In this episode of What’s Good Podcast, Brianna Jovahn sits down with financial expert Crystal Roseman to dive deep into financial literacy, wealth-building, and smart investing strategies. Crystal shares valuable insights on how to make your money work for you, avoid financial pitfalls, and build a strong financial foundation for long-term success.

What You’ll Learn:

✅ The importance of financial literacy and why everyone needs a wealth-building strategy

✅ How to transition from earning to investing and create multiple streams of income

✅ Common financial mistakes that hold people back from true wealth

✅ The role of taxes, real estate, and business ownership in building generational wealth

Key Quotes:

💡 “Wealth isn’t just about making money—it’s about keeping and growing it.” – Crystal Roseman

💡 “You don’t need to be rich to start investing, but you need to start investing to build wealth.”

💡 “Smart financial planning today secures your freedom tomorrow.”

Topics Covered:

📌 The biggest financial myths that keep people stuck

📌 Why tax strategies are crucial for wealth-building

📌 Investing 101 – Stocks, real estate, and business assets

📌 How to leverage credit and make debt work for you

📌 The mindset shift needed for financial independence

Episode Timestamps;

00:00 Introduction and Icebreaker

01:20 Meet Crystal: A Financial Advisor's Journey

02:08 Discovering Finance: From Retail to Fidelity

04:57 Building a Career in Finance

09:59 Understanding Wealth Management

12:51 Breaking Down Assets

15:51 Exploring Investment Paths

16:43 The Importance of Financial Transparency

20:32 A Success Story: From Debt to Profit

22:17 Highs and Lows in Financial Advisory

27:50 The Power of Investing in Yourself

30:05 Final Thoughts and Motivational Moment

Call to Action:

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Let's Connect!

Follow our Guest, Crystal Roseman :

• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/crystalbuildswealth

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And as you guys know, we are still focused on real estate, but today we're going to talk about finance. We have with us Crystal. How are you? I'm great. How are you? I'm doing amazing. Thank you so much for being here with us. for

[00:00:37] Brianna: me. All right. So we always start off with an icebreaker. Are you ready for yours?

Yes,

[00:00:41] Brianna: go. Okay, so your icebreaker is, if you could have dinner with any financial guru, dead or alive, who would it be and what's the first question you'd ask?

[00:00:54] Brianna: Nice.

[00:01:03] Brianna: nice because

[00:01:14] Brianna: Nice. I think that's good. We're going to go ahead and get started with our genuine conversation. Okay. We always start off with who is the guest.

So tell us who is Crystal.

[00:01:48] Brianna: Oh, I love that. So I want to go back in time a little bit regarding your journey. What made you get into finance? Because like you mentioned, 18 years is a long time and that's your only career. Nowadays, people transition from one, but you've been solid into finance, right? Yes. Okay. So let's talk about how you got into the industry.

That was the only thing I knew that was in finance. I'm like, I don't want to be behind a computer type of numbers. So I didn't have any desire for that. So I was going to be a lawyer. I was like, listen, you gotta have me in them suits in the courtroom. I'm going to be real cute. Like you ain't gonna know what to tell me.

Right. And you know, growing up in my day and age, it was like doctors and lawyers.

[00:02:48] Crystal: So you either wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, maybe a teacher, if you like kids, you know what I mean? But it really wasn't a whole lot outside of that. So my cousins wanted to be a doctor. Shout out to him. Cause he did actually become a doctor for you, sir.

And I was going to go to be a lawyer. my school situation kind of didn't work out in my favor to go to law school.

[00:03:09] Crystal: So I graduated from college, but I didn't take my exam, my LSAT exam in time to get into my law school. So I sat a year out and I was like, Oh, what am I going to do?

And so I was working in retail and I had this lady who I To this day called my angel because she came through my line. We struck up a conversation and I had just learned about an IRA. And I remember being so excited. I was like, Ooh, they pay you money for your money. Like that is so, so we struck up a conversation and she was like, Oh, you're interested in investments.

And I was like, yes, I am actually. She happens to be a manager at Fidelity. So she was like, come and apply at Fidelity, get a job there. And so I did exactly that. And I got a job. I never saw her again in my life.

[00:03:57] Crystal: Exactly. That's why I said she's my angel because she, Open me up to this world that I had no clue about.

I would have never went and done it on my own, but because she told me to do it, I did it. And that's what started my whole journey. I started at Fidelity, got licensed and have been in this industry ever since.

I had the same feeling that when I was doing my accounting classes and things of that nature, everybody was like, your personality is not supposed to be behind a desk. You are just too much fun to be, you know, just.

I'm like, well, what else can I do? And so it sounds to me when you went to Fidelity, it was more so for you to get to know more about finance or was it more so of, let me just figure out this new career path because you was going to do law, be a lawyer, but now you found this new industry.

I had given up the dreams of being a lawyer because once I didn't get into school, once you take a break from school, it's real hard to go

[00:05:06] Crystal: I was like, I don't know if I really wanted to do that. I was already starting a family at that time.

So I really was like, I need to pick a career. You know what I mean? I needed to get into an industry. I needed some benefits. Okay. Let's keep it all the way. I needed some benefits cause I was about to have a baby. So I was like, you know, I had found I was pregnant and everything. So that's really what I went there for.

And I was like, I do want to learn about all this stuff. Because personally, I don't have anybody else to teach me this. And I knew that I was good with money, but all I knew was to save it. I didn't know anything about investing. So understanding that I could learn this, I was like, Oh, let me find out.

And it was so crazy because I was so naive to the industry to the point where. I was taking my studying for my licenses. I didn't even know what the licenses were for.

[00:05:58] Crystal: I just knew they say, you're gonna need to take these licenses and keep your job. I said, okay, bet. And so I did just that.

And I remember, one of my coworkers sitting next to me and he was a white guy and he was like, do you even know what this test is for? Mind you, I'm like, this test is for my job. Right? This was my Series 7, so my stockbroker's license. So he was like, you know, this is a stockbroker's license.

This means we can go work on wall street once we're licensed with this. I said, wait, what? That's how naive I was to what I was even doing. So that's why I said, I know it was an angel, coming to me because I would have never even known that I could be in that cause I've never seen it. I've never been exposed to it.

I did not know what I was doing, but. I know that it was orchestrated for me to do it that way because that was the entry level. Those were entry level companies. So they get you licensed, they get you into learning the basics about investments.

And then every company that I have worked at since has progressed me gradually in my career.

[00:07:05] Crystal: It has been so phenomenal to see because I started with my foundation there. I moved to another company, that got me more licenses so that I became the stockbroker license, the investment advisor license.

So like when I say financial advisor, I mean, because a lot of people will use that term loosely and they just say that they're a financial advisor and they're not because you're not licensed as an investment advisor to give advice. That's what you're supposed to do, you know, when you want to become an advisor.

so I went through that, got more licenses, and then I got to be from that second job, I got to go out into the field and work on the field team because before I was in the office, just on the phones and stuff, and then I went into the field and I loved it, The people, so when I went out into the field, I did that as like, I was promoted to a part time on that, and then I moved to my next job, which was a referral from somebody else who I work with.

And that was a full field job. So I was like, Ooh, I'm out here. I'm talking to people. I'm getting them set up with their investment accounts. It was amazing. I did that for eight years and yeah, I was, because I had flexibility in my schedule, I was able to do all things and how loved what I did. But then after eight years, I was like, ah, I've been saying the same old thing for the last eight years, you know, I needed to move around.

So I became independent and so being independent, I'm not attached to any brokerage firm. So now, when I went to an independent firm, they were able to help me focus on the actual financial planning of it all. And so I got to, you know, learn and study how to do financial planning.

So we're talking about all the different areas of your finances from the investments to your business, to your cashflow, to your estate planning, your legacy planning, the whole gambit, you know? so that was what really intrigued me. So then I'm like, Ooh, I like that even more. So every step was showing me more of what I liked.

And so with the most recent move that I did, it allowed me to hone in on exactly what I like and the clientele that I wanted to attract because I know they're, we're less than 1 percent in this industry.

[00:09:28] Crystal: So the fact that we hear, if we're less than 1%, that means nobody is catering to our community,

[00:09:35] Crystal: Because our counterparts don't care about our communities. And a lot of that is because there's not a lot assets in our community. So You know, I joined a firm that is fully about the melanin baby. so that led me to being able to really be in the career in the way that I show up this.

So I want to ask you with that being stated, What does wealth management mean to you? So

Typically we're chasing the money, you know, we're going up in our careers, we're starting businesses, we're making more money, but we don't know what to do with that money when we get it. So then if you don't know what to do to turn that income into wealth, then you start over from zero every year.

So we need to build wealth, which is the accumulation of assets. And that is what wealth management is for me.

What does the consultation look like, just as far as educating them on where they are versus. This is where we need to be in order to make these type of goals.

That's great. Over how long?

[00:11:22] Crystal: Because you could be a millionaire, make it, you know, a certain amount over 20 years, right? Or you could be a millionaire in one year. Those are very different plans and it's a lot different work ethic and foundation that you would have to have.

So that's the first thing you need to know what time frame you're looking at. And then the second thing is I need to know where you're starting from and what your end goal looks like, because people don't, they have an idea of being a millionaire, but they don't really realize what a millionaire is. So you can make a million dollars in a year and not be a millionaire.

You

can make a hundred thousand dollars and be a millionaire because a millionaire is based on your assets. So you could literally buy a million dollar house and be a millionaire technically because you own a million dollar asset.

So what does that look like for you? are you saying I need my overall net worth of all of my assets, all of my accumulations to equate to a million dollars.

How do you combine that to educate your clients?

that's the quote card, So when you think about assets, Everything funnels down into three main asset categories.

So, I'll break that down because those three asset categories are one, real estate. We all know real estate, right? That is the biggest one because we hear all millionaires have real estate. Right. There's a reason, okay? It's not, that's not how they're accumulating their millionaire status.

But once you get there, you realize you need some real estate because you need some tax deductions

[00:13:35] Crystal: So Real estate every millionaire typically has real estate not because they're a real estate mogul They are They have a good financial advisor and CPA that tells them for these tax purposes, I'm going to need you to buy some property.

[00:13:50] Crystal: that's why real estate is one of the most known. The second one is the stock market.

[00:13:57] Crystal: So we don't even think about it really. But if you think about outside of owning a home or owning real estate, again, your biggest lump sum of money is typically in a 401k. You don't typically have money just sitting in your bank account unless you don't know what to do with it, which you need to come see me.

but you typically have it in a 401k. That's the second largest asset for the average person. Gotcha. And that's in the stock market. The third one is business and business is either one that you own or manage or one that you work for. If you think about all income that you make comes through those three categories.

If you are working for a business, that's where your income comes from. You are the company's asset. but if you own the business, then the business is your asset because it's producing income for you.

How do you fit them in to understand, okay, these are the three different ways, which one is your goal?

[00:15:10] Brianna: talk them through that process?

Because for somebody who's like, I want to get into real estate, but you don't even own your own property. You don't even know the first step. Of how to do that. So before you go try to build this empire, you need to know how to do it for yourself.

[00:15:37] Crystal: Right. So that might not be feasible for us to just jump into there. If you say, okay, I have a 401k. So you're familiar with investing. You may not understand it. You may not have never looked at the account, but you at least know what it is. You know that this is a, an account that's going to hold some money and be investing.

You hope for the best. Right. So if you have, some energy to put into investing, then we can go down that path. If you are a business owner or you have a side hustle that can be turned into a business, then we can go that route. If it is a route that can be proven that it can make you income.

So business ideas and these side hustles. It's a difference. It's a whole different story. Because. You can think that idea is profitable. You could actually technically be in business and losing money.

[00:16:30] Crystal: So I need something that's proven that's going to actually make you money. And I need to know, how much effort you're willing to put into that so we can grow and scale it.

What does that conversation look like?

if you don't tell the doctor about it, they can't prescribe anything for it. Makes sense. And they have seen it all. They didn't see one, but they didn't see two, but they didn't see three. So there's nothing that's going to surprise them. And I tell my clients the same thing.

I've been doing this for 18 years. Ain't nothing that can surprise me at this point. I've seen people have more debt than their eyeballs can handle. I'm like, you done went to school for 11, 12, 13 years. You ain't a doctor yet.

[00:17:59] Crystal: didn't even know it because they didn't look at all the things in totality. so I've seen everything. So I cannot diagnose anything that I don't know about. So if you don't tell me, if you don't want to disclose, and I tell them you can disclose as little or as much as you want

[00:18:14] Crystal: I can only work with what I know.

I've never had an issue with anybody disclosing anything.

[00:18:23] Crystal: Exactly. Because if I tell you to do something and I don't know the background behind what you got going on over here, it can negatively impact what you're already doing.

I actually had a couple that was like that. I was meeting with the husband for months And I realized that he really wasn't acting on it and I couldn't figure out why. And until he had a joint meeting with his wife, and when his wife disclosed, Oh, they got a mountain of debt over here that is like choking them.

So he doesn't even have the capacity to do the things that I was telling him to do because he's struggling to figure out this eyesore over here that he didn't disclose to me. So I was like, baby, because by the time I got, by the time I got, I had put a whole little plan. Cause even when they told me about that, I'm like, okay, we'll come together with a debt plan and you know, we'll work with what you have left over and I put this whole plan together and at the end of it, you know, I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay, so what do you guys think about the plan?

Cause I need to know if you're going to act on it. Right. And so, you know, he was like, oh yeah, it sounds good. And the wife and I'm like, The wife was like, well, I don't really know how we gonna do that because the numbers that they gave me. Were not the final numbers of what they actually had.

[00:19:43] Crystal: So I said, baby, I can stretch all of this. Everything I just said is null and void because I didn't have all the information. I asked you specifically for the information. You gave me what you wanted to give me. And I developed a plan based off of that. And now it is null and void. Yes. So that's how I approach it.

So that's why, you know, if you want to get results, you got to be upfront and honest with me. You got to tell me what's, what's under the hatch, you know what I mean? Lay that on the table. And then I can say, Hey, okay, look, you know, we, we got to pivot another route, you know, to get this done. Or you going to have to put in some serious work effort to really get this under wraps.

[00:20:52] Crystal: success

[00:20:53] Crystal: So I had a company, As a financial advisor, one of the roles that I also do is fractional CFOing, which is where I am your part time CFO for your company. Cause typically if you don't know what to do with your personal finances, you sure don't know what to do with your business finances. True.

So I stepped in with this business who had a major, major tax bill. And they were like, you know, they came up very quickly within a matter of two years, went from six figures to a couple of million dollars. And so that landed them a huge tax bill. And so I worked with them to put in different strategies and techniques to get that tax bill down to where it was eliminated.

And then the next year they had the whole game plan of how to build assets in the company.

[00:22:05] Crystal: So it's not that you just come to the end of the year and you. Get surprised by what your tax bill is right if you actually have things in place you get to determine what your tax bill is

This is exciting And then after that, we're going to talk about a low that made you question if you were in the right industry or if you anything to question life in general, because of course you're still here. So let's talk about how that either questioned you and then on the other side, how you got to where you are today.

It doesn't cater to millennials because we ain't trying to wait till 65 to retire. Like we got to talk about it. Okay. Like we already retired. Okay. Retired. We already fired again. So I realized I'm like, you know, me, you know, helping them set up just a 401k plan, put 400 hours a month and retire in 40 years that wasn't cutting it.

So being able to find a company who caters to millennials and entrepreneurial people and really our community, it allows me to speak the language to a way that is digestible and understandable. so that was really, really huge for me. And we create, you know, we have a culture. That is fun. It's inclusive, and it allows for us to really see that finances are not just boring, you know, where it's not buttoned up.

It's not stuck up. You could me and my class. I have a bar. Okay, if you like, you see this interview right here, this is how we be. We be in there cutting up. I love that because they Feel very comfortable with me. They're excited to talk to me and you know, they're excited to meet with me and they're like, Oh, I can't wait to sign next to me and that's how it should be.

You know, before it's like you dread all these numbers. It looks terrible and I don't know what I'm doing and she's going to judge me like it starts off like that. But once you have your meeting with me, you're like, Oh girl, you know what I mean? And so I love that. Because it really allows me to get the fulfillment that I've been searching for my entire career because I've always been the type person who is willing and have a heart to help people, but I didn't feel like I was helping them enough.

And so now I'm able to really see the transformation and the impact that I'm able to have amongst these clients, some of my clients are millionaires, this is the first time coming into that kind of money.

They need somebody to help service them, but I give them the same attention that I give somebody who's making a hundred thousand dollars. So you're going to get the steps so that you can get to that million dollars, but I am Able to really be able to focus on what their needs are and go get those, which is why being independent helps so much because I don't have to just focus on only selling the products and services that my company is affiliated with.

We don't sell products and services like that. So when I get to be unbiased and say, okay, you got your account over here. Yeah, that's cool. But this company over here is better for what you're doing. Right. So, yes, so that is a high.

And you're here with us today.

I don't want to manage people. So I remember, one of my managers at one of my former companies, he was like, Crystal, you know, you're great at what you do. And, you know, They're going to start looking at you for promotion into the management and director role. And I was like, I don't really want to, because I don't like managing people.

I like being with the clients because I know that's where my impact is. And he told me, he was like, you know, if you, if they offer you that and you decline it, You're going to be where you are for a very long time because they're not going to come back around and offer that again.

And I was like, dang, it was really, a realization that I had to come to, like, what do I want my future to look like, you know, and I didn't see a whole lot of options I was there for a couple more years before I moved to, being independent. And I realized I needed to not be stifled in my growth and I needed to determine how my growth was going to look

[00:27:17] Crystal: I didn't want it to be dictated by you have to go this route.

I wanted to do it on my own terms.

So you can do either one statement or one word for someone that's listening to just give them some encouragement. A lot of times we pay 5, to go to these coaching sessions, but then everything goes over our head, right? So let's give somebody just something that they can take away from this episode.

[00:28:00] Brianna: you

I'm in mentorships because I want to learn from people who are doing it on a much larger scale than me. So it allows me to see. See it because once you're exposed to it, then you know, it's possible. You can't go back from that. But if you are not willing to invest in yourself and become a better version of yourself, it doesn't matter how much you're exposed to.

You're never going to get there because you don't even believe that you're capable of doing it.

[00:28:37] Crystal: that was one of the things like within this past. Two years. I have forced myself to go outside of my comfort zone. I forced myself to be out there and it has given me the validation of saying, you belong here.

[00:28:54] Crystal: And it really, it changed everything because I'm like, you know, I've been doing this for a while, but I don't feel like I'm on the level that I should be on, I needed to invest in myself. I needed to get around people who are also doing something on a high level because then that becomes your new norm.

When you're around people who we all doing the same thing, you're never going to be pushed outside of your comfort zone. So with me doing that, I'm like, okay, like they ain't out here playing. I'm over here teeny bopping. Like, no, I gotta grow up. So that is the number one thing that I know has helped me throughout all of my journey is investing in myself.

[00:29:42] Crystal: A hundred percent. Because you don't wanna be the least in the room.

True. You never wanna be that person where, oh, you know, because I ain't doing nothing like you check. Exactly. You want to have a win to share. You want to have, you know, things that are moving along and shaking because you want to be in the room and be looked at as an asset. Cause I want people when they think about wealth management and assets, think about Crystal.

[00:30:11] Crystal: Absolutely. So my website is crystal Roseman. com and my Instagram is where you can find me and the easiest way to get in contact with me. My IG is build with crystal.

So come build with me.

[00:30:24] Crystal: right.

And that's by Warren Buffett. So it's just a full circle moment.

That is hilarious, but that's exactly why I think it's so important. Because your mindset is what determines how far you go.

[00:31:09] Crystal: you are in a stagnant position, it's because you don't feel like you deserve better. We can self sabotage ourselves so easily without even knowing it and realizing it.

Because if you are used to a certain norm, then whenever you get higher than that norm, you're automatically going to put yourself back into your normal state because that's where you're comfortable. So even if you get money, you end up Spinning it or giving it away because you know what your normal comfort zone is.

So you have to raise that floor, raise that floor to where it's higher. So that now, you know, there's certain people who ask like, what is broke for you? And I saw this video and this girl was like, 4, 000 in her bank account was broke for her. And the commentator was like, if I got 4, 000 left over, baby, I'd be like, what are you talking about?

But that is her floor, Right. If your floor is a hundred dollars, then you need to make it 500. If that floor is 500 now it needs to be a thousand because when you keep increasing that floor, you're going to do what it takes to stay above that floor. Makes sense.

[00:32:19] Crystal: I appreciate all this today.

This is a great conversation.

[00:32:31] Crystal: So I feel like, you know, there is no excuse at this point in this state of life.

You know, there's information rampant. So whatever you want to do, you're able to do because there's been so much that has been accomplished in the last couple of years. And I've seen it with my own two eyes, just seeing, how people are being able to change their life. So if you're not happy with your life, You are the only person who can change it.