Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anne-Lyse Wealth: This is the Dreamers Podcast, episode 1 32. Today is January 2nd, 2024.
Asia Abston: Glue yourself to the desk, glue yourself to the library, glue yourself to those courses and those mentorship and those programs, 1 million percent, undoubtedly you need to be in the trenches and the beginning stages of your business. What I'm saying though.
is you don't have to stay there. That does not have to be a permanent state of things always have to be hard. And this always has to be challenging. And of course there's failure and losses and, and all these things. And it'll always be this uphill battle. That's what I'm saying. And that's what I want black people to get away from is that things will always be hard.
And it's just not true. You can set up and systematize your life to where things are running automatically and passively, but passive. Money comes after active labor. So we got to do the active first and then we can get to passive and automated systems. Hello, hello. Happy New Year. I hope you enjoy the holiday season. I'm your host and Lee's Wealth, and I'm so glad that you decided to tune in for today's episode. so over the past.
Anne-Lyse Wealth: Few years. there's been so many guests on the show, so much valuable information has been shared, with you all dreamers. And, uh, for today's episode, I, decided to take the time to select some. Very, very, valuable information that was, dropped by the guest or that I shared previously all around the topic of building lasting wealth AKA generational wealth.
So I really hope that you enjoyed today's episode. I often hear you become wealthy in your mind before you actually become wealthy. So I'm curious to hear about some of the work that you did to be able to prepare yourself for, to become wealthy.
Emily Ford: Yeah, it's like a plethora of things. So I would say number 1, like being in a growth environment and so having a few people I could model after because I didn't have that.
Right? Like I said, I didn't grow up around people that were successful. And so. Having a mentor's examples major for me, but then like constantly listening to things that would change my brain around money. So affirmations and then T Harv Ecker wrote the book secrets of a millionaire mind. And I'll never forget that was my first book I ever read.
And I was like. Whoa, I was like, I had no idea. And I actually think that people should read it, including me once a year, because it's so good. The wealth principles in there. So started to read a lot and I literally unplugged my TV and I put declaration or affirmation, I am statements all over my TV. I am wealthy, I am a millionaire, I am worthy, and I put it all in little post it notes all over the TV, and then I also took like my favorite lipstick, and I wrote it all over my bathroom mirror, so when I brush my teeth, I was like just constantly, like surrounding myself in that, so the environment, the affirmations.
I made myself a vision board and I wrote myself out a check for a million dollars. And I remember writing it, my hand was like shaking and I'm like, who am I to have this? And it was like, no, shut up. I had to like talk to my head, right? I was like, no. And I would look at it every single morning. I would literally drink my coffee and I would stare at it.
And I would like touch the board along on the board was many other things, by the way, it wasn't just a check for a million dollars, but like I would touch the board. Pray over it and those are just a few things that I did and went to events like I invested in myself and in my personal development more than anything else.
So, like, I didn't buy anything new, like, in terms of, like, clothes or. Cars or anything of that sort. Like I literally invested it all into my mindset and my heart set. So also like me being sure that I was spirit filled and going to church and stuff like that, just so I could really change as a woman and
Anne-Lyse Wealth: grow.
Love it. I love it. So earlier you shared that you were a nanny and a massage therapist, right? And then today you lead a nine figure sales organization, a team of how many
Emily Ford: people? Well, that team has like 175, 000 people in that business, but yeah, it's busy. So
Anne-Lyse Wealth: can you share maybe some of the things that really surprised you when you went from being a massage therapist to becoming a seven figure earner three years later?
Emily Ford: Yeah, basically I went from being an employee to like clocking in clocking out to literally having a desk and old desk. I had this old desk. It was like very old and it like moved around when I would write on it. And I went from like people telling me what to do to like, Hey, you got to go get sales. You got to go get clients.
And I'm like, well, there's no guarantee here. There's no guaranteed income. There's nothing I got to do it. And so I really struggled in my first year with like, some days were great. Some days weren't, and it was the highs and the lows of like. Yay. And then, oh my gosh, defeated. And that's the stuff I don't think people talk about enough to be honest with you.
Like there was times where I would cry myself to sleep and I would like lay in my bed and I didn't have a bed frame. So it's just this mattress on the floor and I would just cry. And I was like, can I do this? Like, maybe I should go get a job, but it was that year that taught me everything about resilience.
And it also like helped me learn skills because there's skills in this, right? There's skills in selling their skills and communication. And if it wasn't for all those hard times, I wouldn't be as skilled as I am today. And it taught me everything that now I feel like I could go into any environment and do well, because I learned through every step of the way.
Anne-Lyse Wealth: okay, so at this point you've built your side business to multiple six figures.
So she has a multiple six figure site hustle. It looks like she's investing in other areas, but she still has a full time job. I would love for you to talk about why you still have a full time job.
Annalisa Abell: striving to be able to not only set myself up, but also set my family up. And I always tell people, once you hit 100, 000, you'll realize that, oh, it's nice to have, but it's not that much money. Once you hit 2, 000, it's nice to have, but it's not that much money. We know within this society, it takes money to actually do things.
So as my income grows, I'm just using the money as a vehicle to put into real estate, to make me more money, to put in other business ideas. Virtual assistant is just one business for me. I have multiple ideas that I would like to execute on that will create more passive income for me. So that is the ultimate goal.
I still have my nine to five because it's my investor. It helps me invest into other things that make me more money. Love it.
James Hill: Your vision, what you dream about, what you think about comes from what you do every day, what you consume. If I'm consuming podcasts about business, if I'm watching television about business, if I'm reading books about business, that opens up my mind to dream bigger and those dreams and those visions.
Spirit, my actions and my actions determine where I'm actually going to go. One thing I learned is millionaires and people who are successful and wealthy, they don't allow themselves to consume things that doesn't align with their end goal of your end goal is to become a multimillionaire. Even if you are broke right now, you can't be consuming content.
That doesn't allow you to get there. You need to read books. You need to study and you need to be around people that can help you get to where you want to go. You know how they say dress for the job you want, not for the job you have. You have to think and act for the career you want and the network you want, not for the network you have, because.
Where you are at today is based on the decisions you made last year, not the decisions you made last night. The decisions you make last night are going to propel you next year, where you're going to be at. So yes, you do become a millionaire internally in your mindset and your actions before you actually start receiving the money, and that's good because.
If you receive the money before you actually become a millionaire internally, you're going to lose it. And you're going to blow it. We see this happen with athletes, entertainers, people who win the lottery. It happens every single day because your mind and your money has to be aligned in order for you to keep it.
I read this in a book and I'm going to try to explain it the best way I can, because it changed the way I looked at money. You never go above or below your level of money, your self concept and level of money. Right now, you've been a CPA, you're a journalist, you're financially literate. Let's say you lose everything.
You're going to start scrambling. You're going to work 10 20 hour days to get to that level back to where you were once at. But once you get to that level of your self concept, you're going to become comfortable because that's where you're at. But let's say you get 100 million tomorrow. That's so above your level of self concept.
You're just going to start blowing the money. You're just buying anything, Birkin bags, you know, they just paying for everybody to go on trips and all of this. Your level, you never go above or beyond 10 percent of your level of self concept. When you go above it, you start merging and spending the money.
When you go below it. You start scrambling and hustling to get back to that level. One of the things you do in order to make yourself ready to receive the money is you have to continue to feed your mind and study and be around people and be comfortable with having that amount of money. Let me give you an example.
The first time I made an investment and I made about 30 just from an investment out of the stock market, made a good investment. It went up. I made about 40, 000. One of my mentors was like, don't spend that money for six months. Just let it sit in the bank. And I'm like, why would I do that? This was probably like 2019.
So I'm like, why would I do that? What are you talking about? And he was basically trying to train me on this whole concept. I'm saying if I get used to having 50, 60, a hundred thousand in my bank account, then my level of self concept is going to go up. But because I wasn't used to having that type of money, My first initial thing to do was to go scramble and buy something and buy this and buy that.
Now, if I have a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, it's a normal day, but most people, if they get that type of money, instantly are going to start thinking about scrambling and spending that money and blowing this, and they're going to become very friendly and they get all these new cousins and friends and they got an entourage and we see it every day with rappers, with athletes, with people who glow their money is because.
One day they was in the hood or one day they was in college. They're good at playing basketball. And because of that, now they got a hundred million dollar contract. Their level of money has not risen. Not one bit. You see
Anne-Lyse Wealth: that when people win the lottery too, right? It's such a great point. You have to elevate in terms of what you know about money and wealth.
So that you can be a good steward of that money.
Yamundow Camara: I started investing in 2020 during COVID. I always knew I wanted to invest in real estate, like from childhood. I already knew and I've been inspired and I kept reading about it. When I came here, there was so many resources. I'm a reader. I like reading. I was a loner the whole time. So back home, I would go to any library nearby school library and just take books and read them just because I want to read, not just, just to escape, but it's not like I want to read them for fun.
So I would read books and I'll come across the different books about wealth and stuff and I'll read them. But when I came, I already had a bunch of knowledge about stuff that I didn't even need because I just randomly read stuff. But when I was looking for a job, I knew that eventually when I get a job, I'm going to start investing, right?
So what I did was put myself in places where I can access digital sources, free networking events, free YouTube, like YouTube university, go and just put real estate. You'll see a lot of people talking about what they do, how they achieve. So I've met a lot of people through like networking events that are free.
And I'll just go there and talk to a bunch of people. I'll go on YouTube and check bigger pocket podcast, join those and listen to people, listen to different people. So I already have been doing my research before I even started investing. So before I even got a job, so what I did was. Read these books that people are suggesting.
So I did not reinvent the wheel or anything. I just repeat what people are doing. So 2019, I got a job with the CDC and I'm already in Georgia. I moved to Georgia. I got a job with CDC, and three months into the job I was like, I think it's time now. I've saved 10,000. Like I've never heard that kind of money.
I was so excited. So in all my research, I always hear people say, Oh, contact the local banks, contact credit unions, your local banks and all that. Right. So I did exactly that. So me being in Illinois, cause that's the only state I know, cause I've just moved to Georgia then. So it was like, okay, I cannot afford houses in Georgia.
Let me go back and look at where I used to live and close by there. So I kept going every city by. Where I live was higher. I kept going, going all the way to the little cities, right? The smaller cities. And then I was like, okay, I think I can afford this area. So I did call the banks and I tell them I want to invest in real estate.
What do I need to do? Some of them are like, first of all, your papers are not all there, even though you're allowed to work with your OPT, whatever. And some of them would tell me your credit score. So it's a bunch of reasons. And I got rejected. But there was just one bank that was there to listen to me.
And they were like, you know what? If you really want to do it, these are the things, you don't qualify, but these are the things that you can do. You can go get covered up. I didn't have a credit card. I didn't know what that was. My scholarship at the university was A work scholarship. I do data analysis for the university and they'll waive my tuition fee and they give me 1, 000 stipend.
So with the stipend, I pay my room fees and all the little things and insurance and all that. So I'm left with like 100, go to Walmart, buy groceries, that's it, repeat for the whole two years. So I never knew anything about credit cards or how important it is to someone here in the U. S. especially. So I didn't have, they were like, okay, so the bank, I suggest they go get a credit card, capital one, at least get two.
You work for CDC now, go join the credit union and build your credit. Maybe get a secure card. I didn't even get a credit card when I applied for CDC. They asked me to do a secure credit card, put 300 down and then pay off, use it and pay it off until six months. So I did all of that, that the bank suggested.
I was like, You know what? I can't wait this long. I went ahead and did it. So I called them back and I say, I did everything you guys say, but I can't wait. So what I did was I went and look for a property. I didn't stop. I didn't let that discourage me. I kept looking for properties and I just analyzed them just for fun, just analyze, analyze.
So I saw this property that was like 52 52, 000. The seller was going through a divorce and they wanted to sell, they're desperate to sell and it needed work, but I didn't know that at the beginning. They told me on paper that it's going to cost for 2, 000 because the rent are so and so and so they gave me the rent roll, they gave me everything.
So I was like presented to the bank. I was like, these are the numbers and I have 10, 000 saved up right now. No matter what I could put 8, 000 down on closing cause and everything's 10 grand. I think this will work. They were like, okay. sent all the document. They were like, okay, we'll call you back. And then they were like, they called me back and say, okay, we'll take a chance on you.
And they did. And the rest is history. So that's how I started. I later found out so many issues were wrong with the house, but I ended up going through, it taught me everything that I mostly 90 percent of the things that could be wrong in a deal property. But me going through that process, I learned a lot and it's brought me to where I am right now.
Now the property costs were close to two thousand a month every month and it's on section eight and it's a place for hire. cause
Jacent Wamala: I calculated my net worth for the first time, like January, 2017, five years ago. And it was negative. And I was like, what the heck? What are we going to do about this, Jacint? I don't know, Jacint. We need to figure it out.
And so having this conversation. Yeah, so your net worth literally is your assets minus your liabilities. The things that you own, if your car is paid off, you own your car. The things that you own versus what you owe. So if you have a mortgage out on your house, then that potentially falls into an asset that you have negative depending on what you Own.
If your house is paid off and you don't have any debts or your debts are less than what you own, then you have a positive net worth. If you owe more than you own, you have a negative net worth. So I owned my car, I owned my laptop, like there's some things in my home that are valuable, but For me, my net worth was negative about 70, 000 with my student loans and my credit cards and whatnot.
And that's what really was one of the wake up calls for me because I was like, wait a minute here. Like, if this is where it's at right now, I'm only 26, bruh. What's it going to be if I don't do anything about this? I think it's probably supposed to be positive. I think we would like for it to be positive.
So that was clarity for me. I think a lot of people would be scared if they were to confront the reality of their financial situation. And that's why a lot of the times people seek my services out or my support is because they need support in being able to look at things and not be overwhelmed and run in the opposite direction.
But then that was like, okay. If I'm negative and what would I like? I would like to be in the positive. Where are we at right now? I'm not really managing my money. I knew managing my money had to happen in order for me to hit my goal. And I knew I wasn't making enough because like, how much did I make? I got my tax return situation and I was like, I made 17, 800.
I looked it up just above poverty level. I was like, that's probably not good. And then I was like, okay, we got to figure something out here. We know that if we want, because I made a deadline, I said, I want to pay off this debt, but I would like to in a perfect world. Pay this off before the time I'm 30. I was 26 going on 27 at the time.
So that gave me about three years. I divided the amount 70, 000 by three years, divided that by 12 months. That gave me a tentative, a monthly amount that I needed to pay down on my debt in order to hit my goal. Like I said, I break things down to make them real palatable. It's literally what I did in my own journey.
Now I wasn't making enough to pay that stuff down. So that was my next question. The numbers were not numbering. The math was not mapping. It did not make sense logically, but there's a difference between eyesight and how you interpret what's in front of you. And Mindsight, which is how you imagine and how you interpret what could be possible for you.
So what happens is children are really great at Mindsight. It's that as we get older, we get so focused on what's right in front of us and what's. It's logical and logistical and makes sense that we forget about mind sight. So it's having a good balance because I had to know, girl, right now it does not make sense.
But what would make sense is if you were to learn how to earn 2, 000 more a month, which sounds crazy, I'm sure to some people, it sounded crazy to me, but I was like, if I can make 2, 000 more a month and I could pay off this stuff, then I can travel around the world and be borderline bougie. I really want that.
That's what I want. So, so then it became managing my money from March 2017. Boy, it was rough. And you have to know when you're going to start managing your money, it's not just going to be like perfect puzzle pieces coming together. It takes time to build the muscle and the habit and the skill. of managing your money.
Most people just want to give up after two weeks or after 30 days. It's going to take you at least three to six months just to get the hang of understanding how to budget and manage your money. So I spent from March, 2017, probably till about September or so of 2017, learning how to manage my money, starting to track.
What I was paying on my debt, starting to track what I was spending on a monthly basis, starting to project and decide what I was going to spend on in a month. I started selling things, which helped to create my first emergency fund. And then I was applying for all of the jobs. Literally, I don't know if you guys are going to get the ex Exclusive.
No, I literally think I applied at the strip club, not to be a stripper, to be a business. I live in Las Vegas. I wasn't applying to be a stripper. Okay. I'm going to let the record show. I don't think I've ever told this part to anybody, but it was like for the call center in the back. They have a call center.
Girl, I've looked, I don't know who they're calling or what the conversations consist of, but, but I had applied. I applied at Walmart. Mind you, I had a master's degree. I was applying everywhere, but I would get on Indeed. I knew how much money I needed to make. I would filter by the salary I needed in order to be able to know what to apply for.
I still was working part time in my own private practice, and I was working part time teaching at the university here in Las Vegas. So I wanted to keep those and I wanted to add on top of what I was already doing. My mindset was I have a master's level degree. What makes me any different than a lawyer, than an engineer, than a doctor?
Doctors put themselves through residency. I said, you know what? I'm going through residency. This is my internship. I'm going to squeeze my degree for every penny that it's worth. I said, how many different ways can I make money with this degree? That's what I'm going to do. So I finally did land a job. It took, like I said, from the beginning of 2017, I didn't get a new job and start making more money and significant debt payments until October of 2017.
So it wasn't overnight y'all. Okay. It wasn't something that was just like wave a magic wand. No, I used to live by myself in an apartment, living my whole best life. I moved in with my best friend. She was gracious enough to allow me to move in with her. There was a lot that went into it, but now I get to do whatever I want.
So I'm cool with it.
Anne-Lyse Wealth: you talk about your mission to guide thousands of minority millennials to financial freedom through digital entrepreneurship.
So why do you think we should consider digital
Asia Abston: entrepreneurship? And I know I get in trouble a lot because I speak so absolutely about things and I really don't see an alternative to it. And I mean it, I really do mean it. And the reason is like our parents and our grandparents, our ancestors, all they knew was hard work.
All they knew was labor because they didn't have a choice. That's how America works. And you have to work hard and you have to, you know, partake in backbreaking labor, and you have to work sunup to sundown in general, let alone, if you want more for yourself and more for your family, then hard work equals success.
And I discovered. That that's false. It's just not true. The people, you know, with the most money work the least. Think about your own job in your own life at home. Your boss does the least amount of work. It's those people beneath him or her who are the ones who are the first in the office and the last to leave and working on the weekends and.
I don't have time for all of that. So once I just uncovered the scam of, you know, hard work and that that was perpetuated by the wealthy as a way to control those underneath them, I just said, no, ma'am, that's not going to work for me. So when I look at a business venture or an idea, I genuinely try to figure out what is the easiest way I can get this done?
What is the past? Of least resistance. How can I make the absolute most amount of money and the largest impact by doing the least amount of gritty, hard labor? So digital entrepreneurship is the wave. It will always be the way for me. I am a drop shipper. That is my number one favorite business in life because I can run a full throttle six or seven figure e commerce business from my iPhone anywhere on the planet.
At any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I don't know what's better than passive income. I don't know what's better than waking up to more money than you went to sleep with. And then social media marketing is the other thing I teach through Instagram. I make tens of thousands of dollars every single month from Instagram.
Not because I'm a genius or a rocky science or cool or have a marketing degree or anything. Just because I'm leveraging the power of social media. So digital entrepreneurship is just, it's the love of my life.
Anne-Lyse Wealth: So I'm going to challenge you on this a little bit, so we talking about our bosses in general working less than, you know, the employees.
And I totally agree with that, but to get in that seat, right, you do have to put in the work up front a
Asia Abston: hundred percent
Anne-Lyse Wealth: because I don't want listeners.
Asia Abston: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 100%. And I'm glad that you are allowing me to clear that up. 100 percent in the beginning. It's time to get in the trenches. It is time to glue yourself to your computer.
I mean, I can sit at my computer for 14 hours. Don't get me wrong. Glue yourself to the desk, glue yourself to the library, glue yourself to those courses and those mentorship and those programs, 1 million percent, undoubtedly you need to be in the trenches and the beginning stages of your business. What I'm saying though.
is you don't have to stay there. That does not have to be a permanent state of things always have to be hard. And this always has to be challenging. And of course there's failure and losses and, and all these things. And it'll always be this uphill battle. That's what I'm saying. And that's what I want black people to get away from is that things will always be hard.
And it's just not true. You can set up and systematize your life to where things are running automatically and passively, but passive. Money comes after active labor. So we got to do the active first and then we can get to passive and automated systems.