Hey, hey, Hey.
We're black, We're brown ambition. I feel like I missed a step. Damn it, We're we're black, We're back.
We're brown ambition. You know what it is?
Hey, mandra hello, our lives matter. If you guys didn't get the memo.
Yes, woo child, it has been all.
I realized it sounds like I said all, not all.
No, yes, are you're just saying, oh, listen.
How many folks have I had to correct? I can't believe that has shake stool lives on? But yeah, how are you doing? It has been a week since our last show, which was it was a doozy.
It was a doozy.
I'm feeling, honestly, much much better and lighter because for two weeks it was definitely heavy, heavy, heavy.
But yeah, I'm much.
Better and lighter just because I also see I see movement, I see improvement, and so I think that's just giving me, like, you know, just a little dose of hope and happiness.
So I love that I was feeling that way. I listened.
I never really listened to our shows, but this one I actually forgot. It was just we were so emotional and so raw that I just could not remember what I said, and then people started It started to get a lot of traction. People were listening to it, and I was getting messages thank you for saying.
X y Z, and I'm like, what did I say on the show?
People at my job were sharing it, and I'm like, oh man, what did I say about? But I did sound kind of upbeat, and I did spend the weekend like Friday. It just felt like, you know, just a collective sigh and it doesn't feel like days have any significance anymore. But Friday did feel like, thank God, the week is over and let's just go into the weekend and.
Try and restore.
And I know for many people they were out in the streets and they were marching and or protesting. I still haven't gone out there, but I think I'm running out of I'm running. I think I'm going to I want to find a way to actually go out and protest in a way that is safe.
But I see people out there with their.
Kids, and it just feels like it's such a big moment that yes, there's lots of things you can do behind the scene, and marching isn't everything, but it also feels like the physical nature of it like moving your legs toward hopefully a better future. It just seems significant and I don't want to I don't want to miss that, but I agree, like I heard myself on the show and I felt optimistic then, and I was trying to
articulate it. And it feels sort of like when you have been carrying your groceries down the streets in Manhattan because you're, you know, twenty two, when you just moved here and you can't afford a taxi and you're just lugging and you're like, why did I get that bottle of you know, really heavy juice and your arms are aching and then a lovely stranger comes and shares a load with you. That is kind of what it has
felt like, because something's different in time. It's just it's the symphony of voices that are around.
It is. It sounds corny and cheesy, but I don't care. It is.
It is all the voices lifting up. People are sharing the pain. They may not understand it, but they're starting to empathize. They're they're trying to empathize, and they're stumbling along the way, but people are trying.
And this is it, This is it.
Feels like a turning point because it could never just be our voices, you know, it had to hit in mainstream, you know.
You know what's so crazy is that I had normalized the abuse in my head. You know, like when I was thinking, like I was, like, I think I mentioned last week how I said I was going to have, you know, like a white friend be the person for the the not the insurance suggester, the appraiser there was going to come to my house. And because I was afraid that I know, historically black homes are under appraised,
which affects black wealth. And so I had normalize things like that, like oh yeah, I'll just get to you know, I'll just get a white friend to be me while, you know, so that way the appraise or thinks a white person lives here and it will give me a fair chance.
There are there are adjustments.
That black folks make daily that you realize that you're
you're normal. You normalize the abuse of racism where you're just like, oh yeah, well, like someone said, like for example, you go into a store and you don't touch anything unless you're gonna buy it, because you know that if you touch something people there's a very high likelihood someone's going to think that you're trying to steal, so you're only touching like what you're going to buy, like those types of things that you don't realize that you start
to normalize that like other people don't have to navigate in that way. And so I think what what all of this brought up for me was that like, wow, how much of these things that I had normalized that should not be normal that had let kind of like slide.
So that's there was this rage.
And this anger and this sadness and this frustration that built up because I realized, like, wow, there's so many adjustments that I make because I know quote unquote what I look like. You know what it would look like because it's me. And so I think that's what a
lot of people were also feeling too. It was the anger of what was happening externally, what you could see, but it was also the anger of what you realized that has been happening to you for so many years and you're just like, wait, what is.
How life has been?
And so yeah, it was just like I said, I feel in a much better space and place because I see some movement, I see some it's so crazy because I of the three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, I know two of them really well, like Opole that's my girl, and Patrise that's my girl as well. I've traveled with Patrice to Australia when she got the city well, when Black Lives Matter was awarded the Sydney's Peace Prize.
And Opole and nine have hung out a number of times.
And so I just so it's crazy to like see from their perspective all the work that they've been doing and to see it come to fruition like this, just like it's just been a crazy.
Just up and down and up and down.
But to your point, Mandy, I this time feels different because.
It's not just black voices that I'm.
Seeing and hearing calling out for change, which is like, so it feels so good that it's not just black voices.
Right, I mean.
And the reason that we need more than black voices is part of the problem too, because people don't really take things seriously often until they hear it from someone who looks like them, and most people in power don't look like us. So that is why it's so crucial. And I mean, and I give people a lot of credit. I mean, here's the thing. My little brother was kind of going through this, and he was we were talking
about it. There's this you know how you feel when all of a sudden people love your favorite artists, but they've been underground for a while, and all of a sudden it's mainstream and you're a little.
Bit like, oh, well, I knew her or him when.
You know they were just like on the street, busking, you know, to make ends meet or whatever.
I've been a fan for a long time.
Among some people who have been vocal with the BLM movement, there is a sense of like, why now, you know, why.
Where were you?
You know, hundreds of deaths ago, you know, where were you at treyvon Martin, Where were you at Sandra Bland? Where were you at Philando Castile? You know all these opportunities? Why what makes this one different? And I really and I understand it. I get it because and we can we can feel the pain of that, and we can feel the pain of the reality that, yes, it took a goddamn pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of not one hundreds of thous but tens of thousands of Americans and
more worldwide, hundreds of thousands worldwide. It took that for us to be unplugged from all the distractions, all the ways that we make ourselves feel better, and to numb certain experiences and to ignore things that we don't want to look at. It. It took this, And I understand people who feel that way and maybe resent those of them who are jumping into the movement now who never posted about it before when it wasn't mainstream. But at
the same time, there's such a huge opportunity here. I feel like that's the word.
I just keep.
Repeating, opportunity, opportunity, use people's guilt that it took them so long to speak up to the benefit of black lives. So, if you're part of a company right now who is grambling to figure out they posted the thing on social media, they send the email out to their company. But what's next.
And I really encourage anyone who's working for a company or you own a business, if you're in a position where you can talk to someone in power who's wanting people are wanting to figure out what they can do and what their contribution is, let's help them find a way. You know, tell your company, oh, here are the organizations where you can donate. Here are links to the websites where you can educate yourself. Here is this bail fund.
People may think that they need to donate to, you know, the big names end of lacp ACLU, and that's very important. There are local, you know, defense funds that are providing legal aid to people who are getting arrested, protesting all sorts of things. And it doesn't have to be related to the although criminal justice is a huge piece of it. You know, if your company, you know, is necessarily tied to social causes, maybe there's something like some other way
through your industry. You can help organizations that are working to fight against all the different ways that you know, brown and black people are at a disadvantage in this country, and just try to hold back the resentment, I think and humor like, give them a shot to try. Yeah, it took them a damn long time, and it should have been. It should have been decades ago, hundreds of years ago. I know it should have been. But it's now. This is this is it. Don't you feel that like
I feel that way. This is the moment, So ask for whatever the heck, ask for everything, Ask for everything.
That's how I feel.
That's and I just want to I want to seize this mo And I've been thinking about what I know, Tiffany. You know you talked a lot about last week wanting to lean into other business owners who are trying to figure out how to make a safe space and build a business that looks like yours, mostly black, largely female, and really lift up those business owners, which is and I wanted to know. I know you talked about it last week, but you know, how are you finding like
do you feel the same way I do? And then how are you trying to seize this moment. I'm not putting you on the spot, but like I kind of am.
Now I think honestly, I I somebody actually reached out to me and I I've already spoken to my team about what would that look like because I like simple and soon.
I don't want to make it a.
Whole amen, I don't want to make it. So I'm just like, they know those are two favorite words. I'm like, how could we do? So? I asked them, I said, if we could dedicate because every my team on Mondays we have we have a lead team calls twice a twice a week Mondays is mental health checking. So literally that call is literally just how you doing, how the people on your team doing, what can we do to help?
And then on Thursdays is when we have like the nitty gritty call where it's like, you know, this is an issue, this, we're fixing this, we're working on that kind of stuff. So I thought, well, what if we could dedicate one Thursday call a month to a brown female entrepreneur who So here's the thing though, because I know somebody already emailed me, waight to email, because literally.
I'm just going to put it in a in a.
Google doc because I want to I want to create some sort of like criteria because what I don't want to do, I want to make sure because you're going to have access to one of the best digital marketers in the world, our CFO, one of the best content writers in the country, tamer who is the manager of our literature academy. I said, eight figure your business Karen, who runs everything, our COO myself like this is our lead team is six people strong, and it's incredible.
So as a result of that, I really want to help.
Existing businesses, So not someone who's like I've got an idea, and I'm thinking it's like, no, I don't know. We're trying to figure out what that looks like. Like I've been in business for two years or I've been in business for three years. You have to have some skin in the game. You have to already have some momentum going because it's it's you really get to have access to folks who are at that net that are like next level.
So I want to make sure that we're really because for the lighter stuff like you could join the Literature Academy, for the smaller stuff like I'm just starting a business, I want to start an LLC, these type of lighter things. You know, we have resources for that, but this is really for businesses that are that are already running and
just need that extra edge. So that way, because the point is to help you grow, so that way you can create a bigger space and platform so you can hire more folks that need that safe keeping, you know. So yeah, I feel like for me, I've been really just asking myself there's like a three prong approach.
I'm like, Okay, how can I help?
Because for me, whenever things get rough and tough, the thing I lean in on is my gifts and talents, which is teaching.
So I always lead with that first.
So I was like, Okay, how can I how can I help with businesses? Okay, teaching, I can create a safe space where we can start to mentor once a month a new business to the next level. Okay, Then what about like regular individual people? And I'm like, well, I kind of you already do that with with the budget Nista, but still I can have a more point and maybe, like I already have kind of like a ten step plan about how you reach something that I
call financial hollness. So I'm like, okay, I'm leaning into developing that plan so folks can really like from budgeting to estate planning really understand how do I get from one under the financial spectrum to the next.
I'm like, okay, good, And then you know what I mean.
So I'm always looking for, like, well, how do I help regular everyday people? Then how do I help small businesses?
And yeah, how can I just expand this reach? And when I tell you, and I know some of y'all, listen, the amount of production companies that have hit me up that are like, hey, we'd love to talk to you about your own show, and I in the beginning ten years ago, Tiffany was like amped, and then five years ago Tiffany was like, I'm good, And now Tiffany now is like, hmmm, I'm I'm open because I believe that there's a message that needs to be spread beyond just
like the people that I normally talk to. I'm not actually not looking forward to like being like well known, you know, because it can be a lot. But I do think that there has to be another voice in this.
If nothing else has taught me with them all the shanan again, with that organization that shall not be named, and all those other things that you're going to talk about, right So if nothing else, then it has taught me that there has to be a descending voice, you know, that speaks for the voice list and teaches in a way that doesn't involve shame, that doesn't evolve like antagonization, that doesn't involve all of those things, that teaches financial education,
that democratizes financial education in a way that everyone can participate.
And I'm like, Sotin, if you have that opportunity, don't turn it down.
So that's where I am right now, just trying to tap into extended ways that I can continue to serve because I've already served this population.
But really just trying to amplify.
That that why would you ever have turned down a TV show? Maybe you were having a little bit of an aposter syndrome, but I'm gonna need you to get their own sure, get every But.
You know, I mean, well, like I said, right now, there's a bunch of production agency. I haven't I don't, you know, I'm still even navigating what does that look like? Like you know, I'm still trying to have you know, super baby, and like what I want to I don't want I want to make sure that, like you know, that's my that's a priority for me. I don't want to put a show over that. So just understanding, like what does the taping schedule look like? You know, And I already spoke to them.
Who's the talk show host who had a baby in her late forties and she she would Tameron Hall, Tammer and.
Hall yeah mm hmm.
Yeah, So I mean like that I wouldn't want I'll tell you that that like from taping from being the financial expert for the real that daily show thing. Absolutely not. I'm not interested in that. It is there's no way with all that I have going on, there's no space for that. I would prefer some sort of like reality positive reality show where I really helped to transform someone's life or families have a woman's like whatever that looks like.
But the show is taped in like typically those type of shows are taping within two or three months, so you like dedicate like three months of your time hardcore taping this show, and then you have other things you can go back to.
I'm not interested in taping.
A show like where you go into the studio and you're taping all day long now because I've got ten thousand things that I still want to work on. So I much rather saying, Okay, these three months out of my life is show, show, show, and then the show comes out and I can do the other things that I'm working on. So, like I said, I'm open, and I feel like I'm ready. When I saw myself all we gotta talk about Queer Eye?
Oh did you want to talk about that? Is that?
Like?
Were you on Queer Eye?
Did?
Did you guys?
See?
I didn't? I is that like a thing? Yes?
Because I was thinking of the right into it. Okay, but before you get okay, we all know you're fabulish everyone, so before you do, because I could put you on the spot, just real quick. Just a couple of ways that I've stepped out of my own comfort zone. One recently,
in response to like what's happening? I went to the University of Georgia, which is the oldest black pub uh not black, I would not at all super non diverse anyway, the oldest public higher education institution in the state of Georgia, and my alma mater. Had an amazing time there, but I never realized how many buildings on campus were named for And this makes absolute perfect sense. It's a Southern college,
it's been around hundreds of years. Of course, many institutions on the campus have been named after people who had not so great belief systems and potentially own slaves and all kinds of whatnot. And there's been this movement for my journalism school to drop the name in the title of at school, which is Grady, and replace it with
something else. And so I'm kind of I accidentally stumbled into the little group of alumni who are trying to get the school renamed, and there's a petition going around and it feels small, but it feels like something, you know, like something. So I'm trying to give people ideas. You know, look at the street on your corner, look at the school down the street, or a statue. I know people
are looking at statues now. If there's symbols of belief systems that hurt black Americans, hurt Americans of color, you have a voice, and now is the time to challenge people to take them down literally.
You know.
You think of colleges naming places after people who give than billions of dollars, you know, and that's why they're named that way.
In this case, I asked the question, like, so, why is this guy's name in my school? Is Henry W. Grady?
Oh, he was like one of the trustees back in the day. He didn't give a dime to the school. So why are we, like, you know, plasting his name over everything? And and and think critically and like ask these questions because maybe it's not you know, changing making sweeping legislative changes. That's what people in Congress are for. Of course, it's about voting, of course, it's about raising your voice, but it's also about what I love about this movement now as people are realizing it's what can
I do in my community? What can I do inside my family unit, to have conversations, to challenge things, to challenge institutions that are local to me. And if everyone just did a little bit more of that, I mean, that's how the movement really happens. So I just wanted
to quickly, you know, mention that. And also, like I said, if you work for a company, I work for a company that put out a statement in support a Black Lives Matter and for me, I'm asking, hey, so they're really excited to help, So like, what can we for next? And of course it might be money, but it also might be all right, if you acknowledge that you're not so diverse, what commitment can you make to improving that diversity instead of just sort of sometimes people want to
pat in the back for acknowledging the the discrepancy. Oh yeah, we know, we're a bunch of white guys in the c suite. It's all you know, we're gonna we're gonna get on that. But like, so what's the steps? You know, what are the steps? What are the actions? And I think right now, if you are a person of color at a company and you feel.
In the past, like.
I talked about last week, you may not have felt so comfortable reminding people that you are black or Latino or whatever. But now it's the time, like they need our help. And yes, it's annoying and it's it shouldn't be the way that you and we need to help them find a way to help.
But it's also an opportunity.
And I really just encourage everyone to start thinking small, like what can you do where you work, where you live to try and make things a little bit more equitable and ask the people who are in a place of power to make commitments to something not just lip service, you know. And that's that's what I'm trying to do.
And I don't know.
I'm on the alumni board for this college, and I'm like, am I gonna get kicked off? I don't know, whatever, It'll be fine, It'll be fine.
Yes, that's the part that's kind of hard. I'm not gonna lie speaking up there. I didn't, you know, when I spoke up against like I said, the organization that shall not be named, I I didn't anticipate.
I guess some of the backlash, I guess, which is kind of crazy.
I didn't, and maybe I did, but I didn't anticipate some of the backlash from some of the people that I got it from. You gotta know I did. I left before I got to read most of it because I'm not in that. I'm not in their community online Facebook community anymore, because I was like, well, why am I here?
Okay, so, but I'm a producer, had aason. We have two huge budget, needs to talking points. We have to talk about Queer Eye. We have to talk about the conference that shall not be named, but we kind of do need to name it because people don't know what we're talking about. It's called thin kany'all.
Yes, but we talked about it.
Remember I talked about finn Conn and how I pute. We talked about so last week is a blur.
Did we talk about it?
Well, we talked about it in general. I talked about well, not even in general. I talked about how I shared a tweet. Why I tweeted because the founder of finn Conn tweeted some really disparaging remarks about like what's happening now, But quite honestly, he's been doing that, not just now. Yes, he's a huge supporter of literally the person that we do not name. That's that's that's now lives on Black Matter of Black Lives Matter, sixteen hundred, Black Lives Matter, Plaza, the irony.
So he's a huge.
Supporter of that person, which whatevers, that's, you know, whatever floats your boat. But some of his tweets, he's now since disabled his Twitter because God, for bitch, someone should do the research. Some of his tweets have always been like a little okay, but so it came to light some of his most recent tweets, especially about what's happening now, So people were really upset about it. They posted it in our our Facebook group and people were holding him
to the fire. He deleted the post at first, and then it was brought back and they were like, no answer for these and I, you know, went in. It was like and what I saw. What I didn't like is that folks were like, well, it's just this one time tweet. I was like, no, what's your history of behavior? And so I just shared how he'd offered me, you know, like peanuts to do a keynote and then offered a white woman ten thousand, like he offered me twenty five hundred.
A white woman ten thousand and then he had paid a white man like two or three years prior, maybe even before fifty thousand and so, you know, I posted that because I wanted to show a history of behavior. And so of course I you know, I cause Mandy and I had talked about it, remember me and n we talked about it offline before when I was asking like, do.
You know what other folks have made?
Because I wanted to just see, like what's happening, and a few other women and I want to I want to keep it really vague because I you know, it's not my story to tell, but a few other women reached out to me about their experiences about pay and things, and it is egregious what some people were paid or offered egregious. And yeah, so I shared that and honestly, not that I didn't think anything was gonna happen, but it kind of blew up in the in the least
a personal finance space. He ended up stepping down as CEO, which wasn't my intention. And quite honestly, if I'm gonna be always transparent, I don't care.
I've left that place.
It's like it's like I've yeah, I don't you're stepping down whatever, like que I mean, I know to me it's just for looks, but whatever, I don't and so I've moved on. But I'm from what I've heard, there's been like a lot of there are other things that he's done to other folks that have come to light. Once I shared that, people were like and then and then and then and then, you know, but by then I had left, and so, like I said, I'm not
in the the group anymore. But people were sending me screenshots of what some folks were saying.
Something that he did that I didn't like, which I didn't even notice that he'd done.
He implied, ever so lightly, that maybe I was anti Semitic, That's what it kind of read like, which I didn't think.
So yeah, So there was.
One post where he said, Hey, Tiffany, I didn't pay someone with this that guy more because he's Jewish and white, and I'm like, who's Jewish?
I didn't even in the way he I didn't realize.
It wasn't until some folks in the Incong community who were Jewish reached out and were upset, like, Hey, Tiffany, did you say anything about the guy who's paid more being Jewish. And that's why I was like, what, First of all, I didn't even know he was Jewish?
Okay, like, and second of all I didn't.
I had to literally post my tweet and even post my email response back to the offer, like I never once mentioned like that he's Jewish, and I thought, I thought, I found that very curious that he would use that language. You know what I mean, I mean, uh huh, yeah, So it just yes, well, what's the expression that came home to roost.
You reap what you so, mister, yes, And that's you don't want to relish. You don't want to relish on anyone's downfall. I hope that this is another case of what happens when we talk to each other. And it also is another case of you and Tiffany. You did the work, You benchmarked your own damn speech, and you should have and you should to figure because you know what you're worth. But it's also okay you want to be, you know, cognitizant of someone's budget, but you need to know,
and so many people don't know what they're worth. And in one part of that journey is asking others what they've gotten for similar work and it's just one of these awkward, you know, taboo subjects in this country. And unfortunately, what's most challenging if you're a person of color is you may not know people who have been there before you to give you that, to give you the benefit of knowledge. And that is another part of white privilege
that people don't want to acknowledge. The fact that you may have an uncle, or you may have a neighbor, you may have a friend's you know, father, from the school that you attend it's a fancy school, you know, you may have access to knowledge. It's not just about money. It's not just about healthcare, although those are huge issues as well. It's about knowledge and sometimes you have to work. And this is another I'll say it again, this is
brown ambition. Brown ambition is doing the extra work, not whining about the fact that you need to do it, but doing it because that is what's going to take for you to get to where you're going. And it's so necessary. And when you spoke, other people heard you. And I hope that this just encourages more people, not just women, but of course women like talk to each other ask what did you get, and especially if it's
someone who's already kind of passed that mark. They shouldn't have a problem sharing that with you, and I encourage if you're not. This is one way to be an ally. If you're not sure of what to do or how you can contribute, reach out to someone a few steps behind you, who's a person of color, woman or man, or person in general, and offer them access to your knowledge, the benefit of your knowledge, because you may be underestimating the value of it, you know.
Because it's like, literally, I remember, Manandi, I reached out to you. I was like, Mandy, what do you think. I reached out to my agent, Ellie, what have you heard? I reached out to a number of women. I would say at least five different women I reached out to just to be sure that I wasn't bugging, you know.
And then when I got like some numbers back, I was like, interesting, this is some being because.
You know, I didn't want to jump the gun, even though it intrinsically I was like, twenty five hundred seems super low considering that literally local churches pay me more. But also too, there are there have been huge platforms where I spoke where they didn't pay any speakers and then you know, because I've asked around and I'm like, okay, so this is one of those platforms.
So I didn't want to jump the gun.
And I was just like, you know, just in case, you know, I was mistaken, you know, to leave space for that. But to your point, Mandy, that it's so important to you know, have the conversations. It's one to ask and two to reply to other folks about what's happening.
I'm always sharing like this. Was talking to a.
Friend of mine today who got just approached by a production company because they're all trying to gobble us all up for for a guess finding shows. And I was walking her through like what the steps are going to look like and like the dudes that don't want the expectation all that stuff. Because you know, Lynette, who we've
had on the show she put me on. I feel like it's so important to pass information on from one person to the next and not to hoard information because in doing so you can just it really just helps us.
To all grow collectively together. So so yeah, but.
Honestly, I feel really good. I mean, people have reached out to me like are you okay. I'm like, sis, I was on Queer Eyes.
So I'm good, which We're gonna take a quick break. You see how I make people wait until we come back for a break. We're gonna take a quick break and then I mean, we all know what the brown boos is gonna be. Let's just talk about Tiffy and Queer right, Okay, we will be right back. Do do do do do do do do do do?
Are we not taking questions today? People will?
I don't care about things right now. This I was just singing the theme song for Queer Eye. Dude, dude, okay, so Queer I. That was the gift that I gave myself. Yes, this is Barnavis Fromer back to the show. I'm taking over the segment because I'm an.
Interview Tiffany about Queer I.
Okay, okay, So what happened was Tiffany and I are obviously not friends because she did not tell me about this.
No, that's not true.
Do you guys know what.
Tiffany stable? Because you have laughing, you throw your back out again. So here's what happens when you get tapped on the shoulder for a can you even call it a nah? A global television phenomenon because it's on n they make you sign so many pieces of paper, so much legalies that says if you tell a single soul, we will take their firstborn child. And obviously she knew I was okay, So of course Tiffany couldn't tell anybody
except for her lovely HUSBANDE. But queer eye queer eye, which epitomizes like so much of what is good in the world right now, And it was the treat I gave myself this weekend. I tucked in, you know, with my nice fuzzy blanket and my puppy, and we sat down to watch a few episodes, and I really was in my feelings because they were in Philly this season, and Philly obviously has a huge just lots of black culture,
lots of gentrification. It's a city that's in the in the midst of so much change, not just the city but the state as well, and they told some unique black stories. There was a young woman who had a business that was on the rocks, like she and all she needed was someone to tell her how. And it broke my heart because without the access to knowledge, you can see how it was holding her back from her
own dream and her own possibility. And then then we get to a young man named Tyreek, who, oh my god, just this human teddy bear of a man who, for reasons out of his control, borne into tough circumstances but pulled himself out, found himself to a good community and was getting back on his feet, but had some financial issues.
And when I heard his story, I was like, Tiffany, this guy means Tiffany, Like if he just had a Tiffany, it would all be okay, you know, And he needs his auntie Ruth to love him again, but like that's fine, but mostly he needs to figure out why his credit has been stolen. And then like the fairy Godwether Bibity Poppity Boo budget Neiza, it was on my screen, Oh
my god. And when I saw Tiffy, like, who are you talking about earlier the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement and how incredible it is to see people who have done the work for so long succeed And now Queer Eye to me is like you could have won the Nobel Peace Prize, Tiffany, Like it's just this show is just I stand for it because I genuinely feel like if we just loved each other and looked at each other the way that these five beautiful men
look at the people that they help. It's just the intention of the show is so pure and I just eat it up. It fills my soul, and you also fill my soul because that is how you approach your work, And when those two things came together, it was just I could not take it. And to have known you for as long as I have and to watch your career people, I got message from people who were like, I just love the way you.
Love Tiffany, Like I love how excited you are for your friends.
And I'm like, find you a friend who loved you like I left tiff and watched to see you succeed.
Y'all need better friends.
Y'all need friends who want to see you rise.
Yo, your ID stories just just gave me all the life. I was like, oh, first of all, the fact that you were watching it and saying it like oh NVK, you know, like to me, should be audi?
Wait is that?
And then you literally I was gonna tweet them like why didn't you call my girl Tiffany and had a brother show. Not that I have any influence, but oh, and I'm glad you didn't tell me, because it was so it was just to find out that.
Way and be genuinely shocked and surprised.
It was amazing.
So because you know, well the way it worked, it was like a year I had taste almost a year prior.
They were sweating nasties, and I could tell it was like what.
It was because I was it was. I was so.
And then you know, of course you signed your NDA like you know, and in it because also too, you know, they want to protect the privacy of Tyreek, you know, before that comes out. And plus two, you know they want they tape, you know, so long in advance. And so I was so scared to say anything because I was I was afraid that if anything came out that they would just cut my segments.
They had never done a financial segment a queer I didn't know that.
Until recently, and that was their first ever financial money segment or expert on Queer Eye. So and then so after months, I forgot because if y'all know, if you've been listening to Brown and Bits, you know I have the memory of an eighty year old. So I literally totally forgot until it was just about to come out and they gave me like the flyer, which I added
myself to the flyer. I'm in the little boat at the back, like hey, So they gave me this, and they gave me the flyer to post, and by then I'd forgotten that, like you know that I hadn't told that anyone, And so when it came out, it just like literally I woke up.
It was June fifth is when it came out.
I woke up first thing in the morning, and I watched the episode, and of course I'm boohooing over Tyrek, and then I'm nervous to see how do I show up because it's it's nerve wracking when you're on camera. It's very difficult to maintain and be yourself when a camera is on, and for years I've been practicing to do.
I remember Oprah did this interview where she talks about how Quincy Jones told her what made her so special and why he knew why she was going to do well is that she has the unique ability to be the same on and off camera.
I think people take it for granted when a camera turns on.
Ninety nine point nine percent of people are not able to be the same person.
It's very difficult.
And I remember when I heard Oprah say that that that's what Quincy Jones said about her.
I made it my mission. It was years ago.
I made it my mission to work on being the same person on and off camera. And most times I'm not like I'm a little bit more nervous. I'm you know, like I'm either super hyper Tiffany or super low key Tiffany, but never really just like my normal self. And for the first time ever, when I saw myself on Queer Eye,
that's exactly me. Like, that's exactly like how if there was no camera, the way I spoke to Treiq is exactly how I show up, Like when I'm helping a dream catcher and I was watching myself and I was like, wow, ten years in the making, Tiffany, you finally did it like you are you, you know, and it just felt really I don't know, it just felt really good and it just felt and.
I didn't I didn't even reconuz.
I mean, I was thinking to myself, Okay, I did it, but then someone so many people hit me up and said you were so kind of Tarik, and I'm like, what I didn't even see it that way, and I'm like, I didn't think I was kind. I was just doing what I would normally do, and you were so uplifting, and I'm like, well, how do people speaking to me?
Well, I mean, you have to make yourself so vulnerab you know, he was probably more nervous than you were. Yeah, because people look at their finances. And if you haven't seen this episode, the episode four seas in five, check it out in Netflix Seal Someone's password. It's fine, Tyreek. You can tell that he was the kind of person
who swept things under the rug. I mean how many years, Like he was eleven when he was moved from his home with his aunt slash mother Ruth, and then he was in his mid twenties, so over a decade he spent not talking to this woman, and his finances are probably similar.
He's like, oh, I tried to go to a.
Bank, you know, a few years ago, and they told me that someone stole my social and then you know so and people are so embarrassed often and afraid to acknowledge what they've done wrong because they feel like they're going to be judged and they feel that they're going to hear Oh well, you deserve what you get, you
know you're supposed to have. But and then in that shame, it's about shame, you know, it's about shame, and it's about releasing what you what you do, what your power is, and what Oprah's power is too, because she's talked to so many people who have so much shame about their circumstances. You put them at ease because you relieve them of it, you know.
Well also too, I just wanted him to know that you're not alone, you know that.
Like like that's when I when I was like, I've been on paychecks okay, like not paycheck check systems, yeah, like in.
The check systems mentioned in Queer Eye. I just love it.
I mean when when tell me when that's ever been mentioned?
Yes, you don't check your bank account.
And so I just it was I mean, it was so crazy because like you guys, see me give him like a paper where I talk because beforehand they kind of gave me like his background. So I wanted to create a specialized plan for him that was not for TV that it was like this is what I want you to do. So I really I typed out, like okay, step one, step two, step three.
I want you to be okay.
And so we were like wrapping up taping and I was like, okay, Torik you no, no, Now, the cameras and things are going to be off, but I want to share this with you because I really want you to be okay beyond this. And so they're like, wait, what's that. It was like a plan I typed up for him. They're like, let's get it on camera, and that's what. That's what because we talked for a while,
so that's what showed up. And I just thought it's so incredible, like that, that honest interaction that that wasn't meant for you know, I didn't bring.
That for TV. That wasn't you know.
We had already kind of talked about how the scene it was gonna go, and that wasn't for that. That was like I wanted. I wanted him to have something to go home with. And I literally love was like step one, do this, step two, call this person, step three.
You because I knew that he needed that handholding.
And so and for those of you who are asking, because when you're watching, you see I tell him there's a thirty six thirty six day. Of course, honestly, it's just my y'all been hearing me talking about my Literature Challenge for the longest.
It's free.
I mean it I gave it to him, but I mean it's literally just the Live Richer Challenge.
If you go to live Richer.
Challenge dot com, there's five challenges you can take, take one at a time because it's an email course, so it emails you daily. But the one that I suggested for him was the Fundamentals. That's the very first one I ever wrote. But yeah, so it's free. Because people were messaging like I wish I had a thirty six
day I'm like, you do Liverature Challenge. It's like I've wrote it in twenty fourteen, and so yeah, it's just it was just I don't usually give myself a lot of space and grace, but I was like, Tiffany.
I'm really proud of you.
You did a really good job and you help someone and I'm trying to like reconnect because the way it is, obviously they're not going to give me his contact information.
So but I've definitely said it.
Like when I saw it come out, I reached back out to the producer to say please, you know, regive him my contact information so we can make sure that he is he's okay, because it's you know, you know, thirty minutes with someone is not enough. You really need some handholding. And I don't mind doing that for him. And so much of what he was going through is probably tied up.
And you know, and people the psychology and money is real, y'all, and you need follow up.
It's the same.
It's so similar to when you're trying to lose weight and you get you get weight loss surgery, like people in my family have gotten. And it's not a it's about that surgery. It's not like and that's what kind of happens on Queer I And I mean, I love the show. They do spend a week with people and they really pour into them and they tailor the makeover. And I don't mean to say makeover like it's a you know, splashed a lipstick and a new outfit. They
really work on the inside and the out. But at the same time, it's a week and they get you know, they gave Tyrek this beautiful, stunning makeover of his apartment that he finally had had for the first time, but he was still working. I mean, you can tell he's on the fringe. You know, he was homeless for a lot for many years, and those type of people are
very vulnerable. I mean, sometimes you don't even know what to do with that kind of good fortune, and you may start to you may start to feel guilty about it. You may not think you're worthy of it. I mean, and I just feel like, and it's not just about Tyreek, although of course he's hot, he's fresh on my mind, but it's about it's about reaching out to those people and following up and seeing and acknowledging that they're going
to need you know, that follow up. And I hope I got really invested in his story and then you turned up and then I was like, okay, I like need to know everything about him and follow him everywhere.
Sidebar.
Mandy was a guest on I G Live and everyone was like, I did not know in who my sister.
She's like, you did not tell me that Mandy was hilarious. I'm like, you didn't know.
The same blood No, because I had that to listen.
No, you are, I mean, I obviously I know you're hilarious, but I'm just so used to you being like hilarious and I'm like yeah.
She's like yeah, but she's.
Like, I've never you know, like I've heard Mandy on the podcast, but I've never seen like Mandy and accent. I'm like, what everybody thinks that I'm like the crazy silly one. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no no no, We're gonna have Mandy on more often.
She like to off her game because I don't know any rules. I mean I do. I made the.
Same commitment and be myself whenever i'm because it's too exhausted and could try and be any you know. I see like people on IG and they and I did it too. I was watching some of my oh used to host a web series like y'ahoo Finance, and I watched some of my old videos and I'm like, look at you trying to be Katie Kirk.
You're not Katie Kirk. You're not Katie Kirk.
Like that's not who you are. She's not, but there's only one you and I Yeah. And also when you're too tired to try, which is you know, the last six months of my life, it really just reveals just who you are inside. So I'm glad you kuinds like it and.
We're gonna teach you how to stay to pull back from the from the phone.
Grandma.
I'm like, look at mandy face all up in the phone like somebody's grandma. I was like, you can tell Bady, don't never go No, my.
Face was all up in the phone because I don't have a studio where I have the lighting and my face beat and you know the nice background. You were gonna literally see my bed that wasn't made. So I had to fill the I had to fill the string with.
My hair with your hair.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you're welcome for that.
I just feel like it this just gets like so much better. I mean when you when you were like we should try a podcast, I was like, oh, that new thing that folks are doing. Who would have known, like five years later we'd be still going strong and consistent and who else?
Honestly, just who else could I have done it with? Just I was a genius. I was you were that works to you.
To deal with it was perfect timing. I was like, oh, okay.
Well, and I feel like but it's it's it's just another platform, you know, and it's another way to reach people, and it just yeah, it fills me up and it sounds like it fills a lot of you guys up to and that brings me joy and I you know, we're ben a thing from this whole. I'm like, yeah, y'all one's in Brown podcasts A shout out, thank y'all for sharing our podcast.
We've been tagged in las last and lots of posts.
Keep it up, Keep it up and challenge people, you know, like, oh you really want to support us?
Can you shout us out? You know, I'm saying like people want to support, they want to reach and see who they know, you know, who represents a voice that's not often heard, and you know, tell them about yours, tell them about ours. This is the moment to call people out? How do we get off back onto me? Tiffany, congratulations on Queer Eye? What is next? Will you be on every other se I mean, are they going to
add a financial segment? Because what could be more important to people's livelihoods than they're fighting?
I mean, low key, they wanted me to do another episode, but it was Family Night, y'all know I was doing I don't know if I told you all that every other Wednesday we were doing like Family Night. So that way myself, Supergirls, Supermom, her mom, my husband, Superman that we could all like have dinner together because I really want a Supergirl to know that we're all one family, despite us moving and being in a new house.
So it was that night and I was like, I could take literally any other time, and.
They were like, no, that's the only time. And I had to make a decision. Do I forego family night? I know I hadn.
Gone family night.
I'm not gonna lie. I did at first.
No, I did at first, and I was like, you know, I told them, I'm like I'll be there, and then I just thought about it. I'm like, girl, what are you really saying? Like what's important? You know, Like what are you really saying? You're saying Because here's the thing, opportunities will always be there for you, Tiffany, because you do the work, but you know these are this is
an opportunity as well. Superman Mom had switched around her work schedule for us to meet, you know, because of course I asked.
I was like, you know, can we do a different day and she was like no.
You know, I had already told my my job that I want to have these Wednesdays off and so I just I told them, I was like, literally, any other day I will cancel everything, but this Wednesday evening I cannot. And they were like, it's the only time we're taping. So it didn't happen, but hopefully they will have more segment, you know, hopefully, like I said, I am open now more than ever to a positive show. I'm not one for you know, I'm not here to make anyone feel bad.
I'm not here to spread any negativity.
I believe that, like.
I'm the love child of mister Rogers and Harriet Tubman, so you know, like you gonna get free with loving kindness, and so yes, I'm open to that. I think, like that's really the next step is that I feel it, you know. I'm just like, I'm not gonna fight it anymore.
I'm like, if it's if it's in the cards. I feel like there needs to be a new voice being heard and some new things being said, you know, because we can't just focus on debt freedom, we can't just focus on like what you know what I mean, like, there has to be an effort to growing wealth in the black and brown communities. When I here's the statistics that said the black community in the United States will
be collectively bankrupt by twenty fifty. I mean, that's crazy, and I'm like, there has to be a descending voice that says, no, that's not going to be true. And here's why, yea, and why not open to it? Exactly?
If not you, then who who?
And it's not just I mean, obviously you're the budget needs to and you have such a big reach. But if you have knowledge, you've learned from our you've learned from our show about investing and building your wealth, take that to someone else, you know, tell a friend, to tell a friend, and you know, that's how liberal, that's how budget needs to grew. That's how the dream Cutters grew. It's about reaching behind you and pulling them up before you.
And yes, for people of color, unfortunately, that's part of the burden that we carry. You know, you make it and then you want you you want to turn around and help people before you. I mean, you have to put your own life best on first, take care of yourself, but also acknowledge that maybe now people will help, but often it's it's us to help each other.
And that's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing.
And again, it's the it's the knowledge, it's the it's the passing down of knowledge.
That it's so much as given much is required, you know, like if you are fortunate to know a thing, you know and also to this is what here's the blessing in teaching.
You know, when you teach, you learn twice.
So the more you actually show somebody had a budget, how to save, how to invest, you are literally reinforcing that knowledge into yourself. So I I mean I have taught budgeting thousands of times. That's why I can budget with my eyes closed. Because every time I teach someone, I am reteaching myself. I am reconfirming that information in me. So if there's a there is there there's benefit to also showing someone how to do something. So just know
that that there's a blessing in that too. That like, yeah, when you teach, when you teach, you learn twice.
Absolutely, And the last and really important thing is there is enough for everybody. The reason I'm able to treat Tiffany's victories as if they're like if I was on queer Eye in a fabulous blue pantsuit with a wrist full of green liverat or of Budgetiza Bengles is.
That there's room for all of us to succeed.
And I think what you see and why and especially why you see the proliferation of that goddamn hashtag All Lives Matter is people are worried that if we win, if you win, if someone else wins, it means that you have to lose.
And that is so not true.
It's the scarcity mindset that needs to be broken down, and we need to prove, we need to show that if you lift us up, imagine what more we can all do? You know, And it's again, it sounds cliche and it sounds corny, but that is the God's honest truth. And you need to believe that about your your self
too and the people around you. You know, don't hoard your information, don't hoard what you've been given give, be generous with your knowledge, be generous with your love, be generous with your whatever you have to a certain extent, because it has a way of attracting it back to you. And I believe that emphatically, emphatically, and I just hope everyone starts to feel that way.
Yes, And I want to shout out to Superman for not coming in the room. He was like, I'm gonna get Samon burgers. He said if you leave the door, but I'll just come in.
I'm like, bruh, who now?
But I was burger.
I was like, no, Remember when I take my podcast every creek matters?
He said, got it? Five years later, Well.
You're right, the whole damn show has pretty.
Much got out Superman opening the door.
What do we do now for Sorry for not taking questions. It's all my fault. It's my fault. We didn't two questions.
We'll do the next week. We'll do double questions next week.
Yes, we will.
We'll do double questions because you guys have some awesome questions and so you can.
You can tweet us.
Honestly, I love when you tweet us, and I love when you tag both me and Mandy as well, so Brown and Bush and podcasts or not tweet us Instagram's Brown and BITCHI and podcasts on Instagram. But I love when you also tag Mandy with an eye money and the budgetisas so when you tag all three, it means we can all see it. Yeah, And I love it because I love reposting it and be like yay. And honestly, I'm not gonna lie. I love seeing our podcast cover picture.
I'm like, look at me and Mandy. Look, it's so cute and I'm a little purple and blue. We just would Honestly, that was a day I'm like, oh, man, Mandy's stotting on this picture, so.
I would try to just photoshop my now hair on it.
Oh your big hair, big hair, don't care.
Homegirl was a different person five years ago than she is now. But it's fun to look back, and I'm just like, damn, we should have done a new picture this year.
Maybe for a five year anniversary.
We can. Maybe we'll just take pictures in different places and then photoshop them together.
We can.
Let's make uh, let's make technology work to our favorite Okay, you said you came with the whole list. We even got to your list of what to talk about.
No, no, that's okay. Honestly we got to most of it there.
But there is one I would say, if you're looking for something to like kind of be on or look at, there's this really great IG page wordy period talk w O R D y period talk t A l K. It's a young sister. And when I tell you, Mandy, not only is. She sharp, bright and intelligent. So she it's just a great space, especially if you're an ally to learn some of the quote unquote facts even told about black folks, especially in America our lives dot Com.
She breaks down exactly how they are lies with the facts, with the true facts, but she.
Does so in such a way she is hilarious.
She's hilarious, She is funny, but she's also really informative, and I just encourage everyone to follow Wordy. I don't know her personally, but I saw one of her videos went viral and when I tell you, I was like rolling laughing, but I was also like, wow, that's so true.
So w O r d Y talk t a l K. That's her ig and she's amazing.
I encourage everyone who wants to learn about some of the systematic ways that African Americans have been just devalued in understanding, like the like how and why and how some of the things you've been told like black on black crime, How that's a lie and some of these
other things that you've been told about Black America. Yeah, she really breaks them down and shows like why these things are just not true and some of them, some of these things are intentionally false to create this negative narrative that has that has made it okay to see dead black bodies on our timelines when you don't see anybody else that that being so so Yeah, wordy talk, hilarious, funny and informative.
I love it. That's fine.
I'm gonna just followed her just now. I'm ready to learn too. I've learned stuff that I don't know about. I learned that on my alma mater, they built one of our campus buildings on the graves of slaves and only discovered it when they went to renovate the building.
I mean, I'm still learning to this day.
And it's also something that I think for and I'm not even I'm not even going to pretend like I've been an outspoken BLM activist, like like like your friends have been, and out there every day, you know, you get caught up and Okay, I gotta I gotta put food on the table. I've got to make a life for myself. And sometimes if you spend every day drowning and like the the injustices.
You will never move forward. It's such a balance.
But the good thing now is that we don't have to share the burden alone, and I'm heartened by that. And I really encourage you guys to check out our show notes because there are some great resources there for yourself to do more and contribute to the movement, and also resources you can send instead of you know, hopping on the phone with friends.
You know, we talk about what it's like to be the only black.
Friend, hop on the phone and you know, or text them and be like, here are some great resources you can educate yourself. Let's do it together. It's it's really beautiful. And I don't mean to sound like Pollyanna, but I think we just need a little a little lot of optimism, you know, we just need a little budgets done, queer eye, that's what we needed. Thank you, best wishes to you, my love, and I hope that when you launch your I don't know, is TV even a thing anymore?
Your Hulu or your Netflix.
You know whatever, that looks like, right.
So exciting, so exciting, and you.
And I'm gonna be like, you can't get rid of me.
I'm hit. I'm a tech all right, y'all?
Be well, take care of yourselves. Take heart in the fact that people are helping share the load now it is. You don't have to do it all on your own.
We're here for you.
Reach out to us Brandonbision Podcast. You can also shoot us an email. Brandnabis Podcast at gmail dot com