Latest / Daily Inspiration: The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming Tragedy: His interview serves as a master class on resilience, entrepreneurship, and wealth-building.

Transcript

Overcoming Tragedy: His interview serves as a master class on resilience, entrepreneurship, and wealth-building. · Daily Inspiration: The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't want
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: to miss an episode, so please take a moment right
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's free.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: You can follow me on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My guest is from the South
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Bronx of New York. He's turned a foundation in pre
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: law and a master's in accounting and financial management into
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: decades long journey through entrepreneurship. In two thousand and one,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: he found an SMG Consulting Group, a multidivision firm dedicated
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to helping individuals and businesses gain clarity, structure, and long
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: term success in their financial.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: And entrepreneurs goals.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: He also authored a book until the wheels fall off.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: He's he's a friend of a very good friend of mine,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Stephen A.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Smith.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: And please welcome to the show Money Making Conversations Master Class.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Gary Stevens Junior.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: How you doing, Gary, My guy Rashan, how you doing, buddy?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Pretty good?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Hey, Gary was in New York. I was just leaning.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I guess I was just leaning in the break room.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: We just started talking.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: That's right, that's right.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: And you start telling you a story, man, and you know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: you know, death is interesting. I'm going to start right
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: there a little bit because I'm dealing with it personally.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: You know, both my parents have passed away. Recently, one
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: of my sisters passed away, and I gotta attend her
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: going away here in a few days. And you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and and and another good friend of mine she passed suddenly.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know it.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: A friend of mine called me, and then my wife
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: asked me to are you gonna know her husband very well?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: And she asked me, are you going to call him?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: And every time people ask me that, Gary, I don't
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: know what to say because I don't I don't know
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: what to say when you call somebody who's dealing with
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: that level of a tragedy. And so when I saw
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you in New York and realized what I was going
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: through in my life, I wanted to bring you on
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: my show to not only helped me, maybe help some
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: of my listeners too, because I don't know, man, I
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: don't know. And in your book, Until the Will Will's
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: fall Off, you deal with a lot of tragedy, you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: you know. I got to page one ten. That's when
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I realized where the title came from. When you did
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a fastball you know your wife. I said, Oh, that's
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: what the until the Will's come or fall off come from.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: But the beauty of this book, man, help Rushaan McDonald
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a little bit man. When my wife asked me, are
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: you gonna call your your husband's friend?
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Who?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I do know? What should I do? Gary?
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: All right, So let me give your listeners some background
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: on why you're asking me that question and give them
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: some insight on my situation. So I went from a
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: house full of life to being the only life in there.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: It was my wife that I was with for thirty years,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: my mother in law. My wife was the only child.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: They died six months apart from one another. I took
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: care of them both in the house, two home hospice cases,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: two funerals planned in six months. Two years later I
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: lost my mother and then I lost a best friend.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: So in four years I did four eulogies and that
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: kind of sparked this book where people encouraging me to
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: write this book because I went through so much. But
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: to answer your question, you know, there's nothing right to
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: say in those situations. But I will tell you this,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: what does help is when people just call to just
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: check on you. However that comes out, so you could
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: just say, hey, how you doing, my Cadolas's sometimes just
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: the thought of healing from someone that they thought of
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: you in that moment helps you give you a little
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: spark in your back, you know, to keep going. So
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I would say, don't shy away from that, you know,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: just give them a call and say, hey, man, I
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: heard the news. How you're doing? You know, just checking
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: on you. That's all it takes.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: The call. So the call really is and I'm not
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: saying it was about me, but I have to put
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: myself in a position to support somebody who.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Needs the support that only I can give them.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: That's what you're saying, correct, right, Sometimes that is just
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: picking up the phone that people just the thought of
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: people thinking about you in that moment helps.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: You get through that that tragedy of death.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: You know, I in twenty fifteen, and thank you for
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: that information. And I'm gonna call him. I'm gonna call
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: them lamar uh and and.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Slow down.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It was don't go there, because when you when you
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: reach that point in life, you know, in twenty fifteen,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I was diagnosed with cancer, yes, and so I know
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: what that means when people say cancer. And then your
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: wife unfortunately had a rare form of cancer. And so
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: when you in your book, you talk about that moment,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: how you had to steal yourself, how you had to
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: hear the truth because I know when I was in
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: form I had cancer. You know, I tell everybody, and
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I've said this many times on this show. You hear
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the word cancer, the whole world stops. Okay, what you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: It's nothing else that you think about. It's nothing else
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: you want to think about, because you can't understand that
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: they talk. They're talking to you right right, They're saying
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: those words to you. Yeah, tell us about that situation
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that you was in when you heard those stories, that
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: information being brought to you.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: About your wife.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Well, see, like I you know how I wrote it
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: in the book as well. You know, I can only
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: give my perspective. Those doctors never told me I had cancer,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: but I can tell you seeing the pain in my
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: wife's face, the shocking huff face, that pain just transferred
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: over to me. For me, it was it was devastating,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: but it was also like what do I do now?
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: How do I plan? And what's my future looking like?
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: At least don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: more money and Making Conversations master class. Welcome back to
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Money Making Conversation master Class with me Rashaan McDonald.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: How long I have with her? That's what's going in
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: my mind. How much more longer I have with her?
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: What does this mean? And you know, so there's questions about,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: you know, how do I handle this situation? You know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: one of the things in my book I talk about,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: you know, my perspective of being a man is to
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: be a provider, a protector and offer that security to
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: your wife. You know, and the protective part you want
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: to try to protect as much as possible. But in
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: that situation, you have no protection, You have nothing to
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: defend against. Cancer or any terminal illness, you know. So
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: at that point I just offered the security. I was
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: the number one supporter. I was there to make sure
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: she didn't have no want and no needs and things
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: of that nature. She knew I was by her side
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: every step of the way. And that's what that book
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: is about. You know, the title itself is Until the
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Wills Fall Off. Where you could see how it came
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: about is when she had a moment of vulnerability because
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: she went through a lot of medical issues prior to
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: the cancer. And once we got to that point, I'm
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: just like, tell me what we need and she's like, well,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: this has been a lot for you. I'm giving you
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to walk away, and I'm like, you never
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: know me to walk away from anything. And that's when
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: she said to me, Okay, if you're going to sign
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: up for this, it's me and you until the wills
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: fall off. And we did this ritual of a fist bump.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: So every time going forward, when I left the hospital,
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: it was a fist bump until the wills fall off,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Me and you, Me and you until the wills fall off.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Either to where the video tribute I did at her funeral.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: It ended with those words, until the wills off.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm talking to the author of the book, until
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: the wheels fall off. But not only that, he's a
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: successful business person. He founded a SMG consulting group and
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: multi division firm dedicated to helping individuals and businesses gain clarity, structure,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: and long term success and their financial and entrepreneurial goals.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: When out of those out of that sadness, there's always
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: things that developed that can inspire others and change other
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: people's lives, you know, because even in the illness, she
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: was still out there paying those little students. We're getting
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: into that. I don't tell too much of the book
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: to let you know. I read your book, Garrett, okay,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: and one page one eighty five you found out about
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: your mama's passing as well. So to let you know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: because I know, Gary, when you saw me up in
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: New York. Everybody and people give me books all the time,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: and and and I read them. I read them, and
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I always got I always gotta when I'm talking to
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the people interviewed, I always gott to let him know
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: certain moments they know. He started laughing early when I
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: staid page one ten is where the title came from. You.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You you just can't skim through a book and come
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: up with information like that. You got to read a
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: book because the book is really inspiring. Because like I said,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I slow down there for a minute, Garret, because I
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: was I was. I was choking up, man, because of
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the fact that these moments, man, that we come across
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: is no matter what success that I have in my life,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: and I'm talking to my family, trying to get my
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: wheel right, trying to get my estate planning right. Don't
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: want to owe nobody, and you know, and not that
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to lead us irth, but I want to leaders.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Earth without without nobody.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Trying to find me or trying to find my family
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: and turn them upside down, because I didn't do it
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: right when I left. And that's what you did when
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you started the Malicacy Stevens Foundation, which is dedicated to
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: advancing financial literacy and closing the racial gap. Tell us
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: about that foundation.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: So my wife, it actually started way back when with
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: my wife where her church they had an educational component
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: with any members of the church. They the young kids
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: that went to college, they gave them stipends living stiping
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: seventy five dollars one hundred dollars a month something like
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that in me trying to find myself all over again
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: with this new life, you know, going from you know,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: a house full of life to being alone. I tried.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I had to find something to do when I you know,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: when my wife got diagnosed back in twenty nineteen, I
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: decided to step away from my company. And I've been
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: semi retired for seven years now. I think the book
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: brought me out. So I'm like, okay, well what do
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I do. Prior to doing the book, I did the
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: foundation just to keep myself busy, and I was like,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: you know, I'll give away a thousand dollars graduation Stipe
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: and the people that went to our alma model where
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I met her at Sunny or Westbury, I would give
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: those one thousand dollars in accounting and if they majored
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: in accounting, which was my wife's major, accounting and entrepreneurship
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: because we both for entrepreneurs We ran that company together.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: In fact, the SMG as our insis Stevens, Malika and
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Gary Consulting Group. So I just started giving away money
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: and I was like, you know, let me do more.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: I've been advising people for over twenty five years on
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: start and managing their business, and I just started doing
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: that through the Foundations for free.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back for more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: No need for you to do me a favor right
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: me that favor, follow a subscribe Money Making Conversations Welcome
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by me Rashawn McDonald.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Let's get back into it.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: As you know that when I bring these interviews on
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: here is distributed to the nineteen HBCUs Nationwise series XM
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: my podcast also.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: A TV version.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: There is broadcast here over the campus of Clock in
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Atlanta University, Charlotte and Orlando. So I'm distributing my words,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: my thoughts, my process, and I'm bringing people on the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: show like Gary Stevens Junior that is sharing his life,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: his personal life, and I think that's important because there
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: has to be a certain level of honesty that you
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: have to speak in order for people to be successful
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: and Gary, when you start speaking and sharing and really
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: writing that book, because I would at what point did
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: you realize that you really were exposing honesty that you
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: didn't expect to be exposed in your book until the
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: wills fall off?
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Well that's a great question, because I'm gonna tell you
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: this with Sean, I did not want to write the book, right.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: I had no intention of ever writing a book. It
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: came from the eulogies that I delivered and people just
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: constantly asking me to write this book. I'm a firm
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: believer in practice what you preach. So when people came
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: to me and asked me what kind of business they
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: should start, I didn't know them. I said, I honestly
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: can't tell you what kind of business you start. I
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: don't know who you are. I don't know your risk
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: tolerance or anything. But let's see what people say to
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: you all the time, and maybe we could start exploring
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: that as a business option. And when I kept hearing
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: write this book, I'm like, and then I did it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: I said I'd do it as a memoir. I had
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: some beta readers, and when I was just writing my story, man,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: you know, they were just calling me crying. I had,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: you know, people just saying keep going. This book is incredible, incredible,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: And I was still reluctant, and in fact, I had
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: zero expectations for this book. And I think what helped
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: me get to this next level. And I met you
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: in the studio because I was in there record book
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: which would be out soon, and I was reluctant. And
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: what I'm doing now is just embracing the feedback I'm getting.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: I never thought that this story would resonate with people
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: because it was my personal life. I don't think I
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: did anything special. I remember when you asked me in
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: the break room, you said, how did you go through
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: all of that? And you stole okay? And I said
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: to you, I said, because I'm not special. I'm not
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: immune from this game called life. None of us are.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: We just got to play the hand with delt and
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: the way I took care of my family to the
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: end with grace and dignity, and I have a whole
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: lot of pride and gratitude for that. And once I
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: started telling the story from that perspective and the feedback
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: that I got back from this book, it has just
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: been nothing but extraordinary. And I'm like, okay, I only
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: released it to family and friends because they were the
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: ones asking for it. And then all of a sudden,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: you know, everyone's telling me it's me for a broader audience.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: And that's where we're at right now. We're working on
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: this broader audience piece.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Well, you you got my attention. You got my attention
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: because guess what you know. First of all, I just
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: telling somebody Gary, just a regular regular, just non this
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: grip guy.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: He ain't muscular, he ain't got no lung heavy you
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. He ain't like walking in the
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: room super sexy.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: But what he does have is an ability to attract
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: the right people to him. And when you when you
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: start speaking to him, there's a certain veil of been there,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: done that in his voice, and that comes with he's
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: been you know, successful businessman. He's patient, he's overcome hardship,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: both emotionally physically, because let me tell you, so, when
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: you get here with those with the hardship, he's been here,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: leave me. It takes a toll on you physically, and
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: then more importantly, the ability to go on and I'm
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: just The reason I keep bringing this story into the
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurial space is that everything he's dealing with as a
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: business owner, you deal with, you hit a wall, or
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: you think you're the only person, you don't know who
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: to turn to. You emotionally spent, you feel less, the
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: worst day in your life because you don't know what
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: to do to overcome and overcome the odds. And that's
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: why you are very relatable to my audience. And because
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: of the fact that every day I wake up, I
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: wake up and I'm happy. Because of the fact that
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: generally I wake up Garret a love clock and don't
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: wake me up.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's just probably I wake.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Up at four point thirty in the morning, probably about
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: four fifteen, four to twenty. I'm kind of up. I
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: just lay in bed waiting on the clock right right,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: you know, because my brain has been trained to say
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: rasean you know you got a job to do. You
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: made mentioned you know, thirty years of marriage, you know
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: nteen twenty nineighteen. You know you found out about the
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: illness and you walked away from your business.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: So when she passed, how did you kickstart your life?
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: So people don't understand how to kick start their business,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: if they're frustrated, if they feel they don't know where.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: To go or what to turn.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: So let me tie it to what you just mentioned
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: about how this personal right of mind in the business
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: world and entrepreneurship is linked together. Everything is about proper planning,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: understanding what you want to do, and for me success.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: I defined it as peace and happiness, right And when
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: I started that out, even with my business, I knew
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: thirty years ago I was a terrible employee and I
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: couldn't do it, you know what I'm saying. So I said,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: what does my peace and happiness looks like? So I
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: start my own business, I plan for that. So like
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: when we doing our business, we call it a swat
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: analysis analysis, you know, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: when it came to my family, it was like, okay,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: what is that threat that I'm looking at? And we
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: all got to be able to talk about death and
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: illnesses and stuff like that. That's a threat in everybody's
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: life right now, how do you prepare for that? You know?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: So my wife and I prepare that. I tell couples
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: now have the hard conversations right now, why everything is
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: easy because when it gets hard, you don't have to
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: worry about the basics. Just stay in that moment and
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: live through that moment. So when I lost my family,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: it was like, okay, what does my new peace and
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: happiness looks like? And I had to sit down and
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: figure out a plan and put that plan together. Just
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: like with a business, I'm starting a new business. I
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: always tell everybody that everything is a parallel between business
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: in your personal life. If you're a small business owner,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: you and that business are one. So you got to
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: take the same principles, just different situations. Got to have
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: it on a business side called a business plan, on
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: the personal size called a personal action plan, and put
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: all that together. So when I lost everyone and say okay,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: what does my new life look like? I literally wrote
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: a whole new plan out to say, Okay, my piece
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and happiness looks like this. I was retired. I joined
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: the business board, I mean the advisory board of the
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: business school that's soony on Westbury where I met Malika
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: at And I just missed doing that thing. And now
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: the book got my little hustle back on right. I
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: turned that thing two. I turned that thing into a
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: publishing company, my own publishing company two G's Media and said, Okay,
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: let me do this and let me push it, and
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I'm getting it back. So I'm getting that little grind back.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: But my peace and happiness is everything that I worked
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: hard for in the past in the present.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Here we have a minute left in this interview looking back.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: What conversations about finances, health care decisions, and the state
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: planning do you believe every couple should have while life
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: is still going Well.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Go back to that threat. What your threat looks like
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: in your relationship if you've died, how you prepared for
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: it right now? That's a simple fixed life insurance? Uh,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: you know you got assets, put it in the trust.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: You know, things of that nature. Medical, have your health
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: proxy in place? Who's going to make the medical decisions?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: How are you going to How does that look like?
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: You know, if you have kids, how kids going to
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: be taken care of? Have those hard conversations right now
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: while everything was easy in your life.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Gary, Thank you for taking the time.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I know what, I know what I told y'all gonna
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: interview you little skeptical Gary, You skeptical, you love skeptical.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: I can tell you gonna contact me and I was
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: on you and then I know you a little skeptical.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: We shall not gonna read my book. We shall not
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: gonna read my book. My brother, I read it man.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: And again, brother, you moved me today on my show.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: And I wanted them unflappable, just like her brother as
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: unflappable when he walked in that hospital and he need
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and he didn't believe. And uh and but the truth is, man,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: life does go on. And I appreciate you gearing and
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: again we'll speak more, man, And I appreciate you walking
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: into my life and that breakroom because, uh, you know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: until the wheels fall off, we're gonna have this relationship.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, brother, that's right. Brothers, all right, we talked soon.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Man by Gary, Thank you for listening to this episode.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: No, I need for you to do me a favor
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: right now to follow our subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
• 22:39
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• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Keep winning