Since then, I've taken that as a journey, specifically
that last day of summiting, when I talk about
people with money and what they're going through.
Every day is a grind. Every day is just one foot
in front of another, one foot in front of another
until we reach one of our goals. And guess what?
At the end of the day, that summit wasn't the
last goal we reached. We saw it come down. I
think you'll know, right? What we're talking
about, you're just going to feel it. You're going
to feel offended or defensive about it. So that's
one way you're going to know right away. Triggers,
right? The other is I want to ask, and I use
this analogy a lot, but I want to ask everyone
right now, have you seen or missed opportunities
in your life that you were unwilling to take
advantage of or did never saw to take advantage
of that others have and are further ahead in
your life? You're doing it. So one, Pat yourself
on the back. I know, smile a little bit. Try
to lift yourself up. The other is ask yourself,
what risk did you take? What cliff did you walk
off of to start the business? What was that?
What helped push you over the edge to be like,
I'm gonna start this thing. So visualize this.
When you feel out of control with your money,
you don't know what's coming in, you don't know
what's going out, bank account keeps going, and
you're getting those damn fees, right, overdraft
fees? Yeah. What do you start to do? You start
to probably overeat, drink more, do more drugs,
do things that you know is not good for yourself,
your body, your mental side, everything. You
will repeatedly do those things because you keep
logging in to look at your bank account and it's
at zero, it's at negative, it goes positive,
right? That's what I mean when you start turning.
Wealth isn't just about money. It's about joy,
freedom, and living fully. Stoy Hall knows this
firsthand. From growing up in scarcity to building
black mammoth, Stoy has redefined what true wealth
really means. He shows us that mindset can either
trap us or set us free, and that breaking cycles,
teaching financial literacy, and building generational
wealth is about more than dollars. It's about
passing down knowledge, confidence, and purpose.
If you ever felt stuck by old money beliefs or
distorted social media success, This episode
is your wake -up call. Get ready to redefine
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there. Look, my hope is that the Thravo journey
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We're walking through a 22 -week series built
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in the group. But for right now, let's get into
it. Story Hall is on the podcast today, man.
I want to say thank you for being here. And I
know we look, we talked a little bit in the green
room. And first of all, I just just remind remembered,
I know we were going to do a podcast before about
a month ago, but you have some things some situations
that you had to take care of. And here's what's
so interesting about that. I was watching TV,
maybe like, I think a couple days after we're
going to do the podcast, I was my face popped
up on the TV. I'm like, wait a minute, is that
that's, that's the guy that's supposed to be
on the podcast. When you were watching or you
I was watching, I think, Atlanta News First or
whatever. And then you came on and you were talking
about finances. And I was like, Hey, that's him.
So I got to kind of see you a little bit on there.
So thank you for being here on this podcast.
I appreciate it. Yeah, and I appreciate you bring
me on and yep. We had a lot of things personal
go on a month ago, and I'm so I'm glad we could
reschedule and get at it now. Yeah, me too. Me
too. And just to flow into it, you know, just
reading about you, you are international man
and you were you I mean, you you've been all
over right? So I was reading about you were in
10s you you had you did sports in Tanzania. And
I lost my notes here, but it's okay. Can you
talk about that or even, you know, share a little
bit about your journey from and you talk about
scarcity to understanding true wealth and just
kind of give a brief overview of just share a
little bit about that from your journey from
scarcity to your understanding of building true
wealth. Yeah, and actually the the trip to Tanzania
intertwines with that. pretty smoothly too. So,
uh, originally born and raised Omaha, Nebraska,
um, with a single white mother father was not
in the picture. Okay. Really wasn't around since
the age of three, give or take. And I learned
early on that different people have different
love languages is what we call it nowadays. But
my mom would always buy me stuff and make sure
I could get to sports. Like that was her thing.
It wasn't time around me. It was making sure
I can do those things. but I was raised a lot
by my teammates parents or some of my friends
parents and they're in a diff a whole different
class right a whole different setup of money
and I never understood like why is that like
why do some people have money and some don't
why can some people for to go on trips and some
don't I just never it never clicked I never understood
it and so I had this deep passion of like finding
out why Why is my family in this situation when
another family isn't and we live across the street
essentially from each other. Mm -hmm. And so
Being an athlete knowing that that's the route
I was gonna go. I was lucky enough to play collegiate
football at Drake University and I also worked
at the boys and girls club off campus and I got
my degree in finance minored in business law
because I wanted to Understand how this money
game worked because in our communities were never
taught that That is not even a thing, right?
We're not allowed to talk about money within
our own families, our own community. We just
don't do that. So being a part of the Boys and
Girls Club, I started to understand that like
it wasn't just a my family issue. It's a lot
of people's issues, right? From the richest to
the poorest, we all have this thing around money.
I have now deemed it and learned that it is a
poor relationship with money or a negative money
mindset. And it usually stems from some type
of trauma when we were a child around money.
And so over the course of, you know, going to
school and work and I realized that I needed
to, I needed to be a part of that more. And that
didn't really come to light of how I wanted to
do it. Um, until we went to that trip to Tanzania,
which our football team went down there. We actually
played against a Mexican all -star team. By the
way, Mexican football has been around for almost
as long as American football. Fun facts. Um,
but we went there to play against them. Go ahead.
Not, not soccer, but American football, not football,
but football. football, not football, right?
And so we went down there. But part of that was,
you know, we went to an orphanage, we helped
build their fences, their security and stuff
like that. And I will never forget this memory
we get off get off the plane. We're welcomed
by a welcome tribe. By the way, their verticals
are like 4045 50 inches, they're just jumping.
That's part of their like celebration. But I'm
sitting here going, Wow, yeah, Jersey or went
and played some basketball. We had no chance.
Um, but also when we were going through and through
the village, I look over and there's women just
sweeping mud floors. That's what they're doing.
Well, we think about it as mud floors. That's
their floor. They're just cleaning up for the
day. And throughout that two weeks, I learned
that these are the most wealthy people I have
ever met because I was raised by the terms of
wealthy means money. I learned really quickly.
Wealth is not about money. It takes money to
sometimes become wealthy. But wealthy is your
true happiness, joy in life, in living life,
how you want to and taking care of others. That's
all wealthy is. And they had it there. They were
happier in hell. Now, obviously, we were giving
things and doing things that we wanted to. But
at the end of the day, they were just so wealthy.
And that's when it triggered me to be like, I
need to get into this industry and disrupt it
and go a different route about money. So, I can
teach our people that money is just a tool for
us to do things. Living a wealthy life doesn't
matter how many zeros you have, you can still
be wealthy. And I, you know, I abide by that
now, right? So, I launched Black Mammoth in 2020
and we haven't stopped growing since. That trip,
I mean, it had to really give you some enlightenment
about life about how to live life or how to to
to share your knowledge uh other people what
were some of the like messages that you got within
that within that that that there was a sense
of um uh where do I want to use yeah there was
a sense of purpose but there was a sense of being
grounded into earth into life right because there
you know there's not a lot of wi fi you don't
have to worry about any of the technology things
you truly live in every day for that next day
we also mount kilimanjaro which was the hardest
damn hike i've ever been on my life um but you
just get in tuned with who you are and why you
are truly on that earth not to you know do all
the things that we do here in America but to
like root of we need water we need food we need
to get from point A to point B but we need to
do it collectively together because we can't
do it all ourselves and that just kept the same
things the same methods the same ideas kept hitting
us over and over again one night in the tent
with one of my buddies we were just sitting there
going and then all of a sudden like this this
aura just hit us of like we are supposed to be
where we're at right now with the people we're
at right now in our lives and the next day we're
we're summiting and it just made you feel like
this earth runs through us as opposed to us running
the earth and those messages haven't left you
know me since that day since those days I should
say not everybody can say they Mount they they
come among Kilimanjaro on that What was the experience
like for you before you got to the summit and
then when you got to the summit summit? The first
we did it in six days four days up two days down
the first three days. You're just walking all
day long right six 12 hours. You're just it's
a normal mountain type walk. Yeah, but it's like
camping right you're you're with your buddies.
You're doing all of those things. As you get
to day three, we ran out of peanut butter and
coffee, which was a big issue. But so it was
just like, cool, we're hanging out, we're doing
things, you know, we're going through rivers,
we're jumping through rocks, we're, we're being
able to have conversations. And then, then that
like, last night, before you summit, you actually
get up at like one in the morning, because they
don't want you submitting in the daytime, because
of how vertical it is, you mentally won't do
it. Really almost straight up. I'm talking about
You can't physically walk straight up it you
have to go back and forth and back and forth
for eight hours basically to get up this thing
and so That is where when you can't breathe Your
next focus is just literally the step in front
of me like one step at a time And you do that
for like six eight hours one step at a time one
step at a time one step at a time just with buddy
in front, buddy in back. I'm just making sure
we all can just keep going straight. And then
you get to the summit and you still have another
oh, quarter of a mile to go to reach the highest
peak. And we had that time had two teammates
drop off because their brains were swelling.
So they were emergency rush down. You really
can't breathe. You can't stay up there long.
But when you see the sunrise and you're there,
You kind of leave your body a little bit. I know
people use that expression all the time, but
you kind of do. You get there and you realize
that you put in all this work to get to this
moment. A lot of moments that people have not
been to, and you did it with the people that
you have grinded and done everything with in
life. And since then I've taken that as a journey,
specifically that last day of summiting, when
I talk about people with money and what they're
going through. Every day is a grind. Every day
is just one foot in front of another. One foot
in front of another until we reach one of our
goals. And guess what? At the end of the day,
that summit wasn't the last goal we reached because
we saw it come down. We saw it come down to life,
right? And that's the same thing with our journeys
when it comes to money and just life in general
is we still reach a goal, but we've got to still
keep going. And that's what I took from specifically
that summiting day. So you know earlier you talked
about you know wealth was not what you thought
and I would assume that assert that success is
probably the same thing like what when you first
realize that tradition the traditional definition
of wealth and success wasn't it wasn't enough.
I don't know if I ever knew what the true definition
I mean on paper what I've taught in schools.
Yes, I know what the actual definition is, but
I never personally have ever felt true success
and true definition of wealth internally. I always
thought it was always something you just had
to keep competing at it could because I was an
athlete from early on and that's what we got
drilled into us and that's just who I am. But
when I then take that back over my years of experience,
I mean, I'm going on, what, 14, 15 years now,
I look at every one of my clients' journeys.
It's reflective of the same thing. No one ever
really feels like they've made it. They've been
successful. They are wealthy. No one feels that.
Doesn't matter even if you're those narcissistic
people like Musk or something like that. He still
doesn't feel successful and he's made it, right?
So then I started realizing, why do we put a
definition on this when The only people that
can see us being successful are outside of our
own ears that are outside looking in. We never
actually truly feel that. So why are we trying
to achieve this thing? This goal, the success,
whatever it looks like by a definition in a dictionary
when truly what does that success meter mean
for us? Right. In almost every person I've ever
met doesn't have that answer. The only answer
is I just keep going. Like I just have to keep
going. And really, that's definition of life
is just keep going. You're never gonna make it.
The day you make it's the day you die. Like that's
when you made it. Yeah, you got going every day.
You know, I find that very interesting, because
even just in terms of maybe in specific areas,
maybe you've done something successfully. But
some people, and I'll just use myself, like,
even though like, just say in sports, there was
a Space that space and time that I was successful
in that that area, but I never saw myself successful
like you know finishing first in the race or
getting trophies and gold medals and and Scholarships
and all that kind of stuff, but I never it was
always something next and What do you say to
those people that have that mindset like it that
never can never kind of sit in the? success of
what they've created and have to get to that
next that next thing. That one I've I've battled
myself, right? I've had really good success in
sports and in business and everything and I've
battled that and the the message I try to tell
everyone including myself and my clients is find
out what truly brings you joy though and go do
that thing. For us, my family, we go to Hawaii
for two weeks every year. That is ultimately
what brings us the most joy. All the way from
home type thing. When we're there, that's when
you can decompress, get away from things and
just smile and be you. You have to have those
moments. It doesn't have to be two weeks in Hawaii.
It could be whatever it is for you. You need
to figure out what brings you joy. in align those
things with some of your everyday practices or
have that be your mechanism for win like in business.
My goal is to make $100 ,000 this year. Cool.
All right. When I hit then I achieve that I'm
going to do the thing that brings me joy, right?
You need to align these these steps with things
that bring you joy because the the earning of
the money or the reaching of that goal or that
summiting might not be what makes you feel successful.
You may never ever feel that. But you do know
that these things bring you joy. And by doing
these things and achieving these, you can go
do the things that you really love. Summoning
Mount Kilimanjaro. Was that did you feel that
feeling of success? And so did you? Did you celebrate
that, that achievement? Or what was that like
for you? For me, in that mindset, I mean, because
we were still playing, you know, we We had a
game that we played for me. It was just another
step, right? Another thing on my journey, like
another training session, another, it was just
another thing. And then you tell people and they
go, excuse me, like, are you serious? Right?
Like then you start to read about it and figure
it out. And it, you have to create, I had to
create that for myself, but no, I didn't do that.
I was there with my teammates and we were just,
it's another challenge in front of us that we
were. knocking out of the park like that. That's
all it was. It was never a, you know, people
say that when they scale mountains that they
just get this like sense of accomplishment and
success. And no, it was to your to what you were
talking about. Just what's okay. What's next?
What's next? Yeah. What's next? Oh, we get a
slide down the mountain. Sweet. What's next?
You know what I mean? That's what it felt like
to me. And so I brought that up because I just
wanted to kind of flow into the next thing, which
was like our mindset, you know, and how we think
about things. And I know in the beginning of
the conversation, families don't talk about finances
a lot or money or the relationship to money could
be not having a relationship to money. And sometimes,
you know, not for everyone, but it can Create
kind of just different kind of mindsets. And
so in that mindset, I want to talk about scarcity
In your view what it what it what is the scarcity
mindset Yeah, and there's a difference between
survival and scarcity. I want everyone to know
that too scarcity living in a scarcity mindset
is Unwilling to take risks or things that will
improve your life because you're afraid of the
unknown That's all it is. Survival is knowing
that I have to do this to bare minimum to survive,
but I am trying to achieve success. Okay. And
those are the, like everyone usually gets those
mixed up. Like I'm living a scarcity survival
mindset. No, they're not. Survival is different
than scarcity. Scarcity is truly living in a
way where you are not willing to take on risks,
whatever they may be to continue to go forward
because don't know what could happen. And guess
what? We're humans. We live everyday life. There's
no way possible that we would know what's gonna
happen next. I don't even know what we're gonna
say the next few sentences, right? So, how am
I gonna be so scared and afraid of taking that
risk of having this next two -sentence conversation
with you just because I don't know what's gonna
happen. Right. And that's to me, that's the that's
the definition of scarcity if you will. Here
on the Thriveville journey, we talk a lot about
not just surviving, but thriving. And a big part
of that for me has been understanding my health
on a deeper level. That's why I partnered with
Livegood and brought it under my company, Orion's
Health. Not just because I believe in the products,
but because I've seen what they can do firsthand.
I've walked through some hard health chapters
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And I know what it feels like when your body's
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two free tools that help me and can help you
too. First, go to MyFreeHealthReport .com for
slash Orion's Health. Take our quick health questionnaire
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Of course, of course, always, always, always
consult your physician before starting any new
supplement or health regimen. Your body is unique,
and your health care provider should always be
part of the conversation. The links are in the
show notes. Now tap in and take your next step
toward thriving. Do you see that people live,
let's talk about entrepreneurs, or just people
in general live in that mindset of scarcity and
how How can one break out of that, that mentality,
that way of being for themselves so that they
can really truly live a world of possibility
for who they want to become in life? Yeah, I'm
not a statistician or know the data on this,
but I would say majority of us live in scarcity
mindset. Yeah, that's just just how it is the
truth. For me, the best way to get out of it
is to figure out who you are. Like what brings
you joy, happiness, how you want to live life,
not what media has portrayed you not what your
family tells you. How do you want to live your
life? And what does that mean? Okay. And then
tie that into your decision making your budgeting
your all your things. And that will naturally
get you out of scarcity and move you into prosperity
or just live in life of like, I got to do these
things to achieve this. And if something bad
happens, it's okay because I'm focusing on what
brings me joy and doing the right things. And
if I can focus on that, even if bad things happen,
they will get corrected. They will be figured
out and I will be able to move forward. But if
you're stuck in the mud and you're not going
anywhere, that's truly what you are. You're stuck
and you're going to feel that way and it's just
going to keep spiraling and spiraling and spiraling.
until people overspend, get into much debt, use
drugs, commit suicide, all of those things come
into play when you're stuck in that scarcity
mindset and true. So truthfully, just figure
out who you are. Apply those to every all your
decisions you make, and you'll slowly start to
move out of that scarcity mindset. Is that a
way for them for entrepreneurs or just people
in general to kind of recognize that they're
living in the scarcity mindset? I think though,
I think you'll know, right? What we're talking
about, you're just going to feel it. You're going
to feel offended or defensive about it. So that's
one way that you're going to know right away.
Triggers, right? The other is I want to ask,
and I use this analogy a lot, but I want to ask
everyone right now, have you seen or missed opportunities
in your life that you were unwilling to take
advantage of or did never saw to take advantage
of that others have and are further ahead in
your life? All right, think about that. And when
I bring this back up, obviously from an athletic
perspective is in college football, we would
train eight, nine months out of the year at 6am
for 11 potential opportunities to play the game
that we love. Right? We knew what we were training
for. We knew we had 11 on the schedule. We knew
when they were. And we still trained that hard
every day, just to have those 11 opportunities
in life. You don't know when those opportunities
are going to happen. You don't know how many
there are. And most of us don't do the day in
day out training for ourselves. Education, making
the right financial decisions, et cetera. For
when those opportunities arise, we either can't
see them, fiscally cannot take advantage of them,
physically cannot take advantage of them, or
mentally can't take advantage of those opportunities.
And when those opportunities arise, those are
the ones that are given to us to then get ahead
or get out of our situation. again everybody
think about it in your life have you gotten passed
up on on opportunities or missed them because
you couldn't see them because you are not trained
yourself and you are not ready for that opportunity
that's a good question how do they answer that
question then like if you if you don't necessarily
see it because you're in it how do you acknowledge
and recognize that um So that if that does show
up for them, they might they can answer that
for themselves. Thing is, we all miss opportunities
that we don't see. It's facts. They're out there.
Me, you doesn't matter how well you're you're
prepped and trained. So it's happening. It's
just a matter of how many are you missing? Yeah,
I know. That's all it is. You know, if there
was 100 a year, are you missing 99 or are you
missing 50? Right. Those that train educate themselves.
are put into a positive mental mindset when it
comes to money are aligned with their joy and
their goals and their budgeting and are able
to take advantage of the things that are popping
up. They're the ones that are getting more towards
that I can take advantage of more opportunities.
The ones that don't have those things set up
and prepared and all of that you're missing 99
% of them. It's just that's just what's out there
for you because you have not prepared everything
in front of you. And that takes up your mindset
that takes up your mental capacity, right? If
you don't have your things in order, everybody
organized and you know, what's going to happen
if this happens and hey, if my you know, my car
breaks down, I'm cool, I can figure it out. If
you don't have that aligned, all of those decisions
are going through your brain right now, regardless.
And so how can your brain then see an opportunity
that's out there? If it's spending its time trying
to come up with plans that you haven't set down
forth on something as simple as if my car breaks
down? Yeah. What's a practical step that someone
can that's in that situation that's listening
and they're like, is that me? What's what's one
sign that says, yeah, that may be you that you're
in this situation and what's one step that can
give them, you know, just just the way out of
that space that that that they may be in. Yeah.
Whether it's you or someone you love and you
know, there's visible signs. Those visible signs
are usually they're they're backed off. They're
regarded. But if something happens, they're so
emotionally quick triggered by it. Right? Whatever
that may be, it could be a plethora of things.
But you know, those people, the ones that are,
they just look worn down a little bit. But then
if something small pops off, they pop off. That
is then telling you that their brain is so overwhelmed
with things that and they're not prepared for
whatever it may be right, even if it is something
small. And so those are the people that you can
recognize right away. How do you help them or
how can they be listening and take that first
step to help themselves is sit down with yourself.
And write all of your worries and concerns out.
I know we don't do a lot of writing nowadays
is 2025. We like using chat, GPT and computers
and stuff. Write it down, right? All down. Okay.
And then go through back through not that same
day. Just write it all down. Maybe next day,
a week later, go through and ask yourself, do
you have a plan for this? If you do nice little
check mark, cool. We got a plan. If you don't
start with that first one and start a plan, just
start a very simple plan. Because you have to
start figure out what's wrong, then you have
to take that first step So it doesn't matter
what it is. You need to take that first step
Then that next step becomes a little easier and
then you can start to build momentum Whether
that's bringing in experts or whatever But you
have to start with you. We can't do anything.
Like even if you hired me, there's only so much
I can do It's still on your shoulders to to lift
Yeah I would say that like there's people that
may be in great positions to uh you know elevate
themselves financially and mentally and all that
good stuff but may there may be some kind of
things some stronghold that's holding them back
from actually taking a step to move forward um
and it it could be crippling to some people um
what would you say to people that are like they
they just they just feel stuck know, the entrepreneurs
that feel stuck, and I hate to use the word stuck,
but that's the only one that I can really give
to give a picture of where they may be mentally.
What would you say to that person, that entrepreneur,
that person, I would first congratulate them.
If you're an entrepreneur, and you're still here
listening, and you're operating, you're doing
majority of the work, it's already done, you've
done it successfully. Right? I have money coming
in, or you're operating a little bit. Congratulations,
you're doing majority of things that people wouldn't
do. Right? That's why there is normal employees.
Because they can't do it. You're doing it. So
one, pat yourself on the back. I know smile a
little bit, try to lift yourself up. The other
is ask yourself, what risk did you take? What
cliff did you walk off of to start your business?
What was that? What helped push you over the
edge to be like, I'm gonna start this thing.
We all have to You don't just go into it with
everything lined up and it's just a flip of switch
and it's the easiest thing in the world. It's
not possible. You had to take a risk. So ask
yourself what that risk was or how you got pushed
into the business. And then ask yourself again,
if I want to grow, do I have to take another
step off the ledge? The answer is going to be
yes, right? Yeah. But can that same motivation
that got me into it push me to that next step
and know that I'm okay because I've already done
it once? So why can't I do it again? Right, right.
It's continuous steps that will continue to move
you forward. But something like you're in the
world of the unknown, especially as entrepreneur,
you know, you're in the world of the unknown.
And so what it's going to take is, you know,
the continuous risk steps to continue to move
people maybe move you forward. Let's go from
scarcity mindset to you like wealth understanding
You I mean one of the things some of the things
you talked about is you know, you know understanding
wealth and and in certain like you said families,
they don't talk about wealth and freedom and
Understanding money and what money can do as
a tool, right? how do families, entrepreneurs,
just people in general, will really redefine
wealth for, you know, for anyone who wants lasting
freedom, and really free themselves up from this,
the old way of thinking like, you know, I can't
talk about money and all that kind of, you know,
all the, all the stuff. You, you got to start
with and I like to say you like to start with
your business owners that are your friends, right?
Because most of us are all going through that
same thing. And really what we're skating around
the word is generational wealth. Our communities
really statistically don't have generational
wealth. That was broken during the Tulsa bombing
and all those things. I could just generationally,
we don't have it. Majority of us minorities do
not have generational wealth. And that's the
problem is we don't have it. And so no one knows
how to teach it to pass it down. So one, I would
start with some like -minded business owners
that are around you and have the conversations
about, hey, how are you doing? And how do we
build and start to get comfortable with talking
about your money, right? And talking about that.
Generational wealth isn't just about dollars.
It's about knowledge and education. That is more
important than the actual money. The thing is
we just haven't passed down our own knowledge
either. So business owners, you're really good
at what you do probably why you have a business
Are you are you teaching your kids? Are you talking
to your family about what you do in your business
and what the hard things are and what the fun
things are Are you on podcasts and creating content
blog posts and stuff sharing the wealth of knowledge
that you have as much as you can? Are you doing
that if you're not doing that? Are you truly
building on that generational wealth? Are you
really trying to change the dynamic of your family?
The answer is no, because it starts with you.
You're the one who's recognizing it, right? Yeah,
I get it. Your family, your parents didn't teach
you. Your grandparents never taught you. It's
not fair. It's a lot of hard work. So be it.
Someone has to start it in your family. You're
the entrepreneur now. You've taken those risks.
You've learned a lot. It's time to start just
speaking. whether it's to us as an audience or
it truly is to your family. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
So this is I want to really kind of bring a picture
to it. What you just said, because it's it's
really important. My nephew, my nephews, they
come over here. And, you know, there's a guy
who owns a store restaurant. over there. So they
go over to his restaurant and they do some work,
right. And the guy gives them like 20 bucks,
whatever. And then what they'll do is they'll
take that 20 bucks and they'll go buy candy and
all that, you know, what kids do, right. And
then they'll come back and I said, I said, you
know, where's your money? Oh, you know, give
me $2 or $3. And I'm like, this is all you have.
What would you make? And then I'm like, Oh, 20.
I was like, well, how much did you make per hour?
you know how many hours you work and they they
wouldn't know so I actually set them down to
say okay well you I love the fact that you have
the initiative to go out and get your own money
right and make your money that's good but you
come back with two dollars out of the twenty
dollars that you made split between you two or
three of whatever it will be and that's all you
have so where's the rest you know And so what
I do, I say, well, when you go back over there
and you work for his name is Andre, you don't
spend any money, you bring it back to me. So
I have him bring it back to me. And then at that
point, I teach them out of whatever they make.
Here's this what you do, you pay yourself first,
right? Give yourself some money, right? And then
if you want to budget out getting candy and potato
chips and all that kind of stuff, do that. But
then after you do all that, what's left? And
they'll look and be like, maybe, you know, a
dollar or something. I was like, so what are
you going to do with that? If you grow up, what
kind of bills are you going to pay with that?
You know, just different things just to give
them the understanding that there's a value to
the work that you put in and also value to the
work of the money that was given to you. And
I think, you know, it's important that we kind
of start to teach and not that that's generational
wealth, but just the knowledge of what the value
of a dollar is for them at that young age. What
would you say about teaching the young about
generational wealth and passing that knowledge
on? We have to. Much of us are too old to learn
anything at this point. There's people that are
just stuck in their ways and the only way to
effectively change them is we got to go young
with it. It's what we do with our boys too. We
use green light. I know it's like 20 bucks a
month or the hell it is. It's a fantastic app
that has a lot of educational tools, but allows
you to build up a paycheck like them. So we do
the same thing. Their money comes in. Half of
it goes to whether it's something they're saving
for short term or long term. Some goes to taxes,
right comes to dad. I just put it in the savings
account, but I say it's taxes and then the rest
they can I don't care what you do with it. I
figured out Yeah, we're doing what you just said
you're doing is you're building on getting away
from the scarcity mindset Because we all live
so paycheck to paycheck and it's our own fault
We never think about the long term and I don't
even mean long term like 10 30 years like retirement
I'm talking about like next year. I get a team
of 24 months A lot of us don't even think that
far and prepare for that far and that's because
we've never been taught how to Save of course,
but how to get through to reaching our goals.
It's always been Probably derived from our surviving
side of things to developed into scarcity, right?
The survival is back in the day our grandparents
and great -grandparents were going through slavery
and all that they were just surviving They think
about living the next day because they didn't
know if they would That is rooted in us still
But it's now scarcity where we do actually have
enough money. We are actually are surviving.
Technically, we're thriving compared to them.
But we still haven't taken that next step to
perfect prepare ourselves for the next 12 1824
months. Because of all those things rooted in
us and not having someone teach it like you,
or like me, or like those others out there. And
it gets even deeper for our own communities because
there's not a lot of us out there talking about
this on that. Right? I mean, we're competing
against the streets. We're competing against
trauma from a generational perspective. Most
all minorities, and I'm including LGBTQ2, they're
always getting pounded down for so many other
things. There's not enough of us speaking loud
enough for them to hear to help that situation.
And that's part of our issue. That's why I do
my podcast. That's really why I started it. That's
why I guest on as many as I can is because We
need to be seen and heard and I yes, I'm talking
about being a black man in America. We need to
be seen and be heard if we're going to truly
change this younger generation or at least teach
them as much as we can. I think it's important.
I remember just back. I don't know my my dad
was pretty. Not as a strict, but he gave me understanding
of certain things and so like. back in, I don't
know, back in the day, whatever it was, I would
see, you know, people getting chains and, you
know, all the, you know, the shoes and all that
kind of stuff. And it just never, I liked the
nice things, but it just never appealed to me
because of the way my dad was and kind of what
he instilled into me. And I just see that now
when I look at, you know, the generation that
wants to spend a thousand dollars on, you know,
shoes and gear as opposed to spending a thousand
dollars and put it in an IUL or something like
that. You know what I mean? Like any, just, just
anything, you know? And it's the shift that even
though we could do family to family, it needs
to be a larger shift in the mindset of the younger
people. And I think maybe generation, whatever
this is, gen. whatever this younger generation.
But yeah, I don't know. Maybe they're getting
more of an understanding because I hear I just
hear more of them talking that this way. But,
you know, it's important, like you said, it's
important to really bring this to the masses
because I don't know, there's some book out there,
I can't think of the name of it. Maybe I shouldn't
say it. But it's saying that, you know, the black
community will be one of the like, poor races.
In like like 20 or 30 years because of the lack
of understanding and I think it's very very important
that You know, we talk about it So absolutely,
yeah and There's just a mindset shift, right?
What is the Emotion behind all of that that we
just talked about like You know, it's an emotional
thing for people. What do you attribute that
to? Money is the one thing that we feel like
we can control over everyone else. It's the one
thing, right? And I use this analogy probably
too much, but people will tell us about their
legal issues, their medical issues, their baby
mama drama. Like we'll talk, we'll throw it all
out. But we will never talk about money. We'll
never say where we're at financially because
we think we can control it and we can't. It's
actually one of the things that we can't control.
The money game is so complex people that you
will never be able to be an expert in it. I do
it all day every day and have been doing it for
15 years and studying it. I still learn things
every single day. The money game is not designed
for you to win big for the majority of us. It
is designed for you just to get through and get
by. You are trying to be an expert in a game
that you cannot win or you cannot be super successful
at by yourself is not possible. But you can take
care of your body, right? Without anyone telling
you what to do. You can avoid crime, right? Because
it's your own decision. So back to that analogy
is everyone wants to talk about all that drama
and things that are happening to them, but don't
want to own up to the thing that they can't really
control because they don't know how it works.
That's where the emotions come into play. That's
when you you you turn on yourself you get depressed
all the things that come out of emotions come
from stem from the fact that you are not recognizing
that you don't know what the money game and you
can't learn it and you can't recognize it because
it is so complex and you think you can control
it. When you if you focus on the things you can
control like your mindset your actual physical
body avoiding doing crime right all of those
things. makes everything else a lot easier but
we have it flipped for some reason. I don't know
where it started, right? I'm sure someone did
some history on this but at some point, that
flipped for us where we thought it is only ours
to control and we know what's best for our own
money and you don't. You just don't. It's not
it's not possible. You said a important thing
and I want to just can you characterize it? You
said turn on yourself. What does it look like?
So visualize this. When you feel out of control
with your money, you don't know what's coming
in. You don't know what's going out. Bank account
keeps going and getting those damn fees, right?
Over draft fees. Yeah. What do you start to do?
Right. You start to probably overeat, drink more,
do more drugs, do things that you know is not
good for yourself, your body, your mental side,
everything. You will repeatedly do those things.
Because you keep logging in to look at your bank
account and it's at zero is that negative it
goes positive, right? That's what I mean. You
start turning on yourself Then you start talking
down on yourself and it just repeatedly you're
beating yourself up again because of something
you really don't have control of because you
don't have the knowledge that's been passed down
to you you don't have the true understanding
of the money game and That's when you start turning
on yourself, and then you dig yourself a hole
that It's really tough to get out of Right. And
that whole entrepreneurs, anybody you start going
down that path, it's 10 times harder to get out
of it. And then most people don't want to do
that hard work. The hard work to reverse to reverse,
let alone the hard work just to get ahead. Yeah.
Hard work to reverse. And then it's even harder
to get ahead. The thing, the thing, the thing,
the thing is it is it's work and you definitely
got to put You got to you got to put some some
I can't say it another way, but you got put some
stank on it, you know, you got to and you know,
turn yourself let's talk about the stress like
how do you see financial stress effect like especially
now in the you know, the 2025 affecting people's
mental and emotional well being, especially entrepreneurs
and everybody's always fake it till they make
it which you know, I don't subscribe to that.
But that's what a lot of people do. Yeah, how
do you see that financial stress affecting affecting
people's mentally and emotionally? You've you've
been raised and I've been raised this way that
remove your emotions from your financial decisions,
right? Those are two different things. Actually
data and facts now. No, they're not. We're humans.
We're emotional beings. It is integrated, right?
Our money our decisions. All of it, our emotions
are are so integrated and it gets so much worse
when things aren't going well for you. Right.
And it just steamrolls itself. So the emotions
that come down to what we're seeing is when people
do not have money, they take it out somewhere
else. Right. On their loved ones. Again, all
the abuse things I was talking about. They look
for outside reasons to attack and blame. that
for the reason, right? As opposed to looking
at themselves. And you can see it's very blatant.
It's out there. A lot of those people are the
ones that are buying the expensive things to
flaunt it, right? And to say, Oh, I'm good. I'm
successful. behind the scenes. They're not right.
They got roaches in their house, something like
that, right? That is just something so bad about
it. The thing is, is it's you're in control of
that. People that like no one says I'm in control
of my money you are You're in control the value
of who you are and who you work for and how much
money you make and what you learn and all that
You're in control No one else is in control.
You don't have to do things the way other people
tell you to do things, but you need to do it
for yourself and Until we as a community and
people can understand how to really love ourselves
and know who we are None of what we're talking
about matters because you'll go revert right
back to it, right? That's how bad habits happen
is you haven't prepared and done your your mental
work and you come right back to it and you just
I'm doing good. I'm doing good something happens.
We're back right and that's what you see in the
cycles over and over again. So for me, it's if
you can own it and know you're going to be an
emotional decision maker, which we all are recognize
that and then tie it back to making good decisions.
I'm just gonna piggyback on that and I just wanna
kinda get real with the pressures to look successful,
right? Emotionally and successfully and people
online and people watching people online, they
kind of feel the pressure of all that, right?
What's that cost? The cost of people just saying,
you know, they look successful, then I gotta
be successful, but I'm not successful. you know,
sort of a continue to try to look successful.
But, you know, I mean, it's just a kind of a
cycle. It is a really bad one. It's a great question,
by the way. That cost is losing you yourself,
because you're not living your life for you anymore.
Right? social media has done that. I think that's
been one of the terrible things about social
media. However, one of the best things about
COVID, right, was the fact that we all kind of
went and sucked ourselves in and live for ourselves
right now that was more survival because we were
locked in our house but it's still that that
same thought is we are living vicariously in
someone else's world virtually is how we live
our lives right now because of social media that's
what you're telling yourself because you are
trying not to live in your world that you are
actually physically in because you don't want
to be who you are you think you want to be who
they are who you actually let me back up. You
think you want to be who they think they are
that they are showing that they are, but that
that's not who they are either. Who are you living
for? Yeah, them. You live for others, you live
for yourself. And that's why I really wish social
media blow up. I wish we could have something
that just gets rid of it. So we all can just
like focus on our everyday life and living our
lives because a lot of what we're going through
trauma wise. was never there in other generations
because they didn't have access to the things
that we have access to. Right. And no one talks
about that to that degree, right? We blame video
games, which yeah, they have their own issues,
but it's really social media in our ability to
get information instantaneously about someone
across the globe who's living in a totally different
life. And you're like, Ooh, I want that life
because I'm not happy about mine. Instead of
fixing your life and working on your life. You're
just watching their life, which is just feeding
their life. Mm -hmm doing nothing for yourself
Wow Okay, this that's a great answer and I'm
trying to figure out how to follow up on that
because there's like It's like a coping mechanism
in a way, right, right Would you say like to
in order to get out of that trying to find a
solution to this right. Find something in their
their real life that makes them excited or what
would be the solution. Besides throwing your
phone in the pool or something like that. Besides
that because we kind of need it. You kind of
need it and I catch myself doing it too right
like where you're just just scrolling right and
not just getting out of your realm. Yeah. But
what brings me back and centers me more is one
either this content, or you know, I coach my
boys and we do athletic things like that's my
go to. So it's cooking food like that's, I know
what my releases are in what my passions are.
So I start getting caught up in that, you know,
rat race type situation. I break free put the
phone down and I know I can go do those things
and it'll get me out of there. I can't answer
that for you. I can't answer that for anyone
else. But you know those things for yourself.
And you just have to work on getting out of it.
It's not gonna be night. It's not gonna be black
and white, right? It's not gonna be instantaneously.
You're not just gonna like learn from us today
and go. Yep. I'm gonna take my phone away and
I'm gonna go do my thing. You're gonna have to
consciously think about it every time you pick
up that phone is me scrolling right now because
I'm wanting to get away from my situation and
out of my life and I'm just gonna keep scrolling
or is it just cuz I'm taking like a 10 minute
break and just catching up on things. Those are
different reasons to pick up your phone. Yeah,
right. And if you catch yourself, you're just
scrolling. And you're like, man, why am I doing
this? Put it down and go do one of those things,
whatever it is, at whatever time of the day it
is. Right? I don't care if it's 2am. Go do a
workout. Go go cook something like do something.
Don't let the constraints of your day and your
time be what drives you away from your joy just
because society's told you to do so. Yeah. So
you got to figure that out on your own. I I don't
know what yours is, but those are mine. Yeah.
It's personal. It's individual. I really wanted
to get your take on this question, which is I
prepared it because I wanted to know. With everything
that's happening in the world today, inflation,
cost of living, skyrocketing. How can people
really redefine wealth in a way that's empowering
empowering instead of overwhelming? There's just
there's just so much happening right now There's
so much I started a new YouTube channel called
let's get real and we do current event type things
But we do it with articles that people probably
haven't heard of. Um Problem is I get so many
alerts with so many of them It drags me down.
I'm like there is so many things going on in
this world every day It's exhausting and it's
my I do it for my job, right? I couldn't imagine
just doing it just living and seeing these What
I tell everybody is You you gotta not listen
to that noise Majority of it's never going to
affect you. Yeah, but let me back up majority
of it's never going to affect you physically
It might fix you mentally because you care about
humans and human rights and those things like
nobody But it won't physically affect you because
they're so big. It's so global. It's so it's
not there. You need to if you've done all the
work we've talked about, right? You figured out
who you are. You're focusing on your joy. You've
got your mental side going right in these things
pop up. You are now prepared to go ahead and
wash that away. It won't affect you. It won't
come into your life like that. It's when you
are unprepared. You are in that stuck position
or whatever words we want to use that those start
hitting harder on you, right? You start to feel
as if you are those people. I've been there,
right? I've been there a few years ago when I
left my business partner. Long story on that
one, but I left that and I felt that same way.
I was stuck in a hole felt terrible blaming myself
for everything and everything that was being
attacked. felt like it was coming at me, right?
And that was around. Oh, I don't know what that
was. But regardless, that's what it feels like,
right? So the things that are going on right
now, you feel attacked. The missile strikes,
you think, Oh, great oil prices are gonna go
through the roof, which means my gas is gonna
go up $6. Right? You felt that immediately. This
this, this bill that's coming out is really,
really frustrating. And you feel like it's personally
attacking you when yeah, it's going to attack
a few of us. But you feel like every one of the
things in the bill is attacking you. You think
every time this president speaks, he's attacking
you, right? Those things are happening because
you are not prepared. You haven't done the work
of yourself. Now, granted, some of those things
are true, right for us, but you feel it so internally
because you've not prepared yourself and built
up your own defense to kind of push all that
stuff away and focus on just what your life is
and what you can achieve based upon what's cars
have been dealt for you. Our cards have not been
dealt to deal with the geopolitical mess that's
going on. If so, we would be in those positions
right now. Me and you would be at, you know,
fighting for that right now. Those weren't our
cards. That's not our lane. We can speak about
it. We can speak up about it. We can help each
other help each other out as much as possible.
But my lane and your lane are over here and we
gotta focus on those and all our other people
we need to do the same but you can't do that
unless you know who you are unless you know who
you are yeah i agree i agree um man it's a lot
okay so um that whole world right there that
i can just go into a lot but i really want to
because you have such a gift um and knowledge
i want to really kind of put a shine on your
business, Black Mammoth. Talk about that a little
bit and or just talk about it. What does flow
from that? Yeah, we'll flow from that for sure.
I started in the money industry in 2011, started
an insurance game, like a lot of us do just pushing
life insurance, making sure I get four sales
a week. That was the dynamics of it. I started
learning more about the money game and understanding
like what financial planning is, what investments
are, how banking lending works. And I started
to realize that financial planning, holistically
looking at someone's life is as unique as almost
a thumbprint is. Because yeah, the tools right
Roth IRAs 401k is life insurance, disability
insurance, all of those are tools that we all
can use. But before then we have so much work
to do to even be able to use those and I took
me a while to recognize that So I started recognizing
that and doing work I left that company joined
another firm out of Houston and we were doing
that work and as I was doing that work I was
going oh There's more to this. It's deeper. This
game's more complex Right. How are our billionaires
becoming back then? How are some of our billionaires
becoming trillionaires now so much money's gone
I don't even know where it went. But how is this
game happening? How are the Rockefellers been
around for eons and their family keeps building?
Like, because if you look at the the stats, inheritance
usually dies by the third generation and typical
average data. Rockefellers been around forever
and they're worth it's not told it's not public
knowledge, but probably trillions, right? Let
this be real. How is that happening? But like
the majority of us don't have that. Well, did
more research and it's called family office,
right? A family office, as simple as I can put
it, is a family has so much money that they hire
and have everything internal. Attorneys, accountants,
marketing, lending, travel, everything is handled
in -house for specifically their family. Well,
they have enough money to do so, but also that
means they are getting experts in all the knowledge
and they don't have to do it themselves. Whereas
99 .9 % of the rest of us have to do it ourselves.
Right? We have to figure out how to do our taxes.
We have to figure out what investments are. We
have, you know what I mean? Like we have to do
all of these hats. These wealthy families don't,
they have experts on everything that they do.
They have people to go to. They have ideas to
bounce off of their right hands. No matter what
I was like, well, if I can't, why can't we make
that available for probably small business owners?
Why can't we do that? I know the everyday person
that's tough too, just because there's costs
involved and I have a business that's got to
be profitable or else I'm not here. Right. We
do that. Why don't we do a modern family office
for women, minority and LGBTQ business owners
that we can become their family office. We'll
scale some of that down because they don't need
it all. But instead of just doing it for one
family or one business, I can do it for multiple.
And since we're doing it for multiple, I can
reduce the cost for everything to make it affordable
for small business owners. Oh, cool story. That
was a great idea. How the hell are you gonna
pitch that to everybody? I had about at that
point like 12 clients that I thought fit in this
realm and I asked them I said What do I do for
you? That matters the most to you. Mm -hmm, and
they said you are here for me When I have a question
That was it We do everything taxes legal investments
all the investments in the world business operations,
all of those things, all the terms that you want
to see floating out there on every wealth management
website possible. We do those. But the answer
that they gave that she gave me specifically
was, you're just here for me when I need you.
And you're here for me before I know I need you.
That's it. And at the end of the day, she's like,
I asked you if I'm good, are we good? And that's
it. That's all they want. To me, that's all the
family office is. All people really want is someone
to go to a confidant and say like, Hey, this
is my situation. Let's help me out of this. And
then how can we move forward? They don't need
12 people to tell them how to do that and spend
thousands of dollars. You can have a team to
do so and we all need a team. So back in 2020,
that's, that's when we launched black mammoth,
but I wanted the name to be different. And I
want everyone to know this. I didn't want it
to be hall wealth management or, you know, name
it out there. Yeah. couple reasons. One, because
I think the wealth management industry is going
to change entirely. So tying your name to something
like that silly to I didn't want it to be about
me. It's not about me. It's about helping you.
So I tasked my team with coming up with a name.
I said I want black in it. Black has to be in
it. Black is beautiful. Black is bold. But also
black is being profitable, right? Like we talked
about it. And my staff asked his brother who's
in Nashville and is an artist, and he did a bunch
of research and did a couple songs and stuff,
and it was like, before you go, I just want to
say thank you. Thank you for being a part of
the Thrabull journey. Every time you show up
here, you're choosing growth, clarity, and the
deeper work of becoming who you're meant to be
in this world. And if you're ready to reconnect
with what truly lights you up, I created something
powerful that can help you. It's called the Empowered
Path. Seven days to reclaim your purpose and
passion. It's a beautifully designed guided workbook
that walks you through a week of powerful prompts,
clarity building tools, and real mindset shifts.
Now you can get instant access to it today. It's
a small investment for a huge return. Your energy,
your clarity, your alignment, and if you want
to take it deeper, check this out. I'm offering
a limited number of free 30 minute purpose coaching
sessions. No pressure, no pitch, just space for
you to reconnect with your direction, your gifts,
and what's next. So you can grab the guide and
book your session at the link in the show notes.
Let's not just go through the motions. Let's
really walk this path on purpose. I appreciate
you. And like we always say, let's make thriving
our new normal. And I'll talk to you soon.