Your Happy Hour - Episode 15: Mapping Your Money

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Happy Friday everyone!  Tune in to episode 15 and let’s chat about: Mapping Your Money.In this episode, we are joined by Ruki Roti-Balogun, global strategist, tech entrepreneur, angel investor, real estate developer, and aspiring business acquisition entrepreneur.We unpack topics like: life after crypto winter, the mindset of making and deploying money, allowing space to recalculate the route of life, the value of information and influence, teaching money to a toddler and Michael Jordan’s sneakers showing the power of partnerships.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:08 Welcome to Ruki Roti-Balogun!02:17 The Journey: A Look at the Map of My Life05:33 Life After Crypto Winter07:35 The Mindset of Mapping: Recalculate the Route09:45 The Approach: Money Beliefs, Information & Influence15:06 Follow Your Joy: The Money Will Follow20:29 Day in the Life: Making and Deploying Money25:18 Teaching Money to a Toddler28:15 Ten Years ago: The Vision30:02 One Year from Now: Where is the GPS Going?31:30 It Takes a Village: Ask for Help35:54 Best Professional Advice: Use the Opportunity!41:00 Gems of the week! Michael Jordan… the Power of Partnerships!52:08 Final Thoughts, Question and Farewell!

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. you tuned into your happy hour with friday feels we're celebrating all you working professionals out there doing your crazy craft embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically and we are host sergeant nicole we're living and working around the world we're holding space for you to keep it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. Follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we chatted with Alex Madeline,

French-born and New York-based entrepreneur living the life of a musician. And he gave us his inspiring insights into how to be financially free and follow your dreams. And this week we are chatting to a very special lady, dear to our hearts, a friend, a mentor, an ex-colleague, and now a co-founder, and most importantly, a successful working businesswoman, wife and mother of the cutest and fiercest little girl. Big welcome to you Ruki Roti Balogun and thank you for joining us in this space today. Wow, thank you so much guys for having me. I've been admiring the work you all are doing

with Friday Phil, so super stoked to be here to share today. I feel so super stoked to be here to share today. So this month, we're talking about money positivity. And this week, we're talking about mapping your money. So as someone who touches money in so many different ways, not just through your corporate job for so long, but also as an investor in real estate and portfolio companies alongside your husband. I know you have a very interesting journey, both personally and professionally, that kind of brings you to come on today's podcast and share with us. So tell us a little bit about your journey.

I know now you're in Dallas, Texas. your journey. I know now you're in Dallas, Texas. Tell us a little bit about your journey around this topic and how you came to be living in Dallas, Texas. Oh, wow. My life has indeed been a journey. I guess starting off with I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where I spent my early years and began my tech career in a telecommunications company. Since then, I've had the opportunity to visit over 27 countries, lived in six of them, had the opportunity to work for some of the world's most remarkable companies in various worlds, right, across

tech and business, and doing this for various industries, including crypto, financial services, media, consumer app, and telecommunications. Today, I'm a growth and strategic partnership expert, a tech entrepreneur, a real estate expert, a tech entrepreneur, a real estate investor, an angel investor, and an aspiring business acquisition entrepreneur. Like you said, based in Dallas, where I live with the loves of my life, my husband and my amazing three-year-old daughter. So I know you've worked for MoneyGram, you've worked for Ericsson, you've worked for some really big companies. And we met you at Luno,

which is a cryptocurrency, about a year ago. And a year ago, we actually all went through a joint layoff. And so I think this is just there's so many ways we could go on this topic. But I want you to talk about you know, what that what that experience was like for you, because I think it was very interesting training point, you had worked for quite a while in regular corporate America and very high managerial positions. And I remember, you know, we met in like August of 2022.

And so, right? It was 2022, right? Yeah. So I ended up working with you, starting on your team. And everybody at Luna was like, oh, you're on Rookie's team? Oh, you're so lucky. And I'm like, well, I'm the you're on Rookie's team? Oh, you're so lucky. And I'm like, well, I'm the only one on Rookie's team here. Or under Rookie, not on her team.

But I was like, okay, good. And then fast forward a few months. Unfortunately, we got affected by crypto winter. And I had said this before on the podcast. You know, it was both Nicole and Ruki that were really like hey we're gonna take a step back and think about what we want to do next and I was like what how are these people taking a step back like what do they have in place that they can do this and it kind of forced me to look at my life and what you know what I had in place in order to

what would taking a step back look like making sure that you have runway to you know, what I had in place in order to what would taking a step back look like, making sure that you have runway to, you know, meet bills while you take that time to kind of figure out what your next step is. So would you say like in the past year, your journey has been quite different than maybe some of the previous three or four years? different than maybe some of the previous three or four years? I would say for me, right, it ties into a couple of things, right? Very early on in my career, I've always been one to believe in working and deploying some of that funds to do the things I love doing, right? And one of the things I love doing is just making money and multiplying money, right? I love money. So in that time, I had spent quite a lot of time building a real estate portfolio, building an angel portfolio building a tech portfolio um so at the point the crypto winter

came i guess um it's it's kind of like um sometimes i i kind of watch some of the stuff my three-year-old daughter watches and it's interesting how the life lessons kind of apply to all, right? Because in the summer, you kind of save up for the winter. So when the winter comes, right, you have something to kind of rely on. And I'm glad that was available. And I guess the other thing is I have always looked at life more as a GPS and not exactly as a map. Right. So I believe it's important to set goals for yourself and just kind of have that end goal in mind. But the roots to that goal would change all the time, right? Because like you said, life happens, changes come,

opportunities come and opportunities go. So just having the mindset that when pivotal moments come, stopping, pausing, and kind of think about it like a GPS, recalculating your route, right, based on the information you have at the time, and pretty much what's in front of you, and just continually taking the best route forward to that goal that you've kind of set for yourself. So I guess the last year for me has been, I'll say one of the most amazing years of my life, right? Because I got to take a six months break and do absolutely nothing but travel, hang out with my girlfriends, live my life at the fullest, and come back and do exactly just that, right? Which is, okay, where am I? What have I done in the past? Where am I going? And how do I navigate, right? And doing that has brought about lots of opportunities, right, has brought about lots of opportunities, right,

that I am super excited about, never been this excited about the future, working on a couple of things in stealth mode. And yeah, so life happens, right? But make a plan and continually navigate, take that pause, figure out all the options and pick the best option. And if it's wrong, by the way, then just do exactly that again. Recalculate the route. When I think of the GPS woman, I always kind of end up getting irritated with her in the car.

And I'm just like, you shush, you know, you're taking me in the wrong direction. But it's true. And I love that way of thinking, you know, thank you for sharing that. I think change is so inevitable and it's a beautiful way of flowing in the world. You know, instead of kind of hitting a cul-de-sac and going, hey, I'm in the wrong place, seeing that as a turnaround point and going from there so you obviously have shaped your way of thinking over time do you feel like the way you think about money has been influenced later on in your life or has it kind of come from childhood what are your beliefs around money I would say it's been a continuous um it's been a continuous refining process, right?

I've had a couple of major influences in how I approach money and how I think about money. Starting off as a kid, I would say that was my dad. It's funny, right? So like I said, I grew up in nigeria right and you would always have um at least maybe every quarter or something there would always be someone who just couldn't pay rent and had gotten kicked out of his home unfortunately unlike for instance the u.s where they have to go to eviction court and do all that. Now, very different, right? In the third world countries, literally the landlord gets some boys and they kind of throw everything

in the house, out of the house. And in that period, you see the guys scrambling, the wife crying, the children confused. And it was just so heartbreaking every time I saw that I cried as a child and I just couldn't understand why because this were people where and these things happen in your neighborhoods right so you know these people and these were people who seemingly were successful right they had the nice things of life So how could this be happening to them? And I remember as a child, my dad would always say, look at what's happening, right? And he'll say, when you have money, make sure the first thing you buy is a house. Because when you have a house, you can, in Nigeria, we used to say soup gari, right? But think about it as eat ramen, 50 pence ramen noodles in that house. And no one is going to

know what's going on, right? Because like I said, life happens, right? Tough times come. And when those tough times come comes that's the security you have and the way life happens tough times would also go and good times will come right but the difference now is no one knows the highs and the lows right because you have that um security of some sort which is a home so i guess what he was trying to say is the importance of assets over liability, right? And focusing your investment on the things that grow wealth over time rather than depreciates wealth, right? And accumulating debt and just finding the right balance within those two things. So you would imagine the moment I had my first batch of money, right?

The first thing I did was buy a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. Right now, I still probably just have it on a portfolio, but would never do anything with it because it's so far out, but it was just based on that growing wealth, growing assets. And by the way, right, it is in the middle of nowhere, but since then it's appreciated over a thousand percent. So I guess his philosophies hold true. And I'll tell you as I've grown, right, it's very important to have the right set of people around you, right? Your family, your friends, right? Because a lot of investments we we've made right it's been

conversations with brand and and life is all about the people around you so surrounding yourself with with the right people is very important i always say information and influence is way more powerful than money and just reflecting on a lot of the big money moves I've made, it's been a result of receiving the right information at the right time. So I believe very strongly that one of my biggest assets in life is the quality of my family and my friends. Today, my number one influencer is my partner in life, my partner in crime business and all things money, my husband. He is that big money thinker

and he has pretty much helped me and partnered with me on this journey called life and just how we invest together we build things together we grow things together so yeah that's amazing I love that journey and I love that you have a piece of land out in the middle of nowhere that's so great but it's really important I think you know you're touching on something that's talking around something we mention a lot on the podcast around following your joy and where you follow your joy the money will follow so do you feel like having that information at the right time and then acting on it following that passion following that information in the right moment um has helped you help the money flow in at that

time and has that been difficult to do or has that been like a easy easy thing nothing in life is easy easy. It goes back to partnership and the quality of people around you, right? Which also brings into question accountability, right? Because when two people go after one problem together, right? I believe you get better outcomes, right? Compared to if you were doing it alone. better outcomes, right, compared to if you were doing it alone. So there's been scenarios where, like you said, those opportunities have come, that information has come, right? And if I was probably an island, maybe I wouldn't have done something about it the way I did, right? But just having a community of accountability partners, right, who we champion things together, we invest together, we build together, then you guys can push each other, right, to actually make those moves. Because sometimes those moves are scary, right?

You kind of, and I can be very analytical, I'm putting it on the Excel sheet and the math in. So I'm like, okay, how do we do this? But then you have a partner who is thinking more long-term, is thinking, it's fine. We're just going to eat ramen noodles for the next year, right? We're going to figure this out. And you make those moves, right? And one way or the other, one thing I have realized in life is money would always find a way to be spent. So you can take control of it and spend it building wealth, right? Or you can just let it spend itself, right?

And somehow you have nice bags, great shoes. Like it would always find a way to be spent, right? So it's about taking control of how you spend it, right? So, yeah. So, yeah, I think it's not been easy, like, acting on all that information, but just having the right mindset, having great accountability partners, having a life partner like the one I have, right? We just kind of push each other. So do you believe that you can make money and follow your passion? Absolutely, yes. Lots of people do, right? Lots of people in the world do. I haven't cracked that

not fully yet, but there are lots of people who do. I think it's also very important to be realistic, right? Because I worry about when people talk too much about just following your passion and finding money, right? And a lot of people forget the piece where you have to pay your bills, right? And so it's kind of finding that balance in my journey. I'm still figuring it out. But the way it's worked for me has always been I make money doing something I like. Right. I've been fortunate. I've always liked I've liked my career journey. I've liked the jobs I've done. I've really enjoyed the projects, the problems I have solved in all the companies I've worked for. But it's also been a tool to do the things I'm really passionate about, right? I'm

really passionate about entrepreneurship and angel investing and building a real estate portfolio and supporting young girls find their passion and supporting youth organizations. So it's always been making money doing a job, redeploying some of that money, doing the job I like, by the way, redeploying it to the things I really love. And because a lot of things I love, money making things right making more money doing the things i love um so so that's kind of how i found that balance or still finding the balance um but i i would say the the key is to stay true to the things you're passionate about and consistently and constantly explore ways to monetize it it

might mean starting small being super creative adapting the approach as you grow and learn but just keep figuring it out and taking a day as as it goes we're all in that journey together I don't think I've figured it out yet completely. No, thank you for sharing that. I mean, I've watched you firsthand how you navigate your days, your schedule. You kind of have some tips and tricks to kind of, I know you automate a lot of things in your life and you also make space to be able to do that like personally you know you have child care you can't you have a child you have a husband so you have to tend to your personal life while you're building your empire so do you have any tips and tricks for that that you

kind of go by like what is a daily what does a week look like for Ruki how do you balance all of that I think that's a major question that a lot of people have sometimes when you're trying to figure out what the next step is and you see people who are doing so many different things it's hard to kind of imagine how do you manage to get that done I would say the way I have kind of managed it already so it's interesting you say and quite a lot of people feel oh she's figured out a method right trust me lots of things still break in the process but it goes back to I see money as a tool, right? To leave the type of life you want to leave, right? I have never seen money as, oh, I need to make a lot of money. I need to, no. know. So a good example is the ability to ask for help, right? I have a family. I love my family with everything that I have, but it also takes, it's a full-time job caring for a family, right? And if I am able to deploy some of the money I have, right, to get some help in doing some things in that aspect

and finding that balance to be mummy and be the mummy I want my daughter to admire when she grows up, be a good wife and also be an inspiration and continually work to support other women in, in, in the workforce, in the business world, right? It's, it's a lot to take in at one time. So the way I do it is one, like I said, setting great SMART goals is very important. I try to be very specific, measurable, set achievable goals that are relevant to what I'm doing at the time I'm doing it. Ask for help when I need help. I've leveraged partnerships a lot, right, for two things, accountability, and you can also split some of the work that needs to be done. I found working in blocks of time very efficient, just so things don't break. So right now I try and schedule as much as possible. And I have blocks, right? There are days I don't look at

certain things, right? So to kind of manage my block of time and leave some time in there just to focus, right? So I have half a day every week where I just strategically think about the entire picture, how things connect to each other, where I need to spend more time, what I need to do. So kind of the strategic oversight and planning and yeah it's it's it's a lot of adaptability as well right things change being willing to adapt that schedule as I go continuously learning and one of those things in the last year i've been learning a lot about ai and machine learning and just applying that to like everyday small tasks right i do things maybe probably twice as fast as i did them a year before right um and and and that takes just learning new skills, understanding new tools, leveraging tools as much as possible to help me adapt every day and manage all of those things. But hopefully at some point,

I have enough money where I can get a PA to take off some of those things off my table. But yeah, that's how I've done it so far and it's it's it's a continuous process that's awesome yeah I feel like probably in the future AI is gonna be the PA right it's gonna it's gonna take over a lot of that um but I I really love how you've structured your life and you you're very you bring a very calm energy to the way you tackle things I'm sure not every day is always as calm and easy especially with the little one I'm curious how are you teaching her money what does that look like for her as you said you know she looks up to you and how you raise her and what does money look like for the little fierce and cute girl in your life?

I'm teaching her the concept of value. We talk about money. We talk about the fact you need money to buy things. It's interesting. In 2024, right, these kids think you just touch something on the screen and it appears at the door right i'm like girl there's an entire company called amazon behind it right an instacart so it doesn't happen by magic so it's funny she would see something on tv or she just goes mommy i want a

pink bunny and she would run and grab your phone, right? Because she knows that you can kind of tap stuff and the pink pony shows up. It's funny. I would always tell her that, oh, but I need money to buy it. And I need to go work and make money so we can buy it. And I would ask her, do you work? She says, yes, I help. How much would you contribute?

And the answer is always the same. She's always contributing $3, right? So regardless of if it's a $1,000 item or a $1 item, my baby girl is going to contribute $3. So I guess we laugh about it but i guess that's like that's a great foundation to money just understanding that um the things you want right um there's a value to it and to get that value you need to put in some work she understands the concept of work the concept of going to work and making money the only piece that she still gets wrong is she thinks we're all going there to play

so every day when her dad comes back she would ask him oh did you play with your friends and when i'm on the phone with sarge or something for so long she'll come and she'll be like you don't play so yeah um yeah the concept of value work is play and play should be work you know and that's what we're all probably striving towards so she's got she's on to something don't let her lose that vision oh man so I would say um you know did you see yourself here 10 years ago is this what you thought you would be doing building up in this different way in the U.S.? Is that the vision that you kind of navigated? Nah.

Nah. Ten years ago, I had zero ambition, being in the U.S., starting my own company, being a businesswoman. Like, all of those things were so far-fetched. At that time, again, based on the route in front of me, I just wanted to be the CEO of Africa, right? But life has navigated me towards different places, but the goal has never been different, right?

For me, I've always wanted the goal has never been different, right? For me, I've always wanted to do the things I love. I am passionate about people, I'm passionate about technology, and finding the interception of those two things, right? So whether that is supporting business leaders on their growth strategy, or that is supporting a telecooperator in Nigeria build the next base station. Kind of feel it's very similar stuff, right? But yeah, the dream was not this, right? The dream was not this right the dream was not this the dream has always been like i've always had a vision of what my future looked like and it always

was very bright very happy um so i'm just glad i'm leaving that right but how i get to leave it it's very different from what i envisioned and one one year from now, what's the road looking like? Where's the GPS going? I'll break that into three pieces, right? On the work front, I've spent the last couple of months working in stealth mode on business growth and strategic consulting practice. We're focused on growth advisory, strategic partnerships, global market expansion, doing this with my amazing partner and just super excited about it, super excited about

working together, super excited about what the future holds. In one year, I hope we have at least helped a dozen companies grow their business significantly. So yeah, watch this space. On the investment front, myself and my partner in life, we just kicked off a multi-unit development project. So very excited about that one, looking forward to all the learnings that will come from that. And I would say most importantly on the home front, I hope we just continue to find opportunities to live life to the fullest, find space for one another, find the time to pause and live in the moment and enjoy life.

That's beautiful. I think I'm really excited for what we have to come. And I also really admire kind of your approach to life in general, not just your approach to business, which I think, Approach to life in general, not just your approach to business, which I think, Nicole, you also have a really good approach to life as well. So I think it's very interesting that the two co-founders that I picked are on this call, but also from Africa. So I feel like maybe I was on the wrong continent, but I had to find you guys over here. So I'm very thankful to Luno for bringing me closer to you guys. I did not think this is where we would be one year from now, one year ago. And bit by bit, we've kind of built up these companies and these initiatives. And so I think it's awesome to do it with people who are focused on kind of the holistic,

you know, it's part of your journey. You're not going to know how your journey is going to be, but you can still make small steps towards it. And so I thank you guys for that. And I was really excited to do this episode because I feel like not everybody gets to have like a Nicole and Ruki in their lives. So the podcast, you know, people can, a lot of people give me feedback on Nicole too. And they're just like, Oh, she has such a great point of view. And I thought this would be a really good topic to kind of share your points of view, Ruki, because you've done so much on this side of it. And I really admire how not only you, but also like your community kind of

gathers together, shares information. You know, there's a quote last week was International Women's Day. And it's like, surround yourself with women who would say your name in a room full of opportunities. And I feel like that's something that is really important, right? You have different people in your life for different reasons. But I think I would confidently say that you too are women like that. And there's not a lot of women in a lot of people's lives who are like that. And if you have more, that's great. But it's really admirable to see how people kind of choose to build together, choose to share. This is what sucks. This is what's great. This is what I don't

understand. This is what I need to understand before I can go further. I mean, there's been many instances with the both of you working on Sapphire Growth Partners and Friday Feels where it's just like a small group of us. And so it's like, look, let's just get to the path of least resistance, right? Like this is exactly what I mean. Sorry if it's like, look, let's just get to the path of least resistance, right? Like, this is exactly what I mean. Sorry if it hurts your feelings, but we don't have time for feelings. This is what I'm truly clearly trying to say. And I think that's a big difference sometimes when you're working within corporate America, or, you know, at a corporate job where you do have to sugarcoat, you want to be mindful. And we've all been there and so it's something

that I actively try to do more and more because I realize the more I don't explicitly say how I feel about something then it's like oh well I kind of like this logo and it's like okay well then I guess we'll go with it and I'm like oh that's not what I meant to say I meant to say I didn't like it I really just don't like this part and And because otherwise, then you end up going back and forth, like, oh, well, she said she kind of liked it. So I kind of like it, too. Let's go with this. And then you end up like three weeks later, well, I don't really like this. I don't really like it either. So I think, I think it's a fine line between kind of balancing, you know, how we kind of navigate this new path that we're all kind of on and figuring out together. Absolutely.

And, you know, I think money as a topic as well. We all are like struggling on our own with it. You know, it's like one of those things where people don't talk about it. Like it's like at a company, you don't talk about the salary you earn. You know, when you're those things where people don't talk about it like it's like at a company you don't talk about the salary you earn you you know when you're struggling financially you don't talk about it so I think something you brought up today Ruki and something you've just echoed Saj is like community and support is so important you know and that's what we have in each other and no man is an island you. If we were on our own islands, we wouldn't need a GPS. We'd know it backwards.

So, you know, in that spirit of that, like, Ruki, what has been the best professional advice that you've received from community that you've had over time? over time? I would say the best professional advice I've received was to focus on how I can benefit from an opportunity and not just what I'm given to that opportunity and it's helped me approach my career with a more empowered mindset. So this was probably about 15 years ago or something. We had been working on this project for months, lots of sleepless nights. I probably was working 14 hour days. So one of those days and frustration I had shared with a colleague, just how, like, when is this going to end? I'm tired. I feel used by the company because I'm just putting in

all of those hours. It's not like I'm getting a promotion or anything. And I was just whining, whining, whining, whining, wh whining and in my ramble right he said rookie see something um every company every boss is gonna use you in fact you were employed to be used that's the whole premise of employment they They use you, they pay you, right? So don't concern yourself about being used. Instead, concern yourself about how best you are using the opportunity you have. Like, it was literally like a switch that went off in my brain that day since then I have just focused on the opportunity and how I'm leveraging my opportunities right and it's such an empowering mindset to work right and doing that like you just realize you're giving more anyway right and you're getting more

as well right this same company um by the time i was leaving the company it's it's allowed me to work in over 15 countries at that time it's given me the opportunity to live in five of those countries. It's given me funds and the tools to deploy to the things I'm passionate about and my personal investment. It's given me a strong profile. It gave me an MBA at no cost to me. It gave me some of the best friends i have till date right various personal and professional development opportunities and like just as a cherry on the cake right it gave me a husband because that was exactly where i met my husband So, like, today, right, I look back on that experience, and it really isn't about what I gave, right? It's about what I received.

But having the opportunity to know that while I was in it, right, even made me a lot happier at work. It made me a lot happier, which is why I've just always gone on to be a giver, right, with every opportunity. I don't focus on what I'm getting or what I'm not getting. I just, like, give my all. And the universe just has a way of giving you lots of opportunities, right? And giving you good things in the thing you are doing.

So I guess that's another thing about life for me, right? In whatever you find yourself doing, do it with excellence, right? And blessings will come come that's awesome advice I think also sometimes when you do things even things that you don't like very well sorry yeah things that you don't like very well people recognize it and then they choose you to kind of go on another journey with um and so when they can kind of see, all right, well, they managed, she managed to navigate all of this. I think she can manage to navigate X, Y, Z, and that's how you kind of grow and learn with people. So a lot of people say that as like,

you know, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything, which I don't think is completely true, but sometimes it is. Because if I can do something easier, I'm going to do it. But in certain scenarios, I will sit down and actually think, okay, what is the best way to do this? But thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you so much, Ruki, for sharing with us today.

And, you know, it's just like Sasha said, just to echo, it's been so wonderful to walk this journey with you ladies. And I feel like having this call has been a gem of the week for me. So we obviously do those things, gems of the week, and it's really about what's filling our cup, what's helping us do our work or maybe our play and um yeah what desires do you want to share with us what has been your dream of the week yeah over the weekend um i read the book the urgent life by bazulma saint john i'm not sure

if that's how you say her name. But she is a Ghanaian woman who she worked, she started off in Spike Lee's advertising agency and she worked for Pepsi, Apple, Netflix, Endeavor, I think like the UFC and like chief marketing officer roles or very high corporate positions. And she went through a lot of the loss of her partner, the loss of a baby, the loss of her high school boyfriend, quite a bit of loss. And so I had followed her for a while on Instagram, and she's just very flamboyant and just very like not in your face, but in a good way, expressive. She dresses with a lot of colors. She shows a lot of personality.

That's really like she herself is a brand and she kind of brings that star power to these different companies, innovative thinker, et cetera. So it was interesting to read the book because it was about her kind of personal journey it didn't actually have much about what was going on in her corporate life there's little pieces but it was really more of her personal journey I think her life partner they were separated at the time had gotten cancer her daughter was small then her mom also had cancer so she just had like a lot going on behind the scenes and it's just interesting to kind of see how she thinks through that. You know, sometimes I think I have so much going on. And then you read someone or you hear someone else's and you're like,

holy crap, like, my life looks easy compared to this. And it shows you kind of the strength of the human spirit, right? And in many aspects, not just her book, but even talking to other people, you know, in my family and extended family who are going through different things. You know, sometimes Ruki and I had talked about this before where Rola, her daughter had came in and it was her birthday and she was so concerned about moving to the next grade and she's going to lose all her friends and like all this other stuff. And it's just like, when you're in that moment,

that is the biggest moment for you, whatever it is. It could be you moving. It could be you even getting up and making breakfast when you don't feel like it. It just feels like the biggest thing for you, right? And it's all contextual because for, contextual, because for her, that's her whole life. You know, that's her, all her friends are in that class. Now she has to go to a new teacher. Now she doesn't know, you know, and for us, we're just like, oh, she's moving one

class. She'll be fine. She's going to do that every year. And so, you know, I like those things that kind of challenged me to think about and reflect on what I have going on and, you know, how I can do it better with more grace. And so I think reading that it was just, it was very interesting because I kept reading and I'm like, okay, is she going to get to the corporate part or like, because I'm really wondering, like, how do you have, you know, how do you find space and time for all of this personally, when professionally, you know, I've been in senior leadership positions, sometimes it kind of just depends what's going on in the people you have around you. But it's a lot, you know, and some people, they numb themselves to kind of what's going on, or they just kind of

power through it. So I find that really interesting to kind of hear how going on, or they just kind of power through it. So I find that really interesting to kind of hear how analytical she was. And she really, you know, tried everything in many aspects, and just kept going, right. And so I think when you're in the thick of it, sometimes it's interesting to see how people navigate. So for me, that was the gem of the week. I recommend the book. I think it was it was a quick read. She very conversational style. And there's another book she had recommended. I think it's the professional troublemaker. And it has like a piece under it. So I bought that book to read next. And my boyfriend saw it. And he's like, you don't need you don't need to read that

book. You know how to do that. And I was like, No, no, I think I'm gonna read it and he's like, you don't need to read that book. You know how to do that already. And I was like, no, no, I think I'm going to read it. Let's see if we get any further tips. So, yeah, that's my gem of the week. I love that. The travel maker. Oh, goodness. What's coming our way, Rikki?

How about you? What's been your jam of the week? So I saw this movie this week, Air. If you've never seen it, you should see it. It's the story of the Michael Jordan and Nike partnership that brought about the Air Jordans that we all know today. And because I've just been researching the strategic partnerships in the conventional and non-conventional way. So I really did enjoy that story. Again, like at the start,

again like at at the start jordan at the time was disappeared everyone knew he could do something and everyone wanted him with a brand converse used to be the biggest brand in the sneaker industry followed by adidas and nike was like the struggling kid on the block right so at the time the guy had said let's go after Jordan and just put all our marketing budget on this one guy because the strategy was always to split that across three four five people right he was like let's kind of put together on this one guy everyone thought it was right? And it just reminded me of all the times like you go through things. Saj and Nicole, you know some of those stories, right? And everyone just thinks you're crazy,

but the lesson there was the resilience and powering through what you truly believe. Sometimes bending, going out of the conventional rules, right? Because that's where the magic happens. So this guy just powered through. And yeah, today we know about the story, how successful it has been. It also really touched on Nike's end. Before the Air Jordan, they'd never gotten more than three million in

revenue from any line of shoes right so at the end of the movie the the ceo was going like well what's the worst case scenario it's we've never sold more than um three million anyway so that's kind of like a 300k thing and by the way his mom did fight very hard right and and even he did to to get a rev share right in in that deal and this was out of the convention like out of what any Snickers company had ever done right they had never given the um athlete a share of the revenue right but because in this case they were naming the shoes after him um they kind of insisted on on that revenue so it also speaks to just knowing your worth asking for for what your worth is, right? And sticking to it. And like I said, at the time, like Nike felt, okay, what's the worst case scenario? We're going to give him some money. They sure were scared of that decision. But guess what? In the first year, the Air Jordans sold $162 million, never have been done.

So when we talk about the power of strategic partnerships, that's the power of strategic partnerships. It takes a $3 million product to a $162 million product, right? Today, Nike sells $4 billion in those Air Jordans every single year. Michael Jordan himself makes 400 million every single year of those shoes in passive revenue. It was just mind blowing, right? So while we talk of money, right, I guess that was a gem. Just you kind of see the brand, see the shoes but sometimes just knowing the story behind it people that had to um really fight for what they believed and today it's such a

success story everyone benefited more so so a lot of times in corporate right we spend too much time benefited more so so a lot of times in corporate right we spend too much time thinking about what the other person is going to get you don't want to give away that 300 million or 300k forgetting you're actually dropping 159 on the table doing that so yeah that's the gem of the week that is insane i'm definitely gonna watch that movie now and i just love that reminder of owning your worth like you said you know following what's what's true to you you know for me this this week the jam has really been with the launch of studios out in the world. Also actually busy working on some really cool partnerships.

So thank you for you guys in the partnership world, you know, sharing that and just being a cool reminder of wherever your passion is, your pursuits are, partnerships are there. And you need to make sure that they benefit everyone because we are a community so yeah so that's really been exciting for me and as I mentioned last week the release of a new song coming out this week so I'll share a bit more on that very soon and yeah also just being able to run around in the sunshine here with the dogs and there's some beautiful palomino horses where I take the dogs every day and so I've been feeding them carrots and Gracie's getting used to the horses and I've been singing to them out loud in the fields where I hope nobody can hear me

but yeah so that's been really great it's been a wonderful week so far and um you know for for everyone out there listening we want to we want to know how are you mapping your money how are you owning your worth where's your gps leading you to weird and wonderful places we hope and please tell us a little bit about the ways that you are navigating this this theme we'd also like to encourage you Ruki maybe you can share a little bit about where everyone can find you whether that's through LinkedIn or through one of your companies but we really are very happy to have you on the podcast kind of sharing your gems with the rest of the Friday Field community. And we will link to your LinkedIn.

Is that the best way to find you? Yes, yes. And thank you guys for having me and sharing the space and time with me and giving me the opportunity to share as well with your amazing, amazing community. Yeah, LinkedIn is a great place to find me. Instagram is a great place to find me. is a great place to find me i guess i'm most active on those two platform so it's rookie roti balogan on linkedin and on instagram it's rookie rb also feel free to to send a mail to hello sapphire gp.co. Again, that is Sophia, GP.co. Thank you.

And, you know, we'd love to hear from you. Remember to, for all of you listening, remember to tag us on your hashtag, these Friday feels to share your stories. And you can listen to us on all your favorite platforms, Spotify, Apple, et cetera etc and to work with us or have us broadcast friday feels from your space and organize your next workation reach out to us at hello at friday-feels.co and next week we have an interesting gentleman working professional who

is on a mission to help the world play nicely so tune in for simon hurry next week who has told us that his relationship with money is a bit like his relationship with women we don't know what that means but we're going to find out but until next time that's our mix we've had fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed into the night and into this awesome weekend so see you next week and keep it real