Y'all pay attention. We have to wake up. There's still time. Contact your senators, contact your local representatives. Like I know, BA fam, like we we on the right side of history. But if you are in a you know, if you have an elected official who is on the fence or isn't sure how they're going to be voting, or hasn't indicated how they're going to be voting on this bill, our voices have to matter. We have to believe the theyme. So please reach out and contact your elected officials. Hey,
ba Fam, it's Mandy Money. I just want to say Happy Friday. I'm trying to like get my breathing under control because your girl has been hacking all day. Why does it take so long to pack for just a four day trip. I'll tell you why. Actually, as I'm sitting here, I'm like, yeah, no shit, lady, you're going to see Beyonce. I am on my way to London.
I'm going to see Beyonce. I'm breaking every rule they tell you to follow when you're about to travel, and you shouldn't tell people you're going to be leaving the country, like someone might come and steal your whole life while you're gone. Honestly, though, I dare you, I dare you to find No, I don't dare you, but low key I think it would be hilarious for someone to walk into my life with my baby's kids and my husband and my badass dog and walk promptly back out and
be like, you know what she can have? That, yes, she really can have. I'm good. I'm good. Actually my life was perfectly fine before. Honestly, what do I have going on? I am gardening, I got this family, regular, regular life. I'm leaving a sink full of dishes, my bed isn't made. Type a's who are listening right now, I just want to apologize. Actually I should have prefaced this by saying trigger warning for my Type a's, but
it's been a hell of a week. It's been a hell of a couple of weeks actually, and I just wanted to do a solo episode and just say hey and do a quick check in, make sure that y'all are good, that I'm not trying to do too much too fast, because I feel like in last I don't know how long has it been six months of me going solo, that I have really just been putting more energy, more brain power, more everything into Brown Ambition, And I'm as obsessed as ever with this show, with this community,
with the work that I'm doing, and y'all are the reason why I get to do it. So I want you to know what's kind of going on and why it may feel like there's a lot of stuff happening all of a sudden, I think because so much of the changes recently have been weeks months in the planning, and when everything was sort of like baked and it was time to go, I was just like, you know what, I'm sick of waiting. I just want to get shited out there. I want to move on. So I am
really excited. The biggest change I'll probably notice is my new logo or my new cover art, cover art and logo, which was done by the brilliant Shirley Shirley Tea Designs. If you are looking for a web designer, surely's basically like, if you can think of any incredible woman of color led podcast out there right now, it's likely that Shirley
did their website, did their branding. So think about Journey to Launch with Jamila Suffrant, think about Janice Torres from Jokio Dinero think about Nikayla Matthews from Side Hustle Pro, Shirley Shirley, Shirley shre even Chris Browning from Popcorn Finance. I believe he's worked with her before. So Shirley is that girl, truly, and she's a mama just like me of autumn kids, and yeah, she's struggling a lot, just
like me, and I love working with her. And she was really great because I don't think I gave her anything to go off of as far as what I wanted for the new cover art, but I literally just gave her all of my pictures, told her what I liked and didn't like from the current brand, colors and the vibe I was trying to evoke, and that was it. And we, of course went through like a bunch of iterations, and then the iHeart team got involved and things take their time, But I'm really happy. Every time I I
see the podcast cover, I'm like, oh, I'm home. It feels like I've been cycling through just placeholders for the past half a year, even more than that, and I'm just really proud of it. And I feel like it is exactly the personality I wanted to get across we don't have fun here that I am here for the Brown Girls. Black Girls especially like that it's a fun show. But we're going to like cover topics that are essential to our everyday life. So very excited about that. Thank
you Shirley for making that happen. We also launched a Patreon, and you may also be wondering, wait, also a book club too. Yes, I know it's a lot and maybe too much too soon, so I'll slow down so that I can like catch all up on why and what and how it all works. So book club and Patreon, they're sort of interwoven. So first of all, the book club,
anybody can be in the book club. You don't necessarily need to sign up for the Patreon to be in the book club, but you do need to sign up for the Patreon if you want to take advantage of like the live author q and as and like book club meetings that I want to have once a month. So if you want all that, I highly suggest signing up for the Patreon. There's a free version of the Patreon, and so if you just want to sign up for that,
you should be good. But if you want to go level up to the paid Patreon, which is five bucks. Patreon sets a floor of at least three dollars four different tiers, So five bucks is what I settled on, and I wanted it to be something that's really affordable. I know times are tough right now and things are really uncertain, but at the same time, I'm packing it with value. I'm trying to give y'all everything I could
possibly think of. So starting with one of my favorite perks of the Patreon is that every week when we record, or every time we record the Brown Table, you know where I've got some pals, We get together, we chat about the headlines and what's happening in our lives. I can give an audience link to my patreons to be a fan club, and y'all can click that link and you can literally be in the audience while we're recording. It's like having a backstage pass, so you can see
us working through the topics. You can basically hear an entirely unedited version of the podcast. You can participate, so if you want to ask a question, we will go to that audience. Sometimes when there is an audience, I don't know who's going to show up. I hope you all show up. That would be cool, and y'all can ask your questions live, you can comment as we're chatting,
and it'll just be fun. I almost kind of feel like an old episode of like Living Single or Fresh Prince of bel Air where you have like a live studio audience. That's the That's what I'm hoping it'll it'll be like. So if you want to get that benefit, you can join the Patreon five bucks a month. Of course, you're going to get bonus content, so I will anytime I've got extra content that wasn't able to squeeze into that week's episode, I'll be putting it up on Patreon.
I'm going to be in the Patreon and there's a group chat there, chat with each other, you can chat with me, you can ask questions there. Come join the chat. You're gonna get, like I said, access to those virtual book club meetings and author q and as you're gonna get a virtual backstage pass to those live recordings behind the scenes content. You can also help me pick show
topics every week. I want to make sure that I'm covering things that y'all care about, so whether it's what the heck is this big beautiful bill all about or you know, live streaming live coverage of like what did we think of all the looks from the BET Awards, from the NAACP Image Awards, like whatever's happening in pop culture. I want to be a part of that conversation with y'all in community. So come on down to Patreon. I'm
gonna put a link in the show notes. But as far as the book club, I'm gonna let y'all know what the Oh wait, I didn't even tell you what the pick is yet. I mean I told you if you listened to the last episode, you know. But our first inaugural book Club pick is c Bo Campbell's sky Full of Elephants based on the feedback we've gotten just on the clips I've shared on social so far, y'all love this book, and I feel like y'all are just
like me. Like you've read the book, you loved it, you've been dying to talk about it, and now you have an excuse to talk about it. So let's get together, y'all. If you want to learn more about sky Full of Elephants, go back and listen to my interview with the author's Campbell. What an incredible guy, such a cool story we get into his career. Also the premise, we go through the book and talk about sort of the plot and the main characters, but there's so much we did not get
to dive into. So I'm excited to have Cibo come back to join us for the Brown Ambition book Club's first meeting, which will probably happen sometime in July, and then I'll be announcing the next book club pick sometime at the beginning of July as well. And if there's something that y'all want to see in the book club, like, if there's something that you're reading that you want to tell me about, please do. It doesn't have to be business or finance or career related. I love a novel,
I love historical fiction. I love books that make you feel that help you escape, but then also have like a really core message and heart to it. So if that sounds like something that you are also into, I would love you to join the Brown Ambition book Club. All right, let me take a quick break and I'm going to come right back with more of this solo episode and I'll be right back. Bafam, hey ba fan, welcome back. I'm just sitting here trying to figure out
how do people do solo episodes. I don't hate it, Actually, it's kind of helping me unpack my thoughts. So so far, we've covered the Patreon, We've covered the book club, We've caught up on the new cover art and logo for the show, and now I kind of want to talk about things that are happening in the news right now, because I, like y'all, feel like I'm drinking water from a fire hose and I just want to do a quick wu saw. Everyone, of course, is stressed out about
this big, beautiful bill that will set it. Y'all know who I think Lovey Love is hilarious. Love called him Mango Mussolini. So I'm going to steal that mankle Musolini's
new beautiful bill working its way. It is moving on to the Senate now, and all I'm going to say is, if you live in a state, or if you rely on Medicaid, if you rely on a Obamacare plan or a Medicaid plan, you need to be calling and contacting your representatives on the Hill because this bill will gut those programs and something like ten million Americans are going to be dropped from that healthcare coverage over the next ten years. If the bill has passed the way that
it is. I'm not gonna lie. There's some stuff in the bill that I'm mad at at all, especially as a homeowner. One of the changes or a couple other things in the bill that pertain to homeowners. I mean, my husband and I just got our annual letter from our town saying that our house has been reassessed, and oh, what do you know, We've gained sixty two thousand dollars in property value in the last year, despite the fact that we haven't done a single thing to this house
since twenty eighteen. So that makes no sense to me. And our tax bill is going to be even crazier than it already is. For my little three bedrooms, two and a half bath house, y'all would just move the property taxes twenty thousand dollars a year twenty thousand, and in fact, I think we've finally reached a point where our monthly property tax payment is more than the mortgage is, so that's super fun. So the tax bill that is working its way through Congress right now would actually increase
the salt deduction. So salt deduction stands for state and local taxes. So basically right now, as a homeowner, I think we're capped. At first of all, I'm not a CPA. I'm definitely not your CPA. So I'm just giving you my everyday Mandy money with a little bit of financial knowledge and business journalism background. Take on the news. So take it with a pinch of salt. Please do your
own research. But the salt deduction, it dictates how much of our property taxes and the taxes we pay on our home, how much of that we can deduct from our taxable income, and that is going to be increased from ten k to up to forty K. And there's income limits. You know, you can only qualify for that if you earn a certain amount. So that is also something that's up in the air, but something that I'm
looking at. And what's you know, the biggest headline of this whole bill is just how expensive it is because as the Trump administration and Republicans get rid of all these federal I mean, they've just been y'all know about Doge, you know about Musk and how he has been gutting these federal institutions, agencies and just laying off hundreds and hundreds of employees with this bill. They are cutting through
these healthcare benefits. They are making it harder to qualify for Medicaid, they are slashing funding for Obamacare in some ways. There is a lot here that's going to cost America so much money because they're cutting taxes. The corporate tax rate right now thirty five percent, and you and I both know is not like these corporations even pay that anyway, because they have so many other tax breaks already. But right now it's about thirty five percent. This would reduce
it to twenty one percent. Just about every tax bracket income wise would be seeing a decrease in your tax that you owe, your income tax that you would owe, which may sound great. I mean, who doesn't love a tax break. Like I said, I'm all for all increase in the tax deduction because of how expensive my property taxes are. That being said, when we cut taxes, that revenue the US is like a business, right, I mean, that's what Trump always talks about. It's a business. I'm
a businessman, Order the deal. Ooh, I'm a negotiator. The reality is that one of the biggest revenue streams for the United States government and our benefits are taxes that we all pay, right, and when you cut a funding source, being taxes, there has to be a way to generate more money to pay for things that keep the lights on in this country, pay the roads, pay for schools,
pay for public resources, our social safety programs. And unfortunately, because of how deeply they are trying to cut taxes, we are going to be adding trillions, not billion, trillions of dollars to the federal deficit if this bill were to pass exactly as it is right now. That's according
to the latest reports. There's a watchdog agency. Some people call them bean counters, but these oversight agencies that will try to predict or try to estimate, Okay, if this bill were to pass, how much are we actually spending. What's happening to the deficit. So, because they are cutting taxes so much, they're going to have to cut other programs because we will not be able to pay for them. And so that's where the cuts to Medicaid and to Obamacare come in. Oh and let's not forget if you're
a tipped worker. So if you work in service or shift jobs, you may have a tax break on your tips and your overtime pay, which I think people are very excited about. Yay. All right, let me take a quick break and I'm going to come right back with more of this solo episode and I'll be right back. Ba fam. This is hilarious considering Elon Musk being in bed with the President. I don't care what they say. I don't think any of us should forget how insane
Elon's impact has been on our country. And one of the ironies of this big, beautiful tax bill is that it's going to reduce incentives for Americans to purchase electric vehicles yeay, and to make more energy efficient upgrades to our homes and things like that. But don't worry. I'm not worried for Elon at all, because he's got how many different companies, and he has billions of dollars in
federal contracts. He is enriching himself by having been so steeped and so interwoven into all the policies that are happening in Washington and being literally at the table for as long as he's been. And even though Homeboy apparently allegedly is on all sorts of prescription drugs and unhinged, which we already kind of knew that, and you know is not a fan of this bill. I would not be worried. I mean not that I don't think BA Fam. We all were worried anyway. But he's going to be
just fine. If you a family on Snap benefits, which I definitely do, they could eventually lead to this bill could lead to four million fewer people getting those Snap benefits, receiving food aid each month. That's neat, so neat. The bill claims it wants to achieve the largest ever welfare reform with broad reductions and mandatory spending programs. Mmm hmmm, y'all pay attention. We have to wake up now. This is on its way to the Senate right now. There's
still time. Contact your senators, contact your local representatives. Like I know, BA FAM, like we we on the right side of history. But if you are in a you know, if you have an elected official who is on the fence or isn't sure how they're going to be voting, or hasn't indicated how they're going to be voting on this bill, our voices have to matter. We have to believe the theme. So please reach out and contact your elected officials now. I want to hear from y'all. Ba fam,
Are you clued in to the big beautiful Bill? Do you care what's going on? What are you worried about? What are you excited about? Can you please drop me a note. I'm at broad Ambition Podcast on ig also broad Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com. Also send any questions y'all have. But I'm I'm happy to hear from y'all. I also, ooh, before I forget, I have to shout out our listeners who have been leaving comments on Spotify.
Did you know on Spotify this is not an endorsement, but on Spotify you can actually comment on podcast episodes now and it's so fun. And we got a couple of people who've commented that I took a screenshot of and I'm gonna pull them up really fast. So if you're on Spotify listening, let me know how you feel about this episode other shows. On my episode from earlier this week, I interviewed doctor U. J. Blackstock and doctor Jessica M. Shepherd how to overcome healthcare bias in your thirties,
forties and beyond. So listener Q the Love says, this is not a joke. At forty five, I've been putting off my perimenopause testing and treatment until last Thursday. I was sitting at my work desk and waiting for my period to start, and I began to have cramps equivalent to childbirth. And I've always had bad cramps, but I hadn't felt this type of pain since I gave birth sixteen years ago. I've been reading a lot of info on perimenopause and joining online groups, but wasn't going in
to check on myself. I have an appointment coming up this July. Yay, cue the love. Thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry that you're going through that, but I'm really happy. I'm proud of you for getting the healthcare that you need. Yes, all right. We had a comment on my interview with Zarna Gard. Oh my god, Zarna is just you know when I said comment Patreon on my Instagram post comment Patreon and I'll send you the link to join. Guess who was the first person to
say Patreon. Zarna Guard. She's a gem listener, a bunch of numbers I won't read, says, this was a great conversation. I never heard of Zarna before, but I'm definitely getting her audiobook after this she dropped a lot of gems. Yes, y'all need to go check out that episode. It was so damn good. And now for my reviewers on Apple,
I love thinker Tinker says, great show, five stars. This is a great show that offers a different perspective for black and brown folks, not only from a financial perspective, but from a social perspective as well. I've been listening for a while now and this show has covered many topics and there's something to learn from each episode. I hope you enjoy as well. That's so sweet. Thank you think your tinker the best. And then coach Ney says grateful for this show. I truly enjoy the range of
topics with the brown girl twist. I love when I ask my smart friends if they listen to BA and they're like, of course, we appreciate what you do. Keep them coming. Yes, thank y'all, BA fan so much. Okay, I got to get to the airport. I'm going to see Beyonce. I'm gonna get my entire life. Do I have a cowgirl hot? Hell? Yes I do. Do I have way too much packed into a suitcase for four days? Hell? Yes I do. I really hope it's not over fifty pounds, it very well might be. I had to go pick
up extra hair care products before I went to the airport. Y'all, pray for your girl. Follow on IG. I'll be updating from the show. And yes, I'm not even gonna say I got great seats because I'm not sitting. I'm gonna be in the honey buck and pit y'all on my fever four hours. So the shoes I'm wearing, that's a whole concern because I really don't want to be in pain. I will keep y'all posted. I can't wait to get my life and hang out with my friends and have
a damn good time. And as always, thank y'all be a fan for supporting. I love y'all so much. Take care, stay safe, see you next time. Bye.