EP 8 - You Can’t Shortcut Success- Part 2 with Ana Bracamonte

Ana is back for part two, and the conversation picks up with a question a lot of entrepreneurs are asking: How do you actually build a personal brand that turns into a business?

From finding the right social media platform and creating content that feels authentic to staying consistent when the algorithm changes, Ana shares why success has a lot less to do with going viral and a lot more to do with showing up as yourself over and over again. The conversation expands into the unique challenges facing Latino entrepreneurs, overcoming fear, building a business in a second language, and why immigrants often arrive in America with an incredible drive to succeed but without the financial knowledge or guidance to know where to start.

Of course, things eventually take a very PBJ turn as the conversation moves from social media and entrepreneurship into taxes, financial literacy, immigration, American culture, and whether the United States is still truly the land of opportunity.

It’s honest, funny, occasionally chaotic, and proof that sometimes the best conversations happen when you have absolutely no idea where they’re going.

Contact Ana Bracamonte:

Instagram: @anabracamonterealtor

Contact the PB&J Crew:                                                                                                 

Instagram: @pbnjcast                                                                                           

TikTok: @PBnJcast

Email: pbnjcast561@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

And just like that, you're here. Welcome to the TV and J podcast where things get a little messy, a little full, and definitely not fucking bored.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

We're starting up some real talk, some hot takes, some conversations, problems, but we're having them anyway.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

So let's double in with the PvJ. Help us save the wheel.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Well, hello. Welcome back, Anna, to the PVJ cast. So I wanted to ask you a quick question before we just get into it. Okay. You you're a realtor by profession, but now it seems like you've transitioned to like predominantly social media. Is that where the bulk of your income is coming from? Like, would you consider yourself a content creator now more than a realtor?

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And uh, like you say, doing a transition right now. And uh content creator is the one that I get all most of my clients now. And that's what I'm trying now to build more. Known as agent for 10 years or more. Now I want to be known as a social media creator or coach. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

What do you mean known as? You're like already killing it. You're all you are already known as. You're doing you're doing well. That's like Taylor Swift being like, man, I hope someone listens to my music one day. It's like I think we all know who you are.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Thank you for that. But I think I need to grow more that part of the business and tell more people that that's what I want to do now. And because everyone knows me as an agent. And they ask me, okay, what are you doing? It uh real estate or marketing. No, I want now to start building my personal brown as a coach and marketing or social media.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

And what kind of people are you trying to attract?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Uh at first was only uh real estate because that's what I know. That's what type of content that I know and I can help you to build. But because I'm with you guys and I see lenders more often, title companies, restaurants, you know, I'm trying to open a little bit more and attract more people as not only real estate.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Okay. And what kind of services do you typically offer? When you say marketing, that's a that's a very generalized statement.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yes. Uh right now, I'm trying to build a company and help agents, the open people, create a personal brand. That's the most uh my business going with. Like this is who I am. This is you who you are. That's you need to build. I love it. And then you start creating a marketing system, you know, because you cannot have a grow and business, uh, growing business without a personal brand build. You have to show people who you are first, and then you start attracting clients. You cannot most of the agents. I'm gonna talk about agents. Oh, yeah, I want leads, I want leads, I want leads. Yeah, but what you have to offer. So I can tell you now my business is my ideal business is build a personal brand and create a business from that.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

So give us an example of what a personal brand would look like, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

I'm gonna put you me as an example. I'm creating a personal brand. I'm not saying there that I'm just selling houses, I'm not there just showing the house that I'm closing that I have, or that I work with uh uh Keller William office. No, I'm Anna. This is what I do for a living, yes, but this is my life. This is my kids, that's what I go on the weekends, that's what I do. I do in podcasts here.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

This is like my favorite restaurant, this is my favorite restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

This is where we go on vacation, yes, it's like it's to build a live connection with people out there, not just telling them that you sell in-house and buy from you.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

So when do you say it's you've reached a following where it's enough now to transition from your personal brand to actually advocating your business? When when is it like when when do you say, okay, I've got 10,000 friends? Like, is it now a good time to start talking about my business? Or do you sprinkle in about your business as people learn more about you?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

If you ask me as Anna, I'm gonna tell you this. You have to talk about your business, I can sell 5% of your content. 5%. The rest is about your life, your family, what you like to do. You always need to talk about your business because you have to get better clients. But when you just talk about business, people get tired. So show them the process, not just that you do this for them. Show them how you do it. So, with that being said, you can talk about your business, but not all the time.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I have a weird question. Like, I have a business Instagram and then I have a personal Instagram. My personal Instagram is like double what my business Instagram is, but I'm trying to promote my services and my studio and everything that I offer here. So, what would you say to someone like me that doesn't know what to build more of, my business or my personal?

SPEAKER_02 5:39

You you giving it that, you giving me the answer right there. You going connect with people and your personal level. Because how many podcast accounts I is over there? You're gonna connect with people as you are. So create a personal brand and say that you have a podcast, and say that you have uh a marketing company or a panda, but you create your account as a personal. Not means there's a personal account closed account. No, you have to have your account public, correct? Yeah, but not two accounts, not personal and business, no, just put that together. It's just one account, it's just one you. So you're gonna show people who you are, but then you have a business also, and that's what you have for business. And I know a lot of people say, Oh, I have babies, I don't want to show them faces, I I have whatever personal light that I don't want to show. How you how do you think the people is gonna connect with you if they don't know you? They need to trust you first before they buy. When you're gonna do a salon, and and me, the first thing that I do when I go into a salon, show me their handle, let me see their account, let me see what they do, let me see how they do it. When you go to a restaurant, where are you going? Google Instagram account. Let me see the plates that they have, let me see the food, let me see the environment. So it's not any different from you, from you, from me, from any business. So when they're gonna buy for you, they need to know who you are first. And then they're gonna trust you, and then they're gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Are there like certain platforms that people should be concentrating on more?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Uh no. But you have to build one first. Because when you're trying to build so many platforms at the same time, it's gonna be overwhelmed. You have to create content that you feel comfortable and constantly. You have to create content all the time. If you think about, oh, I need to create content for TikTok, it's different on Instagram or for Facebook, you're gonna get overwhelmed. And you're not you're not gonna create anything. So start with one and you can share with all the accounts the same uh content. But build one, when that account works for but work by themselves, then you you pass to another one.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

What's some advice that you would give someone to try to get more followers? Like, do you think like we should like like other people's profiles or or follow them? Or like I hear like if you start liking other people's stuff, then they'll eventually start seeing your stuff. Like, what are some some strategies that you can that you can teach us?

SPEAKER_02 8:29

First, you have to keep this in mind. This is another type of business, this is another uh lead generation that you're gonna have. It's not like you're gonna like one account and you're gonna get 10,000 followers. No, this is another lead generation that you want to get. So, yes, you can do everything, you can like another people's account and trying to focus on the accounts that you want to reach. Let's say I want to reach agents to uh buy my coaching program and trying to build a personal brand. Why I'm gonna like restaurants or I don't know, hotels, but that's not my market. So trying to go to the uh the people that you want to reach and trying to engage with that. And yes, like, comment, and put content out there that fits you. Like show I can I cannot say that enough. Put content that that you feel comfortable to share. That 10 years from now, you're not gonna say, Oh my god, what I'm gonna do. Why did I put that on there? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

I think a lot of people regret that.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Even though like they delete it, it's truly not deleted, is also what people say.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

One of the things, oh, another thing is stories. Show them what you're doing every single day. That's the that's the best way to engage. And in that moment, you can like dance, do crazy videos out there. I don't know if you see a lot of agents now getting naked in front of the camera selling houses. Yeah, I don't understand that, but if you're good on that, you want to do it, just do it.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Whatever it takes is what they must be thinking.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

I saw some crazy stuff on Facebook. Um I have to look it up, but like some of the marketing things that some realtors are doing are like outrageous, just to try to like strike conversation, you know? Strike conversation. I'll try to find it while you guys sleep.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Did you see the video I put out yesterday?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

What you have to do as a 44-year-old entrepreneur to like get followers and likes. Because at this point, I think people are tired of having me say, create content, come to my studio. You can rent my like so. Then I I did this funny video. So, me, I'm sarcastic. I have very dark humor. So for me, I'm starting to build my brand as like that's me. I'm sarcastic. I'm everything is funny to me in a weird way. You gotta, and I love creating content that makes people laugh. That's it. I just want to make people laugh. And just do it.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

And just do it every single day. It's when you do that, it's not creating content, it's be you yourself and putting out there. And you're gonna reach more people than another person doesn't do anything, or trying to do or build a brand copying on other people. And that's what that's that's I feel that's they doing out there. Like one get naked and let me do the same thing, and another one.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

And I think people are trying to shortcut success. Yeah, it's like people don't want to invest in themselves, they're just they're just like, what's like what's like the easiest shortcut I can take that requires as little effort as humanly possible? Which like I get that desire to like as a human, I understand that desire to like move toward the path of like absolute least resistance, yeah, even though it realistically doesn't work long term compared to just like building a solid foundation of like disciplined behavior and like a process that will churn results over time. I I imagine you must find that when you're like, look, like I have had all the success. If you live like these are the steps I took to get here. If you do this, you'll get exactly there, and then people are like, eh, I don't need it. And it's like exactly I'm literally giving you the recipe to like you just told me you wanted to get here, I just gave you the recipe, and you're like, I don't want to cook that.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yep, yeah. And uh, a lot of questions. Oh, how you get those type of followers? Six years. Wow, six years? And now it took me six years to do this. Yes, I mean, maybe now it's easy to do it because now the algorithms change and whatever all everyone knows about social media. But to create a personal brand and be successful with this takes time. I mean, it's not just um social media, it's any business that you're gonna build, take time and success. I mean, and and uh take time to be success. So it's not just overnight that you're gonna see the clients gonna call you and say, I want to buy a house with you, or I like your content, or like people like you guys invited at the podcast. You know, it's take time to do that.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's interesting, um, or interesting to me. Um I love your red hot like discipline and and just like desire to be like, I'm just gonna I'm gonna do it till I win. I'm just gonna keep I'm gonna just gonna keep going until I win. I don't care. I don't care. I'm just gonna keep going. I'm just gonna keep going. I don't care. All the distractions, you can go fuck yourselves. I'm just gonna like do it. I like I I oh I love that. Oh, I fucking if I could bottle that. Oh, I love that. That's like my favorite thing in the world.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Oh my god. I didn't see you could, I mean, I didn't know you could say that.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

I noticed everything. I notice everything because it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

I mean, it's hard. Uh I mean, not only lose the account that I cannot stop saying, but a lot of people out there is like, what you doing? And trying to, you know, put those kind of things on you. How much money you make it? Do you, you know, those kind of things, but uh uh questions that you say, who cares? I'm trying to build something here. And sometimes you just like breathe, crying. I'm a crying baby. I don't know if you know, but I'm a crying baby. Cry for a couple of days and then keep going.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

So step one to being success is cry an extreme amount of time in the fetal position, taking notes in your kitchen, and have a husband support you. Yeah, so I will. I that's one of the things is I was like building my brokerage. I would be like, if you don't have a supportive spouse, don't even bother starting. Don't even bother. You're gonna you're gonna it's like torture. Eventually, like the human body seeks peace. If every if you're doing something that's challenging, and then you gotta go home and like get pounded on more, you'll give up the same way that if you're tortured, eventually you'll tell them you you just want the pain to stop. Okay, whatever I want. Like, that is that's that's why I'm saying I love your husband.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

I love that he's like not like yeah, I mean, he supported me a lot.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

And like, um, I was just looking at my Instagram, and like the first post that I posted was of my dog back in 2012. And I remember like as I kept posting every single day, I would get more followers, but then to like the point where like almost everything that I would post would get like thousands and thousands of likes, like ridiculous things, like a photo of a rock. I was like, why are people this is when like Instagram first started coming out, right? Yeah, and then I had a I at one point I had over 15,000 followers on my on my Instagram, and then I remember like something happened and I stopped posting and I stopped engaging, and then little by little people forget about you and they're following you, and all those things like that. So I think one of those uh important things to to really get from this this show today is like keep keep going, don't stop. Um you'll get there, right? Um keep showing people who you are, keep posting, keep engaging, right? If you're looking to build an audience, you'll build an audience, they will come. Yeah, they will come. Yeah, and it's the same thing, like with my events that I throw, I'm always throwing events. Yeah, I never stop.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And I was there when you had like 12 people showing up.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

When I had yeah, very little people, and like and uh it's like 120, you know. So here's my my follow-up question is how do you deal with the change of algorithms in social media? Because something may be working really well right now, and then boom, they like change it, and then you're like, it's not working. How do you find out like what is the next best thing to uh to jump on? Things that are trending, things of that nature, to like keep the engagement, keep the the followers, and and not only keep the followers, but continue to grow the followers, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Okay, first of all, I'm not trying, and that's what I tell all my uh clients, not trying to be vital, just trying to do what you love to do on social media. That's the first thing, right? And yes, this change, and you have to learn. It's like any other business that you have to grow with the business. So coach, get get people that what you want to be, trying to learn from them and study. It's it's a lot of coaching programs out there and a lot of uh um classes that you can learn and see how they doing this and trying to build the same thing. Right. So it's just uh like I said, first be you, be you out there because that is gonna change all the time. But when you are you, that's not gonna change. And trying to not give up because like you said, today this is working, like liking another account and following other accounts that get to you. But tomorrow, we don't know what is gonna uh uh work. So we have to keep learn and we have to keep going.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

So it's it's interesting to me, but it makes it makes it makes sense to me why my friends are my friends. Someone knows straight up. The other day, someone, well, not even the other day, all the all the time, people are like, You pandas, how do I become a panda? How do I become a panda? Like, what's the thing? And it's funny, it like makes me think about, and I was thinking this weekend, like, because someone else asked me, like, what's that all about? Like, and because there's someone for like nine months now who's been like, when can I be a panda or whatever? And I was thinking, like, what like nothing against them, but like, why is it that like I'll meet someone like when we met, or and I was like, Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, but then I'll know someone for a long time who's like not a bad person, or whatever, but I'm like, yeah, and I was thinking about it, and we gotta be a good person, right? First of all, you gotta be because like you're right, we've never had any drama. Like, we're just like, how can such a large group of people just be cool all the time? Like, that's not that's very uncommon, and but the other thing is like well, all the free wine, we're constantly nearable we being all but um and no one's gotten pregnant, and no one's gotten given time, um but it's that every single person has a red hot like love and desire for what they do. That when I see it, I'm just like, you need to be around. Like, we that that we we want that's what we have, and we have a ton of that, we want more. Like, bring that shit. And that's that's the one thing I was thinking is like the people who I'm always who like end up being on our circle is like they have like a deep love and desire for what it is they're chasing in such like a pure and just organic way that it's it's like it's hard to not vibe with that. It's so easy to just like get on that river and be like, oh, this feels I feel so at home in like right now. And like that's like when I hear you talk about this stuff like that, and I and it just makes so much sense why I was like, Yes, her. Like love it. So, Anna, how can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Uh my account. What is your Anna Racamonte Realtor? Just like that. All right, follow me, please.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Will you follow us back?

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Oh, we do, our cast follows you.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Uh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

So we'll definitely be putting your information out there, you know, so people can connect with you.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

And so I need I need to say something really important. I mean, I don't know, is but people out there, all my content we didn't talk about is in Spanish.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

So Oh yeah, I was gonna say, like, do you is that like the demographic that you that you are accustomed to working with currently?

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yes, that's Latinos. Yeah, that's another thing that I want to put out there. Not because uh I don't like to be here in English speaking area, but that's my first language. That's the language that I feel more comfortable with. Comfortable talking. And uh another thing is, like you say, I love what I do, and I feel that my community do not have a good um idea or create content as a professional. You Uh Salatina, yes, we are uh fun, happy and sometimes crazy. Yeah, well that but yeah, it's out there you can create content, professional content, and you and you can actually can have a business uh as a professional polish things beautiful out there, not just crazy as everybody thinks that we are.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

No, but it's true. Like every time she introduced me to like one of her colleagues or friends, she's like, Oh, here's my photographer friend or whatever, like former professional model turned photographer. That's not true.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

That's not true.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

So it's like a running joke whenever she introduced me to one of her friends. I'm like, holy shit, where do you find these people?

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Well that that's that's uh actually an important thing to emphasize. If if if you are currently working with Latinos and you feel like the Latino community is missing or could gain more from coaching and and getting their name out there, like there's tons of Latinos all over Florida, all over the United States. Like it's still market share of people that they could help, and those people can benefit from, right? Um, I was talking to someone who was looking to do like a channel, and I was like, Why are you gonna do it in English? I was like, you could do it in Spanish, like your Spanish is better.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

You get a bit you probably get a bigger following too.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

You'll you'll probably you'll probably get a bigger following and like and it's and it's needed, yeah, right? It's like it's it's needed.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

So you don't see and there's more Spanish speaking countries than our English speaking countries. By far, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Yeah, but here, like if you're gonna run a business here in the United States as a service business, like there's still a huge market share of people that can use your service.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

If you live in Miami, you don't need to speak English, you're good to go.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And most people there still don't because they've there's been no necessity there, there's no necessity there.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

If you if you're not bilingual and you live in Miami, I feel um terrified for people because yeah, they have to people have to adapt to where they live in the times that they live in, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Like I said, I love that America has a majority Spanish-speaking city. I think that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

It's cool. Yeah, and another thing that we have as a Latino is we have a taboo that we cannot show what we do, we cannot show our kids, we cannot show because this is bad, you don't know how many bad people out there. Yes, yes, but we live in the era where all kids have social media, our kids go into TikTok and and and have accounts. So it's now we can do it. Obviously, a safe way to do it, but we can do it. So I want to show my Latino people that we can create a business and show our family and and and and have fun out there and not be scared of social media.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

One of my biggest annoyances as a Caribbeaner is, and you just spoke to this, is so many of our Caribbean people uh approach things from a position of fear and look to say no to any opportunity thing that comes to them because of like some fear. Like the assumption is always not like things will go normal or things will go well in our Caribbean brains, like the most likely outcome is things are going to go horrifically wrong, and so I must say no because the most likely outcome is absolute disaster. When it's like not it's probably not what's gonna happen. I didn't design Caribbean culture, I'm just telling you, like, this is this is this, and she I'm sure you see this is a common problem, which is funny because the hardest working people are are the immigrants who come here from South America and Caribbean. So realistically, we actually have a far higher chance of success because you know, if you're I mean, you know, I look at some of the Cubans whose like parents brought them here on a raft with like a 30% chance of getting here and a 70% chance of like drowning in the Atlantic, right? Like you come here from that, you're here to win. Like your discipline is next level. You're like, I I'm not here to fuck around. I'm here to absolutely and you know you're Colombian, Dominican, I'm from Bahamas. Like, when we like that's why so many she's Italian, but well, you've built a beautiful business, but I'm saying just like our people who come, they say people who aren't born here have a higher chance of success than people who are. So realistically, we have a very high chance to win, yet our brains tell us, like, oh, this is gonna all go to shit. It's all gonna shit. I'm gonna say no.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

But you still, even though you come to this country, you still need some sort of guidance, and like what I mean by that, or some sort of um educating on on how your potential to grow is a possibility, right? Right. Because like a lot of people who come from other countries maybe are used to just uh working for somebody else, right? Yeah, or not even working at all, or just being so poverty stricken that the idea of them, for example, um in Cuba just eating meat is is something that is like so new. Like they don't they don't really eat steaks in the world.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

And if they do it rations, like their meat is a little bit more than a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Or no, you get in trouble. You can't eat you can't eat you can't eat meat down there. Like it's like because the cow like produces milk and like I don't know, it's like it's like a government thing, or I don't know, I don't know exactly what the thing is, but like, and that's why it's so important to have like coaches like you, Anna, because like you make people uh you show people the the potential and the ability to grow out there, yes, right? Um, and that's that's very new to people that come here to this country. Like they don't here in this country, the reason I love this country so much is because you can go from nothing to everything. Yes, and you don't have to be you don't have to be born anywhere else. You can still be born here, which is mind-blowing for me to see so many people disrespect the country, right? Where you could take nothing and turn it into everything if you just change your attitude. It doesn't matter what your past was, it doesn't matter anything. There's uh there's a lot of people who are in the same spot that you were and change their life, yeah, right? And I think it's important to motivate people to do the best for themselves because it's gonna change their life moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

I think America certainly this is the easiest country to be like, I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to build something and do it. Like that in in Europe it's not as easy, and you don't need to because so many things are taken care of. Like a part of it is in America, like if you don't build something, like you're literally gonna be starving on the streets and healthcare isn't free. So like if you can't pay to stay alive, you like die, right? So I don't think it's that people necessarily like innately want to disrespect the country. I just think sometimes people look at us like, why do I have enough need to have enough money so that if my kidneys fail, I literally just die if I don't have enough money. Like that's kind of weird. Like it makes sense to keep your population alive so they can pay taxes, right? And keep you going, right? So like there's an incentive to keep you people alive, so you should like as a country keep your people alive.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Um well again, uh, hospital's not gonna reject you if you have kidney failure.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Right, but the ER system is like not a great way to to deal with things.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

The ER system is a but my but you still get the treatment, you might just be in debt, but you will still get the Well, not all not all always, because some of these like a lot of heart failure is considered an optional procedure.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

So they don't have to give it to you. If your heart's failing, they'd be like, This is optional, and you're like, it's kind of not like can't live a whole long time without a heart. You go like four minutes. Um but so it is good for entrepreneurship. Um the the problem is the requirement for that rugged individual. So it's like the the the running joke, and I'm being British, I think I see it from a different perspective. The the running it's not even a joke, just kind of this to me. But the running joke is like if you're poor, it's rugged individualism, right? If you're really wealthy, it's socialism. Like when you're poor, you need to scrape money to get things going. But once you get wealthy, you like almost you don't even need money anymore. Like things are just kind of handed to you. Or the ta like I'm big into investing, like the tax the tax code for us who have who make money through investments, we don't pay taxes. Like this dumb, like that the people at the bottom are like getting just like beat down and taking so much from, but the people at top are just like, oh, we're chilling, like they make it so and it's weird because you think when you're on the top, you'd be like, No, I like this. But being British, like we like like when we're wealthy in Europe and stuff, I like the fact that the government takes a lot from me so that the roads and the schools are nice for the poor kids. So we think more tribal.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

And our and our taxes now go to that, also though. Our taxes go to making weapons. I mean, here, I mean, if you look like not I mean not predominantly, not predominantly rabbit hole. I mean but still, but still, but here's here's the thing. You are an advocate of paying taxes for helping people, yeah. Regardless of the percentage that goes to those people.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Taxes and social media and hanging. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 31:23

My thing is that I'm understanding what you're doing. I'm trying to clarify my position. My position is that the wealthy should pay an obscene amount of taxes, myself included. Right. And you don't.

SPEAKER_05 31:36

That's the ironic part.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Like you I'm saying, but there's no mechanism for it. No, I know, but but one of the the artists.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

The arty here is is you boast on not paying taxes, right? Right. And unfortunately, when I when the lack of the legal makes the lack of paying taxes is is taking away from people that can potentially. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I'm not saying I'm not saying that I'm choosing to not pay taxes. I'm saying there's no mechanism. Because if you make money through investments, taxes do not exist until you take the money out. So it's not like like if they want to put a tax-but you take money out, you have to take money out to revise. You don't need to take money out. My income from my business because I live simply, but I'm saying the majority of money grown is through investments, right? So if I make three million dollars this year, there's no taxes on that because I don't take it out. If they wanted to put a tax on unrealized capital gains, I would be all for that. So it's not that I don't want or I'm dodging taxes. The mechanism for it simply doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

So, what do you do to help people that are poverty stricken?

SPEAKER_01 32:40

What do we do to help people that are poverty stricken? I've always been a fan of teaching people how to fish, and I learned this from my mentor versus like giving someone a fish. Like one of my mentors is so you know, a lot of Venezuelan like asylum seekers are coming over because there was like no food in Venezuela. His thing was the moment those people came off of the boat, he was like, We're gonna sit you down and teach you how the rules in this country work when it comes to money and how to grow money, and that doesn't take a lot, you just gotta make good decisions so that you literally know how to fish and you know the rules of this country. So you can, you know, I always say like you can become white people rich, you can learn the rules to the people who've been here known for generations. So I'm like, we do free financial plans. We don't charge. I've never charged anyone anything.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Yeah, but how do you help someone that doesn't have any money?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Because but you don't see, like, for example, that first thought is a wrong way to think about it. Everybody has money, it's just the way that you use it. That so, for example, the worst standard of living in this country is higher than the best standard of living in most countries. So, not having any money in this country is kind of a choice, like it really. You could literally come into this country with nothing as an asylum seeker, and you could pick fruit or become a guy on a landscaping crew, which is like there's no shortage of them looking for landscapers to be out there in the hot sun, right? And a lot of landscapers in our community that I've and in my broken Spanish with my Google Translate, I've talked to them about like, look, when you make money, you should be putting a percentage of it here, it'll grow faster than you think. So it's not an issue of not having money, the issue is of not knowing what to do because so many of us in like in the Caribbean, we have this thing called susu, where like a bunch of, and you probably asked Dominican, where people take a bunch of money, they put it in a pot, and someone gets it January, someone gets it in February, blah blah blah blah blah. And my mother, my mother did that for years, and I was talking to her yesterday. I'm like, through my mom is now an investment junkie because I like got her, I got her on the the fix. Like, she's made more than she ever made in her life working in a year, and she doesn't have a ton of money.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Yeah, but she she built businesses though.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

No, my mom is like a nurse. My mother, my my that side of my family is different. My mother has just been a nurse on a small island in the Bahamas where there is no money. But my point is like one of the things that so okay, to what you were saying, you could literally come over here, have nothing, be an orange picker or whatever, I don't know what fruits they pick here. And if you just understand the rules of how to probably properly um like I don't know, I can't I'm I don't know why I'm blanking on the word, but like segregate what you make into small little portions to put away.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah, but that's that's financial literacy, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:20

So financial literacy But that's the in a capitalistic country, the financial literacy is the rules of the country.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

But also a lot of those people aren't eligible for bank accounts when they first come over here because they have to they have to establish an identity and a lot of them have to go through the channels, which it takes the process a little bit longer for them, right? Yeah, immigration law, like all kinds of stuff they have to apply to get.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

You have to get an item, to get a social security number.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Is a way I'm with you in that. It's a way you to be get here zero, nothing, and get rich or get money. Yes, it's a way. The the thing is most of the Latin, most of the immigrants came here with fear. And we grow up to hear our parents save the money. Save, save, save, yeah, not use credit card.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Put on the mattress.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Put on the mattress. So when you grow up thinking like that, it's hard to trust the bank, to trust a credit card to get a loan for anything. So you just want to save the money and you don't want to waste it.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Waste it. So for us, to take out our mind, the way that you grow for for all your life, is hard. So for me, and and back to my business, is show them that you can have a business here with uh a literal language, because that's another thing that I want to put out there. I'm Latina, I'm speak Spanish, that's my first language, obviously. But you have to speak something English.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Yeah, you have to learn.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

You have to learn something. I mean, you have to put out there with accent. It's fine. Look at me. Hello.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

That's fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

But you have to have both language, like you said, and stri start building something that you like and go for. Don't be fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Learning learning the the language is of of of the people who if a majority of people are speaking English, you should learn how to speak English. Yeah. You know, and it's so interesting because I know people who have lived here for decades. Yes. And they still don't speak English. It's hard than that. It's not hard. English is like the easiest language to manual. It's a lot harder to learn.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

The letter A, the letter A has 36 sounds in English. It has one sound in the spanning. Okay, compare it.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Compare it to like an Asian language that are out there. It's like well, that's because we have more because we don't have a common alphabet.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

For you starting with the Roman alphabet, yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Listen, English, everybody, there's a reason why English is spoken almost all over the world, right? It's it's a lot easier than it's a very good thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Yeah, because England colonized it.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

It is a lot easier.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

But reluctantly, I'll tell you something. I lived in Italy for two years, and the worst thing I ever saw, first of all, I lived back in 2002. Terrible time to move over there was right after 9-11. Like literally, like they told me not to go, and I was like, I'm going anyway. So it was already like heightened for Americans to be in foreign country as it was. But I remember sitting in this cafe that I sat in every day, best cappuccino ever. This like hole in the wall cafe where people were chain smoking like it was going out of style.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

And living longer.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

And living longer, right? Totally. Drinking wine at lunchtime, like you know, scenario. And so this older man barged in and like went to the bar and was like, Where's the American Express office? And no one there spoke English. Like no one there spoke. It wasn't that.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

That's such the American experience in reality. Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

And I got up and I said, Where the fuck do you think you are? Uh do you think you're in, you know, downtown LA? Like, no, you're in Italy in a cafe. Like, don't be so ignorant. Like, you can't think that just because you're, you know, they say that English is the universal language. You know what? Screw that. There should be no universal language. You're you you're born and raised in the culture and the language that you've cultivated that has history and culture. And so technically, technically, I used to be on the thought process that yeah, you need to speak the language to be in America. But now I'm like, you know what? How ignorant am I for not learning how to speak all these other languages? Because we are a melting pot of people and all these different cultures, whether it's Greek, Italian, French, you know, all the people in the Caribbean, like all these people are moving here. And how ignorant is it for Americans to not want to learn how their customs are? We just feel like we're in this bubble.

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Completely agree. Yeah, I mean, I don't know whether all Americans feel that way. Um, I think some Americans want to protect the American culture, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:17

And the question, and the question Yeah, does American culture is that even a real thing outside of film? The only art, the only real medium that America has really built is film. Everything else came from somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

I think there is an American culture because you if you see a lot of people coming here from other countries, there's a reason. Why are they coming here? Why are all these people coming here to the United States? Political asylum.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

You really want to talk about this week. I'm a historian of this.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

Maybe they, maybe, maybe they want a better life, they want to they want something better for their family, right? Maybe they're they're fleeing a terrible situation, all those different things.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Well, you gotta consider this was the first country that was built where like a group of people got together and were like, we're gonna let the people govern for the people. If you consider that most of Europe and all these places were monarchies or something of that form, and they were like, because they had just like you know, thrown off the king, and they were like, We're gonna try to do this, so like we we lead ourselves, and it's gonna be awesome. And everyone's like, Yeah, because the American Revolution is what led to the French Revolution, because the French were like, that that looks fucking great. We want some of that, and we're starving. So, and then you know, Ireland, the potatoes ran out, and they're like, We starve to death or we go somewhere else. So a lot of it was America was a the great place to come, right? And it does have a better standard of living. Not to mention, you know, one of the things, because I'm a big historian of this, one of the best things America has that has made America so popular and so good as America is the interstate. And the ability to move materials from one area to another efficiently heavily affects how grown up you are as a country and how great everything is. And the interstate changed all of that. Like the fact that, you know, if you think, if you think 100 years ago, like you had to live near where you bought food, right? You had to live right where you worked. So you were forced to be in it. And now we can have all the commerce in one area. You can live in these things called the suburbs, which you can get to work in a reasonable time. You can have you can have you can order something online and have it show up 5 p.m. that day in front of you. You go on the highway, you see all those trucks, like everything we ever want is being moved very quickly from one place to the other. That was one of the big things that makes America so great is that the moment you want something, you can have it.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

That's right. So let me ask you a question. Like, if you you have the ability to live anywhere in the world if you wanted to, but you're still here. Because you all are here.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Oh someone asked me, like, why aren't you just in French meeting some French baddie or an Italian? And I love Italian.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Don't you don't you feel like like the culture? When I say American culture, I don't mean like something that is like all the same. It's it's the life experience that you've built here that everybody wants. It doesn't mean that you have to be some like national crazy person or anything. That's not what like and like I don't think that's where you're going. But a lot of people think that, right? When I think nationalism become a big thing. But when I say American culture, I I'm talking about my life. That's my life.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Well, I'm here because that's where the pen is, and I like love, I love I you all like seriously, like our get us just doing stuff together is like the joy of my life. It's great. Um, I would not want to give that up, right? But at the same time, I can look and I can look and be like, there is okay. First of all, America's really six countries because the Southeast is different than the Northeast, which is different than the Chesapeake Carry, right? So that's why I say there's no American culture because it's really very different.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

American culture is like whatever your experience is. That's what I think American culture is, because no one's life is ever gonna be the same, right? Yeah, growing up in Iowa is a different different from yours, but it all happened here, right? Or hopefully it'll continue to happen here, right? So, and I think that's what people want, right? Not only do they see it like in movies and on the TV and all those different things, but a lot of people see what they have, and they're like, I've they they like that there's a reason why America was called the land of opportunity, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Right? It it it was well because yeah, but the 50s was yeah, but if you but you keep it. Let me explain.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

It still is.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

No matter what I know we're running long.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

I know we're running long. Are we running long?

SPEAKER_05 44:30

We are all good.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Well, on our next uh episode, we'll be talking about I really want to get into this because this is such a good topic.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Why life is still so amazing here, um, and why we wouldn't change it or someone else would change it for anything else.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Born in the USA.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

I was and I wasn't born in the USA. Neither was I.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Am I the only one?

SPEAKER_03 44:53

You're the only one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Right, where were you born?

unknown 44:56

Here.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

Yeah. So um we'll we'll exit it out with that. Right? That's right.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

This has been another episode of the PBJ show. I'm J9.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

I'm the beast. Panda.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

And Anna.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Yeah, I gotta have you back. I love your vibe.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

For joining us.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

I told you good.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

I told you this.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

See you later.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

Bye. And just like that, we're done. But don't worry, we'll be back. If you laughed, learned something, or just enjoyed the chaos. Go ahead and follow, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever you're tuning in.