Everything I know about money, I learned first from my mother.

Juanita Smith raised me in South Central and Compton on the kind of budget that leaves no room for mistakes. She made every dollar do two jobs. She kept a job, kept a side business, and kept her dignity through all of it, and she made sure I understood that being broke is a temporary condition while being poor is a state of mind.

This episode is my tribute to her. I walk through the decisions she made, one after another, and how every one of them opened the door to a better one. It is the foundation for everything I wrote in Up From Nothing, and the reason Operation HOPE exists at all.

If you were raised by a mother like mine, you already know. If you were not, let me introduce you to her.

🎧 Listen now — wherever you get your podcasts, or simply click below.

▶️ Prefer to watch? The full conversation is on my YouTube channel.