How to Rethink Your Financial Strategy During Tr*mp Tariff SZN

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, Hey, BA fam, it's your girl, Mandy Money. I
could not be more excited to have you here. Thank
you for showing up, Thank you for tuning in. I
don't take it for granted that the thousands of y'all
who decide to listen to Brown Ambition on Wednesday and
Friday each week, I just can't thank you enough. You're
the reason why I do this show. Now, I want

(00:22):
to take a moment because we have a bit of
news at BA. I'm now a part well, we are
now a part of the iHeartMedia Network. Now, don't worry
because this doesn't really mean anything for you. In fact,
you really shouldn't experience any change. It is a huge milestone,
especially for those who don't know. Brown Ambition has been

(00:44):
around since twenty fifteen. I'm like a cheriatric podcaster. I
have been doing this podcast since I was twenty six
years old. I was just a reporter at Yahoo Finance
who wanted to do a podcast for black girls like
me and make talking about finances and career ambition and
negotiating and credit scores and am I about to marry

(01:04):
this man if he doesn't have an eight hundred fiico.
I wanted to have a safe space where we can
have those types of conversations. And I was just really
bored of the bro culture that I was encountering in
the business journalism channels where I was working, from Business
Insider to Yahoo Finance, and yeah, I was fed up

(01:24):
and I just wanted a space just for us. Okay,
So I got my girl, Tiffany, the budget nista. She
said yes to me and my random idea for this podcast.
But you know who said no, my bosses. I took
the podcast to Yahoo Finance and I said, I had
this idea. I want to do this show targeting millennial
women of color, and I wanted to be really fun.

(01:45):
I'm going to do all the work. You know, can
I have the studio space. They already literally had the
studio spaces set up. Okay, it was not any investment
in terms of equipment, but still they said no. And
at the time, I was pretty I don't know, devastated
was the word, but I definitely felt challenged and I
felt like I'm going to prove them wrong. And honestly,

(02:09):
the people in our lives who tell us no, they
serve such an amazing purpose because how many incredible stories
of success start with somebody told me no, and then
dot dot dot people have to tell you no at
a certain point, it serves a purpose, and I'm just
really grateful not only did that no not stop me,
it actually pushed me to create a podcast that I

(02:31):
own entirely outright. Had they said yes, had I produced
Brown Ambition under the umbrella of Yahoo all those years ago,
they would have owned the IP. This is the same
reason why one of my favorite og black girl podcasts,
Tracy and heaven Gosh, what was there? Oh another Round
on BuzzFeed. I'll remember that show from back in the day.
Their podcast doesn't even exist anymore because it was a

(02:54):
part of the BuzzFeed IP. They didn't own it, and
so when they I don't know, I think BuzzFeed got
of the show or the girls just went on to
you know, extremely successful careers in their own right and
they couldn't take this show with them. So I'm really grateful,
honestly that I was told no so I could create
the show, and over the past ten years, with Tiffany

(03:16):
by my side, we managed to keep the podcast one
hundred percent under our ownership, and then when she graciously
stepped aside at the end, of last year. She gave
me her share. So Mandy is the well I should say,
Brown Ambition LLC. Shout out to my attorney and her
insane bills. My god, we won't talk with that on
another show. Thank you to iHeart for believing in the

(03:38):
show and for welcoming us to your network. This is
going to be the biggest year for Brown Ambition. I
can feel it in my bones and I can't wait.
By the way, y'all need to be sure you're a
subscribed to the Brown Ambition newsletter. Go to Bronambition podcast
dot com and make sure that you sign up for
the newsletter because some really exciting news is coming on
how we're going to be celebrating our ten year in aniversary.

(04:00):
I want to get into today's show. So today we
are back with the Brown Table and we have two
of my favorite human beings on planet Earth. Chris Browning
of Popcorn Finance. Y'all know him, my brother from another mother,
the guy that I love to give a hard time
and he gives it as good as he gets. Also
Berna Annette, who's the author of the book Money Out
Loud and also the founder of Hey Berna. She's a

(04:24):
personal finance educator. I just love her to pieces, and
Berna is actually talking about how she got burnt out
by the solo preneur life and how she might be
making a career pivot back into dare I say it,
corpor not there. It's fine, y'all, It's totally fine. And
then we're going to bring it to the real world.
What's happening with tariffs and honestly, what's happening with the

(04:46):
stock market. We're going to talk about how to cope
with the anxiety of what's happening in our markets right now,
with our government and the man children who are running
things and oh my days. We are going to talk
about how we're thinking about our investment and strategy, are saving, strategy.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Are budgeting.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
I'm going to open up a lot about how my
values have shifted and how that actually pushed me in
the wrong direction financially, and how I am pulling myself back.
All right, So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy
today's episode. Hey, hey, via fam, welcome to Brown Ambition.

(05:28):
I am your host, Mandy Woodriff Santos. I just kicked
my camera, but that's so islan because you are listening
right if you're watching on YouTube, say hello YouTube fam.
By the way, Ba fan, did you know that we
also post on YouTube. I don't think my brand new,
shiny podcast network like wants me to tell you that,
because you know, audio is still king and how we

(05:49):
make money. But ran ambition, if you want to watch,
we are also on the YouTube and let's see, it
feels like a momentous day, completely selfishly for so many reasons.
But before I get to my favorite subject, wah, let
me introduce you to today's Brown panel co host so Ba Fam.

(06:11):
Whether you're listening for the first time in a while
or you are brand brand new, I have introduced this
like new format ever since my my beloved Tiff at
the end of last year, This new format where I
invite more friends onto the show and we chat about
the news you need to know when it comes to
your personal finance. But then always always, always serving up
a side of inspirational tea so that we don't give

(06:35):
into the sads and you know, go into our dark
you know, hibernation of doom and anxiety and doom scrolling.
But so that y'all at least live leave the podcast.
My hope is you leave the podcast feeling like, Okay,
I have some tools, some things I can do to
strategize and just like cope with this insanity financially, personally, mentally,

(06:58):
all the things. So today at the Brown Table, I
have got Chris Browning, fan of the show, biggest fan
of brownhibition in America, I.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Think, I think so I can almost guarantee biggest fan
of the show.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now I'll fight you on that.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Back it up, Bura, back it up, back it up.
Honestly though, for Berna Annette Hey, Berna hello man also
joining the show, longtime listener, longtime BA fan.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Number one, be a fan. I will fight you all
about it. That's the topic today.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Fight. I'll let you have it.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
That would be thank you, Berna. If you also, if
you're watching on YouTube, if you're not, if you're listening,
Berna has an incredible book that she published. You know,
I remember everything that happened the month before I had
my baby, and your book was one of those.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Also so nice.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Your book is also a Gemini or is it a Taurus?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
She's a Taurus. It's actually she has the same birthday
as my partner, who is a hard Taurus.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Oh hard tourists.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I just like just the most torusy tourisy of all,
she said, hard tourist.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
We want to get into that. Well, it's called Money
out Loud and whatever. The subtitle is something financial stuff.
That's something taught us. Read it to financial stuff. No
one taught us. There you go. I still don't have
a subtitle for my book, so I, you know, put
Money out Loud. Yes, and people can pick up a

(08:27):
copy at your local indie bookseller or bookshop dot org. Yes,
you know. Hm, and Chris has a podcast.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I do know book. You can't go anywhere and buy it,
but it's for free on the internet. It is, and
you do a.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Good job of breaking down lots of personal finance topics.
So I'm just happy to have you both in my
presence today. It is a big day today. We're recording
on April seventh, which happens to be my wedding anniversary.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Oh, happy anniversary. How long?

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Eight years? Eight years twenty twenty twenty seventeen.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
M your marriage is in second grade graduations.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
It kind of feels like at ages, like dog years.
Sometimes I'm like, wow, I am so different. I was
showing my baby he's almost two Remy and I was
showing him some pictures from her wedding album and he
this is people always do us because for my wedding
I had my hair blown out straight and I wasn't
wearing glasses, and like, that's kind of a look my

(09:33):
hair and my glasses are kind of like what I
think people remember my signature and I had neither of those.
So when he saw my photos, he was like da da,
and he was I mean, I don't think he understands
what weddings are, but he's like, that's a lady. And
I was like, where's mama? Like, wow, I don't know,
you tell me. So that's always fun to look back

(09:57):
at photos and be like, wow, I was really hot
and slept very well, and that.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Was back stop this right now.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I was a different kind of hot, you know what
I mean. She hadn't been through a lot. She definitely
hadn't been through what I've been through.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Okay, you know what I mean. So the hotness is different.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
The hotness he's weak and doesn't even know how strong
she is, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (10:20):
But is it self confidence the hottest thing of all? Right?

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, she was pretty confident.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
I have ting to help you. I'm trying to give
you some argument with the healthy idea, why are.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
You Raven's bridal finest but confident it's exactly coumbo. Yeah,
but yeah, I mean I was in such a different place.
I was reflecting. I also wrote, I wrote this sort
of I'm doing this book and I'm trying to tell
more about my story on social media, because not everybody

(10:51):
you know remembers us, contrary to our egotistical beliefs, or
maybe just mine. And I was like, damn, when we
got married in twenty seventeen, I had paid for that
wedding in cash. It was like a destination wedding. I
was so proud of that moment, and I suffered for
it in a way, Like I we moved in with
my in laws for five months leading up to our wedding,

(11:15):
so that it wasn't that I didn't have the money
saved up for the wedding. This is how like how
smart I was financially back then, and how free I
was without childcare expenses. But I had said, oh, I
have six months of savings which we could use for
the wedding. But I don't want to. I don't want
to dip into that. So we're going to go live
with your parents in this like cramped apartment and save

(11:37):
money on rent and delight your Dominican mother because I
loved it out of wedlock, doesn't matter. Like they were like,
please move it, cohabitate and we, yeah, saved rent for
five six months, and you know, got made it so
that we could pay for that wedding and then not
have to like come out the other side even though

(11:58):
we paid for in cash. I didn't want to feel
that was all my cash.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Oh you know what I mean, that's so smart. I
did the exact opposite. So I'm it's always not see
if someone who did something back.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
But I forgot you were a married man.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
Yeah, I was like, hey, how about how about this
goes on a credit card because I have no cash.
That's what happened to me.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Really yeah, not smart?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Not smart?

Speaker 1 (12:18):
What did you put on a credit card? Ven you food, every.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Mandy everything, because when you have no money, everything goes
under credit.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
They were charging that three percent fee on top of.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
That, scraping away.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
You know, it took years to pay that off. So
you know, it's always nice to hear someone else because
I mean, you said you didn't pay rent. You weren't
paying New York rent, right because you guys are living
in New York at the time, so that's a lot
of money.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
You were saying.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Our rent was like twenty one hundred dollars a month.
And I loved my apartment. I loved my freedom. That's
why I say I suffered. I only I'm not recommending
that as a personal finance strategy, although although you know,
like I've gotten more self conscious about the the d
and I don't know, like the what not strict what

(13:02):
is the word the drastic measures I took to save
and invest as aggressively as I did in my twenties.
Sometimes I feel a little self conscious saying that is
if it's a strategy, because I think there's this sense
now you guys tell me, I've been doing this since
I feel like I was twelve. Now I'm one hundred

(13:23):
talking about money. But it feels like now it's not
as welcome to give these like aggressive savings and investing
strategies like oh yeah, give up your independence, move out
of your cute apartment, move in to your future in
laws apartment, and suffer the suffocation that comes with that

(13:43):
particular dynamic because I'd meant I married a first born
Dominican prince, so like I knew when I was getting more.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Okay, No, I think you're right. I think it's like
when you say it, even as you're saying it, the
like aggressively save when you're twelve and well, it kind
of reeks of like toxic fire movement, just like maybe
life as like make your life terrible so that maybe
one day it might be kind of good in fifteen years.

(14:12):
And I would in my mind credit gen z Vibes
to this, because I know a lot of young people
are like, wait, pulled up. Our future is not as
guaranteed as you millennials thought it was. And so I'm
going to enjoy myself now. I'm going to work less,
like I don't want to like you know, move fast
break things. I don't want to live that like crazy
tech life for intense hustle life. Got to give credit

(14:36):
to that, but we didn't. We had to do. You
made the decisions that you knew were right at the time.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I made the decision because it was temporary and I
knew that I did I did know that, and I
and we were on our way out, like we were
on our way out of the renting life anyway, and
I part of me knew we were also going to
be saving up for what could be a down payment
to a house, and so I thought, I think it
really came down like the least was going to be renewed.

(15:01):
We knew we didn't want to be there for a
full year, and so all the things sort of aligned
for me, the cost savings, the logistics of being a renter,
and having like to sign a contract to be stuck somewhere.
So I'm grateful for it, but yeah, I had to
do all day. I couldn't. I couldn't. We could have
delayed our marriage, you know, we didn't have to get

(15:22):
married that quickly, but it is what I did. I'm
I'm super grateful to the decisions I made in my twenties.
But being now eight years from that moment and with
two kids and I have the house that I thought
I was going to be saving for a down payment
for back then, and I'm like, you did it. But
you know, also those those like memes now on the

(15:44):
trend on social media where it's like a picture of
you from your past and it's like, oh, she had
no idea stress.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
And anxiety that was about to come down the road.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
What would y'all's financial like? But he didn't know, She
didn't know. If you can go like eight years, eight years?

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Okay, eight years? We're in where twenty twenty seventeen?

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Yes, yeah, well sorry, I got to burst Maddy's bubble
because eight years ago is not our twenties. Mandy, let's relax, okay, speak.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
For yourself to the family, shows of all, shut your faith.
It is because I am still I was twenty nine
when I got married. Okay, So thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Okay, between nine for about three weeks before you go.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
No, no, she rounded down.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yes, April in August or how many months apart, like
seven in some cultures in the calendars Gregorian calendars, thank you.
Astrological my house is in Mercury, the twelfth South, okay,
and I am a rising Aquarius. Okay. Flu so it

(16:57):
all mathematically, it all makes sense, okay. Mythologies, Christopher, what
if you could go back? What? Yeah? What would yours be? Chris?
I'm gonst start with you because you hate being put
on the spot, and I do.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
I was.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
I was here to make that joke and then let
burna talk, so I could think, you know how we are.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
You're a very simple man. So eight years ago, what
would you tell your what what didn't you know? And like,
what do you know now? Financially, what would your your
little post be?

Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know, because I was thirty eight years ago, you know,
so I'm not ashamed. What I would tell myself, my
thirty year old self who was eight years ago back
in the past, is that you just got to relax
a little bit. I think you still feel like your
life is going so fast and you're so old. When
you're thirty and you're not old at all. You feel like, oh,

(17:48):
my twenties have passed by. What have I accomplished with
my life? I need to be doing this. I'm so
far behind. I don't I have a house, I don't
have that much safe for retirement, and I just beat
myself up all the time. And I think I would
just tell me stuff just to relax, because like, now
eight years that have passed, it feels like so much time,
and I feel so much older than I did when
I was thirty, and I was like, it wasn't really
that big of a deal. You could have just relaxed

(18:10):
a little bit. But I was just stressing myself out
all the time and just looking at everybody else.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
How did that impact you financially? Is that one of
the reasons why you spent so much money on your
wedding on credit?

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Oh? Why I got married in my twenties?

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I like that solidly twenties, he said.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
So I went through all that debt in my twenties,
and I think I ended up paying it off in
you know, I right before my thirtieth birthday is when
I paid off my credit card debt that was from
the wedding and all the other stuff. And so but
I stressed myself off paying that out, like kind of
like you, like you just I had moved in with
family for we only lasted a few months.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
We couldn't do more than that. It was like we
went there, We're gonna say some money's like you know what,
and all right, it got out of there.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
We had like I was like I was doing door
dash and like ooh and uh what was called Postmates?
I was selling shoes on eBay. I was doing all
kinds of stuff trying to make some extra money, and
I was really stressing myself out, and I wish I
would have just relaxed a little bit. I'm happy that
I got through it and paid it off. I could
I could have. I could have relaxed just a little
bit on all that nuts at time.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
That's like what you were kind of saying, burna about
that whole like intent, the aggressive thing, like pay off
everything you know.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Now, because if you don't, you suck and you're losing.
I mean, meanwhile, unto we had like we didn't even
have finn Talk back then, where you had all the
bros like really shaming you, we're shaving ourselves more than enough.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
But they still had blogs, so it took longer for
the blog friends to trickle down, but they were, yeah,
that's that's good. You got there in the end, Chris, Okay,
Berna your your meme today, Like, oh, she didn't she
didn't know.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
But in twenty seventeen, I was twenty seven, thank you
very much, And by oh my gosh. At that time,
I was quitting my job at Instagram. I was in tech,
but I was at that job on purpose. To I
was like, I'm going to ring this towel out, get
this money, pay off of my student loans. So like
twenty seventeen is when I was paying off all of

(20:07):
my debt. I was finishing my debt for my twenties,
and then I was like victory lap. I quit my
job in twenty seventeen and traveled all twenty eighteen, and
so it was like it was definitely a high point
for me financially because I'd been doing the hustling. The
hustling for me meant I was going to say something
more vulgar, but doing tech things, doing just hanging out

(20:28):
with the tech gods, you know, and being like me
me meaning me corporate brand a la la la la lah,
and putting all that money. I also was living with
my parents. My partner and I were living with my
parents at the time because we had this goal of
paying off all of our debt.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Wait a minute, so all three of us, I'm not
special or weird, we all three of us were doing
the most living with the parentals, whether ours or another's.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yes, yes, okay, yes, yeah, I was in the arguments. Yeah,
I was like living very like the whole fifty third
twenty thing of like it's supposed to be fifty percent
of like your knees or whatever. I was living like
seventy ten fift whatever is the rest of the math,
because I don't twenty great. Thank you love being around
human calculators. But that was I didn't know. What I

(21:16):
didn't know at the time was all of that laid
the seeds for a very wild ride. I would tell her,
buckle up, girl, like what you just did and all
the things, all the seeds you planted, and how you
work so hard. That's about to open a chapter that
you can even imagine. Because then I've traveled for a
year and backpacked through Asia, did that whole millennial thing,

(21:38):
and then started, hey burnis stuff the next year, so
I didn't even know. I don't know where I was going.
I was just like one way ticket to Auckland, let's go.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
I did that. Oh my goodness. I love that. I
mean I think that. I mean even just that fifty
to thirty twenty thing that you mentioned that it is
still like that, the fire movement. There are still these
tropes of personal finance. These I know you're not supposed

(22:08):
to say roll of thumb anymore, and I just did it.
That's something about men used to use that to beat
their wives or something.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
What's the not.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
A phrase you want to use anymore? Oh snah, yeah.
By the way, Jay Sheddy said, pow wow on his
podcast of all the well, I don't know, I don't
know I'm supposed say that anymore. But anyway, like the
these trope, the personal finance, I was all about that
fifty thirty twenty life, which is for those who maybe
are first hearing about this for the first time, it's
fifty percent covers your essentials, right, and then there is it.

(22:41):
Thirty percent is for your need, your wants, your wants,
and then twenty is for the needs.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Twenties for your financial goals.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Financial goals. Okay, yeah, fifty thirty. So within that fifty
is like rent food. I'm talking that was like an today,
that's like an eighty twenty because you're rent and housing
alone a fifty percent easily easy, Yes, easily. And back then,

(23:10):
I mean I can so because I wrote articles for
Business Insider, Yahoo Finance. I was in this shit every
day saying the same thing, which was, you know, fifty
percent ideally, but I like to keep my housing expenses,
you know, my essentials less than thirty percent, me and
my childless. You know, freedom like just doing the most

(23:34):
and you know what, shout out to her because at
least she saved that extra money because God, the way
that I know, I could be rich if I had
these kids. But I am rich in love and legos
so exact.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
And legos love and love light, legos live laugh.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's definitely one of the rules. I feel like, looking
back eight years ago, I did I. You know what,
I'm proud of my values. I think the values that
I had back then were really in alignment with how
I was spending my money. I really valued experiences over things.
And so for me, the wedding, even though that seems

(24:12):
like something that is so about, like, you know, pleasing
everybody else, it was genuinely about I want to have
a big ass party. I want to have the best food.
I want to do it in Georgia, where I'm from.
I want to have these memories that you know, and
bring joy for my family and friends. And I did that,
and it was so in alignment. It would be so
different if I had suffered with my in laws to

(24:34):
then spend money on this wedding and pay for it cash,
and it was a wedding I didn't even want, no
thank you. At least it was so in alignment with
my values, and we did our you know, we loved
traveling women to Italy, so you know, and I spent
a lot of money on Broadway shows and those other experiences,
and it was in so much alignment with who I

(24:56):
am and what I value. Now, what I would tell
her is like, she has no idea how difficult, how
far away she's going to get from those values in
the next eight years, and how she's going to have
to claw claw herself back because when I I don't

(25:16):
know if it's a combination of motherhood plus pandemic. It
could be both, honestly, because I had my first son
in twenty nineteen, like three months before shut down, and
I think with the heightened level of anxiety and mental
struggles that I as long as what the whole world
were going through. But I'll just speak for myself, and

(25:37):
I wasn't able to, like I wasn't able to use
money to do the things that really had brought me
had had to align with my values before, like family
and friends, and you couldn't go anywhere, you couldn't do
very many things, so all of us just bought crap, right,
you would buy things. And I think my addiction that

(25:58):
dopamine hit of like I can order something, I can
get delivered. I can especially for the kids. I would
my firstborn son, like buying him activities and toys and
things that felt like a way of bringing joy to
me and to us. And I get it because where

(26:21):
else were you getting that from? Living in you know,
in the dark winter of Newark at the time. And anyhow,
I think that kicked off for me, this sort of
like slippery slope where I started to be attracted to
I started to get those dopamine hits and that that
like soothing from stuff and from things, and I next thing,

(26:46):
you know, and then I'm not giving time to myself.
I'm not you know, pouring into things that I love.
I am putting house child, this new lifestyle in front
of it. By the way, also business, because I'm like
launching my own thing. And then it's and then I
do end up being like oh oh, looking around and

(27:09):
I don't feel the way I did at my wedding,
where I was like, you know, didn't have I had
a lot less money in the bank, but I was
so happy with how I had spent it. And now
I'm looking around and I'm like, God, damn, there's a
lot of monster trucks. The monster trucks are not bringing
the joy.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
You know. I think it's so easy.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
I think people think once you like make some changes
in your life and with your money, you're just gonna
be perfect and great from then on out. But it's
so easy to fall back into old habits. Like it
doesn't matter how.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Long, how many years you spent doing the right thing.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
It all it takes is a couple of bad moments
or weeks week times where you're just like, you know what,
I want to buy something online and it feels good
getting that package in the mail, and it's like it's
so easy to slip back into those old habits. So
you know, I definitely understand what you're saying because I've
done that for sure.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, especially and this is that was like global reaction
to crisis. Yeah, in most of our lives where it
was just I was just talking about that with my partner,
Like that was a moment around lockdown and everything where
you got to see everybody's crisis response, and like you said, Mandy,
all we could do was click around online. And but
I think that was like the only hit of joy
and then clawing out of that. I still feel like

(28:16):
what five years later, we're still sort of crawling out
of the effects of that time, and it hit everybody financially.
It was when that was a moment where I, as
my business coach, likes to remind me my crisis response
is to work and make things even when I am
tired and sad. So we did this whole like week
of like free classes. I was like, Wow, let's do

(28:39):
like a money thing for people, so people can do
like get free budgeting classes for a week. But tired
myself out because my crisis response was serve, sacrifice, figure
it out, ignore my feelings and try to take care
of other people. And all this therapy later, I still
have not fixed that, but well we're figuring it out.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Listen. Therapy is not enough. Sometimes there's not. I I
have had, I think, I've I think everyone has their
own combination. But therapy is like a piece of it,
you know, for figuring ourselves out and like getting that piece.
It's definitely an important piece. But yeah, I would also
look back and be like, oh, she didn't know that

(29:20):
therapy was not going to do at all, do all
the work, even one out one hour a week. No, no, girl,
you need mode in it. I'm super grateful that target
did did its did it did its big one and
got rid of DEI because the way that this boycott
is doing wonders for my budget. Bounced, my budget grew up.
I now it's just become. It broke the spell. I

(29:43):
have not shopped. And y'all know the chokehold that suburban
moms have with Targeted. Don't know if you know that
it's strong, so strong, you make a day of it,
hundreds of hundreds of dollars multiple times a month, and
it's dead. It deaded. I don't. I haven't gone into one.
And I also I don't want to. I don't want

(30:04):
to freak anybody out. But and this is just a
personal choice, all right, you do what you gotta do.
But I canceled Amazon Prime.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Ooh, that is a big so strong well that's I mean?
And has that warrior is there? Like, oh, you are
the strongest person I know.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
I will say I was grateful for the fact that
I canceled it, but it didn't officially. I still had
a few couple of weeks left in my Prime because then,
of course Chris told me that I needed one little
dongle for my computer. So that things could work better.
And oh my god, damn, I don't want to go
to Best Buy. They don't have the right dongle, and
so I quickly ordered it. But that was the last time.

(30:44):
And it's causing me to slow down. And if I
could give anyone listening some personal finance advice now, I
know that we could talk about all these different the
fifty thirty twenty and the pay yourself first. There's all
these like different strategies to to budget and to save more,

(31:04):
but also slow the earth down. Whatever you can to
slow yourself down. It's gonna be painful because it's causing
your own self inconvenience and the world is so not
set up for us to be inconvenienced right now. It
is out of style.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, that's exactly it. It's like when I ask myself
to slow down in those ways, I'm just like, yeah,
you're when we're not going to Target and we're not
ordering off of Amazon Prime? What am I? What's really hurting?
I'm just annoyed. It's just inconvenience. It's not real pain,
it's not actual struggle. It's it's the first world part
of me that's like. But I'm gonna get it in

(31:46):
five to seven business days. Two men.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
I don't have to lug it.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, that's the part that I'm trying to exfoliate for myself.
I'm trying to I'm trying to mold that skin because
all of us had that from I mean around sure lockdown,
that happened. You know, we all got so you say
the convenience, but then from then non things just got
faster and more convenient. And in my mind, I'm like,
we got weaker and more snowflaky and more like but
I need it now, and I need the dungle in

(32:13):
ten minutes and it needs to be pink, you know,
like I'm trying to. I'm trying to shed that too.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's the reflex like, oh something is lacking, Well I
can quickly fix this and look at me. But I've
and it has been. It's been harder than I not
that I guess I anticipated it would be hard. But
my own five year old he had a real obsession
with Target as well. He's like, I want to go
to Target. It was like going to six Flags for him.

(32:40):
You know, they have all the toys and a Da
da and I took him and he's five so I
didn't want to explain. I was like, should I explain?
Like boycotts and DEI and stuff. And the other day
he was begging me to go. He had fifty bucks
burning a hole in his little pocket from birthday money,
and he is like, I want to go a Target

(33:01):
is my money. I'm like, you're right, but listen, we're
not going to go to Target. We're going to go
to We went to Barnes and Noble. And the way
I googled the CEO of Barnes and Noble before, I
was like, y'all know, Barnes and Noble's like the good guys.
Now they're like the little shop around the corner. Oh
now Tom Hanks is now Meg Ryan. It's all flipped. Yes,

(33:24):
why because of Amazon? Because Amazon really killed the in
store book experience, bookstore experience, and so Barnes and Noble
had like all these store closures on everything. But if
you go into your local Barnes and Noble, now it
feels like a local neighborhood bookstore because they've got this
new CEO who came in. He founded this big chain,

(33:45):
the Waters or Waters and something in the UK. He's
a British guy, so he founded this, like you know,
smallish regional bookstore chain in the UK. So now he's
overseeing Barnes and Noble and they've brought that same like
pathos to the way that they managed. So they're letting
the local teams at Barnes and Noble make it feel
make it like, make a more of a community anyway. Okay,

(34:08):
I'll say, so Hella toys, so target loophole.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
It also feels like an astronomic throwback like I would
spend as a humongous book nerd as a kid, I
would spend hours at Barnes and Noble, like that's where
I would want. I know kids now who like exactly
like you said, Target is their Disneyland. Barnes and Noble
was my Disneyland, and that is what we were losing,
I feel like when we saw the Barnes and Noble closure.
So it's great to hear that, Like I could go
back and be my like seven really nice now.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
The teen section, I'll just go over there and pick
out books for my little nephews and stuff. But I've
been thinking, I know that I know that I said
when you talk about tariffs, and I know that you
guys have PhDs and economics. So I can't wait to hear.
But I do want to bring it up only because

(34:57):
it is going to start hurting consumers, you know, like
things are going to get What's was that, Chris?

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Is it? You're already starting to see it?

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Where are you seeing it? So?

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I've been seeing it, especially with electronics.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
There's things that I bought last year that I went
and looked on, Like I went on Amazon and looked
I want to see what the price was. That's what
I received was I bought it over there, And it's
some things are significantly more expensive, like one hundred bucks
more than what I've paid for last year.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
What are we talking about? Like is it like a phone?

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Is it like this was my little camera?

Speaker 4 (35:26):
The when I was talked about this little Dji pocket camera,
it is. I think I got it for like like
a little over five hundred. It's like almost I think
it's like in the mid seven hundreds. Now for that poem,
it's some things are already going up. I saw the
whole Nintendo announced their new console and now they're delaying
it because of the tariffs. Like, hey, well we were
on lench of pre order, but now we don't know
what prices are going to be, as we're just gonna

(35:46):
hold off on this for now.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
So yea, you're already starting to see it's I think
electronics maybe hits a little bit quicker. I'm not sure,
but you are starting to see it a little bit already.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Well, I asked my pal perplexity the A. I bought
the Deep Research function. I loves it so some of
the things that it was telling me to watch out for,
telling us to watch out for, as car prices because
sales have increased because everyone's trying to buy a car
because we get so much car, so many cars, and
the parts of cars from other countries. I guess, so

(36:17):
people are trying to buy what's there now. My mom
and my stepdad were one of these people, this couple,
they went to their dealership and they felt the pressure
to like buy by and inventory is going getting lower
because yeah, people are trying to rush to buy them.
So that's created higher prices. There's some I mean, I
think grocery prices have became such a big issue during

(36:40):
the election, especially eggs. We know that, but like unless
it's imported, So I think like produce and imported goods
from these countries like Asia, Sorry, I know Asia is
not a country, but Japan, China, tie in, Vietnam, Cambodia.
Like if you're getting any goods from there, I mean,
I wonder what h Mart's going to be, like, Oh
do you love to We love our h Marts, Keep

(37:03):
a lookout for that. Let me see one of the tariffs. Okay,
the ten percent the baseline tariff. And just to remind y'all,
tariffs are something that that consumers end up paying the
brunt of because like say that you're what's the name
of a company that uses any company Apple, So your Apple,
and you get your gizmos and gadgets to make your

(37:25):
iPhone from from China, and now with these tariffs you'll
be paying I mean, like, this is just a number
I'm throwing out there. I don't think the tariff's probably
much higher. But if there's a ten percent tariff on
those gizmos and gadgets for you to bring them into
America to put together for our iPhones, then you, the company,
are going to be paying that ten percent, and so

(37:47):
it's going to make you less likely to want to
buy your gizmos and gadgets from that country. That's like
my you know, tariffs for dummies explanation of like how
they kind of work. But that's why the cost is
going to get passed on to us. All right, so
home crisis could also rise, I mean, like another reason

(38:08):
why home ownership is so hard in this country, and
like the recession, the existential crisis of an economic recession.
This is all real. This is all and I don't
want to downplay it. I don't want to. I do
try to be optimistic, but I don't want to be
toxic optimism where we ignore the realities. And with that,

(38:31):
because we are in our we are in our stage
middle thirties years together, I think, right, I don't know
burn as a young thing, but we have We've had
the pleasure of experiencing some things, recessions, pandemic, economic downturns.
We have been their housing crisis, student alone crisis. So

(38:54):
I want to take a moment just to think about,
like we've been here before, we will be here again
because things have cycles. But like if you could, you know,
think about people who are listening BA fam who are
wondering I'm seeing all this news. I know it's a
huge effing deal but like, what am I supposed to
do with my pocketbook to be different? And do I

(39:14):
need to be messing with my investments? That always comes up,
you know, people trying to sell get out of the
market whatever. What do you guys say to that? And
what would you say to someone who's a little worried now?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Well, actually, I don't know if I'd give advice, just
sad it s. I have a question. I was telling
the group before we started recording. I was like, I
have had my head in the sound a little bit
about tariffs because I've been moving, moving and.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Also potentially starting a new job.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
We can talk about that later, but it's been like
a massive life change. Okay, on top of that, thinking
a lot about you know, when you're moving and you're
buying new things, I'm feeling that. I feel like I'm
feeling the tariffs and like looking at the big expenses
that we want to buy in the future, but our tariffs,
Like do tariffs affect when you're buying secondhand things? Like

(40:04):
if if it's affecting car purchases, are used cars affected
as well? If it's affecting electronics, our second electronics affected
as well. I genuinely don't know.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
No, I would say that it doesn't affect them directly,
but it's like an indirect effect, right, Yeah. And then
we saw this during the pandemic right where used car
prices started spiking like crazy because people couldn't get new cars.
So if the new car availability drop, people moved to use.
If stuff gets more expensive, people will just buy the
use items.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
And that's kind of how you raised money on our
used like Mazda CX five in twenty twenty one, we
made like three grand on that thing that's not supposed
to happen, No, no, because used cars were in such demand. Yeah, yeah,
so much higher.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
And even like thrift stores, if you know, it's like
over the past, like what five ten years, thrift stores,
we've gotten so much more expensive for the stuff they
sell in them, just because people are like, hey, I
like going to thrift stores and I could save money,
and it just kind of drives up prices, so it
could I think it could trick down and it's our
effect and they use market too.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Okay, that makes a lot of sense, But I figured,
but I wasn't sure if there was any kind of
like other thought about that, because I'm I these are
moments where I'm at least a little bit proud that
I'm really not a stuff girly. I don't like buying
anything new. This is where the first gen child immigrant
thing comes all the way out where I'm like and
now living with my partner who is like, he's also

(41:22):
first gen, but he's on the opposite side of the
spectrum where he likes new things and he likes nice things.
I'm the frugal betty in the relationship. I'm like, why
would we buy that new? I'm on things like Swapa
and back market like used electronics, secondhand all that stuff,
And I think for me, downshifting into that is not
too difficult. These are moments where I'd be like, well, hello,

(41:42):
buy nothing group on Facebook. Hello, like community swapping, Hello,
you know, connecting to a lot of coworking spaces in
the Bay Area and they do things like clothing swaps
and like meal prep circles, things like that. I think
these are moments where I almost get a little not excited,
but just like it's time to like shift into community
most shine, it's time to it's time to just live

(42:06):
in the world that I always want to live in,
where I'm just pretending everything is like summer camp and
we all exchange resources is a more bartering, there's more
work exchange, there's more kind of community level things like that.
So that's where my When I.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Bring a potato and it carrot to your door, you're
telling me that you want to put that together with
some stew I.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Brand you what I what I have of photocaki from
h Mart, which hopefully they still have some. I'll hand
you at brown rice and whatever eggs I have left.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Like that beautiful?

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Actually it is, And I, like you said, I don't
want to lean into like a toxic positivity place.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I'm not going to pretend that we're all going to
switch from you know, mainlining Amazon Prime to like M
but y'ah, now we're all meal prepping with our next
door neighbors. But that's where I'm kind of I'm starting
to turn my bus in that direction of like, all right,
when things are hard, I turn to community. That's sort
of always my line, and economically financially, that's what it

(43:02):
looks like for me. More swapping, more secondhand, we're giving
for free more like even moving out, I gave so
much stuff away through my buy nothing group, and it
was so fun because I actually got to know a
bunch of neighbors and I'm like, my bed frame went
to this person. We talked about why, and this person's
taking my mattress because their niece is moving in to
the neighborhood and all that. So it became this like
really beautiful generative moment. And some of the stuff I

(43:25):
was giving away, I was like, this was a buy nothing,
like not purchased, a buy nothing acquisition for me, and
I'm gifting it back to the community. So people, now
my toaster rubbin is like fifth generation buy nothing and
it is somewhere in the original San Francisco living a
fifth life. I hear the traveling Toaster of Traveling Toaster
rebin is what my life, which is funny because I'm
so obsessed with Sister to the Traveling Pants.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
But you are go and get into that later.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Okay, oh trash, but trash I eat up, like, like
which is second?

Speaker 1 (43:56):
You know?

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Uh huh. My answer is leaning into the topian Sister
to the Traveling Pants summer camp in my head as
much as I can while trying to stay aware of
the real facts and the effects of Tariff Center recession.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
That's real for parents too, because like these kids, I know,
all of us got the same crap. You know, we
all got the same stuff. And I think my journey
of motherhood, I mean, I'm sad to say because these
hormones is strong, but like, I think I'm done and
I'm looking at this stuff and I'm like, am I
really gonna throw all these brand new crocs? Like no,

(44:31):
I'm gonna check out. There's this Once upon a Child
like secondhand gently used chain of for parents if you
want to give away like gear or toys, clothing, shoes,
all this stuff, all the accessories. My goodness. But yeah,
as the kids get older, I'm I could definitely I

(44:55):
have to start thinking that way. It doesn't have to
be brand new, especially if I'm going to align my
spending with my values and I don't want to teach
my kids to value stuff. I want to teach them
to value you know, this road trip to Atland and
we're a taking for spring break and you know, family
excursions and stuff. So that's that's a point well taken.

(45:16):
I love that too. The community aspect of it burna. Yeah,
I wish we were neighbors. That would be so fun.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
I just moved into a new building where it's sort
of I feel like it's it's one of those like
high rises where people are like they don't really talk
to their community. They're talked to the neighbors. And I
was like, watch you want I'm back.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
But see they all desperately want it though, and they're
gonna love you.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
There is no one in the universe who doesn't actually
want community. And so I'm gonna come in here. I'm
gonna small talk everybody in the gym. So I'll talk
to everybody.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
And as an introvert, are you introvert? You seem extroverts?
What are you?

Speaker 2 (45:49):
I'm I think it's called ambiavert. I like, I can
do extrovert really well. But then then I need to
go into my Heidi hole.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Oh okay, then yeah I'm an ambrovert too. Yeah. So
but I've yeah, I've I've become that person on the
block who's like, I may have to, you know, disappear
for the week after this, but for this week, I'm
going to be all up in your face. Is going
to be best pals and like, you know, making these bonds,
supporting each other.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, I believe in that that's honestly, that's a part
of my vision too, of just like the next four
years or three years and nine months or whatever it is.
I'm just like the only thing I could really depend
on is community, the people I see and talk to
every day, and like the connections that we make. Even
in my most doomsday corners of my anxiety brain, I'm like, well,
if all goes to ish, I will only have the

(46:36):
physical people around me and the actual bonds in you know,
community that I've made. So it's good to invest in that.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
I feel.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
I feel the shame right now because when I'm that person, Bernd,
if I walk theme to a gym, I'm not saying
I had anybody.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I'm not making eye contact. I am going to myself such.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
A you're such a softy, squishy, teddy bear person. Though
I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
I don't. It's just to me.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
It's so I think I get too anxious, like handling,
like striking up a conversation with someone I don't know, oh,
because it's just like it feels uncomfortable, like are they
gonna be weird?

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Are they? Am I gonna be weird? In this conversation?

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Are we weird? I?

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Would say as a community person, that doesn't mean all
your community interactions will be fantastic. Part of building community
is knowing people are going to pass you off more,
You're going to be more imitated. Yes, that's got to
deal with that.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
My one neighbor who calls the town because the we
someone has broken the leaf blower ordinance and they have
blown a leaf after sick.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Yes, sometimes that's community. That's your person too.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
See, it's such a gamble. You don't know what you're
gonna get.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
But when I get into a conversation with someone who's nice,
I always enjoy it. But it's the roulette, the gamble
of walking up to somebody and not know how this
is going to go.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
I mean, I hear something the SF so you know, well,
that's why I've gotten some extreme, extreme situations there that
may cause a lot of distrusts and people.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's part of
why community building for me is an extreme sport because
you get to you get the spectrum here and I'm
in Oakland now and you get the spectrum here, So
you always get practice, as to like Chris is saying,
you get practice on the roulette all the time, and
I think it's a good thing, but you know it's
hard on the nervous system, especially when you're actually introverted.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
Yeah, I'm just.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Gonna follow Burner around. It's like like five feet away
and just like make see how the conversation goes. And
if it's going well, then I'll hop into it.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Oh my god. Or the opposite will happen, Mandy, where
we've been in a social situation and Chris does not
like the conversation that he's in and he calls me over,
He hold me over, did you like Berna? You know
this person was just talking about astrology? You like astrology?
And then he does a bait and switch.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Hold on, it's not the Homer Simpson into that.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
I thought Burna was genuinely going to enjoy this conversation.
I didn't know what I was setting you up for.
I did I set you up for a forty five
minute conversation, And my apologies, I.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Have minutes and this is supposed to be a creed
like I was supposed to be able to do.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Hey, come on, we're older now, we need to know
how to debt a conversation. We'd have no interest in containing.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Right and I'm awful at that. Someone in the community
needs to teach me that.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
You have to pee so bad? I do you know
at that time of the month. Yeah, I use that
one that will make them really for the dude, make
them uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Well, if it's sky, I just have to mention, you know,
anything my body does, it'll probably freak out. So that's good,
great ticket.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Bringing us back to the topic at hands rate, Yes,
I know I kind of imagine that. No, not terrorist,
but itding. I imagine that y'all's answers is probably gonna
be the same. But what are you doing with your
investments right now? It's the beginning of the year. How
are you guys lining up your investments for twenty twenty five.
I will be fully transparent. I did not invest I

(49:46):
might have invested a little bit in my solo for
one k in twenty twenty four, but I had it,
liked it. I did not. Oh. I was just lucky
to pay my childcare bill and my mortgage to twenty
more and we are grateful. I have a roof over
my head. But yeah, I'm hoping that's my only goal.
It's like to try to, you know, max out my

(50:09):
solo for one K and maybe a wroth.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
Yeah, I feel the same. I had a very up
and down financial year in twenty twenty four, and so
it's it's all I can do to maintain minimums. Like
we're not we're not maxing out shizzle dazzle over here.
And it is part of why I was like, I
think it's time for me to take on more responsibilities,

(50:34):
look into jobs and things like that. But investing wise,
it's been real conservative over here.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
It's been quiet.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
It's been quiet.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yeah, I'm just I'm not doing anything fancy because here's
the thing. I think.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
It's like such a temptation to be like, you know what,
let me just get my money out of whatever I'm
invested in because it's looking crazy. Stock marker's going down
and normally I'm all like, look, this stock market keeps
going up and we have all these dips over history.
But then this is different, like what's going on right now?
This is not like normal the way get operated. It
feels different because it's so erratic. You have someone in

(51:08):
charge is making just crazy on a whim decisions, putting
tariffs on the islands where just ping Woods live. You
got like crazy stuff happening, and it feels a little different,
and I get I think, I think nervousness is justifiable.
But the thing is, there's no other solution, right, Like,
what are you gonna do? You know, take all your
money out, putting cash and then wait for the perfect

(51:29):
time to jump back in, because you don't know when
that's gonna be. And honestly, like if all of a
sudden the stock market just imploded it at all, just
crash and just everything economy failed, we had a lot
bigger problems than how you're investing for retirement. So to me,
I'm like, I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing,
even though it feels nerve wracking, even though it feels like,
oh what, what's gonna happen? There's a lot of uncertainty,

(51:49):
but it's still the best option that we have to
get towards retirement, and we don't know how things will
shake out. So I think it's it's a little more
risky to pull your money out and not know what
you're going to do and try to guess the best
time to come back in versus just sticking with it,
saying discipline and then you just see where things go.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
From here, which you like is your mix of conservative
like stocks versus cash and low risk investments. Has that
changed at all?

Speaker 4 (52:19):
I think I'm a little more focused on saving some
more cash, like just making sure I put more in
that emergency fund.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, that was kind of an investing choice, you know,
not putting as much into the market, but then saving.
I think that's smart, honestly. And a form of saving
for me is paying down debt or level or refinancing debt.
You know, I just did a balance transfer, y'all know,
ba fam, I've been very transparental about my credit card debt,
and one of the things that has served me well

(52:47):
is like balance transfers and taking advantage of those offers.
And you know, it's a little stressful trying to keep
tabs on, Like when does that introepr end? Oh god,
But that's the same thing that could jillionaires do. Literally,
ain't none of that really spending cash. They are leveraging debt,
low interest debt.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
With you, Mandy, I definitely had a rough couple of
financial years and I had to do the balance transfer dance.
And the stupidest thing happened at the end of last
year where I was like sick balance transfer zero percent
APR eighteen months. Like what I'm going to do exactly
what you're talking about is making sure I'm patting my
emergency savings more and like really getting my debt all

(53:28):
the way down as much as I can before I
make any set of movements. And then I had not
set up the right notifications for this new card and
new bank, and I was one day late on my
payment and they were like, oh, sir, and no more,
no more zero percent APR for you, bye bye, and
here's twenty five percent. I had to I had to

(53:48):
do that thing where you call customer service over and
over until you get a nice person. Yes, and it worked,
but I had to call a couple of times before
I got a very kind person who was like, I
got you, I understand, we're going to reset it for you,
but put on autopay and I was like, I will
dip it.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
That's right, because you do have those auto payments. Okay, yeah,
good point, good point.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Now I'm doing that because they didn't set up They
couldn't set up auto payment for the first month for
some reason because they were like, we don't trust you,
and that gave them good reason not to trust me.
So now I'm on auto payment. But I did have
to like really kind of eat shit.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
For a second. Well, what's happening? Do you want to
share a little bit about I know, I think last
you and I would like sometimes swap dms and be like, girl,
you about to I'm about I'm on LinkedIn? You want LinkedIn?
We gonna we get in a nine to five hour
And yeah, so you have not been in a traditional
like nine to five jobs since twenty since the like
eight years ago, is that right, since you left Instagram? Yes,

(54:42):
and you've been building your brand and doing all the things.
Uh huh, And I have a similar about it. Yeah,
I've been.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
This is something I've been thinking about and Chris knows this,
and I feel like to some degree we've all talked
about this the last couple of years of just like really,
it's it's more that I really missed. I miss emotional stability,
I miss routine and structure. I am a person with
ADHD and anxiety, and I'm only learning in the last
couple of years that that means entrepreneurship and solopreneurship is

(55:09):
hard mode when you're neurodeertmergent like really hard mode now
raw dog in it. Like we were just saying it
was just therapy, therapy and that's it. I was not
taking any kind of medications in or SSRIs. I barely
knew about what my brain was like in solopreneurship and
how that's then a lot harder and just the last
couple of years I've been creating, Like right, I can
continue to ride this out and like build some form

(55:32):
of financial stability for myself that we know that the
creator and influencer market has changed so much in the
last like two three years. So it's it's surfing, it's
always surfing, and I just decided I don't want to
surf anymore. I want to glide. I want to be
pulled along in a wagon, like like like a child
at a fun You want.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
To be in the lazy river and one of those
on your tubes.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
I want to be in a lazy river. I want
to be pulled in a wagon like a child at
at a county fair eating corn. I want someone else
to pay for my health benefits, like I was like,
I just want to I want that for a second,
Like I've done this ride. It's been a great ride,
and to be very clear. Money out alowed is not
going anywhere. Hayburn is not going anywhere. I'm gonna be.

(56:13):
I haven't decided yet whether I want to be super
public about where I'm going to work, and I full disclosure.
Haven't even started yet. My start date it's actually next week.
But I'm very excited about it. I could tell you
all about it offline. But I'm psyched because I get stability.
I get to work with a team, I get to
do it is in financial services, it's in money stuff.

(56:35):
I get to like build something with other people. That's
what I really was craving. I missed co workers, I missed,
you know, talking to someone else besides myself within three
to four days of so in my apartment. Yeah, I
just really want it. I'm like, it's it's this grind,
the solopreneurship grind has been an amazing adventure. And let's

(56:59):
get a different flavor here. Let's let's just shift to
some to have a new chapter. Let's have a new chapter,
and that chapter happens to absolutely include more financial stability,
just you know, beautiful wellness stipends and dental coverage that
that's not coming out.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
My FSA on K match.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Oh yeah, actually, but I know that was that. But Andy,
you and I, yeah, we were definitely trading dms of
just like so blowing dust off the old resman.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
You're both the best of both worlds in a way.
I mean, I know for a fact. I mean I
don't know exactly what you're doing, but I would imagine
that all the work that you've done the past eight
years has made you so qualified for the job that
you have now and so ready for it. And I
love that we are past this like influencer boom kind
of stage now where you're kind of seeing influencers, like

(57:55):
like educators, online educators and influencers sort of mature into
the next phase of like okay, so because that's so natural,
it's just part of our career. You know, we have
these like moments and then you think about, Okay, I
learned from this, and then now I'm going to go
into this you know, next stage differently, and then in
another eight years you might decide like, oh, I'm going

(58:16):
to go do hey burn a full time, or maybe
you'll go I don't know on the Blue Horizon jet
and make that your whole Is that a job? People
seem to have a job just doing that now you're
just a martian. That's really exciting.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Thank you, thank you. I'm really one major gift of
the many, many gifts that being an entrepreneur has taught
me is that these chapters can be whatever you want.
It can change, it can flow. There's no rules as
to you have to hold this down, this job down,
or you have to be an entrepreneur for your whole
life in order to like count Like, I don't need
to girl boss in any kind of specific way that
anyone tells me to. And it's it's whatever works for

(58:53):
the chapter in your life. And so it's just good.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
It's very good. Can I ask how you got the opportunity?
Did you apply through a friend? Through networking?

Speaker 3 (59:01):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (59:02):
It is? I will say that I when people say
that the job market is one hundred percent who you know,
it's four hundred percent who you know? Like and I
want for the people in the back. Yes, it really,
I mean this is many I'm I'm talking to the preacher,
the goddess who you do be knowing this so much more?
But like I really felt that in the last few

(59:24):
months of like, Okay, this is a moment where you know,
I tend to try to downplay most of the time
what I do and what I've built, But I was like,
this is a moment where I'm going to reach all
the way into my networks and really talk about it
with like partners. I loved working with the mentors, and
that's that's how I got it, Like, that's it was
one hundred percent through someone who's like, I like your

(59:45):
work and I would like you to come work over here.
The job was not even listed, like it was not
it was not a thing find like and I I
really I was like, man, it's a good thing that
I can play extrovert because it was one hundred percent networking.
It was one hundred percent someone who watched my work
over the last few years and I kept in touch
with and and then it was another you like my

(01:00:06):
matho and with another five hundred percent timing, because that's
got you got that. I'm a word girl. I wrote
a book. I I don't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
He wrote a whole damn book, the whole book.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
And what's wonderful too, is that I was able to
negotiate this job in a way that I could still
one hundred percent to hay burn and stuff, and that
is not to be touched. That is, you know, the
IP is totally mine. Still, it's totally separate. And my
new employer knows that I'm going to be doing hayburn
and stuff and they encourage it and they're down with
it and so exciting.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
No, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
I was so happy to hear the news that you
got in there because we were talking about this, like
it's lonely doing this thing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
On your own.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
And I think also there's something about having coworkers in
that stability that I think gets lost, Like, look, there's
a lot of jobs that suck. I've had jobs that
I hate it with every adam in my body. I
would have done anything to leave that place. But when
you do have a job that at the very least
like this is cool, you don't have to love it.
This is stability that comes with that that I think

(01:01:11):
is so valuable and you don't really I don't think
I didn't appreciate it as much until I left and
started doing things on my own. How much I still do,
you know, miss that part of my working career because yeah,
it's nice knowing, hey, that Patriock's showing up in my
bank account every two weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
I would be good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I could totally see you getting going back to like
a traditional nine to five. Chris.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
You know I've thought about it, but you know, I
being able to wake up whenever I want you is
such a someone who was not a morning person. That's
the one thing, because trying to get to work at
seven thirty was killing me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
It was I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Know how it jobs. Now, you just got the wrong one.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
It was a wrong job.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
For sure to get a better one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
I was gonna say, my new job is fully remote
that you will not hear from me at seven thirty
in the morning. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
All right, Well, I want to take a quick break,
ba fam. Let's take a quick break to a little
woosaw and we'll be right back with more brown ambition.
We're going to come back and do brown Boost Brown Break,
and then Berna and Chris, I think we should take
a listener question just for funzies. Oh yeah, probably, okay, cool,
be right back via fam. Okay, ba Fam, we are

(01:02:22):
back and we're going to do brown Boost Brown Break.
So for those of you who are new, new here,
I'm manifesting like hundreds of thousands of new listeners now
that we're on iHeart. By the way, Hello, Brown Amission's
on iHeart now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Congratulations please.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
I was so not subtle about that reveal, but anyway,
very exciting.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
I fin drigging that latte with a heart on it.
You're like, oh, what could this be?

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Well, I'm just no, but I was at the I
was meeting up with my executive producer at iHeart and
we ordered a latte and they put a heart on it.
Not at iHeart, but across the street. So I'm just
saying it was serendipitous. All right, brun break. We're either
going to boost something that we are excited about, a
tip that we love, a money or a business or
career win, a personal win, something that we're excited about,

(01:03:09):
something we've read that we're loving. We see, whatever it
may be. I'm trying to give Chris some ideas so
that he cannot claim that he is not ready by
the time I finished the spiel, and the Brown Break
is going to be something that we are fed up with,
we could care to have less of in our lives,
something that's just we need to just get off our chest.
That is probably hella relatable. Okay, who wants to go

(01:03:31):
for Look at Berna's face. I'm smiling because you said,
Hella relatedt to my boost? Did he pay you your
what was it like a thousand bucks per use of
Hella mail?

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Hell? Oh noy? Who's supposed to pay me?

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
You said, Hella, Mandy, you're on the hook for it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Oh, I said it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
Don't you to send your feet over to me. Please
make the checks payable to Burnon and do that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
I owe you lawyers. Back down, not you said Hella.
And it relates very much to my brown boost, which
is I just want to boost the city of Oakland,
just in general. The town just recently moved to Oakland.
Don't confine me. I'm hiding, but the town what I love.

(01:04:25):
I mean, I've been to Oakland, a Ton. I grew
up in the Bay Area, born and raised here, so
I've been to Oakland, a Ton. This is my first
time being a resident, and I just want to shout
out the brownness of it all and the blackness of
it all like it is of if you've you've seen,
probably Chris.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
It's been Atlanta of the Bay right Atlanta, Sancisland.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
This is what I hear because you get out of
bart Or. You drive over the bridge and it is
like immediately viscerally browner and blacker, Like it's just like
black and brown people called like just so it's like Queens. Yes,
that's exactly what I said my party the other day.
I was like, Oakland feels like Queens. Where you walk
in and it's just booh. There's the culture, there's the

(01:05:05):
black and brown people, there's the different languages, there's the
different like the there's the good style, there's the I've
been living in San Francisco for about five years and
it's a white city. A lot of it is very white,
and you notice it real viscerally when you go to Oakland,
and I feel physically calmer in Oakland. I feel physically
more like here it is. And there are so many

(01:05:29):
more black and brown businesses in Oakland too, and ones
that really boost it. They're like we are you know,
They're just it's so much more visible. It's wonderful and
so massive boosts to the city of Oakland. I'm saying
a lot of the most obvious things in the universe.
Oakland's been this way for a very very, very very
long time. So I just want to give an extra
boost today to all the props that it deserves. And

(01:05:51):
if anyone knows of any and all just black, brown
women owned businesses in Oakland, please let me out because
I'm trying to get my money to all up that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
Yeah, Burn, I know you're talking about there. It's it's
you can see the difference. I feel like the last
black man in San Francisco. Every day when I walk
out the front door, I count black people as I go, like,
oh hey, you know so it's like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Yeah, just the two of us, just U.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
I haven't seen anybody for a while. How's it going?

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
It?

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
Just sit in a singular coffee shop in Oakland. You're like, here,
we are here, we are some major boosts to the town.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Oh I want to live someplace like that. I mean,
I do live in a diverse area, but there's not
a lot of black and note black and brown owned
businesses around here. And if they are, they're like far
apart from one another. But to have that, like, you know,
that like condensed area of black and brown greatness. Like
I'm excited for you in your new bow bag. All right, Christopher,

(01:06:51):
you said you was ready.

Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
I was ready. I got my is a brown boost.
This week, and it's gonna go out to my niece.
I've been staying with my brother this week, so I've
been on a very luxurious air mattress in the living room,
and I get woken up every morning by my niece.
I was breathing directly into my face.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
It's she knows her uncle Chris so much.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
I'm uncle Ceec when I come down there, and that's
my that's my name down there, and my my brown boost.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Is that my my sister in law.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
She told me that like it's someone at my niece's
daycare said that she's been doing something. She's been singing
something kind of interesting at school. So she's really into Mowana.
She loves Moana. She loves watching the movie on one
Maana too. Whatever the Moanas are out there, and so
I guess there's some part where she just sings, I
am Moana.

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
That's what she's just. She just sings in right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
So one day I was over there and I just
started saying I am Moesha because I was like.

Speaker 3 (01:07:45):
I just started, I just start messing with her. So
this girl is a daycare going.

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
I Am Moesha all day saying nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Who who? Now I'm thinking about, Oh, what a good
uncle you are.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
My assistant law was not super thrilled about it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
I found it hilarious, is one of it was one
of the best things I've ever heard in my life.

Speaker 3 (01:08:09):
And I'm going to cherish that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
Didn't she take place in the Bay Area?

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
Where was mo? She said? Where was she supposed to
be at? Was that La? Or was that the Bay?

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
I don't know, Philly Phi.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
Let's see, I'm looking it up right now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Okay, both of your computer arms went out.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
You're more quieter. I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
Both you went yea.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
Their computers are.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
Like oh so she said in Lemert Park in La.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Oh yeah, oh la. Okay, there we go.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
That's what I thought, because I think I feel like
because it wasn't wait, was the Parkers a spinoff of them?

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Were they ever connected? Did they do some crossovers or something?

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
They also felt connected the Parkers, because.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
I thought the Parkers they were always at like Santa
Monica Community College. I think it's where they're at or
something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
You're saying the Parkers, but I can only picture Hango
with mister Cooper.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
The Parkers was with Monique was the mom And then
I forgot the daughter. What her name is?

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
I could see her face though, yeah, would.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
And money was in love with the U. I guess
the dean of the community college. Mister was mister Ovobee
or something like that. It's a weird name.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
Oh my gosh, what's your boost?

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
Oh my, oh my niece singing out I am osha,
okay this we we got to come back around full circle.
But my boost is that I love that she's been
singing it since I've been there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
You need to get her the Brandy album, get her
some Brandy records, put her onto I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
Gon Show with Brandy Whitney Houston, Cinderella, and she'll be
all set.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Oh that's such a good idea. She'll love to be
the black girl watching that for the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
That's the only one that matters.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Ah, that's so good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
And a Filipino prince Filipino Talan, if you're listening to this,
I've had a crush on you sintimes and love you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
He came back for them whatever that was that they
were getting dressed up again for it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
See that's perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:09:54):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
He's half black, half Filipino. Ba. I'm just gonna get
both sides in one movie Love That.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
All right, I'm gonna do a brown boost because I
had mentioned before the show that I was listening to
I was claim in my room. I was listening to
the Jay Shuddy podcast. And you know, my iHeart brother
Bread right on a different He's in the first class
section of iHeart way in the back by the bathroom,

(01:10:22):
you know, but you know, easy access and all that.
But anyway, he had MI girl Lizzo on as a guest,
and I just we talked about Lizzo when her whole
scandal happened a couple of years ago. One of her
a couple of her dancers had claimed like sexual harassment,
workplace harassment, and it was this whole thing, and Lizzo's
reputation was just like dragged through the mud. And I

(01:10:43):
remember at the time having so much compassion for her
as an as a fellow, like thirty somethingter young manager
of people and learning some hard lessons about what happens
when you hire friends and what happens when you kind
of bridge that line between friend vibe and workplace vibe.
And I've been I just knew she was going to

(01:11:06):
go on. I knew she was going to be going
through stuff. But I think it's really apparent whether you've
heard anything about the Lizzo journey, whether you've been a
fan for a long time, or you use that you know,
that whole new cycle a couple of years back to
just like you know, you know, just like write her
off and decide that you weren't going to give her

(01:11:26):
the time of day. I really encourage you to listen,
because she has just she clearly has had gone through
and done like so much personal work. And the way
that she talks about the way that she takes accountability,
the way that she talks about her own journey to
self love, the way that she even has reframed her

(01:11:49):
her relationship with her body as she's she's calls it
like releasing weight, not losing weight, but releasing weight. She
acknowledges all the you know, all the controversy, and how
she like it really made her like hit this rock
bottom of self worth, having everybody decide that you are

(01:12:10):
this villain and a story that you didn't write, and
she talks about I mean, there's so many gems that
I wish I had had a penant paper I could
have written them down, but I was multitasking but one
of them that really stuck with me is the concept
of letting other people tell your story for you, and
how they are casting her as a villain in a story,

(01:12:33):
and how she has the power to like she can't control,
and she also understands how people can well believe that
story because and she acknowledges that, like she was one
of those people who would read gossip or read accusations
about people and then she would participate in that because
what other information is there for us to, you know,
base our our beliefs about someone on other than what

(01:12:56):
we may see publicly. So she like makes peace with
the fact that she can't control what people think about her,
but that she can take back control and she can
write herself back into the story. She can write her
own narrative. And she's putting out music again and she's
loving herself and I am just so happy for her.

(01:13:17):
And I think we got to get people more grace
and space to go through the kind of self work
that Lizzo has gone through, and to have done that
in such a public, freaking stage and to still be standing.
I just think that she's extraordinary, and I think she
made mistakes and she thinks she makes mistakes, and I
believe having made a lot of mistakes myself and having

(01:13:40):
gone through like something of an ego death the past
couple of years, and you know, on such a journey myself,
on a very similar journey, but on a thank god,
not a public stage like Lizo did. I just have
so much compassion for everybody, Like so much compassion. Like
everyone is redeemable, almost everyone, not you, you know who,

(01:14:03):
not you, You're not dragoons, but a lot of people
are redeemable, and like we should give ourselves space and
grace to make mistakes. And listen, if you're listening to
this and you're like, oh, yeah, I've heard that before,
but you haven't lived it yet. When you have the
privilege of living through some of the worst days of

(01:14:26):
your life and some of the biggest challenges you've faced,
and you are able to get on the other side
of those, it just gives you this like freedom, freedom
to be kinder to yourself, and freedom to be kinder
to others and to treat everyone else with compassion and yourself.
And I know that what I've gone through has made
me a kinder, more empathetic, more understanding, open hearted person

(01:14:49):
and it was really refreshing and very heartening to hear
and recognize that journey in a public figure who I
have loved for so long. I'm just really really proud
of her. I don't know her. I don't know you,
Melissa Lisso, but I love you and I do love
Jay Shutty's podcast. Now y'all should go check it out.

(01:15:10):
It's called On Purpose with Jay Sheddy and Yeah Brown,
Big Brown Boost for that. So y'all can go listen
to that after this, after you subscribe and follow and
write us a review, then you can go check out
Jay Shutty's podcast. Not sponsored, No, that doesn't kinda that's
so beautiful. I think it's kind of related what you

(01:15:32):
were saying before. When we were going through lockdown, like
early twenty twenty twenty one, all we had was one
purchasing things and two judging things on the internet, and
I think we got really good, too good at being
very sharp and unforgiving with each other because there was
no other outlet. There was very little empathy that we
were all in ridiculous crisis. And so I've been thinking

(01:15:56):
a lot over the past few years about, of course,
like cancel culture, how toxic it could be. And also
how like carcorole, it is, how very prison system it
is for us to go, like one thing I heard
that was bad for you jail, like moral jail. Forever
you're counseled, forever, you can't be redeemed. It's wild that
we cast that upon each other, and we would never
actually want that to be enacted on us on ourselves.

(01:16:18):
It's giving mob mentality, it's giving like public hangings and
medieval times exactly, it's really you know, American times.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
It's incredibly violent, it's very it's it's not the way
that I think humans are meant to live or any
of us really, that's not really environment any of us
want to be in or a part of. And so
I love I love to hear I haven't heard that
podcast yet, but I love to hear that it's a
moment for all of us to practice reminding ourselves of
our humanity, that we and that we need that. I

(01:16:50):
know everyone loves saying now more than ever, but like, truly, truly,
and I know I I beat the community drum, but like,
that's something you really need if you're gonna be seriously
in community, is the ability to give kindness and grace
to each other through mistakes because it's gonna keep happening.

Speaker 4 (01:17:05):
Yeah, And I think it's so hard with so many
people living their lives on the internet now and you
have no real control overall content that's put out of
a batchels, especially for someone famous. I think we were
talking about this because look, I don't I never know
what's going on with celebrities, but Mandy and you and
Nellie were kindly feeling me in on the whole blake
Lively thing. And it's like, you have situations like that
where you don't know you hear ones side of the store,
you don't know whose story it is, you don't know
if it's true, and then you don't leave room for

(01:17:28):
maybe the person to come out and say something, or
even if they did something wrong, is there always room
for someone to kind of like come out do the work,
and people say, okay, all right, we respect that. Like,
I think it's it's kind of hard sometimes in the
very knee jerk, very negative world that is social media
and just being online in general.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
Yeah, like you're saying, Mandy, imagine living out all of
your worst days and your biggest and littlest mistakes on
a world stage. I couldn't do. I would snap and
have so whenever anyone has a we get to see
the trajectory of a part and they come up the
other side and they share the lessons learned after that,
which they don't owe us. That is, that's a gift

(01:18:07):
for all of us. I can't imagine doing that. That's
that's so much strength. And we're worthy even if you
make mistakes. Like she's worthy of her own success and
worthy of sharing her art and doing what she loves,
you know, like for her it's.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
I just hear it. She's doing it for all the
right reasons. And I don't know, Chris, like, is Blake
Lively redeemable? Is it fair that she's the one who
we're thinking of being redeemable or not?

Speaker 3 (01:18:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
Of course she is. She's a mama, like, she's a human,
she's a woman like she's she is a beautiful blonde
woman in America. Y'all thought she wouldn't have fift up.
She is sick with privilege and I but redeemable. But
there has to be that ego death. There has to
be that acknowledgment, There has to be that like that

(01:18:53):
real I've looked in the mirror. I have worked on this.
I have face some and you can just tell from
Lizzo like she has sat like I have. She has
sat in that mirror, whether physical or just mental, and
looked so hard until you stop seeing what you want
to see and you finally accept what you see, even

(01:19:14):
if it's like ugly and damaged and broken and imperfect,
and you take accountability for your part in like the
way that you treat others and what you do. And
that is like when you're someone who like you get
your value from how people see you, and then you
realize that you've done, you know, bad things and like
you've made mistakes, like it can so damage your sense

(01:19:37):
of self worth and like like I just know that
when you can sit there and you can get through
that and then you decide to still love yourself, like
I can hear Lizo has like that is the freaking
journey of a lifetime, you know. I think that's if
we're one hundred percent. I think we're all on a
journey like that. It's it's just a matter of like
will we ever get to that mountaintop? And some of
us I think it's stuck, you know, and you think

(01:20:00):
that you're happy, you know, but you're really you're just
stuck and you haven't really gotten there yet. And I'm
grateful to her and I'm grateful for her, and thanks
to let me be on my Lizo train. Love it,
my little fantrain. Okay, be a fam. We're gonna say
goodbye for now. Thank you so so so so much
for listening. Don't forget to rate and review, subscribe. It

(01:20:22):
takes like thirty seconds. If you want to share this
episode with a friend, go ahead and do that. And
by the way, we would love to hear from y'all.
Please dm me. I'm at Brand Ambition Podcast on ig or.
You can email me and yes it's actually me reading
your emails Brian Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com and
let us know if you have questions. If you want

(01:20:43):
to just leave a comment about the show. I'm so
grateful to y'all for sticking with me through this new journey,
this new chapter for BA and we will see y'all Friday. Okay,
be a fam. Thank you so much for listening to
this week's show. I want to shout out to our
production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla, our fearless leader, for

(01:21:04):
idea to launch productions. I want to shout out my
assistant Lauda Escalante and Cameron McNair for helping me put
the show together. It is not a one person project,
as much as I have tried to make it so
these past ten years, I need help y'all, and thank
goodness I've been able to put this team around me

(01:21:24):
to support me on this journey and to y'all bea
fam I love you so so so so much. Please rate, review, subscribe,
make sure your sign up to the newsletter to get
all the latest updates on upcoming episodes, our ten year
anniversary celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to
you soon via buye

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