Black Cloth Talk with NéAndré Broussard
Written by Erica Jeanine
“It’s less about what someone thinks of me. If nobody remembers the impact or legacy I’ve left that is my greatest fear. ”
WHAT WAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY & UPBRINGING LIKE?
NéAndré: I am a military brat and when I was growing up my family was moving every six to twelve months because my father was in the marines. From moving that much and living outside the US, I learned how to adapt to different environments. He retired when I was 10 years old and from there he had steady retirement income. The stability from my father's military structure, waking up and going to bed at the same time, there's no variance or change in a lot of things. Although it was boring it was actually a pretty good thing because it gave my life forever structure. Balance came from my mother who has since then become a serial entrepreneur, because of us constantly moving she wasn't able to have a consistent job. Hair and Real Estate became her lanes and everywhere we moved she was able to open up a salon and get clients. If we had to move again she’d network and set up shops in the city. In my household there was a traditional structure, my dad was the provider and paid all the bills and my mom was the responsible one in the house and had her way of hustling. We didn't talk a lot about saving or using money or deciding what money would go here or there. It was simply… You work to afford to pay your bills and if we're looking at the mortgage, education expenses or vehicles all of that needs to come from one income. Anything that we had on top of that was like gravy. For example, if my mom brought in any additional money it made room for us to enjoy something. Maybe take a road trip, go to sea world or Disneyland, but all bills were paid by my dad's salary.
HOW’D YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MONEY MINDSET AS THE LEADER OF YOUR FAMILY?
NéAndré: Marriage can sometimes be looked at as a business decision, sure, but what's even greater than the states involvement or divorce is the love between the husband and wife. When you love your partner enough to where you don't care how much money they make. It’s about doing what’s best for you and her pockets and not just one person because you’ve become a unit. It’s tough to come together and compromise if you have a mindset focused on just one of you rather than you and your wife as whole. When we started our relationship, my wife and I were dating for 10 years and she was already a bit further off than I was, but she never held that over my head. I am forever grateful to her for that because it helped me realized that as men we've internalized pressure just to be the provider. There can be tension that lies in between that because we’re constantly trying to be the breadwinner of the entire household. Just because you're the breadwinner doesn't mean you have to be the only provider. You can absolutely earn more money for your family, but at the end of the day they will still rely you as a husband or father. Understanding both these dynamics, you also have to be the protector and comfortable with making the final decisions for your family. We have two incomes and my wife makes a good amount of money, so when we do our bills it’s from a monthly perspective and somethings come out of what I make and some our of what she makes. Always focusing on our expenses but also focused on living as a unit. Once we have enough money saved away, we begin to discuss making larger purchases based on those savings versus adding some monthly expenses. Regardless what decisions have to be made we always focus on having balance. That allows us to save for retirement, future income and save for our legacy.
WHY IS STYLE & NARRATIVE IMPORTANT FOR BLACK MEN?
NéAndré: Honestly self-confidence and the belief that we're worthy has been overlooked and ignored in our communities perspective on black men. Changing the narrative is important because we still allow ourselves to live in the poorest communities, attend schools that don't have resources and get caught up in criminal activity based on our environment. They give you what you need to be criminals and then they criminalize you for it and that has been the problem. We need to begin to understand the environment and being in it, if I don't pay something my lights cut off. Understanding the economic advancement and that it’s supply and demand, I got the supply and I’m only going to give it if I can make money off of it, off of our communities. It's capitalism in it’s finest and there are also legal ramifications that are tied to what our community tends to utilize to leverage itself. Changing the narrative would allow for our people to be educated on this system and all others like it, creating an opportunity to better take care of their families. I also believe that self-confidence builds itself on the entire group and says we're at the top of the totem pole as a whole. The black community is really at the top of the total poll from one particular subset because we have 1.4 trillion dollars of buying power. What they do is group all black people together from an economic perspective and I think we need to begin to ride on that. With that buying power, we don't have the confidence in knowing that we can begin to leverage it. Nike, Google and Apple all of them market to our communities, we just don't understand the value that we have within that. So, I think using that opportunity and having that self-confidence is a really great tool. Having a certain level of self-confidence builds community, which then builds knowledge and that trickles down to education ending in ways to help more of our community attain wealth. When you look at yourself differently and reach a point where you flip that switch and say “hey, hold on why am I struggling?”. You are ready to understand and know why something isn’t working. Next is all about confidence and what you can do to build on yourself and add to your community. I got that confidence I know I’m supposed to be in this room in that room in that room now that I have that confidence. Black men are hustlers by nature and we’re going to get what we need and get things done. Instead of falling into being forced to hustle, we can use that confidence and find a better way.
“Having self-confidence builds knowledge in our communities, the education then helps our community attain wealth. ”
EDUCATE US ON THE PATH OF A FOUNDER & INSURANCE AGENT?
NéAndré: From the financial perspective and for the financial services world I serve as a regional wholesaler for life insurance companies. I show agents how to properly position different solutions for their clients versus just focusing on dying to use life insurance. The most beautiful thing with that and what I love about it is that, I’m able to go and help agents to be more successful when impacting the community versus just showing them how to be good salespeople. That's the importance of what we do when we think about the life insurance industry, it’s something that is consistently growing. It is one industry that's basically grown every year since it's started and as more and more people find out about life insurance the more people find out about the differences of life insurance and the taxes that come with each kind. The opportunities where I’m able to go in really help change and educate an entire community are cherished. I always say do not go into life insurance thinking about offering somebody something just to put them in the ground. If you're doing it that way, they will be looking at that as a liability. I come in and say let me show you how you can help them see their life insurance policy from the perspective as an asset so they can understand it as an asset. The goal is for them to understand that the money they invest is kind of on top of their savings and contribute to future growth and income. I help them focus on the life in life insurance and the living part of life insurance.
HOW CAN OUR COMMUNITY UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LIFE INSURANCE WEALTH BUILDING?
NéAndré: Thirty-nine percent of black families have a type of life insurance and what’s wrong with that is the majority of them have burial coverage or something that's not going to pass on any value to their beneficiaries. That's the difference in the types of life insurance that our community is getting and other communities are getting. And the reason for that, when you go back to the history of the life insurance industry there were discriminatory practices that didn't allow for black families to get access to these larger cash value type of policies. There was even a time when we could only get burial insurance or final expense insurance. When you think about that history, it’s why till this day a lot of black people don't trust life insurance. It’s important to educate ourselves on what’s available and what has changed, now we all have access to the same type of policies. To begin to build anything we have to begin to overcome challenges and past trauma. In order to feel comfortable with putting in 100 or 500 bucks a month and thinking about the future value of that investment. Understanding that that money will grow into 25,000 or more rather than just going to blow the money made every month. Our community also needs to have more of a wealthy mindset. To beak that mold and take our community to the next level and acknowledging that if I died and I had a million-dollar policy, that million dollars is going back to the black community and back into my family. It could probably pay that house off and allow my family to breathe easier and have equity. That then leads to, “go ahead and start that business son” we have the money and resources for it. That mentality can then get us on the path of understanding the different kinds of life insurance and what it can actually do for me. Using it as a cash value play, to grow the cash and in 15 years if I want to buy a business, I’ll have the access to enough money that's grown and I have access to. That access means I can take out a loan against it tax free. I view life insurance as an asset and not a liability, you have stocks, a saving account, investment accounts and you have a life insurance policy and all of them grow and they work differently but they all balance out your portfolio. But that life insurance is going to be the aspect of your policy and portfolio that never loses value.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT?
NeAndre: The thing I’m most passionate about is empowering people, I found that out I knew it a long time ago I love bringing out the best of people. I love being that teammate that uplifts and hypes up everyone else and keep my teams mindset motivated and looking the positive side of things. And even within that it’s kind of how I found my lane in financial services. I can help a client be excited about their future or while I was in sales and then when I became a wholesaler. I was able to get my guys thrilled about hitting their sales goals and exposing and teaching them new ways to be successful. My passion also comes from showing them a new way to impact the community and provide for their families. Even within that, being their biggest hype man and supporter and physically being there, not just doing the zoom meetings. It’s rewarding to be that for them and they know I’m always coming with that energy. Not only that, I get am extremely passionate about the work I do with and for Black Menswear. If we leave it up to somebody else to tell our story they're going to curate that story in the way that they want to be curated. Instead of that happening, I’m able to come in and authentically tell who we are and the legacy we want to leave. Taking control of that narrative and this work while giving positive, loving energy to our brothers motivates me immensely. Also shining a light on black women, I have grown to be passionate about their role in the lives of black men because black women are phenomenal. I love black women black women, they've got themselves together and are taken care of themselves and family units. The fact that they tell us what we need to hear to support us and help us grow beyond the things that have been so far seeded into us.
“They give you what you need to be criminals and then they criminalize you for it. That has been the problem. We need to understand these environments and being in them”
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