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Damn you did sell all.
Right, welcome back, Earn you Alsia Episode nineteen, almost twenty weeks in.
It was all a dream? Is this?
This is crazy? This is crazy.
Now we want to thank you guys for rocking with us, for supporting us. You know, it's it's been a tremendous journey. Hell of arrived, man, and it just started. That's the best part. So I'm gonna jump right into We got an extremely special guest today once again, somebody that so we if you listen to the podcast, you know we interviewed Al Harrington.
Right.
Al Harrington was somebody that we wrote a post about and then from that post, he you know, engaged with us and then we we we reached out to him and we went to l A and we actually had a conversation with him right on the podcast. So once again similar situation.
Right, you want to get the backstart the power.
Yeah.
Yeah, So this is this is the you know, uh, standard procedure for us is like, I'll read articles at five thirty in the morning. I think we spoke about that on when we were with Q and I'll go through articles and I'll find, you know, things that are very interesting and i think would relate on our page. And I came across this article about Brandon Copeland and I'm like, wait, wow, this guy's amazing.
And literally as I'm reading it, there's a special on Sports Center.
And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, this guy is on the same path as us. We have to meet this guy. We have to talk to this guy. And said it to you like five thirty in the morning. I know you're sleeping, but I'm like, he has to see this. And as soon as you woke up, you put the post up and the traction was crazy.
Yeah, it was one of our biggest posts.
So Brandon Coplan, if you're not familiar, he plays for the Jets.
But that's the only part of his story. He is a U.
Penn graduate, if anybody's not familiar, Upinn has one of the best business business schools in the world, the Wharton School of Business. So that's you know, separates him from a lot of NFL players. But also he works on Wall Street during the off season. He has a real estate investment company, and he actually is a college professor
at Warton. So when I was reading his story, I'm like, this is crazy, Like you know what I mean, Like we highlight bad things with you know, people make mistakes in any realm, but it seems like athletes always get highlighted the most, right anytime that this is domestic violence, anything like that happens. So it's like we need to highlight this like this this is just a dope story. So I put the story out and once again I put in this story, I'm like, y'all would love to connect with you, and he.
Was like, yeah, let's connect. So I was like what.
So I shot with DM and we worked it out via you know, emails, and now we hate on our podcast. So, like you said, power social media, social media. So first of almost thank you, thank.
You pleasure to be here, pleasure to be with y'all. I love what y'all are doing.
Man, We're gonna jump right into it.
So all right, So the theme of our show is the backstory the financial side of sports entertainment business as well. But we we really focus on sports entertainment a lot because we feel like, especially in our culture, people don't fully understand what goes on behind the scenes, right, Like everybody wants to be in the NBA, NFL or sell a million records, but they don't understand that these are businesses, right, It's sports business, the music business, the entertainment business.
Right.
That part gets left off the title.
It always does. It always does, it always does.
So you have a very interesting story, and we was reading it, you know, the last couple of days. So you said your first contract, correct me if I'm wrong. You made your contract with from one point two million. Yeah, I was good, But now you have like thirty five
forty thousand. Yeah, So yeah, can we just kind of break that down because to me, it's interesting as far as like NFL players, because you have an off season, so a lot of people don't aren't familiar, like do you get paid on the off season or how frequent do you get paid. And then there's a thing called the jock tax when you go to different states and you get taxed differently. It's not all so yeah, can you kind of just break that down?
Yeah, man, there's layers to that, layers. So yeah, So the way I think of the NFL is nothing is guarantee he unless you have certain stipulations within your contract and all that type of stuff.
Right, So if you're one of those players, which is you.
Know, more players are seeing that, that's a great thing and a blessing to have. But when you see these big contracts, you know, Russell Wilson one hundred and forty million, I can't remember how much guaranteed, maybe sixty five or something sixty quaranteed, right, that's what he can bank on, right, you see the big number. But if Russell Wilson gets hurt in year four, year five, whatever, right, he's not seeing the rest of that money potentially. So that's different
from basketball. That's different from baseball and other sports. So as I entered the league in twenty thirteen, I was undrafted out of University of Pennsylvania.
I remember the Baltimore.
Ravens called me my hometown team. I'm like, man, seek to be quite honest with you, I was pissed off, right, Not because I was pissed off that I didn't get drafted. That was really what it was, right, and it just had a big chip on my shoulder. So for me, I've been fortunate to just have this lens on life and perspective where I'm not really a fan of too much or anyone. So I remember, as a rookie enter in the locker room, and this is my hometown team.
These are the guys I looked up to growing up, and I remember this is fresh off of Super Bowl, Fresh off of Super Bowl. I remember, actually, you know what, the perfect story that might describe me. As my agent at the time, he took us out right before the draft, took us out in New York to some club up there to just celebrate that night before the draft of like all the work you put in and all that
type of stuff. And I remember, you know, like I said, I grew up in Baltimore, that purple and black, you know. I remember being in the house and seeing them, you know, win the Super Bowl and bragging all my roommates and all that type of stuff, wearing that with pride and in the club. That for me was like my introduction to the NFL, even though I wasn't even in it
at the time. But you had all of these different That was when the draft was still in New York, so you had all these different rappers and in different sections. My agent had gotten us a section. I wasn't spending anyone.
My agent got as a section.
And the other guys there where you had Adrian Peterson with a section, Ludacris across the way g Z, and there was ray Rice, and I remember Ray Rice walked up and I remember speaking to him and I'm like, yo, I just want to say, you know, you really put on for the city. That was amazing what y'all did. Man, Like, I appreciate you, respect you. But a couple of days like I'm gonna be in the NFL.
Too, so.
Ain't none of that fan the war right, like we competition, right, But before that, I want to tell you how much I respect you. So anyway, I say all that to say a few days later, I get the call go to the Ravens. Had that chip on my shoulder. But the weird thing about the NFL is like I said, I keep it. I've been blessed to be able to keep things in a perspective and understand that, Okay, I just got this call that says, hey, you're get a
chance to sign up and you're a Baltimore Raven. Now, no, I'm not right, Like, there's still another step to actually make the fifty three or to make practice squad whatever.
Right.
Sadly, there's a lot of guys who are like, oh, I'm in it. No, right, Like the next week you might be cut, or after this rookie mini camp you might be cut. Right, So at that time, again, like I said, I signed a three year, one point two million dollar deal. However I got cut going into the actual season, made it all through preseason and all that stuff, got cut going into the actual season, and that jumped
my money down to a practice squad guy. After four weeks, I got cut from Baltimore, So I really got four weeks of pay. And then again, I mean there were guys who got cut in the middle of training camp. There's guys who got cut after three days.
So that there's a process after you get drafted, right, because that's even a little confusing, Right, there's OTAs that you have to make the tap. Then there is training camp that you have to make the team. Then you got four preseason game yeah, and so trying to make the team.
Right.
So the way I would think of it is you're never really on the team. You know, depending on who you are, you're never really on the team. Like I even joke with my students this semester and even right right now, like I could get this phone, go start ringing, Nigga call be like listen code, like did you bring your iPad up here? Like we were going in a
different route, right, And that's just the nature of the beast. So, like you said, every single day, I mean they always say that every day is an interview, but like literally, like I think people don't understand that. Again, depending on who you are, right your first round, second round, you probably are guaranteed that first year, right, But that doesn't mean you're guaranteed three years from now, four years from now, right, And that's you. You just hope and pray that young
guys come in and understand that. And me, fortunately I understood it. It was what motivated me to want to be great and make the team and still be here seven years later, right, But for a lot of guys, Like I remember rookie years, some guys would go to this mall across the street from our hotel, and I remember
getting on Snapchat. Snap was like big at the time, and getting on there and they literally walking in there selfie videos stunting like we're about to census SAG And I'm like, bro, y'all all making the same thing I'm making right now, which is like like maybe one hundred and fifty bucks after all.
Right, so you had a one point two million dollar contract, but then you four weeks in, you got demoted to practice team right.
Now, so you get drafted or undrafted in the spring. So like our rookies just showed up this weekend. So where we may whatever we are right now, we train, train, training, you can be there's guys being cut, there's guys being signed.
That entire time, like that roster is fluctuating. And then by the time you get the training camp, you start training camp in late July with ninety guys on the roster, that roster fluctuates a bit, and then by the end of August beginning of September, that roster cuts down to fifty three and then on top of that fifty three you have ten practice squad guys. I made it from
that May all the way through to August. I got cut, became one of those practice squad guys where your salary goes from a minimum of like four hundred thirty thousand to one hundred thousand. And then four weeks later, four weeks into the season, that's when I got released from the team.
And that's in Baltimore.
That's in Baltimore.
So none of that one point two million was guaranteed. None of it, not.
Even I wish it looks good on paper.
Though it looks good, it sounds good. So there's also that that's the problem that that that you see that headline and then the vultures come get your right family.
Because now it's like on paper, look he's a millionaire.
Yeah yeah, but that's interesting.
I think people don't fully understand that, Like I can't drive that home. All right, You got a one point two million dollar contract. None of it was guaranteed. You probably netted. How much you net probably probably like thirty maybe that's.
How much you made from the.
Baltimore Ravens, Probably like thirty. Because in the spring I made money in the spring, so like right now, you might be making what maybe a couple hundred a week because they take your your hotel and stuff that's the team doesn't cover it. They cover it, but it's coming
out of your dam type of thing. I cover it, but you just don't know, you know, you don't really have a yeah anyway, so you're making maybe a few hundred a week, and they cover your meals and all that stuff on the weekend, so you don't really have too many expenses. But then as you get to preseason, now you're making I want to say, seven hundred a week before taxes.
So.
You know, and that's what maybe five to six weeks, so you really like four you know, who knows what that is? Four hundred a week after all dollars done. Dollars yeah, dollars yeah. And then once the season hits. As a practice squad guy, I was making I was seeing about four k after taxes. I think my check was like seven thousand, seventy five hundred per week before, so about four thousand after and less did that for
four weeks, so that's about sixteen right there. So I probably made a little less than thirty from the Baltimore Raisins and then two weeks later I got cut week four. Two weeks later, I got picked up by the Tennessee Titans practice squad with them for a bunch of weeks. I got cut by them. A lot of people don't know this too. It's like in my family, they understand. And it's so funny that so at Tuesday at four pm Eastern is when your money is guaranteed for the week.
So for me and the way that my career has been, and I'm not superstitious, but I just I have certain things.
I have my routine. My family knew.
Don't call me Tuesday after four pm Eastern, right, So, and where's that come from? Like I've been cut at three fifty six pm Eastern wild, right.
So you don't get paid, don't get paid.
So if you get cut at four h one pm, I'm paid for that week if I don't. So when I was in Baltimore, they cut me on Wednesday morning because they were like, had were planning on bringing you back, you know, to showing good faith you, you know, we we like you, all that type of stuff. We just need to make some other roster changes. Blah blah, blah blah. So you know, take the time off, you know, go work, stay stay in shape, but we'll bring you back this week.
Then still waiting on that. But then Tennessee one time, these dudes, man, I uh, it's funny. I went and did like a whole charity out event for him. I went, we went to a high school and uh, you know, Tennessee Titans jerseys and all that type of stuff. And on the way not on the way back. Later on that evening, I had some rehabs set up a massage appointment and it's three fifty six. I get the call.
I'm like this random Tennessee number, pick up the phone and man, we need you to bring in your Oh man, y'all knew this before you send me on the event.
The whole they sent you on, the whole charity thing and all that, And then they waited for minutes before the deadline of country.
So you don't get paid for the week minutes?
What about the massage? You have to cancel it another.
To be quite honest with you, I told myself, I was like, I probably should cancer because I don't know when that next check you comes right right? You know what?
Hey, man, you gotta.
I probably need it right now, you know, I probably need to just relax. So uh so yeah, so my family literally they would know, don't call me on Tuesday. So literally at four to one, so years later, four one pm. Whenever I was good, I'd send them a bunch of gifts, a bunch of money, we count making it range and all that type of stuff. And then after you get to year five, uh, once that ball is kicked off in your first in the FO game,
then you're guaranteed your salary for the whole year. So like last year, that veterans veteran, so last year was my first year having that. So after that first game, I just sent them like six to you know, sixteen different ones. But it's it's a lot of that goes into it, basically, you know, with what you're getting at is there's a lot that goes into it that people don't think about. They don't understand. Yes, you see that big contract, you see that big number, and that is great, right,
but what are you really getting from that one? You got a fifty percent of it gone off.
The talk about that because a lot of people don't fully understand how taxes work, right, and they're.
Like, well, you should, you should set up corporation.
Like their employees, they get paid, it's like how you get paid, right, so they don't have opportunity to defer the income.
It's it's not an.
Option, right, your boss ain't going for that exactly.
So I because social media a lot of times people write that like, well they if they were smart, Like, no, it doesn't work like that, just like if you were smart, you were doing that, right, No, you don't have that option. So automatically fifty because you know how you tax. Automatically, fifty percent goes to tax gone off the red. Depending on what state you're in, it's even higher. Right then it's stay taxed. They take that out of your paycheck every time you get paid in that in that.
Particular Yep, yep, they'll do that. Uh Like if you so, if you're playing in California, so you look at the schedule, you're like, dangn I got three games in California, right West coast trip that you know you get taxed at that California rates thirteen percent.
And it's crazy because Rod Smith shout out to Rod Smith, He's he's been a loyal follow up from the beginning and anybody has a no Rod Smith, he's a Hall of Famer.
Rint not yet but a legend, legend. And dev Den Dever Broncos wide receiver Denver legend.
So I put a post up a while ago and me and him he was common and he was like, yeah, well, people don't realize it's that all right. California has the highest state tax in the country, right, like thirteen percent,
like you said. But let's say you've played it in for Miami Dolphins Florida, right, which Florida has no state income tax, right, So what happens is that you might practice in Florida from Monday to let's say Thursday, right, fly when you fly off on a Sunday game Saturday Saturday, So you practice from Monday is Saturday in Florida, you are in Florida. You're in California for Saturday and Sunday
maybe like Monday morning early. So you only spent two days in California, but the whole week is taxed in California because that's where you played the game.
Man.
So even though you prepared, like only spend forty eight hours in that particular state and you practiced in the state that you actually live in. But it doesn't matter. You played that game in that space for the whole week. The whole week's paycheck is taxed in California.
Yeah, so you guys played Jersey state tax or is it right? That's what it got played?
Yeah, okay, but I wouldn't be surprised New York trying to take a little bit of that.
I'm thinking like.
New York, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Trust me, I'd have seen a lot I've seen, like you said, every so when we play a team in Texas, it's like, okay, cool, right, London games, London international taxes, they cost a bit too, right, Florida teams you know, you see Miami or Tampa ballion schedule.
You're likes Tennessee, you know cool?
Another thing you know a few years ago, there was a guy in the locker room when I was in Detroit. Detroit, they have the city tax and the state tax, so they'll tax you in Michigan and then they'll tax you in Detroit. Now, when we so, one guy got very very smart. His financial advisor accountant got very very smart with it. Because again, like you said, if you guys are want to play the game with me of like, okay, hey,
I'm only here for twenty four hours. You know, sometimes we fly in at five pm, we out the next day at five pm after the game kickoffs at one.
You know, I'm only here for twenty four hours. You're gonna tax me for the whole week.
I remember. His issue was Detroit was taking tax every single week as if we trained.
There, played there, and all that stuff, like we were there for the whole week.
So when when we played with the Lions, the our facilities in Allen Park, the stadium is in Detroit, Michigan. It's like a twenty minute ride. But Detroit was trying to take taxes as if you were there every single play, because they'll actually literally break down the days and be like, well, you know you were here one hundred and such and such days. So he was like, no, okay, I'm actually only there out of the what eight home games. I'm there Saturday night when we stay at the team hotel,
and I'm there Sunday when we played. So them one hundred eighty days, now you got sixteen of them, right, And so he ended up going back and getting some money from Detroit on that.
So the interesting thing is like the way your mind's working right now. You're like, if I'm play in Texas, right, if I'm playing the Cowboys or the Texans, I know there's no state tex How many of your counterparts have that same mind frame?
I think a lot due, I think a lot do because I mean, at that point, you're talking about thousands, right, Like you're not talking about like you're talking about the difference in you know, depending on what you're making. You're talking about the difference in like sixth at your grand by playing somewhere else versus you.
Know, I mean some guys, I mean the way they get paid some guys.
You're talking a good fifteen twenty grand difference, right, So guys are thinking about it again, you know, not to take up all y'all time, but there's different things that people out there just don't understand, like the fact of like you have to have multiple places of residency, see right, Like sometimes like you literally just have to. And I've never wanted to be that guy having Like I'm a frugal person, right, I'm cheap school.
With me, right, I have no problem. I'm proud of it.
But like I literally I have a home base here in New Jersey with my wife and I. When I was playing in Detroit, she works in Manhattan and she's from here. We had home base here, so now play with the Jets. I'm like, man, okay, like we can just have home base like and that's the crib.
Well, guess what.
But home base for me is forty five minutes away from here in no traffic. So if I wake up in the morning and it's raining hard. I remember my first day trying to come in and reporting to the Jets. It was raining hard, and my driving from forty five minutes no traffic and this is like six thirty in the morning right to an hour and fifteen minutes. Now people are like, oh, well, just wake up early and all that type of stuff. Well, guess what if you're late to your job, you get a slap on the risk,
right you boss. You know at a certain point you can't keep being laid. You'll get your you get fired. But for me, if I'm late, that's a thirteen thousand dollars fine, right, Like that's ill.
You know what I'm saying.
I can go ahead. And so last year I had to rent a place. I have a house forty minutes from here, and I had I mean, some people might be like, well you didn't have to know, Like for me, I had to rent a place seven minutes. It's not worth the risk, right, it's not worth the risk. It's not worth being a few minutes late. And then also it's just the cost of doing business, Right.
You're going travel at forty five minutes.
Yeah, minutes when I'm like I told people, it's an investment as well, right, Like forty five minutes. That's forty five minutes I could be working on my body getting ready for the next week's game. That's forty five minutes that somebody is literally watching film with Just how am I gonna whoop Brandon coping this week?
Right?
And I need that forty five minutes to make sure I'm prepared for him as well. So there's a bunch of different costs. You know, Guys talk about transporting vehicles back and forth, right, Like I live in California, but you know, on my home base, I'm born and raised in California. I have everything over there. But now I'm with the Jets, Right, how's my vehicle getting back and forth? Or am I gonna uber it every day? Am I gonna walk every day, bike every day. What about when
it's snowy? So do I need to pay the transport back a car back and forth? Do I need a renting car? Do I need to buy a car? Some of these costs that we see guys with were like, you know, we just assumed like, oh, this guy, he's being extra, he's doing that, you know, but some of this stuff is just a cost of like convenience and doing business at a high level, right, and that you know, again it was not a woe is us, Right, I'm thankful to have those type of problems as opposed to others.
But you know, those are costs that you just can't escape from, all right.
So yes, so now we're going to talk about Okay, we gave you a lot of gyms on the athletics side, but what we like about Brandon is that he's more than just an athlete, like Lebron says, an athlete.
Right.
So now we're going to go into the business side of things. And but before we do that, shout out to Baltimore. We didn't we didn't actually, So if you listen to our podcast, you know that A we have deep ties to Baltimore, and some of our best interviews have been Baltimore guests. Right, we have Valentia, we had Derek Falcon who is a restaurant owner. So now we got Brandon too. So shout out to the DVP.
Baltimore keeps sleeping on us if you want to.
So all right, So, so can we talk real estate?
Because real estate's real trending right now and everybody wants to be a real estate investor. So can you can you talk about your real estate journey, your philosophy? Yeah, can you just enlighten us as full because there's a lot different ways how you can make money in real estate.
Yeah, that's a beautiful thing. So for me, I invested in the stock market. I'm still invested in the stock market. But for me, I like to I've realized as I've evolved, is I like to have control or more control over what I invest in as opposed to the stock market where the president could say whatever he wants to say and the thing is down, you know, six hundred points
or whatever. You know, Like there are certain days where I feel like I'm made great calls on stocks, and just because of the macro environment, everything was down and
I'm like, I have no control over this stuff. So for me, real estate was an opportunity to have more ownership obviously real legitimate, legitimate ownership of an asset, and also like more ownership of the outcome because whether if I lose money and make money whatever, like the only person I can look at is myself, because I'm the one pulling the trigger on everything. So I got in
to Originally, what I wanted to do was get into rentals. Uh, you know, people always talk about the passive income and all that type of stuff. So I remember my wife and now we went to Temple University. We went to Penn, but we went to Temple to look at houses and stuff just because the market at Pen was way, wait, wait, out of my price range. And so we just went around looking at college dorms and all that type of stuff.
And that was our first like, let's get to understand what's what we should be looking for as we look through these homes.
That's North Philly, right.
Yeah, And so literally didn't act on it or move on it for about another year until there's a Baltimore.
Speaking of Baltimore, there's a couple Khalil and Kiera Utah. They run this.
Business called and their Instagram is charm City Buyers, and they've done a great job of sharing information and I've been blessed to have I've been blessed to have great mentors, and so I reached out to them. I saw what they were doing, and they started taking me through homes and stuff like that. We went to an auction and all that type of stuff, and literally I was just a fly on the wall seeing how they broke down properties,
cap rates and all that type of stuff. And finally we were trying to invest and going on the property together. But when you're doing that, you kind of realize, well, like you know, on the outcome, I'm barely seeing anything, it's not really worth it. So we ended up investing in different ways. I just invested into their business and they ended up buying back a whole block of properties
in Baltimore. But by doing that, it was one I got invested in real estate that was actually my first investment.
And then two they gave me access to what they were doing, right.
Pictures, videos, just learning from that standpoint at a certain point, Like for me, I'm a quick learner and a quick like once I'm into something. One once you invest and you care more about it. But then two, once I'm into something I like, I jump off the cliff sometimes, especially when I'm really passionate about stuff. So after that, then I went being out in Detroit, I'm like, okay, so before I buy rental units, right, because I look at that as marriage, right, Like I'm with this house
for a long time for life. Right, you can sell it, you can get rid of it, but for me, like that's marriage as opposed to me, let me just date for a little bit. So I was like, okay, well, let me do some flips to learn about what goes into rentals and buying and rehabbing stuff. So as an athlete, one of my biggest fears and just as a person in general, my biggest pet peeve growing up was people thinking that they were smarter than me. Y're not not
smarter than me, but but thinking that. I was, Yeah, well, thinking that talking to you like like you don't know what's going on the type of thing you know. The now is an athlete, that turns to having a fear of people trying to take advantage of you, and you know they do this to people all the time.
So for me.
It was like, I need to learn how much nails costs.
I need to learn how much drive all costs, how much paint costs, all that type of stuff, so that now when I do these bigger projects, you can't just come to me with like, you know, hey, to paint this hot is gonna cost eight thousand nothing bucks. Right, I didn't know any better. I'm like, okay, well eight thousand and six thousand. I don't you know, if you have no gauge, then then you just take whatever people
give you. So I met a guy found out through the locker room that there's a guy called a guy named Rob Simms, him Calvin Johnson, Jason Strahorn.
They started this.
Whole group called Locker Room Consulting Group. But at the time that was just a thought. But Rob had he talked about great mentors.
He literally, you know, texted.
He picked me up from the facility one day and literally drove me around Detroit and walked me through houses that he was actually currently flipping, right, and he showed me the levels of stuff that he was doing. He was doing some regular single family homes. He then took me to like a big, like fifty unit apartment building brand new buildout type of thing, and then showed me a two hundred unit project that he was working on investing in Florida.
Right, Like, so you realize there's levels.
But him at the time, he also gave me access and so he was like, hey, like this is the house I'm doing.
You know, if you want to get into it, you can.
You know, I don't need you to write like that's that's the best pitch in the world, right, Like, you know, you this house, I've already bought it.
Like it's going to get renovated with it without you, but if you want to.
That's that's the power power of having mentors, right because he could at least expose you to that exactly, right.
And this is a guy who was a veteran and you're a young guy in the league. He didn't have to do that.
Yeah, and he was retired.
He was retired at the time, and he was just like, cope, like I really value what you saw something that. Yeah, he was like, I wish I would have started earlier. I know he has rentals and stuff like that, Like he rents some his rentals out to players and stuff like, and you know, you you you find yourself a mentor or mentors that you can just one add value to them, you know, and value is not always in the sense of money.
Right.
There's a there's a c NBC just did this commercial and I'm talking on it about mentors, and they chopped up some of it. But one of the things I was trying to say is like you don't have to think it's just like giving a check, right, Like, hey, like, I'll I'll come organize your books, right, Like I'll do whatever I need you need me to do, Like I'll follow your paperwork, whatever you need me to do to add value to you.
I'll do that just for access to you.
And I'm glad you said that because a lot of times people we're selfish by nature, right, So people want help, mentorship, they want advice. But I heard somebody say before, like you have to see how can I help this person? Like I mean, like if you think from that standpoint, then they will be more likely to help you as
opposed to just saying help me. That's more of a charity thing right right now, if we have an equal relationship, you might not be able to help me financially, but like you said, you can still add value.
Yeah, right, And the thing and that's the thing is like value is sorry, value is what you make it, right. I think that, like you said, some people just come up and say, hey, help me, right, and it's like okay, Like well, you have to also look at your own relationships and like anything that you're like, all of these are transactions and either you're winning it's equal, or you're losing. And there's only a certain amount or a certain number of relationships that you can really be just losing it.
And you know, and that's at a certain point, it's like we're all for giving back, we're all for trying to help. But like, for example, with this class, I've had this class and we've we've gained a lot of
media attention because of it, and that's been great. And I used to pride myself on literally answering everything, every DM email, text message, all that type of stuff, even with every times where you know, I'd make a play and it would be crazy amount of stuff in my phone and I even if it was a week later, I would do it. Now, like my brother he helps he's my business manager, business partner. He helps me with stuff, and he realizes because the first couple of weeks he
was like, now we can get through it. And then after a few weeks he's like, yeah, nah, man, we might have to get a template, right, And like I told him, like, you know, you got to realize there's certain things like I still have stuff I want to do and create, and and I would literally spend all day just answering emails or d ms, right, and then tell us about it, Like it's like you got you have to pick and choose your battles, right, and so as much as you want to give, and you know,
people will throw your name through the mud if you don't answer their particular message or whatever. Right, it's like I plan on trying to answer it, but I'm gonna answer it in in what I create, I think so. But yeah, so finding them mentors and stuff like that.
I ended up giving him money to invest in his house and then even a boy being in that I was able to see what I liked about, how they were doing things, what I didn't like, what I wanted to do better, what I wanted to do less of, more of alarm systems, cameras, whatever, right, Because again there's levels.
Right, and so I could realize that Rob was on this.
He's on a bigger level than me, right, because if he loses his money again.
You know he he.
Might be able to withstand that.
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Coach, the energy out there felt different. What changed for the team today?
It was the new game day, scratches from the California Lottery players, everything. Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.
Are you saying it was the off field play that made the difference on the field.
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Gonna hurt little b Right, So I need to know, like I need to what's going on right now? You know what's going on at three thirty pm. So so from that again, I'm invested with them. And then I went and jumped off and started doing my own. And the reason why I started doing them in Detroit was one the market was amazing. You could buy three, four bedroom, three bathroom house for thirty five thousand dollars.
That's why I wanted to ask you, so Detroit, how is the market Detroit right now? Because I've heard mixed things. Some people think that it's like the best thing ever, but some people saying it's already starting to get more saturated and it's not as you know, good as people are making it out to me. Yeah, you have mixed a few opinions on it. What's the marketing?
Yeah, I think it's clearly is getting more saturated than it was two years ago, three years ago.
But that's everything, right.
I I if you talk to anybody in Atlanta, they'll tell you, like, prices here are getting more and more expensive. It's getting more and more saturated. Then you're like, okay, well what's the rent. It's like eleven hundred dollars for three bedroom, you know, all right, comparison to New York. Well, shoot, I'll take that off.
That's a studio exactly.
So, so I think I keep it in that perspective, in that context. For me, Detroit was an opportunity and still is an opportunity to learn on a smaller scale and not risk even when I say small scales, not risk as much money as some of these bigger market, bigger markets, these bigger shows. Right Like I would turn on one of the best houses we did in Detroit. We bought this house for at auction for thirty six thousand.
Santa Rosa Drive.
That was that's her nickname, four bedroom, two and a half bathroom house. We walked into it and this was, I mean, this was a lay up home run type of thing. Walked into it and it was unfortunately, you know, it was an older woman who passed away. Her family just didn't know to take care of it, didn't know to pay the bills or whatever, so it just literally
was sitting there. We took it at auction and uh, well kept house, all that type of stuff we put in I want to say, twelve thousand dollars just to do the kitchen, redo carpet, and to add a shower instead of the elderly tug on the first floor bathroom. We turned around. We sold it off market for one hundred and twenty seven thousand.
Right, So how long was that turn around?
It literally the longest part it was a two week rehab. The longest part was waiting for the eviction to go through because still technically, even though no one was living in it, we still legally went through the eviction process with the court. No one showed up, waited thirty days to enter, just to you know, protect our backs.
But that was the longest part.
After that, we got in two weeks and then flipped it. So literally made one hundred and fifteen percent on my money on that. But again, I turned on HGTV and I see these couples and they doing amazing stuff, like they're doing great flips and stuff like that, and you like you just put out seven hundred thousand to bring back fifty thousand.
Yeah, I'm always looking like, yeah, it's gonna coste not a renovent. I'm like, that's eight hundred.
Thousand, but that's sorry. You paid thirty five thousand one auction. You paid probably cash, right, But you could have got that house without paying up to thirty five thousand, right, probably.
Well, since it was auction, I probably not.
Probably I would probably had the I would hard money lends hard money or something like that, so I would people I paid, they would have got their money, but I probably could have came out of pocket less by doing finding another lender.
Yea, Because he was trying to say for the average person who might not have thirty five thousand, but they still are interested in investing and they still want to make money, right, yep, what's your advice for them?
They may not have you know, the same opportunities or you know the same bank.
I'm the bank.
I'm fortunate to be able to be the bank in my situations. And even still people tell me, like, you want to start using other people's money, But for anyone out there trying to get in one, I'd say make sure you're ready and before.
What I mean by that is is what I found in real.
Estate is there's a checklist of things that you need to have and be ready for it, because especially if you're taking on someone else's money, and then that means you're you're holding on to that interest rate. You want to you want to limit your you're holding time. Right, What do I mean by being ready? What does your contracting team look like?
Right?
Your contracting team can make or break your entire process. What I found, I guess this is a better way to said. Is What I found is people generally can't
do what they tell you they can do right. So it's really vetting their vetting your contracting team, creating that budget and doing your best to stick to it even though you know you're never go and stick to it like that sounds weird, but like you know it's going to go over So for me, my process is well, sorry to answer your question, there are hard money lenders out there. There's people who will lend you money. You can collateralize it with the car, house, whatever, depending on
the amount of alone. However, before you do that, you need to make sure that you're ready and to make you feel good about it. One of my mentors, he that's outside of rob and charm City Buyers. One of the things that he told me that really helped me jump into my first home was he sat down with me at dinner and he was just like, you know, cope, this this isn't rocket science. He was like, a lot of people make what they make, what they do seem like it's rocket science.
But this isn't.
Like you buy a house, you've renovated, put money into it, the renovated, you.
Sell it for more. Right, it ain't that.
Now there's certain things in there that make it feel stressful, all stuff permits and all of this different stuff. Oh, pipe burst for all you know, but it ain't rocket signed. So for anybody listening, just keep that in mind. Right, Like you buy a house, you renovate it, you put money in, you pay people to renovate it, and you sell it for hire.
Right, and before you do that, you do all your work.
You research My process. We can get into that if we want. My process is to look at the comps before I ever walk into a house. Just to look at the comps is to make sure that, like you send me my realtor, I find I have a realtors, I have multiple realtors. I tell them what I'm looking for, tell them what my investment criteria is, and I tell
them what I need to make off of it. I only look at houses that I feel like I can at least make thirty K off of, right, And you know, some of the real says, oh man, that's I don't know, Like in Baltimore is getting the margins are getting thinner, you know, cool, but it don't.
Send it me the house take thirty And why do I do that?
There's houses that I won't make thirty K off of even if I think that, But that gives me enough cushion where Okay, this house messed up or this. You know, I have a change order in my contracting work, so I need to add this or whatever. And now that thirty K is crunched the twenty five, and it's crunched the twenty and so it gives me more than enough cushion as opposed to where some people are trying to get fifteen K. And then as soon as some bad
things pop up, now they in the red. You know what I'm saying.
So I do that. Then we'll go through a house I go through a house.
With the contractor and the and I get an estimate there right and I know that the contract is going to be off. You know, I know that they're going to add some more later on on the back end.
You know.
I've been fortunate to have some great contractors, especially in Maryland, and Detroit has been hit or miss.
I've had some good ones. I've had some marble ones, right, but.
Finding just getting a ballparking range, because right then and there, I might be able to be like, Okay, this is not this doesn't add up right after that, and then you know, you put in your offer, you probably miss on half the houses you offer on. Probably really seventy five percent of the houses I've put offers in on I haven't gotten. But you just play that game. But again,
for me, it's about I feel like real estate. And I know I'm obviously in a blessed position to be able to say this, but I tell this to my family. I tell this to everyone because I'm getting my family they invest with me. I feel like real estate is a great thing to be in as a secondary social income. Right Like for me, I look at it as like, okay, like it's a great place to be in when you know there is a week delay. Or for example, I
was supposed to close on a house. It's sell a house that we've had on the market for some time. I was supposed to sell it on May tenth, this past Friday, and it's gotten pushed. So they did the appraisal late, and all that stuff is getting pushed. We just sign have done them to push it to close before May thirty.
First.
If I needed that money right now, I'll be pissed, right, I still keep it. Everybody else around me thinks that I'm pissed, Like, come on, we got tighten this up right, right, But I'm like, okay, cool, and I'm going to the other thing. I don't need that right now, you know what I'm saying. So to keep it as a secondary source of income allows you to operate in a less stressful situation. And it also allows you to not take risks and take chances and force investments if you don't
have to. Because there's a lot of people out here that's where they get themselves in the best situation, Like I need this house to work and I need to flip it now, right.
So what makes you unique is that you're reading blueprints and you're reading playbooks too, right, And you spoke about your family and building your team.
But your family's involved, right. Your mom is part of as an investor with you.
Your wife is reading the charter, and your brother is I believe the project project management. So were they into real estate or did you bring them on and educate you guys learned altogether.
Yeah, brought them on. Brought them on. So I think for me, one of my biggest goals is to figure out, not figure out, but encourage other people to create wealth for themselves. Right, My family is doing well for themselves. They all have their own hustles. But hey, like I look at real estate as a way of like, hey I can Like I tell my friend all the time he has student loans. He's talking about him, like you flip a house, right and start putting out chunks on
your mortgage. Right, he already has a job that he's been paying off. But like I look at it as like one day I'll just flip a house to pay for things that I want. Okay, my kid has this year's tuition. Okay, well, well let's do this house right here, or we need vacation or I'm flip a house to pay all of our bills, right, yeah, Like I'm literally like, that's the way I look at it, right, And that's a that's a great thing to be able to do
and a great goal to have. But I wanted to also empower the people around me to be able to do it themselves, so allowing them to have access to the investment.
Again, I'm approaching you. I'm doing this house.
You can jump in for whatever.
Yeah, you can jump in if you want the same lesson that you exactly I'm gonna do this.
You could, but that's like, yeah, one of one of the like my mentors, uh he uh, he had a building in Manhattan. He's a real, big time real estate investor, right, so he's a he's a developer and he had the building in Manhattan and he he called me. He's like, look, no, if you want to get in, I'll give you the friends and family deal. He's like, you know, you know you can be part of the owner of a building in Manhattan.
Da da.
But he said, he said, look, he said, I'm giving you this off. He said, I don't need to give you this offer, he said, And I'll never call you by it over again.
If you want any or it, it's up to you. You know, I'm not gonna beat your door down.
No, that that's all based on facts.
This is happening with without you. And again.
It allows you allows them to have the same experience that I had. So now they can get their feet wet.
Right.
I don't care if it's a thousand bucks. I don't care if it's four thousand bucks. I don't care if it's twenty thousand bucks. You know what I'm saying, Like, whatever you want, you just break it down, break the percentages down. You have equity in this play.
And now now you care.
Now you're interesting.
People are going to care when they're invested in something, you know what I mean.
Like, even if it's they're making two hundred dollars more, that's more passive than you had a month before war.
In your checking account that you get so so by doing that, then it gets them to learn. And then it also like I'm always thinking about the future, and the future build right, And so I've invested with players, and there's a bunch of players who want to invest and do stuff together, and I've done something with them. And there's some that I'm like, you know, I just want to wait until I have my team, really really sure, right, I'm I'm first to admit that, like one, I'm a perfectionist.
So if it ain't rolling in my version or my run and perfection, then it ain't ready. But then once I get it there, then we can rock and roll.
Right. But when you have that access, now I'll shoot you videos of the.
Befores of what the contractor is telling me, of the things that I've learned, the things that I've thought about. But I want you to start looking at stuff the way I start looking at stuff, right, because in the long run, again we talk.
About adding value and different ways of add value.
Is you know, one, I don't need your money, but two I want, in the long run your add value to me. Because now we're going to start to speak the same language. Now, if I'm in New Jersey, if I'm in Baltimore and you move to Florida, or you know, you get traded and go to California or whatever, now you're looking at the house the same lens and perspective that I always had to.
Now you can say a cod like maybe you want to throw money in is one?
Right?
They branch off and that other factors that people become less dependent on you because now they have their own knowledge.
Well that so knowledge is power and education is everything in this world. So that brings us to our next segment, something that we all have in common. Yeah, education, all right, So for the last seven we're gonna talk education. And if anybody's not familiar, this is how this whole thing started with even the podcast is Troy is an educator and I'm a financial advisor. So I'll speed up this story because we've told it a couple of times before. But he brought me in his classroom before and he
asked me to teach a financial literacy class. So that financial literacy class turned into he has a program that he runs every summer, six week program for kids, internships, a whole bunch of stuff, college tours and everything. They get paid at the end of the program. So that turned into me running a financial literacy program for the
kids for the six weeks. Then that's turned into me actually developing a curriculum, right and now were actually do it in a couple of other schools outside of our program that we're doing the summer, And then that turns into I actually want to write a textbook, right, so it could be all over and it turned into a whole bunch of different opportunities. With my brother's keeper of President Obama's program, we got.
Turned into this podcast.
Yeah yeah, so yeah, so it all meshed together. So as we said earlier in the podcast, Brandon is educated as well. So he is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's business school, which is Wharton, and as I said before, that's one of the best business schools in the country. So aside from being football player, aside from being a real estate investor, aside from working on we even talk about him working on Wall Street. He also it's too much to talk about. But he's also a educator.
So financial literacy is something that we're very passionate about. Can you talk about your class because your class is interesting it correct me if I'm wrong, but it's called Inequity and Empowerment in Urban Financial Literacy.
That's the name of it.
Yep, yep, So that's an interesting title, and I kind of assume I know what that means. But can you talk about the class? We start's start off the conversation with the class that.
Yeah, so.
Technically it's not in wart and it's in the urban school, Urban Studies school, just to put that out there so they don't come down. And but it's when I thought of the class I thought about. I was actually on the ride through Detroit looking at real estate opportunities with a couple of players, and one of the players mentioned in the backseat about, hey, man, I just wish when I was in college we had a class on that, you know, talked about taxes and budgeting and houses and
buying your house and all that type of stuff. I'm like, I mean, that's not just something that athletes need, that's something that we all need, right, Like, how do you just and you had the conversation, I was like, how do you just pick athletes who you think are going to the league or not? You know, like everybody should have that. So from there my wheel started running. And again, like as I said, I'm impulsive. When I get passionate about something, it's like, how do you make it happen.
So it's been a few years of trying to get the school to buy in and I was fortunate to come across my co professor, doctor Brian Peterson, last year at our Just College five year reunion. I told him about the idea and then he took it and ran with it and dealt with the the school pitch. You know, you know me, I'm just a creative so you know, I come to you with the idea like, yes, YadA, I'm willing to put the work in behind it.
But I didn't know you need to.
You know, you need a syllabit, you need a course outline and all that stuff. So anyway, for me, the class premise is like, let's talk about all the different things that you deal with in life that we just let's just talk about them.
Right. For some reason, we've.
Gone through these schools and gone through all these I've gone through sixteen years of school myself, and no one ever taught me how to buy my first house, right, No one ever taught me about the cost of renting or how to invest.
Right.
We have these classes that talk about finance and statistics and all that stuff. But yeah, but like what's the real life application?
You know?
And I remember as an intern on Wall Street, I was like, you know, we had these classes and I think, you know, I had these econ classes and finance classes, and I'm like, okay, I should be pretty well prepared as compared to a student who hasn't had this stuff. But then when I went into it, I'm like, yeah, we didn't talk about any basis.
The funny thing about that is like I feel the same way about education, Like we went to school, right, and we learned we had to take all these tasks and pass them to be certified.
And I went to grad school forward.
And I got put in New York City and all the things that they talk out the window, you're gonna learn right now right today's yeah, you know what I mean. And one of the lessons I try to tell up and coming teachers is like, listen, you're gonna be tested every day. You got to really put the mindset that today I'm gonna win this battle because I know I'm fighting for them, you know what I mean. So like
that's crazy, like you're doing that. And finance too, it's the same thing, like wait, I went to the school for all this and I know nothing.
I literally have to start over, right, and so you know, taking that.
Is like literally the premise of the class. I nicknamed it life one on one and uh so we talk about credit. I always felt like too, like I sat in these classrooms and you know, as a kid who a kid from Baltimore learning and all that type of stuff. I've been fortunate enough my parents valued education, so I've
really valued it myself. And still, even though I feel like I'm a bright individual, I was sit in some of these classes and I would have to like the teachers would just talk over my head, however long the lecture was, and I was like, you know, people would throw around terms good debt versus bad debt and all that stuff, and you feel afraid to ask a question, like, you know, I don't want to see much studio, feel like everybody else must know, right, you know, like he's
talking like they like maybe I didn't get this in my high school or something right, And then you know, so I'd end up youtubing it or figuring it out on my own or just through life and experience.
And I'm like, it.
Shouldn't be like that, right, Like you're paying all this money to go to school. We should talk about this. You should feel comfortable asking this question. So that's the class we started. We cover everything from like I said, invest in budgeting, taxes, your gross pay versus your net, how to buy a house, our very last class we had as called we called it Financing your Dream Company
an entrepreneur with a ship panel. We end up having a huge My goal, as I told the students, my goal is to make this financial information, financial literacy, all that type of stuffs. Make this information accessible to all for free. And so this class was really a pilot and just a launching point to build and to figure out what works and all of that type of stuff.
But what we did our second and last.
Class, we had a bunch of high school students from Philly come in and then my students taught those students these different we had five different topics, but taught them this stuff.
And one the reason for that was me.
I it's not that I don't care about grades, but I don't care about grades is for two. It's more of like I feel like, if you can teach someone how to teach or no, so not how to teach. I wanted to teach them how to teach this information to other people that they learned. Yeah, so like I want you to be able to share this information with your cousin, your family, your mother, your sister, your brother, and spread this information a similar way that I'm doing it.
To my family, give your family access to change their own lives, right as opposed to Sadly, what we do in society is we get information, and now it's my information. I'm gonna get a leg up on you where it's like I'm you're not my competition. Right. So we had our students teach it to high school students because of one, I figured if you can break it down on a high school level, then you probably have a pretty good understanding of it. But two, it also just is giving
us that ripple effect as a classroom. And when I tell you you've got these, one of the biggest things that schools or people push back on is, oh, man, you don't you know people already know this information?
You know?
And you're like, no, we don't. When did I learn it? When did you teach it to me?
Right? Like, if nobody ever taught me I told this to the students, Well, nobody ever told you. If I asked you what two plus two is, you're like, man, that's a stupid question, right, you've learned that. If I asked you like, okay, well, how do you buy your first house? Right?
Like, what do you need?
Uh?
Well, you probably need it? If I ask you, what's the four to one k? Right?
Well, you know some people people might be.
Like, well you should know that.
How who taught me?
And that's what that's something that because you know, I post videos sometimes and me teaching, and some it's always a couple of comments like, well, financial literacy shouldn't be taught in school.
We shouldn't rely on schools. People should be teaching at home.
True of course, but if your parents aren't prepared to teach you, then what about those kids? And that's the vast majority of kids, right, So it's like, okay, well, yeah, of course everything should be taught at home. But if that's the case, what's the point of even going to school to teach our kids everything at.
Like working in the education system, right, this is like my seventeenth year in education. But that was part of the reason when I was like, shoty, I'm like, look, I need your help, Like you're a financial advisor, I need your help, Like I know that these kids aren't learning, and like I was doing a disservice. So I'm like, all right, well I have six weeks to help these kids, right,
And I was like, listen, I need your help. Come in and just teach these kids these lessons, and it was like when we started seeing the return on it every year, it was like, oh, this is amazing.
Right.
So like being in the system and no one is a disservice, like we got to give back. So like you going back to Philly to take kids, Like that's dope, right, and you're doing it at the college level, right, And our program is you know, from high school kids getting getting ready for college, but also this year we'll launching on for elementary school kids, right because the earlier they get the knowledge.
Now their parents can learn, and these kids are learning, so they prepared. By the time we get to high school, they're going to be advanced.
Right, right, So we're just trying to start earlier and earlier, right, and we need more people doing.
That, right.
So that's what drew us, like drew me for sure, Like five thirty in the morning, I'm reading, I'm like, oh, I got to meet this guy because he's on the same paths dope.
And then also that my Lexcelna question leads right into as far as getting back right, we spoke about that off camp a little bit. Can you talk about that as far as like the importance of that and why because a lot of times people don't like you said.
I think I read a book one time that we operate from an attitude of scarcity instead of abundance, meaning that it's like, Okay, if me and you from the same neighborhood you make it to the league, I'm gonna be depressed because I'm like, the percentage of somebody making it is like one out of one hundred.
Now you made it, So now my percentage.
Is like, I'm done.
I can't make it.
Statistically, It's like it's not a saying like yo, I'm gonna use you as an example that I can make it. So we look at that and it carries over them a lot of things like Okay, I got a million dollars. I can't teach somebody else how to make a million dollars because I've already beat the odds. So I can't diminish my eyes by trying to spread the wealth.
You know what I mean.
It's said, So yeah, my wife and I always start this foundation called Beyond the Basics.
Scene is right here.
We throw football camps, we take kids on shopping, screeze for Christmas, feed single parents Thanksgiving.
I think that you know, that's just our heart and what we feel called to do.
And that's actually like the best part of everything that I do. I feel like when it talks when you talk about giving back. Shared this with the students as well. I share this with people. I think that there's a lot of people in this world. This is the way I think of my life and whether I'm right wrong, and whatever I'm doing, I'm sharing it and I'm letting
you know that. Hey, like I don't have all the answers, Like I told my students that the first day, I don't have all the answers, right, Like, there's there's experts for all of this information. That's the reason why you hire an accountant. That's the reason why you're hiring an investment an advisor, a financial advisor. That's the reason why you hire a credit repair specialist to handle these different
tranches of your life, the reason why you hire a realtor. Like, I don't have all this information, but I will get the people in front of you. I have a little bit about all this stuff, and anything I don't know, we'll learn it on them the fly, right, Like, that's cool with me. I'll take that humble approach to teaching and to being a vessel. But what I always tell people is there's people who write these Tell All books.
You know, they're fifty some years old. Right, this is how I mask my wealth and all that type of stuff.
Right.
And there's one there's a bunch of young kids who was reading that, well, I just read such and such book, and you know, now I'm gonna try to do it like this and this and this, right, which is great.
You know, you're sharing that wealth of knowledge. I always think that.
Those the person who wrote the book, the author's peers at that age group, we are probably looking at this dude, like a dude or woman, like why then you just share this stuff while you were doing it, right, Like why don't you tell me while you were taking these risks, so that now we can all be writing I Tell All books. We can all be on these shots, we can all be on this stuff, right. And that's what I'm like, all right, like, let's just let's just share
as we go, right. And for me, it's about taking a humble approach, or making the information humble in the sense of like it's not overwhelming, it's not like there's certain things that are complex, you know, more complex than others. But all of this stuff is once you take some time and dive into it, you're just like what this is?
You know, this can be.
Easy, And I think that sadly, a lot of people trying to teach or a lot of people trying to and you know, we're not even talking about specifically giving back, but I look at the professor stuff as one of my versions of giving back. Absolutely education and a lot of people trying to teach or or give information they want you to think that what they do is rockets.
You know how we can tell is giving back because you're doing it right. Those kids are being inspired and you'll never know the impact.
Right.
But there are a bunch of athletes who are looking at you like wow, like I could do that.
I wish I could do that right, and their reason out like when we posted you, like a bunch of athletes were like, hey.
Well we have a lot of shout out to the NFL For some reason, I don't know, but like half of the NFL follows us right our page. So we're getting more basketball players shout to Al Harrington, shout out to a couple of other league guys in the League. But I'm proud of the NFL guys because they're really taking financial literacy.
Serious and they I don't think it's a coincidence.
And what you said was key as far as to make the information understandable to the people. And I think that's one of the driving forces behind our podcast, is that our people don't really want to read Barons and even I don't really want to read Baron. I'm fall asleep when I'm reading there, you know what I mean.
It's like.
But the information that we deliver, they know that it's like a conversation they can have in a barbershop, but these conversations aren't being had at the barbershop. So now they can tune in once a week and they can check it out and they and the good thing about our platform is that everybody that we are bringing in are from different walks of life, different areas, but the one common that it is that they all are willing to share time and give out free game. And that's
what you just did and it's commendable. So first and foremost, we want to thank you for coming, and can you tell people how to contact you and the initiatives your camp all that all that information.
Yeah man, I'll keep it keep it short. So you can reach out to me at at B. Cooke fifty one b C O P E five one on Instagram. I also have a website www dot bcopeland dot com. There's a contact section right there. It'll get directly to me. We have a football camp coming up this summer in Baltimore. Free Football Camp for the youth. Will probably have about five hundred kids this year, which is crazy to see
the grow. Our camp is older than is longer than the average NFL lifespan right now, so we're going in the year four, which is crazy. But we do a lot of different we Our camp is literally not about football. We we have a thousand book bags that the kids put together and a thousand hygien kids that the kids put together and they distribute out to their own city.
Right so now we're encouraging them to get back early and understanding that it's not just writing a check, it's not about that, it's about time, it's about efforts, about passion and uh and yeah man, we just continue to build this empire, continue to try to get out this financial literacy and fo along with you all and help change.
The world, collaboration is better than competition, as my man Max the Mad, So you know, that's that's what we're doing.
Man.
That's another thing that we want to show as well, as far as we don't have to be in competition with each other, you can work with each It's actually more beneficial to work with somebody.
And it's fun.
Man, it's fun because like every time we sit down with the guests, like we're learning to we learned something like we're learning as you speak, and when we listen back, we're like, wow, that's a gem. I hope everybody heard that on because that's what we used to do it like lyrics, Like we would listen to it and I'm like, yo, you heard what he said.
And then we realized that every yeah, we want that, Like everybody didn't hear it the same way.
And it was like, all right, well that's what we're going to do the finance like we're gonna wait, I don't think they're hearing it the same so let's explain it, right, you know what I mean?
He coded, Yeah, you're doing a great job of taking the time to do that, right. A lot of people they just spit it at you.
If you pick it up.
You pick it up.
If you didn't, it's on you.
And I think that you guys are doing an amazing job of like like you said, taking the time to decode it, taking the time to humble it, and uh, you know, egos out the out the door, creating that non judgmental zone. It's crucial so that we can have these conversations because just by having a conversation, you end up learning. You know, you might even go in the conversation. I have conversations with people about finance now and you're
not even there was no intent in the conbo. We weren't talking, we weren't supposed to be talking about real estate. Were just talking about mindset, and somehow it never leads us to one of us learning something that might save us some money, save us some interest on the Morgans or something like that. So that's a beautiful thing. And to continue to create that environment, y'all are y'all are leading away?
So I appreciate.
Patreon.
Yeah, man, so Patreon it is doing pretty well. You know, we explain it every episode.
It's a way to financially support the podcast so that we could come to your city or do things in our city.
You know that can uplift people and give them more information. You know, we have five different tiers.
You can join at any tiers starts like two dollars if you like, for just general things, and then as you you add more to the tears, you get more things.
So we got some new members.
Shout out to Cody, and shout out to Terry and Savannah and t and our newest member, VICKI. Shout out to you for joining. We look forward to having our video conference with you in the very near future. Yeah, but you know, keep supporting Patreon. Our merch is up on our website or a leisure dot com. You know, like I said, season two, we got some new new things coming out, so be on the lookout for that reliability.
Yeah.
Yeah, civilized really share.
That's the slogan that we're running with.
I got the podcast t shirt on. It's funny like every like we walk out and people are looking they're like, wait, is that you good?
Sure?
And you know it's a conversation starter, like we know that people are looking at what we're wearing all the time.
That's our culture.
Like we're gonna watch to see what you have on first and then we'll start a conversation after that, so we might as well give them a good message.
So before we leave, my book tip of the week is, I'm currently so all right. Valencia is the teacher that we had on She Let the Cat Out to Day. I don't actually read these books. I listen to audiobooks, say so. My audiobook that I'm listening to right now is called The Smartest Guys in the Room. It's about the end Run debacle scandal. So if you're into that
kind of thing, I highly recommend it this. It's interesting, it's entertaining, and it talks about how the financial system can go wrong and how greed can lead to very bad things.
So that is my book tip.
Let me can I give him a quote? Because I heard Brandon said and I was like, oh man, I got give them this line. So I'm a quote she lose from the lock Channel and I want full shot out the younkers. But he said, plan for your future because you're going to be older a lot longer than you're.
Gonna be younger.
And I was like, money power, respect, money.
Power respect, right, because that's important, right, Like how much time do you have to be young? Like I think you said that, like at twenty five, are you young?
Right? But you still got fifty plus years.
You know, God blessed to be a functioning person in life, So you're gonna be older a lot longer you're.
Gonna be younger, So you got to plan accordingly.
Man plan accordingly. That's a fact. So once again, thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you next week. Piece.
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