Nitin Bajaj:

Hey everyone, welcome to The Industry Show. I’m your host Nitin Bajaj and joining me today is Amani Kelly. Amani, welcome on the show.

 

Amani Kelly:

Thank you very much, Nitin. Thank you for having me.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

Hey, great to have you here. So, let’s start with who is Amani.

 

Amani Kelly:

So, Amani. So, I look at Amani and sometimes I do personality, right? But from a professional perspective and a personal perspective, but personal is more important to me.

So, first and foremost, I’m a father, I’m a son, a partner, and a friend. And I hold those very close, near and dear to me because it’s important for me to be the best all-around father, friend, partner, son that I can be. Oh, and I’m also a brother.

That’s Amani from a personal perspective. But from a professional perspective, I tend to quote Jay-Z a lot, not only because he’s a great emcee, but also because he’s a great businessman as well. But I like to say that I’m not a businessman, I’m a business man.

And I say that because no matter what I’m doing, no matter what I’m selling, if it’s a product, if it’s a service, I’m always selling myself. So, it’s important for me to be able to be the utmost professional that I can be, but also understand that people buy from people that they like, people buy from people they can relate to. So, that’s why Amani is a business.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

I love that. And I wholeheartedly accept and believe with that train of thought, because that’s what we do, right? We deal with people, we relate to them, and then the rest of the things come through. Awesome. Tell us on that note, what do you do? What do you do for a living? I know you have a few things going on and you’re a pretty big heavy hitter in all of those. I would love to hear what exactly do you have under your sleeves?

 

Amani Kelly:

Well, I appreciate that. And sometimes I don’t know what I do because I feel like I’m getting pulled in several different directions. But I really focus around from an earning money perspective, three things. One is I’m a real estate developer. So, we develop new construction and cash flowing assets. Number two, I decided to partner with my girlfriend and we also have a commercial and construction cleaning company. And we started that this year. And the third piece is I’m on the executive team for a theme park that’s coming to Middle Tennessee. I’m not on the ownership side, but I am on the executive side. So, those are the three things that generate revenue and take up most of my time. And throughout the day, I might have to deal with all three of them in one day.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

You have your hands more than full for sure, but also in many different domains and a lot of adventure, a lot of, I’m sure mix of things that keep coming at you pretty much on a daily basis. So, help us understand the dynamics around. So, let’s start with the size and scale of your operations. And more importantly, that again, going back to what you said, the why behind this, right? Why do this? Why do these things?

Why these three different avenues? And through that, the impact that you’ve been able to create?

 

Amani Kelly:

Yeah, sure, sure. And I appreciate that question because the way I look at it is I do three things and I try to do them pretty well, the best of my ability, but really we’ll talk about two. Scaling, essentially I have two starters that I’m scaling.

The development company was created in 2021. However, we really didn’t start operations until last year, 2022. So, I’m scaling.

And the way I thought about that development company, Southeast Investment Capital Group was just a one man army, myself, and then hiring out everyone else. Now I realize to really get triple digit growth, I need to bring in partners, which I did. And with that, it requires scaling. So, scaling that company. And then number two is the cleaning company, which we started this year. So, not only am I scaling one company, I decided to, hey, I have all the free time in the world, I might as well scale another company.

So, I’m responsible for operations and sales for that SDD cleaning. And the why I do it is because I really do want to show people, primarily people of color, that there’s opportunities for us to start companies, build companies, scale companies, and have a good living. That not having to rely on working for someone else or working for a corporation.

So, that’s really the why that I do this. And I also want to leave a good impression for my daughter.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

And see the why is so important, right? Both for not just leaving a legacy behind and helping our children understand that with hard work, with smart work, anything is possible and feasible. But also to show our community, people of color, immigrants, women, the people that have typically been marginalized, that we don’t have to depend on anyone.

We can just set our mind to something. And then of course, we may need help and bring people along. But we essentially get to define our destiny. So, thank you for doing what you do and for saying what you did, because it’s not easy to put it out there. Even if we ourselves continue to work on these things, to crystallize it, to communicate that, and to share it with someone is extremely powerful. So, thank you.

 

Amani Kelly:

Absolutely. You’re welcome. Very welcome.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

So, Amani, I love what you’re doing. I love the fact that you somewhat almost hate yourself because you’re scaling two startups at the same time and in completely different domains. But I would love to hear from you.

What’s that one big challenge you’re facing?

 

Amani Kelly:

I think it’s two big challenges, right? It’s scaling two companies and having the responsibility that I have for the people that I brought along with me. And we’re walking side by side.

So, I appreciate everyone that’s next to me. But I also feel as though I have a responsibility for these people from the Southeast Investment Capital Group and for STD Cleaning to do well and help them be successful because they believed in me. So, essentially, my two challenges are scaling these companies and growing them to a certain level that the people that have walked with me are as comfortable as I am.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

If anyone’s shoulders, it’s got to be yours, right?

 

Amani Kelly:

Why not, right?

 

Nitin Bajaj:

On the flip side of challenges come opportunities, what’s the most exciting one that you’re targeting? And again, it could be two because, you know, why not?

 

Amani Kelly:

Yeah, I will say that I don’t know what to be more excited about because they’re both my babies, right? And I love and I’m biased. So, I love both my babies and I love them equally.

I would say from the cleaning company perspective, I’m really excited for Q1 of next year because we’ve secured several and three large contracts. They were supposed to start at the end of this year, which would have increased our revenue for our first year, but next year is looking very good just based off of this first quarter. So, I’m excited to start those and I’m excited to finish those so that we have proof of concepts of large projects.

And from Southeast Investment Capital Group, we’re developing currently 15 units that we’re building this year, 2024, that will be delivered in 2024 as well. So, I’m excited to be able to present those properties along with others that we get throughout the year, but just see those from start to finish because those will both start and I say two because it’s 15 units but two separate projects and those will both start in January as well. So, I have a busy January ahead of me.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

Super exciting and again, congratulations both on the launch of the cleaning company, but also having talked a little bit about how you guys have grown. It’s fascinating. So, congrats to the both of you on that. Thank you. And I know there’s a lot more coming there. So, what I would love to do is as we look forward, take a step back and look at the rearview mirror and ask you to share two instances. One, where things did not work out as you had planned and it became, was a failure, became a lesson. And another one where things exceeded your own expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

 

Amani Kelly:

Yeah, absolutely. We’ll start with the situation where that wasn’t so ideal. And this has really taught me to cross my t’s and dot my i’s when it comes to a legal perspective and from a partnership perspective. And people say that lawyers are expensive, but they’re expensive for a reason. And they’re expensive up front because they can actually save you a lot of money in the back end. So, I actually got into a verbal partnership with a former, I called him a mentor, and we were going to do a large project.

 

My first large project, and this was, we secured it, locked it down in the beginning of 2020. So, you can probably see where I’m going with this. And we’re supposed to close on the land in April. And that’s when everything hit the fan. So, what happened was I ended up getting, having to actually pursue the contract because I did not look at the legalities of the contract close enough. So, there was no force majeure, which means an act of God within the contract. Typically, there’s force majeures in contracts. So, I thought that we were covered. So, we tried to back out of the contract, no force majeure, wasn’t able to back out, had to move forward. So, lesson number one, always look at the fine print. Lesson number two, always have your lawyers look at it. So, essentially, I was sued for not moving forward, and we had a settlement, and it was an expensive lesson. But what I took from that was always have my lawyers look at everything first, and really be cautious with the partnerships that you get into, I’d say, professionally and personally. So, that was 2020. We moved on.

So, the second part of the question was, what am I most excited about or happy about?

 

Nitin Bajaj:

Yeah. What are you most proud about from when you look back at your career across these different businesses and opportunities and even your corporate career? What’s that one thing that I’d like to say you want to show off about a little bit, right? You’re not the person to brag, but you have this opportunity now, and I want you to.

 

Amani Kelly:

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I look at it three things, and one and a half are business, and one is definitely personal. 2011, I graduated college. I wasn’t 22 in 2011. So, I took the long, long, long road, but the reason why I graduated was for my daughter. So, how could I tell her or advise her to go to school if I didn’t complete it myself? So, I was, at the time, I was working in corporate. I was doing pretty well, very well as a sales rep. I didn’t feel the need to graduate, but I had to do it for my daughter, but because of that, I was able to also further move up in my company, and then I was able to, which I’m very proud about, be appointed to come down to Nashville to help open up the office here and was responsible for 50 people and hired over 200 people and ended up walking out of the sunset, walking into the sunset in 2019 to become a full-time entrepreneur. So, I’m very proud about that, but something happened last week. My mother lives in Maryland, and she was here to visit for the holidays, and I named my projects after my family members, and this project that’s currently in the ground, we just finished drywalling. So, we started in August. That project is called the Naima Luxury Residences at Sharondale, and my mother’s name is Naima. So, she got to walk the project that’s named after her, and it embodies her 100%.

It’s kind. It’s luxury. It’s beautiful. It’s tall. It’s just an amazing, luxurious project, and just watching my mother walk through that project and say, this is my namesake. This is my property. Naima Luxury Properties at Sharondale. That really hit home.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

That is so cool. I’m so happy for you and for your mom, and it shows a lot in terms of the values you bring in as not just a contractor, but a property owner, and when you name something after your family, you essentially sign off on the quality of the product. So, that’s amazing. Really happy for you, and also, I want to acknowledge you for the courage to share openly and publicly about the mistakes that helped you learn. Putting it out on the public forum is not easy because I know a lot of people that get hung up about how can I share this. That means people will think I don’t know what I’m doing. The point is we learn from it, and I think it takes a bigger person to openly accept some things where we went wrong. So, I really applaud you for being open, being vulnerable, and sharing your lessons with others so they can learn from it too. Now, on to my favorite part of the show, but before we do that, I’d love to hear what you do for fun.

 

Amani Kelly:

Now that I have a hurt knee, my knee’s been acting up for the last several months. I don’t get to exercise as much as I used to, but I’ll say I really love Muay Thai, mixed martial arts. So, that was my sanctuary, and some people to go out and golf or mountain climb, mine was getting kicked in the head and punched in the face, but I truly enjoyed it because it humbled me. However, I haven’t been able to do so for the last six months because of my knee, but I will get back to it. I think my second favorite thing is going to the movies. Some people love a good book, and they dive into a book. I do like to read. I mostly read for business purposes, but my escape, which I love so much, is going to the movies, going to a matinee, hanging by myself, and being immersed into that entire film. So, that’s what I do for fun.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

I can so relate to that. I’m one of those people that is watching a movie and does not know what’s happening around. I’ll go with a group, and I’ll be the one that is not participating in anything because I’m so immersed in watching the movie because that’s where I went there.

So, I can totally relate to that. Excellent. Now, I would love to transition into my favorite part of the show, which is the one-line life lessons. I’d love for you to share a few of your life lessons with us.

 

Amani Kelly:

Yes, absolutely. So, I wrote them down because thinking about that was like, because I say a lot of, my friends would tell you, I say a lot of one-liners. And I’m like, which one do I really embody? What I have here is, scared money don’t make money. I learned that as a young kid. Difficulty takes a day, but impossible takes a week. And that’s a Jay-Z quote. And I failed over and over again, and that is why I succeed. And that’s a Michael Jordan quote.

And I love that. What really hit home with me is, you’re the average of the five people that you hang around with. I learned that at a young age as well. And shoot for the moon, and if you miss, you’ll be amongst the stars. Those are five, but I’m going to add one more. And it’s always bet on the house. So, I always bet on myself. And that’s the gambling terminology.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

Because the house always wins.

 

Amani Kelly:

House always wins. That’s right.

 

Nitin Bajaj:

Amani, thank you so much. This has been an absolute pleasure. Many congrats to you for all the successes. And I know this is, you’re just getting started. I would love for you to join us again here shortly, so we can talk and celebrate even more of your successes. Thank you again, and congratulations.

 

Amani Kelly:

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.