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

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0:38Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports, and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear.

1:15Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow Timbo Slice Life 12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor IV. And on my podcast, The Clifford Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on Office Blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama wants you to wave at her. What?

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2:03John Hope Bryant:About how to build these institutional relationships if they don't have them. First thing you got to do is get your credit score up to 700. Otherwise, you can't even. It's like somebody going to lunch with you and saying they want to do a$5 million deal, but they can't pay for the$50 lunch. I can't tell you how many times I've had people broke people come to me talking about they have a five million dollar or five billion dollar line of credit from from excuse me china or russia or someplace that you get from china i'm like come on knock that stuff off that i said if you had a five billion dollar or 500 million dollar 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 the wells fargo would have that kkr would have that some investment banker would get that deal why are you so special it's because it's a scam right so and it unravels So first of all, get your credit score up so you actually can walk the talk.

2:53John Hope Bryant:If you can't do a$50 ,000 deal, don't be trying to talk about a$5 million deal. Knock it off. So get your credit score up to 700. The average credit score for black folks is 620 across the country. I've done that through our HOPE Financial Wellness Index. You put your zip code in, I'll tell you your credit score wherever you live. Get your credit score up. Get your vibration up. Don't go to the local bank branch. find the regional credit officer for the bank. Don't go to a money center bank. Go to a regional bank or community bank that has a billion, two billion in assets, five billion in assets, but you can still get to the chief credit officer.

3:29John Hope Bryant:You still get to the chief lending officer. If you didn't get a no, why would you want to get a no from the branch manager? No disrespect intended from the branch manager. If I'm going to get a no, I want a no from a boss. So I'm going to go find, we're great at storytelling. Go find who the chief lending officer, chief credit officer is. These people make credit decisions at a midsize bank. Midsize is something with a B on top of it, billion in assets. It's not very big for a bank, but you can still access these people. Their email is on their website in most cases. Send them an email. Don't be crazy.

4:05John Hope Bryant: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'd love to meet you. Here's a little bit about me. We're great storytellers. Most people will give you 15 minutes. So either do it virtually, do it in person. Build a report. Don't go in there and ask for a transaction. Don't go in there bragging about yourself. Don't go in there with your hand. Go there and find something personal about that person. Look at the photos behind their desk. Ask them about their wife, their husband, about them. No one asks them about them.

4:34John Hope Bryant:Build a personal rapport, a warmth. And before the end of that meeting, that person will say, hey, by the way, this has been a great meeting. What were you here for? What do you need? What do you need? Now the door is open. And you say, well, actually, thanks for asking. I really enjoyed meeting you. Well, you've got to be authentic about this. It can't be a game. I really enjoyed meeting you. Yes, 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, the person in middle underwriting, middle management at a corporation or a bank or a lender, their job is to say no.

5:20John Hope Bryant:Why? They don't get fired by saying no. They get fired by saying yes to the wrong thing, so the answer is 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 a no. I get a no from the top. So relationship capital is everything. Why does somebody go to Harvard? Because Harvard's going to make you three times more smart as a state university? No. It's because the class of 2025 at Harvard is going to hook each other up for the next 50 years. That's why you go to Harvard.

5:56John Hope Bryant:country clubs fraternities, sororities universities it's a club I can't mention where I was last week but that's a club you guys probably know what I'm talking about it was an Idaho Milken Conference it's a club Clinton Global Initiative it's a club you want to be part of that club You want relationship capital because they're going to hook up their friends. If you see a board of directors with all white 65-year-old men, don't assume that's racism. It might be discrimination. Discrimination 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, and we lied together or whatever in school, and I need to hire somebody who's a treasurer.

6:52John Hope Bryant:I'm the chief financial officer. I need a treasurer. And I got three applications on my desk. One's black, eminently experienced. One's a white woman, eminently qualified. And then the third one's a white dude I went to college with who chased women. And he didn't tell me when I cheated on a test. Which one gets hired? This is a white male now. The third one. That's discrimination. It's not racism. By the way, that's the way the world works. You have a barbecue, you invite black people to your barbecue. Are you racist? No. Are you discriminating? A little bit. I mean, it's your friends. So you're doing what's comfortable with you.

7:33John Hope Bryant:We've got to break up the comfort and insert us. That's why I loved you guys going to China and Africa. I've been to 100 countries. You don't go, you can't know. So this AI thing and this capital markets thing and the financial literacy thing, which I believe is a civil rights issue of this generation, financial literacy and AI literacy is everything, 100%. These pieces plus relationship capital can transform Black America in five years. This is the third reconstruction we're in right now, in my opinion. so okay so with that being said okay well let me ask you this because i never really asked you about real estate you you like you said do you still own those properties you said that you you've offloaded them so i so i i was a 100 percent owner okay of the problem i built it from zero to 150 million dollars i was a hundred percent owner i paid off 88 million dollars of debt and equity Christmas Eve 2021.

8:37John Hope Bryant:I own 38 % of the new joint venture. I was the largest shareholder. So I sold it for less than it was worth. It was worth 150, sold it for 121. I was a 38 % owner of the new joint venture, but I realized very quickly that 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, 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 have a very distinct view of how I want to do something. So God bless them and wish them well.

9:16John Hope Bryant:And I have an interest in their success, right? If they succeed. But I no longer control the enterprise. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

9:53Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports, and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow Timbo Slice Life 12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

10:28What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor IV. And on my podcast, The Clifford Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker wops up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on Office Blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama wants you to wave at her. What?

10:56Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to The Clifford Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall, as we unpack all the trending tropes, buzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.

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