guy uh passed away a
couple years ago.
Ali, really great guy, muslim,muslim guy came back from lorton
and he would tell me storiesand stuff.
But I'm one block away from theworst part of our community.
There's potomac gardens, aproject that's 14, 30.
Down the street there's 1 000like those three communities are
(18:16):
shooting at each other all thetime and I used to hang down
there and play with my friends,and that's when I got exposed to
oh, there's some other moneyyou can get out here and you can
sneak it, because Ali, he ownsa stand, so you know he puts the
money in the drawer for yourmom for the rent, so you can
sneak money in this back, andAli, nor her, know the
(18:39):
difference.
You know what I'm saying, and Istarted that way.
And then my mother got hit andthey separated.
We moved to forest, uh, forestcreek I'm doing the same thing
there, mind you, I'm like 13,you know and then moved again.
We're in colonial village bythis time, but it's, it's bad
(19:03):
now, my friend this 96.
Yeah, so my friends are like 20.
I'm the youngest, I'm like 14.
I'm carrying.
You know, if you named it, Ihad it, but I don't have it.
(19:24):
It's not on me, but I got itRight.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I don't have it.
It's not on me, but I got itRight, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Real quick question before you go Hold that thought.
In Washington DC around thattime they had a lot of programs
for kids and they also hadcommunity church.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In the city in DC.
Yeah, there was a lot of thingsthat children can get into, but
not on the Northeast.
What they failed to do was makeit cool and attractive.
Okay, cool and attractive wasyou saw your uncle with the BBSs
and the new sob.
You know what I'm saying.
What was cool and attractivewas you saw your uncle with the
BBSs and the new sock.
(20:08):
You know what I'm saying.
So what was cool and attractivewas your mom ain't going to
work so many days a week.
Y'all got, we got, okay.
For instance, what was cool andattractive to me was we got a
gallon of milk in therefrigerator and a whole box of
cereal.
Okay, yeah, because we only gota little bit left.
This morning, tiffany got upand ain't eating none.
(20:28):
Then I got up and didn't eatany.
I know my mother didn't.
So Brittany can have somecereal.
You dig what I'm saying.
It got bad, but Brennan's paidEat gas, everything running,
water running.
We got clothes on our backs,access to food.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I remember putting water in my cereal.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Carnation yeah, the carnation milk right my mother
even learned the trick with alittle vanilla, some water,
carnation and the powdered milkand stick it in the jug.
You, we, we just thought it wastasty milk with creamer in it.
So fast forward.
My dad.
He's living in Florida.
(21:12):
He's got his consulting companygoing, married a college team,
nice house on the water rocking.
He hears his son is doingthings that he did in the past.
So it's time to come come livewith him.
So I go live down there forabout like three years, um, come
back up to still messing updown there.
(21:34):
Tested out of high school, gota really high score on the uh
test.
I was even in the Miami Heraldfor it.
Um, and what wasn't around totake a picture to be in the
magazine.
My, my stepmom and my dad atthe time took a picture for me
because I was running the street.
Um, and this is like news news.
(21:57):
You know I'm saying right, umdon't even know what happened.
A whole year later I know whathappened, um, because I'm
thinking you, I'm just being ateenager, come back up here and
see the state of my family andsay, ok, I bring that with me,
but I'm trying to work andeverything, and then it.
Just it got it got beyond doingstreet stuff.
(22:20):
Now we're we're knocking offdrug dealers which we're taking
their their stuff Cause we don't.
We don't.
On the street you can get 38 to5,600 a day, but one move will
land you 50 grand, you know.
So it wasn't that that got mearrested.
(22:44):
What got me arrested was I wason my way to a party and we're
in a cab and a gentleman I waswith once arrived, a cab driver
on our way to this party and we,like two nights ago, we just
like did something crazy.
We both of us got like at least10 grand at least and I stayed
(23:06):
because I'm tired.
Now.
That's how I got arrested.
I'm tired now, that's how I gotarrested.
I'm tired.
I didn't even get out.
I didn't run.
You can see it in mytranscripts.
I didn't run nothing.
I didn't even.
I didn't.
I kept it stopped snitching.
You know I didn't.
I didn't tell anything.
But they separated us that nightand I saw everything.
(23:27):
It was like came clear.
I saw it really clear.
He had, he had like a letter inhis pocket which we call an
insulated statement, so he wastelling on me.
So I knew I was going to getlike everything, because he's
going to tell on every,everything we did and he did.
And but my judge, she wasreally lenient.
At first she gave me like 0 to45, then she worked it down to 0
(23:49):
to 15, then 5 to 15 and thendidn't give me 5.
And uh, because I was facing 45like he told on everything I
did with him, everything,anything, and uh, I took it as a
sign.
As I said, well, I'm gonnachange myself while I'm in here,
but I didn't know how.
They have a term in prisoncalled programming, where you
(24:11):
learn stuff and you get to aroutine.
So I was doing that.
Going to art class, I coulddraw, so I'm just going to the
art room to draw.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now real quick.
There's a lot of rumors aboutDC prisons and all of that.
You were there.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So what was that experience like?
So here in dc it was, it's,it's, it's a prison.
You know it was a jail for real, for real.
Um, when I first got there, myfirst cellmate was the father of
somebody I went to middleschool with.
He had the same, yeah, and wedidn't know it till we started
(24:51):
talking about the past and stuffand he was coming down off of
heroin.
So they give him like methadoneto step him down and they give
like so many of it, so manylevels of it, every week or day,
so he will only eat the fruitand the cookies.
So the rest of the meals hewould give to me and I would
(25:12):
trade the food for like chicken,the chicken for like cigarettes
and stuff.
We talked a lot Then.
My second one after that waslike a motorcycle guy and I'm
still going to court and stuff.
When I finally get my time theyput me over to another building
next door called CTF.
It's like a better, it's morelike a.
(25:32):
It feels like a medicalhospital more than anything.
It still sales, but it just thelook and feel of it says prison
, hospital and there was aprogram there called the Youth
Act and I was just right underthe age to get it.
I think I was 20, going on 21,so I was right under the age to
(25:52):
get it.
What it would do is it wouldrip it off your record.
It's on your record if you gofor FBI or Homeland Security or
something, but everybody elsewould see nothing.
I went through the program andevery day we had to stand in
formation, we had to get out,say something positive, we had
(26:15):
to exercise, you know, and thenwe had like talent shows and
stuff.
I got into a rift with the lead, the squad leaders, to the
point where all seven of themjumped me and so I tested my
metal, that's like.
At that point in time I waslike I'm not going nowhere.
So every day we got information I would lunge at one
of them and beat the pipes offof them and I kept getting
(26:37):
locked down for it.
And then I got to like thefifth one and he finally was
like trying to tell me like youknow, this is going to your
judge'm.
Like you know, I have to livehere if I'm going to get 45
years, I have to live amongstthese people.
And every prison got to knowI'm not going through this,
because that's what I thought itwas.
But we're like the oldestperson's, like 25.
(26:59):
The youngest is 16, you know,we're mentally just full of piss
, you know.
So after that they, um, they.
Let me talk to the last two.
One of them backed out of thefight, the other one we locked
in.
I beat him till he was winded,because what they weren't was.
(27:20):
I was calculated on the streets.
I wanted to be a kingpin and Itrained like Batman and to this
day I still train like Batman,like no jokes about it.
Like yesterday I was at the gymthree times.
So they were about that lifeand you know what they look like
and how they sound.
But I was about that life LikeI had to live it.
(27:43):
Jump.
After that I come home no, wego to.
When I get my time, they send meto North Carolina, went to
North Carolina.
It's a prison facility downthere and I did the rest of my
time there, like a year orsomething, because I know it was
(28:17):
April 2005.
I came home and I didn't getearly termination.
I had to do the whole two and ahalf years.
They took me as a threat like Iwas going to do more, but I
wasn't the whole time I was inthere I just focused on reading
and learning myself.
Like anything about me, I canlearn, I would learn.
(28:39):
I had a cellmate.
He liked to exercise a lot.
We would do 10 pull-ups andthen he would do 10 pull-ups and
then I would do 10 pull ups andthen I would do 10 pull ups.
We did that till we got atwenty five hundred pull ups.
That's like every day, you know, and they call me Bruce Leroy
because I couldn't get any big.
You know, because I didn't havepeople sending me money from
(28:59):
home to buy extra commissary.
I didn't have extra food.
Sometimes I got stuff out thekitchen, but for the most part,
any money that I got down there,I earned it, working 17 cents
an hour and I would make like 31bucks a month at the most.
(29:21):
All of that and the differencewith that than the prison here
was where I was.
Ctf was a bunch of boys.
When I got down there it was5000 men and just imagine a
bunch of warriors standingaround each other like no
disrespect to what anybody did.
You know there's somethingwrong, but we all treat each
(29:43):
other like warriors.
Everybody could kill anybody inthere if they wanted to.
There was guys who did 25 yearsand was down there because of
camp.
It was a medium-low, we all hadlow violence levels, but we all
were considered violentcriminals.
We respected each other.
Some fight broke out becauseone person did not respect that
(30:06):
man.
He treated him less than a manand he's going to get what he
deserves Most of his beatingsnot many stabbings or anything
like that.
But it was the DC stigma of alot of DC males down low.
Yeah, there we go.
I wanted you to say.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Oh yeah, no, no, I'm going to cover it.
I'm going to cover it.
It we go.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I wanted you to say I'm going to cover it.
I'm going to cover it.
It's real.
There was a guy who went tohigh school with his name was
Damien, but in there they calledhim Donut.
He has everything.
And when we were standing inline we were getting checked in.
I can't forget this.
We were getting checked in andthey make you bend over and call
Okay.
And when they made you bendover and call, when they made
him bend over and call, theentire line bent this way to
(30:51):
look.
I'm still looking forwardtrying to look at the back of
someone's head the whole line.
Wow, Even the guy who's makingyou bend over and call the
correctional officer is intothat.
There's a lot of.
It was a lot of that At CTF.
(31:12):
It was even worse.
Like I said, it was like aglorified prison hospital over
there.
There were correctionalofficers that would meet people
at night at their cell.
In their cell there was even asurvey that we all got asking
about an interview about certaincorrectional offices, because
(31:33):
there was some type oflitigation or something that
happened.
And then when we got to northcarolina um, it was north
carolina the chicken uh factoryhad closed, so most of them who
(32:00):
worked there was your next doorneighbor.
They of the correctionaloffices.
She immediately got fired andthen the ring got sent out of
that prison.
The gentlemen that were in onit, they got sent somewhere else
and then several other femalecorrectional officers got sent
somewhere else and then we got anew slew of them from the
neighborhood and the thinghappened again.
(32:27):
Even our caseworkers we gotdown to there were interactions
with caseworkers.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
What I you know and I know you, donovan, and I know
your story and we can talk.
I mean, yeah, I'm not talkingabout the clock.
But from all of all of thestuff you went through to where
you are now.
I don't know, it's, it's.
(32:59):
I think we ought to get there.
So people don't keep sayingwhat was me?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well, most people don't look at what they've been
through.
Like you know, people chasesuccess, not realizing they're a
success, right and so, like allof that, it wasn't until I
started really going harddeveloping this car in 2014 did
I don't mean to cut you off,brother I I just want to get
(33:27):
there Right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
But we're going to take you.
We went, we're going to takeyou out of the prison experience
.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
To where you are now.
Right, yeah, now, now, afterall that you experienced in
prison, right, and in thedifferent things that happened
and different experiences, right, and the different things that
happened and the differentexperiences, right, we already
went over to DC prison and therumors, right, the rumors, and
you basically confirmed thatthat's true, right, that that
(33:57):
stuff happens in the DC prisonsright Now.
You survived all of that.
You survived all of that andthen you get out in 2005.
Right, did you go to school inprison or did you go to school
when you got out?
Speaker 3 (34:14):
So when I got, when I was in prison, every anything I
wanted to take up had alreadystarted or was ending and if I
started it up I couldn'tcomplete it before I left.
So when I came out I said whatjobs can I get that's going to
skill me up and be able to payfor and or pay for skilling me
(34:36):
up?
So the first job I got wasconcrete construction and the
odd thing about it was I stilltalk like this and think like
this.
They put me on the engineeringcrew after I had been on the
finishing crew for like 11months and the finishing crew is
like you walk around any spotsbroken, anything, you finish it,
you make it perfect, you know,and that's like an elite crew to
(34:58):
concrete.
And then I got on theengineering site crew where I
was working with math andlooking at blueprints.
I had not a mathematicalanalytical brain, but I could.
They call it spatial awareness,where I could take an object
(35:19):
that's 2D and make it into 3D inmy mind.
And if you want me to make itout of something, I can make it
(35:51):
into 3D their gaming andsimulation, because it was the
closest to design and draftingthat I've bought.
That has questions in it for meto study, for you to do what?
For you to tell me that I knowwhat I know?
I'm going to pay you to tell meI learned it.
So I dropped out.
(36:12):
I'm going to be honest with you.
I dropped out and I beganteaching myself electrical
engineering, mechatronics andmechanical engineering.
From that point on, I taughtmyself CAD.
I taught myself computationalfluid dynamics, which once you
put a CAD model in there, ittells you how water flows around
air flows around it, how toadjust it.
I can't think of all thetechnical names for the things,
(36:36):
but I can explain it Like asuspension.
I taught myself how to design asuspension system, the whole
thing From the rim to thecontrol arms, taught myself how
to design that and work andfunction.
And if we built it in the realworld, it might no, it will put
other companies shit Excuse mylanguage, because I'm part of
(37:00):
the first people was evercreated.
Once I tapped into that andrealized that about myself.
During that time I just wenthard.
Anyone will tell you.
I just kept going hard in itstudying, studying, studying and
applying to study.
My dad he has a consultingcompany, so a lot of times he
will bring me technicalconsultants.
(37:21):
Someone needs somethingengineered, someone needs some
information system developed orsoftware built, something that
had to do with electricalengineering.
And then I started doingrenovations on the side as well,
because I was in construction.
So I'm looking at real worldhousehold electrical, low
(37:42):
voltage and high voltage, butI'm also developing over here
devices or systems for peopleand I realized I could do
something with this.
I typed in all my skills fromsculpting and within parentheses
(38:04):
and in Google as disciplinesand it popped up automotive
engineering and design.
Like what is what I'm supposedto do?
Mind you, I didn't explain.
When I was in prison, I keptreading this book called Finding
your Calling in Life.
I can't remember the author,but I kept reading it and it
(38:27):
basically teaches you how to askyourself a series of questions
to determine who you are andwhat you want to do.
And it never tells you what youare, just ask.
Tells you to ask yourself verydeep questions.
You know, are you?
Yeah, what are you like?
What would you?
(38:47):
What would you put yourself to?
You know what are you?
Do you like to help people?
Do you like to build things andcan?
Can you apply that to you?
Know your, you know, and so, inthat I had found who I was and
(39:12):
I knew I wanted to do somethingin technology and use my art at
the same time.
And automotive and I love cars,and so automotive engineering
was at least developing avehicle was the thing I had to
do it, and I haven't stopped.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I haven't stopped.
Okay, so you, you, basicallyyou're autodidactic, pretty much
right, so you're self-taught,and so how is your, your
discipline with study to makesure that you get this down, to
be able to create these things?
What's your study habits like?
(39:52):
Are you studying like straightthree, four hour clips, two hour
clips, you know, to give peoplesome insight of on how someone
could you know study to becomeproficient at creating something
like this?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
So I took my syllabus from DeVry and looked at the
time we were in class and thefew good professors I did have
would let us take breaks, but Itook the entire syllabus and
made sure that the subjects I'mlearning are along those same
(40:33):
lines.
So, whatever you want to teachyourself, some school wrote out
a syllabus exactly what you needto do, at least what books you
need to read.
Then you have to know yourboredom time.
That's what I call it in mymind.
So for me it's 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes I need to godo something.
That else, if I'm reading orstudying and what I mean
(40:57):
studying is, my grandfathertaught me to read it and then
try to write it down and thenread what you wrote and you'll
know you're missing stuff.
So go back and read it again.
Also, whatever subject you'retrying to learn, you need to
(41:19):
know someone who you know degree, expert, credible source in
that field that you can bounceyour, your, your problems off of
and they can tell you ifthey're right, wrong or what you
need to improve.
Several are better, um, I havehoward reed.
(41:40):
He's an electrical engineer.
He developed several devices,several patents under his name.
Um, and I bounce off of him.
Additionally, the software Itaught myself electrical
engineering on is the samesoftware they give to you in
colleges.
It's free and it checks yourerrors in the software.
There's a lot of these outthere in many subjects and so
(42:04):
even in coding you know.
So, whatever you want to teachyourself, there's something out
there that will you know,correct you in you learning it
and you, you know you take the.
Did I get it right?
No, it told you it's wrong.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I like what he did, because he does, he actually
calls me too, so that's theother thing he reaches.
So he created a syllabus forhis life and for those people
who are just not into school.
He actually created a listwhich you want to say, to say
I'm going to do this, I'm goingto do this, I'm going to do this
(42:43):
, I'm going to do this.
And it's marked out in timesright, I'm going to do this from
215 to 345.
Now, if I'm working, I do thisfrom this, but even in my break
and work, I'm going to do thisfrom this.
(43:03):
So that's a training model.
You know, most people probablydo that when they exercise.
I'm going to lift, you know,this weight three times in 10
sets, so whatever it is.
So he mapped out his listthroughout the day and across
from that, he has resources thathe has looked for, that he's
(43:29):
tapped into, to say, okay, I'mgoing to check myself, I'm going
to reach out to this person,I'm going to get this, I'm going
to get this, so I can make sureI'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Right.
So now, after creating thisformat to allow you to grasp all
this information, how did youget into creating this
electrical I think you saidelectric vehicle?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, so that was the goal to create an electric
vehicle.
So that that was the goal andthe study was leading up to it.
And so First it started, I'm anartist first.
So first it started with thedesign.
(44:23):
I designed the body and stylingof it and said to myself, all
right, what, what, whatdimensions do I have to work
with, what, what power do I wantto put out?
You know, I basically gavemyself some criteria, I worked
(44:44):
backwards and because I don'tcome from the automotive world,
you know, I don't come from thetraditional, even though I'm
studying these guys like whoknows what you know, from CR
Patterson, henry Ford, to themodern guys, maté Remac of Remac
Automobili and Konex Egg ofthat company, you know, even to
(45:07):
the Porsche family, you know.
But I engineered differently.
I say, you know, you got 10inches by 12 inches square, make
it fit.
That's how I engineered.
Um, and it's gotta meet, youknow, this specification or that
(45:28):
torque output, and it just eachpiece just kept coming together
.
I can't really explaineverything, like, for instance,
the chassis.
I have read a study by ChalmersUniversity where they took a
carbon substrate and was ableknow what we would consider like
(45:55):
a graphene sheet and aluminumand made a mini battery out of
it and said, okay, well, if Iscaled this up, I can store
energy in the chassis, themonocoque, the frame that you
sit in.
I can store the energy in it.
And how do I keep the emffeedback?
So now I got to learn about emffeedback.
(46:17):
Now I got to learn about uh, uh, how to shield electrically
better than I know how to dobuilding a board like how do I
protect humans?
Now I got to study that, um,and in studying that, I learned
about some scientists in 1951,studied the human body and found
out that it resembles a circuitboard.
Even the DNA is zeros and oneslike code.
(46:39):
So now I'm going into anotherbranch and learning about the
human body and frequencies.
And oh, the electric motor makesfrequencies.
Yeah, Donovan, yeah, it does.
How does that relate to people?
Can I, when they're sitting ina seat, can I heal them?
You know that's how it went.
(47:01):
As things progressed, as I'mlearning new things, I'm adding
new features and perfectingthose features.
Remember I told you 2014, itwasn't till 2021.
I realized, all right, thedesign is.
I'm in the final, final phasesof the design.
I want this to be a reality and, um it.
(47:22):
We kept going from there.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
So this is the vehicle here.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, um yeah, you're on the 400.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
So so you, you, of course you're, you're an, an
artist, so did you draw this outand this is.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
This is a 3d, this is a parametric model.
So not only is it threedimensions, I could send those
individual components tomachinery and it could stamp the
part out, it, it can 3D printit, it can mold it.
They're parametric.
(48:00):
That's what I learned at schoolthe difference between, you
know, game simulation and thingsthat are parametric models,
parametric models, physicalmodels.
So the program I use is Fusion360.
It's a program I used beforethat was a four thousand dollar
a year program that the industryuses, um, but this one is at a
lower price but all, all thesame features, and so it allows
(48:22):
you to build, uh, you know,suspension systems, uh, gear
systems, electric motors,circuit systems, the like,
what's what you?
There's a lot that's not inhere, like the suspension, the
radiator and such For lack of abetter word anti-theft purposes.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
This is.
This is great, now, being thatyou already know how to
incorporate, already explainedthat like llc and things like
that.
What did you do?
How do you?
Because this is a car company,right, so this is bigger than
what I ever even thought, andfor myself, you know, I'm saying
like I'm thinking you knowpodcasting, black media, uh,
(49:12):
company.
You know, like I'm thinkingmerch, I'm thinking you know
there's other types ofbusinesses that I could think of
, but a car company is likethat's the last thing that would
be on my mind, right, so howyou incorporate this llc or Corp
(49:33):
, however, I mean whatever, umand so, after that, what are the
requirements to have a carcompany?
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Well, the founders all got to have licenses driver
licenses, that's one of them Umregulatory just being registered
in the United States.
Um, that vehicle, the, theframe before you saw the
monocoque all of that has topass 32 tests across National
Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration and the Institute
(50:06):
for International HighwaySafety.
It's like an insuranceinstitute, i-s-a-h-a.
The insurance is to, uh, I S aH a, um, and that's if, if each
test passed the first time,that's 32 cars you send to them
to crash and let's say, eight ofthose fail, you got to send
(50:27):
eight more cars.
Um, we've designed themonocoque in a way that it could
do several crash tests at thesame time.
I mean, oh, different intervalsand their regulation allows for
outside of that, and they alsoallow, within a certain time
frame before the final design issubmitted and validated, you
(50:54):
can begin taking pre-orders, butthere's not much to Okay, you
said there's not much to have acar company.
Yes, where the much comes in ishow are you producing this
vehicle?
Speaker 1 (51:12):
That's what man Yo man, that's what Yo man.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
That's where the much comes in.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
It's not like you're throwing up a donut stand.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Yo, this is great man .
This is like thinking outsideof the box, man.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Now where are you in theprocess of having an actual
vehicle, and you know where areyou in the process there.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
So this year we're aiming to begin filming the
build phases of that prototype.
We have several components umthat we've been storing and
continuing to get more um yo.
We gotta support this brother Idon't, I don't, I don't want to
(52:08):
close the number because it's avery, very, very, very very low
number to build that productionprototype.
But that's the simple part andthat's the part I'm going to
have the most fun at and themost engaging.
For me After that it's allmeetings and flybys, but at
(52:29):
least I get to build theprototype and be a part of some
of the production going forward.
The goal is to bring people inthat think like me or similar or
close to that, align with thesame corporate culture and have
that open internal tenacity to,you know, be innovative so that
(52:53):
we can push even further.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Man, listen, man, hold on.
Man, y'all got it, yo.
If y'all didn't watch this show, rewind from the beginning,
because this is so ill to me.
I'm coming with the New Yorkslang, pardon me.
(53:17):
This is super ill because firstof all, he came up like we all
came up go to prison, come.
Go to prison, come out, studyon his own autodidactic, did his
own thing, and now he has thishere and the ball is rolling.
(53:40):
Man, this is so dope man.
We need to support stuff likethis.
This is totally out of the box.
You know what I mean.
When you think about Blackbusiness, what comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (53:55):
But when you think about black business, what comes
to mind?
But when you think about blackexcellence, it is not just a
conversation like when I'm goingto one day man, you'll see, man
, you watch me one day.
Those conversations neverhappen.
When you're talking to a personthat says watch, you'll see one
(54:19):
day.
What's your list Right?
What is your syllabus for yourlife Tomorrow?
I'm going to do this Right.
Not just things on a list.
What is your time From 2 to 3,from 4 to 5, from 2.15 to6?
(54:40):
What is your list through your24 hour period?
I'm talking about your sleepperiod.
What is your training foryourself To rewire your focus?
So at the end of your traveling, your journey, you come up with
(55:01):
where you're going, not whereyou want to be, not the end,
because there is no end, butwhere you're going Right.
This isn't Donovan's end, thisis just the start.
It's like martial arts theblack belt is not the end, it's
(55:23):
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Right, we don't really.
Our community isn't bombardedbecause we're not in a lot of
these companies and what I meanis on the decision-making floor.
So in the 90s, toyota spent $10million to study the black
(55:47):
luxury car buyer $10 million inthe 90s and they found out that
BMW, mercedes, mercedes nobodywanted to sell us a car.
So they flew all these Koreansand Japanese people over to
America, opened up thesedealerships called Lexus,
studied.
I mean, they spent another 10million dollars on studying the
(56:09):
luxury cars we bought anddesigned their vehicles Like,
literally, they looked at thesuspension and said, make it
like that but make it better.
Make that seat like that, butmake it better.
And then they said how do theytreat them?
Talk to them better.
When white person come in,don't walk.
If a black person and a whiteperson come in, walk up to the
black person first, ignore thewhite guy.
This was in this is publicknowledge by Toyota.
(56:32):
Toyota did this first.
First year they made that $20million back, plus some In the
next five years they had alreadymade $100 million on this.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
And do you know what was also triggering?
The white people started buyingLexus because they did not want
the blacks to outbuy them in avehicle that they too could buy.
Not that they wanted it.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
We spent that much money on that car company.
What if it's our car companyNow?
What can that buying power do?
How many schools can we upgradeto level four schools for free?
Make the government pay it back, or we'll get it back, we'll
figure it out.
I have a nice CFO that figuresall kinds of ways to make money
(57:22):
from throwing money out the door, you know.
So what can we do?
And then what does that do?
Internally, pride to people,you know, knowing that your
community produces a vehiclethat you buy.
Yeah, we got a sedan coming.
Yes, we have an SUV coming.
Yeah, we got a minivan coming.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
I want you probably to.
I know you're a humble guy andI know you want to probably give
your shout outs to your people.
Speaker 3 (57:53):
Definitely I wouldn't be able to have done this
without my dad there, my uncleand Miss Bell.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
That's nice man.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
They backed me.
Miss Bell I was a personalassistant for years.
My uncle I've renovated hisbasement.
My dad I've always, anytime hecalls, I'm on it.
They have reciprocated.
They're my biggest uh sponsorsand backers, um, for this
project as well.
Um, the rest of my team uh gota shout out.
(58:27):
Mr anderson and miss hagan's anduh, mr ventor Hagen says again,
this was.
She was my store manager atonce at CVS and in a time when I
had nothing, she looked out andtook a shot on me.
You know what I'm saying.
And best inventory person andlogistics person I know,
(58:48):
anderson world travel security,professional risk management
understands things.
And here, mr Ventura I was hisestimator in construction, but
they've and he does engineeringas well, for us as well.
But everyone here has been heresince day one.
Charlie Greenhouse I met him in2012.
(59:09):
He has an EV company, evsrRacing, and he's been my
consultant on engineering.
Again, one of those people thatknows more about the subject
than you do and can tell you ifyou're wrong or right.
Mr Carter, very innovativeindividual.
As you can see my humility,I've put me at the bottom.
You know that's my software guy, corey hot fire, um, like Roto.
(59:36):
Roto and myself.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
Wow, man.
Hey, thank you guys for comingout this evening.
I really appreciate you, man.
We got to have you back.
Donovan, you got a lot to share.
We got a lot to talk about thisvehicle company.
Man, I want to push this hardman.
I want to push this hard man.
I want to, you know, try to usewhatever resources I have to
support this.
(01:00:01):
This is, this is different.
Y'all, this is different.
Thank y'all for coming out thisevening.
I really appreciate it.
We will talk.
Thanks to everybody in the chat, everybody who was, who was
watching, and we'll see youtomorrow, peace.
all right, all right, what's going on?
Everybody out there is ronbrown, lmt, the people's fitness
professional co-host.
I don't know where he is.
It's all good, the show must goon.
Uh, that's my partner, soyou'll see him probably later or
you'll see him tomorrow.
Thanks for y'all for checkingout tonight's podcast.
I really appreciate you.
(00:32):
Tonight is all about Blackexcellence.
We have Dr Paul Dyer here todayand Donovan Black.
What's going on?
What's going on everybody?
How y'all doing Wonderful,wonderful.
Oh, that's peace.
That that's peace.
Thank you for coming out thisevening.
Really appreciate you.
Um, I I got a little bit ofinformation about you.
However, um, before we getstarted, I'm gonna.
(00:56):
Everyone already knows dr pauldyer anyway.
They've been watching the show.
They know who he is.
He's a regular.
Thank you for supporting thechannel, dr paul dyer, and
believing in this um becoming amovement.
It seems like um and uh reallyappreciate you and thank you for
bringing donovan black with us.
(01:18):
So I don't know if you wouldlike to lead tonight's podcast
and ask the questions?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
in a way I do, and I and the reason why, and it
thanks everyone for coming on.
But today was going to be aboutblack excellence.
We've been talking about thebrain and the emotions and and
donald can tell you about a lotof emotions that he had with his
company that he started.
But but we go through the brain, we go through how it affects
(01:47):
you, we go through how it canthrow you off.
We've talked about how it canderail you.
We talked about how it canaffect your whole body as an
organism, right, your synapses,everything about the brain
through neuroscience.
(02:09):
And we've talked to some amazingpeople about how we as a people
, as Black people, as acommunity, we fall short because
we're not understanding thepieces, because we're not
understanding the pieces, we'renot putting the pieces together
or we're not hearing enoughpeople talk about how those
(02:33):
pieces can work.
Even through man, I work sohard or I'm tired and maybe I
should give up and I get angryand I get sad and I get a lot of
things.
And I'm going to tell you,donovan Black has been through
all of that and he started thefirst black Electric car company
(03:03):
.
Ok, that in itself.
So, donovan, you take it fromthere and tell them about what
you started, and we'll go fromthere and then you can tell them
about your struggles in yourown way, because I think people
don't hear enough of the glorystory.
I think they hear too much ofthe glory story.
(03:24):
I think they hear too much ofthe sad story.
Yeah Well, in 2025, we like tosay let's celebrate our people,
to say that let's do this too.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So thank you.
Thank you for the greatintroduction.
Technically, I'm not the first.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh, you're talking about the older gentleman back
before Ford.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Not just those guys.
There's several other blackautomotive electric vehicle
companies out now.
I'm not sure if my registrationpredates them, but I know a lot
of my engineering did but did,but uh, at least a few I know of
(04:08):
.
There may be some out there Ihaven't heard of, but long, long
and short of it, uh, CRPatterson was the first
automotive black uh company inAmerica.
It was uh Patterson Sons andthen Greenfield Automotive, but
they were in Ohio, very smallfactory.
(04:31):
Matter of fact, the whole reasonfactories are internalized as
they are is because CR Pattersonwas sold a very small building,
you know, being a black man, in1838 when he started.
It started as a coach buildingcompany.
So they would buy, you know,really nice coaches and then do
(04:54):
what we do as black people makeit better, you know, put, make
the seats plusher, thesuspension softer, better horses
better, ornate elements on itand such.
And then when he got intoautomotive it was in the 1900s,
early 1900s, and uh, his factorywas every.
Everything was internalized uh,engine crafting, uh,
(05:18):
transmission axles, everythingwas in one building.
Um, it got to the point wherethere were tents outside the
building because people weresleeping to wait to get to the
next shift because he ran threeshifts for 24 hours, and this is
what Henry Ford gleaned fromthat company.
He saw that they internalizedeverything.
They didn't share theirinnovations with anyone else and
(05:39):
if they did, they licensed themand all their workers wanted to
work there.
Why did they want to work there?
Because he's a black man likeme.
He's down on the factory floorlooking at stuff.
He's in and around.
So I wanted to bring that back,um, but I also wanted to bring
to our community um and I'mgoing to get into the the mental
struggles I wanted to bring toour community manufacturing back
(06:00):
and not just manufacturing, youknow, shoes or T-shirts or
popping up a hair salon Alltalents I have.
I was born an artist.
My mother father, my mothermodel, became a cosmetologist.
Later my dad sang, did music.
He also modeled and did hair,sold T-shirts, you know, sold
(06:22):
art.
You know my mother, she didinterior design.
So multi-talented.
You know I could have done anynumber of things, but the most
impactful to our community, Ibelieve, is developing something
that we buy and it has to be amajor purchase, high ticket item
.
You know it couldn't be, youknow, just laptops or computers,
(06:43):
which I'll later get into inthe company, but right now it's
automotive vehicles and thereason being you want the next
generations to say I can be anautomotive engineer.
Yeah, you could be anautomotive engineer.
You could be beyond thestereotypes we have as well as
you can go into the marketingaspect.
(07:03):
You could go into the communitypart where we have accelerators
and programs within highschools and colleges, you know,
all the way down to theworkforce development part,
where we're not only employingpeople, we're trying to turn
them into first generation homebuyers, first generation sending
(07:29):
their kids to college by havinga mandatory minimum instead of
the 68,000 for automotive worker.
We're starting at 75 with thisyour similar dental health
packages.
But the mental, the mentalaspect of it is imagine being a
young person in the nineties.
(07:52):
You get this idea that you wantto do something impactful, you
want to use your artisticengineering skills or go in that
direction.
But you don't come from afamily middle class, you don't
come from generational wealth.
You got to work and grind toget to where you want to get to.
And mental struggle is JordanPeterson has a talk about this
(08:16):
and the hardest thing is to becreative and broke.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, let me ask you this.
I want to interject.
So where are you from?
Where are you from and whatgeneration did you come up?
Are you an 80s baby, 90s baby?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
we're winning the Olympics.
All the time Russia's bad,china's the enemy.
You know GI Joe's awesome If ithad explosions in it.
It was a movie, you know,that's the era.
Oh, and R&B was the best everin the 90s, disco and the R&B,
70s and early blues and stuff.
(09:04):
They're on a level of their own.
They're in different classes tome, but R&B to me if I could
play it.
I can't sing it, but if it wasKC JoJo or I was just thinking
of that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
So it's KC and JoJo.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Or Black Creek, or you know, it was the joint.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Okay, yeah, you're getting ready to go into it.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Washington DC.
Born and raised, lived inseveral parts from the lowest
income areas to the highestincome areas in Washington.
Even lived in Maryland and someparts of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What part of Maryland .
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Prince George's County.
You know Temple Hills, oxonHill, my grandmother lived in
Capitol Heights.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So I was in Maryland and DC every summer when I was a
kid.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, same.
Because of the income bracketwe were in, sometimes during the
summer we got to go live with afamily member for a while,
while, you know, parents work adouble job, you know, and trying
to pursue their dream.
And watching that, you know,coming up and watching that,
(10:21):
watching the perseverance andendurance of both my parents.
They were both like when theywent to high school, they were
top of their class.
Watching that, you know, comingup and watching that, watching
the perseverance and enduranceof both my parents.
They were both like when theywent to high school, they were
top of their class.
I can't remember what the titleis, but like, literally, they
were both the smartest kids intheir school, you know.
And you know just tried toexcel, try to be the best that
they could be and put theirtalents out there.
But being a parent through the80s and 90s most people don't
(10:43):
realize it was kind of tough,you know, especially a black
parent with no collegiatebackground, just high school.
And taking the trades at thehigh school taught you.
But you're going through an erawhere we're transitioning from
computers to college based toget your trade.
Your trade don't mean anything.
(11:03):
You got that degree and thatwas happening through that era.
So I watched my parentsstruggle, you know, take night
classes and things like that,while I'm out here enjoying the
fruits of for lack of a betterword hood life and then not
realizing my potential Notrealizing my potential, but
(11:26):
realizing my potential I used itin the streets to maximize
manipulation.
It all came crashing down.
Then I had to sit down for awhile, came back out, rocked out
with electrical engineering andmechatronics how long were you
sitting?
For Two and a half years,rocked out with electrical
engineering and mechatronics,and been going since then.
How long were you sitting?
For Two and a half years?
(11:49):
Not, not, not long.
I had a.
I had the strictest judge inWashington DC, judge Winfield.
When I first met her, she toldme she gave over 15000 man hours
of jail time alone that week.
Gave over 15,000 man hours ofjail time alone that week, so.
But she had over like 250letters sent to her from
(12:14):
community people, not justfriends, like teachers,
ex-bosses, anybody that talkedto me that had some title of
note, all the way up to a fewpeople in the mayor's office at
that time.
And so instead of giving mewhat she would have, which was
(12:40):
15 years, she gave me five and Itook it as a blessing and
haven't done anything, or evenattempted to try to do anything,
to go back in that direction.
I found that this is Americayou could go from.
I hate to go political, but wehave a sitting president with
several divots.
You could go from bad to goodand make it great.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Donovan, sometimes, when we talk about the brain and
rewiring the brain we've talkedabout that in this show what
was?
If you can remember, youprobably could.
What was the switch between I'mgoing to change my thought
process or I already had mythought process and I just was
(13:29):
not focused.
What was yours?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Mine was.
I had the right motivation andthought process.
I was applying it to the wrongthing.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
So you were just not focused on the right thing.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, and what made me focus on the right thing was
it was several articles that hadhappened at the time.
It was like 2004 to 2005.
Yeah, three, four or five.
There were several articles Iread.
Like I had a cellmate who wasvery.
He had a portfolio, a $1.
(14:21):
Million dollar stock portfolio,and he showed me more than what
I knew how to read-Corps orS-Corps or LLC, and not to
establish a company, but tounderstand how.
Because he would always ask methings about what I was doing
and why, and he then would giveme a counter where you could
(14:41):
have did this and gained that.
And he then would give me acounter where you could have did
this and gain that.
And that was the turning point.
That's when I realized, oh crapI was.
I've wasted about seven yearson the wrong road.
I need to turn around and goback.
(15:03):
Go the other way.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I made that transition.
You know that's so, with thattransition, the greatest thing
about transition.
So did you understand thetransition?
Or, and you just enhanced it,or was there a transition and
then you knew that information,you kept rolling with it,
because now you built it intothis thing.
(15:32):
We'll get there later, but thatchange, I think people are
still struggling with the trends.
The trends, what's the word I'mlooking for, ron?
Transformation.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
The transformation.
Yeah, so from what I'mgathering right, you moved
through Washington DC aroundthat time.
So, like how I normally do theinterviews is like I take a
person through like their wholelife, almost right, and then
it's like an introduction so youwere in Washington DC.
(16:06):
I always kind of bring up thatera where there was a lot of
drugs around and all that crackand all that, because in my era
we were impacted by that.
For the most part, everyonearound my age range, we were
impacted by it, except forsomeone who I just had on
recently.
He was 37 and he said thatdidn't really impact his life so
(16:27):
much.
Uh, but he's 37.
So he, he's a little, he's alittle younger.
So, um, but I know washingtondc and new york had a tight
connection when it came, when itcame to yeah, that baltimore dc
drugs and all of that.
So so did you get caught up intothat, and then that's what
(16:48):
landed you in prison.
Did you did you had to sit down?
Did you have to sit down, maybein the 90s or the 2000s?
What led up to that point?
Because you know you, becauseyou had mom, you had dad, but
they were out a lot, right?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So yeah, you had mom, you had dad, but they were out
a lot, right.
So, yeah, so prior to that, uh,let's rewind.
Uh, let's go 90s.
Uh, in the 90s, my parents hadsplit up and my mother was, you
know, raising this on its own.
I have oldest and youngestsister.
Oldest sister is one year olderthan me, my young sister seven
years younger than me.
And we would my mom would, wouldwork a lot, a lot.
(17:32):
We were latchkey kids, you know.
We came home, we rode the busto school, um, we go.
Our grandparents live aroundthe corner, so we go around the
house, you know, sometimes, um,we made our own dinners, you
know, and like dinner, dinner,like it wasn't no microwave,
nothing like right food, youknow.
And then, um, my mother starteddating and first guy she
(17:55):
started dating, this guy cool,really cool guy uh passed away a
couple years ago.
Ali, really great guy, muslim,muslim guy came back from lorton
and he would tell me storiesand stuff.
But I'm one block away from theworst part of our community.
There's potomac gardens, aproject that's 14, 30.
Down the street there's 1 000like those three communities are
(18:16):
shooting at each other all thetime and I used to hang down
there and play with my friends,and that's when I got exposed to
oh, there's some other moneyyou can get out here and you can
sneak it, because Ali, he ownsa stand, so you know he puts the
money in the drawer for yourmom for the rent, so you can
sneak money in this back, andAli, nor her, know the
(18:39):
difference.
You know what I'm saying, and Istarted that way.
And then my mother got hit andthey separated.
We moved to forest, uh, forestcreek I'm doing the same thing
there, mind you, I'm like 13,you know and then moved again.
We're in colonial village bythis time, but it's, it's bad
(19:03):
now, my friend this 96.
Yeah, so my friends are like 20.
I'm the youngest, I'm like 14.
I'm carrying.
You know, if you named it, Ihad it, but I don't have it.
(19:24):
It's not on me, but I got itRight.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I don't have it.
It's not on me, but I got itRight, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Real quick question before you go Hold that thought.
In Washington DC around thattime they had a lot of programs
for kids and they also hadcommunity church.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In the city in DC.
Yeah, there was a lot of thingsthat children can get into, but
not on the Northeast.
What they failed to do was makeit cool and attractive.
Okay, cool and attractive wasyou saw your uncle with the BBSs
and the new sob.
You know what I'm saying.
What was cool and attractivewas you saw your uncle with the
BBSs and the new sock.
(20:08):
You know what I'm saying.
So what was cool and attractivewas your mom ain't going to
work so many days a week.
Y'all got, we got, okay.
For instance, what was cool andattractive to me was we got a
gallon of milk in therefrigerator and a whole box of
cereal.
Okay, yeah, because we only gota little bit left.
This morning, tiffany got upand ain't eating none.
(20:28):
Then I got up and didn't eatany.
I know my mother didn't.
So Brittany can have somecereal.
You dig what I'm saying.
It got bad, but Brennan's paidEat gas, everything running,
water running.
We got clothes on our backs,access to food.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I remember putting water in my cereal.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Carnation yeah, the carnation milk right my mother
even learned the trick with alittle vanilla, some water,
carnation and the powdered milkand stick it in the jug.
You, we, we just thought it wastasty milk with creamer in it.
So fast forward.
My dad.
He's living in Florida.
(21:12):
He's got his consulting companygoing, married a college team,
nice house on the water rocking.
He hears his son is doingthings that he did in the past.
So it's time to come come livewith him.
So I go live down there forabout like three years, um, come
back up to still messing updown there.
(21:34):
Tested out of high school, gota really high score on the uh
test.
I was even in the Miami Heraldfor it.
Um, and what wasn't around totake a picture to be in the
magazine.
My, my stepmom and my dad atthe time took a picture for me
because I was running the street.
Um, and this is like news news.
(21:57):
You know I'm saying right, umdon't even know what happened.
A whole year later I know whathappened, um, because I'm
thinking you, I'm just being ateenager, come back up here and
see the state of my family andsay, ok, I bring that with me,
but I'm trying to work andeverything, and then it.
Just it got it got beyond doingstreet stuff.
(22:20):
Now we're we're knocking offdrug dealers which we're taking
their their stuff Cause we don't.
We don't.
On the street you can get 38 to5,600 a day, but one move will
land you 50 grand, you know.
So it wasn't that that got mearrested.
(22:44):
What got me arrested was I wason my way to a party and we're
in a cab and a gentleman I waswith once arrived, a cab driver
on our way to this party and we,like two nights ago, we just
like did something crazy.
We both of us got like at least10 grand at least and I stayed
(23:06):
because I'm tired.
Now.
That's how I got arrested.
I'm tired now, that's how I gotarrested.
I'm tired.
I didn't even get out.
I didn't run.
You can see it in mytranscripts.
I didn't run nothing.
I didn't even.
I didn't.
I kept it stopped snitching.
You know I didn't.
I didn't tell anything.
But they separated us that nightand I saw everything.
(23:27):
It was like came clear.
I saw it really clear.
He had, he had like a letter inhis pocket which we call an
insulated statement, so he wastelling on me.
So I knew I was going to getlike everything, because he's
going to tell on every,everything we did and he did.
And but my judge, she wasreally lenient.
At first she gave me like 0 to45, then she worked it down to 0
(23:49):
to 15, then 5 to 15 and thendidn't give me 5.
And uh, because I was facing 45like he told on everything I
did with him, everything,anything, and uh, I took it as a
sign.
As I said, well, I'm gonnachange myself while I'm in here,
but I didn't know how.
They have a term in prisoncalled programming, where you
(24:11):
learn stuff and you get to aroutine.
So I was doing that.
Going to art class, I coulddraw, so I'm just going to the
art room to draw.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now real quick.
There's a lot of rumors aboutDC prisons and all of that.
You were there.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So what was that experience like?
So here in dc it was, it's,it's, it's a prison.
You know it was a jail for real, for real.
Um, when I first got there, myfirst cellmate was the father of
somebody I went to middleschool with.
He had the same, yeah, and wedidn't know it till we started
(24:51):
talking about the past and stuffand he was coming down off of
heroin.
So they give him like methadoneto step him down and they give
like so many of it, so manylevels of it, every week or day,
so he will only eat the fruitand the cookies.
So the rest of the meals hewould give to me and I would
(25:12):
trade the food for like chicken,the chicken for like cigarettes
and stuff.
We talked a lot Then.
My second one after that waslike a motorcycle guy and I'm
still going to court and stuff.
When I finally get my time theyput me over to another building
next door called CTF.
It's like a better, it's morelike a.
(25:32):
It feels like a medicalhospital more than anything.
It still sales, but it just thelook and feel of it says prison
, hospital and there was aprogram there called the Youth
Act and I was just right underthe age to get it.
I think I was 20, going on 21,so I was right under the age to
(25:52):
get it.
What it would do is it wouldrip it off your record.
It's on your record if you gofor FBI or Homeland Security or
something, but everybody elsewould see nothing.
I went through the program andevery day we had to stand in
formation, we had to get out,say something positive, we had
(26:15):
to exercise, you know, and thenwe had like talent shows and
stuff.
I got into a rift with the lead, the squad leaders, to the
point where all seven of themjumped me and so I tested my
metal, that's like.
At that point in time I waslike I'm not going nowhere.
So every day we got information I would lunge at one
of them and beat the pipes offof them and I kept getting
(26:37):
locked down for it.
And then I got to like thefifth one and he finally was
like trying to tell me like youknow, this is going to your
judge'm.
Like you know, I have to livehere if I'm going to get 45
years, I have to live amongstthese people.
And every prison got to knowI'm not going through this,
because that's what I thought itwas.
But we're like the oldestperson's, like 25.
(26:59):
The youngest is 16, you know,we're mentally just full of piss
, you know.
So after that they, um, they.
Let me talk to the last two.
One of them backed out of thefight, the other one we locked
in.
I beat him till he was winded,because what they weren't was.
(27:20):
I was calculated on the streets.
I wanted to be a kingpin and Itrained like Batman and to this
day I still train like Batman,like no jokes about it.
Like yesterday I was at the gymthree times.
So they were about that lifeand you know what they look like
and how they sound.
But I was about that life LikeI had to live it.
(27:43):
Jump.
After that I come home no, wego to.
When I get my time, they send meto North Carolina, went to
North Carolina.
It's a prison facility downthere and I did the rest of my
time there, like a year orsomething, because I know it was
(28:17):
April 2005.
I came home and I didn't getearly termination.
I had to do the whole two and ahalf years.
They took me as a threat like Iwas going to do more, but I
wasn't the whole time I was inthere I just focused on reading
and learning myself.
Like anything about me, I canlearn, I would learn.
(28:39):
I had a cellmate.
He liked to exercise a lot.
We would do 10 pull-ups andthen he would do 10 pull-ups and
then I would do 10 pull ups andthen I would do 10 pull ups.
We did that till we got atwenty five hundred pull ups.
That's like every day, you know, and they call me Bruce Leroy
because I couldn't get any big.
You know, because I didn't havepeople sending me money from
(28:59):
home to buy extra commissary.
I didn't have extra food.
Sometimes I got stuff out thekitchen, but for the most part,
any money that I got down there,I earned it, working 17 cents
an hour and I would make like 31bucks a month at the most.
(29:21):
All of that and the differencewith that than the prison here
was where I was.
Ctf was a bunch of boys.
When I got down there it was5000 men and just imagine a
bunch of warriors standingaround each other like no
disrespect to what anybody did.
You know there's somethingwrong, but we all treat each
(29:43):
other like warriors.
Everybody could kill anybody inthere if they wanted to.
There was guys who did 25 yearsand was down there because of
camp.
It was a medium-low, we all hadlow violence levels, but we all
were considered violentcriminals.
We respected each other.
Some fight broke out becauseone person did not respect that
(30:06):
man.
He treated him less than a manand he's going to get what he
deserves Most of his beatingsnot many stabbings or anything
like that.
But it was the DC stigma of alot of DC males down low.
Yeah, there we go.
I wanted you to say.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Oh yeah, no, no, I'm going to cover it.
I'm going to cover it.
It we go.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
I wanted you to say I'm going to cover it.
I'm going to cover it.
It's real.
There was a guy who went tohigh school with his name was
Damien, but in there they calledhim Donut.
He has everything.
And when we were standing inline we were getting checked in.
I can't forget this.
We were getting checked in andthey make you bend over and call
Okay.
And when they made you bendover and call, when they made
him bend over and call, theentire line bent this way to
(30:51):
look.
I'm still looking forwardtrying to look at the back of
someone's head the whole line.
Wow, Even the guy who's makingyou bend over and call the
correctional officer is intothat.
There's a lot of.
It was a lot of that At CTF.
(31:12):
It was even worse.
Like I said, it was like aglorified prison hospital over
there.
There were correctionalofficers that would meet people
at night at their cell.
In their cell there was even asurvey that we all got asking
about an interview about certaincorrectional offices, because
(31:33):
there was some type oflitigation or something that
happened.
And then when we got to northcarolina um, it was north
carolina the chicken uh factoryhad closed, so most of them who
(32:00):
worked there was your next doorneighbor.
They of the correctionaloffices.
She immediately got fired andthen the ring got sent out of
that prison.
The gentlemen that were in onit, they got sent somewhere else
and then several other femalecorrectional officers got sent
somewhere else and then we got anew slew of them from the
neighborhood and the thinghappened again.
(32:27):
Even our caseworkers we gotdown to there were interactions
with caseworkers.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
What I you know and I know you, donovan, and I know
your story and we can talk.
I mean, yeah, I'm not talkingabout the clock.
But from all of all of thestuff you went through to where
you are now.
I don't know, it's, it's.
(32:59):
I think we ought to get there.
So people don't keep sayingwhat was me?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well, most people don't look at what they've been
through.
Like you know, people chasesuccess, not realizing they're a
success, right and so, like allof that, it wasn't until I
started really going harddeveloping this car in 2014 did
I don't mean to cut you off,brother I I just want to get
(33:27):
there Right.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
But we're going to take you.
We went, we're going to takeyou out of the prison experience
.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
To where you are now.
Right, yeah, now, now, afterall that you experienced in
prison, right, and in thedifferent things that happened
and different experiences, right, and the different things that
happened and the differentexperiences, right, we already
went over to DC prison and therumors, right, the rumors, and
you basically confirmed thatthat's true, right, that that
(33:57):
stuff happens in the DC prisonsright Now.
You survived all of that.
You survived all of that andthen you get out in 2005.
Right, did you go to school inprison or did you go to school
when you got out?
Speaker 3 (34:14):
So when I got, when I was in prison, every anything I
wanted to take up had alreadystarted or was ending and if I
started it up I couldn'tcomplete it before I left.
So when I came out I said whatjobs can I get that's going to
skill me up and be able to payfor and or pay for skilling me
(34:36):
up?
So the first job I got wasconcrete construction and the
odd thing about it was I stilltalk like this and think like
this.
They put me on the engineeringcrew after I had been on the
finishing crew for like 11months and the finishing crew is
like you walk around any spotsbroken, anything, you finish it,
you make it perfect, you know,and that's like an elite crew to
(34:58):
concrete.
And then I got on theengineering site crew where I
was working with math andlooking at blueprints.
I had not a mathematicalanalytical brain, but I could.
They call it spatial awareness,where I could take an object
(35:19):
that's 2D and make it into 3D inmy mind.
And if you want me to make itout of something, I can make it
(35:51):
into 3D their gaming andsimulation, because it was the
closest to design and draftingthat I've bought.
That has questions in it for meto study, for you to do what?
For you to tell me that I knowwhat I know?
I'm going to pay you to tell meI learned it.
So I dropped out.
(36:12):
I'm going to be honest with you.
I dropped out and I beganteaching myself electrical
engineering, mechatronics andmechanical engineering.
From that point on, I taughtmyself CAD.
I taught myself computationalfluid dynamics, which once you
put a CAD model in there, ittells you how water flows around
air flows around it, how toadjust it.
I can't think of all thetechnical names for the things,
(36:36):
but I can explain it Like asuspension.
I taught myself how to design asuspension system, the whole
thing From the rim to thecontrol arms, taught myself how
to design that and work andfunction.
And if we built it in the realworld, it might no, it will put
other companies shit Excuse mylanguage, because I'm part of
(37:00):
the first people was evercreated.
Once I tapped into that andrealized that about myself.
During that time I just wenthard.
Anyone will tell you.
I just kept going hard in itstudying, studying, studying and
applying to study.
My dad he has a consultingcompany, so a lot of times he
will bring me technicalconsultants.
(37:21):
Someone needs somethingengineered, someone needs some
information system developed orsoftware built, something that
had to do with electricalengineering.
And then I started doingrenovations on the side as well,
because I was in construction.
So I'm looking at real worldhousehold electrical, low
(37:42):
voltage and high voltage, butI'm also developing over here
devices or systems for peopleand I realized I could do
something with this.
I typed in all my skills fromsculpting and within parentheses
(38:04):
and in Google as disciplinesand it popped up automotive
engineering and design.
Like what is what I'm supposedto do?
Mind you, I didn't explain.
When I was in prison, I keptreading this book called Finding
your Calling in Life.
I can't remember the author,but I kept reading it and it
(38:27):
basically teaches you how to askyourself a series of questions
to determine who you are andwhat you want to do.
And it never tells you what youare, just ask.
Tells you to ask yourself verydeep questions.
You know, are you?
Yeah, what are you like?
What would you?
(38:47):
What would you put yourself to?
You know what are you?
Do you like to help people?
Do you like to build things andcan?
Can you apply that to you?
Know your, you know, and so, inthat I had found who I was and
(39:12):
I knew I wanted to do somethingin technology and use my art at
the same time.
And automotive and I love cars,and so automotive engineering
was at least developing avehicle was the thing I had to
do it, and I haven't stopped.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I haven't stopped.
Okay, so you, you, basicallyyou're autodidactic, pretty much
right, so you're self-taught,and so how is your, your
discipline with study to makesure that you get this down, to
be able to create these things?
What's your study habits like?
(39:52):
Are you studying like straightthree, four hour clips, two hour
clips, you know, to give peoplesome insight of on how someone
could you know study to becomeproficient at creating something
like this?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
So I took my syllabus from DeVry and looked at the
time we were in class and thefew good professors I did have
would let us take breaks, but Itook the entire syllabus and
made sure that the subjects I'mlearning are along those same
(40:33):
lines.
So, whatever you want to teachyourself, some school wrote out
a syllabus exactly what you needto do, at least what books you
need to read.
Then you have to know yourboredom time.
That's what I call it in mymind.
So for me it's 90 minutes.
After 90 minutes I need to godo something.
That else, if I'm reading orstudying and what I mean
(40:57):
studying is, my grandfathertaught me to read it and then
try to write it down and thenread what you wrote and you'll
know you're missing stuff.
So go back and read it again.
Also, whatever subject you'retrying to learn, you need to
(41:19):
know someone who you know degree, expert, credible source in
that field that you can bounceyour, your, your problems off of
and they can tell you ifthey're right, wrong or what you
need to improve.
Several are better, um, I havehoward reed.
(41:40):
He's an electrical engineer.
He developed several devices,several patents under his name.
Um, and I bounce off of him.
Additionally, the software Itaught myself electrical
engineering on is the samesoftware they give to you in
colleges.
It's free and it checks yourerrors in the software.
There's a lot of these outthere in many subjects and so
(42:04):
even in coding you know.
So, whatever you want to teachyourself, there's something out
there that will you know,correct you in you learning it
and you, you know you take the.
Did I get it right?
No, it told you it's wrong.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I like what he did, because he does, he actually
calls me too, so that's theother thing he reaches.
So he created a syllabus forhis life and for those people
who are just not into school.
He actually created a listwhich you want to say, to say
I'm going to do this, I'm goingto do this, I'm going to do this
(42:43):
, I'm going to do this.
And it's marked out in timesright, I'm going to do this from
215 to 345.
Now, if I'm working, I do thisfrom this, but even in my break
and work, I'm going to do thisfrom this.
(43:03):
So that's a training model.
You know, most people probablydo that when they exercise.
I'm going to lift, you know,this weight three times in 10
sets, so whatever it is.
So he mapped out his listthroughout the day and across
from that, he has resources thathe has looked for, that he's
(43:29):
tapped into, to say, okay, I'mgoing to check myself, I'm going
to reach out to this person,I'm going to get this, I'm going
to get this, so I can make sureI'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Right.
So now, after creating thisformat to allow you to grasp all
this information, how did youget into creating this
electrical I think you saidelectric vehicle?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, so that was the goal to create an electric
vehicle.
So that that was the goal andthe study was leading up to it.
And so First it started, I'm anartist first.
So first it started with thedesign.
(44:23):
I designed the body and stylingof it and said to myself, all
right, what, what, whatdimensions do I have to work
with, what, what power do I wantto put out?
You know, I basically gavemyself some criteria, I worked
(44:44):
backwards and because I don'tcome from the automotive world,
you know, I don't come from thetraditional, even though I'm
studying these guys like whoknows what you know, from CR
Patterson, henry Ford, to themodern guys, maté Remac of Remac
Automobili and Konex Egg ofthat company, you know, even to
(45:07):
the Porsche family, you know.
But I engineered differently.
I say, you know, you got 10inches by 12 inches square, make
it fit.
That's how I engineered.
Um, and it's gotta meet, youknow, this specification or that
(45:28):
torque output, and it just eachpiece just kept coming together
.
I can't really explaineverything, like, for instance,
the chassis.
I have read a study by ChalmersUniversity where they took a
carbon substrate and was ableknow what we would consider like
(45:55):
a graphene sheet and aluminumand made a mini battery out of
it and said, okay, well, if Iscaled this up, I can store
energy in the chassis, themonocoque, the frame that you
sit in.
I can store the energy in it.
And how do I keep the emffeedback?
So now I got to learn about emffeedback.
(46:17):
Now I got to learn about uh, uh, how to shield electrically
better than I know how to dobuilding a board like how do I
protect humans?
Now I got to study that, um,and in studying that, I learned
about some scientists in 1951,studied the human body and found
out that it resembles a circuitboard.
Even the DNA is zeros and oneslike code.
(46:39):
So now I'm going into anotherbranch and learning about the
human body and frequencies.
And oh, the electric motor makesfrequencies.
Yeah, Donovan, yeah, it does.
How does that relate to people?
Can I, when they're sitting ina seat, can I heal them?
You know that's how it went.
(47:01):
As things progressed, as I'mlearning new things, I'm adding
new features and perfectingthose features.
Remember I told you 2014, itwasn't till 2021.
I realized, all right, thedesign is.
I'm in the final, final phasesof the design.
I want this to be a reality and, um it.
(47:22):
We kept going from there.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
So this is the vehicle here.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yeah, um yeah, you're on the 400.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
So so you, you, of course you're, you're an, an
artist, so did you draw this outand this is.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
This is a 3d, this is a parametric model.
So not only is it threedimensions, I could send those
individual components tomachinery and it could stamp the
part out, it, it can 3D printit, it can mold it.
They're parametric.
(48:00):
That's what I learned at schoolthe difference between, you
know, game simulation and thingsthat are parametric models,
parametric models, physicalmodels.
So the program I use is Fusion360.
It's a program I used beforethat was a four thousand dollar
a year program that the industryuses, um, but this one is at a
lower price but all, all thesame features, and so it allows
(48:22):
you to build, uh, you know,suspension systems, uh, gear
systems, electric motors,circuit systems, the like,
what's what you?
There's a lot that's not inhere, like the suspension, the
radiator and such For lack of abetter word anti-theft purposes.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
This is.
This is great, now, being thatyou already know how to
incorporate, already explainedthat like llc and things like
that.
What did you do?
How do you?
Because this is a car company,right, so this is bigger than
what I ever even thought, andfor myself, you know, I'm saying
like I'm thinking you knowpodcasting, black media, uh,
(49:12):
company.
You know, like I'm thinkingmerch, I'm thinking you know
there's other types ofbusinesses that I could think of
, but a car company is likethat's the last thing that would
be on my mind, right, so howyou incorporate this llc or Corp
(49:33):
, however, I mean whatever, umand so, after that, what are the
requirements to have a carcompany?
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Well, the founders all got to have licenses driver
licenses, that's one of them Umregulatory just being registered
in the United States.
Um, that vehicle, the, theframe before you saw the
monocoque all of that has topass 32 tests across National
Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration and the Institute
(50:06):
for International HighwaySafety.
It's like an insuranceinstitute, i-s-a-h-a.
The insurance is to, uh, I S aH a, um, and that's if, if each
test passed the first time,that's 32 cars you send to them
to crash and let's say, eight ofthose fail, you got to send
(50:27):
eight more cars.
Um, we've designed themonocoque in a way that it could
do several crash tests at thesame time.
I mean, oh, different intervalsand their regulation allows for
outside of that, and they alsoallow, within a certain time
frame before the final design issubmitted and validated, you
(50:54):
can begin taking pre-orders, butthere's not much to Okay, you
said there's not much to have acar company.
Yes, where the much comes in ishow are you producing this
vehicle?
Speaker 1 (51:12):
That's what man Yo man, that's what Yo man.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
That's where the much comes in.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
It's not like you're throwing up a donut stand.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Yo, this is great man .
This is like thinking outsideof the box, man.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Now where are you in theprocess of having an actual
vehicle, and you know where areyou in the process there.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
So this year we're aiming to begin filming the
build phases of that prototype.
We have several components umthat we've been storing and
continuing to get more um yo.
We gotta support this brother Idon't, I don't, I don't want to
(52:08):
close the number because it's avery, very, very, very very low
number to build that productionprototype.
But that's the simple part andthat's the part I'm going to
have the most fun at and themost engaging.
For me After that it's allmeetings and flybys, but at
(52:29):
least I get to build theprototype and be a part of some
of the production going forward.
The goal is to bring people inthat think like me or similar or
close to that, align with thesame corporate culture and have
that open internal tenacity to,you know, be innovative so that
(52:53):
we can push even further.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Man, listen, man, hold on.
Man, y'all got it, yo.
If y'all didn't watch this show, rewind from the beginning,
because this is so ill to me.
I'm coming with the New Yorkslang, pardon me.
(53:17):
This is super ill because firstof all, he came up like we all
came up go to prison, come.
Go to prison, come out, studyon his own autodidactic, did his
own thing, and now he has thishere and the ball is rolling.
(53:40):
Man, this is so dope man.
We need to support stuff likethis.
This is totally out of the box.
You know what I mean.
When you think about Blackbusiness, what comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (53:55):
But when you think about black business, what comes
to mind?
But when you think about blackexcellence, it is not just a
conversation like when I'm goingto one day man, you'll see, man
, you watch me one day.
Those conversations neverhappen.
When you're talking to a personthat says watch, you'll see one
(54:19):
day.
What's your list Right?
What is your syllabus for yourlife Tomorrow?
I'm going to do this Right.
Not just things on a list.
What is your time From 2 to 3,from 4 to 5, from 2.15 to6?
(54:40):
What is your list through your24 hour period?
I'm talking about your sleepperiod.
What is your training foryourself To rewire your focus?
So at the end of your traveling, your journey, you come up with
(55:01):
where you're going, not whereyou want to be, not the end,
because there is no end, butwhere you're going Right.
This isn't Donovan's end, thisis just the start.
It's like martial arts theblack belt is not the end, it's
(55:23):
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Right, we don't really.
Our community isn't bombardedbecause we're not in a lot of
these companies and what I meanis on the decision-making floor.
So in the 90s, toyota spent $10million to study the black
(55:47):
luxury car buyer $10 million inthe 90s and they found out that
BMW, mercedes, mercedes nobodywanted to sell us a car.
So they flew all these Koreansand Japanese people over to
America, opened up thesedealerships called Lexus,
studied.
I mean, they spent another 10million dollars on studying the
(56:09):
luxury cars we bought anddesigned their vehicles Like,
literally, they looked at thesuspension and said, make it
like that but make it better.
Make that seat like that, butmake it better.
And then they said how do theytreat them?
Talk to them better.
When white person come in,don't walk.
If a black person and a whiteperson come in, walk up to the
black person first, ignore thewhite guy.
This was in this is publicknowledge by Toyota.
(56:32):
Toyota did this first.
First year they made that $20million back, plus some In the
next five years they had alreadymade $100 million on this.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
And do you know what was also triggering?
The white people started buyingLexus because they did not want
the blacks to outbuy them in avehicle that they too could buy.
Not that they wanted it.
Speaker 3 (56:58):
We spent that much money on that car company.
What if it's our car companyNow?
What can that buying power do?
How many schools can we upgradeto level four schools for free?
Make the government pay it back, or we'll get it back, we'll
figure it out.
I have a nice CFO that figuresall kinds of ways to make money
(57:22):
from throwing money out the door, you know.
So what can we do?
And then what does that do?
Internally, pride to people,you know, knowing that your
community produces a vehiclethat you buy.
Yeah, we got a sedan coming.
Yes, we have an SUV coming.
Yeah, we got a minivan coming.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
I want you probably to.
I know you're a humble guy andI know you want to probably give
your shout outs to your people.
Speaker 3 (57:53):
Definitely I wouldn't be able to have done this
without my dad there, my uncleand Miss Bell.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
That's nice man.
Speaker 3 (58:03):
They backed me.
Miss Bell I was a personalassistant for years.
My uncle I've renovated hisbasement.
My dad I've always, anytime hecalls, I'm on it.
They have reciprocated.
They're my biggest uh sponsorsand backers, um, for this
project as well.
Um, the rest of my team uh gota shout out.
(58:27):
Mr anderson and miss hagan's anduh, mr ventor Hagen says again,
this was.
She was my store manager atonce at CVS and in a time when I
had nothing, she looked out andtook a shot on me.
You know what I'm saying.
And best inventory person andlogistics person I know,
(58:48):
anderson world travel security,professional risk management
understands things.
And here, mr Ventura I was hisestimator in construction, but
they've and he does engineeringas well, for us as well.
But everyone here has been heresince day one.
Charlie Greenhouse I met him in2012.
(59:09):
He has an EV company, evsrRacing, and he's been my
consultant on engineering.
Again, one of those people thatknows more about the subject
than you do and can tell you ifyou're wrong or right.
Mr Carter, very innovativeindividual.
As you can see my humility,I've put me at the bottom.
You know that's my software guy, corey hot fire, um, like Roto.
(59:36):
Roto and myself.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
Wow, man.
Hey, thank you guys for comingout this evening.
I really appreciate you, man.
We got to have you back.
Donovan, you got a lot to share.
We got a lot to talk about thisvehicle company.
Man, I want to push this hardman.
I want to push this hard man.
I want to, you know, try to usewhatever resources I have to
support this.
(01:00:01):
This is, this is different.
Y'all, this is different.
Thank y'all for coming out thisevening.
I really appreciate it.
We will talk.
Thanks to everybody in the chat, everybody who was, who was
watching, and we'll see youtomorrow, peace.
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