June 10, 2025 • 48 mins
Marcel shares his unique journey from navigating the streets to achieving academic success and building a diverse investment portfolio. He discusses pivotal moments that shifted his mindset and propelled him toward success. Marcel reveals how experiences from his youth shaped his entrepreneurial spirit and highlights the importance of passion, persistence, and leveraging modern technology. This episode offers actionable insights into investing in real estate, the stock market, and the burgeoning field of AI, making it an invaluable resource for aspiring entrepreneurs.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
To entrepreneurs over time, butthey were gatekeeping.
(00:02):
They went and tell me certainthings and I had to go out,
figure it out on my own, andunnecessary trips and failure.
And a lot of that's avoidablenow.
It's just avoidable.
You can get anything you want.
So we, it's been an entireshift, right?
We've gone from generations thatdidn't have access to any
information and that's how thewealthy were able to be wealthy
because they only had theknowledge now to.
(00:25):
Oversaturated with informationand now you're responsible for
making sure that the, theinformation that you receive is
credible.
Welcome to the Wayfinder Showwith Louis Hernandez, where
guests discussed the why and howof making changes that led them
(00:49):
down a more authentic path orallowed them to level up in some
areas of their life.
Our goal is to dig deep andprovide not only knowledge, but
actionable advice to help youget from where you are to where
you want to be.
Come join us and find a way toyour dream life.
(01:19):
Welcome back to the WayfinderShow.
I'm your host, Louis Hernandez.
And today's guest is MarcelClark, a serial entrepreneur,
real estate developer andinvestor, and a community
advocate.
With an extraordinary story fromthe streets of Hyattsville,
Maryland to earning advanceddegrees and building a diverse
investment portfolio, Marcel hasturned grit into greatness.
(01:40):
He's on a mission to uplift andeducate the next generation.
And his upcoming book titledHitting, hiding in Plain View,
tells the raw and inspiringstory behind it all.
Marcel, welcome to the WayfinderShow.
Hey Louis, thanks for having me,man.
I appreciate the love.
Yeah.
Appreciate having you here.
So tell us what it means to bean honor student of the streets.
(02:04):
Yeah.
When I was younger in my highschool days, my mom was pretty,
she was pretty, she's a greatparent, but she was everything
the opposite of the helicopterparent.
So she really gave me anopportunity to get out there and
learn life of my own and.
Given, the kind of friends I hadaround me at the time, we just
really did a lot out there onthose streets.
And they can definitely beeducational'cause you have to
(02:26):
have wit, you have to havecharisma, you have to really be
able to navigate a lot ofdifferent personalities,
environments.
And I think that definitely is askillset that I've been able to
transfer to the real world.
So it's been incredibly helpful,all the way through.
But definitely a student of thestreets.
So you combine that with a trueacademic background as well,
(02:48):
right?
Yeah.
Graduated with my master'sdegree back in 1999 now.
Okay.
And as we call it, it'sorganizational communications.
So organizationalcommunications, it's pretty much
a form of a master's in businessadministration.
So if there's a really uniquebreakdown on how organizations
work and how departments.
Correlate together and how youcan use technology to take
(03:10):
advantage of that.
Undergrad was in a, was inmarketing, so there you go.
So yes, definitely thecombination of my education and
what I learned being out thereamongst the people.
It definitely has paid dividendsat this point.
Yeah, so was there, I grew up onthe streets too and I know like
(03:30):
for a lot of us who, who havebackgrounds, there's oftentimes,
there's like a moment that likesomething clicks, right?
We know what we should be doing.
We probably know we shouldn't beout there, as knuckleheads on
the streets and what have you.
But something there's alwayslike one moment, it seems like
for a lot of us that just ithits like, okay, I get it now
(03:50):
this needs to stop.
Do you have one of those.
Yeah, it was definitely when mydaughter was born because when
my daughter was born and Iwasn't even there to see her,
see my child's mother givebirth.
'cause I'm sitting there in jailon some really dumb nonsense.
But I'm sitting there in jailand I'm like, yeah, this isn't
how it works.
I'm like, you can't be missingthe birth of your kid, right.
(04:12):
Messing around here on thestreet.
So that was one of the pivotalmoments in my life.
And I think that.
Also like a couple maybe likewhen she was a little bit
younger, I found myself inanother situation, and once
again, her mom came to visit mein jail.
And my daughter was trying toget to me through the plexiglass
(04:32):
and I was like, yeah, thisisn't.
This isn't how it goes.
I was just like, those twomoments involving my little girl
made me understand that, life isa lot more than just what I was
bringing to the table at thetime.
I was actually responsible foranother human being and that
kind of changed my wholemindset.
I.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Having responsibilities ofanother life is, will really
(04:53):
wake you up a bit.
So it's a big deal.
It is.
So another question along thoselines, I'm wondering, did for a
lot of us, I also think likewhen you were little, did you
envision yourself like being onthe streets?
Going to college and having theright career path.
That's probably, that's theintro of my book, right?
(05:15):
When I was, okay.
When I was small, it wasinteresting because I found
myself in a few environmentswhere, drug dealers looked like
they were the most importantthing, known to man.
They had the nicest cars, theyhad the nicest clothes, they had
the nicest jewelry.
So when I was young, I was like,Hey, that's that, that, that
looks like a really goodlifestyle right there.
A part of me always reallywanted to figure out, how did
(05:36):
they do that?
So it was definitely in me andmy dad didn't help the situation
'cause he used to love smokingmarijuana when I was a kid when
he would go out to the strips tofind, buy him some weed.
I'd be right there in thepassenger seat.
So I'm like, all so when Irecalled all of those things
when I was writing a book, I waslike, wow, that was an
interesting combination.
But yeah.
Yeah, definitely just beingexposed to that environment.
(05:58):
From a lot of different angles.
I did I definitely admired drugdealers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's interesting and Ithink it's very hard for people
to understand that, right?
You can you grow you like I.
When you, we all wanna grow upand be successful, right?
I think it doesn't matter whatyour background is you expect
and want success, but what thatsuccess looks like is defined by
(06:21):
your environment.
Exactly.
So when you see yourenvironment, the most successful
people you know, are drugdealers.
They look good.
They have all the nice cars.
They got the nice, the women allwanna be with them, everything,
right?
Like you.
What else would you, could youpossibly envision?
I think.
It is hard to get out of thateven, I don't know if you went
through this even in college,like thinking like, what am I
(06:43):
doing here?
This isn't a path to success.
What I'm gonna go get a job for,at that time, 20, 25 years, a
thousand a year when, I can bedoing so much more on the
streets and, yeah.
It was interesting because forme, I definitely I was taking
like, I had a dual pass.
Going on in my life at onepoint, I was actually out there
on the streets doing the wrongthing, but I was also in
(07:06):
college.
Yeah.
So I was, I was selling drugs bythe day and at nighttime I'm a
student.
And I think, with me, my mom,who was a educator herself.
From her standpoint with all hersisters all carrying master's
degrees and advanced degrees, asa small child, I was, it was
already instilled in me that Iwas gonna get an education.
(07:27):
Like it just wasn't negotiable.
Okay.
And like I said, I had my dad onthe other side, there was an
entrepreneur too, doing his ownthing, but also he had a wow
side to him.
He was just like that guy thatbasically took over a room.
Everybody wanted to be like him.
So when I'm seeing both of thesethings as I'm growing up.
And I think that's exactly whymy life has played out the way
(07:48):
it is, played out.
Because again, even when I wasdoing, a lot of wrong things, I
was still like plotting the pathto, to lead that environment.
I wasn't, I think a lot, I thinkwhat happens to a lot of people
that are in high riskcommunities is that, they
basically are there, and likeyou said, they want to emulate
what they see and they, theyjust look at that path as being
(08:11):
the only path that they have.
Yeah.
And for me it wasn't like that.
I really, during my journey, Icould see other people doing
successful things outside ofjust selling drugs.
So to me it made me feel like,okay, you can have a game plan
that's going to have a extrastrategy, so for me, at a
(08:31):
certain time I was like, I'mgonna execute my exit strategy.
But it's, the chapters beforethat though really challenging.
Yeah.
So how about your, along theway, like how did all of that
help shape your entrepreneurialmindset?
Because you ultimately justbecame a serial entrepreneur,
right?
You didn't take a the corporatepath unless you Yeah.
(08:52):
Yeah.
When I was again, watching mydad when I was a kid, my dad
used to own a lot of cornerstores in Philadelphia.
So corner stores are more likeseven elevens, except they all,
they actually have grills inthere too, to make cheese steaks
and hot foods.
And then they have a littlearcade games in there.
So when my dad, he owned likefive of those when I was a kid.
(09:13):
And I would actually, my mom andmy dad were in and out
relationship wise, so a lot oftimes she would.
Send me up to Philly to staywith him or for a moment, she
tried to move there.
But my point there is like,during my summers, I would
definitely spend my entiresummer in Philadelphia with him
and watching him do his thing.
Like he would take me to thewarehouses where they had
(09:35):
wholesale items and I wouldactually shop with him and
watching by these big packets ofcandy and Malin later and just
all kinds of different thingsthat I will watch him then.
Resale at a higher number.
That was implemented.
That was like in me at a reallyearly age watching him do that.
Entrepreneurship is something,it's just like you just talked
about when we were saying that,when you're on the streets, you
(09:56):
wanna emulate what it's the samething with parenting too.
Watching my dad do what he wasdoing.
I was okay, like his, therespect that he received in the
community, all of theconnections, I saw him growing
our lifestyle.
We used to live in a brownstone.
We had a personal chef in there,cleaners coming through all the
time.
We were living like topnotchlife at that moment.
(10:18):
So watching him live that wayand watching what it produced,
it was in me to take my own pathat some point.
But the, my dad's story is, hehe didn't he only had a sixth
grade education, so everythinghe was doing was straight from
just instinct and eventually allof that fell apart.
So when he lost his businesses,I think my mom and all of us,
(10:39):
when we had to go through all ofthat, my mom was really like
even pressing the pedal evenharder on me to get my
education.
'cause she really felt likethat's why he failed.
So she just even made him, shewas just making sure at that
point that I was gonnadefinitely get my education and,
that's kind.
Started it though because, atthe, at, that second chapter of
my life, I definitely foundmyself looking at, different
(11:01):
things that I wanted to investin.
And, I bought my first franchisewhen we, when I first got
married back in like 2005.
And that franchise is sparkedsomething in me because once I
had a chance to actually buy afranchise and look at how the
systems actually worked, it justbasically I felt like I was home
like.
If I back up a little bit, I wasdoing, I had found myself in a
(11:23):
nine to five world when Igraduated.
And I just remember that I wasreally moving up the ladder and
it was all working out for me.
But I remember one time I wasout on the golf course with one
of our directors.
I, em, and he was, we wereplaying golf and I was looking
out, I was looking out past thegolf course and looking at the
beautiful scenery.
And I was like, I said tomyself.
(11:45):
Yeah, this can't be it, hey.
Here I am at the top of the foodchain.
I'm probably making about$80,000back then.
I'm feeling like I'm only in myearly, late twenties and here I
am still feeling like I'm notsatisfied.
So I knew somewhere in me Ilike, I just wanted to do my own
thing.
I didn't wanna work for anybody.
I wanted.
I didn't feel like that wasgonna be fulfilling enough.
(12:06):
I felt like I wanted to createmy own company, my own brands,
my own.
And the moment I bought thatfranchise and it was starting to
become successful, I knew I wasin the right place.
Okay.
It just clicked.
It's like what you asked meearlier.
Have you ever had that momentwhere it clicked?
It just clicked the moment Ilike about a year two when I
owned that franchise and I thinkI ran it up to 750,000 in
(12:26):
revenues.
I was like, yeah, we are on ourway.
But I knew I would never turnback after that.
What was the franchise?
The Maid's Home Services.
It was a beautiful residentialcleaning service.
High end though.
They only focused on real, likeyou had that six figures.
Their marketing plan was thisincredibly like direct, but they
were really looking for high-endconsumers and that's all we
(12:46):
targeted.
And that's, I think that's onething that kind of, now I don't
think I know it rubbed off onme, which is, what they showed
me is you get what you pay forin this world, right?
So with them they're, they like,they go for a high target.
Client, but they also give you areally highend service, right?
So everything beautiful cars,four person team pulls up, they
(13:08):
have great uniforms on, they'retrained well, they had the best
equipment.
So they're gonna, they're gonnacharge you more, but they're
giving you a higher level ofservice.
I took that, and I applied thatto everything that I do.
If it's not high end, I, I'mjust not involved with it
because like even when.
My commercial cleaning companythat I own now, we just don't do
the bottom feeding, bidding andlow bid.
(13:30):
Like all of that is just toomuch because it just doesn't end
well.
You might grab a contractbecause you were the lowest
bidder, but now you're notreally making any money.
You can't provide the rightservice'cause you can't pay your
people the right amount ofmoney.
And it's a disaster because thenyou're gonna have a customer
that's gonna be pissed at youbecause they're gonna be like,
Hey, I'm paying you but I'mgetting bad qua, I'm getting bad
service.
They're getting bad servicebecause they're not paying you
(13:52):
enough.
I just stay away from thingslike that.
Yes, sometimes, we're gonna bethe highest there, but I'm also
guaranteeing my clients thatwe're gonna have a higher level
of service.
So that's just the way it worksin business.
And I like that.
I like being held to a higherstandard than everything that I
do.
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah.
I, it sounds like that's reallywhere you learned about the
difference between price andvalue.
(14:12):
Warren Buffet always says priceis what, I'm forgetting it now,
but price is what you pay andvalue is what you get.
And you you gave a high value init.
And for that you should bepaying for it.
You don't, and that's it.
And there's no excuses.
Like my, if my clients call meand it's an issue, it's
resolved.
Yeah.
Like it's no.
We don't make excuses.
(14:33):
It's okay, how do we fix this?
It's, this, you're just on awhole nother level of service.
But it's worth it though becauseI think people, especially in
this environment, they just loveit.
They just want you to bestraight with them.
Don't give them a whole lot ofreasons why this happened and
that happened.
Just explain that Yes, it's onus and we're gonna be out there
to resolve it today.
Yeah.
Period.
That's it.
(14:53):
And they love me for thatbecause they know, I mean it
like, anytime we messed up, I'mlike, that's unacceptable.
Yeah.
And I'm talking about some of myown people, if they, if I hear
about something that is belowour standard, I'm like, that's
unacceptable.
We're gonna fix it.
Yeah.
I just don't do the wholeexcuses thing.
And this is why people don'twant to hear that anymore.
The world is moving too fast andif they don't feel like they can
(15:13):
trust you, they're gonna moveon.
Yeah, that's great.
So you started with thiscleaning service.
It sounds like you still haveone, but now you're doing the
commercial cleaning work, right?
So what has been the rest ofthe, your evolution in
entrepreneurial?
Because you've done quite a bit.
I've seen you've done some realestate, some crypto, some stock
investing, equity investing.
What else?
(15:33):
How did that all Yeah, soprogress?
A lot of times when I'm doinginvestments, first of all, I do
things that, I really like.
I don't get involved withprojects or things that I'm not
interested in.
I don't experiment when I seesomething and I like it, I do
it.
So usually everything I do isfrom the heart.
Like you said, I morphed the,once I owned the franchise, it
was okay, but after five yearsand I had dominated that space,
(15:57):
I was like, I'm paying them.
That's the thing, Peter.
You don't understand behind thescenes, franchisees make a lot
of money off their franchisefees.
So I just arrived at a pointwhere I was like, they're not
really teaching me anythinganymore and I'm paying them as
much as I'm paying myself.
So I negotiated a deal to exitthat actual organization, to
sell it for a nice profit.
(16:17):
But also they gave me a waiverto create my own commercial
cleaning company because.
Residential cleaning company,they only focused on single
family homes, town homes,apartments, anything That's
residential.
Commercial cleaning is totallydifferent.
It's a, it's, they're likecousins, but commercial cleaning
is really more focusing onmedical facilities, religious
institutions law offices, thingslike that.
(16:39):
So when they gave me that waiverand I was able to do that.
Colonial commercial cleaning wasborn and because I had some, I
had contacts already, it waseasier for me to establish and
grow that business.
And it's a really big brand now,and it's it's one of my favorite
companies.
But be before that, when I wasin college, I actually used to,
like, when I was going throughschool and I couldn't afford the
(17:01):
townhouse I was in, I wasrenting rooms out of it.
And I noticed really quicklythat, the other kids were pretty
much paying the mortgage.
So I was like, oh, this is aneasy concept.
So I started slowly like buyingrentals and I had a decent
portfolio maybe back in 20, 20,20 10.
But I felt rentals are cool andI started rehabbing.
(17:24):
I had a neighbor that was areally good general contractor,
Gary Nelson.
Gary Nelson since he lived rightnext door.
I was Gary, what do you thinkabout rehabbing?
Because right at the moment,rehabbing was all over tv.
You had television shows aboutit.
So I was like, yeah, that lookspretty interesting.
He was a part of myorganization.
We did a lot of rehabs, probablylike 25, 50 rehabs.
(17:45):
And.
I just got bored with thatthough.
'cause I was like it's anincredibly challenging business
because at the end of the day,everybody gets paid before you.
So all the contractors get paid'cause you're rehabbing it.
The realtor got paid'cause hesold it to you, the realtor gets
paid again because they're gonnasell the building or the house.
I was like, no.
Yeah.
And then if we did make amargin, it'd be.
(18:07):
Sometimes we might make 20,25,000 off a job, but there was
so much work involved.
I was like, this is just hardmoney.
Yeah.
So what I eventually ended updoing was deciding that I wanted
to,'cause I was partnered at thetime with a friend, so I told
him he could take that part ofthe business and he could keep
on doing it.
I wanted more, more or lessfocused on real estate
development.
So my thought was, buying apiece of land and building a
(18:31):
structure on that land was a lotmore attractive, and that's
where we are.
So I created a wing of thatcompany and it's called Vanna
Black va.
And all we do is focus on realestate development.
We're working on a nice projectin Washington DC right now.
I like that part of the businessa little bit more because I
think there are much higher endmargins there.
(18:51):
It's a facility that, thatcompany's going to, we're gonna
hold it for a while.
I think if I was telling anybodyout there about rehabbing, I
think the best thing to do ifyou ever do get into that space,
is don't buy in flipping andsell it.
You should hold a lot of times.
'cause what happens now is a lotof times, my companies that are
on record owning the property,Zillow will send you updates on
what the.
(19:13):
Property value is.
So I get a lot of hits fromhouses that we used to own and
they've gone up exponentially.
Yeah, they've gone up way morethan.
When we flipped it, right?
So I'm just sitting theresaying, if we had just held this
house Yeah.
I would've made five times morethan I made when I sold it.
Yeah.
So that's exactly why Itransitioned from that to real
(19:33):
estate development becauseeverything that we build, we
hold now.
'Cause that's really one of the,one of the pillars of wealth,
right?
You definitely want to get intoreal estate or whatever you
have, you wanna hold it becauseit's a two part win.
When you have, if you're leasingit out and you have tenants in
there, first of all, they'repaying your mortgage.
So that's one.
And then two, that property isappreciating.
(19:54):
So the longer you have it, themore it's worth.
So you now have somebody payingdown your mortgage, but you also
have something that'sappreciating.
So 10, 10 years from now, youcould be looking at a
astronomical game because youhaven't really, you, your name
is on it.
Yes, you're going to, you'regoing to be on the hook for it,
but at the end of the day, it'san appreciating asset.
Real estate developmentdefinitely is one of my like
(20:15):
favorite loves right now.
But then again when I startedthe franchise, when I bought
that franchise back in, in ohfive or whatever I did, I had
some unfinished business therebecause.
Even though I sold it, I didn'treally, I only, the only part
about that transaction thatbothered me was I really didn't
get to scale the business to thesize that I wanted to.
(20:38):
So recently, Marco's Pizza cameout, came around.
They found me.
Marco's is a really dominantfranchise that's growing on the
east coast here.
They, we ran into each other andthey offered me like a three
unit deal that we're going totry to get up to 10 units.
So I'm actually about a ventureback into franchising.
Okay.
Because that's in my wheelhouseanyway.
But I only reason I'm saying I'mtalking about this is because
(21:00):
this is my shot at actuallygrowing a business to the size
that I want to grow or two onwhen it comes to franchises.
So I'm gonna take my shot backat this one.
I'm pretty sure, I'll make it dowhat it does, because my level
of persistence is.
Relentless.
Love it.
So love it.
I put my mind to it.
I focus on it, it's gonnahappen.
But yeah, I'm venturing backinto that.
So I had to Marcos Pizza dealand yeah, and then, my book is
(21:23):
out there.
So that's just something that I,that this came, that I started
writing this book 10 years ago.
I didn't finish it because lifehappened and now I wrapped it up
and I want everybody to knowabout it.
So yeah, I do.
I have a lot on my plate, buteverything I mentioned just now
though didn't notice.
I love these things.
Like these things are anextension of me.
I, that's the only thing I getinvolved with because I think
(21:45):
that when you do things and youlove it, then it's not really
work.
That adage is very true, right?
I don't wake up in the morningand I'm like oh, here.
No, that's not my life.
My life is, I wake up, I'm like,all right, what's on my calendar
today?
And anything that's on mycalendar, I'm like, yes.
I'm like, okay, let's get itdone.
Oh, I'm gonna see so and sotoday.
Oh, I'm gonna meet lame mycontractor today.
(22:05):
Oh, we're going the commercialcleaner.
It's a big contract.
I need to sign, like I'm happyto do it because this is what I
do.
So I think that's the deal.
Like when I'm talking to youngentrepreneurs, they want to get
into it.
I'm like, what do you love?
Whatever it is, right?
What do you love to do?
And if you love it Now, that'sthat.
That should be your startingpoint to figure out what kind of
(22:26):
business you wanna create aroundit.
And then I think you're off tothe race.
Yeah, that's awesome.
There's so much there, right?
First of all, I could feel yourpassion, so I know that's
genuine what you're saying.
I'm Charlotte, listeners couldtoo, but I want to backtrack a
little bit on that.
Let's start with when you wererehabbing or flipping as most
people think of it, a lot ofpeople just.
(22:47):
Think it out in that DMV area.
We all called it rehabbing whenyou get a property with
rehabbing the properties, but ina lot of other parts of country,
it is fix and flips, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I know the feeling because Idid a lot of this in Baltimore
back in the day, and and there'sno, nothing worse than when you
go and you first of all, likeyou said, cashflow management is
really hard.
(23:08):
With flipping.
'cause everybody gets paidbefore you do.
And then if you're lucky at theend, you make a little bit of
money.
But then what usually ends uphappening is the person after
you makes all the real moneyafter you did all the work, the
one who bought it for, and thatcould be a real punch in the
gut, right?
It does.
But yeah, holding them, I think,like you said, is the real path
to wealth.
It's creating assets thatgenerate.
(23:31):
Income for you, whether it bethrough appreciation or cash
flow.
Like they can spit off income onit, which just sounds like
that's what's happening withyour commercial properties that
you're holding, right?
Yeah.
I gotta thank my attorney TonyBarrow.
Tony.
Tony was one of my first realestate attorneys.
He and I was sitting there'causeI was just coming off of
rehabbing and we had closed thedeal on a lot and.
(23:55):
I was sitting there talking tohim.
I was thinking, I was like, Idon't know if I wanna sell it or
if I wanna hold it.
And he told me a quick story.
He said, Marcel, I've been doingreal estate in DC for a while.
He said.
I had gotten lucky and I metsomebody and he sold me a
building and I bought it.
I bought it for$2.5 million, hesaid, but two years later,
(24:16):
somebody turned around and theyasked me did I wanna sell it to
them for 5 million.
He was like, of course I wasgonna sell it.
He said, I sold it.
He said, Marcel, how much do youthink that building is worth
now?
I said, how much Tony?
He said, 10.5 million.
So that was it.
I was like, oh, I'm holding.
Yeah.
I was like that.
(24:36):
It was it's what he's saying,man.
He is like the, there is moneyin real estate, but it's like
you said, the money is.
After you've done all the rehaband then you've built the build
in it.
Now it's appreciating, right?
Because you've appreciated theland or the structure by
improving it, right?
So when you flip it, you've all,now you've made that asset even
(24:58):
more valuable.
At the moment, it has a certainamount of value, but down the
road it'll have even more value.
That's right.
So the value is exponentiallyhigher the longer you have it.
So that's where real wealth is,right?
It's not in those littletemporary flips.
Again, if you're looking at 20,let's even go up to$50,000 per
(25:19):
flip.
That's small money.
Again, when I get those hitsfrom Zillow, some of those
properties are up 150,$200,000.
We're talking about, I ownedthem five years ago.
Like what?
So it's just not smart to flipand sell, unless that's just
your business model.
If that's your business model,that's cool.
But again, you have to beflipping a tremendous number of
(25:41):
houses, first of all, to make itprofitable.
You're not gonna be all inflipping five, five or 10 a
month.
You have your volume has to beincredibly high.
And to do that, you have to havea really good system in place
because everybody in thatbusiness knows the wrong
contractor alone could sink you.
It's that simple, like the one,the, this, the wrong contractor
(26:03):
alone could sink you.
Okay.
It's just a lot co.
It's a lot that needs to becoordinated if you're going to
flip a high volume of houses.
And I just didn't, I just didn'tfind my dad was attractive.
Yeah.
This is almost a per publicservice announcement for all the
people who are watching all themflip shows.
'cause it wasn't even back whenyou, they've been popular for a
long time now, I think they'reprobably more popular than ever
now.
And they show all these stats,but it ain't, it ain't what it
(26:25):
looks like.
And even you see these bignumbers, you actually annualize
those numbers and it ain't thatbig.
You could almost go and get ajob and not have that kind of
risk involved.
And and get the money still ifyou actually annualize what they
make on these houses, exactly.
And a lot of times when I seethose numbers, I'm like, that's
not right.
Sure.
There's so much I'm leaving outso much.
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm looking at some ofthose numbers.
(26:46):
I'm like, yeah, that doesn'tmake any sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially like what they talk,what they're saying, it cost
them to rehab.
Whatever.
Like a kitchen, they might have2,500.
I'm like, I've never seen akitchen get rehab for$2,500.
So I'm like, something's goingon there with the numbers in
general, and yeah.
Nah you definitely better off.
Just figuring out exactly whatyou wanna do outside of.
(27:07):
Rehabbing unless you're, unlessagain, you're holding it.
I get it.
If you're doing that, if you're,flipping two houses, three
houses a month, but you'reholding them in your portfolio.
Yeah.
That's smart.
It's, especially if you can get'em at a great price, that's
smart.
Otherwise, nah.
I think again, that's just allthat's television.
That's a lot of spin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good point.
So what else?
(27:28):
You also went beyond that.
I saw that you were pretty biginto, crypto and all that.
How did that come about?
I've always been an avid stockmarket investor.
Okay.
Way back in the nineties I wasstarting to figure out a stock
market because I always wasalways fascinated with just how
you can get exposure to Fortune500 companies through the stock
(27:49):
market.
And, being in business school,it taught me that's one of the
largest wealth generators too,and.
I think I was fortunate because,I was really tuned into the
technology back then.
So you would have brokeragefirms like Fidelity Investments
where they were like, okay, youcan create your own PO portfolio
here, minimum$5,000.
(28:11):
And I was like, okay, that'sthat, that, that might be
doable.
So I opened up my first accountwith Fidelity back like late
nineties, maybe early twothousands.
Bought me a couple of shares ofApple here.
Couple of shares of this thereand then start playing around
with the market.
Just trying to figure out, howdid it work in general, just the
mechanics of it.
(28:31):
And over the years I juststarted to evolve my, my
sophistication around themarket.
I.
Just grew and grew.
And now I have a pretty bigportfolio, but my portfolio, the
two things when it comes to thestock market that I think I'm
contrarian to is I'm not reallybig on diversity.
So like a lot of people in theirportfolios, they'll have, 10,
15, 20 companies.
(28:53):
I just don't think that'sreally, you might as well just
do you a ETF.
That's the thing about the stockmarket, the way you can get
exposure is you can get exposurethrough a broker.
So you can have someone toinvest for you just, but just
keep in mind that they'reinvesting your money and they're
making a percentage of thatinvestment.
So that's one.
And then two, you could do it myway, which is I own, I create my
(29:14):
own portfolio through Fidelityand it's pretty much just like a
bank account.
I I just purchase the stocksthat I want to purchase.
So that's the number one thingthat people need to understand.
There's those two ways to investin the market.
Then number two, again,diversity.
You'll learn in business schoolthat, if you diversify it's
safer.
That's true.
However, if you hone into wherewe are right now, for instance,
(29:37):
like one of my largest positionsis Nvidia.
Now Nvidia, I was in Nvidia, ohabout three years ago, and I
knew about Nvidia because my sonis a gamer and everything that
my son did was around, gamingand Nvidia was everywhere.
But when I started to notice theAI situation and everybody
(29:57):
started talking about Nvidiachips, because Jensen Wong,
who's an incredible CEO, he'slike Da Vinci of our time.
He pretty much had the marketcornered right?
So because I had an insideunderstanding of how, those GPUs
work, I was able to go directlyand put a larger part of my
portfolio in Nvidia.
Yeah, it is a, it was a biggerbet, but because I knew the
(30:19):
knowledge behind the company, Iwas like, yeah, this is a, this
is actually a smart bet and itturned out to be an incredible
investment for me.
My point here to everybody is ifyou learn about these companies
and you know about.
A company and you feel like theydo have cutting edge cut,
cutting edge technology, you caninvest in that company directly.
And that is actually a lot morehelpful because Yeah.
(30:43):
If you spread your money across20 different companies, you
might average, maybe the marketreturns and averaging on 10%
every year.
But if you, what I've, myreturns on Nvidia alone have
been like 400%.
So you just have to really, Ithink it, I think my point to
you guys is like you really cantake advantage of the market and
(31:04):
I think you really takeadvantage of it when you really
do your own work.
In your own research.
That's the most beautiful thingabout where we are right now.
The technology between chat GPT,what's available vision.
Like I love CNBC.
All of their best analysts comeon every morning for free.
These tools now will give youaccess to information that we've
(31:24):
never had before.
So you can really do your ownresearch on companies and you
can invest.
And the other part that's a gamechanger right now is you have
ways to invest that I didn'teven have back then.
So I.
For instance, I want you guys togo out and look@robinhood.com.
So with Robinhood, you don'thave to have, like back when I
was investing and I wanted toinvest in Apple, I had to buy an
(31:48):
entire share of Apple, whateverit was worth.
So if it's a hundred dollars forApple, or I think apple's at two
something right now.
But if you wanna buy one shareof Apple, you had to have$200.
Now Robinhood will let you buy afraction of that, like a piece
of Apple you won't own.
You'll own a part of the share.
You won't own the old share.
What's my point there is now youcan actually get involved with
(32:10):
the market at a much lower pricepoint.
Any price point.
So even if you just have athousand dollars now you can use
a thousand dollars and invest inthe market.
And like you can do it with$10.
Yeah,$10.
And that's my point.
Like what you want to do is justget in.
And look how your money, whatyou wanna get, an understanding
of how you, your money works inthe stock market and you don't
(32:31):
have to take a huge risk.
And then you could just startinvesting as you feel
comfortable.
And you can help it, you canhelp it grow.
Because that's the thing aboutpeople, this is what I tell
people how, you achieve wealth,your money has to work for you.
I don't have, my money is in mychecking account.
That's money to pay billspeople.
No, I don't have anything insavings.
(32:53):
That's not working, that's notgiving me a return on my, my, my
interest is at least 5%.
Anything that I have out there,I'm earning 5%.
Do you know what you earn in thebank?
Oh 0.2%.
That's not even the rate ofinflation.
That means your money's movingbackwards in the bank.
So you have to really understandhow to make your money work for
you, and that's why I alwayslove the stock market, because
(33:13):
that's a really good place whereyour money can work for you.
Now, don't get me wrong, it'snot without risk.
Everything is risk oriented.
If you're not risk oriented,you're not going to, you're not
gonna become wealthy because wehave, we just have to take
risks.
It's a part of our environment,but at the same time, the return
is totally worth it, right?
The higher risk, the higher thereturn.
(33:34):
So this, when it comes to themarket, that's what I love to
tell people.
Just get involved.
Don't get scared about all thenumbers coming across the bottom
of the screen and all that.
Slowly educate yourself slowly.
Put your toe in the water, smallamount of money, and then just
commit to trying to understandexactly how your money is
working in there.
And then commit to creating yourown portfolio.
Next thing you'll be sitting ona lot more money than you ever
(33:55):
thought you could have.
That's right.
Oh, and then your cryptoquestion.
Yeah.
Crypto is interesting.
I don't really get involved in.
Small, like it's crypto is awhole different world, people,
and it's still unregulated.
So I don't tell anybody to goinvest in crypto.
What I do say is with me, Ialways go with premium, premium
things, right?
So in the world of crypto, Ireally contain my investments to
(34:18):
Bitcoin, ether, or Solana rightnow, because those are really
like the top number one coinsand investment.
Tools on that platform, right?
They get the most exposure.
A lot of people know aboutthose, but trust me, in crypto
there are like a thousand coinsout there you can invest in.
But again, buyer beware, some ofthose coins are worthless.
(34:40):
Some of those coins mightactually appreciate over time,
but crypto is one of thoseenvironments where.
You definitely have to do yourresearch, but again, my number
one thing on crypto to telleverybody is you don't need a
third party to help you.
You do not.
You can go to coinbase.com andyou can start, you can open up
your own crypto account.
You don't need any help.
(35:01):
You don't need anybody to investyour money for you.
It's not that complicated.
Just do your research.
Yeah.
I like what you said earlierabout getting in and taking
risk.
I I think a lot of us what wethink about getting involved in
stocks and crypto and all this,we just hear about the risk
involved with that, and wethink, oh, we can just lose.
But with today's technology,like you mentioned, we can get
(35:22):
in with, we, you can actuallyget in with like less than a
dollar with Robin Hood a penny.
Like you can just invest that ifyou want, but it, whatever your
risk tolerance is.
I personally find that putting alittle bit into something I'm
curious about, even if I don'tknow much about it forces me to
learn so much.
So I have this little gamblingaccount I call it, and I started
(35:44):
with$50.
I'm like, all right, I can I'vedone a lot of stupid things
where I've lost$50.
We all do.
Let's admit it like we, yep.
So you start with that, and youplay with something and you,
once you put the money into it,you're gonna, you're gonna
follow it.
It doesn't really matter whatit, and you're gonna learn.
And then you be like, okay, thisis dumb.
I'm getting out.
But try with something else.
And some hits, some don't.
But, it's a great way of doingresearch now.
(36:06):
I think then and then if youcome across a really good thesis
like you did with your, nvidiaaccount, then you go, then you
put real money in, right?
And then you are like, okay,this is, there's really
something here.
So I can put real money intothis, but that's what's nice
about today's technology, right?
So yeah, I think, and I thinkthat I think, a lot of us that
understand and we've watched thetransformation of all this
(36:29):
technology, we understand whatan opportunity it is right now.
Yeah.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand that.
And because you have that wealthof information at your
fingertips, it's really it'syour core responsibility is
making sure that information isreliable.
But if you feel like you foundyou a nice hub of reliable
information, trusted people thatare experts that can take, that
(36:51):
can go a long way.
Because again, I'm coming froman environment where when I was
thir first trying to become anentrepreneur, I would talk.
The entrepreneurs over time, butthey were gatekeeping.
They went and tell me certainthings and I had to go out,
figure it out on my own.
And yeah.
Unnecessary trips and failureand a lot of that's avoidable
now.
It's just avoidable.
You can get any information outthere for free.
(37:13):
Yeah.
You can get anything you want.
So we, it's been an entireshift, right?
We've gone from generations.
It didn't have access to anyinformation, and that's how the
wealthy were able to be wealthybecause they only had the
knowledge now to oversaturatedwith information.
And now you're responsible formaking sure that the re the
information that you.
(37:34):
Receive is credible.
That's the only thing that,that's the biggest mistake that
people make.
They just go out there and justbelieve anything.
No, that's right.
You need to find something andthen verify it.
And then verify it again.
But you could do that now and ifyou can, if you feel like on
that second or thirdverification.
Okay.
I'm hearing the same consistentthing.
All right.
And then you could dig down fromthere.
(37:54):
Now, like I said, they, we'vegone from under, we didn't have
enough information back in theday to what they did now is they
saturated us with informationand they was like, okay, now you
find it amongst all of that.
So it's just a flip.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the other point to that isyou hear about always about how
the rich get richer and they getaccess to things that we don't.
And like you said it's not somuch the case anymore, but we
(38:17):
got the, I think we have theselimiting beliefs within our head
that we hear what something'sbad, Bitcoin, oh, that's bad,
it's for scamming and all thisstuff.
And, but.
That's not necessarily true,right?
And there's a lot of people whoare, have built real wealth
legally without scams and allthat in that.
So now you can try it prettymuch risk free, like I said,
(38:37):
with a couple of dollars, orlike you said, in Coinbase or
Robin Hood or whatever, and tryit for yourself and see, because
otherwise if we just believeit's gonna go down, then we
never get in.
And things do go up and then youdon't get to play in that.
And my best example is 2008.
I got wiped there.
I was, I've always been a realestate guy, and I left I hated,
(38:58):
I'm like, real what was Ithinking?
I got wiped, and then I missedthe greatest opportunity that
we've had in our lifetime, rightafter 2008, because I just
didn't, I'm like, I'm done.
No way.
This is a scam.
Real estate's gonna go down,and, so you can't do that.
You gotta keep playing andtrying to understand, this
turbulence along the way and,just keep learning the whole
(39:19):
way.
Yeah.
You always had to keep going.
And I was in the market backthen too, in 2008.
And it's funny because I comeacross people now and they try
to use 2008 as an example of whythe real estate market is
dangerous.
And I'm like, dude.
Over two centuries, we've onlyhad two wipeouts like that.
Like what whatcha talking about?
What do you, what's happenedsince 2008?
(39:40):
How well would you focus onthat?
That's right.
So that's the point.
You're right.
You just can't, and it came backstronger than ever.
Yeah.
It's back stronger than ever.
Real estate is one of the, oneof the.
Platforms and one of theindustries where your money and
your real estate almost alwaysappreciates.
Almost always over the long termhave time.
(40:00):
Over the long term, it almostalways appreciates, so Yeah.
It's like you said, you're notgoing to be able to, access the
next level of prosperity ifthat's your thing.
If you're not willing to takesome level of risk.
Yeah.
Great.
Marcel, I think I can keep goingwith this stuff.
I think we're kindred spirithere, but we're running outta
(40:23):
time, so I'm gonna get you intoour Wayfinder four.
So give us a life hack that youuse every day.
A life hack that I use everysingle day.
Wow.
That would have to be how Iapproach the real estate.
How I approach the stock market.
I really, I.
Think that, being able to haveaccess to certain premium
(40:45):
channels like CNBC, I actuallyget to see exactly where those
experts that study the marketevery single day, they bring
their expertise to the screenand they go, yeah, not that
position right now.
I think it's gonna fade.
Like you get expert commentaryright there on the spot.
And it really helps me because.
(41:07):
It helps me direct my portfoliowhen I do think, okay, now I'm
going to cash out on the tradebecause I'm actually going
directly to the source.
And again, it's because I knowit's a hack because the
information that you get therenow, you would've had to pay for
back in the day.
Yeah.
You just, you would be payingpremium dollar for a broker.
These people are coming up,getting on the show for free,
(41:28):
sharing their knowledge withyou.
So that's my favorite hack whenit comes to Ashley appreciating.
Stock market wealth.
I love CNBC.
I wake up to it.
I watch it for about an hour,then I hit the gym.
But yeah it starts my morningevery morning.
That's great.
Yeah.
It is absolutely mind blowingthe level of information we have
access to.
And in commercial real estate,there's a report called the TRE
(41:48):
Report, tre.
That has been around forever andI think a subscription to that
used to be like 15 grand a year,if I remember correctly, or 14
grand a year.
And now you can just listen tothe podcast for free every week.
That breaks it all down.
Unbelievable.
And this is something that onlyinstitutional investors had
access to?
Pretty much.
Yep.
Now we can all go in there andsee what's up, all out there for
(42:08):
free.
The how about a favorite?
This is just something you, ashow activity book, whatever
that you you like.
Right now it's, I'm all about mybook Hiding in plain view.
It's, it is, it's an incrediblestory.
All right.
We need another one.
You are gonna get you chance topromote that.
Let's get another one.
Oh, if I'm looking at, if I'mthinking about some of my
(42:29):
favorite shows right now, ohthat'd be easy.
Raising Canaan.
On Showtime.
Yeah.
50 cent show.
Razor Canan is, oh, it remindsme of the nineties, man.
It's just a lot of really goodcharacters in that show.
They're really savvy.
It, I think that it is welldone.
Really good actors on there.
So that's probably one of myfavorite shows right now,
raising Canan.
(42:49):
Okay.
I'm gonna have to check thatout.
How about advice now, a piece ofadvice for your younger self?
One piece of advice.
Piece of advice for my youngerself.
Be a little bit more patient.
What's supposed to happen isgonna happen.
Give it a hundred percent, butbe a little bit more patient in,
in, in this trust in theprocess.
It takes time.
Everything doesn't happen whenyou think it should happen
(43:10):
specifically in business.
But if you put it together withthe right people and you have a
really good service system.
It'll sell itself.
Your direction is predetermined.
Just give it a hundred percentand then just have patience.
Sit back, watch things happen.
I love that.
How about you get to choosebetween either a big opportunity
or limiting belief?
(43:32):
Big opportunity.
What's a big opportunity that Ihave or a big opportunity that
you see out there?
Oh, it's definitely takenadvantage of the AI revolution
right now.
I think that's, I think that'sthe biggest opportunity right
now because AI is allowing you,like for instance, for my
commercial cleaning company, wedon't even have a receptionist
anymore.
(43:52):
AI is actually answering all ofour phone calls, setting up
walkthroughs, talking to ourclients like it's evolutionary.
It's.
It's the next, it's a gamechanger.
It's a game changer on so manydifferent levels.
The things that we used to talkabout about, like you, you
thinking about actual robotics,it's going to be, it's gonna be
a time where I think that youcan own a company and you don't
(44:14):
even need human beings anymore.
I think it's just gonna bereally about automation.
So from a business standpoint,yeah.
Automation from a businessstandpoint is the hugest.
This is gonna be, this is hugeshift.
This is like the new internet.
It's gonna take some time, butyou can see behind the scenes
right now it's the biggestopportunity of all time right
now.
Yeah.
That's exciting and scary at thesame time, right?
(44:35):
Yeah, it is.
So it's, what's interestingabout AI is as the more I've
used it and the more opportunityI see in it that, like you I
think about ideas and I'mthinking, all right, I'm gonna
start a business that does thiswith AI or that way, it's imp
and friends I know have triedthat, and it's moving so fast
that whatever idea you havealready gets pushed out there at
(44:56):
a large scale.
Really quick.
So you talked about.
Your receptionist, how youreplaced her or him with with an
AI bot.
And it's wild how quickly thatis real, right?
Yeah.
And now, so I actually thinkthat the opportunity is not
actually so much in creating AIservices as implementing AI
(45:17):
services into your regular buscleaning businesses and service
space, which is wild when youcan implement that technology
into your existing business.
Your margins are going toincrease because big time your
costs go down because I'm notpaying a receptionist anymore.
Whatever.
She was getting paid$17 an hour,to answer the phone.
I'm paying now AI service ahundred something dollars a
(45:40):
month.
That's an incredible decrease inlabor.
So that's what's coming our way.
Like only, the smartest of thesmart will be able to kinda like
when they run their businesses,it'll be.
For instance, like my kid was inprogramming and then I told him,
I was like, programming is onits way out.
And sure enough, Jensen Wong waslike, look, AI does our
(46:01):
programming.
So now what's gonna happen isthe people that prompt the ai
they're the ones that if you askthe AI to correct questions,
those are the people that aregoing to get paid now, but the
AI is gonna take over the actualcoding.
So yeah it's totally different.
Now.
Everything is going to be like.
Human beings are definitelygonna have, always gonna have a
place on this planet.
(46:21):
But at the same time, we'regoing to have to elevate our
game.
No doubt.
Yep.
Excellent, Marcel, thank you forthat.
If people want to know a littlebit more about you, if we wanna
know about your book, I didn'teven ask.
I was curious about the title,hiding in Plain View.
How did you come up with thattitle?
Hiding in Plain View?
Again, I had a, I had a.
I had two sa, there have beentwo chapters to my life.
(46:44):
In that first chapter, I wasjust out there doing a lot of
different things and I thinkthat now that people see a
really polished business personthey I, part of me felt like I
wasn't really being my 100%authentic self.
So I always felt like I washiding in plain view.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna write this book soeverybody could see the whole
me.
'cause I'm all abouttransparency.
So that's how I came up with thetitle.
(47:04):
Okay, great.
And and if people wanna know alittle bit more about you, how
can they find you?
Oh, find me@marcelclark.co.
So I didn't get the.com, Igot.co, but it's a great
website, Marcel clark.co clarkwith a e.
You can find everything there.
You'll find all my businesses,you'll find all of my handles.
You can find my ig.
You can find everything there.
(47:25):
So that's the best way to findme efficiently.
Excellent.
Thank you, Marcel.
It's been a real delight to haveyou here.
I love what you're doing.
I love the messaging of yourbook.
I'm gonna have to check it outfor sure.
And let's let's keep going.
Appreciate it, Lewis.
Thanks for having me on.
And I thank you to all yourlisteners for listening.
(47:48):
We hope you've enjoyed theWayfinder Show.
If you've got value from thisepisode, please take a few
seconds to leave us a five starrating and review.
This will allow us to help morepeople find their way to live
more authentic and excitinglives.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
To entrepreneurs over time, butthey were gatekeeping.
(00:02):
They went and tell me certainthings and I had to go out,
figure it out on my own, andunnecessary trips and failure.
And a lot of that's avoidablenow.
It's just avoidable.
You can get anything you want.
So we, it's been an entireshift, right?
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because they only had theknowledge now to.
(00:25):
Oversaturated with informationand now you're responsible for
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Welcome to the Wayfinder Showwith Louis Hernandez, where
guests discussed the why and howof making changes that led them
(00:49):
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Come join us and find a way toyour dream life.
(01:19):
Welcome back to the WayfinderShow.
I'm your host, Louis Hernandez.
And today's guest is MarcelClark, a serial entrepreneur,
real estate developer andinvestor, and a community
advocate.
With an extraordinary story fromthe streets of Hyattsville,
Maryland to earning advanceddegrees and building a diverse
investment portfolio, Marcel hasturned grit into greatness.
(01:40):
He's on a mission to uplift andeducate the next generation.
And his upcoming book titledHitting, hiding in Plain View,
tells the raw and inspiringstory behind it all.
Marcel, welcome to the WayfinderShow.
Hey Louis, thanks for having me,man.
I appreciate the love.
Yeah.
Appreciate having you here.
So tell us what it means to bean honor student of the streets.
(02:04):
Yeah.
When I was younger in my highschool days, my mom was pretty,
she was pretty, she's a greatparent, but she was everything
the opposite of the helicopterparent.
So she really gave me anopportunity to get out there and
learn life of my own and.
Given, the kind of friends I hadaround me at the time, we just
really did a lot out there onthose streets.
And they can definitely beeducational'cause you have to
(02:26):
have wit, you have to havecharisma, you have to really be
able to navigate a lot ofdifferent personalities,
environments.
And I think that definitely is askillset that I've been able to
transfer to the real world.
So it's been incredibly helpful,all the way through.
But definitely a student of thestreets.
So you combine that with a trueacademic background as well,
(02:48):
right?
Yeah.
Graduated with my master'sdegree back in 1999 now.
Okay.
And as we call it, it'sorganizational communications.
So organizationalcommunications, it's pretty much
a form of a master's in businessadministration.
So if there's a really uniquebreakdown on how organizations
work and how departments.
Correlate together and how youcan use technology to take
(03:10):
advantage of that.
Undergrad was in a, was inmarketing, so there you go.
So yes, definitely thecombination of my education and
what I learned being out thereamongst the people.
It definitely has paid dividendsat this point.
Yeah, so was there, I grew up onthe streets too and I know like
(03:30):
for a lot of us who, who havebackgrounds, there's oftentimes,
there's like a moment that likesomething clicks, right?
We know what we should be doing.
We probably know we shouldn't beout there, as knuckleheads on
the streets and what have you.
But something there's alwayslike one moment, it seems like
for a lot of us that just ithits like, okay, I get it now
(03:50):
this needs to stop.
Do you have one of those.
Yeah, it was definitely when mydaughter was born because when
my daughter was born and Iwasn't even there to see her,
see my child's mother givebirth.
'cause I'm sitting there in jailon some really dumb nonsense.
But I'm sitting there in jailand I'm like, yeah, this isn't
how it works.
I'm like, you can't be missingthe birth of your kid, right.
(04:12):
Messing around here on thestreet.
So that was one of the pivotalmoments in my life.
And I think that.
Also like a couple maybe likewhen she was a little bit
younger, I found myself inanother situation, and once
again, her mom came to visit mein jail.
And my daughter was trying toget to me through the plexiglass
(04:32):
and I was like, yeah, thisisn't.
This isn't how it goes.
I was just like, those twomoments involving my little girl
made me understand that, life isa lot more than just what I was
bringing to the table at thetime.
I was actually responsible foranother human being and that
kind of changed my wholemindset.
I.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Having responsibilities ofanother life is, will really
(04:53):
wake you up a bit.
So it's a big deal.
It is.
So another question along thoselines, I'm wondering, did for a
lot of us, I also think likewhen you were little, did you
envision yourself like being onthe streets?
Going to college and having theright career path.
That's probably, that's theintro of my book, right?
(05:15):
When I was, okay.
When I was small, it wasinteresting because I found
myself in a few environmentswhere, drug dealers looked like
they were the most importantthing, known to man.
They had the nicest cars, theyhad the nicest clothes, they had
the nicest jewelry.
So when I was young, I was like,Hey, that's that, that, that
looks like a really goodlifestyle right there.
A part of me always reallywanted to figure out, how did
(05:36):
they do that?
So it was definitely in me andmy dad didn't help the situation
'cause he used to love smokingmarijuana when I was a kid when
he would go out to the strips tofind, buy him some weed.
I'd be right there in thepassenger seat.
So I'm like, all so when Irecalled all of those things
when I was writing a book, I waslike, wow, that was an
interesting combination.
But yeah.
Yeah, definitely just beingexposed to that environment.
(05:58):
From a lot of different angles.
I did I definitely admired drugdealers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's interesting and Ithink it's very hard for people
to understand that, right?
You can you grow you like I.
When you, we all wanna grow upand be successful, right?
I think it doesn't matter whatyour background is you expect
and want success, but what thatsuccess looks like is defined by
(06:21):
your environment.
Exactly.
So when you see yourenvironment, the most successful
people you know, are drugdealers.
They look good.
They have all the nice cars.
They got the nice, the women allwanna be with them, everything,
right?
Like you.
What else would you, could youpossibly envision?
I think.
It is hard to get out of thateven, I don't know if you went
through this even in college,like thinking like, what am I
(06:43):
doing here?
This isn't a path to success.
What I'm gonna go get a job for,at that time, 20, 25 years, a
thousand a year when, I can bedoing so much more on the
streets and, yeah.
It was interesting because forme, I definitely I was taking
like, I had a dual pass.
Going on in my life at onepoint, I was actually out there
on the streets doing the wrongthing, but I was also in
(07:06):
college.
Yeah.
So I was, I was selling drugs bythe day and at nighttime I'm a
student.
And I think, with me, my mom,who was a educator herself.
From her standpoint with all hersisters all carrying master's
degrees and advanced degrees, asa small child, I was, it was
already instilled in me that Iwas gonna get an education.
(07:27):
Like it just wasn't negotiable.
Okay.
And like I said, I had my dad onthe other side, there was an
entrepreneur too, doing his ownthing, but also he had a wow
side to him.
He was just like that guy thatbasically took over a room.
Everybody wanted to be like him.
So when I'm seeing both of thesethings as I'm growing up.
And I think that's exactly whymy life has played out the way
(07:48):
it is, played out.
Because again, even when I wasdoing, a lot of wrong things, I
was still like plotting the pathto, to lead that environment.
I wasn't, I think a lot, I thinkwhat happens to a lot of people
that are in high riskcommunities is that, they
basically are there, and likeyou said, they want to emulate
what they see and they, theyjust look at that path as being
(08:11):
the only path that they have.
Yeah.
And for me it wasn't like that.
I really, during my journey, Icould see other people doing
successful things outside ofjust selling drugs.
So to me it made me feel like,okay, you can have a game plan
that's going to have a extrastrategy, so for me, at a
(08:31):
certain time I was like, I'mgonna execute my exit strategy.
But it's, the chapters beforethat though really challenging.
Yeah.
So how about your, along theway, like how did all of that
help shape your entrepreneurialmindset?
Because you ultimately justbecame a serial entrepreneur,
right?
You didn't take a the corporatepath unless you Yeah.
(08:52):
Yeah.
When I was again, watching mydad when I was a kid, my dad
used to own a lot of cornerstores in Philadelphia.
So corner stores are more likeseven elevens, except they all,
they actually have grills inthere too, to make cheese steaks
and hot foods.
And then they have a littlearcade games in there.
So when my dad, he owned likefive of those when I was a kid.
(09:13):
And I would actually, my mom andmy dad were in and out
relationship wise, so a lot oftimes she would.
Send me up to Philly to staywith him or for a moment, she
tried to move there.
But my point there is like,during my summers, I would
definitely spend my entiresummer in Philadelphia with him
and watching him do his thing.
Like he would take me to thewarehouses where they had
(09:35):
wholesale items and I wouldactually shop with him and
watching by these big packets ofcandy and Malin later and just
all kinds of different thingsthat I will watch him then.
Resale at a higher number.
That was implemented.
That was like in me at a reallyearly age watching him do that.
Entrepreneurship is something,it's just like you just talked
about when we were saying that,when you're on the streets, you
(09:56):
wanna emulate what it's the samething with parenting too.
Watching my dad do what he wasdoing.
I was okay, like his, therespect that he received in the
community, all of theconnections, I saw him growing
our lifestyle.
We used to live in a brownstone.
We had a personal chef in there,cleaners coming through all the
time.
We were living like topnotchlife at that moment.
(10:18):
So watching him live that wayand watching what it produced,
it was in me to take my own pathat some point.
But the, my dad's story is, hehe didn't he only had a sixth
grade education, so everythinghe was doing was straight from
just instinct and eventually allof that fell apart.
So when he lost his businesses,I think my mom and all of us,
(10:39):
when we had to go through all ofthat, my mom was really like
even pressing the pedal evenharder on me to get my
education.
'cause she really felt likethat's why he failed.
So she just even made him, shewas just making sure at that
point that I was gonnadefinitely get my education and,
that's kind.
Started it though because, atthe, at, that second chapter of
my life, I definitely foundmyself looking at, different
(11:01):
things that I wanted to investin.
And, I bought my first franchisewhen we, when I first got
married back in like 2005.
And that franchise is sparkedsomething in me because once I
had a chance to actually buy afranchise and look at how the
systems actually worked, it justbasically I felt like I was home
like.
If I back up a little bit, I wasdoing, I had found myself in a
(11:23):
nine to five world when Igraduated.
And I just remember that I wasreally moving up the ladder and
it was all working out for me.
But I remember one time I wasout on the golf course with one
of our directors.
I, em, and he was, we wereplaying golf and I was looking
out, I was looking out past thegolf course and looking at the
beautiful scenery.
And I was like, I said tomyself.
(11:45):
Yeah, this can't be it, hey.
Here I am at the top of the foodchain.
I'm probably making about$80,000back then.
I'm feeling like I'm only in myearly, late twenties and here I
am still feeling like I'm notsatisfied.
So I knew somewhere in me Ilike, I just wanted to do my own
thing.
I didn't wanna work for anybody.
I wanted.
I didn't feel like that wasgonna be fulfilling enough.
(12:06):
I felt like I wanted to createmy own company, my own brands,
my own.
And the moment I bought thatfranchise and it was starting to
become successful, I knew I wasin the right place.
Okay.
It just clicked.
It's like what you asked meearlier.
Have you ever had that momentwhere it clicked?
It just clicked the moment Ilike about a year two when I
owned that franchise and I thinkI ran it up to 750,000 in
(12:26):
revenues.
I was like, yeah, we are on ourway.
But I knew I would never turnback after that.
What was the franchise?
The Maid's Home Services.
It was a beautiful residentialcleaning service.
High end though.
They only focused on real, likeyou had that six figures.
Their marketing plan was thisincredibly like direct, but they
were really looking for high-endconsumers and that's all we
(12:46):
targeted.
And that's, I think that's onething that kind of, now I don't
think I know it rubbed off onme, which is, what they showed
me is you get what you pay forin this world, right?
So with them they're, they like,they go for a high target.
Client, but they also give you areally highend service, right?
So everything beautiful cars,four person team pulls up, they
(13:08):
have great uniforms on, they'retrained well, they had the best
equipment.
So they're gonna, they're gonnacharge you more, but they're
giving you a higher level ofservice.
I took that, and I applied thatto everything that I do.
If it's not high end, I, I'mjust not involved with it
because like even when.
My commercial cleaning companythat I own now, we just don't do
the bottom feeding, bidding andlow bid.
(13:30):
Like all of that is just toomuch because it just doesn't end
well.
You might grab a contractbecause you were the lowest
bidder, but now you're notreally making any money.
You can't provide the rightservice'cause you can't pay your
people the right amount ofmoney.
And it's a disaster because thenyou're gonna have a customer
that's gonna be pissed at youbecause they're gonna be like,
Hey, I'm paying you but I'mgetting bad qua, I'm getting bad
service.
They're getting bad servicebecause they're not paying you
(13:52):
enough.
I just stay away from thingslike that.
Yes, sometimes, we're gonna bethe highest there, but I'm also
guaranteeing my clients thatwe're gonna have a higher level
of service.
So that's just the way it worksin business.
And I like that.
I like being held to a higherstandard than everything that I
do.
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah.
I, it sounds like that's reallywhere you learned about the
difference between price andvalue.
(14:12):
Warren Buffet always says priceis what, I'm forgetting it now,
but price is what you pay andvalue is what you get.
And you you gave a high value init.
And for that you should bepaying for it.
You don't, and that's it.
And there's no excuses.
Like my, if my clients call meand it's an issue, it's
resolved.
Yeah.
Like it's no.
We don't make excuses.
(14:33):
It's okay, how do we fix this?
It's, this, you're just on awhole nother level of service.
But it's worth it though becauseI think people, especially in
this environment, they just loveit.
They just want you to bestraight with them.
Don't give them a whole lot ofreasons why this happened and
that happened.
Just explain that Yes, it's onus and we're gonna be out there
to resolve it today.
Yeah.
Period.
That's it.
(14:53):
And they love me for thatbecause they know, I mean it
like, anytime we messed up, I'mlike, that's unacceptable.
Yeah.
And I'm talking about some of myown people, if they, if I hear
about something that is belowour standard, I'm like, that's
unacceptable.
We're gonna fix it.
Yeah.
I just don't do the wholeexcuses thing.
And this is why people don'twant to hear that anymore.
The world is moving too fast andif they don't feel like they can
(15:13):
trust you, they're gonna moveon.
Yeah, that's great.
So you started with thiscleaning service.
It sounds like you still haveone, but now you're doing the
commercial cleaning work, right?
So what has been the rest ofthe, your evolution in
entrepreneurial?
Because you've done quite a bit.
I've seen you've done some realestate, some crypto, some stock
investing, equity investing.
What else?
(15:33):
How did that all Yeah, soprogress?
A lot of times when I'm doinginvestments, first of all, I do
things that, I really like.
I don't get involved withprojects or things that I'm not
interested in.
I don't experiment when I seesomething and I like it, I do
it.
So usually everything I do isfrom the heart.
Like you said, I morphed the,once I owned the franchise, it
was okay, but after five yearsand I had dominated that space,
(15:57):
I was like, I'm paying them.
That's the thing, Peter.
You don't understand behind thescenes, franchisees make a lot
of money off their franchisefees.
So I just arrived at a pointwhere I was like, they're not
really teaching me anythinganymore and I'm paying them as
much as I'm paying myself.
So I negotiated a deal to exitthat actual organization, to
sell it for a nice profit.
(16:17):
But also they gave me a waiverto create my own commercial
cleaning company because.
Residential cleaning company,they only focused on single
family homes, town homes,apartments, anything That's
residential.
Commercial cleaning is totallydifferent.
It's a, it's, they're likecousins, but commercial cleaning
is really more focusing onmedical facilities, religious
institutions law offices, thingslike that.
(16:39):
So when they gave me that waiverand I was able to do that.
Colonial commercial cleaning wasborn and because I had some, I
had contacts already, it waseasier for me to establish and
grow that business.
And it's a really big brand now,and it's it's one of my favorite
companies.
But be before that, when I wasin college, I actually used to,
like, when I was going throughschool and I couldn't afford the
(17:01):
townhouse I was in, I wasrenting rooms out of it.
And I noticed really quicklythat, the other kids were pretty
much paying the mortgage.
So I was like, oh, this is aneasy concept.
So I started slowly like buyingrentals and I had a decent
portfolio maybe back in 20, 20,20 10.
But I felt rentals are cool andI started rehabbing.
(17:24):
I had a neighbor that was areally good general contractor,
Gary Nelson.
Gary Nelson since he lived rightnext door.
I was Gary, what do you thinkabout rehabbing?
Because right at the moment,rehabbing was all over tv.
You had television shows aboutit.
So I was like, yeah, that lookspretty interesting.
He was a part of myorganization.
We did a lot of rehabs, probablylike 25, 50 rehabs.
(17:45):
And.
I just got bored with thatthough.
'cause I was like it's anincredibly challenging business
because at the end of the day,everybody gets paid before you.
So all the contractors get paid'cause you're rehabbing it.
The realtor got paid'cause hesold it to you, the realtor gets
paid again because they're gonnasell the building or the house.
I was like, no.
Yeah.
And then if we did make amargin, it'd be.
(18:07):
Sometimes we might make 20,25,000 off a job, but there was
so much work involved.
I was like, this is just hardmoney.
Yeah.
So what I eventually ended updoing was deciding that I wanted
to,'cause I was partnered at thetime with a friend, so I told
him he could take that part ofthe business and he could keep
on doing it.
I wanted more, more or lessfocused on real estate
development.
So my thought was, buying apiece of land and building a
(18:31):
structure on that land was a lotmore attractive, and that's
where we are.
So I created a wing of thatcompany and it's called Vanna
Black va.
And all we do is focus on realestate development.
We're working on a nice projectin Washington DC right now.
I like that part of the businessa little bit more because I
think there are much higher endmargins there.
(18:51):
It's a facility that, thatcompany's going to, we're gonna
hold it for a while.
I think if I was telling anybodyout there about rehabbing, I
think the best thing to do ifyou ever do get into that space,
is don't buy in flipping andsell it.
You should hold a lot of times.
'cause what happens now is a lotof times, my companies that are
on record owning the property,Zillow will send you updates on
what the.
(19:13):
Property value is.
So I get a lot of hits fromhouses that we used to own and
they've gone up exponentially.
Yeah, they've gone up way morethan.
When we flipped it, right?
So I'm just sitting theresaying, if we had just held this
house Yeah.
I would've made five times morethan I made when I sold it.
Yeah.
So that's exactly why Itransitioned from that to real
(19:33):
estate development becauseeverything that we build, we
hold now.
'Cause that's really one of the,one of the pillars of wealth,
right?
You definitely want to get intoreal estate or whatever you
have, you wanna hold it becauseit's a two part win.
When you have, if you're leasingit out and you have tenants in
there, first of all, they'repaying your mortgage.
So that's one.
And then two, that property isappreciating.
(19:54):
So the longer you have it, themore it's worth.
So you now have somebody payingdown your mortgage, but you also
have something that'sappreciating.
So 10, 10 years from now, youcould be looking at a
astronomical game because youhaven't really, you, your name
is on it.
Yes, you're going to, you'regoing to be on the hook for it,
but at the end of the day, it'san appreciating asset.
Real estate developmentdefinitely is one of my like
(20:15):
favorite loves right now.
But then again when I startedthe franchise, when I bought
that franchise back in, in ohfive or whatever I did, I had
some unfinished business therebecause.
Even though I sold it, I didn'treally, I only, the only part
about that transaction thatbothered me was I really didn't
get to scale the business to thesize that I wanted to.
(20:38):
So recently, Marco's Pizza cameout, came around.
They found me.
Marco's is a really dominantfranchise that's growing on the
east coast here.
They, we ran into each other andthey offered me like a three
unit deal that we're going totry to get up to 10 units.
So I'm actually about a ventureback into franchising.
Okay.
Because that's in my wheelhouseanyway.
But I only reason I'm saying I'mtalking about this is because
(21:00):
this is my shot at actuallygrowing a business to the size
that I want to grow or two onwhen it comes to franchises.
So I'm gonna take my shot backat this one.
I'm pretty sure, I'll make it dowhat it does, because my level
of persistence is.
Relentless.
Love it.
So love it.
I put my mind to it.
I focus on it, it's gonnahappen.
But yeah, I'm venturing backinto that.
So I had to Marcos Pizza dealand yeah, and then, my book is
(21:23):
out there.
So that's just something that I,that this came, that I started
writing this book 10 years ago.
I didn't finish it because lifehappened and now I wrapped it up
and I want everybody to knowabout it.
So yeah, I do.
I have a lot on my plate, buteverything I mentioned just now
though didn't notice.
I love these things.
Like these things are anextension of me.
I, that's the only thing I getinvolved with because I think
(21:45):
that when you do things and youlove it, then it's not really
work.
That adage is very true, right?
I don't wake up in the morningand I'm like oh, here.
No, that's not my life.
My life is, I wake up, I'm like,all right, what's on my calendar
today?
And anything that's on mycalendar, I'm like, yes.
I'm like, okay, let's get itdone.
Oh, I'm gonna see so and sotoday.
Oh, I'm gonna meet lame mycontractor today.
(22:05):
Oh, we're going the commercialcleaner.
It's a big contract.
I need to sign, like I'm happyto do it because this is what I
do.
So I think that's the deal.
Like when I'm talking to youngentrepreneurs, they want to get
into it.
I'm like, what do you love?
Whatever it is, right?
What do you love to do?
And if you love it Now, that'sthat.
That should be your startingpoint to figure out what kind of
(22:26):
business you wanna create aroundit.
And then I think you're off tothe race.
Yeah, that's awesome.
There's so much there, right?
First of all, I could feel yourpassion, so I know that's
genuine what you're saying.
I'm Charlotte, listeners couldtoo, but I want to backtrack a
little bit on that.
Let's start with when you wererehabbing or flipping as most
people think of it, a lot ofpeople just.
(22:47):
Think it out in that DMV area.
We all called it rehabbing whenyou get a property with
rehabbing the properties, but ina lot of other parts of country,
it is fix and flips, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I know the feeling because Idid a lot of this in Baltimore
back in the day, and and there'sno, nothing worse than when you
go and you first of all, likeyou said, cashflow management is
really hard.
(23:08):
With flipping.
'cause everybody gets paidbefore you do.
And then if you're lucky at theend, you make a little bit of
money.
But then what usually ends uphappening is the person after
you makes all the real moneyafter you did all the work, the
one who bought it for, and thatcould be a real punch in the
gut, right?
It does.
But yeah, holding them, I think,like you said, is the real path
to wealth.
It's creating assets thatgenerate.
(23:31):
Income for you, whether it bethrough appreciation or cash
flow.
Like they can spit off income onit, which just sounds like
that's what's happening withyour commercial properties that
you're holding, right?
Yeah.
I gotta thank my attorney TonyBarrow.
Tony.
Tony was one of my first realestate attorneys.
He and I was sitting there'causeI was just coming off of
rehabbing and we had closed thedeal on a lot and.
(23:55):
I was sitting there talking tohim.
I was thinking, I was like, Idon't know if I wanna sell it or
if I wanna hold it.
And he told me a quick story.
He said, Marcel, I've been doingreal estate in DC for a while.
He said.
I had gotten lucky and I metsomebody and he sold me a
building and I bought it.
I bought it for$2.5 million, hesaid, but two years later,
(24:16):
somebody turned around and theyasked me did I wanna sell it to
them for 5 million.
He was like, of course I wasgonna sell it.
He said, I sold it.
He said, Marcel, how much do youthink that building is worth
now?
I said, how much Tony?
He said, 10.5 million.
So that was it.
I was like, oh, I'm holding.
Yeah.
I was like that.
(24:36):
It was it's what he's saying,man.
He is like the, there is moneyin real estate, but it's like
you said, the money is.
After you've done all the rehaband then you've built the build
in it.
Now it's appreciating, right?
Because you've appreciated theland or the structure by
improving it, right?
So when you flip it, you've all,now you've made that asset even
(24:58):
more valuable.
At the moment, it has a certainamount of value, but down the
road it'll have even more value.
That's right.
So the value is exponentiallyhigher the longer you have it.
So that's where real wealth is,right?
It's not in those littletemporary flips.
Again, if you're looking at 20,let's even go up to$50,000 per
(25:19):
flip.
That's small money.
Again, when I get those hitsfrom Zillow, some of those
properties are up 150,$200,000.
We're talking about, I ownedthem five years ago.
Like what?
So it's just not smart to flipand sell, unless that's just
your business model.
If that's your business model,that's cool.
But again, you have to beflipping a tremendous number of
(25:41):
houses, first of all, to make itprofitable.
You're not gonna be all inflipping five, five or 10 a
month.
You have your volume has to beincredibly high.
And to do that, you have to havea really good system in place
because everybody in thatbusiness knows the wrong
contractor alone could sink you.
It's that simple, like the one,the, this, the wrong contractor
(26:03):
alone could sink you.
Okay.
It's just a lot co.
It's a lot that needs to becoordinated if you're going to
flip a high volume of houses.
And I just didn't, I just didn'tfind my dad was attractive.
Yeah.
This is almost a per publicservice announcement for all the
people who are watching all themflip shows.
'cause it wasn't even back whenyou, they've been popular for a
long time now, I think they'reprobably more popular than ever
now.
And they show all these stats,but it ain't, it ain't what it
(26:25):
looks like.
And even you see these bignumbers, you actually annualize
those numbers and it ain't thatbig.
You could almost go and get ajob and not have that kind of
risk involved.
And and get the money still ifyou actually annualize what they
make on these houses, exactly.
And a lot of times when I seethose numbers, I'm like, that's
not right.
Sure.
There's so much I'm leaving outso much.
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm looking at some ofthose numbers.
(26:46):
I'm like, yeah, that doesn'tmake any sense.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially like what they talk,what they're saying, it cost
them to rehab.
Whatever.
Like a kitchen, they might have2,500.
I'm like, I've never seen akitchen get rehab for$2,500.
So I'm like, something's goingon there with the numbers in
general, and yeah.
Nah you definitely better off.
Just figuring out exactly whatyou wanna do outside of.
(27:07):
Rehabbing unless you're, unlessagain, you're holding it.
I get it.
If you're doing that, if you're,flipping two houses, three
houses a month, but you'reholding them in your portfolio.
Yeah.
That's smart.
It's, especially if you can get'em at a great price, that's
smart.
Otherwise, nah.
I think again, that's just allthat's television.
That's a lot of spin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good point.
So what else?
(27:28):
You also went beyond that.
I saw that you were pretty biginto, crypto and all that.
How did that come about?
I've always been an avid stockmarket investor.
Okay.
Way back in the nineties I wasstarting to figure out a stock
market because I always wasalways fascinated with just how
you can get exposure to Fortune500 companies through the stock
(27:49):
market.
And, being in business school,it taught me that's one of the
largest wealth generators too,and.
I think I was fortunate because,I was really tuned into the
technology back then.
So you would have brokeragefirms like Fidelity Investments
where they were like, okay, youcan create your own PO portfolio
here, minimum$5,000.
(28:11):
And I was like, okay, that'sthat, that, that might be
doable.
So I opened up my first accountwith Fidelity back like late
nineties, maybe early twothousands.
Bought me a couple of shares ofApple here.
Couple of shares of this thereand then start playing around
with the market.
Just trying to figure out, howdid it work in general, just the
mechanics of it.
(28:31):
And over the years I juststarted to evolve my, my
sophistication around themarket.
I.
Just grew and grew.
And now I have a pretty bigportfolio, but my portfolio, the
two things when it comes to thestock market that I think I'm
contrarian to is I'm not reallybig on diversity.
So like a lot of people in theirportfolios, they'll have, 10,
15, 20 companies.
(28:53):
I just don't think that'sreally, you might as well just
do you a ETF.
That's the thing about the stockmarket, the way you can get
exposure is you can get exposurethrough a broker.
So you can have someone toinvest for you just, but just
keep in mind that they'reinvesting your money and they're
making a percentage of thatinvestment.
So that's one.
And then two, you could do it myway, which is I own, I create my
(29:14):
own portfolio through Fidelityand it's pretty much just like a
bank account.
I I just purchase the stocksthat I want to purchase.
So that's the number one thingthat people need to understand.
There's those two ways to investin the market.
Then number two, again,diversity.
You'll learn in business schoolthat, if you diversify it's
safer.
That's true.
However, if you hone into wherewe are right now, for instance,
(29:37):
like one of my largest positionsis Nvidia.
Now Nvidia, I was in Nvidia, ohabout three years ago, and I
knew about Nvidia because my sonis a gamer and everything that
my son did was around, gamingand Nvidia was everywhere.
But when I started to notice theAI situation and everybody
(29:57):
started talking about Nvidiachips, because Jensen Wong,
who's an incredible CEO, he'slike Da Vinci of our time.
He pretty much had the marketcornered right?
So because I had an insideunderstanding of how, those GPUs
work, I was able to go directlyand put a larger part of my
portfolio in Nvidia.
Yeah, it is a, it was a biggerbet, but because I knew the
(30:19):
knowledge behind the company, Iwas like, yeah, this is a, this
is actually a smart bet and itturned out to be an incredible
investment for me.
My point here to everybody is ifyou learn about these companies
and you know about.
A company and you feel like theydo have cutting edge cut,
cutting edge technology, you caninvest in that company directly.
And that is actually a lot morehelpful because Yeah.
(30:43):
If you spread your money across20 different companies, you
might average, maybe the marketreturns and averaging on 10%
every year.
But if you, what I've, myreturns on Nvidia alone have
been like 400%.
So you just have to really, Ithink it, I think my point to
you guys is like you really cantake advantage of the market and
(31:04):
I think you really takeadvantage of it when you really
do your own work.
In your own research.
That's the most beautiful thingabout where we are right now.
The technology between chat GPT,what's available vision.
Like I love CNBC.
All of their best analysts comeon every morning for free.
These tools now will give youaccess to information that we've
(31:24):
never had before.
So you can really do your ownresearch on companies and you
can invest.
And the other part that's a gamechanger right now is you have
ways to invest that I didn'teven have back then.
So I.
For instance, I want you guys togo out and look@robinhood.com.
So with Robinhood, you don'thave to have, like back when I
was investing and I wanted toinvest in Apple, I had to buy an
(31:48):
entire share of Apple, whateverit was worth.
So if it's a hundred dollars forApple, or I think apple's at two
something right now.
But if you wanna buy one shareof Apple, you had to have$200.
Now Robinhood will let you buy afraction of that, like a piece
of Apple you won't own.
You'll own a part of the share.
You won't own the old share.
What's my point there is now youcan actually get involved with
(32:10):
the market at a much lower pricepoint.
Any price point.
So even if you just have athousand dollars now you can use
a thousand dollars and invest inthe market.
And like you can do it with$10.
Yeah,$10.
And that's my point.
Like what you want to do is justget in.
And look how your money, whatyou wanna get, an understanding
of how you, your money works inthe stock market and you don't
(32:31):
have to take a huge risk.
And then you could just startinvesting as you feel
comfortable.
And you can help it, you canhelp it grow.
Because that's the thing aboutpeople, this is what I tell
people how, you achieve wealth,your money has to work for you.
I don't have, my money is in mychecking account.
That's money to pay billspeople.
No, I don't have anything insavings.
(32:53):
That's not working, that's notgiving me a return on my, my, my
interest is at least 5%.
Anything that I have out there,I'm earning 5%.
Do you know what you earn in thebank?
Oh 0.2%.
That's not even the rate ofinflation.
That means your money's movingbackwards in the bank.
So you have to really understandhow to make your money work for
you, and that's why I alwayslove the stock market, because
(33:13):
that's a really good place whereyour money can work for you.
Now, don't get me wrong, it'snot without risk.
Everything is risk oriented.
If you're not risk oriented,you're not going to, you're not
gonna become wealthy because wehave, we just have to take
risks.
It's a part of our environment,but at the same time, the return
is totally worth it, right?
The higher risk, the higher thereturn.
(33:34):
So this, when it comes to themarket, that's what I love to
tell people.
Just get involved.
Don't get scared about all thenumbers coming across the bottom
of the screen and all that.
Slowly educate yourself slowly.
Put your toe in the water, smallamount of money, and then just
commit to trying to understandexactly how your money is
working in there.
And then commit to creating yourown portfolio.
Next thing you'll be sitting ona lot more money than you ever
(33:55):
thought you could have.
That's right.
Oh, and then your cryptoquestion.
Yeah.
Crypto is interesting.
I don't really get involved in.
Small, like it's crypto is awhole different world, people,
and it's still unregulated.
So I don't tell anybody to goinvest in crypto.
What I do say is with me, Ialways go with premium, premium
things, right?
So in the world of crypto, Ireally contain my investments to
(34:18):
Bitcoin, ether, or Solana rightnow, because those are really
like the top number one coinsand investment.
Tools on that platform, right?
They get the most exposure.
A lot of people know aboutthose, but trust me, in crypto
there are like a thousand coinsout there you can invest in.
But again, buyer beware, some ofthose coins are worthless.
(34:40):
Some of those coins mightactually appreciate over time,
but crypto is one of thoseenvironments where.
You definitely have to do yourresearch, but again, my number
one thing on crypto to telleverybody is you don't need a
third party to help you.
You do not.
You can go to coinbase.com andyou can start, you can open up
your own crypto account.
You don't need any help.
(35:01):
You don't need anybody to investyour money for you.
It's not that complicated.
Just do your research.
Yeah.
I like what you said earlierabout getting in and taking
risk.
I I think a lot of us what wethink about getting involved in
stocks and crypto and all this,we just hear about the risk
involved with that, and wethink, oh, we can just lose.
But with today's technology,like you mentioned, we can get
(35:22):
in with, we, you can actuallyget in with like less than a
dollar with Robin Hood a penny.
Like you can just invest that ifyou want, but it, whatever your
risk tolerance is.
I personally find that putting alittle bit into something I'm
curious about, even if I don'tknow much about it forces me to
learn so much.
So I have this little gamblingaccount I call it, and I started
(35:44):
with$50.
I'm like, all right, I can I'vedone a lot of stupid things
where I've lost$50.
We all do.
Let's admit it like we, yep.
So you start with that, and youplay with something and you,
once you put the money into it,you're gonna, you're gonna
follow it.
It doesn't really matter whatit, and you're gonna learn.
And then you be like, okay, thisis dumb.
I'm getting out.
But try with something else.
And some hits, some don't.
But, it's a great way of doingresearch now.
(36:06):
I think then and then if youcome across a really good thesis
like you did with your, nvidiaaccount, then you go, then you
put real money in, right?
And then you are like, okay,this is, there's really
something here.
So I can put real money intothis, but that's what's nice
about today's technology, right?
So yeah, I think, and I thinkthat I think, a lot of us that
understand and we've watched thetransformation of all this
(36:29):
technology, we understand whatan opportunity it is right now.
Yeah.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand that.
And because you have that wealthof information at your
fingertips, it's really it'syour core responsibility is
making sure that information isreliable.
But if you feel like you foundyou a nice hub of reliable
information, trusted people thatare experts that can take, that
(36:51):
can go a long way.
Because again, I'm coming froman environment where when I was
thir first trying to become anentrepreneur, I would talk.
The entrepreneurs over time, butthey were gatekeeping.
They went and tell me certainthings and I had to go out,
figure it out on my own.
And yeah.
Unnecessary trips and failureand a lot of that's avoidable
now.
It's just avoidable.
You can get any information outthere for free.
(37:13):
Yeah.
You can get anything you want.
So we, it's been an entireshift, right?
We've gone from generations.
It didn't have access to anyinformation, and that's how the
wealthy were able to be wealthybecause they only had the
knowledge now to oversaturatedwith information.
And now you're responsible formaking sure that the re the
information that you.
(37:34):
Receive is credible.
That's the only thing that,that's the biggest mistake that
people make.
They just go out there and justbelieve anything.
No, that's right.
You need to find something andthen verify it.
And then verify it again.
But you could do that now and ifyou can, if you feel like on
that second or thirdverification.
Okay.
I'm hearing the same consistentthing.
All right.
And then you could dig down fromthere.
(37:54):
Now, like I said, they, we'vegone from under, we didn't have
enough information back in theday to what they did now is they
saturated us with informationand they was like, okay, now you
find it amongst all of that.
So it's just a flip.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the other point to that isyou hear about always about how
the rich get richer and they getaccess to things that we don't.
And like you said it's not somuch the case anymore, but we
(38:17):
got the, I think we have theselimiting beliefs within our head
that we hear what something'sbad, Bitcoin, oh, that's bad,
it's for scamming and all thisstuff.
And, but.
That's not necessarily true,right?
And there's a lot of people whoare, have built real wealth
legally without scams and allthat in that.
So now you can try it prettymuch risk free, like I said,
(38:37):
with a couple of dollars, orlike you said, in Coinbase or
Robin Hood or whatever, and tryit for yourself and see, because
otherwise if we just believeit's gonna go down, then we
never get in.
And things do go up and then youdon't get to play in that.
And my best example is 2008.
I got wiped there.
I was, I've always been a realestate guy, and I left I hated,
(38:58):
I'm like, real what was Ithinking?
I got wiped, and then I missedthe greatest opportunity that
we've had in our lifetime, rightafter 2008, because I just
didn't, I'm like, I'm done.
No way.
This is a scam.
Real estate's gonna go down,and, so you can't do that.
You gotta keep playing andtrying to understand, this
turbulence along the way and,just keep learning the whole
(39:19):
way.
Yeah.
You always had to keep going.
And I was in the market backthen too, in 2008.
And it's funny because I comeacross people now and they try
to use 2008 as an example of whythe real estate market is
dangerous.
And I'm like, dude.
Over two centuries, we've onlyhad two wipeouts like that.
Like what whatcha talking about?
What do you, what's happenedsince 2008?
(39:40):
How well would you focus onthat?
That's right.
So that's the point.
You're right.
You just can't, and it came backstronger than ever.
Yeah.
It's back stronger than ever.
Real estate is one of the, oneof the.
Platforms and one of theindustries where your money and
your real estate almost alwaysappreciates.
Almost always over the long termhave time.
(40:00):
Over the long term, it almostalways appreciates, so Yeah.
It's like you said, you're notgoing to be able to, access the
next level of prosperity ifthat's your thing.
If you're not willing to takesome level of risk.
Yeah.
Great.
Marcel, I think I can keep goingwith this stuff.
I think we're kindred spirithere, but we're running outta
(40:23):
time, so I'm gonna get you intoour Wayfinder four.
So give us a life hack that youuse every day.
A life hack that I use everysingle day.
Wow.
That would have to be how Iapproach the real estate.
How I approach the stock market.
I really, I.
Think that, being able to haveaccess to certain premium
(40:45):
channels like CNBC, I actuallyget to see exactly where those
experts that study the marketevery single day, they bring
their expertise to the screenand they go, yeah, not that
position right now.
I think it's gonna fade.
Like you get expert commentaryright there on the spot.
And it really helps me because.
(41:07):
It helps me direct my portfoliowhen I do think, okay, now I'm
going to cash out on the tradebecause I'm actually going
directly to the source.
And again, it's because I knowit's a hack because the
information that you get therenow, you would've had to pay for
back in the day.
Yeah.
You just, you would be payingpremium dollar for a broker.
These people are coming up,getting on the show for free,
(41:28):
sharing their knowledge withyou.
So that's my favorite hack whenit comes to Ashley appreciating.
Stock market wealth.
I love CNBC.
I wake up to it.
I watch it for about an hour,then I hit the gym.
But yeah it starts my morningevery morning.
That's great.
Yeah.
It is absolutely mind blowingthe level of information we have
access to.
And in commercial real estate,there's a report called the TRE
(41:48):
Report, tre.
That has been around forever andI think a subscription to that
used to be like 15 grand a year,if I remember correctly, or 14
grand a year.
And now you can just listen tothe podcast for free every week.
That breaks it all down.
Unbelievable.
And this is something that onlyinstitutional investors had
access to?
Pretty much.
Yep.
Now we can all go in there andsee what's up, all out there for
(42:08):
free.
The how about a favorite?
This is just something you, ashow activity book, whatever
that you you like.
Right now it's, I'm all about mybook Hiding in plain view.
It's, it is, it's an incrediblestory.
All right.
We need another one.
You are gonna get you chance topromote that.
Let's get another one.
Oh, if I'm looking at, if I'mthinking about some of my
(42:29):
favorite shows right now, ohthat'd be easy.
Raising Canaan.
On Showtime.
Yeah.
50 cent show.
Razor Canan is, oh, it remindsme of the nineties, man.
It's just a lot of really goodcharacters in that show.
They're really savvy.
It, I think that it is welldone.
Really good actors on there.
So that's probably one of myfavorite shows right now,
raising Canan.
(42:49):
Okay.
I'm gonna have to check thatout.
How about advice now, a piece ofadvice for your younger self?
One piece of advice.
Piece of advice for my youngerself.
Be a little bit more patient.
What's supposed to happen isgonna happen.
Give it a hundred percent, butbe a little bit more patient in,
in, in this trust in theprocess.
It takes time.
Everything doesn't happen whenyou think it should happen
(43:10):
specifically in business.
But if you put it together withthe right people and you have a
really good service system.
It'll sell itself.
Your direction is predetermined.
Just give it a hundred percentand then just have patience.
Sit back, watch things happen.
I love that.
How about you get to choosebetween either a big opportunity
or limiting belief?
(43:32):
Big opportunity.
What's a big opportunity that Ihave or a big opportunity that
you see out there?
Oh, it's definitely takenadvantage of the AI revolution
right now.
I think that's, I think that'sthe biggest opportunity right
now because AI is allowing you,like for instance, for my
commercial cleaning company, wedon't even have a receptionist
anymore.
(43:52):
AI is actually answering all ofour phone calls, setting up
walkthroughs, talking to ourclients like it's evolutionary.
It's.
It's the next, it's a gamechanger.
It's a game changer on so manydifferent levels.
The things that we used to talkabout about, like you, you
thinking about actual robotics,it's going to be, it's gonna be
a time where I think that youcan own a company and you don't
(44:14):
even need human beings anymore.
I think it's just gonna bereally about automation.
So from a business standpoint,yeah.
Automation from a businessstandpoint is the hugest.
This is gonna be, this is hugeshift.
This is like the new internet.
It's gonna take some time, butyou can see behind the scenes
right now it's the biggestopportunity of all time right
now.
Yeah.
That's exciting and scary at thesame time, right?
(44:35):
Yeah, it is.
So it's, what's interestingabout AI is as the more I've
used it and the more opportunityI see in it that, like you I
think about ideas and I'mthinking, all right, I'm gonna
start a business that does thiswith AI or that way, it's imp
and friends I know have triedthat, and it's moving so fast
that whatever idea you havealready gets pushed out there at
(44:56):
a large scale.
Really quick.
So you talked about.
Your receptionist, how youreplaced her or him with with an
AI bot.
And it's wild how quickly thatis real, right?
Yeah.
And now, so I actually thinkthat the opportunity is not
actually so much in creating AIservices as implementing AI
(45:17):
services into your regular buscleaning businesses and service
space, which is wild when youcan implement that technology
into your existing business.
Your margins are going toincrease because big time your
costs go down because I'm notpaying a receptionist anymore.
Whatever.
She was getting paid$17 an hour,to answer the phone.
I'm paying now AI service ahundred something dollars a
(45:40):
month.
That's an incredible decrease inlabor.
So that's what's coming our way.
Like only, the smartest of thesmart will be able to kinda like
when they run their businesses,it'll be.
For instance, like my kid was inprogramming and then I told him,
I was like, programming is onits way out.
And sure enough, Jensen Wong waslike, look, AI does our
(46:01):
programming.
So now what's gonna happen isthe people that prompt the ai
they're the ones that if you askthe AI to correct questions,
those are the people that aregoing to get paid now, but the
AI is gonna take over the actualcoding.
So yeah it's totally different.
Now.
Everything is going to be like.
Human beings are definitelygonna have, always gonna have a
place on this planet.
(46:21):
But at the same time, we'regoing to have to elevate our
game.
No doubt.
Yep.
Excellent, Marcel, thank you forthat.
If people want to know a littlebit more about you, if we wanna
know about your book, I didn'teven ask.
I was curious about the title,hiding in Plain View.
How did you come up with thattitle?
Hiding in Plain View?
Again, I had a, I had a.
I had two sa, there have beentwo chapters to my life.
(46:44):
In that first chapter, I wasjust out there doing a lot of
different things and I thinkthat now that people see a
really polished business personthey I, part of me felt like I
wasn't really being my 100%authentic self.
So I always felt like I washiding in plain view.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna write this book soeverybody could see the whole
me.
'cause I'm all abouttransparency.
So that's how I came up with thetitle.
(47:04):
Okay, great.
And and if people wanna know alittle bit more about you, how
can they find you?
Oh, find me@marcelclark.co.
So I didn't get the.com, Igot.co, but it's a great
website, Marcel clark.co clarkwith a e.
You can find everything there.
You'll find all my businesses,you'll find all of my handles.
You can find my ig.
You can find everything there.
(47:25):
So that's the best way to findme efficiently.
Excellent.
Thank you, Marcel.
It's been a real delight to haveyou here.
I love what you're doing.
I love the messaging of yourbook.
I'm gonna have to check it outfor sure.
And let's let's keep going.
Appreciate it, Lewis.
Thanks for having me on.
And I thank you to all yourlisteners for listening.
(47:48):
We hope you've enjoyed theWayfinder Show.
If you've got value from thisepisode, please take a few
seconds to leave us a five starrating and review.
This will allow us to help morepeople find their way to live
more authentic and excitinglives.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
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