March 8, 2024 • 29 mins
Generational wealth is so much more than a financial inheritance and Dana Frank has a beautiful way of expressing it. From acquiring the work ethic and Frank Family Properties from her parents, to paying it forward in the way she raised her own children to take the baton, you will love listening to the humor and wisdom from this philanthropic and self-proclaimed Menopause Barbee, because she may be getting older, but she’s still a doll!
Connect with Dana:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Connect with Dana:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Welcome everyone to the Women Excelling EverywherePodcast formally the Women Entrepreneurs Extraordinaire podcast,
but we are talking to women whoare excelling everywhere, so we want to
be sure to be more inclusive thatway and just highlight amazing, wonderful individuals
like our guest today, Dana Frank. Dana, thank you so much for
(00:31):
being on the WE podcast. Thankyou, Julia, I'm so excited to
be here. Yeah, it's wonderful. I am going to go ahead for
the audience. I'm gonna read,I'm gonna put my glasses on and I'm
gonna read you're a little bit ofyour professional bio, and then we'll get
down to the real data. SoDana Frank owns and manages a portfolio of
(00:54):
multi family properties in Greater Seattle.You are a She is a blogger at
Banna Pause Barbies I Love that dotcom. She serves on philanthropic boards and
as an influential seattleite. Her witty, hilarious, and ultra positive personality shines
brightly as she works to support andmotivate at risk youth, rising stars in
(01:15):
the community, and collaborate for changein the political spectrum. Twenty five years
ago, Dana took the reins ofthe general mat Avs General managing partner of
the company now known as T.D. Frank Properties. Under her leadership,
they expanded their real estate investments,acquiring prime properties in the Washington State
and Arizona. Dana's achievement has beenDana's achievements multiple having celebrated with her properties
(01:44):
featured as Seattle Times Home of theWeek in twenty sixteen, Data and her
mother and partner, Teresa Frank,grace the cover of Seattle Times ooh,
and as story titled Persistence Pays chroniclingtheir journey as long term landlords in this
Seattle Central district. Dana is deeplyinvolved in philanthropic initiatives, including the annual
(02:07):
holiday gift drive for Treehouse for FosterKids Now and it's fifteenth year. That's
impressive. She also serves as inleadership roles co Sharing Bellevue lif Spring,
Woodland Park Zoo and Treehouse twenty fifthSworri Gala. In addition, she has
contributed her expertise as part of theMopops. You'll have to explain that to
(02:27):
us what that is Founder's Award Committeeand she is the founder of National Black
Family Business Day. So welcome onceagain to the WEE Podcast. Thank you,
Julie, thank you, thank you. So this is so interesting as
I was looking over all your informationand reading about the dynamic things that you're
doing. You you really have alegacy here within the family that started.
(02:55):
Was it with your your parents oryour grandparents? Started with my parents and
our journey began in nineteen fifty.My father was coming of age in Detroit.
It was the time of Jim Crowlaws and segregation, and my grandfather
said, don't rock the boat.You'll take a great job at either Chrysler
(03:15):
or The automobile industry was booming.And my father looked at his friends.
They were getting up at three andfour in the morning and going in and
putting in a double shift and cominghome at the end of two weeks with
barely enough of a paycheck to puta decent meal on the table. And
he just said, this is theycall it separate but equal. There's nothing
separate but equal about the options thatI'm getting. So he was a buddy
(03:38):
drummer and he got a van andpacked his van with his dreams and his
drums and came all the way acrossthe states to Seattle, Washington, and
he lied about his age and startedplaying at nightclubs. And he was talking
to a patron one night on theband stand and during a break, and
(04:00):
the guy said, I have ahouse that I'm going to be looking to
sell, and so Daddy struck adeal with him bought the house, and
he was at the University of Washingtonat the time and subdivided this long before
Airbnb, so he subdivided each ofthe rooms and rented it out to make
the forty eight dollars monthly mortgage,and the owner carried the note. And
a few years later he was againon the night stand and the bandstand,
(04:26):
and my mother was a beauty queenin the contest, and she not only
won Miss Braunze, she won hisheart and they got together. Both had
an incredible work ethic, and theybought a property every year for nineteen years
from nineteen fifty to nineteen sixty ninewithout any bank financing because of redlining,
(04:47):
and there was no banks that wouldgive loans in black areas. So I
always say that my upbringing was differentthan most were. Parents would pack the
station wagon to go to the beach. My parents would knock at my door
and say, hey, get upand get on it, and we'd go
put pickets on banks or whatever toamplify and explode the injustice. And you
(05:11):
know, people often ask, Imean, because it's like, how could
they do this? How could theygo? And to this day we still
maintain the properties that my parents startedinvesting back in nineteen fifty. Wow.
And yeah, statistics show that onlythirty percent of family businesses make it to
the second generation and merely twelve tothe third. So now my adult children
are taking over the legacy that theirgrandparents started and it's been it's been hard
(05:36):
fought, but you know, wellworth it. So that's amazing because not
only were you dealing I mean,as I'm hearing you tell this story,
there was obviously the prejudice and thoseissues that you had to deal with,
and you know, the financing andall of that that some of us middle
(05:57):
class white folk more or less Ihave no idea about. So you had
that to fight with, but youalso had the building of a business and
you had to take that over fromyour parents, which is not that you
had to, but you did right, And that is challenging as well because
there's you You've got a family dynamicsas well as the changes. There have
(06:21):
been so many ups and downs inthe in the housing market over the years.
To have been able to continue thatthat growth is really it's an incredible
story. Well that's why I wasreally drawn to wanting to be on your
podcast, because it's about women.And you know, there was a time
(06:41):
where my parents divorced after thirty twoyears and the business really could have just
you know been taken through you know, legal fees in the whole nine yards
of receivership. I mean, andthen my mom and I partnered and my
mom, bless her, she's ninetyone now and she still works with me
every day. And I mean,so I just have had such a fortunate
(07:03):
female role model to say, youknow, we can do this, and
you know, it's it's been challenginggetting loans and you know, when we
look at statistics that say women makeeighty two cents on the dollars to men,
and all of those things we face. I mean, it's been a
lot of challenges and you know,it's the perseverance of just sticking to it.
(07:24):
Yeah, you know, as youwere as you started to take it
over, did you, Because beforewe started to record, I made the
comment that I wanted to talk aboutthe female entrepreneurship piece of it, and
guy the female entrepreneurial's guide to generationalwealth. Yes, and that's something that
(07:46):
like even even me, you know, as I'm building the business, I'm
thinking it started building the business yearsago. I mean, the whole reason
why I named my main business YourBest Mind and not Julie Anderson Enterprises,
it's because I knew one dad wantto sell. I never really have put
into my mind creating a generational wealthin my business that I could hand down
(08:09):
or in a portfolio like my husbandand I have. We have a couple,
you know, we have our ourwe own our piece that we're on
now, but we also have oneother piece of property that we invested in.
But we've never really looked at itand thought that we want the boys
to continue this. We just kindof always said, you know, when
(08:30):
we knock off, they can havethe portfolio, do whatever they want.
But we never tried to structure itin such a way that it was a
business in and of itself that couldsupport them after the fact. So,
and I don't think a lot ofwhat I think a lot more women think
like me than they do like you. In that case, is that what
you found. I was just raisedso much that you know, equity grows
(08:54):
and casher roads and so as I'vebeen building this company, you know,
always kept the next generation in mind. It's like that's saying, you know,
planet Tree today, and even thoughyou might not enjoy the shade,
your children and their grandchildren will.And that's generally how my mindset is.
I look at my kids and I'mlike, we'll walk through a building,
(09:16):
and in my mind's eye, becausemy dad's been gone for twenty seven years,
I'm like, you know, there'sa story behind each property that they
acquired, and I'm like, it'sso amazing to think of the history and
that if my father had taken thatjob at christler Ford, we wouldn't be
sitting here. And I see theprivilege and the opportunities that it has afforded
(09:37):
me, and you know, it'sa blessing and really a fortunate situation to
work with family because they're the closestone to you, or hopefully they should
be, and you're building for acommon cause and a common goal, and
so that's nice. I mean,this business has supported my kids getting through
college and you know, our entirelifestyle. So that's that's what it's it's
(10:01):
done. Yeah, I think realestate has not necessarily being a real estate
agent, but investing in real estate, having that being part of your your
financial portfolio is a very wise thingto do because of what you just said
earlier, that you know, equityis always there may be ups and downs,
(10:24):
but ten years from now, unlessthere's some major economic shift in the
town that you own in and allthe companies leave like you saw in the
you know, in the coal miningareas of the US. But as a
general rule, you're always gonna tenyears from now, it's always going to
have more equity than what you actuallypurchased. What is I use what I
(10:46):
call the real acronym for people lookingto get into real estate, and I'm
like that, That's what I wasgoing to ask you. What's your what's
your advice on that? My firstthing is just I call it real.
So the R is do your research. I mean, I have people to
say, oh, well, Iwant to invest I live in New York.
It's too expensive. How do Iget in the game outside of New
York? So The first thing isto do your research. And I mean
(11:07):
understand in Seattle, I bought abuilding twenty two years ago, and I
purchased it because a light rail wascoming in and I knew the vibrancy that
was going to happen in that community. And sure enough it's been one of
my best investments. So the researchis so important. And I know it's
hard to invest out of state.I mean I personally liked it to be
(11:28):
able to drive to my properties,and then most of my buildings are within
a twenty minute drive, so theresearch is really important. The second thing
is expanding your network. I alwayssay my network is my network. And
that's how I saw that My parentswere able to make that happen. I
(11:48):
mean, in the early days,they got loans with established business owners such
as you know, people that ownthe carpet Exchange or a standpoint builders hardware.
They were bank when my parents weren't, and then they would my parents
would do the management and handle allthe manual labor, and then when the
property escalated a value, they'd refinancedby their partners out and then roll into
(12:13):
the next property. And the Ais amplify your story today to this day,
there is still redlining, and that'swhy you see things like Chase Bank
has offered thirty billion dollars to bridgethe racial financial wealth gap. I mean,
there's so and there's so many opportunitiesthat particularly marginalize in black communities don't
(12:33):
know about that. Banks have theseprograms available. And I remember I referenced
my parents divorced. But when myparents divorced, a receiver had taken over
our properties, and when they cameback to us, they were really in
disrepair and it would have been easyjust to sell. And several bankers told
me just sell and you go onabout your business. But we held on
(12:56):
because I went to a bank andI said, look, I need a
moratorium. I need to seize paymentsfor twelve months. Let me use the
rental income to refurbish, get backa standard quality of a resident, tack
the mortgage on to the end ofthe loan. And the banker was willing
to do that. And most peopledon't even know that. That's in all,
(13:16):
I didn't know about that. That'sawesome. Yeah, So I had
twelve months worth of income where Irefurbished the properties, and then I was
able to you know, I'm backin the game. And then that's the
ail of My real acronym is leveraged. Leverage your relationships, leverage the bank,
bring your bankers to lunch, don'tbe afraid to go out and talk
to them. And you know,once you have that in alignment, it's
(13:41):
really streamlined. Do you feel thatthat last piece is still like my It's
funny that you say that because mymy father in law, he for years
they lived in a smaller town inNorth Carolina, and he ran a couple
of businesses. He had a storefrontof yogurt shop, and he had he
had a few things going on,and he was of the time that era,
(14:03):
I would say the seventies, maybeyou know, the sixties, the
seventies, maybe into the eighties.To a certain extent, you knew your
banker, and there were still alot of transactions that were sealed with a
handshake, right, And now everythingis so litigious, right, everything has
to have an amendment and an addendumand five signatures and all of that.
(14:28):
Do you find that still having thator developing that relationship even now in two
thousand, moving into twenty twenty four, developing a relationship with a banker is
a good thing, is beneficial morethan ever, more than ever. A
lady I know name Emily Flitter,wrote a book called White Wall, and
(14:48):
it's primarily talking about for minorities lookingfor loans. How you know, they
gave an example of this former NFLsuperstar, Jimmy Kennedy and he was declined
private client's datus at Chase Bank becausethen they taped it. The banker said,
we don't bank with people that looklike you. And I mean this
(15:09):
guy had seven figures. And thisis now, this happened like two years
ago. It's a huge article inthe New York Times. And you know,
once this exposure happened, you know, Chase Bank had to say,
we're going to, you know,do something to you know, change this
narrative. So right now, morethan ever, I think when someone tells
(15:30):
you no, you need to getto the why. And that just happens
by amplifying your voice. I justI don't accept no. I mean,
if I go and I'm asking fora loan and I know I've got equity
and the property or whatever the situationis, tell me why. So you
know, as a woman, asa black woman, you know I have
to fight twice as hard. Soyes, I definitely say take the bankers
(15:52):
out to lunch, take them ontour, show them what you're thinking about
doing. And you know, theyhave to have a really good reason for
declining you. Very that's great advicebecause that's something that like, it's these
are just little things that uh,and this is one of the reasons why
individuals are good to follow people likeyou or seek out coaches or consultants that
(16:15):
are are have been there, donethat, right, because we don't always
think about these things. We don'talways think. It's we don't know what
we don't know, right, andif we've never so true, And I
just say that, you know,as particularly as women, we're either building
for someone else or we're building forourselves. And so if I'm going to
(16:36):
work that hard, I'd rather bebuilding for myself. Yeah, totally,
totally. And of course building thatlegacy thinking generational wealth. So let's talk
about that for a minute. Womenentrepreneurs that may be listening to this,
or even even women in the Csuite or you know, data entry or
whatever doing whatever job they're doing,how can they think about going h I
(17:00):
want to build some kind of alegacy for my children, Like what,
there's got to be a mindset,a huge mindset shift that that takes place.
It's it's almost like when I'm coachingwith entrepreneurs, I will tell them,
as a female entrepreneur, stop thinkingas a worker and start thinking like
a CEO. You have you don'twant to be a big business. I
(17:22):
understand that you don't want to,you know, be Amazon, but you
want to be the CEO. Andthat's a different mindset than the worker b
mindset. So it's real. It'sgot to be that same shift for going
from just thinking about building well foryourself versus building something that can be generational.
What is that? I was twentyfive, it was nineteen eighty nine
(17:45):
and on the way to the courthouse, I'm listening to Janet Jackson's Control and
I love that song. And Iget absolutorhouse and I see the back of
my father's head and he looks sohandsome. He's wearing his long on camel
hair code And I take a seatnext to my mother and my father turns
his head and our eyes meet andhe's like, you just can't take that
(18:08):
knife out my back. And mymom looks at me and she says,
don't let him bite. And I'mlike, at this time, my father's
health had failed. He had heartfailure, kidney failure, and I said,
he said, he's got one footon the banana pill another on the
grave, and he's going to takeit all with him. And my mother
said, this was not he didnot create this by himself, and it's
not all his to take. AndI mean, it was the most frightening
(18:32):
time because from the time I wasborn, I was told, you're not
working for me or anybody else,You're working for yourself. And it was
like everything was on the line,and so I had to look at that.
I hadn't had children at the time, but I was I'd always been
born and raised with the mindset oflegacy and you know that we're building for
the whole and for the next generation. So it was really a tough time
(18:55):
when I had to come to termswith that and think, what am I
going to do if this goes away? What am I going to do?
And so you know, we persevered, my mom and I, and you
know, it was tough. Imean there were times when we joke and
say, you know, Lean timeLin cuisine that was a splurge, you
know, but we came through.And now when I live back on that
(19:17):
journey and I've got two adult childrenand I've trained them, I think it's
so early. It's so important tostart the process early. I mean,
my kids knew from an early age. They lost their father when my daughter
was fifteen and my son was twentytwo, and so I spent many years
as a single mom, and youknow, they came with me. I
(19:37):
mean I remember coming even when mychild, my son was a newborn,
taking him swaddled in his blanket fromthe hospital, going to show an apartment.
You know what I mean. Hewas in his car seat, you
know. So it's been instilled inthem from childhood. You know. I'm
like, if you drive by,check on the properties, if you see
trash, get out and pick itup. I mean, this is how
(20:00):
we eat. And so it's somethingthat they've learned. They are far from
trust fund babies, and you know, they earn it. And I think
that's the biggest advice I can giveto parents is that you want to start
training them early. At Graham Green, a famous poet, once said,
there's a moment in every child's lifewhen the door opens unless the future in
(20:22):
and for me, I think thatthat moment should come real early. I
think that children should learn early onthe responsibility because the world is tough,
and if you're fortunate enough to havea legacy business, then you should be
a part of working and earning it. Yeah, I agree with the teaching
them early, and I think forwomen who are listening, it doesn't necessarily
(20:44):
even if you don't have a businessthat's a legacy business or something to hand
down, you can still teach thosesame principles. Yes, at that early
age. Right, we have myhusband and I are proud parents of three
boys. They're all in their thirtiesnow, all married, and they have
developed their own reputation within the spherethat their friends and there and the people
(21:07):
who hire them to work of beinggood, hard physical workers. And that
that I know goes back to whenthey were, you know, knee high
TiO grasshopper and we would go outin the in the mountains and cut our
firewood, and no matter what,even when the little one was barely walking,
it was like, here, carrythis stick to the truck. Like
(21:30):
they learned that. And of coursethey'll tell you that, you know,
they had to stack wood every dayin the snow. But oh yeah,
of course, but it did.It taught them good, good ethics,
and I think that's one of thosethings that is sadly missing now. So
if you're if you're a parent,no matter what your business is, whether
or not, you can, youknow, pass it on. It's your
children are watching, you know,Oh yeah, home children live what they
(21:52):
learn, and you know, forme, you know, we do a
lot of philanthropic work in this house. I mean last week we hosted a
party here for one hundred and twentyfive people and it was all to raise
gifts for Treehouse for foster Kids,and all my guests that came had to
bring an unwrapped gift for a kidin foster care. And my kid,
one of my daughters, my daughterwas a bartender, my son was you
(22:15):
know, help and clean. AndI mean, they they've learned that early
on how important it is to giveback. And that's a legacy. Yeah,
exactly, that's a legacy. AndI appreciate so much you saying that,
because that's what I talk about whenI talk about generational wealth. It's
not just financial. I mean,it's the wealth of the lifestyle. It's
a wealth of a mindset. It'sthe wealth of a way of thinking of
(22:37):
how you treat people, having compassionand lifting the others up. Yeah,
that's beautiful. That's the best.That's the best kind of a legacy.
Now, you mentioned something earlier.You said it was you remember when you
were young being woken up early,and your mother or your father, I
can't remember which, would say getup and get on it. Yeah,
(23:00):
that is my book. The titleof your book. So what is tell
us a little bit about the book. It's really a business memoir of you
know, our journey of how youknow we started off. And I call
them firestarters, and those are peoplewho, no matter what your first circumstance
dictates, you can change the narrativeand you're a firestarter and you go out
(23:23):
there like my parents that my grandmotheron my mother's side was lifelong domestic.
My grandfather was a carpenter. Theyraised eight incredible accomplished children out of a
little two bedroom house. And it'slike, how do you change the narrative?
And my father had lost his motherwhen he was only seventeen. His
(23:44):
father, as I said earlier,was like, don't ruffle any feathers and
you know, they set out anddespite all of the obstacles set against them,
they forged a head. And sothat's what the book is really about.
It's just it shares our journey,the hard times, the hysterical stories
that have happened to my mother andI over the years. Is housing providers
(24:07):
and you know, just just helpingpeople understand and get tools on how they
can get into real estate if that'swhat they're interested in. But it's also
universal tools for whatever entrepreneurial interests theymight have. That's great, Yeah,
because a lot of the principles,right, a lot of the business principles,
(24:27):
you know, can go from industryto industry. It's a lot of
it's up here, a lot ofit's your determination and your mindset. I
love that. I love that.Now if that because I'm interested in it,
is it out or is it availableon Amazon for pre order? And
we have timed it the actual bookwill be in hand on juneteenth, so
(24:49):
June eighteenth for Juneteenth holiday. That'sgood timing, that's good timing. I
love it. I love it.Well. If you were to give,
because we're getting close to our littlethirty minute mark there, if you were
to give women out there, especiallywomen of color who are going. I
mean, obviously the lesson would orthe advice would be for all of us,
(25:11):
but for those who may have extrachallenges, either it's because of their
skin color, or it's because oftheir upbringing, or maybe trauma or something
like if they're stuck or they're wantingto break free of or get through that
difficult journey with a greater amount ofease, what would be a piece of
(25:32):
advice you'd give them? First ofall, I think I think about things
that my father taught me, andone of the funny ones is, you
know, just because it's on yourass doesn't make it an asset. We
all like nice things. Those thingscan wait. So I always say,
especially young people starting out, youknow, they see all the pretty items
(25:56):
and they want them now, andthings will happen with time. And so
my advice is to you know,really think about the real acronym, do
your research, amplify, you know, expand your network, leverage. Those
are such important steps. And justremember that the amount of time that you
(26:17):
spend working, you can put asmuch into yourself, and you know the
payoff will be even better. That'sawesome, that's awesome. I like that
just because it's on your ass doesn'tmean an asset. Yeah, you don't
always need those designer clothes. That'sright, That's right, That is right.
Oh, I love it so much. This has been a delightful conversation.
(26:40):
Dana. Thank you for being onThe Women Entrepreneur Show. And I
am very I am looking forward.I'm going to go pre order that book
myself because I am. I cantell there will be a lot of a
lot of great stories, but alot of wisdom that's shared in that and
I think you One other thing I'llsay about the book is I got dam
and John from Shark Tank. Hewrote the intro, and so from a
(27:02):
perspective of someone that started with nothingand turned a company into a six billion
dollar company, I mean it's goodto have big dreams. Absolutely, that's
wonderful. That's great to know.And for any of the listeners, whether
you're watching this live right now oryou are watching it later or listening to
it later, all of the contactinformation on how to stay in touch with
(27:23):
Dana, how to pre order thatbook, the link will be there in
the show notes. She also hasa social media presence, so she's got
a LinkedIn profile which that has someletters and numbers behind it, so we'll
put that up on the show page. In Twitter, she's I like this.
Oh we didn't even get to theat menopause Barbie conversations. And that's
(27:47):
with your sister. Yes, mysister lives in Germany and about fifteen years
ago we just started a fun blogcalled Menopause Barbiees because our motto is we're
getting older, but we're still dolls. That is awesome. So that's Twitter,
on Instagram, your Dana Frank AdventureAdventures, and you have a presence
on Facebook as well, so well, we'll put all of those ways to
(28:11):
stay connected to you data in thein the show as well as your your
website. So thank you so muchfor being here. It was delightful and
we appreciate that. I'm looking forwardto reading your wisdom, so I appreciate
it so much. Thank you absolutely, And as we wrap up the show,
(28:33):
we as you notice, we're underour new banner, Women Excelling Everywhere.
If you want more information about ourprivate membership community, then be sure
and send us an email at infoat women Excelling Everywhere dot com. As
well as you can follow us onInstagram and Facebook, all of those different
places because we would love to stayconnected with you. We are all about
(28:55):
supporting women everywhere and that's what ourmembership community is. It is the we
successful collective. So if you wantto be a part of that, then
certainly let us know and we'll alwaysput those links in the show page as
well. And as we wrap upthis episode, we would like to have
everybody just take a nice deep breath, you know the drill if you listen
(29:15):
to me often, take a deepbreath, go out there and simply enjoy
every moment. Thanks for being withus. Thank you,
Welcome everyone to the Women Excelling EverywherePodcast formally the Women Entrepreneurs Extraordinaire podcast,
but we are talking to women whoare excelling everywhere, so we want to
be sure to be more inclusive thatway and just highlight amazing, wonderful individuals
like our guest today, Dana Frank. Dana, thank you so much for
(00:31):
being on the WE podcast. Thankyou, Julia, I'm so excited to
be here. Yeah, it's wonderful. I am going to go ahead for
the audience. I'm gonna read,I'm gonna put my glasses on and I'm
gonna read you're a little bit ofyour professional bio, and then we'll get
down to the real data. SoDana Frank owns and manages a portfolio of
(00:54):
multi family properties in Greater Seattle.You are a She is a blogger at
Banna Pause Barbies I Love that dotcom. She serves on philanthropic boards and
as an influential seattleite. Her witty, hilarious, and ultra positive personality shines
brightly as she works to support andmotivate at risk youth, rising stars in
(01:15):
the community, and collaborate for changein the political spectrum. Twenty five years
ago, Dana took the reins ofthe general mat Avs General managing partner of
the company now known as T.D. Frank Properties. Under her leadership,
they expanded their real estate investments,acquiring prime properties in the Washington State
and Arizona. Dana's achievement has beenDana's achievements multiple having celebrated with her properties
(01:44):
featured as Seattle Times Home of theWeek in twenty sixteen, Data and her
mother and partner, Teresa Frank,grace the cover of Seattle Times ooh,
and as story titled Persistence Pays chroniclingtheir journey as long term landlords in this
Seattle Central district. Dana is deeplyinvolved in philanthropic initiatives, including the annual
(02:07):
holiday gift drive for Treehouse for FosterKids Now and it's fifteenth year. That's
impressive. She also serves as inleadership roles co Sharing Bellevue lif Spring,
Woodland Park Zoo and Treehouse twenty fifthSworri Gala. In addition, she has
contributed her expertise as part of theMopops. You'll have to explain that to
(02:27):
us what that is Founder's Award Committeeand she is the founder of National Black
Family Business Day. So welcome onceagain to the WEE Podcast. Thank you,
Julie, thank you, thank you. So this is so interesting as
I was looking over all your informationand reading about the dynamic things that you're
doing. You you really have alegacy here within the family that started.
(02:55):
Was it with your your parents oryour grandparents? Started with my parents and
our journey began in nineteen fifty.My father was coming of age in Detroit.
It was the time of Jim Crowlaws and segregation, and my grandfather
said, don't rock the boat.You'll take a great job at either Chrysler
(03:15):
or The automobile industry was booming.And my father looked at his friends.
They were getting up at three andfour in the morning and going in and
putting in a double shift and cominghome at the end of two weeks with
barely enough of a paycheck to puta decent meal on the table. And
he just said, this is theycall it separate but equal. There's nothing
separate but equal about the options thatI'm getting. So he was a buddy
(03:38):
drummer and he got a van andpacked his van with his dreams and his
drums and came all the way acrossthe states to Seattle, Washington, and
he lied about his age and startedplaying at nightclubs. And he was talking
to a patron one night on theband stand and during a break, and
(04:00):
the guy said, I have ahouse that I'm going to be looking to
sell, and so Daddy struck adeal with him bought the house, and
he was at the University of Washingtonat the time and subdivided this long before
Airbnb, so he subdivided each ofthe rooms and rented it out to make
the forty eight dollars monthly mortgage,and the owner carried the note. And
a few years later he was againon the night stand and the bandstand,
(04:26):
and my mother was a beauty queenin the contest, and she not only
won Miss Braunze, she won hisheart and they got together. Both had
an incredible work ethic, and theybought a property every year for nineteen years
from nineteen fifty to nineteen sixty ninewithout any bank financing because of redlining,
(04:47):
and there was no banks that wouldgive loans in black areas. So I
always say that my upbringing was differentthan most were. Parents would pack the
station wagon to go to the beach. My parents would knock at my door
and say, hey, get upand get on it, and we'd go
put pickets on banks or whatever toamplify and explode the injustice. And you
(05:11):
know, people often ask, Imean, because it's like, how could
they do this? How could theygo? And to this day we still
maintain the properties that my parents startedinvesting back in nineteen fifty. Wow.
And yeah, statistics show that onlythirty percent of family businesses make it to
the second generation and merely twelve tothe third. So now my adult children
are taking over the legacy that theirgrandparents started and it's been it's been hard
(05:36):
fought, but you know, wellworth it. So that's amazing because not
only were you dealing I mean,as I'm hearing you tell this story,
there was obviously the prejudice and thoseissues that you had to deal with,
and you know, the financing andall of that that some of us middle
(05:57):
class white folk more or less Ihave no idea about. So you had
that to fight with, but youalso had the building of a business and
you had to take that over fromyour parents, which is not that you
had to, but you did right, And that is challenging as well because
there's you You've got a family dynamicsas well as the changes. There have
(06:21):
been so many ups and downs inthe in the housing market over the years.
To have been able to continue thatthat growth is really it's an incredible
story. Well that's why I wasreally drawn to wanting to be on your
podcast, because it's about women.And you know, there was a time
(06:41):
where my parents divorced after thirty twoyears and the business really could have just
you know been taken through you know, legal fees in the whole nine yards
of receivership. I mean, andthen my mom and I partnered and my
mom, bless her, she's ninetyone now and she still works with me
every day. And I mean,so I just have had such a fortunate
(07:03):
female role model to say, youknow, we can do this, and
you know, it's it's been challenginggetting loans and you know, when we
look at statistics that say women makeeighty two cents on the dollars to men,
and all of those things we face. I mean, it's been a
lot of challenges and you know,it's the perseverance of just sticking to it.
(07:24):
Yeah, you know, as youwere as you started to take it
over, did you, Because beforewe started to record, I made the
comment that I wanted to talk aboutthe female entrepreneurship piece of it, and
guy the female entrepreneurial's guide to generationalwealth. Yes, and that's something that
(07:46):
like even even me, you know, as I'm building the business, I'm
thinking it started building the business yearsago. I mean, the whole reason
why I named my main business YourBest Mind and not Julie Anderson Enterprises,
it's because I knew one dad wantto sell. I never really have put
into my mind creating a generational wealthin my business that I could hand down
(08:09):
or in a portfolio like my husbandand I have. We have a couple,
you know, we have our ourwe own our piece that we're on
now, but we also have oneother piece of property that we invested in.
But we've never really looked at itand thought that we want the boys
to continue this. We just kindof always said, you know, when
(08:30):
we knock off, they can havethe portfolio, do whatever they want.
But we never tried to structure itin such a way that it was a
business in and of itself that couldsupport them after the fact. So,
and I don't think a lot ofwhat I think a lot more women think
like me than they do like you. In that case, is that what
you found. I was just raisedso much that you know, equity grows
(08:54):
and casher roads and so as I'vebeen building this company, you know,
always kept the next generation in mind. It's like that's saying, you know,
planet Tree today, and even thoughyou might not enjoy the shade,
your children and their grandchildren will.And that's generally how my mindset is.
I look at my kids and I'mlike, we'll walk through a building,
(09:16):
and in my mind's eye, becausemy dad's been gone for twenty seven years,
I'm like, you know, there'sa story behind each property that they
acquired, and I'm like, it'sso amazing to think of the history and
that if my father had taken thatjob at christler Ford, we wouldn't be
sitting here. And I see theprivilege and the opportunities that it has afforded
(09:37):
me, and you know, it'sa blessing and really a fortunate situation to
work with family because they're the closestone to you, or hopefully they should
be, and you're building for acommon cause and a common goal, and
so that's nice. I mean,this business has supported my kids getting through
college and you know, our entirelifestyle. So that's that's what it's it's
(10:01):
done. Yeah, I think realestate has not necessarily being a real estate
agent, but investing in real estate, having that being part of your your
financial portfolio is a very wise thingto do because of what you just said
earlier, that you know, equityis always there may be ups and downs,
(10:24):
but ten years from now, unlessthere's some major economic shift in the
town that you own in and allthe companies leave like you saw in the
you know, in the coal miningareas of the US. But as a
general rule, you're always gonna tenyears from now, it's always going to
have more equity than what you actuallypurchased. What is I use what I
(10:46):
call the real acronym for people lookingto get into real estate, and I'm
like that, That's what I wasgoing to ask you. What's your what's
your advice on that? My firstthing is just I call it real.
So the R is do your research. I mean, I have people to
say, oh, well, Iwant to invest I live in New York.
It's too expensive. How do Iget in the game outside of New
York? So The first thing isto do your research. And I mean
(11:07):
understand in Seattle, I bought abuilding twenty two years ago, and I
purchased it because a light rail wascoming in and I knew the vibrancy that
was going to happen in that community. And sure enough it's been one of
my best investments. So the researchis so important. And I know it's
hard to invest out of state.I mean I personally liked it to be
(11:28):
able to drive to my properties,and then most of my buildings are within
a twenty minute drive, so theresearch is really important. The second thing
is expanding your network. I alwayssay my network is my network. And
that's how I saw that My parentswere able to make that happen. I
(11:48):
mean, in the early days,they got loans with established business owners such
as you know, people that ownthe carpet Exchange or a standpoint builders hardware.
They were bank when my parents weren't, and then they would my parents
would do the management and handle allthe manual labor, and then when the
property escalated a value, they'd refinancedby their partners out and then roll into
(12:13):
the next property. And the Ais amplify your story today to this day,
there is still redlining, and that'swhy you see things like Chase Bank
has offered thirty billion dollars to bridgethe racial financial wealth gap. I mean,
there's so and there's so many opportunitiesthat particularly marginalize in black communities don't
(12:33):
know about that. Banks have theseprograms available. And I remember I referenced
my parents divorced. But when myparents divorced, a receiver had taken over
our properties, and when they cameback to us, they were really in
disrepair and it would have been easyjust to sell. And several bankers told
me just sell and you go onabout your business. But we held on
(12:56):
because I went to a bank andI said, look, I need a
moratorium. I need to seize paymentsfor twelve months. Let me use the
rental income to refurbish, get backa standard quality of a resident, tack
the mortgage on to the end ofthe loan. And the banker was willing
to do that. And most peopledon't even know that. That's in all,
(13:16):
I didn't know about that. That'sawesome. Yeah, So I had
twelve months worth of income where Irefurbished the properties, and then I was
able to you know, I'm backin the game. And then that's the
ail of My real acronym is leveraged. Leverage your relationships, leverage the bank,
bring your bankers to lunch, don'tbe afraid to go out and talk
to them. And you know,once you have that in alignment, it's
(13:41):
really streamlined. Do you feel thatthat last piece is still like my It's
funny that you say that because mymy father in law, he for years
they lived in a smaller town inNorth Carolina, and he ran a couple
of businesses. He had a storefrontof yogurt shop, and he had he
had a few things going on,and he was of the time that era,
(14:03):
I would say the seventies, maybeyou know, the sixties, the
seventies, maybe into the eighties.To a certain extent, you knew your
banker, and there were still alot of transactions that were sealed with a
handshake, right, And now everythingis so litigious, right, everything has
to have an amendment and an addendumand five signatures and all of that.
(14:28):
Do you find that still having thator developing that relationship even now in two
thousand, moving into twenty twenty four, developing a relationship with a banker is
a good thing, is beneficial morethan ever, more than ever. A
lady I know name Emily Flitter,wrote a book called White Wall, and
(14:48):
it's primarily talking about for minorities lookingfor loans. How you know, they
gave an example of this former NFLsuperstar, Jimmy Kennedy and he was declined
private client's datus at Chase Bank becausethen they taped it. The banker said,
we don't bank with people that looklike you. And I mean this
(15:09):
guy had seven figures. And thisis now, this happened like two years
ago. It's a huge article inthe New York Times. And you know,
once this exposure happened, you know, Chase Bank had to say,
we're going to, you know,do something to you know, change this
narrative. So right now, morethan ever, I think when someone tells
(15:30):
you no, you need to getto the why. And that just happens
by amplifying your voice. I justI don't accept no. I mean,
if I go and I'm asking fora loan and I know I've got equity
and the property or whatever the situationis, tell me why. So you
know, as a woman, asa black woman, you know I have
to fight twice as hard. Soyes, I definitely say take the bankers
(15:52):
out to lunch, take them ontour, show them what you're thinking about
doing. And you know, theyhave to have a really good reason for
declining you. Very that's great advicebecause that's something that like, it's these
are just little things that uh,and this is one of the reasons why
individuals are good to follow people likeyou or seek out coaches or consultants that
(16:15):
are are have been there, donethat, right, because we don't always
think about these things. We don'talways think. It's we don't know what
we don't know, right, andif we've never so true, And I
just say that, you know,as particularly as women, we're either building
for someone else or we're building forourselves. And so if I'm going to
(16:36):
work that hard, I'd rather bebuilding for myself. Yeah, totally,
totally. And of course building thatlegacy thinking generational wealth. So let's talk
about that for a minute. Womenentrepreneurs that may be listening to this,
or even even women in the Csuite or you know, data entry or
whatever doing whatever job they're doing,how can they think about going h I
(17:00):
want to build some kind of alegacy for my children, Like what,
there's got to be a mindset,a huge mindset shift that that takes place.
It's it's almost like when I'm coachingwith entrepreneurs, I will tell them,
as a female entrepreneur, stop thinkingas a worker and start thinking like
a CEO. You have you don'twant to be a big business. I
(17:22):
understand that you don't want to,you know, be Amazon, but you
want to be the CEO. Andthat's a different mindset than the worker b
mindset. So it's real. It'sgot to be that same shift for going
from just thinking about building well foryourself versus building something that can be generational.
What is that? I was twentyfive, it was nineteen eighty nine
(17:45):
and on the way to the courthouse, I'm listening to Janet Jackson's Control and
I love that song. And Iget absolutorhouse and I see the back of
my father's head and he looks sohandsome. He's wearing his long on camel
hair code And I take a seatnext to my mother and my father turns
his head and our eyes meet andhe's like, you just can't take that
(18:08):
knife out my back. And mymom looks at me and she says,
don't let him bite. And I'mlike, at this time, my father's
health had failed. He had heartfailure, kidney failure, and I said,
he said, he's got one footon the banana pill another on the
grave, and he's going to takeit all with him. And my mother
said, this was not he didnot create this by himself, and it's
not all his to take. AndI mean, it was the most frightening
(18:32):
time because from the time I wasborn, I was told, you're not
working for me or anybody else,You're working for yourself. And it was
like everything was on the line,and so I had to look at that.
I hadn't had children at the time, but I was I'd always been
born and raised with the mindset oflegacy and you know that we're building for
the whole and for the next generation. So it was really a tough time
(18:55):
when I had to come to termswith that and think, what am I
going to do if this goes away? What am I going to do?
And so you know, we persevered, my mom and I, and you
know, it was tough. Imean there were times when we joke and
say, you know, Lean timeLin cuisine that was a splurge, you
know, but we came through.And now when I live back on that
(19:17):
journey and I've got two adult childrenand I've trained them, I think it's
so early. It's so important tostart the process early. I mean,
my kids knew from an early age. They lost their father when my daughter
was fifteen and my son was twentytwo, and so I spent many years
as a single mom, and youknow, they came with me. I
(19:37):
mean I remember coming even when mychild, my son was a newborn,
taking him swaddled in his blanket fromthe hospital, going to show an apartment.
You know what I mean. Hewas in his car seat, you
know. So it's been instilled inthem from childhood. You know. I'm
like, if you drive by,check on the properties, if you see
trash, get out and pick itup. I mean, this is how
(20:00):
we eat. And so it's somethingthat they've learned. They are far from
trust fund babies, and you know, they earn it. And I think
that's the biggest advice I can giveto parents is that you want to start
training them early. At Graham Green, a famous poet, once said,
there's a moment in every child's lifewhen the door opens unless the future in
(20:22):
and for me, I think thatthat moment should come real early. I
think that children should learn early onthe responsibility because the world is tough,
and if you're fortunate enough to havea legacy business, then you should be
a part of working and earning it. Yeah, I agree with the teaching
them early, and I think forwomen who are listening, it doesn't necessarily
(20:44):
even if you don't have a businessthat's a legacy business or something to hand
down, you can still teach thosesame principles. Yes, at that early
age. Right, we have myhusband and I are proud parents of three
boys. They're all in their thirtiesnow, all married, and they have
developed their own reputation within the spherethat their friends and there and the people
(21:07):
who hire them to work of beinggood, hard physical workers. And that
that I know goes back to whenthey were, you know, knee high
TiO grasshopper and we would go outin the in the mountains and cut our
firewood, and no matter what,even when the little one was barely walking,
it was like, here, carrythis stick to the truck. Like
(21:30):
they learned that. And of coursethey'll tell you that, you know,
they had to stack wood every dayin the snow. But oh yeah,
of course, but it did.It taught them good, good ethics,
and I think that's one of thosethings that is sadly missing now. So
if you're if you're a parent,no matter what your business is, whether
or not, you can, youknow, pass it on. It's your
children are watching, you know,Oh yeah, home children live what they
(21:52):
learn, and you know, forme, you know, we do a
lot of philanthropic work in this house. I mean last week we hosted a
party here for one hundred and twentyfive people and it was all to raise
gifts for Treehouse for foster Kids,and all my guests that came had to
bring an unwrapped gift for a kidin foster care. And my kid,
one of my daughters, my daughterwas a bartender, my son was you
(22:15):
know, help and clean. AndI mean, they they've learned that early
on how important it is to giveback. And that's a legacy. Yeah,
exactly, that's a legacy. AndI appreciate so much you saying that,
because that's what I talk about whenI talk about generational wealth. It's
not just financial. I mean,it's the wealth of the lifestyle. It's
a wealth of a mindset. It'sthe wealth of a way of thinking of
(22:37):
how you treat people, having compassionand lifting the others up. Yeah,
that's beautiful. That's the best.That's the best kind of a legacy.
Now, you mentioned something earlier.You said it was you remember when you
were young being woken up early,and your mother or your father, I
can't remember which, would say getup and get on it. Yeah,
(23:00):
that is my book. The titleof your book. So what is tell
us a little bit about the book. It's really a business memoir of you
know, our journey of how youknow we started off. And I call
them firestarters, and those are peoplewho, no matter what your first circumstance
dictates, you can change the narrativeand you're a firestarter and you go out
(23:23):
there like my parents that my grandmotheron my mother's side was lifelong domestic.
My grandfather was a carpenter. Theyraised eight incredible accomplished children out of a
little two bedroom house. And it'slike, how do you change the narrative?
And my father had lost his motherwhen he was only seventeen. His
(23:44):
father, as I said earlier,was like, don't ruffle any feathers and
you know, they set out anddespite all of the obstacles set against them,
they forged a head. And sothat's what the book is really about.
It's just it shares our journey,the hard times, the hysterical stories
that have happened to my mother andI over the years. Is housing providers
(24:07):
and you know, just just helpingpeople understand and get tools on how they
can get into real estate if that'swhat they're interested in. But it's also
universal tools for whatever entrepreneurial interests theymight have. That's great, Yeah,
because a lot of the principles,right, a lot of the business principles,
(24:27):
you know, can go from industryto industry. It's a lot of
it's up here, a lot ofit's your determination and your mindset. I
love that. I love that.Now if that because I'm interested in it,
is it out or is it availableon Amazon for pre order? And
we have timed it the actual bookwill be in hand on juneteenth, so
(24:49):
June eighteenth for Juneteenth holiday. That'sgood timing, that's good timing. I
love it. I love it.Well. If you were to give,
because we're getting close to our littlethirty minute mark there, if you were
to give women out there, especiallywomen of color who are going. I
mean, obviously the lesson would orthe advice would be for all of us,
(25:11):
but for those who may have extrachallenges, either it's because of their
skin color, or it's because oftheir upbringing, or maybe trauma or something
like if they're stuck or they're wantingto break free of or get through that
difficult journey with a greater amount ofease, what would be a piece of
(25:32):
advice you'd give them? First ofall, I think I think about things
that my father taught me, andone of the funny ones is, you
know, just because it's on yourass doesn't make it an asset. We
all like nice things. Those thingscan wait. So I always say,
especially young people starting out, youknow, they see all the pretty items
(25:56):
and they want them now, andthings will happen with time. And so
my advice is to you know,really think about the real acronym, do
your research, amplify, you know, expand your network, leverage. Those
are such important steps. And justremember that the amount of time that you
(26:17):
spend working, you can put asmuch into yourself, and you know the
payoff will be even better. That'sawesome, that's awesome. I like that
just because it's on your ass doesn'tmean an asset. Yeah, you don't
always need those designer clothes. That'sright, That's right, That is right.
Oh, I love it so much. This has been a delightful conversation.
(26:40):
Dana. Thank you for being onThe Women Entrepreneur Show. And I
am very I am looking forward.I'm going to go pre order that book
myself because I am. I cantell there will be a lot of a
lot of great stories, but alot of wisdom that's shared in that and
I think you One other thing I'llsay about the book is I got dam
and John from Shark Tank. Hewrote the intro, and so from a
(27:02):
perspective of someone that started with nothingand turned a company into a six billion
dollar company, I mean it's goodto have big dreams. Absolutely, that's
wonderful. That's great to know.And for any of the listeners, whether
you're watching this live right now oryou are watching it later or listening to
it later, all of the contactinformation on how to stay in touch with
(27:23):
Dana, how to pre order thatbook, the link will be there in
the show notes. She also hasa social media presence, so she's got
a LinkedIn profile which that has someletters and numbers behind it, so we'll
put that up on the show page. In Twitter, she's I like this.
Oh we didn't even get to theat menopause Barbie conversations. And that's
(27:47):
with your sister. Yes, mysister lives in Germany and about fifteen years
ago we just started a fun blogcalled Menopause Barbiees because our motto is we're
getting older, but we're still dolls. That is awesome. So that's Twitter,
on Instagram, your Dana Frank AdventureAdventures, and you have a presence
on Facebook as well, so well, we'll put all of those ways to
(28:11):
stay connected to you data in thein the show as well as your your
website. So thank you so muchfor being here. It was delightful and
we appreciate that. I'm looking forwardto reading your wisdom, so I appreciate
it so much. Thank you absolutely, And as we wrap up the show,
(28:33):
we as you notice, we're underour new banner, Women Excelling Everywhere.
If you want more information about ourprivate membership community, then be sure
and send us an email at infoat women Excelling Everywhere dot com. As
well as you can follow us onInstagram and Facebook, all of those different
places because we would love to stayconnected with you. We are all about
(28:55):
supporting women everywhere and that's what ourmembership community is. It is the we
successful collective. So if you wantto be a part of that, then
certainly let us know and we'll alwaysput those links in the show page as
well. And as we wrap upthis episode, we would like to have
everybody just take a nice deep breath, you know the drill if you listen
(29:15):
to me often, take a deepbreath, go out there and simply enjoy
every moment. Thanks for being withus. Thank you,
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