MSG Presents — Eric on Money: What Does It Mean to Be Pro-Black? A Conversation with Dr. Boyce Watkins

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Boyce Watkins sits down with Eric to explore what it really means to be pro-Black—beyond slogans and surface-level gestures.

Eric shares how his journey began in Greater Englewood, Chicago, where a chance introduction to grassroots organizing led him to become the first executive director and board president of the Greater Englewood CDC. With more than a decade of experience building social enterprises, Eric unpacks how identity, sacrifice, and investment shape the future of Black communities.

Together, they explore:

• The evolving definition of pro-Black and why it must be rooted in action, not just aesthetics.
• Why family is a business, and how professional development for children is essential for wealth transfer.
• Lessons from Shannon Sharpe’s $50M lawsuit and what it reveals about misplaced investments.
• The connection between legacy planning, sacrifice, and true generational wealth.
• How options trading and income strategies can empower families to build sustainable financial futures.

Honest, challenging, and forward-looking—this episode is both a cultural reckoning and a financial blueprint for Black wealth and legacy.

🎧 Tune in to hear why Eric says, “My family is a business,” and how that mindset can change everything.

Black Business School-Dr. Boyce Watkins
Obtain a culturally relevant and high quality education in all things wealth building & Black busine

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. How you doing? Come on in. I hope everybody's having a good day. Welcome. It's so good to see you. Tonight we are meeting with our estate planning club. And this is your chance to build legacy, prepare for the next generation. This is what we're all doing. We are all warriors for generational wealth.

That, that's, that's pretty good. I think that's a good term. Generational wealth warriors. We are gonna fight to not just protect the ball, but we're gonna pass the ball. We're gonna pass it to the kids, pass it to the grandkids, pass it to all the people that matter to us. And so anyway as you all know, you the other day, a lot of you got a chance to meet Mr.

Eric mc Lloyd. Eric is, is a smart brother. He he's been in in the wealth management space for a while. He's a Northwestern graduate. And in fact, I could say I applied for Northwestern for my doctorate. I did not get in. I did not get in. Still mad about it. Still mad. And so anyway, how you doing today, brother?

I'm doing well, and I'm really pleased to be back. We had a great conversation yesterday to [00:01:00] which my network loved, so it was really good to be back. 

the excellent filmmaker, I think Mark Harris. Are you familiar with Mark by chance? Yes, I am. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Mark you know, and I know he reps Inglewood quite a lot. Absolutely. So it seems like absolutely you're connected to this space. Is that, is there a personal connection there in terms of born being born and raised there or something like that?

No. So what would happen, Dr. Boyce, I was actually working in law firms when I was younger as a paralegal, real estate paralegal. And one of my coworkers came up to me one day and was like, Hey, I know you're pro-black and you like to do things in the community. We got some stuff happening out in Greater Inglewood that I think you might be interested in.

And it just started from there. They were, we had a group of people that wanted to create another community development corporation because they'd had one years ago and it just kind of phased out. And so we formed this collective. Relaunched and rebuilt the greater Inglewood CDC. You know, we went through the whole [00:02:00] business planning process, bringing stakeholders to the table, and so I was the first executive director and the first board president.

And after that, I just continued to do work in the greater Inglewood community. Wow. I love that. Now, how many, how many years have you have you been sort of doing this kind of thing? Over a decade. It's been over a decade at this point. Something I truly enjoy. You know, once I got knowledge of self as far as who I was, I really started to think about, okay, you have this knowledge about who you are, you know, what your ancestors have, have done.

What can you do to help Try to continue to move us forward and move forward? Culture. And so I really found over time, Dr. Boy said I enjoyed helping to launch and build these social enterprises, especially in spaces like Greater Englewood. Mm, interesting. Okay. So you mentioned that you, you were [00:03:00] pro-black and I know that that term pro-black can mean different things to different people.

So what does being pro-black mean to you? That's a great question. We actually did a, a podcast episode about that. What does it mean to be pro-black? So I love that question. So for me it is having this black first mentality. So, and what I mean by that is, so whatever resources and skills that I have to bring to the table, so we talked about going to business school and all this other stuff.

My thought process is if you have those experiences, what can you do to bring it back? To other black people. Even as a financial advisor, my definition of being pro-black is I decided to focus on black people primarily in my practice and even with building businesses because again, it's about my resources and how I can help move forward culture.

And it's definitely not just walking around with a sweatshirt on or some hat, like, it's, it's [00:04:00] based on action and what you can do to move things forward on a daily basis. Hmm. Yeah. Well, you know, and that, and that's an, I think that's a really important point you're making there because I, I think all of us should spend time really thinking about like, what, what does being pro-black mean to you?

Mm-hmm. Because, you know, sometimes I can get confused. You know, I remember one time brother, I remember seeing Diddy, Diddy showed the a picture of Cardi B and her husband Offset, and they were standing next to a Lamborghini and he used the hashtag black excellence. And I, and I remember thinking, huh, I kind of disagree.

I don't know if, if you're excellent just because you have a nice car or you know, or white people put you on tv. Not to say that they're, they can't be excellent people on their own, right? I'm not saying that, but I think sometimes it's almost as if there's a conflict between those of us that kind of wanna raise the bar and say, you know, that, that my version of pro blackness means I want to improve the community, even if, if it means a little tough love.

Pointing out some issues, you know, talking about how we can get [00:05:00] better versus others who might say no. Pro-black just means that anything that's black, you love it. And I, and I, and I, that part I, I can't identify with as much because it's almost like you know, someone's saying that you, you love your child if you give your child whatever they want, whenever they want, you know, to me, loving a child means training the child to be, you know, to be a, a, a healthy, happy, secure, confident, capable adult.

Sure. Rather than just saying, well, okay, I love my baby, so I'm gonna get my baby anything they want, you know, your baby's, you know, o obese and, and, and, and, and, and acting a fool and all these other things. So, so what, so, so anyway, so, so I didn't even ask that as a question. I just talked too long, right there.

Did you have anything you wanted to add to that? Well, I think, yeah, it's a great thing to talk about. I mean, I've actually been accused by family members of not being pro-black because I went to Northwestern. It was kind of in a jokey, jokey, he, he ha ha type of thing. But I remember I think it was last year they played Howard.

So Northwestern [00:06:00] played Howard in football. We went to the game and I had a little Kellogg hat on, you know, I wasn't, now everybody who knows me knows I love HBCUs, even though I didn't attend one. But you know, I'm representing. So we go up in there and one of my family members was like. You up in here with that Northwestern hat on, how could you do that?

You always talking about you pro-black, you ain't pro-black. And I'm like, I'm not pro-black, because I went to Kellogg and I got a Kellogg medal. Okay. So, but, but that helped me to understand, it's like, again, we, I like what you said, like we have such a, I think we need to get a more standardized definition maybe of what Pro Black is because we got so many different people with their thoughts on what it is.

And I think we always try to find ways to exclude other people from being pro-black. Right. You did this so you're not pro-black. You know, I think we have to work, work past that. Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting and, you know, and, and we're gonna get to the [00:07:00] financial stuff. 'cause I think that when you talk about pro blackness, you have to talk about black economics.

Right. Because I, I personally believe that our economic situation is a big chunk of what leads us to our oppression. You know, I mean, your, your day starts off with you reporting to a white man for work every day. So that right there, you know, is massive for a lot of people. But you know, I I, I, I agree with you in terms of us working toward a standardized definition because it seems like I.

It re it reminds me of like how Democrats and Republicans will, will both call themselves patriots, but have very different views on what it means to be pro-America, right? Absolutely. Some people may think that supporting America means being protectionist economically. Some people think that it means fighting the power and dismantling s certain systems.

Some people may say it means preserving certain systems, right? That's right. And and so so really it is kind of difficult, right? And even with myself, I even am criticizing myself because I've been critical of people and I've been, I, I kind of, sometimes I double back and say, I. Okay, boys, like, let's chill [00:08:00] out.

Let's figure out a way to be who you are without necessarily discrediting somebody else's version of what it means to be pro-black. Right? Yeah. And so so, so actually I'm, I'm gonna ask you a question then. I'd love for you to respond and I'm gonna do something real awkward. I. Because I, I'm gonna step o over here for a minute 'cause I just realized I got something going on with my family.

I gotta h handle this. So I'm a, I'm gonna literally handle the stage for a minute 'cause I'm gonna disappear off camera. So, but, but I wanna ask you this question. So, in terms of, of of pro blackness first thing I'm gonna say, I define you as pro-black, not because of where you went to school and your amazing credentials.

I, I see you as pro-black for two key reasons. When I read your bio, one was. You're a husband and you said a father of three children, is that right? Yes, sir. Right. Yep. That, that's Now. Now let me ask you, is your wife your wife, is your wife? Black? 1000%. 1000, okay. Okay. And I'm glad that's a hard, I start to get judgemental on people when, when they talk about they pro-black and [00:09:00] you.

Okay. So yeah. Okay, okay. Okay, man. And that's funny, y'all, I, I should, I was, I was at, the question was coming out of my mouth and I said, oh, shoot, boys, you should probably found out, but, because this is gonna be awkward if it, yeah. Okay. Okay. And, and again, it doesn't disqualify, we, it just would've been a, I would've just had to shift in the, the seat a little bit and figure it out.

But okay. So, so you got a black wife, three black children, that right there? Yeah. To me is one definition of pro blackness because you made this substantial investment in a black family. We know as a community we don't have, well, that our family structure has been destabilized deliberately. And so the fact that you're contributing to that in, in the best way that you can is, is to me, pro-black.

Secondly, you mentioned the work you're doing in Inglewood. We know Inglewood is a community that's diverse, right? It has some good and bad, right? And but, but there's so much potential, so much power there. Like guys like yourself and Mark Harris, who I, I admire you immensely, you know, because you're making that direct contribution.

Can you speak a little bit more in depth in [00:10:00] terms of like when you're with your thought process on your definition of pro blackness? And, and how you execute that in your life. Because I wanna, and I want, I want to hear that because, because I'm gonna step away, but I'll still be able to hear you when you answer.

I want to hear that because I really think as a community, like you said, we have to standardize that and kind of figure out Okay. Like what, what's your contribution gonna be like? We, Andrew gonna sit here, right? We, we got work to do. So Go ahead, brother. You answer that question. I'm gonna step away for one second, please.

Okay. Sounds good. So, yeah, I think so. Good morning. B one, family of, of I think some of you came in a little bit later, but yeah, let's have this conversation about pro blackness. So for me it's really about thinking about myself not just individually, but thinking about blackness as a collective. So for me, being pro-black, it's me thinking about how can I push forward the collective?

And so it's, it's definitely this mindset of not just looking at individual [00:11:00] contributions. Whatever my contributions are, I'm always thinking about, you know, how can I bring this back and make the culture I don't even like saying better, but just how can I come back and contribute because people have poured into and contributed to me.

You know, sometimes I, I think we, we forget that we've been poured into and people have sacrificed and made different efforts for us to move forward. And so, you know, I wanna continue to think about, you know, how can I come back and contribute? And that's really a key part of pro blackness to me, for sure.

Alright, well, well I love that. I love that. And and I, you know, I tell you it's, it, it's, it's a, it's an uphill battle sometimes. But I think that also in the midst of an uphill battle and let's, we can shift this to investing and things like that in the midst of an uphill battle, what people should understand e, e economically anyway, for sure.

And otherwise is that I. It's in the uphill battle where [00:12:00] you find the greatest opportunities. You know, if you're an investor people don't make their make their, the, the investments that make them rich. They don't tend to make those, when times are, are extraordinarily good, they, they make those investments when times are bad, they buy the, the distressed asset.

That then they pour work into love into, and it becomes the the celebrated asset. It becomes the valuable asset, right? Right. You add value, right? Just like house flipping, right? I, you know, if you flip a mansion where everything's already perfect, that's a harder business deal than flipping a house that's dilapidated maybe in disrepair needs some work, right?

And and so when you think about that analogy, it not only requires you to be able to see the potential of things. But it also requires you to have a commitment in terms of putting in the time and energy to flip that house and also skill set, the more skill you have in house. Flipping I. The better off you, you're gonna be at the end.

Right? So the black community, I think everybody should think of this and, [00:13:00] and, and I'd like to get your thoughts on this brother is I, I think I look at the black community like a house that, you know, needs to be flipped a little bit, right? And it's a little bit torn down and disrepair. Maybe it's been neglected because the people that could have fixed the house didn't want to.

Maybe the people that wanna see the house fixed don't have all the skill sets necessary to fix it, or maybe we don't even have the time or even the psychological commitment to fixing it. Right? Things that are not invested in don't tend to grow, right? And our community I think about you know, extraordinary communities around the country, light like Inglewood, for example, where maybe the community doesn't get everything it needs because the resources are not.

Allocated toward that. And I'm not just talking about resources from the city. We know what they're gonna do, but what about us, right? If, if I'm getting up every day and leaving my neighborhood to go work across town. Then, then the, the area across town's going to benefit. Right. The businesses over there are going to grow because I'm pouring my time and energy and my skillset into that.

I've been [00:14:00] trained specifically to build their businesses. Right. That's, and that's, so I think that this really speaks to a need for a reeducation for all black people. Right. I, I think education should center around what does it take to build a community? What, what does the community need? Well, I, I think the community's families.

Why not have training on how to be an adequate husband and father? How about training on how to be a great mother? How to, how to raise your kids, you know, in, in, in a, in an appropriate way. I know we need businesses. How about training on how to start businesses and how to maintain those businesses and grow them into spaces that can employ other people?

Right? We need institutions, period. And I say all this because I know that. That there's been a lot of conversation this weekend about, and I'd love to get your thoughts on any of that. Plus this other topic, I'm gonna shut up in a minute 'cause I want you to talk is I was trying to explain to a lot of folks this weekend when they were talking about coach Prime and his son Shado, his trouble he had getting drafted and stuff like that, which I thought was just unfair.

'cause I think he's much better than what they gave him credit [00:15:00] for. But I told people, I said, well, you know, the reality is that. You know, I, I heard people say, well, they can't stand a confident black man. They don't like a confident black man. And I say, yeah, they, they really don't. But you're, but unfortunately, Deion Sanders was never an owner of anything in the NFL.

He was an employee and and you can pass real estate and assets to your children, but you cannot pass them a job. And so, that's right. What might be the challenge, the reason maybe the employer has trouble dealing with an overconfident person is because. You can't really be an employee and act like you the boss, right?

Most of the time, right? Like, like in my father's house I got to where I got to the point where I was a man and I started acting like a man. That became a conflict because my father's like, no, I'm the man of this house. You're not the man. So in order for you to be the man, you, you gotta get outta here and go find your own place.

Then you could be the man in your house. You can't be the man in my house. Do you see what I mean? That's right. And so my thought is when we up [00:16:00] here talking about what I'm proud, I'm confident I do what I want. But, but sir, but sir, I need you to give me a job. Because I don't, I didn't put in the time and energy to, to, to work with other people in my community to create our own league.

We had the Negro Leagues, we threw that away so Jackie Robinson could get a job, right? So, so because we have not had an interest in doing the work to establish a space where we are truly respected and, and all these other things we want, that's a consequence I think of, of, of not having the commitment to institutional development in the black community.

What say you. I, I couldn't agree more. And, and I think it goes back to, you know, also when we talk about being pro-black, and I said this to you off camera, I'll say it again to the community, but like you, for example, when I first started trying to get myself together, financially, you are emerged as someone that I can learn from and be an inspiration, right?

But I could have made the choice that, oh, this is another black man. I can't [00:17:00] learn from him. I can't be inspired from him. Right? And so I bring that up to say, I think part of this pro blackness and part of this institutional issue that we have is, is partly how we view one another. Can I look at you? So like say you hit me up and like, Hey Eric, I want you to come work in the Black Business school and be an instructor.

Maybe I have an offer from another organization. Right. You know, it's like, would I view that in the same light as I would this offer from these other people? And so, like even with myself, I, I try to always make sure I'm continuing to value other people who look like me so that we can build these institutions and stop depending on these other people for jobs and opportunities.

But if I don't value Dr. Voice properly, or other people who look like me. There's no way in the world I'm gonna use them as a contractor to build this house that we're talking about. Hmm. That, that's real. That, I mean, that's a [00:18:00] real assessment. You know, it's you and I have both dealt with that. I'm sure you know where you go into spaces and because you're black and you do what you do.

It's not seen in the same light that it would be if you were white. Right? Not all. And you know, and then, and then what kind of helps are these, you know, what gives people trust? 'cause you have to trust institutions for 'em to work really, you know? So, so what happens in terms of trust? Invalidation is you say, yeah, yeah, but I went to Northwestern.

And they're like, oh, okay. So the white folks said you were good. Okay. Okay. So I trust you now, right? Or me? I'm like, well, yeah, no, no. I taught at Syracuse University. You, you know, Syracuse, right? Yeah. You know, and, and it's, it's, it's, it is challenging. It's very frustrating, right? Because you're right, it's, it's it's like, it's almost like even like just corporate brands, you know, the way you build brands with certain you know, certain perceptions people have of that brand. Like if I say Coca-Cola, people know what they, they, they have an expectation, McDonald's or whatever, or Nike or Google. And for black people, we don't necessarily have that same [00:19:00] brand.

If anything, the brand of the black man is being diminished and destroyed by people that have deliberately worked. To destroy the brand of the black man, right? Absolutely. Around the world. Absolutely. You look at, you look at the way hip hop portrays black males. I mean, it's not all of it, not all hip hop, but you know what I'm talking about.

That's stuff where they act like we don't, we don't wanna love our kids. We want just sleep with anything that moves. We want to kill each other and go to prison for a hundred years. We want to get high on drugs and, and all this other stuff. And, and that makes it difficult when you want, when you have a counter narrative, you know?

So, so. Let, let's let's dive deeper into legacy then. So you and I both as black men, we were, we were, we both had an interest in what happened this weekend with with Coach Prime and Shado and then also the stuff with Shannon Sharp and everything else. And and I mentioned this to everyone the other day, but I, I, we can mention again 'cause I'd like to get your thoughts on it.

As a person who understands legacy estate planning, stuff like that I, I saw. In the case, everybody doesn't know. I assume you don't live under a rock, but Shannon Sharp the club [00:20:00] Shehe host who's also on ESPN is, has, was hit with this $50 million lawsuit from this young lady who he was engaged with or not engaged, but interact.

He had an entanglement with from OnlyFans and she's not black, she's melanin deficient. And and basically he offered her $10 million and, and she said no, she filed a law lawsuit instead. So here's what happened. So as I've been thinking about this, it made me furious when I saw it and I, I had my anger, but I had to process like, why am I so upset?

Well, because I know that the word poor and everybody in here knows the word poor stands for passing over opportunities repeatedly. So my belief, Eric, is that people is that in many cases, generational wealth doesn't exist. Because when there's an opportunity to have some generational wealth, something silly ends up costing us the whole bag.

And and so here's what I did. I looked up the endowments of some of the HBCUs in this country that are struggling. I looked up the endowments specifically of Savannah State University where Shannon Sharp went to [00:21:00] college. And I said, isn't this, ain't this, ain't this a bitch? Excuse my French. I said, the endowment of that school is $12 million.

This lady is gonna receive more money from Shannon Sharp. Then the amount he, if he had, if he had spent that money on that school, instead of on this girl, this this would have literally funded that institution for the next 100 years. Like literally, I mean, they're, they're living off of a $12 million endowment.

He could have instantaneously doubled their endowment, but instead this money's gonna go to a 21-year-old who, you know, who's doing OnlyFans, who cares nothing about the black community. I'm furious about that. Can you give some thoughts on anything that I just said? Absolutely. And I have to say this, one of the people that I formed, so the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce, one of the, the other co-founder, her name is Felicia Slaton Young.

She's an alum of Savannah State. Oh. So to so kind of connected in my mind as you were saying that, but yeah, I mean, so that made me upset too, [00:22:00] Dr. Boyce, when I saw that, and my thing about that was it's just like, why? So I felt like Shannon was somebody that was reasonably intelligent. I thought, and I'm not judging him, but it's like we've seen this play out so many different times and he's not new to being in the media, so I just didn't understand the thought.

Like I, this is what I said to my son about this. My son is 17. I said, we have to think about situations in terms of how are they gonna play out. So you are a black, successful multimillionaire man, and you're dating a 19-year-old from another culture. What is the probability, right, thinking about risk and prob, what's the probability that this is going to go in your favor?

Very low. Wow. I mean, it will have to be perfect for nothing to happen, for you not to get sued, for your money not to get compromised. And so, yeah, it's just. I don't, and I don't think Shannon is somebody that considers [00:23:00] himself pro-black, and maybe that's part of the issue. Mm-hmm. But you know, that definitely was just a high risk to move and it went against him.

You know what's so crazy? What's interesting about that, that last piece that you mentioned, first of off, I love the fact that you're talking to your son about this. I think everybody that has a son needs to like, this is a case study. This is a masterclass. Like it's happening right before it's God's masterclass.

God's like, here's what happens if you keep on doing this stuff. That's right. But you know, but then the other thing too is. You mentioned that thing about Shannon, whether he's pro-black or not, and I think that goes back to what we were talking about earlier. It's interesting because I bet you that if you were to ask Shannon, you know, do you consider yourself pro-black?

I, I bet he might. He might make an argument to say, yes I am, and lemme tell you. Oh yeah, yeah, right. He went to an HBCU. He played a, a sport that's, that's black dominated. He, he has a black family. His brother Sterling played in the NFL and all that, and he's from the south. He's very familiar with black [00:24:00] culture.

You know, he's friends with a lot of black athletes. He coach Prime and others. And it's, it's kind of interesting to try to, but, but then, but then, but here's the point though. The thing that's, that throws me off a little bit is. You know, so when it, so you're, you're pro-black in all these other ways, you know, you know, the dance moves, maybe, you know, you know, you know what grandma's fried chicken tastes like and, and all these things that are identified as black culture.

But then when it comes time for you to invest, like really, like invest your, your, your life, your time, your energy you're, you know, when you could choose to invest in a black woman, a black family. Yeah, that's not of interest, right? It's like, no, I'm gonna invest in a little German OnlyFans model or whatever she is.

And you see that happen a lot, right? Where Yeah. And this goes circles back to what it means to be pro-black. I say Eric, that I'm wondering like, if it's a matter of saying like, what do you investing in, like what, what do, what do you value? What do you have that's valuable for you, and where are you investing the bulk of it, and let me explain like this, right?

If my money matters to [00:25:00] me, then you would say, well, where are you? Where are you investing your money? Like you look at I remember seeing some of the rappers, I think it might have been Jay-Z, but not, not being hard on him, but I remember seeing where he, he would make donations, like they would make him and Beyonce would make these donations to like HBCUs and stuff like that, which is great, but it'd be like a hundred thousand, 50,000, 200,000, something like that.

But then when it came down to him investing millions. It would be with some white boys in Silicon Valley. Right, right. And you know what that reminded me of? That reminded me of, you know, when you're black and, and you're pro black, but. You know, when you talk about your time, like we value our time, right?

So I, I might say, well, I'm pro-black 'cause I go down to the boys club every Saturday and I donate time. That's great. But then I would say, but what do you do with the other 167 hours a week of your life? I give the bulk of my time to NASA 'cause he need me to come to the job. You see what I mean? You see what I mean?

Right. Like, and, and the same thing happened in slavery. Dr. Claude Anderson talks about it. He said that that slave children were neglected [00:26:00] because the slaves had to get up in the morning and go get up before master's kids and make sure that the breakfast was cooked and the fire was started and all that.

And then they would come home at night. And nobody ever asked, well, what's happening to your kids while you're off giving the bulk of your time to someone else? So I, I would say this with, with the Shannon thing, it's like, okay, so when it came time to invest in a woman, you didn't invest in a black woman.

You invested in this lady. When it, when it comes to the bulk of your money, she's gonna get more money from you than that. She's gonna be wealthier than 99.9% of all black people. Same thing with Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby. I, I would say that women that don't even care anything about the black community have probably got at least a.

250 million, maybe a quarter of a billion dollars out of him. And that money. And you think about what that money could have done. You think about, think about what your, the work you're doing in Inglewood. Imagine if Shannon walked up and said, you know, I'm done with the OnlyFans models. I'm gonna take that 15, 20 million, and instead of paying her, I'm gonna give it to your your organization.

What could your organization do in [00:27:00] terms of changing lives with that kinda money? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. And I wish they would because we are actually doing a real estate development with the greater Englewood chamber. $10 million would come in handy. But here's the thing, and I wanna ask you this brother, since we talking about this, and I was talking to my mom about this, so.

I'm one of these people. I, I love black women and it is just something that's been wired in me some kind of way I don't like if I'm out in society, that's just what I love. But what if you were a person like Shannon or some of these other people and you really just like white women, you know what I'm saying?

And I'm saying I don't even know if I got a question or a comment or what I'm looking for, but it's like. I don't have to fight the urge. There's no urge there for that. And so how do you, how like are you able to be pro-black if you've got this inclination you just love white women? You know, he could pretend for us, but some of these people, they, that's what they really want.

And so what do you do in that [00:28:00] situation now? And I'm saying like for me and you, you seem like you're like me. We just about black women, so it's not an issue. But what if you woke up and you love other cultures more? Mm. You know, I, I How would you then be pro-black? Like, how does that work? How could that work?

Interesting. Interesting. Well, let, let's say this I think that you could theoretically marry a woman that wasn't black and still be pro-black. You, you know, if, I mean, you put that effort into overcompensating, like you say, you know, gosh, I had this guilt of, of not investing in a black woman, so. I'm gonna give the bulk of my time and my money to black causes.

I, I, I can forgive you for that. I, I think it's I think it's a matter of substance over flash. You know, if, if, if, if your, if your connection to blackness is silly stuff, like I. Like I, you know, I know how to dress a certain way or I hang out with rappers or I, you know, or I, I know how to, I know what soul food tastes like.

I don't care about that stuff. Or I listen to black music. Right. Those are silly [00:29:00] things, but I think overall, going back to your point, your question about like, okay, what if I just really like white women? First off, I'd say that's a preference. That's a personal preference. You have a right to have that.

Second of all, I would even wonder though if that was a little bit of a white supremacy mental illness that was injected in you, because when I just really say I prefer white women and black women are nec, automatically subordinated beneath that without exception, I think that's kind of an issue.

Right? I think it's one thing to say, you know, Hey, I like beautiful women of all backgrounds. I do, I do have a little bit of a preference for this kind of woman or whatever. Right. But you know, every woman kind of has some sort of a shot, right? If she's the appropriate kind of person for me or whatever.

But when you sort of exclude everyone else except Becky across the hall, I kind of think that's a mental health issue, honestly. You know what I mean? Oh, good. Yeah. I feel, but yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, and then even then, though, here's another interesting point, man. I love to get your thoughts on this. I think that as a matter [00:30:00] of community maturity amongst black men, I think that there have to be conversations about.

The fact that who you choose to marry can't just come down to the sex and the, or, or, or, or just, just the physical attractiveness. Mm-hmm. You know you know, and, and I, because I think this is part of the reason why so many marriages don't last, you know, because people are into the aesthetics of it all.

They're thinking about the moment, like, we look good right now. We, we got, we're flying right now. We're gonna have this big wedding right now. And they're not even processing the next 50 years. I've seen what a 50 year marriage looks like and the way my parents look physically 50 years in ain't what they look like when they were cute and young and 20 years old.

Right, right. And so, so just that idea of understanding what legacy building really looks like, like just knowing, like, okay, there's gotta be a bunch of variables to factor in other than just the sex and the looks. That, I think that's a, a conversation about maturity that has to be had as [00:31:00] well, you know?

Yeah. Like, so, so what that might mean is like I've heard people even say in a very malicious way and, and in a way that I don't agree with, where they'll say something like, well, you know, women don't women don't matter. They don't marry the man that they're most attracted to. They they marry the man that's willing to, you know, that that's willing to be a husband.

And, and, and, and I'm like. Yeah. Well, why would you want to try to marry the man that you're most attracted to? Because that's just attraction. You wanna marry the man that's the best for you in your life. You wanna marry the man that's going to be solid for you, because there's a lot you, I know this.

There's a lot of good looking men who ain't gonna show up for you. They will not. Go with you to the, the doctor's appointments. When you get diagnosed with cancer, they're not gonna be there for you and your kid. So why in the hell would anybody think it's logical to marry somebody? Just 'cause they look the best?

Like, no, that's a good point. I want the person, like, you could get a little bit of both. Like, okay, you look good. Yeah. But you are good, right? You're solid. So, so what do you think about that? I mean, I almost think that we, we need some sort of more [00:32:00] conversations like that gi, gimme your thoughts on that. I love what you just said.

And so the word that I kept thinking about as you were saying that is sacrifice. So say you are one of these brothers and you really do like white women or women from other cultures, but like you were saying, who will you marry though? Because when we think about some of these other cultures, they're married to someone that's in their culture, but they might do other things on the side, but they're trying to keep the wealth and the structure in their, you know, in their culture.

So as we were trying to define like the standardized definition of pro-black, the word sacrifice might have to be in there. Mm-hmm. What are you willing to sacrifice? And like you said, and we were talking about, it might be your time, it might be your expertise, it might be who you choose to be in a relationship.

Are you willing to make that sacrifice? Yes or no? Mm. Man, that's, that's heavy When you say the word sacrifice. I'm also hearing the word [00:33:00] investment. Absolutely. That's what investment is. You, you is sacrificing something now so you can have more later. And the reason that I want everyone to stop and, and meditate on that is because part of the reason your community doesn't have any wealth.

Is because, because we don't understand sacrifice collectively. Some of us do. A lot of us do. There's a lot of, a lot of folks in here that, that have done well saved and invested their whole life and built amazing things, you know have great health, great relationships, everything else, but a lot of us don't have everything that we that we'd like to have.

Because number one, we didn't wanna make the sacrifice. Maybe when we were younger, like, okay, I wanna go chase, chase some booty, as opposed to pick a good woman or something like that. Or two, someone else was not willing to make the sacrifice on our behalf, meaning like our parents, you know, I, for sure I, I.

Yeah, I, I mean, I probably, you know, who knows, who knows what I missed out on in terms of an inheritance because my father chose heroin instead of being a father. [00:34:00] Right. No doubt. Yeah. So, so it's kind of one of these things where you start, you go to that word sacrifice you used, and I really think everyone could, could meditate on this, ask themselves that question, where are you making your sacrifice?

Right? Where are you? And it could be with money, like where are you sacrificing some money so you can have more money later? Your time. Where are you sacrificing time so that you can have something more later? It could be health. Where are you sacrificing? Like I have to sacrifice salty, fatty, sugary food in order to have better health.

Later on. I gotta sacrifice time in the gym, right? It sacrifices hard because it links to delayed gratification and delayed gratification. You, you and I both know, that's the key to success. That's the key to wealth. That's the key to having anything you want. If you can sacrifice and have delayed gratification, you will win.

And in fact, right now, even with the tariff battle with China, I feel like the US is gonna lose that battle because the Chinese understand sacrifice and delayed gratification. Absolutely. No question about it. Yeah, they made that. [00:35:00] Yeah. Yeah. I got a question. I got a question, brother. What's that painting behind you?

That's, that's a, a really awesome painting. Is that yours brother? This is, this is, yeah, this, no, this is a Basquiat knockoff. So I bought this in Milwaukee. So I met a brother in Milwaukee that had an art shop and he was selling replicas. And so this is the same painting that Jay-Z bought for, I think, a hundred million dollars, but it always resonated with me.

If you look at the, the, the picture in the face, it just kind of tells me to always, no matter how much you get into corporate and different things that you're involved in, don't lose your edge. And that's what that, that's just a daily reminder to me. Don't lose my mental edge or whatever edge that I use to get to wherever I'm at.

This reminds me on a daily basis, so that's Basquiat. Wow. Wow. That's a beautiful painting. That's very cool. Thank you brother. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So by the way, everybody, I'm speaking to Mr. Eric mc Lloyd, and Eric is a, a [00:36:00] financial expert, Northwestern graduate. He's deeply involved in extraordinary work in the Inglewood area in Chicago.

And and so by the way, everybody, I want you to also know that Eric is going to do a presentation tomorrow night in our legacy investment. Club which dr. Boyce lift.com lift stands for Legacy Investors for tomorrow. So if you have an interest in estate planning legacy building, things like that we got you in the Black Business School.

Feel free to go to dr boyce lift.com and you can get a chance to speak to Mr. McCloy about about anything you have, any questions you have in terms of estate planning. You know what Mr. McCloy, I, I just did, or Eric, is it okay if I call you Eric? Please. Please, bro. Yes. Okay. Okay. Absolutely.

Alright, so, so yeah, so Eric, I, I actually recently just resigned my trust documents the other day. Just to, because, because I, I've really, you know, and even, even, even for myself, you know, like I, I, I don't want anybody to ever think that I got it all together because I don't think. I know I don't, and maybe other people do, but I I don't have it all together.

Yeah. I'm trying. [00:37:00] Right. Yeah. That's what the best thing I can say is I do try extremely hard. I'm very good at trying regularly to get better, and I hope that that has helped to make me better in certain ways. But it, it's, it's always difficult to forget about the moment and think about the future.

Right. Disconnect from what's happening right now and understand that this too shall pass. So one of the things that I did to challenge myself was I went ahead and I sat down and I really. Just imagine that I wasn't here. You know, I, I, I just said, okay, let's try to live forever. We have to secure things right now instead of putting it off till tomorrow, so that if I'm not here, all this work is not wasted.

You know, you know, so that meant putting together the board for the black business school funding, the board funding, whatever they were doing. Just saying, okay, well what if Boce isn't here? Like, what, how do we, how does that work? What does that look like? Yeah. You know? And because you get one chance to leave those instructions once you're gone, it's over.

And and I'd like to get your thoughts on that in terms of [00:38:00] just you know, just how important that is and, and maybe why some of us don't. Think about these things un until, and really sometimes we, we die without thinking about them. And then others have to figure it all out. What's your experience in that space and what are your thoughts?

Well, first, brother, I gotta, I have to acknowledge all the beautiful people in the chat. We got a lot of great comments coming through. It's really good to be talking to you all. But yeah. I love the fact that you thought about that for yourself. Again, I think this goes back to this concept that we've been talking about of like, what does it really mean to B Pro Black?

And so as a financial professional, we, you know, you've seen this too. We've had so many people that have built all this wealth, including their businesses, and then they pass away and everything just disappears. And so for me, I always talk to my clients about like, if you are, and many of them say they're pro-black, which is fine.

I'm like, if you're really pro-black, have we done everything we can do to make sure this wealth transfers over [00:39:00] to the next generation? I know you did the paperwork, right, but have things changed? Do your children know what their roles are going to be? This is something that I have to continue to work on with my children, but it.

My daughter, what's her role going to be? What is my 17 year old's role gonna be in the process? And have they been educated properly to assume those roles? So, you know what I mean? 'cause a lot of people we talk to, brother, they, they're like, they got the paperwork. The paperwork is done. But it's these other pieces that I feel like, because the main thing when I was selling life insurance years ago, Dr.

Boyce, that people would say to me is, I don't wanna get a million dollar life insurance policy because I don't want to give my kids that much money. I heard that over and over and over and over again, and none of them really, and I wasn't seasoned enough at the time to have this conversation. But if I was to talk to those people now, I would say I understand that, but maybe there's things we can do to prepare them to [00:40:00] receive that money.

Or you get a million dollar insurance policy, you don't have to give it all to them at one time. You might give them $25,000 a year. 40, 50 years, you might take the rest and donate it to your favorite charity. There's just a lot of things that you can do, but we don't wanna miss that opportunity to generate that generational wealth.

Wow. You know that, that's, that's really interesting. Hmm. I wonder why. I think taking the inventory on like why we don't want our kids to have any money or why we feel like, oh, that's too much. You should, I, I, I, it's really interesting. It's almost like a self-esteem thing in terms of us really thinking about like, what do we really feel like we deserve?

You know, like, may do, do you not want your child to have a million dollars because you just, I, I dunno, part I, I'm gonna tell you what my reservation would be, is. I gained so much in terms of character from the hustle, the struggle, like, you know, the struggle when it got too bad, it was really bad, but, [00:41:00] but generally having something to work toward.

Really drove me for many years. And I think that it took me time to figure out like, okay, if you, if you're 25 and you're set for life, what is it to do? You know? And then you see my kids sitting around getting high all day and doing nothing, right? Yeah. So that would be my, I think my biggest concern. But I think to your point though, it seems that if you it's almost like the problem with that type of logic though is that I think so many of us.

Grew up just straight working class. And there are certain assumptions we make about what it means to go into this economy. Okay, you're gonna work for a white man you're gonna struggle, you're gonna deal with racism on the job. You're gonna be stressed out, you're gonna live paycheck to paycheck. And it's almost like that's a tear that we kind of expect ourselves to be on, because that's just whatever who we are.

But then there's another tier, right? Like for example, Donald Trump's children are maybe on that tier or even higher. I. Where it says, no, no, no, [00:42:00] you're still gonna work hard, but you're gonna be running businesses, you're gonna be managing your portfolio, right? You're going to be, you're gonna spend the whole day going around looking at properties for real estate acquisitions.

And it's almost, it's interesting because it's almost like we have to be trained to think that way and trained to believe that we deserve that. And then I think it becomes easier to say, oh, not only can I leave you a million dollars, but I should leave you a million. I have to leave you a million dollars in order for you to maintain.

You know, that level of autonomy that allows you to truly explore what you can truly become when you're not constrained by having to go work for massive 40 hours a week. Did I say that right? What do you think? Thousand percent. And so here's what I had to do, and like we said, it's a work in progress for all of us.

It's things that I'm still working on. What helped me is thinking about my family as a business, and so once I started to view it that way, it's more about me because I wouldn't want my children to have a million [00:43:00] dollars right now either, right? I'll just be clear about that. They're not ready for it. But if I'm thinking about myself as a CEO, then I'm thinking, okay, why isn't little Eric ready to get this million dollars?

What do we need to do? Or why isn't my daughter aged ready to, you know? And so making sure, so even in corporate, they have professional development. We can professionally develop our children to receive our estate. You know, it might be different for each child, but we can do that. We can have professional development for our children.

Wow. I think I, I wanna put that on a shirt. My family is a business. You know, I, I think that should be, I mean, everybody typed in the chat. I, let's, let's, let's build on that. Everybody type in the chat. My family is a business, or My family is my business. However you wanna say it. Like, because I, I really think that's a powerful idea.

And what it does is it challenges our, our preconceived notions of just who we are and how we're supposed to exist in this [00:44:00] economy. As black people, we tend to really exist as employees. We don't really see ourselves as, as, as people that can really have a say in our own economic destiny, even at the highest levels.

Imagine if every single guy in the NFL or the NBA grew up in a family, I. Where they see themselves, their families as a business. Yeah. We probably would've had our own sports leagues by now, stuff like that because they, there, there would, there wouldn't be sort of like, like that that with the whole Dion thing we were talking about, you know, like, I'm gonna get my son a job that, that kind of thing.

No, I want my son, my, I'm gonna make my son an owner. Right. And that's right. And you know, if we're gonna own something that our family's been invested in, right? Because you look at, for example, the Halas family that owns the Chicago Bears. They're not, when they think about getting their children opportunities, they're not saying like, we're gonna make you a Chicago bear.

They'd be like, well, why would you wanna do that? You're gonna get brain damage. Right, exactly. It's like, no, we're gonna put you in the owner's box and you're gonna own 10% of the team, just like your dad did or whatever, you know, and you know, that kind of [00:45:00] thing. So I kind of think that this is that's important and, and what the point I liked, and I wanna make sure we don't miss that as well, is you talked about professional development.

Yeah. And you know, as, as being part of that, right? Not just believing it and saying it, but saying like, okay, all that time you're gonna spend in school, learning all these other things, which we know what school does. School prepares you to work for other people. We're going to take over some of that educational process and give you the real skills that are really gonna matter for the mission that we're putting you on.

I, I, that's right. So, so I, I, I think I love what you just said there, man. So my family is a business. I love that. And I hope everybody will, will take something from that. So brother, I'm, I'm gonna let you get the last words. I, I enjoyed the conversation a lot. I, that's probably why I did so much talking.

I'm almost embarrassed because I talked so much. Please did you have any final thoughts in terms of what to expect tomorrow and just. What we can walk away with. Yeah. Well, again, thank you brother for having me on. This has been beautiful. You have a, a very abundant [00:46:00] community here. So I hope to see you all tomorrow.

So tomorrow we're gonna be really talking about strategy. So my role typically in the estate planning process, you will have an attorney and your accountant and all that. But we are gonna get into a little bit of mindset stuff. Getting beyond saying what you need to do and getting really into more of the mindset, how to get in a different mindset in terms of how you view what you have.

Now, there's probably a couple people out there that are saying, I've been hesitant to really go too deep in my estate planning because I don't really feel like I have enough. You know, I don't really, I don't have a million dollars. I don't, and I, what I will say to you all is we're gonna talk about getting into this mindset of not thinking about how much you don't.

But how do we make sure that what you do have actually transfers over to that next generation? It doesn't matter if it's a hundred thousand dollars. It could be jewelry, it could be family, heirlooms, art, whatever [00:47:00] it is. And this whole concept we're also gonna talk about is how do you like know your numbers?

So we talked about our children is, you know, talked about my children. So it's like my daughter, how much should she actually get? My estate might be worth $5 million. Am I gonna give her $150,000? 200,000, 2 million. So we're gonna talk about some formulas that we can use to determine what's a good amount to provide to your loved ones.

So I'm looking forward to that conversation. Yeah. Yeah, me too. Me too. So it's gonna happen tomorrow night at eight o'clock, everybody. And if you want to join our Legacy Investors for Tomorrow Club you can go to dr boy lift.com. That's dr boyce lift.com. And and tomorrow Eric is going to be our special guest and I'm gonna do my job, which is to introduce him, and I'm gonna shut up.

He's gonna take over the class because I know when, when to talk and when not to talk and I'll be learning along with you. And so [00:48:00] also I wanna mention to everybody that if you are interested in stock options you can give free access to our mini class on stock options. You can go to dr boy coin.com so you can get the stock options mini class.

And a wealth elevation session. So feel free to go to dr boy coin.com and I'll hit hit you guys up a little bit later. I'll also send a direct link via text if you want to get on the text list for this class. We meet every morning, seven days a week, 10:00 AM Eastern text the word morning, M-O-R-N-I-N-G to the phone number eight seven nine four eight.

Text morning to 8 7 9 4 8. And it's dr boyce lyft.com. So if somebody could type that in the chat. And brother where, where can people find you? The easiest way to find me is on LinkedIn, so Eric McElroy, E-R-I-C-M-C-L-O-Y-D. And then I also have a podcast called Money Sex Gen X. So you can find it on all the major streaming platforms.

And we actually have a episode Dr. Voice called How to Run Your Family, like A [00:49:00] Million Dollar Business. So you all please check that out. I think you'll like it. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Money, sex and Gen X. Yeah. Is that, is that the title? Yes. It's Money, sex Gen X. Yeah. We talk about relationship shift and sex. And my co-host is also a black Gen X brother.

And we just give our perspective on life, you know, in those episodes. Alright, well I'm, I'm gonna look it up. I'm, I'm gonna follow you. I'm gonna follow you right now. So, so find, are you on Spotify? Yes, definitely on Spotify. Yeah. Okay, great. And I'd love to talk to you one day about options too. I'm an options trader too.

I do a lot of wheel strategy stuff, but I'm a big option and fan for sure. Ah, okay. Well that's, that'll be our future conversation then, because options are, are really, I think there's something great for people. I think. I think black, I think we should teach our kids options. You know, I, I, I think I really do.

Yeah, I agree. Would, do you agree? Yeah, I do. So, like with me, I learned, I don't do like a lot of naked calls and puts. But 'cause I realized I wanted the [00:50:00] income. And so I really want us to talk more about, and I know you do this, but like in culture, like the, the selling and cover calls and in the, in the cash secure puts to get income because I think a lot of people lose a lot of money trying to do naked calls and puts, and then they're out of the game when they could have just been doing like a wheel strategy and get that recurring income.

So I'd love to talk more about that. Oh, I'm the same way I use the options market for mostly income. I, I just, you know, I'm not, I'm not trying to gamble. I wanna be the house. The house always leaves. I had my time with that. I lost a lot of money messing with that. I'm like, nah. Oh, we, we all did. You know, you know, all of us were, were crazy 25 year olds, you know, thinking that we knew everything.

And then you get older, you like, nah, I just, I just want some money. I just want some income. You, you keep all that over there. So yeah. Well, well, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll bring you back then, and we'll have another conversation about that. And anybody that you, you all know we have the prime program and stuff like that.

So feel free to take a look [00:51:00] at it, dr boyce prime.com. That's at u rl. So thank you very much brother. It was great to see you, man. And it was an honor getting to know you and, and I, I made a friend today, so I look forward to talking again. Sure. Alright. Yeah, I'm looking forward to brother. Have a good day.

See you tomorrow night. Alright, bye everybody have a.