And welcome to Prosper TV, to be inspired, equipped, empowered to prosper in all things.
I'm your host, Brenda Byars.
If you're ready to prosper physically, financially, relationally, spiritually, come and join this
amazing community.
Let's prosper together.
And welcome to Prosper TV.
You know, if you are a mother or a grandmother and you have really been struggling in this
season, perhaps you have been struggling to figure out what is your next step?
What is your purpose?
What is God's plan for your life?
Or you've been struggling financially to try to make sense of your finances, then you're
going to want to stick around to this next interview all the way to the last drop.
We have got Earlene Coates, and you are in for a treat.
She is a mother.
She is a grandmother.
She's a mighty woman of God.
She is a businesswoman, entrepreneur, I could go on and on, master certified coach, and
the founder of Everyday University.
Welcome, Earlene.
So glad to have you on the show.
Yeah, and it is so good to be here.
You know, I love all the things that you are doing and making a difference in the lives
of women.
I love the season that you're in because you bring a lot of wisdom.
You have a lot of experience.
You founded successful companies.
And now it's as if you're just taking all of that combined, you know, founding successful
companies also.
I want everybody to know that it hasn't always been, you know, roses and unicorns.
You've been through some hard knocks too, and I think that's valuable that we get to
hear from your wisdom.
So tell us a little bit, what are you doing right now with Everyday University?
Tell us a little bit about your life right now.
Right now, I am in a place where I'm helping busy moms go from chaos to calm.
This is a really crazy time, and there is so much stress that comes from just busy lives
in general, but you add on top of that some of the other things going on in the world
around us.
And this is a time where mom needs to take care of herself so she can do a better job
of helping care for her children, allowing them to feel the calm in the house.
And as a result, they can then feel the safety and the confidence to step out into who they
are.
So as those children then know who mom is, they see who mom is, they see her modeling
her love for herself, her love for God, and her love for her family.
That allows them to then shine through in that same way.
Impacting multiple generations.
Of course, that's biblical.
He's the God of Abraham, Isaac.
Exactly.
Right?
It's wonderful to see the way you're impacting generations and touching lives.
You bring a really unique blend because it's really important for a woman to discover her
purpose.
Yes?
Tell us about that.
Why is that important?
Why are you so passionate about that?
I started out my life following what society tells us we need to do, which is go to college,
get a good job, then retire, and life is going to be perfect.
How'd that work out?
Not so well.
Not in my life.
You colored in the lines.
I did.
I stayed right inside the box.
And it didn't work out quite as well.
In my case, I happened to have an opportunity to take early retirement when I was 52 years
old.
It was either that or within the next three to five years, I would have been laid off.
And the choice became very easy when you looked at the numbers because I got double the benefits
retiring earlier than I would if I got a severance package.
So I took early retirement.
About that time, I also went through a divorce.
Having been the rule follower that I, by nature, am, I had followed all the instructions that
everyone gave me.
It was put your money into your 401.
1K, get as much in there as you can,
because that saves you on all your taxes
and these other things.
But what I wasn't taught was the implications
that at 52, I didn't have access to any of my money.
So what happened?
You went to get your money and you got a surprise?
What?
Well, at that point, I knew the impact
once I hit that place, but I wasn't expecting,
back when I was 30, 40, even 50,
that I was gonna go through,
I was gonna take early retirement,
that I was on the vision of you go and you retire.
And I happened to have had a career
that was with the same corporation the entire time.
So it wasn't like I was job jumping or anything like that.
So the expectation was that I would continue
to finish that out until I reached retirement age.
And at that point, then everything would be set.
But you take early retirement
and now you've put all your savings into tools
that aren't available until you're 59 and a half,
unless you wanna pay significant penalties.
And again, taxes on top of that,
because it was pre-tax money.
So it sounds really good.
And the teaching makes it sound like
that's the only way to go.
But what I've learned is that there are some better options.
And fundamentally, what I've learned is
that there's so much that we aren't taught.
And the importance of being taught
some of the other things like,
in my world, maximize your 401k to the point
where your company is gonna match it.
But then there are several other investment tools
that allow you to then have flexibility with your money.
You're not in the position of having it all
either locked away and gonna cost you significantly
if you need to take the money out,
or, you know, and plus paying taxes on that.
So you've discovered that there are really
a lot more options than you were told.
You followed the rules, this is the way to go,
and you went there, and it came time,
and it wasn't as you expected,
because you weren't planning on early retirement.
So take me back to that moment.
At that moment, when you followed all the rules
and it didn't work out so good,
what were you feeling?
What were you thinking?
What did you learn from that?
Well, the one thing that I learned is that it's,
that I, one, wish I had done a better job myself
of understanding other tools.
That I hadn't solely depended on a financial advisor
in my corporation to lead me,
but to continue to get better education myself,
allowing me to then be better prepared
as I got down the road.
And wanting to set myself up, as well as my children,
with understanding that if you're gonna get free money,
because you have money going to a 401k,
by all means, you wanna maximize that.
But that also comes with some costs.
And understanding those costs is as important
as making sure that you have the money saved.
So I've learned that the education,
and even today, the education of our young people
is far worse than it was years back.
There's almost nothing taught
when it comes to understanding finances.
So making sure that our kids know at an early age,
because that's the time that they can have
the biggest impact on their lifetime retirement,
is by starting young.
Okay.
I know you're really active working with young people.
And so I know that you teach financial literacy
for young people,
but I also know that you're very comprehensive,
because that's only part of the equation.
So give me the big picture of everyday university
and your passion for both the parents
and this upcoming generation.
Share the bigger vision.
Well, first, it's important to understand
that my definition of financial literacy
doesn't start with money.
Oh, okay.
My money, my financial literacy definition
starts well before that.
And it goes back, it's biblical.
We are to be good stewards of our talents,
our gifts, our time, and our money.
Okay.
So if you're doing a good job
with your gifts and your talents,
then God's gonna bless you with the income.
And knowing how to manage that effectively
is absolutely critical.
But using your God-given gifts and talents
is as important as knowing how to manage your money.
And so to use them, you have to know them.
Exactly.
So do you take them on some type of discovery
to discover who they are?
I do.
I have a few different ways that I approach
getting to who are they uniquely?
And what's their divine purpose?
Each one of us was created uniquely.
We have our own unique soul of how we like to show up in the world, what our divine purpose
is.
So I do have some things that I can take them through a process that allows them to learn
how their soul really likes to show up in the world.
And then from there, allow them to also look at what do they absolutely love to do in life.
Life is short.
In the scheme of things, life is really short.
And if you're doing what you love, then life just, you live it every day.
I know I've heard many times that, you know, do what you love and you'll never work a day
in your life.
Right.
Which is so true.
Yeah.
And it's important for moms to understand that.
The more that they understand that, the more that they're able to then have an impact on
their kids who need to know that the only way isn't necessarily to go to college.
And there are some people out there who've been programmed by society today.
And even as moms, we honestly, we look at it and we're considering, what's our value?
Did my kid go to the right college?
Did they get the right degree?
Did they do?
So the mothers are taking their value by which college their kids go to, is what you're saying.
Absolutely.
And that may not be the right option.
Or the fact that their kid did or didn't go to college.
And that is not mom's value.
Some guilt and shame around that, all kinds of things, huh?
Yeah.
It brings out all of that.
And so where moms are able to start seeing their children for the unique human that God
created them to be, they can bring out their unique gifts and their talents.
And that frees the kid to show up in the world like they're supposed to show up.
And reality is there's a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, and a lot of those other
things and some of that is as a result of the stress and the pressures that the world
puts on us in general, but our kids especially.
So get mom to the place where she can free herself of that stress.
Then she can also show up that way for her kids.
Suddenly she starts hearing them differently.
She starts seeing them as the beautiful gift from God that they are.
And she's able to foster the growth in those areas that allow their unique brilliance to
show through.
So Earlene, I love the way that you are impacting two generations.
As the mother discovers who she is, her unique gifts, her unique talents, she's now more
in tune to recognize her child's gifts and maybe not just push them into the mold.
And it reminds me of the proverb, train up a child in the way he should go.
So how do you go about doing that?
Tell me a little bit more about that.
Well, the first step is to get mom healthy herself.
Help her to understand the value she has in the world.
And that's the value is the unique individual that God created her to be.
And then once she's able to understand that, she starts seeing her child differently.
She's able to start bringing out the confidence in that child because she recognizes where
they shine.
And she doesn't have to feel the pressure of needing to push them into those areas that
is not their unique gifts.
Love that.
They're able to show up how they're supposed to be.
Now, I have to say, if you're going to be a doctor, I would like you to go to college.
Right.
Before you operate, please go to school.
That's right.
But if that isn't where God is calling you, then what is the next step for you?
I have a friend, a brilliant, gifted individual, gifted graphic artist, gifted musician, I
mean, all around gifted in so many ways.
And at the age of third grade age, he was so worried that he was going to take the wrong
classes in school to not get to where he wanted to go.
Pressure.
And so he's talking to his mom and his mom had the brilliant answer.
And I absolutely love her advice.
And that was, doesn't matter what you do now, do what you love and find a way to get paid
for it.
Love it.
So if we start looking at our kids with that in mind and support them, encourage them to
be able to do what they love in life, their life is going to be a lot less stressful as
well.
So in the end, we have their unique brilliance shining through.
And we have a kid who is much happier as a kid, as well as an adult who's able to live
a life that serves God in ways that honors him with their life as a result of using their
unique gift.
gifts and talents, and in the end,
God's gonna bless them abundantly as well.
Wonderful wisdom, absolutely wonderful wisdom, wonderful.
I like to think, I have a course, God, Money, and Me,
so I like to think of those three dimensions,
God, money, and me.
So tell me what you've learned about God.
How has God shown up in all of this?
Share what God is doing.
What have you learned?
God continues to reveal more and more,
and God has a picture for our lives
that's way bigger than we can ever imagine for ourselves.
Years back, I would never have imagined
that God was gonna go out and say,
okay, go forth and change a generation.
But he's showing up and doing that.
He continues to stretch me.
Some days it's a little scarier than others,
but he also is there, he is faithful, he is always there.
I go back to King Solomon.
I love the King Solomon example where King Solomon,
God asks him, he says, ask for anything you desire,
and I'll give it to you.
And King Solomon's words were, again, very wise
in that he said, just give me a discerning heart.
I'm just young at heart.
I don't know anything, I need your wisdom.
At that point, God's answer was,
well, since you didn't ask for money and long life,
I'm gonna give you those as well.
I think that is good advice, even for us now.
So at those points where we're seeking God for wisdom,
then he's gonna show up and he's gonna give us that wisdom
that allows us to then go and do those things
that he desires to see us do,
and in the end, we glorify him.
Love it, I love it.
We're living through some pretty challenging times
at the filming of this TV program this season,
and a lot of people are very confused,
they're very afraid, and the message,
the message of the media is to contract,
to be afraid, to pull back.
And I see you leading by example that on the opposite,
you're not contracting, you're investing in yourself,
in your business, in growing.
Where does that courage come from?
What makes you go boldly forward
when others are hiding in fear?
Where do you get that strength?
Confidence and faith.
God is the source of all of that confidence, that faith.
It's stepping out in faith for those things that are not seen
and he's through different points,
it's like you get just enough light for the next step.
So taking him at his word,
and trusting that he's gonna help me
with the light for the step after that,
and the step after that.
This is not the time to sit back and wait,
he's challenging me to go forward, make a difference.
This is an important time to support our world
in making change.
There is so much craziness in our world,
we've got the coronavirus going on,
but we also have all of the racial stress
and government in the midst, all of that.
And so you can either sit back and be fearful and hide,
or you can choose to step out,
love yourself first, and then love others.
And so as you go back to the scripture,
Jesus' top two commands,
love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
And so starting out, love God first,
but the other part of that,
and it's important not to lose sight
of love your neighbor as yourself.
If you aren't loving yourself well,
you can't love others well.
So this is an important time to do a good job
of taking care of yourself.
And when I say taking care of yourself,
it's not I'm better than you, it's not selfishly,
it's are you getting enough sleep?
Are you taking care of your nutrition?
Are you spending quiet meditation time?
Are you getting your exercise?
All of those things, that quiet,
I need a bath, soaking bath in the tub.
Give me an hour to where I can just go be by myself
and just enjoy the comfort of that and connecting with God.
Doing all of those things to care for yourself well,
then allows you to love others well.
Yeah, I often think of the verse right now
that we are not those who draw back, pull back in fear.
But we are those, some translations say,
who by faith truly live life.
And I see you modeling that.
And I thank you for modeling that,
because if we're not demonstrating
that God is more than able,
that He can give us peace in the storm,
that He can be our source when we don't know
where it's gonna come from,
that we can leap, even when, like you say,
it's a stretch, you only know the next step.
You may not know the whole way,
but you build that history with God,
and He comes through time and time again.
And if we're willing to live that,
then others can have that hope.
So I really wanna personally thank you
for being a person that is showing up
and boldly investing in yourself and loving others.
I see you working with the youth.
I see you working with the women.
I see what you're doing,
and it's a beautiful thing to watch.
I appreciate you and what you're doing.
So you've seen God come through.
Tell us about money.
You've had all these experiences.
You've started companies,
and you've done all these different things.
What has been your biggest lessons when it comes to money?
It's not about the money.
Okay, it's not about the money.
It really isn't about the money,
and I think that where we can get our eye off of the money
and onto all of the other things around us,
the money comes,
and God continues to provide for you along the way.
So would you say it's true,
do what you love and the money will follow?
Do you subscribe to that?
Do what you love and find a way to get paid for it.
And I absolutely believe that that is true.
I believe that when you're doing what you love,
then you're gonna show up differently
than when you're doing what you've been told you have to.
Not just trying to please other people
or live up to an image or a standard.
Your energy, everything about you is different then.
But when you go and you figure out,
this is what I love to do,
and oh, this is how I can make money at it.
Suddenly, you have a new passion, a new drive,
and you bring forth something
that maybe others haven't thought about.
As a result, God blesses you,
and the world is impacted.
The world has that brilliance that we don't lose.
You have a wonderful story
of someone that you coached and mentored
with the beauty salon.
Would you share that story?
I was fascinated when you told me about that.
Yeah, a client I worked with several years ago now,
when I first met her, she was working in a school.
She has a special needs son.
She was working in a school,
and it was a very, very toxic environment.
Health was impacted.
Lots of things were impacted
as a result of where she was working.
She ended up quitting that job
and going back to what she had done
before she had her son and had to get,
in that case, a different job that had more flexibility,
which was to be a, she did nails in a nail salon.
So she had her own business.
She had a very successful, thriving business,
but then her son comes along, special needs, single mom,
needing to be able to take care of him.
And as she hit school age,
being on the schedule of the school system
as opposed to working a business
where she had extended hours
in order to be able to make ends meet,
she took the choice of going and working
in the school system.
Well, when she went back to this nail salon,
she was figuring that business was gonna come running back,
all the clients were gonna come running back,
and that wasn't exactly how it happened.
So as we were talking,
I challenged her to look for ways
to make that salon successful.
So she was working at a salon,
and you challenged her to make that salon successful.
That's right.
To look for ways that she could serve her boss.
Serve her boss?
Go in with a servant's heart of how can I serve you?
And the first time that she asked that question,
he said he was weighed down with worry
because he was the person who did the floors every Saturday
had just told him that they were no longer
gonna be able to do that.
And he was gonna have to start taking care of it himself.
And he said, I would love it
if you would come and clean the floors.
But what that did for her is it gave her more income
and she served him.
She continued to do that.
It grew into her having more responsibilities in the salon.
And along the way, she and her boss became very good friends.
They shared a lot.
And she shared one day with him
her dream of owning her own salon.
And he at that time also shared.
his dream, which was to go back and teach at a cosmetology school.
As a result of her looking for ways to make his business successful, in the end, he ended
up helping her buy his business so that she got her dream.
He also realized his because he was able to go back and teach full-time at cosmetology
college.
So that's a great example of one of the lessons I have for young people, is if you're working,
no matter who you are, if you're working for someone else, look for ways to make them successful,
and what that's going to do is bring you more success as well.
Yeah.
It's a wonderful, you know, it's a biblical principle, the greatest leader is the greatest
servant, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And it's business, isn't it?
I mean, if we serve our customers the best, if we are working for someone and we serve
our boss, in fact, I think it was Solomon, your favorite, that said that, what is it,
see a man diligent, he will not stand before mere men, he will stand before kings.
You know, God has a way of elevating us when we have that heart of humility.
Well, in the middle of all the craziness that's going on, you're an amazing coach,
and you're coaching both the parents and the teens.
Tell us a little bit about your program, how can they work with you, what do you offer?
Tell them a little bit about Everyday University.
Yeah, and so right now, one of the things I'm really excited about is the course I just
released.
And that is going from chaos to calm.
Chaos to calm, don't we all want that for busy moms.
Exactly.
Chaos to calm for busy moms.
Wow.
And so a lot of people saying, sign me up now.
Exactly.
And, you know, and what that does is it allows the moms to get calm themselves and to support
them as they start blossoming and showing up in the world in a new way.
But it also allows them to bring forth the brilliance in their kids and allow their child
to thrive.
Wow.
So that's the thing that I'm most excited about right now.
So if people are interested in connecting with me, they can go to my website, everydayuniversity.com.
And on there, I do have a free downloadable for a budget tracker for those who are saying,
well, I'd like to know a little bit more about how to take care of the money side of
things.
Then I do have that as a free gift.
So a free budget tracker.
Free budget tracker.
If they go to you.
Now, I know a lot of people, when they hear the word budget, they're like, no.
Tell me why you give that free tool.
Why is a budget important?
Talk to me a little bit about that.
Yeah, budget feels like it's constraining.
Right.
It feels like it's putting in lots of rules and scary things.
And the reality is, is what a budget really does is it gives you freedom.
Okay.
So imagine.
So it's opposite of what we think.
Exactly.
The budget actually creates freedom.
It creates freedom.
And is this what you see in your life and in your clients that when they do this, they
have new freedom?
They have freedom.
Because imagine walking into the grocery store with a confidence that you don't have to get
to the checkout stand and figure out what you have to put back because you don't have
enough money in the bank to be able to pay for the groceries.
You know exactly where you're at.
You can go to the gas station and buy gas and know with confidence that there's not
an issue filling your gas tank.
All of those things provide for the freedom.
And that's for the essentials.
But it also allows for you to plan for the fun things.
You put in fun in your budget as well.
It's not all about the rules of what you can't spend on, but it's all about just making
sure every dollar has a name.
I think it's, I'm trying to remember one of the financial guys actually talks about give
every dollar a name so that then you know exactly where it's going and that name may
be my vacation fund.
It may be my special targeted savings fund where I'm looking to buy this new game system.
Or maybe it's targeted towards I want to be able to buy a house and so it's going into
my house fund.
Or maybe it's going into your long term savings, could be going to an emergency fund so that
you never have to worry about what happens if you don't have a job, what happens if you
don't have income, you get injured.
That doesn't come natural for most people.
We're not taught it typically in school.
So as they work with you and they put in place things like this, then you find that it's
less confusing.
goes away. I was thinking about the saying, you know, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Exactly.
And normally you think about that, you know, for serious things like business or whatever,
but when you were talking, it crossed my mind, you desire to have fun in your life. You know,
you desire to have vacations, but most people fail to plan financially for that. So either they go in
debt or they just go years, the years blend into the years with no vacation.
Exactly.
So you're, you're helping them to tap into purpose and fun and finances,
you know, all, all of the great things. I love what you're doing.
So they can find you at everydayuniversity.com and you're also on social media.
I am. I do have a business page, Everyday University USA.
Everyday University USA on Facebook.
And then Earline Coats, lots of places, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook.
All right. I love that.
Find me all of those places as well.
A wealth of wisdom, lots of, lots of love, lots of wisdom in your heart.
If you were going to give one closing thought to, to the audience, to the women watching you,
what would you say?
Say, if you are ready to see more calm in your life and less chaos, then connect with me.
I would love to support you, help you with some of the free resources, but also the other
courses that I have available that'll allow you to then bring calm into your household
and allow your kids to thrive and go way beyond any expectation you might even have today.
Yeah. When there's so much negativity and fear and so on to actually have a home that's filled
with the peace of God and with a mother that loves herself or a grandmother that loves herself
and have that flow over to the kids.
That's a, that's an important work.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for doing what you do.
And thank you for being on Prosper TV.
Just an honor to be able to interview you.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.