March 25, 2025 • 47 mins
Rodney and Travis sit down with powerhouse investor Monique Idlett to break down the myths, mindsets, and moves behind smart investing. From why quick-money schemes don’t work to the real power behind financial literacy, Monique shares her unconventional journey from the music industry to venture capital.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Rodney Williams, co founder of The Wealth Break,
and let's get real for a second. Ever felt like
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(00:22):
access paths, the genuine wealth building knowledge. No gatekeeping, no
confusion jargon, just real talk, powerful strategies, and transparent conversations
designed for people like us, because building wealth shouldn't feel exclusive.
If you're loving what you're hearing today, just wait until
you check us out at the wealthbreak dot com, where
you'll get bonus content, in depth expert takes in a
(00:45):
community of knowledge committed to leveling up. Ready to break
the cycle, Your path to real wealth starts now. Visit
wealthbreak dot com and let's get it. Welcome to the
(01:07):
Wealth Break. We're here to discuss the ins and outs
of building wealth, breaking it, and getting it back. I'm
gonna miss uthing on camera. You know the wordying, how
you say it, distifying, the mystifying investing. And we have
an incredible guest today, Monique idol It she's not just
(01:28):
an incredible person, but an incredible, incredible investor and I
can't wait to dive in. But before we bring her along,
let's talk about investing, and let's let's not use no
more of the word I can't say the mystifying. Yeah,
it's just like I mean, obviously, if you guys don't know,
we're founders, we're entrepreneurs, We've invested, we've raised money, but
(01:52):
like when you not are in it, it is actually
really really difficult, to be honest, raising that first dollar
is still technically very difficult. And it was a stranger,
someone I had never met actually in person, but was
able to believe in the product. And I can't tell
you no ram or reason to that, but that's my story.
(02:14):
Most people didn't know what angel investing was until I
don't know, five ten years ago, and just realizing that
there's this huge world out there where people are taking chances,
they're taking risks, they're assessing opportunities, they're doing deep dives
in to market opportunity, and that's just something that when
you don't have, you don't come from the background, it's
just super difficult, in daunting to consider. So I used
(02:37):
to be a financial advisor, and that world was really
more so looking at public markets, right and looking at
traditional stocks, bonds, et cetera. And that was also a
new world for me at a time when I was
coming straight out of college and realizing that that was
the real way that the majority of people were building
this generational wealth and that most people who like me,
(03:01):
didn't come from that background, didn't understand markets, were largely
afraid of it. Right. It's like, don't trust the big banks,
so grab the first myth. So you're saying the first
myth is that everybody is investing, just not people like us.
I think that other other people from other ethnic backgrounds
tend to invest at a higher rate or percentage than
we do at it. I think that a lot of
(03:23):
times when you think about like the black experience and
where black. So let's talk about the black experience. A
lot of our family members who did have some type
of retirement plan, it was largely due to them having
a pension. Right, they worked on an assembly line. They
worked there for thirty five years and that was their
exit opportunity. But they didn't invest in public markets because again,
(03:44):
it's so so new, and if you don't have a
lot of money, no one's going to ever show you
how to do it. And that's the real problem is
that today people have more opportunities to kind of do
it yourself, but historically you had to have some one
show you how to invest. The second man, I'm going
to go out and put it out as that. I
(04:05):
think people that look like myself, we actually invest a lot,
but we're investing in the wrong things. We're investing in
get rich fast versus it seems like investment is about diligence,
taking a time. Yeah, And I think that unfortunately, there's
this perception that there is a path to getting rich quick, right,
(04:26):
and today I think some people believe that crypto is
like their fastest way to get rich, get rich schemes.
You're just gonna put money in today and it's gonna
you know, what is it like to the moon is
going to go to the moon and all of a
sudden you're gonna be buying Lamborghini's ferraris and living in
Miami in a penthouse. No, it doesn't work like that.
(04:46):
And you know, over the course of my life, I've
seen in college, you know, people were selling travel. What
was like first first it was like things like World
Ventures and then they were selling these trips. Remember they
used to be here. People like where do they at?
Men get some shots fired because all the all the folks,
them influencers that's riding around talking about getting rich quick
(05:07):
and all of those things and the pyramid and you
sell this and I sell that, and I do these
things and trades and all of these different things. Where
are you? Yeah, like you know it's oh, you should
start a trucking business. You'll be a millionaire in three months. No,
it doesn't work like that. No one tells you about
when you can't find good drivers and the driver that
(05:27):
you do have is in Omaha, Nebraska, and they just
decide that they don't want to drive no more, and
they just get out the truck and they just leave
it there. Right, Like these things happen all the maintenance
on these vehicles. Like it just it doesn't It's not
as easy as it seems. And I think that's the
main moral of the story. But yeah, we've we've just
we continue to see these these these schemes, right, and
(05:50):
those who get in first. You know what's interesting is
like all of the finance gurus, yeah, who don't make
money by managing other people's money. They tend to make
their money by selling courses and doing master classes. It
cannot kind of tell the truth. If someone is good
at finance, they should be making significantly more money doing
(06:12):
finance than teaching you how to do it. Exactly. The
best Wall Streeter goes to an office in New York
City or some office, and they make money managing other
people's money. They don't make money selling you internet classes.
That's just not how they get rich. Right, So if
you're really, really, really, really that good at managing money
(06:33):
or investing, you would be investing for other people, not
just telling them useless information. That sounds good. Crazy. Now
let's get to my favorite part of that show is
when we co switch on a particular topic. Although I
feel like we're code switching all the time, but we're
gonna code switch because you know, when I think about investing,
(06:54):
the next thing I think about as assets. You know,
if there was an episode that we've done and we
talked about home ownership, and now it's like this concept
of some of these cities, the saying is like renting
is actually more affordable, or said differently, a better financial
situation or decision than it is buying. I think we
need to unpack that a bit. Yeah, I mean, I think,
(07:16):
you know, like in the real voice though, Yeah, nah,
I mean, I think the reality is this. Most people
can't afford to own a home today, and they can't
afford because they can't pay for the down payment. What
I think one of the biggest learnings that I've had
and I've seen is that you can't necessarily income your
way into wealth, right, And I think that's really important
as you think about the concept of investing. It doesn't
(07:38):
matter if you make five hundred thousand dollars a year
we live in California. By the time tax eats that up,
there's no way to really become wealthy just with income.
I think you have to do something with that capital,
and you have to figure out how to really grow
your overall balance sheet and your net worth while you're
sleeping in other ways. But with that said, I think that,
(08:01):
you know, with people not being able to afford the
down payment to get into these homes, the real issue
becomes for those who can. Right they saved, they got
the home. A lot of times it's no longer cheaper
with interest rates going up, it's not necessarily cheaper on
a per month basis to be a homeowner versus a renter.
There was a time where there was a significant delta
(08:23):
in between the cost of the price to rent versus
your mortgage, and we're not really seeing that anymore. And
that's what's that's the real game changer. And then you
start to layer on the fact that the most money
that you would not I know I mentioned this the
last time, but the most you're going to spend on
a home ownership or on a roof over your head
(08:43):
with rent is your rent, right, it's the maximum that
you're going to pay that month. With home ownership, there's
so many variable costs that you know that can get
out of control really really fast. You know, my only
thing is every investment, every asset, you have to know
when you're getting in the thing about home ownership. Yes,
in some cities it might be better to rent. But
there is someone who owns that home and it's so cheap,
(09:05):
he's making so much money or she is, that he
can actually rent it to you for that price. That
mean he bought it when it was low, and that
mean he bought it at an interest rate where it
made sense to rent it for you cheaper than what
you could go ahead and buy it today. And that's
kind of what I see right now. When you look
at California, it's a lot of people that owned homes
(09:26):
when the interest rate was two and three percent six
seven years ago. You know they can today's environment, it's
profitable for him. So I think I'm in the middle,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm in the middle
of it. You know, I did well on home owner ship,
but at the same time, I understand why it may
be beneficial in a near term, but the rules are
(09:47):
still the same. It's about when you buy the asset. Yeah,
and can you actually save right like, can you afford?
Is there a significant dolsa between renting and your mortgage?
And if you're paying significantly more to rent, then with
being your best interest to try to figure out how
to get into home ownership. The challenge is is that
when your rent is so expensive, it's very difficult to
save to get that down payment. But you know, with
(10:09):
that said, you think about home ownership with a lot
of the natural disasters that we're seeing, it's interesting to
me to kind of look at the insurance industry and
see how many people are taking significant losses as homeowners
because of natural disasters, but people who are renting aren't
because in some of these areas, it's easier to get
(10:31):
the renters insurance versus the homeowner's insurance. And there's people
who are literally waiting months, years to get these claims
for home ownership, and some of them are going to
have really bad experiences. Whereas you know, a renter is
going to get their cash, they're going to go somewhere else.
Then Also, if you lose your home and you had
that two or three percent interest rate, you know, I
(10:52):
don't necessarily know what happens after that, right because you're
going to have to go get something else, clearly, And
what does that interest rate look like? What does that
mortgage payment look like? It's going to be drastically different
at seven or eight percent than it was at two?
Are you going to be able to find something equivalent?
I don't know, we don't know. We got to continue
this with that incredible guest. I'm so excited to announce
(11:14):
Monique Islet is joining us today. Incredible visionary leader CEO.
I would call her a disruptive but most importantly today
she is the founder and managing partner of rain Ventures,
an incredible early stage venture fund that's one hundred percent
woman and dope led. That's probably the wrong context, but
(11:39):
I'm excited because I think her perspective is going to
be really good. So let's dive in. Before we dive in,
we like to start every conversation with asking when you
were broke? Okay, right, And it means different things to
(12:00):
different people, But I.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Don't think I've ever been broke.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But that's just my perspective, and maybe that's the answer
we need, you know, that's the answer we want to hear.
And the reason why we ask it is because you know,
a lot of our guests they see us, they see
they hear all the success stories and they sometimes I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The reals like the twenty second, sixty second everybody's doing
fabulous concept as.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Entrepreneurs, the things that the things that we put out into.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The world, you know, came a millionaire overnight and then
over night exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And you know, one of our guests most recently, you know,
she said the year that she made the most money
she ever made was the year that she was most
broke because she just forgot to pay her taxes and
it just created an interesting situation for right.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's interesting though, because even growing up in the projects
in New Jersey, I never we never looked at ourselves
as broke. I think that's a mindset, but that is
just my always agree even in college when I got
like the best dress, all my clothes came from the
thrift store. Yeah, it's a it's a mentality. It's a mindset.
(13:04):
Like there's the aspirational and then there's the like the
revolving loop of you're not like, why am I not there?
It's like because it starts with before you even get there.
So in my mind, never been broke. I've aspired to more.
I've aspired to different things. But as a serial entrepreneur,
(13:28):
there have been times where the flow of cash is
different and most people would define that as they think
they're broke.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I've never looked at life like that.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, most people are when they're once exceed their ability,
they consider themselves broke. But it is one hundred percent
of mindset, right because like a lot of people who
have the financial part are still broke in because they're
not fulfilled in other ways.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Everyone wants what they can't what they think they can't
have or what they don't have, right, you know, being
successful living in a community where like all the top
successful financial families lived their kids, all of our kids
going to the same school. That is the most broken
of people I've ever been around. And the things that
(14:18):
traumatically were all going on in their life, why they
all were swiping their black cards and driving their ferraris
was more traumatic than anything I ever saw in income
based housing or being with a single mom. You know,
like it just so it depends on what people are
looking for and what they want out of life to
decide if they are broke or not.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Right, Yeah, you know, it's always like finding balanced because
you can you can easily one day be like, you know,
I'm broke because you know, yes I would like a
new thing and I can't get it yet, but that's
just yet. And then you get it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Is it that though I don't know, it's good.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's a mindset because it also evolves over time. Right,
what made you feel broke at one point in your
life is not what would make you feel broke today, right.
You know, as you continue to evolve and you continue
to see more, experience more, all of a sudden. Now
you're mad because you can't buy a home in the Hamptons.
I'm broke. But theoretically, what you have now you aspired
(15:18):
for at one point in your life, right, But the.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Fact that you eat.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But see, here's the thing that people should all realize
and even if we think about even when we first
met over fifteen years ago, right, it's not about what
it's right now, because that's actually what you're not building for.
If you can't mentally tell yourself that you're getting something
or you deserve something, or you desire something, it doesn't
matter how much cash you have or how much money
(15:42):
you have, You're always going to be in a mindset
that you don't deserve it, right, or you don't deserve that.
You can never aspire to something because of circumstance, you
can't visualize it. So I think we have to reprogram
like what creation looks like, what visualization looks like, because
that's actually where it is.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
What was the first memory you have of aspiring something
different as a little girl, Like when was the first
time you're like, oh, I'm motivated.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
As a little girl.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
When my sister and I are two years apart, I'm
the oldest and at like we have pictures of me
like at seven six, seven, eight years old, and my
mom's dress suits with like rubber bands tying it. And
I'd have a desk, and if my sister had to
be my secretary every day for my company that I created,
(16:30):
and then I would do all her chores inside.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I didn't want to be outside anyways.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I wanted to be inside building and being the boss
lady of my own company. And so my mother saw
that and then she fed into that side of me.
So as a little person, I think all little people
show us who they are. We just don't pay attention
to it because we title it children or kids like
as if they can't dream or that's the closest to it.
(16:57):
That imagination, that is where you are get the most
authentic version of that person.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right So, and I think in all of our lives,
I can't speak for you, but this is a question.
There was a time where you had this thought kind
of piggybacking on that a little bit where it's like
I'm inspired, but I have to be the one to
do it, and like I have to maybe for my family,
I have to go out and achieve some level of
(17:23):
success to make sure that we're good and when you
have that experience and then you achieve that level of success,
and then you have children who don't, who maybe don't
necessarily need to have that high moment of like I
have to go figure this out for my family. How
do you think about like the difference of how you
(17:45):
parent knowing that your kids might not need to have
that moment of I gotta go save my family.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
That's a that's a big question, Travis gonna hit you with. Yeah,
that's it's like a lot of questions in one question.
So let's like start with like the very first thing, right,
And so I'm assuming that the question is how as
a parent and my measuring and tracking, like how I
need my children to feel so they can show up
(18:12):
for themselves. Yeah, well, I think it goes back to
I've never looked at them as my property. I've never
looked at them as like my dreams need to be
fulfilled through them, right, Like, so I paid attention to
who they are. My mother always taught us like I
have three of you, and for each one of you,
I'm learning a different parent Like there's no one style
(18:35):
for this, right, all three of you are different.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I was very strong willed.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I was very rebellious, like I don't you're not going
to put me in a box. My sister was very
meek and mild and creative, and my brother was just
the youngest boy, right, the only boy, and so all
of us required a different type of parenting style. And
so as a parent, you got to think I was
a mom in college, so that as a different monique, right,
(19:02):
and that child needed something different Demetrius.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And that's probably also what drove you to say, I
gotta go figure this out. Because you had responsibility so young.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I think it advanced it. But I think that before
I ever became a mother, I wanted to go figure
it out. The world just was like I can do
anything I want to do, but in regard to how
I need to show up for them to show up
for themselves. I'll tell you a story. It's like the
best way I can define it. When Demetrius was like five,
that's when Pokemon, I know, they came back out, but
(19:32):
like Pokemon had just like really come out and it
was like a big deal. And he went to an
after school program and there was like six kids who
drove the bus from the school to the after school program.
They were his friends, right, it's the same kids every
single day. He comes home one day and he has
this huge case of Pokemon cards and I noticed that
(19:53):
those aren't his, Like he has a lot of them,
but that's not his case. And he's like, yeah, I
found them on the bus. Mom says, you better turn
that back in and I said no. I was like, Demetrius, well,
what do you want to do? And my mother she
didn't understand my perspective. But if we if we talk
to each other as a community, even as a little person,
(20:14):
all the way to us as adults. Right, if we
keep telling people what to do, at what point do
they have to show up for themselves? And so at
that moment, at five, I taught him you don't have
to do anything. What do you want to do? Its
six kids on the bus, it's one of those kids.
What you're gonna do? You can keep them if you
(20:36):
want them, That's what I told them, Or you can
you can give them back.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yes, that's a freedom that he had at a young
age three.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Will is what we all have. Yeah, we have to
empower them.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I think sometimes we don't feel it though, And that's
that's almost kind of what I was thinking about, Like
from a financial perspective, when kids come from a more
effluent background, they have more choice, they have more opportunities,
they have more protection too, Yeah, and they can take
make more risks. They can be more free with their
thoughts and their creativity. They have more latitude to be
(21:07):
themselves versus I gotta go save my family. Right, we're
talking about like survival mode, yes, yeah, or thriving.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
But I didn't want to put I knew that that
approach right, that the older generation tag Because I said,
so that puts you into surviving. You no longer are
critically thinking, You're no longer able to say what are
the consequences of this behavior versus this behavior? So I
told them you have two choices. You can keep them
you're not in trouble with me, or you can give
(21:38):
them back. What would you want somebody to do? And
he gave them back. But the point was is if
you have to keep telling everybody what to do, that
creates resentment because you start taking people's choices away. So
as a parent, yes, I had to go into survival mode,
but responsibility for their own behaviors is what to me
(21:58):
was the most important thing. I'm not coming to save you.
You've been given an opportunity. I'm gonna let you make
your own choices. Just know that there's consequences to either side.
Think it through.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let's get into your deviation from being in corporate America
to being in music or entertainment, to then diving into
this world of investment, and as you do that, just
love to give us the summary version of that story,
because you know there's gonna be many folks that are
here who may not know. I think how prolific that
(22:32):
journey may have been.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
You know, my name, Ounique means advisor, right, So it
doesn't surprise me that I actually love a life of
like constant evolution of myself and the challenge of what
else can we get into that we're not supposed to
get into, or the rooms that they say we don't
belong in. I think for me, my journey has always
been the audacity to know I deserve something even if
(22:57):
I wasn't qualified for it. I think that's really important
because we put so much emphasis on you better know
how to do something, when the reality is you won't
know how to do something till you do it, and
you say that you actually can do it right. And
so when I got recruited by USA today, I was
twenty two years old. I got hired and recruited for
a national junior executive position for marketing and sales. The
(23:21):
day I started, they were interviewing for the national senior
global exec and I was like, I want that job.
They're like, oh, you don't qualify. You need twenty five
years experience in marketing and advertising. I was like, actually,
I do want that job, and maybe that's what you need,
a new perspective, and you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
See what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So like it's about when do we just start controlling
our own narrative. I didn't qualify for the job, who cares?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, and just go for it?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I went for it. Sometimes I got it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah. Sometimes, like when you you don't know like the
protocol or how things work and you're kind of going
into something blind, it gives you a little bit of
like confidence of I just believe in myself and I
could figure it out. And if you would have known
a long protocol or process of what it takes to
get there and you're looking at all the prerecs, most
people wouldn't apply because they're just like they psyche themselves
(24:13):
out and say that you know, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Well, think about the history of our culture just in general, right,
or any culture or person that feels less than or
not enough of something. A lot of that is around
the structure historically of organized religion, right, where you have
to go through a third party to have a relationship
(24:36):
with God.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's actually not true.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
So the reality is that we have to reprogram the
mindset that as an individual, everything you need is in
here and you are actually with God, right, And so
you don't need third party people, you don't need education
telling you what you can and can't do in life.
And so it's also a part of our responsibilities to
kind of take that power back too.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I took that power back at USA today.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I started my first company at USA today, which is
how I even got into the entertainment industry. Started working
with talent and bridging that gap of them creating like
an actual media kit and brand like who they were
as a brand, not just as a name for a talent,
partnering them with all my corporate clients, right. And then
that's how I got into the label side, and I
(25:22):
shut Tim wanted me to shut my agency down. So
I shut that down and then we started mostly music
group where I operated as the CEO and kind of
like the creative business wise, and then he was the creative,
you know. But transitioning from talent in the entertainment industry
to talent in the founding the Venture early stage world,
(25:44):
to me was the exact same thing. Like the thesis
at the label and publishing company was fewer writers, fewer artists,
global platinum success. Jump in there, put that bumper system up.
Whatever they need, but make it like a real brand
and not just like something trendy.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I don't like trends.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And so when I got into Venture and met Erica,
you know, my master's program.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It was like it felt right, It just felt right.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
It was the easiest transition, to be honest, dealing with talent.
The most difficult transition was the financial world deeming me
I wasn't validated or qualified to be in their industry,
so I should start like me and Erica should start
like a charitable And that's when I was like that, right,
(26:34):
were okay, watch this, it's a challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, right, What was your first investment? What was the
or when did that start?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So that was what for over fourteen years ago. Whenever
we met, ye solo funds. I'm not solo Funds, although
like a year after I met, you were talking about
you didn't have a name to solo funds, but you
had the idea. You were talking about the idea listener,
the box and I forget the ozill the on demand massage.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Was it scary the first check you wrote?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
No, it wasn't you know.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
The check that was the scariest that I wrote was
into solo Funds because I was in a whole new
world now I was divorced. I chose to kind of
like I wanted to rebuild from the ground up. So
I didn't stay in the entertainment industry. And I think
that when it was now more about I'm in the
music industry at entertainment and you were in a cash business.
(27:34):
It's very different right now, I'm really understanding because my
first checks that I wrote fifteen like literally I didn't
know early stage, I don't what do you what do
you mean ten yars? You're gonna get your money back
maybe in ten years. That was not that we made
money every day in the music industry, right We made
money to show up ses. We're making money before we
(27:55):
even come to you, right, So it was money working
all the time.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Time.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
It became scary when that model for me wasn't there anymore.
And now we're talking for real seven tenth sometimes longer
before you ever receive a return. So that was those
were solo fun my first and second check. Personally, I
was like, Okay, this is how I knew how much
(28:23):
I believed in y'all for that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Go ahead. Legal disclaimer. Monique is an investor Solofons and
we work at Solofon's head intern head secretary of.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Oh sorry, yeah, we've got a part of the show.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
We're going through some quick questions.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Oh, the rapid fire is the rapid fire?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It has nothing to me.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It is funny. I hope it's funny. It should be funny.
We got a great team that puts some funny questions together. Okay,
so are you ready? We'll see maybe Travis, are you ready?
I think I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
All right?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
How long does a copyright last? Thirty years? One hundred
years author's life plus seventy years?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh is it? Is it one hundred years?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Or maybe it is the cop the author's life plus seventy.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Ding ding ding ding ding. That's the right answer. Yeah,
that was gonne cheating because I mean you kind of.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Know that not necessarily all right, I mean it was
it was really specific, right, Yeah, it was like thirty
one hundred seventy or the Life plus.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, the Life plus is what got me say, all right, yeah,
next one. During what quarter is it thought to be
the most difficult to launch a new artist?
Speaker 3 (29:57):
The most difficult to launch a new art? It is, oh, definitely, uh,
fourth quarter for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's when all the heavy hitters are coming.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Well and everything shut down, radio shut down, like there's
there's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
According to the facts, fourth quarter is generally accepted to
be the most difficult because radio stations shut down to
play Christmas music. There's a lot of competition with other
new releases for Christmas shopping, and it's hard to tour
in winter.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
That's all the iconic people like putting out stuff. Yeah,
final final, final, final question true or false. Producers typically
make three to five percent of an artist's income from
record sales. No, that's false. Producers own fifty percent of
each song.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I don't know. Follow up, the producer gets three to
five percent. Also known as points, we're gonta to validate
this question. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
So so when an artist and a producer walks into
like a studio, if something's created automatically, it's fifty to
fifty right at that point. Now the points will change
based on who wrote, you know, but automatically, you know,
(31:16):
even when you go to license a song, it doesn't
matter what artists saying it. You have to get both
publishing companies to approve it because it's equal ownership until
you start, unless you start adding layers. So yeah, once
you understand the game that you're actually playing, and once
(31:38):
you really I was naive, I was learning, and I
was like, oh.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Let's do it. Eric's like, yeah, do a check here.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'm like, yes, let's do it. Yes, you know, And
then it became wait a minute. This is bigger than
just us being able to find talent and founding teams
that are really going to do what they say. This
is also dependent upon if people validate rain Ventures as
(32:05):
a real firm for following capital. Right, we can only
get the seed stage through Series B companies to a
certain place. And so I think as I started growing
and fighting more for our.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Voice to be here Erica two.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Right, Like, this was not an easy journey starting a
VC firm from the ground up with two black women
where we own one hundred percent of it.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That is unheard of, and it was not easy. It's
still not easy.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
We perform in the top five percent of venture and
it's still hard to raise money.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
What's the toughest part about proving people wrong?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I'm gonna be honest. I've spent so much of my life.
I even dealt with this in therapy because I couldn't
understand that. Like, even when I would make it somewhere,
why was I still always proving trying to prove that
I belonged there? So I would work the hardest, or
even in my own company, Right, Like, even when I
(33:04):
got married, why am I.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Proving every day that I'm worthy of being a white?
I'm a white, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Like, so I had to let go of that, But
I didn't let go of that till my forties. I'm
not here to actually prove anything anymore. I'm here to
prove that I can just be the best version of
myself and show up in that way every day. But
it took me a long time to get to that
place because I actually didn't even understand that that's what
was happening.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So when you think about like diligence, right, you're meeting
a founder and you're assessing a company for the first
time because you're an early stage investor. Most times those
founders don't have anything, right, they have an idea and
they have passion, and they're expressing that to you. What
are the things that are most important to you as
(33:49):
you assess or due diligence on a founder? What are
the things that you look for and a founder that
you believe are most important and also have some indicator
of future success.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So I have two answers for that, Like it's my
very first answer is really the truest. It's We've had
to add other things just because we're sec regulator, right,
But to be honest, you just know, and the more
that I focus on my wellness spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically,
(34:25):
the more I'm tapped in to what this all is.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And I'm just being honest.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
And so it's like that initial you know when you
walk into a room, what the vibe is, right, we
all have that ability to like understand the energetic side
of all things, and so that energy is coming first
way before somebody ever says anything, and so that has
always been my thing, even when I was little. So
(34:50):
because it's not something that can be modeled in algorithms
and spreadsheets. That's not something we like take to meetings, right,
but I do now.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I don't care. It's just what that is.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
And in fact, Russ Carson, who's one of our lead investors,
I asked him one day, like, how do you know?
He said, Monique, you just know. And that's the thing.
And it's okay to just know and not be right
right because there's other things that can happen exactly. And
the more we've tapped into just spending time with people
and not going down that checklist where everything's like automated,
(35:23):
robotic question answer, the more you tap into people and
just pay attention to who they are. So, as you
all know, we spend a lot of time with founders,
so before that check is ever going, it's a relationship
that we build.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
This is the relationship people business. At this stage.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
We always say we show up better in person. Yep,
you could read our presentation, you can talk to the zoom,
but you're not going to feel the level of consistency
or the level of effort that someone is willing to
take or put out, and how sincere they are, and
(36:00):
then doing that right and back to the point, it's
like those things are still probably the most important things, the.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Most important things.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And you know, I think for so long we've all
just been on speed and just go, go, go, go go,
that people have forgotten just the very simplistic concepts of
getting to know people, yes, and taking your time and
no one having to think that they have to show
(36:29):
up perfectly but perfectly being themselves.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Like, so when we're looking and doing diligence, yes, the
traditional diligence, right, But what I'm doing is something very
different than what we're tracking in Karta right in our
diligence folders. What I'm doing is I want to know
what is keeping you up at night? What are you
(36:53):
afraid of? What happens when it doesn't go right? What
is your How do you cope with it? Do you
shut down? Do you get passive aggressive? Like, let's talk
about these things, because we'll put a plan together to
de risk all of that, because we all have these
traits in us, right, things that don't feel so good
when we don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So thinking about like crowdfunding as an example, I think
we all agree you do just kind of feel when
someone's got it. But when you don't have the ability
to spend a bunch of time with the founding team,
the leadership, and you're just assessing a company based off
(37:34):
of maybe what you're reading, what are the things that
really I'll ask both of you, what are the things
that are really important to you? Because I know you've
looked at a lot of things on crowdfunding, even considered
it at some point in our journey. We never did it,
But what do you think is most important? Because you
can't get that time with the founder and a lot
of these people making these investments are making investments for
(37:57):
the first time. I mean, I can't wait to be
an investor one day to the extent that I want,
I would like to be. But I think even in
the companies that I have been a part of, I'm
gravitated to things that are solving real problems. And I
can look at a company and I can tell the
difference between that company was a hot topic AI and
(38:20):
then that person may have had a little specialty at
maybe you know, building cars, and he decided to put
it all together because right now AI is hot and
he can go out and do that, and he that's
a great segment. But to me it would be I
would be more gravitate to the founder where in his
presentation it would come out that maybe his family member
(38:41):
died in a car accident and he's leveraging AI to
make that car better so that it's less accidents.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
So the authentic storytelling, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
You need a connection to the story of why they're
doing it. Yes, that's real and organic versus Hey, it's
easy for me to raise money right now because crypto
is hot, or AI.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Is hot, or the trends right yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Versus I'm doing this for this real reason. Yeah. My
bed is if it gets tough, that's the only thing
that's going to keep you there, right, And it will
get and it will get to it no matter how
much money, it's gonna get tough.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
If it's not getting tough, it's not growing. It's just
what that is, you know. I do think that founders do,
especially in the early stage, the pre seed, the seed stage,
they do get so many different types of answers from
like what is it that you're looking for? As an investor,
(39:37):
and what I try to simplify it for the founders, like, listen,
you need to be able to tell you the story, right,
what problem is there? What is the solution? And why
are you and your team the only ones who can
solve this? And do you have a really valid customer
base that is gonna not because you need it, but
(39:58):
it is everyone else going to need it too, And
you need to be able to understand that. I think
that you know, the earlier founders can practice their financial
models of like okay, best case scenario, worst case scenario,
something in between, a bottom up venture model. Right, you
can't go to venture and ask for investment with a
(40:21):
oh we go from zero to one hundred. It's like
but how right, Like how did you go from zero
customers to one hundred customers?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
What's the growth?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And so that's the area that Erica focuses on.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I really focus on, like the market, the strategy, the vision,
what team are you building and how are you leveraging
your board? Like those are the things that I'm asking
them to tell the story of to see if they
even understand that perspective. And I give we do this now,
but we give live like testing if that makes sense,
(40:55):
Like we put them in a situation, how are you
solving it? Because one of the things that I've recognized
is that they don't know what is about to happen.
But we do right right, We know the top five
to ten areas that all founders struggle with regardless, and
so we've started implementing some of those just run through.
(41:17):
I guess I would say, you know, just to give
them some warm up. In practice too.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Do you invest in solo founders or do you always
look for a co founding team.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
We have a I wouldn't say a mandate, but we
have a practice of at least two founders. The reason
being is that one person can't know everything, nor should
you try to pretend like you know anything. It's just
you're not going to be great at anything then, And
so me and Erica have we are completely opposite from
(41:48):
a skill set perspective, so we do look for founders
that can balance each other.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
So I can't let you go without talking about the election,
not who you voted for, but what do you think
happens over the next four years? Do you think that
your job it becomes more exciting? Do you think there's
more opportunities that are going to be created from it.
Do you think it's going to be more difficult to
operate in the space, are you yeah? What's kind of
your perspective.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I haven't met a piece of my life yet that
hasn't had obstacles and complications. What I learned to do
is kind of like put like how they do the
horses right the blinders. It's like, I actually don't care
what's happening. What I care about is how do we
keep helping founders build effectively efficiently in a way that
is very impactful because funding is always going to be
(42:37):
an issue, especially when it gets to people of color
and women, right Like, that's not going to change. Here's
what I would be happy about is if everyone starts
understanding that the real power is not in governance. We
don't need governance, right like, we are capable of actually
in our true power being everything that we need to be.
(43:01):
I would love for people to like stop thinking people
have to make all their decisions because it's not working. Right,
We're still talking about the same things. It's not working correct.
I would love to ask you all something though, just
one quick thing, just like we're talking about like this
wealth gap and breaking these things and what has been
(43:22):
the most important thing you've learned in disrupting the financial
industry for your own personal financial experience, Like, I think
that would be interesting for people to know.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I think for me, I think the one thing that
I wish I would have known earlier is that that
there is a political aspect that is going to be
required for you to be successful in this space. I
wish I would have known that earlier, probably would have
played that game a bit earlier and would have been
a bit more deliberate earlier. But I think what for me,
(44:00):
there is no plan B for me, and I think
that's what's most important, is that all of my eggs
are in this basket of making this successful, not really
just solely from my own personal financial gain. It's because
the impact that we've set out to have, that is
the mission. That's why we care. That's why we'll take
the abuse that we've taken on so many different allows, right, Like,
(44:24):
that's that's what keeps you in the game. And I'm
a servant for others, right And if I do that
at a really high level, then there will be some
rewards that come from that. But the only but the
thing that has to happen first is that others are
in a better situation than they were before they met me,
and that's what's the most important to me. Yeah, I
(44:44):
think the thing that I've learned that's scary that I
feel some type of way about it.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Is the you always in your feelings.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Feelings, But it's the underlying power of definancial service industry
and how it connects to the next version of real power,
which is wealth and pretty much all else doesn't matter,
you know. I've learned that wealth classes are only classes.
(45:17):
When you really start to break it down, it's either yeah,
there's some other things wrong and discrimination, and trust me,
I understand it. But it's funny how wealth tends to
even some things out really quickly because people respect it.
It has it's more concrete. You can stand on it,
you can walk around with it. I can give it
(45:39):
to you. I can make your kids and your kids
and your kids different because of it. I can affect
whole communities around the world. I can change the way
people think. The only things that I've ever made an
impact to people of less income with someone of high
income deciding to do it. So once I've that's been
(46:03):
the most thing that I'm comfortable with it because I
think me and Travis for some reason don't have the
level of fear that I think most would have, which
is why we approach things in a certain way. But
if you were to accept the fear or it feels
as scary as I'm making this out. And that's the
(46:26):
part that I learned.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I'm grateful, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
We really appreciate you for coming and sharing your insights,
your experience and your journey. I mean, it's been incredible
to watch. I feel like as much as you've watched
our journey, we're actually watching you yours as well. You
have and that's that's really inspiring.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
And you know what, you're right because we've watched each
other and not give up.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yes, so that's the truth. Got to keep going, never stop.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Thanks for listening everyone. The hosts of The Wealth Break
are Me, Rodney Williams, and Travis Holloway. If you want
to stay connected, follow us at The Wealth Break on
all platforms, and be sure to visit the Wealthbreak dot
com for additional resources to help you on your journey
to building wealth. Our Executive producers are Ryan Marx and
(47:20):
Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer. Catch
you next time on the Wealth Break
Hey, I'm Rodney Williams, co founder of The Wealth Break,
and let's get real for a second. Ever felt like
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(00:22):
access paths, the genuine wealth building knowledge. No gatekeeping, no
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If you're loving what you're hearing today, just wait until
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community of knowledge committed to leveling up. Ready to break
the cycle, Your path to real wealth starts now. Visit
wealthbreak dot com and let's get it. Welcome to the
(01:07):
Wealth Break. We're here to discuss the ins and outs
of building wealth, breaking it, and getting it back. I'm
gonna miss uthing on camera. You know the wordying, how
you say it, distifying, the mystifying investing. And we have
an incredible guest today, Monique idol It she's not just
(01:28):
an incredible person, but an incredible, incredible investor and I
can't wait to dive in. But before we bring her along,
let's talk about investing, and let's let's not use no
more of the word I can't say the mystifying. Yeah,
it's just like I mean, obviously, if you guys don't know,
we're founders, we're entrepreneurs, We've invested, we've raised money, but
(01:52):
like when you not are in it, it is actually
really really difficult, to be honest, raising that first dollar
is still technically very difficult. And it was a stranger,
someone I had never met actually in person, but was
able to believe in the product. And I can't tell
you no ram or reason to that, but that's my story.
(02:14):
Most people didn't know what angel investing was until I
don't know, five ten years ago, and just realizing that
there's this huge world out there where people are taking chances,
they're taking risks, they're assessing opportunities, they're doing deep dives
in to market opportunity, and that's just something that when
you don't have, you don't come from the background, it's
just super difficult, in daunting to consider. So I used
(02:37):
to be a financial advisor, and that world was really
more so looking at public markets, right and looking at
traditional stocks, bonds, et cetera. And that was also a
new world for me at a time when I was
coming straight out of college and realizing that that was
the real way that the majority of people were building
this generational wealth and that most people who like me,
(03:01):
didn't come from that background, didn't understand markets, were largely
afraid of it. Right. It's like, don't trust the big banks,
so grab the first myth. So you're saying the first
myth is that everybody is investing, just not people like us.
I think that other other people from other ethnic backgrounds
tend to invest at a higher rate or percentage than
we do at it. I think that a lot of
(03:23):
times when you think about like the black experience and
where black. So let's talk about the black experience. A
lot of our family members who did have some type
of retirement plan, it was largely due to them having
a pension. Right, they worked on an assembly line. They
worked there for thirty five years and that was their
exit opportunity. But they didn't invest in public markets because again,
(03:44):
it's so so new, and if you don't have a
lot of money, no one's going to ever show you
how to do it. And that's the real problem is
that today people have more opportunities to kind of do
it yourself, but historically you had to have some one
show you how to invest. The second man, I'm going
to go out and put it out as that. I
(04:05):
think people that look like myself, we actually invest a lot,
but we're investing in the wrong things. We're investing in
get rich fast versus it seems like investment is about diligence,
taking a time. Yeah, And I think that unfortunately, there's
this perception that there is a path to getting rich quick, right,
(04:26):
and today I think some people believe that crypto is
like their fastest way to get rich, get rich schemes.
You're just gonna put money in today and it's gonna
you know, what is it like to the moon is
going to go to the moon and all of a
sudden you're gonna be buying Lamborghini's ferraris and living in
Miami in a penthouse. No, it doesn't work like that.
(04:46):
And you know, over the course of my life, I've
seen in college, you know, people were selling travel. What
was like first first it was like things like World
Ventures and then they were selling these trips. Remember they
used to be here. People like where do they at?
Men get some shots fired because all the all the folks,
them influencers that's riding around talking about getting rich quick
(05:07):
and all of those things and the pyramid and you
sell this and I sell that, and I do these
things and trades and all of these different things. Where
are you? Yeah, like you know it's oh, you should
start a trucking business. You'll be a millionaire in three months. No,
it doesn't work like that. No one tells you about
when you can't find good drivers and the driver that
(05:27):
you do have is in Omaha, Nebraska, and they just
decide that they don't want to drive no more, and
they just get out the truck and they just leave
it there. Right, Like these things happen all the maintenance
on these vehicles. Like it just it doesn't It's not
as easy as it seems. And I think that's the
main moral of the story. But yeah, we've we've just
we continue to see these these these schemes, right, and
(05:50):
those who get in first. You know what's interesting is
like all of the finance gurus, yeah, who don't make
money by managing other people's money. They tend to make
their money by selling courses and doing master classes. It
cannot kind of tell the truth. If someone is good
at finance, they should be making significantly more money doing
(06:12):
finance than teaching you how to do it. Exactly. The
best Wall Streeter goes to an office in New York
City or some office, and they make money managing other
people's money. They don't make money selling you internet classes.
That's just not how they get rich. Right, So if
you're really, really, really, really that good at managing money
(06:33):
or investing, you would be investing for other people, not
just telling them useless information. That sounds good. Crazy. Now
let's get to my favorite part of that show is
when we co switch on a particular topic. Although I
feel like we're code switching all the time, but we're
gonna code switch because you know, when I think about investing,
(06:54):
the next thing I think about as assets. You know,
if there was an episode that we've done and we
talked about home ownership, and now it's like this concept
of some of these cities, the saying is like renting
is actually more affordable, or said differently, a better financial
situation or decision than it is buying. I think we
need to unpack that a bit. Yeah, I mean, I think,
(07:16):
you know, like in the real voice though, Yeah, nah,
I mean, I think the reality is this. Most people
can't afford to own a home today, and they can't
afford because they can't pay for the down payment. What
I think one of the biggest learnings that I've had
and I've seen is that you can't necessarily income your
way into wealth, right, And I think that's really important
as you think about the concept of investing. It doesn't
(07:38):
matter if you make five hundred thousand dollars a year
we live in California. By the time tax eats that up,
there's no way to really become wealthy just with income.
I think you have to do something with that capital,
and you have to figure out how to really grow
your overall balance sheet and your net worth while you're
sleeping in other ways. But with that said, I think that,
(08:01):
you know, with people not being able to afford the
down payment to get into these homes, the real issue
becomes for those who can. Right they saved, they got
the home. A lot of times it's no longer cheaper
with interest rates going up, it's not necessarily cheaper on
a per month basis to be a homeowner versus a renter.
There was a time where there was a significant delta
(08:23):
in between the cost of the price to rent versus
your mortgage, and we're not really seeing that anymore. And
that's what's that's the real game changer. And then you
start to layer on the fact that the most money
that you would not I know I mentioned this the
last time, but the most you're going to spend on
a home ownership or on a roof over your head
(08:43):
with rent is your rent, right, it's the maximum that
you're going to pay that month. With home ownership, there's
so many variable costs that you know that can get
out of control really really fast. You know, my only
thing is every investment, every asset, you have to know
when you're getting in the thing about home ownership. Yes,
in some cities it might be better to rent. But
there is someone who owns that home and it's so cheap,
(09:05):
he's making so much money or she is, that he
can actually rent it to you for that price. That
mean he bought it when it was low, and that
mean he bought it at an interest rate where it
made sense to rent it for you cheaper than what
you could go ahead and buy it today. And that's
kind of what I see right now. When you look
at California, it's a lot of people that owned homes
(09:26):
when the interest rate was two and three percent six
seven years ago. You know they can today's environment, it's
profitable for him. So I think I'm in the middle,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm in the middle
of it. You know, I did well on home owner ship,
but at the same time, I understand why it may
be beneficial in a near term, but the rules are
(09:47):
still the same. It's about when you buy the asset. Yeah,
and can you actually save right like, can you afford?
Is there a significant dolsa between renting and your mortgage?
And if you're paying significantly more to rent, then with
being your best interest to try to figure out how
to get into home ownership. The challenge is is that
when your rent is so expensive, it's very difficult to
save to get that down payment. But you know, with
(10:09):
that said, you think about home ownership with a lot
of the natural disasters that we're seeing, it's interesting to
me to kind of look at the insurance industry and
see how many people are taking significant losses as homeowners
because of natural disasters, but people who are renting aren't
because in some of these areas, it's easier to get
(10:31):
the renters insurance versus the homeowner's insurance. And there's people
who are literally waiting months, years to get these claims
for home ownership, and some of them are going to
have really bad experiences. Whereas you know, a renter is
going to get their cash, they're going to go somewhere else.
Then Also, if you lose your home and you had
that two or three percent interest rate, you know, I
(10:52):
don't necessarily know what happens after that, right because you're
going to have to go get something else, clearly, And
what does that interest rate look like? What does that
mortgage payment look like? It's going to be drastically different
at seven or eight percent than it was at two?
Are you going to be able to find something equivalent?
I don't know, we don't know. We got to continue
this with that incredible guest. I'm so excited to announce
(11:14):
Monique Islet is joining us today. Incredible visionary leader CEO.
I would call her a disruptive but most importantly today
she is the founder and managing partner of rain Ventures,
an incredible early stage venture fund that's one hundred percent
woman and dope led. That's probably the wrong context, but
(11:39):
I'm excited because I think her perspective is going to
be really good. So let's dive in. Before we dive in,
we like to start every conversation with asking when you
were broke? Okay, right, And it means different things to
(12:00):
different people, But I.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Don't think I've ever been broke.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But that's just my perspective, and maybe that's the answer
we need, you know, that's the answer we want to hear.
And the reason why we ask it is because you know,
a lot of our guests they see us, they see
they hear all the success stories and they sometimes I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
The reals like the twenty second, sixty second everybody's doing
fabulous concept as.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Entrepreneurs, the things that the things that we put out into.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The world, you know, came a millionaire overnight and then
over night exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And you know, one of our guests most recently, you know,
she said the year that she made the most money
she ever made was the year that she was most
broke because she just forgot to pay her taxes and
it just created an interesting situation for right.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's interesting though, because even growing up in the projects
in New Jersey, I never we never looked at ourselves
as broke. I think that's a mindset, but that is
just my always agree even in college when I got
like the best dress, all my clothes came from the
thrift store. Yeah, it's a it's a mentality. It's a mindset.
(13:04):
Like there's the aspirational and then there's the like the
revolving loop of you're not like, why am I not there?
It's like because it starts with before you even get there.
So in my mind, never been broke. I've aspired to more.
I've aspired to different things. But as a serial entrepreneur,
(13:28):
there have been times where the flow of cash is
different and most people would define that as they think
they're broke.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I've never looked at life like that.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, most people are when they're once exceed their ability,
they consider themselves broke. But it is one hundred percent
of mindset, right because like a lot of people who
have the financial part are still broke in because they're
not fulfilled in other ways.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Everyone wants what they can't what they think they can't
have or what they don't have, right, you know, being
successful living in a community where like all the top
successful financial families lived their kids, all of our kids
going to the same school. That is the most broken
of people I've ever been around. And the things that
(14:18):
traumatically were all going on in their life, why they
all were swiping their black cards and driving their ferraris
was more traumatic than anything I ever saw in income
based housing or being with a single mom. You know,
like it just so it depends on what people are
looking for and what they want out of life to
decide if they are broke or not.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Right, Yeah, you know, it's always like finding balanced because
you can you can easily one day be like, you know,
I'm broke because you know, yes I would like a
new thing and I can't get it yet, but that's
just yet. And then you get it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Is it that though I don't know, it's good.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's a mindset because it also evolves over time. Right,
what made you feel broke at one point in your
life is not what would make you feel broke today, right.
You know, as you continue to evolve and you continue
to see more, experience more, all of a sudden. Now
you're mad because you can't buy a home in the Hamptons.
I'm broke. But theoretically, what you have now you aspired
(15:18):
for at one point in your life, right, But the.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Fact that you eat.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But see, here's the thing that people should all realize
and even if we think about even when we first
met over fifteen years ago, right, it's not about what
it's right now, because that's actually what you're not building for.
If you can't mentally tell yourself that you're getting something
or you deserve something, or you desire something, it doesn't
matter how much cash you have or how much money
(15:42):
you have, You're always going to be in a mindset
that you don't deserve it, right, or you don't deserve that.
You can never aspire to something because of circumstance, you
can't visualize it. So I think we have to reprogram
like what creation looks like, what visualization looks like, because
that's actually where it is.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
What was the first memory you have of aspiring something
different as a little girl, Like when was the first
time you're like, oh, I'm motivated.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
As a little girl.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
When my sister and I are two years apart, I'm
the oldest and at like we have pictures of me
like at seven six, seven, eight years old, and my
mom's dress suits with like rubber bands tying it. And
I'd have a desk, and if my sister had to
be my secretary every day for my company that I created,
(16:30):
and then I would do all her chores inside.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I didn't want to be outside anyways.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I wanted to be inside building and being the boss
lady of my own company. And so my mother saw
that and then she fed into that side of me.
So as a little person, I think all little people
show us who they are. We just don't pay attention
to it because we title it children or kids like
as if they can't dream or that's the closest to it.
(16:57):
That imagination, that is where you are get the most
authentic version of that person.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right So, and I think in all of our lives,
I can't speak for you, but this is a question.
There was a time where you had this thought kind
of piggybacking on that a little bit where it's like
I'm inspired, but I have to be the one to
do it, and like I have to maybe for my family,
I have to go out and achieve some level of
(17:23):
success to make sure that we're good and when you
have that experience and then you achieve that level of success,
and then you have children who don't, who maybe don't
necessarily need to have that high moment of like I
have to go figure this out for my family. How
do you think about like the difference of how you
(17:45):
parent knowing that your kids might not need to have
that moment of I gotta go save my family.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
That's a that's a big question, Travis gonna hit you with. Yeah,
that's it's like a lot of questions in one question.
So let's like start with like the very first thing, right,
And so I'm assuming that the question is how as
a parent and my measuring and tracking, like how I
need my children to feel so they can show up
(18:12):
for themselves. Yeah, well, I think it goes back to
I've never looked at them as my property. I've never
looked at them as like my dreams need to be
fulfilled through them, right, Like, so I paid attention to
who they are. My mother always taught us like I
have three of you, and for each one of you,
I'm learning a different parent Like there's no one style
(18:35):
for this, right, all three of you are different.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I was very strong willed.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I was very rebellious, like I don't you're not going
to put me in a box. My sister was very
meek and mild and creative, and my brother was just
the youngest boy, right, the only boy, and so all
of us required a different type of parenting style. And
so as a parent, you got to think I was
a mom in college, so that as a different monique, right,
(19:02):
and that child needed something different Demetrius.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And that's probably also what drove you to say, I
gotta go figure this out. Because you had responsibility so young.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I think it advanced it. But I think that before
I ever became a mother, I wanted to go figure
it out. The world just was like I can do
anything I want to do, but in regard to how
I need to show up for them to show up
for themselves. I'll tell you a story. It's like the
best way I can define it. When Demetrius was like five,
that's when Pokemon, I know, they came back out, but
(19:32):
like Pokemon had just like really come out and it
was like a big deal. And he went to an
after school program and there was like six kids who
drove the bus from the school to the after school program.
They were his friends, right, it's the same kids every
single day. He comes home one day and he has
this huge case of Pokemon cards and I noticed that
(19:53):
those aren't his, Like he has a lot of them,
but that's not his case. And he's like, yeah, I
found them on the bus. Mom says, you better turn
that back in and I said no. I was like, Demetrius, well,
what do you want to do? And my mother she
didn't understand my perspective. But if we if we talk
to each other as a community, even as a little person,
(20:14):
all the way to us as adults. Right, if we
keep telling people what to do, at what point do
they have to show up for themselves? And so at
that moment, at five, I taught him you don't have
to do anything. What do you want to do? Its
six kids on the bus, it's one of those kids.
What you're gonna do? You can keep them if you
(20:36):
want them, That's what I told them, Or you can
you can give them back.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yes, that's a freedom that he had at a young
age three.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Will is what we all have. Yeah, we have to
empower them.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I think sometimes we don't feel it though, And that's
that's almost kind of what I was thinking about, Like
from a financial perspective, when kids come from a more
effluent background, they have more choice, they have more opportunities,
they have more protection too, Yeah, and they can take
make more risks. They can be more free with their
thoughts and their creativity. They have more latitude to be
(21:07):
themselves versus I gotta go save my family. Right, we're
talking about like survival mode, yes, yeah, or thriving.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
But I didn't want to put I knew that that
approach right, that the older generation tag Because I said,
so that puts you into surviving. You no longer are
critically thinking, You're no longer able to say what are
the consequences of this behavior versus this behavior? So I
told them you have two choices. You can keep them
you're not in trouble with me, or you can give
(21:38):
them back. What would you want somebody to do? And
he gave them back. But the point was is if
you have to keep telling everybody what to do, that
creates resentment because you start taking people's choices away. So
as a parent, yes, I had to go into survival mode,
but responsibility for their own behaviors is what to me
(21:58):
was the most important thing. I'm not coming to save you.
You've been given an opportunity. I'm gonna let you make
your own choices. Just know that there's consequences to either side.
Think it through.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let's get into your deviation from being in corporate America
to being in music or entertainment, to then diving into
this world of investment, and as you do that, just
love to give us the summary version of that story,
because you know there's gonna be many folks that are
here who may not know. I think how prolific that
(22:32):
journey may have been.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
You know, my name, Ounique means advisor, right, So it
doesn't surprise me that I actually love a life of
like constant evolution of myself and the challenge of what
else can we get into that we're not supposed to
get into, or the rooms that they say we don't
belong in. I think for me, my journey has always
been the audacity to know I deserve something even if
(22:57):
I wasn't qualified for it. I think that's really important
because we put so much emphasis on you better know
how to do something, when the reality is you won't
know how to do something till you do it, and
you say that you actually can do it right. And
so when I got recruited by USA today, I was
twenty two years old. I got hired and recruited for
a national junior executive position for marketing and sales. The
(23:21):
day I started, they were interviewing for the national senior
global exec and I was like, I want that job.
They're like, oh, you don't qualify. You need twenty five
years experience in marketing and advertising. I was like, actually,
I do want that job, and maybe that's what you need,
a new perspective, and you.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
See what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So like it's about when do we just start controlling
our own narrative. I didn't qualify for the job, who cares?
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, and just go for it?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I went for it. Sometimes I got it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah. Sometimes, like when you you don't know like the
protocol or how things work and you're kind of going
into something blind, it gives you a little bit of
like confidence of I just believe in myself and I
could figure it out. And if you would have known
a long protocol or process of what it takes to
get there and you're looking at all the prerecs, most
people wouldn't apply because they're just like they psyche themselves
(24:13):
out and say that you know, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Well, think about the history of our culture just in general, right,
or any culture or person that feels less than or
not enough of something. A lot of that is around
the structure historically of organized religion, right, where you have
to go through a third party to have a relationship
(24:36):
with God.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's actually not true.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
So the reality is that we have to reprogram the
mindset that as an individual, everything you need is in
here and you are actually with God, right, And so
you don't need third party people, you don't need education
telling you what you can and can't do in life.
And so it's also a part of our responsibilities to
kind of take that power back too.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I took that power back at USA today.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I started my first company at USA today, which is
how I even got into the entertainment industry. Started working
with talent and bridging that gap of them creating like
an actual media kit and brand like who they were
as a brand, not just as a name for a talent,
partnering them with all my corporate clients, right. And then
that's how I got into the label side, and I
(25:22):
shut Tim wanted me to shut my agency down. So
I shut that down and then we started mostly music
group where I operated as the CEO and kind of
like the creative business wise, and then he was the creative,
you know. But transitioning from talent in the entertainment industry
to talent in the founding the Venture early stage world,
(25:44):
to me was the exact same thing. Like the thesis
at the label and publishing company was fewer writers, fewer artists,
global platinum success. Jump in there, put that bumper system up.
Whatever they need, but make it like a real brand
and not just like something trendy.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I don't like trends.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
And so when I got into Venture and met Erica,
you know, my master's program.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
It was like it felt right, It just felt right.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
It was the easiest transition, to be honest, dealing with talent.
The most difficult transition was the financial world deeming me
I wasn't validated or qualified to be in their industry,
so I should start like me and Erica should start
like a charitable And that's when I was like that, right,
(26:34):
were okay, watch this, it's a challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, right, What was your first investment? What was the
or when did that start?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So that was what for over fourteen years ago. Whenever
we met, ye solo funds. I'm not solo Funds, although
like a year after I met, you were talking about
you didn't have a name to solo funds, but you
had the idea. You were talking about the idea listener,
the box and I forget the ozill the on demand massage.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Was it scary the first check you wrote?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
No, it wasn't you know.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
The check that was the scariest that I wrote was
into solo Funds because I was in a whole new
world now I was divorced. I chose to kind of
like I wanted to rebuild from the ground up. So
I didn't stay in the entertainment industry. And I think
that when it was now more about I'm in the
music industry at entertainment and you were in a cash business.
(27:34):
It's very different right now, I'm really understanding because my
first checks that I wrote fifteen like literally I didn't
know early stage, I don't what do you what do
you mean ten yars? You're gonna get your money back
maybe in ten years. That was not that we made
money every day in the music industry, right We made
money to show up ses. We're making money before we
(27:55):
even come to you, right, So it was money working
all the time.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Time.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
It became scary when that model for me wasn't there anymore.
And now we're talking for real seven tenth sometimes longer
before you ever receive a return. So that was those
were solo fun my first and second check. Personally, I
was like, Okay, this is how I knew how much
(28:23):
I believed in y'all for that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Go ahead. Legal disclaimer. Monique is an investor Solofons and
we work at Solofon's head intern head secretary of.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Oh sorry, yeah, we've got a part of the show.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
We're going through some quick questions.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Oh, the rapid fire is the rapid fire?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
It has nothing to me.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It is funny. I hope it's funny. It should be funny.
We got a great team that puts some funny questions together. Okay,
so are you ready? We'll see maybe Travis, are you ready?
I think I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (29:12):
All right?
Speaker 1 (29:13):
How long does a copyright last? Thirty years? One hundred
years author's life plus seventy years?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh is it? Is it one hundred years?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Or maybe it is the cop the author's life plus seventy.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Ding ding ding ding ding. That's the right answer. Yeah,
that was gonne cheating because I mean you kind of.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Know that not necessarily all right, I mean it was
it was really specific, right, Yeah, it was like thirty
one hundred seventy or the Life plus.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, the Life plus is what got me say, all right, yeah,
next one. During what quarter is it thought to be
the most difficult to launch a new artist?
Speaker 3 (29:57):
The most difficult to launch a new art? It is, oh, definitely, uh,
fourth quarter for sure.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's when all the heavy hitters are coming.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Well and everything shut down, radio shut down, like there's
there's Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
According to the facts, fourth quarter is generally accepted to
be the most difficult because radio stations shut down to
play Christmas music. There's a lot of competition with other
new releases for Christmas shopping, and it's hard to tour
in winter.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
That's all the iconic people like putting out stuff. Yeah,
final final, final, final question true or false. Producers typically
make three to five percent of an artist's income from
record sales. No, that's false. Producers own fifty percent of
each song.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I don't know. Follow up, the producer gets three to
five percent. Also known as points, we're gonta to validate
this question. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
So so when an artist and a producer walks into
like a studio, if something's created automatically, it's fifty to
fifty right at that point. Now the points will change
based on who wrote, you know, but automatically, you know,
(31:16):
even when you go to license a song, it doesn't
matter what artists saying it. You have to get both
publishing companies to approve it because it's equal ownership until
you start, unless you start adding layers. So yeah, once
you understand the game that you're actually playing, and once
(31:38):
you really I was naive, I was learning, and I
was like, oh.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Let's do it. Eric's like, yeah, do a check here.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I'm like, yes, let's do it. Yes, you know, And
then it became wait a minute. This is bigger than
just us being able to find talent and founding teams
that are really going to do what they say. This
is also dependent upon if people validate rain Ventures as
(32:05):
a real firm for following capital. Right, we can only
get the seed stage through Series B companies to a
certain place. And so I think as I started growing
and fighting more for our.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Voice to be here Erica two.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Right, Like, this was not an easy journey starting a
VC firm from the ground up with two black women
where we own one hundred percent of it.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That is unheard of, and it was not easy. It's
still not easy.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
We perform in the top five percent of venture and
it's still hard to raise money.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
What's the toughest part about proving people wrong?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I'm gonna be honest. I've spent so much of my life.
I even dealt with this in therapy because I couldn't
understand that. Like, even when I would make it somewhere,
why was I still always proving trying to prove that
I belonged there? So I would work the hardest, or
even in my own company, Right, Like, even when I
(33:04):
got married, why am I.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Proving every day that I'm worthy of being a white?
I'm a white, you know.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Like, so I had to let go of that, But
I didn't let go of that till my forties. I'm
not here to actually prove anything anymore. I'm here to
prove that I can just be the best version of
myself and show up in that way every day. But
it took me a long time to get to that
place because I actually didn't even understand that that's what
was happening.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So when you think about like diligence, right, you're meeting
a founder and you're assessing a company for the first
time because you're an early stage investor. Most times those
founders don't have anything, right, they have an idea and
they have passion, and they're expressing that to you. What
are the things that are most important to you as
(33:49):
you assess or due diligence on a founder? What are
the things that you look for and a founder that
you believe are most important and also have some indicator
of future success.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So I have two answers for that, Like it's my
very first answer is really the truest. It's We've had
to add other things just because we're sec regulator, right,
But to be honest, you just know, and the more
that I focus on my wellness spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically,
(34:25):
the more I'm tapped in to what this all is.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And I'm just being honest.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
And so it's like that initial you know when you
walk into a room, what the vibe is, right, we
all have that ability to like understand the energetic side
of all things, and so that energy is coming first
way before somebody ever says anything, and so that has
always been my thing, even when I was little. So
(34:50):
because it's not something that can be modeled in algorithms
and spreadsheets. That's not something we like take to meetings, right,
but I do now.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
I don't care. It's just what that is.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
And in fact, Russ Carson, who's one of our lead investors,
I asked him one day, like, how do you know?
He said, Monique, you just know. And that's the thing.
And it's okay to just know and not be right
right because there's other things that can happen exactly. And
the more we've tapped into just spending time with people
and not going down that checklist where everything's like automated,
(35:23):
robotic question answer, the more you tap into people and
just pay attention to who they are. So, as you
all know, we spend a lot of time with founders,
so before that check is ever going, it's a relationship
that we build.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
This is the relationship people business. At this stage.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
We always say we show up better in person. Yep,
you could read our presentation, you can talk to the zoom,
but you're not going to feel the level of consistency
or the level of effort that someone is willing to
take or put out, and how sincere they are, and
(36:00):
then doing that right and back to the point, it's
like those things are still probably the most important things, the.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Most important things.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And you know, I think for so long we've all
just been on speed and just go, go, go, go go,
that people have forgotten just the very simplistic concepts of
getting to know people, yes, and taking your time and
no one having to think that they have to show
(36:29):
up perfectly but perfectly being themselves.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Like, so when we're looking and doing diligence, yes, the
traditional diligence, right, But what I'm doing is something very
different than what we're tracking in Karta right in our
diligence folders. What I'm doing is I want to know
what is keeping you up at night? What are you
(36:53):
afraid of? What happens when it doesn't go right? What
is your How do you cope with it? Do you
shut down? Do you get passive aggressive? Like, let's talk
about these things, because we'll put a plan together to
de risk all of that, because we all have these
traits in us, right, things that don't feel so good
when we don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
So thinking about like crowdfunding as an example, I think
we all agree you do just kind of feel when
someone's got it. But when you don't have the ability
to spend a bunch of time with the founding team,
the leadership, and you're just assessing a company based off
(37:34):
of maybe what you're reading, what are the things that
really I'll ask both of you, what are the things
that are really important to you? Because I know you've
looked at a lot of things on crowdfunding, even considered
it at some point in our journey. We never did it,
But what do you think is most important? Because you
can't get that time with the founder and a lot
of these people making these investments are making investments for
(37:57):
the first time. I mean, I can't wait to be
an investor one day to the extent that I want,
I would like to be. But I think even in
the companies that I have been a part of, I'm
gravitated to things that are solving real problems. And I
can look at a company and I can tell the
difference between that company was a hot topic AI and
(38:20):
then that person may have had a little specialty at
maybe you know, building cars, and he decided to put
it all together because right now AI is hot and
he can go out and do that, and he that's
a great segment. But to me it would be I
would be more gravitate to the founder where in his
presentation it would come out that maybe his family member
(38:41):
died in a car accident and he's leveraging AI to
make that car better so that it's less accidents.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
So the authentic storytelling, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
You need a connection to the story of why they're
doing it. Yes, that's real and organic versus Hey, it's
easy for me to raise money right now because crypto
is hot, or AI.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Is hot, or the trends right yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Versus I'm doing this for this real reason. Yeah. My
bed is if it gets tough, that's the only thing
that's going to keep you there, right, And it will
get and it will get to it no matter how
much money, it's gonna get tough.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
If it's not getting tough, it's not growing. It's just
what that is, you know. I do think that founders do,
especially in the early stage, the pre seed, the seed stage,
they do get so many different types of answers from
like what is it that you're looking for? As an investor,
(39:37):
and what I try to simplify it for the founders, like, listen,
you need to be able to tell you the story, right,
what problem is there? What is the solution? And why
are you and your team the only ones who can
solve this? And do you have a really valid customer
base that is gonna not because you need it, but
(39:58):
it is everyone else going to need it too, And
you need to be able to understand that. I think
that you know, the earlier founders can practice their financial
models of like okay, best case scenario, worst case scenario,
something in between, a bottom up venture model. Right, you
can't go to venture and ask for investment with a
(40:21):
oh we go from zero to one hundred. It's like
but how right, Like how did you go from zero
customers to one hundred customers?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
What's the growth?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And so that's the area that Erica focuses on.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I really focus on, like the market, the strategy, the vision,
what team are you building and how are you leveraging
your board? Like those are the things that I'm asking
them to tell the story of to see if they
even understand that perspective. And I give we do this now,
but we give live like testing if that makes sense,
(40:55):
Like we put them in a situation, how are you
solving it? Because one of the things that I've recognized
is that they don't know what is about to happen.
But we do right right, We know the top five
to ten areas that all founders struggle with regardless, and
so we've started implementing some of those just run through.
(41:17):
I guess I would say, you know, just to give
them some warm up. In practice too.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Do you invest in solo founders or do you always
look for a co founding team.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
We have a I wouldn't say a mandate, but we
have a practice of at least two founders. The reason
being is that one person can't know everything, nor should
you try to pretend like you know anything. It's just
you're not going to be great at anything then, And
so me and Erica have we are completely opposite from
(41:48):
a skill set perspective, so we do look for founders
that can balance each other.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
So I can't let you go without talking about the election,
not who you voted for, but what do you think
happens over the next four years? Do you think that
your job it becomes more exciting? Do you think there's
more opportunities that are going to be created from it.
Do you think it's going to be more difficult to
operate in the space, are you yeah? What's kind of
your perspective.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I haven't met a piece of my life yet that
hasn't had obstacles and complications. What I learned to do
is kind of like put like how they do the
horses right the blinders. It's like, I actually don't care
what's happening. What I care about is how do we
keep helping founders build effectively efficiently in a way that
is very impactful because funding is always going to be
(42:37):
an issue, especially when it gets to people of color
and women, right Like, that's not going to change. Here's
what I would be happy about is if everyone starts
understanding that the real power is not in governance. We
don't need governance, right like, we are capable of actually
in our true power being everything that we need to be.
(43:01):
I would love for people to like stop thinking people
have to make all their decisions because it's not working. Right,
We're still talking about the same things. It's not working correct.
I would love to ask you all something though, just
one quick thing, just like we're talking about like this
wealth gap and breaking these things and what has been
(43:22):
the most important thing you've learned in disrupting the financial
industry for your own personal financial experience, Like, I think
that would be interesting for people to know.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I think for me, I think the one thing that
I wish I would have known earlier is that that
there is a political aspect that is going to be
required for you to be successful in this space. I
wish I would have known that earlier, probably would have
played that game a bit earlier and would have been
a bit more deliberate earlier. But I think what for me,
(44:00):
there is no plan B for me, and I think
that's what's most important, is that all of my eggs
are in this basket of making this successful, not really
just solely from my own personal financial gain. It's because
the impact that we've set out to have, that is
the mission. That's why we care. That's why we'll take
the abuse that we've taken on so many different allows, right, Like,
(44:24):
that's that's what keeps you in the game. And I'm
a servant for others, right And if I do that
at a really high level, then there will be some
rewards that come from that. But the only but the
thing that has to happen first is that others are
in a better situation than they were before they met me,
and that's what's the most important to me. Yeah, I
(44:44):
think the thing that I've learned that's scary that I
feel some type of way about it.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Is the you always in your feelings.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Feelings, But it's the underlying power of definancial service industry
and how it connects to the next version of real power,
which is wealth and pretty much all else doesn't matter,
you know. I've learned that wealth classes are only classes.
(45:17):
When you really start to break it down, it's either yeah,
there's some other things wrong and discrimination, and trust me,
I understand it. But it's funny how wealth tends to
even some things out really quickly because people respect it.
It has it's more concrete. You can stand on it,
you can walk around with it. I can give it
(45:39):
to you. I can make your kids and your kids
and your kids different because of it. I can affect
whole communities around the world. I can change the way
people think. The only things that I've ever made an
impact to people of less income with someone of high
income deciding to do it. So once I've that's been
(46:03):
the most thing that I'm comfortable with it because I
think me and Travis for some reason don't have the
level of fear that I think most would have, which
is why we approach things in a certain way. But
if you were to accept the fear or it feels
as scary as I'm making this out. And that's the
(46:26):
part that I learned.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I'm grateful, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
We really appreciate you for coming and sharing your insights,
your experience and your journey. I mean, it's been incredible
to watch. I feel like as much as you've watched
our journey, we're actually watching you yours as well. You
have and that's that's really inspiring.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
And you know what, you're right because we've watched each
other and not give up.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Yes, so that's the truth. Got to keep going, never stop.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Thanks for listening everyone. The hosts of The Wealth Break
are Me, Rodney Williams, and Travis Holloway. If you want
to stay connected, follow us at The Wealth Break on
all platforms, and be sure to visit the Wealthbreak dot
com for additional resources to help you on your journey
to building wealth. Our Executive producers are Ryan Marx and
(47:20):
Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer. Catch
you next time on the Wealth Break
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