In Black America; The Mind of A Millionairess, with Jewel Tankard

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. You know, John, I went from one extreme to another. So once I wanted that, you know, through my whole life into the church, which I'm so grateful that I did. And I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And I just, you know, God knew I wanted to prosper. And I really kind of had a bad taste of my mouth. I didn't know if I gave my life to the Lord. I was kind of surprised when I found out that it was actually his plan for me to prosper. But I didn't have to be broke and love him. He wanted me to prosper. And so I really drew my life, you know, into the church and started dating a young man that was, you know, invited him to come to church. But he wasn't ambitious. He really didn't want a lot. He didn't want as much out of life as I wanted. I think he did, but wasn't willing to take action.

And so that mirrored ended up going bad after two years, so I went from one extreme to another, you know. And so anyway, after that, I went back to work. I got in sales. I started working for Nextel, which is a two-way handheld. And I was in sales there, and I started doing very well. And then they had an opportunity to come along where I would have an opportunity to open up my own business, my own Nextel franchise. Joe Tankert, founder and CEO of the Millionaires Club, the Economist's Touring Financial Powerhouse, and author of The Mind of a Millionaires, published by Post Hill Press. As a child growing up in Detroit, Michigan, she had a front row seat to want entrepreneurship look like. Her parents, my cousins, owned one of the largest record stores in downtown Detroit. Her mom and dad wore a power couple before the turn was used decades later. Tankert's lifestyle then afforded her the best in private schools, great neighborhoods, luxury cars, housekeepers, cooks and drivers.

But all of that came to an end and she couldn't figure out what went wrong. Today, she says it's time for women to come more in power to invest than ever before. No matter what business a woman is in, it's key that she is not just entrepreneurial minded, but investment minded. Most women are one paycheck or one man away from being bankrupt or homes. I'm Johnny Ohanson Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, The Mind of a Millionaires with Joe Tankert in Black America. Well, you know, it's like I said, everything is changing and so I want people to be aware of the fact that things are changing and they're not going to be the same. And they need to get hungry to learn so that they can grow. And just because it's like bloodbuster, you know, blackbuster was hot at one point, you know, lined up, people want to get movies every weekend. Netflix comes to them and says, Hey, you know, we're a new digital streaming platform and we want to know if you guys are interested in partnering.

That was it said, no, go away. We don't need you. We're the biggest and the baddest, but they didn't make the shift. So now where are they today? They're out of business. They have to file bankrupt. They don't even exist anymore. So, you know, that basically speaks to everything that's happening now. So just because back in the day, your parents said, you know, save money, get a checking account. If you just have a savings account and you're not investing more than likely, you'll never become wealthy because saving money is not growing money. If you're saving money, only you're losing. Because of the time the maintenance fees comes and you have to offset inflation, which is about 10 to 20% per year. If you include gas and utilities. Joe Tanker is truly a Renaissance woman. She is making international strides of the business woman, author and evangelist with her deeply embedded roots in entrepreneurship. She is a fierce advocate for personal development and financial empowerment. She believes that the key to her success has been prepped and she is deeply committed to giving people, especially women, a picture of what is possible.

Through her millionaires' clubs, she meant others to invoke new ideas and inspire them to dream and create change in their lives. Never wanted to sit still, Tanker is now the host of the nationally syndicated Joe Tankers Show, which focuses on discussing typical issues that impact people's everyday lives. As a woman who would experience life's ups and downs, Tanker has decided to put on paper what tools are needed to become a millionaires. Recently in Black America spoke with Joe Tanker. Well, thanks. First I'll just want to tell you thank you so much, Kazim, for having me on. We got a chance to spend some time together recently and that was good. But yeah, and I love what you're doing with your show and you know, you've been applying here in this space for a long time. So shout out to you for doing your thing and hold it down so consistently for so many years being a voice for a Black America. But so yeah, so my background is I come from an entrepreneurial family and obviously John is in that family and, you know, grandparents were in business for themselves, parents still in business for themselves and the uncles and a lot of entrepreneurs.

So I had came from an entrepreneurial background, born and raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan saw my parents really do their thing. They're a power couple before people were really calling it that, you know, and but I knew that mom and dad had accomplished a lot, but we also experienced great loss and that was kind of devastating for me. And it made me really want to understand money patterns, money rhythms. I really wanted to understand the dynamics of money and and let me on the path to, you know, where I where I am today, but I had a lot of great wealth mentors along the way to help me. And you know, negotiating deals and contracts and and particularly in learning how to invest because my dad never invested, you know, they made lots of money when it was good. And they saved little, but they never invested and I found most black people don't invest.

And so the most wealthy people do invest and they live off the interest. So that really would kind of let me on this path. So what made you major in economics at the University of Michigan? Was that Theresa? Yeah, that was really the reason because you know, I saw my parents have for all my life. I mean a lot. And her most voices, his and her Mercedes, you know, Volvo and all kinds of cars, housekeepers, cooks, drivers, private schools, housing, the suburbs, and then a 19 we lost everything and I was devastating. And I try to ask my mom a lot of questions like, hey, mom, you know, do we have any money saved? Do we have any money invested? Did we pay anything off and her answer to everything was, you know, your father thought this your father said this. And that's when I quickly begin to learn that my mom did not trust her on financial anything. And that's when I really wanted to, you know, educate myself because I never wanted to have my livelihood or lifestyle dependent on, you know, anybody, husband, a boyfriend, you know, the government, nobody. I always at that point said I want to have my own independent wealth and I want to be in control of my decision.

Now you weren't always the millionaires. I understand that you started dating some of the various individuals while you're going up. Yeah, I started dating drug dealers and hanging out with drug dealers and hanging out at the club and on the yachts. You know, I was really trying to recreate this life that I had become a customer living with my dad, you know, and at that time, every pretty girl wanted to double in Detroit, it was, it was glamorized, you know, and so I was one of them, you know, and I did. And it was fun for a while, but then after why to get indicted and dying and I end up having a best friend killed and then my other best friend, her boyfriend was killed right up to she had a baby and, you know, all that was very emotionally very traumatic. And it really made me look at some things and changed my course of action. And then I was like, okay, this is not the life for me. I went from my daddy taking care of me to me and taking care of me, like, why can't you take care of yourself? Yeah, I understand. Talk about open that next sale franchise.

You know, basically what happened was I, you know, John, I went from one extreme to another. So once I went through that, you know, I, you know, through my whole life into the church, which I'm so grateful that I did and received Jesus is my Lord and savior. I just, you know, God knew I wanted to prosper. And I really kind of had a bad taste of my mouth. I didn't know if I gave my life to the Lord, kind of prosper and I found out that it was actually his plan for me to prosper, but I didn't have to be broke and love him. I made me to prosper. And so I really threw my life, you know, into the church and started dating a young man that was, you know, invited him to come to church, but he wasn't ambitious. He really didn't want a lot. He didn't want as much out of life as I wanted. I think he did, but he wasn't willing to take action. So that mirrors end up going bad after two years, because I went from one extreme to another, you know, and, and so anyway, after that, I went back to work. I got in sales. I started working for next sale, which was a two way handheld. I was in sales there, and I started doing very well. And then they had an opportunity come along where I would have an opportunity to open up my own business, my own next sale for a child. And I actually ran into an entrepreneur that I was, we used to date back in the day Steve from Steve so food.

And he said, hey, you know, I'll back you if you open up this next sale. And I was like, OK, bet. And I did. And we opened it up right there in his restaurant. And it did very, very well. And that's literally where I ended up making my first million. I understand now we can talk about jewels, gems and that'll be the conversation, but some areas that I want to cover in the book. First of all, want to talk about some of the power and words that guided that you're listening your book. Explain to us about your belief, become your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, I think we all have to first of all realize God made us co-creators on the earth with him. So he's given us the ability to speak things and then see them come to pass, you know, you think about it when God showed Adam animals. He didn't say, hey, Adam, this is a tiger. Hey, Adam, this is a hippopotamus. He said the Bible says that he let Adam mainly animals because he wanted him to become familiar with his authority of being another speaking spirit on the earth.

And so when I got a revelation that I had the authority, I wasn't just waiting like we think I'm waiting on God or I'm waiting on the government or waiting on somebody else. God is like, no, I'm waiting for you to exercise the authority and dominion that I've given you in the earth. And so once I got a revelation of that, and I'm still practicing, I'm still learning. I haven't mastered it or perfected it, but I have been able to manifest a lot of my dreams just because I have the ability to just keep saying something and saying it until eventually, you know, we run up on it and I manifest it and I'm living the very thing that I that I always dreamed about. Talk to us about your actions become your habits. You know, sometimes we want to become these amazing people, but we got to realize that we first have to deal with what our actions are every day. Like you're not going to become anything that you don't participate in. It's like a person saying, hey, you know what, I want to lose weight, but their daily action is dessert and sugar.

You know, so we just got to make sure that whatever it is that we want to become, we have to be honest with, you know, okay, am I willing to, you know, take on that responsibility, am I willing to, you know, put in that daily action is going to be needed in order for me to manifest these things. So I think every day I'm working on myself, I do a lot of personal development tweaking here tweaking there, you know, years ago, I would eat anything now, I'm very conscious of what I eat because there's a particular way I want to look. There's a particular way I want to feel. So I had to make sure that my actions started being in alignment with what I wanted the consequences to be. And I think if we get more conscious of the fact that every action that I take has a consequence, right, if I drink water, I'm going to be hydrated, right. If I don't drink water, I'm going to be dehydrated, right.

If I make a decision to eat, right, to eat, maybe salad, you know, and maybe fresh juice. And then when I get up, I'm going to feel good, you know, if I eat a bunch of sweets or put the wrong thing in my body, I'm going to feel bad. So I think that once we become more self aware of the fact that we have the authority, we have the ability to determine what our life looks like, how we look, how we feel. And then start implementing those actions to make sure they're in alignment with the consequence that we desire. What's about your values become your destiny? Well, you know, you, you know, whatever you're thinking about, whatever those core values are, you're going to live it out, you know, before I married my husband, been tanker, who I really love is amazing, man, we've been married 20, we 21 years. Next month, you know, we had the same core values. So I was able to grow, he was able to grow, we were able to come into our destiny and still growing and evolving, but we had the same core values. I mean, we agree on everything, but we have some non negotiables in our lives. And I think people need to get more non negotiable because whatever you're willing to negotiate, then you're probably willing to compromise and you're probably not going to get it.

I mean, we made a decision that it was non negotiable that God would be at the center of our marriage. That was a non negotiable. It was a non negotiable that we were going to be a blended family, we weren't going to call, you know, each other, step children or step mom, step dad, that was a non negotiable. We were going to be broke, but we were going to work and do whatever we had to do and be diligent and be willing to keep learning and changing, because it was not a non negotiable for us to be broke. It just was not. So I think those are basically what your core values are, whatever your non negotiables are, is what ends up being your core values. I think people need to have more of them. Let's see, when you start talking about relationship, being married, married, a man marrying a woman or whatever, he needs to have non negotiables. If she doesn't do these things, it's not going to work or you could say these are his values. And if she don't have these same values, it's not going to work. I think everybody should have values when it comes to relationships, money, like every area of your life, because that's going to be the bar that you set for your life. Nobody else can set that bar for you. You know, I could say, OK, you know, it's not negotiable that I'm not going to be a relationship with somebody that does drugs. I could love somebody that does drugs, but I can't be a relationship like that's not non negotiable, or that's a value.

So I think everybody should have a value system of which they live by, because that's how they're going to end up getting to their destiny or not. I found an interesting you say as a millionaires, you used to have an environment community with others to celebrate your successes. Talk to us about that. Well, you know, we hear a lot about haters and haters that, you know, haters are real, but I think it's important to be around people also to tell you, you know, like I'm proud of you for doing the show, you've done your thing, you made history, you blazed the trail. And so I want to make sure I'm not just thinking it, but I want to let you know I'm proud of you. So I think it's important that when people are doing their thing, celebrate them. Don't be quiet. You know, you walk into somebody they got a really nice apartment, tell them they got a really nice crib, let them know they got on a nice outfit, let them not celebrate their success. If you become a celebrator, then you can participate. You'll never participate in something you hate. So I would tell people if you hate, you call yourself hate rich people or hating people that are successful, then you'll probably never become successful.

And the way to offset having a, you know, jealous spirit is to celebrate. So I think celebrating is important. And I think it builds confidence and individual that you're celebrating and it and it proves to them that they can do more go further, go faster. And they can end up really maximizing their potential when you get around those kind of people. I think it's African Americans and we've all heard this statement. Money doesn't grow on trees. Why was it important for you to include that in the book and tell us why was that important for you? Well, you know, there's always been like this scarcity thing. And I think it goes back to slavery, where everything was, you know, scarce, you know, this mindset as long as I got a roof over my head, food on my table, you know, that's all I need. You know, we were, we were for generations, we were oppressed in scarcity and the barely getting by mentality. And so I want people to know that money is an abundance. Money does really grow on trees is made out of paper, which comes from trees.

And there's no shortage of money on the earth. It just might be a short event shortage of education or revelation on how to accumulate it or how to grow it, but it's not a shortage of money. And so I want people to understand that so it's important because most, you know, most of us black people will use to hear people say, I got to wait for Friday or I got to wait talking in my chat. But there's a whole other sector of people that are not waiting. They see it. They get it. They want to do it. And they do it. And I want us to be. I want our people to be in that percentage economically because, you know, wealth is about choices. It's about freedom. It's about options. It's about, you know, shopping at Pigley Wiggly versus Whole Foods. Or sitting your children, the boys and girls club versus University of Scotland for the summer. So I want them to know it's about choices and that they can have those choices when they have wealth.

You talk to your readers about that in the book, meaning that having a choice and having wealth gives you freedom and not being tied to a paycheck every week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. I mean, I think, you know, everybody can see the world is changing, right? You know, the things aren't the same. You know, we got Apple Pay. Now we get cash at Vimeo, they're, you know, five years ago, we don't have any of those things. So I want people to know that the world is changing and I want them to pay attention to that because if they don't pay attention to that and they don't educate themselves on it. Unfortunately, the way they do things now will be, you know, eventually be obsolete and they'll become irrelevant because they didn't change. I mean, you have a lesson in radio all these years because you didn't change. I'm sure a lot of technology has changed. Remember, there was analog, you know, and everything is digital 4G 5G. And, you know, we probably had it to 6 and 7G. Things are going to continue to evolve and change. So I want people to know that just because something was done a particular way a year ago or five years ago, does not mean that it's the best way to handle whatever today or tomorrow.

They're going to continue to change. And so the people that are moving and shaking, the people that are becoming wealthy and successful today are the people that get super hungry for change and who's super hungry to learn. How does a young woman go about changing the mindset to becoming a millionaire? I think it's right to start first with just a desire. You know, just to wake up and say, you know, I remember my ex-husband love he called one day and said I'm not coming back. And I moved back in with my parents. We were living in a two-parent apartment. And I think it was just I had a desire. I did not have a desire to be a woman. Then I'm with my parents. I was grateful, but I don't know what that I'm going to do. So it was just me having it is me. It started with me just wanting a desire. Like I want more than this. I mean, this is not okay. I don't want to spend with my parents and the grown women. It started there. And then eventually I'm going to get involved kind of, but I think that a lot of it has to start with desire.

I think you've got to get with people that have more than you than no more than you. And then ask them questions. Stay inquisitive. Most wealthy people are living to give you information. I want to give you more information. They want to tell you, you know, what to do and where to go and what they're thinking because even myself, even though, you know, I've been blessed. I feel like I have so much more to accomplish. I feel like I have so much more growing to do. And I think that's a feeling that everyone hopefully keeps having because the minute you lose that is the minute you stop growing. You talk about stretching in your book. How does that relate to finances? Well, you know, just realizing there's levels, you know, the Jilt Tanker Foundation. I'm blessed last couple years. It was given away a couple of cars to single parents. And I went to the dealership. As a matter of fact, it was when I came up to grandma's home going a couple of weeks ago. And I knew I needed to get this car situation out of the way. So, so basically, I'm in Detroit. I'm shopping for the car for single parents. And I'm looking at cars and I find a car. I find an impala nice and Paula.

It was in the budget that I had set. And, but right next to the apologize was a Lincoln. Lincoln was super nice. And I was like, dang, that's cute. And I'm sitting there thinking, maybe I should get the Lincoln instead of the some Paula. And I'm going back and forth because it's double the budget that I had anticipated and spending. But then it was like, I feel like, Holy Spirit was like, well, you know, if it was your car, if you were to buy the car for you or your child, you would probably stretch. What are you? I'm like, yep, I sure would. You know, and, and I went ahead and I bought the Lincoln and it was a stretch for me. But my goal, John, my next stretch goal is to give five Tesla's away next year. So would better way than to start stretching where you are. So you just kind of understand is levels to everything. You know, you might say, I have an ice house today. I like my house, but then you go to parade a home.

And now the set you see all these other homes and you're like, whoa, I like my house, but there's more. So I think that we have to have a con we have to be conscious of the fact that there's more. Now more is not going to go away if we don't go after it, but if we go after it, that more can now become ours. So there's levels to everything. There's levels and boats, levels and travel, how you travel. There's greyhound, there's train. Then there's, you know, Southwest, and then there's first class, right. So everything has a level to it. And I think just acknowledging that there are levels to it in money and depending on what money I have is depending on the choices that I can make. And the more is there, it's in the earth. So I'm going to get it. You know, that's my mindset. If it's in the earth, I'm going to get it. Why is it important for women to have their own set of finances aside from the husband or significant others?

I mean, John, you've seen it a thousand times. You know, I start with my own parents who are amazing people and alive and doing well today. I'm grateful for that. But there's so many things my mom even wanted to do that. You know, my dad was like, oh, I don't want to do that right now. You know, so now the sudden his now will become turno. You know, I invested a lot in the city of Detroit by real estate. Ben wasn't interested in that. If I needed Ben's money, I wouldn't have even been able to bought one property because it wasn't a desire of his. So it's not always about the guy being got bad or eating or anything like that. Sometimes it's just, you know, choice Germans. I woke up, you know, last year or the earlier this year and I said, I want to do G wagon. I didn't have to have a family meeting because I have my own money. So I wouldn't find a G wagon and I bought it. You see, so it's about choices. So, you know, you might want to have dealing with the lady now. Her parents are retired. She wants to buy her parents a home and the husband goes, well, let's buy them this home and she's like, no, I want to buy them something nicer.

But because she doesn't have the money, she has to do whatever he wants to do. So in so many instances, I've seen where women have had these big dreams and it happens sometimes with men too. I want everybody to have their own independent money. I don't want you to say, I want to do this, but let's just say, I don't want you to do it. Because of the money, if you want it, you do it. You see, so I don't want anybody to be told no by another human being. I think it's inhumane. I think it's inhumane to be told that you can't do something or you can't go somewhere because they don't want to do it. I think we've given other people too much power and we need to get our power back and use the resources that God has given us to steward them the way that we feel like we're supposed to steward them. I feel like sometimes we're waiting for other people to do things, especially women with men and sometimes the man didn't get the revelation to do it.

I think God the furniture and say, honey, look, and I promise you he'll be happy. So I think that, you know, every woman needs to be an independent thinker, just like men need to be independent thinkers. And there's nothing wrong with asking your spouse what they think. It's nothing. It's not a wrong with even asking honey, will you help with this? But ultimately, I don't want people to be denied because somebody else decided they didn't want to participate in something. It's important financially and otherwise to have deadline setting goals. Yeah, I mean, because if you don't have a deadline, you know, a year to turn into 10 years or 15 years. I don't want I don't want for people to have to wait a long time to manifest their dreams. If you want something in 2022, you know, set a deadline forward and then work toward it. You know, you can, you can accomplish it. But if you don't set a deadline, it'll just be like, oh, yeah, next year, oh, yeah, next year.

I think people don't realize that a lot of people do not keep their, they don't keep their word to themselves. Joe Tankert, founder and CEO of the Millionaires Club, economist term financial powerhouse and author of the Mind of a Millionaires. If you have questions, comments or suggestions after future in Black America programs, email us at in Black America at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can get previous programs online at kut.org. Also, you can listen to a special collection of in Black America programs at American Archive, a public broadcasting. That's American Archive.org. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for Texas co-producer David Alvarez, I'm Johnny Johansson Jr.

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