The Money Mindset w/ Janell Stephens & The Wall Street Trapper

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Keep It Positive, sweetie.

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Speaker 2: Now you're thrown into this huge beauty brand business and you had one of the top selling businesses. What were some of the fundamental things that you even had to learn along the way to really create this business as far as the business mindset, because it's different than getting in the kitchen and being creative.

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Speaker 1: Yes, a whole nother bund set.

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Speaker 3: I feel like I was born really with like a hustle mentality. And I don't know if I want to use the word hustle. I don't know. I like the word. But some people are like, we're entrepreneurs. But I'm an entrepreneur and I'm hustling, So I'm bold.

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Speaker 4: It can't be just about money, you know, because if we make it just about money, we can't.

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Speaker 5: Go what we need to go at.

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Speaker 1: No, you can't.

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Speaker 4: So we got to put God first and say God like yo, it says proverbing and for diligent hands, Bill, well, poor hands make for lazy.

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Speaker 5: So okay, if he tells us to be diligent, let me just be diligent.

00:01:19
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Christine Hazel.

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Speaker 2: And this is keep it Positive, sweetie, A safe face to heal, laugh, grow, and love. Today's show is all about the money, and I'm sitting down today with two top tier entrepreneurs, the Wall Street.

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Speaker 1: Trapper and the CEO and founder of Camille Rose. Janelle Stephens.

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Speaker 2: As the founder and CEO of the number one black owned haircare brand, Camille Rose, Janelle Stevens has carved a beautiful path in the business for herself. Her client to success hasn't been smooth, but her desire to serve the needs of others has been her source of help all along the way. Janelle, thank you so much for coming today.

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Speaker 3: I'm excited to be here.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Yes, having I appreciate you. You've spun didn't help me with so many things.

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Speaker 2: I met like once at the gathering spot and I've been a fan of your.

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Speaker 1: P Yeah, it was a while ago. It was at some event.

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Speaker 2: I can't remember which one it was, but I remember we got to talk, like right in the front, we got a photo together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's a long time coming.

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Speaker 1: It has I'm so proud of everything that you've accomplished. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for those who don't know if you came to the live show for keep it positive. Sweetish Janelle and her company, Camille Rose actually sponsored gift bags for everyone. So I truly appreciate you, and so it's the keep pot sweety community.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, it is always a blessing for us to show up in the community and help out, you know, as much as we can. So thank you for thinking of us.

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Speaker 5: Of course.

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Speaker 2: Of course, Well I wanted to know about Janelle Stevens, the face and the name behind Camille Rose. We see you on all the shelves in the stores, but I want to learn more about you today.

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Speaker 3: I know, yes, everybody called me Cameille, my name is Chanelle. But hey, so Camille Rose, man, it has been such a blessing for me and super surprised. I'm still surprised that I am even in this industry and God put me on this journey, right. So I started Kamille Rose back in twenty eleven. I just went on this whole quest for all things natural, not even realizing or not even wanting to this is something that I want to sell, you know, I just went on. Okay, I got to figure out how to have a wholeistic lifestyle for me and my family. You know, let me research ingredients, let me know what I'm using on my body, on my skin, on my hair, for myself and my kids. And doing that just set me on this whole new journey, you know, without even realizing what God was doing.

00:04:04
Speaker 5: Uh.

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Speaker 3: In my life, I followed the traditional got to go to college path, you know, got my master's in science, and then pivoted. Wow, just took a step out on faith and enjoyed the whole process right of doing just that. And out of that, you know, Camille Rose was born.

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Speaker 2: Wow, so your name is now, where did the name Camille Rose come from?

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Speaker 3: Of course I had to tie into my grandmother some kind of way, who loved roses right, and on the date my grandmother I s, I always say, she's the original Camille Rose. Never went to a doctor. She died when she was like ninety nine, but she didn't look it, you know, skin was amazing smooth. And I said, you know what, I want to dedicate my brand to her son type of way, because she had her own little concoctions that she was making for us if we got sick, you know, her own home remedies. And I think I of course super inspired by her. And on the day of her services she passed away like in the winter and her yard that had roses in her front yard. They were all dead, right, wow. And then my aunt looked over and it was one rose that was bloom and full bloom. And my aunt was like, oh my god, look at that rose and it was red. It was it was the rest were dead. It was like, wait a minute, what's happening here? And so that's the rose that you see in my silhouettes, my logos, hair. And my aunt was like, you know, I'm just going to take that as a sign that, you know, mom is at peace. And so I just wanted to tie my brand into you know, my grandmother and how much she meant to me.

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Speaker 1: That is beautiful.

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Speaker 2: So you went to college, you had a major that had nothing to do with hair. What was that moment where you were like, I want to pivot. I want to do things naturally. Did something happen like I need to be more cautious about it.

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Speaker 3: So not even saying that I wanted to pivot, I started having I was having kids young and thinking, okay, I got my master's now, but I got all these babies. So it's like hard for me to get out and punch somebody's clock. And then the babies that I had had suffered from severe ezemas and Darter was born with curly hair. My son had curls. And then it's not that moment that you're like, wait a minute, I can't. I gotta be careful, Like they're too young for me to be using all these chemicals and the crazy stuff and what is this ingreat? And you know, why are the things that I'm buying, everything that I'm using, nothing is working. What is going on? It says organic, you know, and then bringing them to doctor after doctor they're writing a prescription and it's like, I can't keep doing this, so let me figure it figured it out, you know, like I'm really about to be super mom and just do what I have to do and research the ingredients of the products that I thought were organic, and that was like, wait a minute, it's one organic ingredient in here, you know. The Yeah, And I just just started teaching myself about herbs and making everything.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing.

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Speaker 2: So at what point did you get the call or know that your products are going to be on this way at Walmart, Target, yeah, everywhere around.

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Speaker 3: So I think that when I realized that I'm enjoying this, and when I realized that, Okay, I'm obsessed with making formulas. Is when I realized, okay, I got to share it. I remember doing this whole diaper rash cream that really worked, like the next day after I used it, I called my husband in the room. I was like, you gotta see this, like this is gone. A diaper rash is gone. Like I gotta figure out how to share it, not sell it, but share it because it was such a struggle for me and I'm talking about they were like the skin was bleeding, like Okay, I figured it out, and so I was like, I gotta share it. But how do I share it if I'm making it and if a website, like what do I do? So I remember calling like a laboratory and telling them, hey, I got this cream and this is the ingredients and how do I do this? And they were like they started talking dollars that I didn't have right now, and I was frustrated. I hung the phone up. I was like, forget it. But then I didn't let that stop me. I was like, well, I can't afford to do it like the right way with the pretty packaging, and so let me just do it myself. Let me throw up a small website and just see how it goes. And then it just went it just yeah, amazing.

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Speaker 1: The fact that you got in the kitchen yourself. I was like, I'm going to figure this out.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I had everything girl from I was nursing at the time, which was super painful. I'm like, I'm doing a nipple braam like everything. Like I would have scratches of a scratch of paper and taking it to a compound in pharmacist with like ingredients on it and whipped this up for me and they would. But it was like, girl, that was three years before Camille Rose was actually a thing. So I just take that as God was grooming me. He was like he was putting me on that path without me even realizing it, and without me even putting a ton of pressure on myself. Right, I was in class, Yes, the whole time I was in the and God was the teacher.

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Speaker 1: Yep, you know we're doing that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And so it was just a learning lesson those three years that I went through. And then he said, Okay, the timing is now.

00:10:26
Speaker 1: Wow, that is amazing.

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Speaker 2: So now you're thrown into this huge beauty brand business and you had one of the top selling businesses. What were some of the fundamental things that you even had to learn along the way to really create this business. As far as the business mindset, because it's different than getting in the kitchen and being creative, Yes, a whole nother mindset.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: I feel like I was born really with like a hustle mentality. And I don't know if I want to use the word hustle. I don't know, I like the word. But some people like, we're entrepreneurs, but I'm an entrepreneur and I'm a hustler soot, And I think I was born with that because Camille Rose. It really wasn't my first business. I had a home health like a sitting agency before I'm a therapist, and so when I finished graduate school, I got into like home health and I would hire CNA's LPNs to go out into the home and sit with people, older people, people who were stroke victims, that kind of stuff. I had like thirty five employees under that company. So I was always like, okay, do for self, do for self. Like I think that my family pretty much raised me like that, you know, so that mindset was always there, and I was never afraid of work, you know, never afraid of work. If I punched the clock, I'm gonna work there, and when I got off, I'm gonna work for me twice more, you know, just harder. So I wasn't scared to do that. And I love doing it.

00:12:06
Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 3: It was such a joy When you receive a check that you made for yourself, by yourself. That's a bomb feeling, you know, and I want it more and more of that.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that is amazing.

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Speaker 2: So many people have aspirations to be in the beauty business, but a lot of people are like, oh, it's oversaturated, Like, don't do that because everybody's doing it.

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Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that?

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Speaker 3: I think that everything is oversaturating, right, And I think that if it's your passion and if that's what you really want to do, it'll come. You just got to keep working towards it, like every day, Like, don't put it to the side, don't keep it in your head and you wishing up on a star. I think that don't worry about how big you're gonna grow it. Just think about growing it where you are at that moment, you know, and then just keep working towards it. And the more you pour into it it's gonna get bigger.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.

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Speaker 2: One of my other questions I always wondered, because a lot of people you said you would call people and say, hey, I had these formulas, what to do they automatically start talking dollars.

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Speaker 1: Did you self fund your business.

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Speaker 3: Or absolutely, which is one reason I grew, which I tell people grow at the pace that you're comfortable with growing. I funded it, and my husband, of course he funded it too. But we did it as we grew, you know, because my goal wasn't get it to everybody. My goal wasn't even get it in the retail store. My goal was to let me throw up this website and use my social media and try to reach people there. When I started my formulas, I went to the I didn't even know where you would go to buy a bottle or jar. I went to the grocery store and I bought Mason jar and I got my little sharpie and got like this cute little paper from hobby lobby and take that on the jars. And that's how I did it. Yeah, And I was okay with doing it like that until I was able to not only teach myself where do you get a component?

00:14:21
Speaker 1: From you know.

00:14:23
Speaker 5: And.

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Speaker 3: How do I do this? So it was the pace that I was comfortable with growing and I never I'm so glad I did it like that because it was less stressful, you know, like I wasn't like I gotta do this, I gotta get into target. It was less stressful for me. Yeah, and it made it more enjoyable.

00:14:45
Speaker 1: That's good. That's amazing.

00:14:47
Speaker 2: A lot of times when people are the people in their family that had the successful business, a lot of other things come along with it. Have you had to navigate other stresses that came along with you being the one that successful or had something that really popped from from family or friends?

00:15:06
Speaker 3: How do I think I was supported by everybody? Not not necessarily. I think things for me, not think I think I know. Things for me started happening really really quickly. It was like the line order. So most people don't know. After that website I threw home. The year later, I was in a major, a big box retail store. One year later, I knew nothing. When I tell you, I don't know what I thought, like what they invited me to this meeting to tell my story. I don't know if I was like Okay, yeah, I'm gonna take the meeting with me and this one person that I met, and that was it. Girl. I walked in and it was like a ton of people around table full of people. Of course they didn't look like me, and I was like, what am I doing here? You know, And that was a little bit intimidating. However, you know, they walcome in. It was like, tell your story. Ill when we met, tell that story. And it was so easy to do. And so that following year, Kamille Rose was in Target. Yeah it's crazy, but yeah, but the people around me, Yeah, everybody was pretty support and they really didn't even know. I don't know if they realized what I was doing how big you know it was gonna get.

00:16:30
Speaker 1: But yeah, that is awesome.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: I love that there is this stigma behind when companies grow from the ground up as yours has and just blows up and then they sell it.

00:16:40
Speaker 1: There's people that say.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: When you sell it, the the equality of the product goes down, and some people say people are selling out when they sell it.

00:16:48
Speaker 1: What is your mindset behind?

00:16:50
Speaker 2: Cause I feel like I grew this because at some point I do want to like not have to work.

00:16:56
Speaker 1: As much, you know, you want to make the money, but what is your I.

00:17:01
Speaker 3: Think that people have to sit and do what is best for them and their family. Because I met both, I know both, Oh my god, like I could name, I don't know if I could name, but but yeah, it's it's companies out there right now that I have met, super successful that have said no, we just want to keep this in our family. And then it's it's companies out there that's like I'm building it to sell. I think that it's that's a personal decision. It's it's exhaust it's a lot with any business, like, it's a lot. So I think you just have to decide what's best for you and you know your family. Do I feel that when companies purchase black owned brands or any any whatever, black on white owned brands, their goal is to see how they can get their money out of it, save a dollar, and.

00:18:02
Speaker 1: If it's cutting back on certain things.

00:18:04
Speaker 3: Of course, of course, because it's a business, it becomes like a business to them and it becomes less of this is it's a real person behind this company, behind this brand. This is my baby, you know, So you just got to do what's best for you.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, because I mean, I ain't thinking about that. A lot of times. You don't know how to fix the family because it is so much hands on work.

00:18:30
Speaker 3: But I do want to say that it's so important for our community to have ownership stuff. It's so important because I've come. I've never been into in corporate I've never worked in corporate America, always on the medical side, so that's kind of different. But it wasn't until I started having meetings with Camille Rose and going into corporate settings where I'm realizing, damn, it's really not a lot of us in here, right, And it made me think of my children and if they wanted to insert in turn somewhere, and you know, they're competing against companies that are not really owned by us, so you know it'll be harder. And so I think it's so important for us to have ownership and a lot. So you can call me and say, hey, my niece wants to intern, which follow you, Yeah, I've come. Or I'll call you and say, hey, my daughter wants to shadow you. You know what I'm saying. So it's very very I love that. Yeah.

00:19:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really big on ownership.

00:19:47
Speaker 2: I'm so big because you have to like, like you said, there's not a lot of opportunities for us, and when you have the ownership, we're able to create more opportunities for our community.

00:19:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, I love that.

00:19:59
Speaker 2: What are some of the big hurdles that you've had to overcome with entrepreneurship?

00:20:04
Speaker 3: I know, right, So one hurdle that really really stressed me out was finding a manufacturer that believed in what I believed in as far as like the ingredients. And when I thought I found one, it was this guy. He was like, I'll help you, and I'm like, okay. He was like, but I'm not purchasing any of your ingredients because it's food. You know, you don't have to put this in your products. We got this synthetic that's cheaper, and I'm like, I'm not doing that because I would not want to disappoint my clients who's purchasing me online, and then when they see me in the shelf, it's a whole different I'm not doing that. And then yeah, and then you know, I want to make sure these products are safe for me to use and my children and my family, so I'm not using anything synthetic. That was a problem when I went to the laboratories. You know, the chemists wouldn't be friendly with me because I call myself a kitchen chemist. And I was like, what is that. Y'all went to school for this, you know what I'm saying. So they didn't want to hear what kind of ingredients I got coming in there. I got a lot of when my grandmother lived till she was one hundred and ninety nine and eighty five, and she got perms and all that kind of stuff. I got a lot of that. So when I found him, he was like, I'll help you out, but you have to send all of your ingredients. So I had big palace of almond mill, everything sent into his lab. I was just using his tanks. And so that first year I was in the retail store, I made no money, made no money. He girl, he treated me like crappy because I was like this little brand and he was doing like bigger brands. It was crazy. And then as I kind of grew in the business and started meeting more and more people, it was like, wait, what issues are you having? And I would tell them and it was like, what's the art about, No, ma'am, that's not small. We'll take you and I'm like, it's not small, absolutely not, you know, but he was telling me so he was like double dipping, like I had to pay him to you sustains. Yes, it was like a struggle. So that was just, you know, that was a part of my journey, such a hurdle that I had to go through and get through. And then it was at that point I remember telling my husband, all right, I got to drop everything. I got to get out there, hit the streets and find a partner that can help me produce these products. And not just any partner, right, somebody who believed in what I believed in. And my god, thank god I did. But we're still together to this day. But let me tell you about that story. When I met this lady, a chemist, she was at another lavatory, a big laboratory. We're jelling, right, we're talking. You can't really talk to those chemists a lot of times don't want to talk to you. Right, It's very rare to find somebody that let me, let me hear your stuff? What an ingredients? What do you know? So I found her and then right when I'm thinking, okay, let's do this, that company that she worked for with bankrupt. I was like, what is happening? But she pulled me and she was like, you know what, I want to go into business myself.

00:23:31
Speaker 1: You go. Come on.

00:23:32
Speaker 3: And as I grew, she grew and you should see her facility today, like she bought like these tanks. Girl. Yes, So not only was I creating something for me and my family, I created jobs for her and tons of people in her in her facilities, and we're still together today.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: I love that. That is beautiful.

00:23:56
Speaker 2: Now, with everything you have going on, what do you do to take care of Janelle?

00:24:02
Speaker 3: What do I do? I don't know. Look before that self care question, right, that self care question, that self care does not exist. But before I was like, oh balance, I got this work like that.

00:24:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I don't know.

00:24:17
Speaker 3: I think I poured back into my body, which I make sure I'm working out, doing something at the gym every day. Mentally, Now I don't know. I keep saying every year, well I need a therapist. What is that like? Never had one?

00:24:31
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:24:31
Speaker 1: I want one.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: I haven't done that yet.

00:24:33
Speaker 1: Have to try it.

00:24:34
Speaker 3: That's what everybody's telling me.

00:24:35
Speaker 1: I'm serious, changed my life, it really okay?

00:24:38
Speaker 3: You got you gotta well. Most people don't like to share their therapist. So I don't know, are you like, no, you gotta share because I'm like, well, what what do you sit there and do with what you start talking about?

00:24:51
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:24:51
Speaker 3: One hundred thousand bottles? Like you know, how does it work?

00:24:55
Speaker 5: You know?

00:24:56
Speaker 3: Yeah? But I think exercise to me helps as small as that may sound, it helps me. It helps me.

00:25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. What is next on the horizon for you and for Camille Rose?

00:25:11
Speaker 3: Yes, girl, so much. But I'm so excited in twenty twenty five, Camille roll skin, Yeah, I gotta pour into the darkest skin tone. Yeah. So that's what we're working on now and we'll be releasing that the top of twenty twenty five.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: That's amazing because your skin is flawless.

00:25:29
Speaker 2: Yours too, well, it's gonna be even more flaws when I get some Camille Rosk Carriod, I love this.

00:25:36
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.

00:25:37
Speaker 2: Absolutely from the streets of New Orleans is shifting the mindsets of the masses towards wealth and entrepreneurship.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: The Wall Street Trapper has created.

00:25:57
Speaker 2: A brand and a business that has racked in millions in race countless entrepreneurs. The Wall Street Trappers here guys trap with us.

00:26:08
Speaker 1: You made it.

00:26:09
Speaker 5: It's so uh surrel just to hear that. It's so surrel just.

00:26:14
Speaker 4: To hear that, to just knowing how far I came, your how far the journey has been, and.

00:26:20
Speaker 5: To hear that, it's so profound.

00:26:23
Speaker 4: I'm so grateful for that, doing big things.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: Everything's doing.

00:26:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm excited. Thank you all for having me. Thank you for having me. I'm so proud of you. So you have a woman. And my heart was like, thank you for that.

00:26:42
Speaker 4: I was like, track, yes, getting that, getting that fulfillment. It is important for me. I guess we'll talk about it. I just did the same thing with the guys as a leader. It is important for the people who rock with me to be on the same journeys so we can all aligned. I got this saying right now it's God and money. So we got to go God first, and then we can get the money. We can get the money because God ain't telling us to be broke.

00:27:11
Speaker 5: That he did not.

00:27:12
Speaker 1: He did not, that is so.

00:27:13
Speaker 4: True and tell us that. So just this journey is so phenomenal. I'm still in all every step of the way.

00:27:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so beautiful.

00:27:22
Speaker 2: Seen your journey, like even seeing you be more out loud and like visual with your relationship with Christ.

00:27:30
Speaker 1: I think it's beautiful.

00:27:31
Speaker 5: It's because he's been outled with me.

00:27:36
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it.

00:27:37
Speaker 5: It's been outlied with me.

00:27:38
Speaker 4: My transformation has taken place right in front people's eyes. And I've always tried to put God first.

00:27:47
Speaker 5: But we was doing a tour in twenty twenty three.

00:27:52
Speaker 4: We did a tour and we was doing like six to seven hundred people just me per city. And I went to my guide Hose, and I said, Jose, the message not coming across like I want. And I know why, I said, because God has given me the platform and I ain't giving him.

00:28:12
Speaker 5: The glory out. I said that.

00:28:16
Speaker 4: And then from that, from that second city, on the first slide on the tour was a scripture that I would break down. I would do one or two scriptures. The first one was like the man with the talents right, And I learned that in that time a talent was equivalent to twenty to forty years worth of servitude.

00:28:40
Speaker 5: And I was like, yeah, God in money, God in money.

00:28:46
Speaker 4: And so that was my way of saying God, I got you. And so since then it's just been this the journey I'm on and slowly but surely.

00:28:56
Speaker 5: God is just He's opening up so many ways from me.

00:28:59
Speaker 4: I keep telling people that the more you increase your capacity, the more God will increase your territory. And so for me, increasing my capacity is looking at the parts of me that I'm not sufficient in, Like I'm not patient right because I'm.

00:29:19
Speaker 5: Gonna go get her.

00:29:20
Speaker 4: And so I don't wait like I had a problem with waiting for God to do it, like got I'm gonna do it.

00:29:24
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do it. I' gonna get it done. And what we realize is that when we do it.

00:29:28
Speaker 4: I always tell Jose that our best play is not in God's playbook.

00:29:33
Speaker 5: It's our play.

00:29:35
Speaker 4: It ain't his place. So it's gonna take me longer. And so this year twenty twenty four has been about yielding, yielding my heart, my spirit, my money, my business and love.

00:29:50
Speaker 1: Wow love love? Now what part of love? Because the ladies what it?

00:30:00
Speaker 5: Forty two me?

00:30:09
Speaker 4: So because I come from the streets, born and raised in New Orleans. I went to prison when I was sixteen for a tim murder. So my mom gets shot when I was nine. I emotionally was bankrupt throughout my whole life. The streets didn't allow me the freedom to have emotion, because emotion will get you killed.

00:30:42
Speaker 5: And so I went through my life.

00:30:46
Speaker 4: Keeping women at a distance because I wound up getting robbed because a woman had set me up. But it was part of the game, so I didn't but I kept the residue of that with me, right, and I went through my whole life just on some I can't afford that. And then when I came home from prison, I witnessed so many men who would use women to get to other men, and I was a part of that at a point, like no, like you pretty yo, go do this for me so we can. It's part of the game. And so that trauma sat on me, and so when I became successful, it became even harder.

00:31:30
Speaker 5: Yep, you know what I'm saying.

00:31:32
Speaker 4: It became even harder for me to trust, and it became harder for me to be vulnerable like that, and so I just stayed away from it. And then I met somebody who made it worth it in a way. But I wasn't capable, wasn't I didn't know how to express that, and so that forced me to do something I didn't think I would have to do.

00:32:02
Speaker 5: It was go to therapy.

00:32:03
Speaker 1: Wow, talk about it and black me and talk about therapy.

00:32:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, therapy has been so therapeutic. Uh. My therapist told me something one day.

00:32:17
Speaker 4: He said, uh, listen, this is gonna be hard, and I said, man, listen, I've been shot, right, I've been in prison.

00:32:25
Speaker 5: I need to talk about this stuff.

00:32:27
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:32:28
Speaker 4: But what also helped me was he's a therapist that leads with God.

00:32:34
Speaker 1: That's important.

00:32:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, And so I started talking to him about how I felt about seeing my mama get shot, how it felt for me to shoot a man and never deal with that.

00:32:45
Speaker 5: Because I thought it was normal. Yeah, how it felt to be shot, how it felt.

00:32:51
Speaker 4: To go to court and get found not guilty and nobody be in the room with me. How it felt for me to do ten years and not have people support me, right, like going through the world as a loner, and how I horbed that m And because I didn't have a uh pathway to express it, I I I let it callous. And so therapy became this place where I started.

00:33:22
Speaker 5: To cry and it felt good.

00:33:27
Speaker 2: Oh yes, it's I want that message to get across there. It is okay for our black men to cry it is I think our society has made it be strong, like men don't cry, boys don't cry, be a big boy even from.

00:33:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, stop acting like that.

00:33:49
Speaker 2: So you grow up into grown men who don't know how to express themselves or even cry.

00:33:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, emotionally in prison yea emotionally incarcerated feeling that the vulnerability is what makes you weak, when in reality, the vulnerability makes us strong.

00:34:09
Speaker 5: It's the ability to say, no, I feel this way about.

00:34:12
Speaker 4: This situation, and I need to express it because when you hold it in, it starts to turn into resentment, and resentment can lead a lead to you imploding.

00:34:26
Speaker 5: Right, And.

00:34:28
Speaker 4: As a man with a daughter, I never need to implode.

00:34:35
Speaker 5: I need to be able to show her how much I love her. She needs to know every day that, yo, my daddy loved me.

00:34:45
Speaker 4: Like in so many different ways. And the only way that I could do that was being so in touch with myself where because I had moments where I would cry and I would be like, man, I can't let my daughter say.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Yes to wipe it away, right, But what is that teaching her exactly? You know, when she grows up and gets a man, her husband, to know that hey, it's Okay, I saw that.

00:35:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so that's that's been the journey for me. And so I as I went to therapy and I was like, Okay, this feels good and started building these spiritual relationships with people people in church.

00:35:26
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:35:28
Speaker 4: That that was me saying God, I see you, Yeah, I see you because I can't.

00:35:34
Speaker 5: I don't.

00:35:34
Speaker 4: This is I'm an infant here. Yes, I can't just read the word and interpret it. I need somebody to guide me.

00:35:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:35:42
Speaker 5: Right.

00:35:43
Speaker 4: And so I had my therapist, and then I had these spiritual big brothers come in my life, and and this year has been the best year for me.

00:35:51
Speaker 5: Ever.

00:35:52
Speaker 1: I love that.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: Ever, doesn't it all come together when you put God first? Like people don't understand, They ask like how God? Like the moment I intentionally put him first, everything is clear. My choices are wiser. When I study the word, I can apply it to every single day. We just read Proverse, the whole Book of Proverbs. Church so good, and it's the wise that we did a wise up challenge because it's so full of wisdom. And I struggle with patience as well, So praying for that patience and I feel like God has been testing me all week on this patience, but in that it was about being slow to anger and taking time to process things before you just react, and just being wise in all your choices. And I think, especially in the season I'm in my life being successful, wanting to grow more and continue to elevate, I needed that, you know. And I see it like I see the evidence.

00:36:49
Speaker 1: Of him everywhere.

00:36:50
Speaker 2: I mean, like even this new season, like God is showing like if you trust me and allow me, I'm gonna put the right people in your life. Because when you said making sure that the people around me are all the same wave, like.

00:37:03
Speaker 1: You have to you have to.

00:37:05
Speaker 5: It's because.

00:37:09
Speaker 4: When we are the visionary, the people will not necessarily follow you.

00:37:16
Speaker 5: They believe in the vision, yes, right.

00:37:19
Speaker 4: And I have to be a conduit and anybody that doesn't have the same currency with me throws me off.

00:37:27
Speaker 5: Yes right.

00:37:28
Speaker 4: And I think about I think about like when Jesus was walking and the lady touched to him, he was like, who touched me?

00:37:35
Speaker 5: And they like no, no, no, no, Like all these people, he was like no, no, no, there was a certain type of yes. It's a certain type of touch, right.

00:37:42
Speaker 4: And so for me, I need the people around me to have a certain type of touch. So when they following me or when they inspire by me, they're moving in this authentic that's amazing. And you talked about the patience, so that there's Galatians five until only Too is one of my favorites because it talks about the fruit of the spirit right and inside of it. There's two things that I love. It's depending on what book you read, it'll say forbearance or it'll say long suffering, and then it'll say self control. And the reason why that's important because to be patient, it's to suffer sometimes.

00:38:22
Speaker 1: It is.

00:38:24
Speaker 5: It's to suffer sometimes, but.

00:38:26
Speaker 4: It also tells us to wait patiently, we hope and to rejoice during turmoil. So for me, I've been through so much turmoil, and instead of letting the turmoil get me mad, it's like, oh God, at my weakest is when you work the.

00:38:43
Speaker 1: Most, it.

00:38:45
Speaker 5: Can't bad. I got you.

00:38:47
Speaker 1: I got you.

00:38:51
Speaker 5: You're trying to expose me to something.

00:38:52
Speaker 4: You're trying to let me see something, You're trying to navigate me to something. So when I get frustrated, I take control.

00:39:00
Speaker 5: And that's when I lose.

00:39:01
Speaker 1: Yep, yes, yeah, God will test you.

00:39:04
Speaker 5: The enemy will tempt you.

00:39:06
Speaker 4: I gotta make sure that I passed the test and not fall for the temptations. And whatever the temptation may be in me. I need to get this done in the time that I needed to get done. I need this to move how I want this business not moving. So when I yielded, I say, nah, God, you gonna have it all. Yeah, and just give me the instructions.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:39:24
Speaker 4: And so I'm just walking now with this flow in my life.

00:39:31
Speaker 5: And I just took the men too as a man.

00:39:35
Speaker 1: Thinking, yeah, I saw that.

00:39:37
Speaker 5: So mind you.

00:39:38
Speaker 4: My circle is eighty percent of convicted fellas.

00:39:43
Speaker 5: Only twenty percent.

00:39:44
Speaker 4: Of the people that I know now is people who I've met as an entrepreneur. Right, And so my people from the street be hitting me, be like broh that.

00:39:53
Speaker 5: God stuff real, this is a question.

00:39:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:39:56
Speaker 5: And for the average person they be like, how could you No?

00:39:58
Speaker 4: No, no, Because when you're in the streets, you ask him for God to get you through criminal activity. Sometimes, God, let me hit this lick because you know I need this bread, right, God about to do this.

00:40:08
Speaker 5: God, Please don't let me get hit with the bullet, but let him get hit with it.

00:40:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:40:12
Speaker 4: Right, And so now they see me, and they looking at me and they're like, nah, say trapped, like.

00:40:17
Speaker 1: Like you really moving, like it's a different light. Yeah, that's God for.

00:40:20
Speaker 5: Real, Like you seriously? That just for Instagram?

00:40:24
Speaker 1: Right, come on, because there are people that Instagram.

00:40:28
Speaker 5: I'm like yeah, And so they come with me to as a man think.

00:40:34
Speaker 4: It and they all have the breakthrough. Wow, they crying, these gangsters. Yeah, I'm talking about three of my homies. One did twenty five for a Tim murder.

00:40:45
Speaker 5: He just come home.

00:40:46
Speaker 4: My other Homi did fifteen for manslaughter he been home a few years. The other one did twenty years for murder, and then me for a Tim murder. They with me, Yeah as a man thinking, crying, having their own breakthroughs.

00:41:00
Speaker 5: But it's because I'm the condoing.

00:41:02
Speaker 2: You are, yes, because you listened to God and said, okay, I hear you.

00:41:05
Speaker 1: I gotta switch this up. And you're the example that's incredible.

00:41:09
Speaker 4: It can't be just about money because if we make it just about money, we can't go where we need to go.

00:41:16
Speaker 1: At No, you can't.

00:41:18
Speaker 5: So we gotta put God first and say God like yo.

00:41:20
Speaker 4: It says Proverbs in it for a diligent hands, Bill, well, poor hands make for lazy.

00:41:25
Speaker 5: So okay, if he tells us to be diligent, yeah, let me just be diligent.

00:41:30
Speaker 4: God gives us the ability to produce. Well, so he said like, bro, I don't want you all to be poor. Yeah, but you gotta listen to me. So that's why my obedience.

00:41:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. Outward with it. That is so dope. I love that.

00:41:46
Speaker 2: I saw you at Woman Evolved and I'm not gonna because you don't see a lot of men there. So when I turned, I was hugging y'all. I just finished the panel and I was hugging people, and I looked.

00:41:55
Speaker 1: Back and I was like, m m. But I thought it was so beautiful to look down.

00:41:59
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, brought the lafe, your daughter, your mom, your sisters, everybody was there.

00:42:04
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, that was beautiful.

00:42:07
Speaker 2: And it's at testament to the man that you are and the leader that you are to make sure that even your daughter at a very young age to say you need this is where you need to be, you.

00:42:15
Speaker 5: Know, because she needs to Again, everybody around me needs to be a believer. Yep.

00:42:26
Speaker 4: If you're around me and it's not and what happens is not me pushing my belief on nobody. It's just saying that if I believe this and we there's conversations and there are environments that I'll be in and if you if we're building something and you can't come here with me, there's going to cause a disconnect between us.

00:42:49
Speaker 5: It's nothing against you, but this is where I'm at. Yeah, that's right, right, this is where I'm at. And so.

00:42:59
Speaker 4: It was first it was the women, you know, because I have two family members that work in my business. And I was like, Yo, I'm going to Woman Evolved. I want you to go because me I want to. I'm the person that when I do something, I'm all in, Like all I'm throwing my whole everything into listen. I'm like God, if I'm on his journey, I'm all in. I'm gonna call my mama right now. Me and my mama usually be in a car with listener rap music. We've been listening to a gospel music.

00:43:29
Speaker 5: She's like, what that is? So let me let me don't know that I like that. Oh, I'm all in it. And so they went and they was like, yo, this is good, right, and.

00:43:40
Speaker 4: Let me say something to see forty thousand women praising God.

00:43:48
Speaker 1: That was something else.

00:43:49
Speaker 5: That was an experience.

00:43:51
Speaker 1: I was telling.

00:43:52
Speaker 2: Somebody when me and Big West walked through the metal detectors, I can feel the presence of God.

00:43:57
Speaker 1: Before I got to my seat, I said, Oh, I was like, God is here. I'm in the right place.

00:44:02
Speaker 2: Wednesday, when I later and just went to eat dinner with some ladies, God was there. I said, Oh, God, I do something and he did like everything that I needed, everything that I've been going through.

00:44:13
Speaker 1: That expressed on the panel that.

00:44:14
Speaker 5: I did so good, thank you, so good.

00:44:18
Speaker 2: Thank you was what I needed to know that I'm doing what God wants me to do in the way that he wants me to do it. And it may not look like, oh, she's not doing it right to other people, but I know who I'm reaching in this space, you know. And a lot of times you look and you compare, like, well, I'm not like Sarah, and I'm not like Priscilla, and I'm not like Brenda, like you look at all these people that I'm not where they are. But in my space, I'm reaching people for God and I hadn't even got.

00:44:51
Speaker 4: No no not so I think sometimes we are and that's a great thing. So I just I told Pastor Dona's maybe like sad I was, I was crying. The only thing about therapy is like I've been crying.

00:45:07
Speaker 5: And ye.

00:45:10
Speaker 4: Yes I'm crying. I'm listening to the word. And he came up to me and I looked at him. I said, Man, I'm not worthy. It is I'm not worthy of what everything that he's given me. I said, I'm not worthy. And he looked at him and he said, because you feel like you're not worthy is.

00:45:29
Speaker 5: Exactly why you are worthy.

00:45:32
Speaker 1: Listen, Yes, you hear me. Yes, he said, you gotta down play yourself.

00:45:38
Speaker 4: But that humility, yes, is why God can keep trusting you.

00:45:43
Speaker 1: Yes, literally, that's it.

00:45:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, And woman evolved. So me and my mom's relationship has been.

00:45:52
Speaker 1: Traumatic wow for a long.

00:45:54
Speaker 4: Time because she dealt with you gotta think she had when she was sixteen in that error where you know a sixteen year old having a kid in the age like they done, They're like, nah, they offer her.

00:46:07
Speaker 5: So she was bold enough to say I'm gonna keep him wild.

00:46:12
Speaker 4: But then she fought her own demons right, which went to her being the street with shooting somebody, her ribbing her jack, and her being shot the street.

00:46:21
Speaker 5: Shit.

00:46:21
Speaker 4: She wound up doing five years in prison, and then I become the residue of that that. Yeah, and for the longest, I didn't realize that I had resentment for my mom because you left me. I became homeless. Yeah, my family didn't take me in. My uncle took me in for a little bit, but I was so wow, he couldn't keep me.

00:46:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:46:45
Speaker 5: So I'm back in New Orleans and I'm in survival mode.

00:46:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:46:49
Speaker 4: And I didn't realize for the longest that I resented my mom.

00:46:54
Speaker 5: As much as I tried to like love her. I loved her, but I couldn't not be around her.

00:47:01
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:47:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was j If she aksed me for five cent, I would be like, why are you aksing me for money?

00:47:06
Speaker 1: Mm?

00:47:08
Speaker 5: I ain't give you nothing.

00:47:09
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow.

00:47:10
Speaker 4: And so therapy, my therapist told me, you'll never love a woman until you're able to love your mama.

00:47:17
Speaker 2: Ooh, cause that's what my mama always said. Why child man loves his mother and how he treats her, because he's gonna.

00:47:24
Speaker 5: Treat you in that same way. Yeah. He's like, you love your daughter because that's your flesh. Yeah, that's your blood. But she'll never love a woman. This is why you have these issues.

00:47:34
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:47:34
Speaker 5: Wow, you gotta get to root of that. So we start working on that.

00:47:37
Speaker 4: M So we had Woman Evolved and I had been working on myself enough and I'm like, Mom wants you to come.

00:47:43
Speaker 5: Wow? Right, And she comes and she was kind.

00:47:48
Speaker 4: Of like in her phone for a minute, and I said, Mom, pay paying attention, the phone down.

00:47:56
Speaker 1: I need you to get this needle here, like this.

00:47:58
Speaker 5: Moment is she don't know bit in mind. This is pivotal for us. Yeah, And I never forget. The Queen was on there.

00:48:04
Speaker 4: She was talking about her issue with alcohol, and I see my pay attention.

00:48:10
Speaker 5: So my mama started paying attention.

00:48:12
Speaker 4: She was locked in and then we went to lunch, and then after lunch passed a dining said trap, come on the floor.

00:48:20
Speaker 5: I was like, nah, man, I'm good. It's like no, no, no, come on the floor. And I was like, all right, God, I'm not gonna fight this. So we all get to the floor and.

00:48:33
Speaker 4: Worshiping and everything, and I looked at my mom in her back.

00:48:36
Speaker 5: She started crying.

00:48:37
Speaker 1: And I said, God was moving. That thing got So.

00:48:41
Speaker 5: The next day we come we on the floor. I said, gotta to.

00:48:44
Speaker 4: My friend said, go hug your mama. She need you, right, So I hugged my mama. She cried and I just said, God, you're working.

00:48:51
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:48:52
Speaker 5: And so we go to dinner that night and I called my friend and I was like, Yo, this is so good. And she said, you to know something.

00:49:02
Speaker 4: She said, you think going to therapy was about your ability to love them, to love again, and to be able to show me love. But really it was the breakthrough for you and your mom, she said, because I watched how you nurtured her, and that's why I'm proud of you. You nurtured her, you pulled up close something you wouldn't have done.

00:49:26
Speaker 5: And since women evolved, we have been What's that what you're doing right? Just that relationship have evolved because when.

00:49:36
Speaker 4: God, when you allowed, when you identify what it is, so most people see the triggers, and when they see the trigger, they keep running away from the trigger, which keep building the callus. So instead of me running away from like you know, let me embrace it, but let me embrace it with God.

00:49:53
Speaker 5: Let me let me move the feeling, let me move.

00:49:55
Speaker 4: The act of the flesh to the size, and let me move the food of the spirit because First Corinthians thirteen four and eight says love is patient, love is kind, Yes, love is.

00:50:08
Speaker 5: Gentle, And if I can't be that with my mama.

00:50:11
Speaker 1: Then you definitely can't be with anybody else.

00:50:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:50:14
Speaker 5: So I'm just there.

00:50:14
Speaker 4: And so we've been so good, we've been so good that we've been so good.

00:50:20
Speaker 5: And so that's what women evolved with. It helped me. And my mama is just yeah, you know, so good.

00:50:30
Speaker 2: Yes, she was, Yeah, her inassitory. They're just so needed and necessary in this culture because the kingdom, I feel like it's in a very it's in a weird space right now, you know, where people are confused and we have so many people wanted to leave the religion because we're not representing it the way that Christ wants us to. And I just love people like her and pt that are transparent and real, that really like teach the word, you know, And so.

00:51:07
Speaker 5: They should have told me this one day.

00:51:09
Speaker 4: He said, your authenticity is what's needed to date. Yeah, she said, you have charisma, you have transparency, and you have influence. When you let God do it, it'll blow your mind. Yeah, And so that's kind of just why I've been at and when I look at like how God uses people, He always used misfits.

00:51:37
Speaker 1: This is the rise of the missing. Literally, that's what I took away.

00:51:42
Speaker 2: Everybody's like believing women evolved and they're like, this is the rise of the unlikely people that are gonna be spreading the gospel.

00:51:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, they look like us.

00:51:50
Speaker 5: They look like us.

00:51:51
Speaker 4: And so for me, that's what makes me step in it more proudly because I'm like, yeah, it's the imperfections that makes me relatable. No, for sure, I don't gotta be you know what. Yep, trap went to prison for this trap and now don't look. And it's so many for me, it's so many men that's coming to me.

00:52:10
Speaker 5: And as men.

00:52:11
Speaker 4: It is very hard for a man to come to another man and say I'm following.

00:52:19
Speaker 5: You because we don't know how to do that. No, yeh know how to do that.

00:52:25
Speaker 4: So many men that have been coming to me, Like I said, bro, like I needed that. Keep doing that. I'm following you, bro. Now you're making me a better father. Yeah.

00:52:36
Speaker 5: And I'm getting money bringing me close.

00:52:38
Speaker 4: To God and I'm getting money.

00:52:43
Speaker 1: I love it. It's beautiful.

00:52:48
Speaker 2: If I could describe today's show, it would be money making one on one. One of the financial tips that stay with me after talking to Janelle on the Wall Street Trapper is you.

00:52:59
Speaker 1: Have to have a heart of service.

00:53:01
Speaker 2: Both of them when they first started out, it was just about helping others and getting them the knowledge that they needed. So service is one of the main things that really stood out. Because we're so quick and eager to make the money that we forget to be.

00:53:15
Speaker 1: Of service to others.

00:53:20
Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for spending time with me today. I hope you learned some things that you can now use in life and in business.

00:53:27
Speaker 1: You can follow me on all social media platforms.

00:53:29
Speaker 2: At love chris Ernee, and you can also follow our show at keep It Positive Sweetie. If you want to write into our Positive Outcomes listening letter, you can send us an email at keep It Positive Sweete at gmail dot com.

00:53:41
Speaker 1: In the meantime, in between.

00:53:43
Speaker 2: Time, you guys already know what to do. Keep it Positive, sweety. I'll see you guys next time.