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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What a matchup we got, y'. All. This is that classic HBCU vibe. Non stop action. The band is rockin and the crowd lit. Chance, echo, drum beatin. Everybody showing that school pride. A game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere and an ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the sport, no matter the yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. You've been working in the garage with your dad every week, Monday to Sunday, trying to get the old school up and running. Today, after all the hard work, y' all finally finished it. Even better. Your dad says all yours, son. Yep. Same car that belongs to your grandpa that your dad helped him fix is yours. 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And I'm excited to share a special Thanksgiving week message with you that will hopefully transform how you see not just your money and your prospects in this world, but hopefully your spiritual, mental, emotional and psychological health. The topic this week is the economics of gratitude and the wealth you can't yet see with Thanksgiving here. I want to talk about something you won't hear on network news, on business news you won't hear on Wall street you probably didn't hear at your dinner table. It's called the economics of gratitude. It's the link between thankfulness and wealth building. It's not soft, it's not sentimental. It's real economics, real psychology and real impact. And I also believe it's spiritual. We're not human beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a human experience. Energy matters whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't. You're absolutely right. Gratitude is not passive. It's discipline. It's a wealth strategy. A leader who happens to be a pastor and a U.S. senator, Reverend Doctor U.S. senator Raphael Warnock said to me once if you want to have some grace, you better show some mercy. Mercy is when some rancid sob, some jerk does not get the rear end whipping they so rightly deserve. But grace is where you and I get the gifts and the blessings we actually don't deserve. Whatever goes around comes around. If you want to have a little grace, you might want to show a little mercy. The way I translate that in my business, Life is an old philosophy updated to today with not much translation. Talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive, and always leave even your adversary with their dignity because if you don't, they spend the rest of their life working to make you miserable. It becomes personal. Whatever goes around comes around. Let me start by talking about what gratitude actually does to your brain so you can understand how it does what it does to translate into your economic station in life and your wealth creation in life. And I'm going to tie this back to a quote that I've been using in Operation Hope, the organization I founded 33 years ago. I've been using this since its founding. There is a difference between being broken, being Poor. Being broke is economic, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of your spirit. And you must vow never ever, ever to be poor again. Now let's connect this to the science. Psychologists have studied gratitude for 25 years. They've hooked people up to brain scanners and they've tracked savings rates, credit behavior, job performance. Here's what they found. Gratitude lowers cortisol levels. This is your stress hormone. Lower cortisol level means better decision making. Better decision making means fewer emotional purchases. I've always said when you make an emotional decision, it's probably going to be a bad one. Fewer emotional purchases means higher savings and better credit. So when you're in a surviving mindset, if you have low self esteem, you're going to make very bad emotional decisions and you're probably going to shop for therapy. Some people can relate to that. Listening to this. Better credit lowers your cost of capital. That's why I keep talking about 700 credit score communities. Do you know? And you can go to the Hope Financial Wellness index online to check this out. Tell me your zip code, I'll tell you how you live in. For every approximately every 50 point increase in your credit score above 500, you live about five more years. So in a 500 sub 600 credit score neighborhood, you live about 61 to about 61 years of age. You get to 700 credit score and on average across this country you live to 81 years of age. It's not about the credit score, it's about the trending indicators of hope, well being, faith, confidence, belief, optimism. Again, whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right. Gratitude is actually a credit and life enhancement. Lower cost of capital leads to wealth. Again, better credit leads to lower cost of capital. Lower cost of capital leads to wealth. In other words, you can literally build wealth by calming your mind. That's why I talk about remove the noise from your life. I'm not talking physically, I'm talking spiritually, mentally, emotionally, psychologically. Your mindset again, whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right. People with strong gratitude practices have higher credit scores, have larger emergency funds, have less, are less likely to fall to predatory lending, and predatory lenders are more likely to invest consistently and have better job evaluations and promotions. This is not magic, it's mindset. It's behavior, it's outcomes, it's predictability. Gratitude versus surviving mindset. Let's get real here. Most Americans are living in what I call a survival mindset. I talk about that in my book, the Memo. Go back and watch. Listen to that audiobook or read it. In survival mode, your brain is scanning for threats. That's not its highest and best use. You're reactive, not proactive. You're emotional versus passionate and focused. You're fearful. You're grabbing for anything that gives you quick release and quick relief. A lot of the ings shopping, drugging, drinking, dealing. I'm sorry, texting, sexing, shopping. Everything but healing. No dealing with your drama. And when you're in survival mode, you buy things you can't afford with money you don't have. To impress people you don't know in places that don't matter. You stop thinking long term. You miss opportunities. You're more transactional than relationship. You tend to step over a dollar to pick up a dime, so to speak. Your self medicate with spending. You leak money through stress. I call it rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and we're picking drapes. You just don't make good decisions. Financial trauma is real, but here's the truth. You cannot build generational wealth from a survival mindset. You build it from a gratitude mindset. When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, reach for Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry and put your twist on tradition. A bold cranberry and winter spice flavors. Fusion Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry is a refreshing way to shake things up this sipping season, and only for a limited time. Sprite Obey your thirst. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder? With a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting. Before you know it, you are drowning in software. Instead of growing your business. 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Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts. The world is buzzing with AI tools, but instead of making things easier, they've made things overwhelming. There's a better way. Meet Superhuman, the AI productivity suite that gives you superpowers so you can outsmart the word chaos with Grammarly mail and coda. Working together, you get proactive help across your workflow. No matter how you work, experience AI that meets you right where you are. Learn more@superhuman.com podcast that's superhuman.com podcast. Gratitude shifts you from panic to presence, from scarcity to possibility, from desperation to discipline, from short term to long term. Gratitude is not denial. Gratitude is controlled. It's your ability to say, things might not be perfect, but I'm still here, I'm still standing and I'm still building. Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a rainbow without a storm. First, gratitude is armor. When I was growing up in Compton, California, in South Central la, I didn't have money, but I had something else. My mother and my father pouring gratitude into me. My mother made sure we said thank you for everything. Not because we were rich, but because we weren't. She said, young man, you can't control that outside world. You may not be able to control even your inside world, but you control your attitude toward both. My mother told me she loved me every day of my life and I believed it. For my mother, I got a sense of yes I am. My dad gave me a sense of Yes I can. That mindset, this mindset that I'm trying to share with you kept me from breaking. It kept me from giving up. It helped me to see possibilities where others saw dead ends again. Rainbows follow storms. You cannot have a rainbow without a storm. First and later in life, whether negotiating with CEOs or founding operation Hope or Brian Group Capital, Brian Group Ventures, Raising capital or sitting down with US Presidents, gratitude kept me centered. It removed the noise from my life and had me focus on what was really important. Gratitude was my emotional seatbelt in turbulent times. My first wealth discipline was gratitude let's talk about holiday spending traps and emotional money. I want to get practical for this Thanksgiving weekend so you can get your hands around not just how to think, but what to do. The holidays are a financial landmine. People are spending money emotionally, not rationally. There are three traps that show up every year. Number one guilt gifting. Trying to make up for time, make up for love or presence, as in being present with spending. Number two, family competitive gifting. Trying to impress relatives, trying to look successful. I get it, but I want you to get it. I want you to grow a self esteem. How you esteem yourself. Don't be in love with yourself, but love yourself. Because if I don't like me, I'm not going to like you. If I don't feel good about me, I'm not going to feel good about you. If I don't respect me, don't expect me to respect you. If I don't love me, I don't have a clue how to love you. And if I don't have a purpose in my life, I'll make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around. There's a difference between confidence and self esteem. Confidence is competence leaned out into the world. Self esteem is how you esteem yourself. The more you esteem yourself, the more you're reasonably comfortable in your own skin. That is my greatest gift by the way. My greatest benefit after gratitude was being reasonably comfortable in my own skin. Now I'm not hating on anybody else. I'm not even trying to impress anybody else. I'm just cool with me and my possibilities. Number three Social media gifting. Trying to keep up with celebrations that are, let me say this politely, mostly lies. Here's the truth. Most of the folks showing off online, they don't have the money. They have debt. They put it on credit cards. They're renting. The dream Gratitude breaks these cycles because gratitude whispers I'm already enough. I already have enough. I am enough. I am. And wealth begins with enough. Wealth happens at the dinner table. Let me give you a Thanksgiving truth. Wealth isn't passed down in bank accounts. Wealth is passed down in conversations at the dinner table. Every Thanksgiving, every family has a chance to pass down for free. Hope, habits, values, discipline, aspirations, dreams, stories of resilience from our elders and our peers, and expectations for greatness. This is how many families build generational resilience, how immigrant families built thriving businesses, how African American families survived the unimaginable in slavery and kept dreaming and going anyway. This Thanksgiving, I want you to talk about credit dreams, business ideas, career paths, money mistakes. Yes, money mistakes. You can fall forward. Rainbows only follow storms. It's going to be a big feature of mine in 2026 is a failing forward, falling forward series within Money and Wealth. Stay tuned for that. I'm not defined by my successes. I'm defined by how I manage my failures. Life is 10% what life does to you and 90% how you choose to respond to it. Wait for that series. Lessons Learned Legacy. These are the table conversations. This is the real classroom I want you to occupy. So here's my challenge to you. Before you buy anything big this holiday season, before you chase status, before you compare yourself to anyone online, stop, breathe. Be grateful you're enough. Mate with yourself. Love yourself. Embrace yourself, hug yourself. Make gratitude your new financial discipline. Because once you learn to be grateful for what you have, you unlock the mindset that allows you to receive what you want. You get more. You get peace. Then you get clarity. Then you get discipline. Then you get wealth. Wealth is a mindset. All forms of poverty other than sustenance. Poverty, a roof over your head, food on the table, reasonable health care. All other forms of poverty are mindset. Whether you believe you can, whether you believe you can't. You're right. Is the glass half full or is the glass half empty? Depends who's looking at the glass. This is John o'. Brien. This was Money and wealth during this Thanksgiving season. I want you to go take your life back. I want you to be grateful. Let's go change the world together. I'll see you on the other side. Happy Thanksgiving. Money and wealth with John o' Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite show. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line, but four first. There the last one. Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes. This podcast is brought to you by FedEx. The new power Move hey, you know those people in your office who are always pulling old school corporate power moves? Like the guy who weaponizes eye contact. He's confident, he's engaged, he's often creepy. It's an old school power move, but this alpha dog laser gaze won't keep your supply chain moving across borders. The real power move? Having a smart platform that keeps up with the changing trade landscape. That's why smart businesses partner with FedEx and use the power of digital intelligence to navigate around supply chain issues before they happen. Set your sights on something that will actually improve your business. FedEx the new power Move Some moments in life stay with you forever In a special segment of On Purpose brought to you by ebay, I share a story about a book that changed my life early in my journey and how I was able to find the same exact edition on ebay. It was more than just a purchase, it was a reconnection with a memory that shaped my purpose. There are certain books that don't just give you information, they shift the way you see the world. I remember reading one when I was younger that completely changed me. Years later, I found myself thinking about that book again. I wanted the same edition back, not a reprint. That exact one. So I started searching and that's when I found it on ebay. That's what I love about ebay, where you can rediscover the pieces of your past that still inspire your present. Shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story. EBay things people love. Listen to On Purpose on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Running my small business was like playing basketball. Five on one and I was the one. Now QuickBooks gives me access to a team of AI agents and trusted experts. For the assists, I need nothing but Nick outdoit with intuit QuickBooks feature availability varies by product. Black Friday is here and Pandora Jewelry is offering up to 40% off storewide and sitewide now through December 2nd. Explore jewelry designed to last beyond the season, from classic charms to modern rings, bracelets, earrings and more. Whether you're holiday shopping or treating yourself, now's the perfect time to find something Special. Shop@pandora.net or your local Pandora store. Exclusions apply. This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human.