Financial Literacy, Mocking Oprah, and Life Lessons with Neale S Godfrey
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My podcast Co-Host and good friend, Ryan Zauk, sat down with legendary entrepreneur, author, and financial literacy advocate Neale S Godfrey. How do you summarize the background of someone like Neale? Let’s give it a try:
First female executive at Chase Manhattan Bank (and one of the first female finance execs in the world) where she worked on some of the largest M&A deals in history
New York Times bestseller, but only after buying a publishing company because she couldn’t get a deal!
Founder of both the First Women’s Bank and the First Children’s Bank, the latter of which was famously used by Princess Diana in NYC’s FAO Schwartz
Founder of “Children’s Financial Network” where she has become one of the nation’s top crusaders, advocates, and thought leaders on financial literacy
Collaborator with Oprah, Executive in Residence at Columbia Business School, and served on a number of boards including UNICEF
Full interview --> Spotify | Soundcloud | Apple Podcasts
Why She Left Wall Street and Became a Writer/Advocate
Many of the younger or international readers may not know this, but you could not get credit as a woman in the U.S. until the 1970’s - and it took much longer after that for female credit to become commonplace. Neale started the First Women’s Bank to help women manage their finances and get lines of credit.
She noticed that women were unsure and intimidated by their finances, and it probably spread to their kids. Neale wanted her daughter to avoid the same fate, so she went to bookstores with her daughter to find a book on money. However, she couldn’t find a single children’s book about money.
Her daughter asked her why Neale didn’t just write one herself. Sensing Neale’s fear, her daughter started teasing her - so she got writing.
The Most Incredible Way to Get Your Book Published
It seems every successful entrepreneur I interview has one of these anecdotes of grit, persistence, and just a little bit of “f*** you” in it that illustrates why they are successful. Neale’s might top them all…
With her first book draft ready, Neale walked into Simon & Schuster, the nation’s top publisher, and pitched the story. She was greeted with an immediate no since there were no existing books for children and no market for it (talk about mis-sizing a TAM).
She cried after the meeting, then got to work. Neale opened up the First Children’s Bank in 1988 as well as an institute in Harlem to teach financial literacy. Despite both programs’ immense success, S&S still said no. She cried again and then realized she’d have to get more serious to prove them wrong –so she bought a publishing company.
At deal close, the bank informed her she was chairman of the board. In her words: “I didn’t want to run a company, I just wanted my book published!”
She told her new employees on day one “I’m your boss and I will fire you if you don’t publish my book.” They published it, the book sold 50,000 copies, and then she sold the publishing company. She then marched back into S&S with her book results, and they took her on.
…bravo Neale.
Mocking Oprah
After she got going publishing books, her phone rang and her daughter came running saying “Oprah is on the phone!” Neale had a close friend who loved to do Oprah impressions, and thought she was pulling a prank. So what did she do, she started mocking Oprah to her face! It must have been a good impression, since Neale went on to work with Oprah for 4.5 years, hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list, and sell millions of books.
Learning to Make Content For Children
For her books, she got S&S to hire experts on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade reading to recommend word counts, sentence length, sentence structure, vocabulary, content, and syntax. The process worked, and she soon was using ice cream to teach 2nd graders international economics.
She also started developing gaming apps. She got in touch with the creator of Shrek, moved into his family’s house for 2 weeks, and came out on the other side with a fictional universe centered around her main character, “Schmutz.”
The Financial Literacy Problem
Financial literacy is not part of the core curriculum, so teachers and schools only prioritize what is being tested on. Those scores affect performance metrics, which affect funding and rankings. So it’s just not going to be prioritized with so much at stake for the school.
Only 17 states approved and mandated the teaching of financial literacy, which left too many children excluded. Neale pivoted to afterschool programs for financial literacy as well as one on career planning that has helped over 518,000 at-risk youth.
On being a woman on wall street and how RBG inspired her
RBG was “a woman, a jew, and also a mother. But what she did was she brought people to the table in a very smart, non-argumentative way. I can lose the battle but I will win the war.” Neale chose to refrain from speaking out against discrimination and harassment, since she knew it would likely yield nothing but a path out the door. To “win the war,” she slowly started hiring women and minorities. By the time she left Chase, her division was half men and half women and minorities before anyone could notice.
Her investing advice and key lessons for kids
“I teach buy and hold, I do not create little day traders.” She focuses relentlessly on how long it takes to earn money and that you are usually sacrificing your time for this money. She finds the parents come running to her for advice. When they come for stock advice she says – what phone do you use? Where do you shop online? Buy what you know. Stay in there for the long haul, and don’t touch the ups and downs.
She summed it up with “Don’t touch your face, and don’t touch your 401k.”
Her advice for her students at Columbia Business School (and all people):
Be open, and be ready when opportunities. We have no crystal ball, so don’t waste a second on regret or overthinking decisions. Just make sure you match your values with the people you work with and the company you work for.
Lastly, ask yourself how are you giving back? We are not here to take up space. And to the privileged ones especially, you have the power and resources to make a difference. How are you going to use your skills to help others?
Full interview --> Spotify | Soundcloud | Apple Podcasts
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