EYL #349: Credit Foundations, Wealth Building & the Business of Celebrity DJ’ing w/ Venus X & Stanley Lumax

32:53Think iHeart. Streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-iHeart to get started. That's 844-844-iHeart. Hey, what's up, y 'all? this is Questlove. Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with A$AP Rocky ahead of his album release Don't Be Dumb. He reflects on his journey from his Harlem roots to global icon status, discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat Kangol during the podcast. Like that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just was like damn the f*** I swear. Rocky offers a window into not only a boundary breaking artist but as a man committed to fusing creative ideas, community, and remaining unapologetically himself.

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34:18What's up, man? This your boy, Nav Green, from the Broken Play Podcast. Look, it's the end of the season. The playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with NAB Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoff. The Chiefs. Oh, it's a wrap. It's time to rebuild. Who your MVP right now then? Drake May up there. Josh Allen up there still. Oh, my boy, Matthew Stafford. Where they both nicks at? He ain't too far behind. He did all this talking. What Matthew Stafford is doing statistically, bro, is crazy.

34:53Bro, you know I ain't no Josh Allen fan. But Matthew Stafford got better weapon. Caleb Williams. Hey, he should be in that conversation. In what conversation? MVP? He should be in it. Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. The Volkswagen Beetle started out as Hitler's dream car. It wound up as a beloved hippie icon and the best-selling car of all time. How did that happen? I'm Jacob Goldstein. And I'm Robert Smith. On Business History, we tell the surprising stories behind the inventions and entrepreneurs that shaped our economy.

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36:04You know, with everything else in life, you know, credit is a tool, and it's a tool that helps you build the foundation. So without, you know, leveraging that tool, you'll have an uneven foundation. I mean, that's just the reality of it. When I think about, you know, growing up and, you know, swiping a debit card and just being excited to have a debit card and not realizing that like, I'm not getting anything back from this. Right. But now like, you know, again, keep using my kids as an example, because I'm able to give them insight that I didn't necessarily have, you know what I mean? So, you know, even just kind of the idea of cash backing, right.

36:43Every time, you know, my daughter uses her card, she's getting cash back. And she's, again, establishing, you know, a use of credit that in the long run will be something that she's, that she benefits from versus just leveraging cash in a very loose way. And I think like, you know, the reality, back to your question in terms of how do you, or what piece of advice I would give is the same way, you know, our youth, you know, they're very good at learning languages, right? I look at social media as a language. You know, I look at emojis as a language. They need to learn the language of financial literacy, right?

37:28Like they need to be fluent in finance. And it's not as hard as they may think, right? One of the things that as we were thinking about how we would approach this campaign was, you know, we realized that there was an insight that, you know, Gen Z is really not necessarily fans of credit. And our goal was to help them understand, almost give them a nudge in terms of, it's not something to be afraid of, it's something to learn. That way you can utilize it correctly. I just want to say, if you have a special one, obviously you do live through the experience. Yes, I've lived through the experience.

38:06I'm still fully in the middle of it. Um, you know, but I feel like I have a great, um, I have a great understanding of how to start because I had to start late and I had to start sort of on my own. I didn't really have any clear, um, entry point. Um, I just knew that it was sort of that time when things just didn't make sense, um, to, to handle them, you know, with cash, um, Because I had become tired of being, I guess, not seeing anything. Not seeing anything as a result. It's like when you're doing everything right and you're just not getting anywhere further down, closer to your goal. And I realized it was because I was trying to be, quote unquote, a concept of good, which meant only spending the money that I earned.

39:02and um and i think also realizing at some point that the business infrastructure shouldn't be completely reliant on my money so for example one time we did a party um and this is a really great pop cultural reference for people um because recently i was asked to be in a documentary and i chose not to be in it because i didn't like the way it all played out right and it was for the brand so far. But there's a flyer, right, that says all proceeds of this party will be donated to collection SS whatever. So as a kid, I'm trying to pay for a clothing collection. Had I had the knowledge that I have now, I would have made that a company and I would have made a contract and I would have gone to the bank and I would have said, I've been doing these parties.

39:50We work with these kinds of artists and creatives. We need$5 ,000 and I would have given him the money and I would have said okay this now doesn't have to be a community effort that is all like let's be good people and help our friends this can be a business this is a business and so I say that to say that when you're building credit you're sharing the responsibility it's not like you don't have the money we know you have the money you have a job right that's why you even get to think about these things because you need money in order to pay the credit card at the end of the day. But everything you do, should you recognize and respect yourself as a business, which you have to respect yourself as a business in America.

40:33America is a business. We are all part of a business. We need the money and we need the transactions in order to formally move through the business in a healthy way. Look at what you're doing and figure out how to share that responsibility with someone else. Even if at the end of the day, you're going to pay that money back in terms of your payment to the credit card. And I say that because I chose not to be in the documentary because I just didn't like what happened when they actually made money and they moved forward and they started having the budgets. And, you know, I used to have to DJ at White Castle when they had a sponsorship with partnership with White Castle.

41:05And I was next to the chicken frying tray, DJing for$300 and the party was packed and it was top of the, you know, top of the headlines. And then when you made money, you didn't call me. So I don't want to be here representing you anymore. But there are stories in all of this for everybody to learn. And that is that everything you're doing has value. And if you can figure out a way to formalize that, if you say, I want to buy a car, I have$50 ,000. I can go and make this the responsibility of the bank with me for a small interest rate. Or I can go and pay that in cash. Make the bank part of your process.

41:49be mutually responsible and put it in writing because this is going to help you buy the dream car one day this is going to help you buy the house one day this is going to help you formalize the business shit excuse my language i could have been a very different kind of mogul at this point had i understood the words equity or investor or you know um angel investor or whatever the hell it is. But I didn't. And now that I do, I just see it as a missed opportunity to formalize the transactions that I'm having. So if I know I like to buy Starbucks every day, I can do the math and see how much money I'm going to spend on Starbucks.

42:28I know that I can go in and pay with this credit card and I'm going to get money back for that. So I know I'm going to go and have an extra whatever amount. And then I'm going to say, OK, at the end of the day, I know I'm spending this much on Starbucks. After a year or two, I'm going to have enough money to go and buy that thing. Now, all of a sudden, I'm in a mutual responsible relationship with my credit card. I have already taken the time to say, this is going to be an expense I'm going to have. This is what I want to do. It could be your makeup. It could be your fashion addiction. It could be your, you know, music career.

43:02You want to buy a bunch of equipment. You want to start throwing parties. don't do it with your own money. Use your money to pay your credit card. Use your credit card to build your business. Put it on paper. And absolutely the same way you have the audacity to go on Twitter and Instagram and all these other platforms, TikTok, to post your thoughts and ideas and creativity every single day, make sure that every single dollar that you spend does something for you, or at least that you learn how to track your own personal expenses, your taste your interest and the things that you do not that you have to turn every hobby into a business but you do have to recognize that we do live inside of a business model and somebody's going to make money off of you spending that money let me answer this as far as like the show that we have foundation forward it's all geared around people that's like getting on boarded into the credit process young people um but you have a unique perspective that i think you know we could highlight as far as being a first generation american being latina i believe dominicana and in Ecuadorian?

44:05Yes. So from the Latinx standpoint, speak about that. Speak about the difficulties as far as the onboarding process of credit for people that may not be able to speak English or for people that come from a different country. Absolutely. I think that, you know, one of the biggest issues that we're having right now is that so many people who work super hard in America do not have the formality of even a citizenship, right? But that doesn't mean their kids don't. and that doesn't mean that you have to be a result of the environment that you grew up in. In my home, I had a lot of compromised individuals, let's say, people who were doing things outside of the formal infrastructure for work, people who were bringing in money that wasn't necessarily accounted for in the formal systems.

44:54It's not money that's taxable. It's not money that's a thing. But at the end of the day, that money still goes to my mom, my aunt, my grandma. They have jobs. They have bank accounts. And even with the people that I've dealt with in my life, right, people that I've dated, people that I've been friends with, one of the things that I've noticed is that, yeah, there's a lot of people who work super hard, who show up every day, who risk their lives to make money, and they just collect cash and they spend it. They don't see that small bridge that they can cross, which is to say, how do I formalize myself?

45:28Or how do I build partnership with someone to allow myself to formalize? We can't pretend that we don't live in an ecosystem that is full of chaos, right? Financially, this ecosystem is full of chaos. There is a lot of transaction happening that does not get accredited or credit accounted for. And that is not going to change. But what can change is the fact that I don't generationally have to inherit that. I don't have to inherit the irresponsibility. I don't have to inherit the chaos. What I can say is, oh, well, I see this transaction happening. I want to start a business. That business is going to enable us to move out of that situation fairly quickly, right?

46:11Even to the extent that, you know, I had a parent who was fronting money to grocery stores, right? bodegas. Those are enormous transactions to make for someone who is not contracted, who has no legal rights over their money. You're talking$75 ,000 at a time is going from one hand to another with no oversight. That is a problem. And we need to, as a community, collectively stop, stop, I guess, making it look cool to have cash, to move in the way that we do where we don't have businesses. We need businesses. That's just the bottom line is we need businesses. We need to say, if I'm doing this, by this year, I'm going to stop doing it.

47:05And in order for me to stop doing that, maybe I can't do it, but I'm going to go and partner with that person because I know that But this money is not real if it's not accounted for. That's just the world that we're living in. And I think that people who are young, who are children of immigrants, don't realize the intensity of that. And then they become indoctrinated into that, where it's like, oh, I have money. I have money. I have money. You don't have money if you don't have credit. if you don't have the ability to go and house yourself permanently in a space that you own if you don't have the ability to go and buy a vehicle without putting all your own cash up front if you don't have the ability to formalize your business you don't have money and that's just a simple fact and I think that people have a hard time talking about that because it is chaotic and it is embarrassing sometimes.

47:58And I think it is also, we all know a lot of this is straight up criminal, but that doesn't mean it's where you have to stay. And we know that the infrastructures at hand force our parents or our elders to be in those systems, but they don't force us. And that is the key thing that people need to understand that just because someone else can't do it doesn't mean that you can't do it. And it doesn't mean that the money that you are getting. Whatever the case is, how your parents work, if they're paid cash in hand, if they're under the table, if they're not legal citizens, you still have a responsibility to shift the narrative.

48:36And you have to do that by figuring out your business. And it's not just being an entrepreneur. It's also your business. Your life is your business. Your money is your business. And we cannot just say, oh, well, my parents this and my parents didn't have that because at the end of the day, we know it doesn't end well when you just have cash. You can get frauded out of your money that's sitting in the bank. You can loan money to people and they don't pay you back. You can invest in businesses and when you don't do it formally, you do it with your own cash. You can get screwed out of it. You have no insurance.

49:09You have no claim over anything. At the end of the day, ruined credit is better than you being homeless. And it is better to get that process started earlier than later because it does take a while to figure out how to navigate that language and how to speak it but there should be no shame in wanting to actually formalize your life and i think that that's the main issue that we have collectively as people who are coming into the country not necessarily on clear pathways with citizenship and with all the things is that we don't realize how urgent it is to clean up the mess. Clean up the mess. That's your job as a next generation.

49:49Clean up the mess. It's not fair. It's not easy, but you have to. And that is one of the primary reasons why I love my job. Because I get to do my job. I get to do a cool job that I get to put an invoice in for. And I get to have a W-9 and I get to pay my taxes on. and I figured out the way to have the best of both worlds. My mom hates my job, but hey, it's a real job and it pays very well and it's really cool. And that is something that I learned from watching people do things their own way and also watching them never get anything back for it and never have the safety and protection of saying, I signed a contract.

50:33I'm going to get paid within 30 days. I'm going to get paid within 60 days. I'm going to get paid before I hit the stage. And I think that a lot of that has to do with the psychology of money. And at the end of the day, a lot of the reasons why people don't go out and get the credit and they don't go out and get, you know, sitting, they don't sit down with bankers and they don't sit down with people who can help them is because they're sad and afraid because they're traumatized by whatever experience they had. I'm going to tell you that it's not going to help you to stay traumatized. Just get over it.

50:59Because the reality is that if you hold on too tight and if you think you can control this, you're going to miss the boat. I think you're spot on. And financial trauma is something that we've been talking about a lot over the past three years. And kind of what our platform was built on is to make sure that we can ease that. And the number one way to ease that is to educate people. See, we talk about a lot, man. We've talked about boobs, right? We've talked about sneakers a bunch of times. But we're not going to talk about partnership, right? And one of the things, we've been doing this for seven years.

51:32Having corporate buy-in has been one of those issues that we can't seem to just overcome. I want to talk about why Chase Freedom Rye thought that this partnership with us would be so profound. And what was that process like? Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to, you know, whenever we start a project like this, we always think about, you know, what is the insight that we have on our consumer, right? And, you know, Chase Freedom Rye specifically talks to what we call a starter consumer, right? So that can be, you know, someone that is finishing up, you know, college and ready to, you know, start their post-college journey.

52:12That can be someone that, to your point, you know, may have just entered the country and doesn't have an existing, you know, credit situation. And our goal is to give them a card being Chase Freedom Rise that allows them to start that credit journey, to learn the basics, to learn a foundation, and to start growing their credit in a way that allows them to evolve into some of our other products, Chase Freedom Unlimited, whatever it may be. But I think in terms of your question about the process, for us, we wanted to just be authentic to Gen Z and to these consumers that we're speaking about. And one of the things that we've heard is a lot of people are afraid of banks.

52:57A lot of people are afraid to sit down with banks and have real conversations about, you know, their financial situation. So how do we have a conversation with, you know, a starter, you know, someone just getting out of college who doesn't necessarily want to talk about credit? We find individuals that have done an amazing job of, you know, creating a culture out of it and showing. Right. Because I think that's the thing. Right. showing and proving the value of credit, of learning, you know, a variety of things that, you know, help build your financial picture. And, you know, obviously you guys have, to your point, done it for the last seven years.

53:37And for us, it made sense, right? When we started having a conversation with Masspeel about it, you know, we wanted to make sure that this felt authentic, that this felt right for the consumer that we were speaking to. And I think most of all, gave us a clear sense of storytelling from an authentic perspective that would resonate with our consumer. And, you know, I think we did a really good job of that. Like when I think about guys like Broderick that we met down in Atlanta, hearing his story, Margaret, you know, who was a dancer, like all of these people had different stories in different parts of the country, but like they all left learning more and, and literally you could see their eyes light up when they discovered simple things.

54:26You know what I mean? And I think that's, that's how I knew that we were doing the right thing. Right. Cause these kids actually left with more information than they had before and things that they could actually apply. Well, following up on that, you were there, you watched all the episodes. What's some of the key insights and lessons like from your vantage point, if you were actually watching it, that you're like, okay, like this is something I could really, you know, see can be transformational. For sure. I mean, I was definitely taking notes. I mean, I was like, you know, thinking of things like, you know, your closing date, right?

54:58Like just the idea of being on point enough where you're, you know, paying attention to how much credit, you know, you have, um, by your closing date. Right. And one of the things we talk about a lot with Jim Gen Z is gamification, right? Everything is a game for them. So when they start thinking about credit from the perspective of, you know, this is my life, but it's also something that can be gamified. It takes some of the stigma out of, you know, the fear that comes along with it. Right. When I think about, um, you guys talking about, you know, debit versus credit, right? Again, that's something that a lot of folks take for granted, but understanding that is a, is a game changer, you know, understanding the value of getting, you know, cash back on every, every, you know, every time you use your, your card.

55:50Like these are all things that like for us, it feels second nature, but for a lot of people, that information isn't there. So I think like being able to have that conversation with them and helping them understand that, you know, was definitely something that I felt was key. I think also to piggyback on that, when you say, you know, debit versus credit, it makes me think about how many people miss the opportunity to show a bank how hard they work because they think that, oh, I want to pay as little as possible in taxes. What they don't realize is that by doing that, they're missing the opportunity to create more leverage for themselves on the credit side.

56:28That's not saying that you have to take on that responsibility personally. But if you open up a business and you pay yourself as an employee, you can pay yourself whatever salary you want, a small salary. Your business still qualifies for credit. And all of that means that you get to benefit from the hard work that you do. and I think that a lot of people miss that step because we've been taught so many things from movies from you know hip-hop culture from the cultures that we grow up around that we don't see the value of even showing like I made ten thousand dollars more this year I made twenty thousand dollars more this year I made forty thousand dollars more this year maybe I still paid myself you know a poverty wage because I want to pay a low tax and I want to spend all this money on my business.

57:12But at the end of the day, the fact that you made it makes your business a more viable leverage. It gives you more leverage and makes you a more viable client for the bank. And the bank now wants to do business with you. And ultimately the bank is your business partner. And that's what your bank is, whether you're an individual or whether you're a business or whether you're an individual with a business, the bank is your business partner. And I think that the simplicity of that is what people miss out on because they think that they're doing something brave by paying for things with money that they have.

57:43And what that lacks is that little bit of discipline that it takes to save that money that you have to pay your credit card at the end of the month and not spend double. I think you're both in a beautiful position. It's interesting because when I look at you both, I think leaders, right? Like you're leading by example and you're leading by example in an inspected ways. But there's a word that you use standing at the end open more accounts with San Sikudo and Bestmore. Do you see that next generation demystifying the trust around having credit, right? It was always, I don't want to owe anybody.

58:21Are we starting to see a change? I think, you know, the change is definitely happening. It's happening slowly because to my earlier point, Gen Z is afraid of credit, right? So our ability to help educate them and show them through series like Foundation Forward. I mean, we've even done a series with Kevin Hart and his daughter Heaven, who recently went to college. And the whole goal is have these real conversations in terms of the impact of credit. And I think with that, again, the idea of showing and proving, right? Like a lot of these conversations weren't had. And I think that's the biggest challenge.

59:06When I think about my my upbringing, I don't remember ever having a conversation about a debit card versus a credit card. I saw credit card bills, but I didn't necessarily, you know, get any sort of guidance with that. And I think, you know, we're at a place now where with all the information available, with the fact that we have banking institutions, you know, like Chase that provide the information and not just you don't always have to just walk it. to a bank. Like we obviously have online services. Um, you know, we leverage social media to tell these stories as well. I think it is opening doors because, you know, I think to, to Venus's point, like if, if you don't have the foundation, if you don't have the tools, like how do you, how do you navigate the next 10, 20 years when all of these things are continuing to evolve and, you know, it's only getting more complicated, you know?

1:00:02So you have to sort of understand the foundation for you to play the game. All right. So let's do some rapid, some rapid, uh, question and answers before we, before we wrap and either one of you can answer or both of you can answer. So the first one is, um, what's one credit myth you like to bust?

1:00:22The main one is that having credit cards is bad. Um, and the reason is because, uh, having credit cards is only bad when you don't have discipline and when you don't want to respect yourself. At the end of the day, credit is just an extension of what you can afford to do. And if it's any more than that, then there's a problem. So having credit cards is not bad. Having no discipline, that is very bad. All right. Stan, what mistake to avoid early? please? I would say spending more than you have. I mean, it's a simple one, but we all we all have fallen victim to it. You know what I mean? Like just because you have the credit.

1:01:03And I think thinking back to the conversation you had with with I think it was Broderick and he said, you know, I remember getting my card and having twenty five hundred dollar limit. And you specifically said just because you have twenty five hundred dollars doesn't mean you have to spend$2 ,500. And I think that's a key one that, that, um, people need to think about. I needed my own advice. I needed my own advice. And, and, and just, you know, utilization, right? Like you, you talked a lot. I remember you talking, um, you know, to our, you know, our cast members a lot about the concept of utilization, keeping it under 30%.

1:01:41And again, those are things that once you have that information, you can actually apply it. Like if you're, if you're keeping, you know, track of, you know, your credit score with, you know, tools like credit journey that we have, you know, you're immediately thinking about utilization and how do I make sure that it's, it stays, you know, at a low enough number where it's not impacting my credit score negatively. First step every young person should take as far as building their credit. Write a budget, write a budget, and then write another budget. Don't lie to yourself. Know exactly what you spend, know exactly what you have, know exactly what you're making and give yourself some 3, 6, 9, 12 goals.

1:02:26Maybe you're trying to buy a special dress for prom. Maybe you're trying to go on vacation or you're trying to, you know, make your first payment towards a computer or something. The easiest way to start this process, whether or not you go into a bank, is to actually write things down and make sure that you know yourself so that you are familiar with your own identity financially. I think that's a main thing that a lot of people miss out on is the opportunity to just look at what they spend and to look at what they have and look at what their goals are. Based on real math, I make this much every week and I want to save this much and I want to do this with that money.

1:03:03Once you have that, then you can start to use all the resources available to you, big or small. But if you don't want to look at yourself in the mirror and say this is who I am financially, this is what I make, and this is what I spend it on, and this is what I would have to change in order to save or in order to have access to, you know, a credit card that I can pay off, then you're not going to be in a better position by opening up a credit card now. I'm interested, as we did the series, you know, it's almost like a self-reflection. Absolutely. You talked about these stories that you lived. I wonder how, looking back now, how you reflect on listening to your story and saying how far you're able to come.

1:03:40How has that been people? I mean, I would say that it is really interesting to have this conversation. It's not one that I ever imagined I would have to have for work. But it's really cool to be able to share it because I think that I started working very young. I started working at the age of 12, 13 years old, but I had already been doing jobs. I had been in a commercial before that when I was 10 and I made a lot of money and I never saw that money because my parents didn't have good financial literacy so they spent that money my assumption is they spent it trying to buy the house that we ended up growing up and after that I will never know you know I just remember finding these pay stubs when I was much older for like this Microsoft commercial that I was in which was so crazy right because now I am a whole entertainer and I make money with brands doing exactly that being in commercials being in you know, partnership with brands.

1:04:31And at that time, you know, I went on to have this job. I taught art, you know, I was an art assistant at a summer camp. And then I went on to work at a pizzeria. And then during high school, I had three jobs. I was working at the library. I was working at the mall. I had two jobs at the mall. I remember I was working for an assemblyman. I was like the youngest intern they'd ever had. I was like 14 years old. It was like all these jobs. And I look just started my financial journey when I was 10 and I made those residual royalties from that damn Microsoft commercial. I would be so rich right now.

1:05:06And I'm not mad about it, but I just think it's really interesting because it's sort of like, you know, life, you can't pick where you start. You can't pick the things that happen to you, but you can notice at the end of the day, the kind of person that you are. I've always been drawn to the arts. I've always been drawn to being, you know I wouldn't say the center of attention but definitely a talent musical theater all the things and I was already like making money off of that at the age of 10 we were the first school in New York to ever have laptops so we got to be in the commercial showing people that kids should have laptops they paid us enough money so that we could pay monthly for these laptops so we could own them I think they paid half and we paid the other half but they also gave us royalties and my point is that I look back and I just say, wow, you know, imagine if I had these tools that we're giving you guys now.

1:06:00Imagine if I had them to tell my parents, hey, I saw something on Hulu, mom, and I think we should invest some of that money in this kind of account. Or I think, you know, I made money, so I want my own credit card because I want to be able to go and buy whatever I want because I made money. So I want to take 10 % of that or 20 % of that. And I just say, I can't way to have kids and teach them that all the money that they make and all the personality that they express, whether it is to be creative, whether it is to be hardworking, all of that should be something that they can gain something from in the end.

1:06:31You should not just be a slave and you should not just be out here working to survive. You should absolutely use the resources. This is one of many that Chase has to offer. Obviously, we're only dealing with credit, but I was a fan of you guys before I ever met you. I was watching a show in 2020 during the pandemic and I was literally taking notes, market Mondays. So it's like there are so many things that this little credit rabbit hole leads to. If you can figure out who you are and look at yourself clearly and give yourself a little bit of structure and also say, you know what? This is what I want to do.

1:07:08I want to own a house or I want to do this for work or I want to start this business or I want to have enough financial freedom and financial stability. to be able to move a certain way. Whatever that goal is though, you need to start somewhere. And my reflection is just, damn, I wish that this existed when I was a kid. I wish that somebody had told me, you made$50 ,000 on that commercial, you deserve to have$10 ,000 credit card and you deserve to say, I wanna go and buy pizza every week with my credit card and I wanna pay my bill. Just so that I could learn because at the end of the day, gamification, it's all a game.

1:07:45it's all a game and if you don't acknowledge that and you don't play the game you don't learn the rules of the game and you don't follow the rules of the game you're just not actually going to be playing the game well the bright spot is that it does now it's i'm in my 30s i still have a long runway to get it right and um i'm super excited you know given that i've been able to touch so much in a short but long career. Um, but it's just interesting. You know, I just, I just say, damn, this, these kids are lucky. You guys are lucky. I mean, even just thinking about the, you know, call them characters or the stories that we were, you know, privileged to, to be able to tell, right?

1:08:27Like I think about somebody like Jaden and I think we were in Santa Barbara. This is a kid that he's a real estate agent. He's a dishwasher. Like he's a waiter. Like he has, all these different jobs. And again, you're like, you guys left him with, you know, actionable checklist of things that he needs to be thinking about as he's trying to stack money. And I think we had a nice variety of people that I think were relatable in terms of, if I'm sitting at home and I'm watching this on Hulu, Jaden's story might appeal to me, or Margaret's story might appeal to me. You know what I mean? And I think like that, that part is really key, right?

1:09:10Like it wasn't one story, it was multiple stories of individuals that are trying to figure it out. You know what I mean? You know, you had Broderick, who was a videographer living in Atlanta, trying to buy his, what was he trying to buy a home from his dad, from his brother? Yeah. You know, so everyone's at a different step in their life. And I think the value of the way we approached it was, you know we showed that regardless of where you are that that initial step is the most important step. Congrats to Bajra. He actually got engaged after the show. Good. Yeah man we probably part of the story and I think uh our coaches were incredible too.

1:09:50Uh so so the coaches that were part of the days we had we had a lot of good interactions there and then so it was definitely a dope experience and like you said the next generation gets to watch it and be a part of it and educate themselves from something that they do all the time, which is streaming. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We had some heavy hitters. I mean, Venus, Courtney, you know, like you mentioned, Bixby, the social historian, Khalil. I think he was, he was, he was amazing. Yeah. Like, and I think again, giving, you know, regular people an opportunity to connect with cultural leaders that are, you know, moving the needle, you know, in their everyday lives, but they started from something, right?

1:10:32Like I specifically remember even, you know, Courtney and obviously Venus talking about their credit journey, you know, so we all have it. And I think humanizing that was a big, important piece of the storytelling that you guys did. Yeah, no, it was, it was a, for us, I think it was really impactful to actually be able to share stories from people that people may not be familiar with or they may be familiar with and it's all different people so somebody that's a celebrity dj somebody that's a waitress and i used to be a waitress too yeah for sure it could be you i'm a repel you could be the waitress turned celebrity dj i was a waitress for 10 years from 14 to 24 i transitioned from 22 23 to 24 that year i did both djing and waitressing this is all accessible to you my life the life you have the credit we're talking about the only thing we can tell you is just start the journey start the journey sure that was a point for us to to to do this so you know definitely want to thank you guys as far as chase and master pill as far as working with us it's on hulu now and hopefully we get season two you know yeah guys we need season two so if you're out there you want to tell your story you know hit these guys up because they're not gonna stop what they're doing and it's also really cool that i used to watch you guys during the pandemic you used to i mean i don't really watch that much stuff right now i'm not gonna lie i'm not in my youtube or streaming bag at the moment but i learned so much and now i'm in this series that's crazy to me because i didn't know very much in 2020.

1:12:10I was just a few years into starting and formalizing my business credit and personal finance journey. And this was an amazing resource because of the fact that you guys went out and interviewed so many people that I thought had really compelling stories, but maybe weren't formally business structured. And now we're able to share that with you and you're able to see the real fruit of it, which is that because of, you know, things that I learned watching EYL, I was able to continue expanding my business. At the same time, Stanley and I were becoming closer and he was starting to mentor me and tell me, you know, there's these other ways that you can expand your business as a creative.

1:12:52And now we're all here. So it just, you've got to start somewhere. And, you know, for me, it didn't just start with opening a credit card. It actually started with watching things like EYL because that was the first time I saw black people talking to other black people who weren't all corporate people and it was cool and I was like I can learn something here and I feel safe um and so yeah we hope that you're watching at home and that you go and you look at your credit score and that you write down your budget and that you hit up Chase and start somewhere this is true like Rashad said Foundation Forward is now streaming on Hulu so make sure y 'all check that out and make sure you go check out Chase for you and Roz to start your whole credit It's been a pleasure having y 'all.

1:13:32Thank you guys. We appreciate it. So cool. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both?

1:14:09Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show contains information subject to, but not limited to, personal takes, rumors, not-so-accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This your boy, Nell Green, from the Broken Play podcast. Look, it's the end of the season. The playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs. It's time to rebuild. Listen to Broken Play with Nav Green from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcasts.

1:14:47This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.