Speaker 1: It's time full the ba keep a a, the ba
Speaker 1: qp a. What you say the bay keep a.
Speaker 2: If you have questions, we have some answers. Now, we're
Speaker 2: not your mama, we're not your cousin. We probably no
Speaker 2: more than her, but we're certainly not your attorney or
Speaker 2: your financial advisor.
Speaker 1: But we're two smart brown girls who have a.
Speaker 2: Little knowledge in this whole personal finance career business thing,
Speaker 2: and we're here to assist however possible. So if you
Speaker 2: want to ask us a question, go to briannabischonpodcast dot com,
Speaker 2: click ask us anything or any of our social media's.
Speaker 2: You can just DM us questions about business, career and
Speaker 2: personal finance and we got you.
Speaker 3: We got y'all. I am so excited about today's questions.
Speaker 3: I feel like Tiffany is like rolling her shoulders back
Speaker 3: and she is ready to tackle one in particular. Scan guys,
Speaker 3: yes as to have said brandambisionpodcast dot com or hit
Speaker 3: us up at brand Ambition Podcasts and IG with your questions.
Speaker 3: But let's get on into it. Let's not waste another second.
Speaker 3: Our first question comes from IG from listener Corinne, who says, hey,
Speaker 3: ba fam, I am currently in a challenge with some
Speaker 3: financial influencers. They are dropping all kinds of knowledge and
Speaker 3: it's exciting while also overwhelming. I want to soak up
Speaker 3: all the knowledge. They're talking about a mentorship that sounds
Speaker 3: like it will be tens of thousands of dollars. My
Speaker 3: first question is our mentorship's worth the price? And number two?
Speaker 3: Like I said, they're giving so much info again on
Speaker 3: how to gain new revenue streams, multiply your money, etc.
Speaker 3: But much of what they're talking about is taking out
Speaker 3: a loan or a credit card to fund another loan
Speaker 3: or credit card and create this snowball effect. My credit
Speaker 3: is fair because of previously living off of credit cards
Speaker 3: when I was first starting out in late payments from
Speaker 3: my husband being laid off during COVID. Do I focus
Speaker 3: on just repairing my credits or before I start to
Speaker 3: follow their strategies. Thanks?
Speaker 1: I love your show.
Speaker 3: I just started listening in the last few months, and
Speaker 3: I've gone back through the older podcast because you guys
Speaker 3: are great. Thanks Karen. I never heard of an opposite
Speaker 3: debt snowball. This is this is more like a debt shovel.
Speaker 3: You just take the shovel and you scoop out the
Speaker 3: snow and you bury yourself in it.
Speaker 1: Here's the thin, Karn.
Speaker 2: This makes me a little uncomfortable because I know some
Speaker 2: folks who participate in this, and you're right, they are
Speaker 2: gearing up to a mentorship program that's tens of thousands
Speaker 2: of dollars.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing, here's the thing we started off friends.
Speaker 2: Okay, here's the thing, karm Our mentionorship program's worth the
Speaker 2: price some of them are.
Speaker 1: Y'all know.
Speaker 2: I got my mentor Tiffany dot com. It's ten bucks
Speaker 2: a month. Honestly, I just pour in whenever I feel
Speaker 2: like pouring in. And you know, it's for people who
Speaker 2: are in business. Certainly, it's probably not as intense as
Speaker 2: this one because it's ten bucks a month. But the
Speaker 2: thing is, there is a shift happy happening in black
Speaker 2: and brown finance that makes me a little uncomfortable. So
Speaker 2: I follow, and I suggest, you know, anyone who's like
Speaker 2: interested to follow this YouTube channel called coffee Zilla. It's
Speaker 2: this young guy and he tracks and follows scam artists,
Speaker 2: digital scam artists, you know like these, and exposes them.
Speaker 2: And so for like the last I would say at
Speaker 2: least five or six years, I've just been watching his
Speaker 2: videos and just watching and then what I started to
Speaker 2: notice a few years ago is because he most because
Speaker 2: he's a white man himself, many of the people that
Speaker 2: he tracks, almost all of them are white as well,
Speaker 2: you know, because affinity. But what I started to notice
Speaker 2: is some of the tricks that I would watch that
Speaker 2: were happening in that community to start it to filter
Speaker 2: over to the black and brown community.
Speaker 1: It's almost like we were getting it delayed.
Speaker 2: It's like if you're down south and you get like,
Speaker 2: you know, hip hop late, you know, because this is
Speaker 2: back in the day before all streaming and everything else,
Speaker 2: but you know, like New York, it's the first because
Speaker 2: it's produced here.
Speaker 1: So I started to notice that and.
Speaker 2: I realized, uh huh, that it's like a lot of
Speaker 2: the and I'm not going to say scam, but a
Speaker 2: lot of the unreputable ways to do business, you know,
Speaker 2: because it is profitable for the person to do business
Speaker 2: in that way. Now here's what I will say, because
Speaker 2: I'm not going to speak on you know, whether or
Speaker 2: not this is a scam or not, but I will
Speaker 2: say this is that a lot of people teach folks
Speaker 2: how to have a business, but the only way they're
Speaker 2: making money is teaching you how to have a business.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Meaning like I'm mentoring like I'm doing like like I said,
Speaker 2: ten bucks a month, But I've had a business for
Speaker 2: fourteen years that has grossed over thirty million dollars, and
Speaker 2: so I feel very comfortable mentoring in business. And even then,
Speaker 2: you know it's light because I'm still in the head
Speaker 2: in them, in the throes of my business. But I
Speaker 2: feel comfortable teaching from a place of like, my business
Speaker 2: is not the mentoring program. That's not where I'm making, like,
Speaker 2: not even a quarter of my income. It's from the
Speaker 2: actual business. And so I look when I'm looking for
Speaker 2: if it was me and I'm looking for a mentorship program,
Speaker 2: I'm wanting to know that prior to this, where was
Speaker 2: your income coming from in mass Because if it's upselling me,
Speaker 2: then how can you teach me how to have a
Speaker 2: business outside of this loop that you've created, Because what
Speaker 2: I have seen is a lot of folks who are
Speaker 2: teaching this a mentorship kind of like play, they too,
Speaker 2: have then paid someone else a lot of money for
Speaker 2: mentorship play. So it's it's almost like there's a loop happening.
Speaker 2: But where's the actual business acumen coming from, you know,
Speaker 2: in any business that requires you to take out a
Speaker 2: loan or credit card, especially because there are some businesses
Speaker 2: that you are going to need funding for, but to
Speaker 2: lean in to taking out a credit card. And I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that there are businesses that have done that,
Speaker 2: but it makes me a little bit nervous that that
Speaker 2: is the core financial foundation that they're suggesting.
Speaker 1: To start a business, if that makes sense. And so
Speaker 1: I just.
Speaker 2: Would be very very very mindful because one, it's going
Speaker 2: to be thousands of dollars, maybe even tens of thousands.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've heard of some of these mentorship programs
Speaker 2: being fifty thousand dollars for the year. So it's going
Speaker 2: to be I promise you that's what they're gearing up for.
Speaker 2: So that's one two, on top of the ten, twenty
Speaker 2: thirty five whatever they're going to ask you for, they're
Speaker 2: going to have you take at a loan or credit
Speaker 2: card to fund your business. So you're gonna have debt
Speaker 2: on top of debt before you've even started. That makes
Speaker 2: me really nervous, especially because you have it sounds like you,
Speaker 2: you know, you have some personal financial things that you
Speaker 2: are slowly, but surely I'm working toward. And so I
Speaker 2: just like I said, I feels uncomfortable because I know
Speaker 2: some of the folks that are doing this, and I'm
Speaker 2: just like, I'm not here to drag them or dog
Speaker 2: them or whatever, but I am here to protect you
Speaker 2: and say, you know, I want you to use discernment
Speaker 2: and that I like to see if I can make
Speaker 2: it work with the free stuff you give me, then
Speaker 2: potentially I will potentially be open to investing further. Like
Speaker 2: if you look at Mandy and what she's done, she
Speaker 2: gives a lot of free information away and you're like, oh, wow,
Speaker 2: this was really helpful, and so is it worth you know,
Speaker 2: potentially will I make my money back if I invest
Speaker 2: with working you know, with Mandy's money makers. Same thing
Speaker 2: with me, you know, like is it Will I make
Speaker 2: my money back if I invest with the Literature Academy,
Speaker 2: if I invest my money you know, with my mentor Tiffany.
Speaker 2: So I just I just say, to be mindful and
Speaker 2: a business that requires you to take out an extraordinary
Speaker 2: I'm out of debt, risky debt at that. It's just
Speaker 2: it just doesn't sit well with me, and I just
Speaker 2: hate that this trend is coming to our community. But
Speaker 2: anybody who's wanting go ahead and listen to like watch
Speaker 2: coffee Zillow. Like I probably tune it maybe like once
Speaker 2: a quarter just to see, like what are the new scams,
Speaker 2: so I can keep my eyes open so I don't
Speaker 2: partner with folks who are not in alignment with how
Speaker 2: I want to navigate within this community.
Speaker 1: Hope.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like a fine line between a scam and
Speaker 3: just something that's not the right fit for someone sometimes
Speaker 3: or just like the like a program finding the person
Speaker 3: who maybe wants it to be something that it's not. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, sometimes I think it's on us as
Speaker 3: influence influencers and educators to really be honest and forthcoming
Speaker 3: about exactly what people can expect before they spend their money.
Speaker 3: And so often these these services and products are not refundable,
Speaker 3: and I think it takes so much trust. And if
Speaker 3: you're someone who's who's new to you, like you've found
Speaker 3: this program or this person's challenge or their webinar or whatnot,
Speaker 3: and then you've taken it and you enjoyed yourself and
Speaker 3: they're selling you something at the end, Like there's no
Speaker 3: knock to that hustle at all. That's how a lot
Speaker 3: of us make our money. But I would allow yourself
Speaker 3: as much time as possible to get to know that
Speaker 3: person and get to know their background, and like Tiffany said,
Speaker 3: like ask those questions. You're selling me this strategy or
Speaker 3: this program, but what have you built and what are
Speaker 3: your credentials? And or not credentials, but you know, what
Speaker 3: is the proof of your concept? What is the proof
Speaker 3: of what it is that you're selling me that this
Speaker 3: will actually add? Are their testimonials?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: Do they seem like they're legit? Can I find not
Speaker 3: just how many followers they have? Followers can be bought,
Speaker 3: but can I find real people? Can you even reach
Speaker 3: out to folks who've gone through it and get their feedback?
Speaker 3: You know, did they think it was? That's a lot
Speaker 3: of money to invest. And I worry too about the
Speaker 3: time that we're in. I feel like these programs do
Speaker 3: better during times of economic uncertainty and especially in like
Speaker 3: our communities, because I feel like they target this desperation
Speaker 3: and this need to like get ahead or to you know,
Speaker 3: quickly make money to make up for a lack And
Speaker 3: that's where it gets to be I think like can
Speaker 3: be predatory and like nefarious, and I think we do
Speaker 3: have to protect yourselves, protect ourselves. And I'm glad that
Speaker 3: you wrote us in a question about this. I would say,
Speaker 3: give like more time before I'm coming out of pocket
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars. I'm going to know everything about your
Speaker 3: blood type. You know, I want to Here's the thing.
Speaker 2: If it's if something is good, it's going to be good.
Speaker 2: People ask me that all the time. Oh, Tiffany, should
Speaker 2: I do like it's told so real estate fund? And
Speaker 2: I told everybody I don't know, but I know this.
Speaker 2: I don't have to rush it. I don't mind being
Speaker 2: on the B team when it comes to investing in something.
Speaker 2: And also too, I like Mandy's in business. Now, Mandy,
Speaker 2: have you paid tens of thousands of dollars for mentorship?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not exactly and I have not.
Speaker 2: So now I have a business coach now that I
Speaker 2: certainly paid a lot of money too, But that was
Speaker 2: after I was thirteen years into the business. And so
Speaker 2: I say all that to say, too, you don't have
Speaker 2: to typically spend a ton now. Sometimes spending certainly will
Speaker 2: help to expedite the process and I'm not saying that
Speaker 2: this is a scam. What I am saying is that
Speaker 2: I just want you to know that there are tools
Speaker 2: and resources out there that you know, might be less
Speaker 2: expensive you could dip your baby toe in, you know,
Speaker 2: and also to sometimes even free. That before I invested
Speaker 2: a ton of money, I would invest a ton of
Speaker 2: sweat equity, a ton of time in sweat sweat equity,
Speaker 2: and as much low cost free things as I could
Speaker 2: before I invested a ton of money into into like
Speaker 2: a masterminding or you know, or or or or anything
Speaker 2: like that, I promise you, just because you know, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been ready. You're one year two in business,
Speaker 2: you know, to put thirty ten it would have been
Speaker 2: lost money. And I've lost money like that, you know.
Speaker 2: And so I'm just like, yeah, just just be careful
Speaker 2: and tell everybody be careful because the financial industry for
Speaker 2: black and brown spaces, it's really making me sad these days,
Speaker 2: because there are folks who I wouldn't have thought are
Speaker 2: doing things that are not illegal but not really aligned
Speaker 2: with how I've normally known them to operate.
Speaker 1: And so it just makes me like a little bit sad.
Speaker 2: And you're just gonna have to practice more discernment to
Speaker 2: not get caught up in the hype because a lot
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 1: Are being wealthy, are getting wealthy.
Speaker 2: Offering advice about the advice, not the thing itself, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like a business about how to
Speaker 2: start a business, and I'm like, well, what's your actual business?
Speaker 1: What did you do before this?
Speaker 3: Did you had tried to be a career coach fifteen
Speaker 3: years ago?
Speaker 2: Literally, but man is a career coach now because she
Speaker 2: has all of this experience, like you know, so now
Speaker 2: she can do this, you know, over ten years of
Speaker 2: experience of like actually doing what she's coaching too.
Speaker 1: And so you child, like I said, I'm be no.
Speaker 1: One half of them, and I'm like, you just started last.
Speaker 3: Week, Yetta said him straight.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: I think your gut was telling you to ask a friend.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that we were your friends that you asked,
Speaker 3: you know, ask someone. And if your gut is telling you, man,
Speaker 3: I'm not going trust this enough yet. Just follow your
Speaker 3: gut until you do have enough trust to then invest
Speaker 3: that much money. And if you're asking you for that
Speaker 3: kind of price tag, I'm saying, they owe you a
Speaker 3: Q and a phone call, I do free Q and
Speaker 3: as for all my all my program participants, because I'm
Speaker 3: like I'm asking you to spend money, at the least
Speaker 3: I can do is talk to you beforehand. Well, thank
Speaker 3: you Career for your question, and good luck out there, y'all.
Speaker 1: Stay woke. Check out cafe? Was it coffee Zilla? Yes?
Speaker 1: Coffee Zilla?
Speaker 3: M coffee Zilla? All right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 3: You break, and we'll be right back with more ba
Speaker 3: Q and a all right, ba fan, We are back
Speaker 3: with our last question of the day. We're gonna take
Speaker 3: it to an anonymous listener from IG who says, Hey, hey, y'all,
Speaker 3: I'm a big van y'all's podcast. I am an IT
Speaker 3: lead at my new job, and previously I was an
Speaker 3: infrastructure engineer. I'm thinking about taking up a graveyard shift
Speaker 3: engineer role to earn more as well as to keep
Speaker 3: my technical skills alive since as a lead I haven't
Speaker 3: been doing much of that. The issue is, since my
Speaker 3: resume states my current role as an IT lead, I
Speaker 3: feel like I'm not getting much traction with recruiters. How
Speaker 3: would you advise that I state my experience slash work
Speaker 3: at history on my resume appreciate the help, think and
Speaker 3: love you guys. Okay, so, as an IT lead, you know,
Speaker 3: branding is everything, especially for the OPM. I mean that's
Speaker 3: some free advice. I'll tell you that for free, no
Speaker 3: doubts as far as needed. And the way that you
Speaker 3: brand yourself, especially on your resume but even more on LinkedIn,
Speaker 3: is super important to be sure, like you said, you're
Speaker 3: getting that traction with recruiters. So I would take the
Speaker 3: fact that it's been crickets on the recruiter front and say, Okay,
Speaker 3: maybe my title itself is not doing my work product
Speaker 3: justice and you can add you can you can add
Speaker 3: more language around your title to show like the technical skills.
Speaker 1: That you have.
Speaker 3: But I would beef up everything underneath your job title
Speaker 3: to show your technical skills. Yeah, having especially on a
Speaker 3: technical resume or on LinkedIn, have a special skills section
Speaker 3: where you list out whatever software you're you know, your
Speaker 3: expert in, or whatever tools you you constantly use, because
Speaker 3: I promise you recruiters are just going to be scanning quickly,
Speaker 3: like my client works in this software, which want to
Speaker 3: be sure, you know, or my company works in this software.
Speaker 3: We want to be sure that this person is proficient in that,
Speaker 3: So have a skills box. Make sure that you are
Speaker 3: not just describing the technical skills that you have, but
Speaker 3: how you've used them to drive like your business impact
Speaker 3: and if it Yeah, and just making sure that you're
Speaker 3: not hiding all that information because it could be that
Speaker 3: one one recruiter sees IT lead and isn't thinking that
Speaker 3: they have all the experience that you have because maybe
Speaker 3: in their experience and IT leader isn't doing all that
Speaker 3: technical stuff. So you have to like help them form
Speaker 3: a really clear picture of what you've done and what
Speaker 3: the impact has done, and make sure that that brand
Speaker 3: is strong so they know exactly where to go for
Speaker 3: their amazing roles.
Speaker 2: Hmmm, honestly, where Mandy's at, that's that's great. Like if
Speaker 2: I was hiring, you're right, sometimes there are certain titles,
Speaker 2: so I don't know what that means, but listing exactly
Speaker 2: what skill sets that you have, because I've definitely gotten misled,
Speaker 2: if you will, because someone's had a title and I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: and then oh, I don't know how to use that.
Speaker 2: I'm like wait what, Oh I don't know how to
Speaker 2: use that, So it just would have behooved me to
Speaker 2: ask those specific things. So having that listed, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can use Excel and this and that and CAMPA
Speaker 2: and and you know, Facebook ads or whatever it is
Speaker 2: I was looking for at that time. Yeah, having that
Speaker 2: clearly listed allows the employers to get really clear on
Speaker 2: these these are the specific skills we need. This person
Speaker 2: hasn't even if it doesn't typically align with the title
Speaker 2: the job title of what they had before.
Speaker 1: So yeah, good luck to you, Like.
Speaker 3: Maybe you were getting more Yeah, I feel like if
Speaker 3: it was maybe getting more traction when he had engineer
Speaker 3: in the title of his job description. And I wonder
Speaker 3: sometimes I've had clients who, like, sometimes at companies that
Speaker 3: are older or even like academic institutions or government agencies,
Speaker 3: they have just old, crusty titles and they're not really
Speaker 3: keeping up with the title in the marketplace today. So
Speaker 3: that's something maybe you could even ask for, you know,
Speaker 3: negotiate going into your next role or the one that
Speaker 3: you have, is a title change that would better position you,
Speaker 3: Like it's just maybe people are calling instead of it leads,
Speaker 3: they're calling it something else, and you can have, you know,
Speaker 3: a title that would attract the kind of job that
Speaker 3: you're wanting right now. But thing really clearly like when
Speaker 3: I when I I craft my LinkedIn or when I
Speaker 3: was crafting my resume in my career, I wasn't thinking
Speaker 3: about the job I had. I was always thinking like
Speaker 3: what's going to impress my next opportunity? Like what's going
Speaker 3: to impress the person who has my next opportunity and
Speaker 3: make them want to, you know, have a conversation with me?
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think people are not thinking that far ahead.
Speaker 3: So that's what I will say. Thank you are so
Speaker 3: smart man.
Speaker 1: That's why we'd be leading you to you career coach.
Speaker 2: If you have questions, definitely ask us at brandabishopodcast dot
Speaker 2: com and click ask us anything you know. You can
Speaker 2: send a message via Insta.
Speaker 1: We'd love to.
Speaker 2: Answer your business, career, entrepreneurship, finance questions. It's our faith thing.
Speaker 2: Oh before we go, don't forget July twenty eighth, It
Speaker 2: is recession Day and we're doing something special to not celebrate,
Speaker 2: but to acknowledge recession day. Recession Day is just the
Speaker 2: day that we will know officially, officially if we have
Speaker 2: entered into our recession as the United States of America,
Speaker 2: because that means we'll have two consecutive quarters, so six
Speaker 2: months of economic downturn basically, And so Mandy and I
Speaker 2: are committed to being here for you on Recession Day.
Speaker 2: So on that twenty eighth, we will be going live
Speaker 2: via our YouTube channel. To just type in Brown and
Speaker 2: Vision on YouTube. Go follow it now so you don't
Speaker 2: miss out. And if you stalk our socials, we're going
Speaker 2: to tell you exactly what time. If you're on our newsletter,
Speaker 2: which you ought to be, go to Brannivision podcast dot
Speaker 2: com to sign up for our newsletter and we'll let
Speaker 2: you know and give you a direct link. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: can join us for a Recession Day so we can
Speaker 2: tell you our rein of recession, what to do if
Speaker 2: we are, what to do if we're not.
Speaker 1: You know what we're doing to prepare, what you can
Speaker 1: do to prepare.
Speaker 3: Like a question mark at the end of that title,
Speaker 3: like recession Day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ooh, I like that, the Recession Day YouTube life.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you whether to cry or to celebrate. We'll
Speaker 3: see y'all next.
Speaker 1: Week, all right, Bye, bye, Hey ba fan.
Speaker 3: We could not do this show without your support or
Speaker 3: the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown
Speaker 3: Ambission Podcast is produced by Cumulus podcast Network. It's edited
Speaker 3: by the wonderful Imani Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos.
Speaker 3: Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I
Speaker 3: am Bandy Woodard Santos, your co host, and I will
Speaker 3: see y'all next week