Episode 3: Perseverance!

In this episode, we talk about perseverance!
We talk about how powerful hard work, determination, networking can be! You must overcome personal obstacles to achieve success. Listen in as we discuss out personal experiences are shared, and the significance of parents nurturing their children's talents to set them up for success!

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Transcript

Rich People's Business podcast and Reginald Ballard.

Welcome. We are happy to have you here.

We are going to talk about perseverance, perseverance baby.

You got to keep it moving. You got to keep it moving because once you stop, you know, for sure that it ain't gonna happen. Yes.

And we are not A R and B.

I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel like, you know, big pop on the day, baby, baby, baby.

Oh my gosh, y'all, we're gonna have a lot of fun today talking about perseverance. I think something that makes us both happy.

A happy though. I love it. I love it.

Good to talk about perseverance. Right? Yeah.

Perseverance. As a matter of fact, what was your first business?

My first business. Hm. Ok.

I had a lemonade stand in Fifth lemonade in Fifth Wall.

Houston, Texas, baby. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I made a profit. I remember my mom at the end we went and got, I sold pickles.

Now laters and lemonades to the folks in Fifth War and they don't know in Texas, you know, you have pickles, you could put the inside the Yeah, it was, it was, it was a thing.

It was a thing. And I remember at the end of the day, my mom said after going to Sam's Club and get all my supplies, she was like, yeah, made $10. Was it worth it? I said, yeah, we gonna do this again next week. Right. That was my, that was my first business.

$10 was hard to come by when you was a kid. Sure. You buy a whole lot of things. $10 you roll that in to another 10 next week. Roll that in. Now you got $30. You roll that 30 by, by time after the end, by the end of the year, you gonna have about at least 3 $400 if you look at it that way.

Yes, that's my mom didn't as a single parent, she was like, this is costing me too much time and energy for me.

But for me it, that's right. That's right. And that's why you do what you do right now. Your business right now, you're making nice change right now.

I think you should pour into your kids when you see that they have a AAA love or a knack for something you engage.

And that's what my mom, what my mom did, the writing was on the wall when I was in second grade and I wanted to eliminate and sometimes that, that, that we, you might, you, you might, made less than $10.

But you persevered and you kept on going. Oh,

yeah, that's what I want you to recognize.

I raised the level. I raised the level. Then I started selling, you know, kit Kats and Snickers. Like I elevated. I figured out, I figured out early on what I needed to do to make more than $10.

Wow. Well, you have been cold blooded in the dope game. So, you know, you gotta move, you gotta move, you gotta move.

Yeah, I could have done that. I could have done that very much.

I have. Yes. Yes.

But I think, you know, I think it starts early on and I think parents do need to really push their kids when they see that they have talent. beyond of the norm. I have a friend and I, and we're gonna have some interviews, where we talk to people that have different types of careers but she is about to own her own car dealership. I mean, and she's a sister, she's a sister and, I mean, I think there are so many things that, that we can be talented in, you know, minorities.

I think sometimes we don't have the, the opportunity but we really have, something to bring to each table where we can share and we can grow because there are things that we're doing that now we should talk about them. These are the, this is the perseverance that I think we want to bring to the forefront with Rich People's Business podcast. We want to talk about it. We want what we want to be about it and we want to show you those people that are are about it.

Yeah, I can't wait to talk to her because, you know, car business. Hey, that's big. Right. Yeah. You know, you know, black people will always, you know, see black people, we go to another black business and it's a car dealership too. You know, because we, we don't hear that whole thing at the end of the the, the credit application thing, you know, when they say, yeah, good credit that what I'm saying, man, I get a call for $15. Damn, I don't know, got to be 9 70 to get that.

But, but, but she's sharp every time I buy a car, that's who I call her because she knows she's run dealerships. But there's more than one way to, to create wealth for yourself and it's perseverance. Of course, you know, sometimes you start, you have, you have humble beginnings or you have rough beginnings but you persevere and you push and you still end up on top because you do the work.

I think that's the difference sometimes between people that succeed and the people that don't succeed is the ability to push and persevere. And I think, you know, I think we both know a lot about perseverance.

I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you when I first came to, to Hollywood. When I first came out here. I, this is my example. When I came out, I went from one end of Hollywood Boulevard to the other end of Hollywood Boulevard, passing out pictures, passing out pictures, passing out pictures, passing out that door to door, that's my door to door, you know, giving different agencies you supposed to mail them in because they didn't have Google and all this stuff at the time.

I mean, you know, you could just email and all they had it. So I walked and I got so exhausted. I was like, man, I'm done. And then last I'm gonna get one more. I went one more time and that was the agent that called me. That, that last one I went, I was going to turn around and go home because I was, I was exhausted and I, and I gave it to that person and that person called that. That's the, that, that's what happened. Yes. Yes. Perseverance, man.

It's, it's just like this is like, I mean, any example, you know, I, I, I, I, the Martin thing, the Martin thing and for y'all that don't know, he was on the Martin show, he played from the field float.

So, you know, it was going, well, it was going well and then all of a sudden, you know, they was like, ok, this is the only money he's given. I was like, wow, you know, so I was gonna to give up. I was like, you know, I don't, I ain't gonna do it no more. And guess who I called?

Well, no, you didn't call me because I was living with you because I was broke and out of out of my apartment. So, so the story goes, I, he moved me out in the middle of the night from a bad roommate situation and I happened to be living at his house when he and his lovely wife. She's amazing. and I came home one day and he was moping. I said, what's wrong with you?

You were? I said, what's wrong with you? I ain't gonna be on the show. That's my, that's my voice for you. I'm not gonna be on the show. And I said, what do you mean? My agent said this? And so I was like, OK, I picked up the phone and I, and he was like, what you doing? I said, I'm getting you back on the show. I said what you want. I was like, what you wanna do, I'm holding the phone, what you want to do.

And he was like, I want to be back on the show. I was like, I was 2021 or 22 at the time. I was 21 22. I dialed the number and he said, Ok, whatever I called the studio and I said hi. You know, my name is Dana Haling. I heard that you've had, issues with negotiating Reginald's contract for the upcoming season.

I have now taken over the reins of managing Reginald Ballard and would like to know if you are, I had to be smoking something that I was like, how did this go down?

And you are open to negotiating, to negotiating the terms of his new contract? Track? And they said, oh my gosh, we're so glad you called. please, you know, come up, we want, we want you to talk to the network. Come up within the next hour, we literally got in the car. I said, you drive, I got my little notebook and I said, tell me all the things that you had before and all the things that you don't want this time.

And I just wrote, I wrote those things down when we walked in. I said, don't say nothing. I don't care what I say. Do not say anything. We, we, we walked into the door, Sam Art Williams was the executive producer and he was like 72. Yeah. Yeah.

He, when, when you, when you ever seen Big Shirley, they didn't show the face that was Sam Mart Williams.

He was a giant. and he had a great personality. So it made him even larger than life. You, yes, you walked in and he was like, original. yeah, where's your manager? And he was like, she's down there. I'm, I'm 52. And so, so we walk into the room and there are all these suits sitting in there and I think I look like a little girl.

All my stuff was in storage. I had to throw on something that I had at the time and I looked like I was five years old. So I walk in and I immediately start negotiating way higher than the amount that he said he wanted. And all I could see out of my eyes was him twitching.

I was like, you messed this stuff to me. Everybody's stuff up.

Oh my gosh. And so I, I, I didn't care. I just kept looking at them and they were, they said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. We, we can't do that. And I was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it. And they said, where are you going? And I said, well, you know, you're, you're not giving us what we need. I said, I told him Reginald is out at this point doing comedy two and three days a week if he's taping on Thursday or Friday, I forgot what day it was.

It's already, it's already bringing up the money that he can make doing comedy, which he's doing double. We short story, we walked away with more episodes guaranteed, even if he wasn't going to be on the episodes. He got guaranteed, guaranteed money and he got way more money.

That was pretty good. That's pretty good. That was, that was persistent because I would have been like, yo, let's just take this here and move on. It was legendary because I loved it, man. I love doing the show anyway. But you know, but you have to get compensated for what you do. Right?

Yes. And I will tell you, I will tell you sometimes, I don't know. I saw this a long time ago. It was a Mary Kay from Mary Kay Cosmetics when I was little, I knew I wanted to be in business and I watched the talk that she did and she said they could tell you make it. So I remember being in that room and they were, well, why do you think he deserves this money? And I said, well, I'm in the audience.

I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm in the audience. And when Reginald is on the show, I see that he gets AAA round of applause. He's, you know, everybody's excited that he's on the show every time that he appears. And I said, and the Nielsen ratings are always higher when Reginald is on the show. I didn't know anything about any of that, but I didn't know.

I did say that.

I think, I think when Jeron was on there, not Jeron Dragon Fly, trust me, I didn't know what I was talking about.

So, whether it was true or not, it didn't matter. I said it and it helped and, you know, it worked out, I think you just have to believe or, you know, do what you have to do to, to, to share what you feel your worth is, you know, I, I, I knew that he made an impact on the show. It was very, I didn't have the statistics in front of me. I didn't have time to, to grab the statistics. But the truth was, was whether I knew the real Nielsen ratings.

I knew that they were higher when he was there because he did garner, that, that following you made it happen, made it happen and we made it happen, it worked out, it worked out very, very well.

So I was very, I was very, very happy and to this day, I'm still shocked how that, how that came about. And I'm like, wow, that was so I think you, I think you do it all girl.

Oh, you do it all if it's something that I, that I want, you know, I want to do it honorably.

I wanted, you know, but I want to, to succeed. And I remember, you know, taking no for an answer. I've always been, that person probably got on my mom's nerves growing up. But I've always, always that question, kid. Well, why, well, why I was my mom's hard child. But I think, you know, I, I'll give an example of, I came to L A and I wanted to write.

I was a, I was an intern at the Steve Harvey show at night and I, during the day I worked a 9 to 5 and I knew Ralph Far, who was the executive producer of the Steve Harvey of the Moesha show. I wrote a spec script and I wanted to get it in his hands. So I googled who he was and I saw his picture and I found out a friend of mine told me that they were doing a golf tournament, a Moesha golf tournament.

And I conveniently as he was coming out, I conveniently bumped into him and handed my script to him and he said, oh my gosh, ok, I'll take it and he took it and he called me. It was a Friday. He called me on Monday and he interviewed me and I got hired to be his assistant for the pro family.

That is because he was what, that's what it's all about business making money. If you're not persistent, it's one thing, one thing that's guaranteed. I could tell people when, when they have a business plan, if you keep on going, eventually that door will open up. But what's guaranteed it will stop.

But what's guaranteed is it will be closed on you several times. Yes. Yes.

And, and you know, what I will tell you this and it will open up eventually if you keep, if you keep on going because eventually it's gonna be for you.

But you have to keep on, you have to keep, you know, keep your head to the, your nose grand stone and keep on pushing.

Be persistent because once you stop, you know, that's the only guarantee is that you won't get, it won't, it won't happen.

And I think when you stop, when you stop, you lose, you lose a part of yourself.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Because now it'll be that much harder to, to start again. It be that much harder to start again because, you know, it's just like anything like when you, when you, well, like power lifting, if you lifting weights and it's hard, you, you get it to here and you put it down, it's gonna be harder the next time to get it all the way to here.

So you, you just keep on striving, keep on pushing you gonna, you, eventually it's gonna come, you know, if it's for you, it's coming. But if, if you stop it, it never will.

Yeah, I agree. Was, was there a time where you felt that you might give up in the acting? Like when you, once you moved here and the reality of everything hit you and you had some hard days?

Well, I, it, it always happened, it always happened to me when that last moment, that last step because I, I was doing extra work. I was like trying to be an, I was trying to be an actor and I was doing extra and I told my wife that day, I said I'm done. I said after the day, I'm, I'm not doing extra work again. I'm, I'm just done. I don't know what I would have done after that.

I don't know if I went back to football or what, but I said I'm done and that day is when I got my union card that day, you know, it was coming, I didn't know it was coming. Like I said, I, you know, we talked about another episode of Rich People business. When Tommy Ford didn't show up to, to, to, to he was the actor. I was supposed to stand in for him just, I was just standing in front of the camera.

And then when you know, they, they set the camera, then Tommy will come in and do his part. Tommy didn't show up. So I stood there and I started speaking and I got the part and I didn't even know Tommy at the time. We found out years later, we was, we was doing the kid and play class act and beat me and Tom and, and, and, and he was talking about the movie.

So, yeah, man, I did this movie one time man called, I love you to death. But I didn't show up. And I, what I said, you have acted that didn't show up. He like, yeah, why I said, man, I stood in for you, man and I started talking and I got my Union card. He like really? I said, yeah, I said, why you didn't show up? He said because I was doing Harlem Nights. I said it's a better movie.

So it was a better choice. I would have showed up here but it be, it benefited me. So, but I was about to, I was about to give it up, man. This is like my agents. You know, I've been looking for an agent. That last door I knocked on was the one that opened that last time. Do I told my wife I wasn't doing this anymore that day. I got it.

That and that same thing happened to you when you were looking for an agent. I think you just never know. What is that? Somebody said once that your 10 nose you'll get, you know, you might get 10 nos but then comes the yes. But I think it comes when we're ready. I think sometimes we are anxious.

What does that say? Be anxious for nothing. You know, I think it comes when it's supposed to come and somebody said a long time ago, enjoy the journey. You'll never have this moment in time to soak it all up to take it out and enjoy the journey. Yes.

Yes. Yes. You know. because like you said, that, that, that's very interesting. You say when it's your turn. Yeah. Another example I was supposed to audition for Bernie Mac. Now people don't realize I only did 12 episodes of Martin. I did like 40 episodes of Bernie. People think you be you did more. Martin. No, only 12, maybe 11. But I was supposed to do Bernie and Bernie told me they say, look, man, I want you to audition Wednesday.

And I said, man, I can't audition with cause I got a show in Alabama Thursday, little bitty show in Alabama, Thursday. Now, here I am about to give up Bernie Mac to go and do a little bit of you know, the show, but I promised the people. I said I gotta go do it. So they say, hey, man, it's not guaranteed that it's gonna be here when you get back. I said, all right, well, fine.

I was nervous all the way when I landed and my agent was telling me, he say, man, why did you do that? I said I, I have a commitment. So I, I flew. As soon as I landed, the phone rang, my agent said, Bernie and them said they'll wait for you to get back Thursday. And when I got back Thursday, I, I went and auditioned and got the part that, that how it happened. Yes. Yes.

That was a very impactful, impactful role too.

Oh, yeah, I loved it, man. I love working on Bernie was one of the best moments ever in, in, in, in my acting career. Then I was happy on Martin too. But Bernie, you know, it was just a little bit more. You know, we used to joke a lot. You know, we sit around the table man and Bernie telling the stories and all of a sudden man, they'll say action.

We just go right into our thing and they say cut, we go right back into telling jokes. So that's why I had a whole lot of fun on that show. It was one camera show, one was like five camera shows. So you have to be there every day, Bernie, you be there, you do your scene and you out.

So wow. Yeah. But I think, you know, I think what, what you're saying now it kind of brings truth for me when you have this, this path and you have all these different experiences in life. You, you touch different people, you look at your experience there. It makes us better. Everything that we, everything that we do. I just remember. I had this, I worked at the Steve Harvey show and there's one thing that I kept with me that I really am most proud of and I think I'll still live by it and I

hope that I'm saying it right. I hope I'm giving Mr Harvey the, the, the, the right credit. and, and, and giving him the right voice and what I'm saying. But he told me once, because he was a great mentor to to the staff on the Steve Harvey show. He said, whatever you do make it make sense. He said, I'm a comedian that is also, he said, and so I have my, my comedy, I have my, my show, but I my, my radio show.

But I also, and I have my TV show. He said, they all make sense. He said, and he told me about his struggles, but he said, now they all feed into each other and I make money while I'm asleep. He said, I'm not trying to have a garbage company. I'm not trying to do this and do this. He said, I persevere because I have created, created a dynamic which feeds into each other. And I think that's the name of the game. You know, you are, you, you've created this dynamic now.

And I look, I like how we talk. I like how we vibe now because everything is about self improvement. You know, we, we've gotten to this point. We both have, you have a successful career. I have a business that is growing more successful. We, but we still work to accomplish and work to accomplish better and to improve ourselves. You said something to me the other day and I was so excited for you tell me about your coach.

Oh, yeah, I just, I just had an acting coach. You know, you, you can't ever, ever, ever, you know, stop learning, you can't ever stop learning. I mean, I just hired an acting coach. You know, basically I hired him for my auditions because now auditions is not like it used to be. You used to go in there in the room and you audition, they tell you, ok.

Well, can you do it a little different way? And I was like you. Ok, cool. Let's do it another way. But now you just have to, you got to tape online and then send it to them. So you don't know, you know, if that's the right you know, recipe that they want or, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, but I, let's, I like going in. So now with acting coach, you can look at it and say, you know what? I think they might want something a little bit different because, you know, he gave you your cues, your, you

know, your, your points in the, in the, in the size or the scripts that, you can hit, you know, something that you may not see, you know, still take acting lessons. So, you know, you can't ever stop. Like you say, if you're gonna be persistent in anything, be persistent in your career, you know, never stop and perfecting.

Right. You have to, I think that's so important. And I know for me, I'll talk a lot through through this journey with this podcast about my, my battle with AD D and, and being able to lead and being able to persevere when I don't, when at different times in my life, I haven't felt so smart or I haven't felt I was at my best or I couldn't give my team everything that they needed for me at the time because I had deficiencies because of my ad D.

But I will say this at the end of the day, I persevered and, and the things that I felt uncomfortable about, I either hired a coach or, you know, a, a mentor, you know, pulled in a mentor to, to help God and navigate. some of these, these things that I, that were deficiencies or I felt were deficiencies. I think it's about identity, what we, what self identifying first. I, I read somewhere a long time ago that the greatest leaders are able to self assess and self correct. And so really

being honest about who we are, what, you know, and being ok with our deficiencies and then being able to fix those deficiencies. And so I, who have hired, you know, whether it's a trainer or whether it's, you know, whatever it is or not hiring a trainer just getting in front of youtube and, and bettering ourselves. And if we are, are having to give speeches or do things at work, being able to perfect that in any way, shape or form no matter what that means. Right. Right.

And, and, and that's, that's understandable. I mean, you know, sometimes, to our audience here, you know, sometimes when she have one of her ad d moments and she'll phase out, I'm like, boom. So don't take that personal. You, I'm just trying to bring her back into the fold because sometimes we lose out there and in star track, you know, like zone.

So it's because I did it earlier the day, you know, trying to, I'm trying to process because you say some crazy stuff.

So I'm trying to process the things that he's saying. So if y'all ever see me act a little bit gone, it's because he didn't say something that got me a little gone.

I think she got some alien in you. You got some alien in you, girl, you be programming, it'd be processing. No, a little late.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to persevere over this podcast at this very moment.

But that's it, man. We like we gonna bring a whole lot of, you know, guests on so that you guys learn about business, learn about making money and that's, that's what it's all about making money, you know, rich people's business. You want to be, you know, everybody want to be successful when it comes to finances. Everybody want to, you know, be able to, take care of themselves, their families, you want to travel, there's a lot of things, you know, and the more assets that you have,

you know, the more that you can use those assets to make more with your assets, you know. So, you know, when you don't have any assets because you're not just buying cars and jewelry. I mean, those, as soon as you drive a, off the lot, that's boom, you get a house, it's going up by a car is going down.

Yeah, it's taking that, taking that. It's generational wealth.

You know, we want to talk about that living trust type thing.

Yeah, living trust, we want to talk about, you know, will, sometimes wills are just not enough and then just making your money work for you. There's so many along the way that tribe, the people who feed in to you, the people that you surround yourself with. You get information for me as a business owner. I've gotten so much information from people that I would never, I would have never thought about that.

I, I, I know this is, you know, just off the cuff. But I remember one day talking to another business owner and he said, you know, are you using your American Express to pay for your bills? And I said, you know, no. And he said, wherever you can use that American Express, make sure you do because then you could take those miles and travel or you can take or you can reward your employees and you can do and I, you know, with employee cards and things like that and I never thought about it but

just little things that we might miss because we're in the throes of our businesses. You get what you get your tribe, you get your people who are going to elevate. You teach, you keep meeting people, get in front of people networking and finding your way. If you feel uncomfortable, if you walk into a room and you feel like you don't belong, figure out a way to make yourself feel comfortable in your skin by any means necessary.

I don't care whatever that means because I have many days of, you know, still being insecure. I think we all have our ups and downs where we don't feel like we, we are contributing or we don't feel like we are at our best, but we got to keep figuring out how to get back to that, that point.

That's right. Keep persevering and not giving up. You have to do what you have to do in order to get what you want to get.

Yes. Yes. I remember if I could share 11 last story. I remember before I bought my first house, I went to one of the ladies that works in the shipping room and I asked her, I said, what I, you know, I want to buy this house. And she said, Dana, she said, I have three houses. She had five doors at the time and she said I have, she said, I barely speak English. She said, you know, you know, she said, when I came, you know, when we, when my family came to the country, I barely spoke English, but we

persevered and all of my siblings, we owned houses and I said, well, how did you buy the first one? We took one and then we bought the second one. We bought the third one and she inspired me because I opened my mouth and I went to talk to somebody who could, who had a little bit more knowledge. She mentored me in a way at that moment. And that's what pushed me off out of my comfort zone to buy my first house. So we need people.

We need our tribe and you're in your third now. So go ahead. Go ahead on.

Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. We are Rich People's Business Podcast.

I am Dana Haley.

I'm Reginald Ballard, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, youtube, Tik Tok, Tik Tok, Tik Tok Rich People's Business. You can catch us on tiktok Rich People's Business, Biz, tiktok.

We are Rich People's Biz on tiktok. We are so happy that you joined us. Thank you so much and let us know what you wanna see D M us. Let us know, let us know how we're doing, let us know how we can do better. We want to be here for you. So let us know how we're doing what you want to hear. Tell us about your business too. Thank you guys so much.