Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: In this episode, we look back at some of our favorite moments from 2024 on the new Money New Problems podcast. Let's get started. Let's get some money from 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.
Hello, my name is Brenton Harrison of New Money New Problems and your host for the New Money New Problems podcast. I hope that you enjoyed your holiday season, whether it was Christmas or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah, and, um, that you got some time to spe friends or family or both. It's been a really eventful season for us. We had some great, you know, some family that we've gotten to see. We also, uh, had a son who caught the flu. I am still up to, like, 80% back from laryngitis. It has really been, like, kicking my ass. But, uh, it's been a good season, um, when you just take it all into consideration. So this is the last episode of the year, and as we've done in past years, I, uh, wanted to reflect on some of the favorite moments that we've had from some of our interviews with guests over the course of this past year. And these clips that I've posted have a couple of common threads. One of those common threads is that for most of the people that we interview and most of the people that we come across, I would say that we can sometimes have this expectation that the way that we are going to attain success is very linear, or it has, like a very defined stair step to success. Right. I'm going to make my way there on this gradual, defined path, and there's not going to be any emergencies. There's not going to be any unexpected things that occur. And with each of these people, there's been something that occurred in their career, in their life, in their relationships that forced them to make some changes. And it's not until, uh, some cases, years down the line where they realize that thing that presented itself as a negative actually allowed them to make a change, to make a pivot, to make some improvements that led to the improvement of their selves and their money, sometimes years down the line before they realized that it was a positive. The other thing that I would say is when those things occur, whether it's something that happens all at once or whether you find yourself in a position in your life and in your career where you feel like you are behind. And I would say that the common thread for a lot of those people is that you feel. Feel like you're not doing as much as you should be doing. You feel like you are behind compared to some archetype of a person that you feel has it all together or some, like, amalgamation of these three or four people that you've made into one that has it all together and you don't. And you're comparing yourself to and to me, when you have that mindset and you let it defeat you, then you're really, really in trouble. When you have that mindset and you understand that, first of all, like, you are likely comparing yourself to someone where you really don't know the full extent of their circumstance. But really, there is no need for comparison. We are all on our own journey at our own time. And as long as you're making improvements to what you're doing, then over the course of time, what you expected to happen, positively or negatively, really has no impact on what you can do in your current circumstance to shape your future. So as you listen to these clips, I want to first, before we even get into the episodes, play this short story. Now, I will give you a bit of a disclaimer. They say this story is a Chinese proverb. I have only ever heard white people telling this story, but I think it's a great story. I am just hesitant when anybody says that it's a Chinese proverb or an African proverb. I would rather just say I enjoy the lesson behind this story. I am not sure if it's a Chinese proverb, but the story itself, I think, has some wisdom that is worth hearing. So check this out before we get into some of the interviews.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: There's a farmer and he lives with his son, and they have one horse. And the horse runs away. And everyone from the town comes by that night and the horse ran away and they say, oh, no, what terrible news? He said, I don't know. Uh, it's good news or bad news, we don't know yet. And the next day the horse came back with two other horses, and everyone from the town came by and they said, well, great news. Now you have three horses. And he said, well, I don't know if it's good news or bad news. And then the next day, the son went out and trained one of the new horses. And fell and broke his back. Everyone from the town came by and said, oh, no, what terrible news. He said, I don't know if it's good or bad news. And the next day the constable from the military came by and said, we're taking all able bodied young men to join the military. And they said, my son has a broken back. He can't go to the army. And then everyone from the town came by that night and they said, oh, what good news? Your son didn't have to go to the army.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Stop it.
[00:05:14] Speaker C: I can't handle this.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Good news or bad news, I don't know. We'll see. And the idea of this is that it could go on and on and on and on. So the idea of missing a green on, I don't know, 16 at Augusta, if you're Tiger woods, that could be good news. Because that could be a defining moment when the ball lands on the green and rests on the lip with the Nike logo perfectly showing and then falls in. That's where I go with this idea of wishing things were different. If you subscribe to the idea of the Chinese farmer of good news, bad news, who knows? You cannot believe that there even is bad news.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: All right, so that's the tone setter that I wanted you to keep in mind as you listen to some of these clips. And first up, uh, we have a clip from our time with Juice and Toya. Juice and Toya, before they got together as a couple, they had their own respective backgrounds in fitness and athletics. Uh, they joined together both from a business perspective and a romantic perspective, and launched a YouTube channel that in less than five years grew from zero subscribers to over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. In this clip, they talked about the journey of growing that subscriber subscriber base, but also how things like Covid and a lack of resources actually led to the improvement of the channel and a deeper relationship with their customers as they grew the channel itself. Take a listen.
I look back on my life.
Excuse me. And the, uh, careers, lives of people who I work with. And a lot of times I can trace those big jumps in their income to trials like the ones that you guys had in Covid Juice, uh, like you tearing your acl, you know, putting a different type of content out there that speaks to people who are trying to train with injuries. Sometimes those things, like, in the moment, it sucks, but you look back five years later, you're like, man, that's the best thing that ever happened to me.
When I look at you, all's content from somebody who works out at home, There are little things that just make them phenomenal videos juice to follow along. Even though you fought it, you know, having the, having the preview video of the move before the move starts saying what weight you're working with, you know, it, uh, just giving people a guide so they're just not just picking up random dumbbells and hurting their back or something. You know, like having modifications. This person's doing this. Just these little things that if you're just watching, you're like, oh, this is a cool video.
As a person who owns a business, I know that like each part of that is a very conscious decision.
And the thing that probably a lot of your audience doesn't know, that I know from Brandon, is that you all are self taught and you record and edit on your own.
So where are you getting those tips, those ideas? Because it's not like there's somebody over you saying like, oh, here's how we do it here.
[00:08:10] Speaker D: Yeah, um, a lot of it has just been, I mean, trial and error, error. And just listening to your audience, that's a lot of things that, you know, we've been recommended. People want this, people want that. And we always, you know, our first year or I guess after Covid, we responded to every single comment. Every single, every single one. We spent probably two hours a day responding to comments what people wanted. If somebody said, oh, this is a great work, I love it, we would respond to it.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: It.
[00:08:38] Speaker D: Yeah. So we got really connected with our audience from the jump and they pretty much, um, molded our channel like. And of course, you know, there are a lot of other great channels that I took inspiration from, you know, that were in the game well before we were. Um, but I was like, how can I do this and make it ours? You know, make it something that's unique and different in our style and something.
[00:09:01] Speaker E: That we want to do consistently. Because if it's not fun for us and you can't do it consistently, then you do it a few times and then we get bored with it or you're not consistent with it. And that's the whole name of the game there. But I think too, as, uh, we grew in the channel, we were able to um, just if you go back to the very first follow along workout, that was in an old apartment where we didn't have the space to film together. So I had to do mine, he had to do his. And the editing was literally split screen. So that took us four hours with.
[00:09:36] Speaker D: A computer that, that wasn't at the time I didn't know anything about specs and like RAM and all that stuff. So it was super slow. It took me probably a week to edit this 20 minute workout video. So we, so from the very beginning we had trials of just trying to just put this content out. So over time when we got more recommendations, when we got, you know, um, a lot of constructive criticism, we didn't take it personal. Like people was like, yo, this timer sucks.
[00:10:02] Speaker E: Like, or they would say we need another view. And I'm like, we don't have this.
Yeah, and that's the other thing. We were able to buy another camera which allowed us to give another view. Um, we were able to find a space that we could consistently rent and also afford. When we first started, spaces were like 300 an hour. And so it's like if you're spending four hours just to film one workout, that wasn't going to be cost effective. So once we figured out a workflow, we have a space we can consistently rent. We were able to get faster computers, more cameras, like to be able to grow with them. Um, it's like the recommendations we are giving we were able to provide because we were able to grow within it.
[00:10:45] Speaker D: And with all that, you know, I do majority of the editing as far as the YouTube. And she's, I mean she's getting better at it. I've been teaching her M and it's helped over, over time just because now that she's learning, it's allowing us to be more efficient with the content we put. But YouTube University, man, that's what I call it. You can learn anything, literally anything. When I learned how to make graphics for the, um, for the channel, the timer, everything is, you know, if people ask for it. I tried my best to figure out how to do it and put it, um, on the channel, uh, in a way that's, you know, it gave me an efficient workflow because that's another thing. There were some things I wanted to include, but it just took so long to um, put the videos out. So I kind of found a common ground of like, what can I learn and what can I continue to put out to where it's giving people what they want and I can continue to add on and make it better.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: So we're getting to the end of this episode, so I'm gonna ask you some questions that we ask of all our guests, but especially couples. We've talked about the things that you bring from childhood with you when it comes to money, when you are operating at your best and you think about how you are with money? What are some of the behaviors that you're showing?
[00:11:57] Speaker D: Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, I think, honestly, not necessarily a behavior, but I think we both have this mindset of, like, not forgetting where we came from. Because a lot of times when things get hard, you know, we kind of go back to say, like, man, we've been through so much together. It's been a journey, um, all the struggles that we went through to get to this point. So, you know, when things get hard, we kind of tap into that past to tap into the times where, you know, things weren't so great or we were just grinding or, you know, we. I remember saying, like, I remember the days we just prayed for this, where we are now. Like, we were hoping that the stuff that we were putting out would pay off and get to this point. So I think, yeah, like I said, it's not necessarily a behavior per se, but it's more so just understanding, like, we. We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears literally to get to this point. And, uh, um, as long as we kind of never forget that and keep that in our minds, I think, you know, the sky's the limit, honestly, for us.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: I really enjoyed that episode. They were wonderful people, great to spend time with. I actually was connected with them through, uh, my best friend, Brandon Middleton, and they were just kind and gracious with their time, as are all of the guests that we have on the New Money, New Problems podcast. In this next clip, going to go back to the time we spent with my friend DJ Alo. Uh, DJ went to Tennessee State. He started his career in consulting with Gallup, and as he was building that career, had an interest in real estate that he started to cultivate and expand upon, using not only his current job to kind of supplement himself as he kind of, you know, took a dip into those waters. But even when he first dipped into those waters, he relied on his wife's income to provide stability as he learned the ropes in real estate. I think there are some great lessons in his story because he not only talks about making sure that that transition is done in a measured and calculated way. You know, from listening to this podcast. I'm not somebody who believes in just leaping and a net will appear. I think I actually might say that in this clip. And I'm, um, not somebody who thinks that everybody should be an entrepreneur. I'm somebody who thinks that no matter what you're planning, whether it's a new industry, a new career, entrepreneurship versus W2 employment, you should always Have a strategy that allows you, to the best of your ab abilities, to plan for the unexpected. That's something that DJ did very well and he explains it in this clip. Take a listen.
So, dj, you had gotten to the point where you realized that there was an opportunity that awaited you in, uh, real estate. What was that next step in seizing that opportunity?
[00:14:32] Speaker F: So there was a couple things I did. One, I continued to work at Gallup for a significant amount of time, M because I love the people I work with. It was a great opportunity. And this was like a pet project that I worked on, on the weekends and the evenings and when I wasn't doing my full time job because I wanted a proof of concept, I wanted to say, hey, if I'm going to step out and do this, I want it to work. And so I just built it in the background. It became what I was obsessed about when I was not working. And by doing that, it gave me the opportunity to make mistakes, not to have to, uh, put all my eggs in one basket. And it allowed me to perfect a system that could eventually scale once I had the time to do it. And that's what I did for a long time. And as a consultant, as you know, you travel a lot. So I was on boats, planes and trains every week, going around the country working with healthcare clients. And we were about to have my first child, or our first child, I should say. And that timing lined up perfect with me saying, I don't want to be the dad who misses all those first child things or even second child things. And so I said, now is my opportunity. And what we decided to do is we decided to live off one person's income because my wife was working full time at the time and I was working full time. And so we said, hey, we're going to start living off my wife's income to help us. And then that way, once I decided to go full time, even if I didn't make any money or it failed, I would give myself a year to figure it out before I started, started to re pivot. And that's what we did. And it worked out.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: So you would acquire properties prior to quitting.
[00:16:12] Speaker F: We acquired properties, but we weren't holding any properties at that time. We had mastered the process of buying a property, renovating it, and then selling it in order to generate income.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: There's so many things that I want to unpack there, but I got to attack a few of them. The first is I hate when people recommend that people just like leap and the net will appear like, you got to sacrifice everything. You got to put yourself out there with no safety net. You know that that is BS and it is much easier to launch and sustain something when you have some reserves. You know, the second thing is, it is completely okay to use that W2 job to supplement something that you plan to do and build it up to the point where it's easier to leave. You know? And the third thing, we've had this conversation with friends of ours who want to jump into entrepreneurship, and I try to tell them, like, it's. It's a different lifestyle. Uh, but, you know, you. You. You built yourself to the point where. And thankfully, you didn't have to, but you had built a career to the point where, let's say that it didn't work out, you could have jumped right back into that career. Right. You know, there's something to be said about putting yourself in a situation before you take the leap where you don't have to just say, oh, if this doesn't work out, I have nothing to go back to. I, uh, love the way that you did that. But, you know, the last thing, and this is what I'd like you to touch on even further.
You know, people have no idea how hard it is to get financing for anything when you don't have a W2.
Um, can you talk about how having a salary, either for yourself or for your wife or just your wife made it a little easier to have some entree into real estate?
[00:17:52] Speaker F: It made it. It made all the difference. So there's a couple things and a couple pieces of the story that I probably didn't fully highlight. But when I was starting the real estate journey, I didn't start by myself. I actually had a business partner who had already done a couple deals. So, like, I was using his playbook, and we were working together, right? And so it was a situation where I was working with somebody along the way. And so it was like I was only in the game 50% of. Of it, and he was 50%. And so, like, we had to double coverage of, like, okay, we both mess it up, then we. We both have some support, right? And so that was huge there. And his expertise mixed with my expertise helped us, you know, and allowed us to do different things. But then the other part about it is that the W2 was so significant, because when I started in real estate, this was during the time when the real estate market had crashed. And so it wasn't the real estate market that we know today, where everybody wants to be in real estate. And you have bigger Pockets, you have YouTube, you have all these things where you can get all this information. It was kind of no man's land and people were just trying to figure out, um, what to do. People were licking their wounds who had lost a lot of money. And houses that you see now that are million dollar houses could have probably been sold for like 250 or 300. And so it wasn't the panacea that everybody, uh, envisions now. It was much more scary. And banks didn't want to lend to you unless you had income. And so for a long time, my W2 along with my wife's W2 was the thing that allowed us to get loans, the thing that allowed us banks to finance us. In addition to that, I remember one of the houses that we purchased after I went solo, um, was only in my wife's name because I didn't have any income. I had a lot of debt, um, not consumer debt, but real estate debt related to the business. And it just made sense to put in her name because she didn't have a lot of debt and she had a W2. And so they were able to do the loan with no problem. And so those things are so helpful. As you think about stepping out there into the unknown. The other part that people don't talk about is not just the financings of it, but it's the ability to be able to breathe. One thing that you have to know is when you start your own business or you do something where the income is not a steady income stream, it's an inconsistent income stream and you don't know when and if you're going to get paid.
You do not have the, uh, ability to make mistakes and you are forced to make bad decisions if the income comes in later than you expect, whether it be selling something of value too soon, which I've done numerous, uh, times, or not having the ability to ride a storm or, or, or be grounded in a storm and let it pass through. And so that's so important that you have to have a foundation where you either have a huge reserve or you have continuous income.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: When you start anything entrepreneurial, um, there's a concept that one of the people who mentored me calls tuition into the school of experience. And you're paying, right? This is not a benefit. Getting experience in the field of your choice, it costs you something either financially, mentally, whether it's stress. You've done some things that this was a mistake that happened to you, but it had to happen to you. It needed to happen to you. For you to get that experience you needed to move forward. Uh, what's an example of some tuition that you paid into the school of experience?
[00:21:33] Speaker F: A lot of sleepless nights, right?
But I think the thing was delayed gratification. I think that that was the tuition because when I left and I look at some of my colleagues, and some of my colleagues have gone on to do phenomenal things, um, I took a lot of steps back, and when I say not back, steps to the side in order to take a huge step forward. And that was delayed gratification with the cars we drove, with the way we invested, with the vacations we took and stuff like that. But it allowed me to put myself in a position where now it's a lot easier to say if I want to upgrade, I have the ability or luxury to. The other thing when I. When you talk about tuition was I missed out on so many different opportunities that could have taken me to a new level financially because I didn't spend enough time educating myself and getting better at my craft because I was so focused on the day to day. Right. And so it was, uh, it was a duality of like, yes, the day to day has to get done. But not understanding the higher game that's being played in the real estate world made me miss out on opportunities because, again, I sold assets too early. I missed out on good opportunities that would have paid off great dividends. And as I look back, I'm not mad or sorry about those things, but hindsight's always 20 20, and I just see where those experiences now have shaped me, where I look at the market very differently.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: DJ was a cool guy. Uh, we're going to put the links to the socials for everybody that's in this episode in the show notes, and I encourage you to check them out and follow what they're doing, if you have not already. Um, next up, we have Garrison Hayes. If you have not heard the name Garrison Hayes, you have definitely seen the face of Garrison Hayes. If you follow any content that is politically conscious, socially conscious. Garrison is a person who has blown up on TikTok and Instagram and has, uh, probably over 700,000 followers and subscribers across different platforms by now. He has been featured at the White House. He's won awards for his short documentaries. But what many don't know is he actually started as a pastor. And at some point during his pastoral journey, there were some things that occurred that let him know, uh, that as Danny Andrews shares later in the episode, that you sometimes cannot grow where you're planted. He made the decision to leave pastoral ministry and pursue the work that he's doing now. So in this clip from the episode, we talk about that transition, why he decided to step away from that role, and also similar to dj, how he did it in a measured and calculated way to make sure that he wasn't just leaping out with no expectations of what could occur.
So you come to that crucial decision and now money comes back into the picture, at least for me, because being an Adventist minister is by no means a path to, like, wealth and riches, but it is, it is a dependable paycheck. Right?
[00:24:55] Speaker G: Right.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: There is at least an every two weeks element to it. Now you're deciding, I'm going to leave that relative level of comfort and I'm going to kind of make my own path.
What does that look like? Was there any fear involved in that journey? Did you have it all mapped out? Describe that thought process to me.
[00:25:19] Speaker G: I can't say that I had it all mapped out, but I did have thoughts. I, I had, I had it in. I had in my mind that it was possible. And I kind of saw a few pathways to kind of get to kind of the baseline numbers I need. Okay, what do I need to, like, cover my car note? What do I need to have a cell phone? What do I need to be able to contribute to, to the bills? Right. Like, how can we, how can I help to keep a roof over our head?
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:43] Speaker G: Like, these are thoughts. And so, so that's the number that I need. How can I get there? I think I saw some pathways to get there and.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Well, tell me, tell me some of those pathways. Because to me, in entrepreneurship, one of the things that people often struggle with is the, the decision of, do I do entrepreneurship full time or do I keep something on the side while I'm pursuing entrepreneurship? And I regularly see a lack of planning. Right. I'm just, oh, I'll have so much more time to work on my business if I just quit. And it's like, well, I surely hope that you have, like, some contracts lined up, because if you can't figure out some way in the next 30 days to pay your rent, what are we going to do? So tell me some of those potential pathways.
[00:26:30] Speaker G: Yeah, I'm glad you're pushing me on this. Okay, so I'll say this. I did not just, like, up and quit my job and like, like, have nothing whatsoever. Like, I left the ministry and I started as a, um, family engagement, diversity engagement manager for a network of charter schools. You know, schools are great because they're always high hiring.
Um, and so I worked in that four year. In many, in many ways that was just kind of like keeping a steady paycheck. It was also a job that when I was off, I was off, um, going from pastoral ministry where you're on all the time. You could be on at you know, 1:00am at 1:00pm you're always on. Like at any moment something could happen and there are meetings all the time. So I didn't have m much separation between my work Life, my official W2 work life and the online video creation that I was doing suddenly after leaving and I started this job that was more or less just a job I had separation. My bills were able to be paid from this W2 job. And then I was able to kind of do that idea of, you know, nine to five and then five to nine, that five to nine was, was time for, for my business that I was building as, as a creator and I was also starting a video agency. And so this is working with corporate clients and that kind of thing. And so in many respects like that was my kind of initial step toward kind of full time entrepreneurship, was kind of finding a little stop gap of like a, a job that I could do and do well and show up for, but would not bleed over into my evening or into my weekend or into my free, quote unquote free time. Um, and so that was a really important part of it.
Um, I also had, you know, I started making videos again online in January of 2021. And so I had about by the time I went full time, which was summer, um, it was actually November 2022.
So by the time I went full time in making videos online and I had a year, almost two years of kind of understanding what the ebbs and flow. Like I make videos, videos around black history and politics and. And so I know February is going to be a really big month for me. Like I'm going to have a great month in February financially. Um, Juneteenth is now a holiday. So I know I'm going to do my thing on, you know, around in June. June's going to be a pretty good month for me. Um, how can I kind of, what can I do to supplement what does money look like in March, April, May or in July, you know, through December. And so I had some time, two cycles more or less to know what my financial picture looked like for the year. Now I wasn't relying on that income, but I was able to kind of like look at it and project to Say, okay, I think I can make this much at this time, this much at this time. So how can I make up the rest of what I need to cover my bills in between? Do I think I can do that? Yes, I think I can do that. And here are the ways I can pursue this client or already had this opportunity, you know, from before, and it pays about this much. And so, like, I think the lesson here, without continuing to ramble a bit, uh, I think the lesson is that I was able to look over a couple of years at what my financials look like and say I can, I can use that as projection for what things will come my way in the future. And as such, I can feel comfortable taking this leap into entrepreneurship.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: So your first video and everything's, you know, relative, takes off within the first couple of months. You have videos in the m millions. And I am pushing you on this because it is very hard. What you're doing is exceedingly rare. And that is making consistent income as a creator. Right? And to me, you said yourself, there's like a year and nine months between when you start and when you decide to do it full time, even though in that first quarter you have videos with millions and millions of views.
So what was it when you get to the fall of 2022 that had happened in those previous few months where you're saying, I have now taken this from a lot of eyes to something that's actually profitable?
[00:31:16] Speaker G: I will say one of the reasons why a lot of people want to be full time content creators, at one point, that was like the number one thing that kids wanted to be was like, I want to be a YouTuber. Right? That's what they were saying. Instead of being firefighters and astronauts, they wanted to be YouTubers, which is crazy. And so a lot of people want to be online video content creators, whatever the case, may be influencers. And I tell people all the time, keep your day job as long as possible. Like, as long as possible. In fact, it's better because eventually this will be your job. Eventually making videos or whatever the case may be do. Being an influencer, being a content creator will be your job. And contrary to popular belief, it will feel like a job. It will become a job. And you want to stave that off, like, for as long as possible.
Let it be fun. What I tell people all the time is part of the reason why I created the video agency Kindred Media, where we make video content for our corporate clients. Part of the reason why I did that was that I never wanted my creative work to carry the burden of having to pay my bills, in part because it takes something away from your creativity. It takes something away from the light, kind of like fun of it all when you're like, man, this video's gotta do numbers. It's gotta go up. Because if it doesn't, this client, this, you know, brand isn't happy. And I might not be able to, you know, have, um, I might not have enough money in two months. They might not want to work with me again. It's too much pressure. You're not able to do your best light free, kind of like artistic work, in my opinion, with that pressure. And so I tell people all the time, keep your day job not as an insult, but as like, insulation, uh, against all of that pressure.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: One of the, the areas where I wonder if that crosses over is the fact that you also, with what you do in terms of the videos that you create, you have the freedom to create videos on, um, whatever you're passionate about, even if it rubs someone else the wrong way. Do you think that part of that insulation is also saying, if I don't depend on this, then they're no longer. I don't have to worry about there being any pressure on what I can and cannot say?
[00:33:43] Speaker G: Yeah, that's, that's, that's also very important. I mean, we've seen that, you know, a lot recently in the last several. In the last year or so, where there are different conflicts happening in the world from China and Ukraine and everywhere else. Right. Like, fill in the blank where people feel like, man, I can't say anything because then I will lose an opportunity or I can't necessarily approach this in a way that feels truthful and authentic and without losing, you know, that's definitely there. Um, you know, I was. I did something, you know, with a specific campaign years ago.
And, um, actually, I'll tell this story. I brought in a speaker virtually to talk about a really relevant social issue in my church. Um, and people were so upset, they called my employer. They call all kinds of like. And people were making videos online, like, castigating me. And it felt scary to be like, oh, my goodness, like, I did this thing and now my employment is tied up in the controversy. That's crazy. Yeah. Again, to your point about, again, that's insulation. If you can, if you can, like, kind of keep that independence as much as possible. I mean, it, it's invaluable.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: That was a great clip. You know, Garrison, I actually married a childhood friend of mine. Um, and, you know, they moved back to Nashville a couple years ago. But this past year has really been the year where our friendship and relationship, even as client and advisor, has grown. And I've appreciated that time together. In this last clip, we're going to share, uh, some time with Danny Andrews. Danny is someone who has taken kind of an entrepreneur's mindset in terms of strategy and navigating the world with how he advances himself in corporate America. And in this episode, we talked about not just his background and the reasons behind some of the ways that, um, he has grown, but also some of the lessons that he's learned along the way. So we're going to end with Danny's episode, and we're going to literally end with the episode. This is the last time you're going to hear my voice. So I will tell you guys that I, uh, have really enjoyed this year's podcast. We have a lot of great plans for the year ahead. New segments, uh, some really interesting folks even at the top of the year that you'll hear from, that we work for months and months and months to secure. And I think that you're going to enjoy them. Uh, it is a blessing to do this. I'm appreciative for everybody who has listened once every single episode, we would ask that if you've enjoyed what you're listening to, that you share this. Because we want to grow our community in the year 2025, but we've had a great year this year. I hope that you all have a great new year over the next week, and I will see you again in 2025. But before you go, check out this last clip from Danny.
[00:36:39] Speaker C: So I went to a top 10 law school. And so part of that training is you go to a big law firm usually, right? So I went to a big law firm right after law school. And, um, so that job was, I wouldn't say selected for me. I mean, but all of the firms are kind of the same, right? So I ultimately chose the school, the law firm I went to, because they were top entertainment law firm. And at the time, my focus and passion was being an entertainment lawyer, right? So I moved to LA and took that gig, um, very, I don't know, a few, maybe two years in, um, I decided that it wasn't really for me. I mean, things like billable hours and again, people sort of counting your minutes and telling you, like, how much time you've got to build. Like, you know, there's. Thematically, I didn't. I don't love that. Like, um. And so I thought okay. But I probably got to stick this out for three or four years because in the legal profession, you know, going to a law firm is sort of a rite of passage. It's like a. It's a form of, like, hazing. And there's people assume certain things about your ability if you can cut it at, you know, a big law firm. Right. So I sort of made myself stay for longer than I wanted to. And, um, that was fine. I've always had this ability to suspend, um, or like delay gratification, understanding that this step may be a means to an end. It doesn't necessarily need to be the end itself. And so that was fine. And then the next thing I did was I quit and decided I was going to start my own entertainment law firm and consulting agency. Uh, um, and that was, you know, I thought, I can do what these partners are doing at this firm, but I can also be doing it for, you know, brown and black people, for artists, you know, for people who didn't have the resources to pay, you know, big law firm fees. And so I did that, and that was a really fun experience. And I did that for about three years. Um, and then a big startup came by and said, hey, I was actually negotiating, um, a license agreement for my client at my own, uh, firm with this company, right? This company wanted to license something that a client of mine had created. And so anyway, we go through that process and the deal gets closed. And maybe about two weeks later they reached out to me saying, hey, we're really building out this business. We wondered we'd like the way you manage this negotiation and so on and so forth, would you be interested in coming and heading up business and legal affairs, um, for us? And so that was a tough decision because I was like, I'm giving up this freedom that I really like. But also it was clear to me again that while this was, I was able to do this, I was still super young in my legal career. And I was thinking about, what is the narrative of my career going to be. And as technology and apps and E commerce started to really take off, I thought this may be a good space for me to be like a subject matter expert in. Um, and so I took the gig and then I moved, uh, overseas to be the general counsel for the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi for a while. And, um, I worked at a big, um, online travel, uh, company that most of us have probably used. And today I'm at, um, the GC of a tech, um, and content company, um, in the US So one thread.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: That I will, I have to say, so that you don't have to say it is. I said that there was a reason at the beginning of this episode that I would choose you to kind of tell people how to navigate their career. I would just ask the audience to just trust my expertise that work with a lot of successful people. You need to be listening to what this person is saying because I wouldn't expect you to say all of the places where you've worked, but just audience, trust me, it's an impressive list as ah, you have gone through those different things. Because I hear so many things just in terms of managing finances. I hear going from W2 billable hours to owning my own firm to negotiating to join another firm. And one of the threads that you and I have discussed is like this duality of, uh, building expertise in your professional life and it being hard to turn that off in your personal life. Right. Like I'm an expert over here and I have, and I have to make myself look like an expert. Right. I can't show any level of, uh, lack of knowledge or anything like that. And then over here there's something that is, it may be difficult for me or I'm trying to learn. So with those first few jobs, what was it like? Income is increasing. Based on what you're describing, you're probably earning more than most people with whom you grew up. What was it like for those first few jobs, managing finances?
[00:41:53] Speaker C: You know, I don't. So great question. You know, I think we, you know, our parents do the best that they can. Right. Um, but I definitely, you know, didn't understand, you know, what it meant to like have money. Right. Um, and how to, how to manage that. And so my sole goal, you know, again, going back to like, you know, nine year old me was, you know, amassing the money. Right. Like once I have the money, everything will be fine. Um, because again, I saw lots of people kind of being stuck in situations because they, in my mind they didn't have, you know, options.
So the shift over to like having money, I think in the moment I didn't feel this. But when I look back, I think I was really operating out of like survival and lack. Even when I was not really surviving, I was thriving and there was some level of abundance, at least for me. Right. Um, but my mindset had not shifted, um, in that way. And so, you know, I would be like hoarding money and like having it in a bank account, but then like not, you know, um, investing it or not doing things with the money. That, like, make me happy, you know, always waiting for that, like, you know, proverbial, you know, rainy day. Right. Um, and so it was important for me to start thinking about, okay, that's not an area I'm strong in.
[00:43:27] Speaker G: Right.
[00:43:27] Speaker C: So I can do certain things, like, I can get the job to get me the income. Right. But now who's gonna. Like, how do I make sure that that money is working for me, that I'm working smarter and not harder? And, you know, in steps like, uh, you and our relationship. Right. Our business relationship, where you're really helping me navigate, um, some of those areas where I'm still operating, I think out of fear or out of some sort of trauma response.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: That's powerful. Well, last question I have for you before we go into part two. Um, with all that you've done, there's so much ahead of you.
Any things you look back on with regret, or is it all just part of the journey?
[00:44:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I think in general, it's all a part of the journey. I try to enjoy the ride. And even in this conversation, I try to say, maybe it's not a mistake. There was an opportunity to do something different, differently. But what I love about the journey and the way that I think making the opportunities or mistakes not be in vain, is thinking through, how do I learn from that and not, um, make that same mistake again. I think there's a world where I'm like, you can make a new mistake every day, but try not to make the same one, uh, twice. And so. So that's kind of how I look at my journey. But one thing I think I would say, um, that I wish I would have focused on earlier was, like, my peace and my mental health. Right. Like, understanding that work has its place. Right. But that you've got to be listening to your body. You've got to be making sure that you are feeling, like, emotionally and, you know, psychologically safe. And those kinds of things are not things that I thought about, um, earlier in my career. And I think it impacted some of my, like, career decisions, but also my, like, personal life decisions. Right. Because I was not focused on, you know. Yeah. Like, my mental health and making sure that I was, like, protecting. Protecting my peace and protecting my safe space. So I would think that as we continue, as people continue to evolve in their careers, whether they're early on or later in the game, I think it's really important to kind of prioritize, like, self, you know, physical health, mental health, um, emotional health. And that's something I would have done differently.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Let's get some money 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.
