Alicia McKenzie (00:00.29)

The UGC market is quickly becoming the go-to for these companies and these marketers.

That's the thing is people want more real, you know, a real life person telling them about the experience and how awesome it is versus I got paid $250,000 for this post or I'm some celebrity.

UGC is the new influencer. Like people don't care about the person behind it. They want to see the experience. Welcome to Married to the Startup. I'm Alicia McKenzie, a wellness entrepreneur and digital creator. Alongside me is my amazing husband, George, the CEO who's always ready for a new challenge. We've been navigating marriage and running startups for over a decade. And we're here to share the real unfiltered journey with you.

Join us for insights and candid conversations about integrating love, family, and entrepreneurship. This is Married to the Startup, where every day is a new adventure. We're back. Episode number 42. I am your host, Alicia McKenzie.

I am the co-host, George McKenzie. You seem I always say that with a... Yeah, I am. I'm still on vacation mode.

Alicia McKenzie (01:10.294)

You seem unsure.

I know, we've had a really good summer.

that time where you start to look in the mirror and you see the tan fading and you're like no.

It is very sad. Yes. My shoulders now match my face again. Womp, womp. All right, but we're back. We took a few weeks off because summertime was summering and we didn't feel like recording. So I feel like that's been our scheduling, right? Like we're really good September through June. Maybe that should just be like our cadence. We are. I mean, we...

Yeah, we're like school teachers. We take the summer. Yeah, that sounds right.

Alicia McKenzie (01:51.982)

July and August, right? That feels like it melds with our life and our business, right? Like we just kind of sat back and let things build and simmer and do whatever. And now, now we're back. We're molding and we're growing. You don't feel like that? I think you came back to DC with a little bit more like oomph in your step, right? Like we just needed...

Okay.

No, I don't know.

George McKenzie(02:18.648)

to recharge, get away and just spend some time to think about what it is I actually want to do. What's the priorities in life?

But a lot of shit happened while we were gone. And apparently, there are six new economic classes that have appeared in the last few years.

Yeah, that's interesting. It's an interesting article.

What was the title of said article?

What the hell is going on? think it's something weird is going on in the economy as six new economic classes take shape.

Alicia McKenzie (02:50.734)

says the New York Times bestselling author and his name is...

can't say his last name. I'm not sure how you pronounce it. maybe.

I'm going to need you to get with it a little bit. Get with it. Well, regardless.

The six new classes.

That's right. What is it? Nick McGillie. The Wealth Ladder. That was the one they're referencing. I don't know what his other book is.

Alicia McKenzie (03:10.828)

Okay, what are his books? Okay, best-selling author? Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (03:22.062)

All right, well apparently level one is considered lower class.

Why don't we go back to like, what's the traditional, what do you think of with economics?

You think of upper, lower. Right? Three classes. Yeah. Upper, middle, lower. Tax brackets. There's not that many. There's more than three, but still.

Yeah, I'm more than three. So I think he's posturing a six, which I think is really the four and five kind of splitting.

Okay. Yeah. So lower class, which the term class just feels so icky to me.

George McKenzie(03:55.01)

Yeah, mean, how else would you describe the echelons of wealth? Like, wealth, less wealth, I don't know. Yeah, he kind of broke them out into six levels now based on net worth.

I don't know. You just don't talk about it.

Alicia McKenzie (04:11.574)

Is it based on net worth or based on net worth? not income.

un-income net worth. the lower level, level one, is around or less than $10,000 of your net worth. So that would be people that don't have a lot. And then the working class, kind of the paycheck blue collar, not blue collar, could be white collar, but it's really just living paycheck to paycheck. The working class is level two, level three being middle.

level working class is your net worth is between $10,000 and $100,000.

Assets minus liabilities equals net worth. Doesn't matter how much you make in a salary, that doesn't factor into your net worth calculation. Right? So a middle class, which is what I think the vast majority of people would consider middle class and what people would think when politicians or whatever talk about middle class, $100,000 to a million. I think this is the next three levels are kind of where I think most people would...

Traditionally say there was two and now he's posturing that there's three that you know, the upper middle class is kind of I think the new one that he's coining which is level four being 1 million to 10 million.

Alicia McKenzie (05:29.442)

Wait, so upper middle class is one million in net worth.

to 10 And that's a net worth. Historically, people would have thought that is probably upper class. What he's posturing as upper class is 10 million to 100 million and then 100 million plus being the super rich, where I think most people previously, I think it's been changing for years, right, because of inflation and because of just wealth being more of it, that upper class or super rich being 100 million or more sounds right to me, but I think

A lot of people would have thought 10 million or more would be upper class.

10 million or more is upper class.

I mean, super rich, sorry. All right, so now I think that's the real.

Alicia McKenzie (06:11.374)

10 million or more, would be okay. That's what you're assuming the general population thinks.

or would have thought previously. And I think that over the last five, post COVID, maybe right before COVID, just the amount of wealth that has been introduced into the system that we've created these new classes of wealth. Like there's more people. One percent is probably upper class.

Where does the 1 % fall?

1 % is upper class. Yeah. OK.

Or it might be 3%. So hang on. So he says level four, right? And there's analysis. So level four was about 7 % of the country in 1989. And then now in 2022, 2023, which is where he pulled the data from, it makes up about 18%. So about 18 % of the US population is in that upper middle class. So 1 million to 10 million, which is a big percentage, right? It's almost, I mean, 18 %

George McKenzie(07:08.352)

That's a big percent that lives in that upper middle class.

Does this class typically, do they live on the borders? Or I'm sorry, not the borders, the coasts. They're coastal, right? You would assume that most of the wealth is on East Coast, West Coast, right? You've got New York, you've got Miami, you've got California.

Right. I mean, I think there's billionaires in every state, but there's not, I don't know. In his article, he didn't kind of put geography into it, but there are plenty of articles out there that do have it broken out geographically, whether you do it by, by, yeah, by person, by a percent of people, like what percent of the population is level four within a certain state. Then yeah, we can, we can do that. But yeah, generally probably the highest concentration would be on the coast.

zip code.

Alicia McKenzie (07:54.018)

So he's proposing these classes, but how many of the reporting organizations have gotten on or have come along with them?

I think there's a lot. mean, I've been reading it for probably over a decade that the bifurcation between sub one, one to 10, 10 to 100, 100 plus. I think those are, because I think wealth managers kind of look at those buckets the same. And there's people out there that similarly chunk wealth up into those buckets. And I think in the article, there's two topics, one being what is the asset breakdown?

of the different levels look like, which I think is interesting. And there's some interesting data points there.

Okay, let's start with, I mean, looking at the chart that you dropped in here. So the percentage of assets.

Right. And sometimes, I mean, you got to take it with the numbers, right? So if you're a level one, your net worth is less than $10,000. So most cars are more than, are close to $10,000 themselves. Right. so you can see that for lower income level one, level two, the vehicle makes up the prime, the largest or the lion's share of their net worth. And as you move up the ladder and you move up the wealth ladder, as he calls it, you get to like level three where

George McKenzie(09:09.698)

Now your vehicle becomes a much smaller percentage of your net worth and your primary residence starts to become a larger share of your net worth, which is probably typical. Like most people would say, you you get your first job, you're renting, you buy your first car and then you buy your first house. So you follow that prescriptive kind of climbing the corporate structure, than the wealth ladder. And yeah, that makes sense. If your net worth is around a hundred thousand dollars, your primary residence probably makes up the bulk of that. And that would be equity in the house that you bought.

plus your, and then your car, and then maybe you have a 401k that makes up a small, small portion and maybe some cash. And it's what's clear in the data that when you look at the data he's shown here is as you move up the ladder and you get to level four, which is, you know, middle class, right? What's level four, upper middle, your primary residence still makes up a big percentage. Your retirement makes up a big percentage now more than, you know, the previous level.

I'm it is really interesting.

George McKenzie(10:09.112)

car makes up way less and then you start to introduce business interests become a percentage of your network.

For those who haven't seen the chart, the chart that we're looking at right now, on the bottom line there, and it's a bar chart, right? So the bottom line, it breaks out the wealth levels, level one, two, three, four, five, six, and going up the sideline is the percentage of assets. And each asset is color coordinated. So there are, I think, eight different assets ranging from business interests all the way down to vehicles. That includes cash, retirement, real estate, stocks and mutual funds, primary residence.

And as you're looking at the chart, going from left to right, the bottom is vehicle, and that decreases the higher you get up the ladder. And then on the right-hand side, it looks like business interest starts increasing the more wealth you accumulate, right? So your net worth goes from being in the things you own, like your home or your cars, and it goes to more in the interests that you have, like stocks and bonds and business interest.

Which, you know, that's great, which is historically the way in which you get up the wealth ladder, right? Like it's really hard to get rich as an employee, which is kind of backed up by the data here. What you do on the traditional wealth ladder and as a worker is you buy a car, you buy a house, you buy things you own, you invest in stocks, you invest primarily in your retirement and then maybe you get other real estate rentals. And then that's how you accumulate wealth and you get to.

you know, a level three and maybe into level four. And then what I think it shows here is to get past that, what you see the primary reason that people get to the next two rungs is because they are business owners, entrepreneurs, and it becomes that risk formula.

Alicia McKenzie (11:58.414)

Okay, so if you're in, let's say like level two or level three, how do you, quote unquote, level up to the next one? Right, how did we do it?

Right. Now, I think when you look at this, it's quite evident, right? Like the biggest indicator of moving up is what? Business interests. So it's being an entrepreneur, having a business, generating wealth that way. I mean, not to say you can't get to level four, because level four, you know, less than 10 % of the net worth of those people is business interests. So getting to level four is achievable by, you know,

the long game, the standard economic climb.

It's also it looks like what primary residence.

Yeah, it's still a large percentage. mean, if you think if you only own a million, if you have a million dollars in net worth, most homes are several hundred thousands of dollars. So that's going to be the biggest portion of your network.

Alicia McKenzie (12:55.03)

And then also retirement.

Right. So most of the you probably achieve level four by the time you're in your 30s, 40s. So you've contributed to your 401k for 10, 20 years. Like that stuff's growing. It becomes a larger portion.

Do you think that's true though? Like, and I hate to say this, I was on TikTok and this TikTok, this TikTok told me that this woman, and it was really interesting because it was very, when you're on TikTok, you appeal to people's emotions, right? It was very rage baby. She's like, I'm 36, my husband is 38 and...

TikTok tell you.

Alicia McKenzie (13:31.31)

what you normally see or what's being perpetuated on social media is that anybody in this age range has it together, right? Like they're level three, level four on the social ladder. She's like, we have maybe $225 in our bank account right now. We don't own a home. We don't own a car, right? And then the comments were like, okay, we're in the same bucket. I don't feel so bad, right? So how much of the gen, or I guess they're millennials, how much of the millennial and the gen...

Xers? Are you an I am an X. You're an X. Z. So how much of the millennial and Gen Z population are actually able to achieve level three by the time they're 30, especially if you're looking at student loan debt?

I don't know. think it's, the article kind of goes into it. And I think the same way is there are general, like I would equate it to your wealth, your fitness, your financial fitness is a lot like your personal fitness. If you're obese, right? Your recommendations from your coach and the advice you would give them is much, much different than someone who is working out every day, but not seeing the gains. Right? So I think the financial advice would be the same. You know, if, if you're

obese financially, you spend a ton, then yeah, the advice is probably, yeah, you got to spend less. Where if you're working really hard, you're being frugal, you're just not seeing the results, then your strategy is different. So I think it's really hard to generalize advice for people. you know, cause maybe that millennial that has $250 in her bank account is because, you know, she says yes to every opportunity and goes on 10 vacations a year and does that, right? It's like, you don't know. to, to, you know,

they prioritize different things. And I would say if you look at the people that are the data here that shows the people that moved to the upper middle class or the super rich own the vast majority get there from being owning businesses. So we most of the time that's being an entrepreneur.

Alicia McKenzie (15:31.64)

So I wish this broke down by age because how much of this level five, level six is actually family money?

Well, it would be businesses, whether they got the business. don't think that's the case. think what he's posturing here is that, you know, there's a lot of, it's not that ladder anymore. Where I think if you look at traditional wealth advice, the ladder ends at level three, maybe level four. Right. And that's what he's trying to say is like that there's no climbing the ladder to get to the other, to get to level five and level six. That becomes, that's the, there's a lot of people that go from level two to level six.

So we're playing a different game.

George McKenzie(16:08.534)

or level two to level five overnight. And that's the way it happens. It's a riskier way because you're not climbing the rung. You're reaching, you're trying to swing from two to six and it's starting a business. It's running a business and it's betting all on that. So most of time, and I remember when I started my first business, like I wasn't contributing to a 401k. And when people would ask me, I'd like, my 401k is this business. Like if this has to work, if this doesn't work, then I'm fucked.

And I think that that's kind of the startup angle there. It's, you know, that's how you really go from, and there's exceptions to everything. There's people that will invest and, you know, the people that got in with Uber early or invested early in stock X, Y, or Z, and they hit it big and became level five. Right? It happens. But I think that's kind of where he's going with it is twofold. Well, my takeaways were really right. That you can't get from

can't fight luck. Yeah, it happens.

George McKenzie(17:05.608)

one to six just by climbing lung rung after rung. And the other thing he talks about is there's so many more, like I just talked about 18 % are in that level three to level four. you know, 18 % being in that million dollar range, there's so many millionaires now. And, and, you know, obviously there's a lot of people that aren't, but there's millionaires that now what used to think, Hey, if you're a millionaire, you're super rich, right? At least I thought that.

when I was young.

Well, I mean, when you were young, that was probably true, right? These social classes came about during my lifetime. During yours, there were only three.

But anyway, so let's say, and now there's a lot of people that have lived their life. And let's say people in my generation that now you've gotten to that million dollars of net worth or 2 million or 3 million of net worth. And you think I'm in the 1 % now I've made it. And what they realize are they're unhappy. And most of these people are really high achievers and they've done really well. They've generated this much net worth, but then they realize that there's 18 % of the people that are in this class now that's not a 1 % class.

15 % of the population that are fighting for the resources that are available to a level, you know, level three, level four person's net worth. Yeah, it doesn't go as far. You've fought all your way to get to this rung and you still realize that, can't do five vacations a year. I can't fly private jets. I don't have a yacht. Like all these things that I would have thought this lifestyle would have afforded me.

Alicia McKenzie (18:28.225)

so it doesn't go.

George McKenzie(18:43.648)

Is no longer available because there's so much wealth and there's so much upper class and super rich that are above the middle, the upper middle that, you know, you're fighting for the same resources. So the prices go up and you can't compete.

Well, also, shit just costs more. Yeah. Like, 10 years ago, if we had the amount of money that we had now, I don't know if it would have meant...

It would have a different game, right?

But I'm just, it's, just interesting. Right. And I think looking at some of the data and just talking about these, these types of things and knowing where you are on the wealth ladder makes a difference. especially when you talk to your kids, right. About where you want to be, where do you want to be? Yeah. And how you get from A to B and then it's, you know, what kind of risk are you willing to take?

So how does

Alicia McKenzie (19:31.874)

Can we just talk about the fact that we were driving home the other day and our nine year old looks at us and he goes, if we invest in, what was he talking about? It just, blew my mind. Some of the terms that he's using, I guess he listens to us. Did he say return on investment? said something, if we invest in this company, can the returns be something, whatever. And I looked back, I'm like, wait, what?

Something about a return on investment.

Alicia McKenzie (19:58.242)

What are you talking about? And I mean, it made sense. Like his question was perfect. I just didn't expect it to come from him. Right? So how do we raise these children to figure out? And I don't want to say figure out where they want to be in the social class, but it is called the social class.

Now the wealth ladder.

Is it social? think it's well anyway. Well, yeah, no, it's hard and it's, you know, how do you climb the ladder, you know, without burning out and what in teaching our kids what that means.

I think we've done a good job. probably, we are intentional about the amount of time that we spend on certain projects, right? Like, I mean, we just took July and August off.

do a good job of leading by example. I think having the ability to have those conversations with your kids too, and about, you know, reevaluating some of the things that they may have been taught in a, well, they go to private school, so it's different. But I think public school education probably still teaches that traditional climbing the wealth ladder where, don't lease a car, buy a car, and then buy your house and then invest in your 401k, contribute 4%, do this, do that, right? And.

George McKenzie(21:08.43)

And I think what's this article postures and kind of how we've lived and having those open discussions about financial planning and risk management is, you buy your first house or do you fund your first startup? Do you upgrade your car or do you invest in a revenue generating asset? Like these are the kinds of trade-offs that need to happen to climb. And when do you...

And that was one of the topics that are recommended here. And it's one that I wrestle with a lot is when do you prioritize equity versus peace of mind?

So that was actually a question that we received on, and not we, it's one of my other companies, but it's very, it fits here. So how do you leave a stable career for an entrepreneurial endeavor? Right? Like that is a leap that you need to make if you want to, but how do you do it? Right? It's scary. It's risky. It's different for everybody, but I would say like a general frame of reference is that if you have a very stable career,

but there's an entrepreneurial endeavor that you want to pursue six months of expenses and then be able to forego vacations, be able to forego any sort of other than the basic expenses for the next six months. You're just going to have to put your head down and grind, but it's not guaranteed to succeed. So what happens if it fails? That's a big if.

If you're married, mean, there's a conversation you need to have with your spouse and you both have to be on the same page. And I think that's, that's a lot of times the stressors and marriages and everything is you both may say, yeah, we should do this. But only one of you is a hundred percent committed. The other one is just placating or saying, yeah, this sounds okay. Until rubber meets the road. Maybe no, we have honest conversations. I think it's.

Alicia McKenzie (22:53.59)

Is this what you do with me?

George McKenzie(23:02.528)

It's that financial planning that goes into it and everybody has to be willing. And this is kind of, had a conversation with someone that mentored me before on the phone, was it last week or the week before? And I think that's a difference. some people who are, and we're talking about this, the guy we both know who started a company and he's, it's more like a lifestyle business, but he wants it to be a growth oriented acquisition eligible business. And to do that, you have to.

build it that way, right? And you have to make choices that are aligned that way and may take money out of your pocket, but you're investing in the enterprise value of the business. And it's really, it's a different mindset. And I think that some people, where I like to liken it to is people that, you I can't remember the general or the, the, what's the fable that people talk about? can't remember exactly, but it's something about

He would go to battle and you cross the river and then you burn the bridge behind you. Right? Like there's no way back. The only way is forward. And that's the way that I've always looked at businesses that I've run is like, there's no exit strategy of unwinding the business and failing peacefully. Right? It's no, you burn the exit, you burn the bridge behind you and the only way out is through. You got to fucking figure it out.

And I don't think some people have the stomach for it.

And then there's, people that want to have that higher wealth ladder climb, but they're unwilling to, you know, fail and fail being, you know, when there's a country song that I heard the other day, I love the lyric, right? And that my backup plan is getting back up. Right? That's the only backup plan. Like the backup plan is not, well, if things don't go right, then I still have this nest egg or I still have this, I'll do that. And that's not, you know,

George McKenzie(24:55.384)

There is no mistake. I'll still get a job or I'll keep this job on the side while I run the business. And then when the business eventually gets big enough, then I'll quit my job. Like it'll never get big enough because you never focus on it. You're always focused on the retreat where the get back plan is. And that's something that I, that's what I want my kids to understand is the, lessons that you learn as a child. And this is why I love baseball and others, but dealing with failure, right? Of getting back up.

Right. You're not planning to, well, if I strike out, this is what I'll do next. No, you're, you're planning on hitting the next pitch. That's it. And when you fail, you get yourself back up and you try again. And that, that's what they need to be taught. That resilience versus the planning for the failure.

Yeah, for sure. All right, moving on. This next topic, I think you learned a new term.

I don't know if I've learned it yet, but I've heard a new time.

I taught you a new term. You had no clue what it was. All right. So if you have ever been on any form of social media and you look at people's, their bios, you'll see the term UGC creator, right? So these are creators that go around to experiences and restaurants and hotels and

George McKenzie(25:46.03)

Still, not sure I know it.

Alicia McKenzie (26:07.818)

travel and all sorts of different things that you can do in person and they create authentic video that can be used in short form content. So these are user generated content creators. Right. So I'll give you an example. I have a TikTok that I do just for fun because it's we love to travel and I love to just show people new experiences and just what I created.

a UGC content for some equestrian experience that I did out in Middleburg. And it was great and it was fun. And it was a really low lift for me, but it was very authentic, right? It's like when you're going through the experience, like you take two to five second video clips that are thoughtfully curated and show just different aspects, different angles, so on and so forth.

You put it together, you've got a 16 second video, you throw some cute little music over it. That video now has 70,000 views, 1,500 likes and like a thousand shares. It's wild. But this is user generated content that these companies love because it's real versus perfect. And it adds that like authentic feel to all of these experiences and people see it and they're like, shit, I want to go do this. Let's go. And they go and they sign up for an equestrian experience.

Right? And what's happening is that there is a shift in marketing and that it is going from these perfectly pictured content, like, we're going to do a huge shoot here and we're going to do a video here. And I just want to say that video marketing is fucking expensive. So expensive. I had a quote for one event for one of my other companies and it was like five grand for two hours of video content. It was wild.

versus these UGC creators which have really good eyes and they're like 50 bucks an hour.

George McKenzie(28:05.602)

So is that the?

I think that's the direction.

evolution of influencer. The influencer, UGC is the new influencer, it's the new commercial.

Yeah.

Alicia McKenzie (28:17.23)

I think UGC is the new influencer. People don't care about the person behind it. They want to see the experience.

Yeah, I mean, that's my personal preference on an older person. But yeah, when I watch YouTube videos very infrequently, but we watch them with the kids for like the Disney Cruise to get excited about it. I don't want to hear anybody fucking talk. I just want to see the cruise. I want to see them walking around. I want to see the room. I want to see this. I don't want to hear your take on it. And I don't want to hear your personal brand.

What did our daughter call it? She's like, did you have your yapachino? She's like, stop yapping. Nobody wants to hear you yap during these videos, right? Like maybe a cute little voiceover, whatever. But the UGC market is quickly becoming the go-to for these companies and these marketers.

Yeah, I imagine if you from your return on investment rather than hire, you know, a big videography firm to run this commercial that you're paying actors to pretend they like it or you're doing this, that are you just like, I'll source it from people who actually like it. And it's a two minute, 30 second, 90 second, whatever UGC that is showing, demonstrating the value of my product or service from someone who's actually using it.

Yeah, but granted you have to have the creator that has the eye because I could give you I could give you an iPhone and go tell you to make a UGC video and it'd be fucking terrible.

George McKenzie(29:46.463)

yeah, and I still think it's a skill. I'm just saying it's a different, the value proposition is much different.

Yes, definitely. Definitely. And I've seen more brands come to me for UGC content. She's like, I don't want you to be the influencer. I want you to make the content and then give me the raws. And granted, they pay me for it. But it's an interesting turn of events.

It's like a community driven commercial.

Yeah, basically, but it's real and it's able to outperform.

Yeah, think maybe that's the thing is people want more real, real experience. They want a real, you know, a real life person telling them about the experience and how awesome it is versus I got paid $250,000 for this post or I'm some celebrity drink this gin because I like it.

Alicia McKenzie (30:33.332)

Yeah, me thinks that the use of AI is starting to play into why these videos are performing so well, right? Because you have so much AI-generated content on social media, like fake AI videos, I can't even tell.

it's getting really, they're getting really good.

They're getting really good, but you can't fake a UGC video. At least I don't think you can. I hope not. Right? should try it.

Yeah, I've seen, cause it's hard now, you can see like videos that have like press conferences with people, but the voiceover AI and they'll be saying like different stuff. And it's super hard to tell the difference until it's like, obviously like, he would never say that or that sounds terrible. And then eventually you realize, the lips don't match the voice.

Mm-hmm.

Alicia McKenzie (31:16.28)

So I don't know, but you learned a new term. Proud of you. Yay. Now if only I could teach you how to take the videos.

I did.

George McKenzie(31:24.46)

That may be a bridge too far. I just don't have the eye for it.

think it's because you can't But I also think that UGC makes marketing more attainable for smaller brands.

Yeah, could say, I it doesn't cost as much to get eyeballs and it's, yeah, I think that's more of the way like marketing is one of those areas I'm interested to see how it fares in the next five years.

You know who is amazing at marketing and branding? Annina Bell. I was on a call with her today and her knowledge, she's just so thoughtful about the user experience and how everything is perceived from their end. It's mind blowing to listen to her talk. It's really fascinating because branding, like she knows branding. She's the head of branding and the head of marketing for Next Chapter.

It's everything she does is just so thoughtful. I don't know, it's just so fun to see her in action. Like she was talking during our call and when she was done, I texted her because we were on a zoom call. I texted her, was like, you're such a bad ass. Like it's just, it's really cool to watch her in action. But branding is, it's a specialty. Like you can't just, it has to be learned. Like you have to be really, really just passionate about it.

George McKenzie(32:42.712)

Yeah, I think that's to be really good at anything. That's the way it has to be.

Maybe, but it has to be real, like it can't be faked perfection.

No, think UGC, that's why it's probably growing. As people are, I mean, there's a reason why unscripted television took off. Like real. And even if they're being fed fake real, they still eat it up with a spoon because I think we crave that authentic experience of, this is how these people really are. This is what would really happen in this kind of situation.

my gosh, reality TV.

George McKenzie(33:18.552)

this is this company, really is. I wanna buy from this company because they embody my values and I think that they're authentic to the values that I have. it's much better than spending a million dollars having Kid Rock lay at your corporate event and having Celebrity X, Y, or Z do a commercial for you. I think those days are probably coming to an end.

Definitely. All right. So I mean, just to kind of wrap it up, like in talking about the first segment of the podcast, which asset class, like for anybody listening, which asset class do you think defines you? Yeah. No, no, no. Like for anybody listening, like think about the six asset classes that we talked about. Yeah. The wealth classes.

finds me.

George McKenzie(34:04.11)

Asset club. do mean? the wealth club? Right. And, know, kind of where do you aspire to be? And then how could you get from point A to point B? And, you know, it's okay to say, Hey, I'm level three, level four, and that's where I'm going to be. don't want to, I don't feel like exchanging the risk for the reward. Like, you know, to get from four to five means I probably have to create my own business and maybe I'm comfortable in the career position I'm in. you know, that's the kind of the, it's.

He poses it here too, and it's an interesting one is in the 1980s, I would have imagined when you heard, you heard someone's title that kind of conveyed prestige and wealth and everything. And I think those days are dead. No one cares. Cause there's every, there's a billion CEOs out there and you're the CEO of a company that makes $0. So what does it matter? It conveys no, no wealth, no privilege.

That's why I think it's comical whenever I see CEO in somebody's bio and I know them like all. That's very cute. You're adorable.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see if you find yourself, you know, identify which one of these kind of represents you today. And then is this kind of your wealth profile? Is this, you know, the makeup of your net worth? And then, you know, are there ways to go from where you are to the next one?

Definitely. All right. I think we're done for the day, but we're back.

Alicia McKenzie (35:32.536)

Thank you for tuning in to Mary to the Startup. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, please take a moment to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast. Your support helps us reach more people and keeps the conversation going. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, drop me a message. I love hearing from you guys. Until next time.

out