I am officially well, Mark, welcome to the Brown Table, the Brown Table.
I'm very happy that I helped you to discover that that working.
I just want I just want my money, that's all. I even made a.
Sign I want my money, and I even had the brown shirt all to remind you that.
I got it. And like, how much money do you think that you deserve for that little nugget of wisdom?
We'll contact your people figure that stuff out.
Well, I know you don't got no people. You're over there just doing it all yourself. Is you ain't got no people? So yeah, I think if you maybe hadn't spend so much money on like custom outerwear, uh and that obnoxious uh logo behind you hanging up on what do we even call that?
Your your hoodies in the mail? By the way, is it? Yeah?
I really have never been more grateful to know that federal workers are being furloughed and that maybe, just maybe it won't find its way here. Courier vision not career vision. All right, Well, if y'all have not heard of Mark Russell, what's wrong with you? I think you? Have you ever been on the show before?
Mark?
I have no?
I lied, I lied, no me and.
Oh, I brought you on for like a yeah, a bonus like Halloween episode. That's right, I was just trying to probably appease you, like I don't have throw on a bone, get on the Halloween episode. Well, Mark is the founder of Wow, I wonder what it's called better What was that again? Ah, there you go, thank you Better Wallet, which tell the people about better Wallet and what you do. Mark.
Mandy's like my older sister, so she just teases me for everything that I do. But sometimes people will need to be humbled. So I have a couple of people like that in my life. Thank God for people like Chris.
But Better Well, it's all about teaching first generational investors how to invest, how to make money work for them, and it came from my time working in personal finance financial services, working for companies like Vanguard and Blackstone, where I found that our people were not represented in the
clientele that they were trying to go after. So over some time, I wanted to take what I've learned from the school of hard Knuts, in addition to everything that I've learned from me getting my finances together, as well as being a financial advisor and stockbroker to provide that information to the people. It really started me talking about on social media what any other millennial would do, and it became the brand that you can see now.
Now.
I'm I'm privileged enough to work with so many people and helping them build true train additional wealth for their families. So it's it was a hobby that became a mission and became the business that it is.
What year was that that you that you left Vanguard and went full time.
Full time twenty one earlier?
But I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that people were entrepreneurs and they didn't have to rely on, you know, someone else to uh to provide a living for their their family and everything.
So it took me some time.
But after a couple of conversations with people who have already done it, I was like, Okay, well I'm going to make the jump and went back home after a conference where I was talking to people about it and put in my two weeks and haven't looked back.
Let's go. Yeah.
Was that fin Con?
It was? Yeah?
Won in Austin and you and I met for the first time at fin Con twenty twenty two, which was like my return to finn Conn after many years of not having been there and like you know, having been completely out of the loop. Wow okay, wow right yeah, but we got the chance again to like sit next to one another out of dinner in Atlanta at finn Con, and that's when I knew, Like I'm like, oh, instant, I want I want a new new brother, new brother to my collection because you're just like you have such
great energy. But tell people, mister Chris, this is not this is other Chris. Okay, so the BA fan is used to Chris Browning.
This is Chris Corinthians popcorn finance Chris, who was an awesome guy. Awesome you know, I don't know special thing for Chris's but I mean Chris, yes it, I mean, you give it to him. It's all love. But he just miles through it. So I was like, come on, Chris, you're representing for the Chris Is. When I listened to him on the show, it's just funny to me, Oh.
You're like in that, oh Chris, Like Chris is a victim, you know.
Chris, Chris is have to stick together that kind of thing.
Do you You're safe here?
Okay?
But yeah, all right, well yeah, tell us all about you, mister finlack guy. So we got to know.
My name is Chris Corinthian. I go by the finlack guy, and I worked in higher ed for almost twenty years. Most of that time was spent in the areas of financial aid of financial literacy and I'm coming up on a year actually doing this full time. So I was working at different universities for adult educators, at vacational technical
schools and traditional four years. And during that time I used to see students that would drop out for lack of finances or you know, going to massive amounts of debt and still drive out or finished, but then still had this burden on them when they graduated. But there were other students that I saw that would actually go to school debt free. And then I just started studying over the years what were the specific habits that they had which allowed all of them from various backgrounds to
graduate debt free. And so that was my focus on that along with personal finance, you know, helping students and parents with the building blocks of personal finance, right just basic budgeting and how's credit established and how is it built? Things like that. But my focus now is just working with parents of students that are going to college or planning to go to college, and showing them how to go to school without taking out student loans, without debt altogether.
Damn Okay, Like what would tell us what's the secret? I mean, especially at the time latest when you don't know if you're going to have federal aid at all for education?
Right, absolutely, So I'll give the broad overview strategy and then if we want so, we could dig deep into it. But there are certain there were several data out there saying that there's hundreds of millions of dollars over one hundred million dollars of unclaimed scholarships each year. So it's not that people are applying for scholarships and get denied, but it's just free money sitting out there for people to go to college, and nobody's applying for it. And
so that's the main foundation. So now that we have that, now what's keeping people from applying for these scholarships? And most of the time is they don't know what to write about when it comes to essays, They don't know where to find these scholarships, right, and they don't have a real strategy on how to apply for it. Because some will apply for maybe five, ten, fifteen scholarships, get
burned out and they'll say I didn't win anything. It's not going to work for me, right, or some people think that I have to have little to no money or be of a certain demographic in order to get scholarships. But there are several types, and there are you know, merit based scholarships, which is a lot of the focus that we have when we work with our parents and students as well as other scholarships. But we don't even
focus necessarily on the federal funding. So if it's here, if it's not, that's just a bonus when it comes to the type of money. So we look at institutional funding. We look at local scholarships where your least competitive scholarships will lie, so with the school district, with your school, with different organizations and businesses, rooting for the hometown heroes or rooting for those students that are in their local community.
And then when you have those specific majors that are your tied to, then it just brings down that competition barrier much lower and increases the chances of success. Now, the other thing is it's a numbers game and a law of averages game. Right. So, if you apply for five scholarships and expect to go to schools that free, most likely you won't get any scholarships, right, And so one of the things I talk to students and parents about is applying for ten times the amount you need.
So if you need fifty yeah, right, exactly, And when you think, let's say you need fifty thousand dollars to go to school, you need apply for five hundred thousand dollars in order to get the odds in your favor. Right. So if ninety percent of the scholarships, which most of the scholarships you apply for, will reject you, you'll get denied for most of the scholarships you apply for. And
so we shoot for ten percent success rates. So if ninety percent of them say no, you're still good and then apply for at least one hundred and so we do this thing where we do to today and then that's the focus. If you have your.
Essays, Chris, that sounds cherable.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know the money that you get back end.
But if you're there, so you're like there to hold their hand and like, yeah, coach them through that process, right.
Absolutely, But the hardest thing is just having your five essential essays because you usually use just the same five over and over again and just tweak a little bit of your story. And once you have that hardest part out the way, then all you're doing is wash rents and repeating. You don't have to look for scholarships because you have them all there. Now you have your five essential essays, so all you have to do is copy paste, tweak, and so you might spend twenty thirty minutes a day
just click, click send. You have everything in the drive for you. So now you can spend twenty to thirty minutes a day and it's not overwhelming.
As how many of your clients are like, well, can I just get chat GPT to write this week?
So what's interesting is that because I look, when chat GPT first came out, you could just put that in say hey, I'm going for the scholarship and boom boom boom. But now Chat has this failsafet where if you put it in there, it'll say, no, we can't respond for scholarship things. So now, because what some people used to do is they say, okay, here's my information, here's a scholarship prompt, write me an essay so that I can
win this. Yeah. Right, But now most of the organizations are doing their AI check to see if you're using any type of AI to write your essays. So if you do that, they'll catch you. And a lot of professors everybody's starting to see if you use any of those AI AI southward to get.
It ooh okay, all right, hmmm, I mean that sounds incredibly useful. But like, as a business, how are you making money off? Because you got to you said, you've been in this for like a year. How are you supporting yourself?
So glad you asked. So when I bring parents and students in, I assigned coaches to them. So one of my coaches, she went over a million dollars in scholarships, and so she helps them find the scholarship. She just uses a lot of the same procedures and spreadsheets and everything that she does, and then she's assigned to him. I have another guy, as a matter of fact, I met him in Fincon two. I have another guy who
actually created a course specifically for writing scholarship essays. He's an English teacher, and then he says, there's a difference for writing an English paper than it is for telling a story. And then he tucks them through the hero's journey and all these other things. And then he's assigned to him too, right and so, and then they have
these modules and everything that they go through. But if they have questions, they meet with me weekly in a group coaching call and then I answer any of your questions, find out update statuses along with the other two coaches. So that's how I get money.
And then they pay for the group coaches.
They pay for the coaching and the individual coaches. They just pay for everything, and I walk them through and then I give them guarantees. So I say, if they don't go to school debt free and they get one hundred percent of their money back, well damn yeah, because that's veryous, right, because up to a certain amount. So it's not like they said, okay, well my school's gonna be two hundred thousand dollars a year. I'm like, okay, well no.
Yeah, which is like not I mean, maybe not per year, but certainly like four years, absolutely yeah, that's not unheard.
Yeah, but no per year, per year, yeah, absolutely so. So so I take on all the risk, you know, as long as you do what you're supposed to do, and there are a number of things that they need to do to me, because it's not like, Okay, I don't do anything and I'm just gonna go to school for free. But as long as they do the things they're supposed to do, then we take on all the risks.
To keep your number for when I'm sending my kids off the car, I got you, I got you.
So normally you're talking to the parents directly and then they basically tell their kid, hey, do this.
Yeah.
So during the coaching call, is it with the parent or.
The it's with the parent and then and the students sometimes so sometimes a parent and the student are on, but a lot of times it's the parent that's going to make the student do it right because the students trying to pay for coach and they're like, I ain't gonna money. Yeah, they were like, I ain't really doing this, or but the parent is just like, oh, no, you're doing this because I ain't got the money. I don't have the money to pay for all of this, and
you're gonna need to do it. And so far, the students that have worked with us, that have done the work got to get scholarship.
Like I mean, in Georgia, I had the Hope scholarship. Did you go to school in Georgia, Chris, Yes, yes, okay, yeah, so we had. I had Hope, but then my brother who's five years younger than me behind me, he had Hope too, but it wasn't as generous by the they had like made it tougher to qualify for the full benefit and like, so he graduated with like fifty K of student loans and I graduated with eight.
So I it was only eighty percent of tuition, whereas Hope paid for everything. It's like, okay, we'll cover all of that for you versus eighty percent of just tuition and not the fees.
But thank goodness, I did not have like that much debt, because it really is like you're starting off your life. And the way that they talk about student loans too, it's almost as if well, this isn't really debt. This is like it they really do, and so you almost feel like, well, it's fine, it's totally fine, but no, it's it's real debt.
Yeah, no, it truly is.
I mean I came out with about twenty five thousand and student loan debt. No, I lied, No, it's my car payment. It was fifty thousand. It was fifty thousand all together, and then my car was about twenty five. But it was it was brutal. I was living paycheck to paycheck in the beginning because I had all those debts payments, and if you have multiple like I had one that came directly from Penn State. Then I had my federal debt as well, and both of them were
due like around the same time. So I it was crippling initially.
Damn yeah, I mean it really start off as a young kid.
I mean I grew up in a very small town and no one around me really had any money. I didn't really get like an allowance or anything of that nage. I didn't want to do the things that my friends were doing that they didn't have to pay taxes on, right, So I did everything I possibly could wink wink. So I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit, and even going off to college, I had to work odd jobs in order
to pay for school. I was selling plasma, which I don't recommend unless you're really in the donation.
Make sure you.
Consult your doctor. But I was an ra I was a referee. I was handing out like flyers. So I've always had that in my blood. And going to corporate was the first time where someone told me, hey, you only have to work nine to five, and I'm like, okay, what do I do after five?
Like do I do I have to like I don't have any kids, like what?
And I always remember just working so hard for van Guard and all these other companies, and then I just got to the point where I said, you know, like, what if I could do is myself, What if I could do with myself and I can work with the people I truly want to work with, because as I mentioned, they didn't really care for anyone that came from where I came from, where they didn't know what a four to one k or on ira or a broken's count was. But yeah, over time, something that was a hobby, I
found ways to monetize the brand. And I mean the jump came in twenty twenty one, but it took me some time to actually realize that people can live off the money that's coming in because for some reason, even though I was making let's say I was making a hundred thousand dollars at a vanguard type of company and the business is bringing in one hundred thousand dollars.
It just felt different.
It felt as if that money wasn't guaranteed and the money in corporate was guaranteed. And then on top of that, I worked so hard to get there. You know, I was one of the only black execs at the firm that I end up leaving. So you take all that and you say, Okay, why why me? And I learned, you know, why not me? Why can't I take that jump? And then I had to also redefine in my head what true success is as.
A black male or anyone in general.
Right, And it.
Wasn't just getting that executive position or becoming a CEO. Beyonce said, like pay me in equity, right, So, like, I wanted to make sure that I owned whatever I was working so hard on, because if I'm working, you know, sixty hour sixty hour weeks, and I'm doing it for a set salary, why can't I just do it for my own business? So when I made the jump, it took me about two weeks to realize that I was okay.
Like I was, I was swimming, like I was doing well. And then now in this.
Point where I don't really have to worry about it as much. But it was definitely nerve wracking in the beginning. But you find out different ways, you create different systems, you hire people, and that makes you feel more comfortable, but you know, jumping from one company to another. Luckily I was able to build up the company enough where
I had the record keeping, the bookkeeping. I was just basically moving from one company to another, but I just happened to have my name on the other one, so feel way more comfortable.
Yeah, I mean, listening to that, Chris, You're a year into this full time entrepreneur journey, and I feel like Mark, we actually started our businesses around the same time. I mean, I've been doing brand ambition since twenty fifteen, but me leaving corporate and like launching going full time solopreneur that
was also like summer twenty twenty one. And I experienced my first like really challenging year in twenty twenty four, twenty twenty three, and twenty twenty four, where sort of like business challenges and personal challenges like could you know, just like swirled together and then I was like, wait a minute, maybe I should just go on LinkedIn and get me one of them good old jobs again, just
because it was so overwhelming when you're really struggling. And then so for Chris, I just wonder what am I trying to say. I could tell you A are you scared? You scared?
So so for one, are you sure you want to do this right? Exactly? It's my biggest reason why. So my oldest son, Chris Junior. He's on the severe end of the autism spectrum and he's nonverbal, and so everything, my whole focus, my drive, everything is centered around that because I'll go to too much detail. But there are times when when I was working full time, I'd have that my supervisor, Hey, I know, I just asked yesterday and I know it's eleven am, but they're holding Chris
down and he's and they're having difficulty with him. I need to go get him from school, right, And they were like, you just left early yesterday. Yeah, but there's nothing else we could do. I have to go get him right. And that's just started happening over and over again. So one of the main reasons is just being able to have that have a lifestyle where I can meet his needs and go be there for him at any moment in time as much as possible, right and just
working that schedule. Even though I was working in the university setting and they were more understanding, it just became to the point where it was just becoming too much and I had to pivot. And so so I have like three legs to my business, so that even when it's like slow times during the coaching time, because what I'm figuring out is that there are a time when I'm working with like high school seniors and their parents,
which is pretty much my main focus group. But then there's a time when there's juniors are rising seniors, and then I switched to focusing on them, right because those are the parents are like, Okay, we're going to our senior year, we're looking to get accepted to collegees et cetera. But that's one The other focus is my book. And then the third leg is speaking, so people will just bring me in to speak to anybody. Sometimes with the
school districts. Nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity asked me to speak. And then like gen z So, I spoke at the Taco Bell Foundation conference and I spoke to their leaders and their scholars about budgeting and money management as a college student and things like that, and so those are
the three things. So like when one area is slow, the other two tend to pick up, especially when it comes to like bulk orders for the book, and that's usually a big surge as a financial literacy one on one for college students and try and find out where Oh yeah, Mark, yeah, Mark has it. Yeah, he does have a sign coffee yep, and so he matter of fact, he was one of the first people to buy the books. Saw.
What's interesting when I came when that fin Con in Orlando, I never saw the physical copy of my books because I wanted to have it and bring them down there to Orlando with me, but the timing was going to be right, so I just had it shipped directly there. So the very first time I opened the box and see my physical books was at the conference. I had it shipped there. Yeah, and I don't know how many books I had, but it was just an outpouring of
love and I sold out all the books there. We go right there.
You did like the girls, You did the girl Scout cookie version of selling a book table at fin Con.
Yeah. And then there was another travel company like a travel mL and Company, and they were there at the same location.
And I remember that that was a wild They had finn con right next door to the MLM cult.
Yeah, and they were like, oh ye warriors, like you can take it there if you want to, you know. But yeah, but but but they sported me and they were like, oh, we see what you're doing. And they ended up purchasing the book. So so that's how it's
kind of been been going. And then I just what I did was I just try to take as much money as possible and then just put her away for any day, like I had a business emergency fund, and then I just put it in this account and I said, all right, told my wife, all right, when my portion for the monthly income comes in, you just take it out of there and put it to our joint account. Said I don't even want to see it, you know. And so that's kind of what's been working out for
us right now. And then that builds a sense of security and safety for her because she's like, it's a wild, wild West. I don't know what you're doing. Like when, oh, what does she do? She's a school counselor, so she's a high high school counselor, so she's.
That's what we do though our entrepreneur like Mark, I know that why I don't know what your situation is because you don't be telling on nobody. But I do feel like we are entrepreneurial people. We are drawn to the nine to five like stable, you know, kind of vibe. And my husband works for the government, which actually is
not stable at all. We have learned, but the way that I'm like, yeah, babe, just give me your health care benefits and then I'll go be I'll do whatever you know I do out here in these entrepreneur streets, and he just kind of like pokes his head down sometimes and he's like, so you're making money, Like yeah, yeah, it's great, It's fine. Bye.
I think that stress is like the importance of like true financial management, like as you're going and you become an entrepreneur, because I think a lot of times people believe that being an entrepreneur is going to save them from a financial standpoint, but if they don't have their personal finances together, if you go and run a business that's like level five, you need to worry about like level number one first because your finances will be in shambles if you.
Don't get it right on the business side of things.
So you know, for me, it was even though money is coming in and all the things, I still manage my budget off of, you know, seventy thousand dollars a year and I'm trying to work with the record keeper then not pay have to pay myself more because I don't want to increase my lifestyle or inflate my lifestyle because in worst case scenario, I have to go back to corporate. I want to find a job that is
aligned to that as a worst case scenario. So it's so incredibly important is make sure your finances are taken care of before you start the entrepreneurial journey.
Yeah. Man, I mean, I don't know about you, Chris, but it was a lot of like smart financial decisions like I was making, and like I was really good at my finances, but then I don't have these kids, and it was just like something I actually so tired because I was up all night writing this chapter for
my book, which I'm working very hard on. And this chapter is called I named it Resilient as a Monk, and and in it, I'm talking about building like all the things I did in my twenty and early thirties to build financial resilience so that I could lose my job. I could be fired, I could you know, be sort of like corporate couldn't touch me. They could do whatever they wanted. But like I was going to be okay, and I did such a good job. I kept lifestyle
lifestyle inflation low. I was like, you, Mark, I was like, what, We're not going to be able to pay this car in cash? I don't want it, you know, like I wanted like a modest home. I went. I did not want to spend beyond my means. I wanted to keep my you know, I live in New York City, and I my friends are upgrading their apartments with every raise or every promotion to get that in unit, washer dryer, and going to all the events and the bottomless brunches
and whatever. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, I'm keeping my expenses very low so that basically I have freedom to fail, to have challenges and to like really just spend the money in the way that I wanted to, you know, spend it. But I I have these kids, and now I'm in the suburbs, and like there's things that like spending basically dropping a mortgage payment on childcare so that I can be free to do this business is so so challenging and like there, I don't know if you feel that too, Crisp.
You see me not?
And I'm like, yes, yes, because like I know, I'm smart, but like sometimes the wisdom the rules of you know, the guidelines don't apply to.
Yes because they're like, wait a minute, where's all this money going? And it's like, oh, yeah, these kids you got over here, I mean, and you're like okay, and then things come up and then with daycare in school and oh my gosh, like I would see you said you were up all night, but I've been up since two fifteen. This morning, my four year old was like, it's time to be up now, dad.
Oh god, so crisp, but why are we My five year old came down heres at four o'clock and I said no. I was like, let's get you the mellowton and gummy right now, because you need to be gone right now. Why do they do that? Yeah, I know when to go to bed, it's like get up early and get your get your hours in before they wake up. Well, this is what happened that's what happens.
Yeah, they're like, wait a minute, that's trying to be productive. Okay, I'm up.
Yeah, So how do you guys manage like the day to day expenses? So I don't I don't talk a lot personally, but I don't have any kids, like, but I'm kind of curious on how you guys go about managing your day to day expenses with having you know, kids or multiple kids, and then also preparing for the future, investing for like schooling or whoever it might be.
Crizy, I got nothing. I'm struggling. No, I'm told ba family, I'm very honest. You know the past and I mean, I've just relived so much of my The challenge is the last year and the the hardest thing for me was my first year or two in business. I was doing great and you know, businesses coming in, but like Mark, you know, how many hours does it take? Like we were like producing our courses and yeah, you can hire help, but like you're still the engine driving the business, right
Like it's a personality leveraged business. You got to show up on social and you know, sell to your audience and do the webinars and all that kind of stuff, and I had this like of situations where it was like, I have a I mean, on the front, it's like exciting, I have a book deal, I have my baby. I'm I'm so like insanely happy. I love being a mom, and I was like, baby, book deal. In business, this is my year, y'all. And then actually doing all those things,
You're pulled in all these different directions. And what I didn't predict was the mental health toll that it was going to take on me to be doing all that all at one time. And so when my mental health started to suffer, the business directly was impacted because I could not show up the way that I had been. And so it didn't take much time before oh, all of a sudden, now I'm a really tricky financial spot because I'm not budgeting, I'm not saving for the future.
I'm just you know, I'm just like any other nine to five worker, live in paycheck to paycheck. At that point, I'm living, you know, I'm just doing it. I don't even know where my paycheck is. I'm just like hoping I get a brand deal or and I hated it. Do not recommend zero zero out of ten. Do not recommend and I found myself doing you know, like just making the best of like trying to pick the best
worst the best of bad options, you know. For like I'm not talking about like payday loans or anything like that, but you know, like not doing the smart, uh textbook version of managing my finances. And I've always had a lot of empathy, even as a personal finance journalist. I always hated advice that felt too sterile, like not really
leaving room for the human element. And I just have even more empathy, especially for families where you're trying to build something and those challenges come up and it, yeah, I know what to do, but you know, you know what I also have to do is like pay that daycare bill and camps and school fees and all that stuff. It's it's a lot.
Yeah, or like things pop up like okay, we need speech now, you know, and that was in factored in. It's like insurance only cover this amount, and then you're gonna have to pay this arm, leg and a toe
you know for that now because that's totally unexpected. Or things might come up with Chris Junior and you know, so it's all of those things that you won't necessarily factor in, especially you have when you have a child on the spectrum or any child with disability, then there are these other factors that just start showing up as they as a age, right, and it's like, oh, we didn't know that was going to be a need now, so some things you could kind of predict in something
you don't. So now to answer your question, mark like, I'll just start putting money away for those unforeseen things, right, Like I don't know what's gonna come up, but whatever it does, this will take care of that. Right. And then even going back to just like living a simple lifestyle, like you know, the Finland Guy or Finland University has been around for three years going on three years now, but it's just been a year since I totally left the ninety five and I'm doing it on my own.
But like I was riding around in a two thousand Mercury Grand Marquee, you know, let them know, and that truck along, and then my closest friends were just like Chris, like you the Finlanck guy, like what are you riding around? I was like, mind your business, okay, But.
That's why they should trust you exactly.
Listen to that lifestyle inflation that you all talked about. It's like it's like I'm like, man, like this month, I made enough to where I could just go to the lot to buy a car cash, right, But then I'm like, I spend it, then the money's gone, you know, right, which is the reality. So you know those are those times were just like, oh, I'm glad I didn't spend that money.
But yeah, you definitely have to manage your finances for your era. I've had to have heart's hearts with.
Them to say, hey, Megan, like this is just an era, like right now might not seem great, but this is you know, it's pairing you for the future, and sometimes not.
You calling Megan out like no, I just used a random name. Girl, It's me. I'm Megan.
I am Megan everybody, But.
Truly, I would have to have conversation. I will where were you?
Where was my conversation? Mark? Where was my talk?
We didn't talk about this when I was We had a hike in New York and we talked about this.
Brought my child with me. I wasn't focused, like you know that I.
Flew the whole way to New York.
You did you flew all the way out for nature walk and you flew back. That's why you're so much like my brother. That's why I liked so much. I was going to bring up community to y'all because, first of all, as two men, Wow, this is the first time I've been like a minority in my own goddamn podcast studio. Okay, come, I don't like it.
Progress?
Yeah is it?
Though? That's family's that's a community, right, We're talking about con as the community what they think.
Let's run it back and see how many times y'all interrupted me. Actually, I think I'm I'm the one who interrupts way more. You just get excited. It's not I don't, Yeah, you get excited. You're like, you're just like anyway, my brother. You're tired of hearing that. No, but community and supporting
one another. And I just need y'all to talk about y'all's friendship and your relationship as like a support for one another, because the way that I you know, I've talked a lot very candidly about my you know, my challenges the past year, but it is through community and support that I have. I am on the up and up, like I got my mojo back, make up money again. Don't worry about me, y'all. Brown and Vision is slaying.
I had everything I needed right, I had all the tools I needed to to make money again and to like go back to business. But I was suffering from that lack of self confidence because of how difficult things had been in The antidote for me was talking about it and opening myself up to being vulnerable. It's why people could pour into me. And I know y'all have a special sort of like relationship, and I want y'all to speak on that as two dudes like just trying to make it in the world.
No, definitely. I mean I can speak about Chris real fast. When I find like really good people like I latch onto them. And Chris was someone where I felt like I've known him my entire life.
He's just down.
The earth, like, you know, straight to business like sometimes and I just like having that balance. But you know, Chris and I we text maybe like every other week every month about any random topic, a little bit about me, just personally, real fast, and then we won't dive any further into it.
I'll be the judge of that. It is my show, no matter what that sign behind you says, but yeah, go ahead.
I haven't had the fortune of having very close family members, and especially family members that understand what we do. So my good friends like family than me. They're my brothers and my sisters. And when I say that, I actually
mean it. Where if someone says, hey, I need you to be in New York and we're gonna go hiking together for whatever reason, with everyone else, I'm like, Okay, sure, I'm gonna be there, and I hold true to that given that I don't have that family component that I think a lot of other people have.
So I see both of you guys being my family.
I agree with everything he said. I mean, Mark has from day one. It's just like, okay, instant brother, like I can I can talk to him about anything. And then here's the thing about this space, because when you're talking about money and you're talking about personal stuff and just general vulnerabilities, right Like, usually you don't find that guys like, hey, let me be vulnerable with you about some of the most things I hold her to my heart.
But no, with Mark, oh, just I can talk to him about anything and then he'll be He'll be direct, but supportive and encouraging all at the same time, right, Like I know that if I say something to him, it stays with him, right, and he's encouraging at the same time. Like it's rare to find a human being that Mark, this is my brother for life. And it's like there's certain things that you could just feel and you just know. It's hard to explain, but there's some
people you just click with and you just know. Until over the past few years, it's just been like that. Like when I had the screening for the show, like Mark was there right, Like I could only invite a handful of people, but he was definitely one of those people that were on the list. Wait what show for
the PBS show? And so it was a show that started out as supposed to be a one episode pilot that was turned into four episodes and it was just gonna be in Atlanta area for PBS for the network wave, and then the national level for PBS said, hey, we
need this show. This is something separate. This is my mentor, so me along with my co host, certified financial planner Jacqueline Shaddock, two of us tag team, and we work with real people, real situations regarding money and it's an eight episode season, so it'll be in your on your local PREVA stations in April.
Oh, this is exciting. I did not know that. Congratulations, thank you.
Yeah, so it's really big.
Come on here, promote something. Where's your sign?
God, I was going to wait to the end where you do the brown you know thing.
You can't be waiting till the end. The mid roll ads are the ones that charge them most.
You know that episode and I was like, okay, I'll.
Just the most expensive ads. No, the most expensive real estate in a podcast is the middle of the show because you've got people who are like listening and maybe they're you know, not looking at their phone. They're not going to because at the beginning of a podcast, I'm like skip thirty, skip thirty, you know, through the pre rolls, but the middle catches.
Okay, here we go. So yeah, So that Mark Mark was there for the pre screening for that. It was at Morehouse College and he was there so it was historic and the Stork location and it was it was and we aired the first episode, which was a student
who graduated from Morehouse. It was just amazing for him to be there and supportive and like I said, there are people who I've known for what twenty plus years, But Mark is one of those people who just instantly just kind of leap frog to one of the closest people that I call frandom brothers.
So yeah, yeah, I appreciate that, and I think it's just so important, like especially for black males, where I feel like we won't open up to others, that we continue to add people to our network and pour into them so they can grow and develop, because.
Yeah, sometimes it can be it could be a little taboo.
But yeah, I've had very close friends that sometimes I can't I can't have that, I can't get them to open up. I'm like, tell me about what you're working on, tell me about you know, there's struggles that you're having. But the fact that Chris and I can have that conversation at any.
Time, I mean, it really means a lot to both of us.
And I'll give him real number, Like I'd be like, hey, I didn't make any money this month, you know what I mean, just put that out there. As you know, someone who's in front of the public and you know, content creator and stuff, like the perception is you always have to have it together and you're just you know in every aspect of the word, but that's not always
the case. But you need to be able to talk to people who are also in this space and just like, hey, man, like I'm struggling, like I don't have it together, like I need help, you know what should I do? And so Marcus one of those people I can lean on in those in those good times and those times that are not so sure.
And in times like this, you can either take it, as you know, a time to run away from each other and in fight each other, or it might be an opportunity for us to come together and say, hey, well, though the administration might not be focusing on us, or maybe you know X might be happening, or you know, there's a long list of things that have happened over the last two weeks, we can always take could ask okay, this is negative, or we can say, okay, well this
is our time to make sure that number one, it never happens again, and then number two that we're accomplishing what we need to accomplish together over the next four years.
So that gives me a lot of hope.
Mark knows my story. Like day after the oldest son was born, they say congratulations, but we got to let you go. And then two months after that, losing everything in an apartment fire. No renders insurance, right, and so like Red Cross said to give us a gift card
to get close from Walmart. And this is right when I'm in my twenties, you know, creeping up to six figures and income, right, you know, going from losing everything hit and rock bottom is like it can only go up from here, right, And so that's kind of how I lived my life knowing that, Okay, I've been at the bottom and I survived. So I always remind myself of that saying that Jim Rohn says. He says, everybody goes through all four seasons. You know, you have your
you have your spring, you have your summer. But guess what's around the corner fall and winter. So either you're in your winter, you just came out of a winter, You're about to go into your winter. But if you just keep holding on and keep the faith, then just know that springtime will come again. And so I always think that no matter what type of circumstance I'm in at the moment, I just know that spring is right
around the corner. And so I just try to live with that mantra daily and just try to tell people about it, and then it gives people a different perspective no matter what they're going through, it will eventually get better.
Yep, y, which season do you guys think you're in right now? I'm fully in my winter thaw into spring, you know, spring chicken, which is very exciting.
Yeah, I feel like I'm definitely in my spring. There's things that I've always dreamed of doing that I'm able to do now. Like I grew up being around my dad and my uncles that would just travel all over the place because of the military. So I grew up in a very strong military family, and I was always want to go to places like Bali or go to places like from Mexico to Europe. And the fact that I have the opportunity to do that, I mean, I take full advantage. There is a budget, but that budget
is one that is of abundance. That's when I have my summers, when I'm here and I'm in my mode and I'm grinding through.
I'm definitely in the spring mindset.
Yeah, Okay, that's good to know. Where are we going to see Beyonce in Paris? Then, or like, what's happening?
Yeah, I saw Usher this year, so I'm really happy about that. In New York, I don't know if I will see Beyonce.
We'll see interesting. Interesting.
I'm still.
Long over due my Queen. She's the reason I woke up. I don't know. I wasn't even asleep ill you know this, Chris, I fell asleep, putting my five year old down. I took a little cat nap and a twin bet my shoulders effed up, like why didn't we get him a full bed for us? And then I just like I went downstairs and I was watching clips of like Beyonce's acceptance speech and Doci's acceptance speech, and I have never
been so tired than I was yesterday. But then it was like I had a jolt of caffeine in my veins and I just got up and I was like, success is the resistance, like our creation, like creating and making art, and I feel in some ways, you know what we do is so creative, and you know we are building something, and I just felt so called to that purpose this morning. This day is just all one big blur right now, and I'm I'm just excited to feel that way again, and it's very it's giving very
big spring energy. Well, we didn't do Brown Boost Brown Break. Do you guys know that segment of this? I always forget. Oh, let's do it?
Really?
Do you know Brown Boost, Brown breakmark? Do you listen to the show?
I have listened to a lot of man, but never till the end, never to the end, never till the end.
So normally it's like at first, like ten to fifteen minutes, especially if you send one my way out.
Listen to this.
I don't got time to be individually promoting my show to you. Brown Boost is good, Brown Break is something bad, Chris.
Go So I guess it's one of the same, right, So the brown break is that you know they're potentially federal funds to pay for college could go away, right, which will be a lot to make happen. But it was put out there, right, so who knows what the powers that be are doing behind the scenes to make that reality. But the boost is that you don't have
to rely on that. There are things that you can do if you plan accordingly, to put yourself in the best position to still go to school without debt, without student loans, and even if you don't get those federal grants, you could get stuff otherwise. So that's my brown boost brown break.
Okay, so you're boosting yourself because we need to put the link to your book and to your program because you actually and there's not like a one size fits all approach to like getting scholarships. It depends on like all your persons, like your personality, your focus, your education, whatever, whatever you're looking for where you live. So we got to get people into your coaching coort so they can get that help. So they cannot.
Absolutely if you go to your debt free degree dot com, it'll you can just it's a free video that walks you through all of the stuff in detail. I give this speech at Economy conference and there's information from that in there, and if you want to pdf then I can send that to you. So there's a link to get on a free call with me and we'll actually
walk through a strategy. A lot of people just call for that individualized strategy, you know, even if they don't necessarily want to go to the next step and work with me. Like it's a free call, so there's there's no loss to them. It's a free call. I walking through how to do what they want to do on their own if they want help and they want support. Like I said, I have a team of people that will focus on your child if they're preparing to go to college. And that's what we do.
Amazing. All right, Mark, what you got two.
Things I'm really excited about.
The one that's top of mind for me is Philadelphia Eagles go into Super Bowls? Yo?
Are you one of those fans? You don't seem like you're an obnoxious Eagles fan, but.
You, well I do.
It's only really when I'm watching it on TV. But I'm not. I'm not. You hear the horror stories of Eagles fans. I'm not that bad.
Don't climb a pole and die.
But I do.
Yes, that's why they grease the polls anytime that Philly has a they win anything.
They didn't increase that one? Good enough?
They did?
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I'm really excited about that. I am a passionate fan where I expect the best from the players, but I'm not the type to do crazy things to people because they are from the opposing team.
But I'm excited for that.
Going back home, back to Phillying, get to see my parentals biological parentals, So that's going to be happening. And the other thing I'm really excited about is that there are a lot of people this year that are looking again to invest and get their finance together. A lot of people are saying twenty twenty five is their year, and they are actually not only talking about it, but they're actually going and putting pen to paper and putting
things into action. So we've seen the boost and a lot of people signing up for my free investing class, which has been great, and have the opportunity to teach people how to invest the right way so they can invest from themselves or their family members and then make sure that they don't have to get out the mud like we had to. And maybe you know, when your kid turns eighteen or twenty one, whatever it might be, they have some money put away so they don't have to struggle.
So I'm really excited for that.
In congrats to the Eagles, I'm excited for you all. I think everyone's rooting for the Eagles because we can't root for the Chiefs right, no one likes them, they win too much.
As a true Philadelphia fan, what we would say is that we haven't won anything yet.
My Brown Boost is gonna be beyonce One Album of the Year. The Grammys are back and relevant and finally giving, Like listen, I think that like if you're a black creative, black and brown creative, like you kind of give you've gave up on like expecting the Grammys to acknowledge your
contribution and like really give you that gold. But it was so sweet to see Beyonce peerre like shocked her shock at winning Best Country Album and the way that she and Jay were the only two who was shocked because Blue Blue was like, Mama, why are you still sitting here?
Like in her Julia is too right, Like he was pretty much like, yeah, of course.
Yeah. She was like go, like this is the part where you walk on stage, like do you need help? And seeing Baby Blue mouthing the words to not like us, first of all, I was like, that's a bit grown for you, Blue Blue Ivy, But I love just I'm just so happy for her and as big as Beyonce is, every time she speaks, I feel like I'm hearing from a sister. I feel like I'm hearing from a friend.
She's just so down to earth and she really is like doing it for us specifically, and the fact that she's winning awards and having you know, all this success and launching all these different companies, I feel like at her core, she is still just showing up for us.
And it really just like the power of persistence. Yeah.
I think there's so many things that people want to accomplish in life and they give up on the first try or they hear that first no. But Beyonce truly took that and say, Okay, how can I define, like redefine what I'm doing? How can I go into a different genre. She mentioned that genre shouldn't define us and to be able to go and uh, you know when in a space where I feel like we haven't won before, even though we're the ones that created that genre, is
truly powerful. So for me, my takeaway was that time that you her, know, like, just keep going after it. If you continue to knock at that door, someone's going open up. And I'm happy to open up for her with her daughter right there, Like that is powerful.
Well, I see what you're saying about the interrupting. So back to my boost.
As I did it, as I interrupt you again, as I did it, I was like.
I could just like, can I have that mic back?
There you go.
It's just exciting.
But yeah, tell me, tell me more about how I don't I had to give mic shit.
I just have to.
But yeah, the Grammys and Dochy Doc Doci my swamp Princess. I feel like Dochi the audacity of her spirit and the undeniability of her talent, and her like she's younger, she's like what mid late twenties, and I just feel like she is the new generation of like young black women who are just they don't have to deal with imposter syndrome. They're skipping all that shit that like, you know, my generation, you know, my age age group had to kind of overcome and they're just like they're just winning.
They're not waiting for anyone's permission. They are just creating. They're putting themselves out there. They're being really brave, and
they are lifting one another up. And that just gives me so much hope so to I feel like to the answer of like how do you cope with the anxiety of everything happening, I'm just continuing to find so much inspiration in us and I have never been more just excited about the art and the tools and the companies and the businesses that are going to be built from this really dark time that we're going through right now.
I think we're gonna have so many six stories, and including myself in that, like I have been, I have so much more. I have so many more bigger plans than Brown Ambition for Brown Ambition rather And this feels like, like you said, Mark, like twenty twenty five feels like the origin story of what I hope will become a blip. It's like, yeah, and during that time, look what we created, and look how we we thrived in spite of so many forces working against us. And yeah, Beyonce doci those examples.
I mean, honestly you two as well being an inspiration of like that persistence. To bring it back to Mark's point, the persistence, and yeah, just what happens when you don't give up and you expect the failure and you welcome the failure because you know it's not forever and it's part of the journey. So I'm very happy to be in my springtime and to have y'all here, and thank y'all again for just like sharing your light with a show. And you know, let me tease you a little bit. Appreciate it.
We're honored, We are definitely honored to be a part of this moment with you, and I know I am so thank you.
Thank you Chris, thank you Mark. All Right, BA fan, we will see you Friday for the b a QA