The Power of the Ask

From Law to Learning and Leveraging Real Estate with Melissa Cisco

• Lisa Zeiderman, Savvy Ladies Board Chair, Managing Partner at Miller Zeiderman LLP, and Precious Williams, Savvy Ladies Board of Directors, CEO/Founder of Perfect Pitch Group • Season 2 • Episode 6

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On this episode of The Power of the Ask, we welcome Melissa Cisco, Esq., Director of High School Innovation and Special Projects, NYC Department of Education, for a discussion on the surprising intersection of education and real estate. Melissa shares her journey of discovering the power of property ownership for building wealth and how she empowers her students with this knowledge. Tune in for these key takeaways: 

  • Unlocking Wealth with Real Estate: Discover how a legal lens on the property market reveals pathways to building significant wealth, accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds. 
  • Making Smart Money Moves: Learn strategies for successful real estate investments, understanding the long-term game versus the quick flip for sustainable growth. 
  • Educating for Economic Empowerment: Understand how forward-thinking educators can equip students with financial literacy skills. 
  • Igniting Transformation Through Opportunity: Hear about Melissa's dedication to creating life-changing experiences for students, both in their local communities and across the globe. 

About Melissa Cisco:
Melissa is an educator, attorney, and advocate for generational wealth and global learning. With 15 years in education and a legal focus in real estate, education, and immigration, she empowers families through smart investment strategies and teaches students the value of real estate. As Director of High School Innovation and Special Projects , she supports NYC’s 1.1 million students and has led international trips to expand their worldviews. Melissa is passionate about creating meaningful, transformative opportunities for the next generation. 

 Welcome, Melissa! We’re so excited to have you with us today. To kick things off, why don’t you share something with our audience, something that they wouldn’t know just from reading your bio? 

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create chapters with time stamps here Lisa Zeiderman (00:06.181)

Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the Power of the Ask podcast, which helps you get what you need financially and personally. We are so glad that you're here today. My name is Lisa Ziderman. I am managing partner at Miller Ziderman and I am one of the co-hosts with my dear friend, Precious Williams. Precious, welcome today.

Lisa Zeiderman (00:29.071)

You're a mute.

Precious LaTonia Williams (00:34.476)

Oops.

Thank you, Lisa. I'm so happy to be here with you again. As she said, my name is Precious Williams. I'm the proud founder and CEO of The Perfect Pitch Group. And I'm affectionately known as the killer pitch master. And as y'all say each week, keep coming back, keep coming back, keep coming back. And we're excited to introduce you to Melissa. Let me stop y'all. I don't know what just happened.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (01:03.41)

We editing, right? Okay, good. just, we change that to special projects, not special programs? I want you to read, yeah, projects. Yes, sorry about that.

Lisa Zeiderman (01:04.88)

Yes.

Precious LaTonia Williams (01:04.899)

Yeah, well...

Lisa Zeiderman (01:11.471)

Yes.

Lisa Zeiderman (01:17.126)

Okay.

Precious LaTonia Williams (01:18.276)

Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for that welcome. As our queen said, my name is Precious Williams. I'm the proud founder and CEO of the Perfect Pitch Group. I'm officially known as the Killer Pitch Master. And as we have each episode, we keep bringing you back these amazing guests. And so today we're excited to introduce you to Melissa Sisco. Now you know I like to give you a little background on our guests before they go in.

So Melissa is an educator, she's an attorney and an advocate for generational wealth and a global leader. With 15 years, yes, 15 years of education and a legal focus in real estate, investment strategies, okay. With 15 years of education and a legal focus in real estate, education and immigration, she empowers families through smart investment strategies and teaches students the value of real estate. Where were you when I was coming up?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (02:11.888)

Hehehehe

Precious LaTonia Williams (02:12.684)

as the Director of High School Innovation and

Precious LaTonia Williams (02:19.586)

Yo, my light is getting in the way. Please understand. So let me do this.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (02:22.74)

Who's up there?

Precious LaTonia Williams (02:35.876)

As the Director of High School Innovation and Special Projects, she supports NYC's 1.1 million students and has led international trips to expand their worldviews. Melissa is passionate about creating meaningful, transformative opportunities for the next generation. Welcome, Melissa. We're so excited to have you with us today. And to kick things off, why don't you share something about yourself with our audience, something that they would not know by just reading your bio.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (03:02.558)

Well, thank you so much, Precious and Lisa for having me today. I'm really excited to be here. Love the energy already. Yes. So one of the things I would have to say that people don't know about me is I really enjoy cooking. I love to cook and I'll just try to come up with something that I may have seen on Instagram or maybe I've seen a show, but mostly Instagram. see these really, really nice.

recipes that I'd like to try. So I do that. You know, I'm an, I'm an IG food junkie, but I'm a foodie. so I will travel just to get a, try something like a lobster roll. I ride out to the ham's just to get a lobster roll. So those are the kinds of things I turn into an experience. So that's something somebody would necessarily necessarily see on the bio for me.

Lisa Zeiderman (03:49.391)

Thank you. That's an interesting thing that you do. So you'll travel for hours to get that one lobster roll. used to, I'm going to share that I used to travel for hours to get that one slice of apple pie. So I understand this concept.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (03:56.904)

Yes, I will.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (04:01.744)

Okay, you understand? Yep.

Precious LaTonia Williams (04:02.084)

Woo!

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (04:06.258)

Yes, indeed. There's there's a place in Philly. know, you know, the markets in Philly, Yamish market. So there's a Nigerian guy that runs like this Cajun spot. So he does a, a spicy Cajun, like a Nigerian version of a po' boy. So it's the best po' boy I've ever tasted in my entire life. So I need to do a Philly run for a po' boy.

Precious LaTonia Williams (04:29.444)

And you can take me with you, you can take us with you.

Lisa Zeiderman (04:29.646)

Love it.

Love it, okay. We might have to put this in the show notes, I'm gonna say, as to what the name of this place is now. So, here's my question. So, you built an impressive career at the intersection of education and law. It's an interesting combination, Melissa. How did your legal background influence the way you lead and you communicate in the education space? In other words, how did you put this all together so that it all worked and worked together?

Precious LaTonia Williams (04:38.978)

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (05:00.446)

Well, it wasn't something that I thought out thoroughly. Like I knew if I decided to go into education, cause someone told me about a program I was doing at the time I was doing these like refinance, similar workshops, foreclosure bailouts, refinancing, home buying. was doing these seminars and a friend said, Hey, you pretty good with these, with these workshops, you you should consider teaching. And I was like, okay. A couple of people said it to me, but the last time someone says to me, I took a little bit more serious.

So a friend then told me about this New York City teaching fellowship and I said, what's the commitment? So it's a three year commitment. looking for career changes. said, I think I might like this, but I might like it too much and then I won't leave. I had a feeling it was something I would really enjoy. So I said, I'll do the three years and then I'll leave. 16 years later.

Your girl is still here. So I didn't know all of, of, of how, cause I feel like the law is like salt, right? It's in everything. So whether it is, you know, for today, it's the immigration piece. it's the civics, all the history is tied into policies. It's all laws everywhere and you can't get away from it. So it just happens like now the students are my clients. Let's just say they're my clients. So.

And I work to support their growth and development. So, you know, I'd rather have the kids at this point as clients more so than adults. But it has helped me frame my thought process in terms of how I support students, whether it's their transition plans or whether there's other problems going on, whether in temporary housing, the support system that we can give those families, you know,

Precious LaTonia Williams (06:32.228)

That's right!

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (06:48.828)

documentation, whether it's a student that's undocumented, may be eligible for DACA prior to it being deemed illegal, but I've done those things for families. So it's really, you know, it has been a, it's been an easier lift to make sure that our students stay on track and they're able to graduate by that support system and background. Problem solving, you're always problem solving, right? So if have a family, if you have a kid who's not coming to school,

Lisa Zeiderman (07:09.531)

Great.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (07:18.58)

Nine times out of 10, maybe they're in temporary housing. Maybe they just need some resources. So then I go into problem solving mode. And that's just what lawyers do, right? You solve problems. you just solve problems. You do your best, but you're navigating and you're learning in the process too. So it just happened that way. I didn't realize it. There's a lot of attorneys that have transitioned into teaching mostly because of their legal background or their history, passion.

Lisa Zeiderman (07:29.051)

We try.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (07:45.184)

was global history or us history, you find a very similar connection between us history and the law because a lot of the curriculum is based on court cases, whether it was, the Japanese internment or, you know, the trailer tiers, you know, with the Cherokee nation. So it's all intertwined, with, with, with law. And it's very, it's fascinating because the stuff you didn't learn, you learned in high school, but you don't remember any of it.

And so I feel like I'm doing high school again. I was like, my God, didn't you think this is really interesting to kids? Like, lady, we don't want.

that. I'm like, but this is really interesting. So I make kids kind of fall in love with history and then whatever we're learning. So let's say for example, if it's apartheid, we went to South Africa and we saw at first hand what was Soweto, you know, we went to Soweto. They got a chance to go to the apartheid museum and so they're able to make connections, text to world connections with the text.

Precious LaTonia Williams (08:45.668)

love that. And I love the fact that there are three attorneys in this episode. And you're right. I've learned to really love history the older I get. like the History Channel used to be my favorite channel to watch. Just fascinated with, and when you started talking, I thought Marbury versus Madison, because that was the first thing that came to mind. I will never forget that.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (09:08.372)

Marbury versus Madison. No one will forget that. No one will forget that.

Precious LaTonia Williams (09:13.088)

And then I love what you said about showing students like the real world and how history is a part of it by going to different places. When I became an attorney, there were so many things that actually started to make sense for me. And then real estate, which I know you are really big in. And a little birdie told us that real estate helps you design a life for yourself. So in getting into real estate, which seems so complicated to the outside world,

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (09:21.671)

Absolutely.

Precious LaTonia Williams (09:41.944)

What was your aha moment that made you realize that that real estate could be a path to personal freedom and generational wealth and yet help your students too?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (09:51.934)

So for me, I hated Proppi in law school. Like I hate him. You know I was getting ready to say that, right?

Precious LaTonia Williams (09:56.248)

The rule against perpetuities, really? How do you know?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (10:01.397)

about to say that rule against perpetuity. I hated property. I, I, hated property and I laugh every time I close a because I just couldn't connect. just, couldn't connect the dots. was boring. Right. A reversion. Like who cares about reversion rights? Like what's a 10 in common? What's a 10 entirety? Like, why do I have to know this? But it wasn't until I got laid off from a job.

and I ended up meeting a real estate investor. He was fixing a house across the street and I was fascinated by this fire to this beautiful house he put together. And he invited me to come work with him and he was, like I said, he was flipping houses. I didn't really understand what that was, but I enjoyed the process and I was helping him and I was designing his houses. He wouldn't pay me, but I enjoyed taking these houses and fixing them up with him.

So I ended up going to work at a real estate firm. Then I realized he was ripping me off the whole time, but I was learning. So I didn't care. Like he didn't pay me, but I was working, but I didn't care. I was learning. So I would have done that for free just to learn what he learned. So I went to go do to go to a real estate firm and I was doing like four to five closings a day. So my first year I did like a thousand closings. Like most attorneys don't even do that in a career. I did them one year. And I learned so much about real estate, just reading the loan documents.

Precious LaTonia Williams (10:59.608)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Zeiderman (11:14.65)

Wow.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (11:22.512)

listening to the conversation with the attorneys at the table, listening to the title closer and dealing with title issues. And most attorneys don't know title. Until you start actually doing the work, I've mastered title. I know title very well. But what I would look at is the loan applications when we call them the 10-03s. And I would look at the loan application and I would see who had money. How did this person get money to buy a house? What does it look like? And at the time, I had read The Millionaire Next Door.

And I was trying to make the connection to the real estate, the real, the, the million next door to what I was doing. And I saw that the people who had the most money were educators, uh, teachers, MTA workers, I think sanitation, like, had the highest salaries, like the highest assets, not necessarily salaries, but they had the highest assets. And I didn't understand how they have all this money.

You know on the third house or the fourth house And I said, okay I pinned that like teaching is not a bad thing, right? People think teachers don't make a lot of money But they're but their annuity packages and the interest that they make off it Allows them to to grow money very fast and you can pull money out and use it to buy a house So if you have fifty thousand dollars sitting in annuity or 401k You can take that ten thousand dollars out and go buy a house and now you've made

a couple of hundred thousand and that you're not gonna make it that quick sitting in your annuity. So I watched people do that. So, you know, I had someone tell me you can get all the formal education you want, but you're gonna learn your most from people. So I was studying how they were doing these deals. And I was like, okay, lawyers make the least out of the table, but you get the information, you get deals. So being the attorney, I just watched, so I left this firm.

started doing my own stuff. I represented banks, I represented sellers and buyers. And so I just learned and that's how I learned about it. And I picked up property. I would do short sales. Anybody know what a short sale is? I was negotiating short sales for investors and I was never turned down. Like I would just get paid just to do short sales. So I had one deal, was a great deal as a foreclosure. I was like, I'm gonna keep this one for myself. I said, I'm gonna keep this one, bought it in Bed-Stuy as...

Lisa Zeiderman (13:25.765)

Yes.

Precious LaTonia Williams (13:26.329)

Yes.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (13:41.948)

It was the market was turning and I knew it was going to turn, you know, so here I am, 20 years later sitting in my brownstone that I could have flipped and made money, but I decided to hold onto it and it will help me retire.

Lisa Zeiderman (13:55.319)

So I'm going to say a couple of things because you've said so many things. So many, so many things. First of all, I'm married to a real estate investor. So, and that's all he does. And I will say that, and I'm going to say this to our listeners also, because I think this is so important. I think that for real estate, and you tell me if you agree with this, Melissa, for real estate, you have to have almost an instinct for it.

Precious LaTonia Williams (13:59.438)

So, for real.

Lisa Zeiderman (14:23.035)

You you talked about flipping houses and making money, but you have to know the timing, right? Because you could make a lot of big mistakes too in real estate. But if you have the instinct, if you're in it and you really know when's the time where we're really going to get into flipping houses or we miss that boat at the moment and too many people are flipping houses and we're going to have a slow down, right? It's not just as easy.

as what you've said. It is about really feeling it almost. It's part of you. Am I correct in that?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (15:01.972)

Well, I can also say that, and I tell people this, you don't make a whole lot of money flipping houses. You make money holding onto them. That's just, you don't make them flipping. Cause it quick, if you do a deal and your profit is like 150 or $200,000, you got to pay all that money back that you lent, you laid out to do the renovation and you got to pay taxes on it. I can spend $50,000 an hour. So you make money by holding any real money you make, you can't get to really easy.

Lisa Zeiderman (15:08.282)

correct.

Correct.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (15:32.338)

So I always tell people and to your point, it's not necessarily instant, but if you're willing to be patient, and you really wanna make money, you're not gonna do flipping, you're going to hold on to them.

Lisa Zeiderman (15:46.321)

And when you talk about, when you're educating your students in the classrooms, what inspires you to teach them? And what do you teach them in terms of, so for example, you just talked about holding on to the real estate, okay? There's tax consequences, right? At the end when you sell real estate, sometimes people actually hold on to real estate for their entire life so that they actually can pass it to the next generation.

And as the real estate actually increases in value, they will pull out the money and refinance. you get into all of that? Do you teach them that? And what inspires you to teach them? And I'm dying to ask this. What's their age group?

Precious LaTonia Williams (16:27.332)

Yeah.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (16:27.934)

I high school. So in economics class, instead of teaching some of the boring stuff that we learning, I'd teach them how to buy real estate. And I have students that have disabilities, but they're on their second house. They're buying houses and they work for MTA. They haven't gone to anybody's college, but they are making six figures and they own their own home. So I would rather them do that than go to Target. I would rather them, you know,

Lisa Zeiderman (16:41.297)

amazing.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (16:56.884)

Figure out because as I shared with someone yesterday You can stay in your apartment and when you leave your apartment you can leave with your stuff When you leave your house, you will leave with your stuff in a check So which sounds better? You know what I mean? If you don't have a pension this can be your pension So that's something that you know, it's certain things that you have to say to people say it's a aha moment for you But for me, I was cutting I was probably right into the two to four million dollars a day and checks

And I saw how people just live in. So coming from the projects is like, know, sometimes it's hard to see past that, I grew up in a very wealthy area. And I saw, said, how are these people able to afford these houses? How are they able to do it? So me, couldn't, I could afford to buy a house in Long Island at the time. The taxes were high. So I made a decision, go to Brooklyn because they have multiple dwellings. The taxes are low.

I can get something there. I heard something that Donald Trump's father did. The first thing he did was he bought a four family. That's how he got started. He bought a four family. All he did was paint and throw carpet. And that's how he got started. So what did I do? I bought a four family and I hadn't paid a mortgage by myself in 20 years. And then as I did the first one, it was a lot. And I said, no, I'm not gonna buy 10. This is too much. One was fine. I could have done 10.

I could have done 20, but that wasn't the lie. didn't want that life, but it's, it's, can show someone how to get in. It's easier to obtain, but a little bit more difficult to maintain. And this is what I teach. This is what I teach my students. I teach adults. I teach people who don't have pensions now how they can start to earn. You know what I mean? Buy something because you need a place to live. So at least if nothing else, you'll have that and you can build some equity in 10 to 15 years.

Precious LaTonia Williams (18:32.132)

Cool.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (18:51.782)

So at least you'll have something for all of us who would, know, solo practitioners or those of us who were out on their own, you know, it's tough today for people, but real estate is a way for anybody to bounce back. It doesn't even have to be in a state. I tell everyone now you want to get in the game. Don't think about New York. I said South Carolina, the entire down payment is a thousand dollars for the whole state. Why? I don't want to go to South Carolina. I said, who cares? Go pick up some.

Why do you it's a thousand you can't come up with a thousand dollars or down payment and least ten that who can't come up with that at least your name will be on a deed and You have a tax benefit and look everyone's going to South Carolina everybody now South Carolina prices are eight hundred nine hundred a hundred thousand over eight hundred nine hundred thousand thousand thousand South Carolina Because you didn't want to spend a thousand dollars because you didn't want to go to South Carolina So, you know for those people who listen and step out on faith, they're doing very well

So for me, during the recession 2008, I was like, I lost everything. I said, I have to pivot. So I pivot into education where I had to worry about health insurance, where I didn't have to worry about, I could still leave school at three o'clock and get to a closing at four. And that's what I did. And I just designed the life for myself that I have by just being a typical millionaire next door.

Precious LaTonia Williams (20:12.484)

Queen, I just got a, I felt there were so many Beyonce drop the mic moments. I know Queen Lisa was feeling that too. There's so, so many things that you said and I love that you're teaching the students and even, you know, adults about, about this. A lot of us fall into situations and study and all of a sudden we have this wealth of knowledge that we can impart. We can impart to, to other people. Just listening to you.

I felt kind of transformed because when I first came to New York in the summer of 2001, I saw all of these great brownstones. I saw all these things, but for some reason I wanted a penthouse. I didn't want a house like a regular house people could walk to. I just wanted a penthouse. One of the things that you said that really stuck out to me is you...

being in education and having those benefits, also understanding that this skill set and this talent that you have will make sure you have a place to stay and you're teaching others how to have a place to stay when everything else goes wrong. What are some of the most transformative?

experiences you've seen in others who've taken your training or your advice.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (21:27.486)

They're all millionaires.

Precious LaTonia Williams (21:30.628)

So that's the note, so you just want me do this.

Lisa Zeiderman (21:33.425)

You

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (21:33.52)

I'm just there on Maynard and that's like I told the kids you don't you don't you can be a millionaire and be working at Dunkin Donuts because you own real estate like you don't have to do I don't need to have Beyonce's money. First of all, I don't need it. I'm I don't need all of that. I don't need it, but I can do real estate and be OK. I can make just enough. I have a client, a client who is a bus driver demands where five million dollars. He got two three properties. He doesn't even have a car. He doesn't need one because he buys in TA for free.

People look at him like he's just a bus driver. man's worth over $5 million. I have another guy. He works at fire department. He has two buildings, one's a four, one's a three family. He makes over $200,000. He doesn't even need the money. He works for the fire department. Why? Because he has two buildings. Goes to work at like Millionaire Next Door. So.

Precious LaTonia Williams (22:06.881)

Ain't keepin' it real quiet.

Precious LaTonia Williams (22:25.676)

My first apartment was in Bed-Stuy. Level 6 handcuff between Lewis and Stuy was there. I will never forget that, so thank you.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (22:28.404)

I told everybody Brian Best died. I was like, do mean? I was like, Brian Best, I'm telling you, best how it's gonna turn. For whoever listened, they're doing very well right now. For those who listened and didn't go to Jersey or didn't go to Long Island, for those who listened, everybody's a millionaire right now.

Lisa Zeiderman (22:47.025)

So Melissa, you lead international trips for the students. You mentioned this earlier, places like South Africa, France, Ecuador. What role do you think that these global experiences play in shaping your students' future and how they look at, I guess, even their education and their growth and their ability in terms of investing later in themselves?

and in others.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (23:18.866)

I think it broadens your throughout process, right? And it makes you think like you don't have to be on this capitalistic rat race, right? You value time you spend with people. And this is what happened to me. I was traveling and I'm like, Hey, wait a minute. If I keep buying all these houses, I'm not going to be able to travel because I got to do it. It'll be a landlord. got to do that. It's slowing down my travel game. This is the God honest truth. And I stopped at two because it was interfering with my travel game.

And I would much rather do that than just have like, it's just, felt like I didn't, know, exposing kids to this type of lifestyle makes you really think about your own and who has a better quality of life. Do we have a better quality of life? And what, what's that's relative to certain people. Right. So I took my kids to Ecuador. We went there to do a service project. We built a library. We helped the libraries there. We painted and turned this library.

Precious LaTonia Williams (24:16.793)

you

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (24:17.17)

this old library into a real nice library. And what it did for them in character was amazing, just to be able to serve. It really builds character, but also gives you perspective because some of the kids who went from DR, it's some of the same culture, you know, in terms of the poverty, but learning how to give and then look at what you have might be the projects, but you have running water.

You have clean water. Some people don't, I've seen them go to the river and their cows in there, but they get water, the same water. They have an issue with clean water. So it just really builds character for me. And it makes you really put things in perspective. That's just how I see it. I'm, know, and our kids have learned a lot from it. South Africa was a really interesting trip. All the trips I've taken were interesting in that, but really to broaden their horizons and their thought process.

It made them think a little bit more globally and not just, you know, locally and not even just, you know, nationally, but globally and where they see themselves in that.

Precious LaTonia Williams (25:22.446)

love that you did that. I did a training at the Mahalia Jackson School, you know, middle school in Harlem. And a lot of the young students had never been past, they didn't know what Central Park was. And that's 110 Central Park North. We were at 141st. So I'm glad that you did that. And also when I was growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, all I saw was the inner city.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (25:35.955)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (25:48.467)

Mm-hmm.

Precious LaTonia Williams (25:48.804)

It wasn't until I went to college and law school and all that the world really opened up and traveling. So thank you so much for showing them that there is more to life in this block, this city, this state. There's so much more out there and that they can take advantage of it. So let's talk about the art of the deal. Negotiation is clearly a strength of yours. And is there a particular deal, a particular memorable deal that you closed maybe in

maybe more in real estate, that reminded you of the power of asking for what you want. After all, we're on the Power of the Ask podcast.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (26:24.508)

You know, I can, I'm gonna go back to when I was in junior high or starting high school. I think it was junior high and I had to stay with my aunts. My mom was ill in the hospital, so we had to stay with my aunt. My aunt was very strict. So we would be outside. It was hot too, was summertime. We were outside and then when the park lights went off, we had to go straight home. So we had to go to, we had to go straight home, but the other kids were able to hang out. And I was like, okay, this is not gonna work. I gotta figure out how we can still stay outside.

because everybody else is outside. So what could I do? So I asked my aunt, said, look, I'm broken a deal for all of us, right? I'm the youngest of the group. And I'm like, listen, can we just sit on the porch? I said, can we sit on the porch if we come home at 10? Could we sit on the porch and hang out with our friends on the porch? And my aunt said, yes. I couldn't believe, I said, she said, you don't mean yes? I was like, yeah. I knew I had a gift. If I can move this mean aunt of mine to let us stay in the yard.

Precious LaTonia Williams (27:01.604)

The heart of

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (27:22.706)

That was a huge compromise, you know? And from then I knew I had, I didn't know what that meant, but I knew I had something I can convince people to do things. But it was never, the intent was never malicious in any way. But I think it was mutually beneficial, you know? It was a win-win. So I took that skillset, it's transferable in real estate. I would, I remember negotiating a deal. It was a short sale.

Precious LaTonia Williams (27:39.566)

You think we're gonna win win up in here?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (27:51.47)

And the seller was losing their house and they had a $63,000 water bill. And I was like, okay, is HSBC gonna pay this water bill? I don't know. But I negotiated with them to pay the water bill. I couldn't believe it. No one could believe it. was like, I don't know. I've never done that before. you know, I...

I enjoy doing those kinds of things. It brings me joy. I don't even care if I'm gonna get paid, but if I can do something that nobody has done before and everybody walkway happy, then that means I've done my job.

Lisa Zeiderman (28:26.863)

for you. Good for you. You know, you are so multi talented. You're a lawyer, you're an educator, you're a great communicator, you're obviously a mentor. How do you balance it all? And then what are going to do looking ahead into that crystal ball, which I always say I can't see what what's ahead in that crystal ball? Do you have that crystal ball? Can you see what you are going to lean into in the future? How you're going to build upon what you've been doing?

going ahead in future years.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (28:59.06)

Yeah. Oh, for me, um, for how do I balance? Cause I believe balance is the key to life, right? I, I need to travel. I need to just take a minute and step away. So, so, so travel is my peace time that it resets me. It focused me, calms me down and I choose to be amongst people who don't have anything. Cause it's just a reminder. So I will do like next month, I'm going to do a Cuba run. So it's a food run pretty much, but I love Cuba. So.

I'm taking food down to a family that I support and I'll go hang in Cuba for a week. Probably will retire there. I will most likely retire there. And just really not one place, but just bounce around. I have a base, I bought a house in South Carolina. South Carolina will be my base, but I'll just hop around. But Cuba is a place that I've come to love and I want to learn how to Spanish fluently. So I'll just probably go to school there. And so I can be fluent, but.

Lisa Zeiderman (29:35.663)

Cuba. Love it.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (29:58.558)

For the most part, that's really what I see myself doing. And I also most likely will work with schools on a consultant level and just build capacity on their teams and build capacity with how they engage students in certain things, particularly entrepreneurship. But I will most likely just become a vendor and just consult with school districts across the country.

Lisa Zeiderman (30:22.798)

for you.

Precious LaTonia Williams (30:23.978)

I'm I'm a foodie too. It's like, want to go with you. And I was watching Anthony Wardane when he was in Cuba. It's just, it's just all these things are popping off my head from, what you're saying and to live a life that you truly love and that you want. And there are options. This is something we bring with great dress on the Power of the Ask podcast. And now we're coming down to that final question.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (30:26.516)

Yeah, I mean, you I tell people.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (30:44.648)

design.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (30:48.852)

By design, by design. You got to your life.

Precious LaTonia Williams (30:54.786)

Why is the power of the air so crucial for women, especially financially?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (31:00.956)

I think that, well, finances is not something some communities always like we're focused on. I remember in fourth grade trying to wrap my mind around stocks. know, we were learning, I'm from Long Island, Roslyn, very affluent community, but we weren't affluent, right? So we had to learn about stocks. couldn't wrap my mind, I couldn't visualize what that's supposed to look like, because we were in the projects, we barely have food. Like I didn't understand the concept of stocks. so,

I didn't understand credit and why it was so important to invest. We just were not taught about financial literacy. And I had to learn about finances through my job as an attorney. And so I'm sharing with our generation of people why it's important for them to really just really don't be scared to ask those questions, especially in the 50s where, like I said, we've been consulting and we didn't have a nest egg.

What does that transition look like? So how do you transition to make sure you have a, it's a plan, you have to have a transition plan. And as part of the transition plan, the money game gotta be right. And so how do you help women who are 50, 60 years old and don't have a decent savings? I'm talking about Westchester women, I'm talking about Long Island women. How do, cause that's a skillset for me. Teaching women how to go from,

Not having anything to have an Ness egg in your retirement time. You got these gifts, you're not using them. How can you take what you have and put together capability statement and help these women grow into retirement? That's what I'm doing right now. Not even, it wasn't even something I was doing like I intended to do, but I ended up doing just having these conversations with you guys.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (32:51.252)

All these lawyers I know, like, why are you not doing, why are you not training people how to do debating? You got to do a great litigator. Why are you not helping schools teach their kids how to debate? Why are you not teaching your kids about mentoring and helping them prep for the bar? How come you're not sharing with families, like conflict resolution, if you've been a family court attorney and you've been doing, how come you don't do mediation? So why are you not considering arbitrations? We have skills, we're just not using them.

Precious LaTonia Williams (32:51.31)

Can I just say?

Precious LaTonia Williams (33:21.316)

I appreciate you so much. feel like, again, I want to say mind blown. And also this is what we want on the Power of the Ask podcast, powerful guests who are here to help us look at things very, very differently.

I don't think about teachers and teachers look like I haven't met one who had all of that altogether. And to know that you understood the art of the pivot, the art of the deal from being in junior high all the way up and knowing that we're a lot of us are just sitting on our gifts and we could be giving them to the world and training up the next generation. So, getting, getting, getting, getting checks. We do.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (33:57.768)

and getting a check and getting a check for it. People are doing it and they're getting, you're not getting a check. It's like, it's one of those things where I tell everyone, lawyering is a hustle for me. It's just a hustle for me. So I can, I'm quite fine with the city pays me pretty good money. I don't even care about that. When I first saw him, I care about their check. I didn't have to pay health insurance and you gonna give me a pension? You gonna give me a pension to take kids to South Africa?

Lisa Zeiderman (34:02.831)

Yes, we like the checks.

Precious LaTonia Williams (34:21.816)

She said, do you hear me? Do you hear me?

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (34:27.572)

You to me a picture? You want to take people, you want to pay me to take kids to Switzerland and we going to be in a, in a ski house in the Alps. You going to pay me to do this kind so this just to me, how do you see it? How do you see it? I see all schools across the country have budgets. What can I do to support those kids in that district? Or what can I do to support a principal? What can I do to support a superintendent and a superintendent's team? What gifts can I bring them?

Precious LaTonia Williams (34:28.068)

You said, what's not like a deal?

Lisa Zeiderman (34:59.515)

Makes sense.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (34:59.56)

It doesn't have to be a school. It could be a corporation. could be any, but I'm not going to sit here. I spent a lot of time and energy in law school and all that for me to be sitting out and me not doing anything with it. And I should be able to do it from anywhere in the world. I'm going leave that with y'all.

Precious LaTonia Williams (34:59.702)

and you can look afterwards, I love it.

Precious LaTonia Williams (35:19.192)

Do you all see the kind of powerful guests we have on the Power of the Ask podcast? They are simply amazing. And so if you want to see more guests like this, need to tell a friend to tell a friend of what, tell a friend to subscribe and watch the next Power of the Ask podcast powered by Savvy Ladies with my wonderful, beautiful, talented co-host, Lisa Zeiderman managing partner of Miller Ziterman and me, the killer pitch master and the founder of Perfect Pitch Group.

And we're so delighted to have the quality and the type of guests that make you just rethink everything from investing to transitions to seeing that there is more to what you can offer the world that even you think. We are here to support women and female empowerment, financial empowerment. So keep coming back. It gets better and better. Right, Queen Lisa?

Lisa Zeiderman (36:10.029)

It does and review, review, review and subscribe. Make sure you subscribe.

Precious LaTonia Williams (36:16.686)

Thank you, Queen Melissa. This has been an amazing experience with you.

Melissa Cisco, Esq. (36:19.75)

Likewise, I appreciate you inviting me. really do. had a great time talking to you guys.

Lisa Zeiderman (36:20.475)

Thank you, Melissa.