Flipping the script in finance requires a new voice to empower, and Kelly Ogbonna, the financial coach and young entrepreneur known as KellyOhgee on social media, is showing tomorrow’s generation what becomes of hard work and perseverance. As it stands today, Ohgee is twenty-one years old and a self-made success story, lending much of her aerial mobility to trading, smart finance, and strong leadership. Ohgee is well-known for striking gold seemingly overnight, yet the root of her success is defined by consistency and the will to work, two pillars that form the foundation of her platform and business model, Cash Capital Investment Group.
“It was never about the money,” Ohgee said. “Trading is like ninety percent psychology and ten percent skill, but what keeps people from trading is the fear of losing money and because it seems so difficult to learn.”
Cash Capital Investment Group (CCIG) is an e-learning platform that builds community for curious students who want more authority over their futures. The most common obstacle we face when dealing in finance, however, is the fear of failure, as Ohgee has explained. We often fear what we don’t understand, and CCIG seeks to educate and empower others to step over that threshold.
“Community is everything, and for a lot of us, when we’re just getting started, the hardest part is finding your people,” Ohgee said. “(Cash Capital) is a community where people can learn different ways to trade, observe people who are the best at what they do, and establish relationships.”
Ohgee famously turned $26 into $100,000 in just nine months and, like a true Texan, took her discoveries and flipped the value in a big way. Last year, Ohgee purchased a stately house for her parents in Dallas with some of her overall earnings.
“I’m not a builder, but I absolutely love houses!” Ohgee said. “Nearly every Saturday and Sunday I go tour million-dollar homes just for fun, and some of those houses feel more like museums…if you’re not having a house party, then what are you doing?”
Before committing to finance and economics, Ohgee briefly considered a career in architecture. Cities like Dallas are sprawling with a robust housing inventory, but the personality of a property lives within its tenants. The power of “home” transcends a physical place, and according to Ohgee, that in itself cannot be bought.
“When I was house shopping for my parents, there were some places that just didn’t feel right,” Ohgee explained. “When we think of home, you just have to feel it…it has to resonate with your heart. After a long day, it’s where people feel the most safe. It’s like when we’re sad and the only thing we crave is our mother’s arms.”
More than a feeling, Ohgee believes real estate is among the smartest investments one can make, since property markets are where the biggest wealth transfers occur.
“I think real estate is honestly a better investment than stocks,” Ohgee said. “I know that people always need a place to live, to call home, and though it may not always be a 100% return, it’s always going to be something.”
Ohgee finds fulfillment in peeling back the layers of finance, and people tend to stray away from stocks because it’s unfamiliar and isolating. Generally, the trading of stocks is not the kind of chitchat young Americans are accustomed to, which is part of the challenge for Ohgee in building a space like CCIG, where others can come to listen and learn when it suits them best. Before launching CCIG in 2021, Ohgee was most active on YouTube and phone calls with clients. As to be expected, many of those calls were not prolific enough to see long-term growth because, simply put, wanting something is not the same as achieving it.
“If you don’t have the discipline to show up every day, even if it’s a bad day, you won’t succeed,” Ohgee said. “It’s like going to the gym. How consistent am I going to be? Like I am going to show up every day even when I’m tired.”
The architecture of CCIG is highly-structured and personal, inviting collegiate flavors of critical thinking, real-life application, and debate into the overall experience. Ohgee took the rudiments of YouTube and telephone consultations to draft a curriculum that streamlined the entire process.
“In the past, I would spend ten hours a day explaining how this works to people over the phone who weren’t taking it seriously,” Ohgee said. “So I decided to make a group where people could come and learn together. I took that over to TikTok and membership skyrocketed!”
The yearning to learn is ever present, but how does Ohgee stay relevant in a fluctuating financial landscape? Partly attributed to her age demographic, Ohgee is among the generation of movers and shakers that shrug conventional roadmaps to success, trading “tradition” for innovation. Financial apparati are nothing new, and according to Ohgee, history often repeats itself.
“As with any area in life, you have to adapt,” Ohgee explained. “The stock market literally repeats itself, and that’s how we’re able to trade. I don’t think these concepts will ever disappear, you just have to know when to use them.”
In many ways, the name of the game is longevity and sustainability. The United States has an interesting economy that both rewards and is influenced by the general population. Ohgee says that not all countries can operate this way, which is why the American economy is so diverse. True, economic trends will swing like an open door, but the dedication to growth remains the same. Ohgee visited her motherland of Nigeria at the top of 2023 and observed the disparities between her upbringing and that of current Nigerian citizens. Ohgee has also stated that Nigerians make up her largest demographic online and beyond.
“It did not feel like home, so many polarizing environments,” Ohgee said. “Growing up in America sort of created a disconnect for me, but something that continues to blow my mind are the individuals and parents like mine who decided to embark on a new journey with virtually no plans!”
Likewise, finance can be both predictable and unpredictable, but the key is to maintain a pulse on your projects, according to Ohgee.
“As a location, home is where you spend most of your time,” she said. “I very much love Nigeria, and I have a lot of big plans to make an impact there.”
In the United States, much of the economy follows a trend, forcing us to stay on our toes when making financial decisions. Ohgee encourages active engagement and participation in the economy because economic trends stem from social trends, the latter coming in clutch with social media strategy.
“When people see, they believe,” Ohgee said. “That’s why we have dream cars and dream houses. It’s a psychological trick, it’s not that those things were never there in the first place, it’s that our brains never noticed them or knew to look for them.”
Despite its cold exterior, social media has provided a unique opportunity for tangible gratification, pulling back the curtains on otherwise obsolete subject matter while, almost comically, throwing shadows on our most basic life experiences.
“Younger generations need to be present to see what’s really there,” Ohgee said. “That’s the thing with social media is it allows you to see what’s possible. It’s worth taking that risk to show people what’s possible…being able to slowly but surely pull back those curtains.”
If nothing else, social media has shown younger generations that someone like Ohgee, who was only eighteen when she embarked on this journey, can achieve the seemingly impossible. Knowledge is power, and the will to listen and learn shines without a price tag.
When she was in high school, Ohgee subjected her classmates to an experiment in tangible gratification. It was 2019, when Popeye’s received widespread media coverage on their mythic chicken sandwich that supposedly rivaled Chick-Fil-A’s. The sandwiches would typically sell out within hours of operation, and some went on to sell for as much as $500 on ebay or Amazon. Ohgee’s aunt had been visiting from Nigeria and was puzzled by the frenzy surrounding the sandwich, so she gave her niece $50 to snatch up however many sandwiches remained for the family to try together. Popeye’s was across the street from Ohgee’s high school, so she waited outside the restaurant during her free morning period and walked away with ten sandwiches. Over lunch, Ohgee decided to shop around the sandwiches to her classmates in the cafeteria who, until that morning, were beginning to lose faith in the standing power of this chicken sandwich.
“It was at that moment that I realized people have to see it to believe it,” Ohgee said.
The sandwiches flew out of the bag, no surprise, and Ohgee likes to chalk up this experience as a turning point in her professional career.
The CCIG program has become more than a passion project for Ohgee, blossoming into a dynamic space that rewards curiosity and determination. The entrepreneur’s first official course is slated for debut on June 1, accumulating years of creative blueprinting. The course will be available in video format with plenty of room for discussion, networking, and debunking the myths surrounding finance altogether. For some people, the pursuit of financial freedom offers security and upward mobility. For others, it’s food for thought. Either way, it’s more than a feeling, and much like a home, the future of CCIG is sculpting itself to be a leading example in economic prowess, complete with open doors, vaulted opportunities, and scores of natural light to drive away any skepticism.
A school of learning for the curious at heart is complementary to where society stands today, at the crossroads of digital distrust and fierce economic independence. Ohgee strives to champion success that you can see, suspending disbelief by showing the realities of breaking boundaries. The roadmap to financial freedom is limitless, we simply put ourselves in the driver’s seat.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Ohgee said. “Just create something different.”
