Antonio Glenn

Introduction and Who Is Antonio Glenn

Taryell Simmons: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Rise Urban Nation. My sister Shazia told me, I've got to introduce you to my husband, because he's from DC and his story might resonate with your audience. Antonio Glenn, how are you doing this morning?

Antonio Glenn: Good, man. Thanks so much for having me on, Taryell. I'm in Dallas now for family. Dallas is no DC, but it's good for business.

Taryell Simmons: For people experiencing Antonio for the first time, give me your soliloquy. Who is Antonio?

Antonio Glenn: I'm a Muslim brother who grew up in the DC area, striving every day to be a good husband and a good dad. I have a nine-year-old daughter, and I want her to have opportunities I didn't have. My dad died when I was eight, so being a dad and a quality man is very important to me. I love using my skills as an attorney to help people break through something or get started. Nobody told me how to apply to college, how to do my FAFSA, or what to do if I was thinking about law school, so putting together a roadmap for the next generation is amazing to me.

Taryell Simmons: I love how you identify yourself. Before you even see me as a Black man, I'm a father first, a husband, somebody's brother. If we look at people that way, it redefines how we experience them.

Why Your Side Hustle Should Be an LLC

Taryell Simmons: In urban communities, a lot of our friends have side hustles but haven't turned them into an LLC, and they find themselves in a mess later or miss the tax breaks and business credit. Why is it important to incorporate?

Antonio Glenn: I cut my teeth at a big trade association in DC working with home builders, mostly family-owned businesses that touch contracts, land and estate planning. Say you've got a mom and pop catering business and somebody says they got food poisoning and sues you. They're coming after your car, your house, your mom's house. Why take that exposure? For a couple hundred bucks, invest in yourself. An LLC limits your liability, and you can deduct your expenses. And money sitting in the bank is losing value to fees and inflation. You're supposed to put it out in the universe and let that seed grow.

Antonio Glenn: In the 2008 downturn, I watched home builders say: this business is insolvent, I'll give the property back to the bank and shut it down. Tomorrow I create a new business with a clean balance sheet and buy that property back for twenty-five cents on the dollar, and I'm not personally guaranteed on any of it. I'm not saying walk away from your debt, but that's the flexibility a business gives you. If you can't invest alone, start an investment club, pool your resources and write an operating agreement so everybody knows what they're responsible for. Let's invest in ourselves and each other, and get out of the nine-to-five mentality.

Gentrification and Owning a Piece of the Block

Taryell Simmons: When I went back to DC three years ago, Southeast didn't look like Chocolate City anymore. It looked like a chocolate chip cookie. Instead of having them buy back your block, y'all should have put some money together and bought back the block.

Antonio Glenn: As soon as you see gentrification, gentrify your own hood. Investors go to grandma's house. Her taxes are going up, and someone is mailing her cards asking if she wants to sell. Instead of a family member saying, let me buy it and keep it in the family, she sells. That succession and estate planning conversation doesn't always happen in our circles. If you can make four hundred thousand quickly, I won't judge you, but as a community we can't then complain that they bought up everything. There was an opportunity.

Antonio Glenn: What most people don't realize is that this doesn't pop up overnight. Go to your city's planning office and pull the master plan. It shows who got permits, where the condominiums and mixed-use buildings are going, what's zoned commercial. People think buying land is expensive, but a land loan can have a small carrying cost, and you can sit on a lot while the area appreciates. Research your community. Everybody would serve their community better with a group that did that.

A First Job at the EPA and the Power of Mentors

Taryell Simmons: People might think we come from affluent families, and that is far from the case. Tell me about your first job, because students with limiting beliefs tell me they don't have a degree. My first job was at AMC. Everybody starts somewhere.

Antonio Glenn: My first job that really had an impact was at the Environmental Protection Agency downtown. A buddy and I were at PG Community College, when tuition was so affordable, and he told me about a co-op program where you work part time in a government job and they roll you into a position after you graduate. It was rocky at first. I was coming in late, learning how to be a professional. But two executive assistants in the office mentored me, and seeing the administrator I worked for, a presidential appointee, I said, let me start wearing a tie and sitting in on meetings. We had interns from Harvard, and I was in community college, but socializing with them opened up new thought patterns. I'm going to college, and I'm going to law school too.

Antonio Glenn: A lot of kids in urban communities grow up with disappointment, people saying they'll do something and never doing it. Then someone says, there's an internship in Arizona and we'll pay for it, and things start working out. Success feels good, so you keep the train going. My mentors knew where I came from and wanted to invest in me, but they saw me investing in myself, and that was the switch. I stayed at EPA about eight years, and EPA even helped pay some of my tuition at the University of Maryland.

Taryell Simmons: We both have life-changing EPA stories. The last time I got in trouble in DC, I was paired with my mentor, Max Weintraub, for community service through a program called Environmentors. He saw something in me I didn't see in myself. When I almost flunked out of UDC, he suggested AmeriCorps, which got me out to California and got me money for school.

Antonio Glenn: I took time off from school too. Being around people who weren't in victim mode changed things. You want to be at the bottom of your circle, surrounded by people whose heights inspire you. When I first volunteered with nonprofits, I didn't know what anyone was talking about. Now I'm in a position to lead. Be observant, and if you're really good at something like Excel or math, stay in that zone of genius. You'll find a place to contribute.

Life as a Business Attorney

Taryell Simmons: I fell into entrepreneurship when Google and Techstars asked me to bring diversity to a startup weekend. I won the event and met all types of lawyers, and learned how many specialties there are. So what kind of lawyer are you?

Antonio Glenn: Business. I went to law school wanting to be a litigator, then realized I didn't like the courtroom. I'd seen enough courtrooms when I was young, unfortunately. My background is contracts, business formation, and helping companies get business credit and stay compliant. Most businesses fail in the first three to five years because they're undercapitalized, taxes kill them, they scale too fast, or they're out of compliance. For some clients I act as general counsel, an in-house attorney who advises on legal strategy. My dream would be general counsel for a startup that's going public.

Antonio Glenn: Attorneys get a bad rap. Don't be afraid to call your attorney. If you have a business, your attorney can be your best friend. I have clients who sign things and then send them to me. Send it to me first. And only about one percent of attorneys are Black, so we're trying to get those numbers up.

Taryell Simmons: What advice would you give somebody who wants a career in your industry?

Antonio Glenn: Study hard for the LSAT. You can practice by reviewing contracts, which business owners do all the time, and by reading up on negotiation and mediation. I used to study at the Library of Congress. Now you have all the research in the world at your fingertips. Almost every state bar has old exams on its website, so you can practice the hypotheticals. That's why they call it practicing law. And try to get law school paid for. A scholarship makes it so much easier to prosper.

Learning From Mistakes and Investing in Yourself

Taryell Simmons: As a business owner, you learn law whether you want to or not. This show used to have a different name, and I got a cease and desist because somebody had it trademarked. I had to take all my stuff down.

Antonio Glenn: That's a learning opportunity. It's not always the end of the world. You didn't get sued, you revamped. And when someone uses your material, you'll want five cents on the dollar. That's licensing. There will be mistakes. You're not a failure. Figure out what happened and approach it again. When I moved to Dallas, I noticed people aren't afraid to invest. In DC, some people will buy a thousand-dollar Gucci belt but hesitate to invest a thousand dollars in a business. Invest in yourself: courses, self development, leadership, advice.

Taryell Simmons: And that investment up front can save you from an expensive lesson on the back end.

Antonio Glenn: So true. I've had people reach out for advice, decide not to proceed, sign a deal, and end up out thirty or forty thousand dollars. Even if you sue and win, you still have to collect. Five percent of that up front would have gotten you counsel. Build it into your budget; it's a business expense you can write off. I also partner with CPAs, because nobody wants the IRS at their door.

Believe in Yourself and Stay in the Step

Taryell Simmons: What's one lesson life has taught you on the journey from a young kid in DC to now?

Antonio Glenn: Believe in yourself, and if you believe in yourself, invest in yourself. It may not work out precisely the way you want, but you'll persevere. Your story isn't written yet. I declare what I want to go after, and I stay in the step. People picture going from zero to a Benz and a mansion and get frustrated when it doesn't happen fast. Break it down: college to LSAT, LSAT to law school, law school to your first job, and the successes start to build.

Taryell Simmons: I'd add, enjoy the journey. One day I looked up and asked, how did I get here? It took the pandemic for me to reflect on how far I'd come.

Antonio Glenn: That's what I want people to do. I think I'm the only one in our neighborhood who graduated from a four-year college, and the only one to go on to law school. It shows people what's possible, and it's never too late. If I can do it, you can do it too, even better.

The Future of Law for People of Color and Where to Find Antonio

Taryell Simmons: What does the future hold for getting more people of color into your industry?

Antonio Glenn: Big law may be harder to get into, but the legal industry is wide open: immigration, tax, so many areas where you can serve your community, and firms are always looking for attorneys with different languages and backgrounds. If you get an engineering or science background and then a law degree, those skill sets work together, especially in biotech, and Fortune 500 companies are looking for that. When I was in law school in Ohio, there were maybe seven Black people in a class of about two hundred. My wife studied engineering at Virginia Tech and saw the same thing. If we want to be included, we have to step up and get the skills. And don't say, please give me a job. Say, you have a gap, and this is how I can fill it.

Taryell Simmons: When you add value in two ways, you get more opportunities. What are you working on, and how can people connect with you?

Antonio Glenn: I'm working with a water company with several million in revenue that wants to franchise into different states. I'm happy to help entrepreneurs and startups with business and tax questions. My website is amgcounsel.com. AMG are my initials. I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook too, and for mentorship, definitely reach out. I'm your friendly neighborhood attorney.

Taryell Simmons: Antonio, my brother, it's been such a pleasure. I'll put all his information in the show notes. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of Rise Urban Nation. Antonio Glenn and Taryell Simmons signing off. Peace.