August 5, 2025 • 24 mins
Forget the polished bios. In this solo episode, Rodney Williams strips it all back. Raised in a Jamaican-American household where his mom worked three jobs—nurse, hairdresser, daycare provider—and his dad fixed everything from cabinets to cars, Rodney learned early what hustle looked like. But building something lasting meant unlearning a lot too. From corporate life at Procter & Gamble to co-founding a fintech startup, Rodney shares the tough calls, the personal costs, and the moments of doubt most success stories skip. This is what it really looks like to bet on yourself—and keep going.
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Episode Transcript
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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
real wealth building strategies are locked behind closed doors, only
reserved for the people with special connections. Trust me, you're
not wrong, but we're changing all of that right now.
The Wealth Break isn't just another podcast. It's your all
(00:22):
access past the genuine wealth building knowledge.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No gatekeeping, no confusion jargon, just.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Real talk, powerful strategies, and transparent conversations designed for people
like us.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Because building wealth shouldn't feel exclusive.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
If you're loving what you're handing 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
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.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Welcome to the Wealth Break. This is where we unlock
stories of financial.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Success, pushing, breaking down odds, being yourself and and doing
it in a way which we hope closes the wealth gap.
My family, my mom and dad are born in Jamaica.
Many of my brothers and sisters are actually born in
(01:33):
Jamaica except for myself and one other brother, and we
tended to room together, I think mainly because we were
most American and my family lies. But the house it
was a working home. My dad worked super long hours
and my mom worked pretty long hours as well, I
think in normal Jamaican fashion.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Though they had a ton of jobs.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So my mom was a nurse and a hairdresser and
she had a daycare center. And my dad was everything
from the carpenter to two mechanic to the you know,
cabinet maker. He was big with his home improvement. You know,
when I ain't talk about money and how I was raised,
there's a concept that I've been thinking about for a
long time now, not a long time now, but most recently,
(02:14):
is talking about growing up wanting for things or growing
up never needing things. Right, It's almost like two different
type of mindsets. Why I grew up not having things
and wanting things. So, you know, the way my parents
were and they were working were my dad was very
(02:36):
much like you should figure it out, and he was
like figure it out that Like he made sure, you know,
food was on the table. I had, you know, the
right things and clothes to wear, but pretty much anything else.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It was up to us to.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Figure it out, and that just sparked a lot of ideas.
As a kid, I always had a business. I would quickly,
you know, see my neighbor cutting grass or shoveling snow,
and I'd be like, I don't know physical labors to me.
But my mom had a hairdresser, and you know, she
never had great magazines. So I thought of an opportunity
of me, like, maybe go out and buy some of
(03:09):
these magazines and leased it out to the folks because
they weren't going to be there and it weren't actually
made a lot of money. But I was always trying
to figure out how to better do something as a
way to provide for myself. And I used to watch
Lifestyle of the Rissian Famous, and I noticed it's super important.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It was a great show.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
But if you watch that show, the folks who were
had all the wealth were owners. They weren't the athletes
of the entertainers. And I quickly decided that's not what
I wanted to do. It's not like a dollar amount
that I'm looking to achieve. It's not accolades or awards,
and it's not even acceptance it's freedom. And it's what
(03:49):
I mean by that is being able to do what
you want to do, whether that may be go on
vacation or you know, send your child to a certain
school or buy a certain thing. It wasn't about the things,
it was the act of being able to do it.
I think all my memories were all about like you
got to wait till next week, or you know, you
(04:11):
got to save, or you got to do this. Like
it was always like a you know, yeah, but let's
figure it out. And that felt really restrictive and I
feel like my family had to make very very tough
choices because of it. And I always decided that if
I was going to go out and try to accomplish something,
I want to accomplish freedom for myself and ultimately freedom
(04:31):
for my family, but also freedom for others. You know,
life happens, and I think you have to try to
navigate it. You know, I've learned that someone who sees
life differently sees opportunity differently. You know, you're usually the outcast.
(04:51):
You're usually like the person sitting staring at the wall
at the busy bar and everyone's asking you, what are
you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Out fixated on a concept.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I was at my first tech company called Listener, and
things were going well. I had went home and all
my friends and family kept coming to me asking for money.
I was like, I was the person in the family
who made it, so you know, everything from car to
breaks to like you name it. I was just their
sounding board. And I was just wondering, like, is it
just me or there real need I flew back to
(05:25):
New York. I remember leaving and thinking about it on
the airplane. I some of my best moments happened on
the airplane, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So I do my little like back and forth with myself.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
By the time my land Travis is one of the
first people that I see that night, and I'm telling
them all about it, and we're like vibing on the
same problem, and then we decided to do something about it.
I think for me, everyone thought it was either too
simple or too hard.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
No one thought it was in the middle.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It was like, and this was like twenty fifteen, to
be honest, Like we would meet on like Tuesdays and
Thursdays and just work on it and slowly and slowly
over a couple of different years, until we had a
pitch deck and we had a logo and we thought
about how it would work.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But at that point in time, there was on one
working full time.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I will tell you two forcing mechanisms, Travis finally
saying he's ready to quit his job and do it
because I was at the same time, I saw almost
like cause we need kind of need you because at
the time I couldn't leave listener. I was like, this
has to be your show because I can't right now.
And I think this is the moment. And he left
(06:40):
and it became the moment, and I think, you know,
within a few years, I was also there.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So that's how it all happened.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I think I do a good job at like departmentalizing
for people. So like, there's a group of people who
are more like my consumer. So I'm talking to them
very very different. I'm not talking to him about tech convention.
I'm talking to him and told them about like would
you want alone from a friend and would you pay
them back and these type of simple like insights. I
was actually getting really good feedback from the market segment,
(07:08):
the group of consumers, my friends and family. I went
to a lot of people for help. I remember going
to a lot of people that I respected and say, hey,
could you help me do this?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like would you want to be one of my co founders?
Like could you talk about it?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Like I think it's a really good thing, and a
lot of people just thought it wouldn't work despite so
much pushback, and to be honest, continue pushback to this day,
it's always been you know, those faces of people who
I know that we are supporting and helping that keep
it going. You always talk about the nose that hurt
the most. The nose that hurt the most were from
(07:42):
people who I thought would be supportive, you know, like
politicians who broadcast the need for financially inclusive tech products,
or you know, people in power that I don't want
to necessarily name, who talk about it but don't ever
want to do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Those were the nose that bothered me the.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Most because I, at one point in time was inspired
by the things they would say. So for them to
not reciprocate the energy when they saw the product, it
broke my heart a bit, but it didn't make me
want to stop. I remember, Travis is one of Travis's
first pitch competition. I hope you never find it online
because it was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. But you
(08:28):
don't get good at something by not trying. But you
know what happens is we started winning. And what win
winning comes with is capital, maybe twenty five thousands, maybe
a ten thousand dollars check, sometimes a five thousand dollars check.
But all of a sudden, we were gaining capital so
that we can start building the product. And when you
start to win these accelerators and pitch competitions, you're also
(08:49):
gaining advocacy of people who want to help, people who
are picking. You know, hey, I know this developer you
should talk to, or I know this teammate you should
talk to, or I know this VC. And we literally
started from that.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The first accelerator we got into out of New York
City was a Fintech Accelerator of Columbus, Ohio. And then
it was like and that was called like Loomos, and
then we did accelerator for Founders of Color in Cincinnati, Ohio. Meanwhile,
Travis is going from couch to coush pretty much every
three months, while while his wife is in New York
holding it down because at this point in time he
has no job. We then go to Kansas City Tech
(09:24):
Stars for another three months, so he moved to Kansas
City and all in this time during that time period
of three accelerators, you know, it was just Travis and
me part time. By the time end of Kansas City,
we probably are about a strong six people and we
kind of collected people along the way, and we you know,
we were we were gearing up to get it done.
(09:45):
But that's how you do it. The hustleway, the non soil,
the Coon Valley way. You hit that that's not the
rest belt. I don't know what part of the world
that is, but you hit it hard. I think part
of why me and Travis work well together is that
he just he also fits in in more rooms than me.
(10:06):
And I think coming out of my first company, I
think I value that. Who would have thought like being
a brand guy at heart could turn into tech you know.
But I think when I look at my favorite founders,
I think they're just brand guys, you know. When I
look at Steve Jobs, when I look at Bezos, I mean,
(10:28):
they're great thinkers and builders and creators, but I think
they learn how to communicate something that people can feel,
and they do that through tech, which is branding one
on one for who I am. I mean, that's what
working at P and G was about. You know, I
(10:49):
worked on a Pampers brand. I somehow made my way
in that organization. I started out as an intern, I
outperformed and I ended up on Pampers And it was
one of the best opportunities I ever had.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Number one is the P and g's biggest brand, and
Procket and Gamble was a huge consumer packaged goods company
and their largest brand at that time, it was a
thirteen billion dollar brand. I got to work on that brand,
who have a ton of resources to support me, and they
had a you know when it was like when the
concept of social media was emerging and things like Facebook
advertising and the biggest brand kind of wrote the playbook
(11:27):
on that and whoever was on that brand who understood
that tend to wrote that playbook.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I was myself.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So I got a chance to write the social media
playbook for our brand and do some really awesome things
in digital. I remember meeting, you know, the early teams
at Facebook and as they were negotiating ad deals for PNG,
and you know, it was a tough bunch of p ands.
I didn't even understand what Facebook was, and all of
a sudden I became this in house expert, mainly because
(11:53):
of my age and like I was kind of bold
enough to say I understand it, and like why not?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like, of course I undert and I grew up.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You know, at that point in time, my entire college
life was on Facebook. Who else would know it more
than me? These guys are signing up in front of me, right, So,
I don't know. I think that experience with the resources
and the fact of like the point in time and
I got a chance to be in rooms that showcase
the power of technology. It was an incredible experience to
(12:23):
work around that type of people and group and honesty.
That network is what catapulted me in tech and has
still supported me to this day. Coming out of my
(12:50):
first company into solo funds, I had to unlearn and
learn new things, and you know, I think I'm still learning.
I think one of the biggest things I also had
to learn was balance. I have at it myself over
the years and sacrifice so much, including a family of
my own, because you know, I believe in this thing
and I don't I don't have any regrets for it,
(13:12):
But I definitely want to learn balance for me and
learn how to manage balance across even my emotions and
across the things that I care about. Everybody wants you
to pick something, right. They want you to be finance,
so they want you to be tech. They can't be
tech finance and culture.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
If you want to be culture, you should be culture.
If you want to be community, you should be community, right.
And and I hate all of these labels of what
I'm supposed to be in my mind, being authentically me
is actually being a little bit of it all. Like
you can look at your life and you can say,
where do you spend your time at the end of
the day, Like, no matter how great of a worker
(13:49):
you are, it's only a certain percentage of the day
that you can dedicate to working because you physically, mentally,
emotionally will get trained. You may find some other things
like family, significant other kids that can easily.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Be another forty percent.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Right, then you probably got like twenty percent left and
you're like, you know what, I'm gonna give like five
percent to my other family, maybe ten percent, maybe I
give ten percent to myself. I think for me though,
right that first forty percent is easily solo. I think
that I don't have a consistent significant other or family,
and instead of mope around about it, I have capitalized
(14:29):
that moment and I use that time to do other
projects that drive me. And these projects almost turn into
babies themselves or relationships themselves. So when you think things
like culture house, so you see things like you know
me in the community or like just me just doing
other things around, and it's like, how is he balancing it?
It's the portion of my time that I probably should
(14:50):
be allocating the building a family. That's where it tends
to be. I think today very much different than five
years ago. I actually dedicate a lot to my personal self,
work out a lot. I'm pretty strict on how I eat,
where I eat, and my schedule. And you know, I
think also the part that should be going to like
my mom or other, I think I need to do
(15:11):
more of that. So the whole balance thing, I'm probably
too heavy on the solo and projects in myself. I
need to open up a little bit on the other side.
That's probably what the next couple of years will look like.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I don't make all the great finance actions. Obviously, this
is the wealth break and we run a finance company.
But I like to think that the major ones I
did right. So I have just signing bonus. I'm entering Cincinnati.
In downtown Cincinnati, they have these new homes, they have
economic development. There was like Obama programs, so like first
time Buyer where it's like five percent down, like it
(15:52):
was some ridiculous program, and then if you get the
house in that particular region is tax abated. The point
is is that I was able to buy a house
and that use that as a down payment, and I
furnished it all with my down payment, fully furnished the
home as well with the signing bonus. And I remember
my friends were like, why are.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You doing that? That's like a huge responsibilit I'm taking.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I'm like, dude, first of all, the end of the year,
this Obama thing is out the door. At the time,
I was like, this is like great, Like this is
like easy, this is this is very smart for me.
People don't know this, but I think it's suiting for it.
I was a finance undergrad and I don't talk about
it a lot. I was actually finance undergrad out of
the B School and then I did a degree in
economics out of Liberal Arts School as well. When I
(16:37):
did my NBA, I did it a finances supply chain. Now,
I know I walk up around and talk about being
a brand guy, but like I'm a brand guy by talent,
I'm not a brand guy by school.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'm actually a finance guy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So I tend I think I learned or I actively
made a decision not to do things. So maybe I'll
answer the question, what did I actively decide not to
do which I made. It may be wrong, it may
not work out for me, but I think I actively
decided to not work or a financial advisor and put
a lot of my money into traditional long term things.
(17:12):
You know, I think I had an opportunity to do
that at twenty five, twenty six years old, well before
a lot of folks, and it had a great strategy.
It was like, listen, by the time you were forty,
it's going to be this and fifty. And I said, no,
you got me wrong. You don't understand my trajectory. I'm
on a different path.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'm going to be.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Building things, and you know, my incoming wealth is going
to have a different trajectory.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
And I still don't that.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So I actively made some decisions to not do some
things that I think others probably are still would consider
me the decision could be considered wrong, but it's okay.
I think the only money mistake I was just not
a mistake, you know, the one that hit the hardest.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It was actually most recent, I think. You know, in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
We got the world of lawsuits, and you know, I
was newly into a relationship, and no, no, I wasn't twenty one.
It was twenty two, twenty two, and I was newly
in a relationship. And I think my mistake is that
I took a huge pay cut and I bought a house.
I bought a house expecting one salary and I was
(18:16):
sixty percent down from that for a long time, to
be honest, And that was tough. That was hard. That
was really hard. It was for solo. It's for the
better of our company, is for the better of our dreams.
Is something that we had to do. But that hurt
the most. You know, the thing about life and entrepreneurship
is that you actually can do a lot of things
right and still end up wrong. And that's a prime
(18:40):
example of like I was doing a lot of things right,
a lot of things that you would consider commendable, you know,
taking a pay cut, buying a home, committing to a woman,
being thoughtful, being mindful. You're doing a lot of things right,
But at the same time, it's what's building is a
lot of pain and resentment and lack of understanding, and
then all of a sudden you become you can't communicate
(19:01):
your problem to anyone, so then you're like dealing with yourself.
And yeah, I don't know if I've ever got I
don't know if I figured that part out.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I think I'm working on it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
There's no shortage of things that you want to buy,
but there's definitely shortage of money.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And I think that.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
One of the biggest things that I tell anyone, please
separate your need for money and separate your purpose for money,
because it will always let you down. I think we
all waste our money. You know, maybe it's a vacation
that you don't need. That five thousand dollars or ten
(19:42):
thousand dollars can help a cousin open up a barbershop, Right,
that's an active decision that you may make. I think
I want to make more decisions to give them money
to the cousin to open up the barbershop. I think
that's what I want to do the next part of
this thing. I don't know if I have survivors guilt,
but I definitely have survivor purpose. I think it's my
right in duty to open up rooms and build something
(20:04):
that can make an impact, Like it's part of my
duty to give back, Like it's part of my privilege.
It's the luxury that I have attained, is the ability
to give back at some point. I just try to
decide when that point is.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Decide in one type of life you want to live.
And I know that's like really wild to think of,
but I always say, like, like, do you want to
create for yourself or do you want someone else to
create for you? And one is about building it yourself,
and one is either about working for someone else or
helping someone else's dream or being taken care of by
(20:44):
someone else.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I think you should just actively make the decision
to pick one of those.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
One could be like I want to support the talent
versus I want to be the talent, right, And I
think once you decided that piece, I think the next
thing that I think you need to do is like
understand and what does it take. And when you're building
something yourself, when it's on you, I think you have
to be more responsible. You have to budget, you have
(21:12):
to think about how this thing goes upside down. You
can't be negative Nancy or super real, but you have
to protect yourself.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Because the responsibility is on you.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Now. The type of life that you want to live
is very attainable if you never live above your current status.
So maybe I want one day to have the three
car garage and two cars and a dog and a
family and three thousand square foot home and be able
(21:47):
to travel twice a year.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, there's a salary that you need to do to yet,
probably start set.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Around two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand, depending
where you are in the country and.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Whether you you are college graduate or not.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
That's very attainable, but you should whatever career or thing
that you're in, you should figure out what it takes
to get to that. So if you're a Walmart and
you're a cashier, I think you got to be a
GM to get that, and you should figure out how
long it's going to take for you to do it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
But why you are a cashier.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Do not live like you are that yet, And that's
where people go wrong, because for you to be a
really good cashier, you have to live below your means.
You have to save, you have to put the time
and energy into that profession so that you can cut
that promotion time in half. But that's kind of how
I look at life. I just look at like everything
is attainable and if you but you have to decide
(22:40):
three four or five twenty years before you actually do it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You have to decide that that's what you're going to do.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Everything that I am working towards I decided a very
very long time ago. You can make a different decision
right now, and that literally today, you can look at
your expenses right I'm a single dad, I'm a single mom.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
You can look at your expenses today and you can
create a plan and then apply yourself. You know, it's
so funny that I used to think everyone had to
be bright and smart, and I'm to the point where
I just think you have to try really hard, and
when you try really hard.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Something happens.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's like the was it the ten thousand hours or
the ten thousand shots that you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Get good at it and you get really good at it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And when you get really good at something, that's your
speed boat to what you want in life. And I
think anybody can decide to be good at something. Great
takes a little bit extra, but being good, Yeah, anybody
can decide to be good at something.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Just decided.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
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 or to visit the wealthbreak
dot com for additional resources to help you on your
journey to building wealth. Our executive producers are Ryan Marx
(24:09):
and Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
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
real wealth building strategies are locked behind closed doors, only
reserved for the people with special connections. Trust me, you're
not wrong, but we're changing all of that right now.
The Wealth Break isn't just another podcast. It's your all
(00:22):
access past the genuine wealth building knowledge.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
No gatekeeping, no confusion jargon, just.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Real talk, powerful strategies, and transparent conversations designed for people
like us.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Because building wealth shouldn't feel exclusive.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
If you're loving what you're handing 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
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.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Welcome to the Wealth Break. This is where we unlock
stories of financial.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Success, pushing, breaking down odds, being yourself and and doing
it in a way which we hope closes the wealth gap.
My family, my mom and dad are born in Jamaica.
Many of my brothers and sisters are actually born in
(01:33):
Jamaica except for myself and one other brother, and we
tended to room together, I think mainly because we were
most American and my family lies. But the house it
was a working home. My dad worked super long hours
and my mom worked pretty long hours as well, I
think in normal Jamaican fashion.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Though they had a ton of jobs.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So my mom was a nurse and a hairdresser and
she had a daycare center. And my dad was everything
from the carpenter to two mechanic to the you know,
cabinet maker. He was big with his home improvement. You know,
when I ain't talk about money and how I was raised,
there's a concept that I've been thinking about for a
long time now, not a long time now, but most recently,
(02:14):
is talking about growing up wanting for things or growing
up never needing things. Right, It's almost like two different
type of mindsets. Why I grew up not having things
and wanting things. So, you know, the way my parents
were and they were working were my dad was very
(02:36):
much like you should figure it out, and he was
like figure it out that Like he made sure, you know,
food was on the table. I had, you know, the
right things and clothes to wear, but pretty much anything else.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It was up to us to.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Figure it out, and that just sparked a lot of ideas.
As a kid, I always had a business. I would quickly,
you know, see my neighbor cutting grass or shoveling snow,
and I'd be like, I don't know physical labors to me.
But my mom had a hairdresser, and you know, she
never had great magazines. So I thought of an opportunity
of me, like, maybe go out and buy some of
(03:09):
these magazines and leased it out to the folks because
they weren't going to be there and it weren't actually
made a lot of money. But I was always trying
to figure out how to better do something as a
way to provide for myself. And I used to watch
Lifestyle of the Rissian Famous, and I noticed it's super important.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It was a great show.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
But if you watch that show, the folks who were
had all the wealth were owners. They weren't the athletes
of the entertainers. And I quickly decided that's not what
I wanted to do. It's not like a dollar amount
that I'm looking to achieve. It's not accolades or awards,
and it's not even acceptance it's freedom. And it's what
(03:49):
I mean by that is being able to do what
you want to do, whether that may be go on
vacation or you know, send your child to a certain
school or buy a certain thing. It wasn't about the things,
it was the act of being able to do it.
I think all my memories were all about like you
got to wait till next week, or you know, you
(04:11):
got to save, or you got to do this. Like
it was always like a you know, yeah, but let's
figure it out. And that felt really restrictive and I
feel like my family had to make very very tough
choices because of it. And I always decided that if
I was going to go out and try to accomplish something,
I want to accomplish freedom for myself and ultimately freedom
(04:31):
for my family, but also freedom for others. You know,
life happens, and I think you have to try to
navigate it. You know, I've learned that someone who sees
life differently sees opportunity differently. You know, you're usually the outcast.
(04:51):
You're usually like the person sitting staring at the wall
at the busy bar and everyone's asking you, what are
you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Out fixated on a concept.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I was at my first tech company called Listener, and
things were going well. I had went home and all
my friends and family kept coming to me asking for money.
I was like, I was the person in the family
who made it, so you know, everything from car to
breaks to like you name it. I was just their
sounding board. And I was just wondering, like, is it
just me or there real need I flew back to
(05:25):
New York. I remember leaving and thinking about it on
the airplane. I some of my best moments happened on
the airplane, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So I do my little like back and forth with myself.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
By the time my land Travis is one of the
first people that I see that night, and I'm telling
them all about it, and we're like vibing on the
same problem, and then we decided to do something about it.
I think for me, everyone thought it was either too
simple or too hard.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
No one thought it was in the middle.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It was like, and this was like twenty fifteen, to
be honest, Like we would meet on like Tuesdays and
Thursdays and just work on it and slowly and slowly
over a couple of different years, until we had a
pitch deck and we had a logo and we thought
about how it would work.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But at that point in time, there was on one
working full time.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I will tell you two forcing mechanisms, Travis finally
saying he's ready to quit his job and do it
because I was at the same time, I saw almost
like cause we need kind of need you because at
the time I couldn't leave listener. I was like, this
has to be your show because I can't right now.
And I think this is the moment. And he left
(06:40):
and it became the moment, and I think, you know,
within a few years, I was also there.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
So that's how it all happened.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I think I do a good job at like departmentalizing
for people. So like, there's a group of people who
are more like my consumer. So I'm talking to them
very very different. I'm not talking to him about tech convention.
I'm talking to him and told them about like would
you want alone from a friend and would you pay
them back and these type of simple like insights. I
was actually getting really good feedback from the market segment,
(07:08):
the group of consumers, my friends and family. I went
to a lot of people for help. I remember going
to a lot of people that I respected and say, hey,
could you help me do this?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like would you want to be one of my co founders?
Like could you talk about it?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Like I think it's a really good thing, and a
lot of people just thought it wouldn't work despite so
much pushback, and to be honest, continue pushback to this day,
it's always been you know, those faces of people who
I know that we are supporting and helping that keep
it going. You always talk about the nose that hurt
the most. The nose that hurt the most were from
(07:42):
people who I thought would be supportive, you know, like
politicians who broadcast the need for financially inclusive tech products,
or you know, people in power that I don't want
to necessarily name, who talk about it but don't ever
want to do anything about it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Those were the nose that bothered me the.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Most because I, at one point in time was inspired
by the things they would say. So for them to
not reciprocate the energy when they saw the product, it
broke my heart a bit, but it didn't make me
want to stop. I remember, Travis is one of Travis's
first pitch competition. I hope you never find it online
because it was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. But you
(08:28):
don't get good at something by not trying. But you
know what happens is we started winning. And what win
winning comes with is capital, maybe twenty five thousands, maybe
a ten thousand dollars check, sometimes a five thousand dollars check.
But all of a sudden, we were gaining capital so
that we can start building the product. And when you
start to win these accelerators and pitch competitions, you're also
(08:49):
gaining advocacy of people who want to help, people who
are picking. You know, hey, I know this developer you
should talk to, or I know this teammate you should
talk to, or I know this VC. And we literally
started from that.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The first accelerator we got into out of New York
City was a Fintech Accelerator of Columbus, Ohio. And then
it was like and that was called like Loomos, and
then we did accelerator for Founders of Color in Cincinnati, Ohio. Meanwhile,
Travis is going from couch to coush pretty much every
three months, while while his wife is in New York
holding it down because at this point in time he
has no job. We then go to Kansas City Tech
(09:24):
Stars for another three months, so he moved to Kansas
City and all in this time during that time period
of three accelerators, you know, it was just Travis and
me part time. By the time end of Kansas City,
we probably are about a strong six people and we
kind of collected people along the way, and we you know,
we were we were gearing up to get it done.
(09:45):
But that's how you do it. The hustleway, the non soil,
the Coon Valley way. You hit that that's not the
rest belt. I don't know what part of the world
that is, but you hit it hard. I think part
of why me and Travis work well together is that
he just he also fits in in more rooms than me.
(10:06):
And I think coming out of my first company, I
think I value that. Who would have thought like being
a brand guy at heart could turn into tech you know.
But I think when I look at my favorite founders,
I think they're just brand guys, you know. When I
look at Steve Jobs, when I look at Bezos, I mean,
(10:28):
they're great thinkers and builders and creators, but I think
they learn how to communicate something that people can feel,
and they do that through tech, which is branding one
on one for who I am. I mean, that's what
working at P and G was about. You know, I
(10:49):
worked on a Pampers brand. I somehow made my way
in that organization. I started out as an intern, I
outperformed and I ended up on Pampers And it was
one of the best opportunities I ever had.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Number one is the P and g's biggest brand, and
Procket and Gamble was a huge consumer packaged goods company
and their largest brand at that time, it was a
thirteen billion dollar brand. I got to work on that brand,
who have a ton of resources to support me, and they
had a you know when it was like when the
concept of social media was emerging and things like Facebook
advertising and the biggest brand kind of wrote the playbook
(11:27):
on that and whoever was on that brand who understood
that tend to wrote that playbook.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I was myself.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So I got a chance to write the social media
playbook for our brand and do some really awesome things
in digital. I remember meeting, you know, the early teams
at Facebook and as they were negotiating ad deals for PNG,
and you know, it was a tough bunch of p ands.
I didn't even understand what Facebook was, and all of
a sudden I became this in house expert, mainly because
(11:53):
of my age and like I was kind of bold
enough to say I understand it, and like why not?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like, of course I undert and I grew up.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You know, at that point in time, my entire college
life was on Facebook. Who else would know it more
than me? These guys are signing up in front of me, right, So,
I don't know. I think that experience with the resources
and the fact of like the point in time and
I got a chance to be in rooms that showcase
the power of technology. It was an incredible experience to
(12:23):
work around that type of people and group and honesty.
That network is what catapulted me in tech and has
still supported me to this day. Coming out of my
(12:50):
first company into solo funds, I had to unlearn and
learn new things, and you know, I think I'm still learning.
I think one of the biggest things I also had
to learn was balance. I have at it myself over
the years and sacrifice so much, including a family of
my own, because you know, I believe in this thing
and I don't I don't have any regrets for it,
(13:12):
But I definitely want to learn balance for me and
learn how to manage balance across even my emotions and
across the things that I care about. Everybody wants you
to pick something, right. They want you to be finance,
so they want you to be tech. They can't be
tech finance and culture.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
If you want to be culture, you should be culture.
If you want to be community, you should be community, right.
And and I hate all of these labels of what
I'm supposed to be in my mind, being authentically me
is actually being a little bit of it all. Like
you can look at your life and you can say,
where do you spend your time at the end of
the day, Like, no matter how great of a worker
(13:49):
you are, it's only a certain percentage of the day
that you can dedicate to working because you physically, mentally,
emotionally will get trained. You may find some other things
like family, significant other kids that can easily.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Be another forty percent.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Right, then you probably got like twenty percent left and
you're like, you know what, I'm gonna give like five
percent to my other family, maybe ten percent, maybe I
give ten percent to myself. I think for me though,
right that first forty percent is easily solo. I think
that I don't have a consistent significant other or family,
and instead of mope around about it, I have capitalized
(14:29):
that moment and I use that time to do other
projects that drive me. And these projects almost turn into
babies themselves or relationships themselves. So when you think things
like culture house, so you see things like you know
me in the community or like just me just doing
other things around, and it's like, how is he balancing it?
It's the portion of my time that I probably should
(14:50):
be allocating the building a family. That's where it tends
to be. I think today very much different than five
years ago. I actually dedicate a lot to my personal self,
work out a lot. I'm pretty strict on how I eat,
where I eat, and my schedule. And you know, I
think also the part that should be going to like
my mom or other, I think I need to do
(15:11):
more of that. So the whole balance thing, I'm probably
too heavy on the solo and projects in myself. I
need to open up a little bit on the other side.
That's probably what the next couple of years will look like.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I don't make all the great finance actions. Obviously, this
is the wealth break and we run a finance company.
But I like to think that the major ones I
did right. So I have just signing bonus. I'm entering Cincinnati.
In downtown Cincinnati, they have these new homes, they have
economic development. There was like Obama programs, so like first
time Buyer where it's like five percent down, like it
(15:52):
was some ridiculous program, and then if you get the
house in that particular region is tax abated. The point
is is that I was able to buy a house
and that use that as a down payment, and I
furnished it all with my down payment, fully furnished the
home as well with the signing bonus. And I remember
my friends were like, why are.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You doing that? That's like a huge responsibilit I'm taking.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I'm like, dude, first of all, the end of the year,
this Obama thing is out the door. At the time,
I was like, this is like great, Like this is
like easy, this is this is very smart for me.
People don't know this, but I think it's suiting for it.
I was a finance undergrad and I don't talk about
it a lot. I was actually finance undergrad out of
the B School and then I did a degree in
economics out of Liberal Arts School as well. When I
(16:37):
did my NBA, I did it a finances supply chain. Now,
I know I walk up around and talk about being
a brand guy, but like I'm a brand guy by talent,
I'm not a brand guy by school.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'm actually a finance guy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So I tend I think I learned or I actively
made a decision not to do things. So maybe I'll
answer the question, what did I actively decide not to
do which I made. It may be wrong, it may
not work out for me, but I think I actively
decided to not work or a financial advisor and put
a lot of my money into traditional long term things.
(17:12):
You know, I think I had an opportunity to do
that at twenty five, twenty six years old, well before
a lot of folks, and it had a great strategy.
It was like, listen, by the time you were forty,
it's going to be this and fifty. And I said, no,
you got me wrong. You don't understand my trajectory. I'm
on a different path.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'm going to be.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Building things, and you know, my incoming wealth is going
to have a different trajectory.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
And I still don't that.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So I actively made some decisions to not do some
things that I think others probably are still would consider
me the decision could be considered wrong, but it's okay.
I think the only money mistake I was just not
a mistake, you know, the one that hit the hardest.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It was actually most recent, I think. You know, in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
We got the world of lawsuits, and you know, I
was newly into a relationship, and no, no, I wasn't twenty one.
It was twenty two, twenty two, and I was newly
in a relationship. And I think my mistake is that
I took a huge pay cut and I bought a house.
I bought a house expecting one salary and I was
(18:16):
sixty percent down from that for a long time, to
be honest, And that was tough. That was hard. That
was really hard. It was for solo. It's for the
better of our company, is for the better of our dreams.
Is something that we had to do. But that hurt
the most. You know, the thing about life and entrepreneurship
is that you actually can do a lot of things
right and still end up wrong. And that's a prime
(18:40):
example of like I was doing a lot of things right,
a lot of things that you would consider commendable, you know,
taking a pay cut, buying a home, committing to a woman,
being thoughtful, being mindful. You're doing a lot of things right,
But at the same time, it's what's building is a
lot of pain and resentment and lack of understanding, and
then all of a sudden you become you can't communicate
(19:01):
your problem to anyone, so then you're like dealing with yourself.
And yeah, I don't know if I've ever got I
don't know if I figured that part out.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I think I'm working on it.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
There's no shortage of things that you want to buy,
but there's definitely shortage of money.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And I think that.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
One of the biggest things that I tell anyone, please
separate your need for money and separate your purpose for money,
because it will always let you down. I think we
all waste our money. You know, maybe it's a vacation
that you don't need. That five thousand dollars or ten
(19:42):
thousand dollars can help a cousin open up a barbershop, Right,
that's an active decision that you may make. I think
I want to make more decisions to give them money
to the cousin to open up the barbershop. I think
that's what I want to do the next part of
this thing. I don't know if I have survivors guilt,
but I definitely have survivor purpose. I think it's my
right in duty to open up rooms and build something
(20:04):
that can make an impact, Like it's part of my
duty to give back, Like it's part of my privilege.
It's the luxury that I have attained, is the ability
to give back at some point. I just try to
decide when that point is.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Decide in one type of life you want to live.
And I know that's like really wild to think of,
but I always say, like, like, do you want to
create for yourself or do you want someone else to
create for you? And one is about building it yourself,
and one is either about working for someone else or
helping someone else's dream or being taken care of by
(20:44):
someone else.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I think you should just actively make the decision
to pick one of those.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
One could be like I want to support the talent
versus I want to be the talent, right, And I
think once you decided that piece, I think the next
thing that I think you need to do is like
understand and what does it take. And when you're building
something yourself, when it's on you, I think you have
to be more responsible. You have to budget, you have
(21:12):
to think about how this thing goes upside down. You
can't be negative Nancy or super real, but you have
to protect yourself.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Because the responsibility is on you.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Now. The type of life that you want to live
is very attainable if you never live above your current status.
So maybe I want one day to have the three
car garage and two cars and a dog and a
family and three thousand square foot home and be able
(21:47):
to travel twice a year.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Well, there's a salary that you need to do to yet,
probably start set.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Around two hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand, depending
where you are in the country and.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Whether you you are college graduate or not.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
That's very attainable, but you should whatever career or thing
that you're in, you should figure out what it takes
to get to that. So if you're a Walmart and
you're a cashier, I think you got to be a
GM to get that, and you should figure out how
long it's going to take for you to do it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
But why you are a cashier.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Do not live like you are that yet, And that's
where people go wrong, because for you to be a
really good cashier, you have to live below your means.
You have to save, you have to put the time
and energy into that profession so that you can cut
that promotion time in half. But that's kind of how
I look at life. I just look at like everything
is attainable and if you but you have to decide
(22:40):
three four or five twenty years before you actually do it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You have to decide that that's what you're going to do.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Everything that I am working towards I decided a very
very long time ago. You can make a different decision
right now, and that literally today, you can look at
your expenses right I'm a single dad, I'm a single mom.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
You can look at your expenses today and you can
create a plan and then apply yourself. You know, it's
so funny that I used to think everyone had to
be bright and smart, and I'm to the point where
I just think you have to try really hard, and
when you try really hard.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Something happens.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's like the was it the ten thousand hours or
the ten thousand shots that you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Get good at it and you get really good at it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And when you get really good at something, that's your
speed boat to what you want in life. And I
think anybody can decide to be good at something. Great
takes a little bit extra, but being good, Yeah, anybody
can decide to be good at something.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Just decided.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
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 or to visit the wealthbreak
dot com for additional resources to help you on your
journey to building wealth. Our executive producers are Ryan Marx
(24:09):
and Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Catch you next time on The Wealth Break.
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