The Power of Proximity with Tyrone Ross
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Hey everyone, really fun announcement for you before we start the show today. For the next five weeks, my friend Jeremy Schneider, who you might remember from episode 64, is going to be taking over the Stay Wealthy podcast.

A number of you have been emailing me saying you're tired of hearing my voice and you need a break from me. No, I'm totally kidding. Jeremy is going to be filling in for me for the month of July while I just take a breather and work on making some really meaningful improvements to this show. Jeremy is a fantastic educator. He's a smart investor, and he has just such a unique way of teaching personal finance topics. You're in for a real treat.

If you have any feedback for Jeremy or the topics covered over the next five weeks, just shoot me an email at podcast at youstaywealthy.com. Okay, on to the show. The most important is empowerment. Empowering people to make decisions, to make better decisions, to make ongoing better decisions, to make ongoing better decisions for themselves, then their family, then their legacy.

Welcome to the Stay Wealthy Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor Schulte. And today I have a very, very special guest on the show. I'm joined by my good friend, Tyrone Ross. Tyrone is a financial consultant, an early stage startup advisor, entrepreneur, and he's one heck of an athlete.

In this conversation, we discuss financial literacy, what we can do as individuals to effectively and constructively help people in need, the power of proximity, which is one of my favorites, and many of the other issues our world is faced with today. I hope you enjoy your break from me in the next five weeks with Jeremy Schneider, and I hope you enjoy my conversation today with the one and only Tyrone Ross.

All right. So to kick things off, I personally and publicly just want to acknowledge you and something that you did for me. Gosh, it was a couple of years ago, I think. You and I first met in person in Dana Point for one of the Ritholtz conferences. And we're all sitting there and you and I were just talking about this.

talking here before I hit record about blind spots and just not being aware of certain things. And you shared this story or made this comment. We're all sitting around chatting and you shared this with me and it just stuck with me and it stuck with my wife too, because I came home and I shared it with her, which was just this understanding of what it feels like to be a black advisor in our industry, uh,

walking into a conference with a thousand white people in the room. And you made this comment about how when you walk in to these scenes, these situations, the first thing that you do is you just look for another black advisor to just go walk up to and see.

And there was just something about that that just struck me. I think you might even said something like, imagine you as a white person, as a white advisor, walking into a room full of predominantly black people, like, how would you feel? And just like that visual, it just really stuck with me. And it really just changed my,

I don't really open my eyes to a lot of things that I think I was just really naive to. This podcast, this platform, this is not the intention of it, but I just wanted to use this place here today and my time with you today, just acknowledge you and thank you for saying that on the right day at the right time. And it just really hit me. So thank you. Yeah, no, thank you for having me. And

Again, these conversations shouldn't be ones that happen once there's tragedy in the world. It's all part of investing. It's all part of financial planning. It's all part and parcel. You can't separate them. But unfortunately, right now, there's a spotlight on this. And it's been gaslighted by some things in our country that are horrible, some horrible visuals, some horrible realities. But I'm super grateful for you making time for this discussion. And ultimately, like I said, we've broken bread a couple of times since then. And

Our experiences growing up in this country couldn't be any more diametrically opposed. But the beauty in that is, is that when you do come to a table again, I believe in breaking bread, being sacred, looking in someone's eye and telling them your experience and me hearing yours and then all of the things that, you know, the differences that we go through. That's beautiful. That's a wonderful thing. And I think what happens is a lot of people would ask me, well, Tyrone, are you angry? I'm hopeful right now.

Because if you come from pain and struggle and hardship, you realize when it's the darkest is when there's some hope coming. And it's really dark right now, but there's some hope coming.

I tweeted about NASCAR, what happened there, the conversations like this. You're starting to have more people open to these conversations now. And I think because of that, our country is going to come out more understanding, more merciful. We'll have more diverse panels and more diverse firms and more diverse investment strategies and everything. And if I'm being completely honest, we work in an industry that has completely dropped the ball on us.

Financial services have completely said, we're going to pass. We're going to pass on this discussion. We are literally going to opt out. And the biggest and brightest in our industry led that charge and said, we're not raising our hand on this one. So kudos to you with the following that you have with this podcast and your respect in our industry, period, that you're just amazing.

saying, listen, I'm going to talk to one of my friends and we're going to have an open discussion and we're going to record it. So grateful for you being in my life, grateful for just having this platform. And I look forward to a very beneficial and fruitful and action step-based conversation for your listeners. So I appreciate you.

It's interesting that you said that because there's another interview that you did recently and you said something along the lines, and I appreciated this, that we don't necessarily need to get on a microphone and speak to thousands of people and address these things publicly, right?

You just made this comment that there's a lot that's just done behind the scenes that nobody knows about and that you appreciate that and that you don't necessarily feel like we need to put pressure on these high profile firms or people in our industry to stand up and say something. So can you talk a little bit more about that?

Just the difference between those two comments? Yeah, absolutely. I've always stood on this. You can look at some of the walk and talks that I do on my Twitter or just, I never was the one to say people had to speak out. It's your platform. You can do whatever you want. And a lot of times, and some of these folks, I really don't want them speaking on Black causes. I'm okay with it. But I realized that when I look at my career, that I am only here

because of white people. I didn't have any black people that created a little bit of leverage for me to be here. And most of what they did was behind the scenes with me. And I realized that. My mentor at Merrill, the first woman that hired me to work on Wall Street, Lisa Craddock, right? God bless her wherever she is. She is still to this day, the most incredible leader I have ever come across in my life. She changed my life by simply giving a

A little black boy who was a first generation high school graduate, an opportunity to work on Wall Street. And I was literally clueless.

Couple minutes before she hired me, I had just walked by the New York Stock Exchange, didn't know what it was. She never wanted credit. She never wants credit. My mentor to this day says, don't you ever mention my name. I don't ever want anybody to know it was me who did what I did for you. And he's super powerful. You find him on a Barron's list every year. He's been at Merrill 30 years, the most incredible financial planner, advisor, individual you'll ever meet. And there's plenty of people like this in our industry still that DM me like Tyrone

I'll help behind the scenes, but I don't want to be public. And again, it's like the whole thing when you grow up. My mother would always say is that you never know who's watching. And she would say that to say the most powerful person is watching you, but they're not going to let you know. And then when they tap you on the shoulder, they are going to be the person that can elevate you to where you want to go. Right. Those who probably out screaming a lot about certain things.

It's big hat, no cattle. She also says, now again, I say this as a person who has a big mouth and talks a lot, but I do that because I need people to understand, to bring awareness to certain things. And I'm confident that I can stand on what I've been through in my life and what I stand for. So there needs to be a voice to amplify the hurt, the pain, the struggle of people that come from what I come from and where I come from. So that's why I do it. But

We will get out of this behind backdoor meetings. And I say that in a positive way. We will get out of this by people saying you should network with Tyrone. I'm going to connect you with this person. Have you thought about this organization? Have you thought about this school? That's how we're going to get out. And it's going to be a behind the scenes thing. But the beautiful thing is the results.

can't help but be external because it can't be hidden at that point. It's just going to be, well, how did this happen? Well, these two individuals like minds got together and here's what happened. So I encourage anybody listening to this, the most effective things you're probably going to do is going to be behind the scenes. And I just feel like I never wanted to be the wag the finger. Oh, you're not this, you're not that. That's not helpful to anybody because then people just want to retrench. But I think

I only am where I am, not only in my career, but in FinTwit, quote unquote, in the platform that I have now from people DMing and saying, hey, you should talk to Tyrone or you should watch this video that he did. So I just feel like if we all quietly reached out to a friend, networked with someone, pointed

over to this organization as opposed to this overly funded organization. Now we really start to make things happen. And yes, there is a place for things to be broadcasted because we live

in a society where virality matters and people jump on board of things like the no layaway thing and all that other stuff. So that needed to happen because you reach more people. But the most powerful, impactful networking and DMs or emails are going to be behind the scenes. So I just really want people to understand that if nothing else,

If you don't want to be mentioned or uncomfortable, just send that email, send that text message, have that conversation with that kid that comes over to your house and you know they're living in a condition that's not yours. I was that kid, by the way. And just inspire that kid. Ask them if they need anything. Do you want to take some food home? Can we help you with a ride to practice? Whatever the case may be.

Those are the things that helped me graduate high school. If I don't graduate high school, I'm not the first in my family to do so. And I'm not in a position that I am now to be in a position to help my family. So those little backdoor things matter. Yeah. I want to ask you about that, actually. You've mentioned before that story and this woman that hired you and that you wouldn't be where you're at today with some of these really instrumental people in your life that gave you these opportunities. And I'm just curious how you look at it. Do you look at it like,

That's a really good point. So my mother, who is a devout Pentecostal Christian, would not like it if I said I got lucky.

She would say, call it blessed. But yes, there is a little bit of luck involved. I just can't use that word around her and I don't think she'll listen to this. So I will say luck. But yes, I do believe there was a little bit of serendipity. Now, with that said, at 16 years old, I endeavored to dream and said I wanted to become an Olympian. Through that, I kind of worked myself out.

into rooms with people, into certain conversations with people. I was able to travel the country and all these things and meet different people. So

I do think there was a hard work element to it. I do think there was success to it. I ended up being a really good runner in high school and got a full scholarship. So that kind of exposed me to some things. But my gift always placed me ahead of where I was actually was in my life. So my gift was a gift and a curse. It kind of got me in trouble because, yeah, I went to college.

And I was exposed to roommates, one who would end up to be the treasurer of Disney, another who would go on to get his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Michigan and ended up being a professor at Duke at like 28 years old. And another who ran his father's. I'd never been around that type of anything in my life, let alone. These are all black men that I mentioned. I'd never seen anything like that before in my life.

And then I leave there and I come back to New Jersey. And then now I met Seton Hall and I finished there. And then I end up taking these graduate courses. And then a professor mentions Wall Street. And then I go on to Wall Street. So, yes, I do think there's a little bit of hard work there and a lot of hard work, actually. But it's simply because I endeavored to dream at 16 years old. But I do think

There's a little bit of luck. And I know that as a black man, that I'm lucky and privileged and all of those things, because most in our business don't make it to where I am, especially when you come from where I come from. You just don't end up here. So I recognize that I'm a unicorn, but I don't also say that without recognizing that I had to get very lucky. I had to work hard. I had to be visible. And I guess that's the one thing that had been constant over the years is that

One thing my dad gave me was his name and his work ethic. Like my father, that's all he, you know, he went out the house every day for 40 years knowing there was no chance of promotion, no chance of an increase, no chance of anything. He just had to work to put food on the table. And that's the vision that I saw.

Being born with a PhD, right? Poor, hungry, and driven. I kind of carry that with me my whole life. So I think if you are driven and you're poor and you're hungry, you get lucky more than other people, but you have to be visible. And here's the thing. I think this is the other thing. You got to understand that what you choose matters. Because I could have been a raving success in another industry, but it doesn't bring the fruit and rewards that Wall Street does. And I kind of figured that out early. I'm like, man,

I'm never going to be a million dollar producer at Merrill, nor do I want to be. But if I can just last on Wall Street, I'm going to get my just due. I just need to last. And I didn't see a lot of myself and I experienced a lot of racism and bigotry. But I'm like, man, if I could just hold on, I'm going to find my way here. And I did. And here I am talking to you.

So here's where I'm going. And I'm only asking this just as an attempt to learn here. And I just love to kind of hear what you have to say around this idea of luck and kind of creating your own luck. I'm a big fan of Jocko Willink, Navy SEAL, wrote the book Extreme Ownership.

And I'm just curious, do you think it's possible for someone who has grown up with fear and worry about money and thinking the only way out of the hole that they're in right now is to get help from someone, whether it's in the form of money or time or opportunity? Is it possible for someone in that position and maybe even someone in that position that unlike you, maybe doesn't have a great father or mother figure in their life,

Is it possible for them to go from that thinking, I need help from somebody else. Like I can't do this. Just saying to themselves, you know what? I can do something about this. I can make changes. I can make small steps in the right direction every single day. I can break this chain. I can be the first person in my family to graduate high school or go to college. I can take extreme ownership and I don't need to sit around and wait for somebody to help me. I'm just curious how you think about that and if that's possible. And if so, and then I'd like to talk about how we can help maybe people take action and get there.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I have yet to put this on Twitter because I don't want people to come after me, but I'm definitely more Jocko Willink than I am David Goggins. But I definitely lean Jocko Willink for a lot of reasons. Now, the extreme ownership part.

is key there because I feel like that's one of the things indirectly that my parents instilled in me to take responsibility for all things in your life, even being broke, even being disenfranchised, even being impoverished, but working your way out of it. Now, with that said, now that I am out of that, I realize that is a very privileged take. Yeah.

Now, to be very clear, Jocko earned his keep, right? Some of the stuff that he said he's gone through and did 100%, I'm not taking anything away from him. Because again, I acknowledge myself from where I sit. That is a very privileged view because again, let's just say you wore my dad with a middle school education and there was really...

No way to improve your lot except for finding work and making sure that you always had the ability to feed, clothe yourself and have a roof over your head. Now, is that extreme ownership? Sure. There's different levels of it. But I think there are some people and I've been in the most impoverished places in this country and you would have a hard time. And I don't know if he ever will.

He can't take that message to Detroit and the poorest areas of Detroit. They'd run him out of there because they don't even have the basics. I can take control all I want of how hard I work and how hard I train. But if I'm somewhere where I don't even have public transportation to the city to go get a job, they never come here to plow our streets. We don't have fresh running, clean water everywhere.

How much could I actually do to get exposure and get out of here? It's a very hard thing to do. Can you? 100%. Has it happened? 100%. Independent of color? 100%. Is there any better country to do it than ours? No. But when you've been firsthand and seen that squalor, that depth of poverty, that depth of hopelessness, you realize at some point you say,

I'm going to throw my hands up and I'm just going to be comfortable with owning where I am right now. I really can't strive for more. Is that the right mindset? No. But at some point, extreme ownership is just simply survival. I realized that at some point my parents said, you know what? We got two kids. My sister was lost to the streets very early. My parents looked at each other and said, we got one left.

We got to survive, keep him alive. And in any resource we have, we got to pour it into him. And they gave up. And they'll tell you this. They gave up on acquiring any more. It was just survival. Let's just survive. I said this to you before. I don't know how many times I've moved as a child. I don't have a childhood home. Right. My childhood right now is in storage. At some point, my parents were like.

So forget promotion. We just got to survive. We got to keep the lights on. We got to keep the rent paid. We got to keep food on the table and we have to keep him on a straight and narrow.

Still extreme ownership, but I think there's a mindset there that can only carry you so far. At some point, you do have to get exposed. You do have to get lucky, right? There's kids in third world countries right now that if they had access to the Olympic facilities that some of the kids here have, we would never win a gold medal again, right? So they just don't have the eyes on them. They don't have the exposure. And they may be doing everything, using everything within their means,

And we're dealing with racism in this country right now. But when we start to deal with the class issue, oh, baby, you think this is bad.

When we start dealing with the class issue, now you're taking color out of it. And now you're talking about almost half of the people in this country. I think we're going to start to see that in the fall when people start to go to the polls. But that's another conversation. But I say that to say, yes, you can have extreme ownership under your situation. But it does not mean that if I do all of these things that he says, that is ultimately going to catapult me to be him or to even be even remotely successful in

when I got my first job on Wall Street, I was making more that first year than my parents probably had made combined in their lifetime. Think about that. You know what I'm saying? I have my dad's first check that he ever got. It was $78, 78 bucks. And it was like, he had to feed a family off of that, do all his other things. Again, my mother was on government assistance for a while or whatever, but

That right there just goes to show you that my parents are hardworking, they're selfless, they're everything, but they didn't improve their life much. The only thing that they did, and maybe they did indirectly because they were like, all right, we're going to pour all our resources into him. He'll get us out of this. But at some point they just tapped out and was like, nothing else matters but survival. And I think a lot of Americans do that. They're like, it's not about anything else. It's simply surviving.

Let's kind of move and pivot into talking about solutions and actions. And where I'd love to start is you've previously shared the three E's. I'd love you to explain the three E's, what they are, and then I have a few other questions about kind of taking action and what we can all do. Sure. I'll start with the middle one because as financial advisors and being in financial services, our industry loves this one so we can justify our fancy degrees and designations is education.

We push education so much so that our industry spends $17 billion on marketing, all of this stuff, and less than 1% on that E. So we lead with education and selling that to people as opposed to truly educating them. The first is marketing.

The second most important, and people are shocked when I say that because I've talked so much about exposure, but exposing people, simply exposing people to what's possible, what's out there for them. So exposure, education, and then the last one, the most important, is empowerment. Empowering people to make decisions.

to make better decisions, to make ongoing better decisions, to make ongoing better decisions for themselves, then their family, then their legacy. We don't do that at all. Our industry needs to get to the empowerment. And again, you can have a backslash there, endowment. That's another piece of that, which is really important. But

That's really what I'm trying to get people to understand. All of these things worked. If we follow that model, we'll be able to get ourselves out of this and stop the financial literacy crisis in this country as what, 63% or whatever they said of Americans are financially literate. And in any industry, in any problem, you can apply that too. But yeah, that's really it. Exposure, education, and empowerment.

Where do you think accountability fits in there? Do you think empowerment and accountability are interchangeable or is accountability stacked onto all those things? Really great question. And I've been asked this and a lot of folks have said that not necessarily as pushback, but just like, all right, well, once we do all those things, they still got to act, right? 100%. And I think that goes into that last bucket, right? Because

If I'm empowering you, I was just talking about this as part of my practice. I work with a lot of startup founders and startups. And I always tell startup founders this, just because you gave an employee autonomy didn't mean you empowered them. You got free reign. But when I empower you, I say, I realize you want to make this decision, make it. And I'm going to give you all of the resources to make sure you see it through.

So to this example, yes, once I know that I've exposed you, you've been educated and now you go, well, how do I become an Olympian? OK, here's how I'm going to empower you. Eat this train this many times a week.

Three weeks at a time, one week off. Now I'm going to start giving you all of the blueprint to be able to make it happen. So there is an accountability there that should come once someone has been exposed to more. Because if I see it, I can be it. But if I can't see it, there's no way for me to even desire to have it. So I think what I've seen, even in the worst situations where if you expose people to, myself included, when I was like, well, I didn't even know this stock market thing was

This is pretty cool. Now what do I do? Okay, well, you got to take these steps and then not start to invest. And then it just so happened that I was working on Wall Street, so I made it easy. But there is a big part of accountability there because people have to be accountable and raise their hand and say, no, I do want to learn more. Empower me.

I definitely want to make these decisions. And then we go ahead and do that through ongoing education, ongoing follow-up, mentorship, sponsorship, like I said, endowment, and coming behind them and making sure that they continue to be endowed. So think about it. The typical example would be, I'll use my nephews as an example. My nephews right now probably have a much better portfolio than most people because of me, right? And they definitely do it. And I did it 2016.

I didn't have anything. So at one and two, their portfolios are stout. Now they've been empowered because of what it is that I went through. So I'm going to continue to give them that ongoing education. Then it's going to be all right. Well,

Now I'm going to empower you because you're going to go to a better school than I did. And then you're going to be able to go to a better college. So that empowerment is ongoing that we do that in our own homes. We could do that same thing for other people and say, OK, well, yeah, this is an introduction to the stock market. And then you are aware of this. Right. I had a conversation last night with a gentleman. He's a robotic surgeon.

one of the smartest people I ever met in my life. And we were just talking about the stock market. And I mentioned a cover call strategy. And he didn't really say lead on. He didn't know what cover calls were. But we hung up the phone and he texted me. He was like, cover calls? So now I've empowered him

Because now he's like, okay, now I'm going to go learn. He's like, do you have any other resources for this? So now I send him the resources. And again, this dude reads like four or five books a week. He's brilliant. So he's going to be able to soak that up. So if each of us just simply did that for the everyday American, again, he's the top 1% of his field. And he had no idea what that was. Imagine if every...

Every advisor did that, or every person in financial services did that. We will pull so many people out of this illiteracy malaise in this country, but we would all be better for it. But it's just simply, I mean, come on, sending him an Investopedia link on cover calls? So just that part of it. But yes, long-winded way of saying, yes, there's accountability. He had to follow up one, say-

I'm going to eat a slice of humble pie here and say, I don't know. And it also question mark, can you empower me? Can you tell me about what the hell cover calls are? Sure. No. And I think one of the things that benefits your nieces and nephews is that they're learning these things at a really young age. And I think one of the biggest challenges, I don't know if you have additional thoughts on this or it really is just the three E's and accountability. We need to focus on that.

But one of the uphill battles for us in helping people is their attitudes and behaviors specifically around money are ingrained in them at a really young age. I've talked about this a lot on the podcast. Some have suggested seven or eight. And so when you meet somebody who's 20 or

or 25, it is really hard to educate and empower them to make meaningful changes to their lives when that behavior is just ingrained and they don't know anything different. And to get them to see it differently and to change that behavior is really, really, really challenging. So I'm constantly thinking like, what can we do to really help people make changes and take action?

Good point. And I say that as well. Two questions that I ask upon intake of every one of my clients is one, what is your first memory of money? Is it abundance? Is it you're sitting on your dad's lap watching CNBC or going down to the bank with your grandfather? Or is it

scarcity like it was for me. That matters. That's probably indicative why you're making some of the decisions now that you're making as an adult. No, I love that. I mean, my first memory is walking to the bank with my mom and depositing 20 bucks and now I had my own bank account, which is wildly different from your experience. 100%. I grew up in an unbanked home. I knew what that was like, right? I was familiar with check cashing places and payday loans and all. I didn't know. And money orders, I didn't know what a check was. So I

I didn't realize, I didn't even learn to write a check or do any of that. I was well into college when I knew what a checking account was and how to write a check. It was like, what is this? And then the other question I ask is currently, what is your relationship with money? When it comes up, what is the first thing that pops into your head? And from those two questions, you can really start to see how early exposure

to financial education or just anything. And it's why I say why kids, soon as they're able to identify, like I was just with my nephews earlier today and I'm like, Bitcoin? I buy them little money games and things like that. So, and they're one and two and making sure that they have the resources behind the scenes so they'll learn these things. But the minute children can identify numbers and letters, they should be learning about money.

immediately in the home, but also one of the action steps we can do, again, as an industry, one hour a day or one hour a week, how committed you are to it of pro bono work, whether it's an afterschool program, whether it's your local sports league that your kids are in, whether it's going down to the local school and working with the teacher and just saying, I know I can't change the curriculum. I know you got to

specific area of focus to teach these kids, but maybe you can just kind of sneak in a little tidbit about money here in this lesson or whatever. Financial advisors need to do that. We need to. We sell our services to the wealthy. We need to start giving our time to the less fortunate and those that don't get access to us. One hour a day, one hour a week will not hurt. And I feel like that's something that should be designated if you hold a series seven or you're a CFA. That's just the way it should be. But the other thing is, again, I just think

If you look at the places where kids congregate and where they hang out. And again, like I said, those sports leagues and why isn't there sports leagues that are sponsored by the biggest financial firms? Right. Why aren't most folks aware of the after school programs in their community? Right. I've gone to after school programs. I've gone to enrichment programs, STEM programs. I've gone to youth detention services. I've been to prisons. Everybody deserves financial education.

So, by the way, if these folks then get into the community and they don't know how to transact or they don't know anything about money, you know what they do? Right. That's when recidivism rises and they start to create more crimes or whatever because they feel they cannot transact or they cannot survive because they don't have the tools. So we go super early.

homeless shelters, again, day programs, whatever it is, all of these things, if we just simply give a little bit of time there and also the content, the content that we create as advisors and financial services are geared towards the people who already have. We got to start changing up the way that we package it and give it to people who don't. Those are some action steps. And

It's just simply looking around your community, where the best and most effective ways that you can. Maybe it's a board of ed meeting. Just going down there and raising your hand. Hey, you thought about 21 states in our great country require financial literacy to be taught. I believe it's 11 that actually provide the funding. Financial literacy should be taught in schools. They make it mandatory, but they don't provide the funding and they don't provide the training. So what do you want a teacher to do?

They have so many other things that they have to teach. So, you know, we have to do better as a country to make sure the teachers have the resources to do it. And again, which is why I'm a big fan of we have tele everything else. Why don't we have telefinance?

Why are we calling families that are in certain areas and just simply 15 minutes on the phone, giving up our time to help them do a one page financial plan or budgeting? Or is there anything that you're struggling with? You understand your work benefits. Do you know what the hell exemptions are? You know, you had zero and 19. Why? Do you know why? Do you know what that means? Your 401k? Have you are you aware of what a target date fund is and what that number means at the end? Like basic stuff. If we were to do that, we would help a lot, a lot of people.

But I just think those are a lot of the access steps we could take as an industry. And then just as individuals, just being mindful of how we can open the door for someone next to us or expose people and give people opportunity, whatever it is, doesn't have to be finances, but just, hey, have you thought about this book? If your favorite book, go get 20 of them, go down to the local homeless shelter and just drop them off.

What's wrong with that? Free and easy, right? Like done. Thank you. You know, if you need anything else, let me know. You know what they're going to say? Oh, we love books, but can you go get us some socks? And you go to Target, you go buy a bunch of socks, you drop them off. Not only did you help keep homeless people, you know, clean and sanitary, but you also fed their mind.

So, you know, these are a lot of things that just simply thinking out, well, for most folks is outside the box. But for me, it's just the norm. If I can expand people's mindset there, then I think we're going to help millions and millions of people and we'll be so much more secure, fed, graceful, merciful, appreciative as a country. One of the things that I've really learned from you is that this is where our

our minds go a lot or my mind goes a lot of time is like make a donation or buy a book or teach a class or something like that, but it doesn't necessarily need to be that you've shared. I think you shared this story about, well, first of all, we can't end this podcast without talking about, you know, getting proximate. And that's just really stuck with me ever since you started talking about it. And you shared the story about, I think you're in New York walking down the street and there was a homeless person or something and they didn't want money at all. Like

They just wanted a hug. And so just this idea of just spending time around some of these communities and some of these people, you don't need to buy them anything necessarily or teach them anything necessarily. Sometimes just being around it and just getting involved and just having some conversations or giving someone a hug on the street.

I just want to highlight that it doesn't have to be something that's purchased. At all. It doesn't have to be something that's purchased. And a lot of times you're a mere presence, right? I say this all the time, especially to folks right now that feel as though

And again, feel how you want to feel. I'm not getting into the whole Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter things, but I do know this. There are a lot of poor white kids in this country and I've seen a lot of them. And I go in these classrooms and I go to these programs and these kids have no voice. And the only reason they relate to me is like, I know what it's like to be poor. And they hug me. They spend time with me. They laugh. They joke. It's no color at that point. They're like, you spoke to my condition.

I know exactly what it's like to sit in a room that's freezing cold with a candle on and hear my mother cry or moan or sing to make sure that we make it to the next day to struggle again. And they cry. My color doesn't matter.

Could care less. The color of the life preserver does not matter. But you spoke to my existence. You saved me. So there are so many poor white kids out here that haven't been afforded the privilege yet of their skin color. Wink, wink, because they're poor. Let me tell you something. There's nothing more that you don't want to be in this country than poor. Be anything else. Do not be poor.

Because you are forgotten. And that's why I said when we get to dealing with the class issue in this country, it is going to be capital you ugly.

So there are so many kids right now. They get beat up because they're going to school. One of our colleagues, Ashby Daniels, he said, I didn't even realize I was white until I left going to all black school. We were just all poor. I had no idea. But there are so many kids like that that just need a voice. And in the classroom comes Taylor Schulte and this kid goes, wait a second. Who is this?

He looks like me. And he came to this school to talk to me. Oh, wait a second. Now he's sitting up in his seat. Meanwhile, the father's in prison. The mother's on heroin and he's seeing you and he's talking to you and you're talking about what you're doing. Just the visual alone. You don't even have to stare in that kid's direction. I do, though, when I get in that classroom and I know I got one, I stare a hole through. I let you know I'm talking to you and you come find me after this and I'm gonna do whatever it is. But you don't even have to look at him.

Because now that kid is sitting up in the seat and going, whoa, wait a second. This is different. That's me. I'm looking at myself, not only in the present because of your quote unquote actual skin color, but I could be him. And then he's going to nervously walk his way over to you and go, well, how do I do that?

The power of proximity, which is why our corporate leaders, our politicians are clueless because they don't get proximate to the issues and the people in this country that are struggling. They don't see it. They don't feel it. They don't smell it. They don't taste it. But when you do, it changes the way you give.

And I think if we just actually go put your kids in a car, it's funny. Whenever you hear about San Diego, oh, San Diego is beautiful place of La Jolla and Coronado and Point Loma. Now, be very clear. I love San Diego. I'm going to be there at some point. But I'm also aware of the hood in San Diego. And there's a place in San Diego called the Four Corners is one of the most dangerous places in the country.

No one will tell you about that. So when I get to San Diego, when I get there, guess where I'm going to spend most of my time? Those people need me. I need to be there. All that money in San Diego, 20% poverty in that city. Are you kidding me? Why?

People throw away more money than these people probably make in a year. So that power of proximity and just seeing what people go through, you do not leave that situation and go, oh, I'm not changed by that. And to the story that you said, I always keep cash on me. It's another thing that people can do. Not a lot. Just keep a couple cash on you. If you know you're going to be in an area where there's homeless people, $10 in singles, whatever. That means you can give out 10 singles, whatever, whatever you got. And I always keep cash on me. And it was a long day. I was wanting to go home. I walk into Penn Station.

To go back to New Jersey and I'm gassed and I'm walking and I see him and I'm like, all right, I got a little bit left. I reached in my pocket. I fold it up and I'm walking towards him and people are passing them straight, like passing them like an exam, like my mother would say. I got it in my hand and I put it in his hand and I pulled him towards me.

And I said, I appreciate you. And he just started bawling, crying. And he grabbed me and he hugged me. And people like literally stopped it on the street. And he said, I stand on this corner all day begging and people will throw change at me and tell me to get a job. And it cursed me out. He said, I can't even begin to tell you the last time somebody told me they appreciate me. He cried like a baby, like a baby.

And I sat there and I just hugged him. If I'm correct, I think I missed my train, but it was worth it because it changed my life. And that's where that I appreciate you comes from when I say that on Twitter, because I'm like, wait a second. And I still don't remember how much money I gave him. It wasn't much, but all he wanted was appreciation. And by the way...

He could have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company making $20 million a year. You want to know who's the most unappreciated folks? Them, because they're like, oh, you got it all. You don't need anything. But when was the last time somebody walked into a CEO's up? I appreciate you, man. You're appreciated.

You blew it on that investor conference call, but I appreciate you. So again, that is something that transcends socioeconomic status, education, color, all that stuff is I appreciate you. I just understand your circumstance. You as a human being, I appreciate all that you are. And from that moment, it changed my life and his because it was like now again, I don't know what's happened to him since then, but I will tell you this that night.

He was like, I'm buying in. If I even thought about doing something crazy to myself or somebody else, I'm buying in. I'm giving myself another day. I'm giving myself another two weeks. And that's all I care about. I don't care if you get in the elevator with me. When you get off, you're going to be like, whoa, I'm fired up to do something. That's all I care about. I'm going to put something into you. And this is what I try and tell our community. If all I do is give you financial planning.

If all I do is give you $100, if all I do is come to your school and talk to you about the rule of 72, I robbed you. I robbed you. But if I put something in you, in your spirit, when you get punched in your face and then punched in your gut and then kicked in your teeth, you're going to fall, but you'll get up. And that's the one thing my parents put in me. All those things will happen.

But we cannot prepare the path for you, but we'll prepare you for the path because we don't know what the path is. But you're going to get beat down to your last. So now I know if I sit with a client, if I want a podcast, if I walk in a conference stage, I need one of you to get this message. I'm going to put it so deep down in your spirit. When you turn it off, you're going to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I have to reevaluate some things.

And that's literally what we do as advisors. The quote that I love from the first season of our podcast was Emlyn Miles Mattingly said, our industry does a good job of getting the numbers right and the people wrong. Most beautiful thing you could ever say. That's exactly, oh, we run the hell out some numbers. But when was the last time you actually put something deep, deep, deep, deep down in somebody's spirit and they walked out of your meeting and went, whew, okay.

Now I got to pay this forward. Like that piece of advice, that guidance was so powerful. I have to go give that to somebody else. Again, it's just the power of proximity, seeing eye to eye to people and really being in that circumstance. And again, if I ever get you out here so you can meet my mom, like you'll understand that and see where I grew up and the different places I went. Like when you get in that environment, you're going to go, all right.

I get it. This is why that person is wired that way. And even on the other side, but I just think the issues that we're having in this country right now is simply because there are people who are completely they have blind spots to other people's conditions. And if we don't fix that back to that class issue again, if we don't fix that, we don't fix America.

I'm speechless. I can't figure out a better way to end or a better place to end. I hope to make it out there. I hope to meet Mama Ross in person one of these days. 100%. I've chatted.

briefly through, I don't know, FaceTime or something when she showed up. I know she shows up here and there, but Tyrone, I just want to just say thank you for carving out some time. I know you've been doing a ton of interviews and you're absolutely exhausted. So thank you for making the time and I appreciate you. I appreciate you too, man. Thank you for using your platform for this discussion and love and light to everybody out there. I appreciate you all. Thank you, man.

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