Making Money Is Easy, Keeping It Isn't

we are. We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of life's most taboo topics, things most folks don't want to talk about. To the lens of a millennium married couple. Dead ass is a term that we say every day. So when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one hundred, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Were about to take Philoso off to a whole new level. Dead ass starts right now. This story is going to take us back to two

thousand and thirteen. Jackson's won twenty eleven, and you was able to retire from makeup full time when Jackson was about a year and a half. About a year and a half, so Okay, So it was about two thousand and the reason why I'm choosing this story is because I want to lead into what our discussion is going to be for today. Kaunin was working at MAC. You were working how many hours a week you would say

as a full time employee. Um, they say forty hours, right, But I was in there like those of the fifty hours, but fifty hours a week, and it was making decent money. You're making decent money. You're making anywhere between fifty left there. I was probably making about fifty eight, fifty and sixty ten.

And I remember saying to Condein, you know, if you step back from full time now that we have insurance, because I was able to make SAG and you focus on investing in your company, you can make way more money than fifty sixty k and Conin was just like, how like a clients come here, I have my products here, blah blah blah blah blah. And I said, so, I said, listen, what you do with your earnings is you take your earnings and you invest your earnings back into your business.

So rather than relying on the store to have the products, you buy all the products at home and you have everything. Rather than spending the time that you would spend going to the store and sitting in the store and meeting clients, you utilize your email list and you use that time going to people's homes or you vite them here. This way you can do more clients at one time. And she was like, I kind of makes sense. Give it some time, and I guarantee you you'll be making three

times more money than you make in store. And Kenein was like, the value you sure? I said, I'm positive. Fast forward about a year and so said, so done. Kadeen had doubled up her rate. And when we get through the show, I'm going to explain to you how Kadein was able to double what she was making by being an independent artist. Li la la la wait to lie get my money right? Oh? Good money? Bad? Your money made? But um, I know you know, Kanye West

is not everybody's favorite person right now. And just for clarity, people think it's only because of what he said about the Jewish community, but no, it was also what he also said and didn't say about the black community. You know, him wearing a White Lives Matter t shirt, him you know, saying disparaging comments about George Floyd, Like there were a lot of things that he's done over the past couple

months that have people up in arms and upset. And I understand, you know, he suggared a lot of people, strigged a lot of people, and right now he's in a lot of people's favorite person. But the words of that song is what I resonate with the most is la la la wait till I get my money right, because I la la la la la la la wait till I get my money right. Like it was just I know, but do you get tired of waiting? And you're like, I got to give my money right, That's

a fact. And this as soon as we make this money, we ought to spend it and take a break and pay some bills and come back. Sweak enough money. Let's not forget to do that. So stick around, y'all. We're gonna come back and we're gonna talk the effects of making money. Yes, all right, we're back. Man. When I think about those times, whenever you go back to the year in the story times, I'm always like, man, what

does that bring me back to? Like it's like I can literally like zap myself back into remembering how I felt in those moments. U. It's just looking at the progress over the years. Absolutely, it never ceases to amaze me. Absolutely, it's it really doesn't. It is eye opening because when you live in your own life, you don't take inventory of what you've done and what you've accomplished while you're in it. You know, it's not yeah, you're just going and going, and before you know, you look up and

you're here. And even when you're here, you appreciate where you are, but you also don't get time to relish in the fact that you've come a long way, you know. So sometimes when we sit back and every time we do story time, authory timer, every time we do story time, it does put me look at you. You You start in trouble, You start in trouble. Every time you do story we do storytime, it does take me back to where we were, and it's a constant reminder that we have accomplished a

lot and we should be proud of ourselves. But it's also a reminder to keep going because imagine how far we can be if we keep the same steam moving, you know, and don't get comfortable and complacent. Well, shout out to you back at that time, because I, of the two of us, didn't really have much business acumen right, didn't really know much about finances and money and things like that. The most my parents told me, we're you know, safe,

make sure you save your money, save your money. But the entrepreneurial spirit is something that I never really thought was a possibility because I was always conditioned to believe that you had to become a nurse or a doctor or a lawyer in order to be successful. So when we literally were in this space where we felt like shoot our backs against the wall, like we have no other option, I had to go back to the mall at mac and work. I really thought that that was

like a dead end for me for a while. And not because I didn't have faith that your business would take off or that you knew or had a plan that I didn't believe in. It was just like, man, this is just something I'm going to have to hold down for a while because we didn't know how long it would take for your acting career to take off, for how long it would take for your business to start. So I really thought that I was going to be in this this business making money for Frank and Frank

that's who owns MAC. And I'm just like, at some point I need to stop making all this money for Frank and Frank and figure out how I can make money for the other spot facts, you know. So that's when you kind of helped me gain plan what that was going to look like, because of course people's apprehension usually when they want to take off, you know, from a job and start something new or start a new business, is the security. You know. I was getting that check

every week, absolutely, and that was comfortable for me. That was something I can guarantee and plan for. So when you have to take that leap and shift, yeah, it's not always the easiest, not always the easiest. So remember when there's a lot that we both have learned when I first retired from the NFL, because the NFL is not a realist it's not a real job. It is a job, right, but it's not a job that people say, oh, I learned about business while playing in the NFL, because

it's not a traditional corporate structure. What I did learn from the NFL was not to rely solely on one income. So that to me was the first thing, like when you realize solely on one income, no matter how much that income is. When that income stops, you stuck. So that's what I did learn from the NFL. And I met a lot of business people while in the NFL, which helped me create the business and acumen I have. But the biggest thing I learned I didn't even learn

in the NFL. I learned when I was in high school. I told this story before about when I was selling them fake coogie sweaters in high school. Remember and I remember all of my boys, we all got fake coogie sweaters. We sold them, and then we made money. Some of my boys, with that money went and bought Jordan's. They went and bought stuff, but then at the end of the day they had no more capital to do anything else.

I took my money and bought more fake coogie sweaters, sold them, and kept making more and more money until I didn't want to do it anymore. But that was my first time realizing, like, you know, if you take the proceeds from what you make and invested back in your buss business, you'll keep making money. The problem is, and I learned this at that time. I was like, well, if I keep taking money and buying stuff and then

taking money and buying more. I always have products. I also realized that the solvency of my business was in my product, it wasn't in the cash right, So and it's like, at what point did you stop? And it was like finally, once I had bought like fifteen coozie sweaters and I sold them all for sixty dollars, it was like, Okay, this is my money. Now I'll go

do it. I want to do with it. But once you get done with the business and you sell the business, now you have no more capital because the solvency was in your business. So as we got older, I kind of used the same exact principle. And the reason why I want to talk about it today is because it's so simple simple. I want people who work are not

in the five to understand how this works. When I was working at Paris Speed School, the owner of the Paris Speed School at that time used to use psychological tactics to not make me want to own my own business, saying things like, oh, you could never own your own gym, it costs too much money. Oh, would you rather just collect your check every two weeks and you know the money is coming in, or he'll give you a slight raise to make sure that you feel comfortable enough that

you never ever leave. And that was his way of keeping all of his best talent within the corporation because he knew I had aspirations of acting, and he knew I had aspirations of owning my own business. Anytime I talked about acting, he was like, oh, you know people who start acting when they're young, Like, you're not gonna do that now you're in your twenties. So I noticed how psychologically he used to fun with me to make

me feel like I couldn't believe in myself. So that would constantly work for him to make his own make his company better, right, which made me realize that if they if he's willing to do this at a Paris speed school, they probably do this all over the world. And all of these fortune five hundred companies, Oh yeah, that corporate structure, you know that they send your praises.

They make you feel valuable so that you continuously put energy into building their business, while also making you feel small so that you feel scared to leave, like, oh, if I do this, I'll never have the ability to do it on my own. He did that they couldn't do it on their own facts. This man told me, I'm not gonna say his name, that people will coming

to the gym for the gym name, not my name. Mean, while he had a fifty foot poster of me playing in the NFL when you first walk into the gym, and he was like, I was like, Bro, you really honestly think that I don't know the value I bring to this company. Fine, after my two year non compete was done with this company, I left started lead Prototype Athletics. But what did you do while you were there? Soaked up every I did every bit of information, you know what,

you know what, I'm glad you brought that up. I'm glad you brought that up. You know why. I'm glad you brought that up. People often start businesses without doing what research. You got to get into the thick of things, into the thick of it. Yeah, you got to get into the thick of it. And I'll say to me, working at MAC the time that I did was technically

a short time frame. Within a year and a half, I had went I'm a part time artist to and for me, I think the comfort that I did feel in venturing off on my own was because I kind of knew how. I not know how to business, how that business, how to business ramp yep, front end, back end, you know, the corporate side, the paperwork, the rev calendar, the you know, profits and losses, all that. No, no,

no, no no, don't don't glimp. Don't glaze over that. Talk about the business acumen that you were able to pick up working under a corporate structure, because people who work under corporate structures feel like it's a dead end job, right, You're actually it's actually a paid intern. That's a fact. You're a paid intern if you want to start your own business in that industry. So while you're there, get as much information as you can. And when I tell you,

Condin knew everything. Conde knew the p and ls. She learned how to write contracts are from makeups. You learned every learned how to use the computer system for for the profits and losses, but also how to do the back end office of the business and quiet as it's kept. When I first got there, I was not renown makeup artists. I got by on makeup okay the former pageant girl and me was like, oh I could get by with doing my makeup and then did a couple of friends makeup.

You know. So I didn't have any high training, But what I did do when I got there, well, thank you. Yeah, I didn't have an apport, I had a gift for it um, but I was able to hone in on my skills there too, So it literally was like hands on training. We had training update classes where I can learn more about the industry, more about the trends, more about products. Remember you remember the Impact team, the Impact exactly, So I was on the Impact team, So I got

to do special events, I got to whole classes. I got to teach, which helps on your resume when you have your own business as to why you become an authority on makeup and why you can charge more money because you did those things. So talk about that. No, for sure, exactly everything that I did was which I didn't even realize at the time, was it was literally like an investment in myself. Right, So I was the piggy bank because every time I went to a class,

every time yep, that's a fact. Every time they pulled me to do a special event, a fashion week event, whatever it was, I didn't realize how much I was soaking up until you presented me with the you know, hankeneing. At this point, we're good. I got health insurance through SAG. Now you can finally cut back. And I was like, oh, I know how to do this on my own. But what it freed up for me the most was my time.

Talk about it, talk about it. My time. Autonomy over my time, I think is the biggest thing that I want in any career fields. Well, do you know what the two most important commodities are in building a business? Time in capital. There you go, so you say you don't know what you do know it's time in capital. You're freeing up your time by kip, by flitting your job. And also the money that you saved gave you time in capital to build your own. And when I thought

about it, we'd have people coming. They'd have to buy fifty dollars worth of makeup and they get their faith done for free. Right. Some people called onto it after a while and they come in, they get their little fifty dollars and then they go somewhere else and return to fifty dollars products because they're like, oh, now I got my face done for me. And I used to be like, damn, that's that's quite the hustle on their part.

But also too, it almost feels like you wasted your time, right because all I'm doing is clocking in and getting this hourly rate. But if I developed this rapport with my clients and I'm just like, well, shoot, you have an event. People want convenience. Can you come to my house and do my makeup? People are willing to pay for the convenience of us. Talk about it. I'm keep going. So yeah, so people are willing to pay for convenience. And if they tell you otherwise, cap that straight. Cap.

So I realized, Shoot, if I now dropped to a freelance artist, right, because at this point, I still wanted to kind of have my thumb in the industry. I want to have the faults on the industry right to see how things were still going. To Have access to the clients, have access to the store, access to product, access to my discount. Those are all the things I

wanted to keep that relationship going. So if I work a couple hours freelance a week in the store, but then no on the weekends Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I have bride's booked weddings, and I'm charging one fifty year phase. And I got a team of girls on a bridal party, six of them plus a bride, two moms you know, Auntie, whenever they're feeling funky. I was able to walk away with so much more than I would in a month working on salary at MAC. So I used to manage

all of the tax stuff. You were making fifty eight as an artist. As a freelance artist, the most you made working a third of the time one year was one hundred and forty eight K, So you almost tripled what you were making. Now if we consider the fact, and here's the truth, this is another part of business. When Codein started her company, Keneen also had an LLC. So think about this. She made fifty eight K working for MAC. She had to pay tax on that fifty

eight K. Probably walked away with about forty thousand. You made one hundred and forty eight K, and that was before taxes. But what we did within one hundred and forty AK when kadem made the money all of those classes, she took, all of those trips that she made, all of the classes. You also, for example, shout out to Alex Yes Alex Alex Butler, who Kadein used to drive to go take her class so she could learn more

about makeup. She had a class in New York and it was sold out, yes, And at the time I really admired her as an artist, and I'm just like, Wow, she has this great structure where she does these classes, and I want to learn how I could potentially put on a class and be learned some tips and tricks from her. So I drove to her Philly class to be able to just say I want to be a part of this. I want to sit and absorb as much as possible. But then that's also a business expense

that we can write off. I can write off the tolls, the gas, the class itself as a reinvestment in my business. And you know what else was a write off? What we bought that car, Yes, because we bought an additional cause that Kadein can get around, but we bought that under her business name, which was also a tax write off.

So that one hundred and forty eight K she made once we factored in all the write offs, was down to one hundred KSE so she only paid taxes on the hundred thousand dollars as opposed to one hundred and forty eight k so. And the reason why we're giving you the story of how Codein was able to do it was because people often think the only way you can make money and get rich or build some sort of equity in yourself and your business is if you

come from entertainment or an athlete. And this is not true. When we talk about investing right, A lot of times people say, well, what do you invest in? What are the companies you invest in? And the thing I tell them the most is I invest in my own company, which is me right when Codein and I And also this is to all my couples, this is the value

of having a partner. Codein was able to make all of these changes in her lifestyle and take all of these risks because I was able to get health insurance or that she could drop back when I was building my company, my sports company, which I literally did the same exact thing Kadeen did, but on the sports side and gym side, I was able to take those risks and invest in my company because CoDeeN had the health insurance.

The point I'm making here is when you have a partner, there are times an entrepreneurship that you're gonna have to take more of a gamble, and you feel more You feel more comfortable to taking that gamble when you have someone with you who can hold stuff down just in case the gamble doesn't pay out immediately. Because like I said, there's two things you need. You need capital and you need time. You need time for your company to build.

While I was building my company, Kadeen was working at hourly wage and she was working in building and building, but she had the insurance. I literally did the same thing she did for makeup. On the gym side, I worked for a company. I had to learn about corporate structure within building a gym. I learned at the Parici Speed School. Although the owner was an a hole in trying to keep me as his employee didn't want to help me build as an entrepreneur, I still did learn

a lot about business through the that company. And I'll never talk bad about Paris Speed School because if it wasn't for what I learned the Paris Speed School, I wouldn't been able to build a lead prototype athletics and end up owning my own gym six years later. But I literally did the same thing I made my money. I learned it was a paid internship to me. The money I had left over from football I invested in myself.

I bought laptops, I bought T shirts I bought I went and paid for my National Academy of Sports Medicine so that I could be a certified trainer. I took classes on exercise physiology and kinesiology and oh well, no, Paris paid for my nasal, which to me was part of the reason why I didn't mind working at Paris. And I'm gonna say this again. Sometimes you take jobs at these corporate companies, right, and what they'll pay for

is your education. So if you have a job and they're willing to pay for you to get your masters, sometimes it's better to take advantage of that because those masters will courting anywhere between sixty to a DK and if they're gonna pay for it while teaching you how to build the business, utilize that two or three years to become better at that business and then find a niche or a need within that business that you can create an own your own business around. That's what Kadeen

did with makeup. That's what I did at the gym and then every time we make money. Well, once you establish your own business, you create an LLC, and every time you make money, you put money within your LLC, but also within your escort. Now, this is important for people to understand. Your LLC is just a shell that protects you against liability, which means Kadeen has color and Contour by K. Say, for example, she does somebody's makeup and there's an earthquake as she posts a woman in

the eye. She can't Suekdein for poking her in the eye, but she can sue coloring Contour by K and she can sue the company which will protect protect codein and all of her personal assets. That's what an LLC is. An LLC doesn't change your tax status. The ESCORP changes your tax status. And as you operate as a small business, which means when you're an escorp, you get different tax breaks.

Why is that important? When Kadeem makes money as a sole proprietor which is an individual, and if she makes over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in New York City, you are now in the highest tax bracket, which means you're going to get taxed close to fifty percent. When your company makes one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and you're a scorp, your company only gets taxed thirty three percent. Look at that, You see the difference. Plus you get

to keep all of that money. First, write off whatever it is you want to write off on your business. So if you make one hundred and fifty k, if you have fifty thousand in expenses, you write off that fifty thousand. Now the government can only tax you on one hundred thousand, so they'll take only thirty three k as opposed to you, meaning a sole proprietor, and you make one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and they're going to take close to fifty percent, which means they'll take

seventy five thousand dollars. Not letting them do it. Not letting them do it. I'm gonna tell you how we repeated that the same thing in a gym. We started an LLC in a gym and an s corp. And we made money as a company as opposed to trying to make money as an individual. So when people paid me for personal training, they didn't pay devout. They paid Elite Prototype Athletics the same way. People paid Color and Contour by k the same way. Now I'm an actor.

They don't pay Devolis as an actor. They pay my shell company, which is ultimately my production company, Savage Savant. So when they paid Savage Savant, I don't have to pay fifty percent on them taxes. It's called a loan out company. Or you actors who are listening, or you entertainers, there's a such thing called a loan out company. You are allowed to get your loan out company paid as

opposed to being paid as an individual. If your loan out company is then an scorp, you pay thirty three percent on taxes as opposed to fifty percent on taxes. If you make over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, write that down. That is a fact. Now different states have different rules, like, for example, in Georgia, you still have to play a six percent like processing tax for Georgia. Oh Man, and don't work in California. California's taxes is ridiculous.

California is still coming for us. I'm like, we ain't been there in a long time. That's another We barely even worked in California because it was the freaking pandemic. I'm like, why y'all right in me? Every two point five seconds, y'all get it together over there. Literally, California is one of the worst places to work. And when you played in the league too, Remember every state you played in, you had to have to pay taxes in every state. Every state you make money and you have

to pay taxes. The two are the best states to live in our Texas and Florida because neither one have state taxes, So that's another layer of money that you don't have to shell out to people. So that's why a lot of people choose where they're going to live based on where the taxes are, especially if you're an entrepreneur and you live and you you provide a service that's electronic and you can live wherever you want. Two of the best places to live are Florida in Texas.

But the whole point of this is to show you, guys that you do not have to be an entertainment or be an athlete to have a dream and to find yourself in a position where you can live autonomously and enjoy your life. But it does take time and it does take money to sacrifice. This is the first thing I'll say to someone because I know they said, well, how do I start devout? If you're in an industry that you love, say you're a teacher. Same thing I

did with Roger. If you follow Roger's journey a teacher man on social media, Roger went from being a teacher and now runs his own tutoring and teacher mentorship business. And Roger I think quadrupled his earnings over the last

four years. It was impressive. He literally did the same thing he worked as a teacher, got all the certifications, took all his classes, realize where the deficiencies were in the educational system, and then started mentoring and tutoring kids at a premium because he was educated enough to do it, built that whole program, multiplied himself by teaching other teachers how to do the same thing, and now has moved on retired from teaching and has her own successful business

making six figures, which means it can be done in any industry. It doesn't only have to be makeup. It doesn't only have to be in sports or sports performance. You can be done in any industry. The biggest thing

is creating a niche market for it. Yes, trying to see where the demand is or where you can be successful in that, because certain industries are kind of flooded, so you might feel like them, like, how am I going to make a splash in this industry because it's already oversaturated, Whereas I think with Roger, for example, you don't really needn't hear about many teachers doing this. But also too, I don't know people who are willing to put in the hours that he put in. This kid's kid.

I know him as a kid. Sorry, Roger, you're not a kid anymore, your girl man, but I've known since he was literally a kid and see him work the hours he works. Rogers now living in Georgia. He comes here twice a month to see the boys in person because they love to have him over in person to do sessions, and he'll ask to come earlier so he can start his sessions here. He'll tutor our children, yeah, and then stay back to finish the rest of his team.

Sometimes we're like, it's eleven o'clock, I'm still here. He's like doing later clients from ten to eleven PM on a Friday. He works a lot of hours, so that's the sacrifice component at the time. Time investment. But also, and this is a point you talked about it, do you know what you have to be to be an entrepreneur. You have to be an elite in your field for sure. You can't just be an entrepreneur by being regular. Right, So, for example, lots to codeindein you should go to be

she has be a part of Impact Team. Like what does that mean? Like, I don't make any more money being a part of the Impact Team. No, you don't make any more money and you have to pay for the classes to start and traveling to be a part of the Impact Team. But when you decide to become your own boss, having that on your belt that you're a member of the Impact Team puts a notch on your belt that makes you greater than just any other artists.

And that it did, That's exactly what it was. It was like, oh wow, like you have all of these accolades under the title of just not just a manager, because I mean that's also a big responsibility in itself, but it makes you multifascinating your industry. Yes, you were part of the Impact Team, you're also a manager, but you also were number one in sales. Yeah, it's a

big part portion of it too. For me, it's working in the industry and being elite in the industry so that once you branch off, people can recognize and said, oh, there's a reason why she's branching on, and people want to know that you're an expert in that actual field too. You can't just walk cry here just doing anything. Like I feel like after the pandemic, everybody became a coach or something, right like, did you realize, Yeah, I'm like, man,

everybody wants to coach a class. And I get it because the hustle and people wanted to work and I had to pivot. Yeah, that's it. People had to make plans. So I respect that for sure. But it's like, at the same time, what makes you an expert in this particular field? Yes, this industry? You know, what have you done or what accolades have you achieved, or what certifications have you gotten under your belt that makes you worthy

of people investing their money now into you. That's a big question, absolutely, and I think people need to understand that in order to be an entrepreneur, people have to aspire or have to be inspired by what you've done in order to trust that they should give you their money to do or provide a service for them. Right. My biggest cell when I owned my gym was that I understand fitness, speed and agility because I played in the NFL. I ran afoord to eight in the forty

you know, I made the football team. I practiced this art and I've done it and had been successful at it, so you can trust and value my word. So many people try to put the car in front of the horse and just be like, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to do this, and it's like, Okay, what do you have to offer me that I should pay you for your service? And that's the time investment that people need. And I know a lot of the younger generation just want to graduate from college and own

their own business. I would say, work, and I told Roger this. I said, Roger, give yourself a five year plan in this industry. Work as a teacher for five years so that you have it on your resume that you were a teacher, learned the deficiencies that kids need, so you can build a business around that need so that you can then sell them. I'm an expert at this because and this is where this is how it started. He realized that math was an issue for young men

and young women in middle school. So he said, I'm going to build out a math program for elementary school that's going to provide them what they need for middle school. And they were like, where are the results. Roger had because he was working for five years the results from all of the kids in middle school who were failing those standardized tests. So what he did during those five years would show people this is what's happening. I can

fix this problem. I'm e lead at fixing this problem because I worked for five years fixing this problem from my school. These were the grades when I first got here. These are the grades here now. But it took a five year investment. Reason why I keep saying investments because people say the value when you talk about you invested, what did you invest in? Did you invest in Nike?

Did you invest in Disney? No? I invested time and resources into myself to make myself a better entrepreneur, to be honest, in order to actually make the type of money you want to make in investments like that, you would have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you want to make money in the stock market and do it and have longevity and be able to reap the fruits of your benefits. You have to have the

capital to invest. This is no knock on anybody. But if you're working in a job and making fifty or sixty k a year, right, that means you make what five thousand dollars a month, that's before taxes. After taxes, you're looking at about three thousand dollars a month. You still have to pay. Right, if you live in New York, you still got to pay rent, transportation and each You may have five hundred dollars at the end of the month invest and you haven't party yet. Why you talked

about the bard sesters. You have five hundred dollars, You want to be stressed out, You want to go buy some some clothes. They'll travel a little bit. Most people don't have the type of money they need to invest to see that money, reap the fruits of those benefits and be able to retire early. So no, don't worry about investing in the stock market. Now investing yourself that you can make additional revenue doing something else. Kadine, if she was by herself, this is what I would have

told her to do. Listen, stay a full time artist, right, but on the weekends. Sacrifice for the next year, sacrifice going on any trips and going on any parties. Stay a full time artist, and then do weddings on the weekends, and then you can triple your money. Do that for five years. Right. If you do that for five years and you say you save twenty five k every year, that's one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars cash you have now without one hundred twenty five thousand dollars capital.

Now you could then invest in the property and that property could now do what give you residual income? Make some money? Yeah, and then once you get that one property, you put the money down, you hold on to that property for five years. Now you take the equity out of that property. You do it again, and you do it again, and before you know it, now you have a multiple, well a conglomerate of property to help bring you residual income. Plus you have tax write offs from

those properties. Plus you have your job. But now I got these properties, I don't have to work full time anymore. So you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna quit this job. I'm gonna be a full time freelance makeup artist, and I'm gonna triple what I make because now I don't have to be stuck at the full time job and I have the properties. Now. It took you ten years to get there, But guess what, ladies and gentlemen, it took ten years for Cadeen and not to get here.

That's a whole fa It's funny because think about it. When I hear you say this stuff, and it just like literally just rolls off your tongue, like, oh, you could do this, is that the third and carry this and carry the one and the bad by two. I'll be like, oh right, it sounds amazing. But I feel like a lot of people, me included, even in that moment, just could not see that. And it's like, I don't

know what it is that with you. Even when we met early on eighteen and nineteen year old, You're like, Yo, if I get some money from the NFL, I could put down in the house, sprint out the two apartments of stairs lived. And I'm just like, damn, you just have to actually do it. You have to actually do it, but you have to have the foresight to understand it. It's not going to get done overnight. Every time I made a plan. Even when I make a plan for us now it's like, give me five years, give me

ten years, right, because this right here. It's often said that more than half of new businesses failed during the first year, but this isn't necessarily true. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately twenty percent of new businesses failed during the first two years of being opened, forty five percent during the first five years, and sixty five percent during the first during the first ten years. You see that, you see how many businesses fail. Most

of these business fail. You want to know why because people quit quite because people quit because their plan was never a ten year plan. Their plan was always I gotta do this in ten minutes, right and when that doesn't happen in those full ten minutes, she also to requiring you not to jump out the window and be like,

I'm going to start this right now. You have to have a plan, like there needs to be a plan in place, especially when we get a lot of people who write into us about, you know, having a partner who may want to start a new business, or a partner who's not happy with their job, and it's like, how do you support the person through the process, because

it's now it's now becomes a wee thing. Right, you want to take on a business that's not just a stress on you, that's a stress on both of us because we're trying to figure out how to financially stay afloat to also support this person through their business and their vision. Although sometimes you may not see it, you know it's sometimes it's almost going off of a blind

faith situation and hoping for the best. Right, So it's learning when to lean in, when to kind of let go sit back, I let your partner do their thing. Having a plan is so necessary, particularly for partners who are doing these things together. But having a plan and speaking that plan truthfully. For example, I never told you, baby, I'm gonna have us back in the year next year. I always told you give me time. And if y'all ever go back and listen to the podcast, I said,

give me time. And only promise I can make you is that every year is going to be better than the last. That's the only promise I made because I knew it was going to take time. But when you have that level of patience, right, you're able to fight through those hard times because every business week came up with the three that I gave examples are successful. But there were moments during those during those ten years where

it wasn't as successful. For example, I had to learn the hard way that there are peaks and valleys in the fitness industry. So September, when the kids go back to school, we used to get a big jump, a big jump of people who are wanting to get into business because we're get into fitness because the summertime was over, kids were back in school, parents wanted to get their lives back. The wintertime came right before the holidays. It was a valley. Nobody wants to train. From Thanksgiving all

the way through December and New Year's January. First peak, everybody's in the gym. They're going in the gym for like three months. Then it gets nice outside in New York May, June, July, August, it is the darkest of

the darkest valleys. And the first two years when I owned my own gym, I used to have to take all of my resources of the money I saved and putting into paying the rent for those months because I hadn't I didn't realize that that moment yet like dang, like this, we're not getting no money, ye, And it's a good thing you planned for that, yes, because imagine if you were like, yo, we could ball out because we just all this money in the number peak season

and then the valley comes and you're just like, well, this is why we got two nickels erupted. This is why you're a good wife, because you also got me back on on plan with even this conversation. When you start making money in your business, don't spend all the money you're making your business. You always have to have a reserve, and you always have to have a reserve for those valleys. Every time I made money in the business, the first thing I did was put money aside for

our rent. And I used to say, Yo, this is going to cover three months of our rent just in case there is a bad spot. I know, I at least got three months covered that I can figure it back out. Once we got our own gym, I was like, shoot, I got to have three months for our rented home and three months for our rent at the gym. So even though we were making more money, we were even more broke because I had to play He's just like, we have to pay our rent and the rent at

the gym. And I was like, they couldn't put that on pause because in the meantime I was then I became the one with the business. I was like, so what about if we did this, what if we ain't somebody trying to buy? Do you remember, No, do you remember the idea you came up with married to the gym? Oh? Yes, you're right, because the time we had the downtimes was when the moms of the athletes I wanted to train wanted to train. So it was like, not only do

you prepare for the downtime, but you pivot. Let's create another business within this business we're training athletes, Let's train the moms during the time when we don't have the athletes. And then that business sustained us through those valleys. And I'm glad you brought that up, because sometimes it's good to lean on your partner when you're when you're so head down and you're into the business, you only see what you see. Sometimes your partners see something and you like, no,

I got it, I got it. I've been doing this. But no, they have a different perspective and they can see things from a different angle. And when Kay was just like, and you start and she said it as a joke. We were doing married to the gym, and Kay, you need to start training these moms. These moms sitting out here watching me and stuff like that, and it

was like that's a fact light moment. And it developed such a beautiful camaraderie like to this day, a lot of those moms from that group will message and be like, nothing's been the same since you guys left, because we had such a great group of women. Yeah, really just like invested in each other and taking their time to

come out together. It was like a session. And then what it did was kind of cross promote my makeup business because you see that you have no idea how many women were like you should not do makeup class because you make up looks good and you were for mac right. Yeah, so I'm like, oh, y'all want to make up class? Say less, Oh we got an empty gym, let's put in some lights and tastes makeup, and I'm

gonna give y'all a makeup class. Okay. So we started infusing each other's businesses together and making even more money because once people started feeling better about themselves physically. They wanted to look better, so all that the women were getting their makeup done, they want to do makeup classes. They wanted to just feel better about themselves. And it just it showed Cadine and I that if you put your mind towards something together, you can be successful and

continue to grow, especially if you're not stepping on each other. Right, No one business was more important than the other business. It was how can these businesses help create more opportunities? But like you said, though, there was a point where Codine and I were making and this is y'all gonna laugh, because we were living in this apartment. If I told

you how much money we're making this department. When we did our taxes, there was one year we had made about three hundred and seventy K, which everybody was just like, yo, yeah, y'all bawling, y'all making this amount of money. And we were broke because, like I said early on, one thing it does to make money is it costs money to make money. You could make that much money, but I had hired employees, I had rent to pay for the gym,

we had bought more products. We continue to invest in both businesses so the businesses could make more money, but we didn't have excess money because we were always planning for when something bad was going to happened. Because after getting cut in the NFL and having to move back to book, we was like, we're not going back here. So we weren't poor in the apartment, but we were broke because we weren't like we were constantly investing back

into the business. And I solely, I honestly believe that if we didn't decide to do business, do TV and do social media, we would have been thriving in the fitness and makeup industry because we were growing, like we were going NonStop. If that's where the heart was, yeah, sure, then you know, I feel like that was just a transitionary period for us. Yeah, neither one of us super super invested in it, but it was using a trade or using a yeah a skill that we had skill

or a trade. Talk about it, you know, because sometimes you think about the people who are just not for schools and not for college, just not that's not their path. And I know quite a few people actually who didn't go to college. And for example, my cousin, he's a firefighter and didn't go to college because he just knew that it wasn't going to be for him, and freaking went to the academy for the fire department. And it's thriving, I mean, working crazy over time, and I'm just born

a property and second property. I mean, so sometimes you just have to know where. You know yourself better than anybody else, so you know where you'd be able to delay those bricks in that foundation. Um so yeah, good stuff. And Ellis we dat me up, bro, We know when I think back to them days, so many stories, so many stories, so many moments. Let's let's just to bring you out back to where where we were in two thousand and nine when we moved back to the apartment. Officially,

I had zero income. I didn't have that. We had a fifteen thousand dollars credit card bill, which there was another story because the Codean ran that up when I was in the league Codean was making no money because I just retired and I was in two thousand and nine. Two thousand and ten was when you started working at MAC full time in New York. In New York, so you were making between you said about fifteen sixty fifty to sixty K. In twenty ten, I was making ten

dollars an hour working at Parisi's p School. My expenses were still more than what I made. Had to pay rent. I had to pay two uh mortgages Tennessee and Detroit three car notes, so I was pretty much hemorrhaging our savings account at that point. And that wasn't two thousand and ten. That was probably the most hurtful part for me, because we're just money's bleeding in places that we're not even existing in. I get my servants from the NFL

that holds us over in two thousan eleven. UM twenty eleven, Jackson is born, You're working full time. I'm working at MSG Varsity. At this point, I was probably making around between MSG Varsity and working at Parisi's Speed School. I was probably making around fifty sixty so collectively we were about a hundred K. And that was in two thousand

and eleven. Two thousand and twelve was the Times picture when people got introduced to us the Viral family from the Tims picture we had on the white shows with the blue jeans was twenty and twelve. He was so little there. We were collectively making a hundred K. Two thousand and twelve, thirteen is when I started doing commercials. I was working at MSG Varsity. I was a substitute. You had dropped back and started doing freelance, and our income had jumped to about two fifty and that was

in two thousand and thirteen. By the time Cairo had got here, we were comfortable in the apartment. We're making about over three hundred K collectively in the apartment, abot three hundred about twenty and sixteen. Yeah, we had Jackson, we had Cairo. I vowed to not have any more kids in that apartment. I said, is it If we have any more kids, it's going to have to be in our own home somewhere. We don't know where it's

gonna be, but it's gonna be somewhere. And we said we wasn't having no more kids in a cascad literally like right. And as I was saying it, by the time Cairo and Catz came, Kadeen wasn't doing um makeup as much anymore because social media started to pop for us. And I was like, Yo, you don't got to do makeup. Take care of the kids. May take care of yourself,

be at home till take care of me. Yes. At that time we were making That's when we first started with the Noora Twe was a couple of months old. Twenty eighteen was when I met de Nora. We made about four hundred, okay, because of the commercials and everything. Two thousand nineteen was when I made my first million dollars. So think about that. Two thousand and nine, we retired, came back, moved back to Brooklyn Broke. In ten years, I made my first million dollars at Die Booked Sisters.

We were doing social media. That was the first year, two thousand and nineteen, I made my first million dollars and then it's been up ever since with the up comes. For example, twenty twenty three, here we are in real life, present time, just had a book tour and our podcast tour and we were like how much feeling broke again literally feeling broke, No serious feeling broke, because when you have a company, many expenses. I'm like cringing every time.

When you have a company, you you become like an economy, yes, and you're responsible for a tam of people's livelihoods. And one thing I do, I never want to be in a position where I got to tell my employees I can't pay you, right, So when I make a large sum of money, the first place that money goes is to my children's well being. First. We have a wealth home wealth management team that's all set up. But then it's the solvency team for the company. When you spit

money aside for like the gym rent and the house rent. Yeah, now it's putting money aside for the folks that work. Yes, this is for employee salaries. It's got to be coming for the years they got to get paid for. And that's the biggest thing when an entrepreneur, your employees always have to get paid first. So we put all that money aside first, and then Codeine and I now have we right ourselves a salary for the year, and those salaries for the year pay out whatever we make it work.

I spoke to our financial in at the top of the year. I spoke to our financial because we've debound night we have a collective meeting with him, and then we have individual meetings and stuff, so we're planning out budgets and whatnot. So since I normally purchased everything for the household. I know about the house builds, all that stuff. He's like, all right, kay, So do you need more money in your you know, monthly salary? Do you need

you know, weekly salary? Do you need more? I was like, no, don't give me no more money because I've been doing a great job of saving money. I've been doing a good job. I have no complaints. Yeah, because I've learned the hard way over the past twenty years. I said, I was not the financially savvy one, and I've made a lot of mistakes, and I've put this meet through a lot of stress when it came to finances because it was almost like you had to teach me how

to learn together. We learned together. And that's also too, I think a real life thing that a lot of couples deal with. It's it doesn't matter who's the breadwinner quote unquote, or it's just how finances are managed. You'll be a big stress factor. So Sean said to me, you know, do you need any more? I said, Sean, don't give me the warning. Okay, put that money into the savings, put the money into my children, do what

you gotta do with it, but don't give it to me. Yeah, you know, um, I just don't want to see it to know that it's there. I'd rather it's one of those things where you don't you take your savings out, but at the time before your paycheck comes to your account, let me know what I have to play with. That's all I want to know. And the good thing is we've been through all of those tough times. So if we lost money and be like, hey, we've been here before, no, I feel you. I feel that may be one of

my my like big deepest fears. It's to follow myself back to where we were because we worked so hard to We worked a decade to get to get back to where we are. And I just want to be clear to you. When you watch somebody and you like when they make so much money, please consider the amount of expenses they have to make that money. Make money, right, That's why I said, Kadina, and not make way more

money now than we made before. But we still feel broken times because we are constantly investing in ourselves and in our company to make sure that we can always make money. Right. Your assets are not only defined by how much money you have in your cash account. Your assets are also defined no now your assets. Your value is also defined by the asset you have, whether it's property and the solvency in your business. So there you go. Let's take a break and pay some bills now we

talk about money, listen. I hope that helps too. And we're also going to have a financial advisor on our financial advisor on in a later episode, just to go over some more details, more detailed stuff, because I mean, finance is so so many different routes that we can take to talk about it, but at least we want them to let y'all know how we over here trying to make things and how we building, how we continuously building. We're not gonna stop building. We comfortable, but we're not.

We're not settled in now for sure. All Right, y'all, we'll be back. All right, we're back in this time for our listener litteral portion. Let's see what y'all got to talk about today. All right, do you want to go first, pay or shy? I'll go first. Okay. I'm thirty and this is my first serious, healthy relationship. Six months before getting with my new boyfriend, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship. Before that, I was always single.

But wanting a relationship. I never got the commitment I wanted from the guys I dated, so I spent most of my twenties juggling multiple men. Some I would date and some would be friends with benefits. On top of that, the guys I did date tended to be emotionally unavailable or didn't treat me the best, which is why when I met my boyfriend, I took that as an opportunity to try to date someone different who could actually be

good for me. But my boyfriend is about a year younger than me and it's never been in a serious relation before. He grew up as a devout Catholic and is a bit of a mama's boy. But he's a gentleman, loving kind, he lays down the pipe. It's a man of God that always matters, don't it. But because he wasn't what I was used to being with, meaning some of his immature ways or him running to his mom, it drove me to It drove me to get validation

from other men. About a month ago, he found text messages on my phone where I was texting other guys. It broke his heart and I felt devastated. I truly love him and never wanted to hurt him. However, in a weird way, I feel like it's help strengthen our relationship because we've talked in great detail why I did what I did and now and how I can grow

individually to be better in this relationship. I do also believe that since I was the one who did wrong, I have to answer my questions or concerns he may have regarding what he filed in my phone or the things surrounding our previous relationship, our previous issues. But I'm tired of the questions. I'm trying to show him how I'm proving, how I'm improving, and how I won't do what I did before again. But instead of watching, he asked a millions questions and can be relentless. I get it.

Sometimes it's a turn off. I get that too. It's never been with a man who I've never been with a man who asked so many questions and doesn't know how to just sit back and watch before asking you. See how you see how this happens? See how what happens. Women ask for vulnerability, They ask you to be honest, But then when you start asking questions and start acting like a woman, They say, won't you be a man and shut up and just watch you ask them too

many questions. I do believe he's the one for me because of how we work together and love one another. But I'm ready to get on the other side of this hump. I know you all discussed your indiscretions early in your marriage. How long did it take to get on the other side of truly trusting and having faith in the relationship again? Sometimes I feel like we need a break in order to get over our hump. Sometimes

it breaks necessary. We had to have those moments too, You and I where just like, shoot, we don't even know if we want to be here right now in this moment, And sometimes, like you said, the break is necessary. How long have they been together? It doesn't say how long they've been together. It's a six months before getting with my new boyfriend boyfriend. It doesn't say how long they've been together. That I mean, you can't do something wrong to somebody and then put a time frame on

when they should get over it. There you go. Do you know what I'm saying? That's like to be fair, Um, you may be over it or you may be wanting to get over it. Because you were the one in the position of a transgression. I would say, right, um, so you feel like the constant reminder is making it that much worse. And then part two, it is because you have to own up to the responsibility of what you did. But nobody also too wants to relive hell

every day. I was going to say too once he makes a decision that he's going to get over it, right, and he has to work towards that, Like, you can't just keep rehashing stuff because and a lot of times I don't know what the world is. People like to be in that that space of you did me wrong because they feel empowering, like they can hold it up, own me. You know what I'm saying, You own me. No, remember you did this. He has to let that go.

If he chooses to be with to her, he has to also find time to give her grace, right, you know what I'm saying, and move on. If you're gonna keep holding on and making her relive it over and over again, that's a form of manipulation. Decide that you're going to move on and actively work to move on, right. But but also her saying she's used to guys and this. Remember we talked about this and other listener letter. I'm

not used to this type of guy. This guy is nice, he's sweet, he's careful, you know, but he also likes to ask questions and talk. I'm used to guys. So now you're gonna say you're used to the same toxic guys that you're running fright, But now you're you're saying he doesn't measure up to those guys. So you ran back to one of those guys because this guy was so nice and sweet, but he's a mama's boy. It's like, if you keep chasing after fun boys, you're gonna keep

getting fun boys. And then when you get a guy who's nice and you compare them to the fuck boys and you tell him he doesn't match up to the fun boys, you're gonna end up turning him into a fun boy and he's gonna do something fucked up to you. Right. So, and then you're like, I don't understand why keep attracting these boys? Right? But I think that she still you know, she just turned thirty. She's still relatively young, right, you should be a lot more mature at thirty and understand

what you don't like. But you still have time to grow, right. Um. The fact that she was honest with him and told him the truth and the fact that she's still working towards it is important for sure. You know. They just have to find the strength to say, you know what, I'm choosing to let this go and I'm moving on all right now. Hope that helps us. Good luck to you. And here's our second list of letters. So here's my story.

Me and this guy have been on and off for eight years, but within those eight years he got two kids and got married and still wants to be with me. What they don't we re read that me and this guy have been on and off for eight years, but within those eight years he got two kids. Ain't got mad? She could have said, was to make this clear? Was hair's my story. I'm a side chick. Next, it's giving sighty vibes. I'm also relationship that has been long distance

for six years. Okay, so what are y'all doing? Yeah, what's happening? It's giving entanglement. Every time I tried to leave him alone, I just end up back in his arms because of so much time invested in those eight years. He spends more time with me than with his family, and I always ask him what are we doing? She's delirious. We want to know what you're doing. He never gives me a straight answer because you were, And I feel

like I'm stuck and don't know how to leave him. Girl. Wow, somebody gonna tell him he is not leaving his wife due to the fact that he doesn't want to jeopardize his relationship with his kids. And I would like to have kids and have my own family, but I don't think it's going to happen, not with him. What should I do? Girl? You just answered all your questions right there.

This is crazy, bro, Girl, this is crazy right, and I want girl, I know people on the outside right cold, Come on, now, come on, Henny, we know what time it is. She know what time it is too. She's just in denial. But there are two wrong parties here right. Clearly she wrong because she's still having sexual intercourse to this man and he's married. She got a whole relationship, so she's she's wrong for that, But he's wrong because

he's not telling her the truth. Yo, dude, just be like, listen, listen, mam, listen, mam. You are not my main joint, right I have a wife and kids. We are never ever, ever gonna be married. Now. The only reason why she feels like this, you know, honestly, is because he's selling to her the idea that at some point they're going to be together forever. That's not going to ever happen. That man is never leaving his kids,

he is not leaving his wife. I don't know what him and his wife's situation is, because we know through other friends that there have been situations where husbands and wives have not been on good terms. And maybe, like you do you, I'm gonna do, they have an arrangement. So we don't know what his family arrangement is. And I'm not going to judge him because I don't know him, but I do know that what he's doing to her and not letting her know the truth is fucked up.

He got to tell her, like, listen, we have a good time, we have fun. I'm never leaving my wife. I'm never leaving my kids. That's a fact. Stop telling this woman you love her. I mean, he may love her, he may love you know, but he got to stop selling to her the fact that they might be together.

That's the messed up part. Girl, you're putting off having kids and having your own family, your relationship because why like he's doing exactly what it is you would like to do eventually in life, and it's prohibiting you from that, and they might really have feelings for each other. It to you, girl, Yeah, you sick and ain't that's messed up, bro, Because she wrote she wrote in here like she was like she like she in love with this man. She

loved with this man. And what y'all have is probably that fun like oh rendezvous like yours, escape from whatever home situation he got going on. And you know, you know what, feel bad for her long distance boyfriend. I feel bad for him too, Len, he over there probably being a saint. He got a girl to love him, mean, while this girl over there loving for somebody else's husband. Listen, that's it's a whole movie, right, This could be a whole movie because she wants to have her own kids

and her own family. How about a homeboy? You in a long distance relationship? And I wish I never met her at all, even though I love her so and she's got love for me, but she still be love to someone else. I wish my bad trouble that's my son though, carry Carr. Good God. All right, y'all, side, don't get my past. All you're missing is the sweater. Yeah, sweater. If you like to be featured as one of our listener letters, y'all be sure to email us at dead

asad Advice at gmail dot com. Is that Carl Thomas who's saying that song? That's not called Thomas? That wasn't Carl Thomas. No, I wish I never met her. No, that is Carled Thomas. That's oh I thought it was what's his name? The other dude? No, not case Sting. There's another dude that sings um donel Jones. No I thought it was Donald Jones. Donel Jones sings shut you gotta a zone? Oh you right? Damn sure. We've been talking girl. What you're gonna do with me? To go

to best three? Gird? What's that's a bomb song? It's on my playlist too, What you do? What we're gonna do is I give him the moment, the truth, my bad one. That's d E A D A S S A d V I C E at gmail dot bro. We scart of bring this fuck today? All right, y'all, um, moment of truth. Time. We're talking money. We're talking making money, spending more money. Uh, spending money to make money? The effects of making money about a simple moment of truth?

Tell us what it is. The two most important commodities in building a business is capital in time. Build as much capital as you can and give yourself time. It took us ten years. When you make a plan for your business, make a ten year plan. M M Dane, I'm doing electric slodowing. What's my moment of truth, y'all? Uh, I don't even know. Okay, I'm at a loss today. I got all distracted by the second karaoke guitar or

whatnot that. But I will say, Um, what made me, I guess, confident enough in the moment to be able to step back from a full time job and invest in myself was two things. Being confident in my craft and my ability to be an expert in the field that I was in. Knowing that there was a need and a market for people who wanted my service at an exclusive level too, Because when you have the exclusive level, for example, go into someone's home to provide a service

that comes at a premium. So knowing that the services you provide and exclusively at people's homes makeup service. Full beats, full beats, all right, But knowing that I had that to offer was probably the biggest flex for me to be able to say, you know what, I can step

away from this. But also having a partner in that, Like if you're fortunate enough to have a partner, whether it's your romantic partner who can now double down as your business partner, or it's just a business partner in general, having that support can really be paramount because there are things that may slip through the crack that you don't quite see that another fresh pair of eyes can see.

So if you have someone that you trust, that you and lean on while the process is happening, because it can be a very lonely and daunting and stressful process, do that all right, y'all? Thanks for listening again this episode. Be sure to follow us on Patreon to see exclusive dead Ass podcasts video content. We got all of the live shows. We have all of the live episodes and

also more family content there. You can find us on social media as well Instagram, we have our page dead Ask the Podcast and you can find me Cadeen i Am on Instagram and TikTok and that's right, and I am devout not on TikTok. And if you're listening to Apple podcasts, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. Dead Ass Baby Yeah, y'all. Dead Ass is a production of iHeartMedia podcast Network and it is produced by the Norapinia

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