Morningstar - Q2 2023 - 61

is either a good or a bad mutual fund to invest
in. At the end of the day, whether we're talking to
Black people, Hispanic, or white or Asian,
a lot of people don't understand how to analyze
a mutual fund. Figure out how to get better at
communicating with communities. I worked at jobs
where we were checking a box. We might go
to a food pantry with a shirt on that has our
company logo, and then we take a photo op, and
we're up out of there. You guys have the ability
from a content standpoint to set yourself
aside from your peers. By getting more ingrained
with the society and the culture, you will continue
to set yourself apart and make a difference.
Fox: I understand both sides. You are still
a business. Your bottom line matters. At a lot of
financial institutions, African Americans
don't contribute to their dominant revenue
streams. I don't know how many African American
clients they have or Black companies they're
IPOing. So, it's also about talking to people who
make those decisions: Hey, my audience
may not make the biggest dent in your bottom line
for your shareholders. What else can we
do instead?
It's easier to market to a Black person to
buy something than to market to a Black person
to build wealth. If I'm a financial institution,
is it worth the investment, because I answer to my
shareholders? I think it's about having a further
conversation on how we can be intentional
with the resources that are allocated to Black
people and making sure we determine the ROIs
that we want.
Building the Future
Peterson: When we're thinking about that bottom
line, is it just for this quarter, for this year, or
are we thinking about the future? Ashley, you started
with the education of youth and then expanded
that to adults. Ross, you do some of the best and cutest
videos with your baby girl, Rossi, when you give
her financial advice. You said you are what you're
exposed to. When we think about the impact that the
Black community has on the bottom line, maybe
it's not imminent, but what about the value in the long
term if you start planting seeds now? Can you
share your vision of where you see your
platform going?
Mac: Some of the work that we are doing-
Ashley and I and many peers in the industry-
is a digital civil rights movement where
we are now focusing on, as my brand says,
" Black Wealth Matters. " I didn't come from
generational wealth, therefore I have to be the
first person to create it. There has to be one person
in every family tree who says, my parents
didn't have it, so I got to start it. What type of
content is going to switch a lightbulb in a certain
person's head?
As I'm driving with my daughter-she's 2 years
old-we have conversations about whether
Jerome Powell decides to raise rates or not and
how that impacts everything from borrowing
costs and companies' willingness to reinvest or cut
costs by laying people off. Or we're talking about
how to improve our credit score, etc.
My thing is continuing to have the conversations
that effectively have been taboo. People
will talk about who's a better basketball player,
Kevin Durant or LeBron James, but how
often are we arguing in the barbershops who is
a better CEO? Would you rather put money in
Amazon or Apple or Tesla or Microsoft? It's about
making people more comfortable talking
about the things that were never taught to them.
Fox: The biggest shift that we needed was
our mentality shift. If I can change your mindset,
I can change your bank account. When I
started Empify, it was a financial advisor targeting
low- to moderate-income people. I realized that
I could only serve 12 people a day, so we
implemented programs in school systems. We
started programs in prison systems. Then,
we got to a point where too many people were
reaching out, and we couldn't scale. That's when
I realized we needed technology.
When the pandemic hit and the market crashed,
it was long overdue. The 2020 crash, I was
waiting for that. I went shopping, and I brought
my community with me. During the pandemic,
we launched WealthBuilders Community, which is
our membership-based platform, and turned
Empify, which was an education-based company,
to a fintech company. We're like the Netflix
of finance. People have access to financial
education, over 250 hours of classes, in the palm
of their hand.
Now we're 2,500 people. We've invested over
$2.5 million. My goal now is to invest $10 million.
This is their money, not mine. I don't advise,
I educate. But I produce results. I can get you to
open a brokerage account, turn someone
who's never been an investor into an investor.
When I think about Empify in the future: What
Kleenex is to tissues is what Empify is to financial
education. The ultimate goal is to get to a
space where we can partner with companies,
which we do, but on a massive level. If you want
our audience to be financially educated
to be qualified for your product or service, you go
through Empify.
Peterson: To sum it all up, why is it important to invest
in community?
Mac: Once you're giving back to the community,
you are saying, how can I make a better
world, a better America, a better neighborhood?
By investing in it, you are thinking about
the future.
Fox: We cannot depend on the government
or our families to be able to change our legacy.
It's about time that we recognize that the person
in the mirror is the person whose job is to
build wealth. There is no stock market without the
Black dollar. There's two ways to build wealth
in this country: You either create your own idea or
you invest in somebody else's idea. You've
got to pick one, because you cannot save your way
to wealth, and you cannot work your way to
wealth. Let's understand the problem and cultivate
solutions together. K
Veronica Peterson is a senior product engineer
at Morningstar.
Photography by Matthew Gilson and Lynsey Weatherspoon.
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