TEDx Talk: How to make finance beautiful

(sung)

Have you ever felt that finance is overwhelming? 

Just too scary to be compelling?

A new era is here 

Fresh story without fear 

And it’s time to move on 

Time to feel strong 

Finance is beautiful

Finance is beautiful

Add a little color to my spreadsheet baby 

Make it a picture so I can see

Add a little color to my spreadsheet baby

I’m in command of my money

(spoken)

Growing up in Georgia, my father read me poetry and played me rock and roll.  I loved philosophy, psychology, language. Finance wasn’t on my radar. 

Then in college I signed up for a marketing internship, but when I started, my role shifted to finance, and suddenly I was immersed in the world of numbers. 

I watched entrepreneurs walk in with ideas they were passionate about, and then the banker would walk them through the financial strategy to bring their dreams to life.

That was when I realized that finance can be part of something beautiful.

And so right out of school, I joined a wealth management firm. 

I was there for 12 years, and in that time I noticed that many people do not, in fact, experience finance as beautiful. Mostly, they find it to be overwhelming, confusing, and boring. Even scary. 

Early on in my career, I'm in a conference room. There’s a senior financial advisor, the client and me. 

The meeting begins with the client being presented with a thick stack of financial reports, and then within moments the advisor launches into an investment soliloquy about the history of interest rates, emerging market valuations, the Fed - and within about 10 seconds I see the client check out. 

I could see in their eyes - to them, it seemed like finance was overwhelming, confusing, and boring – and just like that, they had checked out of their own financial life. 

And THAT is when I realized that if we want people to engage in their financial lives, then finance needs to be clear, approachable and beautiful.

But, maybe that’s just my personal feeling. Does making finance beautiful REALLY matter? 

Okay, so, have you heard of The Great Wealth Transfer? 

It’s actually happening right now. Trillions of dollars are changing hands in the U.S. as older generations pass on their assets to younger ones. 

Basically, boomers are passing substantial amounts of money to millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z. Notably, a large portion of this is expected to shift into the hands of women.

However, traditional financial education has often failed to effectively engage people, in particular -- women and younger generations -- if they received any financial education at all!

So, whether you personally expect to inherit money, or not - it benefits all of us for the next generation to be empowered and engaged in their financial lives. 

Which begs the question, why ARE so many people disengaged with finance?

I remember going to a mechanic to fix my car. It stopped working, and I had no idea why. And the mechanic started explaining how the engine worked, the pistons and fuel injectors. 

After a few minutes I said, “Look, can you just make it go?” 

That’s how so many people feel talking to a financial professional.  

It’s a 1-way technical conversation that’s hard to understand and hard to tell which parts are relevant to my actual question, which is: What financial steps do I need to take today, for me and my family?  

So that’s the first challenge. Financial education is often presented as a monologue, not a dialogue. 

Many people also tell me that the world of finance feels like it’s written in a completely different language.  

When I first read Shakespeare in high school, I was confused. It was definitely English, but it felt like a foreign language. And I couldn’t really appreciate the text. 

That’s what it feels like to a lot of people trying to deal with financial jargon - they can read the words, but it’s like a totally different language.

Like many industries, professionals within the financial industry tend to have technical training and talk with each other in very technical terms. 

But when we go to speak with non-finance folks, it’s easy to forget how overwhelming and daunting these terms can be: equities, fixed income, yield curve, cost basis, alpha, beta, bull market, bear market, hawkish, dovish, squirrel-ish. Okay… I made up squirrel-ish.

When people don’t know the terms, their definitions, or how the concepts affect one another, It’s disorienting - which makes it very difficult to engage in a meaningful conversation. 

And so we’ve got a few generations who feel talked at in a foreign language about finance. 

No wonder they’re not engaged! 

And at the end of the day, finance can feel kinda scary. 

And so it’s common for people to behave like financial ostriches, with their heads in the sand. 

Okay, so what can we do instead?

As a young adult, I took a creative writing class. My teacher, Donald, picked up a copy of King Lear, and brought it to life for me with a performance that fully captured the story. Finally, I was able to understand and appreciate the beauty of Shakespeare. 

And that’s what we need to do for people in the world of finance: bring it to life in a way they can engage with.

Today, I’m the founder and managing director of a boutique wealth advisory.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I can share what’s been working for us.

We’ve been using creative tools like visuals, stories, metaphors, games, and yes - music - to engage people in their financial education, inviting them to look at finance in a whole new way. 

Let’s talk about it. 

Stories. 

Early on working with a new client, we ask them about their money stories: What experiences and lessons have shaped how you think, feel and make decisions about money today? 

For example, I remember my grandmother saying, “It’s not polite to talk about money.” 

For a long time I felt super uncomfortable having financial conversations, which, as you can imagine, made it rather difficult as a financial advisor, when my job was to help people with their money!

So identifying that  financial story was important for me, because I realized it wasn’t serving me, and I could rewrite it to, “It‘s essential to talk about money.” 

In one of my sessions, someone said “I’m not a numbers person” And so I asked, “Is that serving you?” and they said “No. It has me turn off my brain when I start thinking about numbers” So I said well, "What would serve you and your goals?” They thought about it and came back with a beautiful breakthrough, “With practice and focus, I can learn anything.”  

Remember, you are the author of your financial stories. 

Your money stories aren’t right or wrong. The question is, are they serving you and your financial goals? If not, you get to rewrite them and experiment with what works for you. 

So, stories.

We also use metaphors.  

I’m a nature person, so a lot of my metaphors have to do with trees, or the garden. 

Imagine your finances are a garden. 

A garden, like your finances, is alive - it grows, changes, and evolves with the seasons and stages of your life. Growth isn’t always linear. And not everything blooms at the same time. 

What matters is that you tend AND cultivate a diverse garden to support you in different conditions and seasons. 

Over time, as you nurture your garden, your garden will nurture you.  

Stories and metaphors are useful tools for engaging people in their financial lives. 

I’m also partial to using songs to impart financial concepts, which I’m known to do to unexpecting open mic crowds and TEDx audiences. 

“Oh, you thought this sweet, southern girl was going to whisper-sing an acoustic song? Not today! Here comes 15 minutes of face melting financial rock!”

Stories, metaphors, music - all good. And of course, we also use games. 

And I want to tell you about one game in particular: the values game. 

See, before we look at a single number, financial statement, or spreadsheet, we ask people what they really care about, what they value. 

We engage with things we care about. Our values represent what we truly care about.

Let’s play a quick version of the values game right now.

Take a look at the values you see on the screen. 

There are many more you can choose from, but here are some. Choose 1 that calls out to you. 

Got it?  Now put your imagination caps on and picture it's 1 year in the future and you are expressing the personal value you just picked, engaged in activities that bring it to life:

Now, ask yourself: What is 1 action you can take to align your resources -- your money and time -- with this value in the next 12 months? 

For example, I know someone, let’s call her Linda, who dreamt of travel for as long as she could remember, but there always seemed to be other obligations. When she identified “adventure” as a top value and desire of hers, she was able to focus her time and money and set off to experience the world.  

Or maybe education or learning is one of your top values, and you set up a special account and automatically put some money into it each month, just to save or invest for that. 

But it’s not always about money.

At one of my sessions someone identified ‘connection’ as one of their top values. And so they decided to host a potluck for their friends once a month. Another person who chose that same value of  ‘connection’ decided to start volunteering at a non-profit in honor of their mother. 

So again, think of your value and ask yourself, what is 1 action you can take to align your resources -- your money and time -- with this value in the next 12 months? 

Wealth is not just money, it’s having what you value - your dreams - come to life. 

That’s the point of the values game: to clarify our values so that we use our resources efficiently to create wealth. 

Beautiful, right?

Visuals, stories, metaphors, music, games - oh my!

And it’s exciting right now, there’s a growing movement of holistic financial planners, YouTubers, TikTokers, bloggers, and podcasters experimenting with ways to help the next generations connect and engage with finance.

And I love to see it.

Numbers can be a creative and interesting medium. 

And wealth is more than just money, it’s the experience of living a fulfilled life defined by you.

(sung)

Grew up thinking 

Investing not my scene

But now I’m taking charge 

I’m a finance queen 

The moment I engage

I start to turn the page 

Left brain right brain 

Finance is whole brain 

Finance is Beautiful

Finance is Beautiful 

Finance is Beautiful

Thank you.