The Money Champ

This week I welcome Mike Dorsey on the Money Champ. Mike is a husband, father, author, podcaster, speaker, content creator and entrepreneur. He is also the founder of Black Fathers Now. Mike will be sharing his story of getting rid of his student loan debt and changing his financial future after graduating with a degree in Economics from Georgia Tech. Black Fathers, NOW is an inspirational podcast geared toward equipping people everywhere with wisdom and insight to inspire you on the Incredible Journey of Fatherhood. Mike’s other accomplishments include: 13 years of Medical Sales Success Author of the Self-Help Book “ABE” Always Be Engaged: The 7 Keys to Living a Fit Urban Life Creator of the Biblical Finance Series “Get Your Money Straight” Founder of the e-commerce platform “Black Family Apparel” www.BlackFamilyApparel.com

This week I welcome Phil Risher on my show. Phil is the founder of Young Adult Survival Guide. Phil paid off $30,000 in student loans in just 12 months making $48k. He even saved up and bought a condo with cash at the age of 25! After hitting these milestones in his life, Phil decided his calling was to help other young adults replicate his success. So he started his blog youngadultsurvivalguide.com. When Phil shares his story, people usually begin to say “man this guy has it made, gets lucky, or is in the right place at the right time”. To that he says “if you want something bad enough you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse”. There are countless strategies to increase your income and ways to budget your money more efficiently. But, at the end of the day, the question is “how bad do you want it?” Phil says he refuses to be another millennial statistic. Someone has to be successful, so why not him? Why not you? On this episode, you’ll hear Phil share his story of how he became financially independent at such a young age.

This week on the show, I welcome ReKeithen Miller. ReKeithen is a certified financial planner and an enrolled agent. He is also a member of the Financial Planning Association of Georgia, and is regularly quoted as an expert by national publications, including Barron’s, Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, Fox Business, U.S. News & World Report and CBS MoneyWatch. ReKeithen holds a B.S. in finance with a minor in entrepreneurship from the University of Florida, where he graduated with honors. He is a native of Tallahassee, Florida. ReKeithen started his career at Palisades Hudson in the Fort Lauderdale office in 2007 as an associate. He has been based out of the firm’s Atlanta office since 2008, and became a client service manager in 2011.

This past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing millennial CEO, Ryan Rafols. Ryan wants 2017 to be the year investing is forever changed by helping new investors own a piece of startups they believe in and are passionate about. He created Newchip as a way to make wealth and investing more accessible to the masses, while also specifically targeting people his own age – millennials. Newchip is a marketplace that will feature hundreds of private equity investment opportunities from other platforms that only offer a few dozen at most. On this episode, Ryan shares why he started Newchip and how he’s creating this investing platform to be open to non-accredited investors and provide “crowdfinancing” – a credit system where people can invest $1,000 in a company while only paying around a $100 a month over 12 months.

This week I welcome Latisha Grady on the show. Latisha is an aspiring entrepreneur, and creator of new blog called Goodbye Broke. It chronicles her debt-free journey and connects with others who are tired of being broke. On this episode, Latisha explains how an upbringing around poverty mindsets, and a lack of financial guidance, career planning, and self-doubt often contribute to carrying long term debt.

My guest on today’s show is Russab Ali. On this episode he’s going to share how he went from a broke high school kid, to paying his way through NYU, and creating a digital marketing agency that has brought in over $500M for his clients to date. NYU’s tuition is incredibly expensive and Russab knew there was no way I could afford it. During the first few weeks of being extremely disappointed that he couldn’t go to the school of his dreams, Russab was visiting a local pizza shop. The owner of the shop was the dad of one of his friends. The owner asked Russab if he could use his online skills to help him market his pizza shop. He told Russab he would pay him for the work he did. That’s when a light went on for Russab; That’s when he realized he had a skill companies would pay for: the ability to grow companies online. He quickly began helping any small business he could, and his business grew. As a college student, Russab managed to pay off his debt and the tuition for the last two years at NYU even before he graduated! His company, SMC Digital Marketing continues to be a growing success today. You can find more about it by visiting http://smcmarketing.org.

On this episode I interview Samantha Field. Samantha is an entrepreneur who runs an online business teaching young urban professionals how to engage in more meaningful conversations. The website is called “Life’s Secret Sauce” and was inspired from her interactions onboard cruise ships. Samantha graduated university in 2011 with plenty of student loans, and a passion for travel. She did what any responsible young graduate would do and waited the full grace period before beginning to pay off her loans. Instead, she spent time backpacking around Southeast Asia, exploring Europe, and even worked at summer camp before reality hit. She was forced to figure out how on earth she was supposed to pay off her debt. With a passion for travel, and need for an income, she thought there would be no greater job than one that combines both. So she joined Carnival Cruise Lines and became a youth counselor traveling the world by ship, exploring islands, meeting people from around the world and going on adventures while making enough money to pay off her student loans. On this episode Samantha will be sharing how she launched her current business, Life’s Secret Sauce, and also how she managed to pay off all her college loan debt while traveling the world!

Seven years ago, Atlanta’s Shane Kenny and his brother Aaron sold their 11-year-old Internet filtering software business to McAfee for over $10 million. Today Shane is back in the filtering game – albeit in a completely different sense – as the founder of a service that delivers air filters to consumers’ homes on a regular schedule to ensure timely replacement. Shane came up with the idea because of his own frustration in remembering to change filters and trying to find the size he needed at the local home improvement store. Taking a page from Dollar Shave Club’s razor blade subscription business, he solved both problems by launching FilterSnap with 72 filter sizes and a choice of 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12-month replacement schedules. Shane joins me on this episode to share his story of success. You can find out more about Shane’s company by visiting www.filtersnap.com.

Chad Knutsen is an adventurous 28 year old, who has spent much of his life traveling the world. At a Belizean bar one evening in 2013, Chad met the apprentice to an inventor who had created some incredible technologies that he felt needed to be in the marketplace as opposed to just sitting in a lab. One thing led to another and Chad joined with another seemingly unlikely partner in California and founded Cornucopia Group – a company that seeks to develop the most exciting innovations in many industries. On this episode, Chad will be sharing his own story of choosing the entrepreneur life over college.

This week, i welcome Bob Adams on the show to share his success story.Bob is an accomplished entrepreneur who started a business out of his basement and grew it into one of the largest independent book publishers in the US. He started Adams Media with just $1,500 and sold it for $40 million! Bob has authored numerous books on business and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He now runs a Website called BusinessTown.com with videos aimed at helping entrepreneurs get businesses up and running.

This week I welcome Buzz Tatom on the show to discuss his story. Buzz is a successful businessman who ran a Printing/Marketing Business for 24 years and grew it from $1 million to $10 million annually. He finally sold it and retired to Big Sky, Montana at the age of 48. His retirement however lasted only six months. He now teaches part time at Montana State University and is a partner at Tatom Design, an interior Design Business in Big Sky, MT. His wife is the Interior Designer, and in 3 years it has grown to a million dollar business. He’s also a partner in Venture West Ranches, a small Montana Ranch & Farm Real Estate Brokerage Firm.

This week I welcome Michelle Swaney on the show. Michelle is the founder of The Potty School, a business she started with a vision to help parents and caregivers learn to potty train their children. That’s right, people pay Michelle good money to teach them how to train their children to potty. She works in a niche market of “sleep trainers”, “infant nutritionists” and “labor doulas” who all wouldn’t have had jobs a few generations ago. People used to live in tight-knit communities and had large families that overlapped in generations, so the passing on of generational information was not something that was done intentionally…it just happened. Times are a bit different today though with people having smaller families and waiting to have children at an older age.  Many people don’t know the basics of when to change a diaper, when to put a child down for a nap, or in Michelle’s niche – how to potty train. Michelle’s clients spend an average of $50/month on diapers not to mention wipes and clothes ruined by “blow-outs” and diaper rash creams. They not only save money, but also reduce their impact on the environment! On this episode, you’ll hear Michelle share her success as an entrepreneur and how she’s grown this unique business helping parents potty train their children. You can learn more about Michelle’s business by visiting thepottyschool.com.

This week, Wesley Flippo joins me on the Money Champ to discuss his inspiring story of starting an online e-commerce business on drone technology and growing it to $250,000 in sales revenue in the first year of operation. Wesley started this company with the intention of paying off his student loans, but after seeing so much success, he is transforming this project into a full-time career! His passive income initially came from the website, BuyTheBestDrone.com. His partner and he started this website to capitalize on search engine traffic for users looking to purchase drones. They wrote a lot of content about drones and after receiving some great rankings, they started receiving commission after users purchased a drone from our site. They are now transitioning into a company that employs seven people! On this episode, Wesley shares his own entrepreneur success story and some great advice for anyone wanting to start an online business. His biggest tip on creating passive income  is to create a website around your hobby, no matter what it is. Wesley advises people who want to create an e-commerce business to write, research, and write again. He recommends building a website and becoming a thought leader in your space. His suggestion is to then monetize your site through consulting, advertising, affiliate links, and so on. If the topic of the website is your hobby, it wont feel like a job when you are working on it. You can find more about his online business by visiting www.buythebestdrone.com.

This week, I welcome Spencer Shulem on the Money Champ. Spencer has a unique story. He dropped out of college due mostly to the increasing costs of tuition and by 21 years old, he was 100% debt free living in Santa Barbara, CA (not the most inexpensive place to live)! He’s now an award winning Mac App and Designer who specializes in meaningful products that help people be productive. His recent startup company WeDo raised $1million from investors. Despite raising $1 million dollars, Spencer takes only a $30k salary and manages to still save about $600-$900 a month. On this episode, Spencer will be sharing his story and some tips for millennials who are trying to become financially free.

This week, I welcome Dean Ferraro on the show to to discuss tax strategies and other financial advice for young people who’ve recently graduated college. Dean is a successful small business owner who has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on radio and even teaches tax law at the IRS. His company, Authoritax has successfully helped many taxpayers by preparing tax returns, helping with IRS and State tax issues and assisting people with tax planning. Dean recently paid off over $80k in student loans from college and he’ll be sharing this story along with discussing some great strategies for helping young people in their 20’s and 30’s  prepare for the next economic slow down. You can find more Authoritax by visiting http://www.authoritax.com.

This week, Scott Trench joins me on the show. Scott is a 25 year old real estate investor, a financial blogger and the vp of operations at BiggerPockets.com. Scott lives almost completely debt free with exception of his car and a mortgage on his rental property. The debt he has on his rental property is easily covered by the rental income coming in and is fixed for 30 years at 4.65% interest. Scott created this passive income by moving into a duplex in downtown Denver using FHA financing, fixing it up, and renting out the other unit to some tenants to help cover the mortgage. He cleared about $1,700 per month in the first year to live rent and mortgage free. At the end of this year, Scott plans to purchase 3-6 more units, in the form of one to two additional triplexes, or one additional quadplex and a duplex. On this episode, Scott will be sharing his own story of becoming a real estate investor at a young age and also the advice he offers for others who want to start building a real estate portfolio. You can find more information about Scott’s real estate investing site Bigger Pockets, visit www.BiggerPockets.com.

My guest this week shares an incredible story of winning financially as an entrepreneur. I welcome 29 year old entrepreneur and millennial, Dan Henry. Dan decided he wanted to become a entrepreneur instead of going to college. He went from a pizza boy to making 6 figures online in just over a year. In addition to building a $30,000 per month blog, he’s also built several successful companies using social media marketing. Dan has been featured on Business Insider, The Huffington Post, CBS and NBC.

On this episode, I interview Michael Cirelli of SAI Financial Services. Michael is a millennial financial advisor, who advices his clients to invest long term in Indexed Universal Life policies. Michael received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Illinois State University. Michael was apart of a team of young traders in college who bought and sold equities for profit. This experience taught Michael the value of risk management and how to mitigate potential risks through diversification and hedging strategies. He has been actively publishing finance-related articles for a few months now allowing his clients to become better educated on topics such as; retirement, insurance, taxes, and much more. Michael helps clients achieve their financial goals through diligent research to seek out the best investment options thus allowing them to retire comfortably and worry free. Michael says Indexed Universal Life policies are absolutely the way to go for someone who has a long term outlook for their money. The best part of all Michael says, the money is TAX FREE when you begin to take withdrawals from your policy. There are also cap rates on how much you can make on the upside, typically 11-14% but in exchange for no risk it’s a very fair trade off. On this episode, we’ll be discussing why indexed universal life policies are a great long term investment vehicle for your money. You can find out more about Michael and SAI Financial Services by visiting http://www.saifinancial.com.

This week, I welcome Whitney Nicely on the show to share her story of financial success. Whitney Nicely is a Real Estate Coach that helps hundreds of women every year make extra money from flipping houses. Millions of Americans tune in weekly to HGTV and so many people dream that instead of trading time for money that they could be making their money work for them. Whitney started flipping houses in 2009 with her parents and in 2015 when Whitney was planning her wedding she flipped 6 houses. In 2014 she decided she was ready to flip by herself and she found it to be extremely liberating. She currently owns 15 houses and over 3 apartment complexes throughout the area. Whitney is a step mom of two and has been featured on CW Atlanta, WDUN Atlanta and is a guest contributor for Realtor.com and Inman Media. On this episode, we’ll be discussing: • The value of residual income from property. • The importance of buying a property instead of renting. • How to buy real estate if you have a poor credit score. • The best strategies for buying and flipping a home. Learn more here about Whitney by visiting http://www.whitneynicely.com.