Not What It “Post” to Be - Part 3-John Hope Bryant

This week on TMI, Join Tamika D Mallory and Mysonne discuss the difficulties of balancing work, rest, and financial responsibilities during tough times, emphasizing the need for rest to maintain creativity and focus. They address the stress of financial obligations and the challenges of supporting their communities. Tamika shares her views on giving, and the conversation transitions into in the third installment of our series “What It Post to Be.’ Featuring an interview with financial literacy expert John Hope Bryant. Bryant delves into his background, the importance of financial education, and practical tips for economic empowerment within the Black community, drawing a connection between financial literacy and civil rights.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika d.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Mallory and it's your boy my son in general, we
are your host of TMI.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Tamika and my song's information, truth, motivation and inspiration.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
New name, New Energy. What's up? My song?

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Le?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
How you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I'm black Blessing Holly favorite to Meka matter how you
doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm on holiday, slightly slightly on holiday. I'm trying to
be all the way on the holiday, the break, but
it's kind of hard to get there because some people
just never stop working, and people just think that you're
supposed to just be active all the time, y'all. People
don't believe in like it's December, it's the beginning of

(00:44):
real colds. We should be taking a break and like
people relaxing.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It doesn't work like that.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
So I'm between coming getting rid of a cold which
is still really bad.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Probably a flu, and.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
On the other hand and trying to be in the
holiday and then on like the third hand, which is
like all my hands, feet and head. I probably have
the most work that I've done in six months right now,
so I don't even know how this is working, but
it's kind of like it huh, well.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
I think for me, I think we in such a recession,
and I'm just I'd be scared to just be.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
Broke and poor.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Oh my lord, don't say poor poor. Pause.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, I just feel like because people are really like
if their people have nothing like the level of conversations
and text messages that I get from people who have nothing,
and I'd be like, yo, I need to constantly be
able to create some level of revenue so that if

(01:55):
worst come the worst and they shut everything down and
this and that, that bills get paid. So I don't
even I don't I don't have the luxury to do
holiday all the way. Like, I just don't feel like
I have the luxury. I want to do it. I
want to be able to just sit in and chair.
I just don't feel like. I just feel like there's
this urgency in the it. Like everybody I talk two
cents is it you don't know where the next dollar

(02:18):
and this and that. So I'm just out here trying
to figure out ways to make sure that bills get
paid and you know, kids still will have soccer and
all the things that it needs to be done.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
So I think that's my mentality.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, I do think though there's something to be said
about like your creative flow comes from having time for
rest and rest. It like that is important. And I
think restoring the mind, the body, and all the pieces
is very important in order for you to show up

(02:52):
with fresh ideas. You know, I can tell when I'm
really tired, for instance, when I'm doing I was doing
an interview the other day and I found it difficult
to finish my sentences, Like I was trying to skip
through my thoughts as quick as possible, because all I
could think about is that my head was pounding.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Just earlier.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
It wasn't at that moment, but I knew early I
wasn't feeling too well, and I have so much going on.
I got all these reports do and just financial stuff
and an audit, and it's just so much happening at
one time that I was finding myself not being as
crystal clear as I'm used to. And that has a

(03:38):
lot to do with the amount of time that you
spend resting, because rest is also a part of how
you attract money, not just money, but you attract like
positive things. Your body has to be rested, your mind
has to be rested. You have to be able to
recognize opportunity in front of you and also be able

(03:59):
to navigate trouble waters.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Over the last couple of.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Days, a number of people have contacted me saying, oh,
you know, they've been being attacked such as we have
by the right wing press about our appointments to the
Mumdani transition team. And as they've been hitting me up,

(04:23):
they've been like, what do you think I should say
or I wrote this statement or whatever, And I have
to remind people that actually we're supposed to not say anything,
not because the Mumdani team is saying don't say anything,
but because we already know.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
That that's what these folks are looking for.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Is once you speak, then that gives them another article,
and then it's six articles later, and you down in
a rabbit hole with people who have nothing else to
do but to try to skew every word you say
against you and the progress.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
That your attention to.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
And as I'm reminded people, they're like, oh, yeah, yeah,
that's right, that's right. We are supposed to try to
stay focused on the work. So I feel like part
of that is also because you know, in order for
you to be focused on that, you can't be agitated
and all over the place. You have to be able
to know who you are, what value you bring to

(05:21):
the table. You got to be able to know that
it passes over time. They want they go to attacking
the next group of people, and that comes from having
a spirit of calm, and calmness comes from a spirit
of rest. So I think the rest is okay. I
don't think. I think money is good, but you can't

(05:41):
your life. Your hat can be hungle on that.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah, I respect it.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
I just think that in it's time, there are a
lot of people who are just trying to figure out
different things. So for me, you know, especially as being
you know, a bread winner in your family and then
just pretty much in your community, and people look to
you for so many resources, and then when you realize
resources be dwindling down, it's like I can't. I cannot

(06:09):
have because there are people who don't have levels of
understanding that I have. Right I deal with people in
our communities that will resort to different levels of maintaining
then I will and I understand that.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
So it's like I have to.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
I'm protecting their peace, I'm protecting their safety, all types
of things.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
So there's a lot of weight on my shoulders in
this moment.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
So I try, like I love to rest, I love
to just but understanding that when somebody calls you that
probably wouldn't call you and they need two to three
hundred dollars, and that you know that these people that
wouldn't call you for a dumb it's just like, well,
we rough and not to be able to have it
for five and six different people that might call you

(06:54):
for the same different thing, and then they have to
try to figure out certain things.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
And some of them are returning city, you.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Know, who're coming home, and I don't want them to
resort back to their comfort zone or what they know
how to do.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
So, you know, it's just a lot.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
For me, but it's a big responsibility to carry that,
and that brings me makes me think of my thought
of the day. I posted something the other day and
I said, you know, I know a lot of people
are struggling, and I'm one of those people that's I'm blessed,
but nonetheless I feel the strain also, and I said,
I don't have any money, like so it's no sense

(07:30):
in asking. And for the most part, well actually overwhelmingly
the response was kind of scary of people who were
like seriously, like I don't have a dime, like, please
stop asking me. It was really a lot of people,
and so I started asking folks like, wait a minute,

(07:52):
you're experiencing it too, because I'm like, I know that
there are some people who did not appreciate my post.
It wasn't many, but I saw people like, oh, you know,
we're supposed to give until we have nothing, and that's
when God restores you. And you know, I've seen I
saw people like oh, I saw people posting or responding

(08:13):
being like, you know, you're privileged and therefore you know
you shouldn't speak like this.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I'm like, you know, but if the overwhelming.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Response on the other side of that, let me know
that there's like a universal feel of people who are trying,
who are like everybody asking you for this.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
And that and that and this and that and that
and this it's too much.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
My thing is that I don't have a problem giving,
and I'm always gonna get because even though I said that,
five minutes after I posted, somebody sent me something that
I care about that I'm like, I'm gonna sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
My issue is the people.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Who don't work, the people who, even if they do work,
they're always in need of something, they always need something,
they always have an issue, they always have something going
on where they need help, or they need this, or
they sending you a cash at request or whatever.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
And my thing is your time. You need to figure
something else out.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
That's not gonna work for these at because I understand
that it's only gonna get work. And so in this
time period, it doesn't make any sense for people to
think that the way for them to address the hard
times that they're experiencing is to lean on other people
who are also just making it themselves. As a single
woman who maintains the majority, not everything, but the majority

(09:46):
of my stuff on my own, it is not helpful
to me that people think, oh, just go ask Tamika.
And the funny thing is I heard somebody said it
was a meaning that said people will spend their money
on everything they want to do and then come ask
you for what they need to do. So they will

(10:08):
get all the money from you for the things that
the important things they have to do, but themselves, they've enjoyed,
they went to dinner, they went on a vacation, and
then when they finish all of that, and whatever the
case may be, then they come to you. That is
not a solution for your life.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's not you.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
The amount of times in a year that you should
ask anybody for anything should be limited to maybe once
or twice.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Maybe once or twice two times.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Is like, okay, everybody got to you know, has a
situation where they got to move things around, they might
need a little support.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
But when you get to three, four or five.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Times of I need to hold a few dollars or
I need to whatever, that's ridiculous. It just shouldn't be
so for me. For the causes that I believe in,
I'm still going to continue to do that until which
hopefully it never comes a time where I can't. For
people that I know that's really really hustling, they really
throwing down, They got two kids, and you know, they

(11:15):
doing anything, and they never really ask anybody for anything,
and they're going through.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
It, I'm willing to support.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
But if you're a person who's an able mind, and
you a strong body, able mind, and for years and
years and years, you're always in a buying or a
situation where you need to go ask somebody to help
bail you out or do this for you, and do that,
it's not your time. It's not your time. You need

(11:41):
to figure out, just like the rest of us, how
to work, hustle, struggle, do whatever you have to do,
because it is not a viable solution to think that
you could continue to lean on other people in the
midst of a recession and people trying to figure out
out where they don't have contracts, they losing money.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Different things are happening. No, it's not that.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
And by the way, if you live somewhere, you got
a roof over your head, you got food on the table,
you might not be able to do that other thing,
the show you want to do, the event you may
want to go to. All of us are having to
shift and adjust that. And I just think that people
need to level set. They need to get their mind
in the right place. That money is not circulating.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
As it has in the past.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
And yes, we should support one another and we should
come together, but we should not allow or we should
not use asking other people and leaning on other people,
especially single women as a way to survive, because it's
not gonna work. And I'm telling you I don't have it.
So the answer is just automatically no, my home girl,

(12:52):
rollt I have ably nobody in.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
The comment section.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
I have absolutely no because we all we don't have it.
That's exactly why I ain't buying it. I'm not buying
anything because we don't have it.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
I mean you pretty much, you know marrid my sentiments,
because that's pretty much what I would saying. I don't
have it, but it hurts not to have it, right,
it's scary to know it.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
It doesn't hurt me, hurt me.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
I think it hurts me not to have it because
for so long I have had it. So when you
don't have it, that means that your basic level of
necessities are depleting, because that's become levels of necessity. It's
certain things that I knew. Okay, people gonna need this,
they can culpable. When you don't have that, that means

(13:43):
certain levels are depleting. That means you have less than
you normally have. So that means that the possibility of
you having less than that is.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
Right around the turn.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It is not a necessity to hold on or to
give out money people who need every day.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Well it's not.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Because I hear what you're saying, But if that becomes
part of your your expenses, right, if you factor certain
things into your expenses monthly or weekly or whatever, and
you no longer have the money for those certain things
because I factor in that. Like I said, I'm pretty
much the main breadwinner of my family and the people
around me. So when people need certain things and I'm

(14:25):
able to give them either it's just a loanness and
that I factored those things in. So when those things
are no longer there, then you realize that your little
nest egg is depleted. So that means that it's the
next stage is you ain't got it for you.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
No, that's what that's Let me help you because you're confused.
You're confused, Okay, any if you have excess money, it
should be going towards saving for your self and your children, Okay.
Every The only people around you that should be able

(15:04):
to come to you for support and need things regularly
that you you budgeted in are your children. And even that,
after a certain period of time, you need to set
them up with a foundation. They need to be able
to go on and do what they have to do.
But I support children, I support elderly people, and I

(15:26):
support women with children who work hard every day and
they hustling and trying to figure it out. If you
are a grown able body, especially man, let me tell
you something.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
It's plenty to do. It's plenty to do. They should
come over here and ask me, because in a couple
of weeks when the snow.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Start, I'm looking for somebody out the window. My head
be out the window like, hey, hey, over.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Here, shovel.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
When the arm leaves is out there, come and sweep
it up. Pay every Sunday. We have garbage on Sundays
and Wednesdays.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
You come out.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
There, pack that garbage up, put them tell us put
them boxes outside.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
I got you.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
It's a way to make money. My family's from Alabama.
I know about the hustle because I've watched my family
members and the way in which they hustle. There was
no netstagg hustle, no money on the side for nobody
to give nobody. You had to go out there and
kill it, come back and clean it, cook it and

(16:31):
eat it up.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's the way it goes. And I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
I know people may feel, but it don't bother me
because I know who I am, and I know that
my heart and my generosity goes far. And it's because
people have been generous to me people support me, and
so I'm not confused about that, and I don't feel
no way. I'm saying that there are some people that
the harder things give for them, they tune up the requests.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
It's like, yo, I need this, I need that.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
When people start sending you cash at requests, that's that's
that's when when it's gotta you gotta say it enough.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
And so if you have extra money to give.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You should probably take it and put it into making
college funds. Make it increasing the college fund, increasing the
fund for a little apartment once your children in college,
your grandson, Like, that's.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
What you need to do.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
You don't have no obligation to help people that's grown
able body.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Individuals you were.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I'm not saying. I'm just saying that there is just
a level of obligation that have to myself.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, some people say that they put a little bit
of money aside, and that's a little bit is for
family and friends problems or issues, and.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
And the thing for me is I know they really hurting.
It's not like they just calling me.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
I support.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
So that that's what it is for me, is like damn,
I don't want to be able to I don't want
to have to tell you no, because I know that
you actually probably really need. It's some people that call
me that don't call often, they don't just utilize the call.
So when you hear them calls like them, I really
want to be help you, help you, but you know
I really can't.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
And it's not the people I'm talking about, yeah, but the.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
People who you're talking about. I'm just saying what I'm
talking about. I'm just saying, there's not It's like with
the exception of your kids and pretty much you know,
family things you have to do.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
I always pretty much have been in a position that
of a person I haven't spoken to in a while
cause that you all need such and such, and I'll
be like, all right, cool, you know what I'm saying,
and being able to to front you and like just
get that back.

Speaker 5 (18:48):
To me when you can.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
They never get it back.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
I give it back, but they take a long time.
And you just got to understand that's the reality of
what it is.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
I lett and I don't think I don't know. It's
only one person that we know the same person that
don't matter what, even when you don't want it back,
they gonna give it back.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
There's only one person I know like that.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
Other than that, people trying to weasel their way out
of it.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
They want to they just say it. It's like a
natural thing to say, let me borrow. But that's because
that's what they use everywhere they go, Let me borrow.
Borrowing is not a real thing. It's not It's not
a thing because you already in the hole. So how
are you going to borrow some more barrel?

Speaker 3 (19:41):
When you the thing I always say, don't give. Don't
let nobody borrow nothing that you can't afford to loose.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Give it.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
I say no when people ask me to borrow, be
like this and I'm not. Don't worry about it. I'm
giving it to you.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
I borrow. And the thing is this, I need you
to understand that once you say that you borrow something
from me and you don't pay back, you can't get
nothing else from me. You saying, yo, I need something cool.
But once you say I'm borrowing, I'm gonna give this
back on this day or just give me something and
such and even if the date moves, But if you
don't make any effort to return my money at all,

(20:13):
like you ain't piecing me off this and that, because
that shows good faith, It shows that you have levels
of integrity, because I don't want to go to sleep
on nobody. There's no way that I'm gonna borrow something
from you and not try to do everything possible to
pay you. It might take me a little bit of time.
I said, y'all got one hundred dollar, tier two fifty,
whatever it is, I want to get you back your money,

(20:34):
because that is the integrity in me. That's the man
in me. I don't want no other man to be
able to look at me and say, in my word,
didn't amount to nothing and that they did something for
me and I didn't live up to what I said.
So that's just who I am, you know. But I
understand everybody is not like that. And I had to
learn that because I took a lot of losses like okay,
you're gonna get back when alright, cool, and then that

(20:56):
come around it like.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
They gotta add money like SUSU think is coming back
and I don't do it.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
I just don't. I mean, I just give.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
It away, and I give away thousands of dollars in
a run.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
It's just a regular thing. And I have no problem
with it.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
I'll be happy to do it, but I'm I know
who needs it and who just I know who needs
I know everybody needs it. By the way, it's not
that they don't need it, it's that they do. But
my problem is the fact that you've been needing it
before the recession.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Now, got to put a stop to this.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
You got you got it. Not only do we gotta
put something, you have to create an avenue for revenue.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yes, yes, the avenue for revenue. An avenue for revenue.
So AnyWho, Yeah, that's my thought of the day. There's
no money, there's no money to borrow, there's no money
to give, there's no money. Let me hold something. We
don't have it right now, and we all in it together.

(22:01):
So you know, unless it's really really serious, you should
probably just figure out how to adjust, because I am
figuring out how to adjust to.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Meet the moment.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
We ain't got no money and we ain't buying no access. Shit,
we just don't want it. We don't need it.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
I don't, man, this is the best thing for me.
Ain't buying it is the best thing for me right now.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Hello, So today we have an incredible interview and it's
not long enough. It's literally not long enough, and it
is of our friend John O'Briant, who's talking about the economy.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's funny because I didn't even think about the fact
that like this.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
My thought that the day was going to lean into
or lead into the interview that we did with him
a couple of weeks ago as a part of this.
It ain't what it supposed to be. Serious, you know,
I've I think that John Hopebrien is obviously one of
the most prolific financial literacy experts of our time. He

(23:10):
and I don't always agree on different issues, which makes
it really good. But one thing we do agree on,
and one thing that I agree on is that he's
a very successful man who understands money, relationships and building power.
And today we get to show you all an interview
that we did with him. He came to New York

(23:33):
after being delayed in his fights during the government shutdown.
I mean so much that he did to come and
spend time with us and committed to a part too,
so that we could continue talking about the difference between
what we're posted online and what's really real, what's really
happening in our day to day lives. And the bridge

(23:57):
between success and not being successful because we don't know
how to be careful with monitoring our money. I don't
know if we got a chance to ask him, does
he does he give away a lot of money to
friends and family.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
We gotta do that on eves.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
Yeah, we need to do that. I don't think we
did that.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah, so we have That's something for part two is
we want to know do you just let people have
money just because they call you up and say I
need it? And you say, oh, I have a nest
egg for folks who may be going through things, because
maybe I should call him and ask him to help me.
But idiot, y'all check this out. John Hopebrien is up next.

(24:37):
We have a pretaped interview with him. It ain't what
it posted to be. He's dropping gems. It was powerful
and it's going to be a part too, all right.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Family. So, by the way, we've got a friend on again.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
You know, we'd love to have our friends to join
us and welcome back to it ain't what it posts
to be, where we peel back the online filters and
talk about what's really real. Today we're joined by someone
who's been preaching teaching financial truth financial literacy, and it's
long before it's been trending.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
He is an entrepreneur, a wealth builder, and a best
selling author and also our brother in the movement, John
Hope Bryant.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
He's y'all's favorite.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Y'all love to see John Hope Brian and thank you
so much John for joining us today.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
You know, we.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Admire your work so much.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
And while we're talking about this topic of it ain't.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
What it supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
There was no one that we could think of as
a better guest to come in and to shed some
light on the glitter that we see online. But the
real truth behind all of that is that even a
successful person has had some struggles, right, And we know
the times that we're in today.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Anybody who doesn't know isn't paying attention.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
And we've got to do things differently, and you're the
guy to talk about it. So we're going to get
into a great conversation today. We want you to take
us back so before the millions, the millions, before your
titles and your books and your influence, who was John
Hope Bryant.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
First of all, I ought to agree with you and
my son. You're a credit to the culture. You're both
making smart sexy.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
We've made done. We've made dumb sexy for way too long.
We've dumbed down and celebrated it, and now it's time
to make smart sexy again. It takes Quincy Jones says,
it takes a bunch of God. Rest of So told
me it takes about twenty years to change the culture.
And for twenty years we I think we did make
dumb sexy. And now that we're all done with that,

(26:50):
like you were far enough of the north pole, you
end up south and I think we've we've been there,
we got the T shirt, We're done, Like we want
to know how stuff really works now, right, And so
accommodations to you, because what you're doing is very courageous,
Like you're using you could do something easier and just
tell people what they want to hear and what they

(27:11):
think they want to hear. And that's just really bound
down to depression and our pain and our trauma, which
is short term game but long term loss. So what
you're doing is much harder. When Oprah Winfrey came out
and she went she was a top of the mark
in Chicago, did she went and did the Nationale show

(27:32):
and she went spiritual. Her rating is dipped, dived. She
stayed with it. All of a sudden the audience realized
she was real, clicked in and she never came back
from the heights. She just kept created her own new,
her own How long you called her friend? Now, I
think she's fantastic and this is kind of her high frequency.

(27:54):
Is what I think you're bringing to the suits. The
sweets of the streets. Thinks what you're taking down to
the streets, which is where we needed. I came from
the streets. I grew up in the hood. It wasn't
of the I grew up in Comper, California, South central LA.
My mom and dad beautiful people. My second great grandfather

(28:14):
was a slave. A second great grandmother and grandfather grandfather
knows George Young. He was actually in the Black troops
during the Emancipation Popula Nation. He protected Memphis, which wasn't
protecting him. My grandfather was a sharecropper. My dad was
a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. My second great grandmother on

(28:38):
my mother's side was a slave. She owned her she
got her freedom, She owned her own little house. She
had a border, which meant a renter, so she had
no mortgage. She went from slavery the owning her own house,
had her own house, no mortgage, had a renter. So
I got my hustle honest. My grandmother owned a shotgun
shack in Eas Saint Louis. My mother bought seven bought

(28:58):
and sold seven homes. I owned seven hundred until recently
when I sold that company. And now I'm onto my
next thing. And I'll tell you about in the moment.
But I'm just role modeling, right what I saw. My
mother told me she loved me every day in my life.
My dad showed me how to become a businessman. So
yes I am, and yes I can. So my mom

(29:22):
and dad, I didn't realize that they were finished. My
dad was financially a literate. How was I supposed to know?
You know? My dad was meeting a payroll on the
front door of our house, and it was all races
of people. So I had no problem with white people.
They worked for my dad, the Latinos, the Asians. He
was a construction company. They all worked for my dad.

(29:43):
So I was like my dad's the man. The colors green.
And what I didn't understand was my dad was hooked
on hustle, and I now know that just between the
hustler and a businessman or a businesswoman, it's paperwork. Yeah,
but I didn't realize that back there. There's a lot
of stuff I've realized now that I didn't realize then

(30:05):
I witnessed. So we out the gas station on Western
near Listeners in La Western and Vernon still there to
this day. We owned an apartment building on Santa Barbara
Boulevard now Martin the King Boulevard. It's worth eight million
dollars a day. We bought it for eighteen thousand dollars.
We can make the mortgage on two rents of the
eight units we lived in. The third we cash flows

(30:27):
the west. He on our own house, We on the
nursery business. They were hustlers, but my dad could make
it but couldn't keep it. So the more money he
made the booker we got, Wow, he'd make a dollar fifty,
he'd make a dollar, he spend a dollar fifty. He
confused cash flow a profit, so he contractor. He'd go

(30:49):
bid a job to do somebody's concrete driveway. Well, the
white dude shut up in front of him. Been a
thousand dollars back in that day, so my dad would
be at eight hundred, but he hadn't done the calculations. Well,
the reason the white dude been a thousand was he
had five other jobs. He had concrete left over. He
had to pay for that. My dad had to go

(31:11):
by the concrete and all the materials. Well, his costs
was nine to fifty, all right, So my dad just
figured cash flow cash flow, and my mother was a
great investor and great savior, and together they would have
been amazing. My dad just thought she was fine. And

(31:35):
again I just picking these lessons up, like marriage is
a business before it was ever spiritual. That was three
thousand years ago, six thousand years ago, it was a business.
This were two families who came together to protect their assets.
Six thousand years ago. They didn't even live with each other.
Five thousand years ago, they didn't even like each other.

(31:57):
He wasn't about life. It was in fact family's married.
So anyway, I noticed that my mom was brilliant at saving,
and she had saved four thousand dollars to send my
brother to a college of his choice. My dad found
the money wasted it on one of his schemes. My
mother was like, okay, enough like you because I was

(32:19):
the youngest, my sister Monty, my brother Donnie. My brother
was supposed to go to a college of his choice,
become whoever he wanted to be. When my dad took
the four thousand dollars, my brother had to go to
the Navy to get a four year education because we
can't afford it anymore. Well, now that just determined his trajectory.
My mother was like, okay, that's not having any other

(32:40):
two of my kids. So she left. She bounced. Now
in California community property state, she could have taken over everything.
She could have half the fact, I think she would
have got everything. But my mother left with a shirt
on her back. As they would say, wow, left my
dad with all those assets. Now why do I say this?
Dad lost everything. He lost the gas station, he lost

(33:03):
the apartment building, he lost the house. Without my mother
doing the books, he just couldn't put it together. And
so I realized that in a relationship, like a giver
and a giver is exotic, like a giver, a taker
is neurotic, and a taker and taker is psychotic. And
a lot of our relationships in our community are the

(33:24):
last two and so this giver and a giver thing
that my mother was trying to was trying to vibe on.
My dad wasn't with it. And two plus two the
relationship should be going six or eight or ten should
be multiplications, not an addition. I learned that lesson they
got divorced. Domestic abuse. Fast forward. I won't think you
through the whole thing, but I saw I witnessed two
murders before I was nine. That was all about money.

(33:47):
So by the time I was nine years old, I
saw my family net worth destroyed over money. My dad
refused making living, building of life, make money during the day,
you'd be wealth and you sleep. My mother, the guy
who saved my life when I was seven sixty seven,
and then my best friend was murdered next to the

(34:07):
drug dealer when I was nine. All of it about money.
So when I was nine years old, I was really focused.
It counted how do I get out of the hood.
I see all these brilling people around me, prison, in probation, parole, death,
there's something wrong with us. In fact, we are brilliant.
The only color that includes every other color is black, right,

(34:28):
Like we're brilliant. The first person to walk upright was
a black person in the world. Everybody comes from black people.
That's not like a theory, that's science. So we are amazing.
Why are we in this next? And so I just
started being nosy. They started looking around. God gives you

(34:48):
two ears and one mouth listened twice as much as
you talk. We started being nosy. So I went to
school one day and this white guy showed up to
teach financial literacy. He didn't want to be there. His
Bank of America sent him there because of community investment.
That and we didn't want him there. He didn't want
to be there. He came in once a week for
six weeks. First week, people were ignoring him. I'm trying

(35:12):
to figure out why he's here. The second week, he
had a nice suit on, a nice car in the
parking lot. He was legal and plates on it, tags
right in nice Italian suit on. He wasn't a detective.
The only person I saw was white and suit. It
was a bad suit. It was a nice suit. So
second week, gracet man, you know, you're not so bad
for a white dude. He's like, well, you know, you

(35:33):
kids are not so bad kids. I don't know you
like my brother and my nap head. You know ahead, kids,
So we've built at a relationship. Third week, what do
you do for a living? How'd you get rich legally?
I was completely dead serious. He said, I'm a banker
and our finance entrepreneurs pull up. I said, hold on,

(35:58):
slow down. I never heard that word my entire life.
My family bought a whole encyclopedia Britannica set. You know,
back in the day if you had the short if
you were impressive, Yeah, exactly, you had a whole hall.
Nobody opened them. It was a encyclopreiencyclopedia. So we had one.

(36:22):
What's an entrepreneur? He said, I'm a banker finance entrepreneurs.
I said, I don't know what an entrepreneur is, but
it is legal and you're financing it. Be one. So
ione home opened the dictionary, pulled it out. Entrepreneur, French work,
build something, create value from nothing. I kept looking for

(36:44):
the illegal part. No, it's all legalist. So I went
back to the next week. Excuse me, So your job
is to lend poor people money? Well, I guess you
put it that way, and all I have to do
is prove I can pay it back. Yeah, and it's
some kind of credit thing. Yes, and if I don't

(37:05):
pay it back, I'm not gonna get dead. And he laughed.
He's like, why would I kill you? No, No, it's
a ridiculous question. No, no, no, in my neighborhood.

Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yeah, you just go to the loans shop.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
You don't pay the money back to the wrong too.
First of all, you're indebted to him for life. I
didn't realize that he ain't want you to pay the money.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Anyway, it's still a dead but it's a different kind
of yea.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Yeah, indentured serving too. So anyway, I asked you a question.
I got the lesson the hard way, and but I
got the I got the learning the fast way. And
when I been so, I asked the first question and
then asked the second question, which is are there more
bankers like you? He said, Oh my god, it's got
to be millions. There's ten thousand banks back then. I

(37:54):
was like, in your job was to lend poor people money.
I was my mind was blown, Like why are we
messing around with all this illegal stuff? Right? Because, as
I'm saying to you, frow on the break, all a
drug dealer is isn't illegal and ethical? Entrepreneur. He's not
dumb and he's not stupid. It's what he doesn't know
that he doesn't know. But he understands import, export, finance, marketing, wholesale, retail,

(38:19):
customer service, security, logistics, payroll right. So, and a gang
leader is a frustrated union organizer. These are really brand
people with a bad business plan. So I wore suit
like him the next week.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
That makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
And that was it. I mean, but the I walked
down the street and I saw the muffler shop was
a business business. The Neil Salon was a business. All
of a sudden, I saw that. It's like the movie
The Matrix, Red Pill, Blue Pill. I saw everything different
and I just got to just really nosy about all

(38:56):
these businesses and I found one, and you know, the
rest is history.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Say I always say.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
That, you know, when you look at the drug dealers
quote unquote drug dealers from my era, you look at
the jay Z's in the fifty cents and you just
changed the product, and you see what they've done with
the different products. It's always has been about, you know,
getting the opportunity.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
My brother t I, my brother Hill and Mike, these
are friends of mine. I mean, you know, yeah, they
just changed the game.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
They real Lenard charge, that's right.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
Look the jay Z's four four four album, it's a
financial literacy, said, I'm giving you a millions on the
game for nine ninety nine, right, and he said, you
know what's more, what's what? What's sexy? That a strip
club credit?

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Right?

Speaker 2 (39:41):
You're all here, like Michael Eric Dyson, you know you
know how to throw a quote from an album in
the middle of a servant.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Have you?

Speaker 4 (39:49):
You?

Speaker 5 (39:50):
Old jay Z?

Speaker 3 (39:51):
So I've been watching you for so long and I'm
just so enamored by the way that you se amplified things. Right.
But we when we you know, the name of this
topic we told is called it ain't what it suposed
to be?

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Right.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
And there's a lot of people that post a lot of
things online and we have all these exactly exactly, so
we have a lot of expert investors.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
We have a lot of these people who sell illusions.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
And you do you see a people a lot of
people doing that right now and tell us something that's
an illusion that you see online that people yourself?

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Everything you see, I mean, we just need to knock
it off, Like look, seventy I like math. It doesn't
have an opinion. That's a melody hops quote, I like
giving people credit where credit is doing her quote, I'll
wear it out. Look, seventy six percent of all luxury
goods are balled by poor people. Seventy six. When I

(40:55):
when I heard the data, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
I couldn't process. I'm like, no, this can't be true.
It's not just it's poor, working, middle class middle people
are striving. My point is it's not. It's not purchased
by the one. That's my point. When you go look
at the Louis Vaton store and look who's in the line.
During COVID the lockdown, you saw the line that was
not wealthy people. It was us. Right, we're aspiring, you know,

(41:20):
difference why somebody wants a Coca Cola or they want
an iPhone. Right, we got two thousand dollars iPhones and
I have two dollars in our bank account. A lot
of social media is the psychologists that we never got,
the shrink that we never got, the healing we never got,
and consumerism. We're not lucky if we're not careful today,

(41:42):
it's a new colonizer because they got your attention, they
got your you got your algorithms, they've got your focus,
and if you're not careful, they also got your money.
And most things in balance are good things. Alcohol and

(42:03):
balance will lower your blood pressure. Drugs and balance are
prescribed m sleeping, balance is a great thing. Too much
in this depression, you know, too much sleep, which is
not a good too much of anything, it's not a
good thing. So we got these ings that have taken
over our lives because we're depressed. In my opinion, I
think the most African Americans, I don't have a staff

(42:23):
for this. I just believe it are clinically undiagnosed depressed
and we don't want to deal with it. We had
a bunch of ing's scrolling, shopping, drinking, drugging, sleeping, traveling,
not dealing, not healing, abused, abusing, Yeah, yeah, and it's
all it's just it's all a distraction. But what better

(42:47):
mechanism for somebody who's depressed than something with immediate gratification.
Social media is immediate gratification. So if you have somebody
on social media renting a life, which is most what
most folks are doing, they're wrinning A Ferrari they're renting,

(43:10):
just like the people did the hip hop videos. People
doing the hip hop videos don't own that mansion, they
don't own the car. They're renting it for the shoot.
So this is like a mini shoot, right, But oh,
you're getting shot now. If somebody is selling, I can't.
I'm gonna I'm gonna make this as simple as I can.
If somebody is telling you how to become wealthy by

(43:32):
selling you books and tapes or becoming wealthy, that's the
wrong teacher. Now, if somebody says I'm a teacher, Ash
Cash says I'm a teacher to the best of my knowledge.
Earn your leisure says I'm a teacher to the best
of my knowledge. I don't like cool. Okay they said this.

(43:55):
But if somebody is promoting flash and all that stuff
telling you how to be wealthy, first of all, wealthy
is quiet. M Let's first of all differentiate getting rich
from becoming wealthy. Rich is a contract. Hm. You have
a contract to be a postal worker. You have a

(44:17):
contract to become an NFL player. You have a contract
to be a recording artist. You have a contract to
be a social influencer. It starts date start date DN
date payments. By the way, it's W two. Somebody's giving
you a check, you're cashing it. Now, why let's put

(44:39):
that aside. Wealth, you're getting your sleep. You make money
during the day. It's quite called it making a living,
making a living through cash flow, making a living through
cash flow. Right, That's why I say, can I curse
on this money? Ain't shit? We over index. I want
to get this bagna get this dollar and get this
get the hell it don't none. All it is a

(45:01):
transfer of value. All money is a transfer of value,
that's all it is. That's why you should have a
barn system. And you know I'll give you, I'll give
you this microphone, you give me that shirt. That's where
it was back in the day. So we over index
on that. But we don't understand at all that you
actually build wealth in your sleep. So this so let's
just focus now what we all obsess on making the money,

(45:23):
getting that immediate gratification. If your alphaox heeds your inflow,
then your overhead it'll be your downfall. So you have
a contract to be seventy percent seventy percent of all
NFL players, seventy percent approximately of all NBA players bankrupt
in five years after retirement and divorced, right, seventy percent.

(45:47):
I love this number. Seventy percent of all lottery winners
bankrupt that for five years.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Wow, I'll never do that.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
So if it's just about the money, which is all
we're focusing on, then there shouldn't be no problem about
the mindset. All wealth other than sustenance, all poverty. Other
than sustenance poverty, which is a roof over your head,
food on the table, health care decency which everybody should have, policy,

(46:18):
all other forms of poverty. It's mindset. What did they
do to us with slavery? Messed up our mindset? We
never healed.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
I'm so glad you brought that up because that brings
me to another thought about black folks and how we
have learned to hoard kind of You know, we've been
taught that we need to do everything alone because you
can't trust people. You can't trust your family, you can't
trust your friends. You know, you can't let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing. Do you

(46:49):
think in this climate, this economic climate that we're in,
and this time period, just in the black experience, that
we can work together? Have you seen that work with families,
come together and poor resources and start businesses. You know,
you talk about your parents, but I'm sure you have
seen other models, and what do you think.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
So there are two hundred somebode ethnic groups in America.
All but three do executly what you just said. These
are traumatized groups. Poor whites. Just make this non racial.
They're more poor whites in America than poor anybody else.
So people want to obsess on racism. Racism is real,
but if racism was the only thing, they just be

(47:30):
rich whites. Hello, the rich whites are not coming to
get the poor whites. So poor whites, Native American Indians,
we have the largest alcoholism rate in the country poor
whites or dying of opioid addiction amongst other things, which
is depression. Number one group dying in America are high

(47:51):
school educated white men and African Americans. Because unlike our
African Africa, I just came from Barbados, was the earlier
to day. Our African Caribbean brothers and sisters different, same
but different. African Africans same but different. They're doing what
you're saying. African Africans, African Caribbeans, Koreans, Vietnamese Chinese, they're

(48:14):
doing what you're saying. But African Americans, poor whites, and
Native Americans were traumatized, intentionally terrorized, messed with our self esteem,
our self esteem. If I don't like me, I'm not
gonna like you. If I don't feel good about me,
how can I possibly feel good about you? If I
don't love me, don't expect me to love you or

(48:35):
respect you. If I don't have a purpose in my life,
will make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around
comes around. Because hurt people hurt people. So black people,
Black African Americans have high confidence and love self esteem.
I'm generalizing, but i'm but I think it's reasonably accurate
what I mean by that. We're in the biggest economy
in the world, thirty three dollars. Everybody will try, everybody

(48:57):
trying to get to the US. We have kicked rear
in and tear making names. We've excelled from the bottoms
of the top in the biggest, most robust or most robust,
most competitive. You're in New York City. You are in
New York City and I'm walking into this beautiful studio.
It's not the homeboy shopping that works. It's not tall
from the floor off. This is great, this is elegant. This.

(49:18):
I wish you could see how professional this is. I'm
so proud you built this in the most competitive economy,
the most competitive city in the world. You have an address,
you have a door, you have off you control your environment.
This is amazing. That gives you high confidence, and you're confident.

(49:44):
You're confident. Okay, but when you don't heal from trauma,
most people will still have low self esteem. So can
you have high confidence and low self esteem? Which means
I'm really, really smart, But I don't trust you. I
don't I don't really I'm not really I don't really
trust me.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I don't really trust me. That's the main thing.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
So in the old Southern saying, no matter how much
I love you, my son or my daughter, if I
don't have wisdom, I can only give you my own evaens.
So out of love we passed down bad habits or
generation of generation, and we think, so we get out
of this thing that just because I mean well, that
means I'm doing well. No, No, somebody can mean well
and give you horrible advice. That's why I say, if

(50:26):
you hang around nine broke people. You're gonna be the
tenth right now, our African Caribbean brothers sisters are again
are African African brothers and sisters. They tend to have
high self esteem, low levels of confidence. Why they got
intac families. Mom and dad's at home. Seventy percent of
black families the number again, seventy percent of Black families
run by a woman, which is beautiful, but you need

(50:48):
the man in the hole that somebody gotta tell that
young man, he'll no sit your ass down. If you
don't sit down, IM gonna knock you dead right. I'm
gonna put you through school or put you through a wall.
Which one do you want?

Speaker 2 (50:58):
As somebody has to show that what it is to
have a real man around.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
There you go. So in Africa, in the Caribbean, so
Caribbean slavery was different. They didn't separate the mom and dad,
they didn't sell off the kids. It was still horrible,
but they kept the family structure intact. Then slavery ended
the repulsive kinds earlier there and now you're an indentured

(51:23):
servant essentially. But now you're seeing, you're seeing the mayor
looks like you. The prime minister looks like you, the
robber looks like you, the criminal looks like you. Your
role models are all around you, and you have an
intac family. You come here just the opposite, right, So
and again Africa is the same thing. So they have

(51:44):
so when they come here, they have low confidence, but
they have high self esteem. I rather have high self
esteem than high confidence. So it just takes them a
minute to get their hands around the economy. You see
you know the hotel, you see a couple of week Theiopians.
Then they go get there, get they'll get a couple
other boys. Hey, all of a sudden, everybody's in the front.

(52:06):
In the front is Ethiopians, the dormant, and all of
a sudden, it's Ethiopians doing the uber, and it's Ethiopians
own the taxi, the car service. Now it's Ethiopians at
the front desk. They did they got the posse right,
so and then then they're five in the house. Then
they're written together right and now they buying a place
together now, you know, so they don't have the trust issues.

(52:26):
They don't have the trauma that we have that we
never healed from. So that's a short version is there's
nothing wrong with us. We are extraordinary. We've been doing
so much with so little for so long. We can
almost do anything with nothing. When the rules are published
sus Jesse Jackson's quote given credit. Where the rules are
published and they're playing for this level, we kill it.

(52:47):
The arts, professional sports. I mean, what doesn't matter, what's
what sport? It is not just basketball, football, baseball. We've
gone to tennis, kill it, golf, kill it, F one racing.
Lewis Hamilton, who is a Michael Jordan of F one

(53:08):
kill it not good the best when the rules are
published playing those level the arts, sports, faith, politics, Hello,
from slavery to the President the United States of America.
But no one ever taught us capitalism, No one ever
taught us financial literacy.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
When we have to get out of here because we
have this live thing that we're doing right after this here.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
I'll come back. Oh yeah, I'll come back.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
But but you got you cannot get to this unless
you unpack this.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
I'm gonna come back though to something you us because
I don't like not answering questions you asked me about
the about basically you know, cash for whatever was saying.
So when your contract ends, your cash flow ends, and
your expenses continue, you go broke. That's really all trying
to get to. That's why so many people go broke
their financial. Financial literacy is the civil rights issue with
this generation. It's as important as the right to vote

(54:04):
was in the nineteen sixties. We're in the third reconstruction
right now. It started with George Floyd's murder in COVID.
To me, this is all God and and and and
two years into every reconstruction. This is a minor historian here,
she knows this. You have pushback. Abraham Lincoln right promised
us forty acres a mule a bank, freeman's bank, right

(54:27):
to vote. He gets murdered, His vice president takes over
Southern segregation, Southern segregationists, reverses forty eight, reverses reconstruction within
two years to pull us back to the land. Nobody
knows about this right. It all starts to rappling. Fast
forward to civil rights movement. Kennedy Johnson, our honorary president.
King gets all this progress, he gets murdered in sixty eight.

(54:52):
Who comes next, Nixon? Pushback? Poor white sk I'm sorry,
white women get the benefit of the from inaction. That's
what happened. Obama triggers another guy. I want to talk
to one name names George Floyd's murder triggered four euros,

(55:15):
which are justice reconding on Black America a harder being
the alls committed by the private sector to invest in
US in twenty twenty one. If you were black and
walking down the street and Saints might give you a check.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
I'm gonna tell you no line now.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
But twenty twenty three pushback. So I'm saying, don't be afraid,
don't be skared, don't be distracted. This is on schedule.
Over the rounded they would get to it ig northern noise.
I want you to buy a house. Number one way
you build wealth in America's home ownership. I want to
make boring sexy. It's not like we tried capitalism and

(55:50):
free enterprise at scale and it didn't and it didn't work.
We've never tried it. I want you to have a
seven under credit score half a black fact. Folks have
a press score below six to twenty. You can't get
a decent Aull loan in six twenty. You can get
a Mercedes with gonna be mercy these payments. You can't
get a decent home loan. Below seven hundred credit score,
you can't get a small business loan. It's risky credit.

(56:12):
So we think the bank is racist. No, the bank
wants to make a good loan. That by the way,
they might also be racist. But if you go to
the computer at midnight with a job and a seventy
credit score and you want thirty thousand dollars, the computer's
gonna say yes. I know, because I've committed four point
five billion dollars of capital through banks to help our
people at operation. No, I'm not selling wolf tickets. I'm

(56:34):
telling you what I've done. So I've lived this. I've
lived it personally that that you can do this legally, ethically,
honestly pay your taxes and and I'd rather ask with my.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Mother than the oh god, don't we gotta go?

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah, we gotta go because I have a two our
college because it's so many quids.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Oh, it's so much.

Speaker 5 (56:57):
But we want to appreciate.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
I want to say I appreciate you man, the way
that you break down financial literacy and just make it
simple and actually just it's just so clear, you know,
and you're very relatable and you have a real spirit,
like I'm very good on spirits, your energy, and you
have a beautiful energy and the beauty, so appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
We're not human beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual
beings having a human experience. The reason I vibe on
her is that she's just such an authentic human being, right.
I liked her from day one. So I just want
the audience to know as we wrap this up that
they can do this right. PhDs are good, PhDs are better. Half.
This deal is just showing up. Just show up and

(57:40):
just repetitiveness. When I first started, I had bad debt
on good ideas. Then I ultimately end up having good
debt on good ideas. Nobody ever succeeded, no billionaire, no city,
no nothingbody has ever succeeded without good debt. So we
shouldn't be trying to have no debt. You don't want.

(58:02):
You just don't finance jewelry, don't finance tennis shoes, don't
finance sports tickets. That's stupid. So that depreciates. You want
somebody that appreciates guns and butter. So I can take
a butter knife, I could bread. I could, I could bread,
I could I could butter some bread for you and
feed you. I think I take a butter knife and
sharpening and cut your throat. Intention matters, So we got

(58:25):
to get our business plan right. There's nothing wrong with us.
And I think that if we decide I'm gonna say
something very controversial here to have a black Jewish business plan,
we'll kill it.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
That's sound good play well.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
John O'Brien is my brother, y'all and our friend a
friend to the show. Obviously, y'all are gonna say this
was too short, so he's got to come back. We've
got to do this again. I'm told you back in
a few weeks.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
Come on, come to New York. We need you fifteen days.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
We need you to come back.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
You've got to come back and talk about the business
plan for Black America because that is clearly important. And
I think you're right that financial literacy is going to be,
or is the civil rights issue of our time. It
doesn't mean that we can't work on and fight other
lanes and areas, but we've got to learn how to
make our.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Money work for us.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Two things will be true time.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
And that's exactly you're doing.

Speaker 4 (59:19):
I'm trying to civil rights and.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Silver right and silvi rights Street to the switch right.
Thank you for joining us, John hold Bryant coming, excuse me,
thank you for coming to the tm MY show.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
That was an excellent interview.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Man John hol'brien is an amazing guess his level of intellect.
He broke it down so simple. He was like, you know,
a drug dealer understands marketing and promotion. He understands imported export,
he understands money. He understands all those things. So if
you just change the product, he can be successful in

(59:56):
every arena. And I've always said that about people. I said,
when you look at people like jay Z, you know
who came from the streets, and they utilized the same
skill set, but they just changed the product that they
were selling to be able to be successful. And he
broke it down in the same way. So that was
the first thing that made me a fan of his.

(01:00:16):
And just having this interview and I he broke it
down and you know, and talked about America and what
we need to do, how as black people, what it
is that we need to be doing to excel, which
is amazing. I can't wait for part two of this interview.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Absolutely, there will be a part two for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
So that brings me to my I don't get it.
You know, it's not about money per se. But I
have a question. You know, I was in the club
a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't say where
I was whatever, but I was there having a good

(01:00:57):
time in a VIP section. And what I start to
notice is that usually when I used to go out
in the club, you have VIP section to be about
three or four of us, five or six whatever it is,
me and my mans, but we wanted girls to be
in a section. We wanted, you know, we want drinks,

(01:01:17):
so that girls gave a couple of drinks and that
we were interacting with different people. And that's no longer
the culture. You go to the VIP section, now it's
a million men all on each other's backs trying to

(01:01:38):
get all the liquor. They not even trying to share
with the girl. They're not even looking at the girls.
They so interested in whatever celebrity or whatever person is
supposed to be famous is there that they not even
want to interact. Even if you're not even trying to
get girls, you should want feminom energy around you, because
that's what the club is. You want to interact right,

(01:02:00):
you want to see pretty girls where, even if you
don't have any interest in doing anything, you want to
surround yourself by pretty girls, and you want them to drink.
You want them to say they had a good time.
That's just the nature of the clubard was for us.
It's no longer that it's a million dudes looking like

(01:02:20):
sardines in a section trying to get the drinks. They're
not even offering the girls in the drink. They want
to be next to the starting, on the star's back,
the security guards, it's all over you.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
They're pushing. It's just I don't understand it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
I really just don't get how y'all find.

Speaker 5 (01:02:38):
That to be fun.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
But I was in constanrated, so I was around a
bunch of pep. I never wanted to be around a
bunch of men. I used to, you know, try to
seclude myself.

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
You know, I was either myself, my bunk, by myself.
I'll go to yard.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
I had three or four friends and hang over, but
I never was I could not wait to go home,
so I didn't have to be surrounded by a bunch
of men.

Speaker 5 (01:02:59):
So when I'm I'm watching VIP.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Sections in these clubs and these people look like Sardine's
and you owned the artists back to what the security
guard gotta push you and.

Speaker 5 (01:03:09):
Anybody truck like the camera.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh and you just so you just so engulfed in
trying to get pictures with other men. It's just very
strange to me. I just want to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Get I'm gonna give you a perspective.

Speaker 5 (01:03:24):
Please give me a reason why.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
I think cloud chasing is at the all time high.
Like everybody wants the viral moment, the picture, the video.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
So I'm gonna give you that. I'm gonna say that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
I'm gonna say that first is that cloud chasing is real.
But I will also say another thing that I know
you never thought of, and this is gonna be a
good one. The age group matters because I think that
the young guys are still out with the girls, having
a good time entertaining the females. I think that the

(01:03:59):
problem is that at fifty, which you're fifty and we are,
I'm forty five going towards fifty, your ass, that's not
be in no club. If you're a man of a
certain age that's married or have a girlfriend, you know
you can't get caught on camera talking about you was
in there and giving no females no liquor and partying,

(01:04:21):
and the girls was shaking and jumping all over you.
So these men probably be like, I don't even want
these women around me because this lady that's at home
with this bid lady.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Well, you shouldn't really be in it, because my thing
is this, even if that's your situation. I don't need
to be up on another man, right, I'm gonna go
to the club. If we going to club, my man
is over here. I'm gonna chill over here. I'm got
my drink. I don't need to be bunched into a
VIP section with two hundred niggas in there. We're only
fifty and anybody just trying to get around whoever is

(01:04:55):
the sober.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
I can't bring no girl with them to the club.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
You don't have to bring the girl with you should
the club, right, There's nothing wrong with having a conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:05:03):
There's nothing wrong with some.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
People don't want they have a conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Then don't go to the club.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
You They might be there for a particularly thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
What I'm trying to tell you, if you there for
the reason to be on the back of the celebrity
to where you bunched up and it's for y'all and
you like this and you can't move, you can barely
get the drink that you got.

Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
You gotta go over. I don't know how.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
I don't understand how you enjoying yourself in that arena
like that atmosphere is not for me. It's not just
it made me so I was there when I seen
it happen. I was gone within ten minutes. It's like,
I don't I don't even understand how that is something
that's conducible, Like how are y'all enjoying that? Where's the

(01:05:47):
level of enjoyment that comes with that?

Speaker 5 (01:05:48):
So, you know, I just don't get it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
And maybe it is maybe like you said, maybe that's
the philosophy, But I'm just saying for me, if you
can't go to the club and be independent, get you
a drink more over here, let the celebrity rock do
his thing, you know, without you need to be boyd
because if you want to be in every viral picture
and this I was deal with like that ship to

(01:06:11):
me is just like I don't understand it. I just
know I never wanted to be that close to a
man I just don't. I just don't if you ain't
my man, and we call and we just vibing boom boom,
me just trying to be next to you because the
camera might be there and I need a picture. I
just don't understand it. It's just a new error, a
new mind state. I'm not saying because you said it

(01:06:32):
might be the older people, so it might not be
the error, but it's a new mind state that the
old era got, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:06:39):
But I hear a lot of I hear a.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
Lot of relationships, and then I hear a lot of
young women saying that the young dudes is doing the
same thing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
I don't know it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
See nigga sections full of dudes. Man, But hey, I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
I'm just trying to say what I peeped in two
situations and I was like, damn, I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
I don't know if that's okay for me. But to
each his own, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
No problem.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
I'm just telling you it's funny because I hear people
saying this all the time, and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
Women pointing out online they were like, yo, they knocking
us down to get to these celebrities, like they pushing us,
They elbowing us, they throwing us to the ground just
to get to the male celebrity. The man is doing
that to us, and I'm like, damn, that's a good
thing that's going on. So, you know, I guess is
what it is? You know, that's that's your your thing,

(01:07:36):
that's how you party. Didn't enjoy yourself. Look, I'm not
here for judgment. I just don't understand it. So maybe
if one of y'all want to explain it to me,
what is the mind say that comes with it, I'm
open to listen. I just truly don't get it. And
with that said, we come to the end of another
episode of TMI. Please make sure you continue to let

(01:07:57):
us know what you love, let us know what you hate.
Hit us up, d m us, let us know any
interviews you want, who you want us to interview, what
you want us to talk about. We are open for
all of those suggestions. Thank you for making us the
number one podcast in the world. We know that and
we appreciate you. I'm not gonna always be right, missus.

Speaker 5 (01:08:18):
Tamika D. Mallory is not.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Gonna I don't get it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:21):
Twist madam, madam.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Than people that block their blessings. Let the lessons come.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
To Madam Miss Tamika d MA right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always
and I mean always, be authentic