Money Tales

Money Tales

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Money Tales episodes

  • Getting the Most Out of Every Dollar, with Janine Firpo

    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Janine Firpo. On her way to getting her Ph.D. in marine biology, Janine realized how capped her earnings potential would be. Pivoting into computer science, she earned enough to fund her true passion of helping others rise up. Janine was a part of the wave in the role technology could play in helping solve poverty. Once a sufferer of bag lady syndrome, she now has a secure understanding of the role money plays in her life.

    Janine is a seasoned values-aligned investor and social innovator, with a long history of working at the intersection of women and their money. From the early years of Apple Computer to senior positions with Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janine has always found herself making an impact. In 2017, she left a successful 35-year career in technology and international development to focus on how women can create a more just and equitable society through their financial investments. Her book, “Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World”, was a collaborative effort with almost 150 women.

    Janine walks her talk. She is taking action to move all her own assets into investments she feels good about and is watching them grow with market-rate returns. She is also a lead investor in Next Wave Impact, an impact fund designed to help more women become angel investors. And, she chairs the board of Zebras Unite, an organization that is developing the capital structures, community, and culture that non-unicorn start-up businesses need to thrive.

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    57 min
  • Money is Energy, with Cicley Gay
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Cicley Gay. Cicley broke one of the biggest stereotypes. She is African American and was a single mom at age 16. While the system tried to categorize her as having capped potential, Cicley was smart, observant and curious. One teacher and one paper flyer changed the trajectory of her life forever. Today, Cicley is the single mom to three accomplished sons, and she is a successful entrepreneur. Money tales are woven throughout her life’s journey.
    Cicley is the founder and CEO of the social enterprise, The Amplifiers. Standing at the intersection of cause and communications, she leads communications strategies for philanthropists and nonprofits committed to social justice.
    Devoted to impacting the lives of the underserved, she spent nearly a decade at the Women’s Sports Foundation as the founding director of GoGirlGo! and later as the National Director of Education and Alliances. There, Cicley lead a philanthropic effort to increase physical activity participation for young women throughout the nation.
    Cicley was also the National Program Director of the National CARES Mentoring Movement under the direct leadership of Susan L. Taylor, editor-in-chief emeritus of Essence magazine. In that role, Cicley built the grant allocations process and programmatic infrastructure of a multi-million dollar national mentoring initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
    She is a two-time graduate of AmeriCorps, a civil service effort of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Cicley was also the founding director of STAND (Students Take Action for New Directions), educating students on the impact of federal budget priorities on local communities.
    Cicley holds degrees in political science and communications and is a former recipient of the Catalyst Award from the Global Center for Social Change through Women’s Leadership, a member of the inaugural class of WEI, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, was recognized as one of Georgia's 40 Under 40 in 2017 and as a recipient of the SPANX Red Backpack Fund grant in 2020. Her greatest accomplishment to-date is winning “Mom of the Year” as a stage, football and lacrosse mom to three sons.
    58 min
  • Sharing the Wealth, with Kelly Rodriques
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Kelly Rodriques. Some tech entrepreneurs are fortunate enough to strike gold once. Kelly has had the good fortune to strike it multiple times. As he maneuvered from being the CEO of one successful company to the next, it became apparent to Kelly that there’s a lot of wealth at the top of startup companies, and plenty of room to share it more broadly across the rank and file employees. Kelly now spends time thinking about how to let other people financially share in what he’s doing.
    Kelly is currently the CEO of Forge, a company that is catalyzing economic innovation by providing equal access to private market capital products and services. Kelly is proud of what Forge is doing in terms of getting more liquidity in the hands of employees when they need it, rather than forcing them to abide by the company’s timetable of going public or being bought out.
    Kelly has more than 26 years of fintech experience and has been an investor in more than 25 venture-backed firms. He was a founding investor of mFoundry, the leading provider of mobile banking, which was acquired by Fidelity Information Systems in 2013. Most recently, Kelly served as CEO of PENSCO, one of the nation’s leading alternative asset custodians, which was sold to Opus Bank in 2017. Prior, he was an Operating Partner of Ignition Capital and CEO and Chairman of Totality, acquired by Verizon in 2006. Kelly has also been Managing Partner of Operative Capital, a Fintech venture firm based in San Francisco.
    54 min
  • Money Theatrics, with Johanna Pfaelzer
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Johanna Pfaelzer. Johanna has walked the creative path from actor to producer and now is an artistic director. Those steps gave her control over the future she wanted while still being able to influence theatrical arts in a powerful way. Under Johanna’s leadership, many notable works have been developed, including the 2016 Tony Award winner “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Like many creative people, Johanna waitressed tables early on to pay her bills and fund her projects. Money has continued to be a leading actor throughout her career as she helps support her family and the different theater companies she’s been a part of.
    Today, Johanna is honored to serve as Berkeley Repertory Theater's fourth artistic director. She recently spent 12 years as the artistic director of New York Stage and Film (NYSAF), a New York City-based organization dedicated to the development of new works for theatre, film, and television. NYSAF is known for providing a rigorous and nurturing environment for writers, directors, and other artists to realize work that has gone on to production at the highest levels of the profession. Other notable works that were developed under Johanna’s leadership include “The Humans” by Stephen Karam, “The Wolves” by Sarah DeLappe, “Junk and The Invisible Hand” by Ayad Akhtar, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” by Taylor Mac, “Hadestown” by Anaïs Mitchell, “The Homecoming Queen” by Ngozi Anyanwu, “The Great Leap” by Lauren Yee, John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer- and Tony-Award-winning “Doubt”, “The Fortress of Solitude” by Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses, “The Jacksonian” by Beth Henley, and Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
    1 hr 4 min
  • Everything Costs Something, with Kimberly Inskeep
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Kimberly Inskeep. Kimberly describes entrepreneurs as being hungrier, having an independent spirit and a driving desire to create their own destiny. She’s one to know because Kimberly started her first business when she was eight years old. Having these entrepreneurial instincts doesn’t guarantee success. Kimberly talks about how everything costs something and being successful in her career involved continually evaluating tradeoffs with her family and herself.
    Kimberly Inskeep is the CEO of cabi, the largest women's apparel company which sells solely through Independent Stylists. Believing there could be a better way for women to both shop and work, Kimberly was instrumental in the testing, development and initial launch of the innovative cabi Fashion Experience in 2002. Prior to the genesis of cabi, Kimberly spent several years working in finance at Norwest Corporation (now Wells Fargo & Company) and international management consulting with BlessingWhite, Inc. She and her husband live in California and have one daughter.
    55 min
  • Finding Teachable Moments, with Steve Legler
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Steve Legler. From birth, Steve was the anointed successor to the family business his father created. It wasn’t his dream to take over the business, but Steve knew it was his duty to take on these responsibilities. After getting his MBA, he was told the business was to be sold and there was not going to be anything for him to run. Steve was relieved!
    Steve is a Family Legacy Advisor based in Montreal, Canada. After the unexpected sale of the family business in his 20’s, he ended up managing their family office instead. He also married into a business family, where he has witnessed a number of other complex issues.
    In 2013, Steve stumbled upon the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) program in Canada, which turned into a career-changing calling for him. Since then, he has been working with other business families as they face the challenges surrounding their intergenerational transitions.
    Steve works with family clients as a facilitator and sometimes as a mediator. He also does individual coaching with family members. Steve recognizes how complex the world of family wealth transitions can be and prides himself on knowing how to be a great resource for his clients.
    Steve is the author of “SHIFT your Family Business” (2014) and “Interdependent Wealth: How Family Systems Theory Illuminates Successful Intergenerational Wealth Transitions” (2019.) He is active in many associations for professionals who work with families, including the FEA Council of the Family Enterprise eXchange, the Wisdom Expedition of the Purposeful Planning Institute, and the faculty of the Family Firm Institute global education network program.
    51 min
  • Farm to Vineyard, with Courtney Kingston
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Courtney Kingston. When we hear stories of other people’s success, their journeys often seem straightforward and obvious. Courtney shares her experience that it’s not until you have a chance to look backwards at your life that you see how all the dots connect. Courtney’s family has many roots in Chile, on their farm outside of Santiago. This multi-cultural background influences much of who Courtney is, including her role as a leader of the family vineyard.
    Courtney is a co-founder of Kingston Family Vineyards in Casablanca Valley, Chile, along with her father Michael and brother Tim. A graduate of Princeton University, she started her career as a consultant for Deloitte’s wine industry practice. There she began learning the ins and outs of the California wine business. Later, as an MBA student at Stanford, she wrote the vineyard’s original business plan using the Chilean cattle ranch her family had owned and operated since 1906. After many discussions about the feasibility of converting the family farm into a vineyard, Kingston Family Vineyards became a reality in 1998.
    Stanford has written two case studies on Kingston Family Vineyards, highlighting the family's purpose-driven, growth oriented business spanning 100 years including a recent move into hospitality and tourism. Courtney and her husband Andy have three daughters, and share their time between Portola Valley, California, and Chile’s Casablanca Valley.
    51 min
  • Itchy Scratchy Subjects, with Laura Munson
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Laura Munson. Early in life, Laura decided to leave the safety and riches of the debutant society she grew up in for the wilderness of Montana to hone her skills as a novelist. Initially, Laura had a lot of freedom to write, then her marriage took a turn and forced her to monetize her passion for writing so she could pay her bills. Through these efforts, Laura has created a community of inspired writers, who join her in Montana or virtually, to explore their human experience through the written word.
    Laura is the international bestselling author of the novel “Willa’s Grove” and the memoir “This Is Not The Story You Think It Is.” She has been published in nine countries and featured in Vanity Fair, Elle, Redbook, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, The New York Times Magazine’s “Lives” column, O magazine and many others.
    Laura is the founder of the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats, speaks at women’s conferences and literary events, and has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “The Early Show,” “NPR” and other media outlets across the globe. Learn more about Laura at lauramunson.com/bio.
    58 min
  • Winning the Gold, with Jonny Moseley
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Jonny Moseley, an Olympic gold medalist freestyle skier who brought his signature moves to the sport. When we think about Olympians, our focus is usually on the sport. There’s a whole money story behind it, and Jonny shares how he learned to hustle to pull funds together to support himself. Jonny has leveraged these important relationship and business skills in his ongoing career as a television presenter, fellow podcaster and entrepreneur.
    Jonny is an Olympic and World Cup champion in mogul skiing and rated by Ski Magazine as one of the top ten most influential skiers of all time. At the Olympics in 1998, Jonny incorporated a snowboard-style grab into his 360° spin and earned a gold medal. His performance helped ignite a re-birth of the ski industry known as Freeskiing. He then challenged the US Ski Team to allow him to compete in professional events and became the first skier to medal in both the X Games and the Olympics. In 2002 Jonny lobbied the International Skiing Federation (FIS) to allow him to perform a semi-inverted trick, the Dinner Roll, at the 2002 Olympics. Reluctantly, the FIS approved but the judges awarded him 4th place.
    After the Games, Jonny hosted Saturday Night Live and began a career in TV hosting and sports commentating. He devotes most of his time to product development and marketing for the entities he partners with including Squaw Valley, Toyota, Visit California, Warren Miller, K2, Peter Glenn and Tipsy Elves.
    46 min
  • Money is Pretty Wonderful, with Barbara Pierce
    Our guest in this episode of Money Tales is Barbara Pierce. Among other things, Barbara is an avid lottery player. She and her husband have already achieved the financial success they need to make their dreams come true. So, the lottery playing isn’t about her — it’s about playing against the odds to help enrich others. Barbara’s strategy is to buy tickets in areas where the winnings would make a material positive difference to the vendor. And her plans for the jackpot are focused on funding a foundation that would help Barbara give away even more financial resources to the causes she cares most about. This activity is indicative of the purpose-driven person that Barbara is.
    Barbara is the founder of Women with Capital, a pitch-free learning community for women with wealth, who are interested in making social change through investing and philanthropy. Through Women with Capital, she is dedicated to educating, supporting and inspiring women to invest in alignment with their values and vision.
    As an angel investor focused on female-founded companies, Barbara is a member of Pipeline Angels, Portfolia and the Angel Capital Association. She is a proud member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), the Women Donors Network and SheEO, and she serves on the REDF Advisory Council.
    Barbara is also the founder of Transformative Giving and has 25 years of expertise in major and planned giving, with a focus on facilitating partnerships between top philanthropists.
    As a cum laude graduate of Wellesley College, Barbara received her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis on human rights.
    48 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…