EYL #349: Credit Foundations, Wealth Building & the Business of Celebrity DJ’ing w/ Venus X & Stanley Lumax

This week on Earn Your Leisure, we sit down with two cultural powerhouses — Venus X and Stanley Lumax — for a masterclass on credit, culture, creativity, and building real financial foundations.

We break down why the EYL x Chase Freedom Rise partnership matters and how it’s creating new pathways for young adults to build credit early. We talk about the biggest credit mistakes people make—especially during their college years—and why having money means nothing without discipline and a strong credit profile.

Venus X takes us deep into the business behind being a celebrity DJ, from branding and scaling to creating value in a way that impacts entire communities. Stanley Lumax shares the strategy behind building culture-forward businesses and why proving your work ethic to financial institutions can unlock life-changing opportunities.

We also discuss how parents can give their kids a credit head start, why budgeting is crucial, and the most common financial regrets people have later in life.

Whether you’re a creative, entrepreneur, or student trying to get your money right, this episode delivers game you can use immediately.

#EarnYourLeisure #EYL #VenusX #StanleyLumax #ChaseFreedomRise #FinancialLiteracy #CreditEducation #DJBusiness #CultureCreators #Entrepreneurship #WealthBuilding #MoneyManagement #CreditTips #BusinessOfCulture

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
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(00:21):
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National Association Member FDIC.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
And it's on holdlo right now. Venus is one of
the people that we spoke to and Stanley is one
of the people that's actually made it responsible. So this
is an interwoven conversation on a few different levels. Venus,
we spoke to you. I'm gonna get more your backstory.
But Stanley, for people that might not be familiar with
who you are, can you tell people like your journey

(01:06):
as far as corporate working in chase with your position
is in chasing your background and how we got here
to this point for.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure, first and foremost, congratulations to you guys for making
this happen.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Man like this was. This was a journey, but we
got here.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
In terms of me, I'm currently the executive director at Chase.
My role is specifically around talent and cultural partnerships. Next
week I'll actually be at Chase for three years. So
it's definitely been a bit of a journey in terms
of my background. Prior to that, I've worked in advertising
and marketing. You know, for the most of my life,

(01:43):
a lot of brands that you'd be familiar with, a
lot of blue.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Chip brands sports.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know, I'm a big basketball guy, so definitely been
around some of those brands that you know you can
use your imagination and guests. But you know, now that
I'm at Chase and I have the opportunity to you know,
work where you know the youth and identify ways to
help them start their credit journey, you know, it was
really exciting to have the opportunity to bring you guys

(02:08):
on board and do some magic.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
Yeah, it's very important, man, watching the work and if
you have it, they'll make sure.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Y'all go tap in.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
I'll open up with both of you about the timing
of it, Like why it's so a court in this moment.
I know we come from a generation and that was
like gen Z zen Alpha. Why is this moment so
important to get this message out when we're looking at
the economy, we're looking at the society as a whole,
and there's one piece of education that I've always been missing.

(02:36):
Why is this so import right now?

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, I mean I would definitely say when you think
about the resources that are available. You know, if a
kid is going to you know, a kid gen Z,
if they're going to be on YouTube looking at you know,
streamers and things of that nature and entertainment, they might
as well learn you know the other side of that,
right because if you look at your favorite streamers and

(02:58):
they're making a lot of money, right, like they're doing
well for themselves. But what they're not talking about, which
you guys are doing a great job of, is the
business behind it or the or the actual building of
you know, your financial you know foundation, right, so everything
from starting your credit journey, you know, getting your first
credit card, getting your savings and checking account. You know,

(03:23):
these are all things that we offer amazing tools for
you know, even just the idea of having a tool
that shows you your credit journey so you know what
your score is a lot of.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
You know our gen Z.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know, consumers aren't thinking about those things and those
tools are available for them.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
So we want to make.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Sure that you know, we're not taking the traditional route
in terms of speaking to gen Z from a bank perspective,
but we're doing it in a way where they see
people that look like them, that they can relate to,
that are on that journey.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So venus you being a creative. We talked about this
on the episode. As far as you know, maybe that
wasn't your primary focus as far as financial literacy, but
then you realize that that's something that you need to
focus on. How are you adapting or adapting to this
new age of finance with artificial intelligence and so much

(04:13):
stuff is changing so quickly, How are you adapting?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well?

Speaker 6 (04:17):
I think that to build up of what Stanley said,
we're living through a crossover of I guess culture and worlds. Really,
we're watching a new world come to be and we're
leaving a world behind that was a completely different version

(04:38):
of reality. And I think that from even the way
that I used to promote myself as a DJ flyers
going out and meeting people, building relationships, to having to
have a digital footprint and having to concern myself with
content and with reaching global audiences. The way that I

(04:59):
have had to exist over the last seventeen years, DJing
is completely different today than it was when I started.
And if I had been as intentional, let's say, at
building my credit from day one, as I was at
building my social media personality, I think that I would

(05:19):
have not a better career, but I would have a
very different infrastructure. And granted, when I started, we were
not accepting, you know, payment via credit card for a
ticket to a show. We were cash only. We were
mostly word of mouth. We had a small Facebook group.

(05:39):
But now when we post, we can see that a
lot of non followers are seeing our stuff, a lot
of people are sending our stuff to other people who
are not in our network. And it's the same way
with money. When you deal with money and when you
deal with transactions and when you deal with your image,
and you're inside of this close circuit and you only

(06:02):
have these few resources and you can kind of see
where everything is going. You don't understand that the dollar
that you spend or the hour that you spend has
so much more possibility. And now I think what I'm
living through is watching it change so quickly and realizing
that in a world where we might have a digital
currency soon, or we might have you know, AI, expanding

(06:28):
the growth of something that we didn't know how to
grow quickly by ourselves because we didn't understand the strategy.
If you don't understand money, and you don't understand the
way that you can control your power in relation to
that money that you make and that money that you
spend and that money that you invest, you are at
a disadvantage because there are people who they not only

(06:49):
have more resources, but they also understand financial literacy, and
they're also at the top of the curve of what's
happening next. And we as people of color who come
from low income neighborhoods, who are doing things that you know,
oftentimes we don't have a budget behind. There isn't an
investor or, There isn't you know, a parent who's done
it before. There isn't a mentor. We have to go
out and figure out how to enable ourselves to skip

(07:13):
the line in some way. And also make the most
of our resources. And I think that the same way
we go online and we post every day, that's exactly
how we should treat our credit. We should be looking
at it every day. We should look at all of
our expenses. That's been one of the most important things
for me is realizing that every dollar that I spend
has the capacity to bring something back into my life,
and only as a result of credit, because of the

(07:35):
way that credit functions inside of our world in relation
to other businesses, like you know, a kickback a flight
you know program, or a you know yeah, exactly like
a transportation kickback when you buy gas, or even just
the simple fact that you, if you are committed to
your goals, can show a bank. I have been doing

(07:56):
this for seventeen years. This is how much I spent.
This is how much I mean, This is how much
I paid out. Maybe I made no money the first
five years, maybe I broke even, maybe I only paid
myself the first ten years. But what this shows is
proof that I am a trustworthy entrepreneur and that I
have the commitment to be able to build something and
that there's a void for it. And then you go
out and you use the technologies that are available to you,

(08:19):
and you can build something that you know, people are
not ever going to stop engaging in music, culture, fashion,
all these things. And I think that we're basically at
the crossroads of two different worlds where you know, if
you don't have credit and if you continue to rely
heavily on casher you live day to day the way
that so many people from our neighborhoods and from our

(08:39):
lives live, you miss out this grand opportunity to show
these enormous, you know, brands and these enormous companies like banks,
because ultimately that's what they are. They're looking for people
who know how to handle the responsibility of having access
to these resources. If you understand that, it's the same

(09:02):
as investing in building a following, it's the same as
investing in you know, your wardrobe or whatever, except it
actually has the capacity to help you formalize your business
and to help you formalize yourself as an individual and
then go out and do all the things that you
want to do that somebody else might get handed to them.
And we're not going to get those things handed to us.
We're not going to get jobs handed to us. We're

(09:22):
not going to get homes. We're not going to get
endowments or you know, trust funds. So we really have
to think about how we can very sort of like
casually put ourselves in a position to earn something back
because our work is worth more than another person's work
because they don't have to do that much to get

(09:44):
something back for it. We have to do so much
to earn it. We're already at a disadvantage with you know,
pay gaps and with class and race, and then we
also then don't have literacy, and we're also not integrated
into the for structure properly to be able to get
back something for what we put in. And so I

(10:06):
think that, you know, this is a really great opportunity
for people to understand that it's never too late. It
takes a while to figure it out, you know, to
figure out how to be a person who cares about
that stuff. But if you love something and you're gonna
do it, you absolutely should formalize it, and you absolutely
should have a system. Even if you know you get

(10:28):
it wrong the first time, you go back and you
try again, but you should have a system where you
have a financial footprint, and ultimately that's what I think
credit is it's exactly the same as having a digital footprint,
except it's a financial footprint. And if you are a
good person, which I believe most people are. Most people
are not out here scamming. Most people are not out
here trying to get fast money. Most people are going

(10:49):
to work. Most people are believing in themselves. They're trying
to build something. If you are that kind of person,
you need to put that penny, that dollar, that ten dollars,
that one hundred dollars, You need to keep everything organized,
and you need to be able to get something back
for it, because that is your leverage. And that's the
only thing we're going to have for most of us.
We're not going to have the people to go and

(11:10):
ask for money. We're not going to have the parents
to go to ask for money. We're not going to have,
you know, the resources to go and get that job
that pays two hundred and fifty k a year. But
what we do have is proof of concept, and ultimately,
I think credit is a really great way to go
to a bank and say, you know, look at what
I've been doing, even if it's just ten thousand dollars
or five thousand dollars. I want to build this and

(11:33):
I think that if kids had that information from the
age of eighteen, so many kids are abandoning the concept
of college or they don't feel it's worth it for them.
They need to understand that so much of what you
know they're going for in life is attainable through just consistency, discipline,
financial knowledge. And so yeah, I'm really happy to be

(11:56):
able to share my story and to share that shift
that happened for me, because I think my life got
a lot less stressful when I realized that, you know,
it didn't have to be all about passion, it didn't
have to be all about you know, like living to
work and hands mouth and all these cool things are happening.
But if you don't actually write it down and you
don't actually show anybody, you're going to be a square

(12:18):
one forever.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
I think that's why this moment is important. And I
think when we sat down with each other, what came
across for me was the vulnerability in your story. And
I think that's important right people sharing their experiences, the
highs and the lows of what we can learn from
it and hopefully with resources like this one, and obviously
with foundation forward if that becomes a blueprint where people
can go back to. But I like what you said
about the financial footprint, because it is right. You get

(12:42):
to track what you've done, even if you're not keeping
your home records. There is a database that shows that.
But it made me think that you said. I thought
to myself. A lot of times people see you at
this position, they think, oh, you've always had that financial education,
You've always had the wearwithloth to know how.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
To use this to your advantage.

Speaker 5 (12:58):
But what was your experience It's of credit coming up, right,
Like what was that moment when you discovered the power
or credit and how you can use it to your advantage?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Right?

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Like we tell this storybus. You know, my mom made
me an authorized user and I had to understand when
I got to college and getting that credit card that
was the thirty percent interest rate, Like that was my moment.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
A lot of people share that.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
But sitting in the physician you're in, did you have
a moment in town where was like, oh, this is
what that is?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
I mean, like I think, like most you know, college students,
you know, I did the wrong things, you know what
I mean? I wanted to you know, you see the
suit like I've been fly. I've been fly, So this
isn't like a new thing, right, So like being in
college and you know, wanting the new whatever the thing was.
And you know at that time, you know, you know

(13:50):
every bank, every every credit card was available to you.
So you sign up and you know, before you know it,
you're in debt, you know what I mean? And for me,
I think when I first started understanding the importance of credit,
actually I was shamed into it.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
Right.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
So I had a group of friends and you know,
after college everyone started looking at buying their first property. Right,
So when your friends are buying, you know, even on
the course the.

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Speaker 3 (15:56):
Start buying their first property and or not, you know,
the whole keeping up with the Joneses thing can be
a positive thing. Right in school, it might have been
you know, getting the sneakers everyone else has. But then
when you graduate from that and your friends are like
serious about, okay, I need my first property, I didn't

(16:18):
even understand how to even get there right. So, you know,
a couple of friends you know, bought up, bought their
first place and started talking about credit and made me
realize that I wasn't even in a place where I
could have a conversation with a bank about credit. And
that immediately got me to a place where, you know,
I found one of those programs that you know, helped

(16:41):
first time owners, you know, get their stuff right. And
you know, that began my journey where I was paying
attention to my credit score and how I was spending
and you know, reducing credit card dead and really just
focusing on you know, putting a plan together. So that
was that was definitely my first you know, introduction to credit.

(17:01):
And you know, now that I have you know, daughters,
I have a seventeen year old who's getting ready for college.
You know, one of the biggest moments of our collective
lives is taking her into a chase and getting her
her first you know checking account and savings account and
adding her as an authorized user to my to my
freedom account. So being able to live those you know,

(17:24):
real life scenarios and understand that like all the things
that it took me, you.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Know, post college to learn.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Honestly, you know, my daughter is going to be ahead
of the game because she's already you know, established credits.
She's already you know, has her own checking account and
savings and all of those different things. So I think
that's the part of the you know, when we talk
about foundation, right, like, that's my goal is to give
them a foundation that I may not have.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Had so venus. It's interesting because you're on the corporate side,
you're on the creative side. So talk about just the
business of what you do as far as being a
DJ celebrity DJ and traveling around the world and doing events.
What's the business model behind that? Because I mean people
see that and they see like big name DJs, But

(18:15):
how do you go about actually making sure that that's
a sustainable business like keeping the bookings coming and negotiating
contracts and you know, making sure that you get the
money up front to back end and you know, working
with corp responses, making sure you have your deliverables done, Like,
what's what's the business behind that?

Speaker 6 (18:34):
So it started out more in the traditional sense of
throwing events and figuring out how to create enough demand
and enough relevance that there would be an inevitable I
guess sustainability to it. And I think that whether I

(18:57):
knew that or not when I started, I guess I
had the instincts to build something of my own, and
that thing was you know, for me, I think people
can talk about generic infrastructure right for the business of
being a DJ, but I credit a lot of my
success to the quality of my ideas and the quality

(19:20):
of my community building and my network building. So it's
not that I'm a networker. It's just that I like
to create spaces where people feel comfortable connecting. And when
people feel comfortable connecting, a lot of good things happen.
So whether people are dancing, whether people are talking, whether
people are like, you know, getting their fits off, whatever

(19:41):
it is, ultimately it's like the DNA of what will
ultimately be your life. So for me, the business model
has a lot to do with making something at the
core that people will always need me for, right, and
that thing is being ahead of the trends, setting the trends,

(20:03):
looking at what are the voids. And then I think
that that's what most businesses are supposed to do. But
when you're young and you're creative, you don't look at
it from the perspective of a business person. You look
at it from the perspective of need. You know, we
needed a space to congregate, we needed a way to
promote our talents, and we needed people to take us seriously.

(20:26):
We were very young. I started dating at twenty two,
and most of my friends were between twenty and twenty
four at the time. And they have now gone on
to build some of the biggest businesses in the fashion business.
They have gone on to have, you know, great careers
and music as producers, as singers, as all kinds of artists.
And so the only way you get an incubator like

(20:46):
that is by being intentional about cultural curation and about
what you do being forever needed. And I think that
that is in and of itself key to making a
business that sustainable, at least in my field, because the

(21:06):
fact is that there's a million DJs. Some of them
might play better, some of them might look better, some
of them might have more followers. But for whatever reason,
I am still being called to help brands connect to
the communities that I'm a part of, and also to
show value as an influencer, as a person who has

(21:28):
impact over what people think. And I think that ultimately
that took me being brave, brave enough that seventeen years
later people would still be like, that was the coolest
party in New York in the last twenty years, or
that's where I saw this happen for the first time,
or the way that everybody's doing that now, she was
doing it then. So I think that as hard as

(21:51):
a concept as that is to grasp for most people,
you have to be willing to do something that other
people aren't doing, and you have to be willing to
do it first, and you have to be willing to
do it in a way that is collectively beneficial. So
I initially reached out to my friends who were fashion designers.
One of them was hood by Air, another one was

(22:11):
tel Far, another one was Luar. What are the odds
that I would just randomly be friends and then say
come work here. I'm gonna pay you and then say, oh,
you want to make that sample, but your Taylor is
Latino and doesn't speak English. I'm gonna go with you
to help you make the sample. Then I'm gonna wear
the clothes at the party, and I'm gonna pay you

(22:33):
to come to the party every week and give you
five hundred dollars a week so you can pay for
the samples. And I'm gonna give your laptop that you're
gonna pay off at the party. That's business, and people
don't look at it like that because they're like, you're
a twenty two year old girl and you're like, you know,
pouring shots and you're dancing around. But those businesses. Hood

(22:56):
by Air was one hundred million dollar rotating income at
one point before it collapsed due to where they were
getting money from. They took money from the Italians, they
did business with the Chinese, they got bootlegged heavily, they
got into a bad contract with the Italians. The infrastructure
of the business crashed. It comes down to something that

(23:16):
could have been resolved by credit right just saying tel
Far it took a long asset excuse my line, which
took a long time. But that brand is now a
household name that you see on the news on average
every six months. Aunties, little kids. Everybody's mom wants one.

(23:37):
I was the first person posting it. I was the
first person sharing it. I was giving tel Far jobs
as an R and B DJ when nobody wanted to
wear his clothes because they were too weird and he
hadn't figured out what that one product was yet that
it was the bags. And my point is that when
businesses are generative, not just for you, but for everybody
in your community. When you say I like that person's personality,

(24:00):
so I'm gonna have the most I like that person's swag,
so I'm gonna have them dress us, and they have
really good music tastes, I'm gonna have them collectively DJ
with me. That was my thing with Shane from HUBAYR.
We were back to back DJs. It's not like I said,
you know, stop what you're doing. I'm going to turn
you into a DJ. I just said, Okay, I have
a good taste, let's let's have a good party. That's
how we got Mia in the room. That's how we

(24:21):
got Diplo in the room. That's how we got all
types of celebrities in the room at the age of
twenty two to twenty three, and that's how we were
packing out these spaces. And we were only charging two
or three dollars at the door because again we wanted
kids to be able to afford it, you know. So
all that to say, the business model is the brave
and the business model is help people. It doesn't always

(24:42):
pay in the way that you expect. So not understanding equity,
not understanding investment, not understanding business partnership, not understanding the vocabulary,
very specifically doing the work, knowing how to gorilla market.
You know, I wore O hood by your expresshirt and
an asap hocking video two thousand and eleven. That video

(25:04):
went on MTV the end of MTV playing music videos. Yeah,
it's it's about rip in a couple of weeks. Yeah,
every day, all day, on your way to school, after school,
when you're going to bed. That was marketing you couldn't
pay for, you know what I'm saying. So it's like,

(25:24):
why did I do that? Because my friend, my best
friend was Shane at the time, and we were trying
to get his ran off the ground. Did he have
a website? Could he sell anything to anybody know. There
was no website, but there was the forethought that if
you want me to be in that video, I'm gonna
need something in exchange for that. I'm gonna need you
to promote this hoodie. And then that led to a
Sabaki wanting to wear the clothes. That led to Drake
and all other types of artists. Every artist has some point.

(25:46):
I mean Cardi Playboy Cardi brought him back recently, but
my point being that it's about, you know, having the
capacity to say, whatever the thing is that I get
to do, I'm gonna do it with as intentions. I'm
going to try to help as many people as possible.
I'm gonna try to create something that is undeniable. You know,
you're playing all kinds of weird music in there. It's

(26:08):
not like we were like, yeah, come listen to hip
hop and RB. We were testing the waters. But what
that led to was us being able to say, Hey,
no other black kids, no other Latino kids, are moving
like this right now, so we're the cool kids. You
might think we're really weird, but hey, eventually everybody's gonna
dressed like us. And they did and they do. And

(26:29):
you might think these brands are weird because they're not Gucci,
they're not Balenciaga, they're not Louisvuitton. But now they're household names.
And so I think that ultimately, whether you are you know,
a real estate agency where we happen to be right now,
you're looking around and you're saying, Okay, who has space,
who has you know, a value proposition in the neighborhood.

(26:50):
How can I help that person to fill that space?
Who is the best, you know, interior decorator that's going
to help your business move forward? Going to bring us
to your business because people are gonna be like, oh that,
that's like an interesting place I want to walk in.
And then in that process, you're helping the person who
is really good at finding properties, are really good at
rebuilding properties. You're helping them fill their spaces, and now

(27:12):
you have tenants and those tenants want to buy, and
now you're helping the communities to expand into ownership. If
you look at that matrix, there's a lot of people benefiting.
It's just not just one person. And I think that
when you build matrixes like that, whether or not you
financially benefit, you will always be a relevant business and
that is what I credit my business model too, because

(27:34):
at the end of the day, some years have been
highly ticket event based income, and some years have been
highly brand event partnership income, and some years are heavy
on modeling and campaign work. But the only reason why
I'm able to have any demand is because that core
starter DNA is so strong, and it's so it just

(28:00):
keeps on giving. It's like a tree that just doesn't
stop producing fruit. And even to this day, you know,
like we're seeing all these new DJs and it's like, oh,
this open format club music remix edit thing. We've been
doing this for so long, but it's making people super
famous and it's making people have jobs. Now we've probably

(28:21):
created you know, a million jobs not even knowing it
because we were just so brave at the time when
we were to push us sound, to push a style.
And I think when you do that, you know, that's
what people look for. Right. So whether your timing is
at that moment to Celtics to a show, or your
timing is to help Chase sell the idea of credit

(28:42):
to a bunch of kids, When you are in an
ecosystem and you are invested in creating jobs and creating
opportunities and creating visibility for people who don't know how
to do that for themselves. Even if you don't know
what you're doing, that is the business model.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
I want to stay around that theme of being the
first two because I would argue all of us here
are probably the first to have financial education, to be
financial lists if even through the experiences that you live,
you gain education. I feel like the series is that
at Barre Millom has starved the conversation. I've gotten calls
even yesterday a young man was asking me about how

(29:21):
he's even helped get his credits goal up to get
a car that was trying to get. As we start
this journey for well, a lot of gen Z gen
Alpha are starting journey, what piece of advice would you
both kind of recommend to help them start to begin?
Right because staying by you even mentioned you did have it,
but not your daughter does, right, but there's so many

(29:43):
parents that don't have it and their kids are trying
to learn it. What would be that first piece of advice?
Obviously some mere livers experience and obviously what you're doing
profession for that next generation to get started on this
this this journey credit.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean I think, like you know, with everything
else in life, you know, credit is a tool, and
it's a tool that helps you build the foundation. So
without you know, leveraging that tool, you'll have an uneven foundation.
I mean, that's just the reality of it when I
think about, you know, growing up and you know, swiping
a debit card and just being excited to have a

(30:16):
debit card and not realizing that like, I'm not getting
anything back from this, right, But now, like you know, again,
keep using my kids as an example because I'm able
to give them insight that I didn't necessarily have, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
So you know, even just kind.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Of the idea of cash backing, right, every time you know,
my daughter uses her card, she's getting cash back, and
she's again establishing, you know, a use of credit that
in the long run, will will be something that she's
that she benefits from, versus just leveraging cash in a

(30:56):
very loose way. And I think, like, you know, the
reality back to your question in terms of how do
you or what piece of advice I would give is
the same way. You know, our youths, you know, they're
very good at learning languages, right, I look at social
media as a language. You know, I look at emojis

(31:16):
as a language. They need to learn the language of
financial literacy, right, like they need to be fluent in finance.
And it's not as hard as they may think.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Right.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
One of the things that as we were thinking about
how we would approach this this this campaign was, you know,
we realized that there was an insight that you know,
gen z is really not necessarily fans of credit, and
our goal was to help them understand, almost give them
a nudge in terms of it's not something to be

(31:48):
afraid of, it's something to learn that way you can
utilize it correctly.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
See.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
I just wanted to, hey, if you have perspective, but
it obviously you do live through the experience.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
Yes, I've lived through the experience. I'm still fully in
the middle of it, you know, but I feel like
I have a great I have a great understanding of
how to start. Because I had to start lead and
I had to start sort of on my own. I
didn't really have any clear entry point. I just knew

(32:18):
that it was sort of that time when things just
didn't make sense to to handle them, you know, with cash,
because I had become tired of being I guess not
seeing anything not seeing anything as a result, it's like
it's like when you're uh, you know, you're you're doing
everything right, and you're just not getting anywhere further down

(32:43):
closer to your goal. And I realized it was because
I was trying to be quote unquote a concept of good,
which meant only spending the money that I earned. And
and I think also realizing at some point that the
business infrastructure shouldn't be completely reliant on my money. So,

(33:05):
for example, one time we did a party. And this
is a really great pop culture or reference for people,
because recently I was asked to be in a documentary
and I chose not to be in it because I
didn't like the way it all played out right, and
it was for the brand so far. But there's a
flyer right that says all proceeds of this party will
be donated to collection SS whatever. So as a kid,

(33:30):
I'm trying to pay for a clothing collection. Had I
had the knowledge that I have now, I would have
made that a company and I would have made a
contract and I would have gone to the bank and
al said, I've been doing these parties. We work with
these kinds of artists and creatives. We need five thousand dollars.
And I would have given him the money, and I
would have said, Okay, this now doesn't have to be

(33:52):
a community effort that is all like, let's be good
people and of our friends. This can be a business.
This is a business. And so I say that to
say that when you're building credit, you're sharing the responsibility.
It's not like you don't have the money. We know
you have the money. You have a job, right, that's
why you even get to think about these things because
you need money in order to pay the credit card

(34:14):
at the end of the day. But everything you do
should you recognize and respect yourself as a business, which
you have to respect yourself as a business in America.
America's a business. We are all part of a business.
We need the money and we need the transactions in
order to formally move through the business in a healthy way.

(34:35):
Look at what you're doing and figure out how to
share that responsibility with someone else, even if at the
end of the day you're going to pay that money
back in terms of your payment to the credit card.
And I say that because I chose not to be
in the documentary, because I just didn't like what happened
when they actually made money, and they moved forward and
they started having the budgets. And I used to have
to DJA at white Castle when they had a sponsorship

(34:56):
with partnership with White Castle, and I was next to
the chicken frying trade, DJing for three hundred dollars and
the party was packed and it was top of the
you know, uh, top of the headlines. And then when
you made money, you didn't call me. So I don't
want to be here representing you anymore. But but there
are stories in all of this for everybody to learn,

(35:16):
and that is that everything you're doing has value. And
if you can figure out a way to formalize that.
If you say, I want to buy a car, I
have fifty thousand dollars, I can go and make this
the responsibility of the bank with me for a small
interest rate. Or I can go and pay that in cash.

(35:37):
Make the bank part of your process, be mutually responsible,
and put it in writing, because this is going to
help you buy the dream car one day. This is
going to help you buy the house one day. This
is going to help you formalize the business. Shit, excuse me, liage.
I could have been a very different kind of mogul

(35:59):
at this point. Had I understood the words equity or
investor or you know, angel investor, or whatever the hell
it is. But I didn't, and now that I do,
I just see it as a missed opportunity to formalize
the transactions that I'm having. So if I know I
like to buy Starbucks every day, I can do the
math and see how much money I'm gonna spend on Starbucks.

(36:20):
I know that I can go in and pay with
this credit card and I'm going to get money back
for that. So I know I'm gonna go and have
an extra whatever i'm out, and then I'm going to say, Okay,
at the end of the day, I know I'm spending
this much on Starbucks. After a year or two, I'm
gonna have enough money to go and buy that thing.
Now all of a sudden, I'm in a mutual responsible
relationship with my credit card. I have already taken the

(36:44):
time to say this is going to be an expense
I'm gonna have. This is what I want to do.
It could be your makeup, it could be your fashion addiction,
it could be your you know, music career, you want
to buy a bunch of equipment. You want to start
throwing parties, don't do it with your own money. Use
your money to pay your credit card, use your credit
card to build your business, put it on paper and

(37:06):
absolutely the same way you have the audacity to go
on Twitter and Instagram and all these other platforms TikTok
to post your thoughts and ideas and creativity every single day.
Make sure that every single dollar that you spend does
something for you, or at least that you learn how
to track your own personal expenses, your taste, your interest

(37:28):
and the things that you do. Not that you have
to turn every hobby into a business, but you do
have to recognize that we do live inside of a
business model and somebody's going to make money off of
you spending that money.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I'm gon answer you this as far as like the
show that we have Foundation Forward, it's all get around people.
That's like getting onboarded into the credit process young people.
But you have a unique perspective that I think you
know we could highlight as far as being the first
generation American being Latina, I believe Dominicana and Ecuadorian. Yes,
so from the Latin X standpoint, speak about that speak

(38:04):
about the difficulties as far as the onboarding process of
credit for people that may not be able to speak
English or for people that come from a different country.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
Absolutely, I think that, you know, one of the biggest
issues that we're having right now is that so many
people who work super hard in America do not have
the formality of even a citizenship. Right, But that doesn't
mean their kids don't. And that doesn't mean that you
have to be a result of the environment that you
grew up in. In my home, you know, I had

(38:34):
a lot of you know, compromised individuals, let's say, right,
people who are doing things outside of the formal infrastructure
for work. People who were bringing in money that wasn't
necessarily accounted for in the formal systems.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Right.

Speaker 6 (38:47):
It's not money that's taxable, it's not money that's thing.
But at the end of the day, that money still
goes to my mom, my aunt, my grandma. They have jobs,
they have bank accounts. And even with the people that
I've done out within my life, right, people that I've dated,
people that I've been friends with, one of the things
that I've noticed is that, yeah, there's a lot of
people who work super hard who show up every day,
who risk their lives to make money, and they just

(39:10):
collect cash and they spend it. They don't see that
small bridge that they can cross, which is to say,
how do I formalize myself or how do I build
partnership with someone to allow myself to formalize. We can't
pretend that we don't live in an ecosystem that is
full of chaos. Right, Financially, this ecosystem is full of chaos.

(39:33):
There is a lot of transaction happening that does not
get accredited or credit account for, and that is not
going to change. But what can change is the fact
that I don't generationally have to inherit that I don't
have to inherit the irresponsibility. I don't have to inherit
the chaos. What I can say is, oh, well, I
see this transaction happening. I want to start a business.

(39:57):
That business is going to enable us to move out
of that situation fairly quickly. Right even to the extent
that you know, I had a parent who was fronting
money to grocery stores, right, Moldetas. Those are enormous transactions
to make for someone who is not contracted, who has

(40:21):
no legal rights over their money. You're talking seventy five
thousand dollars at a time, is going from one hand
to another with no oversight. That is a problem, and
we need to as a community collectively stop I guess
making it look cool to have cash to move in

(40:46):
the way that we do where we don't have businesses.
We need businesses. That's just the bottom line is we
need businesses. We need to say, if I'm doing this
by this year, I'm gonna stop doing it. And in
order for me to stop doing that, maybe I can't
do it, but I'm going to go and partner with
that person because I know that this money is not
real if it's not accounted for. That's just the world

(41:08):
that we're living in. And I think that people who
are young, who are children of immigrants don't realize the
intensity of that, and then they become indoctrinated into that
where it's like, oh, I have money, I have money.
I have money. You don't have money if you don't
have credit, if you don't have the ability to go
and house yourself permanently in a space that you own,

(41:30):
if you don't have the ability to go and buy
a vehicle without putting all your own cash up front.
If you don't have the ability to formalize your business,
you don't have money. And that's just a simple fact.
And I think that people have a hard time talking
about that because it is chaotic and it is embarrassing
sometimes and I think it is also we all know

(41:53):
a lot of this is straight up criminal, but that
doesn't mean it's where you have to stay. And we
know that the infra structures at hand force our parents
or our elders to be in those systems, but they
don't force us. And that is the key thing that
people need to understand that just because someone else can't
do it doesn't mean that you can't do it. And

(42:14):
it doesn't mean that the money that you are getting,
whatever the case is how your parents work, if they're
paid cash in hand, if they're under the table, if
they're not legal citizens, you still have a responsibility to
shift the narrative and you have to do that by
figuring out your business. And it's not just being an entrepreneur,

(42:35):
it's also your business. Your life is your business, your
money is your business. And we cannot just say, oh, well,
my parents this and my parents didn't have that, because
at the end of the day. We know it doesn't
end well. When you just have cash. You can get
frauded out of your money that's sitting in the bank.
You can loan money to people and they don't pay
you back. You can invest in businesses, and when you

(42:57):
don't do it formally you do it with your own cash,
you can get screwed out of it. You have no insurance,
you have no claim over anything. At the end of
the day, ruined credit is better than you being homeless.
And it is better to get that process started earlier
than later, because it does take a while to figure
out how to navigate that language and how to speak it.
But there should be no shame in wanting to actually

(43:20):
formalize your life. And I think that that's the main
issue that we have collectively as people who are coming
into the country not necessarily on clear pathways with citizenship
and with all the things, is that we don't realize
how urgent it is to clean up the mess. Clean
up the mess. That's your job as a next generation,

(43:42):
clean up the mess. It's not fair, it's not easy,
but you have to. And that is one of the
primary reasons why I love my job, because I get
to do my job. I get to do a cool
job that I get to put an invoice in for
and I get to have a w nie and I
get to pay my taxes on and I figured out

(44:03):
the way to have the best of both worlds. My
mom hates my job, but hey, it's a real job
and it pays very well and it's really cool. And
that is something that I learned from watching people do
things their own way, and also watching them never get
anything back for it and never have the safety and
protection of saying I sign a contract, I'm going to

(44:26):
get paid within thirty days. I'm going to get paid
within sixty days. I'm going to get paid before I
hit the stage. And I think that a lot of
that has to do with the psychology of money. And
at the end of the day, a lot of the
reasons why people don't go out and get the credit
and they don't go out and get you know, sitting,
they don't sit down with bankers and they don't sit
down with people who can help them, is because they're
sad and afraid, because they're traumatized about whatever experience they had.

(44:48):
I'm going to tell you that it's not going to
help you to stay traumatized. Just get over it, because
the reality is that if you hold on too tight,
and if you think you can control this, you're going
to miss the boat.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
I think you're spout on in financial genre or something
that we've been talking about a lot of the fast
for years. I gott of what our platform was built
on them is to make sure that we can ease that.
And the number one way to ease that is to
educate people saying, well, we've talked about a lot man,
We've talked about boops, right, We've talked about sneakers a
bunch of times, but we never to talk about partnership, right.

(45:21):
And one of the things we've been doing this for
seven years, having corporate buying has been one of those
issues that we can't seem to just overcome. I want
to talk about why Shaate Street and Ross said that
this partnership of us would be so provound and what
was that process like?

Speaker 3 (45:40):
Yeah, I mean I think it goes back to you know,
whenever we start a project like this, we always think about,
you know, what is the insight that we have on
our consumer?

Speaker 6 (45:51):
Right?

Speaker 3 (45:51):
And you know, Chase Freedom Rise specifically talks to what
we call a starter consumer, right, So that can be
you know, someone that is finishing up you know, college
and ready to you know, start their post college journey.
That could be someone that, to your point, you know,
may have just entered the country and doesn't have an

(46:11):
existing you know, credit situation, and our goal is to
give them a card being Chased Freedom Rise that allows
them to start that that credit journey, to learn the basics,
to learn the foundation, and to start you know, growing
their credit in the way that allows them to evolve
into some of our other products Chase Freedom Limited, whatever

(46:34):
it may be. But I think in terms of your
question about the process, for us, we wanted to just
be authentic to gen z into these consumers that we're
speaking about. And one of the things that we've heard
is a lot of people are afraid of banks. A
lot of people are afraid to sit down with banks
and have real conversations about, you know, their financial situation.

(46:57):
So how do we have a conversation with you know,
a starter, you know, someone just getting out of college
who doesn't necessarily want to talk about credit. We find
individuals that have done an amazing job of you know,
creating a culture out of it and showing right, because
I think that's the thing, right, showing and proving the

(47:18):
value of credit, of learning, you know, a variety of
things that you know, helped build your your financial picture.
And you know, obviously you guys have to your point
done it for the last seven years, and for us
it made sense right when we started having a conversation
with mass Peel about it. You know, we wanted to
make sure that this felt authentic, that this felt right

(47:40):
for the consumer that we were speaking to. And I
think most of all gave us a clear sense of
storytelling from an authentic perspective that would resonate with our consumer.
And you know, I think we did a really good
job of that. Like when I think about guys like
Broderick that we met down in Atlanta, hearing his story Margaret,

(48:02):
you know, who was a dancer, Like all of these
people had different stories and different parts of the country,
but like they all left learning more and literally you
could see their eyes light up when they discovered simple things,
you know what I mean. And I think that's that's
how I knew that we were doing the right thing right,

(48:23):
because these kids actually left with more information than they
had before and things that they could actually apply.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Well the following up on that, you were there, you
watched all the episodes, what's some of the key insights
and lessons like from your vantage point of view actually
watching it that you're like, ohkay, like this is something
I could really you know, see ca and be transformational
for sure.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
I mean I was definitely taking notes.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
I Mean I was like, you know, thinking of things like,
you know, your closing date, right, Like just the idea
of being on point enough where you're you know, paying
attention to how much credit you know you have.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
By your closing day, right.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
And one of the things we talk about a lot
with Jim gen Z is gamification. Right, everything is a
game for them. So when they start thinking about credit
from the perspective of, you know, this is my life,
but it's also something that can be gamified, it takes
some of the stigma out of you know, the fear
that comes along with it. Right when I think about

(49:24):
you guys talking about you know, debit versus credit, right, again,
that's something that a lot of folks take for granted,
but understanding that is a is a game changer. You know,
understanding the value of getting you know, cash back on
every every you know, every time you use your card. Like,
these are all things that like for us, it feels

(49:46):
second nature, but for a lot of people that information
isn't there. So I think like being able to have
that conversation with them and helping them understand that, you know,
was definitely something that I felt was key.

Speaker 6 (49:58):
I think also to back on that, when you say,
you know, debit versus credit, it makes me think about
how many people missed the opportunity to show a bank
how hard they work because they think that, oh, I
want to pay as little as possible in taxes. What
they don't realize is that by doing that, they're missing
the opportunity to create more leverage for themselves on the

(50:20):
credit side. That's not saying that you have to take
on that responsibility personally, but if you open up a
business and you pay yourself as an employee, you can
pay yourself whatever salary you want, a small salary, your
business still qualifies for a credit and all of that
means that you get to benefit from the hard work
that you do. And I think that a lot of
people missed that step Because we've been taught so many

(50:43):
things from movies, from you know, hip hop culture, from
the cultures that we grow up around that we don't
see the value of even showing like I made ten
thousand dollars more this year, I made twenty thousand dollars
more this year. I made forty thousand dollars more this year.
Maybe I still paid myself, you know, a poverty wage,
because I want to pay a low tax and I
want to spend all this money on my business. But

(51:05):
at the end of the day, the fact that you
made it makes your business a more viable leverage. It
gives you more leverage and makes you a more viable
client for the bank, and the bank now wants to
do business with you. And ultimately, the bank is your
business partner. And that's what your bank is. Whether you're
an individual or whether you're a business, or whether you're
an individual with a business, the bank is your business partner.

(51:26):
And I think that the simplicity of that is what
people miss out on because they think that they're doing
something brave by paying for things with money that they have,
and what that lacks is that little bit of discipline
that it takes to save that money that you have
to pay your credit card at the end of the
month and not spend double.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
I think you both in position. It is interesting because
when I look at you both, I think leaders, right like,
you're leading by example and you're being by example and
in inspectored ways. It is a word that you use
standing in there's trust. I wonder as we look at
the last five years that were starting to secret to
open more accounts with signed SECU doing best more, do

(52:05):
you see that next generation demystifying the trust around having
credit right It was always I don't want to owe anybody.
Are we starting to see a James?

Speaker 3 (52:16):
I think, I think you know, the change is definitely happening.
It's it's happening slowly because to my to my earlier point,
gen Z is afraid of credit right so our ability
to help educate them and show them, you know, through
series like Foundation Forward. I mean, we've even done a

(52:38):
series with Kevin Hart and his daughter Heaven, who recently
went to college.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
And you know, the whole goal is have these.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Real conversations in terms of the impact of credit right like.
And I think with that again, the idea of showing
and proving right like a lot of these conversations weren't had,
and I think that's the biggest challenge.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
When I think about my my.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Upbringing, I don't remember ever having a conversation about a
debit card versus a credit card. I saw credit card bills,
but I didn't necessarily, you know, get any sort of
guidance with that. And I think, you know, we're at
a place now where with all the information available, with
the fact that we have banking institutions, you know, like

(53:23):
Chase that provide the information and not just you don't
always have to just walk into a bank, like we
obviously have online services, you know, we leverage social media
to tell these stories as well. I think it is
opening doors because you know, I think to Venus's point, like,
if you don't have the foundation, if you don't have
the tools, like how do you how do you navigate

(53:46):
the next ten twenty years when all of these things
are continuing to evolve and you know it's only getting
more complicated, you know, so you have to sort of
understand the foundation for you to play the game.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
So let's do some rapid let some rapid question and
answers before we before we wrap, and either one and
you can answer both of you can answer. So the
first one is, what's one credit myth? You'd like to bust.

Speaker 6 (54:14):
The main one is that having credit cards is bad.
And the reason is because having credit cards is only
bad when you don't have discipline and when you don't
want to respect yourself. At the end of the day,
credit is just an extension of what you can afford
to do, and if it's any more than that, then
there's a problem. So having credit cards is not bad.

(54:36):
Having no discipline that is very bad.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
All right, stare Well. One mistake to avoid ear leads.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
I would say spinning more than you have. I mean,
it's a simple one, but we all we all have
fall fallen victim to it, you know what I mean,
like just because you have the credit And I think
thinking back to the conversation you had with with I
think it was Broderick, and he said, you know, I
remember getting my card and having twenty five hundred dollars limit,

(55:07):
and you specifically said, just because you have twenty five
hundred dollars doesn't mean you have to spend twenty five
hundred dollars. And I think that's a key one that
that people need to think about.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
I needed my own advice, I needed my own advice,
and and just.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
You know, utilization right, like you talked a lot.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
I remember you talking, you know, to our you know,
our cast members a lot about the concept of utilization
keeping it under thirty percent. And again those are things
that once you have that information, you can actually apply it.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Like if you're if you're.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Keeping you know, track of you know, your credit score
with you know, tools like credit.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
Journey that we have.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
You know, you're immediately thinking about utilization and how do
I make sure that it's it stays you know, at
a low enough number where it's not impacting my credit
score negative.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
First step every young person should take as far as.

Speaker 6 (56:03):
Building their credit write a budget. Write a budget, and
then write another budget. Don't lie to yourself. Know exactly
what you spend, know exactly what you have, know exactly
what you're making, and give yourself some three, six, nine
to twelve goals. Maybe you're trying to buy a special
dress for problem. Maybe you're trying to go on vacation,

(56:23):
or you're trying to, you know, make your first payment
towards a computer or something. The easiest way to start
this process, whether or not you go into a bank,
is to actually write things down and make sure that
you know yourself so that you are familiar with your
own identity financially. I think that's the main thing that
a lot of people miss out on, is the opportunity

(56:45):
to just look at what they spend and to look
at what they have and look at what their goals
are based on real math. I make this much every week,
and I want to save this much, and I want
to do this with that money. Once you have that,
then you can start to use all the resources available
to you, you big or small. But if you don't
want to look at yourself in the mirror and say,
this is who I am financially, this is what I make,

(57:07):
and this is what I spend it on, and this
is what I would have to change in order to
save or in order to have access to a credit
card that I can pay off, then you're not going
to be in a better position by opening up a
credit card now.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
Being so, I'm interested as we did this series, you know,
it's almost like a self reflection listening to ald about
these stories that you live. I wonder how, looking back now,
how you reflect on it, listening to your story and
saying how are you able to come back?

Speaker 4 (57:33):
How has that been? People?

Speaker 6 (57:36):
I mean, I would say that it is really interesting
to have this conversation. It's not one that I ever
imagined that would have to have for work, but it's
really cool to be able to share it because I
think that I started working very young. I started working
at the age of twelve thirteen years old, but I
had already been doing jobs, like I had been in
a commercial before that when I was ten, and I

(57:57):
made a lot of money, and I never saw that
money because I'm parents didn't have good financial literacy, so
they spent that money. My assumption is they spent it
trying to buy the house that we ended up growing
up and after that I will never know, you know,
I just remember finding these pay stubs when I was
much older, for like this Microsoft commercial that I was in,
which was so crazy, right because now I am a
whole entertainer and I make money with brands doing exactly that,

(58:20):
being commercials, being in you know, partnership with brands, and
at that time, you know, I went on to have
this job. I taught art, you know, I was an
art assistant at a summer camp, and then I went
on to work at a pizzeria, and then during high school,
I had three jobs. I was working at the library.
I was working at the mall. I had two jobs
at the mall. I remember I was working for an assemblyman.
I was like the youngest intern they'd ever had. I

(58:42):
was like fourteen years old. It was like all these jobs,
and I look back and I think, if I had
just started my financial journey when I was ten, and
I made those residual royalties from that damn Microsoft commercial,
I would be so rich right now. And I'm not
mad about it, but I just think it's really interesting

(59:03):
because it's sort of like, you know, life. You can't
pick where you start, you can't pick the things that
happened to you, but you can notice at the end
of the day the kind of person that you are.
I've always been drawn to the arts. I've always been
drawn to being, you know, I wouldn't say the center
of attention, but definitely a talent, musical, theater, all the things.

(59:25):
And I was already making money off of that. At
the age of ten. We were the first school in
New York to ever have laptops, so we got to
be in the commercial showing people that kids should have laptops.
They paid us enough money so that we could pay
a monthly for these laptops so we could own them.
I think they paid half and we paid the other half,
but they also gave us royalties. And my point is

(59:46):
that I look back and I just say, wow, you know,
imagine if I had these tools that we're giving you guys. Now,
imagine if I had them to tell my parents, Hey,
I saw something on Hulu, Mom, And I think we
should invest some of that money in this kind of
account or I think, you know, I made money, so
I want my own credit card because I want to
be able to go and buy whatever I want because
I made money, so I want to take ten percent

(01:00:08):
of that or twenty percent of that. And I just say,
I can't wait to have kids and teach them that
all the money that they make and all the personality
that they express, whether it is to be creative, whether
it is to be hardworking, all of that should be
something that they can gain something from. In the end.
You should not just be a slave, and you should
not just be out here working to survive. You should

(01:00:29):
absolutely use the resources. This is one of many that
Chase has to offer. Obviously, we're only dealing with credit.
But I was a fan of you guys before I
ever met you. I was watching your show in twenty
twenty during the pandemic, and I was literally taking notes
market Mondays. So it's like, there are so many things
that this little credit rabbit hole leads to. If you

(01:00:51):
can figure out who you are and look at yourself
clearly and give yourself a little bit of structure and
also say, you know what, this is what I want
to do. I want to own a house, or I
want to do this for work, or I want to
start this business, or I want to have enough financial
freedom and financial stability to be able to move a
certain way. Whatever that goal is, though, you need to

(01:01:13):
start somewhere. And my reflection is just damn, I wish
that this existed when I was a kid. I wish
that somebody had told me you made, you know, fifty
thousand dollars on my commercial. You deserve to have ten
thousand dollars credit card, and you deserve to say I
want to go and buy pizza every week with my
credit card, and I want to pay my bill just
so that I could learn. Because at the end of

(01:01:34):
the day, gamification it's all a game. It's all a game,
and if you don't acknowledge that, and you don't play
the game, and you don't learn the rules of the game,
and you don't follow the rules of the game, You're
just not actually going to be playing the game.

Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
Well, the bright spot is that it does now.

Speaker 6 (01:01:50):
It'sis I'm in my thirties, i still have a long
runway to get it right. And I'm super excited, you know,
given that I've been able to touch so much in
a short but long career. But it's just interesting, you know,
I just say, Damn, these kids are lucky. You guys
are lucky.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
I mean even just thinking about the you know, call
them characters or the stories that we were, you know,
privileged to be able to tell, right, Like I think
about somebody like Jayden, and I think we were in
Santa Barbara. This is a kid that he's a real
estate agent, he's dishwasher like, he's a waiter, like, he
has all these different jobs and again you're like, you

(01:02:33):
guys left him with you know, actionable checklist of things
that he needs to be thinking about as he's trying
to stack money. And I think we had a nice
variety of people that I think were relatable in terms
of if I'm sitting at home and I'm watching this
on Hulu. Jaden story might appeal to me, or Margaret's

(01:02:58):
story might appeal to me, you know what I mean?
And I think like that that part is really key, right,
Like it wasn't one story. It was multiple stories of
individuals that are trying to figure it out, you know
what I mean. You know, you had Broderick who was
a videographer living in Atlanta trying to buy his what
were you trying to buy a home from his dad?
From his brother? Yeah, you know, so everyone's at a

(01:03:21):
different step in their life. And I think the value
of the way we approached it was, you know, we
showed that regardless of where you are, that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
That initial step is the most important step.

Speaker 5 (01:03:33):
Congrats of Bajory. He actually got engaged after the show.
Good yeah man. We probably part of his story in
And I think our coaches were incredible too. So the
coaches that were part of the days we had, we
had a lot of good interactions there and then. So
it was definitely a dope experience. And like you said,
the next generation gets to watch it and be a
part of it and educate themselves from something that they

(01:03:55):
do all the time. Which is streaming.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
Yes, yes, yeah, we had some heavy hitters.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
I mean Venus, Courtney, you know, like you mentioned Bigsby, the.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Social historian Khalil. I think he was he was, he
was amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
Yeah, like and I think again giving you know, regular
people an opportunity to connect with cultural leaders that are
you know, moving the needle, you know, in their everyday lives.
But they started from something right Like I specifically remember
even you know Courtney and obviously Venus talking about their
credit journey, you know, so we all have it, and

(01:04:33):
I think humanizing that was a big important piece of
the storytelling that you guys did.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Well, yeah, no, it was. It was a for us.
I think it was really impactful to actually be able
to share stories from people that people may not be
familiar with or they may be familiar with. And it's
all different people. So somebody that's a celebrity d J,
somebody that's.

Speaker 6 (01:04:53):
A waitress and I used to be a waitress too.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Yeah for sure, it could be you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:58):
You could be the waitress turns of leve DJ. I
was a waitress for ten years from fourteen to twenty four.
I transitioned from twenty two, twenty three to twenty four.
That year I did both DJing and waitressing. This is
all accessible to you. My life, the life you have,
the credit we're talking about. The only thing we can

(01:05:19):
tell you is just start the journey. Start the journey.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Micheanelle was a point for us to do this, so,
you know, definitely want to thank you guys as far
as Chase and Massive Pale, as far as working with us.
It's on Hulu now and hopefully we get season two.

Speaker 6 (01:05:34):
You know, yeah, guys, we need season two. So if
you're out there you want to tell your story, you know,
hit these guys up because they're not gonna stop what
they're doing. And it's also really cool that I used
to watch you guys during the pandemic. I mean, I
don't really watch that much stuff right now. I'm not
gonna lie. I'm not in my YouTube or stream bag
at the moment. But I learned so much and now

(01:05:56):
I'm in this series. That's crazy to me because I
didn't know very much in twenty twenty. I was just
a few years into starting and formalizing my business, credit
and personal finance journey, and this was an amazing resource
because of the fact that you guys went out and
interviewed so many people that I thought had really compelling

(01:06:18):
stories but maybe weren't formally business structured. And now we're
able to share that with you and you're able to
see the real fruit of it, which is that because
of you know, things that I learned watching EYL, I
was able to continue expanding my business. At the same time,
Stanley and I were becoming closer and he was starting

(01:06:39):
to mentor me and tell me, you know, there's these
other ways that you can expand your business as a
creative and now we're all here, so it just you
got to start somewhere. And you know, for me, it
didn't just start with opening a credit card. It actually
started with watching things like EYL because that was the
first time I saw black people talking to other black
people who weren't all well corporate people, and it was

(01:07:02):
cool and I was like, I can learn something here
and I feel safe. And so yeah, we hope that
you're watching at home and that you go and you
look at your credit score and that you write down
your budget and then you hit up Chase and start somewhere.

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
This is true, like Rashad said, Foundation Forward is now
streaming on Hulu to make sure y'all check that out,
and make sure you go check out Chase for your
rise to start your whole credit durn, it's been a
pleasure having y'all.

Speaker 6 (01:07:24):
Thank you, guys.

Speaker 5 (01:07:26):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
So cool