BILFPOD - Clever, Confident, and in Control: Bola Sokunbi’s Blueprint to Financial Freedom

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

New Episode — BILFPod x Bola Sokunbi & Clever Girl FinanceAfter saving $100K in her 20s on a modest income, Bola Sokunbi didn’t just change her own life—she sparked a movement.She’s the founder of Clever Girl Finance—now one of the largest personal finance platforms for women in the U.S., reaching millions with her mission to make wealth education accessible, relatable, and unapologetically woman-centered. A Certified Financial Education Instructor, 4x best-selling author, and host of the Clever Girls Know Podcast, Bola has built a legacy rooted in empowerment, community, and clarity. Her message? You don’t need perfect credit or a finance degree to change your future—you just need to start.In this episode, Bola joins Mara to break down how she scaled her story into a national brand—and why money isn’t just about math, it’s about mindset. Inside the episode:•⁠ ⁠The $100K story that started it all•⁠ ⁠Why women need finance spaces built by and for them•⁠ ⁠How transparency builds trust in a noisy industry•⁠ ⁠Money, mindset & the power of showing up authentically•⁠ ⁠What it really takes to scale a mission into a movementWhether you're trying to save your first $1K or launch your next big brand—this one’s for the girls who want freedom, not just finances.#BILFPod #BossIdLikeToFollow #BILFCommunity #MaraDorne #PodcastTeaser #WomenInBusiness #LeadershipPodcast #PodcastLife #NewEpisode #BossTalk #EntrepreneurPodcast #PodcastVibes #BILFEnergy #CleverGirlFinance #FinancialFreedom #WomenAndMoney #BolaSokunbi #MoneyMindset #PersonalFinanceForWomen #BILFPod #FinancialWellness #FemaleFounder

I wanted to be able to stand on my own two feet. I wanted to be able to have my own money. And I also had a bit of fear in me because of what I had seen with those women as a little girl, where I'm like, wow, I need to have options so I can leave a situation if it doesn't serve me, if it doesn't work for me. I wrote books because I wanted to reach more women, and I wanted to have a voice that was relatable for women. I was like, it's okay for me to have my own voice and for women to,

women of color to have a voice out there. People think there are a lot of finance. books, but they're not narrow enough. I want to be about the day. Welcome back to the Belfod where authenticity trumps authority. Now, finances is not something that, you know, that's regularly spoken about. In fact, you know, for a lot of years, it was kind of taboo. But I am excited to talk about it today because we have a real expert.

Not just any expert, she's a female bad ass. Her name is Bola Sukumby. She is the founder of and CEO of Clever Girl Finance, which is really important. I want to recognize that, how important finances are, and often not always spoken about. So just a little accolades for you, not a little. These are a lot of accolades for you. You've been on Forbes. Wow.

CNBC, Time, Business Insider, U.S. Today, and NPR. I mean, girl, that is, that's, I mean, give it up. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, I love it. And you are women. Yes, yes, yes, I love it. And you are named one of Times next generation's leaders and recognized by Forbes for your impact on personal finance. So that's a lot.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Geez. I feel like it's a lot for you. And I was telling you before that our backgrounds are very parallel because I'm in the health insurance industry and you're in the finance industry. So that's super exciting.

But like let's take the, you know, the triumph is always great, right? The front. But I always like to know the backstory. because you just didn't appear where you're at. There had to have been a lot of hard work going into it. So let's take you back to your childhood. Give me a little bit about your upbringing and your earliest memory of money

and how it influenced you. So I'm the youngest of four kids. I'm the only girl. And my mom had me when she was in her 30s. She got married at 19 years old. So there's a bit of distance age gap with my siblings. But my childhood around money was quite interesting because my dad was much older than my mom.

So my mom got married at 19, like I said. My dad was already in his 30s, and he was a multi-d-Ph-D holder. And my mom had her high school diploma. And so I, the very early years, just remember my mom being with me all the time. She took me to swimming lessons, we hung out all the time.

And then there came a time where my mom's friends would come to the house and I would be in the corner, you know, just listening to them playing, and it would be conversations around, I have nowhere to go and there will be suitcases. My husband is abusive. My husband has passed away unfortunately and his family has come in and taken over everything

and I have nothing. And so I remember some of those conversations in the corner as a little girl and that definitely was a heavy influence on me. And I saw my mom responding to her friends, you can stay here, it's okay, you can be here, but something started ticking in her brain because she realized that, wait a minute, I'm no different from all these other women. I could lose my spouse. I could, you know, my dad is, my dad was never abusive and my parents are so married, but she started

thinking about possibilities. What happens if my husband is not here? I don't know anything about the family finances. I don't contribute to this household. So my mom decided to go back to school with me to college, to get her college education, and eventually become someone who was contributing to our household. And so for me as a child, it always made me want to be like my mom. I wanted to be able to stand on my own two feet.

I wanted to be able to have my own money. And I also had a bit of fear in me because of what I had seen with those women as a little girl where I'm like, wow, I need to have options so I can leave a situation if it doesn't serve me, if it doesn't work for me. And then on the flip side, my dad would always say things to me like, don't be a liability in any man. I don't ever let a man be a liability on you. See it, right?

Amen. Amen to your dad. So those are like my earliest, when I think about my childhood and money, that's a lot of what I remember, just watching my mom come into her own person and eventually becoming the breadwinner of our family and then just listening to my dad's advice of being able to stand on your own two feet. And you're so lucky that you have two parents in the household because I didn't grow up with two parents. In fact, my dad died when I was six years old. And luckily, you know, my mom is, my mom's very savvy. Thank God. But I was brought up the same exact way, the same thing. Like, you can't

be a liability. And I did witness it that my dad died. And for a lot of women at that time, They were very reliant on the man. And for a lot of women, I mean, even until today, it's funny because I met this woman that is the, she's the founder of a nonprofit organization for widows. And widows are the most, they are the highest growing people that become homeless because they rely, right? You never think of this. They're victims, which I didn't even, and can you imagine, I never thought of my mom as a, I mean, they are really victims of, um,

They just don't know their finance. They don't know. And now everything's like safeguarded with, you know, entry keys to get into whatever. Like, everything is safeguarded like by the internet or whatever. Yeah. And a lot of women, they lose their husband or they get divorced. Something happens. They don't know where to begin with the finances.

And that's so interesting. I wasn't aware of the homeless stat. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. That is absolutely crazy. I know it's common. It's very common because part of why I started my business was because as I got older, seeing my mom's generation, I started.

seeing a lot of same things happening with people I knew or people I knew who knew other people divorces. I don't know where the finances are abusive situation. I can't leave because I don't have any money. I'm trapped here. And I'm like, we need to, we need to, we're earning money. We are savvy. We're smart. Women are making different choices in this generation. We need to know how to manage our money and get what is ours and position ourselves in a way that we don't feel trapped by anything or anyone. Yeah, I love what your dad said. You're not a liability. vice versa, you know, whatever you come into, I think it's equal. I definitely don't think we've progressed where we should be as women.

Oh, there's a lot of work to do. Oh, yes, yes. I know. What was it until 1978 women couldn't buy a house without a man on there? Or open a back account? That's insane. Can you imagine? Like, what planet are we living on, you know?

But it's still, you know, you think we've come so far, but we really have not progressed as much as, you know, everyone thinks we've evolved. But there is a very segregated society when it comes to, you know, you know, neutralize the neutrality between men and women. It's not. It's not at all. It's absolutely not, yeah. No.

So I think it's very interesting that even though your parents are together today, you know, both the philosophies of both of your parents, which I'm sure helps in the long room for you, and I'm sure they're so proud of you. Yes, they are. So you end up going to college, right? And you got your degree in? Computer science and business.

Okay. So computer science and business and then walk me after college. So then. So I went to college in Austria and then came to the States to graduate. I'm originally from Nigeria and coming to the US as an immigrant, my parents are immigrants. I mean I lived here as a child but never like as an adult, adult obviously. And I just wanted to make my parents really proud because in order for me to go to college, my mom and my dad had to make significant sacrifices.

So at the time I was in high school, we were in Nigeria, there was a lot of economic instability. And so they decided that they were going to send me abroad to college. As an international student, I couldn't qualify for any student loans. They had already asked relatives to co-sign for my brother's education. Right. They didn't want to take, they didn't want to pass on that burden, additional burden to any other family members. So my parents decided that they were going to, I guess, delay their retirement to send me to school. And that came at a significant cost because they were converting a much lower currency to come here for American dollars. For me to be abroad for, yeah.

Yeah, at the time, Austrian shillings, euros, and then for me to be here in the U.S. So I got partial scholarships. It took me five and a half years to finish my college degree versus four because of the money situation. Right. And so coming out of college, I just wanted to make money. I wanted to make my parents proud. I wanted to just hit the ground running. Not rely on them. Not rely on them, be able to help, that kind of stuff. But when I graduated, I didn't find a job immediately. I graduated in March. So, like, you know, I was interviewing, but I didn't get a job.

And the job I got didn't start, I think, until September. So I was like, I need money now. Yeah, it's a huge gap. Yeah, I got a job at CVS. Okay. I was working at the photo department at the time. With a degree. Like, mind you, I know.

My degree and minor in business. CVS. Yeah. At the photo department. Making $5 or $5.25 an hour. And I did not care because I wanted to make money. And so when I eventually started my full-time job, I was like, I need to figure out how to save. I need to figure out what the best thing is.

But these are all the things. I didn't know. And my parents couldn't necessarily help me with because they're immigrants. They didn't know about the U.S. credit system. They didn't know anything about 401Ks. Right, right, right, right. I was in this space where, okay, HR says we have a 401K, we're going to give you some free money. I signed up. You're like, cool?

Yeah, free money, all right. I was like, what else can I do? So coming out of college, I was just very hungry to save. Obviously, money conscious, too. Yes, I was money conscious. I was making $54,000 in New York City before taxes, so about $40K a year. it's very expensive to live here. If for anyone who's familiar with New York,

you know that. I was like, my Georgia shop. It's not a lot of money. So I'm like, what else can I do to make money, save money, and just do something?

And so I started getting really interested in reading personal finance blogs. There was a lot of bloggers at the time. Podcasts were not necessarily as popular back then, but there was a lot of websites on personal finance. I would read those. And I remember going to the bookstore. And I was like,

I'm going to find a book on personal finance to help me and I couldn't find any book by women on personal finance for women there were books by everybody knows who Susie Orman is on wills and trusts she had not yet written her women and money book and the one and there was the for dummies finance books but I was like I for some reason I wanted a book on personal finance for women especially if you're making that's what I want to you're trying to you're trying to like understand you're making what you would you say fifty four thousand dollars yes so

But you want to save and you want to live and then everything in between. And the reason why I wanted it for women, because at the time, there were lots of books on the girl's guide to this, the girl's guide to that. I'm like, okay, so there should be a girl's guide to money. Right, one-on-one. But there wasn't. And the book I found was a number one New York best time seller. It was a personal finance book for women, but it was written by a white man. And I bought it anyway.

Okay. Fantastic book. But I'm like, wow. It's a little odd, but okay. Yeah, there isn't much out here for women. Over time, obviously that changed. At that time, I didn't know I wanted to start anything in finance. I just wanted to save money, and that's what I did.

So I started putting money aside. I started learning about investing. I started selling Avon to my mom's friends. You're not doing your side hustle. I started getting on different side hustles. I would walk around the office to see who had if there were any office parties, any retirement parties, maternity parties, birthday parties, or baby showers, I mean, so I could get the free lunch and take dinner home.

It got to a point where in the corporation I worked, all the admin assistants knew me. So whenever there was a party, they would email me. Hey, Bola. They're like, hey, come to me. I'm there. You're like, cool, I'm there. I'm like, I will be there. And I traveled a lot for work.

So I took advantage of not having to eat any, not having to eat anything in my own house, but eat everything. So now you're saving on, so like I'm guessing where we're going. You're saving on groceries. I'm saving on groceries. Saving on eating out. So you don't have to worry about that. I'm being frugal with my with my money I wanted to get my own place because I was living a lot further from New York City and I was commuting in so I was saving to put a down payment on getting a condo

and I just got really immersed and like wait a minute I want to try to save $10,000 and then I hit $10,000 I'm like wait a minute I can save $20,000 just from little stuff just yeah just from doing little stuff I started a I started a photography business along the way I got interested in photography So now you're doing Avon and photography I had dropped the A ball okay so now we're picking up photography I had, all my aunties were sick of me at this point. They're like, listen. No. No more.

No more. Stop. Stop. Stop it. And my mom was my sales girl. She was like, listen. I love it. I love it.

You got mom involved, the whole family. Because back then it was, there was no, you had to take the A1 orders on the forms. Yeah. Yeah, you couldn't input it. Oh my God. So give my mom the form. When you see auntie Sue and Sue, can you have her fill out her order in this, from the catalog in this form? So I let that go by.

I started for talking. business because I had gone to a friend's wedding in Jamaica and I had a nice camera her photographer came late and she was like please take some pictures I'm like oh wow I can make some money from this I like she so yeah I started doing I put some ads on Craigslist back then I did a couple free weddings one of the couples gave me a three hundred dollar tip and then from there I started building a portfolio and I got to the point where I was charging five to seven thousand dollars for weddings and my highest earning side hustle year was 70,000 about

$70,000 doing my wedding photographer me. And this, so this is in conjunction with your job. Yes. So I was working during the day, travel from money to Thursday, Friday night, I would edit photos, Saturday, wedding, Sunday, baby, baby or maternity shoot or family shoot or engagement session. Whatever. Whatever needed to be done, whatever. And then that night in my hotel room, wherever I was working, I would work on editing the photos on my work laptop. You got to do what you got to do. Yes. And so I started saving money. saved this amount of money and I was like you know what I need an expert to help me I'm going to go talk to financial planner so I book an appointment and I go to this financial planners office

the statistics around financial planners I think it's like 70 or 80% white male it's a very high even higher I think it's like 70% white male are like sketchy so I get there and I'm like I've saved this money I was really excited you know and he's looking at me and he's like where did you get this are you married do you have a boyfriend and I got so angry because he looked at me like I was not capable of having anything without it being given to me by a man so I left the office I did not take any of his advice and I was like you know I'm going to figure this out myself so that's when I got really passionate about learning how to invest and then I started a blog and would write about you know, saving to splurge and investing, buying a new pair of designer shoes, and investing,

buy my favorite Chanel handbag, and investing, yes. And then so fast forward several years now. I've gotten married. I'm a mom. I have two, I have twins. How old? Now they're 11. Oh, wow. But at the time, well, they were newly born and I was feeling a significant amount of postpartum depression. I didn't recognize it at the time. And I just felt that everything I did did not matter. Little babies are narcissists. They don't care about you. All they care about is getting their diaper change. It doesn't change. Getting their bottle. I don't think it changes until I'm hoping it changes when they're 18 and out of my house. It doesn't change. Exactly. So I just started feeling like I wanted to do something that mattered to me and that would be important to my kids that they would be like,

you know what, mommy did this. And so it took me a while, but when my kids were 13 months old, talking to a friend, I came up with the idea of just talking about how I had invested and saved money because at that time I was seeing friends like I said earlier going through divorces right navigating difficult situations not having enough savings and so I just started talking about money and I was like I can call this clever girl finance because to me clever being smart about our money and that the girl part of it is essentially like a sisterhood right hey girl how are you doing like how are you doing your finances tell me about a girl and so that's where um it came from so college through I'm sure that your nuggets really I feel I would venture to

say that you've helped so many people and you didn't even know. I don't, yeah, I don't know. I'm sure you did. I'm sure just knowing about it. You know, I had a friend, I, um, she, she liked to collect Target gift cards. And I like, make money on them? Yeah. And I was like, I don't understand why.

She's like, well, what happened was her husband had left her prior. So she would keep all of these like gift cards. It wasn't just target. I think it was a whole bunch of. So just in case, if anything ever happened. She literally had thousands and thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift cards. Just in case. Like an emergency kind of back-up.

Just in case. Wow. And it wasn't alarming because it wasn't in a bank account or anything. So she had all of these extra like gift cards just in case, you know, the shit hit the fan or didn't work out. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. Yeah. Insane.

She ended up getting remarried and I gave her a gift card. Like she was like that. That she would like that. That's funny. So then at 13 months. sold, you have these twins at home, you open up Clever Girl Finance. Yes. And what was that like?

There was no, it was just something to talk about saving and investing, what I had done to build the wealth that I had built at the time. And I also wanted to showcase other women who had done something like that or who were in the process of saving or starting a business. Just showing women that we have power. when it comes to making money, earning money, investing money. So I would just talk about all the things I was doing on my blog about budgeting and saving and investing. And then I would interview a woman who was building a business or who had built a business or who had sold a business or someone who was in the process of paying off debts.

Right. Or someone who had paid off a ton of debt. And it just became something that people were drawn to because, number one, there were not a lot of voices of women of color or anyone that looked like me out there. and they're still not enough today. And I was a woman talking about money, not reality TV, not getting our hair done, not sex, not which is fine to talk about. We talk about everything as women, but I was talking about money. And money is something that a lot of women carry a lot of shame around because women are

notorious for telling, we're notorious for telling ourselves that we're not good with money, not because we're not good with money, but because we don't know yet. Yeah. Lack of education on it. You know, yeah. And when you think about it, let's go back to our grandmother's generation. And I'll give you a general example. This is not all defining.

But typically, you know, when you think about the 50s and the 60s, most women didn't work. We didn't work or we shouldn't work. You should aspire to marriage. And they would gather their daughters and everybody has a good recipe, home recipe from their grandmother. Here's how to do housemaking. Here's how to sew the, the bunch of.

on the dress and the dads would gather their sons and talk about business and cars and sports and you know stuff you're absolutely in my family I was fortunate that didn't happen my grandmother worked am I like that but it was for a different like a different whole different reason but yeah you're right you're absolutely right so like I said general right no they were bred no they were right to believe that you you learn this and it gets passed down right and of course as women we have that nurturing nurturing spirit or Jane in us that's just part of who we are yeah and so it is we just there is this assumption of what a woman's place should be, right? Get married. Yes, you can work. It's modern times, but your first obligation is to your home and to your kids. Don't get involved in the money matters.

It's true. It's true. And don't, you know, and I'm like, this is a different world because women are choosing to be single mothers. We're sole household earners, breadwinners. women are choosing to work, you know, get second jobs, support their households alongside their partners, if they have a partner. And so we're in this space where we're making more money than our grandmothers, even with the gender wage gap. But we need to know how to own it and manage this money and be involved in our family finances, even if we're stay-at-home moms. Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, that's our money. And I'm here taking care of our kids in our house.

Yeah, absolutely. to know what's happening to our investments. Yeah. I'm going to advocate for our money. Hour. Yeah. It's not yours. You and me.

I like to say what's mine is, like what's yours is mine, but what's mine is mine. Yeah. That's my favorite role. I don't think that answer the question. No, no, you did. No, you did. So you've written, so in addition to that, you've written bestselling books. So finally, there's an author out there, right, that resonateses with women, women of color.

But I think most importantly, like you have these books that are very educational because like we talked about from the beginning, there is not a lot of evolution for women and understanding finances and just managing our money in general. So let's talk about a little bit about your bestselling books. Yes, so I wrote books because I wanted to reach more women and I wanted to have a voice that was relatable for women. Like I mentioned, the book I found was written by a white male. Fantastic book.

I read that book to shreds. I bought a new copy and I read it over again. It was very foundational and instrumental to what I learned about finance. But I was like, it's okay for me to have my own voice and for women of color to have a voice out there. There are people think there are a lot of finance books, but they're not narrowly enough. If you compare personal finance books to other genres or niches, they are not nearly enough. So I, my second book is a book on investing. It's called Grow Your Money.

And at the time I pitched this book to my publisher, they were like, oh, well, you know, find another, tell us, there must be another personal finance book on investing for women. So do some research and let's see what's out there because when you propose a book, they want to know what your competition is, how you're going to angle the book. And so I went on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and all these websites. I found investing books written by men. The last investing book before I wrote that one written by a woman was 10 years before. Wow. A little outdated. 10 years before.

Still valid information, but it just goes to show that we still don't have enough of our voices in this space. I'm one person. And so my mission with my books is to spread as much knowledge as possible. But I also tell other female finance experts, business women like yourself. There's not a lot of women in our space. A book. Yes.

I did write one, actually. It wasn't about financing. It doesn't matter. Your experience matters. Write a book about being an entrepreneur, about this. being a mother about, you know, investing about personal finance, put your voice out there because there's a romance novel that comes out every 15 seconds of the Fabio and a... Agreed, but there's not a lot of women in our space, not in the health insurance industry

and not in the financial space. There's just not. It's so, it really boggles my mind because it's true. Well, I know why. I know because I'm in the space. I don't, you know, maybe you agree or not, but like in my space, it's the, it's the hours. Like, it's the grunt. It's the hustle. And like you said, you know, going back to the way that you were raised. And fortunately, I wasn't raised like that. So, like, grinding and hustling was just in my DNA from forever. But for a lot of women, and I see this, I see their journey, they get in, they're young,

but what do they want to do? They want to get married. And what happens when they want to get married? They want to have children. So then for some reason, the career becomes less important. And they just don't evolve into the next step. For me, I did all of it in the business. Like, I wasn't going to compromise that.

But women just for whatever, not for whatever, the reasons I stated, amongst being the mom shaming and, you know, the hustle and the, and the stigmas, there's just not a lot of women in our space. There isn't a lot, yeah. But the ones that are good, they're good, girl, they're good. Yeah, they are. And for those of us who are in the spaces, we should all, everybody should have a book. I agree. And I think their voice, I mean, why do you think I started publicly speaking? Yeah, exactly.

A book, a podcast, something that. I started it because of young women. Exactly. And really wanting to empower young women, and I wanted young women to feel that they can do and have it all. So you can be good-looking. You can be a good-looking mom who goes to the gym and has a running business. Like there really is no barriers. We can break barriers to fight odds.

You can have small children and run a business. You can do everything. But I think sometimes women, we want these things, but we allow other people to convince us where we should be. I agree. The naysayers. The space of a woman. when I started my business, I was working cool time. I had my photography business.

I had two small babies, and I was starting Clever Girl Finance. And you still wanted more. It didn't make any sense. But you still wanted more, right? Like I always have my plateful, literally on my plate full all the time. But then like that's not enough. So I'll just add more. It was not enough.

Not enough. No sleep. No. All of these things that were causing me grief in my life minus my kids was not enough. And I had an aunt say to me. She was like, what is all this? Isn't your husband working? Are you having money?

problems. I'm like, no, auntie. I want to do something for me. But what about your husband? What about my husband? I love how they group us together. Like, what's about my husband? I love when they say like they group us as like, you know, we're, we are a pair, but I'm also an individual outside of my husband. I earn my own money. I can make my own decisions. But you're right. I mean, there's just not enough education. So your book focuses on, is it like a case study? Do you talk about specific ways to help women. Give me a breakdown of what the chapters are like and like the takeaway and the little nuggets.

So I have five books. I'm working on my sixth book. And each book is about it's, I share my personal story. I share stories of other women who have saved money, paid off debt, invested, started businesses. And it's really the first book, for example, starts with all the foundational things, adjusting your mindset, learning how to budget, learning how to negotiate in your career, learning how to pay off debt, beginnings of investing.

And the second book is really focused on investing. and building an investment portfolio. And then my third book is called a side hustle guide. It's like, yes, you can have a side hustle or start a full-fledged business and be successful. Here are all the things that I did with my businesses that helped me succeed that you can take as a blueprint to create your own plan.

The fourth book is my personal story where I talk about just my personal experience is building a business and building wealth as a woman. I talk about criticism I have received, one of which is, I'll give a really quick story. really quick stories. I did a podcast and one of the things that really helped my business grow when I first started was talking about coming out of college and saving money. So I saved about over $100,000 in about three and a half years. And I shared that story and it went viral.

So it got carried by a lot of outlets. And I remember doing a podcast interview, but it was virtual. And it was on the radio, not a podcast, a radio interview. And they invited me to talk about my saving story. How did I do it? And doing commercial break, they forgot to put me me on mute so I could hear their conversation. And they were like, she probably has some guy that funded her lifestyle, please. How was she able to save $100,000 on a 40K salary? I call BS, whatever. But you invited me to your radio show to inspire your audience about being able to say,

but you yourself do not believe the story. But they didn't realize I could hear them. Did you say something? No. You didn't? So I was going to say something. But remember it was a radio show. And I was like, if I cut off this interview,

then I do a disservice to the people that my story is actually helping on the other side. You're definitely the bigger person. So I said, what would Jesus do? You've got to take them moments. Because I'm an Aries. I'm fired. Yeah, I see, I think I would out him on air. I didn't even want to, I just said, you know what, let me, the woman I came with,

the people, women, whoever I came here for my story to reach, let me do that and move on. And so my book just talks about different experiences I've had. There was a time where I thought I wanted to raise money to this. scale my business. This is also earlier on. Wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go. I wanted to create a free platform, but I couldn't figure out how to get there, which it is now free. And so I went through TechStars, which is a really huge incubator. It's like white combinator. It's at New York City. It was a big deal for me. And I remember talking to investors, investors who were focused on women, focused on diversity, black-owned, brown-owned.

and it was like, what white person are you trying to copy? Do you have kids, don't talk about it? It sounds like too much baggage. What does your husband think about all this? Personal finance for women? My wife is a CFO, and she doesn't give a damn about her finances.

I had 90 meetings, and 80 of them were BS. 80 of them were me asking, what would Jesus do so I don't clap back? Well, I don't even understand. What do they just not want you to be really? What I realize is that, in the VC investor space, it's a very, and I have nothing against white men that have, you know.

It's a white male dominated industry. That's an investment in what they can relate to. And I'm a black girl with two kids talking about. This is my life. This is my life. Yeah, I get it. I get it. So just going through all of that.

And, you know, oh, I think your business is cute, but how far are you really going to take it? I had one woman who was focused on women, own businesses. And she said, you know, when you come to meetings, you should put off some lipstick. I wear some high heels because it will make them take you seriously. And I looked at her. Another woman giving me that advice. I was like, wow. No, sis.

This is who I am. We're coming as we are. I'm a mother of two year old twins. This happened to me when I first got into the insurance base. I didn't know that it was male dominated. I mean, I got into it just because the economy, whatever, the economy crash. And I ended up in this, like, space that I was never. supposed to be and I was supposed to be a lawyer. So I get into this space, had no idea. I go to my first,

like, sales meeting with, like, all these leaders. And there was these two older white men. I'll never forget this. I sat down and we were talking and he goes, you're cute, but you would do more if you changed your look. Now, I'm 25 at the time. I had a master's degree. I already had, I had one child. And I'm like, what does that even mean? Like, what do you mean change your, so you want me to change who I am to accommodate who? Them. It made absolutely no sense. I mean, still I struggled with this today. Like, change your look a little.

Maybe if you look like this, but like, no, no, being who you are is what made what you're doing. Exactly. So going back to the question you asked me, that's what my book Choosing to Prosper is about. And I have a chapter in there called My Rich Husband because Money Magazine did a whole feature on that story, the $100,000 saving story. And like I said, it had gone viral. and people just at the end of the article, they talked about, she started a side hustle, she was saving, all the things I told you earlier on, they talked about all of these things in the article.

And at the end, they said, Ambollah lives in New Jersey with her twins and her husband, who is a physician. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? So I saved this money before. And again, we're talking about $100,000. How offensive is that? Like, I'm offended for you. Oh, wait for it.

So it's $100,000, but it's still $100,000. It's a lot of money. Yes. but you're not going to retire on $100,000. So let's put perspective on it. It's a good goal to aspire to, but that's not the only aspiration. So I've saved this money before I got married, several years before I got married. I got married when I was 29 years old, coming out of college, I was 24 years old.

And you already told me you were saving this money, cutting corners, you know, not the baby showers. All these things, right? So I'm coming into my marriage with money. I've since saved more money, invested more money. But the takeaway from all of that was that her husband's a physician. And I wake up one morning to social media, Instagram. Oh, yeah, all these girls, all these chicks that don't want to say where their money is coming from. She's a trophy wife.

She's a this. Her husband is a doctor. Of course, she's been able to save that money. Clickbait. And it was all this hideous stuff. And I'm like, first of all, why do you hate a successful woman with a successful man? Well, you know why? Why?

Because people project. Why are you so mad about that? Don't you want to see two people win as a unit? No. And also, I'm a stand-alone individual who has built a successful life with a partner who supports me. And I also support his career. Absolutely. So how about the physician who is married to Bola who built Clever Girl Finance?

How about that? You could not have said it any better. I'm sure your husband is super supportive. Oh, he's my number one fan. He's, he's, but like, when I think about how I was raised and my dad telling me, don't ever marry a liability. My husband's a spine surgeon, by the way. Who else was I going to marry?

I was never going to marry down. Never, because you're standing. You were already raised from the beginning. I knew it too, the way I was raised. Like, you're not going to marry. Why would you, you're going to marry up? Yeah, so like, equal are up. In the chapter I talk about, I don't apologize for that.

No, why should you? Because you used to have to apologize. But who cares? Because you equally bring what he's bringing, if not more, to the table. So why does it even matter? So that's that book. And then I have a work book. I'm like getting upset for you.

I'm like the fire inside me. I got to me all the time. I got to build like gator skin, like thick skin. When I, you know what's funny, when I want to go buy our house together, the realtor would only address my husband, like would only have the eye contact. And it wasn't what, like, I would have respected it if it's a woman realtor, like to give, you know, I would have not, if she would have like, not a woman, a man, but he would not even look at me.

He wouldn't have any, nothing, zero. It had, he had nothing to do with. It had everything to do with that he thought that he was the one with the money until I finally opened up my bank account and they saw that we were going off of my W-2s Let me tell your crazy story right here in New York City My husband and I were on Fifth Avenue. We're walking around browsing. I go let's go into Cartier So we walk into Cartier. I want to go into Cartier. We walk into Cartier. We're browsing around and my husband if you see him you think he's an athlete. He just has that physique And we get into the store and he's like the sales guy is very attentive

to him. Not you. And I didn't have on my wedding ring. This happens all the time. I was probably, I looked like a jump off some random girlfriend, whatever. And we're in this store and I'm like, can I see this? He's like, Madam, one second, one second.

And he's like, sir, would you like to see this? Sir, would you like to see this? And then he said, you know, he said to my husband, but I could hear him, you should pick out something for yourself first before you worry about your girlfriend. And I'm like, what the hell? Did you say something? I was like, what the hell? Oh, good. You

She really said that, okay. It wasn't like just in your head. What the hell? That's exactly what I said to him. Well, you are, I mean, listen, don't ever. I love that you're unapologetically you. I love it. And there needs to be more women like you and I in the world to stand up.

Like, we do stand with our man. Like, this is not a man hating thing. No. I'm married to a man. Me too. I like to walk beside my man, not. I don't want him to walk in front of me. I don't want to walk in front of me.

I don't want to walk behind him. I don't want that. who he is as a person and who I am as a person. And you should be recognized. And I'm so happy that you have this amazing voice that you are exercising not only women of color, but women all over because there needs to be more women speaking about the individuality that we hold as women. Because one thing I'll tell you, my mom used to tell me this all the time, so inappropriate,

but she said the power of the pee is a real thing. You need to use it your whole life. I heard that before. Right? She told me, she said the power of the pee is real, honey. And it is. It really is a real thing. If you use them the right way.

We are super strong. And the statistics support us. Yeah. Like we know how to multitask and balance life like nobody's business. For 100%. Right. We go to work, figure out the kids, figure out the schedule, all the things. And the household is running.

Not many men can do that successfully, including my own husband. Mine too. Why I'm flipping out? I'm here. And he doesn't know what I'm doing, like what to do next. Plus when it comes to money, once women are empowered with knowledge, we are rock stars. We are better investors than our male counterparts. We work, we bring more to the table, not necessarily in terms of like our accolades,

but in terms of like how we execute stuff in our careers and our male counterparts. We are so good at what we do. We need to get our flowers. Well, you know why? Because women like to speak to women and women also like, and men like to talk to women. So we really, if you use the right way, we can execute better. Our quality is better. Yes.

You know, our nurturing side comes out. so it's more relatable and you're right women need the flowers so what's next for you girl where are you going like you have just all of this going on over here it's so exciting what are you doing so working on my six book it's called clever girl millionaire of course you are and I'm excited about that one because I talk about you know now you have all the foundational stuff in place let's talk about making some real real money so it's called clever girl millionaire and I'm just continuing to grow my business to empower women I'm going to buy some books for the women in my please yes and if you ever want to talk to any of the women in my space I will be there let me love I would love to love you to grow up

I love it. I always do like some things for the women in my industry. Always I try to have like a little retreat or I do something. I'd love to come to a built brunch, right? We should get her to come to the build brunch. I would love to. I would love it. So if anybody wants to find you, where would they find you? At clevergirlfinance.com on all social media, Instagram, YouTube, our website, clevergirlfinance.

Social media, we're clever girl finance. And so you can learn more. We have over 30 plus completely free courses. Our platform is entirely free. We have free mentor calls. So if you take one of our courses that you want to talk to someone, we offer free calls with a cleverer finance mentor. There are the books. So we have a lot of support.

I'm really passionate. My mission is really to support women because we are capable of success. And I want to see more women succeed. We have to clap on something. Yeah. We have more together. We do. I can feel it.

We can allow Jewish women, you know, beautiful woman of color from Nigeria. We are just going places. I would love to. No, you really, what's the one piece of advice you would leave just women in general with? One, like, maybe just someone that's like, just having, like, not there right now, just, you know, like in a bad place. I would say that women, we tend to burden ourselves with a lot. A lot of self-judgments, self-burden, self-shaming, but we've all made mistakes. We can recover from the mistakes.

Focus on the lessons you have learned and move on. Do not allow anyone or anything to minimize your capability of what you're. you can accomplish with your life. That's what I would say. You are amazing. I'm sure your parents are so proud of you. Your kids are watching like, my mom is a rock star. And me sitting here, I am so proud to be in this space with you right now.

So thank you for joining me today. Your true inspiration. Thank you so much for having me with an honor. Thanks, great. So sweet. Love it.