Entrepreneurial Appetite
Entrepreneurial Appetite is a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses. This podcast will feature edited versions of Entrepreneurial Appetite’s Black book discussions, including live conversations between a virtual audience, authors, and Black entrepreneurs. In this community, we do not limit what it means to be an intellectual or entrepreneur. We recognize that the sisters and brothers who own and work in beauty salons or barbershops are intellectuals just as much as sisters and brothers who teach and research at universities. This podcast is unique because, as part of this community, you have the opportunity to participate in our monthly book discussion, suggest the book to be discussed, or even lead the conversation between the author and our community of intellectuals and entrepreneurs. For more information about participating in our monthly discussions, please follow Entrepreneurial_ Appetite on Instagram and Twitter. Please consider supporting the show as one of our Founding 55 patrons. For five dollars a month, you can access our live monthly conversations. See the link below:https://www.patreon.com/EA_BookClub
Entrepreneurial Appetite
From the Classroom to EdTech with CEO Reggie Manning Co-founder of Vista Data
Reginald 'Reggie' Manning, the innovative CEO of Vista Data, joins us for an insightful chat about his remarkable journey from North Carolina to becoming a trailblazer in AI-enhanced education. With a unique background in special education and business, Reggie shares his inspiring path and how his passion for teaching led him to create AI solutions that bridge educational gaps, particularly those intensified by the pandemic. Reggie's transition from a special education teacher to a successful entrepreneur is filled with lessons on adaptability and perseverance, offering valuable insights into how technology can transform education for marginalized communities.
The episode takes a fascinating turn as we explore the power of AI in revolutionizing English language arts, making learning both engaging and effective. Reggie discusses how AI tools can personalize education by incorporating students' interests, consequently fostering a more inclusive and tech-savvy learning environment. We delve into the significance of tech literacy, highlighting how skills like critical thinking and data interpretation are essential for students to thrive in today's digital world. Reggie's approach is all about enhancing human interaction with AI, ensuring that it supports cognitive development instead of replacing critical thinking.
Beyond his entrepreneurial pursuits, Reggie embodies the spirit of community building and representation, particularly as a Black male educator and business leader. He shares anecdotes from his teaching days and the emotional weight of being a role model, while emphasizing the importance of addressing systemic issues within education. This conversation also touches on the power of networking and partnerships, with Reggie reflecting on his own experiences of building supportive networks and engaging in local community activities. This episode is a testament to the importance of creating opportunities and fostering growth through collaboration and community engagement.
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Speaker 1:Once again, this is Langston Clark, the founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. And today we have Reginald Reggie Manning, who is the founder and CEO of Vista Data, which is located in Memphis, tennessee. And, as you all know, in our audience we have origins, we have roots as a book club, and when we don't have an author speaking with us, we have an entrepreneur. And so, reggie, I want to ask you, just to start off, give us a sense of who you are. Tell us your story. What's your hero's journey as an entrepreneur and how did you get to founding Vista Data?
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. So I kind of give it my 30, 45 seconds pill. I'm originally from North Carolina, grew up small town on the coast and went to undergrad at UNC, chapel Hill, study psychology. My first job out of undergrad was a special ed teacher, so I taught reading, writing, math, learning disabilities to middle school kids. So that's kind of like my first entree into education. And when I was there I was like you know I love education and I'm leaving the classroom, but I'll always be connected and I want to give back beyond just one person in the classroom. Didn't really know how that would manifest itself, but kind of spoke it into existence of. Like I've always kind of been in education. So, from there, did a little spend of time in banking, struggled with some of my business skills, glad I decided to go to business school, went to business school at Clark Atlanta University, got a master's in business administration, focused in marketing, and interned at FedEx, which is what brought me to Memphis, tennessee. I've been since 2000 and been here since 2006.
Speaker 2:So good opportunity in Memphis, working at FedEx, while at FedEx in product management, business management as well as marketing, and had the opportunity to help find a charter school. So I helped start a charter school and the charter school grew from, you know, one grade to four grades. So we started middle school and we ended up with a middle school and a high school. Well, and then we got the attention of some national funders like, hey, we want to view what you guys are doing. So we started turning into a charter management organization. So we expanded out from one school and so I left FedEx to begin high level my entrepreneur journey as the COO of founding a charter school management organization. So from there we built the school. We went from, you know, roughly 435 kids to 1800 kids over the course of four years, five school and from a roughly $4 million budget to a $20 million operation in that short period of time. So that kind of got me fully into entrepreneurship, leveraging my background in education and my passion for education. From there and upon that journey, you know you get bit by the bug and I wanted to do a little more entrepreneur. So then I bought a tutoring franchise. It located here in Memphis, bought it out of Toronto Canada, jumpstarted marketing all the aspects of it, had over a hundred tutors around the city. We did one-on-one tutoring in-home in addition to group test prep. So we got a chance to really sit across from nearly 200 families over the course of about four years to understand what's going on and provide customized solutions in terms of education for their family and the kids. So again, knee-deep in the education while still in the business. And so those entrepreneur ventures turned into more and fast forward into consulting and marketing back in 2020.
Speaker 2:By 23, 2022, 23, got really interested in AI and from there we had an opportunity where I co-founded Vista Data with a partner my name Luca Perkovic. So Luca and I did some work together as entrepreneurs and put together some programs outside of education for a hospital. And then we had I got a phone call one day. It's like hey, reggie, I know you understand AI here, you're doing something with it. Can you come talk to us about how we can implement it in schools? So I had a conversation at this point it was probably like May of 2023. And we started putting together solutions Like what do you want to do? How do we shore up this gap?
Speaker 2:From COVID, and we knew that the biggest problem was there was a lack of tutors and, you know, high frequency tutoring was the solution to sure up this gap. Well, that's human capital, that's human intent, like coordinate everyone Like. I ran a tutoring company. I know the challenges that come with that. So from there I was like what if we can leverage some aspect of technology? And so what we did is put together more like a customized tutor, and this tutor was powered by AI, but it understood the students. We filled in with all that background information as well as taught them the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, where the output would be to tangibly build a chat assistant based off the skills you learn, but have a chat tutor tutor you while you do it. So we put this together conceptually like, hey, this is what we like to see, this is what we like to do in the school. Yes, we'd love if you could build that together.
Speaker 2:So we had a partner from in Europe that had this technology, but we asked him to put the two together. One had a chat assistant, another had technology around teaching artificial intelligence. Like yo, you have peanut butter, you guys have jelly, we want a PB to J, let's put it together. And they're like no, we don't do that, we don't do that, we do this, we do that. So we kept pushing it and ultimately it was like look, I'm like what would it take to put it together? And so, after they kind of dissected it all, they came back like, all right, we think we can do it. So fast forward. We created like that also adapts when the student is having a conversation to give you feedback on, like, what's your depth of knowledge on ELA standards, based off the conversation. So it's constantly calibrating the conversation with the student. So that's the core of how we got started is Vista Data in terms of AI and education. But, like you know, we started talking before.
Speaker 2:This sprouts off into so many different avenues of what are the possibilities, what can you do with it. And one thing that unintended unique aspect of it is that the students so their project was to be able to create a chat assistant. Well, we also pick community partners in which they could do that for to get real life experience. So if you go on the Memphis Chamber website Greater Chamber of Memphis you will see that as a chat assistant that's linked into the website that some middle school students built of color in Memphis, tennessee, and so they have this skill set now, where they were highlighted in some news clips on it, where they're literally building something in a skill set that can be used, and so that's one-on-one on it. And the next iteration is that, in addition to them building it and you know how to operate, now we have all this data.
Speaker 2:How do you interpret this data to be more of a data analyst or become data fluent, and what this is telling the companies that you built it for? You need to. People are looking for this, they're searching for that. They keep asking these questions. It's not found. So, really, we're looking at the workforce development path where how do you upskill upstream to students to help them have the skill sets of the future so they can be, you know, progressive as well as have economic mobility, where it's something that they normally wouldn't have access to. But now you're getting it right in your school instead of having to go pay for it or go somewhere else to find this type of work. So we're kind of excited about the work, and particularly K-12, in addition to the other opportunities, the higher ed and the other, you know, just various entities that we look at, you know, applying this technology to you know.
Speaker 1:So you said a lot. You said a lot of interesting things. I'm really inspired by your journey. I want to start with this question, though. So you mentioned ELA. Can you explain what ELA is and why that's an important subject matter for students to be able to get support, because we hear so much about you know EL. I'm going to let you answer the question we hear so much about, especially in our community deficiencies in ELA, and just talk about why that's a particular area of focus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll make sure I don't get too caught in these acronyms. So English language arts right, so for those in school it's the reading and writing aspect of it. But being able to comprehend, learn and read is fundamental. I think everyone can agree with that and so, with those skills, being able to shoot them up at an earlier age or at least being able to refine them, are important. So there's a lot of tools that you can do it with.
Speaker 2:Right Like just on, but being able to have conversations and the conversations ask questions with an assistant back and forth, and it being able to calibrate it can give you real-time feedback on how well you're doing as well as challenge the student on.
Speaker 2:You have to be able to communicate back and forth because you're typing it, so it's pushing forward, like we like to say, like it's giving it buying the vegetables in in a dessert because they get to play. I get to ask, go through this curriculum and also ask these questions that are back and forth about things they like, like basketball or the Grizzlies. But part of that is also calibrating the conversation to make sure that they have the fundamentals and be able to shore up those gaps as just another means of making sure that you can actually read and some of the indications of reading this. A lot of this is out there. Where kids can't read, you know they're less likely to finish high school. You don't finish high school. It contributes to crime, crime, prison and all those pipelines. So again going back upstream to how do we equip students with this skill set in a fun way or engaging way that can be beneficial to them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to ask how do you see students succeeding or at least having a positive outlook on the experience that they're having with the AI? It's an interesting thing. My background is in education. My focus area is physical education, so I hear all the conversations and concerns about our cognitive development, literacy, math skills, STEM, all that stuff. I hear all of that because I'm in that world. Well, on the same other side of it, I'm in the physical world, so I hear about our health, our wellness and all of those things, and so the data suggests that we spend more screen time than any other community. Like, we're on screens, and so I'm just appreciating the fact that, like you said, it's mixing the vegetables with the dessert, because now we're leveraging the screen time to get you know more and better educational outcomes for the students in our community. So do you see or do you feel like the students have a an affinity for?
Speaker 2:you know the software and the curriculum that you all are providing, and how does that manifesting yeah, I mean, I think you know kids are sponges, right, and whatever you kind of put into them, they absorb it.
Speaker 2:And I think the one thing that you know, when we first introduced the curriculum, they were going through large language models, also known as LLMs and design thinking, and that was part of the curriculum, and so we showed up one day after they been administered by the teacher and kids were talking about design thinking and talking about large language models and how AI and algorithms, and it was like I had the same expression like yo, they're really getting this black and Brown kids talking about large language models and and design thinking.
Speaker 2:I was like yo, this is real and it's one thing to hear the theory, but to see it in practice, where to actually understand it and mapping out what anticipated outcomes are for having a conversation with the robot, because one thing about like this AI a lot of times I tell people in this company is my biggest job is to demystify the boogeyman called AI, like it's here and it's an algorithm. And so the middle school version definition of what is AI is, you know, a robot that mimics a human. So the conversation is you give a pop, which is a conversational portion to talk back and forth with a robot, and so how you ask the question is based on. You know the outputs you get from it. So, simply putting, it's just a robot that mimics a human.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting. So I'm thinking about what you're doing with the technology and a few things come to mind. One is the concerns that people have Are we going to rely too much on AI to do our thinking for us? But it seems like you found a way to leverage the AI to actually enhance our thinking. And I, you know I just I don't know if you've seen the movie, the Dune movies, the first one and the second one, dune is like the first sci-fi to really go popular. So in this fictitional universe before the Dune movies that came out like a thousand, 12,000 years before that, there's a war between humans and AI. This is before Terminator and all that stuff came along and the scare was like AI would actually do our thinking for us. So I find it interesting that you're actually making science fiction reality for our students, but in a way that's actually enhancing them and leveraging their technology for their benefit.
Speaker 1:I also think about this concept of literacy and you know this as an educator that the term literacy has expanded to different forms of education. So you have literacy when we think about it. We think about reading. In my area, as a physical educator, we use the term physical literacy learning how to use your body and all of that. We use the term physical literacy learning how to use your body and all of that. Talk a little bit about what it means to be tech literate or literate with data, and why that's an important thing that you're infusing into the curriculum for these students.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point. So I want to go back to the question you said. You know it being scary and it dumb you down. Everything you said about that is what people were saying about when a calculator first came out. Think about like, oh, it's a calculator, kids aren't going to learn how to do math anymore, they're not going to know what they do, they just use it as a tool to get faster and better outcome versus writing on paper.
Speaker 2:And so if you frame up AI that same way, you're talking to a machine, but you have to be very, very specific and succinct on how you craft your. So, for example, back in the day, when we write a paper, we write an outline and it was like this is the outline, this is what we want to get out of it, and you write. You know, think through what you were going to write. Well, now we just write. But with talking to AI, you need to think about the prompt, the question that you're asking, how you're going to ask it, what outputs you want from it in order to get the content that you're looking for. So I think I challenge to say that it forces you to be more thoughtful on your questioning to get the output that you're looking for. So the critical thinking is done up front by the human to get outputs from the machine. And you asked another question.
Speaker 1:You said the second part of it was how, in education, we attach the term literacy to different forms of knowing. Right, and originally it's reading, and physical education is physical literacy. You found a way to do literacy in a traditional sense reading, writing, language arts but then now you have like this it's almost like digital literacy, stem literacy, data literacy and all that stuff, because they're now doing I think they're doing like data analytics, right, and so talk a little bit about why that's important and how the mission for Vista Data is intertwined into that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So, in terms of data, we talk about data literacy and data fluency. Literacy is just like the understanding of the data, but fluency is the manipulation of the data and visualizations and charts and graphs. And so, in this age where we're moving toward, we talk about AI. But what powers AI is data. So if data is what powers AI, then the outputs of it. You need to know how to interpret it, manipulate it and understand it. Also, the inputs that go into data. So that's why we feel data literacy and data fluency is so important aspect of it, because even whatever you're doing the marketing or even the back and forth with a chat assistant the outputs give you information, which is data. You need to know how to interpret it or how to use AI to help you do with the interpretation of the data.
Speaker 2:Because you know everyone tell you data is king, data is king, but if you don't know how to do anything with it, then you're just as lost as you can't not. Yeah, you're just as lost as you can't not without being able to read. Right, it's like we have tons of books around us that you can't read. It's no good. Well, all this data and all this interaction with machines and devices. But if you don't know how to manipulate and interpret it, then what good is it to you? You may as well not be literate.
Speaker 1:And it's going to be a thing that you know more and more in our society. People are going to have to know how to interpret data and think about data in very critical and strategic ways. You also mentioned workforce development. Talk a little bit more about how what you're doing with these students is a part of workforce development locally there in Memphis, and talk a little bit more specifically about your focus in doing business in Memphis and founding in Memphis and why that's significant. And I ask that because when we think about tech companies, startups, things of that nature, you know we always go to Silicon Valley Austin, texas, I think, boston, new York, there are these certain places that exist in the United States to have tech hubs. But I think in a lot of ways, it seems like you've taken a very localized approach to what you're doing, and so talk about starting where you are and then not necessarily being drawn to all these places that seemingly have all the support already wrapped in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean, my experience is really unique. I've been in Memphis, like I said, since 2006, 2024. And this is probably my fourth venture in the city, and what I say about Memphis is that it's very fertile. Anything you want to do, you can do and get access to it. It's a relatively it's a big, large city where you can get access to people, resources that you need to get started. We started schools, started marketing agencies, started a tutoring company and an ed tech company, and what's so important is that it's rich on resources where you have access to people as well as the technology.
Speaker 2:So why not start here? Why don't need to go somewhere else, where this is where the tides are and it's also a need in this community. And when you think about just access and democratizing, access to technology and education and you know black and brown communities Memphis is roughly 70 percent minority, so why not start here? Right, and so also giving someone the opportunity to see someone that looks like them, doing things that could benefit them. So, like I have nothing, but you know good things to say about.
Speaker 2:You know the opportunities that Memphis presents, as well as you know being able to help people and have resources that are available for you know black and brown kids they're like my kids are in the city as well. So it's exciting and just continue to look forward to like the leadership and you know the mayor and city councilmen everyone's on board with moving Memphis forward. Another fact about Memphis is that you know, xai brought the supercomputer here to Memphis, so it's kind of given some additional energy around Memphis being another tech hub for startups, and we have a strong startup community as well as entrepreneur community for people starting businesses and accelerating them. So you know, it may not be it Sometimes Memphis doesn't get its due, for you know all the positive things going on in the city, but I feel like there's a surgence of tech as well. As I said, xai put this largest supercomputer plan to build it here in Memphis, so I'm making this a tech hub, like a little epicenter.
Speaker 1:And talk about the workforce development part of what you're doing. So the workforce development.
Speaker 2:So the part that's really exciting. What I stumbled upon is that you know, having these students understand the fundamentals of artificial intelligence is one thing, but to have the capstone project of them working in groups to create an output that could be commercialized and when I say commercialized, being that we put it on the website for multiple nonprofits but there's nothing stopping us to continue to scale and advance the implementation of these tools where students could create a marketplace and sell it. Now you know how to build a chat assistant. You know how to aggregate information off a website and index it in a way that it can be searchable and adding in the generative AI to have that conversation or make it populate for you. I think that's so critical because now it gets can do that now. But think about it. If I could do this at 14 and understanding that this is a superpower tool that I can build and create and expand. So it really lowers the threshold of creativity of you, can be way more creative, get way more done because you have a supercomputer or access to a supercomputer that can do it. So when you think about what are the opportunities, I forget the percentage. 40 percent of the jobs in the future haven't even been created yet. Because with the change of AI and the advent of AI, like what are you going to do to pipe in that energy to grow and revolutionize how we do work today?
Speaker 2:And so it's very important for kids to understand the fundamentals, whether they go in a career tech career but like it's going to be intertwined in everything they do, similar to like the Internet. I can say, right now it's it's career, but like it's going to be intertwined in everything they do, similar to like the internet. I like to say, right now it's 2024, but it might as well be 1994. With the advent of the internet, people were using email and going back and forth, but the real changes were made by those who were doing e-commerce and building websites. You know that next step of innovation was leveraging the internet. How do we do that with artificial intelligence to infuse and upskill even education and educational outcomes or educational opportunities for the workforce. All of that is changing, so it's critical that you know the exposure is one and then two, just a practical skill set of what else can we do as we continue to shape and grow the workforce with these different skill sets?
Speaker 1:So it's interesting, reggie, that you bring it up, because I was about to go right there. So, starting the podcast and a book club and being really interested in entrepreneurship, I started reading books of these entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen, peter Thiel, like all the guys who write the books, who started PayPal, or original founders of Twitter, linkedin, all of that stuff right. So I'm reading their books and oftentimes they talk about the opportunities that they got because they were among the first people to get access to Internet. And what did getting access to Internet do for them when they discovered a computer and they took it apart and put it back together again and they created their first website, their first e-commerce business, in 1994 and all of that.
Speaker 1:And so I think about what you're doing is it seems like you're you're handling two problems at once One, you're closing digital divide, but then also, like you're, you're closing educational divides, and you're actually it's more than two things. Right, you're building work, you're doing workforce development, but we don't know which one of those children who are playing with these large language models, building chatbots and all of that stuff. Now, 20 years from now, they may be starting the next billion trillion dollar company because of some experience that they had because of what your company has provided for them. So I think that's quite amazing.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man. It's exciting, right, like every day, it's like what else can we do in more capability? So I get excited by the opportunity to continue to create, but also being able to provide that and just that knowledge of what else can we build, what else can we create in this life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to pivot just a little bit and I have to ask this question because my background is in education. I'm a black male in education. I taught K through 12, two years, both at charter schools, actually as a physical education teacher. One year is elementary teacher, one year is elementary school, another year is middle school, and then was fortunate enough to go on to like continue my education, get my master's degree and my doctorate my master's degree. This is like where we overlap a lot.
Speaker 1:My master's degree is actually in adapted physical education, which is special education, physical education, and so and some of the work that I do in my nine to five job is about men of color in education. So I have to ask you, tell us a little bit about how your experience as a black man in education, both as a teacher and as someone who has founded charter school, charter school networks, has influenced who you are as an entrepreneur, and I actually really like to know, like, what was it like for you in the classroom? Did you get any inspirations from that specifically that have shaped who you are now as an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the classroom, 21 years old, black male. I grew up fast, right and being that father figure, that older figure in the classroom at 21 years old, they look at you as some dad, uncle. They look at you, as you know, give me guidance, and so that had a personal effect on me In the standpoint. I see these kids, I see myself in these kids and I know the road in which they're going to have to travel and it's like it gives it. I'm sure you did it too. It's a different type of conversation and tough love where it's like, hey, man, hey, hey twirl owes you nothing, right, and there's some love that only I feel, like someone who looks like you, someone who's going to be you, can receive to that certain aspect and so having that experience in the classroom and, you know, having friends, having family, like you, know that there are some things, there's some gaps that are missing. So, like I said, I mean early on, when I left the classroom, I kind of stated look, I'll always be a part of education. I just want to have more impact outside of one person in the classroom and I know, when speaking to all these things about education, charter schools, that that would be kind of what would manifest itself. But it is critical to kind of navigate this and understanding that we're the people that miseducated for many years. And so how do we get past the mis-education from financially to financial literacy to understand how we are where we are, and how do we kind of eradicate or, you know, step over some of these hurdles that our ancestors experienced in the past and, you know, for many years? It's like you know, education is the gateway, education is the way, but it's the application of education, right Like it's knowledge, and there is wisdom, and wisdom is the application of the knowledge that you have. So how do we infuse this into our youth and throughout education systems and models and affecting change from a macro, knowing that it's going to have a micro effect on every individual student? So that's from.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the first charter schools we started, we put a MacBook in every every kid's hand. You know the one-on-one learning. So that was an investment we made into education. But what we found out is that if we gave them assessments on a computer then we could get results real time. So the by-product was like, not about just the computers. We're giving you assessments so we know where you are progressively because we have the data that's inputted on a machine technology to give us the feedback and how we can intervene and upskill you and get you to where you need to be. But that was just kind of a byproduct because computers were cool and they need to be computer. You know technology literate.
Speaker 2:So those are some of the things as you go through it and you see it and I mean we could, we could talk for hours about you know what's the problem with education, or you know we need better teachers and we need better leaders. I mean, I think at the at the bedrock, a lot of it is poverty and like we, we have to solve for poverty and kind of mitigate some of the challenges that come with that. Because you think about Maslow's hierarchy and these. You got to get the basic things first before we can start talking through self-actualization. Right, it's those aspects of how do we share you up as a person fundamentally and then continue to build on you and give you access and the skills to kind of move forward and be successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you bring up the role of the black male teacher. It's really interesting. I'll never forget there was a student I had. She was a kindergartner, my first year teaching, and I was a peeing, so I'm not embarrassed to say that I was probably every kindergarten kindergartner's favorite teacher in that school and she's like Mr Clark, will you be my daddy, will you be my daddy? And it's like I didn't know how to answer that question, right? Because if I say yes, what does that mean? Yeah, you know what I'm saying. If I say no, what does that mean? And I have no idea what my answer was. I know it was. It was neither yes nor no, right? But like I was not prepared for that situation, you know what I'm saying and so that's something that has always stayed with me, even now, as someone who is a teacher educator, preparing teachers to go teach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean, I think to your point like it's not this thing, you as top of mind, that the reflection or the shadow you cast, right, because we just live our life being us, not thinking about how others perceive us or interact with us. As you know, we're at, we're a spokesperson for black men. Whether we want to be or not, whether you want to be or not, it's just hey, you're, hey, you're Reggie, but like no, you're, you're Reggie and you're a black male. It's just hey, you're, hey, you're a Reggie, but like no, you're, you're Reggie and you're a black male. So what do black males think and I'm sure you throughout you know career and work like I'm not the voice of all black men, I'm not a voice of all people of color, I'm just one individual. But you still have a responsibility that you're going to be viewed that way and kind of like you know athletes when they say we're not role models, you are, and just as a black man, we're role models, whether we choose to be or not.
Speaker 1:Speaking of role modeling and, you know, in our conversation before we got into the official part of the interview, I learned a little bit more about you, and so talk a little bit about who you are in the community and the things that you do outside of being Reggie's CEO and co-founder of Vista Data.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we spoke briefly about a couple of things, and one was I got into cooking competitive barbecue cooking probably back as soon as I moved to Memphis. One of my coworkers had a barbecue team and in Memphis it's a big deal. Once in May we're 200 teams around the country flying to Memphis to compete to be the best in barbecue. So fast forward. I was on a team startup me and another buddy of mine and it was fun. But it's almost this exclusive deal where you have to know someone to get there and to get invited and be a part of it all, and it was cool.
Speaker 2:But it was a gap in the community for black and brown communities. Right For us to have a place at the table. So it was always like who do you know? How can we get some ticket to get it in? And then, in 2015, I just decided like, instead of asking for a seat, how about we just build our own table? So it was a couple of seven guys. We got together, we started up a team, pitched up a tent and started creating a community where we could be a part of this event and experience it all. And so fast forward. We're coming up on year 10 now and I mean it's been a great event. We're roughly 30 guys that's getting to come out hang out more like our own little bond of hanging out and just having a community that you know we can converse in and have one-off conversations as Black men, like it's kind of been more of our own, our club or community, just to kind of grow, and so that passion of cooking as well as competing and also being successful in it has kind of spawned this additional community and then only the other side of it as far as health and fitness.
Speaker 2:Got into cycling and I mentioned to you we did a ride as a cancer fundraiser from Memphis, tennessee, to Rosemary Beach, florida, which is 525 miles over the course of five days and part of that is one to kind of challenge yourself in a band of brothers roughly 60 guys, 60, 70 guys on this ride.
Speaker 2:But you suffer together, you sweat together and you go through this challenge together and it's spiritually based like you know everyone's believers and it just creates another community and bond of like. We all have the same struggles, regardless of our skin tone. We have different challenges but we're still men living in this life with challenges that you know. We can bond and have some community together. So that kind of gives me my physical as well as the social and bringing together the community. So those the main things that you know I'm involved in in addition to being a father of a 15 year old, 13 year old andyear-old and a husband. So you know, that's kind of the balance of it all, where you know how do I, you know, juggle these things as well as you know, grow and lead a company.
Speaker 1:Tell me the name of the group that you all get together and y'all do the barbecuing. What's the name of the event or the group, or y'all just get together barbecuing.
Speaker 2:So with the competition, it's two competitions. One is the Memphis in May World Barbecue Competition, the other one is Smoke Slam, and so Smoke Slam it's kind of a newer iteration of the same barbecue competition, but it's on the Mississippi River, so on the river you compete the best of the best between these competitions. Fly around the world to. You know some of the guys that are on the pit masters and the shows, and I don't know if you watch them, but like we literally go head to head with those guys as a barbecue competition team. That's what's up, okay.
Speaker 1:So you know, if y'all haven't noticed, reggie is a brother with layers. He has lots of different interests, lots of things that he has gotten into over the years as a professional working for somebody else, but also as an entrepreneur. And when I think about entrepreneurship, there's, there's, I think there's. A key difference between working for somebody else and being an entrepreneur is that sometimes it can be lonely, and you've talked about just a little bit how you've been able to build these social, these social outlets that have some meaning in the community where you live, or some broader meaning in terms of helping cancer research and all of that. Talk about how you've been able to do this journey and not do it alone as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a great question, man and I kind of have an unofficial like board of directors. Some of them may know they're on my board of directors, but it's probably seven, eight. We check in weekly, every other week on, and some of them are in their own spaces of like entrepreneurship, from coaches to financial practices or even pastors, right, and so like we have these conversations where the journey is somewhat the same, like you're. You're kind of charting this new path that there's not a book or a script for it and a lot of the answers and decisions and the good things and the bad things all fall on you. But it is one of those things you need someone or a cohort of people, even if it's individuals, to talk to and talk through.
Speaker 2:I can't say by owning a franchise.
Speaker 2:It was a built in system for support and networking. So that gave me my initial thrust into like, all right, it's not just me, I have a team that supports me as I'm building a bank, a brand and creating a business in a market space. That supports me as I'm building a brand and creating a business in a market space. So being able to take those experiences and layer them on top of it from corporate America with FedEx. Well, that FedEx was able to kind of take some of the models of how operating companies operated and bring it over to education, with multiple sites of schools, a hub and spoke model where it's a central office and everything pushed out and certain resources are coming back in. So taking corporate and bringing entrepreneurship and nonprofit and from just kind of these layers of bringing it all together. But, you know, finding community and having people who are similar, playing where you iron sharpens, iron right, like we both have different challenges but being able to talk through them and express them kind of helps us be better, stronger together.
Speaker 2:So, reggie, talk about the group of friends that you have where y'all get together and with the families and all of that stuff and talk business and how these retreats yeah, so two of my friends we met in freshman year of college and just been ones in health care, the other ones in law and I'm in business and so you know we've had opportunities throughout the years, always been in each other's wedding, families together, and so we get together once a year with our all our families and just kind of talk about family as well as different business ventures that we tag, teaming together on and just moving it forward.
Speaker 2:But the things we talk about at 19 are different things we talk about at 40 and just being able to have. We're all going through similar things in life and family and kids and raising. But having those guys you know iron sharpens, iron, like I mentioned before. You know we do life together and you know we're each other's cheerleader. There's no competition Like yo, let's, let's get it, let's get it done, let's, let's, let's work together to kind of move, you know, initiative forward. So people that look like us and also just you know kind of being a sounding board as we navigate through ebbs and flows of everything.
Speaker 1:So what you just said reminds me of an answer to a question that someone asked. I don't know if you're familiar with Gloria Latson Billings, but she's a scholar who developed the idea of culturally relevant pedagogy, and so I remember I went to this big education conference and someone asked the question. She was doing a fireside chat. Someone asked a question, she was doing a fireside chat. Someone asked a question like how do you have balance? And I never get. She said there is no balance, there's only integration. You can integrate your life, and so when you're someone who is highly aspirational, highly impactful, you find ways to just merge these things together, and I think what you just described is an example of you doing that while not sacrificing family time. Yeah, it also makes me think, and I know we're going to get to your books later on. There's a book have you ever read? Think and Grow Rich? Oh, man, like when I was like 19. Oh, listen, I listened, I listened, listen.
Speaker 1:Think and Grow Rich is a book that I listened to every year in January and, for those who are familiar, it's written by Napoleon Hill, and y'all heard me talk about in other episodes. Napoleon Hill got asked I think it was by Andrew Carnegie to go around and interview all the robber barons, the super rich billionaires back in the day. So from those interviews and him following them he writes this book called Thinking Real Writs. But there's a principle in that book called the mastermind principle, where and it tastes like, I guess, the biblical idea where two or more are gathered and that they're aligned with cosmic intelligence, like with the Lord, with God, that great things can happen. And it seems like to me that when you and your homeboys and your families get together once a year, that that's some version of a mastermind group of like-minded people getting together trying to do good things, make themselves better and make their families better and achieve and do great things. So I thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm a plug on top of that. So a professor of mine, dr Dennis Kimbrough, taught us at Clark Atlanta, my business school he finished up Napoleon's work with Thinking Grow Rich, a Black Choice. Yeah, so he also layered in the effects of those who are successful in the black community all the application of thinking we're rich work in their life. So it's also another good book to follow up on with thinking we're rich, a black choice, and I think the wealth choice is another one that probably going to be like great author, super Well, just research individual. Much respect for Dr Dr Dennis Kimbrough.
Speaker 1:So you know I'm going to do this year, this January. Much respect for Dr Dennis Kimbrough. So you know what I'm going to do this year this January. I'm going to add, in addition to Napoleon Hill's actually I'm going to read Dennis Kimbrough's continuation of Napoleon Hill's work, the black version first, and then I'll read, I'll re-listen, to Think and Grow Rich. That's going to be my promise to you. That's going to be my New Year's resolution promise to you.
Speaker 2:Good deal man. Yeah, solution promised to you. Good deal man. Yeah, we can share some more more books on the list. Nah, that was, that's good.
Speaker 2:Like the, the group, the guys are just a day one right. Like where there's no conversation off limits with us. And I think what we miss a lot in our community is an opportunity to be vulnerable and what I've noticed in other communities that they have these spaces where vulnerability is accepted, where for many of us growing up, vulnerability was a sign of weakness. So if there was something that you were weak on and you couldn't do or you were struggling with, it was almost like it was forward and put in a pocket to come back and jab you with later. Where in other communities I've noticed that you know you talk about how broken you are, things that you're dealing with there. You get arms put around you and you're ushered forward and look, we're in this together and I think that's just something that, as a community, we have to get better at with. You know, just talking to people in therapy and just having someone like you know you can be vulnerable with, where it's not a threat that you're going to be, you know, stabbed with it yeah.
Speaker 1:That's an important part of community, especially as brothers and sisters who are interested in entrepreneurship, that you need places to be vulnerable? Absolutely yeah. I think you mentioned earlier that you have a co-founder, am I not mistaken Correct? Talk about that relationship and maybe why you think it's important to have somebody who is doing this very specific work with VISTA data with you, not necessarily a program that some incubator put on for you to go through and coach you up. I'm just talking about the person who's in the trenches with you building this thing out. Why is that significant and how do you cultivate that?
Speaker 2:relationship? Yeah, another great question, man. So my guy Luca, individually, we both, you know, solid on our own, Like he's had ventures he's done. I've had ventures I've explored and been successful. But it's not like that that I shop around together. We're better as a unit. He has a stronger background in the technical side. Mine is stronger in the business side. Although I still have technical, he still has business.
Speaker 2:So we kind of balance each other out. But, moreover, we're aligned on the journey and the mission of what we're doing together. And it will tell you like it's days where you know he's up, I'm down, vice versa. Like he's like man, I can't believe this and I was like yo chill, and he's like Reggie, we're good. So having that kind of counterbalance to say like we're in this together, like we can tackle it, kind of helps diffuse some of that man, what do I do now? Like it's just me, where you have someone to talk it out. So I think we both agree and I think partnerships are challenging.
Speaker 2:Right, because there's always inevitably somebody doing something more than just like a marriage. Right, like it's never 50-50, it's 100-100. You're doing 100 this time, she's doing 100 another time. But it may balance out. And the same thing with business having that partner who they have an appreciation for their area, expertise and vice versa, where you know we can thrive and work hard together but also kind of be that, you know, put our backs to each other.
Speaker 2:So you know we're not, we're supporting each other in the midst of you know, these challenging times of entrepreneurship and you know I always kind of get perturbed when people say they want to be an entrepreneur, to be their own boss, and I always say, when you're an entrepreneur, every customer is your boss. So you go from one boss to hundreds of boss that you have to keep winning back over and over. So your performances are? You still working with us, you still rocking with us, you still believing in us. So I think you know it's important to have someone who's aligned on your mission and your values and doing it for the right reasons to make a difference. So you know we're somewhat of disruptors. You kind of have to be in this space to kind of move some progress and innovative ideas forward.
Speaker 1:I want to ask this question again, going back to being in Memphis. You've been here for a long time and you've started these businesses there. You have different initiatives there with the barbecuing and you have you've done the bike ride. You've got these people on your board of directors, even if they don't know. You are spiritually business wise advice. All of that stuff and you mentioned the chamber earlier, which is really interesting to me from the businesses that you've started before and what you're doing with the barbecuing and the relationships that you've built with people in the community have allowed you to thrive where you are. I'll repeat the question if we need to. I'm also really interested in that relationship with chambers and being aware of what's going on in your city in terms of chambers of commerce and things like that and why that's important. So I guess what I'm getting at is like the intersection of the social capital that you've built and being in the know of what's going on in your city to help you think strategically about your business yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 2:I think you know we've we heard just kind of adage throughout the years. It's not what you know is who you know. And I think my own personal practice is sowing good seeds. I've worked with people in the charter school space. I've seen an opportunity where a small business could be a vendor of a network or the school district, like I put you on, like hey, you need to know about this. So I like to say connecting is my gift. Let me connect these things and connect these people. We're not looking for anything in return.
Speaker 2:I think that's key, because the more you give, you would think that you put enough goodwill. Where you have relationship, he's a good person. And if he's a good person doing good work, then how can I help him when there's a need to help? And for me it's like don't help me, just help our city. I'm not looking for a handout, I'm not asking for money, but let's work together to leverage our relationship to move individuals and communities forward.
Speaker 2:And a lot of organizations I've been a part of that's been at the core, from nonprofits to volunteering on boards. How do we move Memphis and our community forward? And some things have come together in some relationships that I wouldn't say it's like by chance, but I think you know. Steve Jobs said you know, when you look at the, you look back over your life, the dots connect in reverse. Like you don't know why you did this, his polygraphy cast, popped it, the design of the Mac. And I think, as we have relationships and we meet people and if you do good by them, that these dots continue to connect and over time you'll be able to help them. They may be able to help you, but hopefully it's had a larger, a larger momentum to move it all forward.
Speaker 1:Well, just to let them go back to talk about chambers of commerce. That's right. Why? Locally, as as a local business, why it's important for you to cultivate that relationship and be in that space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I honestly admit like I could do better at it because, just, you know you have a lot of priorities, but being able the chambers are there to to aggregate resources as well as opportunities in various facets that a small business or a business may not be even aware of. And what's been good for us is being in the know and being at the table and and being able to, uh, contributing member to the, to the able to contribute a member to the chamber that there's some things that you just need to be in certain places. And what I've learned is I'm somewhat of an introvert, may not come across that way, but you know I force myself in some of these spaces just because I know I need to be there. And there are people we need to meet, we need to talk and, you know, move initiatives forward, but every time, like, it's always a positive output outcome by just talking with people and sharing what you're doing and learn about what they're doing and how we can work together.
Speaker 2:So I think, kind of having that, that networking spirit, if you will, of what's in it for you, like how can I help you and how could you help me if I can, if you can help me right. It could just be. I just need to know what's happening because I may be able to connect you with someone else, which I think is those tentacles of community is what move communities of businesses forward. If I know what you're doing, you know what I'm doing and if we're in the same space and the chamber help bring that together, from events to newsletters to just, you know, getting in the same room with other people who it may be synergistic for you to pull your initiatives and the outcome of the city forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think chambers are sometimes like if you're starting a business one of the first things you don't think about is what's the value of the chamber? I think so many people just think about starting the business that they don't explore the landscape of where they are for resources that could actually help them and build their network with developing not only who they are as entrepreneurs but developing the necessary relationships for them to be able to get certain things done. So I appreciate you sharing those insights. Before I get to my final question, I want to ask this Can you give us a little bit more information about how, if someone is interested in using Vista data to enhance their business, whether it be educational or otherwise, how can they reach out to you and how can they find out more information about Vista Data? And then and then we'll get to get to our closing question- Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:So VistaDataio is our website Right now a lot of our services. I like to say that you know, we're a little over a year and a half old and people ask me the question like you know what you just asked? What do you do? Who's your customer? Who should you be with? How can I help you? And my response right now is that you know, when you first start college, that first two years you're like you're taking elective. He's trying to figure out your major, right, it's kind of what, general college, and right now we've taken various courses, we've done some projects here and there, we found some lanes and we're kind of, you know, looking to focus what our major, what our minor is, but we're also taking electives still.
Speaker 2:So at this point, primarily B2B, we're working with schools, higher ed, community partners as well as, you know, getting into healthcare, looking at some data analytics in that space.
Speaker 2:So if you have a challenge or a problem, our kind of view is like how can we take our expertise and help you with solving that problem or getting better outcomes by powering it with artificial intelligence and data analytics? So those are the fundamentals of what we have. And you got a question like hey, let's talk through it and we could put together a use case like we can do this by infusing this type of tool or skill set to your business. So that's kind of where we are with it. That can go off in various offshoots of, you know, student recruitment to I don't know giving of donors and managing grants, like there are a lot of opportunities to build custom solutions with some of the tools that we became very, very familiar with and stacking them up to create this module. So, yeah, that's the data overall and love to have the conversation if there's a use case in which you know we can support you, help move individualized learning or data fluency to your business or your network.
Speaker 1:All right, reggie. So here's our final question, and I always ask this of any entrepreneur who comes on the show Can you tell me a book that you're currently reading, or books that you have read that have inspired your journey as an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:One book or multiple books, how many, as many as you want. Oh man, so I read I think I mentioned to you before I do audio books and I normally do like two and a half 2.25 speed and I kind to go back through various books. But I'll say one is popping up now that I'm looking at Reef is, and it's Upstream, and so Upstream is a book about how do you solve problems before they become problems, and one of the challenges I won't even say the challenge, but one of the things with artificial intelligence and this fast swing of technology is all right, there's so much you can do and it's so much with it, but how do you think beyond right now to create solutions before they become problems? And one thing about upstream that I like is that it starts off with a guy throwing. These two guys pick up a kid out of the river and then they bring him back and they look and there's another kid in the river and they pull him out and the guy starts running up. He was like what are you doing? He's like there's another kid in the river. He's like I'm going to get the punk who keep throwing kids in the river instead of just pulling them out of the stream.
Speaker 2:So it changes your mindset to say how do you go upstream, Ie how do we go to middle schoolers and start equipping them with skills of artificial intelligence as well as workforce development, skills that can be commercialized at 14 years old, versus saying how do we address this at 26? Yeah, so that's been where I am Like how do we kind of think forward and, you know, address problems before they become problems and, you know, just looking at various ways to implement it? I just like to take the analogy of around divergent right. Have you ever watched the movie Divergent? Yes, so everyone fits in a box, right, Right, Except for those who are divergent. And so it's the divergent mindset and divergent thinking of innovating and disrupting that also fuels us to like how do we disrupt and do greater, versus just fitting in a box? That's not serving us as individuals. If you have more to offer, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, reggie, thank you for joining us on this episode of Entrepreneur Appetite. I wish you much success and much growth with Vista Data. Actually, I want to give you a special thanks because it's the day after Christmas, so I know it's family time, so thank you for being available. That was great man. Thanks for having me on and enjoy the conversation. Thank you for joining this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show show. Give us five stars and leave a comment.