Empowering Kids for Financial Success with Kiddie Kredit Founder Evan Leaphart

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:00:00

as an entrepreneur, like you continually grow

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and you, evolve and you put a piece here and then you free up space to think.

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Your greatest asset as an entrepreneur is the ability to think.

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And if you have too many things going on, you're gonna dilute that ability.

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And if you just have great people that cover the product aspect for you,

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the sales, the marketing, whatever your business entails, if you have

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great folks around you, it'll help.

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The most common cause of bad customer experience.

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Isn't that high tech.

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It's embarrassingly simple.

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Yep.

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It's answering questions.

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In e-commerce, it's really easy to get bogged down with common questions.

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Whether that's, where's my package, how do I return or exchange this item,

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or just to cancel a subscription?

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Solvpath is an AI-driven customer support system that enhances the

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customer experience with visual formats and self-serve technology

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to empower your customers to handle their own support requests.

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Get the best customer support system for your business.

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Get Solvpath.

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Get started by visiting getsolvpath.com.

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Welcome to FinTech Confidential, bringing you the people, tech and companies

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that change how you pay and get paid.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:01:23

Evan, thank you for joining us today on the show.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:01:26

Thank you for having me.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:01:27

So I wanna do a quick overview of Kiddie Kredit

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because I found it quite interesting.

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It's a mobile app that is a financial literacy tool for children, that

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their parents work along the side with them to encourage them

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for the good financial habits.

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And you are the serial entrepreneur.

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I, did, when I was doing the research, I was looking at 'em like, . So this

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guy just keeps building and building.

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And not only do you build, but you're also a mentor to, to, kids, to startups,

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a whole bunch of things in that area.

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And.

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You also are the co-founder, and I'm, gonna read this so I don't say it wrong,

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of Black Men Talk Tech, which is an entrepreneurship collective that promotes

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collaboration between black men and other members of the tech ecosystem.

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Now, after reading all that, I sit here and I'm wondering like, okay, so with all

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of the things, seeing all these startups, you're in Miami, so you get to see all

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the really cool stuff coming around.

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Why did you choose FinTech and how did you fall into deciding to, do

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what you're doing with Kiddie Kredit?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:02:42

It was a natural evolution for me.

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you talk about starting many businesses, this was the thing I always wanted to do.

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and just falling into FinTech was something that I learned along

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the way, came from a problem, I had messed up credit at 18.

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What happened to me, I didn't wanna have happened to anybody else.

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so that was what led to starting Kiddie Kredit in the first place.

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And then as you start to evolve and say, Hey, how can we more effectively

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teach upon this mission and make sure that they're actually understanding it?

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And in order to do that, we're talking about finance.

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You have to really like, at some point integrate FinTech into what you're doing.

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so it's just, it's been a learning journey ever, since these past couple years.

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So what was that?

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you, you mentioned at 18, not, not having the best credit, what was the motivation

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to go even further down earlier into the cycle with children with Kiddie Kredit?

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Because I realized the, first conversation a lot

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of people have around money is too late.

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you a lot of families, a lot of individuals, they don't understand how

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important credit is until they're trying to do something for the first time.

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You're trying to buy a home.

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You're trying to buy a car, you're trying to apply for a loan to start a business,

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and then they pull this, number and you realize how much weight it has on you.

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And you're like, man, I, didn't even really understand this.

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when I started to, really dive into this topic, I saw that studies show that you

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start to form your habits around money between the ages of seven and nine.

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So even though we're making steps in the right direction now, like with mandatory

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personal financials classes in high school, you still already have some habits

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around the way that you use your money.

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They're already developed.

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So I was like, how do we do this earlier in a way that it's effective?

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and I just found the common denominator to change habits being around chores.

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How would you define.

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For the audience, how would you define the mission of Kiddie Kredit?

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I touched on it, but,

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I'd love for you in your own words, to really dive into what the mission is.

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I would say our overarching statement is building

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a financially free future for all.

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because we're starting at, at, kids.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:04:50

And that could be a tongue twister man.

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There's a lot of tongue twisters in this

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Kiddie Kredit and Black Men Talk.

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It's funny, you talk about Black Men Talk Tech sometimes I get

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black men tech talk and stuff.

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we didn't expect it to be a tongue twister when we created it.

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But, no, it's, it's, really about early childhood education around the

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concepts of finance in particular credit.

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if, you understand it, efficiently, it's a tool.

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But if you don't understand it at all, it can be a detriment to you.

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Like you can, set you back seven, 10 years depending on how bad it got.

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So

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Yeah.

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So

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we look at all these different data points, that you're

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leveraging and all that fun stuff.

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When you started the journey with Kiddie Kredit, what have you learned

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about FinTech from when you originally had the idea to where it's at today?

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What was like, what's the biggest learning you've had about FinTech?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:05:48

And just how many components of finance there are.

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it's not just, to the, everyday consumer like me a couple years ago, right?

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It's like you, you have a bank account or you have a credit card.

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And you spend or you earn.

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Right?

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Like there's just very simple components.

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You weren't thinking about like the transmission of the payments.

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Like where are like interchanges coming from and how are these things split?

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And who's owning different parts of,

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this entire ecosystem and then how many compliance things you

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have to, take into account for how many regulation pieces there are?

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So it was just a lot to really, dive into.

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And we really got our first kind of crash course in FinTech last year.

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We attended the, this is accelerator called Falls FinTech, which

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was ran by, Central Payments.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

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Yeah, no, I, know that crew

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: 00:06:40

very

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: 00:06:40

well.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:06:41

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:06:41

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:06:41

Good folks there.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

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So recently

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: 00:06:45

there's been a lot of talk about the tightening of lending and the slowing

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: 00:06:51

of the economy, and even though I doubt you've got a hot tub time

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: 00:06:57

machine or a crystal ball to look into, I'm assuming that you can see

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: 00:07:03

there's some opportunities for Kiddie Kredit as all of this comes along.

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: 00:07:08

Can.

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: 00:07:09

Look ahead about five years and explain where you see Kiddie Kredit

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: 00:07:15

really playing in the personal finance

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: 00:07:18

space?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:07:18

Yeah.

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so I've always seen what we're building with Kiddie Kredit is

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phase one of our journey, right?

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So we're where teens aren't gonna use something named Kiddie, right?

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And then that was by design, right?

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So we figure out how do we, what is the evolution of our products?

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So we, have some things in our roadmap for that.

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but I would just say in terms of credit space as a whole, right?

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We're, not.

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We're not building this so that you instinctively un understand a

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FICO or a Vantage score at nine.

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We're just trying to shape habits, right?

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And, those habits are agnostic to wherever we go in credit, right?

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You understand the missed chores like a missed payment.

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The longer you've had a chores, like the longer you've had a credit card.

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These are instilling positive habits that will hold true wherever

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we go in, in the world of credit.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

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With that perspective, how, is

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: 00:08:12

Kiddie Kredit positioned to lead in that financial literacy tool?

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: 00:08:21

Ecosystem?

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in delivering these very, and I'm, not meaning to put words in your

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: 00:08:29

mouth, but a very gamified experience?

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: 00:08:32

How are you, how are you working to continue to lead in that space?

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:08:35

I,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:08:35

it's important that you, I'm glad you

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used the word gamify, because that's important when you're talking about

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the demographic we're trying to reach.

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you can't just, I, see there's attempts at financial literacy sometimes

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where you just throw lessons in an eight year old or 11 year old's face.

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And you have to, earn the right for them to even want to be able

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to do that in the first place.

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so like our design is basically saying we're doing this

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through chores first, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:03

You earn these rewards, which are called Bamboo Bucks, but then now we've created

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a tangible reward that this kid can attain and they go, I wanna get this faster.

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I've done all my chores for the week.

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What can I do?

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Now just just at that point, not before, we've now developed the opportunity

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:18

to teach you to say, okay, if you wanna earn access to your Bamboo Bucks

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faster, you can learn about some stuff.

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So we've developed over 200 hours of educational content that meets multiple

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:28

national financial literacy standards, and we segment it into different age groups.

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So if you're between four to seven, our mascots are a panda, you're a cub, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:37

And then if you're between eight and 12, you're a panda.

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And then, as we start to think beyond in teens, be like a giant panda, et cetera.

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But, making sure that, content is relevant to your age group.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:48

If you're trying to teach the same thing to a five year old as a nine

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year old, you're gonna miss the mark.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:53

Same thing if you're trying to teach same thing to an 11 year old and a 14 year old.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:56

You gotta meet them where, they're at.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:09:58

And you also have to create a desire for them to wanna learn in the first place.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:03

So

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:03

during your panel the other day, there was, a comment that was made that

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:08

was relatively new to me, and I don't know if you mentioned or somebody else

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:14

mentioned it, but it was something about money scripts and I'm curious and

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:21

if you would, just help me out here?

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:24

What are money scripts?

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:10:26

And which are the most detrimental and why?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:31

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:31

So the money script side, there's, four of them.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:34

the, author Brad, who really coined his terms said, think there's money avoidance.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:38

There's there's money worship, there's money vigilance, and forgive

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:42

me cause I forgot the fourth, but vigilance is the most healthy one.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:45

It's essentially saying you take your money seriously.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:47

you're not, like avoidance is I'm not gonna have a con,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:50

conversation about this at all.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:52

I just.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:53

It's, it's too stressful, it's too much.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:10:56

and if you start to have a conversation with kids about money early, so

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:00

they see it as a tool and something that they can take seriously, you're

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really setting them up for success.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:07

Like you, for me, as a kid, I grew up with a single mom.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:11

My mom was a flight attendant, so she worked many days outta the week.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:14

So a lot of times I was fending for myself and I understood the

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:17

value of money because I saw how hard she worked to get it.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:20

I still didn't make the greatest decisions though, but I understood the value of it.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:23

And, so I was, the moment that I could do anything to earn extra

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:28

money, I would, I got excited for snow days for different reasons.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:31

I wasn't like, oh, I can go out on a sled.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:33

I was like, Take out a paper, take out a pen, write your name and number

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:37

on there, and put it on every single windshield in the parking lot and tell

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:40

people you shovel their snow for $20.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:43

So that was like my, that was my thing.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:46

I've always seen it as a tool, to help me get the things that I, want.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:52

So I, I have strong wants.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:54

So I think I just there's a money status.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:57

There's money status.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:58

Those ones.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:11:58

This is money status and money worship.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:12:00

So I knew you'd grab it eventually.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:01

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:01

Just gimme some time.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:04

Jet lag, I'm usually on Florida time.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:07

but yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:07

So that was, that's always been there, but I've, always understood the

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:12

importance of, earning money to get the

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:14

things that you want.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:12:15

So I want to, you, do, you

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:12:16

mentioned that vigilance.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:12:18

Is it the most beneficial, healthy

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:21

Out of the four, like the, the author coins

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:23

that to be the most healthy of the four.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:24

It's like you're saying, you're taking it, you, you, don't worship it.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:27

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:28

you don't see, you don't define your self worth to money.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:32

you, don't avoid it.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:34

Like you, you actually, you take it seriously and you say,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:36

Hey, like we have money here.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:38

We have a hundred dollars, or we have a hundred thousand dollars

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:41

or a hundred million dollars.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:43

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:43

Whatever the case may be.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:44

I'd love to be the third.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:47

and then you and then you figure out essentially like, how do I use this in a

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:52

way that's going to better me, like in the current state and then also in the future?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:12:57

And then also depending on who else you're responsible for, how can you

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:13:01

also put them in positions to win?

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:04

The most common cause of bad customer experience,

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:08

isn't that high tech.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:10

It's embarrassingly simple.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:12

Yep.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:12

It's answering questions.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:14

In e-commerce, it's really easy to get bogged down with common questions,

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:19

whether that's Where's my package, how do I return or exchange this item?

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:24

Or just to cancel a subscription.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:27

Solvpath is an AI driven customer support system that enhances the

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:33

customer experience with visual formats and self-serve technology.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:37

To empower your customers to handle their own support requests, get

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:41

the best customer support system for your business, get Solvpath.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:47

Get started by visiting getsolvpath.com.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:13:54

So as you can imagine, most people don't start out in that vigilant state.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:14:01

How would you see someone flipping the script into being vigilant

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:14:06

versus one of the other three?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:08

I would say the, unfortunate thing in most

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:12

cases, is it typically takes, an event that causes like a seismic shift.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:18

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:18

Like you had a car, was repossessed, you had a home, the home was foreclosed,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:24

you were married, you went through a divorce, you had health complications.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:30

it, many different things happened to folks where it just, it sets you back

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:34

from what was your financial norm.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:36

And.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:37

You, you have these moments where you, they don't happen all the time, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:43

It's, career things too, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:44

You lose a job and you're like, man, I could use this moment to just go back

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:48

into something that I may not want to do.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:50

Or I could use this to actually take control of the rest of my life.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:53

And I think that same thing happens with your finances.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:55

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:56

so hopefully for most people, it doesn't have to be that.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:14:58

But I, from what I've seen is there's typically some moment

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:15:02

that causes this drastic change in their financial behaviors.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:15:05

What was yours?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:08

that's a great question

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:10

because it's still changing.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:12

like I would say, it, it became a greater sense of responsibility.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:17

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:19

I'm, married now, I have a business that has, employees I'm responsible

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:24

for, and you just get older.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:26

So I, wouldn't say mine was, this seismic shift, but I, had

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:30

things happen in my twenties.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:31

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:31

Like I, I had a, car that was repossessed.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:34

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:35

I, learned the hard way about things that happened to my credit and, those

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:38

things I would never let happen again.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:40

So I would, I would say it was just, you start to develop a sense of responsibility

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:47

of what you need to do, and make sure that you don't put yourself in the pitfalls

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:15:52

to, not only at this point endanger myself, but endanger those like around me.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:15:57

Yeah.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:15:59

So you mentioned earlier a little bit of jet lag.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:02

We are here at, the Money, MX's Money Experience Summit 2022, we're at

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:10

Snowbird here in Utah, which is freaking

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:13

gorgeous outside.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:16:13

It's amazing.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:16:14

By the way.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:16

What do you hope that the attendees from,

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:19

this event, and even more specifically to the panel that you were on around

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:26

changing money norms and, identifying biases, what, was your hoping that

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:32

they would take away from that

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:16:33

discussion?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:36

one.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:37

Bias recognition.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:39

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:39

the Savvy Documentary was amazing and it really just talks about like, how much

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:43

injustice women have went through when it comes to finance in this country.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:47

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:47

Like the fact that you had to have your husband as an authorized user up until

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:51

the sixties or seventies is, insane.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:55

so that first.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:56

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:16:57

And then, so like looking at it from a macro level, I think from a micro level

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:00

and understanding how people internalize the conversation, just start having

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:04

a family conversation around money.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:06

I, think one thing I, I was talking about for me, you have to think larger

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:14

about money and not just how about how it affects you individually,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:16

but like those around you.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:20

talking about wills and things of that nature.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:23

You've mentioned something, it was real.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:25

So you mentioned like life insurance while you're sitting out there.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:17:28

Life insurance.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:17:28

Super important.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:29

Yeah, and it was interesting

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:30

because I even talked to my wife about this, so she's here helping.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:34

and, it was interesting because you made the comment of make sure you check

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:41

all the right boxes.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:17:44

Kind of help us understand where, did that piece come from?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:47

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:48

it was a real moment for me.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:51

startup founder, our lives were crazy, but last year my dad fell ill.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:17:56

And, he had a condition, it wasn't a condition that you

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:00

would, that would kill you per se.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:03

But he ended up, out of the blue earlier this year, passing away.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:11

And in my situation it was a little easier.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:14

He was not married.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:17

he had a fiancee, who was absolutely amazing.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:20

but I was the only child, so like that whole probate process was a lot easier.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:24

But if you have siblings in different places, and then you know, you have

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:29

a, you're, technically like still married, you're not divorced, like

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:34

those things can get very choppy.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:36

So if you don't have a, whole like, succession plan and will and, all

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:41

that, those things set up, you can make it very difficult for folks.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:45

it was difficult for me and it was, and, it was relatively easy in comparison.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:52

setting up life insurance, don't think just about the now, think about the

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:55

future and think about, removing yourself from the equation and saying, Hey, if

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:18:59

I was no longer to be here tomorrow, what would continue without issue?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:05

And what would abruptly stop without a true succession plan?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:10

so yeah, it was a big lesson I learned.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:13

Oh, sorry to hear about

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:14

your loss.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:19:15

He was a great individual.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:18

We're coming towards the

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:19

end of our, time together.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:21

You and I could probably talk for a long time about all these different things.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:25

If you were to give FinTech founders that one piece of advice on how to build

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:32

a successful company, and I know you spent a lot of time mentoring startups.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:35

I'm I'm really curious to understand what would that one piece of

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:19:38

advice be, especially in FinTech?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:41

Stay

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:42

the dumbest person in the room.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:45

, Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:46

Yeah.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:19:47

You want to give a little bit of extra

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:19:48

background to that?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:49

you know that's a reverse conversation

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:51

of the, Henry Ford quote of always hire people smarter than me.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:54

But it's basically like you want to find advisors, you want to find mentors, you

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:19:59

wanna make key hires, key contractors, people that just have domain expertise

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:04

and they're great at what they do.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:05

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:06

So, as an entrepreneur, like you continually grow and you, evolve

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:11

and you put a piece here, and then you free up space to think.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:14

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:14

Like your, greatest asset as an entrepreneur is the ability to think.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:18

And if you have too many things going on, you're gonna dilute that ability.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:22

And if you just have great people that cover the product aspect for you,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:25

the sales, the marketing development.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:28

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:28

Like compliance, whatever, your business entails.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:32

if you, have great folks around you it'll help your learning curve greatly.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:38

Like it took me like two years cuz I was, I was a non-technical founder.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:42

I was coming into the tech world with this just like small business mindset, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:47

I had a cleaning business that I sold.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:49

I was one of the original Airbnb hosts in Miami.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:52

But like, all these things were very, mom and pop type of concepts, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:20:57

So just even, like minuscule terms.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:01

When it came to fundraising, like I, I didn't know what a safe was, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:04

When it came to product development, I didn't know what an MVP was.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:07

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:07

So I, learned these things and it's man, if I just had the right people

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:11

around me, like immediately, you're talking about instead of a 24 month

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:21:15

learning curve, that's something that you handle in two to four days.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:21:19

Oh, yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:21

advisors, mentors, and just

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:23

keeping smart people around you.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:21:25

So with that being said, having smart

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:21:28

people and great partners with you, can you tell me what working with

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:21:33

MX has meant for you and your team?

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:21:36

Yeah.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:38

I'm a mission type of guy.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:40

Right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:40

So like when I, when I relate to people or companies, right?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:46

I try to see some of the things that they were, they're working on.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:49

And I just liked MX's approach, not just towards like funds verification, but also

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:53

like just overall financial wellness.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:21:57

and the more I started to dive into the product and understand like how much

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:00

more robust we can make it for things that we have coming in the future,

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:05

you know, it was just a, it was a natural alignment.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:08

And you guys will have a very cool summit.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:10

So it's just this adding to the cake

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:13

. Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:15

to, to participate in it as well.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:18

when we've talked about so much stuff, gone all over the place, is there

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:24

anything that you wanted to make sure that

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:22:27

you were able to express or discuss that maybe I haven't covered today?

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:22:32

no.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:22:34

I, could do the, shameless plug things and tell you to download Kiddie Kredit or

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:22:37

if you're in Miami, go to Black Men Talk Tech October 20th and 21st of this year.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:22:41

But nah, man, this has been cool.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:43

No, we'll go ahead and put the links to

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:46

Kiddie Kredit into the show notes and all of the descriptions and everything.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:50

We'll also get the link to the podcasts.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:52

I think you got two podcasts going, one for Kiddie Kredit,

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:55

one for Black Men Talk Tech.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:22:57

we'll get the links and everything pulled together for you.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:23:01

Man.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:23:01

I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down and, go through this.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:23:05

This is something that I wish I would've had, when my kids were little.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:23:10

They're not little anymore.

d Huff | Fintech Confidential: 00:23:13

. But it also gives me a little sense that, I may have done a few things right.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:23:18

From our conversations, outside of this man.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:23:21

You definitely have, man.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit: 00:23:22

So kudos to you.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:23:23

I appreciate

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:23:24

it.

Tedd Huff | Fintech Confidential:

: 00:23:24

Evan, thanks again man, and safe trip home.

Evan Leaphart | Kiddie Kredit:

: 00:23:27

Thank you, man.

: 00:23:27

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