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
Leading the Charge: Dmitri Julius' Path from Sergeant to Social Entrepreneur
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For our guest Dmitri Julius, co-founder and president of House Dreamr Streetwear, his first step was cutting lawns as a youth, and his next was serving as a Sergeant in the Marines. A tale of transformation from military life to the world of social entrepreneurship, Dmitri's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, ambition, and continuous learning. He details how his time as a youth entrepreneur, then serving in the military, and working for the start-up Icon Homes conditioned him for success in entrepreneurship and shares the inspiring story of founding House of Dreamr and the Dreamer Foundation.
In the heart of Austin, Texas, Dmitri has built space for community in a city with few Black folks, underlining the significance of collaboration, mentorship, and relationship building. He shares the challenges and rewards of being a Black entrepreneur in a predominantly white city and the importance of building social capital in such an environment. His insight into working with established entrepreneurs and his belief in uplifting the younger generation is truly inspiring.
Buckle up as we traverse the terrain of Dmitri's personal life, his pursuit of a doctorate in psychology, and his commitment to passing down knowledge to budding entrepreneurs. We navigate through his transition from military service to civilian life, the pressure of catching up with peers on traditional paths, and the importance of mental health among veterans. As we round off our conversation, Dmitri recommends books such as "The Lean Startup," "The Pivot Year," and "Unreasonable Hospitality" for those embarking on their own entrepreneurial journey. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone looking to turn their dreams into reality: a testament to the power of knowledge, the value of mentorship, and the benefits of a community-focused mindset.
What's up everybody once again. My name is Langston Clark and I'm the founder and organizer of entrepreneurial appetite, series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. And today, as part of our special series focusing on black veterans who have made the transition into entrepreneurship, we have Dmitri Julius, who is the co-founder and president of House Dreamer Streetwear, and so me and Dmitri met just like three or four months ago at this event called the Texas Venture Conference and I was really just there scoping on black people for the podcast and we had like a quick conversation but didn't get to finish it and we'll get back into that as we get into the podcast discussion. But, dmitri, if you could first just tell us a little bit about your journey, right? What is House of Dreamer and what is your story, going from Sergeant and a Marines to starting this streetwear brand?
Dmitri Julius:Yeah, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me, and I appreciate it. This audience is definitely a group of people I'm interested in and speaking to because I think I reside kind of right there in the in that wheel house. But House of Dreamer is a philanthropic streetwear brand that I founded with Austin Souter, a good friend of mine and the creative director of the business, focused specifically on telling human stories, and some of which are uncomfortable, and then utilizing those stories as a through line. In each capsule collection we go ahead and sell those in limited release and then a percentage of the proceeds from each one of those capsules goes to a philanthropic non-profit organization doing meaningful work in the community. And we're able to do that because we also have our own nonprofit that we work with in conjunction with the retail arm called Project Dreamer. That affords us the opportunity to kind of function in that space, to move money to those organizations as we see fit, while keeping the business completely separate from the philanthropic ventures.
Langston Clark :So, dmitri, this is interesting because after this podcast episode, once the holidays and things have settled down, I need to set up a rule 101 with you, because I didn't tell you this before. But this podcast is part of my own philanthropic efforts too. So myself and two friends of mine, we all went to North Carolina A&T. We're all either got our PhDs or still on our PhD journey. So we started an endowment call from A&T to PhD. So 10% of whatever this podcast makes goes to support that endowment. But I had never thought about starting a non-profit associated with the business that is the podcast, and so we'll get into that stuff later. But I just I think it's awesome that you set it up that way.
Dmitri Julius:Yeah, we got some great legal advice. It was one of those things that kind of made sense. It affords you a lot of financial latitude. It also affords you a lot of those tax advantages to do more in the space without necessarily having to co-mingle funds, and so it's a good delineation between the business and the non-profit, but also affords you the opportunity to function as one, to move capital into other philanthropic ventures outside of your four walls, and so, yeah, we'll get to that later let's talk about this transition, because your bio and I love LinkedIn your bio is really interesting.
Langston Clark :You've had a number of different experiences, so talk about going from Sargent to Founding the Streetwear Company, but then also you're, in a lot of ways, a social entrepreneur. So what has that journey been like and what are some of the key points in that?
Dmitri Julius:Well, I love that question and I'm going to answer it, probably a completely different way that you're expecting, but I think for me the journey, the nearly 10-year journey in the Marine Corps, was to me always a brief aside, means to an end for some things that I wanted to achieve. I like to say it like this the me that I was before the Marine Corps still existed. After the Marine Corps, it just afforded me the opportunity to get into the rooms and have the conversations that I needed to have, to go to places that I wanted to go. So for a lot of people they'll see military service. You know, you carried a lepid, you went overseas and fought foreign wars. You must be this type of person and I'm like I was a social entrepreneur from the get-go. I just didn't have the means, the resources or the knowledge base and I put that together with my military experience to afford me the opportunity to get on the trajectory that I wanted to be on. So that transition always felt really clear to me, because for me it was about get what I need to get from this moment at this place being the Marine Corps, and make sure that you don't take the foot off the gas when this infrastructure doesn't exist for you anymore.
Dmitri Julius:So I kind of went into the service knowing, hey, I'm showing up here to get school paid for which I did, I'm showing up here to learn some personal discipline, which I was lacking at the time.
Dmitri Julius:I had some two military parents father spent 30 years in the Marine Corps, mom spent over a decade in the Air Force, so it's in me. But at the time I was like, oh, I need a little bit extra kind of pushing me that direction unbeknownst to me, obviously, the escalation of foreign wars I was going on at the time that I was transitioning in. So I think I got a little bit more than I had bargained for when I joined. But ultimately I found camaraderie and lifelong friendship with a bunch of people that are still in my life today, some of which work at the organizations that I founded. And so, to succinctly answer your question, it was about focusing on what I needed to learn in the Marine Corps and then leveraging that with a plan in my transition out and we'll talk about that in specifics in order to go get some of the things that I wanted to get out of this life.
Langston Clark :Yeah, so it seems like you were born an entrepreneur, because I hear two stories. There's people who say being an entrepreneur was in me from the get. It would always. It was always gonna be hard for me to go work for somebody else, but for other people it's like there's a pivotal moment in their life and they see something and they have an idea and they go for it. Are there things that you were doing before the Marine Corps and your youth that were socially entrepreneurial, that led into what you're doing now, before even getting into the service? And if so, like what? What were those things you were doing?
Dmitri Julius:absolutely so. I started my first business with the aid of my parents shout out to Doreen Haley and Clarence Anderson, just people who really put me on the right path, even when, personally, I was trying to choose the wrong path. But started my first business when I was nine years old. So we were on military posts and I remember I had asked my dad for, like you know, this crazy diamondback bicycle was like five, six hundred bucks. I'm nine years old and my dad's like what we're not going to do is walk up in the store and spend six hundred bucks. So we loaded up in the car and, unbeknownst to me, we went to the local hardware store and he was like what I am going to do is give you two hundred dollars to go buy a lawn mower, because everybody's military restrictions on what has to be done in order to care for your property and a lot of the service member families were just so busy that they didn't necessarily have time to deal with the landscape. So it was like cool, I got this lawn mower, he bought my first gallon of gas and my mom would load me up on the weekends and I started my little journey.
Dmitri Julius:First it was one, two lawns, then it was six, seven lawns. Then I started taking on employees. Next thing you know, I've got 40 or 50 lawns that I that I'm doing on on rotation, anywhere from 25 to 50 bucks a pop. I got three kids that are working for me and I'm putting bread, bread in the bank, and the lessons that came from that have stuck with me my entire life, because my parents made sure that not only was there that entrepreneurial spirit if you don't ask for it, you might need a little leg up to get started but once it's moving now you got to understand how to manage the finances, and so they started my little bank account, my little savings account, and we had some thresholds on what I could spend recreationally versus what I needed to save, and I think those lessons have transferred throughout my entire life. Fast forward to my teenage years. It was still social entrepreneurism, but maybe a little less on the legal side let's just say, I kept it pushing with some things that I was doing.
Dmitri Julius:I can think of an example that I can't share here. So I was working for one of those big box mall companies and what I had learned in that process was that there was some. There's a thing called shrink. In retail it's accepted amount of loss that exists at an organization. The company that was working for at a time had a pretty crazy shrink rate of like 10%.
Dmitri Julius:So basically one out of 10 things can go missing before anybody asks a question let's just say I found out how to work that system and I was putting bread in the bank account but there was no reason to be putting money in the bank account and I don't tell that story to be tongue in cheek, because there's nothing cute about stealing from people. But what I think I understood was there are opportunities to put money in the bank when you are broke broke I can't pay, the phone bill broke like hey, the lights getting shut off broke and again. Those two combinations of lessons from my youth fast forward, add a little bit more maturity, I think have led to a lot of the experiences that I've had as an adult yeah, it's.
Langston Clark :It's interesting because the way I imagine it was this. This is how I imagine the interview. What I imagine you going to the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps giving you something that made you entrepreneurial, and then you taking that and applying it to what you're doing now. But for you it seems like you brought something to the Marine Corps, and so did the leadership skills that you developed as a nine year old having employees doing loans for you impact how you were a leader in the Marines. And then in what ways did your time in the Marines shape who you are now as a leader and as a founder and as an entrepreneur?
Dmitri Julius:Yeah, I think the fun part about that question is it's both right. Yes, I brought tangible skills with me for people you know who have showed up to the Marine Corps and never led anyone. You're going to be thrust into leadership responsibilities, where you want them or not, and I kind of already taken that and said this is something that's going to be a part of my journey. So I knew how to lead people, I knew how to build staffs, I knew how to interact with folks. I knew how to to get the best out of people, even when they didn't expect that for themselves. So I brought that. The interesting thing about what the Marine Corps provided to me was one, a level of personal discipline that I did not have not about the businesses, but about how I carried myself. You know, I came into the Marine Corps loud, brash, arrogant, ignorant to a certain degree and what that'll do for you was provide an infrastructure for like, this is who you have to be to be successful at work, and I think the combination of those things was really useful for me. So the kind of understanding how people worked, but also understanding how to make yourself more marketable not just your peer level, but the level that you're aspiring to and then ultimately, the senior leadership. So that general class, that staff in CO class and that in CO class, and that was a. That was a big learning curve for me.
Dmitri Julius:My first enlistment was a hard one because I came with so much me, that personality, that flair, that swagger, and their whole job is to program that stuff out of you because, because you are not an individual, you are a part of a unit, you are a part of a small team and that team's success is predicated on everyone understanding what the job is, and that has nothing to do with your ego, that has nothing to do with what you want or your desires. So my first enlistment was having a lot of that stripped out of me, and I think that that's a good thing for the mission, right? Yeah? But you don't ever lose that, hopefully, if you don't lose your way, you just have to find ways to repurpose that. So the second half of your question was like, were there things in the leadership acumen that you learned there that you took with you into your entrepreneurial journey? And the answer is absolutely yes.
Dmitri Julius:More than half the rooms that I was able to get into my first real career opportunity outside of the Marine Corps and this is before I graduated from college, by the way came by virtue of seeing United States Marine Corps on my resume, because the entity is so prestigious, because the track record and that pattern recognition words you'll hear in the startup community. I was being bolstered by the reputation that came from the Marines that went and did a great job before me. So the combination of I know who I am and I can let that loose again Once I'm not inside of this institution, that that requires me to be very rigid and straight and laid, but then also I am being benefited by the reputation of the skill set of individuals that come out of this place. So I need every bit of both of those things to have the career arc that I've been afforded at this stage.
Langston Clark :Absolutely. That's interesting. I think sometimes we miss because I work in higher ed and you know we talk about educational opportunities for black men in particular and we push college on people and I think brothers need to go to college. But as a pathway to go to college, going to the military first, is not something that's always on the forefront of how we make that path accessible and we don't always have the conversation about yo, if you go to the Marines, if you go to the army, if you go to whatever branch, what that's going to do for you long term, even after you get your formal education at a university. It's almost like getting two stamps, it's almost like you got another degree before getting your degree, because people know you actually have real world experience and so I appreciate you you sharing that want to transition a little bit, because in the beginning I talked about how I met you at that Texas Venture Conference and you know it's located in Atlanta, you're it's located in in Austin.
Dmitri Julius:Not quite.
Langston Clark :It's located in Austin. I'm y'all are going to catch why I had that Freudian slip about Atlanta, but it's located in Austin and in a lot of ways to me, austin is is white folks Atlanta, so I call Austin white Lanter. And so how have you been able to find a supportive community and be in an ecosystem both in the mainstream but then also finding other black entrepreneurs who are, who are interested in tech and venture and social entrepreneurship, in a city that doesn't have this robust black population? How have you been able to build your social capital in that way?
Dmitri Julius:It's a great question. I'm going to try to keep this one really tight. I got, I got bars for this one. But the first and foremost is sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I moved to Austin almost 20 years ago. You do the math on that. That was before the shift from hardware to software. That was before Austin was a prominent tech hub. That was before the mass migration of individuals from the coasts coming to Austin. You got, you know, florida, new York, california, et cetera. That was before the large scale gentrification. People don't realize this, but the oldest HBCU, if I'm not incorrect and we can fact check on that, I think, in the country is Houston till. It's in university founded here in Austin, texas. It's at least predating the charters for Texas A&M and the University of Texas.
Langston Clark :So HT is the oldest university in Austin. Go ahead, go ahead.
Dmitri Julius:We've had a presence in historic East Austin for the entirety of the life of the city. I just so happened to move here right at the cusp of everybody shifting into understanding what this place really was. So some of that is like I had some vision, but some of that was just like my last duty station was Camp Maybury in North Austin, years before anybody realized what this place was going to be. So that's the first part. The second part is that's what we do. We find tribe, we find community at the places that are for us and it just so happens in Austin there's a handful of them joints. And after having been here for years and years and running into the same circle and kind of building and growing and creating at the same time, the city's on like its own trajectory has really afforded us the opportunity to be really tapped in in a way that I think is one supernatural and organic and not forced, but also just by virtue of maintaining the type of reputation you need to have if you're going to be in a small town. Forget you hear about Austin all the time.
Dmitri Julius:When I moved to Austin there was less than 275,000 people that lived in the seating area. Now there's 1.2 million people here that live in the broader metro, and in comparison to the country's largest cities you know the 9 million people that live in in New York City, the 11 million people that live in Mexico City it's still a tiny little town, and so you have to do right by yourself by maintaining positive relationships throughout the city as it changes, and you also have to do yourself the favor of jumping in the fray, because it's going to get built up around you. You're either going to be a part of that conversation or you're going to get left behind by it. So I think, in every way, shape or form, it is white people's Atlanta, the difference being for me is that I got here before all the growth really had, and so I've got a responsibility to be a part of those foundation blocks or complain about what gets built without our voice.
Langston Clark :And when I say Austin is white Lanter, that's not a jab at it being white Lanter.
Dmitri Julius:No, I actually love it, I love.
Langston Clark :Austin yeah, yeah, I was going to say the same thing. I love Austin. Some people don't, but if you go there and you see the things people Austin is a progressive city and they're not talking about in terms of his politics, even though in terms of politics it kind of is. It's very liberal. But I mean in terms of people coming there wanting to get stuff done, Austin is the place where people are moving to be inventive, to be innovative and to get things done, and you don't find that in all cities, and cities that have like are like bigger cities per se. You know what I mean. People are coming there with vision and dreams and try to get stuff done.
Dmitri Julius:So, yeah, they're coming here with vision and dreams, which doesn't differ from too many other major US cities, but it's the most collaborative city I've ever worked in. I have never had so many meetings that ended in. Here's my number. I want not not just a let's link, but like I'm going to hit you up, we will sit down, have coffee, let's watch this thing out, and that's collaborators from all walks of life, whether that be art, music, food. One of the things we haven't even talked about yet is I'm opening a minority led wine bar in historic East Austin with some of the folks that are already finding success in this place. Shout out to Ricky Soto of Soto and Co Men's, habadashree and Jeremy Hills of Collective Gym. And we're doing this right now because the food and Bev industry didn't stand in our way and said let's slow these guys down. Executive chefs and and you know the Bev menu folks are like yo, this looks dope, how can we help? And that's just crazy.
Langston Clark :That doesn't happen everywhere it doesn't it does. That's a great segue into our next question. This question is related to my experience living in San Antonio and it's a question I pose at the at the Texas Venture Conference and you kind of hit me up to respond to it, but I had to leave early before we could finish the conversation and my question was how do we get in rooms with elders? Because it seems like for me I've never had an issue being in mainstream places. I've been situations growing up where I was like the only black kid in school. I've been in situations where I was in a diverse school but there's still a lot of black folks there. So me getting access to the mainstream has never been my problem.
Langston Clark :My problem has been getting access to black folks who are prominent, who are getting things done, and those are the rooms that are the most difficult, I think, for me to get into and get mentorship in some ways. And so my question for you is is how do you get to sit down with the black power brokers? How do you, how do you get the mentorship from a Preston James or Anita who did the Texas Venture conference and things like that? Like, how do you, how do you build community with those folks to get things done? And this is not a shot at them, because they're both in mind Very accessible. They're hugely accessible. I'm just thinking in other instances where it may be more difficult.
Dmitri Julius:Yeah Well, first of all, I think it starts that's an individual responsibility. You have to be as willing to do those things as you expect from other people. So that's the first thing. And when I responded to you and we'll go into my answer specifically because it was it was kind of, I think I was being provocational, but I also think it's true. If you're not willing to show up for the people that are coming up behind you right, the generation that's getting ready to push it then you shouldn't even have an expectation that people are going to collaborate with you. You're not doing your part in the chain. So that's the first thing.
Dmitri Julius:So, black creatives, even if you're resource constrained, this is about having a coffee, going to walk, going to job, like seek out the young people in your community doing interesting stuff and answer a couple of questions for them, because they have them and you have answers. You have institutional knowledge. You've been there, you've done it, you've worked hard, you've gotten to know, you figured out how to circumnavigate something and now you have something that people behind you can benefit from. So you got to be willing to share that. I've always been a bull in a Chinese shop, so for me, there's no such thing as someone that's inaccessible. I'm always willing to show up, ask the question, knock on the door side, skirt the secretary, send the email, jump on LinkedIn, find the office address, go, show up, meet, do whatever it takes to get in front of the audience. You have a responsibility to do that. Nobody owes you anything. You have to put yourself one in the position to get there by meeting the baseline criteria. Is this even a conversation that's worth that person's time? Yeah, be honest with yourself now. Yeah, have what it takes to even be asking for their time. If the answer is yes, and now you're dealing with normal issues that exist, like we're already getting out of office replies for 2023. People are already done for the year. If you waited to ask your question until the second week of December, that's on you Now.
Dmitri Julius:What I'm not going to sit here and tell you is that all of us are accessible. All of us are available and all of us are collaborative, but that's what community is about. You can learn who is available. Like, I got connected with Anita off the strength of another relationship that didn't actually pan out too much, but Anita has been one of the top collaborators with me and every time she's doing something in the city, I get an email or a phone call hey, are you up for this thing? And sometimes it's a no, but most of the time it's a yes.
Dmitri Julius:And when I have those things bubble up, I owe her and the rest of that network to reach out and say, hey, this is what I got going on. Is there anybody willing or able to get involved or to help? And I think that circular pattern of I do for someone and then someone is able to do for me is valuable. Now we're striated right. There's no large scale hub of black community here. There's some folks working on that, I'll tell you is a collective group of individuals under the umbrella of this thing called cool for a living that's bringing in people from all different spectrums and walks of life to start being intentional about that collaboration.
Dmitri Julius:So, that's going on right now. So Imani Shabazz and Darren Griffin are working on that in the city. Those are names worth knowing, but it also comes down to be relentless about the thing that you want. If you believe that your future is on the other side of that door, then get in the room. And I'm not talking about trying to side skirt security and getting yourself in trouble, but let's be creative about what it's going to take to get your email in front of this person. Let's figure out how to get that meeting, that coffee. Those things are completely possible. There's still some people I'm trying to track down, but best believe I quit. It's interesting.
Langston Clark :You said something that made me think you were like, if you need to be thinking about the generation behind you and so for I think for people who are looking to elders to do stuff for them, maybe you need to be looking at younger folks and what you can do for them, because they have ideas, they have talents, they have insights, they have perspective, they have knowledge that we don't have, and maybe the key to the collaborative success isn't always looking at who's ahead of us, but it's looking at who's quote unquote behind us.
Dmitri Julius:I'm not a believer in gatekeeper culture. I'm not a believer in this idea that well, they got to earn it. It's men. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I mean, from what my family has done for us to individual in this community a black, brown, white and otherwise that have been so helpful in my journey. Who am I to decide if someone is worthy of the knowledge base that I've been fortunate enough to amass? And so I think if we get out of ourselves for a moment and understand that it's not your knowledge that you have, it's not just yours, we can do better as a community. The other thing that I'll say on this topic is, like our communities are small, especially in a place like Austin, you might not know the people that that young person behind you knows. Helping them is multifaceted, because now you gain access to that person's network as well, and there might be someone with a key to unlock something behind you that you didn't even think about, and that's happened to me before.
Dmitri Julius:A brief anecdote I was tutoring STEM students at Houston Tillitson University as a part of my postgraduate hours that I was just working on. We're talking about kids that are third year undergraduates, so on the surface, they got nothing to offer me wrong. It turns out one of the young ladies that I was tutoring the university provost was her aunt, and now I'm getting one to one direct correlation with the university president and the rest of that group on the street. They're just helping somebody out. She was like, oh, you need to be my auntie, she does so and so for the university, and so you're not. You cut yourself off from those opportunities. If you're cutting yourself off from the population of individuals that just happened to be younger than you, that's right.
Langston Clark :So you've done volunteering, you got startups, you work for a startup, you social entrepreneur. Let's talk about pivots. I think a lot of people are afraid of the pivot, and so how have you been able to navigate all of these changes in your life? What have been some key things that have kept you grounded and kept you going through those processes? Hey everyone, thank you again for your support of entrepreneurial appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support.
Dmitri Julius:I think a couple of the things that have kept me grounded again it's family, and while I can sit here and pretend to you like everything is always honky-dory and beautiful in my family, it is definitely not, but I'm rooted in the lessons that were taught to me by this group of people and kind of, once you hold up that mirror to like who am I really, you get a lot from that. I understand that I am someone that can exist in multiple spaces at once and I will learn that from my family. I am comfortable with the idea that I might be doing this right now, but I'm also going to be running this concurrently and I know that about myself and that's bolstered from my family. That gives me the confidence to do those things. So I love the term pivot, but I think if I zoom out from it, it's I was already this person. I've had people in my life that helped me nurture those individual skill sets that gave me the confidence that they were worth pursuing. I'll give you an example.
Dmitri Julius:I helped scale a large scale robotics company called Icon with 3D print houses. It's the guy contracts with DARPA and NASA. On the surface Sounds like the coolest job ever, and it definitely was. That was a six year one. That was absolutely insane. There was nothing on my resume that qualified me to be the person that was going to be the first operator of that business and then ultimately the first first vice president in that business and then ultimately the first chief people officer in that business, other than a grit and determination and a personal belief in myself that I could learn whatever I needed to learn to go be successful. And so I think what I would say to anybody listening here is again what are the baseline criteria? Have you put in the work to get yourself there? But once you got the knowledge base, the ability to go execute in the space, whatever that is, whether that be direct to consumer packaged goods, whether that be four walls, brick and word or restaurant, whether that be government contract is do you believe in yourself enough to go pursue it? After it gets hard, after people look at you and say no and say I just crazy. The 3D printing company is worth multiple billions of dollars.
Dmitri Julius:Now you know what the first hundred conversations I had were. You've got so many tangible skills and you've been in the military. Are you sure you want to take a flyer on this thing. It's only going to slow down your growth. We can be honest that this thing is a science project and it's not going anywhere. Are you sure that's how you want to spend your time and energy? Had I listened to the people that were well intentioned, by the way that wanted to see me go do something that they understood been pigeonholed into doing something, completely different growth arc would not have been able to continue to grow. I had to trust myself, I had to trust my skills and I had to trust the people that were around us in that business that we could do everything that we said we were going to do. And when we did it all of those hundred first phone calls how do I get involved? This is really interesting. Tell me more. What did it take for you to get there? And the quick and dirty answer to that is not listening to yo-es.
Langston Clark :That's interesting. People don't always see the vision for the startup. I'm not a techie startup person. My education has been physical education since I was like a senior in high school, so like I was doing student teaching, volunteering at elementary school PE class since I was 18 years old, and so I don't know the first thing about startup culture and the benefits of that. My wife works for this company. That's a unicorn startup and she got all these benefits once they sold. She's like I'm getting this stock, I got this buy. I had no idea. And so being very intentional to go work for a startup is something that I think oftentimes we don't know about, and how valuable it actually is once that startup becomes successful and the benefits that you can reap from that economically once things pop.
Dmitri Julius:And so I'll put it on that for a second too. This is one of those things. It's like the truth is right out there in the open but we don't speak on it because it's a little bit uncomfortable. My fair skinned compatriots that work at a lot of these startups came with the basic knowledge that it was never about the salary. It was always about the upside in the equity position. Stated a little bit more plainly, individuals that can afford to not take cash up front have an opportunity to bet on 10X, 20x and 30X opportunities because they don't need that money to keep the lights on. I remember the first bonus that I got from ICON. I sent that money back home to help pay bills, put my baby sister in college and ultimately pay off some things that we needed to get taken care of, because it was me and the group of people that helped me get there. With me, my counterparts were buying boats.
Langston Clark :My counterparts were going on vacations.
Dmitri Julius:My counterparts were stockpiling stock in different areas and different deep tech sectors and there is a fundamental difference socioeconomically. Now it doesn't have to handicap you, but knowledge is power. Once you understand that, the rules for this game are out there and you just got to go find some people that are willing to give you that free gain, now you can start to educate yourself on kind of what your salary expectations need to be versus what your equity options need to be. Are you getting RSOs versus are you getting actual stock?
Dmitri Julius:This is a publicly traded company and those are things that are widely knowable, but in our experiences, a lot of time that transition from hey I went from school to university you might be first or second generation university student. Your energy is going into making that investment in you worth it. So by the time you get to the workforce it's take a job and start paying off these student loan debts and then start getting given back to the people that gave to me as opposed to. I don't need the $175,000 that bumped me down 150. I want to take the rest and options. It's not a conversation that even made sense to me and so I was seven, eight years deep into the game, because we had other priorities.
Dmitri Julius:So, I don't want anybody to hear this and it's like, oh, he's out of touch, he's lost it. No, that, that was my experience and, of course of time, I've been afforded great mentors. I've made it an intentional thing to learn what I didn't know and, like you said, those benefits are out there if you are in a financial position to structure your compensation and ask for those things.
Langston Clark :What other value did you get from icon and how that led into the work that you're doing now?
Dmitri Julius:This one's big on me because it's the way that deal flow happens Again, and not so well kept secret is people bet on people, that one they know to that they like, and three have this thing that we've already talked about once, called pattern recognition, which is basically the corporate way of saying I saw you got a win over there.
Dmitri Julius:I like you and I want to see if I can get you a win over here. Are you interested in coming on to this new endeavor? So icon has afforded me. Whereas we were talking about hey bowing in China shop, I got to go force my way into some doors. I got to have the uncomfortable conversation, have the conversation I want. Icon has been somewhat of a red carpet, like oh, you were employee number one over that. Well, how can we get the meeting set up? What do we got to do to sit down and get the 15, 30 minutes to talk to you?
Dmitri Julius:I think in a lot of ways this conversation is predicated on some stuff that happened at icon. It put me on that stage. I happen to be one of the young black entrepreneurs in that space and you were like hey, I need to have a conversation with you. Fast forward a couple of weeks and here we are. So it is done wonders in that arena. It also comes with a level of seriousness and achievement. It's not done yet Right. The thing is not completely built, but people can look and see physical houses on the ground for sale hardware. That's making a difference. National news, everything from the today show. If you all ain't seen it, go check your boy out. But also, you know, 60 minutes. And that exposure is multinational. And that's not just me, that's the entire team. But high tide raises all boats. My boat was in that water as well.
Langston Clark :You have all these points of development and another thing that I think is really interesting is that you've decided to continue your education. Before we started recording, we had like a brief conversation and you were talking about this thirst for knowledge, this hunger for continuing your education and managing that while you have family, startup, social entrepreneurship. So talk about what it's been for you to be getting your masters and your doctor and all that as you go through this process.
Dmitri Julius:Yeah, I think for me and I'll be completely honest with you and I'm not sure if I've ever said this publicly A lot of that was there was a lot of angry ego in that early on. So you're advancing in this career in this little microcosm, this space that people hear about, and they see the uniform and they know they'll something and they know that they should say thank you, but they don't really understand how that place works and that place is as a that's a tough environment to cut your teeth in. But what's happening when you're spending your two years, your four years, your six years, your eight years, whatever the link that your contract is, is your peers that you were in, you know, elementary and high school with are continuing to move on on a very normal trajectory. So maybe they leave high school, they go to college. So that's my first four years, and then after college, you know they're in the workforce for four years.
Dmitri Julius:So I come out of the Marine Corps and I'm, you know, a Sergeant Marine Corps Staff Sergeant in the IRR and that doesn't mean anything in the civilian world other than, hey, you are a Marine and I spent this decade of my life doing this thing and now it doesn't really have any practical day to day, unless I go work for a government contractor or get a GS job and in my mind I'm like they're ahead of me, significantly ahead of me, right Four years into the workforce. I haven't done that. Four years of college, or maybe two years into a postgraduate program, I haven't done that. So for me it was like I felt like I was playing catch up, so I hate it Hard. I'm talking about okay, cool, the recommendation is you can take 15 hours, let me take 20. The recommendation is you know, you can take six in summer school, not load me up with 12.
Dmitri Julius:And once I realized and this is pre kids once I realized that was something I could do, then it was like, oh, I'm better than you and I don't mean as a person, I feel like I'm better than you all. I feel like it was. I know that I can now work all the y'all and I'm talking about college peers and, like I said, a little bit of ego. But I was like, oh, I'm just running through this as I'm matured and started to catch up to my peer group and ultimately, very fortunately, we're able to pass up some of those folks. In my mind. This ain't real in my head. I'm getting to where I want to be. I'm really starting to enjoy the educational process. It's not about catching up and passing somebody. It's about really focusing on the things that I'm learning and understanding. That it's making me better to be in this environment.
Langston Clark :So once that shift happened.
Dmitri Julius:For me it was like less about catch up and less about trying to, you know, putting on and getting those little, those little letters next to your name, and about maximizing your salary. All of those things are important, by the way. For me it became about the knowledge base, and once that happened, for me it was like, oh, I'm going to be learning for the rest of my life in a, in an environment specific to an area that I want to grow in, and so we talked about kind of the postgraduate studies. The clinical psychology thing has nothing to do with any of the businesses that I'm working on.
Dmitri Julius:For me it was interesting because I lost some friends in the Marine Corps to the fight after the fight. So you know we're back home and people are dealing with head trash that they don't know how to get beyond and the only people that they're comfortable with talking to about it or other service members. Now, I don't know if you know a lot about that culture, but we don't talk about a whole lot of problems. You know you drink your problems away, you shut up you, you put it in your bag, you get on the, you get on the move and you keep going and so losing a couple of friends to suicide. It was like, oh, I'm somebody that people are willing to talk to and we've had these conversations.
Dmitri Julius:I need to formalize this education so when someone comes to me in that state, I'm able to help. So that's what that was about, and I'm slowly pursuing that, a class at a time. For me that one's important enough that, like, I will get there because I want to be able to help if and when those moments present themselves. I'm also pursuing a personal private pilot's license that I finished in January of this year, got my last cross-country flight coming up. Did you know that less than 1% of pilots in the United States, private or commercial, are African-American?
Langston Clark :So now that's another top 1% thing that you get to do just by sticking and it's those sorts of things that I'm doing it for myself.
Dmitri Julius:But again, the community's at my back and I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. I have a responsibility with this economic opportunity that's been created and with this moment that I've got the time, energy and my body is right. Who am I to walk away from opportunities as they come? So for me it's learn everything you can learn. Pass it down in my will to my children. They can't get a dime unless they graduate from college. They go to flight school, which I will pay for, or they go to a trade school, become a plumber's apprentice or a metalworker, because there are significant economic opportunity in all of those things, and they all differ from one another, but it will put you at a place in your life where you will not need for anything ever, and that's what my parents taught me that I hope to teach to other people.
Langston Clark :I want to ask this question, and you mentioned folks who you serve with who unfortunately committed suicide, and you continuing your education as really like you, getting your doctorate in psychology, is a form of philanthropy, because for me, getting my doctorate was about was the thirst for knowledge, this, that and a third.
Langston Clark :But we get socialized and you got to get the tenure track job at the top 50 university and I don't think everybody goes in thinking that way, but you get socialized in that way as you go through the process. So I think it's really good that you've you decided to do that for a pure altruistic reason that isn't connected to you being a well known scholar although, like you may wind up wanting to do that but your reason, your core reason for doing that, is to be ready when somebody reaches out to you. I want to know, as someone who has made the transition again from the Marines to entrepreneurship and all of these other things, what are some playbook points that you have, some nuggets of wisdom that you have for people who are making the transition out of the armed services into entrepreneurship or even furthering their education.
Dmitri Julius:Yeah, first and foremost, I will say this and this is going to be a hard one for service members to hear, because they hear it all the time and it's just true but in your transition, in your taps and tams or whatever your branch of service calls it, please, please, please go, get every physical ailment that you have experienced in your time and service documented. Even if they tell you they don't believe it's real, even if they tell you that they don't understand your pain, get it on paper, because what happens once you transition into the civilian world is you've got an opportunity to adjudicate that with the federal government as opposed to the one that's currently your employer, and the opportunity to get those ailments documented becomes a part of your retirement. It's called your disability rating and people don't understand that, and I didn't understand this when I was getting out. I thought if I got a disability rating, I'm considered as a less than able bodied individual and it's going to be harder for me to get work. And what I understand now and what I preach at the top of my lungs to exiting service members is not only are there numerous opportunities associated with having a disability rating, even if that number is zero, so you can get rated at a percentage of zero. There are still programs, state by state and federally, that will allow you to transition into things that like put you on track to be a startup founder, to be a franchise owner, to continue your education, to get a stipend for things that now you are no longer able to do by virtue of injuries that you had.
Dmitri Julius:So please, please, please, seek out your disability rating and the first step is documenting. Now I know we're from that shut up and keep playing ball culture like hey, are you hurt or are you injured? If you're, if you're fine, you can continue to march. Then you do that and service members get taught that so often that we internalize it. And then when you get out, you're like I'm good.
Dmitri Julius:I know some people tough and through right now with that I'm good mentality and they're not being taken care of for the sacrifice that they made to country on the, paid for with their body and they're not in the position that they should be in life because they didn't go through those steps. So that's the biggest one. I'll just start right there. Please, please, please, go to your corpsman, go to your naval doctor, go to your you know your Air Force facility and get the documentation, because you have a bigger leg to stand on when you're out on the other side of it trying to seek that out. That's the first thing. The second thing that I would say is use your educational benefit. Something like 75% of all the educational benefits and post 9 11 go unused or uncompleted from the service members.
Dmitri Julius:So that means you're talking about three out of 10 guys go to college for free after spending for a 20 30 years in service. And because I think a lot of these guys are like I don't want to go to traditional for your college, Guess what they will pay for you to go to culinary school, they will pay for you to go to small arms school.
Dmitri Julius:If you want to go start a gun range, they will pay for you to become a pilot. They will pay for you to become a stone mason and understanding what you can do. The onus is on you, the program's out there and the money is yours, but you got to go ask for it. And I'm so sad when I see young brothers, young sisters, transitioning out of the service and they don't have a desire to go to four year college. So that $100,000 grant actually north of will stay there and get wasted if they don't want to go.
Dmitri Julius:If you've got kids, you can also transfer it to your dependents and there's some additional monies depending on whatever state you live in. So that's the second thing. Go get the free educational cash. It's out there for you and you earned it. And then the last thing is seek out your veteran community in your area. There are chapters, whether it be traditional, like the VFW, or just. You know Instagram, facebook, you know 4chan, whatever the groups that you, you know you subscribe to on this little device right there. There are veteran communities in your area and someone that speaks your language and has a shared experiences, always a fantastic place to start. I met some of the best people in my life that were in different branches of service that I met years after we serve. That happen to live where I'm living and they're working on their own thing. So those are probably the three big ones for transitioning service.
Langston Clark :That's great. I appreciate you sharing it, especially the point about you can leverage your experience to get into spaces for education, but also trying to do some of the things you're trying to do for entrepreneurship and whatnot. So thank you. The last question is what are some of the books that you are currently reading or have read that have inspired you on your journey that you can share with our audience?
Dmitri Julius:There are a couple right now and this isn't a black author. But the Psychology of Money, I think, is a really important book for a lot of people of our experience to read, and I say that because it gives you the broad perspective of an individual born into wealth all the way from an individual born from nothing and what the baseline understanding of what money is and what being rich is versus being wealthy is in like real practical steps, has been tremendous. I'm reading it again because I think that it's one of those things that deserves a refresher really short, bite-sized chapters, with enough that you can double click into on your own, but gives you a real baseline understanding of the things that you will need to as you go on your entrepreneurial journey and help you set some real tangible goals for where you want to go and how you're going to get there. So, less of a wealth management book, less of a preaching at you and more of like an overview of the common misconceptions about money and how we arrive at certain spaces and then what we do once we get there. Are we putting on for the team? Are we taking care of the fam? Are we just stunting and we getting flashy? What's the deal and then the consequences associated to each one of those pasts.
Dmitri Julius:So that's a must read. Please check it out. The second book that I am reading and I'm going to say her name wrong, I believe it's Breonna Weiss is the pivot here, and that is about a lot of what we're talking about how do I get really focused and serious on taking the steps that I want to, to move into the business spaces that I want to be in? And it's basically a how to guide associate, associated with her trials and tribulations, for how to get that done in a calendar year. I think those are two of the more powerful books that I have read about this startup journey and entrepreneurial work that we're working on. And then also and is going to sound completely unrelated it's from Will Guy Arta and it is about customer service and reasonable hospitality.
Dmitri Julius:So I had a crazy experience. This is a wild anecdote, but I was out at Sundance Film Festival last year, speaking on behalf of ICON, and I got kind of thrown into this mix of individuals that was like hey, like you need to show up to this thing tonight. Don't ask no questions. Small group, 14 people just say yes, and I'm like a whole bunch of white people in Utah telling me that I got to go someplace. I was initially pretty skeptical, I'm not going from. I show up and we're paired into these little groups. First we take this Viking year. This is, this whole thing is wild, like it sounds made up. We take this Viking year, this thing that holds like 1415 people, up to the peak of one of the tallest mountains in all of Utah, and we walk up to this thing and it's just literally a Viking year. So I'm like I still not really trust in my decision to be here. We go in there's this little name placards, we sit down and they're like it's a.
Dmitri Julius:It's a Jeffersonian style dinner. Someone chooses a topic, you listen to everyone, answer that one question, you go around and then conversation ensues, sitting down next to this dude he's wild, interesting. So I'm like man, me and dude are going to vibe and in the middle of the conversation I see like a major D waiter kind of signal over and he very politely says you know, will you excuse me please? Absolutely. He introduces the band, which is one of his favorite bands, from New York. They came all the way to Utah to play three songs for this dinner. And then he introduces the sous chef that used to work over in his kitchen at the Michelin Star restaurant in New York and then he proceeds to introduce himself as will Guy Arna, the guy that makes a guy who wrote the book, the man himself. I've been doing for an hour and a half. We've been talking about everything life, family, kids, music, hoops, sneakers, everything but food. I'm having this wild experience with this dude. It ends up being will guy or like.
Dmitri Julius:The week before the book comes out I got a signed copy from will guy or to from that dinner, and not just the experience of meeting him, but the words inside that book have been transformational because you can apply them If you're not in the restaurant space. You can apply them to everything that you're doing, trying to create exceptional experiences for individuals that you encounter, leaving meaningful moments for not only yourself but for them, and a lot of times those things can cost zero dollars. So me, that one's been crazy powerful. I recommend it to everyone that I work with. I buy copies of it for individuals trying to get into the startup space. Like, if you're not thinking about your business this seriously, then you're like, you're like one of them cheeses, you're not ready yet. So that's definitely what I would say.
Langston Clark :Like is crazy. Dimitri Julius, thank you for joining us on this episode of Ostrone Appetite and sharing those nuggets. If I had my phone with you, I would show you that I'm listening to unreasonable hospitality on my Libby app. Tell the audience a little bit about where they can go to learn about House of Dreamer and how they can support your business and even the nonprofit work that you're doing.
Dmitri Julius:Absolutely so. House of Dreamercom www. H O U S E O F D R E A M? R so the broken word there at the ending and there's a story behind that but House of Dreamercom. When you go there, you can also look up the Dreamer Foundation on the website. You can get us on social. We're on every major platform you could possibly think of. Sign up for the newsletter. That's a great way to support and even if you're not interested in buying anything, feel free to like, share and tag. Thank you all so much for the time, energy and effort. Everything that you want to do is just on this side of heart, go get it.
Langston Clark :Thank you for joining this edition of entrepreneurial appetite. If you like the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Give us five stars and leave a comment.