Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: We're black, We're brown.
Speaker 1: Ambition ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition. Hey mandra, Hi, gorgeous.
Speaker 2: How are you with your beautiful here today?
Speaker 3: Well I'm hanging in there, you know, I am. But
Speaker 3: the sun is shining. And we survived the biblical floods
Speaker 3: in the on the on the East Coast on Friday.
Speaker 2: That was fun.
Speaker 3: It was It was biblical and I mean it, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was nuts. But shout out to my community, my neighbors.
Speaker 3: We all rallied together and one mom stayed at the
Speaker 3: bus stop because so the other moms who were stuck
Speaker 3: in traffic and couldn't get home for their kids pick
Speaker 3: up early pickup dismissal and you know, and one of
Speaker 3: my friends, one of my neighbors, Lynn, came and watched
Speaker 3: my baby while I got early from school.
Speaker 2: Walk You couldn't even drive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I could have, but I didn't want to
Speaker 3: get It would have been fine going there, but I
Speaker 3: would have been stuck in so much traffic getting back
Speaker 3: that I figured, let me just park the car. And
Speaker 3: I just told myself, it's like ten city blocks, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. Like a New Yorker, you just
Speaker 3: like whatever, and Rio had he had a ball. He
Speaker 3: was like, this is fine. There's water features. Now there's police. Hell,
Speaker 3: there's like police fireboats and fire trucks and fire people
Speaker 3: and all this like commotion. And he was just he
Speaker 3: told everyone he wanted to hear that. We saw lots
Speaker 3: of flooding and the train station flooded. And but it
Speaker 3: was I mean, neighbors, basements flooded, and we're we're lucky
Speaker 3: we're on like a bit of a hill. But our
Speaker 3: neighbors at the base of the hill, yeah, got flooded.
Speaker 3: And my friend's car got flooded at the train station.
Speaker 3: It's going to be totaled. So you know, I mean luckily,
Speaker 3: no that I know of, no loss of life or
Speaker 3: injuries near here. But it was bad. And in my
Speaker 3: infinite wisdom, I was like, told the babysitter, you need
Speaker 3: a home. It looks pretty bad out there. And then
Speaker 3: well in school was like come get your kid. I
Speaker 3: was like, oops, just shot myself and that's food. So
Speaker 3: that's where my neighbor land came in. So okay, how
Speaker 3: was it a new work?
Speaker 2: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, so I flew out' actually in Atlanta right now,
Speaker 1: So when the rain started, I was flying out, thank god.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if they delayed any flights,
Speaker 1: but I had a really early flight at seven am.
Speaker 1: So I remember like like being like, what the hell
Speaker 1: because it started raining the night before and in the morning,
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's raining kind of hard, so much so
Speaker 1: that like our uber, this never happened to me before.
Speaker 1: We heard a big boom, like he drove to a
Speaker 1: puddle and we heard this like big boom and the
Speaker 1: tire blew out completely thankfully. I mean he had great
Speaker 1: control in Atlanta. No, no, this is in Jersey. On
Speaker 1: the way to the airport.
Speaker 3: Oh, I was gonna say, in Atlanta, who got the
Speaker 3: pothole posse? That was like a big thing back in
Speaker 3: the nineties.
Speaker 1: And I was like, what that never happened to before. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: We're all okay. The uber driver was so nice. I
Speaker 1: felt so bad because this tie was finitail. And so
Speaker 1: another uber picked us up and took us to the airport.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I got to Atlanta and the weather here
Speaker 1: is like eighty degrees and I'm like, wait, I'm so confused.
Speaker 2: Eighty and Sunday. I feel like I'm in the Caribbean.
Speaker 3: Ah. Yeah, but this time of year it is not
Speaker 3: incredibly humid. No, you can enjoy that little dry eighty
Speaker 3: It is that.
Speaker 1: Yes, I have to say, it's really I mean, I
Speaker 1: like brought geens and I'm like why literally it's shortened
Speaker 1: tank top weather.
Speaker 2: I'm so confused. My body is like I'm confused.
Speaker 3: You're probably gonna get sick now.
Speaker 1: Because it's just really really so I'm out here because
Speaker 1: I did this conference called a three C.
Speaker 2: I said a three c AC three A three C,
Speaker 2: which is like this.
Speaker 1: Conference focused on finance, tech and entertainment, and so it
Speaker 1: was great, Like the networking has been amazing. I forget
Speaker 1: how people down south are so nice. Everyone is like,
Speaker 1: you know, like sometimes you go to like a conference
Speaker 1: and you speak or whatever, and you just feel like
Speaker 1: the other speakers are not quite as welcoming.
Speaker 2: But that is not the case here.
Speaker 1: I've heard that, in particular that Atlanta, the black professionals
Speaker 1: are really just open to being like I'm doing this,
Speaker 1: how can I help you?
Speaker 2: And you know, let's collaborate.
Speaker 1: That there's this a collaborative kind of like energy here
Speaker 1: and I mean I could see it full time, like
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example, the master investor Ian his
Speaker 1: he had a bodyguard. So Ian's like on that market
Speaker 1: Mondays with Erner Leisure, you know, yeah yeah, and.
Speaker 3: So we had him on the podcast with them mm hm.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm yeah, and so like he had the bodyguard, bodyguard,
Speaker 1: big guy, muscular, all this, and so I ended up
Speaker 1: just talking to him and I was just like, you
Speaker 1: know how you know, like, are your body gud for
Speaker 1: other people? He named some other rappers. He's like, I'll
Speaker 1: never want to do that work, he said, because rappers
Speaker 1: are the biggest punks. He was like, you know, I've
Speaker 1: had rappers punch people in the face and look at
Speaker 1: me like you got them right.
Speaker 2: It's like wait, Like he.
Speaker 1: Was like, I would love to be like do more
Speaker 1: like of the finance guys, which I I think it's
Speaker 1: hilarious that finance guys now have like bodyguards, but whatever,
Speaker 1: he said, because you know they're super chill. You're just
Speaker 1: more so that no one's going to steal from you
Speaker 1: or or whatever. And so but he was telling me,
Speaker 1: he was like, actually, you know, like I'm an accountant
Speaker 1: by trade.
Speaker 2: I mean this guy is.
Speaker 1: Massive, like six two sixty four, I mean muscles, on
Speaker 1: muscles and I was like really. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I started doing accounting and I really want
Speaker 1: to get into finance. And he was like, so one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I made the switch into doing body
Speaker 1: bodyguard work for this industry is because proximity I.
Speaker 2: Want to learn.
Speaker 1: I just thought that was so awesome, you know, and
Speaker 1: he was like he is away cover. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: just love that for him. I was like, okay, so yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was just.
Speaker 3: You've mentioned before that financial like pros influencers now have bodyguards,
Speaker 3: and I was like, wow, we reached that stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, not me, because he asked me,
Speaker 1: did I have one? And I was like, no, No,
Speaker 1: one's run.
Speaker 2: Up on only.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would be shit, but your vibe is different
Speaker 3: than some Yeah, I have a master investor with his marketing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it could be a target.
Speaker 2: You know me, I'm gonna target Marshall's girls. So you
Speaker 2: go see me there and be like, hey, girl, we're
Speaker 2: gonna run.
Speaker 3: On say that a lot.
Speaker 2: I see why.
Speaker 3: Now, don't take me for ransom. No, my family can
Speaker 3: afford me. I'm the money. Ooh, maybe they'll take someone.
Speaker 3: Oh no, not baby, Lisa. This is where my head
Speaker 3: is going, they're gonna kidnap you, so they're gonna hold
Speaker 3: you for ransoms, gonna be all this crypto.
Speaker 2: Okay, but but I do that. I just so, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just been like that was really cool.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk about like so it was
Speaker 1: so crazy because you know, the phones be listening. So
Speaker 1: when I was I landed in Atlanta and I'd opened
Speaker 1: up my Instagram and there was this post saying that
Speaker 1: the Atlanta that nobody wants you to see. And I
Speaker 1: was like, huh, And it was like this post of
Speaker 1: this woman who was showing parts of downtown Atlanta where
Speaker 1: like just a lot of unhoused people, just like areas
Speaker 1: that were little CD looking and I was like, this
Speaker 1: is like.
Speaker 2: When I first.
Speaker 1: Landed, I didn't think anything of it until I got
Speaker 1: to to my hotel where I'm staying. It's in midtown,
Speaker 1: like literally well directly downtown downtown, and the day I landed,
Speaker 1: it was still we landed pretty early, and I said, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know me, I love my walks. I said, let
Speaker 1: me go for a walk. I can say I have
Speaker 1: traveled to many different places. I mean just this year alone, Egypt, Kenya,
Speaker 1: you know London, Paris, off Ey Coast, and I live
Speaker 1: in Newark. I have not felt unsafe like this in
Speaker 1: a long time. Downtown there were so many unhoused people.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't the unhoused park, but it was the
Speaker 1: unhoused that were unwell. It was there were so many
Speaker 1: aggressive like either whereabouts.
Speaker 3: Which is that just downtown? Like where are we talking? Yeah?
Speaker 3: A landmark?
Speaker 1: So okay, so I'm not really good at like.
Speaker 3: Like Centennial Park at Mercedes Stadium.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so by Mercedes Stadium, but also too by like
Speaker 1: Peach peaked Peach was it Peach Street?
Speaker 3: Okay, well there's seventy five.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm just like I mean, but like like
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I think, like the chance is that the
Speaker 1: Candler Hotel, which is like right downtown.
Speaker 2: Okay, I can't even I'm just like, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't have my my my my barrier. But I mean,
Speaker 1: but even I walked about three miles one way and back,
Speaker 1: you know, so I got to see, like I mean,
Speaker 1: certainly there are parts I'm like, oh, okay, this is
Speaker 1: clearly a part like you know them.
Speaker 2: Gets a little nicer, yes, But I was really shocked.
Speaker 1: Like like I said, unhouse people you know, I see
Speaker 1: all the time, but the amount that were I don't
Speaker 1: know whether it was you know, under the influence or
Speaker 1: there's just mental health, but the the sheer amount. Maybe
Speaker 1: there was literally street where the whole street was just
Speaker 1: people laying and not just laying like you know, like
Speaker 1: off to the side, but in the middle of the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: I just was like, wait, what it seemed like a movie,
Speaker 1: like it seemed you could film of zombie Apocalypse and
Speaker 1: be like you don't have to twitch anything.
Speaker 2: And I just I've.
Speaker 1: Never seen there was so so you know, the Martyr,
Speaker 1: so you know, the big five points Marta.
Speaker 2: That was when it was like the word I was.
Speaker 1: There was one side of downtown Atlanta on that that
Speaker 1: train station, and the other side I never it looked
Speaker 1: like and abandoned.
Speaker 2: Like I can't even describe it.
Speaker 1: There must have been like fifty or sixty men standing
Speaker 1: outside of this Walgreens just kind of like standing waiting,
Speaker 1: I don't know for you know, like and it just
Speaker 1: was heartbreaking to see. And I just I didn't I
Speaker 1: guess I'm like, I honestly was at a loss for words.
Speaker 2: You know. There were parts where I'm like this is
Speaker 2: the this is where it's.
Speaker 1: The smell of urine made me gag, Like right outside
Speaker 1: the Martar station where I'm just like, people are just
Speaker 1: like literally police tapping people to see are they still
Speaker 1: here with us? Because of the way they were just
Speaker 1: laid out. I've never seen anything like it, and so
Speaker 1: I I went. They had this African Caribbean festival. I
Speaker 1: went there yesterday, which was great fun, It was great.
Speaker 1: And on the way back, I ordered an uber and
Speaker 1: it was this young woman who I went to high
Speaker 1: school with, Keana.
Speaker 2: I was, Oh, my god, Keana, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: You know she lives she grew up in Jersey and
Speaker 1: we just got to talking and I asked her about it.
Speaker 1: She said, yeah, it's been getting worse and worse and worse.
Speaker 1: And then she informed me that in August alone, I think,
Speaker 1: I want to say, she said August or maybe the July,
Speaker 1: there were eighty thousand evictions, not in the state of Georgia,
Speaker 1: in Atlanta alone, and I was just like, what's really
Speaker 1: happening that it is becoming it gets becoming too expensive
Speaker 1: for basic needs. Everything is going up but income, and
Speaker 1: so I'm just wondering, like city to city to city
Speaker 1: is this kind of like what's happening, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like where people just don't even like you
Speaker 1: can't we talk about like, oh I can't afford a house,
Speaker 1: That's one thing, but literally I can't afford to have
Speaker 1: a safe place to lay my head. It seems like
Speaker 1: that's what's happening.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I've read someplace too that the current president has this
Speaker 1: like affordability housing crisis, like kind of my task force
Speaker 1: or something that like, because yeah, I just well.
Speaker 3: The thing is, and you know, I knew you were
Speaker 3: going to talk about this, and I was coming today
Speaker 3: to talk about the childcare cliff because my store, my
Speaker 3: head heads at is like, you know, the incredible cost
Speaker 3: of childcare and how little we give a fuck about
Speaker 3: children in this country. And it's so sad. I'm like
Speaker 3: shaking my grippy socks that I got so I will
Speaker 3: slip in my heartwood floors and in my research over that,
Speaker 3: I'm like, and you talking about this. These are I
Speaker 3: feel like two issues that have been well, they were
Speaker 3: already in existence right pre pandemic. The unhoused you know
Speaker 3: in Atlanta. I mean, go back to the Olympics, if
Speaker 3: you recall like in the nineties when we had the
Speaker 3: Olympics in Atlanta, it was a city too busy to hate,
Speaker 3: you know, and they all have the sparkling marketing campaign,
Speaker 3: and yet they were like shoveling the homeless off the
Speaker 3: steps of downtown Atlanta, like get out of here. We
Speaker 3: don't want this on the brochure, you know, we don't
Speaker 3: want people like you Tiffany visiting Atlanta for the Olympics
Speaker 3: and being distracted by this riff rap, you know, this
Speaker 3: the mess under the bed, the mess that we shove
Speaker 3: in the closet, and I you know, and yeah, and
Speaker 3: Atlanta is victim to the same forces that have pushed out,
Speaker 3: you know, low to middle income people. Even in New York,
Speaker 3: where I moved to thirteen yeah, thirteen years ago, you
Speaker 3: get pushed further and further and further away. You're not
Speaker 3: erasing the problem, but because of rising prices and gentrification
Speaker 3: and no social safety nets, you just you know, shove
Speaker 3: the problem out. And I think in Atlanta, what's interesting
Speaker 3: and not interesting? But in New York there's Heidi holes,
Speaker 3: there's everything is so big and so massive, and there's
Speaker 3: so many distractions, and you have the subway system where
Speaker 3: a lot of the unhoused will seek refuge and you
Speaker 3: have you do have shelters, but they're tucked away and
Speaker 3: you know there's I think they they sort of and
Speaker 3: with the yeah, they're spread. You know, it's so much
Speaker 3: area in Atlanta, I think because the relationship most people
Speaker 3: have with the city is through driving. Like you don't
Speaker 3: walk Atlanta. Like you were walking Atlanta, you don't typically
Speaker 3: do that. The city is moving toward more of a
Speaker 3: walking culture. They finally have the the what do you
Speaker 3: call that that pathway everyone walks on in Atlanta. I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't think of it anyway. But so all that
Speaker 3: to say is it was already a problem. But that
Speaker 3: and also the lack of childcare, they were both issues before.
Speaker 3: But during the pandemic what happened. We finally got our
Speaker 3: shit together and had some social safety nets put in place.
Speaker 3: So you had the eviction moratorium, which is one thing
Speaker 3: that was put in place that until this past summer.
Speaker 3: A lot of the in Atlanta is one of those states,
Speaker 3: or sorry, one of those cities where the eviction moratorium
Speaker 3: expired and they chose not to continue it. And that's
Speaker 3: where you got that eighty thousand, you know number, and
Speaker 3: then I looked in September it was twelve thousand, So
Speaker 3: it's come down from that peak. But you see how
Speaker 3: many people were on the cusp, you know. And at
Speaker 3: the same time, we also right now are just fell
Speaker 3: off of a childcare cliff, Like all this extra funding
Speaker 3: that the government provided childcare centers during the pandemic so
Speaker 3: they could stay open, so they could pay their staff
Speaker 3: has also expired. And I'm having a I know that
Speaker 3: we averted the government shut down, and I don't know
Speaker 3: if it's because it's just not a headline issue, but
Speaker 3: I can't figure out did we go over the cliff?
Speaker 3: I don't I think we did. I don't think it
Speaker 3: was saved in this forty five day extension of the
Speaker 3: federal budget. So I without these and I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that the eviction moratorium that was never going to solve homelessness.
Speaker 3: It was it was bad for landowners land you know,
Speaker 3: landlords and you know homeowners and home and all that
Speaker 3: it was. It wasn't a perfect solution. Neither would injecting
Speaker 3: an infusion of cash into childcare because the reality is
Speaker 3: that it's just so expensive and families can't afford it,
Speaker 3: so they needed those subsidies or else they would have
Speaker 3: to start as they have been passing on the cost
Speaker 3: to families and losing customers that way, or losing their
Speaker 3: staff to like my son's daycare that he used to
Speaker 3: go to before I finally got access to you universal
Speaker 3: pre K, they had several of his teachers that quit
Speaker 3: in the last few months. And this daycare was known
Speaker 3: for not having a lot of turnover, which is quite
Speaker 3: you know, hard to do, and it was like they
Speaker 3: were getting higher wages somewhere else. You know, these were
Speaker 3: great people that they lost, and it's just it just
Speaker 3: makes me think of the lack of so safety nets.
Speaker 3: And call me a bleeding heart liberal all you want,
Speaker 3: but not we have. We can't not care about the
Speaker 3: most vulnerable children, the chronically mentally ill, of course, the elderly.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can feel it, but I
Speaker 2: can feel it just.
Speaker 1: From just talking casually to friends that we're doing fine,
Speaker 1: who are not doing fine. I'm talking about people who
Speaker 1: have you know, college education and degrees and experience and
Speaker 1: haven't at work for months and months and months. I mean,
Speaker 1: you see it with your many money makers, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're in this like dangerous tipping point
Speaker 1: where you know, the economy is you know, I mean
Speaker 1: one of the things I heard on the panel over
Speaker 1: and over. I was on the financial panel with ian
Speaker 1: master investor, a really big real estate investor. His name
Speaker 1: is Cedric Nash Melinda high Tower. I think she is
Speaker 1: the oh I forget, she is the managing director. I
Speaker 1: think of like USB UBS that's a big a of
Speaker 1: their multicultural it's a.
Speaker 3: Big BBS the bank, the investment bank.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and then MAC and so. One of the
Speaker 1: things that came up is that like, you know, whether
Speaker 1: they call it or not, you know that we are
Speaker 1: headed towards some rush rough financial times.
Speaker 2: But I mean you can see it.
Speaker 1: I saw someone posts they they use an app to
Speaker 1: order groceries, and they said, let me show you how
Speaker 1: much my groceries cost in twenty twenty versus twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: And it was like this water I normally get, you know,
Speaker 1: the same quantity was, you know, four dollars now it's
Speaker 1: six seventy five.
Speaker 2: Things were some things you know up one hundred. And
Speaker 2: it's like, how.
Speaker 1: Like I don't I think people don't I've you know,
Speaker 1: my parents are from a country when where there is
Speaker 1: no middle class and it's just uber wealthy and the
Speaker 1: vast majority of people don't have and it makes for
Speaker 1: very dangerous living. Because I did not feel safe walking
Speaker 1: down downtown two o'clock in the afternoon Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I mean, the like.
Speaker 1: People were just approaching me in ways that were really
Speaker 1: aggressive and scary, and I, like, I said, I live
Speaker 1: in Newark, where I'm just like, okay, you know, I've
Speaker 1: never felt unsafe walking downtown Newark.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, you know, you keep your eyes about you,
Speaker 2: You're like okay.
Speaker 1: But no, it was a different level of aggression that
Speaker 1: I had not experienced. So I just am there is
Speaker 1: something happening, and there's a shift coming that's not a
Speaker 1: good one.
Speaker 2: And I can feel like I can feel in.
Speaker 1: The people that I serve because the advice I used
Speaker 1: to give before was like management, It's like, okay, and
Speaker 1: make a little more here, budget tighter here. And now
Speaker 1: it's like that doesn't work unless I don't eat, don't this,
Speaker 1: don't like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just really worrying, and I'm not really sure
Speaker 2: what to do about it.
Speaker 3: I just yeah, you say you mentioned a tipping point
Speaker 3: and I also makes me think of what's happening in
Speaker 3: New York very much on our doorstep is the migrant
Speaker 3: crisis and the fact that the governor of Texas and
Speaker 3: legislators there bust migrants from the border to you know,
Speaker 3: these coastal cities like New York, DC, and New York has,
Speaker 3: like you the picture you were painting of Atlanta is
Speaker 3: what downtown you know, Manhattan has been looking like because
Speaker 3: all these migrants are here and they don't have anywhere
Speaker 3: to go. They're overrun with housing. And New York actually
Speaker 3: has this law that a lot of people didn't realize
Speaker 3: or didn't know about so much until now that if
Speaker 3: you come to New York, you're guaranteed a roof over
Speaker 3: your head. I figure what the law is called. So
Speaker 3: a lot of you know people, these migrants, when they
Speaker 3: get here, you know, they're just like shepherded here and
Speaker 3: uses the political football. But then they're like, oh, new
Speaker 3: York has this guaranteed housing thing, let's tell everyone. And
Speaker 3: so New York's kind of becoming like more of a
Speaker 3: destination because of this policy, which is you know, proliferating
Speaker 3: that problem we already couldn't handle. The unhoused before these
Speaker 3: migrants came, however, and it is it's become very artists
Speaker 3: and Republicans sent them here to make a point that,
Speaker 3: you know, your lack of immigration policy reform, I know
Speaker 3: that it's everyone's, but yeah, of course pointing the thing
Speaker 3: are at Democrats like what if it's on your doorstep?
Speaker 3: Would you be as lacks of daisical as you have
Speaker 3: been about this kind of issue? And you know what
Speaker 3: the reality is? They kind of have a point. Yeah,
Speaker 3: sometimes you need it to be on your own goddamn doorsteps,
Speaker 3: in your face, hurting your and you know, your nostrils
Speaker 3: being in you know, assaulted by the stench, your life
Speaker 3: at risk. And then you can just expand the same argument,
Speaker 3: the same thing out to so many other issues, gun violence,
Speaker 3: you know, until it's your child, I didn't care about kids,
Speaker 3: and I'll admit it until I had my own, which
Speaker 3: is a damn shame. There's like a lack of empathy,
Speaker 3: a lack of caring for people that are out of sight,
Speaker 3: out of mind, And I don't know what the solution
Speaker 3: for that is other than you know, the pandemic took
Speaker 3: away the distractions that so many of us had to
Speaker 3: stop from looking at these issues. And when things got
Speaker 3: back to.
Speaker 2: Normal, they're worse than before.
Speaker 3: We went right back to our old habits, our old
Speaker 3: ways anything, and they're worse than ever.
Speaker 1: And I think to myself of like, because I was
Speaker 1: talking to a couple, like some of my young mentees,
Speaker 1: and you know, they felt immune because you know, they
Speaker 1: were gigging it to success, you know, they social media
Speaker 1: TikTok it. Well, I'm making money, making money, so much
Speaker 1: of that is dried up, honestly. And now they're like, wait,
Speaker 1: you mean to tell me that YouTube is not going
Speaker 1: to save me? So what do I do now? And
Speaker 1: so that's what's coming up, and they're like, I think
Speaker 1: I have to get a job. This is what I
Speaker 1: part from a few of my you know, young mentees.
Speaker 1: But I'm not even sure what does that look like.
Speaker 1: I haven't had one, and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lie.
Speaker 2: I feel like chicken little.
Speaker 3: This guy is probably this guy? Oh god, I know
Speaker 3: that means be worried for Generation Z and the what
Speaker 3: is it after them? I don't know, but thinking that
Speaker 3: influencer is any different than a I mean or or
Speaker 3: you know, influencer, an entrepreneur. I suppose you could call
Speaker 3: influencing entrepreneurial. Sure, but unless you got a business case,
Speaker 3: a business structure, a business plan, you treat it like
Speaker 3: a business. That'd be like McDonald's, you know, only ever
Speaker 3: serving French fries, like we're a French fry restaurant, Come
Speaker 3: get your fringe fries, and ignoring the other ways. The
Speaker 3: other you know, things products and services that people need
Speaker 3: to diversify their their own revenue streams. And I've always
Speaker 3: I've had I've taken that approach as an influencer myself.
Speaker 3: I don't think of myself as an influencer first at all.
Speaker 3: That money if I get it, and if you know,
Speaker 3: I don't do I have like two brand partners this year,
Speaker 3: and even then you probably don't know because I don't
Speaker 3: post that. I don't have relationships where it's like post
Speaker 3: are real every day and you know. But anyway, when
Speaker 3: I take them and it is, you know, it can
Speaker 3: be great. But I'm not expecting to have that money
Speaker 3: replicated because first of all, I worked in marketing. I
Speaker 3: know what happens to those budgets when the economy is bad.
Speaker 1: The first one for real, It's true, Yeah, No, it's
Speaker 1: absolutely true, because I mean they have to like, you know, marketing.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's like the first thing to cut.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, like you know we we
Speaker 1: affiliate stuff is stuff that we kind of were doing
Speaker 1: on the side. And literally I was like, oh oh,
Speaker 1: because we all got these messages in September saying or
Speaker 1: it was August saying tap tap tap tap, so so
Speaker 1: great that you share our links.
Speaker 2: You could continue to do so, but we don't have
Speaker 2: any Monday.
Speaker 1: I was like, literally within one week, like four or
Speaker 1: five of the people that we have these relationships with
Speaker 1: said and I was like, you know, I told.
Speaker 3: You the affiliate link. Yeah, that's that's how I knew you.
Speaker 3: For every customer we gave you twenty five cents or whatever.
Speaker 1: So I was like, okay, you know we always I
Speaker 1: kind of knew that already, so we always planned for like, okay,
Speaker 1: that's a smaller part of the business.
Speaker 2: But I wasn't shocked.
Speaker 1: And so what one thing we did learn is that like,
Speaker 1: because some places we drive a good amount of traffic,
Speaker 1: so we would reach out and say like, hey, that's fine,
Speaker 1: but we have this like like I was doing the
Speaker 1: Literature Challenge six months later, like because we're now we're
Speaker 1: doing it twice a year, and I said, we're doing
Speaker 1: the challenge, but thanks for letting us, so we'll just
Speaker 1: take you out.
Speaker 2: They were like wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
Speaker 2: wait wait.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes they won't have It's not that the marketing
Speaker 1: budget is cut completely, it's just they're using it more wisely.
Speaker 1: And so they were like, Tiffany, you'r you know, so
Speaker 1: there's some of them. We were like, oh, okay, let's
Speaker 1: continue the relationship and just monitor.
Speaker 3: All right, va fam, stay tuned for more from Brown Ambition.
Speaker 3: And we are back with more from Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the things I peeped very early on when
Speaker 1: I started the Budgetista was I remember, just because nobody
Speaker 1: wanted to rock with me as a black woman the
Speaker 1: financial space serving black women, and they made a baby clear.
Speaker 1: That's why I said, I have to create my own
Speaker 1: like almost like like create my own farm on my
Speaker 1: own homestead, because I don't, you know, I might not
Speaker 1: be able to go to the supermarket which is partnering
Speaker 1: with stores because everybody else, all my other friends were
Speaker 1: able to do so.
Speaker 2: And so I'm so glad. I did you know, I
Speaker 2: build my own things.
Speaker 1: On the budgetist side, I built the literature Academy, we
Speaker 1: had this podcast, so we were building our own things.
Speaker 1: And so when those things go up and down, certainly
Speaker 1: I'm not happy about it, but it's not like that's
Speaker 1: the whole business, which is like who they good for that?
Speaker 1: You know? But yeah, so when I see influencers, you know,
Speaker 1: send tens of thousands of people to this company, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you could also be influencing to your own product and service.
Speaker 1: Spend that time to create something for yourself so that
Speaker 1: way when they say no, you still have something.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'm just checking our bank account balance for BA
Speaker 3: and like.
Speaker 1: Oh right, whatever, it's not for man, It's like, so
Speaker 1: go ahead and go ahead and take put.
Speaker 2: A little something.
Speaker 3: I'm know how I became the CFO of people looking.
Speaker 1: Because you know, I'm renovating now, but kind of I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess I will get that style air.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. The and and the reason I checked is
Speaker 3: because your point about you know, they will spend you
Speaker 3: know where they're where they They're just more judicious about
Speaker 3: spending their marketing dollars. And that's where I'm just and
Speaker 3: then the light of like, like you said, this economy
Speaker 3: and the tightening in the economy, a lot of marketing
Speaker 3: dollars being gone, and yet Brown ambition our biggest year
Speaker 3: for revenue. Quality care about money until like you're sick.
Speaker 2: Quality.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the key quality audience engaged on.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: I mean, but for real, though it's true that like that,
Speaker 1: it's not everybody doesn't get cut. I mean certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: but like everyone doesn't get cut because if you blue quality.
Speaker 2: If you you know, if.
Speaker 1: You you know, because yes, people just someone's always going
Speaker 1: to need to market or whatever it is they're doing.
Speaker 1: And if there's a thousand people, you know, they might
Speaker 1: keep the top five. And so if you bring excellence
Speaker 1: to the table. I always tell this to my mentees,
Speaker 1: if you bring excellence to the table, a space at
Speaker 1: the table will always be made for you, you know.
Speaker 1: Or better yet, you might have your own table where
Speaker 1: you're like, well we eat good over her either way,
Speaker 1: yeah you know, so yeah, no, I just yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that first because I'm saying thinking to myself, you know,
Speaker 1: when I started my mentor Tiffany dot com, like my
Speaker 1: mentor first of all my mentees came out and I'm
Speaker 1: having dinner with them tonight in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Oh you know, we know I'm gonna do that at
Speaker 2: the Brown Booth.
Speaker 3: We must, yes, but uh, Atlanta must go hard for
Speaker 3: the bunch.
Speaker 2: Of Yeah, tickets soldale.
Speaker 1: But but but one of the things that like I
Speaker 1: have just learned, like I said, is that like what
Speaker 1: can you create, like you know, and how can you
Speaker 1: bring excellence to the table That typically is takes a
Speaker 1: like consistent investment of your time and energy. Like That's
Speaker 1: why I love like seeing how you created money, Mandy
Speaker 1: money makers, because you learn firsthand being on the other side, like, oh,
Speaker 1: someone could just decide nope, we don't want y'all.
Speaker 2: You're like wait, wa wait, whoa wa what what?
Speaker 1: But when it's your thing, like it really is like
Speaker 1: as long as I'm willing to show up and put
Speaker 1: in the work, although it might be really hard work
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's overwhelming and sometimes it just seems like
Speaker 1: so much, at least it's in your hands, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, yeah I can. Yeah, No, one thousand percent.
Speaker 3: I didn't. I was very uncomfortable with want, with like
Speaker 3: the waiting for a check, because even if you do
Speaker 3: have these relationships, like you ain't going to see that
Speaker 3: money right away. It's very shout out to my shout
Speaker 3: out to my admin louda, because if I do not
Speaker 3: respond to her invoice within an hour, I get the
Speaker 3: ping ons like hey, it's the men in the invoice. Hey.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I'm gonna get to it today, I
Speaker 3: promise you. And also it takes my shit like sixty
Speaker 3: days to come through. I'm like telling these brands.
Speaker 2: Like, hey, where's my money?
Speaker 3: Anyway, I really hated that feeling, and because of that,
Speaker 3: I do pay very, very swiftly yes, okay loud to
Speaker 3: okay amber On.
Speaker 1: So as a small business owner, when I navigate where
Speaker 1: contractors are small businesses, I don't play about they money
Speaker 1: because I know one week, two weeks, like what that
Speaker 1: can do to a.
Speaker 2: Business, and so like I do not Yeah, I do
Speaker 2: not play it.
Speaker 1: And even like I know you hear Mandy and I,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you haven't listened from the very beginning,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't know our humble beginnings of like how you
Speaker 1: know money was saying for a long time, personally humble beginning.
Speaker 3: I'm in the humble now. I'm trying to hang with you,
Speaker 3: Tiff and your rich auntie lifestyle.
Speaker 2: But even still, let me tell you.
Speaker 3: About the thing is, I've been getting the money while
Speaker 3: I've been having the you know, the children and the family,
Speaker 3: and it's like where I'm breaking my own life. If
Speaker 3: you don't want to, if you want to follow my
Speaker 3: advice to not have lifestyle inflation, don't have kids, learn
Speaker 3: it from me first. You I'm like, when am I
Speaker 3: ever getting my feel like I have money again?
Speaker 1: You will? But I got to say, honly I live
Speaker 1: so far below my means. Like so even when you
Speaker 1: see me pop out like, oh my gosh, you bought
Speaker 1: a condoct know that I live. At one point, especially
Speaker 1: when I was like breaking in the door, I was
Speaker 1: living at ten percent of what I was making, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was still good money. But meaning that, I've
Speaker 1: always been conscious that, you know, if I make a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of money, say like seven figures in a year,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to live out half half a million.
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know, because one, I think I can
Speaker 1: live a really great life at like you know, we're
Speaker 1: one two manny, and I not that everyone has to
Speaker 1: do this. I'm big on like buying things in full,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to worry about a month to
Speaker 1: month to month because I like to keep my month
Speaker 1: to month in a way that if everything goes wrong,
Speaker 1: I'm still okay. Even when I bought my condo, if
Speaker 1: y'all remember, like my financial advisor, Angelie, was like, well,
Speaker 1: it would be my advice that you get a mortgage,
Speaker 1: and because you're a high networth individual, we can probably
Speaker 1: get you an interest rate especial behind the scenes industry,
Speaker 1: which I.
Speaker 2: Was like, that seems fair, but I'll take it. But like,
Speaker 2: you know that, like you don't have to get a regular.
Speaker 1: Person's interest rate that we can like negotiate with a bank,
Speaker 1: you know, for high network individuals to get you like
Speaker 1: a lower interest rate. And I told her, I said, honestly,
Speaker 1: I would prefer to buy the condo cash. And she said,
Speaker 1: I know you're going to say that. I said, now,
Speaker 1: knowing my financial picture, I know that the best solution
Speaker 1: is to get you know, put a decent amount down
Speaker 1: and to mortgage it and then to put that cash
Speaker 1: to work in the market. I know that that's the
Speaker 1: best solution, But is it a bad choice? Like is
Speaker 1: it like really really bad for my finances if I
Speaker 1: purchase it cash? Because there's two different things, you know,
Speaker 1: And she was like, well, it's not a bad financial choice.
Speaker 2: It's not going to harm you financially.
Speaker 1: Ideally, would have would love to put more money in
Speaker 1: the market for you, but you've already kept like there's
Speaker 1: a certain amount every year that I like to want
Speaker 1: to put up in order to reach my financial goals.
Speaker 1: She's say, you've already done that. This would just be
Speaker 1: access to that, and certainly this access can will likely
Speaker 1: grow faster than sitting in your house. But I know you, Tiffany.
Speaker 1: You like to keep your monthly expenses low. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad I did that in the beginning because
Speaker 1: I bought the house very early on the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year. And I'm so glad because this was our
Speaker 1: one of our toughest budget east to years yet as
Speaker 1: far as like business, and so we didn't do nearly
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: I didn't make nearly as much.
Speaker 1: But the one thing I wasn't stressed about is my
Speaker 1: monthly My monthly expenses did not.
Speaker 2: Increase, so I wasn't like I.
Speaker 1: Got my new work at They basically stayed the same
Speaker 1: relatively speaking, like a few hundred dollars here and there,
Speaker 1: you know, but basically stayed the same, and for me,
Speaker 1: the peace of mind of knowing that even if something
Speaker 1: I knew we were going to have a rough year
Speaker 1: this year, I could feel it even when that happens,
Speaker 1: I had kind of like already, like the car I
Speaker 1: own is paid off. The home that I live in
Speaker 1: outside of the condo, the home that I live in
Speaker 1: currently paid off. Like my bills are such that I
Speaker 1: can manage on very relative little to.
Speaker 3: What I Meanthany, how do you how do you that's
Speaker 3: so unrelatable?
Speaker 1: I'm what I'm saying is like the pullback, so he
Speaker 1: has a related bility.
Speaker 3: How do you know? I'm curous cause like for me,
Speaker 3: that's unrelatable at this point. I and I'll admit it.
Speaker 3: I went to Tiffany, you love me no matter what.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, yes, I said, you had to Tiffy's. I'm like,
Speaker 2: what are my Tiffany's.
Speaker 3: My husband wishes no. We literally, when I tell you,
Speaker 3: I don't know what he has like disassociated from reality
Speaker 3: so hard. When we went to the mall this weekend
Speaker 3: just for something to do, or last week now, he
Speaker 3: was like, let's go into the role X store. I
Speaker 3: was like and I was like, yeah, let's take our
Speaker 3: two kids and go in and pretend like we can
Speaker 3: afford any of these college tuition, you know, time pieces.
Speaker 3: And Rio was running around and I was just like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you want to try one on? Hey, sir, can we
Speaker 3: try on your most expensive role x? I can't wait?
Speaker 3: Can my three year olds? Do you have it? In
Speaker 3: his sof And Rique's like, never mind, get out, he
Speaker 3: was so anyway, But we went to pottery Barn or
Speaker 3: one of these I forget caught craiiton burro. I want,
Speaker 3: I want new betting. I want my bed to look
Speaker 3: like a picture. My bed looks ratchet, okay, even when
Speaker 3: the cleaning ladies fix it, it looks ratchet because Molly
Speaker 3: has showed through things. It doesn't look pretty like it
Speaker 3: used to anyway. And I wanted like and I was like,
Speaker 3: I want that picture. And I chose the betting. I
Speaker 3: got everything da da da da da, and I put
Speaker 3: it on after pay okay, in three but I chose
Speaker 3: the three payment option, okay, so I would have zero
Speaker 3: interest because now after pay' is like, oh you want
Speaker 3: six to twelve month options, Well, we're going to charge
Speaker 3: you like extra fees and you do end up paying
Speaker 3: more than it costs. But one thing I hate doing
Speaker 3: is paying more than something costs just to have more
Speaker 3: time to do it. So anyway, but that's my no,
Speaker 3: I don't me that's my confession.
Speaker 1: I learned early on that, like, whatever it took, I
Speaker 1: had to figure out a way I wasn't always able to.
Speaker 1: I had to figure out a way to live under
Speaker 1: my means. That's how I got here.
Speaker 2: So like he was like, literally, I was living in
Speaker 2: a room.
Speaker 1: I was thirty something years old, and I was like,
Speaker 1: living under my means meant renting a room. A bunch
Speaker 1: of my friends also have branded rooms in that same
Speaker 1: and I would between the ages I want to say,
Speaker 1: twenty nine to thirty three.
Speaker 2: I did that.
Speaker 1: I was people like, oh, I can never do that,
Speaker 1: and you might have kids whatever, but I'm just saying that.
Speaker 1: And I remember I drove like the radiest car, which
Speaker 1: I was like, I would likely walk more often. There
Speaker 1: were times when I did speaking engagements when I'm like,
Speaker 1: they wanted to, like, you know, park my car, and
Speaker 1: I was pretty certain it wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Turn back on.
Speaker 3: I remember that car, So I was like that white car.
Speaker 2: Oh, I could hear it. I mean, and there were.
Speaker 1: Times when I'm like, I'm just gonna park down the
Speaker 1: street and walk up. And so I'm not saying people like,
Speaker 1: oh I won't do that, get I get it. But
Speaker 1: for me, it was like I had to figure out
Speaker 1: two things how to make extra income. I baby said,
Speaker 1: I tutored, I started the business, but you know whatever
Speaker 1: that kind of looked like.
Speaker 2: And then I.
Speaker 1: Really had to viciously cut back on my expenses to
Speaker 1: create space to then invest in my life. And so
Speaker 1: to me, the investment was in my business. Yours might
Speaker 1: be investing in the market and might be investing in bonds.
Speaker 2: It might be, but that's really what it is.
Speaker 1: You have to create financial space, and in the beginning
Speaker 1: you might not be able to do that, so you
Speaker 1: just try to create space so you can just pay
Speaker 1: your bills on time. I would say for the first
Speaker 1: three years it was like I just don't want to
Speaker 1: be in the negative, which I was.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's times when I was like I just
Speaker 2: don't have it. There's just my.
Speaker 1: Account just says negative and I will call and cry
Speaker 1: on the phone and be like, oh what can I do?
Speaker 1: Like that was life, you know, for the longest like
Speaker 1: this part of my life is the newest part of
Speaker 1: my life, you know. But I only got here from
Speaker 1: a place and still I still use those same principles,
Speaker 1: which is I still live tremendously under what I make
Speaker 1: and you know, but not from a place of like
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm depriving myself.
Speaker 2: Y'all know.
Speaker 1: I just came back from vacation. But even then, I
Speaker 1: was like, can I use points? You know, what are
Speaker 1: other ways to go about? You know, like I mean,
Speaker 1: Angelie tells me all the time, and I probably do
Speaker 1: I underspend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So to be honest, and I've been wondering like
Speaker 3: I should just say it because I want to. I
Speaker 3: want to be transparent. And I was just talking to
Speaker 3: my I posted about my six figure book deal because
Speaker 3: it was it is, okay, it's a fact on because
Speaker 3: I wanted to share, just like you have with me,
Speaker 3: been so generous with how it happens. I wanted to.
Speaker 3: I want to spread the message here's how you get
Speaker 3: a nonfiction book done. Here's how I did it. Rather
Speaker 3: so the focus wasn't on the headline I did that.
Speaker 3: I did my journalist thing. I want to grab attention,
Speaker 3: get you to the caption right. But in doing that,
Speaker 3: I my husband, for example, doesn't listen to the podcast
Speaker 3: because you know, he gets enough of me at home.
Speaker 3: And he told me, oh, my coworkers, I think we're
Speaker 3: rich or something because I saw your posts on IG
Speaker 3: and I was like, first of all, no, second of all,
Speaker 3: they don't understand book math and all this stuff, and
Speaker 3: they just read the headline and saw and I never
Speaker 3: want to be putting up ooh. I would hate don't
Speaker 3: tip the minute you see me front and acting like
Speaker 3: I got when I don't, because how much of that
Speaker 3: figure six figures is in my pocket right now? You
Speaker 3: know exactly because it pays out. I got two years
Speaker 3: span zero. I haven't even got the contract size. I haven't,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't get my first check tol then
Speaker 3: and even then he's like the cut there and the
Speaker 3: cut there, and the agency and the taxes and all
Speaker 3: that anyway. But my reality is like I have struggled.
Speaker 3: I haven't struggled to create income as a business owner.
Speaker 3: And I and to anyone who looks at me, and
Speaker 3: I know some Mandi money makers have mentioned that I
Speaker 3: have to remind them, Yes, I started Mandy money Makers
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one, but I had eight years of
Speaker 3: brand ambition, six years whatever it was before that. I had,
Speaker 3: you know, a brand that I was building. I had
Speaker 3: like a foundation, a platform that you don't have when
Speaker 3: you just like if I had started a bakery, probably
Speaker 3: would have been tougher, yes, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: but it was very aligned with what I've been doing
Speaker 3: so far. So I had given myself a head start there,
Speaker 3: but anyway, didn't have trouble creating income streams. Haven't gotten
Speaker 3: financially good at maintaining a budget on income that fluctuates.
Speaker 3: And I'll be the first to admit so because of
Speaker 3: these things like you know, ooh, I'll get like a
Speaker 3: great deal, but you're not going to see that money
Speaker 3: for a few months. And I know I'm going to
Speaker 3: get the money and I'm not stressed, but then this
Speaker 3: bill and this tuition payment is due, and it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: this isn't comfortable, and it's so that I'm I don't
Speaker 3: have enough. I don't have so much coming in that
Speaker 3: it saves me from those months where I'm like, hmmm,
Speaker 3: we're poor, but like we're not poor, but like we are.
Speaker 1: You know, well, and that's because you don't have a
Speaker 1: big enough pot, so I used to. It took me
Speaker 1: a while, a few years to learn like, oh, that
Speaker 1: person is not paying me. They're paying the pot, and
Speaker 1: the pot pays me. And so it took Now here's
Speaker 1: the thing. The pot can't pay you if you don't
Speaker 1: have anything in it, you know. And so it took
Speaker 1: a while to kind of build up pot reserves and
Speaker 1: to the point now where the pot pays me either way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that takes you know, And that's okay because it takes
Speaker 1: time so slowly, but surely as money comes in.
Speaker 2: You said a little bit aside.
Speaker 3: I'm the only person on my payroll and I miss
Speaker 3: paid in August. Sorry, can't we give it one hundred?
Speaker 3: Not only did I miss payroll, I didn't even realize
Speaker 3: I missed it. And then I got into whole shenanigans
Speaker 3: with quick books. They're like, we're going to close your account?
Speaker 3: Are your accountsing collections? Because they had paid me, they
Speaker 3: like fronted me the money for my own paycheck. That
Speaker 3: should have been it was that I hadn't move the
Speaker 3: money because I was on the turnity leave and I
Speaker 3: hadn't move money from savings to my you know, checking
Speaker 3: and my business because I didn't have any checking over
Speaker 3: the summer because I didn't make no money. I was
Speaker 3: having a baby and not getting a paycheck. You guys
Speaker 3: want to know what entrepreneurship is? Is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And so I had it in savings, it wasn't in
Speaker 3: my checking account. Didn't realize that I got the emails
Speaker 3: and I'm just reading the first line like, oh money, okay,
Speaker 3: payroll something da da da da da must be fine,
Speaker 3: And I just got to go ahead, only to find
Speaker 3: out those emails were like collections emails because they want
Speaker 3: their money back because they gave me the money. And
Speaker 3: then what happened to your girl, Tiff. I've never felt
Speaker 3: so ashamed and broke, but like real talk, just to balance,
Speaker 3: just to balance the beautiful And I'm not taking anything
Speaker 3: away from you. You deserve you there, I know. Okay,
Speaker 3: So let me tell the story without you thinking it's
Speaker 3: because I'm trying to like make you feel some type
Speaker 3: of away. You know that you're good, okay, and we
Speaker 3: all love it. But I have two online only banks
Speaker 3: for my personal and for my business bank account online only.
Speaker 3: I love it. Why go to a bank who needs them?
Speaker 3: I don't even carry wallet anymore. I got Apple Pay.
Speaker 3: I'm all you know in the in the metaverse and
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff. So quick Books want their money.
Speaker 3: They decide they only want me to wire it, only
Speaker 3: a bank wire, but I can't. But they won't accept
Speaker 3: a bank wire from an online only bank.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 3: So no, So a long story short. Somehow I get
Speaker 3: the wrong, bad, bad intel from quick Books. I end
Speaker 3: up in my infinite wisdom thinking somehow that if I
Speaker 3: get the cash out of my business account, I can
Speaker 3: go to any bank and get a wire transfer. It's stupid.
Speaker 3: Don't listen. Don't listen to why. The person was very
Speaker 3: persuasive and wrong. So I'm but then there's a limit
Speaker 3: on how much cash you can take out of an
Speaker 3: ATM for your online only bank. And turns out mine
Speaker 3: was wait, like five, no, two thousand a day, and
Speaker 3: I need like four thousand or something like that. And
Speaker 3: not only that, but the ATM had a limit on
Speaker 3: how much you can draw it one time. So I'm
Speaker 3: sitting there trying to figure out, like can I do
Speaker 3: five hundred at a time. So I'm at the ATM
Speaker 3: like five hundred insert your car, five hundred, insert your
Speaker 3: card again, I'm just gonna keep going the Blue Vine
Speaker 3: that my bank. Blue Vine is like, uh yeah, just
Speaker 3: keep going. I don't know, maybe it's five and maybe
Speaker 3: it's six hundreds of limit. Just keep trying. I get
Speaker 3: the money out. Uh huh. I go to the bank.
Speaker 3: They're like, yeah, idiot, we can't wire transfer cash money,
Speaker 3: like you know, like, who are you coming off the
Speaker 3: street with this money that probably came from I don't know,
Speaker 3: something nefarious. So I go back to my car. I
Speaker 3: go back to my car. Then I'm like, I have
Speaker 3: this money, how do I put it back in my
Speaker 3: oline like account? This is over two days of me
Speaker 3: going to the ATM because again it was too much
Speaker 3: for one days. Why to go back?
Speaker 2: So I go.
Speaker 3: I'm like at the ATM, like, can I just where's
Speaker 3: the hole to put it back? In the internet because
Speaker 3: I And it turns out, oh, well, you can go
Speaker 3: to our you know, call the bang. Oh you can
Speaker 3: go to O our fee free you know locations where
Speaker 3: you can week upt cash deposits turns out Walmart is
Speaker 3: not within like a fifty mile radius of where I live,
Speaker 3: and the other ATMs like weren't working for deposit and
Speaker 3: in the meantime, I go to even think I can
Speaker 3: deposit this cash at an atm, my local CVS, and
Speaker 3: I'm like walking up to the ATM and looking at
Speaker 3: my wallet and I'm like, where's that debit card? Oh?
Speaker 2: I left it in the atm with the bang. My god,
Speaker 2: this is love shit I go through.
Speaker 3: So when y'all think about when you think about Mandy
Speaker 3: money and her six figure book deal and the business
Speaker 3: that is thriving, and those things are true, but what's
Speaker 3: also true is I am a real person with the
Speaker 3: same expenses and you know, try and I do, like
Speaker 3: you said, I keep my lifestyle very reasonable, but the cost,
Speaker 3: the cost and the demand on the dollars, as you know,
Speaker 3: at this point, I'm figuring out that balance and trying
Speaker 3: to like be always ready and I'm not, and it's
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable. I don't love it, but I also know
Speaker 3: this is the way through and I have to just
Speaker 3: like keep going hells therapy.
Speaker 1: And honestly, here you are seeing me at year fifteen, right,
Speaker 1: and it's really only been the last I want to say,
Speaker 1: five years that I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, huh, we're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: So think about ten years of like what Mandy's describing
Speaker 1: that's what it was like. Like I I can remember
Speaker 1: Jal and I were living in the Halfway Hood.
Speaker 3: And I was like ripping my cuticles to shredsus I
Speaker 3: was telling that story. That's how the stress.
Speaker 1: Now, even the normal entrepreneurship, we were living in the
Speaker 1: Halfway Hood, and by Halfway Hood, we were literally living
Speaker 1: in subsized housing because he worked for housing and as
Speaker 1: a result, they wanted him to be quote unquote on campus.
Speaker 1: So I mean it was pretty I think, you know,
Speaker 1: these were townhouses, but still it's housing.
Speaker 3: I'm such, your apartment, yeah, but still it's.
Speaker 1: Housing, right, And so our rent was only like nine
Speaker 1: to twenty because he lived, you know, he worked where
Speaker 1: he lived. I can remember literally coming out the front
Speaker 1: door of housing and a young woman coming out and
Speaker 1: looking at me, and I look at her and she's
Speaker 1: looking at me. I look at her and she said,
Speaker 1: but Lisa with you're confused, and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I just took your webinar. I was like, so I'm
Speaker 1: trying to deflect because I know what she wants to ask.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, we're not. I'm like, I'll we learned
Speaker 1: and didn't die, Okay, I getta go. Guess she's like,
Speaker 1: does she live in housing with me?
Speaker 2: And the Duke of Matters?
Speaker 1: It was I'm saying it like that's because you're all
Speaker 1: worked there now, That's what we could afford too, child,
Speaker 1: because before I live moved in with Drowse paying five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month for a room.
Speaker 2: That's what I could afford.
Speaker 1: So I just share that, like the road is not
Speaker 1: easy and it might not end and where I am
Speaker 1: now because honestly, I'm not gonna lie. I'm still very
Speaker 1: conscious that like the shit can fall through now too.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean certainly I've been like for if
Speaker 1: I'm being all the way candidate Mandy, for all the
Speaker 1: money that I have made in business, I don't have
Speaker 1: half of it left over, and not from misspending as
Speaker 1: like Tiffany, but I didn't know how to run business.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think certainly there was a lot of overpayment,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as employees were concerned, just overspending
Speaker 1: on certain things like you know, like marketing and but
Speaker 1: not getting the return.
Speaker 2: I mean, for all the money I've.
Speaker 1: Made, girl, I should literally be like one percent of
Speaker 1: the one percent you know I've made over fifty million
Speaker 1: dollars in business.
Speaker 2: I don't have twenty million dollars. I don't know how
Speaker 2: ten million at all, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm just like for what I've made, and so sometimes
Speaker 1: they're there there's like, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say shame, but I'm like, damn.
Speaker 3: Well, you're talking to your versions of Tiffany who are
Speaker 3: like different or done something different or had guidance or
Speaker 3: been there longer. And it's like the comparison up, yeah, you.
Speaker 1: Know, because I'm just looking like day. I mean, I
Speaker 1: had a friend who in business made forty million dollars
Speaker 1: in business and over the last two or three years,
Speaker 1: and she has twenty of it.
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, do you know how my white
Speaker 3: heart was like, oh, that's so great for you, but launching.
Speaker 3: But the thing is the tools that that person used
Speaker 3: and a lot of us are using today didn't exist
Speaker 3: when you started and you were building everything and you
Speaker 3: had your team and all this kind of stuff. So
Speaker 3: it's also like perspective.
Speaker 2: Yes, now you have to do myself the grace and space.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm sharing that like as good as it
Speaker 1: seems that I have done. When I have tell you
Speaker 1: I literally made so many tax errors. I want to say,
Speaker 1: just when the business starts to take off, that it
Speaker 1: costs no. No, girl, we're in that we're at about
Speaker 1: seven figures of financial state, Like I probably had to
Speaker 1: pay out additional million dollars because the tax area. Like
Speaker 1: literally for like almost two or three years straight, every
Speaker 1: time I got a tax bill on top of my
Speaker 1: regular taxes. I remember the last bill that I got.
Speaker 1: I just was like, at some point, it has to
Speaker 1: something has to change. It was two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and I was like, what can I do?
Speaker 3: I mean because of Memore, because that makes me feel
Speaker 3: better about my seven thousand dollars IRS bill that I
Speaker 3: still don't know what the hell. I just took a screen.
Speaker 3: I was like, I just I can't process this and
Speaker 3: that wasn't a regular picture and uploaded to my accounting
Speaker 3: portal and let her figure it out and tell.
Speaker 2: Me, thankfully we have this.
Speaker 1: We had this awesome account and Angie, who used to
Speaker 1: work for the IRS, who after like all the mess
Speaker 1: because I didn't really know how to hire. I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to She was like, we have to unearth
Speaker 1: what's happening here? Because I was getting a bill I
Speaker 1: felt like every month, and finally she got through the
Speaker 1: IRS was like, what's going on? Fix all the paperwork?
Speaker 1: And IRS was like, yes, but it's been years, so
Speaker 1: you have to pay those back taxes on top of
Speaker 1: the fees on top of that.
Speaker 2: No, we won't wave them.
Speaker 1: And it was when I tell you it was, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've not added it up, but for as many six
Speaker 1: figure bills as I've gotten, if it's not at a million,
Speaker 1: it's not that far from it. Can you imagine that's
Speaker 1: like like that I've had to pay and that's money
Speaker 1: from Tiffany. I'm not talking about oh the business, No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: because I'm an escorp.
Speaker 2: I know, look at me these face like because I'm
Speaker 2: an es Corp. So it's passed through.
Speaker 1: Meaning what that means is that let's just say your
Speaker 1: business makes one hundred thousand dollars, right, and so if
Speaker 1: your business makes one hundred thousand dollars and then you
Speaker 1: spend fifty on running the business, the government says you
Speaker 1: have to pay taxes only on the fifty leftover. Now,
Speaker 1: if you save some of that fifty in the business,
Speaker 1: let's just say you say, oh, I'm gonna put twenty
Speaker 1: in my emergency account for business. The government says, I
Speaker 1: don't care, Mandy, you still owe taxes on the fifty
Speaker 1: not spent on business. And you might say I'm going
Speaker 1: to put another ten thousand aside because I want to
Speaker 1: do a project later.
Speaker 2: The government says, I don't care.
Speaker 1: Any money not on an es corp or LLC, any
Speaker 1: money not spent on the business.
Speaker 2: For you, the person, you have to pay taxes on
Speaker 2: that money.
Speaker 3: Why in daycare a business expense? How am I p
Speaker 3: post to business if the kids are here? I can't business, girl.
Speaker 3: There is no business if there's no childcare.
Speaker 1: And so just imagine that million dollars basically in over
Speaker 1: the last few years that I've had to pay. That's
Speaker 1: money that if I didn't have to pay that to
Speaker 1: the I r S for all these mistakes, would have
Speaker 1: landed into my account.
Speaker 2: So like just like really like like that's.
Speaker 3: I can, right, And so Biggie was right, money mom.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's hard around here in these parts.
Speaker 1: It's just I mean, I know it sounds like somewhere
Speaker 1: like unrelated, like, but it's just me and Mandy are
Speaker 1: sharing this because.
Speaker 2: It's just.
Speaker 3: That's good for one thing.
Speaker 2: I don't yeah, and plus I don't even know what
Speaker 2: I'm doing.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know, it's like it's stressful to pretend
Speaker 3: like I got it all.
Speaker 2: Every day we'd be making it up. I don't know.
Speaker 1: When my team asked me, I'm like, girl, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I know just as much as you.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I do know is that through
Speaker 1: past experiences it helps to inform to help me make
Speaker 1: better decisions.
Speaker 2: But I don't know. I've never been in this position,
Speaker 2: like how do you how do you launch a workbook
Speaker 2: version of your book?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I do know how to launch
Speaker 1: a book because I did that, and so I use
Speaker 1: some of those things and some of it is working
Speaker 1: and some of us. Every all that it's like a
Speaker 1: being a parent every day is new. You know, when
Speaker 1: Rio turns five, you'll have never had a five year
Speaker 1: old before. You're gonna have to figure out what it's
Speaker 1: like to have a five year old. And so when
Speaker 1: the baby is two, you're like, Okay, I've had a
Speaker 1: two year old before, but I've never had a two
Speaker 1: year old when I also had an older kid. So
Speaker 1: all you do is that you take your knowledge and there's.
Speaker 3: A different example.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be stressed and then you do your best.
Speaker 2: And so I've just just.
Speaker 3: Known you try to look back on it without being
Speaker 3: too hard on yourself. Yeah, and also that goes for
Speaker 3: y'all too who are listening. Yes, damn it, because we're
Speaker 3: not perfect and you don't sit there judging. It's easy
Speaker 3: to judge. But also I think, I mean, we can
Speaker 3: be vulnerable with our audience, feel like our audience gets it.
Speaker 3: But I get really worried when people come through Mandy
Speaker 3: money Makers and I found that they want to be
Speaker 3: a coach, and I'm like, did I make it seem
Speaker 3: too easy? It's not. I had a career for a
Speaker 3: long time for a reason. But you know what I realized,
Speaker 3: brown ambition, the thing that we made together has become
Speaker 3: the consistent beyond my course, the consistent one of the
Speaker 3: consistent income streams that I have and I'm so grateful
Speaker 3: for and I'm just like more of those, please, But
Speaker 3: I'm a baby business.
Speaker 1: Okay, No, we all make it, and that's why we
Speaker 1: have this podcast and we share, and Mandy and I
Speaker 1: share with each other because I don't know all the
Speaker 1: things there's times when I'm like, Mandy, because you've worked
Speaker 1: on the corporate side, what am I.
Speaker 2: Doing wrong here?
Speaker 1: She's done, She's literally done like training for my employees,
Speaker 1: because she has a set of knowledge and a skill
Speaker 1: set that I don't have. And so it's important as
Speaker 1: you are navigating, whether you work in corporate or whether
Speaker 1: you work you know, you have your own business or whatever,
Speaker 1: that you networks Ray sat at best, everybody wants a network.
Speaker 1: Virtically everybody wants bro Beyonce and Oprah are busy network horizontally, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: I know this thing, Mandy, but you know that thing
Speaker 1: can be exchanged. So that horizontal network is so critical.
Speaker 1: So you might be far ahead in one space, but
Speaker 1: there's another space. I'm like, I don't know how to
Speaker 1: do that, and.
Speaker 3: So don't not work with me. About taxes, I'm still
Speaker 3: figuring that shit.
Speaker 2: Not be either shit. I'm finally I think I haven't
Speaker 2: gotten a letter.
Speaker 3: In a long time. You know, I don't think anyone
Speaker 3: has their taxes figured out.
Speaker 1: This country's must So this has been a super long
Speaker 1: therapeutic episode. So we're gonna say goodbye, farewell.
Speaker 3: We're going I thought there was like when the beat
Speaker 3: drops goodbye, But that's okay.
Speaker 1: Because we can see you guys on Friday for b
Speaker 1: a q A, where if you have questions about business, career,
Speaker 1: personal finances, we are here to your too smart, cute
Speaker 1: brown girlfriends and we'll help you out there. But until then,
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, we'd love your feedback, like I mean,
Speaker 1: tweet us dmost on Instagram, like you know, what are
Speaker 1: you struggling with? You know even, I mean, I would
Speaker 1: just love even if you want to do like an
Speaker 1: anonymous we might do that in like a b a
Speaker 1: q A. And sometimes you just want to be like
Speaker 1: I just want I need to tell somebody anonymously the
Speaker 1: struggle that I'm having. Even if you're not wanting advice,
Speaker 1: you know, we'd welcome that too.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just need to say this, say it out loud, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: Oh jinks.
Speaker 1: Oh maybe I should be a section a segment of
Speaker 1: b a QA say it out loud, sex shift? Sorry
Speaker 1: what no I said a section of B AQA say
Speaker 1: it out loud?
Speaker 3: Oh not me scratching my itchy army talking about my.
Speaker 1: Finances morel you know, like B a q A may
Speaker 1: have Like you don't even want advice you just want.
Speaker 2: To say it out loud.
Speaker 3: Let's let's consider okay, dumpy your stuff on us. We're
Speaker 3: like a priez but in you're nut anyway. Let the
Speaker 3: beat drunkerbye then b bye. This is why I don't
Speaker 3: sing the songs.