[00:00:00] Speaker A: Today's guest is unique because while I value anyone who's come on the podcast, he's the first one who I've asked to come on two weeks in a row. Kevin Matthews of Building Bread is a financial literacy educator who has had a storied and varied career in the space. And I wanted to first dig into his money story. And then next week, we're going to have him back on to talk about some ways that someone who doesn't live in finances every day can familiarize themselves with with investments and how to start to put together some things in their portfolio that they understand and can track moving forward. So, after the break, the next voice you hear will be my voice. Introducing Kevin Matthews of Building Bread. I hope you enjoy his story from.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: New Money new problems. It's the new Money New Problems podcast, a show for successful professionals searching for the tools they need to navigate financial opportunities and obstacles they've never seen.
Negotiating compensation. Purchasing your first investment property. Helping your family with money. The highs and lows of entrepreneurship. New money brings new problems that require new solutions. Join us as we work through them together.
I'm Brenton Harrison, and this is the New Money New Problems podcast.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Kevin, I appreciate you joining.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Yes, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: So, I would like, even in spite of my introduction, for you to give our audience an idea of childhood. Let's start there. We'll build up to the brand that you've built. Uh, but tell me a bit about yourself as a child. Family life, where you're from, all that.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Sure. So I have what I think is a little bit of a funny and unique childhood. So I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is the birthplace of Black Wall street, one of the wealthiest, one of the historically wealthiest places for African Americans. My mom worked at a bank, and when I was born in, um, the late eighty s, the first place I went to was the bank. So my mom opened up a small savings account. It was really for showing me off to all her coworkers. But the very first place I went to right after the hospital stopped at a bank before I went home. And my dad was a pretty, you know, normal middle class roots. And really, that environment, growing up in Tulsa and having the history of Black Wall street around always had me curious about money. Because if you know anything about Tulsa now, a lot of people learned about it in 2021 at the centennial. It's like, well, how do we rebuild Black Wall Street? How do we get back to X, Y, and Z? So, growing up, I was always trying to figure out how do I build wealth? How do I get back to how, uh, do I return my family in this area back to what it was now, 100 and some OD years ago.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: You mentioned that your mother was a banker, your father was a firefighter. Uh, what was family life like growing up in your community?
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Yeah. So my parents divorced when I was about four, and it really did kind of illustrate two different scenarios in two different lives. So my mom remarried, and they've been married for more than 20 years. My dad had been mostly single, and I really picked up on my dad's financial habits because he was someone who always read, I mean, any financial book, any business book, he would just really, anywhere he would go, it would be a book under his arm. And that's something that I really picked up very early on, and it helped me to write my books and be inspired there. My dad was also a serial entrepreneur. I mean, he owned everything from a cleaners to yard business to a real estate company, used cars. As a firefighter, you only work, like, two or three days, at least. In Tulsa, you work three days on, and then the rest of the week, you're off. And it's kind of a weird schedule. So he had free time to open up businesses and do all these different things. So I got to see how he would operate. I would start to see how my mom would operate and really try to piece those two skill sets together.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: In the episode where we talk about my parents money story, both of my parents are entrepreneurs, and I shared that one of the things that I picked up from them was the flexibility of time, the ability to not, meaning you're not working. Both my parents work crazy hours when they were building their career, but just the ability to decide how you work was something that really came across to me. As you were watching your dad start all those businesses, what do you think was imparted to you?
[00:04:28] Speaker C: That's a great question. I think, for me, I realized that you can kind of create your own path, was one of the things that I realized. And then I really saw that multiple streams of income that everybody talks about online, but he really had so many different areas where he could pull from when he needed to. I would say the most important thing, though, that I picked up on that I'm realizing, I would say, really, in the last, maybe five or six years for myself, is that he used his primary career to build other avenues for himself. So, for example, again, he was a firefighter. He moved up and became fire chief at one point, but as a firefighter, you had to learn CPR. That's just the basics of the job, right? Well, he took that and started teaching CPR classes to local daycares and other businesses in the area. And that became a very big thing for him, where he was getting paid by major corporations to teach them CPR. And then he took his skills. But from teaching all these companies and teaching all these daycares and being someone in the public eyes of firefighter, took that and made into a career in politics. And I was like, huh, that's interesting, because had you not learned CPR from the fire department, had you not learned how to meet people and be out and get into all these different circles, none of that would have ever happened. So, for me, I started my career as a teacher. I taught 7th grade math, and that really translated into the way that I teach finance. I try to make things simple. I use a whiteboard from time to time. I like to use examples that everyone can understand. But the only way I got that skill was teaching seven classes a day, the exact same lesson, and making sure my students got the absolute best education they could.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Well, let's go back a little earlier than you, uh, being in the classroom as a teacher, I know where you are a proud graduate of. If, uh, you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see it. But share with our audience where you graduated from, why you chose that institution in the first place, what it meant to you.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I graduated from the Hampton University, the real Hu. We won the game. For those who are wondering, 35 to.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: 34, I'm staying out of that one.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: Okay? I just want to stay. For the record, we've won seven years in a row anyway, so, ironically enough, though, the reason why I chose Hampton was because of a Howard graduate. Uh, Dr. Marshall started the first HBCU tour, and we toured several schools, North Carolina, a T. Hampton, Howard, and a few others. And I got to campus and absolutely loved it. And for me, the importance of Hampton was one, to grow up at that formative time around, people who looked like me, who were doing amazing things. And for me, it was 1357 miles away. I know that exact number from Hampton, Virginia, to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the reason why that was important, though, is because I wanted to branch off and really test myself without the safety net of family, right, to rebuild my own friend network and figure out who I really was in that environment. Not necessarily alone and completely isolated, but in a space where you really get to figure things out. I couldn't just drive home and get my laundry done. That would have made things a lot cheaper, a lot easier. I will say that, but it did teach me survival skills, and you had to get out of your comfort zone a lot, so that's what it really meant to me. And it absolutely changed my life where I found my wife, for one. Um, but also it helped me to build my own business, to build my own brand, my own career, and I would say it's one of the best investments that I've ever made.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: I have my preferences, but I would never tell someone they have to go to an HBCU, even though I went to one. But the further removed I get from the experience, the more I appreciate it, uh, for my particular reasons. What has it meant to you now that we are not old, but we're further removed from the experience?
[00:08:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I would totally agree. I think the further away I've gotten, the more valuable it's become and the more I cherish it. And now that I have two kids again, I wouldn't say, hey, you 100% have to go, but I'm a lean that way. Right?
I think when my, uh, son was born in 2018, at first I'm like, okay, yeah. And then the older I'm getting, like, we should really make sure he goes to go to camp at A and T or whatever's closer and really kind of inch him that way. But for me, the way that I feel about it and what's really changed, I would say, is one, is the community feel like it's not just I hang with only Hampton alum, it's, Are you into HBCU? We all together. Right. So you have an alumni network of 107 schools together moving in the same direction. I think it really gives you a, uh, grounded perspective on everything that's going on. And you can take that exact same knowledge, but then color it in your experience. I would say the last thing is that network, because it's not always easy to walk into certain doors and certain venues, right, when everybody doesn't look like you or even have that same experience. But I feel like when you go to HBC and you have that network, you know who to call, or you're going to have someone who has charted that path and been through what you've been through to give you a little bit of guidance.
[00:09:38] Speaker D: This is the new money New Problems podcast, a show for successful professionals searching for the tools they need to navigate financial opportunities and obstacles they've never seen. We'll be right back.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Are m you wondering what new money problems you might be overlooking in your financial life? If so, we've got great news. We've crafted the new money new problems Gapfinder to identify potential weaknesses in your finances in areas ranging from budgeting, investments, insurance, and even the threat your extended family's finances could pose to your household. Please head to newmoneynewproblems.com Gapfinder to complete it today. Again, that's newmoneynewproblems.com gapfinder. To take the assessment.
[00:10:36] Speaker D: You'Re listening to the new Money New Problems podcast. Subscribe
[email protected]. Welcome back.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: There have been a number of steady ascents in your progress through the industry that I've kept up with over the years. Radio host, walk our audience through kind of the progression, even with the decision to go back to school, walk them through kind of the opportunities that have presented you and how you navigated them.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Yeah. So, for me, after teaching for a while, I realized that we were great at, uh, uh, educating and sending kids to college. But it was really that financial piece, and that was something I was, again, always interested in because I studied economics, was from Tulsa. I still wanted to really figure out how I can build it and how I can educate others. So from there, I moved to New York, became a financial advisor, took all the tests, took all the licenses, and did that for several years and moved up the ranks. By 2017, I was in the top 100 most influential financial advisors from Investopedia. But I also realized, like, hey, at this point, the structures that I was in, I could only reach people or help people who had a quarter million dollars and up, which is great for, uh, the company's bottom line. It was okay for my salary, but it's not what I really wanted to do. And that's when I realized I had to make a shift, right? And see how could I take my skills that I've learned, just like my dad did, and pivot into something else. And that's when I really started to concentrate and spend more time using what I learned in the advisory chair and building resources and building things and speaking to people in a way that made sense from an angle of confidence, but an angle of experience as well as, you knoW, it's one thing to say, oh, I read this book and this thing happened. It's different if you've said, hey, I've met with twelve different millionaires, and this is how we had to plan out their next ten years. This is exactly how they got there, because I've literally seen the bank accounts, I've literally seen the receipts. I've seen the investments. I know how to copy and paste that for a normal person. Right. And speak from experience on how they went from point A to point B.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: So you leave the career as a financial advisor. You get into financial literacy, financial, uh, content creation. What was the first opportunity, post financial advisement, uh, that you took advantage of? And tell me, what was the experience like of walking away from a salary and deciding that I'm going to build my own?
[00:13:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Walking away was difficult because you're in a space for those that may not know. When you have your licenses and you're in a very regulated field, there are some lines and some things you can and can't say. Right. You have to be very careful, especially on social media, on how you speak about things now. In 2017, things were way different than where they are now. But I didn't feel like I wasn't able to be open enough. And the hardest part was I had to let a lot of those licenses go. So if I ever wanted to come back, I take a lot of exams, and I don't feel like I'm the best exam taker. Though I did pass the first time for my series, seven and 66.
Uh, but in either case, that's, like a barrier to reentry if I were going to take that. Um, but for me, I wanted to kind of open up a bit. That first opportunity for me was actually writing for Business Insider. I had a friend, and look, you know, I saw what you post on Twitter. I love that background. Like, hey, do you want to write for us for X amount per post? And I started taking that and that parlayed into different publications, but that really started to build out the kind of backbone of what I was doing and really started to grow from there.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Let me ask you this. I Think that when it comes to people who are sharing specifically investment advice, that you are by far one of the more measured, um, in the space in terms of this is what I believe. I'm not telling you that you have to go buy it, um, but definitely not presenting it as if, like, your word is the end all, be all. Do you think that you would be as measured if you were not first a financial advisor dealing with compliance?
[00:14:54] Speaker C: Absolutely.
That's accurate. I think, as someone who has to deal with compliance, I think you know exactly someone who comes from that background. But you're right. And I think the reason why I speak the way I do is because, one, I want to be truthful. I don't want to sell nobody no dreams, okay? People will look up a stock. Oh, the market never drops.
That's not true. So the first thing is, I want to present truth to people and know and have people to have the right expectations going into something. So that's the first one. And the second one is learning to kind of dance with compliance. Though it was extremely frustrating at that point in time, it did teach me to stay within the right guidelines and teach people and show people what the realities are, because there is no real 100% truth to a lot of things in finance, because we've seen through COVID and a lot of other things. When inflation does X, this is supposed to happen, and then it didn't happen. Right. There are times where it said, hey, always cook at home because that's cheaper. Then inflation hits, and now you're looking, hmm. It might actually be cheaper to go eat.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Was telling. I was telling my wife, like, two weeks. Like, I. Because there's a Publix right by our house. I go to Publix every day.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Publix chicken, by the way.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.
In my mind, I'm like, I would actually save money ordering out every single meal compared to what I'm doing right now.
[00:16:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Uh, and that type of stuff.
This rule always works. I hate that. I mean, that's the first thing that will make me turn off a channel, is like, oh, this is the thing that just do this 100% of the time. It's just completely inaccurate. And to me, when I look at what you are building now that we are, uh, getting towards the end of this first, this part A or part one of your episodes, tell us more about your brand, tell us more about what you do, and I'll have some follow up questions. But as you talk about educating, what is building bread?
[00:16:56] Speaker C: The way that I like to describe building Bread is it's an investor education company. And my job is to make investing simple. So what I do, mostly on social media, primarily on YouTube these days, is break down a lot of the common misconceptions, questions, and headlines of the day. So you turn on the news and you hear about company, did X, Y, and Z, or this has happened in the market, or this happened on Capitol Hill, that's going to affect your money. It's my job to come in and say, hey, this is what it means for you in a way that you can understand. And here are some possible actions that you might want to take. A lot of times, it's, hey, this thing is happening. Don't panic. Right. So, uh, an example from this year is we had the whole banking crisis, which feels like years ago, but it was actually in 2023 when we had some banks collapse. And the first thing I did was hop on Twitter and say, look, here's a tweet thread on what's going on. Here's a video on what's going on. Here's the next step, next steps. Here's what the FDIC is and how you can protect yourself and your money. So just really making investing simple and decoding and breaking down the news and the headlines of the day.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: As investment advisors, we just talking about compliance. We will make sure that we can't recommend, so we don't make recommendations, we give our take on things. But I do want to make sure that everyone, uh, has access to your content. So before we even get to the end of the episode, can you tell us where to reach you? And then I have some entrepreneur to entrepreneur questions that I want to ask you.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: Sure. So you can find me all things social media at building Bread. I post on YouTube Monday through Friday, we do 250 videos per year, and then you can obviously find
[email protected].
[00:18:36] Speaker A: When you are responsible for the revenue, to me, it's not more pressure, because there's pressure in every job industry that you have. But there's a unique type of pressure that comes when you're responsible for the revenue, when your check is not the same every two weeks. What are some of the things of entrepreneurship? Highs and lows. Once you've come from a place where you did have a salary, maybe base that was lower plus bonuses, but it's a different world in entrepreneurship. What have been some of the lessons that you've taken good and bad from that transition?
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say one of the good lessons that I learned, which, well, honestly, I feel like if it's a lesson, it usually starts off bad until you figure it out.
One of the things I learned is you have to be intentional around how you build.
For me, at one point in my career, I was like, hey, I'm, um, going to teach this course. I'm going to do this thing. It's going to happen one time, and then I just need to get a bunch of people to do this one time. I'll be rich.
It's kind of like selling books. They buy the book, they don't go by one time. In most cases, what I had to learn is how do I build long term streams? If I'm speaking at a company, how do I make sure they invite me back? Because depending on that rate, if I can get twelve companies to pay me, I don't know, $5,000 a year I'm going to be okay, or a month, I'm going to be all right. But you have to intentionally build that stuff out. So that's a lesson I had to learn. I'm still learning it in some ways, but make sure that you can even out those streams when possible. But the only way you're going to do it is by building it. And be very specific about the products and services that you offer.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: We talk a lot about the things that we bring with us into our work lives when it comes to money, into our, uh, relationships, when it comes to money, even just in terms of one to one, like, just looking at our own selves and our behavior that we bring from childhood. Right. This is how I'm acting with my money now. But the roots of it were planted when I was ten years old or 15 years old, when you are acting at your financial worst. So this is something I, uh, know. It's a part of me, but this is not a productive behavior. When you are acting at your financial worst, what are the things that you're doing that you need to be aware of, and where do you think that behavior comes from?
[00:21:06] Speaker C: That's a great point. I think, for me, the thing I'm thinking about is the word productive. Um, so what I do when it's a tight financial situation or it's a habit that I know isn't always the best, is kind of being very visual around what the worst case scenario is, which isn't always productive. You always want to prepare for the worst, but hope for the best, obviously. But spending so much time around, if the car breaks down and this check doesn't come through, then we're going to lose a house. And then you spiral out of control. Right. That is something that I try to. It's something I fall into out of habit sometimes. And it was because my parents got divorced at, uh, four. It was difficult to figure out what life was right and what stability was. So at that point, I just had to really kind of build out, like, hey, if this is the worst case scenario and it doesn't happen, I'm going to feel better about X, Y, and Z. So I think that's something I've carried from childhood. When things get rough is what is the worst case scenario. Let me visualize that which isn't always productive. It's probably what I should not do, but kind of like, figure out what that is and then start to make sure I can avoid that in any way possible. So sometimes it's getting a calendar and sketching out, like, hey, X client plays on this day, we've got X revenue coming in for the next six months. We're going to be all right. I don't have to worry about that or making sure that I can take care of it in advance. Right. Having that Six, seven months, eight months of emergency funds tucked away in case X happened. So it's really that that I find myself running into. Thankfully, because I've done this for a little bit of time, it doesn't happen nearly as often as it did when I started. So that's the progressive part, but that's definitely the area that I fall into now.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Let's flip that on its head. And that may be the same behavior that can work in a positive in some instances. What is something that you brought with you from childhood that you think serves you well when it comes to money?
[00:23:00] Speaker C: Yeah. I am someone who really believes in systems. I'm someone who, I want to say, likes to be repetitive, but I like to keep the same type of habits. So, for example, something that I did when I was a kid, my parents paid me. My dad specifically used me, like, $12 every two weeks. And 1320, $4 a year or a month was a lot. At least it felt like a lot.
What I figured out was, my parents, I was a huge Game Boy, handheld Game Gear type of person. I used to love playing video games. My parents like, look, we're not buying you this no more. You figured it out. It's getting expensive. That's on you. So what I started to figure out was from the allowance that they gave me from lunch, money that I may not have spent all that entire amount, they gave me $5. I only spent two. That gives me $3. If I do that for an entire week, that's an extra 15. If I get allowance that week, that's another 30. So I got $30 this week plus tax, right? So it was that type of stuff they had to learn in 7th grade with my little planner to figure, uh, out exactly how much I needed when the game came out, how much I was going to spend and really budget all that stuff out. But it was a system, it was a cycle that I could really snap onto and really get and predict what the next thing I needed was. So that's something that I do. Whether it's playing Madden today, which I'm undefeated, no one has been able to beat me in two years. It's either that or business, or even the way I read certain books I'm reading this chapter to this chapter, and then I'm doing X, Y, and Z. Like, every book I read has highlighters and sticky notes, and it's like a real defined process. I always try to find a process so I can get repeated results. Even in golf, I do the exact same thing. Just like a free throw, right? You see somebody who dribbles a certain way, shoots a certain way, they usually get the exact same results. I try and take that template and apply it to as many things as possible.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Well, that is the perfect segue into part two of our series with you, because we're going to talk about those processes as it relates to someone who is building their own investments. So, audience, you won't have to wait to hear from him again for long.
Next week, you will be back with Kevin Matthews of Building Bread. We'll put all of his information in the show notes. Kevin, I thank you for joining us for part one. And, uh, it won't be long before I see you either.
Thanks for being on.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: From new money new problems. This was the new Money New Problems podcast, a show for successful professionals searching for the tools they need to navigate financial opportunities and obstacles they've never seen.
