0:00

Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode.

0:02

Head to MasterCard dot com backslash

0:04

small Biz to learn how they're amplifying and

0:07

supporting black women entrepreneurs.

0:11

The reality is I've talked to my kids like they've

0:13

grown and I'm telling I'm talking to

0:15

them about the market. And the reality is financial literacy

0:18

is a language. So if I had a nanny that

0:20

only spoke Spanish, yep, and

0:22

they speak to my kids only in Spanish, guess

0:24

what, my kid at the age of five now

0:27

gonna be fluent in Spanish because that's

0:29

all they know. Right, They're gonna be fluent in Spanish

0:31

and English. They'll be bilingual. And the reality is

0:33

financial literacy and language. And I want my kids to

0:35

be fluent in finance and

0:37

in investing, right. And so I talk

0:40

to them about the market. I tell them, oh, well, you

0:42

know, Jerome Poull did this. This is why the stock market

0:44

is down. This is what inflation means. This

0:46

is what a five twenty nine account is.

0:48

This is a custodial account. These are the stocks that

0:50

you own. And guess what you're on YouTube?

0:53

Guess what stock you on your own Google? As a result,

0:55

and so now it's second nature, and I

0:57

realized that, I realized the conversation

0:59

that enter tables are a lot different than

1:02

other communities. And so now I

1:04

put that out in terms of

1:06

my content, and now the world can

1:08

see if I could talk to my kids about

1:10

this, or better yet, if these are theccounties opening for

1:12

us kids, I could do the same. And so now we can

1:15

just starting early and earlier because we all

1:17

have access to this. We got access to

1:19

a phone, got access to Google. University

1:22

right, and in the College of YouTube,

1:25

Arts and Sciences, right, It's it's

1:27

real. And so now now do we know the

1:30

terminology that we need to become

1:32

familiar with. We could just google it. We could watch YouTube,

1:34

and now you don't need to go to Harvard.

1:37

Now we go to YouTube and we can learn all that.

1:39

You're listening to Money News powered by Greenwood,

1:42

a finance podcast dedicated to dropping

1:44

all the knowledge and gems from the world's leading

1:46

celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts,

1:48

and tech, business and more. I'm your

1:50

host, Angel investor, technology enthusiasts,

1:53

and media personality Tanya Sam.

1:56

Each week, we talk with guests who are making significant

1:58

strides in their fields and learn how they are

2:00

making their money Move. If you're

2:02

someone who's looking to make your money move, you're

2:04

in the right place. So open up your

2:07

notes app and lock us in because this podcast

2:09

will give you the keys to the kingdom of financial

2:11

stability, wealth and abundance

2:13

you so rightly deserve. Before

2:16

we start the episode, I'd like to remind you to check

2:18

us out at gogreenwood dot com and

2:20

follow us on social media at Greenwood

2:23

and me on all Things social at

2:25

It's Tanya time to stay locked in

2:27

to new episode Money

2:31

Movers. Please give a warm welcome to

2:33

rossmac Hey.

2:34

Ross he Hello, Hello, Thank

2:36

you for having me.

2:37

There's so many places to go here because you have partnerships

2:40

with the Bull, we talked, dropped a little sprinkle

2:42

about Netflix, macroeconomics,

2:45

all of these pieces your

2:48

goal in this really and this is also why

2:51

I love having guests like yourself on this because

2:53

this is what Money Moves is about. It's how we can teach

2:55

financial education and we could build

2:57

sort of generational wealth.

2:59

In our communities. You

3:02

also have written a book I

3:04

want to pluge that.

3:05

I want to talk about that because I love First

3:07

of all, I love books.

3:10

I'm like an unapologetic bibliophile.

3:12

And so tell me about the process

3:14

of writing a book and why this was important to you as

3:17

it sort of rounds out your platforms of education

3:19

that that you're feeding us.

3:22

Yeah, the thing is right, in our

3:24

community, we are the

3:27

most talented people living, right, Black people,

3:30

And the only difference

3:32

is we're just not exposed to certain things.

3:34

Right. We're exposed to sports

3:37

rather than the stock market. Right, We're exposed

3:40

to entertainment.

3:41

Rather than you know, good

3:44

credit and how to know house hacking. And

3:46

so I say that to say that

3:49

if our conversations are different growing up, then

3:51

we will find a way to take that

3:53

over too, right. And so now

3:56

what I'm trying to do is just democratize

3:58

access to information.

3:59

Right.

4:00

And we talk about the wealth gap in this country, it stems

4:02

from an education gap, right,

4:04

And the moment we started understanding,

4:07

oh, it's actually you know, it's preached

4:09

in our community to be

4:12

consumers rather than owners. So now

4:14

that I'm preaching how to become an owner,

4:16

how to start planning for retirement, how

4:19

to open up certain accounts for your kids, how

4:21

to buy a home, leveraging,

4:24

you know all these other you know, different

4:26

tools, you know, FHA loans, et

4:28

cetera. So you know, the book was the

4:30

just the perfect opportunity

4:33

to bring that all into one place.

4:35

Right.

4:35

You know, it's the wealth connect, It's the pathway to

4:38

financial freedom. And so now we're talking

4:40

about from the beginning to the end. Right, all right, let's

4:42

actually reverse all

4:45

the stigmas when it comes to you

4:47

know, and addressing all of it. Let's just reverse

4:49

on this head. Let's talk about why it's important

4:52

to build up that emergency fund.

4:54

Let's let's show you how to get out of debt. Let's tell

4:56

you why it's important to invest, because in

4:58

our culture it's

5:00

a big mistrust of banks.

5:02

Understand this, so right, we need.

5:04

To set there for sure, for

5:06

sure.

5:07

From the Freeman's Bank to the walk you

5:09

know, the Black Wall.

5:10

Street, it say, it's so many things that made I say,

5:12

you know what, I'm not trusting no institution. I'm gonna

5:14

keep my money here. And the reality is

5:17

right, I try to help people understand. Look,

5:20

you gotta understand there's this thing called inflation, right

5:23

and silent killer of wealth

5:25

because it lowers our purchasing power. And so

5:27

often our grandparents will tell us to save our money,

5:29

put it in your bank account or put it in under your

5:32

matches and a shoe box, this that and the third. But our

5:34

money is actually still losing its value. Most

5:36

people who you know look like us. It's

5:38

like, man, I ain't trying to invest because I don't want to lose money,

5:40

or I got to see my money, and the reality is we're

5:43

losing money by not investing. And so when

5:45

I you know, address that, and then I say, okay,

5:48

you know, I make a person believe like, oh wow, I didn't know that.

5:50

Right, The fact that when we was kids,

5:52

we can go to the corner store with a dollar and get you.

5:54

Know, four bags of chips and any candy

5:56

and this that and the third.

5:58

Now you get one bag of chip and it's sent

6:00

back to put it in. Now you

6:02

know what I'm saying. The inflation real. And so now

6:04

it's like educating community on like, look,

6:06

man, here's a blueprint actually attaining and

6:09

building true wealth, right and getting to

6:11

generational wealth. And now

6:13

the book is just going to tell you everything from the beginning

6:15

to the end. Right, we're talking about different

6:17

ways and understanding the

6:19

stock market. Right is bringing my experience

6:22

and working on Wall Street and bringing it to Main Street

6:24

and I just find it, you know, fulfilling

6:27

that I you know, and not only that

6:29

the content, right, I drive every morning, I take

6:31

my kids to school. My daughter will be

6:33

three in two days and

6:35

my son is one and a half. And I got a

6:37

baby now that's a month.

6:40

And the reality is real.

6:42

I got three under three.

6:44

My sister has three under three.

6:45

So I feel like I miser

6:49

take a village.

6:51

I want to help out. You know what I'm saying, They

6:53

take a village.

6:54

But like the reality is, I've talked to my

6:56

kids like they've grown and I'm telling

6:58

I'm talking to them about the market. And in reality is

7:00

financial literacy is a language. So

7:03

if I had a nanny that only spoke Spanish, yep,

7:05

and they speak to my kids only in Spanish, guess

7:08

what, my kid at the age of five now

7:10

gonna be fluent in Spanish because that's

7:12

all they know. Right, they can be fluent in Spanish

7:14

and English. They'll be bilingual. And the reality is

7:17

financial literacy and language. And I want my kids to

7:19

be fluent in finance and

7:21

in investing. Right, And so I talked

7:23

to them about the market. I tell them, oh, well, you

7:25

know, Jerome Poull did this. This is why the stock market

7:27

is down. This is what inflation means. This

7:29

is what a five twenty nine account is.

7:31

This is a custodial account. These are the stocks that

7:33

you own. And guess what you're on YouTube?

7:36

Guess what stock you on your own Google? As a result,

7:38

and so now it's second nature. And I

7:40

realized that, I realized the conversation

7:43

that dinner tables are a lot different than

7:45

other communities. And so now I

7:47

put that out in terms of

7:49

my content, and now the world can

7:52

see if I could talk to my kids about

7:54

this, or better yet, if these are theccounts he's opening for his

7:56

kids, I could do the same.

7:57

And so now we're just starting early and earlier

8:00

because we all have access to this.

8:02

Right.

8:02

We got access to a phone, got access

8:04

to Google.

8:04

University, right, and you in

8:07

the College of YouTube Arts and Sciences,

8:09

right, It's right, It's real. And so now

8:11

now do we know the terminology

8:14

that we that we need to become familiar with.

8:16

We could just google it.

8:17

We could watch YouTube, and now you don't

8:19

need to go to Harvard. Now we go to YouTube and we

8:21

can learn all that.

8:23

You know what I love about this too, because that analogy

8:25

of it being sort of a native language is so

8:28

true. And I think, you know, with

8:30

the rise of you know, all these audio

8:32

apps like Clubhouse just you know, bigger

8:34

rooms and reels

8:36

on Instagram, like, we are really learning

8:38

to you know, talk the talk, and

8:41

that is so important. You know as I talk to

8:44

entrepreneurs or folks that are looking for capital,

8:46

and you know, people are like, well, why am I

8:48

getting the nose? Like you need to know

8:51

the words, the buzzwords, the phrases, and it has

8:53

to be like a second language or else you go in there and sort

8:55

of we're exposing our blind spots. But

8:57

I think you know what's beautiful now is this is

9:00

trickling down to our kids. So when

9:02

kids grow up like this is second nature,

9:04

and you know, I don't mean to make

9:07

it about race or color

9:09

or socioeconomic status, but you were

9:11

right. Those kids at U Penn who were in legacy,

9:14

they grew up talking about this around

9:16

the table. They grew up hearing about my

9:19

dad's off to Wall Street, or like I got to go

9:21

to work with dad and this is what he does. And this is

9:23

how I think we really make that quantum leap

9:25

to building generational wealth.

9:27

For sure, absolutely sure.

9:29

I want to ask you a question growing

9:31

up.

9:32

You grew up in Chicago, I've

9:34

recently been introduced to I'm from Canada,

9:36

so it's a little bit further north.

9:38

But I get your cold.

9:40

But I've been spending a lot of time watching The Shy and

9:43

I don't know if that resonates or not. Just

9:45

you can Canada me on that one. However, what

9:48

were the conversations around you in your

9:51

family? Like did you have parents

9:53

that were, you know, talking this talk

9:55

with you?

9:55

Like how did you look.

9:57

At money from a young age.

10:01

Here I want to hear the good, bad, and the ugly.

10:03

Both my parents are entrepreneurs, and

10:05

so being able to see that

10:09

it helped me say

10:12

to myself, I definitely want to become an entrepreneur. But

10:14

I also realized that there's a skill

10:16

set that now as an entrepreneur,

10:19

I apply fortune five hundred

10:21

thinking right by working on Wall

10:23

Street with having an undertone of always

10:25

wanting to be an entrepreneur, I was throwing parties while

10:27

I worked.

10:28

On Wall Street.

10:29

Right, I'm driving to work,

10:32

well, not driving, I'm in a taxi a

10:34

uber to work, and I hit my music on the radio,

10:36

right, like I always was on a

10:38

different wavelength. But

10:41

the best part in the conversations about

10:43

money was one, this is how you make

10:45

it, but there was nothing about how

10:47

to allow that money to grow for

10:49

you.

10:49

And so it's a lot of things that I learned.

10:52

But when it came to the entrepreneurial side

10:54

in general, it was like thinking

10:57

about my business like Coca Cola, Right,

11:00

I don't have a brand as strong as that, Right, what's

11:02

the brand recognition? But not only that, how

11:04

do you Cause there's when you think about your

11:06

company, like a fourth to five hundred, You got your CEO, and

11:08

you got everybody else to run their different operations,

11:10

right, business development, marketing operations,

11:13

et cetera. And so I got to be able to wear

11:15

all those hats at once as well. And

11:17

so now you know, when you when you take

11:19

that leak, you know, trying to you

11:22

know, really make money, it's like, all right,

11:24

let me take the discipline that I learned from

11:26

working at a real corporation and

11:29

apply that to the entrepreneurial realm. But

11:31

you know, the conversations in general was one, you know,

11:34

entrepreneurship, right, making money,

11:37

understanding the value of a dollar, and now is just

11:39

taking a little extra and adding it to the overall

11:41

equation.

11:43

I love that.

11:44

Okay, let's talk about macronomics, because

11:46

you know this sort of blew up the internet with

11:49

your videos, your content

11:52

tell me, and you talked a little bit about it. You're like, hey,

11:54

I'm making these reels. People want to tune in and listen

11:56

to it. But you know there's a lot of people out

11:58

here who are putting on the internet.

12:01

Talk about how you sort of and

12:04

if there was intention behind how you plan it to

12:06

build this, scale this and monetize

12:09

it.

12:09

You want to know the best thing, m

12:12

it was just a function of alignment

12:15

right place, right time, because I did it

12:17

off the sheer love right and

12:19

the sheer love, and that's how it was able

12:22

to grow organically. Because

12:25

I make it easy to understand, I'm make it entertaining,

12:28

I make it fun, right Like at the end of the day,

12:31

it's very when

12:34

you think about finance, right, it's it's

12:37

not that easy to digest. Most

12:40

people are a little guarded right when

12:42

you talk about it. If you ask your

12:44

mom, your dad, what's your credit score?

12:47

You know how God right, give

12:50

me this Chile.

12:51

They clutching their pearls, They doing this right,

12:53

because we grew up in the community. I remember watching

12:55

comedy Viewers are Shorty. One of the best jokes

12:58

was bill collectors. This bill collector that, and

13:00

don't answer the phone. Like it was just so much

13:02

that we just normalize it being cool

13:05

to not be finant or being dead.

13:07

And you want to know.

13:08

What's so funny about that?

13:09

I just watched the Country Wayne Netflix

13:12

comedy special and it's the

13:14

same thing where he's talking about,

13:17

you know, how those those

13:19

bills. He made a joke about how those bills don't

13:22

really matter because I have ten kids and I'll just start

13:24

a.

13:24

New account and

13:27

not laughing along with it. But you know, because

13:29

those are real jokes in our community.

13:31

It's real crazy.

13:32

I started a Country whin yesterday, but I only

13:34

did like ten minutes. I'm I'm gonna jump back in, but

13:37

that's real, right. It's generational trauma, and

13:39

so us as a community. It's like, man, that's

13:42

how these conversations that make it fun

13:44

and entertaining, but also, bro,

13:46

this is the stuff we need to know because once again,

13:48

we're the most smart. We're a very smart group. But

13:51

it's where we're placing, it's

13:54

where we're putting that energy, right, is

13:56

my energy watching Shade Room is my

13:58

energy? Trying to figure out what's going on with the

14:01

Cardi b and all Set

14:03

and Nicki Minaj be for this? Or

14:06

do I need to be understanding what's going on in artificial

14:09

intelligence and what company is at the forefront

14:11

of it?

14:12

Right?

14:12

Because you know, celebrity drama

14:14

ain't never made nobody no money.

14:16

What if in the same

14:19

breath that I'm stalking Instagram

14:21

models pages, I'm also stalking

14:24

what's going on? What's Tesla doing, What's Apple

14:26

doing? What's Microsoft doing? Because at the end of the day,

14:28

Bro, that's the conversation that we need to have.

14:31

Right.

14:31

It's like barbershop talk always

14:33

is who better Lebron James

14:36

or Jordan or Kevin Durana. Bro,

14:39

the real conversation should be do I

14:41

need to own Google or Apple

14:43

or Microsoft or Tesla?

14:44

Right?

14:45

Like that's and so what I'm trying to do is just revolutionize

14:47

the conversation in general,

14:50

right because you know the stats say about twenty fifty three,

14:52

the media networth of a black family is

14:54

going to be zero. Right, So now when

14:56

you hear that, it's like, what can

14:58

we do to change that? We need to have

15:00

the conversations, right, we need to start talking about

15:03

you know, at for the price of

15:05

four drinks in the club, I can have a million dollar

15:08

life insurance policy.

15:09

Yep.

15:10

I need

15:12

to add like, why don't we talk about that in our

15:15

community? And so that's what I'm doing, right, And

15:17

there's obviously other people doing it as well, But

15:19

you know, I'm one of the people that when I started

15:21

it in you know, twenty eighteen

15:24

or so, you know, Ma's one talking about

15:26

that. And the reality is I

15:28

love being in the community

15:30

of helping trying to educate our community

15:33

and reverse the negative

15:35

statistics.

15:36

Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we

15:39

helped you make your money move, please share it

15:41

with your community, Subscribe and leave

15:43

us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.

15:46

Follow us on social media at Greenwood

15:48

and visit us at Gogreenwood dot com

15:50

for more financial tips and

15:53

remember, money movers, If this were easy, everyone

15:55

would do it. So take the lessons you've learned from

15:57

this episode and apply it to your life.

16:01

Money Moves is an.

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16:24

Until next time,