Money Tales

Money Tales

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Money Tales episodes

  • Achieving Balance, with Sarah Peterson
    This episode of Money Tales is all about being different. Sarah Peterson is our guest this week on Money Tales.
    What happens when a high-achiever realizes that the things she was chasing—salary, status, and sparkle—aren’t what truly fill the cup? Sarah found herself right in that spot. She spent her early twenties pursuing high-paying jobs and glamorous roles, only to end up buried in credit card debt and disconnected from her values. The financial wake-up call that changed everything included the moment a tax mistake forced her to move back in with her mom. From there, she rebuilt, learning to prioritize purpose over prestige and finding career clarity and balance.
    Sarah is a strategic and creative marketer with over 16 years of experience driving successful campaigns and achieving business goals.
    Currently at Google, she owns the end-to-end omni-channel marketing and merchandising strategy for several retail accounts. Her expertise extends to cross-functional initiatives such as AI, product marketing, DEI, and team leadership. Day to day you'll find her developing high-visibility marketing programs aligned with brand moments and business pillars.
    Prior to Google, Sarah held roles in partner marketing, event management/professional sports and merchandising at companies including the Minnesota Twins, Vizio, Best Buy, and Target.
    She is a passionate leader and mentor, dedicated to developing the next generation of marketing talent.
    Outside of work you can find her checking out the Minneapolis food scene, at a local fitness studio, volunteering or spending time with family/friends - specifically her nieces and nephews who have completely stolen her heart.
    35 min
  • HEARTS, with Marlis Jansen
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Marlis Jansen. Marlis was one of our first guests and shared her money tales in episode number five. She joins us this week to talk about the HEARTS framework she developed for achieving financial wellbeing. Marlis describes financial wellbeing as possessing solid financial skills and deep emotional intelligence about money, so that we can meet our financial responsibilities, reduce stress and live more purposeful, joyful and impactful lives. We go deep into HEARTS in this episode, which is an acronym for each of the components for achieving financial wellbeing.
    Marlis Jansen is a licensed psychotherapist who is trained in wealth psychology and a sixth-generation member of a family of stewardship. This combination of professional training with lived experience gives her a unique perspective on the nuances and complexities of owning financial wealth.
    Prior to founding Graddha, Marlis worked for several healthcare startups and spent a decade as a stay at home mom. As a product developer in the healthcare information technology space, she designed strategies to maximize trust and safety for patients to help them take ownership of their health decisions. Marlis also served as Director of Business Development and Director of Product Development in a couple of health care startups. Her experience as a mom inspired her to contemplate how we ascribe value to people and work.
    Marlis holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Harvard University, a Master of Arts degree in Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Psychology and Behavioral Finance from Creighton University Heider College of Business.
    She is an active member of the Purposeful Planning Institute, Financial Psychology Institute and the Financial Therapy Association. She serves on the Board of the Stone Age Institute and, since 2009, has served as Vice President of The Springcreek Foundation, her family’s private philanthropic foundation.
    Marlis speaks French well and is proficient in Spanish and Norwegian. She loves to enjoy home cooked family dinners, hike Mt. Tam with her family and dogs, travel in unfamiliar countries and cultures, and stay up late playing board games.
    34 min
  • How Not to Invest, with Barry Ritholtz
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Barry Ritholtz. From his early days navigating chaos on a trading desk to building a $5 billion advisory firm, Barry shares why investing is simple, but not easy—and how mastering your emotions may matter more than mastering the market. These are the lessons Barry covers in his most recent book How Not To Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behaviors that destroy wealth - and how to avoid them.
    Barry is the co-founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. Launched in 2013, RWM is one of the country’s fastest-growing financial planning and asset management firms. Named ETF Investor of the Year and one of the Financial Times' top 300 firms, RWM manages over $5 billion for 3,900 families.
    Called the “blogfather” for creating The Big Picture, one of the first market weblogs, the site covers everything related to investing. Since its launch in 2003, its mix of behavioral finance and data analysis has attracted 275 million visitors.
    Barry is also the creator and host of Masters in Business, the longest-running and most popular podcast on Bloomberg Radio. His book, Bailout Nation, was named one of the Best Business Books of the Year, selected as the Investment Book of the Year, and awarded a First Amendment Award for Outstanding Journalism.
    He lives on the north shore of Long Island with his wife, Wendy, and their spoiled dogs, Teddy and Kody.
    41 min
  • Trust, with Lata Gullapalli
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Lata Gullapalli. Lata has seen firsthand how, when one woman gains financial independence, she lifts an entire community with her. What started for Lata as quiet, behind-the-scenes mentorship has now become a movement, spanning from rural India to the Middle East to the UK. With the right support, women who were once financially dependent are now building businesses, securing their futures, and rewriting their roles in society.
    Lata is an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions, with over 25 years of experience in investment banking across South Asia, Russia and the U.K.
    She serves on five boards of both commercial and nonprofit companies as a non-executive Director and is the Chairperson of one of the companies listed on Nasdaq, while also playing a key role on their audit and renumeration committees.
    Lata is a recognized expert in mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring and capital raising. She has designed innovative products for raising capital, set up and run startup companies, and developed strategy and finding plans. Her leadership has guided teams into joint ventures and taken a company public with an initial public offering.
    She holds an MBA from INSEAD in France and has extensive expertise in corporate law, financial strategy, taxation and economics.
    Beyond finance, Lata is also an award-winning author with published works in both fiction and nonfiction. Her writing has received excellent editorial reviews, and she is currently working on a long novel.
    Lata is a board member of a Trust primarily focused on education for underprivileged children and young people. She also advises on the restructuring and rebuilding of an institution that oversees more than 300 schools, and 26 institutes dedicated to supporting underprivileged youth. Additionally, she leads a mentorship program for women entrepreneurs in rural India which is now expanding to other countries. She has also designed and instructs a course on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and sustainable change for universities in Jordan. Plans are underway to roll out the mentorship program across multiple countries.
    Lata is deeply passionate about supporting underprivileged individuals, including but not limited to women, children and young people, in finding their own strength and power to go off and do what they dream about, whatever that may be. As a speaker and advocate, she actively promotes mentorship for women in senior leadership roles.
    32 min
  • Don’t go Chasing Bigger Paychecks, with Joel Franks

    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Joel Franks. On his daily commute from Westchester to New York City, Joel befriended a man—let’s call him Ben—who seemed to have it all together. Confident and well-dressed, Ben earned close to a million dollars a year, yet he was financially stretched, juggling an expensive lifestyle. That’s when Joel realized financial success isn’t just about income. It’s about behavior.

    Joel is the founder of FinWizdom and an adult financial literacy facilitator. He is an accomplished financial content developer, author, educator and trailblazer in applying behavioral finance to connect with an audience. With extensive financial marketing experience in banking, investments and insurance, he offers a unique perspective to financial literacy.

    In addition to consulting for financial industry pioneers and giants, he is an adjunct lecturer of Applied Behavioral Finance at NYU and Managerial Decision Making at CUNY. Joel is the host of the FinWizdom podcast series—an exploration of how your emotions influence your ability to manage money. He uses storytelling to explain investment concepts and various psychological biases that impact financial decision-making. Joel is also the award-winning author of Creating Wealth Starts with Financial Health, an international best seller and recipient of the 2024 EIFLE for Adults’ Book of the Year. His mission is to help individuals and organizations recognize behavioral risks and learn how to accommodate, not ignore, them.

    30 min
  • Blurry Lines, with Zoë Levin
    This episode brings you a raw, firsthand experience of a female start-up founder in the consumer-packaged goods – or CPG - space. Zoë Levin is our guest this week on Money Tales. Unlike digital startups that can scale at lightning speed, Zoë’s company, Bim Bam Boo, faces a different reality, one where every roll of toilet paper requires strategic financial maneuvering. With investors chasing AI and capital for consumer goods in short supply, she’s had to be resourceful, resilient, and relentless. But for Zoë, the stakes are even higher than just business success. After growing up in a household where financial volatility was the norm, she’s determined to do things differently, ensuring that no matter how unpredictable entrepreneurship gets, her own family’s stability is non-negotiable. In our conversation, Zoë shares the hard truths of raising capital, managing risk, and the lessons she carries forward from her father’s high-stakes ventures.
    Zoë (AKA, “The Toilet Paper Queen”) is the CEO and founder of Bim Bam Boo, a tree-free paper company on a mission to wipe away deforestation. Her impact-driven leadership style has saved over 1.2 million pounds of trees. From Kickstarter to kicking-ass at grocery stores nationwide, she has navigated a 900% increase in growth and became the #1 selling tree-free toilet paper brand at Whole Foods.
    33 min
  • The Futurist, with Brett King
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Brett King. What if, in 50 years, money as we know it no longer exists? Futurist Brett King believes we’re heading toward a world where artificial intelligence automates nearly everything from jobs to healthcare to supply chains. As AI disrupts industries at an unprecedented scale, traditional employment may no longer be the main way people earn a living. Universal Basic Income, once a radical idea, may become essential just to keep economies running. But if automation provides food, shelter, and healthcare as a default, will we even need money? Or will wealth become something entirely different? In today’s episode of Money Tales, Brett takes us on a journey into the future of money and what it means for all of us.
    Brett King is an International Bestselling Author, a world- renowned futurist and media personality. President Xi Jinping cited his book Augmented. He has spoken in over 50 countries, given keynotes for TEDx, Wired, Techsauce, Singularity University, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM's World of Watson, CES, SIBOS and more. He has appeared on CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg. He advised the Obama administration on Fintech.
    King hosts the world's #1 Fintech Radio Show/Podcast called Breaking Banks (180 countries, 6.5 million listeners). He is the founder of Moven, a globally recognized mobile start-up, which has raised over US$40 million to date, and launched the first in-app mobile bank account offered anywhere in the world.
    Banking Exchange named him the King of the Disruptors, he was nominated as American Banker's Innovator of the Year, voted the world's #1 Financial Services Influencer by The Financial Brand and listed by Bank Innovation as one of the top 10 "coolest brands in banking". King was shortlisted for the Advance Global Australian of the Year for being one of the most influential Australians offshore. His book "Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane", was a top-10 non-fiction book in North America. Bank 4.0 remained a global bestseller in banking more than 12 months after release. "The Rise of Technosocialism", his 7th book was released November 2021.
    31 min
  • Work Smart, with Bronson Hill
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Bronson Hill. From delivering newspapers in the rain to earning $15 an hour in high school, Bronson learned early on that trading time for money wasn't the path to wealth. His real breakthrough came years later when Bronson realized money isn't just about the hours you work, it's a tool to create value, help others and transform lives.
    As the Managing Member of Bronson Equity, Bronson is a general partner in 2500 multifamily units worth over $250M. Bronson is the host of The Mailbox Money Show where he breaks down the investor mindset and has personally raised over $45M for real estate and his private equity deals. Bronson is the author of the best selling book, Fire Yourself; Replace Your Working Income with Passive Income in 3 Years or Less, and is a regular contributor to YouTube and his blog.
    Bronson is a regular keynote speaker and leads The Wealth Forum, an exclusive mastermind for affluent passive investors, providing unmatched investment opportunities within a growth-oriented community. Bronson is a frequent guest on podcasts like the Best Ever Show with Joe Fairless and was a speaker at the large Limitless Conference with Ken McElroy.
    33 min
  • Girls Can do Anything Boys Can Do, with Sue Bevan Baggott
    This Money Tales episode is all about how the messages we learn in our youth and the experiences we have with money as we’re growing up shape and orient our relationship to money. Our guest this week is Sue Bevan Baggott. Growing up with home haircuts and hand-sewn clothes, Sue learned early the value of frugality. But it was her and her husband’s decision to live on one salary while investing the other that laid the groundwork for Sue to transition from corporate executive to purpose-driven angel investor working to close the gender gap in startup funding.
    As a human-centered Executive Advisor and Innovation Catalyst, Sue is passionate about empowering leaders to create positive impact, accelerate life-improving innovation and invest for impactful changes in our world.
    In her career journey from global innovation leader at Procter & Gamble (growing mega-brands from Pantene to Pampers), to Founder of Power Within Consulting, to “Accidental” Angel Investor and Startup Advisor, Sue learned to leverage the power of human-first strategies to accelerate leadership, innovation, business, and entrepreneurial success.
    Sue strives to unleash people’s purpose-driven power as leaders, innovators, and investors to drive positive change – through her speaking, writing, consulting, and advisory/board roles.
    Through multiple early-stage funds, Sue invests in the change she wants to see in the world with a diverse portfolio of innovative startups solving significant world problems at scale.
    As an Associate Producer for the award-winning documentary, Show Her the Money, Sue advocates for greater inclusion in the startup world, aiming to encourage more people to invest for change and elevate entrepreneurial success for under-represented founders.
    33 min
  • I’m Not a Dream Crusher, with Avery Moore Kloss
    In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Avery Moore Kloss. Have you ever been in a place where you knew deep down something had to change, but fear kept holding you back? That's exactly where Avery found herself, watching her husband, an entrepreneur at heart, slowly lose his spark in the corporate grind post-pandemic. Avery candidly shares how she wrestled with the fear of losing financial stability, realizing that she was the one holding him back from his dreams. In this episode, we dive into the moment she finally said to her husband, 'Just quit the job. We’ll figure it out.'
    Avery Moore Kloss is the founder and lead creator of Folktale Studio. As a journalist, educator, entrepreneur, podcast host and award-winning radio documentarian, Avery’s passion is in helping others capture their stories through audio. With Folktale Studio, Avery is committed to helping up-and-coming digital storytellers create podcasts that connect their unique stories with the world. As the host of the podcast “Grown Up,” Avery dives deep into the unconventional career journeys of her guests, exploring how they’ve navigated the twists and turns of the working world. It’s a show about finding your way—even if that way looks nothing like what you expected.
    When she’s not crafting podcasts, Avery teaches Audio Storytelling at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she also serves as the Podcaster-in-Residence. In her classes and office hours, she empowers the next generation of digital storytellers to embrace creativity, curiosity, and authenticity in their work.
    Avery is a proud graduate of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communications, holding a combined honours degree in Journalism and History. Her storytelling journey began as a casual Associate Producer at CBC Ottawa before taking her to Portland, Maine, to study radio documentary at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies (now part of the Maine College of Art). It was there that Avery discovered the art of long-form audio storytelling, a love that continues to shape her career.
    Her dedication to storytelling excellence earned her the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award in 2011 for “My Name is Meth,” an in-depth series exploring the growing crystal meth crisis in rural Ontario.
    Avery lives in Paris, Ontario, with her husband and daughter. When she’s not behind the mic, you can find her enjoying the simple joys of small-town life, dreaming up her next big story, or sharing quiet moments with family.
    34 min

About Money Tales

From the publisher's feed

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…