Unleashing Your Diamonds with Genein Letford

We all have diamonds within us waiting to be discovered. These talents and gifts we have are diamonds and if we know how to look at them and use them creatively, these will shine brightly and will not only serve us but also to those around us.

Joining with Kat and Lee Hughes in this episode is a powerhouse woman, Genein Letford. Genein is an award-winning speaker, a best-selling author and a corporate trainer on creative thinking and intercultural creativity. She is empowering people in the areas of creative and financial literacy through CAFFE Strategies and the non-profit organization called Alumni 360 that she both founded. In this episode, she talks about tips on how to bring out the diamonds in us and use it creatively to achieve success and richness in all aspects of our lives.

Stay tuned and get inspired as there’s so much of diamond nuggets to unpack in this episode. Get ready to unleash your diamonds, think creatively and achieve a life of abundance and purpose.

Transcript

Unleashing the Diamonds in You with Genein Letford

Welcome again to another episode of Wildly Wealthy Life. My name is Lee Hughes. For those who are new to the channel, welcome. We appreciate you taking the chance to jump in on with us. And to my right is my beautiful and amazing wonderful co-host and wife as a bonus, Kat. Kat who in the world do we have today?

Today we have Genein Letford. Genein is an award-winning speaker. She's a best-selling author. She's been featured on TEDx. She's a corporate trainer on creative thinking and intercultural creativity. She's also got her own podcast called Create and Grow Rich Podcast. She's the creator of the Debt to Destiny Financial Freedom Course. And the best thing that I love about Genein is she is our dear friend. And there's so much more that we could say about her. But I think it will take up a lot of time. There’s just so many things. We're really excited to have her on because not only is she a friend, but she's really awesome powerhouse woman who's got a lot of wisdom to share today. So Genein, how are you doing today?

 I am on cloud 9,10, 11 and 12. So awesome to be on your podcast. Amazing work you guys are doing. Thanks for having me.

Thank you Genein for being here. Genein, can you give us a little bit of an overview of just your background? I mean, we introduced you a little bit, but  what's your overview of your background? From where you came from to where you are now with this whole journey of creativity?

Sure. Well, I'm an educator by trade like a lot of us. I followed the rules, went to high school, graduated, stayed out of trouble. And I ended up going to college as well. Follow the rules, graduated. And around 30 years old, I remember I was sitting with a credit card bill and a $60,000 student loan bill. And I was just crying my eyes out just deep in debt, $100,000 worth of debt. And I didn't know how I got there. I was like, “Wait, I did everything I was supposed to do. What happened? Why are we still struggling? What went wrong? What wrong turn did I make?” And that was the turning point to where you see me today. My husband and I, we found a Dave Ramsey book randomly in our library that my aunt gave me like months before. I read that book from cover to cover within a day. And I remember sitting there saying, “Why am I a 30-year-old woman with a college degree supposedly educated and I don't have this basic financial information?” You need about a what? A sixth-grade education to really run through most of it. And that was the impetus of the journey. We just started reading everything we could. We went to a class, a Financial Peace class. And I started talking with my friends. And I remember you guys were one of the first ones that I contacted, like, “Do you know about this stuff?” Like, it was a hidden, like, secret society. [Laughs] And I just started teaching because that is my gift, that's my thread. Whatever I learned, whatever wisdom that I have, I just want to make sure I'm a vessel. And I just started teaching and learning and there's a video on YouTube. If you just type in my name, and it says debt free, you'll see us paying our last student loan debt. And yeah, you actually see us pressing the button. And then he says, “Are you sure you want to make this payment?” I’m like “Yes!” And that was another turning point, because I knew that my journey wasn't just for me. So that's where the book came in From Debt to Destiny. But during that I realized I'm an educator, I’m on a pay grade scale. So if you're familiar with how educators are paid, it's from how much education you have, and how long you've been working. There's no bonuses. It's not corporate America, there's no sales and commissions. So your income is basically more or less set. So I had to get creative. And here's where the creative aspect came in. I had to really look at my gifts and talents. I now called them diamonds, and I'm the diamond person. That's my metaphor of how I teach. And I have to look at these diamonds that I was carrying around that I thought looked like rocks. I thought they're just rocks, you know, like, “Oh, I love to take a few photos here and there. Oh I love to do this and that.” But I reframe them. And I said “Okay, how can I take this gift that I have to the market in order to earn extra income to pay down this debt even faster than I could if I was just looking at my salary alone?” And that was the impetus of the whole creative part because a lot of people think creativity is only artistry and not creativity is like a problem-solving mechanism that you can bring in income. So now I left the classroom in June of 2019, taking this creative intercultural message out to the world of saying we are carrying around these diamonds, we are creative and we have to be aware of our cultures, not just ethnic cultures, but just our different demographics and how we communicate and connect with people and how we share our creativity and create together. And that's the message that I have.

Yeah, I love when you talked about how you followed all the rules, what went wrong, right? I think that's huge for our listeners to kind of really tap into. To understand that sometimes when we follow all the rules, it's not about like, Okay follow the rules or not follow the rules, it's just the fact that like a lot of us have not been educated in things about finances, right? We just have not, so all we know, traditionally is go to school, get a good grade, behave, get all these awards and all these things, but it doesn't always amount to having a financially free life. And I love that you all of a sudden, you woke up to that, and you realize, “Wait, what went wrong?” and what I love is like, instead of kind of like blaming what could have happened or whatever, you just dug into it, and you just kind of like had this whole self-revelation and just like again, a revelation of how “A wait, we could do this, we could take charge, and we could actually turn the boat around” which is amazing.

Yeah, and I love the psychology, I've had the pleasure of being able to like being a financial class with Genein, and I love how you really set up examples to kind of get people thinking outside of the box, not thinking of their own needs, but really, like looking at like, “Do you need to get your nails did, or your hair done?” all that kind of stuff. And taking apart someone else's budget is so much easier. But when you put it on yourself, it's like, “Oh, but I do. It's me, though, it's not that..” you know, and you really break down a lot of those, like, constructs that we have in our head of like what we need versus what we want. And I was wondering if you could share a little bit about like before, like growing up with your family? What were some of the examples of money that you had? And what were some of the mental shifts that you had to change in that moment where you're crying on the floor with the credit card bills and your education bills?

Sure. I'm so glad you brought up the word psychology, my degree and my background is actually in psychology. And it's really getting people aware of how much the psychological part is a piece of your life, your success. This is your engine, the steering wheel, per se. And so in my book, I talk about your blueprints, your money blueprints. We don't really think about it, because it isn't in the background. But your subconscious is recording everything that is going on. So if you see your parents arguing about money, your subconscious is taking that in. And so money is now attached to arguing or to strife or conflict. If you see money being used as a way to buying love, or as a way of, you know, after something bad happens, and then gifts are purchase, you know that that is being recorded. If you see money not being spoken about at all that's being recorded, or if you see money being spoken about at the dinner table, things are out in the open, transparency is there. Saving is taught, that delayed gratification is taught, that's being recorded, as well. My mother did a great job of showing us how to pay bills. But you can't give someone you don't have, you can't give someone something you don't have. So she didn't have the investment education, she didn't have some of the other types. She just knew how to make money through a traditional job and how to pay bills, which a lot of us may have seen more or less. So the shift happened, number one of understanding the power of the idea. Everything around us started as a spiritual idea of an invisible idea in someone's mind. The computer that we're on the books that we have, the clock on the wall, that started as a concept. So understanding that people will pay me money for my concepts, if I know how to present it, that was huge. And also understanding the entrepreneurial mindset. When people think of entrepreneurs, they think of “Oh, you need to leave everything and start from scratch, and have that rough lifestyle.” But I tell people, even if you have a typical job, you can still have an entrepreneurial mindset. And that is the mindset of how do I create something from nothing? How do I communicate that? And how do I like Lee said, look at the needs of my surroundings and be a problem solver. My definition of creativity is the process of problem finding and problem solving. And I think the problem finding is key there, it’s because that takes your observational skills to the next level. You have to be aware of what's going on around you. You have to engage with the mundane in a different way. And you have to be sensitive to patterns and see things that other people are missing. So if you're good at problem finding and good at problem solving with relevance, value, and novelty, you know, so that, to me is what it means to be creative. Artistry is important. And I believe the arts can help you increase your creative thinking skills and non-art areas. And I'm a huge advocate, you guys know about kids and adults having a good solid arts background and training. But we have to kind of take the word creative back from the artist and kind of share it with everyone. Everyone is a creative, there's no such thing as a creative department. The accounting department is a creative department. The marketing department, the sales department, they're all creative departments. And you all have creative leaders and going into 2021 we have to redefine that word and share it with us all.

Yeah, there's so much to unpack there. Genein, I think one of the things that really stuck out to me, it's just the creativity description, right? Your definition of creativity, your right, like it's about problem finding. Because if you don't know how to find problems, how are you going to solve it in the first place? Right? If you're not aware of these, like you're saying, like, you have to engage with the mundane things in a different way. I think that's really, really beautiful. I love when you also said that you had, you know, gotten out of your classroom, like June of 2019. And it's so funny that you did that a year before this whole pandemic broke out, right? It's almost you were you were prepped for it. It's like you gotta be right before, you know. I know, right? It's all God, totally all God. But it's just amazing that and I believe that even if you didn't get out before the pandemic happened, you probably would have been able to shift easily as well, just because I know you I know how creative you are. And again, the creativity word, you're right, it does not pertain to just artists. And even when I talk about music, I talk about musicality that does not pertain to people who play instruments. Musicality to me is innate, it's in us, it's in the way we walk, it's in the way we talk, when we brush our teeth, there's musicality, when we brush our teeth, like everything we do has rhythm. And so if we can just recognize that we can actually embody that, we can actually live it out even more, because it's the matter of like, recognizing that. And that's what it is, with creativity, too. It's recognizing and believing that we are creative. If you're not an actor, if you're not a painter, if you're not a dancer, you're still creative. So thank you for just really sharing that message and being very passionate about the message. Because I think that a lot of people really need to hear that.

And, and one thing before you jump in, I want to just remind people that they are actors, they are painters, because I get to watch my two-year-old son, and because my husband and I have a home of when we hear music, we move. That's his norm. Like we were at the mall, he heard music, and he was like, he didn't care who was watching, he just started moving, because that is our foundational start. We all come here as painters as actors as singers, right? And we get educated out of it.

Yeah. And I was just gonna say that the problem finding is sometimes a tough thing, because normally we wait, and then when a problem hits us in the face, that's when we go and try to solve it. So it's not really problem finding, it's like, getting smacked with problems, as opposed to like looking forward and really knowing like, “Okay, this is what I want to do. These are some of the things that may come up. How do I like prep myself and get my situation ready to tackle those challenges and that?” For you, what are some of the daily routines that help you kind of prepare yourself to either look for different problems and find those solutions or just prepare for the day?

 Sure, well, in my corporate trainings, I really make sure once again, people understand the psychological component to this aspect, just like with your financial and your wildly wealthy life mentality, your creativity has its own mentality, too. And, as I mentioned before, we do sadly, and I'm a huge proponent for education and looking at the definition of that word, right. But structured systems of education or testing can really remove people from their innate creative thinking abilities that we were automatically born with. So how do we put them back basically and so my routines that I do basically helps put them back. Number one, and you can actually look and I have all this on my personal website, my business website at CAFFE Strategies, but I call them the 16 diamond tools of creative thinking. The first one is always your mindset. So I wake up, and I say, “I'm creative. How am I’m going to create today, what am I going to create today?” My two-year-old son one day looked at me like straight. He was like, “What are you producing?” Like, “Excuse me? Where did you get that?” Of course, they're recording everything they hear. He may have heard me saying, he may heard Daniel Tiger say it, I don't know. But he called me out. It's like, “What are you producing today? You know, like, “Hello.” And so I have to ask myself that question. Another thing that you pointed out is the critical development, redevelopment of our observational skills. I just did a keynote talk with Woodbury University. And I talked about that, actually, with the epic impact society and like, “What does it mean to be a keen observer?” And so this pandemic has really opened my eyes to that term. I live on a hill, an area of condos, a little bit north of Los Angeles, and I've been here for 10 years. The pandemic hit and when you have a pandemic with a two-year-old and you're stuck in your home, I have seen plants and flowers I have never seen before in my decade of residence. And it's because number one, he has keen observational skills. So when we go on a walk, Shane and I just walk, he looks at every single thing, every single statue. And so I'm like, I feel like I'm in a new home because I experienced it in a new nuanced way. Because this two-year-old is forcing me to engage as he engages with high observational skills. And so we walk out. I do listening training for my ears, I just listened, close my eyes, listen to airplanes and birds and try to mimic the bird sound, it's just minutes a day can really increase your observation skills, which isn't just seeing it's all of your senses, interact, acting, and that's another reason why I really advocate artistic training, because it automatically pushes your observational skills to the next level, because you have to be aware of where your body is. If you're painting, when's the last time you painted a flower? lead no noses as I think you both are art painters, right? You have to be aware of the minute smallest details and if you're a good painter, if you really strengthen that you will be aware that minute details in the boardroom, it's the same skill.

Wow, that's amazing. I love that Genein. I love Shawn, that is just the cutest thing. Like, “What are you producing today?” I just love that. So talking about your son right and, and just your background from like how you grew up I love when you said that your mom was a great mom. She taught you how to make money and also pay the bills, right? But as far as investing, none of that was taught to you because you're right, you can't give something you don't have. So you can't teach something when you don't actually know it right. And so for you being a mom right now of an almost three year old, right. And he's still young, but as you said, psychologically, a lot of things are already being recorded at this age, right? What are the things that you're doing to already impart that wisdom on how to handle finances?

Yeah, it's funny, because I'm calling it right, all this is going to be written in a book, I even have Shawn writing his own book. I'm calling it teaching to the test. In education we say, “Oh, that teachers teaching to the test”, meaning you know what's going to be on the test, you kind of want to prime your kids, like, there's a lot of like subtracting across zeros, I really want to make sure my kids know subtracting across zeros, right? I'm kind of teaching to the test. But I am teaching to the test with my son, meaning when he's 25,35, 45, he will have the test of the test that a lot of people had this year where your one source of income has been taken away without any warning. And you have to think creatively about how to bring in funds, that's a test. Or a test to be laid off, that the test of being downsized, the test of losing an income due to you know, a passing or whatever. Life has tests for you. And you had a test of having cats, you know, randomly blocking your view of life. But there are tests that we have to be prepared for. Of course, you can't be 100% prepared for them, but we can increase our preparation percentage. And so with Shawn, I'm basically teaching to the test creatively and financially and of course, morally spiritually as well. But with the area of finances, the first thing right now, psychologically speaking, your training starts from zero to five. Once children understand that things have worth. Once children understand that I have a job to do. So he has his own, he says the word, my responsibility is to put his diaper in the trash, responsibilities of cleaning up. And then once he understands that he has responsibilities, just because he's a part of the family, and you know, you pull your own weight, you just didn’t eat for free. You know, that's the thing. And then the next thing is, okay, here's some extra things that you could do for some extra 10 cents or whatever. And then he could collect his whatever the 10 cents or a dollar, and then trade it for something that he wants. You start small, because everything you and I do on a big scale, you know, buying homes and investing, you can teach it on a small scale at 10 cents. We're operating with thousands of thousands of dollars, the same concept can be learned on with a dime. And so you know, if you're making $1, 10 cents goes to our church or to charity, because we help people who need help. 10 cents goes into saving long term. And then I do the 70 percentage, so 10 cents to charity, 10 cents to long term savings and 10 cents to short term savings. So works for his business or starting your own business or whatever, and then try to live off of 70 cents. You can buy something or whatever. And then the thing is for parents to understand is this is our job is to slowly transfer responsibility. So when they hit 17, 18, 19 years old, they should be at 90% of taking care of their own bills, buying their own clothes, budgeting for their own clothes, washing their own dishes. They should know how to cook, how to wash clothes. I counseled folks who their grown kids like they're still doing all of those things for them. And sadly, like you're crippling them, because if they're 18, and not washing their own clothes, you know. So to me, it's a checklist of what skills because in the end, they're just skills, right? What skills should he have by the time he exits the home? And what can I be working on now as a basic thing, so he can be prepared by his teenhood?

Yeah, I like that. Because I'm thinking of like my nieces and nephews right now. And just different things. You guys get shoutouts on our podcast, boop, boop. But just different skill sets that they have, you know. Because two things are gonna happen when they leave the house, they're going to do it themselves, or they're going to pay somebody else to do it. So you know, they either have to make more income to make up that difference or learn how to do it themselves. And that brings me to another thought, because I know that you do a lot of work with the youth, with students in school currently and that you're trying to fill that void of knowledge and experience and skill sets. Could you share a little bit about your experiences and some of your goals with educating the youth in finance?

Sure, I want to talk first on that point of doing their selves. There's a concept, you know, money buys time. And I saw a meme shared, that says, people keep saying everyone has 24 hours, which is true, everyone has 24 hours. But some people have to take the bus where other people have access to a private jet. Issues like some folks have to raise the kids, wash the dishes, cook, the clothes, other people have hired help. So money buys your time back, right. And that was true. I spoke to a C suite person over at PwC. And she has a little boy. But she's like flying the globe and all this stuff. And I was like, “Shawn is one. And I'm just trying to get to New York and back. I'm trying to write this book.” I'm like, “How do you do it? And she was like, “Girl, I have two nannies and a night nurse.” I was like, “Oh, okay. I don't have a night nurse. I don't have two nannies.” But money buys time. I do have one good care taker that he went to before the pandemic. But in addition to that, I saw another story where the woman was like, “Yeah, we have hired help and everything, but with the pandemic, they're not coming. So my daughter who's I guess she's like, 14, she had to clean the bathroom. And she didn't know how to clean the bathroom.” And so that just spoke to me is like yes, even if you have the funds to buy hired help, we should be raising our kids to always still have access to those fundamental skills and that, you know, I'm believing God, that I will continue increasing my wealth, and it will be massive in order for me to be able to do the things that I'm called to do on a global scale. But my son will learn how to take out the trash. I don't care how rich we are, you know, these basic skills and Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in one of his books. It was like, this man grew up middle class, but now he lives in this like hanger sized home and he feels like he's doing his kids a disservice, because they're not getting that fundamental pull your, you know,  let's work for, you know, parent themes. Lessons that are so critical for human beings to have to be able to use your creativity for that. So that's a tricky place that a lot of people who are building wealth and want to pass on some lessons to their kids they're going to have. But with alumni 360 those students are predominant from low wealth areas. A lot of them are first generation college students or they have parents who don't really have a huge knowledge of financial education, investment, education and the collegiate system.

Yes, real quick too, Alumni 360, give a definition of what that is.

Sure, Alumni 360 is a nonprofit that I started in 2014, I got out of debt 2015. But 2014, as an elementary educator, I was looking at my kids. I was teaching every day. And I was like, “Someone's not warning them like waiving the red flag of, “Hey, don't do what I did. Be aware of what you're getting into.” My thing is, college is important, I understand this but it isn't for everyone. There are many routes to go. And we have to stop demonizing people who do not go the four-year university route. And my quote is, “College isn't for everyone, but higher learning is.” So I know several people who do not have a four year degree who are doing massive great things and changing the world because they chose another route of education and I applaud that. Before a lot of my students, they are choosing to go the four-year university route. Yet we are asking our 18-year old’s to sign papers that will affect the rest of their financial life mortgage sighs you know, and putting themselves into massive debt. And they have no financial education at all. To me, that's a type of injustice that I could no longer sit back and just watch. So I started on my 360, just a simple thing of getting the graduates of my elementary school, so they're in middle school and high school and few in college, just getting them together and start having conversations of seeing their experience and then bringing in speakers and having them be aware of what they're headed for. And then having them also understand their creative potential that they could use their stories to write for scholarships to offset some of that debt that they might be accruing. So once again, I'm all about creating something out of nothing. How do you create value for your students, because I've written papers, I wrote a nine page paper, send it to Hilton. Hilton gave me $9,000 to travel to Japan and South Korea. My idea is putting it on paper, sending it in, bam, a trip around the world. That's what I want my kids to learn how to do. Leverage their story, leverage their diamond gifts, and get things done. And so that's alumni 360 dot org.

That's amazing Genein. My next question for you is like, “What areas of things do you love to serve into and this is already amazing, like Alumni 360 is something an idea that you have, because you see these kids who are about to go into college, and about to step into this world that's literally going to give them hundreds and thousands of dollars of debt. Well the other thing is that too, it's like sometimes we look to these different organizations. We look to churches or different groups to do the work that is right in front of us. And you've stepped up and you're an example of seeing a problem and getting ahead of it and solving it and creating a whole organization out of nothing and then bringing it in. The amount of lives that you've changed is just incredible and I'm sure you have 100 different stories of feedback that you've got from your students and graduates. But I guess through that whole process what have been some of the rewarding pieces of that journey?

Of course, those texts you get, “Miss Letford because of your words or your classes, your teaching, I decided to go for this one opportunity.” I got in fact, I got one from a student and I'm allowed to share her story. Her name is Angelica. And she's actually going into finance. So she wants to do that now but she also wants to go back to her community and be an educator about it, you know, and kind of educate those. But she last minute got an opportunity to apply for girls who invest and this is for college girls and they take you, they bring in top investors you could training and it was a week to do the application but she was like, “You know what, I'm just going to go for it because I teach the kids.” Just go for it, like, what's the worst that could happen? They say no, and you're in the same position as if you hadn't went for it at all, you know, so just just go. And she went for it. And they selected her and so now she has this access to network. I also teach them about the network capital. There are many ways to have capital and to look at capital and your network is one of them. And so she's doing that, she’s at one of the university, and she decided to apply for their investment. So now she's helping run the investment of a UC universities, you know, their endowment fund. And it's all because of just the term of “Hey, just go for it, you never know what will happen.” And now she's about to graduate within the next year. And she is looking for an internship and she texted me, she was like, “Yeah, you know, I would apply, and then I would get to the final round.” And then they would say no and that happened like five times. So like big investment firms. Right. But then she said, “And I finally went to the 661. And I got it. And you know, I'm so happy.” And she told me some of the terms. But I responded, “That's awesome. You got it, what I'm excited about, is you got rejected like five times and you kept going.” Rejection is such a hard thing for people to deal with, to overcome. And it affects our finances. Because if you're dealing with rejection, you're not wanting to create and put what you want out there, because you're so afraid of rejection. And I'm letting her know that that training, that going to the last level and then getting rejected, that's hard. But you keep going, you can get that at 21 years old, there are adults who stick with that. And the last point that I'll make is if you bring this point up in locks, I think it's critical for us to reframe this situation. Remember, about a year or two years ago, some celebrities got in trouble for writing checks to get their kids into USC, into Duke and whatever the college scandal and of course we look at the celebrities, of course there's a lot of people who did it, who aren't celebrities, they're just really well wealthy. And I just looked at the kids, you know, to me, that's a form of child abuse. Because to say to your kid, “I don't believe in your ability to do it on your own. I'm going to sit someone next to you to take the LSAT with you to make sure you do well.” I'm basically communicating, I'm not supporting you. And number one, I'm also taking away the opportunity for you to fail and for you to get rejected. And I'm taking away that ability for you to build that muscle to get back up, that resiliency muscle and that regeneration muscle that you need to have to get through this life that throws us curveballs, those muscles are so important. And so when I look at that scandal, we all of course, don't judge because we all have fallen short, but people look at the parents and my heart cries out for the kids because what are we speaking to them by saying that, that you can't do this on your own or if you did get rejected from USC, okay, get back up. Let's keep applying to other universities. You know, it's as you all know, especially being in the arts, and that's another key thing about being an artist, you've got to be okay with rejection, you gotta get back up and go to that next audition or you won't have a career. Rejection is a part of it.

Gosh, Genein so much, so much diamonds, I am just so in awe of even just your analogy of like the parents, right, like paying for their kids to get into college. It's literally a clear message saying, “I don't believe in you. I don't believe in what you can do as you know, as a young teenager,” whatever, “And so I'm gonna make the way for you. I'll make this happen for you because I don't believe in you”. And that's huge. Like that subliminal message is huge. And it hurts, right? And so thank you for pointing that out. Because it really is such a lesson for us all to learn is the rejection part. And I love that you brought that up, because it's important especially in this day and age where everything in social media is we're so focused on the likes, right? Like, we get that dopamine hit of like, oh, somebody's like, you know, all that stuff. Like, man, the rejection lesson right now is more important than ever, especially with all of the social media, and I'm always putting out the good, you know, all the good stuff out there. So thanks for bringing that up. What I wanted to get to next, just for our listeners, we have a little segment with actionable tips because we want to make sure that our listeners, I mean, there's been about 40 different things that you've dropped actually ready yet. Would you have three specific tips that people could start implementing in their daily lives to live their wildly wealthy life?

Look for new opportunities especially now, and those opportunities may be inside of you. Millions of people lost their job this year. And they had no skills of how to create something out of nothing. So that's a skill, start that and start small. That's the first tip is look for new opportunities around you. Be observant, because they may not look like the normal opportunities of Okay, let me get income this one way, right. And we have to re-define and take away the old way and really start fresh. So that's the first tip. The second tip is be mindful of your network. A lot of resources, a lot of support, and just a lot of encouragement can really come from that. And just a lot of creativity doesn't just happen in your brain. It happens between brains, this space, you know, between us, you know, I know Lee and I have talked a lot about a lot of creative ideas and your network of the creative capacity of the people you have around you really affects your ability to number one think that you can create, and then to execute. And that is the point of creativity is the execution. Innovation does not happen without execution of creative ideas. So be aware of your network, make sure you're around positive thinking and creative folks. And the last one is to execute and you can start small, get yourself in situations of practicing how to deal with failure, how to execute. I love karaoke. I love taking people to karaoke who don't like to karaoke because it gets them up there. And then they realize, wait, this isn't so so bad. If you're afraid of public speaking, which living a wildly wealthy life, you have to know how to communicate effectively, whether you're doing business deals, whether you're in investing, or you're looking to launch a big business, communication is key. So getting out there and practicing how to communicate effectively in different methods. That's why the arts are important because the arts are a form of communication. How do you speak? How do you write? How do you do a podcast? How do you do quick videos? There's multiple ways to communicate, but no one's going to invest in you, if you're not able to communicate well. And then track everything, you know, have fun, do a better job in that myself. And you know, you've never arrived even though I have the book out, I have this stuff out. It's like, okay, Genein, what is next? You know, now I have the seven gems of intercultural creativity that I just developed two days ago. So you guys are the first you guys are the first public platform to hear that title correctly. Yeah, so you know, and now it's my job to really connect globally, what does it look like for us? Because now before the pandemic, definitely now we're on a global connectivity network so we have to learn how to create with different cultures in mind and what does that look like.

 Yeah Genein, I just love when you were talking about, thank you for the tips, by the way, they were awesome. I feel like it's been tips since the beginning of our conversation anyway, just like golden, like diamond nuggets, basically. But when you said that creativity can happen between brains, right, which is really true. Because I, as you said, that I think about right now, one of the things that I'm really passionate about recently, it's just my piano stuff. And I got awarded a scholarship, same thing, I am like, what could I lose, I'm going to apply for this scholarship, I got a one-year scholarship to this amazing piano program, that would have cost me you know, like thousands. But now I'm like, able to do it for free, because it's a scholarship. But the other thing about that is I got really encouraged to really dig into it and really develop it even more. And one of the things that I wanted to do with that was to release basically a video a week, right? And that's hard, because that means I have to learn a lot of pieces like week after week after week. It's a hard work. But one of the things that I just realized when you said that is that none of these videos are possible if it wasn't for collaboration with other creative thinkers, because I cannot do this myself. Well, you know, we interviewed someone yesterday, and he said, there's no such thing as self-made, which is really true. None of us, even if we can be creative on our own. But it's more powerful when we're creative with other people because we are not self-made, like the videos that I have made. I couldn't have done it on my own. Like there's no way you know, and then that network that you talked about you that same thing. Like, I looked at my colleagues, my videos, I'm like, “This is amazing.” And my friend would do it for me for free. Because we're friends and it's just amazing. Just that collaboration of creativity. And yeah, be aware of your connection and your relationships is a great thing.

I'm gonna brag about Kat for a minute too because you mentioned about the execution on things, you know, and when she was performing and whatnot, she came back and wanted to get into stunts and whatnot. And she, like, Facebook messaged some person with this, like elite stunt team, and wanted to, like get in and start training. And she got it. Like, for a year was training with like, some of the top stunt people and actors and whatnot, in the industry. And it's all from, like you said, it's usually invite, like, they don't know they will ever, just like, they will probably never invite me because I'm a nobody in that world. So I'm just gonna say “Hi.” It's hilarious. I think it's a testament though to like stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new. And you know, a lot of the points that you had brought up Genein, there's just good like thought-provoking, and we really need to, there's a lot to none after this episode. Yeah. So much.

One point of that because if your audiences are really looking to step it up in their mentality of what it really needs to live a wealthy life and number one, you know, definitions are key. So they really need to define what that means to them. But the ghosting you know, ghosting of if you would have reached out and not heard anything back, that part of your personality would have just kept going in whatever direction that you felt did you need to keep going. And I remember I was hearing a CEO of an organization just sending out emails and I remember hearing him saying, “Yeah, and I got ghosted” or whatever. And this is a huge organization. I'm like, wait, he gets ghosted I can see me getting ghosted cuz it's like, “Who's this little elementary school teacher?” whatever. But he gets ghosted and that really opened my eyes of “Genein, just go for it. He can get ghosted and keep on moving forward.” And it just happens to everyone. And I wanted to define ghosted. Ghosted is when you reach out to someone and they did never get back to you. A lot of times folks feel discouraged. But you don't know what's going on, on the other end, they can go into something, they may have went into to their spam, or they may just not want to get back to you. That is fine. Keep going in the direction you feel called to go and don't let that stop you because we all get ghosted.

Yeah, sometimes like myself, like I look at it, I see the message, I read the message, I think of how I want to reply, and then something captures my attention, I'm on to the next task. And in my brain, I did finish that sentence and send it. So follow up too. Don't forget to follow up with people. It's wonderful. Nowadays, we're so distracted by so many things, the person you are contacting may have just been distracted. And also you brought up a good point of like definitions and that. Could you, for our listeners define what your version of wealth is?

Sure, well, one of my tag lines is your creative health affects your financial wealth. So I really make that clear that your ability to create value affects your ability to create financial wealth, because the more value you create, people pay you for that and if you know how to license it, how to protect it, how to trademark things, that could be perpetual degeneration when I talk with my Alumni 360 students, I don't just look at them, I'm looking at their great great great grandchildren like I'm affecting generations. Once that mind shift happens, that's a generational effect. But for me, wealth is you know, a 360 because there's a lot of rich, financially rich people who are miserable, or who are tormented, who have no peace or who are physically ailing. And they don't have physical wealth, right, like health. And so, to me, wealth is really having a great foundation of knowing who you are, of having your basic needs met and hopefully being in a position to help other people. Even if it's able to buy someone a meal, or buy 1000 folks a meal like the words of Mother Teresa, you can just help just one to start with one. And so, yeah, just really having that ability to live an abundant life of creation. Yeah, you're able to create and you have that peace of creating because right now it's your turn. Yeah, you have these 80,90 years hopefully on this earth. And then your turn is up. And so, you know, we just had a passing this week of Tony Hsieh I believe his name is, the founder of Zappos. And he’s young too. He was like in his 40s. But he created an organization that employs thousands of people. He wrote a book. Because what does it really mean to be alive? It's that transferring of ideas because someone who is in a coma, they're alive physically, but they're not able to transfer ideas. So what does it really mean to be alive? And that, to me is wealth, you're able to transfer ideas to create. And so once you're gone, you're still kind of alive because your ideas are still out there doing what they're supposed to do. They're empowering people to think about life in a new refreshing way.

Yeah, amazing. So good Genein. For those who are not watching the YouTube channel, you got to watch because it's just like, well first of all Genein is beautiful, so you got to watch. Okay, so if you're just listening on the podcast, look at our YouTube and you'll also see our lovely cat earlier that we talked about who walked in front of the screen.

Genein, we are pretty much wrapping up here. We'd like to ask you our 10 quick, rapid fire questions that we ask all of our guests. Some of them are related to podcasting. Some of them are not just say the first thing that comes to your mind. Don't censor yourself. So number one, if you could choose one book to live by, what would it be?

Think and Grow Rich.

Sounds good. Personal hero living or deceased? Some of you know or don't know.

Maya Angelou.

Nice answer. The one thing you intentionally have to do every single day?

Prayer, start my morning mindset prayer.

Prayer. I love it. One hobby that brings you the most joy?

Karaoke.

I love that. Okay, most rewarding thing you've done for someone in need? You kind of answered this a little bit but maybe you have something else.

Getting a cot for someone and I've slept on the ground before and it's not fun.

Last song that you sang out loud?

 Communion. I would think singing but I wasn't breaking the song. It's just what we do right?

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Last week purchase you made for yourself

Last purchase I made for myself was a book about the Jewish holidays.

Nice. A food you cannot live without?

My homemade chicken soup brings warmth and wealth to the soul.

When do you come over and try that? [Laughs] What is your spirit animal?

I would say the eagle or the elk. Eagle fly high the elk for endurance.

 Okay. Finish the sentence, this is the last one. If I'm stuck in an island by myself…?

I would run around the perimeters singing “The Hills are Alive” with the sound of music. Hopefully with clothes on, you never know. [Laughs]

You're just by yourself. You know? It's okay to be free. [Laughs]

That's awesome. Well, Genein, thank you for being with us today. We have two parting questions for you. One, where can our listeners find out more about you? And number two, if you were to encourage our listeners to give or serve into something, what would that be?

Well, your last question. My first one is just be mindful of generational impact. And so I believe a lot of my service goes into the next generation. Those kids who are still formulating their concept and their mindset. So if you want to check out Alumni 360.org there's one but any organization that really empowers and develops the child mind so that child mind can grow into a solid adult mind. I really support for that. And you can find me at geneinletford.com. That's my personal page as far as keynote speaking and training and then my business, my corporation is CAFFE strategies with two Fs, it stands for Creative Advancement for Financial Empowerment, CAFFE strategies. And that's where we go into corporations and organizations and teach them how to interculturally create from a childlike perspective is because it's about getting people back to that childlike openness and curiosity, in order to have value creation so caffestrategies.com.

Perfect. Thank you Genein, thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure. Thank you for being with us today. We have loved being with you.

Thank you so much.

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