Mastering Relationship Capital: John Hope Bryant on How to Build Powerful Institutional Connections

In this clip of Market Mondays, host Ian Dunlap sits down with financial literacy powerhouse John Hope Bryant to break down the crucial steps needed to build strong institutional relationships—especially if you’re starting from scratch.

John Hope Bryant wastes no time laying out the real foundation: get your credit score up to at least 700! He explains why having good credit isn’t just a personal milestone, but a fundamental requirement for anyone looking to play in the big leagues of business and finance. Drawing from the Hope Financial Wellness Index, Bryant shares how the average credit score for Black Americans hovers around 620—and how improving that number is the key to opening new doors.

Ian and John dive deep into practical advice: Instead of wandering into your neighborhood bank branch, seek out the regional or chief credit officer at a community or mid-sized bank, where decision-makers are more accessible. They dish out insider tips on approaching these professionals—don’t go in with just a transaction in mind. Instead, focus on genuine relationship-building. Personal rapport trumps bravado every time.

This conversation uncovers the power of relationship capital: why Harvard, country clubs, and elite initiatives function as lifelong “clubs” that drive opportunity. If you’re wondering why boardrooms often seem exclusive, Ian unpacks the concept of discrimination versus racism and challenges viewers to “break up the comfort” and get in the room where decisions are made.

Finally, John and Ian discuss their own business journeys, with John opening up about building and selling a $150 million real estate portfolio and the lessons learned from joint ventures and relinquishing control.

If you’re serious about transforming your financial future—especially within Black America—this clip is a must-watch. Learn how financial literacy, AI knowledge, and networking “up the ladder” can reshape your path in just five years.

*Key topics in this clip:*

• Building your credit score to access big deals
• How to approach mid-tier banking executives for real connections
• The importance of storytelling and genuine rapport in business
• Relationship capital: Harvard, country clubs, and the “club” mentality
• Discrimination vs. racism in hiring and networking
• Real-life real estate and business lessons from John Hope Bryant
• The urgency of financial and AI literacy as modern civil rights issues

Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur, aspiring investor, or simply want practical steps to connect with powerful institutions, this Market Mondays clip gives you the blueprint.

*Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more sharp financial insights every Monday!*

#MarketMondays #FinancialLiteracy #JohnHopeBryant #IanDunlap #RelationshipCapital #BusinessNetworking #CreditScore #BlackWealth #FinancialWellness #RealEstate #AIGeneration #WealthBuilding #Entrepreneurship #NetworkingTips #CommunityBanking

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:02):
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Speaker 3 (01:51):
About how to build these institutional relationships if they don't
have them. The first thing you do is get your
credit score up to seven hundred, otherwise you can't even
It's like somebody going to line unch with you and
saying they want to do a five million dollar deal,
but they can't pay for the fifty dollars lunch.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I can't tell you many times I've had people broke.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
People come to me talking about they have a five
million dollars or five billion dollar line of credit from
excuse me, China or Rusher or someplace that you get
from China.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I'm like, come on, knock that stuff that I said.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
If you had a five billion dollars or five one
hundred million dollars line of credit, do you really think
that you'd be talking to me at lunch. Don't you
think that JB. Morgan Chase would have that. Don't you
think that Wells Froga would have that, KKR would have that.
Some investment baker would get that deal. Why are you
so special? It's because it's a scam, right, so and
it and it unravels. So first of all, get your
credit screw up so you're so you actually can walk

(02:40):
the talk. If you can't do a fifty thousand dollars deal,
don't be trying to talk talking about a five million
dollar deal. Knock it off. So get your credit score
up to seven hundred. They have a credit score for
black folks is six twenty across the country. I've done
that through our Hope of Financial Wellness Index. You put
your zip code in I'll tell your credit score wherever
you live. Get your credit score up, get your vibration up.
Go to the don't go to the local bank branch.

(03:03):
Find the regional credit officer for the bank. Don't go
to money center bank. Go to a regional bank or
community bank that has a billion two billion in assets,
five being in assets. But you can still get to
the chief credit officer. You still get to the chief
lending officer. If you can't get a no, why would
you want to get a knowe from the branch manager.
No disrespect intended from the branch manager. If I'm gonna

(03:25):
get a note, I want to know from a boss.
So I'm gonna go find We're great at storytelling. Go
find who are the chief lending officer. Chief credit officer
is these people who make credit decisions at a mid
size bank. Mid size is something with the B on
top of it. Billion in assets. It's not very big
for a bank. But you can still access these people

(03:48):
their emails on their website. In most cases, send them
an email. Don't be crazy, send an email. Hey, I'd
like to buy a business in town. I've read your resume,
your background. You seem like a very interesting person. I
love to meet you. Here's a little bit about me.
We're a great storytelling. Most people will give you fifteen minutes,
So either do it virtually, do it in person. Build
a report. Don't go in there and ask for a transaction.

(04:10):
Don't go in there bragging about yourself. Don't go in
there with it, don't go there with your hand. Go
there and find something personal about that person. Look at
the photos behind their desk, Ask them by their wife,
their husband about them. No one asks them about them.
Build a personal rapport, a warmth. And but before the
end of that meeting, that person will say, hey, by
the way, thank you, this has been a great meeting.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
What were you here for? What do you need? What
do you need?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Now the door is open and you say, well, actually,
thanks for asking.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
I really enjoyed meeting you. By the way, you gotta
be authentic about this. Can't be a game. I really
enjoy meeting you. Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
In addition to that, I'm trying to buy the dentist's
office or whatever. Okay, well let's get you with somebody.
Now that's changed everything because this person's job is to
say yes. The person in the branch manager, I'm not
picking up. Person in middle underwriting, middle management at a
corporation or bank or lender, their job is to say no.

(05:08):
Why they don't get fired for saying no? They get
fired or saying yes or the wrong thing to the answers. No,
you need to go to somebody whose business it is
to say yes. That's a C suite executive. I'm just
doing this quick because we don't have a lot of time.
So you go to because again, I want to get
to know one can know from the top. So relationship

(05:29):
capital is everything. Why does somebody go to Harvard because
Harve's gonna make you three times more smart as the
state university. No, it's because the class of twenty twenty
five at Harvard's gonna.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Hook each other up for the next fifty years. That's
why you go to Harvard.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Country clubs, fraternity sororities, universities.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
It's a club. I can't I can't mention where I
was last week, But that's a club. You guys right
to know what we're talking about. Who an Idaho milk
and conference. It's a club. Uh uh?

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Clinton, go over on in initiative. It's a club. You
want to be part of that club if you want to.
You want a relationship capital because they're gonna hook up
their friends. If you see a white if you see
a board of directors with all whites, five year old
men don't don't assume that's that's racism. It might be discrimination. Discrimination,

(06:28):
is I'm discriminating against you to do something else. But
if I grew up with these guys and went to
college with them, we chased girls together, that we lied
together whatever at school. And I need to hire somebody
who's a treasurer. I'm the I'm the chief of ACIL officer.
I need a treasurer. And I got three implications on
my desk. One's black, eminently experienced, ones a white womanly qualified.

(06:49):
And then the third one is a white dude I
went to college with who chased women and he and
he and he didn't tell me when I when I
cheated on a test, which one gets hired? This is
the white male now in this exactly the third. Yeah,
that's discrimination. It's not racism. By the way, that's the
way the world works. You have a barbecue, you invite

(07:10):
black people do your barbecue. Are you are you racist? No?
Are you discriminating a little bit? That means your friends,
So you're you're doing what's comfortable with you. We got
to break up the comfort and insert us. That's why
I loved you guys going to China and Africa. I've
been one hundred countries. You don't go, you can't know.
So this AI thing and this capital markets thing, and

(07:35):
the financial literacy thing, which I believe is the civil
rights issue of this generation.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Financial literacy and AI literacy is everything.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
These pieces plus relationship capital can transform Black Americas in
five years.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
This is the third reconstruction we're in right now in
my opinion.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
So okay, So with that being said, Mommy, I should
just because I never really asked you about real estate.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
You you like, you said.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Do you still own those properties? So you said that
you you've offloaded them.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
So I was a one hundred percent owner of the problem.
I built it from zero to one hundred and fifty
million dollars. I was one hundred percent owner. I paid
off eighty eight million dollars of debt and equity Christmas eight,
twenty twenty one.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
I owned thirty eight percent of the new joint venture.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
I was the largest shareholder after I sold so I
sold it for less than it was worth. It was
worth one hundred and fifty sold it for her to
twenty one. I was a thirty eight percent owner of
the new joint venture. But I realized very quickly. Because
I'm a control freak. I didn't have control of the
new entity, and so I was chairman or whatever. I
resigned as chairman, and you know, graciously, and I've decided,

(08:51):
I decided to let them do their thing, because that's
just not the way. A camel's a horse designed by committee,
and I don't do committees very well. And I'm a
very just think you of how I want to do something.
So God bless them and wish them well. And I
have an interest in their success, right if they succeed,
but I no longer control the enterprise.

Speaker 5 (09:10):
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(09:34):
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(09:57):
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Speaker 1 (10:08):
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