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we are beyond honored to be a part of this event because we brought somebody who we think really epitomizes what the Big Bend minority Chamber is all is is all about we believe in in building wealth through building business and we also believe in the American Dream we believe that you can achieve anything through hard work but there's a reality with the American Dream that you know that we talked about in the BBM see all the time and that is it's not just about hard work if you don't put hard work with access to information access to capital access to big business connections to mentorship that's meaningful then it's a difficult reality it's all those strategies with hard work that makes the dream really really possible and that's sort of where the be BMC tries to integrate our influence it's the gap that we're trying to build for our membership and making sure that they have the tools through education through mentorship through training that is necessary to succeed so Bridgette being a part of the of an opportunity like this with a guy like mr. Freeman is sort of it re-energizes us of our purpose because when you hear his story is more than about hard work it's more than he'll say he's lucky I got lucky he said that ten times last night I was just lucky I took that as he was he felt fortunate to be in a space and God doing some work through him you know we talked they've talked about the American Dream a little bit this morning and unfortunately we gonna talk a little bit about Darryl Friedman not my favorite subject kind of embarrassing at times when people say all those nice things about you you realize you know that it wasn't you but you just were at the right place at the right time but let's talk a little bit about that they're freamon native of Chattanooga Tennessee son of two parents who did not finish high school almost every time I read that makes me want to cry we started from nothing we grew up in a place in Chattanooga Tennessee where the American Dream did not visit very often but the cool part about it was I was in America Mayo been only wrong South the trot but I was in America so even though my mom was a Mayport time my dad worked in the fountain for 30-some years there were two loving parents but I found out about the American dream and that's what we need young people to find out about the American Dream the American purpose that wherever you're born whoever your parents are if they're rich poor black white V morning shadow if you're born into the suburbs the American Dream is available to you that's what I learned so yep we started from nothing I'm a graduate of militancy State University a school I went to humbug and a fret first of all I meant tallahassee community college I went to Chattanooga State Community College I dropped out with a one point two three four GPA now some of y'all don't know how hard that is to get those numbers yeah I'm not holding ideas to get those numbers to land up like that shine you can go to school a thousand you get it one two three four the point in that story is not how you start it's how you finish and I matriculated at MTSU with a friend of mine in 1980 in the fall of 83 and that trip that journey changed my life that changed my life miss Tina it changed my life it changed not only my life it changed the trajectory of all Freeman's from that point on so when I met my wife Gloria and we have kids it changed all of that getting an education and so it's good to be on a college campus here today husband and father for all that I do and in life will be worth nothing without the wife and four kids we've done a lot of big deals in my life some people will say you know there are big deals I've done million dollar deals I've done ten million dollar deals I've done forty million dollar deals the biggest deal ever the biggest deal ever was convincing Gloria Freeman to marry me and then and then have my kids four times okay three times in one oops now I'm telling now all my business passionate entrepreneur and philanthropist super new because my first job wasn't going well so I quit and I started my own company became an entrepreneur passionate philanthropist because where I grew up we were more likely to need a helping hand then to be able to provide a helping hand and so once I had some success I knew that I warned it'd be a give back and in that picture on the far right over there is I flew my plane and medical supplies and generators and people down the San Juan Puerto Rico about two months ago we all know what's going on in Puerto Rico the day that we landed in Puerto Rico but all those suppliers they still had no power unfortunately some of us are treating Puerto Rico like it's not a port of America so but I saw need there and then where's mister Bruce a from Haiti after the earthquake in Haiti I did a similar mission trip down there so I believe in giving back and I believe in I believe that they're always going to be people that that need help and it's up it's then coming on us when we have success to help those folks Iron Man that doesn't mean a lot I'm six times Iron Man norther I many minutes as I want you to do the Sabbath one with me I'm in is I do the arm it's because this of an event of endurance and there's something you can't ah it's a two point four mile swim in the ocean 112 mile bike and then a 26.2 mile run to follow that was they got to do a business I always believed that business is about perseverance and going the distance and even when you don't have it in you to keep going that's what I meant for me is about from the ground up 1991 that's me with that kid and play fate 1991 I started a company called cyclone in the office the size of a closet with $2,000 in savings and my wife's credit cards two grand that's almost like trying to walk across the desert with a girl in the water virtually impossible max laughing me out of the bank I go to the bank to get a loan we were talking about access to care for the last night go to the back to get alone they laughed me out of there $2,000 grew that company for from $2,000 investment to a company that when I sold it had over 40 million dollars in revenue so when I talk to you today about the steps not going to be talking from an academic perspective I'm gonna be talking about reality how did this poor boy from Chattanooga Tennessee whose parents did not graduate from high school turn $2,000 an investment in $2,000 and will come to a forty million dollar company we're gonna talk about that and how I did and it's very simple there's no magic but no magic to it started sell with other companies start the pinnacle construction partners co-founded the bank are reliant Bank we started in 2006 we've 2006 we ring the Nasdaq barrel twice with that company it skews Manhattan today about 1.6 billion dollars in assets now man you I was left out of the bank a few years before that I would say look who's laughing now but I'm not left me out of the bank I also lead director for a company called American addiction centers which is a company that does provide addiction treatment for people who are addicted to various drugs cocaine or this alcoholism etc etc that's a passion of mine we were publicly traded company we will do about 300 million in revenue next year but for me it's not about the money it's about saving lives because I've had members of my family to lose their lives or addicted to drugs so how do you go from a two thousand dollar investment and build a company that's has 40 million dollars in sales how do you cultivate your individual seed for success the cool thing about the c-4 success is is that we all have it we're all born with it you can't deny it when you were born you were born with a seed for success I'm glad to see you Fanning back there cuz I'm hot too I know if it was me but the C for success within all of us every child born has a seed for success and that seed with that seed you can grow to be anything that you want to be but it's going to require some work how did I do it how did that claim America's promises then we're all created equal how did I do that I'll show you how we did it number one establish your vision what is it that you want to be how many students do we have in here where the students raise your hand what is it that you to be what is it that you want to be and often times when you ask a person that they all come up with something that's probably really beneath what their possibilities are but I believe when you ask yourself the question what do I want to be you should dream really really really big when I started as a crowd I had a vision to have a 100 million dollar company now I'm a poor boy from Chattanooga Tennessee our life's used to get turned off all the time so why is this po boy mr. P been talking about building 100 million-dollar company vision make sure your vision is big enough to fit you because you have to see for success and vision when you have the vision and you write it down what it is that you want to be you can achieve it I'm here to tell you when I started as icon in the office the size of a closet dr. Mehra with 150 square feet I'm in the office the size of a closet it's so much so I went to visit that office about three years ago and they have turned it into a closet is the guy it's got mops and brooms buckets but in that off I had a vision in that office I had a vision so sometimes you got to have a vision regardless of your circumstance regardless of how bad things are you still got to have a vision for what it is that you want to be so it's our clone else you know nobody my family ran a business nobody my family owned a business but I had a vision and here is where a lot of us go wrong we'll have a vision but we don't connect our work to it so when I had the vision for Zyklon to be 100 million dollar company if I just went into my office every day and sat down Dana you I'm not saying you're going to office every day and sit down if you were in my office every day and sit down and did nothing I would just have a vision which means really I just got a pipe dream but I had to apply work so every day I were going there I'll call about a hundred folks on the phone asking them an attorney saying this is Darrell Freeman I'm the CEO of Zichron like to talk to you about doing your IT services and guess what they told me most the time you know you know they told me no they told me no but I had a vision the note did not fit my vision understand this if you've got a big vision you're gonna get some nodes I'm married to a woman that told me no when I first asked her to marry me then we got four kids that's at least four yeses somewhere see some of y'all didn't even get that it went right over your head right over your head let me break that down for you but the thing is vision you got to put work with it you gotta work hard so I was working 1012 1820 hours a day thro this business making phone calls and when they told me yes I'd run through the office so they can tell me no once I got there but every now and then somebody said yes yes yes and I grew the company that way and then I hired my first employee and my second employee but I had to put the work in because vision without this is just a pipe dream and the reason why I liked the fact that it was so hard to do it's because when it's hard there's no crowds but it's hard there's no crowds so I'm trying to start this little company people making fun of me I'll make you quit your job to go start that company to be own boss you making no money okay I'm good with that but I'm a word one thing that my dad did every day was he worked he didn't have an education but he went to music I play every morning at 5:30 that's the lesson he taught me work so working at Zichron doing everything from janitor accounting cleaning the floors everything my job and people think menu that's crazy you won't quit your job and go do that I did work once things started going a little bit better so one of my students where my students the students okay we vision I heard somebody talk about the students their own business last night who was what group right here what business you're starting now hoping we hope is not a strategy no and I'm just missing bet you bring in a say okay and what are you gonna do with it okay good vision put the work in it can happen for you know we live in the we live in the greatest country in the world where you can have an idea like he has and take over the world with it right you can do that that's all very possible so the next thing you have to do in business is on ending life you got to surround yourself with good people you got to surround yourself with good people and what does that mean people who want to see you be successful people who want to see you succeed people who want to push you and what I learned in business and and in life is if you around some folks who don't want anything they're gonna drag you down fear and some folks who don't want this okay if you want some folks that don't want anything they're gonna drag you down what's trying to surround myself with people who were going to push and make me better people who under who had understood my vision and people who had a vision for themselves without that it's hard for you to get to where you need to be without folks who are willing to push you and make you better the first person I hired was my best friend and people obviously don't hire your friends in business I had my best friend you know I hired him because I believe it's gonna push me we have been a University at the University together he pushed me and I pushed him and he made me better and I made him better but there was my first hire and people said why did you hire your best friend even my wife said me that's kind of you know you hire your best friend and you know why it's give great advice let me I want you to pull that see looking at you man why I asked you great advice but I had my best friend surround yourself good people my promotions tell me all the time I can tell who you are but who you hang with now this is an uneducated woman I'm trying to walk in fine with the Vince aww is it right here undefined events my abilities to say I can tell I can tell a lot about you by who you hang with and so you the average is probably the five people that you hang with if you're hanging with some stars there's a you might become and start hearing some does you're probably going to become a dirt going to surround yourself with good people so in business I've always had the idea and the philosophy to hire the best people and I've taken a lot of flack for that I was talking to mr. Pittman last night at some point in my client's life I was the CEO of Zichron now why was that a CEO because I found the company I owned all the stock right my company up to be the CEO but the company stopped growing the company stopped growing at about year 1213 and guess what the problem was guess who the problem was the CEO okay so what I do fired myself I fired me I fired Daryl Freeman and I wouldn't either search for sia when I found it about Emma Stephen Howard with the company was about 16 million in revenue he tripled the size of the company and when you find good people let me tell you what else you find you find diversity if you look for quality full fire Jeana you just Everett you you everything you got your hand on the stomach set over there you yeah I know you are but when you find when you find if you search for quality you will find diversity and so I've searched for a CEO and the relation while searching I found the guy by letting Stephen Howard Smith now I hired Steven Howard Smith I got a lot of flack in the community you know why Stephen Howard Smith happened to be white do I care no and that's when you're building a quality company if you go out and seek the best people you're gonna find something white you're gonna find something black you're gonna find some women some Hispanics and so when you looked at the the organization if you think the organizational chart of Zichron it was very diverse my CFO was African American woman my CEO with African American woman my VP of Sales is a Caucasian guy myself it was to cut my C over the Caucasian again had me fired CEO when you surround yourself with the best people you going diversity so when I lo
k at companies where the whole staff is all black or the whole staff is all white they don't have the best people they've done skipped over somebody to get their friend in there now somebody that makes them feel comfortable if you're going to get the best people you're gonna have diversity you can have diversity I ain't got to preach about diversity if you get the best if I like rapping you got the best people it's going to be diverse it's just the reality of it I'm gonna go to the next one overcoming obstacles I told you I couldn't get a bank loan what does that mean nothing to me it's just one obstacle along the way could not get a bank loan did not mean anything it's just another obstacle if you're going to start a business if you're gonna be successful in business you got to have obstacles and you got to look at those obstacles and climb over the top of them and climb over the top of them I want a consistent mix oh that's alright you good so when the bank's told me no thank you sir we can have all the napkins in the building any minute you see the big pile on my head but you got to have obstacles in life you're gonna have obstacles students you're gonna have obstacles don't let those obstacles turn you back at Zarkon I had obstacles I build in the bank I had schools every company I've ever started I had obstacles but guess what I am persistent persistent talking about my wife persistence breaks down the resistance she resisted and I persisted resistance breaks down the persistence if if your vision doesn't have any obstacles it's a tiny vision big visions have big opticals if you wake up every day and your day is great and you don't have obstacles you're not doing something every day should be filled with obstacles if you're going somewhere your days to be filled with obstacles otherwise you're not doing anything it should be hard to start that business you're talking about it should be difficult because if it wasn't somebody has to be doing it it should be hard starting the company with nothing should be hard starting a company should be hard whatever you measured in school should be hard it should have obstacles big visions come with big obstacles but I'm gonna tell you we talked about the scene for success to think for success fast that you can overcome those obstacles I'm not telling you about something I read in a textbook I'm telling you about real life I'm not telling you about something I read an economics class I never took an economics class I'm talking about take a business class I'm telling you about real life now think about your day today what are you going to do today that's hard what's your vision for to and for the next year does it have any obstacles in it so stuff do you say wow I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that does it have that in it because if it does it Yubel it you're living below your possibilities I didn't know they're all Freeman could store the company and become a multi-millionaire I did not know that that didn't happen in my neighborhood people in my neighborhood took the showers when they came home from work I didn't know that as I said division did the obstacles came in all forms some obstacles come in the form of people telling you well you know you can't do that because she's from here or you grew up over there but you don't have the pedigree of the background you don't have the education and so now as an entrepreneur I mean when they come with the obstacles I'm fired up that's perfect I want them bring me all the reasons why I shouldn't do it and I'm gonna do it well we want to start with like a bank I had a bunch of guys come in sit down you know what the banking industry how far left you should do that perfect I was just waiting for you to come tell me so I can write my check obstacles man a beautiful can you imagine climbing a mountain with no obstacles if it's smooth you got it you need some obstacles to step up and you got to be persistent it can be persistent nothing too persistent something you know anybody ever seen a man on the street corner jackhammering with a jackhammer but some celeb come and demonstrate at least then you're gonna demonstrate you're gonna be my jackhammer person Haven this is gonna be exciting know so she's jackhammering trying to break a boulder under the street mmm we're gonna get to that go slow go fast I wanna yeah yeah that's good so she she's jackhammering she's been doing that all day trying to break this Boulder and then Miss Moore comes by someone and they go BAM she booked the boulder as you were coming by and you say to miss Harmison you done thank you you say to her she just broke the boulder but that wasn't it it was all the times that she was hitting it before they broke it she sometimes we kid we quit hammering we quit trying before we break through so the people who submit inside oh yeah Darrell Freeman he's this multi-million Mick multi-million dollar guy blah blah blah but they miss all that they meant it's right here they saw me do a transaction just saw this company but they miss all of this and you got to be doing all of this to get you a breakthrough the cost is coming but if you quit jackhammering it quits jackhammering it ain't gonna happen it ain't gonna happen enough I believe that whatever you put your mind to you can achieve it I believe that I believe that I told you at the beginning I was a child I can stay with a one point two three four GPA and how hard it was to get that to line up I went on the MTS she was an average student I say all that to say you are smarter than that what you bring to the table the intellect that you bring to the table you can be what you want to be and then the last thing never stop getting better never stop getting better every day that I wake up I'm waking up thinking man what am I gonna do today better than I did yesterday and it may be can I be nicer to people it would be can we do a better job with our bank it may be every day I'm thinking about how can I improve and that's what you got to do everything you got to wake up thinking how can I improve them and give me an example Zarkon being on the contract of the state of Tennessee three times one year we be it they said we were the lowest prices ever it ain't about pricing okay name about price next year we be if we won the lowest price they said it was about pricing but I kept improved the company so if the next time we bid they can tell us no and prove everything but I was on a self-improvement plan right self-improvement so every time I went in there the company was better than it was the year before the two years before it was better and better keep improving every day now the question is how do I know this stuff works the first little company in the office the size of a closet with a whole bunch of mops and brooms $2,000 in savings and my wife's credit cards somebody wanted it more than I wanted how do I know this works and people ask me well Daryl why did you sell your company some people asked me how did I sell my company that's the more pertinent question not why he sold it hell I can look at the number and tell you why I sold it I mean what what well why do you say your company oh okay you did you read it you can't read but the question is how and I just went through how to build something those points I just made if we had a whole day I have to talk to you eight hours about that but those are just the high points but that's this stuff works I didn't do all that and get an alien business class that wasn't the objective I did all that to do that and now I got three CEOs and I'm helping build their companies but I want to do that three more times and I want to impact their lives and their kids lives and their kids kids life it's it's not enough for me to be successful it can't help you all be successful at this time I turn it over for questions I think I've overstayed my welcome probably does anybody have any questions get him Deena okay so Darryl you said you couldn't get a loan from a bank were you able to get any assistance from the Small Business Administration from some of the other business resource assistance programs no no no one no yeah I had to grind it out man and I did we did we went we had to just grind it out there's some value in those believe there's some value walk to your life today if you get a bunch of knows BAM that's awesome because you know what knows come a Series and in there somewhere in that train of nose is a yes so the best kept telling me no eventually I got a yes and I was talking to mr. Pitts last night I always I always believe it's under play you should at least have three banks even though I'm part owner of a bank I got two more banks that I deal with because one of them might tell you know if you only got one and that's the one telling you no you're in trouble because you know cash it's like money running through your veins be like blood in your veins you went out of cash you could be profitable enough in the cash and have to file bankruptcy you can be profitable and can't make your payroll or can't pay your bills but you profitable but you ain't got no cash you're done yes we have another question here stand and introduce yourself while she's coming to the mic I just want to thank Gloria Freeman that had those credit cards yeah you said new girl okay the Lord we're very thankful for her this morning as well all right good morning mr. Freeman my name is Cynthia Felix and I'm actually a hair professional and I am also in accountant by trade yes novice salon management consulting firm and I wanted to know at what point did you go out and start getting employees or what was some indicators or things going on in your business in terms of you know you're doing too much or what was some things so one of the one of the problems entrepreneurs have is we think with the best person to do it right so you could be busy 18 hours a day doing the work thinking that there's nobody else better to do it but let me just share y'all share with you this there are seven billion people in the world I bet you one of them maybe there might be a person diner that can do it better than you so with me it became I became so busy trying to do everything right and so once that happened and I hired somebody and they started doing I fact man this is kind of cool because entrepreneurship is not about creating a job for you but to a nurse you're supposed to free you up you're creating jobs for others so when I got overly busy I hi I'm buddy and I got a question for you so where's your salon located in okay here's I got a suggestion for you as opposed to bring out that booth by the building then you run out the booth every missus up in up in I try to own a real estate I sold the company kept the real estate there to pay me they pay me rent we've got another question over here keep the real estate what's your kids names Bellomo Phoebe Pilar they're gonna have the real estate and their kids gonna have the real estate but if you're renting they won't they're gonna have the real estate I got a whole nother talk on that and key it you know what it crazy not you don't like yes I'm mr. Freeman my name's Tyler Jones and I was just here in FSU a graduate student I have actually dropping out to start my own business okay I'm so I'm going to start I just do it and you're dropping out right okay so my vision is to start a fitness apparel company that supports type 1 diabetes and I'm just wondering exactly what your vision was was it always build a software company and why did it why did you choose to build that type of come okay so I believe that you should do what you know so if you know about what you're about to do that's a lot better so I started coming because I was an IT major I knew something about athlete so that's why I started the IT company wasn't I wasn't jumping to something out of my feel so you know what you're talking about and you gonna sort of copy around that hey man yourself out go kill it I think you will I think you'll win and if it's hard you on the right track but bunch of obstacles keep moving other questions hey Darryl thank you for coming thank you for coming to our community so could you tell us a little bit about the culture of Nashville you could have succeeded just about anywhere but what was it about that culture that helped make you a success provided you with those obstacles or helped move you forward the the cool part about Nashville is it's like it's a big small city and so if you want to meet people the the movers and shakers the Nashville if you go to a little league baseball game or you go to a soccer game or if you go to a reception you run into you know the powers that be in Nashville and so one of my mentors got my name of Sam power he pointed me three different places he said I want you to store volunteer a United Way so I had to find something United Way that I was passionate about and he also asked me to volunteer with a hundred black metal militancy which I did that as well and then he became the chairman of the chamber and I asked him to be on the board and so Nashville it's easy to build relationships and I did that because you know I told you I was the CEO but I had no experience at being a CEO so I learned from CEOs in this room just by reading about them in the paper and the moves that they were making but Nashville is a it's a big small city that you can still get connected and you can there are people there that really want to help you be successful and so that's NASA was nasty or was a good landing spot for me and the business that I'm involved in where did he go oh thank you got that and tell the hassle you got the it's this is a friendly place I mean the reception and everybody's been extremely nice even the Bulldog Darryl Freeman there a lot of minority and women-owned businesses here and I'm curious to know how you made the transitions yeah em WSB programs to clear success so there that's a good question I didn't recognize you without your head so when I first started the company we would market the company as a minority-owned business and then a few years into that I said you know we're not going to do that we're just going to be a high-value how called to delivering business that it's just so happy to be owned by a guy that looks like me so my focus was on value creation not whether I was black or white but just value creation some building something so that at some point it could stand on his own regardless of if they were in a minority business program or not and so I focused on building a high quality company not focused on being a minority so and I would go to the meetings and they would say well you didn't tell us you minority company well I wasn't I wasn't going to tell you that that's not I'm not here something that so I'm here selling high quality IT services and so that's what I did so don't focus on being a minority focus on being great focused on delivering high quality services if there's somebody who wants some points for you being minority that's fine but that's not what you're selling you're not sell minority points you're selling IT or you're selling whatever it is you're selling so I wouldn't I wouldn't rely on that did that answer your question there oh okay so he wants to talk about so this is a funny story oftentimes ism as a company people come to you and they want you to be a subcontractor right and so I was a post bad company there are the business now sports bad company be a subcontractor I had a real small small carpet they were half of being another firm and we're sitting across the table he's talking to me and he says well Darryl you know I think you know we'll do 85 percent of this deal and you guys would do 15 percent and I said to this guy with a straight face you know I was thinking the same thing I was thinking we do 85 percent and you guys do 15 percent know your value and even if you even if you don't know your value don't settle for 15 percent and that's what happens in these communities all around town where people self these programs and small companies are going in and settling for 15% 15% I want half at least so we sell 5149 but if I hadn't have done that I would have got what 15% yes sir you know first of all thank you for sharing your story I mean it's an amazing you k
ow and and thank you for continuing to try to help others there there are a number of education leaders government leaders business leaders in the room we all want to help entrepreneurs in our community what advice do you have for us your students make sure that you providing them an education that's marketable whether they're going to go out in the workplace and get a job or we're gonna go out in the workplace or they're going to drop out and go at their own business make sure you're providing something for them that they can go out with a skill that they have that I left them TSU I have value I was an IT person has an IT skills so make sure you provide them with something can go out and add value in the marketplace and then secondly get your purchasing department go to your person department and see how they're spending their money but they're splitting it with the same folks they spending with the last 40 years somebody said yeah I don't know but you know just make to providing opportunities for for the for businesses period but make sure you ain't doing it with the same companies over and over and over and over again I always felt if you just gave me a shot i'ma win so me not giving them the business giving small businesses a shot of the times in business I learned over the years that what deals would transpire that nobody knew about open it up and that other folks tend to have a to get a shot at it so I think that's a couple things that you can do good morning mr. Freeman good morning sir I remember you you got 11 kids yeah we do have two new ones okay they made nine okay again my name is Brian ba I am a po boy from Chicago Illinois the south side of Chicago Illinois you mentioned that you were a po boy from Chattanooga mhm and so one of the questions that I have for you is coming from those backgrounds so I know that it builds a lot of personal characteristics in you as you overcome some of those personal obstacles what are some of those characteristics that help you in business that you learn from being a pole Washington well here is what I'm nervous about with my kids you can't teach hunger when you po growing up you hungry actually you hungry hungry you can't teach hungry until you expected and so coming from Jackson Street I was hungry I wanted something better than what we had I worn it I didn't want to live in a 2-bedroom duplex I didn't want that no my kids or they're grown there but they had their own room so they're not hungry for their own room cuz they already got it I was hungry that's the great thing about growing up in the ghetto you learn some lessons you learn some people skills that you can't get the University you know surf if you you learn who to hang out with who not to hang out with who's gonna get in trouble and who's not who's gonna get shot at some real lessons man so I take in business I took I took my what I learned growing up in Chattanooga I had enchanting you had to learn how to repeat read people read their hearts read their minds their chemistry I learned that and then I can walk into a boardroom and and do the same thing to figure out who I can look and establish some chemistry width I've worked out Motech million dollar deals on that skill set alone had nothing to do with school but just having an understanding of how to read people and then we are in the meeting everybody's yelling and fussing and fighting and I get his number we get no worth meeting we'll get nowhere after four or five hours lawyers all around the room we get nowhere but I read one guy and the next day I call them up as head man pleasure to meet you I think we can get this deal done but we can't get a deal with done with all the folks in the room your side in my side but I'm representing my side you represent your side I were both fair people let's get the deal done I've done that many times reading people you know get them and you gotta you gotta you gotta get to read people know who's gonna help you who's gonna harm you or try to harm you see I wanna make sure that my airplane air conditioners own this and let me just apologize that we don't have no matter I want to make a point though cuz I know how you feel you know I teach it fam you in the school of business and some of some of my students or ex students are here today it gets hot when you're teaching and and and talking and lecturing when I get finished professor white you're in a sweat and so the air conditioning is so important and we are just really know so we're I'm just normal I'm good you good yeah this is calm back then okay good morning I'm Ashley Walker a graduating senior from family oh and my question is how did you silence the outside noise of like fear and doubt and everyone else oh man who said I wasn't scared fear is good Phil get your foot out of the bed you need that fear but don't let it paralyze you let it motivate you be scared I'm scared I'm scared I got fear but I let fear mollified motivate me not paralyze me and don't let the fear of failure stop you fellas good I think it a chance to talk about that but I failed a bunch of times before we got here but the difference is I'm standing on top of my failures my failures are not standing on top of me [Applause] and I ain't hardly meet him I'm not hide them I felt a bunch of times but here's the deal it's another table whatever you whatever it is that you want to be we talked of vision let everybody know what you're gonna do let them all know let everybody know what it is you're not bragging but you're gonna let them know because people who keep their goals in secret the reason why they do that so they can tell it in secret and don't nobody know I mean I like I'm trying to lose weight I tell my boys hate me I want to lose 15 pounds but they see me at crystals but if I told them we're good if I hadn't tell them I'm trying to lose weight we everything's good but if you said go make it public make it public any more questions mr. Freeman yes your story is incredible it's awesome you just thank you so much thank you so much question my question has to do with focus did your businesses overlap or did you finish one and then have a plan for the second or were you doing everything at the same time no no I had I had one business Zichron and I started having success in in in Zichron and then when I realized that I was not a good CEO and I hired a CEO one thing about having some success people bring deals to use and so I was focused on Zichron and then when I hired to see all the runs I crime and people sort of bringing deals to me I realized the best way for me to create wealth was to invest in good people and get out of the way so we invested in the banker we invested in the s3s net asset management is pinnacle so I ain't no running anything so our focused on cycling and after I hired a CEO I became very unfocused in business and started a whole bunch of other companies that I don't run because I ain't no good at it there's some bigoted people in the world one of us better at me better than me that morning those companies even though I have the right to run them because I own a lost percentage of them but I don't want to run Daryl would you be willing to take one more question yeah they are running out of time but come on good morning mr. Freeman my name is Carla Smith I'm the owner a Brian B Smith cleaning service we are full maintenance cleaning company yes mr. Freeman what are some mistakes as an entrepreneur that you made that you can share with me so I don't make the same mistakes oh I got a bunch of them but we're gonna start with number one the best time to fire somebody it's when you first think about it my mistake was a bunch of template all yeah my work until they get better six months later six months later he's been working with them the best time to fire somebody is when you first think about it does not get better from there and guess what they know it and you know it they know it they're not doing the job they know you to they waiting on you to put the misery and I'm not saying that from my heart respect because I hate firing anybody but you can't let something one person sink the ship so if you got it so the game you burn yourself that's concerned about they're not with you that's but that's that's hard advice for even I mean that's hard I've ex-military because we talked about hiring good people if you're building a company you bit Memphis it out you might get the air going it's over here yeah but if you are building a company there's a group of people that can be from 0 to 10 million right but if your goal is to get to 40 million that same group may not be able to take you there it's like having a team that can take you to the first round of the playoffs but you can't get you the Super Bowl with him so what you got to do change him out one of the reasons why we saw was I saw the company was I had the 40 million dollar team on deck they were I mean I had the 14 our team with my team for me to go from 40 to 100 million I didn't let shouldn't say this you guys of recording this but I'll say it anyway I would have to restate my team and I didn't want to do that because a bunch of those folks have been with me 15 years so for me to go from a forty million dollar revenue company to a hundred million other company I would have to redo the team and I wasn't going to do that but look here the person that got you from here to here may not really get you to there I hate it but that's business I really hate that I really promise you I know their wives and their husbands and other kids I know all of that so what time you kind of firing tomorrow 10:00 a.m. okay you can't even get a break first or you can get them on a break well you find them on a Wednesday most folks on Friday you know give them the time over the weekend cool off someone come making it a thing you know we're going to take one more question if you will I know we're running out of time and it seems like the longer you're talking the more people are warming up now I'm wanting to ask questions I'll take three more okay yeah I'll take all right we see you up there and we'll we'll get you next I'm sorry I can't we're gonna hurt him and then tourney but I don't want to turn anybody down okay hello thank you mr. Freeman my name is C auntie I have an IT staffing IT services company I see you offered I have one question that I come across all the time women all over the world a woman entrepreneur struggle to balance out their life their passion their personal growth and being there for family and care for family we feel guilty not being there and and you go through and think about that we have in not achieving anything so what is the one piece of advice you could give that we can take on and improve and implement to achieve everything that we wanted in life I think your question was about life because I feel like it submit to because balance itself means taking one thing away from keeping it another thing so I'm not sure how the balance can be achieved if I'm taking an attention from one place and keeping it in another place so for me when I had four kids my kids were tiny and I was an entrepreneur with the airplanes any of that I would drive 12 hours to a meeting meet a tower and drive back or spin the night and miss my kids waking up to go to school and so I made my kiddie time just as important as my work time or more important so my kids schedule was on my schedule none of it's worth it without it it's not worth all that you do in business it's not worth it if you've missing out on anytime you got a four-step family time one things I did buy to make sure that I was involved in my kids lives I coached their sports and I sucked but I was out there I might even be on my phone a little well coaching first base but I was there so you got to make sure that that you incorporate the family time and you've got to make sure that the people in your business know that hey I got four small kids and it's about them so don't schedule this meeting when you know I got to pick my sign up for my daughter at Zyklon kids were first you could get in big trouble with Daryl Freeman if you miss your kids swim meet I didn't play that I didn't play I wanted you at your kids activities but before now don't get me wrong you know you can be an umma performer you got to perform but I want your kids and your family to come first I wanted you to be the de parent if you work the circle I want you to be the parent that the teacher call when the kid got sick so work on the balance and but you're gonna you got this is what's gonna happen you got to get a little bit of algebra let's get back in bounds since I getting on the scare you like you don't ask it but then it goes up and then you slide it back a little bit inside back a little bit that's what it is work on that I'm glad you're thinking about it that's awesome good morning again as Walter Davis the question that I have is you said you're fired yourself is to CEO yeah and that movement my question is though where did you go to hire that CEO I mean oh I'm sure wasn't indeed or man that's that's a really good question I got a good answer for you yes if he can't beat them hire I had my competitions executive okay he had taking the company from 2 million he had been with their company from 2 million to a hundred something million I was like man I don't know what I'm doing I need to get out of here and he had been with them for 20 years said ok I called him to my office I had an envelope with a beat big a check in it so hey man I just a longer story short I want you to meet my team all my team came in and met him I knew I wanted him team came in man and they liked him I came back in and said hey here's the envelope I want you to come run this company I've got them for my competition okay thank you got it for my competition good morning so not just thank you for being here but thank you for your leadership I want to give you some background on how Shaun started the BB MC as a lead-in into this question what four years ago now are we four years five years five years Shaun came to see me and all of the founding board we're hand-picked based on this man's big vision to change the Big Bend area that in a way that would facilitate more minority and women-owned businesses so basically providing some opportunity for others that many of us did not have I told you my personal story last night and you know Shaun's personal story but our entire board has similar story so the thought was if you could be the thought leaders the facilitators for an entire region in terms of promoting at least opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses why not and we've had obstacles and and you know God willing we'll continue to rise to every occasion and step on those obstacles but the one obstacle whether it's related to the be BMC or anything we do in our personal attempts in the Tallahassee area that I would love to hear your words of wisdom about relates to the noise right the community noise about the few of us or the hundreds of us that might want to make Tallahassee better place in which to live work and play and here's my question to you so that you understand the full focus of what I'd like for you to address I can't imagine you were completely and quickly embraced by your community my father used to say if you want to change something you got to be part of it and and I'd like to hear a little bit more about how you blocked out the community noise that tried to question your intention and your motivation and stepped on that obstacle to get to where you are in your community so as an entrepreneur I'm gonna tell the story 1992 91 somewhere near I made a bid to sell for computers to an agency a agency in Nashville but it was done via fax anybody run effective teams my fax my fax machine was thermal fax you know if you didn't get the fax off before the Sun hit it it turned black you need that old shot need that other but I did a beard via fax to the organization right and I won the bid the effects now they didn't know me from Adam but I decided the guy that I am once I want they gave me the award I decided to go introduce myself to them I didn't look like the person that they thought she would want so they reduced the beard reduced the order down to one computer
ecause they wanted you know we can't possibly give him four can't possibly buy four from him let's just try one else I've won four and so I knew what they did was wrong and I knew what it was based on I knew what it was based on I had to decide then whether I'm gonna focus on being an entrepreneur or attacking social ills I philosophies it's let me focus on creating value and wealth and then I can really attack those social ills because it's hard to make change socially when you broke broke then top loud it doesn't broke your salad at a limey salad silent broke a salad Brooke is really quiet so as an entrepreneur I focused on creating value and having creating value and not mixing that with you know fighting discrimination have I experienced discrimination hey yes have I been places where they said they don't want it because what I look like heck yes but I told you that's just another obstacle and I I gave a speech one time to a group and they'll say well no it had to be hard you know me Americans carpet did you know what I knew was black when I started it I mean I knew you know I said a little something else like add some Michael Jackson stuff in there but I lived through it I know I wasn't changing right but I knew that way and so it does come with some additional obstacles that it shouldn't come with and so I didn't focus on discrimination I just spend one dime marketing to fight discrimination but what I did was I focused on excellence because people discriminate because they don't know you and if you're good at what you do that breaks that home because they think oh yeah this is a black company got to be slow lazy hi I need to talk about it I'd have to talk about talk about fighting that if I was the best I could change your minds in some cases I did in some cases there's hope you just mind you just up and change
