¶ Intro / Opening
Hey, hey, hey, I hit my my my lamp because I feel free a little. Yeah, last one, I'm free from his his snack demands for the next hour.
Wait, who is snack demands?
Superman like?
So he got his he got foot surgery because low key, high key he has hammertoes.
I don't related podcast Macho one of the leads, right, he did not.
Listen to podcast. So if y'all see him in the streets, don't you tell him?
I told y'all.
So, so he was like, oh, you know, I'm gonna get you know, get them get you get one foot at a time.
But he really can't walk. He's a boot. He's to basically stay.
You know, you pretty stay, you know, like he can go from place to place, but with his crutches, but him has to basically stay in one place. And so it's been like, hey, can you bring me water? I'm like here, yes, I am. I feel like, you know, morning you tonight. I'm like, do you always.
Eat this much?
Wait?
It's only one foot though? Does he not have crutches? Or he does?
But honestly, you know, we we have a we have three floors. So it's honestly like seeing him come down the stairs and crutches.
I'm like, uh, you know what, just staying here because so you're going up and down three floors.
Yeah, and it's honestly really hard. So I know, so it's hard for him. I mean, so he does come down. I would say he comes down like once a day, but it's too much to go, Like, he can't go up, down, up, down. So I'm like, I'm having to bring up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks and I'm sorry. I try to like, you know, pack him, like, hey, so all these snacks, this is really to last you.
So I'm gonna need you to budget you're eating.
I felt bad because he called me like a like an hour ago, was like hello.
Wet to see there you go.
See maybe he knows so crazy by Suman even when he can't knock on the door to push through, he's like, I'm still there.
I'll sound for you. That should be your ring tone his text tone for him, just the sound of a door opening. I'm hiding in my basement right now. This is new for me. I'm hying because well this is we've we've been working on fixing up the basement, and I think what I'm going to do well. I already have the peloton down here. That's what started it. As soon as a woman wanted to be down here being me, I was like, this is this is inhabitable for endie
human life. We have got to fix it up because this is where you know, Husby comes down here and does his little projects and I don't know what he does. He has like a so no speaker installed, he has you know, his tool area set up. I'm taking over this joint. He does not even know it, but the peloton's here. Now, I'm going to set up my podcasting area. I'm going to set up my YouTube area. And this is gonna be Mandyland.
It's a man cave. Is just she she shed.
He's got it. I mean he's fine. He has his little he still has his don't like he has his his little corner of the basement, but he also has the shed and he's he's gonna be fine. I need this. I need this space for myself. It really does feel like when I close that door and I walk down here to this damp, dingy you know, like mosquito and fly ridden basement, it feels like I'm just taking a big sigh relief, and the Peloton's been good. But it's just like, I don't know, there's so little sick you
don't really have. It's kind of sad that this is my safe space, like my me time space, but I need it. And he gets to go in the city. And I say he gets to go, but you know, he goes into the city a couple days a week. And I just I just I just fantasize about what he listens to you on the train. I'm like, what did you what did you think about for those forty
minutes of uninterrupted silence? What did you listen to? And I get mad when he doesn't do anything, I'm like, what do you he and you had forty minutes to sit there and you didn't listen to anything or do anything. Anyway, he's he's being good about it, and he's actually excited because it, you know, fixing up the basement means he gets to use tools and stuff. So I hope, I hope it looks cute all sudden. I'll post a pick when it's done.
No, I would love to see yeah, because as you know, Sugarman's he has his man cake. But for his fortieth one of the things I was supposed to do. I just have been dragging my feet. Is I'm deck you know, I'm getting it all decked out. Like he loves movies. So there's like two parts. One part we're going to make it to like a movie theater and the other part like a even though he doesn't drink, but kind of like a I guess, like a bar. I guess,
like so they can play cards. Yeah, I mean he doesn't nothing.
He doesn't drink at all, but he's not really like he's like, you know, the occasional beer with my friends come over guy.
Yeah, but still like we would have, like I was gonna get a Neon signed because his nickname is Twin, you know, because black people are very literal because he's Twine.
No, he's gonna nicknames.
They're also not being Bobby because when they're little they had such not be these because my husband's really so name not being Bobby because they're like this one has not been these and you're his twins, so we're just gonna call you Bobby.
Can you imagine?
I mean, okay, whatever, I know.
So yeah, So so yeah, I was gonna get a sign that at twins place, and like so Rihanna.
Because everything is not just for him, it's for his his his twin too, Like that's what you were saying, Like.
Yeah, kind of so that way that he doesn't feel even though right now they're like whatever, you know how it is, Well, I don't know, you don't have uh two kids yet, but boys sometimes are just like what do you mean, like a, you're not friends?
Are your friends? Are you're not friends? Okay, you're not friends right now? Okay, but no.
But I'm excited about Like I can understand the appeal because while he's been upstairs, you know, buzzing my phone for random food, I had been sneaking into the man cave getting my life like.
It was cute down here.
So you you get some space for yourself, my friend, make some them down there for you, even if it's like a little a little reading area. I'm really excited. I'm going to make it like a little reading corner and make it kind of sin. I have all these ideas. I've been on Pinterest all the time.
I took half of it for my gym that I don't use.
Well, then makes something you do use, yeah, like a little meditation room or I don't know whatever, Just yeah, you should have a space for yourself, go out.
Of the whole house is for me. I'm not gonna have my own office. I have like we Yeah, He's always like everything here is for you.
Make it is.
That's different.
Well I'm not so like joyful news Black Panther passed away chat.
That was the segue. That was like the segue for the age, the twenty twenty segue.
Just I don't even know what to say.
It's no, I know the abrupt but the abruptness of it just like.
Yeah, it's like I was.
I remember it was like late was it was? It was it was late night and I saw my WhatsApp chat someone said Chad it. They wrote his name and like question mark, explamation, exclamation. I was like, wait, what what do those words mean? And I looked them like there's no way. So I googled it and.
I was like what is what?
Yeah, it was. I was talking to a really good friend of mine who I haven't talked to, and I mean in a good conversation like over a year. Shout out to Kevin who listens to the show. I'm helping him consolidates some credit card to Hey, that's what happened to me. Call me after a year. I'm like, so,
let's talk about your personal finances. But in the middle of the conversation, he said, Chadwick and I feel like these days were you know, I'm kind of waiting for oh hey, Molly girl, I'm kind of waiting for tragic tragedy to strike. But it was it was the same feeling I got when I when I found out about Kobe and I just saw what I saw something on Twitter on Instagram somebody posted it was the same similar
It was like Kobe question mark. And then I was like please, no, please, no, dear lord, no. Chadwick hit me. I mean I was, as you know, like everyone knows Kobe and my little brother love. I mean, he my poor brother. He really has been grieving for Kobe. He was always a fan of Lakers and Kobe he met when he was a kid, and all this stuff. Chadwick, for me, it hit me a little bit deeper, especially because Black Panther just I don't think, I mean, I did realize how meaningful it was to me when I
left that theater. You know how the end of Black Panther, when he's he and his sister. Are they come back to I think it's California. Uh, And they see some kids playing like a basketball court or something like that, and he shows up. What do you call that? I'm just like not good at my his like space space machine, I don't know, his rocket ship. He shows up and the kids are in awe of this, you know, this black man and woman who are so powerful, and that
feeling that you left the theater with that electrics. For me, it was it was so different. I left so motivated. I left so excited to raise a brown baby and for every black kid. And I just left so excited to have this black hero, this black af superhero movie unapologetically black out there and that. And it's not just that movie, but he he was. He was supposed to have so much more time. I feel like he was.
He was like the next coming of Denzel Washington, like he was, you know, and it it it's it's really really tragic. And the fact that he was doing it in private, you know, fighting cancer in private, and so yeah, so it just fucking strong. He had to be so strong to.
Do that, and people were I remember when all of a sudden I saw that he was losing a lot of weight, and I remember thinking maybe he's doing it for I just kind of kept in my.
Mind like, wow, Tabook was looking really skinny. I said, oh, maybe for a role. And I left it.
But I evenized that people were really he had to turn off his comments and delete pictures off his Instagram because people were really going in about his way.
It just goes to show you never know, I.
Didn't know that people were like like comment and oh my god, I hadn't really seen photos of him in a minute. That's you don't know what someone's private struggle is. And I mean, and I really you know, when I was trying to think of the message we could send to you know, through brown ambition, all they can say is you just it's just a reminder you don't know what someone's private struggle is. And you've and we've got
to try to be empathetic. And you know, it's not about us knowing every detail about everyone in our circles lives, but it's about you know, reach out to those five people that you you know, we're close with, maybe you haven't talked to in a while, and you know, see if they need anything or they want to talk. I I don't know. It makes me want to. It makes me want to continue to just keep those lines of communication open with my loved ones and to be kind,
be kind. The world needs more kindness, more kindness, Well rest and power. Chadwick Boseman. I know the tributes will continue pouring in. We want. My mom is in town, speaking of like silver happy happy news. My mom is in town. Her and her husband drove here from Saint Louis. How many hours was that like? Fourteen hours? Yeah? They and you know, because she didn't want to fly and all that stuff. But I'm so excited to have her here.
But they arrived on Saturday, and the first thing we did that night was we sat down and watched forty two, which was Chadwicks one of his earlier films. I think it was twenty thirteen where he played Jesse or sorry Jessie Robert.
Yeah. That was good.
Yeah, it was good. I hadn't seen it, and I want to, you know, I never saw the James Brown. Yes, the James Brown movie, and then was good.
And I'm not really a movie person. Me and Superman watched it and I was like, that was so good.
It's really good.
I mean, he he nailed it. You were just like, Wow, what a talent.
I didn't know you could even sing. I saw some clips of him singing. I'm like, of course he could.
It is just all the things.
And then you know, Danzel like paid for him to like get acting classes.
Yeah, I remember that story.
If you guys haven't watched Google Chadwick Boseman, Uh, Denzel lifetime achievement speech, it's just like two and a half minutes, but it's just so powerful and beautiful, and it's you see that he's visibly slim, slimmer. It's after Black Panther and everything else and the tribute he gives Denzel. Really it's just so moving.
And just the power of kindness and what it can how it can transform someone's life. So it's on YouTube. Yeah, it's just an amazing speech.
It's beautiful. Our hearts go out to I mean my heart definitely goes out to his family, and it just makes you think again about losing Kobe this year and please just no more, no more.
Uh.
And I mean you also think about the people whose deaths have been you know, not covered quiet COVID one hundred and eighty thousand people that have died. It's you know, this year is this year. I mean, it will fund it. It was gonna change, it will change the country. Ye, it already has. But I don't I don't think we realize quite yet. How will never It'll never be the same. I hope not, you know, And I hope that there's a lot of good that comes out of the lessons
we've learned, you know, in quarantine, through this pandemic. But it's kind of overwhelming to think of how dramatically things have changed. I'm so good my mommy is here because I can.
Hug her no exactly, and that's really if anything that it has taught us is to hug and hold tight to your loved ones. I spent way more time on the phone and in person with my loved ones now, more than.
Ever, just because you just realize that's what's most important.
Yeah, one hundred percent. And I actually am hugging my mother. I had we had a moment where we were like, Okay, is there gonna be masks? Are we going to be no distance? And I think, you know, New York's rates are so low right now. I think we've had twenty straight days where the rate of COVID has been less than one percent, and anyway we've questioned, you know, we've all been really careful and everything like that. But I think I am dipping my toe back into some sense
of normalcy. I I it feels good. You know, there's still that undercurrent of anxiety like is this okay? Like what's going to happen? But it just feels really good to have her here and to see her with Rio and and I'm not gonna lie. The free child care is it is not hurting I. Uh so, I'm really glad to have her this week. I love it. Well, let's we talk about today's show a little bit.
Yeah, real quick it did you buy any Apple or Tesla? You know the stock split?
We Yeah, my husband really wants to did you have you bought any yet? I did? I did get so much. I don't tell much how much.
I made about seven hundred and fifty dollars today. God damn, I on that I bought. Because what happened is I was like going back and forth.
I have this like what'sapp chat called wealth wealth what'sapp with like my friends who like like to invest and also to the Unicorn squad, you know, the people who work on my team. We have like an investment slack channel, So we were talking about it, getting prepared, and I decided, you know, I'm taking the leap. I bought fifty shares of Apple and ten shares of Tesla. Apple my fifty yeers,
I mean, Apple didn't it didn't go up tremendously. Like I bought it for one hundred and twenty seven dollars and sixty seven cents and now it's at one twenty nine and thirty twenty three cents. But really it was Tesla, because you know Tesla's so expensive.
It's Tesla.
Yeah, yes, I bought it for four hundred and forty four dollars or really four hundred forty five dollars and it's up to five h nine.
So Tesla went up twelve and a half percent today.
So talk about the stock splits. So how are the shares, the more affordable shares treated differently than the more expensive shares. How does all that work?
It's not really treated differently. What they're just trying to do is to allow people who can't afford the shares really to buy, so your shares are still worth the same. So what I mean obviously the market has reacted, so your shares are not worth the same, but technically they are.
So let's just say a company has a stock and it's one thousand dollars, so these were four these the stock was split in four for both Apple and Tesla, so it's like, okay, the shares are worth a one thousand dollars divided by four.
So one thousand divided by four is what fifty two fifty, right.
So that means you now, instead of having one share that's worth a thousand, you've got four shares that are worth two hundred and fifty dollars a piece. So technically, net net, you're even. But because the stock market is not based upon facts, it's based upon emotions. Because people were like excited, you know, that this was happening.
It it raised the cost of your one fourth now of this new share. So even though you're your.
One share just a couple of days ago, even before the stock split, shares were like prices were growing up, you know, because people were like so excited about it. So you're one share that was worth two fifty now today you know it might be worth two sixty because of the excitement that people are having that, you know that the shares are more affordable. So stock splits really just mean that you have you have a stock that's
worth the same amount, just in different denominations. How it's given to you to allow other people to enter into the market as it relates to that particular stock.
So that's one of the reasons.
Why I had not bought Apple and Testa like a silo pricey. So now you know I was able to afford more. I yeah, so I'm excited about it.
I tell Enrinkue all the time. I'm like, Babe, we do have Apple and Tesla's stock. Look at our index funds. We got our total stock market index BOM, we got our s and P five hundred index fund. He's like, that's not the same. But do you remember, I think we've actually been recording long enough for us to have an episode. There's got to be one from twenty sixteen, when we were we were saving up for the wedding.
We were living with Enrique's parents and he had the and I was helping him pay his credit card off, you know, credit card debt off that he had on his own, you know, as we were just dating back then, so he had his own little whatever credit debt, and he took a thousand dollars out of the money we
were setting aside for the wedding. And he at the time you had to like pay a thousand dollars to reserve or your spot in line for a Tesla, like just for the just for like a spot to buy one a year from then, he gave a thousand dollars of our money away, and I blew up at him. I basically made him get it back, and he has never let me forget it because he's like, imagine what that would be if I And I was like, you know,
imagine I could have had a Tesla. And I was like, babe, you know what, really, you know is sad about this. Imagine if you've taken a thousand dollars and bought Tesla stock. He had had one hundred titles by now, if he would have took it what it was trading for then, I don't think it was public at the time, but it went public. My husband's been a little late to the whole like stock investing game. I don't I don't,
you know. I thought you might be more into it, but yeah, looking and I've always been like an index fun girl. So I was never entertaining conversations about buying stock. But yeah, I'm kind of like, boo, if you loved him so much, why don't you just buy stock?
Yeah?
And you know, it's so crazy because my sister, Carol, the engineer, she she told me about Tesla. I think she bought Tesla when it was thirty dollars a share something crazy. Oh wow, remember she got fifteen. She was trying to convince all of us, and I was like, man, I don't know what she's talking about. I never electric car.
Oh girl, that's.
So crazy talk.
She invested fifteen hundred dollars and got back like thirty thousand or whatever.
She used to pay for her wedding. Can you imagine? Oh wow, I remember, so imagine she still would have had it.
Now what wait, she used it already.
Yeah.
I know. That's the thing because what she did, she she was purposely investing for the wedding. She's like, Okay, I want to pay for my wedding and I don't want to come out of pocket like as far as like you know, in the traditional sense.
And so that's what it was for she.
And herr her future husband at that time, they both invested fifteen hundred. I think they either invested fifteen hundred collectively or peace and it was a it was you know, it was struggle because they were young, super young, in her twenties, but they did it, and sure enough, by the time they went to pull it out to pay for the wedding, it was worth over thirty thousand dollars. Her fifteen hundred dollars investment imagined down many.
How did they sleep knowing all their wedding fund was tied up in this one stock?
I know, well, she had other stocks and things that she because she's always invested, like she's the one.
I was like, I should have really listened. She told me to buy Shopify, and I did. Mandy. I bought Shopify. I bought three measly stingy.
Shares because I was like, what ever? And I bought it for one hundred and forty three dollars. Do you know how much one share is now? I don't know, but we just signed up with them, and I'm wondering.
A thousand, sixty six dollars. I bought it for one hundred and forty three. I bought three shares. Mandy, I have made.
Imagine if I would have bought, like my total return already has been twenty seven hundred dollars. And that's if I just would have bought ten shares of Shopify. Can you imagine from one hundred and fifty dollars to over one thousand dollars is way each year and I have only three measlely shared. I'm telling you all of my stocks that are doing really well. I just asked her. I'm like, she's in my wealth too. I'm like, so yesterday i'd asked, I said, hey, stocks blitting tomorrow, would
you invest in Apple and Tesla? She was like, yes, Apple, for sure. I don't know about Tesla. It's still is a little like I don't know.
I don't know abouty Law.
I know.
So she was like, I would. So that's why I was like, I got the ten shares of Tesla.
I was like, you know what, but Apple, I went a little bit hard for I got fifty shares of Apple.
So said, I'm gonna ride this wave.
So I mean all in all over the I've been I used Robinhood, so all in all over, like my if I were to look at my of all time, I started investing August fifth, twenty sixteen.
So like, what just just about five years ago?
Right? All in all my return it's fifty seven percent, So I'm doing really good.
Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, so it sounds like your sister's the investor needs. I was gonna say, literally, I'm just like, what's it that I buy?
When Docusigne came out, I remember when it was like ipoing, you know, she was like, uh, DocuSign is an IPO. I suggest everybody get ready. So I bought docu sign and Docusigne also too, is doing very well. So I'm not gonna lie. I wouldn't call myself an investor. I'm just someone who says, so, Carol, Hey, how you doing? How the kids?
What should I buy?
Well?
This is the exciting thing if you guys are listening. I think again, the emotion I think a lot of people feel, and this is what my husband's been feeling, is that fomo like, ah, should I missed a good deal? I did read an article recently about what it wasn't the article I think I was. I guess like the Robin Hood's next newsletter that I read, and which is a good newsletter? You know, quick and easy read if you if you want to looking for a new newsletter.
I also like the Minority Mindset newsletter. But anyway, they were talking about how it's kind of IPO season is upon us, and that means a lot of companies are about to go public and you should keep your eyes peeled because you know, I pos if you picked the right one, like Tiffany said, uh, you know you can. It's kind of like striking gold. But the other the other emotion, my overriding emotion is always like, oh shit,
this is scary. But I wanted to ask you, tiff like with your with buying Apple and and Tesla, do you see those as long term investments? Like and did you put more money in? Did you put additional funds into your portfolio to buy them? Or did you exchange existing stocks to buy the new one.
I've never sold any stocks, so I always think of it as long term.
So I what I did was I had been setting aside because the way it works in rob so I learned the hardway the first time I wanted to buy something that you have to have the money clear and sitting basically in Robber.
Yeah, it's transfer time.
You're like you know, I learned the hardway to get the money in your account exactly is I've been transferring like a few hundred here, a few hundred here, just waiting. So by the time this came up, I had a few thousand over the last few months sitting for me setting aside, because you know, what I'll do is like I set aside for emergency savings, but that's fully stopped.
I put a side of money for our retirement.
So these are things that you know, builds, things like that, and then I'm like, oh, I've got an extra hundred and fifty dollars, you know what, let me put it here. So one of the thing is like with my older sister Karen, she has made tens of thousands since COVID, and she and her husband have a ruled if they can't buy I think it says they can't buy seventy shares,
they don't buy. So, because you know, if you buy a significant amount, like for example, if I would have buy seventy shares of Shopify girl, I would have had over one hundred thousand dollars in earnings and well in growth, right, And so that's what I this time around when my sister Carol told me that that's what Karen and her husband were doing. I said, you know what, Tiffany, if you're gonna buy, buy like you, you know you've been setting aside, setting aside.
That's what this is for.
So, like I said, I bought fifty shares of Apple and I bought ten shares of Tesla because Tesla was still expensive and with the stack split it was like four hundred or something dollars, so it wasn't it wasn't a cheap thing. But yeah, so for me, I'm not looking to buy sale buy, so I'm definitely not a trader. I just really want to buy and hold on to it, buy and hold on and help the supplement later.
Next thing I want to.
Start to do start to buy stocks that give dividends like the McDonald's, you know, or you could buy ETF that yield dividends. But I want to start to buy stocks like that and then reinvest the dividends and see because for.
Mex funds paid dividends, I'm a fan of yeah, all the because I love to watch. Now. I set up text alerts, even though I said I wasn't gonna I get like a weekly alert about the portfolio. And yeah, the dividend index funds that I have are beautiful. I'm like, they just give me hundreds of dollars and I'm just like, and it automatically reinvests it, which is nice through Vanguard, But where we tell people, hey, we're not investment advisors.
Yeah, not at all. We're just talking about our experience.
We are talking about our experience. And you know what, this is the kind of I'm excited that we're talking more about investing and and I and it's it's also you know where we're at. I think TIF and I we started the show and certainly in way different places than we are now in our lives. And this is what it's about. Let's let's talk about building wealth and
growing wealth. I am. I am convinced that no one wants us to know this because if if we don't know how to how to build wealth in the market, then who's going to work for the companies, who's going to you know, who's going to be in the service industry, who's gonna work who's gonna be working in retail, who's going to be holding up these major corporations while other people get rich. It's us people who look like us.
And I know that maybe that's the most obvious statement ever said ever, but it is something that I cannot get out of my head. They don't want us to know this, and it is an act of you know, Tiff, and I think there's sometimes we've covered you know, a sad you know, the latest uh, you know, the latest person to be shot by police. You know, debts and and you know, even talked about recently how homes are literally undervalue by appraisers if you're black, you know, owning the house.
And I got an update for you on that too, but go ahead, okay.
And we kind of have these moments where we're like, oh, what can we do now? What do we sell? What do we tell the listeners? And part of me is like the revolution is to play their game and play it for yourself and and and knowledge is the power, Like we don't have to we should all. And it's not even about like you can have like be the next door millionaire. You know, you can be that nextra millionaire.
Like I imagine if anyone had leaned into my father or my aunt or you know, my cousins in Atlanta whose lives are extremely different than my mom's side of the family. And I can't you know, for and I can think of a few reasons why that is. And it's all because of you know, or not all, but largely because of the you know, the systemic, the systemic toll of racism in this country and how it taxes your you know,
earnings and your your opportunity and all that. But I'm like, if anyone had just told them, you know, ten twenty years ago, hey, one hundred bucks into an index fund, or hey, you know, save ten bucks from your paycheck and invest it, like it's the knowledge that is the key to financial freedom. And you know, I think with Brown Ambition Tip, I feel like it's almost our responsibility now to talk more about this because it's you know, and I'm excited to be talking more about it, and
you guys send us your questions. Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Again, we're not stocking, we're not investment advisors. This is all. We're just showing you our opinion what has worked for us. The point is that we're talking about it. It shouldn't be a scary subject, and we hope, you know, by talking about it, that it will encourage you to be a little bit more curious and to learn a little bit more. And I'm glad that we're we're doing it.
Yes, So I just wanted to give you an update about the home.
So remember we talked about that woman Abina whose home was undervalued by like one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Yes, So, you know, the New York Times did this whole article I saw on mm HM. So I was interviewed for that article too, but they just had so many story so they, you know, they didn't share my story. But what I didn't know is so the reporter who wrote
the article, she was tweeting. I guess people were kind of asking her, like, you know, what, how did she do the research for the article?
She'd been doing She'd been working on an article for like a month. I mean, she.
Interviewed my realtor, I gave her a copy of my appraisal, all these things. I mean, she and she interviewed a couple of other people that I shared with her. So she wrote me or just posted on Twitter. She said all the stories didn't make it in. For example, Tiffany the Budganista, when we looked at her appraisal, I did not know this. I was like what she said, when they looked at my appraisal, that the appraiser she had, she had an independent appraiser look at the appraisals, you know,
who didn't know me, who didn't know anything. And so the appraisal praiser that came to my house, they put me under a category that's called C three, which is a house with normal wear and tear versus C two, which is what you would put a house that has been gutted and renovated. My house wasn't even a year old when he came to appraise the house. It has been renovated. I mean, we have HVAC, new plumbing, new electric, new for literally everything. And this house is new, brand
new house. And so for them to categorize us as a wear and tear regular house is very intentional and telling. And then on top of that, she said that the comps that they compared me to were not renovated homes. So how are you comparing my house to an old house that has not been renovated, and then also categorizing my house as a regular wear and tear house. That's
why my appraisal came back thirty thousand dollars. That's how they justified saying my house was thirty to forty thousand dollars less.
I didn't even know that. When she tweeted that, I was like, wait what. I didn't know why. I didn't know specifically in because I didn't know what to look for.
So you know, that just was like a gut punch, and I'm just like, I honestly don't know what you're supposed to do. Actually, like I was in contact with a being, I'm going to like reach back out to her so we can do a Facebook Love Instagram live.
It was so busy at that time because they.
Didn't want to Abin is the woman whose house was the New York time. We had been instagramming and she's, oh my god, I love what shed dow Tiffany, and so we were supposed to do an ig live a few weeks ago. It just got to be too busy for me. But I want to do one because I want her to not only share her story, but to share what is it that she did? Like what can you do when that happens? Because you know, it's one
thing to be angry. So, as y'all know, I decided not to not to refinance my house and do her cash out. But it's one thing to be angry, it's another thing to be like, so what do I do when that happens?
You know, what do I do?
In her case? I mean, she she swapped out all the photos and she left with her son right and her white husband was there with and I mean, Tiff, you got the appraisal. So that was a bank that you're the bank that you were going to refinance. I know you didn't end up doing it, but they sent the appraiser out there.
Yeah, the banks send here. But you can't just get like, say, hey, this is my appraisal. Guy, take his word for it, because the bank is basically like, this is my investment. I want my person to come or whoever it is, to do an appraisal of the house, you know, because they don't want obviously they don't want it to be inflated either. But so you can always go back to the bank and say, hey, I don't think this is fair. But here's the thing. I don't I never heard of
C two, C three. I didn't, you know what I mean, Like, I didn't. I didn't know the ways that people could appraise your house for less. It's just so disheartening, you know, that's not It's the reason why I didn't be financed. I was like, you know what, forget this, I'm not doing it. You know, I'll just keep the money in the house and have no mortgage like we've been having. It was really disheartened because I was like, what, like, yo, I bought this house for one eighty. I put one
eighty into it. How are you telling me it's worth you know, three ninety. That's no, it's not. It was worth three something when we before we renovated it, Like it was that was you know what I mean, Like, that's what it was worth. That's what it was. Like the market said it was worth it. I'm like, and especially during times like now.
So it was just really.
Yeah, disheartening to be like you would come to my house talk about how nice it was. But I could tell that there was a sense of like, you guys live here. It's just like I said, it's just really frustrated. But I just wanted to give you guys that update because a bunch of you taged me in the article Liketivity was talking about it. So hopefully I also do like I said, alive with Abina. It's just been so crazy.
I wish I had done it earlier, but whatever, maybe now is a good time, now that the Times article has come out, and so people can just hear from someone that has happened to and you know what she did and what she did to basically get that, you know, get a reversal of that unfair racist appraisal.
So I'm one hundred percent listening with open ears. Or we bought our home and I always call it this little hidden gem, but I understand a lot of people would't consider my neighborhood hiden gem in the suburbs because typically you think about the suburbs outside of New York and you think of wealthy white people. Our neighborhood it is this. I consider it a hit and gym because
it is a lot of black, working class families. This neighborhood was founded right after World War Two, and you feel like this is like this little oasis where black people were able to afford a home and start a life and have families. And it feels like the you know, the type of neighborhood that you don't see too often. And at the same time, we found a fixer up
here had a really good deal. And I worry that the neighborhood that we're in, we're in we're in one of the top rated school districts, you know, within all the amenities and all that thing, but when you look on Zillo, the homes in this neighborhood are routinely like way less than what you see even just like a
block or two away in different neighborhoods. And I'm in a mom's Facebook group on Facebook, a mom's of my you know, my county and on Facebook, and there was someone kind of talking about looking for a home at an affordable price and she can't find any. And I was like, well, look out our neighborhood. And as I was saying, and I'm like, wait, why are the homes
here so much more affordable? I know there's a lot of fixer uppers, but yeah, so I'm thinking about that, and I am sure as hell will be thinking about it if we ever decide to sell or get an appraisal in the future, because this, you know, we we
have to stand up and ask for more. And I almost want to get local officials involved too, you know, there's got to be you know, whatever you know, organization maybe regulates appraisals or you know, the town councilmen who who should be you know, concerned about you know, citizens
and our property values and all that. Like, I feel like there's a conversation to be had, and I'm glad that through all this mess, people are open to hearing it, because I think what's fundamentally changed is the conversation where people are willing to under willing to understand and accept that someone can be discriminated against on the basis of their skin, you know, for the value of their home. Because it's so hard to prove sometimes and people don't
want to hear it. And I'm so glad people willing to listen and hear that now.
So yes, And I'm glad the Times did a thing on it, because you know, people respect the New York Times.
They do it matters when they write about it, it really like legitimizes it for sure. Well, I'm sorry they didn't put you in the article, but that I'm glad that that reporter you know, shared that with you, because even if you didn't need it, at least it still validates that feeling of it.
You know, I'm not gonna lie I remember we talked about it and you were like, oh, it's sure, and I'm not gonna lie. They was like, ah am I bugging? Well maybe it's bugging girl. I know you love your house, but maybe it's not that serious. And when she was like, uh no, he is someone he's not even at your house and he's reading this like mmmm, it's clear they're saying all these things are new, new, new, new new.
Why did they put you in this category?
And the houses that they have comps, none of those are renovated, those are not comparables. It's not comparable to your home. And I was just like, wow, this is someone who you know. Yeah, I just thought like I was just it just made me feel because I hate sometimes feeling like oh are you the black person that's always sack kind of black things? And it's like, yeah, it would be so nice not to have to talk about it. Sorry that it is bugging you. I have
to live it, you know. And so it's like it just gave me a validation that I wasn't bugging because that's what I felt it and I and I knew it, but I didn't know it know it, and to know it officially just makes me feel so much better, like I'm not bugging, and also too now to know what to look for should we ever sell this house, and to make sure, like you know, yeah, just to make sure that doesn't happen again by by educating myself on the process and what we should be looking for, because
I would love to be able to look at one of these appraisals and be like, why don't Why do you have C three here instead of C two? Why do you have this here instead of that? You know these are It's the language that you know. Once you learn those things, you know you can when you know different, you can do different.
And they don't want us to know. It's like I was saying, they don't. It behooves them for us to not understand. That's why this should is so opaque and hard to sort through any big financial like around your house, like any big any having to do with your home is so complex. I mean, we just closed on our refinance.
In the stack of papers we had to go through, and I felt so and I still feel this intense pressure to read every single word, and I spent like I had several at least half an hour conversations with our loan officer. Over those six weeks, six to eight weeks, it took and even me like being in this, being this industry, you know, managing a team whose job it is to write about mortgages and how to get them and all that, like, I still had tons of questions.
And you know, it's that it's that extra friction and work upfront that they know a lot of people, you know, won't feel like they are confident enough to take on. But we're here to tell you that it's possible, and you know, reach out to anyone who can help you or share some knowledge or it's it's it's so it's so important. Let me just keep repeating myself. Listen, we're forty minutes into this show. Tip, what are we doing? I really do we have time? Can we talk? Can we take leaders questions?
Yes, let's see that.
We have a very special segment for today's questions because well it's about starting a podcast. You know, we know a thing or two about that. So we are taking all y'all's questions on how to start your very own podcast, and we will be right back after this break. Okay, y'all, we are back. So as you guys know or maybe you don't know Tiffany and I Brown Ambition Podcast. We're not actually, you know, we're not owned by a network. We are independent. My little brother said, I'm the Chance
the Wrapper of podcasters. I was like a thing, Thank you very much, my friend, because you know, Chance the Rapper didn't have a label. He was like, he was one of the first artists to make a name for himself without a label. I think he just published his music when on SoundCloud or something, and when he was ready to get a label, you know, everyone was coming to him and he didn't need him because they were he was independent, owned his own shit. We are Yeah.
So you know there's Chance the Rapper and there's Brown Ambition obviously, but yeah, we're independent. We started this show five years ago because we just wanted to and I just figured it out and we've been figuring it out ever since. And I would say we've been successful. If how do you feel?
Yeah, No, I think I mean, first of all, we've been consistent in it. We have an amazed what do you say.
We're doing the damn thing I think we do.
Yeah, we do a pretty amazing audience.
We Yeah, I just I'm really proud of us because it was just literally I remember you being like, we.
Should do a podcast.
I was like, yeah, I want to, and y'all who told me I can't, So I'm going to do it anyway. That's what I.
Said, because that is so Mandy Well.
The well, what really has gotten us to talk about this is I don't know if you guys I shared on my insta last week, but Joe Budden he had posted he on his own damn podcast hosted and owned by or not owned by partner with Spotify. He's been with Spotify guests for his podcast for a few years now, a couple of years now, and he was one of the first podcasts that Spartify Spartify My God Spotify partnered
with and he basically made their podcast business. I mean they acquired according to his story, you know, millions of listeners to their platform through his show and you have to go check out his latest episode if you want
the whole background. But he used his platform to talk about why he wasn't renewing his deal with Spotify, and he revealed, like you know, some interesting insights about the business of podcasting, like the business of podcasting can be a little opaque because it's sort of like it's been around for a long time, but the business side of it, like the money making machine of it, that industry it is really you know, I would say, in the last like five, you know years or so, it's along with
our show, they're they're figuring it out, like people are figuring out how to make money and for shows like Oh or as you were independent you know there, it's it's an exciting time to be in the podcast world. And I had asked you guys when I was kind of commenting on the Joe Button story, what do you like, what questions do y'all have about podcasting? Because, like I said, Tiffany, I've been doing this ourselves for you know, five years now, and I was quite surprised by the number of questions
we got. So I kind of wanted to dedicate this questions segment to you guys this podcast podcast. Okay, well, let's dive on in, and you guys can still send us questions. I sometimes will respond to them even if we don't cover them on the show. Brian Abisson Podcast on the gram. You can find us there where you can email us directly. Brand Ambisson Podcasts at gmail dot com. All right, let's see please did okay? So here I'm gonna I'm gonna use Insta handles. I hope y'all don't mind.
All right. So Insta user Aqim says, how do you
¶ How do you get your podcast on Apple Podcasts?
get your podcast on iTunes in the first place? All right? So I do the techy stuff, so I'll answer that one.
I don't know.
Are you curious how we got our podcast on iTunes? It was very stressful for me because I was trying to figure it out, you know, way back when basically, and I'm going to include some show notes for you guys with some resources. I'm putting together a little Google doc of resources. But iTunes and Spotify, you know, this wasn't around when we were first starting. But now you have Spotify, you have Stitcher, you have Google Podcasts. They all have a podcasters platform. And there's a link I
can put for the Apple one. And the first thing before you even submit your show to iTunes is you need to one create a show, and then two you need to find a host for your show. And the host that I chose five years ago, we're on a different host now, but back then and this host is still around. They're still great, very popular, They're called Lisbon L s b y N And I think, I think, what if we pay like five or fifteen dollars a month to host our show on Libsyn and what that
did for me? So Libson would distribute the podcast. I would upload the audio and I would click publish or whatever magical button it was, and they would send it on to the podcast echo sphere or whatever and it would end up on iTunes and SoundCloud, et cetera. How I did that was once you have a host, you get an RSS feed. Remember RSS feeds like Google Reader.
Oh I remember having on my first little blog, my blog or blog.
Yeah, blogger. They still do that for podcasting. So you get your own RSS feed and it's just a URL and you copy paste it into iTunes. And at the time, I don't know if they still do this. At the time, I had to wait to see if I was going to get approved. And I remember what was funny is like I don't know if you remember this, Tiffany, but we had decided we were going to launch September fifteenth. It was like a Tuesday, and I didn't realize I
had to wait to get the show approved. So when we like put out the event bright like, we started promoting it. It's gonna be here, it's knew. Our first episode was dropping September fifteenth. And then I remember being on my couch and my my stomach falling out, being like, oh what it was maybe a week or two before that date, and that the Apple had not gotten back to me, you know, saying our show had been approved the day before that day, you know, the day before
we had advertised they approved it, and I was sweating bullets. Meanwhile, like what we had like five listeners, but I was sweating bullets. But yeah, that's the in a nutshell, how to get your show on iTunes. Go find a host first, and then create an RSS feed and submit it not just to iTunes but Spotify and Stitcher and all the you know big platforms today.
See that was a good one. Now I learned something.
¶ how much of your conversation gets edited out of your podcast?
Uh, Instagram user Katie says, how much of your conversation gets edited out of a podcast? Like none?
Want let me say something which is rare, right, very rare.
I will say, you know now that we have an editor CALLI is editing our show. Now I don't. I don't micromanage that at all. You know, sometimes I think maybe one time I asked them to take something out of the show, and I can't remember what it was. It was something that was inaccurate and just I knew the show could do without it Prior to that. I'm not gonna lie, you know I was. I don't. I don't even know how, like how picky Kelly is about
ums and likes and that kind of stuff. But I do remember early when we first started recording, I was doing all the editing, and I would take out any ums or likes that tiff and I would say Tiffany says, so a lot I used to take off yours. So it used to bother me, But like, I don't care anymore. Maybe we're just I just accepted.
That's my transition word same.
Sometimes you don't even realize that you say things like a lot and you're like oh, or like when am I get this? With my friend Cabral, whenever he's really into a conversation, he says like, okay, okay.
I mean as a listener, those things might get great on people.
Yes, yeah, yeah, I mean look like so look look and now now I'm conscious, I'm like, oh, I say sorry.
No, Well it never stopped hasn't stopped you in five years.
Don't worry. No, it hasn't.
It's because I'm gonna be like, oh man, and then I'm gonna be right back at it.
So look, there you go, there you go. Well, the thing is tip. I will say one one thing that TIF always jokes about is she sometimes repeats herself and tells the same story. Yes, there has been. I'm going to reveal it to Tiffany now. I have gone and edited out repeat stories. If I knew you had said it on a recent podcast.
Yeah, because I don't remember anything.
And that'll be like a fifteen minute segment and I'm fifteen minute rant and I'm like, mm hmmm, hmmm.
I don't mind because everyone knows that.
I'm like, I really get it for my she get it for my daddy, Like that's my father. Like I just I mean, since I was like in second grade, I'm like, what happened yesterday? My memory has always been like huh, testy at best. So I will tell you a full flood story. You're like, you literally told me this yesterday. I'm like, dy, why do you look to tell.
The whole story again? So I'm just saying all that to say that I don't.
I'm not saying sid about it because I know it's a it's a thing that I do. I think it's funny, and I don't mind people being like, heard it. Yeah, you don't have to let me rent fifteen minutes. You can be like, girl, you told us this last week? Are you told us this last year? Because I know I will not remember well.
I think of our conversation as kind of like an improv because we don't really plan things. Maybe we'll have a couple of quick minutes before the show. We'll be like, I want to talk about this, We talk about that, and then hey, we spend forty minutes talking about other stuff. I think that's part of the you know what works
about the show, and part of that improv style. And if you do, if you're considering doing a chat show like ours, I really consider like, in order to keep a conversation moving, I need to be listening to what Tiffany is saying, engaging with it. I can't be like multitasking, reading email, checking install whatever, because I'm not going to
be able to keep her going. And like you know, I try and think of questions I can answert or ways to you know, if she needs to be amped up, like ways to get her to laugh or I don't know. I'm always trying to think of something witty to say so we can, like if something's really getting heavy, something I can say to like lighten the mood and yeah,
so I let you go and whatever. I would rather not take you out of that, you know, take you out of your zone, like it's jarring when someone's like hey, even if I said it really nice, it would still bother. I feel like it would still be like really just you know, let me go. And I used to have all the time in the world to edit shows, but not anymore. Speaking of time, Instagram user, how do you say this? Narvar Rudd says how much of a time
¶ how much of a time commitment is your show?
commitment is your show?
Wow?
I would say, I mean, so we tape once a week and taping depending if we have ads, and things can go anywhere from hour and a half to.
Like three hours max.
But there's also so what I've done now after five years of manly asking that as things happen during the week, I'd like keep notes from myself so I know, like things to talk about for the show versus just like super off the cuff, so I do that, so, but that doesn't I wouldn't. That doesn't really add up to like hours, but then editings. I don't know, Mandy, on average, how long did it used to take you to edit the show? For those who those who might still self edit.
That's an actual question from one of ours, one of our Instagram follower Cherish your health, that how long would
¶ how long does it take to edit your show?
it take to take you to edit and upload each show? Let's see, I mean, like I said, I have Tiffany and I show is pretty straightforward. We talked to each other. We have three segments, as you guys know, which we've kind of fine tuned over the years, and it ended up, you know, being the segments that they are. It's not that difficult as long as I'm good about back when I was editing, as long as I'm good about notating.
You know, when Superman would open a door and I would have to you know, edit the squeak and the little muffled conversation out, or you know, when one of us had audio issues or a car went by or sirens or whatnot. As long as I would just mark the timestamps, I could really quickly, like by the I mean up I was editing the show, you know, even after having the baby, and I could do it in
like half an hour. And that's for about a forty five minute to an hour podcast because obviously I just had the conversation, so I pretty much knew what I wanted to cut. And I always and I think, if you're editing a podcast like a chat show, it's for me. The key was to edit immediately after the show while it's still fresh in your mind, because you will forget certain things and yeah, like listen, if I had to go and listen to every second of the show over again,
then that would just take additional time. And I was once I had moved to the Suburbs two a couple of years ago, I had a forty minute commute and my goal was to finish editing the podcast before I got home. And I usually could do that. Yeah, so you did it.
I didn't know you used to do it on a subway.
Yeah, on the train. Because I edit using garage Band, which is a free software you get with any Mac computer, and garage Band you don't need the Internet for so as long as I put everything in garage Band, I could edit it from the show. The only thing I couldn't do was upload it to our our podcast site libs in at the time, and now we use something called megaphone, So that part I would just do at home, but all the editing you can do that anywhere.
Look show I'm learning obviously. Look I'm a listener, like really.
Yeah, because Tiffany's Tiffany is the cheese talent. I always tell you guys like this is like me.
I'm like, I just show up and I'm like, where do I have to stand? I'm the groom.
But that's what works for us. I learn the control freak. I like techie stuff. I like to learn skills. So it just it just we didn't have this big conversation first of all, if I I also know Tiffany, and I think that was a good balance. Like I wasn't going to say, hey, you're building your own business, Hey you want to learn how to end of the podcast too. No, and I think we've always just made it work according to where we were. Someone asked, how much did you
¶ how much did you pay to start your podcast?
pay to start your podcast? Very little?
Yeah, because we paid so we got pictures taken Taneta took our pictures.
Yeah, how much for you didn't even need a picture. A lot of podcasts just have a logo which you can do yourself, like in Canva or something. But we got had shots taken. How much were they I don't remember. They weren't.
I want to say maybe one hundred something. They weren't like tremendously maybe maybe two hundred. But and you know, it's so crazy because it came up today, like in my photo album, like, hey, this five years ago, isn't that so funny?
Five year anniversary is in a couple of weeks, I.
Know, And it was like it showed me that literally, it said this week five years ago. I have a picture of me and Mandy August twenty sixth, twenty fifteen. We're into Netta Studio taking pictures. It came up on my phone. I'm like, oh, we looked so cute, and I listally, our offers were so cute because you were wearing the blue dress and I was wearing like that purple dress. I don't know that we planned it, but then we looked Nope, it's just anything so great.
I regret the pink lipstick, but that's near neither here nor there, really dude, Now well now I'm like, damn, I was hot. I remember telling Sandda my arms make them skinnier. Uh no, but that was so that was the headshots actually the record. So, like I said, garage Band is free. Another good software is Audacity free, entirely free, where you can edit audio and it's really not hard for them how to edit. YouTube has a video for air thing and that's how I learned how to edit
in garage Band. And the interface has only changed majorly once, and I was super annoyed. I had to relearn a couple of things. But again, YouTube is your friend. Cost Tiffany and I both. I mean my my Yetti mic, which is very commonly used among podcasters. I've had this since the beginning. It was maybe one hundred bucks. Uh you said your phone's about hundred bucks too, right.
Yeah, I use my and I use my. Well, I just got a new Yetti which I've properly broken three days later. Yayell this.
She gon't tell them it broke on its own.
Yeah, No, it was like I think it was like one twenty five. So maybe it's gone up a little bit in price, but not significantly.
So that being said, I legit use my Apple iPhone earbuds so often, so often because I really only started using the Yetti again when we had to be at home and I was recording through maternity leave. I wasn't going to lug this. It's a heavy microphone. I wasn't going to and I still worked in the city. I wasn't going to lug it to work, so I would just use my Apple earbuds and I never heard any complaints, y'all. M well, let's take a couple more because it's almost
the baby's bedtime. Let's see. Oh, people want to know about advertising? Yeah, ad agency? So how is how is that possible? How do you get ads to do one?
¶ how do you get ads?
And do you guys have I'm kind of combining a bunch of questions. But do we pick and choose who we advertise on the show two years ago?
Yes?
Oh yeah, we started it too. Well, we do pick and choose, and then will they choose us? And then we have to choose them back?
Yeah. Well, and this is a good note for networking. So I actually our ad agency we were connected to from a podcaster, fellow podcaster and friend of ours for Nouche for News to Robbie. Her podcast is called so Money, And I think I just reached out to her. Maybe we were like getting dinner or something, and I just said, hey, you know, who do you work with? And she connected
us to their business development. If you're looking for folks to reach out to, you got a show and you're interested in partnering, look on their LinkedIn and see who's in charge of business development or talent acquisition. Those are the folks that you want to get in front of. And yeah, so she connected us, and I think that was great because they already knew her show, they worked with her, and having her endorse us was helpful. And yeah, a couple of months, I feel like a couple of
months later we we had to deal with them. And let's talk about so pretty standard ad deal. I mean we have we can refuse any ads, and we do a lot like partners, and we don't like to necessarily pitch specific financial products and some some are just not in alignment with Like what are some of the types of brands that we've said that you say.
So typically like like if it's like supplements me and made a book like I don't. Yeah, I mean like food is one thing, like oh this is a delicious burger, sure, but like hey, take this supplement to grow your hair. I'm like, I don't know what, you know, feel a little bit uneasy about that kind of thing, just because it just feels like, well, what if somebody gets hurt? You know?
Yeah, yeah, and it's you know and Tiffany and I. We this is not our main source of income. It's not that big of a show. I mean, we won't be big. But you know, as far as like we we do fine with the ads, the ads that we sell, so but we don't we don't feel like we have to say yes to everything. We're not just trying to
grab dollars out here. We genuinely try to say yes to companies that we have used that we like, and I don't I can't think of a sponsor recently who we haven't personally used or liked or anything like that. So yeah, we take it, take it personally. And commonly the split with ad agencies like thirty five sixty five, where you know, you keep sixty five, they get thirty five. That's pretty common. And what Joe Budden was talking about
uh is important too. You know, when you if you're going to sign with any agency and they try to slip an exclusivity clause in there. That's something you want to really pay attention to because depending on what the language is, it can stop you from working with another network. It can stop you from using another agency to sell ads as well, even if they have more partners, or maybe even just stop you from you know, they could potentially lock you into a contract for longer than you
know you're wanting to. I think finding the right partner is important. And what else can we say about ad agency? They're only an ad agency. So there's some networks out there that do a lot more than just advertising selling ads for your show, And depending on what your show is like, that maybe something that you want. And it's certainly something that Tiffany and I are you know, working on a little some something as we look to grow and and you know, take brand ambition to the next level.
But yeah, I hope that was I'm trying to think of like good details that people will think, Okay, that was insightful. It's a lot of pressure.
No, I think that was good.
I think that, you know, as with anything, I think, you know, build your you know, get consistency is key.
Oh thank you for saying that, yes, and tell the people tiff and I don't have bosses, y'all. We just do the show every week because we know how important it is to be consistent. It's become a.
Habit exactly, and because it's I mean literally we could say no, but every week, I mean barring, like you know, Mandy had the baby, and sometimes we'll we'll take some like a month off in the summer or something like that.
But honestly, we have been so consistent.
And it's not easy, you know, like literally, there are times where Mandy's like, you know, I have a thing, can we push it time back?
Or am I be like, ah, Mandy, I'm going to be on a flight. Can we do it on a Saturday?
Or so? Even though the show airs like, you know, the same time, for the most part, we tape on the like around the same time on the on the same day of the week. But we're really flexible with each other, like, no problem, you know what, I can wake up a little earlier, stay up a little later.
If need be.
So consistency is key, but allowing flexibility if you're going to have somebody that you you you tape with, because real life happens and the podcast is not more important than your family and your friends and making sure you're okay. So we make we make that clear distinction that you need to be okay. This can always wait, We'll figure it out later. But yeah, we've been really consistent. I've
been proud of that because it's not our lives. It's so crazy because I feel like me and Manny grew up on the podcast.
Like we met. We were a single girl. I mean, we were dating our significant others. Was I even dating Superman? How do I even know how I date?
I don't know either. You're twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen.
Really, I think I was dating, but not just him.
So I was dating him, but he wasn't my only But yeah, so we were like single and then you know, we started. We've got in a serious relationship around the same time. I think you but you were already dating.
You were, Yeah, we were almost engaged. I think our engagement was like one of our early episodes that was the news exciting.
And then you got married, and then I got married, and then you're the baby and baby's working on over here, and you bought a house.
I bought a house.
It's just I feel like I love that our audience has followed us through like IVF and buying a home and you know, and investing, and just we're like, you know, from you used to work at Yahoo Finance and now you're this big boss over there at lending Tree, and it's just like you know, when I first started, I don't I don't even know if the Literature Academy was a thing yet, and it's getting.
Started because I was interviewing you for Yahoo at the time the launch of the Literature.
Academy Challenge, not even the Academy mm hm. And so just to see that growth, that's what I love about this podcast. It's like one day our kids will be able to look back. It's almost like that. It's like a living diary of our lives, an audio diary.
It truly is. I think, why don't I journal? And I'm like, what I do? Talk and record myself once a week. But can I just say though we can't. I mean, consistency is the biggest thing, Tiffany, But it's also reliability of who you're working with. And like I said, I'm not Tiffany's boss, she's not my boss, but we have there's just a mutual respect and understanding that we are in this together and that we both care about it and that we show up. You know, yes, we
may get sick. And I mean I was uploading you know, rerun episode when I was in the labor room, you know, and I think I'd maybe take a couple of weeks off for the baby and all that. But it's it's not you know, without with if having you know, Tiffany and I just without having the stress of like will they show up, like will they respond to an email? You know that that really can kill a show if
you don't have that trust in each other. And I think that's definitely, you know, beyond just like our mutual respect and love for each other. It's about just showing up and being reliable. And if you're going to do something with someone, make sure that there's someone you trust as a partner and someone who you know will show up for you. Don't want to be chasing someone around.
Yeah, Like it's like, h so, if you don't want to do this, let me know, you know.
And also too, but someone to who's going to be understanding because I remember there was a time in business where I was I didn't I mean, I'm better now, but I mean things are still busy, but I'm better at delegating, so I don't feel so overwhelmed. But I felt so overwhelmed. We used to tape.
We used to have the podcasts come out on Tuesdays because we taped on Mondays. But Mondays I was doing individual phone calls with everyone on my team, so literally I would be on the phone for like eight hours straight and then tape the podcast.
And I was like, I'm gonna die. And I was like, maybe Manny cave mees days, I can't do this. You were like sure.
I was like, oh, we make the rules we make That's the best thing about it being independent. We make the rules. Yea working with that agency as sorry, go ahead now.
I was gonna say that just helped so much. I was just because honestly, I was ready to be like I can't do this. I was like something has to give. I was going to be like, I don't know if I could do the podcast. And then I remember jot Elsho's on my team. I told her, I said, I don't know I'm gonna be able to keep doing the podcast because on Mondays. She's like, why don't you just ask man if you could take another day.
I was like, oh, I asked you and you were like sure, and I was like, oh, okay, and if we taped on Tuesday, which was a lighter day for me then and I was like, oh, it was just such a good lesson.
I mean, now we're back to mondays because mondays make sense.
But yeah, it's just yeah, having someone that you can also, if you're going to have someone on your podcast, that you're going to have a co host, someone that you know, that you can that that cares about you beyond the show.
I think that's important too.
Yeah, one hundred percent. And I'm so happy to be on this journey together and I'm glad that we own it and that it's ours. You know, we did this, and I think that's why we have the success that we've We've had all those different factors. I think that's the talent. I think we both have interesting stories to tell, we both have knowledge, but we also respect our listeners and each other. And you need that from the business side if you guys want to succeed, you know, in
the podcast land. And absolutely, Tiffany and I feel a niche. I mean, there really weren't very many, if any at all, podcast hosts that look like us in our space careers and investing in finance, whatever our category is now in business and that matters so and I want to tell you now it may seem like, you know, podcasting is so crowded and there's no space for new voice. Is there is? There is new space for new voices. People will always want to make money, y'all. And advertisers are
flocking to podcasts. They know that listeners are engaged, they come back, they listen through, and they want shows that occur at least weekly. So if you're thinking about launching a podcast, and you know, I have so much respect for narrative, journalistic long form podcasting. I love those shows, the true crime shows that are like ten or twelve
episodes limited series. But at the end of the day, and I've talked to a lot of people in podcasts business lately and they're like, listen, what advertisers want are shows that are weekly and they are on all the time because that is a billboard each week that they can advertise. So you know, if you're thinking about a show, I would keep that in mind. And how often are
you going to record? You know, will it be appealing, do you like who is your audience and is it a segment that people are interested in selling to, you know, Tiffany and I most for listeners are twenty five to forty five, and that just happens to be in African American women. Hey, y'all. Ninety percent of y'all about Hello y'all. And you know, advertisers know that we like to spend money,
and that's a beautiful thing. And but you know, know your audience and and and do your research, listen to shows and see what is lacking, see what's missing, and and you know and know that it's a long haul, like we've been in it for five years and we still have so much growth ahead of us. But you may, you know, I wouldn't quit your day job like right away for sure. You want to you know, build your audience, be true to them, and yeah, we'd be, I don't know,
be supportive of each other. If I'm just assuming everyone wants to do a bestie podcast like us.
Some people want to do it by themselves, and there's nothing wrong with that either, And you don't have to Like I mean, y'all know me and Mandy are we have distinct personalities. I'm definitely like silly, crazy. I mean, I can be serious when I feel like it. You don't have to be Mandy doesn't have to be like me. I don't have to be like Mandy. Just know that how you are. Just be that, and people will fall in love with who you are. Your people will find you and fall in love with who how you are.
I think sometimes people think they have to put on you don't like, if you were to meet me in person, this is how I am. If you were to meet Mandy in person, that's how she is. It's I think it's really important to just show up as you because you are more than enough, and those people who will resonate with you will stay and those who don't want and you don't want the non resonators to stay, you know, because those are the ones that bitch and talk about. Don't talk about your uterus.
Hey girl, Hey, they still have to review, though, I think it would. I think if they left a couple of stars, a few stars sports all right, Well but yeah, well y'all know my I do actually do have a boss and his name is Rio, and homeboy wants to go to sleep, so we have to wrap this up. But this was great. It's nice to reflect, especially coming up on our five year anniversary.
I know.
Yes, all right, guys, well, thank you again for all your support, and let's let's uh, let's uh wrap this up. What am I trying to say, Let's rap it up. Let's wrap it up Gmail dot com. With any more questions, DM me. I'm at Mandy Money with an I, M A and d I money on the gram. If you want to send me a personal DM, or you can hit us up at Brandon Mission Podcast. I check those two. And if you have more questions about starting a podcast or what it takes, I'm more than happy to share.
There is more than enough room for all those who want to have a podcast. Join us. It's nice here.
Yes, you can always follow me by Janissa on Instagram. I'm not gonna prompt some and to answer your dms because I get a lot, but I will say this my IG channel.
What about your IG channel?
I said, you'll get a good laugh.
While learning about finances. I just posted some funny things funny meme today that everyone's like.
Oh girl, get out my business.
I love to do like a little funny financial meme and then hit you with the knowledge afterward.
But yeah, Okay.
So we gotta do a quick booster break.
Really quick, like five second. My five second boost will be that we finally closed our mortgage REFI loan is funded, old mortgage paid off, new mortgage done, and we did it before the end of August, which somehow means we don't have to pay a mortgage payment in September. I don't know. I'm sure they get their money eventually, but yay, make nine ten and we got a great rate down from four point thirty seven to two point eight seven, not.
Shabby, and I'm amazing.
Oh thank you. Yeah, I'm excited, and I we're gonna We decided we're gonna put the extra savings into a brokerage account instead of using it to pay down our mortgage because the rate is so low. It's only two point eight percent. So we were like, okay, let's take that extra I think we're saving three point fifty six. It came down to, finally, we're gonna throw that into a broke Maybe we'll throw it into some applestock. I don't know, we'll see, we're gonna invest it.
Do it.
Well, I'm gonna do like a boosty breaking. So here's the break part.
So people always doing I don't know right now, it's really huge online to do like these fake like accounts.
You know.
So a new spam account popped up on Facebook that they use like my image whatever. So that's the break part. You're like, oh, I'm tired. But the boost part is the name.
I'm not gonna lie. It's hilarious.
So this person said, my name is paquitoq Paquito. Okay, then I have to I gotta send you up. I'm gonna send your picture Paquito Gift, Like that is the name of like my new So if you see me on Facebook and you see my picture and it says this is Paquito Gift, this is a real account.
This is literally what it says. This is a real account registered your name to be a winner. I'm giving away five thousand dollars in cash giveaways. Yes, Paquito is So I just thought that that was hilarious. If someone sent me a screenshot and I was like, is this real, They're like, girl, someone's pretending.
To be you. I said, you know what, if you give your money to Paquito, you deserve it.
That is really hilarious. So that's it.
That was My break is I wish people would stop, you know, using my image to have a fake account. But the boost is it's hilarious, and you know what, call me Pakito from now.
I just I can't get home that day.
I don't know. I don't know. I have Team Tiffany on our on our BA swag which is coming, by the way, b a merch. You should be able to buy it with them. I'm going to give myself another week. I'm gonna figure this out. But we got the merch. It's looking good, y'all so cute. We're gonna have bran Ambision onesies, brown Ambission teas, sweatshirt, tote bag, get all the swag. It'll be on our website soon. Stay tuned. I don't know. Maybe I'll put Pakito limited editions.
Oh my god, just a limited.
Pakito limited edition? Uh what do you want? T shirt? Tank? We can we can make it happen.
Yes, so it should just say who is Pakito?
And meanwhile, there's so many unnecessary letters involved in Pakito. I'm just I'm gonna send it to you just so you could be like, how many cues are there?
So go take care baby, yo, We thank you guys for joining us. As for usual, we love y'all, love y'all.
All right, Tiffy, well, thank you for going late tonight. I know we're way over. No, that's okay, all right, all right, go get snacks for your man, all right.
Bye, Bye Bye Talking test