November 27, 2025 • 18 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome The Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey. Hey,
it's John O'Brien and this is the Money in Wealth
podcast series, Season two, and I'm excited to share a
(00:23):
special Thanksgiving week message with you that will hopefully transform
how you see not just your money and your prospects
in this world, but hopefully your spiritual, mental, emotional, and
psychological health. The topic this week is the economics of
(00:45):
gratitude and the wealth you can't get see with Thanksgiving. Here,
I want to talk about something you won't hear on
network news, on Business News, on here on Wall Street,
and you probably didn't hear at your dinner table. It's
called the economics of gratitude. It's the link between thankfulness
(01:09):
and wealth building. It's not solved, and it's not sentimental.
It's real economics, real psychology, and real impact. And I
also believe it's spiritual. We're not human beings having a
spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a human experience. Energy matters,
(01:32):
whether you believe you can, whether you believe you can't.
You're absolutely right. Gratitude is not passive. It's discipline. It's
a wealth strategy. A leader who happens to be a
pastor and a US senator, reverend doctor US Senator Raphael
Warnot said to me once, if you want to have
(01:56):
some grace, you better show some mercy. Sees when some
rantid sob some jerk does not get the rear end
whipping they so rightly deserve. But grace is where you
and I get the gifts and the blessings we actually
don't deserve. Whatever goes around comes around. If you want
to have a little grace, you might want to show
(02:19):
a little mercy. The way I translate that in my
business life is an old philosophy updated to today with
not much translation. Talk with without being offensive, listen without
being defensive, and always leave even your adversary with their dignity,
because if you don't, they spend the rest of their
(02:40):
life working to make you miserable. It becomes personal. Whatever
goes around comes around. Let me start by talking about
what gratitude actually does to your brain so you can
understand how it does what it does to translate into
(03:02):
your economic station in life and your wealth creation in life.
And I'm going to tie this back to a quote
that I've been using an operation Hope, the organization I
found at thirty three years ago. I've been using this
since it's founding. There is a difference between being broken
being poor. Being broken as economic, but being poor is
(03:23):
a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of your spirit,
and you must vow never ever ever to be poor again.
Now let's connect this to the science. Psychologists have studied
gratitude for twenty five years. They've hooked people up to
a brain scanners and they've tracked savings rates, credit, behavior,
(03:48):
job performance. Here's what they found. Gratitude lowers courtisol levels.
This is your stress hormone. Lower cortisol level means better
decision making. Better decision making means fewer emotional purchases. I've
always said, when you make an emotional decision, it's probably
(04:10):
going to be a bad one. Fewer emotional purchases means
higher savings and better credit. So when you're in a
surviving mindset, if you have low self esteem, you're going
to make very bad emotional decisions and you're probably going
to shop for therapy. Some people can relate to that.
Listening to this. Better credit lowers your cost of capital.
(04:33):
That's why I keep talking about seven hundred credit score communities.
Do you know? And you can go to the Hope
Financial Wellness Index online to check this out. Tell me
your zip code, I'll tell you how you live in.
For every approximately every fifty point increase in your credit
score above five hundred, you live about five more years.
(04:55):
So in a five hundred, six hundred credit score neighborhood
you live about sixty to about sixty one years of age.
You get to seven hundred credit score, and on average
across this country you live to eighty one years of age.
It's not about the credit score, It's about the trending
indicators of hope, well being, faith, confidence, belief, optimism. Again,
(05:16):
whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
you're absolutely right. Gratitude is actually a credit in life enhancement.
Lower cost of capital leads to wealth. Again, better credit
leads to lower cost of capital. Lower cost of capital
leads to wealth. In other words, you can literally build
(05:40):
wealth by calming your mind. That's why I talk about
remove the noise from your life. I'm not talking physically,
I'm talking spiritually, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, your mindset again whether
you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
you're absolutely right. People with strong gratitude practices have higher
(06:05):
credit scores, have larger emergency funds, are less likely to
fall to predatory lending, and predatory lenders are more likely
to invest consistently and have better job evaluations and promotions.
This is not magic. It's mindset, it's behavior, it's outcomes,
(06:29):
it's predictability, gratitude versus surviving mindset. Let's get real here.
Most Americans are living in what I call a survival mindset.
I talk about that in my book The Memo Go
back and watch, listen to that audiobook or read it.
And survival mode. Your brain is scanning for threats. That's
(06:50):
not its highest and best use. You're reactive, not proactive.
You're emotional versus passionate and focused. You're fearful. You're grabbing
for anything that gives you quick release and quick relief.
A lot of the ings, shopping, drugging, drinking, dealing, I'm sorry, texting, sexing, shopping,
(07:17):
everything but healing, no dealing with your drama. And when
you're in survival mode, you buy things you can't afford
with money. You don't have to impress people you don't
know in places that don't matter. You stop thinking long term.
You miss opportunities. You're more transactional than a relationship. You
(07:39):
tend to step over a dollar to pick up a dime,
So to speak, your self medicate with spending. You leak
money through stress. I call it rearranging the deck chairs
on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and we're picking drapes.
You just don't make good decisions. Financial trauma is real.
(08:00):
But here's a truth. You cannot build generational wealth from
a survival mindset. You build it from a gratitude mindset.
(08:20):
Gratitude shifts you from panic to presence, from scarcity to possibility,
from desperation to discipline, from short term to long term.
Gratitude is not denial. Gratitude is control. It's your ability
to say things might not be perfect, but I'm still here,
(08:43):
I'm still standing, and I'm still building. Rainbows only follow storms.
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm. First, gratitude
is armor. When I was growing up in Compton, California
and in Uila, I didn't have money, but I had
something else. My mother and my father pouring gratitude into me.
(09:08):
My mother made sure we said thank you for everything,
not because we were rich, but because we weren't. She said,
young man, you can control. You can't control that outside world.
You may not be a control even your inside world,
but you control your attitude toward both. My mother told
(09:33):
me she loved me every day of my life, and
I believed it. For my mother, I got a sense
of yes, I am. My dad gave me a sense
of yes I can. That mindset, this mindset that I'm
trying to share with you, kept me from breaking. It
kept me from giving up. It helped me to see
possibilities where others saw dead ends. Again, rainbows follow storms.
(09:56):
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first and
later in life, whether negotiating with CEOs or founding Operation
Hope or Brian Group Capital Briankadventures raising capital, or sitting
down with US presidents, gratitude kept me centered. It removed
(10:16):
the noise from my life and had me focus on
what was really important. Gratitude was my emotional seat built
in turbulent times. My first wealth discipline was gratitude. Let's
talk about holidays, spending, traps, and emotional money. I want
(10:39):
to get practical for this Thanksgiving weekend, so you can
get your hands around not just how to think, but
what to do. The holidays are a financial landmine. People
are spending money emotionally, not rationally. There are three traps
that show up every year. Number one gifting trying to
(11:02):
make up for time, make up for love or presence,
as in being present with spending. Number two family competitive
gifting trying to impress relatives, trying to look successful. I
get it, but I want you to get it. I
(11:24):
want you to grow a self esteem how you esteem yourself.
Don't be in love with yourself, but love yourself. Because
if I don't like me, I'm not gonna like you.
If I don't feel good about me, I'm not going
to feel good about you. If I don't respect me,
don't expect me to respect you. If I don't love me,
I don't have a clue how to love you. And
if I don't have a purpose in mind life, I'll
make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around.
(11:48):
There's a difference between confidence and self esteem. Confidence is
confidence leaned out into the world. Self esteem is how
you esteem yourself. The more you esteem yourself the more
you reasonably in your own skin. That is my greatest gift.
By the way, my greatest benefit after gratitude was being
reasonably comfortable in my own skin. Now I'm not hating
(12:10):
on anybody else. I'm not even trying to press anybody else.
I'm just cool with me and my possibilities. Number three
social media gifting trying to keep up with celebrations that
are let me say this politely, mostly lies. Here's the truth.
(12:35):
Most of the folks showing off online they don't have
the money. They have debt, they put it on credit cards,
they're renting the dream. Gratitude breaks these cycles because gratitude
whispers I'm already enough, I already have enough. I am enough,
(13:00):
I am and wealth begins with enough. Wealth happens at
the dinner table. Let me give you a Thanksgiving truth.
Wealth isn't passed down in bank accounts. Wealth has passed
down in conversations at the dinner table. Every Thanksgiving, every
(13:25):
family has a chance to pass down for free hope, habits, values, discipline, aspirations, dreams,
stories of resilience from our elders and our peers, and
(13:48):
expectations for greatness. This is how many families build generation
or resilience. How immigrant families built thriving businesses. How African
American families survive the unimaginable in slavery and kept dreaming
(14:08):
and going anyway. This Thanksgiving, I want you to talk
about credit, dreams, business ideas, career paths, money mistakes. Yes,
money mistakes, you can fall forward. Rainbow's only follow Storms
is going to be a big feature of mine in
(14:29):
twenty twenty six is a failing forward, falling forward series
within Money and Well, stay tuned for that. I'm not
defined by my successes. I'm defined be how I manage
my failures. Life is ten percent what life does to
you and nine eves in how you choose to respond
would wait for that series Lessons learned legacy. These are
(14:54):
the table conversations. This is the real classroom I want
you to occupy. So here's my challenge to you. Before
you buy anything big this holiday season, before you chase status,
before you compare yourself to anyone online, stop breathe. Be grateful.
(15:18):
You're enough, mate with yourself, Love yourself, embrace your self,
Hug yourself. Make gratitude your new financial discipline. Because once
you learn to be grateful for what you have, you
(15:39):
unlock the mindset that allows you to receive what you want.
You get more. You get peace, then you get clarity,
then you get discipline, then you get wealth. Wealth is
(16:00):
a mindset. All forms of poverty other than sustenance pty
a roof over your head, food in the table, reasonable healthcare,
all other forms of poverty are mindset. Whether you believe
you can, whether you believe you can't, You're right. Is
a glass half fumped full or is it glass half empty?
Depends who's looking at the glass. This is John O'Brien.
(16:22):
This was Money and Wealth during this Thanksgiving season. I
want you to go take your life back. I want
you to be grateful. Let's go change the world together.
I'll see you on the other side, Happy Thanksgiving. Money
(16:55):
and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome The Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey. Hey,
it's John O'Brien and this is the Money in Wealth
podcast series, Season two, and I'm excited to share a
(00:23):
special Thanksgiving week message with you that will hopefully transform
how you see not just your money and your prospects
in this world, but hopefully your spiritual, mental, emotional, and
psychological health. The topic this week is the economics of
(00:45):
gratitude and the wealth you can't get see with Thanksgiving. Here,
I want to talk about something you won't hear on
network news, on Business News, on here on Wall Street,
and you probably didn't hear at your dinner table. It's
called the economics of gratitude. It's the link between thankfulness
(01:09):
and wealth building. It's not solved, and it's not sentimental.
It's real economics, real psychology, and real impact. And I
also believe it's spiritual. We're not human beings having a
spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a human experience. Energy matters,
(01:32):
whether you believe you can, whether you believe you can't.
You're absolutely right. Gratitude is not passive. It's discipline. It's
a wealth strategy. A leader who happens to be a
pastor and a US senator, reverend doctor US Senator Raphael
Warnot said to me once, if you want to have
(01:56):
some grace, you better show some mercy. Sees when some
rantid sob some jerk does not get the rear end
whipping they so rightly deserve. But grace is where you
and I get the gifts and the blessings we actually
don't deserve. Whatever goes around comes around. If you want
to have a little grace, you might want to show
(02:19):
a little mercy. The way I translate that in my
business life is an old philosophy updated to today with
not much translation. Talk with without being offensive, listen without
being defensive, and always leave even your adversary with their dignity,
because if you don't, they spend the rest of their
(02:40):
life working to make you miserable. It becomes personal. Whatever
goes around comes around. Let me start by talking about
what gratitude actually does to your brain so you can
understand how it does what it does to translate into
(03:02):
your economic station in life and your wealth creation in life.
And I'm going to tie this back to a quote
that I've been using an operation Hope, the organization I
found at thirty three years ago. I've been using this
since it's founding. There is a difference between being broken
being poor. Being broken as economic, but being poor is
(03:23):
a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of your spirit,
and you must vow never ever ever to be poor again.
Now let's connect this to the science. Psychologists have studied
gratitude for twenty five years. They've hooked people up to
a brain scanners and they've tracked savings rates, credit, behavior,
(03:48):
job performance. Here's what they found. Gratitude lowers courtisol levels.
This is your stress hormone. Lower cortisol level means better
decision making. Better decision making means fewer emotional purchases. I've
always said, when you make an emotional decision, it's probably
(04:10):
going to be a bad one. Fewer emotional purchases means
higher savings and better credit. So when you're in a
surviving mindset, if you have low self esteem, you're going
to make very bad emotional decisions and you're probably going
to shop for therapy. Some people can relate to that.
Listening to this. Better credit lowers your cost of capital.
(04:33):
That's why I keep talking about seven hundred credit score communities.
Do you know? And you can go to the Hope
Financial Wellness Index online to check this out. Tell me
your zip code, I'll tell you how you live in.
For every approximately every fifty point increase in your credit
score above five hundred, you live about five more years.
(04:55):
So in a five hundred, six hundred credit score neighborhood
you live about sixty to about sixty one years of age.
You get to seven hundred credit score, and on average
across this country you live to eighty one years of age.
It's not about the credit score, It's about the trending
indicators of hope, well being, faith, confidence, belief, optimism. Again,
(05:16):
whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
you're absolutely right. Gratitude is actually a credit in life enhancement.
Lower cost of capital leads to wealth. Again, better credit
leads to lower cost of capital. Lower cost of capital
leads to wealth. In other words, you can literally build
(05:40):
wealth by calming your mind. That's why I talk about
remove the noise from your life. I'm not talking physically,
I'm talking spiritually, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, your mindset again whether
you believe you can or whether you believe you can't,
you're absolutely right. People with strong gratitude practices have higher
(06:05):
credit scores, have larger emergency funds, are less likely to
fall to predatory lending, and predatory lenders are more likely
to invest consistently and have better job evaluations and promotions.
This is not magic. It's mindset, it's behavior, it's outcomes,
(06:29):
it's predictability, gratitude versus surviving mindset. Let's get real here.
Most Americans are living in what I call a survival mindset.
I talk about that in my book The Memo Go
back and watch, listen to that audiobook or read it.
And survival mode. Your brain is scanning for threats. That's
(06:50):
not its highest and best use. You're reactive, not proactive.
You're emotional versus passionate and focused. You're fearful. You're grabbing
for anything that gives you quick release and quick relief.
A lot of the ings, shopping, drugging, drinking, dealing, I'm sorry, texting, sexing, shopping,
(07:17):
everything but healing, no dealing with your drama. And when
you're in survival mode, you buy things you can't afford
with money. You don't have to impress people you don't
know in places that don't matter. You stop thinking long term.
You miss opportunities. You're more transactional than a relationship. You
(07:39):
tend to step over a dollar to pick up a dime,
So to speak, your self medicate with spending. You leak
money through stress. I call it rearranging the deck chairs
on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and we're picking drapes.
You just don't make good decisions. Financial trauma is real.
(08:00):
But here's a truth. You cannot build generational wealth from
a survival mindset. You build it from a gratitude mindset.
(08:20):
Gratitude shifts you from panic to presence, from scarcity to possibility,
from desperation to discipline, from short term to long term.
Gratitude is not denial. Gratitude is control. It's your ability
to say things might not be perfect, but I'm still here,
(08:43):
I'm still standing, and I'm still building. Rainbows only follow storms.
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm. First, gratitude
is armor. When I was growing up in Compton, California
and in Uila, I didn't have money, but I had
something else. My mother and my father pouring gratitude into me.
(09:08):
My mother made sure we said thank you for everything,
not because we were rich, but because we weren't. She said,
young man, you can control. You can't control that outside world.
You may not be a control even your inside world,
but you control your attitude toward both. My mother told
(09:33):
me she loved me every day of my life, and
I believed it. For my mother, I got a sense
of yes, I am. My dad gave me a sense
of yes I can. That mindset, this mindset that I'm
trying to share with you, kept me from breaking. It
kept me from giving up. It helped me to see
possibilities where others saw dead ends. Again, rainbows follow storms.
(09:56):
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first and
later in life, whether negotiating with CEOs or founding Operation
Hope or Brian Group Capital Briankadventures raising capital, or sitting
down with US presidents, gratitude kept me centered. It removed
(10:16):
the noise from my life and had me focus on
what was really important. Gratitude was my emotional seat built
in turbulent times. My first wealth discipline was gratitude. Let's
talk about holidays, spending, traps, and emotional money. I want
(10:39):
to get practical for this Thanksgiving weekend, so you can
get your hands around not just how to think, but
what to do. The holidays are a financial landmine. People
are spending money emotionally, not rationally. There are three traps
that show up every year. Number one gifting trying to
(11:02):
make up for time, make up for love or presence,
as in being present with spending. Number two family competitive
gifting trying to impress relatives, trying to look successful. I
get it, but I want you to get it. I
(11:24):
want you to grow a self esteem how you esteem yourself.
Don't be in love with yourself, but love yourself. Because
if I don't like me, I'm not gonna like you.
If I don't feel good about me, I'm not going
to feel good about you. If I don't respect me,
don't expect me to respect you. If I don't love me,
I don't have a clue how to love you. And
if I don't have a purpose in mind life, I'll
make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around.
(11:48):
There's a difference between confidence and self esteem. Confidence is
confidence leaned out into the world. Self esteem is how
you esteem yourself. The more you esteem yourself the more
you reasonably in your own skin. That is my greatest gift.
By the way, my greatest benefit after gratitude was being
reasonably comfortable in my own skin. Now I'm not hating
(12:10):
on anybody else. I'm not even trying to press anybody else.
I'm just cool with me and my possibilities. Number three
social media gifting trying to keep up with celebrations that
are let me say this politely, mostly lies. Here's the truth.
(12:35):
Most of the folks showing off online they don't have
the money. They have debt, they put it on credit cards,
they're renting the dream. Gratitude breaks these cycles because gratitude
whispers I'm already enough, I already have enough. I am enough,
(13:00):
I am and wealth begins with enough. Wealth happens at
the dinner table. Let me give you a Thanksgiving truth.
Wealth isn't passed down in bank accounts. Wealth has passed
down in conversations at the dinner table. Every Thanksgiving, every
(13:25):
family has a chance to pass down for free hope, habits, values, discipline, aspirations, dreams,
stories of resilience from our elders and our peers, and
(13:48):
expectations for greatness. This is how many families build generation
or resilience. How immigrant families built thriving businesses. How African
American families survive the unimaginable in slavery and kept dreaming
(14:08):
and going anyway. This Thanksgiving, I want you to talk
about credit, dreams, business ideas, career paths, money mistakes. Yes,
money mistakes, you can fall forward. Rainbow's only follow Storms
is going to be a big feature of mine in
(14:29):
twenty twenty six is a failing forward, falling forward series
within Money and Well, stay tuned for that. I'm not
defined by my successes. I'm defined be how I manage
my failures. Life is ten percent what life does to
you and nine eves in how you choose to respond
would wait for that series Lessons learned legacy. These are
(14:54):
the table conversations. This is the real classroom I want
you to occupy. So here's my challenge to you. Before
you buy anything big this holiday season, before you chase status,
before you compare yourself to anyone online, stop breathe. Be grateful.
(15:18):
You're enough, mate with yourself, Love yourself, embrace your self,
Hug yourself. Make gratitude your new financial discipline. Because once
you learn to be grateful for what you have, you
(15:39):
unlock the mindset that allows you to receive what you want.
You get more. You get peace, then you get clarity,
then you get discipline, then you get wealth. Wealth is
(16:00):
a mindset. All forms of poverty other than sustenance pty
a roof over your head, food in the table, reasonable healthcare,
all other forms of poverty are mindset. Whether you believe
you can, whether you believe you can't, You're right. Is
a glass half fumped full or is it glass half empty?
Depends who's looking at the glass. This is John O'Brien.
(16:22):
This was Money and Wealth during this Thanksgiving season. I
want you to go take your life back. I want
you to be grateful. Let's go change the world together.
I'll see you on the other side, Happy Thanksgiving. Money
(16:55):
and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
John Hope Bryant
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