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Hard work and sacrifice is not always about “humble beginnings” or “going without” financially when it comes to a person’s success story, it is also about learning what you need to learn, doing what you need to do, and being humble enough to receive what is being given so that you can master your craft, and carve out your own lane.

Bobby Bryant is a true testament to that. The CEO and founder of DOSS has officially become the first African American in United States history to create and franchise a real estate brokerage brand, while introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to enhance the user experience. He celebrates this moment with the support of Chris Norton (co-founder/COO) and Jon Wagner (team attorney).

Bryant is sharing with Bayou Beat News readers the significance of this accomplishment, given the history and progress of the real estate industry, in addition to providing valuable tips and lessons he’s learned along the way.

The real estate industry was formalized in 1908. For more than a half-century later, African Americans were marginalized, redlined, and not allowed to refer to themselves as a REALTOR®. Following the Civil Rights Movement to now, things have slowly begun to change. Many African Americans have purchased and operated real estate franchise brands like Berkshire, Century 21, ERA, RE/MAX, etc. However, no African American had ever created and franchised a real estate brokerage brand to scale nationwide until, on April 2, when DOSS was officially registered Federally and in the State of Texas as a franchise.

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The team at DOSS methodically built a modern-day digital real estate brokerage with a FLEX-MODEL that’s best suited for today’s agent, consumer, and franchisee.

Backed by Google for Startups, DOSS has spent the last few years building a digital real estate intelligent assistant that empowers people to speak, text, or type any question about any property in the country to get accurate, easy, and instant answers. Their objective is to better leverage AI than any of their current competitors to improve the way people search, service, and transact real estate.

Bryant credits his innovation and thinking outside the box practice with his diverse background and military upbringing.

His father, Bobby Sr., was a veteran who exposed his family to the world, as the family lived multiple places. His mother, Carolyn, made sure he and his sister focused on education, “never wanted for anything” and stayed active with school and extracurricular activities.

His parents’ sacrifices paid off.  Bryant became the first in his family to go to college.

Bryant accomplished two Masters Degrees in Education before he turned 30 years old. His first Masters Degree was in Special Education, with a second Masters Degree in Education Administration. He taught in the school systems of Alabama and Texas for four years.

Bryant he entered the real estate industry on the mortgage side of the fence in 1999 as a Processor. After moving to Texas in 2001, he became a Loan Officer and shortly afterwards secured his Mortgage Brokerage License, and the rest is history.

As always, we asked Bryant to share a few tips or words of advice for anyone out there who has “a dollar and a dream.”

BBN: As we are coming out of this pandemic fast and furious, many people have either lost or are changing jobs. In addition, a lot of people are trying to get into entrepreneurship. What are your top three points of advice for someone is seeking to venture out and start a new business on their own?

Bryant: Well, I have to steal this from TD Jakes, and I do believe it.

#1Minimize your moment. What that means is to peel back all the layers and lighten your load. An airplane can’t fly if it has too much baggage. When you are an entrepreneur, in the beginning, you need to be lean and mean.  You have to make sure you can “afford” to be an entrepreneur. You can’t jump out there with the stress of trying to bring money in and you have a ton of bills going out, or you have no support system.

#2 – Master your moment. A lot of people seeking entrepreneurship don’t understand the business that they are wanting to be in. Starbucks understands they are in the coffee business. McDonald’s knows what they are selling. You need to ask yourself what you are trying to do. You need to study it, master it – learn it unequivocally.

Many people don’t understand the value of mentorship anymore. People have mentorship all wrong these days. They think they can just walk up and think someone should just pour into their vessel with no mutual benefit. When you find a mentor, you should be trying to identify how you can also lift them up. Even if the mentor is a millionaire or billionaire, even if you drop what you feel is a penny in their bucket, at least you gave them something.

#3 – Maximize the moment. Now it is time to fly- but after you’ve paid your dues! Some people feel they can come into a business- straight out of school – and think they are going straight to the top. When I first got into the mortgage industry, I worked for free for someone who was willing to teach me everything he knew, and that was worth more than anything he could have paid me because after I left him, within two years of opening my own company, I had made my first million.

Drop that “microwave mentality!” Some people today think they are Neo in the Matrix who can learn Jujitsu within five minutes. Life doesn’t work that way. You can’t go sit in a chair, like in the movie, and hit a button and all of a sudden you know everything you need to know.

You have to fail, notice I did not say succeed. Sometimes you have to lose to win, because you learn from mistakes and growth. The younger generation believe what they see on social media and don’t realize most of it is a lie. They don’t know the real story; they don’t know the hand that someone else has been dealt and are looking at others and thinking “why not me?” Play the hand that you are dealt, or someone else can take your hand and beast mode win with it.

Master the skin you’re in. In the words of Michelle Obama, some of you haven’t “become” yet because you are still in search of self. Or in the words of Audre Lorde, “If I don’t define myself for myself, I will be crunched into people’s fantasies for me and be eaten alive.” What do you see for yourself? Exploit yourself, exploit your own talents.

MORE ABOUT DOSS In honor of the company’s historical moments, on May 30, DOSS began selling the first 50 franchise territories in its home state (Texas) for $7,500 each. Exclusive territories were on a first come, first approved basis. If you are interested in buying a DOSS franchise and you’re outside of Texas, starting Q3 2022, DOSS will begin accepting applications for the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia.  For more information, visit http://www.AskDoss.com