Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews Sonia Balfour-Fears and her two daughters are Financial Advisors, where she is the Global Sports & Entertainment Director with Morgan Stanley!

Transcript

Rushion Interviews Sonia Balfour-Fears and her two daughters are Financial Advisors, where she is the Global Sports & Entertainment Director with Morgan Stanley! · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: My next guest. They are here. I have two of
0:02
Speaker 1: them one uh two, supposed to be three in studio,
0:05
Speaker 1: but I have two in studio live. One is at home.
0:08
Speaker 1: She's she traveled worldwide and she came back a little sick,
0:13
Speaker 1: but I forgive her. My next guest is a son
0:16
Speaker 1: your Fears and her two daughters, Raya and Ayana um Ms.
0:21
Speaker 1: Fears is the vice President of Global Sports and Entertainment
0:24
Speaker 1: Director at Morgange Stanley. Raya and Ayana are also financial
0:29
Speaker 1: advisors and Morgan Stanley under the Fears Group umbrella. For
0:33
Speaker 1: over eighty years, Morgan Stanley has been helping families and
0:36
Speaker 1: people of all ages navigate their financial lives. Song Just
0:39
Speaker 1: Teams works with families to understand how their money can
0:42
Speaker 1: be used to accomplish their goals and help them plan
0:44
Speaker 1: for their future so that they can enjoy all life,
0:47
Speaker 1: all that life has to offer. This is a family, Yes,
0:51
Speaker 1: this is a financial family that works together. Is on
0:54
Speaker 1: the show to talk about stock retirement and financial planning.
0:57
Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversations master Class. Sonya incredible
1:00
Speaker 1: two daughters, Raya and Ayana. They are the Fears Group. Welcome.
1:05
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for Sean, it's an absolute pleasure
1:09
Speaker 1: to be here, to be back. Um, that's right, you
1:12
Speaker 1: are returning, that's right, back with you, right, that's right.
1:17
Speaker 1: So just um, I love the fact that uh you
1:21
Speaker 1: saw it fit to bring me back, and I welcome
1:24
Speaker 1: this opportunity. Well, well, before I get to your daughter,
1:27
Speaker 1: you know, we gotta talk. You know, because of the
1:28
Speaker 1: fact that you made an impact on my show, because
1:31
Speaker 1: of the fact that you know, a predominant black radio
1:35
Speaker 1: stations play music. You know, that's that's just I don't
1:37
Speaker 1: care what format you are all over this country. I
1:40
Speaker 1: I had a relationship with Steve Harvey w WE syndicated
1:43
Speaker 1: on music stations, So I'm well aware of the power
1:45
Speaker 1: of music. What we lack is in financial literacy. And
1:49
Speaker 1: so I've been so blessed or be on w C
1:52
Speaker 1: Okay where they actually stopped the music allow me to
1:55
Speaker 1: do a show about entrepreneurship, financial leadership and community uplift.
2:00
Speaker 1: And then this hour when you came on the show,
2:03
Speaker 1: I feel you impacted some people's lives because you gave
2:06
Speaker 1: them information. And this time you brought back your crew.
2:10
Speaker 1: Your crew. Now I say I didn't expect I expected rare,
2:13
Speaker 1: but then you brought back another side crew that I
2:16
Speaker 1: knew nothing about this first time I meeting there. So
2:19
Speaker 1: please introduce us to your family, which are your daughters,
2:23
Speaker 1: and we're talking about how you started this financial journey
2:25
Speaker 1: for you and then how was it introduced to your
2:28
Speaker 1: daughters to make this a comfortable communities that operates under
2:32
Speaker 1: the Fierce Group which is at Morgan Stanley Floors. Your
2:35
Speaker 1: son Ya, thank you, thank you. So I've been in
2:38
Speaker 1: financial in this space UM for six this is my
2:42
Speaker 1: sixteenth year UM, but really I started even before this.
2:48
Speaker 1: I've been I've done mortgages, I've done taxes UM. I
2:54
Speaker 1: always loved numbers. I wanted to major in math in
2:58
Speaker 1: in in college, I have a degree in chemistry. And
3:02
Speaker 1: so when I discovered the world of investing, UM really
3:09
Speaker 1: to be a financial advisor and and your previous guests
3:14
Speaker 1: said it before, it was a collision of all the
3:17
Speaker 1: things that I've done, you know. So again, I've been
3:20
Speaker 1: a business owner, so I'm an entrepreneur UM doing taxes, UM,
3:27
Speaker 1: doing mortgages and just being able to my My goal
3:32
Speaker 1: was to be a personal CFO for individuals, and that
3:37
Speaker 1: is the thought that I had in mind. And this
3:39
Speaker 1: is that this his um a passion for me because
3:44
Speaker 1: it is it's everything that I've done in one place,
3:49
Speaker 1: so it's it's a it's a natural thing. So that's
3:52
Speaker 1: that's how I got into this business. And this is
3:54
Speaker 1: how I realized this is where I was meant to
3:58
Speaker 1: um to be. Rhea Um believe it or not, she
4:02
Speaker 1: was to be an orthopedic surgeon. And last year in
4:07
Speaker 1: her emery and I'm gonna let her introduce herself, she
4:09
Speaker 1: decided that Um with a math and economist degree, she
4:15
Speaker 1: wanted to go into finance and she put it out there.
4:19
Speaker 1: I said, well, if you're going to apply to all
4:22
Speaker 1: these different companies, you might as well apply to Mary Lynch.
4:26
Speaker 1: That's where I was before Morgan Stanley. And she did,
4:30
Speaker 1: and that was the beginning of the fierce group before
4:33
Speaker 1: you before she said something, now use it. Then you
4:38
Speaker 1: moved over to Morgan Stanley. Yes, it had to be
4:41
Speaker 1: some doubt, some with some as they say, were you
4:44
Speaker 1: comfortable making that move that you questioned people who did
4:48
Speaker 1: you seek out to say I'm comfortable over here, but
4:51
Speaker 1: I see a bigger opportunity to over here. It was
4:53
Speaker 1: one of the hardest decisions I've made you know. So,
4:56
Speaker 1: so when you're somewhere where you think you're at top
5:00
Speaker 1: of your game and it's really comfortable and you're being
5:04
Speaker 1: embraced because you're getting the perks of the job, to
5:07
Speaker 1: make that decision to move, it's it's a hard decision,
5:12
Speaker 1: but it was a decision that I made for a
5:15
Speaker 1: few um reasons. One of the most important reason was
5:19
Speaker 1: my other daughter that's sitting here. I wanted all of
5:23
Speaker 1: us to be together. I wanted to build a legacy
5:28
Speaker 1: that she could be a part of, that Ria could
5:31
Speaker 1: be a part of. And she really she tried out
5:36
Speaker 1: Bank of America, Marylynch, but it just didn't work out
5:39
Speaker 1: for her. So I made a decision that we're all
5:43
Speaker 1: gonna do this together at Morgan Stanley. Okay, now you
5:46
Speaker 1: can introduce it out there. Oh yeah, that's it. And
5:53
Speaker 1: and so Ayanna Fears that's my my other daughter, um
5:57
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, totally outside of financial world.
6:01
Speaker 1: She has a degree in health services. And that's just
6:05
Speaker 1: to say, wherever you start this could be where you
6:10
Speaker 1: end up. And it's an amazing career. This is uh
6:14
Speaker 1: an opportunity for families anywhere to build a legacy that
6:20
Speaker 1: you can start and you can have them finish. I
6:24
Speaker 1: used to tell people it's like running a relay. Okay,
6:28
Speaker 1: you start the relay and you'll run five hundred and
6:32
Speaker 1: when you get to that end, you don't start over again.
6:36
Speaker 1: You pass that baton where you left off. And that
6:40
Speaker 1: is what this industry allows you to do. You know,
6:43
Speaker 1: I've never heard your mama preached before. You know, I'm
6:47
Speaker 1: moving around in my chair over here, as I said
6:53
Speaker 1: passed at the time, it sounds like that's motivation. That's
6:56
Speaker 1: motivation about being successful health to finance. How um so
7:02
Speaker 1: public health degree in public health from Georgia's Southern and
7:06
Speaker 1: I always just had like a big strong I always
7:10
Speaker 1: had a strong footing with sciences. Um but I kind
7:15
Speaker 1: of I knew I liked marketing. I knew I liked business.
7:19
Speaker 1: But I saw my mother and she kind of was like,
7:22
Speaker 1: you know, like you should try and I'm like, oh, no,
7:25
Speaker 1: anything you say you need to do, I'm not gonna
7:27
Speaker 1: do it. So I fought it for a while. I
7:30
Speaker 1: took so many different positions, and that's what really it took,
7:33
Speaker 1: wasn't trying all those different positions and realizing it did
7:37
Speaker 1: not fit. I did it to the best of my ability,
7:39
Speaker 1: but I personally knew that wasn't for me. Right, So, real,
7:44
Speaker 1: you are not in studio, how are you feeling. I
7:48
Speaker 1: know you're a little bit under the weather, but you're
7:50
Speaker 1: a trooper. You came on the show. Tell us about
7:52
Speaker 1: how you got into this world, you know, because I
7:55
Speaker 1: know you wouldn't drug into it. I knew you was
7:57
Speaker 1: inspired by this, uh, this wonderful preacher who's suddenly born
8:01
Speaker 1: herself into my studio today. Your mom was on you.
8:06
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so I So my degree was in math
8:10
Speaker 1: and economics. I think decision being I've always been good
8:13
Speaker 1: at maths, economics was something that made sense to me. UM.
8:17
Speaker 1: I kind of got to the end of my undergrid
8:19
Speaker 1: career and kind of started playing with the idea of
8:23
Speaker 1: what would I be happy doing, what would make sense,
8:28
Speaker 1: what would what is something that would engage me UM
8:31
Speaker 1: and that would be excited to continue learning about UM
8:34
Speaker 1: And so I started looking at things within the finance,
8:36
Speaker 1: within the finance field. UM. And I think even from
8:40
Speaker 1: being honest, even growing up, something that was that my
8:44
Speaker 1: dad always told us UM the importance He always kind
8:48
Speaker 1: of spoke about the importance money, the importance of living
8:50
Speaker 1: within our means, but ultimately making sure that we could
8:55
Speaker 1: afford the lifestyles that we wanted for ourselves. UM, which
8:59
Speaker 1: kind of made us challenge, Okay, well what do we
9:01
Speaker 1: want for ourselves? Um? And then how do I get there?
9:05
Speaker 1: And so I played with for a long time looking
9:08
Speaker 1: at things to be like, oh I like that, but
9:10
Speaker 1: that's not going to give me where I want to be, UM.
9:13
Speaker 1: And so kind of being able to have that month
9:14
Speaker 1: a early on, I think kind of helped made that
9:16
Speaker 1: decision very easy for me and UM, until it's for me.
9:21
Speaker 1: It's been sin seven years now within the finance industry.
9:28
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it. We'll be right back with more Money
9:30
Speaker 1: Making Conversations master Class with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return
9:36
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations master Class with Rashan McDonald And
9:41
Speaker 1: the Fears Group. Was it always the Fears Group? Did
9:44
Speaker 1: you start when you came over to Mortgage Stanley? Now
9:48
Speaker 1: the Fears Group started at Mary Lynch again, So the
9:52
Speaker 1: Feers Group started when Rhea Um came into Mary Lynch
9:57
Speaker 1: and we formed a team, her and I. But before
10:01
Speaker 1: Um Rhea came in, I was there, you know, grind
10:07
Speaker 1: grinding and it's you know, I I won't UM sugarcoat it.
10:13
Speaker 1: It wasn't easy. And so that's the thing, you know,
10:16
Speaker 1: to really understand that you have to want it. I
10:20
Speaker 1: used to say. And I used to say too. There's
10:23
Speaker 1: a guy, black guy that was in the building and
10:27
Speaker 1: he owned his shoeshin business. And I used to go
10:31
Speaker 1: and talk to him in the evenings when I was
10:33
Speaker 1: leaving and or taking a break really and I would
10:37
Speaker 1: tell him they're gonna have to drag me out of
10:39
Speaker 1: here kicking. I'm going to make it. And and I
10:43
Speaker 1: was the second black female to graduate UM the training
10:49
Speaker 1: program at Marylynch out of the Atlanta Bucket office UM.
10:54
Speaker 1: And you know, just to give you an idea of
10:57
Speaker 1: what this industry is, UM, Marylynch have seventeen thousand plus
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Speaker 1: UM financial advisors. Of that seventeen thousand plus, there were
11:08
Speaker 1: twenty five black female financial advice twenty five. I was
11:17
Speaker 1: one of the twenty five. And when Ria came and
11:20
Speaker 1: joined me, she was the second one of the twenty five.
11:23
Speaker 1: And you're are considered a full fledged financial advisor until
11:27
Speaker 1: you graduate the training program. So they get a lot
11:31
Speaker 1: of trainees in right, and so they could use those numbers,
11:36
Speaker 1: but it's a revolving door. They come in and they
11:39
Speaker 1: go out. They come in and they go out to
11:42
Speaker 1: make it through the training program, which is a three
11:44
Speaker 1: and a half training um three and a half year
11:47
Speaker 1: training program, that's when you become a financial advisor. Twenty
11:52
Speaker 1: five of us nationally across the country. So when Real
11:57
Speaker 1: and I left, that was ten percent of all the black,
12:02
Speaker 1: female and financial advisors that the company had in the country.
12:09
Speaker 1: You know, when you hear that at Yana, what words
12:12
Speaker 1: to your mind? I well, not only hear it, but
12:18
Speaker 1: I saw it. So I sat in Merrill for for
12:21
Speaker 1: a little bit, and I saw where people would come
12:24
Speaker 1: in and I saw when they would leave, and so
12:26
Speaker 1: I saw where there was the need for not just
12:29
Speaker 1: a mentorship, but like an advocate, for somebody to actually
12:33
Speaker 1: kind of walk them through and say like hey, you know,
12:36
Speaker 1: like I will help you or pull them up the
12:38
Speaker 1: ladder just a little bit, because that's what everybody else
12:41
Speaker 1: was doing for each other. You know, I'm not trying
12:43
Speaker 1: to turn this into a gloom show, because it's by
12:45
Speaker 1: finances and money makes everybody happy when you can get it,
12:49
Speaker 1: and they're passing out a lot of money out there
12:51
Speaker 1: with Krypto and bit corn. And you know, we don't
12:54
Speaker 1: a little down slide right now because the stock took
12:57
Speaker 1: a little hit there. But you don't run from the
12:59
Speaker 1: stock market, you run to the stock market. Okay, So
13:04
Speaker 1: how do you get in the stock market? In the
13:07
Speaker 1: FEARS group leadership financial Planning and so it it's getting
13:12
Speaker 1: into that training program and we want to encourage. So
13:16
Speaker 1: we want to tell um students that are in middle school,
13:21
Speaker 1: in high school, we we want to show you and um,
13:26
Speaker 1: when Rhea was in the program, we reached back to
13:30
Speaker 1: her high school and had a bus load of students
13:34
Speaker 1: come in and we talked to them. So you know,
13:37
Speaker 1: to to get the education, the information UM about stocks
13:43
Speaker 1: and finance and really being able to build wealth. What
13:47
Speaker 1: does it mean financial literacy wherever you can get it.
13:52
Speaker 1: We host a program for financial literacy. There's a lot
13:56
Speaker 1: of YouTube videos. Get it because learning about how to
14:02
Speaker 1: manage money, what it means to understand the stock market,
14:05
Speaker 1: the capital markets, what it means to build wealth. It's
14:10
Speaker 1: important and we need to teach it. But I'm sure
14:14
Speaker 1: that like it's gonna be real. There are stereotypes and
14:19
Speaker 1: we in our community. You are black woman, a black
14:25
Speaker 1: person in general, black person come in with their little money.
14:29
Speaker 1: Do you get stereotypes? I trust the white person gonna
14:33
Speaker 1: do my money right, and you won't do it right.
14:36
Speaker 1: Do you get that stereo all the time all the time?
14:39
Speaker 1: Does it make you mad? You know? You have to
14:42
Speaker 1: understand what you're dealing with, you know. So when you
14:46
Speaker 1: have have a client that was an athlete, right, I'm
14:51
Speaker 1: in global sports and entertainment, and he was previously a
14:57
Speaker 1: client that I did mortgages with. And he told me
15:01
Speaker 1: because it took a while for me to convince him
15:04
Speaker 1: to become a client in which I was managing his money.
15:09
Speaker 1: And he said, most athletes, and they say it in
15:11
Speaker 1: the locker room, unless they look like someone that had
15:18
Speaker 1: money growing up, they weren't gonna allow them to manage
15:23
Speaker 1: their money, you know. And so people that look like me,
15:27
Speaker 1: um really is not someone that they equated to have
15:32
Speaker 1: money growing up. So it's it's hard for them to
15:35
Speaker 1: think that I can trust this person and this person
15:39
Speaker 1: will understand what to do to help me grow my wealth.
15:43
Speaker 1: So you have to build that trust, right, And how
15:47
Speaker 1: do you build that trust making the money? No, you
15:52
Speaker 1: you educate them first, you know. So so it comes
15:55
Speaker 1: to the credentials, like I'm a certified financial planner. It's
15:59
Speaker 1: not many of us out there that that's like that,
16:02
Speaker 1: and the the designations and the education and to be
16:05
Speaker 1: able to sit down and talk to people about what
16:09
Speaker 1: it means to manage your money, what it means to
16:13
Speaker 1: invest your money. That's that's what it takes. People have
16:16
Speaker 1: to get a sense that they can trust you, that
16:19
Speaker 1: you know what you're talking about, that you understand the
16:23
Speaker 1: seven life priorities, right, And that's what it takes UM
16:29
Speaker 1: to really help build trust. And that's what you have
16:32
Speaker 1: to do. You have to build trust, but it takes
16:35
Speaker 1: knowledge to be able to do that. And educating people
16:38
Speaker 1: to be able to do that awesome And the fact
16:41
Speaker 1: that I'd really like to add to that UM. I
16:44
Speaker 1: think another part of it because I started in this
16:47
Speaker 1: industry when I was twenty one years old, and so
16:51
Speaker 1: having that conversation with people and why should I trust
16:55
Speaker 1: you at this young age to manage our money? I
16:57
Speaker 1: think a lot of times, and stepping in the space
16:59
Speaker 1: and being active instead of instead of reactive, and kind
17:02
Speaker 1: of setting a space of acknowledging what you may think
17:06
Speaker 1: as a concern, kind of acknowledging, um, what it is
17:10
Speaker 1: you're there to do, why you're capable of doing it,
17:13
Speaker 1: and kind of being comfortable and confident standing in Okay,
17:16
Speaker 1: this is who I am, this is what I'm here
17:18
Speaker 1: to do, and ultimately this this is what I'm qualified. Um.
17:23
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times, especially women, we
17:27
Speaker 1: don't necessarily feel comfortable or confident being taking that proactive stance.
17:33
Speaker 1: But that's definitely a big part of it. Woana newest
17:38
Speaker 1: to the crew, your thoughts well, um, everything that they
17:42
Speaker 1: just said, but more so the being proactive because I
17:46
Speaker 1: am I've always been the youngest in the room or
17:49
Speaker 1: the most what seems to be. Let me answer this question,
17:52
Speaker 1: because you know you are the youngest. Is to take
17:55
Speaker 1: away because you've had the conversation to come back to
17:58
Speaker 1: the house, at the breakfast table, at the dinner table,
18:01
Speaker 1: the frustrations, but you came because you felt you had
18:06
Speaker 1: put a protection, you had mentorship that would allow you
18:09
Speaker 1: to be successful. Is that why No, I wanted it, Um,
18:15
Speaker 1: the protection, the mentorship that helped a lot. But I'm
18:18
Speaker 1: not gonna do anything that I don't want. And so
18:21
Speaker 1: I saw the life that I want and I see
18:23
Speaker 1: the things that I want for it. And I know
18:25
Speaker 1: that this profession and all the knowledge that I've been
18:28
Speaker 1: able to gain from just being a uh fly on
18:31
Speaker 1: the wall to actually being a part of it, I
18:34
Speaker 1: know that that's what I want for myself. I love it.
18:37
Speaker 1: I love it. We have a car Rosalind and Marietta
18:40
Speaker 1: mari Etlla Georgia had Don. Rosalind, you're on the call
18:43
Speaker 1: with the Fears group and this is Russian McDonald's host.
18:46
Speaker 1: How you doing. What's your question? I'm good, Hira shan Um.
18:50
Speaker 1: I had a question for all the ladies. Actually, UM,
18:53
Speaker 1: do you guys do classes or like online training or
18:57
Speaker 1: something like that? Do you where can I watch you? Guys?
19:00
Speaker 1: Are learned from you? Guys? Is it? Is it just
19:02
Speaker 1: a class? How often do you do it? You know?
19:04
Speaker 1: Where can we find you? Oh? Thank you for asking.
19:08
Speaker 1: So I started UM uh Financial Literacy UM program online
19:14
Speaker 1: for what I said, kids of all ages, you know,
19:18
Speaker 1: because it's it's targeted to kids. But when you're talking
19:21
Speaker 1: about investing and budgeting and savings, its skids of all ages.
19:26
Speaker 1: We need to at fifty, at twenty, at sixteen, we
19:31
Speaker 1: need all those skills. So UM, that's something that UM
19:35
Speaker 1: I will start back up and UM would love to
19:39
Speaker 1: UM to give you that information. So again I'm with
19:42
Speaker 1: Morgan Stanley and you can look yourself the Fears group
19:46
Speaker 1: and I'll put it out there online. I'm on LinkedIn
19:49
Speaker 1: and Facebook. UM with our financial literacy program that we're
19:54
Speaker 1: starting again. What is financial literacy? Can you can you
19:57
Speaker 1: help me with that question? Absolutely? Okay? So when we
20:01
Speaker 1: talk about financial literacy, it's just understanding money right and
20:06
Speaker 1: how money. UM. You can earn it, but how can
20:11
Speaker 1: you put it to work? Right? And and and it
20:14
Speaker 1: has a job to do, so what is that job?
20:17
Speaker 1: And and then understanding what your cash flow needs are,
20:22
Speaker 1: Understanding what UM an emergency fund is, Understanding saving and budgeting.
20:30
Speaker 1: Financial literacy is all of that is understanding from step
20:35
Speaker 1: one UM and saving UM and budgeting and saving for
20:41
Speaker 1: that emergency UM to having those moneys to invest and
20:47
Speaker 1: build your wealth. Understanding what a net worth is and
20:52
Speaker 1: that it's liabilities and it's your assets and it's assets
20:58
Speaker 1: minus liabilities fools your net worth and we want that
21:02
Speaker 1: to be positive. That's how we build wealth. So that
21:06
Speaker 1: that's what financial literacy is. We'll be right back with
21:09
Speaker 1: more money making conversations. Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now let's
21:15
Speaker 1: return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You
21:20
Speaker 1: got the ladies calling in. The ladies are running the show.
21:23
Speaker 1: I'm just the host, Stephanie. How you doing, Stephanie? What
21:26
Speaker 1: is your question for their fears group? And I, of
21:28
Speaker 1: course I am the host ra Sean McDonald welcome, come
21:31
Speaker 1: on and Making Conversation Masterclass. Thank you. Yes. My question
21:35
Speaker 1: is when is a good age to start teaching your
21:38
Speaker 1: kids about the stock market? Oh? I love that question. Um.
21:43
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, if you have a
21:46
Speaker 1: child that um, smile pretty and do chores in the house,
21:51
Speaker 1: you open a roth I array for them and teach them. Okay,
21:56
Speaker 1: So you want to start teaching them as soon as
21:58
Speaker 1: they can understand what money is period. Okay. I think
22:04
Speaker 1: another good gauge is if if your child starts to
22:07
Speaker 1: have a favorite store or favorite brands. Um, they like
22:11
Speaker 1: their Jordans, they love them Snipey, maybe they love to
22:14
Speaker 1: go to Target. UM. I think that's a good way
22:17
Speaker 1: to start to gain interest in the stock market because
22:20
Speaker 1: they can start to kind of follow those companies that
22:22
Speaker 1: they love and um, the companies that they frequent UM.
22:26
Speaker 1: And kind of see what that means kind of start
22:28
Speaker 1: to finish is that this Uh that's a little sick
22:33
Speaker 1: expert right there. That's just pipe there right there. Yeah,
22:38
Speaker 1: we do hold that important information. She's really because she
22:42
Speaker 1: said she came into the financial game at twenty one
22:45
Speaker 1: years of age. Okay, So when you said as soon
22:47
Speaker 1: as they started talking and understanding, Okay, I have two
22:50
Speaker 1: individuals who you raised. Uh, can you tell us when
22:54
Speaker 1: you were when you were conscious about what the financial
22:57
Speaker 1: world was into Yana? If you can follow put that reaction,
23:00
Speaker 1: because you were brought into this world, like you said,
23:03
Speaker 1: you were doing mortgage, you was doing tax preparations. So
23:06
Speaker 1: you may not have been at a uh merrill lynch,
23:10
Speaker 1: but you were always tied to coordinating financial financial education
23:16
Speaker 1: to real your your your turn to tell us how
23:18
Speaker 1: you will introduced into the financial world and when you
23:21
Speaker 1: bought into it? Uh to the financial words. So um,
23:25
Speaker 1: like he said, my my dad was very adamant that
23:28
Speaker 1: we made sure that we always put ourselves where we
23:31
Speaker 1: could afford the lifestyle that we wanted. Um. And so
23:34
Speaker 1: I had my first job at sixteen, and I have
23:38
Speaker 1: probably had a job since then. UM. And then I
23:41
Speaker 1: think that's important is because when I got to a
23:44
Speaker 1: point where it came time to start doing, um, applying
23:48
Speaker 1: for financial aid for college or kind of figuring out
23:54
Speaker 1: figuring out why so much money came out of my
23:56
Speaker 1: first paycheck. Um, it's like that, I my mind's kind
24:02
Speaker 1: of started to turn, and I think kind of stepping
24:05
Speaker 1: in that space and then kind of kind of turning
24:07
Speaker 1: around and kind of seeing people be be very vocal
24:10
Speaker 1: um about about companies kind of on the rise, like
24:14
Speaker 1: Amazon and Google kind of from an earlier age. I
24:17
Speaker 1: think it kind of put us in a position or
24:19
Speaker 1: that put me in a position to allow my curiosity
24:24
Speaker 1: to kind of turn into research, to kind of turn
24:27
Speaker 1: into that further knowledge. Um. So you think I've always
24:30
Speaker 1: kind of taken a place of being involved again when
24:35
Speaker 1: it came to doing for financial aid, when it came
24:37
Speaker 1: to doing my taxes, even though it wasn't it wasn't
24:41
Speaker 1: much um and even kind of opening like my first
24:44
Speaker 1: accounts and realizing like, hey, you lost money because I
24:47
Speaker 1: because you overdrew your account. Um. And so it's it's
24:51
Speaker 1: it's it was the requirement to be for me to
24:54
Speaker 1: be involved in those what we're seemingly small things it
24:58
Speaker 1: might have been things that we're easy for my parents
25:01
Speaker 1: to kind of fix and kind of knock out without
25:03
Speaker 1: my attention that I kind of encouraged me to remain
25:07
Speaker 1: engaged on your turn. Um. For me, I think the
25:13
Speaker 1: very first memory I have is when we um. I
25:17
Speaker 1: don't remember my age, but Rie and I we had
25:20
Speaker 1: to go every Saturday to this class for our church.
25:23
Speaker 1: And it was, of course my dad's idea and my mom,
25:26
Speaker 1: you know, she's well into all the finances, but my
25:28
Speaker 1: dad always makes us go do the activities, makes us
25:32
Speaker 1: counter dollars or get one dollar you have to save it, um.
25:36
Speaker 1: But we had to do the stock market game at
25:38
Speaker 1: the class. Every it was every Saturday or Sunday, and
25:42
Speaker 1: they basically had us do what was it was like
25:45
Speaker 1: a board game, but then it was like a stock
25:47
Speaker 1: market simulation and it wasn't just it started off on
25:50
Speaker 1: the local level, and I think it went up to
25:52
Speaker 1: like a national level if you you know, like the
25:55
Speaker 1: stock you picked if it started doing well. And so
25:57
Speaker 1: that was like the very first memory that I have
26:00
Speaker 1: of like really taking any type of interest into the
26:04
Speaker 1: stock market. Um. But as far as health, yeah, And
26:15
Speaker 1: then she came over back when We talked about participating.
26:22
Speaker 1: We talked about the wealth gap. You know, you do
26:25
Speaker 1: talk about you know, the jaw, you know, taxes and kin,
26:30
Speaker 1: the wealth gap for black people. Clothes absolutely absolutely, Um,
26:36
Speaker 1: I I see it happening. Um. You know, I see
26:40
Speaker 1: more and more, um, black people, young people, interested in finances,
26:49
Speaker 1: interested in the stock marketing. Um. I'm talking to more
26:53
Speaker 1: and more people that has a Robin Hood account, right
26:58
Speaker 1: and are trading on their own, and they're doing foreign
27:02
Speaker 1: foreign exchange trading. You're you're seeing it. Um. What is
27:07
Speaker 1: needed on top of that is really understanding what they're doing.
27:13
Speaker 1: You know. So they're doing it and they're interested, but
27:17
Speaker 1: let's talk about the steps, you know, and and let's
27:20
Speaker 1: talk about what this really means. Um, and I want
27:26
Speaker 1: to go back, um financial literacy. Right. So, finance is
27:31
Speaker 1: in the middle of everything, and there's seven life priorities
27:35
Speaker 1: and I and I want people to really make note
27:37
Speaker 1: of this. There's home, there's work, right, there's health. We
27:42
Speaker 1: talked about health, um, there's family, there's leisure, right, and
27:47
Speaker 1: there's charity or giving. Those are the priorities. Finance touch
27:52
Speaker 1: every single one of those things, right, And and so
27:57
Speaker 1: that's what it really takes, um, you to understand and
28:03
Speaker 1: that this is where we start, this is where we end,
28:08
Speaker 1: this is what we have to teach out to each
28:10
Speaker 1: out there. Wow, real, let's talk about I know we
28:15
Speaker 1: have a few minutes left and I want to kind
28:16
Speaker 1: of like go to you because you mentioned you came
28:19
Speaker 1: in at twenty one. We're talking about diversity. You know,
28:22
Speaker 1: how can we create diversity on Wall Street? Is that possible? Absolutely?
28:28
Speaker 1: I absolutely think it is possible. I think, UM, where
28:33
Speaker 1: Ayana and I are fortunate is we had that outlet,
28:36
Speaker 1: We had that resource, UM that kind of already knew
28:39
Speaker 1: about the industry, that knew about the space. I was
28:41
Speaker 1: kind of willing to kind of share their knowledge. I
28:43
Speaker 1: think as we stand in a place now of social
28:46
Speaker 1: media being very present and just it is easier to
28:49
Speaker 1: access information, UM, I think there are more there are
28:54
Speaker 1: more and more opportunities becoming available for diverse and individual
28:57
Speaker 1: success in that space. I think the biggest part of it, though,
29:01
Speaker 1: comes down to your network, comes down to being comfortable
29:05
Speaker 1: asking the questions and kind of putting your name, and
29:07
Speaker 1: they had kind of throwing what you want for yourself,
29:10
Speaker 1: the things that you're interested out to the people in
29:12
Speaker 1: your network platforms and UM, like you said, you took
29:17
Speaker 1: time out of what is traditionally a music station to
29:21
Speaker 1: kind of provide that information. And if people of diverse
29:23
Speaker 1: individuals kind of take an advantage of this opportunity to say, hey,
29:27
Speaker 1: that is something I'm interested how do I get involved?
29:30
Speaker 1: Then now puts me in a position to make a
29:33
Speaker 1: recommendation or make a referral if somebody comes to me
29:36
Speaker 1: and said, hey, they want to get into the finance industry. Um,
29:39
Speaker 1: because one, you don't know what you don't know, but
29:41
Speaker 1: to the majority of the people in the position they
29:44
Speaker 1: are and now is based off of the relationships that
29:47
Speaker 1: they have UM, in addition to the work that they
29:50
Speaker 1: put in. So if you're willing to put in the
29:52
Speaker 1: work and you can kind of continue to build on
29:54
Speaker 1: your network and feel and feel confident and being I
29:58
Speaker 1: guess vulnerable to say hey this is where, this is
30:01
Speaker 1: what I want for myself, I might not necessarily be
30:04
Speaker 1: there now, UM, is there any way you can kind
30:07
Speaker 1: of help me, or if it any way that you
30:08
Speaker 1: know somebody that can help me. I think that goes
30:11
Speaker 1: far and I think if that's powerful, she can talk
30:16
Speaker 1: like you, and that's a good thing. I want to
30:21
Speaker 1: thank all three of you guys, ladies, excuse me for
30:24
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Don't make this. Uh you know
30:27
Speaker 1: I always invite you back every quarter, so you know,
30:29
Speaker 1: nothings out there. Two more quarters. So next time, I'm
30:32
Speaker 1: a real in studio and we're gonna talk stock. We
30:35
Speaker 1: gotta we got, we gotta learned, who the family is,
30:38
Speaker 1: who the Fears group is. And I then thank you
30:40
Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversation Master, because I appreciate
30:43
Speaker 1: all three of you. Thank you, thank you for the opportunity.
30:47
Speaker 1: Ra Sean always the pleasure