The Biggest Wealth Transfer Mistake Families Are Making | Albert Butler - Ep 22

What if everything you've been taught about money is incomplete?

In this unforgettable conversation, CPA, entrepreneur and leadership expert Albert Butler explains why purpose not money is the true foundation of wealth.

Together we explore accountability, generational wealth, entrepreneurship, AI, family leadership, faith, financial literacy and why the greatest inheritance you can leave isn't money, it's wisdom.

This isn't just another finance podcast.

It's a conversation about becoming the person capable of changing your family tree

CHAPTERS

00:00 Where Are The Men?

02:26 Meet Albert Butler

03:45 Why Money Creates Clarity

06:19 Four Generations From Zero

10:57 The Five Muscles of Enterprise

13:19 Looking Yourself In The Mirror

17:22 Why Money Is Just A Tool

20:34 Signal vs Noise

24:08 Purpose Before Profit

26:00 Be The Bamboo

29:40 Your Circle Determines Your Future

34:30 Write Your Dreams Down

37:51 Why Families Sell Their Legacy

45:00 The Biggest Wealth Transfer In History

48:08 Build AI — Don't Just Use It

56:22 Saving Families

1:05:37 Financial Illiteracy Costs Everything

#SenseOnlyPodcast #Legacy #Purpose #GenerationalWealth #Leadership #Mindset #Entrepreneurship #FinancialLiteracy #eyl #earnyourleisure #daveramsey #ramseysolutions #19keys #AliciaLyttle

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

Where are the men?

SPEAKER_07 0:05

Because every other group has their men. I need other men to stand shoulder and shoulder with me to protect what God has blessed and given us. I am just like you tired of the deliberate manipulation of my people. If you don't champion this AI effort and be not just someone who uses it, you need to be the one building it. You know who's going to win in the next 10 to 20 years? The thinkers, the creators, the innovators, the philosophers, not the ones who can tinker through function. If the five people that are in your circle are not moving with a mindset like you have, you need to move and change your circle.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

100%.

SPEAKER_07 0:57

You have to. Because if you saw yourself in that circle, that's bad soil. Look at your circle and see how much of these people around me, how much have they moved over the past five to ten years? If they're in the same space where they were five years ago, ten years ago, you really might want to challenge that circle even more. So if you're in the same space that you were five years, ten years ago, what are you doing with your time?

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Greetings and salutations, ammonisha mornings, and this is the sense only podcast. This podcast is for those who are tired of the noise, distraction, and disconnection in the world. It's for those who know that we need to be the change that we want to see in the world today. You see, I'm not on my sense, I'm outside again, and um I'm in Atlanta again specifically. Today, I have a wonderful guest who reached out to me to come onto the show, and he received the call and basically stepped into it. And when he told me his story, I was like, Yes, we definitely need you on the show. Yes, the people need to know what you're doing and what you're offering. And here we are, and I've welcomed him onto the show. And I'm so glad he's here. I'm over the moon. I'm happy to introduce to you Mr. Albert Butter.

SPEAKER_07 2:26

Alicia, thank you so much. Wonderful introduction. I'm very excited. One, not just to meet you, but to be able to sit on the couch across from you to have a conversation that I think that your audience will find multiple different stories, tools they can add to their toolkit to help them become a better person than what they were yesterday. All of the work that I do is directly connected with that. So I'm super excited. I think we're gonna have a great time today.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Amazing. And on that note, please introduce yourself and tell them specifically what it is you do.

SPEAKER_07 3:02

Well, just to tell the world, yeah, my name is Albert Butler. I'm a CPA, I'm a certified public accountant here in the States. Where that really means that I help people find clarity in their numbers. From the smallest and small of an organization to the largest or larger corporate organization, I work directly, not just with companies, but also with individuals. I truly believe that accounting is the heartbeat of business, but it's also the key to personal finance success. That when you know your numbers, you have clarity. And when you have clarity, you can make decisions. And those decisions can help dictate your success or your failure. So, in every aspect of it, knowing your numbers is very, very powerful.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Okay, amazing. Do you want to expand on that, especially in the realm of family? Because I know you're a family man, so and you know, in terms of our community, you know, globally, not just you know, yourselves as Americans or me as a British Caribbean person, but us, how we shop, because I guess our numbers are showing up differently to I guess other races and you know different people in the world. I think we we have an individual story, you know, there's a nuance in our story if you agree or disagree.

SPEAKER_07 4:19

No, I definitely agree. The nuance is powerful inside of our story. This is the conversation that doesn't happen at the kitchen table. And historically it hasn't happened, which means that historically you have generation after generation walking into adulthood, ignorant, unfortunately. And the ignorance begets bad decisions. So my mission is to really open the door to understand where those numbers really come from, how you how you manage your own checkbook, to how you decide you want to start a business. Those are very, very, very complicated opportunities when you don't know any better.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Right.

SPEAKER_07 4:57

So my job is to help you know better. My job is to be a solution for you, my job is to be the person to listen for understanding and work with you directly to obtain the overall aspiration of success you're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

On that note, let's let's circle back and go back to the beginning though, because at the same time, I appreciate that you've you've stepped into your calling, and this is something that I'm my personal mission is to encourage on this show because we all we all have a calling, and when we keep it real, unfortunately, a lot of our people don't step into their calling, and just we have so many people who are special, right? And I want to encourage that, so I appreciate that. You before anything, you've received your call and you've stepped into it, and I just would love you to share with us what that looked like, what your journey was, what your story is in terms of stepping in, and also I guess stepping away. Because as you as I've read about you and your career and your successes, you've had to shift internally and been more drawn to that rather than actually. I'm not going to tell your story. Let me sh I wanted to listen because hey, guess what?

SPEAKER_07 6:14

It must be a good story. I'm gonna hear it. The horse's mouth, you tell us. Exactly. Alicia, I'm I'm blessed. I'm truly, truly blessed. And it's not a materialistic bless. I'm blessed generationally. You know what? I'm gonna go even further back. Um, slavery in the U.S. ended in 1863, and most people didn't find out until 1865. My grandmother was born in 1920. When you put a 1920, who 1920 is a year for a person being born to the ending of a group of people who didn't have anything, more likely than not, if her parents were not, her grandparents were. So conceptually, that would mean that I am four to maybe five generations removed from zero. And zero from a materialistic perspective, zero from a knowledge perspective, zero from a community perspective. All those things were stripped away. And having the journey through generations to be able to build that up and to sit across from you right now, just that alone, I'm a success story. So I'm blessed.

SPEAKER_06 7:29

You are.

SPEAKER_07 7:30

My parents made it a major, major effort to ensure that, especially my father, to ensure that myself and my sisters understood the family budget, understood how the money was made, understood how the spend was spent consistently. I'll never forget every month he would sit us down and a lot with me, he would sit me down and go through the numbers and say, this is what the light bill is, this is what the mortgage is, this is what this is what the you want to you like watching that television over there, here's how much that costs, here's what's left for food. Being able to have that conversation with my dad set a precedent inside of me to know that these things are important, valuable. So when you think about it, a lot of people, our people especially, yeah, hey, I want to start a business. Starting a business is one of the most difficult things that a human being can do, let alone a subset of that, or let alone a separate group of that. If you don't have proper community of knowledge, a proper community of support, being able to do that and be successful is extremely, extremely difficult.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

Right.

SPEAKER_07 8:40

So I always tell every individual who comes and works with me, comes in my office that you have to scale yourself before you can scale your family because your family is going to depend on you.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Right.

SPEAKER_07 8:52

You have to scale your family before you decide that you want to start a business. Because at the end of the day, when you go into that business, you do realize that you're taking your family right along with you. And they might not even realize that what they're signing up for. Having a being an entrepreneur and starting a business, you're basically birthing a whole new baby. Right. It's and it's it's it's so needy, it's so dependent, it's so time consuming, it's so much effort that has to go into it that you have to be able to give it. And if you don't, you're gonna go out, you're gonna go out of business. So, what does that mean for your family? If your family does not have an understanding of what it's gonna take to do that, there's gonna be major, major disagreements inside the family that you might not even realize are hidden over and over and over again. So I try to stand in the gap of that. I try to educate on that. A lot of times when people come and visit me is because they have a problem.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Right.

SPEAKER_07 9:48

They'll walk in the door as a CPA, they'll walk in the door. They have either a tax problem, an accounting problem, a business infrastructure problem. Definitely turns into a consulting situation that the house is on fire and they come to me trying to say, Hey, can you put it out?

SPEAKER_06 10:03

Right.

SPEAKER_07 10:04

And a lot of times I can, but it takes a lot of ownership and accountability of that problem. And a lot of times we do not like to look in the mirror at ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

I was gonna say that hard.

SPEAKER_07 10:20

Alicia, I don't want to I I want to tell you that a lot of times when things are happening, we don't take the time to address the one, two, and three that turn into the A, B, and C for the result that you're sitting in. Every decision that you have made today is the reason why you are where you are today. 100%. I advocate heavily, always understand that to a level of true accountability and take ownership. And that's when we can actually help you.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Right. When you specifically were saying when you scale yourself and then scale your family, would you mind expanding on that?

SPEAKER_07 10:56

Yes. I have a framework called the Five Muscles of Enterprise.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 11:01

And those five muscles, number one, leadership, two, operations, three, sales, four, IT infrastructure, five, accounting. The one that's very dear to me. These five muscles are not a business framework. These five muscles are individual framework. When I say scale, what I mean is you have to educate and flex and work on these muscles consistently. Because if you don't, you find yourself exposed. Here's an example. Hey, as an individual, I have to lead myself. Those thoughts are coming from up here in my mind on a consistent basis. I have to lead myself. And in leading myself, I make decisions that's going to get my legs moving. Those are my operations as I move through life. Well, once I start operating and I can show people what I'm what I'm made of, now I have to sell myself to the world on what I actually bring to the table. Those are the arms, being able to give it to the world. All those decisions, all of those, those, that information that's gathered comes back to the middle, comes back through the data. That's the IT piece of it. That's the infrastructure piece. It's almost like the blood flow going in and out. Right. And that blood has to be pumped by something. Accounting in the middle. That heartbeat. Every decision, every cycle, every move, every everything that's made, produced, and sold from an individual perspective and from a business perspective comes back to your own personal accounting. Right. And accounting is not just numbers, accounting is accountability. And then that's where the leveling really takes place. If you're truly accountable for what you do, your success is right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

I love that. And deep down we all know that. But as I'm sure you encounter on a regular basis, and as you've already just said, the accountability part, I'm like, what does that look like in terms of the reprogramming? Because as you say, it it's it's starting here, and the the mirror part. Do you have any tips? Do you have any advice? Actually, is there even a framework for that? Because I guess before everybody can move on to all them wonderful parts of your framework that you just mentioned, it's all gonna start in behavior, mindset, and behavior. Do you have anything you can share about that?

SPEAKER_07 13:19

Completely. There's a current state that we all have. Like I mentioned before, every decision that you've made is why you're here today. Yeah. And through those decisions, you have to make the decision again that you do you want to be better than what you were yesterday? If you do, that's when you look yourself in the mirror. And what's ever staring back at you is your accountability. Right. That's gonna say, hey, either you're gonna get it together or you're gonna continue the same vicious cycle. So, yes, there is a there is a true assessment of self. I call it a one-word SWOT analysis.

unknown 13:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 14:00

And in that, you know, companies do SWOT analysis all the time. What's your strength? What's your weakness? What's your opportunity? What's your threat? You ever did it on yourself? And I force you to take a real reflection upon what am I really good at? One word. What do I really struggle with? What am I really weak? One word. What am I my real opportunity that I have right now? One word. And what's the threat to that opportunity? One word. Alicia, it is powerful. John's gonna say it felt powerful to us listening. When you sit back and you challenge yourself with a notepad in front of you and get down to that one word, because that one word is defining, that one word is governance, that one word is leadership, that one word will put you in position to truly know thyself. Because if you don't know yourself, you you're gonna keep on fumbling through. 100%. If you don't know yourself, people will take advantage of you.

SPEAKER_04 14:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 15:00

If you don't know yourself, you are missing out on the biggest superpower there ever, ever is the ability to know your worth. Yeah, and that's what makes it powerful. So, yes, a current state assessment. We all have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

A word that just downloaded in me is shame. I've we have a lot of shame, and I can I can imagine in terms of just that alone, there's gonna be a lot of shame. Do you have any advice in in that as a specific, how people can shift through that? Because that's very real for people, especially with attitude finances. I think that's a major thing, actually. If you're not on top of it, it's a major thing.

SPEAKER_07 15:41

Yeah, it's suffocating, yeah, Alicia. Unfortunately, what you're made of, Alicia, that's the challenge. Are you made up to be strong enough to even look yourself in the mirror to deal with your own shame? It's yours. Why not embrace it? Why not hold it? Why not respect it? Why not make it your new superpower?

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Right.

SPEAKER_07 16:02

Because that shame can turn into your victory as soon as you accept it.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

100%.

SPEAKER_07 16:06

People run from that level of accountability. Right. I'm gonna I'm gonna share this with you too, Alicia.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 16:15

I mentioned earlier about the body and how the body has these framework for balance that is that it's taken with the five muscles and all that stuff. But if you think about it from this perspective, when you get sick is because you're out of balance. Right. When the, I would say the the nature, when nature gets out of balance, you have storms and hurricanes and tornadoes. When the universe is out of balance, things start happening, chaos in the earthly plane, I mean in the heavenly plane. You don't even, all these things are taking place, all to find balance. When you are out of balance and you look at yourself, and it's because of shame that you have, imagine the mental chaos, the mental anxiety, the mental burnout that you are suffering through all because of shame for lack of accountability.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Right.

SPEAKER_07 17:09

I encourage everyone, own your shame because it's yours.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yeah. What truths is money revealing that a lot of people are not willing to face?

SPEAKER_07 17:22

The biggest truth that no one wants to face is that money is a tool. Money truly is, it's been given way too much respect for what its true purpose really is. Alicia, I'm a Christian man and I read my Bible, and there's a mighty, mighty story inside the Bible called Finding and Getting to the Land of Canaan. Land. Land is the resource. Money is only used to gather resources. Right. And when we put more emphasis on gaining more money, especially here in the US, you have to realize that our money is a fiat currency.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:04

That means that it moves with inflation. So you can have all the money in the world, but if you if it's if inflation is happening, the purchasing power of that money loses its power on a daily basis. Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 18:18

I challenge everyone. Don't do what you do for money. Do what you do for purpose. 100%. When you put purpose behind you, when purpose is your guiding light, when purpose is your North Star, money follows you.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 18:34

You don't follow money.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:36

All of a sudden, you have an abundance mindset that people that you would never know would come to you, they're attracted to your energy that you're walking in. And all of a sudden, it's like they want to work with you, they want to do business with you, they want to give you their money, and you don't even have to ask for it. Why? Because you've been blessed. Yeah. And that energy just resonates out of you.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 19:02

I'm going to share this with you, Alicia. You're a spirit that has a soul. Yeah. That's in a body. That body has five senses that God has blessed you with. Sight, taste, touch, smell. These senses are purely just to pull in raw data from the environment that you're in.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 19:22

Now you have to have a governance factor of that raw data. That's the soul. That soul is protecting your spirit. That when you shift your mindset, that the raw data that you pulled in that's governed by a soul to give you the mindset of what to do with that data, your spirit is driven through purpose that resonates outside of you, and you can almost have a glow about you. And people start walking around. Like, wow, is that Alicia? Oh my gosh, what is what is going on with her?

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Let me let me go find out. It actually feels like you're describing my life right now. Isn't it powerful? That's what I'm seeing here. Nothing because I'm like, this is actually not theoretical. Facts. This is my life.

SPEAKER_07 20:06

This is facts. It is facts. Yeah. That is so powerful. Even think about it from this perspective as well. For me to be sitting in this room with you to have a conversation that resonates is energy.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:21

Driven energy by driven purpose. Your purpose to be here to have this camera for us to sit and talk. My purpose to be here for the sit in this chair to share with you that it's purpose coming together and magic happens. It is beautiful. So everyone in your audience, when they see this, they're gonna be they're gonna look at their life and they're gonna say, What is governing my spirit?

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 20:44

What raw data am I allowing to come inside of me? It's signal versus noise on a consistent basis. That your signal is your purpose. Yeah, noise is everything else. When you find that North Star for purpose and that signal is properly aligned and you walk in in that, you know what you get a chance to do? You get to use the most powerful, most beautiful word in the English language, the word no. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. You get to say no, no, no. Why? Because if what you come into me with does not align with my purpose, I get to say no. And that no is respect. Yeah, that no is time saving, that no is honorable. And the person that you gave it to will be like, you know what? Thank you for telling me no because I see that we're not alive. This is it.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

This is it. Very powerful. And walking in your purpose. Before you said the most powerful word being no, I was in a space of when you're in your space of purpose, you're actually able to fly. Yes, I can see that. And and I I feel that because for me to share my story of where I am right now, you know, like this podcast is in terms of this recording. Right now, nine months old, it's an infant, and as you just rightly said, I don't live here. The fact that I'm sitting here in the sunny beauty that is Atlanta in this beautiful house, talking to you, having this wonderful conversation, is literally me stepping into purpose, and I do feel like I am glowing. And the things that I've just shared with you before we pressed um records with the amount of people who were gravitating towards me right now, I wouldn't even I wouldn't have known, you know. It was like I was on um women's masterclass Zoom call or something yesterday, and they were saying people who were, what are you struggling with in terms of people coming towards you and you get in business? And I just thought to myself, I shouldn't be on here because I'm like and I felt bad because I was like, um I've actually got a waiting list. People who were trying to get on my show actually, uh actually I shouldn't be here technically. Um, and that was not me being braggadocious, that's just my reality. Yes, you know, so I just say that to concur with what you're saying and to actually have that as a real life note for anybody who's watching this to be encouraged when you step into whatever your calling is and you step into what is looking like your purpose, and as you said, don't be driven by the money, be driven by the mission. And I think anybody who tunes into this they need to know the mission right now, otherwise, I haven't been paying attention. That's right. Into that mission, things just align. I literally feel like I've got the Midas touch right now. The way that I'm in a space of flow is incredible, and that's priceless. Priceless. I say to people, this show, I I would I would do this. Getting paid or not, I would do this because it's beautiful moments like now. Me talking to you, me meeting you, me talking to you, you not only sharing your story with me, educating me, but also educating the people who trust in me, who tune into this show as well. Can't put can't put money on that, can't put a dollar or a pound sign on that, literally.

SPEAKER_07 24:14

Yeah, it's powerful, Alicia, because I I have to further concur that I went through a phase where I literally have speaking engagements, I'm getting on stages, talking to all these people, I'm I'm working with all these different clients, and there's something burning inside of me that says your audience is bigger than what you're allowing yourself to give. Yeah, you have to get out of these four walls. You're sitting in this auditorium that you're talking to, it's still not big enough. You have to get this message out.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 24:47

And I'm so excited that you even brought up in the beginning, our people need to hear this. Not only do they need to hear it, I would pray that they all embrace it. You know, times are hard. Things are hard. Um securing resources is hard. Yeah, having conversations with family is hard. Having conversations with yourself is hard. And because these things are so hard, I encourage everyone to always have an anchor. My personal anchor is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's my anchor. You have to find your anchor. And in finding your anchor, you're not always gonna have all the answers. No one gave you a rule book for this. Things are gonna happen and turbulence is gonna happen and take place. When turbulence happens, though, do you have a foundation? Do you have an anchor? Yeah, do you have something that's gonna, when the wind blows, you're not gonna just blow over. Yeah. That's what's important. It's almost like like a seed. If you think about a seed and you plant that seed in good soil, the seed does not grow up first. The seed grows down first.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:04

Establishes a root system. Yeah, then something says it's time to grow up. And it grows up and it pushes through dirt.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:13

Imagine that.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:14

That seed has to push through dirt to turn into a tree to bear fruit. Now, who are you to try to bear fruit before you push through any dirt when every seed on the planet had to do it first? Challenge yourself over and over again. You think times are hard. They're really not. You just are experiencing it for the first time. And when you decide to shift and you plant yourself and you sow that seed to grow and bear your and bear your root system, have your anchor, be ready to grow up. Because when you start, there's no stopping. And the fruit that you bear will be so sweet, so sweet that you can even look back to realize that wow, I didn't even realize that this was gonna happen for me so fast. Yep. But you have to make the first step.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Definitely. And I say, like just take action. It's so simple, but there's so many people who won't do that, just won't do it. It's and it's like, and then after taking action, I'm like, just be consistent. Like it really can be that easy. You keep showing up, not only for yourself or whatever it is you're doing, just keep showing off. And as I like the part where you've just said in terms of the anchor and the grounding, because for me, speaking of myself, I'm like, I trust, I always say I just trust in the most high. When people try and ask me what I'm doing and what's driving me, I'm like, I'm like, I am being carried right about now, right? Because I'm like, I am not driving this ship a keyword because I'm I'm just being obedient. I'm like, use me, use me, and me being in that space, and and that then puts me in a space of flow.

SPEAKER_07 28:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

I'm seeing the things that are happening, and it's like I like the the analogy that you just used as well in terms of the seed, because there's one that has a specific plant that or tree that I really appreciate because I learned just only the other day the details of the bamboo with the fact that with bamboo they can plant the seed and you're not gonna see anything for five years. I'm like, that's a long time to know that you've put some work in and you're not gonna see anything for five years. However, when that bamboo appears, it will shoot up 90 foot, very short amount of time. So I'm like, that's an example of people to just keep pushing through because, in terms of whoever's cultivating and nurturing that bamboo, and and another word in that would be faith, they're just they can't see anything, they're just like, I'm of service, I am aware that this can happen, let me just keep doing it. And as I said, let me just be consistent, and then when it pushes through, as you've just said, it will shoot up and things can happen fast. Yes. So I use that as another example of to encourage people to let's let's be the bamboo. Be the bamboo. Let's be the bamboo. There you go.

SPEAKER_07 29:15

That's a t-shirt. We gotta get that t-shirt away. That's a t-shirt. I want to share this before we we we transition away, though. Okay. There's another side to this, but sowing your seed in bad soil that has to be challenged, yeah, it has to be brought up, and everyone who you think that's around you might not be supposed to be around you. Discern has to come onto the table. Definitely. And it's interestingly powerful that it's cliche as well. If the five people that are in your circle are not moving with a mindset like you have, right, you need to move and change your circle.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

100%.

SPEAKER_07 29:54

You have to. Because if you saw yourself in that circle, that's bad soil. Sometimes bad soil won't bear no fruit, but sometimes it does. And it'll bear bad fruit. The last thing you want is for the bear bare fruit. Bad fruit that gets gets used to turn into other bad fruit.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

This is it.

SPEAKER_07 30:19

So transition that circle, challenge that circle, make sure that circle is making you better, right? And also be that better person for someone else.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Absolutely. Because it's uh that's it's good that you said that because that's something I say on this show a lot as well. I'm always like, environment is everything.

SPEAKER_07 30:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

So obviously, in terms of what you've just said, environment includes humans, so it's not only just your physical space, um, it's very much the people who are around you, and also the things that are influencing you. So, yeah, as you said, in terms of your senses, what are you what are you seeing, what are you hearing, what are you smelling, how is because in but as I said, environment's everything. Because another thing actually, just to um add to that, that I kind of scream about, and it actually is a real thing in my own life right now, in terms of a lot of time people don't move, and we need to move, and granted, I say, and it's good that you're here as a financial person as well, finances can make that difficult for some people, yes. But because environment is so important, how would you help people with the mindset of seeing that yeah, the struggle it may be a financial struggle to move, however, as you say, in terms of the fruits that can come from that when you're in the right space or around the right people, technically is gonna override all of that. How would you help people with that mindset shift?

SPEAKER_07 31:41

I'm not gonna help them. You just did. You just said be the bamboo. You just said it takes five years for bamboo to sprout up.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Right.

SPEAKER_07 31:51

You just explained struggle, you just explained what it takes to sprout up. We have to assess our environment all the time. And that assessment, we all start from somewhere different, but we all have the same 24 hours. Those 24 hours can be used on what's best for you or what's worse for you. Think about your time. I challenge everybody to say, you know, time is the one thing in the universe that you just don't get back. Right. And if you are wasting your time, you're wasting something that's priceless. We all have 24 relationships. And having that knowing that the struggle, where you're starting from, for where it's gonna take you, is a real thing. It's really called living through the decades. I'll share this with your audience. I'm 48. And as a 48-year-old man, I can step back and tell you I remember 28 like it was yesterday. Yeah, I remember 18 like it was yesterday. And because I go through these decades, you can sit back and look at all the decades of the transitions that you've made from the person that you were back then. You're not the same person. You have experiences, you have garnered wisdom along the way. You've had your ups, you've had your downs. But look again, look at that circle. Look at your circle and see how much of these people around me, how much have they moved over the past five to ten years? If they're in the same space where they were five years ago, ten years ago, yeah, you really might want to challenge that circle even more so. If you're in the same space that you were five years, ten years ago, what are you doing with your time? So I always look at it from that perspective. Because when you start looking at it from where you are today, where are you going? Right. Because now, what were the dreams that you had that still have not been fulfilled? Whether they sit on that scale of purpose. But I it's it's a it's a real thing to have a circle of dreams. As you get older, sometimes people say, Oh, those are just dreams. You can't worry about your dreams. Well, dreams are a gift from God. While you were asleep, God's talking to you, you don't even realize it, and he will even give you imagery of what it can look like. Yeah, he's that that's a seed that's being sown inside of you, and nobody else can see it but you because it's your dream. So when you write your dream down and you put it up in that circle, challenge yourself and say, hey, where am I out? Where am I at today? What am I gonna look like not 10, not 20, but 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What am I doing then that I've built up to get to there? And if I'm if if I don't do what I need to do today, that dream will never become a reality.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Right.

SPEAKER_07 34:40

So write it down. Live in your circle of dreams and make a reality for yourself. Definitely, right 100% agree.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

Actually, you know what has just come to me because what will be two episodes prior to this one, I had a whole rant about in terms of us specifically and businesses and where we need to be in terms of building. So and I I had a whole rant about us selling our businesses because basically the episode that I'm referring to specifically is on hair, um specifically our hair and the industries and how there's so many people building beautiful, wonderful, powerful brands and then just selling it. I had a beam my bonnet because I'm like it it's beyond you. As I say, us as a people, we were collective people from eons, we know. We set we set up in a space of weeks. However, we're living in the Western hemisphere, it's very singular, it's very i. And I feel when I see moves like that, that's operating very Western rather than us traditional as people from the continent, whether people agree or not, get in the comments. Happy to have a good old conversation in the comments. No problem. So I say that to say we're naturally about family, and family is not just the people who are blood related to us, we're community, we're unified people. Obviously, we know our history, we know what has been done to us, but I'm not gonna get into that because we all know, and if we don't know, we get to know. So I'm like, we're how many years behind? We're technically in a space of ground zero. Why are our people doing this? Like, we're all an engine, and I use this as an analogy on that episode. We're an engine, everybody's got their part, everybody's a cog in the wheel. You even if you were screwed, so you could say a micro business, whatever, you are still a value in terms of how we're all showing up in the world. I have an issue with our people selling to others. It feels way too premature because, and another reference that I use in that is we all know Blackwall Street and all the other streets that don't even get that much of a mention got burned down. So we've we're building, we're starting again, and I'm like, if we've got a street and we've all got you've got a shop, I've got a shop, whether your shop is an accountancy firm and my shop is podcast and documentaries and everything else I'm doing, if we're still on the street together, whether it's international street, because you're here in Atlanta, I'm in London, nonetheless, it's our street. We've all got responsibility eat for each door, and we're building together and we're a collective. I've got an issue. Somebody in the middle of our street selling it to somebody else who would have been traditionally a person who came and burned down um Black Wall Street. I'm rambling. No, you're not.

SPEAKER_07 37:52

What's your rambling? You're you're you're hitting it out the park. Because what I'm about to say next, everyone in your audience might turn off. Because I'm about to have accountability and it's about to hit hard.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

I think my audience is used to it because I stay hitting hard. They're all right, you're okay. Carry on.

SPEAKER_07 38:12

You are in a space, in a state, in a city that if you drive 30 miles up the road, there's a place called Lake Lanier. Oh, yes, I've heard of it. Lake Lanier was a black-owned city from black-owned people with black-owned businesses. It's now a lake. Crazy. Makes no sense. Crazy. And the reason why these things happen is for the example that you just gave. Other groups of people, they have their Chinatown, they have their little Mexico, they have they have all of these little Spanish towns, they have all of these little areas that they don't just have businesses, they own the land. And again, I go back to my original statements about land. When you read your Bible, Moses went to go tell Pharaoh to let my people go because of the promise of the land of Canaan. If you look on the map, well, the land of Canaan is Israel, where exactly it is. It is a waterway, it is a therapy. If things come from one top to the bottom, you know what you have to pay? A tariff. It's tax revenue. Because we don't own enough collective land together, the reason why we get separated and pulled apart is just because of that. When you own land, I'll give you the best example you can possibly give. What is a job of government? Government's number one job is to protect. That's why military budgets are so large. If you can't protect your land, what do you have it for? Right. If you can't line up to understand that as a household, of a household of a set, where you have a husband, a wife with children, if somebody comes and puts their foot through the door, who is required to stand up to them first? That man stands up first and he dies for that family. I will give another example. And I don't want to misquote the verse, so I'm going to give the chapter. In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul does a great job of explaining to you the roles and responsibilities of family. And he does, he starts off by talking about what a woman should do. But right slapped up in there, he says, husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? He died for it. And there's no qualms about that. If you as a man and if you as a woman and you guys have children, how are you going to govern that family? I mentioned first, scale yourself, then scale your family, then scale a business because life is hard. Why? Because the family has to be together. And a lot of times, families, you sell your business because you don't have anybody to leave it to. Because you focus so much on building the business. Like I said earlier, it's like birthing a baby. Yeah. You forgot about those children inside the house. You did not bring them to the kitchen table like my father did with me. You did not explain budgets to them and how the money cycle actually truly works, the inflows and outflows of how this actually comes together. You did not build the culture of the household, what we do, when we do, how we do it. And because you didn't do that, what's your biggest thing that you did not do is you did not follow Proverbs 1322. It says, a good man needs an inheritance for his children's children. We forget it's not even about you. It's not even about you. It's not even about your kids. 100%. It's about the children that have not been born that you will never meet. Facts. That's the reason why we start at zero. That's the reason why we go back to negative. All these other issues, what all these other groups do, yes, it's deplorable, it's terrible, but god darn it, fight back. I'm focus. And focus. All the randomization of you not being focused, you turn like ping pong balls. I'm here over here, I'm there over there, I'm over there. And all of that is because of the family is not being governed in a way to come together. You can go to any other group. They have a patriarch and a matriarch. And guess what that family's gonna do? What that patriarch and matriarch says we are going to do because we're stronger together as compared to apart. Yeah, look at these fingers. When you pull them apart, they can break real easy. Vulnerable. If I make a fist, you're not breaking this. It's gonna take a lot to get through this. So I hope your audience can really, really appreciate what I'm saying. And I will tell you if you love your family, if you love yourself, realize it's not about you, it's not about your kids, it's about your children's children. So it can be about their children's children, and in every aspect of it. I talk about my grandparents, I talk about my parents, I am standing on the shoulders of giants. And that's why I began this conversation by telling you I have been blessed. I never told you about anything about money.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

This is it, it's a legacy, and it just frustrates me that so many of our people are just missing that, and I'm just I don't know what it's gonna take for a paradigm shift. Because I appreciate that we've just obviously showed that we're on the same page, we get it, but at the same time, in terms of how I I show up in the world, with when I will make a bold statement like that or call out a certain behavior publicly, sometimes I feel very radical and I feel very alone, and I guess my my package doesn't match how I feel in here about things, yes, and not just about. Things about my people, our mission, our things that we're doing where we stand right now, our history and our future. That's how I'm stepping up in the world. But it's sometimes Albert, sometimes I feel alone. Or if I'm not alone, there's only a small group of us who get it. And I'm like, what does it take for people to wake up? I'm doing my part to try and help those who are asleep by showing off a brilliant people like yourself out into you know more of a public forum. Yes. Um you see, I'm just me. There's a limit on what I can do, and this is why I'm trying to encourage more of our people to step up and let's let's do this. But I'm like, I don't know what it's gonna take. Because I'm like, as I said, it's frustrating. There's people who are making it, there's multimillionaires, and then they're gonna sell to L'Oreal or whoever, and I'm like, are you you ready?

SPEAKER_07 44:57

You ready for this one?

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Please do, because I'm about to explode.

SPEAKER_07 45:00

Alicia, we are on the cusps of not even the cusp, we're in the biggest transference of wealth happening right before of us.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Right.

SPEAKER_07 45:11

Because to your point, we sell, but they're selling too because they have to. In every relationship, in everything that we do, it's always important to begin with the in the mind from the concept of the exit. You have to begin with the exit. That's why I mentioned earlier, where are you 20, 30, 40, 50 years? If you begin with the exit, then you can move and move in a way to make sure that you promptly aligned to get there. If you don't, when the exit comes, now you're scrambling. You don't know what you've built. You don't know what it's worth. You don't have you don't have processes in place, there's no policies in place, there's no there's no conversations that have been had with the family through the years, and uh you're forced to sell because the ultimate exit will take place when you go from life to life to the next life.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 46:07

And you didn't properly prepare.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Right.

SPEAKER_07 46:09

And then chaos truly takes place. So having that conversation of understanding, I began by talking about being an entrepreneur, but truly, this is not even an entrepreneur conversation.

SPEAKER_06 46:23

No.

SPEAKER_07 46:24

This is a this is a family conversation, an individual conversation that have you looked at your own life to begin with the end in mind to have your exit. Because the last thing you don't want to have, I tell people, it's two pains in life. The pain of discipline that hits you consistently, and the worst pain is the pain of regret. Yeah, yeah. If you are on your deathbed and you are getting ready to close your eyes for the last time, the last thing you want to have inside of you is I wish I would have, I shoulda, coulda, woulda, but you didn't, now you can't, and now it's over. Oh my gosh. That's a sadness. That stabs deep. And if anybody's hearing this, I would hope, I would hope there's a rallying cry that as a group of people, we can all come together to live for a life that doesn't have regret.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

What? You hit the nail right on the head, literally. I think that that that would be the saddest thing ever to regret. It turns my stomach even say it.

SPEAKER_07 47:41

Yeah, honestly, yeah, because it I I just like you want to have this rallying cry. I'm screaming over and over and over again. But watch this, it's gonna sound like I'm a little bit biased as well.

SPEAKER_08 47:55

Where are the men?

SPEAKER_07 48:01

Because every other group has their men. I need other men to stand shoulder in shoulder with me to protect what God has blessed and given us. I am just like you, tired of the deliberate manipulation of my people. Why do I say it's deliberate? Because in every instance that signal versus noise I talked about, there's so much noise, so much noise, so much noise, so much noise that they are moving the needle on us, and we don't even realize it, and AI is making it worse. And we don't even realize that if you don't champion this AI effort and be not just the one who uses it, you need to be the one building it. You know who's gonna win in the next 10 to 20 years? The thinkers, yeah, the creators, yeah, the innovators, the philosophers, not the ones who can tinker through function. These areas of vitality, those who are vital are gonna win. We have to position ourselves to win in these areas. The readers, you know, they don't teach cursive writing in school anymore. Crazy. Do you know why? And this is gonna, I hope, shock the world because AI has a hard time reading it. AI is what, sorry? AI has a hard time reading it. That's the reasoning. It has a hard time reading cursive because the the loops and the swoops are so consistently different for everybody, it has a hard time reading it. And if it has a hard time reading that, it's gonna, it's not, it can't function like it needs to. Boxes, ones, pluses, and zeros. That's even more reason to do it then. Think about it. These kids don't know how to sign their name.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Scary. You can't sign your name. Crazy. I've I've heard, and it's something that I need to look into and research, it's on my to-do list, that they're taking all the clucks out of British schools. I don't know if it's a thing over here. Think about that. They're taking the clucks out. So you don't want me to go. No words, no words. Like, I I I've I have so many bees in my bonnet that I need to be going for like educate education ministers in my country. Um I'm coming for them. Not right now because I'm busy. They're on the to-do list because I'm like, you've taken cracks out of the schools. How wild that is. It doesn't mean to read the time.

SPEAKER_07 50:41

They can't read time.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

And it's your job to educate them to learn how to read the time. So does that not mean you should have more cracks in the school for you to do your job?

SPEAKER_07 50:49

Is it their job? Well, I think the education says that cracks at home. So think about it. Yeah, you can have a predisconceived job description of all these different types of roles, but behind the scenes, how you know that role didn't change? Right. So you just said it in every aspect of it. I am a harsh, hard, hard believer in training, practice, then work. You train on your own, Alicia. This is when you behind closed doors, you're all you're finding and figuring something out to be able to work it, work it, work it to the furthest you can take it. And when you leave out the door, you go to practice. What's practice? Practice is when you win a mentor, when you with a coach, when you went someone who has mastered whatever what you're working on, and you also with cohorts. So you can show off your training.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 51:41

And you can solidify your questions about what you trained on.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Right.

SPEAKER_07 51:46

And that coach, mentor, person can fill those gaps in for you. Because when it's time to go to work, when it's time for the game, when it's time for the arena, you are ready to show off your training and your practice.

SPEAKER_06 52:00

Right.

SPEAKER_07 52:01

These are the things that have to happen and taught at home.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 52:06

Absolutely. Through that same set of the patriarch, the matriarch, those children, they have to come together and have that time at home to teach these things. So you can know better. Because the last thing we want is for social media to train our children. And unfortunately, that's what's taking place. It's so much misinformation, so much data that's floating around, so many things that these kids are absorbing on a consistent basis that honestly it floors me. Because I've grown up with all of this. I was born in the late 70s. I've seen the maturity of all the technology to take place. And realizing that these phones we use now are master powerful supercomputers compared to what I learned when I was a youngster. Right. So these things are very, very critical for every level, from the grandparents to the parents to the kids, and trying to come together to make sure that training practice work is consistent in every household for every individual, for every family.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

I don't know, I don't know how things are panning out over here as such, but in terms of the family where I come from, because I don't the thing that actually I was just about to loop into something else. The thing that I find very interesting that when I keep coming to the States and I talk to my American brothers and sisters, cousins, you know, nobody actually really knows the history of how black people, Caribbean people got to the UK. And I'm I just feel like I'm forever educating people, which is fine. I I sit in that book because how we got there, uh and without there's there's deeper history in terms of black people in the UK. I'll get into another episode, but right now I'm just going to start where the majority of people are at, which is it's called the Windrush generation, who are my grandparents' generation. So basically, after World War II, the country was destroyed, and the English people who were already there, for whatever reasons, didn't have the abilities or capacity to build back the country after World War II. So therefore, the government, British government, reached out to the Commonwealth, which is countries like Caribbean, India, different places. So my family who are Jamaican on both sides, um, we got that my grandparents got the invitation to come to the UK to build back the country because the people who were there weren't doing it. So that's how we ended up there, and then I ended up being second generation born over there. So I say that to say, as much as I'm I live over there and that's one of my homes, I'm still a very much Caribbean culture and behaviour, which is family. So I'm like, as we as the gen as we start starting to now go and transition through more generations, family is dying out because as I said earlier in this show, we're adapting this Western behavior a bit too much, and we're forgetting who we are as a foundation. So the situation of getting watered down, things that were so beautiful culturally in terms of our unity holding together, holding ourselves together, um, accountability for not only yourself but others, responsibility for not only yourself and others, also reputation and not only yourself but others, these things are just all dying out. What's that looking like over here as the generations? Um wow, from my perspective, exactly the same.

SPEAKER_07 55:58

And that's why it's so scary. And that's why I also think it's by design. Definitely by design. So if I can break up the family, that means I can control your mind.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Right.

SPEAKER_07 56:09

And if I can control your mind, I can control how you spin and I can make you a customer for life. That's a that's a tried and true method of control.

SPEAKER_03 56:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 56:21

But again, like I say, if we can learn to be together, stay together, work together, and try to scale and thrive together, it's less influences that will be able to infiltrate that type of set. Now, we can talk about the problem, but what's the real solution for it? And it goes back to my original saying about accountability. It also goes to taking a set generation and realizing that you as a collective group have to come together and say, hey, you know what, enough is enough. It also requires you to tell your kids to take those phones and put them down and to put a book in their hand. It's hard to say that there's a level of sacrifice that comes with that too. And that normal sacrifice is truly just being accountable for how you live inside your household.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 57:18

But also understanding that it's not just about your household. This is it. It's about your neighbor. Yeah. And your neighbor neighbor. Yeah as well, too.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

The community, which is how it's always traditionally been, you know. I know I feel like I feel like I'm very close to giving up hope, but we just don't give up. I'm like, what does that look like to bring it back, to reverse it? Because I think the thing that actually will help and work in our favour is the fact that we were once there, so it's real at least. So as much as we're moving away from that, it can be reversed. We can do a pivot, but I'm like, I don't know what that pivot looks like. Because as you've just said, even earlier, in terms of where's the brothers? Few of them not gonna say everyone because I don't do general sweeping statements, but as you said earlier, there could be so much more stepping up. I'm like, what does that look like? Like, who there needs to be some form of leadership, I guess?

SPEAKER_07 58:16

It's it's it's it's it's a rallying cry.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 58:19

Here's what happens, and I and this is gonna sound interesting the way I try to position this, but opportunity dictates next steps. What happens when there is no opportunity? What happens when you have a group of people who graduate from the high school system and go into the college world and finish with college and um leave the university with and but they don't have an opportunity? What happens to that group of young people? Well, a rallying cry happens. That group of young people has to either realize that no one's gonna come save me, we have to save ourselves. So it's gonna take a level of understanding how to build infrastructure, which is the reason why I brought up the whole AI champion, being an AI champion piece of it, to be a builder of that, to build out infrastructure to a point where our purchasing dollar is so, so, so vast, but it's all split apart because the dollars that we have, we let leave out of our community so quickly. But what if we didn't? What if we what if we corraled all of that to build out our own infrastructure, build out our own tools, build out our own way of connectivity, of community, of our own social and stick to it. You know, other groups, um, good, bad, or indifferent, when they make mistakes, their people don't leave them. They chastise them pretty harshly, but they give them feedback. And the people accept the feedback to get better. We have a hard time receiving feedback. This is it. It's so interesting. Like, how dare you say that about me? Well, because I want you to be better. Yeah, it's a blessing to receive feedback for somebody to take the time to and energy to think about what you did wrong and then to express it to you. That's a blessing, that's a reward, that's a treat. That should be something you should be excited about and be grateful and thankful for. 100%. We struggle with that, and that's a that's a part of mindset shift as well. Too give me feedback. I need it. You know why? Because I only have one perception that I can see. This one perception means I have blind spots. This is it, and everyone around me can see those spots. So bring on the review. I desperately need it and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

Just to bounce off what you were just saying, um, I can definitely say I know of, I know of, I know of one person at least who I know is building AI for us. No correction, I know two people. Um, so I can definitely give a shout out to 19 Keys because he's doing fantastic work building out a whole like AI infrastructure. Um, I believe it's called Zion Nation. Give him a shout out, he's actually doing that. Um, and then also I have a um Craig who has been on this podcast, who's also doing his thing over where I am in the UK in terms of um supporting us with AI ventures because he actually they're both doing the same thing basically, but um 19 Keys is here in the US um and it is a lot more well-known. Um, and then Craig is on the other side doing his thing, he's building more like personal. You can go to him directly and just get him to build you an AI. And the thing that's beautiful about that is that, and I believe both of them are doing it, that they will build you personal AI that will just basically scrape the internet, get all the information it needs, and then close the door, and and it's it's based in your home type of thing. Just just to say, the there's two people doing software, and we need more, definitely need more, but uh yeah, I'll shout out to both of those, and um yeah, there's people doing their bits, but we need so much more. So you've just you've just you've just affirmed what I was saying.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:17

You see how powerful that is though? Think about it. Yeah, creators, yeah, innovators, thinkers, philosophers, the two individuals that you just mentioned, that's exactly what they're doing. Those are the ones that are going to be the leaders, those are the ones that are gonna be able to step up and say, hey, everybody, let's come together for this particular effort. That's extremely powerful, and it's exactly what we all need to be doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:43

And thinking outside of self. And then once you think outside of self, think about the family.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:48

But you have to at that point think about outside the family. Because that's when it really, really pays dividends.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

I think uh just to add to what you're saying, I think okay, what you're saying in terms of family, but I think in terms of a mindset mindset shift that needs to happen is we need to remember, and which which adds on to what I was saying earlier, we need to remember that we were family. So, and get out of this whole individual mindset. Because even though I've just met you today, you're family, yes, you know, and granted, not all kin, not all skin folk are kin folk, not all skin folk are kin folk. Listen, we've got ups. Let's remember that, you know. Um, however, outside of the ups. If we stay in the mindset that we're family, therefore we're more in the mindset of we're taking care of family, therefore, we're in the mindset of stop selling the businesses because you need to keep it for the family. Right. And it's not just the folk who are your blood folk, it's not just the folk who got the same surname as you, it's not just the folk who you know personally. We I'm going to change the subject because I start ranting, I get too passionate about it.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:04

It's okay, it's okay. It's it's it's it is it is the time of the it's the sign of the times of what a rent needs to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:12

Because a rent turns to a rallying cry. A rallying cry turns into action. Yeah. And that action will begin a result. So it's definitely, definitely needed. And even talking about, hey, there's some that are the ops, let's talk about them. Why?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:25

Because they've lost their way. And just because you have a stray to lose this way, that's what a shepherd is for. Let's bring you back into the fold. Because you're you're looking at something as a grass is greener because somebody told you that greed was better than unity. Think about it. Greed is better than unity. How? Because that greed is only gonna lead to one opportunity for you, and that's destruction. This is it. Unity brings about prosperity.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:58

I choose prosperity. And and those, those, and I we of course we're gonna have people who quote unquote are gonna hate on us. Let's talk about the haters. But I'm a firm believer. If if I don't have any haters, I'm not doing, I'm not working hard enough. You're not doing anything. I need to press down and push harder. This is it. You know, give them something to talk about. Give them something to talk about because everybody in the audience, you are a great topic. So give them something to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

What does financial illiteracy cost the family generationally?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:37

Oh, wow. Powerful, powerful question. That question is so powerful that I have to give a disclaimer. Okay. I am a CPA, so I'm a certified public account, it means I'm certified by the by the state that I work in, and I'm certified in multiple different states. But I'm at your CPA. That also means that I have to be governed through contracts. So if we have an agreement together, I can work with you directly and we can map all this wonderful stuff out. So anything. I say is for informational purposes. Truly. With that being said, an illiterate way of handling money is a direct pathway to destruction. An illiterate way of handling money is a direct pathway to destruction. I began by saying that money is a tool. If you have a hammer and you hit yourself upside the head with it, that's an illiterate way of using the hammer. Yeah. So if you have your money and you use it in a way that is you put materialism first, you put self first, you use it not to sow seeds, you use it in a way that you just gotta gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes for the gimme, gimme, gimme. It's an it's an illiterate way that leads to destruction, not just for you, not just for your family, but for your community. And again, for those children that are not here yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:59

So again, if you truly love yourself and if you truly love your family, if you truly want to leave a legacy, you have to understand that what you do today will dictate your tomorrow. That's a tried and true parable quote, whatever you want to call it. But I walked that walk. And everything that I've done in the past bears fruit today. Even having this conversation with you is from things I've done in yesteryear. So everyone should make sure they know that what you do today dictates your tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

Yeah, and just to add to that, it's a case of if you're not happy with how your life is looking right now, it's because of everything you've done yesterday. So therefore, change something.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:45

And to the point of the question, um, financial literacy is a term that's been used way too loosely. Right. It's really resource literacy. How are you going to resources and how do you put them to work for you? People say, hey, I need to go buy a house. Why? Think about that. If you buy a house, does the house generate revenue for you? No. Will you have to spend money to maintain the house?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:16

Yes. Um, is there an opportunity that the house could devalue? Yes. Yeah. Only time when a house would make money for you is when you sell it. It's got tenants in it. Well, that's not a house anymore. That's a business.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:35

Major difference. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:36

Major, major difference. I'll tell you a story real quick, Alicia. This is the story of the American Dream. You ever heard of the American Dream? Oh, we saw. American Dream says, hey, have a family, get married, have children, buy the house with the white picket fence around it, live happily ever after. Well, that's I hate to say this, and people are probably not gonna like it, but it's propaganda. Right. Why? Because getting married is a major decision that should be made between two people under counsel.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:13

Because you're signing a contract for life. There is an expiration date on the contract, which means if I don't like you tomorrow, that doesn't mean the contract expires. If I don't like you 10 years from now, that doesn't mean the contract expires. We are coming together to work together for a defined purpose. That's important. Then it says, buy the house. Okay. Well, buying a house, they slap a 30-year mortgage on it to make you feel like you can afford to buy it by looking at a monthly payment. But you need to understand that monthly payment is banked into interest against you that you have to pay. And people don't see that. So over 30 years, you come close to paying double for what you actually purchased because of interest. Oh, and you have to buy insurance. Oh, and you gotta pay property taxes. Oh, and you ever bought a new roof? It's extremely expensive. So I challenge people all the time. I'm not saying don't get a house, but you don't need the biggest house on the block. Right. You need an it's a need, you need a roof over your head. And when you try to get the biggest house on the block, that's a want. Big difference. I need a roof, I want a big house. And with every decision again that you make dictates how your lifestyle is going to have to be managed. So, this is what the banks did. The banks said, Hey, you know what? Um, we're giving these loans to all these businesses, and these businesses are paying the loans back way too fast. That means that we're not making all this money on interest no more. Let's do something different. Let's offer people a mortgage that's 30 years long that they're gonna pay the minimum payment on, and they get that we're gonna get money from them for 30 years. They've manufactured a 30-year customer. Right and nobody seems to see that. That's the real thing. So, everyone in the audience, yeah, if you own a house, if you own anything that has a loan attached to it, don't just make the minimum payment. You pay more than that, you pay that principal down, you pay it, pay it, pay it. Why? Because once you pay it, the inflation associated to it, the value of that home, a value of that other property associated to it, builds its own equity. And then that's what you can capitalize on. That's what you can pivot with. That turns into a major, major purchasing power that you can have to go do any type of thing you want to. Watch this, what if you decide that you have this house that built up all this equity? You want to use that as collateral to go start a business. Will that business be successful? It's gonna be based on the five muscles of enterprise. It all comes back full circle. How well have you flexed them? How well do you know leadership, operations, sales, IT, and accounting? All these things come together before you make these decisions. That's why you can't just do it on a whim. You can't just do it based on your mind of thinking. You have to have your anchor and you have to have your council of advisors before you make these decisions because they're life-changing.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:25

You know, in terms of everything you've just said that today, because I know that there's an ongoing conversation, um, especially on the noise that is the internet. What's your stance then in comparison, comparing owning a house to renting? It depends.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:38

Okay. It completely depends. What's the goal? Remember, we just said yes. Step one, necessity, roof over my head.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:46

So I just need to get a baseline understanding that I need a roof over my head. Step two, if I decide to go to buy a house, am I buying it with this 30-year mortgage? Am I buying it, making the minimum payment? Or am I buying it with the mindset that hey, I'm I'm I'm growing an asset for my family? Major conversation to be had. Because if I buy that house, I own a house. But I have four children. So this house is in our family name that's maintained in an irrevocable trust. I'm sorry, an irrevocable trust, that if a triggered event was to take place, the trust comes into play, and my children have a governing document on how all my assets are supposed to play out. Very, very powerful tools. You have to make that have that level of governance inside of you when you make these major life-changing decisions. So there isn't really a question of should I rent or should I buy? The question really is what am I doing with the resources that I have?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:44

Where does chasing money first go wrong?

SPEAKER_07 1:13:50

Day one, day one, and this should this should have been the one. Question number one. Because um chasing money, wow, man, that's like chasing a bad relationship. Like, why don't you love me because you're chasing me? Oh man. When you stop chasing, you know what happens? It chases back. Right. Don't chase money. Never, never, never chase money. You don't have to.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:20

What do you wish someone had told you earlier? In life? In life, it's about financial.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:26

I mean, uh, what do I wish someone would have told me earlier that there's a price for wisdom? Oh, expand in every aspect of a lesson. There's wisdom inside of that lesson. You had to pay a price for it. You had to walk a certain type of walk. You had to go through a level of turbulence. You had to realize that every time I fall, make sure you fall forward and get back up. You also realize that as long as I don't stop going, I never lose. I never lose. Right. And I'm not a quitter. So if you're not a quitter, if you never lose, you're gonna go through life. There's gonna be things that are gonna take place, and you're going to pay a price for the wisdom that you garner. But you paid it. Yeah. So now it's time to share it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:14

Love that. Do you have any wisdom? Do you have any wisdom? Do you have any final thoughts that you'd like to share with the people?

SPEAKER_07 1:15:23

I wish I didn't I didn't bring this up already. But when I was younger in my career, I should travel all over the world. And when my daughter was just born, I had an 18-month-old son. I was newly married, and I just had a daughter that was born, and I got put on assignment to go to Singapore. Um, so I'm traveling from Houston, Texas to Singapore, close to a 20-hour flight. And on that flight, I doze off, and I suddenly wake up flying over the Pacific Ocean. And the thought crossed my mind of, what if something was to happen to me? What if I didn't get back to my children, to my wife? Who would give my kids fatherly advice that I received from my parents, my dad, and my grandparents, and my aunts and uncles? How can I put that burden solely on my wife to do? On that flight, I made a decision to start writing down every quote, every aphorism, every saying that I even heard that have important to me that I made up because I need to give something to my children.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:28

When I landed in Singapore, I probably had about 10 to 12 things written down at that time. The number one that came out, actually was the very first one, was the quote, I can't because I will. And based on the conversation that we've had through this podcast, I can because I will is the engine behind everything that I'm telling you right now. It literally goes, I can because I will. We talk about the beginning, we talk about the end of the journey, we don't talk about the middle, we don't talk about the valley, we don't talk about the sleepless nights, we don't talk about the crying, we don't talk about being on our knees, we don't talk about the things that hurt us because we don't want people to see how fractured we can really be. This is when I can because I will. So don't stop everybody. Keep going.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:00

Did you want to say anything quick about your book?

SPEAKER_07 1:18:03

Well, um, I will say um I wrote this book, and this book is from that flight.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:11

Nice.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:11

This book, Life, Truth, Love, Lost, Success, and Failure, is the collection of those quotes, sayings, aphorisms. But what is really a collection of a scripture where it starts with scripture, it has a few quotes, but also has stories about where I came from and how I came to be. And then in the end of each chapter, it's called Final Advice. And that final advice is very short, very to the point, and something that you can put in your toolkit. I wrote this book for my children and for my children's children, but as it has positioned itself on Amazon and and through the bookstores, it's done extremely, extremely well. The reviews have been very, very powerful and has been a testament of my life's work. That honestly, when I close my eyes and I pray about it, I'm just thankful that God has put all this stuff inside of me to give to the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:05

Amazing. Where can everyone find you, Albert?

SPEAKER_07 1:19:08

100%. You can find me on AlbertButler.com. Very, very easy, very straightforward. If you Google Albert Butler CPA, um, you'll find multiple pages of all the things that I'm doing and done and published across the board. If you need to get in contact with me, I'm all over social media. You can DM me on any platform and I'll directly contact you.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:30

Thank you. Hey, Jem, I'm I'm so grateful for you. And the world needs more people like you. Wow, thank you. And I'm definitely gonna have you back on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:44

Yeah, so thank you. And another amazing, wonderful, incredible episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:51

I'm actually I'm moved, I'm touched, and my head once again is spinning. I've got so many things, but it's good because things have been drawn up, and this is the power of talking to Albert. So I say, please get into the comments, talk to me, contact Albert, and as usual, subscribe, share, like, and as always, stay blessed.