Speaker 1: Happy Happy holidays, Brown Ambition Fam, it's Mandra here. As
Speaker 1: you guys know, Tiff and I are taking a little
Speaker 1: break before the new year, but we've still got you
Speaker 1: covered with some of our favorite Brown Ambition moments from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. All throughout this month, we're looking back
Speaker 1: at memorable conversations and breaking down the most important lessons
Speaker 1: we've learned this year. We can't thank you enough for
Speaker 1: sticking by us and what has become one of our
Speaker 1: biggest years for the show ever. So many amazing memories
Speaker 1: from this year, and I cannot wait to revisit some
Speaker 1: of them with all of you. Guys.
Speaker 2: Are beloved BA fam.
Speaker 3: Hey, hey, hey, I always forget this is not the budget, Like, wait,
Speaker 3: we're back, We're blacken.
Speaker 1: And hey Mandra, hey, I feel weird that I was
Speaker 1: just like.
Speaker 3: Dude, I know, Mandra came to my house and you
Speaker 3: got to meet my niece Pooh and mype my nephew Pooh.
Speaker 1: I did well. First of all, it was so good
Speaker 1: to see you in person, it really was. And even
Speaker 1: with your gimp shoulder, you know, I forgot about your
Speaker 1: gimpy shoulder. But I was like even before that, I
Speaker 1: was like don't squeeze her too hard like ring. But
Speaker 1: it was really really good to see you. It fed
Speaker 1: my soul to see you, and you guys will see
Speaker 1: that what we were up to. It's been almost six
Speaker 1: years and we have not had a fresh new luke
Speaker 1: as they say, in almost six years for the podcast.
Speaker 1: So you were getting some new picks taken.
Speaker 3: Yes, and honestly they were. They look fire. I'm just
Speaker 3: really excited because no, they do. Because well, one I
Speaker 3: brought in my makeup artist, Leela Nima shout out to you, Mala,
Speaker 3: she's a lie l I l A n e E
Speaker 3: m A on instant. Honestly, she's great because she's fast,
Speaker 3: she's professional and like you know, Mandy and I could
Speaker 3: not look more different. And yet the sleigh was was
Speaker 3: available and attainable.
Speaker 1: For us both, and I trusted her fully. I was like,
Speaker 1: because I had to go, you know, I was. I
Speaker 1: live about an hour away from tiff and so I
Speaker 1: didn't know anybody locally. So I was like, but I've
Speaker 1: seen Tiffany especially lately, and I'm like, she looks good,
Speaker 1: so I will trust you. Ever has been doing her face,
Speaker 1: so Leila did it, and she's she's a true artist.
Speaker 1: And I don't take makeup artists for granted, but she yeah,
Speaker 1: like you were saying, I mean, she knows exactly what
Speaker 1: medium you're using and how to make your face up
Speaker 1: for that medium. And yeah, six years ago, I did
Speaker 1: not have Alila. I did not have money for Alila.
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 1: I had my sad little drug store makeup and make
Speaker 1: up on the train on the way to Tiffany's apartment
Speaker 1: is out.
Speaker 3: You know, and I looked at I looked at the
Speaker 3: picture because I was like, did I get makeup done professionally? No?
Speaker 3: Because I know that eyelighter that is a Tiffany special.
Speaker 3: I was looking at it. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: that's my birds pecelip gloss and that's you know. I
Speaker 3: was like that then I noticed me. So yeah, neither
Speaker 3: one of us had professional makeup. And honestly, what I
Speaker 3: love about Leilah because you don't, we don't look because
Speaker 3: you know, she knew we wanted to look natural. But
Speaker 3: it just honestly, they just look really great the pictures,
Speaker 3: every picture. And then Tanta, I mean you just she's
Speaker 3: an amazing photographer.
Speaker 1: So yeah, black girl magic all the way down, all
Speaker 1: the way. But then whenever you're around you can't. I
Speaker 1: was like, whenever you're around you and the people used
Speaker 1: around world, it's just all black girl magic. So your sister,
Speaker 1: I'm at Tracy Tracy pr publicist.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like, and I'm because honestly, my niece
Speaker 3: and my nephew they don't like people. The fact that
Speaker 3: like we always talking and day around the house and
Speaker 3: they were going room to room and they're the time
Speaker 3: to be like, oh there's someone on foot, let me
Speaker 3: go hide in the corner. And they were just like
Speaker 3: in there, like hey, hey lady. I'm like, they must
Speaker 3: smell me rio on you because I'm like, oh so
Speaker 3: you like you like miss May because y'all don't like nobody.
Speaker 1: She looked like she got snacks.
Speaker 3: So no, that was really fun. We just honestly, I
Speaker 3: just it. Plus it was just so empowering because I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna lie. Those pictures look so gorgeous, you know
Speaker 3: you Normally I'm just at home looking like how I'm looking,
Speaker 3: you know, And so when you get to take a
Speaker 3: photo and you know, with like the best makeup, with
Speaker 3: this amazing photographer, and you look at every picture of
Speaker 3: these are untouched pictures, and you're like, is that wah?
Speaker 3: I mean, I hope Mandy posts one picture that she has.
Speaker 3: It's like, I'm like, where is the lawyout where are
Speaker 3: where is? I don't even know? Like who makes makeup anymore?
Speaker 3: It looks like for real? I was like no, but
Speaker 3: meaning like it looked like an ad. You look so beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's like it was coming from the inside. It was
Speaker 1: the joy I really and I was really down when
Speaker 1: we when I showed up. It was not the day
Speaker 1: in my life when I necessarily would have chosen to
Speaker 1: have an entire photo shoot and have to put myself
Speaker 1: on camera like I was. You know, ladies, you know
Speaker 1: it was that time of the month, and I was like,
Speaker 1: why did I plan this? But by the time I
Speaker 1: was by the time I had like my girl Stacy
Speaker 1: did my got my curls right in the morning and
Speaker 1: she lifted me all the way up. I was like
Speaker 1: a pile of mud in her in her chair, and
Speaker 1: I just shout out to Stacy for real, because she
Speaker 1: she started my journey back to myself. And then by
Speaker 1: the time you get with Tiffany and Tanetta with her
Speaker 1: photography and then Leela with the makeup and all the
Speaker 1: good vibes. It really came from within and it was
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it was just the joy I think of.
Speaker 1: And also just being back together, you have that giddiness
Speaker 1: of like socializing again. It was it was good and
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that we we captured ourselves. It's been
Speaker 1: a long time. We've been talking about doing this for
Speaker 1: months and months and months, and I'll be honest, I
Speaker 1: used to be like, yeah, we don't really need to
Speaker 1: do Pansioner because like I've put on some weight since
Speaker 1: we did the first one. But you know what, screw it.
Speaker 1: Like I think at a certain point you just have
Speaker 1: to accept yourself in the in the space that you are.
Speaker 1: And I think my mind was really in a good place,
Speaker 1: which made it even more fun. So I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see for y'all to see the the picks and
Speaker 1: all the fun stuff we have coming up.
Speaker 3: Yes, speaking of minds and my mindset, so lately I
Speaker 3: have been really like, you know how like you hear
Speaker 3: all the like mumba, it seems like mumbo jump up,
Speaker 3: like mindset, change your mind set, change your life, and
Speaker 3: you're like yea, yeah, yeah, YadA, YadA, YadA, sma spata right,
Speaker 3: because that's usually what I think, and I'm like, I mean,
Speaker 3: I know it. I do believe, like you know, in
Speaker 3: the general principle of course, if you're always thinking negatively,
Speaker 3: negative things come about. But I have been like, that's
Speaker 3: that's like kind of been the next wave. So y'all know,
Speaker 3: I have a Zion who's my executive business coach, but
Speaker 3: I also have doctor Green who's my who's my professional coach,
Speaker 3: and she's also a therapist.
Speaker 1: And were you're still working with a business coach?
Speaker 3: So okay mm hm. So we have a year contract,
Speaker 3: so it's up in November. If we decide to move forward,
Speaker 3: then we will. So I meet with him every other week,
Speaker 3: and I meet with the same thing. I meet with
Speaker 3: doctor Green every other week as well. So one of
Speaker 3: the things that we've been working on, because if we've
Speaker 3: worked on so many different things, and you know, like
Speaker 3: me feeling more like in charge of my life and
Speaker 3: having the hard conversations and you know, I've been making
Speaker 3: progress if I do say so myself, and I do
Speaker 3: say so myself. So but then the next kind of
Speaker 3: step is I've always known, not always known, but you
Speaker 3: know how you know you have like I knew I
Speaker 3: had a limiting mindset because sometimes I just can't see
Speaker 3: a thing, even though, like for example, when we had
Speaker 3: Emman and Christina on oh yeah yeah arbag, remember that
Speaker 3: level of joy that they just exuded, Yeah, I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't think I could get there, because how do
Speaker 3: you get there? It's like sometimes it's like my mind
Speaker 3: used to really block that in order to be successful.
Speaker 3: I had told myself because this is what the world
Speaker 3: tells you, that you have to work really hard, but
Speaker 3: then if you want to go to the next level success,
Speaker 3: my assumption is like, let's just say, like I told
Speaker 3: you all, last year, my company crossed over the ten
Speaker 3: million mark and I was like, and then someone was like, oh, what,
Speaker 3: You're gonna go to twenty million this year, and I
Speaker 3: honestly was like, I don't want to because in my mind,
Speaker 3: it was so much work to get to the ten.
Speaker 3: The assumption for me was I have to do double
Speaker 3: the amount of work to get to the twenty and honestay, Mandy,
Speaker 3: I have purposely not been doing the work. And if
Speaker 3: I really look back at it, I remember even when
Speaker 3: the first time I got all a's in like third
Speaker 3: grade or something like that, and then my Dad was like, great,
Speaker 3: you could keep this up. And I remember thinking, like,
Speaker 3: I don't want to do the work required in order
Speaker 3: to do it, because I convinced myself that the more success,
Speaker 3: the more work involved. And so I've been trying to
Speaker 3: undo that thinking, and it's been really hard, because the
Speaker 3: truth is, with the right foundation, I've been relearning that
Speaker 3: money is not hard to manage or make. It sounds
Speaker 3: like so crazy and like, of course it's hard to make,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, no, that's not true, Tiffany. If jay
Speaker 3: Z wanted to make a million dollars today, he can
Speaker 3: likely just pick up a call and do some sort
Speaker 3: of partnership and it would be worth a million dollars
Speaker 3: or more. Money with the foundation is not hard to make.
Speaker 3: And even you might think like, oh, well, of course
Speaker 3: that's jay Z. No no, But even me, I remember
Speaker 3: one time like this was maybe like four or five
Speaker 3: years ago. We had partnered with this financial brand that
Speaker 3: I really liked, and they said, we're doing free investment plans,
Speaker 3: and they said for every person dream Catcher that gets
Speaker 3: a free investment plan will give you twenty five bucks.
Speaker 3: And I was like okay. I went through and I
Speaker 3: did the investment plan myself because I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 3: sharing there with dream catchers unless I like it. And
Speaker 3: I liked it because I had just paid an investment
Speaker 3: advisor twelve hundred dollars and their plan that I did
Speaker 3: like online was so similar to his. I realized I
Speaker 3: wasted twelve hundred dollars, so that it made me say,
Speaker 3: I'm going to share it. So Logan, who's my content writer,
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, Logan, let's share this, and I said,
Speaker 3: share the story how I just paid for a plan
Speaker 3: and it's it is. I would say, ninety to ninety
Speaker 3: five percent what I got what I paid twelve hundred
Speaker 3: dollars for this free plan. And we sent out that
Speaker 3: email girl in three days, it generated about one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty dollars one hundred and fifty thousand dollars fair,
Speaker 3: and that was just you know what I mean, that's
Speaker 3: that was just one email. And since then, I mean,
Speaker 3: I've done partnerships with people. The last one that we
Speaker 3: did in a weekend, we generated seven hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: And I'm sharing those big numbers because even though we've
Speaker 3: done those things, I still was convincing myself the bigger
Speaker 3: the success, the harder the work, and that's not true
Speaker 3: because if that is so, then I cannot possibly work
Speaker 3: any harder than I'm working. Now, does that mean I'm
Speaker 3: capped as how far? With how far I can take,
Speaker 3: you know, whatever success I seek. So I've been trying
Speaker 3: to unlearn that like pattern, and because I had been
Speaker 3: afraid to dream big because to me, dreaming big at
Speaker 3: working big, and I don't want to work any harder.
Speaker 3: And so I've just been like on learning, like you
Speaker 3: know that that mindset. And I'll give you an example
Speaker 3: of something where I finally realized, like, Okay, I think
Speaker 3: i I'm getting it. Like a college reached out to
Speaker 3: me and said, hey, Tiffany, we love get it with money.
Speaker 3: We bought it for our students, like our freshmen or whatever.
Speaker 3: Do you have any coursponding curriculum or course? And I
Speaker 3: instantly got stressed because I was like, oh great, So
Speaker 3: now after writing this book for a year and a half,
Speaker 3: now I got to write a course that's going to
Speaker 3: take me some more time, and I don't have time,
Speaker 3: and I'm so tired. I was already spiraling when doctor
Speaker 3: Green was like, okay, that is the example of that
Speaker 3: more success college bis a course more work for Tiffany.
Speaker 3: But is that true? Tiffany? And I was like, She's like,
Speaker 3: is there any other instance in your life where there's
Speaker 3: a course that you did not have to write? That
Speaker 3: was like and I knew exactly what she's talking about.
Speaker 3: I was like, Hey, yes, So if y'all know, I
Speaker 3: have my Literature Challenges, these are free courses that I
Speaker 3: have available to everybody at literature challenge dot com. And
Speaker 3: the last three I hired a course writer named Taylor,
Speaker 3: who's amazing. Taylor has been with me for like eight
Speaker 3: years and started as an intern. Then I taught her
Speaker 3: how to write, you know, Taylor, Yes, I taught her
Speaker 3: how to write courses. I taught her write for a
Speaker 3: London Tree exactly. So Taylor was amazing. And then I thought, Tiffany,
Speaker 3: you already wrote the book. Why not just say hey, Taylor,
Speaker 3: here's the book. Please turn it into a course. And
Speaker 3: I was like, oh yeah, So I messaged Taylor on Facebook.
Speaker 3: I think Taylor lives like in Europe somewhere because she's
Speaker 3: married now to the baby, and I was like, hey, Taylor,
Speaker 3: because I know before she wasn't doing work and she
Speaker 3: had just had the baby. I was like, are you
Speaker 3: still doing work? And she said, yeah, I am. Now
Speaker 3: the baby's a little older. And I said, I'm thinking
Speaker 3: about turning the book into a course. And then I
Speaker 3: got what I like to call god nod, which is
Speaker 3: like when you're on the right track and you get
Speaker 3: a little nod, a little wink from the from God
Speaker 3: or the universe, whatever you believe in. And she was like,
Speaker 3: I already ordered the book. I have it already. I
Speaker 3: was like, oh. I was like, can you take a
Speaker 3: look at it and see what you you know, create
Speaker 3: a proposal to turn into a course. So let's just
Speaker 3: say this college wants to buy the program for one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars, and I do ten colleges. That's a
Speaker 3: million dollars right there. And because I already had the foundation,
Speaker 3: so I'm trying to learn that you can grow without
Speaker 3: doing this extra heavy lift. And I just hope that
Speaker 3: that lands for someone that so many of us dream
Speaker 3: cheap and small, because we have thought that like, the
Speaker 3: more the bigger the dream, the more the work, And
Speaker 3: that's not necessarily true that your dreams honestly should be expansive,
Speaker 3: expensive and huge, because dreams are free to dream, So
Speaker 3: why are we picking up our dreams at the dollar store? Like, no,
Speaker 3: have a huge dream, because you'd be surprised. It likely
Speaker 3: is not as much work as you think. And dreaming
Speaker 3: small means that you also live a smaller life. And
Speaker 3: I'm just done with that way of thinking. I want
Speaker 3: to think like big and expansive, like Iman and Christina,
Speaker 3: where you can have all the things. They don't have
Speaker 3: twenty million dollars in their bank account, and yet they
Speaker 3: are living it up and in Portugal with their amazing
Speaker 3: daughters and having this amazing life, like their dream didn't
Speaker 3: cost as much as you would think, and here they
Speaker 3: are super happy. Me and Manny felt their palatable joy
Speaker 3: on our on our I don't remember what episode that was,
Speaker 3: but you guys should look it up. You can actually
Speaker 3: feel their joy, you know, over and over the airwaves.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to share that that, like that mindset shift,
Speaker 3: how critical that is.
Speaker 1: And you know, yeah, yeah, I think we've all had
Speaker 1: those times in our lives where we have let the
Speaker 1: fear of failure keep us thinking small. And I mean
Speaker 1: for a lot of for some people, it may just
Speaker 1: be a toxic personality in your life. I was just
Speaker 1: on I just saw something like someone had quoted Lady
Speaker 1: Gaga giving an interview about an ex boyfriend of hers
Speaker 1: who said she would never have a hit song and
Speaker 1: she would never do this, never win a grabby, all
Speaker 1: of her dreams were dumb. And she told that person,
Speaker 1: you know, forget you. I'm gonna one day you're not
Speaker 1: going to be able to go to the gas station
Speaker 1: without hearing one of my songs. And let me, of course,
Speaker 1: look at her now, she's phenomenal. And I think in
Speaker 1: our lives you do have like the fit like sometimes
Speaker 1: it is like an actual person, a parent or a partner,
Speaker 1: or a spouse or a sibling or whoever, is like
Speaker 1: your negative Nancy and always bringing you down and making
Speaker 1: you feel small. So you have to watch out for them,
Speaker 1: but you also have to wait to watch out for
Speaker 1: I think what Tif's talking about, which is your internal
Speaker 1: dialogue and how you are speaking to your own self
Speaker 1: about your dreams and what the stories that you're telling
Speaker 1: yourself about if you have the ability to achieve what
Speaker 1: you set out to achieve, and I couldn't agree more
Speaker 1: in the sense that you have a lot of control,
Speaker 1: even more control than you think over your own destiny,
Speaker 1: but you have to look at the fear and understand
Speaker 1: why you feel that way, and also know that you're
Speaker 1: honestly the only person who can change the way that
Speaker 1: you're thinking about. Whether it's your career or your relationship
Speaker 1: or the money you have in the bank. There's so
Speaker 1: much that you can control, but there's also like physically
Speaker 1: that you can control. You know what job you have
Speaker 1: and how much you're saving, but it is your mindset
Speaker 1: and what you think is possible. And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: something like I remember, I don't know how many years
Speaker 1: ago was this, It was like twenty for fifteen something
Speaker 1: like that. I was like, I was in a lull
Speaker 1: in my in my confidence and stuff. And I remember,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this fund remembers what we were on,
Speaker 1: like a nature walk or something like that. And I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I'm going to write a
Speaker 1: book that just says the pow it's the power. It's
Speaker 1: caught and be called The Power of Mediocrity by Mandy Woodruff.
Speaker 1: And it's going to be a book all about how
Speaker 1: people are so unhappy because they keep trying to like
Speaker 1: achieve these crazy dreams and have the perfect partner and
Speaker 1: the perfect job. What if we just stopped trying? And
Speaker 1: I was like, really passionate, and this person looked at
Speaker 1: me and he was like, I don't know. That sounds
Speaker 1: like good book. People are definitely going to buy a
Speaker 1: book like that. But I think it was just and
Speaker 1: I think about that all the time, and I'm like
Speaker 1: you I was. It was indicative of my mindset at
Speaker 1: the time. I would not write that book today because
Speaker 1: I think that was just myself trying to give myself
Speaker 1: an excuse to be to settle for or not settle,
Speaker 1: but to be okay with what I what I had
Speaker 1: versus what I thought I would deserve or what I
Speaker 1: thought I could achieve. I'm not going to say it
Speaker 1: was like a one and done conversation, but it's certainly
Speaker 1: I'm much I'm much smarter about it now. In any
Speaker 1: time a new whether it's a career change, or it's
Speaker 1: a new opportunity with brown ambition, or you know, something
Speaker 1: that comes up in my personal life, if it's new
Speaker 1: and scary and unknown, I just try to keep a
Speaker 1: very open mind. There's no harm that can come from
Speaker 1: entertaining an idea and letting that idea you know, being
Speaker 1: open to it and if you have that energy of
Speaker 1: being open to possibilities, I truly feel like and I
Speaker 1: don't want to get too granola, but you said the
Speaker 1: universe earlier. I think you attract stuff to you, you know,
Speaker 1: and you have any good energy and the good vibes,
Speaker 1: and it really does come from within. How do you
Speaker 1: get there, tiff Like, how do the people? How do
Speaker 1: you get there? You, for example, business coach, your life
Speaker 1: coach therapist, life coach therapist have have helped. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think for some like what would you say to people
Speaker 1: who were like I just can't get out of this funk?
Speaker 1: Like how do I so want to change?
Speaker 3: To my friend Jessica, and I think her is like,
Speaker 3: it's catch me if you can. So she's the first
Speaker 3: black woman to ever visit every country in the world
Speaker 3: and yeah she did it like two years ago. She's amazing.
Speaker 3: So I was talking to her and I was like,
Speaker 3: you know, like doing the whole Like I don't know.
Speaker 3: She said, Tiffany, You're dope. I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: She's like, girl, what she said, I'm gonna do for
Speaker 3: you what I do for my other friends. She said, Girl,
Speaker 3: I am virtually slapping you, like wake up. She's like,
Speaker 3: look to the left and look to the right of utivity.
Speaker 3: Who do you see nobody. I was like, ooh, don't
Speaker 3: say that. She's like, I'm sorry, No, you've created a
Speaker 3: lame for yourself. It doesn't mean that you know that
Speaker 3: other people are not doing amazing, but this is your
Speaker 3: lane that you've created for yourself. What you're doing is amazing.
Speaker 3: Step into that. And I was like, I guess and
Speaker 3: she's just like no. She said, you know what you
Speaker 3: forgot how to dream. I want you to do this activity.
Speaker 3: And I said okay, and I want I think we
Speaker 3: should all do it collectively when I tell you it's
Speaker 3: so good. I was like okay. So she said, I
Speaker 3: want you to do this activity five to ten minutes.
Speaker 3: I want you to be someplace quiet, you know, beautiful.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's your park, maybe it's your bed and wherever,
Speaker 3: and either on you could do it like on in
Speaker 3: a journal piece of paper, or if you're someone who's
Speaker 3: a little bit more verbal, you might want to do
Speaker 3: a voice note and for five to ten minutes, I
Speaker 3: want you to dream without hesitation or limitation, meaning like
Speaker 3: I want to have a house to side of Oprah.
Speaker 3: I want to have, you know, I want to have
Speaker 3: twenty million dollars in my bank account. Like, like, what
Speaker 3: it reminded me of is this weekend. I had my
Speaker 3: niece and my nephew, Roman and Amelia, and I asked Amelia,
Speaker 3: I said, what do you want to do this weekend?
Speaker 3: And she said, I want to go to the farm.
Speaker 3: I want to go to the zoo. My friend Rihanna
Speaker 3: has like three cats in the dog. She said, I
Speaker 3: want to go to aunt Rihanna's house to pet the
Speaker 3: cats and to see the dog. And then she said
Speaker 3: something that seems so crazy. She said, I want to
Speaker 3: go to outer space. And I was like what She said, yes, Mars,
Speaker 3: I'm like Mars. She said yes because it's red, because
Speaker 3: clearly she must have watched whatever on some show and
Speaker 3: she just decided, Oh, that looks cute. I want to
Speaker 3: be on this rent planet. And I was just like okay.
Speaker 3: And she said I want to take a bubble bath
Speaker 3: and I want to do I want to do a picnic.
Speaker 3: And I was just like, Amelia is well, she has
Speaker 3: three she's four, but really verbal. But I just remember
Speaker 3: thinking to myself, like that's the kind that's when you're
Speaker 3: doing this exercise. Do it with like with a millia energy.
Speaker 3: You want to go to the park, pet the dog,
Speaker 3: you know, have a picnic, bubble bath, mars, everything without hesitation,
Speaker 3: without limitation. Just let your act as if your your
Speaker 3: your little self, your preschool or self that didn't have
Speaker 3: any limitation. Write it down, speak it if that's what
Speaker 3: works for best for you, because we have forgotten how
Speaker 3: to dream. Dame Dash has his videos that just came
Speaker 3: up Mandy that said sorry. It was like Dame Dash,
Speaker 3: you know jay Z's ex manager. He was like, yo,
Speaker 3: y'all be out here dreaming cheap as a dream costs money.
Speaker 3: He said, Yo, dreams are free. You know that right,
Speaker 3: That ten million dollars dream costs you the same amount
Speaker 3: of money to have that one hundred thousand dollars dream.
Speaker 3: So like, why are you going cheap on your dream
Speaker 3: when it's absolutely free? And That's what I'm wanting. And
Speaker 3: so that's one of the ways to start that to
Speaker 3: open up that feeling inside you, you know that like,
Speaker 3: let me dream big and huge. It's not about whether
Speaker 3: you're going to get it or out. You're just going
Speaker 3: to say the thing because if you can't dream the thing,
Speaker 3: you certainly cannot have the thing. It's very difficult to
Speaker 3: have a thing that you that you have not you know,
Speaker 3: at least thought about. So it starts really from there,
Speaker 3: and it's just such a powerful lesson and tool, right
Speaker 3: because it's just I promise you, if you dream small,
Speaker 3: you live small, because one of the things you will
Speaker 3: start to realize. I was talking to a young woman
Speaker 3: today who asked me to be her mentor, and she
Speaker 3: was was she asking me? She was saying, you know, like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can have that. And I said,
Speaker 3: you know, has anybody else ever gotten that? And she
Speaker 3: said yes, And so I'm gonna Cause she was Nigeriana
Speaker 3: Nigeria as well, and actually her name was She's the
Speaker 3: only other Adoche I've ever met. My African name is
Speaker 3: Adochi and her African name's Adoche as well. And she
Speaker 3: was like, I said, you already know, Like what what
Speaker 3: would a Nigerian tell you? She would be like, well,
Speaker 3: do they have two heads? My dad would say that,
Speaker 3: Like if I came home with a b and I
Speaker 3: was happy about it, he was like, you're happy about
Speaker 3: this bee? Did anybody get a I'm like Mandy got a,
Speaker 3: Oh Mendy got an a? Does Mendy have two hits?
Speaker 3: Because the implication there is unless Mandy has two brains,
Speaker 3: why she out here gay age and you ain't? Meaning
Speaker 3: ads were being given sis go get you one, so
Speaker 3: meaning that like people are making millions, sis go.
Speaker 1: Make you some where. There's the line though, because we
Speaker 1: I think we I mean, just to be Devil's advocate,
Speaker 1: you can it can backfire in the sense of, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at other people and comparing yourself constantly and never
Speaker 1: being happy with what you've got. And I think the
Speaker 1: the pessimist that I was that you know that nature
Speaker 1: walk when I was trying to sell this book idea
Speaker 1: about mediocrity. I think also there's a bit of there's
Speaker 1: a bit of a lesson there in that sometimes it's
Speaker 1: like you want to dream big, but you also have
Speaker 1: to dream dream from a place of like a positive
Speaker 1: mindset that you're happy with what you have, like you're
Speaker 1: you're it's almost like you're you're comfortable and you are content,
Speaker 1: but you're and you're not dreaming because you're not content
Speaker 1: with the core what really matters, like your core, you know,
Speaker 1: your core self, like you know who you are. You
Speaker 1: have your family, you have friends, you have a good
Speaker 1: support system. You know what I'm saying, Like.
Speaker 3: We're not telling dreams are not like that. When I said, amiliar,
Speaker 3: what do you want to do this weekend? She didn't
Speaker 3: say unlike like well like my my r from preschool.
Speaker 3: I know she's just pulling from the experiences she saw
Speaker 3: out of Space on whatever Netflix thing she was watching,
Speaker 3: was like, that seems cool. Want to try that. So
Speaker 3: she knew that Rihanna had a dog because we've been
Speaker 3: talking about it. That seems cool. Want to try that?
Speaker 3: I think. So the key with dreaming it's not that
Speaker 3: you're looking at what Mandy has to say I want
Speaker 3: it because Mandy has it. What you're looking at what
Speaker 3: Mandy has, it's the evidence that it exists. You see
Speaker 3: what I mean, meaning that, wait, there are people that
Speaker 3: have accomplished this. That fills me with hope and joy.
Speaker 3: It's doable, it's doable.
Speaker 1: Or if not that specific thing is doable, something as
Speaker 1: big or your own version, your own version of that,
Speaker 1: Like you're not trying to go move to Portugal, No,
Speaker 1: not at all and have the one anchor garden like
Speaker 1: Christina Lamane you're on your own journey toward because of
Speaker 1: what it rep.
Speaker 3: Likes to me is I didn't like, I'm not interested
Speaker 3: in moving to Portugal at all. But what I looked
Speaker 3: at Emon and Christina from our rich journey is what
Speaker 3: it made me realize is that it is possible to
Speaker 3: find that level of joy and have done the work
Speaker 3: and to leave it like Tiffy, you ain't gotta keep
Speaker 3: going if you don't want to, like, joy can be found,
Speaker 3: and I just so it was I looked at them
Speaker 3: as the possibility of living and joy like that. Not
Speaker 3: that I wanted like their life, not at all, but
Speaker 3: I wanted to like they they gave me hope, like
Speaker 3: this level of joy is possible in this crazy you know,
Speaker 3: just like topsy turvy world, we're overworking, you get a
Speaker 3: badge for doing the most. Here are people who are
Speaker 3: doing exactly what they wanted to do. They're not doing
Speaker 3: the least, they're not doing the most, They're doing the
Speaker 3: just right and are happy with it. So yeah, so
Speaker 3: I want yes to mand it to your point, you're
Speaker 3: not using other people to make yourself feel bad. It's
Speaker 3: more so to give you the in the apps sense
Speaker 3: of hope. Looking to say that there is a version
Speaker 3: of that life out there. Here's proof. Wow, it's accessible
Speaker 3: to me as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's just like I just you know, wanting that
Speaker 3: for us because I just honestly, I'm more excited because honestly, Mandy,
Speaker 3: up until now, even though it doesn't seem like it,
Speaker 3: because so much has happened, I really pulled back a lot,
Speaker 3: like meaning that I could, I could have accomplished much more,
Speaker 3: but I purposefully do less because I've attached with accomplishing
Speaker 3: more to working more. So I'm like, no, I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna do a left no, no, no, and.
Speaker 1: Even more so now smarter not harder.
Speaker 3: Exactly, I want to do go deep instead of wide,
Speaker 3: Like Tiffany, how do I do accomplish more while doing less?
Speaker 3: It is more than possible. And now that I've opened
Speaker 3: up my mindset all of a sudden, Mandy, like, literally
Speaker 3: there are things that have been there. I know Taylor
Speaker 3: eight years. I'm just now thinking of her, you know, like, wait,
Speaker 3: all these solutions have been here then, I'm just now
Speaker 3: because I'm shifting my mindset, I'm tapping into already existing solutions,
Speaker 3: like almost all that you're wanting is right there in
Speaker 3: front of you, but because of the state of your mindset,
Speaker 3: you can't see them. Not because they don't exist, not
Speaker 3: because you have to stretch extra far and wide. It's
Speaker 3: your mindset has blinded you to the solutions that are
Speaker 3: right in front of you. And so I'm excited because
Speaker 3: I don't have to do much more, just tap into
Speaker 3: what's already there. And I'm like, oh my goodness, Tiffany,
Speaker 3: this has been here all this time, all this time.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of smiling because I kind of want to
Speaker 1: break into this one song on Sesame Street that comes
Speaker 1: on all the time, and it's so simple. But I'm
Speaker 1: saying I think Sesame Street is having a very good
Speaker 1: impact on myfe I love that show. I never watched
Speaker 1: it as a kid. I was more into like Barney
Speaker 1: and I don't know, Earth Power Rangers whatever, but it
Speaker 1: those messages hit okay, and this one song is it's
Speaker 1: very simple. The lyric it's God, am I really going
Speaker 1: to sing this? Okay? Fine, I'm not hearing now, it's
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say it, but the lyric is I wonder,
Speaker 1: what if let's try that's the hook and the messages
Speaker 1: when you have a problem to solve, what do you say,
Speaker 1: you wonder, I wonder what if let's try and always
Speaker 1: it's a it's it's a frustrating problem. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people And I think this was in your book too,
Speaker 1: not that you know I read it, just you know
Speaker 1: most of it. So the piece of it is like
Speaker 1: people can get stuck in the in the mess, you know,
Speaker 1: or the problem or the challenge. And I think the
Speaker 1: anecdote is about your mom being a paper towel person. Yes, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a mess, but let's actually do something. And that
Speaker 1: message in Sesame Street song too is just it's such
Speaker 1: a simple message. And I'm sure if you had asked
Speaker 1: someone like an adult, what do you do when you
Speaker 1: have a problem, they'd be like, yeah, you'd figure out
Speaker 1: how to fix it. But in the moment, I think
Speaker 1: I think the difference between people who are successful and
Speaker 1: then think big and achieve big things is that they
Speaker 1: don't let themselves get lost in that misery stew whenever
Speaker 1: you know, when there's a problem, where there's a challenge
Speaker 1: or it seems like the stakes are against you, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got to be You've got to build that mental resilience, Yes,
Speaker 1: you've got to. And when I say like, I have
Speaker 1: had some of the biggest knocks in my life the
Speaker 1: past couple of years, but I have bounced back like lightning.
Speaker 1: And I look around and I'm like, that's because I
Speaker 1: have been building the infrastructure of mental, physical, and emotional
Speaker 1: well being and resilience, and through therapy, through focusing on
Speaker 1: my sleep, through through physical activity like getting back really
Speaker 1: into good physical shape, through having joy, like spending time
Speaker 1: getting really clear on what I value and spending time
Speaker 1: doing those things, being outside gardening, playing like I play
Speaker 1: like an eight year old child every day because of
Speaker 1: my kid. Like I know, I was late to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I was walking in the woods, digging in the dirt
Speaker 1: with my son.
Speaker 3: Like You're like, I'm in the woods.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's funny, the street lights aren't on yet,
Speaker 1: the w'ere outside play you know. I'm I just and
Speaker 1: I think that that was and thank god. But I
Speaker 1: I'm like, no matter what, I genuinely can feel that
Speaker 1: now the worst thing can happen, and it will be terrible,
Speaker 1: but I will overcome it. And that knowledge makes me braver.
Speaker 1: And I think the choices that I've made have gotten
Speaker 1: bigger and scarier. But I'm I know, I'm brave. I
Speaker 1: know I have a soft place to land because I've
Speaker 1: got like my you know, I've got my survival kit.
Speaker 1: And it's not money and it's not canned food. I
Speaker 1: mean those things are nice. Okay, fine, that's a lie.
Speaker 1: I do have my emergency fund, which is very very
Speaker 1: very very nice and important. But I also have my husband,
Speaker 1: who gets on my nerves, but he's always there for
Speaker 1: me when I'm really down, and my my baby, and
Speaker 1: I have my you know, good relationships with my siblings
Speaker 1: and very quality friendships, and of course my partnerships like Tiffany,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're also a friend with you partner and
Speaker 1: someone I can you know, lean on. And I know
Speaker 1: that you talk about financial wholeness in your book, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of the message too, you know, what's in
Speaker 1: your How are you becoming more resilient to challenges so
Speaker 1: that when you're facing with those challenges and maybe when
Speaker 1: you're in like a negative thought spiral and your mindset's
Speaker 1: not right, who is it that's around you to help you,
Speaker 1: you know, snap out of it and get back to
Speaker 1: your your place of positivity. So you can really hit
Speaker 1: your you know, reach your full potential.
Speaker 3: Honestly, one of the best guests I ever gave to myself. Like,
Speaker 3: so I'm forty one now, but right before my fortieth birthday,
Speaker 3: I said, timpany enough already, and I got rid of
Speaker 3: the very last of my bully friends. Remember we talked
Speaker 3: about that early.
Speaker 1: You know, millly friends. Yeah, that's like.
Speaker 3: You know people who you're like, that's my fan, but
Speaker 3: you're like they kind of don't treat me that great,
Speaker 3: and you're like, wait, why are they here. I didn't
Speaker 3: know how to stand up for myself. I didn't know
Speaker 3: how to say, hey, don't say that to me, don't
Speaker 3: treat me that way. And so i've I was I
Speaker 3: had always since elementary school. Now, most of all my
Speaker 3: friends would be great, but I always had one friend
Speaker 3: that I allowed to bully me, and it would get
Speaker 3: worse year after year. And finally at forty I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you're the last of the Mohicans and you have to go.
Speaker 3: And it was not easy, but it was so liberating.
Speaker 3: And when I tell you, instantly like I felt lighter.
Speaker 3: I remember, I was so afraid of like what's gonna happen?
Speaker 3: And am I gonna miss this person? And I can
Speaker 3: honestly say I don't, like, I don't not even a
Speaker 3: little bit. Maybe a key key here and there, but no,
Speaker 3: you know, they took way more than they gave. It
Speaker 3: was it was, you know, and I but I added
Speaker 3: to that, you know, unfortunate relationship because I allowed it.
Speaker 3: And so I'm just so so what I have around
Speaker 3: me now that safe space slent every friend, I look like,
Speaker 3: it's just this beautiful soul. I look at my friend Rihanna,
Speaker 3: the one who designed my home. She's just the kindest person.
Speaker 3: Hurt her husband, Jermaine. They're like me and my husband's
Speaker 3: first like couple friend. You know, we're like the guy
Speaker 3: actually likes a guy, and the girl likes a girl
Speaker 3: and the guy likes a girl. Like literally like all around,
Speaker 3: we're like we love each other. So the first full
Speaker 3: fledged couple friends. And they're amazing and kind and giving. Well,
Speaker 3: my husband you are, you know, it's awesome. Like Mandy
Speaker 3: got to see him in his super tall sel.
Speaker 1: I forgot how Tlly was and he was so happy.
Speaker 3: To do see Mandy, like, oh it's Mandy and so.
Speaker 1: But and the kid's just following us around, yes, and just.
Speaker 3: Like but you know, just kind and and generous and
Speaker 3: and my friend Cabral same thing. When I really look
Speaker 3: at the reflections of myself that I see out there,
Speaker 3: it's I have the kindest, most generous friends. I've always
Speaker 3: had good relationships with my sisters, thank goodness, So that's
Speaker 3: always been there. But even like probably better and tighter now,
Speaker 3: my parents were in a really good space and place.
Speaker 3: We didn't always have like the gravest relationships because you know,
Speaker 3: teenage years, woof, it was a lot, if I do
Speaker 3: say so myself, and I did say so myself, and
Speaker 3: even into my twenties it was a lots and plus
Speaker 3: they were so strict. So but now you know, as adults,
Speaker 3: as an adult, and I've come to really appreciate them
Speaker 3: and understand some of that strictness and understand why. But
Speaker 3: we have such a great relationship now and so myself
Speaker 3: saved my place to land. Definitely my relationships and just
Speaker 3: how amazing they are. But what I really learned, and
Speaker 3: I had to remember this because I had this downpath
Speaker 3: that I lost them, Like when I first started the
Speaker 3: budgets them, I did a lot of reading and I
Speaker 3: was reading some random article about the mindset shift becoming
Speaker 3: a millionaire to a billionaire. Don't ask me how I
Speaker 3: found this article, but I remember being really curious because
Speaker 3: they found that they had interviewed all these billionaires, and
Speaker 3: they interviewed all these millionaires, and they found that the
Speaker 3: way billionaires dealt with challenges was completely different. They welcomed
Speaker 3: them and were almost joyful by them, like joy filled
Speaker 3: literally by them. And I thought, huh, and I remember
Speaker 3: actively practicing that. And here's why. Because the billionaire saw
Speaker 3: the challenge as a clear indication that they were moving
Speaker 3: from one place to the next. That it wasn't the
Speaker 3: challenge itself like dang, this really sucks. It was like, wait,
Speaker 3: am I growing? Yes, I'm finally leveling up to the
Speaker 3: next level, because this challenge is an indication of that.
Speaker 3: And I just remember that I used to actively practice that. Mandy,
Speaker 3: that like, the website is down, Yes, that means we
Speaker 3: have so much traffic. We need to level up. You know,
Speaker 3: we need a new email list. Yes, that means we
Speaker 3: have so many people on the email list. This no
Speaker 3: longer works. So I used to it. In the beginning
Speaker 3: with the Budgetnista, I was really good at making that
Speaker 3: connection that, like, you know, a challenge happens, it's a
Speaker 3: good thing because it meant growth. And then somewhere along
Speaker 3: the way I forgot and I started to look at
Speaker 3: every challenge like I normally look at challenges as you know.
Speaker 3: So that's what I would say that I am rediscovering
Speaker 3: that back again to look get challenges as a clear
Speaker 3: marker that you are shifting from where you said, where
Speaker 3: you said that you are to where you're wanting to be,
Speaker 3: and that this is just the challenge, is just this
Speaker 3: little rough patch that's the line of demarcation for growth.
Speaker 3: I was here and now I am here. This is
Speaker 3: super exciting and so like, yeah, those are the things
Speaker 3: that you know, kind of put a little pep in
Speaker 3: my step.
Speaker 1: I love this conversation and it's an important one to have.
Speaker 1: What also gives me a pep in my stuff these
Speaker 1: days is that I got my second dose of the
Speaker 1: vaccine and it feels like this pandemonium is finally over.
Speaker 1: And if nothing else, you guys can like build resilience
Speaker 1: by knowing y'all made it almost almost through a pandemic.
Speaker 1: We have all at least got that on our resumes
Speaker 1: now survived, was resilient enough to survive, and you know,
Speaker 1: make it through a pandemic, and that was a huge,
Speaker 1: huge challenge for so many people. So whether you wanted
Speaker 1: to or not, you were challenged this year. And you know,
Speaker 1: celebrate that and get strength from that knowledge because even
Speaker 1: if you didn't quote unquote win the pandemic, you know,
Speaker 1: by losing the thirty pounds and getting whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: learning your languages or you know, knill learning how to
Speaker 1: knit or whatever activity you're supposed to you know, become
Speaker 1: a cook or bake bread. You know, just making it
Speaker 1: through you have become more resilient and even just trying
Speaker 1: to see the Yeah, flip the mindset. Flip the mindset.
Speaker 1: It's a positive thing. It's not always easy. It's not
Speaker 1: always easy, but the people around you, they will help
Speaker 1: you get there when you are in that negative thought spiral.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you if there are negative people
Speaker 1: around you, they will thrive on that. They will thrive
Speaker 1: on it and they won't help lift you out of it.
Speaker 1: So really look at yes people around you, also the
Speaker 1: you know, the thoughts in your own head and how
Speaker 1: they may be holding you back, and just know that
Speaker 1: it's an ongoing process. Right, It's not like you know
Speaker 1: when there's a when there is another you know, when
Speaker 1: I lose my confidence, which will probably happen at some point,
Speaker 1: and you know, down the road, I will be able
Speaker 1: to lean on my support team, you know, support system
Speaker 1: to build me back up. So you have to you
Speaker 1: just just anticipate the life, rainy day that it's going
Speaker 1: to happen, you know, and really try to make yourself
Speaker 1: ready for that moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, oh this was great. This a little boost,
Speaker 3: a little boosty boosts, a little boost to boost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, second vaccine does, and I feel Okay, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm pretending like I didn't get it because I just
Speaker 1: don't want to feel I know, you can feel really
Speaker 1: fatigued and like some people get really actually they feel sick.
Speaker 1: But I'm just like just keep going, going, going, go
Speaker 1: to the park, play pretend like when thing's wrong. But
Speaker 1: I'm really I feel so relieved. Yeah, it feels really good.
Speaker 1: It feels like the start of a new a new year.
Speaker 3: If you got to some other people feel good and
Speaker 3: take some questions.
Speaker 1: Okay, fine, I was just about to tell you to
Speaker 1: get your vaccine.
Speaker 3: I know I am going to get my vaccine. You're like, no,
Speaker 3: I am because I will tell y'all. Like I'm started
Speaker 3: back with IBF and I just called my doctor and
Speaker 3: I was like, should I get it before? She's like, yes, girl,
Speaker 3: So I, oh what they do? Yeah, So I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get it in the next.
Speaker 1: Couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Because how long do you have to wait between man?
Speaker 1: Should you like a few weeks? I got mine April
Speaker 1: fifth and today is April twenty four.
Speaker 3: No, but is there like a minimum amount of time
Speaker 3: that you wait between vases?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's three weeks. I think twenty one days or
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: Right, then I got to hurry up because okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you're if you're planning like a vacation
Speaker 1: or something, you definitely want to be in the same
Speaker 1: place for at least a few weeks. There's something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yes, what's no? Because I like with like it
Speaker 3: like with like I'm going a cycle right now and
Speaker 3: like tentatively speaking, there might be implantation like like June sixth,
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I need to get on and now
Speaker 3: because I want to have the vaccine before, you.
Speaker 1: Know, before that all goes down.
Speaker 3: Yes, because I don't you know, I won't be able to. Okay, well,
Speaker 3: good to know. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 3: gonna call tomorrow. There's a much of places in Nework.
Speaker 3: I think they even just like have you just go.
Speaker 1: Like it's really easy to get an appointment now.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what I've heard from everybody. Gosh, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get my first facts latest next week because Sis needs
Speaker 3: to make sure we can put this baby ready.
Speaker 1: Okay, but we will get to some questions though. Let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break and be right back with your questions.
Speaker 1: All right, y'all, we are back. Before we get into questions,
Speaker 1: let me just do a quick a quick promo for
Speaker 1: an event that's happening. So this podcast is publishing Wednesday morning.
Speaker 1: So Thursday, we are doing an event with The Nineteenth,
Speaker 1: which is an amazing nonprofit news organization run founded by
Speaker 1: and run by brilliant minds. Brilliant women founded The Nineteenth
Speaker 1: and they report on everything at the intersection of politics, race,
Speaker 1: the economy. They go there and Tiffany and I are
Speaker 1: joining them for a live event on Thursday at one
Speaker 1: pm I believe Eastern time. Check out the link in
Speaker 1: our show notes and register to get your spot at
Speaker 1: this event. We're talking about how you can be financially
Speaker 1: resilient in the face of this pandemic, so definitely check
Speaker 1: us out in support. Let's show them that BAFAM is
Speaker 1: always there to support. Okay, even though you'll hear from
Speaker 1: us every week, it'd be great to show the nineteenth
Speaker 1: that ourba fam shows up for us. So hit up
Speaker 1: the show notes and register and we'll see y all there.
Speaker 3: Plus it's free. Did you mention that.
Speaker 1: Free ninety nine? Okay, so let's get into the questions
Speaker 1: right now. We have hit up our Instagram again. Y'all
Speaker 1: can reach us on ig We are at Brown Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 1: Just shoot us a DM with your question or hit
Speaker 1: us up via email Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot
Speaker 1: com and also call call us and leave a voicemail
Speaker 1: if you'd like our number where you can call. Our
Speaker 1: text is in our show notes, so check it out there. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: First question, Hey ladies, I just started listening to your
Speaker 1: podcast and I love all the content. Thank you. I
Speaker 1: wanted to submit a question and hope of getting your input.
Speaker 1: My fiance and I have paid off over sixty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars of debt and have forty thousand dollars left. That's
Speaker 1: about thirteen thousand, seven hundred dollars of student loans and
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars that we have for a truck loan.
Speaker 1: We want to buy a house in about a year,
Speaker 1: but we haven't started the saving process since we've been
Speaker 1: so focused on paying off debt. Do y'all think we
Speaker 1: should continue to get our debt total down before saving
Speaker 1: or just go full on into saving mode? So u's
Speaker 1: first of all, a sixty thousand dollars of debt down
Speaker 1: doesn't mention having any savings at all, So we don't
Speaker 1: know if there's like if they're building on top of
Speaker 1: a cash cushion. But we can make some assumptions, like
Speaker 1: let's assume they don't have anything saved and are wanting
Speaker 1: to start from scratch saving from a house, but they
Speaker 1: have two types of debt left, thirteen K student loans
Speaker 1: and thirty K for a truck loan with an undisclosed APR.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, what's the interesting I'm assuming
Speaker 3: the student loans. Let's make the assumption that your student
Speaker 3: loves are federal, so the interest rate is like you know, relatiicist.
Speaker 1: It now until September, you don't have to pay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay student loans. You don't have
Speaker 1: to pay federal student loans or any an interest stop
Speaker 1: has stopped accruing thanks to the Cares Act through the
Speaker 1: end of September, So really, no one has to pay loans.
Speaker 1: So let's yeah, we pretend that those are gone. Then
Speaker 1: it's the thirty k for a truck loan.
Speaker 3: And I don't know, you know, you know how it
Speaker 3: is with with trucks. I mean, with the card loans,
Speaker 3: it could go either way. She could be double digits,
Speaker 3: she could be three percent.
Speaker 1: So no, you got no.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing. My stance on debt versus savings, it's
Speaker 3: never debt versus savings. I feel like me and Manny
Speaker 3: always like debt and savings, you know, because saving especially
Speaker 3: because it doesn't I mean, we don't know what the
Speaker 3: APR for the for the truck loowners. APR your annual percentage,
Speaker 3: your annual percentage right sentence rate. Look, I'm like, yes,
Speaker 3: are basically the interest rate that you're paying on that
Speaker 3: that truck. My assumption is because you don't have a
Speaker 3: credit card debt, which is great, so you I'm assuming
Speaker 3: you don't have crazy interest rates, and even if you
Speaker 3: if you did, saving to me is your first line
Speaker 3: of defense. It's like the lock on the door, you know,
Speaker 3: on the screen door at that so someone has to
Speaker 3: bust through the screen door, then get to the regular door,
Speaker 3: then get to the chain lock, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And so I really I'm a big proponent of having
Speaker 3: some savings and not sacrifice savings just for for to
Speaker 3: get towards debt freedom that it can happen and should
Speaker 3: happen at the same time. Now, if you're saying that
Speaker 3: you're wanting to save for paying down a house to
Speaker 3: buy a house, now that's different because they're saving for like,
Speaker 3: you know, like emergencies and saving for goal. Because here's
Speaker 3: my worry. Let's just say you're like, oh, okay, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna save as we pay down our loan, and then
Speaker 3: we also save for a house and you're able to
Speaker 3: get a you know, a decent loan for the house,
Speaker 3: so then you use your your savings to buy the house.
Speaker 3: So now you're back at no savings again. So that's
Speaker 3: a concern that you should be like for set the
Speaker 3: house to the side for a moment. And if you
Speaker 3: are going to save, I want you to concentrate that
Speaker 3: you're saving for emergencies while also paying down your debt.
Speaker 3: Now anything, you know, anything above and beyond that. You
Speaker 3: can also save two for buying a house. But you
Speaker 3: shouldn't be looking at the savings that you're setting aside
Speaker 3: just for the house. You should also have an emergency
Speaker 3: fund stashed away, especially if you get a house. I mean, Maddy,
Speaker 3: and I will tell you in a minute, how things
Speaker 3: just be going hay? Why are like, wait, what do
Speaker 3: you mean the plumbing? Wait, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: Why did you say plumbing? Because that's that's always what
Speaker 1: it is, and it's always before you have a bunch
Speaker 1: of guests over the toilet overflows like it did for
Speaker 1: us that fourth of July last year the year before that,
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars to get someone to unclog it emergency
Speaker 1: on a holiday. Okay, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, no, go ahead, no, because you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people forget that there are
Speaker 3: levels to savings. It's not just savings to eventually that's
Speaker 3: like almost like that kind of savings. To me, I
Speaker 3: call it delayed spending. So you save, save, safe, saved,
Speaker 3: then you use it all for a thing. Well, you've
Speaker 3: just delayed the spending. You also have to save for
Speaker 3: savings sake, meaning save for this is my first line
Speaker 3: of defense. This is a lock on the screen door
Speaker 3: that someone has to get through before the next door
Speaker 3: can be can be breached and the next thing can
Speaker 3: be breached. Like not enough people have enough money set
Speaker 3: aside for that. And if twenty twenties panting commercial pandemonium
Speaker 3: taught us nothing is the value of having like that
Speaker 3: first line of defense lined up, No matter how little
Speaker 3: that is, it can give you a little bit of room.
Speaker 1: Panting commercial, that's a new one. Haven't heard. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say that. You know, if you're not paying your
Speaker 1: student loans anymore, you could divert that payment to savings.
Speaker 1: You know, call it your emergency fund that you're building
Speaker 1: up while you don't have to, while you don't have
Speaker 1: the obligation of paying off your student loans. There's really
Speaker 1: no incentive right now to make payments on federal student loans.
Speaker 1: You're not saving any money on interest because there is none,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to, like there's no there's no
Speaker 1: there's actually a cons to paying them. And the con
Speaker 1: is that you know, you could potentially be earning more
Speaker 1: by putting your money elsewhere. Even if it's in a
Speaker 1: really you know, a regular savings account that has very
Speaker 1: little interest, it's still more than zero. And also it's
Speaker 1: giving you that added protection. So if you're going to
Speaker 1: be putting money toward loans that you don't have to,
Speaker 1: that you're not paying interest on, and not putting it
Speaker 1: towards savings, that could potentially save you if you, you know,
Speaker 1: have a financial challenge that pops up, it's just smarter
Speaker 1: to put it away in savings. It's going to protect you.
Speaker 1: So you could do that, just divert what you would
Speaker 1: have been paying towards your student loans to savings. And
Speaker 1: I would also point out, you know, if you're thinking
Speaker 1: about taking out a mortgage for your future home and
Speaker 1: you're talking about saving just for the down payment, they're
Speaker 1: not going to want to see that this down payment's
Speaker 1: going to bankrupt you. And they're also going to give
Speaker 1: you a better rate if you have lower debt to
Speaker 1: income ratio, which is you know how much your monthly
Speaker 1: debt payments are versus your monthly expenses, so it behooves you,
Speaker 1: sat word, it behooves you to try to pay you know,
Speaker 1: down some debt and also lee have some cash left behind,
Speaker 1: liquid cash so that lenders are willing to, you know,
Speaker 1: let you borrow money at all, or even at a
Speaker 1: more affordable rate than others. Something to consider. But it's
Speaker 1: definitely a table to buy a house. And it sounds
Speaker 1: like you guys are really good at budgeting. I would
Speaker 1: just say less money throwing it away at debt and
Speaker 1: more towards that savings fund. Okay, how about this one.
Speaker 1: We've been getting more and more questions about financial advisors,
Speaker 1: but this listener says, do you have any recommendations for
Speaker 1: financial advisors? I started with DR. If you don't know
Speaker 1: who that is, then well whatever, you don't need to
Speaker 1: know forget about it for financial education, but realized it helps,
Speaker 1: but I'm looking for something better. I'm currently working with
Speaker 1: a quote smart vestor pro quote, which is basically an
Speaker 1: advisor that follows DR's principles. Any advice or info smart
Speaker 1: vestor pro.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I think we both liked did where'd you find, Helen?
Speaker 3: Did you find have the xy Planning Network? Is that
Speaker 3: what you found? Oh?
Speaker 1: Helen? Yeah, that was years ago. Is I feel like
Speaker 1: XY Planning is still around. At the time, it was
Speaker 1: very focused on literally Generation X and and it's a
Speaker 1: network of fee based or it was at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the Yeah, so all the advisors on
Speaker 1: their network are fiduciaries, which means they have to work
Speaker 1: at your best interest, offer virtual services, no commissions, they're
Speaker 1: not focusing on selling you products like insurance. They have
Speaker 1: a CFP license. So yeah, it's still around, and that's
Speaker 1: where I found Helen. But I actually interviewed I think
Speaker 1: three my husband and I interviewed three different people and
Speaker 1: we settled on Helen after doing those interviews. But yep,
Speaker 1: thanks YE Planning.
Speaker 3: And there's also one called the National Association of Personal
Speaker 3: Financial Advisors. It's like NAPFA. And then there's also this
Speaker 3: fee only network. So if you go this is a
Speaker 3: slight book plug but not really. But if you go
Speaker 3: to a gigaboo money dot com, this is a little
Speaker 3: button that says GGWM toolkit. So because inside like chapter ten,
Speaker 3: I talk about picking your money team and how I
Speaker 3: found my financial advisor, So definitely go to x Y
Speaker 3: Planning Network. I put that link there. The National Association
Speaker 3: of Personal Financial Advisors. And there's also the fee only network.
Speaker 3: But that's not why I want you to go there,
Speaker 3: because you could just go to those websites. I want
Speaker 3: you to go there to click that button because I
Speaker 3: created this work she called my soul called financial life Template,
Speaker 3: and I use the template to create like, so how
Speaker 3: I find my financial advisor, Angelie is I created kind
Speaker 3: of like this template of like myself and my husband,
Speaker 3: like what our financial life looked like. Because I found
Speaker 3: myself when I was interviewing people forgetting like, oh I
Speaker 3: forgot to tell them this, and I forgot to tell
Speaker 3: them that. But then once I created this kind of
Speaker 3: template for myself, I was able to email it to
Speaker 3: them before we had our talk, so I would not
Speaker 3: forget to say like, oh, by the way, these are
Speaker 3: our goals, this is how much we have saved. It's
Speaker 3: just it was just like such a great like resource,
Speaker 3: So yes, go ahead, And meanwhile, I'm clicking it now
Speaker 3: and I'm like, is it not going Let me just
Speaker 3: tell me?
Speaker 1: No, But that was like a good challenge that you
Speaker 1: cannot overcome.
Speaker 3: Tip No, but no, but I think that that is yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I think that it's really it's important to
Speaker 3: have some sort of like I don't know, like I
Speaker 3: wanted to have something in front of me, so as
Speaker 3: I interviewed them, they could see one because it was
Speaker 3: like twenty people that I reached out to and I
Speaker 3: gave them kind of like that document so they could
Speaker 3: disqualify themselves if I wasn't going to be a fit.
Speaker 3: And then other like twenty people I sent it to,
Speaker 3: like I think like maybe like twelve we're like, oh yes,
Speaker 3: And then I ended up whittling it down to Anguli.
Speaker 3: But she had so much of the information that she
Speaker 3: normally would ask was in that dock and it just
Speaker 3: was so helpful. So I suggest that that yes, my
Speaker 3: my so called financial life it is. It was such
Speaker 3: a like, like I said, that doc really just was everything.
Speaker 1: So so check that out. We'll put that link in
Speaker 1: our show notes. Cool. All right, Well, thank y'all so
Speaker 1: much for your questions. Hit us up BRANDNA Mission podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com and you can find us all
Speaker 1: up in the socials, but especially on Instagram these days.
Speaker 1: Briand Ambisson podcast on I g.
Speaker 4: No But okay, and now it's time to boost or
Speaker 4: break or boost or break or booze.
Speaker 3: All right, let me look at my little document to
Speaker 3: see what do I have here? So I wanted to
Speaker 3: did we ever talk about Patrise's colors and like the
Speaker 3: trouble that she was having with them? No, we have not,
Speaker 3: So I want to boost for chese colors.
Speaker 1: I don't know anyway, She's.
Speaker 3: One of the co founders of Black Lives Matter, and
Speaker 3: unfortunately a lot of news outlets, including unfortunately black news outlets,
Speaker 3: were dragging her for having the audacity to earn an income.
Speaker 3: It was truly yes, So I mean, and I mean
Speaker 3: I'm trying to separate because I know Patrice and I
Speaker 3: have like I remember, like a Black Lives Matters had
Speaker 3: been awarded with the Sydney Peace Prize, which is super
Speaker 3: prestigious peace prize, and I went to Australia and I
Speaker 3: went with her to Australia when she was she was
Speaker 3: accepting it on behalf of Black Lives Matter. And when
Speaker 3: I tell you the I don't know that I know
Speaker 3: anybody that is more passionate about black lives you know,
Speaker 3: than Patrice and how she is dedicated literally her life
Speaker 3: and puts her life on the line, like the number
Speaker 3: of like death threats and the number of just like
Speaker 3: it's crazy how they come for that woman. And so
Speaker 3: people were mad because they're like, what, you have a
Speaker 3: house in California? Meanwhile, that's worth I don't remember what
Speaker 3: it was, like, you know, five hundred thousand dollars or
Speaker 3: one point two million dollars. I don't think people understand
Speaker 3: if you don't live on the coast. My little rinkidink
Speaker 3: house in Newark, New Jersey is worth about four point fifty.
Speaker 3: It's not something special. I mean it's a nice que house,
Speaker 3: but meaning that on the coast, what's one point two
Speaker 3: million dollars in California looks like a regular house. Like
Speaker 3: I saw that house, I was like, this is what
Speaker 3: y'all mad at. It's because of where, because of coastal living,
Speaker 3: it's way more expensive. Like do you understand, like there
Speaker 3: are people in New York who's literal you know, one bedroom,
Speaker 3: two bedroom apartment might be six thousand dollars and it
Speaker 3: doesn't look like it looks like a college dorm room. Like,
Speaker 3: so what is relatively expensive to like you know in
Speaker 3: the Midwest is not expensive. I mean it is expensive,
Speaker 3: but that's you're just not gonna get anything less than that,
Speaker 3: especially in California. I mean New York, New Jersey's already bad,
Speaker 3: but California is literally insane. And Patrese is an author
Speaker 3: her book. I remember when when we were because I
Speaker 3: han't met her at essence best at first, and I
Speaker 3: remember she had just written a book, When They Call
Speaker 3: You a Terrorist, a New York Times bestseller. It sold
Speaker 3: tons of copies. I can tell you someone who got
Speaker 3: a book deal. I promise you her book deal was
Speaker 3: bigger than mine, and mine was just under seven figures
Speaker 3: me with my first book. Like and so Patrise, who
Speaker 3: was huge. I mean she's still huge, but at that time,
Speaker 3: so I can only imagine what her book deal was.
Speaker 3: So let's get that clear too. Like Patrise is an artist,
Speaker 3: she has she's had all of these other ways to
Speaker 3: bring an income for herself. We cannot ask the people
Speaker 3: who serve us to also be a martyr for brokeness,
Speaker 3: like you already you already know I'm not with it,
Speaker 3: Like I'm here to be the Budjanista to serve my community.
Speaker 3: Assist wants to be wealthy as well, because like I don't,
Speaker 3: I just like I'm done with that. Like when I
Speaker 3: first started my business. I thought that, I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't want to charge, and I don't want this
Speaker 3: because I ought not to have, because if I'm going
Speaker 3: to be of service, that's garbage. The more that I have,
Speaker 3: I pour from my overflow, the more resources that I have,
Speaker 3: the better I show up for y'all. Because I'm not broke.
Speaker 3: Is why I'm able to do so much for free,
Speaker 3: because I'm not worried about money, and so I just
Speaker 3: wanted that to be It's almost like a boosty breaky,
Speaker 3: a boost for patrees, but a break for y'all. Tried it,
Speaker 3: not y'all, but y'all that like asking our leaders to
Speaker 3: suffer in brokeness. And then you know, some of these
Speaker 3: very outlets putting her address online. I mean, she already
Speaker 3: was receiving death threats, putting her life and her family
Speaker 3: at risk. I just when she has already put her
Speaker 3: life on the line in response to Black Lives Matter
Speaker 3: one Like, so, if you like, there's this great His
Speaker 3: name is Matt mcgry m at t mc g r
Speaker 3: y on Instagram, and I love it because he posted
Speaker 3: this letter a statement on false and dangerous stories. Right,
Speaker 3: so he he said the following statement is issued by
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter Global the Foundation in response to the
Speaker 3: false and defamatory the savatory the ffamatory article being amplified
Speaker 3: by right wing media. Patrise Colors is the executive director
Speaker 3: of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. She serves in
Speaker 3: this role in a volunteer capacity. This is from Global
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter does not receive a salary or benefits.
Speaker 3: Patrese has received a total of one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars since the organization's inception in twenty thirteen is
Speaker 3: now twenty twenty one. He wrote this April twelve, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one. How many years is that, Mandy?
Speaker 1: That is when was it founded?
Speaker 3: Just twenty thirteen?
Speaker 1: Seven? Eight years?
Speaker 3: Eight years? So what is one hundred and twenty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars divided by eight years? Let me, let's do that.
Speaker 1: It's not very much. It's less than ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: A year, I mean. And so this says for duties
Speaker 3: such as serving as a spokesperson and engaging in political
Speaker 3: education work. Patrese did not receive any compensation after twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: Stop to be abundantly clear, it says as a register
Speaker 3: of four oh one ced three that this organization cannot
Speaker 3: and did not commit any organizational resources towards the purchase
Speaker 3: of personal property by any employer volunteer. I mean, I
Speaker 3: just and he goes on to say Patrese's work for
Speaker 3: black people over the years has made her and others
Speaker 3: who are aligned with the Fight for Black Liberation targets
Speaker 3: for racist violence. So it's just really really because I
Speaker 3: can see in her face because Patrese, honestly, if you
Speaker 3: despite all the bs, she is funny and joyful and lighthearted,
Speaker 3: I mean she is silly. And to see her like
Speaker 3: fighting for her life on insult, like I've messaged her
Speaker 3: several times and just make sure she's okay, But to
Speaker 3: see I can see the fear in her face, and
Speaker 3: I see a little bit of the light dim because
Speaker 3: it's she's expecting it from the right wing, but from
Speaker 3: her own people coming for her. It's unconscionable. And I
Speaker 3: just can't imagine putting my life on the line for
Speaker 3: the very folks who are now putting my life in
Speaker 3: danger because of lies. And so I just wanted to
Speaker 3: give her an extra If you want to read it
Speaker 3: for yourself, I encourage you to do some Matt m
Speaker 3: at t mc g O R R Y on his Insta.
Speaker 3: It was posted on like I think, like I don't know,
Speaker 3: like in April some time, but you can go and
Speaker 3: read that letter. I think it's important for everybody to
Speaker 3: see it, to read it. And yeah, she is just
Speaker 3: an incredible woman who despite all of this still stands
Speaker 3: in service to black people.
Speaker 1: So this story, I mean, I texted you Tief when
Speaker 1: I saw it, I was like, what the absolute what
Speaker 1: it was? It was? I'm still so angry on her behalf,
Speaker 1: because there is this expectation, especially if you're a Black woman,
Speaker 1: that you're not that you're supposed to give everything but
Speaker 1: not get anything. That the image of you they want
Speaker 1: to see is someone who is on their names, crying
Speaker 1: because their son or brother or husband or nephew was
Speaker 1: killed or you know, or with a handout, you know,
Speaker 1: looking for something. They don't want to see you succeed.
Speaker 1: And it is really sad proof that there is still
Speaker 1: a lot of audience out there who wants to proliferate
Speaker 1: this image of black women, black people, you know, suffering
Speaker 1: but not thriving, and especially for someone who's given so much,
Speaker 1: I was I don't even know Patrice, but I was
Speaker 1: offended on her behalf and so I'm glad you. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you brought this up. And as a former journalist,
Speaker 1: I will tell you it was the It was the wackiest,
Speaker 1: thinnest piece of internet crap, like garbage. And as a
Speaker 1: as a as anyone who even has a modicum of
Speaker 1: journalism education, would never have published that story. And I'm
Speaker 1: really sad for black journalists because you know, as any
Speaker 1: black professional, when you're out there in the world, you're
Speaker 1: you have such a razor thin margin margin for error.
Speaker 1: So when one of us, as a black journalist, is
Speaker 1: a black journalist out there posting filth like that and
Speaker 1: nonsense with terrible sourcing or lack of sourcing and no
Speaker 1: story at all, like even a tiny bit of fact
Speaker 1: checking could have found there was no truth to this.
Speaker 1: When you publish that, you you know you're making it
Speaker 1: harder for other black journalists to be taken seriously. And
Speaker 1: so that is what I'm offended by. She made me
Speaker 1: want to like do a talk at the next National
Speaker 1: Association and Black Journalist conference, like we got to do
Speaker 1: better out here. And yeah, it was pure, pure garbage,
Speaker 1: and I hope that a lot of people out there
Speaker 1: are are smart enough to look at where stories like
Speaker 1: that come from on the internet and question it and
Speaker 1: and be critical and think critically about stories that we
Speaker 1: hear about our leadership, because they they when you succeed
Speaker 1: as a black woman, that's when they're most fearful of you,
Speaker 1: and that is when they start putting out live to
Speaker 1: bring you down. And even though I don't know her,
Speaker 1: I feel like that could be me, that could be
Speaker 1: I'm sure it has been Tiffany. People don't want to
Speaker 1: see Tiffany do well, you know, they want they like,
Speaker 1: especially when it's your peers. I'm sure there's there's people
Speaker 1: who who we're talking about earlier, would rather see you
Speaker 1: struggle to make themselves feel better. And anyway, I my
Speaker 1: heart goes out to Patrice. I hope she's okay. She
Speaker 1: has done such good work, And go and get your
Speaker 1: house's girl, get all the houses. You have every right
Speaker 1: to get your houses. How many billionaires, like do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about? How many billionaires give away money
Speaker 1: to to nonprofits and and and all their philanthropic good
Speaker 1: deeds and then turn around and you know, drive gas
Speaker 1: guzzling cars and and have the audacity to go shopping
Speaker 1: for expensive things and have watches and jets and stuff
Speaker 1: like get out of here. Like it's just complete and
Speaker 1: utter nonsense. And she did not deserve it for a minute.
Speaker 1: And I hope that she I hope that the light
Speaker 1: has not dimmed for too long because she has done
Speaker 1: so much good work and she needs all the support
Speaker 1: that she deserves. Right now, what was my booth going
Speaker 1: to be? Oh, I know, hold on, my computer just died.
Speaker 1: I went away, well really quick, because that was I
Speaker 1: joined in on that one. But I wanted to shout
Speaker 1: out things. I wanted to shout out this young woman.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to shout this out Tiffany, because I
Speaker 1: can't stop thinking about your nephew Roman and how he
Speaker 1: just has this big kid genius energy. Big I mean,
Speaker 1: he was just fascinating to watch. I could have just
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be weird, but I was just
Speaker 1: like really wanting to observe him. He's a mathematical genius.
Speaker 1: And I saw this story about a young girl who's
Speaker 1: twelve and how she's attending college this year. Her name's
Speaker 1: Elena Wicker and she's soon to be college student, and
Speaker 1: she wants to be the youngest black woman to ever
Speaker 1: work for NASA, And she was recently featured in People magazine,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to share this little this little
Speaker 1: bit of black excellence. And her mother, Diane McCord, said,
Speaker 1: one of the signs that her child gifted was she
Speaker 1: would always organize legos by color and by size and
Speaker 1: very strategic, and if you took one of her legos
Speaker 1: out of the set, she knew one of them was missing, yes,
Speaker 1: but that she's still goofy and she's always you know,
Speaker 1: she's had a sense of humor, but would like build
Speaker 1: these crazy you know, like the Millennium Falcon out of
Speaker 1: legos and like all these things. So shout out to
Speaker 1: Elena and black girl excellence, and also shout out to
Speaker 1: Roman because I feel like he might be like a
Speaker 1: People dot Com Black Excellent story one day.
Speaker 3: I always, like I used to because you know, teaching
Speaker 3: for so long, I used to always like the joke
Speaker 3: was that ain't no regular baby. That's what I would
Speaker 3: always say, Like he's one and a half, talk about
Speaker 3: octagon oval. I'm like what I used to tell her.
Speaker 3: I'm like, mm, sis, I ain't no regular baby, because
Speaker 3: you know that was her first and she's like, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't wanted a half years name all
Speaker 3: the shapes. I'm like, no, if they do, they certainly
Speaker 3: don't know octagons from hexagons. Sis no, and like even now,
Speaker 3: like you know Roman is telling time. Didn't I didn't
Speaker 3: know I have to tell time until I was like
Speaker 3: in fifth or sixth grade. He's five. Yeah, he's telling time.
Speaker 3: He's doing multiplication and addition reading like all these like signs,
Speaker 3: like we walk down the street. I was like, I'm thinking,
Speaker 3: like he's gonna read the first two lines. It was
Speaker 3: like no, it said something like it was like a
Speaker 3: parking side, no parking police track this boy, no parking
Speaker 3: police towing. I'm like, cause he never heard of towing.
Speaker 3: But he's like I can sound it out at five.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. So I always tell her I didn't no
Speaker 3: regular baby, because she was worried. Because for you, parents,
Speaker 3: if you are not up on number blocks and alpha
Speaker 3: blocks on Netflix, cis you late? It is as a teacher,
Speaker 3: I'm telling you want.
Speaker 1: To feel attacked because I'm still on Sesame Street again
Speaker 1: one more time.
Speaker 3: Number number of blocks and alpha blocks. So it is
Speaker 3: they whoever made it they are educational geniuses because what
Speaker 3: this show was like, so basically they have on letters
Speaker 3: and numbers into superheroes. You so kids feel like they're
Speaker 3: watching one of these superhero shows, but really they are.
Speaker 3: They are showing you how to count at tract. So
Speaker 3: it gets with every episode, it gets more complex. In
Speaker 3: the beginning, you're just doing letters, and then sounds and
Speaker 3: then words and then sentences. So each episode gets more
Speaker 3: and more complex, but they do it in such a
Speaker 3: way that you feel like you're watching like you know,
Speaker 3: like Power Rangers because the actual numbers and the letters.
Speaker 3: So there's two separate shows, number Blocks, and then there's
Speaker 3: an Alpha Blocks that they take on the persona of
Speaker 3: like different like I said, superheroes, but it's so well done.
Speaker 3: And the repetitiveness, I mean, I like, I'm I'm picking
Speaker 3: up everything they're putting down. I'm like, ooh, like a
Speaker 3: million when she was three, just like a few months ago.
Speaker 3: Do you know how hard a concept it is for
Speaker 3: a kid to understand zero? Like, think about that many Like,
Speaker 3: how do you explain zero to a two year old
Speaker 3: or a three year old?
Speaker 1: And so to me straight they show you that cookie
Speaker 1: has no cookies.
Speaker 3: I can tell you, but it's still really hard of
Speaker 3: a concept because kids understand numbers. And so the other
Speaker 3: day I was saying something. He was like, I'm sad
Speaker 3: there's zero. There's zero left. I looked at her, like
Speaker 3: my sister was like, girl, I don't know, damn damn
Speaker 3: number blocks, but I just I share that that because
Speaker 3: it's been such a great you know in the world
Speaker 3: wherever where I get it. Like my sister used to
Speaker 3: be really big on like, you know, not too much
Speaker 3: screen time, girl, pandemic. It was like, where are your
Speaker 3: number blocks?
Speaker 1: Yep?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I was like, you know, tell.
Speaker 1: Her to check out the guy on YouTube who excavates
Speaker 1: for a living, which is where you just dig up
Speaker 1: dirt and move it to other places. Hypnotizes my child
Speaker 1: send me a lake because I will. I don't know
Speaker 1: who it is. I used to roll my eyes, but
Speaker 1: I will walk in the living room and my husband
Speaker 1: always watches this guy and he and Rio are on
Speaker 1: the couch just dead staring watching the sky dig up gravel.
Speaker 1: And it goes a full hour. My toddler did not move.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's learning anything, but he likes
Speaker 1: just he screams at it. Equipment now when he sees
Speaker 1: it on the side of.
Speaker 3: But that means he's recognizing it. Yeah, yeah, No, I
Speaker 3: just see to think that. Like there's just some shows
Speaker 3: that are so well done and that is number of
Speaker 3: blocks and alpha blocks there. Like I started following them
Speaker 3: on Insta just to be like, thank you so much
Speaker 3: all that you've taught my niece and nephew. It's just
Speaker 3: great programming.
Speaker 1: But no, like it's protect that one. The force is
Speaker 1: strong with him.
Speaker 3: I told my sister, my girl, we will all be
Speaker 3: working for his whatever company.
Speaker 1: But Mimi keeps it spicy. She keeps it like.
Speaker 3: She's like, dude, that's what we call a millia, Mamie.
Speaker 3: She keeps it all the way spicy, like girl, She's like, Roman,
Speaker 3: we're here to have fun you and this. She does
Speaker 3: like alpha blocks too, but she definitely is the He's
Speaker 3: the Chucky and she's the Tommy of a Rugrats, like
Speaker 3: you know, exploratory, having a good time. And Roman's like, oh,
Speaker 3: I guess, and like literally he'll build a thing and
Speaker 3: she will just be like I'm gonna tip it over, okay. Roman,
Speaker 3: He's like due. She's like yeah, exactly, no, but I'm
Speaker 3: just I'm just honestly, it was nice to have like
Speaker 3: you like here in my space. I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 3: just get right in. It was just like nice just
Speaker 3: to like hang out. I'm like, oh, on the couch,
Speaker 3: just talking like adults and having.
Speaker 1: A good time. It was a very warm and beautiful homie.
Speaker 1: You know, I loved it. I feel like you know
Speaker 1: it was it filled my cup, as they say, filled
Speaker 1: my cup up, and I was really low that day.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you again, and to your sister
Speaker 1: Tracy and just Superman. I hope his movie Theater in
Speaker 1: the Basement is coming along well. Excited to hit him
Speaker 1: up at the twin Is that what the speakeasy is called? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Twins Place, Twins Place, Okay, twins Place.
Speaker 3: The speak that's fun.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I hope we can do. I'm like,
Speaker 1: when am I gonna see whatever? You guys will see
Speaker 1: the pictures, So I guess I'll see you get in
Speaker 1: six years, Tiffany update only another time. All right, y'all,
Speaker 1: We'll take care. Have a good week. Check us out
Speaker 1: on Thursday with the nineteenth ghet up our show notes.
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Speaker 1: us as we looked back at some of our favorite
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