Welcome the Money in Wealth with John Hobryant, a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey is John Hobryant? And this is Money and Wealth. What if I told you you could win this game, this game called life? What have I told you that? What have I told you that it is set up for you? Yes, maybe not to win, but I can give you the
tools to turn that around. Now and I'm going to be provocative, well, not provocative to me, but it'll be provocative to everybody who thinks the world is set against them and tell you it's not racial. Now, I'm about to start a lot of fights because we know that racism is real, and there are countless civil rights organizations that spend their time every day fighting racial discrimination. And
so is John Bryant saying that that's not real. Is John O'Brien saying that that's somehow, some kind of a game. Is John O'Brien saying that their time is coming on? No, racism is like rain. It's either falling somewhere or as gathering. So you might as well get out an umbrella and a color you like and start strolling through it, because it's not going to change. So you must. You've got to adapt, you've got to change, you've got to flow,
you've got to upgrade your software. I'm going to reference Malcolm X. Malcolm X said, we've been bamboozled, We've been tricked, we've been fooled. And while that is from the nineteen sixties and related to civil rights, and I'm talking about silver rights. And by the way, everybody should pick up my book Financial Literacy for all number one best seller in the country, one of very few best selling books on business and economics by a person of color, although
books for everybody. That's the primer for this conversation, pre post and even during. I want that book underline and highlighted throughout. But what if I told you that. I mean, the thing about racism is it's like hurting cats, It's like hugging jello. I can't get into somebody's heart and change how they feel about you, But I can get in your head and change how you feel about yourself.
I can get into your head and as a result of that, get into your thought process and your habits and your pocket and change how you operate in this world. And to turn the nose that you normally get into opportunities and turn them into yeses, and in so doing this will change your life. So I'm talking about changing your life, not changing somebody else's life, not changing somebody else views, but views you or flows you.
Again.
Quincy Jones, one of my dear friends, would say, the music producer, not one ounce of my self esteem and self respect depends on your acceptance of me. So I've already said that racism like rain, it's either fall in someplace or it's gathering. You might as well get out of an umbrella in the color you like it starts strolling through it because it's not going to change, so you must.
I remember.
When I found an operation Hope. I love history, and I would think about, gee, what would doctor King have dealt with in this situation follow the Rodney King riots in nineteen ninety two in south central LA. Of course he would have been he would have killed it. He would have had solutions, he would have had a strategy, you know that one that there's no question about that.
But I remember saying, very respectfully, very respectfully, in some ways he would He had an easier challenge in the midst of the civil rights movement, and again civil rights is essential. So I don't wan anybody walking away from this thinking that John Bryant saying it's one or the other. No, I'm saying it's both. The issue is a not or right. You need civil rights and civil rights, you need protections, but you also need opportunity.
Right.
So what I'm saying is that we have built up institutions in the streets. Now we need access to the suites. We've got a bunch of organizations and institutions that have at least the minority in underserved communities.
I'm talking about.
Although this advice is going to give you for everybody, by the way, but if you're a minority listening to this, if you're a black person listening to this, if you're a brown person listening to this, you're a woman listening to this, you understand that there are unnatural barriers that you've been dealing with. And there are tons of organizations God bless them and thank God for them that have
been put in place that are doing God's work. Those are organizations that are built and organized around red rooms keeping bad things from happening to good people. What we need now are a bunch of green rooms helping good things to happen to good people, opening doors, not just fighting wars. We don't have green rooms. I'm talking about black people in particular. Now, there's one video that I did.
I spoke at the Milking Conference and Nicole Valentine was a moderator of this panel with a bunch of battles on it at the milk In Conference, and I happen to say, is part of my remarks that I wanted to be the Federal.
Reserve of the Hood.
I believe Jay Brown was also on that panel, who I really expect co founder and vice sherman of Rock Nation, Jay Brown. But I remember saying that I wanted to become the federal Reserve of the Hood, that I wanted operation to helpe to become the fed of the Hood. And that video has gotten now millions and millions millions of views, and to me it was just common sense,
but for many it was enlightenment. I don't know, And it got me thinking, how again, going back to doctor King's plight and with my mentor ambassador Andrew Young right next to him to the right, at every step of the way, and during the movement they were dealing with love and hate. Somebody will tell you I love you
or I hate you very specifically. And what I said in nineteen ninety two when I found an Operation Hope in south central Los Angeles after the Rotteney King riots was I don't think that the new issue is love or hate. That's not the new primary problem. The new primary problem is radical indifference, that no one cares enough about you to hate you. Increasingly, the risk, was I thought in nineteen ninety two, is that no one cares enough about you to actually hate you. It's not love
or hate anymore. I thought in the future the risk was but radical and different. That it's just like whatever. And if you look at thirty years later, look at what's going on today. Unfortunately, that is front end center. And so when I say the new discrimination is not primarily racial, it's economics. It's about the money. When I say I'm gonna help you learn how to get the green and that that I don't want to use word trumps, but that over overrides and cannibal ride the black and
the white and the red and the blue. That's what I mean. I'm not saying racism isn't real, saying bias is not real. I'm saying over the rounded through it, we're gonna get to it. I'm gonna say something quite controversial here. Black people need a Black Jewish business plan. Yes, I said it. That there is only about fifteen million Jews in the world of eight billion, but they're a household name there. Last time I checked about twenty five
percent of the ASCID value of this country. I think that's right, the last time I checked the asset base of this country. Even though they're I don't know, two three percent maximum of the population in this country, and they've got their own country, literally very small country, but like the Vatican, very influential. Do you know, the Vatican is probably one of the most powerful banks in the world.
So even though Jews have been discriminated against, and we're seeing it in this day, in this time, they've also created a bulkworth. They've created a defense against that, a defensive line that's also an offensive line. And it's called wealth and opportunity. And I want that for Black America. Black America does not have plumbing. We don't have economic plumbing. And that's a problem when we are a one point five trillion dollars plus economic force. But most of that
ninety two percent of that is consumer spending. That's a problem. And so we need a business plan for Black America. All people need a business plan, but certainly Black America. Again, my Jewish brothers and sisters, in spite of the discrimination and racism come in their way.
Have created an environment where it's painful, it hurts.
To attack them. It's not good business. It's not good for your business, it's not good for your brand, and not you know, they both have a powerful wealth creation in multiple industries, I might add, and powerful philanthropy which they can direct and use as a defense. And I want to now go go to the core of this for you. I said something pretty powerful here, Why and how the new game of money that is the center of your life, and how that is more important than
even the racial barriers that face you. Let me now first make the primary point and grounded in the history. Somebody's going to listen to this and go watch this and say he's wrong. Racism discrimination is rooted in slavery. As an example, No, slavery was about money. Slavery was how do I build a country for free using the best labor and the best intellect. On this topic, in the world. What do you mean by that Slavery was
rooted in an agrarian era. In other words, you made your money through farming land and the crops of that day. Tobacco and other things were in southern states and in regions of the Caribbean, etc. Where it's hot, it's often humid, hard to work in these environments, rough work conditions. But more importantly, the soil has been beaten up and looks like it's dead, but that's where these crops are inclined to grow. How do you bring these land areas back
to life? Who is that talent? The poor white immigrants that came from England said, the heck with that. England brought poor whites, Yes, poor whites over here. White folks who are white, wealthy who are given titles and land and mandates, brought poor whites from England. Yes, and the criminals they sent to Australia by the way, they brought poor whites here and put them to work. And poor whites were like, no, we're not doing that, We're not feeling that at all. So they had to find and
they didn't have the expertise. Also, so there's another story to this because blacks and whites. Poor blacks and poor whites were friends in the sixteen hundreds. There's another on my podcast where I get into this, and you should check that out. She listened to the whole every episode, but certainly check that out. And I believe I also
covered that in my book Financial Literacy. For all of how blacks and poor blacks and poor whites were friends and over money and power posician in the world, they were divided. This is the sixteen hundreds. The first indentured servants in America were both black and white. Okay, back to the story.
So they went the.
Billionaires of that day, the economic chieftains said, where are there people who have this talent for the land Africa? So they went to Africa and found people who could bring dead soil to life, and they brought them here. But they didn't need the attitude, they didn't need the drama. They needed the self esteem. The conference they built literally beat the self esteem out of us. And again this is I don't want to get into too deep onness.
I'll do a separate podcasts just on unpacking slavery and Jim Crow and how we got here. But to make this point, because I did another podcast where I said that black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have whenever you generalize, you discriminate, Yes, but generally speaking, they tend to have higher self esteem and lower levels of confidence because they have intact family structures. They slavery didn't exist in these places for long periods of time. They had
again mom and dad at home. They had the dentists, a lawyer, or the government leaders. The business leaders were all black like them for as long as they can remember, and the criminals were black like them too. It was you know, fair exchange and no robbery environment. Everybody looked like them, and so they had high self esteem okay, but low levels of confidence because those are not growing
economies where you competed at the highest level. Black African Americans who had all that drama and who had the self esteem beaten out of them literally, and they couldn't protect their wife, couldn't protect their children quite literally, weren't educated. Kept these things were illegal to give to people of color, black people specifically at that time. They ended up having low self esteem but high confidence because they succeeded in spite of that in the biggest economy on the planet,
the United States of America. So after Americans tend to have higher levels of confidence and lower levels of self esteem, whereas that Black Africans and Black Caribbeans tend to have higher levels of self esteem and lower levels of confidence. Confidence is competence leaned into the world market. So the first thing that we thought was about race alone, Ashley was about money, primarily, which was slavery. Let me now fast forward to today. This is not meant to be
a history lesson. It's meant to be a guidepost for you. So again, I may I've said something pretty powerful here that the game today is mostly about money. Let's look at our politics. This is a joke, but unfortunately a lot of jokes are based in reality. For the longest time, I mean, you know, decades and decades and decades and decades, mayors of big cities were white. The joke is that once the city started to go broke, they handed it to a black man or a black woman. Okay, well
we've done with this. Now you you can revive it or kill it or whatever. Right, And it went all the way to the presidency. The country was broke, the country was on his was on his knees and they gave a black man a shot. He did a great job with it. By the way, President Barack Obama. That's a joke, but there's some always a little bit truth in every joke. But also that there was a.
Signal there that that.
That really the game was economic when doctor King was going, so people were pivoting toward money. They were like, Okay, politics is good, but that's I'm not can' I can't get rich in politics. You know, it's about the money
unless you want to go to jail. When doctor King was marching within the South, and Andrew Young was helping my mentor Ambassador Andrew Young and others, doctor Dorothy Hyde, Missus King, etc. Doctor King would shut down the economy marching, which was sorry, Doctor King would march and thus shut down the economy because two thirds of the customers in these small towns were black.
Hello. So even though the.
Back of the bus situation was certainly racial and really about class by the way keeping people in their place, so to speak, doctor King made it about the green because when he shut down the economy by protesting, it hurt the business people's wallets because every customer where they're in the front of the bus or the back was using the same currency, which was green. And so when sixty percent of your customers say I'm going to do a black taxi, no punt attended to black taxi, which
is now uber and lyft. By the way, they were using their own cars to drive people around because they were not going to participate in a racist system, an unfair system, a system biased to gets them. The business leaders. Ultimately, after this pressure in these cities, doctor King would send
Andrew Young in too. You know, if there's several weeks of protesting and shutting down the economy, doctor King would send Andrew Young with a business suit on to cut a business deal with one hundred business leaders in town. He cut a deal with any one hundred business leaders in any town. You can turn it around and he's send that the cenebasi Young and me to meet quietly behind closed doors with one hundred business leaders. Cut a deal to get to take down the whites only signs.
Cut a deal to take down the stupid policies. Cut a deal to integrate the lunch counter, and so on and so forth. Doctor King's philosophy. This is not his quote, but it's a quote I use all the time that he talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always leave even your adversary with their dignity, Doctor King.
Unlike some leaders today who just want to hurt people and they want them to feel the pain, and that's their payoff, I guess, although they're not getting anywhere, Doctor King wanted win, win. He even wanted his adversaries to win.
Again.
Talk without being offensive, Listen without being defensive, always leave even your adversary with their dignity because if you don't, let's spend the rest of their life trying to make you miserable. It becomes personal. So doctor King would not humiliate the business leaders in public. His problem was was challenged was with the government leaders, primarily the mayors and the governors, who would stand in the hallway and say, over my dead body. The business leaders were just using
lazy morals, lazy ethics and whatever whatever. Maybe they were racist to Doctor King would send Andrew Young and their then Andrew would cut that deal. This is why doctor King never wanted Andrew Young arrest it Ever, maybe I'll tell that story of how doctor King even hired Andrew Young.
I think it's relevant to this podcast and the one hundred busines leaders would say if I we'll just get our customers back, which means get our revenue going again, right, And that's what would happened in most of these deals. They'd cut a deal and then and then the mayors would go talk. Sorry, the business leaders would go talk to the mayor and say, okay, knock it off. Enough of this stuff. So the business agenda drove the public policy agenda. If you want to call it that way,
describe it that way. Let me now explain how Andrew Young and Baston Young got to doctor King. And then I'm going to come to the present day and give you some examples today of how this is all around you and you're just not seeing it and what you can do about it. It's positive because doctor King s and Andrew Young in there to solve problems of the streets,
retail access, you know, public accommodations, public transportation. I'm trying to create a new constituency of one hundred business leaders in every town in the suites civil rights to seal for rights. Civil rights. By the way, do you know that the first reserve currency of the United States of America was not old It was silver? Uh, there's no reserve currency now at the currency's unhinged to.
Go to arts or whatever. But it was originally silver.
Silver was was originally selected as a reserve currency for the US and my silver rights.
It's just a coincidence.
So doctor King Uh met Ambassador Young and wanted him to work with him, and sent Ambassador Young to his office in Atlanta. And it showed that Doctor King always, you know, was out given speeches and whatever in traveling, so we wasn't at the office often. So Doctor King is a little known story. By the way, you're getting an inside track here. I don't believe this is actually written anywhere, so you're getting a real special one. I
got this directly from Ambassador Young. Of course, he's my mentor, the Nelson Mandela of our times in the world. Built the biggest economy in the South, Atlanta, Georgia, into the only international city in the South, the only mayor ever mentored by doctor Marle King Junior bastardor Andrew Young. If you don't know his legacy, please look it up research. He's amazing. So doctor King Uh tells Andrew Young, go go to my office and get to work. Please help
us with the civil rights movement. So he goes to Atlanta and he runs into Abernathy and others and they're like, no, we're good.
Doctor.
He's always sending people here. But the offices are all full. Everybody's got a seat, there's no place for you to sit.
Goodbye.
So and Basside Young says well okay and leaves. Then Andrew Young Whereverend Andrew Young back then? And so he gets back and doctor King didn't like conflict, by the way, and an interesting did he hated conflict, which has also proved another asset from Andrew Young to doctor King, which
I'll maybe mention that in this podcast. So he goes back to his church, he tells them the story and they, the church leaders, like okay, we can fix this, and so they create a grant that was designed to teach civil rights leaders, train them in civil rights, non train them a non violent protesting, et cetera, et cetera, trained civil rights leaders. And so they gave Andrew Young a portable grant. The grant only went with him. It was for SCLC, but it needed Andrew Young as the representative
of the church to go teach this philosophy. So when doctor King, so and Andrew Young showed back up to the office for SELC. He had money with him, He had a salad. Well, I'm getting a hit of myself, which included his salary. Yes, but I'm getting hit of myself. So now they're like, oh, yeah, you got some money. Yeah, sit right there, right, that's what doctor King's that sit
right there. So now when Abernatheine others got angry with Andrew Young, this again became why one of the reason that the best Young became so valuable to doctor King, and he never wanted them arrested. Doctor he never wanted Andrew Young arrested, for which Andrew Young got teased about later by other civil rights leaders. I think it was jealousy. By the way, it's nothing to get arrested. There's nothing special by getting arrested. I mean, it's morally appropriate and
be proud of standing up for what's right. But if you cannot get arrested and get your problem solved, in fact, you can win the war, not just the battle, and not get arrested. That as I'm about to explain to you even better right again, upgrading our software. We need the streets and the suites, we need civil rights and civil rights. We need people who are willing to get arrested so somebody can then, you know, open the door to opportunity. So you never have to worrybout getting arrested
ever again, unless youre getting arrested by opportunity. So doctor King goes on and travels again. Well, now Andrew Young would see things going on in the office, He's like, no, that's not right, No, we shouldn't do that. And before Abnathy and others could just fire Andrew Young or tell me to go away. But now Andrew Young had his own money, he had his own he had his own salary.
I think he was the only one in that office who was not paid for by on the payroll of SCLC under the control of those who were around the office when Andrew when doctor King wasn't there. So now Andrew Young has an independent voice because he had an independent pocket. Can I get an amen? Dropped the mic? An independent voice because he had an independent pocket. And now you can just tell our right the truth. But
the truth is y'all crazy. And so doctor King relied on Andrew Young now to talk to the crazy people
on the left and the right in the movement. Uh and in the office who are saying oftentimes crazy stuff, but had a colonel of a good idea, and he and because doctor King did not like conflict, he'd wait for Andrew Young to sort it all out and knock heads and and get and curse people out and get to the point where there were the colonel of this idea had been refined to a magic moment, and then he would then bring that idea to doctor King, and Doctor King would say yes, and let's go forward with
the staff. And the only time Doctor King ever threatened to fire Andrew Young's when doctor when Andrew Young got frustrated and threw his hands up and like, oh, screw these crazy people. I'm not I'm not mess around with this, and and told Doctor King that and doctor King's will look at Andy, if you're not gonna do this, I don't need you like this. This is this is your job. This is what I need for you to sort this stuff out. And that's why he's the ambassador. He's a teacher,
he's a facilitator. So he did it both inside the office and outside in the commune to the I've already a gain example of how he brought the business community together behind closed doors. And whenever you saw Doctor King and Andrew Young in photo together, and please you can search it. Whenever you looking for doctor King's photo, you'll see Andrew Young nine times out of ten right next
to him. But he's never looking at the camera. He's looking up the ceiling, at the walls, looking left, right down. He's looking for threats. He never wanted to be Doctor King like other leaders. He wanted to be himself, but he wanted to protect his friend. But he understood that the money was really important. That's why he was able to bring those talents to Atlanta and turn Atlanta into the most educated city in the United States of America. Yes,
that's the courting the Forbes advisors. Atlanta is the most educated city in the US. She's talking about Mayor Andrew Dickens. About that. Who's who's so proud of that? Good for good reason And the biggest economy in the traditional South with almost five n b and dollars a year in economic activity. Now, let's now bring this to today. And
when I say, it's all around you. So in the old script, people would curse you out, they call you names, they would do things to keep you out of the public buildings, they would, you know, they drag you out in their heels. But today you can sue somebody. You can, you can sue their pants off if they dragged you out. They first of all, I get theres, get them arrested in social media, get them arrested. Then you get Then then the business gets zeroed out because of that bad publicity.
And maybe you can even sue them if you had some harm and literally drill a hole in their economic pockets. Which again it's about money too. But now you have these community and by the way, but by the name of these communities, this is not racism, this is classism. These are people who just want what they want right. It's no different than our home. We have a gate around it and a private I used to leave in a gated community and there were I don't know, fifteen homes,
twenty homes in this gay community. But I had to obey the HOA rules Homeowners Association. I had to I couldn't park a car on the street for more than two days. I couldn't park I couldn't have two cars in the driveway, which are by the way, great rules. It was about apparents. All that stuff but I didn't want anybody telling me if I was gonna have a party, had to tell people it was a community pool. I had to get notifications where we got in the water. I didn't want to do it all that stuff. I
want't we get in the pool. I want to get in the pool. When I want to put a car in front of my house, and put a car in front of my house, well keep it there for a week. At two weeks eight, I want to do what I want to do. So I went and got my own gate and my own property, my own forty acres in a sprinter van where I control the rules. But by the way, that's also economic right. Civil rights gives you a lot of civil rights. So these communities are not racist.
I've been in these communities. I did not pick up one ounce of racism. But they achieve another objective that might not be the problem of some people who are maybe not so progressive, who may live here and look at these look at these places up Sara and B here in Atlanta, see R E. M B E serenb. Outside of Atlanta, beautiful community restaurants, whatever, completely completely self contained schools, playhouses where they do plays.
They may have moved.
I think in a movie theater. They are horse barns. They've got restaurants, plural restaurants. They've got entertainment centers, creative centers, arts centers, schools, middle school, elementary school, high school. Of course, residents is homes for rent, homes to own. It's his own community. I'm gonna name some others. Well, Trilith, right,
you know Trilith Communities. That's in Fayetteville. They just the second biggest movie studio in the country at Trilith t R I l U t h I believe it's spelled look that up on his way to be a billion dollar community. My friend Dan Cathy built that in Faynville, not close, not far from me. Thermal, now, this is a motorsports community in California outside of La but thermals deep. Like, you want to be a member of Thermal, you want to go race your car there. They only have two
hundred and ten members. Two hundred and ten. They have seventy five homes that are there, one hundred and thirty five home lots.
That's it.
You've got to buy a lot when you become a member. The membership it's one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars initiation fee, twenty five hundred dollars a month membership fee, and you've got to agree to buy to build at least thirty thousand square for the house there. As I understand, those homes are worth between five to seven million dollars.
The build costs.
And yeah, you're not going there, broke. This is in California. Let's go back to some examples. The Hamptons. I was just in the Hamptons a few weeks ago. I mean, there's nothing in the Hampton's less than seven figures. In fact, seven figures.
Get you a check.
Most houses are five million on the low end, ten million, twenty million. Now you're talking right. I stayed in one when I was there, and I didn't see one black person in the Hamptons. And it wasn't because they had blacks keep out signs. It's expensive, expensive to live, their shop there, to go to dine there. The thing that's consistent about all these places I mentioned, and there's there's a bunch of more. It's expensive and it's hard to
get there. It's inconvenient. It's not convenient to roll up to these places. But again it costs to whether you if you want to go to a restaurant, if you want to just dine, it's expensive. You know, it's about one hundred dollars, hundred dollars for lunch. And this is how they keep what you might call the riff raft out. I'm not calling your names unless you think your riff raft.
And it works.
Here's the image of what you have in your head. Because there's a There are five hundred communities I just mentioned. I just gave you four examples, gated communities, so private homes, private roads, private security, private schools, private planes, private cars, private lives, gated communities, toll roads, inconvenient.
Access, high prices.
It's a way to create an exclusive environment that excludes the drama, pulls all the stuff they don't want away, and attracts the green. Now, if you're black and you can afford that, we'll welcome. When I go to these places, no one ever says the thing to me but hello. When I was in the Hampton's two weeks ago, I literally did not see a black person unless they were a nanny occasionally a worker in the shops. I think I might say I saw a half dozen workers over
three four days. But literally, it just was white people everywhere, and it wasn't and people couldn't be nice to me when I talked to him, So it wasn't there excluding us. It's just expensive and inconvenient, and maybe some people just feel like, ah, I'm good. I'm not. I don't feel the love. But it's no longer about lover hate. It's radical and different than no one cares enough about you to hate you. I remember I said in one of
my books about President Reagan. I was in Harlem. This is twenty years ago, twenty five years ago, and his brothers like President Reagan is a racist. No, I don't think he's racist. I knew President Reagan were born in the same day his wife honored. Was he honored me, recognized me? At least? No, President Reagan's are racist. No, he's not my cup of tea. I think he you know, I'm not crazy about his policies when he was president, But I don't think he was a racist. No, he
was a racist. I literally explained something to you. President Reagan didn't have no black friends then, at least that I was aware of, didn't have any black children, no black relatives. I didn't live in a black community, didn't grow up with a black experience, does not have a black environment. President Reagan, I'm gonna say this in present day as if he was alive, President Reagan, don't hate you. He ain't thinking about you, wasn't thinking about you. You
were on not on his radar screen. He was just indifferent to you. Now, the only time he knew you was if you know, congressional leaders or black elect officials, or somebody or some recording artists, some celebrity said you were racist.
You're a bad person around the Reagan.
So now his only experience he wasn't very curious about cultural things like that, so he wasn't going to go try and find it. Now his new experience a black people is a negative one only, and so then he it just reaffirms his maybe already pre existing biases. So now he really doesn't want to be associated because nobody wants to be associated with somebody who's attacking them, whether
you're racist, a nice person of the planet. So you're if the person has no experience with you whatsoever, but their first experience of you is you attacking them, they just shut down completely. So why do I tell you this story, because you don't have to live in this world and just take it. You can master it. This is why I love for you to get your credit right.
Because when somebody cursed me out, or if they they don't, but if somebody was cursing me out or being mad to me at a restaurant, you know, I don't have to get upset with you. I can put my Americ Express card out, my Black America's Press card and knock you out with it without ever touching you. I can I can buy the not just pay for the bill. I can buy the restaurant with it. Like literally, there's no limit on the card.
Over with you.
Doesn't have to get upset with you. She just I mean she was on the board of I think it was Weight Watchers, and something happened when something went down where she didn't like what they were doing, and so U she made some moves that they didn't like, and so they said, well, we're gonna we don't appreciate you doing s y z oprah, So we're going to I just saw op a few weeks ago.
I love her. We're gonna, you know, we don't want you to think to be our spokesman. Anymore.
Can you imagine somebody saying this to Oprah and she's like, that's cool, that's fine, no problem. Didn't raise her voice. One stole Oliver stock tied to the deal. The stock then plunged. I think this is weight watchers. Don't quote me in this, but whatever weight management company she was associated with, you can correct me in the comments or confirming the comments. If I'm right. The stock plunged when she sold her shares. They forgot that she had a
strong economic interest. She wrote a very smart, financially literate, and intelligent deal. It's all about the details. When she cut that deal to be their spokesman, she she's like, I'm not gonna rock the mic. I'm gonna own it. And that's what I want you to do. I want you to own the stage. Don't just dance on it.
I want you.
Quincy Jones says, if you think that you're in the music business and you don't own music rights, publishing rights, licensing rights, some kind of rights or ownership interests, you're not in the music business. You're a temporary performer. Quincy and Jones and I iced to talk about Michael Jackson and how Paul McCarthy got very upset with Michael because Paul McCartney said that Michael should own publishing, shouldn't just
be an entertainer. And Michael realized that he was smart, and so God gave you two ears in one mouth to listen twice as much as you talk, and so he's like, okay, cool, that's really smart. I should own publishing rights. Okay cool. So he had it owns who I was trying to own his own publishing rights, Michael Jackson's rights. But then he's like, well who else should I own? The Beatles? So he went and bought bid for the Beatles publishing rights, and Paul McCarthy lost his mind.
He was extra I think to this day, extraordinarily. In fact, I know based on public reports, published reports, and his own words, he was very very very very very unhappy with Michael Jackson. Now it might have been on the edges of an ethico that your friend tells you that you know, he didn't say no, he's not even an ethical because Paul McCarthy didn't say any publishing rights but ours.
He didn't say but but the Beatles.
In fact, there's little bit of arrogance to assume that Michael Jackson, who's the biggest pop star in the world at that time, did not did not have a right to own the Beatles publishing rights too. But he didn't say you can own any rights but the Beatles. He was giving this advice against like a tutor gives like a mentor gives a mentee. Didn't realize that that that that the student was going to become the teacher. Michael
went and bought the Beatles publishing portfolio. Paul McCarthy lost his mind and and and could not say a nice thing after about his once good friend Michael Jackson. Just he didn't he didn't, he didn't do any unethical He just outbid everybody else, including the Beatles. The Beatles could have outbid Michael Jackson. They could have bought that portfolio, but didn't believe in themselves as much as Michael Jackson
believed in them, and he bought that portfolio. Do you know that when Michael Jackson and was doing all that spending and the reason he didn't go broke was because he owned that publishing rights, which which Sony ultimately ended up purchasing, was worth a billion dollars his He never weighed that kind of money. And tour you toured, you made ten million back in the day, ten twenty million. The tour that took him out when he passed away got restless. So I think that was he was gonna
make fifty million. Is to get the number right. We got the number right, fifty million. But his portfolio was worth a billion back in that day. It was worth you know, seven hundred million. And that's in large part because he owned his portfolio plus a few others, but mostly the Beatles' rights.
It's what you own.
And so getting your credit score now you know Michael Jackson's credit score was He's Michael Jackson. He is an imprint in Presario, and he had these relationship capital amongst people in the music business and they and he was savvy about business, and so he made a case, a credible case. You know, the word credit comes in the lot were creditito, which means credibility.
Did you know that?
So he had credibility with those who could work with him to back him to buy the publishing rights. Now, he got into trouble financially later on and had to sell his half of the publishing and ultimately his a state. I think, right now is trying to sell all the publishing rights. But the reason Michael Jackson was able to live the life he lived was not because he danced from the stage, because he owned the music being played on the stage. So on the stage that you live on.
The credit score you have gets most of the yes. Is that you want you want to become you want a prime home loan, the answer is yes, good credit score over seven hundred. My mother credit score was eight fifty four when he the smith got rest her so and the computer just said yes to my mother midnight.
When my mother went to computer to apply for a loan for something, a home mortgage or consumer loan or auto loan, whatever, the computer just said yes, because now it didn't say are you black, or you're female or whatever. He said, Oh my gosh, he has an eight hundred credit score plus over seven hundred. By the way, it's just fine, perfect, actually seven fifty golden. But my mother's credit score was eight to fifty four back back when it went that high, and the computer just said, yes,
you're approved. And you've never seen a riot in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood in all your life, right, so I want you to get your credit score right. I want you to get your debt down, your savings up, your credit score up, because if you can do that, the bank just says, yes, the banks are not racist. Okay, they're capitalist machines. They want to make money and they cannot make money unless they make a loan. Now, is there somebody racist at a bank? Sure there is, right,
they're racist people everywhere. But as a rule, like racism and banks, I did a thing on banks. Can go and listen to that podcast or break this down. But one hundred years ago, yes, there was a racist bank. It was Joe's bank, as family owned it, and he didn't want to give any loans to black people. Yes, or maybe even the women. Women couldn't even get a loan before nineteen seventy two, you know that. That's that nineteen seventy two women. I did a Time article on this,
you should read it. I did a podcast on this, you should listen to it. But women did not have rights, financial rights before nineteen seventy two, nineteen seventy four. Crazy, not eighteen seventy two, eight seventy four, nineteen seventy two in our lifetime. So the bank wants to say yes, they can't make any money unless they make a loan. Again, one hundred years ago, they were discriminating issue because they
could because it was owned by a family. Now a bank is publicly traded and they want their stock to do well. They want their they want to perform for their shareholders, which means they need to make good loans. So if you're pookying them, booboo in them, whether you're poor white or poor black, your credit score is five hundred, not making you alone. They're not making you alone. I wouldn't make you alone, okay, But if your credit score
is seven hundred, you're not black or white. You're not red or blues and politics black and white isn't race. You're green, as in a good credit risk. And if you get that credit score up, you're just amazing how your life changes. And it's not about the credit score. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index that we've published and you'll see if you live in a credit hordse a seven hundred credit score neighborhood, you lived to eighty
one years old. On average. You live in a five one hundred and five fifty credit score neighborhood, you live to sixty one years of age on average, which means so security is sixty five. You don't even get so security and you drop dead. Twenty year difference fifteen minutes apart. Not because of racism or these other things that we've obsessed about, police brutality. All these things are really important.
Again. The red rooms. We got red rooms all over the place. We now need green rooms.
Access to capital, access to home loans, access, access to opportunity, access the internships, access the jobs, access to yes, access, access, access.
To green, the green so we can build a thing.
I want you to go to a Hope Financial coach. Get signed up. We have offices all over this country and Operation Hope and take your life back and get the book Financial Literacy for all the new colors green people. It's not black or white, it's not red or blue. In fact, even the red or blue. The politics is about the green. As I said earlier, you know, look, and I mean this is another podcast for another day, but somebody's gonna listen to this and say, yeah, but John,
we can't succeed. We don't have generational well and you know how we're going to do this. The credit score is going to just give you a debt. No, no, there's good debt and bad debt. There's not a billionaire in this country. Listen to me, now, there's not a progress. There's not a growing city, a growing country, or a growing multimillionaire like me or a billionaire who did it without good debt. And good debt is something that finance, is something that may grow and enhance and income or
value and wealth. Bad debt is financing jewelry. Bad debt is financing a rental car. Bad debt is financing a ticket to go to a concert. Bad debt is people do this. Bad debt is financing a vacation. Bad debt is a twenty sixty percent loan at an apartment store, department store credit card, credit card. Bad debt is financing a Mercedes and an eighteen percent interest, and it's not a Mercedes's Mercedes payments and did the whole thing on the auto loan industry. Watch that and listen to that.
In this podcast series, I'm trying to bring you in the light and show you what's right. You want good debt, and you wanted to manage and leverage things that give you assets, and your assets cannot be on your ass all right, loving like John O'Brien, I'm out. I will see you and next week on my ministry finance. This is the civil rights movement. This is financial literacy for all.
Get the book.
This is the Money in Wealth podcast series on iHeartRadio and the Black Effect Network. The new color is green. Check out that thing. Look in your neighborhood, Look in your city, look in your area. Pull up the Hope Financial Wellness Index. Put in your zip code. I'll tell your credit score, and I'll tell you how you're living. Your day is about money. For the time you give in the morning to the time you go to bed at night is a series of financial transactions. Getting gas
in the car. No one's giving the government's like giving you free gas. Governments like the alarm clock that wasn't the government. Alarm clock was your It was your mobile phone, right, your smartphone that you paid for. Money is all around us. Do we understand it? Get your life right. It's okay if you don't like me, I like me. I want you to to be able to say that not one ounce of yourself esteem depends on someone's acceptance.
If you just get you. It's James Brown version of an affirmative action. Open the door. I'll get it my damn self, all right. I'm out.
Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The dep