Black History Month isn’t supposed to be a highlight reel of the same five names. It’s supposed to be receipts. And today I’m putting you on one most people have never heard of: Annie Turnbo Malone.

Before “personal brand.” Before “women in business” panels. Before folks started acting like community was a hashtag, Annie built Poro College and used business like a real tool: training, jobs, pride, and a whole ecosystem for Black women to earn and grow.

This episode is about the difference between a hustle and infrastructure. Annie didn’t just sell a product. She built a system and a hub. Political events. Community events. Support. Safety. A place that meant something.

And if you’re a business owner right now trying to hold everything together, this is your reminder: stability is power. Clarity and community aren’t “soft.” They’re survival skills.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fIyt0YxA-HA

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

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DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

Most of your daily life runs on Black innovation and you don’t even know the names. That’s not just “history class trivia.” That’s power. Because when you don’t know who built the system, you don’t learn how to build your own.

This episode is a Black History Month Series spotlight on Frederick McKinley Jones the man tied to the refrigeration units you see on top of semi trailers. The “reefers.” The reason food can move across the country without turning into trash. The reason supply chains evolved. The reason modern life feels “easy” in ways we take for granted.

And the bigger message is uncomfortable: over time, inventions go mainstream and we forget who created them. Then we forget that invention, innovation, and ownership are literally how America got built. We lose the hunger to create. We lose the respect for builders. And we start living inside systems we didn’t design.

So I’m challenging you in this one: be your own innovator. In your business, in your household, in the way your family runs. Write down the processes that make life smoother. Trace where they came from. Learn the history. Because the moment you understand how systems get built, you stop being a passenger in your own life.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yEvqSVMdqiA

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

This is Episode 28 of Let’s Get Real and I’m not here to whisper. I’m here to say the part out loud: when “safety” starts looking like chaos, somebody’s lying… and regular people are the ones paying the price.

This episode is part of the Black History Month Series, and we’re talking about the BS swirling around ICE operations, the stories that shift, the fear that spreads, and the way it gets weaponized to keep us arguing with each other instead of holding power accountable. If the details are still unfolding, cool… that’s even more reason to slow down and demand receipts, not rumors.

Here’s what I’m focused on: what tragedy does to people. It can shatter trust… or it can create unison. It can isolate families… or it can wake up communities. The question is whether we turn pain into purpose, or pain into posts.

And then we get to the part everybody skips: the plan. Not motivational bullshit. Not “thoughts and prayers.” A real move: clarity, community, cash, consequences. You’ll hear exactly what those mean and how to apply them without burning out or getting played.

Watch the episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/VKGqWtB6smY

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

The world is chaotic and people are tired. And when people are tired, they stop rewarding “safe.” They reward clear. In this Black History Month Series episode, I’m joined by Kristina Hall and we’re talking about the problem too many Black business owners won’t admit out loud: your business isn’t stuck because you aren’t working hard. It’s stuck because your message is weak. 

If you’re posting consistently, seeing other creators pop off, and sitting there thinking “do I need to be more controversial?” you’re not crazy. But let’s separate truth from coping: the algorithm doesn’t “hate” you. The message just isn’t landing. And in 2026, with AI making everybody sound the same, blending in is a death sentence.

We get into the line between being bold and being messy. Bold is standing on what you believe and being able to back it up. Messy is rage-baiting for attention, copying hot takes, and building a brand that collapses the second a real client walks through the door.

Kristina drops a clean framework we build in real time: Stand. Say. Sell. Stand on your business. Say it in plain English. Then sell your service like you’re not ashamed to get paid. We also break down a real client example (Pilates School SF) where one bold, clear message brought in the right audience, globally.

And we close with a Black History Month question that gets real fast: what Black history means when you’re biracial, light-skinned, and still connected to the roots, the pride, and the pain.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8_Z3bf7EVEY

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

Happy holidays—and let’s be real: the markets, the economy, and “the plan” don’t look clean right now.

In this 12 Days of Giving episode, Shana Orczyk Sissel comes back with a story that hits every advisor (and every client) right between the eyes: a young advisor leaves a firm, starts from zero, and lands a $25M client… not by sounding smarter… but by asking better questions and bringing REAL options to the table.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most advisors are selling the same portfolio with a different logo on it. Same playbook. Same funds. Same “set it and forget it” pitch. Shana breaks down why alternatives—private credit, direct lending, and other non-traditional tools—can be a legit way to differentiate… IF you’re actually doing planning and not just product-pushing.

Then we go straight at the elephant in the room: crypto and “controversial” investments. If your advisor’s entire view is “it’s a scam,” that’s not wisdom—that’s laziness. You don’t have to love crypto to be qualified. But you DO have to have a thoughtful, educated stance. Because the future client is already there, already curious, already investing… and they’re not waiting for the industry to catch up.

We also talk about where advice is headed: less AUM worship, more fee-for-service, coaching, and real-life decision support. Translation: if you can’t deliver value people can’t get from a brokerage app, you’re going to get left behind—fast.

Watch the full episode here:
https://youtu.be/Wv8sctzRALQ

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

Everyone loves to romanticize nonprofits. Cute animals, smiling founders, feel-good posts. But behind the scenes? It’s brutal. In this 12 Days of Giving episode, we rip the filter off and walk straight into the chaos, cost, and emotional weight of running a real nonprofit — through the lens of a donkey rescue that now cares for around 100 donkeys plus a full farm of other animals.

Sara Weldon never planned on saving donkeys for a living. She and her husband Rick were “hobby farm” people in Florida — until one traumatic night when their donkey gave birth and then tried to kill her baby. They grabbed the foal (Cash), raised him in the house like a newborn, and accidentally turned him into a social media star. That led Sara down a rabbit hole into the ugly world of donkey abuse and the slaughter pipeline in America. The plan to breed quickly turned into a mission to rescue, sell everything, and move to Tennessee to build what became Cash’s Crew Rescue.

From there, it got real. Sara walks us through how hard it actually is to form a legitimate 501(c)(3): months of paperwork, state filings, IRS hoops, building a board, learning to live with full financial transparency, and even watching early board members cycle off as the organization evolved. It’s not just “file a form and boom, nonprofit.” It’s governance, accountability, and people management — which is often way harder than the animals.

Then we get into the grind. A “normal” day means feeding 100 donkeys plus horses, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, and a pile of dogs — twice a day. It’s special feed for neglected animals, checking every body for wounds, hauling hay with a tractor, vet visits, constant castrations for incoming jacks, running a merch store, shipping orders, answering 30–40 texts at a time, managing social media, and still finding time to fundraise just to keep the whole thing alive. Meanwhile, she’s often forgetting to eat while making sure every animal is cared for.

I step in with the money truth: it costs about $4 a day to feed a single donkey — and that’s before barns, trails, housing, staff, or expansion. If a nonprofit can’t build sustainable income streams, it will burn out its founder and its donors. We talk about what sustainable actually means, how we’re designing CCR to generate its own revenue over time (lodging, retreats, weddings, etc.), and what questions you should be asking before you donate or start your own nonprofit. If you’ve ever given to a nonprofit — or thought about starting one — you need to hear this.

Watch the full episode on YouTube:
 👉 https://youtu.be/0ceH4FHRixo

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

December is chaos. Holidays, travel, weather, kids, hosting, work, pressure to “make it special” – and then we act shocked when the credit card statement smacks us in January. In this 12 Days of Giving episode, I bring back money expert Rachel Duncan to walk through the one simple system she built to stop December from blindsiding her every single year: a recurring “Holiday Lessons Learned” calendar event that future Rachel is very, very grateful for.

Rachel breaks down exactly how she built her holiday playbook: what went wrong, what worked, who actually enjoys which tasks, how much candy they really need for Halloween, why New Year’s hosting hits different, and how all of that quietly adds up to real money. She shows you how she turned a chaotic season into a repeatable checklist that lives in her calendar and gets better every year instead of starting from zero every time.

From there, we go straight into the money. We talk holiday “specialness” spending, why the real budget busters are the so-called “one-off” expenses, and how seasonal stuff like camps, hobbies, gifts, travel and parties are exactly what push people into debt. Rachel walks through her “holiday specialness” category, sinking funds, and even a controversial but smart use of a dedicated credit card you pre-load like a savings bucket. This isn’t theory – this is how real families actually spend.

Then we zoom out into the psychology. We hit future-self research, the idea of seeing your future self as a real person, and why we’re willing to plan better for others than we are for ourselves. Rachel shares how aging a photo of herself, naming future-Rachel, and literally thanking “past me” changed how she spends in the moment. It’s not about guilt. It’s about taking responsibility for the version of you who has to live with December’s decisions.

If you’re tired of swearing “next year will be different” and then repeating the same pattern, this episode is your line in the sand. We’re giving you a concrete way to capture your own holiday lessons, track the real costs, and start funding them like adults instead of pretending we’ll remember. This is part of our 12 Days of Giving series – one raw, practical episode every day from December 12–23 to get your money and mindset right heading into 2026.

👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AUn_SwFDK5M

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

If you still believe “the IRS already knows what you made, they should just do your taxes for you,” this episode might slap that idea right out of your head.

In today’s 12 Days of Giving episode, I’m back with Enrolled Agent, Morgan Q. Anderson, breaking down a real story where the IRS seized a client’s $116,000 refund over a 1099-R that reported roughly $196,000 of “income” he never actually received. The investment fund admin bailed, paperwork got lazy, and a bad form turned into a six-figure tax bill and years of stress for a real family.

We walk through how this happened in the first place: an alternative investment, a change in administrator, broken communication, and then a “we’re done here” 1099-R sent to the IRS like the account was cashed out. The money never hit his bank account—but the system doesn’t care. It just saw a big number, flagged “unreported income,” and quietly grabbed his refund to cover a tax that should never have existed.

Then we get into the fight. Morgan explains exactly how she rebuilt the timeline, pulled old statements, got a letter from the investment manager, and used the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and the Taxpayer Advocate Service to force the IRS to slow down long enough to see the truth. This wasn’t a quick phone call. It was months of “we need 90 more days” letters, escalation, and refusing to roll over.

The payoff? The IRS not only returned his $116K refund, they had to pay tens of thousands in interest for sitting on money that never should’ve been theirs. That’s the difference between “the IRS must be right” and “prove it.”

We close with a playbook you can actually use: how to pull your wage & income transcript and see what’s being reported under your Social Security number, what to do when a 1099-R or other form is flat-out wrong, and when to stop DIY-ing it and bring in someone who knows how to fight inside the system.

👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/It_EkPInwj8

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

This isn’t a cute budgeting episode. This is a $14 million revenue business buried under $1.5 million in stacked merchant cash advances, with money ripped out of the account every single day. The owner wasn’t reckless. He had a 740 credit score and solid bank statements. He just got sold the wrong “solution” over and over.

In this 12 Days of Giving episode, I sit down with Sara Weldon of TruFinCo to walk through exactly how this happened — and how she helped pull him out. We break down how MCAs are really structured, why the payments feel fine at first and then choke your cash flow, and how these things get layered until your business exists to feed lenders, not you.

Then we get into the turnaround: how Sara and her team stepped in, worked with the right legal support, and restructured the full $1.5M, giving the owner roughly $45,000 a month in breathing room in about four days. From there, they rebuilt his capital strategy using lines of credit, term loans, and 0% business credit through capital stacking instead of more toxic “fast money.”

If you’re a business owner staring at debt, stressed about cash, or being pitched “quick funding,” you need to understand this playbook. This series is about real people, real numbers, and what it actually takes to get free — not the fantasy Instagram finance tries to sell you.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FDb4tVqGSOM

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

Most couples think they’re “broken” because they argue about money. The truth? You’re probably more normal than you realize—you’ve just never been taught how to talk about money without going to war.

In this 12 Days of Giving episode, I sit back down with financial therapist Ashley Quamme to walk through a real couple we’ll call Mark and Mary—late 30s, three kids, decent income, solid marriage… until money comes up. He’s the anxious saver, constantly bracing for the layoff that may never come. She’s the practical spender who wants to make memories with their kids and not live like everything is on fire. The money isn’t the problem. Their stories about money are. 

ashley-2-2025

Ashley takes us into their backstory: Mark’s single-mom, count-every-penny upbringing and Mary’s “we’re fine, we don’t talk about money much” childhood. We break down how those early money memories hijack their adult arguments—why he feels panicked when they’re not maxing accounts, and why she feels controlled and judged when he questions holiday spending. None of this is “just numbers.” This is nervous systems, fear, and unspoken expectations running the show.

Then we get into the actual work: how Ashley helped them stop avoiding each other, set up structured money dates, and build rules of engagement so they’re not trying to solve their financial life at 9:30 p.m. half-asleep and pissed off. We talk about what to do when you hit a stalemate, why “we’ll talk about it later” usually means “never,” and how they finally landed on a savings target that calmed his anxiety without killing all joy for her.

This is not some dramatic, on-the-brink-of-divorce situation. This is a normal couple that refused to settle for “fine” and chose to do the work before things blew up. If you and your partner are mostly good—but money convos feel tense, defensive, or like the same fight on repeat—this episode is your mirror and your playbook.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2mdLDYnOJDk

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.