Our Money Power Kristin Hayden

Welcome to this Special Episode of OUR MONEY POWER - which was recorded live in a packed room of powerhouse women at The Battery Club in San Francisco. We were so excited to do our first recording with a live audience as part of The Battery Club’s women’s history month program. It was great to have the enthusiasm and engagement from the live audience, who also got to ask questions in our wrap up.
In this episode, I’m in conversation with Jamie Allison, the Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, a major foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The conversation was inspired by an article we co-authored earlier this year for the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the ways Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott are shaking up the philanthropy world not only with the size of their giving — which of course is exceptional — but with the WAYS they are giving.
MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates are making bold money moves that are changing philanthropy for the better - and in doing so, showing the world what happens, when women stand in their money power!
"When you say, are these women doing things differently, do women do things differently? Yes! And we have to, because we've been in a system where other people, men, have made decisions for us and didn't include us. And so, again, one of the things that these two women are modeling is taking their cues from people who have the lived experience, people who are proximate to whatever the challenges are and the potential solutions are."  
- Jamie Allison

We’ve talked a lot on the OUR MONEY POWER podcast about the significant and pervasive wealth gap between men and women - which is even bigger when it comes to Black and Brown women. I wanted to dig deeper into the systemic and historical reasons this wealth gap exists in the first place and talk to someone who is actually offering solutions to close that gap. Shelly Omilâdè Bell, who goes by Omi, founded Black Girl Ventures to transform entrepreneurship by reimagining the way Black and Brown women founders get access to financial and social capital. Her innovative approach offers what she wishes she would have had herself in the early days of her own money journey.
Through Black Girl Ventures and their partners, she is now building an ecosystem and community to unleash the flow of capital to those who have been historically shut-out. In the process, she’s realized that money itself is not enough - it’s about our relationships too, and their role in how we build wealth and stand in our own money power.
"The money conversation I'm having is about relationship building. It's about negotiating. Negotiate for yourself, advocate for yourself. And, you know, just remember that all money comes from relationships. So it's not even about the dollars or the cents or the math – it is really about how you get it and sustain it." 
- Shelly Omilâdè Bell, Founder/CEO of Black Girl Ventures 

Earlier this year I learned about some fascinating research from the global financial services firm UBS. It explores how women in long-term relationships divide up responsibility for financial decisions. Almost half of women say they defer on money matters to their spouse or partner. But would they do that if they knew that 8 in 10 women, at some point in their lives, due to life circumstances, will be left to manage their own finances?
I wanted to understand more, so I asked Carey Shuffman, Head of the Women's Segment at UBS, to join me in conversation. We talked about this persistent gender gap—which, by the way, is actually worse among Millennial couples. And we also talked about the ways shared financial leadership benefits both partners in a relationship. Carey says that we as women are more prepared than we think to be making money and investing decisions.
"You do not have to be an expert in all financial matters to take a meaningful role in your own financial life. That misperception really doesn't exist anywhere else. You know, you wouldn't read an entire legal textbook before calling a lawyer for a consultation, or if you decided you want to focus on your health and wellness, you're not going to study anatomy before exercising, right? And so there's this weird disconnect and misperception that you need to know how to calculate a bond yield or follow the markets really closely, read financial journals regularly to be meaningfully involved in your financial life...and the reality is that you don’t."   

- Carey Shuffman, Head of the Women's Segment, UBS

Last year, venture capitalists invested more than $428 million in U.S. startups every day. And how much do you think went to companies led by women entrepreneurs? For every dollar invested, women founders got just three cents. And if you were a woman of color founder, it’s not even one cent.


What would the world look like if we invested in women- and women-of-color led companies at the same rate we invest in our male counterparts? That vision is one that my guests today have championed for years. Barbara Clarke is Founder and President of The Impact Seat, and Cheryl Contee is their Chief Innovation Officer. They invest in early-stage startups with diverse teams, and their whole philosophy reflects an understanding that investing in women and women of color-led companies is not just for the sake of diversity - but if you actually want to make more money - then this is the way to go:


“All of the studies show that diverse led firms are more innovative. They are more productive and they are more profitable. So if all that you care about is money, If you want ROI, you need DEI: diversity equity and inclusion. And you need that to show up in your portfolio to get the best returns and ideally build a better world.”


-Cheryl Contee, Chief Innovation Officer, Impact Seat

We talk a lot about investing with our values on this podcast, as well as examining our own relationship to money. These are important steps to BEING in our money power as women.  We know also that we are much more likely to feel better about our relationship to money when it aligns with our values - and several of our previous guests have shared how we can do that when investing. 
Beyond our long-term investments, how about our daily spending habits? How might that actually connect to our money power? How does our relationship to money show up, and possibly get in the way, of other areas of our lives too?
We are taking a fresh angle today on our money conversations through the lens of a master coach.  Our guest, Sharna Fey, has been coaching executive leaders, corporations and individuals for the past 25+ years and she shares how money conversations consistently show up in almost all of her coaching work - if not front and center - always seemingly just below the surface. And she also offers her techniques and tools for coaching folks to align their values with their money choices. 
“We use values in coaching. Like how you live into your values. We say that if you're living and honoring your values, you're living a resonant or fulfilled life. And so often money comes up in there, like how [and] what we spend our money on. What we spend money on is often what we're valuing some way.”  - Sharna Fey
My conversation with Sharna got me reflecting on my own values too, so we did something different this episode. We turned the tables in the second half of our conversation, and Sharna interviews and coaches me about my values and the OUR MONEY POWER origin story!
I’m Kristin Hayden, and that is what is coming up on OUR MONEY POWER.

Just about every guest on Our Money Power makes the point that women are values-driven investors. We want to grow our wealth — and we want to know our money is having a positive impact on the world we live in.

But many of us still don’t know where to start. What are the best products and tools for investing with our values? What questions should we even be asking? How do we take the first step?

Our guest today, Catherine Berman, is what I like to call - a  “Disruptor for Good.” She is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion and wants to see more women investing, and investing with their values. She co-founded CNote, a platform that allows you to earn a competitive return while investing in women-led businesses and supporting communities that are not being served by the big banks and lenders. She says investing for impact starts by having those important money conversations:

"There is a cultural norm of men sharing stories about wealth, financial tips, (and) financial best practices, that has been deeply embedded in our society. And we don't have that on the same side for most women. How do we make it more of a cultural norm to talk about our money, to talk about what we're doing with it, to talk about the things that bring us pride? I think that's another big piece that we need to solve for if we're going to really step into our power around money."
 - Catherine Berman