Next Level Pros - #82: Change Your Beliefs Around Money with Dr. Darnyelle

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Dr. Darnyelle as she shares her journey from bankruptcy to becoming a multimillionaire entrepreneur. Dr. Darnyelle, a faith-based coaching expert, delves into the power of shifting mindsets around money and shares valuable insights on building wealth without the need to hustle and grind. She shares her insights on scaling businesses from the ground up, embracing purposeful growth, and integrating faith into entrepreneurship. Join our conversation on purposeful action and a deeper understanding of how money can transform your financial trajectory! Highlights: "We have the power to rewrite our money story and create abundance." "Money is an energy that responds to purpose. When you assign meaning to it, you take control of your financial destiny." "It's not just about closing deals; it's about building relationships and adding value." Timestamps: 01:09 - Dr. Darnyelle’s Passion for Empowering Entrepreneurs 02:52 - Shifting Mindsets around Money 06:22 - Understanding Money as Energy 08:41 - From Bankruptcy to Millionaire 10:12 - Lessons from Financial Literacy 13:00 - The Purpose of the Education System: 15:42 - Embracing Entrepreneurship 24:45 - Impact of Faith on Business 36:15 - Overcoming Backlash with Confidence 43:00 - Connecting with Dr. Darnyelle Live Links: Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind:h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com⁠ Golf with Chris h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com⁠ Watch my latest Podcast Apple - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S ⁠Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

You have got to assign purpose to the money. A million dollars is not going to just flow into your business just because you said you want it. Why do you want the money? And so I like to have my clients spend the money in advance. I think money needs purpose and I think you should put it into containers, right? Money will do whatever you tell it to do. And if you don't give it a purpose, it's going to do what it wants to do. And it's going to do what it wants to do based on the way you're showing up in the world. And so if you're acting like it a purpose, it's going to do what it wants to do. And it's going to do what it wants to do based on the way you're showing up in the world. And so if you're acting like it's a shortage of it, it's moving in the opposite direction than instead of into your bank account.

Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I am joined by Mrs. Dr. Darnell. And she is a super cool entrepreneur. She is a faith-based coaching expert. She has been involved in all kinds of cool things. She is a multimillionaire, has an incredible story, is a CEO of an Inc. 5000 company. Her journey began in chaotic circumstances. We're super excited to hear your story and inspire so many people. Welcome to the show, Ms. Dr. Darnell. Hi, Chris. I'm so excited to be here. Hey, y'all. Good to have you. So tell us a little bit about what is going on in your life today. What is pushing and motivating you? What gets you excited and out of bed? Oh, I love this question. Okay. So my favorite thing in the world to talk about is money.

Money gets me excited and specifically helping entrepreneurs and small business owners position themselves to earn more of it and to do it specifically without having to hustle and grind. So that's probably the thing that gets me the most excited. And the reason I love it is because most of us, without even realizing it, the relationship that we have with money is largely based in shame or secrecy or guilt, like all of these things, because whether we came from money or not, we were taught money is not, we were taught money is not anything you ever go out in the world and talk about. And these people are entrepreneurs. They run businesses where money is how we keep score and they don't want to talk about it. So I

love normalizing access to money, talking about wealth and really shifting generational trajectories around how entrepreneurs see themselves in relation to money and how that impacts their business. So that's what gets me up in the morning, gets me excited. I love it. So how do you go about helping shift the mindset? Because I agree with you. People need to be more vocal. I think a lot of the reasons why people stay poor is because they don't talk about money. They don't talk about how to make more of it, how to invest it, how to utilize it, how it's a tool. I couldn't agree with you more. So how do you help people make that shift? So first thing we have to do is we have to look at what their relation to money has been. So I talk a lot about what I call the inner

seven-year-old. So when we are born, we literally come into the world as abundance and then we meet our family. And that abundance is more often than not, not celebrated, not nurtured, not impressed upon us that it's a good thing. Right. So most of us are introduced to fear and lack. We watch our parents rob Peter to pay Paul or realizes that there's not a tree out back with money on it. Or we're constantly told you have to work hard for money. So we have to start by undoing the patterns and the beliefs that we hold about money. Most of them aren't even our own definitions. They're the ones we inherited. And so we're going through life based on what someone else told us as if what they told us

is the truth and it's not the truth. I'm going to tell a quick story to illustrate my point. Little girl was watching her mom make dinner and her mom was making a ham. So mom cut the butt off the ham, put the ham in a pan and put it in the oven. Have you heard this story? I have. Okay. So little girl says, mom, why'd you cut the butt off the ham? Mom says, I don't know. That's the way grandma made it. Ask grandma. Little girl calls grandma, grandma, mom's making a ham. She cut the butt off the ham. Mom says, I don't know. That's the way grandma made it. Ask grandma. Little girl calls grandma, grandma, mom's making a ham. She cut the butt off the ham, put the hand in the pan, put it in the oven. Why'd she do that? Grandma says, I don't know why your mom does it, but I did it because my pan was too small to fit the whole ham. So how many of us are walking through life, meandering through life, doing what we saw done without ever asking

the question if that is what we should be doing. And that's what most people deal with when it comes to money. So first we got to retrace those beliefs and those patterns and whatever our relationship has been. Then once we encounter the point at which it flipped for us, flipped to negativity, there's not enough of it, I'm not enough, how dare I, I don't deserve it, whatever that is, then we have to actually start to question whether or not it's true. Now, depending upon how you were raised, if you were born like me, you know, religiously, and I'm a Christian, I was born Christian, and the thing that I always say about Christianity is this, it's rooted you're going to be constantly regurgitating this cycle of poverty makes me holy and it's easier to stay broke because then I'm closer to God, which is contrary to what it

is that he truly desires for you. So once we look at the patterns, trace the pattern, question the patterns, then we can establish new beliefs. And so part of that is recognizing that money really is an energy that does what you want it to do, right? Because I already talked about the Bible and you told everybody that I'm a woman of faith, I'm going to tell another story. And I'm going to tell, most people know this parable, whether they are churchy, religious, whatever, or not the parable of the talents. Right. And I could put a little flair on it for those of you who aren't biblically based. So basically there's a CEO of a company and he or she has gone on a long trip. And when they go on this trip, they decide that they're going to take the wealth that the company has made. And they're going to appropriate it to two

to three members of the team. So to one member of the team, they give $5 million. To a second member of the team, they give $3 million. And to the third member of the team, they give $1 million. All three team members are told that their mission is to make this money move, to create more of it, to keep the business going in the absence of the CEO who's going on a trip. CEO comes back from the trip and she's part excited and happy and part pissed off. Team member number one took that $5 million and doubled it, made $10 million. Team member number two took that $3 million and doubled it, made $10 million. Team member number two took that $3 million and doubled it, made $6 million. Team member number three was so afraid that they would mismanage this money that instead of doing anything with it, they buried it into a bank

account that gives 0.001% interest. The team member who buried the money in fear is actually banished where the other two team members are celebrated and praised and given more responsibility at the company. So moral to this story, as we talk about money is money was meant to move and people who understand what money is recognize that only when money is in a position to move, are you actually really a master of it? And for those of us who understand that, we can build businesses that serve us and we can do it. Moving money doesn't necessarily mean that there has to be effort from you, right? Because that's another thing we believe in this country, that you have to work hard for money. Listen, my dad probably said it at least twice a day, every day, my whole life.

You got to work hard for money. And I'm a Black girl. So it was like, you got to work choices hard just to have half of what your white counterparts have. That's what I was taught. And that's what I believed until I realized that hard work doesn't make you money. It makes you tired. I was like, there's got to be more life to this, Chris. And so I started to challenge and I started to really become financially literate and find out what money was and how I could leverage it to get more of the things that I desire to bring into my life.

So what happened in your life that really helped you make the shift into like having a good relationship with money, the same relationship that you go and you try to train your people with? Yeah. So, uh, I filed bankruptcy. So, so let me, I'm going to back up just so people understand my own money journey. Cause it is, it is one. So by the time I started working when I was 13, remember you got to work hard. You got to work twice as hard. That's what I heard. So I started working at 13. My dad made me put half of every paycheck in the bank. So he taught me how to save. By the time I was 16, I should have had $7,500, which I was going to buy a car, except my dad was also an addict. So one day I got the bank statement. He took my money. basically smoked snorted he did whatever

he one does when they get high he did that with my money so I learned a lesson about money that it was hard for me to shake I mean to this day I look at my money every single day just to make sure it's still there um because I was taught what that taught me was you could do everything right and still lose all of your money that was was the story I started telling myself. So I was blessed enough to go to college on a full academic scholarship. So I paid absolutely nothing, no student loans. Yet when I graduated, I had about $40,000 in credit card debt. By the time I was 30, I had a quarter of a million dollars in credit card debt. I robbed Peter to pay Paul for as long as I could. And eventually I just couldn't keep up with it anymore.

So by the time I filed bankruptcy over a quarter of a million dollars on credit cards, I'm not, how do you, how do you even get to a quarter million dollars in credit card debt? Like, I mean, most,

most consumer credit card companies will not allow you to get to that point. It wasn't on anyone. It wasn't on one card. So it was on multiple cards. So I had at that point or prior to that time in my life, I had a perfect 800 credit score and it's over time, right? So a credit card that starts with a $10,000 credit line every six months getting an increase in 10 years, that's a $50,000 credit line. Well, you do that times five and you max those bad boys out like

Robin Peter to pay Paul. Like, okay, the minimum payment is $643. Let me find this $643 so I can pay this minimum payment. Right. You do that until you can't do it anymore. And eventually the bottom fell out and it wasn't even, this is the sad part of having that kind of credit card debt. It wasn't even that I was wearing Gucci, driving a Bentley, living in a penthouse. It was poor decisions, paying other people's bills, looking for love in all the wrong places. And people said they're going to pay me back. That didn't. That's what it was more often than not. And I was left holding the bag, right? Proverbially and literally. And so I filed bankruptcy and it was the, it was a time in my life where I was so embarrassed and I was so afraid to do it.

What year was this? I was 35. So I'm 48 now. So it was around 2010-ish. And I was so, I was like, I didn't want to do it. I was so embarrassed. They put your name in the paper. It's a public record. Everyone's going to know. Right. I walk into the bankruptcy trustee's office and someone I went to high school is there. She's an attorney. She sees me walking out. I'm so embarrassed.

But I couldn't handle it. Let me tell you the best thing that ever happened to me, Chris, the bankruptcy trustee forced me to take a financial literacy course. And so I learned what money was. And so within three years of filing bankruptcy and it being discharged, I was a millionaire, bonafide millionaire. Today I'm worth eight figures because I learned what money was. And I don't know why financial literacy is not taught in schools. I don't know. Right. Yeah. We could talk a lot about that. I, you know, I, I think, you know, the, the reason it, I mean, our school system is made to create, I mean, kind of an enslaved mindset of employees, right? Like where they have to continue to show up for that paycheck because if they get this intelligence on like how to use your money, they can one day break free of the system. And so, you know, it's interesting. I think it's

on purpose. Yeah, it is totally on purpose. And I think your explanation is what I would say if someone asked me that. And I'm so grateful because had it not been for that bankruptcy trustee, who knows where I might be today? I might be back in another vicious, financial, desperate situation because I wasn't taught any better. And how many of us know people that they just keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again because they don't know any different and they think it's okay? Well, the crazy thing about financial literacy, financial literacy really has nothing to do even with your level of income. I know many people that know how to make a lot of money and have zero financial literacy, right? They'll make a million, spend a million one. And these principles, it doesn't matter. literacy, right? They'll make a million, spend a million one, you know, I mean, and these,

these principles, it doesn't matter. Like you make 30 grand a year, 3 million a year. I mean, the same principles apply and very few actually ever figured out. Yeah, you're absolutely right. But that was a defining moment in my life. And as a result of that, recognizing the, the gift of entrepreneurship and deciding to do this work. I mean, I spent 12 years in corporate America. I literally just woke up one day and was like, I'm not, this is not what I'm supposed to do with my life. And I walked, literally just walked in my boss's office and quit. I had no plan. I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I figured I could land on my feet, right? I'm a pretty confident girl. I'm pretty competent. I could figure it out. And I started at that point in time,

I didn't start my business right then, but I started selling Mary Kay Cosmetics and ended up becoming a sales director, getting a pink Cadillac, becoming an independent sales director. I did the whole thing for like two years. And that was probably another really significant defining moment for me, because that is what led me to start my company and actually get into this personal development space. Because between the financial literate education that I got and what I learned from Mary Kay, like it made me virtually unstoppable. And I believe that when you've been blessed, you pass it on. Like you don't do, for me to share what I've learned with other people

so that they can also aspire to a new level doesn't hurt anything or take anything away from me. And it's just plain selfish to keep it to yourself. And so that's why I'm so adamant about it today. And recognizing that because most of us are financially illiterate, most of us are living in that employee mindset that has been ingrained in us since the day we got to the United States, especially. Somebody's got to come along and disrupt that pattern. For sure.

So tell me a little bit more about Mary Kay. So one thing I've found, right, is most entrepreneurs have some sort of a sales path. They've learned sales. And a lot of times they've done things that are, I mean, would potentially be viewed as shameful or, you know, like I'm sure like stepping out of your comfort zone and, and going and selling Mary Kay, which is, you know, considered a multi-level marketing type product, or, you know, I, I come from a background at door-to-door sales, which most people would be like, oh, I would never go and sell a product door-to-door or whatever else. Like what, what helped you take the leap of, you know, whatever your background was into going and

selling Mary Kay? What, uh, walk us through kind of that, that mentality shift that got you there. Yeah. So, okay. I don't know that it was a mentality shift. So I was engaged. So I started Mary Kay in my twenties, like 25 ish, I think I was. So I was engaged to be married the first time. That's probably a whole nother episode. And I don't even know if we want to talk about that on the founders show, but anyway, so I was engaged to be married. Everything that applies to people. We're good. Right. Exactly. So I was engaged to be married and my first ex-fiance announced that he gotten an older woman in our church pregnant three months before our wedding. So yeah. So the bottom pretty much fell out of my life. And I was like, okay. So my really good friend at the time was like, okay, you've moped long

enough. I'm taking you to a Mary Kay skincare class. So I went to the skincare class. They made me take half my face, wash it with the product, the other half, you know, and I'm going through all the steps and I really enjoyed it. And so I bought the product first, right? I do believe that in order to sell and to sell well, you have to believe in the product, right? And so I bought the product. I loved it. It was time to get more product. And that's when she offered me the business opportunity. And I'm like, okay, well, you know what? I could do this on the side. At that point in time in my career, I was a vice president. So while I wasn't planning to leave my job to sell lipstick, I could certainly make a couple of dollars on the side. And so I was actually, I would probably still be a closet consultant had it not been for one day, someone

walked in my office and said, hey, we heard you can get us Mary Kay. I'm in my office by myself, Chris. But I looked around my office. I went into my bag. I pulled out my one lookbook. And I handed it to them. And they brought it back in about two hours with $600 worth of orders. Oh, nice.

And I was like, oh, that's how this thing can be. So I was just like, I'm going to make it available, right? And then I started going to the events. Direct sales companies are really big into personal development. They know, as well as you and I know today, mindset is everything, right? It's anywhere from 80 to 95% of your success, depending upon who you talk to. And so I started going to these conferences and these meetings and just drinking the Kool-Aid. And I'm grateful because personal development changed my own life, right? I had never experienced that in corporate America. Sure, they put me through a training program, but it wasn't in order to make me my best self, right? It was just to make

me competent to perform in the role that I had been hired for. And so a year or so into going to conference after conference after conference and hearing person after person after person telling me that I could, that it was possible for me and showing me all of these success, all of these other people who look just like me, that were just like me, that were making money and leaving their jobs and all the things. And so I was like, I think I could do this. Like, I'm a smart girl. Right. I mean, I graduated at the top of my class. I got a perfect verbal SAT score.

I could do anything. And so I started selling the product. It went well. I ended up becoming a sales verbal SAT score. I could do anything. And so I started selling the product. It went well. I ended up becoming a sales director, right? I believe a leader is defined as someone that other people are willing to follow. And people were following me and they were selling the product. And before we knew it, like I almost, I didn't even know I was on target for the pink Cadillac because I was just having fun and following the formula. And then I got a call from the headquarters like you're, I think it was like 16,000 away from earning your first pink Cadillac.

I was like, oh, well, we're that close. We're definitely going to do it. And that was just the beginning of a short ramp because I only stayed in Mary Kay full time for about two and a half years before I realized that that was a stepping stone, not a stopping point, and that I was supposed to do more meaningful work in the world. But during that, my tenure, I learned that and it helps me today. I mean, you know, we're all selling all day, every day, but learning how to sell in a way that is authentic, that is about the other person and not about you is a gift if you learn that. And that is what I learned coming

out of Mary Kay Cosmetics that I apply to my own business and I teach to our clients who want to learn how to sell in a way that really honors who they are as well as honoring the prospect that they're speaking to. Awesome. So I know a lot of the focus in the coaching and consulting that you do now is, is meant to take somebody that's doing, you know, decent work a hundred to a few hundred thousand dollars a year and getting them up over a million bucks. What are two to three steps or things or frameworks that you focus on in helping shift their mindset and get to that point where they can go and produce in the seven figure range? Yeah. So be, I mean, we've talked a lot about

mindset already and that's continual, right? It'll never stop. Um, but other than that, the one thing I would tell anybody is before you decide to scale and let me sidebar and define scaling for you. Cause most people get it wrong. Scaling is not about speed. It's about multiplication and replication. It's your ability to take what you do and to do it the same way over and over again through a systemized approach. So prior to attempting to scale your business, make sure you have a firm foundation upon which your business stands. So when I say firm foundation, I want you to look specifically at the strategy. What is the one strategy that when you leverage this strategy, it produces approximately 85% of your success. Tighten it, perfect it, tweak it, poke it, prod it, right? Make sure you put

together the standard operating procedures and the process flows and everything that goes along with it. So that whether it's you doing it or it's someone that you eventually hire and bring on your team to do it, it is done the way that is going to produce the result that you know is possible when you leverage that strategy. Second, make sure that you have a clear, leverageable sales infrastructure, meaning instead of bringing on one client at a time, Chris, you talked about knocking door to door. The reason why I was able to be so successful in Mary Kay is I didn't do one person facials. I did skincare classes. I did three to six people every single time I put any product on anyone's face. So I was able to scale the number of clients I brought in and make more money and get more people to become team members because I was in front of more people at one time. So by having a leveraged sales system that allows you to enroll

anywhere from 10 to a thousand clients and without breaking your business means that you are ready to scale. Then I want you to look at all of the systems that you've set up. Systems make your millions predictable and you need systems in seven areas. You need client management, marketing management, sales management, legal management, financial management, talent management. And I'm missing one. I forget which one I'm missing. One of them. But I'm missing one. But but there are seven of them. I can't think. Oh, operations, general operations. So make sure you have you have systems set up. And when I say systems, I mean this SOP, standard operating procedures,

the process flows that go along with every single thing that needs to be done. Your team, everybody on your team is not gonna be able to read an SOP and perform the task. So you need an audio version, a video version, and a written version of every single task that needs to be performed in your business. And it needs to be written in a way that no matter who is performing that task,

they could get it all the way done. Right. And then you want to make sure that you have the right people on your team. So you have to look at your team, not just in terms of operational administrative support, but in their ability to generate revenue for your company. Every person you hire needs to produce the equivalent of three to 10 times their salary to your business's bottom line. Now, that does not mean that they are necessarily out there selling, but if they are in their role and they are doing

it well, it should free you or somebody else up to go make that money because you're not having to perform that task. And that needs to be a sign for every person. Now, depending upon where you start, if you're at that $250,000 to $300,000 range, which I believe you can oops your way to a quarter of a million dollar business, it might take you just a year to 18 months to get your foundation set before you're even ready to scale. So we see clients get to the million dollar mark from that 250 to 300K range anywhere from one to three years. On average, most people do it in 24 months, two years. But that first corridor time is making sure everything's ready to go before they pour on the gasoline and really start amplifying whatever it is that they do and how they do what it is that they do. So the first step is to make sure your foundation is set. I love it. Yeah. So agreeing with you a hundred percent. So I also consult and help businesses grow just because, you know, I built my businesses and now I help build them. And it's interesting. I was talking with a client the other day that, you know, they wanted, they teamed up with us

and they're like, Hey, you know, we want to go and land these, these big contracts. Can you make these introductions or whatnot? And, and they were just focused on like, they, they viewed growth as like just bringing in more business, which, you know, is, is an aspect to it. But to your point, just like getting them set up to be able to scale, to be able to add on those clients. Like it's so many businesses overlook this aspect, like that, that you have to have a dialed in replicable business, something that can be repeated over and over and over again. And so, you know, dial it down to, okay, what is our offer? Is our offer even a scalable offer? Like, are we, are we presenting ourselves to the marketplace?

Are we priced correctly? Do we have a deliverable mechanic from an operations standpoint that will not break if we bring a bunch more business in? Is it, does it exist in people's heads or is it in SOPs like you're talking about? And so couldn't agree with you more. Yeah, absolutely. So foundation first, once you have your foundation set, the second thing that I always recommend people do, and this is where we really get into mindset is you have got to assign purpose to the money. A million dollars is not going to just flow into your business just because you said you want it. Why do you want the money? And so I like to have my clients spend the money in advance. I think money needs purpose. And I think you should put it into containers, right?

It's got money will do whatever you tell it to do. And if you don't give it a purpose, it's going to do what it wants to do. And it's going to do what it wants to do based on the way you're showing up in the world. And so if you're acting like it's a shortage of it, it's moving in the opposite direction than instead of into your bank accounts. So we play this exercise of them creating a money map of their business at the goal. So if the goal is a million dollars, we put a foundation in place

that could get that business up to as much as $10 million because I think you got a 10X your foundation to be able to make sure you get to a million. What are we doing with that money? And I wanna make sure that to the point you made earlier, making a million spending 1.1, we're not spending all the million. So some of that money is for retirement. Right. It's for things that we're not necessarily needing right now, but because we're not just working. And then once once we decide to stop working now, we're going to be destitute.

No, we want to actually create the ability to have financial legacy and to have wealth long after we decide to stop efforting as a part of the equation to make money. So we're going to really dial into what's the money for and what's the purpose. And am I right now being the person with the capacity to bring this money in? So we're going to talk about embodiment. We're going to talk about some of the, I call it the softer side of entrepreneurship entrepreneurship but it is invariably the more hard side of entrepreneurship that has to factor into the success mindset equation if you want to scale to and be able to sustain it it's that's the reason why people can win the lottery and they're broke again in three years because they don't have a mindset that has created the capacity for what it is that they want to bring into their life

experience and so second step is absolutely really making sure that money has a purpose to come in and you're clear about why you want it yeah absolutely you know you you bring up you bring up the lottery it's interesting you you can't you can't cheat the laws of success right like you can you can get some fake fruit, right? Like a lot of people when they're focused just on the money and they get like the lottery or whatnot, they think that's what really makes them wealthy. But what makes you wealthy is the ability to create it, retain it and all those different things. And it's interesting, like if you look at anything, whether it's physical or financial, anytime that the laws of success are cheated, usually they're

very fleeting. So in the lottery, you have this, uh, this financial aspect that is cheated and usually fleets. And the same thing is like people that go and get stomach surgery, you know, it, it, it, it, uh, produces short-term results. They may get skinny, but the thing that got them skinny, wasn't the law of success. It was a surgery. And so usually they end up gaining the weight back or whatever, whatever it may be. And there's just like so many examples of this, of like, we have to be able to embody the methods of success. We can't just cheat our way to the top. Absolutely. And then the last thing is take consistent action.

You know, one, one step at a time. How do you eat the elephant one bite at a time? Right? So I haven't, we have a strategy. We have a foundation for a business. We know why the money is coming in. We've put it in the appropriate containers. We're ready to receive it. We've expanded our capacity. Now take the next step, you know, to take do the work. I don't believe that it has to be hustle and grind work, but I absolutely do believe that there is work to be done. So making sure that because you put your strategy and all of those things in place, you're just taking the steps. This is the point at which business gets very boring. You said it a minute ago, right? We're doing the same things

over and over and over again. Like our marketing calendar is essentially the same thing every single month over and over and over because we have a predictable process in place that we know when we do these things, it will produce this specific result. And there is no reason for us to deviate from that. And so it gets very boring. You just have people continuing to optimize and tighten in the role that they play while doing the work that is required to produce the result based on all of the foundation that we've already set. I love it. I love it. What what would you say that have been like your biggest influences? So obviously you've had experience. What about like mentors or books that have really shaped the way of your mindset and the way that you coach and consult? Yeah, absolutely. Like I believe that if you could do it by yourself, it would already be done. And it's not right for most of us, regardless of what

the next level is. So I absolutely, as a coach, consultant and mentor for other people, I absolutely believe in having coaches and mentors myself. I believe that it would be out of integrity to be asking people to hire me and no one is guiding me, right? I heard this quote years ago. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar. Someone will always be reading my label. So when I think about some of the,

so between having coaches and mentors as well as reading books, right? I try to, there was a point in time in my life where I was reading a new book every week. I'm not reading a book a week right now. I'm in the process of starting to write a new book. I just had a book come out in November and I'm starting on a new book. Whenever I'm writing, I'm not reading because I just popped into my head is A Happy Pocket Full of Money by David Cameron Giacondi. It's a great book to understand what money is, how money moves and works, and to understandap by Gay Hendricks. That book talks a lot about understanding your zone of genius and when you hit your upper limit, right? When you reach a point where you've got to elevate and how to recognize it and how to do what you need to, to be able to elevate. A third book I would say would be Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. So for me, that book, I was already, before I found the book, I was already putting 10% aside every single month so I could build up cash reserves. I wanted to be able to be my own bank if I ever needed capital to move my business forward.

But getting that book and starting to put money in those buckets, right? And having the money appropriated for everything so that you don't have to scramble Um, but getting that book and starting to put money in those buckets, right. And, and having the money appropriated for everything so that you don't have to scramble when it's time to pay your taxes because you have money in your tax account for your taxes. Right. So that was also really instrumental in my own financial management journey. And then if I were going to say a fourth book, uh, I'm biased. I want to say my own book, Move to Millions, the proven framework to become a million dollar CEO with grace and ease instead of hustling grind. But I know you're probably not going to allow me to say my own book. No, go ahead. Perfect. Yeah.

So that's the book I would say, because I wrote the book to really unearth what it's going to take to make the move to millions in a way that won't require you to hustle or compromise what's most important to you. And it's not fluff. Like it's literally practical tools and applications. And we have a free companion guide that comes with the book that gives you the worksheets and the templates to be able to actually begin to operationalize many of the things you need to have in place in order to build your business's foundation to get ready to scale so that you'll ultimately be able to sustain it. I love it. I love it. What about mentors? Who was somebody that really changed your trajectory

along your career path? Yeah. I mean, this is not someone you're going to know because they're not an internet marketer. But Ira, I can't pronounce his last name. It's like Ira Hershenbaugh, which let me tell you how I met Ira. So I had a really, really good friend in college who was a few years ahead of me, who also worked at the company where I worked when I graduated from college and went into corporate America. And one day we were having lunch. And while we were having lunch, Ira, who also worked at the company, came over and was like, I'm about to retire. You know, I'm just, this week is my last week. I saw you. I hadn't seen you in a while, blah, blah, blah. They introduced us. I go on to stay connected with Ira. he leaves. He goes to SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, which is an SBA funded program. When he gets over there

and because we stay in touch, I'm starting my business. He's like, come have a session with me. And literally for a donation to his charity, he taught me about business, like for real, for real business, like beyond what I knew as a vice president and the company I worked for, my Mary Kay background and experience and the nonprofit program that I ran, like all of the nooks and crannies, how to read financial statements, how to use the numbers to tell you the story, what are KPIs and the difference that they'll make, right? All like just phenomenal. And I mean, it was literally for a donation. It's not like, you know, like the marketplace now where, you know, everybody wants a million

dollars to coach you at that level for the types of things that Ira taught me. I've, you know, I've taken some trainings and I've been in some masterminds. Like right now, I'm in a mastermind with Allie Brown, which is really great. There's some amazing women in the room. But when I think about what I really learned, that was a defining moment for me, Ira. Oh, that's awesome. Awesome. I love the people that aren't well known because i think there's many more oh yeah non-gurus out there that have real world experience that have impacted our lives in so many incredible ways so like you know praises to to ira for the the example that uh that uh he was and you said it was a he right all right that uh that high high that Ira was to you because I mean,

that is so pivotal. And, and I think the important lesson to be learned is like, there, there are so many people out there that have incredible experience that if we will just ask and befriend and, and look towards like people want to help, right? Like we, we gain importance through either exercising authority or, or by being compassionate and, and trying to help others or whatnot. And, and the fact that like, I mean, he obviously gained purpose in, in helping you and educating you and whatnot. And, and, uh, his legacy is, is obviously living on through what you are going and teaching. And so, which is like the greatest part of impact that we can have. Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I loved everything about him and I've been pretty

blessed this way. I think even back to high school, I would always meet these male mentor role model types who would see the promise and potential in me and guide me along the journey. And so I'm so grateful for all of those little God winks, as I like to call them, that just, you know, become those mile markers on the journey of all the things that we've done and how we get to show up in the world today. I love it. So you mentioned earlier as being a woman of faith, how has that impacted your career path? Like how has God influenced the way that you do business? Yeah.

I mean, for me, God is everything. So I am a woman of integrity, right? If I, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it, even if it costs me more, right? I just think integrity is really important. I'm also a woman who shows up in excellence and delivers in excellence because I do believe that all we have is what people think about us, right?

We call that today branding, right? Your brand is defined by the experiences you create for other people. And for me, it's so much more important that I serve at a level that is indicative of the genius and the generosity that has been placed in my heart because of my relationship with the creator. I'm also a woman who I like. It's never. I think prior to 2013 was when I was compartmentalized, where my faith was like over on the other side of the room

and I was a business person. But around 2013, I made a decision that if I'm going to do this work, I want all of Darnell to show up. And Darnell loves Jesus. And so I don't, you know, I don't have to pass a collection plate or do a call for Christian discipleship to be an example of what it looks like to have a relationship with the creator that allows me to show up in an energy that will be admirable to you. And so since 2013, I haven't separated it. So I had, I was doing a podcast interview the other day and the person asked me, have I received any backlash because I am a spiritually grounded person and I'm unapologetic about my faith.

And I said, no, I said, you know, the interesting thing is I don't make it a big deal. I figure we live in a country where our money says in God we trust. If we think if we look at the foundations of the United States, they came here escaping religious persecution. So we are not absent from or agnostic to God. I mean, it's on our money, right? So I don't make it a big deal. If I'm doing a talk and I am, you know, in my talk, I'm quoting the Bible. Like I, you know, I gave you the parable of the talents or I quote the Bible, like I would quote the big leap or profit first. It's not a separate thing for me. And so I think people get their panties or their boxers in a bunch because they're making the assumption that even if I'm not a religious person, that I have a problem with religion. And most people don't like,

you know what I mean? And I think it's all in how you present it and how you carry yourself. And I would present, I present it in a way that I believe God is. I believe God is a gentleman. And I believe that he would never attempt to force himself on anyone. And so I don't force my beliefs on anyone, but I want everybody to know where I'm coming from. So I'm grounded in it. I'm confident in it. And often, if anything, it's probably going to make you more inquisitive about how integrating your own faith, whatever that is, into your work can help to make a difference in the way that you show up in the way that you serve the people that you're called to serve. And so because I don't separate it, it's not a thing for me.

It's a thing for everyone else, but I don't make it a thing. And so, and what I find, I mean, I've, I've gone to fortune 10 companies and I have been myself and I have quoted the Bible or read scripture or even prayed. And I have not been walked out of the building. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think we just need to stop telling ourselves that it's a separate, sure. There are atheist people in the world and there are people that are going to be offended, but there's a whole lot of people that are going to get hope if you stand boldly in your faith and not make it a big deal. Absolutely. Man, I couldn't agree with you more. I think too often we try to compartmentalize different things, right? For me, the whole human approach is your physical economic association and spirituality. And a lot

of times we try separating those, but the reality is, is they're all intertwined and how you do anything is how you do everything. And if a principle applies to fitness, it applies to spirituality and it applies to your economics. And, and I think there is so much power in, in being the whole human. And so, first of all, I want to applaud you for, for being a believer and an example of a believer, because I think, I think that's powerful. And I, and I think, uh, to your point that it is very, it's not as offensive as a lot of people think, or the news would make you, make you believe, right? The news wants us to believe that like everybody's anti-God,

you know, we got to separate prayer and state and religion and everything else. But, but the reality is, is people want like something to believe or they're okay with you believing in what you believe. And, you know, it's, it's interesting in building my business. You know, I built it from zero to almost 1300 employees. You know, we would, whenever we would do a meal together as a, as a team, we would say prayer or we, we would do different things. And like very, very, very few occasions was anybody ever offended by any type of, you know, spiritual interaction. So, uh, you know, at, at the end of the day, like, uh, I love it. Thank, thank you once again, so much. Yeah, absolutely.

Hearing that, that's fantastic. Damn you, Fannie Lou Hamer. It's all her fault. She started this, no prayer in schools, right? So, so yeah, I mean, I, I just think those of us who are that light just need to radiate it. I mean, our country, it, COVID-19 crippled so many people, even just mentally and emotionally. And having something to belong to, a sense that there is something greater than yourself, whatever that is for you, right? Whatever it is for you, but to be grounded in something greater than yourself is to have hope that our planet will continue to evolve and get better. And I just think, especially those of us who carry the light and are unapologetic about it, we have a responsibility to deliver the light, right?

And I actually have never apologized to anyone saying, I was offended by your talk. I've never actually had one. That's why when the person asked me on the other podcast, I was like, no, maybe they were, and maybe they left the room and talked bad about me to someone else, but no one has ever come up to me and said anything other than amazing things. And I promise you every single time I speak anywhere, I'm coming fully. And I don't take my God off and leave it at home. He's with me all the time. So, so yeah. Yeah. I, I, I believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ will actually make you better in business. It'll make you better physically. It'll make you better, uh, you know, with your relationships. And so it's, it's only when you try to separate those that, that you,

you know, so very, very, very cool. Dr. Darnell, where is the best spot for our listeners to, to give you a follow or reach out to you? Yeah. If you go to move to millions.com, it's a website that has everything right there. So you can see, you know, learn about the book or my, my podcast or any of those things. And also link with me on Instagram you can see, you know, learn about the book or my podcast or any of those things. And also link with me on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn. We try to make it really easy and simple because some people are going to spell my name wrong. So we just have MovedToMillions.com. MovedToMillions.com. Ladies and gentlemen, give her a follow going over to her website, connect with her on the different social medias.

Dr. Darnell, thank you so much for your time, for the absolute just truth that you've shared with our viewership and our listenership. It's absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for your time and being a guest over these last few minutes. So appreciate you. Thank you so much, Chris.

It was my joy to be here. Until next time.