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00:00All right, so let's get started and dive right into today's program with the conversation
00:12entitled, Making Money Moves.
00:14We all need to make money moves.
00:16All right, along with sharing tips for creating and maintaining general wealth, entrepreneurship,
00:20and equity, our first guest will give us a peek into their journeys and share some of
00:25the lessons they've learned along the way.
00:27All right, so please join me in welcoming the moderator for this podcast.
00:30Panel, Senior Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for McDonald's, Suhaili Natal Davis,
00:37as well, give her a round of applause, as well, the McDonald's owner and operator based right
00:42here in New Orleans, Marissa Fisher, entrepreneur and influencer, Lauren Simmons, and because
00:54of them founder of Culture Brand's CEO, Unique Jones Gibson.
01:01Revolt Financial Literacy Educator, Ross Mack.
01:09Thank you so much for the introduction.
01:12Hello, Essence, and good morning.
01:16I'm so excited to be here with you today to tackle a very exciting topic, Making Money Moves,
01:24Building Generational Wealth and Entrepreneurship.
01:27We have a lot to talk about in a short amount of time, so I am going to go ahead and just give
01:32you a little bit of additional information about our panelists, and then we'll get going.
01:36So as Tamika mentioned, Marissa not only owns for McDonald's, owns and operates for McDonald's
01:43in southeastern Louisiana, but she's also part of a family-owned company that operates almost 30
01:50McDonald's between Louisiana and Michigan, and Lauren, Lauren has many, many talents, she is a financial guru, she's one of
02:02McDonald's future game 22, future 22 game changers, but additionally, she is one of the youngest women to work on
02:11Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, and Unique, award-winning content creator, and you know her through her brand
02:20because of them we can, and culture brands, and then finally, Ross Mack, just a little bit more about Ross.
02:25He is also one of our future game 22 game changers, and you can see his series, Mackonomics on Revolt.
02:33So I'm going to get started with Marissa, if that's okay.
02:37So Marissa, you know, for over 50 years, black entrepreneurs have been successfully running McDonald's
02:43restaurants across the United States, and actually on that point, I would be remiss if I
02:50did not give a shout-out to the National Black McDonald's Operator Organization, who is celebrating a
02:57milestone year this year for the 50th anniversary of advocacy for black entrepreneurs, so shout-out to the
03:03MBMOA.
03:06So Marissa, there are, frankly, so many franchising opportunities right now in the food space,
03:13so why McDonald's for you?
03:17What do you see as, you know, unique to this franchising opportunity that would allow you to build generational wealth
03:23for yourself and for your community?
03:25Yeah, thank you.
03:28Well, McDonald's is, like you said, had a footprint of over 50 years of black, growing black entrepreneurs,
03:36and so when you just look at my story, my parents started, opened their first restaurant over 30
03:44years ago in Detroit, Michigan, and, you know, you fast forward to today, myself and then all of my
03:51siblings are owner-operators, and it just shows you that they're so invested in family, and so, you know,
04:01I go back to something that my father taught me early on, that I'm not just thinking about my
04:08children, but now I'm in a position to really grow something for my children's children, and so
04:16McDonald's is just the foundation of family and making sure that we're successful as entrepreneurs.
04:24How was the journey for you in preparing yourself both from a training perspective, but also from a
04:31financial commitment, you know, preparing yourself to become a franchisee?
04:34Yeah, I'm in an amazing position because my parents did have the foresight for us growing up and
04:42knowing that they wanted to pass something along to us with the restaurants, so if you just look at
04:49me personally and the training that I've gone through, I've learned everything from I was a crew all the way
04:55through to being a restaurant manager where, you know, I went on to Hamburger University, which is
05:01a real place where you learn business acumen, how to run a restaurant from top to bottom,
05:06and then I went on through our Next Generation program, which is a program for family of franchisees
05:14that are, that McDonald's see that could possibly own their own restaurants, and so I went through
05:20that program, successfully made it through, and today I own and operate restaurants right here in
05:28Louisiana. So, you know, it's just been an amazing journey.
05:33Wonderful. So, Ross Mack, I want to talk a little bit about financial literacy and preparation. So,
05:41Marissa had, you know, the great fortune of having guidance from her parents in preparing her to be
05:48an entrepreneur. What are things that we could be doing now, both in, you know, our black families,
05:54but also in schools and diverse communities to really champion financial literacy?
06:00Yeah, that's a great question. Marissa, you obviously have an amazing story, right, to be able to watch your parents,
06:07to actually see that, and I think that's where it starts, right? It starts at home, and unfortunately,
06:12right, we all go to schools. We learn a lot of stuff that doesn't necessarily apply to every day, right?
06:18I don't think I need to know about isosceles, triangles, etc. However, financial literacy is
06:23something that we need in order to survive in America, and I think when it's all said and done,
06:28I think what we have to do, we have to normalize having conversations about financial literacy.
06:34You know, we can have, excuse me, we can have barbershop conversations or hair salon conversations,
06:39right? I know, you know, a lot of friends have talked about the latest episode of Pea Valley,
06:44but I think they also need to talk about, you know, how to improve their credit or what's going
06:49on in the stock market, and so for me, I think where it really starts is having a foundation
06:54to start at home, right? I think once we start having our children speak about financial literacy
07:00and our friends, we have to hold them accountable as well. I talk to my friends and say, yo,
07:04what are you guys doing? You know, what do you think about Bitcoin right now? Or what do you think
07:07about Apple stock right now? And I think that it starts so young. My daughter is literally 21 months old,
07:14and every morning on the way to school, I talk to her about something that she's going to need to
07:18know in order to survive. And I think financial literacy is the equalizer when it comes to our
07:23community, and I think that's the way that we could truly get ahead as a community.
07:28Yeah, yeah. No, that's an amazing point. And Lauren, I want to allow you to build on that. I know you're
07:32so passionate about financial literacy and equity. Is there anything you would add to that?
07:38Yeah. I mean, I think beyond that, obviously, starting in the home, to your point, is really
07:44good. But I don't want people to feel discouraged that if we didn't start at a young age, then there's
07:50no hope. The conversation that you start having with yourself and then how you pass that on to your
07:56kids and your family is really identifying what is your relationship with money. Because often,
08:02why we are so bad with money comes from our family members, comes from the community around us.
08:08So the earlier that you can identify and start working towards bettering your relationship with
08:13money, having those open vulnerable conversations about money, getting better with personal finance,
08:19and learning how to invest, the better you can get moving forward to creating that generational wealth
08:25that we should be creating. Yeah. Not to put you on the spot, but is there a practice or something
08:33you observed growing up in your household that either you said, oh, I'm going to do that myself,
08:38or you know what, I might improve upon that when it's my turn to run my finances myself?
08:43Yeah. So I came from, or I come from a family that's really unique in the sense my grandparents were
08:49successful entrepreneurs and my grandparents, they have three children, my mom, my aunt, my uncle.
08:56And it was really nice growing up with, in a family that my mom was really good with money,
09:02almost to the point that like, she doesn't live her life enough because she's saving way too much.
09:08And I'll be really quick. And the flip side of that, my aunt is really bad with money. Like,
09:13she is the woman that needs to be dressed in designer clothes and will ask my grandparents for
09:20money at any given second. And so seeing those two women, I got to pull from the fear of not spending
09:26enough money because we should be spending money and the fear of spending too much money because we are
09:32trying to up our self worth. And I, you know, get to pick from the both of them and hopefully be able to
09:38have that balance that I can share with, you know, my friends and family and the community around me.
09:44Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that. Um, so unique. I just want to move to you. Um, you know,
09:50as an entrepreneur, what are some of the challenges you'd say you face and, you know, what are some
09:57tips that you wish you would have maybe learned earlier? Thank you. So I think some of the challenges
10:02that I face, especially early on as an entrepreneur, even though my grandparents were entrepreneurs,
10:08for what I was doing in the digital space, there really wasn't a roadmap. And so a lot of my path
10:15was trial and error. And I didn't have the benefit of being able to sit down with someone and say,
10:21how do you build this plane? It was more so building it while I was trying to fly it.
10:26And when that happens, you make mistakes, you learn, you make money, you lose money. And so I think early
10:34on, I probably wish I had what I have now, which is this village that came from going out and networking
10:39and going to conferences and putting myself in vulnerable situations to meet new people and to
10:44be honest about what I knew and to be honest about what I didn't know, but was trying to learn or trying
10:49to glean from the community. So now I have this village and I think that's so important is to really
10:54have your board of directors, have your village, have people that you can go to. And that's what we need
10:59more of in our community, whether it's about financial literacy or more about entrepreneurship.
11:03It's just having the courage to be able to say, I need help or I need more information because I
11:08don't know how to do this. Yeah. And just just being able to talk more transparently about money
11:13and how it's impacting you, I think would help remove some taboo. So you mentioned a little bit
11:20about when you started out. I have a potentially controversial question for you. Is it possible to build
11:27generational wealth if you're working a nine to five job? Yeah, absolutely. You need a plan, right?
11:37You need a plan. I started off with a nine to five and then I eventually, I would argue that I have a
11:41nine to nine now that I'm running my own business and have been for almost 10 years. And I'm sure I
11:47see head nods up here, but absolutely. It's all about having a plan. I know people who were working
11:52nine to five, but they were, they had the foresight to invest money into the stock market and to peel
11:57off 10, 20%, whatever they could afford to do to just save and stack. And I think it really comes
12:02from having a plan. And I think social media puts us in this space where everybody thinks you have to
12:07be an entrepreneur and that's just not reality. It's also just not, it's not good, right? Like we need
12:13people working at McDonald's. Like we need people who can go into and can do some of these things so that
12:17we can keep the economy going, but you can absolutely build generational wealth as long
12:21as you have a plan and are willing to ask questions to figure out how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I
12:27appreciate that. Um, Ross Mac question for you. Um, as, as you're thinking about here addressing
12:36potential, you know, future entrepreneurs, you've already given, we've had some really good nuggets of
12:40advice. Um, but is there any piece of advice that you'd give for someone who was just thinking about
12:47starting out on the entrepreneurial journey, um, about how they can prepare themselves for the future?
12:51Yeah, without a doubt. At the end of the day, everything starts with a plan. It's a mindset.
12:56If you really look at the statistics, you'll see that becoming an entrepreneur is probably a very, uh,
13:02difficult journey, right? Uh, I want to say like half of entrepreneurs fail within the first like four
13:10years or something. So when it's all said and done, I think what you need to do, start with a plan,
13:15actually write it down. It doesn't sound like that's the sexiest thing, but it's actually
13:19something that could actually save your business, your life, et cetera. And so when it's all said
13:24it down, write it down, um, start budgeting and start reinvesting in your business. I think that,
13:31you know, it's cool when you're, when you were selling Girl Scout cookies to your family and they
13:35bought it because you were cute. But after a while, when you become, uh, of age, you actually have to have a
13:41great business. And I think that starts with writing it down, um, trying to solve a problem.
13:46And, you know, you, you need to have money set aside for a rainy day. I always look at an emergency
13:54fund as saying something, whether you're an entrepreneur or work a nine to five, you always
13:57want to have, uh, some money tucked away for that rainy day. Yeah. Yeah. Um, are there any maybe
14:07mistakes or errors that you think you made early on that you'd be willing to share?
14:10Yeah. Um, I think we all, the, the, the greatest teacher is learning from your failures. So, um,
14:20I think when I was starting out on my entrepreneurial journey, I, I think sometimes thinking too narrow
14:27minded is one of the things that could, uh, unfortunately, you know, be the demise. And I
14:33think that when I started out, it was like, oh, I'm just trying to do X, Y, Z, right? So my company's
14:38Maconomics is a financial literacy production company. I work with a ton of big companies now,
14:44but when I just first started out, it was, I was doing it for a hobby and for fun. And I think now
14:49I, I take it more serious, but I think you always have to have a five and 10 year plan. I think any
14:55business you go into have a five and 10 year plan. Okay. All right. Well, this question is actually for
15:01each of you. Um, and I'll start with you, Marissa, you know, are there any books or, you know,
15:08tools or resources that you would recommend, um, that, that anyone looking to start off or really
15:14anyone, right, who is on their journey, um, to generational wealth would, would pick up?
15:19Yeah, I was talking to, um, my sister about this earlier, but, um, it's, it's not necessarily a
15:27business book, but it helps you really in tune with your leadership. Um, it's called 11 rings by Phil
15:33Jackson and a lot of people know him as the, the coach that, you know, coach Michael Jordan and
15:39Kobe Bryant, but he talks in the book a lot about leadership and how to, you know, manage a team and
15:46so many different personalities. And what I've found in, um, being an owner operator and just being in
15:52charge, um, it's good to know how to deal with different personalities and it helps with your
15:58leadership skills. Awesome. Thank you. And shout out to Chicago and the Bulls.
16:06Um, mine as well as not a business book, um, I'm a really spiritual person. My ethos is mind,
16:12body, wealth, and how they're all interconnected. And so for me, the book that I always lean into
16:17and suggest to people is The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. Um, it really gives you insights into
16:24being in stillness, figuring out what it is that you want, because I'm a true believer that
16:30you know yourself better than anyone else. And if you can figure out how you want to navigate
16:37outside of all the noise and the unsolicited advice people will give you, you will be just fine as an
16:45entrepreneur. Thank you. So I would probably say I can't think of a specific book. I believe that
16:54success leaves clues. And so I'm big on biographies and reading other people's stories so that you can
17:02glean the clues from their lives or their lifestyles and their experiences to be able to apply to your
17:07own or to say what you're not going to do. One of my favorite ones is Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. It's,
17:13uh, you know, depending on, you know, reading it, it comes from a different space, right? But it's really
17:18good because as you're, for me, as I was building my startup and building my business,
17:23I just really got to relate to how I didn't take some of his risks, but it was really good to see
17:29some of the risks he was taking because it made me feel better about the space that I was in and how
17:33I was really betting, not my house, but betting a lot on my ideas and my dreams and the plan that I
17:39had put together and to be able to walk around and see people wearing Jordans or Nikes and know the origin
17:46story was just so powerful for me. And so I would recommend reading books or biographies
17:51of individuals or companies or people that you admire. And if you're looking for a place to start,
17:56I would say check out Shoe Dog.
17:57I like that. Great books. Um, what I'm going to say is I'm going to take it a different approach.
18:03I look at some of the, I look at YouTube University as a great resource. I think you literally find
18:11anything you want on YouTube. And I think once you ask yourself how to and you type it on YouTube,
18:17you'll figure that out. But if I had to pick a book though, it, uh, I like Tony Robbins, um,
18:23uh, money, uh, money, money book, uh, master the game. It's a pretty good book, but I think always
18:29start on YouTube, uh, and shameless plug. I have a YouTube channel. I was going to say,
18:35yeah, Mackonomics Ross Mack has a YouTube channel. Yeah, we have about one minute left. So if you want to
18:41let folks know how they can learn more about you and where to follow you. So Ross, uh, sure.
18:47Yeah. Awesome. I'm, my name is I'm Ross Mack on all social platforms. I, uh, my goal is to try to help
18:53bring Wall Street to Main Street. Okay. Unique. I'm unique JG across, uh, social or unique. And then, uh,
19:01also if you're looking for a fun time after the, uh, the festival, uh, check out culture tags across
19:06social media too, which is a family fun game in all stores. Thank you. My name is Lauren Simmons.
19:14You can find me at LA Simmons. Um, and yeah. Um, I'm Marissa Fisher and I challenge all of you to go to,
19:23um, our McDonald's, uh, Black and Positively Golden page at, at we are golden. And you can hear a lot of,
19:30um, the stories that you, you, you've seen up here today, um, at we are golden on Instagram.
19:36Perfect way to close us out. Thank you so much to each of you, um, for being so generous
19:41with your time and being here with us today. And thank you all.
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