Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, it's tax Day. So a bunch of
Speaker 1: y'all have hit Mandy and I up, so welcome. If
Speaker 1: you're new, it's brown ambition. You knew that because you
Speaker 1: click the link. A bunch of y'all have hit up
Speaker 1: Mandy and I because the Senate, Like I was chilling
Speaker 1: on a Friday night Saturday morning doing what I usually do,
Speaker 1: nothing and I was on Twitter, i know, pooh, and
Speaker 1: there was this trending hashtag tax bill scam and I
Speaker 1: was like what, So I clicked on it and apparently
Speaker 1: the Senate was voting on their version of the tax bill,
Speaker 1: and people were not happy because, according to you know,
Speaker 1: basically all the Democratic senators, they had just been given
Speaker 1: this hugely overhauled, five hundred page document to read within
Speaker 1: like just a few hours, which is like impossible, and
Speaker 1: so many of the things were handwritten in which I
Speaker 1: thought was crazy. I mean, you can't handwrite a college paper,
Speaker 1: let alone like a bill that's going to affect all Americans.
Speaker 1: So go ahead.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say, so does that the scene like
Speaker 2: the context of this? So the House so basically the
Speaker 2: House's Senate worked on their own versions of the bills. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they started out and they actually have done more
Speaker 2: work in terms of due process than they did on
Speaker 2: health reform. Like they actually took the bills in each house,
Speaker 2: it to committee, the committee passes it, and then it
Speaker 2: goes to the floor of the House, and the Senate's
Speaker 2: version goes from committee to the floor of the Senate
Speaker 2: for a vote. And this one was super high stakes
Speaker 2: because the House had already passed its version of the
Speaker 2: tax bill. So the fact that the Senate has now
Speaker 2: passed it, that's why it's a big deal. Now on
Speaker 2: now that the Senate has passed it, they are supposed
Speaker 2: to get together and work out their differences to create
Speaker 2: one whole version of the tax bill. So it's not
Speaker 2: over yet. Yeah, but I'm glad that folks are getting
Speaker 2: like paying attention now. I'm like, just the time.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not over yet, but what's scary is how
Speaker 1: much they're similar in the bad ways, you know, And
Speaker 1: so we're going to go over some of the ones.
Speaker 1: Like So what I did was as I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, chilling, and I won't say I wasn't doing anything.
Speaker 1: I was like hanging out my best friend's house meanwhile
Speaker 1: researching tax reform and stuff, and so as I was reading,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I was really trying to understand, Okay,
Speaker 1: so what's in this bill? Because everyone kept saying it's
Speaker 1: the death of the middle class. And but I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: but I don't. You know, obviously I'm not going to
Speaker 1: read five hundred pages tonight. So where can I find
Speaker 1: a really great article or the number of articles that
Speaker 1: will really help me to understand what's in this Senate bill?
Speaker 1: And then helped me to see what's in the house
Speaker 1: built and co person to the Senate bill. So I
Speaker 1: found a couple of great articles, but especially one by
Speaker 1: the Washington Post, and so I created like this, like
Speaker 1: and we'll put it on brown Ambition on the Facebook page.
Speaker 2: I could be offended that you didn't link to the
Speaker 2: Magnified Money.
Speaker 1: I know, I wasn't even thinking. I was just like,
Speaker 1: wait what, And so I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: you know, the teacher in me was like, let me
Speaker 1: break this down into like easily consumable points. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: as you probably can guess, for businesses aka corporations, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, it's birthday, Christmas, anniversary time for them.
Speaker 1: So there for the tax rate for big businesses would
Speaker 1: fall from thirty five percent to twenty percent. That's tremendous,
Speaker 1: Like I don't even know. That's the largest reduction like
Speaker 1: basically almost ever, and it would be we would be lower,
Speaker 1: our corporate tax rate would be lower than any other
Speaker 1: form nation, So like fifteen whole percent. And what's so
Speaker 1: crazy to me is like, yeah, so corporations kind of
Speaker 1: have the money. But whatever, let's see some other things
Speaker 1: for corporations that we're like, Oh, the bill shifts the
Speaker 1: tax system on businesses from a worldwide system to a
Speaker 1: territorial system. So with the worldwide system, companies are taxed
Speaker 1: on all income earned all around the world, and a
Speaker 1: territorial system, they're mainly taxed on their earning in the US.
Speaker 1: So not only are they getting a lower tax rate,
Speaker 1: they're not even getting taxed on all of their money
Speaker 1: that they're making everywhere. So it's less money for the
Speaker 1: United States government to manage, because you know, taxes are
Speaker 1: the purpose of taxes are for so the country can
Speaker 1: run itself. So the richest parts of our country, which
Speaker 1: are the corporations, are not only getting a tax break
Speaker 1: of fifteen percent, they're also not going to get tax
Speaker 1: according to this bill, that's what they're requesting, not going
Speaker 1: to get taxed on, like all of the money that
Speaker 1: they make. I mean, how nice for them, right, and
Speaker 1: what even go ahead?
Speaker 2: I'm just going to say that the clearest winner from
Speaker 2: the tax bill, you can't argue it's big businesses like corporations,
Speaker 2: and people are wondering, like what does it mean for me?
Speaker 2: And it's hard to say. I mean, it's like some
Speaker 2: people in the middle class might actually see their taxes
Speaker 2: reduced a little bit, but a lot of people like
Speaker 2: it's like they're saying it's tax cuts, right, But I
Speaker 2: hate how Republicans say that it's tax cuts without also
Speaker 2: qualifying that something had to give in order to pay
Speaker 2: massive tax cuts. Yeah, and then what are we losing?
Speaker 2: Because you can't just focus on is my income bracket
Speaker 2: going to change, which it probably will under this bill,
Speaker 2: maybe lower made higher, but like what deductions are they
Speaker 2: getting rid of? That the middle A lot of families,
Speaker 2: a lot of individuals were used to having to counteract
Speaker 2: their tax burden.
Speaker 1: So because it's like if corporations are paying less, who's
Speaker 1: paying more? There's no like that's just the nature of
Speaker 1: the world. As something goes down, something has to go up.
Speaker 1: So the government is not just going to say, hey,
Speaker 1: we'll just operate at ten trillion dollars left. That's not happening.
Speaker 1: So that's what and what really disturbed me is that
Speaker 1: the proposed bill for the Senate that that this bill
Speaker 1: would make the permanent, these tax cuts for corporations would
Speaker 1: be permanent, and whatever tax breaks that they were going
Speaker 1: to issue, you know, regular people would expire twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: so our little breaks would expire and theirs would not.
Speaker 1: That's like, wow, oh, must be nice. The rich also
Speaker 1: don't make out too badly either, because I mean they're
Speaker 1: they're I think the top rate for millionaires would fall
Speaker 1: from thirty nine point six to thirty eight point five percent.
Speaker 1: They get to keep deducting contribution to charity. So the
Speaker 1: point that pisses me off is they get to make deductions.
Speaker 1: But there's a part in here where they're literally cutting
Speaker 1: like all itemization. Like I live in New Jersey, so
Speaker 1: I itemize meaning like I'm like, oh, you know I
Speaker 1: bought this thing for work, or I you know, I
Speaker 1: travel for So you're and not talking about for me
Speaker 1: as a business, but me as Tiffany. So, so many people,
Speaker 1: especially in New Jersey and California and states like that,
Speaker 1: they itemize. So I think they said about a third
Speaker 1: of Americans itemized, you know, their deductions, and they're trying
Speaker 1: to basically get rid of that, which is crazy to me,
Speaker 1: especially in high tax states like New Jersey. So the
Speaker 1: wealthy continues to deduct their contributions to charity, which is great,
Speaker 1: but we get to lose itemization. Like that's I'm just like,
Speaker 1: it's not all bad news, but it's thinly veiled what
Speaker 1: seems like not so bad news. But when you really
Speaker 1: dig deep, you're like, oh, so healthcare. So they're basically
Speaker 1: defunding Obamacare.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like yeah, So the way that they're doing
Speaker 2: it is so we all know that what Obamacare created
Speaker 2: the individual mandates, which basically said every American has to
Speaker 2: have healthcare or face a tax penalty. And the first
Speaker 2: year Obamacare came out, it was like, what zero, Then
Speaker 2: it went up every year after that. But it's meant
Speaker 2: to it's meant to ensure that there's enough young, healthy
Speaker 2: people in the insurance market to counteract the older sick people.
Speaker 2: And when not enough young people and healthy people are
Speaker 2: in the market paying their insurance premiums. The cost of
Speaker 2: insurance is so much higher for everyone else, so it's
Speaker 2: important to get the mix right. So the individual mandate
Speaker 2: was like a with like a key feature of Obamacare
Speaker 2: because it was going to prevent young people from not
Speaker 2: signing up give them some sort of incentive. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's like the care and the stick kind of thing.
Speaker 2: So with the proposed tax reform from the GOP, they
Speaker 2: would have removed that individual mandate, and by in doing so,
Speaker 2: you're almost going to guarantee that a lot of people
Speaker 2: who who want to avoid that tax penalty would no
Speaker 2: longer have to worry about it, wouldn't sign up. Premiums
Speaker 2: are going to skyrocket. Premiums are going to skyrocket for
Speaker 2: basically anybody who has health care from the on the
Speaker 2: on the from the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 1: But but the ARP has already come out against it,
Speaker 1: Like so, so this is going to put a lot
Speaker 1: of our elderly folks in a really dangerous position of
Speaker 1: not being able to afford healthcare as a result, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like the most vulnerable of our society is suffering.
Speaker 1: Like they estimate that eighty percent of millionaires are going
Speaker 1: to pay less taxes. Again, if someone pays less, someone
Speaker 1: has to pay more. I just don't understand, Like I
Speaker 1: feel like I remember, like I just I don't know
Speaker 1: if the first president I can well, the first president
Speaker 1: I can really strongly remember as a kid who was
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan, and he came up with that whole trickle
Speaker 1: down economics, which was give breaks to the rich, the
Speaker 1: rich will spend and it will trickle down to the poor.
Speaker 1: And that did not work. The poor got poor and
Speaker 1: the rich got richer, because that's how that works. And
Speaker 1: I feel like this is that same sentiment of tax
Speaker 1: breaks to corporations and to you know, millionaires and to
Speaker 1: wealthy folks, and somehow this is going to lead to
Speaker 1: some sort of beneficial trickle down to those who who
Speaker 1: don't have money. And it's proven over and over again
Speaker 1: that tax breaks to corporations does not lead to folks
Speaker 1: who don't have having more. It just doesn't. This is
Speaker 1: just to me, this is just Republicans kind of scratching
Speaker 1: the back of their big donors, like I promise you
Speaker 1: that we passed this thing that would make you more money.
Speaker 2: Here it is there's also concern that it's going to
Speaker 2: reduce it's going to eventually cut like twenty five billion
Speaker 2: dollars from Medicare, which of course is what a lot
Speaker 2: of older people use for for health coverage, especially when
Speaker 2: they're in between when they leave their jobs. I think
Speaker 2: when you turn sixty, what sixty two or sixty five,
Speaker 2: you start drawing on medicare mm hmmm sixty five, yeah,
Speaker 2: and so you're really hurt. That's why I think the
Speaker 2: AARP and other senior advocacy groups are coming out against it.
Speaker 2: It's a it's no bueno, and it's like it's much
Speaker 2: clearer to me, and the fact that we don't really
Speaker 2: have much time, like Trump has that I want this
Speaker 2: bill passed by Christmas, and that's why they're rushing it through.
Speaker 2: I mean, at least they're taking it to committee. But
Speaker 2: they literally gave our other lawmakers less than two hours
Speaker 2: in the Senate to review this five hundred page document.
Speaker 2: And I'm like this thing and then and meanwhile they're
Speaker 2: in order to get the votes. I mean, this isn't
Speaker 2: like anything new. So in order to get votes from
Speaker 2: people that you need, you give them something that they want.
Speaker 2: So they're like something that's bill with other crap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you see the drilling in Alaska, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what does it have to do with taxes? Like that?
Speaker 1: I saw that it was drilling would be allowed in
Speaker 1: Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge, and so
Speaker 1: first of all, what does that have to do with taxes?
Speaker 1: And why is it in this bill? It's so egregious,
Speaker 1: like and I saw it because I posted and I
Speaker 1: try to post it without kind of comment, and people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, this is not so bad, but you're
Speaker 1: not reading underneath the lines, like it doesn't seem so
Speaker 1: bad because you're like, oh, hey, we're going to give
Speaker 1: you more in a child credit, like a child tax
Speaker 1: credit from one thousand to two thousands, so that's not
Speaker 1: so bad. And hey, you know will allow you to
Speaker 1: steal deduct property taxes, which is crazy, like why would
Speaker 1: I not be allowed to deduct property taxes? You know, but
Speaker 1: just up to ten thousand dollars, which it's like okay,
Speaker 1: but I just I just let's talk.
Speaker 2: About the little things that people may not So I mean,
Speaker 2: I have I'm looking at our chart now, so we
Speaker 2: have medical expense deduction. So if your medical expenses exteed
Speaker 2: ten percent of your gross income. You can deduct them
Speaker 2: if you automize from your taxes. The Senate bill would
Speaker 2: preserve it. The Houses would repeal it. They don't agree
Speaker 2: on that. The mortgage interest rate, the mortgage interest tax deduction,
Speaker 2: which is like the biggest reason when you're if you're
Speaker 2: in between, you know, am I going to rent or
Speaker 2: am I going to buy? One of the first things
Speaker 2: people say as well, you can. You can deduct your
Speaker 2: mortgage interest payments. And under the Senate bill it would
Speaker 2: retain it. And under the House bill it would reduce
Speaker 2: the cap. It would reduce the amount that you can
Speaker 2: deduct on your mortgage interest. I think we talked about, oh,
Speaker 2: teacher texts, the teacher deduction, So yeah, under the Senate
Speaker 2: plan it increases.
Speaker 1: I think it doubles. Under the Senate plan, well.
Speaker 2: The House would cut the right now you can deduct
Speaker 2: up to two hundred and fifty dollars right of things
Speaker 2: that you buy as teachers by school supplies. The House
Speaker 2: would cut it, the Senate would keep it. Maybe it
Speaker 2: eencarrass it. Thank god at least they didn't touch the
Speaker 2: four to one K benefit.
Speaker 1: I know, I was like, that would have been crazy.
Speaker 1: And you know now, I mean they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: they're crowing in the White House, like Speaker Paul Ryan.
Speaker 1: They're like, yes, next up welfare, next up medicare. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just like, do these people think they never got
Speaker 1: to get old? Or maybe I just you know, like
Speaker 1: they cannot wait. So social Security, they're really looking to
Speaker 1: cut entitlement programs. So entitlement programs are those programs that
Speaker 1: typically help the most vulnerable of our society, So medicare, medicaid,
Speaker 1: sold security, welfare, those type of things. I'm really trying
Speaker 1: to get rid of those things or reduce them tremendously.
Speaker 1: So it's like, so corporations get these tremendous cuts, and
Speaker 1: people who don't have money they get to pay more.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand how that works and how you
Speaker 1: sleep at night, you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know. And so just reading through it, like I said,
Speaker 1: like on its surface, people are like, oh, it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem that bad. I'm like, well, this is like the
Speaker 1: door the opening of Pandora's box of well if because
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If this goes through, they're going to
Speaker 1: have to make other changes somewhere because there's not enough
Speaker 1: money to support this plan, and so that's what this
Speaker 1: will allow. It's almost like getting into college. Yay, I
Speaker 1: got into college, but now someone has to pay tuition,
Speaker 1: So like it's you know, getting into college seems it's
Speaker 1: a great thing, but you know, how are you going
Speaker 1: to pay for it? And this tax bill leads a
Speaker 1: big how is it going to be paid for? And
Speaker 1: it's very clear by the way this bill is written
Speaker 1: that is not going to be paid by the wealthiest
Speaker 1: in our society.
Speaker 2: Then yeah, it's not over yet, I think that, and
Speaker 2: there's still time for people to get familiar with what's happening. Yeah,
Speaker 2: as they as they continue to debate it. I mean
Speaker 2: I at this point, I feel like it's inevitable we're
Speaker 2: about to have its tax reform. And I mean, as
Speaker 2: a journalist, I think it's exciting because you get tired
Speaker 2: of writing the same tax stuff over and over again.
Speaker 2: But I mean, so it's in that regard, it's exciting.
Speaker 2: This is like, this is a this is a big
Speaker 2: freaking deal. And don't don't don't underestimate how important this
Speaker 2: moment is. Like there hasn't been tax reform since the eighties. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so since Reagan, I think, yeah, reaganomic So I mean
Speaker 2: I wish it wasn't the GOP managing it. But you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see what happens, and you can contact your senator
Speaker 2: and your House representative and tell them how you feel
Speaker 2: about whatever works for you. You know, I would say, like,
Speaker 2: I think maybe people aren't digging into it because they're
Speaker 2: like it's just so huge, and you know, I don't.
Speaker 2: I want to understand everything. Honestly, you can be a
Speaker 2: little selfish, like go in there if you're a teacher,
Speaker 2: like or you know, when who has high medical expenses,
Speaker 2: or you have a parent who realizes on Medicare and
Speaker 2: something matters to you, Like let your representatives know what's
Speaker 2: happening in your front yard and your home so that
Speaker 2: your voice is heard. That's that's all I'll say. You
Speaker 2: know what, I still send letters to Atlanta my or sorry,
Speaker 2: my Georgia representatives because I'm like, there's one more liberal
Speaker 2: voice in New York City is not really going to
Speaker 2: make a difference. Yeah, I don't know. I think that
Speaker 2: maybe is cheating, but I'm like, you know what I mean, Georgia.
Speaker 1: You know what I was thinking, like all the time,
Speaker 1: I said, if you haven't gotten into the House of cards,
Speaker 1: you need to now because so many of these things.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, like you know this whole prit
Speaker 1: quote quote like oh, like when you watch like Frank
Speaker 1: Underwood and his wife and like you kind of see
Speaker 1: the back dealings on Capitol Hill and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this makes more sense to me, like watching them push
Speaker 1: bills through and why some people make some choices that
Speaker 1: they make and all these other things. Because there were
Speaker 1: a number of Republicans, honestly, because they only won by
Speaker 1: two votes, there were a number of Republicans that came
Speaker 1: out against it. And then at the last minute we're
Speaker 1: like no, so you're like, well, what do they give you?
Speaker 1: It's clear what did you get? You know? And so
Speaker 1: I hope that folks who because I know there are
Speaker 1: people who are conservative, which is fine, but at the
Speaker 1: same time you know that this is this is not
Speaker 1: going to work in your favor. I hope that you
Speaker 1: are taking note of your representatives that voted for something
Speaker 1: that was not in your favor. I mean, unless you're
Speaker 1: super duper wealthy. If you are, congratulations, but you know
Speaker 1: in the long run, this is not in your favor.
Speaker 1: So I hope you're taking note and you say, you
Speaker 1: know what, when midterm elections come up, there's hell to
Speaker 1: pay because, like you know, not being able to afford
Speaker 1: your regular life, it's hard enough. You know, it's so crazy.
Speaker 1: I was telling my sister, I'm like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: so crazy that when maybe my parents were younger, that
Speaker 1: you could actually have a regular job and buy a
Speaker 1: house and a car and go on vacation once a year.
Speaker 1: That's a crazy concept to me. I'm like, how do
Speaker 1: you do that? Like a regular job. I'm a teacher,
Speaker 1: I'm a mechanic, I'm a factory worker, and whatever it is,
Speaker 1: I have a regular job. I'm able to save, get
Speaker 1: a house, I'm able to get a car, and I'm
Speaker 1: able to go on vacation with the family once a year.
Speaker 1: That's not even a thing. What does that mean? You know? Yeah? Yes,
Speaker 1: so that is our That is our buzzworthy. I think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, get into it. We're gonna, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna post it on our brand ambition page to
Speaker 1: break down, but do some research on your own. We
Speaker 1: should be talking about this regularly with your family and friends.
Speaker 2: Congrats to your corporation. You get you know, you get money,
Speaker 2: but I don't think it'll take long to realize that
Speaker 2: trickle down economics still doesn't work. Yeah, but who's aren't
Speaker 2: there studies that show them more money and get the
Speaker 2: more selfish you are?
Speaker 1: Yes, No, because I mean the point well, I think
Speaker 1: obviously the point of trickle down economics it's not for
Speaker 1: it to work. That's what you just tell the masses.
Speaker 1: The point of trickle down economics is for you and
Speaker 1: your crona to benefit who. As The Washington Post says,
Speaker 1: democracy dies in the darkness, so we got to bring
Speaker 1: it to light.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the Washington Post, I'm at this, So I'm
Speaker 2: then I'm in I'm in Saint Petersburg, Florida, uh right
Speaker 2: right outside of Tampa, at this NABJ National Association of
Speaker 2: Black Journalists and the Pointer Institute put on this leadership
Speaker 2: Academy for Diversity and Digital Leadership. So like young editors
Speaker 2: from like publications across the country get together and they
Speaker 2: do like trainings for us. And it's been really this
Speaker 2: is only day one, and I'm like really pushing through
Speaker 2: because it's they they made us get reviews from like
Speaker 2: eight people on our teams and our companies and then
Speaker 2: read them today. So that was interesting. But anyway, we
Speaker 2: heard from the editor of The Undefeated. Oh God, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna forget his last name, but he was the managing
Speaker 2: editor from the Washington Post left that really amazing job
Speaker 2: to go basically h save this The Undefeated, which is
Speaker 2: like an offshoot of ESPN. It's a webs that they
Speaker 2: started that was supposed to cover sports but with an
Speaker 2: almost entirely all black news team, like to kind of
Speaker 2: do away with some of the you know bias or
Speaker 2: like you know, soft racism that you'll see in some
Speaker 2: news stories and you know, covering sports or whatever. But
Speaker 2: he he had some like really amazing things to say about,
Speaker 2: like when to choose Like he was at the Washington Post.
Speaker 2: He had been he had been like a writer at
Speaker 2: the Washington Post for a long time. And this is
Speaker 2: a good example of like when do you take a
Speaker 2: chance that actually, you know, gets set in front of
Speaker 2: you if you don't feel like you're ready for it.
Speaker 2: But he said, he's like I was a writer. I
Speaker 2: was happy. I was happy writing. It was like two
Speaker 2: thousand and eight. Obama had just been elected, and I
Speaker 2: was ready to you know, be covering this election or
Speaker 2: covering his term in office for the next four eight years.
Speaker 2: Kevin Marita, Sorry, I forgot his last name. And then
Speaker 2: someone tapped him on his shoulder and they're like, we
Speaker 2: need you to run the national news desk. And this
Speaker 2: is a big job in a newsroom, especially for like
Speaker 2: the Washington Post, Like you're covering every reporter covering the country.
Speaker 2: And he was like, man, I really was looking forward
Speaker 2: to sitting in my my space that I carved out
Speaker 2: for myself, you know, covering this. I had covered the
Speaker 2: election and now covering the term of the first African
Speaker 2: American president in US history. And then he was like,
Speaker 2: but then I started thinking if not me, then who
Speaker 2: if if I don't take this opportunity, this, you know,
Speaker 2: this huge promotion. There's it's very likely that someone who
Speaker 2: doesn't look like me is going to get this job.
Speaker 2: And what and what it means for me to do
Speaker 2: this job is that people beneath me who look like
Speaker 2: me will see that it's possible. And that was and
Speaker 2: he said it was sort of like an active community
Speaker 2: service why he took that job, and God has that
Speaker 2: leadership role. And I just thought that that I just
Speaker 2: I liked what he had to say about that, and
Speaker 2: I felt like it was a it was a different
Speaker 2: way of looking at like it's almost a responsibility to
Speaker 2: strive for more than what is just acceptable. Do you
Speaker 2: know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's like I do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I will. I will take this leave even
Speaker 2: if I don't think I want it, just because no
Speaker 2: one like me has done it before and I need
Speaker 2: someone has to be the first, and if I've been
Speaker 2: like tapped on the shoulder, then and hell yeah, I'll
Speaker 2: be the first.
Speaker 1: Because I think it was far nouche when we were
Speaker 1: like at the like my second finkon it was a
Speaker 1: far nows for somebody else. But I feel like it
Speaker 1: was her who said something to that effect to me.
Speaker 1: She said it like on the stage and not like
Speaker 1: to me necessarily, but I think she said someone told
Speaker 1: her because she was like, oh, I'm making whatever amount
Speaker 1: of money, that's more than enough, and they were like no,
Speaker 1: because women tend to be like that. Well I know
Speaker 1: I am anyway where I was like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: if I make seventy five thousand or a hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: that's more than enough. I mean, like if have you
Speaker 1: met me, like you know, I still you know, get
Speaker 1: my dresses from J. C. Penny And I'm fine with that,
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't. It doesn't really move me.
Speaker 1: And so she basically was like, no, that if you
Speaker 1: have the opportunity it was for nows to grow great
Speaker 1: wealth and you don't, you're being selfish, never being like,
Speaker 1: but but I don't need all that money. She's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't. But how many causes were you champion? How
Speaker 1: many kids were you put through school? How many daycare
Speaker 1: centers were you find? Whatever it is that moves you
Speaker 1: because you have this additional income that you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: need for yourself. And I had thought about that and
Speaker 1: since then because I was I felt greedy or I
Speaker 1: felt like, I don't know, selfish for like trying to
Speaker 1: make a lot of money because I'm like that it
Speaker 1: feels like, I don't know, capitalistic and materialistic. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just didn't like the way I felt, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I just was like, well, I won't make a
Speaker 1: lot of money. Then I'll make enough to support myself,
Speaker 1: you know, help my family out a little bit, but
Speaker 1: nothing more than that. And now no, I want to
Speaker 1: go ball to the wall and not so I can
Speaker 1: have like this pile of money, but so I can
Speaker 1: give away this pile of money, you know, Like I
Speaker 1: would love to be an angel investor for like brown
Speaker 1: girl businesses because Silicon Valley's like what, Like I was
Speaker 1: telling my friend, I was like, imagine this girl comes
Speaker 1: up with like perm that does not break off your
Speaker 1: edges and actually makes your hair healthier, like and you
Speaker 1: go to Silicon Valley. They don't get it because you know,
Speaker 1: how would they get it. They're like, I don't get it,
Speaker 1: But I'm like, what this perm that actually makes your
Speaker 1: hell healthier, that doesn't break off your edges, it doesn't
Speaker 1: break off your hair. What I want to invest in
Speaker 1: that because I understand the vision. I understand, so I
Speaker 1: want to be able to do stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: I just I say all that to say that, like, yes,
Speaker 1: going forward, you playing small really does not benefit anyone,
Speaker 1: and that you know, I'm glad that he took that
Speaker 1: position because it means that you're opening the door wider
Speaker 1: for someone else to come through. It doesn't you have
Speaker 1: to stay there forever. But yeah, that if you ever
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to do something, if it's in alignment
Speaker 1: with who you are, go for it, because it's not
Speaker 1: just for you, it's for others.
Speaker 3: Lovely perfectly said thank you, oh nothing, honestly that the
Speaker 3: new I can't wait.
Speaker 1: The new Literature Challenge will be launching in a week
Speaker 1: or so. It's the net Worth edition, which is like
Speaker 1: perfect timing now, because I was asking myself, like, We've
Speaker 1: done the fundamentals, which is like the basics, like budgeting, saving,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I had well budgeting, mostly budgeting.
Speaker 1: Then we did the Savings edition, which was all about saving.
Speaker 1: Then we did the Credit edition with Magnified Money, which
Speaker 1: is super dope and it's all about credit. And so
Speaker 1: I was asking myself and I did like a survey
Speaker 1: and asked folks like, what is it everyone's wanting to
Speaker 1: side hustle and I kind of asked myself why, And
Speaker 1: I guess at the end of all that, I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, what if we could work on the
Speaker 1: net worth edition. At first, I was going to do
Speaker 1: the debt edition, but I found that folks don't really
Speaker 1: want to talk about debt, and so I said, well,
Speaker 1: how do I sneak in the p's and carrots into
Speaker 1: the pizza? And so, because you know your net worth
Speaker 1: is reducing your debt and increasing your assets. And so
Speaker 1: that's what the net Worth Edition is going to be
Speaker 1: is three weeks totally free. This is our fourth year.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite things that we do because
Speaker 1: it's like literally free on free, so many dope resources,
Speaker 1: and we're going to teach you how to reduce your debt,
Speaker 1: increase your income, and increase your assets. At the end,
Speaker 1: it's going to take more than three weeks to increase
Speaker 1: your networth, but you'll be on a solid path to
Speaker 1: increasing your networth. So that's that's the big thing we're
Speaker 1: working on for twenty nineteen. And it'll launch well, sign
Speaker 1: up will start like in a week or so, and
Speaker 1: it'll be all twenty nineteen. You can sign up whenever
Speaker 1: you want once the initial launch is done.
Speaker 2: Oh that's exciting. I love deliverature challenge right with this one?
Speaker 2: Do you stop at paying down debt or do you
Speaker 2: talk about what to do with the worth that you've
Speaker 2: netted like it's actually a positive networth now what so?
Speaker 1: Well? No, well, so we talked about so this is
Speaker 1: why it's the Networth Edition because it's really about increasing
Speaker 1: your network. So if you have no debt, great, then
Speaker 1: We're just going to show you how to make your
Speaker 1: net worth even higher if you have. So it's the
Speaker 1: three core things are, you know, reducing debt, increasing your income,
Speaker 1: so how do you actually increase your income, and then
Speaker 1: increasing your assets. So no matter what I love about it,
Speaker 1: it's like so sort of like the credit edition, no
Speaker 1: matter where you start, Like I could have had a
Speaker 1: seven hundred and done the credit Edition and then left
Speaker 1: with this seven fifty. So you can have a net
Speaker 1: worth of a positive one thousand and then leave with
Speaker 1: a three thousand dollars networth, or you can have negative
Speaker 1: ten thousand and then leave with negative five. So it's
Speaker 1: not the Networth Edition is not about getting you out
Speaker 1: of debt. It's really about raising how much you are
Speaker 1: financially worth, no matter where that space is. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I'm excited about it because I think most people don't
Speaker 1: think about that. I never thought about, like what's my
Speaker 1: net worth? Like you know, key number.
Speaker 2: It's the key freaking number. It's like the It's more
Speaker 2: important than your credit score because I feel like it
Speaker 2: flows everything flows from it. You know, you get your
Speaker 2: net worth in a positive space and everything else was
Speaker 2: sort of fall into place.
Speaker 1: Exactly so I'm excited exactly, So it's gonna be dope.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna I just love to see everybody
Speaker 1: working together, like oohoo. Like my net worth is two hundred, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's better than zero, better than negative or you know.
Speaker 1: So I mean cause I'm not gonna lie. I don't
Speaker 1: even I haven't checked my networth and how long. So
Speaker 1: I'm excited to do the challenge along with y'all.
Speaker 2: I don't care. I want to do it. I'm want
Speaker 2: to be involved to You should have many something.
Speaker 1: You can come do a live with me. You know
Speaker 1: how we did last I was looking back at you.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, we had so much fun.
Speaker 1: You could definitely come do a like cause you every
Speaker 1: Sunday I just missed your face.
Speaker 2: So I'm just gonna insert myself and any opportunity.
Speaker 1: No, you should come because that'll be fun because once
Speaker 1: a week, you know, we'll do the live where literally
Speaker 1: it's just that, you know how it is just a
Speaker 1: Q and a check in chat. So you could definitely
Speaker 1: come and do one. Because everyone always like where's Mandy.
Speaker 1: It's funny now when I go out and people are like,
Speaker 1: how's Mandy I'm like, oh my god, look ride a
Speaker 1: Bishit is like yo. I was at a big major
Speaker 1: group the other day and someone was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: want to follow a black business podcast. Does anybody know?
Speaker 1: And like so many people were like right a bi shit.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what about what's going
Speaker 1: on in mandy life?
Speaker 2: Well, other than being at this taking a first of
Speaker 2: all shout out to my I was gonna do it?
Speaker 2: Can we Why don't we do our boost and break? Yes,
Speaker 2: let's do this one boost break, boost, break what you're
Speaker 2: gonna do?
Speaker 1: For some reason, my pitch is higher than usual? Will
Speaker 1: so what are you gonna do? You gotta boost, You're
Speaker 1: gonna break it that.
Speaker 2: New vegan diet. I wanted to Yeah, I wanted to
Speaker 2: boost because I'm I was. I wanted to boost companies, managers,
Speaker 2: leaders who will allow their employees to be off of
Speaker 2: work for a week to focus on leadership and training.
Speaker 2: Uh that for their job, Like like my company, we're
Speaker 2: only by lending Tree now. But I have to give
Speaker 2: my supervisor Nick a lot of credit because you know,
Speaker 2: he's a co owner of Magnified Money. And when I
Speaker 2: told him, I was accepted into into this academy, and
Speaker 2: it's really exciting, even though my work has never been
Speaker 2: busier or more intense than ever. He was like, go
Speaker 2: do it, run god bye, We'll figure it out. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I worked like triple quadruple time the past couple of
Speaker 2: weeks to prepare myself. But I'm down here and I
Speaker 2: am surrounded by you know, for anyone out there who's
Speaker 2: working in a small office or for a startup, and
Speaker 2: you feel like, who are where's my tribe? You know,
Speaker 2: where my people to bounce ideas off? And not just
Speaker 2: at a small office, but if you're a leader in
Speaker 2: a small office, it can sometimes feel as if I
Speaker 2: don't have anyone to sort of just sort of like
Speaker 2: let not let down my hair with, but like talk
Speaker 2: about things that are bothering me without having to worry
Speaker 2: about morale or not having to worry about you know,
Speaker 2: because I feel like you give, give, give as a
Speaker 2: manager and you want to support, your support the people
Speaker 2: under you and help them do their best work. That's
Speaker 2: what it's really about. But then like who's checking in
Speaker 2: with you and making sure that you're doing a good job.
Speaker 2: And so anyway, this this is an amazing opportunity. There
Speaker 2: is like close to two hundred applicants, and they chose
Speaker 2: twenty four or twenty five who like editors from all
Speaker 2: these different publications, from the New York Times to of
Speaker 2: course magnify money from oh gosh, like the Tampa I
Speaker 2: think the local Tampa newspaper, just newspapers and USA Today
Speaker 2: and all these great publications. But we're all young, brown, LGBTQ, Latina, black, whatever,
Speaker 2: Asian editors, you know, minority editors, and I think that
Speaker 2: we're getting the one on one mentoring and coaching that
Speaker 2: isn't common or that you don't really get from people
Speaker 2: who look like you, and especially for those of us
Speaker 2: working in smaller like newsrooms and stuff. So it's only
Speaker 2: been day one, but I'm already feeling just the people
Speaker 2: that I've met, and like, there's I knew it was
Speaker 2: going to be powerful, but when you really sit next
Speaker 2: to someone who's on the other side of the country
Speaker 2: and you're like, I have this problem and they're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, need too or I need to work
Speaker 2: on this thing as a manager, and they're like, you know,
Speaker 2: you just have these people. You don't feel alone, and
Speaker 2: you don't feel like crazy, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like yeah, the problems that I'm having, the strength that
Speaker 2: I have, but the weaknesses I have too are not
Speaker 2: unique and like they're fixable and there's and I'm already
Speaker 2: getting so many tips from everybody. I'm just like taking notes.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what do you do? How did you handle
Speaker 2: that problem? I'm like, oh, what do you do? And
Speaker 2: I'm like stealing all these ideas and stuff. So I'm
Speaker 2: really excited, and I'm really grateful that my company is
Speaker 2: allowing and they're you know, they paid my way down
Speaker 2: here too. They didn't have to because it's this I
Speaker 2: could have gotten a small stipend for the travel, but yeah,
Speaker 2: they're paying my way down here and really supporting me.
Speaker 2: And I want to turn around and find ways for
Speaker 2: the people that work for me to do the same thing,
Speaker 2: like get you know, go do their own sort of
Speaker 2: development and stuff like that, and to step back and
Speaker 2: reflect on what you've done. Like I feel like for
Speaker 2: the last four months especially, I've been so focused on
Speaker 2: meeting goals and hitting my numbers in terms of the
Speaker 2: amount of content that we put out, and like we've
Speaker 2: gone from doing thirty to forty five to sixty to
Speaker 2: seventy five to ninety. We're going to be a one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty stories videos a month plus, like probably
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty by February. And I've been really
Speaker 2: focused on that, and I haven't had time to like
Speaker 2: step back, look at what has happened the past the sorry,
Speaker 2: the past four months, and give myself an assessment and
Speaker 2: see what's working, what's not working, and like fix it
Speaker 2: now rather than later.
Speaker 1: So I love that. And when you find your tribe,
Speaker 1: there's nothing at her because they helped to normalize what
Speaker 1: you might feel like it seems crazy, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my people, my people, my people.
Speaker 1: I make. I want to boost. I had a bunch
Speaker 1: of things in my head, but I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: boost taking a moment. So I've been using like headspace,
Speaker 1: so so many of you guys like downloaded headspace. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited until I realized I was like, oh, only
Speaker 1: the first ten sessions are free. After that, they're like, yeah, child,
Speaker 1: you need a subscription. So if anybody has these suggestions
Speaker 1: for free meditation app, I'm open to them. No, but
Speaker 1: I wanted because of headspace and just uh, just in general,
Speaker 1: I've been doing a lot of reflecting, so I really
Speaker 1: want to boost kind of acknowledging how far you've come
Speaker 1: because it's the end of the year. Like I was
Speaker 1: talking to my sister who was working for this big,
Speaker 1: huge financial company but was not happy, and she really
Speaker 1: wanted to make a huge shift. Like she was a
Speaker 1: financial analyst, you know, had her life degree and economics
Speaker 1: and marketing and whatever, so but she always like was
Speaker 1: really into closed so she's like, I would love to
Speaker 1: be a buyer, like a closed buyer. So it seemed
Speaker 1: like such a random shift. And today she texts me,
Speaker 1: she's like, oh my god, do you realize it's been
Speaker 1: three years since I left that big, evil financial company.
Speaker 1: And I was like, three years it seems like both
Speaker 1: forever and yesterday. And I said, are you proud of yourself?
Speaker 1: Because she's an assistant buyer for a huge national brand,
Speaker 1: and lately she's been like all like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this job is it's a lot, and you know, I
Speaker 1: wish I was further along. And I'm like, are you crazy?
Speaker 1: In three years, you totally switched careers, Like you went
Speaker 1: from financial analysts to hey, I'm a buyer at this huge,
Speaker 1: ninormous like clothing company, and like, meanwhile, no prior experience,
Speaker 1: and so it just reminded me because I do the
Speaker 1: same thing that she was doing. It's like like just boosting.
Speaker 1: I really want to boost, like taking a moment and
Speaker 1: acknowledging like I'm not where I used to be. Then
Speaker 1: I'm better, even if it's not this huge leap. But
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes we jump from one thing to
Speaker 1: the next thing to the next thing that we never
Speaker 1: like kind of relish in the fact that we're growing
Speaker 1: and we're better and yeah, so yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: so many people that I know, like I said, including myself,
Speaker 1: like you know, really take a step back. Like I
Speaker 1: had to think to myself, like, you know, less than
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I was a preschool teacher. Because sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll get down on myself like, oh, you have so
Speaker 1: much stuff to You're not as organized as you ought
Speaker 1: to be. You should be doing this and this and this,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, uh, ma'am, you were a pre school teacher.
Speaker 1: And nothing's wrong with that because obviously I love the kids,
Speaker 1: but like, you're running two successful companies now, I mean,
Speaker 1: give yourself a little bit of okay, teed you doing it, girl,
Speaker 1: And I rarely give myself that I'm always super critical
Speaker 1: of like where I should be versus how far I've come.
Speaker 1: So that's my boost for you listeners for Mandy, because
Speaker 1: I know Mandy's also hard on herself and then myself,
Speaker 1: just like you know, you killing it out here in
Speaker 1: these streets, give yourself a little like Patnabad, a little
Speaker 1: shoulder shimmy in the mirror, like ah, I see you booboo. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I was like shoulder shimmying like I was saying. I
Speaker 1: was like, Tiffany, why are you involuntarily moving in shoulder shimmy?
Speaker 2: Because we feel it in your tone and we know
Speaker 2: what was hard about today is one of the things
Speaker 2: they had us do before we came to this training
Speaker 2: was to send out evaluation performance evaluation forms to eight
Speaker 2: of our colleagues, like four direct reports, like three managers
Speaker 2: and one person you don't really work with at all
Speaker 2: directly anyway. And then they I didn't realize that, but
Speaker 2: they gave it to us and like a red folder today,
Speaker 2: they're like, here's your reviews. Go find a quiet place
Speaker 2: and read them. And they made us, yeah, and they
Speaker 2: made us solemnly swear that we were going to read
Speaker 2: the positive because there were six questions. The first five
Speaker 2: we're sort of positive, like what is what do they
Speaker 2: do well? The sixth question was what do they need
Speaker 2: to work on? And he was like, you have to
Speaker 2: look at the positive take a highlight or highlight the
Speaker 2: positive words. And I'm so glad he did that because
Speaker 2: you know, I was about to go right just question
Speaker 2: number six. Yeah, like what if someone so they could
Speaker 2: really think about me? But I took a highlighter. And
Speaker 2: when you do that, and you're like, you're forced and
Speaker 2: I know it's for coming up. If you work for
Speaker 2: a big company, you might have annual reviews coming up,
Speaker 2: and you know you get feedback through your manager or
Speaker 2: if you don't, at least ask for it and don't
Speaker 2: focus on what needs to I mean you want to,
Speaker 2: of course, like take constructive criticism on what needs to
Speaker 2: be improved, but also focus on the positives because you
Speaker 2: might see some emerging trends there. Like a lot of
Speaker 2: people said the same things about me that were positive,
Speaker 2: and I was really proud of that because it's like
Speaker 2: everything I've been trying really hard to do is it's
Speaker 2: actually coming across, you know what I mean, and people
Speaker 2: are receptive to it. And anyway, I'm just really glad
Speaker 2: that they said that because I agree with you. I
Speaker 2: think that you can be really hard on yourself and
Speaker 2: obviously we're not stupid idiots like we like, obviously you're not.
Speaker 2: You know, you're worthy of being where you are because
Speaker 2: you are where you are. Like yeah, so, but I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's the harshest critic is always yourself. Yes, it's nice to.
Speaker 2: It's nice to, you know, just force yourself to just
Speaker 2: listen to the positive and tell yourself the positive too, and.
Speaker 1: Like let it sit and simmer, because I'll be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that thing happened. That's so good, okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm like what, no, Tiffany like okay, you know,
Speaker 1: like sit and let it. I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if people think, and I know maybe I think
Speaker 1: like I don't want to become prideful like well, you know,
Speaker 1: well you know the team. It's like no, you know, yes,
Speaker 1: the team, but you contributed, because I find myself giving
Speaker 1: a lot of the for lack of a better word,
Speaker 1: credit away, Like I'll say like, oh my god, my
Speaker 1: marketing guy, oh my gosh, you know, because without him
Speaker 1: we wouldn't. I'm like, yeah, well you know he came
Speaker 1: in three three years ago. You started a bunch of
Speaker 1: Easton two thousand and eight, So yes, he is awesome.
Speaker 1: But there was a company here before he got here,
Speaker 1: and it was a good company, you know. And so
Speaker 1: I find myself nervously always doing that like, hey you
Speaker 1: want some credit, take it? Hey, you you want some credit?
Speaker 1: Take it? And so, yeah, it's something because I get it.
Speaker 1: It's like a thin line between being your cheerleader and
Speaker 1: then like you know, being like a jerk about it,
Speaker 1: and so I'm always not never wanting to be like
Speaker 1: to I don't know, do you.
Speaker 2: Have a feedback system? I know you work with like
Speaker 2: a bunch of people, but do do you have a
Speaker 2: way for them to give you a review? Maybe I
Speaker 2: would like to tell you yes, I think because you're
Speaker 2: the top of the organization, so it's not like yes.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'm going to create an anonymous way for
Speaker 1: people to give feedback because obviously I think everybody would
Speaker 1: be like nervous obviously to tell me to my face,
Speaker 1: So maybe would I Probably I could do like one
Speaker 1: of those like survey Monkey or whatever Google like surveys. Yeah, ooh,
Speaker 1: that's actually a really good idea. Because ah, I'm scared.
Speaker 2: Do it. It's so scary. But once I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: read the positives, do the five positive questions, or however
Speaker 2: many positive questions. First, I can just send you the
Speaker 2: same survey they sent.
Speaker 1: No, I would love that because honestly, it would help
Speaker 1: me to be like, oh, so you guys like this,
Speaker 1: but you don't like this, and and honestly, yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm it's so crazy because I'm open to feedback about
Speaker 1: the company all the time. Like when like dream Catchers
Speaker 1: or dream builders are like, I don't like this, I
Speaker 1: don't like that. It doesn't bother me, but feedback about me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, ah, because I've learned not to take it personally.
Speaker 1: But you can't not take it personally. When they're like,
Speaker 1: hey you, Tiffany, No, but you know what, that's a
Speaker 1: good idea. I'm gonna do that. I'm scared, but I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. And they listen to they're gonna be like, yes, Tippy,
Speaker 1: let's do feedback. I'm like, oh my god, I should
Speaker 1: be tenthill the first time around.
Speaker 2: No, No, be honest, they might want feedback from you too,
Speaker 2: And if you know, I don't know, you know, I
Speaker 2: found out for my reviews two of my direct reports,
Speaker 2: one of them who's been with me for a year
Speaker 2: now over a year, have just so funny and just
Speaker 2: like the longest review, I was like, this has to
Speaker 2: be from her, and then I was like I saw
Speaker 2: her name as I give of course, and then the
Speaker 2: newer hire had felt like some of my the way
Speaker 2: that I speak to them, I'm very direct, and I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I have like my I'm I'm an editor,
Speaker 2: so I'm like, you know, do this this way and
Speaker 2: know that it's not right and can you change this?
Speaker 2: And whatever. I make suggestions and I try and be
Speaker 2: very hands on, and honestly, I'm trying really hard to
Speaker 2: temper my own directness. I had that type of personality
Speaker 2: where I'm very task oriented and I just want to
Speaker 2: say what I have to say and then you know,
Speaker 2: keep on truck. And it's not personal. It's just how
Speaker 2: I managed and it serves me very well in my role.
Speaker 2: But when I'm on a one on one level with
Speaker 2: like an employee, someone who's young, and as a reporter,
Speaker 2: I needs to learn I have to like put on
Speaker 2: my other hat. And anyway, this this more recent hire
Speaker 2: said that she felt as if I as if I
Speaker 2: needed to explain why then like say no, but then
Speaker 2: why like explain, sit down and walk through, like deconstruct
Speaker 2: the NOE, deconstruct what I'm saying. And I was like,
Speaker 2: I took that feedback because what has worked for me
Speaker 2: and this other reporter. You know, it took us a
Speaker 2: long time to work out our relationship and she's been
Speaker 2: there for over a year, but we have a good
Speaker 2: relationship now. And I'm starting with someone at a different level,
Speaker 2: so someone used to me and someone who's not used
Speaker 2: to me, and I have to sort of start over
Speaker 2: with her and give her the same amount of tension.
Speaker 2: And the challenge is like, my my time has never
Speaker 2: been more stretched, but I have to make the time
Speaker 2: because I don't. I don't want her to feel like
Speaker 2: I don't have time for her or that I'm like
Speaker 2: not motivating her to do well.
Speaker 1: No, I love that, Okay, and nastily, now you got
Speaker 1: me motivated. I feel like we're going to do like
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that the team like loves working
Speaker 1: for the company or role, but I know that I
Speaker 1: could do I could be a better leader because my
Speaker 1: leadership well one I'm really new to leadership because honestly,
Speaker 1: this is the second we've been like a year and
Speaker 1: a half in to actually having a team. Up until
Speaker 1: like a year and half ago, it was just me
Speaker 1: and maybe like a random like intern or assistant here
Speaker 1: and there, but just me. So having an actual team
Speaker 1: it's really new. So I believe in like kind of
Speaker 1: like shared leadership. So I don't take this kind of
Speaker 1: like top down heavy approach where I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing. It's more so, you know, everybody kind
Speaker 1: of has like their general area that they look after,
Speaker 1: so I'm always like, so, what's happening in your area?
Speaker 1: What trends are you seeing good and bad? What do
Speaker 1: you think that the area needs? So then let's kind
Speaker 1: of like map out a like a plan of action
Speaker 1: for what you say that the area needs. And then
Speaker 1: if I see something like myself, then I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I see that too or whatever. So that's my general
Speaker 1: But it's good. But sometimes it's a little bit too
Speaker 1: loose because I'm like, so sometimes somethings won't be done
Speaker 1: to completion and I'm like, wait, what was that? Hell?
Speaker 1: What we was we supposed to do? So I'm not
Speaker 1: super duper organized, so I know that's something I could
Speaker 1: definitely do better. It's like, okay, you said that this
Speaker 1: is what needs to be done, Like let's map it
Speaker 1: out the task that you're going to do. So every
Speaker 1: week when we have our call, I know you're working
Speaker 1: towards those tasks. That's something I would like to personally
Speaker 1: work on. It's like to make sure that things are sawing,
Speaker 1: that you're seeing through to completion. But yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: like the cause I feel like we're all kind of
Speaker 1: adults and who knows better about what's happening with customer
Speaker 1: support than the folks in customer support or who knows
Speaker 1: better about you know, So I'm not here to tell
Speaker 1: you what you need to do. Is it's more so
Speaker 1: what do you think? You know? What do you see?
Speaker 1: And like you know and they know, Like I'm not
Speaker 1: sensitive if you're like honestly, everyone says this class sucks
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, so what can we do to
Speaker 1: fix it? You know? They know that like if something sucks,
Speaker 1: please tell me asap, you know, if people are upset
Speaker 1: or mad or whatever, Like we had a bunch of
Speaker 1: cancelations and my finance and numbers girl were like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we spiked in cancelations this week. It was random, like
Speaker 1: by twenty percent, and that we're trying to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: what happened, you know, like why, And so she knew
Speaker 1: she didn't have to be afraid to be like, eh,
Speaker 1: people canceled a lot this week because it's more so
Speaker 1: about like, let's fix the issue. That's my biggest thing.
Speaker 1: I'm what I call a paper towel or I try
Speaker 1: to be a paper towel problem solver. So like my dad,
Speaker 1: is you spill the milk? You fuss about the milk
Speaker 1: is spilled your waist of milk? It was my mom,
Speaker 1: is you spilled the milk? Here's a paper towel, And
Speaker 1: so I don't need to fuss over a mistake was made,
Speaker 1: Like we're here, now, how do we fix it? Where's
Speaker 1: the paper towel?
Speaker 2: Exactly? And you need to hear that people will see
Speaker 2: that even the act of asking people for feedback is
Speaker 2: so affirming to them and will make them feel even
Speaker 2: more affirmed, like I think you know, you assume made
Speaker 2: that people feel a certain way, but working but even
Speaker 2: just saying hey I've heard you, or hey, I'm even
Speaker 2: going to try to fix this habit I have that
Speaker 2: I know is not working. I'm going to put in
Speaker 2: the effort to try. Like it's you know, be have
Speaker 2: patience with me. You know that. I feel like that
Speaker 2: has value too. It's not like no one expects you
Speaker 2: to turn a switch with after you get this feedback
Speaker 2: and fix everything that may you know, maybe improved. But
Speaker 2: I think people really really respect a leader who at
Speaker 2: least acknowledges that there's work to be done. Yeah, never
Speaker 2: gets tired, never thinks that they're you know, done that
Speaker 2: they're done. Absolutely our right team.
Speaker 1: I know you're listening. Be back, Tid. Do we have
Speaker 1: any questions?
Speaker 2: We do?
Speaker 1: We do? We do questions? I love you guys. This question.
Speaker 1: You guys are like really like tight and bright. I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: we should call it thump. Tiffany and Mandy, I'm like, yeah, pass.
Speaker 1: Can I just tell you a random while we're looking
Speaker 1: for questions? So, why did like a company reach out
Speaker 1: to me? They wanted to work with me? And I
Speaker 1: hope they don't listen, but they listen. I don't care.
Speaker 1: So they sent me another person's contract and I was like,
Speaker 1: so at first they said it yes, So at first
Speaker 1: they said it, but I didn't really think anything of it.
Speaker 1: I thought she was just sending it to me to
Speaker 1: look at the statement of work, because she kept saying,
Speaker 1: look at the statement of work and see if this
Speaker 1: is what you'd like to do. So I looked at
Speaker 1: that and I was like, oh, hey, this is fine,
Speaker 1: but she kept saying like, you know, and then she
Speaker 1: emailed me back again like, oh, make sure you look
Speaker 1: at this statement of work. I don't. She didn't realize
Speaker 1: obviously it was someone else's contract. Look at the statement
Speaker 1: of work again, you know, because we're going to send
Speaker 1: you your like send you your find your final contract.
Speaker 1: So then I ended up like really reading and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: this seems weird that they're sending me someone else's contract.
Speaker 1: She reviewed. Then I realized, wait, they probably thought this
Speaker 1: was the blank version. It's nuts. So I was reading
Speaker 1: and I'm like, huh, interesting at this price point that
Speaker 1: I'm not receiving. So I wrote them back, was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I reviewed the statement of work, but also the terms
Speaker 1: and pricing, and before moving forward, I'd like to talk
Speaker 1: about what this person is getting and why I'm not
Speaker 1: getting that. So yeah, I'm just waiting to hear back.
Speaker 2: Oh, now I'm interested. So was this person like, yeah,
Speaker 2: what do you know? This person like, who's.
Speaker 1: No, I don't. They're also an influencer, so it was
Speaker 1: like an influencer contract. They wanted me to do some
Speaker 1: influencer stuff, right, so it was an influencer contract. From
Speaker 1: what I could see, she didn't have a larger following
Speaker 1: than I did. And yeah, so I was kind of
Speaker 1: like a little annoyed to see, like, oh, because you
Speaker 1: told me you didn't pay for that, but in here
Speaker 1: it looks like it did. So I wasn't meaning in
Speaker 1: the reply email, I just said, hey, I didn't look
Speaker 1: at the statement of work, but I also know this
Speaker 1: is not my contract, but I did notice that she's
Speaker 1: being paid this before moving forward, i'd like to talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, what that looks like for me, And it
Speaker 1: just it just I'm not gonna lie. It pissed me off,
Speaker 1: but it also made me be like, you know, it
Speaker 1: just makes you like, we remind you of really asking
Speaker 1: for what you're working because someone is getting it and
Speaker 1: why not you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's hard, you know, not everyone gets to
Speaker 2: email someone else's contract to find out what the limit is.
Speaker 2: You know, that's lucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean that's what we're all asking ourselves. Is it enough?
Speaker 2: You know? How do I know? And sometimes it's got
Speaker 2: to sometimes you gotta look at the coffee machine at
Speaker 2: the office and see what's there's.
Speaker 1: But it was a good reminder of like because sometimes
Speaker 1: a lot of companies will tell you like, oh, we
Speaker 1: don't do that and so, And honestly, I already had
Speaker 1: in my mind like this wasn't like not that it wasn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a great company. I like them, but
Speaker 1: I already had in my mind that I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, if they don't say the right thing, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be like, yeah, it's not a fit. You know,
Speaker 1: you can keep it because at this point, like it's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons too, why keep partnership agreements and
Speaker 1: that to a minimum, like it's never more than like
Speaker 1: twenty percent of my overall income. So that way, at
Speaker 1: any point in time, if like a brand just doesn't
Speaker 1: sit right, you know, I can be like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can keep it because it's not going to make a
Speaker 1: break whether I can pay my bills or not, because
Speaker 1: I don't like that, you know. So we'll see. I'm
Speaker 1: sure they'll come back with something because I know she
Speaker 1: was probably was like yikes, because what first of all,
Speaker 1: I should not be seeing her contract?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, yeah, I don't tell her.
Speaker 1: Well no, no, I would never. I don't know who
Speaker 1: the other person is. I'm saying, like the woman who
Speaker 1: said it to me, okay, yeah, like I should like,
Speaker 1: you know, I know she was like yikes, because I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yes, I'm sure she was. I'm sure she was,
Speaker 1: like so my bad, and she's kind of newish to
Speaker 1: the company. So I was like the fact that you
Speaker 1: said this to me twice.
Speaker 2: Hard, like not even gonna lie. I'm not even being
Speaker 2: I'm not joking. They're hard. I found that. I found her.
Speaker 2: I found her question of the evening good good jump
Speaker 2: into that. So this is from someone who likes to
Speaker 2: go by missus newlywed from Atlanta, Georgia. This isn't my question.
Speaker 2: Don't worry. She's a different person. She said, I love
Speaker 2: your podcast. Hopefully you can help me with this question.
Speaker 2: I recently married my best friend. Now we are getting
Speaker 2: into how to budget monthly. Moneies interestingly waited till after
Speaker 2: they were married to talk about budgeting. What is the
Speaker 2: best new couple budget friendly spreadsheet guide or even website
Speaker 2: that can help us better organize our monthly bills. I
Speaker 2: extremely appreciate your help. Missus newlywed.
Speaker 1: What do you use?
Speaker 2: So she wants the tech focused answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Luckily. Well, okay, so we've tried a bunch of different things.
Speaker 2: We don't have like any one app that we use.
Speaker 2: I think for a while, my husband was using Mint
Speaker 2: when he was dealing with his own finances. I was,
Speaker 2: you know, I had used Mint bill pay to like
Speaker 2: manage my money, and then I was starting to use
Speaker 2: Oh what's it called? Now? Oh, I gotta find it
Speaker 2: on my phone. I love that app. It's the app
Speaker 2: where it tells you how much you have to spend
Speaker 2: on any given day. I've talked about it.
Speaker 1: Oh you did? Is it picky smarty pig?
Speaker 2: Now, no, it's not smarty pig. I'm gonna find my
Speaker 2: cell phone in a second.
Speaker 1: I remember you talking about that though.
Speaker 2: H yeah, dang it. I need to find it anyway,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna. I don't want to mess up the audio.
Speaker 2: But and that was helping, That was helpful for me
Speaker 2: as a couple. I think transparency is the key. And
Speaker 2: so when when my husband and I started working with
Speaker 2: a financial planner. She gave us basically like her own
Speaker 2: version of Mint dot com. I think it's a system
Speaker 2: that maybe financial advisors use. It's called blue Leaf. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's like a payment thing, but you
Speaker 2: can do the same thing with Mint if you just
Speaker 2: load all of your accounts into one place. It forced
Speaker 2: us to have transparency. I mean, we had transparency before,
Speaker 2: but now it's like accountability and we can sort of
Speaker 2: see where all the money is. And it's also really
Speaker 2: rewarding because combined our network is banging, you know, to
Speaker 2: see that like teamwork, and like to see both of
Speaker 2: our network networth you know, going up or down. But
Speaker 2: I think you can get something similar from Mint.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think I can try that because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm the one Draggon network down with this dagone student
Speaker 1: loan because we neither one of us have credit card debt,
Speaker 1: although I suspect he still is paying down a Best
Speaker 1: Buy because every tart turn around we have a new speaker,
Speaker 1: I know, but like no real credit card debt, meaning
Speaker 1: like you know, he probably owes maybe like six hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: but I don't have any credit card debt. He doesn't
Speaker 1: have any other debt whatsoever. I still have student loan debt.
Speaker 1: But we just use good old fashion Excel because I'm
Speaker 1: not super techy and so Excel is like really easy.
Speaker 1: So like our spreadsheet is up. It's like because honestly,
Speaker 1: we talked about money before, but really really didn't dig
Speaker 1: dig deep until like literally right before getting married. And
Speaker 1: then in the beginning we're I mean, we're only married
Speaker 1: a few months now, and so yeah, we use Excel.
Speaker 1: And then after kind of figuring out what, you know,
Speaker 1: how much the household bills and stuff were, we realized
Speaker 1: we could live off his income. So he came up
Speaker 1: with a solution that we finally put into full practice
Speaker 1: and that we have. I already had a Bill's account,
Speaker 1: so I gave him. Now we're co not co owners,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like cole whatever people like. We both
Speaker 1: are a part of that Bill's account. And then we
Speaker 1: opened up another checking account. So now we have two
Speaker 1: joint checking accounts. So the Bill's account is where I
Speaker 1: pay all of our bills now collectively. So his paycheck
Speaker 1: loan lands in our joint checking account. And then I
Speaker 1: transferred the bill money into the Bill's account and the
Speaker 1: rest kind of stays into our other joint checking account,
Speaker 1: which is our spending account, and he keeps like two
Speaker 1: fifty or whatever for himself, like one twenty five a
Speaker 1: week or whatever it is, two fifty or three hundred
Speaker 1: for himself, like one fifty a week' that's what it is.
Speaker 1: One to fifty a week for like just spending, like
Speaker 1: bs spending. And so if he goes food chopping, or
Speaker 1: I go food chopping, or we're spending on something that's
Speaker 1: like family focused, you know that kind of thing, then
Speaker 1: we use our spending account debit card, which we keep
Speaker 1: in the house. Like Bay, I'm going food chopping, I'm
Speaker 1: grabbing the debit card. Great, and all the bills, like
Speaker 1: I said, I paid all the bills now from our
Speaker 1: bill's account because I pull from his check. And then
Speaker 1: all of the money that I make for my two businesses,
Speaker 1: well I would say ninety percent of it because we
Speaker 1: still need to slightly cover is we save and invest
Speaker 1: that money. And so we have a new financial advisor,
Speaker 1: and so we're really like we're buying. Actually we found
Speaker 1: a second home that we're actually gonna buy, So we'll
Speaker 1: probably have two homes in the next six months. We
Speaker 1: found a home like super cheap and it's a huge,
Speaker 1: it's a tear down, but it will help. Like the
Speaker 1: location is amazing, and so you know, that's that's what
Speaker 1: we've worked out. We've heard, no, the second one, I
Speaker 1: have a second house?
Speaker 2: Wait what?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So our first house, which is where we're gonna live,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna buy that cash. Our second house. We
Speaker 1: found a house for ten thousand dollars. But it's it's
Speaker 1: like a it's like a haunted house and there's nothing
Speaker 1: you can we can't even walk inside. It's sight unseen.
Speaker 1: But the location is so amazing and so it's like
Speaker 1: it's but we're fortunate enough to be able to get
Speaker 1: it for that cheap. So I was like, we can't
Speaker 1: say no, even we weren't planning on getting this house
Speaker 1: right now, but we have to get it.
Speaker 2: And the fact do you have a second house, like
Speaker 2: the way through the podcast, we have to revisit this.
Speaker 1: On the next episode later, no, because you know, I
Speaker 1: want to close first before something, and I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: let's close first. But then I'm like, what, we'll have
Speaker 1: two houses one year. Both brought cash, but the other
Speaker 1: one we're going to I know we're going to actually
Speaker 1: have to get a mortgage on that second house because
Speaker 1: we have to get money to fix it up because
Speaker 1: it's like a tear down. But I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: to you guys about how we plan to really like
Speaker 1: maximize on that second house because I'm excited. So that's
Speaker 1: how we do ours, really just Excel and so that
Speaker 1: way he can see like kind of what's happening, because
Speaker 1: I was already using Excel for myself, and you know,
Speaker 1: I basically manage our finances as far as like day
Speaker 1: to day, and then we have our financial advisor that
Speaker 1: we'll be meeting with quarterly to kind of manage the
Speaker 1: rest because I want to be I'm thirty eight. I
Speaker 1: told him by forty five, I want to be multimillionaires.
Speaker 1: Sure you will be a type like that's our goal,
Speaker 1: multimillionaires who both drive three year old cars.
Speaker 2: That's the best time to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm still shopping at KC. Penny and Target.
Speaker 2: It just makes everyone like me more even more jealous,
Speaker 2: like she has the money and she still doesn't use it.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know, I just can't say. I can't
Speaker 1: justify like you know, like five hundred dollars sweater.
Speaker 2: That thing's crazy real quick though, because she did ask
Speaker 2: for like an app, and we recently reviewed the Honeydew app,
Speaker 2: which is kind of cute. It's for couples who want
Speaker 2: to better like it's and she sounds like she wants
Speaker 2: like a monthly budgeting, like like paying the bills and
Speaker 2: things like that they're trying to stay on top of.
Speaker 2: I think this could be a great app for her,
Speaker 2: so both people in the relationship a couple. It's meant
Speaker 2: four couples. You sign up for the account, and it
Speaker 2: does like I was saying before, it puts all of
Speaker 2: your your financial accounts all in one place. But it
Speaker 2: also helps you track your bills, so it'll tell you know,
Speaker 2: you have this bill that's coming up, and it also
Speaker 2: lets you see I think you can control the notifications,
Speaker 2: but you might get alert when this account gets below
Speaker 2: a certain level or when your husband maybe spends a
Speaker 2: lot at Walmart. It has like a big grocery bill
Speaker 2: and it'll alert you. And I think that that helps.
Speaker 2: I think this is like a great conversation starter, and
Speaker 2: it also I don't know, sometimes I think sometimes like
Speaker 2: if you ask all the time, hey, what did you
Speaker 2: spend at the store, what'd you spend here? What'd you
Speaker 2: spend there? It can sound like you're nagging, or it
Speaker 2: can start a fight, But if everything is just there, transparent,
Speaker 2: then you're all on the same foot. One person doesn't
Speaker 2: have to get defensive, and you don't have to worry about,
Speaker 2: you know, making them like putting them on the on
Speaker 2: the defense or you being an offense or whatever. I'm
Speaker 2: clearly awful with sports analogies, but I love it. I
Speaker 2: love it, and I like that has bill reminders too,
Speaker 2: because I think especially if you're living together for the
Speaker 2: first time. I don't know if she if they're living
Speaker 2: together for the first time or not, but you know,
Speaker 2: it could be a situation where you're each used to
Speaker 2: managing your own finances and all of a sudden you're
Speaker 2: sharing some expenses, or one person is maybe managing more
Speaker 2: than they have before, and you want to make sure
Speaker 2: that they're actually doing it. Like nothing worse than finding
Speaker 2: out your significant others forgot to pay the light bill
Speaker 2: when the light goes out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've had what like when I was like in
Speaker 1: my early twenties, one to hurt my friends told me
Speaker 1: that she was like, yeah, the light builb went out.
Speaker 1: You know. My boyfriend told me that, like like in
Speaker 1: the building, blah blah blah. She found out nobody else's
Speaker 1: light went out in the Bible and she was like
Speaker 1: that seems weird, right. I was like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: your early twenties. I'm like, girl, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: tell me. The want to tell her girl, he didn't
Speaker 1: pay the bill, Like nobody's lights to just go out
Speaker 1: in your apartment. I mean, that's possible, but the light
Speaker 1: bill was not paid.
Speaker 2: Oh. You can even like leave comments on the honeydew
Speaker 2: app transactions like a smiley face or like write something
Speaker 2: saying like really the coffee shop again or best Buy again?
Speaker 2: It could be fun.
Speaker 1: Ah ooh, I like that best Buy again. He was like,
Speaker 1: there's speakers in the house. I don't want to talk
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: I was like, why do we sow many freaking speakers?
Speaker 1: Like why? I'm like, what happened? Did we have some
Speaker 1: other speakers? He was like no, I broke up whatever
Speaker 1: he said. I was like whatever, I mean, honestly, he's
Speaker 1: not a big spender at all, So I just said okay.
Speaker 1: He looked at me like that's it. I was like,
Speaker 1: because he did really good on Christmas. We went Christmas
Speaker 1: shopping for Supergirl and he did not go like bananas,
Speaker 1: and I was really proud of him, like, hey, we
Speaker 1: got some really cute stuff for her, but we didn't like.
Speaker 1: When I first met him, I thought he had like
Speaker 1: multiple children by the looks of Christmas, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, so do you give gifts to all
Speaker 1: the kids in the neighborhood. He's like, no, no, this
Speaker 1: is just hers. I'm like, so these thirty presents belong
Speaker 1: to one six year old child. Huh Okay, now it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, just a few. And the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is Supergirl it's not even all that materialistic, which
Speaker 1: is funny because I asked her that year withch she
Speaker 1: like most, and it was like her sheet set that
Speaker 1: her aunt got her. You should have seen his feet,
Speaker 1: I know, because he spent twenty five hundred dollars on
Speaker 1: a kitchenette set for her room twenty five one hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and she was like, I love the sheets. And I
Speaker 1: looked at him like nothing like fresh. Supergirl loves staples. Okay, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you thought by her super expensive stuff.
Speaker 1: She's not really like she's the time you give her
Speaker 1: some markers and a fresh notebook or coloring book, she
Speaker 1: is in hog heaven.
Speaker 2: That's my kind of kid. How do I make sure
Speaker 2: my kids also a nerd?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just really fortunate we're nerds together. It's time for
Speaker 1: weird Tuesday. Oh wait, wait, we don't air on Wednday anymore?
Speaker 1: Right Tuesday?
Speaker 2: We do air on Wednesdays.
Speaker 3: Yes, we recording a day early this week, because that's right,
Speaker 3: it's time for weed.
Speaker 1: I love that. I was like, wait a minute, yes, Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Oh we gotta keep that one weesday. One of these days,
Speaker 1: one of y'all gonna jump up and say, let me
Speaker 1: sing the transitions for you, and I will gladly accept.
Speaker 2: No, I like your transitions.
Speaker 1: Ah. Everybody else was like yeah, no, only So what
Speaker 1: is your win for the week.
Speaker 2: I know that I briefly discussed this audiobook that I
Speaker 2: purchased last week, but I finally started listening to it,
Speaker 2: and I have got to say, if you were even
Speaker 2: like thinking about buying the new Memoir by Jennifer Lewis,
Speaker 2: you must get the audio book. No, it is it
Speaker 2: is my life right now, like she is. She sings
Speaker 2: in it. She's like a comedian, I mean, telling her
Speaker 2: life story. It's like a one woman show. It is
Speaker 2: spectacular and like you learn a lot of things about
Speaker 2: her career that give you a sense of like, okay,
Speaker 2: I mean, on the one hand, like so she starts
Speaker 2: off the book where she's taking a trip to the
Speaker 2: to Grecian Islands and to Italy like on her own
Speaker 2: solo woman traveling, you know, a famous woman too, solo
Speaker 2: traveling and thinking she's on the brink of retirement, and
Speaker 2: you know, am I done? Am I done being an actress?
Speaker 2: Am I done being a performed And then she's she
Speaker 2: has a conversation she says with the moon or God,
Speaker 2: and she's like, I'm not done. I still have dreams,
Speaker 2: I still have goals, and here's what I want. And
Speaker 2: she said it to the moon and two days later
Speaker 2: she got blackish and she got back to the United States. Ah,
Speaker 2: can you imagine we almost didn't have Grandma Ruby.
Speaker 1: I just yeah, that is just don't she just love
Speaker 1: stories like that?
Speaker 2: Yes? And I feel like she's the auntie grandma because
Speaker 2: my granda actually had a Grandma Ruby and she died
Speaker 2: when I was six, and I feel like I never
Speaker 2: got to know my that that grandmother figure, especially like
Speaker 2: in the older I get them more. I find out
Speaker 2: about my grandmother's family. And I always knew. I always
Speaker 2: knew that we had roots in slavery. But I found
Speaker 2: out that my living great uncle used to cotton and
Speaker 2: he just like let that slip into a sly conversation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he never told me about his young childhood and my
Speaker 2: Grandma Ruby had to stay home. There were six or
Speaker 2: seven of them. She stayed home. She quit school when
Speaker 2: she was like thirteen or fourteen years old. I found
Speaker 2: out from this conversation my great uncle to watch all
Speaker 2: of them. That's why she dropped out of school, and
Speaker 2: none of them realized it, or at least they were
Speaker 2: too young, you know. Yeah, she dropped out to take
Speaker 2: care of them. And then they went to work and
Speaker 2: they were picking cotton, and their parents, you know, were
Speaker 2: doing the same thing. And it wasn't until they were
Speaker 2: much older that Grandma Ruby told them how much she
Speaker 2: had sacrificed to take care of them. And from that
Speaker 2: point forward, all my great uncles they called them the
Speaker 2: four Horsemen because there's four living Ray, Uncle Boo, Uncle Arthur,
Speaker 2: Uncle Uncle Kresley. They made sure she never went without
Speaker 2: from then on.
Speaker 1: Yes, I just got chilled, Like literally, I just got chills.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know how I got to my grandma
Speaker 2: Ruby from but anyway, I just I love Jennifer Lewis
Speaker 2: and I and I think I'm at a time where
Speaker 2: I'm like really ready to listen to the stories from
Speaker 2: people who were much much older. Yeah, and I have
Speaker 2: to go seek out that older grandmother figure, I guess
Speaker 2: since I didn't have one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I just love that name. That's such a
Speaker 1: great grandma name on grandmam My Ruby.
Speaker 2: Ruby Lee Woodruff.
Speaker 1: Oh, that is such a great thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I'm Mandy Lee.
Speaker 1: Anyway, no, Ma Andra, I love that.
Speaker 2: So yeah. But the but the official win was for
Speaker 2: Jennifer Lawrence or sorry Lawrence Jesus Jennifer Lewis. Her audiobook
Speaker 2: is called Mother of Black Hollywood, so freaking good. Definitely
Speaker 2: get it. I mean, you can get the written, but
Speaker 2: I think the audiobook's amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, my wind is going out to none other than
Speaker 1: Drina Cherie Whitfield. Yes, Hottie, I said your middle name,
Speaker 1: so Huffington Post. For those of you who don't know,
Speaker 1: Drina is my publicist. But I've known her all my
Speaker 1: life basically. But she is a powerhouse publicist. She's awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean she's been uh. She works with now Patrice
Speaker 1: Colors of Black Lives Matter, She's worked with Corey Booker
Speaker 1: who's now a senator. She's worked with like large Brand,
Speaker 1: small Brandts, Prudential, just all of these. Like she's just
Speaker 1: awesome and so. But she's used to Publicists are behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. Their job is to showcase their client, so
Speaker 1: it's rare that she gets showcased. But the Hovington Post
Speaker 1: just did this big story naming her one of the
Speaker 1: top twenty five African American PR millennials to watch. And
Speaker 1: she couldn't believe it because, like I said, she just
Speaker 1: kind of does the work quietly and yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: just honestly, it was so nice because she doesn't really
Speaker 1: get and the truth of the matter is she doesn't
Speaker 1: actually like recognition. She almost when they reached out to her,
Speaker 1: she was like, yeah, no, I was like, are you
Speaker 1: crazy And had to say the questions and get your
Speaker 1: recognition because they did a large article kind of showcasing
Speaker 1: all of them and then each got individual articles and
Speaker 1: I was like, girl, are you crazy answer your article questions?
Speaker 1: But yeah, she is amazing. She doesn't ask to be,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like put out there for people
Speaker 1: to see. And she's actually not comfortable in the spotlight,
Speaker 1: so she probably be like tiff day stop. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh wow. I mean, like she works really hard and
Speaker 1: she's really hard on herself. I'm always telling her like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're doing amazing work and it's showing and
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'm just really really proud of you for
Speaker 1: being featured in Huffington Post and being called top twenty
Speaker 1: five African American PR millennials. I know that there is
Speaker 1: so much more. If you have seen me on TV
Speaker 1: or any sort of I mean, you have to think
Speaker 1: to yourself. When I met Drina, the Bunjanisa was literally
Speaker 1: a word that my sister made up. And now like
Speaker 1: you've seen me likely everywhere. But that's my focus has
Speaker 1: not been on getting my name out there in like
Speaker 1: the traditional press. It's always just been I'm a teacher.
Speaker 1: I'm going to create programs to help women, and that's
Speaker 1: all that I've ever focused on. So all of this
Speaker 1: extra stuff because people always ask me like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: how did you And I'm like, honestly, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Drina just calls me and says, send me this, and
Speaker 1: then she's like, on Wednesday, you're going to California to
Speaker 1: do the rear. I'm like wait what? And so she's
Speaker 1: always constantly pushing me and then preparing me for the opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's the part people don't see is that her making
Speaker 1: me go of the script literally fifty times over and
Speaker 1: over and over and over, telling me what to wear,
Speaker 1: finding me the makeup person, the person do my hair.
Speaker 1: All of that when you see me presented on TV.
Speaker 1: Is really it's not just Drina getting me to television
Speaker 1: or whatever media outlet. Is her preparing me to do well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's Honestly, I don't think she realized just how amazing
Speaker 1: she is. And she's a new mom. Her son's only
Speaker 1: two years old, and she's going harder than ever. So
Speaker 1: I look at her and I'm like, ah, how do
Speaker 1: you make it work with the kid? And somehow she does.
Speaker 1: And so congratulations, Drina, you are my Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I'm a Drina fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Plus she's my bestie. She hates when I tell
Speaker 1: people that. She's like, then they're not gonna take me seriously.
Speaker 1: I'm like, we're beyond the point people know you sligh.
Speaker 1: Like in the beginning, I was like forbidden to tell
Speaker 1: people that, like, she was my best friend. She was like,
Speaker 1: do not because I was her only client. So she
Speaker 1: was like that it doesn't look like I have like
Speaker 1: a real client. I'm like, girl, But I understood that then,
Speaker 1: but now I'm like, girl, bye, you're my best friend.
Speaker 2: Best friend, that's my thing?
Speaker 1: Why exactly? Oh, this was a great appy, you know what.
Speaker 3: I feel like it was.
Speaker 2: We're don't know what