How to Earn Your Leisure ft. Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings
This week, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez welcomes Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal, co-founders of Earn Your Leisure, for an unfiltered conversation about their journey from humble beginnings to becoming industry leaders in financial education and media.
The pair discusses their backgrounds — Troy Millings as an educator and Rashad Bilal as a financial advisor — and how their complementary skill sets powered Earn Your Leisure's explosive growth. They share anecdotes about early events, viral moments, and the challenges of building a team. The episode also explores the role of discipline, maintaining boundaries, the importance of prioritizing meaningful experiences over superficial success, and staying original in a saturated podcast landscape.
The conversation ends with a look at future plans, including global expansion, more language offerings for their New York Times bestselling book "You Deserve to Be Rich," and new educational initiatives.
Key Takeaways
Complementary Skills Fuel Growth: The synergy between creativity and execution allowed Earn Your Leisure to scale quickly and efficiently, proving the value of strategic partnerships.
Move Quickly, But Don’t Rush: Both Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings emphasize the importance of speed in entrepreneurship—all while avoiding hasty mistakes.
Financial Literacy is a Must: Understanding how money works and applying that knowledge early is critical for wealth creation, especially in communities of color.
Be Original Amid Saturation: The podcast space is crowded and repetitive; Earn Your Leisure stands out by focusing on educational content and staying true to its "why."
Globe-Trotting Impact: The Earn Your Leisure brand is expanding globally, offering resources in multiple languages and new markets, notably with book translations and international events.
Balance and Boundaries: Maintaining discipline, setting boundaries, and prioritizing family and personal moments are key to sustained success and fulfillment.
Culture Needs Higher Priorities: The hosts call for a shift in cultural focus—away from entertainment gossip and towards financial empowerment and education.
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Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Banking on Cultura. I am your host, Victoria Jenn Rodriguez. And today we're going to switch things up a little bit. You know, I always usually have famous, you know, not famous, but credible. Well, you know, our guests pretty are famous if you really think about it. They really do amazing things. But a lot, a lot of women. And today we got a little bit of a different flavor. We got some fellas on the show today and we got the fellas of Earn Your Leisure, which I'm really excited about because you guys have built something pretty incredible for the community and I can't wait can't wait for our audience to learn all about it. So Troy, please introduce yourself to the people.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, I'm Troy Millings, uh, co-founder of Earn Your Leisure. You know, Bronx-born, uh, Greenberg-raised. Was an educator for most of my career as a profession, and then, uh, got into the field of teaching in a different discipline than I had got a degree for, which is financial education, and did it with my best friend and created Earn Your Leisure in 2019. And here we are.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, doing amazing things, creating magic. Rashad?
Rashad Bilal:
Uh, yeah, other co-founder of Earn Your Leisure. I started as a financial advisor before that, and, uh, yeah, we've been doing Earn Your Leisure for about 7 years now.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Speaking of celebrities, Rashad, you started your journey because it was your goal to be a financial celebrity, right? That was originally where this started?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, for sure. I definitely wanted to work— well, first I was a financial advisor, so I wanted to work with athletes and celebrities, but then I also wanted to become, now it's like term influencer, but influencer wasn't really a term back then. So that was kind of the idea to become like a financial influencer, financial celebrity, whatever you want to call it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, it's all right, you can own it. You want to be a celeb, it's okay. I know now you want to be humble. Nah, nah, nah. We do it for the people and we do, you know, we do. But in order to reach the masses, you know, we got to have that influence. So we can own that.
Rashad Bilal:
100%.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So Troy, your background is in education. Correct. What drew you to education?
Troy Millings:
It was interesting. I wanted to do something in sports originally, and it was either you're going to play sports or you're going to be around it. And in high school I was like, look, I'm probably not going to be playing sports, but I definitely want to be around it, whether it was coaching or if it was training or, or something in that realm, management. And so when I thought about school, it was like, what do I do? And physical therapy just kind of came to my mind. I did an internship there. I was like, if I can't I can help heal players to come back. And realized really early that I hate science.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah.
Troy Millings:
But I had always worked with kids and, you know, working in the community, you know, since I was 15, always working at camps, was a teacher assistant. So I had some money while I was in school. I was like, you know, some things that you're just naturally gifted at and working with kids was a natural gift for me. Teaching kids was naturally something I could do. And so I figured like, how do I combine the two things? My love for working with young adults and, you know, education. And it was like, oh, sports. Well, I'll do, I'll teach phys ed and health. And I was like, oh wait, it didn't hit me until like, I was like, wait, do I get paid the same as the English teacher and the math teacher? They're like, yeah, everybody's on the same pay scale. Just depends on the experience that you have. I'm like, all right, that's what I'm going to do. And so it was just a natural gift that I had. I was like, all right, I can make a career out of this.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah.
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So you must have A ton of patience because working with kids, listen, it takes a special kind of person.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, I think you, you know that. I tell people if they ever want to, to be in education, they should come work in New York City, um, because you'll learn everything about what it takes to be— to manage a classroom, but you learn a lot about yourself. And patience was one of those things that I was like, all right, this is different because everything you learn in grad school, it's like throw it out the window. Now you're put inside of a classroom. And I remember my first class was an all-boys class. I had 30 teenagers and they ran me down. Like, I remember leaving that first day like, that's never happening again. Like, that won't happen again. They're going to— I got to figure out a way that they're going to respect me, but we're going to make this learning thing enjoyable. And from that day on, I never had an issue again.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So as co-CEOs, Rashad, does it help that Troy has patience? Do you have patience too? Or who's the yin to the yang? Like, tell me, tell me what you bring, what you bring, because I'm really interested.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, no, I think, I mean, everybody has different levels of patience. Like, I think I'm definitely a patient person. You got to be able, you got to have patience to see through a process or journey. So, but it's also different levels of temperament and then different levels of skill set and different levels of like expertise. So I think his expertise is more on the technical side as far as like, you know, really detailed when it comes to like finances and different things of that nature, research and dealing with people and different things of that nature. I'm more on the creative side. So like, you know, coming with up with big ideas and social media and marketing, different things of that nature. And other partner, he's, um, he's like really good with computers and like ads and different things of that nature. So, and everybody has different things that they're, that they're better suited to, um, to lead in. So I don't think anybody can just be good in every single thing. So you have to either delegate authority or work with other people that are good in things that you might not be, you know, that strong in.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
You know, it's interesting. When I had the pleasure of meeting you guys, I thought the personalities were going to be different. I thought Rashad was going to be like, you know, full of personality, you know, more energetic. But Rashad, what I gathered from you is like you're very calm, like you're very cool, calm, collected. I got that from you too, Troy, but you're more personable. You're like, I feel like more vibrant, which is interesting that you focus on the content and the social media. And you would think it would be the other way around.
Troy Millings:
Yeah. When we met about it and I was like, yeah, most people, you know, have that same perception. I think the people who grew up with us kind of realized that that was that dynamic, right? Like he used to be— he's super reserved in a sense where I remember people be like, yo, he doesn't talk, he doesn't talk. And I'm sitting here like, man, this dude talks all the time. He never stops talking. Yeah. Until he feels like, you know, he feels comfortable enough that there's something important to talk about. So it was interesting when people see us in person, they're like, Wait, that's the guy from— I'm like, yeah, that's him. Yeah. They were like, I mean, is it okay if I talk to him? I'm like, yeah. But it's just, again, working with kids, being in social environments, like you have no option, right? Like you have to be out front and you have to be, you know, a people's person. I was working with elementary school kids, so I'm like 4 and 5-year-olds, like imagine what that looks like. So yeah, that was always a natural personality for me, just being outgoing. But it works, you know, especially when we're in rooms where it's like, let's read the room. All right, he's gonna take that side of the room. I'll take this side of the room. Yo, how we gonna play this? You know what I mean? Like, we very strategic about it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I love that. I mean, it makes sense, Rashad, for you to have this reserved side of you because you basically grew up in financial services, wealth management, like in your family business, right?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say I grew up in it. I grew up, you know, wanting to be an athlete, basketball, and then wanting to be an entrepreneur. But I didn't really know exactly like which direction of entrepreneurship I wanted to go into. I didn't really figure that out until I graduated from college and then I started to work as a financial advisor. But that wasn't like always, I wasn't like in that world growing up. I was more so just like fascinated with the idea of entrepreneurship, fascinated with the idea of investing. That was something that just always captured my imagination of like, you know, what was possible, what could be done. Like I never really dreamed of like being a dentist or a lawyer or a doctor or anything like that. I just wanted to be in business. Like I said, I didn't really know exactly which angle of business I wanted to go into. But that was something that I definitely like knew for myself that I never had like a career path that I wanted to do other than play basketball. But like as far as a job, I never aspired to be any level of profession.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Is that 'cause someone planted a seed? Like did someone introduce you to entrepreneurship? Like how'd you get exposed to it?
Rashad Bilal:
I mean, I think a variety of different things. Like, you know, my dad was an entrepreneur, but for me personally, I just think I just had a personality that was just, kind of going against authority. Like, I never really fit in that type of— saw a job that wasn't really going to work out for me because I just never really was good at working under somebody else's rule and getting told what to do. But also just getting exposed, like, even in movies. Like, I watch a lot of movies growing up, like Wall Street, stuff like that. And that shaped my, my, um, ambition also. Like, you know, I mean, like, those movies early on, watching those type of movies really, like, put me in that mode of, like, I want to be this is what I want to do. Like, I want to be on, on this side of the table. Like, I want to be a boss. Like, I never really wanted to do other than that. So yeah, I think it was a variety of different things, but definitely cinema for sure played a big part, um, as far as, you know, what I was looking at. And then just, I guess, like I said, just my personality type. I just never really thought that I would be, you know, a good worker.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So Rashad going against the grain, has that ever come to you, Troy, where you like, you gotta chill, you gotta chill?
Troy Millings:
In regards to him?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, like, and you guys building this empire.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, I never tell him he has to chill. I think his ambition is contagious and it's challenging, you know, like the more creative he becomes, the more he pushes the envelope in that sense. And so I always look at us as creativity meets execution. So if he has an idea, it's like, all right, well, how do we get it done? Like, what's the challenge? How do we put pieces in place to make sure that we can make this thing come to life? And usually when we do that, when we combine forces like that, successful things happen. So whether it's Earn Your Leisure, it's Invest Fest, or You Deserve to Be Rich, it has always worked out for us. So I never tell him to chill because, you know, I want him to be creative. I don't want to stagnate, you know, the ideas that he has. Okay. Yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So we're going to get into the fact that you got 1 million subscribers, 1 million social media, like, footprint, 25,000 at Invest Fest attendees, you know, New York Times bestselling author, all the things. But we like to begin things with some bonchinché, some tea, some gossip, something we can't learn about you on the internet. So Rashad, we'll start from you. Give us some more. Just anything, anything you'd like to share that we can't Google about you.
Rashad Bilal:
Um, man, I don't— I like to, I like to travel.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I don't know. We know that. Anybody follows you on social media, like, we know you stay on a plane.
Rashad Bilal:
So yeah, I don't really know. Like, I can't really— maybe if you ask a question I can answer it, but I can't really think. I don't really have too many hobbies. I don't have hobbies too much. Like, I'm not one of these people that, like, you know, go bowling every Friday, stuff like that. Like, I really don't do too much. I already don't watch television too much. I just started watching a show, Vince Staples Show. That show's good.
Troy Millings:
You like it?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, second season.
Rashad Bilal:
Oh, I just started.
Troy Millings:
I don't know what season it is, but, um, what's the name of it? Uh, Vince Staples.
Rashad Bilal:
Vince Staples.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, you got a show on Netflix.
Rashad Bilal:
Okay, he's a rapper named Vince Staples. Yeah, show named Vince Staples.
Troy Millings:
Okay, it's like loosely based off him. It's crazy. The first season I thought was dope. Second season, not as good as the first.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Rashad Bilal:
But, but yeah, so, um, so I don't really know, like, you know, I like, I like fashion, but that's obviously well documented. I feel like music, I feel like everything that, that I, that is, is important to me is pretty much like, my life is pretty much open book on social media for the most part. So like, you know, I don't, I don't think I really have too many things that would, um, not be already known.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay, so let's get into things that aren't known. Talk to us about what it's like creating this brand, being, uh, in the spotlight, and what does that mean for your personal life?
Rashad Bilal:
No, it's good. Um, you know, it's definitely something that, you know, you get recognized, go different places, opens up opportunities. People want to include you in different things, invite you to different stuff. So from an opening doors standpoint, it's great. Like, it's a great key that opens doors anywhere in the world. You go somewhere, like, you can, you know, make a couple of phone calls and end up, you know, doing something that you probably wouldn't have been able to do if they didn't know us from Earn Your Leisure or somebody didn't know us. So It's good. I really don't have any too much negative things to say about it, you know.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Rashad got that PR training, you hear that coming through.
Troy Millings:
I'm waiting for Mama to teach you.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
You know what I'm talking about. I don't want to know what's— but it's like with the ladies, that's what I'm asking you. Oh, personal life.
Troy Millings:
Oh wow. Well, I mean, that's a direct question.
Rashad Bilal:
Nah, you know, once again, I feel like, um, anytime you get any level of notoriety you know, is going to open up more, more people, right? So it's up to you to just have discernment and not, you know, go crazy. 'Cause you know, times that we in right now, a lot of people, you know, get themselves in trouble. Like the more access that you have that could lead to making bad decisions. And you know, we see that all the time. Every week it seems like in the news somebody's getting caught up with something. So for me—
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So you got them signing NDAs? Like what you saying right now? Like what you saying?
Rashad Bilal:
No, no, no. You just choose wisely. Choose your company.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Choose wisely.
Rashad Bilal:
Choose your company wisely. That's it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
But is there like a conversation? You'd be like, listen, I think you're beautiful and everything, but we got to keep this.
Rashad Bilal:
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. I mean, I feel like the type of people that you deal with, you should already have that level of understanding of what a person's character is before you even like, you know, have some level of conversation with them, like, if it's a real situation. So I don't really have— never really had to have that type of issue because I don't really attract that type of energy. I don't think I don't really attract that type of energy where I think, like, okay, this is something that's going to go off the rails. I feel like, I feel like, you know, whether it's in relationship, whether it's in business, for the most part, we meet, we meet good people, like You know, I think that that's just the kind of energy that we put out there. I don't think that we, like, meet a lot of, like, bad people for the most part.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I mean, I'm pretty sure nobody goes into it with the intentions of, you know, let me bring this man down. But, you know, feelings get involved and all the other things, and you never know. You just never know.
Rashad Bilal:
You never know where it could go. Where it could go. Pray for the best.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, you gotta pray for the best. Pray for the best. So Troy, give us some bonchinché.
Troy Millings:
There's a lot. Um, I'm a diehard sneaker collector.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Troy Millings:
Love sneakers. This is an interesting one, and I think if I was in a different— born in a different time frame, I think I would have been like a gamer.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Um, so like, I think we all would be gamers.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, no, this is like making crazy money. I mean, I grew up playing video games. Like, I had older brothers, that's what we did. We played video games. We love sports, love music, we loved all the things, but like I felt like anything that I was doing, I was going to be good at. But at playing video games, I was like exceptionally— did well to the point where I think NBA Live and Madden started doing like online ranking. And so, and I got up into like the top 100 in Madden, but I was like in the top 5 in NBA Live. And they had just created this show. This is a true story. They created the show where it was like, get on the bus. And so they were inviting gamers to get on the bus to see who was the best in the world. And the prize was like, $25,000 if you won. And they invited me. I came down, it was like a studio like this, and they made me play the producers. And I got invited on the bus.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Troy Millings:
Right. And I'm like, oh, perfect, I'm gonna tour. Now, you— the way you stay on the bus is you just— whoever comes on from each city, you play them. And the final was in Times Square. You played on the big screen in Times Square. I'm like, bet. I'm like, all right, when's the first bus leave? And it was like September 6th. And I was like, oh no, I just got a job teaching. And so, you know, September 6th, like the first day of school, and I was like, I can't go. So I chose to follow my career in teaching and not get on the bus and pursue my career in video gaming, which is now like a fruitful career. A lot of kids are making a lot of money, adults too. Like, you know, I've seen tournaments at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The prize is $2 million, $3 million. And it was like, Damn, at a different time, that'd have been me. But I still am active. I actually started playing again. I was teaching my son about football. He started playing football a couple years ago and I was like, how can I teach him? Like, it's a, you know, you need a team to do that. We can go out and play catch, but understanding strategy and understand skill positions and different techniques in the game, I'm like, oh, we'll play video games. So I started playing again and got pretty good again. So anybody that wanted to play me in Madden, I'm, I'm willing to do that.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Listen, I'm willing to do it. Maybe you guys, you could create your own bus.
Troy Millings:
I, you know what?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
You know what I mean?
Troy Millings:
You can I really should. So I'm willing and able.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. Yeah. That might be, you know, the next play. Who knows?
Troy Millings:
There it is.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So you guys are in a space where you are building teams constantly. You're reinventing the wheel. You're being innovative, creative, always trying to stay on top of your game. When you guys first started to blow, like, when did you know, like, oh, this is it?
Rashad Bilal:
I think there's a few different moments. I know when we did an event in LA, like, early on, and we did a pop-up, like, networking event, and that was, like, 16 weeks into the, to the show, and, um, it was packed, and it was, like, on a random Monday, and we only had, like, a couple days to really, like, put a flyer out, and it was in, like, Carson, California, which is, like, 45-50 minutes outside of LA in LA traffic. So people was coming from, like, all over San Diego OC, San Bernardino, California. So that was like real impactful because that was like the first time that we— that was the first event that we ever did. So we didn't really know what to expect, and, um, we had never really had that in-person, like, you know, love like that you get at events. So seeing that in person, you know, because you never really know, people watch things online and they have no connection with the people that they're watching. So somebody might— you get a million views and can't sell a t-shirt. So, you know, everybody doesn't buy into it just because they consume content. But, you know, being that they actually came out, we knew that it was more than just content. It was like they actually, you know—
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
And what year was this?
Rashad Bilal:
2019.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
2019. Okay.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah. So that was like—
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So it was a year after you guys signed?
Rashad Bilal:
I said it was like 16 weeks. It was like— because it was episode was like 16, something like that. So it was a few months in.
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Rashad Bilal:
But just from that standpoint of just seeing that in person, I was like, all right, yeah, no, it's definitely something that you know, has legs to go far.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
And when did you— when— what happened when— because there's levels and, you know, throughout your journey you've kind of gradually graduated to each next level. When did you reach a level where you were like, all right, now, like, we in a different lane right now?
Troy Millings:
Uh, we're in a different lane. I think it starts there with doing these pop-up events and seeing how far our reach was. Um, and then I say another pivotal moment is, uh, the very next year when we sit down with Steve Harvey and we have this in-depth conversation with him prior to the interview. Do the interview, interview goes incredibly well, and right after he talks about us, about how he can partner with us and some other ventures that we were thinking about, uh, at the time. Invest Fest, we had done that successfully the year prior, and he was like, I would love to be part of it, let's figure out how we can work together. And I'll never forget, we walked out of that interview and we looked at each other and we were like, yo, our lives aren't gonna be the same. It was just kind of one of these moments where you feel like we just did something that was incredible. The interview we were talking about, but the idea that he wanted to partner with us and the ideas that we were fostering in that 6-hour span, we were like, things are about to change. And it did, it did. That still is our number one watched episode. But that year Invest Fest, we scaled from 4,000-people event to a 12,000 to 13,000-people event, which is, you know, like pretty incredible. We had Tyler Perry there. It was a really big jump up and life hasn't looked the same since then. So obviously there's different stages and different things happen, but that was one of those pivotal moments.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So you guys are building teams. Can you talk to us about the ugly part of building teams?
Rashad Bilal:
I don't—
Troy Millings:
I wouldn't call it ugly. I just think they're like pivotal lessons that you learn throughout the process. I think one of the most challenging things we had was understanding who we were as Earn Your Leisure, obviously being the face of it and being on a day-to-day representing that brand, but then trying to help people come along with us on that ride. And sometimes, you know, you put people in positions that they're not qualified for or not ready for. And, you know, you honestly end up hurting them and hurting yourself at the same time. But you could also end up losing, you know, friendships because of it. And so understanding people's strengths and making sure that you put them in positions where they, they're capable of winning or they've earned positions where they're capable of winning. It was, was something that I had to learn and it's a tough lesson, but it's a valuable lesson I learned because, you know, people can get you from A to B, but everybody's not gonna get you to A to Z. And that could be family or it could be friends. So that's part of business and you move on from it and you learn from it and you keep pushing.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Rashad, what have you learned? Like, now that you're at this level, are you like assessing people differently? Like, what do you— I'm sure you get this all the time where people are like, yo, we gotta do something together, blah, blah, blah. Like, how are you assessing those potential opportunities?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, I mean, it's never really like a set formula. It's just a matter of, um, you know, just, just seeing everything for what it is, you know, looking at things individually, and something might makes sense for a variety of different reasons. It might make sense because, okay, this is time to do it, or you could see the potential in the future. It may not even like make sense on paper, but when you like, you kind of see the value in it, or you just form a relationship with somebody, you like what they got going on, or you think that, you know, this is something that's worth pursuing. So it's, it's, I think it's real just intuition. It's not, it's not really like based on like, you know, okay, it has to meet this metric or this number. And that's like any, anything in life. I think it's just like using the intuition, using your common sense and just kind of navigating to see like what makes sense and what doesn't make sense.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
What's been your biggest lesson that you've learned so far in, in growing this brand?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, um, I think you got to just move quick, like, you know, I mean, you can't— I think a lot of times people just wait on things or they procrastinate or they push things off, and it's just like, you know, just success loves speed. And that's something that's important. Like, you got to be able to move quick, got to move fast. And even if it doesn't work out, like, that's— you still got to be able to, you know, attack quickly. So that's something that I think a lot of people, you know, don't do that. And that's one of the reasons why a lot of people may not get to where they want to get to because they're just too slow. Like, you know, you definitely got to move real fast.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So is there something right now that you guys are focused on that you're like, yo, we got to get to this fast because it's just moving?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, I mean, I just— I was just with, um, one of our other partners in another business that we have, um, yesterday, our curriculum. So I was with him yesterday and I spoke to him and we had it for a couple years, but you know, I'm like, all right, let's set up a call and let's really figure out how we can, you know, attack this in 2026 to make it, you know, move quicker. So that was something like I said, just had a conversation about a curriculum outside of EYL University. It's a school.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay, the school curriculum.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, high school. So So that was, like I said, that was the conversation I just had yesterday. Like, all right, we gotta push this along.
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Rashad Bilal:
You know, be more aggressive with this.
Troy Millings:
I'm big on that. I'm big on, I think I heard Rick Ross say like, I don't wanna rush, but I don't wanna waste time. Because when you rush, you'll make mistakes. You know that being in education, you tell 'em, take your time, right? When it's a test, take your time. But in life we like, let's get it done. Let's get it done. And I'm like, let's, let's not, let's take our time, but let's, you know, let's not waste time. So I'm big on that. And, Throughout everything we've built, it's been that, right? We've watched people do things. We've watched people make mistakes. It's like, all right, well, what step did they miss? I think one of the beautiful things about us is that this is brick by brick. Like, we've built this step by step. I know some people are like, oh, you should have been further ahead. And like, no, we're at the pace we're supposed to be for what we're doing. So, you know, we're content with that.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
What's your schedule like? Because you got a lot of things going on. Like, is there like a routine that y'all stick to or? Like, what does that look like? Like, if you had to describe—
Troy Millings:
The schedule?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. What does that look like?
Troy Millings:
I mean, we got a pretty decent routine. Obviously, we shoot a couple of shows every week. You know, every Monday people are expecting to see us in Market Mondays with our partner Ian. So that, that doesn't change. Blackout is going to happen on Wednesdays, you know, him and Ian. So that's not going to change. And Earn Your Leisure, you know, we kind of shoot that in bulk, you know, sometimes we'll shoot 3 episodes in a week. And then we don't shoot for a week. And then, you know, the rest of the weeks, the rest of the days of the week is either meetings about future things that we're trying to get off or planning for Invest Fest, which is like a 12-month planning process in itself. And then every now and then, you know, you see your kids and say hi.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Or you're in Africa.
Troy Millings:
Or you're in Africa, you know, doing international.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Right. International things.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. Okay. How do you maintain discipline, Rashad?
Rashad Bilal:
I mean, discipline, I think that's just part of life. Like, I mean, like, I don't think you really maintain it. I just think that's like something that you have to have in anything that you do. So it's like you got to, you know, keep a schedule, keep a discipline as far as like, okay, you work out once a day, you got to make sure you work out once a day or you wake up at a certain hour. You know, you got to do certain things during the course of the day. You got to do certain things during the course of the day. So I think that's more of a lifestyle. Like, I don't really know, like, how you do it other than just be consistent. Like, if you consistently do the things that you need to do, the things that you, you know, that you have done, then the discipline just automatically comes with that, right? Like, so I think that's, yeah, that's something that definitely is a lifestyle as far as discipline. It's not something that you can, like, choose to be disciplined. You have to be disciplined.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
And do you find that, like, having a partner building something helps you maintain that discipline? So like if there's a day where, you know, Troy ain't in it, Rashad, you like, nah, let's step it up or vice versa?
Troy Millings:
I think so. But I've known that, right? Like we've known each other since we were like, I was 12, he was 10, right? Or 13 or something like that. So you figure like you've watched this person grow up. We've watched each other grow up. I understand the work ethic. I understand the discipline already. I know there's no sleep in this, right? Like, I understand that the job is not done. So we're always working on something. We're always trying to get better, not just from a business standpoint, but personally as well, trying to grow as men and leaders in our community. So yeah, it definitely rubs off. I know, like, the days I feel like, yo, I'm not feeling it today, I know he's gonna be like, yo, we doing it. And if the same vice versa, if he's not like, yo, I'm off, like, all right, no, we got it. We're going to be good. You know, that, that kind of works in our favor that we have each other. Whereas most people, you see these like entrepreneurs, they're by themselves and they're building brands and the brands are about themselves. We're individuals that have a brand. Yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
That's really interesting to see because, you know, with women it's defined differently. But I know with men it can sometimes be perceived as like ego, like someone's ego gets in the way when you're building something real fast, when you're in the spotlight, you're getting a lot of love. People feeling this way, people feeling that way. So has there ever been a time where y'all had, like, to check each other? Like, yo, chill.
Troy Millings:
I don't know if we check each other. Like I said, we've known each other for so long that if there's ever a moment where, like, I feel a way or he'll feel a way, I know I'm gonna get a phone call or I'm gonna be, you know, when we see each other, we're gonna have a conversation. And I think that's one of the most important things is that the respect level that we have for each other, it's not something that's public. You know what I mean? Like, we knew each other before there was any Earn Your Leisure. So the way we handle any situation is going to be consistent with our friendship and our brotherhood throughout our lives. And it's like, all right. And it's not too many times that that happens just because, you know, we know each other so well. But if there is, it's like, yo, let's talk real quick. Let's nip it out the bud and let's keep moving. I think we're good at, you know, not harping on things, saying what we got to say and let's move on and let's get back to business.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Rashad, what's your favorite thing about Troy?
Rashad Bilal:
Um, you know, he's consistent.
Troy Millings:
Am I supposed to look in his eyes?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
You know what it is? I just love when men show each other love because I just know there's like this— this— it depends. It depends on who you're in front of. But I think we need more examples of men just showing love to each other because you really don't have that many examples, especially for men of color.
Troy Millings:
It's usually like You know, I tell him I love him all the time, man. I'm waiting for him to give me a hug. Yeah, it's been years.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Hugs out here, that's crazy. You got to talk to the PR team about it.
Troy Millings:
Exactly, exactly.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
You got to give out hugs. Uh, I want to talk to you guys about the state of the podcast industry. So I don't know if you guys saw Charlamagne's post, I think it was like maybe 2 days ago, where he was talking about, um, there was a study done about women of color being behind the mic and how the podcast industry is— you're seeing a couple of pop-ups, but still the folks who are headlining are mainly, you know, white men or a white woman, Mel Robbins as an example, or Call Her Daddy. So what are your thoughts about women of color being behind the mic, about folks of color being behind the mic, and just the overall industry and where it's heading?
Rashad Bilal:
I think Well, I think, I think it's, it's a little saturated. I feel like there's a lot of people that kind of do similar type of content, and, um, a lot of it is not really like value-add type of content. It's just more like entertaining type of content, which after a while that just kind of gets a little redundant, um, on either side of the gender aisle, men and women, whatever. So I feel like it's a lot of people that kind of have the same blueprint They following other people, you know, it's not a lot of originality. I don't think it's a lot of originality. So I never really listened to podcasts, honestly.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Um, just your own.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, so it, it just, it just depends. Um, I feel like there's niche audiences, like our audience, and you know, probably could be considered a niche audience where it's drilled down around finance. And you know, we talk about other stuff, but that's kind of like, you know, the bread and butter of what it was built on. Then there's, you know, people that talk about different, different things— mental health and, and, you know, nutrition, stuff like that. But I feel like, um, you know, most of this, most of the content that at least I, I see is like more sports or music or just like, you know, all-around general trending topics, like whatever is like in the news, popular. It's not really like anything of like real substance. So it's like music. I feel like a lot of it is just disposable. So yeah, I don't, I don't really consume content like that too much as far as long-form content. I'm more like social media. I see clips and stuff on social media, but I don't really, I don't really, um, listen to like long-form content that much.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So you said that you find that a lot of content is repetitive and saturated. So if you had to start all over again, What would you start with?
Rashad Bilal:
No, I mean, I think our thing is different than that. And I think that that's something that we, I think that's one of the reasons why we've been successful is because we didn't do what everybody else is doing. And even now to this day, there's really no other platform to our demographic that has, you know, rivaled us in that sense. So I think we would, I wouldn't do anything different as far as what we've done, but just looking at it from a landscape of like the totality of everything that's going on. I don't really see too much value in it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
But more so like for someone who's thinking about starting something.
Rashad Bilal:
I would be original. I would let us do something that you don't— nobody else is doing. Like what? Well, like one of my partners said before, as far as like the true crime series thing, aspect of it, that's interesting. I don't see a lot of people in our community that's actually doing that. But really breaking it down, right? Because that's— those are like learning. It's like an education and entertainment all drilled into storytelling, stuff like that. That's something that's original. That's something that's unique, right? Like, I don't see people really doing that too much.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I don't know. I see a lot of people doing it to the Diddy documentary. Everybody's become a true crime expert.
Rashad Bilal:
Exactly. And even that, that's more like just regurgitated content off of like I'm talking about like different things that's like, or like, um, history, like, you know what I mean? Like, like a real history podcast that really goes in. There are history podcasts, but that would be something at least I would be interested in because I like to listen to— that's more the content that I consume on the car. Like, I listen to like documentaries and stuff like that more so than, than like podcasts. But that would be something that would be interesting to me, not to everybody, but that would be interesting to me, right? So I think just like thinking outside the box, not just thinking of like, okay, I'm gonna talk about music, I'm gonna talk about sports, so I'm just going to try to interview whoever I think I can get views off of for that week, and it's nothing related about anything and there's no cohesion at all. So I think that that's something that, you know, just a different approach.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, I think the why is important inside of all those things. Like, why are you doing it, right? Like, so for if you peel back the layers, most people are doing it because they think this is a way to make money and they think that their voice is so valuable that people are going to want to pay them to listen to it from an advertising standpoint. And when that why is not really aligned, they'll give up on it. You see that a lot of times people start a podcast, how many last for a year? They don't really. And our why was pretty evident from the beginning, right? Like if you think about career-wise, financial advisor, educator, there's financial literacy there already. Before we ever had a show, we were teaching kids, right? Like it was just that this was the medium now to actually get that out to the masses. And so that's always important. But even inside of the podcasting space, the level of support that we have for each other, rather than, you know, saying like, oh, I'm listening to that. It's like, oh, I could do what they do, right? Like you grow up and you think like, oh, I can do what they do. And then you realize you're in that space and like, nah, there's actually skill to this. There's actually talent that has to, and hard work and discipline and dedication that has to go into sacrifice, that has to go into it. And when all those things come, it's like, all right, maybe this ain't it for me. So I would start with the why.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. So I got some bonchinché for you guys.
Troy Millings:
Bonchinché!
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So Banking on Cultura was inspired by Earn Your Leisure.
Rashad Bilal:
Because—
Troy Millings:
You should have like a bell or something.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I know, right? Like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Because there really isn't anything that exists in the Latino community. There isn't like a hub. Where we can go to learn about different ways to diversify your income streams, to learn about entrepreneurship, financial health, mental health, the things that matter. There really isn't a hub for us to go to. It doesn't exist. And so what I— when I was watching you guys and have been a fan and I was like, hmm, you know, I know you guys serve a lot for the Black community, but you have someone like me who's a Latina who is tuning in, right? Because I'm like, oh, like this content is like amazing, but it doesn't really exist. So I was like, you know what, let me create it. If I don't see it, I'm gonna create it. And that was a big part of the reason why Banking and Cultura was born, was because I felt like we needed something that the Latino community could use as a resource, a trusted resource that they can go to to see themselves and hear from people who look like them that are using their culture, their Latinidad, as a competitive advantage versus an Achilles heel. So, thank you, fellas.
Troy Millings:
It goes to your why. Yeah, I love it. I love it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Just wanted to let you guys know that having you guys on right now is like a real honor because—
Rashad Bilal:
appreciate that.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
The podcast.
Troy Millings:
Shout out to you guys. Shout out to you. That's dope. But that gives you that power, right? Like sometimes you don't have the best day, right? And sometimes you don't feel like getting up and you may not feel like sitting in front of the microphone and then you realize it's not about you, right? Like people like, oh my God, You guys are a blessing. I'm like, yo, it just, I'm just a vessel, right? Like I'm just doing the work that I've been called to do. Mm-hmm. And I know it's bigger than me, so I gotta keep doing it.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah.
Troy Millings:
Because it's, you never know, like somebody can be impacted today. That used to be the thing, like, yo, we can just get one listener a day, right? And now it's just like, who are we going to impact today?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Mm-hmm.
Troy Millings:
And you never, it could be an episode from 5 years ago. It could be episode from yesterday, but somebody can be impacted. So you got, you gotta do what you do.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, totally. And talking about vessels, uh, for my 40th birthday, I went to Costa Rica for a spiritual retreat. So I was like, all right, it's time to, you know, connect deeper with myself. And there's just a different type of, uh, silence that comes when you just get away, um, and you go on this spiritual journey with yourself. And God was like, yo, you need to double down on your community. You need to start providing more resources and tools for them to, like, level up. That was my calling. So in terms you know, being used as a vessel, he definitely spoke to me loud and clear. He was like, you got to, you got to show up because the community needs you. And I think even more so now with everything that's going on. So kudos to us for doing the work.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, for sure.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So let's talk about this New York Times bestseller, You Deserve to Be Rich. Did you guys always know you wanted to write a book? Did someone tell you, yo, this is the next step? Like, where— how did this come about?
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah, that was always on the vision board early on. Um, it's just a matter of like when, when will be the right time. So yeah, definitely that the book was like, you know, something that was always on in the game plan as far as writing a book. And, um, it was just the timing, you know, we had gotten approached, uh, for a book deal. So we kind of negotiated that and it was, you know, after years of doing Earn Your Leisure and then Invest Fest had already been a success. So It was like, you know, we wasn't just writing a book when we first started. Like, you know, we had, you know, real life experiences and ups and downs and different things of that nature. And it was like, all right, we could really add value in people's lives right now because this is a moment when we've already went through a part of our journey and people have seen it, but they haven't really, you know, had the opportunity to sit down and read it in a book. Like they watched it on YouTube, they listened to it, but that's thousands of hours. It hasn't been condensed into like one manual. So that's like, you know, what You Deserve to Be Rich is, is like the manual where it's all condensed into one. So that was the idea behind it. And it was just, you know, good timing for sure, I think. And when we launched it, you know, we definitely did a lot of pushing it, pushed it to our audience. We went on, you know, a book tour. We did, you know, the media rounds, all of that stuff. So it got a good reception for sure. And, you know, we still pushing it. You got the Spanish version out.
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Rashad Bilal:
So we just doing different mediums, you know, the paperback version out. So just coming up with different ways to, you know, keep the story going and to reach new audiences that may not have received the message yet. Yeah.
Troy Millings:
I think it was important when people talk about finance and we just actually did an interview and people always reference the same book, Rich Dad Poor Dad. In terms of their financial journey. And we just kind of sat there like, if that's the book that we read when we were teenagers, like, what are the books that these teenagers are going to read? And it was a perfect segue to say like, oh, we need to create it. Like, we need to have the manifesto. We need to have the book that lives on for generations spoken in a language that most people are familiar with, right? Like the stories that he tells in the book, they're great stories, but they don't sound like they came from people that look like us. And we were super intentional about that. Like, we wanted to be the representation going forward for the world of finance and from any walks of life. We want to be that representation. You know, every time we go somewhere, we get asked a question regarding finance, right? So it's like we could keep answering questions, 1,000 questions a day, or we could say, yo, here's a body of work that you can go to for some of those answers if you never see us in person. And that's what we did. I remember reading the transcript. I'm like, We got something here. This is a masterpiece. So to see the people's response to it, to see that it's a New York Times bestseller, it's dope. And like you said, the Spanish version is here, but we got some more stuff planned for it as well.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay. So did you have like a ghostwriter or were you guys like at the computer for hours?
Troy Millings:
Like, so we had a co-writer with it. Okay.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah.
Troy Millings:
Shout out to Candace. Again, it was interesting when we had to go through that process of wanting to, to see which avenue we wanted to explore. Was it going to be us? Do we want to have a co-writer involved with us? Um, just based on our schedules, uh, it was like that made a lot of sense. And we went through a few interviews with people, but what stuck out to us is that she knew who we were and she was watching the show, and our aunt was a huge fan. And so during that interview process, it was like, we don't have to explain the story, she gets it. Uh, and she did an amazing job. We had plenty of calls. So like every other week we were sitting on Zoom calls going over the chapters and going over our experiences and she's, you know, peeling back layers and making us think about things during our past in terms of finance, in terms of life that kind of shaped who we were and shaped how we looked at finance. And so it was dope, man, working with her.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Mm-hmm. What do you find that is lacking most when it comes to financial literacy in our community? Community?
Rashad Bilal:
Just really, you know, having an understanding of how money works. You know, I think a lot of times people still don't really understand that, like how money works, like, you know, the relationship with money, you know, like the idea of actually investing the money and why investing money is beneficial and why being an entrepreneur is more beneficial than, you know, being an employee as far as for tax purposes and different things of that nature. So No, the relationship with money is like more so just get money and spend it, or get money and use it for things. Like, you know what I mean? Use it to pay your rent, use it to go grocery shopping, use it to, you know, put gas in your car. But it's not really thought of, of like get money to make more money from your money.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So what would you say going into this season this next year, 2026, what would you say is top 3 things people should be thinking about when it comes to their finances?
Troy Millings:
Top 3. I think number 1 is getting education around your finances. I think we got to take advantage of this moment in time, right? I know people say, like, 7 years ago, I wish that Earn Your Leisure existed. Well, we're here now, and it does exist, and there's plenty of other resources as well. So getting education around it, getting a firm understanding, getting your affairs in order. But making sure that you're not just doing it for yourself. I think a lot of times we think selfishly when it comes to finance, especially when you're in your mid-20s and early 30s. It's like all you think about is the now, but plan for the future and what that looks like. You know, like I said, I talk about him all the time, you know, explaining to me what life insurance was at 26 when I had no kids and no wife, and now how that's so important now having 2 kids and a wife. But I learned it very early. And so understanding the process, getting around people who understand it as well, mentorship, reading, listening to podcasts, really encompass your life in the world of finance because it's the one thing that you're going to need to survive, especially in the world that we live in now where artificial intelligence is going to play a huge factor and is already playing a huge factor in the job market. Investing is something that we're going to need to do. And so, uh, definitely encompassing that. We already know from a school standpoint, something that's not taught, and hopefully we can change that. And so getting around people who have knowledge is important, uh, but seeking your own is important as well. Mm-hmm.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
What would you say? What would you want people to focus on, Rashad?
Rashad Bilal:
Um, putting together a plan, like, you know, putting together the plan and really seeing how you're going to be able to earn more money.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
So if you had to start your plan, like EYL didn't exist, you broke, what would be your plan? What would be the first thing you do?
Rashad Bilal:
I mean, the first thing you do is, um, you got to figure out how to make more money for everybody, really. Like, you know, whether that's through sales— if you, if you're in a sales job, you got to figure out how you can sell more product. Or if you're an entrepreneur, you got to see how you could diversify, have more streams of income. If you're an employee, you gotta figure out how you can, you know, figure out a business to start part-time or create multiple incomes from different expertise that you've developed from your level of professional career that you— So the first thing to do is figure out how to make more money, 'cause everybody needs more money.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
But I think everybody's like, knows that. It's, I think, where to start. And especially now where there's so much noise, everybody's trying to sell you something, everybody's a guru. Everybody got the formula, everybody got the trick. It becomes really easy to just be in this space of ambiguity because you don't know which decision is the decision that's actually going to help you make money. So what is your recommendation around that?
Troy Millings:
I think people overlook it though, right? I would argue that even people in our profession of education would look at it like, oh, what can I do? My school day takes up most of my time. Right? And I'm looking at it like, what can't you do, right? Like you said, you're, you're expert in your profession. Can you tutor for an hour, right? That can probably get you $200 a week. Yeah, you'd probably like, oh, it's only $200, but like, no, that becomes a phone bill, right? Can you coach something, right? That goes enough. So we just gotta stop overshooting. We think like, oh, I need a million customers and a million sales. But no, what if you had 1,000 customers and 2,000 sales? Right, like you got to start with what you are, right? The way you are. Like, you've spent years gaining all this information, gaining all this knowledge, gaining all this expertise to be a professional. You got to figure out ways to make money from, from doing that. It ain't just going to be from your W-2, right? Like, we know one thing about wealth, and it's that you can't save your way, right? So you've got to figure out how to make money from the expertise that you have. You've already paid for the school to do it. Now you got to figure out how that's going to make you make money.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
We usually hear people say, you know, what would you tell your younger self? So Rashad, what would you tell your 75-year-old self?
Rashad Bilal:
My older self? My older 75, you said, right?
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. Your more seasoned self.
Rashad Bilal:
I don't really know. I can't really, because at that point you figure you're going to have a lot more life experiences. And so I can't really give advice. To that because I don't know where that journey is going to end at. I mean, you can give advice to younger because you could say, okay, I have a perspective of I know what happened. Yeah, I could give advice to my 20-year-old self because I know what happened in the last 20 years. I can't give advice to my 75-year-old self because that would— I wouldn't know what's going to happen in the next 25 years.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Hmm, interesting. So if you come across someone who serves as like a mentor for you who is older, you don't think they can learn anything from you?
Rashad Bilal:
No, they can, but I could also learn from them as well. So, but that's— we're talking about time in the construct of right now. That's different from like in the future.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Rashad Bilal:
So yeah, I can give advice to somebody right now. But applying that to me, that would mean that we will be 25 years in the future.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Rashad Bilal:
Or 35 years in the future.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay. So is there something now you wouldn't want your future self to forget?
Rashad Bilal:
Um, wouldn't want them to forget— I mean, just everything as far as traveling, different experiences, different people. Like, you know, I feel like that's, you know, um, family Moments, moments with my son, like stuff like that. Like, you know, that hopefully, you know, you don't forget that. That's something that, you know, you still remember to the time that you check out. You know, those important memories. So yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Men are living longer these days, okay?
Troy Millings:
I just saw a report we're gonna live to 120.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
This is what I'm saying. Like, you better get prepared.
Troy Millings:
That's a fact. We ain't even halfway there yet.
Rashad Bilal:
That's it. I'm preparing. I'm preparing every day.
Troy Millings:
Ask me this at 65.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
What about you, Troy? What would you tell your future self?
Troy Millings:
I would tell my future self to, to make sure to spend time with the people that count and continue to do that. I think a lot of times, and you hear these stories and people, I guess people who have had a certain level of success have also paid a tremendous amount of sacrifice. And moments that they can't get back. And when it's all said and done, they look back at those moments and they feel regretful about it. Yes, they've achieved, you know, some of the goals that they had, but at what cost? Was it, you know, missing your kids graduating or things of that nature? And so realizing that, yes, there's a goal at hand and there's a job to do, but taking time out to make sure that, you know, the people that really count them are doing well is important. It's spending time with them.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah, that's interesting that you say that because you said earlier about, um, like team no sleep, right? And how, you know, this is like a constant, you're always on with what you guys are building. So how does that work with you still finding the time to like prioritize spending time with people?
Troy Millings:
I definitely sleep. I put boundaries. I put boundaries, um, and I think everybody around me knows. So like, I'm up really early, so I get up probably like 5:30, 6 o'clock every day. I read for about an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours to get my day started. And then obviously between that time till about 8, 9 o'clock, maybe 9 o'clock, you can reach me, you can text me, you can call me. After that, I probably won't pick up the phone. So like 9 o'clock, it's like it's over, you know what I mean? Like if he calls me, I'll pick up because I know it's probably emergency or, you know, sometimes it'll be a group text and I'll just read it in the morning, but After that, it's like my phone's down. I don't even sleep with my phone in my bedroom. Like, it stays away from me because it's time to decompress. It's time to reflect. It's time to see how we grow. It's time to build relationship, you know, with my wife and make sure she's good, making sure my kids are good and settled before the day going into the next one. So I put boundaries around me to make sure that I'm good.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah.
Rashad Bilal:
Yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I mean, you got, you got a lot. You got a lot to like manage through, you know, hubby, dad.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, I mean, we were entrepreneur born for this moment. Yeah, for this moment.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Are you prepared?
Troy Millings:
Yeah.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Yeah. So Rashad, what is something, and we'll end with this, really interested to hear what you guys got to say on this. What is something in the culture that is taboo or something that you wish would shift?
Rashad Bilal:
Just like priorities. I don't know if it's taboo, but just as far as the shift, like, I think, you know, We focus on the wrong thing a lot of times and we prioritize things that's not really important. So, you know, it would be helpful if we had a higher level of priorities on things that's actually important in life and not so much over-indexed on entertainment and celebrity gossip and different things of that nature. So, you know, I think where you focus your attention is where you're going to end up. So as a culture, I think we focus a lot of our attention on things that in the grand scheme of life is not really, you know, that important to society.
Troy Millings:
Okay, fact. It's crazy, I was thinking the same exact thing. Like, the things that we over-index in absolutely have really no relevance on our lives, right? Like, we can argue about Diddy's documentary, but that's not changing any of our lives, right? That's not going to help our kids, you know, make sure that they, you know, they can have their entrepreneurial dream, or if they want to go to college. We got to focus on the things that are in front of us. Right? And what's in front of us is that the job market doesn't look like it used to. Wages don't look like they used to. The cost of living doesn't look like it used to. How are we going to combat that? And the only way to do that is to be financially educated and prepare yourself for it. Those are the things that are important. We keep seeing the same thing happen over and over. We'll watch music, we'll watch music videos, we'll watch sports, we'll listen to nonsense all day. And it can lose our brains, and it distracts us from the things that are important. And I just think it's time that, especially in this moment when technology is moving at a fast rate and everybody's kind of starting at ground zero, we could take advantage of it. And we really need to take it seriously, uh, because if we don't, it's going to be, uh, Hunger Games in a few.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I feel like we're already there. We're already there. Do you think that we are A part of the madness? Because as someone who is growing her brand, growing the podcast, you know, learning more and more about the media space and what hits and what moves, very much of it is the entertaining component, is the component of, you know, possibly speaking about something controversial, the shocker, etc. And I know with your network, EYL Network, you're introducing different type of mediums to the marketplace. My assumption is because you see that too, like what people are consuming. So how do you maintain the priority set and also understanding as a business owner what people are consuming? You know, you want to give people what they want. So how do you balance that out?
Rashad Bilal:
I think it's— I think you can have a level of entertainment and still not over-index in something that's going to be toxic. So like even when our show Blackout, that's an opinion-based show, late night, entertaining. But we all always have like real educational conversations in there as well, whether it's health, whether it's finance, whether it's mental health, brought different people on like that. So, you know, you come and you laugh and, you know, you have some lighthearted moments, but, you know, we have, it's all kind of centered around things that's still going to be beneficial to you. It's not like you just are, you know, wasting brain cells over the course of time. So I think it's a matter of having a balance. You know, you can definitely have things that are going to catch people's attention and trending topics and different things that, you know, you know, you have to have to actually get people to pay some level of attention to what you have going on. But I don't think you have to go off the deep end, you know, maintain some journalistic integrity.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay. Okay.
Troy Millings:
Yeah. I, I think that the formula, you gotta put the medicine in the candy. And I think we've done a pretty good job of that. When you think about the topic that we're known for, it's kind of taboo in a sense where 10 years ago you're not talking about stocks. Like, who wants to talk about life insurance? Who wants to talk about real estate? These aren't conversations that you're having just walking down the street or in your barbershop. And you look at today and that happens all the time. Like, I got coworkers that are talking about Nvidia where they don't even know what it does. They just know the name. Because they hear it so much, have no idea what the company does or what it's worth. Nothing. Just the name. Even I was listening to Nas's new album. He's talking about Nvidia and I'm like, yeah, he's talking a lot. Yeah, he's talking about crypto, all types of that. And you can feel that change is happening.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
But I think that also comes because a lot of us are also making more money, like we're making different moves now. So the conversation is shifting.
Troy Millings:
Yeah, right. As, as our accounts grow as we grow and we mature, our content should as well, our music should as well. And I think a lot of artists struggle with that, right? They're like, my audience isn't gonna grow with me if I do that. And so they kind of try to appeal to a younger audience, not realizing that the younger audience is looking for advice and guidance from an older crowd. Um, and so it's a delicate situation, but, you know, And like you said before, the more we over-index in it, the worse we're going to be.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
All right, fellas, so what's coming down the pipeline? Is there anything you can reveal to us? Because I know, you know, you got some behind the scenes, but what can we drop? Can we drop an exclusive? Like, what's coming?
Troy Millings:
What's coming? We got— so You Deserve to Be Rich, you should be seeing some more stuff.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Troy Millings:
Around the book.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
In Spanish. Go pick that up, y'all.
Troy Millings:
In Spanish, for sure. And obviously from an educational standpoint, we want to make sure that more people can have their hands on it. And a lot of people like to take notes around it. So that's that. Be on the lookout for that. And then I got on Nigeria today. So, you know, we're still doing a lot of stuff on the continent.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
And we'll just— I see y'all on billboards and stuff. I'm like, okay.
Troy Millings:
You don't say. Yeah. So, you know, expect to see us doing more of that and providing more opportunities for investment. And just for narrative shifting content. I think that's been important over definitely in 2025. People really enjoy when they watch us travel, but not just from the standpoint of, oh, we're going on vacation. No, this is going to be an educational experience for us, but you get to watch it as well. So it could be educational for you. So there'll be more of that. And, you know, Invest Fest 2026 is, is on its way.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Atlanta again?
Troy Millings:
It'll be in Atlanta. And that's all I can say.
Rashad Bilal:
Okay.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Rashad, you got anything you can add?
Rashad Bilal:
Um, yeah, no, so the book, we're definitely probably going to do different other languages as well.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay.
Rashad Bilal:
So Spanish is the first language that we did, but hopefully we can get it other languages. We're looking at Portuguese, obviously Brazil, and different things in nature. So we really want to just, you know, expand this globally and reach as many people as possible. Probably French, that's, that's a big language, not only for France but Africa. Like half of African countries speak French. So, you know, just really, we don't want any barriers to be there. And language is obviously a big barrier. So, you know, definitely more, more on the global expansion for sure.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Okay. So what I'm hearing is we doing global. That's what I'm hearing. That's what we going to do.
Troy Millings:
Global brand.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
That's what we doing. Well, thank you so much for joining me today and for offering your insights and your gems and your time. Thank you for fitting me into the schedule.
Rashad Bilal:
Thank you.
Troy Millings:
Thank you. Thank you. You came to support us, so we got to come support you.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
I appreciate that. And also, thank you for translating the book in Spanish, because you're right, it is important. It is important for our communities to have access to information, but it be told in a way where it resonates and it lands and people can see themselves in the stories. That's really important because Rich Dad, Poor Dad, while we love the classic, it does— it doesn't really align too much, you know, to our community. So it's always dope to see folks who look like us, who sound like us, who use our vernacular, do dope shit like have a New York Times bestselling book. So thank you so much.
Troy Millings:
Thank you.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
All right.
Troy Millings:
Thank you.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
All right, y'all. Thanks for tuning in. If you appreciated today's episode, if you learned something, make sure to leave a review. Make sure to tap in to Earn Your Leisure, support these fellas. They're doing amazing, amazing work. And on social, it's just EYL. Like, where can— what's the best place for them to tap? Because I know you guys are everywhere.
Rashad Bilal:
Earn Your Leisure. Earn Your Leisure.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Earn Your Leisure everywhere.
Troy Millings:
That's where I live.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Earn Your Leisure Global. Earn Your Leisure International. Let's go.
Troy Millings:
Sounds like the name of my G6.
Victoria Jenn Rodriguez:
Hey, okay, I like that license plate, maybe. All right, y'all, see y'all in the next episode.
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