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00:00Hello everyone, welcome to You Got This Sis, adjusting your career path during times of
00:10uncertainty. I'm Marquita Harris, the work and money editor for Essence, and I'm thrilled to
00:14be here to talk to you today. For so many of us, there's a ton of uncertainty in the world right
00:21now, like when we think about our futures and just what our life looks like in terms of our
00:27career and stability. Not to mention, you know, there's a global pandemic happening right now
00:32and social unrest and the elections are coming up this fall and it just seems like so much is in
00:38the air and, you know, things are changing at rapid speed. Despite all of this transition and change,
00:45I think now is the time that we can really learn to pivot and just power through. So today, I'm
00:52speaking with three trailblazing women and these women have faced major trials and transformed
00:58them into triumphs. I have with me revered publicist and public speaker, Yvette Noel-Shure,
01:05and I have a CEO of Ivy Inc. and director of philanthropy, Ivy McGregor, and I also have
01:12the amazing celebrity financial expert and TV and radio personality, Dr. Lynn Richardson. Ladies,
01:19you all look beautiful and I'm just so excited to talk to you and I got questions, so to speak. So
01:26I want to first start with all of you guys. At what point in your lives did you choose your current
01:35career path and can you kind of get into what made you select this career now and how did you know it
01:41was for you? Can we start with Dr. Lynn? Wow. Okay. So I did not choose my career. My career
01:49chose me. I was born raised in Chicago. My grandmother was 75 years old, planning homes for
01:54wealthy people, putting me through college. I didn't know a lot about money. What I knew is if
01:58I needed some, I'd say, Grandma, I need money for a field trip. She'd say, go look in the room on top
02:03of the shelf, behind the box, inside the pocketbook, inside the zipper, wrapped up in a piece of paper
02:07towels, $20. So I got off to college. I didn't know anything about money. My grandmother taught me
02:13like many grandmothers teach their children, go to school, get a good education, get a good job,
02:17go to church on Sunday, wear clean underwear in case you get hit by a bus, right? We got to all
02:21get the underwear story, right? I got a bunch of credit cards, couldn't pay anybody. When the
02:27creditors called and said, Lynn, can you borrow the money? I said, can I borrow it from you? I had
02:31all kinds of funny answers until I got out in the real world. My credit was jacked up. I had to get
02:35my furniture from Rent-A-Center. And so I started off my life with just a very bleak financial horizon.
02:42Fast forward, I've become very successful. I was helping people in the city of Chicago get
02:46approved for mortgages. I helped a lady with four bankruptcies and two foreclosures overcome her
02:51credit issues. She got into a house with a great interest rate, almost no money down. So I became
02:55somewhat of a local celebrity. I started making a lot of money, but I was living alive. I was living
03:01check to Monday. You see, check to check is a blessing. That means you get paid on Friday and by
03:05the next payday, you're broke. But check to Monday is a whole nother game. You get paid on Friday,
03:09you kick it on the weekend, you pay on your past two bills. Okay. And by Monday, you're broke. And I was
03:16living that lifestyle, making 20, 30, 60, 70, 80, $90,000 a month, not a year, a month. So I learned
03:25back then that no matter how much money I made, I'd always find a way to be broke. So I spend my life
03:30now helping people understand this more money doesn't solve a money problem. If it did millionaires
03:36wouldn't go bankrupt. So, you know, this career really found me. And because I made every single
03:42mistake in the book, I became an expert. That's why I'm an expert. All the mistakes that could be
03:49made. And so I've practiced in every single financial area from financial aid to insurance,
03:55to real estate, to mortgages, to investments. I've been a tax coach for 12 years. I help people
04:01understand how to pay less taxes and truly just build wealth. And so it came through my own life
04:07experience. And I'm really, um, I guess, you know, it feels surreal, like this surreal kind of
04:12experience where I get to help people avoid the mistakes that I made.
04:15Oh, wow. And listen, I know. Sorry. Um, Ivy, you want to take the mic next? No, I don't.
04:29Absolutely not. I will start off by saying ditto. There's so much of her story that is similar to
04:37mine. Um, and I concur. I don't think that I went out looking. I didn't even know that there was a role
04:44called philanthropy. I just knew much like Dr. Lynn, that I was raised in a home where my mother
04:50just taught us that good prevailed, helping other people. So I happened to be a product of a mother
04:57that was married and five children later. Um, my father decided he didn't want to be husband,
05:03did not want to be father. So that left my mother raising five children alone of which I'm the youngest.
05:08And so I saw the stress and strain on my mother of going to work every day, never
05:14having a family car until I was a senior in high school. And so I saw this stress and strain. And
05:20I tell people often nowadays, we rarely give somebody a ride that has one child. My mother
05:26was out of luck with five. Nobody was giving us the ride. So we walked to church. We walked to the
05:31school parent teacher conferences. We walked to the grocery store and get this in cold Minnesota
05:37road where snow could be feet tall. And so for me, this whole role of social impact and social
05:44philanthropy started basically by me just wanting to help my mother. I just wanted to make things
05:51different for her as life would continue. God was kind and I've had incredible job opportunities,
05:58but it always went back to me making sure that the shoulders on which I stood, that I was honoring my
06:06mother, that I was honoring those people that helped me. And so I believe that this life philanthropy of
06:12social impact found me because my heart was diligent in helping not only my mother, but many mothers who
06:19wound up in a situation that they didn't choose themselves, but the situation found them a product of a
06:27boys and girls club. I'm a product of a hospitality house and other organizations that helped make life
06:33better for my mother. So now fast forward, I'm delighted to sit in a seat that's able to help
06:39not only single mothers, but mothers, fathers, people that just found themselves in a situation that
06:47wasn't the situation that they chose. I wanted to help them because I'm reminiscent of the help that
06:54came to my house. So like Dr. Lynn, I found it. Thank you guys. You found me.
07:01Yes. And Yvette?
07:04How? How do I do this? How do I follow these phenomenal women?
07:10Well, my career, you know, I did not choose my career either. And that might be the resounding
07:17theme here today. I never wanted to be a publicist. I wanted to be a writer. I was a writer.
07:24I was a pretty successful, uh, magazine editor for a, for young people. People were writing stories for
07:33young black, uh, children and black beat magazine and write on magazine served that purpose. And I
07:39was the editor of, uh, of black beat magazine. And way back when I was a little girl in Grenada,
07:45I was fascinated with words. Kids were outside playing with all kinds of things and,
07:50you know, combing doll hair. And I was, I had a red pen and a newspaper and I was circling the mistakes
07:59and fixing the commas and, you know, making sure that that full stop was there. A period is what
08:04you call it in America. And that was just fascinating words. I would knock other kids out of the door,
08:11man, to get to read second reading and Sunday mass. I'm like, you sit down. It's my turn.
08:18So I knew that I knew that words would, would be something. So that the fact that I go around the
08:24world speaking now and I'm a publicist, you know, I think my grandfather may not have been able to
08:29tell you what that would amount to, but he knew that I was the talkative granddaughter that they
08:33always needed to pinch and put in her place because like, girl be quiet. Right. But I think, um, as I,
08:40as I came, when I came to America and after college and all of that, and I, I, I was writing in, in,
08:45in college, I was the, the, the editor of my college paper. I did all that. But when I became an adult
08:53and was looking for a job and I got my first sort of paid, paid job at black beat,
08:59I encountered publicists and they were horrific people. They were horrible people.
09:06They would scream at people. They would, they would have this power trip. They would be outside
09:11with like their little notebook and telling you, uh, hold on, please. I, we don't know if we have
09:17any room or we don't see you on the list. And I knew in my sensitive heart that I could never do that to
09:24somebody. I just thought about people getting dressed, looking in the mirror saying, Ooh,
09:29I look good. And then you go outside and the publicist tells you you're not on the list.
09:32How embarrassing is that? So when the opportunity came for me to be a publicist based on another
09:37talkative thing, like I called someone up and I said, I didn't get the Mariah Carey album. I need
09:42it now. I'm on deadline. And then the next thing he was like, you need a job because we need somebody as
09:48passionate as you. I was like, no, I didn't want my Mariah Carey album so that I can drop my caption.
09:57I just, you know, I just need to do that. And, and he was like, I think you should come up. And I,
10:03once I got the, the, the album and did the review, I did go up to, to Sony. And within 30 minutes,
10:10he said, you're the publicist we're looking for. And of course I was like, now I'm going to be one
10:16of those crazy people. No, no. And so I decided on day one that Yvette Noel sure black girl from
10:26Grenada kind heart is going to walk through that door and I am going to redefine what publicity is.
10:35It's going to start with kindness. It's going to treat people. Well, it's going to understand
10:40journalism. It's going to understand deadlines. It's going to do all of those things. Now,
10:46Dr. Lynn, what I didn't understand was anything about money. And back in the day,
10:51publicists didn't have to be bothered with that. Right. And of course I started out with Mariah Carey
10:57and her husband was running, uh, Sony music. So I didn't know anything about budgets. The greatest
11:03thing that happened to me as a publicist is not working with the clients. It's learning to be
11:09financially responsible, learning how to write a budget, learning that the most creative thought
11:15in your mind doesn't work until you understand how to pay for it. And that, that was the day I think I
11:23woke up and became like, whoa, my answers run this thing no matter what you're doing. And so it's a
11:32constant learning. So to hear you open up this panel and talk about it, I was like, Dr. Lynn,
11:37can I have your number? Cause I think. Oh, I got some questions. I got some money questions in
11:43here, but for those intros. And, um, I do have a question specifically for Ivy. Um,
11:52you worked at a consulting firm early in your career, but then, um, correct me if I'm wrong,
11:58but I, I think I read somewhere that you were let, you were one of the employees that got cut
12:02during a major layoff. That's correct. You kind of talk about just how did that moment
12:07affect you emotionally? And also like, what did you have to do to start this new chapter in your
12:14life with this layoff? Absolutely. And, um, so to give a little context, I was born and raised in,
12:21in Minneapolis, Minnesota, got completely tired of the cold. I was just tired of it. It seemed like the
12:28winter months last forever. So I wanted to get out of Minnesota. My sister lived in Houston,
12:33her and her husband, and I would visit there. I love the heat. So found a job there with a small
12:39boutique consulting firm. Life was good. A year later after moving to Houston, the whole downturn with
12:46Enron comes and the firm, and I'm one of them. I had just moved into my, my own town home, uh, had had
12:56a brand new car and I was, if I'm honest, I was flat out depressed. I was like, what am I going to do?
13:04I mean, life was great in Minnesota. I didn't need to move here for this and to be without a job.
13:10I was frustrated. I was depressed, but somewhere in those emotions, I knew I had a mortgage that I had
13:18to pay. I knew I had a card note that I had to pay. And I knew, uh, being, being single, that there was no
13:24option of a backup person that was going to pay those things for me. So, so what I did, and that
13:29was almost 20 years ago. It is so amazing that, that, that cycle, it's, it's like, if you look at
13:37what's happening now, so many people are saying, I can't get unemployment. That's where I was. I couldn't
13:43pay for a job in Houston because of the whole downturn. But what I did, I looked to see what do I have in
13:50my hands? What are the skills, talents, and gifts that God has given me? And I pulled,
13:56I started thinking and, and I knew that I had this, this God given ability as a strategist.
14:03I come up with solutions quick and off the cup. And so I pulled what's in my head. I spoke it out of
14:10my mouth and I start telling people, I'm a strategist. You need help. You got a problem.
14:14I can help you fix it. And I started articulating. So I pulled what was in my head, started articulating
14:21it out of my mouth and then started working the vision in my hands. I literally would cold call
14:28people. I would show up places. I would tell them if you, if you have a problem, I'll give you three
14:34solutions to that problem. Well, fast forward. Um, it was able to, it allowed me to, to pay my bills
14:41in that short period of time that I was unemployed, but bigger than that, what it did, it established
14:48for me the ability to, to look and use the natural skills and gifts that we have. Many people are
14:55looking for miracles in times of uncertainty, but miracles happen out of normalcy. It happens
15:02through the skills and gifts and talents that we already have. And I'm still doing today,
15:10what I cultivated in me through a tough time some 20 years ago. And I was telling some young people
15:16that I mentor big businesses were started during depressions. And so it is during your downtime
15:25that some of the greatest strength that we have is pulled from within stuff that you didn't know you
15:31had ideas. I hosted unemployed. Now I hosted an event in Houston called I met, uh, this networking event.
15:40There were three, 400 people there. Now I didn't have a job. I didn't have a penny. Um, but these people
15:46came because there was something inside of me and they saw the grit of this young lady. And so to anybody
15:54and everybody who's watching, if I could during a time that no one was hiring in Houston, it was a
16:01tough time. The economy was shot, but I pulled from the skills and gifts that I have. And I was able to
16:08pay my bills. Lights were never shut off. Uh, the insurance got paid house note got paid and it's
16:15developed in me, this stick to itiveness, this tenacity and to really work hard, but to develop
16:22the skill and gift that God has given me. That's what I did during that tough time.
16:26Yeah. Amen. Um, so because we're talking about pivoting and, you know, our career paths, and I
16:34think it's really, it's important to talk about what some of those, you know, points of interest have
16:40been on this journey. And, um, Lynn, I know that you're an author, which is another, you know, another
16:49layer to what you do. So can you kind of talk about, um, for people who are maybe in a situation
16:55right now where they're thinking of, you know, they learn and transitioning that into, you know,
17:02being an author, like, can you kind of talk about what that, what it takes to do that? And also just
17:07kind of any kind of challenges that you learned along the way. Well, um, just like my career being
17:13an author found me also. And, you know, one of the things that I, I literally, I just heard,
17:19you know, uh, your gift and your creativity comes out of your struggle out of it. Like you find a way
17:25out of no way. And when I was my flat brokest, the brokest that broke could be when, uh, there was
17:33nothing left. Um, I decided to write, I figured I was either going to go out of my mind, go out of
17:38here. And I decided to write the story that was in my head. And I'll never forget, um, sitting at a
17:44computer. I wrote my first book, um, in two days. Uh, that's kind of how desperate I was to just get
17:49what was inside of me out. And I remember sitting there typing and I said something about living check to
17:55check. And, and it was like a voice inside of me said, uh, sister, you are not living check to
17:59check. You live in check to Monday. And I said, wow. So there's the creativity there. And then so
18:04that became the title of the book. But what I say about writing a book is that first of all,
18:09everybody has a story. Everybody has a story. Everybody has something that is inside of them
18:15that will help someone else, whether it be instructional, whether it be fiction, whether it be
18:19fact, whether it be, uh, uh, an experience, whether, whether it be a how to, um, everyone
18:25has something that they can share with someone else. So in, in my entrepreneurs Academy and one,
18:30one of the courses that I actually teach is how to write a book. And the very first thing that I say,
18:35when it comes to writing a book, here's the number one rule. There are no rules.
18:40A book can be big. It can be small. It could be short. It could be tall. It could be red. It could be
18:44black. It could have two pages. It could be in the palm of your hand. It could be a spiral. There
18:51are no rules for writing a book. The only rule that you need to follow is to simply get what is
18:58inside of you, outside of you. The other thing about writing a book is it's an immediate, um,
19:03business. It's an immediate income stream. It's an immediate source of income because now you have a
19:09book, you have a story, you can speak in front of a group of people, and then you have something to
19:13sell something to share. You can be an author. Like there are so many things that can come from
19:18simply telling the story. And had I not told my story, I know for a fact that had, and here's the
19:24other thing about it. I was telling the truth. See, I was according to the people who knew me,
19:30they thought I had it going on. You know, people, rich people stay rich because they act poor and poor
19:35people stay poor because they act rich and poor people acting rich in front of other poor people,
19:39which is real crazy. Well, I was the poor person looking rich in front of other poor people,
19:44real crazy. Okay. So for me to come out and tell the truth that I was actually living beyond my means,
19:50that I was spending more money than I had, it was, it wasn't brave. I was desperate. I had no
19:57other way to go except to simply state the experience that I was having because everything that I had
20:04learned up until that point had not served me. Now, mind you, my alma mater is Northwestern University,
20:10one of the greatest institutions on the planet. I have a degree in economics, business, finance,
20:16and math. I got all of the formula for a good financial situation and I was broke. And it came
20:22from telling my story that I was able to actually be free from the lie that I had created for myself
20:28and then ultimately helping others. So, you know, I would love to say that I had this,
20:33you know, uh, very scholarly approach to book writing. No, I was desperate and I had nothing
20:40else to do. And so, you know, eight, nine books later, that's essentially what my life has been.
20:45Simply telling my experience and putting it in words. I mean, the receipts, eight, nine books later.
20:50I love it. Um, my next question is, can I keep you guys on here for about two more hours? Cause I,
20:58I got a lot of things I want to mine through. Um, unfortunately we, we don't have two hours,
21:04but I do, um, we're going to have to wrap up a little soon, but I do have a question for all three
21:09of you ladies. Um, this is such a hard time and I can't stress that enough. You know, these unemployment
21:16numbers are, they're, they're scary, you know, but like all three of you were kind of just talking
21:23about, um, now is the time to really buckle down and to really examine your gifts and, you know, find
21:31ways to, to use them and to push forward. So what I want to know is, um, and we can start,
21:38I want to start with Yvette, um, just what advice do you have for women who are struggling right now?
21:44And, um, you know, they're, they can't get unemployment benefits. Uh, retirement is delayed.
21:50And, um, I just want to know what, what words of wisdom do you have?
21:55You know, that, that is a very difficult question and it's, it's a very sad time for us. And
22:01obviously let's get real words are not going to be what they need. We all need to get a little pickup.
22:08We all, you know, words are, could be very powerful, but it's, it's literally what I've been saying.
22:13I've been speaking a lot to people in, in the Caribbean, um, who have the choice of just kind
22:20of throwing a seed in the backyard and everybody's becoming a farmer again, everybody's doing that
22:24kind of stuff. But for people who don't have that, um, I think sometimes it's, it's something that
22:31Ivy said earlier. It's like kind of looking within and seeing what you're really good at, because let's
22:37say before the pandemic, I think we all thought we were something during the pandemic, we're becoming
22:44something else. And then what is it we're going to be after the pandemic? Like there are people who had
22:52full careers that are now learning how to teach, learning how to teach. This is something that we
22:59never thought we would be in. There are people who have become good, really great chefs, you know,
23:06really great chefs, because there's, there's no restaurants, at least on certain places that they
23:10couldn't go. So I think it's like, it's much simpler than we think. I really believe that some of the
23:17gifts are already in us that we have not been tapping into depending on what sort of job we have.
23:24So if we can go within ourselves and find what we're intrinsically good at and try to figure out
23:33how you sell that. A lot of the people I was advising were artists and they felt, you know,
23:38particularly in the Caribbean, the carnival season, nobody is that no one, there's no carnival,
23:44and no income whatsoever. But like I said, we have the soil. So now people have their gardens,
23:50and now they can eat and they can do all of that. In America, I think that becomes a little harder.
23:56I think just, wouldn't this be a great time to actually start writing a book?
24:01To actually writing a book, because what did they say? Pressure creates diamonds.
24:06We are in the most pressured situation right now. And like I said, really simple,
24:13like, what are those recipes? What are those recipes? This is probably a great time to create a blog,
24:20giving advice to young mothers. My platform will always be mental health, just based on my mother's,
24:30you know, 40, 50 years with the disease. And I have found, I haven't gotten a penny for it,
24:38but I have found that during this time, the words that I have said to so many of my friends and
24:46colleagues from a place of knowing, it may not have brought a paycheck to them, but I tell you,
24:53it's made them able to cope a little bit more. Just to be a voice on the other end of the phone,
25:01just to be a face on a Zoom. We all need money, but we all need to find our natural skills to help
25:09each other cope. And Ivy, what about you? Advice? Yeah. So I think two things. I think that I read a
25:20book that simply said one thing and it helped me because I'm a visionary. I'm a creator, a creative.
25:28And so I can be thinking about dreaming about working on a multiplicity of things and I have
25:34the ability to carry them out, but I realized that everyone is not wired that way. I'd encourage
25:40everyone in these times of uncertainty to find one person, one person, one person that you can talk to,
25:50one person that you can be very transparent with, that you can say, I'm afraid, one person that will
25:56keep you accountable. If you're writing a book or whatever you're doing, that one person will keep
26:01you on task with your projects. And then, so you have somebody that you're accountable to,
26:09but then I'd say for the one person that is the accountable support, that person to make sure
26:18that they're finding someone that you're lifting, right? Many people are in these places of uncertainty,
26:24but if we're honest, there are some people that are thriving masterfully. And so I think it's
26:31incumbent upon the person that needs help to reach for a hand and just say, I need to talk to you at
26:38least once a week because this is tough times for me. And that person will help you where you are.
26:44But then for those persons that are doing okay, I think now is the time for us to go back to the
26:51roots of who we are as a people. If my mother didn't have sugar, she passed the cup over to Dr. Lynn's
26:58house and her grandmother would pass a cup of sugar back. And nobody talked about, I owe you. Nobody
27:06talked about that. It's what we did as a people. And I think Corona and COVID has brought us back to the
27:15basis of who we are as a people. We look out for each other and we love each other. So if you need
27:20help, grab somebody's hand. And if you're standing up, make sure that you're reaching your hand to help
27:26somebody else. All right. Yep. And Dr. Lynn, if you could briefly, what advice do you have?
27:32Well, the advice that I have is this, and that is, you know, everybody I think has the impression or
27:39the feeling, and I can certainly understand it, that things have gone terribly wrong. The economy
27:45is shot. Unemployment is at an all time high. But the truth about a recession is that during a recession,
27:52millionaires and billionaires are made. And so I say to people this, you will either be a millionaire,
27:57a billionaire or witness when you come out of this season. Now is the time to grind. Unlike you have never
28:03grind. Unlike a time where you've ever grinded before, because we're all sitting still, at least we should
28:08be sitting still. So now is the time to get an education. Now is the time to get a financial
28:13education. Now is the time while we're sitting still to get the knowledge that we don't have.
28:17Because let me tell you something, being broke used to be something that people were embarrassed by.
28:22Now it's everybody's broke. Okay. You know, and people who have lost money and they're
28:30wealthy people who will tell you their stories of how they lost everything and they got it back. And so
28:35we need to speak up. Our culture has always told us that we are not to air our dirty laundry,
28:41that what goes on in this house stays in this house, that we don't really tell our business.
28:46Well, now is the time to tell your business, tell your business, start a business. Having a home-based
28:52business and multiple streams of income is the only way to guarantee financial success. So one stream of
28:58income is hazardous to your wealth. And I say that right now is the time to take advantage of
29:03everything that you need to get to the next level. Yeah.
29:06Woo. Okay.
29:07I'll be afraid to ask for help.
29:11Yeah. All three of those bits are amazing. And I appreciate it. And I can't thank you ladies enough.
29:20Because again, I could keep going, but I got a feeling my producer is going to be really mad if I do.
29:24But thank you so much for your wisdom. And you know, thank you for, you know, you're so inspiring
29:34and we see that. So please keep doing what you're doing. And it's, thank you.
29:39Dr. Lynn, I'm reaching out to you.
29:44I know. I need Dr. Lynn, badly.
29:49I got you.
29:51Let's do it.
29:51I got 59 bucks.
29:55I'm going to start by ordering the book, but I think I need to talk to you for sure.
29:59I would love to. Let's start. Let's create dynasties together. That's really what it's all about.
30:04I'm looking forward.
30:14I'm looking forward.
30:16Bye.
30:18Bye.
30:20Bye.
30:22Bye.
30:24Bye.
30:26Bye.
30:28Bye.
30:30Bye.
30:32Bye.
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