Codie Sanchez’s mission is to help people build wealth and spark entrepreneurship — a goal she shared with Fox News Digital while discussing her journey and the inspiration behind "Contrarian Thinking."
Her journey began as a journalist along the U.S.-Mexico border and observed, "what happens when a border separates us."
Sanchez came to understand how deeply socioeconomics can divide people — and even threaten safety — after learning about the violence, particularly against women, along the border. Determined to shed light on these issues, she set her sights on journalism.
Then came a pivotal realization: "What would happen if more of us had more money? Because that, I think, is actually the ultimate freedom."
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"I was a journalist and I realized pretty quickly, wait, if I want to make real change, the way I'm going to be able to do that is actually by being inside of the system as opposed to reporting on it," she said to Fox News Digital.
Her Wall Street journey began when she asked herself, "What if I just can get more wealth to multiple different people by building an asset management business? And so I started out in a company called Vanguard."
From there, she moved on to Goldman Sachs, State Street, and First Trust.
"What I realized along the way is wealth is just super concentrated in the hands of the few. And most people don't have financial literacy and so when I went to First Trust and started buying companies myself, I started to realize, 'Wait a second. I think what I'm doing is just helping more rich people get really rich,' which is cool. Money's great. I like it and I want everybody to have it. There's nothing wrong with being super-rich. I just think there should be more of us."
That led her to ask, "So that's when I started thinking, how can we teach more people how to get ownership as opposed to just making more money for those of us on Wall Street?"
About her organization, "Contrarian Thinking," Sanchez said, "Our goal is we teach people to become owners. We help people buy businesses. We're basically flipping the script."
"So instead, we teach people to buy local businesses, own part of their community and build a legacy," said Sanchez.
During the pandemic, Sanchez felt that freedoms were being "taken away" and was grateful to have the financial means to push back, and shared a personal experience her husband went through.
"My husband was at a company where that company was attempting to make him, even though he had a medical exemption, do something with his medical history that would have been a direct violation of what the doctor said. And he was a Navy SEAL. And so he didn't have a lot of cash at the time. And they were really pressuring him."
The moment underscored the power of financial security.
"A normal person might be scared of getting fired, you know, or like you have family you have to take care of, so just do the thing that somebody on high is telling you to do — whatever that thing is. And thankfully, I had been in business for a while, and so I pushed back and was like, get my attorney on the line with these guys and I will happily chat with anybody in the company about how this is completely inappropriate, and we'll go to war if we need to. And it was in that moment I realized, oh, I can push back on the system because I have money. He didn't. And so they were gonna take advantage of that."
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Sanchez’s social media presence skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic — something she said she had never expected, having never planned to be online. Today, she has millions of followers across platforms, where she shares advice on finances, business, and life.
Sanchez started a newsletter during the pandemic in order to encourage critical thinking during the uncertain time of the pandemic. "I started writing a newsletter, basically first talking about, let's have critical thinking."
"I was like, maybe people can't think critically because they're so scared, because they have no resources. So they're just full. Then I thought, well, let's make people richer so maybe they can push back a little bit. It's easier to have a spine when you got a sword. And in our 21st century economy, the sword is money."
Sanchez has also put her philosophy into print.
"If you want to figure out how to become an owner, if you want to learn how to get income-producing assets, I wrote the book to do it. It's called Main Street Millionaire," she said.
Through her book, newsletter, and Contrarian Thinking, Sanchez continues to share strategies to help people gain ownership, achieve financial independence, and create lasting legacies.
Watch Codie Sanchez appear on "Fox & Friends" on 8/18 at 6:50 AM ET.