Backstage with BobbyD featuring Cedric Nash

Cedric Nash—tech entrepreneur, author, and self-proclaimed "Millionaire Mentor"—cuts through conventional financial wisdom with a message that might challenge everything you believe about debt and wealth building. Backstage at the Black Wealth Summit 2025, Nash reveals why being "spooked by debt" while not being "fired up enough about wealth" keeps many people financially stagnant.

The founder of Oakland Consulting, a $100 million enterprise application software company, shares his journey from a modest $36,400 starting salary to financial independence. Nash doesn't come from privilege—his father was the son of sharecroppers born during the Depression, and his mother had an eighth-grade education. This makes his wealth-building blueprint particularly relevant for those starting without advantages.

Nash's provocatively titled book "Why Should White Guys Have All the Wealth? How You Can Become a Millionaire Starting from the Bottom" encapsulates his philosophy that wealth creation shouldn't wait until you're debt-free. "Come up with a debt payment plan, keep it consistent, put it on autopilot. But then all that excess cash, you got to get really busy investing," he advises. This balanced approach—playing financial offense while maintaining defense—creates the compound growth momentum that eventually leads to exponential wealth accumulation.

The conversation shifts traditional thinking about personal finance. While many follow debt-elimination gurus like Dave Ramsey, Nash points out that such singular focus caused many to miss the stock market's 300% growth from 2009-2018. His alternative approach? Be "rich in assets and poor in bad liabilities" and understand that properly built wealth can eventually handle your debt payments while providing lifelong income. Ready to transform your financial future? Start by changing the conversation about money in your life—because as Nash wisely notes, "if you can change the conversation, you can change the destination."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the things that people struggle with is
this concept of not paying offall their debt.
They're so spooked by debt butthey're not fired up enough
about wealth.
Yeah, and that's the mindsetshift that people have to
understand, I'm saying, yeah,you got to pay your debt.
Come up with a debt paymentplan, keep it consistent, put it
on autopilot.
But then all that excess cash,you got to get really busy

(00:21):
investing, because it takes timeto compound it, to create the
momentum that wealth gives you.
Once you build up that momentum, your wealth grows
exponentially.
Roger that.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Yeah, what up D Hustle, what'sgoing on?
What's going on?
Player, you know beautifulSaturday welcome.
Yeah, what up?
D-hustle?
What's going on?
What's going on?
Player, you know, beautifulSaturday.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Beautiful Saturday, guess where we at.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Where we in Miami, sunny, sunny Miami, I like it
yeah yeah, I love it Florida.
Memorial University.
I'm in my bathing suit already.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, you know.
Big shout-outs to the only HBCUhere in South Florida.
We are here at the Black WealthSummit 2025 and we got a
special guest today.
Who we got, man?
Who we got?
Go ahead and introduce yourself, my guy.
What's up y'all?
I'm Cedric Nash, affectionatelyknown as your millionaire
mentor.
Oh, my Millionaire, I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I can't wait.
I can't wait.
So today we are definitely atan event here at Florida
Memorial University celebratingblack wealth development.
From talking about how todevelop wealth, long-term
mortgage in terms of real estate, and I'm also talking they're
talking about Bitcoin, crypto.
We always talk about AI, sowe're definitely trying to do

(01:36):
that.
Yes, sir, definitely Tell us alittle bit about your background
, where you started off and howyou got involved here.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Sounds good.
I actually own a tech companycalled Oakland Consulting.
We do about $100 million inenterprise application software
consulting.
Shout out to that Up in the DCarea.
And you know I started aBlackwell Summit up in DC.
Ted came up to it about two,three years ago.
He said, man, I want to do thisdown in South Florida.
I said, hey, let's do it.

(02:03):
He says would you help me out?
I said, of course.
So last year he pulled it offand I gave a little help, and
then this year same thing.
So we're just expanding theword, making sure we keep the
conversation going in ourcommunity.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Because if you can change the conversation, you can
change the destination.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Facts Give them that gem Gem.
The thing is, you all this isprobably the first time you all
ever tune in.
If you ever hear that sound,that means you need to rewind.
Listen up, because it's a gemthat's being dropped.
So D-House is going to hold usdown right In case you haven't
heard it again we'll give it toyou, definitely so you're saying
that you partnered up with Tedto bring this Black Wealth
Summit down here.
This is the second year and letme tell you Thank you so much,

(02:41):
because we don't get enough ofthis from our community, right?
Yes, Especially talking aboutwealth, talking about the gap,
but also how we can developactionable things for sure yeah.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour company and all that.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh yeah, like I said, I have a company about 300
employees.
I started it back in 1997.
But through that company I dida lot of investing.
I invested in real estate,private equity real estate.
I obviously invested in thestock market.
I actually wrote a couple ofbooks.
One book is titled why ShouldWhite Guys have All the Wealth?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Drop that again, drop that again.
I got to hear this one.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
What's the title?
Why Should White Guys have Allthe Wealth?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
How you Can Become a Billionaire Starting from the
Bottom.
That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
That book is unapologetically targeted to the
unique experiences andchallenges, and trauma within
our community.
Yeah, the unique experiencesand challenges and trauma within
our community.
Yeah, and I wrote a second bookI had so much to say because
I've been wanting to write booksfor some time and it's titled
the Millionaire Money MovesSupplemental Investment Guide,
which is really four chapters.
That talks about my investmentstrategies around stocks,

(03:41):
entrepreneurship, real estateand private equity.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I'm definitely getting the book
and y'all need to check it out.
Check the links below.
We, yeah, yeah, yeah, so I'mdefinitely getting the book and
y'all need to check it out.
Check the links below.
We're going to make sure we gotall the links out there so
people can click it and they canbuy it.
Exactly but what would be onething that they'll definitely
take away from that last bookthat you wrote?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh, that last book.
What happened was I had so muchto say because I've been
reading books about investingsince college.
Yeah, mentors, that poured intomy mindset.
So when I graduated fromcollege with a degree in
computer science I worked out,was thinking about how am I
going to turn, you know, this$36,400 a year salary into

(04:16):
mimicking what my millionairementors did, who were rich in
assets and poor in liabilities?
So I created a roadmap and agame plan after reading lots of
books, and so my book really isthat roadmap and it really
teaches people how to buildwealth, starting as little as a
paycheck, and it's a slowprocess but it definitely gets
you to Destination Millionaireand beyond.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, 100%, and I need a gym sound for this one.
Can you remind me what you justsaid?
You said something about assetsand liability.
Yeah, it landed with me.
How did you describe them both?

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Well, I said that they were rich in assets and
they were poor in badliabilities.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Now, if you are not listening to these concepts,
you're going to learn thedifference between liabilities
and assets and let me tell you,most of us unfortunately fall in
that category where we'reliability up Right, but the
mindset needs to shift todeveloping assets and making
those assets get you thosethings that are considered
liabilities so you can writethem off and all kinds of stuff.

(05:11):
But, man, that's definitelysome great words of advice.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
I love that, and that's one of the things that
hold our community back.
We feel like we've got to bedebt free before we start
investing.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Spending all our time listening to Dave Ramsey and
Susie Orman.
And so, while we're listeningto Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman,
the stock market's growing 300%from 2009 to 2022 or 2018.
Yeah, so the whole point isyou're paying debt.
You should be basically payingoffense, yeah, yeah, and
building up your wealth.
Correct, because if you do itright, your wealth can do the
job of paying off your debt andprovide you lifelong income.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's what's up, so as a community.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
That's one of the things we do wrong.
We focus too much on defenseand not enough on offense, and
so all we do is end up basicallypaying back the colonizers and
never basically freeingourselves financially.
So that's the one shift we haveto make.
And it's interesting because Italk and I have a mentorship
group called the Black WealthGrowth Challenge where I teach
people how to build wealth, andI've got to for a whole long

(06:07):
year.
We mentor.
But one of the things thatpeople struggle with is this
concept of like not paying offall their debt.
It's like they're so spooked bydebt but they're not fired up
enough about wealth.
Yeah, and that's the mindsetshift that people have to
understand.
I'm saying, yeah, you've got topay your debt, Come up with a

(06:27):
debt payment plan, keep itconsistent, put it on autopilot.
But then all that excess cash,you've got to get really busy
investing, because it takes timeto compound it, to create the
momentum that wealth gives you.
Once you build up that momentum, your wealth grows
exponentially.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Roger that.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
This is amazing, bro, it is.
It is our first guest right?

Speaker 2 (06:51):
well, I know that you are about to go on stage, um,
and if y'all didn't know, thisshow is backstage with bobby d,
so you know we backstage pullingall the guest speakers, um, and
definitely give you all someinsights.
We will be here throughout therest of the day, so if you have
some more, gifs to drop.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Make sure you come back.
Love to come talk.
You know, today I'm fired upbecause I'm teaching a class on
how to win investing in thestock market.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's what's up.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Like I said, that's another thing that we shy away
from, but I have a methodologyand approach that is guaranteed
to get you to win.
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
I got two questions for you before you leave here,
Just for our audience here.
Do you come from wealth?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
I don't.
My parents were.
My dad was a son of asharecropper.
I was raised.
My dad was born in 1932, rightin the heart of the Depression
and raised on a farm and he gotdrafted in the military, went to
college, got his associate'sdegree, worked as a parole
officer.
He was a lower middle class guy.

(07:46):
My mom had an eighth gradeeducation, so yeah, All right.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, you're getting the cue right now.
So thank you so much forpulling up, and we'll see you on
stage.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
my brother Take care.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Thank you.