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Helllllloooooooo, Season 2! We’re kicking things off with a bang. On this episode of The Dough, we’re talking to the Bachelorette, Michelle Young!

Michelle was an elementary school teacher in 2020 when she received a mysterious invitation to audition for The Bachelor. Four years later, she’s practically a household name. And she’s here today to spill the tea about the dollars and cents of reality TV. From how much she got paid to a certain $200,000 check!

This series was created in partnership with Flourish Ventures, an early-stage global investment firm backing mission-driven entrepreneurs and industry influencers working toward a fair finance system for all. Learn more at flourishventures.com.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

You can find Michelle Young on Instagram at @michelleyoung, or donate to her foundation at https://www.themichelleyoungfoundation.org/.

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To follow along with a transcript, go to lemonadamedia.com/show/ shortly after the air date.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Speaker 2, Speaker 4, Speaker 3, Speaker 1, X Mayo, Michelle Young

Speaker 1  01:26

Would you ever leave your day job to be on reality TV?

 

Speaker 2  01:32

Yeah, bbut only like, I don’t know. Just for like, the bit, I think I wouldn’t rely on it to be like, what I’m gonna make money off of?

 

Speaker 3  01:43

Oh, I don’t think so. I do love watching reality TV, but I think seeing a lot of people kind of fade into like, being worried about their image and ego is kind of not worth it to me, and then at the end of the day, like, yeah, I feel like I’ll make more money just staying at my job.

 

Speaker 4  02:05

That sounds so fun. That sounds like so much fun. I would love to, that’s a terrible idea, but I would love to.

 

Speaker 1  02:11

Okay, why do you say it’s a terrible idea?

 

Speaker 4  02:14

Because then it’s like, well, what do I have? What opportunities I have after that the rejoined society, but that’s just like such a funny thing to be able to do. And it’s like, you know, that’d be kind of fun.

 

X Mayo  02:26

Welcome back to The Dough, where cash is queen, and I hardly know that bitch, but we’re still here, figuring her out together. Because, hello, this is Season Two. I’m X Mayo, did you miss me? Y’all, I cannot believe they let me do another one of these. I thought to myself, X, they gonna shut you down. You are too real with it. The Illuminati is gonna come for your ass. They sending Jason Bourne right now. But here we are. We made it so we’re gonna drive this season like we stole it, baby. We’re gonna be talking to all kinds of people about their relationship to money, reality stars, entrepreneurs, financial experts, and even some of my own friends, pretty much anybody who will get real with us about the root of all evil, and also spa days. No, really, we wanna know how people make their money, how they spend it, and how the fuck they save it. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m trying to retire early over here, and this week, we’re starting off with someone who’s on the right track. We’re here to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart, what it means to go from being a girl on the street to a goddamn celebrity foreign when you leave your day job, you’re taking a big risk and hoping it pays off, literally. And today’s guest made that transition in front of the whole ass country. This week, we’re going to be talking to the one, the only Michelle Young, who went from teacher to reality star on The Bachelorette, and she’s gonna tell us all about becoming a citizen of bachelor nation. Now, if you’re up on your reality TV, you already know the deal, but for the rest of y’all, in spring 2020, Michelle was an elementary school teacher in Minnesota. She was navigating the pandemic with the rest of us trying to figure out how to teach through a computer screen, keep her students from going insane and stack a shit ton of toilet paper. But by that July, she was in a quarantine bubble in Pennsylvania with 40 of the hottest people in the fucking world filming the bachelor and then that ball, she was back in the classroom, teaching again. Imagine that y’all, you dip out of the most stressful time in your life to be on national TV, and then just like that, is back to work. Michelle’s like the black Cinderella y’all, wait, that’s Brandi. Well, she’s like the second black Cinderella. Anyways, Michelle has been on an absolute roller coaster ever since. She came in second on The Bachelor became the next Bachelorette, got engaged, got single, got burnt out, quit teaching and started a foundation. Girl that makes me tired of saying it out loud and it switched up her whole life financially too. She went from making teacher money to television feature money, and now she’s figuring out how to take that reality show money and bring it back to reality, reality with her new project, the Michelle young foundation. They’re helping underserved kids in the school system y’all, it’s real Abbott elementary over here, but without that sassy ass principal. Okay, anyways, Michelle, welcome to The Dough.

 

Michelle Young  05:42

Hi, thanks for having me.

 

X Mayo  05:43

Yes, thank you okay, so Michelle, we like to open the show up with a little icebreaker. So I want some tea okay, tell me where the hell did your money go this week? What you’ve been spending it on? What did you buy?

 

Michelle Young  05:56

Oh, dang. Okay, well, I just got back from Mexico, so I feel like it wasn’t all inclusive and everything. But I feel like, you know, when you’re there, you still like to buy yourself some different things, or, like, upgrade a meal. So I feel like it all went to food and alcohol and outfits. You know, like the fit checks have to be on point too.

 

X Mayo  06:17

Yes.

 

Michelle Young  06:17

So yeah, we stretched it a little bit. But yeah, it was good. It was worth it.

 

X Mayo  06:21

So let’s take it back to spring 2020. You’re in Minnesota, you’re an elementary school teacher, and you’re trying to figure out how the fuck to use Zoom with the rest of us, right? So unfortunately, in May, George Floyd gets murdered, and the Twin Cities erupt into protests, which we all remember. And it was literally, truly. I mean, it was the biggest protest in history, like, world history, like it was motherfuckers in Denmark talking about black lives matter. It was crazy, right?

 

Michelle Young  06:50

Absolutely.

 

X Mayo  06:51

And in the middle of all that, you get a message saying you’ve been nominated for the Bachelor. So at that point that you were like, it’s giving scam. Did you think that it was like, not real, what’s the first thing that ran through your head?

 

Michelle Young  07:04

So what’s crazy is I actually had an, like, a message that came in and I ignored it, and I really did think it was like spam, or whatever it was, because at that point, I didn’t even have Instagram, or I’d just gotten Instagram, like, a few weeks prior.

 

X Mayo  07:20

What?

 

Michelle Young  07:22

Really.

 

X Mayo  07:23

Michelle, okay, so you were you not a social media person?

 

Michelle Young  07:26

No, I was always late to the social media game.

 

X Mayo  07:29

So. Michelle, do you have a Blackberry today? Where are you at technological?

 

X Mayo  07:33

Oh, the BlackBerry Pearl.

 

Michelle Young  07:34

The BlackBerry Pearl. I love that. But no, you know, I was always late to that game, like all my friends got the razor phone, the flip phone I would get to everything so late, and so I just didn’t have Instagram, and all my friends would take pictures and post and all that stuff. And I knew what it was, and I was always very tech savvy, but I just really never wanted to jump into it. And I saw so many insecurities kind of come out of just the people I was around and comparisons at such an early age that I was like, just seems like more anxiety provoking or stress.

 

X Mayo  08:04

So, wow, you’re so healthy. Michelle, I love that.

 

Michelle Young  08:08

Yeah, you know. Now I have Instagram, so now I have the anxiety, you know. So it caught up. So, you know, now we’re over here, twitching and everything. But I really just didn’t even believe that they were able to find me because they got my email. They sent me an email, and it was like to my college Master’s email that nobody had. So I really just felt like I don’t know how they got it. I don’t didn’t believe it, so I just ignored it, ignored it to the point where I kept getting emails, and it was until August that I finally responded, kind of almost like as a joke, or like, let’s see what this actually is. And hopped on a phone call with a producer, and I was like, oh shit, this is actually real. That was like, I was supposed to take off literally, like, two, three weeks later, after I spoke to them, so I was the last one in the door.

 

X Mayo  09:05

Do you know who nominated you to be on the show?

 

Michelle Young  09:08

I have no idea. To this day, I’ve asked my friends. I don’t know if it’s somebody from, like, my Master’s class that slid my name in. I have no idea.

 

X Mayo  09:18

Why did you decide to do it? Though, were you just like, You know what? I’m single. Okay. We’re stuck in this fucking quarantine, this goddamn house. The world has gone to shit. God is coming back by midnight. Let me just fuck it. Fuck it we ball, you know, like, is that it was that, like, your mindset, or what made you think, okay, you know what I’ll do it?

 

Michelle Young  09:36

You know, I just kind of had a feeling about it. I’m a big like intuition, gut reaction person, and it was just an opportunity that kept popping up. I like to think about taking, you know, I’m a risk taker, but I take calculated risks. And I feel like I worked through a lot, like I worked to be in, you know, in education, I worked through college on a full ride scholarship. And you kind. Kind of already had that reputation and platform, so I was a little scared about how you can be portrayed and how you can get kind of caught up in these different situations. So I really did have to put in a lot of thinking and have a lot of conversations with my family, and they were not really privy to it at the beginning. They were quite against it, and once I made the decision and talked through everything, and they realized I was all on board. Then they were like, okay, well, you’ve thought about this, and we support you.

 

X Mayo  10:26

Yeah, so here on The Dough, Michelle, we love to talk about dollars and cents, right? I love to talk about money. I love it, and I want to destigmatize it, like, I think we should all be transparent about money. So what is being on The Bachelor, like, financially, I would love to know, like, do you guys have like, a day rate as contestants, you’re technically on TV. So is it like, sag.

 

Michelle Young  10:46

Yeah, so as a contestant, you don’t get anything. So when you’re on.

 

X Mayo  10:52

Pause.

 

Michelle Young  10:52

You don’t get anything. You get screen time.

 

X Mayo  10:55

You’ll get any you’ll get any money?

 

Michelle Young  10:57

Yeah, no, you don’t get anything. As a contestant, you get the experience, and experience could potentially turn into things. And I think that’s kind of that whole stigma of when people go and they want screen time, and you can build a platform, and that’s where the money comes from afterwards, which that’s true, but you don’t always have control of how long you’re there or what’s going to happen, even so it is definitely a gamble.

 

X Mayo  11:23

Yeah, and also, too, it doesn’t matter if I could try to build a platform as much as I wanted to, if America and the people are not fucking with me, I’m not going to build anything. And also, I need money today. I have bills that come every month right now.

 

Michelle Young  11:37

And the dresses, the dresses as a contestant, you pay for your own dresses. I mean, I’ve heard stories about women taking out loans to pay for their dresses as a contestant. Now, once you’re the Bachelorette, all that’s included, and you do get like a paycheck once you’re a lead, but, but, yeah, it’s it is quite crazy, just the depths that people go to. I mean, I’ve heard horror stories of people taking out loans of however much money for these dresses, and then getting sent home night one, you have to prepare to be there the entire time. And if you go purchase all the dresses and get sent home night one, you are left with having to pay back a loan, and you have all these dresses.

 

X Mayo  12:15

No, I’m coming in there with one dress, and then they’re gonna be like, X, you’re wearing the same goddamn dress every episode. I said, well, buy me another one. And also, this man still want to fuck me, so how about that? So obviously, the goddamn dress don’t mean nothing, because I’m here for seven episodes. I’m like, no, fuck that. I’m be a trailblazer. God damn it. I’m not fit to sit up here and do all this rent this runway for this man who kissing every goddamn body. That’s another thing, Michelle, for me, because not only covid, the mono, like everybody out here kissing, you got to worry about covid mono, you know, you ain’t that, he ain’t that goddamn hot, you know? Because Michelle, you’re gorgeous. I would be like, I would switch. If I was you, I would have switched positions with him. I’d be like, No, get your ass over there, who want to be with me? Y’all sitting over there, who wants this rose okay.

 

Michelle Young  13:06

Hey, that’s, that’s what it turned into, right?

 

X Mayo  13:11

Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Y’all, Michelle didn’t spend the rest of her life crying over one man. Oh no. She came back the next year with 30 dudes to choose from. The Hustle is unmatched, and speaking of hustle, we got some ads for you, baby. I’ll be back in a minute.

 

X Mayo  16:02

So you came back as the Bachelorette, right? So I assume you made a bunch more, since you were like the star, like you made some more money, you know? Because we all know, you know, yeah, just a little just, this is just a little piece of change, because we know teachers, hello, do not get paid enough in this country. That’s a goddamn problem. It’s insane, the ways in which teachers are underpaid and underappreciated in this country. So I would like to know unreal it is. Did you make more starring on The Bachelorette than you made in a year as a teacher? Did that feel weird, or was just kind of like it was layered? Did you feel like, oh my god, I’m so grateful. But also, God damn.

 

Michelle Young  16:37

I made triple.

 

X Mayo  16:39

Wow.

 

Michelle Young  16:40

I made triple what I just Just, just Bachelorette. I made triple, if not more, than what I would make in one year teaching. And this is this what I want to talk about. This is the crazy thing is okay? So I went to, I went to college on a division one scholarship, so I play basketball, right? And you, when you go into education, it’s something that is just known. You’re not going to make a lot of money. You don’t do it for the money. And of course not, that’s not what we’re there. But what is absolutely just so disgusting is the fact that I came out of college with no debt, because I didn’t have loans, and it was so hard, nearly impossible, to still live off a teacher’s salary. So, like I was working in South Carolina, 36,000 a year.

 

X Mayo  17:27

Excuse me? 36,000 a year?

 

Michelle Young  17:32

36,000 and I had to live off that. And so I had to go to teaching. I was like teaching from 7am to 4pm and then I would literally run that run to a position, like a nanny position, and a nanny from, like, 4:30 and I would get done in between 930 10, and like, I wasn’t even going out to eat and blowing my money over here, or, you know, shopping, like you literally couldn’t. And it was just so wild to me, because I had this moment. I was sitting there, and I was like, you know, you can’t even have a social life because between gas and groceries and, you know, you have your car payment, and you have your apartment rent, whatever that is, it’s like, what? What else do you have left? And I had no debt. And so that’s what was just so wild to me, is like, how are people who paid their way through college and still have to pay off loans? How are they doing this?

 

X Mayo  18:29

The thing is, though, Michelle, I didn’t You made me think about something that I didn’t even consider how much our social life is tied to spending money. Like I didn’t even think about it right now, till you just said it, oh, wow. You gave me a lot to think about. So at the end of that season, you and your ex got offered 200,000 USD Okay, from the producers of The Bachelor for a down payment on a house, and then unfortunately, y’all broke up. So were you able to keep that money, half that money, 10% of that money, did y’all split it down the middle? How did that work?

 

Michelle Young  18:59

So that’s the first time that they’ve ever done that. And so I was told that we were going to split it. And so at that point, I had already talked to multiple people and were like, Hey, I don’t feel like, can I donate this? Can I push it forward? Can I do something with it? Like, I don’t want to just take it like, it just feels weird, right? And it was just a really nasty situation. And then, as, like, you know, the lawyers and people dug into it, it’s like, oh, there’s this contingency at the bottom that if you split, you don’t get to keep it. So, yeah, so we never really saw it. We never saw it. We never anything. And, you know, I had my plans on what I wanted to do with it, but, now kind of turn that into utilizing my own money to still create the plan that I was going to create. So it’s taken a little bit longer, but I was able to, you know, push it and build a nonprofit, but didn’t come from that 100,000 that we would have gotten if we, you know, kind of how we were led with it.

 

X Mayo  20:00

Oh, Michelle, you better than me, because I’m gonna say, Listen, here we finna, start this Instagram together. We finna, get a YouTube channel. These motherfuckers gonna believe we’re together, because we need this money. So I don’t like, listen.

 

Michelle Young  20:11

That was just so not my focus or what was on my mind. You know, I was heart. I was going through heartbreak.

 

X Mayo  20:16

I know you genuinely loved him.

 

Michelle Young  20:18

Yeah.

 

X Mayo  20:19

But no, I’m with you, Michelle, as much as I kid. I know I wouldn’t have been able to fake it. And also that money represents him, that experience, and you have to, there’s energy tied to that, in my opinion, in my opinion.

 

Michelle Young  20:32

Right, exactly that’s, that’s kind of why my ideal goal is to just push it towards, you know, push it towards something good, and that’s as soon as that happened, and as soon as that just switch over was kind of made like I might have been crying and sick on the bathroom floor, but that’s my focus. Is like, okay, how can I just spin this into something good? And it was, it was just a lot, and it’s just something of how much respect you have for yourself too and how you’re treated. And there’s no amount of money that I would just give or take for someone to continue to, you know, not respect you to.

 

X Mayo  21:16

No. Michelle, absolutely not. Annual baller girl, I take that basketball and, baby, I will throw you a chest pass so hard if you don’t get out my face, please.

 

Michelle Young  21:27

I’ll make that shit happen on my you know, I’ll make that happen on my own. Yeah, I love that what we’re doing, you know, with, I love the foundation with homework and hoops and everything that we’re doing over here. It’s like, yeah, that’s what I created on my own, from, you know, my pockets or my network that I created, and so it’s been really good. It’s been very empowering, I would say yes.

 

X Mayo  21:47

And we’re going to get into your nonprofit soon. I just have one more question, if you could please talk about what it felt like to go from like teacher money to celebrity money, like teaching, you know, it isn’t great, but it is consistent, right? The Bachelor, you don’t know when you’re going to get clipped, and you didn’t know you were going to be and, you know, invited back as the Bachelorette. So do you like, miss that stability? And I would love to know what’s been the hardest about, about the financial shift, career wise.

 

Michelle Young  22:14

It’s kind of the social stigma that goes around, specifically teaching and leaving the profession of teaching. And so, like, you do it for the kids, and that’s why you are in the classroom. And so I think it’s just been like a really tug of war game of what society thinks. Oh, well, Michelle left the classroom to go chase money. And it’s like, when you put it like that, it sounds really nasty, but like, No, you get burnt out and you get exhausted and you’re not respected, and, you know, you can’t even make ends meet, and then you kind of switch to this piece, and it comes with the price, right? And there’s a lot of amazing experiences, because I don’t want to come off ungrateful, because I’m so grateful for the platform I have and being able to do the positive impact. But it’s also the, you know, when we look at social media, the weight of it, a lot of it’s not positive, so it’s a platform, but it does come with a price. And so yes, it’s a huge jump in a paycheck, and that’s a lovely thing, but it also is just, you’re never off work, so it’s tricky. And, you know, I feel like there’s times where I’m not allowed to have a bad day, because if I’m out in public and if I look upset or I look mad, it’s like, you know, there was a video that was released a little less than a year ago last summer, and it was this like thread about how someone like came up and spoke to me, and I was just unpleasant. And it was like, oh, well, all of the money and all the influencing has gone to her head. And what people didn’t know is I was pissed off. And the reason why I was pissed off is because I was at the gym working out, and I went into the locker room and I was changing because I’d just gone in the Steam Room. I was changing, I had showered, and some young girl took out her phone and was slyly like, videoing or taking a picture, and was talking to her friend about it. And so yeah, I was I was unpleasant. So when she came up to me and asked me for a photo, once we got outside the locker room, I said, I believe you already got your photo. It’s so frustrating, because you just want to be like, No, the reason I was pissed off, and maybe not so nice, is because I was standing up for myself, because you took a picture of somebody in the freaking locker room, in, like, in the changing room at the gym, like the gym’s my safe space. Come on, like, privacy, like, if there’s just a boundary that’s crossed, and that’s what’s crazy, is because it’s like, it’s not the money that changes, it. It’s the people and how people treat you, and that’s what kind of makes you have a little bit of a harder show sometimes. And here’s the thing, though, is that I love my like. I love fans, I love my supporters. I have a ton of teachers and a ton of women that follow me, and I want to talk to them. I would love for some. One to come up and say, how are you instead of just taking a picture or a video across the bar, right? Like, I don’t want to just be like the prize of a picture that you’re gonna post and then get Instagram likes or whatever it is, like, if you truly care or connect with what I’m saying and who I am as a person, I want to connect back with you.

 

X Mayo  25:21

Bottom line, don’t take pictures of Michelle Young in the motherfucking bathroom, because if she tell me about that, I’m hitting the corner. Don’t fucking do that to Michelle. I don’t like that. Don’t do that to my sis. And it’s Black History Month. I wish you would. I wish you fucking would. Damn don’t do that damn period. One more time for the motherfuckers in the back, leave Michelle alone. Okay, now when we come back, we’re gonna start talking about her new nonprofit, the Michelle Young Foundation, that’s in a minute.

 

X Mayo  25:57

Okay, so we’re gonna move on to your nonprofit, a lovely topic, and you’re in the middle of launching it, your first nonprofit, actually, the Michelle young Foundation, clap it up or insert class here. So what have you learned about the process of starting a foundation, and how do you think it’s different for black girls?

 

Michelle Young  28:25

Shit it takes, like, they make it really hard to help people. That’s what I keep saying over and over again. They make it so damn hard to help people. Like, why is this such a hoop jumping thing? I just starting a nonprofit. You know, you would think nonprofit, it takes a lot of money to start a nonprofit for the founders.

 

X Mayo  28:47

So that’s the oxymoron, right there.

 

Michelle Young  28:49

Yeah, that’s where it’s so funny. It’s the Michelle Young Foundation. Okay, you can’t just wake up one day and be like, hey, I want to start my own foundation. There’s legal paperwork, you have to pay for the lawyers. You have to pay for all these different things, the trade and a lot of times, trademarks and, you know, the website and the socials and the staff, the like, just all this other stuff going into it. And that’s like, before you decide to start school programs. So with what I’m doing, it’s, it’s really a lot of money that comes out of my pocket, a lot of money, and so it’s something that you have to really want to do, and it’s been really fulfilling. It’s been really stressful. I’ve learned a lot about, like, legalities of nonprofits, and my biggest focus is being able to make something that’s sustainable and that can continue to grow. Because a lot of people who kind of get into this, do it a lot later in life like, the average person who starts nonprofit is like, I think it was like between 50 and 54 I’m 30, and they’re typically white, and so I’m definitely an abnormal person to be doing this. Hey, woman of color, that’s nothing new to me, but it’s been a process for sure.

 

X Mayo  30:01

I commend you so much, and I would love to know more about the work that you’re doing. What do you see is lacking in the school system right now, and what is your foundation looking to do about it?

 

Michelle Young  30:11

Yeah, so the school system is lacking everything. Now it’s lacking teachers.

 

X Mayo  30:18

Lacking toilet paper, pencil.

 

Michelle Young  30:21

It’s literally lacking everything. But the biggest thing that when I was in teaching, is just seeing the difference between our students of color and, you know, our other students. And it comes down to, everyone’s heard about the achievement gap, the opportunity gap, especially after covid, it really has just grown a lot with our underprivileged students. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to create an after school program that allows students in fully funded opportunity to get to play an organized sport and to get homework help or targeted skill work, because those are the two things where you know you can grow social emotional skills. I grew up playing basketball, and the reason why I left college and got early into my profession and was so successful is because of the different experiences I had and learned on the court. You think about teamwork, working on a team. You think about maintaining those relationships, being able to navigate through something adversity when you’re pissed off and when you’re angry, learning how to lose, like how to lose. There’s just so many things that come for that opportunity, and so many of our students are underprivileged students, our students of color, who can’t play an organized sport because when they go home, they’re taking care of siblings, or they don’t have the money to do it, they don’t get that opportunity whatsoever to learn and grow when our other students do and so with homework and hoops, it’s an after school program where we have learning coaches and activity coaches, and we do that targeted skill work. So we work with them on meeting them with where they’re at, academically, math and literacy are our main focuses. And then we have our activity coaches who come in and get to coach, do basketball skill work, and we’re trying to provide transportation so that accessibility is not an issue.

 

X Mayo  32:07

And this is going to be launching all over the US or?

 

Michelle Young  32:11

So, I’m actually partnering with the YMCA this spring, yeah, which is huge. Thank you, so I was able to go in, and we’re working, you know, our focus is underprivileged students. So we’re going into North Minneapolis, and we are going to be piloting with the YMCA at one of our schools. And that’s kind of our time to get those kinks out and to really see how it works. And then next year, we would love to open up a few more programs. And then we do have our license in California as well, and we’ll have our International license. So being able to grow as we can, to stay sustainable, but then provide it worldwide is the goal here.

 

X Mayo  32:52

Okay, so now, are you heading it up? Are you going to spend time in on the court and in the classroom? I’m curious to know, are you excited to get back to, like, day to day being with kids?

 

Michelle Young  33:03

Yeah, so this first program coming through piloting, I made a post that I’m back in the classroom. I’m running it, so I am the learning coach, so I am the teacher. I’m really heading up this first pilot program, yeah, this first time around, I really meant it when I said I’m gonna be back in the classroom, because I will be the teacher like MS young really is back. Coach Young is back, and I’m quite excited about it.

 

X Mayo  33:27

So we’re now towards the end. I’m so sad because I found my new best friend. And so I would love to know what advice would you give to Michelle from 2020 besides wear a mask or to other people who want to start their own nonprofit.

 

Michelle Young  33:42

Oh, just really getting into like, reading about finances, because when you go through school, I there, I just never was exposed to anything about, like, finances, and so it’s intimidating, but either asking for help for like people to explain it to you, or sit down and plan with you getting a financial advisor. But like you said at the beginning of this podcast, destigmatizing being able to, like talking about money, and being able to sit down and put time into looking at, okay, what would this actually cost? How would I go about this? How will this change my life? And you know, you kind of can just read about either like the horror stories of starting something like a nonprofit, or the amazing stories where it can become this beautiful thing, but it’s hard to get started. And it does take money, everything takes money. You breathe, and you have to keep spending money and really just taking time to budget and do that. I would recommend that for anybody who’s looking at honestly starting a nonprofit, but also with everything in life, everybody should budget.

 

X Mayo  34:56

Yes, thank you so much for coming on The Dough, Michelle. I, your story and the work that you’re doing is really incredible. It’s so impressive how you’ve managed this huge transition in your life without losing your sense of the work you feel called to do. And I’m super excited to see where you and the foundation go from here. Please follow Michelle young on the socials and please support her foundation. It was such a pleasure speaking with you, Michelle.

 

Michelle Young  35:20

And thank you so much for having me, bye.

 

X Mayo  35:22

Bye, One more time. Everybody give it up for Miss Michelle Young. Y’all she is the most incredible role model for these youth. Imagine going from barely making ends meet as a teacher to making triple your salary overnight, and she kept her calling in mind. She’s still looking to be of service. Not all of us are going to be on The Bachelor, but I think we can all learn something from Michelle. Life throws us all curveballs. Sometimes it’s going through a breakup in front of millions of people. Sometimes it’s just your car getting towed. Okay, yes, that’s personal, but no matter what your ups and downs are, the most important thing is to be true to your values, to know who the fuck you are and live out your purpose. If you got that, you’re gonna be okay no matter what happens. Eat the meat and spit out the bones, baby, and that’s something you can chew on, okay.

 

CREDITS  36:19

There’s more of The Dough with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like more of my convo with Michelle Young. Subscribe now and Apple podcast.  The Dough is a Lemonada original. I’m your host X Mayo. This series was created in partnership with Flourish Ventures. This series is presented by the Margaret Casey Foundation. Our producers are Claire Jones, Rachel Pilgrim and Tony Williams. Kristen Lepore is our senior producer. Mix and Sound Design by Bobby Woody. Original Music by Pat Mesiti-Miller. Jackie Danziger is our Vice President of narrative content. Executive Producers include me X Mayo, Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Help others find our show by leaving us a rating and writing a review. You can follow me on IG  @80dollarsandasuitcase and Lemonada @lemonadamedia across all social platforms, follow The Dough wherever you get your podcast or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership, thanks so much for listening. See you next week, bye.