Episode 83 - Trade And Travel To Millions With Teri Ijeoma

Nicky Saunders  
Whats poppin whats poppin whats poppin welcome to Nicky and moose, I'm Nicky thats Moose. What's up Moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  
What up y'all?

Nicky Saunders  
And we got a very very special episode ladies we heard you okay we heard you we got not only just just a female we got the Female Okay, let me just number one course creator female millionaire female is going to be a lot of air horns on this one has a an amazing brand has helped man 1000s of people make money in in stocks and options. Just a pure soul. I feel like I know her that yet we never met. She's super dope, moose who we talking about?

Mostafa Ghonim  
Man we're talking about the one and only Terry ijeoma Listen, simplicity, humility, very knowledgeable. And I think there's no better way to learn about branding and business than from her. So let's get it.

Nicky Saunders  
And I'm trying to get an invite to her house. But let's talk about it after this intro

Jaymie Jordan  
Two kids from Queens. Cut from a different cloth. Now joining forces helping you to elevate your personal brand. Yeah, I'm talking about Nicky and moose, bringing you a never before seen perspective into the mindset, the mentality, the behaviors, the driving force, and more importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know love the most.

Nicky Saunders  
We're not going to make you wait any longer. I promise you. We're not. We gotta bring Terry in the building right now. Oh my god. She looked beautiful. Saying people she looks beautiful audio. I'm sorry.

Terry ijeoma  
Y'all are so amazing, though. Like that production was dope.

Nicky Saunders  
Thank you. Thank you. We try. We try out here we try. Yeah mean, but let's first, first and foremost. Let the people know how dope you are. Well, okay. You're humble. So who you are. I started off like that. Let people know who you are a little bit of your background? Because we got questions. I promise you we do.

Terry ijeoma  
Sure. So my name is Terry ijeoma And my last job was assistant principal of an elementary school. And it just got overwhelming. I was crying in the bathroom all the time had all these different jobs and objectives from principals and bosses. And I say yeah, I gotta go. So quit my job as assistant principal and started traveling all over the world. And I afforded it by trading stocks. And of course, while I was out there putting my pictures on Instagram, people said, Wait, wait, teach us how to do it. So I started teaching people how to invest. I did my first class in Thailand. My second class in Vietnam, then came to the States and said, Hey, okay, I can reach more people if I put this online. So went from two people online to 20,000. We're the number one course on teachable like you said, highest grossing, and we've we've just changed lives. That's what we do. That's who I am.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Simple yet very powerful.

Nicky Saunders  
Before I get to you, I promise you, you you go in. But can we talk about the slight flecks of the first two classes? Can we talk about that? Like that's not? Yeah, you know, I did it at the library. Um, I did it at my house. No, I did it in Florida. Now can we get why those two locations just real quick before I go, why those two locations.

Terry ijeoma  
We had been traveling. So when I quit my job. I joined this program that was traveling from one city to the next for a month at a time. So first month was South Korea. Second month was Thailand. And that's when the people around me that were traveling with me. They have been seeing me trading. They asked and they kept asking me to go on coffee dates. And I was like, Look, people only like coffee like that little class or two. We work and we come together. So yeah, the second place we went was Thailand. So that's why Thailand and then the next place. We went with Vietnam and they had loved it in Thailand. So they asked for a second in Vietnam.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah. Yo, wow. Okay, look, look 

Mostafa Ghonim  
yeah, that's interesting Terry. So what came first? Was it the passion for trading with a passion for travel? Because it's like, it seemed like the trading was able to fund the travel but what which one of those passions came first?

Terry ijeoma  
Oh, good question. So I've been trading for 12 years now since 2010. But I started traveling in college. I studied abroad in Spain my last semester. So I lived in Madrid for six months, and every weekend, I'd go to a different place like my first solo trip was Venice. And I got to see the water. And it was it was amazing. So I guess travel came first. And then later trading.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Wow, wow. Wow.

Nicky Saunders  
I got I gotta ask, I gotta ask. So when trade and travel, right, clearly, that's what you were doing. But what day or year if you could remember, when did you say, you know, this, this gotta be a brand like, This just can't be my lifestyle like I got to do this is this got to be out to the world? Like I could do something with this. When? When was that day? We've talked to us about that transition?

Terry ijeoma  
Oh, good question. So in October, when I was still at the school, my friend had passed away. And it hurt me so bad, because like he had just started his life. Like he just had this one year old. He had just gotten married. And I thought if any, anybody would be around, it would be like me and him today. And because he was like my ride or die in Chicago. When I was like, Let's go somewhere. He was the first one to be like, Yeah, let's go. So when he passed away, that showed me that life was too short. And I remember writing in my journal, I was praying to God, and I was like, Lord, if I could do anything in the world, what would it be? And it was trade socks, because I enjoyed it. I have been doing it as a side hustle. And it just was fun to me. And then it was travel around the world. So I put that in my journal in October of 2017. And then, excuse me, excuse me, I did that October 2016. Because I actually quit my job the following year in 2017, and started traveling and doing just that. And it wasn't a brand to me, it just was this is what I want to do. Like, I don't want to die and not have seen the rest of the world. And then in 2018, one of my friends who actually had had seen me in Thailand reached out to me when I was back in the States. And he was like, Look, I really think you need to think about putting your your course online. And I was like, no, no, I don't want to be an educational more. I don't want to teach anybody. I just want to travel on my own. And he bugged me for at least three months. Like no, Terry, I really think you need to do this. And he actually sent me a webinar from Danielle Lesley, and she had talked about online courses. And I remember looking at that webinar and saying, okay, yeah, but I still think if I do anything, I'm gonna do it live because I just enjoy seeing people live. And later that year, when when the when I did the finally did the first live in the States. 71 people showed up. And then Danielle's thing she had said, okay, you don't have to have it made already. Just tell them you have an online course. So in that class, there was May of 2017. I told them no, no, excuse me. This is May of 2018. I told them, okay, I think I have a class if anybody wants to buy it. And I had priced it at 1000. Well, it was 2000. But I said 50% off the $1,000 I'm thinking nobody's gonna buy this course. Nobody's gonna pay $1,000 But learn for me. Girl, two people did. And so now I had to go make this course for two people.

Nicky Saunders  
tell them tell the people you celebrated with those two people that Oh, did you get anxiety what what happened?

Terry ijeoma  
Man, I was I was both excited and disappointed. At the same time, I was excited that they wanted to pay me money. And I was mad because I had used this as an excuse for so long. Like, if nobody buys the course then I don't have to make gotta make it keep traveling and living my life if nobody buys it. So when they did, I was like, oh, shoot, now I gotta go make this. I gotta teach em, and what was so cool People always asked me like, well Terry how did your course get started? Like literally, I just gave everything I had to those two people. So I would write the curriculum, I would make the first part and I thought of everything I needed to know to learn how to trade or that I wish I had known. And so I would make the first part and then I would invite them to my house and now it teach it to them. And I would look at their faces and see if they were getting it and then if they didn't get it I'd go like change it up and then invite them back to my house and teach it to them again. So like that's how my course got started. I literally was trying two teach to people to be the best traders they could be.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Wow, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. How long did that last Terry because it seemed like you know what's funny to me is I always find it interesting. How much of our like last chapters fund our current chapter, right? So you left being the principal because it's like, Man, I want to live my life. And then I'm here you I use the word curriculum like I was writing curriculum, I was creating this course it's like, I imagine some of that experience was taken into creating what you have now today. So just talk about maybe even to the people who are listening, that are kind of really fed up with their current situation and trying to rush to their next season, because it seemed like you took some talents from there. And then of course, you were, to some extent, are still teaching today.

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, there's so many skills that I've taken from my old jobs into what I do now. So when I was an education, many of my jobs were around operations. So even when I was assistant principal, I was the one ordering all the food for the kids by in the furniture, I bought the cafeteria tables, I got to decide if they were oval or rectangle, you know, like, I was all about ops, I use that now even in the course because we're operating a school like that's how I see my my role. I'm operating a trading School. And in this school, like all the operations of it from kids getting kids suit, my student, my students are 35 to 55. But I still like kids. But students getting through the program, the easiness of them learning, being able to like get in, like all those things are operations. So I brought that skill over, then like you said, the how do you learn like, how do you teach two different types of learners, whether it's a visual learner or an auditory learner or somebody who needs to do by example, like I brought that from education. And then I was an assistant pastor of a church, not assistant pastor, I was a youth pastor at a church and people don't know that. But I bring ministry into what I'm doing. Like, I really care about the people, I want to make sure that their lives are changed, their souls are okay. So all those skills I bring in to trade and travel every day.

Nicky Saunders  
Alright, so talk about the moment that you were like, Yo, this, this is something like, it's working. Like, okay, I put it out there. I got two booked. What was that real moment that you were like, oh, no, this is this is like, could be an empire, this could be something way bigger than I just thought. What, you know, the train travel from a surface level is this is going to be huge.

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, there was two of those times. One was when I was teaching live, so that yeah, that first class in Dallas 20. That one in May, where two people signed up, when 71 people showed up for me to teach them how to, I think I called it like, how to get into the stock market or intro to the stock market, something like that, when 71 people showed up, and I charged them, like $60 or something. So i think i In the end, I made like $3,000  yall do not know how excited I was because my assistant principal salary was 4000 a month. So I'm like this one class just did all of my salary and, and they came to listen to me. So at that time, my mindset was, I'm just going to teach one live class a month. And then that's what I'll do. I'll teach a class. And then I'll go travel. And I'll come back and I'll teach a class. So that was a turning point that said, You know what, like, this is something and then down the road. So after I had those two people sign up for the online course. And I had gone from May through October, teaching them, I decided, Okay, I'm going to do an official launch to my Instagram list and tell them I have an online course. Because up until then, nobody really knew that I had a course except the last people, right? So I said, I'm going to do a launch to Instagram, and 30 people signed up. Y'all don't know how excited I was to have the first 30 people in a cohort. They signed up to come hear me? like come here may teach? That was, this is a thing. This is a thing And people were having results too. Like, I had one girl who was like, I want the I want you all to keep teaching. So I need you to have a VIP. I didn't have a VIP program at the time. It was literally just the first four weeks now my course is eight weeks. But I didn't have a VIP but several students in the class asked for me to keep teaching. It's a thing. Like and then people were having results like one of them was like yeah, so I usually make $10 an hour in my job but I just made $200 That's 20 hours that you just saved me from work. Oh, this is a thing.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah, this is a thing.

Mostafa Ghonim  
That's That's powerful. I want to jump in I love that. You said you were in operations right? Because like me being really business minded and caring about the business side of things. I know that yes, there is emphasis put on the front end say to launch a product or to market a product or service. service. But a large part of success comes in the operations. Because once you go to that first phase, now we have to follow through on what we promised, we have to have some infrastructure and some processes that are really well put together so that we can deliver effectively or efficiently. So there's a lot that happens after that. So talk to us a little bit about how you kind of just started, again, taking some of that experience, but maybe even changing it up a little bit. Because you're in a virtual environment. You're teaching adults, no longer students. And now applying that business acumen, what were some challenges maybe that came up along the way, or are things that you had to adapt and adjust so that you can really run the business effectively?

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, this is what I think differentiates the good creators from the great creators, the great creators care about their students and their students success. So when you say like, what happened after I literally taught the class myself every week, for two years straight. I was on coaching calls, and the class was eight weeks, but at that time, I would do each week to two weeks at a time. So I would teach for eight weeks straight, making sure that the students in the class we're getting it if they didn't get it, I would redo the course. And then I would take a couple of weeks off, and then I will do a whole nother reteach the whole class, then make sure that it was still good, and then change it up. All right, they didn't get this, they didn't get that. So I re taught the class for two years straight, making sure that they got it. And now it's more evergreen, and it can go on, uh, you know, I don't have to look at it. But it's because I put in the time on the front end And I made sure that my students were actually learning. And then on top of that, because they were learning they were my biggest, biggest marketing tool. Like most of my business comes from referrals. There was like, I didn't get to do Facebook ads for the longest like, I've just started doing Facebook ads this year, I made my first 10 million without Facebook ads, because people are doing word of mouth.

Nicky Saunders  
No, nope, nope, nope. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, wait, first of all, you're not gonna speak. You didn't just say what you just said. 

Mostafa Ghonim  
You gotta bring it back Terry, gotta bring you back. You said not. Not seven, but eight. So yeah, tell us now.

Nicky Saunders  
Go again. Sorry. So that we're not gonna pass by that? That we're not we're not gonna say what you did before the Facebook ads do that. Yeah.

Terry ijeoma  
So I had made $10 million in revenue before I could even use Facebook ads. And my class was really cool Because I know you all are all about marketing and the journey. So my company trade and travel, like we've done over like, a ton. Millions and millions and millions in revenue. And the whole like, the first three years, we couldn't use Facebook ads. So it was all word of mouth and partnerships that helped us to get there. And and to what I said, Yeah, like we had done the first 10 million with ads.

Nicky Saunders  
That's that's, I don't Yeah. Im gonna drop a bomb, I don't I don't have not doing air horns. Crazy, uhh moose is it your turn? I don't even know 

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, I have no idea. Yeah.

Nicky Saunders  
That was that was too good. Okay, look

Mostafa Ghonim  
Threw off our rhythm Terry 

Nicky Saunders  
That threw me all the way off. Okay, so out. I'll go. Um, I'll say this. I first was introduced to you through YouTube, right? I don't know how, but like, because I don't look, I'm nothing of that. You know, me. I look up brand stuff all day and hip hop stuff. And your stuff came through? And I was like, Who is this? This is? Okay, I watched this. But the dope part about your content on YouTube mind you, people Yeah, need to subscribe to it is trade and travel. And she's done. I think about 3.9 million views on that channel. Let's just want to put that out there. I don't know if everybody knows this. But she's done that. Right. So, um, what I love about it is that it's super organic. Like it's just you know, half of the time on a webcam, right? And then you get the blend of like, the high quality production vibe And lately your contents been super fire, But can you talk to the people who are starting out a brand and like feel they have to have that high quality because you were like, I'm talking to the community. I'm, I'm showing what I do. I'm showing the course everything like that, like, talk about that journey of creating content for you.

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, you know what? I've come to a point where I've realized that As your content and what you're saying is so much more important than how it looks like what you're saying your content is more important than your curation. And why do I say that because especially with trading stocks, people just needed to hear from me, they needed to know what to do, they needed to know how to do it. And no matter how cute it looked, or not cute it looked, if I didn't tell them what to do, they were going to lose money. And that's actually still my heart. My heart is people who have gotten into the stock market, they didn't really know what they were doing And now they're losing And so I'm thinking about the person who's having to go home and tell his wife, like, I just lost all your savings in the market, or that has to the person who's like, I keep throwing money at it. I know it will work eventually, but it just isn't working yet. I don't know what I'm doing. So those people need to hear from me more than they need to see me being cute its not about me, is about them and how I can help them. So that's, so that's why it's it doesn't matter if it's on a webinar. Camera, they just need to hear me.

Nicky Saunders  
Yes, that's so big

Mostafa Ghonim  
Thats big responsibility to if you think about it, because it's like when you think about it that way, which I think is it's probably why so much of your success, or at least students are raving fans of what you're doing is because there's obviously genuine care, But the thing that came to my mind is there's always this talk, especially with courses that only eight or 10% of people get through courses, right. And yet, at the same time, I'm looking at the information business or the teaching industry, let's just call it online course, industry is booming. I mean, I'm seeing everyone has a course as people who have courses about how to DJ and how to personal train and how to, you know, obviously, there's so many things for somebody who's thinking about starting a course now, what are some maybe pieces of advice you'd give them on how to get their students to get through to actually finish the course Because you can't possibly be successful, I imagine without getting through what you know, the trainer is trying to teach you.

Terry ijeoma  
Yep. There's honestly, I have a couple couple thoughts on that one, does it matter if they finish? Like, oftentimes I think we we try to orchestrate what we want the student to get out of the course. And we think that if they finished it, then that's what they needed to learn. But oftentimes people are coming for different things. So in the the eight week program, there's the first week is how to how to pick good companies. And then we go into how to protect your risk. And then into charting. And we're not going to go into that deep here. But my thought is, well, if they just really needed to know how to protect their risk, and they got through week two, they got what they came for, they didn't finish, but they got what they came for, or if they were really struggling with picking the stuff that everybody says at the barber shop, but not really picking the good one. Well, in week one, they just got what they came for. So it's not necessarily that they need to finish the course they just need to get what they needed to be successful. Now I will say the people who do finish all eight weeks, they have the most tools and they have the most opportunity to be successful. Like they they are the ones that are in my $1,000 in a day club where that you know, where they're able to realize that $1,000 Or I have another student he's making 100,000 a month like he has gone through the course over and over and over again, incompletion been to every coaching call. So those people have more likelihood, but we as creators can't dictate what we think somebody should get out of our course, we just need to make sure that every piece of it is good, even from the beginning. So that's one thought. But I will say of course other than that you can have coaches. So like we have coaches and live coaching calls that people can jump on, And then we have like a Facebook group with all of the old alumni students, so they're encouraging the new students to finish. So that also helps. But yeah, I think I think you'll go down a rabbit hole if you're trying to just make sure people finish instead of making sure they get what they came for.

Mostafa Ghonim  
I like that

Nicky Saunders  
Y’all not gonna get this information anywhere. I'm just letting me know this. Just keep keep telling yall

Terry ijeoma  
Yall have good questions. Y'all pull stuff out of people that we never talked about before.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah mean we try, We try here and there we try. Um okay, let's let's talk about community right. What was besides putting out the course right? What was some of your first steps of creating community? And then what was a mistake you made when it came to your community?

Terry ijeoma  
One The best things was when I was teaching live, everyone was together and we all had our videos on. So even in that small like 30 people group, it felt really nice because I knew everybody's name Another like secret is make sure people write their name on Zoom. And if you're a creator, call their name. Like, don't just say, you know, you and the girl, you know, green shirt, or, Hey, you with the curly hair, like say their name, it comes up. Also, when people are talking and you know, have the microphone, it'll tell you who's sucking. So as a teacher, just that's just like a teacher tip, say their name like, hey, Darius, we can hear you. Anything you want to put in. And because we could hear all of that, you know, like, oh, just be personable and be be direct. So they know you see them, they know you hear them. Another thing that I've done is my sales team is actually customer service. So our goal at trade and travel is to make sure everybody is seen and heard. They feel seen, they feel heard. So if it's a comment under a post, I have a whole team that just as YouTube comments, because I want them to know, thank you for that comment. I saw you and I heard you. And then in our responses, it could be an email that comes through, I tell my team, I want you to first acknowledge what they said. And then give them the answer to their their question seen and heard. So those are two things. I think I've done well to form community. People know that they're seen and heard, and if not by me, because now it's getting so big by someone on my team or someone in the trade abf family in general. So that's two things I did, right. One thing I did wrong is I don't feel like I had a plan for telegram. And that has been done where like now we have meetups across the world really like every state train travel students get together and they have little gifts, get togethers and meetups, and then overseas and London, they've been asking me when I'm gonna show up to their get together. So it's now become this like live in person moving body. But a lot of things are coordinated through telegram. And so I wish that I had done better about creating a plan on the front end for us to scale in that more personable way so that we could control the narrative. Now we got people trying to pop up and say what they want to say. And I'm like I said, That's not how I started, what are you talking about? So that would be the thing I messed up.

Nicky Saunders  
Its Okay, we all mess up.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeahhh Terry, you mentioned team. So I definitely want to dive into that piece. Because I think you know, every business scales with good people, you need a team. And and and that's an important aspect of it. Of course, we work with Brother Shaw, who helped us coordinate these tools. So that was great. So tell us about, you know, now stepping into not just being the creator and the main teacher or coach on a program. But there's, we've talked about the business part, but now you're trying to hire people, you're looking for the right people, and you're looking to put teams and things in place. Talk to us about that a little bit like what have you learned along the way? Or what are some things that you use to make sure that you just got the right people in the right places?

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, I'm going to speak from a CEO of a $300 million company, right? perspective, and then tell creators that are trying to get there. How do you do it? So in the beginning, when it's just you, you got to know everything, and I encourage you to know everything. One of the one of my friends she was like, Well, I'm only going to focus on the things that I do well, I'm like, Girl you use just you right now you do everything well, because you got to do it all. Know everything first. Then as you start building, I encourage when you're that mid level, start looking at agencies, you don't have to hire everything in house agencies are great, like social media agency shout out to Sean what school schools over now what that's who you were talking about before moose and drew from build your own brand, like or the O agency, like they are the ones who actually helped put together the podcast while we're talking about the power of 1 million. They're an agency, but they come into my team and they treat it like it's their own. So love them, love them to death. So the mid level, I was saying I would encourage people use agencies that know how to do their thing, because that'll give you as a CEO more time to breathe, because those agencies are experts. But then I would say when you get to the higher higher levels, it's time to start bringing people in house. And I just shout out to our girl Connie falls like I was just talking to Connie earlier today about systems and people and we now have to hire 37 people and then we just added some more folks gonna be like 43 people, to really make this system run smoothly. But I think now is the time where it needs to be in house.

Nicky Saunders  
Mm hmm. That's, that's, that's good. 40 30 some 40 30 40 alright.

Terry ijeoma  
Oh, real quick, I'll just gonna say the thing about it is that I'm learning that I am a corporation now. In the beginning, I was just a creator. Then I went to being a CEO. And now I'm a corporation. And I need to act like a corporation.

Nicky Saunders  
When did you figure that out?

Terry ijeoma  
Oh, like a month ago. Its been recent, but I've been thinking about it Because, of course, y'all know, I'm a trader. So I'm always looking at companies and evaluating companies And now I'm realizing, Terry, you're a company like your trade and travel business is a school, it is a full corporation. So we got to act like that. We got to act like how is our revenue coming? What do our expenses look like? What do our people look like? What is HR? What is our forecast for the five year five years from now? Like, that's what we're talking about is no longer just Terry makes millions. It's our team and our corporation makes millions.

Nicky Saunders  
Hmm talk that talk. Had a whole question that that threw me off again, great, great. Okay. No, that was good. That was good. Okay, no, I'm gonna bring it back. I'm gonna bring it back. Um, okay. So there's, there's one thing that I super love about you. When it comes to like your brand, like, it's still very, like personal like, it's not just the course and the students and everything. Like when for instance, shout out to everybody who uses Instagram. She was getting busy on Instagram reels with these little skits and things like that. Talk to the people about the balance that you found when it comes to like showing the students showing the course but like still giving a blend of you and we are going to talk about this singles mentioned so don't bring that up too much into detail because I got questions but um yeah talk talk to people about the the work and kind of personal balance when it comes to creating your brand.

Terry ijeoma  
Recently, I realized that I need to actually have three prongs to my social media presence. So now we split it up we split it up to Terry ijeoma the person and that brand. Then we have trade and travel the brand and then power of 1 million the brand. So trade and travel the brand has everything from webinars affiliates. I dont know if yall hear that. Do y'all hear that?

Nicky Saunders  
What was that?

Terry ijeoma  
Sound like sometimes doing like African music somewhere? I don't know.

Nicky Saunders  
About to say the lizard came through the the Puerto Rican lizards came through

Terry ijeoma  
Its loud too. It sounds like somebody's like doing construction.

Nicky Saunders  
It is okay. It is. People This is what happens in Puerto Rico. You once you will, you will experience that one time for the one time we will just speak to existence for all our listeners.

Terry ijeoma  
Man like real talk. I don't know if y'all good still here, but Okay, good. Um, real talk. Like electricity goes out here. Water goes out here. Still make it do what they do.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah, had a blackout. Not too long ago.

Terry ijeoma  
Recently Yeah, like last week.

Nicky Saunders  
Yeah. Oh trust I know, I know all about that lifestyle. My mom hates it. Right. But I'm like, oh, no, AC, let's get the candles. Let's get. I'm all for it. My mom hates it. But that's a whole other side. My bad.

Terry ijeoma  
That's okay. I just don't understand what this thing is beaten like this. I'm on a high floor right now. That must be like a really strong bird like what in the world?

Nicky Saunders  
We'll go through the tour later for people will go through the tour find out you know, well, we were minorities, you. We don't look for it. We just stay right here. And just.

Terry ijeoma  
But anyway, so things what were we talking about we were talking about

Nicky Saunders  
the balance of personal and work on social media. You have three tiers?

Terry ijeoma  
Yes. So we trade and travel. That's where all of the things about the course come in. We actually recently put it on its own institute. rampage so train travel on IG is all about the course trading education, like really putting out like crisp, clean content that's, you know, made from things that I've done but but just looks really good. It's stylish. It's nice. Then things in Terry ijeoma like this is Terry, the entrepreneur, the black woman, the, you know, you told all you said all the things like that I've goalsetter rock star, whatever, like that is me. But I'm also Terry ijeoma. I love to laugh. I love to just have fun. So yes, we've been putting out like i have to say, We me, I've been putting out more reels. And just having the fun because I enjoy the creative side. When I did my masters. It was immediate communications. And a focus was in videos, I love making movies, I love editing stuff, I could be in a room editing forever, and not even feel like time went by. So that's what I like to do for fun. So I can now put me out. And then power of 1 million is more than inspiration. That's what you guys see in YouTube. And, and it's going to be its own brand too. But I'm learning how to be different on each brand, because each brand has his own personality.

Nicky Saunders  
Right? Oh, that's so good.

Mostafa Ghonim  
That's pretty clever, Terry Because we we kind of learned the hard way that it's important not to name all of your businesses and your brands after your own name. Yeah, right. So I'm curious, what made you make that decision, because now it seems like you're distinguishing between you and then your other companies to that they become their own thing, what made you make that decision,

Terry ijeoma  
I'm learning that I have more interest. So down the line, I may not want to be just associated with trade and travel. And we're doing some cool stuff like now we're really diving into the trading side of the brand. I mean, it's gonna be the travel side of the brand. So like I'm speaking in Croatia, and I'm speaking in South Africa, and different things like that. But I might decide later down the road that I want to do a clothing line or you know, me like Kanye, or some I don't know, do some fun. But I need to have my own identity so that trade and travel can live on its own. Also, I found out here, the beating is back if you hear it but also I found out you can't sell a company when you're the main face of it And if down the road, I decide that I want to sell then I needed to fully work on its own and have someone else's face on it for people to buy it.

Mostafa Ghonim  
So yeah, I want real quick, I'm gonna just double back because I feel we're just now as black and brown folks starting to get the concept of business or one of the main purposes of business, which is you start companies to sell them, I think more of us are starting to realize that just give us your take on that real quick because I love that you said that if I want to sell and I think some people are so caught up on ownership, which is important. We're huge advocates for ownership. But there is some time that comes where you're like, Okay, it's time to move on to something else I'm actually going to sell talk about that a little bit.

Terry ijeoma  
We talk so much about investing and how the goal is to make 10x your return you do that when you sell. And actually when they look at your valuation, they say your valuation is 10 times the profit that you're bringing in now. So just knowing that in your head, you can work really hard, get to a certain level of profit, but you're not going to make 10 times that until you sell it. That's what you when you actually exit and get the money and value. So I like that's something that I think about all the time, I'm doing really well and it's great. I would love to leave a legacy to my my kids and family and have the course be around. But I mean it also would be just as big of a legacy if I get 10 times what it's worth use that money to do something else and have an exit

Mostafa Ghonim  
wow

Nicky Saunders  
Okay, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go little, little sad part little sad part. All right. I need we're hearing all the highs and everything like that. And once again, her Puerto Rican mansion. I need to go because so fire it's so fire. Um, but we need to hear when did you think about quitting? Like, when did you think like yo this okay. Trade and travel Cool. But this aint it or you doubted or, you know, you were like the same fun no more like talk about those kinds of times and like, how did you get out of it?

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah. 2020 was tough for me. It was a really hard year. And I know we can say that it was a hard year for everybody. But like, it was hard because we were inside. It was hard. because, like, I'm a touchy feely person, and I'm sitting here by myself, my mom was there, so I can cuddle with her, I guess. But like, you know, we're just not around people. And then on the same token, like, we had all these things like, all these things against black people that just felt like we had no control. So on top of the fact that we're in the house, we're depressed. And then on top of that, like, everybody talks about 2020s, the stock market after the fall, but I was trading before the fall. So like, just even thinking about your money and all the emotions we went through financially, your money falling out of nowhere, like it just seemed like you fell out of the sky. And then yes, it starts growling. But so many things in the stock market just didn't make sense that year, companies are getting valuations that like, you know, they would never grow into that. Like, it just didn't make sense. The economy is falling, people are unemployed, but the stock market is going up. And so there were just so many things. So and I want to put out there yes, at the same time, I also had one of my best years that year, and that was the biggest year for the course. And there were a lot of wins. But emotionally 2020 was a tough year for me. And on top of that, there were times where I was trying to get into new markets for the course, like I went into a publication that's not black people. And they were saying so many negative things like how could she know what she's talking about? How Where did she learn someone had the audacity to say, well, she doesn't have MIT on her LinkedIn page. So she must not have gone on to tell me where I went to school because of what you saw on LinkedIn or social media, right? So the comments have been something I've had to work through, getting through the negative comments, getting through the people that don't really believe you or trust in you, knowing that you're putting so much effort in, but that at the same time, it's just not being seen. Those things are tough. And it's really sad when you don't have to do it. When you're thinking to yourself, I ain't gotta be here. Like, I don't know about y'all. But I really believe and I'll be just fine. So that's, that's the hardest part.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Wow, that yeah, I can I definitely understand because I imagine you have also you earn a living through trading. So it's like, well, I can certainly just disappear from the teaching side and still just generate my income that way. And then of course, having to navigate that, that can be tough. So what changed? What changed? Like, what's the fast forward? We're now in 2022? What's the thing that makes you say, oh, you know what, I'm still going to show up, I'm still going to be me. And I'm going to still grow, what changed.

Terry ijeoma  
I still love the students. Honestly, that's really it. I still love the students. I love my friend who was like, I'll never be a trader, and then sends me a text message. I just paid for my mom to go on this trip with trading. Like, just, that's crazy. Another person she like I talked about her a lot, but it's just so cool. The concept, she renovated her kitchen with the money she made from trading. But the cool thing is like she could have just she had like $30,000. That's how much it was going to take to do the kitchen. She could have just taken that and paid for the kitchen. But she was like, No, I'm going to trade it. And within less than I think it was almost less than three months, but let's just say less than six months, she had paid off the kitchen with trading money and still had that 30,000 in her bank account. Like that kind of stuff like that. That's revolutionary. And I still think about like I said, the people who gotta go tell their family that they that they just lost money And like, I've been there that was that was another time where I wasn't sure I was going to keep going. Because after I had quit my job, I had a huge loss. I lost $26,000 overnight. And they were right. And at that time, like I'm still an educator salary, and I'm traveling around the world. So the things coming to my head are like, dang, I gotta go back and get a job. I gotta tell my mom that I didn't make it. Like I got to figure out how to get this money back because I also had was stupid. I had used some like credit cards to try to fund the trading. So now I gotta pay back these credit cards, all these things that were crazy that I would never tell anybody else to do. But I had to work myself out of that. So I know what it feels like to lose and I know what it feels like to have to come back out of a big loss in trading. Mm hmm

Nicky Saunders  
okay, this this, this bring this bring some personal sides to it. Okay, so you are in a singles mansion. Hello, now, okay. Shout out to Anthony O'Neal. We had him literally been For that had premiered. And I didn't know you were on there. Like I saw content a little bit before, but I didn't know you were on. And then I was like, This is why I love her so much. This is great. Right? Um, talk to the people, because we're big on, like, showing the expertise first, then showing your community more about you. Like, when did you know like, okay, they they got to know this side, too. Like, was it uncomfortable? Are you? Are you still uncomfortable with it? Like, are you out here? Like, no, where is my man? Hello? Where is he? In Puerto Rico. Hello. This is why I moved there because I weigh a little Puerto Rican, Poppy. Like, I'm out here. So talk. Don't mind me. I'm certainly, but I'm ducted to people about that. That side of you. Like, I got this established. But when did you felt feel comfortable about it?

Terry ijeoma  
About this past year, I think people have always known that I'm single. And I'm a single black woman out here in these streets loving it. But more recently, I decided that, like, I still love the ministry side of things, too. And I still love like pouring in and people and there's a big ministry around. So y'all are like the third person to know but something that we revealed on the singles mansion that got cut out, but then it was on, Dear future Wi Fi podcast. So I'm also a virgin. I've been saving myself for marriage.

Nicky Saunders  
Thats a rate situation, let's go celebrate you.

Terry ijeoma  
Yes. Oh, and more recently, I've decided to start talking about it. Because it just shows that I have a commitment to God. Like, I've dedicated my life to God. And right now, so many people are feeling like, well, religion is stupid, that you can't, can't live a life that's pure that there's no way to do things. But like, I guess the point is, there are people out here that are completely still devoted to the Lord still believe in Jesus Christ and still killing it financially. And, and it's okay to do both. Like you don't have to sell out. You don't have to give your soul away to the wrong people. You don't have to fit in. Like it's okay. And God was still bless you. So that's something lately that I've just wanted more people to know that that part. And it's his crazy, Nicky because lately doors have been open to me because of my financial standing like I think about the Breakfast Klub. I went on there because of finance. But by the end of it, they asked me to pray And so like, There's a scripture that says, your skill, your talents will open doors for you or something like that. And it really has been doing that. So I just want more people to know that you can still believe in God, you can still love the Lord, have a have a saved life and do well.

Nicky Saunders  
So good.

Mostafa Ghonim  
That's what that's what you do you do, I will say you do have a very like, cool, calm spirit to you like just all along, even in your voices like that very chill kind of energy that you give off. I'm curious as to how you've navigated or I don't know that you ever had any say fear or anxiety around stepping out onto social media and literally putting all that information because that is still pretty private information, right? I'm sure you've held on to that for quite some time. How did you gain say the courage to now say, Okay, I'm going to put this out on social, I'm going to do more. And I'm actually going to put a lot of my content and my creativity out there for pretty much the world to see.

Terry ijeoma  
That was a hard it was it was a bit hard, especially when you have parents that are like don't talk about money on social. And now lately, like because I'm an investing, like we talk about money on social media. And like we've had to think about security, especially now that aren't that my numbers have gone up and our numbers for the company have gone up. Now. Do you get security for that? And then y'all know I'm a single black woman. So now I really need security. Yeah, right. Um, I'll tell you the truth Moose. I don't have a solution. I'm just working it out. Like now we've gotten security. Now I'm I'm a little more tailored around what I say like there was this YouTube video that came out and literally showed people exactly where I lived And then I I mean, I can't go back. I'm unsafe now you just told the world how to get to me. So that kind of stuff is scary. And I don't really have a solution yet. I've still been putting stuff out but now like I even have so many imposters on Instagram. I'm scared to like put something out because they're gonna pretend it them and use it So I don't know. I'm just working through it.

Nicky Saunders  
Pros and cons of creating a super dope brand. I just want to put that out there. Out there look. Okay, I got I got two more questions. I got two more questions. Let's talk about the power of 1 million because that's a super dope. Like series right? Um, you got some of our favorite shout out to Jeremy shout out to Shan's, you know, but what? What made you do this series? It's you said it's a podcast, right?

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah, yeah.

Nicky Saunders  
I  didnt even know it's a podcast. It just looks so great on YouTube. I was like, this is fire. But yeah. Tell us tell us about it. What you know, maybe give us some like, who gets to expect them to? Because First off, let me say this, the houses that you be going to our fire I was selling most offline like, Yo, they get like the fire like it has a bowling alley has a basketball court and I don't even know where she finds these things just to create content. I'm, why are we doing it this like the way this way? So like, talk to people about that, like, because we're big on content series. So I'm like, What are you doing with this? You know, like, this ain't. This ain't just a content series just to have a content series. So I want I want to know all the details.

Terry ijeoma  
Power of 1 million actually started in 2020. It started in South Africa. So I was y'all know, I like to travel 

Nicky Saunders  
First of all we not gone speed past that, Like you didn't just say what you just said, Well, we traveled to New York, Houston

Mostafa Ghonim  
We traveled around the world on this episode. Been to every continent its been safe to say we visited every continent on this episode.

Terry ijeoma  
And ive been to Australia too we’ll just add that to all the continents are kind of touched.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Beautiful. There we go.

Terry ijeoma  
But yeah, so in the beginning of 2020, I was in South Africa, And my team and I were trying to think through well, we want to find a way to get more emails and continue to grow our brand. And at the same time, we had just launched the like we were helping 1000 students to make $1,000 in a day. And so if you help 1000 students make $1,000 in a day, that's a million dollars that our students could generate in a day. That's the million dollar a day campaign. We had started that campaign, but then realized that people couldn't even aspire to a million of anything, because they had never seen it. They had never seen anybody that look like us do it. So we said well, why don't we create a webinar series where we bring people in that have hit a million of something. And it actually like shout out to your head is I remember your headset or your leisure, Roy. I mean, Troy and Rashad, were actually on it, too. They were part of the webinar series back in 2020. So we brought in these like really dope people. And I just interviewed them and said, Hey, share your story, let us know all their millionaire people. And we did it for about 12 weeks in the first part of 2020. And it was a lunch and learn people would sign up for the webinar. We got their email, and then at lunch, they would eat lunch and watch our our webinars.

Nicky Saunders  
Mm hmm.

Terry ijeoma  
Yeah. And then it like we kind of let it our I let it go. And didn't touch it again, until when Shawn and drew came to me and said, Hey, Terry, have you ever thought about a podcast? I was like, no. But like,

Nicky Saunders  
Everybody have a podcast. I love Shawn.

Terry ijeoma  
Yes I was like, No, I said but I have this this thing I used to do, like we did this power of 1 million thing. And he was like, Well, what if we bring that back? And I'm in a season now where I only do things that excite me. So I'm excited by hanging out with my friends and cool people. And I'm excited by going to cool houses around the world.

Nicky Saunders  
Yes,

Terry ijeoma  
I thought, you know, yall could bring some cool people to cool houses around the world and I'm down at NASA. We do.

Nicky Saunders  
Listen, we're real quick, Isaiah, I need you to show the cool houses on on this footage, please. I just because the houses are amazing. That's that's all I gotta say. That's yeah, got it. Yeah, gotta check out that. That series for real.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, yeah. No, this has been awesome to hear. I mean, you know, we similar to what you mentioned, we kind of started our show and podcast during 2020. And it was kind of by mistake, right? We were just doing stuff because we were locked down and all that. And over time, it really came together and we were like, Man, this is the perfect way to be able to give people honor and really just pay tribute and give them their flowers while they're still here. And I know a lot of people are kind of up on that now, but that's just our way of doing it. And I think this This episode shows why we think you're one of those people that's worthy of that right? Believer, you care about people you want to teach others Right? And, and you're still obviously able to walk in in your own life, which is incredible. So definitely, this is our way of saying thank you. I'm sure Nick's might have some of her own words. I'm just gonna say that indefinitely saying, We appreciated this conversation. I'll yeah, I'll give it to you next for for the final question. I didn't even gotten that. And I just wanted to say, thanks. This has been dope.

Terry ijeoma  
Thank you

Nicky Saunders  
And, and I have to say the same thing, like, you know, like, I already feel like we rock with each other. Yet. We never met a Hangout or anything. I gotta change that. You tell me where you are gonna change that.

You know im in Puerto Rico. Come on down Come visit your family.

Dont play with me, i need, they care so quick. But anyway, okay, this is gonna go. Um, final final question. I always like asking, what are three books that has helped you in your brand and business journey?

Terry ijeoma  
One is Who Moved My Cheese, he talks about being able to adapt to change. Another one is definitely the Bible. People don't know. But it's over 1000 mentions of money in the Bible. And just like learning who you are about, like, who to who does? Who do they say I am? Like God said that, but that's the same with you in branding. Who do they say I am?

Nicky Saunders  
Right

Terry ijeoma  
Um, so that's good. And then there's so many other ones. Can I just say I'm gonna stick with those two?

Nicky Saunders  
Those two? All right, that's what it is. So look, I just like how moose said, I just want to thank you for being on our platform. Like I seen the journey. And I was begging Shawn, I was like, Yo, I know you work with her. Right? Can you see if because we do things different over here. Like, can you she's talking about all her stuff over there. But we got to break down how dope she is like, this is fire. So this is our way of giving flowers to you. Um, I think me and moose are gonna do the course because we got to do it Yeah. Oh, my camera just went off. Great. Wow. Moose take this.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, no, I am signing up, Terry. I'm gonna have to check that out. I'm trying to do a little trade and travel too. So yeah, you might you might have some two new students as part of the course. So look out for us here. So we're not typically, in closing, we let our guests close this out with some final words, right? Just some that you give to the people. So yeah, what you got for our listeners?

Oh, I just wanted to tell y'all. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean you shouldn't try. So many people say that when 95% of traders fail, but that means 5% are successful. 90% of venture capitalist peoples fail, but people are still trying to buy companies. So focus on those that are successful. Find someone that has been successful and then learn their system. Like that's what we do in trading and that's what you should do. Just because it's hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try.