Dr. Jatali Bellanton: From Med School Dreams to Big Bank Moves, Kids Who Bank—and Finding Her Washday Woosah

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are a lot of wealthy, rich people who had
debt with some of these very big brands, like the
Guccies of the world, and they weren't painful price for
these items. Some of them were getting for free, some
of them were getting it lay away in a sense.
Some of them were barring clothing and wearing them on
my carpets and then returning it, And that just really
was a piece of the puzzle. But I needed to
know because then it occurred to me that it wasn't

(00:22):
just poor people who had issues of budgeting, it was
wealthy people as well.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey hey, ba fam, what's up. It's your girl, Mandy
Money and welcome to this week's wash day. Woof sahh.
I don't know about y'all, but I need such a
deep breath right now. I wasn't even really planning to
do any major self care today, and I can't even
point to exactly the reason why I'm feeling really run down,

(00:51):
But I just wanted to say that I don't need
a reason, and every once in a while, I need
a bit of a reminder that sometimes it's okay to
just not feel great, and it's okay to acknowledge that
because like, once you can stop trying to convince yourself
that you're fine and just embrace the fact that you're not.
I actually can go to my list of and yes,

(01:13):
I actually have a list of activities mantras, and I
don't mean like a big activity, but just things that
I can do, actions I can take that have been
proven to improve the way that I feel. And number
one on that list is taking a nap. Nobody will
convince me that taking a nap is not doing something.

(01:33):
Maybe you're physical, like you're physically not moving or doing
anything or going anywhere, but the restorative nature of sleep
is something that is incredibly healing for me. And I
would say for nine times out of ten emotional mental
health like mood challenges that I'm facing, a nap is

(01:56):
going to fix it nine out of ten times. There's
other things on that list, of course, taking a walk
outside and inspecting and spending time from and I mean
spending time individually with every single plant in my garden
is a form of meditation that has been so useful
it's almost as good as a nap. But with a nap,
obviously I'm helping my body to heal. I'm balancing out

(02:20):
my energy levels, my hormones. I mean, your sleep is
just so essential. But if I don't have time for
a nap, or if I don't feel like I want
to take a nap going outside, especially when I have
these bursts of if I'm getting really angry or irritated,
or I'm just feeling a lot of deeply uncomfortable things,
and I just need to ground myself for a moment,
talking to every single plant in my garden and just

(02:40):
checking in, saying hello, checking the leaves and the roots,
make sure there's no pests that are getting in the
way or everyone's pretty happy, and making sure everyone's got
water and getting enough sun and all that. Maybe I
look like something is wrong with me. I'm out there
just talking to my plants, but it's it is so necessary,
And you know what third on my list is talking
to be. And I don't mean to sound like mushy

(03:02):
about it, but sometimes I have sat in this chair
and started to record a show or record an intro
for the show like I'm doing right now, and just
felt so out of whack and so unsure of what
the next thing on my schedule is supposed to be,
or am I going to be ready for this or
that or whatever Shenanigan's happened during the morning drop off

(03:23):
school routine and now that it's summertime drop off camp routine.
And then I sit down to the microphone and it
doesn't matter really whether I've done the kind of prep
that I want to do before a show or whether
I know exactly what I'm going to talk about. As
soon as I start picturing y'all, my feelings just start
to change. My feelings just get more manageable, more tolerable,

(03:43):
and so I just want to say thank you for that.
So it's naps, it's talking to my plans, and it's
taking a moment to just be here and be present
with uba fam. And if that's not a message for
Washday Wu Saw, I don't know what is. And I
hope that y'all have been loved loving the wash Day
Woo Saw so far. I love the idea of them.
I love getting to create something that I hope gives

(04:07):
y'all a moment to breathe, a sigh of relief and
can maybe be one of the things on your list
of actions you know you can take when you're having
a tough time and if you just do that one thing,
you know, go outside and touch grass, or go to
your podcast app and turn on brown Ambitions wash day
wu saw. It doesn't matter which one it is, that
you'll start to feel better, that you'll feel less overwhelmed

(04:28):
or whatever the discomfort your feeling, that it can get
a little bit better. And that just makes me so
damn happy. So thank you, Thank you for sharing this
time with me and for investing some time into yourself.
And this is a really good one, y'all. Where do
I even begin? Doctor Jitalie Bellenten is today's guest. I
had the pleasure of crossing paths with her, and I'll

(04:48):
talk about this a bit in the show We cross
paths for the first time. In twenty twenty two, at
the very first conference I had gone to postpartum, so
like post having my first son. I had my baby
in twenty twenty or sorry, twenty nineteen, so then there
was a pandemic. I was like a whole different person,
and I had not been to a professional networking event

(05:09):
by myself in person, like in years at that point,
and I had and I also no one knew this
at the time, but I was about one week pregnant
with my my now two year old son, Remi Roue.
I was one week pregnant, and I because I'm we
were planning it. I pretty much knew. I was like, well,
if I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, you know, like if it

(05:31):
sticks at sticks. But I felt like it was crazy.
And I was telling doctor Jatali this offline before we recorded.
But I really went to that conference that year on
this huge mental high, just like everything was glittering. I
was so excited to just be in community with my
people and to have my brain to myself, like not

(05:53):
have my then toddler son, you know, wrapped around me
all day at the time, and just to be free.
And I got to cross paths with doctor Jatali. She
was speaking on a panel with a couple of other presenters,
and I just remember being so struck by the way
she talked about raising her son and how she was
you know, practical tips for creating financial literacy for her

(06:14):
little boy at the time, and I was like, she's brilliant.
I have to connect with her. It took her aside
after the panel let her know how I felt about it.
We exchanged contact details and then we just never really
had a chance to connect again, and you know how
she just kind of hadn't really been as present online. Also,
I really was pregnant. I really did have I went
on to have a very challenging pregnancy, so I was

(06:36):
sort of like not as present online as I had
used to be. And then lo and behold. A few
weeks ago, her team reached out wanted to know if
we would have her on the podcast, and I just thought,
finally I knew we would cross paths again. This is
the moment. It's been a few years, but I couldn't wait,
and it did not disappoint. We actually ended up having
like a forty five minute conversation before I started hitting record.

(06:56):
And poor doctor Jatali, she is such a soldiers, such
a trooper. She was losing her voice. She was on
her way to Essence Fest the day after we recorded,
and she powered through even though she was losing her voice.
And I made I accidentally made her talk to me
for two hours. But we had so much to catch
up on and she's just fascinating and she's also really grounded.

(07:19):
I don't know, there's just some like like there's a
sense of like earthiness and groundedness. To her and also grit,
grit and determination. And I find those types of people
to be really intoxicating to be around because they give
you the sense that you can do anything and that
they can do anything. And that's the kind of vibe
that doctor Tatalie gives off pretty effortlessly, and I hope

(07:41):
that comes across in this conversation. But let me tell
you about her and a little bit about her background
before we get into it. She has lived a big
life for not even being forty yet. She has lived
a big, big life. But today, doctor Totali Bellenton is
a prominent She's an angel investor, She's an expert in
financial literacy and cryptocurrency. She has a really impressive background

(08:01):
in wealth management. We talk about how she got into
finance as a teenager thanks to her dad's advice and
his guidance helping her learn fiscal responsibility. So she spent
a decade in investment, banking and forensic accounting. We're going
to talk about the different career pivots, how she almost
became a surgeon but then was like hard pass, no,
thank you, I'm going to go back to finance, and

(08:23):
how she's launched multiple businesses in different countries. She was
born and raised in the UK. We'll talk about manchest vibes. Yeah,
Yet at anytime I can do my accent. Y'all know
what's coming out. I'm sorry in advance. I will always
embarrass myself with my British accent when I get a
British guest on the show. But she's also got this

(08:44):
global background. I mean, her mother and her father have
since passed, but her mother is from Cape verd and
her dad is of Jamaican Italian heritage. And you know,
she's launched businesses in Ghana and Kenya. She's invested in
programs in schools in these different countries. She's now, you know,
splitting her time and well spends a lot of time

(09:07):
in the US and New York, but is planning has
been spending more time in the UK. And at the
same time, she's managed to create these different businesses that
have allowed her to live the lifestyle that she wants
to live, which is traveling frequently, and she speaks on
stages around the globe and shares her wisdom with the
masses in so many different ways. And it's just an

(09:28):
honor that she spent a little time with us. BA
fam and we'll talk a little bit about her journey
into motherhood and how she is leveraging the businesses, the
business experience that she has, the financial knowledge that she has,
and how she is leveraging or maybe pivoting is a
better word, how she's pivoting into more of the creative
arts side of things. And we talk about her her

(09:51):
new ambition to become an egot and how that is
completely possible for her and how she plans to do that.
And it's a great conversation and I hope that y'all
will enjoy it. I hope that you'll go to the
show notes, check out doctor Jtali's social media profiles, her
website and find out all you need to do all
you can about her, and just follow her for more inspiration.

(10:11):
And as she says, I know she jokes about it,
but once you follow her, just make sure that you
don't get taken in by any scams, because you'll find
when you start following more financial and like wealth experts
on Instagram, especially there's imposters out there and they and
especially because doctor Jatali talks about cryptocurrency, I think that she,
in particular people like her will get a lot of

(10:34):
people trying to scam her followers. You know, Oh, give
me your money and I'll invest it for you as
if it's actually coming from her, So be very careful.
Make sure that you're only following her verified profile is
verified on Instagram and other channels, so you make sure
you're following the real her, and definitely don't get taken
in by any scams if people are trying to convince
you that it's her reaching out to you, like no,

(10:56):
please don't stay safe, bea fan, stay safe. All right,
I'm gonna hush up now. I'm gonna let y'all take
quick little woosaw with me with brown ambition, and please
enjoy this conversation with doctor Jitalie Bellentin. Thanks ba Faan.
All right, va fam, I'm so excited for y'all to
meet the beautiful, the effervescent, the radiant doctor doctor Jitalie.

(11:18):
Is it Bellington Bellenton Mellenton. I don't think I've ever
said it out loud, doctor Jitali. I met you. We
were just reminiscing, y'all, and by the way, it's been
we've been talking for like forty five minutes. So just
know that the pre show was pre showing because the
last time doctor Jitalie and I saw each other the
first thing the last time was at fin Con in Orlando.

(11:40):
You were speaking on a panel with the lovely La
Job from Elie Talks Money and y'all both made me
cry because you're just beautiful black women, black mothers on
the stage and you were like really candidly talking about motherhood.
And yeah, I just remember I was on. I was on.
I was newly pregnant. I was like maybe a week pregnant,
and it was like my body knew it and I

(12:01):
was just so charged with like energy and excitement. And
I just remember going up to you both after that
panel and just I don't even know what I said,
but I was like, I love you and you're incredible
and I'm just so happy to have shared space with you.
And then you don't fill out the face of the earth.
And two years later, two almost three years later, we

(12:24):
get to reconnect in this way. That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
I mean, it's such a beautiful surprise to be on
this cool with you. Thank you so much for even
wanting to interview me. And I'm so happy that now
when we come back around, I have a whole lot
of updates for you. So I'm looking forward to jumping
into this call with you, and I do remember that
is basically along the lines of what you said, which
is basically letting us know that we inspired you. And
it was beautiful to watch mothers out there talking and

(12:46):
also know that we had a balance of financial awareness
and conversations about children. And it made me happy to
know that it mattered to someone in that room because
oftentimes you speak on panels, people see you talk and
then you know they're like, oh, she was good, and
that's it. It was really basic level, not even really anything.
That's so I felt really seen and appreciated by you.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
So thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Thank you. And I'm in whatever form and fashion, glad
that you took your time to figure out who you
wanted to be and did you want to be so
public facing or more behind the scenes. And I'm just
happy that now that you're in this season where you've
chosen to be more outside, that we were able to reconnect.
So you're here now, so I get to ask you
all the questions that I had at the time. We

(13:27):
didn't get a lot of time to talk, but can
you just start from the beginning, because you are I
mean now, you're an incredible angel investor. You have donated
to schools in different countries, You've taught financial literacy around
the globe. You have such an interesting career trajectory. But
I want to go back to the beginnings. I know
that you're from you said you're from Manchester, from the UK, right,

(13:49):
can you paint a picture for BA fam just of
like baby I was about to say baby doctor Jaitalia,
baby jatally.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
So, my mother figure growing up was really horrible for money.
I thankfully had a father who was better with money
and understood the financial game better. So having a mother
figure who was horrible, she kind of scarred me straight
from a young age. So by the time I was
like eight, I was telling my dad teach me everything
about money because I did not want to be financially
or fiscally irresponsible the way when my mother figure was,

(14:22):
and so growing up in that kind of environment, I
felt blessed to.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Have a parent who could teach me these things.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
But I started learning about stocks when I was like
eight or nine years old, real estate when I was
eight nine years old. At the time I was sixteen
and a half I had my first paid internship. I
credits used first Boston and I started in an investment
banking space. And you know, even that, I took a
development school for Youth program for this company called DSY
also as program, and they were supposed to just teach

(14:47):
me how to properly dress for internship. And you know,
at a certain age you were just then supposed to
actually get a paid internship.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
And I did the program.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
I was one of the youngest ones to do the program,
and as such, I wasn't even of age to really
start my internship. And my you know, we found a
loophole which was I was graduating high school early and
as such as I was going to be a high
school graduate, they'd be able to actually accept me to
work at the office.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
And I think that really frames the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
You know, now, to be Team forty, I'm just in
a space where not only do I have twenty three
years of experience in a finance space, but I also
now have helped make many people become ultimillionaires. I've also
helped youth a lot of like over fifty thousand youth
learn financial environment tools like budgeting, earning, and saving it's

(15:34):
dogs and how to invest without emotions. And I even
went back to school to get my page in your psychology,
so I couldn't bridge mental and financial health. So it
friends everything as to who I became. But doctor J babies,
Doctor J just knew that she didn't want to be
broken and did not want to financially struggle or be responsible.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
And you know here we are, I.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, and you already know we have so many we
have so much in common despite I was a little
girl who grew up in South Georgia and you're a
girl who grew up in Manchester. But my mother actually
had a huge impact in my journey towards financial literacy
as well. Not doesn't sound like maybe to the degree
your mom did in that negative sense, But I remember
going there's a story and I always tell of like
she and I am going to a department store and

(16:16):
her just looking for a bigger expandable wallet because she
needed more space for all the cards, you know, in
the checkbook and all that, and just that idea that
you know, debt could be consuming and it could, especially
she was a single mom, and just seeing the lack
of resources and how she had to make do with
making the best of the worst choices. She had the

(16:37):
least worst option. We were always kind of looking for
and so that was that was a huge driver for me.
I wish I had a daddy who could teach me investment.
What did your daddy do? My daddy wasn't teaching me nothing.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
So my dad was actually a barristor for the Queen
of England slash delegate.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
So what is a lawyer?

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Right? Sorry?

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, no, a bars is an attorney, but like a
high level attorney. Hey.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Basically Bridge got in trouble in an African country, Japan,
certain countries, they would send him to represent the British
crown and be like, this is going to be British
for all that country's law, especially in Africa, And so
growing up with a father of that nature, what was
cool about it today is I got to learn a
lot and he knew he was well worked. And I
was also lucky to have a father who was very
hands on and teaching me fundamentals that I needed to know.

(17:21):
Whereas on the flip side of that, I had friends
who parents were multimillionaires and billionaires and never taught them
a things. So I was very blessed to have a
father who understood the assignment when it comes to making
sure I was educated in this space whereas, which is
also why I go so above and beyond now to
create that space for other people, even if they're strangers,
because I just keep thinking, well, what if I was

(17:43):
a person who didn't have a mom or a dad
to talk to?

Speaker 3 (17:46):
What would I have done differently? And honestly, we didn't
have Google.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
And Chagibut and all these things back in the day,
So this is a new thing, right, and so that
is really what framed me and changed me into becoming
who I am.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
But my dad was a rock star.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Are you still close with him?

Speaker 3 (18:00):
So he passed away a few years back?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
I'm so sorry, No he did.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
But he gave me such a good foundation that, honestly,
I know that God gave me who I needed when
I needed him, for however long I needed him. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Do you have siblings?

Speaker 3 (18:16):
I have a lot of half siblings.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
By your father as well, or different mothers or different fathers.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Different fathers, I mean different mothers. Sorry, different mothers, different mothers.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh, okay, gotcha, But no other sibling that shares your mother,
same mother and father. No, Yeah, I have a mixed
I have a fun I have a fun modern family,
and I have siblings with like a different dad and
my younger brother and I have the same dad and
the same mom. And there is something in like having that,
you know, just nice to have a sibling connection, but
for you, like a sibling connection who like you know,

(18:47):
comes from the same background and all of that, but
for you. So he took you under his wing and
he taught you, and by sixteen you were this rock star,
you know, getting into the banking world already, it sounds like.
And then you go to school and you study. Was
that the point where you were studying finance or were
you looking at I know you also worked as a
forensic accountant.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So it's so funny. I started at first, I went
to school. When it came to UNI, I actually went
to med school for a bit. I wanted to be
a neurosurgeon.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Okay, that kind of like you got there.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
So eventually it's so weird, right, all the doubts, right,
So what happened once I was ready in finance and
I decided to then I wanted to be a neurosurgeon.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
I was in school for it.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
I got to the point I was in med school
where they were cutting into cadavers and I realized I
started to smell like the involvement fuids and not think
nothing of it. And I remember that was just a
split decision moment where I was like, this is kind
of morbid.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Do I want to continue having to cut into these cadavers?

Speaker 1 (19:45):
And it's like a short part of it, but I
just kept thinking, well, do I want to really operate
into surgery? And that decision made me be like, I'm
a sick of finance. I think I like numbers more
and I just loved the reconciliation with the zeros and
wants of numbers, and I was like, I don't know
if I want a person's life in my hands in
that matter. And it made me back out of med school,
and then I stayed there, and then you know, eventually,
because my brain is always going, I stayed in finance

(20:07):
for many, many, many many years, and then a few
years ago before I left corporate, I left because I
realized I had no life in finance. I was managing
three point one billion at one point. I started from
the trading floor announces to the trading floor, trading floor
to wealth management and when I got to the management
portion of it. I remember my clients had called me
at three o'clock in the morning because they were like
all around the world, and I'd have to answer and

(20:28):
if I didn't answer them and shut them down, and
it would be like this whole big production.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
And I remember thinking, like, I have to be.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Ready all the time, I had to be available, and
I hated that life where I had no time. I
would literally work hundred hour work weeks sometimes more people
don't talk about that aspect about being a person in finance.
A lot of us were one hundred hour work weeks
and there was really no one to really stop that
from happening.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
What are you doing with that? Like when they're calling you,
is it because like, oh I saw that, you know
there's going to be like I bet your phone would
have been blown up during this whole tariff situation in the.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Oh my god, it would have been. It was so
it's everything.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
It's everything from what's happening in the news to a
client saying I woke up and the market is down
ten percent. When you're managing seven undred and fifty ten
percent a lot of money, right, But you're kind of
like don't worry about it because you already did this
and we're hedging this and we're doing and you know,
you have to kind of explain to the client why
they don't need to be worried and what's going to
happen or that is going to you know, we're confident

(21:22):
that's going to come back around. So I needed to
change the place eventually. That's what made me go into
forensic accounting. That was also fun. It was an interesting
You've had a.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Lot of career pivots. Was so the pivot from so like,
just to backtrack a little bit, there was this big
pivot from med school to let's focus on finance and
then you get into wealth management.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
It wasn't even a pivot because I was already in finance.
I never left finance.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
I was working and going to school at the same time,
so I never left credit PIECEAI that So I was
I was already worthy in finance starting school because I
thought I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to
save lives, and then I started realizing what that really
meant and the work schedule, and you know, I thought
it was gonna be better than finance, and I was like,
I don't like the way I smell. I don't want

(22:03):
I don't want to keep cutting into bodies. I don't
want to do my residency anymore, you know. And I
backed out and stayed in finance. But I've always been
a finance person and every time I've ever tried to
walk away, it just kept sucking me back in. So
now it's either I was entrepreneur, finance breaths everything around me.
I was always supposed to be a numbers person, zeros
and ones all the way.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, so you either got it or you don't. To
a certain extent, it sounds like, all right, so you're
in finance and wealth management, so how do you get
into forensic accounting? And then, for people who may not
know what that is, tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
So my pivot when it came from there.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
I was at a point in my career that I
wanted to get married and have a child, and I
knew I had no life. And I was dating this
man and he was he lived in New York, and
he was just like, hey, like, if you want me
to take you to I just need you to do
me the favor of moving to New York. And you
can't be traveling as much as you do. And I
was just kind of like, okay, sure, fast forward. That

(22:56):
led to where we are now, where I ended up
in a space where I then went to Forensica counting
I actually left corporate completely.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
And this is gonna be wild card. I don't know
how many times.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
I don't even know if I've mentioned this before, but
I was a secretary for like five months. And when
I was in that position, I thought it was gonna
be an easy job. Because I used to think that
secretaries had easy jobs. I had no idea that sometimes
they actually work harder than the people who get the
big bucks.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Girl, my neighbor across the street is constantly crashing out.
She is an executive assistant to the CEO of a company,
and her stories like just quick, snap, quick, like bow
down to the secretaries and administrators.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
I buy down all the admins right, secretaries and bookkeepers.
And I thought it's gonna be a easy job. And
then I realized the amount of work that I was doing.
I was like, you guys should be paying me ten
times you're paying me. And if that's the case, that
I might as well go back to regular corporate and
get a real job again, or like, got a real job,
but get a job that will hease pay me when
I want to get paid.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
And so why did you pivot? Why did you do? Secretary?
Was that when you were like, I don't have a life.
I need more time.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Because I left credit used, I left investment banking, I
was new to the States, I was learning where my
place was going to be in the States. And I'm
also one of those people I don't want to live
off of my savings. So I was like, let me
just get a little job. I thought it was gonna
be a little light job so that I can make
some money. And so that pivot is what brought me
to that position. So I was just like, I just

(24:20):
didn't like job to just make some money so I
don't have to dip into my savings too much. That
led to this then working as a secretary. I complained
to a friend of mine and she's like, well, there's
a doctor's office who need to help. They need a
forensic accountain or someone a medical manager. And I was like,
I don't know anything about that. I know, but she said,
but you know numbers, you know zeros and ones, and
you know how to scale, and you know, you know people,
you know you've managed wealth. If you can manage millions

(24:41):
and billions of dollars, you can manage a person's account.
And I was like, all right, let me check it out.
I took some classes about medical billing. Next thing I
knew I was running a doctor's office. I bought up there.
I bought them on forty five percent in one year,
less than one year. Actually, I bought up their retention
forty five percent, their profit margin of forty five percent,
close out a lot of their open receivables. I was

(25:04):
able to get back seventy percent of their open receivables in.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Less than a year.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
And then my friend who was watching that happen, she
was like, you're really good at this this company. And
then you know, she gave me company, and she's like,
this very big brand. They need someone to come in.
And what the forensic accountant comes in and does is
they look at all your books and your bookkeeping. They
make sure that if you get audited by the government,
that everything is aligned. They make sure you don't have
employees stealing from you. They make sure your bottom line

(25:28):
makes sense in every zero one online. And because I
see zeros and ones that I'm a numbers person. I
would come in and what somebody else wild look at
the screen and zeros and one and a bunch of
numbers and get lost. I would come in and it
just makes sense to me. And so it was a
really cool phase because it also taught me that there
are a lot of wealthy, rich people who had debt
with some of these very big brands, like the Guccies
of the world, and they weren't paying full price for

(25:49):
these items. Some of them were getting for free, some
of them were getting it lay away in a sense.
Some of them were borrowing clothing and wearing them on
our carpets and then returning it. And that just really
was a piece of the puzzle that I needed to know,
because then it occurred to me that it wasn't just
poor people who had issues of budgeting. It was wealthy
people as well. And you know, then I realized it

(26:10):
was a bigger problem. That's kind of what led me
towards creating financial literacy curriculum, gearing into the school systems,
writing a financial literacy book with little things that hopefully
one day my son could read and learn from, and
you know, and it started a whole other part of me.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
That I didn't even know I had in me, which was.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
The entrepreneurial gene. And it all started because, you know,
both my parents were gone before I was twenty one,
and I just knew I didn't want a stranger raise
in my child when I had a kid. One day
and that was it. That that's what they wrote, you know,
that's what history would show you.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
So you're at this medical office and you're a forensic accountant.
Your friend at the time, the one who's kind of
pointed you in this direction. I love a career plug.
How important was that relationship with that friend? Are y'all
still close to this day? Why was there?

Speaker 3 (27:00):
It was so funny.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
She was dating a friend of mine, and she was
more cordial friend. It was more like, Okay, you're dating
my homeboy. So she's a woman and I'm his female bessie.
And he's telling you because at the time, my friend
was going to get married to her.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
They were engaged.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Actually they did get married, and he told her I
was going to be the best man at his wedding
when he get married. One day, and I remember thinking, like,
she needs to make sure she knows I'm cool because
I'm not looking at him, and so because of that,
we was friend by happenstance. But she was cool, and
you know, we just had different vantage points of everything
from dating and how we communicate to our children. So
the friendship never really stayed because she was like a yeller.

(27:37):
She also came from one extream to one right. One
minute she would yell at her kids and flip out
and black out, but the next minute she's like, Oh,
I don't believe in telling my child no. And I'm like,
maybe we won't use the word no, but it needs
to be boundaries. And I'm like, that's okay if you
don't want to tell your child no, but my child's
going to have boundaries and he's going to know that
he can't just touch a buyer. But her thought process
was like, I'll let him touch a fire and he
burnt his hand and he learn not to touch a

(27:58):
buyer again, and she was just we really thought about
things very differently. So we're still friends with some of
the reaternship.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
That didn't survive the transition to like motherhood and no,
that's real though, it's real. Though I definitely have friends
who were closer early in my career, who I just thought, well,
this is a person's going to be going to be
my life forever. But then it really does change your
perspective if you put marriage, you know, you put a
kid into the mix, and then different philosophies and different energies,

(28:25):
Like that's real. I think it's very natural to like
just let those relationships fizzle.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
And I think the most important part of that conversation
is realizing that it's okay to grow apart from each other.
Because someone did something nice for you does not mean
that they had to be a friend forever. And you know,
it's interesting because that woman she's friends with me on
social media, and you know, every blue moon, randomly, like
every three years four years, I randomly see.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Her and we have just a great like how are
you doing? How do wething doing?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
She's on her like third husband, and you know, she's
living her best life, and she's just kind of like now,
you know, like recently we had The last time I
saw her, I was in a gym and I randomly
ran into her and she said, girl, I just got
this bb I needs to work out to keep it imitated.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
And I was like, great for you.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
I was like, I'm happy in a minute.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
The point of a BBL is that it gives you
the beautiful.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
But no, that's not true. That is the biggest fallacy.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
If you let a reason not to do one, why
do you want if you still got to work out, You.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Still got to workout.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Sis to gotta work out because it's a shortcut, right
instead of you having to take the two years. Because
let's be honest. As a woman, I don't know about you,
but I feel like I can go to New Orleans
in one week and gain ten pounds.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
I could look at a picture of a benita ten
pounds when I come back, I'm like, And.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Then the conversation is, when I come back from New Orleans,
it takes me about three months to lose the ten
pounds and I gained one week. So you know, so
that's why some woman, I guess to it me personally,
that's not my route. Just because knowing that both my
parents died so young, I am very like surgery adverse.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Like I'm just very much of a punk.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
I just think things like I don't want to go
underneath the knife unless it's necessary, because what if God forbid?
I die on a knife and I'm willingly just bringing
myself to death store, so I try to like be healthier.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yes, likes mom.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
That's one of the most memorable stories of someone doesn't
don't know how she died. She was getting some kind
of plastic surgery.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
You know what's crazy.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
I actually don't know how she passed away, and I
think it's sad if that's I think it's sad that
she passed away period. I feel like it's I just
you know, I know people have to die because of overpopulation,
but it still makes me sad and I just wish
like most people could live to like one hundred years
old at least.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Dying definitely as a drag.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. Pull the story, but.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Definitely med school. You're like, don't want to be doing surgery,
don't want to think about death. Yeah, definitely. I'm glad
you did stay in med school. But did I clock
though your parents both passed away before you were twenty one?

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Correct? Man?

Speaker 2 (30:53):
So who has become Who have you leaned on for guidance?
Do you feel like you've had mentorship and like those
parental or nurturing figures in your life?

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Oh, throughout my whole journey that I've had mentors. When
I was sixteen and a half at Credit Speak, my
first mentor was mister McConaughey, and he was in his
like sixties, and he sigmented his winging Irish broke amazing,
and he told me everything he knew about the finance game.
By the time I was nineteen, I had an Italian
person who was teaching everything he knew about real estate

(31:24):
and then he introduced me to this the coolest Jewish
attorney who thence ut teking about the real estate legal
side of things. Then, you know, So throughout my whole journey,
I've always had mentors, and myself personally speaking, even right
now as we speak, I have some of the best
mentors in the game. So, but I also believe in
multiple mentors. What I mean by that is like I
have a business mentor. I have a person who's my

(31:45):
mentor when it comes to things like I want to
have an egot, which is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.
So I have people that I know who have Grammary's,
Oscars and Tony's, and maybe not the whole egot, but
they might have like, oh, this person has like twelve
Emmys and has been nominated thirty some some times I
have conversations with her.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Right I have a mentor.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
He's just about love and life and relationships, you know,
and helping me navigate what does that look like then,
how to not be too masculine a relationship, and how
to be soft and feminine to show up in that space.
I have a therapist. I have mentorship when it comes
to how does it look like to be a mom.
And I have a friend of mine who's like a
super mom, Like she's amazing.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
And so sometimes when.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
My son does something that is cheeky and I'm just
like this little boys trying my patients, I'll call.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Him like, how do you handle when he's snippy?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Because now he's going through puberty and he's pubescent and
thinks that he can talk back and you know, And
then she gives me like little tips. And I have
male and female mentors, and there's no race to it,
there's no age to it. I have people who like
one of my favorite mentors, he's eighty years old. Last year,
I was in workaholic mode and he said the most
iconic thing to me. He said, I just turned eighty
and he's like, my children are angry, and he's like,

(32:50):
and I'm leaving all my wealth to them, and I
barely enjoyed my wealth. And when he said that, I remember,
it hit me so hard to my core. And he
was like, the only thing I would have done different
in my life is I would have enjoyed my wealth too. Yes,
And that was a pivotal moment for me because this
person who I always looked at from the outside of
this beautiful home and the yachts and this and that,
he was like, I'm very conservative. I don't own my

(33:11):
own yacht. So there's times that I co invested in
the yacht with someone and I sometimes I want to
go on a boat and I just want to take
my yacht for three months and be on the water,
but I can't do that because I share it with somebody.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
And you know, he was just having these conversations.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
About which is wealth for the Bok line and wealth
is really for him being able to own his own
time and enjoy what he the heart or his more favors.
And it was pivotal for me. So I think mentorship
has been a very big go to for me. And
you know, I say, in the beginning, sometimes I didn't
have money to afford somebody's business mentors, but there was
always something that a skill that I have, I was

(33:42):
building a website or writing an article or something that
I can say, I can't afford your price. But when
I got to the point where I could afford the
person's price, I would never insult somebody's intelligence and not
pay them what they were Someone says, hey, I would
love to mentor you, but this price. Once I had
that money, I also would make that as an investment
and included that in my budget, although now my mentors

(34:02):
are since.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
That's interesting because there is that there are mentors that
come into your life organically, and that there's no price
other than time, you know. But then you have there
is the paid mentorship, like the paid and there is
a time and a place for that. But I love
that you mentioned being scrappy and creative and bartering with
skills and just having something of value to offer. But

(34:25):
then when you get to the point where you can
pay for those services, if there's someone who's like selling
those you know, selling that expertise, then you can do
that as well, and you must. I wonder if you
think about that. Now we're gonna definitely going to open
up the chapter of your entrepreneurship journey. But now I imagine
a lot of people want you to be their mentors.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, it's such an interesting space because now the last
three four years, I've been mentoring more and I like
to only take on mentors that mentees that I can
learn from. So that's my angle because you spend so
much time on top of these people, and also mentees
who are not going to be a certain level of
need for me because I'm not the person to be
on the phone with your other day. It's just not

(35:04):
mymo it's just not me. So when I look at mentees,
I look at people who want to be mentored by
people who are self sufficient. I like self sufficiency. I
love people who are going to work harder for themselves,
and I'm working for them.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
I've had experiences when the beginning of my mentorship journey
where I was mentoring people where I realized that I
would tell them what to do, run the play for them,
and they'd want me to literally pick up the ball
run across the field for them too, And I'm like,
this is your life.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
So I'm very big on like, don't expect.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Me to do the work for you. You have to
be willing to do the work. I'll teach you everything
I know. I'm not going to be close first advice it.
But what can I learn from me? Can you teach
me something? Can you spend on Instagram algorithm, a TikTok
or something? What can you seek to me? And then
on top of that, are you willing to do the work?
Am I wasting my time in talking to someone who's
just going to be in one air at the other?

Speaker 2 (35:49):
I really feel that, you know, I've been coaching for
a number of years now, almost five years and like
full time, and I've had a couple of different versions
of my Most of my coaching is around it's all
around career negotiation for professional women. And I have like
a group community where we do every other week group
coaching and it's like a very supportive but you know what,

(36:12):
you know, when it's it's forty seven bucks a month,
it's not a huge financial burden. And I wanted it
to be that way. I wanted it to be affordable
and attainable for like mid level career women. But I
realized I was attracting people to that community who weren't
going to be executing on the like the knowledge and
the tips and stuff. And as a coach, I had
to learn how to sort of like distance myself from

(36:35):
that expectation and like because I would want to be
so invested, but then that would require more time, more
value from me. But the feeling of not being reciprocated
from the person that I'm trying to help it became,
and I guess in the beginning it was frustrating, but
then I just kind of like, I was like, you
know what, You've just got to leave it at the door.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Your team has to be willing to do their role,
if someone's a quarterback, someone's whatever position you're playing. And
I'm a bit sports person, but so maybe that's why
I'm doing a football American football analogy.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
But my thing is.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
No matter what if that's if I play for let's
say let's say I play for the Dolphins and you
play for the Rams. I'm not supposed to be helping
the Rams get the ball into the hole. My goal
is as a Dolphins player to make sure my team wins. Right,
My focus is me. Now, if we're friends, maybe on
the sidelines. I could play a game or two with you,

(37:26):
we could practice together, we can improve our skills with
each other because we're friends. But when it's time for
the game and the end of the day, I shouldn't
have to go pick up the ball on your side
and bring the ball all the way to your net
to make you do a touchdown. I can't help you win.
And the day your life is to play. You're your
own team. And that's where I think sometimes people mess up.
They want someone to come and become their team and

(37:48):
take over their whole life story, and I'm like, it
doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
You can't expect someone else.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
You're gonna have to pay a lot more for that, Like.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I mean, you can.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
And even then, that's not the job role that I
want to do. I don't want that job.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yeah, at what point do you go back to school
to get your PhD and neuropsychology of all things?

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:08):
So I created you Financially your organization called Kiittubank twenty
sixteen technically.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Was like the first year that it was really around
twenty fifteen. I had my son.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Twenty sixteen, I created kidtu Bank, so you financial youcy book,
and as I started to go into the schools of
that curriculum, I realized a lot of youth and adults
were saying things that were very like self sabotaging, like oh,
I'll never be a millionaire, and I'll probably just if
I'm lucky, you get a job at McDonald's, And I'm
just like, why is that your biggest goal?

Speaker 3 (38:34):
And why do you think that's all you're going to
amount to?

Speaker 1 (38:36):
And so I just wanted to understand that mind frame
around that, and I just I decided I had the credit,
I had the points I did to figure out what
I was going to do, and ended up going back
to school for that. And so being in that environment,
it allows me to learn a lot about just you know,
precognitive issues, just the fact that a lot of financial
issues have led to depression of different issues, mental issues,

(38:57):
mental health problems, and that just deepened my life and
my passion for helping people.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
So five years after that, you know, it took about.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Five years, and I remember the there's this conference call
invest Best and the first year of investment was the
year that I actually graduated for the first time with
my PG and I graduated during COVID and investments happened
right after COVID, And so what ended up happening was
like the first time I ever had someone say doctor
just Holly relative. I was being introduced on stage at

(39:26):
the first ever invest Best and you know, it was
amazing because like four thousand people, and it was the
first time I spoke at a crowd for.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Four thousand people.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Now like years later, I'm like thirty forty fifty thousand
people in a room, and I'm like, it's like my
second nature. But it's because it was a very beautiful
part of my journey because I needed to go back
to understand how can I help people better? And now
with the knowledge that I've gained, we do workshops of
like athletes, high level of CFOs and CEOs and execs.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
And just people from different hind network individuals.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
And what ends up happening in that journey is what
I've learned is that we things like survivors guilt kind
of not use money as a coping mechanism. How to
put your family on a budget, how to invest in stocks,
and cryptoified emotions or with less emotions, and these are
all things that are mental and financial health bridges that
most people never think about well.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
I recently did an interview with a financial therapist and
that space is like, it's so obvious that there is
a link there. How do you incorporate both the mental
health psychology, the psychological side of the work that you
do with the financial side of it, and how do
you help the I don't know if this is people
that you are I mean, because right now I don't
exactly You're not really consumer facing with your work, are you,

(40:35):
because you're like an angel investor. You're trying to get
this egot, so you're not like in the trenches coaching
and I am I'll.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Never I'm always wanted to be like I just did,
Like the other day, I spoke, I did a workshop
for ny Black MBA. I do workshops. I just speaking engagements,
I do keynotes. I do have mentees. Right now, I
also have five hundred and nine employees in seven countries.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
A lot has changed. My finance curriculum now.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Is to support to the eighty nine schools completed around the world,
you know, So there's a lot of verticals that have happened.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
So instead of being removing.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
From my profile, what I do is I perfect and
then I hire a perfect team to preferably bring it
and leave it alive in the world, and then I
go on to my next passion project. So I have
multiple employees, and I have CEOs and CFOs, and I
have the CEOs and the people who help my day
to day work. The hardest thing was just learning how
to delegate and not obsessively be the one in charge

(41:29):
of everything. But that is where we are. With that,
I will say that it's been beautiful space, but I
don't take away. I just add most of the time, well,
this is something that I don't feel like to feeds
my higher purpose.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I had an idea of you like being an angel
investor and then you know, hopefully getting an exit from
one of the companies you've invested in and just kind
of like moving on along the way. You've either created
businesses that you've left standing, like with staff and with
an executive team. So how many different like what kinds
of businesses have those been? And where are they all?

(42:01):
How do you keep track of all that?

Speaker 1 (42:02):
So excels, friends, sheets and apps are my best friends.
In country flud prins include in the UK, Ghana in particular,
and Ghana for instance, I co want a gold mine
that's doing very well, and that's been very healthy side
of a gold mine. You know, in the States I
have and in the UK and in Africa, I own
real estate, so that's the whole other vertical. My real
estate company is relying upon a cleaning company. I also

(42:25):
own a cleaning company that cleans their properties, and then
other people who have Airbnb sometimes use our property cleaners.
But most of my tennis are long term and it's
just the list he's going or have the finance curriculum.
We also have what we do in the mental and
financial health with neuropsychology. And then some of the angel
investment companies that I've invested in when I'm passionate about
them and I love them, I keep investing in them
as well, and mostly I might bring in more investors.

(42:46):
I might see it through till there is an exit.
And so the ones that are my passion projects, I
do that, and then the egot is a whole other
category because that's more like Oscars, Tonys and things of
that project. It's meeting those kind of people and figure
out what project want to invest in next and how
hands on am I going to be with them? And
so yeah, it's been a very fun and cool journey,
to say the least.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
At what point did you turn toward Africa to Ghana
and Kenya.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
Well, I'm cap Verdian, so I'm Africa. So my mom
is full Kate Verdian.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
My dad is Jamaican Italian, so culturally, my dad made
sure I always knew about caba Verde in a country
and understood the climate, and so for me that was
always a beautiful thing. And so I was very hands
on with knowing the continent. And I've been going there
since I was a little kid, single digit, so I've
always had a connection to the continent and whenever I
made a sort amount of money, I always knew eventually

(43:33):
I was going to want to go back there to
own and to invest and things of that nature. And
so that has been like a big part of for me,
and it's been the best decision I could have made,
because the tax structures are different. I love the people
in Ghana, for instance, capa Verte, I will say that
financially we don't make as I feel like Ghana's numbers

(43:55):
are more US dollars and you get higher money for
your rentals, And I will say caaba Verde's.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
The I still love the fact that, you know, I
love the country.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
I love the way how beautiful it is, the connectivity
to the people, and I love living on a continent
or being in a continent where the people on my
shade like shades of me right and seeing representations of
me on all levels of success. So yeah, I've always
had a relationship with the continent and I always go back,
and you know, rather i'm in the UK or the US,

(44:25):
I'm always wrapping Africa.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
You also have a baby. Well, he's not a baby anymore. Sorry,
he's almost He's almost in the tweens. Is he tween yet?

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Ten? Ten? He just turned ten, he's double digits. We're
both pissy.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
So he turned ten in March and his whole thing
for his ten birthday was he wanted to go outdoor skydiving,
and I had to kind of talk him off the
lunch and I was like, can we please try indoor first.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
I don't even know if you're old enough to do.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Out of a plane.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I don't want to know yet. I'm trying to push
that ball as far down, you know. But we did
do indoor skuy guide. He had an amazing time. I
did have somebody tell me that it's supposed to think
he could, and I was just like, I'm not gonna
look into if that's right or not because I'm not
ready for that. But outside of that, I'm so happy that,
you know, he's such a beautiful child inside and out,

(45:16):
and he's also financially aware, and he's very you know,
he budgets and he he has his toys and he's
the ones that he likes, but he purchases most of them.
He earns them. He cleans up his toys and he
earns it. And if you come to my house, my
house is very like white color wise, like white carpet,
white couch, and you know, it's clean, and.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
He cleans up after himself and it's beautiful to be
in our space. So for a little one who's very
financially aware.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
I just love when your little accent slips out. How
do you so you but you have like an American
or like what is the accent?

Speaker 1 (45:49):
So it's ninety's ninety percent Manchester from Manchester, England. So
I think a lot of American people think that when
you're from England, you're gonna sound like hypo. When I
get excited, I might sound like I'm from London, which
is what most Americans will call and I'm a British accent.
And so although I do try to dumb down the

(46:09):
Manchester a little bit, there's certain words that no matter what,
I can't say, like I don't know how to say
like project, like I can't say the other way, and
there's words like water that I can't say like an
American to save my life. There's just no ding it.
My brain is not compute. And when I say, I
say water and it sounds bad, but I just yeah,

(46:33):
and it s like what you just said that was
like a London accent, Like when you say like that
as like were in London, but coming from me from Manchester,
we say water. And so to an American person sometimes
they'd be like, well, what kind of American accent is that?
And You're like, I, actually no, it's just a Mancunian
accent from Manchester.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
It's just more so. But then there's words like sot.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
That you know if I'm if you get me excited enough,
like when I talk about my little one. Because the
last ten years I've been doing work in London, you'll
hear a lot of like you'll hear more, or if
you get me tired. If I if I'm sleepy, I
literally sound like something from a movie like Harry Paul
and I sound like.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Off the boat. And I don't make it.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
I don't know a Southern accent. If I get around
my family or I'm very tired or I'm very excited,
it comes out.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
My favorite Southern word is when I'm in Louisiana and
they go, babe, oh my god, it is my thing.
Like you know, as a British person, the British accent
does nothing for me, doesn't turn me on. It's just
like wave. But my favorite accent probably the Southern accent
for men. I think it's the sex you want.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
My aunt friend did to call you anytime she can
give you a little, a little dose.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
I love it. Let me tell you.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
I have a friend of mine, one of my close friends.
She's from Louisiana. But she gets excited, she starts to talk.
When she gets sleepy, she says things and I just
crack up. Her and one of my friends from Mississippi,
and you know, you know it's sometimes the things that
they say. I just be like, like one time I
was talking to her and her uncle said, no, you know,
they've been murdered for a three years. I said, murdered

(48:01):
if they died. He's like, no, murd and I'm like,
what is murd And my friend was like married and
I was like, oh, but it was just it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
To me, I will say, I go down the rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
The Southern accent is one of my favorites, and the
New York accent is probably my second favorite.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Hate. New York accents don't get me started.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Really, I think it's cute, Like I think, like when
I there's certain ones.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I won't say New York.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
I say that this one is a little bit aggressive
to me. You know what, I don't mind that one
as much, you know the one I don't like. I
was and I'm Kate Verdian and there's a lot of
us there, but it's the Boston when they have the
very like part of car. I don't understand it. It's
hard for me to understand. So like it was like
the woman.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Was talking, She's like, oh, I'm like, what did she say?

Speaker 1 (48:46):
It was like being with a baby brick from London
that didn't know any like, you know, I was I
speak the Queen's English.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
What you was doing right now is just foreign, uh,
you know, and it's funny.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
I could understand Irish people and Scottish people, but that
Boston accent sometimes a strong.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
I just love accents in general.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
You know.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
I'm a Love Island dork and I only I really
watched the UK version, so that's when I first started
learning about all the dialects. It's such a good education.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Okay, don't judge me.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
I have yet to see not one episode about and
I'm so horrible with TV.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
And now multimillionaire not a multimillionaire. I got time that
you're losing my way and the trade off is that
I'm not making your millions of dollars in traveling in
the world.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Okay, so we're gonna have a multimillionaire.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
We're gonna take the time from Love Island and focus
on your brand and your business or whatever you want
to make it.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Because you know those seasons the Love Island UK, it's
like eighty episodes, it was, but that was I.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Thought it was that many episodes.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Wow, people complain about the US. People are obsessed with
the US the US version now, but it's like twenty episodes,
and I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. They
would have episodes every day for the entire summer. It
was nuts. But that was my pandemic. And you will, yeah, babes,
and watch all of it had toys.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
You know that. You completely just messed my head up.
I can't believe you were watching a head You know me,
but this is a little thing.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
You watch the first ten minutes, you get the recap
from last week's show, and then you fast forward through
the middle, and then you watch the last ten minutes
and usually that's where the interesting stuff happens.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Okay, you just lost me. You just lost me. All right,
let's get off a lot, islan. Let's get back to by.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Never ever, ever waste your time going back and watching
any of it. Don't don't do that.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
I will say one thing, Okay, I will say there
is one show that I want to finish bringe watching
because I've never finished it, and I kind of did the.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Wrong thing and my friend yelled at me for it.
I have never finished Game of Thrones.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
And I watched the beginning and then I went all
the way to the end because I just want to
see what the monsters was like, and I was just.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
So I never said like the Red Dinner and all
these crazy things.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
And what I will say is that I would fast
forward it all the way to winter because I just
got tired of them saying that winter was.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Coming, Winter was coming. There was no winter. It was here.
I'm watching this rubbish normal. No, there's no winter. So
my friends are like cheating. The monsters are here, the
winter is here. I was like, oh, I gotta see this.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
And so on one of my long flights or wherever
the UK web I was going back home to maybe
I was going on my way to Portugal.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
I just like on my way to Portugal. Back to Portugal,
I started.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Binge watching all the episodes and I finally got to
see the monsters and I watched them do what they
do and it was phenomenal. And I was like, Oh,
there's dragons, there's monsters, there's everything. That's what I'm a
I'm more of a lord of the rings kind of person.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Oh, don't scrunch your cute old nose up. That's fine.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
I know people judge you for that. I feel like,
you know, I'm more like, as.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
This is a no judgment, you know what, as I'm
thinking I want to go back and put some love on.
Like it's not like you either watch reality TV or
you're a millionaire. Like you're not trash or a multimillionaire,
Like you can have both. Michelle Obama loves real housewives.
Let me just say that for the rect heard. She
loves a real housewife. She loves all that love and basketball.

(52:04):
So there's no everyone who needs their outlet. Everyone needs
like their reprieve.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, my reprieve was traveling. I love to jump on
the I just need beach, I need son, I need
I need blue waters, I need pool. Like that's to me,
my reprieve. That's that's how I really unline. And so
when my brain is down, I'm just dealing with human
beings all the time. And like I'm a geek, so
I like watching sports. So like if you really want

(52:29):
to not see me, but you want to see me
glue to a TV, it's during Super Bowl season, like
especially if you start to dink her down. Girl, I'm
American football guy. I came from Europe. So when eurofootball
became more dramatic where they started throwing themselves on the
floor and getting flags, and they basically were like, oh

(52:51):
he hit me, and I'd be like the god dam
and kick you like what you did. When that started happening,
it made me kind of not like it as much.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
But I always like sports.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
And are you talking about soccer?

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Say yeah, you're a football is so kind Okay, So
when I started happening in euro football, I was like
And then I always liked boxing. I grew up like
watching boxing, so like Muhammadadi is one of my favorite
you know, the cash is Clay of the world is
to me amazing, sugar ray and people like that. I
grew up watching boxing and euro football and a little

(53:21):
bit of American football and then basketball. I was a
big Fab five fan. So being raised by a man.
I was raised by a man my whole life and
my older brother at one point, so being around them
mainly and met all that it made me a sound word.
So I don't know how to explain it, but I
grew up in sports, and when one sport just wasn't
doing it for me anymore, American football was still like

(53:43):
I loved watching people get tackled and stuff, and you know.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
It's your team, then how do you pick a team?

Speaker 1 (53:48):
So because I have clients who are multiple teams now.
I no longer will publicly say who my team.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Is, Okay, yeah, because I you know, like I've.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Had clients who are playing MU super people now and
things like that, so I don't want.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Them to be like really, Jay, really really, So I
don't have your clients.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
So what do you do? Yeah? So how do you
work with people at.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
That neuropsychology, mental and financial health? So we'll have sometimes
we even on the financial liriacy side, the wives and girlfriends.
We have a project called from Burke into buildings for
the for the husbands themselves.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
We talk part of this expressions.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
Yeah wags, wives and girlfriends of athletes, for the actual
men themselves.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
We sit down and we go over a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
We go over everything from living trusts and art and
high key kids use art to build wealth for this continue.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
And I'm not a wealth manager, so I don't manage
your money for them.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
I had no desire to do that. Again, we come
in and we do workshops. We have conversations around nils
with them. We teach them how to protect them their brands.
And then we talked about, you know, the financial aspect
of not having survivors built and things of that nature,
and when they need somebody to really hold their hand
and actually do it for them, you have a ferral.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
So you are sort of like that financial therapist but
for ultra high net worth kind of clientele. And what
I love that though, because it's it's so helpful. I
feel like the a family if you're listening, like even
uber wealthy people need the basics and are using money
as a coping mechanism and like.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
A survivor's guilds and feel bad and want to help
everyone from the hood and want to go buy everybody
in their family a car and a mansion.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
But it's like your contract.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Is stipulated on you being able to play, and if
something happens to you, guess what that family might not
be able to maintain all of that.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
And the list continues.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
When you go down a rabbit hole and you realize
that oftentimes you might actually work yourself into the coorhouse.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
Yeah so, but yeah, so that's a nutshell.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
In a nutshell, Okay, but I brought up your little
boy because I wondered where's his citizenship? Like where is
he like triple citizen double?

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Like we're so he's currently double and he's about to
have gone in as well.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
So he goes with you wherever mommy goes. Is he
how being on the plane with you?

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Sometimes sometimes he's in daddy's mode. And when he's with
daddy mode, I let him stay with his dad. But
whenever he My son's very he's now at this age
where he's self sufficient, so he's also very bougie. So
if it's not, if there's no beach involved, he's like, Okay, mommy,
you can go. I'll see you when you come back.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
All right, Well, tell me about this egot thing. So
want to be like bloody vegan or no, what is it,
sludy vegan lady or no, it's the There's a woman
from Housewives who's like a producer of a Broadway show
right now.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
And she's yeah, that's funny. I just heard about her.
Her name is Candy. She's to be part of a
women's R and B group back in the day, or maybe.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
She is for us? Yes, okay, got it?

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Yes, Yeah, So what's interesting about it is one of
my friends recently just mentioned her to me. But yeah,
so the egot thing for me is I love. I
think it's so important that we are controlling the narrative
around our stories. And as a person who's as an
angel investor, I do know sometimes there are people with
the story that is beautiful, but we need to be

(57:01):
able to tell that story. And so to be in
a position where I could maybe tell this story now,
it's so important to me.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
So I want to be able to storytell in.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
A way that's not just only about black and brown,
but just really about humanizing our stories as individuals period,
and if it can be social impact as well, even better.
So that's where I'm met in my life, and you know,
I figured what better challenge ses there's only I thing
about ten black women, maybe nine or ten, including Jennifer Hudson,
who have an egot.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
I feel like I'd love.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
To be a part of that exclusive community, and it's
all about storytelling for me, social impact and storytelling.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Well, I love that. I mean as a storyteller myself,
and my brother's actually a filmmaker who works in AI
and tech and we are I mean, he's making his
films and it's wonderful and I'm really excited to hear that.
I also feel like a creative outlet at this stage
when you've been focused on the zeros and ones, like
you said, for so long, must because I've always.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Been that person. I've always loved finance.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
I've always loved the creative aspect, so to find and
being in a position where i could do that.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Again, it feels really cool.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
You know, I've always loved the arts, like Alvin Ailey
and I. You know, I grew up with the arts
and going to Afro ballet performances, going to the opera
of my dad.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
You know, my dad used to bring me to like
the opera.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
I remember the Phantom of the Operations one of my favorite,
and then you know it would evolve and so just
being a part of that world. And I remember going
to see the Four Tenors of my dad, like Plus
Domingo and people like that and loving that. Right, So,
I feel like if I'm able to put things like
that into this world, it would be really cool part
of my evolution.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
All right.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
We will stay tuned for you to join Vio Viola Davis,
Jennifer Hudson. I don't know if Viola was there yet,
but it'll be the yacht. It'll be them and Jitalie Bellentin,
Audrey McDonald, Jitalie Bellatin.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Yeah, doctor J. Let's make it happen, all right.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
So where can BA fan find you if they want
to learn more and follow you for all of your
incredible work.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
You can follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn Twitter. I predominantly
use Instagram LinkedIn I'm starting to use a little bit more.
And it's just how well J A t A l
I B E L l A N t O N.
And on Instagram, my page is verified, so I don't
want to hear that someone asks you for money because
Doctor J does not reach into anybody's DMS, and ask

(59:12):
for money does be very clear. And but yeah, it's
a verified page, and please feel free to come follow me,
and if you came over from the show, definitely send
a message and be like.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
Hey, I came over for Brown Ambition.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Let him know your BA fan I am. I'm so
happy that our paths have crossed again. Hopefully they will
more often, even though that's fine though, because some people
I see more often who don't live in the same
state as me. So it's fine. You're just moving, just
moving forty minutes down the road, you know that far.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
And how you have an excuse to coming to the city.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Which I love and I need all the time, Doctor
Jitylie Bellington, thank you so much for joining Brown Ambition
BA fan. Please go follow her on all platforms. Put
a link to all of your things in the show notes,
and good luck on all of your endeavors and all
of the people you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Thank you so much. I'm so looking forward to seeing
you again and in person.

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Mandi Woodruff-Santos

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