Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black, We're brown. Ambition ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition.
Hey, manga, welcome in your own you're doing your own background vocals. I could have stepped in there, coach.
First of all, what is this lush green over you in the background?
Is that that is? Yes, it's from the Amazon Rainforest? Yeah, Amazon dot com? Get it?
Are they real?
No, girl, they're not real either. Girl.
You see about lush green, it stays the same. Yes.
Well, I'm in the Zenden, which only has like teeny tiny windows. But I do have a budding plant addiction. Okay, I mean I could quit anytime I want, but I did go to town.
Is that what you're telling yourself? Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, I mean I have three I would say like capital wait four capital p plants now like trees with soil, and I have to furrolize them and stuff. And then I have like some I have a caterpillar.
Have I told you? You said the last time is you shared? You told us? Well, these are plants inside. These are not plants outside.
No, they're outside plants. Well, they're outside until the temperature I've been watching until the temperature is below fifty degrees and then they will be indoor plants, and I guess husband is gonna have to sleep somewhere else because I don't know if we're going to have space for everybody. But it's very therapeutic to me. I'm kind of I'm really loving, you know, having some plants to talk to.
And it's very like I washed one of the leaves because it was dusty from where I got it, and as soon as I washed the leaves off, it started to thrive. And I was just like, look at me. You know, mama has over here. They don't have names, they don't. I did name the caterpillar Carl, which.
Is oh, like the very hungry caterpillar from Carl? Is that where you got it from? Oh? You know, I didn't even think.
About that, but Carl, Yeah, that's like.
You know, those are like the most famous preschool slash kindergarten like books like ever.
Yes, my son, that's one of our favorites. No, it just came to me. But it's going to be embarrassing if he's I'm not going to really know the sex until it emerges as a butterfly, and then I'm going to look at the pattern Tiffany and then I'm going to be able to tell.
Excuse okay, well, not to be your left but I was on the twitters and someone attacked me in this post and I kind of had some mixed feelings and I was like, oh, this would be good for us to talk about on the brown of the ambition. Are you ready?
I am so ready.
All right, So apparently I'm not gonna say her name is. I don't want anybody, you know, just in case they find it to be negative. So I don't know if you're familiar with Ryan sir, hand of Oh, he's like million dollar listing Bravo. You know, Bravo has like a series of like by these fancy house shows, so he's one of them. He's the guy who looks very young in the face, but he's got great hair.
Okay.
Yeah, so his name is ran No, but I don't want it.
But okay, I'm following, Okay, So.
I'm good guy, yes, very very rich like so anyway, so apparently I know that he is like an online school and some other online offerings, as well as the fact that he's a very very successful real estate real you know business. He's a broker, does very very well, I'm talking about b's not M's. Okay, So apparently they must have reached out to this young woman and we'll call her Macy. I don't know, right, So right, so they reached out to Macy to to do a speaking
engagement whatever, and I guess who. I guess they decided they wasn't trying to pay Macy. So this is what Macy wrote. So apparently, whoever this woman who works from Ryan, her name is, her name is Sidney. So this is Macy's email and I just would love your initial feedback. Hi, sidey, thanks for reaching out to me. I didn't realize that you were hoping to leverage my expertise without paying me
for it. While I'm happy to provide free workshops for social good organizations, I do not work for free for for profit enterprises. Your CEO, Ryan Surhand, boldly claims that his real estate firm sold over one point five billion dollars in real estate last year. Additionally, your company sells courses, memberships,
and consulting services for thousands of dollars. The idea that your company cannot afford to compensate your outside speakers for your virtual workshop series is laughable and worse, you're asking a woman of color to add value to your company for free. It's unethical, exploitative, and perpetuous economic disparities. I sit over a decade developing my expertise and my method. My rates for the firm Scratch custom workshop you've suggested is two thousand dollars with a perpetual license fee of
seven hundred and fifty dollars. If you would like to use my expertise to make money from your audience, you're welcome to pay me for it. Macie, what is your knee jerk reaction?
Oh snaps. If I could stand up without getting my mic on unmuted, like mess it up my mic, I would. I love this and I love that she posted it because, and especially now that I'm writing for different outlets, people really want scripts like this. They want to see how did you handle it? What? What did you exactly say to someone when they offered you a certain amount or
you wanted to negotiate or whatnot? And I think this was a really classy way for her to I mean, she did the most, Like you know, it could have been just no thank you, that's not my rate. But I think, yeah, I think when you're someone who you can afford to say no these opportunities, and you can also educate the person who's making that offer at the same time, then that's a that just makes it easier for the women of color coming behind you, because hopefully they won't, you know, do that again.
So I look in the comments, it's like it's a lot of obviously most of the women are like, yes, yes, there's definitely somebody who told her that she thought they thought she was very immature. But I will say this that Sydney from Ryan Sir hence Camp replied back positively. She said she forwarded her feedback to the planning team and hoped it would help her secure a speaker's budget, you know, so basically it was to her credit. Macy was like, I don't believe that, Sydney. You know, this
was her choice. This is her job to reach out to people, and Sydney probably was like, I've been trying to tell them we need to get money for people, so now maybe hopefully this email will let them know you tried it. So when also asked her did she think that Ryan was like trying to take advantage of her, she said, I highly doubt that he even knows, because you know, this is what you have a team for. And so she was like, no, I didn't think so she did a really good job. I mean, do you
do you think we should share her name? I don't. I mean I don't think it's I think you should.
She posted it and it's like got forty. I mean she put her name out there.
So yeah, right, so sorry, Phoebe. I wasn't sure. I was like, don't let you get know. Hey, so Phoebe, her name is, her name is Phoebe the career which which is funny, but her this.
Is this is her name. Just saw Phoebe.
So she's a journalist turned career coach, demolishing American corporate brainwashing one tweet at a time. I'm currently following Phoebe a girl. So Phoebe, her her act on on Twitter is better w Phoebe? Like with Phoebe, so better W Phoebe? P h O E b E. So go ahead and
follow him, take a look. And so I would say, obviously the large majority of the comments from women are like this is great and so yeah, so someone asked, like, you know, can you give us a context of what Sydney has sent you, and she said Sydney sent her something to the effect that said, our featured experts collaborate with us on a volunteer basis at this time. Yeah, we do not host. I know. I'm just like, what, Wow, that's your basis.
It's really funny to me, not but sad to me when it's when corporations ask women if they even read anything that we've ever written, or what our voice is like and what our messages to our audiences. Like to even think that you weren't going to get that kind of feedback or that you could ask for a woman to work for free when her like her platform is you know, completely abolishing like toxic corporate mentality and helping
coach women to earn more in their careers. Like why Like, of course, of course Phoebe was going to say no. And I've experienced that too. In my freelance writing, I have a minimum rate per article, and I am writing these articles about how, you know, I negotiated my way to x percent more in salary, or I built my
wealth or I quit jobs and things like that. Hell, yeah, I'm going to ask for a minimum and you know, I don't really care if you pay so and so two fifty for an article, like that's not my minimum rate, and it's I think for me, it's like it's the Sydneys who I think don't deserve. Yeah, necessarily they're the messenger, you know what I mean. They don't deserve the They don't deserve to be talk too rudely or be snipped at. But I do think if you can, but they are the messenger, right.
So again, so you gotta send that message on back.
You have to send the message back, but acknowledge that it's not necessarily their decision.
Yes, she re has a boss.
They can ask for, you know, clearance for additional fees. And I know that, and I think you have to sort of stand in that. That's why negotiating can be a little bit uncomfortable. But you have to be patient and know if they are doing their job right, they're going to go to their higher up, they're going to get it approved, and you just gotta wait.
I will say, someone toldally, someone is in the comments and said to all the Sydneys out there, start telling your higher ups that you refuse to request free labor from people, especially women of color, you know, and so like that's something that you can certainly be like, I
don't feel comfortable with doing this. One thing I did love, honestly more than anything with how many women in the comments said, hey girl, you know, I think that this is awesome, but you're actually that twenty five hundred that you're quoting too low. So people are giving her feedback about like, you know, you should be asking for even more money. You know, you should be asking to do a whole workshop. You should be asking for ten thousand dollars and to negotiate there. And so I just love
that she's even getting and she's really receptive. I have to say that Phoebe has been really awesome in the comments, receptive to the critique and criticism which has been very little, but also really receptive to people who are like, hey, you know, here's how you could you know, ask for you know, even more because I think that you're still are low balling yourself. So I just you know, this is yeah, so this is this is I was I'm
not gonna lie my my. The person in me that doesn't like conflict was like, oh my gosh, the sassiness. But you know, but I was like, I'm the type behind this curtain. Who's like, oh, girl, girl as I hide behind the curtain. So there certainly was like, see.
Although I do think people it's very easy to discount confidence and strength of voice in women, especially black women. So you know, I commenced, I don't commend Sydney for just being a decent human because it's like that's the least she could do was respond thoughtfully. But I do see like, and I have been on the other side of that where it's like you're asking you, yes, you think you're worth that? Yeah, you know, and it really
I'm like mm hmm. And I think some people just don't have the they don't think women are.
Worth that, and especially women of color.
Especially women of color, and they and there's a sense of like who do you think you are?
Yeah, I've actually gotten that. There was a big bank and they asked me to, like, I think, write an article or whatever, but it was like literally peanuts and I said no, but here's my rates and he said he literally rolled back, we have bigger people that are making like what we just offered you. I couldn't believe. I was like, it's the equivalent of you walking down the street and the guy I was trying to holler and you're like, oh, no, I have a boyfriend. He's
like you ugly anyway. I'm like, oh, sir, I wasn't ugly when you was trying to holler at me. Cirtainly mad And so I remember being like taken back because it wasn't some just popped up bank. It was one of like the big banks. I was like, wow, so you're mad because I said, hey, that's not my rate. I didn't, you know, I didn't. I wasn't rude. I wasn't. I just said, thank you so much for the offer. Here's my rates. It's you know, that's that's below my rates.
And if this is you know, if you can meet me closer, then you know we can talk or whatever. I forget what I said, but it wasn't rude.
Yeah, these people have never written themselves or done workshops themselves. That shit takes time time. It took me an hour to put together fact checking documents and an outline for an article, because that's like for an article, that's an hour, and I charged two hundred dollars an hour for typical work, like that's you know, half of the fee that I was getting for the article in the first place, and I think that people in those positions you need to understand.
You need to like really be empathetic and ask, you know, how how much time does this take you? Or get a good sense of how much time it takes someone to do what you're asking them to do, because even though the end result might be only an eight hundred word article, or in Phoebe's case, only a thirty minute webinar, it takes time and mental capacity and you have to give up other work to do.
It exactly and not just that. But people love to tell me only I'm like, well, then you do it since it's only It's so yeah, Because here's the thing too, Well, if you approach people, you're not just paying for like the thirty minutes upfront for that webinar, you're paying for her expertise. You're because like when people hit me up and they're mad that I no longer charge one thousand dollars, I'm like, wait, that was Tiffany ten years ago. You don't.
I'm not Like the amount of experience, time, professionalism, all that I've gathered over the last ten years is why I can now go from one thousand dollars for one speaking engagement to fifty thousand. Yes, that's what I asked for. You could take it, to leave it, because here's the thing, like, I'm more than I'm more than okay to leave it than okay to say, well, you know, you know, if you if it's not a fit, that's fine, but guess
what your price gonna go. Opsis. I've had people who like, I remember last year when I was thirty five thousand for a keynote, and people are like a gasp. As soon as I hit the New York Times Bestsellers list, I was like, price went up. Ain't the same system last year? Okay, So now I'm at fifty. And then people have come back and said, okay, fine, fine, fine, we'll do the thirty five. I'm like, you should have locked me in. Yeah, not thirty five anymore. And I'll
literally tell them I'm not thirty five anymore. I'm now a New York Times bestseller and these other things have happened, so you end up ACP Award winner. I mean, hey, nominee. Hey yeah. So so those are the reasons, and it's okay, And this is what you'll find for those of you
whether it's career or business. When you raise your prices, there is typically there's a period of time where you haven't found the new customer or client yet, you know, so you get a little bit nervous because you're like, oh my gosh, people are not you know, I'm not getting you know, my raid, or I'm not getting offered my rate. Well, it's because you have shifted to a different sphere of people or or customer that you have
to find. And so once you do, now I'm at a sphere now we're like I just locked in two fifty thousand dollars speaking engagements, but it took about six months for me to get my first one because I had to find that new customer. They had to find me. And so like the people who could afford me five years ago, you know, I don't do business with them, at least not in this traditional sense. And you know, the new people who can afford me now, it took
them a little while to find me. So don't be afraid that just because right away someone has it, it's not paying your new rate or or you know, jumping to this new salary of yours. It's like, no, sometimes it just takes you a minute to find each other.
I mean I would say, if it's been you know, longer than six months, probably you know.
You might want to bear. You might want to and that's very valid. You might want to rethink it.
I might want to rethink it. And two, I love that people are giving Feebe that feedback on her. The only way we can find out what sometimes like I can come up with what I think is my my rate, but there are people out there who may be earning less or earning more. And the only way we're going to find out is if we talk about it.
Yep.
And companies are a little fearful of that, as I mean, probably because they like, you know, getting their their discounts where they can get them. But I really am excited for Phoebe and I hope especially you know people that I'm talking to every day who are trying to launch consultants, firm consultancy businesses or you know, contract work, and it's one of the first questions is like how do I
figure out what to charge? And a part part of it is just asking people who are in the same space, asking the blunt question, what do you charge?
What are your rates? I'll go to your website in a minute, and I'm like, who is someone who's in a similar space? And then I look, and then after a while you just have to go rogue, like literally like I'm not looking like I like, I for zay, I asked my friend lovey okay, so you know we're in similar although she's in a totally different space. I'm like, we're at similar spaces and levels. And I'm like, you know,
what are you charging? And so that's how I kind of got like a kind of a gauge, and then I just go for it. You ask, you know, if I think I'm worth more, I might you know, every year I sawp at least ten thousand dollars onto my keynote at least every year. And then you know, sometimes you know, I'm I'm someone who, depending on the agency or whatever, you know, they might be like, oh, I don't have fifty, but we have forty five. I'm like, I I can do forty five. I'm gonna do that, right, And.
So there's definitely literally what negotiation is all about, meet me somewhere higher than what you were going to do.
Yeah, I talk about go ahead, go ahead, no, no, go ahead, no, you go ahead, and now it's just gonna say, here's the thing that you know. I know a lot of I can hear a lot of business coaches will tell you, you know, your price is your price, and I think that it's really up to you, like for me, you know, shaving, you know, five thousand dollars off, you know to me, because I always have in my head like the lowest is, I'll go here, and it's not as long as it's not below what my lowest is,
I'm okay to share. I'm not gonna tell you I'm a lowest because you're not gonna be like I'm in your inbox. I was gonna offer fifty, but I heard about two on no offer me my fifty? Yeah, well are you gonna say Vandy?
Oh geez, I forgot now. But I do feel like like there is that there is that magical moment when you, oh, I know what I was gonna say. I just remembered every time I tell people, and I get this from editors, especially as I'm I'm working on kind of sharing my strategies for negotiating. I think I ten years into my career when I managed to go from thirty five K to three hundred and fifty k annually in my earnings.
I think I have some some expertise in the art of negotiating, and so much of it is flinging yourself off the cliff and asking for the asking for more and asking for this. I mean, but what I'm getting back from some feedback, well one from like really shitty commenters, but I don't really pay me pay them no mind, But editors are really afraid of sharing, like, well, that may not happen for everybody, or like, you know, can we really say that. I'm like, but it happened to me,
It it happened to me, Like these are real. I got the facts to back it up. You know, you go in and they offer you one thing, and you, you know, ask for more, and you compound that over multiple, you know, opportunities over a decade. And you know, I've seen and I'm proof of what can happen when you ask for more just because you can and because you're not going to die if you do it, you know,
And I think that it's sometimes we are uncomfortable. We are uncomfortable even entertaining that that's possible, because it would mean oh dang, I had to put myself in an uncomfortable situation, I may have to start negotiating, and I really don't want to believe that I have to do that, because that's very scary and that is not my problem, you know. It's it's expectations of other people that are
like lower than what I put on myself. But it's been interesting to me that I've gotten that people that are uncomfortable almost hearing the success the success stories that I have to share. Maybe it's in my delivery. I don't know.
Maybe honestly, something emojiate at the end of it. Well, someone told me today, like literally one of my friends. She hit me on LinkedIn. It was like, Tiffany, stopped calling yourself a baby millionaire. I was like, she called me out. She said, no, honestly, stop calling yourself a baby millionaire. She's like, babies don't make millions. Well, there's some babies, but you know, the average baby's not making any millions. Babies don't make millions. What she said, what
you've done is beyond what babies can do. She was like, it's I know, it's uncomfortable. She said, you're a straight up millionaire. You work too hard to get where you are, no baby can do that, and that's like I know. I told her, I'm like, I know, it just feels uncomfortable, but she said no, But you don't understand, Tiffany. Your ownership gives the rest of us hope, the hope and the possibility of obtaining it too. And so she's right,
I'm going to I'm going to retire that phrase. I only say it because I felt uncomfortable with saying I'm a straight up millionaire because it sounds so strange to say.
But what's a baby millionaire? Like you're new to it? Yeah, only one million versus a million million?
And I don't know, Yes, well, like you know, like I have like I'm like, I'm like, so to me, a baby millionaire is like between one million to maybe five million, right, So I loan her of your cult.
That's your dad's voice in your head, babe, Like you have such outside expectations for yourself, Tiffany. You know, it's crazy because you get to relax and just be happy with I know, you know you're happy, but like, yeah.
Because it's so it's such a foreign it's like who is she? You know, it's such a foreign thing to lean into. I really. I mean, I know preschool teacher Tiffany. I know hard working Tiffany. You know, I even know business owner Tiffany. But CEO Tiffany is hard to get
to know millionaire Tiffany. It sounds so strange because it just sounds like someone who could not possibly be me, you know, like if I'm just talking about like to be all the way candidate, if you know, because sometimes you can be a millionaire in assets and I'm not talking about non cash access, so meaning like you're out of your homes, you out of your businesses. So yes, if I do those things, like it's you know, we
way past what I would say traditional baby millionaire. But if I were just to look at my my like hardcore like cash assets, no, like I am, you know, like I'm a millionaire in these other assets, but I'm also a millionaire in bank account, you know, and so I'm just I just say that, it's to almost like to not be offensive, like, oh, you know, I'm just
a baby millionaire. It's like, no sense, It's okay. It's okay to say that your net worth is you know, quite honestly eight figures probably if you were to add in your businesses, but you know, high mid sevens if you weren't to add in your businesses, say it, Tiffany, and I'm like, it sounds because it just doesn't sound real. I'm wearing a Target sweatshirt that says blessed.
Well. The thing is like and having been someone I mean like people love the headline and I you know of how much you're worth or how much you saved, and it's almost like, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter the number. For me, it doesn't matter. And people get really caught up in the amount. And there's lots of Internet bros who like to say, well,
that's not very impressive. You know I could have done that, especially to me, I could have done that if I just bought you know, I do that overnight with my with my crypto, or you know, you could have done that if you bought five properties ten years ago. There
are people who want to diminish the number. But if the number, like I really don't, Tiffany, to me, the reason why I think you're wonderful and like why I continue to learn a lot from you, or why I want to come to you, it's not the number associated with your net worth. It's nice to know that you're successful, but it's like the steps that you took. People get so caught up in that number, and I really feel like that shouldn't be what you're focused on is some
kind of magical number. I've never been focused on a magical number. It's more strategies and and and building building a business model that will you know, sustain yourself and grow, you know how these strategic things that you can do, and I wish people focus more on that and not just on like it's all subjective.
Yeah, one person's.
One million, another person's tenthous exactly.
Yeah, no, literally, like it's you know, i'll, i'll. I have a friend of mine who's business makes fifty million dollars a year and you're just like, oh, okay, and you know I but I remember when I hit my first six figures. I was like, you couldn't tell me that wasn't fifty million, because that's what I felt like
in comparison to where I was before. So to your point, yes, well, especially once you get past a certain amount of money made for me, it was really about providing security and safety for my family, and so I was I've been able to do that for a long time now, you know, relatively, you know, for the last like you know, like four
or five years, I'm like okay. And then when I was able to pay off my parents' house, that kind of like marked like, oh now we're good, good because barring anything crazy, you know, we should be able to handle it. That's always been a worry for me, like if something comes up, will we be okay as a family, And knowing that my parents have a safe place to live, if they you know that they got you know, they don't have to worry about food, they don't have to
worry about bills. Knowing that we're fine here in my household. You know that my sisters are good, the nieces and nephew are good. You know. Once I got past that space, then it really like the extra didn't didn't move me because I was just like that's what it was for me. There's nothing wrong with you know, living fancy, but that's never really been my vibe. It's like, Okay, we're good. So now I've been really facing towards like what does
leaving a legacy and philanthropy look like? You know, like what does what does what does that look like? Did I ever tell you about Orally Brown? Did I talk? Did we talk about that last episode? So you know, maybe I'm gonna save her for my brown boo because she's amazing. Because it's it's really like kind of like where I'm turning now that my everyone is good, that I know that's where I want to turn my attention towards.
So to your point, You're right, sometimes I don't want to own it because I almost feel embarrassed by it, you know, because I'm like, oh, but I still want to sit at the table and just like you know, have like you know, I still want to sit at the table and where my target's best and and you know, you know what I mean. And I'm like, will I not be invited to like regular functions? You know what
I mean? Not like you know, theoretically, So that's why I'm just like, maybe that's why I stay invited to the cookout. Yes, I want to go invite to the cookout, and I am bey Diddy's cookout, but it'll I want to bring potato bread buns from from shop, right.
Okay, Well I'm yeah, I'm excited that you are leaning into that you're a millionaire millionaire.
Don't come for me though, because my husband does not play that. So just for those of.
You, I'm kidnempt tipity and hold the ransom. Is that what you're trying to say?
Yeah, And I stay with it. I stay with the taser on me what the other day? Yes?
What?
Well, honestly, I stay with the taser because my husband is crazy and hit. Every time I go for a walk or go anywhere, he's always liked, did you bring your taser? And if I don't, he'll send me like a picture of it. It's like, I see it's here on the counter, but you're not. I'm like, you know, And at first I thought he was crazy until I was going for my daily walk and this like loose dog ran upon me and he was barking so aggressively and I was so scared, and his owner was laughing,
and I was like, oh, that's funny. So then I took up my taser. I did not taste the dog, but I took up my taser and I sparked it like not in front of the dog, but like you know, in the air, so let his owners know. You won't be laughing very long.
It was, Yes, is there footage of this?
I know, to see Tiffany with the taser, I felt like I had a gun where I busted in the air, like so the taste is said in the air, and I was like.
You see that would have look that would have scared me, like, oh shit, it's on.
Yeah. He the owner was like, then he called his dog back. I say, yeah, call fight, no back, don't do that. I would hate to taste a dog, but I'm not gonna let this dog bite me because I thought. I thought that was so terrible, like we're laughing that your dog is aggressively running up to people and barking. All. I know. The dog was just wanted to play, you know, but you know, I was just like, you're doing a lot. So yeah, when he saw my taser, I said, it's
not so funny now, he just looked at me. I said, yea, So now I was like, oh, let me carry my taser taste.
Justin well, I'm glad that you take your protection with you. Don't tip me strap, y'all, don't run up on her a new work trying to give her a hug.
Write me and my pig taste is.
I'm sorry to laugh, but that it's too funny. I don't like conflict.
Don't start now. No, it won't be none, no, you know.
Okay, let's take a quick break and we will be right back with actual boost and breaks.
And now it's time for boost the break, Boost the break. Oh, boots, boots, So we are gonna boost, We are gonna break? Which one? Mandy are you gonna take? We are gaged? They are gonna break? Mandy are you gonna take?
Hashtag free Brittany. It's Brittany, bitch. I am so excited for Britney. Yes, she has her her her daddy, her toxic daddy, Jamie Spears has been removed as her conservator suspended suspended, so the conservatorship still stands. But Brittany finally spoke out this past June, and the speech that was heard around the world. I encourage you to look it up on YouTube. It's like eighteen minutes of glorious, caffeinated Brittany. But it was the first time we heard her voice.
And it's insane to me that this that we all just turned a blind eye and just and I'm included too, accepted the fact that this woman's touring and she's on different TV shows and yeah, she can't handle her money, so daddy should still be in charge of that. Like yeah, it's it says something about our society. So I am really happy for her and especially her fans who have been fighting to free Britany for all this time, that she is waiting for your favor.
I mean, we were all just out here, but those fans were on it, like yo, they've been talking about it for the long time.
They're like me, get law degrees because of it.
Girl, Because you're right. Here's the thing. Even if Britney's not the best with her money, Hello, join the f and club.
Like exactly, like a couple of bad purchases.
Exactly, like like that, that's the thing, Like even if she does it, like to me, it only makes sense if you are in danger, you know what I mean, meaning like before when they really thought like okay, you know she is in physical danger or of maybe harming herself, but like saying like she might blow some of it. Okay, everybody, you have you have the wherewithal as an adult if you want to blow your money, okay, so when not
here to stop you, that's your business. As Miss Tabitha Brown would say, I'm just.
Thinking of like Johnny Depp who was constantly going broke and spending millions and having to do another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and didn't nobody try to put him in a conservator.
Show Tony Brown, how many time does she go bankrupt? Tony? Yeah, she went bankrup a couple of times.
Oh dang, well, you know those tools are there for a reason. Bankruptcy and all that stuff. I mean, I
don't wish her any ill will. I think what breaks my heart the most is when I haven't watched the most recent documentary, but I watched the one on Hulu from over the Summer that came out, and it talked about it kind of gave more context around how they got her to sign over her legal rights to her fortune, and they basically made her feel like she wasn't going to be able to see her sons if she wasn't
in a conservatorship. And that ship pissed me off, because how dare you can't you see in such an emotionally fragile state, how she would have been like, I'll do anything, don't you anyway? Boys anything and that anything has now resulted in like not having any any agency or control over her life or her business.
They literally put her on birth control your own body.
They wouldn't let her take out her Yeah, getting a.
Baby, like all this stuff is just agregious. But so to your point, Yay, Brittany, We're so glad that you know you are on the road to freedom.
Yay Brittany. And to any woman out there who and there's plenty of women who are under the thumb of whether it's a parent or a partner or whoever, a job, a boss, they will have you like it and you can be a strong woman in all other respects. But it is possible even for the strongest of women to be selec but surely broken down to the point where they think that they cannot take care of themselves and that they need, you know, someone else. And it takes
so much time. And women in my life have had to unlearn that type of you know, unlearned that lie, to re to recover their own agency and their own power. And I think that that's what we're doing. So I wish Brittany all the success in the world and for any other women. I hope that lots of women are inspired by her story and her her standing in her truth.
Yes, go ahead, girl, go ahead, girul Well, I'm going to boost. This is a throwback to ten year old Tiffany. So when I was ten, I vaguely remember that a teacher brought in some article about another teacher who was paying for the college tuition of some kids, like a classroom of kids, and I remember then saying, I want to do that one day. I want to be her, this teacher, right, And so so many years past, you know, you remember things when you're little, and you're like, is
that real? Did I imagine that? Did I make that up? In my head? And so for the longest time, I was googling for this woman, but I could not find her. So I had convinced myself that maybe I made it up, and maybe, you know, maybe it was a story, because
it was literally thirty years ago. So I was talking to a friend of mine, Catherine, who's the CEO of the United Way, and I'm in Newark, and I was telling her how like, you know, when I was little, you know, I read I remember the story about this teacher that had, you know, paid for college for this classroom of students, of black students in a really terrible neighborhood in Oakland, and she was like, oh yeah, Orley Brown. I'm like wait what I was like, Catherine, shut up
that that that'sout her name. She's like, so, I you have no idea if you asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I want.
To be Aura Lee Brown. She is still in educator so she's not even in a Jersey. She's in California.
Yes, so there's a book about her. I cannot wait to read this book. There's a book about her called The Promise. How one woman made good on her extraordinary pact to send a classroom of first graders to college. Can you imagine miss Oily Brown? Because let me not be disrespectful, because's a grown woman. Missus Oily Brown was making forty five thousand dollars a year at the time, and she set aside ten thousand dollars of her own money to make this happen. She is goals on goals
on goals. This happened in nineteen eighty seven. That's when she adopted a first grade class and promised that if they stayed in school and got admitted to college, she would pay for their college education. Not only did she keep her promise to that first class of students. To date, she has sent one hundred and thirty six students from low income families. They've received mentoring, tutoring financial support from
the Orally Brown Foundation for College. First of all, I know where I'm donating donating money, That's why did she do that?
On a school teacher's salary?
Honestly, I have not read the book The Promise yet.
But I fanta like that was the dollars. I mean in the eighties, that might might could have got you a couple of college educations.
T well, ten thousand dollars a years? What she was setting up a year? Wow? Okay, because they were in first grade, so you figured it for twelve years she said, aside, ten thousand dollars a year and and and issued what's it called scholarships? So I just she's a real life superhero. I just don't know why why is there not a movie about her? Like I for the long So I started a nonprofit, but I could not figure out the focus.
I started it a couple of years ago, but I was like, what is the Liverature Foundation going to actually do? And you know, just most recently I was I was I remembered her. I didn't remember her name, obviously, but I said, I want to do that that. I want to create a foundation where you know, I raise money and you know I am able to not just send kids to school, but whatever post high school looks like. So maybe you want to go to trade school, maybe you want to start a business, maybe you want to
go to college. Whatever, that lump sum of funding will be set aside for you. I said, I want to adopt a preschool or kindergarten classroom in Newark and start there and then collect adopt as many classrooms in low income neighborhoods as possible over the next hopefully forty years of my life. That that was one of my goals. But it was spawned in part because of her, in part because of miss Oorly. I am a teacher, in part because of Miss Orly. Philanthropy has always been a
part of my mission. And to see that she's still here, so I'm totally like going to email her today with shaking hands, like Miss Horley, I just don't want to.
Say I know, yeah, I was just looking up she was like, there's a Glamour article on here from last year, oh where yeah, she was honored in two thousand and two as one of the Women of the Year, and I just said, like an updated article. Look, she just looks.
And then if you go to her website or so like you know orl to toothbrush like your mouth O R A.
L Lee L E. E.
Brown so Oral Lee Brownfoundation dot org, you can see all these beautiful babies that she has helped. One you see the pictures. Two you get to see the videos. This is awesome video that I watched of her that the News had did where this young man was like I call her Mama, Like I still come back for advice,
she still guides me. So I just I just say all that to say that you think people are not listening and watching that this woman, you know, not only does she change the lives of those children that she she she made the pack them to promise to and helped. She changed my life as well. I was ten years old and moved by her story and kept it with me for thirty years until I'm now in a position to extend her legacy and to continue the work that she started. And so I'm just grateful for that.
That is beautiful. That's a name that we should all know.
Or or Lee Brown.
That's beautiful and I did read. I wonder if she like did it through investing. But also I'm curious too, was she the inspiration for that really cringe worthy episode of the Office where Michael Scott do you not watch the Office? You don't watch the Office? To you? Oh, Tiff? Anyway, there's a real he's like a he's a he's a terrible manager, mediocre white man. You know if that was in the definition to be Michael Scott's picture. Anyway, he
he adopts a class. It's a really cringey episode. I don't know that it holds up very well from a decade ago when it first aired. But he adopts a class of black students at a high school and he calls them Scott's Tots, and he promises them when they're first graders to pay for their college education. And then he shows up later their senior year and he's reminded of his promise and they have they put on a
performance for him. They make up a song, a rap song to his you know, donation, and he has to tell them, my bad, I did not actually do what I said I was going to do. So shout out to orly once again, a black woman proven it can be done.
She is just like like, if you I love to see what I love to because here's what happens when. Why this type of work is so important is that if you've ever like grown up or spent an extended amount of time in economically depressed environments, there is a sine of sadness, dismay, and lack of belief that there's more than this. You might see it on TikTok, on social media, whatever, but in your neighborhood you don't see it,
And so what do you reach for? And so parents will literally raise their children differently if there is a guaranteed at the end of the road. Like my husband was telling me because he grew in New York's whole life like you know, projects, all of that, and he said that he can remember as a kid that if there were kids who showed an acumen, especially in sports,
they would send them home. So let's just say you were really good at basketball middle school, especially high school, and you're on the team and you're trying to hang out on the block like the block boys do what block boys do. They would literally say, no, man, you got to go home. We gotta win the game tomorrow. So when there is a specified future set aside for you, the community responds differently and they say, no, there's a future set aside for you. You can't be out here
with us. And so I wonder, how can you do that for these kids where it's not sports, it's not anything other than there is a future set aside for your child.
So just miss Johnson, you deserve a future yep, exactly, still have a talent.
Exactly, So Miss Johnson, be mindful, like the way you raise your son, no matter what, know that he has it. Just help us to get him there. And So for me, what I want my foundation to do, and I'm curious to I can't wait to connect with her, is what I want to do is figure out between that kindergarten and twelfth grade, what resources does that student need, like, what social work resources, housing resources, food resources, tutoring, what
does that look like? Because what's so great is through that one child you can really help affect the family, you know, because there might be more than one child in that family, but they all get to benefit from knowing that these resources exist and having access to these resources. So for me, I really want to make sure that we give the family the tools they need to make sure and ensure that their child makes it to twelfth grade. Like I'm so like, I mean, over overcome with like
how amazing she is. I think it was like twenty three students in that first grade class, nineteen went to college. Like that's insane, you know what I mean? Nineteen went to college as a result. That's crazy. Yeah, So go ahead to her, you know, if you need some inspiration, go ahead to oral Lee Brownfoundation dot org. You can look literally she if you help her over the students button, you can see students from like nineteen eighty seven, ninety nine,
twenty twelve. You get to literally see students from she's up to phase seven, from each of her phases of when she set aside money for them and to see how like, you know, these students of what they're doing now. It's just really amazing to see. And you can see the original picture of heart with all these black babies.
It just it just warms my heart because I have pictures like this surrounded by black babies as well, where they're all just like, you know, smiling and not realizing just what an amazing feature that you know that awaits them.
So yeah, yeah, it the one thing that I do. Maybe people think I'm creepy, and maybe it's just because I'm a mom now, but I look when I pass my school the school bus up of my neighborhood, I try and roll the window down and talk to all the kids and learn to know their names. I just feel like not enough people look into the faces of black and brown children and just make them feel special
and heard. And it's not unless you have a talent, if you're a singer or you're athletic, like you were saying, where you get that extra you get that extra attention and like get the sense from society that you are special or valued, and even in small ways, I feel like if you can do that for us kids, and obviously, Tiff, you've been doing it since you were a preschool teacher,
but I think that's such an amazing story. And the fact that it's a woman of color, like a black woman from that area who's doing it that is you just don't hear enough stories like that, So thank you. I will never forget her name.
Porly Brown really makes.
Me proud to be in a mandally.
I know I was gonna say that sounds very southern.
A mandally All right, y'all, well until next week, we will bid you ado stay tuned. It's officially October. It's officially Pumpkin Spice season and also Breast cancer Awareness month. Yeah and October, and in all serious since we have a very special guest coming up this month that you're gonna hear from. And I got to talk the chance to talk to a wonderful woman earlier this week named Marina Franklin. She's a comedian and an actress and a writer and all those things, and she's gonna open up
about her story. And we're going to be reminding you finger Wag and including you, Tiffany, to go and get those breast exams.
Okay, yeah, no, it's true. I have to thank you for reminding me because actually, now that I'm forty, like they have not. I've never gotten a mammogram before and now it's time and they keep like pinging me. So thank you for let me make I'm gonna make myself a little sticky. Go get my mamogran, Yeah it's a little sticky. Get my my ties checked, take care of those top doas.
There was no way for me to say that wasn't creepy. We should go down, Bye bye.