Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #58 Know Your Worth feat. Kezia M. Williams

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EYL #58 Know Your Worth feat. Kezia M. Williams · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
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  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
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  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
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  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
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  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
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  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
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  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
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  Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly
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  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
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  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
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  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
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  Speaker 1: Do what's right.
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  Speaker 2: Leave now.
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  Speaker 1: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.
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  Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
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  Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back, ey l Maryland Edition DC Edition.
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  Speaker 4: Actually yeah, shout outs to DC. Shout out the District
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  Speaker 4: of Columbia for sure. So before we start, we just
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  Speaker 4: got to think you guys, we had a crazy event
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  Speaker 4: this morning, and you also had a crazy event as well,
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  Speaker 4: so don't talk about that for sure. But yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: we had a crazy, crazy event. Day two will be tomorrow.
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  Speaker 4: Well by the time you heit, it'll be over. But
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  Speaker 4: the DC Weekend d m V Weekend was a tremendous
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  Speaker 4: success in Atlanta. We're coming next. That's our next stop.
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  Speaker 4: January twenty fifth and January twenty sixth. We headed to
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  Speaker 4: the a Way. We're going to do it big out
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  Speaker 4: there for the whole weekend.
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  Speaker 5: So a big shout out to Capital Events Group Man
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  Speaker 5: Tiarhani Dera Man, he did an amazing job putting that together,
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  Speaker 5: So definitely shout out to him. Man, if you're in
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  Speaker 5: the DC area and you need an event plan, hit
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  Speaker 5: my man out.
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  Speaker 4: Man the most the most important person. Yeah, sure, that's
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  Speaker 4: that's a fact. That's the fact. So all right, I'm
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  Speaker 4: excited about this episode for a few different reasons. A
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  Speaker 4: lot of people they always tag us like who they
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  Speaker 4: want to see. We try to accommodate as much as
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  Speaker 4: we possibly can. So Kezia Williams, if you don't know,
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  Speaker 4: she's the CEO of Black Upstart and yeah, she has
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  Speaker 4: that signature.
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  Speaker 2: Man, Listen, you're not drag it out.
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  Speaker 6: Man.
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  Speaker 7: It's like seven's and then the end like three's and
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  Speaker 7: then like another.
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  Speaker 4: Now she's really dope. She's a big proponent of financial literacy.
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  Speaker 4: She's a big proponent of entrepreneurships, definitely in our community
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  Speaker 4: and teaching, teaching entrepreneurship. She has a whole program. We're
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  Speaker 4: gonna talk about that. So one of the things I
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  Speaker 4: like about her, like if you follow her Instagram page,
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  Speaker 4: is that she always like posts like these Twitter posts
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  Speaker 4: that she puts up and it's like seven different ones,
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  Speaker 4: so you always got to go to the sexual but
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  Speaker 4: it's like real life you got left right, but it's
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  Speaker 4: real life common sense stuff that people can use. And
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  Speaker 4: a lot of times people they've been asking us like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we love all of this high finance and
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  Speaker 4: stuff like this, but how do I pick my fall
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  Speaker 4: one k? Or like how do I budget? Prop? How
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  Speaker 4: do I start a business? So these are all things
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  Speaker 4: that she posts like on a daily basis on Instagram
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  Speaker 4: and I'm sure all other social media outlets. Is what
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  Speaker 4: I follow on Instagram and also with her company, the
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  Speaker 4: Black up Start, they help people start businesses, like they
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  Speaker 4: give them the fundamentals of how to start a business, so.
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  Speaker 5: Employ people, Like that's one of the things, like they
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  Speaker 5: have a lot of entrepreneurs, but how many can employ people.
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  Speaker 5: I think that's that's commendable that.
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  Speaker 2: Though.
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  Speaker 4: So so all right, so first and foremost, thank you
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  Speaker 4: for joining us, appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Congratulations to you.
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  Speaker 7: Vote on your events, and I think all the Instagram
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  Speaker 7: stories and it was like people upon people all this
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  Speaker 7: black excellency, So we.
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  Speaker 4: Had too of you. You had an event, Black Upstart
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  Speaker 4: had an event, and then your legion had an event.
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  Speaker 4: We didn't know we was having events, and so the
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  Speaker 4: events was already set, but we had events at the
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  Speaker 4: same time. Pretty much y'all. But it was dope. You know,
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  Speaker 4: that's just that's just that's just that just means that
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  Speaker 4: the energy is out there, and you know, it's the
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  Speaker 4: time for for for financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
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  Speaker 3: The communities already, man, so that that's even more so.
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  Speaker 4: Can you tell us your journey how you became an entrepreneur, because,
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  Speaker 4: like I said off camera, but you I like for
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  Speaker 4: a few different reasons, but one of the reasons is
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  Speaker 4: that you you have it. What we call like a
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  Speaker 4: traditional job. We'll talk about that, but you have a
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  Speaker 4: company as well. A lot of time people feel like
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  Speaker 4: it's one of the other, right, and it's not true.
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  Speaker 4: Like even Troy. Troy is an educator and he's an
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  Speaker 4: entrepreneur as well. Entrepreneurs So, but the hardest part, I
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  Speaker 4: think for most people is mindset. Like we will talk
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  Speaker 4: about strategy and all that all day, but the mindset
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  Speaker 4: is the most important thing. And it's very difficult for
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  Speaker 4: somebody to leave or to jump off the porch and
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  Speaker 4: to land. It is somewhere where it's kind of unknown,
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  Speaker 4: you don't really know. It's like typewalking with no safety net.
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  Speaker 4: So how did you start your entrepreneur journey?
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  Speaker 7: Okay, that's a great, great question. So I like to
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  Speaker 7: tell folks that the nine to five is a fixed income.
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  Speaker 7: So you work eight hours, you get paid. Eight hours,
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  Speaker 7: you work ten hours, you get paid, eight hours, you
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  Speaker 7: work twelve hours, you get paid.
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  Speaker 2: How many hours you get paid? Hey hour.
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  Speaker 7: It's a fixed income. And it's one of those things
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  Speaker 7: that I wasn't taught growing up. So like I was
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  Speaker 7: taught that the definition of success was you go to
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  Speaker 7: high school and you get a diploma, you go to college,
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  Speaker 7: you get a degree, and then you go and get
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  Speaker 7: a good government job with benefits, and then you retire.
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  Speaker 7: And that's the definition of success, right.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 7: When I graduated from college, I did exactly what my
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  Speaker 7: mother told me to do, and I spent six years
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  Speaker 7: working for the federal government and I worked in counterintelligence,
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  Speaker 7: counter weapons, and master instruction counter terrorism. I had a
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  Speaker 7: clearance a top secret sci full scope polygraph. Only thirteen
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  Speaker 7: thousand people in the nation have that clearance. But I
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  Speaker 7: would go to work every day at nine am and
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  Speaker 7: five pm. I would run out as fast as I could.
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  Speaker 7: And during the time when I would be off of work,
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  Speaker 7: I would participate in endeavors that I started. And at
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  Speaker 7: that point, I didn't consider myself an entreprene the words.
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  Speaker 7: So one of the endeavors that I participated in was
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  Speaker 7: Young and Power for Obama, which I was telling you about.
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  Speaker 7: And this was an initiative that galvanized young black professionals
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  Speaker 7: across the country to raise money for then Senator Obama.
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  Speaker 2: This was in two thousand.
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  Speaker 7: And eight, Yeah, when he was Senator Obama, and it
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  Speaker 7: was young black professionals from six different cities.
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  Speaker 2: We would host.
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  Speaker 7: Fundraisers the fundraisers would cost anywhere between twenty to fifty
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  Speaker 7: dollars and we would donate one hundred percent of the
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  Speaker 7: money to campaign. Before he was elected, we raised a
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  Speaker 7: quarter of a million dollars. And when he was elected
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  Speaker 7: and became President, Barack Obama matha for President. We hosted
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  Speaker 7: a collection of inaugural events. Reverend Al Sharpton came, We
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  Speaker 7: had Jesse Jackson, he was there. Oprah she drove by
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  Speaker 7: the car, she waved to the wave, counted one day.
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  Speaker 2: Shake her hand. We all gonna take her hand. But
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  Speaker 2: it was a great event.
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  Speaker 7: We raised another quarter of a million dollars, so I
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  Speaker 7: was about half a million dollars by time everything was
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  Speaker 7: said and done. In the entire time, I was working
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  Speaker 7: nine am to five pm, and I was working young
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  Speaker 7: in Power for Obama from six pm to about one
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  Speaker 7: am in the morning. But when everything ended, folks started saying,
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  Speaker 7: you know what I mean, Raising money for President Obama
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  Speaker 7: was great, but I was only interested in politics just
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  Speaker 7: because of him, And so folks began to really ask
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  Speaker 7: the question like what was next? And what came from
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  Speaker 7: that is a nonprofit that I started, Capital Cause, where
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  Speaker 7: I trained young black philanthropists to raise money for startup
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  Speaker 7: nonprofit organizations, and we had five thousand members. We raised
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  Speaker 7: about sixty thousand dollars and gave away five thousand dollars
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  Speaker 7: grants to these businesses. And still throughout all of that,
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  Speaker 7: I did not consider myself an entrepreneurs.
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  Speaker 3: What inspires you to take that route?
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  Speaker 4: Right?
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  Speaker 3: You raised money for politics? What said entrepreneurs are?
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  Speaker 4: Yes?
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  Speaker 8: Yes.
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  Speaker 7: So it was a six year worker for the federal
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  Speaker 7: government and as I was telling Rasha, my boss is
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  Speaker 7: switched up and I was working for white men at
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  Speaker 7: that time. I switched up to a white woman and
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  Speaker 7: we sat down and she said to me that, you know,
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  Speaker 7: I don't think that you're qualified to do this work.
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  Speaker 7: And I was like, well, why don't you think I'm qualified?
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  Speaker 7: And she was like, because you don't have a pH d,
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  Speaker 7: you don't have a master's degree, you have a bachelor's degree,
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  Speaker 7: and here you are writing national security reports that the
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  Speaker 7: Vice President of the United States are seeing. So I'm
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  Speaker 7: about to switch up your job responsibilities. And she changed
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  Speaker 7: our responsibilities from writing these reports to organizing travel for
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  Speaker 7: the office. So I would go to work at nine am,
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  Speaker 7: I get out of five VM and still get paid
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  Speaker 7: six figures, then this will be okay. But then three
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  Speaker 7: months later she switched out my job responsibilities again. She
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  Speaker 7: was like, I just think organizing travel is too complicated
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  Speaker 7: for you, just like national.
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  Speaker 2: Security reports each complicated for you.
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  Speaker 7: So now you're gonna be printing badges for people in
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  Speaker 7: the office when non secure people come and visit. And
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  Speaker 7: so I was like, okay, well, am I still gonna
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  Speaker 7: be getting paid like six figures. I'll work from nine am,
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  Speaker 7: I'll leave at five pm. And so did that for
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  Speaker 7: three months, and then three months later she came back
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  Speaker 7: and she was like, making badges was also too complicated
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  Speaker 7: for me and above my pay grade. And she asked
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  Speaker 7: me to take my chair and follow her down a
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  Speaker 7: hallway and we stopped outside of a bathroom.
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  Speaker 3: Oh like, literally take the chair.
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  Speaker 7: Take the chair had wheels on it. We was walking,
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  Speaker 7: she was tipping, I was tippling with my child.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, Laura, where are we going?
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: And we ended up outside of a bathroom and she said, well,
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  Speaker 7: I want you to sit down and for every non
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: clear person that comes in, it'll be your job to
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  Speaker 7: buzz them in and out of the bathroom. And I
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  Speaker 7: remember asking myself and asking her, am, I still gonna
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  Speaker 7: get paid six figures, but at.
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  Speaker 3: That point question change.
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  Speaker 4: I can never changed.
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  Speaker 2: Because I was there nine am five pm. I was
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  Speaker 2: walking out of the door.
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  Speaker 7: But I asked myself like, YEO, it was great being
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  Speaker 7: paid six figures, but you know, work to me meant
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  Speaker 7: more than that, Like the value that I was creating
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  Speaker 7: outside of work, raising money for Obama, helping young black
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  Speaker 7: philanthropists give back, that was the work that was really fulfilling.
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  Speaker 7: And coming to work every day and sitting outside of
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  Speaker 7: the bathroom watching people. Well, I want to watch people
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  Speaker 7: do their business, but they were going there watching the.
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  Speaker 2: Door when they were going hit it out. They need
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  Speaker 2: their business.
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  Speaker 7: But so after about two weeks, I called it my
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  Speaker 7: mom and I was like, Mom, like, I can't do
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  Speaker 7: this anymore. I need to quit my job. And she
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: was like, do you have anything saved up? At that point,
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  Speaker 7: I had about three months worth of savings and she
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: was like, well, babe, I think you should have another
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  Speaker 7: job lined up. And I was like, I don't think
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  Speaker 7: I can do it, Like I can't come in here
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  Speaker 7: every single day and open this door for people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 7: And she was like, well, if you want to quit baby,
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  Speaker 7: like I got you. And I remember quitting my job,
• 10:59
  Speaker 7: like I quit my job, but I was so excited.
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  Speaker 2: Have y'all ever quit it out before you could job? No,
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  Speaker 2: you could, y'all.
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  Speaker 4: I did.
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  Speaker 3: I did quit.
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  Speaker 2: How'd you feel?
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  Speaker 3: It was great?
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  Speaker 8: Yeah?
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  Speaker 7: I mean I felt excellent, Like I went running out there.
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  Speaker 7: I was like, oh my god, I am so free,
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  Speaker 7: like no more than nine a five?
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  Speaker 3: Right, yeah?
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  Speaker 7: But then Friday hit. I was like my friends time
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: that I wasn't getting paid. I was telling her shod.
• 11:20
  Speaker 7: I called up unemployment and I was like, I guess
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  Speaker 7: I better get on this unemployment and get this check.
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  Speaker 7: I remember talking to the lady. I was like, yeah,
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  Speaker 7: I quit my job and I heard did y'all like
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: pay fifty percent of your paycheck? So I'm just trying
• 11:29
  Speaker 7: to figure out, like how do I submit this paperwork?
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  Speaker 7: And she was like, you said you quit?
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: And I was like, yeah, I.
• 11:33
  Speaker 7: Said I quit, And she was like, yeah, you don't
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  Speaker 7: get unemployment when you quit your job.
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  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, did I say I quit? Like what
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: have meant?
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Was a right?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Could I have fire?
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  Speaker 7: And so she was like, yeah, that's the unemployment for you.
• 11:45
  Speaker 7: And if there was you wouldn't getting fifty percent of
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: your paycheck. So I was unemployed for six weeks. And
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: during those six weeks, a woman who worked with me
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: with Younger Power for Obama called me and she was like,
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: I have a job, and the job is launching a
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  Speaker 7: national entrepreneurship in this where you would teach African American
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: undergraduate students how to start a business before they graduate
• 12:04
  Speaker 7: from school. Especially since a black undergraduate student's college degree
• 12:09
  Speaker 7: is equivalent to a white person's high school diploma.
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  Speaker 4: Can you talk about that? You talk about that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, so.
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  Speaker 4: About what a black college degree is equivalent to a
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: white diploma.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, a black person's college degree is equivalent to a
• 12:24
  Speaker 7: white person's high school diploma, which means that a black
• 12:27
  Speaker 7: person can go to the same high school as a
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: white person, go to the same college as a white person,
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: and apply for the same job as a white person,
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: but when they get higher their pay is separate and unequal.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I read a statistics somewhere. It's
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: very similar.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: It was like middle class black family is equivalent to
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: a poor white.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Family, poor white family.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah, and black women, especially I mean black people in generally,
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: our parents teach us to work twice as hard, to
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: be twice as smart, to go into work and be
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: twice as exceptional, and somehow, some way will be the
• 12:57
  Speaker 7: same as a white person. At the end of the day,
• 12:59
  Speaker 7: black women is actually will lose eight hundred and forty
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: thousand dollars over their working career, not because they're our smart, intelligent,
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: or well equipped to do the job, but simply because
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  Speaker 7: they're black and they're women.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: So black women graduate college at the fastest rate, at
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: the highest rate out of any ethnic group.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's what analysts say.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but they're not paid obviously at the same.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Level they're not paid.
• 13:20
  Speaker 7: And I think that that's why it's no question while
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: black women are the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs, Like
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: I like to tell people that, Like, I don't think
• 13:29
  Speaker 7: that black people are starting businesses because they want to
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: be the next Black Bill Gates. Love Beyonce, but the
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: next Black Bill Gates are the next Steve Jobs or
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: the next Mark Zuckerberg. They're starting businesses because they want
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: to be economically free. They want to be able to
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: pay themselves with their companies refuse to pay them despite
• 13:44
  Speaker 7: being qualified for them. That represents economic freedom. And economic liberation.
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  Speaker 5: We had a guess who actually was talking about the
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: exact topic, and they was saying, even with that, the
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: entrepreneurism getting loans to.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: Start fenture capitals. So black women are starting businesses at
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: the fastest rate, but they get venture capital at the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: smallest rate out of any ethnic group, gender group in America.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So it doesn't really make sense if you think about it,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: because it's like you would figure more entrepreneurs, you would
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: get at least some sort of venture capital. That's what
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: venture capital is. They lend money to entrepreneurs, but they
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: get the least amount of funding from venture capital.
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: I think what's interesting is that black people need to
• 14:24
  Speaker 7: have a more dynamic conversation around funding and so I
• 14:28
  Speaker 7: think when it comes to VC, that percentage is absolutely true.
• 14:32
  Speaker 7: But that's not the only type of business that black
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: people are starting. Isn't innovations driven enterprises, which is what
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: that is the type of businesses that qualify for venture capital.
• 14:40
  Speaker 7: There are two types of businesses that you can start.
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: There's a SMEE and there's an ide. There's a small
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: medium sized enterprise where you can raise a friends and
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: family round. You can go on to razoo. If you're
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: starting a nonprofit. If you're starting with Razoo is a
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: crowdfunding platform for five on one c three nonprofit organizations
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: where you can invite your friends to go on and donate.
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  Speaker 7: The only way that you can qualify to get on
• 15:03
  Speaker 7: Razoo is if you have an IRS designation. If you
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  Speaker 7: have a for profit or let's say you're a sole proprietor,
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: which means that you do business as yourself, you can
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: go on to Indiegogo. You can go onto what a
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: lot of people think it's an unpopular site, but go
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: funding and you can do the same thing. You can
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: ask your friends and family essentially to invest in your
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: business idea or to contribute towards your business idea. But
• 15:26
  Speaker 7: for a small medium sized enterprise, in addition to doing crowdfunding,
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: you can also do bank loans and you can also
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: fund your own business. That's fundamentally different than an ID
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: an innovations driven enterprise. We're essentially going into debt by soliciting, yes,
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: angel investment and also venture capital, and those people are
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: betting on you to serve a global market, while small
• 15:45
  Speaker 7: medium sized enterprises serve a small or regional market. So
• 15:49
  Speaker 7: those are your nail saligns. Those are your hair stylists,
• 15:52
  Speaker 7: those are your local coffee shops.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: So all right, that's interesting. What's it called a ip ID?
• 15:58
  Speaker 7: So that is an innovation driven enterprise ns ME, which
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: is a small or medium sized enterprise.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: Okay, So do you think that that's a that's an
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: issue though with Black community as a whole, where I
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: see most businesses and the business ideas are small. The
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: problem with small businesses that for the most part, they
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: stay small and you can't scale it. They don't really
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: make that much. Most majority of business owners don't make
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: money like we know that, like the average employee makes
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: more than a business owner, like per average. One of
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: the reasons is that most businesses are small, very small, right,
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: Like one person so like the grocery well not the
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: grocery stores, but the delis, the bodegas if he was
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: in theas there, the barbershops, the local restaurants. Do you
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: think that that's an issue with Black entrepreneurship that it's
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: always a lot of times not on a bigger global vision,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: it's more on a community based, small vision.
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: I think it's important to know the data. So currently
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: there are two point five six million Black entrepreneurs, but
• 17:12
  Speaker 7: only one hundred and ten thousand of them have the
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: capacity to employ least one person. Now, what you're speaking
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: about is probably the two point four million people who can't. Right,
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: the one hundred and ten thousand black entrepreneurs who are
• 17:24
  Speaker 7: employers employ less than a million people, but there are
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: eighteen point five million black people in the workforce. That
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: means that a majority of black people work for somebody
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: who don't look like them, which means tomorrow, if those
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: employers were to come in and fire every single black
• 17:41
  Speaker 7: person on the back on the payroll, those black folks
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: would be what unemployees. Yeah, and that soil, they would
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: be essel and they would be on employed. So Black Upstart,
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: I'm glad you're talking about this. What we do is
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: we teach black entrepreneurs not just how to start a business,
• 17:57
  Speaker 7: but how to start a business that can create a job,
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: so they don't have to go begging other people to
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: do for them where they are capable of doing for themselves. Now,
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: for black entrepreneurs, the average black entrepreneur grosses less than
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: six figures and revenue, which means that a lot of
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: black entrepreneurs are starting businesses and their lifestyle businesses, which
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: means that they're just essentially hustling. And what a hustler
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: does is they wake up every single day and they
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: try to get money. While entrepreneur wakes up every day
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: and what they're doing is they're doing business. They're creating
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: systems and processes so that when they're business scales, other
• 18:28
  Speaker 7: people can work for their business outside of just them.
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: So I think that there's a difference between the barbershop
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: owner who probably has employees, the coffee shop owner, even
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: if it's just them, they employ themselves, and the person
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: on the side of the street who's hustling and trying
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: to sell to every single person that walks by them. Right,
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: I think it's important for black people to realize the
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: money that exists in our communities. So when I read
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: the statistic about black entrepreneurs gross and fewer than six figures,
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: I also read statistics about Asian entrepreneurs and white entrepreneurs
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: and Native American entrepreneurs, and all of them gross more
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: than six figures. In fact, Asian entrepreneurs have less entrepreneurs than.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Black folks, but they gross double the amount of revenue.
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: Why because when you look at the businesses that they start,
• 19:15
  Speaker 7: They start businesses in their own communities, and then they
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: come over to the black communities and start businesses. So
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: people always ask me like, okay, Kizia, what type of
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: business would you start if somebody gave you a million dollars?
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: And I always tell them that I would start a
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: Chinese food delivery service, And well, can you fly rice?
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: No, I can't fly rice. Can you fry one sign? No?
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: I can't fly one sign? In fact, I can't cook,
• 19:38
  Speaker 7: which is probably why I'm not married. So like, if
• 19:40
  Speaker 7: anybody knows I want to play like matchmaker, like I'm.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Down for it.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: So.
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: But when we go into a beauty supply store and
• 19:51
  Speaker 7: a person on the other end of the counter is
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: selling you hair grease and do rag and I good
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: remy track and they don't look like you, we don't
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: think twice about it, but people will laugh once twice
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: a black woman selling fried rice and a one time.
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: The reason why agent entrepreneurs are able to gross over
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: six figures and employ them is because they're not only
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: getting money in their own community, but they are capitalizing
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: off of the one point three trillion dollars that black
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: people are spending every single day. And so what I
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: like to tell black entrepreneurs is that you have to
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: look at what we're currently spending our money on. Every
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: single year, the Nielsen Consumer Index Report publishes how Black
• 20:27
  Speaker 7: people spend their money. The top five things are refrigerated drinks,
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: dry vegetables, ethnic care, care goods and supplies. Contraceptives is one,
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: Diverse is another one. Laundry detergent. I know that y'all
• 20:42
  Speaker 7: know about True that's a black on laundry detergent company.
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: When you look at the top five businesses the black
• 20:47
  Speaker 7: people normally start, it is admin services, waste for mediation.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Third is other.
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: So that's like an amalgamation, maybe like a compilation of
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: many different businesses.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: And what you don't see is an alignment.
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: When you look at the types of businesses that other
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: entrepreneurs start, they are prevalent on the list where our
• 21:06
  Speaker 7: dollars are being spent Black people's Again, one point three
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: trillion dollars is not a blank check for other communities to.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Sign real quick. You said that you train entrepreneurs.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: Obviously I'm thinking through a curriculum one, but you also
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: do a hands on approach.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: What does that look like?
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: Okay, So for the Black Upside curriculum, we host a
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: six day pop up school and it happens over three
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: weeks and six days. And during our six days, we
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: teach audiation process, the minimum viable product creation, business CANVUS
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: development and in the end, we teach them how to pitch. Yeah,
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: so that's what we do with Black up Start. We
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: start with crowdfunding and I know we had just had
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: a conversation about crowdfunding, but we teach them essentially how
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: to turn their contacts into.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Capital contact contact like capital.
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: So it starts with that before we even see them
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: on the first day of class.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: And how many teachers just you or is it a team?
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: No?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: So there is faculty.
• 22:02
  Speaker 7: And one of the things that I love about Black
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: Upstar that I definitely should mention is we always teach
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: in a black environment. So like right now you all
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: are in Southeast DC, and we started off in the
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: Microsoft Innovation Center, which is located on Saint Elizabeth East
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: Campus in Southeast and DC.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: They say South, Like what f South? We have black faculties.
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: So we have one faculty come in every single day
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: and they teach on a very specific topic. We have
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: contractors that come in and help with website development. All black,
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: black photographers, black videographers, and when they pitch, they pitched
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: their innovation in the community. And so now you have
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: black consumers connecting with black entrepreneurs. And for us, it's
• 22:42
  Speaker 7: about recycling the black dollar, all.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Right, dope, dope. So the next type, we're going to
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: talk about some different ways that people can get up
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: and running and get into the game as far as
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: entrepreneurship concerned, all right. So we're gonna talk about some
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: actionable items and some systems to help people out, all right.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: So the audiation process, the audiation process. Audiation process can
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: explain what that is.
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, So we teach the audiation process, and it's a
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: six step process that teaches new small business entrepreneurs how
• 23:16
  Speaker 7: to launch their enterprise in less than thirty days and
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: with less than one thousand dollars in startup capital. So
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: the first step is your problem statement. So please note
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: that it's not a business idea problem statement.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Problem statement.
• 23:30
  Speaker 7: What type of problem are you trying to solve and
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: for whom? So for black upstart, it would be black
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: entrepreneurs have a problem starting businesses that create jobs. Normally,
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: entrepreneurs get hung up on the first process because they
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: want to tell you about their idea. That's their baby,
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: and so we say, you need to divorce yourself from
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: your idea. Talk about your problem, and your problem should
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: be broad enough so that there are several different solutions
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: that can address that problem. Number two is called investigation,
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: and what that is is market research. And so with
• 24:02
  Speaker 7: market research, what you do is you look at other
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: companies that are solving that problem and you look at
• 24:08
  Speaker 7: a few things. You see if they're sme we talked
• 24:10
  Speaker 7: about that earlier, a small medium sized enterprise or innovation
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: driven enterprise. You look and see if they have employees,
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: because you want to know if the business has scaled,
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: and you look and see if they have if they
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: sell products and services. After that, you list five things
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: that you like about that company and five things that
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: you would change, and each of that each of those
• 24:30
  Speaker 7: items on that list should address the problem that you're
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: trying to solve. Now, when you move on to step three,
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: which is called the idea expression, you use the five
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: things that you would change to create your unfair competitive advantage.
• 24:42
  Speaker 7: So for Black Upstart, we looked at other businesses that
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: were training entrepreneurs and we realized that businesses weren't really
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: saying that I want to train black entrepreneurs. They were
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: dressing it up in coded language like we want to
• 24:55
  Speaker 7: help people of color, we want to help minorities. Are
• 24:58
  Speaker 7: you disadvantaged, Come over here, let me teach you how
• 25:00
  Speaker 7: to start a business. Like we knew that our unfair
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: competitive advantage would be that we would explicitly state that
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: we would train black entrepreneurs and this would be a
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: one hundred percent black experience. So for number three, again,
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: you put your unfair competitive advantage in there and you
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: say I sell this to this particular person, and say
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: how it's different.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: It should be one sentence.
• 25:22
  Speaker 7: Usually when you talk to an entrepreneur and you ask
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: them about their business, they're gonna tell you a whole book,
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: all right.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Because it's their baby.
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: But if you can't say it in a sentence, if
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: it can't be like your elevator pass, you know, if
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: it said it's a sentence, then it's too long. Also,
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: if you get to step number three and your business
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: idea hasn't shifted or changed, or you don't have better
• 25:43
  Speaker 7: understanding on why you're doing business and in that way,
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: then that means that you have to start over because
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: you never got a divorce. So step number four is
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: your customer demographic. And for a customer demographic, you're gonna
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: list out twenty different descriptors about the person who is
• 25:59
  Speaker 7: looking for a solution to that problem, and that looks
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: like how old are they, how much money do they make?
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: What is their race, what is their gender? Who do
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: they follow on social media? Where do they currently work?
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: Because you cannot make the assumption that they're looking for
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: your new business idea, which doesn't exist yet.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: These questions are format it already pologies.
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: And then number five is your user persona. You take
• 26:19
  Speaker 7: all of those descriptors and you tell a story. So
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: like Lakeisha is twenty six and she works at booz
• 26:24
  Speaker 7: Allen Hamilton and she makes sixty two thousand dollars, So
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: you tell a story. And then last is your innovation.
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: And then innovation is something that is new, original, important
• 26:33
  Speaker 7: that you could sell to other people for profit. And
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: it should be an MVP, which is a minimum viable
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: product creation. What can you make with a minimum amount
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: of resources that people can actually pay you for. Okay,
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: you need to be able to make it with one
• 26:49
  Speaker 7: thousand dollars. You need to be able to launch it
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: in thirty days. And the reason why we set that
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: parameter is because entrepreneurs dream big. So you might be like,
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: what I want is a nail salon, but perhaps all
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: you can afford is a pop up shop where people
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: come and you do their nails on a Saturday at
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: a community center that you've rented, and that cost you
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: two hundred dollars just to pop up in three hundred
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: dollars for supplies. The reason why I say that is
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: because once you get small right, once you learn how
• 27:13
  Speaker 7: to use what you have, start where you are and
• 27:15
  Speaker 7: do what you can, then you learn.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: How to start a jib.
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: So that's the six step ideation process.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: There you have it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: That was detailed detail and the only.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: Thing that I want to say with the entrepreneurs, sometimes
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: people don't define entrepreneurs, but an entrepreneur is someone who
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: starts a business that has the chance of two things.
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: That's profit and success. We like to say that would
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: black upstart that if you're selling a product or service,
• 27:39
  Speaker 7: then nobody wants to buy.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: You don't have a business. You have a high B difference.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: How many entrepreneurs are you looking for? How many do
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: you guys take like, is it per year? How do
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: y'all do it? So I'm sorry answered okay, I was
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: gonna say, is it money that's allocated for the amount
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: of business you can or entrepreneurs that you can take?
• 28:00
  Speaker 7: So it's competitive. We accept between ten to fifteen people
• 28:04
  Speaker 7: per class. We get about two hundred applications for each class.
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: When we first started, it was tuition based, and so
• 28:10
  Speaker 7: we would train our entrepreneurs to raise their tuition, which
• 28:13
  Speaker 7: was five hundred dollars per person. The average entrepreneur would
• 28:16
  Speaker 7: raise anywhere between seven hundred to one thousand dollars, and
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: every dollar that they raised above their tuition they kept
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: and used to make their minimum viable product creation. But
• 28:25
  Speaker 7: then as a business matured, we partnered with CDFI's, so
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: those are community development financial institutions. So in North Carolina
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: we work with Carolina Small Business Development Fund and what
• 28:36
  Speaker 7: happens is they actually cover up CDFI, So that's a
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: community development financial institution and they take bets on entrepreneurs
• 28:45
  Speaker 7: that banks won't, So if you haven't made your first sale,
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: they're more willing to make a five thousand dollars loan
• 28:51
  Speaker 7: to you and take that risk and the government backs.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Them in the event that you default on the loan.
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: So I say that to say that we partner with
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: CDFIs and they cover the cost of tuition and in
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: exchange for that, entrepreneurs get free education and they pipeline
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: into funding opportunities. So we see with Carolina Small Business
• 29:08
  Speaker 7: Development Fund, every single entrepreneur graduated with access to fifty
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: thousand dollars in funding destide their business.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: So all right, that's crazy. So once they started with
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: the fifty thousand, then what because now it's like you
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: have the money, but you have to actually do it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Cause it's one thing to actually research and have all
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: the information, but execution is always the most important thing.
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: So like as far as is that part of the coaching,
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: like for people, like the execution once you've reached the
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: point where you're actually, okay, I have my my MVP,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: I have earners.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: What's up.
• 29:46
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• 32:26
  Speaker 6: and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed
• 32:28
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• 32:33
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• 32:34
  Speaker 4: Have all of the elevated pitch everything that you just outlined.
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: I have that, have it. It's perfect. My business plan
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: is perfect. Now what hey like, what's the execution part
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: of it?
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Hey?
• 32:46
  Speaker 7: So I think that's a really good question. Our CDFIs
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: work with the entrepreneurs over a year to scale their business.
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: And so, you know, we talked about business card entrepreneurs
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: or people run around here or all the time talking
• 32:56
  Speaker 7: about I gotta business, I gotta be Is this all they
• 32:57
  Speaker 7: got is a business card? So with them they qualify
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: for up to fifty thousand dollars in capital. But first
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: they do have to show proof of concept and that's
• 33:08
  Speaker 7: where that sixth step innovation comes in. We talked about
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: how the boot camp ends. The boot camp ends with
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: a graduation, and that graduation it's not your traditional pitch competition,
• 33:17
  Speaker 7: Like it's not you stand up there, you tell people
• 33:20
  Speaker 7: your idea and then there is a winner, because that's
• 33:22
  Speaker 7: not the way business sorts.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: It's not shark tank.
• 33:25
  Speaker 7: It's not two or three people decide that your business
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: is viable and all of a sudden you win. No,
• 33:29
  Speaker 7: you know, your business is viable when you're making sales.
• 33:32
  Speaker 7: And so how our graduation day works is entrepreneurs bring
• 33:35
  Speaker 7: their innovations to the graduation and people walk around and
• 33:40
  Speaker 7: they give them real time feed forward on their innovation
• 33:43
  Speaker 7: and they respond to if they want to if they
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: like the innovation by actually buying it. And so they
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: already have an MVP that the CDFI helps them position
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: in the marketplace, and they monitor their seals over the year,
• 33:55
  Speaker 7: and as their business grows, then their access to funding
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: does as well as.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: Right, is there still a role that black ops start
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: plays as the business takes off.
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: So that's a good question because we talked about our
• 34:08
  Speaker 7: businesses having events right on the same thing. So we're
• 34:11
  Speaker 7: now launching skillhouse You and skillhouse You is an opportunity
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: for entrepreneurs and also wealth creators as well to get
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: additional training after that. Right, So, like launching, the starting
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: point is always really exciting when somebody first buys your stuff.
• 34:26
  Speaker 7: I'm sure y'all remember when somebody bought y'all's Cubicodi easy
• 34:28
  Speaker 7: and it got your first little cash at or whatever
• 34:30
  Speaker 7: y'all use, like, Yeah, you know, but staying a business
• 34:34
  Speaker 7: right is a lot harder than that, And so for
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: black ops starting through Skillhouse you what we're doing is
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: we're teaching people like how do you read a cash
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: flow statement? Like how do you engage in account and
• 34:45
  Speaker 7: if you can't afford an account? And how do you
• 34:47
  Speaker 7: use quick and loans? You know, what are those very
• 34:49
  Speaker 7: specific skills that you need, like what is an NDA?
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: What is a noncompete? You know?
• 34:55
  Speaker 7: And when you're looking for visibility, like how do you
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: market when you don't have a budget? And I think
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: sometimes we do focus our conversations so much on starting
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: that we don't get to the other side of the
• 35:04
  Speaker 7: conversation is how do you scale pass?
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: Just you so business plans? You do business plans, We don't.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: We do business canvases.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Okay, because a lot of people have asked us, can
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: you cover business planning on your leaders because like each
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: week we cover a different topic and we haven't covered
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: business plans. But what you just laid out kind of
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: sounds like a business plan. So what's a business canvas?
• 35:29
  Speaker 7: So ideation process actually mirrors a lot of what you'll
• 35:32
  Speaker 7: find in a business canvas that is a one page
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: document that asks a lot of the same questions that
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: you see on a business plan. So it's going to
• 35:41
  Speaker 7: ask you, like what is your value proposition? And who
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: is your customer segment? And what are your cost structures.
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: It's going to ask you what are your key partnerships,
• 35:49
  Speaker 7: what are your key relationships? But it's all on one page,
• 35:51
  Speaker 7: and it challenges you to think through some of the
• 35:53
  Speaker 7: critical components of your business so that you can start
• 35:57
  Speaker 7: up in a lean way. And I'm sure y'all probably
• 35:59
  Speaker 7: heard the term monology like lean startup, right, Like how
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: do you start get proof of concept and get to
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: the point where you actually want to commit the time
• 36:06
  Speaker 7: to write a fifty or sixty page business plan. The
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: problem with most entrepreneurs is they'll write fifty or sixty pages.
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: Then they'll get started and they'll try to sell something
• 36:15
  Speaker 7: and nobody will buy it, and they'll think they have
• 36:17
  Speaker 7: to write another business plan all over again. The business
• 36:19
  Speaker 7: campus being one page and asking those critical questions just
• 36:23
  Speaker 7: on one sheet of paper allows for people to get
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: to testing a lot quicker.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: So what about obstacles the entrepreneur's face. Can we talk
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: about some The biggest one is funding. That's the biggest one.
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: Right, I wouldn't say that's the biggest one say the
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: biggest one is I think the biggest obstacle facing black
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: entrepreneurs is trying to succeed in business as a white person.
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: What's that mean?
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: So Beyonce Beyonce rapping about like I might just be
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the next black Bill Gates, and the making.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: That was bar y'all, like, yeah, I said.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: That, But I love her. I love her.
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: However, I think the deseroneous. Like I do a lot
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: of work in Atlanta, and there was one particular experience
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: that I had where I ran into a room. I
• 37:12
  Speaker 7: really did run into the room because I'm a type
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: of personality.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: And there was another.
• 37:16
  Speaker 7: Person run into the room too, the facilitator, and he
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: was asking the kids like who wants to be the
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: next Black Bill Gates? Who wants to be the next
• 37:21
  Speaker 7: Mark Zuckerberg? Who wants to be the next Steve Jobs?
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: And all the kids were really excited because it was
• 37:27
  Speaker 7: like a coding a free coding camp. And I was
• 37:29
  Speaker 7: excited too. I was like, oh my gosh, this is
• 37:31
  Speaker 7: something great. Everybody's going to be a Bill Gates. But
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: then I realized that the facilitator was lying to the
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: children because no matter how hard they tried, they could
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: never grow up one to be white, two to be
• 37:44
  Speaker 7: a white male, three to be a white male benefiting
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: from privilege.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: And so the more I.
• 37:50
  Speaker 7: Reflected on it, the more I realized that we just
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: don't have to teach white male privilege or the white
• 37:54
  Speaker 7: entrepreneurial the blueprint, that there is a black entrepreneurial blueprint. Right,
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: so like and Still Valley, I think no one ever
• 38:01
  Speaker 7: talks about the guy who invented the predecessor to the Nintendo,
• 38:07
  Speaker 7: which is a model f gaming system. Right he dined
• 38:11
  Speaker 7: as equals with Steve Jobs. No one talks about how
• 38:14
  Speaker 7: Mary McCoy Bethune raised money to start her business, which
• 38:17
  Speaker 7: was selling meat pass to the mineworkers down the street.
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: She started with a one room schoolhouse before she got
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: to Bethune Cookman University. More contemporary examples like Issa Ray.
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: People want to talk about how she's on HBO now
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: with Insecure but Awkward Black Girl was funded by a
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: part of her salary and fundraising on YouTube where she
• 38:34
  Speaker 7: introduced her series for free. So I think for black entrepreneurs,
• 38:38
  Speaker 7: we have to learn how our predecessors did it without
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: the benefit of white venture capital dollars or without the
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: benefit of banks allocating US money. One other example, because
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: I'm from Richmond, Maggie L. Walker started and well she
• 38:52
  Speaker 7: was the first woman at that not black woman, but
• 38:55
  Speaker 7: the first woman to charter a bank. She funded that
• 38:58
  Speaker 7: bank with charitable contributions. Do you know how many black
• 39:02
  Speaker 7: people go to a charity every single Sunday which is
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: the church? Those are five and one C threes. A
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: five and one C three funded a for profit bank.
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: So I'm saying, if we could study history, I think
• 39:12
  Speaker 7: that we would be able to figure out better ways
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: to be successful.
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: We gotta study it and highlighted because a lot of times,
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: especially when in school, right when US history is taught,
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: yes this is definitely omitted. So highlighting it, understanding it,
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: and study. And now that we have access to the
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: internet and we have access to social media where these
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: stories could be highlight you know, the future generations there
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: will be different stories now.
• 39:39
  Speaker 7: I feel like, yes, yes, or I think they will
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: be remembering of the stories that have been on to.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: Create one right now.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: So what would you say some other some other obstacles
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: are outside of that.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Outside of that, I mean, you set funding and I
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: agree with that. I just.
• 40:00
  Speaker 7: They fund funding was coming. We talked earlier about the
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: difference between a hustler and an entrepreneur. I think that
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: that's important. I think the other thing is is that
• 40:10
  Speaker 7: I think that people get caught up on this whole
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: thing about were you born an entrepreneur or can you
• 40:16
  Speaker 7: become an entrepreneur? You know, most people are like I
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: was born this way, I woke up like this right,
• 40:20
  Speaker 7: But no, I think entrepreneur can absolutely be taught. You
• 40:24
  Speaker 7: talked about us living in an information economy, Like we
• 40:27
  Speaker 7: are fortunate to live in a time period where information
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: is basically at your fingertips. So like, what I like
• 40:34
  Speaker 7: to tell people who want to start a business and
• 40:36
  Speaker 7: people who want to create wealth is don't swim in
• 40:38
  Speaker 7: the ocean of knowledge and drown and ignorance. So that's important.
• 40:44
  Speaker 7: The last thing I think that I would say is
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: I don't think that you have to be the smartest
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: person in the room to be a great entrepreneur.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: So people normally think you have to have a PhD.
• 40:56
  Speaker 7: You know, we talked about that when we first got started,
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: or you know, they think that you have to be
• 40:59
  Speaker 7: a Strada student, Like I graduated from high school with
• 41:03
  Speaker 7: like a two point three g p A. I wasn't
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: the brightest student, but I was motivated and I was committed,
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: and I thought that, you know, with me, if I
• 41:11
  Speaker 7: could try hard enough, you know, if I if I
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: could really commit myself to a passion, then I could,
• 41:16
  Speaker 7: you know, I could overcome the obstacle.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Just one quick start on the story though, Gosh, I
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: don't thinkure about his name.
• 41:23
  Speaker 7: Okay, I'm not gonna tell that story.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: What's the guy? Hold on, who's the guy who had
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: the pink? Y'all? Ain't never had a perm in your
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: head box? What's the name?
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: No, we just actually covered the industry.
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: We just did that whole episode he had at the man.
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: Oh oh yeah, like this, I wonder Okay, yeah.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: All right, So in the last semeon, we're going to
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: talk about some financial literacy stuff and things that every
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: day people can use in their day to day life
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: to make better financial decisions and just become more knowledge
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: all the way around. All right, So now we want
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: to talk about UNCF, But first I'll talk about some
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: financial literacy topics because I know it's something that you're
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: passionate about, especially like on social media Instagram and stuff
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: like that. So all right, you said that you talk
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: about making smart decisions a lot like mindset budgeting. I
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: see you you speak about that a lot. Can you
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: talk about that the importance of it.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: That's important.
• 42:34
  Speaker 7: I'm passionate about entrepreneurship and we were just talking about that, Like,
• 42:37
  Speaker 7: I really think that black people should consider entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship.
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: Entrepreneurship means that you can be entrepreneurial at your job.
• 42:46
  Speaker 7: But I don't think that every black person should be
• 42:48
  Speaker 7: an entrepreneur. Do I think that every black person should
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: be an owner of assets? And so on Instagram? You're
• 42:56
  Speaker 7: right with professor Keys. I talk a lot about how
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: people can be owner of assets because I do think
• 43:02
  Speaker 7: that if you can multiply your streams of income, you
• 43:05
  Speaker 7: can achieve the same type of economic freedom that I
• 43:07
  Speaker 7: believe the entrepreneurship provides.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: So like, what does that mean, like multiply like what.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Kind of of income?
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: Like Like you said, like everybody can be an owner
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: like the owner.
• 43:18
  Speaker 7: Of a house, owner of assets, owner of assets and assets.
• 43:22
  Speaker 7: I think you can talk about multiple assets like you
• 43:24
  Speaker 7: can yes own your home, you can own stocks, you
• 43:27
  Speaker 7: can own bond, you can invest in your four O
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: one K, so like that type of owner.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Okay, so at least because you said that one of
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: the things you're really passionate about is the four one K? Yes,
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: so why are you passionate about one K?
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: So when I was going to get that good government.
• 43:41
  Speaker 7: Job, Actually, my very first job was as a receptionist.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, so, and that was where I got a government job.
• 43:53
  Speaker 7: And I remember when I first got my first paycheck,
• 43:56
  Speaker 7: my mom was like, well did you invest with your
• 43:58
  Speaker 7: four and one K? And I was like, well, what's that?
• 44:00
  Speaker 7: And she was like retirement. I was like, mom, like
• 44:03
  Speaker 7: about that plain one? Like, well, I'm trying to like
• 44:05
  Speaker 7: I'm trying to go Tavy hour and she was like
• 44:08
  Speaker 7: you better happy hour at four one K?
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 44:13
  Speaker 7: Yes, And I'm very grateful for that because people ask
• 44:16
  Speaker 7: me sometimes like what did I learn about financial literacy?
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: And I really learned it from my mother before I
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: started teaching it to myself. And she was like, the
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: earlier you start investing in your four on one K,
• 44:27
  Speaker 7: the better. And she was like, and it's going to
• 44:28
  Speaker 7: be difficult if you're like actually taking your money and
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: investing it. Talk to your employer and ask them about
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: their retirement plan. And usually they deduct it from your
• 44:38
  Speaker 7: check before you even see it posted in your direct deposit.
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: And she challenged me to also ask them about matching.
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: So I didn't even know what that meant, but she's like,
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: go ask him about matching. And at that time, my
• 44:48
  Speaker 7: employer was matching six percent. So six percent of my salary,
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: that's what that means. So I think at that plat's
• 44:55
  Speaker 7: making twenty nine thousand dollars, so whatever six percent of
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: that was, every dollar I contributed up to that amount,
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: they would match it. So my mom was like, that's
• 45:03
  Speaker 7: free money. Do you like free money?
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: And I was like, well, I mean, is that a
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: rhetorical question?
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, I like free money.
• 45:11
  Speaker 7: And it turns into six thousand dollars And so it
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: just automated. When I left that job, I rolled it
• 45:17
  Speaker 7: into an individual retirement account and IRA and every single
• 45:20
  Speaker 7: job that was one of the first questions that I asked,
• 45:22
  Speaker 7: Do you have a retirement aplount?
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: How can I contribute? And do you match?
• 45:26
  Speaker 7: And at my age now in my thirties, I told
• 45:29
  Speaker 7: him early I was fifty two thirties. I happened to
• 45:34
  Speaker 7: look at my four one k earlier this year because
• 45:37
  Speaker 7: my friend.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: We were having a conversation.
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: He was like, yeah, I got like four hundred thousand
• 45:40
  Speaker 7: dollars in my four one counts, Like you got what?
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: I was like, let me see what I got up
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: in my IRA, my four one K. At that point,
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: I was working at UNCFS, so I had a four
• 45:48
  Speaker 7: h three B account. The difference four one K is
• 45:50
  Speaker 7: normally for for profits, four three B is for nonprofit organizations.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: They both do the same thing.
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: You invest in four one ks, and I had almost
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: two hundred thousand dollars and I had not looked at it,
• 46:02
  Speaker 7: and so I was like, you know what, what if
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: I started actively managing it? Like this was one of
• 46:06
  Speaker 7: the best pieces of advice that my mom gave me.
• 46:08
  Speaker 7: And there's one statistic I want to share that's all
• 46:11
  Speaker 7: Motley fool that if you start investing one hundred and
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: twenty four dollars a week at the age of twenty
• 46:18
  Speaker 7: five into your retirement account, you can essentially retire with
• 46:22
  Speaker 7: a million dollars assuming a six percent.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: Return on your investment portfolio.
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: And that means that at twenty four you can be
• 46:29
  Speaker 7: or twenty five you can be contributed one hundred and
• 46:31
  Speaker 7: twenty seven dollars a week. You can do that at
• 46:33
  Speaker 7: thirty five, forty six, fifty four and that number never has.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: To change in order to reach the one million dollar mark.
• 46:39
  Speaker 7: So with all these people on Instagram talking about like
• 46:41
  Speaker 7: twenty twenty is about like a bunch of millionaires, but
• 46:44
  Speaker 7: if you ask them what their plan is, they don't
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: have it. It's going to be like a really good
• 46:49
  Speaker 7: opportunity for them to start.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: Twenty twenty vision.
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So you manage your own portfolio with the phone k,
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: like you pick your own funds.
• 46:56
  Speaker 7: I don't, but I'm starting to really learn. I didn't
• 46:58
  Speaker 7: even know that that was an option.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: I know a guy that can help.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: You know a guy.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: We'll talk after.
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: We'll talk.
• 47:09
  Speaker 7: But one thing that I did learn is that you
• 47:11
  Speaker 7: can select a target based account. Yeah, that's that's based
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: on your age and so like they basically invest the
• 47:19
  Speaker 7: risk level according to the younger you are the risk
• 47:21
  Speaker 7: your investments that you can make, and then the older
• 47:24
  Speaker 7: you are the less risk because you're getting closer.
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: To Yeah, the target target day fund is always good,
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: I think a good option because it's it's it's like
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: an auto pilot. Yeah, but you know the thing we're
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: retirement accounts. Is that you want to be aggressive when
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: you're young and conservative as you get older. Yeah, So
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of times it's hard for people to kind
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: of change it up themselves manage their own portfolio because
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: you got so much stuff going on. But the target
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: date is like designed to become more conservative as you're
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: closer to that target date of your retirement.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: I got a question for you.
• 47:50
  Speaker 7: Do you know that God should be talking to shout.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: Out to you and the friend who had the four
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: hundred thousand one even having that type a conversation.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 48:02
  Speaker 5: There's not many people that I know outside of the
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: group of Leisures team, but that have those type of conversations. Yeah,
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: a lot of times people say you will go as
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: far as your conversations taking.
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: Absolutely what I meant that that Okay, put that on.
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: And the four one K is not something that it's
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: not the most sexy investment, right, but it is practical.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: It's very practical.
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: And I always tell people like, you got to put
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: different assets away for different things. So the four one
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: K is for your retirement. It shouldn't be your only
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: investment that you're having life, but for a long term
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: retirement savings. Is great, especially, like you said, if they match,
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: that's free money. She'll always try if you can try
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: to contribute at least up to the match, yeah, because
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: that's that's pretty much free.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Money, right.
• 48:48
  Speaker 7: And the other thing that I didn't know until I
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: started doing my research as well is that you can
• 48:53
  Speaker 7: use some of the money in your retirement account for
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: very specific purposes.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Because if you were draw early, there will.
• 48:58
  Speaker 7: Be the penalties. But you can lose like tenth thousand
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: dollars for a down payment on your first home. You
• 49:02
  Speaker 7: can use ten thousand dollars of it for educational expenses.
• 49:06
  Speaker 7: You can use another ten thousand if you have any
• 49:08
  Speaker 7: emergency health considerations. That's thirty thousand dollars if you invest
• 49:12
  Speaker 7: that much, if it's in your portfolio, that you can
• 49:14
  Speaker 7: actually use.
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: And another thing with the four one ca a lot
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: of flexibility with the four one K is that you
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: can borrow from it most of the time, like up
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: to fifty percent up to fifty thousand. So but the
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: good thing with the full I mean, it's pros and
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: cons obviously because you're borrowing from your retirement, but if
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: you have no other place to access money, most of
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: the time, most people like the most money that they
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: have saved is in a four one k, so now
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: you can borrow from that. It's not a low interest rate.
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: Then you went from a bank, it was like three
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: four percent. So you're pretty much borrowing from yourself and
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: you're paying back yourself as opposed to taking a bank loan,
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: let's say of ten percent or just using your credit
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: card at twenty one nineteen percent. You're borrowing at a
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: much lower rate and you're borrowing from yourself, so you're
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: paying yourself back. So it's a lot of flexibility that
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: people don't fully. I think a lot of times people
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: these are just basic general investments. But it's like, this
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: is what's gonna for the average American, Right, this is
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: gonna make you a millionaire. Absolutely your house a four
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: to one k. Like you said, most people aren't going
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: to start a business. We hope that everybody does, but
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: it's just not realistic, right. Most people are not gonna
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: have a million different exotic investments and make a million
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: dollars off bitcoin. It's just not gonna happen. But it's
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: very practical to have a million dollars in your retirement
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: a home, stuff like this, So I think like these
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: are conversations that outside of the really exciting sexy stuff,
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: we got to have these conversations as well, for sure.
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: For sure. So I saw I saw something that you
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: have put I think it was yesterday where you said
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: that I guess a relationship had ended because over yeah,
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: you put it on Instagram.
• 50:49
  Speaker 5: So it is we're watching everything, We're watching everything.
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: So the reason so it's holiday time. It's holiday time.
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: It's holiday time, right, so people have to be responsible
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: with this spending, right, and you gotta think about generational
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: wealth over short term gratification. So how do you feel
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: about that? About the guy? Just general, just the whole general.
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: Can you give us a paraphrase version of what happened?
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I was, I was dating this guy. We went
• 51:26
  Speaker 7: out for a couple of months, and he asked me
• 51:29
  Speaker 7: to buy him some really expensive shoes for his birthday
• 51:32
  Speaker 7: in fact eight hundred.
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, if you are asked you.
• 51:42
  Speaker 7: Only like months maybe to on a possible month, like.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Like do I love it?
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: You feel?
• 51:50
  Speaker 7: Like?
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: That was? That was like the test, like not that much.
• 51:56
  Speaker 7: And the conversation came after I had just told him
• 52:00
  Speaker 7: that I had paid off all of my debt, like
• 52:02
  Speaker 7: credit card, car student loans, so like we were celebrating.
• 52:07
  Speaker 7: It was like, well, now that your credit card is
• 52:09
  Speaker 7: like on a zero dollar ballance, like you can afford
• 52:11
  Speaker 7: these shoes?
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: No, bro, like my interest right, you just said it
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: was double digits.
• 52:17
  Speaker 7: Are you about to make you put eight hundred dollars
• 52:19
  Speaker 7: back on it? So he broke up with me, and
• 52:22
  Speaker 7: I actually think that was a good decision.
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: I knew it was a good decision.
• 52:26
  Speaker 7: So yeah, So for me, it really is about being
• 52:29
  Speaker 7: fiscally responsible and not buying liabilities and masking it as
• 52:35
  Speaker 7: an asset like that shoe is not going to in
• 52:38
  Speaker 7: my pin. I don't know much about shoes. I don't
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: think it's gona appreciate a value.
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: Different right, high course value very lower turn.
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: Now it's emotions a lot of times too. It's people
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: have to be you have to think lost term, yeah obviously,
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: but you can't get caught up in short term gratification.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: Sor term gratification. Yeah.
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: And I see you talking about that. And also I
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: see you talking about a lot like even with like relationships.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: I think that's important, Like when you say that like
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: high data balls say like I see you post a
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: lot about relationships and it's like that's a big component
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: of wealth building. Yeah, right, And it's like a lot
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: of times like who you're with will dictate like or
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: at least have a part to play in how you think, right,
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: because it's like peer pressure, Like if you're around somebody
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: that's constantly telling you, like, we need to get this ascess,
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: we need to do this, you're gonna automatically like if
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: you're around your friends and saying that, or if you're
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: around somebody it's like, let's just go to the mall,
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: let's go on the trip, Like your mind's gonna be
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: on that as well. Right, So, I what do you
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: feel about that?
• 53:38
  Speaker 7: Like, like I mean, I think he definitely was to
• 53:41
  Speaker 7: watch my videos when he asked that question. But like
• 53:43
  Speaker 7: one of the things that I like saying is that
• 53:45
  Speaker 7: we're not flexing with liabilities anymore, Like this running around
• 53:48
  Speaker 7: with Gucci like two weeks after you already was like
• 53:52
  Speaker 7: you know, hashtag and f Gucci. You know, like you know,
• 53:55
  Speaker 7: it's not that that's not the new flex. And what
• 53:58
  Speaker 7: I really love about this whole movement that earn your
• 54:00
  Speaker 7: leasures doing the Black up Start is getting into is
• 54:02
  Speaker 7: that people are realizing that assets is the new flex.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: We do talk.
• 54:06
  Speaker 7: I do talk a lot about relationships and the importance
• 54:09
  Speaker 7: of breaking generational curses of poverty. I think sometimes we
• 54:13
  Speaker 7: romanticize the struggle, like we sit here, we talk about.
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, you start.
• 54:19
  Speaker 7: From the bottom, but they don't want to get to
• 54:20
  Speaker 7: the But we hear part right, And I think that
• 54:23
  Speaker 7: the person that you partner with definitely does have an
• 54:26
  Speaker 7: influence on how you are going to live that life.
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: When you get married to someone, when you're in relationship
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: with someone, you begin sharing a lot of things with them,
• 54:34
  Speaker 7: and it's more than just emotions. It can be finances too,
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: where you start making those and you start making those
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: joint decisions together, like buying the house, you gonna be
• 54:44
  Speaker 7: talking about who has bad credit, who doesn't have bad credit?
• 54:47
  Speaker 7: You know, like when you're talking about, hey, we need
• 54:48
  Speaker 7: to invest in a four to one case, so a
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: percentage of my paycheck is already being you know, contributed
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: towards this, your partner may be like, well, how come
• 54:55
  Speaker 7: we can't go on vacation this year? And so I
• 54:57
  Speaker 7: think it's important for people to get one that same
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: page yes with one another.
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: So no, it's important and it's a conversation that we
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: don't have a lot. Yeah, we need to have like
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: a whole episode on relationship.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: No, somebody actually asked me.
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: A good friend of mine was saying that, you know,
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: we talked about credit, but what happens when your spouse
• 55:15
  Speaker 5: doesn't have great credit and the pressure.
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: That or they ruin your credit or they ruin yours
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: because they don't have it. You got a sign a
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: car for the crazy.
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't think that those are like, those are
• 55:27
  Speaker 5: the conversations that you should be having dating.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not married.
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: I'm not in a relationship right now, but I have
• 55:33
  Speaker 7: been very intentional about when I do, you know, meet
• 55:36
  Speaker 7: someone that I'm interested in. We do go out, Like
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: on that first and second day, I'm asking like what
• 55:40
  Speaker 7: are you reading?
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: Like do you credited?
• 55:44
  Speaker 7: I mean I think that that could be a question
• 55:45
  Speaker 7: for the third day.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: First the second day, I'm like, well, what are you
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: interested in?
• 55:50
  Speaker 7: Like, you know, it's payday, so I just bought to
• 55:53
  Speaker 7: read like do you got a Robin Hood account? You know,
• 55:56
  Speaker 7: the person's looking at me, cross that.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: What you mean?
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: Like that movie exactly?
• 56:04
  Speaker 7: So you know that's how I know exactly where the
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: mindset is there's a guy actually that I connected with
• 56:10
  Speaker 7: who teaches about socks, and we connected on the phone
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: and like literally for four hours we were talking about
• 56:16
  Speaker 7: exchange traded funds, real estate investment trusts, like he was
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: telling me how he wanted to like invest in housing,
• 56:22
  Speaker 7: like we were talking about like I didn't know. I
• 56:24
  Speaker 7: just started repairing my own credit because I didn't know
• 56:27
  Speaker 7: when you pay off all of your debt, like that
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: can drop your credit or like I literally close my
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: credit card after I paid it all, and thirty days
• 56:37
  Speaker 7: later when I got the notification that my credit had dropped,
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: Like at that point, it was too late to reopen
• 56:42
  Speaker 7: the card and I had that car for twelve years.
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: He and I had that conversation about what it took
• 56:46
  Speaker 7: to rebuild our credit. Like I think that we need
• 56:49
  Speaker 7: to change how we start connecting with people, whether it's
• 56:51
  Speaker 7: friends or whether it's a person who you're in a
• 56:53
  Speaker 7: relationship with or trying to get.
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: In a relationship. Conducting, not speaking conducting conducting.
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: That's a fact that don't don't player, so don't play itself.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's a story.
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: Like I always say, positive peer pressure, positive pair pressure
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: is something that we we learned early on as far
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: as like even your your friends, right, it's like, we
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: know negative peer pressure, yeah, obviously everybody knows that, but
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: positive peer pressure is like if you're around people that's
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: like doing well. Like if you're in a school and
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: everybody's doing well, nobody wants to be the dumbest person
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: in class, so you're gonna naturally push yourself to not
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: be the dumbest person in class, right, And that's positive
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: peer pressure. So it's the same thing with finance, like
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: if you're around people that are making smart decisions, that's
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: doing things, that's you know, buying real estate, you're not
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: going to be the one slacker. You don't want to
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: be that one slacker. You want to have good credit,
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: like your friends to have good So I think that
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: these conversations are dope and it's really changing the narrative,
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: especially in our community because it for a long time,
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: it's not it wasn't nobody was having a conversation.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: Nobody was having better conversations.
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: That's what we're doing. So all right, well, thank you,
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: thank you for coming.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, our time is up. O. Thank you
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: for having me.
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: I had a lot of fun. So how can the
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: people contact you, how can they get information on Black
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: Upstart any events you have coming up we're supposed to deal.
• 58:18
  Speaker 7: Yeah, So they can follow the Black Upstart, that's the
• 58:22
  Speaker 7: tag Black up Start. They can also follow me at
• 58:26
  Speaker 7: KIZI at MW k e z I A MW. We
• 58:30
  Speaker 7: will be hosting boot camps across the nation in twenty
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: twenty in six different markets, so North Carolina, Baltimore, Atlanta,
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: New Orleans, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We're going back to Johannesburg, South Africa,
• 58:45
  Speaker 7: and we'll release the whole list of cities the first
• 58:48
  Speaker 7: week of January. And each one of those experiences are
• 58:50
  Speaker 7: sponsored by CDFIs. So we'd love to train up entrepreneurs
• 58:55
  Speaker 7: and give you access to funding upon graduation.
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: So all right, don't we gotta we gotta collapse on
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: top South Africa.
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: Let's do that. That conversation.
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: It Troy some housekeeping on.
• 59:15
  Speaker 5: Shout everybody on patreon dot com. You know that's Proud
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: to Pay program. We got some new members. I want
• 59:19
  Speaker 5: to give them a shout out. Chris Ken, Ricardo and Sirita.
• 59:24
  Speaker 5: I hope I pronounced that right.
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: Did you know.
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: That happens a lot. They're like Yo, man, I love
• 59:30
  Speaker 5: my shoutout, but you left the letter out. I'm trying
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: if I mispronounced it. I love you still. Thank you
• 59:36
  Speaker 5: for signing up for Early Leisure uh for Patreon that
• 59:40
  Speaker 5: gives you access now to early Leisure dot com.
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: You know, if you're a tear four or five member,
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: you have access to.
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: Our our new online school Man University and shot has
• 59:50
  Speaker 5: to merch on. So that's that's on this way, the
• 59:52
  Speaker 5: new merch for Early Leisure University. And obviously I'm wearing
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: ascess of reliabilities and so this season it's cold in
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: New York. It's cold d C.
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: So I'll get you a hoodie and keep your point.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 5: We appreciate it allows us to do things like this,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 5: come to DC and touch base with some people who
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: are doing some amazing things.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah for sure. And once again the merch e Yo
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: University to the new wave that we're on right now.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: This is a really really dope platform. And you can
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: teach a class for us what we do, Yeah for
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: sure we do. We do three classes a week and
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: we have like guest lecturers that we kind of rotate
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: from our alumn that you're an alum. That's what we
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: call our guests. So yeah, Yo University is really really
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: dope platform that we're really proud of. And once again,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: d m V thank you for the hospitality Atlanta. We
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: will see you guys soon January.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: That's a fact you put in your calendar.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: Five up for sure. So and the book tip of
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: this week is the African American African American entrepreneurship then
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: and now. So this whole conversation, well, the large majority
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: of conversation was about entrepreneurship. So there's something that we
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: want to just keep encouraging people to become. We'll not
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: just come become entrepreneur just to say you're entrepreneur, to win,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 4: like you don't want to just play the game, want
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: to actually win and that help other people. Yeah, exactly,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: And that's what happened to Plan is about. And that's
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 4: what happened strategy is about. So that's what it's about.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: So once again, thank you guys for rocking on us. We'
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: see you next week.
• 1:01:16
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