Ellevate Network · 2016-05-02 · 34 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
34 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Jean Chatzky shares her career journey from print journalism at Working Woman and Forbes to becoming a television personality and personal finance thought leader. She discusses the gender investing gap - distinct from the pay gap - that can cost women hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars over their lifetimes. The episode explores how professional women often neglect their personal finances despite career success, emphasizing the critical importance of financial autonomy and knowledge, especially given women's longer life expectancies. Chatzky covers practical strategies like automation, goal-setting, and maintaining financial awareness even when delegating bill-paying responsibilities. She also addresses the role of paternal confidence in shaping professional women's success, the challenge of receiving feedback publicly, and managing a multi-platform presence including Twitter, LinkedIn, and her weekly newsletter. The conversation highlights her work with AARP's Life Reimagined initiative, helping people 50+ reimagine their next chapter beyond traditional retirement.
Jean recommends starting with 10% if you're young and can maintain it forever, but if you haven't started young, you need to get to 15-20% quickly. However, she emphasizes running retirement calculators to determine your actual needs rather than relying solely on rules of thumb, assuming you'll live to at least 95-100.
Jean recommends creating a letter of instruction and suggestion - a 3-4 page document outlining where all accounts are located, how to access them, important contacts, and your preferences for how things should be handled. She and her husband schedule dedicated time to discuss these matters since they rarely happen spontaneously.
Jean condensed 6-8 page magazine stories into 3-4 minute TV segments by preparing extensively: writing out potential interview questions, longhand answers, then shortening them and practicing out loud until she could deliver her key 3-5 points regardless of what questions were asked.
Jean uses Twitter (where she gets good organic growth), LinkedIn (valuable for influencers), and maintains a weekly email newsletter on her website jeanchatsky.com. She emphasizes hiring young people comfortable with current and emerging platforms, as she's not a social media native.
Women live longer than men and often outlive their spouses, meaning they need more retirement savings. Highly accomplished women sometimes neglect their personal finances, leaving them vulnerable if their spouse dies or becomes incapacitated, which Jean has witnessed among her professional peers.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains a handful of usable personal finance heuristics (savings rate rules of thumb, the 95-100 year planning horizon, automating finances, the letter of instruction), but these are separated by lengthy career biography, banter about bangs and empty nesting, and double sponsor reads. The ratio of actionable ideas to filler is poor for a 34-minute runtime.
if you're a 20 year old and you are getting started and you can do 10% and you can continue to do that forever, that may be enough. But you have to start really young. And if you haven't started that young, you've got to get yourself up to 15 or even 20 really quickly
anything less than 95 or 100 if you're using one of those calculators, not acceptable anymore
The 'retirement savings crisis is a women's crisis' angle and the 'multiple income streams are more secure than one employer' point are mildly contrarian, but the bulk of the episode is standard personal-finance advice (automate, save early, network) that circulates widely and is not argued from first principles.
It is a crisis because the guys are dead
having multiple income streams is a more secure, um, job than having just one
Jean Chatzky has real practitioner credentials - equity research at Dean Witter, a 20-year Today Show tenure, eight books, AARP ambassador, and a decade as an independent content entrepreneur - but she is a consumer-finance media personality rather than a B2B operator, which limits the relevance and depth of her insights for the stated target audience.
I spent a couple of years doing equity research on Wall Street. There we go at Dean Witter
I've been on the Today show for 20 years
There are some concrete data points - 2 million kids reached monthly via the Time for Kids magazine, network poll figures (60%/13%/20% breakdowns), named companies (Hearst, Dow Jones, PwC, Smart Money) - but most financial guidance is delivered as approximate rules of thumb without sourced studies or personal portfolio examples, and the network polling data is too surface-level to be analytically useful.
We're hitting 2 million kids every single month with an issue
over 60% of the members speak to their spouse or significant other all the time about all financial matters, whereas 13% tend to focus just on the big stuff
Sally Krawcheck raises a few genuinely interesting pivots - distinguishing cynics from critics when processing feedback, probing the entrepreneur-vs-employee security tradeoff - but she does not push back on any claim, lets the conversation drift repeatedly into personal topics (bangs, college kids, empty nesting), and lobs several softballs that go nowhere substantive.
how do you figure out what feedback to take seriously? And I've been thinking about the difference between the cynics and the critics
So what advice do you have for our entrepreneurs or hope to be entrepreneurs out there?
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Jean Chatzky is not just a personal finance expert, she’s an experienced journalist, best-selling author, entrepreneur, and much more. In this episode, she shares how she got to be the person she is now, and shares some useful personal finance tips.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Membership fees apply after free trial. Cancel anytime.
Speaker B: Okay, so why do people love my total body barre workouts? Because they work. My clients get an amazing workout and great results. I'm Andrea Rogers, professional dancer and trainer, and my Extend bar classes are fun. Only 30 minutes and proven to help you get sculpted, lean and strong. And right now, you can stream my extend bar classes for free on the Beachbody on Demand app. See how effective these workouts truly are. Starting start for free today@beachbody.com welcome to the Elevate podcast.
Speaker A: Conversations with women changing the face of business. And now, uh, your hosts, Sally Krawcheck and Christy Wallace. Hi, all, it's Sally Krawcheck with the Elevate Network, here with Christy Wallace, the president of the Elevate Network. We're at our world headquarters this afternoon podcasting to you. Uh, by world headquarters, I mean we're in this room in which we have the ladies who run Elevate Network, and this is the first in our series of podcasts. We are really so excited to be with you and to be joining you. Uh, we're going to be interviewing some of the terrific, amazing, unbelievable, accomplished members of Elevate Network. Our first interview today is with Jean Chadsky. Before I talk about her, Christy, let me throw it over to you. Tell everybody about the Elevate Network.
Speaker C: So. So if you don't know Elevate and it's E L, L, E, V, a
Speaker A: T E, it's sort of a French thing. Ah, for she that we have going here.
Speaker C: Absolutely. And please check us out online and on social media. But we are working hard here to close the gender achievement gap. Um, one of the main things we do is we get women together. All about community and networking, uh, as a way for women to lean on and learn from each other. Really excited for these podcasts and highlighting the fantastic women in our network and sharing their expertise and insights with you.
Speaker A: One thing that I think is really important for you to take away for us as women in business, and this is what compelled me to become involved with the Elevate Network. And it's that networking is the number one unwritten rule of success in business, and that we hear again and again from men that this is how they move ahead in business, and we hear again and again from women that they're interested in it, they want to do it, they're not sure, et cetera. Um, and so we'd say just do it. Our network provides a means for women to network, and it doesn't necessarily. Doesn't Particularly involve schmoozing and golf courses and beer. Uh, but it can very much include making those connections, which can give you all kinds of information that's valuable to you in your career so that you can move ahead. So.
Speaker C: Absolutely. Well put.
Speaker A: Thank you.
Speaker C: Thank you.
Speaker A: So our guest today is Jean Chatky, who in addition to being an accomplished personal finance guru, is also a really terrific person. Um, she's the financial editor for NBC's Today Show. She's also the AARP's personal finance ambassador, and she is the best selling author of eight books.
Speaker B: Books.
Speaker A: Uh, she talked about. We talked about something that is, I think, very important. And the Elevate Network were very focused on closing the gender pay gap. What Jean talked about also is closing the money gap, uh, that men and women have. I call it the gender investing gap. And this can cost women hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars over the course of their lives. So being in financial control is very important. So, Christy, every week we poll the Elevate Network members, and we've talked to them how they talk to their spouse or partner about their money. So share with us. Uh, how often are these conversations taking place?
Speaker C: Well, it's really interesting to Note is over 60% of the members speak to their spouse or significant other all the time about all financial matters, whereas 13% tend to focus just on the big stuff.
Speaker A: Wow. Um, we should poll the women again and ask them how many of those conversations involve alcohol.
Speaker C: I'm sure that keeps it interesting. Yeah.
Speaker A: Or just lets you talk about it. And so, um, talk about how they manage them, because I think we found there's no one answer, Right?
Speaker C: No. It's pretty evenly divided. Roughly 20% manage finances equally with their spouse or significant other. 20% are managing money based on how much they're contributing to it.
Speaker A: Meaning so that if she earns more, she puts in more. If he earns less, he puts in less.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker A: Got it.
Speaker C: And then another 20% are the financial manager for their family, the whole shebang.
Speaker A: So, uh, treasurer and chief financial officer of the home. Got it. Okay. One other that we spoke that came up in this, which is dads. Um, we also pulled the Elevate Network membership and asked them who the most influential man in their life is. What did they say?
Speaker C: More than half said their dad.
Speaker A: Yep. And the second one, about a quarter said my significant other.
Speaker D: Right. Yes.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: The dads are so fascinating. Um, I've seen research that says that the most important relationship in a professional woman's life is her dad, if he is confident in her as she's growing up, she can go out to the world with that confidence.
Speaker C: That makes a lot of sense to me. My dad was very confident in me, and I think that's had a lasting impact.
Speaker A: Is your dad still around?
Speaker C: Yes, he is. Ah. Fortunately.
Speaker A: Is he proud of you?
Speaker C: He was very proud of her. Proud of you.
Speaker A: So proud of you.
Speaker C: So proud.
Speaker A: And, uh, Jean's dad should be of her, too. So let's toss it over. And I also want to let you know that Jean has a new podcast, Her Money, that's recently out. Uh, check it out. Like everything else that Jean does, it's absolutely amazing. All right, Jean, thank you so much for joining me here today. It's such a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker D: It's nice to see you always.
Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh, how'd you become Jean Chatsky?
Speaker D: That is two different stories. The funny story is that I became Jean Chatsky because I was Jean Sherman Chadsky for a long time when I was a print reporter. And as a print reporter, nobody really had a problem with that. But when I started doing the Today show, uh, at one point, Bryant Gumbel said to me, you know, that's a mouthful. And I said, just pick whichever one you like. I just. I wanted the job. Um, and that was about 20 years ago. So I dropped the Sherman on air because it was hard to say. And I have been Gene Chatky ever since. But as far as a career, yeah,
Speaker A: that's why I'm doing the little quotation marks in the. I know Gene Chatsky.
Speaker D: I am. Um, I came into this world through print journalism at a very, very fortuitous time. I liked business writing and business, um, reporting because I always sort of liked the numbers, and I liked learning that numbers could tell the story. So when I got out of college, I went to Working Woman, tried to go to a business magazine from there, and had a difficult time. So I spent a couple of years doing equity research on Wall Street. There we go at Dean Witter. There M. We go back to Forbes after that. And then I was at Smart Money for the launch. And Smart Money, uh, did two really terrific things for me. Um, it introduced me to television. They introduced everybody to television. I mean, quite frankly, we had two rich corporate parents, the Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones, and they threw us all on television, and I stuck. Um, but also brought me into the world of personal finance at a time when my former Forbes colleagues told me I was throwing my career down the toilet. Personal finance in Forbes magazine at that point was backwater. It was this back six pages when they could get six pages. And it was a world of 12 B1 fees. And it wasn't exciting and it wasn't fun. And I, uh, left Forbes to go to smart money because I was told I could be a writer and not a fact checker, which was very, very appealing. But I was nervous about it because I didn't want to write about 12 B1 fees. And my boss, um, Steve Swartz, who's now, um, the CEO of the Hearst Corporation, said you never have to write about 12 B1 fees. You can write about people. Just keep bringing me interesting stories about people and their money. And I thought it was fascinating, and I still think it's fascinating. So I ended up in the world of first personal finance. Right at the time when Americans were being asked to take more responsibility for their own finances. It was just, it was, it was the point at which the whole field exploded because people suddenly had to pay more attention to their money.
Speaker A: So right time, right place, but also a lot of preparation. And so I remember you and I talking one time and you were telling me about how you prepare to go on tv.
Speaker D: Yep.
Speaker A: Can you tell that story? I love that.
Speaker D: So I, uh, I, uh, knew I had to essentially condense an eight page magazine story, sometimes a six page magazine story, into three to four minutes. And I wanted to be able to make all of my points. So I would go through this very lengthy process where I would first write down all of the questions that I thought that the interviewer might ask me and then write down longhand my answers and then shorten them and write them down in fewer sentences and start talking them through in my own head and out loud. And these were the days before everybody had a phone in their car. And I used to drive myself back and forth to the city from my house in Westchester county and talk to myself. And people in the cars next to mine would think, uh, I was crazy. I mean, I would get these looks like, okay, there's a woman, and she's clearly not singing because she's gesturing with
Speaker A: her hands and she's talking in a phone. Because those are home.
Speaker D: Uh, exactly. Or they were the size of bricks, right?
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker D: So I would just practice until I knew what three or four or five points I really wanted to make. And then I would make those points whether or not I was asked those questions, which I think is a, is a trick that people learn, uh, along the way. But it's, it's. You of course, want to be responsive to your interviewer and to listen to your Interviewer. But if you've only got a few minutes to get the meat and potatoes of the information out, you want to make sure that you figure out a
Speaker A: way to do that, which I think is these are such key and important points. The next question I want to ask you, though, is about the little failures, right. If you're on TV a lot, every show is not going to be perfect.
Speaker D: No.
Speaker A: And I think we as women can find it hard to accept failure, even the little ones, and failure in public. Right.
Speaker D: It really, really difficult. And I still catch myself. I will come off the air and I will look for reassurance that that was an okay today. Still. Still. I still want to know how it played. And I. I feel like part of that is, um, missing my father. Actually, my dad died about 10 years ago. I've been on the Today show for 20 years. But from the first. First 10 years that I did it, every time I did a segment, I would talk to my dad. And he ran television stations when I was growing up, so he knew what he was talking about and he knew what he was doing. And so he would be honest.
Speaker A: I was gonna ask was it unconditional support or.
Speaker D: He would give me feedback. He would give me feedback about not just what I was saying, but how I was sitting and whether I was leaning in enough. I mean, real interesting, quality, quality feedback. And it was the kind of thing that I had watched him do for years with the anchors on his. He ran local market television stations, so, I mean, I would see new anchors come in, and he would coach them through how to dress and how to. I mean, these were stations that didn't have big wardrobe departments and anybody to do your hair. So, uh, it was great. I was fortunate.
Speaker A: So it's interesting you're bringing up a couple of points for me, one of which is we hear again and again the importance of a. For some cases, a father figure, a male figure in so many professional women's lives. And if she has a great relationship with her dad, it can give her the confidence to achieve. The second thing you're bringing up to me is I've been thinking about this, uh, about how feedback. And we women are told to ask for feedback so often. But how do you figure out what feedback to take seriously? And I've been thinking about the difference between the cynics and the critics.
Speaker D: Right? Yeah.
Speaker A: And you're on social media. I'm sure you hear plenty from cynical people.
Speaker D: I hear plenty from cynical people. I think sometimes you hear, too, from people who want the job that you have and you have to be careful of that. Um, I try to weigh what I know to be true against what I, um, what just hurts because it's a personal dig of some sort. And for, for me, the criticism that bothers me the most is when I've been unclear about a fact. I think my job is expressing complicated information so that people can actually understand it. And if I get questions after I've, uh, been on the air and it's clear that I said something in a way where people are misinterpreting it, I find that incredibly upsetting. I mean, fortunately it doesn't happen often, but that really bothers me because I feel in that case I made a mistake or I did it wrong or I could have done it better. Um, the comments about my hair.
Speaker A: I knew you were gonna say hair.
Speaker D: I knew you were gonna. I'm over. I am over it. I went through. So you can't see me because we're on a podcast, but I have bangs, which I got back, back again, um, about a year and a half ago after not having had them for a good 15 years because I was told, um, that people wanted to see my eyes. And I just decided, the hell with it, I want them back. I'm going to get them. And I'm very happy.
Speaker A: Well, there's the other states Sally speak saying don't feed the trolls.
Speaker D: It.
Speaker A: Right that, you know, if, if it is feedback that just doesn't resonate, that's just mean spirited just to, to ignore it. Which I think can be hard for us.
Speaker D: It, it can be. And I don't, I mean I, I don't know about you, but I don't read. Um, I have several different email, several different emails and I let other people handle some of the things that are really personal and pointed and I never see them. And I'm happier that way.
Speaker A: I think that's very good advice. Talk to me about social media because you have expanded your message from print, uh, to TV to social media and how we as professional women should think about using social media if we want to become thought leaders, if we want to share information with, uh, others.
Speaker D: I think it's important. And I think my clients these days, whether they're the magazines that I'm writing for or the companies that I work with with, they want to know that I've got a social feed that I'm taking care of. It's a way to amplify their message. And so, um, it's like a plant that you have to really take care of these days. And for me that's meant hiring young because I'm not a social media native. I didn't grow up with this. And I need people on my team who are more comfortable with not just whatever media we have today, but the ones that we're likely to have tomorrow. Right. I was in a meeting this morning and I got asked about Periscope. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not a. I'm not.
Speaker A: I'm liking Periscope.
Speaker D: I like it too. I like it too. But I'm not a very active user of it and, but I can get with that program. I just need a little bit of help.
Speaker A: But what social media platforms do you find useful for sharing your message?
Speaker D: I tweet a lot, um, and I get good response on my Twitter feed. I have, um, sort of grown it organically. Um, and so I think I've got a nice audience there. LinkedIn is very useful. I mean I'm an influencer as you are and so that, that's good for expanding the message. My newsletter is, you, uh, know, uh, my website is jeancatsky.com I've been doing a weekly newsletter that is essentially that
Speaker A: everybody should sign up for. By the way.
Speaker D: Thank you. It's like a skim for your money. It's basically just, here's what you need to know that happened in the past week about your money in quick little hits. So I get a very good response from that.
Speaker A: I was gonna do one of those when I was at Merrill.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: Couldn't get it through compliance I wanted to do. Welcome to corporate America.
Speaker D: I know, I know.
Speaker A: Couldn't get permission to do a Twitter feed either. Well, we were going to, but there was a six month approval process that was needed. But this idea of what it is and why you should care I think is really important.
Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. And people don't have a lot of time, so something that they can read and get a little bit of information from is interesting.
Speaker A: Right. So speaking of not having a lot of time, if you are a professional woman and you've gotta take care of your personal financial finances, let's assume we've paid down the credit card debt, but give some, you know, what are the few things we should all be doing?
Speaker D: Automate as much as you can. I m mean, I. There are so many opportunities now to make good decisions one time and just know that they're taken care of. I don't know how, um, I don't know how you run your personal finances, but from my perspective, if I'm saving enough to meet the goals that I'm set for myself. Which assumes that you've set some goals, which is another important part of the process. And then I know either every time I get paid or on a monthly or bi weekly basis, money is just going into all of those places.
Speaker A: Mhm.
Speaker D: Whatever's left. It kind of doesn't matter as much what you do with it because you know your future is set and cost college is set and the insurance payments have been made and so you've essentially done the responsible thing.
Speaker B: Mhm.
Speaker D: And then as long as you don't overdraw, you're pretty much okay.
Speaker A: Right. And rules of thumb for what percent of the salary I should be saving, what goals I should have. What would you tell folks?
Speaker D: I would tell folks, if you're a 20 year old and you are getting started and you can do 10% and you can continue to do that forever, that may be enough. But you have to start really young. And if you haven't started that young, you've got to get yourself up to 15 or even 20 really quickly. Um, but I would also say I like these rules, but they're not an excuse to not go through the exercise of figuring out how much you really, really need. And those exercises are not that hard. You know, you can run a couple of calculators to figure out, this is how much I'm going to need for college. This is how much I'm likely to need if I retire at this age and live to be 95 or 100. And by the way, anything less than 95 or 100 if you're using one of those calculators, not acceptable anymore. Mhm.
Speaker A: Particularly for us women who. My new theme is, uh, the retirement savings crisis. It's a woman's crisis.
Speaker D: It is a crisis because the guys are dead.
Speaker B: They die.
Speaker D: We love them, but they die.
Speaker A: I mean, walk around any nursing home in this country, it's not, you know, it's all us women who are there. So.
Speaker D: Yeah, that. Right, that. And uh, I have a girlfriend named Paige and she um, she's the one who told me the story that I tell when I go out and I give a speech. But she essentially said like, we have to take care of our girlfriends because the guys are eventually all gonna die. It is true. Nurture your girlfriends.
Speaker A: Well, the thing that I think is tough is you, uh, know, as you and I are no longer 22 or 23 years old. We're not, no. And people can't see us, so they're probably. Like what they're not?
Speaker D: What, they look good.
Speaker A: No. Maybe I should have some bangs to hide the wrinkles in my forehead. Uh, but I have, sadly, friends of mine, peers of mine, whose husbands have passed away at this age. And it is so sad to see how unprepared some of these highly accomplished women are for this.
Speaker D: Well, and that's the other thing. You're a highly accomplished woman in your career. It doesn't give you license to take all your hands off the finances. You know, I understand in a relationship, things get delegated, and that's okay. And it's. It's. It's okay if you're not the person who is paying the bills week to week, but what you can't do is never pay attention. You know, at least a few times a year, you've got to sit down. And if you're not taking over the task, at least you got to do it together so that you know where everything is and how everything works and who the important people are. My stepfather, um, after my father passed away, my mom, um, remarried about four years ago. And he, um. He had this thing called a letter of instruction and suggestion. Suggestion. Because he'd like people to do things a certain way. We don't have to. But, um. And I've written one. My husband's written one. It's just a. It's a guide so that if I get hit by a bus.
Speaker A: So smart.
Speaker D: Tomorrow there's a piece of paper, you know, three or four sheets, where my husband, my kids, my mother, whoever, could sit down and just know where everything is and what they have to do to access it.
Speaker A: That is so smart. I really struggle with my husband with this. He just doesn't want to talk about it. I think he understands he's going to die one day. But it is, you know, for. For two people who work in numbers, what a difficult conversation this is for us to have.
Speaker D: I don't really talk about it either. You know, I mean, my husband and I do talk about it, but we schedule it. We actually.
Speaker A: You schedule it?
Speaker D: We schedule it.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker D: You know, we know we're gonna have a conversation, and we. Okay, we're gonna do this today, and we'll do it after lunch, or we'll. We plan to do it, because otherwise it doesn't happen.
Speaker A: Do you schedule weekly dates, too?
Speaker D: No. No, but both my kids are in college, so it's like every night's a date, except for during. Except for during baseball season, and then I'm a widow. But, um, no, it's it is a
Speaker A: big difference, by the way, when you're an empty nester. We're recent empty nesters, and all of a sudden I've got oceans of time.
Speaker D: I know.
Speaker A: It's a whole different ball game, right?
Speaker D: And now I'm wondering, my son's graduating from college this, this year, and I'm wondering when he comes home. Um, my guess is he'll live at home for a little while. No? We'll see.
Speaker A: Well, let's talk about what you're doing now because I think you're working on some really interesting projects. I am feeling fascinated about life reimagined and the shift in how we're thinking about retirement. Again, I'm doing those air quotes now. Talk to me about what you're doing there.
Speaker D: So I'm the financial ambassador for AARP and for AARP's Life Reimagined. And Life Reimagined is essentially for people 50 plus who are looking at their life and saying, okay, what's next? You know, I, they did some research and I don't remember the exact numbers, but a good chunk of us are not really happy in our day jobs and want to do the next thing and want that next thing to be fun and exciting. And that means maybe going back to school. It might mean taking a course to get a certification. It could, could mean starting your own thing, but needing to support yourself with, you know, a little bit of participation in the gig economy, doing a little Airbnb or Uber or something to just keep some money rolling in. And, um, I've done some interesting webinars and content with them, we've got a webinar coming up about the gig economy. So that, that should be fascinating.
Speaker A: Fascinating. Well, I will tell you I'm going to get the numbers wrong, but not by a lot. We asked the women of the network how they plan to retire. You know, we do these weekly polls with them. And the answer we got was sort of, huh, what are you talking about? I think it was Jean. Two percent said they planned to retire, as we traditionally think about retirement. So it was. What we saw instead was, I'd love to go do this other thing I've always wanted to do and now can do, or I want to do this nonprofit thing I want to and now can do. And I think it's just a fascinating shift.
Speaker D: It is. That's exactly what it is. It's a shift, but it's a shift that you need financial resources m to undertake. And so my role with them has been about figuring out how to Harness those resources. Right.
Speaker A: And I think the other thing that's going on is we women are working many more years. We almost get this second wind. You know, you and I are in New York. So we see some of these women who are uh, the generation ahead of us, who all look fabulous. They look unbelievable. Unbelievable. And they are extending their careers beyond what I would have imagined.
Speaker D: And I love that because, because I think I don't see not working. I see working differently. I see, I see maybe a different balance in my days, but I don't see not working. I won't be bored to tears.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker A: The other thing you're working on is a kids magazine. So now we're onto the other end. Tell me this, I love this practice. I've got a little barbell here, right?
Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've teamed up, um, with um, PwC's, uh, foundation and Time for Kids and we do a monthly magazine for fourth, fifth and sixth graders that goes out with Time for Kids into, um, the schools. We're hitting 2 million kids every single month with an issue. And it's um, it's just been great because, you know, and the schools don't have the resources and the teachers don't have the tools to um, to feel like they can do a good job teaching personal finance. And so this is amazing, our little um, contribution. And it's, it's, it's been really, really great. So it's, we're entering our second year of publication.
Speaker A: Oh, good. Okay, last topic for you. One that I'm fascinated by and our women are fascinated by, which is entrepreneurialism. So you were an entrepreneur, I think before we called them entrepreneurs. I'm not sure that may have been how you conceptualized what you were doing, but you've put together a fascinating business.
Speaker D: I am a participant in the gig economy. Yes, I am. Um, and I, I was a very reluctant entrepreneur for many years while I was sort of pulling together different jobs. If somebody had offered me a, uh, full time gig somewhere, I would have said yes, sign me up. Because I didn't want to be responsible for the 401k and the health plan and for knowing that you have to replace one income stream with another. But at this point I now believe that having multiple income streams is a more secure, um, job than having just one.
Speaker A: That is fascinating because I think you're a couple steps ahead of everybody else on that.
Speaker D: I think it took, I mean, I've been doing this for 10 years, so it has taken me that long to become comfortable with it, um, but at this point, I'm pretty comfortable.
Speaker A: So what advice do you have for our entrepreneurs or hope to be entrepreneurs out there?
Speaker D: Um, I would say, boy, it's hard for me to do advice because I backed into it. But, um, I think network like crazy. Don't m. Just talk to the people who you think might have work for you, but really understand what your set of skills are and all the different places where you might apply them. So, uh, at, uh, my heart, I'm a content creator. But what I've learned is that although I grew up creating content for media, for magazines, lots of different people need content these days. You know, corporations need content and foundations need content. And so you are very likely, no matter what your skills are, um, going to be more successful if you understand all the different places where there might be a market for those skills.
Speaker A: Well, of course, at Elevate Network, we did not feed you that line, by the way, but the research has shown it can be the difference between success and failure. A big difference between success and failure for an entrepreneur.
Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. And I think of, uh, how my jobs have come along in the last five years.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker D: And they've come along because I sat down and had coffee.
Speaker A: You know, it's so interesting you say that because I've had a different career path than you've had. Um, and I've had a number of full time jobs boards, you know, entrepreneurial opportunities and, and each of them came through my network. Not one of them came through Executive Search. Yeah, really interesting.
Speaker D: Wow, that is interesting.
Speaker A: Isn't that interesting? Well, good. Well, okay, Everybody, um, go jeancatsky.com and sign up for Jean's newsletter, which you're going to love and follow you. I assume it's ean Chatsky on Twitter as well as on LinkedIn. Um, and with lots of good information there for all of us.
Speaker D: Thank you.
Speaker A: Thank you. And you're great to see. Stop by.
Speaker C: Thanks so much for listening to Elevate. And to find out more information about Elevate and how you can become a member, Visit us@elevatenetwork.com that's E L L E V A T E network.com and don't forget, follow us on Twitter levatentwk.
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