Yes, we're back, We're black, We're brown.
And bitch yon I did a condensed version.
Hey Manja, Hey, have you survived coronavirus Gate twenty Are you out there? I'm calling you from my bunker in the suburbs.
First of all, a friend off I went to Costco yesterday. She's like, you want to go? I was like sure.
It was midday, midday and people were buying water as if, like you know, it was the end of the world.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
Oh, Pete, don't judge because that was me and my mother at Sam's Club Saturday morning, so we made the mistake. We talked about the coronavirus on last week's show, so let's touch on that. Last week, which seems like a long time ago in terms of coronavirus news, the market with tanking like yea, and the headline for this show is when the coronavirus comes for your four oh one K And I wasn't kidding. My four oh one K is down eight percent. Thank you very much coronavirus appreciate it.
And we talked a little bit about why the coronavirus is moving the markets. Obviously, China was ground zero for this virus and the spread of it. And there's tons of US based companies and products from US based companies that are made in China, and there's concern about like even the iPhone, for example, having the parts that they need to make the iPhone that everyone buys, and so
the economic impact could be really great. And then what if people what if it gets in the US, What if it's spread so much that people aren't able to go to work anymore. So there are real implications. And right now there is no cure, there's no vaccination, and the US government maybe isn't the most reliable when it comes to their response to this, or maybe investors don't feel like there's a real strategy or plan in place from the government right now at the federal level to
handle this type of pandemic, So investors get spooked. There's not really a ton of confidence that will be able to contain the virus, and you see the markets move like they did last week, which, yeah, it can definitely impact your investments. I don't know if you saw anything from your portfolio or Tiffany, you were smart and didn't look at all, which is probably I did a better response.
I lost like nine hundred bucks. But you know we've also rallied. I need to last.
Time I checked them, only nine hundred, nine hundred bucks. Well, no, well nine hundred bucks from my Robinhood.
Oh oh you kept robin Hood.
Yes.
I didn't check like my bigger accounts. I was like, you know, Robinhoods were buy my individual stocks for fun. And I was like, oh, I lost my hundred So for context, that's about ten percent because I have about nine thousand dollars in there, so you know, not.
A little bit of money. But I will say this that.
My my doctor, I was asking her, you know, she says, honestly that the coronavirus is not by name, you're deadly that because what you're seeing is they're reporting every death. But if they were to report every daily death due to the flu, we'd also be equally as freaked down that SARS. Remember when SARS was a big thing. She's like, that was a deadly virus that was really dangerous, and she was like Corona. Think about Corona. She was like
the way you would think about pneumonia. She said, Tiffany, you're you know, you're relatively young, you're healthy.
If you were to get pneumonia.
Now, will we be concerned, Yes, because ammonia is not a good thing to get. But what I think Tiffany's going to pass away, The likelihood is minimal because you're not eighty years old. She's like, now, if your dad got pneumonia, we'd be very concerned.
So it's the.
Very young, the very old, and those with compromised immune systems and so.
But they're reporting every single death, so it just seems like another and another.
And the truth is people someone died today from tripping down the stairs, but they're not reporting that, you know what I mean. So it's like putting into context that less than two percent of people who contract the coronavirus are actually passing away. It's that's relatively low. It's just because right now that the media is fanning the flames of fear because it's you know, it's good for business, but it's not. She's like, it's not a deadly virus.
I mean, not something you want to get, but there are viruses that are way more deadly, and that she's like, I would be concerned about.
Yeah, And I've I've listened and read, listened to lots of interviews and tried to read the most what's the opposite of fanning the flames and like the opposite of alarmists, just really like matter of fact researchers, healthcare reporters, people who are genuinely not trying to cause a panic to
see what they have to say. And the fact is it is deadlier than the flu in terms of like the rate of people who are dying from the coronavirus, it's something like Tiffany' said around two percent versus the flu, which is zero point one percent. But obviously the flu is a lot more widespread. People are just concerned because there's not a vaccine for it, and it's you know, people don't really show symptoms. You can be walking or
may not have serious symptoms. It could be mild like you have a or you know, like a mild flu, and you may not know it's a coronavirus. And in some states there's not like enough tests right now to figure out like a diagnosis, and it's just very early stages. But largely what the experts have been saying. Obviously you're not going to get your like health care and science news from brown ambition, but I will just say, like based on what I've heard. The best thing you can
do is wash your hands. It's very basic advice. Wash your hands, use your hand sanitizer. Don't touch your face, don't shake hands with people if you don't have to. You know, a good old fashioned fist bump or elbow bump or just like a nice nod and a you know, a little wink that that'll do it. Just really good hygiene. Don't go up and buy surgical masks. You probably can't
even find them anyway because they're all sold out. And healthcare workers or if you're caring for someone who's sick, those are important to have masks, But for the general healthy population, it's not really gonna potentially protect you to
wear those masks. And if you're like me and you have the option to work remotely, consider it, especially if you're in a like for example, in my county, there's confirmed case and I am really seriously considering not commuting because I don't necessarily have to, and is it worth the risk to commute, And it's not even about it could be the regular flu and I don't want to
bring that home to my to my baby. But in terms of like the impact to your finances, I'm trying not to watch my four O one K. I'm on the younger side, so of course most of my investments are in the market because they say you have time to bounce back from any downturns, and it's true, like already the markets have recovered a little bit, and I genuinely feel like I'm just gonna you know, Grin and Barrett,
I'm not making any I'm not making any changes. I fully believe that eventually there will be a vaccine and we'll get through this, just like we have swine flu and West Nile and all other stuff. Blah yeah, bola. And but for those of you who are you know, looking at your investments or your four O one k, just you know, consult your financial advisor. That's an advisor
if you have one. But personally, I am trying to just consider this another blip and keep my eye on the prize, which is long term retirement growth and not short term trading. So I'm staying the course.
Honestly, what historical data shows that that after some of the worst days of the stock market comes some of the best days, like about two weeks later, within the next two weeks, meaning that let's just say you have like the we had like we and we did, we had like some of the biggest drops since the recession.
But if you were to pull your money out during the drop and then two weeks later, like we're rallying now, you know, like the stock market is bouncing back, now your money is now out, so you cannot You've already experienced the loss, but now you can't experience the gain. So that's why they tell you, really it's best, quite honestly, to relax. And the truth is, like my mom called me, oh, should I mean my money? I'm like, no, should I
sull No? I was like, mommy, you are in retirement and your strategy should be such that you should be invested conservatively, so based upon your age. So my dad is seventy five, so he shouldn't have seventy five percent of his money in the market anyway. So if he has like the ideal, which would be about twenty five percent in the market and then seventy five percent in like bonds and more conservative investments, there's.
Nothing to move. You're already balanced in your investment. So yeah.
So basically, just reiterating what Mandy is saying is that the key is that you do the work beforehand for things like this, which is to have your investment balance, which the rule of thumb is that you take your age in bonds. So I am forty, I should be forty percent in bonds, sixty percent in stocks. And when I'm fifty, I should be fifty percent in bonds fifty
percent in stocks. But do you see like so yeah, I say all that to say like, not you know, not jumping in and out, like unless you're trading, like like our friend Tila, she trades, so she's looking at the market differently. But for long term investing that you know, you don't have to run and jump and there's always going to be something.
Yeah, And that's why I'm still gonna be a fan of that target date fund. One think about my age. I'm just like that twenty fifty five fun will just take care of me and you know, recalibrate as I get older. But it is smart at least once a year to look at your investments if you're not in a target date fund, and you know, consulting an expert investment advisor to make sure that you're properly balanced and you're not taking on more risk. Than as appropriate for
your age and your your timeline. But it's so much I mean, the you know, obviously you want you know, my thoughts are with the families and impacted by this. It's got to be really terrifying to be quarantine in your house with this weird new virus. But in terms of like the psychological impact to investors, it's always fascinating to me just the conversations people have about their finances
around like the market downturns like this. I'm always just like I'm like, oh, what type of people are going to be the ones to like call up their eventual advisor freaking out? And who's going to you know, stay the course? And yes, as a great recession baby who started her four oh one k and nine, I really took I mean I was fortunate, I feel like to start investing them because it was like everything was on sale, it was all very cheap, and the market was you know,
on the on the decline. And over the past ten years, I've got to experience all those gains and I try to just tell myself that story again, like there are ups and downs and just remembering that and looking at what history, you know, tells us and not trying to listen to what so and so on c NBC or whatever Bloomberg is saying for today. Yeah, agreed, wash your hands people twenty seconds seeing the ABC's while you do it.
Yes, literally, It's so funny. When I taught pre school, I used to have the kids do that. That's how they would know that they washed their hands long enough.
Preschoolers have a better hygiene than a lot of adults out there. I see, y'all. Yes, I am trying to. I tried and grab the bottom of My trick is to grab the bottom of every door handle because I figure more people to touch the top of them. And I'm like, I'll reach down awkwardly to the subway poll and try and grab like the oh it's part of the poll. I can without being you know, into a prentzeil just to say myself, but yeah, definitely hand sanitizer
within an inch of your life. You guys, all right? What else? What else is going on? How's Molly Moore? Did you you hit your fundraising goal?
I did?
There were we are in the stretch goal, so I told myself for every I did the math. So our fundraising goal was thirty five thousand dollars, and what that meant was I'd be able to give donate a thousand books to children in low income communities and to hire for financial literacy experts and educators to write some free curriculum for children. So I that way, I can put it on the Mollymore site and donate that right back to y'all. And now we're almost at forty thousand dollars, so people.
Are still donating.
Yes, which because you're doing something called yes stretch goals. So with the stretch goals, what that means is, Okay, for every additional five thousand that I raised, I did the math, I can donate an additional two hunch books, so instead of just a thousand books, now we're about one thy two hundred, and I can hire one additional teacher.
So I'm excited about that. So if you haven't already, you can still go to mollymore dot com, even if you're listening to this five years from now, Mollymore dot com.
You could just buy a book.
But if the kickstarter is still live, if you go to Mollymore M A L I, M R E dot com, you can contribute and not only do you get a book for yourself, but you can also help make this world more financially literate.
So I'm excited.
Oh congratulations, that's awesome.
Thank you.
It feels like on the other side, I'm like, whoof, oh, Molly, like we should do a whole Kickstarter episode about like what it takes to like, you know, do a successful Kickstarter or fund, like a crowd raising crowdfundraising. That was really like an interesting I'd never done that before, so there's a lot of things I learned that we you know, it was just a really good experience because I feel like we learned a lot.
We didn't do everything right, but we did do right, you know, was enough, But I learned a lot. It was definitely a big learning lessons fa Well.
If you guys have any stories of crowdfunding or questions about starting a crowdfunding campaign or things that work for y'all, feel free to send them in. You can hit us up at brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com dot com, or shoot us a note on Instagram. Brand Ambition Podcast on Instagram. Also, we have a website, Brand ambition Podcast dot com. You can ask us anything there which gets us your messages as well. And speaking of that. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and answer
some of your questions for this week. All right, guys, we are back and ready to tackle your questions again. Hit us with your questions. You can wait. Hit us with your questions. Hit us up with your questions. Brand Ambission Podcast on Instagram or sorry the Graham what do people say? Ig or email us directly Brandimission Podcast at gmail dot com. We have a really interesting question from a listener named Esther who's in the Peace Corps. First
of all, thank you for your service. Yes, that's amazing, But she's about to leave the Peace Corps. So Esther says, I joined the Peace Corps in twenty eighteen after graduating college in twenty seventeen. I'm now reaching the end of my Peace Corps service in April. Since being with the Peace Corps, I was able to pay off one student loan, but I'm still faced with my Sally May and federal student loans, which total up to forty thousand dollars all together.
Because of my low income. While I've been in Peace Corps, I was able to defer my federal loan, but of course interest has been accruing and my Sally May loan is a whole other monster. Now, with Peace Corp coming to an end, I will not have a study income to repay my loans, and I'll be given a small lump sum of money after leaving the Peace Corps, about
seven thousand dollars. I'd like to move, but I'm planning on only getting a job for a temporary period of time, probably a low paying job, and I feel like there's no way I'm going to be able to pay back my loans. Do you guys think I'm setting myself up for failure? How can I begin tackling my student loans? Whenever I think about it, I panic? Would it be smart to set up an automatic withdrawal from my savings
to my student loans? Please help me, so you do the right thing, you guys, to wait college, you want to give back, join the Peace Corps. But you're right. While you're in the Peace Corps, you're not obviously making a ton of money, if any at all. And you come back and she's going to get a small what they call a readjustment allowance seven thousand dollars that she could use for whatever. I can see her hesitation though, like taking that seven thousand dollars and chipping away at
forty thousand dollars worth of debt? Is that the best use of you know, that readjustment allowance? And if she only plans, you know, if she thinks she can probably get a job, but nothing that's really high paying. When she comes back, she's feeling like, how am I going to be able to tackle this debt?
Well, my question is what was her name again?
Esther?
Esther?
So my question is is loan forgiveness available because she joined the Peace Corps? Because I know, like when I was a teacher, that student loan forgiveness was available to me because I was teaching. And if you're you work in like certain rural and urban areas, there are all of these like available, There are all these ways that you can qualify for student loan forgiveness. So I don't know, Honestly,
I don't know much about the Peace Corps. So is there a way I would definitely look into that, Like with the time that you spent there can that be put towards student loan forgiveness? Because all of my loan wasn't forgiven when I did it, and I did it retroactively, so I was able to go back and say, oh, well, you know, this is the time I spend as a teacher, and they I think, I want to say, maybe like fifteen to seventeen thousand dollars or something like that was
taken off my student loan. So I'm just sharing all that to say that like looking into that as well, forgiveness because of your time served.
Yeah, the thing is she doesn't mention what industry she'd be working in either, But you're right, if it's a public service industry, you know it's these federal forgiveness programs are only like they're only in effect for as long as the current administration wants them to be into it. In effect, so let's say she comes back and she joins a nonprofit or works for the government. Ostensibly she could qualify for pubs something called public service loan forgiveness.
But to be honest, that program has really turned out to be kind of a dud for a lot of people, Like way too complicated. Some people are getting denied even though they did the right thing by going into the right job sector because the government kind of did a funky job of setting up the whole process. But like so it's not to say that loan forgivenes isn't a possibility, but definitely you'll need to do your research and make sure that you're following all the exact right steps so
that you potentially can qualify. And since you don't tell us what industry, it's hard to know if maybe you'll qualify for some of those programs that are out there, but in general, so let's just pretend you know, you're like, you know, you just you travel, You're coming back with four thousand dollars in debt. You're at, you know, wanting
to get an entry level job. You're not unlike every other college graduate out there who's sort of looking down at this, you know, big pile of student loan debt and not sure what to do. The good thing is, you know you were able to defer your loans. You weren't just like missing your loan payments this whole time and letting you know, late payment fees and all that kind of other stuff add up. So you're done the
right thing with your federal loans. I say, the first thing is get on an income driven repayment plan so they'll base your payment, which could be as low as zero dollars, depending on how much income you have, on whatever your income you're earning at the job you get when you come home, and if that's no job, then they'll base it on the fact that you're not employed
right now. That'd probably be the first step as far as that readjustment allowance, that lump sum that you're going to get if you don't have any savings, and it sounds like you don't because you say that you're hoping to build it up. I almost feel like taking that seven K and immediately kind of using that on your loans.
I don't know if that makes the most sense. I wonder like, I feel like you kind of need you're going to need a savings cushion just to you know, inoculate yourself from you know, any other setbacks so you don't have to take on more debt to pay for something that might come up in the future. So part of me is like, definitely pad your savings a little bit, Maybe take a chunk of that seven k and make a payment on that Sally May loan if you think that'll move the needle there and keep you out of
you know, out of God. I can't think of the word. What's the word when you miss a payment. Yeah, thank you like delinquency what but I don't Yeah, I mean, what do you think, Tiffany, I mean seven thousand dollars, it's a it's a chunk of cash. Part of me is like, she's just starting out, she needs a little bit of cushion in her savings, and that would give her a little bit of a boost when she comes back.
I absolutely agree. I don't think throwing seven thousand dollars toward the student.
Let's just say you owed five thousand dollars in student loan debt.
I might be like slightly tempted, but the seven thousands, not to say seven thousand is not a lot of money, because it is, but throwing it toward forty when you know right now you likely don't have any cushion you're looking to move. I honestly would put that money toward toward securing a place to live in an emergency savings account, just in case whatever job that you're looking for doesn't come around quick enough, and then going back to repayment when you have a steady income coming in.
Yeah, and again, you're not unlike a lot of college grads and forty thousand dollars sounds like a ton of money. It's about average for what most college grad means. Sadly, it's about average what most college graduates have of coming out, and it's not. It's it sounds like the most money in the entire world, but it is so doable.
All you have.
The best thing that you can do is obviously not ignore those payments. Call your student loan servicer, ask about income from repayment plans, get your payments adjusted so you can afford them, and then just focus on getting that job. You know, when you get back to the States. The good news is that you have a bit of a cushion with that readjustment allowance, which some people may not have, and hopefully you don't wait too long to get a job.
But you know, you're you're not ignoring your student loans. As you get your you know, your feet on the ground and start, you know, start laying the groundwork for your career. M All right, miss Esther, Well, thank you for your service and thank you for your question.
Yeah, you know, I consider joining the Peace Corps like right after graduating, but then I decided, you know what that I would donate like kind of my time by teaching preschool in a low income community.
So that's good. You know, it's sad because Thees for what it's worth, I mean, one of the results of their great recession was that a lot of people like entered into AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and like because they you know, there weren't jobs, so there were more people going into these service oriented programs that the that the
government has. And I have a friend who works for AmeriCorps now and he had done Americrps in the years after the recession, and he's a recruiter and he's struggling, like they struggle to find people now because the economy is good and people are more likely to get jobs. So it's kind of like the benefit of a downturn is that there's a lot of young people who need
work and they're more likely to take those jobs. And since you know, the economy is me to come back, there's less people for those you know, the Peace Corps and programs like that. So it's great that you know, there's still people volunteering, but not as many as before.
Yeah, no, it is already.
Want me say one more question. This is this isn't easy, you know, this is an easy question, but I also think it's an interesting time to answer it because savings rates are not what they used to be just even a few months ago. So this is a question from we'll call her Lisa from Instagram, Lealie Lisa. All Right, she says, a quick question. I'm sure you've answered this before, but which savings account do you recommend to get the most interest today? Or what should I compare when looking
into a high yield savings account? Thank you for continuing this great podcast. So the reason I think this is interesting obviously with savings accounts, we're you know, we've talked about the banks that were fans of because they have high rates. But I have been a longtime fan of ally and they tend to have, if not the highest, one of the highest savings rates, but like a lot of even the high yield savings rates out there right now,
my rate has been on the downturn. Yeah, like every other week, it's like, sorry, we're gonna knock off a tenth of a percentage point from your rate. And the reason is that the Fed. If you have been paying attention to what the Fed has been doing, they've been
cutting interest rates. And when they cut rates. Typically, to make things simple, banks lowered the rate on savings accounts and other deposit accounts like CDs, So now that rates are going down, you're seeing your savings rates going down to which is want want not so great, but still like online banks like ally tend to have the highest rates as far as I know, I can post a link again to a couple of sites where you can easily compare rates, and I definitely think that you should
because there's so many banks out there that you know, even new banks that weren't run a couple of years ago, that are offering much higher rates than what you get from traditional banks these days.
And just being mindful, that's why I was just I just spooke at the Jackie Robinson Foundation like this past weekend.
Humble brag, but I was.
I always always always point everyone to Magnify Money when looking for a bank, and I tell them this is a criteria fdic inshore because you want to be able to get at least some of your money back should that bank go under. What I like about Magnify Money
is that they give you clear grades. You know an F is not good and don't nobody want no c banks so you're looking for an A, so looking for a bank with an A, looking for a bank that gives you the highest interest rate, and then you're also looking for a bank where they have a low required deposit in order to get that interest rate and to keep that account open or even to.
Open that account.
So if you look for those four criteria on magnified money dot com, you should find a bank that's best for you.
Yeah, one hundred percent. You don't want any minimum balance requirement. You don't want to pay fees, you don't want to have to pay like the best. One of the things I love about ally is that they reimburse you for ATM fees and that's a really common way that banks can get you these days, or with those ATM fees. But there's other ones too. Capital one three sixty. My brother I think signed up for the Marcus Savings account through Goldman Sachs. There's I think Robinhood's launching its own
like cash management savings account. There's all these new ones out there, So I mean, you know, I will support Tiffany's endorsement for Magnified Money, even though technically I work
for them. But I'll post a link to our page where you can look at savings accounts and if this is a good opportunity, even though rates are on the downturn, like, there's still way higher rates out there, if you're still banking with that old brick and mortar bank, like, it's it's time, you guys, It's time to try and find a better rate and make more money on your savings if you can. Yeah, all right, all right, thank you
guys for your questions. Again. Brandabisson podcast at gmail dot com dot com or shoot us a question like Lisa did on Instagram where Brand Ambision podcast on the Gram.
And now it's time to boost a break for all our family family get it, friends and families and it got it?
Will you boost? Will you breg what you gon't do?
Mandy, I'm gonna do a boost for a little something that is called r SU's restricted stock units. Not to bore you guys with more acronyms, but this is something that came up, especially if you're at a publicly traded company, one of the ways they can sometimes incentive advise you. And this is stuff that I wish I knew when I first worked, when I first got my job at Yahoo, because they gave me a bunch of RSUs and I
had no idea what they were. And I find myself now as a manager having to explain to people on my team, like, here's this really cool benefit that we have, and people don't know what they are how to use them. So, when you work for a publicly traded company like Apple or whatever, sometimes they will give you like a batch of restricted stock units. What this means is they're gonna, let's let's say they give you one hundred shares of
the company they may have. They may say, Okay, stay with us for a year, and we're going to give you these hundred shares in a year, and you can decide what to do with them. They're going to what they call vest and vesting means they become available to you to sell or trade or do whatever. And what inevitably happens when RSUs finally vest is people are like what a why do oh man?
Like?
And this happens to me too, Like you usually have like a window when you can trade. So if you're an employee of a company, you may have vested stock, which means you can now you know, technically sell it if you wanted to. But the company can control when you can sell it, and like inevitably it may happen that the stock goes down all of a sudden and
now it's time for you to sell them. And people are often like, oh, man, I'm going to hold on to the stock because I think the company, you know, we'll be doing better next year, and I'm just going to hold on to it. And people sometimes ask me, you know, what do you do with your RSUs? And the way that I try and think about RSUs because I don't have a huge appetite for playing the market. Also, I don't want to have a ton of my investments
tied up in the company where I work for. So the way that I've approached RSUs over the years is whatever the stock price is when those RSUs finally vest, which means I can finally, like I said, cash them out or trade them or whatever I get rid of them. I'll sell them and I will add them to my you know, I I'll trade them for like mutual funds or whatever else I'm invested in, because I don't want to have a big portion of my investments tied up
in one single stock. And I think because people work for the company they're more like sometimes they feel like it's safer, you know, just to keep the money where it is. And but would you really have so much of your investments tied up, you know, in just one single stock otherwise, like probably not, And a lot of experts would say that's probably not the best idea. So my approach is to sell them and use them to
trade for mutual funds or invest in other areas. And it's really hard because, like I said, you're watching that stock price, and if the stock goes down when you get those RSUs finally invested, you feel like, oh, I just want to hold on to them. But again I just try and think of it as like this is money I wouldn't have had otherwise. So I Am just going to sell them, get rid of it, and just make my peace with it and not try and you know, play the market with the company where I get my paycheck.
And also now I have stocks. So that is your what I hope was a quick, easy explanation of RSUs. And if you have RSUs, don't ignore them. They're a really cool benefit, but you should know what to do with them and what they really mean for you.
No, that was that was good I never quite honestly, because I guess I never worked for a publicly traded company, so that.
Was good for me. I'm like learning new teams.
That's how they trap you.
I could see that.
I'm sorry, incentivize you. Yeah, that's the right word.
No, that was good and helpful.
So I am actually going to This is like a hybrid boosty Breakye have you heard of the Honeypot and the scandal that's going on right now?
No, but tell me so.
Honeypot is a it's a black woman owned company. And you know, Target has been going hard on the paint for us browns out here, which I love Target during Black History Month. I don't know if you've been if you've been watching TV a little bit, but the commercial they have all these really great Black history kind of commercials where they're they've been showcasing like all of these
black brands. That's what was happening in February. And if you went to Target, they had like a black history section. So anything, it's just been honestly, just a black and brown love best over there at Target. So this woman, her name is Beatrice, and I met Beatrice before Beatrice Dixon. She and I sat on the panel at essence fests like two years ago.
She's super nice. She started this company called Honeypot.
Which creates like vegan, safe health and beauty products for your honeypot, if you know what I mean.
The honey pot. Is that a euphemism for something.
Well feminine beauty hygiene products?
Is it for the vagina?
Yes?
Okay, what are you saying? What's a honeypot.
Vagina?
Yes?
Right?
And so she's got this really great ad that was on TV, like I mentioned, and in it she says, you know, it's just it's been so awesome to start this company, especially for young black women, like a black woman like me, to be able to do something like this girl.
The racist came out.
They came out and they were livid that she They were like, is this a product just for black women?
She didn't.
She literally said for a black woman. I'm really proud of myself as a black woman that I've been able to accomplish this. She didn't say the product was for black women. She didn't say anything else. She literally just said this is what I am, as if to say,
I honestly my mind is blown. Like racist came out and droves and trust Pilot is this website where I've used trust Pilot before where you can kind of it's like yelp, but for business, well love was for businesses, like so right, So they came out and they were giving her one star reviews.
And trying to say this, like where did she make that statement her?
It was her ad But you can go to YouTube and type in honeypot Target the Target. So it was on TV and I know the thing is that I've been seeing the ad for why. I don't know why all of a sudden that at the Blue It just like because the AD's been running almost like I feel like all February. But then literally the last few days, I don't know if a popular racist got a hold of it and showed it and people were like, I'm never going back to Target again.
But you know, they all say that.
And they what was really bad is that they purposely tried to tank her business by giving her one star reviews on this well respected platform, so much so that trust Pilot had to disable your ability to leave reviews seriously, which never seen go ahead.
Yeah, well, what were people taking issue with just the fact that she made a product for women of color?
Yes, and so she no, no, no, she didn't make she she didn't make a product for women of color. She said in the ad, basically referring to herself as a woman of color, and how this is like a big deal because you know, being a woman of color, like being having this opportunity to create a product like this is a big deal. She didn't stay it's for women of color. People are literally writing black girls are empowered using this product. I guess white girls aren't. I'll
be letting Target know about this racist company. This is what people are like posting.
That's what people say. Would you ever would they ever allow a show called White Ambition to show this? Yet Brown Ambition is the racist Get out of here.
People are just like I just couldn't believe.
I mean, I can't support a company and good faith that it's openly racist about their customers.
She didn't talk about the customers. She literally said what she is.
I just honestly, I sometimes I just people can really be so terrible. But on the brighter note, sisters have been coming forward for her. This is why I love brown and black women. So I'm in a group called and you guys have heard me talk about building branded launched by Arsa Jones. And so that's when I first heard about the story, and BuzzFeed News actually picked it up just recently today actually, but I saw that someone was like, we need to help the sisters out. They're
leaving these really negative reviews because of her ad. That's not racist at all. It's actually a powering And she doesn't say it's for black women. She says it's you know, she doesn't say anything about the product being for anybody but women.
She just refers to herself as a black woman.
And just even saying I am a black woman is offensive to people because how dare you name yourself? And so we all went in and started like, well, the we started to overwhelm the system with positive reviews and before you knew it, within like twenty four hours, it was less than one percent worth these negative reviews and we had turned the tide. Yes, it was like this rallying point, like all these other black women entrepreneurs are like, oh hell no. So Dixon Beatrice she launched this. It's
a plant based feminine hygiene line. She launched it in twenty fourteen, and as a result of all of this, like hubbub, she reported to BuzzFeed News that the company's retailers have jumped twenty to thirty percent since.
The backlast oh her sales. Yes, it's not crazy pre press exactly.
No press, No press is bad press.
Right, But here's the thing.
I just don't know how you can look at this commercial and say that it's racist. She just says, this is who I am. I created this line, and that's because it's clearly to celebrate. Target is doing this like Black History celebration, and as a black woman, I'm really proud that I was able to do do a thing that was it not this product is for.
Black women, not anything else.
I honestly, I yeah.
I just don't know what to say. I don't even know.
She's just laughing all the way to the banks. But it sounds like, yeah, okay.
Yeah, honeypots check them out, Yeah for sure, I mean yeah, I just I just don't know why why there are there's a sector of white people that if you say the word black, it's like, how dare you?
How dare you even like white people? Is it like Russians? I mean, I feel like sometimes there's like bots out there, and haven't there are very bots that just willill like try and stir up not like stir up controversies on social media, like just to like pit people against each other.
You know, it's it's scary, but that can be true too, that it's just like these you know, just like these social media manipulators online trying to yeah, trying to like create drama or like create a problem more than maybe wouldn't otherwise be one.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, this is true. And now I'm not white people obviously in general, just there's a sector of just trolls who like I just and you're right to your point, it might be five people who have figured out how to hack the system to leave negative reviews because these five people are mad. But it's just a shame that, Like, but I've seen it. Like if I say something, I mean, I've seen it for myself. If I say something about black that it's like, oh, well,
I mean, Jesus am I not a black woman. I'm not allowed to say as a black woman, Like well, why can't you be a woman. I'm a woman, and I'm a black woman, and I'm a tall woman, and I mean I'm a woman with natural hair. It's like, I don't know, it's almost times sometimes it just feels like existing and admitting to your existence.
It's a fenceive to some people.
And I'm just like, honestly, what I love is that nobody cares like you could kick rocks, nobody's here for it. That just as visceral as your reaction is to be negative, like, it's just the same visceral reaction that those who support will come, and in fact it's not more so, So I just love the fact that despite all this, that bitch,
just like I said, she's super nice. I hosted a contest of like black women entrepreneurs at for Ford for essence like two or three years ago, and she was one of the black women entrepreneurs and she had an amazing business and I just remember being like, Wow, that's awesome, super just like really kind personality and yeah, and so just to see that despite this negativity that came her way, you know that, you know, it was turned around and used for good. So and I love that the fact
that Target a target spokesperson. They reached out to BuzzFeed News and said that they're aware of some negative comments, but quite honestly that most people are overwhelmingly positive about the feedback. That they've given Target and they love and they're proud to work with and then you know, they just will continue to highlight her. So I'm just glad that, like, despite that negativity. It's like, you know, it's just just disheartening and I hate that.
You know, well, Target's smart to realize that they need to capitalize on black women and what huge business products. You know, and obviously any product can be for anybody, but there was such a gap in the market for products for women of color, and Target's one of those places you know you can go. I know, I can go and get like all the natural hair products I need. They just they're hosting Taraji p Henson's new hair product line they're running there. They're like exclusive for having her
new product line. I love that that Target, to which I haven't tried, but you know, kudos to Target for supporting, yeah, for supporting entrepreneurs of color and to be a trice for getting a boost in sales despite all the haters.
So that's lovely. Yeah, exactly.
And I'm gonna buy some honey pot. No, I mean, I don't know, I've never used like specialized stuff.
I need to know what this honeypot does. Let's see, flore knows I could use some referb down there. You know what happening a child does.
There's a bunch of different products, so she's got like cleansing products, wipe and honestly, I was like, yeah, I think that for those interested, for sure, take a look. They actually have them at Target stores. I've seen them myself, so yeah, I just think that. I think that it's an awesome product line, and it's I'm glad that you know that it turned out for better. But yeah, this is just funny because, like you said, it's totally free advertising for her.
But yeah, she says.
She's not taking it personally. But I don't know if things like that hurt my feelings. So we're all human, so I just can only imagine what it must have felt like at first. So yeah, that's my brown.
It's a boosty breakye where it's like a break with like.
Child, the racist and the trolls, but then the boots like, yeah, she came out on top.
I love it. That's a good way to end the show. I love it. All right, guys, Well, thank you for another week, and we will be back next week with a new show. H Yes, Lord alright, by God, have money more dot com and donate.
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