SPEAKER_04 0:07

Each and every day, no and always. You're very bad. Don't ever be the best. It's your life. Take the best of the day.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

With Dr. Julia Royston.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Well, hello, I'm Dr. Julia Royston. Welcome to another edition of Live Your Best Life, where I'm always seeking to bring you people, places, information, resources, and tools to help you do just that. Live your best life. And so get your pen and paper if you're old school. Get your phone if you're new school. And me, I'm both. I have pen and paper and phone. And so that you can follow my guest on social media and find her book, because you know I'm always interviewing authors. I love to do so. And uh support her in many ways. And so um, Miss Lily, take it away. Introduce yourself, tell us where you're from, where we can find you on social media or your website, or both.

SPEAKER_08 1:28

Hello, my name is Pam Lily. First of all, thank you for having me today.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

No problem.

SPEAKER_08 1:33

Pam from Houston by way of Louisiana, and I uh really just uh have stumbled into writing, so I don't have a large social media media following. Uh I have a missionary background, so I've been kind of quiet on social media so that I could travel without being impeded. So I do have a website, it's pamlily, and that's L I L L Y dot org. So pamlily.org, you can reach me that uh through the website as far as uh email addresses and purchasing the book as well. It is on Amazon. I do have a LinkedIn uh as well, so you can uh reach out to me on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Perfect, perfect. Okay, so we're an international radio station, so um I know that people can Google it, but from a missionary's point of view, tell me uh how you got into missionary work or or missions, because I know missionary is kind of the old school term, but uh missions out, outreach, philanthropy, all those are kind of interrelated, they're different and distinct, but they're kind of all interrelated at one time. So tell us kind of the backstory. How did you get started? Were your parents taking you? Were they missionaries, or how did that all work?

SPEAKER_08 2:51

Well, it's very interesting. Um, when I was 12 years old, there were missionaries working in our that would come to our small hometown in Louisiana, and uh they would um actually earlier than 12, all my life really, and I'd go to Sunday school and Bible school and BBS and so on. And then when I was 12, they asked me what I uh what would I go along and teach with them all over rural Louisiana and some of those little backwater towns, right? And we would do an AM and a PM BBS. And uh these missionaries were they were just special to our community, they were special to our lives and all the communities that we served. And every now and again, um, they were called Mr. and Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Baker would pull out a letter from a missionary in Africa, Miss Henrietta, and she would read a letter of the work that was being done in Africa. And that was my first introduction to the missions' work and hearing about the culture and what God was doing, how people were coming to Christ, the languages. And so I just have always had a love for languages, for people groups, for um culture. And I that just continued throughout my life.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Well, I can I can definitely imagine because we did outreach, inreach, all of that locally uh in my home, and then you know, helping to um really kind of found churches when they would do evangelism other places. They were like, you know, we need people to go knock on doors and groups and and then I sang. So we would do the tent revivals and whatever VBS, my dad was director of Christian ed. So you know VBS is in my blood, baby. I I know nighttime, daytime, anytime. It was a week-long thing. And um, so I and I know some people, well, we're international stations, so there are people literally in 40, uh nearly 50 countries that are listening to us. And um, so therefore, you know, uh a lot of people, especially in the U.S., there's a lot going on in here in the U.S. Why do you need to go anywhere else? Why we need and we used to have those same letters come to my home church, we would send. Then when they would come, we would house them and host them. They were always like in our house or whatever. As we got older, of course, they would be in hotels. But early on, the revivalists, the missionaries, they stayed in my parents' house. And we didn't have to always know far in advance. They were like, uh, they need a place to stay. And my mother was like, okay, we roll in and boom. They we would have a night guest. I'm like, well, we uh I gotta get out of my bed and get in the bed with my sister. No, that mercy. You know, but that that was just the life. So I think home missions and and um international missions is is I agree, it's kind of in my blood, but you gotta really have an open mind. You gotta be um now. I've done four missions trips to Jamaica with uh Bishop Jackie McCullough. So she from Jamaica and it was medical missions. We stood on our feet from eight that morning to five. Now she treated us good. The hotels we stayed in was beautiful, baby. It was top of the line, but every morning, we be rolling out about eight o'clock, and the people would be lined up literally around the the clinics, and it was tiring, but it was very rewarding. I mean, extremely rewarding. So you've done local. Okay, now when did you actually go overseas?

SPEAKER_08 6:31

Okay, so so this is an interesting story. Um as as my book says, I'm one of the first, one of the only, one of the one of the few. And so at the age of um, wow, I would have been 13, probably 14, about 14, I was the first black cheerleader in my hometown.

SPEAKER_06 6:50

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_08 6:51

My actually my first day of kindergarten was a day of desegregation in my hometown.

SPEAKER_06 6:55

Oh my!

SPEAKER_08 6:56

And so that took me along some first, well, becoming a cheerleader changed the trajectory of my life, of my first love, which was I've always said I wanted to be a missionary when I grew up. And then um, as I uh when I moved to Houston, I get introduced to the travel industry. So I was in the travel industry for twelve for 20 years, sales marketing and account management. And then one day the Lord uh showed me through a job posting that the same skill set that I used in sales marketing and account management was the same skill set needed for fundraising.

SPEAKER_06 7:31

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 7:32

And he called me into fundraising and through, and that's how I got into missions. Oh international organizations, first of all, doing calling on churches and then uh uh givers and then going and sharing and really keeping missionaries in the field. So so my role it was more of going to see what was happening so that I could better articulate and with the passion, right, that I needed to help bring in the funds needed to keep them in the field.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Oh, that's an important role. I mean, that that that is clearly uh boots on the ground because uh most people are terrible at the fundraising piece. Me, I put off both hands because I'm I'm awful. My father was he was great at it, but me, mm-mm, uh mm-mm. I'd be just trying to finally get another job to pay for it. Um I don't know.

SPEAKER_08 8:26

See it for me, it became easy to invite people into what God was doing.

SPEAKER_06 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 8:31

I'd get so excited, and you know, I couldn't understand if somebody wouldn't, you know, didn't get it. But if it did they didn't get it, it was usually because I wasn't explaining it right. So if I could share the mission and the vision of what God was doing, people, I mean, if you're sitting in front of the right person, they want to be involved. There's no saying, Lord, don't do it without me.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Right, right. Oh, come on, come on, bishop. Come on, don't do it without me. But but we have to have people in the marketplaces, uh, the different marketplaces of the world. And we always, not always, and I won't say that, I'll take that back. God forgive me, but we see a lot of times, not always, but we see a lot of times, people have that separation. Like, okay, God can only be working right here and in the village, but you gotta have people on the business side. You gotta, you know, we need uh well, one of the ministers at one of the churches I used to attend a lot. We need money for ministry. You know, so that I mean, Jesus had people did most people don't ever point this out. Jesus had people who finance his ministry. Why do you think Judas had the bag? Wasn't nothing the bag wasn't empty, it had money in it.

SPEAKER_08 9:42

So it's so there's this wonderful pamphlet, it's very old, but it's called Kings and Priests.

SPEAKER_06 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 9:49

The whole premise of the book is every priest needs a king, and every king needs a priest.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Gotta have it, gotta have it, gotta have it.

SPEAKER_08 9:57

And the king funds the men, the the the work of the kingdom, and and and the priest, you know, brings the word to to that.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

That's right, make sure we spiritually align, and this is what God said, and then you fund it. You finance it. But they're both of you. So you're important to the kingdom of God and definitely the work of ministry and the work of uh missionaries. And you know, I can just tell uh by by your spirit, you just love doing it. Like it's not a chore, it's not a task, it's not laborious to ask. Oh my gosh. And you know, scary as it is, I'm working on currently at the recording of this, I'm working on a devotional that says ask. That's the title of the book. Ask. And do you not know there's so many, there are so many scriptures in the Bible that said ask? And I think, you know, well, we can get off in the tangent on that, but you have not because you ask not. So, you know, I was like, ask, really? He said, Yeah, and I want you to write a devotional. I said, Who gonna read it? He said, I didn't say who was gonna read it. I told you to write it. I was like, Yes, sir. So, you know, that being able, the power of the ask is just really resonates with you from literally from head to toe. So all of the funding, all the so what countries did you go and actually put eyes on it?

SPEAKER_08 11:17

So my first mission trip was to Benin, Africa, West Africa. And I tell you, Sister Julia, the when I I wouldn't I wasn't in Benin 24 hours, and I could look around and say, these are my people.

SPEAKER_06 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 11:36

I feel it in my being that these were my people. I could hear my grandmother's French, my great-grandmother's, well, my grandmother's French, my great-grandmother only spoke French. My grandmother spoke French and English, and then we would teach it to her to their children. But I could hear it, and and lo and behold, I come back and my brother had done a DNA test, and we are uh we were uh 29%, no, 33% Beninese Tobinese.

SPEAKER_06 12:08

Oh my lord.

SPEAKER_08 12:09

So you were home for real.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

I was really for home. You wasn't home for real, it wasn't just the continent. It was you and your country, your people.

SPEAKER_08 12:16

Oh you I could look around and see my hometown like three generations ago. Yeah. The dirt ground, right?

SPEAKER_06 12:26

There's like that.

SPEAKER_08 12:30

I just I'm like, and they they okra like we do in Louisiana, they they ate the gumbo pot full of rice. I mean, more rice than we eat. I'm like, what the fuck is going on?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

You was home. Oh yeah, you was at home. Oh yeah. You eat that definitely home. Oh, that's so wonderful.

SPEAKER_08 12:47

And then I've I got to go to um Ethiopia and a whole different country among it was kind of in the uh Omo Valley, right at the uh corner of Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan. Oh the mountains. Um, I won't name the people group, but um they were still wearing goat skin and drinking some boards.

SPEAKER_06 13:11

I believe it. I believe it. I believe it.

SPEAKER_08 13:13

And it was an amazing trip. And so it's it's just you know, you kind of have to pick and choose which ones you go on because it's a lot of sensitivity. We, you know, don't want to um leave anyone in a position where they're in danger because and you have to make sure that you have um training before you go.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Because we used to have trainings, you know, things that we couldn't do, we couldn't say, we couldn't whatever. But um there was just, you know, sometimes there's just opportunities for ministry that just come as a part of that. But the biggest thing is you gotta have heart for it. If you if you don't really love people, mission, you just fund it, you just send the money, you just donate. Because if you don't if you don't want to be inconvenienced, you don't want to be, you know, oh, I'm tired, I'm this, and oh my gosh, what you know, and and you're not prepared for the food or you're not prepared for the people, and oh smells and smells we have in the US, not smells overseas. And then I have so that whole complaining, I don't want you to go. I I just think, you know, that it's that's what one uh one missionary does. Let's just encourage you to support the ministry. Hello. And you don't go, just send us.

SPEAKER_08 14:26

Who has the heart to go and don't?

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Yes, yes, yes. And you have the heart to give, so just give. But the heart to actually physically be boots on the ground is just, you know, you you just it's gotta be able to smile and uh, you know, lovingly, because these you're on their territory. You're not striving, you're striving to help and give and reach out, but you don't want to be offensive in any way, shape, or form because that's not really the love of God. That's not that's not Paul, that's not none of the disciples. They knew he said, I know how to bound, I know how to abase, I know how to be with the chief uh people, the kings, I know how to talk to them, but I know how to get down and dirty and go get some sticks and maybe want to pull a snake or two. He's a content in every situation, every situation, every situation. So um that that is just clearly phenomenal. So, well, let me ask you this do you have if you have someone who is wanting to participate or help or any way, shape, or form, can they go to your site and donate or support in any way?

SPEAKER_08 15:32

Yes, reach out to um my website. I am also um person I'm working with an organization right now, part-time because I gotta get this book out, right? I understand. Called Reach the Rest. And uh so they are uh also available for taking donations to finish the task, right? We've gotta we've gotta finish the Great Commission.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

We gotta do it. We gotta do it. He ain't come yet, so it ain't time. We're not done yet. He said, I'm not done. That was my word for hitting it at this the at this recording. That was my word he just gave me recently. I'm not done yet. And I said, Oh, well, okay. All right, yes, sir. Whatever you get ready to do, help us to be ready for what you're getting ready to do. So he's not done yet, so we still have to occupy until he comes. All right, so let's switch gears, let's talk about your book.

SPEAKER_08 16:20

Okay, well, that's another call. I was I used to work with what my missionary assignment was crew. Most of you know Campus Crusade for Price, now known as Crew. And when not long um, in fact, I hadn't even finished raising my support, Miss Julie. You'll know what that means. Raising my support to to go to crew to raise support for missionaries, right?

SPEAKER_07 16:41

Right.

SPEAKER_08 16:41

And uh, and and God gave me the title of this book. Um, it was right um after, I mean, within days of the shooting at the Mother Emmanuel um AM church. And God told me, I I it just dropped in my spirit the first, the only, and I think I can completed the sentence and the few. And I knew it was the book assignment. I started just throwing a tantrum inside because I didn't want to write about this, right? Don't want to be part of it. I'm very non-confrontational, I don't like tension, I'm a peacemaker, and and so I'm like, oh no, not about that. And oh gosh, please no, I might as well put a target on my back, right?

SPEAKER_07 17:30

Right.

SPEAKER_08 17:32

But here we were in this, you know, period of time in our country where um God needed some things to be said, and and it really is about us being one in Christ. And so God called me to write this book as He did the one behind me, as you can see, Mary Mourn and Martha Day, uh, which is all about um uh just a relationship with God. So most of my writing is about your relationship with God and your relationship with one another.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Wonderful. Okay, so the the the few, the one, the only, the chosen. Um, so it's does it deal with racism? It does.

SPEAKER_08 18:11

I I can't, you know, I can't get around it because that's who I am this person that God preordained to be born just about a hundred years after slavery. And my first day in kindergarten was the first day of desegregation in the hotel. And so while I've never really seen, you know, life from this racial perspective per se, in in the sense that we see it today, God was writing the story all along, right? Uh my parents being many firsts in our small hometown to work in their workplaces, um me being the first black cheerleader, the first black head cheerleader, you know, the only one in the room in corporate Americ in in in the spaces I worked in. Even ministry, even sometimes, or being one of the few. And so I I realized looking back on my life that God was writing the story all along, I just I had I was clueless. So when he asked me to write this book, you know, you know, gave me the assignment to write the book. And so I realized, oh gosh, you've been setting me up this whole time. It's not just first, but I I I God began to pull some things out of me that were there that I didn't even know was there, like one of the titles, and even even the titles of the chapters he he he brought up out of me. Um and I felt like were given by him, like one of the chapters is first in line. And you know where I'm going with this, where you're first in line, and the clerk wants to wait on the white person next to you first, right? And having that, you know, being in that exchange or in that scenario, right? And what do you do, right? You can switch yourself and say, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:11

I was here first, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:13

Or I could say, Oh no, go ahead, I'm I'm not in a hurry, or the or the uh the white person says, Oh, sure, right?

SPEAKER_06 20:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:21

That can happen and that can happen. It does happen, it's happened to me.

unknown 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:28

How that scenario can play out and how it makes me feel, regard, you know, depending on which way it plays out. And when I have to assert myself and demand, you know, then I feel this yucky all day, right? Yeah. But when when I can be gracious enough and say, Oh, go ahead, I'm not in a hurry, or some they're gracious enough to say, Oh no, she was first, and how that makes me feel. But then I I turn the the the the uh the tables on and say, Were you ever in this situation?

SPEAKER_06 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:56

Were you in the scenario?

SPEAKER_06 20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:59

What did you do then and what would you do now?

SPEAKER_06 21:02

Right, right.

SPEAKER_08 21:03

And and really encouraging us each you know chapter along the way, whether I'm telling my story or telling, you know, a story about me, my first job interviews, and how if I can get that interview on the phone, I can I can pretty much land it, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Right, right.

SPEAKER_08 21:20

And so, and asking, you know, people to look at their own life's experiences where these things may have been present and and take it to God, right? Take whatever that is. I don't want an apology, don't need one, don't don't have to discuss it with you. I'm just lending my story to the conversation. And I really, really would prefer people would have this conversation with someone they know that's of a different ethnicity.

SPEAKER_07 21:47

Right.

SPEAKER_08 21:49

So we can learn from each other's culture, so we can put say them and those people and they and you know, right? So we can have some connection. Um, and so that's where the relationship with one another. Uh comes in. And then we talk about being one in Christ. So this is all built around John 17, where Christ is praying the prayer for us to be one in Christ, like he and the Father are one. And then he says, so that so that the world will know that God sent me. And I don't have a bigger, you know, way to evangelize than for us to be one, right? That's what he's saying. When the the world will know that God sent me, when my children are one, when we're one. It's not a black and white issue. It's a heart issue.

unknown 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 22:54

And then for us to make it a priority for us to be a God's family, one. That splendid church that God is coming back for.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Yeah, that that yeah, that church, that one is what I'm looking for. Like, where's that one gonna be? Because I don't, you know, I I'm the same way with you. I'm not, you know, normally we don't even get to talking about um race and all of that, but he it's in the book, though. It's in the Bible. He's like, you know, we're all one in Christ, but excuse me, we may not see it every week. We may not see it every whatever your Sabbath is, whether it's Saturday and Sunday. And sometimes that one in Christ is among the same race. You know, like you do it differently, they do it differently in Louisiana, we do something different in Kentucky, and Lord knows they're doing something different in California and New York and something else, and Florida somewhere else. And, you know, it's just like we can't. What is the unifying factor? And I think closer to when he returns, it's gonna be do you believe in Jesus or not? It's gonna be that simple. I know everybody's got their rules and and denominational rules and guidelines and they what we're gonna wear, what we gonna eat, and PETA and all them. They got into that. Oh, I don't eat that and I don't go there and I don't do that. Okay, wait a minute. Because I think it's gonna get there.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

I think it's gonna be there where we're gonna be like, okay, it's not a race thing, but are you on Jesus' side or are you on the enemy side? What side you on? That's right. It's gonna come down to that. It's not gonna be based on you know what your color, your scheme is gonna be. It's gonna be based on do you believe in the Father or not? Are you going back with us? Is it you know Jesus or not? I mean, you know, are you on Jesus' side or you on the side? It's just just two sides. You got two sides.

SPEAKER_08 24:45

He can read our heart, he knows our heart. And so we can't fake him out, we can't, you know. Um, we we we just have to know that um Christ said he he is coming back for a church that he could present, uh a splendid church that he could present to himself.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

And then any a bride, and uh, I don't know, the he knows who the bride is, and he's got the remnant, but we all have to be ready for it.

SPEAKER_08 25:14

That's what he's coming back for. We should be aspiring to be that. That's all even after that.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

I mean, we could be working toward it, but it's still gonna be grace we get in. It's not gonna be nothing we done or anything like that. It's still it's gonna be him, Jesus' blood, and his grace we even get in. Okay, so um, what are you seeking to uh besides that being one in Christ? What else are you striving to do? What is it giving you any specific instructions of what we're gonna do as the church building of people? Because the body is and the bride is something else, they ready, but the church building of people that are actually in the building in the four walls, what is the gonna be the commission for them so that they'll, you know, so they realize that this message, because you get your work cut out for you.

SPEAKER_08 26:05

You realize right, yes, and you know, I took it to that to that action, that call to action, but I've been doing some other work because I know there's some next steps, right? I know for me too, because we're all growing, and this is for everyone. Um, so I've been doing some different Bible studies that that bring out um the diversity in the Bible, um, all of the the oneness that Christ wants, and the the New Testament, you know, Galatians and all of those that that is the model, the book of Acts, the model for the Yeah, that's the model. Uh so anyway, so I've been doing some Bible studies, looking for next steps for myself, but next steps for my readers. And I'm gonna be putting that information available uh online because I I didn't get it in the book because I I was still kind of searching. Um, but yeah, there's there's a lot of things that we can do to get our hearts positioned toward one another and toward God in as it relates to unity in Christ.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Wonderful, wonderful. So that's the biggest thing. Pam Lily L-I-L-L-Y dot com. Oh, dot org.com.

SPEAKER_08 27:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yes, dot org.org. Um, that you need to go so you can follow her. So when she rolls out the Bible studies, you will have them and have access to them and so that you can um um be able to relay them to your small group, to your uh, as they say, coffee shop, but your Saturday morning uh group meeting, uh girls' trip, girls hang out, um, so that we can really move this forward, so that we can get this word. He's got a reason for it. He wouldn't have given her the assignment if he didn't have a reason for it. We see a need for it. But uh the resolution and um um the actual strategy that we need to be able to do this so that we can be what God is calling for. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we need the on earth part to be fixed and worked on and and and and removed and and all that good stuff. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_08 28:18

Yes, that's it. So we it's not too big for God, it's not too big for us. We just have to make it our priority and know that this is the way exactly.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

We have to be reminded of it, we have to, it has to be uh reiterated, it has to be, you know, drilled down into us, it has to look different and be different, and then we have to follow it, obey it, and do it. So I'm looking forward to it. Congratulations on your books and all that uh he has in store for you because oh yeah, he's gonna send you in the highways and hedges to compel men and compel them. So thank you so much for being my guest. I greatly appreciate it. Pamlilly.org. Follow her with all the things that she's doing for the king and his kingdom. We'll be right back. Celebrate transportation from the skateboard to the motorcycle and the airplane to the rocket. Moving from one place to another, even to outer space. Let's go is the latest children's book, picture book, from Julia A. Royston. Let's go can be purchased at juliaroystonstore.com. JuliaRoystonStore.com. And we're back. Well, hello, I'm Dr. Julia Royston. Um, trusting that you're doing well today. Uh I'm always seeking to bring you people, places, things, information, and resources and tools to help you live your best life. And uh, we're getting ready to have not really a difficult conversation, but it's a subject matter that's always very, very important to people, but they usually don't like to talk about. They don't want nobody messing with their money. They don't want anybody um talking about um better ways to do X, Y, Z and A, B, C until they don't have enough money. So I have a guest today, and she's gonna explain uh who she is, tell us who she is, where she's from, and um give us kind of the backstory of exactly what she does, and then we're gonna jump on in. So if you have a friend or family member who needs help uh in this wild, tell them to jump on. But uh we're gonna have this conversation because it's necessary. Sometimes that you feel like people are stepping on your toes, getting out in your business. Yeah, that's what living your best life is about. For us to get better, we have to grow. We have to know, we have to uh investigate, we have to do our homework, we gotta see the things that can apply and things we need to get rid of and some things we need to add. So uh my guest will go ahead, introduce herself, tell us where she's from, and a little bit about what she does.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Royston, um, for that introduction. So my name is Natalia Reyes. I am a financial advisor at Baird and a certified financial planner, otherwise known as a CFP. Um I have been in the industry for three years, but I am a Louvalian born and raised here. Um my grandmother bought a house in Newburgh, and then my mother bought a house in Newburgh, and um, so that's where I was born and raised. So I graduated from the University of Louisville, where I received my degree in finance, and I began my career as a financial analyst at NTT Data Services, which is a consulting firm here in Louisville. Um, before I pursued my calling as a financial advisor with Baird. Um and in doing so, I obtained my certified financial planner designation. I'm also fully licensed with Series 7 and 66, and I'm health and life insurance certified in Kentucky. Um I'm also involved with many local organizations, um, including St. Margaret Mary Parish, where my daughter went to school, and I'm a board member of Gildas Club, which is a cancer support nonprofit. And I graduated from Sacred Heart Academy for high school.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Um, gotcha. Oh wow. Okay, okay. Um a lot of neighborhood uh connections because our neighbors behind us they were a member of St. Margaret Mary Parish, and I taught at Presentation Academy for 10 years as a librarian and computer teacher there. So uh we have a lot of the uh same connections. So I guess my first question is is there a difference between uh a financial planner and a financial advisor? Is that the same thing or is that a vast difference to the position and what that does?

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah, that's a great question. So um to be a financial advisor, you have to become registered, which that means you get your series seven and your series 66. That means you can give investment advice. Um, to be a certified financial planner, um, there's a little more coursework that goes in that gets involved into it. You have to take an eight-hour test and do 4,000 hours of strictly financial planning. So that's looking at behavioral finance, insurance, investments, retirement planning. Um, we do a lot of tax planning, we do a lot of estate and legacy planning as well. So it's a little more in-depth than maybe just a financial advisor advising on you know which stock or what allocation that you should be invested in.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Right, right, right. And and right now, I guess more importantly, um the uh really the financial planning is is um more because a lot of people maybe don't feel like they have enough money to invest, and they're like, I'm just trying to manage what I got and trying to see if there's anything to leave my kids uh once once they leave. Uh once I'm I'm gone on, as they say, gone on the glory. What am I gonna leave my my children and what that actually looks like? So um I realized that I'm gonna I'm gonna put this disclaimer out to the audience because I know when we have these conversations, everybody has individualized um situations. So we're talking in very, very general terms, and I know that that is the organization she's with is nationwide. So if you're in the U.S., um that you could possibly um communicate with either a local uh um office there, correct?

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Correct. We we have an office in the Louvre, but we are also nationwide.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Right. So uh we'll get that information in a minute. So I just want you to know that getting down into specifics, you actually need to make an appointment. You need to um go by their guidelines and their stipulations to actually work with them. Our the for the means of our conversation today are basically very general things that everyone can do to help get themselves into a better position um either financially or just to think about your money. I know that um before I married my husband, I've been married now 18 years, and one of the things that was really impressed upon me greatly is that I had to get a right relationship with money. How it's supposed to be used, how it's supposed to be handled. And yeah, I I was okay with playing paying bills, but I just wanted to entertain myself. Everything else, I wanted to shop with it, I wanted to, you know, go to the movies, take myself to dinner, I was single, you know, I would just I really wasn't thinking about a future. So one are one or two things to tell you that people really need to really switch their mindset, especially if they're young, if they're in their 20s and 30s when uh thinking about a general right relationship with money.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Yeah, so I think money is a very personal subject that um when I grew up no one wanted to talk about money, and that is still mainly the case, I think, to this day. Although I do feel like the younger population is being a little more open and honest about their financial situation. But just starting out, I think um there's two things, and uh they're not plugs at all, they're actual good pieces that you can take away from this. So you know, uh insurance is key to creating generational wealth. And when you're in your 20s and your 30s, you're generally not unhealthy, you're not sick. You know, I'm sure there there's definitely the exception out there. But you can purchase really cheap term insurance 20 bucks a month. Probably you probably get a half a million dollars for 20 bucks a month when you're in your early 20s. That is key. Because I I don't know about you, Dr. Royston, but I don't have generational wealth coming my way. When my parents pass away, you know, they maybe the house and my three brother, you know, will split it. But that's that's it. Um it's key to creating generational wealth in families of low economic stance, which we were when we were growing up. Um the death benefit is tax-free, and it can be a great way to invest money once you receive it. Um and I know a lot of people don't like thinking about it because you you know, nobody likes thinking about the end of life or when you know God calls us home, but it's important. Um the other thing is in order to be a good investor, the first thing you have to do is save. And I know that's so difficult with our very capitalistic society that um there's ads in your face every day, Instagram, Facebook, TV, radio, everywhere. Um and it's easy just to click the button and purchase something off of Amazon, easier than ever. But to be a good investor, you've got to save. And if you don't save, you won't be able to invest. And if you can't invest, you won't be able to receive a rate of return. And if you can't receive a rate of return, there's no compounding, which is there's a magical thing called compounding out there. And if you don't try to save let's say even 10%, our recommendation is usually 20% or 10% of your take-home pay. You can't participate in market returns, and market returns are so important as an inflation edge. We know that the cost of goods are going to increase every single year. A couple of years ago they increased uh well, we've been living through it exponentially. Um it's now starting to tamper down a little bit, but it's those types of things that you know when I was in my twenties, I probably wasn't thinking about investing. Actually, maybe COVID hit, and that's when I really started getting in the market prior to that. Obviously, I contributed to a work 401k, but you know, I didn't have a play money account. Um, I didn't have play money. So I just think you know, people don't want to hear about you know the saving piece of it, but that's real that really is key. It's it's not there's no magical, you know, silver bullet for anything.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

No, there's no option for it really, because you know, and people uh especially younger people when I was young, and that's how I got in credit card debt and credit card problems, you know, like, oh, I'll just put it on a card and I'll pay it later. But if your income is already limited of what you already have, and your income is already almost at the same as your bills, adding more debt to it is something that I had to learn. I'm not saying that I'm the greatest at it. My husband learned it earlier than me. Uh, he's much, much better at it than I am. But if you're already, you know, not having, you know, if you're not having three to five hundred dollars left over every month and you're it's getting closer to your bills, just basic, made just basic living, like food and and and rent and or mortgage and gas and keeping your lights on, and not to mention extras or cable or whatever else you do, and and having a major fancy car, just a regular hooky to just get around in, it is gonna be very difficult for you to pay off that debt because that interest is is moving every day, every month is compounding. That compounding is not just compounding interest uh, you know, for the good stuff, but that compounding interest for your debt is compounding as well. So having that ability to really have a right relationship with money, figuring out what your needs are, and yes, having insurance. We see online now. Another thing we see online besides buying stuff is GoFundMe and people needing help and reaching out and basically crowdfunding to be buried. So that really that insurance piece, uh, as they say, I don't need a financial advisor to tell me that's not a good thing. Um, to know that your um um finances and your uh end of life planning is not definitely not in order. And you don't have to be old to do that. You know, your people are dying at a different age at a different stage, you know. You see, oh 70 and 80, oh, they've lived a full life. 90 years old, 100. Oh my goodness, they lived a long time. But we're seeing people pass away in their 30s and 40s and uh 50s, because I'm in my 60s, so 50s is young to me. But um having that insurance and having that ability to um to really want to uh plan and prepare, and more than anything else, my husband's buzz buzzword is always be prepared. He always wants to be prepared and save to be prepared just in case it's that other side of insurance besides insurance is having a savings. So my next question is before people come and reach out to your uh organization, what mindset shift should they take? Like, you know, when I realized I had $12,000 in debt, and even with paying the minimum payments, it wasn't going down, I had to really change my mindset about spending, I had to change my thought processes about saving. Because I'm like, I'm never gonna get out of this debt. I went into panic mode, literally. So even before they come to you, what are one or two things that they really need to either mindset-wise or um preparation-wise, even before you meet with a financial planner or a financial advisor? What are a couple of things that they really need to do themselves to to you know before they even come to you or to your organization?

SPEAKER_00 43:25

So I think a a budget is key. Um, just to think about I like to think of it as a pie. So there's a finite amount of pieces to the pie. And let's say, you know, you take home $100 a week, you know, hopefully you're saving 20% of that. Now that's not really realistic in today's society with a lot of us because of the rising costs of housing, of commodities, of not even the discretionary spending, but our water bills are increasing every time and LGBT is always increasing the rates and it's um it's just a lot you know when you think you're getting out ahead of your car breaks down or something.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

You got it you got it.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

So it's it's so difficult. Um sometimes I think it's easier so before you even you know get your paycheck sometimes it's easier to withhold some money on your pay on your paycheck and so you can fill out what's a call a W4 and you know you can get it through your your employer and there are certain numbers and I would put a one or a two on there. Most people do zero so that means they withhold the lease so if you do more but they will withhold more and then you don't even see it. You don't even think oh I have money I can spend it. Um if they're any withheld well at the end of the year when you file your taxes they'll probably get a refund because they're withholding let's say too much. But you'll get a tax refund and you can use that to put in your savings. And that way you didn't think about it. It wasn't there available to you. Now I know when I was much younger and had a young daughter getting the nice really big tax refund, uh it was hard not to spend that.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

It was always good to have always I think I always wanted to buy a piece of furniture or go on vacation and I didn't need to do that every single year but I still wanted to. So it's just one of those things that I think out of sight, out of mind but in a good way like you're not thinking about oh well I need to take X percent of my paycheck and put it over here. Oh it's already been done for you. And so you don't have to think about it.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

And um so you know one of the one of the things I do kind of tricks me already is when money comes in I already have an automatic going to a savings account. I have an automatic withdrawal to to a a Roth IRA account and so I kind of do that. That's kind of my out of sight out of mind too as well besides the when I was still working a W W four uh I did the same thing. I used to like to when I was single I used to like to do zero. But when I got married I started doing the one because um I realized that that would help me long term and uh long range um you know to be be able to um to be able to do that and to really help myself at a much much um faster rate and the older I got especially in my 40s I really really realized okay you you're living longer. Oh are you going to be able to retire? Are you gonna be live on this and um really thinking about uh how your um finances are now and where you want to go and what your financial goals are so um I I really um think that I think that's one of the main reasons why I do these interviews and I really focus on that hard subject of money. Everybody wants to do their money like they want to do with it. But I also want you to be informed as much as possible and have that information. So with that being said if people want more specific information how can they contact you if you're in the Louis you're in the Kentucky area and then how can they contact on a national basis? So um our team or my team has a website we're at the famous group bearwealth.com so that's B-A-I-R-D or bear um you can also find me on LinkedIn reach out to me that way and on a national basis if you just go to bear.com our website will pull up um and you can find an advisor in your city in your state there's an advisor finder that way and you can find someone who is in your vicinity I highly recommend that you have that conversation and you schedule that appointment because there's nothing um more uh a reason to put your mind at ease to put your heart at ease than to actually know um there is one thing to oh I'll figure it out later oh I'll do it later but you need to know and you need to know now. My mother is 84 and she's got this full purple folder and all her information's in there and all her financial stuff is in there all her estate planning is in that purple folder. So she says if I die in my sleep that's the way my father died he just didn't wake up you all will know where everything is and so you I don't care if you're in your 20s I don't care if this is your first job the early you start the better it is and hopefully if you start early your amount to be able to deposit save and plan for can be less it can be manageable. But you need some advice you need people that are certified you need to talk to people that are educated about it and can help you maneuver and guide. It's like anything else if you're not a medical doctor you're gonna need a medical doctor if you fall down and break your arm. If you something wrong with your teeth you need to go get a dentist if if you need a therapist you need to go find one. If you need a coach you need to go find a coach that specializes in what your issue is and so I'm super excited to be able to bring someone who has financial planning financial advising advice so that they can walk you through that process someone that knows what it's like to not necessarily be born with a silver spoon oh I inherited millions no we working people over here we work every day and we understand we understand what that looks like and what that is like we know what bills are we know what a flat tire is we know we don't have maids we don't I don't I don't have maids I have to wash my own dishes and fold my own clothes but at the end of the day we have to treat our money whatever that it looks like whatever level that is seriously for your family for your future and your destiny thank you so much uh Mr. Talureas for being my guest today and uh give me that uh contact address one more time spell it out for the audience famous group dot bearb wealth dot com wonderful wonderful thank you so much for being my guest you be blessed and you take that information um to our listeners and please be in touch and reach out to them I'm Dr.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Julia Royce and praying today tomorrow and always that you live your best life each and every day love and live your way to your very best learn and lead today the best you can it's your life take a stance on live best life live your best life come on and live your best life with Dr.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Julia Royston Come on everybody it's time to praise the Lord come on the healthy praise alone praise the Lord come on everybody praise alone praise the Lord you got your mouth come on this is what I want you to do I don't think I don't think