Speaker 1: I am officially well, Mark, welcome to the Brown Table,
Speaker 1: the Brown Table.
Speaker 2: I'm very happy that I helped you to discover that
Speaker 2: that working.
Speaker 3: I just want I just want my money, that's all.
Speaker 3: I even made a.
Speaker 2: Sign I want my money, and I even had the
Speaker 2: brown shirt all to remind you that.
Speaker 1: I got it. And like, how much money do you
Speaker 1: think that you deserve for that little nugget of wisdom?
Speaker 3: We'll contact your people figure that stuff out.
Speaker 1: Well, I know you don't got no people. You're over
Speaker 1: there just doing it all yourself. Is you ain't got
Speaker 1: no people? So yeah, I think if you maybe hadn't
Speaker 1: spend so much money on like custom outerwear, uh and
Speaker 1: that obnoxious uh logo behind you hanging up on what
Speaker 1: do we even call that?
Speaker 3: Your your hoodies in the mail? By the way, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I really have never been more grateful to know that
Speaker 1: federal workers are being furloughed and that maybe, just maybe
Speaker 1: it won't find its way here. Courier vision not career vision.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if y'all have not heard of Mark Russell,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? I think you? Have you ever
Speaker 1: been on the show before?
Speaker 4: Mark?
Speaker 3: I have no?
Speaker 2: I lied, I lied, no me and.
Speaker 1: Oh, I brought you on for like a yeah, a
Speaker 1: bonus like Halloween episode. That's right, I was just trying
Speaker 1: to probably appease you, like I don't have throw on
Speaker 1: a bone, get on the Halloween episode. Well, Mark is
Speaker 1: the founder of Wow, I wonder what it's called better
Speaker 1: What was that again? Ah, there you go, thank you
Speaker 1: Better Wallet, which tell the people about better Wallet and
Speaker 1: what you do. Mark.
Speaker 2: Mandy's like my older sister, so she just teases me
Speaker 2: for everything that I do. But sometimes people will need
Speaker 2: to be humbled. So I have a couple of people
Speaker 2: like that in my life. Thank God for people like Chris.
Speaker 2: But Better Well, it's all about teaching first generational investors
Speaker 2: how to invest, how to make money work for them,
Speaker 2: and it came from my time working in personal finance
Speaker 2: financial services, working for companies like Vanguard and Blackstone, where
Speaker 2: I found that our people were not represented in the
Speaker 2: clientele that they were trying to go after. So over
Speaker 2: some time, I wanted to take what I've learned from
Speaker 2: the school of hard Knuts, in addition to everything that
Speaker 2: I've learned from me getting my finances together, as well
Speaker 2: as being a financial advisor and stockbroker to provide that
Speaker 2: information to the people. It really started me talking about
Speaker 2: on social media what any other millennial would do, and
Speaker 2: it became the brand that you can see now.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm privileged enough to work with so many people
Speaker 2: and helping them build true train additional wealth for their families.
Speaker 2: So it's it was a hobby that became a mission
Speaker 2: and became the business that it is.
Speaker 1: What year was that that you that you left Vanguard
Speaker 1: and went full time.
Speaker 3: Full time twenty one earlier?
Speaker 2: But I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that
Speaker 2: people were entrepreneurs and they didn't have to rely on,
Speaker 2: you know, someone else to uh to provide a living
Speaker 2: for their their family and everything.
Speaker 3: So it took me some time.
Speaker 2: But after a couple of conversations with people who have
Speaker 2: already done it, I was like, Okay, well I'm going
Speaker 2: to make the jump and went back home after a
Speaker 2: conference where I was talking to people about it and
Speaker 2: put in my two weeks and haven't looked back.
Speaker 4: Let's go. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was that fin Con?
Speaker 4: It was? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Won in Austin and you and I met for the
Speaker 1: first time at fin Con twenty twenty two, which was
Speaker 1: like my return to finn Conn after many years of
Speaker 1: not having been there and like you know, having been
Speaker 1: completely out of the loop. Wow okay, wow right yeah,
Speaker 1: but we got the chance again to like sit next
Speaker 1: to one another out of dinner in Atlanta at finn Con,
Speaker 1: and that's when I knew, Like I'm like, oh, instant,
Speaker 1: I want I want a new new brother, new brother
Speaker 1: to my collection because you're just like you have such
Speaker 1: great energy. But tell people, mister Chris, this is not
Speaker 1: this is other Chris. Okay, so the BA fan is
Speaker 1: used to Chris Browning.
Speaker 4: This is Chris Corinthians popcorn finance Chris, who was an
Speaker 4: awesome guy. Awesome you know, I don't know special thing
Speaker 4: for Chris's but I mean Chris, yes it, I mean,
Speaker 4: you give it to him. It's all love. But he
Speaker 4: just miles through it. So I was like, come on, Chris,
Speaker 4: you're representing for the Chris Is. When I listened to
Speaker 4: him on the show, it's just funny to me, Oh.
Speaker 1: You're like in that, oh Chris, Like Chris is a victim,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: Chris, Chris is have to stick together that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Do you You're safe here?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, well yeah, tell us all about you,
Speaker 1: mister finlack guy. So we got to know.
Speaker 4: My name is Chris Corinthian. I go by the finlack guy,
Speaker 4: and I worked in higher ed for almost twenty years.
Speaker 4: Most of that time was spent in the areas of
Speaker 4: financial aid of financial literacy and I'm coming up on
Speaker 4: a year actually doing this full time. So I was
Speaker 4: working at different universities for adult educators, at vacational technical
Speaker 4: schools and traditional four years. And during that time I
Speaker 4: used to see students that would drop out for lack
Speaker 4: of finances or you know, going to massive amounts of
Speaker 4: debt and still drive out or finished, but then still
Speaker 4: had this burden on them when they graduated. But there
Speaker 4: were other students that I saw that would actually go
Speaker 4: to school debt free. And then I just started studying
Speaker 4: over the years what were the specific habits that they
Speaker 4: had which allowed all of them from various backgrounds to
Speaker 4: graduate debt free. And so that was my focus on
Speaker 4: that along with personal finance, you know, helping students and
Speaker 4: parents with the building blocks of personal finance, right just
Speaker 4: basic budgeting and how's credit established and how is it built?
Speaker 4: Things like that. But my focus now is just working
Speaker 4: with parents of students that are going to college or
Speaker 4: planning to go to college, and showing them how to
Speaker 4: go to school without taking out student loans, without debt altogether.
Speaker 1: Damn Okay, Like what would tell us what's the secret?
Speaker 1: I mean, especially at the time latest when you don't
Speaker 1: know if you're going to have federal aid at all
Speaker 1: for education?
Speaker 4: Right, absolutely, So I'll give the broad overview strategy and
Speaker 4: then if we want so, we could dig deep into it.
Speaker 4: But there are certain there were several data out there
Speaker 4: saying that there's hundreds of millions of dollars over one
Speaker 4: hundred million dollars of unclaimed scholarships each year. So it's
Speaker 4: not that people are applying for scholarships and get denied,
Speaker 4: but it's just free money sitting out there for people
Speaker 4: to go to college, and nobody's applying for it. And
Speaker 4: so that's the main foundation. So now that we have that,
Speaker 4: now what's keeping people from applying for these scholarships? And
Speaker 4: most of the time is they don't know what to
Speaker 4: write about when it comes to essays, They don't know
Speaker 4: where to find these scholarships, right, and they don't have
Speaker 4: a real strategy on how to apply for it. Because
Speaker 4: some will apply for maybe five, ten, fifteen scholarships, get
Speaker 4: burned out and they'll say I didn't win anything. It's
Speaker 4: not going to work for me, right, or some people
Speaker 4: think that I have to have little to no money
Speaker 4: or be of a certain demographic in order to get scholarships.
Speaker 4: But there are several types, and there are you know,
Speaker 4: merit based scholarships, which is a lot of the focus
Speaker 4: that we have when we work with our parents and
Speaker 4: students as well as other scholarships. But we don't even
Speaker 4: focus necessarily on the federal funding. So if it's here,
Speaker 4: if it's not, that's just a bonus when it comes
Speaker 4: to the type of money. So we look at institutional funding.
Speaker 4: We look at local scholarships where your least competitive scholarships
Speaker 4: will lie, so with the school district, with your school,
Speaker 4: with different organizations and businesses, rooting for the hometown heroes
Speaker 4: or rooting for those students that are in their local community.
Speaker 4: And then when you have those specific majors that are
Speaker 4: your tied to, then it just brings down that competition
Speaker 4: barrier much lower and increases the chances of success. Now,
Speaker 4: the other thing is it's a numbers game and a
Speaker 4: law of averages game. Right. So, if you apply for
Speaker 4: five scholarships and expect to go to schools that free,
Speaker 4: most likely you won't get any scholarships, right, And so
Speaker 4: one of the things I talk to students and parents
Speaker 4: about is applying for ten times the amount you need.
Speaker 4: So if you need fifty yeah, right, exactly, And when
Speaker 4: you think, let's say you need fifty thousand dollars to
Speaker 4: go to school, you need apply for five hundred thousand
Speaker 4: dollars in order to get the odds in your favor. Right.
Speaker 4: So if ninety percent of the scholarships, which most of
Speaker 4: the scholarships you apply for, will reject you, you'll get
Speaker 4: denied for most of the scholarships you apply for. And
Speaker 4: so we shoot for ten percent success rates. So if
Speaker 4: ninety percent of them say no, you're still good and
Speaker 4: then apply for at least one hundred and so we
Speaker 4: do this thing where we do to today and then
Speaker 4: that's the focus. If you have your.
Speaker 1: Essays, Chris, that sounds cherable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I know, I know the money that
Speaker 4: you get back end.
Speaker 1: But if you're there, so you're like there to hold
Speaker 1: their hand and like, yeah, coach them through that process, right.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But the hardest thing is just having your five
Speaker 4: essential essays because you usually use just the same five
Speaker 4: over and over again and just tweak a little bit
Speaker 4: of your story. And once you have that hardest part
Speaker 4: out the way, then all you're doing is wash rents
Speaker 4: and repeating. You don't have to look for scholarships because
Speaker 4: you have them all there. Now you have your five
Speaker 4: essential essays, so all you have to do is copy paste, tweak,
Speaker 4: and so you might spend twenty thirty minutes a day
Speaker 4: just click, click send. You have everything in the drive
Speaker 4: for you. So now you can spend twenty to thirty
Speaker 4: minutes a day and it's not overwhelming.
Speaker 1: As how many of your clients are like, well, can
Speaker 1: I just get chat GPT to write this week?
Speaker 4: So what's interesting is that because I look, when chat
Speaker 4: GPT first came out, you could just put that in
Speaker 4: say hey, I'm going for the scholarship and boom boom boom.
Speaker 4: But now Chat has this failsafet where if you put
Speaker 4: it in there, it'll say, no, we can't respond for
Speaker 4: scholarship things. So now, because what some people used to
Speaker 4: do is they say, okay, here's my information, here's a
Speaker 4: scholarship prompt, write me an essay so that I can
Speaker 4: win this. Yeah. Right, But now most of the organizations
Speaker 4: are doing their AI check to see if you're using
Speaker 4: any type of AI to write your essays. So if
Speaker 4: you do that, they'll catch you. And a lot of
Speaker 4: professors everybody's starting to see if you use any of
Speaker 4: those AI AI southward to get.
Speaker 1: It ooh okay, all right, hmmm, I mean that sounds
Speaker 1: incredibly useful. But like, as a business, how are you
Speaker 1: making money off? Because you got to you said, you've
Speaker 1: been in this for like a year. How are you
Speaker 1: supporting yourself?
Speaker 4: So glad you asked. So when I bring parents and
Speaker 4: students in, I assigned coaches to them. So one of
Speaker 4: my coaches, she went over a million dollars in scholarships,
Speaker 4: and so she helps them find the scholarship. She just
Speaker 4: uses a lot of the same procedures and spreadsheets and
Speaker 4: everything that she does, and then she's assigned to him.
Speaker 4: I have another guy, as a matter of fact, I
Speaker 4: met him in Fincon two. I have another guy who
Speaker 4: actually created a course specifically for writing scholarship essays. He's
Speaker 4: an English teacher, and then he says, there's a difference
Speaker 4: for writing an English paper than it is for telling
Speaker 4: a story. And then he tucks them through the hero's
Speaker 4: journey and all these other things. And then he's assigned
Speaker 4: to him too, right and so, and then they have
Speaker 4: these modules and everything that they go through. But if
Speaker 4: they have questions, they meet with me weekly in a
Speaker 4: group coaching call and then I answer any of your questions,
Speaker 4: find out update statuses along with the other two coaches.
Speaker 4: So that's how I get money.
Speaker 1: And then they pay for the group coaches.
Speaker 4: They pay for the coaching and the individual coaches. They
Speaker 4: just pay for everything, and I walk them through and
Speaker 4: then I give them guarantees. So I say, if they
Speaker 4: don't go to school debt free and they get one
Speaker 4: hundred percent of their money back, well damn yeah, because
Speaker 4: that's veryous, right, because up to a certain amount. So
Speaker 4: it's not like they said, okay, well my school's gonna
Speaker 4: be two hundred thousand dollars a year. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 4: well no.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is like not I mean, maybe not per year,
Speaker 1: but certainly like four years, absolutely yeah, that's not unheard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but no per year, per year, yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 4: So so I take on all the risk, you know,
Speaker 4: as long as you do what you're supposed to do,
Speaker 4: and there are a number of things that they need
Speaker 4: to do to me, because it's not like, Okay, I
Speaker 4: don't do anything and I'm just gonna go to school
Speaker 4: for free. But as long as they do the things
Speaker 4: they're supposed to do, then we take on all the risks.
Speaker 1: To keep your number for when I'm sending my kids
Speaker 1: off the car, I got you, I got you.
Speaker 2: So normally you're talking to the parents directly and then
Speaker 2: they basically tell their kid, hey, do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So during the coaching call, is it with the parent or.
Speaker 4: The it's with the parent and then and the students
Speaker 4: sometimes so sometimes a parent and the student are on,
Speaker 4: but a lot of times it's the parent that's going
Speaker 4: to make the student do it right because the students
Speaker 4: trying to pay for coach and they're like, I ain't
Speaker 4: gonna money. Yeah, they were like, I ain't really doing this,
Speaker 4: or but the parent is just like, oh, no, you're
Speaker 4: doing this because I ain't got the money. I don't
Speaker 4: have the money to pay for all of this, and
Speaker 4: you're gonna need to do it. And so far, the
Speaker 4: students that have worked with us, that have done the
Speaker 4: work got to get scholarship.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, in Georgia, I had the Hope scholarship.
Speaker 1: Did you go to school in Georgia, Chris, Yes, yes, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we had. I had Hope, but then my brother
Speaker 1: who's five years younger than me behind me, he had
Speaker 1: Hope too, but it wasn't as generous by the they
Speaker 1: had like made it tougher to qualify for the full
Speaker 1: benefit and like, so he graduated with like fifty K
Speaker 1: of student loans and I graduated with eight.
Speaker 4: So I it was only eighty percent of tuition, whereas
Speaker 4: Hope paid for everything. It's like, okay, we'll cover all
Speaker 4: of that for you versus eighty percent of just tuition
Speaker 4: and not the fees.
Speaker 1: But thank goodness, I did not have like that much debt,
Speaker 1: because it really is like you're starting off your life.
Speaker 1: And the way that they talk about student loans too,
Speaker 1: it's almost as if well, this isn't really debt. This
Speaker 1: is like it they really do, and so you almost
Speaker 1: feel like, well, it's fine, it's totally fine, but no,
Speaker 1: it's it's real debt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it truly is.
Speaker 2: I mean I came out with about twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: and student loan debt. No, I lied, No, it's my
Speaker 2: car payment. It was fifty thousand. It was fifty thousand
Speaker 2: all together, and then my car was about twenty five.
Speaker 2: But it was it was brutal. I was living paycheck
Speaker 2: to paycheck in the beginning because I had all those
Speaker 2: debts payments, and if you have multiple like I had
Speaker 2: one that came directly from Penn State. Then I had
Speaker 2: my federal debt as well, and both of them were
Speaker 2: due like around the same time. So I it was
Speaker 2: crippling initially.
Speaker 3: Damn yeah, I mean it really start off as a
Speaker 3: young kid.
Speaker 2: I mean I grew up in a very small town
Speaker 2: and no one around me really had any money. I
Speaker 2: didn't really get like an allowance or anything of that nage.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do the things that my friends
Speaker 2: were doing that they didn't have to pay taxes on, right,
Speaker 2: So I did everything I possibly could wink wink. So
Speaker 2: I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit, and even going off
Speaker 2: to college, I had to work odd jobs in order
Speaker 2: to pay for school. I was selling plasma, which I
Speaker 2: don't recommend unless you're really in the donation.
Speaker 3: Make sure you.
Speaker 2: Consult your doctor. But I was an ra I was
Speaker 2: a referee. I was handing out like flyers. So I've
Speaker 2: always had that in my blood. And going to corporate
Speaker 2: was the first time where someone told me, hey, you
Speaker 2: only have to work nine to five, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: what do I do after five?
Speaker 3: Like do I do I have to like I don't
Speaker 3: have any kids, like what?
Speaker 2: And I always remember just working so hard for van
Speaker 2: Guard and all these other companies, and then I just
Speaker 2: got to the point where I said, you know, like,
Speaker 2: what if I could do is myself, What if I
Speaker 2: could do with myself and I can work with the
Speaker 2: people I truly want to work with, because as I mentioned,
Speaker 2: they didn't really care for anyone that came from where
Speaker 2: I came from, where they didn't know what a four
Speaker 2: to one k or on ira or a broken's count was.
Speaker 2: But yeah, over time, something that was a hobby, I
Speaker 2: found ways to monetize the brand. And I mean the
Speaker 2: jump came in twenty twenty one, but it took me
Speaker 2: some time to actually realize that people can live off
Speaker 2: the money that's coming in because for some reason, even
Speaker 2: though I was making let's say I was making a
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars at a vanguard type of company and
Speaker 2: the business is bringing in one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: It just felt different.
Speaker 2: It felt as if that money wasn't guaranteed and the
Speaker 2: money in corporate was guaranteed. And then on top of that,
Speaker 2: I worked so hard to get there. You know, I
Speaker 2: was one of the only black execs at the firm
Speaker 2: that I end up leaving. So you take all that
Speaker 2: and you say, Okay, why why me? And I learned,
Speaker 2: you know, why not me? Why can't I take that jump?
Speaker 2: And then I had to also redefine in my head
Speaker 2: what true success is as.
Speaker 3: A black male or anyone in general.
Speaker 4: Right, And it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't just getting that executive position or becoming a CEO.
Speaker 2: Beyonce said, like pay me in equity, right, So, like,
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure that I owned whatever I
Speaker 2: was working so hard on, because if I'm working, you know,
Speaker 2: sixty hour sixty hour weeks, and I'm doing it for
Speaker 2: a set salary, why can't I just do it for
Speaker 2: my own business? So when I made the jump, it
Speaker 2: took me about two weeks to realize that I was okay.
Speaker 3: Like I was, I was swimming, like I was doing well.
Speaker 3: And then now in this.
Speaker 2: Point where I don't really have to worry about it
Speaker 2: as much. But it was definitely nerve wracking in the beginning.
Speaker 2: But you find out different ways, you create different systems,
Speaker 2: you hire people, and that makes you feel more comfortable,
Speaker 2: but you know, jumping from one company to another. Luckily
Speaker 2: I was able to build up the company enough where
Speaker 2: I had the record keeping, the bookkeeping. I was just
Speaker 2: basically moving from one company to another, but I just
Speaker 2: happened to have my name on the other one, so
Speaker 2: feel way more comfortable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listening to that, Chris, You're a year
Speaker 1: into this full time entrepreneur journey, and I feel like Mark,
Speaker 1: we actually started our businesses around the same time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been doing brand ambition since twenty fifteen, but me
Speaker 1: leaving corporate and like launching going full time solopreneur that
Speaker 1: was also like summer twenty twenty one. And I experienced
Speaker 1: my first like really challenging year in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and twenty twenty four, where sort of
Speaker 1: like business challenges and personal challenges like could you know,
Speaker 1: just like swirled together and then I was like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, maybe I should just go on LinkedIn and
Speaker 1: get me one of them good old jobs again, just
Speaker 1: because it was so overwhelming when you're really struggling. And
Speaker 1: then so for Chris, I just wonder what am I
Speaker 1: trying to say. I could tell you A are you scared?
Speaker 1: You scared?
Speaker 4: So so for one, are you sure you want to
Speaker 4: do this right? Exactly? It's my biggest reason why. So
Speaker 4: my oldest son, Chris Junior. He's on the severe end
Speaker 4: of the autism spectrum and he's nonverbal, and so everything,
Speaker 4: my whole focus, my drive, everything is centered around that
Speaker 4: because I'll go to too much detail. But there are
Speaker 4: times when when I was working full time, I'd have
Speaker 4: that my supervisor, Hey, I know, I just asked yesterday
Speaker 4: and I know it's eleven am, but they're holding Chris
Speaker 4: down and he's and they're having difficulty with him. I
Speaker 4: need to go get him from school, right, And they
Speaker 4: were like, you just left early yesterday. Yeah, but there's
Speaker 4: nothing else we could do. I have to go get
Speaker 4: him right. And that's just started happening over and over again.
Speaker 4: So one of the main reasons is just being able
Speaker 4: to have that have a lifestyle where I can meet
Speaker 4: his needs and go be there for him at any
Speaker 4: moment in time as much as possible, right and just
Speaker 4: working that schedule. Even though I was working in the
Speaker 4: university setting and they were more understanding, it just became
Speaker 4: to the point where it was just becoming too much
Speaker 4: and I had to pivot. And so so I have
Speaker 4: like three legs to my business, so that even when
Speaker 4: it's like slow times during the coaching time, because what
Speaker 4: I'm figuring out is that there are a time when
Speaker 4: I'm working with like high school seniors and their parents,
Speaker 4: which is pretty much my main focus group. But then
Speaker 4: there's a time when there's juniors are rising seniors, and
Speaker 4: then I switched to focusing on them, right because those
Speaker 4: are the parents are like, Okay, we're going to our
Speaker 4: senior year, we're looking to get accepted to collegees et cetera.
Speaker 4: But that's one The other focus is my book. And
Speaker 4: then the third leg is speaking, so people will just
Speaker 4: bring me in to speak to anybody. Sometimes with the
Speaker 4: school districts. Nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity asked me to speak.
Speaker 4: And then like gen z So, I spoke at the
Speaker 4: Taco Bell Foundation conference and I spoke to their leaders
Speaker 4: and their scholars about budgeting and money management as a
Speaker 4: college student and things like that, and so those are
Speaker 4: the three things. So like when one area is slow,
Speaker 4: the other two tend to pick up, especially when it
Speaker 4: comes to like bulk orders for the book, and that's
Speaker 4: usually a big surge as a financial literacy one on
Speaker 4: one for college students and try and find out where
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Mark, yeah, Mark has it. Yeah, he does
Speaker 4: have a sign coffee yep, and so he matter of fact,
Speaker 4: he was one of the first people to buy the books. Saw.
Speaker 4: What's interesting when I came when that fin Con in Orlando,
Speaker 4: I never saw the physical copy of my books because
Speaker 4: I wanted to have it and bring them down there
Speaker 4: to Orlando with me, but the timing was going to
Speaker 4: be right, so I just had it shipped directly there.
Speaker 4: So the very first time I opened the box and
Speaker 4: see my physical books was at the conference. I had
Speaker 4: it shipped there. Yeah, and I don't know how many
Speaker 4: books I had, but it was just an outpouring of
Speaker 4: love and I sold out all the books there. We
Speaker 4: go right there.
Speaker 1: You did like the girls, You did the girl Scout
Speaker 1: cookie version of selling a book table at fin Con.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And then there was another travel company like a
Speaker 4: travel mL and Company, and they were there at the
Speaker 4: same location.
Speaker 1: And I remember that that was a wild They had
Speaker 1: finn con right next door to the MLM cult.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they were like, oh ye warriors, like you
Speaker 4: can take it there if you want to, you know.
Speaker 4: But yeah, but but but they sported me and they
Speaker 4: were like, oh, we see what you're doing. And they
Speaker 4: ended up purchasing the book. So so that's how it's
Speaker 4: kind of been been going. And then I just what
Speaker 4: I did was I just try to take as much
Speaker 4: money as possible and then just put her away for
Speaker 4: any day, like I had a business emergency fund, and
Speaker 4: then I just put it in this account and I said,
Speaker 4: all right, told my wife, all right, when my portion
Speaker 4: for the monthly income comes in, you just take it
Speaker 4: out of there and put it to our joint account.
Speaker 4: Said I don't even want to see it, you know.
Speaker 4: And so that's kind of what's been working out for
Speaker 4: us right now. And then that builds a sense of
Speaker 4: security and safety for her because she's like, it's a wild,
Speaker 4: wild West. I don't know what you're doing. Like when, oh,
Speaker 4: what does she do? She's a school counselor, so she's
Speaker 4: a high high school counselor, so she's.
Speaker 1: That's what we do though our entrepreneur like Mark, I
Speaker 1: know that why I don't know what your situation is
Speaker 1: because you don't be telling on nobody. But I do
Speaker 1: feel like we are entrepreneurial people. We are drawn to
Speaker 1: the nine to five like stable, you know, kind of vibe.
Speaker 1: And my husband works for the government, which actually is
Speaker 1: not stable at all. We have learned, but the way
Speaker 1: that I'm like, yeah, babe, just give me your health
Speaker 1: care benefits and then I'll go be I'll do whatever
Speaker 1: you know I do out here in these entrepreneur streets,
Speaker 1: and he just kind of like pokes his head down
Speaker 1: sometimes and he's like, so you're making money, Like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great, It's fine. Bye.
Speaker 2: I think that stress is like the importance of like
Speaker 2: true financial management, like as you're going and you become
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, because I think a lot of times people
Speaker 2: believe that being an entrepreneur is going to save them
Speaker 2: from a financial standpoint, but if they don't have their
Speaker 2: personal finances together, if you go and run a business
Speaker 2: that's like level five, you need to worry about like
Speaker 2: level number one first because your finances will be in
Speaker 2: shambles if you.
Speaker 3: Don't get it right on the business side of things.
Speaker 2: So you know, for me, it was even though money
Speaker 2: is coming in and all the things, I still manage
Speaker 2: my budget off of, you know, seventy thousand dollars a
Speaker 2: year and I'm trying to work with the record keeper
Speaker 2: then not pay have to pay myself more because I
Speaker 2: don't want to increase my lifestyle or inflate my lifestyle
Speaker 2: because in worst case scenario, I have to go back
Speaker 2: to corporate. I want to find a job that is
Speaker 2: aligned to that as a worst case scenario. So it's
Speaker 2: so incredibly important is make sure your finances are taken
Speaker 2: care of before you start the entrepreneurial journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Man, I mean, I don't know about you, Chris,
Speaker 1: but it was a lot of like smart financial decisions
Speaker 1: like I was making, and like I was really good
Speaker 1: at my finances, but then I don't have these kids,
Speaker 1: and it was just like something I actually so tired
Speaker 1: because I was up all night writing this chapter for
Speaker 1: my book, which I'm working very hard on. And this
Speaker 1: chapter is called I named it Resilient as a Monk,
Speaker 1: and and in it, I'm talking about building like all
Speaker 1: the things I did in my twenty and early thirties
Speaker 1: to build financial resilience so that I could lose my job.
Speaker 1: I could be fired, I could you know, be sort
Speaker 1: of like corporate couldn't touch me. They could do whatever
Speaker 1: they wanted. But like I was going to be okay,
Speaker 1: and I did such a good job. I kept lifestyle
Speaker 1: lifestyle inflation low. I was like, you, Mark, I was like, what,
Speaker 1: We're not going to be able to pay this car
Speaker 1: in cash? I don't want it, you know, like I
Speaker 1: wanted like a modest home. I went. I did not
Speaker 1: want to spend beyond my means. I wanted to keep
Speaker 1: my you know, I live in New York City, and
Speaker 1: I my friends are upgrading their apartments with every raise
Speaker 1: or every promotion to get that in unit, washer dryer,
Speaker 1: and going to all the events and the bottomless brunches
Speaker 1: and whatever. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, I'm
Speaker 1: keeping my expenses very low so that basically I have
Speaker 1: freedom to fail, to have challenges and to like really
Speaker 1: just spend the money in the way that I wanted to,
Speaker 1: you know, spend it. But I I have these kids,
Speaker 1: and now I'm in the suburbs, and like there's things
Speaker 1: that like spending basically dropping a mortgage payment on childcare
Speaker 1: so that I can be free to do this business
Speaker 1: is so so challenging and like there, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you feel that too, Crisp.
Speaker 4: You see me not?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yes, yes, because like I know, I'm smart,
Speaker 1: but like sometimes the wisdom the rules of you know,
Speaker 1: the guidelines don't apply to.
Speaker 4: Yes because they're like, wait a minute, where's all this
Speaker 4: money going? And it's like, oh, yeah, these kids you
Speaker 4: got over here, I mean, and you're like okay, and
Speaker 4: then things come up and then with daycare in school
Speaker 4: and oh my gosh, like I would see you said
Speaker 4: you were up all night, but I've been up since
Speaker 4: two fifteen. This morning, my four year old was like,
Speaker 4: it's time to be up now, dad.
Speaker 1: Oh god, so crisp, but why are we My five
Speaker 1: year old came down heres at four o'clock and I
Speaker 1: said no. I was like, let's get you the mellowton
Speaker 1: and gummy right now, because you need to be gone
Speaker 1: right now. Why do they do that? Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: when to go to bed, it's like get up early
Speaker 1: and get your get your hours in before they wake up. Well,
Speaker 1: this is what happened that's what happens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're like, wait a minute, that's trying to be productive. Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So how do you guys manage like the day
Speaker 2: to day expenses? So I don't I don't talk a
Speaker 2: lot personally, but I don't have any kids, like, but
Speaker 2: I'm kind of curious on how you guys go about
Speaker 2: managing your day to day expenses with having you know,
Speaker 2: kids or multiple kids, and then also preparing for the future,
Speaker 2: investing for like schooling or whoever it might be.
Speaker 1: Crizy, I got nothing. I'm struggling. No, I'm told ba family,
Speaker 1: I'm very honest. You know the past and I mean,
Speaker 1: I've just relived so much of my The challenge is
Speaker 1: the last year and the the hardest thing for me
Speaker 1: was my first year or two in business. I was
Speaker 1: doing great and you know, businesses coming in, but like Mark,
Speaker 1: you know, how many hours does it take? Like we
Speaker 1: were like producing our courses and yeah, you can hire help,
Speaker 1: but like you're still the engine driving the business, right
Speaker 1: Like it's a personality leveraged business. You got to show
Speaker 1: up on social and you know, sell to your audience
Speaker 1: and do the webinars and all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and I had this like of situations where it was like,
Speaker 1: I have a I mean, on the front, it's like exciting,
Speaker 1: I have a book deal, I have my baby. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm so like insanely happy. I love being a mom,
Speaker 1: and I was like, baby, book deal. In business, this
Speaker 1: is my year, y'all. And then actually doing all those things,
Speaker 1: You're pulled in all these different directions. And what I
Speaker 1: didn't predict was the mental health toll that it was
Speaker 1: going to take on me to be doing all that
Speaker 1: all at one time. And so when my mental health
Speaker 1: started to suffer, the business directly was impacted because I
Speaker 1: could not show up the way that I had been.
Speaker 1: And so it didn't take much time before oh, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, now I'm a really tricky financial spot
Speaker 1: because I'm not budgeting, I'm not saving for the future.
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, I'm just like any other nine
Speaker 1: to five worker, live in paycheck to paycheck. At that point,
Speaker 1: I'm living, you know, I'm just doing it. I don't
Speaker 1: even know where my paycheck is. I'm just like hoping
Speaker 1: I get a brand deal or and I hated it.
Speaker 1: Do not recommend zero zero out of ten. Do not
Speaker 1: recommend and I found myself doing you know, like just
Speaker 1: making the best of like trying to pick the best
Speaker 1: worst the best of bad options, you know. For like
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about like payday loans or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but you know, like not doing the smart, uh textbook
Speaker 1: version of managing my finances. And I've always had a
Speaker 1: lot of empathy, even as a personal finance journalist. I
Speaker 1: always hated advice that felt too sterile, like not really
Speaker 1: leaving room for the human element. And I just have
Speaker 1: even more empathy, especially for families where you're trying to
Speaker 1: build something and those challenges come up and it, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know what to do, but you know, you know
Speaker 1: what I also have to do is like pay that
Speaker 1: daycare bill and camps and school fees and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's it's a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, or like things pop up like okay, we need
Speaker 4: speech now, you know, and that was in factored in.
Speaker 4: It's like insurance only cover this amount, and then you're
Speaker 4: gonna have to pay this arm, leg and a toe
Speaker 4: you know for that now because that's totally unexpected. Or
Speaker 4: things might come up with Chris Junior and you know,
Speaker 4: so it's all of those things that you won't necessarily
Speaker 4: factor in, especially you have when you have a child
Speaker 4: on the spectrum or any child with disability, then there
Speaker 4: are these other factors that just start showing up as
Speaker 4: they as a age, right, and it's like, oh, we
Speaker 4: didn't know that was going to be a need now,
Speaker 4: so some things you could kind of predict in something
Speaker 4: you don't. So now to answer your question, mark like,
Speaker 4: I'll just start putting money away for those unforeseen things, right,
Speaker 4: Like I don't know what's gonna come up, but whatever
Speaker 4: it does, this will take care of that. Right. And
Speaker 4: then even going back to just like living a simple lifestyle,
Speaker 4: like you know, the Finland Guy or Finland University has
Speaker 4: been around for three years going on three years now,
Speaker 4: but it's just been a year since I totally left
Speaker 4: the ninety five and I'm doing it on my own.
Speaker 4: But like I was riding around in a two thousand
Speaker 4: Mercury Grand Marquee, you know, let them know, and that
Speaker 4: truck along, and then my closest friends were just like Chris,
Speaker 4: like you the Finlanck guy, like what are you riding around?
Speaker 4: I was like, mind your business, okay, But.
Speaker 1: That's why they should trust you exactly.
Speaker 4: Listen to that lifestyle inflation that you all talked about.
Speaker 4: It's like it's like I'm like, man, like this month,
Speaker 4: I made enough to where I could just go to
Speaker 4: the lot to buy a car cash, right, But then
Speaker 4: I'm like, I spend it, then the money's gone, you know, right,
Speaker 4: which is the reality. So you know those are those
Speaker 4: times were just like, oh, I'm glad I didn't spend
Speaker 4: that money.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you definitely have to manage your finances for
Speaker 3: your era. I've had to have heart's hearts with.
Speaker 2: Them to say, hey, Megan, like this is just an era,
Speaker 2: like right now might not seem great, but this is
Speaker 2: you know, it's pairing you for the future, and sometimes not.
Speaker 1: You calling Megan out like no, I just used a
Speaker 1: random name. Girl, It's me. I'm Megan.
Speaker 4: I am Megan everybody, But.
Speaker 3: Truly, I would have to have conversation. I will where
Speaker 3: were you?
Speaker 1: Where was my conversation? Mark? Where was my talk?
Speaker 2: We didn't talk about this when I was We had
Speaker 2: a hike in New York and we talked about this.
Speaker 1: Brought my child with me. I wasn't focused, like you
Speaker 1: know that I.
Speaker 3: Flew the whole way to New York.
Speaker 1: You did you flew all the way out for nature
Speaker 1: walk and you flew back. That's why you're so much
Speaker 1: like my brother. That's why I liked so much. I
Speaker 1: was going to bring up community to y'all because, first
Speaker 1: of all, as two men, Wow, this is the first
Speaker 1: time I've been like a minority in my own goddamn
Speaker 1: podcast studio. Okay, come, I don't like it.
Speaker 4: Progress?
Speaker 1: Yeah is it?
Speaker 4: Though? That's family's that's a community, right, We're talking about
Speaker 4: con as the community what they think.
Speaker 1: Let's run it back and see how many times y'all
Speaker 1: interrupted me. Actually, I think I'm I'm the one who
Speaker 1: interrupts way more. You just get excited. It's not I don't, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get excited. You're like, you're just like anyway, my brother.
Speaker 1: You're tired of hearing that. No, but community and supporting
Speaker 1: one another. And I just need y'all to talk about
Speaker 1: y'all's friendship and your relationship as like a support for
Speaker 1: one another, because the way that I you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot very candidly about my you know, my
Speaker 1: challenges the past year, but it is through community and
Speaker 1: support that I have. I am on the up and up,
Speaker 1: like I got my mojo back, make up money again.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about me, y'all. Brown and Vision is slaying.
Speaker 1: I had everything I needed right, I had all the
Speaker 1: tools I needed to to make money again and to
Speaker 1: like go back to business. But I was suffering from
Speaker 1: that lack of self confidence because of how difficult things
Speaker 1: had been in The antidote for me was talking about
Speaker 1: it and opening myself up to being vulnerable. It's why
Speaker 1: people could pour into me. And I know y'all have
Speaker 1: a special sort of like relationship, and I want y'all
Speaker 1: to speak on that as two dudes like just trying
Speaker 1: to make it in the world.
Speaker 2: No, definitely. I mean I can speak about Chris real fast.
Speaker 2: When I find like really good people like I latch
Speaker 2: onto them. And Chris was someone where I felt like
Speaker 2: I've known him my entire life.
Speaker 3: He's just down.
Speaker 2: The earth, like, you know, straight to business like sometimes
Speaker 2: and I just like having that balance. But you know,
Speaker 2: Chris and I we text maybe like every other week
Speaker 2: every month about any random topic, a little bit about me,
Speaker 2: just personally, real fast, and then we won't dive any
Speaker 2: further into it.
Speaker 1: I'll be the judge of that. It is my show,
Speaker 1: no matter what that sign behind you says, but yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 2: I haven't had the fortune of having very close family members,
Speaker 2: and especially family members that understand what we do. So
Speaker 2: my good friends like family than me. They're my brothers
Speaker 2: and my sisters. And when I say that, I actually
Speaker 2: mean it. Where if someone says, hey, I need you
Speaker 2: to be in New York and we're gonna go hiking
Speaker 2: together for whatever reason, with everyone else, I'm like, Okay, sure,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be there, and I hold true to that
Speaker 2: given that I don't have that family component that I
Speaker 2: think a lot of other people have.
Speaker 3: So I see both of you guys being my family.
Speaker 4: I agree with everything he said. I mean, Mark has
Speaker 4: from day one. It's just like, okay, instant brother, like
Speaker 4: I can I can talk to him about anything. And
Speaker 4: then here's the thing about this space, because when you're
Speaker 4: talking about money and you're talking about personal stuff and
Speaker 4: just general vulnerabilities, right Like, usually you don't find that
Speaker 4: guys like, hey, let me be vulnerable with you about
Speaker 4: some of the most things I hold her to my heart.
Speaker 4: But no, with Mark, oh, just I can talk to
Speaker 4: him about anything and then he'll be He'll be direct,
Speaker 4: but supportive and encouraging all at the same time, right,
Speaker 4: Like I know that if I say something to him,
Speaker 4: it stays with him, right, and he's encouraging at the
Speaker 4: same time. Like it's rare to find a human being
Speaker 4: that Mark, this is my brother for life. And it's
Speaker 4: like there's certain things that you could just feel and
Speaker 4: you just know. It's hard to explain, but there's some
Speaker 4: people you just click with and you just know. Until
Speaker 4: over the past few years, it's just been like that.
Speaker 4: Like when I had the screening for the show, like
Speaker 4: Mark was there right, Like I could only invite a
Speaker 4: handful of people, but he was definitely one of those
Speaker 4: people that were on the list. Wait what show for
Speaker 4: the PBS show? And so it was a show that
Speaker 4: started out as supposed to be a one episode pilot
Speaker 4: that was turned into four episodes and it was just
Speaker 4: gonna be in Atlanta area for PBS for the network wave,
Speaker 4: and then the national level for PBS said, hey, we
Speaker 4: need this show. This is something separate. This is my mentor,
Speaker 4: so me along with my co host, certified financial planner
Speaker 4: Jacqueline Shaddock, two of us tag team, and we work
Speaker 4: with real people, real situations regarding money and it's an
Speaker 4: eight episode season, so it'll be in your on your
Speaker 4: local PREVA stations in April.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is exciting. I did not know that. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's really big.
Speaker 1: Come on here, promote something. Where's your sign?
Speaker 4: God, I was going to wait to the end where
Speaker 4: you do the brown you know thing.
Speaker 1: You can't be waiting till the end. The mid roll
Speaker 1: ads are the ones that charge them most.
Speaker 4: You know that episode and I was like, okay, I'll.
Speaker 1: Just the most expensive ads. No, the most expensive real
Speaker 1: estate in a podcast is the middle of the show
Speaker 1: because you've got people who are like listening and maybe
Speaker 1: they're you know, not looking at their phone. They're not
Speaker 1: going to because at the beginning of a podcast, I'm
Speaker 1: like skip thirty, skip thirty, you know, through the pre rolls,
Speaker 1: but the middle catches.
Speaker 4: Okay, here we go. So yeah, So that Mark Mark
Speaker 4: was there for the pre screening for that. It was
Speaker 4: at Morehouse College and he was there so it was
Speaker 4: historic and the Stork location and it was it was
Speaker 4: and we aired the first episode, which was a student
Speaker 4: who graduated from Morehouse. It was just amazing for him
Speaker 4: to be there and supportive and like I said, there
Speaker 4: are people who I've known for what twenty plus years,
Speaker 4: But Mark is one of those people who just instantly
Speaker 4: just kind of leap frog to one of the closest
Speaker 4: people that I call frandom brothers.
Speaker 5: So yeah, yeah, I appreciate that, and I think it's
Speaker 5: just so important, like especially for black males, where I
Speaker 5: feel like we won't open up to others, that we
Speaker 5: continue to add people to our network and pour into
Speaker 5: them so they can grow and develop, because.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sometimes it can be it could be a little taboo.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I've had very close friends that sometimes I
Speaker 2: can't I can't have that, I can't get them to
Speaker 2: open up. I'm like, tell me about what you're working on,
Speaker 2: tell me about you know, there's struggles that you're having.
Speaker 2: But the fact that Chris and I can have that
Speaker 2: conversation at any.
Speaker 3: Time, I mean, it really means a lot to both
Speaker 3: of us.
Speaker 4: And I'll give him real number, Like I'd be like, hey,
Speaker 4: I didn't make any money this month, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, just put that out there. As you know,
Speaker 4: someone who's in front of the public and you know,
Speaker 4: content creator and stuff, like the perception is you always
Speaker 4: have to have it together and you're just you know
Speaker 4: in every aspect of the word, but that's not always
Speaker 4: the case. But you need to be able to talk
Speaker 4: to people who are also in this space and just like, hey, man,
Speaker 4: like I'm struggling, like I don't have it together, like
Speaker 4: I need help, you know what should I do? And
Speaker 4: so Marcus one of those people I can lean on
Speaker 4: in those in those good times and those times that
Speaker 4: are not so sure.
Speaker 2: And in times like this, you can either take it,
Speaker 2: as you know, a time to run away from each
Speaker 2: other and in fight each other, or it might be
Speaker 2: an opportunity for us to come together and say, hey, well,
Speaker 2: though the administration might not be focusing on us, or
Speaker 2: maybe you know X might be happening, or you know,
Speaker 2: there's a long list of things that have happened over
Speaker 2: the last two weeks, we can always take could ask okay,
Speaker 2: this is negative, or we can say, okay, well this
Speaker 2: is our time to make sure that number one, it
Speaker 2: never happens again, and then number two that we're accomplishing
Speaker 2: what we need to accomplish together over the next four years.
Speaker 3: So that gives me a lot of hope.
Speaker 4: Mark knows my story. Like day after the oldest son
Speaker 4: was born, they say congratulations, but we got to let
Speaker 4: you go. And then two months after that, losing everything
Speaker 4: in an apartment fire. No renders insurance, right, and so
Speaker 4: like Red Cross said to give us a gift card
Speaker 4: to get close from Walmart. And this is right when
Speaker 4: I'm in my twenties, you know, creeping up to six
Speaker 4: figures and income, right, you know, going from losing everything
Speaker 4: hit and rock bottom is like it can only go
Speaker 4: up from here, right, And so that's kind of how
Speaker 4: I lived my life knowing that, Okay, I've been at
Speaker 4: the bottom and I survived. So I always remind myself
Speaker 4: of that saying that Jim Rohn says. He says, everybody
Speaker 4: goes through all four seasons. You know, you have your
Speaker 4: you have your spring, you have your summer. But guess
Speaker 4: what's around the corner fall and winter. So either you're
Speaker 4: in your winter, you just came out of a winter,
Speaker 4: You're about to go into your winter. But if you
Speaker 4: just keep holding on and keep the faith, then just
Speaker 4: know that springtime will come again. And so I always
Speaker 4: think that no matter what type of circumstance I'm in
Speaker 4: at the moment, I just know that spring is right
Speaker 4: around the corner. And so I just try to live
Speaker 4: with that mantra daily and just try to tell people
Speaker 4: about it, and then it gives people a different perspective
Speaker 4: no matter what they're going through, it will eventually get better.
Speaker 1: Yep, y, which season do you guys think you're in
Speaker 1: right now? I'm fully in my winter thaw into spring,
Speaker 1: you know, spring chicken, which is very exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I'm definitely in my spring. There's
Speaker 2: things that I've always dreamed of doing that I'm able
Speaker 2: to do now. Like I grew up being around my
Speaker 2: dad and my uncles that would just travel all over
Speaker 2: the place because of the military. So I grew up
Speaker 2: in a very strong military family, and I was always
Speaker 2: want to go to places like Bali or go to
Speaker 2: places like from Mexico to Europe. And the fact that
Speaker 2: I have the opportunity to do that, I mean, I
Speaker 2: take full advantage. There is a budget, but that budget
Speaker 2: is one that is of abundance. That's when I have
Speaker 2: my summers, when I'm here and I'm in my mode
Speaker 2: and I'm grinding through.
Speaker 3: I'm definitely in the spring mindset.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, that's good to know. Where are we going
Speaker 1: to see Beyonce in Paris? Then, or like, what's happening?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw Usher this year, so I'm really happy
Speaker 2: about that. In New York, I don't know if I
Speaker 2: will see Beyonce.
Speaker 1: We'll see interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 4: I'm still.
Speaker 1: Long over due my Queen. She's the reason I woke up.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I wasn't even asleep ill you know this, Chris,
Speaker 1: I fell asleep, putting my five year old down. I
Speaker 1: took a little cat nap and a twin bet my
Speaker 1: shoulders effed up, like why didn't we get him a
Speaker 1: full bed for us? And then I just like I
Speaker 1: went downstairs and I was watching clips of like Beyonce's
Speaker 1: acceptance speech and Doci's acceptance speech, and I have never
Speaker 1: been so tired than I was yesterday. But then it
Speaker 1: was like I had a jolt of caffeine in my
Speaker 1: veins and I just got up and I was like,
Speaker 1: success is the resistance, like our creation, like creating and
Speaker 1: making art, and I feel in some ways, you know
Speaker 1: what we do is so creative, and you know we
Speaker 1: are building something, and I just felt so called to
Speaker 1: that purpose this morning. This day is just all one
Speaker 1: big blur right now, and I'm I'm just excited to
Speaker 1: feel that way again, and it's very it's giving very
Speaker 1: big spring energy. Well, we didn't do Brown Boost Brown Break.
Speaker 1: Do you guys know that segment of this? I always forget. Oh,
Speaker 1: let's do it?
Speaker 4: Really?
Speaker 1: Do you know Brown Boost, Brown breakmark? Do you listen
Speaker 1: to the show?
Speaker 5: I have listened to a lot of man, but never
Speaker 5: till the end, never to the end, never till the end.
Speaker 2: So normally it's like at first, like ten to fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: especially if you send one my way out.
Speaker 4: Listen to this.
Speaker 1: I don't got time to be individually promoting my show
Speaker 1: to you. Brown Boost is good, Brown Break is something bad, Chris.
Speaker 4: Go So I guess it's one of the same, right,
Speaker 4: So the brown break is that you know they're potentially
Speaker 4: federal funds to pay for college could go away, right,
Speaker 4: which will be a lot to make happen. But it
Speaker 4: was put out there, right, so who knows what the
Speaker 4: powers that be are doing behind the scenes to make
Speaker 4: that reality. But the boost is that you don't have
Speaker 4: to rely on that. There are things that you can
Speaker 4: do if you plan accordingly, to put yourself in the
Speaker 4: best position to still go to school without debt, without
Speaker 4: student loans, and even if you don't get those federal grants,
Speaker 4: you could get stuff otherwise. So that's my brown boost
Speaker 4: brown break.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're boosting yourself because we need to put
Speaker 1: the link to your book and to your program because
Speaker 1: you actually and there's not like a one size fits
Speaker 1: all approach to like getting scholarships. It depends on like
Speaker 1: all your persons, like your personality, your focus, your education, whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever you're looking for where you live. So we got
Speaker 1: to get people into your coaching coort so they can
Speaker 1: get that help. So they cannot.
Speaker 4: Absolutely if you go to your debt free degree dot com,
Speaker 4: it'll you can just it's a free video that walks
Speaker 4: you through all of the stuff in detail. I give
Speaker 4: this speech at Economy conference and there's information from that
Speaker 4: in there, and if you want to pdf then I
Speaker 4: can send that to you. So there's a link to
Speaker 4: get on a free call with me and we'll actually
Speaker 4: walk through a strategy. A lot of people just call
Speaker 4: for that individualized strategy, you know, even if they don't
Speaker 4: necessarily want to go to the next step and work
Speaker 4: with me. Like it's a free call, so there's there's
Speaker 4: no loss to them. It's a free call. I walking
Speaker 4: through how to do what they want to do on
Speaker 4: their own if they want help and they want support.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I have a team of people that
Speaker 4: will focus on your child if they're preparing to go
Speaker 4: to college. And that's what we do.
Speaker 1: Amazing. All right, Mark, what you got two.
Speaker 3: Things I'm really excited about.
Speaker 2: The one that's top of mind for me is Philadelphia
Speaker 2: Eagles go into Super Bowls? Yo?
Speaker 1: Are you one of those fans? You don't seem like
Speaker 1: you're an obnoxious Eagles fan, but.
Speaker 4: You, well I do.
Speaker 3: It's only really when I'm watching it on TV. But
Speaker 3: I'm not. I'm not. You hear the horror stories of
Speaker 3: Eagles fans. I'm not that bad.
Speaker 1: Don't climb a pole and die.
Speaker 4: But I do.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's why they grease the polls anytime that Philly
Speaker 2: has a they win anything.
Speaker 1: They didn't increase that one? Good enough?
Speaker 4: They did?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 2: I am a passionate fan where I expect the best
Speaker 2: from the players, but I'm not the type to do
Speaker 2: crazy things to people because they are from the opposing team.
Speaker 3: But I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2: Going back home, back to Phillying, get to see my
Speaker 2: parentals biological parentals, So that's going to be happening. And
Speaker 2: the other thing I'm really excited about is that there
Speaker 2: are a lot of people this year that are looking
Speaker 2: again to invest and get their finance together. A lot
Speaker 2: of people are saying twenty twenty five is their year,
Speaker 2: and they are actually not only talking about it, but
Speaker 2: they're actually going and putting pen to paper and putting
Speaker 2: things into action. So we've seen the boost and a
Speaker 2: lot of people signing up for my free investing class,
Speaker 2: which has been great, and have the opportunity to teach
Speaker 2: people how to invest the right way so they can
Speaker 2: invest from themselves or their family members and then make
Speaker 2: sure that they don't have to get out the mud
Speaker 2: like we had to. And maybe you know, when your
Speaker 2: kid turns eighteen or twenty one, whatever it might be,
Speaker 2: they have some money put away so they don't have
Speaker 2: to struggle.
Speaker 3: So I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 1: In congrats to the Eagles, I'm excited for you all.
Speaker 1: I think everyone's rooting for the Eagles because we can't
Speaker 1: root for the Chiefs right, no one likes them, they
Speaker 1: win too much.
Speaker 2: As a true Philadelphia fan, what we would say is
Speaker 2: that we haven't won anything yet.
Speaker 1: My Brown Boost is gonna be beyonce One Album of
Speaker 1: the Year. The Grammys are back and relevant and finally giving,
Speaker 1: Like listen, I think that like if you're a black creative,
Speaker 1: black and brown creative, like you kind of give you've
Speaker 1: gave up on like expecting the Grammys to acknowledge your
Speaker 1: contribution and like really give you that gold. But it
Speaker 1: was so sweet to see Beyonce peerre like shocked her
Speaker 1: shock at winning Best Country Album and the way that
Speaker 1: she and Jay were the only two who was shocked
Speaker 1: because Blue Blue was like, Mama, why are you still
Speaker 1: sitting here?
Speaker 3: Like in her Julia is too right, Like he was
Speaker 3: pretty much like, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah. She was like go, like this is the part
Speaker 1: where you walk on stage, like do you need help?
Speaker 1: And seeing Baby Blue mouthing the words to not like us,
Speaker 1: first of all, I was like, that's a bit grown
Speaker 1: for you, Blue Blue Ivy, But I love just I'm
Speaker 1: just so happy for her and as big as Beyonce is,
Speaker 1: every time she speaks, I feel like I'm hearing from
Speaker 1: a sister. I feel like I'm hearing from a friend.
Speaker 1: She's just so down to earth and she really is
Speaker 1: like doing it for us specifically, and the fact that
Speaker 1: she's winning awards and having you know, all this success
Speaker 1: and launching all these different companies, I feel like at
Speaker 1: her core, she is still just showing up for us.
Speaker 3: And it really just like the power of persistence. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think there's so many things that people want to
Speaker 2: accomplish in life and they give up on the first
Speaker 2: try or they hear that first no. But Beyonce truly
Speaker 2: took that and say, Okay, how can I define, like
Speaker 2: redefine what I'm doing? How can I go into a
Speaker 2: different genre. She mentioned that genre shouldn't define us and
Speaker 2: to be able to go and uh, you know when
Speaker 2: in a space where I feel like we haven't won before,
Speaker 2: even though we're the ones that created that genre, is
Speaker 2: truly powerful. So for me, my takeaway was that time
Speaker 2: that you her, know, like, just keep going after it.
Speaker 2: If you continue to knock at that door, someone's going
Speaker 2: open up. And I'm happy to open up for her
Speaker 2: with her daughter right there, Like that is powerful.
Speaker 1: Well, I see what you're saying about the interrupting. So
Speaker 1: back to my boost.
Speaker 3: As I did it, as I interrupt you again, as
Speaker 3: I did it, I was like.
Speaker 1: I could just like, can I have that mic back?
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 4: It's just exciting.
Speaker 1: But yeah, tell me, tell me more about how I
Speaker 1: don't I had to give mic shit.
Speaker 4: I just have to.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the Grammys and Dochy Doc Doci my swamp Princess.
Speaker 1: I feel like Dochi the audacity of her spirit and
Speaker 1: the undeniability of her talent, and her like she's younger,
Speaker 1: she's like what mid late twenties, and I just feel
Speaker 1: like she is the new generation of like young black
Speaker 1: women who are just they don't have to deal with
Speaker 1: imposter syndrome. They're skipping all that shit that like, you know,
Speaker 1: my generation, you know, my age age group had to
Speaker 1: kind of overcome and they're just like they're just winning.
Speaker 1: They're not waiting for anyone's permission. They are just creating.
Speaker 1: They're putting themselves out there. They're being really brave, and
Speaker 1: they are lifting one another up. And that just gives
Speaker 1: me so much hope so to I feel like to
Speaker 1: the answer of like how do you cope with the
Speaker 1: anxiety of everything happening, I'm just continuing to find so
Speaker 1: much inspiration in us and I have never been more
Speaker 1: just excited about the art and the tools and the
Speaker 1: companies and the businesses that are going to be built
Speaker 1: from this really dark time that we're going through right now.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna have so many six stories, and
Speaker 1: including myself in that, like I have been, I have
Speaker 1: so much more. I have so many more bigger plans
Speaker 1: than Brown Ambition for Brown Ambition rather And this feels like,
Speaker 1: like you said, Mark, like twenty twenty five feels like
Speaker 1: the origin story of what I hope will become a blip.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, and during that time, look what we created,
Speaker 1: and look how we we thrived in spite of so
Speaker 1: many forces working against us. And yeah, Beyonce doci those examples.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly you two as well being an inspiration
Speaker 1: of like that persistence. To bring it back to Mark's point,
Speaker 1: the persistence, and yeah, just what happens when you don't
Speaker 1: give up and you expect the failure and you welcome
Speaker 1: the failure because you know it's not forever and it's
Speaker 1: part of the journey. So I'm very happy to be
Speaker 1: in my springtime and to have y'all here, and thank
Speaker 1: y'all again for just like sharing your light with a show.
Speaker 1: And you know, let me tease you a little bit.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
Speaker 4: We're honored, We are definitely honored to be a part
Speaker 4: of this moment with you, and I know I am
Speaker 4: so thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you Chris, thank you Mark. All Right, BA fan,
Speaker 1: we will see you Friday for the b a QA