From Cameroon to Building Generational Wealth in America

0:00I think the American dream, I could say, is very much a lie for those who dare to dream. America is that place where you have protection in different forms. The financial protection that you have here. Stefania Fombo-Difo and Vitalis Difo are visionary, disciplined, and purpose-driven financial services, executives and entrepreneurs, and the leaders behind victory leadership development. Through their work, they empower individuals and families with financial education and wealth-building strategies while developing high-performing professionals and helping create stronger foundations for lasting family legacy and impact. The key to everything is consistency. See where you're going. See where you want to be in the future. Our kids want to look up to the parents and see what the parents are doing. They copy and they do the same thing. That's what we want to be in that place where we inspire children, not only with our words, but also with our actions. How do people get to think about the future when they're just live and paycheck to paycheck? We have to be honest with ourselves and we have to...

1:24Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jace Langen, and yeah, we're here down in the sunny Miami Beach studios and we get the opportunity to speak to some of the best entrepreneurs and disruptors from all around the country and all around the globe as we have here today. We got two special guests, Cameron and background. Yeah, please introduce yourselves and where you from and what's your business? Absolutely. My name is Stefania Fombo and originally from Cameron, but I'm based in Charlotte, not Carolina. We are in the financial service business and we've been in this business for the last eight to nine years and we're just super excited about it and happy to be here today to share our story with the world. Happy to be here. My name is Vitalis Defol, a financial services.

2:29All right. And you guys are a couple? Yes, we are a couple. Yeah, a power couple we say, right? Financial financial services, right? I've never seen someone with the financial background be broke, right? So now you got two financial people coming together and you guys started a business. Tell us about that business. What do you what do you guys helping people with? So we help people with when it comes to planning for their retirement, coming planning for the kids college planning for any major event in life. So when we talk about that we talk about services that could help replace your income if you were to start working today, due to a critical illness or you just decide to stop working. What accounts can replace your income? So we have all of this account in place to help us to better plan for a better financial future. And we also help with income for kids college. That's one of our biggest strengths. Like we

3:31help people to plan for their kids college using the million dollar baby plan and even much more as well as growth money in an income that in an account that gross compound interest in case of a market economy crash. There's always that steady floor that protects you against the market volatility. So we give people a piece of mine with our financial services that we provide and that also knowing that we do good for the people helping families, that gives us the momentum, the energy, the motivation to continue doing what we're doing, knowing that we're helping humanity. Okay. And so I heard the million dollar baby plan, right? You guys know the song, million dollar baby? No. Oh my god. I'm a million dollar baby. Hey, he knows it. He knows it, right? Yeah. Was there inspiration from that song when you came up with the plan or you just already had the plan?

4:33The million dollar baby is been in the industry for a while. Okay. And we kind of adopted what has been running before. But so what it actually establishes is about setting up a child to have some kind of a more secure financial future. Right. And then these are plans that could design a child to be able to make a million dollar down the line in the future depending on how it is designed and how it is implemented. Probably has to be designed where they can't touch it for a while. Yeah, because maybe the they'll touch it before it turns into that million dollar plan, right? Yes. So the design part of it is very, very important. Very important. We cannot overstress on that because it's not just about having a plan, but it's about having a plan that is structurally well designed. The design could be wanting the implementation could be another thing. Yeah,

5:36they could touch it, but that design also is very important. The implementation, how you touch it also matters, right? Gotcha. You can be able to have access to cash today. You could still fund that plan as well to be able to achieve the goal that is it was set out to achieve in the first place. Gotcha. Gotcha. So the million dollar baby plan, they're not locked out of it. They can still touch it if an emergency happens, right? Absolutely. That's great. Financial services, it's almost like, you know, I think of it as like a physical fitness instructor, right? They can have the the physical fitness guy can have the plan, but if you don't implement it properly, you're not going to build the muscles, right? That's correct. Yeah. Talk about, you know, what's what's stopping people, right? You got you guys see a lot of people come in, right? And they're just like, you know, they're like, I need a plan to help build money. I don't know how to build money. They come to you guys, right? What's the biggest problems you see that stopping people from

6:37building that generational wealth? One of the biggest problems I've seen with people is, uh, maybe they're just already mentally to see something that will keep them grounded with that financial decision plan that when they look at it, how long they'll have to be committed to to plans like that, people are not ready. And the validation from other people. So they want to go validate like, wait, is this is what I'm doing really true? Can I do it? How long can I do it? So they're always looking for a way to to to feel like what they're doing is right, even though they're asking someone who has no idea what it is. Yeah. And expecting this person to give them the answers they're looking for, even though they have no, no answers. Yeah, they're going to maybe cousin John that has that financial advice, you know, because maybe cousin John is driving a

7:42Corvette. He looks like the cool guy, right? But maybe he's probably in financial struggles himself, right? Yeah. So true. And you cannot solve a problem that you don't have. Yeah. And people don't know the degree of point that they have and and and how they can solve that problem. So if you don't have a problem, then you have nothing to solve. And it only, they only know how much parent they have when they sit with a financial professional financial advisor or anyone that is in this space that can diagnose the problem, identify the gaps and turn in their head. This is where you stand. Where do you want to go? Yeah. How do you want your income to look like five years from now? How do you want it to look like when you retire? How do you want to live your life? They probably never even ask these questions, you know? And those are hard questions that we should be asking ourselves. When you're living day to day, right? It's like because everything's so expensive today, right? Like talk about Miami, South Beach. It's the first time that they say Miami is more expensive to live

8:47here than New York City, right? So that paycheck to paycheck, how can you be thinking about the future when you're thinking about rent on the first? You know, how do people get to think about the future when they're just living paycheck to paycheck? We all have dreams, right? And you know what starts with your dream? Where do you want to be? And that's a good place to start. Five years from now. Yeah, yeah. Where do you want to be at retirement? Yeah. How do you want your children? You know, what kind of life do you want them to live down the line? What kind of legacy do you want to create in the future? Yeah. How do you want to, if you lose your income today, say 90 days, you have no income, how is your life going to, your life going to look like? And those are some of the questions when you throw those questions at people and have options, sometimes people want to be arrogant about not discussing the problems that they have. And they use maybe it's about the face, they've got to save face, right? It's like, oh, I can't, I don't tell you the truth, right? But then

9:50when they open up the books, maybe you're going to see the true face, right? The mask is unveiled. And you'd be like, okay, I can help the real person, not this facade that you're putting on, right? We have to be honest with ourselves. And we have to face reality, even when we solve problems. Yeah, fully well know that there is a deep problem. There is a, the market is highly volatile. The future is highly uncertain. Yeah. And we make certain kind of choices that is not good for us. And just because we have not been exposed or people have not been exposed to the right kind of people that can help them, steer them in the right direction. Yeah. You think money is easy, investing and all that. Like once you get the kind of mindset, right? Can it become easy? It can be easy. If you have the right mindset to work, the money is hard, but the mindset to invest in the mindset to put it in a bucket where it can continue to work for you. It's easy,

10:54depends on how you want to structure your future. Because for example, if somebody makes a thousand dollars, yeah. And they chose to put on the site, say, $50 every month. I don't think that would take away anything from their lifestyle. That could help them in the future. We just take that mindset for you to start right now and be consistent. Because the key to everything is consistency, seeing where you are going, see where you want to be in the future. I think it's actually much easier. We might think about it as it's difficult, but it's really not. It just takes the right mindset. Yeah. And so I saw you guys got a, so you guys call me dressed up to the nines looking good, right? And but then the kid also, so some of you that are just listening, they have a guy that really cool looking child that's also looking all swagged up in his suit, right? The family

11:57looks good. Okay. So what do you, what are you teaching your son now? How old is he? He is nine. He's nine years old, right? So are you teaching him anything right now? Like, okay, like maybe, hey, you can have one cookie now. Or if you wait a little bit, then you can have two cookies later or something like that. You know, are you teaching what kind of skills are you trying to teach him about money? I tell you a story. He has had the opportunity to speak to over 1000 people. Okay. On a Zoom call. Wow. He has had the opportunity to tell us that, look, I want to start my own business. And he decided to put off a table and call one of his friends in the never heard. And they were able to set up a limonate stand. All right. We were actually looking through the window on a Saturday morning. And we see him pulling the table and dragging the table out there. He said, today is the day. Yeah. Gonna start my own business. And that's where it starts. Because our kids want to look up to the parents and see what the parents are doing. Yeah. They copy and they do the same thing. That's what want to be in that place where we inspire

13:00children, not only with our words, but also with our actions. So none tomorrow, as they grow up, they will remember that this is what my parents were doing. And they're probably going to find a way to do it better or they're going to do the same. Yeah. Yeah. And so you guys came from from Cameroon, right? Yes. Love your accents, right? And so yeah, I mean, talk to us about, you know, coming over here, what you guys came from, you know, just very quickly. Because if you want the full story, you got to have to tune into their episode because it's really amazing background. But maybe talk to us about coming in here. Was that American dream in your, in your eyes? And is the American dream still alive? Absolutely. Coming here from Cameroon, growing up in a small village, poor with a lot of ambitions. Then coming here to park my things

14:03leave the family behind and come to America in search of that American dream. But when you get here, there's that reality shock. Yeah. You know, like, okay, for you to really leave that American dream, you have to go to school, get a degree, get a job. Yeah, the steps. Those are the steps. And coming back or knowing growing up, we only know one thing you go to school. There was no such thing as go to school and work. Yeah. So now you have to adjust to go in a school and work in at the same time and knowing that you've left family back home that they're looking up to you for you to send them that $100 or that. Yeah. Because an average family in Cameroon and average family in my village live on less than a dollar a day. So to see how far we've come here and how much we've

15:06gone through and where we are today, I think the American dream, I could say, is very much a lie for those who dare to dream. Yeah. And so I heard when you were getting dressed, right? I heard that you guys are kind of taking a trip to Cameroon and you're going to be your son's first time over there. Yeah. I mean, it would be a very exciting experience to be back in a place where you kind of have your roots from that place. But you have to actually have a whole lot of other questions because America is the is that unique place where you have a lot of great opportunities. It's America is that place where you have protection in different forms that you have that protection anywhere else in the world. So when you think about America, you're not only thinking about the protection that you gain for your life, but you equally, as I talk about money or the time you was equally thinking about the financial protection that you have here. And I am so grateful

16:10and thankful to be in a place like this where you have all of these opportunities and anyone that is here should be able to take and should be very grateful that we have all of these opportunities in this country. Yeah. People kind of, they take it for granted sometimes because you don't know what you don't have. Right? So if they don't travel abroad and they don't understand that, hey, the laws are different here. They don't feel that it's not a level playing field sometimes. Yeah, it's hard to understand what you don't know, right? What you've never experienced. So people kind of just take it for granted. Right? And they're saying, oh, the American dream is dead, but it's really not. You got to take out there. You got to take advantage of every opportunity you have. Right? I mean, you guys have come from poor backgrounds, come to America. You studied, you worked hard, you went into entrepreneurship, right? Is there any kind of like being immigrants, right? Are there any kind of obstacles that you have to overcome, like maybe with your accents?

17:12Right? Do people take you as seriously when you start talking about financials and being immigrants here? What are the hardships that you have to overcome? Absolutely. They are coming to America. We're so let me have a dialect. First, that's a primary language, right? And second, we have broken English. That's like what everyone else speaks around the country. And then English and French coming here. Ah, so in Cameroon, they speak like a broken English dialect. There is. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. So there's a broken English. There's a dialect. So every little tribe in Cameroon has a different dialect. Okay, okay. So his part of Cameroon is different from mine, so we speak different dialects. Yeah, okay. So after speaking my dialect, he will not understand. Whatever, we have a common language, which is English and French. Okay. So and we are from the English part.

18:15So I speak English. However, coming here with a different accent was a huge challenge. Yeah. And as much as I could speak English, but the accent was totally different. So I have to repeat myself over and over or maybe have to speak a little bit slow or just sort of somebody can understand me yet. I was speaking English. Sometimes someone asked me, what did you say? And you have to just slow down, try to use the accent. But I never said that once during our whole interview, now your English is impeccable, really, really smart. And I was like, never had to say that. So it probably took you a while to get there. But yeah, I mean, a lot of times in Miami, we got a lot of Latin community here. And some of them don't speak English. They're not taking advantage of that. They just hang out with their Latin community. And sometimes I'm like,

19:19oh, they're missing out on so much. But I love it that you guys come here and you're fluent. Right. You're well versed and you got your business going. Diversity is a blessing. When I have the opportunity to use into speak to someone with my accent, and they kind of struggle a little bit and they question me like, where is that accent from? That to me is a unique opportunity to have a beautiful conversation with someone that has expressed their curiosity. Yeah. Then they get to learn something. And I have the opportunity to teach them something. And we get to share something in common. And there are a whole lot of people out there that value diversity. And I see it as a blessing to anyone and to everyone. You see how you mentioned about Miami here and the diversity of language and stuff that is here. And for anyone that positioned themselves in the place like this, the sea, how beautiful it is. And for anyone that

20:22has traveled the world and the sea, how we all come together and we support each other and we bring value to each other. Yeah. These are the culture that we bring and the accent that we bring. Yeah. Being down here in Miami, don't get me wrong. I'm also treating it the other way around where I got to brush up on my Spanish because I'm also missing out. You know? It's like, I'm like, you guys are missing out. I'm missing out. You know, like you got all the reggae-tone music, you know? And the food, you know? So yeah, it's taken me a while, but I'll get there. I don't want to miss out on any of the Miami culture they got going on. It's a great thing. So I ask everyone on the show, what are you guys most excited about? What do you got cooking? We are very much excited about the future. The future of the new generations coming after us with what we're put in in place right now for them because what I would hate for it to happen is that I didn't do better than my

21:23parents. But because of that, I have to do better and I expect the same for my children. For that, we want to go out more, have more people to notice and be aware of what we do in the community and also become part of it. Want you to understand it when you understand a lot of things that we do in the community as part of the financial services. It helps you first. You understand your own finances better and when you understand it, you own it and you can share with other people that would need your, your services or also want to understand more about what you know. I am just, I've never been excited like I am right now because there's just a lot of wealth that is going to be transferred especially amongst the baby boys. Now, not think about that. It gets so exciting and there are very, very few financial professionals out there that understand this wealth transfer that

22:27is going to be happening between now and the next 15 years. Wow. Also, it's like you're either going to be riding the wave or you're going to be left behind. Absolutely. Because that and that gap is splitting. So you contact you guys and hop on that wave. Absolutely. Yeah. I share the same excitement with Stefania. I can be more excited about the future. When I talk about this excitement as a bar, there is no time we have lived in history like this moment where you can design your financial future. There are two things in place where you can design your financial future with a certain degree of confidence and stress test it. All right. And like we said before, the design is important. The implementation is equally important. So we have children right now, families. You know for sure that in the future, there is this that can happen. We are going to fall sick. We are going to go into a care home. Maybe, right? We are going to pass. If you know that

23:34these are events that eventually going to happen in the future, what can you do? You all you need to do is to reverse engineer and put the solutions in place today such that when life happens in the future, you are in a better financial position while alive, not dead. Yeah. Yeah. And eventually, if you transition to the next dimension, then you would have created some form of a legacy which you intentionally designed. But guess what? Most people don't know about this. Most people didn't do this in the past. Why? Because they did not know. So we have a unique opportunity now to bring that knowledge to people to give them a deeper education and help them to design that future with a certainty we have confidence for sure for sure. And so well said. And so how do people find you? We are all over the place. I would say. And we move, we move from east to west, not to south.

24:35But our website rethink your future income.com. Okay. Like those words, we thank your future income. Correct. Okay. Okay. So if you want to rethink your future income, those hop on that website, you would find us. Okay. Okay. Great. And you guys are on LinkedIn and all that. We are on LinkedIn. Okay. Absolutely. By our names as well. Perfect. Definitely can connect with us. Okay. And then say your names again. And so they can connect with you on LinkedIn. You can find me as Stefania Fombo. So the names just type the name on LinkedIn. You'll find me on Facebook. You'll find me on Instagram. You'll find me and TikTok. You'll find me. Hey. So all right. So that's Stefania Fombo FOMBO. Right. And yourself? Yeah. Vitalis Sap. Sap is SAB. That would be my LinkedIn profile. You can find me there. And Vitalis default. Anyway, on social media, you'll be able to find me there. I know I'm not, I don't have

25:40the best social media skills though. But you're on there, man. The pressure somewhere there. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me. You guys are an amazing, beautiful couple, right? And it was so a pleasure to do your episode today. And yeah. And thank you guys for joining us. Like I said, amazing entrepreneurs here with the Camerunian background. And if you want to find out more about their episode, about their journey here to the States and that living that American dream. And also a lot of great financial advice than tune into their episode when it drops. But we'll see you again next time. Cheers everyone.