Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed T. Dallas Smith.
Founder and CEO of T. Dallas Smith & Company, the largest African American-owned pure tenant rep commercial real estate firm in the U.S. The discussion focused on mentorship, breaking barriers in real estate, and transformative community development.
🔑 Key Themes & Highlights
Breaking Barriers in Commercial Real Estate
- Smith shared his journey as a trailblazer in commercial real estate, overcoming industry challenges as a Black entrepreneur.
- He emphasized the importance of representation and mentorship in helping minorities enter the field.
Transformative Community Development
- His firm is focused on revitalizing marginalized communities through strategic real estate investments.
- He discussed the impact of Microsoft’s land acquisition near Bankhead Highway, which has led to new development opportunities.
Mentorship & Leadership Growth
- Smith launched the Wisdom Circle, a mentorship initiative to educate young professionals about commercial real estate.
- He believes that exposure is key to increasing diversity in the industry.
Atlanta’s Commercial Real Estate Boom
- As President of the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS®, Smith highlighted the $47.6 billion in transactions completed by its members.
- He stressed that brokers play a crucial role in shaping urban development.
📘 About T. Dallas Smith
- Dallas Smith is a visionary leader in commercial real estate, dedicated to mentorship, community uplift, and industry transformation. His firm specializes in tenant representation, office space, industrial facilities, and land acquisitions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
ask them how they are running their companies, and speak
with dog profits who are making a difference in their
(00:26):
local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock
the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclassome Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is Rashaan McDonald. As you know, I'm here every
week our host this weekly money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
As I've always stated, the interviews and information that this
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It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
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(01:16):
the Money Making Conversations show and podcasts, but from two
thousand to twenty sixteen, I was the personal manager of
A Family Future star and host Steve Harvey. And now
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as well as talk show hosts Sherry Shepherd. These are
(01:36):
people that engage my advice over the years and currently
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Rashawn McDonald will be there at the Sureley Massive Executive
(02:20):
Massive Executive Conference Center. Now let's get this show rolled.
That I got a guest on the line. He's a
legend to me in this business, and I got to
bring him up. I can't believe I got him on
the show. But he decided to set aside his business
schedule to talk to Rashawn McDonald's Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
My guests company's mission is to expose and create space
(02:42):
for people of color and commercial real estate, elevate the
level of service by putting clients first, and empower others
to expect excellence without exception. His company has represented the
commercial real estate interests of summer the most notable corporations
in the country, including but not limited to, Airbnb, Saint
(03:06):
Jude At and t Athlete's Foot, Coca Cola, FedEx, IBM, JP,
Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Tourists, and Vera Texts, just to name
a few. Please making the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I
hope I Dave gave him justice in my interview the
legendary T. Dallas Smith.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
How you doing, sir man, I'm doing wonderful. Now. I
got you on the song, brother, I'm good. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, you know I appreciate you taking the time
because of the fact that you know when you've done
as much as you said, and you came right to
the heart of it's about service and about consistency, and
I was in communication. Tells everybody a little background about
you before we really get into the interview, because I
want to talk about miniorship, I want to talk about
your vision, and I want to talk about moving into
(03:55):
twenty twenty five, how the young people and the people
who are my age who will listening to this show
can win your Dallas.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, we're trying. First again, Thank you man for having
me on the show. You know, I borrow a line
from God. I'm going blank on his name, but he
used to say Atlanta born, Atlanta Bread. When I died,
he Atlanta dead. That's me, So you know up from
the West side of Atlanta. Grew up off the Simpson
Road and went to Turner High School East Clement, then
(04:25):
Turner High School, and a family moved when I was
fourteen to College Park. Broke my heart, but I ended
up graduating from Lake Shore High School in College Park.
Didn't know what I really wanted to be when I
grew up. All I knew was I wanted to make
a lot of money. So in nineteen eighty two, I
took a Force magazine and I studied with the richest
people in the world. Did the richest people in the
(04:47):
world in nineteen eighty two did one of four things?
They were in the real estate business, they were in
the oil business, technology, or investments. So again, I'm from Atlanta,
or want to take me to Texas? Investments, want to
take me to New York. Technology wasn't my thing, so
(05:07):
left me with real estate. I didn't want to work
on the weekend, so residential was out of the way.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I like you because you tell everybody you gotta have
the standards. If you have a.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Dream, Hey, at the end of the day, you may
not know what you want to do. But I rest
assured there's a lot of things you know you don't
want to do. Yes, So I tell people you don't know,
just back into it. So literally that's what I did.
And my sister was happened to be dating a guy.
But I think with Michael hot Tower, a lot of
people know Michael hot Town, and I joked when I
(05:38):
say that story, a lot of people say he was
dating my sister too. But Michael was the youngest politicist
in the United States at one time. The city council
member in College Park called him asking me if he
knew somebody He knew somebody who introduced me to somebody
who ultimately ended up opening the door for me to
get into commercial real estate. And I have been in
(06:00):
this space now, rashon for forty three years. Brother.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Wow, let mesage you. Let measure the team commercial real estate.
Explain the audience the difference between you know, commercial real
estate and just you know, home buyer real estate.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah. Absolutely so first and then I'll get even more
specific about the peace that I do in commercial. But
residential is just that typical homes or any if it's
less than four units, it's considered residential. Anything over six
units or four units is commercial. But we focus them
primarily office space, industrial space, and raw land. And we're
(06:39):
on the side that we call tenant representation or occupier services.
So what that means is rashaw. If you go to
a building, want to lease some space, the landlord already
has a guy in there who's representing his interest, right,
we're the people who represent your interests or the occupier
of the space. I tell the people. I tell you,
(07:00):
never go into court by yourself against somebody else on
the other side. Don't go and do this business by yourself.
And we we help companies save millions of dollars. And
so the companies that you named obviously are large companies,
and obviously they have people professional to be able to
do this kind of work. But this is all we
do twenty four to seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So to measure this, mister Smith, you know, because in
real estate, you walk around, you see these buildings empty.
You know, you go, man, they might want to just
give away that space. Man, you know, you know because
you hear that. I know I thought like that, you know,
just the buildings empty, they should be able to just
let me go in there and do my thing. So
(07:45):
talk to the audience about empty buildings. Don't mean they're
gonna cut a deal for you. The empty building means
something to that person who owns that building. And also
talk about the when you when you rent in a space,
how people they can give you some some some build
out and all those little things that people can look at.
Do you go from that area of conversation to that
granular were you doing the commercial space realmal.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Absolutely. Our job is to represent your interest. So the
first question in terms of vacant buildings, you never know.
There are people who will keep their buildings vacant because
it represents the tax right off or loss. Okay, they
may maybe making more money and somewhere else and they
need to defer it, so they want to take a
loss over here because they're making a ton of money
(08:28):
somewhere else. So you never know anybody's tax situations. So
that could be the case. Not always, but that definitely
could be the case. But as it relates to there's
a lot of companies. I won't name the company, but
there's one particular company that we represent it and for
a full floor deal call it twenty eight thousand square feet.
(08:48):
And ironically, this group knew the person they were trying
to negotiate with. They brought us in and fundamentally, the
difference between the deal that they were going to get
from their friend and the deal that we struck with
Sean was a difference of three million dollars, right, so
we save them three million dollars. Three million dollars can
(09:10):
buy you more equipment, hire more employees, can do a
lot of things for a small business, right right, So
that's what we do. Ultimately, at the end of the day,
our goal is to represent your interests and to help
you save money. To make sure that you have somebody
representing everything from the rent, the rental rate, the incentives
(09:33):
that you'll get, up front improvements, all of that, from parking,
you name it, if it impacts their business, well, you know,
your space, negotiating.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Everything's a journey, you know that. T. Dallas, Yeah, you know,
no doubt about it. And they you know, you know
the role of mentorship. You know you have your firm
is the largest African American owned, pure tenant representative commercial
real estate firm in the country. So let's go back
to you know when you wrint to me, you know
Roushon McDonald. You know, I got an idea for a
(10:06):
little restaurant around the Cortar. You know they can you know,
I know T. Dallas's man, he writ that's up to everybody.
What mistakes of what do I need to come to
you back then? Because right now you you huge, and
you know you're doing a lot of large space, a
lot of office space, and that that you built that reputation.
You work with a certain type of customer now. But
(10:27):
just my show money Making Conversation master classes, small entrepreneurs
getting in the door trying to understand how they can
become a brick and mortar or get out of that
food truck. What advice how to want to approach that
next step to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, I say, the first thing, make sure you get
somebody representing your interests and you know when you would come.
You know, ironically, the very first deal I ever did
was I was a taxi cab company, and I remember
that deal like it was yesterday. I made three h
dolls off that transaction, and I say that, you know,
I say, the folks of money, but that's three hundred
(11:05):
dollars may as well have been three million dollars because
it was my very first deal. And what I learned
was the ability to have a tax a trade, to
know a skill set that can help somebody save money,
and then doing that I could make some money. So
the first thing is make sure that you get wise counsel.
And I don't care what the business is, and we
(11:27):
represent a large, large, large companies, but we also represent
some small companies too. So if you've got an idea,
and I mean it's a small company. We've got say
twenty people at this office. We've got people who are starting.
But the difference here that even people who are starting,
they have the resources that are around them in this office,
people who've been around the business a very long time.
(11:49):
We've got more than one hundred and fifty years of
experience in this office. So we want to be able
to use that for your to your advantage. So making
sure that you've got, you know, your P and L
is together to make sure you've got a clear vision
for the next three to five years for what you're
trying to do for your business. And then we're talking
about restaurants, so that's retail space, so office industrial land.
(12:12):
I was real big into retail early on when I
got into business. One of the guys I worked for
was a guy by the name of Herman Russell. Yeah,
if you don't know him, you know, look him up.
We did a lot of retail together. But get counsel first,
number one, get counseled. And the other thing that people
(12:32):
they think it's expensive to hire us to do work.
Here's the little secret. The landlords pay us. We get
paid from the landlord because it's a marketing item. That's
already a line item. And the thing is, if you
don't use it, you're not going to get the benefit
of it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It explain it to my audience when you say that,
you know, so you know, I'm a person out there
looking for a space, so I'm worried about behinding you.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, so you drive by, you see a sign that says,
you know, call Rashon McDonald the lease space. And so
they call you direct. Now, mind you, you're representing that
particular landlord. They call you direct, and you're going to
be a nice guy, you know, fun to hang out
with and everything. So all of a sudden people like you,
(13:21):
and you know what we're going to do to deal
with you. Now you tell them everything, except you're not
representing them, right, You're representing the landlord. And what happens
is if they go direct with you, you get a larger
fee versus actually it would have been the feat that
would have gone to your broker. They just get to
(13:41):
keep it. So that's the crazy thing about it. It's
already a line item. It's in the marketing line item
for the landlord. So take advantage of that. And again
I tell people all the time, you don't have to
call T D Allie Smith and Company. I hope you do,
but you don't have to. All I asked you is
make sure that you have somebody who represents your interest
(14:04):
in the deal.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(14:26):
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
His firm is the largest African American owned, pure tenant
representing commercial real estate firm in the country. As he says,
he's a team of go getters at that office. Networking
is his strong point. Dedication, mentorship, support, that's what he
offers at this place and that's why he's been successful
over the year. He has been in the real estate
(14:57):
business over forty years. Because he told you, you know,
he didn't want to go to Texas for all. He
didn't want to do no finance up in New York.
And you know, he wanted the weekends. He didn't want
to work on the weekends. So home real estate was out.
So he found his dream and he's focused on it.
When you find your dream on your focus on it,
people have to guide you down that path. So mintship
(15:19):
plays a role. Can you tell us how mintship played
a role in your success?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
T Dallas Smith Absolutely well. The first guy I ever
worked for was a guy named Thomas W. TIFFs with
Atlanta Ayrison of realty. He was the one that really
taught me the business. Ironically, I was on the landlord
side of it first, so I represented all of his
properties near the airport. He owned about eighty acres. Work
for property was office, industrial, land and retail. Love him,
(15:47):
dearly miss him. He died some years ago. That he
was an older white guy and in fact I was
the first black anything he had ever hired. And make
the story even more complicated, his father was a great
and dragon of the Kukus Klan and Tipton But tell
people all the time, but God, God can change anybody's heart,
(16:09):
and sometimes you just got to get out of your
way and allow God to do what He's going to do,
and don't judge people by anything other than the content
of their character, and allow yourself to meet them. But
he taught me the basis of the commercial estate business.
From there, I went to work for Cushman and Wakefield.
I was the first black broker Chushman and Wakefield Heart
(16:30):
in nineteen eighty nine. There I got to work with
some major players. A guy by the name of Andy
Gertner who was sort of the godfather of tendant representation
in this town. He represented the largest deals in this town.
I mean the Georgia Spacific Building was a builder suit
for him. So he was that dude. He's still around,
(16:51):
A dear, dear friend and and a friend to Tdall
Smith and Company and definitely resources to me. And then
I worked for Herman Russell her and I started a
broker's divisiit from Herman. When I left cush from to Wakefield,
I was still in my thirties and hadn't really got
coming into my calling when you talk about mentorship. I
(17:13):
met a young man by the name of Leontay Benton
who wanted to get into the business. And I told
Leonte like I told fifty people before him. People come
to me, we sing, hey, I want to get in
commercial estate. I say, do you gotta have you a license?
They say no, I don't. I said, get your license.
Then we'll talk. So nobody ever came back. So that's
how I literally got rid of people. Yeah, but this kid,
(17:35):
I toldally get his license. Three weeks he comes back
with his license. Now I'm going like, oh, what the
heck I'm gonna do with this kid. So literally, for
two weeks, I'm trying to get rid of him. I
got him walking my dog, washing my car, getting my lunch,
getting coffee. He's not going anywhere. Finally, I'm fed up
with it. So you know, one day I was like, man,
I'm getting rid of him today. I said, Leon, say
(17:56):
how many square feet in the acre? He said, I
don't know, sir. I said, well you better figured that out.
He comes back forty three, five hundred and sixty square feet, sir.
And I was like, yeah, that's right. I said, give
me some coffee. While he went to get coffee, ups
was delivering a case of water to the office. And
as he was putting the water, God I had this epiphany.
(18:18):
God said, Dallas, that was you. That was you when
you got into real estate business in nineteen eighty two.
But there was nobody who looked like you who could
help you. You can help that kid. And like anybody
was ever able to help you, and it was literally
Raseean at that moment. At that time, I realized what
God had called me to do. Me and that kid,
we've been together now decembery eighteen years. He's the president
(18:42):
of this company now because within two weeks of that time,
God told me to train him up as a son,
for this will be the guy who will run your
business when you turned sixty years on. And we've been
on that plan, and I tell you, he's killing it.
He's killing it. He's killing it, and we're bringing more
people up coming behind him. Business partners, Dexter Warrior. A
(19:02):
lot of people in town know Dexter Dexter. I've been
in the business at the same time. Dexter always represented landlords.
I was always on the tenants side. When I realized
he was a free agent, I said, man, you got
to come over here with me. Brothers. You've been ripping
off tennants all your career. Now you can actually help
them coming up. We're coming up on fourteen years agother man.
(19:23):
So I say all this to say, we realize Dexon
not being the two oldest people here. The future of
this industry really depends upon us. Training people up to
do this industry, and I tell people, this is the
only business I know we're selling. You can be broke
on a Friday and rich on a Monday.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Right right, right right. That's a beautiful thing because you
know either the thing that I enjoy first of all,
your energy, you know energy, and I always heard about
there was legendary, your enthusiasm for life, your ability to communicate,
but more importantly to give back part. I never heard
that story because I always know in my life I'm
(20:00):
sitting behind his mic because so many people I always called,
I would say they bumped me. You know, when I
was about to veer off, this is Rachelle. You don't
belong over there. Won't you go back where you're supposed
to be? Okay, okay, I was just tested that with
though we're tired of watching you test. Okay, go where
you're supposed to be. And so with that, that young
man is important for people to understand that. The word
(20:21):
know and also humbleness is why he hung in there
because so many people want to check. I always tell
people because I started out in entertainment. In my career,
I got the degree in mathematics, but I left IBM
to do entertainment, and I always tell people amount of
work I did for free because I wanted people to
see my talent. Even today, I'll take opportunities just to
(20:44):
see how it is. Drive my wife crazy. Of course,
he says you should be charging. I said, well, that's
a relationship I'm building out. It's like a relationship every
time I'm talking to somebody like you as a relationship
that I'm doing. I'm down here. Nobody's paying me a
check to be on this show an hour every Tuesday
on wc OK in Atlanta, Georgia, because I'm getting to
introduce myself and also you individual like you to the world.
(21:07):
Because my show was broadcast international, is broadcast locally. My
podcast is one point three million downloads a month, and
so that lets me know there's a voice out there.
But your brand t Dallas Smith Brother. You know when
you say forty years man, you you make it seem
like that's a that's a journey of happiness and you
throw faith in there. How powerful is faith in business?
(21:30):
How does that correlate in your life? And how does
that allow it to allow you to be so humble?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Man? Let me tell you something. There's a there's a
TDJ has in his book, the Crushing. He talks about
you can't have fine wine without crushed grapes. Wow, And
we all go through some crushing. So as I had
an ego back in the day that was as big
(21:56):
as this building I'm in. If God has a way
of crushing you and bringing you back to a place
of what is really all about? See, it was never
really about all It was never really about the money.
It's really about you walking in the calling that God
has for you. And then walking in that calling, provision
(22:17):
comes and getting knocked to my knees and having to
start all over again was probably the best thing. Not
probably it was the best thing that ever could have
happened to me. Because that didn't happen, that would have
never met Leonte and the odds are will you and
I wouldn't be on a song call now talking about
(22:39):
T Dallas Smith and company. But I'm real clear faith
has everything to do with it. I am the son
of Lena and Glenn Smith. My mother was a praying
woman and I always pray for us. We heard over
and over again, you can do through all do all
(23:00):
things through Christ who strengthens you. Heard that my whole life,
and I know it as true as I'm talking to
you on this phone that if you hear learn the
ability to hear God's voice for you. To this day,
people trying to figure out what I'm doing, and I
tell you, at the end of the day, I'm gonna
(23:21):
give you the secret shot. I just hear God's voice
and I do what he tells me to do, period
hard stop. And so man, I'm looking at the stuff
we're doing. You wouldn't even believe the stuff that we're doing.
The stuff that comes out of nowhere. I know it's
not out of nowhere. People think it's out of nowhere.
But these relationships, building relationships before you need them. That's
(23:44):
one of my keys. Stay green enough to grow today.
I stop learning, put me in the box, brouh. Always
keep something learning, try to get better. I can be
better tomorrow that I am today. That's always my prayer.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Brother, your humbleness and your storytelling is incredible. I'm talking
to T. Dallas Smith. He began his commercial real estate
career in nineteen eighty two. Now today the largest African
American owned firm in the country. My brother, you're during
this this this this half hour wasn't long enough for
(24:20):
me and you. I'm just gonna let you know that, man,
you know, because we got more stuff to say, but
I got another guest on another half hour of this.
But more importantly, I just want to let you know
that we got to get together off air because.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I love it. I'd love to do that because you
one thing that we have in coming. We both we
both did stand up.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, well I can see I can see the energy there.
But you know I did death jam, I did be coverfew.
You know I did all that.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Now, man, you're a man. Man.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I appreciate your brother. Thank you for coming on Money
Made Conversation t Dallas Smith. And thank your staff man
because next to us, because they reached out to me
and made this happen. Man, and they did they do
dealing this work your schedule so we can make this
interview happen. And it was well worth the way. My brother,
thank you for coming on Money Making master Class. We
talked soon. Okay, make that money baby, all right, appreciate
(25:14):
you all right, cool, this is Rashon McDonald. You're listening
to Money Making Conversation master Class. Like I said earlier
this week, I'll be at the Small Business Entertainment Summit
that will be on the campus of Mohause College. If
you want to hear Rashwan, you want to talk to
me if you're in the music industry, sports entertainment industry
this Thursday. If you're in the Georgia area, Money Making
(25:37):
Conversation hosts Rashwan McDonald would be there at the Small
Business Entertainment Summit at the Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center.
If you're right back with more Money Making Conversations Master Class,
don't go nowhere. This has been another edition of Money
Making Conversation Master Class hosted by me Rashwan McDonald. Thank
you to our guests on the show today and thank you.
I'll listening to audience now. If you want to listen
(25:59):
to the episode I want to be a guest on
the show. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle
is Moneymaking Conversation. Join us next week and remember to
always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and start planning their own. Listen up as I
interview entrepreneurs from around the country, talk to celebrities and
ask them how they are running their companies, and speak
with dog profits who are making a difference in their
(00:26):
local communities. Now, sit back and listen as we unlock
the secrets to their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclassome Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is Rashaan McDonald. As you know, I'm here every
week our host this weekly money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
As I've always stated, the interviews and information that this
show provides is for you. That's right you, and I'm
happy you're here to tune in to hear what I
got to say tonight and my guests have to say tonight.
It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
(00:56):
start living your own. I'm here to help you reach
your American dream Now. If you want to be a
guest on my show, please visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. That's right,
Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click to be a guest
button now. If you don't know uver Sean McDonald, let
me give you a short little background about me and
the entertainment side of it. You guys know our host
(01:16):
the Money Making Conversations show and podcasts, but from two
thousand to twenty sixteen, I was the personal manager of
A Family Future star and host Steve Harvey. And now
I'm currently also Brad Consulting ESPN steven A Smith and
as well as talk show hosts Sherry Shepherd. These are
(01:36):
people that engage my advice over the years and currently
and I want to share that information to you now
because I'll be this Thursday, November seventh, on the campus
of more House College. On the campus of Morehouse College
at the Shirley Massive Executive Conference Center. That's right this Thursday.
If you're in Georgia, please come down the Small Business
(01:59):
Interment Summer. Rashwan McDonald will be there. If you in
the business, the music industry, the sports, entertainment, TV, film
production or all three, come on down to the Small
Business Entertainment Summer on the campus of Morehouse College this Thursday.
Rashawn McDonald will be there at the Sureley Massive Executive
(02:20):
Massive Executive Conference Center. Now let's get this show rolled.
That I got a guest on the line. He's a
legend to me in this business, and I got to
bring him up. I can't believe I got him on
the show. But he decided to set aside his business
schedule to talk to Rashawn McDonald's Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
My guests company's mission is to expose and create space
(02:42):
for people of color and commercial real estate, elevate the
level of service by putting clients first, and empower others
to expect excellence without exception. His company has represented the
commercial real estate interests of summer the most notable corporations
in the country, including but not limited to, Airbnb, Saint
(03:06):
Jude At and t Athlete's Foot, Coca Cola, FedEx, IBM, JP,
Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Tourists, and Vera Texts, just to name
a few. Please making the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I
hope I Dave gave him justice in my interview the
legendary T. Dallas Smith.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
How you doing, sir man, I'm doing wonderful. Now. I
got you on the song, brother, I'm good. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, you know I appreciate you taking the time
because of the fact that you know when you've done
as much as you said, and you came right to
the heart of it's about service and about consistency, and
I was in communication. Tells everybody a little background about
you before we really get into the interview, because I
want to talk about miniorship, I want to talk about
your vision, and I want to talk about moving into
(03:55):
twenty twenty five, how the young people and the people
who are my age who will listening to this show
can win your Dallas.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, we're trying. First again, Thank you man for having
me on the show. You know, I borrow a line
from God. I'm going blank on his name, but he
used to say Atlanta born, Atlanta Bread. When I died,
he Atlanta dead. That's me, So you know up from
the West side of Atlanta. Grew up off the Simpson
Road and went to Turner High School East Clement, then
(04:25):
Turner High School, and a family moved when I was
fourteen to College Park. Broke my heart, but I ended
up graduating from Lake Shore High School in College Park.
Didn't know what I really wanted to be when I
grew up. All I knew was I wanted to make
a lot of money. So in nineteen eighty two, I
took a Force magazine and I studied with the richest
people in the world. Did the richest people in the
(04:47):
world in nineteen eighty two did one of four things?
They were in the real estate business, they were in
the oil business, technology, or investments. So again, I'm from Atlanta,
or want to take me to Texas? Investments, want to
take me to New York. Technology wasn't my thing, so
(05:07):
left me with real estate. I didn't want to work
on the weekend, so residential was out of the way.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I like you because you tell everybody you gotta have
the standards. If you have a.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Dream, Hey, at the end of the day, you may
not know what you want to do. But I rest
assured there's a lot of things you know you don't
want to do. Yes, So I tell people you don't know,
just back into it. So literally that's what I did.
And my sister was happened to be dating a guy.
But I think with Michael hot Tower, a lot of
people know Michael hot Town, and I joked when I
(05:38):
say that story, a lot of people say he was
dating my sister too. But Michael was the youngest politicist
in the United States at one time. The city council
member in College Park called him asking me if he
knew somebody He knew somebody who introduced me to somebody
who ultimately ended up opening the door for me to
get into commercial real estate. And I have been in
(06:00):
this space now, rashon for forty three years. Brother.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Wow, let mesage you. Let measure the team commercial real estate.
Explain the audience the difference between you know, commercial real
estate and just you know, home buyer real estate.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah. Absolutely so first and then I'll get even more
specific about the peace that I do in commercial. But
residential is just that typical homes or any if it's
less than four units, it's considered residential. Anything over six
units or four units is commercial. But we focus them
primarily office space, industrial space, and raw land. And we're
(06:39):
on the side that we call tenant representation or occupier services.
So what that means is rashaw. If you go to
a building, want to lease some space, the landlord already
has a guy in there who's representing his interest, right,
we're the people who represent your interests or the occupier
of the space. I tell the people. I tell you,
(07:00):
never go into court by yourself against somebody else on
the other side. Don't go and do this business by yourself.
And we we help companies save millions of dollars. And
so the companies that you named obviously are large companies,
and obviously they have people professional to be able to
do this kind of work. But this is all we
do twenty four to seven, three sixty five.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So to measure this, mister Smith, you know, because in
real estate, you walk around, you see these buildings empty.
You know, you go, man, they might want to just
give away that space. Man, you know, you know because
you hear that. I know I thought like that, you know,
just the buildings empty, they should be able to just
let me go in there and do my thing. So
(07:45):
talk to the audience about empty buildings. Don't mean they're
gonna cut a deal for you. The empty building means
something to that person who owns that building. And also
talk about the when you when you rent in a space,
how people they can give you some some some build
out and all those little things that people can look at.
Do you go from that area of conversation to that
granular were you doing the commercial space realmal.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Absolutely. Our job is to represent your interest. So the
first question in terms of vacant buildings, you never know.
There are people who will keep their buildings vacant because
it represents the tax right off or loss. Okay, they
may maybe making more money and somewhere else and they
need to defer it, so they want to take a
loss over here because they're making a ton of money
(08:28):
somewhere else. So you never know anybody's tax situations. So
that could be the case. Not always, but that definitely
could be the case. But as it relates to there's
a lot of companies. I won't name the company, but
there's one particular company that we represent it and for
a full floor deal call it twenty eight thousand square feet.
(08:48):
And ironically, this group knew the person they were trying
to negotiate with. They brought us in and fundamentally, the
difference between the deal that they were going to get
from their friend and the deal that we struck with
Sean was a difference of three million dollars, right, so
we save them three million dollars. Three million dollars can
(09:10):
buy you more equipment, hire more employees, can do a
lot of things for a small business, right right, So
that's what we do. Ultimately, at the end of the day,
our goal is to represent your interests and to help
you save money. To make sure that you have somebody
representing everything from the rent, the rental rate, the incentives
(09:33):
that you'll get, up front improvements, all of that, from parking,
you name it, if it impacts their business, well, you know,
your space, negotiating.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Everything's a journey, you know that. T. Dallas, Yeah, you know,
no doubt about it. And they you know, you know
the role of mentorship. You know you have your firm
is the largest African American owned, pure tenant representative commercial
real estate firm in the country. So let's go back
to you know when you wrint to me, you know
Roushon McDonald. You know, I got an idea for a
(10:06):
little restaurant around the Cortar. You know they can you know,
I know T. Dallas's man, he writ that's up to everybody.
What mistakes of what do I need to come to
you back then? Because right now you you huge, and
you know you're doing a lot of large space, a
lot of office space, and that that you built that reputation.
You work with a certain type of customer now. But
(10:27):
just my show money Making Conversation master classes, small entrepreneurs
getting in the door trying to understand how they can
become a brick and mortar or get out of that
food truck. What advice how to want to approach that
next step to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah, I say, the first thing, make sure you get
somebody representing your interests and you know when you would come.
You know, ironically, the very first deal I ever did
was I was a taxi cab company, and I remember
that deal like it was yesterday. I made three h
dolls off that transaction, and I say that, you know,
I say, the folks of money, but that's three hundred
(11:05):
dollars may as well have been three million dollars because
it was my very first deal. And what I learned
was the ability to have a tax a trade, to
know a skill set that can help somebody save money,
and then doing that I could make some money. So
the first thing is make sure that you get wise counsel.
And I don't care what the business is, and we
(11:27):
represent a large, large, large companies, but we also represent
some small companies too. So if you've got an idea,
and I mean it's a small company. We've got say
twenty people at this office. We've got people who are starting.
But the difference here that even people who are starting,
they have the resources that are around them in this office,
people who've been around the business a very long time.
(11:49):
We've got more than one hundred and fifty years of
experience in this office. So we want to be able
to use that for your to your advantage. So making
sure that you've got, you know, your P and L
is together to make sure you've got a clear vision
for the next three to five years for what you're
trying to do for your business. And then we're talking
about restaurants, so that's retail space, so office industrial land.
(12:12):
I was real big into retail early on when I
got into business. One of the guys I worked for
was a guy by the name of Herman Russell. Yeah,
if you don't know him, you know, look him up.
We did a lot of retail together. But get counsel first,
number one, get counseled. And the other thing that people
(12:32):
they think it's expensive to hire us to do work.
Here's the little secret. The landlords pay us. We get
paid from the landlord because it's a marketing item. That's
already a line item. And the thing is, if you
don't use it, you're not going to get the benefit
of it.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It explain it to my audience when you say that,
you know, so you know, I'm a person out there
looking for a space, so I'm worried about behinding you.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, so you drive by, you see a sign that says,
you know, call Rashon McDonald the lease space. And so
they call you direct. Now, mind you, you're representing that
particular landlord. They call you direct, and you're going to
be a nice guy, you know, fun to hang out
with and everything. So all of a sudden people like you,
(13:21):
and you know what we're going to do to deal
with you. Now you tell them everything, except you're not
representing them, right, You're representing the landlord. And what happens
is if they go direct with you, you get a larger
fee versus actually it would have been the feat that
would have gone to your broker. They just get to
(13:41):
keep it. So that's the crazy thing about it. It's
already a line item. It's in the marketing line item
for the landlord. So take advantage of that. And again
I tell people all the time, you don't have to
call T D Allie Smith and Company. I hope you do,
but you don't have to. All I asked you is
make sure that you have somebody who represents your interest
(14:04):
in the deal.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(14:26):
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
His firm is the largest African American owned, pure tenant
representing commercial real estate firm in the country. As he says,
he's a team of go getters at that office. Networking
is his strong point. Dedication, mentorship, support, that's what he
offers at this place and that's why he's been successful
over the year. He has been in the real estate
(14:57):
business over forty years. Because he told you, you know,
he didn't want to go to Texas for all. He
didn't want to do no finance up in New York.
And you know, he wanted the weekends. He didn't want
to work on the weekends. So home real estate was out.
So he found his dream and he's focused on it.
When you find your dream on your focus on it,
people have to guide you down that path. So mintship
(15:19):
plays a role. Can you tell us how mintship played
a role in your success?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
T Dallas Smith Absolutely well. The first guy I ever
worked for was a guy named Thomas W. TIFFs with
Atlanta Ayrison of realty. He was the one that really
taught me the business. Ironically, I was on the landlord
side of it first, so I represented all of his
properties near the airport. He owned about eighty acres. Work
for property was office, industrial, land and retail. Love him,
(15:47):
dearly miss him. He died some years ago. That he
was an older white guy and in fact I was
the first black anything he had ever hired. And make
the story even more complicated, his father was a great
and dragon of the Kukus Klan and Tipton But tell
people all the time, but God, God can change anybody's heart,
(16:09):
and sometimes you just got to get out of your
way and allow God to do what He's going to do,
and don't judge people by anything other than the content
of their character, and allow yourself to meet them. But
he taught me the basis of the commercial estate business.
From there, I went to work for Cushman and Wakefield.
I was the first black broker Chushman and Wakefield Heart
(16:30):
in nineteen eighty nine. There I got to work with
some major players. A guy by the name of Andy
Gertner who was sort of the godfather of tendant representation
in this town. He represented the largest deals in this town.
I mean the Georgia Spacific Building was a builder suit
for him. So he was that dude. He's still around,
(16:51):
A dear, dear friend and and a friend to Tdall
Smith and Company and definitely resources to me. And then
I worked for Herman Russell her and I started a
broker's divisiit from Herman. When I left cush from to Wakefield,
I was still in my thirties and hadn't really got
coming into my calling when you talk about mentorship. I
(17:13):
met a young man by the name of Leontay Benton
who wanted to get into the business. And I told
Leonte like I told fifty people before him. People come
to me, we sing, hey, I want to get in
commercial estate. I say, do you gotta have you a license?
They say no, I don't. I said, get your license.
Then we'll talk. So nobody ever came back. So that's
how I literally got rid of people. Yeah, but this kid,
(17:35):
I toldally get his license. Three weeks he comes back
with his license. Now I'm going like, oh, what the
heck I'm gonna do with this kid. So literally, for
two weeks, I'm trying to get rid of him. I
got him walking my dog, washing my car, getting my lunch,
getting coffee. He's not going anywhere. Finally, I'm fed up
with it. So you know, one day I was like, man,
I'm getting rid of him today. I said, Leon, say
(17:56):
how many square feet in the acre? He said, I
don't know, sir. I said, well you better figured that out.
He comes back forty three, five hundred and sixty square feet, sir.
And I was like, yeah, that's right. I said, give
me some coffee. While he went to get coffee, ups
was delivering a case of water to the office. And
as he was putting the water, God I had this epiphany.
(18:18):
God said, Dallas, that was you. That was you when
you got into real estate business in nineteen eighty two.
But there was nobody who looked like you who could
help you. You can help that kid. And like anybody
was ever able to help you, and it was literally
Raseean at that moment. At that time, I realized what
God had called me to do. Me and that kid,
we've been together now decembery eighteen years. He's the president
(18:42):
of this company now because within two weeks of that time,
God told me to train him up as a son,
for this will be the guy who will run your
business when you turned sixty years on. And we've been
on that plan, and I tell you, he's killing it.
He's killing it. He's killing it, and we're bringing more
people up coming behind him. Business partners, Dexter Warrior. A
(19:02):
lot of people in town know Dexter Dexter. I've been
in the business at the same time. Dexter always represented landlords.
I was always on the tenants side. When I realized
he was a free agent, I said, man, you got
to come over here with me. Brothers. You've been ripping
off tennants all your career. Now you can actually help
them coming up. We're coming up on fourteen years agother man.
(19:23):
So I say all this to say, we realize Dexon
not being the two oldest people here. The future of
this industry really depends upon us. Training people up to
do this industry, and I tell people, this is the
only business I know we're selling. You can be broke
on a Friday and rich on a Monday.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Right right, right right. That's a beautiful thing because you
know either the thing that I enjoy first of all,
your energy, you know energy, and I always heard about
there was legendary, your enthusiasm for life, your ability to communicate,
but more importantly to give back part. I never heard
that story because I always know in my life I'm
(20:00):
sitting behind his mic because so many people I always called,
I would say they bumped me. You know, when I
was about to veer off, this is Rachelle. You don't
belong over there. Won't you go back where you're supposed
to be? Okay, okay, I was just tested that with
though we're tired of watching you test. Okay, go where
you're supposed to be. And so with that, that young
man is important for people to understand that. The word
(20:21):
know and also humbleness is why he hung in there
because so many people want to check. I always tell
people because I started out in entertainment. In my career,
I got the degree in mathematics, but I left IBM
to do entertainment, and I always tell people amount of
work I did for free because I wanted people to
see my talent. Even today, I'll take opportunities just to
(20:44):
see how it is. Drive my wife crazy. Of course,
he says you should be charging. I said, well, that's
a relationship I'm building out. It's like a relationship every
time I'm talking to somebody like you as a relationship
that I'm doing. I'm down here. Nobody's paying me a
check to be on this show an hour every Tuesday
on wc OK in Atlanta, Georgia, because I'm getting to
introduce myself and also you individual like you to the world.
(21:07):
Because my show was broadcast international, is broadcast locally. My
podcast is one point three million downloads a month, and
so that lets me know there's a voice out there.
But your brand t Dallas Smith Brother. You know when
you say forty years man, you you make it seem
like that's a that's a journey of happiness and you
throw faith in there. How powerful is faith in business?
(21:30):
How does that correlate in your life? And how does
that allow it to allow you to be so humble?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Man? Let me tell you something. There's a there's a
TDJ has in his book, the Crushing. He talks about
you can't have fine wine without crushed grapes. Wow, And
we all go through some crushing. So as I had
an ego back in the day that was as big
(21:56):
as this building I'm in. If God has a way
of crushing you and bringing you back to a place
of what is really all about? See, it was never
really about all It was never really about the money.
It's really about you walking in the calling that God
has for you. And then walking in that calling, provision
(22:17):
comes and getting knocked to my knees and having to
start all over again was probably the best thing. Not
probably it was the best thing that ever could have
happened to me. Because that didn't happen, that would have
never met Leonte and the odds are will you and
I wouldn't be on a song call now talking about
(22:39):
T Dallas Smith and company. But I'm real clear faith
has everything to do with it. I am the son
of Lena and Glenn Smith. My mother was a praying
woman and I always pray for us. We heard over
and over again, you can do through all do all
(23:00):
things through Christ who strengthens you. Heard that my whole life,
and I know it as true as I'm talking to
you on this phone that if you hear learn the
ability to hear God's voice for you. To this day,
people trying to figure out what I'm doing, and I
tell you, at the end of the day, I'm gonna
(23:21):
give you the secret shot. I just hear God's voice
and I do what he tells me to do, period
hard stop. And so man, I'm looking at the stuff
we're doing. You wouldn't even believe the stuff that we're doing.
The stuff that comes out of nowhere. I know it's
not out of nowhere. People think it's out of nowhere.
But these relationships, building relationships before you need them. That's
(23:44):
one of my keys. Stay green enough to grow today.
I stop learning, put me in the box, brouh. Always
keep something learning, try to get better. I can be
better tomorrow that I am today. That's always my prayer.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Brother, your humbleness and your storytelling is incredible. I'm talking
to T. Dallas Smith. He began his commercial real estate
career in nineteen eighty two. Now today the largest African
American owned firm in the country. My brother, you're during
this this this this half hour wasn't long enough for
(24:20):
me and you. I'm just gonna let you know that, man,
you know, because we got more stuff to say, but
I got another guest on another half hour of this.
But more importantly, I just want to let you know
that we got to get together off air because.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I love it. I'd love to do that because you
one thing that we have in coming. We both we
both did stand up.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, well I can see I can see the energy there.
But you know I did death jam, I did be coverfew.
You know I did all that.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Now, man, you're a man. Man.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I appreciate your brother. Thank you for coming on Money
Made Conversation t Dallas Smith. And thank your staff man
because next to us, because they reached out to me
and made this happen. Man, and they did they do
dealing this work your schedule so we can make this
interview happen. And it was well worth the way. My brother,
thank you for coming on Money Making master Class. We
talked soon. Okay, make that money baby, all right, appreciate
(25:14):
you all right, cool, this is Rashon McDonald. You're listening
to Money Making Conversation master Class. Like I said earlier
this week, I'll be at the Small Business Entertainment Summit
that will be on the campus of Mohause College. If
you want to hear Rashwan, you want to talk to
me if you're in the music industry, sports entertainment industry
this Thursday. If you're in the Georgia area, Money Making
(25:37):
Conversation hosts Rashwan McDonald would be there at the Small
Business Entertainment Summit at the Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center.
If you're right back with more Money Making Conversations Master Class,
don't go nowhere. This has been another edition of Money
Making Conversation Master Class hosted by me Rashwan McDonald. Thank
you to our guests on the show today and thank you.
I'll listening to audience now. If you want to listen
(25:59):
to the episode I want to be a guest on
the show. Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle
is Moneymaking Conversation. Join us next week and remember to
always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
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