The Arise with Anita Podcast
Welcome to Arise with Anita—the podcast for the woman becoming who she always was.
This is a space for the ambitious, heart-led woman ready to rise in identity, income, and impact—while honoring her healing, her vision, and her divine timing.
Hosted by Anita, transformational coach and founder of the H.E.R. Method, each episode delivers real talk, powerful reframes, and embodied wisdom for the woman building her next level from the inside out.
Inside you’ll find:
→ Solo episodes that break limiting patterns & ignite identity shifts
→ Guest conversations with thought leaders, healers, and experts across mindset, manifestation, wellness, business, and legacy
→ Soul-led strategy for money, purpose, and personal power
→ Raw, unfiltered insights that remind you: you’re not too late, and you’re not alone
This isn’t just about mindset.
It’s about becoming the version of you that already has the life you’re calling in.
This is your rise. Let’s Rise—together.
The Arise with Anita Podcast
You Are the Asset: How Compounding Energy, Faith & Money Creates Wealth | Curtis Ray
What if wealth wasn’t about hustle… but about compounding?
In this powerful episode of The Arise with Anita Podcast, transformational mindset coach Anita sits down with financial visionary Curtis Ray, creator of the MPI Strategy, to explore how wealth is built not just through money but through energy, mindset, faith, and identity.
Curtis shares his raw journey of losing everything, rebuilding from the ground up, and discovering why slow, steady compounding always wins—in finances, health, confidence, and life. This conversation is especially for women rebuilding after heartbreak, loss, divorce, or financial uncertainty.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why you are the greatest asset you’ll ever own
How compounding works in money, mindset, and energy
Why most people sabotage wealth without realizing it
The difference between wanting abundance vs. believing you deserve it
How to rebuild financial confidence after starting over
Why women must stop apologizing for learning about money
This isn’t just a conversation about finances—it’s a remembrance of your power.
Key takeaway: Wealth compounds when your decisions align with who you’re becoming.
📘 Free Gift from Curtis Ray
Text BOOK to 20500 to receive a free copy of Everyone Ends Up Poor (ebook + audiobook).
📲 Connect with Curtis Ray:
https://www.instagram.com/iamcurtisray/
https://www.youtube.com/@mpiunlimited
https://www.tiktok.com/@curtisray
https://www.instagram.com/mpiunlimited/
https://www.facebook.com/Mpiunlimited
https://x.com/alwaysbeCMPD
To learn about MPI:
https://compoundinterest.com
🌹 If this episode moved you, like, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a woman who’s rising into her next level.
You are not behind.
You are building momentum.
And consistency is divine.
If you felt something shift inside you today… hold that. Honor it.
This is how we rise — one choice, one voice, one brave breath at a time.
If you’re ready to go deeper, download your free ARISE Activation Workbook at www.arisewithanita.com
Email: Anita@arisewithanita.com
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Linkldn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-karadalian-girgis-23362b335/f
And if this message landed in your soul, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a woman who’s done playing small.
Because we don’t just rise alone — we rise together.
I’ll see you in the next episode. And until then… stay rising.
Welcome to the Rise with Anita podcast, the space where soulmate strategy and dreams are no longer optional. I'm your host, Anita Carolina Bergis, a transformational mindset coach and founder of the Herb Method. This show is for the woman who knows she's meant for more, who feels the call to rise higher, but sometimes feels trapped by her own stories, patterns, or circumstances. Here we don't just talk about growth, we embody it, we activate the woman inside of you, who reads, who creates, who claims her next level. You'll hear a mix of solo episodes for me and interviews with soul-driven leaders, the best in their fields, who live what they teach and rise by example. Each conversation is a callus for your next breakthrough. You're not broken, you're breaking through. Let's go ahead and rise together. Today's conversation is one for the woman, rising into her next level of wealth, alignment, and freedom. We're diving into the power of compounding, not just in money, but in energy, mindset, and faith with someone who's revolutionizing, excuse me, the way we build and protect our financial legacy. Curtis Ray is the creator of the MPI strategy, a fusion of innovation, mathematics, and purpose that's changing how we think about wealth creation. But today we're not just talking numbers, we're talking about vision, conviction, and the divine courage it takes to bring something new into the world, even when no one else can see it yet. So whenever you are, take a deep breath, soften your shoulders, and open your heart. Because today's episode isn't just a conversation about money. It's a remembrance of the fact that you are the asset and your energy compounds every day. So welcome to the show, Curtis. I am so excited to have you here.
Speaker 1:Super excited to be here also. Thank you, Anita.
Speaker:So before we dive in, I always like to start off with what is bringing you joy in this moment?
Speaker 1:My family brings me a lot of joy. I have five children. I suffer to have enjoyment with them. I I've taken down this journey that, you know, a little suffering actually can bring us happiness. And I get up at 4:30 almost every morning, and I'm not a morning person, but I get up at 4:30 every morning to run with my boys who run cross country. And then I try to play in volleyball turns with my daughter in the heat. And then my other daughter's a gymnast, and my other daughter's a does jujitsu, and I'm just like, I'm 44 years old and I'm beat up to heck. I'm always sore. I'm always tired. But that actually brings me fulfill, like fulfillment and joy to spend as much time with them as possible because they're growing up so fast. My oldest is now 20, and it's like, oh my goodness. I even told my wife the other day, I'm like, we should have dot some adopt some kids. We should let work. And then she's like, well, you know, what about uh what if we got surrogate? Because she can't have children anymore. And so it's like, what if we got a surrogate? So I'm like, yeah, let's have more kids.
Speaker:I mean, I remember when we met, you had mentioned how you were like, she wanted to stop at five, but if it was up to you, you would have just kept going.
Speaker 1:I just keep going. Uh, you know, I come from nine siblings, and so it's like five. Well, like we just started. I'm number four in my family, and I have five little brothers underneath me. So it's like, how could you just stop at five? But that's crazy, Tan. I was, you know, I I love the joke that I'm really, really good at two things in life, making money and making babies. And the babies take all my money, so I gotta keep making more money. It's a compound cycle, exactly never ending, uh, more like compound decay. It just keeps going away, it keeps going. But yeah, waking up with them and understanding, you know, it was nice because I'm in really, really good shape right now. And I hadn't been for like 20 years just because I'm working and raising a family and all that other stuff. And about two years ago, I went on the journey of getting into really good health, eating a little bit less sugar, trying to focus. You know, I'm not really extreme about anything. I'm I'm the bad old school mentality that I can outwork my diet. Meaning, I can just, I can eat whatever I want as long as I work harder and harder and harder. And and so it's like I'm always sore, but my son last week said something really cool to me. He goes, Dad, like you're in your peak. You're like more handsome now, you're more buffed now, you're more energetic now than you were 10 years ago, like in your 30s. Like, yeah, you're like totally peaking right now. Like, ah, yeah, let's go.
Speaker:So you have like a little bit of a back-handed compliment. I mean, leave it to your kids to be as honest as they can be with you, though.
Speaker 1:Seriously. It's uh I love them to death, and we're really, really close. And it's just, it's just nice to be in a financial position in my life after 20 years of building businesses and working hard, and that I can pretty much do whatever I want with my time. And that's what we ultimately want is just freedom of time. And a lot of people look at me and they go, Well, oh man, you're so lucky because you have so much time and you get to do this and that. And I'm like, Well, it took 21 years of a lot of freaking work to get here. And the goal is that we all eventually get there. And I'm lucky enough to say I got there in my 40s, and most people can get there in their 40s or 50s or 60s or whatever else, but as long as you just keep moving forward, you will eventually get there if you're making the right decisions today. But it is day in and day out, and I'll tell a story about how I got in shape. I I don't know if you want that right now or down the road, but wherever you want. Yeah, I'm a big believer, and why I like coming on these podcasts and stuff is that everyone has something that they can help someone else with. And I I run multiple businesses, I have uh almost a hundred employees. Like I'm doing all types of crazy things, and I'm I'm relatively I work really hard and think I'm I I pretty much I can be successful in most anything I put my mind to. But we all lack something and we're all not good at something. And the one one of the things I'm not very good at is getting up and doing something I don't like and continually doing it because I know it's in my best interest. Like I went gluten-free for four months and I'm like, I'd rather die. I'm never doing that again. Like I am never ever doing that again. It wasn't worth it. And my sister is like a super, super health nut, and she's just like, you need to cut out sugar, you need to cut out gluten. I'm like, I'd rather die. Like, no, no, no, no, I will, I will live my life, but it's so important that we all understand that you, me, everyone listening right now, you have something wherever you are that can affect someone else, either positively or negatively. And that is a that is a mantle that you carry, that's a responsibility you carry that when you're interacting with other people, that you got to understand that. And I struggle with doing things I don't like to do. I don't like to being told to do things, and I don't like doing things I don't like to do, like most people. But I know that it's good for you. And so for 20 years, I wrestled at Arizona State University. So I'm a I'm a collegiate athlete. Like it is go, go, go. It's a full-time job. I'm in the best shape of my life in my 20s, and life was like I was that guy. And then I get married and have some kids, and then I get soft and lazy and never work out and whatever else. And about I off and on, I'll like work out for two or three days and then nothing for a month, and then two or three days, and I'm sore, and so I don't want to go do it again because it hurts. And in that cycle for 20 years of trying to get a little bit and feeling a little bit better. And then one day I hired a coach from my son for cross-country, a private coach. He was to run with him twice a week, give him a schedule, lay the whole thing out. And I just said, you know what? Can you write me a schedule? Can you be my coach? And I'm like a 40 at the time, 43-year-old dude asking for a running coach to tell me, and I told him this I said, I am really good at just doing things. If if if there is something that I need to get done, I will get it done. So, what I need you to do is write me what I'm supposed to run Monday through Saturday. I'm gonna take Sunday off and tell me how far I'm supposed to run, how fast I'm supposed to run, when I'm supposed to run, how many push-ups, how many setups, everything. Tell me, but to exactness of what I'm supposed to do. And he's like, I can do that. And he's done that, and I pay him $75 a week, so about $300 a month. And he writes that for me and he follows up and we talk about and all stuff. And it's now going on almost two years, and I've not missed a single day. That's amazing. Two straight years. And so the thing is, if you're struggling at anything in life that you've tried to and you fail, and you tried to and you fell, whether it's an addiction or whether it's getting in shape or whether it's starting something or whatever that thing is, find someone who already has done it and they enjoy doing it. Like I don't really enjoy running, but that guy does. Nate does. So he enjoys it, so he doesn't mind helping me out. Find someone who enjoys doing what you want to do that you've just been unsuccessful with and go to them and ask them to help you with it or be your coach and give them a little, I don't know, 20 bucks a week, 50 bucks a week, whatever you know they want. And and then you have someone who's a key holds you accountable. And if you have someone who holds you accountable, all of a sudden it's really, really easy to accomplish some really awesome things.
Speaker:Amazing. And you basically just got the blueprint for whatever it is that you want to do.
Speaker 1:Anything in life. And now I know I just need to find someone who's does it already and enjoys doing it, so it's not a burden to them to help me do it.
Speaker:Beautiful. Especially when you think about how often we perhaps when it's a new identity or a new shift that we're making, you have that resistance, so that accountability protects like that external layer of like, okay, I have someone who enjoys talking about this. So I don't have to bore my mother or whoever it is about whatever it is I'm now passionate about. But it's that it gives life into the situation or to that new process, and you can apply that to your finances if you think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like hang out with runners now, and it's just like, oh my goodness, there's actually people who like to do this. This is so strange. And then one day I'm like, I like to do this. What the heck has happened? I'm like a runner now. I was always a wrestler, and I was a wrestler who ran sometimes. Now I'm a runner who wrestles sometimes.
Speaker:So you have a shift in identity. Now you identify as a runner.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, my kids make fun of me about that. Like, Dad, you like, it is your whole identity now. Like you dress like a runner, you walk like a runner, you're like, what races are this weekend? You know, and I had this, I had this crazy run on Saturday, and it scared me. Like my coach sent it to me and he goes, Here's your run. And I'm training for a half marathon in three weeks, and then a full marathon in three months. Nice. And I've never run a full marathon before. And the workout, and if anyone who runs is gonna know how hard this workout is, maybe other people are gonna be like, I don't understand it, but it was warm up for two miles, then you run four miles at a hard pace, like your 10k pace, like like you're going, like you're racing. Take a half mile jog, then a three-mile hard pace, half mile jog, two mile race pace, half mile jog, one mile race pace, one mile cooldown, and ends up being 16 miles. And I and I'm looking at this and I'm like, how do you run four miles at race pace and just take a five-minute break jogging and then a three-mile race and then two-mile race, then one mile? I'm like, I'm gonna die. I can't do it. I can't do it. And my coach is like, you'll be fine. You're gonna do it, and you'll do it just fine. And I'm like, okay, gotta trust the system, right? And uh, I completely crushed it. Like I I just like I murdered it. It was like it wasn't even close. I I like I beat all the times by like significant amounts, and I finished and I was like, it's so it's funny because I finished and the high school, another high school team was over in the field, and I go like this, I go, Yes! I all look at me and I'm like, some old man cheering myself on.
Speaker:Oh, I love this. So as you're doing that first like feat for you, what were the thoughts that were coming up? Did you have that moment of like as you're running where you had to proactively kind of stop yourself and be like, okay, no, I've this is what I'm told to do. I have to continue doing it, or did the thoughts of kind of creep in of like, oh man, it would be so good to just stop right here and like turn back.
Speaker 1:It gets so much worse than that. Because and I feel terrible saying this, but we're all gonna go through it. If you ever do anything great in your life, you're gonna have these moments of decision that you have to like you have to run through the wall. You have to just like plow it over. I am so, oh my goodness, I am so embarrassed not to run now because my sons are running, people are watching me, people are asking me how I'm doing all this stuff. And sometimes I just like, oh my goodness, this is such a hard lifestyle. I'm always hungry, I'm always thirsty, I'm always tired, like all the time. I mean, I ran, I ran 14 miles yesterday, eight in the morning, six in the evening, and then I'm just starving all through the day, all through the night. I'm starving right now. And sometimes I have the craziest thought. I go, oh man, I wish I'll just I wish I just got injured. Because then no one can get mad at me. I could stop running at least for a period of time because I'm injured. You can't you can't ever be like, oh, you have to run through an injury. That that's against the rules. But no, I don't want to be injured. That's so stupid to say something that like, why would I want to be injured? But there's some like runs that come up that I'm just like, oh my goodness, that scares me to death. Even the marathon, the marathon's coming up, and I tried to do a marathon last February, and I trained so hard for it. And I got pneumonia the week and a half before the marathon, and I go to the doctor on that Sunday, and the marathon's on Saturday, and I go to the ER or urgent care, and I go, I have a marathon. It's funny because I sat with the doctor and she does her little, you know, checking me out, looking at my ears, looking down my throat, all stuff, and she goes, You have a really, really bad case of pneumonia. Like, and I'm like, oh, and she's like, but it'll be fine. We'll get you some antibiotics, we'll do this and that, and and you just need to take it real easy over the next two or three weeks and it will go away. As long as you're like not running a marathon or something, you'll be fine. And I'm like, Well, I am actually running a marathon on Saturday. She's like, No, you are not. And I'm like, Yes, I am. And she goes, I'm gonna tell you right now, if you run this marathon, you could die. And I'm not overstating that. You actually could die. And I'm like, I've trained five months for this thing. I'm running the marathon. And she's like, Oh my goodness, stupid runners, man. Like, I'm gonna load you up on these three steroids and these two antibiotics and all this other stuff, but it's gonna make you feel achy and it's gonna be careful. And I said, here's the agreement I'll make. If I'm ever in the race and there's a moment in time where I feel like I'm actually hurting, I'm just gonna drop out. So I get to Saturday, I'm loaded up on antibiotics and steroids and all types of stuff, which just makes me feel like crap. And I'm not, you know, whatever. And I get to the starting line and I start the race, and I'm like, it's like mile three, mile five, mile seven, mile eight, and I'm feeling great. Like I'm like hitting my paces. I'm just like, I am crushing this. And then in between mile eight and nine, I take a step.
Speaker:That's the worst.
Speaker 1:I take a step and my calf tears. I tear the muscle in my calf. I've never been hurt mid-race. I don't even, I didn't even know you could get injured mid-race. That doesn't make sense, like running, you know, I'm not, I'm not sprinting or anything, so it's not like I pulled a hamstring. And I am now like, no, no, no, no, no, no. If I'm gonna drop out of this race, it's because of pneumonia, not because I hurt my calf muscle. Like that I've run so many times. What would cause me to? And so I'm like bulling through it, you know, thugging it out, and I get to mile 14 and I finally said, I can't do this. It is getting worse. It felt like a knife was just jabbing into my leg. And I drop out and I'm so embarrassed. I like waited till there's like this turn, and I like turned and like ran the other direction and hid because I didn't want anyone to see me. Then I dropped out of the race. I'm like, I'm so embarrassed. Then I call up my wife and I'm like, I need you to pick me up. And the marathon has a tracker, like a little avatar that you can watch the person running the whole thing. And so they're watching me and they're like, he's crushing it, he's doing great, whatever. And I'm like, I need you to pick me up. And she goes, Are you kidding me? And I felt like so sad, so embarrassed, so small. And being the just ran 14 miles, it's really cold, it's February, my leg is hurting, I'm sad, I'm disappointed, and she just tells me, Are you kidding me? How do I respond? Whatever, I'll freaking get an Uber home. I literally yelled at her and said, I'll get a freaking Uber home and hug up, and then but if you've ever been around a marathon, all the streets are closed. I am in just running shorts, no shirt, two armbands, and it's 55 degrees outside. I'm hot because I'm running, but within 10 minutes, I am freezing cold, and I can't get an Uber. And I'm just walking down the road super sad, like too prideful to call my wife. Like, come pick me up. So finally I got the third Uber. I said, I need you to drive around the 202, back down Val Vista, come south, pick me up here, and they finally got me there. But it's just always a fun experience that, like, there's those moments in time that you're gonna be faced with something, and I called up my coach that night, and I go, Maybe running just wasn't meant to be. And he goes, like the good coach he is, he goes, Shut up, like you'll be fine. Your leg will be fine in a week, like there'll always be another race. And I'm like, You're right. There's always another race. Like, why am I acting like a little baby right now? So now it's been 320 days since that day, and I got four months now, or however long, you know, I've I got three months now until that exact marathon. There's been other marathons, everyone's like, you should jump another marathon. I'm like, nope, I'm going after the one that conquered me. That is the one I am doing. And I may be a one and done marathon guy because it's just oh my goodness, marathon training since I will conquer that marathon on February 14th of 2026. Let's go.
Speaker:Let's go. I'm excited to see how that turns out for you. And I'm sure you're gonna do a kick-ass job this time.
Speaker 1:But now I gotta, I gotta get the mindset and the and the energy and the universe on my side because I have a slight thing in the back of my ear, PTSD, that says, what if you got injured during this race, also? No, no, get out of here, get out of here. Like, so even when like I consider myself a very like positive, abundant thinking, and we all have stress, we all have a little bit of PTSD, we all have a little bit of doubt, and that's normal. And so anyone who's going through that, that is normal. You just have to thug it through. You gotta push through it, you gotta break through those walls because the walls are there, and everyone has them, whether you're Elon Musk or Donald Trump or me or you or whomever, they all have a little bit of doubt and everything. But the ones who succeed are the ones who have the doubt and just run right through it. Say, nope, you're there, but I'm stronger than you are.
Speaker:It's the dance of the doubt, right?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker:I think one thing as you were speaking that really came up. And I just got back from New York, so I'm just I don't want to call it event high, but like I've been marinating after an event. And one thing one of the speakers had really hit home was sometimes we forget that the whole purpose of whatever it is that we're doing is actually the process. It's not the outcome. So it's finding that beauty of like the beauty in the becoming versus just, oh, I'm running to get the medal. But more so you're running to who are you becoming in that process of getting the medal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my best friend the other day, my son wrestled at the state wrestling meet, and you know, super nervous. He's a senior, he was going to go place in state, and he is putting a lot of pressure on himself. Like, I have to place in state, like I've put in so much time and effort, and everyone's watching me and all this other stuff. And my best friend actually said that. He goes, and and my son, if you know anything about wrestling, wrestlers are really, really weird. They cut weight. They like actually will lose 10 to 15 pounds the day before a wrestling match to wrestle in a different weight class. And it's the only sport in the world where we compete at our worst. Everyone else sleeps the best, they hydrate, their nutrition's on spot. Everyone's always trying to get in their best physical peak, mental everything before a competition. Wrestlers are in the absolute worst. They haven't slept, they've been training hard, they haven't eaten for two days, they're crazy dehydrated. And somehow we've convinced ourselves that's how we get on the mat and that's how we compete. Well, my son, he just he trains, he runs, he cuts weight 12, 13 pounds, and he does it like a champ. And I've never even told him to cut weight, he just chose it on his own and he just does everything just right and he never complains. And he just it was just so fascinating to watch him because I cut like five pounds and I'm whining, like, I'm so hungry, I'm so thirsty, I'm dying. And he's like doing 12 or 13 and he's got 5% body fat. And so he has nothing to lose already, and he does it. And my friend goes, make sure he understands that like it's just impressive what he's already doing, regardless of the outcome of what happens, because anything can happen at state. You could get injured, you can win, you could lose a random loss, an upset, whatever. But that he realizes, man, like the energy and the time and the discipline he put in to get to where he is, that in of itself is something to be valued and praised, and just really the awesomeness of that is. And so I, you know, I've kind of used that now for my running journey. Like I have a lot of goals to hit a sub-three-hour marathon, sub-18, 5K, you know, various other really big goals that not very many people my age do. And uh then I realized, like, man, I train a lot and I hit these, like, I do these crazy workouts, and people are watching people, and I'm like coaching people now and I'm helping them. And the journey itself is way more important and way more enjoyable than the actual outcome. Because the outcomes, I mean, it's just a sliver of time that you base everything you've done off that little tiny sliver of time that could go right, could go wrong, could go indifferent, whatever, when it really was never about that. It was literally the process itself is what should be enjoyed.
Speaker:Beautiful. So, gearing back, your story began after a major life shift. Can you take us back to that moment? What did it teach you about surrender and divine timing?
Speaker 1:Which part? What which which moment?
Speaker:After a major life shift. So a major life shift. Okay. A little bit of chaos, we could call it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me think. It all starts back in 2004, actually, before the MPI crazy chaos that I'll explain in a few minutes. But I believe that, like my wife sometimes says stuff like, oh, that was a bad decision, or that was a good decision, or that was and I'm like, I don't really know if there are good or bad decisions. There are just decisions. And even if the outcome of that decision ended up being negatively, there's so many things that could be taken from that decision that either make you be better in the future, make you avoid that mistake in the future, or builds and stuff like that. And so I think everyone should just be ready for to make decisions and then whatever the consequences are, learn from that and build upon that. And there's really it just all just keeps moving forward. And in 2004, I had this really cool decision I made, which got me all the way to here 20, 21 years later. But it was funny is that I was playing ping pong in my friend's basement. And his brother comes downstairs and he goes, Hey, we should start a granite countertop business. And up to that point, I'd never had a job before. I was a three-sport athlete. I wrestled at Arizona State, so I didn't have time to get you know work. I lived at my parents' house still, so I didn't have really have any expenses. And he goes, We should start a granite countertop business. And I'm like, Yeah, I just got my $9,000 scholarship check. I was the richest person I knew, man. I had $9,000 in the bank. Let's go. And I'm like, yeah, let's start a granite countertop business. What's granite? I had never met someone with granite. It was 2003 at the time because so granite wasn't we're ahead of the wave. Exactly. Granite wasn't popular everywhere. And so, you know, a lot of research and a lot of time and a lot of things put me on this entrepreneurial path that, like, I like to create things, I like to build things, I like to see them grow and bring value to other people. Money is the result, not the reason. And that's one thing I always tell people is like when you want to go into business or you want to do it, make money your result, not your reason. Because if it's your reason, you're compromised. You're gonna do things that may be shady, you'll always be chasing the next buck, you're gonna put yourself at risk. There's just so many things when money is the objective. But if you just say, no, making the best, bringing the best value to people is my reason. All of a sudden, money is your result. You just make a lot of money because you could bring value to people. So I go down this path and I end up starting a granite countertop business because it seemed like a really good business. I'm now a young kid. I'm 22 years old, 23 years old, running this business, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I've never had a job before. I knew nothing about money. I was just losing it, throwing it away, doing stupid investments, lending it to people, all types of crazy stuff. Because remember, I'm good at making money and babies. So, you know, the money just goes away so fast. So you just gotta make more money. But in 2014, someone convinced me to become their partner. I'd never had a partner up to that point and be 50-50 partners. And little did I know, there are some people with bad intentions in this world at the time. Like most people I'm around are nice people, they're good people. Yeah, we have some situations where you argue or whatever, but I never really experienced someone who purposely wanted to take advantage of people. Like that wasn't in my circle and my realm of business and all that other stuff, and end up doing a 50-50 partnership with someone only to find out that the intentions were to take the business from me, or partially those intentions. And ultimately, when someone has a lot of money and a lot of power and a lot of knowledge, it wasn't very hard for him to take my business from me. And 11 years of building or 10 years of building this amazing business that was doing seven-figure of revenue, some years even eight-figure, I end up with no money, no business. It was just a terrible moment to realize that after building this thing and seeing it, like you just created something and it turned into this awesome thing that was so beautiful. And someone just took it from me. I had a really, really hard day. And I think you were there when I told this story. It was Halloween night on in 2014. And I took my catch trick or trading and my wife, and and we got done about eight or nine o'clock. And I said, Hey, I need to, I need to take off. That day I had decided that I was going to just surrender. I was fighting him in court, and we were always just, you know, arguing all the time about this business. I decided I'm just gonna let it go, start fresh. Sometimes you just need to let things go. No matter how much emotional attachment you have to, you just let it go and start fresh. And that's a that's a clean way to just clear the slate and make it happen. And so that night I said, I'm just gonna let it go. And I felt like someone had died around me. Like I actually felt this pain in my soul that I rarely feel if I'd ever felt it up to that point. And uh and I also felt like I lost. I had never really felt that moment of just actual despair that I lost, I had nothing, and everything I knew was just gone. And so walked around the neighborhood for a while, got up that next morning, and it kind of went away. It just all went away because I remembered something. I remembered that it was never about the money. Money, you can make more money, but it was about the process. It was about building something awesome and seeing it grow. And yes, unfortunately, that that went away. So, what would I do to make myself feel happy and fulfilled and accomplished again? Build something. And I over my 10 years, I did lots of investments, and as I got older, I got better and better at them and less risk and less involved. But then I took the giant and risk of getting a 50-50 partner, and that just crushed me. But on that day I woke up and I said something. I said, you know what? The world has so many people that are going to try that are trying to sell us something or invest in this or do this, or here's how you make more money. And everyone's always trying to get us to buy into the idea of how we make more money. But it doesn't seem like anyone really cares about that. There's no voice of authority that says, once you make money, what do you do with that money? How do you protect it? How do you compound it? How do you make it so that you have a secure future and you're not living this roller coaster ups and downs that we all just have this? We love instant gratification, even while putting ourselves at risk. And so I'm going to become the world's expert, not how you make money, but how you keep money. And once you keep it, what do you do with it? And that is how you actually produce freedom, that is how you produce confidence, that is how you produce the things you actually want in life. Slow and steady actually wins the race in basically everything in life. And then so I went down, you know, that that I joke that it was about six to 10 hours of pain and suffering and despair, something I'd never felt before up to that point, even a little bit of depression. Like it was just like, what is going on? And I use that moment. And some people go, Well, wow, what a terrible day. That's got to be like the worst day of your life. And I go, no, it's probably like when I look back on it, it's one of the best days of my life. Like out of the ashes, something is born. And without those ashes, it couldn't have been born. Without going through that, it couldn't have happened. And so there aren't good or bad things that happen to us. There are just things that happen to us. And when we review them as just things that happen, they're just events that happen. And how we respond to what just happened is what actually makes us who we are and makes us either progressing going forward and you know, building our life or sulking and going backwards and worrying about things and then having anxiety about everything moving forward and all stuff. And so it's it's really changed my life that it's like there aren't really many things that bother me anymore. It's like, oh, it's just a thing. It just happened. I could lose all my wealth today. It happened. I'll rebuild it, you know, type thing. And I don't want to. I'm not I'm not manifesting that. I do not want to start over right now. But out of every bad thing that's happened in my life, I don't even look at them bad anymore. Everything's just a thing now. And when you can get your mindset thinking that events are just events, how we respond to those events is what actually is the is the good or the bad or the indifferent or whatever. And so I can control that. I can control how I respond. I can't control what's around me all the time. And so I am taking my a lot of my passion to money, finance, helping people understand that, hey, there are a lot of ways to make money, and we all need to make money. That's part of the equation. But once you start understanding how what to do with the money you make, that puts you on the path to confidence and freedom. And actually understanding that there is hope at the light at the end of the tunnel that there will be a day that you achieve that financial freedom, that elusive day where you get to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, because you've put in the good work and let the, you know, done all the right financial decisions you need to do in your life.
Speaker:Beautiful. And I think your answer really hits him on we have control over our reaction and our response and not necessarily what takes place in our life. Though, let's be honest, I teach and talk a lot about manifestation. So I think to an extent, we also have to acknowledge that we our decisions have a role in how or what we bring about. Obviously, we can't control everything because we're not God, but to an extent, you have control over what we bring about. And so I remember when I first heard your story thinking, wow, he literally went from I just lost everything to let me see how I can rebuild this again. And that's what I believe really shifts and makes you a part of what most people would consider like the 1%, right? It's that mentality of if I lose everything, it's not a problem, I'll just rebuild it. It's a thought process. It's not, oh, I'm gonna be at my downfall, and that's where we end. We're throwing up our hands and saying, God just doesn't want me successful. No, it's that mentality to pick yourself back up and be like, okay, what did I learn not to do this time? And let's go forward.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And it's funny because I was I was 33 when this happened, and I remember thinking, I'm 33, I'm too old. How am I gonna restart? I don't have the energy. Like, I'm already like, oh, like I just so much waste of time. And I now look back on that now. Oh, if I were only 33 again, if I could only be 33 again, how awesome that would be. But you know, there's just so many people, unfortunately, that, and one of my messages to the world is stop judging yourself so hard. Like, don't shame yourself. There are plenty of people in this world that are gonna try to shame you. Don't shame yourself for things you've already done. And I try to teach my I teach my kids this, I teach everyone around me this, that there is absolutely nothing you can do about something you already did. It's already happened. You can only do what happens today. And there's so many people who like, I'm in debt, and you know, the Dave Ramsey's of the world and stuff like that. Like, you're stupid. How dare you? Why did you do that? You know, and so many people carry debt, for example, and they actually feel shame. They actually feel like embarrassed about it. They don't want to talk to anyone about it, like, how could I do this? Or, or they did a bad investment, or they they or they did something like you could put tie it to anything in life. They're on a diet and they ate, you know, some chocolate cake behind the scenes, or you know, that there are just so many things that we can do, your relationships and all that other stuff. And we do something and we know it's wrong. We just did the wrong thing. And then they carry that with them for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years. Like, how could I do that? Oh, woe is me, shame is me, you know, the whole nine yards. And it's like, nope, it's already happened. Let it go. But make up for by doing good today. Like, there's plus and minuses in this world. And the goal is to have more pluses than minuses when you die. That's the person who wins the game of life, is every decision you make is either a plus, making your life better, moving you forward, making you happier, more fulfilled, progress, all that other stuff. And there's minuses, things we fight with our spouse, we do this, do that, whatever the negatives. And if you can get in your life where you start looking at individual events and decisions and stuff like that, was that a plus or a minus? And when you view it not as good or bad, but plus minus, did it bring me value? Did it bring those around me value, or did it actually lower my value or lower my life? Then all of a sudden it becomes a lot easier to make decisions. It's like, okay, I don't want to do that because it literally didn't bring me any value. It lowered my happiness, my fulfillment, all that other stuff in my life. So why would I do that? That doesn't make any sense. I would do that. And there's always all the problems we have, things that are tempting, and you know, the all the things that look very, very nice until you do them or you you partake in them, and then you're like, okay, that wasn't very cool, you know. And so I teach my kids very heavily like, don't carry anything with you from the past because you can't change it. But how do you make up for it? You add more pluses to it, you rebuild, you just keep moving forward, find things that bring you value and make you happier and help other people be happier. And then all of a sudden, you know, you make a lot less bad decisions when you're focused on what is good or what brings value to the to me and everyone around me.
Speaker:Beautiful answer. And I love that you brought that back to just how our outcome, outlook, not our outcome, but our outlook actually does impact our outcomes, essentially. And I think to your point, a lot of people tend to wrestle with shame and guilt and it's that stuck energy of being stuck on what they could have done, should have done, whatever, when all you can do is how do I change this moment going forward?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's already done. Let it go. Move on. Which is hard to do. It's that that's a hard thing to do for a lot of people.
Speaker:It's something you do need to do.
Speaker 1:Yep. And do it today. Do it today. Anyone listening right now, whatever you're carrying, let it go. Move on.
Speaker:Love it. Basically, like the let them theory that was popular earlier in the year. So, how would you say your early experiences with money, success, and loss shaped your beliefs about wealth as you were starting to build up MPI.
Speaker 1:My dad has worked really, really hard in his life. Like he is just a working person and he's never been attached to money. He's never let money drive any decisions he's ever made. I don't think he's ever been compromised with a money decision. He just does the decision he believes is best always. And so when I was growing up, I've never been attached to money either. Like someone wants to borrow my car, I let them borrow my car. My wife might say, but what if they wreck it? That literally never even crossed my mind. Like that, that idea of like, what if something bad happened because of the decision, you know, because you you helped someone or you lent something to someone, or I don't think like that because I've never been attached to money. What if mine is yours? And my house was this house with nine siblings, and friends would sleep on the trampoline, and then the friends are having a bad night. They'd come over and sleep on the couch, and everyone would come over to eat pizza, and and my mom would cook dinner every single Sunday for anyone in the world, you know, and it was just like it was always that way. I mean, I remember one time, this is the craziest story. Some guy that we don't even know that well, he was a mechanic and he like fixed my dad's truck one time, comes over and knocks on the door, and he goes, Hey man, I got to get to California this weekend and my car broke down. Do you have any Any car that you can lend me. My dad doesn't know this person yet one time, like fixing his car, and he's not even doesn't know him from anyone. And my dad's like, Of course, yeah, I got my truck. You can take my truck, just you know, try to bring it back by Monday because I got to go to work on Monday. So the guy has like four or five little kids. They're all like little, and you know, you can tell that this family had lived a rough life. Like they were rough around the edges. Well, he gets in this truck that's just a single bed truck. It's a pickup with four or five kids, husband and wife, and they're sitting on laps and whatever. This is, you know, in the 1990s, so seatbelts weren't really that big of a thing and whatever else. But like four or five kids just sitting randomly in this pickup truck. And he leaves like on a Friday to California. Well, Monday comes rolling around, guy doesn't show back up. It is like, I don't know the exact time frame because I was still maybe in my early teens at the time, but I'm gonna guess it was probably two years later that Kai comes driving up with my dad's truck, and it was completely thrashed. Like it was like throwing a rod, it was like completely broken. He's like, I'm so sorry, man. I got stuck in California, some jobs there, I this and that, and that. And there are no cell phones at the time, so like, how would you ever get a hold of him? And he brought it back two years later, broken, and gave the truck back to my dad. And my dad was just like totally chill about it. He was like, Okay, cool. Well, hopefully your family's doing great, you know, and so like I'm raised like that, where it's like all the time, and and and so that's been this this slight conflict in in my marriage, is like she grew up very mine is mine, and I grew up there is no one's is anyone's, like it's just it's the world, communal, community, exactly, and uh and so when I through all the things I've done in business in granite countertops, everyone in the world in 2004 wanted granite countertops, but it was very unaffordable. It was like costing $10,000 a kitchen on average. And how many people have $10,000? That was just free to go remodel your kitchen at the time. And I discovered that of that $10,000, about five or six, maybe more, seven even thousand of it was profit. And the job was actually only costing two or three thousand dollars, and the rest was profit. And so I started a granite countertop business and I came in like at five or six thousand dollars and made two or three thousand dollars on the kitchen rather than seven thousand dollars, and seemed like almost everyone could afford something like that. Like that, hey, I've been saving up, I want them all in my kitchen. It's only gonna cost me five grand to get luxury granite countertops. And I was like, why would you do that? I'm like, I'm making enough. Like it was never about gouging individual clients. Let's bring luxury and awesomeness and smiles to the world. And if I'm making still 40 or 50% margin, I'm still making healthy, solid margins, but cut the cost in half so that everyday Americans could afford a really luxury kitchen. And, you know, I'm that I'm that home remodeling nerd who's just like, oh no, uh, remodeling your kitchen will make you happy. Like there are very few, there are very few things in life that you'll walk into a house, everyone notices the countertops. They won't notice your flooring, they won't notice your furniture, they won't notice all the things you have around, but everyone walks up to the countertop and touches it. Especially at the time when no one had granite and you have granite in your house, that is like a pretty awesome thing. And to bring that to my neighbors and my friends and my family and everyone to a price point that they could afford it and not gouge on money, because money is just the thing, it's just a tool. It allowed me to expand this amazing granite countertop business to millions and millions of dollars. Well, when I had my, when I had my moment in time with finance, I was able to go into personal finance a little bit differently than everyone else that I've known. And that is what is absolutely best for the individual. I'm not even going to consider how much I make, what the agent makes, what the commissions are, any of that stuff. How do I build something that's good enough for me? And that's where I started. I said, I'm going to build a plan that's specifically for me and my family. And I don't give a crap about the financial advisor. I don't care what he makes, I'm going to build this thing. And so I started looking at all these financial strategies and stuff like that and realizing they're just laden with fees and commissions and this and that. And so I'm like, okay, this plan's pretty good, but what if we could knock off 70% of the commissions and 40% of the fees and this and then all the different things? What does that look like? And what if we could add this feature and benefit to it and add this and do this and manipulate it where now it's in favor of me and not them? And after a couple years, we discovered that we could build some really amazing strategies that were just undercutting basically the financial advising community, saying, Hey, you don't need to make all this money. The client, the individual, should be making the money, and whatever you make is just the result of you providing the absolute best for your client. And if you do that, then you'll get more clients and it'll end up evening outing out. Yeah. And so I start talking about this openly to the community, the in the industry, and everyone hated me for it. It was so crazy. Like we have to eat two. It's a it's got to be a win-win. No, no, no, no. This is personal finance. There's no win-win here. This is they win, and because they win, you win. That's there's no you divide it in half. Okay, I need enough fees so that my family eats two, and and then you get the remaining. No, that's not how it works. You give them the absolute best, and then you get referrals and word of mouth, and you're expanding, and you get more clients, and you grow your business, and life is great. And so I came into it because of I wonder simply because of my dad's influence that money is just a tool, have no attachment to it, do what's absolutely best for everyone always, and never be compromised in a decision because of money. Then all of a sudden, it's really easy just make the right service, bring the right value to people. And whatever the result is is what is it was going to be anyway. And so when we started building all these strategies, we built some really, really cool things. And we can talk about that in a second. But it was just like it surprised me how many people disliked what I was doing on the sole fact of let's make our clients the number one focus. And then whatever the result is, is the result on how much we get paid. And people started like, watch out, watch out for Curtis. He's a liar, he's gonna lie to you, he's gonna deceive you, he's gonna trick you, he's gonna do this and that. And I'm like, well, let the math tell the story, let the numbers tell the story. Here's my plan, here's all the things that it does, here's all the results that are projected to do, and the fees and then commissions, and here's your plan, which totally freaking sucks. Let them choose which one it is. And that's worked out very well because you know, there are a lot of plans out there, and and it's crazy. And I'm gonna I'm gonna disclose something that I don't want anyone to feel like this is a flex or anything. It's just it's more that if you do right, it's really easy to grow business. If you bring the right value to people, it's really easy to grow a business. And, you know, on the average client that I have, maybe, maybe I'll make $1,500 on them or something like that. And a normal financial advisor will make $30,000, $50,000, $100,000 over the life of the plan over 20 or 30 years. They literally make that much money off of it. And I'm making like $1,500 sometimes, and it's like, everyone's like, why would you do that? How do how do you survive? And I'm like, well, they've got four clients, and I have 2,000 clients a year. So if you take 2,000 times 1,500, I'm fine. Like I make enough money, life's okay. Where they always have to make more and more because they don't get enough clients, because whatever else. And uh, and so I took this because the financial industry really they just did not like what I was saying, and they're just opposed to it and making up stories and filing fake complaints and all this other stuff, everything I was doing. So I decided to take my I decided to take my message directly to the public. And I took it to TikTok, and that's what's a fun story is that I opened up a TikTok in early 2020, back before TikTok was even that cool.
Speaker:And Divine Intervention was the dancing video era, exactly.
Speaker 1:And my my my marketing manager, his name was Xander, really real big visionary. Like he saw things I couldn't see, and that was his talent, and he brought it to us. You know, you got to have someone who's better at it and enjoys doing it. And he came to me and goes, Curtis, we're gonna start a TikTok channel. And I'm like, what the heck is TikTok? Like, and he's like, you know, that one platform. I'm like, well, I don't dance. Like, I'm like as white as you can possibly be. I like have no rhythm at all. I can't sing, I'm the worst. I I can't get on camera. Like, that's not how this is gonna work. He's like, we're gonna be the first ones to bring personal finance to online where we're gonna give short little awesome clips to the world and let them digest it how they want to. I'm like, okay. And Xander was my coach at the time. He's like, we're gonna do three videos a day, every single day. Every single day about what? He's like, we'll just make it up. And then we're going to let the public ask you questions, and then you're gonna make videos on the questions they ask. Because what better way to get marketing and your word out there than answering questions that are actually in people's minds? And so, if anyone's seen any of my videos on TikTok, Xander would knock on the door like this, and then he'd open the door, he'd say, Hey Curtis, I got a question for you. And then he'd ask the question of what someone actually in the world asked me. And so we started doing that, and we were famous, and I'd have this whiteboard and it's right there, and I would go draw on it, like whatever someone had asked, and then I'd put the numbers up there and write on there, and I became the whiteboard guy. And I, you know, I ended up like in like 10 months having 250,000 followers on TikTok. And I got blue check verified, you know, real verification, like I didn't have to pay for it or anything. It was like true verification. And this was this big moment in time. Like, I'm verified. I have 250,000 followers that believe in my message of slow and steady wins this race. Just make good decisions. You don't need any home runs as long as you never strike out. Just let the power of compounding keep working your life where you're doing a bunch of little good things and all of them add up together, and that is how you end up winning the game of life and all that stuff. And the public really, really embraced me. And I'm on this podcast, and this is where manifestation and believing you deserve actually plays a humongous role in this game. There are things that you have to do to accomplish your goals, you just have to put in the work. But nothing will get you faster there than this moment in time, which is very rare. I've felt it very rarely in my life. And everyone thinks they feel it until they actually feel it, and then they realize holy crap, that's on a different level. Everyone in the world wants stuff. I want this, I'm gonna work hard for this. I want. But the moment you believe you deserve is a feeling that is very hard to accomplish. It is the rarest of all feelings. And you even have to be a little bit delusional. Like, because to believe you deserve something, that word deserve is such a weird word. Like, who really deserves anything? Like, like we're just all just kind of creatures on this planet, right? And those who believe they deserve are the ones who end up being the Elon Musks and all the billionaires and the super successfuls and stuff like that. And I even believe that the universe doesn't even judge you. I don't even know if God judges you necessarily when it comes to blessings on good or bad, because I know a lot of bad people who do bad things that have everything they've ever wanted and they continue to get what they want because they believe they deserve it. Their brain is slightly manipulated where they're just like, I want that. And then all of a sudden it just comes to them. This law of attraction, the law of um, what's it? Someone in Golden Ticket the other day said, the law of not attraction, but the law of assumption. The law of assumption. I said I was gonna go read up on that because it's he says it's it's above the law of attraction, assuming you're gonna get something before it even happens. The the assumption's already been made. You already believe you deserve it, and then it has to come. It is inevitable. The universe has to give you if you actually believe you deserve it. And so I'm on this podcast, and this has happened to me a few times in my life. And it's this channel of energy that's the highest of all energies, the highest of all abundance, because it's the abundance energy. And the abundance energy is for those who 100% believe they deserve it. And maybe you don't 100% believe you deserve it, but you can get in and out of it, like you. You fall into it for a second, and you get something really cool and you taste it, and you're like, I want more of that. And I go in and out of it, and I consider myself a super abundant thinking, but sometimes like the world gets to you, and people tell you that you're not as cool as you think you are, and people are always trying to beat you up. And but every time, every now and then I'm in it, and I'm like, I am on fire, like nothing can stop me. And then all these things just come to me, and I it just happens because I believed I deserved it. But I was on this podcast, it was December 17th of 2020, and I just got 250,000 followers and I just got blue checks verified. And I'm I'm on with Hakeem Valles, who's an NFL football player, and he was still active in the NFL, but he was doing this podcast because he also had a marketing company. And the podcast was Don't Sleep on TikTok. At the time, TikTok was still like, oh, it's just TikTok. Maybe there were 80 million users worldwide, like it wasn't even that big of a platform, but it was like becoming addicting, like you know, the days where you'd scroll on it for two hours.
Speaker:Especially in the middle of 2020 when that you had nothing to do.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Everyone's in their houses, everyone's shut down and all stuff. And Hakeem said, How did you get 250,000 followers on a message of slow and steady, boring retirement planning? Like you're not even go invest and make a billion dollars. You're like, hey, go save some money, and in 20 years you'll be super happy you did. Like, it's such a boring story. And I go, because I believed I deserved it, I found a way to convince myself that I actually deserved it. I assumed anything I wanted would come to me. And in this moment of time for about a year, year and a half, every time I said I wanted something, it was just right behind it. And it just happened. You've got to be prepared for that moment because for every, there's always a contrast in energies. For how high it is up here, equal fight down here happened. I had something amazing happen. Dave Ramsey does a podcast about me calling me the number one scam artist in the country. I had something amazing happen. Group of financial advisors filed a formal complaint nationwide against me that I was running a Ponzi scheme. Like just frivolous, fake things were happening. Every good, there was equal bad behind it. But I was willing to accept that. And so Hakeem goes, No, there has to be more than that. I'm like, well, I put in a lot of work and I have awesome products and I offer awesome services to my clients and all stuff. But I'll tell you, I have 250,000 followers on TikTok because I literally told the universe I deserve 250,000 followers on TikTok. And I want a viral video. All I had to say is I had to believe, okay, I'm gonna make a viral video right now. And then I go make a video and it's viral. And they're like, how do you keep doing that? And I'm like, we put in the work, we make great content, we bring great information to the public, and I believe I deserve it. And it just happens. He goes, I don't really believe that's what drove it. I think it's your work ethic. I'm like, watch, I'll do it again. I will have one million followers on my TikTok by my birthday. And my birthday was June 7th. So I had six months. I was 10 months into getting to 250, and now I had six months to go from 250 to 1 million. And he goes, Bet. I'm like, there's no way you can make that happen. And I'm like, it will happen. And I already 100% know it's happened because I already feel it. Like I've already said it, and I actually believed it was gonna happen in my soul, and so it will happen. I swear to you, this is the exact chronological timeline that happened. I got off that podcast. It's about 10 05 in the morning. I went and made a video with Xander. Hey Curtis, someone wants to buy a house. What advice do you give them? Don't put a down payment on that house if you don't have to. Always do the smallest. Then I run over to the whiteboard, I do this thing about compound interest on how your money needs to be compounding for you, not the bank. Never put a big down payment on a house. That's what the bank wants you to do. That's why they incentivize you to do that. But it's a terrible financial decision. You are losing out on millions and millions and millions of dollars if you put a 20% down payment on a house. That was the whole video. 30 minutes later, I open up my TikTok and there's the notifications down below. And it says 31,000, and I go, and it was 31,000 hearts, and I'm like, that has to be an error. So I clicked on it, and my video had 31,000 likes on it in 30 minutes, and I had 10,000 new followers in that 30 minutes, and it had like 1 million views already in that in that first 30 minutes, and I was like, what the heck is going on? This is awesome. But viral videos happen like that all the time, and you know, they die off in a couple hours or whatever else. This one didn't die for three days, it was one million views, two million views, four million views, six million views, ten million views, fifteen million views, twenty million views, got to twenty six million views in three days. That was December 17th when we made that video. I had a million followers on my TikTok by Christmas morning. It took eight days from that time frame. We joked that it was a Christmas miracle because I was I was like refreshing over and over and over because I'm at 995, 996, 998, and it was I'm just scrolling. Oh, yeah, I know. I had a counter on my back wall in my office, and it was just going like this. And you know, my wife hates when I say this, but I I say it jokingly, but there's some truth in every joke, right? I would stay up, I would just not leave the office, and I would just watch that counter, and it was like the craziest thing ever because it was it was more than followers, it was validation, it was abundance, it was things that were telling me that what I was doing was right and that the someone had my back, and the law of everything was on my side on that day, and I was just watching it, and it's like two or three in the morning, and I'm just watching this counter 270,000. 290,000, 300,000, 305,000, 310,000, and it's just going. And I'm just like, my wife's like, are you ever coming home? I'm like, nah, I just, I just got to remember this moment because it, and I joke that that week was the single happiest week I've ever experienced in my life. And everyone's like, Well, what about your wedding? What about the birth of your children? What about not even close? It and I know that sounds terrible, but not even close. Because for imagine a dopamine hit that didn't go away for a week. It was 24-7 just hitting me over and over and over. Like, there's a lot of things that you're super excited about, right? Like your baseball team wins, you're a Dodgers fan, and then you're super, but the next day it's gone. This was a full week of 24-7 just hitting me, hitting me, just like non-stop. And the validation and the abundance and the belief and the it worked. I believed it and it happened. And so I joked, that was the happiest moment of my life, the happiest week of my life. And you know, I fully expect to have high happy weeks in that. But to date, that's probably actually the happiest week of my life because it was just pure. There was nothing wrong with it. That whole week was just everything from my company to the employees to Xander to me to my kids watching it to replying to the tens of thousands of comments and messages. Everything was just abundant in that week. There was nothing that went wrong in that week, and then it ended on Christmas. What a Christmas miracle! You know, the whole thing was just awesome. And so I actually believe if everyone who's listening right now, if there's something that you want, you have to somehow, and I don't even know how to coach it, I don't even know how to say it. Maybe some books can teach you how this, you've got to get where you believe you actually deserve. And that is different than want. Hakeem Vise ended up calling me later that week and said, What did you do? You sold your soul to the devil, my guy. And I go, No, I did one better than that. I believed I deserved. Like I was actually found myself in this channel of abundance, and I stayed in that channel for the next six months. Like I had probably 75 viral videos in the next six months. My TikTok channel got up to 1.6 million. It was just this, you know, tens of thousands of clients coming in. Like it changed my whole life. Like everything about my life up to this point, like the biggest influence was that one week on far as my wealth, my my belief in myself, my, you know, what I teach my kids about money, the world, the world hearing my story, believing in my story, embracing my story. And it's pretty magical. You know, I hope everyone gets to experience something like that in their life.
Speaker:Wow, that was such a beautiful kind of way to wrap the episode because I don't want to take up too much of your time. However, I do have a question, well, a few questions left before we hit it into our propagating prior. You've said that the universe operates in math and energy. How would that awareness shift of your view of trusting the process kind of in tying with that story you just shared?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it always works out. Don't let anything stress you out. Like stress is this made-up thing, like we just somehow figured it out how to make our lives worse. If you're making decisions that you believe are good, and like I said earlier, you don't, the universe does not need a home run, doesn't even expect it. The world is compounding, and that what that means is the universe is expanding, everything is growing, the natural order of everything is just to grow and it wants to grow and it wants to give you something. The universe wants to bless you, it wants, it has no shame, it has nothing, doesn't care about anything you've ever done. All it wants to do is bless and bring value to I 100% believe that at this point in time. And the key to that is understanding that just stop going backwards. Whether it's your relationship that you're in, find ways to not go backwards. I mean, and no big fights, like find things, stop arguing about things if your health is your concern. Then find ways to drink a little bit more water, sleep a little bit more better, eat a little bit less sugar, whatever. But little things. Find things that you can actually accomplish in your life. If it's, I'm gonna go work out for two hours a day and run a marathon tomorrow, don't make goals like that. That that will eventually maybe be your goal in two years. It's my goal now, but it should be little tiny decisions you can make today that you know you can accomplish. And do that one thing. Just do one thing today that you know you can accomplish. And then after a week, you're like, okay, I got that down. I'm pretty good. Now add a second thing to it that you know you can accomplish, nothing big. And then all of a sudden you're doing five or six really good things on a certain part of your life or your business or your health or your relationships or whatever. And then in six months you realize, holy crap, now you see the power of compounding happen. And all compounding is little good decisions made over and over and over without going backwards. And if you can find that in your life, there will be nothing, does not matter what you think you want in your life. There will be nothing more influential and powerful in your life than the power of compounding. Slow and steady, simple good decisions over and over will bring you more value than anything else.
Speaker:Beautiful. And lastly, as women, many of us experience reinvention after heartbreak or loss. What would you say to a woman rebuilding her financial or personal foundation right now?
Speaker 1:Start today. Don't start tomorrow because we all have anxiety and we all have fear that, you know, maybe you're recently divorced or maybe you're, you know, whatever the scenario might be, that start saving a little bit of money today, even if it's one dollar a day, and put it away. Because what that does is build confidence. It builds goals, it builds momentum. That's what we all need is momentum. You just got to get started. And then naturally the momentum gets faster and faster and faster as time goes on. So I'm what I want to do, I have this book next to me. I want to give everyone a free copy if they like it, because I would like you to read this book. Everyone who hasn't read this book, read it. It's literally called Everyone Ends Up Poor. And I go through it. It's only a hundred pages. It takes three hours to read. And I believe, especially those, there's a whole chapter, chapter six, I think you read it, the woman poverty crisis talks about that one subject, but it's about the simplicity of money, the simplicity of compound interest that everyone in the world is trying to tell you that money is complicated. Everyone's trying to tell you that you got to go be a super smart investor and you got to go have 27 rentals and you got to go buy an RV park and you got to do all the different things that are really hard to do. Some people can do them, and it does accelerate wealth faster. But there is a guaranteed way to wealth. And there's a guaranteed way to confidence, there's a guaranteed way that you can sleep well at night, guaranteed way of generational wealth. You know your kids will never ever go through anything that maybe you're suffering through. And that is called compound interest. Money making money, making money at a faster rate as time goes on. And so if you would like a free copy of this, read it, reach out to me, let me know what you think about it, if it brought you value. But how you get a free copy is text me the word book. B-O-O-K. Super simple. It's just a text message. Grab your phone in the message, write book, and send it to the phone number 20500 2500. 20500, it will automatically send you the e-book and audio book free of charge. Go read it. I give all my information, all my knowledge, all my time free of charge to anyone. And if you have any personal situations where you're like, I have an important decision to make. I need to, or whatever your situation is, I do allow people like I answer all my own DMs and emails. So if you'd like to reach out to me directly on Instagram, it's I am Curtis Ray. You'll see me there, you'll see my blue check mark, my face. Hopefully you recognize me at this point. But I am Curtis Ray. And I just want to help people understand. I've I've had so many blessings and opportunities in my life that I'm now in a point in my life where I don't, I get to use my time for whatever I want to be. And so I allow people just to reach out to me anytime they want. All my knowledge, all my time, all my energy is available to anyone who just asks for it. But when you do ask, act upon it. Slow and steady wins. I'm never gonna tell you do anything that's that's too hard. It's like, hey, go save a dollar today. Every day. Let's get $30 in your savings account at the end of this month. And then we're gonna double it. Then we're gonna do $2, and then $4 and $8, and whatever we got to do. And eventually you're gonna find yourself in a very good position. And you will look back from the moment you made that first step, whether it's today like I want you to, or maybe you'll delay it a week or a month or a year. Hopefully not. Let's start today. You will look back on that day like I look back on December 17th. I know that date. I talk about it, I think about it. Every time it happens, I have an anniversary. My parents' wedding anniversary is on December 17th. And so it's like, congratulations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm really thinking in my heart, no, this is my anniversary. This is my anniversary. But you will remember that day for the rest of your life and you will think back and say, that was the single most important day of my life. And financial freedom is the pinnacle of all freedoms because you can't have all the other freedoms: freedom of time, freedom of relationship, freedom of all that stuff. If you aren't in well with your money, because if you're struggling with debt and all that other stuff, it is unfortunately a double-edged sword. You've got to make money a priority and it's got to be part of your life and your wealth mindset. And if you do that, you will have your special day and look back and say, single most important day of my life.
Speaker:Beautiful. So I always end off the podcast with a quick rapid fire round. So think one-word answers to one sentence answers, and this should be fun. So, what does legacy mean to you in one word?
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean, the first thing I thought is my children. How well do I raise my children? I want them to be great human beings.
Speaker:Beautiful. A book that changed your mindset around wealth?
Speaker 1:The richest man in Babylon, the single most important book you can read outside of this book. No, it's better than my book. I'm like, if I was in school as richest man in Babylon.
Speaker:What is your favorite daily ritual for success?
Speaker 1:I go running.
Speaker:Your personal definition of freedom.
Speaker 1:Do what I want, what I want, with whom I want.
Speaker:A book that sorry. One word that actually describes your current season.
Speaker 1:Freedom.
Speaker:A song that instantly lifts your mood. It can be cheesy.
Speaker 1:Golden. I love that song. You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker:Slightly, yes.
Speaker 1:Golden off of the K-pop, K-pop demon slayers.
Speaker:The best advice you've ever received in a single sentence.
Speaker 1:Make money your result, not your reason.
Speaker:Love it. And what's one thing you want women to stop apologizing for?
Speaker 1:Learning about money. They often just let the man do it and they think they're too stupid or not smart enough or I'm not good at math. No, you make money a priority in your life.
Speaker:Beautiful. So what if the way we think about wealth isn't about accumulation but expansion of trust, of impact, and peace? Curtis reminded us today that compounding isn't just a financial law, it's a spiritual one. Every small choice we've made to show up, to heal, to save, to believe multiplies. So to every woman listening, you are not behind. You're building momentum and consistency is divine. Until next time, remember, you are the architect of your abundance, the keeper of your legacy, and the embodiment of rising wealth with grace. Thank you for tuning in. Keep healing, keep embodying, and keep rising. Until next time. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'm so appreciative of you, Curtis. And I really enjoyed our conversation and just how you were able to bridge the gap between not only mindset in life, but mindset in accumulation of wealth. I think you did such a beautiful job.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Anything you need, let me know.
Speaker:Absolutely. Well, thank you guys. If you liked this episode, please go ahead and like and subscribe. Leave a review down below. And if you really enjoyed the conversation, feel free to share it on your socials, tag us, and let us know what you thought of this conversation and what takeaways you had. And until next time, that's all for now. Welcome back, beautiful souls, to another episode of the Rise with Anita podcast, where we are bridging the sacred and the strategic, the heart and the hustle, the divine and the dollars. Today's conversation is one for the woman rising into her next level of wealth, alignment, and freedom. We're diving into the power of compounding, not just in money, but in energy, mindset, and faith with someone who's revolutionizing the way we build and protect our financial legacy. Curtis Ray is the creator of NPI Strategy, a fusion of innovation, mathematics, and purpose that's changing how we think about wealth creation. But today we're not just talking about numbers, we're talking about vision, conviction, and the divine courage it takes to bring something new into the world, even when no one else can see it just yet. So wherever you are, take a deep breath, soften your shoulders, and open your heart. Because this isn't just a conversation about money. It's a remembrance of who you are and that you are an asset and your energy compounds every day. Welcome to the show, Curtis. I am so excited to have you here. Thank you for rising with me today. If this episode moved you, share it, tag me at Arise with Anita, and make sure to subscribe so you never miss a future activation. And if you feel called, leave a quick review. It helps more women find the space and rise into their power. Your next level is already waiting. Now go claim it. I'll see you in the next episode.