"Creating Economic Mobility in Low-Income Communities: The Urban Upbound Model" Karson Humiston is joined by Bishop Mitchell Taylor, the co-founder and CEO of Urban Upbound. They discuss the journey of Urban Upbound, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking cycles of poverty in public housing neighborhoods
In this episode of the Proud to Work in Cannabis podcast, Karson Humiston is joined by Bishop Mitchell Taylor, the co-founder and CEO of Urban Upbound. They discuss the journey of Urban Upbound, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking cycles of poverty in public housing neighborhoods. Bishop shares how his father's ministry inspired him to create a movement that addresses the socioeconomic issues faced by residents in public housing.
Bishop explains that Urban Upbound focuses on four key areas: business development, career development, one-on-one financial counseling, and youth development. They also offer tax preparation services and have their own credit union. The organization aims to empower individuals and provide them with the tools and resources for economic mobility and self-sufficiency.
The conversation then shifts to the topic of cannabis and how Urban Upbound decided to enter the industry. Bishop saw an opportunity to reduce their dependency on conventional philanthropy by opening a cannabis dispensary. He shares the challenges they faced in navigating the cannabis industry, including the unique requirements set by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) in New York.
Bishop recounts the story of how they acquired a building for their dispensary on Steinway Street in Queens. Against all odds, they managed to purchase the building from a family that traditionally does not sell property. He also discusses the process of renovating the space and the importance of repurposing materials to save costs.
They then delve into the hiring process for Urban Weeds and the importance of finding the right team members. Bishop expresses his gratitude for the assistance of Vangst and the team at Vangst in recruiting qualified candidates, including their new general manager, Desiree Sookoo. He emphasizes the focus on customer service and hospitality, ensuring that every customer has a personalized experience and leaves the store with something, even if they don't make a purchase. He reminds people that there are job opportunities available, and interested individuals can visit vangst.com to apply.
Overall, this episode showcases the inspiring journey of Urban Upbound and their foray into the cannabis industry with the opening of Urban Weeds. Bishop's entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to making a difference in his community shine through, and listeners are encouraged to support this groundbreaking endeavor.
00:00:00 - Introduction and Background of Urban Upbound
00:03:48 - Programs and Initiatives of Urban Upbound
00:10:26 - Starting a Cannabis Business and the Decision to Open Urban Weeds
00:12:06 - See a Problem, Solve a Problem Approach
00:17:54 - Navigating the Cannabis Industry and Winning the License
00:20:49 - Challenges and Successes in Acquiring a Building for Urban Weeds
00:25:15 - Renovating and Building Out the Urban Weeds Dispensary
00:30:04 - Hiring and Building the Urban Weeds Team
00:34:57 - Focus on Customer Service and Hospitality at Urban Weeds
00:38:19 - Details of the Soft Opening and Location of Urban Weeds
00:39:55 - Job Opportunities at Urban Weeds and Future Projects
QUOTES:
"We wanted to create a movement and we did 20 years ago, that could break cycles of poverty in public housing neighborhoods by giving residents the tools and resources for economic mobility and self-sufficiency." - 00:01:00
"We wanted to create something from the inside out and from the bottom up." - 00:01:00
"Being in the business means being able to protect myself." - 00:23:33
"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." - 00:31:28
"We're going to double and triple down on customer service and hospitality." - 00:38:01
"We want you to have an experience. We want you to have education and we want you to have elevation." - 00:38:01
"We're located right in the heart of Astoria. 3135 Steinway Street in between 31st Avenue and Broadway." - 00:39:13
"Come out and be with us on January 12th." - 00:39:13
"It's an incredible opportunity to join a cannabis company in New York where you will be working with, in my opinion, the best team in New York." - 00:39:55
"I can't wait till you get here, Carson." - 00:39:58
[00:00:00]
Karson Humiston: Hey everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the proud to work in cannabis podcast. Extremely excited to get going on this episode today. Everyone has been talking about New York and the New York market, which is finally seemingly on the road to opening a lot of additional dispensaries. Join with me today.
I have. Bishop Mitchell Taylor, who is the co founder and CEO of Urban Upbound, which we'll talk about. And Urban Upbound is now opening a dispensary called Urban Weeds right in Queens. Bishop and I have been working together for, gosh, I think it's only been a month, but it feels like longer. So, Bishop, welcome to the program.
Thanks for being here.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: being here. Carson. so much for having me. I'm so excited. So excited.
Karson Humiston: So, let's just Take a moment to talk about you as well as talk about Urban Upbound. Can you tell us about, a little bit about yourself and why you started Urban Upbound and what Urban Upbound stands for and what you all do?[00:01:00]
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yeah, well, I'm a preacher's kid.
My dad, um, Pastor and he started his ministry in Long Island City in 1961, right across the street from the largest public housing development in the country, Queensbridge houses. And, um, his ministry was always. Had a socioeconomic bent, so it not only was it spiritual, but it was really helping people with their social and economic situations and, you know, moving people, you know, from public housing to home ownership, doing that without all of the conventional tools and assistant things that we have today, he was just doing that in his own indigenous way and really helping people move, you know, from poverty into prosperity.
Um, of course, when I came, you Uh, back to work with my dad, uh, as a young man at that time, 30, well, 40 years ago, uh, I really wanted to really put something [00:02:00] together that could really address the mammoth issues that exist in public housing neighborhoods. And, uh, maybe your viewers don't know this, but if you're looking for the neediest New Yorkers.
All you have to do is go to public housing. The average income in public housing is 22, 000 a year. 46. 9 percent is a working population. The other part of that population is on some form of welfare or some form of disability or social security or such alike. Another fun fact, um, 3 percent of the residents that live in public housing over the age of 25 have a bachelor degree.
So that kind of gives you an idea of the, the academic picture in public housing neighborhoods. And so we wanted to create a movement and we did 20 years ago, uh, that could, um, break cycles of poverty in public housing neighborhoods [00:03:00] by giving residents the tools and resources for sufficiency. Now we wanted to do this a different way.
You know, historically in poor neighborhoods, you know, folks, uh, when they start initiatives, they they bring initiatives in from the top down from the outside in those don't last very long. They're not sustainable. Uh, so we wanted to create something from the inside out and from the bottom up. And so we began organizing all the social networks that exist in public housing neighborhoods.
Your resident leaders, your religious leaders, your business leaders. And we wanted to figure out how we could give people not a handout, but a hand up and a foot in the door. And so we created urban up out.
Karson Humiston: So tell us, this is 20 years ago now, you created Urban Upbound.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: created
Karson Humiston: How did you tactically go about doing this? And can you talk to us about some of the programs and some of the ways [00:04:00] that you're going about achieving this mission now, now, 20 years in? Whoa.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: glad you asked that. So, uh, one of the things that we did was we there in Queensbridge houses alone, there are 96 buildings in a six block radius, 3, 122 apartments in this development. Over 9000 leaseholders, probably 18, 000 people live there. Okay. Um, when you think about that and you think about Object poverty and people that are living in poverty, uh, you have to think about how do you make the population a part of the solution.
And so what we did was we conducted lobby meetings in all 96 buildings in public housing, asking them what do they feel is needed to make their lives better. Uh, would you be willing to lead the initiative that you [00:05:00] recommend? And, you know, what do you think is the most pressing issue that you're facing living in public housing?
Well, needless to say, uh, with those three questions and the surveys that we, uh, administered, we collected about 4, 000 or so surveys. And from those surveys and those lobby meetings, we were able to shake out the model that we're operating now. And that is business development. That's helping entrepreneurs and folks on the ground start their own businesses.
Enhance current businesses and create cooperative worker, cooperative models, which we've done about 16 already. And then there's career development, uh, that's, um, soft skills, hard skills, training, placement, retention, and advancement. Once we get you on the job, we don't want you staying in that position.
We want to figure out the way to advance you. And it may be on that job, or it may be in another job. Uh, second part is one on one financial counseling. Bill [00:06:00] Clinton said rich people have financial counseling. But poor people actually need them. And so after that stomp speech that I did all across the city and around the country, I finally got approach from some administrators in the city of New York.
And they said, Bishop, please tell us about this one on one financial counseling. Long story short, the city adopted our model. And now today we have over 30 partners that are. Administering one on one financial advisement, uh, to poor people around the city, and that is all because of the work that we started here at Urban Upbound.
Then, fourthly, is youth development, both academic and vocational. Uh, getting kids through high school, to college, and through college, and to their careers. Uh, and then we're the number one tax preparer. My dad said to me before he died, he said, two things are sure. Death in taxes, and I thought about that.
I said, wow, I wonder if I could use tax preparation as a [00:07:00] tool to evangelize or to market using a secular term, right? And so I did that. So we partnered with a group that does free tax preparation here in New York. This was 20 years ago and we did, we became a satellite site and we did 81 returns and from those 81 returns, those folks got back, I think 240, 000 in EITC returns and whatnot, and I thought that we saved the world.
And so we doubled down because see when you do taxes for people, you get all the information, what their name is, where they live at, how many children they have, family composition, and that gives us an opportunity to offer to them services that we have on deck. So tax preparation for us now is like one of our biggest programs.
20 years later, we're almost a half a billion dollars. In returns to people on the ground and, uh, we're the number one taxpayer in the city and number four in the [00:08:00] United States of America and the IRS has us listed on their portal as the go to organization for tough tax returns because we don't just do taxes for free for people, individuals, but we do it for businesses.
And gig workers, which is a very important service. And that's a very complicated thing. And finally, I'll say about tax prep, when the pandemic hit the IRS asked us, what we consider doing virtual tax preparation for all 50 States. And we do, and we are also the number one tax trainer for the IRS in the VITA program in setting up new sites around the country, then, uh, the urban upbound federal credit union.
Another tease that my dad gave me. He said, you'll never be able to make, make sustainable change unless you own money. I said, what are you talking about? Willis? He said, you have to open up your own bank. And, uh, and so we did, uh, we started with [00:09:00] the urban upbound federal credit union. And then finally the seventh silo is the urban upbound mental health department.
And that's a soft touch. For people that are, you know, struggling with employment, struggling with finance, struggling with family, and they need someone to talk to. And so it's just that soft touch before they get to the ledge. And so for us, none of those things, if they stood individually, have novelty.
But when you can comprehensively integrate them on campuses, it becomes magical. Now, I'll say this last thing. One of our objectives was this. We are a nonprofit for profit. We are very entrepreneurial and we, we like to model that entrepreneurial spirit. And so we can't tell people in public housing to be entrepreneurs, to open businesses, to be the best that you can be if we're not modeling [00:10:00] that.
And so our objective from the beginning was to create. Streams of funding, unconventional streams of funding that will reduce our dependency on conventional philanthropy, not eradicate it, just reduce it. And so, and that's in the form of opening businesses that are owned and operated by urban upbound.
Karson Humiston: Which we're going to, which leads us to, um, the dispensary. One thing I wanted to unpack a little bit, we have a lot of people that listen to our show that are entrepreneurs and a lot of people that are starting cannabis businesses or technology businesses. And one of the things that you said that I really loved was back in the early, early days.
When you were starting, I mean, you just listed seven incredible programs that you've rolled out from,
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: crying out
Karson Humiston: um, business development, helping entrepreneurs open business to career development, one on one financial counseling, tax returns, youth development, uh, I mean, a bank for crying out loud, you know? And so I think people listen to that and they think like, Oh my [00:11:00] gosh, these people have done so much.
How, how could I ever achieve that? And I go back to the thing that you said in the beginning, which was you started off by doing lobby meetings. And, uh, asking the people, you know, what are the problems that you're facing doing surveys? And that's how, when I think about how my business started or all my friends who are entrepreneurs businesses started, it starts with talking to, in theory, customers, in your case, the people that you would be servicing, figuring out what the problem is.
It's listening to problems and identifying it. And so I just wanted to pull that out because a lot of people that want to start businesses, I think sometimes they start with the solution versus starting with the problem. And so you're a perfect example of literally going into lobbies, having people come down from their apartment and asking them, how can we support you?
And it sounds like to me throughout your journey, that's just what you've continued doing. People are struggling to. Do their tax returns. People don't have financial counseling. See a problem, solve a problem. Can you talk about, you know, just [00:12:00] the concept of see a problem, solve a problem, and how that's served your organization well over the last 20 years?
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yeah. I mean, so, you know, living in, living in and around public housing all my life.
I don't live in public housing now. Um, but you know, I had a chance to not only, uh, see it, but experience it. And I tell people all the time, it's very hard to express what you have not experienced. And, um, and I think that we, you know, I have a PhD. I've been to school. I have a PhD. It's called the public housing degree.
And with that degree, you know, along with my other degrees, this is probably the most important degree because it's a degree that I got from the public and from my personal experience. And if you were to ask me 20 years ago, will we be here today? We own a bank. We owe where we're starting the second branch of our, uh, urban upbound federal credit union on Steinway street.
We're [00:13:00] going to be banking cannabis. Uh, you know, if you'd Ask me if we had seven or eight brick and mortar locations around the five boroughs of New York City, then I would say no, you know, 31 satellites around, I would say no, you know, I don't know how, you know, I'm, I'm, I just say that we're blessed, you know, and I, you know, we saw a need, we saw a need and we decided to make a difference to not just talk about it, but to talk to other people about it.
And if they saw the need and recognized the need and even made a suggestion, then my second question would be, how can I help you bring your suggestion to a reality? And so, you know, let me share this with you too, as well. Unfortunately, in black and brown communities, in low income communities that are predominantly black and brown, um, in [00:14:00] our context, A lot of your best and brightest people wind up recognizing the mammoth problems that exist where they've grown up and opposed to going to school, um, you know, starting a career, starting a business and becoming a millionaire, multimillionaire, and then coming back and say, okay, now how can I change the world?
You know, um, We do it a little bit differently. You know, the needs are so magnanimous and so in your face until, you know, we just start automatically with no money, with no resources, trying to deal with the problem opposed to build a business, make some money, and then would. Influence wealth and power, we can change the world, but oftentimes the best and the brightest are starting out changing the world without [00:15:00] those resources.
And so, and that's what you see in Urban Upbound today, you know, and I guess I, listen, here it is. Now I've been pastoring and this is a weird conundrum, but for 36 years, so this is my 36 year pastoring. And so, It's a long time to be in community service, long time to hear, you know, the hearts and the heart throbs and the pains of other people.
And so, you know, I've lived that and I said that to say, I'm looking back now 36 years. And one thing. When I started out, I was an itinerant speaker. I traveled all across the country, speaking in some of the largest churches and ministries and conferences around the United States and internationally. And when I came back home, you know, I was a wonder around the world.
But when I came back home, I didn't really have much infrastructure. And I said to myself, I said, you know what, I better stop because I don't [00:16:00] want to get 35 years down the road. And people say, well, what the hell did he do all the time? And I said, Oh yeah, I traveled around and I spoke at conferences. What is that?
And so that's why I stopped and I said, I have to make a difference in my community. And listen, I, I could have gone on to work for Goldman Sachs or Any other hedge fund. I've had so many different offers with people that said, man, you should, I mean, for years, they've been trying to get me into the secular world to, to, to, to do what I do.
And I've dedicated my life to this. And so, you know, it's, it's a different type of thing and do I regret it? No, I don't regret it at all. I, you know, I'm grateful that I've been able to help people, assist people to assist themselves.
Karson Humiston: And, and I wanna get, by the way, we, we could do an entire. Episode on just you and Urban Upbound because [00:17:00] there's so much more to unpack, but I do want to get to Urban Weeds, which gets to, you know, the neck, the proud to work in cannabis podcasts and how we know each other. So part of what you said was that, you know, you're, you're modeling entrepreneurialism and you're, you are all entrepreneurs.
And by the way, in just working with you over the last month, I feel like. You're just such a classic entrepreneur. It's like, Oh, we need to get some paint. Someone go to Home Depot. And it's like, we're going to open the store in two weeks. Of course, we'll find a bud, we'll find the bud tenders. We'll find the people like just.
It's been so fun to work with you because it's just like working with another crazy entrepreneur. Um, but, uh, let, talk to me about how you decided that the next business that you would start would be
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Well, you know, my, you know, uh, my team had, you know, we, we've been looking at, [00:18:00] again, looking at ways and means to reduce our dependency on conventional philanthropy and be able to make money for the organization and backfill.
Our programs, so we don't have to pass the cup all the time or that, that not that much. Um, and so when the cannabis market started opening up around the country and we started hearing the buzz that cannabis would open up in New York, you know, and then the thought that they were saying, well, we're going to try to fashion this licensure, this legalization.
To benefit people that have been impacted by the war on drugs the most. And I thought that was fabulous. Wow. You know, I mean, they, I've heard this same rhetoric [00:19:00] in other markets and whatnot. And to hear it in New York was like, wow. And so, um, 40 billion market. Um, how do you get into it? What do you do? And so I've watched it for about five years as it was evolving.
And, uh, as we got closer to it, uh, I started just dibbling and dabbling in it. I started a consultancy, um, and, uh, that I thought. I thought that I really didn't think that, you know, we were going to open a dispensary per se for urban upbound. At first, I thought maybe I was just going to just do some consulting, and then we're going to do a training thing because urban upbound is about.
Training and, and resourcing folks and what, so we want to do a seed to sales, you know, cannabis training program, everything from this to that and everything like that. And then finally I said, you know what? And then I heard them say that they're going to be doing some [00:20:00] deference to nonprofits. I said, nonprofits, we, we are nonprofit.
So, and that's how it all began. When I heard that, then I began meeting with legislators and just kind of picking people's mind before the even license was even. Before the OCM was even created, you know, we were having these conversations with shakers and movers and people that, you know, so we can just educate ourself and just find out what's the pathology, what's the direction that people are taking.
And so getting emulsified in that just kind of positioned us organically. And so when the application dropped, I said, you know what, what the hell, let's go for it. And so, yeah, and so we were already representing three other clients
Karson Humiston: Oh, who wanted
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: for
Karson Humiston: consulting, like you were, you were like consulting with them.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yeah, yeah, just consulting them to help them because, you know, I have relationships.
And the reason why my consultancy is very viable in New York is [00:21:00] because relationship is the currency of life.
Karson Humiston: Yep. And, and it fits in
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: of relationships.
Karson Humiston: fits in with one of your products that you offer of business development, helping people start their own company. So that was the first thing that we talked about. So, so it fits.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yeah, it fits. And so, yeah, so we got into the race and we just happened to have a board member that, uh, her husband was a big time marijuana dealer and she, Francis said she didn't know that he was a big time marijuana dealer. And, uh, I don't know how she didn't know, but she said she didn't know.
And so they came in and raided their house. And they caught, they, they, they took 30 pounds of weed out of the house. 30 pounds and they arrested her husband and they arrested her and charged both of them with the possession of cannabis.
Karson Humiston: Cause this isn't one of the required, wasn't one of the requirements you had to have been previously convicted. Right. Can you explain that to the, to the listeners? Because they might not know.[00:22:00]
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: had previously, David, correct?
You had to do that to the listeners? A cannabis arrest and then another thing they threw in there, I don't know why they threw this in there, that you had to have, uh, 10 percent interest in or, or run a business for, you know, a couple of years or some crap like
Karson Humiston: It was, I think it was, I think it was you. This was the one that I thought was very interesting, and you had to have run a retail business profitably.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: profitably. Right,
Karson Humiston: had to have been arrested, you had to have been arrested for cannabis, and
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: And run a legitimate
Karson Humiston: and run a legitimate business, so there's a pool of people out there.
I don't, I, it's, I cannot believe that then you're, what are the chances that you find [00:23:00] this out about your board member?
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: And here we are and we are, we're perfect.
Karson Humiston: Perfect.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: I mean, we are, we are perfect for it because she doesn't have any gun. She don't have no gun charges.
You don't have no, no heroin charges. And a lot of the guys and girls that were applying for licensure, they had cannabis, but they also had something else. No one has cannabis by itself. Very few people have cannabis by itself. And if you had a gun charge with it, You, you're, you're, I think you're, you're out.
You can't, you can't apply. So, you know, we
Karson Humiston: maybe, maybe a, maybe a good thing. You know, we don't know. I don't know that a bunch of people with gun charges.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Well, I mean, but no, no, no, no, but I don't, I don't want to say what I'll stay, I'll stay neutral on that because the problem is, you know, when you are in the, the, the, when you are in this business. You know what I mean? And, and you're making this a, you're [00:24:00] making this a prequalification.
That I had to be in the business before. Well, let me share something with you. Being in the business means being able to protect
Karson Humiston: That's a good point.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: being able to protect myself. Okay. And, and anybody that's watching that thinks that the cannabis business before it was even thought about being legalized around the States here was a safe, clean business.
You are mistaken. It might be a, it might be a clean. Hi, if you're smoking clean cannabis and credible cannabis from credible producers and growers, but it's certainly not A clean business and we can see that now, you know from all of the illegal dispensaries that are being robbed The reason why they're being robbed is because they're illegal Who are you going to tell when I walk into your store?
And with a gun and two of my friends and I take a hundred thousand dollars from you and you're illegal. You're not licensed That's[00:25:00]
Karson Humiston: Right. You know where to go. So that, that's a good, that's a good point. But regardless, this was what the, you know, this was the requirements and you met it spot on. So talk. So then you apply. Right. You're like. We are the perfect fit for this. So you go and apply. When did you find out that you won?
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: out that you won?
So we found out that we won last November, and uh, I, I thought it was gonna be like a plug and play, like what we do all the time. At Urban Upbound, we do what I call the Urban Hustle. We've built out campuses all over the city, so this was not gonna be hard for us, but I didn't realize. That we had to find a location.
We had to jump through all these hoops prior to getting to wherever. And so we, you know, we went, we went hard trying to meet all the regulations. The only thing that we, we refuse to do, and I'm the jury is still out on whether I'm right or wrong. We didn't take on an equity partner [00:26:00] in, in the licensure.
It allows you. To take on a 49 percent equity partner, right? And this way that will give, especially the card applicants, there were only eight of us that won the card application. First round, I was one of the first eight. And so, you know, um, um, if you take on an equity partner, give them 49 percent of your license, the normal protocol is they'll build out everything for you, deal with all the technical stuff.
And all you do is just collect the check, you know, for the other 51%. You know, which, you know, whittles down to whatever the percentages from the business, you know, no one makes 51 percent profit. So whatever it is, 15, 20%, then you're divvying that up. We didn't do that. We decided we're not going to do that.
We're not going to take an equity partner. We're going to be the turtle and not the rabbit. And so we just plugged along, plugged along, we found a place and we put. Money down [00:27:00] on the place, a couple of thousand dollars to lock it down. It was approved by the OCM. We were, we were all in getting ready to do our thing.
And all of a sudden I found, I saw a building on Steinway street and it was an old Victoria Secrets building and, um, big building. And it sat right across the street from the only municipal parking lot on Steinway street. And, uh, I made an inquiry, made a phone call. Cold call. Met the family. I'm a pretty personable person.
Um, uh, I met the family. Met the, I met the grandson. And then I met the father. And then, you know, um, We have a whole other, we have to do another show. Anyway, beyond that, they, they love me. They were not selling the building. They don't sell property. This family does not, it's against their religion. To sell property.
[00:28:00] Okay. But what they did was he said, we'll rent you the product. We'll rent you to build it for 50, 000 a month. That's a mortgage. I'm not renting a building for 50, 000 a month. No way. Sell us the building. So we worked on and worked on long story short. Uh, we had, uh, a meeting with myself and one of our board members, Ms.
Elizabeth Kleinhans, shout out to Ms. Kleinhans, um, and so she's a tough Jewish woman. Let me tell you something. She's like 80, 80 plus years of age, but when you sit down with her, yo, you are dealing with a tough negotiator. She's tougher than anybody, you know, in negotiations. Anyway, she, um, She talked to the guy and it's just, well, and he says, oh, I can't do that.
She says, well, then no problem. Call us when you're ready. I said, oh my God, this woman sunk the deal. She sink, she sunk the deal. And, uh, cause the guy was as well. Well, how, if we did say you to build a, how would you buy it? She says, we buy the cash. What do you think? We're going to buy a cash. What [00:29:00] do you think?
We're going to buy it. And I'm looking at her like we are. So anyway. I don't hear from the guy for two weeks, two and a half weeks. Finally, he calls me back and we re engage in the conversation. Long story short, 200, 000 over the her offer for cash. We were able to buy the building. So we bought the building.
Now we've been saving money for 20 years. So now we are broke as a joke. Okay. We have no money, but we got this building. Okay. And um, We had a guy come in and say, listen, if you were to turn this into a cannabis shop, how much would you charge us? One guy said, 1.5. One guy said 1.2. I said, well, that's never gonna happen.
'cause we don't even have, we ain't even got, we ain't even got the two . Nevermind the one, we don't have the two. And so. Um, [00:30:00] I said, man, and, and then my board chair said to me, Ben said to me, he said, Bishop,
Karson Humiston: the way, shout out to Ben for connecting us.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: yes, yes. And Ben said to me, he said, Bishop, I've known you a long time. This is the most riskiest thing I've seen you do.
He said, but you know what? I'm a rock with you on this. He said, but I, you know, this is, this is, I've never seen you move this. Risky before. Now, the only other time I had a similar conversation with the board was when we opened up our credit union. So in 2010, we were chartered, but we were in the throes of getting chartered from 2005.
During that time, we had the economic downturn. The whole banking industry blew up. I came to the board meeting and Ben said to me, Bishop, we are abandoning the idea of opening a bank now. Aren't we? And I looked at the board and I said, ladies and gentlemen, a [00:31:00] crises is a terrible thing to waste. The banking industry messed it up, but we're going to show them how to do it.
Right.
I don't know what gave me the nerve to say that, but needless to say that next year, 2010, we were chartered. First one charted under the Obama administration. First one charted in Queens and over 30 years. And the first one ever with low income designation. So, I mean, you know, these are,
Karson Humiston: we got the bank to work, and, and now we're going to get this, the cannabis business to work. Let's go back to, so you bought, I want to get back to the story and to, you know, where we are today, getting ready to open. So, you buy a building,
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: the
Karson Humiston: buy the building against, you know, it seemed like this family was never going to sell a building.
Against all odds, you buy the building. What, what
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: so we start renovating.
Karson Humiston: You start running. What, what timeframe just to give viewers a, is this
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: So yeah, so, so, yeah, so this was like April.
Karson Humiston: Okay. [00:32:00] So it's April. You
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: we closed.
Karson Humiston: the Victoria's
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: We closed in April. Yup, we closed in April, and here's the thing. So we're trying to get the building, and once we get the building, And we got the, we closed on the building.
This is funny. We closed on the building. I got the keys. I got the keys now. So I'm going to the building. I'm saying, holy smoke. There's an elevator in the building. There's fire alarms, sprinklers, this, that. I said, holy, I think I done bit off too much, more than I can chew. But anyway, beyond that, we went in, started cleaning out the building.
It was horrid, but we went and started cleaning out the building, demoing the building and doing everything on our own. And, um, again, we had several estimates to build out the space and we decided not to go with those estimates. We decided not to get an equity partner and we've been doing it on our own.
We've been doing what I call the urban hustle to build out the space. And, uh, we didn't have a [00:33:00] professional designer, we didn't have none of, no professional mark, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. We just did it. And so, what you see when we open Urban Weeds on Steinway Street on, uh, can I say when? Okay, on, uh, January 12th is our soft opening. And, uh, uh, you'll see that is the work of regular people on the ground. With an entrepreneurial mindset, limited resources, but an unlimited vision. That's what you're going to see. So I pray that the patrons and the customers that come in, they'll take all the mistakes and all the stuff they see and love if they see any of that, and that they'll know that all of the wood in that shop, I'm not going to give it away, but all of that was repurposed.
That's how we save so much money. We saved hundreds of thousands of dollars because we repurposed the wood. I think [00:34:00] my environmentalists will love this. I mean, we did, we repurposed everything, so we reused it and you know, now the shop is, is ready to go just a couple of little more tweaks. And, uh, just the other day we had our inspection from OCM.
We passed with flying colors. I was so worried that we would not. You know how nervous I was, Carson. And, uh, I didn't know what to expect. They said, man, this shop looks fabulous. They said you did a fabulous job. And
Karson Humiston: And let's talk a little bit about the team. So you have people from, you have people from Urban Upbound who have been going about their urban hustle, and you've also made some great hires, including a new. General manager. So love to talk about when you think about hiring and building this team, of course, uh, banks and our team has been working hand in hand with you, what, you know, what you look for when you're hiring and you're building out this team specifically with Desiree, the manager and some of the other folks that we've started to hire for,
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: and let me just say this to like, [00:35:00] we are what I would call workforce professionals. We place about 2000 or so people in jobs every single year, maybe more. Um, and so we're workforce, workforce professionals,
Karson Humiston: by the way, folks, just so that, you know, um, stay tuned on that because we're going to be doing some work with. Urban upbound, urban weeds to place people into jobs in cannabis. So there's more to come in our next episode. We'll just give you a little teaser there, right? Bishop.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yes. Yes. But we had, I was frozen. I had no idea how to hire a butt tender, where to get butt tenders from and whatnot. And so I was frozen in time. And so thank God, my board chair said to me, Bishop, I want you to meet someone. And I said, who? He said, I want you to meet someone. Don't worry, I want you to meet somebody.
They're going to help you with what you're doing. And he introduced me to you. If he did not introduce us to Vance, I probably would not be this far advanced [00:36:00] because in other words, you guys are masters in this space. You've already figured it out. So you shaved off like two or three months of me interviewing meticulously and whatnot.
Because we look for a very specific type of person to work at Urban Upbound and I will be just as meticulous for Urban Weeds. And so Vance came in. And got started and whatnot. And seems like almost in a week, you guys had like 30 blood tenders for us to, to talk to and interview and train and whatnot, and so on and so forth.
And the biggest catch, and I have to credit you guys for this. I don't know how you did it. Um, Desiree Suku, I know she doesn't mind me saying it. Um, she's our new general manager. And, um, you guys found her, recruited her and brought her in. And I'll just say she was cannabis ready, cannabis ready. And, um, and she [00:37:00] is an exciting African American woman, uh, who I believe the sky is the limit.
And, um, Yeah. So one of the things that, you know, we're, we're doing, we might not be able to beat the MSOs, but what we're going to do is this, we're going to double and triple down on customer service and hospitality. We're going to have bud tenders on the floor at all times with iPads. Anybody that comes in that store, they're going to have a personal shopper with them to talk with them.
And even if they don't buy anything. They're not going to leave that store empty handed. Now the OCM has regulations. I can't give you samples of weed, but you're going to get a pen, a pin, a t shirt, a hoodie, a hat, a pair of gloves, anything. You're not going to leave the store empty handed. We want you to have an experience.
We want you to have education and we want you to have elevation. And so we believe that it's going to be a tremendous, tremendous, [00:38:00] tremendous time in the store.
Karson Humiston: Absolutely is. And hopefully this might be the first of many stores you open. And so this is, this is the beginning of an incredible journey. If people that are listening want to come to the, the soft opening on the 12th, where can they find you?
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: they find you?
Yes, so we're located right in the heart of Astoria, 3135 Steinway Street, in between 31st Avenue And Broadway and don't worry about parking. We have the only municipal parking lot right across the street. Okay. And you can use your smartphone to put the 25 cents in or the 50 cents for the meter and whatnot.
It's just a great, great, great, great convenience for the store. So we'll be opening at 10 AM on January 12th. It's a soft opening for family and friends. [00:39:00] All of you guys are my family and my friends. So come out and be with us on January 12th, 3135 Steinway Street, Astoria, New York.
Karson Humiston: and if you're looking for a job at.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: at, you
Karson Humiston: weeds. You can go to banks. com slash urban weeds. And we are taking in applicants. We know that as the store continues to grow, we're going to continue hiring, continue building out the team. It's an incredible opportunity to join a cannabis company in New York, where you will be working with, in my opinion, the best team.
In New York. So if you're looking to go have an amazing experience, you have to visit the location. If you're looking for a great job, we would love to talk to you. And Bishop, I'm excited to come see the store myself next week and spend some time with you next week and, you know, work on our other project that we'll be announcing to people in the coming months.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: Yes, yes, I'm excited. I can't wait till you get here, Carson.
Karson Humiston: Sounds great. Thank you so much for [00:40:00] coming on the show.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor: for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you guys. Take care.