We should open with we never say this is Brown Ambition. Should we do that?
I'm like Brown, we never like you know it time like the present.
And we're back.
So I was just telling Mandy, we never say like, hey, you're listening to Brown Ambition. I mean, do you guys care or do you kind of know?
I feel like if you downloaded the if you subscribe to the podcast and you have to push play and you see the logo, you might know it's Brown Ambition. For those of you guys who've like stumbled home drunk and just started listening, this is Brown Ambition.
And I'm Tiffany and Mandy.
I will be your co host Mandy and Tiffany. Yes, you know what I don't you know what I want to say off the bat, because I was just going our inbox and we have so many sweet notes from listeners, like at least a dozen from the past couple of weeks alone, and I just wanted to say, we really appreciate the emails. It's so nice of you. What we'd appreciate even more is if you could turn those emails, just copy and paste them and put them on iTunes.
Oh yes, just a simple, a simple way to do good in your podcasting immunity because iTunes reviews are like currency in the podcast world, and that just means that other people like you can find the show and enjoy the show. And we live in a yelp world and people want to know, you know, what others think of
something before they try it out. So it would definitely help us out if you guys, could you know, kindly send all the emails you want, but a nice little iTunes review on top of that would just be so sweet.
Be your best friend, best friend, that's my best friend, that's my best friend.
Yeah, we'll just pass out free best friend cards exactly everybody, and yeah, send us. Maybe we should do another giveaway that worked out pretty good the first time.
Oh yeah, well, I mean it's not ready yet, but I do have these DreamCatcher t shirts that I'm making and they're so cute, but they're not quite finished yet. But when they are, we can do that as a giveaway.
Who doesn't love a T shirt? Yeah, So, when you leave a review, take a screenshop and go ahead and email it to brown MBIs Podcasts at gmail dot com. And when we come up with the sweet giveaway idea, we will we'll have to do it some sorlver drawing or something.
Mm hmm. I'll be fine.
I love giving stuff away me too.
I love a good giveaway.
Oh lord, Okay, let's get home with the show.
So this is kind of well, you know, I was gonna say this, but I'm like, I may or may not have regifted a really great gift to one of my VFF and she was so convinced that I bought it, and I didn't tell.
How I did it.
I was like, what should I do? Should I just let her rock out? So it was a it was a a Kindle fire. I'd want it at FINCNN remember Finconn last year, like I got an award or whatever, uh huh, And it gave me like this awesome kindle fire, And but I already have a kindle and I have a laptop. So I was just kind of like, I kept it in the packaging. I didn't even open it because I thought, like Supergirl has an iPad, Superman doesn't care,
like he's not really tech, mister tech guy. And so everybody who I kind of was thinking about giving it to at the time when I first got it, it just didn't make sense. And then her birthday passed not too long ago, and I was like, oh, I should give it to dust friend because I called her and I said, do you have an iPad or Kendall? She said no. But then when I gave it to her, she was so overwhelmed, and I realized quickly, I don't you know. I didn't think that to say, oh no, no,
I'm regifting. But I'm like, do you tell.
People when you read gifts?
Because now I feel bad, But I'm like, it's still a really good gift.
Well, does your best friend listen to the show.
No, but I'm sure people who know her, dude, don't tell her.
She knows, don't go.
I mean, she's still gonna be geeked up.
But she was like so like overwhelmed, and I was like, what's the idea?
And I was like, oh, cause she.
Knows, like like you know, I'm like notoriously like cheap, so I think she was like, I was like, he's so excited. It's just a candle far Oh.
She thinks I bought this. I mean it is brand new.
You know, I don't think you have to tell something. You wouldn't tell her if you had bought it, like how much it costs. I don't I don't know. I feel like I'm leaning towards no.
Okay, So if you guys know bff, I have two and you don't know which one it is. So I'm not gonna say, but if you see her with a new kindel fire, allow her to enjoy and to think.
That I purchased it. It was not intentional. It was just like it was just I knew that she would enjoy it, and I was like, she care it to be f f.
Yeah. There is that thing though of like you know, when you give someone a gift, not that money means that, it means more, but it's I mean, as long as the gift is thoughtful, like you thought she'd really enjoy it, and clearly she does. It'd be one thing if like you were you know, it's like, oh, I have this free scarf and your friend lives in Florida and just like give it to her for birthday, you know.
Yeah, No, she's a big reader. That's why I was like, ooh, she would love it.
Yeah, and you could have easily sold out for I don't know how much it's worth, Like that's just one hundred and fifty bucks or something and you.
Do No, you're right. I could have You're right.
See, Mandy, I'm just here to affirm every all the choices you make.
How good of that? So we have to talk about the BET Awards.
Yes we do, but really, just to be completely transparent, I did not watch it because I haven't been in a place in my life where I can watch an entire music awards show in a long time, I know. But I watched the clips usually, and usually I'm the clips the next day.
Girl but best friend was like, hey, I was on my way to go for a walk and I called her.
And she's like, what do you do?
And I'm like about to start with this walk so I can be snatched for Essence Fest And she was like, no, come over and watch the BET Awards instead, and I was like, okay, So I missed like the first hour.
But it was just fun to hang out.
Honestly, I'm not an award show person at all, but it was actually really good.
I heard it was good, But I feel like the BET Awards, like you're not really there to see who wins the awards, do you know what I mean? It's more of like the entertainment. The host I saw that Tracy Anderson or not Tracy Anderson. What is happening Tracy Ellis Ross thesting together again?
Yes, that's why I thought you mixed them up because you blended their.
Name, did I? No? I think Tracy Anderson is that like workout coach that Madonna and Tracy Ellis Ross also use I digress.
No, but she was she was great.
Well, Tracy alis Ross is always great, and Anthony Anderson was funny. But you know, it just was because BT is not exactly known for keeping a classy but it was so well done and the way they honored Prince, this was the best tribute I'd seen, just period, across the board, not just BT, just in general like giving tribute to an artist. Because what they did was that everymusical selection there was a Prince tribute like folded in,
you know, for the most part. So it wasn't like, oh, just this one long montage of Prince Vince, Prince, let's go about our business. It was like everyone who sang a song gave tribute, usually in some way, and it was just really nice. It was so well done. I was like, look at bat growing up.
You knew there was a lot of pressure on them though, yeah, especially after what award show was it that happened right after Prince passed and in Madonna Bond Yes, oh Madonna was Stevie and everyone was like, bet you better come, like put up or shut.
Up, yup, and they honestly they put up. It was like I said, like my favorite musical selections. Beyonce killed it with Kenchrick Lamar in the beginning. Jennifer Hudson laid, I mean, I mean her voice is just like, you know, genius anyway, but she just was incredible Janelle Money, although vocally I wasn't there with her necessarily, but her energy, like she know, she's got like that great dance thing that she does, and so she that was awesome.
Butlile who he was Prince and Carnate like, so, who is so blod?
You know you must be my soul sister, soul sister, hey, sis, you never heard that song? Well you still have not heard it because that's not how he sounds. But he came out like maybe like I want to say, ten to fifteen years ago, maybe longer, but when he was part of like the neo soul movement, remember when like di'angelo and all that, like yes, yeah, yeah, so he was part of like the neo soul movement. But he What I love about Blau is that very similar to Prince.
He is a classically trained musician. He has perfect pitch. He plays a number of instruments, and he's got that same rangers Prince, like that super high falsetto and then that super low like baritone voice and he.
Redid I forget what song?
It was a difficult Prince song and he killed it. I mean he sounded like Prince even like rolled on the ground like Prince. He he was Prince. And everybody was like, yes.
Okay, I haven't watched that clip. I need to watch the Prince tribute.
Yeah it was good. Yeah, honestly, everything was just really good. I mean I was like, look at Beyonce, because you know, Beyonce usually doesn't do the BET Awards.
All the headlines I saw today, including the front page of Yahoo, was about Jesse Williams's speech.
Sure, yeah, oh.
I forgot about that, just to find himself to his beautiful wife.
But his speech, did you listen? Did you watch it?
Later?
The clip I watched, and and well I read the transcript first and then I watched would you think? I thought it was really poetic, like that's the only way. It was almost like spoken word. We know Jesse Williams as the beautiful face on Gray's Anatomy. Yes, I still watch how many years like twelve thousand years later anyway, but he's always been very vocal and outspoken during the Black Lives movement move matter or sorry, black Lives Matter
movement since four AM anyway. Yeah, so it's it was I'm gonna let you talk, said yeah, without joke, but.
Honestly, it was very poetic.
It was there were some things that he said that just especially the last few lines he said something like that, like you know, uh that you you what did he say?
We may be magic, but that doesn't mean that we're not real?
Yeah, they we're not humans.
That was really no yeah to that effect.
Yeah, and there was no something that he said. He said, you you put us on like clothes and then discard us like the rhymes of strange fruit. I mean I was like the so like I used to do like spoken word like all that yes, yes, yes, back in college, and I was like yes, like that old Tiffany was from twenty one was like just like snapping my fingers and like just sipping my tea. It was amazing they had done some Do you hit that feedback feedback?
No, I don't hear anything.
I'm sorry, sorry I heard feedback, But no, they'd done like kind of like a little clip leading up to Jesse. I did not know that he was an Africana studies professor at one point. It totally makes sense that he was a teacher and the Africanda studies professor.
Did you see his.
Yeah, did you see his father in the audience, like tearing up?
Yeah, I didn't know have his father.
Yeah, it was like his father and his mother. So Jesse is biracial, his mother is white, his father is black, and his father and his mom they just looked so proud, and I thought I saw tears in his father's eyes, like look him all, I have taught him good.
You know.
Well, we didn't even say he was there accepting an award for Humanitarian of the Year. That's the whole reason he wasn't just like you know, oh yeah up there, just you know, grabbing the mic from somebody, and he also runs, I'm gonna I want to I'm want to talk about the group he runs. Oh, it's called the Advancement Project. We've talked about him a couple of times on the podcast before The Advancement Project is I believe mostly about I don't know. I'm not even gonna try
and pretend like I know exactly what it's about. But there's one there's one thing he does forcifically. There was like a documentary series or something that was all about black men in America. That's right, Okay, got.
Something right that like just basically shifting the portrayal of black men. And it's I think it's a docuseries, but I just they showed like clips of it on.
The BT woards like while they were honoring him.
Yeah.
Yeah, but he got a bigger standing ovation than any other artists, like like you know who's saying or anything else, Like he really moved the crowd. He talked about how yesterday or the day or today would be tame or Rice's fourteenth birthday, and that you know that sanction that they did a that paid public servants did a sanctioned drive by on a twelve year old playing alone in the park alone. How can you say that we've advanced? I was like, oh my goodness.
You don't hear a language like that in the news. You don't you know, accidentally discharged his weapon or you know, not a sanctioned drive by, which is essentially what it was.
Like.
He's not mincing words at all.
If you haven't listened to it. It's like mandatory viewing, honestly.
And you know it's important when like he's making headlines and not Beyonce, not Jennifer Hudson, not the Prince Tribute, Jesse Williams, Ye anything, Oh did you? Justin Timberlake got in a little bit of trouble afterward.
But he didn't say anything wrong. I thought he just said I'm inspired. That's what I thought he said.
Well, he responded to someone who tweeted at him, saying, Okay, so does this mean you're gonna stop appropriating our culture? Because you know, people have issues with Justin Timberlake and Robin Thick and being like white dudes singing R and B. I find it really hard to be upset at Justin Timberlake because I've loved him for so long.
Exactly, I'm sorry, I'm like sorry, I think.
There's rude enough for everybody, and Justin Timberlake.
Yes, I'm like, I'm actually gonna give him a past like I always I mean, I grew up at that time where I was like just that.
Yeah, he has like the Black card of passes, like the Black visa or what is it, the Black AMX. You can get it unlimited for your lifetime. He has that. He has that pass card anyway, but he responded to them saying oh sorry. He was like, first of all, he said, sweet heart, which is my pet peeve. Southerners do that when they're being condescending, they call you sweetheart. He was like, sweetheart, I'm just trying to say that I think we're all one human race and something to
that effect. You know. He might as well have put hashtag all Lives Matter at the end of it, basically. But then he like walked back and apologized. I just feel like, this is again a moment where it's like, no one, it's your moment to speak and sometimes just let just let us have our moment without chiming in, you know what I mean.
Yes, wasn't there there was a video, this awesome video of a Muslim woman speaking on the same panel as Glorious Steinem and I can't remember where it was but they asked basically like what can people do? And he said and she said, and it was just so appropriate because Glorious Sinum was literally literally passing her the mic to speak. And she said, that's what you can do that allow us to tell our story past the mic, Like you cannot decide for us or speak for us.
Allow us to speak for ourselves. And I think sometimes that I mean And like I said, I didn't have a problem with his original tweet justin Timberlake, but I get what you mean. Sometimes you're just like, yeah, now it's not just sh yeah some.
Part you know, you want to talk about allies. The best thing you can do is an ally. Sometimes is no one.
Touch Yeah, you need to shut it. That's right.
Hashtag passed the mic.
Yes, hashtag passed the mic.
Yeah, is anything? Did anything else happen in life? Oh? Game of Thrones? This has absolutely nothing to do with finance. If you guys came for finance topics today.
This is not the Yeah it's gonna happen.
Game of Thrones was last night. I know you don't watch it, but the finale was epic. If anyone wants to swap notes, feel free to tweet me at Mandy Woodruff or email us at Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. I have a lot of thoughts on the show this is. This show was increasingly becoming like the feminist icon, I feel like, because I mean, it's a medieval show, and I can't really think of another period of time when women were more like victimized and objectified.
Maybe all the times in history, but anyway, this period is specifically it's all about like corsets and wenches and rape and like using women as pawns and like just make me an air, you know that kind of stuff.
But this, like and this author, he's he's like this big, like Santa Claus looking white dude from like Phoenix, Arizona, and he's made some bad ass like feminist characters we have, and even like even Beyonce if you don't, if you don't, if you want a reason to watch this, Beyonce watches it too because she paid tribute to Kalisi, the Queen of Dragons. Anyway, like five of the major and i'd
say prominent characters are all women right now. And this is a show that started out like majority males six seasons ago.
I think that Superman and I we were talking about it. I was like, he's like, me and him are like eighty. He's like, have you heard of Game of Thrones? I was like, I have, I have. I think I want to get into it, and so I don't know, I think that we might, you know, because we tend to do that like wait forever and then like just like watch like one weekend or like a week and then we'll just sit and watch it together as a family. So well, obviously Supergirl can't watch.
Yeah, but man, it's a little, uh, it's very vulgar. It's not just the sex and the in the the language. It's like just the violence, the sheer violence, and the blood and goods. Oh and the zombies.
Zombies, and yeah, I'm confused.
Don't get too caught up in the zombie aspect. It can kind of turn you off. But it's interest. It's good. Okay, it's scary, but good. The zombies are there. They're like they're called white Walkers.
Oh, I think I've heard of them.
Don't read the books either, another just don't do it. I did it because I'm a masochist. But you don't. You don't have to read the books. To enjoy the show. Okay, okay, yeah, I'm jealous. You guys get to start from scratch.
I know, we'll see, we'll see how long I laugh because I usually have like I end up being like I'm bored to this.
Oh I do kind of have a financial topic.
Okay.
I sat down with my wedding budget this week and my my nice little multi sheet spreadsheet and Google docs. I don't know what happened, but my wedding is like twice as expensive as I thought it was going to be.
You know what happened.
I know what happened.
What to do?
I'm bad at math.
I know life happened to Carrie Broadshow, but she's like, I just want a simple wedding and then all of a sudden, you're gonna have a bird in your hair.
But this is a simple wedding. Like I'm literally I have chosen the least expensive option for all the vendors I can think of, and we're not even halfway done. I'm really just estimating, and I'm my original budget. I'll just say it was about fifteen thousand, and it's looking more like twenty seven thousand. If my calculations are correct. That cannot happen. I can't help and can it can't happen.
I mean, I don't know because I'm still like Superman the other day was like, what's your ring size?
Anyway? Just out of the blue, and I looked at him like, don't play.
With can you just get it together? I know, stop asking questions. He has all the information he needs.
I said, you know what, I'm gonna take batters into my own hand. And I called best friend best not kindle best friend, my other best friend. I said, look, best friend, my ring size is a six.
I'm gonna give you this place that was highly reviewed on Yelp in the Diamond District in New York. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna call Superman and say, look, cut the shit, and you're gonna take him to the place and you're not gonna make him feel bad or like no matter what his budget is, and you're gonna find like a nice and you're not gonna let him pick the ring like you know, just you know me. It's simple. And he's a little bit busier than I am.
You're gonna keep it simple because he's already spoken to my father.
He's already, like you've done everything.
Ye like yeah, Like I don't know what we're waiting on, Like, come on now. So that's what I told her.
She said, Okay, it's waiting for the stars to align. Just do it.
Like what are we waiting on?
We've been waiting weeks. He doesn't know we've been waiting weeks.
I can't wait. I come back and I'm like, okay, being podcast folks.
So it finally happened.
Well, I cannot wait for you to be in spreadsheet. Hell, I know that you're gonna make everything simple.
You say, oh, yeah, no I am. I'm going out.
I'm telling you I know right, I'm like justice of the piece and he's like, wedding.
I'm like, we'll see who wins.
You only get one, supposedly hopefully.
I was like, I wool said, no.
It really does start me, you know, making you start to think. When you're putting this much money into an event, You're like, what about people who get divorced? Aren't you so madns of thousands of dollars down the drain?
Can you imagine the people who get divorced and are still paying for their wedding? How terrible that must be.
No, I've been. I've had money for this saved since before I met well not since before I met him, but since before. It was probably conventionally, you know, accepted to be saving for a wedding to a person you're not engaged to yet. I'm just trying to think long term. The money is there. It's just like, you know, we're also trying to save her house. It's just that it's that time in your life where everything just collides. The house. Yeah, wedding,
everyone else's weddings, might I add, there's so many. Yeah, So if you're out there and you're planning a wedding or you have teen weddings to go to this year, I feel your pain. Let's co miserate.
See I'm passed like that. Well, no, I would say, because I'm in my mid thirties. So a lot of my friends got married in like their early thirties, so I remember it was like back to back to back. So now I'm like, okay, we're starting to get into the dwindling. Like not you know, it's not a whole bunch of weddings that are coming up. It's mostly like kids stuff like oh my kid's birthday and I'm like, oh boy.
I wonder when the second weddings wave hits.
I'm assuming, like in your forties and fifties, and even then, I'm assuming that you do you probably don't do a big shindg. You just kind of get married.
Yeah, there's not the whole like registry. There was a really sweet you know, I don't often peruse the wedding section of the New York Times, but someone posted this on Facebook because it's a really what's a rare black couple? I think for the New York Times wedding section, but this is a couple who are getting married. They're both in their sixties, and the story is really sweet, not only but it's not just these aren't your average people.
So the woman, her name is doctor Helene Gail. She has been like a top executive at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the HIV AIDS epidemic. Like she's cool with Bono, like Bono mentions her in speeches. And then her husband used to be a former aide to Senator Edward Kennedy. His name is Stephen Keith. Anyways,
so they're like huge in public health. So they are doing amazing things but their love stories that they met in the seventies when they were both like medical students, and they went their entire lives like thirty years, you know, working together, but never really like connecting. And eventually he just like woke up and got his shit together and proposed.
Damn, but I mean, in your sixteen I'm not trying to wait that long, superman. If you do, listen, don't do it to yourself.
Well, he was married twice and she but she was more of like a feminist, like didn't want to get married, and I really identify with her. Actually, I was like hanging on to her every word in this quote because I don't know something about marriage, you know, I'll just go ahead and read it. The article says the question of marriage was one that doctor Gail had to work out for herself. She said, it's easy to be intellectual about marriage. Is it an equal institution for women as
it is for men. Is it going to change my life and my life options? Does it indicate I need someone to complete me as a human being. Eventually, she decided to let emotion rule. There is something about the act that a public commitment does make a bond that is different and special and creates a level of intimacy, not necessarily that you need marriage four, but probably is
facilitated by marriage. And I was like, okay, because I think it's I don't know, I've sort of been overthinking marriage a little bit because we're having this like a third or fourth wave femine as a movement, and I feel like, no, you don't need to be married technically anymore, and yeah, you can be financially in depend on your own as a woman. But you know, just sort of like personally soul searching and asking myself, you know, why am I actually getting married?
Yeah?
And what is it really going to mean?
You know, it's so funny because you said because this I was driving because I remember when I first got back because I'd know n Superman for a while and I dated in between, and I remember like when I really started dating him again, I wasn't in the best place because.
I was like, ugh, you know, you've just been heard and you're like, this guy is a jerk.
That guy was a jerk. And then Superman kind of came back in my life and I wasn't especially in the beginning. I was like nervous, like is this just the safe space to park, you know. And then yesterday I had just gone and see my dad and he was like, you know, Superman. Of course he doesn't call him Superman, but he said, you know, Superman. He spoke to me about you. I was like, Daddy, I know, and so he's.
Like like, you know, I just want to let you know it's coming soon. You know.
My dad's all excited and geeked up because he has five daughters, so you know, he's at a point now where he's like, please someone marry me. And as I was driving home, I thought to myself, you know, like I really love Superman. Like it's not you know, it's not a hurt place. You know, it's not a I'm
parking myself here. It's not like he's a really great guy, you know, just like I mean, I'm sure you think about this about you know fiance boo that you're just like, yo, this he's a really good person, not just a good man like to me, just a good person. And I'm just really blessed just even if he wasn't my man, he's a good person, you know, and just it just.
Makes me happy.
And I thought to myself, and I'm finally in a place too where honestly, it was nice that my dad, you know, was happy about my choice now because remember remember when we first started the podcast, they were not happy, And I thought to myself, the truth of the matter is, I don't care that I'm finally in a place where I'm like either way, if they were happy or not happy or whatever, I've heard that I'm filing the place where I'm literally living life on my own terms and
for the most part, you know, within reason. You know, I'm not like, you know, I'm going to walk the streets naked, But I don't care. Like I'm making choices based upon what I feel is right for me. I'm not measuring them against what my parents think, what my friends think. I'm finally like feeling fully grown and just making choices just based upon what I feel is right.
I think it's all about trusting yourself. I think we doubt ourselves so much when we're younger, and you know, you well, you have the foresight of like seven years on me. But I feel like I'm still in that dowdy place, you know, or you feel like every decision is so huge and so important, and you just like, am I making the right decision and what if I'm not and you know, and that trickles into relationships too. But I think it's all about you know, not to
sound all religious, but it's really about faith. You know, whatever you think of as faith, you just have to step out on it and hope. And I feel the same way about fiancee boo. It's like when you look at someone and you see how they move in the world, and yeah, sometimes I just like step back and I'm like, why you're so good?
Yeah?
How did I wind up with you? I'm a mean person.
I think that two people think I'm so.
I mean, I guess I'm nice, but honestly, yeah right, I'm like I could be petty as hell. I can be like just like I get very I just get stressed out super easily. Like I'm literally like the nicest person until i'm not. And then when I'm not, it's like who is this monster? And like Superman is like even when he's not in a good mood, he's still nice. I mean, who feeds the kids in the neighborhood? Like just today he was like, oh, Man, like like our watermelon had a freezer burn, and I was like, I.
Don't know why wait, what is that sentence? You just said?
Our watermelon?
He took it out of refrigerator and it had freezer burn, like because he had it all the way in the back and he was so okay, yeah he had it. So he was so disappointed and I asked why. He was like I was gonna cut it up to the kids.
In the back, and I'm like, who are you you know, and he's just like such a sweetheart and like, yeah, it's just it just it's made me like even just to see, like you said, when you watch them navigating the world, and I think that I'm really really, you know, blessed and lucky, even if he was just my friend, you know.
So yeah, and honestly, Mandy, when you get to I mean, when I was because you're what are you twenty nine?
Yeah, I'll be twenty nine and exactly two.
Months so so I'm thirty six now, and at twenty nine, I mean, so much was shaken up because that was like the time when I lost my job and I lost everything and everything. I was questioning literally everything. But now and I don't know if there's a magic age. I'm just assuming it's just there's not an age. It's just the moment where you get to a place and you feel not that everything is perfect, because it's not.
But I'm finally at a place where I feel like I'm not looking for perfect I just want to do my best and be my best and like not in comparison.
To what people say. But I don't know how I arrived at this point.
I'm not gonna lie, just living and you know, so I hopefully, you know, everyone kind of gets to that place, but I'm assuming you get to that place.
I'm sure there's some twenty five.
Year old who are at that place, and there's some fifty year old who are just getting at that place. But I think as life evolves that you'll get to that place where you're not like questioning every move. You just understand that there's a flow to life and that you're on the right path. And even the bad things are good things. That's what I've learned. Like even the stuff that's that's messed up, it's supposed to be and it's supposed to bring me to the next level. So
I even welcome my mistakes. I make so many, like even that car crash. Don't you know they offered me another car, I was like, oh, well that worked out, and so like, yeah, so the flow of life is really just amazing and beautiful and if you learn to kind of chill out and just rock with it and just you know, do your best and try to be your best, everything else works out.
Yep ah.
So that concludes our joint therapy session. Sorry for the gushing about the booze. I'm sorry, I know, but.
Yeah, somebody's like me too, you know sometimes it's like the gush. So are you gonna boost? Are you gonna have breath?
Oh? You broke up a little bit?
Okay, did you hear you? Hear me? Now?
Yes? Okay.
So I'm gonna boost this week. Feeling in an optimistic mood. It's Monday, and it's going to be a short week because this weekend I'm going on a trip, a trip with my friends, my best friends, which maybe I'm realizing the last time we actually all get I don't want to jinx it. It may not be the last time, but it kind of feels like it might be the last time we all get together for our annual camping trip.
So I'm gonna boost one vacation time and time off from work and two time off with friends when you still can, because I you know, you read all these studies about Americans not taking all their their PTO and I just don't understand why, because I feel like you've earned that time off and you're not impressing anybody by staying and you know, wasting your days. So take your days off. I'm MAXI mine out every year, but this
trip in particular. These are my my like core group of like rider die friends, and you know, we're all going to be each other's weddings, and we've all sort of we live in different states. I think we were enforced three or four states now, and that's evolved over time. And that's the reason I feel like it's such an important trip right now for us is because three of us, wait, two of the couples in this group are getting married
in the next year. Okay, one of the couples is probably going to be prego in the next year, and you know, we're buying houses, and you kind of get the sense that, like, Okay, this is the this is the pivoting point, Like this is when we transition into you know, real life and it's not just about the group of friends and we're not gonna be able to just pick up and go to the Pocono's for a
week like we're doing right now. So I just really want to cherish his time and enjoy it with them, because who knows what's going to happen next year.
That's true because once babies come. I was just like me and one of my bs, we used to always go like at least the way once, like for an extended weekend, and I was like asking her, She's like, did you forget to have a baby? I was like, oh, yeah, my God's son.
I was like, can he come.
She's like no, so yeah, no, definitely. That's an awesome brown boost, And mine is actually really simple. My brown boost is Jesse Williams.
That's it.
I mean, there's nothing else to say. Just more of Jesse Williams. Please with the little uh grape juice and soda on the side.
What is that chicken noodle soup?
Yes, episoda on the side.
Yes, he is the chicken noodle soup to my soda on the side. And I just want to just more of him. I cannot get enough. So that's my brown boost.
He's such a pleasant picture to imagine in your head. Yes, I think he uses his beauty for good. To be honest, Yes, you know what I mean. Like, and he's written about and we've talked about the European beauty standards in the black community. And he is light skinned, biracial, blue eyes, and I can identify a lot with that with him because I'm light skin, I have green eyes, and you almost like you want to be involved in in all the you know, exciting movements and like Black pride that's
happening right now. But you also like he also acknowledges like, hey, I have been given this genetic situation and it puts me in a different place than a lot of people, in a lot of people's minds, and he like acknowledges that. And I always respected him for calling that out and acknowledging that little piece of privilege he has. Yeah, you know, being lighter skin with you know, lighter complexion and stuff. But I think he and to the same end, I
think he really uses that. Like people like him. They think he's hot and sexy, which he is, and that means they pay attention to him, and that can be a negative thing, but he's also he's sort of like made it a positive.
Yeah, I agree, like you can't help go ahead.
Like you think I'm beautiful, great, but listen to what I have to say. You may not like it.
And so I love because you're right.
He gets invited to some of these conservative like panels and like TV shows and news shows that might not otherwise have like a Nate. Who's the guy Nate, the one who did uh? He did the new movie about Oh My mind is just a blanket everyway. He has this new movie about the slave Revolution, like.
Oh, Tucker, Tucker, Yes, I know what you're talking.
So he's very handsome too, but he's like just like you know, he looks like typical black man, you.
Know, not yes the movie about Not Turner.
Yes, so he's very handsome, but like a Jesse Williams is the type of he has a type of looks that like across all races people can acknowledge like okay. And as a result, yes, doors definitely open and he uses you know, and I'm glad that he uses that for good. And it's like, yes, you have me invited here, but I'm about to read you like like no, like no other And.
Just to be clear, so we're not drugged. It is the movie is about not turning the slave by Nate Parker, Yes, the director.
Yes, and he's fine, fine, fine, I have.
Just even seen a picture of him.
I mean, well, child, make it your make it your business to google.
I know him. What's he been in Yeah, he's been Yeah, he's.
Been in movies before.
But he's just like you know, I like, like, I mean, my preference, like Superman is super chocolate. I love, love love, dark skin, high cheekbones. Nate's not really like he's more chocolate, like you know, like a milk chocolate. But yeah, I love I'm hungry. Do we get any letters this week? If you do have letters, or you do have a financial question or career question, you know, you can always
tweet us at the BA podcast. You can find us on Facebook as Brown Ambition, and you can email us at Brown Ambition.
Oh no, come on the.
BA podcast at gmail dot com.
Nope, Conic, what is this Brian Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com?
Yes?
Have we listened? Have we done this question yet? From? Does she want us to use her name? We'll just call her I really feel bad because shorthand of her name is fatty, but can't call her that.
So let's call her, let's.
Call her slim Slim.
Okay, so here's the question, and forgive me if I repeat of repeating myself. Okay, she says, Hi, Mandy and Tiffany, Hi, I am an entrepreneur. This is my second year in business, and revenue is growing, and the next month client work will bring in about twenty three thousand dollars, not to mention smaller incoming client work. I want to allocate this
money in a way that helps me get ahead. My concerns are how much to save my save toward living expenses and in my emergency fund, and how aggressive I should be toward debt pay down. I have an old personal credit card bill that's high that I've been paying down and not adding expenses to. My instinct is to be aggressive and paying down the credit card, but I want to be sure I have enough money to cover my living expenses if things get lean, I already keep
my expenses. My personal expense is low. Any ideas and how I should consider allocating this money or how I can approach debt to pay down? No, to pay down my debt and increase my savings.
Well, first, congratulations two years and you know you're making good money a month.
That's awesome.
Seriously, congrats. That's a good question.
It is.
I'll tell you what I do because I'm kind of similar in that I don't have old credit card debt, Like I'm credit card debt free. The only debt I do have is my student loan debt for my masters. So what I decided is I really live, especially as an entrepreneur, I don't live by a mouth. I live by percentages because I never necessarily know.
What I'm going to make month a month.
I mean, I kind of have a general idea, like a range, and so I have allocated five percent of my income toward debt paydown. So what that means is I give my debt automatically.
I have it.
My bank automatically gives a minimum every month, So no matter what, you know, my student loans get their four hundred bucks or whatever it is on like the fifteenth of the month, and then depending on what I make, I give an additional payment at the end of the month, a five percent of what I made that of what I made that month, just to like, So that's my way of allocating without like overly aggressively just paying down debt, and then I set aside, so twenty percent of my
income goes toward investing. Ten percent of that twenty is retirement and the other ten percent is investing for wealth. So that's I call that my me money. And I
take twenty percent of my income and do that. Thirty percent of my income I set aside for taxes because you know, you don't have no business, but Uncle Sam takes it, you know, And like I said, five percent for debt, and I like to give ten percent, like I set aside ten percent to donate, and so those percentages come after I set aside my my like after my expenses and stuff.
So it's not like I'm like, oh, off.
The top except for taxes off the top, unless you know, I set aside my taxes before basically everything except for business spending. So that's what I would probably do. Just work out some percentages for yourself. I probably would set aside ten percent, maybe five percent for debt, and then maybe ten percent for savings, if not more, and just start chopping up. Like I like to play with my percentages.
So I do a percentages for you know, three or four months, and as I start to make more, I increase those percentages because I don't need as much.
I save a really aggressively.
I don't you know, I make really good money a month now with the BUDGETISA, after like five years of toiling away. But I set aside a large chunk for myself because by four I want to be financially independent, and you know, so I live simply now so I can achieve that goal. So that's what I would suggest, set aside five percent on top of your your your minimum payment.
Well here's my question to you. So if you had a she doesn't tell us how much is on this credit card, but if you had a credit card with let's say, like ten thousand dollars on it, with like a fifteen percent which seems about average fifteen to twenty percent interest rate, do you think you'd still kind of like just let that sit there and only put five
percent or do you? For me, personally, I get stressed out by having credit card like debt, and so for me, I was always more on the And I think it's really a personal thing and it comes down to your your like the way your your mentality around money, and if having debt is going to weigh on you at night and you can't sleep, which it does to me.
I was always leaning toward more of the aggressive with by you know, saving still, which I think is important to have money on the side so that you know, you know, something happens, you can always lean on that savings. But when you have that crazy high interest rate and you know, you know this credit card is is has been you know, on your on your docket for a while. Yeah, I've always been toward more of like the you know,
pay whatever you possibly can. That's that you know that you have left over toward that to that credit card.
All what you can do.
Too, is like if you let's just say you have ten thousand dollars and you split it up into four payments of twenty five hundred dollars a piece, and right, so you could do that over four months and say, okay, I'm gonna save, I'm gonna do something of that, and I'm gonna in four months, since I'm not actually using this credit card, in four months, i should be credit card debt free.
So you can kind of do that too. And if you don't want.
To do the monthly percentage, just decide when do I really want to be done with this and set aside a chunk of money that you're going to send monthly. I probably wouldn't do it all in like one month, because you want them, especially as a business owner. You know you might be doing great now and then in two months the thing that you do, you know it's no longer relevant, and you don't want to have like you're just debt free, but you don't have any money to fall back on totally.
You never know what next month is going to bring. Yeah, and this may be your first month when things are final. It's just like, you know, you're feeling successful and you're making money, but this is all new and it's just the beginning, and you don't want to put all your eggs in your credit card basket and have no cash
left orr at the end of it. Yeah. I think starting from like what you what you said, setting an end date and then working backward how much you need to actually pay on the card to get to that end date is a good idea. They're all right, slim, slim, not batty. If you guys have questions again, you can email us that Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot.
Com dot com. Know, I gotta do that every time I do. You're waiting for it. I know you will, all right, So it's.
Time for all we do is when when win, no matter what. I don't know the second line, so don't ask.
Okay, So what is you're winning for this week?
Instead of a win, I'm going to do a book recommendation? Okay, I'm in. I'm doing audiobooks now that my commute is hellishly long. I'm trying to disilver lining. Is that I'm listening to audiobooks now. I this is a book called Grit.
Get rid of it.
I have. I like it a lot.
That's all.
That's it?
What is what?
What is it about?
I was just trying to buy myself some times, like, oh, look up the whole title of the book.
You're like, yeah, it's really good. As I look up.
Grit the Power of Passions and the God I need to go to sleep. Grit the Power of Passion and Perseverance. It only has been out since May, but it's by Angela Duckworth, who has been the recipient of a little award called the MacArthur Genius Grant MacArthur Genius Award, which ton of Hasse Codes won. Lynn Manuel Miranda one like a lot of amazing people. And if you don't know the McCarthy, the MacArthur Award, you don't even get, Like, you don't apply for it, you don't ask to be nominated.
Like a super secret board of the most elite people in a dozen different fields gets together and they like, pluck you out from obscurity and they say that you get the award. So anyway, that's awesome. So she's super smart. But the book itself was really good. Sweat. I like it because it's about so it's called the grit, the power or passion and perseverance. It's not just like a book on how people become successful. It talks about what
separates someone who's successful from someone who's not successful. And Angela has done years and years of research on this, looking at everyone from West Point cadets to those National Spelling Bee champion kids, to college graduates to high school students and finds that grit is what sets people apart. It's not just your talent or your potential. It's the
ability to withstand anything and keep and keep going. And it really resonated with me especially well not just from a like a career kind of aspect, which I think is good too, because it just shows you that, like, you know, I don't always personally, I you know, covering finance and being a financial reporter, I know, I don't always feel like I'm the smartest person financially or that
I know all the answers financially. But I've always sort of felt like, you know, a little scrap and like I'm going to get the answer and I may not know everything, but I'll figure it out. And I think that's what she's sort of talking about. And I and I, I don't know. I highly recommend it. I think it's a it's a good book, and it's a good reminder that you you may not be the smartest or the fastest.
Like I was never the I'm not the best athlete, but I've done a half marathon and I've done a triathlon. That's because you know, I was always the biggest girl. Oh my god, I'm the biggest girl in my cross my CrossFit class. I'm the slowest girl in my CrossFit class.
But I'm the only one who's come to every class like it's all the time, and like I keep going because I get really I get really stuck on these goals of mine, and you keep going and it's nice that there's actually a word I can call that now, which is I like that.
Great grit right if you know. It reminds me of my dad. Like he was the youngest son of the last wife. My grandfather had I think like five wives and Nigerian that was totally cool back in that those days. And his mother was the last wife. He was the youngest son. I think some number seven or eight. So like, you know, just to put in perspective, the first son is obviously the most important.
He's the heir. The second son is despair. Everybody else is like extra mouths to feed. So imagine the youngest So he wasn't really given much attention or just even just his father didn't invest much in him. His mother did. But my dad is little on.
The short side. He hates to sit out, like I'm so glad he does not listen to this. He's a little on the short side. And he's smart, like really smart. But really, when I see from where he came in Nigeria, like literally at sixteen, he built his own home for lack of a better word, for himself and like like right outside his father's compound, like like you know, like
with like just built his own home. Just imagine what that looks like in Nigeria and somehow got all the way to America to succeed, not only succeed, but thrive, master's degree, undergraduate, just five kids, all college educated. And that's when I really, when I look at him, it's that grit that you're talking about. He is one of these tenacious I don't know how we're gonna do it, what we're gonna do. I don't know how I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm going to keep going.
And my dad does not let go when he has like something in mind. And so I actually really want to read that book because I love, Like, if there's anything that I hope that I inherited from him other than his temper, because lord knows when I get mad that I hope it's that grit of his because he is I can only imagine if he would have grown up with like and started a little higher, you know,
because yeah, he's just from he fard. I mean, he has literally gone to the moon, you know, like not literally because that's not what that means, but you know what I mean in comparison to where he's come from to where he is now whoa you know, like a hundred paces you know. So yeah, so you know what, in honor of you sharing a book, I think I'm going to do a book too, because I'm actually reading a new book and it's called What I Know for
Sure by Oprah Winfy Winfrey. And Oprah has a magazine and this is like her column in her magazine, what I Know for Sure. So these are like a collection of all of not all, but like a few years of her column and it's just literally just that she would just share whatever she was feeling that she knew for sure at that moment in time in her life. And it's just really it's like typical Oprah, but it's just I needed some I don't know, like Oprah provides
sometimes that like you could do anything, you know. Oprah's like the ultimate cheerleader. And so yeah, it's just a great little it's an easy little read. It's very uplifting. It's not I'm not rushing through it. I'm just kind of reading it as I need that feeling of Tiffany, You've got it, You're okay, you know, everything's going to work out. And so it's just a nice book and it just it's like soothing to the soul. So if you need a little soothing, I would highly recommend What
I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey. I have it on my kindle, but they also have obviously, like you know, the regular book version too.
I want to get the audiobook. I miss Oprah's voice.
Yeah, and if you go to Amazon, which I love, they actually have like a nice chunky section where she's like you hear her reading and you're like, oh, Oprah, yes, yes, Oprah.
I haven't really like I haven't watched any of the own shows or any of oprah stuff like Super Soul Sunday. I don't. I don't have cable, but I haven't. I feel like I've been like Oprah to pray for a long time. Depraved, deprived.
We're both like just words.
Oh gosh, I'm gonna stop talking now and just call it. This is the end of the show.
Yes, And if you guys have any really great books, please please please share.
Yeah, let us know what's on your bookshelves or in your ears, because.
I honestly, like I I love reading. It's just to me.
Reading and nighttime walking are the things that just like they're like my decompression. It's my thing that I love to do that brings me to like center and brings me peace. And so I love a good book.
So I can't even think of a segway. I'm sorry, my.
Brain is so.
On that note.
Y'all weird.
Gonna let you go, and like I said, share your books with us. Tweet us at the BA podcast, Facebook, us at Brown Ambition, email us at us at Brown Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com.
Look at God, I thank you for picking up the flock. I am on a different planet right now.
All right, Mandy go get your rest.
Night y'all, like nine nights, Bye bye