Building Wealth in Our Communities: Insights from Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal

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My name is Ramonda Young, and I have the pleasure of being Ms.

Tejo.

I was like, I just leave it there.

But my husband and I own Mahogany Books, and we are.

I appreciate it.

We've been in business 17 years, making space for black authors, black books all day, every day.

And even when people are saying, we're banning books or you can't read this, we are standing in that gap.

He's saying, hell, no.

This is our stories.

All right.

To be able to read and learn about our history.

Right.

And so for my husband and the I, it has been that priority for us for 17 years.

And we thought we would not leave that responsibility up to somebody else to determine what we get to read and.

What we cannot read.

And so that's kind of how Mahogany Brooks was born.

I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up maybe about two, I think.

One.

Tula.

I heard somebody's nothing.

Thank you.

I grew up two miles from black wall street, and I never knew black wall street existed because it was never.

Taught in my schools.

Who.

And it is a part of history.

It is the most dramatic place of where black entrepreneurship, innovation, and thought leadership occur.

Two miles from our house, there was a whole epicenter of black cleaners and movie theaters and hospitals.

And so to not learn about that as part of your history, not just Oklahoma history, but American history, is a travesty.

So, again, this is why mahogany books exist.

This is why many black bookstores across the nation exist.

We wanted to make our books accessible no matter who you are or where you live.

So grab it up the bat, please.

I don't preach because I'll be passing a cash app offering around.

So I'm not a preacher, but like I said, we've been a business 17 years.

My husband is the gentleman at the front when you came in.

But we've been married 22 years.

Yes, yes.

Very proud of that.

So that's a whole book probably in itself, but I just want to give a quick shout out to the Arc, this amazing venue that's over here in Southeast.

It is a important for us to bring programming here to Southeast dc.

My husband is born and raised in dc, proud to be from Southeast, and so give it up for the Arc for allowing space to be here.

So before it gets out, just a couple of quick housekeeping items.

Your phone will migrate.

You can take photos, but please put it on migrate.

Make sure your.

Your flash is off.

Also, please be sure to follow us online at Instagram, at Mahogany Books.

We have a lot of dope programming lined up for this year all over the city.

So let's get into it.

You're not going to see me, but.

Let'S get into this.

So tonight, our first conversation host is none other than David Shand.

He is a dynamic force in the world of entrepreneurship, boasting a multifaceted portfolio as an author, coach, and speaker with his acclaimed books Dreams are built Overnight and networking no nos, David has become a trusted guy for individuals transitioning from nine to five jobs to pursuing their entrepreneurial aspirations as the influential host of the Social Proof podcast.

How many people show up here?

Okay, David Shan.

People are in the building.

Okay.

Davis Social podcast.

Wait a minute.

I've been practicing this.

I'm just.

No, no.

So I'm going to turn it over to you.

So thank you for being here as well.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Make some noise.

Do I deserve to be rich?

You deserve to be rich.

I do.

Make some noise if you deserve to be rich.

Make some noise if you deserve to be rich.

All right, now, if I was able to follow you for the last two weeks of 2025, would I say you deserve to be rich?

Anything else in that of here?

So come on, come on, let's do this up.

Let's do it.

Come on.

Come here, come here.

So I said, if I followed you for the last two weeks of 2025, would you say you deserve to be rich?

And yes, like, of course.

So explain to us why you deserve to be rich.

Well, I'm trying to start out just as they say, no find Mangella playing my debt up.

You deserve to be rich because you're trying to start something up.

I'm not born to be working with somebody.

I need to be in my office and power my own people.

Y'all want to clap for that?

Okay, okay, hold on, hold on.

Hold on.

I believe, like my kids, you didn't deserve toys.

Jesus.

Holy hell.

You didn't deserve toys just to make my kids.

Typically, you do something to deserve something.

Yes.

Okay, so I want to know.

We want to know what you've done in the last two weeks of 2025.

I don't know.

You've been watching Early Leisure about three years.

Three years.

Okay, we're gonna go back to three years.

What have you done with the information in the last three years that says you deserve to be rich?

What do I expect?

Hold on, hold on.

I know we have community here, but hold on.

We got clapping for everything tonight.

What are you.

Yeah, okay.

What have you executed on.

I started my own stock account.

I own my children.

Build legacy, my stocks.

Chasing advice that's new not by being.

Fresh, but actually own the assets.

And that's when.

All right, we.

More time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I want you to raise some money.

Watching at your leisure.

Make some noise if you made some money.

Man.

I'm going to jump into this conversation, man, but I think when Martin was doing all the things that Martin Luther King were doing, probably had rooms like this.

And, you know, on Sunday service, as he was preaching, the people in the crowd were probably thinking, wow, that was a good sermon, man.

He's doing something really, really good.

But I don't think they thought in the moment that he had streets named after him or schools named after him.

It just seemed like he's doing a good thing.

At parties, they talk about him, right?

At the barbershop, they talk about Martian again.

But I don't think they saw it that far.

And I think people look at Ear Leisure as two guys have a podcast or two guys that wrote a book.

But I'm telling you, they are rewriting history for our people.

So I need you to stand to your feet right now.

Stand to your feet.

Stand to.

Stand to your feet.

Start putting your hands together.

Put your hands together.

Put your hands together.

Right now.

Right now.

Right now.

Joy.

Michelle.

No one can do better than that.

No one can do better than that.

Dc, what's up?

Hold on.

Y'all gotta talk to y'all people.

They came here for y'all.

Hey, put your hands together.

Try it.

Rashada.

You forgot that you was in.

The room for the murder.

So you said, what did they do with the information?

I heard the answer.

Who executed who was that?

My man.

Appreciate that, Mason.

Love you guys so much.

You know what?

DC's like a second home.

I used to live in Maryland.

So.

I was in DC H2O era.

So we always got love for Chocolate City, man.

You guys always show us love.

So first and foremost, thank you for championing us from day one, man.

We wouldn't be here without you.

Absolutely.

And now we.

Unique audience, right?

The first night we did it, the.

Book hadn't come out yet.

Yesterday we did a show and the book had just dropped.

Y'all had it for a day.

Anybody start reading that you deserve to be rich?

Okay, okay, so we going to have.

A good conversation tonight.

We going to have some fun, man.

But take your seat, take your seat, get comfortable.

Let's do this.

The title, let's just start with the first bit.

You deserve to be rich.

Now, I'm not 100% sure everybody deserves to be rich or y'all or whatever, name it, Everybody deserves to be rich.

But I want to know who is the you here that you're talking about?

Who are the people that deserve to get rich?

Everybody in this audience.

Everybody in this audience, you know, for sure, you know, coming from like working class environments, poor environments, whatever you want to say, like, you know, middle class, some had, some had it better than others.

But we all really have too much.

So, you know, a lot of times we have mental barriers that you put on yourself because that's what society tells you is realistic.

And you start to think that things are out of the realm of possibility.

And it's like, you know, you start to think like being rich, being wealthy, being a millionaire, that's so far from your reality that you just kind of block it out.

It's like, it's like a dream.

Like, you know, you don't even really think about.

You might think about it when you're young boy, as you get older, you know, life happens, you have children, you got work, you got, you know, different things, you got to take care of your parents and you just, you kind of put that off, right?

It's just like I decided out of mind.

So of course, in the book and just our platform in general, we always gonna tell you actionable items as far as how to invest in real estate and stocks and all these different stuff, credit.

But if you don't believe it, if you don't really, really truly believe that A, it's attainable and B, that you actually are worthy of it, that you deserve it, then it's not gonna happen.

You know, you're just going to self sabotage, you're going to find excuses, you're going to find ways to put things off and delay things so the first, the first thing is actually getting people, getting our people to understand that like Ash says, like, abundance is your birthplace.

And I mean, like, that's, that's, that's where we come from.

So that's what we have to really, really, really, you know, rethink the way that we think as a whole and like raise our expectations in life.

Yeah, we were very intentional about that.

In fact, going into the title of the book, I originally wanted it to be Users are wealthy.

Right.

Because I'm thinking, like long term, we need to get to a point where then we don't have to worry about money.

Our children don't have to worry about money.

Their children's children don't have to worry about money.

And shy was like, no, it has to be the word rich.

And the reason that's the word rich is because before they can get wealthy, somebody has to get rich.

And so we need to give them the building advice.

You have, the stepping stones.

We need to give them actual items, number one mindset standpoint.

But they need to really realize it just takes one person.

Like one person becomes a CEO of your family.

Now you have the information.

There is no excuse that just spoke really about.

There's no excuse, like, you really deserve it.

Here's how you do it.

And once we do it, how we make it so it's to stand more.

Right.

We've seen this.

Especially when you talk about the people who left wealth first generation.

Right.

Like, how do we change that?

So when you talk about these guys are making history.

Yes, that's the goal is to make sure that not only that we become rich, but like their kids become rich, CSM becomes rich.

And so like the economy of our community changes forever.

That's the real golden world.

Subtitle says master the inner game and claim your future.

So I think people think that wealth is a outer game, meaning what do I do?

These are the steps.

If you tell me what to do, I'll do it.

But it's interesting that you put Master the inner Game, the one Explain that.

Yeah, I mean, you know, you gotta really look at the things from inside.

Like it's like a doctor, right?

Like you could be sick.

He can look at you and see that, okay, your eyes might be a little yellow and your skin might be pale, something's wrong with you.

But gotta do internal tests to actually find out what's really going on.

So that's always been our thing is like, you know, wealth is usually seen from the outside perspective.

As far as, you know, you Got a nice watch?

Or you have the trappings of success, but very few people actually want to peel back the layers to see what success actually means.

So that's what.

That's what we.

We've done for the last six years, and that's what we do in the book as far as.

Let's go inside of it, right?

Like, and in the book is different people's journeys that we follow.

So it could be a single mom.

It could be somebody just graduated from college.

It could be somebody that, you know, is married with two kids, and they're all trying to figure it out.

One person might have bad credit, one person trying to refinance the house, one person's invested in stocks.

So really looking at it from, like, a scientific standpoint, as far as the flash and all that is good as far as it catches your attention.

But we want to be more rational people as opposed to emotional people, and we want to be attracted to information, not the limelight.

Like, so, you know, the inner game of wealth.

Once you start to understand how money really works, you realize that how we think money works is not how it actually operates, Right?

Like, money is not meant to just be spent.

It's meant to invest, actually grow more money.

Like, you put more money out there.

That's how you actually get back, you know?

Or we think, like, you hoard money like hoarders.

And that's not.

That's a scarcity mindset.

That's not an abundant mindset, right?

So it's like just a lot of different things that you wouldn't really know if you wasn't exposed to certain things.

So us having the success that we've been able to have, the relationships that we've been able to cultivate, you know, we've been able to actually see things and from a different perspective, from a different lens.

You talk to billionaires and stuff like that.

Like, changes your perspective on that.

So definitely want to kind of have the autopsy and.

And really, really look internally and see, like, you know, what's really going on.

Yeah, it's kind of like a double entire.

Right?

Like the end of game.

Whoa.

But like we did inside these circles, we were saying this yesterday to Bendy.

We get into some of these rooms that people talk about, and she's in the room with us, and we always like, yo, you into that?

All right, all right.

So we know we're in the right space, but kind of what's been synonymous with us, like you said, is that when we get into these spaces, we don't get Keith.

Designation.

Right?

Like, we go back and say, how are we going to decipher this to tell the masses?

I mean, we've had conversations like that.

I'm like, hey, before you do this, here's what you should know, because we've been in the space of enough to say, all right, here's the experience.

Here's how they're looking at wealth, and here are the studies that they're doing, right?

Here's how they're employing their tax their employees.

Here's how they're using tax strategies.

Stuff that the common folk would never know and we're never supposed to know.

You now get to code the Matrix and give us a beat.

Everybody got their book, right?

Yeah.

No.

Okay, we're gonna read them all.

Okay, I want you to go to the second chapter first.

Truly.

Page 59.

Okay.

First off, the chapter, chapter two is called dealing with Financial Trauma.

And I never thought about financial.

I never thought about financial trauma like this.

But page 59, where it says spending excessively.

How many y'all triggered, it says, at the other end of the spectrum, spending like there's no tomorrow is also rooted in financial trauma.

Like the belief that since there will be.

Since there will never be enough anyway, I might as well live now.

Shalat added to the bonds.

That is massive.

We gotta.

We gotta get deep in the mic.

Trying to sabotage.

That was a lie.

Check, check.

You good?

Okay.

There we go.

All right, y'all, on the passage, right?

At the other end of the spectrum, spending like there's no tomorrow is also rooted in financial trauma.

It reflects the belief that since there will be, there will never be enough anyway, I might as well live now.

The nonchalant attitude behind this attitude masks a sadder reality.

It suggests that you've given up on any possibility that your financial future can be any different from your current experiences.

Where do we get this?

And why do we feel like it's so important for this year?

I've never even thought about connecting, like, my financial future to financial trauma.

Yeah, it's life trauma, really.

Like, you know, we come from culture, like, blow money fast.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, the idea, when you think about that, you don't really think that you have a future.

So it's like, I rather just live in this moment because in this moment is guaranteed 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years down the line.

That's not even.

That's not even in my thought process.

Like, but, you know, I know how to actually blow money in this moment.

It's Going to make me feel good in this moment.

I'll worry about the repercussions later on if I worry about it at all.

So that's, that's a detrimental mindset because that, that's something that, you know, you're not thinking about 10 years down the line.

You're not thinking about your family, you're not thinking about your grandkids, right?

So that, that's because you don't really think a lot about yourself, really.

Like, you know, I mean, like, if you really think about it because you really valued yourself at a high level, then you would want to think about the future, right?

You would want to actually preserve, you will want to actually make sure that your children, grandchildren actually have a better situation than you do.

So this book kind of goes through a lot of that.

A side, B side, it's a hip hop reference.

The A side is the mental aspect of it because like I said, we gotta kind of really tackle that before we do anything.

Then the B side is the implementation from the financial aspect of it, but the psychological effects that we're still dealing with in the United States of America.

But everything that we went through in America is something that has to be addressed.

Because when you do things, you don't realize why you're doing it.

And that gets passed on from generation to generation.

And if you never address that, then it's going to be a cycle of destruction.

So that's something that mindset is something that we definitely, I think it's starting to change now, but we have to really eradicate it if we really want to be successful.

It's one of these things, man, and I'm sure everybody always has experienced it.

When we don't know what to do with money, we do what we know.

And that's blow it, right?

We've seen it amongst common folk, we see it amongst our heroes, entertainment and celebrity.

It never stops, right?

And so what happens is people try to get rich as quick as possible, right?

As soon as we get to that point, let me show everybody how far I've come, right?

So we know in span we get to start a kid, right?

We got to give the chain two.

Chains and we got to get the next chain.

Then we got to get the rolling.

And at the end of it you're.

Like, wait, you get around people who have actually accumulated the wealth you wanted to attain, and they have none of those things, right?

They have the role, it's our support.

You know, it's a fine line.

I'm glad you brought up the Role.

Because it's a fine line.

Not serious.

It is a fine line because.

And I've learned this in education, right?

The reason that kids saw me as a person that they could model themselves after was because of relatability, right?

And so, yeah, we might have to get the Rolex.

Why?

Because people look at that as a sign of, oh, they must be wealthy.

If he knows something I don't, how do we get that?

Or we might have to have the nice car.

Because it's like if I drove Pinto and yonder.

Y'all old enough to wear a Pinto trip.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

Or who bride.

It's like, there's no way you can be wealthy, right?

And so there's a thin line.

And I think what we've done on our platform was to say, all right, if we're going to tread that thin line, let's give the education behind it.

So if we're going to have a luxury car, how we make it attached, Right?

Now, if we're going to buy a luxury watch, let's make sure that we talk about the appreciation of that asset, whether it's a gold, Making sure that those factory.

The diamonds are factory, making sure that those watches are rare and they appreciate all the time.

Let's be responsible about the education if we're going to make those type of lifestyle expenses, because it does make it believable.

So when I see Deschan's walking down the street with two chains on, I'm like, you doing mine?

All right, my next question.

So I was going to wait until later, but chapter 10, the title is what to do with your first million.

Y'all are going to have your first million, right?

This million, isn't it this year?

This year?

Next year?

This year, yeah.

20, 27.

Are y'all the only ones with goals in here?

When are we gonna make our first million?

Shut it up.

When are you gonna make your first million?

Yes, she is.

Okay, chapter 10 says, what did you.

Do with your first.

What you do with your first million?

My question is, what did you do.

With your first million?

And y'all can't tell me y'all ain't made some new money in the States.

Okay.

I mean, when you first get the money, like, how many watches do you really need?

One.

I mean, do I have more than one?

It's interesting.

We started to live by those principles.

So, you know, as we start talking to more people, I think that's the beautiful thing about creating a podcast, that you get to get real, actual Items that you're being implemented in your real life.

And so as was.

I was approaching seven figures.

I was like, I'm gonna make a big investment.

And I did just that.

It was well documented.

I told my wife, look, I'm gonna put this amount of money in a couple of like, shares of the company.

And I'm actually gonna do some actions.

So anybody making money in options right now, come to ey.

And I actually turned that seven bunny into another seven figure something money.

We'll leave the numbers anonymous.

But what I learned, and it was from episode 21, a gentleman was on there, Fernando.

And he was telling us about how he looked at money as soldiers.

If he has to go out and work for his soldiers, that they gotta go out with him.

And I was like, that's it.

So every dollar, he got treated like a soldier.

You can't have it sitting in the bank doing nothing.

And it has to go out and bring more soldiers back.

And so if you bring it down, so you gotta.

If you got the army, then let the treasure chest, right?

You can go out, fight battles, you can go out and take more risks because you can go copy other things.

And that mindset, we said that on the episode, I was like, all right, this is how I'm to approach money.

And I think that's the blueprint of we work so hard for it.

We got to make it work hard for us.

And it's the adage of, you know, saying, you know, if we don't make money while we sleep, we're gonna work till we die.

That mindset always stuck with me.

So when we got the first million, how do I get bored?

So that's a two part question, right?

Like, one is what you do with your first million.

The other one is like financial mistakes.

So what I did with my first, I didn't really do like just everything with $1 million.

But the first thing I did when I did get a million dollars, I.

Liquid, huh?

Never know.

Well documented.

I did.

I threw a watch for sure.

That was the first thing I did because that was like, you know, I felt like I heard that.

You know what I mean?

That meant something to me.

So treat yourself.

That's important, you know.

You know, you have to work towards things and then when you actually do reach it, it's not a wrong way actually, you know, taking care of yourself, like, you know, you gotta reward yourself.

But as far as the financial mistake, this is important financial lesson.

A lot of times, like, you know, we think we're doing something good and it's actually something that could potentially hurt us.

So one of the biggest, the biggest financial mistake that I made, most people think a financial mistake would be buying chains or buying a car or even a relationship could be a financial mistake.

Anybody triggering, right?

Not anybody state that for somebody.

But now the biggest, the biggest financial mistake was buying a home, actually.

Yeah, so, so that was a process that I'm still going through to this day.

And you know, it's one of these things is a, you, you have to really, really, really think about everything that you do.

Because sometimes doing something that you think could be good actually is more headaches gonna cost you more money, right?

So it's like, you know, buying a home.

I purchased a plot of land and build a home and the guy that I brought it from, he was a hokan artist.

So it was a whole thing as far as the land had to basing on the land and long story short, cost me a lot of money in that time.

If I would have just held that money, I could have just rented an apartment and just invested the money in the marketing, I would have been better off.

Right?

But this is like lots of money, right?

And a lot of stress.

So that's important to fully understand because you know, one of the things that actually causes people to go broke a lot of times is bad investments or bad real estate deals or bad business partnerships.

These are all things you think you're doing, right?

Then like you go into business, you open up a barbershop, you open up a restaurant, you're not thinking that you're doing something irresponsible with your money.

You're thinking, I'm gonna do something and I'm gonna make more money, I'm gonna start a business or I'm gonna invest this money into, you know, forex or whatever, or I'm gonna do this.

And so sometimes even with good intentions, you can actually make financial mistakes.

That, that's important people to fully understand as well.

It's not always bad intentions and irresponsible decisions that can cause you to have bad financial outcomes.

So everything is a learning experience for sure.

Definitely.

I learned a lot in this process, but it's something to consider for sure because you know, that's something that not a lot of people talk about a lot of times.

And we could talk about the obvious mistakes, but it gets a little tricky when the mistakes are so clear cut.

I, I, and I think I'm so impressed by in this book is you have so many stories of people in different situations, like real life stories you'll see people in their situation or what they did.

So some people, even as they started talking about your first million, maybe they don't believe it just yet, and they're dealing with the financial trauma.

So I want to talk to that person.

30 or 40,000, maybe have kids, and they're doing what they can to survive.

I think you put a lot of practical steps in here, but I just want you to put both of you put yourself in that person's shoes.

And they're saying, they're reading the chapters like, yo, you're telling me to save.

You're talking to the best, but I don't have anything.

So where does your mind go?

Yeah, I mean, I was that person.

Like, in 2012, I was making $65,000.

And I was like, all right, great.

Those same principles that we're talking about, I have read how do I do it?

How I do it?

What you got to realize is that it doesn't take much to start.

The most important thing is start.

So it didn't cost me anything.

When I was.

In 2005, I opened a brokerage account.

It cost me to open it.

When I was trying to Trade stocks in 2007, it cost me to trade.

It caused me to sell.

Every time I'm like, damn, this is this expensive.

Those barriers are going.

So open a brokerage account is something that should be durable and clean.

Do it with $50, right?

It used to be a thousand, $3,000 entry.

Those things have gone.

So the cost of the entry to start, to begin that wealth plan is there, right?

The next thing is like, create the.

What is your plan to get to the bend before that?

How do we get to a hundred thousand?

I was like, I think we said this before.

It's like, the first hundred thousand is like the.

That that market, I can get that if I can save it, if I can attain it, it's doable.

So it wasn't like the million that was like, hey, I did.

It was like, I got a hundred thousand in my bank account.

Now what?

Right?

So making smaller goals, making.

Making it so intangible.

Just like, all right, if I can do this, if I can get 10,000, I can get to 20.

If I get 20, I know I can get to 50.

Like 50, I get 200.

Now, if I got that and I've made a plan, right?

Done a couple of things.

Want to talk about planning?

I decrease my spending, right?

I increase my income.

How can I do that?

Doing overtime, right?

Creating a business, partnering with somebody, making some strategic Investments.

If I can do those things inside of my plan, then I have a pathway to get to that one, right?

It may not be enough.

Might be, hey, let's do that.

How fast can I get there?

Or how, like, I don't want these word back.

How strategically could I get there?

Because now it's a replication.

I can get to 100.

All right, check it all.

What's the next goal?

So we, you know, I know he likes to reference the 12, 8 here.

It's a real thing, right?

Make this the goal smoked.

Because if you do, you'll start to see efficiency, right?

If I say I'm making million, I don't get this.

Let's go, right?

But if I'm trying to save 500, if I'm trying to save a thousand, and I've done this, like, all right, it's a certain feeling, there's a certain motion, and it ties with that.

So creating that plan as a board, even if you make 50,000, if you made 45,000, start there.

So, Rashad, I'd love to hear your perspective, too.

There's somebody making 40, 50,000.

They don't have enough to invest in their mind, Right.

If you're in that situation, how do you approach it?

I mean, so there's a few things that you got to do.

But I can only speak from what we did.

Like, you know, as far as entrepreneurship is something that's vitally important.

So I don't really know how to scale being an employee.

I can't give that advice, but I can't give advice on how to scale being an entrepreneur.

So, you know, we started a business and we always talk about multiple streams of income.

That's important.

And I feel like, you know, the business that you start today, you have to have.

You have to put yourself in success, in a position to be successful.

So, okay, a lot of businesses fail.

Why?

Well, most businesses fail because in business, the cash flow goes up and down, but your overhead stay the same.

So if you have a restaurant, your overhead might be $10,000 a month with rent, food costs, employees, cable, lights, chef, all that stuff, right?

The problem is that one month you might make 20, then one month you might be 5, then one month you might be 7, then one month you might be 15.

Now that's a recipe for disaster.

Because what's going to end up happening is that most of the time when you start a business, you start a business and you put all your money into it, you cash out your 401k, whatever, so you don't really have too much reserves.

So even one bad month is going to drain you.

Two bad months is going to put you underwater.

Your credit card, you're going to max that out eventually.

Then you're going to go into your friends and family.

You want to try to scramble some money from that, but that's not going to go too far.

So now you're in a position where your back is against the wall, right?

And you can't figure it out.

So what happens?

The business is over.

You get discouraged.

And you're saying like, this, this isn't for.

This isn't for me.

So the first thing you want to do is I don't encourage people to start breaking more of businesses out the gate, right?

You start with the mvp most buying the fight.

So in that scenario, as far as a restaurant, because that's a very common theme that people want to start.

Restaurants, right?

If I was a restaurant or I wouldn't start with a brick and mortar, I would start with a ghost kitchen, right?

Because now if you have, if you know what a ghost kitchen is, you can actually rent space in industrial kitchens, right?

Like, and you can have a restaurant on UberEat.

When you order UberEats, unless you actually know the restaurant that you're ordering from, you don't actually know where the food is coming from.

I just want Thai.

I haven't been to this restaurant.

It looks official.

They have good pictures.

I'm gonna give it a try.

So Uber comes to your kitchen, they do an inspection.

This is clean and it's a go.

The reason why I would start this, because there's a very low cost of entry, right?

So now you can actually start to sell food.

You can get your, your social media going, right?

You get a buzz and then from there, maybe you still don't even touch cool brick and mortar.

Maybe you go to a food truck.

Because now, now I'm actually able to move around.

If one area is not popping, then I might be able to go to another area, right?

I might be able to go to another state.

But the brick and mortar is last, not first, right?

And then it's like the seven streams.

You have to find a way to get seven streams of income from one business.

Not different seven streams, like seven different businesses.

So like that restaurant owner, we talked about this when we did the episode.

But that's important to figure out how you can actually get seven streams of income because one street might dry up.

So if you have a restaurant, of course, the obvious way to get paid is customers coming in and ordering Food, that's one stream of income.

But now you have Ubereats, that's another stream of income, right?

But you can also cater for weddings and large parties.

That's another stream of income, right?

And then once you become successful as a restaurant, because it's hard, you're an authority in the space.

So now you can solve because you can actually help other people get through the hurdles that you went through, right?

At a higher price.

People will pay you $10,000 a restaurant tour because you don't go to school for this.

There's no school to figure out how to be an entrepreneur for the most part, right?

So now that's four streams of income.

But you can also make content, right?

You can have a YouTube show.

A lot of people don't know how to cook.

So you can teach people on YouTube.

That makes it more scalable because people can see you all over, right?

And then as YouTube, you know, you notice you get paid from YouTube after a while.

And you can put that content on audio as well.

You can verbally, without people looking at you.

But you can also have an in person experience as well, where you can actually, maybe on a day where your restaurant's not open, you can have cooking classes, right?

So that's extremes of income.

On YouTube, you got to wear something.

So if you have an apron, then you can start to sell merch.

But then a lot of restaurants, they actually have a specialty that they actually make.

So that might be seasoning, that might be sauce.

This is something that you can actually bottle up and package it and sell.

That also makes it scalable.

You can have it in grocery stores after a while.

So this is something that you have to kind of put yourself in line to be successful.

There's no guarantees in business, but you want to try to make your business as successful as possible.

It's also beneficial to work with partners, not to put all the burden on yourself.

Find people that's beneficial and helpful things that you can't do.

So if I was, that's what I would do, right?

As far as I would map out my business standpoint, how can I start a business?

Who can I, who can I identify?

Somebody can help me with my business?

How do I start with an MVP right now?

How do I grow that my social media following, how do I roadmap for 77 streams of income one stream at a time, not all seven?

And then as I'm getting money, how can I invest that money, right?

Like this is a pathway to success, but this is, this is dc and every Stop that.

We go to.

We're gonna bring different guests on to actually.

Hold on, hold on.

Y'all not gonna clap for that, though.

That's true.

Because people are like, well, that's only true for entrepreneurs.

And it's not.

Right?

So, like, I'm a 9 to 5 guy.

So I always talk about the 9 to 5 person because that's true for education.

I would challenge anybody to look at what they're doing currently and see how you can create different streams for what you're doing.

I was sitting in a room like, my co workers will attest to it, recording ads for her anesthesia while I was on my lunch break.

And I'm telling them, like, y'all gotta create more streams.

They're like, Detroit Howell.

I said, look, you guys are teachers, right?

Could you do that from 9 to 3?

Can you tutor after school?

Yes.

You have an after school program.

Yes.

Right.

You advocate for children all day.

Could you actually write this down and free the book?

Yes.

Right.

Could you become a coach?

Right.

Most times you work with school.

They're looking for employees to coach the athletics.

Can you coach?

Yes.

There's another stream, Right.

Can you write lesson plans?

Yeah.

You do it every day.

You think people don't want to purchase less plans?

I used to do it.

I'm like, I don't got time today.

Right.

That's five strings right there.

From your nine to ten, three.

Without being an entrepreneur, but having the mindset to say, wait, what I'm doing now is scalable.

Right?

So that's the, that's the thing.

Like, how do we look at what we're doing now?

How do we scale it even without being that entrepreneur but having that mindset.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm glad he said that because a lot of times if you, if you work a job more than, I would say five years, but definitely 10 years, you have more knowledge than 99 of the people in the world in that SEC field.

So you're an expert.

A lot of times we don't look at ourselves as experts because it's like, well, I'm just working this job.

No, you're not just working a job.

You're an expert.

As an expert, like you said, you're qualified to teach other people.

You're qualified to write a book, you're qualified to do a variety of different things.

So, yeah, even if you just have a job, you can still be an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur as well.

And that teaching is a perfect example because, yeah, teachers can definitely tutor and have a whole even A tutor business, right?

Like, you can tutor, but that's gonna.

There's only so much.

You're trading your time for money.

But now if I can establish a tutor business, right, with five other teachers, right, and just take a little bit of what they're getting now, that.

That makes my time freer.

Right.

Definitely can write a book that.

The summer camp program, all that stuff.

So.

So thinking outside the box of, like, you can't have one stream of income.

That's the bottom line.

One stream is too close to none.

There's no job security.

Even if you work for the government, there's no job security.

They say artificial intelligence is going to take 200 million jobs in the next 10 years.

So if you think that you're just going to work one job and that's going to be a pathway to become a millionaire, unless you.

That job that you're working is playing for the Cavaliers or something, like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I don't think it's gonna happen.

That might that much.

Put your hands together real quick, y'all.

Put your hands together.

You know, everything we do just.

We try to do, like, different.

You know, we don't just.

We don't.

The regular book thing is you just come, you sign books, and obviously we have a conversation.

We want to make it every day like an event.

So every stop that we go to, we like having different guests that come on that can add value local to the area.

So D.C.

being obviously political capital of America, we wanted to bring some of our political friends to add some education when it comes to politics, because obviously that's an important part of business as well.

So without further ado, we're going to bring Congresswoman Lauren Underwood on State Hall.

Hey, everybody, we got a cool friend.

So do you know who Lauren Underwood is?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Lauren is congresswoman from the great State of Illinois, 14th District.

That's right.

Two people there, like Illinois herself.

So, first of all, thank you for joining us.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

It's good to see you all.

And if you.

And life is about relationships.

So if you saw.

I had the privilege of going to the State of the Union, and I met Nancy Pelosi and AOC and all that, and then a bunch of other people.

And then we actually went.

Myself, Troy, Ian, we went to the Treasury Department and saw where they actually print money.

And we interviewed the second in command of the Treasury Department.

We had a lot of political stuff that's happened this year, and it's all because part so.

I've never seen two.

One, being such $70 million in one place to that day, it's changed my life forever.

You cannot see, cannot see it.

So we have some political talk without some political.

All right, just be honest.

Who in this crowd voted for Donald Trump?

Get him.

I knew it.

No, no.

But regardless of who you voted for, that's a lot.

We always win one game.

And regardless of who you voted for, you need to know how the political process works.

So you are on.

So there's two very powerful committees in Congress.

There's one, the Ways and Means Committee, which is in charge of taxation, right?

That's right.

And then you're on the appropriation committee.

That's right.

Two, how much money?

So the federal budget's about $6 trillion a year.

We're in charge of a third of that 2 trillion.

That's discretionary, meaning we can choose where that $2 trillion goes every year to keep the government open and functioning.

The remaining 4 trillion is what they call mandatory spending.

So things like your Social Security, if your grandparent goes to the doctor paying them Medicare.

Right.

That's not decided.

How much every year, that's mandatory.

So your, your, your, your crew, how many people's on that commission?

And 60 of us.

So 60 people are.

Is in charging $2 million.

Trillion.

Trillion with a T.

60 people charging.

That's right.

So where's the, where's this $2 trillion going?

Where's it going?

Well, it's going to your neighborhood and yours and mine and here in Southeast D.C.

it's going to make sure we have clean air, clean water.

It's going to make sure that we have safe communities.

It's going to make sure that we have, you know, the health care we need.

It's going to make sure that we have nice parks.

It's going to make sure that we have border patrol and safety along our borders.

It's going to make sure that our friends in the military have, that they need to keep our country safe.

I mean, it's going to support the functions of the federal government.

So one of those things that you brought up was Social Security.

I remember being in school when I was a little bit younger than I now, and they were always something about, don't worry about Social Security.

It won't be there when you get older.

I know some people in here are far from the age of Social Security because of the young crowd, but what, what are your thoughts about Social Security?

That maybe potentially not being there when we get to six to seven years old?

Seven and a half.

So at the end of last year, we passed a bill to make a small change to Social Security for the teachers, educators in the room and for police officers environment who had spent their career paying into Social Security but weren't getting any benefits in retirement.

Right.

We've corrected that error.

And so while that's great for people who have worked in those public service fields of that need for, there's a little bit less money left over for folks who will be retiring in the future.

So this is a very valid question.

At the end of the day, there's something called a trust fund, a Social Security trust fund.

And it's a promise.

Right?

Because the money you pay in as an employee, you're talking about being an employee.

The money you pay in right now supports the current retirees.

That money's not sitting in a savings account waiting for you.

So that means that we need to have a robust workforce in this country so that by the time all of us retire, we'll be able to draw down our fair share of Social Security.

Will that happen?

Well, we're not having babies the same rate that other people did in the past.

Right.

We're not having the same level of immigration that we've had in the past.

And so our workforce is projected to shrink and not corrupt.

Right.

And so this is a fair concern, but how do you solve for that?

I don't think you cut benefits.

I don't think you raised the age so that people have to work longer, maybe while they're disabled or impaired or into old age.

That's not fair.

That's not part of the agreement.

So these are the tough things that we battle on in the Congress that we have to discuss and that we have to make tough decisions.

A bill that I support is something called Social Security 2100.

And it requires the wealthiest Americans, the wealthiest, the billionaires and higher.

Okay?

We're not talking about upwardly mobile, upper middle class people who are striving for generational wealth.

I'm not talking about y'all.

We're talking about people who already got it and their cup runneth over.

Right?

They're the ones that need to be paying their fair share into Social Security so this program can be around for millennials and Gen Z and these little, what they call Gen Alpha babies or whatever that are being born.

Right?

It needs to be around for all of us.

And the only way to do that is to make these wealthy people like Bezos, all these people pay their full share of their salary, not worth their salary into Social Security that enough is enough to protect Social Security.

And they fight it so hard because right now they're only paying on the first like clear 65,000 or so of their annual salary.

Okay.

So you may make let's say 95,000 a year, 125,000 a year.

You're paying on your full salary into Social Security.

And these guys on salary are coming in heavy, cheap and not the tricking.

And so you were having a conversation about what to do.

You know, how can somebody get ahead.

Right.

You were asking them about the 30,000 or 40,000 or 60,000 worker.

And that's part of the challenge.

You gotta be saving for retirement.

Social Security on its own is not enough.

Right.

So let's be max.

If you are an employee, let's be contributing so you get your match.

You know, we're in D.C.

this is a city that has created so many black millionaires by working for the federal government.

This is, that's part of how this city has become so special.

We have a true black middle class who own their homes.

They're able to buy a home and raise a family and pass that home down.

And then if you want to cash out to some developer, great.

We can call that an American dream.

That's or not.

But my point is that requires discipline, that requires patience, that requires long term horizon and not counting only on Social Security.

Yeah.

I want so a part of that 2 trillion that you manage.

How can I have some?

You know what I mean?

That's a real question.

Yeah.

Okay, so this audience, right, Y'all know about being a federal contractor and becoming a federal lender, like vending a contract.

It's a real thing.

And while they talk about ending DEI, so many of these Fortune 500 companies have talked about how they are no longer going to to be tracking.

They're not going to be survey.

McDonald's said they're not going to be surveying, they're not going to be looking at their supply chain and how to diversify and all this nonsense.

Right.

Federal government has it written into law that you have to do business with women and disadvantaged owned companies.

Right.

So if you want a piece of that, if you want a piece of that defense budget, let's find out what kind of business you can do with the federal government.

You know, we talked about entrepreneurship and starting small businesses, but you can sell to the government and make a lot of money.

Well, I'm glad you said that because.

All right, this is an interesting.

All right.

From a business standpoint, Don peoples, he's from D.C.

anybody know who Don Peoples is?

So he's.

He's a good friend of ours and he.

The billionaire real estate developer.

We get it.

Does anybody know who he credits his success to?

Him.

Yes.

So.

Sorry, lose the answer.

Mayor Marionberry.

So he said it was vitally important for me and Marion Barry to empower black entrepreneurs because he had political clout.

So he gave Don Peoples his start in real estate when nobody else would.

He also helped Bob Johnson get BET off the ground.

So he's actually was Bob Peters of 2 billion, two black billionaires.

But that's.

That's political.

So what you're saying.

Me and Roland Martin had a conversation yesterday that was pretty insightful.

So he was saying, like, as far as dei, right, shout out to Roland.

Because I know he's watching.

He's gonna be watching me smile.

That was a genuine smile.

Rolling.

So he was saying, everybody's looking at DEI from the standpoint of, like, job.

They're taking jobs away.

He's like, with the real concern, which you really should be scared about this DI situation, is that they're rolling back the supply chain.

They're rolling back contractors, they're rolling back doing business with black business.

That's more hurtful than upper management trying to get two employees to figure out how they can get 20% workforce.

Right.

But nobody's talking about that.

So.

So how is.

How can that.

How can we get elected officials to pay more attention to that?

Well, the Congressional Black Caucus, of which I am a proud member, has had a focus on this DEI rollback for the last two years, for sure.

You are a great politician and a great person.

Thank you.

All of your colleagues are not great people, obviously.

So are they.

Really?

Is the Congressional Black Caucus really holding these corporations feet to the fire?

Yes.

And I think that the companies are willing to be honest with us about what it is that they're doing and what they are not doing.

Every company is not doing the same thing.

Every company does not have a incentive to be candid outside of their shareholder report about what it is that they're doing.

But when we ask, they will tell us we're not there tweeting and calling out and blowing up.

Some of this is just a survey to find out where these companies are going.

But I think that the opportunity in that dialogue is making sure that they understand that we're paying attention and we're watching.

Right.

There's force and counterforce.

Right.

There's pressure that's applied.

There's pressure being applied by maga.

Right now.

And they're trying to distract us by saying maga that, you know, this company is concerned about they.

Them, Right?

And so we're going to cancel that company unless they roll back whatever kind of trans agenda that they have.

Right?

And we're like, oh, no, I'm not with they.

Them.

We've had this conversation.

I know we have.

Because people have had them, okay?

And so when they have those conversations, trying to make something about trans or make it about the illegals or make it about someone else, they're taking money away from us, okay?

And some of the other groups do not have the power in the Congress of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Congressional Black caucus is 63 members, 58 in the House Democrats.

Okay?

The Republicans, they are not in the Congressional Black Caucus.

But right now, I think there's three or four black Republicans on their side of the House in the Senate.

In the Senate, there's four black senators, including two black women for the first time ever in history, and one black man.

So when you think about these underrepresented minorities, people of color, we are the biggest.

We also have tremendous spending power, and we have something called seniority, which means we have power, and we have power to do what some of the other groups cannot.

And so we are leading this conversation around this DEI rollback on behalf of us and everybody else because it impacts and it harms our ability to build generational wealth, and it counteracts all the advanced that we've made as civil rights, counteracts all the advances that we've made in public safety when they do things like this, you know, this idea of corporate.

Sorry, I need to bring somebody in that's, like, more qualified in this conversation.

A real journalist, okay?

A real journalist has real questions.

So you've been doing good?

I'm doing all right.

I need y'all to put your hands together for Tiffany Cross.

Tiffany.

Tiffany.

What's going on?

How you doing?

Oh, excellent.

I was back there chomping at the.

Fence about this conversation.

You take.

This is your warehouse.

So you.

Okay, you were talking about dei.

And this is the thing that really pisses me off.

Hey, everybody.

Hi.

Too.

All right.

This is the thing that really pisses me off.

That makes what we should all be angry about.

So dei, when they talk about these positions, companies have proactively rolled back their DEI policies just to appease the incoming administration.

Now, do you all know that 76% of DEI positions are occupied by white people?

3% of black people are chief diversity officers.

But who did they make the Face of the attacks for dei, black women, the least protected group.

So they expect us to not be so impenetrable that we cannot be attacked like this.

Then the second part, White men.

You're talking about how many people?

The members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Democrats.

And I'm not a spokesperson for a Democratic Party.

I'm a member of black People party.

So that's what my top priority is.

But when you think about who is making these laws and policies, a lot of these policies bubbles up from state legislatures, which comes to the federal government.

White men represent 33% of society.

They represent 55% of elected officials all across the country.

So that means they practice minority rule over the federal government, over the state government, and over the local government.

It's a very small percentage of black women and black people in those positions.

So when you look at that, you wonder why on God's green earth, every time you turn on the television, they are censoring a shrinking demographic by summarily ignoring the rising majority of us because they had a vested interest in keeping us ignorant.

It's the age of innocence for some.

It's the age of ignorance for a lot.

So we gotta start paying a lot more attention and start sharing responsibly when it comes to the information that's coming across our screens.

The age of ignorance.

Has gotten some.

People very far in life.

Congratulations, by the way, on this book.

Oh, I'm so excited about it.

I want to push this to both of you because messaging is important.

And I know you said you sit on the appropriation board, which means that we're okaying and saying gas funds can go there.

We had the privilege of sitting in during the luncheon for the Congressional Black Caucus.

And as we were sitting there, I'm like, I wish people knew that these funds were available.

So there's a messaging issue there.

And then, Tiffany, from your standpoint, November 6th was an emotional day.

And the way that story was covered is well documented.

And the way it's not being covered from what you're saying now is well documented as well.

How do we change November 6th and January 6th election?

That's a no.

Hold on.

They're gonna change that to me as well.

But I want to talk about that too.

Like the narrative of how journalism is now being looked at, under attack since that day.

And I.

What now?

Right?

What now?

We're all waiting to figure that out.

What now?

When you look at the journalism landscape again, they center the average cable news viewer, just so you guys know, is a White man between the age of 63 and 67.

Now if you're in business, you guys are business people.

I would think that you would recognize well those people aren't immortal.

So we had better start paying attention to the people coming behind them.

But they haven't because media has become so disaggregated and when social media came along and democratized, who was able to have a voice?

We got a lot of good things out of that.

Like these gentlemen I shared the stage with.

There was also a lot of challenges out of that.

It became an avenue for misinformation and disinformation.

It became an avenue for hostile nations to meddle in our elections.

And so now we stand in a place where we can't even agree on basic facts.

People are gathering information from look, somebody who would enough money to buy a microphone and get in front of their iPhone to get a YouTube account is not a journalist made.

And some people are elevating to status as shock shocks and not necessarily people who are had vested interest in informing us.

And so we can't even agree on logic.

We saw the danger that happened in Altadena with how quickly misinformation was spreading and how they Again, the face of the attack was Mayor Karen Baggs, who's the mayor of la, not LA county.

And the misinformation about oh basically by the time it made it through the telephone line she was responsible with a blowtorch going around set be.

So it's quite scary.

I think we have to start identifying reputable voices because even on when you look at some of the mainstream media outlets, they were chiefly responsible for losing our faith interest.

Particularly in 2016 at the only time you saw outrage about a 12 year old child getting shot by a police officer was from a meme.

And the only time you saw appropriate tears and anger about a teenage boy getting shot in a hoodie was on Facebook.

Then you were going to start tuning out the people who were ignoring you.

So I think in this disaggregated space we have to identify reliable voices that sometimes don't always center our perspective, but at least the information is filtered and knows the difference between opinion analysis, reporters and anchors because they all have different roles.

So getting back to the basic understanding of what this all means and how it all works, I think it's a good start.

So I think that business and politics is directly tied to each other.

Elon Musk didn't put $200 million into a campaign because he just likes Donald Trump.

Right?

He became $200 billion richer and is the number one buyer of his product, SpaceX and Tesla.

So, Jeff Bezos, you name it.

So, okay, politics is directly related to business.

So this is a business conversation.

So I want to look at it from the standpoint of how do we black people have more say in politics?

So a lot of people saying, like, voting doesn't matter, and some people are mad at these people for saying that, but I understand why they're saying that, because in my opinion, there's two parts of the political process.

We're pushed on one part, which is voting.

But voting within itself is not really beneficial.

Jamal Bowman, ex Congressman, he said something that was extremely insightful to me.

He said when he.

From the time that he got into Congress to.

At that time, he was in Congress for two years, he said he got a call from a lobbyist every single day who were talking the gun lobby, Jewish lobby, LGBTQ lobby, Asian lobby.

Every single.

He got a call from a lobbyist every single day for two years.

He said he had gotten a call from a black lobbyist.

Funny.

For black people.

He had never gotten a call from that.

So we're taught to vote.

We get people in office, but we don't have any financial backing to hold them accountable to do anything.

They use our vote, then they just forget about us, and they come back in over four years.

So how do we play the money game when it comes to lobbying and holding politicians accountable and funding campaigns?

And how do we really start to play that game?

Okay, can I just say a couple things, because you said a few.

Number one, you all know, I think you know this intuitively.

Naacp, the National Urban League, Our civil rights organizations are not lobbying entities.

You know that.

Yes.

And they are civil rights groups.

They don't necessarily cover the range of issues that confront black America.

We know that, too.

Right.

And so we.

We as a community do not necessarily have lobbyists that work on behalf of our community.

That's the first problem.

Well, it just is.

If you call it a problem, I'll go with that.

But he called it a problem.

Nothing.

Okay?

Now, what we have are representatives.

So the community that I represent.

Mean, the people that elected me are not majority black.

My district is less than 10% black.

Okay.

And that is where the growth.

That is where the growth in the Congressional Black Caucus have Trump.

Right.

You're an anomaly.

I am.

But you look at people like Angela, also Brooks, who does not represent.

You look at Lisa Glenn Rochester, another senator.

The senators don't represent all black people.

Right.

That's Steve Klein.

No, I'm glad you said this, because this is an important fact.

You don't have to represent all black people to have black people's interests.

Because.

That's right.

The Jewish lobby is not lobbying states, but it's just Jewish people.

They're lobbying states where there's no Jewish people.

Well, it's a pro Israel lobby.

Okay?

Pro Israel lobby is lobbying states where there's no.

That's right.

Jewish people.

My only point is just that we don't have a lobbyist.

We don't have a lobbying firm.

We don't have an entity firm for black America.

That does not exist in our framework.

What we have are representatives who happen to be black, whether or not we represent black people.

And then Tiffany's right, there are some white representatives that represent tremendous numbers of black people, majority black people.

Steve Cohen represents Lipkins.

There's no one black out of the state of Michigan.

Not one for all of the tree.

Or Mississippi.

And then we have the south, where there's a bunch of states that only have one black person, like Mississippi.

Arkansas has nuns in the House.

South Carolina has one.

You know what I mean?

That gets to be a problem.

Alabama just got two.

Two weeks ago.

Okay, so this idea of representation versus lobbyists, those are different.

They're functionally different.

But you can argue that we need both.

I think that's really important.

Now, let's talk about money.

Why do elected officials need money?

Elected officials need money in order to run their campaigns.

Well, why do you need money to run a campaign?

Because you have to hire people and you have to do ads.

To run my campaigns outside of Chicago, I come from a competitive area.

Sling district.

Y'all familiar with that phrase?

Okay, Where I live, to go on television, it's a million dollars a week.

Yeah, we're gonna light some money on fire.

Go on television, Put your face all on the screen.

See how good it makes you feel to be recognized and then realize how much you just spent.

Okay?

And so to run in my races, my first race is five and a half.

Second race, $8 million.

They came at me, and it was the toughest race in the country.

$8 million of hard money that I raised myself.

We're not the ones giving.

And if we give, you might give $5, $10, $25.

We're not typically maxing out.

Maxing out is $6,600.

Who's maxing out?

The wealthy, the business interests, the lobbyists.

And so when you have people like Jamal saying that he's getting a call From a lobbyist every day.

Well, he's trying to raise money every day.

We have to do it every day, ask people for money every day.

Would I rather spend money, spend my time in rooms like this and talk about these issues that are so important every day?

Absolutely.

But we don't have public financing for federal elections.

Doesn't exist.

There's no matching dollars like you all have here in D.C.

or like they have in New York.

Doesn't exist at the federal level.

So that's why people are spending time.

So if you want to change that system, we have to have something called campaign finance reform.

We have to get what they call big money out of politics.

It's dark money, people.

Billionaires put as much money as they want in a way so that their voice is louder than yours as the voter.

That's so messed up.

No wonder people don't believe in our democracy.

No wonder people don't vote.

They feel like they don't have voice because their voice is being drowned out by these huge super money interests.

And then structurally, on the back end, after the election, we don't even have professionals as black people who their whole job is to go lobby the Hill to make our lives better.

It's tough, but can we change it?

Yes, but who's gonna pay for that lobbyist?

And so, you know, I'm taking this someplace that you might not want to go.

But our black elite also don't participate.

No, I told.

I had a con.

We had a conversation with people.

Yeah, they don't.

That's true.

All your all or friends.

Everybody who comes on the show.

I'm a man.

I listened to the show.

And then I reached out and I invited them to the State of the Union.

That's what happened.

Okay, but all there, all these people who come in and they have these great stories, they don't.

They don't participate.

They don't give.

They don't build relationships with us.

They don't host fundraisers.

They don't come and try to meet with us on Capitol Hill on anything.

Our basketball players, our athletes, our entertainers, they do not participate in this side.

The governing side.

We had this conversation with.

It doesn't exist.

We did.

And they're not following our lead because we have come, but you all have.

I want, I, I want to pitch.

Something to you because strategically, and this maybe for both of you, looking at how the money is spent, right?

If we're spending a million dollars on TV and we just know statistics, right?

Many of us are not even watching linear TV.

Right.

People are, especially about kids.

It's YouTube, it's social media.

You look at how the campaign was won from the other side, Right?

Not to say which side is better, but social media played a huge impact.

And so is it time strategically to make that shift from the old model of let me put an ad on tv?

Because I'm be honest with you, when people watch it and my mom's a die hard Democrat, she can't stand ads.

It's redundant.

It's the same thing.

It feels very attack, attack driven.

Is that.

Is it time for a strategic change?

You got to do both.

Okay, here's why.

Because who's most likely to vote in an election?

65.

An older white person.

Okay.

In terms of numbers of voters, but in terms of the highest percentage per demographic, Black women.

Right, Black women.

For the percentage of black people we come out vote.

But in terms of raw numbers in the electorate, if you're looking at how you're going to win, then watching TV, that's 65 and older white person is watching TV.

Which is why we have to spend money on television because we know that they are going to vote and we need them to check their box for us.

Now how do you win?

You got to spend money online.

You have to pay and text people.

You have to do your YouTube ads.

You have to go out and talk to people in person as well.

You have to be able to do everything.

And the people that don't are the ones that are falling dead to defeat.

I want to talk about this lobby thing for a second because I don't want you all to think that there are not black people on Capitol Hill lobbying for black issue lobbyists.

Right, exactly.

But there are also black lobbyists lobbying for issues that directly impact black people on behalf of black.

I think we have to look at the structure like the MBPA has a lobbyist.

You know, the NFLPA has a lobbyist.

United Healthcare had a lobbyist, but let's use that.

United healthcare, it's great.

UnitedHealthcare hiring black lobbyists.

Okay?

They need to, because we are Healthcare United.

They need to employ people that look like us.

Now do we really think UnitedHealthcare is looking out for the health and well being?

No, I don't think that.

But I think that is where you have to support the people who, some, some people who are lobbying within some of these companies.

They look at their job like I will get paid to go out and keep the black folks under control.

Other people look at their job like I'm going here and keep these white folks under control and engage in harm reduction on behalf of the community.

So there are people, I personally know, people who are on Capitol Hill doing the right thing.

Lobbies is not always a bad word.

Nurses have lobbyists, teachers have lobbyists.

So there are people doing the right.

What's the black lobbyist group that focuses on black issues?

What's that?

Well, there is something called the Black Pack, but.

But again, it's hard to say black issues because we're not a homogenous group of people.

And so there are certain things that we care about that, that.

Well, we are.

We're divided especially.

I think we saw a lot of that come out this election.

There are some solid things that we care about, but when you get into the minutia politics, quite frankly, we're not.

About school choice, I think is a great example of that.

Not all black people are excited about school choice.

There are some people think that's damaging.

So I don't know how we would create this black task.

But it's not true to say that there are not black people on Capitol Hill lobbying on behalf of issues that impact black folks.

You can't control what you don't own.

You can't sell what you don't own.

If you work for a company, you're an employee of that company.

So you can be a black person that wants to help black people, but ultimately you still have to answer to somebody who's not black.

Yeah, I agree.

All I would say is there is an unofficial, pervasive lobby to advance white supremacy.

I think we can all acknowledge that there is not the opposite.

Exactly.

You get no argument from me.

I would also argue though, we can focus on the lobbyists, which I guess is a challenge, but it doesn't matter.

Let's just say you had the king of Wakanda lobbying on behalf of black people on Capitol Hill.

In this administration, you're not going to get very far.

Republicans control the House, they control the Senate.

And then you have to look at.

Also we're talking at the federal level.

A lot of these issues are state issues.

A lot of these issues are local issues.

Anything that impacts the classroom is more than likely something that bubbled up from the school board.

Something that impacts how often your trash can pick up a bunch of neighborhoods.

Looks like more than likely bubbled up from city council council.

So we can't put everything at the foot of the federal government.

I just want to quickly talk about this idea of non voting, because I hear you.

I think that's it's one of the things that I find to be very disrespectful to black people.

When you hear folks say, well, if you don't vote, you don't count, or you get both, you don't have a right to complain when we count because we're a child of God.

First of all, we're not commodities to participate in this political system.

Now, for the people out there who feel like I just talked to two young men earlier today, I think there is an understandable feeling that we are asking you to believe in this system that has harmed you.

And so a lot of people out there say, you want me to put my trust in this system that has kept my family in the redline community for decades, that keep my children in dilapidated schools for decades, that imprison my brother, that poison my mother, and you're telling me to believe in the system is going to change my life.

What we have to get back to, if they captured our imagination.

We're not asking you to believe in the system.

We ask them to believe in you.

Brother, what does democracy look like if it's a blank slate?

We're asking you to imagine what if we say, you're in charge of these next 20 blocks and you got to decide what the school system look like.

You got to decide what the neighborhood functions like.

You're in charge.

Give people something to believe in.

So I think when we treat us, our community, like we're only relevant when it's time to ask for a vote, that has been the biggest challenge and why people don't have a lot of faith in the system because it really hasn't served us.

It's just been harm reduction.

So what does this government look like?

If by the people of the people and for the people included us, then you have it.

Wow.

You know, thank you guys, hopefully, for.

Coming on this conversation.

We love politics, so we like to try new politics conversation.

But more importantly, it's important.

Like I said, I mean, you know, business and politics directly.

It's a direct correlation.

So, you know, we talk about financial literacy.

We also need to have civic literacy as well.

Right.

Political literacy.

I understand how to believe assets works.

So not only so we can make money, but we can actually impact real change.

So thank both of you for coming, taking time out of your schedule to educate us, delight in us.

So make some noise.

I think we got a couple more minutes.

Can we do.

Can we do Q and A?

Yes.

Can you put your book down?

You put your book down?

Yeah.

All right, let's Just go on to some Q A.

Y'all want line up right here.

If you have a question.

Right here.

Check, check.

We're good.

Okay.

Mic is hot.

We in the hot seat.

Do I have permission?

All right, so first, I want to.

Say congratulations on the book.

So my name is Kyle Carter, recently.

Graduated from North Carolina.

A and T.

So I just have a question.

So in reference to when you were.

Growing up, everyone has a different meaning.

Of the word success.

So when you were 20, 25 years old, how did you define the word success?

And do you feel as if you.

Lived up to or surpass the metric.

Of what you set for yourself?

My definition, probably.

It's probably been the same most of my life.

It was being able to provide for myself and my family.

So at 25, I was a single man, and that was true.

At 43, that still holds true.

Not to say that there wasn't ups and downs and bumps in the roads.

I don't want people to get that perception of us.

It's like, well, we've always made the right decisions, and we got to this point because we were so financially stout.

No.

A lot of the things that, especially for me, that I've implemented, I've had to learn the tough way.

I've had good friends who had financial ideas that I had to implement in myself.

But success was being able to take care of myself.

Because if I know if I could take care of myself, then I could take care of everybody else.

And I've been through, God willing and blessed to be there.

All right, next question.

Hello, I'm Arian from Chicago.

I flew in today.

Thank you so much for everything that you all are doing for the culture.

Thank you.

I have a long list.

I'm going to be respectful of everybody.

But I'm going to pass the list to you all.

If you all can just take a.

Look at it when you all have time.

Dave, Shan's got it.

Okay.

Do you want to pick one?

I guess I'll comment on something I heard today instead.

I used to be an alderman's assistant in Chicago brief while.

And I do want to say that as a black people in certain communities, we worry about very, very, very minor things.

When I talked to the white aldermans that was in another precinct or whatever ward, they were saying they don't get as many phone calls as my boss at that time.

And when I say they're like, my water is.

My mop.

Bucket is falling over.

You ain't doing nothing over here.

And it's like, if our representatives are so focused on minute things.

How can they really get to the work and the nitty gritty of what's really needed in our communities?

So I'll leave that there.

So.

Oh, you want me to take the other one to give the other.

Is that the question one?

No.

She had a list of questions.

Then ask.

I like those.

That was a good point.

I see the.

Did you come to invest this year?

2022 and 2023.

And also I met a lot of good people there.

Like somebody who might be here today.

I met him 2022.

He got me invested in SRP.

Got 3,000.

Should be Erica.

She might be here for the.

Podcast.

And you said stop losing.

We.

We always go to Chicago.

We've been market Mondays at Chicago.

We did an event in Chicago this summer.

So Chicago, one of our favorite cities.

So we definitely.

They like, you didn't play the book there in Chicago.

Maybe we not shout out to Chicago.

Let's get it.

What's going on, guys?

I don't know if you guys remember me.

I met you like two years ago randomly on Howard's campus.

Y'all were outside.

So shout out to y'all.

I mean, my name is Chimo Swagu.

I'm a graduate of Hampton University.

Local Washingtonian.

The real H.

I ain't gonna get into it.

They gave me money.

That's where I had to go.

I'm a political study, political science.

I'm trader, writer, musician.

I just came from work in the studio.

It's crazy.

But my question for y'all is everybody focuses on corporate tax.

And I read like, for my studies in school, I read the Prison papers by Antonio Gramsci.

It's a real good deep 600 page book.

So everyone talks about corporate tax, slash.

But with the oncoming information and web3 and I mean, just everybody starting small businesses.

What do y'all think?

What are y'all thoughts about possible working class tax cut, like Social Security and things like that, like fico?

Like, is that possible?

Is that like, is that something that people that have the 1% that y'all have met are talking about?

Is that like, do you understand my question?

What about working class tax?

Everybody talks about corporate taxes.

What about.

About working class tax?

I feel like that'll change America.

Working class tax cut, yes, that would be a question for Lauren, but I think.

I think they did that.

I think they.

They lowered taxes.

I think Biden's administration lowered taxes for working class people.

I think.

I'm not sure though.

Did they?

Not really.

Especially with the Student debt.

Stuff like getting out of student debt.

They really.

They really targeted the people.

The top 80%, I believe, of student debt.

So even me, mine was slashed a.

Little bit, but I pay.

I'm a political dude.

So how do y'all feel about.

Is that a possibility?

Do you think American.

The.

The.

The upcoming American youth are smart enough where it can't be federally yet, but statewide, we'll have, like, more pushes for working class tax cuts.

I.

I'll tell you the best.

Some of the best advice for Shot.

Ever gave you a lot of advice when I was working as a teacher, and he told me the American system was never designed for the employee.

It was designed for entrepreneurs.

And it makes more sense now that I bought it.

She understands where I'm going with this.

Some things we have no say in, right?

Like, we get paid.

That W2 is coming out.

We got no say in that.

On the flip side, when you're on the other end of it and create the business and you're an entrepreneur, you realize that you can use some of that revenue and the tax cuts and benefits to your favorite, right, by using deductions.

So I always encourage people, start a business, right, create an LLC.

I know some LLCs.

I don't have to rule S Corp.

C Corp.

Circumstances, but it's important because you can use taxes to your benefit.

Whereas a W2.

I remember trying to, you know, saying, like, hey, I'm.

I'm buying the materials for my school.

And they're like, who cares?

I'm like, I can't write that off.

I got to a point, I was.

Like, yo, you know, I'm a phys ed teacher, so these sneakers I'm buying.

But it really isn't designed for the employee.

So not the greatest news, but it is encouraging because the second part of your question was, are young people realizing it?

And I think, yes, because you're here right now in this room, so you're.

It's already on your mind at a young age.

This system ain't really made for me.

I had to work in that system for 13 years.

And to be like, this isn't really going the way I thought.

I had the opportunity to create business.

So I think the younger people gonna get it.

It's kind of reason why they go to Brooklyn.

There were no answers.

There were no resources.

Who's supposed to tell us?

Here's this concise body of work that can help guide you in that.

Appreciate you guys.

How y'all doing?

I'm Lorenzo from Virginia, and I have.

One Question for the both of you.

So if you don't mind, we'll record the answer.

So first question is for you, Troy.

For someone looking to get into trading, what do you prefer?

Why do you prefer trading options over, like, stocks or futures or whatever?

Like, how'd you come in on just.

Doing, like, the options?

That's the question.

Yes.

All right.

No, I don't.

It's not that I prefer to do options.

I would prefer if somebody's starting to trade equities.

Right.

I want you to have ownership in companies, ETFs, index funds.

Right.

Those are the things that are safe.

That's first.

Right.

As you become more advanced and you have more seasoned experience inside of trading, then, yeah, options is something that I would recommend because it's a derivative that can appreciate very fast.

And so as the asset, let's say a company like Nvidia, right.

That company has gone over the past three years.

It's appreciated by probably 400%, right.

As an equity, right.

Meaning that the company itself was trading at this amount, and now it's here, on the option side, that appreciation goes even faster because you have the.

Not the obligation, but the right to have 100 shares, right?

So that's what a contract is.

This is where you see people putting those percentages of a thousand, two thousand, three thousand percent.

They're not trading the actual company, they're trading the option contract.

And so it's a faster way, way to expedite growth.

All right?

So I always teach people that, because a lot of people, like, number one, they see people making money and they're like, how do I do it?

How do I do it?

So my thing is, like, let's take them by step, by step process to get, number one, have index funds, has ETFs, build that stable table.

But if you want to become seasoned and see appreciation at a different level, here's what you can do.

Options is one way.

I know my brother Ian teaches futures.

This is another one.

So you prefer the options because it.

Grows faster than, like, trading regular stocks or futures?

Absolutely.

Good.

And one more question.

We just don't have time.

Right.

I'll just shout out to.

All right.

Hey, y'all.

My name is Daryl Anthony.

I'm a graduate at the University of Merlin Eastern Shore.

Who's that guy behind you?

Say that again.

Who's this guy right here?

Oh, he's recording.

He's just recording me.

Who you think he was?

I messed up the whole recording.

Nah, start it over.

Start it over.

Sorry.

My name is.

My Name is Darrell Anthony.

I'm a graduate from the University of Murley Sunshore.

I graduated with a whole engineering degree, but I actually ended up being a barber.

It's something that I fell into a passion for during COVID and I just ended up doing it because something that I love more than engineering.

So that's what I found to be what I wanted to do.

I'm also a clothing brand owner called start nav2 as my.

So yeah, so I wanted to ask y'all about.

Y'all get a lot of people on y'all show that have different businesses.

Y'all get different pictures from different.

A lot of people.

How do y'all kind of like, venture out, like, the different ideas and like, thinking about what y'all want to do in regards to y'all own business?

Because it's like a lot of different businesses that you can actually do, but choosing that one that you're going to do with what.

What advice do you have for somebody that is thinking about so many different things?

Yeah, I mean, I think it.

It comes down to what you think you have the best success in.

Right.

So it's like, for us, we hear a lot of different businesses.

The vending machine thing, that just seemed practical.

We were familiar with vending machines seemed like a relatively easy business to run without a lot of headaches and hassles.

So it was like, all right, let's get the vending machine.

The trucking thing, that was a little bit more complicated than we originally thought, but on the surface, it seemed like a good idea.

So we just went with that because we felt that trucking is an industry that's always going to be here.

It's needed.

It could be, you know, pretty stable if you have it done correctly.

So just kind of in our brain, it was like, okay, like, this is something that we could.

We could do.

So for us, there's really no set science on, like, what businesses we try.

Most businesses that we try are related to our business.

We don't really try a lot of exotic stuff.

Those two examples I gave you, you are stuff that we.

We learned from people that came on our show.

We just gave it a go.

But most of the time, we start a business that's directly related to something that we currently doing.

So it's like, we got the show.

We're gonna do merch.

That makes sense.

Or we're gonna do invest fest.

That makes sense.

So we're gonna start a new show, like market Mondays.

That makes sense.

So that's kind of our formula like we, we kind of, we don't really move too far away from the nucleus of what we have because that's what we know.

So I think that's important.

Go what you know, go with what you like, what you're passionate about, what you have relationships in.

I think when you try to do too many exotic ideas, it can kind of go left for you because you kind of like swimming in the deep end.

So for us, it's more so kind of staying grounded in what we have and just having different branches off that tree.

And earmarking your book page 192 too, cuz it's in there.

They wrote like, they literally wrote a whole section on that question.

So what page did I say?

192.

All right.

Trust me, you ain't write it down.

Good question.

It's recorded.

D.

All right, thank you.

How y'all doing?

I'm Jordan, just a regular from dc.

My question is so number one, like it's like a two part question.

So I do want to be rich, but my question is how can we keep the wealth in our community?

So how can we start building up our community?

Because I definitely want to be rich, but it takes more than just me to keep the wealth.

Because in America, we blacks, we have a lot of money, but it don't stay in it.

The data don't circulate in our community, don't stay in our community.

So how number one can we keep that and then number two, like, how can we get to the number top of the food chain?

So when I'm listening to you guys, I kind of remind me of like, what do I sit at the table?

How can we build our own table instead of the top of that table?

I mean, I think the answer to, well, the first part of the question I think is one of the best ways is not to move out of your neighborhood.

Because gentrification is just the revitalization of a neighborhood.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be done by somebody that doesn't look like you.

So it's like the doctor, the lawyer, the pharmacist, they can rechange that neighborhood as opposed to moving out of that neighborhood too.

But when you move out of that neighborhood and then somebody else moves in your neighborhood, then your neighborhood is no longer your neighborhood.

So that's something to think about for sure.

Because when you talk about like real group economics, there's no group economics.

If you're the only black person living in a white neighborhood, where's the economics at?

You're not circulating dollars.

There's no community for you to circulate your dollars in.

So I think that that's something to really think about.

As far as, like, actual community.

What does community really mean?

We gotta really get back to that essence of community and think about that, right?

Like, make our schools better by having more tax dollars, by having more successful people in the neighborhood that actually care about the neighborhood.

They can open businesses in the neighborhood that can patronize the businesses in the neighborhood, and then that can start with the dollars that way.

So, I mean, there's a lot of different answers to that question, but that's one thing that just comes at the.

Top of my mind.

This is not like theoretical theory, right?

Like you say you bought a house.

That house is in the neighborhood that we grew up in.

You know, who was up the street from the house being.

No, this is real.

It's not the jokes.

It's real life.

So you think about that, right?

We never.

People always say, like, yo, you know, can you ever go back home?

Like, we can't go back because we never left, right?

Because it's important that our community see success.

It's important that when we build a home, we build it in a community.

Number one.

We're going to be the number one taxpayers.

But that helps the school.

So now our kids go to that school.

People see success coming from the neighborhood.

It's inspirational for them.

Oh, they did it.

They came from here.

They went to this high school.

That's the community center they went to.

We can do it, too, right?

So, like, we're not just saying these things in theory.

We actually are practicing these things, and we've done it for our own lives.

Well, the good thing.

The good thing about, like I said, I used to live in Maryland.

So Maryland has a lot of black suburbs.

Like, they have nice neighborhoods in Maryland, for sure.

Maryland or Baltimore.

No, that's a good shout out to my brother.

P.G.

P.G.

County.

Yeah, sure.

Montgomery.

Montgomery County.

Like, you know, this very affluent black people.

And Maryland's actually a great state.

And D.C.

is a great city, too, because D.C.

is actually a city where, like I said, dark peoples.

There's a lot of black successful people that have come from D.C.

and have moved into D.C.

as well.

Like, it's like Atlanta kind of, but just without the hookah and all the silliness.

No shame.

We love Atlanta.

But Dave.

Dave lives in Atlanta, so I got.

It gets a little tricky out there sometimes.

All right, My name is Lafayette Barnes from Washington, D.C.

my family has a newspaper here called the Washington Informer.

So you talk about the impact of media, questions about media, but just wanted.

To put that on your radar.

Check out the Washington format they have in the lobby.

Take one with you.

We'd love to talk more about what.

You guys are doing.

My question is, is Wall street two, two part question one, is Wall street basically like a pyramid scheme to make.

The rich more rich?

Because as we invest in companies and we invest in, you know, ETFs, different equities, are we just adding money to people who have money to make more money?

So, you know, and then with that being said, how do we, you know, get out of the consumer class?

So, you know, should black people be black people's business consumers or should we look to other communities as our consumers?

Like for instance, our ByteDance owns TikTok and we are, you know, maybe 25% of their revenue in the United States.

It would be better.

Yes, extremely exciting.

The second part is actually.

All right, you can answer the second part because that was both of those questions.

First part of the question is no, it's not a pyramid scheme, but in the sense of there's two parts of investing as a stock.

You're an investor and then you have ownership of the company that's actually listed into the stock market, but you are the investor.

But long story short, yes, of course if you're in that situation, like as you invested in Tesla and Tesla stock goes up, you're going to make money, but Elon Musk will make more money.

Right, but okay, so, but that, I don't think that that should discourage you from investing into the stock market because what is the other alternative?

But what I do think that we need is more black founded publicly traded companies.

So there's 5,000 companies on the stock market and seven are black founded.

That's a problem.

That's a real problem.

Because when we scale a business, we're not thinking about scaling to multi billion dollar levels, but that's how you get to a multi billion dollar valuation is once you go public.

And as we have those kind of companies going public now, you can actually have more political power, you can hire more people.

Now we can have more black billionaires.

That's going to help the situation.

So you got to crawl before you walk.

You can't, you know, if you try to feed a baby steak, going to hurt it.

Right?

So we just, we, we, we're actually just coming out of, you know, a coma.

If you look at it from that standpoint, like we've been in a coma For a very long period of time.

As far as our wealth in America, we're starting to make upward trajectory, but now we have to start to think it, think things a little differently.

So now we just starting to get people to really understand the power of investing.

That's important, but that's not where it ends.

Now the next level is private equity, venture capital, and then having scalable companies, specifically technology companies that can actually go public and having more black companies that's on the stock market.

That's how you really start to change the situation.

But, you know, you build the pyramid one brick at a time.

The second part of it is, you know, time to scale businesses that have global reach, right?

So obviously we black, we can't hide that.

You look at us, you know, we black, right?

But we're not saying, well, this is a black brand.

It's obvious we're black people.

We talk to black people.

That is our audience.

And so our reach, number one is to get them to have the information.

But it's really for everybody.

You see what I'm saying?

And so a lot of times when you get labeled as a black brand, right, Then you've been marched marginalized.

And we never want to be marginalized, right?

We've been marginalized for so long.

So you can look at the titles of the things that we've done, investments, right?

We're not saying it's the number one black wealth building category in the world.

No, it's the number one wealth building category in the world, right?

Because it's for everybody who goes there.

The people who need it the most, who relate to us, who see us as inspiration, say, this is how they do, right?

So always, that's one things by you.

Never limit yourself.

Never try to be marginalized, make it global and scalable at the same time.

But it's an interesting dynamic because if you're black, they automatically don't put you in a black bucket already, no matter what.

That's why sometimes like Calendar, that app that you use, like this CEO is, is black and he's a billionaire and you've never seen him before.

Well, that's for a reason.

Because if he was forward first, then a lot of people would not download that app, right?

Because they think, oh, that's a black company.

So that's something that you really got to be mindful of.

Because no other group of people have to deal with that.

Not even like you could be Indian.

You don't have to.

People will still do business with you.

A lot of white people are not going to do business with you just because you're black.

And that's just a harsh reality of life.

And black people too.

I'm like, say.

For that.

Like, we.

Don'T want to see them get ahead.

Right.

Even though I know she like, oh, he's that A lot of we know that in our communities, it's like, like unfortunately, it's the crab in the barrel mentality.

Right.

But we, we would never meant to be put in the barrel.

Right.

So we got to get out of that mentality.

Right.

Perhaps don't belong in the power.

Right.

So people don't want you to succeed.

This is why you have to think globally and you have to have something that's scalable.

The product is so good that you go and use it.

And then like I said, think about that though.

Because once you go public, you can't go back.

So if you start a business, sometimes you don't need to be forward facing.

You don't need to be the face of it because you have to deal with the consequences.

Once they know that you're black.

Yes.

That's, that's just the reality that we live in.

Yeah, it's like, you know, the CEO of Target, you know the CEO of Red Lobster is not the black guy, right?

Exactly.

But, yeah, but the black guy, see, Red Lobster, he didn't start Red Lobster.

Right.

That's a little different situation.

But when you're starting a company that is something like I've heard people like to like people are hearing your voice and won't do business with you because from your voice they know you're black.

You know what I'm saying?

So you have to hire somebody else to take the phone call to act like it's their company so they feel more comfortable doing business with you.

That's, that's just real talk.

Like that's something that is not talked about.

But it's a, it's a reality for black entrepreneurs because it's like.

And there is some level of false narrative that black people don't support black people.

Because if that were the case, then we wouldn't be aware of that.

Right.

Like, I feel like overwhelmingly most black businesses have majority of their support from black people.

So black people definitely support black people.

Could we do a better job?

Of course.

But let's not focus on negatives.

Let's focus on positives.

But you can only scale so far with just a black audience.

That's the hard part because we still lower numbers.

I don't like the word minority because it's a defeating word.

But we still have lower numbers in America compared to everybody else.

So if your only business is just dealing with black people, it is limited.

Robert Smith cannot become Robert Smith.

If he only dealt with black business, that wouldn't be able to happen.

He's an anomaly.

But this is something that we really gotta critically think about, right?

Like, you might just be comfortable just scaling to a certain level just by black business, but just know that you're not going to be at the highest level possible if only your consumer base is just black American.

And key word American.

Which is why I said globally, right?

Because.

And this is true, like even for our curriculum cut, for example, right?

New York City has 800 public school students.

And it's great.

If we can get that at every school in New York City, that'd be great.

But if we go global with it and take it to a place like Nigeria where it's 240 million people, 210 million of those people are black.

What if we just got 1% of that, right?

So that's why I'm saying, like, you start that global relationship, it's like, wait, I don't need that we school.

If I can get just 1% of a country, it changes the landscape going to.

Right.

So always gotta take a little like.

You start a barbershop.

Hold on, I want to check because we don't got much time.

Give a round of applause.

That was a good question.

What's up, fam?

What's up?

Hold on.

So I got a suggestion and a question.

Let's hear it.

Okay.

He's more tailored to Troy, but you.

Can still put your amulet in shot closely.

So basically my suggestion is I'm on.

A eyo, I'm an earner, and I.

Was thinking about, what do you think.

About one day looking at the timeline and grading option plays?

You know, you the teacher.

Teachers got a great owner.

See what the earth is doing if.

They head in the right direction.

That's the suggestion.

My question is, right now, there's uncertainty in the market, you know, and uncertainty creates opportunity.

Let's say you only understand a company about 65% and there's an opportunity in the market.

Would you take advantage of that investment.

Even though you only have the understanding.

Of 65% or you potentially miss the.

Pullback, the equity becomes higher, but you wait till you understand the company.

What's the company?

Tell me the company Pan W.

It's pnw.

Yeah.

P A N W.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So yeah, you're not gonna know 100 of the company.

Right.

But do you have a, a fundamental understanding of certain things?

Right.

Number one, right.

I always talk about that list.

Right.

It's a company problem.

What's the profit margin?

Right.

Does it have a cash flow?

What is the reserves look like?

Then it must look at the technicals, how it performing.

Right.

When you're talking about volatility in the market, we're talking about this week, what is this week?

Three of this year.

Right.

And we always have a long term view.

And so based on that it's like this ain't really volatility.

Right.

This is just a small glimpse.

But yeah, I never know 100%.

I just try to make as much of an educated decision as I can.

Get as much information as possible.

Obviously if you inside eylu, you're seeing people giving tons of information.

Use all that you want to use as many tools as possible before you make a decision.

Right.

Either if you invest in equity, but definitely if you invest in options.

Which is why I was termed as a, as one of those metrics that said, all right, well this is going to grant me at least a year and a half before I have to say, all right, maybe this is not a position I want to be in it.

So yeah, you're never going to have 100%.

But make sure you have a fundamental base of why you're doing you always.

Yeah, of course we can get one.

More question, give a round of applause.

It's good to see all you fellas again.

I met each and every one of you at a different occasion.

Best Fest at the Summit a couple months ago here in D.C.

derek and Lloyd, uh, Brad of North Carolina, a state university as well as I currently serve as the business development coordinator for the Ellison Group, a program in project management Federal government contractor, black owned company.

Here in the DMV area.

I appreciate that.

My question is, I think we, everybody that's here is going to be rich because they hear, you know what I'm saying?

So the money is important but you know, my journey has been one of purpose, right.

And so I left a Fortune 500 company in Granger to go work for a black company to follow the apprenticeship model and learn that I knew it was going to be more to it than the money.

So I need to learn from the black people that was, you know, in position already here at the dmv.

So my question is on you all's journey, this question, all three of you, what role has purpose played in that journey?

And can you all talk a Little.

Bit about the journey and getting to this point, because the money gonna come, but it's a lot more to it than that.

Whatever.

Say what's all.

He was like, stop chasing crimes into the fighting skates.

Got a good quote, so I'll be good.

All right.

But, yeah, long story short, I think a lot of times we don't.

We don't achieve in life because we're only focused on the wrong things and we focus on just making a profit.

And we're not focused on a purpose.

We're not focused on helping people.

We're not focused on actually, you know, falling in love with the process.

And that's important.

Like, you know, might sound a little cliche, but it is vitally important.

Like, you have a passion for helping people, right?

We have a passion for educating people.

Like, you gotta find what you're passionate about.

Everybody's passion is different.

But I just feel like even.

Because even when you get a lot of money and get money, if you're doing something that you're not passionate about, it's going to be an empty feeling.

And it's not even going to mean anything to you because you have money, but you're not fulfilled as far as having a purpose and a passion, really, you know, throwing something that's beneficial for society.

So when you, when you get money, that's important.

But as you're on the journey to get money, always think about how you can actually help the world, how you can actually do something bigger, how you can actually leave the mark, how your name can be remembered.

I mean, like, stuff like that, like, is important, I think, you know, to keep things in perspective.

Because if you're just in a rat race to get money, a, it'll never be enough money because always somebody always have more money than you, and there's always something that you can't buy.

So now it's an ongoing process to just get more money to fulfill something that can't be fulfilled.

Right.

That's why family is important.

That's why you gotta have a level of discipline too.

Like, you know, all these things are vitally important when you start to really get in.

Because, you know, once you go down that pathway, you realize that, you know, it's a tunnel with no ending.

And then also, if you don't have purpose, passion, moral compass, then you'll do anything for money.

And that's dangerous as well, because once you start to fall in that pathway, you're actually detrimental to society and you're detrimental to yourself.

You're gonna end up, self destructed.

We've seen it happen with very powerful people, right?

Like you can't do anything for money.

You can't value money more than purpose.

The people, the principles, those all got to come first.

Money comes later.

Like, you know, like Mace has a good lie.

I don't chase money, money chase me.

That's like, that's our way.

Feel like, you know, you do things, money's gonna come.

Yeah, no, I'm with you.

And it's interesting, man, when, when you think of the word purpose.

And I always feel like we're on a purpose driven mission, right?

To, to liberate people from, you know, the constraints of what they know from a financial standpoint.

But the word purpose, I always looked at it as God given ability.

Imagine giving, right?

So I, 15 years ago I was an educator.

15 years, I'm still an educator.

I've changed the discipline of what I've been educating.

About 15 years ago as a financial advisor, he still is educated about finance.

We've always been on that purpose.

The platform and what we've done with it has changed.

And so it's important.

In fact yesterday when they asked Pete what some thought about the title, you deserve to be rich.

And she said she never thought about money.

She's thought about being emotionally rich, being spiritually rich.

Because money is the byproduct of you serving your purpose.

You see what I'm saying?

And so like when we started the journey of her, it was never, yo, we're gonna prick this multi million dollar brand.

It was like, yo, we can help some people.

I was teaching, he was still doing his business for the first year.

We didn't take any money from the business.

We made a little bit of money, but we didn't take it.

It was just like, all right, well we're just going to keep doing what we're doing because the vision after we've seen it, like, oh wait, this is actually your business.

We can turn this into something because we were in the purpose of helping people.

Not just helping people, but helping entrepreneurs.

We watched them, we saw some of them grow to great success.

And it was like, wow, that's the gift this to get.

Watching the everyday person now turn into a superstar from what they do.

There's value in what you do.

It's like that resume that you just did with your intro, it resonated with them because there's value in you.

Now.

I don't know if five or ten years ago if there would have been applause if you gave that intro right but today, it's not just the superstar basketball player or the celebrity musician that gets that type of recognition.

It's you.

Because everybody can sit here because you found your purpose, and it adds value to your community.

More so than watching somebody saying, yo, he's great and he's top five.

You could change somebody's life.

It's a Good deal, man.

$30.

You got a book, you got Sipping in Congress, people talking.

We added a lot of stuff.

I think this is what worth it.

So.

Oh, she is a.

Answer the question.

Oh, D.

Aggressive up here.

You a.

Answer the question, bro.

I.

I love it.

I think sometimes we can let you know our passion or, you know, our purpose.

Give us an excuse to not go.

Get the money, though.

So for a period of time, I was going to get the money.

I'm just selling T shirts.

I'm trying to figure out how I can get some money because I wanted to retire my mom really bad.

So Sundays, I felt I fell out of love with the process of selling T shirts.

And I think the problem sometimes with entrepreneurs, you start something because you have this idea, and when it doesn't make money, you said, well, I'm not passionate about it.

I realize I need to spend more time with my family or I need to get closer to God or, like.

And sometimes.

Sometimes we default to that because we didn't make any money in the business.

But my.

I believe my purpose was to help a lot of people.

And to help a lot of people, I got to get some money.

I got some money.

So it wasn't always me feeling like, oh, fulfilling my purpose.

Purpose and my passion.

I'm like, I gotta get some money, get myself out of the situation.

Teach my brother how to get himself out of situation.

Teach my friends how to get themselves out of the situation.

And one day, I read this quote, and with this, it was the firest quote I ever.

He said, I'm gonna spend the first half of my life acquiring wealth and spend the second half giving it all away.

That stuck with me.

I said, I got it.

I'm gonna spend the first half going after it, second half giving all the way.

So if everybody can stand up and hold their book up, we're gonna do something before we leave.

Thank you.

So on the count of three.

The count of three, everybody to say, I deserve to be raised.

Oh, dear.

You ready?

One, two, three.

I deserve to be rich.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's how we sing it down.

That was light.

Come on.

That was light.

We.

We could do that again.

We could do that again.

Shoot a second.

Let's try it again.

Y'all ready?

Y'all got the lines?

You got your lines.

So we said, I deserve.

What you deserve.

I deserve.

Okay, let's try it out real quick.

One, two, three.

I deserve to be brave.

Hey, that was practice.

That was good, though.

That was good.

Okay, set it up again.

All right, this is the last song.

1, 2, 3.

I love to be br.

Dc we love you guys.

Oh, taking a pic.

Taking a pic.

Selfie.

And support black business, too.

Now, that's important because I want y.

I want y'all to know that every.

City that we've gone to, we've partnered with a black bookstore in that city.

That hasn't changed, obviously, here in D.C.

but we're making sure that we're intentional when we talking about supporting the community, how we keep money in the community.

Bookstores are important libraries.

Important.

Literature is important, which is why we put it in.

So this is the owner of Mahogany.

Yes, Books.

Yes, yes, yes, for them, please.

So they're a bookstore that only sells black books.

You tell them the location.

We are in National Harbor.

We are also at National Airport, being.

Concourse D, inside of the good.

So, yes, but online.

Amen.

All your.

All your books came from our bookstore.

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