Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Pay money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Joining us,
(00:22):
we have someone who undeniably put the lit in financial literacy.
A certified financial education instructor, Anthony Copeman is the founder
of two financial platforms, Financial Literation and Shares, focused on
empowering youth and people of color to transform their relationship
and understanding of their finances and help them build wealth.
(00:46):
He encourages the idea that wealth begins in the mind
before it even manifests itself in the financial world. Money Movers,
let's welcome Anthony Copeman to the podcast. Hi Anthony, Hi,
how are you? Thank you? Thank you much for having
me on. I'm so glad to have you here today, Anthony,
thank you so much for joining us. You've really embarked
(01:06):
on an intense mission and have gotten a ton done
in the meantime, even before you turned thirty, and I'm
excited to hear more about how you've gotten to this point. Yes,
definitely so um. I've always been curious as it relates
to money, and so as I was very young UM,
this curiosity UM caused me to really start these platforms
(01:29):
Financial Lituation and both UM shares. I wanted to create
a creative UM experience for young people to reimagine their
relationship with money as it pertains to savings, credit, UM
and just overall building wealth. So like, this is really
interesting to me, especially on the Money Neames podcast, we
talked about this a lot. You know in black and
(01:50):
brown communities. You know, some of us have been afforded
the opportunity to learn from parents and mentors, and often
many of us have really disjointed and lack of basical
thoughts and mindsets around how to build wealth, how to
you know, secure our credits. So, when you started your platforms,
can you tell like some of the key points that
(02:11):
you were really trying to eradicate and solve for our community. Yes.
So one of the things I wanted to eradicate was
UM the experience of not learning money in the household.
Right when it comes to being talked about money, we
either have no experience or we got the wrong information right.
(02:32):
And I wanted to create a sort of a creative
experience for young adults and even teams to learn about
money even if they didn't learn about it in schools
or in the household. And what about your backgrounds, Like
can you speak to you know, growing up in your household,
did you have you know, parents that were really focused
(02:53):
on teaching financial education or is this something that you
had to teach yourself along the way. So my grandmother
was very influence true when it came to UM, me
actually being curious about money. UM at a very young age.
She opened a joint savings account for me. UM. She
was connected to a credit union and I remember just
you know, taking trips with her to the bank. Um.
(03:14):
You know, I'm originally from New York. I'm in Philly
now and I remember just you know, rotting on the
bus for like a hundred stops, right, uh, because you know,
New York is all transportation, and so UM, I would
just walk into the bank and see the marble floors,
floors and you know the nice um you know scene, right,
and I was just like, wow, this is beautiful, right.
(03:35):
And from that point on, I wanted to you know,
learn more about how money worked. Based on my experience
with the bank teller, my experience you know, taking money,
with drawing money and depositing money into into a t
m um. Just you know that curiosity like stemmed in
me from her, you know, indirect influence on Yeah. I
(03:57):
love hearing stories about this because it's so often that
we'll year about this financial literacy being passed on through
mothers and so just man, God bless the mothers and
grandmothers and our families. So let's talk a little bit more.
You got your undergraduate degree from Temple University, and while
there you got the idea for the business backyard. Can
(04:18):
you tell us what the business backyard is and where
your inspiration for it came from? Yes? So UM. And
while I was at Temple UM, I developed a nonprofit
called Backyoud Business UM, and it was to help those
that were in middle school and high school UM look
into their communities and see what was missing right within
(04:40):
their communities and try to develop a business that spoke
to that UM missing peace right in aspect within their communities.
UM not only to create a business for themselves, but
to also provide employment UM for others as well within
their communities. So just to build UM inspiration and wealth
UM by you know, being UM curious in terms of
(05:04):
looking to see what the community needs and acting on that. Wow,
that's great and so inspiring and much needed, Like we
just need all these railroad tracks to lead us to
success and financial freedom. Um. Okay, so let's talk about Shares.
That's a really interesting endeavor as well. Can you tell
us about the initial conception and creation of that and
who is the target audience? Yes? So Shares was birthed
(05:27):
in twenty um seventeen eighteen. I wanted to create a
you know, sort of unique platform for those who you know,
read articles and for those who wasn't interested in the
Wall Street Journal, for those who um, you know didn't
want to get lectured as released to personal finance and
create a unique experience for them to actually understand money concepts,
(05:52):
money tools and just having money conversations. Right. Um. So
we brought together four characters essences Troy, Brandon, Um and
Michael to actually talk about money, right, to share experiences,
share wisdom, share tips, um, but just birth that conversation,
right and so um as it relates to you know, money.
(06:14):
So we wanted to do that and just to inspire
the masses, and the target audience is really millennials and
also gen z Use as well. Anthony. I love this
concept of Shares, and I love that we're, you know,
having this free and open dialogue just to educate so
many people. And we'd be remissed if we didn't take
a sneak peek at one of your favorite episodes. So
(06:35):
what should we look to and tune into now to
see an episode of Shares? This is did your parents
have McDonald's money? Did your parents have McDonald's money? Okay,
you've already got me enticed by that opening, so let's
take a quick peek right now. Mom, can we ask
(06:55):
some McDonald's you got McDonald's money, because I know that's
food at the house? Man always say that. Please tell me.
Y'all heard that lady talking to her daughter when we
were walking to McDonald's. I was cracking up. I can't
(07:18):
remember the last time that I heard that line. My
mama never had McDonald's money. Never. My parents ain't have
it neither. I'm blessed enough to say that my parents
ain't always take me there, but they definitely had it. Now,
y'all know minchamaking asking not handle McDonald's money. When we
got to the States, we were barely getting by we
can tell by the way you're tearing up them nuggets, bro. Yeah,
(07:41):
I was hungry growing up. My parents were always pretty
honest about their money. I always understood that I was privileged,
and I appreciated them being upfront with me. I think
they did it to get me started for adulthood and
to keep me from ever feeling entitled. So when y'all
asked your parents for McDonald's and they hit you with
the do you got McDonald's money, y, you'll understand that
they didn't have it. I won't even lie. I thought
(08:03):
my mama was just being mean as fun say a
lot of for the people in the back, bro. Now,
for real, I really didn't get it. She never said nothing.
But when I look back, my mama was a social
worker raising two badass boys in Jersey, and even if
I asked, I really don't think she had the time
to sit and explain to me that she was struggling
and why. Well. I knew that my parents didn't have
(08:25):
any money, they didn't need to tell me. But I
think the immigrant story is a little bit different. You
come to a new country trying to secure your status,
get opportunities for your kids, all while in a space
where people don't accept you and want to pay you pennies.
And if you're not educated and don't speak English, y'all
this even worse. I'm at a point now where I'm
educating my parents on what I know, even though I
(08:46):
ain't really got it together myself. I ain't never like
McDonald's anyway. You ain't never lie, Troy. We're good now.
Growing up McDonald's wasn't even a question. I was about
to finish high school. By the time I got my
hands on some Mickey D's. My parents were grinding, I mean,
working the craziest hours. I barely saw him. We never
talked about money, and to be real, ain't know what's
(09:08):
Indian child about to ask their parents about their pockets,
not that they're smart. One thing I'll say my mama
did do, even though she ain't talked about money, one
time she did get my brother and now I'm packing
them coin rappers, the ones that you used to save
spare change. She just kind of brought them home one
day and said, try saving some change from my allowance money.
But I always been every single penny out the corner
(09:29):
store after school. Couldn't tell me not to get my
peanut hues. My parents actually gave me those two, but
they made me use mine. That was my first introduction
to saving. As I got older, they put me onto
bills and credit. Had my parents been able to raise
me like that, man, I know I'd be better off.
Funny thing is, my mama was always smart. I think
(09:52):
she knew what she needed to do as far as
money management. I just think her circumstances made it harder.
That's a good point. You could have all the knowledge
in the world, but if you ain't got it, you
ain't got it exactly. There were definitely some rare days
when I called my parents together stacking bills kind of money,
trying to figure out how much to put away. Then
they would do it and bam, all of a sudden,
(10:13):
some crazy ship happens, like something important breaks in the apartment,
and a little bit they managed to save damn near gone.
I'm grateful for everything my mama gave me. But when
I moved out, I was riding a struggle bus. I
didn't understand what it meant to live below your means
until I kept coming up short on my rent orout.
Not paying my credit card bill on time was a problem.
I'm just now getting ahold of those things. Yeah, paying
(10:35):
rent ain't no joke. I couldn't imagine I live at
home and still can't get my ship together. Man, credit
card bills, hiding a crackhead on the corner. It's stupid.
It's discipline, y'all. I'm finally starting to understand me too, Bro,
Just take some of us a little longer. One thing
that hit me while we've been talking is that even
(10:56):
though our experiences with money are so different, we've learned
a lot. So when we have kids, they won't have
to make the same mistakes. I know for a fact,
I'm breaking the cycle. Before my kids can say McDonald's,
they're gonna say money. I'm gonna let my kids go
into the world without knowing how that ship works. Saving bills, budgeting,
(11:16):
credit business plans, multiple streams of income, stocks, and investing.
That's the only way to change the story. Even having
them be part of some of the money decisions in
the household, no one want to cut back. And when
you can splurge, showing them how to budget and plan
for family vacations. I mean, there's really a bigger picture, ye.
Black wealth matters, y'all. The knowledge don't end with us.
(11:40):
We gotta get it and pass it on. Anthony. That
was so good. I totally blew my mind. I know
you said it was sort of a cartoon graphic, but like,
once I really got in there and got to see it,
that was so incredible. And I just loved the dialogue.
The dialogue was so real. Thank you appreciate it. Yes,
And that's what we wanted. We wanted to create that dialogue,
(12:00):
that honest and real dialogue UM that many families, UM
and friends should have, you know, as it relates to money. Yeah,
and just like the different characters, I saw so many
different experiences and that you know, there's one girl who
was like, yeah, my parents told me everything and taught
me to be humble. The other one who was like, yeslen,
my mom was so busy working, she never talked about money.
(12:23):
Like the extremes there that so many of us experienced.
And you know, the immigrant story where you come to
a country and it's questionable whether or not your parents
can speak English. They're working for pennies and to go
and ask for a happy meal at the end of
the day was just out of the question. That was
really really great, So happy that you got to share
that with us. Thank you, thank you. So one quick question,
(12:45):
because I know it's you know, a lot of production
goes into that. How much time does it take to
produce an episode like that? Yes, it takes about you know,
a couple of months, you know, developing from you know backgrounds,
you know, develop you know, making sure that the scripts
are written for the characters, um, you know, coordinating that
(13:07):
studio time um so, and then actually producing the animation.
So it takes a while. It takes a while. So um,
We're always developing content and trying to be relevant as
possible to get the masses to learn about personal finance. So, Anthony,
I would be remissed if I did not ask you.
You know, some of your businesses are for profits, some
of your businesses are nonprofit. Can you talk about how
(13:30):
you monetize things like shares and financial literacy? Because I
think a lot of people that are watching this have
great ideas, and as much as we all want to
follow our passion, we all want to be able to
make money off of the content we're creating. So can
you talk about that, um and educate us a little
bit on that? Yes, So, with both my brands. I
have courses UM as related to person who finance, investing,
(13:54):
savings and things of that nature. I also UM collaborate
with other organizations other UM you know, for profit companies UM.
I do a lot of public speaking, UM workshops in
public schools, UM fellowships and things like that. So that's
how I monetized UM currently on both brands, that's great,
(14:14):
that's great. And and on shares can you tell us
where we can find UM Shares and Lituation please? Yes,
you can find us on Instagram at Financial Lituation and
at Shares TV. And we're also on YouTube at Shares
TV that's where our animation content lies and on Twitter
(14:36):
UM Finances lit Finances. Let so make sure you follow
him on YouTube, like and subscribe to the channel so
that you guys can watch more episodes of Shares. And
I can tell you are going to love at Anthony.
Thank you so much for joining us. I'm gonna be honest,
I think You've got a whole lot more to offer
for us, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of
(14:59):
what you can share with our audience. So would you
mind sticking around for another deep dive? Yes? Absolutely, all right,
Money Movers, you heard Anthony. Make sure you stick around
for more of the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood
and more with Anthony Copeman. Thank you so much for
tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more or
a recap of this episode, please go to the bank
(15:19):
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