Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's to show that she has the secrets of success
experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. And
in case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know,
he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Decision make because it's what he likes to do. It's
what he likes to share.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald
money making Conversations.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Here we go. There's whether another day, another dollar, that's
what they say. Welcome to the Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
I am your host, Rashawn McDonald. Our theme is there's
no perfect time to start following your dreams. I say
that every week.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I think that if you keep saying something, then people
will eventually hear it. You know, it's like going by
his store. If a grocery store decided it will not
have it sign on, then you will stop going in.
So they keep its sign on to remind you that
you can come in to get service. I'm going to
tell you or any day that this show airs. I'm
going to tell you that the theme is there's no

(01:05):
perfect time to start following your dreams. I recognize that
we all have different definitions of success. For you and
maybe the side of your paycheck, mine is inspiring you
to accomplish your goals and live your very best life.
Do you hear me? I know I'm preaching. I preach
all the time. I preach because you know I speaking
to the Black community. We're used to that cadence, that reverence.

(01:27):
It's time to start reading other people's success stories and
start living your own. That's preaching. But I'm not gonna
go to that extreme because people always talk about you
know that purpose. You know, people always talk purpose and gifts.
You hear a lot about that and social media because
you have a gift. Everybody has a gift, not gifts.
A gift. Leave with your gift and don't let your friends.
It's very important because there's a lot of people who

(01:49):
have dreams that are not That doesn't line up with
your with your family, may not line up with your friends,
may not line up with your loved want, your parents,
your coworkers, and guess what, they'll shut it down because
they don't understand that direction. I remember when I left IBM.
I had a great job at IM, but I told
everybody wanted to be a stand up comedian. They tried
to shut me down. Oh you go, You're gonna be

(02:11):
the next Richard Pride. Huh really, Eddie Murphy? Really, because
those were the big names when I decided to leave
IBM at the time, you know, there was a dream killers.
I didn't listen to them. And my guests today are
about the American dream both of them. They're on the
show today to let you know it can happen for you.
One is a real estate developer. My first guest, listen

(02:34):
to me, heero, my first guest, this is a dreamer,
and I'm pretty sure people have told her this was
not going to happen in a lifetime. My first guest
has purchased nearly one thousand acres in the Dominican Republic
for a golf result. Not in Georgia, not in Alabama,
not Mississippi, Dominican Republic. These are American dreamers. And I'm

(02:56):
pretty sure people out there killing your dreams and killing
their dreams left and right saying that's impossible. What Rashan
is talking about well, guess what. Let's get money making
conversation master class started and you're gonna hear the truth.
My first guest is an attorney real estate developer, Diana Lynch.
Attorney Lynch focused on her practice on family, sports, entertainment,

(03:16):
and business law. She has over two decades worth of
litigation experience and family law and holds a license in
mediation and arbitration. There was a difference. I'm gonna ask
her what it's the difference between mediation and arbitration cases
involving divorce, child custody, child support, property division all part
of her specialization. We know there's a half of America

(03:39):
gets married, turns around, gets a divorce. Possessing the right
range of legal knowledge. She has also handled personal injury
and other general civil litigation matters as a real estate developer.
We will discuss her historic purchase. I said it earlier
of nearly one thousand acres in the Dominican Republic for
a golf result, but gets the text us up. This
is what she really on the show. A primary purpose

(04:01):
isn't just acquiring wealth for herself. It's inspiring the black
community to take on more ownership. Please work with the
money making conversation Mastercline, Attorney Diana Lynch, How you doing, Hi?

Speaker 4 (04:14):
How are you? Thanks for having me?

Speaker 5 (04:15):
Now?

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Did I get you fired up? Attorney Lynch? Don't get
you fired up?

Speaker 5 (04:18):
You got me.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
You got me fired up. I tell you, I just
love it when people tell us that we could do
things differently. We can live life differently, we could do
things differently when I other than when our parents told us.
I mean, if you start with where I began, you
would I wouldn't even expect that I would be here,
especially what everybody tells you. And I tell the gentleman
I mentor. I mentor a group of gentlemen. I said,
we'd never take no for an answer, And so that's

(04:41):
one of the things I said, unless it's a woman,
then even a maybe, it's a no. And you'll see
the thousands of people that I touch and the fifty
or more that I put through school in my nonprofit.
That's what they'll know when they when I meet them
and I see them on the street, I said, do
we take no for an answer? They say no, unless
it's a lady, and then even a maybe it's a no.
So yeah, that's what I I tell them.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
We turned to Lynch, you know, the first time we've spoken,
and I was reading this press release because I always
try to read and understand the persons, because I get
information that the interview is about, and we're going to
get to that if because what we're but I also
want to know. When I was reading this press release,
it said primary purpose isn't just acquiring wealth for herself.

(05:22):
It's inspiring the black community to take on more ownership.
What exactly you saying that, Well, the.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Thing is, as a child, I grew up in Brooklyn,
New York, in a pretty urban environment. One of the
things we always aspired to do and was taught to
do this to own the land, all right, nor because
when you own the land, it comes with it quite
a bit of one responsibility, opportunity. Legacy. Land historically does

(05:49):
not lose value in the stock market as investment stock market.
I was told to put money in the stock market
and do various other things, and I have historically, after
Niles and various other times, lost a lot of money
in the stock market. And what my financial advisor will
tell me is just stay in it. It's gonna come back.
And just as it comes back, we got Ukraine and

(06:10):
Russia fighting and all the way around the world. And
now we you know, our president might say so, our
former president may touch something our line, and then our
stock market, our stocks go down. So so many other
things affect our portfolio other than what we can tangibly do.
What can if it makes you feel helpless, And one
of the things that owning land does, you can make

(06:32):
strategic decisions based on market forces, appreciation and land land appreciates,
and even in both markets and various other things, they
tell you invest in land. Many you follow the money
where where are the others investing their money? And as
a young adult entering the legal profession, right after losing

(06:52):
quite a bit in the stock market, I said, well work,
I need to. I made the decision. Wasn't popular to
pull my money out, and I needed to put it
somewhere because I needed to work for myself as a lawyer.
The fortunate and unfortunate thing is that you get paid
when you when you work buillable hours. However, I wanted
something that was passive where I would be making money
even when I was not there, and real estate was

(07:12):
the answer for me. So I started investing in properties
around university campuses, various other things, so I get a
premium on my rental income. I looked at where the
trajectory was. I didn't want to just invest in markets
where it had already reached the peak of performance. In fact,
I told a story on another popular talk show recently,
and I said, I was in a meeting with brand

(07:34):
brand manager hotel operator because we're at that stage where
we have made some decisions with partnerships with major brands,
our hotel brands. And I was at the meeting and
I was the only one that looked like me at
that meeting, and I was told he said, many of
us don't want to drink the water until it was cold.
And I didn't understand what he meant, because you know,

(08:00):
you know how we do. We said, expound on that,
and I allow him to do just that, right, because
sometimes it's better to be quiet and learned and to
talk and let people know what you are.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Right.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
So he simply said, we don't want to come to
something until is shiny on to the water's cool, until
after it's been developed and it's come out of the ground.
And unfortunately, we are not often as a people, the
culture at the table when these opportunities happen. So while
we whiley, while they may say we don't want to,
it's because a lot of times we have not been
afforded the opportunity to come to And I can give

(08:33):
you many differentations.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
You know, you're absolutely telling the truth. You know you
know and I understand exactly what he's talking about. We
always come back once the buildings built, not understanding you
could have bought the land before the building was built.
And we look at we drive through these neighborhood especially
our neighborhoods that are run down, not knowing that. I
have a very successful brother in law in Houston, and

(08:58):
he would go into our neighborhoods and he will see
run down houses and he'll go to a block. And
the city is all about any city, it's any city
in the country. They're about trying to raise tax dollars.
So if you're going to tell them that you're going
to tear down all these houses on this block, which
means you can get them, you can get these home
penny on a dollar now, okay, because people living in

(09:20):
them really aren't in a position to be able to
argue the price when you offer it to them. And
then the city will offer you concessions. Then you build
that neighborhood back up, and all of a sudden, that
means that other people are getting get moved out?

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Because then all of a sudden we have our local
politicians arguing that we've moved our black community, we disenfranchising people.
You know, gentrification are when that happens? Are we victims? Are?
We're just not aware. I'm talking about the black community.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Absolutely. I think we're missing at the opportunity right so,
and I know exactly what you mean. I have a
property downtown Atlanta was on the first I was the
only law firm in Mechanics Fille sub community in downtown Atlanta,
the closest community to the Capital of prime property right
but it had been underdeveloped. It's often been the place
where they placed a lot of Section AID in low

(10:14):
income housing, and it was I made the decision that
that was an opportunity for me to move my law
practice there. Now I represent a lot of high end
entertainers and clients. And they frowned upon it because I
left Atlantic Station, which is a thriving area, paying eight
thousand dollars a month for someone else to benefit financially,
and I said, I need to get somewhere where I

(10:35):
can own so when I pay that bill, it's going
to benefit me in the long run. And what I did.
I acquired one property, and then another, and then another,
and after a while I was sitting on a city block.
And right now we're developing what is called Signature Atlanta,
which is one of the They called us the unicorn
and the real estate digests in downtown Atlanta because we're
one of a kind. We'll be a five story mixed

(10:59):
use community where you have your commercial space at the
bottom rooftop terraces. Now, that was a property in an
area that had been underserved and not everything's coming to us.
The belt line, the bike bike relayed all the things
that are coming, and we had I was there before
it got before the water got cold. And that's how
it's been absolute.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Let me tell you some doctor Lynch. When I when
I I turned to Lynch, you, I apologize. I turned
Lynch when I when I hear you, I hear all
this confidence. You know you, I mean you one after one,
one sentence after the next, follows follows follows. Because you
you you understand who you are. You understand your brand,
because you have a brand. How did how did that
journey get you there?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
What?

Speaker 1 (11:41):
What? What? What? Who mentored you? Who told you that
could it could happen? And when you went, when they
said ready to say go, you were ready to go?

Speaker 4 (11:50):
You know what? Ideally, you know, I've had many mentors,
my friends I've had. I have a unique group of
friends who, like myself, came from nothing, and we just
we aspire to want something for ourselves. And much of
my motivation is to want differently for my family. I
don't even want it for myself. I just wanted to
make sure that I would be in a position to
better my family's human condition. And that's what that legacy

(12:13):
we talk about. And so while I don't have children,
I've raised many, And while you know, while I didn't
have anything in the beginning, I was determined that each
day I was going to try to find something to
better my human condition. And so I saw out people
who were doing things that I wanted to do. If
you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the
wrong room. And so you definitely need to make sure

(12:34):
you're around people who can can educate you and inspire
you and support you, and so not just even for
my financial respective and support you morally and socially and religiously.
And so I've been blessed to have a group of
people who travel with me since college at university to
you know, just being in Atlanta. Were still my barbecue class.

(12:55):
We still hang out together and we are just We're
just a group of people who want to be better
and we know what we aspired to. So while I
didn't have anybody, and I want people to understand, while
it hasn't been done in your family before, that should
even motivate you even more to be a trail based brolizer,
be the unicorn in your family. I call myself the

(13:16):
unicorn because it's it represents strength and purity and want
of a kind uniqueness, and those are the kinds of
things that I strive to be. Is a trailblazer. Anic
doesn't dictate my Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
I'm about to jump through this. This my girl, I'm
about I'm about to.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
Dive on in. I'm in.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I'm in your fan club. I'm into the Attorney LEDs
fan club because of the fact that you know, I
just love and enjoy people who come on my show
who just when you know when you get near them,
you're near a unique thinking person, a very unique thinking
person who has values and courageous And when people have

(13:57):
told you no, like you said at the beginning of
this you no, maybe no, But I guess what, No,
it's not going to turn me around and have and
bring tears to my eyes. It's gonna tell me I
got to take it from a different angle to get
the yes I'm trying to achieve out of his relationship fear.
Let's talk about fear before I go to the break.
How did you overcome fear in dealing with every day? Knows?

Speaker 6 (14:21):
Well?

Speaker 4 (14:21):
You know I encounter fear every day. You know, things
that are new to me, and I always believe in transparency.
Let's be real. You're gonna see things and encounter things
that you haven't experienced before. So that's going to create
a little bit of anxiety for you. But you got
to know that God is to give you the spirit
of fear. So you have to understand that whatever he

(14:42):
brings you to, he'll bring you through. And so while
that door may close, that's because He has a better
one for you. And that's what happened repeatedly as we
developed our resort in Dominican Republic. We we did not
stop at the fact that we're the only African American
development firm that was down there developing. We did not
try to just do, oh we can we can together

(15:02):
do four houses and just build it and sit on
it for ourselves. We wanted to make sure that we
create something so when we have our conferences and our
mansor's venue, we don't have to go someplace where we're
only welcomed the months out of the year and leave
thousands of dollars. We can actually benefit from the fact
that we actually can acquire something. We can build a

(15:23):
legacy for our families. We can have our conferences and conventions.
We can we create a mansor's vineyard on our own
land and land that was settled by.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Apples and by laws. I was not mistaken when I said,
doctor Lynch, she's peddling that medicine, that medicine of inspiration,
that medicine of motivation. She's attorney by law, but she's
a medicine. She's a healer, she's a motivator.

Speaker 7 (15:49):
You are now tuned into the money making conversations. Minute
of Inspiration with Rashaan McDonald.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Tmauri to start our family Reunion recall spending years being
incorrectly treated for her debilitating abdomino pain. This experience inspired
Tia to sell healthy vitamin supplements.

Speaker 8 (16:07):
I decided to come out with a supplement line called
Answer to encourage and to inspire women to take back
and charge of their health. It's called Answer, insinuating you
are the Answer. And after my surgeries with indometriosis, my
doctor was like, Yo, Tia, there's nothing I can do.
You kind of have to start looking at your lifestyle.
And that's exactly what I did, and I want to

(16:28):
encourage other women and people do the same. We have
a women's multi, we have an Elderberry, we have a
kid's gummy, we have a men's line. We're going to
be coming out with several other amazing supplements.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
If you want to hear this full interview with Tiamuri,
visit Moneymakingconversation dot com. Keep Winning Now, that does not
even wrap my head remotely around somebody who can go
to another country and buy one thousand acres in a
country as the Dominican Public Republic, where I have her
on the phone and we und discuss that in this

(17:03):
break a turn to Lynch. The floor is yours.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
Well, thank you again for the opportunity to speak to
your audiences. Because when I want to do more than
anything is inspire ourselves get out of our own way. Okay,
many people say I've been taught buy your home, develop equity,
pay it off right. That is just not a good
financial strategy when you're talking about you know, you have

(17:27):
a million, two hundred, especially in this market, thousands of
dollars in your home. But you then when you need money,
you leverage commercial debt where interest rates are higher, et cetera. Certainly,
don't overprice yourself. Get get there. There is a way
to attach equity that you have in your home, and
oh so many other ways where you say, well, look
I just got a home. I don't have the ability

(17:47):
to buy abroad and do all this, but you do
because you have the ability.

Speaker 9 (17:51):
One.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
You may have equity in your home. You may have
assets that are underperforming in the stock market. You may
have a family or people say family are off, but
we all have familys. We have families. We can get
together to take a trip or spend ten thousand dollars
in Marths Vinyard, or to get together to get a
boy's trip, but we don't have ten thousand dollars to
pool together to collectively purchase our locks. Initially started at

(18:14):
fifty thousand, they're now one hundred and seventy thousand and
a half acre. If someone had gotten in there, they
could have taken he and his boys and gotten a
lot and then have an opportunity to either flip that
at some point and make appreciate well above what the
market's doing, or to hold and have an opportunity to
build and build a short term rental income where if
you're talking about a short term airbnb is the binnacular

(18:38):
term for it, but it's short term rental. If you
have that in downtown Atlanta or in some places, yes
you make one hundred dollars a night. But what happens
if you have that same property in the Dominican Republic Insamana,
which is known for it being the Martians Vineyard of
the dr this area that's we preserved and reserved for
us lad with beautiful waterfalls and beaches and various other thing.

(19:00):
What how much you think you can get that for?
And then when you see a resort that has an
eighteen hole golf course that has an opportunity to have
an amphitheat or sports facility all that. How much you
think you're going to get for that a month and
can I'm perhaps lease that out enough so that I
can be able to have it pay for itself, pull
out a week or two when I want a vacation
with my family, but still have it to create generational wealth.

(19:23):
That's the formula, because you can get in low enough
and we still have opportunities not only to buy, but
for investment opportunities. Because as you indicate it, yes, we've
taken down quite a bit of property on the contract
with and purchased various acres of land, but there's so
many other key parcels that with the right partnerships, we
can take down that whole region. And so what we

(19:45):
are doing is being purposeful. The land was originally settled
by emancipated Americans in eighteen twenty four that settled there.
The Dominican government has been very receptive of having us there,
and even those individuals that sold this to the land,
they said they were approached by other groups Canadians, are Europeans,
various other things, and they did not sell to them.

(20:06):
They said when they when my kind of parts sat
at the table, they said, we've been waiting for you,
and they wanted to sell to America. There is a
connection between that community. They're educated there many one of
them is a judge in King's County, New York and
where I'm from, and so those original descendants of this land,

(20:27):
so where they believe in education and so many other things.
We need to invest our dollars where they want our
dollars and where we can grow and build generation away.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
You know, it's really important people hear this because it's
so difficult the not only just purchase landing in the
United States, but when you go to another country, it's
even more difficult. Can you walk through some of the
steps that you have to go through, the considered and
some of the paperwork, not to revealing the whole process,
but I just want people to wrap there. You know,
you know, you get you get angry upset when you

(20:56):
see this big, old, thick piece of clothes eyed paperwork
that you got to say, you just signing papers and
you know why you sign it, but you just try
to get that home. It had to be really mind
boggling to go into the Dominican Republic. And I'm pretty
sure your acres just kind of grew. You know, you
started this parcel and then another opportunity is being offered.
Did you start out nearly a thousand acres or you

(21:17):
started with a small amount and you start building.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
Absolutely not. We originally had a kind of part that
had been building forty two condominiums. They still have those.
They've sold out half of that condominium complex. So they
originally started there. They introduced us to this particular expanded
land because our kind of parts wanted a golf course.
They said, look, we need a golf course, and it's

(21:40):
not a golf course over here. And because of that,
what you would instinctively say is, look, that's kind of
a reach, right, we just want these forty two condoms,
right righty. But what you have to do, you can't
talk yourself out of something, right because what God has
for you is for you. And what we were able
to do is leverage the relationships that we have. We

(22:00):
want to make sure you have appropriate legal counsel on
the ground. Don't start doing the underhand and I got
to pay play. That's not really has that's not how
it has to be done. Do it right. Make sure
you have permits. We have permits.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
We didn't.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
We certainly could have built quickly and sold without permits
and done our sold with before we even started building.
We didn't do that. We're doing it the right way.
Our American developers who are familiar with developing in the
US and some of my counter process are familiar with
developing throughout the world. But what we also did is
we leveraged the relationships of experts right because you know,

(22:34):
we got to bring back excellence because we as a
people expect that of ourselves. We're real skeptical of our
own unfortunately and regrettably, and that also gets in our way.
But that's another conversation. But what we did is we
leverage experts who have done it before, who have had
forty fifty years of resort development. In Lakala, Fiji, our
design team has developed Red Bull Island for the owner

(22:56):
of Red Bull. I mean they have five star properties
under the FLU. You get those people, you make sure
you get the right team. You make sure you have
appropriate legal counselor. For everything we had in DR we
had in the US. So if we had a tax
advisor in DR, we had a taxivisors or in the US,
we had a civil engineer in the DR we had
our civil induineers in the US, and then you have

(23:17):
them to match up with each other. Make sure the
standards are that of what we expect as Americans as
far as the build and you want, you make sure
that you have you don't rush you know the people.
That's the thing that I think benefited us, these people
who have have worked with us. I've been a lawyer
in Atlanta for thirty years. I've retired, Thank goodness. I've

(23:38):
retired because I got tired of tearing down things, mergers, acquisitions, families,
those sorts of things. And now I'm building. And so
this is the place that i can wrap my head
and my faith around because I'm building something that that
builds up families.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Somebody jumped on the line or like you gotta find
up here atterny lynch okay, And I want to just
point it out, this is an all black investment group
that's involved in this purchase.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
Correct.

Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yes, we're We're a bunch of developers that have actually
developed many properties like my my property, Downtown Atlanta, Signature
Atlanta that mix use communities coming out we're building here,
We're building there. We have we congratulations and la property.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yes, Diva, you're on the line here speaking to Rashan
mcdonand Money Making Conversation master Class, as well as the
turn Oh.

Speaker 10 (24:26):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes.

Speaker 8 (24:28):
How are we doing? How are we doing?

Speaker 10 (24:29):
Sub bless stub bless Wow. I'mlike super super excited. Rashaan,
thank you so much. I love your show. I've been
listening to you for about two years now. I've learned
so much from you and your guests. God bless you.
I appreciate you and doctor Lynch. Oh, miss lady, and
let me tell you this is Today has been a

(24:53):
day that I've been getting confirmation. First of all, I'm
gonna be bake investors. I am barely news, okay, keeping
it transparent. I'm new, but I've been dabbling over twenty years, Okay,
I look forward to twenty years and right now I
have my company and my business. My LLC is called
Breakthrough and Overflow, and I want to invest in and

(25:19):
develop homes bush group homes for group homes to get back.
I'm a veteran. I've been homeless. Oh no, I'm all
over the place. I'm sorry. But really what I would
like to do, I really would love to know as
a new investor in doing what you're doing. I actually

(25:40):
just invested in my first true investment property in Panama
and wherever I go going up kindam. I have a
beachfront condo. So like how you're saying, I used my home.
I bought my home in twenty twenty one and I
was able to use my equity with you know where
everything went up, use that equity to invest and get
my Los Angeles property. So that's been a lifelong dream.

(26:03):
And also you know it will be and bent and everything.
But I'm all about giving back. I'm all about giving back,
and so I really love the whole philosophy of what
you're doing, the whole concept of what you're doing. And
I really truly am looking for a mentor. And I

(26:24):
know that's a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
You know, there's a lot. You got fifty thousand projects now,
you know, you know, but but you get that a lot, correct,
You get that a lot of attorney.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
Well, well let me say this. Let me say first,
thank you for your service. I'm a former Navy jack myself,
so I appreciate your service. I like the fact that
you understood that there was a better use for your
equity than sitting it in your home and leaving it there.
The interest rates that are associated with certainly the last
couple of years, with interest associated with your home equity

(27:01):
is far lower than commercial debt that you can get.
It's more accessible, but even with the increase in interest rates,
it still are far out pacing a lot of other
commercial debt, family offices, various other ways that you may
have to use to finance a second home or an
investment property. But one of the things I like is
you said you're new. But that's the beauty of it,

(27:21):
because what you're doing is you're listening to people like
money making conversations. You're investing in yourself when you're actually
learning the trade, right, So you're not just saying I'm
just gonna go out there. You got to learn the
business that you're in, be willing to educate yourself, being
willing to stop surround yours And the fact that you're
asking for a mentor tells me that you're willing to grow.

(27:41):
And that's what I needed at my time when I started,
and what you and all of us continue to need.
You want to surround yourself with people who use doing it,
and so you're in your mindset is excellent and that
there's nothing wrong with being new. It's only wrong when
you be new and you just rest in that. Oh
I'm new, so I'm gonna no learn be around people,

(28:02):
figure it out. You already made the first step by
accessing some of your capital and your home.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Okay, turn Lynch, how can it get in touch with you?
What is the website? Can you give that information? Because
I'm to be honest with you, I do a lot
of these interviews and your your tone, your your your cadence,
your honesty, your history, you want of these people? Just
google her, Just google her name. You'll see the credibility
of this conversation and the legitimacy of what we're trying

(28:28):
to do on Money Making Conversation Masterclass. How can we
reach out to you? And what is the website for
the for the golf resort in the Dominican Republic?

Speaker 4 (28:36):
You can connect with me personally at Ddiana Lynch dot com.
D D I A N A L y n c
h dot com. It does list the two projects that
I have going on in Atlanta and in the Dominican Republic.
The direct website and all social media platforms for the resort.
The golfers are in the Dominican Republic is Almadisamana dot com.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
HBCUs present Black Excellence.

Speaker 11 (29:01):
If you attend or are an alumnus of an HBCU,
we want to hear about your story. The MYHBCU Story
Digital Library will allow current HBCU students and alumni to
share their stories. Registration is open to everyone. More information
is available at HBCU college day dot com. Click my
HBCU Story. Next, you can upload a photo. The photo

(29:24):
can be recent or from when you attended your HBCU.
Then share your academic or social experience at your HBCU,
which can be your favorite class, hangout, joint, homecoming game,
student center, honor, off campus party, greek show, and how
attending an HBCU changed your life. We also want to
hear stories if you pleasure a fraternity or sorority. The

(29:46):
goal is to use your my HBCU story to promote
and uplift the HBCU brand. Your HBCU prepared you for
success and now we want everyone to read about Your
Black Excellence is available at HPCU college day dot Com.
You can click my HPCU story to share your story.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaan McDonald's.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashaan McDonald.
Our theme is there's no perfect time to start following
your dreams. I recognize that we all have different definitions
of success. For you and maybe the size of your
paycheck minds inspire you to accomplish your goals and live
your very best life. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and really when you think about it,

(30:35):
and start living your own. People always talk about their
purpose or gift. If you have a gift, leave with
your gift and don't let your friends, family, or core
worker stop you from planning or living your dreams. That's
the way life is. I always tell people, is about you,
not about what other people think of you. My guest
is legendary R and B singer Will Downey. He is
affectionately dubbed as the Prince of Sophisticated Soul. Where the

(30:58):
repertoire consisted of signature interpretations of R and B classic
like I Go Crazy, Wishing on the Star, stop looking, listen,
and I tried with original hits like a Million Ways
After the Night, Sorry, I Everything, I Wanted, My Lady
and the show stopping chart topping doet with Rachelle Farrell.
Nothing has ever felt like this. Here's a new release
song out Till We Meet Again. The song offers a

(31:20):
message of hope and understanding that resonate with anyone who
has faced mental health challenges. According to Will Downey, the
song was inspired when he lost his daughter to suicide
of January of this year. He is on the show
to discuss his career and the song Till We Meet
Again to alert you the mental health issues and suicide.
Please welcome the Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Will Downy.

Speaker 5 (31:41):
How you doing, sir, bro was like, you know, when
I go out, that's the way I want it.

Speaker 6 (31:48):
I want it just like that.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Well, you know, we thank you, thank you. My staff said, Rachelle,
you really wrote this on up today. I said, well,
I said, I sat down. You know when I think
about why you wanted to come on the show, and
then our relationship over the years, the interviews we've had,
and you know, I know you got to my pieces
doing this thing out there you on tour. How you
doing right now before we get into our interview.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
You know what, I'm pretty good man for the most part.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
You know, I have my moments based on everything that
you just said, the passing of my daughter in January.
So I can't say that everything is perfect. You know,
sometimes during the day a brother breaks down, you know
what I mean. I see a picture or a memory
or whatever it is, and it reminds me of you know,
of her. But you know, we keep going, and you know,

(32:34):
we try to spread the good word in spite of
and hopefully help other people up in definition of a song.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Well, you know that's your talent, your gift. My gift
is you know. I used to work at IBM, and
then I started making people laugh. I was a stand
up comedian, and then I became a writer on sitcoms
and that created a body of work that people can
turn on Netflix and see did you write that episode?
Did you write that about Sister and Sister Jamie Fox?
All these different shows, the Parkers, And you have a
body of work, and that body of work allows you

(33:03):
to see thousands of people walking in the street and
people just walk up to you. How does that affect you?
When people pick out certain songs to say how important
that music is to them.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Well, it's a great feeling, and you know, you feel
like you've had a sense of accomplishment. You know, that's
what every artist the goal is is to you know,
to make sure.

Speaker 6 (33:25):
That the world reaches that the song.

Speaker 5 (33:27):
Reaches the world, and that it affects the world in
some sort of a way.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
So I hear that all the time.

Speaker 5 (33:32):
Matter of fact, I was out to lunch yesterday with
my guitar player and we were sitting there this young
lady who was our waitress. That's what I call a lamas.
They have a specific term. I always say waitress. So
I even said it to her that way. I said, listen,
you know, what do you really want to do in life?
She says, well, you know, I want to be a singer.
I said, oh okay, And so the guitar playoffs with

(33:53):
he said, well do you know you're talking to And
then he said my name to her, and she, you know,
just like she lit up a little and I was
like a little bit too young for me, you know.

Speaker 6 (34:03):
Honestly, like, how do you know who I am?

Speaker 5 (34:06):
My mother loves you? And then she got a mother
on the telephone. Wow, yeah, Yeah, it was interesting man.
So all that to say, it was a great feeling
to know that it's still relevant that, you know, the
younger generation still appreciates what you do, or they appreciate
what you do, and the generation you came up with
they still appreciate what you do.

Speaker 6 (34:24):
So it's a great feeling.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
We know.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
The interesting thing about music, how important it really is.
You know, let's let's be honest. It can lift you up,
it can motivate you, it can inspire you. And then
your song that you've written based on the death of
the suicide of your daughter, is it inspirational, motivational? What
is the sense of that particular song.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
Well, it's supposed to be all of that, but it's
almost when it was written, it was almost like a
conversation that I've had with her more times than I
can count, right, So the first couple of lines on
the song is can you tell me what the hell
was on your mind?

Speaker 6 (35:00):
Right?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
I heard you say that.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
I went, WHOA, okay, right, yeah, because when I last
spoke to you, yeah, you were doing fine. So I've
had that conversation with her and my all my children
have three of them more times than I can count.
You know, they do something and it's like, come on, man, really,
like like.

Speaker 6 (35:19):
What were you thinking?

Speaker 5 (35:21):
You know, last time I talked to you, you said you
weren't going to do this, and you told me you
were going to do this, whatever it might be. So
it's it's a conversation from a parent to a child.
But at the same time, when we've had our conversation off,
I said what I've had to say, and I kind
of open up my arms and go, I still love you.
Come on, come on, give me a hug. Don't do

(35:41):
that again. You know, let's think this out or let's
talk this over. So that's kind of what it is.
And unfortunately it's a conversation that we could no longer
have as two individuals, but it's still like, you know,
my my spiritual conversation, like what was going on with you?
All right, Okay, that moment's passed. I'm letting you know

(36:02):
it's okay. You're not alone. Someone's watching over you. I'm
always here. We can talk however, we can communicate, but
it's okay until we meet again. When we meet again,
we had this conversation, right, but until we meet again,
know that I love you. Thinking about you. God's got you,
He's holding on to you till.

Speaker 6 (36:22):
I get to you.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
We know the interesting part. And and thank you for that
statement of what it was all about. Cler I said,
you heard you say that. At the top, I went,
that's pretty strong. But then they got me to the
end because I think when I was listening to the
song Till We Meet Again, I'm talking to Will down
in R and B legend you know the whole approach
to how you feel. I thought that the line was

(36:46):
like the one line in the song that saying the
rest of the song that you like the the ultimate
frustration of why you didn't call me? Why didn't you
just back up the phone? Why all the day where
were you at mentally that you thought you could speak
to dad?

Speaker 6 (37:04):
Right?

Speaker 1 (37:05):
You spoke to Dad on so many things that was irrelevant,
so many things that was selling, so many things that
didn't matter just to you.

Speaker 12 (37:12):
But I was there for you right right right, And
here's a day all you had to do was pick
up the telephone and we could have talked this through
because four or five days prior to that we.

Speaker 5 (37:23):
Talked on the telephone, and then five was, you know,
five days prior to that, which was like New Year's Eve,
you know, even I left the message on the song
if you listen to the song, I left her voicemail
that she held me on the song. So eleven days
later she was dead. So it's like, wait a minute,
how did we get there? How do we get what happened? Like,

(37:44):
you know, talk, Why didn't you talk to me? Why
didn't you say something? Was it what were you going through?
Was it financial? Was it? Was it mental? Was it
someone messing with you?

Speaker 6 (37:54):
Was it?

Speaker 5 (37:54):
You know, like it just leads you down a rabbit
hole of the amount of question that you could come
up with as to why you did what you did
and how did you think that the ultimate solution was
to take your own life right?

Speaker 1 (38:09):
And I just, you know, the whole thing about this interview.
I wanted to make sure that we got to talk
with you know, because you know your daughter, you know,
initiated this interview because of the tragic turns she took
with her life.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
Taking care.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
But it's really a bigger problem out there, especially in
our community, because when it's such denial about because you
mentioned that your daughter at the top of the song
the video I saw it talked about bipolar depression, and
some form of schizophrenia. You know, if you could tell
our audience what exactly all those type of symptoms are,

(38:42):
if you're familiar with it. I'm not trying to put
you on the spot, but you know, I've heard bipolar.
I don't know what that means. I've heard depression of
some maybe I maybe even experienced some depression and really
didn't know understand what I was going through. And then
you have schizophrenia. Can you talk about those three forms
that your daughter dealt with that eventually led to her dad.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
Well earlier on in her life, and she was thirty
one when she passed away. You know, we had noticed
certain things, Me and my ex wife had noticed certain
things that she was doing that very moody, unbelievably moody,
Like it would go from from zero to one hundred,
you know, like okay, we we're cool. We're cool, We're cool.
You say one word and then another person would come

(39:21):
out and it's like all right, okay, Well I attribute
that to growing things. I remember, you know, growing up,
and my parents would say something to me and I'd
be the same way, like, you know, I hate you
know what I mean, not to their faces. Well, in
the back of my mind, you don't understand. And so
I'm you know, we attributed that to growth. And as

(39:42):
the years went on, I remember going to my parents
and especially my dad and just kind of saying like,
you know, I'm seeing some stuff that I ain't really
comfortable with, and you know, my father hit me with
you know, like, hey, when you were that age, you
were kind of the same way. Then the years went on,
I said it again to him, and he was like,
you know what, you need to take her down home.
Down home was North Carolina, that's where you know my

(40:04):
parents are from. Let let him run around in the
fields and get some polygreens in them and.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
Need some ice staters.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
I don't know if that's a solution, but I and
then she got older, and then you know, he kind
of saw some stuff and it was like, all right, now,
what are you gonna do about this?

Speaker 6 (40:25):
I'm like, what am I gonna do?

Speaker 5 (40:26):
I told you, I said, I bought this up to
you seven eight years ago. You told me let him
run around in the field.

Speaker 6 (40:32):
So and so.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
She she got professional help in that regard and found
out that the bipolar aspect of it is more of
internal uh, imbalance, you know. So there was an bounced right,
and she was diagnosed with medicine. Was diagnosed, she was
given medicine, but she hated the way the medicine made

(40:54):
a feel and made her feel lethargic and tired and
made it feel like she wasn't in control of herself.
So she would stop taking the medicine. So then she
started kind of like self medicating. You know, she started
drinking a little bit, you know, I started smoking a
little something something to make her feel better. And that
wasn't the answer either. So that's the bipolar aspect of it.

(41:15):
The schizophrenia part, and that was a very small part
of it. Was kind of seeing and hearing things that
wasn't necessarily true, right, you know, kind of like oh, yeah,
you know this is woman. She looked at me and
you know, she called me in my you know, in
her mind, it was like, yeah, she looked at me
a particular way, she said at particular thing to her

(41:38):
or something like that, or she felt a particular way
about if someone was trying to help us, like you
ain't really trying to help me. I know what you're
up too, I know what it is. So it was
a lot of that as well, and you know, some
of it was aimed directly at me and her mother
as well.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
So you know, we had some some instances that were just.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
Kind of like, you know, whoa whoa, whoa wha, how
get here? Like, No, that's not the case at all,
And then you know, you'd have to like talk her
down or something like that. Not that it was going
to be a physical confrontation or anything like that, but
it was certainly like, you know, just like you could
just physically see her amped up. It's like, hey, no,
that that wasn't the case. What I meant was we

(42:17):
want to this is what we like to do. And
then it was kind of like, oh, okay, all right, okay,
you know, because I thought that you were and so
it was it was. It was a lot of that
as well. So those are the two aspects.

Speaker 7 (42:31):
You are now tuned into the money making Conversations. Minute
of Inspiration with Rashawn McDonald.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Despite being known for loud, bombastic comments and his trademark
propensity to debate, a much softer side of Stevin A.
Smith is revealed when discussing the inspiration for his success.

Speaker 13 (42:47):
The final product is for the fans I'm about the work,
the process, the.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Grind, the day in and day out, meticulous, tedious work
that you have to put in to perfect your craft.

Speaker 13 (42:58):
And the reason why that residd with me so profoundly
Withshaan is because that's what I attached to all my work.
Everybody right now is celebrating stephen A's World coming on
ESPN Plus, or they're talking about my sports and it
was stephen A Smith.

Speaker 6 (43:11):
The NBA Show.

Speaker 9 (43:11):
They would first take all I think about it is
going day to day and making sure that I do
everything that I can to deliver to the audience what
their expectations are of me and to exceed those expectations.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
If you want to hear this full interview with stephen A. Smith,
visit Money Making Conversation dot com. Keep Winning Now, I
want to talk about it because you mentioned depression, because
I want to look at that because I'm in one
of those high stress worlds when I say that, because
sometimes I think music helps me. I think I watch

(43:43):
TV a lot. You know, I'm always keeping my mind active,
so I won't just stay on the subject that because
you know, in entertainments, like you know, it is one
of the most emotionally up and down businesses you have.
You know, you can have a concert. There was a
soul lot of this concert half Field. You know, you
can have a hit song in the next five years,
maybe not another hit song, and then people start questioning you.

(44:06):
I'm just talking about myself too. On shows, you get
on the show, you think that show going to be
on for a year. They canceled, leftter three months. That's
what happened when I was on our Senior Hall sitcom.
I thought, this is our senior Hall. We're gonna be
working for five years. Three months later they pulled the plug.
And so you know, so you went from this big
high to this major low. And that's what depression can

(44:26):
really trap you. And so you mentioned that. Can we
talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
Well, you know, all the things that you just said
apply to a lot of people in entertainment, sports, and
life in general. You know what I mean. There's always
like this, this this.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
Picture in your mind that you have and it may
not necessarily turn out to be that, and so you
start to look at that as being you know, somewhat
of a failure.

Speaker 6 (44:51):
I think, you know, one of.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
The best answers I heard even recently was from Giannis.
You know when reporter right, when a reporter asked, hey,
are you are you defining your career by this loss?
Or or or was the year or loss was it?
And then he kind of gave this amazing definition of
you know, what success is or what a failure is

(45:13):
or what a failure is not you know. So, you know,
I think we all go through stuff like that, just
like you.

Speaker 6 (45:20):
You know, I'm an entertainer.

Speaker 5 (45:21):
Every time I record something, I believe it's going to
be you know, top shelf. I believe I'm going to
be nominated for a Grammy. I believe all these things.
And then you know, most times it doesn't come to past.
And then so it kind of brings you down, and
you know, you question your own ability, You question whether
you're even relevant, you know, to to society in any way,

(45:41):
shape or form. So we all go through that, and
you know, and for her, she's no difference. She's thirty
one years old. The Internet pretty much rules everything, thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
So that was my next question, continue will That was
my next question that social media is really an issue now?

Speaker 5 (45:59):
Well, yeah, I mean, if you don't get excellunt of likes,
this gives everyone a false sense of everything like how
many friends you have or anything like that. So there's
no there's there's not as much human contact as they
used to be to even find out whether someone is
genuine and or not genuine. Everything is just keeping up,

(46:20):
and you're always reinventing yourself, especially these days. Every freaking
week you got to be somebody new. You got to
post something or stay relevant, like let people know you're
still alive. You're doing something that's relevant and it's interesting
and this, that and the other. So you know she
was caught up in that as well.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, because you so she did artwork, right, she had
that was a skill set, right, So I'm sure posting
had a lot to do with people reacting with likes
and things like that tell us about her her skill,
her talent.

Speaker 6 (46:48):
Well, she was a phenomenon. She was phenomenal everything she touched.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
She was also an esthetician, so you know, but but
when things didn't really like rise to you know that
certain levels, like well I got to do something new,
all right, so I'm doing art now. You know, she's
always done art, and so she would do that. And
you know, art is subjective. You know, what one person's
trash is another person's treasure. So you know, I always

(47:13):
kind of encouraged her in that regard. It's like I'm
not bringing enough money. It's like, you know, life is
a balance, you know, do something enjoyable, enjoy yourself at
the same time while making some money.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
You're gonna be okay. But I got to keep up.
I got to keep up.

Speaker 5 (47:26):
I got to keep up. So you know that that
played a huge role in it. But you know, a
really great artist.

Speaker 6 (47:31):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
The artwork that we used on the cover of the
single is something that she had painted. Uh, she had
and it's a it's a fairly large piece as well.
So I have it hanging in my home and I've
distributed some of her other artwork to family members, so
they think that they can have her in their household
and thinking for all the time.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
Right, you know, Till with Me Again is the song
that he's talking about that unfortunately is tied to the
suicide of his daughter. How can we gain access to
this song? It has, it is released, It is available.
Where can we go?

Speaker 5 (47:59):
If you want to see the video and hear the song,
you can always come to my website. You go to
will Downing dot com. Uh, if you want to support
it and you know, purchase like the music or something
like that. You can come to the Prince of Sophisticated
Soul dot com and the video is there as well.
You can go on YouTube, you can go to iTunes,
all the places that you normally get your music, so

(48:20):
you can support in that regard.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
So so you was able to get the u r
L for the Prince Sophisticated.

Speaker 5 (48:28):
I don't think anybody else wanted it.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
That's a lot of typeing man, I mean sophisticated Prince.
I got the Prince Sophisticated. They're gonna have a problem
right there.

Speaker 5 (48:39):
Sophisticated what f you know? S O F I s
T fist No, no, no, not no, you know, you know,
as it.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Was something I want to move back in your conversation
because as the black community, I want to stay on
that a little bit, because that's the reason we're here,
because of the fact it's about education and motivating because
as you said, our parents and our grandparents, how they
handled these signs, these warning signs of things like that,
it's really really my computers on mute, huh, mute, my computer,

(49:20):
what's going on? Oh that, don't worry about that.

Speaker 6 (49:27):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
They were worried about my computer was dinging. At the
same I thought, I was, hey, we did this whole
interview mute problem. I'll be taking to people at this room.
You're gonna do some old school flogging around there. No,
they were just talking about my computer was dinging in
the back. Only you and they heard you and I
we did in not conversation. But but I wanted to

(49:50):
talk about as we talk about our parents, because I
come from field Ford, Texas, six sisters, two brothers, and
I remember my parents and you know we're born. I
was born in Houston, Texas, from Freeport Louis Apple. So
we go back into the country, outhouses and all that stuff.
And as I said, you know, we didn't even want
to acknowledge the gay community in the black community, okay,

(50:13):
because we didn't know what that was. Uncle was like
this and like that, Uncle dressed that way. But we
just just hushed it right up. And then you come
back to this major turn of events, the mental structure
of the black community, because we're always getting beat up.
A lot of people need to understand about the black
community racism. So we can ever show weakness. We always

(50:33):
the last higher, the first fire. So a lot of
those things will come into play. When we're willing to
say show vulnerability and to say that you are mentally
quote unquote unstable, That gets you out the door real fast.
Do you think that plays a role as well?

Speaker 6 (50:50):
Well, definitely.

Speaker 5 (50:50):
I mean, as you just said, it's something that we
as a community do not talk about openly. You know,
there's a sense of shame attached to it. And you
pretty much hit like the top too.

Speaker 6 (51:02):
You know.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
The sexuality is one thing, and you know, mental illness
is sort of like we have this picture in our
mind that you know, people think that you're crazy because
you talk to someone about what's going on with you
internally in your mind or how you feel a particular way,
especially these days when we're in a very uncaring society.

(51:23):
You know, we hold everything in and then when you
do burst, it's like, you know, how do we get this?
It's like, well, this person never had the pleasure of
talking with someone and releasing it and getting a different
perspective on what's going on in your life. You're not
being judged. This person is there for you to listen
to or to listen to you and to maybe kind

(51:45):
of give you like a different perspective as to how
they see it. So, you know, a lot of times
we sort of look at that. We have this vision
in our mind of a couch and you know, you're
sitting there and someone's in this white jacket then writing
down all of this stuff, you know, and they and
your build and give you a couple of bills and
pick out the door. They say, you know, we ain't
gonna talk about this, right, you'ren't tell nobody I was here.

Speaker 6 (52:06):
So you know, that's the picture that I have in
my mind.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
And to those who I've spoken to about this sort
of thing, that's the vision that.

Speaker 6 (52:13):
They have as well.

Speaker 5 (52:15):
And you know, we're very apprehensive about talking about it.
So you know, we have to do better as a society.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
We definitely have to well, you know, black people prostate
cancer don't want to do that, you know what I'm saying,
and tell us what that's what we need to do.
You know, mental health, mental care don't want to do that. Well,
don't acknowledge our sexuality within our community because you know,
and I'm not pointing no finger, but guess what. We
live in a racist country, ladies and gentlemen, A country

(52:42):
that enslaved us don't want to acknowledge the fact that
they did in slavers. In fact, they want to take
that out of books. They want to take all that
out of the book. They just want to go, we freed, y'all,
and just skip everything else.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
Well, either that or the fact that it happened so
long ago. Were still talking about this that so long agoing,
Like what.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Yeah, if we don't talk about it, and then it
would happen again. Like you said, it's hard to repeat history.
When you can see it happening again, right, then you
can stop it. Okay, But if you don't know your history,
you know what a sudden you can be stunned and
say I didn't see they coming. And so when I
think about your career and I think about the longevity,
as we wrapped up this interview, well and thank you

(53:22):
again for coming on my show. You know it's really true.
I remember I started doing stand up I left my
job at eighty six to do stand up comedy, and
you know, I didn't see the future. You know, you're
just out there performing. You know, the ninety two I
did death comedy Jam and I started writing those sitcoms.
And it's that longevity conversation I'm happening with you. It's

(53:43):
like it's like you look at your success and that's
where the worry, fear comes in, fear of can I
keep it going? Fear? As we wrapped this interview up
and talk about your success, how you've overcome fear, how
you overcome doubt. Because when we're young, there's no fear.

(54:04):
We're just out there. But as you have success, sometimes
success can work against you, right because can I do
it again? Will I be able to do it again?
Will I be able to sell out this show? Will
people know who I am next year or five years
from that? Mentally as an artist, can you talk to
my autists, talk to my fans about that?

Speaker 5 (54:24):
Well? I always say when I hear stuff like that,
you know, chasing success is has killed the best of
who we've had musically. You know, So when you look
at Michael Jackson's, when you look at Prince, when you
look at your Whitney Houston's people like that, you know

(54:45):
they all passed away chasing success. In my opinion, you know,
Michael bleached, the skin changed, physically changed its features, would
stay up constantly just to kind of keep up. You
know what I mean, so it's kind of like, Okay,
I've been to the mountaintop. I know what it looks like,
and someone else is coming up, but they're not as

(55:06):
good as I am. So you know, what do I
have to do to keep up?

Speaker 6 (55:09):
Well?

Speaker 5 (55:10):
Okay, stay up, Okay, Well I'm tired.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
Okay, well I.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
Need to get some rest, all right, And then he
started taking the profofall which gave him the best rest
he ever had. And you know, the doctor dropped the ball.
I forgot to wake him up. I gave him too
much or whatever however that went down. But it was
all chasing success. Whitney Houston same way.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
You know.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
I'm up, up, up, up up. Oh this girl can
sing better than me. What do I have to do?
I got it and then started doing whatever she was doing. Prince,
you know, was physically hurt, you know, with his hip.
It's like, oh man, you know you're hurt like I.

Speaker 6 (55:41):
Mean, but I can keep going.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
I can keep going, and you know, then you know
his unfortunate demise. So I think that what people have
to realize. And it hit me on top of the
head as well when I got sick and started realizing
when I had all that time off to myself that
this is just one aspect of who we are as
entertainer or you know, who I am, you know, and

(56:03):
being an entertainer is just a small aspect of that.
So you have to live your life, have a balance life.
There's nothing more important than that. To be honest with
your success is one thing. And if you gain a
whole lot of it, where you're gonna go after a while.
You know, if you can't go out and be seen
in society, what's the point of being successful If you
can't enjoy what with your friends and you can't go out,

(56:24):
can't go to the mall, can't go to the movies,
can't can't do anything. You know, you are gonna do
it with people that are like you. You know, they
don't even know you. So, you know, just be careful,
just have a balance life. And what's for you, what's
meant for you?

Speaker 6 (56:37):
You again?

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Can we meet again?

Speaker 6 (56:39):
That's the sime we meet again?

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Can we meet again?

Speaker 6 (56:42):
You know?

Speaker 1 (56:42):
So as to a proposse, you know, because we're gonna
meet again, We're gonna talk, We're gonna smile, we're gonna
share stories about Because I have a daughter, she's twenty six.
So this is a very personal conversation and just to
share you our thought what she calls I stopped talking
to everybody to talk there you go, because I don't know.
So when it happened to your daughter, it magnified my

(57:03):
attention to her that you know, she called me at
ten and I apologized and I didn't see the call,
you know, because she called me for a reason, whether
it's just saying she loves me or just to share
a personal story. Because again she's out there by herself.
She's out there working remote and all these life has
changed so much how people live, you know, they don't

(57:25):
have to go into work, they'll have to interact and
gives you more time to think what time to go online?
Like you said, the internet, the social media. But as
we close deal with meet again, how can my fan
base participate be a partner to support you in getting.

Speaker 5 (57:40):
This song once again? Come out to my website, go
to Willdowning dot com, go to the Friends of Sophisticated Soul.

Speaker 6 (57:47):
God I know.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
I love you, and then you go to will down
In dot com. They'll tell you where well and come
on out and come see the show as well. So
all of that already.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Make sure you always say Bannister because the one thing
about my life man, as I always said, once you
get past fifty on the down side of your life,
I want to support people like you and individuals who
have supported me. Unbeknownst, your music has uplifted me. Your
music has got me through my downadays. Your musical have
inspired me, made me feel good when I felt down.

(58:19):
So it's artists like you man play such a major
role in the Black community by getting this through our
tough times. Thank you Will Downd for coming on Money
It comes these Masterclass.

Speaker 6 (58:29):
I appreciate, appreciate you, sir.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
We talked soon.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with through Sean
McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always remember to
lead with your gifts.

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