Money Tales

Money Tales

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Money Tales episodes

  • Staving Off the Bag Lady, with Rikki Quintana

    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Rikki Quintana. For most of her adult life, Rikki has been haunted by a vivid image of a woman in a flower sack dress, sitting under a bridge with a shopping cart. That woman is the personification of Rikki’s bag lady syndrome that she recently came to terms with. This fear stemmed from a chaotic childhood where Rikki couldn’t rely on the adults in her life to do what was needed to take care of her. With maturity and focus, Rikki came to realize that no amount of money could cure the bag lady syndrome. It was a hypothetical problem, and not a real problem she faced.

    Rikki grew up in a chaotic family in which she called herself the “white sheep in a family of black sheep.” That took the form of being the rule-following perfectionist of the family with a focus on security, control, and risk avoidance. This outlook served her well as a “straight A” student and later as a lawyer, working for large prestigious law firms and their Fortune 500 clients. But eventually, after more than 30 years of practicing law, that linear focus on the standard external measures of success wasn’t enough. Instead, she felt herself called to re-engage in what always spoke to her heart- international and inter-cultural relationships and communication. (She was a language major as an undergraduate, but then took the risk-averse career path to law.)

    Rikki founded HoonArts Fair Trade in a blind leap of faith in 2014. In retrospect, she’s grateful that she didn’t know what she didn’t know! Starting from “ground zero” as the first person to work on building a US market for handicrafts from Tajikistan, HoonArts is now a verified fair trade business, working with artisan groups in 3 Central Asian countries. With customers on 4 continents, HoonArts is helping to empower over 100 artisans, mostly rural women. Rikki is passionate about using her long-term partnerships with master artists to open a doorway to this amazing region. In the process, she’s had to completely redefine her relationship to money, risk, success, and failure.

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    37 min
  • The Money Talk, with Natalie Morales
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Natalie Morales. You’re probably already familiar with Natalie who is a current host of "The Talk" on CBS, which she recently joined after a 15-year run on the “Today Show.” Natalie is an ambitious, focused, and talented journalist who determined early in her career that she wanted to be a successful reporter. To get started, she had to take a 50% pay cut, get up at three in the morning, head to the Bronx, shoot her own video and then edit her stories. In the beginning, she was a one-woman news production band.
    Natalie is a television anchor and journalist. She serves as host of “The Talk,” CBS’ Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show that examines topical events and contemporary issues through the eyes of five hosts, alongside Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell and Sheryl Underwood.
    Most recently, Natalie was the West Coast anchor of NBC News’ “Today,” correspondent for “Dateline NBC,” and anchor of “Behind Closed Doors with Natalie Morales.” She previously served as host of “Access” and co-host of “Access Live,” as well as news anchor of “Today,” where she co-hosted the show’s third hour. Natalie joined “Today” in 2006 as a national correspondent and reported across all of NBCUniversal News’ platforms, including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and MSNBC.
    In a “Today” first, Natalie followed 20 children from the class of 2020 – all of whom were born a year after 9/11 – from their first day of kindergarten to graduation, amid a global pandemic, nonetheless. In addition to hosting “At Home with Natalie,” Natalie contributed to several major breaking news stories, including the sexual harassment scandals, the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, and the rescue of the Chilean Miners in 2010 (coverage that was seen worldwide and recognized with a 2010 National Headliner Award). In August 2008, Natalie had the exclusive jailhouse interview with the infamous Clark Rockefeller. Her other notable reports include the 2009 presidential inauguration; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005; and the election of Pope Francis in 2013. She also reported on the royal wedding in 2011 and the birth of Prince George in 2013.
    As a part of the Shine a Light campaign in 2014, Natalie ran in the Boston Marathon and raised over $70,000 for victims of the 2013 bombing. Natalie has won three Daytime Emmy Awards as part of “Today’s” recognition as the best morning news program. She won a Robert F. Kennedy Award in international journalism for her report on Honduran lobster divers for “Rock Center with Brian Williams” in June 2013. She has won three Gracie Awards, one for Outstanding Series for her “Dateline NBC” special, “My Kid Would Never,” and two for her reporting in 2016 and 2017.
    Natalie, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was born in Taiwan and spent much of the first 18 years of her life living overseas in Panama, Brazil and Spain as an Air Force “brat.” She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Latin American studies and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons. Follow her on Twitter: @nmoralestv and Instagram: @nataliemoralestv.
    42 min
  • Eudaimonia, with Matina Agio
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Matina Agio, joining us from Athens, Greece. When Matina talks about inheritance as 'the value transferred from one generation to another', she’s not necessarily focused on the money. For her money is just a symbol, and what people are really after are rich experiences. The Greeks call this Eudaimonia, which means the condition of 'human flourishing'. It’s based on having things in balance within us and outside of us.
    Matina is an inheritance consultant who inspires a deeper perspective on inheritance - beyond the legal and financial. She helps her clients transform their inheritance into meaningful legacy, long-lasting wealth and insightful self-discovery.
    Through her signature method - THE INHERITANCE MUSE METHOD™, Matina’s clients overcome the emotional and practical challenges & complexities of their inheritance. She supports them in their decision-making, regarding the sorting out, preserving, repurposing and managing of their artefacts, property & possessions.
    Matina’s work addresses both the tangible and intangible aspects of inheritance. She believes that inheritance is not a one-time event. It is a fluid, dynamic and creative force in our lives that is ongoing, since we were born.
    Matina’s experience of living and working in England, France, Germany, Italy, US, Canada and Greece, allows her to address the needs and varying backgrounds of her clients. Her clients include collectors, historic homeowners and family office members around the world.
    Matina previously served as director of Athenian Muse Holdings – a boutique consultancy for culture-based enterprises and house museums. In parallel, she managed her family’s historical home and collection, initiating projects related to its cultural legacy. She has been involved in heritage crowdfunding projects, such as the Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers in the Loire and other preservation initiatives, where she is active or part owner.
    38 min
  • Life Is Not Perfect, with Melissa Houston
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Melissa Houston. Melissa is someone who knows a lot about the importance of money conversations, and she has faced the consequences of not having them at critical times. Well into her career as a CPA, Melissa found herself slowly unraveling, which made it difficult for her to see a big problem was mounting. It began with weekend shopping trips; a handbag here, a piece of jewelry there. Melissa was spending a lot of money on things that, in hindsight, she really didn’t need because it allowed her to stave off a fear she wasn’t ready to face. And all the while, she kept the growing debt secret from her husband.
    Melissa is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), a Financial Strategist for CEOs, a columnist at Forbes.com, and the host of The Business Society podcast. She helps successful business owners increase their profit margins without having to increase revenue so that they keep more money in their pocket while increasing their personal wealth.
    Melissa has over 20 years of business experience with large and small corporations, government, and not-for-profit industries while specializing in Internal Controls, corporate accounting, budgets, financial reporting, corporate & personal tax, audit, and SR&ED. Melissa enjoys helping business owners build their businesses by increasing their financial management skills. Your numbers are telling you a story – make sure you are listening to it.
    Melissa’s passion is helping business owners go from 6-figure to 7-figure businesses and achieving their personal financial dreams.
    When Melissa isn’t helping entrepreneurs become better CEOs of their business, she can be found at the cottage with her husband Jamie, two teen children, and three dogs.
    Join Melissa at melissahoustoncpa.com.
    37 min
  • Be the Hunter, Not the Hunted, with Elisabeth Leamy
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Elisabeth Leamy. Elisabeth is a nationally-known journalist, author and speaker, best known for her work as the on-air Consumer Correspondent for Good Morning America. Among many world leaders, she’s had the privilege to have an exclusive interview with President Barack Obama, where they covered Wall Street reform, the consumer protection act, and what the Obamas were teaching their daughters about money. Elisabeth shares with us her perspectives on saving, spending and having open money conversations.
    Elisabeth contributes consumer articles to The Washington Post, which also run in dozens of papers around the country and the world. She is the creator and host of the podcast “Easy Money,” about clever, creative ways to make more money, save more money and find your unclaimed money. Easy Money ran for more than a year and is available on iTunes and other podcast platforms.
    Previously, Elisabeth served for five years as the Dr. Oz Show’s consumer and investigative correspondent. From 2005 to 2013, she was the Consumer Correspondent for Good Morning America and other ABC programs and also a featured columnist for the ABC website. In 2014, Elisabeth hosted “Free For All,” a YouTube show sponsored by AARP which alerted viewers to thousands of dollars worth of quality freebies. Before going national, Elisabeth worked at local television stations in Washington, DC, Tampa, FL and Bakersfield, CA.
    Elisabeth is the author of two critically-acclaimed books. Her most recent is “Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands” (Wiley, 2010). Her first book was "The Savvy Consumer: How To Avoid Scams and Rip-Offs That Cost You Time and Money” (Capital Books, 2004).
    Elisabeth also works as a professional speaker. She speaks all over the country and loves sharing her knowledge in an intimate setting of thousands instead of millions. She also works as a consultant and spokesperson for worthy companies and causes, helping them get their consumer education message across to the public. Clients have included: Citi, Discover, Hilton, Invisalign, Mass Mutual and more.
    Elisabeth prepared for her career with a Master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s from The University of California at Berkeley. She grew up in Marin County California and now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and daughter. Elisabeth loves reading, bicycling, home improvement projects, tending her organic vegetable garden, and wine tasting.
    42 min
  • Taking Risks, with Gina Yashere
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Gina Yashere. Gina is currently producing, writing and acting in the sitcom “Bob Hearts Abishola” on CBS, which she co-created with Chuck Lorre. Gina harnesses risk to get what she wants in life – she was a successful standup comic in the UK, who had her eyes set on America. Gina took money that was earmarked for taxes in England and used it to finance the life she was striving for in the United States. Luckily for her and all of us who benefit from her comedy, Gina scored a commercial in England, which brought in enough cash to pay the taxman in the nick of time.
    Gina was born & raised in London UK, of Nigerian parents. She has been a stand up and TV star in the UK for numerous years now, with appearances on iconic TV shows such as “Live at The Apollo” and “Mock The Week”, as well as creating & performing the hugely popular comedic characters, Tanya & Mrs. Omokerede on “The Lenny Henry Show.”
    She broke onto the American comedy scene with her appearances on “Last Comic Standing” (NBC), where she made it to the final 10, and then never went home!
    Gina went on to be named one of the top 10 rising talents in the “Hollywood Reporter.” She is also known in the US for being the only British comedian to ever appear on the iconic “Def Comedy Jam,” as well as for her hilarious appearances on “The Tonight Show” (NBC) and “Crashing” on HBO.
    Gina self-produced three separate one-hour Stand Up Specials, “Skinny B*tch,” “Laughing To America,” and “Ticking Boxes,” two of which are currently streaming on Netflix. Her fourth stand-up special is also streaming on Netflix, as part of The Stand Ups, season 2, and is garnering rave reviews on the network.
    She is also regularly featured on Comedy Central as the British Correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” Gina is also an in-demand voice artist.
    Gina has voiced characters in various animations, including Keisha in the British cult hit, “Bromwell High” and “Gravelle” in the latest movie from the makers of “Wallace & Gromit,” “Chicken Run,” “Early Man”! She can be currently heard playing a starfish called Gareth, on the Children's ITV show, “The Rubbish World of Dave Spud” (UK).
    Gina has performed for audiences not just in Europe, the US & Australia, but she is in fact, a highly sought-after comedian in Asia, making numerous sold-out appearances in Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
    It’s a wonder she found the time to pick up her fourth award in a row for “Best Comedian” at the recent Black Entertainment & Comedy Awards (UK).
    Gina has performed numerous times at the prestigious Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and Toronto.
    Feature films appearances have included “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and “Mr. Inbetween,” and she has also appeared on the West-End stage in “The Vagina Monologues.”
    40 min
  • Different Money Habits, with Rebecca DiLiberto
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Rebecca DiLiberto. Many of Rebecca’s gifts in life were born out of losses she endured; at a young age her parents divorced, her father died when she was in college, and her brother survived a freak accident that devastated his brain. These three events taught Rebecca that money is about building a world to treasure the experiences with the people she loves. She now earns and uses money to keep those relationships as strong as possible.
    Rebecca DiLiberto is a partner at dgetal, a consulting firm in Los Angeles that helps companies tell their stories. She has collaborated on more than a dozen books, produced talk shows and documentaries, and consulted on creative strategy for a broad range of Fortune 500 companies. She holds a BA from Yale, an MFA from Columbia, and at age ten was voted "most likely to succeed in arts and crafts."
    Rebecca and her husband currently reside in the City of Angels.
    46 min
  • Never Be Ashamed to Take A Profit, with Vicky Benzing
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Vicky Benzing. Vicky enjoyed an extremely successful career in tech and then decided to pursue an encore career as a stunt pilot, where she performs heart-stopping moves in airshows across the country. In both careers, she was often one of the only leading women which led to some interesting money stories.
    Born and raised in California, Vicky is an accomplished pilot, skydiver, aerobatic performer, and air racer. With over 9000 hours of flight time and over 1300 parachute jumps, Vicky has a passion for everything airborne. Her flying career has spanned nearly forty years and she currently holds an Airline Transport Pilot rating as well as a commercial rating in helicopters, seaplanes, and gliders.
    Vicky still remembers her first flight in her uncle’s airplane when she was just a small child. Inspired by that flight at a very young age, Vicky learned to fly in an antique airplane at a small airport on the California coast while working on her PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley.
    Following obtaining her doctorate, Vicky spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oregon. During this time Vicky authored over a dozen scientific papers on a novel laser-based technique for analyzing embedded surfaces. Her first job outside of the university environment led her to the semiconductor industry and then later to the semiconductor equipment industry. During her time in the high-tech world, she assumed positions of increasing responsibility including serving as Vice President of Technology for a $2B corporation.
    During the 24 years that Vicky worked in the semiconductor industry, Vicky’s passion for flying never waned, and her appetite for spins, loops, and rolls returned when she took an aerobatic flight with air show legend, Wayne Handley. Following that memorable flight, Vicky began aerobatic training in earnest. She competed in aerobatic contests throughout the US, working her way up through the many categories. In between contests, Vicky also began performing in local air shows. In 2012, Vicky fully retired from corporate life to focus solely on her flying interests. Today Vicky holds a surface level aerobatic waiver and has flown air show performances at venues across the United States, including as an invited performer at the greatest airshow in the world, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI.
    In addition to aerobatics, Vicky got the racing bug when a friend invited her to “come play in my sandbox” at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, NV. In her first year of racing, Vicky was chosen as “Rookie of the Year” after having won her first race ever, and in 2015 Vicky became the “Fastest Woman Racer” ever in the history of the Reno Air Races when she qualified an Aero Vodochody jet on the racecourse at 469.831 mph. Vicky currently serves as an officer of Racing Jets Inc.
    Vicky has also had the opportunity to work on a number of film, television, and other media projects. Vicky can be seen flying her beautiful Boeing Stearman in the documentary film “Mercury 13” which is currently airing on Netflix. Other film and television projects include episodes of “Ice Pilot” and “NCIS LA,” and extensive stunt work in her Stearman for the short film “Niner Echo Foxtrot.” And now open in Las Vegas NV is the immersive flight- ride experience, “FlyOver Las Vegas - The Real Wild West,” where Vicky can be seen barrel-rolling her red Stearman across the sky.
    Vicky’s passion for science, technology and aviation have led her on a winding road throughout her life. She believes that by building her self-confidence and being willing to continually step out of her comfort zone is what has created new opportunities and experiences that have enrichened her life.
    You can learn more about Vicky by visiting her website at vickybenzing.com.
    33 min
  • The Thriving Mindset, with Gerry Valentine
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Gerry Valentine. Gerry is one of the 6%. He was born to a single mother within a very low-income minority neighborhood in New York City, and it was a life where they often did without things that most people would consider necessities. Gerry became one of the 6% who are able to change the trajectory of their lives. He navigated unseen ladders to catapult himself into financial success.
    Gerry’s an executive coach, public speaker and author of the new best-selling book, “The Thriving Mindset — Tools for Empowerment in a Disruptive World.” With more than 27 years of Fortune 100 leadership experience, he’s a trusted advisor to corporate executives, entrepreneurs and high-performance individuals of all kinds.
    Gerry is a TEDx speaker and a contributor to multiple publications, including Forbes.com. Gerry earned a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.B.A from New York University. He has lectured on executive leadership at Columbia University, Baruch College and Colorado State University.
    Gerry is also an outdoor sports enthusiast who loves running, cycling, hiking and skiing. He’s completed eight Ironman Triathlons, five marathons, and many shorter-distance events. He and his husband divide their time between New York City and New Paltz, NY — a picturesque town in the Hudson Valley.
    57 min
  • You Give You Get, with Hunter Marckwardt

    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Hunter Marckwardt. Hunter has become a master of productive money conversations. To him, it’s all about the why, which to Hunter means understanding what’s important to people and helping them focus on achieving it. At work, he leads his team in weekly money conversations that range from budgeting to estate planning and ongoing learning.

    Hunter consistently ranks as one of RPM Mortgage’s Top Producing Loan Advisors. In 2020, Hunter and his team closed 432 units for $286,000,000. Team Hunter takes a professional, structured, and detailed approach to lending. Their single mission is for their clients to never look for another lender again. They believe this philosophy is the only approach they can take in this chaotic lending environment to ensure 100% client satisfaction.

    Hunter has worked at RPM for over 10 years, primarily serving San Francisco Bay Area clients. Through hard work, determination, and strong industry relationships, he has developed into one of RPM’s leaders in loan originations.

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    45 min

About Money Tales

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In American society, money is a taboo topic. By not talking with loved ones and friends about money, we miss opportunities to sort through the noise and learn the vocabulary and skills we need to…