We recently connected with Andrew Clarke and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

The first client I had that was not a friend/family/friend-of-a-friend, was someone I met at a church conference.

During one of the lunches at the church conference, I happened to be seated next to Nick, who would later become my client.

Nick asked me what it is that I do and I shared with him that I am a Financial Empowerment Coach.
I explained that I am on a mission to transform lives by teaching skills for creating generational wealth.
He asked what motivated me to do this type of work?
I started out by explaining that I grew up watching my mom work over 100 hours a week to support our family here in America, and family members back in Jamaica.

Nick smiled, and said ‘wow you are also from Jamaica like me.’

I explained that I was born there but we moved to the US when I was very young.
I continued sharing my story by letting him know that, by 15 years old, I realized that working as hard as my mother worked was not healthy, so I started self-educating myself on finances.

I realized the importance of owning real-estate for long term wealth building, the BIG impact credit has on finances, as well as the importance of saving for retirement early, and the importance of multiple streams of income (especially passive ones).

What I learned transformed our lives!
My mom made sure she had jobs that had retirement benefits and even started buying rental properties.

I bought my first property at only 24 years old in the state of Minnesota.
I explained to Nick, that I continued to learn and invest into many other types of investments not just real estate but also stocks, crypto, and even some private equity investments.

I told him that I realized the reason many people struggle financially is because they lack these 3:
1. Financial Knowledge
2. Financial Strategy
3. Systems for Managing their Finances

After I shared my story, Nick said he would very much like to work with me to better his finances and build generational wealth for his family as well.

We setup a meeting and eventually he became one of my clients.

It was exciting because it was unplanned and I never asked him if he wanted to work with me or not.

He was inspired to act simply by me sharing my story.

I learned 2 key lessons that day:

Lesson 1: People want to work with those they feel understand them, especially if they have similar backgrounds.

Lesson 2: You are a representation of the values of your business. Always be ready to share your story and your mission. Those will naturally attract people to want to work with you!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My Background:

My biggest motivation for wanting to help others with their finances is my mom!

When my mom was in her early 30s, we immigrated from Jamaica to the United States.

I was around 3 years old at the time.

She was paid $4 / hour at her first job in the US, which would be equivalent to working for only ~$9.50 / hour today.

With her pay being so low the only way she could afford to support our family and save up money for college was to work A LOT of hours.

Those many hours continued even after she went to college and eventually became a nurse.

My mother strongly believed in taking care of our family especially those who were back in Jamaica and struggled financially.

So, growing up I watched my mom work over 100 hours a week for years!

As a teenager, I began thinking that while my mom was helping us financially, she was not helping herself by working so many hours.

Due to only sleeping 3 to 4 hours a night in addition to the long hours of standing on her feet at work my mom often looked very tired.

At 15 years old, I decided to start educating myself on finances.
The 1st book I read was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
That book really opened my eyes up to the gaps in the education system around financial education.

It also made me realize the importance of real estate for passive income and creating generational wealth.

As I thought about the principles I was learning from the book, I realized that my mom in many ways resembled the poor dad in the story because she had higher education, but traded her time for dollars, and did not know anything about investing money.

When I shared some of the principles from the book with her, it motivated her to get her real estate license, so she could better understand real estate.

This also opened the door for me to get a better understanding of real estate as well.

Not long after she bought her first rental property.

At 18 years old, I decided to become a real estate agent right before starting college at the University of Minnesota for Biomedical Engineering.

Unfortunately, I got my license in August of 2007 and shortly after that the real estate market had one of its biggest drops in recent history.

I realized from that experience that while owning a home can help build wealth it can also cripple you financially if you do not understand what you are getting into.

I eventually gave my real estate license up in 2009, since the market was so slow and I wanted to focus more on my college degree.

However, I continued to learn about real estate and finances through books and from real estate investors.

I used what I had learned to buy my own investment property only 9 months after graduating from college and bought a duplex the week I turned 24 years old.

I used the rent I collected from the duplex to pay off my student loans from college and by age 26 I had no debt except for the mortgage on the property.

Since that time, I continued to learn about finances and investing.
I have continued to invest into real estate and have a wide range of other investments including retirement accounts, stocks, cryptocurrency, and some private equity investments.

Outside of Expanding Wallet, I am a Managing Consultant at a software consulting company and volunteer as the Director of Strategic Outreach for Blacks in Technology, Twin Cities chapter.

Why I started Expanding Wallet?

When Covid-19 hit, I believed the world would change forever and that there would be an even greater need for financial literacy and generational wealth, so I started my company Expanding Wallet (www.expandingwallet.com).

Since launching Expanding Wallet in 2020, I have helped many minorities and immigrants significantly improve their finances.

The adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence was accelerated in multiple industries as a result of Covid-19.

No one knows the full impact that robots and AI will have on jobs in the future.

However, what we do know is that over the last 50 years the average salary has not been keeping up with inflation, especially in terms of college tuition and house prices.

If you look back to 1970, it was common to have a 1 income household and still own a house.

Today, that is very rare and many struggle to buy a home even with 2 incomes.

So, what will happen in the next 50 years?

If the trend continues, a third income source might be needed for the average family in America.

That 3rd income source could be from the government or it could be from assets passed down from family members known as generational wealth.

This is one reason why I believe it is important for people to focus on building wealth in addition to having money to retire one day.

What types of products or services does Expanding Wallet offer?

Free Content:

Expanding Wallet provides valuable educational content free of charge such as videos on the Expanding Wallet YouTube channel and blog articles on the Expanding Wallet website.

Products / Services Offered:
o Online Financial Course:
 The course is geared towards future homeowners but can benefit anyone that wants to be in better control of their finances.
 Key financial topics covered in the course include:
• Budgeting
• Managing debt
• Improving credit score
• Strategies to increase income
 The course guides clients through the Financial Empowerment Toolkit©, an easy-to-use system for managing personal finances.

o Private Financial Coaching:
 Perfect for someone that wants the following:
• Direct support
• Focus on specific financial areas
• Accountability

o Financial Course + Private Financial Coaching:
 Provides all benefits of the financial course and private coaching.

o Public Speaking:
 I combine my life experiences, financial knowledge, and my training as a certified public speaker to educate, empower, and inspire my audience.
 I speak to audiences of all sizes on the following topics:
• Money management
• Credit
• Generational wealth
• Real estate investing
• Keys to financial success

What problems do I solve for my clients?

One of the biggest problems my clients have is just not knowing where to start when it comes to finances, so I work with them to provide them with direction and develop a plan.

As Benjamin Franklin said “If you fail to plan then you plan to fail.”

The next key item I help clients with is accountability.
It’s great to have a plan but now you need to follow through with that plan, so this aspect is very important.

Another big problem I help my clients with is incorporating systems into their life that help them have a strong financial foundation for building wealth in America.

The financial foundation for building wealth in America is tied to money, debt, and credit. These 3 have a direct effect on how much money you have in your control.

Therefore, the stronger a person’s financial foundation for building wealth the easier it will be for them to accumulate wealth.

What sets me apart from other financial coaches?

What makes me unique is that I have started from the bottom in many areas of my life including academically, in my career, and financially.

Academically, I was behind in school when I was young, but I graduated college with a biomedical engineering degree that had a 54% drop-out rate at the time.

Career-wise, I was the youngest and least experienced when I got hired as a software consultant. At the time I was hired, the company had not hired a fresh college graduate in 8 years. By my 2nd year, I was helping lead the development team on the company’s flagship product. As a result of my work ethic, determination, and knowing my own value, my salary went up significantly over time.

Financially, out of college, I was paid 18% less than someone with my degree but I still bought my 1st investment property at only 24 years old and I bought my second property at 27 years old.
I know what it feels like to be behind, but I also know what it takes to succeed.

This helps me meet my clients where they are at, so I can guide them to where they want to go.

Every challenge I’ve ever faced and obstacle I’ve overcome has built me for coaching.

What am I most proud of?

I am most proud of my clients who put in the work and I saw a massive transformation in them. While they improved their finances, there was also a shift in their mindset. They became much more positive about their future.

This is important to me because your current situation does not have to define what’s possible for your future.

By helping my clients improve their finances, I also helped them improve their belief on what’s possible for themselves.

What Potential Clients Should Know About Me?

I will not give up on them if they are willing to put in the work.
Success does not happen overnight.

Success takes dedication and consistency over time to see significant results, so you must be patient with yourself.

It’s important for potential clients to know that and that we work together. I cannot just give them results they have to dedicate time to get results.

I’ve helped some of my clients save thousands of dollars they otherwise wouldn’t have saved and with the knowledge, systems, and mindset they have after working with me they will save thousands more over their lifetime.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe what helped me to build my reputation within my market was being able to share my story and mission powerfully and effectively.

I was very nervous about public speaking, so I took public speaking trainings taught by professional speakers, including Mr. Les Brown, one of the world’s greatest motivational speakers.

I took what I learned and I used it to share my past experiences, illustrate points, and give my audience valuable tips when I spoke on panels, virtually, or at in person events.

Lastly, I leveraged those same skills when I make social media posts or communicate with my email list.

Aside from speaking and direct communication, I believe having the Expanding Wallet website with blog articles related to finances and personal growth also helped me to build a reputation in the industry.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first started Expanding Wallet, I had paid a company to build my website for me and they promised to have it done in 3 weeks. At the end of the 3 weeks, they did a 90-minute training on how I can make modifications and maintain the website myself. There was a lot to know and pretty much everything they were showing me was new to me. I had requested that the training be recorded so I could reference it in the future.

There was a lot that I wanted to update with the website as things were not done exactly the way I wanted and I decided I’d save time and money if I did it myself. Furthermore, I had my first virtual workshop coming up very soon.

I decided first to watch the 90-minute training video and make note of where in the video specific tasks were so that I could easily find them later when I needed them and would not have to waste time searching the entire video.

Just watching and taking notes took 3.5 hours! However, I’m happy I did that because once I started making updates to the site it helped me identify what I needed from the video very quickly.

I also had multiple late nights working on the website after a long day of work and planning out that first virtual workshop.

When you get started in your business there will be a lot that you will need to learn.

It’s important to be patient with yourself and make sure you get organized first!

Organization will take some time in the beginning but it will save you a lot of time and headache later.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://expandingwallet.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expandingwallet/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expandingwallet
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/expanding-wallet/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExpandingWallet
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ExpandingWallet