WEBVTT - Ep 305: How to Make Six-Figures in Tech ft. Cinneah El-Amin 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:08.840 Hey, Hey, Hey, va fam I cannot wait to introduce 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:13.320 you to today's guest. She is someone who I have been cyberstocking, 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.360 not in a creepy way, in a totally cool way 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.560 for a long time. I feel like she is my 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.439 nine to five hotty partner in crime. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:22.520 She's me. 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.959 I think we have so much in common with the 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.440 way she's approached her career and her inspirational message of 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.040 how anyone out there, even if you're working nine to five, 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.120 you can still build wealth. I am so happy to 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.320 welcome Sonia to the show. Sania founded Flyinance, which is 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.160 an online platform dedicated to helping ambitious working women, who 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.960 she calls nine to five hotties, effortlessly build wealth and 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.640 say yes to more travel. She's a product manager and 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.360 she's worked at major companies like AMX and MasterCard, and 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.960 she has grown her salary four x in just four years, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.680 became debt free, and managed to reach one hundred K 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.320 net worth by the tender age of twenty six years old. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.040 Her story has been featured everywhere from GMA to CNBC 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.000 and now she's on Brown Ambition. So now you've made it, okay. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:11.679 I know. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.600 GMA is like cool but come on, it's brown ambition 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:16.679 for legends. 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.800 Right now, that's a fast I'm jan girling very hard inside. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.080 Thank you so much, Mandy. 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.800 Likewise, Cinia, it's such a pleasure to have you on 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.920 the show. First and foremost, thank you for being I 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.320 feel like I've been banging this druma of quit your 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.440 way rich like kind of alone, and there's this like 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.520 stigma around telling people to quit their jobs. Talk to 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.440 me about and you're you know, you're a few years 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.560 younger than me, right are you? How old are you? 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.520 If you don't mind, I'm twenty seven right now. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.320 Yeah, so you're a few years younger. It was around 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.080 my mid twenties when I started making those really you know, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.720 strategic quits, and I quit six times in a decade 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:56.480 of my career. 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:57.040 Now. 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.480 I was in journalism, and I remember my little brother 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.000 kind of telling me like, why do you want to 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.200 go into journalism? Do you not want to make money? 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.720 And I remember thinking, listen, I tell stories. I'm gonna 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.200 go for it. And I managed to quit and increase 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.960 my wealth along the way. But yeah, it wasn't like 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.440 the traditional traditional career trajectory or the traditional industry you 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.440 would think you could build wealth in now you chose 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.080 tech or did you tell me a little bit about 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.639 your career journey, where you started and when you started 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.800 to realize, oh, I can quit and actually build wealth here. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.480 Yes, I love this question. So my career really actually 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:39.600 started in financial services. I landed my very first job 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.720 at AMEX on a product management team totally by chance. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:44.040 Right. 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.960 I did not know anything about what I wanted my 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.360 career to look like when I graduated from college and 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.560 grad school. This was around twenty seventeen, right, so product 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:59.280 management wasn't quite the hot, buzzy, you know, career choice 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.000 that it is today. So at that point I was 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.680 just happy to have landed my first big girl salary 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.440 and to land on a team with really great leadership. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:10.600 But as I kind of spent more time at AMX 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.680 and really learned that, hey, product management is not only 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.000 something that's very strategic, it is something that I really enjoy. 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:19.160 I really feel like this is like my zone of genius. 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:21.959 That's kind of when I started to see that, Wow, 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.880 there's a lot of opportunity out here for me, and 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.120 a lot of opportunity for me to grow and pivot 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.840 my career. Right, I don't just have to stay at 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.120 this one company. I don't just have to stay in 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.600 this one type of work. So I think tech was 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.320 always kind of something I was drawn to, really curious about, 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:39.280 so I. 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.440 Really spent more time. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.600 I would say as I became, you know, a bit 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.480 more comfortable with my career my skill sets, to say, hey, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:48.880 I can take the skills that I have as a 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.840 product manager, even though I've only ever worked at big 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.920 banks and turned that into a career in tech. So 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.200 I would say that, you know, my my pathway from 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:05.040 graduating school in twenty seventeen to today has been very serendipitous. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.960 I've leaned very heavily on my network and really just 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.000 kind of putting myself out there for opportunities and to 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.840 the question around, you know, how I've known when to 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:19.239 make these strategic jumps. Honestly, it's been like a gut feeling, 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:21.960 right like. And we can definitely talk more about this, 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.320 but I think for me, even as a young black woman, 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.160 very rarely was I ever encouraged to leave a job. 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:28.440 Right. 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.440 I left my first job in twenty nineteen. I was 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.440 like twenty four years old, right, So I remember having 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.280 bosses be like like oh my gosh, are you sure 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:40.920 you want to do this? Right? Very much, A lot 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.000 of a lot of that, you know, a lot of 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.960 that language around, kind of almost like kind of wanting 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.080 to shame me for wanting to make these kind of decisions. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.880 This go ahead, okay, young blood, go ahead, you're gonna leave, 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:54.279 you'll come back? 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.240 Literally no, literally literally that I feel like that was 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.680 definitely that was definitely the energy. But I think for me, 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.240 especially around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, when I first started 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.840 to learn about financial freedom and the Fire movement, I 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.880 really saw myself being someone that could take advantage of 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.920 that lifestyle of being able to grow my income keep 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:16.799 my expenses relatively the same. 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:18.280 So how was I going to do that? 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.720 I had to make more money, So that meant having 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.719 to make some of those quote unquote calculated risks to say, 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.000 maybe I need to go somewhere else to make more 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.240 money to build my skill set. And that's kind of 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.680 the energy that I've taken with me for the past 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.400 four and a half five years. 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.320 Yeah, So what did you study in college? And you 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:38.920 said you went to grad school, what did you study? 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.800 So in college I studied Africana studies. I loved it. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.760 I absolutely loved it, but there was definitely no immediate 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.560 professional ROI. Right, It's like most of my most of 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:57.560 my peers who majored in Africana studies are obtaining PhDs 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.840 right now or work say academics. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.200 I want to teach them and be in academia forever. 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.520 Literally, I feel like most of my peers went like 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.240 the Melan maze academia academia away, and then a few 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:11.240 of us kind of went into more like social justice 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:12.040 nonprofit work. 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.599 I think I'm probably the only. 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.400 Person from my class that actually ended up pivoting working 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.560 in corporate and definitely today working in tech. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:20.200 And then graduate school. 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.360 Actually did a one year master's, my Masters of Sciences 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.680 and Business Management, so kind of gave me more of 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:27.920 that business acumen, more of those practical skills, and I 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:29.760 think more of that confidence to say, you know, I 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.560 spent four years in undergrad kind of shying away from 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.000 you know, more quant heavy subjects. 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:36.279 Right. 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.520 I was an Africata SIDI major, so I think that 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.279 master's program really kind of gave me that confidence to say, hey, yeah, 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.320 I can do excel. I can you know, I can 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.280 read financial charts, which I think really helped me pivot 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.479 and land an American Express as my first job. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:51.680 Yeah. I think that's wonderful because a lot of people, 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:53.279 I mean, I do a lot of career coaching, and 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.480 a lot of women maybe they study something and they 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:57.800 or they have experience in a certain field and they 0:06:57.839 --> 0:06:59.960 want to pivot into a new one. So for sure, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.440 I mean, talk to me about the interview process. When 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.919 with you with your Africana Studies background. Did you go 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.240 back to get your MBA because you were struggling to 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.239 find work or was that just part of the plan. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.360 You know, this will help me as I interview. 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:13.400 Yeah. 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.800 So when I was a senior in college, I had 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:20.200 no idea what I wanted to do professionally. Right, I 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.760 went to this really great school, I went to Barnard. 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.480 I was at this really great school, but had no 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.160 job offer. And so senior fall I really started to think, Okay, 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.720 I have two choices, Right, I can either try really 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:36.240 hard to convince an interview or on the other side 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.840 that this Africana Studies degree can help me work in 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:44.920 a more business aligned job, or I can see, hey, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.000 there are a lot of At that time, there were 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.080 a lot of these programs kind of popping up at 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.680 Duke Wake Forest and other kind of business schools, kind 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.440 of giving people like me non traditional backgrounds, lower arts backgrounds, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.160 and opportunity to break sort of speak into more business 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:02.240 focus fields. 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:04.720 So that's actually what I ended up doing. I ended 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:05.400 up taking. 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.480 I ended up deciding to get my masters right out 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:11.640 of undergrad one because it was fully funded, right, so 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.000 I received a full ride fellowship, and then two because 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.960 to your point, I really did struggle, I guess kind 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.560 of telling my story really to the point where I 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.840 could land offers, right, So I did a lot of interviewing. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.000 I was interviewing for a lot of rotational associate programs 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.160 at that time because I felt like I had a 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.640 lot of skills and didn't really see myself narrowly fitting 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.800 into one. Right now, in hindsight, I wish someone would 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.840 have told me, hey, you could be a product manager, 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.960 but that was never something that I even knew about, right, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:45.800 So that's why I decided to get my masters. It 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.720 was fully funded. It gave me an opportunity to be 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.439 a student again, something I'm really good at. I'm really 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.800 good at regurgitating information. But it also gave me a 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.199 chance to kind of like have another year to kind 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.600 of figure things out and be in that position where, hey, 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.600 jobs are coming to me, you know, recruiters are looking 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.920 for me. I'm a student, which really helped me in 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:07.319 terms of my interview process. 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.000 I casted a really wide net. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:11.760 My master's program was done at WAKE four, so I 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.400 was in Winston, Sdalem, North Carolina. I did not love 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.160 it down there, so I was pretty much putting out 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.439 increes connections my resume to as many companies in the 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.080 New York area as I could. And how I had 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.960 landed up at AMX was actually through networking. I met 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.679 a lot of different people across AMX, but one person 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.800 in particular we really built a really great relationship, and 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.280 it just so happened around the time that I was 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:39.880 about to graduate from my master's program. 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:41.040 I really needed a job. 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.920 She made her own personal decision to leave AMEX and 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.400 to leave New York City and she recommended me for 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.839 her job. So that is literally how I ended up 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.319 on a product management team, on a high profile product 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.360 management team at American Express. Is my first job. By networking, hustling, 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.840 building relationships and a little bit of luck. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.520 Yeah, I mean and thank you for giving a shout 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.320 out to Lady Luck because it is a piece of it. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.280 I mean, it's also open. It's also kind of approaching 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.440 your career in a way that you leave room for luck, 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.160 and you you leave room for that uncertainty, which if 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.160 you're someone who's like obsessed with doing things on a 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.040 certain schedule, it's very uncomfortable for you. But it's hard 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.640 to articulate that too, that you have to put your 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:22.959 best foot forward, like you said, the build those relationships, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.719 but then you got to wait for an opportunity, right, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.000 and that a little bit of is luck. And how 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.960 wonderful that someone was able to kind of put you 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.040 in that position for success. Now, I'm sure that she 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.200 recommended you, but she still had to interview for the job, 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.040 right and get in the door. So I mean, congrats 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.160 to you for that. When you so going from kind 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.000 of liberal arts to sitting down at a financial services company, 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:45.280 what was that transition like? 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.959 So I will I will say I think that one 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.040 year and my master's program really set me up well 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:52.800 for success. 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:54.720 Now I will say I'm an overachiever. 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.560 So I was that person even in this really intense, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.400 you know, Master's pro that I always pushed myself for more. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.679 So I ended up graduating the top of my class 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.720 for my master's program, was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:14.040 which is a business honors society. So I took my 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.680 studies really seriously. I really took that year really seriously 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.720 to learn and absorb as much as I could. And 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:22.559 I think as a result, when I, you know, got 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.200 to financial services, got to AMEX, and here I was 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.040 doing analytics, right, I was in Excel. I was, you know, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:35.240 having to create really educating create stories for my team 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.559 around the data that was coming back from our car members. 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.440 Like it was kind of easy, right. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.760 Because I'd spent this year really really trying to build 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:44.559 up these skills that I felt like I didn't really 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:46.040 have a chance to practice. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.440 An undergrad And I think as a result, I. 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.240 Think that that's why I was really successful at AMEX. 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:52.920 I think one being really. 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.680 Sad for success, but I was also extremely lucky to 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.840 land on a team where I had really strong leaders 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.920 and women, leaders who really were invested in me being successful, right, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:05.880 who mentored me and said, yeah, I know, this is 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:07.160 your first corporate job, and. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:08.640 This is how you can do things right. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.240 This is the brand and the culture at AMEX, and 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.400 this is how you can show up and show your 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.120 best self, right, And that really helped me. Right, even 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.280 as I think about my experience as a young black 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.880 professional at ames and the short amount of time that 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.560 I was there, I think I was able to get 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:30.319 promotions and have really high profile opportunities because I had 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.480 such strong leadership and strong mentorship and sponsorship. Right that, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.000 as I looked at some of my other peers who 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.960 were just as intelligent as me, just as capable as me, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.520 not having those pieces, especially in a corporate culture like AMEX, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.600 I think kind of kept them from I think, getting 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.920 some of the markers of achievement and success that I 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.400 think that they were really owed. So I would say 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.880 the transition wasn't it wasn't too tough, but there was 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.679 definitely a learning curve, as there is any time you 0:12:58.760 --> 0:12:59.760 join a new organization. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:01.840 Yeah, a couple of things I want to talk go 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.440 back to you really quick. You mentioned a fellowship that 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.080 got you a full ride scholarship or how did you 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.560 how did you find that opportunity to get your degree 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.160 paid for? Because I think that's important for listeners to 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:14.800 maybe get a tip from that. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.240 Yeah, So the tip from that is put yourself out 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:20.880 there for any and all opportunities. 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.439 So, I mean the opportunity. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.160 That allowed me to get a full ride fellowship to 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.800 get my master's program actually goes back to even when 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.560 I was applying to colleges in high school. I was 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.679 that girl that went to the library, got a scholarship book, 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.840 knew my parents could not afford to send me to college, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.120 and just applied to everything that I was eligible for. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.000 One of those things was being a part of the 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.480 rom Brown scholars Network. Now I was not a rom 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.600 Brown scholar. I did not receive all of the money, 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.520 but I was a part of their network and took 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.800 advantage of all the opportunities that they would send to 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.320 students in the network. Right, So I ended up getting 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.400 an internship one year in college through that network, and 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.160 they were also partnering with the wake Forward School of 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.640 Business to promote this new program and promote the fellowship. 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:06.920 So when I saw that it's like free ride, y'all 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:08.800 are gonna pay for my room and board and I 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.360 can get a master's Oh yeah, okay, I'm gonna do this. 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:15.560 So that's what I did, And you know, I had 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.560 the delusional confidence that I was exact I was going 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.960 to be picked right like. I went into my interview saying, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.640 when I am a corporate fellow for this program, these 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:26.760 are the people I want to sponsor me, right like. 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.520 And I think that confidence and I think my my persistence, 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.040 I think is what helped me get that. 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:33.400 Right. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.280 So, I think the tip there is anytime you see 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.880 an opportunity, don't be afraid to go for it, right. 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.040 I think, especially as women, as women of color, especially 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:45.600 as Black women, we receive so many messages that tell 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:47.960 us we're not worthy enough, we're not capable enough. But 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.040 I think I've always kind of kept with myself that, hey, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.640 if I see something that's out there that speaks to me, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.320 I'm gonna put myself out there because I never know 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.200 what can come out of it. Right, My seventeen year 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.960 old self sept my twenty one two and now twenty 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.640 seven year old self up for so much success and 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:05.840 she didn't even know it back then. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.560 Oh, baby Sania, Thanks baby Sania. 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.320 Look what you've said up to her. All right? 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.280 Another thing that I was thinking while you were speaking 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.160 about you know, you being and thank you for pointing 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.320 out the importance of those relationships and having sponsorship and 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.640 actually putting your best foot forward to build those relationships 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.600 and not necessarily being the person. You get a job 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:28.880 and you come on and you just think you're going 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.080 to quietly sit in your cubicle and that someone will 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.800 just tap you on the shoulder and say you you, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.119 we've noticed you. That's not how it happens. Building relationships 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.000 is so important and getting that sponsorship did that make it? 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:42.960 And this is I'm going to ask you this question, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.400 And the reason I'm asking it is because I think 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.520 you and I both agree that when you quit jobs, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.080 there is that perception that you know or you're often told, 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.080 be grateful, be loyal. People took a chance on you, 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:56.560 and you had people who were going to bat for 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.400 you within your company at Amexo, but you still left. 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.080 And I love that. So talk to me about your 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.840 decision around leaving and why, when, what all that stuff. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.560 Yeah, so let me set the scene for you. 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.680 So my decision to leave Ammex the very first company 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.960 I ever worked at, and to your point, where I 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.600 had a lot of brand equity right not just on 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.040 my immediate team, but I had leaders across the company 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.040 who knew me believed in me, were putting me in 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:28.880 a position to when I think it started to conflict 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.440 with my holistic vision of what I had for myself, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.400 and that was to become more financially sound. That was 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.920 to start building wealth. That was to have more money 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.040 so that I could get over some of the financial 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.960 challenges that I felt like I was kind of in. Right, 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:50.360 So twenty eighteen, I've now had spent a year working 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.760 full time, and I was fucking my money. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:54.000 Up, right. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.480 I was that girl that was just kind of like, yeah, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.240 it's okay, I have my first set of credit cards. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.880 I'm just you know. Yeah. I was bread real hard. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:04.720 I was ubering really hard. Oh, these were the days 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:06.919 of uberpool. Oh my gosh. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.520 Right, So I was having a good time, right, I 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.440 was having a great time in New York. I would argue, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.600 as you should have done, but yeah, yeah, definitely, And 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.240 I don't regret those times at all. But as a result, right, 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.320 not having any type of financial acumen when it came 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.560 to money management, I put myself into a lot of debt, 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.560 and it was debt that I couldn't afford to pay. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.679 When I kind of looked back at and those times, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:29.720 it was like, Hey, I have this decent salary. I 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:31.640 have a great salary as a single woman in New York, 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:33.120 but I have nothing to show for it. I don't 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.040 have any savings. Now, I have all this debt that 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:37.560 I put myself into. I don't have anyone I can 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.840 go to and be like, oh, mom and dad, can 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:41.800 you send me a small loan of ten thousand dollars 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:42.760 to pay off these credit cards? 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:42.879 Like? 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.840 It just wasn't It wasn't a thing, right, So that 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:47.840 was a big wake up call for me, right, Yeah, 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:49.119 that was a big wake up call for me. 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.600 It was about ten thousand dollars of credit card debt. 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.439 Yeah, I had I one summer, I put myself in 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:55.920 ten thousand dollars of credit card debt. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.040 So, wow, tell you really good? Did you take a vacation. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.639 I was traveling, I was out. 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.000 I was going to Pollo Classic, buying one hundred dollars 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.439 bottles of Bilfleco Like I was living. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:11.040 Okay, I was living. I was living right. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:12.840 Yeah, I can't say that now, but I mean in 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:14.639 the moment, I had a lot of shame around it, right, 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.359 Like I had a lot of shame around around my 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:18.000 money mistake. 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.160 You were tender swindling yourself pretty much. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.880 That's the nurse whindler that summer. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.040 Wait, so what was your salary at AMEX though? 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.320 So when I around this time, I was making seventy 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:29.640 two thousand dollars. 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.160 That's not jabby at all for your first kid out 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.400 of college. I was making at all. Well, you got 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.119 about I got about eight years on you. But I 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.120 came into I came to Manhattan making forty five K. 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.360 But my problem was I had it. I'm from Georgia 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.520