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Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, Hey, we're black. We're back. We're brown ambition,

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Speaker 1: ambition and ambition. We're extra brown today. Hey, Mandram, how

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Speaker 1: are you?

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Speaker 2: Hi?

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Speaker 3: Beautiful, I'm doing pretty good.

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Speaker 2: How are you? I'm good. I'm good And we just popped.

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Speaker 3: A couple of extra strength talent all so I'm rare

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Speaker 3: and to go.

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Speaker 1: We have some extra brown in this SEU. I love

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Speaker 1: what I say this su. I feel so cool. We

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Speaker 1: have some extra brown in the sue today. Super special

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Speaker 1: because she's like super impressive, but she's also my friend friend.

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Speaker 1: Let's welcome Lauren and Melman to the studio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome Lauren.

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Speaker 1: She's a change agent committed to diversity, innovation, equity, and inclusion.

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Speaker 1: She's an award winning marketer, prolific investor, advisor, entrepreneur, and

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Speaker 1: board member with a multi house you hyphen It career

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Speaker 1: spanning over fifteen years. She's advised invested in over forty

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Speaker 1: starters in her portfolio represents over five billion in market cap.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: She's the founder and the CEO of LMB Group, a

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Speaker 1: strategic marketing and advisory company partnering with brands like CoverGirl.

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Speaker 1: She also started Straight Up and Successful Women focused community

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Speaker 1: and professional development firm. She discovers and sees this hidden

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Speaker 1: profitable value across retail CpG, lifestyle brands, luxury goods, YadA, YadA, YadA,

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Speaker 1: it's about pioneer stuff. She's based at the bomb dot Com. Okay, Oh, last,

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Speaker 1: but not least. When she was nineteen, she became the

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Speaker 1: youngest winery owner girl in the country, co founding the

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Speaker 1: internationally recognized Sugar Leaf Vineyards.

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Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, this is incredible, Lauren. I'm exhausted and

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Speaker 3: I don't need la is a mama of two beautiful kids.

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Speaker 3: On top of her now I'm dead not also a

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Speaker 3: badass my mom.

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Speaker 1: And she got that.

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Speaker 2: Her mom is so awesome and she got a bad

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Speaker 2: as mama.

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Speaker 3: And it's self proclaimed. Would you call yourself a rich

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Speaker 3: auntie in this space?

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Speaker 2: Oh me, I call myself like a dinosaur in this space.

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Speaker 2: An auntie.

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Speaker 4: I'm just like the auntie dinosaur because I've been around

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Speaker 4: this for a long time. Like Tiffany says, we've known

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Speaker 4: each other a long time, so I've been able to see,

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Speaker 4: you know, her glow up and you know the beginning

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Speaker 4: of this incredible podcast. But I just feel like I

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Speaker 4: feel like a lot of people's auntie in this space

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Speaker 4: because I have been around since we were all starting

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Speaker 4: and we're still here and now we're all thriving.

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Speaker 2: So I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's such a pleasure for me. This is my

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Speaker 3: first time meeting you, and I feel like just from that,

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Speaker 3: just from getting to know you a little bit, I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 3: Brown ambition personified. Obviously. Why haven't you we had you

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Speaker 3: on before? Well, tell everybody, Like, I mean, there's so

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Speaker 3: much you have going on, and I feel like, you know,

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Speaker 3: seasons come and go as far as like entrepreneurship, So like, now,

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Speaker 3: what are you focusing on because I or are you

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Speaker 3: going to tell me that you do everything perfectly and

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Speaker 3: you can do it all?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 3: The babies in the vineyard and the venture capital and

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Speaker 3: all that, well, let me decide you.

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Speaker 2: My babies are not babies.

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Speaker 4: So first of all, my babies are at the age

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Speaker 4: of being like useful. So I know everyone thinks that

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Speaker 4: I have like these little babies and it's like, girl,

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Speaker 4: how are you doing all this and wrangling like toddlers.

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Speaker 4: Luckily I've already gone through that stage. They are well

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Speaker 4: potty trained, they can cook they can. My son is

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Speaker 4: about to start driving, So I have a fifteen year

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Speaker 4: old son and.

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Speaker 2: A thirteen year old daughter, and so they keep me busy.

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Speaker 2: For sure.

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Speaker 4: I'm more like a chauffeur than anything until they can

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Speaker 4: take them as all everywhere they need to go. So

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Speaker 4: it's a good age for sure. And the things that

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Speaker 4: I'm working on now as an entrepreneur, it's been really interesting.

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Speaker 4: I think I'm in I'm in the stage of my

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Speaker 4: life where Rando we're talking about this before we went live,

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Speaker 4: where the bar is heightening, right, it is raising, and

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Speaker 4: both by design but also by choice, because I want

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Speaker 4: to do more and I have found ways to do more.

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Speaker 4: And I think the epiphany season that I'm in right

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Speaker 4: now is that as women, especially as founders and entrepreneurs,

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Speaker 4: we try to create a life that gives us the

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Speaker 4: license to do the things we love. We try to

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Speaker 4: create a life that allows us to move in these spaces. So,

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Speaker 4: you know, ten years ago, when I wrote my best

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Speaker 4: selling book, The Path We Defined, I have this chapter

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Speaker 4: that was so enlightening for everyone, and it's entitled build

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Speaker 4: a life That's serendipitous by Design, And I just think

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Speaker 4: I'm doing that.

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Speaker 2: At that next level. So it's like, you know, serendipity

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Speaker 2: is not happenstance.

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Speaker 4: It is still strategic and it's by design to keep

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Speaker 4: around good people, good ideas come, good businesses come, good

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Speaker 4: investments come right, like one thing kind of begets the other.

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Speaker 2: So I think, you know, as women.

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Speaker 4: We spend a lot of time trying to create our

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Speaker 4: careers are lives that give us the license to do

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Speaker 4: the things we love, and that often means having the

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Speaker 4: ability to do the.

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Speaker 2: Next thing right.

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Speaker 4: So we spent so long talking about you know, the

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Speaker 4: next level, the next chapter, next, next, next, and next

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Speaker 4: really means move on from one thing and replace it

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Speaker 4: with another. And I think I'm in the season of

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Speaker 4: accumulation right and like portfolio building, legacy building, where I

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Speaker 4: want to do more.

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Speaker 2: But it doesn't mean to replace something.

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Speaker 4: It means to be good enough and have great teams

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Speaker 4: and infrastructure and systems that allow you to create a

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Speaker 4: portfolio that is an ongoing repertoire of all the things.

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Speaker 4: And so it's about building instead of replacing. So the

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Speaker 4: season that I'm in right now is about building, bigger, building,

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Speaker 4: more building at scale, bigger impact. So it is a

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Speaker 4: lot of what I've always done. When you ask what

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Speaker 4: am I up to, the same things, but in the

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Speaker 4: season of building for scale, for impact, for global for

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Speaker 4: global awareness, which just looks different because I'm not looking

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Speaker 4: to replace it.

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Speaker 2: I still want to sustain and maintain the things.

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Speaker 4: That I've already done well and established, and I want

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Speaker 4: to establish something else right.

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Speaker 2: I want to layer on top of it.

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Speaker 4: I want to want to make it more complex and

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Speaker 4: more robust, want to again have that scale. And I

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Speaker 4: think we think about scale and businesses, but I'm starting

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Speaker 4: to think about scale in my life and in my

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Speaker 4: career and in the people that I'm able to help

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Speaker 4: and influence and advise and invest in.

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Speaker 3: And I've got a feeling when you say portfolio, you

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Speaker 3: ain't talking about index funds like me and the basic

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Speaker 3: the basic bees out here still trying to like make

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Speaker 3: sure we're investing. I mean, you are an investor in businesses,

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Speaker 3: you have your own you have your own VC firm,

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Speaker 3: Is that right?

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Speaker 4: I do so, I have a family office. I had

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Speaker 4: started a VC more than ten years ago. To my

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Speaker 4: capital partners, really early to the game in terms of

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Speaker 4: creating founder friendly capital, which was not cool in twenty

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Speaker 4: eleven twenty eleven was very much the time of the

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Speaker 4: VC and not the time of the founder. So the

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Speaker 4: idea of Founder Friends Capital was like this, humh, like

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Speaker 4: you're either one or the other. You're either on this

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Speaker 4: side of the table as the founder or you're on

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Speaker 4: this side of the table. That was the funder and

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Speaker 4: shom My Capital, and my role was to really say, hey, look,

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Speaker 4: founders can become funders, and we can be really great

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Speaker 4: funders because we know what it's like to be the founder,

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Speaker 4: and so we're going to do more than just give

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Speaker 4: you money. We're going to give you money, but we're

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Speaker 4: going to make sure that you use that money in

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Speaker 4: the right way, that you stay on the right track,

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Speaker 4: that you know the right people, that you're around the

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Speaker 4: right networks, because the money and alone is not enough

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Speaker 4: to achieve what you want. And so yes, now I

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Speaker 4: have this incredible portfolio that has been just so fun

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Speaker 4: and exciting to build because I could have never imagined

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Speaker 4: that it would take me to where it has today.

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Speaker 4: So now I look back and it's yes, it's angel investments,

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Speaker 4: it's real estate, it's art, it's growth equity investments that

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Speaker 4: I've made of later.

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Speaker 2: Stage into later stage companies.

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Speaker 4: It's, you know, a year and a half ago, meeting

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Speaker 4: into the stack world a purpose of acquisition companies and

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Speaker 4: being a partner investor and athena consumer and helping to

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Speaker 4: take companies public trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Speaker 2: So it's been that for me was probably the beginning

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Speaker 2: of the build.

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Speaker 4: When I talk about build not replace, right, it's like,

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Speaker 4: it's not you know, stocks for crypto and like moving

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Speaker 4: from one to the other.

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Speaker 2: It's like, no, how do you create a portfolio that's

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Speaker 2: a little bit of everything?

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Speaker 4: Right? In my case, I don't do crypto, but just

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Speaker 4: as an example, a lot of people are like going

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Speaker 4: to the next thing. Right we think about a gold rush,

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Speaker 4: it's still like leaving one thing to rush to another.

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Speaker 4: It's not building upon what you have to create a

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Speaker 4: larger portfolio that can become even more valuable. So that's

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Speaker 4: the season I'm in and the lessons that I've learned

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Speaker 4: that continue to kind of dictate the steps that I

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Speaker 4: take in my career.

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Speaker 2: But also I'm a big believer that proof is in

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Speaker 2: the pudding. So like you look at the.

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Speaker 4: Pudding and it's profitable, and the companies are growing, and

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Speaker 4: there's unicorns in there, and there are companies that are

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Speaker 4: getting a fired and that are really meaningful and that

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Speaker 4: are changing lives and making a difference. And that's the

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Speaker 4: portfolio I always wanted to have, Right So it's not

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Speaker 4: always going to be the unicorn's, it's not always going to.

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Speaker 2: Be the you know, the companies that are just in

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Speaker 2: one sector.

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Speaker 4: I've always looked at my life as this medley, and

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Speaker 4: I think the world is finally catching up to this idea,

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Speaker 4: like this is what innovation looks like, because if we

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Speaker 4: stay in one lane, we get stale and stagnant, even

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Speaker 4: if we keep researching. Right, Like I look at Tiff,

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Speaker 4: like Tip's been doing budget. Okay, budget, but not all

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Speaker 4: budgets are created equal. One minute, you budget in for

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Speaker 4: saving money, then you're budgeting for doing something big. Then

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Speaker 4: you're budgeting for acquiring an asset, right, Like, not all

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Speaker 4: budgets are the same. They have different purposes, and you

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Speaker 4: begin to build that portfolio of where you want to go.

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Speaker 2: But we all have to start somewhere.

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Speaker 1: That's a good like segue into like where what did's

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Speaker 1: starting look like for you? You know, because I feel

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Speaker 1: like you started so young, you know, starting your winery

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Speaker 1: at nineteen.

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Speaker 2: But as far as like this where you are now?

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Speaker 1: You know, if someone was like, oh my gosh, I

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Speaker 1: want to chart the course that Lauren charted. I want

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Speaker 1: to create a portfolio for myself, but I have no

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Speaker 1: idea where to start. So someone is listening, like what

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Speaker 1: does that look like? We're like, what's the iteration of

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Speaker 1: like Lauren, Like we started here and I learned this,

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Speaker 1: and I did this, Like what did that look like?

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Speaker 2: Your journey?

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Speaker 4: I think the journey is a series of baby steps.

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Speaker 4: Like I look at the baby steps I was making

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Speaker 4: early on in my career, and they were quick succession

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Speaker 4: of baby steps because it was much easier to break

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Speaker 4: down the big, lofty goal into these short, achievable goals.

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Speaker 2: And in the early days, it was really easy to.

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Speaker 4: Get to those next little milestones, especially when I was

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Speaker 4: only focused on that one thing, because I was still

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Speaker 4: trying to establish subject matter expertise, right, So, like, you

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Speaker 4: can't create the expertise and build a portfolio.

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Speaker 2: At the same time. I think that's difficult to do.

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Speaker 4: And so I learned a lot of ways to achieve

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Speaker 4: what I wanted to achieve, and also realizing what had

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Speaker 4: the most leverage, what had the most influence, what had

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Speaker 4: the most power. A lot of times people think it's money,

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Speaker 4: but then there were times when as a founder, I

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Speaker 4: didn't always have the money, but I had the network,

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Speaker 4: and the network showed up for me in ways that

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Speaker 4: were more powerful and opened more doors than the money

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Speaker 4: would have. And I think a lot of those experiences

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Speaker 4: were happening to me, which were the lessons that I

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Speaker 4: was designed to learn to determine which path to take

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Speaker 4: when conventional, traditional methods and books and articles.

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Speaker 2: Would say to go one way.

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Speaker 4: I would have these series of aha moments within my

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Speaker 4: baby steps of achievement, and I was also able to

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Speaker 4: very quickly figure out, Okay, well, if this is not

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Speaker 4: going the way that I wanted to, I'm not going

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Speaker 4: to keep trying something that's clearly not working right Because

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Speaker 4: if it's a baby step.

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Speaker 2: O your step a little bit, you go stop, and you're.

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Speaker 4: Going to go onto something else because you're not trying

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Speaker 4: to leap, so you can figure out sooner what's not

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Speaker 4: right for you. And I think that the accumulation of

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Speaker 4: those lessons for me, combined with taking those baby steps,

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Speaker 4: allowed me to be where I am now, but also

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Speaker 4: allowed me to a mass networks knowledge, access, acumen, and

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Speaker 4: expertise at the same time. So I was absorbing information

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Speaker 4: from top sources because in that moment, especially ten eleven years.

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Speaker 2: Ago, black women were not There was not the movement

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Speaker 2: that we have now. There was not a fotlight on us,

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Speaker 2: if you remember this, This was not how this.

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Speaker 4: Ecosystem was, And so I think there weren't a lot

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Speaker 4: of us that were paying attention to the lessons. And

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Speaker 4: I think when you paid attention to the lessons and

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Speaker 4: kept learning and kept your intentionality, you saw a lot

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Speaker 4: of movement. You saw the needle moving in ways that

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Speaker 4: were important. But a lot of us didn't know what

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Speaker 4: to do with that. And so I spent a lot

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Speaker 4: of time listening as much as I was learning, you know, researching, analyzing,

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Speaker 4: but also trying to figure out how I someone who

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Speaker 4: was completely self made, who did not come up with

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Speaker 4: the soilver spoon in their mouth. Yes, my parents worked

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Speaker 4: really hard to give you what they have, But I

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Speaker 4: always say, like, if I had siblings, I would not

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Speaker 4: have even been raised the same way.

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Speaker 2: Like my parents told me all the time.

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Speaker 4: We had enough money to weve all money we had

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Speaker 4: to send you to school by yourself, like there was

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Speaker 4: only one of you, there was three or four of

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Speaker 4: you would not have been going on the same school. So,

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Speaker 4: you know, where do we learn these lessons if we

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Speaker 4: don't grow up with families that can tell us how

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Speaker 4: it's done or that can usher us through that process.

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Speaker 4: And so for me, that's what starting looked like. And

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Speaker 4: I was also really grateful to have people in my

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Speaker 4: life in my career who gravitated towards me because I

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Speaker 4: was so persistent. So my persistence was very off putting

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Speaker 4: to a lot of people for a long time. It

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Speaker 4: was like, ah, it's too much. But if you don't ask,

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Speaker 4: you don't get. And the people who saw me continue

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Speaker 4: to ask were like, okay, we see you. And people

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Speaker 4: started telling me even then ten eleven years ago that

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Speaker 4: they weren't initially going to take my meetings for Genera Capital,

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Speaker 4: but when they saw my emails coming in it, you know, one, two, three,

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Speaker 4: four o'clock in the morning, they were like, okay, she's serious, right,

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Speaker 4: I wasn't sitting there scheduling send for seven am. No,

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Speaker 4: if I was up in the middle of the night.

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Speaker 4: I was up in the middle of the night. But

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Speaker 4: that's what people paid attention to. That's what folks noticed.

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Speaker 4: It was that consistency, that dedication that allowed me to

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Speaker 4: start and allowed me to realize the way in which

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Speaker 4: I wanted to build a portfolio or the ways in

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Speaker 4: which I wanted to be diversified based upon my experiences,

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Speaker 4: but also based upon the opportunities that were coming to me.

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Speaker 4: And so some of the greatest opportunities for me as

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Speaker 4: an investor, as a founder, as you know, someone in media,

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Speaker 4: as a women's advocate, came from people saying, hey, look,

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Speaker 4: maybe you don't have the expertise, Lauren, but what you

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Speaker 4: do have is the drive and the persistence, and so

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Speaker 4: if we can just teach you these things, we.

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Speaker 2: Want to watch you go. And there was a lot

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Speaker 2: of that.

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Speaker 4: There were a lot of people that I just knew

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Speaker 4: wanted to see if that energy of Lauren, like how

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Speaker 4: long they could sustain that for And that was exhausting

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Speaker 4: because that was the game of proving myself essentially right,

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Speaker 4: But that's what's allowed me to build.

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Speaker 3: Can we talk about I mean, I'm just listening in

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Speaker 3: the common theme I'm hearing are things that I love

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Speaker 3: to talk about, which is the secret sauce of people

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Speaker 3: and relationships and networking. So you mean you early in

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Speaker 3: your career. I know you owned a winery, you worked

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Speaker 3: in modeling, but eventually someone showed you it was possible

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Speaker 3: to become a founder and an investor and an angel

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Speaker 3: investor in all of that. And for someone like yourself, who,

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Speaker 3: like you said, you haven't grown up surrounded by those

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Speaker 3: types of people, how did you Because so many people

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Speaker 3: somebody of us struggled with that, especially as you know,

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Speaker 3: minority women getting ourselves in even the same orbit as

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Speaker 3: people who can help us think bigger? So how did

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Speaker 3: you start putting yourself in those spaces to feel like

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Speaker 3: it was possible and then make those connections translate into

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Speaker 3: I'm going to enter this new path room myself, and

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Speaker 3: I'm going to make it happen.

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Speaker 2: It's a great question.

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Speaker 4: I think when when I really analyze my career to date,

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Speaker 4: it's that my approach is one that most people don't forget,

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Speaker 4: either because I am persistent, or because I am outspoken,

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Speaker 4: or because they meet me in a room at a

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Speaker 4: conference and I walk in and I'm the six foot

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Speaker 4: tall black woman, like, well, where did she come from?

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Speaker 2: But it's always he.

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Speaker 3: Seems so calm, but like I'm imagining, like when you

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Speaker 3: say your approach, I'm just like, what do you do

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Speaker 3: to these people? Intimidates them?

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Speaker 4: Well?

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Speaker 2: It does.

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Speaker 4: It does intimidate a lot of people, but it also

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Speaker 4: intrigues them. And so there was so many times and

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Speaker 4: again it was like you've got to be comfortable knowing

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Speaker 4: that you're being tested, right. So in those instances, it

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Speaker 4: was like, Okay, I want to be in this room,

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Speaker 4: but I know why they're inviting me in this room.

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Speaker 2: I'm not silly.

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Speaker 4: I know why they're asking me if I can show

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Speaker 4: up this way or if I'm available to speak on

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Speaker 4: X y Z topic. But I had to be strategic

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Speaker 4: about what my presence in those moments were going to

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Speaker 4: mean to me, not what they were going to mean

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Speaker 4: to the audience that was inviting me in the room,

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Speaker 4: because for me, that was no different than like having

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Speaker 4: your one shot at the meeting.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 4: So I started being invited to conferences and on stages

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Speaker 4: to speak because I had been outspoken, because some people

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Speaker 4: considered my opinions to be radical, Because if it was

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Speaker 4: in the corporate sphere, they could bring me in to

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Speaker 4: talk about it far easier than someone on the inside

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Speaker 4: that wanted to say the same thing, knew they couldn't, right,

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Speaker 4: And so I knew that how I showed up in

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Speaker 4: those moments was going to create my reputation, was going

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Speaker 4: to create an opinion of me. And I do think

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Speaker 4: I was really thoughtful in that process of what is

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Speaker 4: it that I What is it that I want them

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Speaker 4: to leave feeling or knowing about me? That's different, right,

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Speaker 4: because what they knew about me was the obvious. But

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Speaker 4: what they didn't know about me, what wasn't here or

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Speaker 4: what was driving me from here? And so that's what

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Speaker 4: I spent and I know there some people that are

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Speaker 4: going to be listening to it. So I was touching

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Speaker 4: my head and I was touching my heart in terms

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Speaker 4: of they don't know what's in my mind. They don't

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Speaker 4: know my ideas, they don't know how I strategize, how

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Speaker 4: I analyze. They don't know the intellectual property that I

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Speaker 4: could bring to their companies or to their clients or

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Speaker 4: to their projects. They don't know how driven I am.

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Speaker 4: They don't know the integrity that I come to work with.

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Speaker 4: And so when people were able to see that and

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Speaker 4: experience that, even if it was in short engagements, those

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Speaker 4: same people, many of whom are the ones that would

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Speaker 4: circle back and say, it doesn't matter, Lauren, that you

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Speaker 4: don't have the resume experience. We trust you, trust that

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Speaker 4: you're going to figure it out, or we trust that

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Speaker 4: they're going to work really hard to figure it out

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Speaker 4: because we've been watching you and so for a long time.

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Speaker 4: You know, early on in my career, I was frustrated

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Speaker 4: that a lot of people would ask me to do

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Speaker 4: things and then there wasn't follow up, or the follow

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Speaker 4: up would be another invitation to do something else again,

400
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Speaker 4: but not an answer to the feedback I was asking

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Speaker 4: for in that exact moment. And I realized years later

402
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Speaker 4: that that was basically my audition for if I would

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Speaker 4: be allowed into these rooms, into these circles, into these networks.

404
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Speaker 4: And I kept showing up, and I kept showing up

405
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Speaker 4: with a level of consistency that created trust that I

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Speaker 4: had no other way to establish with these rooms and

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Speaker 4: these groups of people, who are the stakeholders, who are

408
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Speaker 4: the decision makers, who are the leaders of tech and

409
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Speaker 4: venture capital, who are the ones that you know, are

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Speaker 4: the ones to watch, the ones to know, the ones

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Speaker 4: who can make or break, you know, a major career

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Speaker 4: decision or you know, if you go on to be

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Speaker 4: the founder to watch or not. And so I had

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Speaker 4: to find other ways to establish credibility and trust with

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Speaker 4: these people that I also really wanted to learn from,

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Speaker 4: and I had to show them that I was going

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Speaker 4: to be a good student.

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Speaker 1: I guess my question really is is just like if

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Speaker 1: someone is like, I feel like you've come so far,

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Speaker 1: but it could not have been easy during that time,

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Speaker 1: and if you could kind of like, especially when it

422
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Speaker 1: comes to investing, how did you learn?

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Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like I mean, I know

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Speaker 2: it wasn't like mentors, was it sponsors?

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Speaker 1: Was it books? Was it podcasts? Like you know, like cauld.

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Speaker 1: I remember like you had a party at your house.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it was New Year's or something,

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Speaker 1: and we just were talking and you were telling me

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Speaker 1: how like girls you invest in art, and then you

430
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Speaker 1: went to this whole diatribe.

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Speaker 2: About like if you do this and you can put

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Speaker 2: the art here.

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Speaker 1: And I remember being like way long talking about me

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Speaker 1: at a party, but you know, like you had such

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Speaker 1: this deep and like deep knowledge of like the way

436
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Speaker 1: art can be used to like to grow well, to

437
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Speaker 1: shield well to you know, and I just like, but

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Speaker 1: where did this knowledge come from? Like was it you know,

439
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:58,280
Speaker 1: did you go to school for this?

440
00:20:58,720 --> 00:20:58,959
Speaker 2: You know?

441
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:01,960
Speaker 1: Like because I know there are people who are listening

442
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,760
Speaker 1: and they're like, I want to start, but you know, is.

443
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:06,639
Speaker 2: It a book? Is it a class? Is it?

444
00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,000
Speaker 1: I need to find someone to put me under their wing. So, like,

445
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,239
Speaker 1: where did your knowledge, like at least the beginning of it,

446
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: really start to come from.

447
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,600
Speaker 4: So so much of my knowledge is acquired through reading

448
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:21,880
Speaker 4: and asking questions. I've always been so inquisitive, so I've

449
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:25,199
Speaker 4: been fascinated with my whole life. I've been fascinated with

450
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 4: how certain cultures and communities grow, create, keep, maintain, share,

451
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 4: and spread wealth amongst themselves in ways that we don't

452
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 4: see in our community.

453
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,160
Speaker 2: And I've lived several places around the world.

454
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 4: I've lived in Europe, I've lived in West Africa, I've

455
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 4: lived in South America. I speak fluent Spanish, I speak French.

456
00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:47,040
Speaker 4: I consider myself to really truly be a global citizen

457
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 4: in many ways. And I've always had this interesting network

458
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 4: of you know, I've got folks that are at every

459
00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 4: end of the socioeconomic spectrum. I've got folks that fly coach,

460
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,440
Speaker 4: I got folks that have g fives.

461
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 2: I got folks, I got net jets, Like I've always.

462
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:11,639
Speaker 4: Had this kind of access or network to a variety

463
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 4: of lifestyles, and it didn't matter that I wasn't maybe

464
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 4: living all of those lifestyles. For whatever reason, I was

465
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 4: still being invited into the room, whether it was because

466
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,399
Speaker 4: I had established trust or credibility, whether I was on

467
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 4: a long audition and didn't realize it, you know, like,

468
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:34,880
Speaker 4: whatever that was, I took note. I took note of

469
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 4: how those families were constructed. I took note of how

470
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:43,880
Speaker 4: wealthy family businesses were hiring. I had asked questions when

471
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:46,399
Speaker 4: the time was appropriate. I'll never forget I once asked

472
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 4: a wealthy family leader. I said, how do you determine

473
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,680
Speaker 4: like who gets to rise in the ranks in the company,

474
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 4: and if you promote the family member or not the

475
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:56,679
Speaker 4: family member. They said, well, years ago, it used to

476
00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 4: be the family members were the ones that led the business.

477
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:01,639
Speaker 4: But you know, now we have nepotism rules and this

478
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 4: is how it works, and we actually require that they

479
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 4: go work at competing businesses outside of college, like after

480
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 4: college in Europe or in North America to go acquire

481
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 4: this knowledge to see how other companies do it, and

482
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 4: they're required to work at least two jobs or minimum

483
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 4: of two years for competitive companies or companies where they

484
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 4: can grow their skill set before they're even allowed to

485
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 4: work for the family business.

486
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 2: That to me was like, oh, mental note, mental note

487
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 2: for my children. Should my children be working in the

488
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:32,600
Speaker 2: family business right off of the cup?

489
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,360
Speaker 4: Probably not right, because what are they going to learn

490
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:36,920
Speaker 4: and is going to learn from me on the job

491
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,439
Speaker 4: versus if I'm going to be in media, do they

492
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:41,360
Speaker 4: go work at a big media company for two years?

493
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 4: And then if we're going to be an investing do

494
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:44,920
Speaker 4: they go work at a big VC for two years

495
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 4: even if they're just an intern, just to even be

496
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 4: a fly on the wall to learn process or see

497
00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 4: people move in a different way.

498
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:52,919
Speaker 2: And then should they.

499
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 4: Come back to meet four years after college? And I'd

500
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 4: sit and think about it, just as one of many examples,

501
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 4: and it was like, hmm, makes more sense, right, Like

502
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:03,959
Speaker 4: go learn out in the world from folks that are

503
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,160
Speaker 4: doing it at this level and then come back to mom.

504
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:07,360
Speaker 2: And keep it all on the family. Right.

505
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 4: But I don't have the framework for doing that because

506
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,600
Speaker 4: I'm an only child, I'm a black woman, it has

507
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 4: not been done in my family.

508
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,320
Speaker 2: But I'm around people who, for.

509
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,719
Speaker 4: Whatever reason, variety of reasons, wanted me around them, and

510
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 4: I knew that I had a purpose to them. But

511
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 4: I also knew that there was something I could learn

512
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 4: and me becoming a good student in that regard. Yeah,

513
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:28,480
Speaker 4: it was helpful for me for my own personal life

514
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 4: because it can help me figure out. Oh, Jaden and Chloe,

515
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:31,960
Speaker 4: this is what I want you to do. This is

516
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,120
Speaker 4: how I want you to think about internships even now

517
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 4: thirteen and fifteen, and talk to them about how I

518
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,200
Speaker 4: want them to build their resume, because what do we

519
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 4: see happening in other communities. We see kids going off

520
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,360
Speaker 4: to college already worked at three fortune one hundred companies

521
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,479
Speaker 4: because the parents hooked them up right, or because they

522
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 4: grew up with an auntie and uncle who are an

523
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,880
Speaker 4: executive and they've heard the vernacular and they've had the interest,

524
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,239
Speaker 4: and the parents have been sending them articles and so

525
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 4: they can they're qualified to be an intern while in

526
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,880
Speaker 4: high school, right, and they can have a great resume.

527
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 4: These are things that I say, hmm, let me see

528
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,320
Speaker 4: how folks that are doing things far better than me

529
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 4: are doing them, and let me see which components of that,

530
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 4: what pieces of that I want to replicate or emulate

531
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:16,719
Speaker 4: in my life, in my family and my career, in

532
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 4: my construct to try to escape achieve something similar.

533
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 2: The same thing with art.

534
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 4: I'll never forget when I remember exactly what you're talking

535
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,360
Speaker 4: about with this party at the house, and I had

536
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,520
Speaker 4: just sold some art at Sotheby's for the first time

537
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 4: ever at auction. It was my first auction experience. I

538
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 4: didn't know anything about art at auction at that time.

539
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 4: I knew the value of what we had, and I

540
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 4: knew that the starting bid was going to be lower

541
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 4: than its value. But I asked all the right questions

542
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 4: in terms of how does the auction work, how quick

543
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 4: does it go? How many dollar values can you rise

544
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 4: in sixty seconds, ninety seconds? And if you ever listened

545
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,480
Speaker 4: to an art auction, which is maybe a good exercise

546
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 4: just because for whoever's listening, but you'd be wildly surprised

547
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 4: at how how quick prices can double or how quickly

548
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 4: something can triple or quadruple in a quick bid. And

549
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 4: so that gave me an opportunity to have information to analyze,

550
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 4: to go ooh, do I want to take burdenhand. Do

551
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 4: I want to take the surefire sale or do I

552
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:19,159
Speaker 4: want to risk going to auction starting at a lower

553
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,400
Speaker 4: bid but having working out some probability of my own

554
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 4: decision calculus of what's best burden hand and sale and

555
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,200
Speaker 4: gallery or taking the risk of going to auction.

556
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 2: Ultimately, it was the risk of going to auction.

557
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:34,880
Speaker 4: But then I learned something at that auction, and I'll

558
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,639
Speaker 4: ever forget this very wealthy family next to me that

559
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 4: was watching their own.

560
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 2: Art in auction.

561
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 4: I had gone to the auctions previous just to see

562
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 4: how the auctions went, because that was part of my

563
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 4: decision calculus. I haven't seen it auction in action. Let

564
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:51,600
Speaker 4: me go see. The only auction I had seen before

565
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 4: this was the car auctions because I used to go

566
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,159
Speaker 4: to those impound those tow yard auctions where you can

567
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 4: pick up the cars, people don't pay their ticket.

568
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 2: That's the only auction I knew before.

569
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:02,719
Speaker 4: Okay, and you go with the car mechanic and you

570
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 4: pick up the cars and they make you a new key.

571
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:06,920
Speaker 2: That was the only auction I knew. So I was like,

572
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 2: how does this art work?

573
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 4: So I was going to the auctions to just be

574
00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 4: a float from the wall, and I watched another very

575
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 4: wealthy family sell works of art, and I said ended

576
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,119
Speaker 4: up talking to them after I said, why are you

577
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,239
Speaker 4: selling so much of this incredible art like all at

578
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 4: one time?

579
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:22,400
Speaker 2: It turned out that.

580
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 4: They were doing it because the family member who owned

581
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 4: the art had just passed and they didn't want to

582
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 4: have to have all this inheritance tax. So they schooled

583
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 4: me on the step up and basis quote unquote, and

584
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,199
Speaker 4: when to sell and how to sell, and so they

585
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 4: were like, we have this window and we love this art,

586
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 4: but we have so much art. They did their decision calculus.

587
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 4: So I'm like, how come our people aren't talking about

588
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,160
Speaker 4: step up and basis? How come our people aren't talking

589
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 4: about how to hold these assets so that our children

590
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 4: can grow up with art collections the way that others

591
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 4: grow up with art collections.

592
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 2: I'm not just.

593
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 4: Accumulating these assets to just sit them here, and I'm

594
00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 4: not accumulating these assets to leave my children with more

595
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 4: work to do. So I've always looked at the people

596
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 4: who are more accomplished, who are wealthier, to know and

597
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 4: understand what moves not that I always should be making,

598
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 4: but what moves I could be making because I think

599
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,680
Speaker 4: that for black women, we don't even know the full

600
00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:22,359
Speaker 4: extent of ways that we can You had mentioned before

601
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 4: make or shield our money and our wealth. We don't

602
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 4: even know the full extent of things that are available

603
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 4: to us. And oftentimes even we have an accountant, account's

604
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 4: not telling you because the accountant's like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

605
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 4: you don't need to know this, or it doesn't apply

606
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 4: to you, Like you don't know what's going to apply

607
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 4: to me, right, And so that's why I've always been inquisitive,

608
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 4: is that I never wanted anyone to tell me what

609
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 4: knowledge I needed to know. And I had enough people

610
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 4: tell me early on when I started investing, Oh, you

611
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 4: don't need this, or you don't need to know this.

612
00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 4: My first investment started when I was a single mom.

613
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 4: I had two kids under two, and I remember people

614
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 4: telling me why am I investing twenty five fifty thousand

615
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 4: dollars in a startup when I'm going through a terrible divorce.

616
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 4: I have kids to feed and diapers, and I need

617
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 4: to get similar and my baby's actually one to similar.

618
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 2: One took NESTL, the.

619
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 4: Good start alementum, and I was on the expensive formula,

620
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 4: and I was like, you know what, let me stop

621
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 4: telling people, because I just believed in my soul that

622
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:17,400
Speaker 4: this was the way for me to use my entrepreneurial

623
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 4: gifts to identify companies early, to make investments, to use

624
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 4: my talents to help those companies ultimately grow.

625
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 2: And to ultimately help my money grow.

626
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 4: But I also knew that at that point in my

627
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 4: life and my career, I didn't have people in my

628
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 4: orbit who spoke that language, who understood that intention, or

629
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 4: who appreciated that kind of of hustle. And so that

630
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 4: was my first experience in life of don't get advice

631
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 4: or don't attempt to get advice from people that aren't

632
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 4: walking in your shoes in the most respectful way possible.

633
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 2: Because my grandparents love me, they wanted the best for me,

634
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 2: but they're, well, baby, what are you doing? Why are

635
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 2: you doing? It? Don't make any sense? Well, it makes

636
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 2: a lot of sense now.

637
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 4: And so I took a lot of risks where I

638
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 4: didn't always have people to talk to. I didn't always

639
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 4: have the answers. For a long time, I was shooting

640
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 4: from the hip for a long time. It was just

641
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 4: my intuition. I think back to Ruggable Machine, Rashiable Rugs.

642
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 4: I invested in that company in tw twenty sixteen, investor

643
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 4: number five on the cap table.

644
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 2: Everyone was like, Rugs, they're only five by seven. Well

645
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 2: now they're nine by twelve, and now they're sold all

646
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 2: over the world. You know.

647
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 4: But a lot of it was just me trusting my

648
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 4: gut because we didn't have these kinds of podcasting conversations,

649
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 4: and we didn't have, you know, women like us that

650
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 4: were at this level where we could have these conversations

651
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 4: about art, and so I was like, let me just

652
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 4: do it by myself, and I hope I'm making the

653
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 4: right decision.

654
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 3: It sounds like you have to be really like when

655
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 3: it comes to hearing all these different perspectives and here's

656
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 3: what our path was, and here's why we're doing something.

657
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 3: It sounds like you also have a really healthy understanding

658
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 3: of the fact that you don't have to take everyone's

659
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,920
Speaker 3: path as Bible like as you need to emulate it.

660
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:55,920
Speaker 3: And I think that's where so many people get overwhelmed

661
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 3: and they start to get off course and out of

662
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,040
Speaker 3: center with them and their own goals when they absorb

663
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 3: so much, you know, insight from other people and they

664
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 3: don't know how to filter that through their values, their

665
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 3: dreams or goals. So can you talk a little bit

666
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 3: about how all this information you have been able to

667
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 3: you know, discern what fits for you, like what works

668
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 3: for you and what advice do you have for people

669
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:22,959
Speaker 3: who are maybe hearing you talk about some things and

670
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 3: thinking like how do I decide if that makes sense

671
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:25,480
Speaker 3: for me?

672
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 2: Yeah?

673
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 4: I think determining what is right for you is your

674
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 4: personal decision calculus of the risks that you feel comfortable

675
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 4: taking based.

676
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 2: Upon how long you can live in the unknown.

677
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 4: And I think the blessing, the blessing and the curse

678
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 4: of being a founder is that you really know how

679
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 4: to live in the unknown. Right.

680
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 2: I remember when COVID.

681
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 4: Happened, everyone was like, oh my god, I'm not going

682
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 4: to get a paycheck, and I was like, I've.

683
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 2: Never had a weekly paycheck in my life, so you know,

684
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 2: in that moment, it was like, oh, there's the blessing,

685
00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 2: Like I don't know what.

686
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 4: It's like to have that consistency there, and so those

687
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 4: those just the same for me.

688
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 2: But it's also that we have goals.

689
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 4: We see what people are doing and a lot of

690
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 4: us are sitting back now going I want to be

691
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 4: an investor. I wanted this, I want to that. And

692
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 4: recently somebody said to me, what do I What's the

693
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 4: first investment I make if I want to invest in

694
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 4: tech startups? And I asked them a series of questions,

695
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:18,560
Speaker 4: and the questions were along the lines up. This is

696
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 4: not the whole list, but some of them. How much

697
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 4: of a nest egg do you have? Do you have

698
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 4: at least six months of runway? The money that you're

699
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 4: going to that you have that you're thinking about investing.

700
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 4: Is that the only pot of money that you have

701
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 4: to make that investment or are there more tranches of

702
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 4: that same capital? Right? So, if you have twenty five

703
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 4: k twenty I wouldn't say put twenty five k in

704
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 4: one company, right, I'd say put it in five companies,

705
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 4: even if you have a smaller position, just that you

706
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 4: diversify your exposure because you're not there yet.

707
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 2: Right now, when you go to sell, I'd say, at

708
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 2: least pay yourself back your.

709
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 4: Principle and one hundred percent. If you've got one hundred percent,

710
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 4: then go play with the rest. A lot of people

711
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 4: don't have a good handle on you know, what they're

712
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 4: going to save, split, reinvest, what have you? And the

713
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 4: more I think think about it, folks are often chasing

714
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 4: what they think is the thing for now, and we

715
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 4: see investors do the same thing. The investors that were

716
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 4: hot into cannabis all went into crypto. Now all the

717
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 4: crypto guys are just into blockchain. Now those guys are

718
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 4: into something else, right, gpto, you know. But it's also

719
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 4: starting with the capital. You have to get to where

720
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 4: you want to go to build towards where you want

721
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 4: to be, and that means also baby steps, just like

722
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,959
Speaker 4: I said at the beginning. So things that I started

723
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 4: doing when I started growing my money years ago, I

724
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:40,719
Speaker 4: don't do anymore, and not because they're not good for

725
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 4: growing my money, but they grow my money at a

726
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 4: different rate than I now have access to other.

727
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 2: Avenues and investment vehicles to grow my money. Right.

728
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,240
Speaker 4: So I used to buy properties back in the day

729
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 4: on list pendence pre for culture, and that was how

730
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 4: I accumulated my money in the beginning was in real estate.

731
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 4: I would not start out with tech because I didn't

732
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 4: have a foundation to feel.

733
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 2: Come going into tech in the first place.

734
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 4: But I felt comfortable going into tech knowing that I

735
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 4: had the stability of real estate.

736
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,160
Speaker 2: Real estate that was income generating real estate that was a.

737
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 4: Growing asset, but also knowing that I could put smaller

738
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 4: dollars into multi family units and rent them out and

739
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,239
Speaker 4: have small mortgages versus trying to come up with money

740
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 4: to angel invest in a company that I'm not going

741
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 4: to see for ten years. Right, that's not necessarily an

742
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,239
Speaker 4: appreciating asset that I could sell at any time, whether

743
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 4: it's for break even or for profit. And so I'm

744
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 4: speaking now a lot of the times to women, especially

745
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 4: around what are the asset classes where you should start

746
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,600
Speaker 4: with growing your money? What are the areas in your life?

747
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 4: Even if we can think about asset classes, but we

748
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 4: can also look at our expertise and our intellect as

749
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 4: an asset. And there are so many women that have

750
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:49,920
Speaker 4: jobs doing one thing, but maybe they have a super

751
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 4: skill doing something else that they could be having a

752
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,440
Speaker 4: side hustle making more money per hour than they are

753
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,640
Speaker 4: in a week doing their day job, which provides a

754
00:34:57,680 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 4: separate set.

755
00:34:58,160 --> 00:34:59,640
Speaker 2: Of security or benefits that they need.

756
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 4: Right, So what other assets do we have do we

757
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,720
Speaker 4: possess that we can grow to make money, to preserve money,

758
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 4: or to shield the money that we're attempting to create.

759
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,479
Speaker 1: Wealth with Well, honestly, I never was listening, like wait, what,

760
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: like you think to yourself, how do I get here?

761
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,359
Speaker 1: And you know, like it's I'm glad that you share

762
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: that you were a single mom, that you went through

763
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: a divorce, that you didn't grow up with all of

764
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: this access, and that you persisted your way through. I

765
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 1: think that that's critically important if people want to stay

766
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 1: connected with you, Lauren, if they want to learn more

767
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 1: about you. Maybe somebody's like, well, I want to be

768
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,840
Speaker 1: my mentor, Like how do they continue, like to connect

769
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: with you and to learn what else you're going through,

770
00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: like what else you are working on? Like how does

771
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 1: someone follow your journey digitally?

772
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:48,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'm pretty active on Instagram and on LinkedIn.

773
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 4: So I'm at Lauren Mylin on LinkedIn and on Instagram,

774
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 4: so you can find me there.

775
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 2: Pretty active on both of those sites.

776
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 4: I do a lot of writing, a lot of opinions, sharing,

777
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 4: a lot of lifestyle hack sharing. But you know, we

778
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:09,439
Speaker 4: as brown women, as black women, being ambitious is not easy, right,

779
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 4: Like we say ambition, it's cool, it's awesome that we

780
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 4: can possess it.

781
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 2: What do we do with it?

782
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 4: Right?

783
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 2: What do we do with it.

784
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:19,760
Speaker 4: How do we harness it in our life to achieve

785
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 4: the outcomes that we want? And I'm so passionate about that,

786
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 4: And I know that if it was not for entrepreneurship

787
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 4: and my unconventional path, I wouldn't be here today. There's

788
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 4: no way that at thirty eight years old, single bomb,

789
00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 4: you know, a single bomb for eight years, remarried, you know,

790
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 4: fifteen and thirteen year.

791
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 2: Old, I mean, never gotten a diamond tiles of word

792
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 2: till this day. So I'm grateful for what.

793
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 4: Entrepreneurship has taught me, and I'm grateful for the opportunity

794
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 4: to have been around people who have allowed me to

795
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 4: see frameworks and examples.

796
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 2: Of preserving and creating wealth that you know, we can.

797
00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 4: Look at and we often see the end result, but

798
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 4: do we understand the how or the why? Right we

799
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,240
Speaker 4: read the articles on what the moves that people are making,

800
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,399
Speaker 4: take it a step further. Go research, you know, go

801
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,680
Speaker 4: research what folks are doing. Go research smart way better

802
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 4: ways to do something that you want to accomplish. Grab

803
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 4: a couple of friends and start making investments in companies

804
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 4: so that you can diversify your exposure. Right like you

805
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 4: great to have access that diversify your exposure. Is the

806
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 4: worst thing that can happen is things are unplanned and

807
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 4: they don't go as we'd like them to. But if

808
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 4: we've got this portfolio, it's okay, you win some, you

809
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 4: loose them, You win some, you loose some, and it

810
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 4: all comes out in the wash and you get to

811
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 4: hopefully perfectly have a life that you love and that

812
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 4: you're proud of and that is authentic to who you are,

813
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 4: and that sets you up to live the life that

814
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:50,200
Speaker 4: you want to create for your family.

815
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 3: I love that well. I feel like this was for

816
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 3: many people listening, probably like for me, I feel like

817
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:00,360
Speaker 3: the kid who's stuck into a college level course. It

818
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 3: was like in the remedial class and it's like this

819
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 3: is no, but it's so important, I think, to be

820
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 3: witnessed to these kinds of conversations because it's like, Okay,

821
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 3: this is possible, and my AHA moment is And what

822
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 3: I'm so glad is you know, it's about those baby

823
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 3: steps and really like, in order to get to where

824
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 3: you are now, you had to first make some money

825
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 3: and use wealth building strategies, basic ones to you know,

826
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 3: grow the capital so that you could do something with it.

827
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:29,040
Speaker 3: And I feel like Tiff, you're at this like rich

828
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,359
Speaker 3: Aunty phase where this is the level where it's like,

829
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 3: where's the budget, needs to VC fund you know what

830
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 3: I mean, like angel investing and all that kind of stuff.

831
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 3: So thank you so much, Lauren for just sharing a

832
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,839
Speaker 3: little bit of your journey, because for me, I'm just

833
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 3: like I will always remember it's possible because I met Lauren.

834
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 2: It's possible.

835
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 4: It is so possible, And I want to help you

836
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 4: achieve whatever dreams you've got, So we'll talk offline and

837
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 4: make that happen anyway that I can be helpful.

838
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 1: Well, BA fam Hopefully you're mind is blown like ours is,

839
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:04,919
Speaker 1: and you can take you to listen and yeah, Bob,

840
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: we'll have ba q A at.

841
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 2: The end of the week.

842
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,560
Speaker 1: You have questions you have, maybe you want to be

843
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 1: on the podcast because you're dope and amazing. Certainly can

844
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:17,399
Speaker 1: hit us up at brownivisionpodcast dot com. We are Brown

845
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 1: and Vision Podcast on ig the BA Podcast on Twitter.

846
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 2: But until next time, y'all, We'll see you soon.

847
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 3: Hey, BA fan, we could not do this show without

848
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:31,280
Speaker 3: your support or the support of our team behind the scenes.

849
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 3: The Brown and Vision Podcast is produced by Cumulus podcast Network.

850
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:38,719
Speaker 3: It's edited by the wonderful Emani Crosby and produced by

851
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 3: Tanya Bustos. Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru,

852
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 3: and I am Bandy Wodrid Santos your co host, and

853
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,680
Speaker 3: I will see y'all next week