Milken Conference 2024: TD Jakes Enterprises is Working to Transform Communities

Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and I'm proud to announce that I'm at the Milking Global Conference 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. And my guest today is Michael Phillips, who is the CEO of TD Jake's Enterprises. I've been following TD Jake's, the brand, the movement. For many, many years. And it's an honor to have someone from his team on, on the show. So first off, Hey, Michael, I just want to say, thanks for making some time for us, man. Great to have you. Man. It is such an honor to be here with you. It's amazing. It's been amazing all week. All right. So we got, we got a lot to cover here. We got a Wells Fargo partnership. We got the good soil movement. We got obviously what you're doing here today in terms of what TDJ and the company. So let's just start with. What has been your favorite part of the conference so far? Oh my goodness. I don't even know where to start. I know it's a big one. It's the thinkers and the dreamers and the people that are here to help solve problems and looking for ways where their organizations can continue to have impact, but most importantly, how to collaborate to have that impact. I think it's been absolutely incredible. I mean, I've met people from, you know as far as Australia you know, from all over the globe who are here to take this knowledge, this insight back to where they're affecting the world and continue to have that level of impact, whatever it is they're doing. Yeah. Why, why do you feel it was important for TD Jake's Enterprises and for his team to be here and to be at a conference like Milken? Man, I think, you know, to give context to that, because it would be unfair to you to just say, blurt out something without letting you understand how much of a disruptive thinker TD Jake's is, right? And one of the things he challenged us as an organization is to join him in that process Disruptive thinking to start looking for transformative, mutually beneficial partnerships that would bring disruption and change to our society in a positive way. And so we've been doing that for a while and now to be able to come here with parts of our team, to be able to do that has been absolutely incredible. Yeah, it's interesting. Like Milken Conference to me, I mean, I've been coming now, this is, this is nine years ago I came to my first conference and it was, it was not, it was amazing back then too. I was still starstruck. I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on here? What's this next? And that, that's before I was even in media. And I remember seeing, I see the buildup of the conference now. And I always tell the corporate leaders out there, I'm like, Hey, if you're a CEO, you're an exec and I don't get paid for this. I'm not selling tickets. There's no, there's no effect. Affiliate code, it's okay, but I'm just saying if you're serious about what you're doing, if you're serious about your, your mission, your movement, if you're like, this is where it's happening. Like the conversations that happen here, the meetings that happen here, people leave here and like things happen, but it's not an accident. It's not easy to get here. It's not easy to, you know. Make the track, do all those things, but I say it pays off. Yeah, absolutely. And especially for leaders, right? Because when you go and start something you know, you want your idea to not only be taken seriously, but to be ran down the road by the individuals who believe in what you're trying to accomplish. Right. And sometimes as leaders, we, we have this vision into the idea that creates a moment. Right. That might turn into a movement. But what happens is that status quo sets in. And that movement now becomes a monument. This is why you got to come to places like this so that your idea doesn't become a monument. You want it to stay a movement. You want to stay fluid. And. I've ran into so many CEOs here. So many different, it's weird, right? They're all here. It's like, yeah, it's amazing to me. It's weird. Weird is the wrong word. It is amazing. That is the right word. It's like to get in front of this many individuals, like in a normal course of business, not going to happen, not take you years to make this type of context that you make in a couple of quick days. If you're lucky, it could take you years. Listen, jumping through every gatekeeper, it don't take you a long time to get further than these type of people. Yeah. I want to jump around, speaking of jumping around, I want to jump around here a little bit. So, transforming communities, I know TD Jakes Group, I know there's a lot of different ways that, that you're doing that, whether it's through, you know, investments in HBCUs, whether it's in, I mean, multiple other programs like, like, where do you want to start with that? Talk about the organization overall and the idea of transferring communities, what that means. Our CEO started out with this vision and idea of having this type of disruptive

Mission Matters Business Podcast with Adam Torres