May 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Are one-day boycotts effective? Is wealth the key to real power? Venture capitalist Marlon Nichols and private equity investor Eric Taylor join The Wealth Break for an unfiltered conversation on economic influence, DEI rollbacks, and why financial literacy—not viral outrage—drives real change.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Rodney Williams, co founder of The Wealth Break. Listen.
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Speaker 1 (01:18):
Welcome to the Wealth Break.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
This is where we unlock stories of financial success, pushing,
breaking down odds, being yourself and enduring it in a
way which we hope closes the wealth gap. Hello everyone,
(01:40):
I'm Rodney Williams and the heir of my co hosts,
Travis Holloway. Y'all Yo today is a special, special special guest.
We got our good friends Eric Taylor and Marlon Nichols.
I know, if you've been listening, you may have gotten
used to a format. This is probably gonna be the
young format. All right, This entire time period is going
to be our code switch. We have a lot to discuss,
(02:01):
and we're amongst good friends. Our first guest is someone
who's made serious moves in venture capital, Marlon Nichols. He's
the founding managing partner at Macventure Capital, where he invested
in game changing companies. Before that, he was at in
Cel Capital, where he launched one hundred and twenty five
million dollar diversity fund. Marlin's got an eye for emerging
markets and has back brands like Gamblet and Pipe and
(02:25):
maybe Solo Funds.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Brought us all here. I didn't know about.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Want to hear blug, but thank you for being here.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
One of my favorite investments. Man always mentioned Solo Funds. Nah,
you're the best man. We appreciate you. Then secondly, up
next we have Eric Taylor. Eric is a heavy hitter
in private equity.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Eric is the founder and CEO of Trident, where he's
focused on acquiring small businesses across industries like healthcare, consumer goods,
and industrials. Before that, he was in Goldman Sachs's Special
Situations Group, and he's all about making sure access to
capital and wealth building opportunities aren't just reserved for the elite. Marlon, Eric,
we're excited to have you. Welcome to the wealth break.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, Special Situations Group. It sounds crazy, Special situations.
Can y'all say that like three times?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah? And it kind of was what you think it was,
you know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Interestingly enough, I met Eric in a deal, and I
met Marlin in a deal, So it's good to be here.
I think right you were finishing up, I was convincing
Marlin to give me a dollar. I always asking Marlin
for a dollar. But I got to meet you because
you got a lot of them. No, I think from honestly,
probably ten years now, I think we've all grown with
(03:40):
I believe. I think this is probably the expert level
of at least our generation when it comes to finance.
I think we all represent something super duper important. You know,
you have a VC, you have a private equity, you
have some really keen important minds here to have real
dialogue and real discussions, and that's what we're about to
show y'all.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Heir at the Wealth Break, Yeah, hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
And obviously we're all friends and we tend to have
a lot of conversations offscreen that we actually thought could
be kind of dope to bring on screen, and was
just going to give you guys a little preview of
some of the things that we talk about. So I
want to kick off with a recent hot topic, which
was a boycott or a one day no spend for
(04:23):
the African American community. And from what I understand that
one day no spend was to spend.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No, I didn't hear about this.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, this is brand new.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's problem number one.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And it just be very clear, is any boycott a
good idea?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yes? Sure, Yeah, like the Montgomery bus boycott was a
good idea. So one hundred years ago, boy, I mean yeah,
but you talked about a state that was, like I think,
mostly black at the time, So you know, it's just
the leverage was a little different. Yeah, you're using Instagram
to in WhatsApp, in Apple iPhone to text around and say, hey,
we got to boycott these brands is just nuts.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So I'm say it. I'm not saying I thought the
boycott was a little foolish. Well, I think a few things.
Number One, I think that there has to be a
clearly articulated goal of a boycott that actually makes sense. Right, So,
from my understanding of this boycott, not spending money anywhere
is just not.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's not. You can't maintain that.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
So I think the first flaw on this is that
they're saying, don't spend money anywhere on this one particular
day so that they can see what the economic impact
of our dollar means. But they encourage people to go
spend the money, buy everything you need prior to that day,
or just wait until the day after to get what
(05:48):
you need except for essentials like medicine and other like necessities.
And if you do have to buy a necessity, buy
it from a small business. Now, my challenge with that
is businesses typically look at revenue on a monthly basis
a quarterly basis, and if you spent the same money
(06:10):
that you would have spent on Friday, on Thursday or
on Saturday, then no one notices what your dollar means.
And again, if you can't maintain it, meaning that you
just boycott everything. There's no longevity in that. So the
bus boycott people decided to just boycott one particular thing indefinitely,
(06:34):
and yes they felt the impact of that, but boycotting
everything makes no sense. I wanted to hear from you all.
What are your thoughts or what are your perspectives. I mean,
I think you laid it out pretty well. It's got
to be focused, it's got to be targeted.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
It has to be something that you're willing to sustain
for a long period of time. I think I recently
read or watched how the community in Tulsa was created
back it was literally all black people stopped spending money
at white establishments for a long period of time, and
it started hurting them and to the point where they
(07:10):
had to come back to the bargaining. They tried to
arrest people, whatever, it didn't work. They had to come
back to the table and bargain, and ultimately, I believe
the gentleman that started the movement became the mayor of
the town ultimately, and black people were treated better in
these stores, were able to open up their own businesses, etc.
(07:31):
So it's got to be, like you said, you got
to have a clear goal in mind. It's got to
be a targeted approach, and you got to be willing
to stand by it for sustained period of time.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I mean, this whole thing just feels like a really
long term exercise and powerlessness, to be frank and, I
feel like when people say you got to hit him
in their pockets, they're not really getting the message and
the understanding of it, because in order to do something
like that, it takes a lot more power and a
lot more time, and a lot more I think strategic
(08:07):
just economic power, to be honest with you, I mean,
you need in order to scare a large, multinational, multi
billion dollar business at this point, you need to be
able to change their bottom line over a long period
of time, if that conversations even going to enter the boardroom.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And that's even if you're choosing one company or one
business to boycott right let alone everything. So, how do
you all feel about the target boycott because it seems
like that's been like the one consistent, you know, business
that people have targeted because of their DEI rollback quite frankly,
it's pretty interesting that we get our message out on
(08:48):
two platforms, primarily that have also rolled back their DII initiatives,
being you know, both Meta and X. But what are
your thoughts on on that? Because Target it has been
such a big supporter of black business and from my perspective,
you stop spending your money, you stop buying those products there.
(09:08):
Now there's a real reason to stop carrying those products there.
And who are you actually hurting? Are you actually killing
black businesses? Or are you actually sticking it to Target? Yeah,
I mean, I think that's my biggest challenge with this all.
I don't think anyone here can clearly articulate what the
focus is of the boycott, whether it's the boycott this
past week or so or in February, or the boycott
(09:32):
to Target.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
What is the goal?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Where's the items of request that you may be asking
for Target or you may be asking for greater businesses
or whatever administration?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And by the way, the idea do they even matter?
Do they even matter? Do they matter?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Who's the PR agency around it? Because the information clearly
didn't get to this room, which where it should be. Right,
it's I keep miya to the street, so I know
about it, you know, but I go I go back
to like, back to like at the end of the day,
like it's like this useless information. It's all these people
upset and they're like and then there's like a group
of people manipulate, like playing into the victim mentality of
(10:05):
like I'm going to use them to do all this
stuff when they're really not doing anything.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I just feel like we need to be focused on
two things over the long term. It's you know, if
we're talking about black culture, right, it's money that is
getting into black people's pockets a and equal rights under
the law. And if the conversation doesn't tailor towards one
of those two things, I just think it's a complete
(10:34):
waste of time. And that's what this whole target thing
feels like.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I think it's just a lack of organization, right, I
get the sentiment, right, So you're rolling back DEI initiatives
and we don't like it, right, We want you to
change it. We want you to to to stand up
and you know, be like a delta for instance that
you know saying no, we're not we're not doing that.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But you're approach is just flawed.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
You're not organized, and there's no boycott is going to
work if it's not organized, right, So I get the
goal here. You want to show that, you know, you
got to respect black businesses and black people, and you should,
you know, want to fight for our dollars. But the
approach is just not the right approach. It just wasn't
(11:25):
well thought out and it definitely wasn't enacted properly.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
And I feel like it's part of a trend in
Black History Month of us getting or looking for press
for the wrong things. Right, Like I mean out a
controversial conversation with somebody because they were talking about, you know,
the Trump administration trying to like abolish Black History Month.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
So it was like a Tuesday, say again twenty four
hours ago.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
No, But my whole thing is I I just I
don't want us to focus on these moralistic victories that
at the end of the day you can't really eat,
Like you can't eat awards during Black History Month. Right,
None of that it's going to feed your family, it's
not going to buy you a new house. It's not
going to increase your economic status. It's not going to
(12:11):
get you a degree, it's not going to get you promoted,
it's not going to get you really anything. And I'm
not saying that we shouldn't be obviously celebrating black culture,
but we should never be doing that in lieu of
focusing on the things that really matter. And sometimes I
feel like we get, you know, sort of like spoon fed,
(12:35):
or like we get these little pieces, these little crumbs
of things like a Black History Month to satiate us,
when that doesn't actually put money in people's pockets, right,
Whereas the things that are putting money in people's pockets,
whether it's affirmative action at the Streme Court level, all
that stuff can roll back. So that's my biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Right, It's like, I feel like I heard more about
more of a pushback on EI rollbacks then I did
affirmative action totally, And it's just like, how can that be?
Like how is how are we rage baited by DEI
rollbacks but we're not? When it's I don't know how
much I really want to dive in here, but let's
(13:15):
just be honest, Like most DEI initiatives that most large companies,
especially in Silicon Valley and otherwise, were actually like happy hours.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
What did Target do exactly? What was the evil deed?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I don't know what their DEI pology like.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Did they start flying firing black people at corporate did
they get rid.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Of if they had I think the idea is that
if they had a for instance, a hiring quota for
for for black people then or diverse people, then that
would go away. If they had like a quota for
black owned businesses, that they would get yeah, put in
(13:53):
in their stores of products that they put We don't want.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That anyway that I don't see like like the people
I know, the people that we know excuse me, who
sell product and target. They're selling product and target irrespective
of what targets. The strategy is right, right, because they're
moving more products anywhere else. I mean, there's no way
that target's just going to get rid of like bees,
(14:17):
honey pots.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
There's a problem.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Here's a problem. If if you don't measure it right,
then you're probably not going to do it well right.
So so if the goal is to have more parity
right and you're not measuring it, then you're not going
to get there. And I think that's that's the problem.
But going back to the whole Black History Month thing,
(14:40):
you know, the thing that I enjoy about it is
the education, right is learning about black people that did
this or did that, that I didn't know about and
you know before then. And I think it's particularly important
these days as there are groups that are trying to
write history or eliminate some aspects of history.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Isn't that education more powerful if it's taught, Like isn't
the Revolutionary War story more powerful when it comes to
black history if you're learning about the Boston massacre and
then you learn about the first person dying being Christmas
Addicts a black man. Agreed, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Like agreed, I'm not I'm not saying.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
I'm not saying we we one hundred percent agree that
black history should be taught throughout the year, right and
should just be a part of American history.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
But it's not right.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
And so right now, you know, we have this little
crumb that's that's the month of February where that happens, right,
And I think while we don't have the other thing
that needs to keep happening now that what you're saying about,
you know, special recognitions during that during that month. I
can take or lead that, right, But I think getting
(15:55):
the education is important.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I firmly do believe though that when it comes to
our history, especially your family's history, whatever that may be,
it is the responsibility of whoever that head of the family.
I firmly believe that because although I can relate to
to black history, I'm Caribbean and I had a totally
different history story that it was my parents' responsibility for
(16:17):
me to understand that because it was not the expectation
that that would be taught in school. And I think
we rely on government to provide like morals and depth
and all of the things that you want or you
may signal to be like, oh that's a good guy
or a good woman, when in reality, I think that
comes from parents.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I'm not necessarily for the month. I don't necessarily you know,
for what it's worth.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Yeah, morals I agree with, like you know your principles, Yes, absolutely,
that should come from the home. But I think having
your parents be responsible for teaching you history is a
privileged position.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
One.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I think many black and diverse parents they don't know
the history themselves, so so how are they're gonna how
they're gonna teach it? That's one two. Finding the time
to do that, Like in a lot of these households,
you know, it's get to work and make this money
so I can put food on the table and put
clothes on your back. So I don't know that that's
(17:23):
a reasonable I.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Don't disagree, you know, I just just to be clear
writing I don't think we should be anti Black History Month.
I just wonder if I wonder if this oft separation
from like the rest of America hurts us sometimes, right,
(17:47):
And I think we saw that in twenty sixteen, and
I think we really saw it in this last election,
where you're seeing like, as we've segmented ourselves further and
from their way, you're seeing a good portion of the
rest of the country, including some of us, being like
all right, y'all go over there, I forget about you. Yeah, right,
(18:08):
and we're just gonna start chipping away at whatever you
have over time. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:14):
So that brings me to just thinking about, like, well,
number one, when are we going to give like al
sharp Thing and Jesse Jackson a break. Like there's like
no voice or leadership in the community, which is why
there's no consistent message they want to break.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Though, he'd be working out video in the mix, see,
but I don't think anybody's inviting them to to, you know,
lead the march.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I mean, they're like, this march is happening, I'm about to.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Lead it one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
But I think that there's a I think there needs
to be some new individuals kind of taking over, like
like taking the torch, right, like taking the baton and
doing something.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
I don't know who that who that should be. I mean,
you know who it might be. We know who it
should be. But the problem is those individuals are definitely
don't want to want to do it, and they're few
and far between, right, Like when you get so, can
I say something? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Necessarily I don't, but I don't think this makes me Yeah,
I don't think that they I don't think let's say
what they did for us, we have to appreciate, right,
And I think at one point in time it was
it had a greater impact. I do not believe that
it makes the same impact today. And I think why
(19:31):
we're all here with the wealth break is that I
do think there are powerful individuals just as powerful as
an owl, but they're making an impact sitting at the
tables where they can make an impact that because of
their wealth, and I think that impact is significantly greater.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And at the same time they're not putting a target
on their back.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Well they are, but they feel untouchable because they have
immense wealth. Right, one would argue that Alon has a
major target on his back. There's so many people who
do not like him now, and honestly, maybe twelve months
ago or twenty four months ago, they just really didn't
have an opinion. It's like, oh, he's the richest man
in the country, of the richest man in the world,
(20:10):
so be it. But now that he has infused himself
or and grained himself into American politics, he does now
have a target on his back. And there's a lot
of anti Elon Musk people out there, But the reality
is we've also just saw someone by their way into
government and buy their way into decision making. He's at
the table with individuals that he would have never been
(20:31):
at the table with under other administrations, and which, by
the way, is not new.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
It's just this.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
It's overt and it's visible to all, and I one
hundred percent agree that it's not a new concept. But
that said, it feels to me that the only way
to really change the change the narrative of black and brown,
not just African American, but black and brown people in
this country is to focus on wealth building, and.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I actually think that this would be careful. I think
that this may actually be a uniquely African American problem.
And Malcolm X talked at length about this, and at
the time he was I think criticizing folks like Dick Gregory,
(21:20):
Lena Horne, you know, comedians, trumpet players, as he used
to describe, who are and were effectively the representatives of
our culture. So if you were you know, it's a
majority of white country at the time, if you turn
on the TV and you saw black people, the very
representatives of the culture were sort of like court jesters, right,
(21:44):
and then you saw representatives from all the other cultures,
and they had business people, and they had meteorologists, and
they had you know, folks from all different quarters and
not just people from entertainment. And I think at the
time Malcolm thought that this was, you know, part of
the man's plan, right, Like, you know, the man is
(22:05):
uplifting these comics and depressing the intellectuals. And I think
some of that may be valid, but I think we
as a community have to take a lot of responsibility
for the people that we uplift, and I think more importantly,
that the people in those positions need to be a
lot more thoughtful about how they communicate, what they communicate,
(22:30):
and to whom they communicate right like you can. I
mean I did. I did a Google search before this,
and I was looking at instances where celebrities and entertainers
you know, effectively spoke about major topics that were relevant
to black folks that they effectively didn't really know about.
(22:50):
And I've got one headline for you that might that
pissed me off and might piss you off too. This
is a yacht. This is a Yahoo Finance article, by
the way, from last year. We can't fund these wars.
Cardi B. Delivers exlative filled rant on NYC budget cuts.
State of US economy is the rapper quote unquote speaking truth.
(23:11):
I'm not saying shut up and dribble. I'm not saying
Cardi B doesn't deserve to have an opinion. I just
think that what happens is the American public picks that
up and instead of saying what does Roland Fryar, the
Harvard Professor of economics, think, they just say what does
(23:31):
Cardi B think? Right? What does Cameron think about parent
teacher conferences? What does Kanye West think about Hurricane Katrina?
And that's all you get.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
Yeah, but that's because our country, we just focus so
much on wealth, and your voice matters if you have wealth,
and your voice doesn't matter if you don't. So like
what even Malcolm and Martin were able to accomplish back
in the sixties fifty sixties would not necessarily be possible
today because they don't have this mints level of wealth today.
(24:02):
The reason why we look to the rappers or the
entertainers is because they have money, so we believe that
whatever they say holds more weight because they have what
we all want, quote unquote, which is the economic success.
So I think that that's like one of the biggest
challenges for me is that it would be very difficult
for us to have any type of alignment in messaging
(24:23):
and in strategy because who we would want to listen
to I say we, but largely the African American community.
What I see is that they gravitate towards whatever the
person with the most money says. And what we don't
really see Eric didn't say this, but ultimately what we
don't see is our very successful, wealthy business men and
(24:46):
women speaking out right, we depend on a Lebron James
who's been fantastic at speaking up for causes that he
sees or doesn't agree with. But he has that voice
in that that that platform because of who he is,
you know, financially and who he is from an entertainment
and sports perspective. So, like, I think that that's one
(25:07):
of the biggest challenges for me is I don't see
a way out of it if that's all we're going
to champion is wealth, Because the wealthiest African Americans, particularly
in the art you know, in this country, don't speak
out right, not to call any I'm not even going
to say any names, but you just do not. If
you look at the list of the wealthiest African Americans
who are not entertainers, you actually don't know anything largely
(25:28):
about their political views.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, that raises a few things for me.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
One, what you're really talking I mean, you're calling it wealth,
but what you're really talking about is influence and distribution.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Right.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So back in the day before mobile, before social the
way to get messages out there was through the newspapers, right,
and so who had the means to buy those you know,
those stories and put them out there wealthier people.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
And so now you fast forward where social media and
the Internet is supposed to democratize access to information, you're
seeing that. You know, the folks that have the platform,
they don't necessarily have to be rich. By the way,
you have a bunch of like you know, Instagram influencers,
TikTokers that reach a lot of people, right, they just
don't have anything to say, right.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So I don't know that.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I necessarily agree that it's wealth today that dictates who
can say what.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I think it might be wealth for us is what
he's Yes, I want to be clear, yes, correct, correct,
because there's Candish Owns and Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro,
and you know, there's a lot of conservative commentators who
had a following that didn't start off wealthy. But like
I was, as you were talking, I was trying to
sit here and think about what the parallel in you know,
a liberal slash people of color community would be to
(26:48):
some of those names, and I was kind of I
was kind of drawing blank.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
And the other thing I was going to say is
like two things. People are inherently self interested, self invested,
so they're going to do the thing that they believe
best suits them at any given time.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
It's just survival.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
The other thing is that I'm losing my train of thought.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Are you saying that in relation to like the athletes
and celebrities. Yeah, I mean yeah, but like someone like
Alex Avechkin and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I think he's saying it in relation to it
was going to really step up and say anything opposing
because at the end of the day, they think that
it might impact their survival.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
So, you know, we have a president in office now, right.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
A lot of people voted for him that you know,
some were very bold and said they did, and a
lot of people voted for him that will never say that.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
They that they did.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
And the reason they did that was because they heard
something that they felt would put them in a better position.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Right, So they so they did that.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
They voted for him because of that, right, But why
did they hide it?
Speaker 1 (27:55):
They also hit it for the same reason. Yeah, Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. They Yeah, you could.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Be self interested, but you don't necessarily want everybody else
to know what you're self interested, Like that doesn't serve you,
serve you well as well.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, But I think that's the problem because who's incentivized
to say something. It's the only people who are motivated
by the attention and not necessarily the accuracy of the information,
or motivated to actually help black people, Because that leaves
the only that leaves the people who just want to
(28:28):
kind of like you know, they're entertainers. They want to
like motivate the crowd. They want to cause a little hysteria.
They want the headline, they want the sexy tagline. But
do they really want to help black people or people
generally speaking? Are they any different than.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They do if it helps them, that's the point. That's
the point I make it, right.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, you know, I go back to like and you know,
I go back to you know, just think me as
an entrepreneur trying to find good financial advice, I have
to like comb my way through the influencers that are
driving around Lamborghini's telling me to buy penny.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Stocks and day Tracks traders.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Bro. I mean, you got to understand it. You're like
nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You got to filter it through a lot of nonsense
and people trying to tell us how to build well
for how to do this or how to do that, and.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
And and that's that was gonna be my third point
that I forgot. Actually people are lazy, right, So, like, honest,
factual information is out there there there are people making
that content, but you'd have to go find it, right,
and most people are not going to go find it.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
The people who are actually providing the gut, they they
they don't They're not driving a Lamborghini, right, They're not.
They're not overly flashy, they don't have the jewelry they like.
They're actually trying to tell you how to actually budget
and build you know, your your version of what wealth
(30:19):
is and self sustainability is. And I think we get
and I think some some communities get very entrenched in
the theatrics of finance. And you know, Eric and I
talk about it all the time, like if people were
really that good at providing financial advice, they would actually
work and get paid only to provide financial they would
(30:41):
with you, like they literally would be behind our version
like the real life version of a paywall, which is
they work at a firm and they only work with
high net worth individuals or ultra high networth individuals. That
is the paywall, right, It's how much money do you make,
what's your your annual income, and how many assets do
you have? And if you don't fit those qualifications, you
(31:02):
can't get access to this information. So the people who
are out here just telling you to just do random things,
they don't necessarily have the best intentions, and they're doing
all of the extra stuff because they're just trying to
get views, because they really don't make money from helping
you make money. They make money from you watching their content.
And that's not a financial advisor.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Two things. One, I do think it is a little
more unique to our community than we're probably willing to
admit that there's a lot more nonsense that you have
to wade through as that nineteen year old than you
do in other communities. And I think the sooner that
we can all be like honest about that, we can
(31:43):
start working on what we need to collectively do to
do better. And I think there's a push and pull.
I think people who don't know what they're talking about
need to shut the hell up, and I think people
who are professionals who really understand topics need to be
brought to the foe to actually speak up about it.
But you need both, right, Like if X Y and
(32:05):
Z Rapper is yelling at the top of their lungs
by crypto, and Marlin is standing there saying, hey, here's
a you know, reasonable strategy to grow and compound interest
over time. Like you know, you came out of the
barn to speak to the people and be helpful. But
anybody want to hear that because the rapper is saying hey,
(32:26):
by crypto and so that's the collective I think, come
to Jesus moment that we sort of need to have.
And it's I think really interesting to bring it back
to my original point that Malcolm X was talking about
this in the early sixties, like this was his exact point.
And by the way, before he was talking about it,
(32:49):
Booker T. Washington and w B we're having the exact
same argument, right, And it turns out like Booker T
may have been right.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
I mean, and also like right before Martin Luther King
was assassinated, he was shifting to the economic focus, right,
like that's where we should be spending our time and attention.
And then obviously he was assassinated. But you know, what
are your guys' thoughts on the state of the current economy.
It's one thing to just sit here and tell people
like hey, like you're getting information from the wrong places.
(33:20):
And I'm not saying that we're the end all, be all,
but we do have four different unique perspectives Rodney and
I which is more similarly aligned as co founders.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
But what are your thoughts on the.
Speaker 6 (33:31):
Current economy and what people could or should be doing
right now?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I think if you know how to make money, you
shouldn't be listening to Marlon and I about how to
make money because there are people who are way further
ahead of both of us in terms of both of
our jobs, who can like really guide you. So if
you're trying to figure out how to do private equity, like,
don't get me wrong, I'm really really smart, but like,
(33:57):
go see what Robert Smith's talking about. That being said,
if this podcast is pointed at people who are trying
to find the initial ways to build wealth, I really
don't think that the economy, whether it's good or bad,
is going to be your biggest impediment. I think the
tools that you need and the rules to follow to
build wealth are as much about building skills and habits,
(34:21):
you know, than anything else, and those skills and habits
will be functional over time really in any economic environment.
So if you started building skills and habits. In seven
oh eight, like ten years later, you're definitely a millionaire. Right, Yeah,
it was a rough it was a rough time. But
you know, could we could tell you, Marlin and I
could see here and tell you exactly what you need
(34:41):
to do to be a millionaire. It's really straightforward, it's
not complicated. Anybody can do it.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
But well, not anybody.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I think anybody could do it. I really do. I
think anybody. You don't think anybody could do it.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I don't think anybody could do it.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I don't think anybody could do it. Why I think that?
Or said another way, I think you and I could
sit down and write down ten steps, and if everybody
followed those steps, they'd be a millionaire. Now, to your point,
not everybody can do it, meaning not everybody can follow
those steps. Fine, but I think regardless of your educational status,
(35:17):
you're an adult with like you know, two arms, two legs,
and a voice and a brain, and you follow these
ten steps, Like what are some of those steps?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Well, well, well let me just let me just say
why I disagree. And the thing I disagree with is
becoming a millionaire. Right, I think we could lay that
layout steps that could get people to live a balanced
and like healthy, stable lifestyle. But you know, if your
(35:54):
earning potential is very low, right for whatever whatever reason,
reasons that you control, reasons that you were just cars,
you were just dealt, like, that's not just gonna change, right,
And the way that this country works anyway, and education works,
before you can level up that skill set, you're probably
(36:16):
in more debt.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So I think we can. Yeah, we can give.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Folks like the play cards or the or the playbook
to live a more balance and financially healthy life. But
I don't think everyone can become a millionaire.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I actually think we can, and this is really important
for a lot of the folks because your income or
your earning potential on an annual basis, I totally can
understand that. But I think the biggest deterrent to becoming
a millionaire is people living above their means, so they're
living above their earning potential. If I was to try
to craft that top ten thing, the number one would
(36:54):
be to significantly cut your expenses and compared to your income,
your earning potential because in the effort that you can
carve out savings, you can create a pathway to a
millionaire as long as you can carve out a savings
and start to do certain things with it that you
are not doing now, like buy life insurance, like put
(37:17):
some things away, pay off debt, you will eventually, especially
over a standard lifetime, become a millionaire. But the biggest
problem is what we what our society promotes and encourage,
is people over spending, being over leveraged, using significant amounts
of credit and loans, and creating a debt to income
(37:39):
ratio that's just not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Sustainable.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
I'm kind of in the middle, right, Like, I think
Marlin's point is a good one, right, you know, one
of the biggest inequities I think in this country is
that when you go to college, you pay the same
tuition whether or not your earning potential is here or here, Right, Like,
you go to college to.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Be Actually, in most cases, if you're more wealthy, pay less.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah. True, But in theory, this is crazy, right, it is.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
It is insane, but like and relatively yeah, in theory,
like you go to school to be So you want
to break that down, Yeah, you could go to like
the Harvard website, for instance, and they'll give you the
statistics around financial aid. Most kids at Harvard are on
financial aid. If you are a.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Student who makes if your household makes less than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars his own website, by the way,
school's free. Now. The problem is if your family makes
more than one fifty Let's say they make like half
a million dollars, which is a lot of money, right,
but tuition's like eighty grand a year. So it's this
weird thing where like if you're poor, like really poor,
(38:51):
or even up to one hundred and fix thousand dollars,
which is, you know, top one two percent, you go
to school for free. If you are middle income again
relative up to this scale up in reality, five hundred grand,
it's actually a really big chunk of your income. But
that if you're super wealthy, then you know, who cares.
It's a really small percentage, So you can sort of
(39:11):
get screwed if you are doing well but not super
super well more. Yeah no, but just if you're clear,
if anybody ever told you, like, hey, I couldn't afford Harvard,
like they were a lot to you, they just didn't get.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
In for sure, that's not a thing. So two things, well,
one just to kind of finish you know, my thought.
I think that if you go to school to be
a social worker, not picking on social workers, obviously, that
is an really, really really important job, right, But like
your earning potential is capped at a certain level, it's
going to be really difficult for that individual to be
(39:44):
able to say, especially with like this particular economy, inflation,
overall cost of living, it's going to be very difficult
to save, right. And yes, you can reduce your overall
you know, expenses and live on the bare minimum, but
it's go to be you have to be a certain
type of discipline to do that.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Right.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
If you're making let's just say, thirty thousand dollars a year,
so becoming a millionaire becomes really challenging because you can't
put aside the savings to then invest it. And again,
by the way, if you make thirty thousand dollars a year,
I don't even care. If you make one hundred thousand
dollars a year, one hundred and fift thousand dolls a year,
there's very few people who want to help you manage
your money because you're still deemed as not having enough
(40:26):
income or assets.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
I literally just invested in the company because of that,
all right, because wealth management is really reserved for upper
middle class too wealthy, that's who can afford it. Right,
You're not gonna go to Merrill Lanch and get an
advisor to help you if you're below a certain income level.
It's just not worth their time. So you know, and
this is where I think technology can play a really
(40:50):
big role here, right, And this company, for instance, they're
doing that job.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
You're gonna say what your goals are, and they're gonna
it's going to help you create goals and then ultimately
move the money for you, right, so that you can
actually achieve those goals, which is which is what wealth
managers do. Right, So so I think where technology is
going to allow us to level the playing field a bit.
(41:18):
But still I still think, like, you know, you're earning potential,
it's the biggest inhibitator.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
But but here's my thing, right, there are stories of
people who became millionaires, who are refugees, who were in
prison for years, people who have no education, people have
a lot of education. So that's kind of the root
of me saying like anybody can do it because what.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Was the talent though, right, Like it's not It's not
just anyone, right, So sure you can drive, you know,
I'd argue that that drive is more is more important.
I don't also argue that time is a very important resource.
(42:06):
So you can have all the drive you want. If
you got to work almost twenty four to seven, you know,
to put food on the table. It doesn't matter how
much drib you have. You just don't have the time
to do the other thing exactly.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
So you know, before we leave, guys, what I would
love to end on is maybe give me two things, Eric,
that you think someone could do in order to help them,
you know, on that track to become a millionaire, not
all ten. Give me two from you, Eric, and then
I would love two from me Marlin, and then Rodney
and Ile scrounge up one.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Oh. I think the main thing I would have people
focus on that I usually have people focus on is
real estate. And I'm not a real estate investor. But
let's say you live in a neighborhood and your famili's
lived in that neighborhood for a very long time. I
always get frustrated and people say, you know, I don't
know how to make money. I don't know this, but
It's like you saw Starbucks move in on that corner,
(43:03):
and you saw Whole Food start building three four blocks down.
You're telling me that you had no idea that the
real estate around here is going to get more expensive.
It's like, yeah, okay, what I didn't have one hundred
thousand dollars to invest in X, Y and Z property?
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It was hard to get alone, Okay, But you don't
know other people who you can maybe put in with
and you know, use their money and your money and
put it all in a pot and then buy that
piece of real estate. That's what I do for a living,
by the way, right, And by the way, the vast
majority of the money that I put into things is
(43:37):
not mine, right. I put in two percent. The other
ninety eight percent is coming from other investors. So when
you think about private equity, when you think about you know,
fund management, it's really not complicated. And it doesn't matter
what your educational background is. Like I said, if you've
got two arms, lungs, two feet and can like just
(43:59):
witness and visualize what's happening around you, and you know
enough people, you can scrounge up twenty thirty, forty fifty
thousand dollars buy a piece of real estate. Blayser focused
on it, and that thing is going to appreciate if
you buy it in the right location and take proper
care of it. That's just true. Why does real estate
go up in value? It's really really simple supplying de mani.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
All.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
The supply of land is not changing. They're not making
any more land right earth is finite. Demand is going up,
They're more people, So no matter what, over time, land
will increase in value. So you kind of can't mess
it up.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
Yeah, Marline, what you got?
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Two things?
Speaker 5 (44:44):
I think, first of all, like and I think this
should be taught in school, Like when you're learning algebra,
you should learn how to do a budget, right. I
think everyone needs to have a budget and actually live
in accordance to that budget. That's the only way that
you're gonna be able to save and manage it. And
then I think investing in public equities has been democratized,
(45:08):
and I think folks need to start looking at even
if you do like a an index fund right where you're.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Investing in definitely doing enough fun.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Yeah, it's just like, well maybe you do right, maybe
you're maybe that's the talent that you have. You know
you're you're a janitor. Do not do that.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Do the research right.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
That they're good there, they're successful day traders out there,
lucky and and and why not this guy right like
it's possible, but.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I'm doing I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Don't please, don't do it, Ken Griffin Citadel will smoke you.
Do not do that.
Speaker 5 (45:50):
But take advantage of ways to make to earn money
while you're sleeping.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Is the is the underlying point.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
I think that. I think the last one for us
is by life insurance. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (46:00):
I know the number one way to accumulate wealth is
actually in real estate. Number two way is actually like
the transfer of wealth via life insurance and black and
brown and communities just don't have enough of it. And
it's a tax free transfer of wealth that more people
need to take advantage of. So if you have a family,
even if you don't have a family, right like, you
(46:20):
should still have some type of life insurance on yourself
to ensure that there's no burden left to those who
you love, you know, left behind to those who you love.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
So mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
My last advice I'm going to do two.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Number one. I don't think tom is your friend. So
whatever you think you had or you're going to do
next week or next year, you should do it now.
And I think that Solo has created a way for
everyday people to learn how to assist with each other,
where one people can borrow and the others can lend.
And I think if you focus on anything, especially things
like solo, I think you can extract something beneficial to
(46:54):
help out with that strategy.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
And that's my pitch.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I'm an investor, me too. Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
This is Wealth Break and it's happy to have you, Feace,
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
(47:21):
com for additional resources to help you on your journey
to building wealth. Our executive producers are Ryan Marx and
Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Catch you next time on The Wealth Break.
It's Rodney Williams, co founder of The Wealth Break. Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I know firsthand that building wealth can feel like everyone's
playing a game you never got.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
The rules for.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good information usually locked behind paywalls full of fine print,
or shared in conversations we're never invited to. That's exactly
why we created The Wealth Break. It's way more than
a podcast. It's a whole platform dedicated to making wealth
building transparent, real and accessible to everyone. Want the inside stories,
(00:34):
the secrets successful people actually use, and those exclusive gems
you won't find anywhere else. It's all here. Tap into
our growing community. Soak up those insights and get clear,
actionable strategies you can apply right now.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
No secrets, no gatekeepers, just.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Real talk for real wealth.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Don't let anyone keep you from getting with yours.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Visit the wealthbreak dot com today and start changing the
game for yourself.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Welcome to the Wealth Break.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
This is where we unlock stories of financial success, pushing,
breaking down odds, being yourself and enduring it in a
way which we hope closes the wealth gap. Hello everyone,
(01:40):
I'm Rodney Williams and the heir of my co hosts,
Travis Holloway. Y'all Yo today is a special, special special guest.
We got our good friends Eric Taylor and Marlon Nichols.
I know, if you've been listening, you may have gotten
used to a format. This is probably gonna be the
young format. All right, This entire time period is going
to be our code switch. We have a lot to discuss,
(02:01):
and we're amongst good friends. Our first guest is someone
who's made serious moves in venture capital, Marlon Nichols. He's
the founding managing partner at Macventure Capital, where he invested
in game changing companies. Before that, he was at in
Cel Capital, where he launched one hundred and twenty five
million dollar diversity fund. Marlin's got an eye for emerging
markets and has back brands like Gamblet and Pipe and
(02:25):
maybe Solo Funds.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Brought us all here. I didn't know about.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Want to hear blug, but thank you for being here.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
One of my favorite investments. Man always mentioned Solo Funds. Nah,
you're the best man. We appreciate you. Then secondly, up
next we have Eric Taylor. Eric is a heavy hitter
in private equity.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Eric is the founder and CEO of Trident, where he's
focused on acquiring small businesses across industries like healthcare, consumer goods,
and industrials. Before that, he was in Goldman Sachs's Special
Situations Group, and he's all about making sure access to
capital and wealth building opportunities aren't just reserved for the elite. Marlon, Eric,
we're excited to have you. Welcome to the wealth break.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, Special Situations Group. It sounds crazy, Special situations.
Can y'all say that like three times?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah? And it kind of was what you think it was,
you know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Interestingly enough, I met Eric in a deal, and I
met Marlin in a deal, So it's good to be here.
I think right you were finishing up, I was convincing
Marlin to give me a dollar. I always asking Marlin
for a dollar. But I got to meet you because
you got a lot of them. No, I think from honestly,
probably ten years now, I think we've all grown with
(03:40):
I believe. I think this is probably the expert level
of at least our generation when it comes to finance.
I think we all represent something super duper important. You know,
you have a VC, you have a private equity, you
have some really keen important minds here to have real
dialogue and real discussions, and that's what we're about to
show y'all.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Heir at the Wealth Break, Yeah, hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
And obviously we're all friends and we tend to have
a lot of conversations offscreen that we actually thought could
be kind of dope to bring on screen, and was
just going to give you guys a little preview of
some of the things that we talk about. So I
want to kick off with a recent hot topic, which
was a boycott or a one day no spend for
(04:23):
the African American community. And from what I understand that
one day no spend was to spend.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No, I didn't hear about this.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, this is brand new.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
That's problem number one.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And it just be very clear, is any boycott a
good idea?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yes? Sure, Yeah, like the Montgomery bus boycott was a
good idea. So one hundred years ago, boy, I mean yeah,
but you talked about a state that was, like I think,
mostly black at the time, So you know, it's just
the leverage was a little different. Yeah, you're using Instagram
to in WhatsApp, in Apple iPhone to text around and say, hey,
we got to boycott these brands is just nuts.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
So I'm say it. I'm not saying I thought the
boycott was a little foolish. Well, I think a few things.
Number One, I think that there has to be a
clearly articulated goal of a boycott that actually makes sense. Right, So,
from my understanding of this boycott, not spending money anywhere
is just not.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's not. You can't maintain that.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
So I think the first flaw on this is that
they're saying, don't spend money anywhere on this one particular
day so that they can see what the economic impact
of our dollar means. But they encourage people to go
spend the money, buy everything you need prior to that day,
or just wait until the day after to get what
(05:48):
you need except for essentials like medicine and other like necessities.
And if you do have to buy a necessity, buy
it from a small business. Now, my challenge with that
is businesses typically look at revenue on a monthly basis
a quarterly basis, and if you spent the same money
(06:10):
that you would have spent on Friday, on Thursday or
on Saturday, then no one notices what your dollar means.
And again, if you can't maintain it, meaning that you
just boycott everything. There's no longevity in that. So the
bus boycott people decided to just boycott one particular thing indefinitely,
(06:34):
and yes they felt the impact of that, but boycotting
everything makes no sense. I wanted to hear from you all.
What are your thoughts or what are your perspectives. I mean,
I think you laid it out pretty well. It's got
to be focused, it's got to be targeted.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
It has to be something that you're willing to sustain
for a long period of time. I think I recently
read or watched how the community in Tulsa was created
back it was literally all black people stopped spending money
at white establishments for a long period of time, and
it started hurting them and to the point where they
(07:10):
had to come back to the bargaining. They tried to
arrest people, whatever, it didn't work. They had to come
back to the table and bargain, and ultimately, I believe
the gentleman that started the movement became the mayor of
the town ultimately, and black people were treated better in
these stores, were able to open up their own businesses, etc.
(07:31):
So it's got to be, like you said, you got
to have a clear goal in mind. It's got to
be a targeted approach, and you got to be willing
to stand by it for sustained period of time.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I mean, this whole thing just feels like a really
long term exercise and powerlessness, to be frank and, I
feel like when people say you got to hit him
in their pockets, they're not really getting the message and
the understanding of it, because in order to do something
like that, it takes a lot more power and a
lot more time, and a lot more I think strategic
(08:07):
just economic power, to be honest with you, I mean,
you need in order to scare a large, multinational, multi
billion dollar business at this point, you need to be
able to change their bottom line over a long period
of time, if that conversations even going to enter the boardroom.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And that's even if you're choosing one company or one
business to boycott right let alone everything. So, how do
you all feel about the target boycott because it seems
like that's been like the one consistent, you know, business
that people have targeted because of their DEI rollback quite frankly,
it's pretty interesting that we get our message out on
(08:48):
two platforms, primarily that have also rolled back their DII initiatives,
being you know, both Meta and X. But what are
your thoughts on on that? Because Target it has been
such a big supporter of black business and from my perspective,
you stop spending your money, you stop buying those products there.
(09:08):
Now there's a real reason to stop carrying those products there.
And who are you actually hurting? Are you actually killing
black businesses? Or are you actually sticking it to Target? Yeah,
I mean, I think that's my biggest challenge with this all.
I don't think anyone here can clearly articulate what the
focus is of the boycott, whether it's the boycott this
past week or so or in February, or the boycott
(09:32):
to Target.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
What is the goal?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Where's the items of request that you may be asking
for Target or you may be asking for greater businesses
or whatever administration?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And by the way, the idea do they even matter?
Do they even matter? Do they matter?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Who's the PR agency around it? Because the information clearly
didn't get to this room, which where it should be. Right,
it's I keep miya to the street, so I know
about it, you know, but I go I go back
to like, back to like at the end of the day,
like it's like this useless information. It's all these people
upset and they're like and then there's like a group
of people manipulate, like playing into the victim mentality of
(10:05):
like I'm going to use them to do all this
stuff when they're really not doing anything.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
I just feel like we need to be focused on
two things over the long term. It's you know, if
we're talking about black culture, right, it's money that is
getting into black people's pockets a and equal rights under
the law. And if the conversation doesn't tailor towards one
of those two things, I just think it's a complete
(10:34):
waste of time. And that's what this whole target thing
feels like.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I think it's just a lack of organization, right, I
get the sentiment, right, So you're rolling back DEI initiatives
and we don't like it, right, We want you to
change it. We want you to to to stand up
and you know, be like a delta for instance that
you know saying no, we're not we're not doing that.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But you're approach is just flawed.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
You're not organized, and there's no boycott is going to
work if it's not organized, right, So I get the
goal here. You want to show that, you know, you
got to respect black businesses and black people, and you should,
you know, want to fight for our dollars. But the
approach is just not the right approach. It just wasn't
(11:25):
well thought out and it definitely wasn't enacted properly.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
And I feel like it's part of a trend in
Black History Month of us getting or looking for press
for the wrong things. Right, Like I mean out a
controversial conversation with somebody because they were talking about, you know,
the Trump administration trying to like abolish Black History Month.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
So it was like a Tuesday, say again twenty four
hours ago.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
No, But my whole thing is I I just I
don't want us to focus on these moralistic victories that
at the end of the day you can't really eat,
Like you can't eat awards during Black History Month. Right,
None of that it's going to feed your family, it's
not going to buy you a new house. It's not
going to increase your economic status. It's not going to
(12:11):
get you a degree, it's not going to get you promoted,
it's not going to get you really anything. And I'm
not saying that we shouldn't be obviously celebrating black culture,
but we should never be doing that in lieu of
focusing on the things that really matter. And sometimes I
feel like we get, you know, sort of like spoon fed,
(12:35):
or like we get these little pieces, these little crumbs
of things like a Black History Month to satiate us,
when that doesn't actually put money in people's pockets, right,
Whereas the things that are putting money in people's pockets,
whether it's affirmative action at the Streme Court level, all
that stuff can roll back. So that's my biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Right, It's like, I feel like I heard more about
more of a pushback on EI rollbacks then I did
affirmative action totally, And it's just like, how can that be?
Like how is how are we rage baited by DEI
rollbacks but we're not? When it's I don't know how
much I really want to dive in here, but let's
(13:15):
just be honest, Like most DEI initiatives that most large companies,
especially in Silicon Valley and otherwise, were actually like happy hours.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
What did Target do exactly? What was the evil deed?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I don't know what their DEI pology like.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Did they start flying firing black people at corporate did
they get rid.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Of if they had I think the idea is that
if they had a for instance, a hiring quota for
for for black people then or diverse people, then that
would go away. If they had like a quota for
black owned businesses, that they would get yeah, put in
(13:53):
in their stores of products that they put We don't want.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
That anyway that I don't see like like the people
I know, the people that we know excuse me, who
sell product and target. They're selling product and target irrespective
of what targets. The strategy is right, right, because they're
moving more products anywhere else. I mean, there's no way
that target's just going to get rid of like bees,
(14:17):
honey pots.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
There's a problem.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Here's a problem. If if you don't measure it right,
then you're probably not going to do it well right.
So so if the goal is to have more parity
right and you're not measuring it, then you're not going
to get there. And I think that's that's the problem.
But going back to the whole Black History Month thing,
(14:40):
you know, the thing that I enjoy about it is
the education, right is learning about black people that did
this or did that, that I didn't know about and
you know before then. And I think it's particularly important
these days as there are groups that are trying to
write history or eliminate some aspects of history.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Isn't that education more powerful if it's taught, Like isn't
the Revolutionary War story more powerful when it comes to
black history if you're learning about the Boston massacre and
then you learn about the first person dying being Christmas
Addicts a black man. Agreed, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Like agreed, I'm not I'm not saying.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
I'm not saying we we one hundred percent agree that
black history should be taught throughout the year, right and
should just be a part of American history.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
But it's not right.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
And so right now, you know, we have this little
crumb that's that's the month of February where that happens, right,
And I think while we don't have the other thing
that needs to keep happening now that what you're saying about,
you know, special recognitions during that during that month. I
can take or lead that, right, But I think getting
(15:55):
the education is important.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I firmly do believe though that when it comes to
our history, especially your family's history, whatever that may be,
it is the responsibility of whoever that head of the family.
I firmly believe that because although I can relate to
to black history, I'm Caribbean and I had a totally
different history story that it was my parents' responsibility for
(16:17):
me to understand that because it was not the expectation
that that would be taught in school. And I think
we rely on government to provide like morals and depth
and all of the things that you want or you
may signal to be like, oh that's a good guy
or a good woman, when in reality, I think that
comes from parents.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I'm not necessarily for the month. I don't necessarily you know,
for what it's worth.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Yeah, morals I agree with, like you know your principles, Yes, absolutely,
that should come from the home. But I think having
your parents be responsible for teaching you history is a
privileged position.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
One.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I think many black and diverse parents they don't know
the history themselves, so so how are they're gonna how
they're gonna teach it? That's one two. Finding the time
to do that, Like in a lot of these households,
you know, it's get to work and make this money
so I can put food on the table and put
clothes on your back. So I don't know that that's
(17:23):
a reasonable I.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Don't disagree, you know, I just just to be clear
writing I don't think we should be anti Black History Month.
I just wonder if I wonder if this oft separation
from like the rest of America hurts us sometimes, right,
(17:47):
And I think we saw that in twenty sixteen, and
I think we really saw it in this last election,
where you're seeing like, as we've segmented ourselves further and
from their way, you're seeing a good portion of the
rest of the country, including some of us, being like
all right, y'all go over there, I forget about you. Yeah, right,
(18:08):
and we're just gonna start chipping away at whatever you
have over time. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:14):
So that brings me to just thinking about, like, well,
number one, when are we going to give like al
sharp Thing and Jesse Jackson a break. Like there's like
no voice or leadership in the community, which is why
there's no consistent message they want to break.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Though, he'd be working out video in the mix, see,
but I don't think anybody's inviting them to to, you know,
lead the march.
Speaker 4 (18:36):
I mean, they're like, this march is happening, I'm about to.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Lead it one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (18:41):
But I think that there's a I think there needs
to be some new individuals kind of taking over, like
like taking the torch, right, like taking the baton and
doing something.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
I don't know who that who that should be. I mean,
you know who it might be. We know who it
should be. But the problem is those individuals are definitely
don't want to want to do it, and they're few
and far between, right, Like when you get so, can
I say something? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Necessarily I don't, but I don't think this makes me Yeah,
I don't think that they I don't think let's say
what they did for us, we have to appreciate, right,
And I think at one point in time it was
it had a greater impact. I do not believe that
it makes the same impact today. And I think why
(19:31):
we're all here with the wealth break is that I
do think there are powerful individuals just as powerful as
an owl, but they're making an impact sitting at the
tables where they can make an impact that because of
their wealth, and I think that impact is significantly greater.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And at the same time they're not putting a target
on their back.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Well they are, but they feel untouchable because they have
immense wealth. Right, one would argue that Alon has a
major target on his back. There's so many people who
do not like him now, and honestly, maybe twelve months
ago or twenty four months ago, they just really didn't
have an opinion. It's like, oh, he's the richest man
in the country, of the richest man in the world,
(20:10):
so be it. But now that he has infused himself
or and grained himself into American politics, he does now
have a target on his back. And there's a lot
of anti Elon Musk people out there, But the reality
is we've also just saw someone by their way into
government and buy their way into decision making. He's at
the table with individuals that he would have never been
(20:31):
at the table with under other administrations, and which, by
the way, is not new.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
It's just this.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
It's overt and it's visible to all, and I one
hundred percent agree that it's not a new concept. But
that said, it feels to me that the only way
to really change the change the narrative of black and brown,
not just African American, but black and brown people in
this country is to focus on wealth building, and.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I actually think that this would be careful. I think
that this may actually be a uniquely African American problem.
And Malcolm X talked at length about this, and at
the time he was I think criticizing folks like Dick Gregory,
(21:20):
Lena Horne, you know, comedians, trumpet players, as he used
to describe, who are and were effectively the representatives of
our culture. So if you were you know, it's a
majority of white country at the time, if you turn
on the TV and you saw black people, the very
representatives of the culture were sort of like court jesters, right,
(21:44):
and then you saw representatives from all the other cultures,
and they had business people, and they had meteorologists, and
they had you know, folks from all different quarters and
not just people from entertainment. And I think at the
time Malcolm thought that this was, you know, part of
the man's plan, right, Like, you know, the man is
(22:05):
uplifting these comics and depressing the intellectuals. And I think
some of that may be valid, but I think we
as a community have to take a lot of responsibility
for the people that we uplift, and I think more importantly,
that the people in those positions need to be a
lot more thoughtful about how they communicate, what they communicate,
(22:30):
and to whom they communicate right like you can. I
mean I did. I did a Google search before this,
and I was looking at instances where celebrities and entertainers
you know, effectively spoke about major topics that were relevant
to black folks that they effectively didn't really know about.
(22:50):
And I've got one headline for you that might that
pissed me off and might piss you off too. This
is a yacht. This is a Yahoo Finance article, by
the way, from last year. We can't fund these wars.
Cardi B. Delivers exlative filled rant on NYC budget cuts.
State of US economy is the rapper quote unquote speaking truth.
(23:11):
I'm not saying shut up and dribble. I'm not saying
Cardi B doesn't deserve to have an opinion. I just
think that what happens is the American public picks that
up and instead of saying what does Roland Fryar, the
Harvard Professor of economics, think, they just say what does
(23:31):
Cardi B think? Right? What does Cameron think about parent
teacher conferences? What does Kanye West think about Hurricane Katrina?
And that's all you get.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
Yeah, but that's because our country, we just focus so
much on wealth, and your voice matters if you have wealth,
and your voice doesn't matter if you don't. So like
what even Malcolm and Martin were able to accomplish back
in the sixties fifty sixties would not necessarily be possible
today because they don't have this mints level of wealth today.
(24:02):
The reason why we look to the rappers or the
entertainers is because they have money, so we believe that
whatever they say holds more weight because they have what
we all want, quote unquote, which is the economic success.
So I think that that's like one of the biggest
challenges for me is that it would be very difficult
for us to have any type of alignment in messaging
(24:23):
and in strategy because who we would want to listen
to I say we, but largely the African American community.
What I see is that they gravitate towards whatever the
person with the most money says. And what we don't
really see Eric didn't say this, but ultimately what we
don't see is our very successful, wealthy business men and
(24:46):
women speaking out right, we depend on a Lebron James
who's been fantastic at speaking up for causes that he
sees or doesn't agree with. But he has that voice
in that that that platform because of who he is,
you know, financially and who he is from an entertainment
and sports perspective. So, like, I think that that's one
(25:07):
of the biggest challenges for me is I don't see
a way out of it if that's all we're going
to champion is wealth, Because the wealthiest African Americans, particularly
in the art you know, in this country, don't speak
out right, not to call any I'm not even going
to say any names, but you just do not. If
you look at the list of the wealthiest African Americans
who are not entertainers, you actually don't know anything largely
(25:28):
about their political views.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yeah, that raises a few things for me.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
One, what you're really talking I mean, you're calling it wealth,
but what you're really talking about is influence and distribution.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Right.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So back in the day before mobile, before social the
way to get messages out there was through the newspapers, right,
and so who had the means to buy those you know,
those stories and put them out there wealthier people.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
And so now you fast forward where social media and
the Internet is supposed to democratize access to information, you're
seeing that. You know, the folks that have the platform,
they don't necessarily have to be rich. By the way,
you have a bunch of like you know, Instagram influencers,
TikTokers that reach a lot of people, right, they just
don't have anything to say, right.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So I don't know that.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I necessarily agree that it's wealth today that dictates who
can say what.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I think it might be wealth for us is what
he's Yes, I want to be clear, yes, correct, correct,
because there's Candish Owns and Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro,
and you know, there's a lot of conservative commentators who
had a following that didn't start off wealthy. But like
I was, as you were talking, I was trying to
sit here and think about what the parallel in you know,
a liberal slash people of color community would be to
(26:48):
some of those names, and I was kind of I
was kind of drawing blank.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
And the other thing I was going to say is
like two things. People are inherently self interested, self invested,
so they're going to do the thing that they believe
best suits them at any given time.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
It's just survival.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Right.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
The other thing is that I'm losing my train of thought.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Are you saying that in relation to like the athletes
and celebrities. Yeah, I mean yeah, but like someone like
Alex Avechkin and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I think he's saying it in relation to it
was going to really step up and say anything opposing
because at the end of the day, they think that
it might impact their survival.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
So, you know, we have a president in office now, right.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
A lot of people voted for him that you know,
some were very bold and said they did, and a
lot of people voted for him that will never say that.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
They that they did.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
And the reason they did that was because they heard
something that they felt would put them in a better position.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Right, So they so they did that.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
They voted for him because of that, right, But why
did they hide it?
Speaker 1 (27:55):
They also hit it for the same reason. Yeah, Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. They Yeah, you could.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Be self interested, but you don't necessarily want everybody else
to know what you're self interested, Like that doesn't serve you,
serve you well as well.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, But I think that's the problem because who's incentivized
to say something. It's the only people who are motivated
by the attention and not necessarily the accuracy of the information,
or motivated to actually help black people, Because that leaves
the only that leaves the people who just want to
(28:28):
kind of like you know, they're entertainers. They want to
like motivate the crowd. They want to cause a little hysteria.
They want the headline, they want the sexy tagline. But
do they really want to help black people or people
generally speaking? Are they any different than.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
They do if it helps them, that's the point. That's
the point I make it, right.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, you know, I go back to like and you know,
I go back to you know, just think me as
an entrepreneur trying to find good financial advice, I have
to like comb my way through the influencers that are
driving around Lamborghini's telling me to buy penny.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Stocks and day Tracks traders.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Bro. I mean, you got to understand it. You're like
nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
You got to filter it through a lot of nonsense
and people trying to tell us how to build well
for how to do this or how to do that, and.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
And and that's that was gonna be my third point
that I forgot. Actually people are lazy, right, So, like, honest,
factual information is out there there there are people making
that content, but you'd have to go find it, right,
and most people are not going to go find it.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
The people who are actually providing the gut, they they
they don't They're not driving a Lamborghini, right, They're not.
They're not overly flashy, they don't have the jewelry they like.
They're actually trying to tell you how to actually budget
and build you know, your your version of what wealth
(30:19):
is and self sustainability is. And I think we get
and I think some some communities get very entrenched in
the theatrics of finance. And you know, Eric and I
talk about it all the time, like if people were
really that good at providing financial advice, they would actually
work and get paid only to provide financial they would
(30:41):
with you, like they literally would be behind our version
like the real life version of a paywall, which is
they work at a firm and they only work with
high net worth individuals or ultra high networth individuals. That
is the paywall, right, It's how much money do you make,
what's your your annual income, and how many assets do
you have? And if you don't fit those qualifications, you
(31:02):
can't get access to this information. So the people who
are out here just telling you to just do random things,
they don't necessarily have the best intentions, and they're doing
all of the extra stuff because they're just trying to
get views, because they really don't make money from helping
you make money. They make money from you watching their content.
And that's not a financial advisor.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Two things. One, I do think it is a little
more unique to our community than we're probably willing to
admit that there's a lot more nonsense that you have
to wade through as that nineteen year old than you
do in other communities. And I think the sooner that
we can all be like honest about that, we can
(31:43):
start working on what we need to collectively do to
do better. And I think there's a push and pull.
I think people who don't know what they're talking about
need to shut the hell up, and I think people
who are professionals who really understand topics need to be
brought to the foe to actually speak up about it.
But you need both, right, Like if X Y and
(32:05):
Z Rapper is yelling at the top of their lungs
by crypto, and Marlin is standing there saying, hey, here's
a you know, reasonable strategy to grow and compound interest
over time. Like you know, you came out of the
barn to speak to the people and be helpful. But
anybody want to hear that because the rapper is saying hey,
(32:26):
by crypto and so that's the collective I think, come
to Jesus moment that we sort of need to have.
And it's I think really interesting to bring it back
to my original point that Malcolm X was talking about
this in the early sixties, like this was his exact point.
And by the way, before he was talking about it,
(32:49):
Booker T. Washington and w B we're having the exact
same argument, right, And it turns out like Booker T
may have been right.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
I mean, and also like right before Martin Luther King
was assassinated, he was shifting to the economic focus, right,
like that's where we should be spending our time and attention.
And then obviously he was assassinated. But you know, what
are your guys' thoughts on the state of the current economy.
It's one thing to just sit here and tell people
like hey, like you're getting information from the wrong places.
(33:20):
And I'm not saying that we're the end all, be all,
but we do have four different unique perspectives Rodney and
I which is more similarly aligned as co founders.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
But what are your thoughts on the.
Speaker 6 (33:31):
Current economy and what people could or should be doing
right now?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I think if you know how to make money, you
shouldn't be listening to Marlon and I about how to
make money because there are people who are way further
ahead of both of us in terms of both of
our jobs, who can like really guide you. So if
you're trying to figure out how to do private equity, like,
don't get me wrong, I'm really really smart, but like,
(33:57):
go see what Robert Smith's talking about. That being said,
if this podcast is pointed at people who are trying
to find the initial ways to build wealth, I really
don't think that the economy, whether it's good or bad,
is going to be your biggest impediment. I think the
tools that you need and the rules to follow to
build wealth are as much about building skills and habits,
(34:21):
you know, than anything else, and those skills and habits
will be functional over time really in any economic environment.
So if you started building skills and habits. In seven
oh eight, like ten years later, you're definitely a millionaire. Right, Yeah,
it was a rough it was a rough time. But
you know, could we could tell you, Marlin and I
could see here and tell you exactly what you need
(34:41):
to do to be a millionaire. It's really straightforward, it's
not complicated. Anybody can do it.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
But well, not anybody.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I think anybody could do it. I really do. I
think anybody. You don't think anybody could do it.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
I don't think anybody could do it.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I don't think anybody could do it. Why I think that?
Or said another way, I think you and I could
sit down and write down ten steps, and if everybody
followed those steps, they'd be a millionaire. Now, to your point,
not everybody can do it, meaning not everybody can follow
those steps. Fine, but I think regardless of your educational status,
(35:17):
you're an adult with like you know, two arms, two legs,
and a voice and a brain, and you follow these
ten steps, Like what are some of those steps?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Well, well, well let me just let me just say
why I disagree. And the thing I disagree with is
becoming a millionaire. Right, I think we could lay that
layout steps that could get people to live a balanced
and like healthy, stable lifestyle. But you know, if your
(35:54):
earning potential is very low, right for whatever whatever reason,
reasons that you control, reasons that you were just cars,
you were just dealt, like, that's not just gonna change, right,
And the way that this country works anyway, and education works,
before you can level up that skill set, you're probably
(36:16):
in more debt.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
So I think we can. Yeah, we can give.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
Folks like the play cards or the or the playbook
to live a more balance and financially healthy life. But
I don't think everyone can become a millionaire.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I actually think we can, and this is really important
for a lot of the folks because your income or
your earning potential on an annual basis, I totally can
understand that. But I think the biggest deterrent to becoming
a millionaire is people living above their means, so they're
living above their earning potential. If I was to try
to craft that top ten thing, the number one would
(36:54):
be to significantly cut your expenses and compared to your income,
your earning potential because in the effort that you can
carve out savings, you can create a pathway to a
millionaire as long as you can carve out a savings
and start to do certain things with it that you
are not doing now, like buy life insurance, like put
(37:17):
some things away, pay off debt, you will eventually, especially
over a standard lifetime, become a millionaire. But the biggest
problem is what we what our society promotes and encourage,
is people over spending, being over leveraged, using significant amounts
of credit and loans, and creating a debt to income
(37:39):
ratio that's just not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Sustainable.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
I'm kind of in the middle, right, Like, I think
Marlin's point is a good one, right, you know, one
of the biggest inequities I think in this country is
that when you go to college, you pay the same
tuition whether or not your earning potential is here or here, Right, Like,
you go to college to.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Be Actually, in most cases, if you're more wealthy, pay less.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah. True, But in theory, this is crazy, right, it is.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
It is insane, but like and relatively yeah, in theory,
like you go to school to be So you want
to break that down, Yeah, you could go to like
the Harvard website, for instance, and they'll give you the
statistics around financial aid. Most kids at Harvard are on
financial aid. If you are a.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Student who makes if your household makes less than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars his own website, by the way,
school's free. Now. The problem is if your family makes
more than one fifty Let's say they make like half
a million dollars, which is a lot of money, right,
but tuition's like eighty grand a year. So it's this
weird thing where like if you're poor, like really poor,
(38:51):
or even up to one hundred and fix thousand dollars,
which is, you know, top one two percent, you go
to school for free. If you are middle income again
relative up to this scale up in reality, five hundred grand,
it's actually a really big chunk of your income. But
that if you're super wealthy, then you know, who cares.
It's a really small percentage, So you can sort of
(39:11):
get screwed if you are doing well but not super
super well more. Yeah no, but just if you're clear,
if anybody ever told you, like, hey, I couldn't afford Harvard,
like they were a lot to you, they just didn't get.
Speaker 6 (39:23):
In for sure, that's not a thing. So two things, well,
one just to kind of finish you know, my thought.
I think that if you go to school to be
a social worker, not picking on social workers, obviously, that
is an really, really really important job, right, But like
your earning potential is capped at a certain level, it's
going to be really difficult for that individual to be
(39:44):
able to say, especially with like this particular economy, inflation,
overall cost of living, it's going to be very difficult
to save, right. And yes, you can reduce your overall
you know, expenses and live on the bare minimum, but
it's go to be you have to be a certain
type of discipline to do that.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Right.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
If you're making let's just say, thirty thousand dollars a year,
so becoming a millionaire becomes really challenging because you can't
put aside the savings to then invest it. And again,
by the way, if you make thirty thousand dollars a year,
I don't even care. If you make one hundred thousand
dollars a year, one hundred and fift thousand dolls a year,
there's very few people who want to help you manage
your money because you're still deemed as not having enough
(40:26):
income or assets.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
I literally just invested in the company because of that,
all right, because wealth management is really reserved for upper
middle class too wealthy, that's who can afford it. Right,
You're not gonna go to Merrill Lanch and get an
advisor to help you if you're below a certain income level.
It's just not worth their time. So you know, and
this is where I think technology can play a really
(40:50):
big role here, right, And this company, for instance, they're
doing that job.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
You're gonna say what your goals are, and they're gonna
it's going to help you create goals and then ultimately
move the money for you, right, so that you can
actually achieve those goals, which is which is what wealth
managers do. Right, So so I think where technology is
going to allow us to level the playing field a bit.
(41:18):
But still I still think, like, you know, you're earning potential,
it's the biggest inhibitator.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
But but here's my thing, right, there are stories of
people who became millionaires, who are refugees, who were in
prison for years, people who have no education, people have
a lot of education. So that's kind of the root
of me saying like anybody can do it because what.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Was the talent though, right, Like it's not It's not
just anyone, right, So sure you can drive, you know,
I'd argue that that drive is more is more important.
I don't also argue that time is a very important resource.
(42:06):
So you can have all the drive you want. If
you got to work almost twenty four to seven, you know,
to put food on the table. It doesn't matter how
much drib you have. You just don't have the time
to do the other thing exactly.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
So you know, before we leave, guys, what I would
love to end on is maybe give me two things, Eric,
that you think someone could do in order to help them,
you know, on that track to become a millionaire, not
all ten. Give me two from you, Eric, and then
I would love two from me Marlin, and then Rodney
and Ile scrounge up one.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Oh. I think the main thing I would have people
focus on that I usually have people focus on is
real estate. And I'm not a real estate investor. But
let's say you live in a neighborhood and your famili's
lived in that neighborhood for a very long time. I
always get frustrated and people say, you know, I don't
know how to make money. I don't know this, but
It's like you saw Starbucks move in on that corner,
(43:03):
and you saw Whole Food start building three four blocks down.
You're telling me that you had no idea that the
real estate around here is going to get more expensive.
It's like, yeah, okay, what I didn't have one hundred
thousand dollars to invest in X, Y and Z property?
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It was hard to get alone, Okay, But you don't
know other people who you can maybe put in with
and you know, use their money and your money and
put it all in a pot and then buy that
piece of real estate. That's what I do for a living,
by the way, right, And by the way, the vast
majority of the money that I put into things is
(43:37):
not mine, right. I put in two percent. The other
ninety eight percent is coming from other investors. So when
you think about private equity, when you think about you know,
fund management, it's really not complicated. And it doesn't matter
what your educational background is. Like I said, if you've
got two arms, lungs, two feet and can like just
(43:59):
witness and visualize what's happening around you, and you know
enough people, you can scrounge up twenty thirty, forty fifty
thousand dollars buy a piece of real estate. Blayser focused
on it, and that thing is going to appreciate if
you buy it in the right location and take proper
care of it. That's just true. Why does real estate
go up in value? It's really really simple supplying de mani.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
All.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
The supply of land is not changing. They're not making
any more land right earth is finite. Demand is going up,
They're more people, So no matter what, over time, land
will increase in value. So you kind of can't mess
it up.
Speaker 6 (44:39):
Yeah, Marline, what you got?
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Two things?
Speaker 5 (44:44):
I think, first of all, like and I think this
should be taught in school, Like when you're learning algebra,
you should learn how to do a budget, right. I
think everyone needs to have a budget and actually live
in accordance to that budget. That's the only way that
you're gonna be able to save and manage it. And
then I think investing in public equities has been democratized,
(45:08):
and I think folks need to start looking at even
if you do like a an index fund right where you're.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Investing in definitely doing enough fun.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Yeah, it's just like, well maybe you do right, maybe
you're maybe that's the talent that you have. You know
you're you're a janitor. Do not do that.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
Do the research right.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
That they're good there, they're successful day traders out there,
lucky and and and why not this guy right like
it's possible, but.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I'm doing I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Don't please, don't do it, Ken Griffin Citadel will smoke you.
Do not do that.
Speaker 5 (45:50):
But take advantage of ways to make to earn money
while you're sleeping.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Is the is the underlying point.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
I think that. I think the last one for us
is by life insurance. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (46:00):
I know the number one way to accumulate wealth is
actually in real estate. Number two way is actually like
the transfer of wealth via life insurance and black and
brown and communities just don't have enough of it. And
it's a tax free transfer of wealth that more people
need to take advantage of. So if you have a family,
even if you don't have a family, right like, you
(46:20):
should still have some type of life insurance on yourself
to ensure that there's no burden left to those who
you love, you know, left behind to those who you love.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
So mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
My last advice I'm going to do two.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Number one. I don't think tom is your friend. So
whatever you think you had or you're going to do
next week or next year, you should do it now.
And I think that Solo has created a way for
everyday people to learn how to assist with each other,
where one people can borrow and the others can lend.
And I think if you focus on anything, especially things
like solo, I think you can extract something beneficial to
(46:54):
help out with that strategy.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
And that's my pitch.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I'm an investor, me too. Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
This is Wealth Break and it's happy to have you, Feace,
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
(47:21):
com for additional resources to help you on your journey
to building wealth. Our executive producers are Ryan Marx and
Malik Soka, with Meredith Barnes as our supervising producer.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Catch you next time on The Wealth Break.
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