WEBVTT - Financing the Fly Way (How-To Monday) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.520 Hey, hey, aba fam, It's time for another Halla Back Monday. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.560 In this episode, The One, the Only Mandra is joined 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:10.440 by Shine, the creator of the online platform flyin Nance 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.680 Finance is dedicated to helping nine to five ers earn 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.560 more money so that they can build wealth, effortlessly, learn 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.759 all about how to career pivot, negotiate a higher salary, 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.239 and get out of debt. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:23.400 Okay, so give it a listen. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.320 Hey, hey, hey va fam. I cannot wait to introduce 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.800 you to today's guest. She is someone who I have been cyberstocking, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:38.880 not in a creepy way, in a totally cool way 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.040 for a long time. I feel like she is my 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.920 nine to five hottie partner in crime. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:46.000 She's me. 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.440 I think we have so much in common with the 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.919 way she's approached her career and her inspirational message of 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.520 how anyone out there, even if you're working nine to five, 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.600 you can still build wealth. I am so happy to 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.840 welcome Sania to the show. Sania founded Nance, which is 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.640 an online platform dedicated to helping ambitious working women, who 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.440 she calls nine to five hotties, effortlessly build wealth and 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.160 say yes to more travel. She's a product manager and 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.840 she's worked at major companies like AMX and MasterCard, and 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.440 she has grown her salary four x in just four years, 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.160 became debt free, and managed to reach one hundred K 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.800 net worth by the tender age of twenty six years old. 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.520 Her story has been featured everywhere from GMA to CNBC 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.560 and now she's on Brown Ambition. So now you've made it, Okay. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:36.240 I know GMA is like. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.920 Cool, but come on, it's Brown Ambition for legends right now. 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.560 That's a fast I'm jan girling very hard inside. Thank 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:45.559 you so much, Mandy. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.280 Likewise, Cinia, it's such a pleasure to have you on 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.400 the show. First and foremost, thank you for being I 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.800 feel like I've been banging this druma of quit your 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.920 way rich like kind of alone, and there's this like 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.000 stigma around telling people to quit their jobs. Talk to 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.920 me about and you're you know, you're a few years 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:06.200 younger than me, right are you? 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:07.040 How old are you? 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.640 If you don't mind, I'm twenty seven right now, Yeah, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.080 so you're a few years younger. It was around my 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.560 mid twenties when I started making those really you know, 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.200 strategic quits, and I quit six times in a decade 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.079 of my career. Now, I was in journalism, and I 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.120 remember my little brother kind of telling me like, why 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:25.560 do you want to go into journalism? Do you not 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.920 want to make money? And I remember thinking, listen, I 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.120 tell stories. I'm gonna go for it. And I managed 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.919 to quit and increase my wealth along the way. But yeah, 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.959 it wasn't like the traditional traditional career trajectory or the 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.360 traditional industry you would think you could build wealth in. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.959 Now you chose tech or did you tell me a 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.400 little bit about your career journey where you started and 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.080 when you started to realize, oh, I can quit and 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:54.239 actually build wealth here. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.960 Yes, I love this question. So my career really actually 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:03.080 started in financial services. I landed my very first job 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.520 at Ames on a product management team totally by chance, right. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.440 I did not know anything about what I wanted my 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.840 career to look like when I graduated from college and 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.040 grad school. This was around twenty seventeen, right, so product 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.760 management wasn't quite the hot, buzzy you know, career choice 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.480 that it is today. So at that point I was 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.160 just happy to have landed my first big girls salary 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.920 and to land on a team with really great leadership. 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.080 But as I kind of spent more time at AMEX 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.160 and really learned that, hey, product management is not only 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.480 something that's very strategic, it is something that I really enjoy. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.640 I really feel like this is like my zone of genius. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.440 That's kind of when I started to see that, Wow, 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.400 there's a lot of opportunity out here for me, and 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.600 a lot of opportunity for me to grow and pivot 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.320 my career. Right, I don't just have to stay at 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.600 this one company. I don't just have to stay in 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.080 this one type of work. So I think tech was 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.840 always kind of something I was drawn too, really curious about, 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.920 so I really spent more time. 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:06.880 I would say as I. 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.200 Became, you know, a bit more comfortable with my career 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.480 my skill sets, to say, hey, I can take the 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.800 skills that I have as a product manager even though 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.719 I've only ever worked at big banks and turned that 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.520 into a career in tech. So I would say that, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.640 you know, my my pathway from graduating school in twenty 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.760 seventeen to today has been very serendipitous. I've leaned very 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.040 heavily on my network and really just kind of putting 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.600 myself out there for opportunities and to the question around 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:38.440 you know how I've known when. 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.479 To make these strategic jumps. 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.120 Honestly, it's been like a gut feeling, right, And we 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.479 can definitely talk more about this, But I think for me, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.080 even as a young black woman. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.920 Very rarely was I ever encouraged to leave a job. Right. 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.919 I left my first job in twenty nineteen. I was 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.920 like twenty four years old, right, So I remember having 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.800 bosses be like like, oh my gosh, are you sure 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:04.400 you want to do this right? Very much a lot 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.400 of a lot of that uh you know, a lot 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.159 of that language around kind of almost like kind of 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.120 wanting to shame me for wanting to make these kind 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:12.560 of decisions. 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.360 This go ahead, okay, young blood, go ahead, you're gonna leave, 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:17.640 You'll come. 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.560 Back literally no, literally literally that I feel like that 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:22.880 was definitely that was definitely the energy. But I think 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.040 for me, especially around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, when I 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.719 first started to learn about financial freedom and the Fire movement, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.240 I really saw myself being someone that could take advantage 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.839 of that lifestyle of being able to grow my income 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.279 keep my expenses relatively the same. 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:41.760 So how was I going to do that? 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.200 I had to make more money so that meant having 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.839 to make some of those quote unquote calculated risks to 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.320 say maybe I need to go somewhere else to make 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.520 more money to build my skill set. And that's kind 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:55.800 of the energy that I've taken with me for the 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.880 past four and a half five years. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.800 Yeah, so what did you study in college? And you 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:02.400 said you went to grad school? What did you study? 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.560 So in college, I studied Africana Studies. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.520 I loved it, I absolutely loved it, but there was 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:15.080 definitely no immediate professional ROI right, It's like most of 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.880 my most of my peers who majored in Africana studies 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:23.360 are you know, obtaining PhDs right now or or work academics. 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.680 They want to teach and be in academia forever. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.000 Literally, I feel like most of my peers went like 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.719 the Melan maze academia academia away, and then a few 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.720 of us kind of went into more like social justice 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:35.479 nonprofit work. 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:37.000 I think I'm probably the only. 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.880 Person from my class that actually ended up pivoting working 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.040 in corporate and definitely today working in tech. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.200 And then graduate school actually did a one year master's, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.760 my Masters of Sciences and Business Management, so kind. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.120 Of gave me more of that business acumen, more of 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.560 those practical skills, and I think more of that confidence 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.640 to say, you know, I spent four years in undergrad kind. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.320 Of shying away from you know, more quant. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.760 Heavy subjects right as an Africata sci. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:01.279 Major. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.840 So I think that master's program really kind of gave 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.520 me that confidence to say, hey, yeah, I can do excel. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.200 I can you know, I can read financial charts, which 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.760 I think really helped me pivot and land an American 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.000 Express as my first job. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:13.480 Yeah. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.280 I think that's wonderful because a lot of people, I 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:16.880 mean I do a lot of career coaching, and a 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.320 lot of women maybe they study something and they or 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.440 they have experience in a certain field and they want 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.880 to pivot into a new one. So for sure, I mean, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.440 talk to me about the interview process when with you 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.800 with your Africana studies background. Did you go back to 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.280 get your MBA because you were struggling to find work 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.240 or was that just part of the plan. You know, 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:35.840 this will help me as I interview. 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:36.880 Yeah. 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.280 So when I was a senior in college, I had 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.720 no idea what I wanted to do professionally. Right, I 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.360 to this really great school. I went to Barnard. I 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.600 was at this really great school but had no job offer, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.600 and so senior fall I really started to think, Okay, 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.200 I have two choices, right, I can either try really 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.720 hard to convince an interview or on the other side 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.320 that this Africana Studies degree can help me work in 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:08.400 a more business aligned job, or I can see, hey, 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:10.480 there are a lot of At that time, there were 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.600 a lot of these programs kind of popping up at 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.200 Duke wake Forest and other kind of business schools, kind 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.960 of giving people like me non traditional backgrounds, lower arts backgrounds, 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.200 and opportunity to break sort of speak, break into more 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:25.720 business focus fields. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.200 So that's actually what I ended up doing. I ended 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:28.880 up taking. 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.960 I ended up deciding to get my master's right out 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.120 of undergrad one because it was fully funded, right, so 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.480 I received a full ride fellowship, and then two because 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.440 to your point, I really did struggle, I guess kind 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.040 of telling my story really to the point where I 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.319 could land offers. Right, So I did a lot of interviewing. 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.480 I was interviewing for a lot of rotational associate programs 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:53.640 at that time because I felt like I had a 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.120 lot of skills and didn't really see myself narrowly fitting 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.320 into one right now, In hindsight, I wish someone would 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.319 have told me, hey, you could be a product manager, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.160 but that was never something that I even knew about. 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.160 Right So that's why I decided to get my master's. 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.079 It was fully funded. It gave me an opportunity to 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.760 be a student again, something I'm really good at. I'm 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.120 really good at rechurch regurgitating information. But it also gave 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.400 me a chance to kind of like have another year 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.120 to kind of figure things out and be in that 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.800 position where, hey, jobs are coming to me, you know, 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.280 recruiters are looking for me I'm a student, which which 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.839 really helped me in terms of my interview process. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:32.480 I casted a really wide net. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.240 My master's program was done at WAKE four, so I 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.719 was in Winston Sdale and North Carolina, and I did not. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:38.400 Love it down there. 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:43.720 So I was pretty much putting out increes connections my 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.640 resume to as many companies in the New York area 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.120 as I could. And how I had to landed up 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.840 at AMX was actually through networking. I met a lot 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.839 of different people across AMX, but one person in particular, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.880 we really built a really great relationship and it just 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.840 so happened around the time that I was about to 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:03.400 graduate from my master's program. 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:04.559 I really needed a job. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.400 She made her own personal decision to lead AMEX and 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.880 to leave New York City, and she recommended me for 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.360 her job. So that is literally how I ended up 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.840 on a product management team, on a high profile product 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:17.160 management team at American Express. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:18.040 Is my first job. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.080 By networking, hustling and building relationships and a little bit of. 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.760 Luck, yeah, I mean, and thank you for giving a 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:27.560 shout out to Lady Luck, because it is a piece 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.120 of it. I mean, it's also open. It's also kind 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.160 of approaching your career in a way that you leave 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.520 room for luck, and you leave room for that uncertainty, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.480 which if you're someone who's like obsessed with doing things 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.880 on a certain schedule, it's very uncomfortable for you. But 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.800 it's hard to articulate that too. That you have to 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.680 put your best foot forward, like you said, the build 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.199 those relationships, but then you got to wait for an opportunity, right, 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.040 and a little bit of is luck. And how wonderful 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.600 that someone was able to kind of put you in 0:10:54.600 --> 0:11:01.079 that position for success when you so going from kind 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.839 of liberal arts to sitting down at a financial services company. 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:05.280 What was that transition like. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.880 So I will I will say I think that one 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.920 year and my master's program really set me up well 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:12.679 for success. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:14.640 Now I will say I'm an overachiever. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.440 So I was that person even in this really intense, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.320 you know, master's program that I always pushed myself for more. 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.560 So I ended up graduating the top of my class 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.680 for my master's program, was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:33.960 which is a business honors society. So I took my 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.560 studies really seriously. I really took that year really seriously 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.599 to learn and absorb as much as I could. And 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:42.480 I think as a result, when I you know, got 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.120 to financial services, got to AMMEX and here I was 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.960 doing analytics, right, I was in Excel. I was, you know, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:55.160 having to create really educating create stories for my team 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.439 around the data that was coming back from our car members. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.240 Like it was kind of easy, right, because I'd spent this. 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.520 Year really really trying to build up these skills that 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.120 I felt like I didn't really have a chance to 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.360 practice an undergrad And I think as a result, I 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.120 think that that's why I was really successful at AMES. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.640 I think one being really sad for success. 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.080 But I was also extremely lucky to land on a 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.720 team where I had really strong leaders and women leaders 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.080 who really were invested in me being successful, right, who 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:25.880 mentored me and said, yeah, I know, this is your 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:27.880 first corporate job, and this is how you can do 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.000 things right. This is the brand and the culture at AMEX, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.120 and this is how you can show up and show 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.760 your best self. Right, And that really helped me. Right, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.920 Even as I think about my experience as a young 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.679 black professional at ames and the short amount of time 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.760 that I was there, I think I was able to 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:50.040 get promotions and have really high profile opportunities because I 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.440 had such strong leadership and strong mentorship and sponsorship. Right that, 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.880 as I looked at some of my other peers, who 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.839 were just as intelligent as me, just as capable as me, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.400 not having those pieces, especially in a corporate culture like AMEX, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.520 I think kind of kept them from I think, getting 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.800 some of the markers of achievement and success that I 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.319 think that they were really owed. So I would say 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.800 the transition wasn't It wasn't too tough, but there was 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.599 definitely a learning curve, as there is any time you 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:19.679 join a new organization. 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:21.760 Yeah, a couple of things I want to talk go 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.360 back to you really quick. You mentioned a fellowship that 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.960 got you a full ride scholarship or how did you 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.480 How did you find that opportunity to get your degree 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.080 paid for? Because I think that's important for listeners to 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:34.720 maybe get a tip from that. 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.120 Yeah, So the tip from that is put yourself out 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:40.800 there for any and all opportunities. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:42.880 So, I mean the opportunity that. 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.280 Allowed me to get a full ride fellowship to get 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.800 my master's program actually goes back to even when I 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.560 was applying to colleges in high school. I was that 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.560 girl that went to the library, got a scholarship book, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.720 knew my parents could not afford to send me to college, 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.960 and just applied to everything that I was eligible for. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.920 One of those things was being a part of the 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.400 rom Brown scholars Network. Now I was not a rom 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.520 Brown scholar. I did not receive all of the money, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.440 but I was a part of their network and took 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.680 advantage of all the opportunities that they would send to 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.240 students in the network. Right, So I ended up getting 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.280 an internship one year in college through that network, and 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.080 they were also partnering with the wake Ford School of 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.560 Business to promote this new program and promote the fellowship. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:26.840 So when I saw that, it's like free ride, y'all 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.600 are going to pay for my room and board and 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:29.840 I can get a master's. 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:31.960 Oh yeah, okay, I'm gonna do this. So that's what 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:32.360 I did. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:37.520 And you know, I had the delusional confidence that I 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:39.480 was exactly I was going to be picked right, Like 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.080 I went into my interview saying, when I am a 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.240 corporate fellow for this program, these are the people I 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.080 want to sponsor me, right, And I think that confidence 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.480 and I think my my persistence, I think is what 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.440 helped me get that right. So I think the tip 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.840 there is anytime you see an opportunity, don't be afraid 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.040 to go for it, right, especially as women, as women 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.800 of color, especially as Black women, we receive so many 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.000 messages that tell us we're not worthy enough, we're not 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.000 capable enough. But I think I've always kind of kept 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.640 with myself that hey, if I see something that's out 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.680 there that speaks to me, I'm going to put myself 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.400 out there because I never know what can come out 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:16.560 of it. 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.120 Right, my seventeen year old self set my twenty one, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.040 twenty two, and now twenty. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.560 Seven year old self up for so much success and 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:25.720 she didn't even know it back then. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.480 Oh, baby Sania, Thanks baby Sania. 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.240 Look what you've shot up to her? All right? 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.600 Another thing that I was thinking while you were speaking about, 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.240 you know, you being and thank you for pointing out 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.040 the importance of those relationships and having sponsorship and actually 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.960 putting your best foot forward to build those relationships and 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.640 not necessarily being the person. You get a job and 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:48.880 you come then and you just think you're going to 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.080 quietly sit in your cubicle and that someone will just 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.360 tap you on the shoulder and say you you, we've 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:58.120 noticed you. That's not how it happens. Building relationships is 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.920 so important and getting that sponsorship did that make it? 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:02.880 And this is I'm going to ask you this question. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.400 And the reason I'm asking is because I think you 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.640 and I both agree that when you quit jobs, there 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.920 is that perception that you know or you're often told, 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.960 be grateful, be loyal. People took a chance on you, 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.440 and you had people who were going to bat for 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:18.960 you within your company at amex SO, but you still 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.800 left And I love that. So talk to me about 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.760 your decision around leaving and why when, what all that stuff? 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.760 Yeah, so let me set the scene for you. So 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.680 my decision to leave AMEX the very first company I 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.040 ever worked at, and to your point, where I had 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.640 a lot of brand equity, right, not just on my 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.160 immediate team, but I had leaders across the company who 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.040 knew me, believed in me, were putting me in a 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:49.040 position to when I think it started to conflict with 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.840 my holistic vision of what I had for myself, and 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.120 that was to become more financially sound. That was to 0:16:56.160 --> 0:17:00.160 start building wealth. That was to have more money that 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.600 I could get over some of the financial challenges that 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.200 I felt like I was kind of in. Right, So 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.560 twenty eighteen, I now had spent a year working full 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.920 time and I was fucking my money up, right. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:14.960 I was bad girl. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.639 That was just kind of like, yeah, it's okay, I 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.159 have my first set of credit cards. 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.240 I'm just fat online, you know. Yeah. I was bredging 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:24.320 real hard. I was ubering really hard. Oh these were 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.840 the days of uberpool. Oh my gosh. 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.439 Right, So I was having a good time, right, I 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.359 was having a great time in New York. I would argue, 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.520 as you should have done, but yeah, yeah, definitely, And 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.160 I don't regret those times at all. But as a result, right, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.240 not having any type of financial acumen when it came 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.480 to money management, I put myself into a lot of debt, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.440 and it was debt that I couldn't afford to pay 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.600 when I kind of looked back at and those times, 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:49.600 it was like, Hey, I have this decent salary. I 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:51.560 have a great salary as a single woman in New York, 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.040 but I have nothing to show for it. I don't 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:54.920 have any savings. Now I have all this debt that 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.439 I put myself into. I don't have anyone I can 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.720 go to and be like, oh, mom and dad, can 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:01.720 you say me a small loan of ten thousand dollars 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:02.720 to pay off these credit cards? 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:02.800 Like? 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.760 It just wasn't It wasn't a thing, right, So that 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:07.760 was a big wake up call for me, Right, Yeah, 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.040 that was a big wake up call for me. 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.480 It was about ten thousand dollars of credit card debt. 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.359 Yeah, I had I one summer I put myself in 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:15.840 ten thousand dollars a credit card debt. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.280 So, wow, tell you was living really good? Did you 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:18.919 take a vacation? 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.120 I was traveling, I was sing out, I was going 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.879 to Pollo Classic, buying one hundred dollars bottles of Bilfleco 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:27.359 like I was living. 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.960 Okay, I was living. I was living right. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:32.720 Yeah, I can't say that now, but I mean in 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:34.560 the moment, I had a lot of shame around it, right, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.240 Like I had a lot of shame around around my 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:37.879 money mistake. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:43.240 You were tender swindling yourself pretty much that summer. Wait, 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:44.960 so what was your salary at AMEX though? 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.159