 Is it about that time though? All right, what the fuck is this? I don't even know. Look at people know that the black market is open and there's money on the floor. And since you know how to get that money, I gotta ring this. You ring your hands. Turn it in there. I heard you are that lady when it comes to getting that. One more for you, because you got a book. Two, two books. You got books teaching people how to go to college when they, yo! Let me do this, because you got a long intro. Okay. Because you got a lot of comics. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the black market, presented and sponsored in part by black people worldwide and the 85 South Shore affiliates. And today I have a very special guest on the black market with us today. She's an author, an idealist, a revolutionary woman that has cracked the code of the matrix of how to get this paper. And you know, I'm always excited to be around some people who know how to do shit like this. So none other than Ms. Jessica Brown. Now look, you gotta, look, this is a whole lot of stuff. This lady does it. Oh, she has a book. She is the president of the College Girl Foundation. You've been on, you got the tour, College Girls First College Tour, that's the name of the book. You're educating families on how to make best informed decisions, you know, around financing a college education. They call you the Financial Aid Fairy Godmother. Yes. That's dope. Yeah. So give the people a brief introduction to some of the other things that you're doing. Let them know what we're dealing with today. All right, well, I'm Jessica Brown. I'm also known as College Girl and the Financial Aid Fairy Godmother. I'm out here sprinkling all my magic on the world and brilliant black minds, making sure that they have an opportunity to see college as a goal or live out their professional endeavors. As an author, philanthropist, entrepreneur, educational news reporter, I have the opportunity to make sure I help people around the nation navigate the seas of how to get this paper. You know what I'm saying? To go to college and have financial freedom post graduation. But with that and teaching people how to pay for college, I said, you know what? I can't be teaching people how to pay and I'm not taking them. So I started doing college tours. We wrap my face and all the brilliant black kids' faces on the bus and we roll to different colleges across the country. We go to HBCU homecoming events. Every month I mentor them and I give them scholarships. I've granted over $75,000 in scholarships since 2018. I'll hear a helping black children go to school. Yeah, that's me. I know Granny and I'm proud of you. Thank you. So what was your inspiration and how did you find yourself becoming the financial aid fairy godmother? Well, my inspiration was one. After college, my mom was like, you need a job. I wanted to be a journalist. And I was like, all right, I had to get a job, pay my bills, so I started working in financial aid at different schools. And then just having friends of mine that weren't able to graduate from college. I'm a proud graduate of Howard University. And seeing some of my friends go home for $500, $1,000 back to the south side of Chicago, not being able to make their educational endeavors come true and be able to go back to school and finish, that was personal for me. So if I could be a vessel and a bridge to help people understand how to do it so that they can get their education, why not? Having an education is the easiest way into the middle class. And as long as you have an education. Hold on, we gotta let that breathe. Yeah, let it breathe. Just let that sit for a second. Keep going. And as long as you have education, you can never be controlled. Every day is about learning. Even if you don't have a formal type of college education, you need to do something. And I'm that girl to make sure that you do whatever you want to do and become the next future leader of tomorrow. Okay, so where do we start with the books? So this is my first book, How to Pay for College When You're Broke. I love the title. Yeah, because my mom let me know you broke. You know what I'm saying? So if you want to go to school. I got money, you broke. Yeah, exactly. So I had nothing. So she was like, you need to figure it out. And I realized every year, over $100 million of scholarship money goes unclaimed. You know what the problem is? We live in the wrong world. We gotta stop scrolling and start doing. The same research we doing to find wigs and shoes and whatever else is the same research you do to find money for college. So I figured I put that in a book. And then from there, I wanted to touch elementary school kids. So I came out with College Girls First College Short, which is a children's book. It got an activity guide, you know? And it's all about helping. I love some activities. You shouldn't have said that. Yeah, I got activities in there. Word search, letter in there called Dear Future Me. So where I want young kids to begin to think about their futures and understand that their future is bright. You know, we focus so much on kids in middle school and high school, but we forget to get them when they're younger. Because that's the best way to mold them, you know, when they're in elementary school. So yeah, that's College Girl. It's dope. Now, how to pay for college when you broke? How do you do that? It's easy. It's being one part. It is easy, because whatever you want, you're gonna go get, right? So, you know, the research is out there. So you wanna make sure that you are doing your free application for federal student aid early, which is the FAFSA, applying for scholarships. You know, there's internships that come with scholarships. There's a lot of different academic programs. If you keep your grades up that you'll be able to enter, you know, that'll allow you to not have to pay a full cost of, you know, college tuition. So there's a lot of different things out there. It's just we wait till the last minute to try to figure it out. Who put you up on the information? Me. Yeah, I saw that there was a hole, right? You got people that's out here just talking about, oh, how to just go to college admission-wise or scholarships. It ain't that one person that's wrapping this all up together as a package. It's like starting a business. There's no real guide to everything you need to do to start an LLC. You just gotta figure it out as you go. So I figured that with college, and that's what I did. I gotta get this book for my son. He gonna be going to school in a few years and he needs to know that he gonna need to know this because he is probably gonna be broke. Right. I mean, I'm not gonna be, but he is. Because I want him to start out on this world, you know. Right. As a real black man, you gotta start off broke. That's the only way you're gonna make it. You gotta say I'm saying that. We have to raise our boys different. As a black man, being broke helps you develop. It's the second phase of maturity. So I'm digging it though. So what can we keep up with you and catch up with you and get in touch with the program? Because you give away money every year. How do you pick your recipients? It all depends. So one, you know, with me being the president of the College Girl Foundation, I have my own kids that I mentor. So automatically all those kids, as long as they're college brown, they get scholarships. Recently I had an amazing partnership with Dark and Lovely, where we granted over 50 scholarships to females around the nation. Right. With the Building Beautiful Futures campaign. I don't mean to cut you off, but a lot of people who have programs and things that they're doing with the kids is they always say that they need, they're not necessarily the need resources, but networking also. So working people reach you for these opportunities, you know, there's other people out there that who don't have a platform as big as you. Right. Who may want to, you know what I mean? Start. I'm on Instagram at CollegeGirl, G-U-R-L-J-V. CollegeGirl.com, CollegeGirlFoundation.org, CollegeGirlFoundation, also on Instagram. So you can find me anywhere. Okay. Keep going. Keep going. You can find my books, How to Pay for College when you're broke. College Girls First College Tour on Amazon. You can find me most likely on any national news network across the country teaching you how to pay for college when you're broke. Yeah. Where else can you find me? I'm gonna tell you where you- On a tour bus with my kids. I know where else you can be found. You've been on Features on Good Morning America, MSNBC, BET, Tamron Hall, Fox Essence. So congratulations on all your success. Thank you. I feel like this is only the beginning for you because you're on to something big and you're on to something great. And I hope to see everybody get some scholarship money. I might go back to school. Come on. I'll help you get back in school. What's up? J.O.N., you want to school? Where you go? What you graduate with? Where you broke when you went, see? Bro, there's some good info in here as I've been flipping through the pages, bro. I like the numbers that I'm seeing. And I need an athletic scholarship. And it's out there. Man, you put it all in here like from Pell Grants to like you said, fast food. Even how to fill it out. Yeah. All the way. All the way. Cause I remember, I feel a mind that one year. And then that was it? I told the truth. They sent me a letter back and said, not only do you need this money, we can't believe that you made it this long without some. Yeah. And there's so much opportunities out there, right? Like, you know, a lot of the students, they only just go to financial aid when it's time for their refunds. You know, when they need to be going throughout the school year, you know, life is about building relationships, right? Your network is your network. So you consistently go to financial aid. You'll find out about more opportunities. You know, money gets recycled all the time. You lose your scholarship. You know, that's money back in the pot. You know, but if you ain't going up there and building those relationships, you'll never know. I'm just flipping through the book and I already know something they don't know. What you know? Purple. They don't even know what purple stands for. All right, what's purple stands for? I'm not gonna tell them. And they're not gonna have no incentive to read the book. Okay, yeah. Y'all got a bite of wood. Y'all got a bite of wood. Learn the terms. Smart borrowing. Uh-huh. Y'all. Federal loans, subsidized or unsupported. You really put it in. Yeah. The direct loan program. And look, even, you even got it broke down to what you need to be making to even qualify. Thank you. What brings us out here doing great things? Man, if you, anybody, like I know it's like we got a huge audience of people who may be around the college age, especially, you know, people going back to school. Pick this book up and check it out, man. It's not one of those books where you gotta go through every page. It's just, you can skip around and you can find exactly what you're looking for. This is definitely like a dictionary of how to get that money. And I appreciate you stopping through here showing me much love. Thank you. And don't let this be the last time. No, I'm not. Because I feel like this is not all, I feel like there's so many other things that you know about money that I need to know. Now, we're gonna team up. We need to do an 85 South College tour with College Girl. Tell me about this. How does this look? How does this look? What does this look like? First off, we do it the College Girl way, right? We get a tour bus and we wrap it. Okay. You know what I'm saying? They gonna know this is our bus. It ain't our bus if you don't see us. Okay. You know? So we go get a group of you to get some high school kids together. You know what I'm saying? On a college tour, we bring local kids. Maybe we could do it from Atlanta, bring them down south, bring them back, day trips, two night trips. You know, and we really educate these kids about seeing the world, gaining social skills, cultural skills, you know, how to become entrepreneurs, be around, surrounded like-minded individuals like themselves, and really see college as a goal. And the fact of the matter is that in life, you're not too old enough to give time. You know what I'm saying? You never realize how much that time really means to these young kids. You know, recently one of my kids was murdered. I never thought that that would happen to me. You know what I'm saying? But the reality is, it's like we need to do more as much as our schools are stripped of resources and things like, I was a Girl Scout long enough. Like, how many Girl Scout troops you know? You know, that are still not- How many cookies did you sell? What? I was in front of Walmart. You know what I'm saying? And I was the only black girl in the Girl Scout troop. You kidding me? So you made money. Yeah, I was learning how to sew, camp, ride horses, all type of stuff, right? Well, them cookies are a billion dollar inch. Your heart has to be messed up to tell a little girl. No thank you. You're spirit. God ain't don't leave him like you probably if you tell little girls you don't want to buy them cookies. But when's the last time you seen the Girl Scout? You know what I'm saying? It's definitely- All Girl Scouts are digital now, ain't it? Nah, like they're supposed to be troops out there that's still doing, you know, selling cookies. I'll be honest. I ain't seen an actual, real-life Girl Scout in 15 years, probably. And that's what I'm saying. But I've seen cookies. Right. Twice a year. And they know they're doing it twice now. Online, yeah, yeah, online. Cookies are nuts. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, they do it online. But you know, it's so important that we bring these resources back to our 85 South College tour. Why nobody ever started a Girl Scout women? Like, it's Girl Scouts, but like, what are women Scouts? Well, I mean, you have sororities for, you know, different things. I mean, I'm a Delta. You know what I'm saying? I knew he was gonna bring that up. I'm a Delta. Okay. You know, we the Reds. Oh, much love to the Reds. Yes, yes, gotta love the Reds. Okay. But, you know, I think that's one of the things that we could do. And I think that'll be dope. Inspire these brilliant kids. Why not? Inspire these brilliant kids. Right. And if they see you doing it, they know it's possible. All we need is one. That's it. I think I reached my one. No, we got more to impact. We got more to impact. I might mess around and reach two or 10. Right. You're a legend in your city like in my city. In my city, though. So let's go. Yeah, so I know I've reached at least one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anything is possible. Ms. Jessica Brown, drop your social media in your contact one more time. At CollegeGirl, G-U-R-L-J-V on Instagram. At CollegeGirlFoundation on Instagram. CollegeGirl.com, CollegeGirlFoundation.org. And yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I'm honored. Black market, Jessica Brown. Money in the building. Here you come up.