Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / MMC LIVE: Financial expert Dr. Lynn Richardson & Kwame Johnson of Big Brothers Big Sisters ATL
Transcript
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- 0:24Speaker 1: from Capital one. What's in your Wallet terms apply See
- 0:28Speaker 1: capital one dot com for details. What girls in the forest,
- 0:32Speaker 1: our imagination and our family bonds. The forest is closer
- 0:37Speaker 1: than you think. Find a forest near you and discover
- 0:40Speaker 1: the Forest dot org. Brought to you by the United
- 0:42Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the ad Council. Piece of the planet,
- 0:46Speaker 1: Charlemagne the God here and you don't want to miss
- 0:49Speaker 1: Hello Somebody with Senator Nina Turner on the Black Effect
- 0:53Speaker 1: podcast Network. I love Hello Somebody simply because I love
- 0:57Speaker 1: Nina Turner. She's fearless, I mean Turner, hell raising, humanitarian,
- 1:03Speaker 1: sister in the struggle and recovering elected official. Listen to
- 1:08Speaker 1: Hello Somebody every Thursday on the Heart Radio app, Apple
- 1:13Speaker 1: podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Money
- 1:23Speaker 1: Making Conversations. It's the show that she has the secrets
- 1:25Speaker 1: of success experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald.
- 1:29Speaker 1: I will know he's giving me advice on many occasions.
- 1:31Speaker 1: In in in case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know,
- 1:34Speaker 1: he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.
- 1:38Speaker 1: It's what he likes to do, it's what he likes
- 1:40Speaker 1: to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,
- 1:43Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. Money making conversations Here we come. Welcome, Welcome
- 1:48Speaker 1: to money making conversation. Like he said, I am Ray
- 1:50Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. Like every episode you will hear on this show,
- 1:54Speaker 1: I tell people to start reading other people's success stories
- 1:56Speaker 1: and start writing your own. People always talking about gifts,
- 1:59Speaker 1: they talk about perfect I will tell people leave with
- 2:01Speaker 1: your gifts and on your age. Friends, family, or coworkers
- 2:05Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. That's what
- 2:07Speaker 1: this show is all about. Money making conversations. Your show.
- 2:10Speaker 1: It's a community show, it's a state wide show, it's
- 2:12Speaker 1: a national show. But more important is a show that
- 2:14Speaker 1: provides you with information that you if you listen to it,
- 2:17Speaker 1: if you consume it and digest it, properly. It can
- 2:20Speaker 1: take you to another level of winning. I have celebrities
- 2:23Speaker 1: on my show. CEO is on my show, entrepreneurs and
- 2:26Speaker 1: people I like to call industry decision makers. My next
- 2:29Speaker 1: guest is a longtime friend. She's Dr Lynn Richardson. She's
- 2:32Speaker 1: an author, entertainment executive, and celebrity financial coach who uses
- 2:36Speaker 1: a quick witness She's funny and humorous presentation style to
- 2:39Speaker 1: help others face their money issues and achieve personal, professional,
- 2:43Speaker 1: and spiritual harmony. The Richardson Financial Group or Finance Group,
- 2:47Speaker 1: provides a wide range of wealth and tax planning strategies
- 2:50Speaker 1: to help you create generational wealth. Len Richardson believes that
- 2:54Speaker 1: if you build wealth, there are three different ways you
- 2:56Speaker 1: can do and we're gonna talk about many ways on
- 2:58Speaker 1: the show today because I got it about fifteen or
- 3:00Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty minutes. We're going to take phone calls
- 3:03Speaker 1: as well. One spend less money by implementing proper budgeting
- 3:06Speaker 1: and depth elimination strategies. To get more money, by implemating
- 3:10Speaker 1: wise investment strategies, and by developing multiple streams of income.
- 3:14Speaker 1: You hear me talking about that all the time. Multiple
- 3:16Speaker 1: streams of income guess what it means. You gotta work
- 3:19Speaker 1: a lot to achieve your dreams, and three get your
- 3:22Speaker 1: money back through proper tax, education, documentation, and planning. She's
- 3:26Speaker 1: here for the first time on Moneymaking Conversation Lives. She's
- 3:29Speaker 1: been on my show many times, on my podcast and syndication,
- 3:33Speaker 1: but please welcome to Moneymaking Conversation. Dr Lynn Richardson. Well,
- 3:44Speaker 1: I'm a Dr Lynn you know you know to have
- 3:47Speaker 1: you on this show. You're my inaugural guest on my
- 3:49Speaker 1: live show. You know. I went to my man, David
- 3:52Speaker 1: Lyndon and program director. He said, I said, can I
- 3:54Speaker 1: do this live in Atlanta? And um he said, sure,
- 3:57Speaker 1: we trust you, and but I wanted to make sure
- 4:00Speaker 1: that we bring an educational two to the show so
- 4:03Speaker 1: people can learn something have a takeaway. And I felt,
- 4:05Speaker 1: no other person because you're celebrity your own way, I'm not.
- 4:07Speaker 1: When you know, I got celebrity friends out there, and
- 4:10Speaker 1: people recognize I want to take pictures with himselfies. You
- 4:13Speaker 1: were like me, You want of those behind the scenes celebrities.
- 4:15Speaker 1: I have to change people's lives with information. Tell us
- 4:18Speaker 1: a little bit about yourself. Dr lynd Well, first of all,
- 4:22Speaker 1: thank you so much. Thank you so much, uh Rashaan.
- 4:25Speaker 1: I am a part of the Stay over their crew. Uh.
- 4:28Speaker 1: You know, the last time we talked, we were talking
- 4:30Speaker 1: about all of the things going on with the pandemic
- 4:33Speaker 1: and how the pandemic really showed us the importance of
- 4:37Speaker 1: entrepreneurial ship. But before I get to that, I was
- 4:40Speaker 1: born and raised in Chicago. My grandmother was seventy five
- 4:42Speaker 1: years old cleaning homes for wealthy people, putting me through college.
- 4:46Speaker 1: She taught me to go to school, get a good education,
- 4:48Speaker 1: get a good job, go to church on Sunday where
- 4:50Speaker 1: I clean under one cases were hit by bus right
- 4:55Speaker 1: in the Grandmama book. But I didn't know about money.
- 4:58Speaker 1: When I needed money for something, she telled me to
- 5:01Speaker 1: look in the room, on top of the shelf, behind
- 5:03Speaker 1: the box, inside of pocketbook, inside of it, wrapped up
- 5:06Speaker 1: in a piece of paper. Palace twenty dollars. So I
- 5:09Speaker 1: get off the college, I get a bunch of credit cards.
- 5:12Speaker 1: I can't pay anybody. I don't just get one or
- 5:15Speaker 1: two credit cards, I get tenny levelers. Well, when the
- 5:17Speaker 1: creditors call and say link can you borrow the money?
- 5:20Speaker 1: I say, can I borrow it from you? So fast forward.
- 5:23Speaker 1: I get out into the real world. My creditor is
- 5:26Speaker 1: jacked up my furniture from renter Center. Then I become successful.
- 5:30Speaker 1: I'm married, three children, making lots of money. But along
- 5:34Speaker 1: that path with Shaan, I was living a lie. You see,
- 5:38Speaker 1: I was living check the Monday. Check themself is a
- 5:41Speaker 1: blessing that means you get paid on Friday, and by
- 5:43Speaker 1: the next payday you're broke. The check the Monday is
- 5:46Speaker 1: a whole, entirely different games. You get paid on Friday,
- 5:49Speaker 1: you kick it on the weekend, you pay on your
- 5:52Speaker 1: path through bills, and by Monday you're broke. And I
- 5:54Speaker 1: was living that lifestyle, making thirty forty fifty eighty ninety
- 5:59Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a month, not a here. So I
- 6:02Speaker 1: help people understand this. More money doesn't solve a money problem.
- 6:06Speaker 1: If it did, millionaires wouldn't go bank wept. And so
- 6:09Speaker 1: that's been my story. I'm sticking to it. I've helped
- 6:12Speaker 1: some of the world's greatest icons expand their enterprises, and
- 6:16Speaker 1: I helped folks like stay at home Mom get over
- 6:19Speaker 1: their spending addiction. And so I love what I do,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and I really really enjoy having these money making conversations
- 6:26Speaker 1: to let people know that they can overcome anything to
- 6:31Speaker 1: achieve their financial dreams. Well, an interesting thing about it
- 6:34Speaker 1: is that everybody talks about financial dreams. And but again
- 6:38Speaker 1: I always tell people, like, you know, as I make money,
- 6:40Speaker 1: you spend money. A lot of people don't understand that
- 6:42Speaker 1: because I wish I could have the same lifestyle when
- 6:45Speaker 1: I was making thirty dollars a year and a hundred thousand,
- 6:48Speaker 1: because it just forces you to buy a car, buy
- 6:50Speaker 1: a house, and so you elevate your game. But you
- 6:53Speaker 1: have to set a budget. And that's the key thing.
- 6:55Speaker 1: And you're starting to elevate your game, bringing people into
- 6:58Speaker 1: your family, bringing people into your house, getting the pete
- 7:02Speaker 1: the in the house with three bed rooms, four bedrooms.
- 7:05Speaker 1: How do you start setting a budget in place as
- 7:08Speaker 1: you start achieving more money. Well, that's a great question.
- 7:13Speaker 1: And the first thing that I tell everybody the first
- 7:15Speaker 1: ten percent you tied. Now, I started tibby when I
- 7:18Speaker 1: was broke. I had a big old fact corporate paycheck.
- 7:20Speaker 1: But my bill stopped up there, and my you know,
- 7:23Speaker 1: my check stopped up there, and my bills kept going
- 7:25Speaker 1: all the way down the page. So I started tidy
- 7:28Speaker 1: when I was broken because I realized I was broke.
- 7:31Speaker 1: Whether I tied or not. It wasn't like if I
- 7:33Speaker 1: kept the tithing money I was straight. I was broke
- 7:35Speaker 1: either way. So I started timing so at least I
- 7:38Speaker 1: could have God on my broke side when I prayed
- 7:40Speaker 1: about my money. So the first tim percent you tied,
- 7:43Speaker 1: the next tien percent you saved um. And it's not
- 7:46Speaker 1: just saving for a rainy day rashawn. It's saving for
- 7:49Speaker 1: a come up when there's a recession. I tell people
- 7:51Speaker 1: all the time, coming out of this pandemic, you are
- 7:54Speaker 1: either be a millionaire, a billionaire, or a witness. Since
- 7:57Speaker 1: the beginning of time, God has prospered for in the
- 8:01Speaker 1: season of a famine. So when the overflow comes, we
- 8:04Speaker 1: have an opportunity to come up to my stock for
- 8:06Speaker 1: lower prices, real estate for lower prices. So the first
- 8:09Speaker 1: episcince you tied. The next piper, since you say for
- 8:12Speaker 1: investing in retirement, the next is cash in your pocket
- 8:17Speaker 1: or on a separate debit card for your incidentals. This
- 8:21Speaker 1: is stuff like groceries, gas, hair nails, the new iPhones.
- 8:26Speaker 1: If it doesn't fit, get rid of it. And I
- 8:28Speaker 1: say this because many people have a spending addiction. And
- 8:32Speaker 1: if you're not sure spending additions, what you have when
- 8:34Speaker 1: you go to the grothyto for toothpaste and walk out
- 8:37Speaker 1: with a hundred and seven nine dollars and forty seven
- 8:39Speaker 1: sent well, the fuss you don't need talk about it
- 8:41Speaker 1: was on sale. It was not on sale for you.
- 8:44Speaker 1: You know an interesting things at the land when you
- 8:47Speaker 1: when you're talking like this, what what always makes me?
- 8:50Speaker 1: Let everybody know that don't assume a person is living
- 8:53Speaker 1: a lifestyle? Did you think they're living fists? Do I
- 8:55Speaker 1: tell people I shop for coupons? They always go you like,
- 8:59Speaker 1: like I've done something you Yes, yes, I shop with coupons.
- 9:03Speaker 1: Kroger every month sends me coupons. I go in there,
- 9:07Speaker 1: give my avocados are going there, get my eggs, get
- 9:10Speaker 1: my milk two percent, all that stuff. So so sometimes
- 9:14Speaker 1: we can hurt ourselves assuming that you have to live
- 9:17Speaker 1: a certain way when guess what, you're hurting yourself assuming
- 9:21Speaker 1: that that value of a coupon can make your life
- 9:24Speaker 1: live a lot better and also makes a level of sensibility.
- 9:27Speaker 1: Is turning off lights, you're limitating the hairstyles that you
- 9:30Speaker 1: don't need our haircut you don't need so talk about
- 9:32Speaker 1: that whole process of living a lifestyle that's unnecessary because
- 9:38Speaker 1: you assume that's what you're supposed to be living when
- 9:40Speaker 1: you make a certain amount of money. Well, well here
- 9:43Speaker 1: here's the first thing. And you hit the nail on
- 9:45Speaker 1: the head because I am sitting here looking at a
- 9:47Speaker 1: stack of sales. I just bought a new house in
- 9:49Speaker 1: chapter with California. I've got a stack of sails, uh,
- 9:53Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go through and you know, clip my
- 9:55Speaker 1: coupons and so forth. Yes, it's not about how much
- 9:59Speaker 1: money you make. It is about how much money you keep.
- 10:02Speaker 1: And I want everybody to understand this. Rich people stay
- 10:05Speaker 1: rich because they act poor, and poor people stay poor
- 10:08Speaker 1: because they act rich, and poor people stay poor acting
- 10:11Speaker 1: rich in front of other poor people, which is real crazy.
- 10:15Speaker 1: That's real crazy. Right. So you start to think about, well,
- 10:19Speaker 1: it's just five dollars, it's just ten dollars, it's just
- 10:22Speaker 1: twenty dollars. I dare you to go and ask all
- 10:26Speaker 1: of your It's just I dare you, because that's where
- 10:29Speaker 1: your wealth is. If you went down your bank statements
- 10:32Speaker 1: or your PayPal, you'r been more your cash out and
- 10:35Speaker 1: you added up all year. It's just for one year,
- 10:39Speaker 1: you'd be shocked. So living that lifestyle is all about
- 10:44Speaker 1: having the freedom to make those decisions and so that
- 10:48Speaker 1: you want to be careful with it. And then the
- 10:50Speaker 1: last fifty with Seawan is what you keep in your
- 10:53Speaker 1: checking account for your bills. And what happens with a
- 10:56Speaker 1: lot of people they realize I don't have enough money
- 10:58Speaker 1: for my bills. And the the key thing with money
- 11:01Speaker 1: is it's one plus one equal two. It goes back
- 11:05Speaker 1: to first grade. And so if it doesn't add up,
- 11:08Speaker 1: then we're gonna start to eliminate things. But you know,
- 11:11Speaker 1: I have been through it all. You know, I have
- 11:13Speaker 1: been through bankruptcy. I've been through foreclosure. Um, I've written
- 11:17Speaker 1: glad checks. You know, I've done it all. I've been
- 11:19Speaker 1: there in my twenties and thirties since on and so forth.
- 11:23Speaker 1: And so what I know is that if God can
- 11:25Speaker 1: do it for me, is I can follow, and I
- 11:28Speaker 1: can do it for myself than anybody anybody can do it.
- 11:31Speaker 1: Who's whisking to money making conversations? Cool, We're talking to
- 11:34Speaker 1: Dr Land Richards, one of the premier financial coaches in
- 11:37Speaker 1: the country, about about honesty. I think A lot of
- 11:41Speaker 1: problems with money is tied to honesty. People loaning money
- 11:45Speaker 1: they shouldn't be loaning, people are asking for money they
- 11:47Speaker 1: shouldn't be asking for and more importantly, your credit all right.
- 11:51Speaker 1: For some reason, when I was eighteen years old, I
- 11:52Speaker 1: had an idea in my head. I had to protect
- 11:54Speaker 1: my credit. I fought forward. I mean, remember, young sister,
- 11:59Speaker 1: she are the credit card for me to go Christmas
- 12:01Speaker 1: shopping next to an over five thousand dollars? What's s
- 12:04Speaker 1: been on my credit card? And she and she acted
- 12:07Speaker 1: like it was no big deal when I asked her,
- 12:08Speaker 1: because I went to me, I would tell you how
- 12:10Speaker 1: old this was. Montgomery Awards was out there. I went
- 12:12Speaker 1: to Montgomery Wards. I was just him and I was
- 12:15Speaker 1: trying to get me a VCR. I'll try to get
- 12:17Speaker 1: me a VCR and the VCR called eight hundred dollars.
- 12:20Speaker 1: I'll tell you how fart back it was, you know,
- 12:21Speaker 1: VC her dollars. I went up to the counter put
- 12:25Speaker 1: my little Montgomery Wards. Because back in the day, if
- 12:26Speaker 1: you had a serious credit card and the Betgomery Ward
- 12:29Speaker 1: credit card, you had top line credit. Those were better
- 12:32Speaker 1: than American spreads. Back in the day, you had a
- 12:35Speaker 1: serious credit card. I went in there and that man
- 12:38Speaker 1: said your credit card, sir, because I only had a
- 12:40Speaker 1: thousand dollar credit limitary. He said, your your credit is overdrawing.
- 12:44Speaker 1: You can't buy this. And I walked to my sister.
- 12:47Speaker 1: I went back and I said, I said, what's called
- 12:49Speaker 1: what happened? And she looked at me, go, so you
- 12:52Speaker 1: know you got credit? And so that's what happens when
- 12:55Speaker 1: you allow people to not clearly understand how hard you
- 12:59Speaker 1: worked for what you're trying to do. I'm not telling
- 13:02Speaker 1: that story to make my sister look bad or feel bad.
- 13:05Speaker 1: I'm telling everybody you have to value what you get
- 13:08Speaker 1: and understand you can't share with everybody. And what happens
- 13:12Speaker 1: when you share with too many people, when when they're
- 13:14Speaker 1: time to come back and look for help, they over.
- 13:17Speaker 1: They're gonna, what's the problem. Why are you? Why are
- 13:20Speaker 1: you tripping? Why are you looking at me that way?
- 13:22Speaker 1: And that's why I wanted to bring you on my
- 13:23Speaker 1: show first. And also I want to just say this,
- 13:25Speaker 1: if you want to call in and ask Dr Lear Richards,
- 13:27Speaker 1: of course of me, because I got some stupid stuff.
- 13:30Speaker 1: I tell you basis on my life four zero four
- 13:33Speaker 1: eight eight zero nine to five five. You want to
- 13:35Speaker 1: hear the truth now like to living, she gonna like
- 13:38Speaker 1: couchy because she professional. You're conquering Rochan mcdonnth I might
- 13:41Speaker 1: have to tell you something about my personal life. They're
- 13:44Speaker 1: gonna let you just canna consist your life right four
- 13:46Speaker 1: zero four eight eight zero nine five five Because of
- 13:49Speaker 1: the fact that you told me something wants about you know,
- 13:53Speaker 1: home home home based businesses, because we hear a lot
- 13:57Speaker 1: of people want to start their own business at the
- 13:59Speaker 1: how and get it rolled? Tell us how that gets
- 14:02Speaker 1: actually happens. Because you know you're about franchises, but the
- 14:05Speaker 1: home based based business. How important is that and what
- 14:09Speaker 1: rules you have to put in place for that? Now
- 14:12Speaker 1: you just said the thing that that is the biggest thing. See,
- 14:16Speaker 1: in order to get your money to the next level,
- 14:18Speaker 1: in order to get your money street, you have to
- 14:20Speaker 1: do three things. You have to spend less money. There's
- 14:23Speaker 1: no way to become financially free if you spend more
- 14:25Speaker 1: money than you make. We just talked about that. The
- 14:27Speaker 1: next thing you have to do is get more money
- 14:30Speaker 1: through investing through franchising. But everybody should have a home
- 14:34Speaker 1: based business. Because of number three. You must also learn
- 14:38Speaker 1: how to get your money back. What do I mean
- 14:41Speaker 1: if you went to the grocery store and you bought
- 14:43Speaker 1: two hundred dollars worth the groceries, and you ate your groceries,
- 14:46Speaker 1: and the grocery store manager called you back in two
- 14:48Speaker 1: weeks and said, hey, come back to get your money.
- 14:50Speaker 1: Let me tell you we stop dropping roll right now,
- 14:52Speaker 1: the radio interview will be over. We go get our
- 14:55Speaker 1: money and so and so forth. Well, guess what. That's
- 14:57Speaker 1: what the I R s says. The IR says. If
- 15:00Speaker 1: you have a home based business and you use your
- 15:04Speaker 1: phone for business, now you get your money back for
- 15:06Speaker 1: your cell phone. If you drive your car for business,
- 15:09Speaker 1: now you get back to mileage of gas, the expenses.
- 15:12Speaker 1: If you go out to eat and have a meal
- 15:15Speaker 1: for business, now you get that money back. So whenever
- 15:18Speaker 1: I go out to eat for Shawn, I never go
- 15:20Speaker 1: out for personal reasons. Okay, if my best friend called
- 15:23Speaker 1: because a man left her and she crying and they're
- 15:26Speaker 1: body trying to figure out how they're gonna get him back,
- 15:28Speaker 1: I'm going out and we're gonna discuss business, because that
- 15:32Speaker 1: meal then becomes a tax right off, and there are
- 15:35Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of tax resumptions when you have a
- 15:38Speaker 1: home based business on that thought right for Dr Leverrige
- 15:41Speaker 1: and I gotta go to a break, I gotta go
- 15:43Speaker 1: to break or Money and conversation. You gotta pay these bills.
- 15:45Speaker 1: I'm talking to Dr Lennon Richardson. We're gonna come back
- 15:47Speaker 1: and continuous conversation by home based business if you want
- 15:50Speaker 1: to call in four zero four eight zero zero zero
- 15:56Speaker 1: eight eight zero again Money Making Conversation Live with Dr
- 16:00Speaker 1: Land Bridges and I'm your host with Sean McDonald, who'll
- 16:03Speaker 1: be right back. It's finally here, the season of celebration
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- 16:58Speaker 1: dot com. Look the rctual Dan's eyes to see the
- 17:01Speaker 1: true magic of a forest. It's a storybook world for them.
- 17:05Speaker 1: You look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled
- 17:08Speaker 1: face of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky.
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- 17:53Speaker 1: the Forest dot org, brought to you by the United
- 17:56Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. Now let's return
- 18:00Speaker 1: to money making conversation with Rashan McDonald. Thank you very much.
- 18:05Speaker 1: I want to continue this conversation with Dr land richards
- 18:07Speaker 1: She's an Richardson. Excuse me. She's an author, entertainment executive,
- 18:11Speaker 1: and celebrity financial coach who uses her quick wit and
- 18:13Speaker 1: humorous presentation style to help others face their money issues
- 18:17Speaker 1: and achieve personal, professional, and spiritual harmony. When we're going
- 18:20Speaker 1: when I took you to Break, he was right in
- 18:22Speaker 1: the middle of talking about the need or the importance
- 18:25Speaker 1: of usingized utilizing home based business advantages. Continue that conversation,
- 18:31Speaker 1: Dr Lan Richardson. Everybody needs the home based business. And
- 18:35Speaker 1: I think the pandemics shut down all the position where
- 18:38Speaker 1: we realized just how important it was. Who could have
- 18:41Speaker 1: imagined that we don't have to stay home for months?
- 18:44Speaker 1: And so getting a home based business ensure that the
- 18:47Speaker 1: money that you are spending anyway, the money you're spending anyway,
- 18:52Speaker 1: you're spending money on your card note, you're spending money
- 18:55Speaker 1: on school, you're spending money on your children. Now my
- 18:58Speaker 1: grandmother had seventeen brothers and sisters and she was the oldest,
- 19:01Speaker 1: so she had to feed everybody. And I'm gonna tell
- 19:03Speaker 1: you if I am seventeen kids, everybody would eat every day.
- 19:06Speaker 1: I have a Monday, Wednesday group, in a two bay
- 19:08Speaker 1: Thursday group, and on your day off, you have to
- 19:10Speaker 1: fast for yourself. Kids are expensive. But the I already
- 19:16Speaker 1: said that you have a home based business. You can
- 19:19Speaker 1: hire your child to work in your home based business.
- 19:22Speaker 1: You can pay each child up to twelve thousand, five
- 19:25Speaker 1: hundred dollars a year. That's now a tax fight off
- 19:28Speaker 1: to you. You get that money back, and now the
- 19:31Speaker 1: child can go and buy all the things you were
- 19:33Speaker 1: gonna pay for anyway, like school clothing, school supplies, and
- 19:37Speaker 1: video games, and it's tax free to the child. So
- 19:41Speaker 1: having a home based business, in adsuition to other income strains,
- 19:45Speaker 1: in addition to your corporation and things about that, coming
- 19:48Speaker 1: a home based business is absolutely key to get your
- 19:51Speaker 1: money back. Okay, now, because you slave that by really quick,
- 19:54Speaker 1: you say you can pay your kids to work for
- 19:56Speaker 1: your soul, proprietarish for your business in other words, and
- 19:59Speaker 1: earn up. They can earn up to twelve thousand, four
- 20:01Speaker 1: hundred dollars and per child, per child, yes, so I
- 20:07Speaker 1: have three children and they just went up to square thousand,
- 20:10Speaker 1: five hundred. So I have three children, So that that's
- 20:13Speaker 1: a lot of money. That's over thirty eight thousand dollars
- 20:16Speaker 1: a year in fact right off, just because I understand
- 20:19Speaker 1: the taxes. And it's an IRS publication fifteen page thirteen.
- 20:24Speaker 1: I r S publication fifteen page thirteen talked about family
- 20:28Speaker 1: employees and it's specifically talked about hiring your child in
- 20:32Speaker 1: your home based business and Rashawn, you said it your
- 20:35Speaker 1: sole proprietorship or your single member LLC. Now, there's so
- 20:38Speaker 1: many people want to get in business because you've seen
- 20:40Speaker 1: an explosion of of you know these we works, these
- 20:44Speaker 1: UH gathering spot in Atlanta, you know UM space spaces. Well,
- 20:50Speaker 1: you know you see young African American people. They can
- 20:53Speaker 1: go and get their own the space. They can call
- 20:54Speaker 1: it on office space. You don't have to because you
- 20:56Speaker 1: just started out with ups ups. Instead of giving you
- 20:59Speaker 1: a PO box, gave your real address. And so I
- 21:01Speaker 1: see all these young people out there, and I shouldn't
- 21:03Speaker 1: say young people because I see people in their thirties
- 21:05Speaker 1: and forties and fifties, because I always tell people, don't
- 21:07Speaker 1: let your age stop your dreams, because a lot of
- 21:09Speaker 1: people think when you get for the fifty or sixty,
- 21:11Speaker 1: they stop dreaming. They just say, you know, I'm just
- 21:13Speaker 1: gonna wait on the government take care of you. Excuse me.
- 21:16Speaker 1: The government will not take care of you. That eighteen
- 21:18Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year that you're getting for Social Security.
- 21:20Speaker 1: It's was waiting on you. I don't know why people
- 21:23Speaker 1: think it's like fifty thousand waiting on them, aout sixty
- 21:25Speaker 1: thousand year waiting on them. No, there's the government will
- 21:28Speaker 1: not be taking care of you. So if you're sitting
- 21:30Speaker 1: around there waiting on them to take care of you,
- 21:32Speaker 1: that's gonna be an issue. What is the most shocking
- 21:34Speaker 1: thing that you hear from people that like, you know,
- 21:37Speaker 1: you really think that's the truth, or you really think
- 21:39Speaker 1: that that's the way you can achieve success, because people
- 21:42Speaker 1: really think at times, we say kids, but adults sometimes
- 21:46Speaker 1: think money grows on trees too. They don't have a
- 21:48Speaker 1: fair sense of what a budget is all about and
- 21:51Speaker 1: the need for a budget. You know, I think that's
- 21:55Speaker 1: the most shocking thing that people have to understand you
- 21:58Speaker 1: said that, would you? In the show opening, I always
- 22:02Speaker 1: tell people you have to get in the game. You
- 22:04Speaker 1: have to get off the sidelines and get in the game.
- 22:06Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? You can watch YouTube,
- 22:10Speaker 1: you can watch all the free things, but at some
- 22:13Speaker 1: point you've got to get in the game. You've got
- 22:15Speaker 1: to invest your time, You've got to invest your money.
- 22:18Speaker 1: Because let me tell you something, people like to give
- 22:21Speaker 1: money to people who they think don't need it. And
- 22:23Speaker 1: so sometimes we're looking for a grant, we're looking for
- 22:26Speaker 1: a handout, we're looking for somebody to invest. But the
- 22:29Speaker 1: first person to invest the first person to believe in
- 22:32Speaker 1: your dreams with you. And I believe if you believe
- 22:36Speaker 1: in your own dreams, do you believe in your own business,
- 22:39Speaker 1: you believe in your own goals, then you'll get other
- 22:41Speaker 1: people on board with you. That That really is the
- 22:44Speaker 1: most shocking thing. I don't think people really understand just
- 22:47Speaker 1: how powerful they are Rash, which is why this show
- 22:51Speaker 1: is so important. Really, if you want to talk to
- 22:53Speaker 1: us for zero zero is a hotline number today to
- 22:58Speaker 1: call and speak to Dr Lamb Richard something myself with
- 23:00Speaker 1: Sean McDonald is talking about how to spend less money
- 23:03Speaker 1: by implementing proper budgeting and debt elimination strategies. We just
- 23:08Speaker 1: talked about that a little bit. Sometimes we use words
- 23:11Speaker 1: like front and you know, people out there acting like
- 23:13Speaker 1: they trying to make it happen, but they're not really
- 23:15Speaker 1: trying to make it happen because the money isn't there.
- 23:17Speaker 1: And also, you know, when I look at myself, I
- 23:21Speaker 1: don tell you a little personal story about me when
- 23:23Speaker 1: I was coming along, and I still have this value.
- 23:25Speaker 1: Always said that when I go shopping, I just wanted
- 23:28Speaker 1: to go in your store and just buy things. I
- 23:29Speaker 1: wouldn't even look at the price. So now listen to
- 23:32Speaker 1: this the guy who just said he shopped with coupons. Yes,
- 23:35Speaker 1: I do. But you set certain goals on how you
- 23:37Speaker 1: want to live and how you want your lifestyle to be.
- 23:41Speaker 1: And so my goal wasn't always tried to money. It
- 23:43Speaker 1: was tied to cannot afford it. If I can go
- 23:46Speaker 1: in the grocery store, whether it's public or whether it Kroger's,
- 23:48Speaker 1: or whether it's any store in this country, and I
- 23:50Speaker 1: would see a local bread, I'm gonna get the local bread,
- 23:52Speaker 1: no matter what it's gonna cost. Because in my mind
- 23:55Speaker 1: and my lifestyle. I've afforded myself to be able to
- 23:58Speaker 1: grab that local beer and worried how much it costs.
- 24:01Speaker 1: Now my sensibilities tell me if I have a coupon,
- 24:04Speaker 1: I'm applying to that little bridge so I can pay less.
- 24:07Speaker 1: And that's the difference in what people don't do on
- 24:10Speaker 1: the regular basis. They have standards, But who are the
- 24:13Speaker 1: standards being made for? My standards are being made for myself.
- 24:16Speaker 1: Dr Richardson who your standards being made for? You know
- 24:21Speaker 1: my standards are being made. I didn't want my children
- 24:24Speaker 1: to have to go through the things I went through.
- 24:26Speaker 1: I didn't want them to have to struggle through college.
- 24:28Speaker 1: I don't want them to have to struggle as young adults.
- 24:30Speaker 1: And so I've watched people like you for a very
- 24:32Speaker 1: long time. I've watched other successful people, and I would
- 24:35Speaker 1: say that's probably, if it's not an equal number one,
- 24:38Speaker 1: it's a close number two that if you can model
- 24:42Speaker 1: the behavior and the processes of successful people, you don't
- 24:46Speaker 1: have to reinvent the wheel. You don't have to reinvent
- 24:49Speaker 1: the wheels. So I modeled the behaviors of folks that
- 24:52Speaker 1: I've worked with and worked for, like Rustleson is an
- 24:54Speaker 1: empty light in Sheila E. And so on and so forth.
- 24:57Speaker 1: I modeled some of those behaviors, and and my motivation
- 25:00Speaker 1: has been for my children. UM. And then also my grandmother.
- 25:04Speaker 1: She had an eighth grade education. UM. But she was
- 25:07Speaker 1: one of the wisest women I ever knew. And she
- 25:09Speaker 1: always had money. She had more money than me when
- 25:11Speaker 1: I was making six figures a month. She had more
- 25:15Speaker 1: money than me at times. And so it was the
- 25:17Speaker 1: behavior that had her in a position where she was
- 25:20Speaker 1: able to not only spend for herself, but to provide
- 25:23Speaker 1: for herself into retirement. Your money can make you stupid.
- 25:27Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you right now. Money I you know,
- 25:31Speaker 1: especially when you don't come for money. You know, when
- 25:34Speaker 1: you when you get money suddenly, you know, in the
- 25:36Speaker 1: entertainment business, you get money like you know. That's why
- 25:39Speaker 1: a lot of athletes go broke. That's why a lot
- 25:41Speaker 1: of people because you have to tell you something. You
- 25:43Speaker 1: get a contract, say twelve million dollars a year, you
- 25:46Speaker 1: forget taxes coming out of that. Okay, they're gonna take that.
- 25:49Speaker 1: It's never and people forget that. They forget that. But
- 25:52Speaker 1: the but the agent is gonna get paid his commission
- 25:55Speaker 1: on the growth, so and so that a lot of
- 25:58Speaker 1: people understand how that process works. And so, so I
- 26:01Speaker 1: remember when I first started coming in the money. You know,
- 26:05Speaker 1: I had I had three different Mercedes. Being it was
- 26:08Speaker 1: in California, I was, I was just out there. My
- 26:10Speaker 1: mind was blown. Okay, I can't drive but one car. Now,
- 26:14Speaker 1: that's what stupidity takes over your life. So I was,
- 26:17Speaker 1: I was collecting cars like shoes. You know, I tried
- 26:20Speaker 1: that on Monday. I dried that on Thursday, and when
- 26:23Speaker 1: my family come to town, I dried that on the weekend.
- 26:26Speaker 1: See that's where that money right there. When I look
- 26:29Speaker 1: back on it should have been in some investment, should
- 26:31Speaker 1: have been somewhere where look some stock, where I should
- 26:36Speaker 1: have got coke way back in nineteen eighty. And they're
- 26:38Speaker 1: telling how much money that would have had. And so
- 26:40Speaker 1: when we talk about investment, that's part of the conversations
- 26:43Speaker 1: where African Americans, importantly, they don't understand. They don't understand
- 26:46Speaker 1: how to value that situation and how to get in there.
- 26:49Speaker 1: How do we turn the corner with African Americans or
- 26:51Speaker 1: people of color to understand the valuable investment. We're not
- 26:54Speaker 1: talking about savings accounts because right now, interest on savings
- 26:57Speaker 1: account that's why people think they're buying homes left right
- 27:00Speaker 1: because interest is so low. We're talking about going to
- 27:02Speaker 1: that stock market and learning how to trust the system
- 27:06Speaker 1: and investing in stocks that you live your life. One
- 27:09Speaker 1: in the other way, if you go to home depot
- 27:11Speaker 1: by home depot stock, if you if you if you
- 27:13Speaker 1: got an Apple phone by Apple stock, you know by
- 27:16Speaker 1: what you use. If you don't know what to buy,
- 27:18Speaker 1: talk to them some common sense, because that's I always
- 27:20Speaker 1: love about you. Dr Lany Riches, your lovel common sense,
- 27:23Speaker 1: it was, has opened so many doors for so many
- 27:25Speaker 1: people to be successful in any type of relationship. Talk
- 27:29Speaker 1: to us. Oh my goodness. Let me tell you. The
- 27:31Speaker 1: stock market is the oldest, the most consistent um and
- 27:36Speaker 1: and the most widely available h tool that anyone can
- 27:41Speaker 1: use to grow their wealth. If you put your money
- 27:44Speaker 1: under the mattress, not only will it not grow, but
- 27:47Speaker 1: the value of that money will decrease over time because
- 27:51Speaker 1: of inflation. If you put your money in a save
- 27:53Speaker 1: these accounts, that's a great start. Maybe you've got your
- 27:56Speaker 1: emergency fund there, but you're not gonna earn any more
- 27:59Speaker 1: than one may be two percent if you're lucky, if
- 28:02Speaker 1: you put your money in the stock market and use
- 28:04Speaker 1: My daughters, my two youngest are at Howard, my oldest
- 28:07Speaker 1: graduating from Northwestern, and they buy Apple stock because they
- 28:11Speaker 1: have iPhones. Uh, they buy I think they brought brooms,
- 28:14Speaker 1: you know. They bought shoplify because they have businesses and
- 28:17Speaker 1: now their soft portfolio you can earn. You can put
- 28:21Speaker 1: in a hundred dollars and earn the five hundreds, you know,
- 28:24Speaker 1: depending on which stock you purchase and how long you
- 28:27Speaker 1: keep those investments over time. In New Walk University Resaunt,
- 28:31Speaker 1: we have a class called how to invest in the
- 28:33Speaker 1: stock Market, helping people understand and I think if we
- 28:37Speaker 1: continue to demystify the difficulties, then people will understand that
- 28:42Speaker 1: investment and make those times of decisions. It's absolutely amazing. Well,
- 28:46Speaker 1: you know the thing about I want to first of all,
- 28:48Speaker 1: thank you for coming on my analogural show. First of all,
- 28:50Speaker 1: I want to ask you back. You know, this's my
- 28:52Speaker 1: first show. We'll put some questions. A lot of people
- 28:55Speaker 1: don't know. We've changed the whole system around. My show
- 28:57Speaker 1: is normally recorded in this time slot. It is live everybody.
- 29:01Speaker 1: That means it's Live, which means that you can call
- 29:03Speaker 1: in talk to us, and we are trying to change
- 29:05Speaker 1: people's lives with information. That's what Money Making Conversation Live
- 29:08Speaker 1: is all about. But more important, I can't do it
- 29:10Speaker 1: by myself. That's why I have to bring on brilliant people.
- 29:13Speaker 1: I don't put the word brilliant, people like Dr Lann Richardson.
- 29:15Speaker 1: You're not called her by Samantham and executive producer of
- 29:18Speaker 1: the show called her and she said, I'm there for
- 29:20Speaker 1: Rashan and that's what means that this business is about relationship.
- 29:24Speaker 1: So Dr Lynne on my inugural Money Making Conversation Live show,
- 29:27Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the show and I want
- 29:29Speaker 1: to bring you back. Is that cool? Oh? I love it.
- 29:32Speaker 1: I will come back as many times. And let me
- 29:34Speaker 1: tell you I know about the live show that was
- 29:36Speaker 1: once recorded because everybody's listening. Everybody's like, oh my god,
- 29:39Speaker 1: I keep calling this next time, I'll be ready and whatever,
- 29:43Speaker 1: whenever you be, I will be there. Thank you so
- 29:45Speaker 1: much and God blessed. I appreciate it with Dr lear Richardson,
- 29:49Speaker 1: She's amazing. And again, the information I bring on the show,
- 29:51Speaker 1: the show information for you. Please realize that Money Make
- 29:54Speaker 1: Conversation Live will be here every Tuesday, six pm to
- 29:58Speaker 1: seven pm. I am here for you. I'm here to
- 30:01Speaker 1: help you change your life. I'm here to help you
- 30:04Speaker 1: understand the value of success. Be right back from More
- 30:06Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald when Making Conversation Live. We will be right
- 30:12Speaker 1: back with more Money Making Conversation with Rashan McDonald support
- 30:16Speaker 1: for w c OK. It's made possible by the United
- 30:19Speaker 1: States Air Force, the presenting sponsor of the HBCU College Day,
- 30:23Speaker 1: taking place Saturday, September twenty five from ten a m.
- 30:25Speaker 1: Until six pm on the capital of Clark Atlanta University.
- 30:29Speaker 1: The event is open to all high school juniors, seniors,
- 30:31Speaker 1: and young adults. On site recruiters will include HBCUs, Coca
- 30:35Speaker 1: Cola Bottlers, United Ups, and Morgan Stanley, the United States
- 30:39Speaker 1: Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve, and Space Force.
- 30:43Speaker 1: More information and registration is available at HBCU Awards dot com.
- 30:47Speaker 1: Look at your children's eyes to see the true magic
- 30:50Speaker 1: of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You
- 30:54Speaker 1: look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face
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- 31:48Speaker 1: Adoption of teams from foster care is a topic not
- 31:51Speaker 1: enough people know about, and we're here to change that.
- 31:53Speaker 1: I'm April Denuity, host of the new podcast Navigating Adoption,
- 31:56Speaker 1: presented by adopt Us Kids. Each episode brings g compelling,
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- 32:03Speaker 1: With commentary from experts. Visit adopt us Kids dot org,
- 32:07Speaker 1: slash podcast, or subscribed to Navigating Adoption, presented by adopt
- 32:11Speaker 1: us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department
- 32:13Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
- 32:16Speaker 1: and the Council. Now, let's return some Money Making Conversation
- 32:20Speaker 1: with Rushan McDonald and welcome back to Money Making Conversation Live.
- 32:28Speaker 1: You know, when I think about what I've done in
- 32:30Speaker 1: my life, you know, I'm currently make a line of
- 32:33Speaker 1: George of my home. Born and raised in Houston, Texas,
- 32:36Speaker 1: I've lived in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles. No
- 32:39Speaker 1: matter where I've lived, I've always learned that people are different.
- 32:42Speaker 1: You should treat them different, and you should have a
- 32:44Speaker 1: clear understanding of why they are successful. And only way
- 32:47Speaker 1: you can be successful was create relationships with people believe
- 32:50Speaker 1: in you. And that has been when I've fallen. There
- 32:53Speaker 1: have been people to pick me up and they would.
- 32:55Speaker 1: People will pick you up. They believe in you. They
- 32:57Speaker 1: pick you up, they feel that you believe in them
- 33:00Speaker 1: and you share their responsibilities. My next guest is I
- 33:03Speaker 1: call him a friend. You know, I met him on
- 33:05Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation when I first launched in twin and
- 33:08Speaker 1: um in doing so. His goal is in life affect
- 33:13Speaker 1: me in such a a strong way because we all
- 33:17Speaker 1: say that we don't have time. That's a that's a
- 33:19Speaker 1: big statement we say all the time. But this brother
- 33:22Speaker 1: has time all the time for the right people. My
- 33:25Speaker 1: next guest is uh Karma Johnson. He's the president CEO
- 33:28Speaker 1: of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta. He's also
- 33:32Speaker 1: a partner with He always partners with local leaders, celebrities,
- 33:34Speaker 1: and influential men in Atlanta give youth, especially young boys,
- 33:38Speaker 1: every opportunity to succeed. Big Brothers Big Sisters currently has
- 33:42Speaker 1: over Georgia Boars on waiting list n six of the
- 33:46Speaker 1: of those boards African Americans. And we know Atlanta when
- 33:49Speaker 1: we complain about the water boards on the corner and
- 33:52Speaker 1: things like that. This is what this conversation is about.
- 33:54Speaker 1: What to do with those young men who are active
- 33:56Speaker 1: in the streets who don't have male leadership, male guidance.
- 34:01Speaker 1: Adult males often feel uncertain of their ability to mentor
- 34:04Speaker 1: a young boy and want to know during the time
- 34:06Speaker 1: or do they have time, how they're gonna fit in
- 34:08Speaker 1: their schedule where That's why I got Mr Johnson on
- 34:10Speaker 1: the call today to talk about this. We wanna spend
- 34:12Speaker 1: some minutes talk about his career. I want to everybody
- 34:15Speaker 1: knows how did he get here? First? I have a
- 34:17Speaker 1: Big Brothers Big Big Brothers Big Sisters takes care of
- 34:20Speaker 1: those concerns by making flexible volunteering schedules. You know, it
- 34:24Speaker 1: takes a few hours a couple of times a month
- 34:27Speaker 1: to make a big difference in a young boy a
- 34:28Speaker 1: girl's life. Police, welcome to money making conversation. Like I
- 34:31Speaker 1: said earlier, the President and CEO of Big Brothers Big
- 34:34Speaker 1: Sisters of Metro Atlanta, Kwama Johnson, Hello, Hello, my brother.
- 34:39Speaker 1: Is good to catch up with you and talking to you.
- 34:41Speaker 1: I love the work that you're doing and all the
- 34:43Speaker 1: support you've been providing us over the years. It's glad
- 34:46Speaker 1: to be here. We know we we met um and
- 34:48Speaker 1: we didn't know each other and over a radio interview, Kwame,
- 34:52Speaker 1: and but the passion and desire. I just want to
- 34:55Speaker 1: because everybody that's a journey to become the president and
- 34:58Speaker 1: CEO Big Brothers, Big Sister and talk about how you
- 35:01Speaker 1: gotten started. Just talk about little bit of your educational
- 35:04Speaker 1: background and then how did you make your way to
- 35:06Speaker 1: Atlanta before we get into the actual program. Well, no,
- 35:10Speaker 1: thank you again for having me. And you know, it's
- 35:12Speaker 1: been a journey. It's been been a long journey. And
- 35:14Speaker 1: I tell people all the time that I've been given
- 35:16Speaker 1: a second chance at life. And you know, for anybody
- 35:19Speaker 1: that's been given a second chance, you try to make
- 35:22Speaker 1: the best out of that situation when you're giving that
- 35:24Speaker 1: second chance. And I've had different people coming to my life,
- 35:28Speaker 1: different mentors along the way, family friends, you know, coaches,
- 35:33Speaker 1: formal mentors who poured into me. You know, my coach
- 35:37Speaker 1: Steve Maynard, when I was in prison at the age
- 35:39Speaker 1: of seventeen for being a knucklehead, would bring me my
- 35:41Speaker 1: school work so I can finish my senior year in
- 35:44Speaker 1: high school and go to college at Hampton University. And
- 35:48Speaker 1: then being at Hampton University, I started thinking about all
- 35:51Speaker 1: the young men that I had spent time with behind bars,
- 35:54Speaker 1: who had tough stories and very much tougher than mine.
- 35:58Speaker 1: Uh Anthony who I met, who met his father in
- 36:00Speaker 1: jail for the first time. I kept thinking about him,
- 36:03Speaker 1: and I decided at that point, at the age of nineteen,
- 36:06Speaker 1: to leave college and to going to youth development and
- 36:10Speaker 1: to really help young people and defend potentially young people
- 36:13Speaker 1: so they would never have to experience what I went
- 36:15Speaker 1: through and what Anthony went through. And that's what I've
- 36:18Speaker 1: been doing my whole career. You know, I've been blessed
- 36:20Speaker 1: to go to Harvard and win all types of awards
- 36:23Speaker 1: and become a CEO in my thirties. And it's really
- 36:27Speaker 1: because of all the different people that have supported me
- 36:30Speaker 1: and who've mentored me and important to me. I'm actually
- 36:32Speaker 1: working on a book right now to document my journey
- 36:36Speaker 1: and to give some tips to young people so they
- 36:39Speaker 1: can be a CEO. If you think about it, young
- 36:41Speaker 1: people like me who've been through these situations need to
- 36:44Speaker 1: be working in nonprofit because they have hands on experience
- 36:48Speaker 1: with these same challenges. So it's been it's been a
- 36:51Speaker 1: great rite. I'm blessed. Well, you know the interesting thing
- 36:53Speaker 1: I'm talking to call me Johnson the President CEO or
- 36:55Speaker 1: Big Brothers Big Sisters at Metro Atlanta if you want
- 36:58Speaker 1: to talk to him and talk to me for zero
- 37:00Speaker 1: four eight eight zero five four zero four eight zero.
- 37:07Speaker 1: The reason I brought him on the show was we
- 37:09Speaker 1: always talk about time, We always complained about situations and
- 37:13Speaker 1: but the youth or our future. When I look back
- 37:15Speaker 1: on my life, kam Um, I remember well, fifteen years old,
- 37:20Speaker 1: my father was a truck driver. Like I said, I'm
- 37:22Speaker 1: from Houston, Texas. And the first job he gave me
- 37:25Speaker 1: was was one of one of his routes. He took
- 37:28Speaker 1: me over there, he said, can you hire my son
- 37:30Speaker 1: and I and so I was influenced by the young
- 37:33Speaker 1: black men who were working. And all of them drove forklifts.
- 37:36Speaker 1: All of them drove for they were the baddest forklift
- 37:38Speaker 1: drivers I had ever seen in my life. I was
- 37:40Speaker 1: fifteen years old. So despite all my education, despite my
- 37:45Speaker 1: ability to go to college, because I did go to
- 37:47Speaker 1: college and graduate with a math and mathematics degree in
- 37:49Speaker 1: a minor and sociology, when I came out of high school,
- 37:53Speaker 1: I wanted to be a forklift driver. That's all I
- 37:55Speaker 1: wanted to be. And guess what, I got a job
- 37:57Speaker 1: as a forklift driver. I didn't even go to college
- 37:59Speaker 1: because us I was influenced by these young men when
- 38:02Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old. And so that's why people
- 38:05Speaker 1: need to understand how young minds can be shaped in
- 38:09Speaker 1: a direction if you if you come into their lives
- 38:12Speaker 1: at the right point, then you can shape and they
- 38:14Speaker 1: shape my direction. And it wasn't nothing negative with being
- 38:16Speaker 1: the forklift driver, but people around me felt I could
- 38:19Speaker 1: do more. I had more options in my life than
- 38:23Speaker 1: they may have had to be forklift drivers. And I'm
- 38:25Speaker 1: not trying to make manual labor a negative. I'm just
- 38:27Speaker 1: letting everybody know he was a kid fifteen years old
- 38:31Speaker 1: who were influenced by young men, and when I left
- 38:34Speaker 1: high school, I wanted to be a forklift driver. What
- 38:37Speaker 1: if I was influenced by scientists. What about influence with
- 38:40Speaker 1: people who writing books about being a CEO. What if
- 38:43Speaker 1: I was influenced by people who wanted who are non athletic,
- 38:47Speaker 1: people who in the stand program engineers, I would have
- 38:49Speaker 1: probably wanted to come out of high school and be
- 38:51Speaker 1: an engineer or be a teacher. So that's really what
- 38:54Speaker 1: your programmer is all about. And I should need to
- 38:56Speaker 1: call it the program because it's a very affluent organization.
- 39:00Speaker 1: And Big Brothers and Big Metro Atlanta talk about the
- 39:02Speaker 1: whole substance because I'm outside of looking in talk to us, right,
- 39:09Speaker 1: you know. Oprah Winfrey has a quote that says that
- 39:13Speaker 1: everybody has hope inside them. And what you're talking about
- 39:17Speaker 1: is young people are born with hope, they're born with potential,
- 39:21Speaker 1: and it's our responsibility as adults to descend that potential
- 39:25Speaker 1: so they can reach their full potential. Just giving them
- 39:27Speaker 1: exposure to careers and opportunities and different things they may
- 39:31Speaker 1: never see in their communities will turn on that light.
- 39:34Speaker 1: And I've seen so many young people pushed through the
- 39:37Speaker 1: toughest situations because they had hope. And that's what mentors represent.
- 39:43Speaker 1: That's why more people your listeners need to know that
- 39:45Speaker 1: they can provide hope. They can provide a tangible testimony
- 39:50Speaker 1: of what is possible. And we're not asking you to
- 39:53Speaker 1: become a foster parent or to do all these different things.
- 39:56Speaker 1: We're actually just suspending the time with a young person,
- 39:59Speaker 1: to pouring to a young person, to bring them along
- 40:02Speaker 1: them with you in your journey and life so they
- 40:04Speaker 1: can see what you see because you never know what
- 40:07Speaker 1: experience will turn on that life for them. And that's
- 40:10Speaker 1: what our mentors do every day. They spend hours a
- 40:13Speaker 1: few hours per month with a young person and they
- 40:16Speaker 1: provide that guidance and supporting. Like you said, we have
- 40:18Speaker 1: hundreds of boys on the waiting list and girls as
- 40:21Speaker 1: well that need mentors. And that's what we're trying to
- 40:23Speaker 1: get more people to know about. Now this waiting list.
- 40:26Speaker 1: What what constitutes the wait list? And how do these
- 40:29Speaker 1: young boys and young ladies get into the program or
- 40:32Speaker 1: become aware of the program. Do they do their parents
- 40:35Speaker 1: or their guardians bring them to the Big Brothers Big
- 40:37Speaker 1: Sister program on Metro Atlanta program? How do they get
- 40:40Speaker 1: on the waiting list? And the purpose of the waiting
- 40:42Speaker 1: list is what? So it's it's interesting because parents come in,
- 40:48Speaker 1: we get referrals from guidance counselors. Kids come in a
- 40:51Speaker 1: number of different ways. But what's so special about our
- 40:53Speaker 1: program is that all these young people have agreed that
- 40:56Speaker 1: they want to be a part of this program. So
- 40:58Speaker 1: it's not just their parents saying, hey, we want to
- 41:00Speaker 1: be a part of this They've actually agreed to say, hey,
- 41:02Speaker 1: I need a mentor in my life. So these young
- 41:04Speaker 1: people are looking for support and they're waiting for mentors.
- 41:09Speaker 1: So that's why I work so hard to get out
- 41:11Speaker 1: there and get the word out about ways that people
- 41:13Speaker 1: can get involved. And you can go to our website,
- 41:15Speaker 1: Big Brothers and Big Sisters Metro Atlanta and sign up
- 41:18Speaker 1: to be a big we're doing everything virtually right now.
- 41:21Speaker 1: Is very easy. You can sign up and we match
- 41:23Speaker 1: you with a young person who lives in your community,
- 41:26Speaker 1: so you don't gotta drive far and it's not a
- 41:28Speaker 1: big hassle. And we also match you based on preferences.
- 41:31Speaker 1: You may want to work with a young person who's twelve,
- 41:33Speaker 1: who's into sports or who's into engineering. We match you
- 41:36Speaker 1: that same way because we want that relationship to last.
- 41:40Speaker 1: And it's powerful. And what's what's special about it is
- 41:43Speaker 1: not only do our kids graduate high school on time,
- 41:47Speaker 1: avoid the criminal justice system, graduate with plans to go
- 41:51Speaker 1: to college or career, but the mentor, the person mentoring
- 41:54Speaker 1: young person gets benefits out of it as well. They
- 41:58Speaker 1: are doing better on their job, they feel better if themselves,
- 42:01Speaker 1: and any big you talked to will tell you they've
- 42:03Speaker 1: gotten more out of it than they put in, so
- 42:05Speaker 1: both sides get something out of it. So to me,
- 42:08Speaker 1: it's a win win. This is something that anyone can
- 42:10Speaker 1: do if you care about kids and you want to
- 42:12Speaker 1: help young people get to the next level. Because it's
- 42:14Speaker 1: like you said, everyone is no one on this listening
- 42:17Speaker 1: right now has gotten to where they are without somebody
- 42:19Speaker 1: helping them out, So it's all responsibility to return that favorite.
- 42:22Speaker 1: Well know, it's really interesting when I talked to you,
- 42:23Speaker 1: Kama Johnson about the whole mentoring, because it's become such
- 42:27Speaker 1: a popular term. Now. I know, when I was growing up,
- 42:30Speaker 1: I didn't hear the word mentoring. I just heard, you know,
- 42:34Speaker 1: the it takes a village phrase was very popular when
- 42:37Speaker 1: I was growing up. Now you hear the word mentoring,
- 42:39Speaker 1: and it's important that people understand the value of that.
- 42:43Speaker 1: But also people just hear the word time, time, spending time.
- 42:46Speaker 1: Do I have time? Do I want to spend time?
- 42:48Speaker 1: Do I value a time with a stranger? Because that's
- 42:51Speaker 1: what they look at they do. They feel that once
- 42:54Speaker 1: they get they looped, get into the big brothers big
- 42:57Speaker 1: such as a Metro Alanta organization, they can't get out.
- 43:00Speaker 1: Can you walking through the steps? Are hot? Actually work?
- 43:02Speaker 1: Because you kind of talked about it. You can get
- 43:04Speaker 1: a sign to a young man who has similar values
- 43:07Speaker 1: that you want to have for the kids that you
- 43:09Speaker 1: want to work with, but again doesn't doesn't Can they
- 43:13Speaker 1: feel trapped if they get involved with this type of
- 43:17Speaker 1: organization working with these young kids? So most people I
- 43:21Speaker 1: speak to They're like, hey, I don't want to fail.
- 43:23Speaker 1: No one wants to fail. And then everyone talks about
- 43:25Speaker 1: the time. And what I tell people is one about
- 43:27Speaker 1: the time. Incorporate this young person and things you are
- 43:30Speaker 1: already doing. Right. You know your last I start, you
- 43:34Speaker 1: had a ball. You probably cut your own here, okay YouTube,
- 43:38Speaker 1: But most men they go to the barbershop. Why not
- 43:42Speaker 1: bring this young man with you to the barbershop. You
- 43:44Speaker 1: have a conversation on the way there. I'm sure to
- 43:46Speaker 1: barbera give you a break. You have a conversation on
- 43:48Speaker 1: the way home. That's spending time that you already are
- 43:51Speaker 1: going to use. So you incorporate to go to take
- 43:53Speaker 1: them with you the grocery store, teach my budgeting, healthy eating.
- 43:56Speaker 1: These are things you're already doing. So I'm not asking
- 43:59Speaker 1: anybody creating new time. I'm asking you for a year commitment, right,
- 44:03Speaker 1: This is a one year commitment at minimum. I love
- 44:05Speaker 1: you to stay longer, but if you come in a
- 44:08Speaker 1: young person's life, we know and the research shows if
- 44:10Speaker 1: you leave within a year, you can do more damage.
- 44:12Speaker 1: So you actually gotta commit to that one year, and
- 44:14Speaker 1: you gotta commit to about eight to twelve hours a
- 44:16Speaker 1: month So this is something most people can do. And
- 44:19Speaker 1: whether it's today or next year, this is something you
- 44:22Speaker 1: still should go to our website and sign up so
- 44:23Speaker 1: you can at least get our information and month more
- 44:25Speaker 1: about it. So so one year commitment, eight to twelve
- 44:27Speaker 1: hours a month, and then you go through our process.
- 44:31Speaker 1: We train you so you're not on your own. You
- 44:33Speaker 1: know how to be a mentor, you know about mandated
- 44:35Speaker 1: report and all the different things that come up. And
- 44:37Speaker 1: then when you get matched, we give you a coach
- 44:39Speaker 1: on my team who helps you set up a plan
- 44:41Speaker 1: for the young person, who gives you ideas for outings
- 44:44Speaker 1: and tickets to football games and baseball games and different
- 44:47Speaker 1: events around the city. So we make it very easy
- 44:49Speaker 1: for you. This is not a money thing. This is
- 44:51Speaker 1: about just incorporating a young person into your existing time. Wow,
- 44:56Speaker 1: you know what I think about when I'm listening to
- 44:58Speaker 1: you call me. You know you're sticulating a system that's
- 45:01Speaker 1: successful for everybody. Because again, we always talk about the
- 45:05Speaker 1: negative side of youth. Were always talking about the negative
- 45:08Speaker 1: stories because guess what they don't rate. You know, the
- 45:11Speaker 1: Wednesday child doesn't scare people, the kid the water bars
- 45:17Speaker 1: stopping you at the street, like they scared people. So
- 45:19Speaker 1: they watch that on TV. And so you have a
- 45:21Speaker 1: negative story to tell, the resist tell you the other story.
- 45:24Speaker 1: That means that if these kids just had a mentor
- 45:27Speaker 1: just have somebody whispering their ear just advising them, then
- 45:30Speaker 1: they can win. And winning is what we're all about.
- 45:32Speaker 1: That's why I didn't have to do this show on alive.
- 45:36Speaker 1: I can record this show and just going by my business.
- 45:38Speaker 1: But that's why I'm trying to elevate the game, as
- 45:41Speaker 1: they say, elevate the level of communication of doing it
- 45:44Speaker 1: on the HBCU campus. He graduated from the HBC. When
- 45:47Speaker 1: we come back, I wanted to talk about the impact
- 45:49Speaker 1: of HBCUs and how important they are and how influential
- 45:52Speaker 1: they are in the community, both academically and professionally. But
- 45:55Speaker 1: if you want to talk to us for zero four
- 45:57Speaker 1: eight eight zero, that's four zero five, I'm talking to
- 46:04Speaker 1: the president and see you. He got two times President CEO,
- 46:08Speaker 1: Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, Kwamie Johnson will
- 46:11Speaker 1: be right back with more from him My Making conversation.
- 46:14Speaker 1: I'm Rashan McDonald. We will be right back with more
- 46:22Speaker 1: money making conversation with Rashan McDonald and we're live here
- 46:31Speaker 1: outside the Perez family home, just waiting for the And
- 46:34Speaker 1: there they go, almost on time. This morning. Mom is
- 46:37Speaker 1: coming out the front door, strong with a double arm
- 46:40Speaker 1: kid carry. Looks like Dad has the bags daughter he's
- 46:43Speaker 1: bringing up the rear. Oh, but the diaper bag wasn't closed.
- 46:47Speaker 1: Tapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but mom has just
- 46:52Speaker 1: nailed the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And
- 46:55Speaker 1: now the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine
- 46:58Speaker 1: or ten, has secured hers open the booster seat. Dad
- 47:01Speaker 1: SIPs the bad clothes and they're off. But looks like
- 47:05Speaker 1: Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is still on the
- 47:07Speaker 1: roof of the car. And there it goes. Oh, that's
- 47:12Speaker 1: a shame that mug was a fan favorite. Don't sweat
- 47:15Speaker 1: the small stuff, just nail the big stuff, like making
- 47:17Speaker 1: sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right seat
- 47:19Speaker 1: for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t s
- 47:21Speaker 1: A dot gov slash The Right Seat visits n h
- 47:24Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash The Right Seat Brought to
- 47:28Speaker 1: you by Mizza and the ad Council. If I could
- 47:30Speaker 1: be you and you could be me, for just one hour,
- 47:34Speaker 1: if you could find a way to get inside each
- 47:36Speaker 1: other's mind. Walk a mile in my shoes, wac a
- 47:40Speaker 1: mile in my shoes. Shoes. We've all felt left out,
- 47:45Speaker 1: and for some that feeling lasts more than a moment.
- 47:48Speaker 1: We can change that. Learn how it belonging begins with
- 47:51Speaker 1: us dot org. Brought to you by the AD Council.
- 47:55Speaker 1: Welcome out in the shoes. What grows in the forest trees?
- 48:03Speaker 1: Sure you know what else grows in the forest. Our imagination,
- 48:07Speaker 1: our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too,
- 48:10Speaker 1: because when we disconnect from this and connect with this,
- 48:17Speaker 1: we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than
- 48:20Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.
- 48:24Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org brought to you by
- 48:26Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. Now
- 48:30Speaker 1: let's return to Money Making Conversation with Rashan McDonald. Yes,
- 48:34Speaker 1: I'm back. This is Rashan McDonald. You're listening to Money
- 48:37Speaker 1: Making Conversation live on the phone with my man, Kwamie Johnson.
- 48:40Speaker 1: He's the president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters
- 48:43Speaker 1: of Metro Atlanta. We met several years ago and he
- 48:47Speaker 1: was doing a panel, and he asked me to come
- 48:49Speaker 1: and host the panel, which was a lot of fun
- 48:51Speaker 1: we did with the gathering spot. What was basically the
- 48:54Speaker 1: purpose when you do these type of panels? What is
- 48:57Speaker 1: the purpose of that? And what is the the goal?
- 49:01Speaker 1: I should say when not so much the purpose, what
- 49:03Speaker 1: is the goal when you when you invite people like
- 49:05Speaker 1: me to come in the panel? Trying to get men
- 49:07Speaker 1: to come in and listen to other men talk about it,
- 49:10Speaker 1: and it was after felt it was very successful. Was
- 49:12Speaker 1: something that um my Harry Douglas, one of the former
- 49:15Speaker 1: Atlanta Factors and rising star in the sports media. He's
- 49:19Speaker 1: always involved with your programs talk about how you can
- 49:22Speaker 1: get adult men involved in different ways if you if
- 49:25Speaker 1: you're not ready for the mentoring, you can participate over
- 49:27Speaker 1: here and programs that you have set up to gather
- 49:30Speaker 1: other men to come on board and ladies. Let's not
- 49:32Speaker 1: forget about the ladies, because we have big brothers, big sisters,
- 49:36Speaker 1: but we do have more of a shortage of men
- 49:38Speaker 1: than we have women participation. Am I right or wrong
- 49:41Speaker 1: in that? No, you're you're right, And we wanted to
- 49:44Speaker 1: bring together leaders who are highly respected in the community,
- 49:47Speaker 1: like you were shown at Harry and Hugh Parker and others,
- 49:50Speaker 1: because you know, shout out to the ladies. The ladies
- 49:52Speaker 1: step up big time. They volunteer, they mentor, and they
- 49:57Speaker 1: do a great job. But our biggest need is as
- 50:00Speaker 1: men and men of color in particular. We knew by
- 50:02Speaker 1: partnering with you, Brashan, that we can get more men
- 50:05Speaker 1: to be a part of the program. So that panel
- 50:07Speaker 1: was really about educating men that this is something you
- 50:11Speaker 1: can do. You know a lot of men they struggle
- 50:13Speaker 1: with commitment. They're like, man, I'm adopting this child and
- 50:15Speaker 1: I gotta take this all on, and like, no, that's
- 50:17Speaker 1: not what it's about. This is something that everybody can do,
- 50:20Speaker 1: everybody can be a part of, and we wanted to
- 50:22Speaker 1: get that message out and it was very effective. We
- 50:24Speaker 1: recruited a lot of men through that panel we had
- 50:27Speaker 1: and we got to do more of this. That's why
- 50:28Speaker 1: I'm glad to be back on the show today. Well,
- 50:30Speaker 1: the thing about it, first of all, we kind of
- 50:32Speaker 1: reconnected a little bit when I was talking about my
- 50:34Speaker 1: HBCU college day. I wanted to let you know about it.
- 50:37Speaker 1: You went, Roshan, send me some flyers, Hey man, we
- 50:39Speaker 1: gotta get the word out to my group. And if
- 50:41Speaker 1: anybody don't know what HBCU College Day is all about.
- 50:44Speaker 1: It gives direct access to junior seniors in high school
- 50:47Speaker 1: and young adults and they can come on the HBCU
- 50:50Speaker 1: campus in this case Clark Atlanta University campus. We always
- 50:53Speaker 1: know Morris Brown is here, we know failm is there,
- 50:55Speaker 1: we know more House and more House School of Medicine here.
- 50:58Speaker 1: And what we're trying to do is enabled people through education.
- 51:02Speaker 1: And I tell listen to anybody I was telling college
- 51:05Speaker 1: changed my life. I didn't go to an HBCU, but
- 51:07Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that I was not directed in the
- 51:11Speaker 1: right direction. We're talking about HBCUs and the reason I
- 51:13Speaker 1: bringing that up in HBCUs well receiving a lot of
- 51:18Speaker 1: donations for the very first time from corporate America, and
- 51:21Speaker 1: nobody knew why they just was getting that money. And
- 51:24Speaker 1: so my mission now called me, is to tell people
- 51:27Speaker 1: why and why there's so much value in academic success
- 51:33Speaker 1: out of HBCUs. Now you kind of hit a little
- 51:35Speaker 1: bit about you came from Hampton, But if you can
- 51:38Speaker 1: really tell people that experience and what they defined you
- 51:42Speaker 1: as a person, as a black person attending to HBCU.
- 51:45Speaker 1: We're broadcasting from the from a campus of an HBCU.
- 51:50Speaker 1: Why what makes HBCU so special? Oh man, I could
- 51:55Speaker 1: talk so much about just the experience. And when I
- 51:58Speaker 1: got out of jail, no college wanted to accept me. Yeah,
- 52:02Speaker 1: I was a tracked scar in high school and when
- 52:05Speaker 1: I got in trouble, all my scholarships went away. But
- 52:08Speaker 1: Hampton said, we're gonna give you a shot. And they
- 52:11Speaker 1: gave me a shot. They gave me a chance, they
- 52:13Speaker 1: gave me a scholarship. And when I arrived at Hampton University,
- 52:16Speaker 1: home by to see the real ates you. I'll put
- 52:18Speaker 1: that out there too. I know, power folks, power folks listening,
- 52:23Speaker 1: you know, but the real, the real ate you and
- 52:26Speaker 1: just being down there and seeing black excellence and seeing
- 52:29Speaker 1: people uh from middle class, upper middle class doing well.
- 52:33Speaker 1: That's not what I saw growing up in Syracuse, New York.
- 52:36Speaker 1: I had no experience with that, and that just gave
- 52:40Speaker 1: me a totally different outlook on life and what it
- 52:42Speaker 1: was possible. So so Hampton created more hope for me,
- 52:47Speaker 1: and it's it's set me on my trajectory that I've
- 52:49Speaker 1: been on my whole career. So I I'm a big supporter.
- 52:53Speaker 1: My brother graduated from Hampton University, my wife graduated Hampton University.
- 52:57Speaker 1: It's an amazing experience. UM and they gave me a shot.
- 53:01Speaker 1: Without Hampton, I may have not gone to college, and
- 53:03Speaker 1: who knows what would happened in my life. But that
- 53:05Speaker 1: is something I encourage young people to always do, is
- 53:08Speaker 1: to get a college degree, because that's something no one
- 53:10Speaker 1: can ever take away from you. You may decide to
- 53:12Speaker 1: be an entrepreneur or do something different going to the military,
- 53:15Speaker 1: but the college degree is something no one can ever
- 53:17Speaker 1: take from you, and it can be a foundation for
- 53:19Speaker 1: the rest of your life. I would tell people they
- 53:21Speaker 1: can't repoll your college degree. I always tell people all
- 53:23Speaker 1: the time. I look at it reprot trucking trying to
- 53:25Speaker 1: come into my house and back up and pull that
- 53:28Speaker 1: off the wall. That's not gonna happen. That's something I
- 53:30Speaker 1: earned and something I work hard for, and it's something
- 53:32Speaker 1: that do blood, sweat and tears. But what what what
- 53:35Speaker 1: this made me a little bit when all these donations
- 53:37Speaker 1: and be thankful for those donations, especially you know McKenzie Scotts.
- 53:41Speaker 1: She donated with like four point one billion dollars and
- 53:45Speaker 1: and uh Scots and funds to hbc USED. But here's
- 53:48Speaker 1: what was missing. This was the information they didn't tell everybody.
- 53:51Speaker 1: HBCUs graduate, seventy of the Black Dennis HBCUs graduate, of
- 53:56Speaker 1: the black judges, seventy percent of the black doctorate, of
- 54:01Speaker 1: the black lawyers, eighteen percent of the Black fortune, five
- 54:04Speaker 1: hundred CEOs. I'm talking to one up fort of the
- 54:07Speaker 1: black engineers, forty percent of the Black members of Congress,
- 54:11Speaker 1: which includes at the time she was now vice president
- 54:15Speaker 1: of Kamala Harris, she was senator at the time, of
- 54:18Speaker 1: the black public school teachers and Twitter four percent of
- 54:21Speaker 1: the Black stamp professionals come from HBCUs. When I say
- 54:25Speaker 1: that this is the first thing to happen, people are
- 54:29Speaker 1: stunned by those numbers. But that's what's not being told.
- 54:32Speaker 1: What we get told. What HBCUs is about about the sports.
- 54:38Speaker 1: We can talk about the marching band, We talked about
- 54:40Speaker 1: fraternities and sororities. But more importantly, what I brought you
- 54:44Speaker 1: on the show, Quami, because I know about your HBCU background,
- 54:48Speaker 1: same way I know about the Big Brothers Big Sisters
- 54:51Speaker 1: of Metro Atlanta background. These are stories that need to
- 54:54Speaker 1: be told. If people just sit back and really understand
- 54:57Speaker 1: the value of participating, the value of going to HBC.
- 55:00Speaker 1: You value volunteering, then you will change lives and that's
- 55:04Speaker 1: what your whole life is based on, changing lives. Does
- 55:08Speaker 1: that tire you out? Does it fatigue you when you
- 55:11Speaker 1: realize that sometimes it looks like a bottomless pit because
- 55:14Speaker 1: there's so many kids, like they're the only wait list
- 55:17Speaker 1: that you can't help, But it does. It becomes a
- 55:19Speaker 1: nun stop mission for you. Correct. Yeah, this is a
- 55:24Speaker 1: life journey for me. I've been giving a second chance
- 55:27Speaker 1: and every day I get to hear a story about
- 55:28Speaker 1: a young person that came from a tough situation that
- 55:31Speaker 1: achieved against odds. So I know it's possible. We just
- 55:34Speaker 1: gotta multiply by a hundred thousands. You just got to
- 55:37Speaker 1: create more of these stories. And I know your listeners
- 55:40Speaker 1: all have stories and examples that young people need to hear.
- 55:44Speaker 1: They need to see us. You know, young people don't
- 55:46Speaker 1: go to church because they want to see a testimony.
- 55:48Speaker 1: They don't want to hear one. They need to see
- 55:51Speaker 1: that what the mess I'm going through, that there's something
- 55:54Speaker 1: else on the other side of this, and you, as
- 55:56Speaker 1: leaders can be that example. And some people think it
- 56:00Speaker 1: takes all these different things to make young people go
- 56:02Speaker 1: to the next level. In many ways, just showing them
- 56:04Speaker 1: that it's possible. They already have the potential. It is
- 56:07Speaker 1: already there. You don't have to create it. You don't
- 56:10Speaker 1: have to say that that potential is already did. They
- 56:12Speaker 1: just need to see that it's possible. You need to
- 56:15Speaker 1: hear from people that have been through similar situations of
- 56:18Speaker 1: them that they were able to go to college, create
- 56:20Speaker 1: a career, become an entrepreneur, going to the military, whatever
- 56:24Speaker 1: they decided to do. That's our that's our responsib to
- 56:27Speaker 1: the adults is to show them that it's possible. You know,
- 56:30Speaker 1: the interesting thing, because I'm always a guy facts and
- 56:32Speaker 1: my degrees in mathematics, I'm always a fact guy. Called me.
- 56:35Speaker 1: Nearly half a million children in Metro Atlanta living communities
- 56:38Speaker 1: with low or very low child well at least a
- 56:41Speaker 1: very low child well being. You know, your mission is
- 56:44Speaker 1: to recruit volunteers to become mentors to children facing adversity. Now,
- 56:49Speaker 1: celebrities use their influence everyday. People who use their influence,
- 56:55Speaker 1: what do you believe And when we talk about this
- 56:58Speaker 1: waiting list, is there a number you can hell us
- 57:00Speaker 1: so people can understand how desperate we need men to
- 57:03Speaker 1: step up. And the number if you want to call in,
- 57:06Speaker 1: it's four zero four eight eight zero nine five again
- 57:09Speaker 1: four zero, four eight eight zero is the number to
- 57:13Speaker 1: call in if you want to speak to call me
- 57:15Speaker 1: on myself. But men, like you said, women are stepping up,
- 57:18Speaker 1: men are lagging behind. And we all know that when
- 57:22Speaker 1: you start talking about police violence that has been is
- 57:25Speaker 1: all generally only young man, uh person of color, who's male.
- 57:29Speaker 1: So talk about really, what what what can you feel
- 57:33Speaker 1: that we need to do more? Do we need to
- 57:35Speaker 1: I need an interview you once a month to get
- 57:37Speaker 1: the word out consistently. What is the what is the
- 57:40Speaker 1: thing that we you feel can help you turn around
- 57:42Speaker 1: to get consistent participation for men, for the big brothers
- 57:46Speaker 1: and big sisters in metro Atlanta. So you know, too
- 57:51Speaker 1: often as a society we study failure. You know, we
- 57:53Speaker 1: talk about all the challenges and we talk about the
- 57:56Speaker 1: water boys and the violence in Atlanta. If you go
- 58:00Speaker 1: to the west side of Atlanta, you go to South
- 58:01Speaker 1: suthe Atlanta. I guarantee there are many families who have
- 58:05Speaker 1: figured out a way to make it happen. They're sending
- 58:07Speaker 1: kids to college and and doing all kinds of kinds
- 58:09Speaker 1: of wonderful things. Right, So we gotta change the story.
- 58:13Speaker 1: We gotta change the image of black men and peopular
- 58:16Speaker 1: black boys in America because I was one of those waterboys.
- 58:21Speaker 1: Even worse, I was doing dump stuff and getting in trouble,
- 58:23Speaker 1: going to jail. You know, these kids have entrepreneurial spirits.
- 58:26Speaker 1: They're doing things I think they should be doing differently.
- 58:28Speaker 1: But I'm no different than them. Rishan, You're no different
- 58:31Speaker 1: than them, right, So I get on whenever I can,
- 58:34Speaker 1: and I share my story because that changes what people think.
- 58:38Speaker 1: It changes the perception of what you see on TV
- 58:41Speaker 1: all the time. I almost I'm a black guy with
- 58:43Speaker 1: a ballhead, right, I want to change with that, percep.
- 58:46Speaker 1: But I'm a CEO, and I went to her, I
- 58:47Speaker 1: went to Hampton, all these different things. I've been able
- 58:49Speaker 1: to accomplish the most of my CEO in Atlanta for
- 58:53Speaker 1: the nonprofit category all. And I'm no different than what
- 58:56Speaker 1: you you know see on TV. But I was able
- 58:59Speaker 1: to have people who came on my life who helped
- 59:01Speaker 1: me get on the right track. And that's what we're
- 59:03Speaker 1: talking about We have two hundred boys on a waiting list,
- 59:07Speaker 1: some have been waiting for a year. And these young
- 59:10Speaker 1: people are reaching out and saying we need help. And
- 59:12Speaker 1: they're not saying they need money and all these different
- 59:14Speaker 1: They're saying, we need someone to suspend some time with
- 59:16Speaker 1: me and show me how you did it. And that's
- 59:19Speaker 1: something any man can do. I just think a lot
- 59:21Speaker 1: of times, men and men of color in particular, they
- 59:24Speaker 1: think it's taken on a big responsibility and they have
- 59:26Speaker 1: to adopt the child, and they've got things going on
- 59:29Speaker 1: in their life already. But what I'm saying and is
- 59:31Speaker 1: not that you're being a guy. You're being a resource,
- 59:34Speaker 1: not not actually be somebody's father. You know that we're
- 59:37Speaker 1: not asking that, we asked you to step up, give
- 59:39Speaker 1: them some of your time that you're already gonna spend
- 59:41Speaker 1: and bring them on this journey of life with you,
- 59:44Speaker 1: and that situations come up in their life, give them
- 59:46Speaker 1: some guidance, give them some advice, you curage to understanding
- 59:49Speaker 1: school decisions. I want to thank you for coming on
- 59:52Speaker 1: the show. He's the CEO and president Big Brothers and
- 59:55Speaker 1: Big Sisters Metro Atlanta. Again. When your book come out,
- 59:58Speaker 1: you know you got a place next to me on
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: my show, and thank you for coming on Money Making
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: a Conversation Live. Okay, thank you, sir, appreciate it. If
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: you wanted. Next week I'll be here with two more
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: guests changing lives and talking live on Money Making Conversations
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: six pm. I'm your host with Sean McDonald. Talk to
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