Keep it Positive, Sweetie - Building What Lasts

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

What does it really take to build wealth that lasts? This week, Crystal sits down with Earn Your Leisure founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings for a conversation about entrepreneurship, friendship, and influencing the future leaders of America., From building Invest Fest into a global movement to preparing the next generation for financial freedom, they share the lessons that transformed a podcast into one of the most trusted platforms in business.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. My first guest is Terrence Hilton. Shakira. Luke and Yerrin. Have surprises. Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group check comes to life.

What a! You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. It's lemonade. This is Sweet 305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans.

Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people

who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysler, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song about it. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.O. Rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the hosts of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from together. We're breaking down the biggest headlines, the viral moments, and the stories everyone's talking about across women's sports. From game-changing performances to culture-shifting conversations, we'll give you our takes, our debates, and a few laughs along the way.

Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much.

I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Calling all my sweeties to the forefront, I'm your host Chris Renee Hazel, and this is the Keep It Posit Sweetie Show. Welcome to Keep It Positive Sweetie, the place where we heal, grow, and love. together. Everybody wants the bag, but today's conversation isn't about getting it. It's about what you build after you have it. Joining us are creators of Earn Your Leisure and the founders of InvestFest, one of the world's largest financial literacy festivals. I am so glad to be sitting with Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. Today's guests have become two of the most influential voices

in financial education. Rashah Bilal and Troy Millings are the creators of Earn Your Leisure and founders of InvestFest, one of the world's largest financial literacy festivals, bringing together more than 50,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and change makers each year right here in Atlanta. Through culture, conversation, and community, they've helped redefine what wealth building really looks like for a new generation. Kit Stanley, please give a very warm welcome to the founders of Earn Your Leisure, Troy and Rashide. Hi, guys.

How you're doing? Good. How are you feeling? Good. I'm good. I got y'all in the building. It's a beautiful building. Thank you. Thank you so much. We got some new digs and happy to have you guys here.

And before we get started, I like to kind of loosen things up by playing a little game. Y'all down? Let's do it. All right, let's do it. So it is called Worth the Investment. Is this Worth the Investment? So the first one is college. There's a lot of going back and forth on this right now.

It's worth the investment if you invest wisely. So I don't think it's just a yes or no answer. It's a, okay, it's a few different. It's layered conversation. What are you majoring in? That's vitally important. Most people are majoring in things that are not going to be beneficial for them. Talk about it.

So if you're just getting a liberal arts degree, nine times out of ten, that's not going to be helpful for you. That's one thing. Another thing is like, are you going to a state school or are you going to an out-of-state school? Right? Because the tuition is going to be tremendously different. Yes. Are you going to a private school or are you going to a private school or are you going to a state school that's going to that's going to determine the factors too so can you afford to go

where you're going or you're just going because of the vibe like the football team like the mascot like you know what I mean like you're going to put yourself in $80,000 worth of debt because they made it to the final four last year that's real like you know what I mean so that's that's vitally important to think about as well and then also I think about there's an educational component to it but there is also a component of what you learn in school, the experiences that you have in school. That can't necessarily be measured by the money aspect of it. You might meet your husband, your wife in college. You might meet your business partner in college.

You might, you know, there's people that you go to college, you join a fraternity, and that helps you out. So the social aspect of college is tricky because you don't really know. It's kind of like hit a miss, honestly. Yeah. But you should consider that. You should definitely consider that as well. So I think that it's a layered conversation,

but most people are not considering any of that, and they're just going off with like a feeling. I just like this school. I think I'm going to have a good time here. And I don't think that that's the best way to go about it. That's so good. What about you? As an educator.

Talk about it. So for all the reasons he said, I will say yes. If you ask me that question in five years, maybe 10, my answer would probably I'm not sure. Because I feel like with the advancements in artificial intelligence, especially how it's going to disrupt education, it won't be about how much you know. It'll be how fast can you learn. And the same time, it used to take us four degrees to be qualified. It may take us a month. It may take us six weeks to do that because the technology is speeding up. In fact, everything that we want to know has been combed through the internet and now put into a GBT or large language model.

And so you're going to start seeing certificates or certifications become more abundant because the speed at which people are learning is going to become the thing. So it won't really matter if you went to that college or that prestigious university. It'll be how much do you know, how fast can you learn, how much can you implement, which is going to change the way that we look at education, right? Instead of, hey, I got this degree from Harvard, well, what does that mean when that person can prompt something in the next two minutes and create a business in two months? He didn't have to go to MIT to do that. So it's going to be a disruptor for sure.

So the answer now would be for the things he said, yes, I'm not sure if I've been 10 years. That's good. That's good. What about side hustles? Are they worth investment? A side hustle, like what, give an example. Can you?

Shelly? so the income determines it if it's a hustle i don't i don't agree with side hustles the thing is a waste of time um do you are it's what is the terminology it's a side hustle it's like what are you doing it for if you're not going to plan on being a major if it's not big it's not going to be something that like now at that particular moment in time it might it might not be something that's replacing your full-time income and it's not something that makes a million dollars a year, but if you're going into it with the mentality of this is a little thing, this is a side hustle, this is just something I'm going to do spare time, that's a hobby to me.

And you can have a hobby, but a hobby and business is two different things. Absolutely. Like, hustling is not a hobby. So side hustle to me, that doesn't even make sense. That's good. I like that. I would change the terminology to side interests, right? What are you interested in?

Because even for me, personally, it was I was teaching, I was teaching, I love teaching kids about finance, there's an opportunity to teach more people about financial financial literacy, that was an interest that became more purposeful for me, right? Still rooted in education, just changed the medium. So the side interest becomes

something that, all right, am I working walking in my path? Am I walking in my purpose? Yes, how those two things align. Yeah, and a lot of people can look at what they're doing now and have side interest that, you know, sometimes people are sitting in that moment, like, why am I here? That was me.

What am I doing here? Not knowing that you're building the bricks and the foundation for what you're going to be built to do. That is so true. Even the word side, I feel like anything related to side to me has a minimum connotation to it. That's so true. Just side chick. No, no, no, no. What's that?

Keep it positive, please. What's that? Give us a definition, please. Right, right. You know, if you're going to do it, if you're going to do it, do it. I love that. I don't like this, you know, you got a meal and then it's like you got turkey and you got sides. Like, you know what I mean?

Both are good. They're not on the same level as Turkey. No, not the same level, but I'm in, because that's good. I like what you just said. I'm saying side as in addition to it. Mm-hmm. Like I'm doing this, I'm doing this in addition to you. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that was kind of how I worked this system with me. I knew I wanted to be an actor. I knew what I really wanted to do, but I knew I knew I needed to do. to be around it. So I was doing what I needed to survive, but I knew what the goal was,

how you talk about that purpose. If this is getting you to where your purpose is and do that. But I agree with you, I'm all about going at things 100%. There's no half-ass and just do it, you know? And if you have different things, we talk about multiple streams,

if you have different things, do them all 100%. You know, I don't have anything. Some with you guys on that. You spoke on AI, so I want to know, is that worth the investment? 1,000%.

Yeah, I feel like that's a no-brainer. Yeah, 1,000 percent, but more than just investing in the companies, I think investing in the education and investing in the place that we're going to play in it. Yes. Right. Like we've seen things be created. Are we the people creating it? Are we the innovators? Are we the engineers?

We need to look at it from that standpoint in totality. Because, yes, we can invest in the companies and we'll make money because we can see that technology is going to lead this. And if we're in the right technology companies that are going to appreciate over the next five, ten years, we'll be pretty good. But bigger than that is this thing is going to change the world, as we know, and it's changing it now. But are we on the right side of it? Yeah, right. Are we leading it? Because if we talk about subconscious bias in the real world, imagine when people are actually prompting it and they have that same bias.

And there's nobody to complain to. Right. So we've got to make sure that we're on the other side. That's so good. I love that. What about you? You just 1,000% with it AI all day. Yeah, for sure.

100%. Okay. We had two more. Networking. Is that worth the investment? Yeah, for sure. But you have to network from, I think people go about it the wrong way. Like, networking is not just going to an event.

Yep. And just walking up to Tyler Perry and just saying, hey, look. Did that work? No, I'm joking. It does not work. Like, you got a network across. I had to work, and he saw the work, and that made the net. Yeah, like, network the right way.

Like, see how you can add value to somebody. lead with value first. Right. Don't leave with, you know, ask first. That's very selfish way to go about it. And most people network from a very selfish standpoint, and then they get mad when it doesn't work out.

Absolutely. Well, it's like, well, if you looked at it in totality, you're being extremely selfish because you're only thinking about yourself. Yeah. And the honest truth is nobody really cares about you. Unless they're like your parent or your spouse, like, nobody really cares about you because you don't care about anybody else. Really?

If you really be honest with you, if you just met somebody in the street, You don't care about them like that. You don't have like a deep rooted interest in their future. So why should somebody have a deep rooted interest in your future, right? Right. So it's like if we go on network, let's see how we can help each other. I know that you need help with something. I'm going to leave with that first.

Yep. It's the lower reciprocity. Like the more you give, the more you'll get. And you have to network with people that it actually makes sense to network with. Right. Right. People will look past the person that's right next to them that can actually add value because they don't, they don't,

they don't value them. Yeah. But they see somebody all the way at the top. And it's like, this is the person I got it. But it's like meanwhile, your pathway to success is right next to you. That's so true. And it's like by you ignoring that, that's like us. We didn't get to where we were by, you know, reaching out to a celebrity and then intern.

It was like we grew together. Yep. And we had to learn things together. But it was helpful because we were both at that same level. So as we grow, we're growing together. you're going to miss a lot of opportunities by not valuing people that are on the same level as you. Like, work together and then you could potentially build something together. Yeah.

That's so true. A thousand percent for every reason he just said. And like that is our foundation, right? Like you're talking about two guys that grew up in a neighborhood, went to high school together. Didn't have celebrity friends, didn't have athletes that were friends, kind of just were trying to do something together and saw value in other people and gave them a platform. So, yes, celebrity is great to see, but do you have a CPA? Let's highlight one. Do you have a trademark attorney?

Let's highlight one. Do you have a real estate broker, a mortgage broker? Let's highlight those people. Let's show you that that type of value can directly impact you today. Literally. Right? And like if the celebrity comes and has stories and, you know, they can tell you some of the transgressions that they've had and some of the errors that they've made, great.

But these people are going to help you right now. Right now. Yes, absolutely. I love it. Last one, mentors, which I think are very valuable. Mentors is very valuable as well. But once again, sometimes I look at anybody to be a mentor. Like if you know something, I ask you a question, like you're essentially my mentor.

It doesn't have to be somebody that's 80 years old. That's extremely wise and been through everything in life, like the Oracle. That's what people think of, like when they think of a mentor. And it's like that might be hard to get. But like you might be wanting to learn something about AI. Person might be younger than you. For sure. But they can teach you something.

But your pride and ego doesn't look at them as like a mentor because they're 23 years old. So you're like, I'm 35. What can a 23-year-old? I'm not going to go to him on an ongoing basis for information. But then once again, it's to add a value part of it. Like when you're looking for your mentor, the wrong way to go about it, I think, is to email somebody, to text somebody to say, hey, I just graduated from Morehouse College. Can you mentor me? That's charity.

You can only do so much charity before you're on the opposite side of it. It's like a seesaw. So instead, somebody will say, well, I can't offer value to somebody that's already successful. That's not necessarily true. You can say, hey, look, I notice you don't have social media. Do you mind if I run your TikTok for free for six months and dinner?

Or, hey, I know personally know somebody that can I, do you mind if I introduce you to a person? Or do you mind if I can, you know, work for you for free? See how you can add value to that person. Then when you're around that person, then that becomes a relationship. Then that relationship becomes mentorship. Yes. That's how you build it.

You don't build it by saying, would you mentor me? Can we have a cup of coffee? Why would I have a cup of coffee, which I don't even know you, right? So I'm just being honest, because I've seen that happen so many times. Then people get disappointed because they do the same thing over and over again. They meet somebody, hey, I would love to get some coffee. Can you mentor me? Can I pick your brain?

It's the worst thing you could ever say in life is, can I pick your brain? brain. And like I said, it's actually, it's actually pretty selfish if you really think about it. If you really think about it, it's pretty selfish because like, it's just all about you. You're not, you're not looking outwardly. So if you, if you change your mindset, change how you look at things, then you'll actually attract what you want. But mentorship is very important, but it's important how you look at the mentorship. Yeah. And that's on a like one-to-one basis or encounter. A lot of my mentors, I never met in real life. I watched their steps. Right. I watched Tyler Perry build this.

I remember being in high school and my friends were like, I'm going to see this play. Yeah. What you're talking about? And watching that scale and then him showing up on Oprah to obviously we're sitting today. We watched that. So we can study that. James same thing.

So there were people that we watched that we didn't know personally that we could say, okay, I'm watching that. I like that move. Oh, they made a mistake here. Oh, they broke up. What caused that? Right. And so mentorship comes in different forms.

I think movies have kind of shaped what we think of mentorship, right? Everybody wants that OV-1 Canovi person. Right. Like, yeah, it could be the guy sitting next to you. It could be the younger person that you thought you were mentoring that is teaching you things about what leadership looks like, what dedication looks like, what commitment looks like. Because, like it or not, people are watching. At every step of your life, people are watching. So you've got to be very conscious of that.

Right. Yeah, for sure. Thank you guys for playing with me. I love that. gave some really good insight. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist, Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports,

a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roer to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is, like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take. over your entire timeline. In the conversations that start during the game

and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat. Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi.

You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans.

Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candice, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters,

revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chryssel,

the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo rewatch on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Harris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited on the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What a f***.

It's like a way to say, like, Oh, my name, oh, hello, my friend, oh, my woman. What are the... Look, never I've ever had to have to be a except you with my

kids, my kids, if you know. Yes. C, my amante. Uff! That's incredible! Yeah, the telenovela. You're the only person I know

that loves a Yellow Starburst. It's flammated. No, I'm not a like you'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with LelePon.

as part of my Cultur Podcast Network on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible,

you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'ma check you. Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yomaniqa Saunders

as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on our new podcast, you're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday as part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much.

So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So I want to go back to before earn your leisure. You talked about you guys with known each other since high school. Or was it before high school?

Middle school. Was this something that you guys knew then, like we're going to do something big? Did you have the foresight then? Or when did this idea come and take us on that journey of how we got here today? No, we always had a relationship as far as like doing stuff. Like we had companies before that. That's important for people to understand as well. It's not the first company that we started.

Oh, perfect. Talk about it. We started a app for DJs called Jock Drive. That didn't work out. We started a fashion blog called Fashion Wave that didn't work out. Real estate company. So, you know, I feel like if you're around somebody enough, if you're not actually actively trying to start a business

or do something productive, then that's a waste of a relationship. It's only so much that you could. talk about sports and entertainment and just having fun. Facts. So, you know, we around each other every day, pretty much forever. And other friends, too. Like, you know, we come from a very close-knit community. So we grew up with a lot of people that, like, we have brothers and sisters and everybody's

kind of, like, cousins, stuff like that. So as we got older and got, you know, realizing that we didn't need to make money in this world, then, you know, the interest. was like how can we you know figure some things out and um so that was a that was a few things as far as like this is our idea we already speak every day anyway let's see if this this works out yeah and then you learn from different things you know you have some wins some losses and say okay this is this is something that we can we can you know perfect later on or your leisure you know their relationship like I said me and him already had a relationship

he's a teacher by trade. I was a financial advisor. So I was already working in finance, and he was working with kids. So we were teaching financial literacy in the classroom. I was a financial advisor, and my goal was to get more clients like sports and entertainment clients. So I started a campaign on social media,

and I was doing a lot of different type of content on social media and built the social media follow. So we had a relationship from the classroom content. And social media content was taken off and started to go viral. The public had asked for long-form content. Like, they would just see, like, clips. But there was clips of teaching in the classroom, clips of me going on a public access show.

I actually had a public access show. He was my first guest on my public access show. Oh, cool. So the public demanded pretty much, I want to say demand it. They requested. The public requested what you now know as earn your leisure. Right. So, no, the plan wasn't to start earning your lease.

That was not the plan. This is a request from the public. It was an organic thing that just happened. Originally, like I said, from a social media standpoint, I'm just trying to grow my following to get more clients. From a teaching in the classroom standpoint, we were just doing that already because I was a financial advisor and he was a teacher.

Right. From the content standpoint, you kind of see, what people like and people really were into the type of content of like sports and entertainment but like breaking down the backstories of sports and entertainment and talking about deals of 50 cent vitamin water deals and stuff like that so the original goal was not to have a media company but you know sometimes in life you have to go what makes sense yeah so when you see that that's the direction you're getting pushed into it's like why fight against it right so We listen to what, you know, the people wanted.

And even when we started, it still wasn't a goal of like, okay, we're going to have the biggest podcast in the world. And we're going to, you know, it was still kind of an arm of the financial planning, really. But it was like, let's do a show because why not? Like, why not? Yeah. It's not like a difficult thing to do. Especially at that time, like we had a couple of iPhones. We didn't have like $100,000 cameras or something like that.

Yeah. And then it really took off right away. and it was really changing people's lives right away. People were really locked in saying they were learning so much, saying that they was buying real estate and they never thought about money in the same way. And they never knew that education could be entertaining at the same time. So from there, then it's like, okay, now we start to really think about this thing differently.

And like, okay, now it's a full-fledged media company. Now we've got to business. How do we make money? How do we monetize? How do we grow? Yeah. All of that. I want to ask you, you talked about,

the failures and the things that didn't work that didn't work. What did it feel like or what was that moment when you probably looked at each other and said, this is working? How did it feel to know that you had something that was successful that actually took both, like you talk about, you may not understand what's happening, but it's

going to work to where you're going. When you look back at that moment, how did that feel to realize that, wait a minute, we've built something based on our backgrounds and now we're walking our purpose. I think where you ended is where I'm going to start. It feels like you're walking in your purpose.

If you think about what he's saying, financial advising, he was already in the world of finance. Education is my spiritual gift. I really believe that. So how do we combine that? Well, I did that for 14 years. He was doing that for 14 years. We had already walked in that path.

The other businesses that didn't work, I never looked at them as failures. I never had an expectation on them. Like, let's create something together and let's see what we can build. What I learned from it is outside of being a brother, and a friend how he is in business. Yeah.

Right. So I know, you know, his dedication to something when he has his mindset. I understand the commitment to it. I understand the sacrifice that comes with it. If we can carry those intangible traits to the next thing, we're going to be successful. And so when we started Earned Your Leisure, I remember the message that somebody put in the DM, where's the rest of this episode? We were like, what?

They were like, yo, y'all got a podcast? And we were like, what's the podcast? Hold on. We never listened to him. So we had to sit down and figure out how do we create it? And once we started creating it, okay, here comes the value. He had a ready built up community that was interested in it. Right.

And so the first thing, I remember seeing, all right, we're putting this out. We're going to jump off this cliff. And it was like January of 2019. Let's see if we can get 100 people to listen. All right, well, in like the first hour was 100 people. First week, let's see if we can get 2,000 people to listen. All right, we got 2100. Okay, we got something.

We got something. Let's see if we can do better next week. Let's see if we can do better. And by, I think probably the 10th week, we got a message in the DM saying that, hey, you guys are in the top 10 in the podcast charts. Wow. And I remember thinking to myself, there's a chart for podcasts? Yeah.

I just know like Billboard. Right, right. And then you see the emojis up there. I'm like, oh, we got something here. For sure. Let's keep going with it. Yeah. Not really figuring out, here comes the media company apart, but how can we keep out adding value

keep getting people's attention, start to become part of people's weekly regimen. Yes. Because once we can start doing that, now we can start building. They know every Thursday this episode is coming out. They're looking forward to it. They can't wait to see it. They can't wait to listen. They can't wait to see the clips or reposted or start implementing some of the information

that was being given. Then it starts to be, okay, what's next? Let's go touch our audience. Let's look at the analytics. Let's go figure out where people are listening. All right, we saw Atlanta is an area. LA is an area, Miami, Philly. Let's treat this like what we saw when we were growing up in music.

When people couldn't figure out how to reach their audience, they go to them. So let's go do some pop-ups. Let's go touch the audience. Let's get some feedback from that. And then it just kept spiraling. Okay, what's the next thing we could do? What's the next thing we could do? And then obviously the empire started to build.

Let's get some merchandising because people, number one, will look at you for an hour. What if you had a message on your shirt? Right. What if it was assets of the liabilities, right? And so now that became a slogan that became synonymous with us. Yes, Earnie Elegia was the brand, but now they have this message that goes along with it. And so, you know, it just became the next thing, the next thing into what you see now. That's amazing.

I love that. You talked about, you see how it's impacting people and people responding saying this is, I'm using these, I'm utilizing the principles that you guys are teaching us. At what point did you realize you were doing more than creating, but you were also responsible for the information that you guys were putting out? beginning definitely you know always looked at

as a media company even on Instagram page it was like we pointed out articles and different things so it wasn't just clips of like content so you know and then you just evolve you just learn as you go but that was always the framework of like creating

a community so earning allegiance like I said even the beginning Instagram page it was never just to promote promote the podcast. It was always unrelated stuff like we talk about business articles or highlight somebody else or show something like so

it was always more of an ecosystem than just a show. Yeah no I love that. I want to know what was one of the biggest decisions or most difficult decisions that you had to do to protect the division in totality that you look back out now and it may not have been

easy to make in the moment but you're like I'm glad we made that choice. Hmm. Um, I mean, you, you know, you work with some people, then you don't work with the person. Like, you know, you got some people, you know, you don't have a lasting relationship with every single person. For sure. So that's important. Somebody is not operating at the highest level possible.

Or if somebody. Who's the one to let them go? You seem like you're a bad guy. You like, you got to go. Surprise. Let's keep this positive. you got to do it somebody's got to do it

you got to do it yeah it's business it's a part of it it's just business you can't you can't you can't let somebody a you can't let somebody incompetent ruin your vision

and B you can't let somebody that's a cancer spread you got to cut the cancer off yeah that's a word that's so good yeah I think that that yeah when I

listening to it, yes. The most difficult part was putting people in position that they weren't qualified for. And we often do that because we want to believe in people and they want to work so bad, and then you get in and you're like, you grow up together, you come up together, you're friends, and you want to make sure that your friends win, and you want to see them be successful,

but everybody's not meant to be in those positions, like you said, if they're unqualified. And it's funny, when Tyler Perry came to invest, fest, that was his message. Yeah. And when he said it, it resonated with me so strong. And I'm like, wow, he's like, you can't bring them up to this level of success. They'll suffocate.

They will. You're actually harming them by bringing them on this journey. And so let them live their own journey. Keep doing what you have to do. Keep your core together. And the people who are meant to be for you will come into your life and you can continue this thing going. So that was difficult. And it still is.

Because you still have relationships. Like you said, we're a close-knit community, so we grew up with a lot of people that are watching this that came on the journey with us, had time with us, or no longer with us. So, yeah, that's been the most difficult. Yeah, I can understand and wholeheartedly agree as a businesswoman that is hard when you bring on people,

especially people you know that came up with you. It's like, oh, we're going to do this together. And then you get in the thick of it, and it's like, okay, and you kind of see it. And sometimes they see it before you do. They're like, okay, I really ain't cut out for this. So it makes it easier. You know, but when you have to make that decision, it's just time to put your big, well, for me, put your big girl panties on.

So it's like, let's do it. But that is always hard. I don't think it ever gets easy. It's always a hard thing that has to do when. And then also never give somebody something that they don't deserve because. That's a lesson. It's extremely harmful because you would think that a person would have appreciation for something because they're like, I technically, I know I'm not qualified for it. I know I don't deserve this.

I know I didn't work hard for it. But what happens is that a funny thing happens when you get people with something that they don't deserve, they think they deserve it. That's so true. You are telling the truth. Is he not preaching? He's telling the truth. You know people like that. That's good.

That is a fact. That is so true. And the entitlement comes. Entitlement. Entitlement. That is the word. That's the worst. That's the worst thing.

That's the worst. Yeah. Oh. That's crazy. Yeah, you start trying to create different positions and different titles. And at the end of the day, it's like, why are we doing this? Oh, my God, Troy, seriously. It's like, okay, you know what?

Go ahead, let's have this therapy session. Yeah, right. Literally. I'm like, man. Because you do, you start making a different position. Like, now we're going to, let's try this. Like, we're going to, you're not going to do this because I can tell us a little, it's a lot. So we're going to try this.

But it does. Like, you kind of try to figure it out and shift it around. But sometimes it's just not a fit. and you got to trust that. Does the relationship keep going though? Outside of work. You can still be friends. We can be cool.

And that's on them if they want to continue relationships. Sometimes people's feelings get hurt and they don't want nothing to do with you after you could let them go from a job. It is tough. Yeah. But at the end of the day, it's the brand that you've built. You have to honor that.

And if you're operating in excellence, you can't like how you talk about. You can't have people that aren't pulling their part. You've got to make sure that everybody's in their way. And if they were truly friends, then they want you to succeed. Yeah, exactly. And I've been lucky to have that where I've worked with friends and then when

they leave it, it's like we're still good because I know I still want to see you in. So I've been blessed in that area. I want to ask you this. I know a lot of times when we're looking to what we think is successful before we're actually successful, we have a different vision or a thought of what it is.

What did you think success was before you became successful, and now that you are, you look at it totally different. When you're like, no, I know what success is now, and it wasn't what I thought it was back then. It was what I thought. She was writing so funny. He was like, that's what I thought.

Pretty much exactly how I lived. I dreamt that. I like the big show online when he was like, if you ask me how I feel, I'm going to just tell you it's everything that I expected. That's really what I really thinking about. As far as writing books, traveling. Of course, you can never like fully know

or fully appreciate every little thing, But the idea of this, the whole reason why we started this whole thing. Like, that was, that was the vision. Yeah. I could speak for myself. I can't speak for Troy, but that was my vision. Like, I really thought about, damn, we want to travel the world and write a book and do interviews. And it was pretty much.

What you saw. Yeah. It's pretty accurate. This is interesting. And I'll speak for both of us here. I think us being successful, especially to our community. isn't a surprise. I think they watched us since we were teenagers.

Right. They watched us as young men. They watched us as men, fathers. It's not a surprise to them. Yeah, they knew. They kind of saw that this would be the route for them. So, like, being successful, it was already in our brain. It wasn't an option that we weren't going to be.

What was the route? He had visions for himself. I had visions for myself. I thought it would be in education. It kind of still is in education. He thought it would be in fine. It still is in finance. The path we didn't know.

The idea, the mantra of it was always there. Yeah. Yeah. Now, we talk about working with friends. But visualization is very important. Because that's something that I'm a firm believer. I'm a very firm believer in that. Like I said, and I was just like the Kanye West thing when he was like, before I had it,

I closed my eyes and imagine. Yes. And I feel like that's powerful. Like all of these things, like sometimes it's like almost deja vu. because, like, Nas, that's my favorite rapper. Yes. Like, to the point, I named my son Nassir. Wow.

And then we develop a relationship with Nas. We have dinner with him for six hours and all of that. But these are things that it's like, I feel I really, really, really firmly believe in, like, manifestation. I said you manifested, yeah, for sure. And, like, visualize it. That doesn't mean that you just sit in your room and do nothing, like, and just think that that's going to be, like, the pathway to success. It's just dream all day. But stay positive.

That's right. That's right. That's right. This is interesting. As we were, as earning a leisure was turning to what it is, my mom showed me a letter that I wrote in third grade. I still have it, like, it was 1991. That might have aged me a little bit.

But in the letter, it was me telling her that I'm going to be a millionaire. And when I become a millionaire, I'm going to build a big house and I'm going to build her a big house right next to it. So at nine years old, I'm thinking, I'm going there. The vision, yeah. Like the path. Is it going to be in sports? Because we love sports and love entertainment.

I'm not that great at writing rhymes. So that wasn't going to happen. Can it be an education? Okay, let's see what that path goes. But at nine years old, it's already in my mind. I'm going to be successful. I'm going to be a million in there. Yeah.

For sure. I love that. I love that you both saw it. And I'm big on visions, too. seeing things. As a kid, I knew that I was going to be doing what I'm doing, not podcasting, but I knew I was going to be acting, singing. I was like, I'm going to be an entertainer. And my parents were like, girl, okay. But they were like, this is what you want to do, will make sure you're in dance class, we're going to put you in the choir.

They gave me the tools I needed to be able to develop the skills for it. But it was also something that I saw as a kid, and I just always knew. And it was nobody, I don't care what anybody said. They could say, oh, I'm not sure you can do that. I'm like, I can. Oh, I don't really like that. And I was like, I do. Like, it didn't matter what anybody thought. So the moment didn't surprise you?

It did not surprise me. No. Somebody asked, we did something the other day here at the studio for influencers, and they asked, are you, basically, are you surprised at where you are now? And I'm like, no, like, this is something I always saw for myself. And I'm big on writing things down to, I actually in the third grade, I wrote Oprah. And my very first job here, Oprah and Tyler had worked. They were working together on the have and have knots, and he was doing shows for the own network.

So she was literally one of my first bosses when I moved here And now I've had like multiple conversations hung out with her Plenty of times but as a kid I got denied going to the Oprah show But now it's like hey yo I used to have to tape Oprah Winfrey show at 4 o'clock Every day for my mom For your mom yeah on that VCR And if I missed it it was an issue

No big issue That was one of my favorite shows like after school I could not wait Yeah but no I'm with your mom on that That was going to be a problem. That's a problem. It's a problem. I love that. So you two have been friends for a long time.

We talked about working with friends and giving friends opportunities. I want to know how you all have protected your friendship and doing business together because a lot of times we see friends go into business and then the friendship just is done because it doesn't last. How have you protected that? And what are some tips that you can give other people who are going into business together? I think the two words that come to mind are trust and respect. I respect to the highest level

and I trust them to the highest level outside of business like if I needed somebody to be around my family if something happens to me I know that they're going to be taken care of and he's going to make sure of that and then understanding our strengths and our weaknesses

that's key and sometimes you see strength at other people and you realize oh I'm not good at that and you could look at it a few ways you can say okay I want to be as good as that person or in my case I looked at it as he's great at that.

Let me find something else to be great at. Because if I bring that asset with his, we are really a superpower. And so understanding that, you know, having dialogue, making sure that communication is there, checking in on each other, you know, outside of what people see. Yeah. How are you doing? Yes. How are you doing?

Like, how are you feeling? You okay? I know there's some stress going. You good? How can I help? Yeah. Just pouring into each other. in that way, which people don't see.

It's so important. So especially as black men, because nobody's shaking on y'all. Like, y'all are taking care of everybody. I think that gets overlooked. Yeah. This is something that's happening with two black men. Yes. That have decided that we're going to do something together

and have been pretty much together for 30 years now. Where do we see that? Right? So we understand the magnitude of that. We understand the responsibility of that. We understand the people that are watching. Just look at us and say, you guys are our mentors. Yes.

You are the blueprint on how to do it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I feel like family, family doesn't break up. Like, it's impossible. If family breaks up, it was never family. So you could have, you know, a disagreement. But you could even go separate ways. Like, you know, sometimes in life, like, you know,

it doesn't mean that you hate it, but what you see on the line, like, you know, people was best friends, they was business partners now. They slanded each other every chance that they get in. They're telling their deepest secrets. And, you know, to me, I'm like, to me, you was never family. I can't do that. That's like your mom. Now you're going to go online and just start slandering your mom.

Right. Because you don't like her. You got disagreement in the moment. Right. That to me is questionable about your character. Yes. So I think too much is built around ego. Too much is just built around not knowing how to de-escalate situations

because a lot of times it's not even that serious. A lot of situations just broken up just over not knowing how to communicate properly. That's good. It's like not knowing how to ask for what you want to ask. for or just saying I don't agree with this or you know just really like having an uncomfortable conversation coming back apologizing about something like you know a lot of things could have just been avoided if you really think about it's not even that serious but they'll go to the end of the world to try to publicly slander a person yeah it's sad and it's like who benefits from that

so you know it happens all the time happens in this space you see podcasts is like breaking up You see music, people break up. You see like, you know, all the time. People, you know, people break up all the time. And like I said, there's ways to break up. There's ways to break up if that's needed. But we need to learn, as a community, we need to learn better conflict resolution skills. Absolutely.

And we need to understand governance, respect governance. Like, we got to have better ways of dealing with each other because it, it's, is problematic. Like, we can't even work together. How are we going to change anything like in our real, and like really, really affect real change if we can't even come together and not, you know, break up after 18 months.

Right, that's so true. If y'all can give me a quick story time. And there's no benefit in it. That's the last thing. Just from a pure selfish standpoint, nine times out of ten, it doesn't work out when you break up. Very few people, the band breaks up,

and then you're more successful. Right. It happened once in a, like you got Beyonce and you got Michael Jackson. Outliers. Right. Most of the time, most of the time,

you make less money. You become less successful. Yeah. You get, nobody cares about you anymore. It doesn't, it doesn't work. That's real.

So it's like, just from a pure selfish standpoint. It's actually better just to keep the band together. Like, if you get in 30%, that 30%, I'd rather take

30% for 20 years, then 100% for 18 months. Because that people break up, they're like, I can do this on my own. I'm a bigger star. I got a bigger name. And then it's like, all right, now you're on your own. And then your run is 18 months. But if you had a nice, consistent run for 20 years, and nobody's complaining. So that's important for people to understand. Like before you, before you end that relationship, if all else fails, just think from a

selfish standpoint, it's not going to work. 90% chance is not going to work. So you better off just working it out. That's a long-term vision. I feel like that's some relationships too, and not just platonic. Like sometimes it's like work it out, you know, because you get out there and you're like,

look it out here. It's crazy. Listen. Really praise for you. Yeah, that real world hits you. Listen. I'm back on the scene. Right.

They be trying to run back home. Please let me. The grass is always greener. Right, that's what they think. The clothes are still folded, right? Right. Right. That is hilarious.

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Listen to new episodes every Tuesday, bonus episodes Thursday, and rewinds on Sunday on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You talked about disagreements, and I want to know if you could tell us like a story time that may be funny now where you had a disagreement on something,

but it actually ended up benefiting the brand where you're like, man, I'm glad we got through that, but that was a heated moment. I don't know if they're heated moments. Like I said, I know them so well. that I know how I'm approached something that there's a disagreement. And we don't, the interesting part is that we don't agree most of the time.

Really? I think people watch it and they think oh, these guys think alike. But in real life, when people around us, we debate back and forth most of the time. Now, are y'all real New Yorkers when y'all debate? Because New Yorkers be allowed. You don't even say like he raised your voice. No, he gets loved. He do, oh, okay.

Yeah, he definitely gets love. But, I mean, that's how we've always spoken to each other. That's how we communicate. And I think, again, it goes back to the respect. It's not like, oh, you lost that debate. It's just like, oh, that was good. All right, can't wait for the next one. I love that.

Yeah, but, you know, if there is a disagreement and it's something that needs to be spoke about, it's going to be between me and him. Yeah. It's going to be a phone call. It's something like, I'm pulling up to your house. Let's have this conversation. I love that, mature.

And let's see perspective. Let's look at this perspective. We'll go back and forth. Because I guess we both have that stubborn trait. Like, I want you to hear my point. I want you hear my point, but are we listening to each other? Right. It's one thing to be heard, but are you listening?

And it's usually resolved. It's never been something that is, oh, I hate you. Don't talk to me ever again. Right. I don't think there's been a time where it's like, yo, I'm not speaking to him. You know, so because there's a respect. Why are you breathing all hurt? No, no.

He said. But then also I think that it's not really too much of like, there is a level of governance because it's like we have different roles in responsibilities. Like he's a numbers guy. He handles the money he handles operations. people, analytics,

a variety of different things. And we have other people too. Like, A, V, he's here with us. We got, you know, we got a team. We got a whole team. It's not just us. It's a whole team. Different people have different delegations

and different things of that nature. And me, I'm a creative. So I'll give the everybody credit. Because I don't think people step on people's toes too much. I can speak for me. I don't feel like my toes get stepped on too much. much. That's good. I feel like if I have an idea, I have a pretty good track record. And I feel like as long as I communicated successfully, it's not really too many times where they're like,

no, you can't do this. It's pretty much never that. That's never really the case. So I don't think that it's ever been a situation where it's been like a full fledged like, this is the way that we go on. Oh no, this is the way that we go on. And then it's like, you know, It's not really too much of that Because I think people People know their strong suits People know what their best at People know what they're responsible for

And you got to have some trust Yeah You got to trust the process For sure Like you can't It's not gonna work Like if your job is to do something And I'm telling you like no

This is I'm telling you This is what I want to do Well that's not your job anymore That's my job I've essentially taken your job. So I feel like that's helped us too. Because it hasn't really been. It's not too much like really like, you know, sometimes it's things.

But for the most part, if we want to get something through, it's not really an issue to get it through. It's going to be a phone call. I'm great with what he said because when people look at it, they see the creative part. And then it's like, well, how do we get it done? Yeah. Yeah. So like, we've got to source all those ideas. All right, great.

I could say like, let me go be creative. Let me try. But I'm like, oh, he's great at that. Yeah. Let's see if we can get these ideas done. Because if he comes up with the idea and we can execute on it, now we've got something. Right.

That the world gets the benefit from. See what I'm saying? No, for sure, for sure. Speaking of something that the world benefits from, you all are not just pouring into today's, like to what people are doing now and entrepreneurs that are working now, but you're also pouring into the future. This year at Invest Fest you guys have,

junior high school students, high school students that you're pouring into. Let's talk about that. I think that's very important. I'm really big on making sure that we pour into the youth because they are our future. Tell me more about that. Yeah, it's kind of one of those things where we wanted to go back to where it all started. People see Invest Fest and they think,

wow, this is for adults and I have to have money and you know, are my kids allowed to have come? And, you know, we kind of looked at as an opportunity to educate the youth, which is where it all started again, making sure that they understood the principles behind entrepreneurship, business, networking. And so when the idea came about

was of how do we do this, do we create a separate event, or do we make it something inside of something that's already existing? I think the opportunity presented itself when we looked at the calendar and said, we had to invest in a little bit this year. Atlanta schools are going back at the same time. We're now doing InvestFest.

So the opportunity said, okay, well, we've done this, we've brought kids from our community, down we bought kids from you know the Bronx and Brooklyn down why are we leaving out the greater Atlanta region wow don't they need opportunities don't they need ideas and so we've created a pretty much a mini invest fest where they're going to have panels we have a pitch competition and we're looking to inspire a generation that is going to you know be very different than ours yeah right the

social media the creative economy AI all that is prevalent in there and environment now are they getting education about it so we're bringing experts in the same way we would for invest best we have speakers and like I said we have some some really good good ideas in terms of the give back I don't want to give everything way but there's going to be definitely a give back because it's important once they see it they can't unsee it all right and so let's let's put them in an environment where they can see it now go back to their school go back to the community number one inspire but aspire to be something they might see somebody States, that's exactly all I want to be.

I'm sure they will. Yeah. How do you feel about it? You excited about this? Yeah, for sure. It's just, you know, every year for the best, we add something. For the years. So, just in general, we just add something. So we added the pitch competition a few years ago. We added Friday programming a few years ago. We added workshops. So this is the first, and it grows every year, too. So first year, it was just Saturday and Sunday. Now it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Now it's Thursday with the kids. So it's just becoming like a whole week of activities. That's amazing. And this year you are expecting like over

50,000 or is it more than that? Yeah, per day. So we, we had like 25, no, it's like 20 last year. It was 25,000 people. But, you know, how festivals calculated, they do it per day. So over the course of the weekend, it's like you do that number. Then you time it times, three, two, whatever. Goodness. So yeah, you know, we're looking at. at that same range, 20, 25,000 people per day. Yeah. 400 vendors. We got the kids event.

Are we, do we got a move in business? Okay. He said vendors. I'm like, wait. Okay, I'm like, we got some stuff we can sell. We go record that conversation. Yeah, we still got a few left, so let's get you. Let's make it happen.

Let's go. Let's go. No, I remember the first time I went, I came through the back and then I went out to see what was going on. It was so overwhelming. It was like a sea of people. I was like, oh my gosh. Like, I didn't know the magnitude of what you all had built until I saw it myself.

And Keanu Watson's a really close friend of mine. And every year she's like, one, invest, best I got to speak. And I was like, okay. And when I went with Tyler, I was like, this is bananas. I was like, this is insane. So you guys have moved the dates up. What's the dates for this year? August 7th through August 9th.

9th. August 7 through the 9th. So yeah, beginning of August. And we have VIP night this year is different. It's Black T. Gala. Oh, nice. Yeah. I love that.

We're honoring T.I. We're honoring Jermaine Dupre. Jameen Dupree. And we're honoring our Keisha Lancebotton. Love all them. That's amazing. I love how you giving back to the city. And Jagged Edge is performing.

Oh, listen. Our ticket is still available for me. Can people still come? Or is it closed? No, it's still available. All right. Get your tickets. Listen, that sounds like a good time.

And I feel like we're at the age where we want to get, we want to have our grown and sexy nights. You know, put our tuxedos and our gowns on, you know, and be adults. I like that. 100%. I love it. But also learning and being able to take something with us and apply it. Because I think now more than ever, people are thinking differently about money. They're thinking different about wealth, no matter where they are in their life.

A lot of times people thought that if they had to be millionaires or having six-figure job salaries to, like, actually build wealth, but now we're teaching people you can start where you are. And I think that's very important. So I love what you guys are doing. We definitely going to, I'm putting it on a record. We're going to try to get a booth. All right. Okay.

Perfect. Now, I want to be a part of it. So thank you guys so much for sitting down talking with us. Before we close, is there anything else that we need to be on the lookout for where we can support you know, you got the podcast, Invest Fest, but is there anything else that we can support? Thank you for having us. Yeah, Invest Fest.

You know, there's still a few vendor booths available. still some tickets available. There's one less available. One less because, yeah. Y'all better hurry up. They're selling fast. But yeah, it's just a magical moment every year. It's just honor to host it and be a part of it.

And man, the networking opportunities is amazing, you know, to learn so much from so many high-powered individuals just to be in a room. It's just a great energy. It's a great feel. And it's life-changing experience. So highly would encourage people to do that. Go to investfest.com and then earn your lease.

you can check us out on all social media platforms on YouTube. We have content that we put out pretty much every day. We have three shows, and we're always doing something. We have a book called On You Deshered to Be Rich. Check that out. If you're looking for some reading material, it breaks down everything that we talk about in story form. And it goes from A to Z in financial planning journey. Okay, nice.

We'll have to add that to our Sweetie Social Club book club. You all 100%. Yeah, for sure. In addition to the youth summer that we're having, we also have curriculum. And so we're going to be presenting the curriculum or as Academy because one of the things we knew about being in school is that no one taught about financial education. And so where we saw a problem, here's a solution. And so we're going to be debuting it here in Atlanta. So if you're in a school district in the greater Atlanta region or in the state of Georgia, you know, definitely get us up about that.

Shout out to Ian. Shout out to the brother, Ian. Market Mondays. man, number one investment show every Monday at 8 o'clock and shout out to Blackout. That's the newest show that we have. That's 9 o'clock on Wednesday and that's a

that's more edgy. I like that. Well, after hours. Yeah, after hours for sure. Late night, late night show. Check it out. Now where can they find that? Earn your leisure. Okay, so I'll earn your leisure. Listen, platforms, media companies. There you go. Get into it.

All part of the platform. I love it. I love it. A lot of people come to Invest Fest and, you know, organically, you just, you meet people, right and a lot of people meet significant others so we wanted to just foster it in a more structured way so this year we got a single lounge for single people that's looking to meet so if you if you're a woman and you're looking to meet an intentional man that's ambitious you got the right mindset got his finances in order come on out got his investments right portfolio's looking great life insurance taking care

All the things. And then if you're a man and you're looking for, you know, a woman that got a head on her shoulders that's about a business, that's, you know, doing the right things, focused. It's prayed for this moment. Come on. It's no better place. So, yeah, we're definitely excited about that.

I love it now. Are y'all vetting the people or? Yeah, so we part in the, you know, you know, Kendra G. Yeah, that's my girl. She's hosting it. She's hosting it. Okay. So it's going to be fun too.

Yeah, she's so much fun. It's going to be fun. Oh, yeah, that's going to be a vibe. Okay, I'm going to slide into the same ones. See what y'all got up in now. Research and development, of course. This is all research. I love it.

Now, that's fire. I love that. Was that your idea of Richard? Well, you know what? I always wanted to do the singles lounge thing, but talking to Kendra, and she was like, yo, why don't we do this? And it was just like, you know what?

We should do this. So I got to give the credit to Kendra. She's the one that actually told me about it. And when she proposed it to me, it was a no-brainer. Yeah. Brung it to everybody just said like, yeah, why not. That's just perfect. I love it.

Shout to Kendra, man. She's incredible. She hosted a pitch competition a few years ago. And it was like a gap in between presenting. Uh-huh. And she kind of just like improv too started doing it. And we were watching the backstage like, that's fine. That's fire.

Come up. Tell me about who you looking for. And then the participation from the audience, we were just standing there like, that's something. Yeah, her energy is so good. I love that. Now, is it every night, Thursday through? Sunday, Sunday.

Okay. We got to get through your one first. Why are you still in here? I was just trying to, you know what I'm saying? I got to see what's coming through the doors. Yeah, yes. You got to see. I'll choose on Sunday.

All the eligible bachelors and then make a decision. Right. At the end. At the end. You're on to something. You know? By Sunday. Sunday, we're going to know.

You got to have your draft. You got have your draft card. It is. You want to something. That is so good. All right. We're definitely checking that out. I love it.

I love it. Okay, we're definitely checking it out. I love that. Guys, I just want to say, I know this is our first time really sitting down and talking. I'm so proud. of you all just listening to your journey, seeing everything you've been able to accomplish, and then even hearing how you all speak on conflict resolution, on how you handle business, how you handle people, I can tell, and I don't quote me if I'm wrong, but I can tell

you've done the work. Like it sounds like two men that have probably gone to therapy, have talked to people who have community, and I can tell by the way you handle yourselves. I'm like, these are two guys that can know how to put their ego aside and really be brothers. And it's good to see. I really love seeing it. Appreciate that. Thank you, thank you, thank you, very much.

Yes, thank you guys so much. Make sure you guys check out Invest Fest this August 7th through the 9th. If you're in Atlanta, if you're not, just catch a flight, drive. It's not far from a lot of places. Pull up on them. It's a few vendor booths left, minus one because I'm going to get one. And get your tickets, get your black tie, ladies, get your gowns, and come on and have a good time. It's going to be fun.

I'm excited for you guys. I hope this year is bigger than ever. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. This conversation. reminded me that wealth isn't just measured by what you accumulate. It's measured by what you build and what you teach. Thank you both for your honesty and your leadership. And thank you to everyone listening. If this conversation encouraged you or inspires you, be sure to subscribe,

leave a comment and share this episode with someone who is building something bigger than themselves. And don't forget, the Sweetie Social Club is officially open. If you've been rocking with us and you want to be even more connected with the Kipps family, this is for you. Follow us on Instagram at Sweetie's social club, and until next time, you guys already know. Keep it positive, sweetie. My first guest is Terrence Hilton, Shakira, Luke, and Yerrin. Have surprises? Many surprises.

Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group check comes to life. What? You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. It's lemonade. This is Sweet 305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Llemy. on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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