Why Intersectional Financial Education Is Imperative For Women
This week, Maggie chats with Tiara Abu, the founder and CEO of SHE CAN WORK. In this episode, they talk about why intersectional financial education is so important for women, and how Tiara is building a community that will encompass just that.
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Tiara Abu is an educator, coach and entrepreneur. She is the proud Founder and CEO of Lead With People, LLC, a coaching company and her new start up venture, She Can Work, LLC. Tiara is on a mission to end financial inequities for women by educating and empowering women to meet their financial goals through legacy-focused wealth building and management.
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To learn more about Maggie and her coaching and speaking services, visit www.maggiegermano.com.
The theme music is called Escaping Light by Aaron Sprinkle. The podcast artwork design is by Maggie’s dear husband, Dan Rader.
TRANSCRIPTION
Maggie Germano 0:05
Hi, and thanks for listening to the money circle podcast. I’m your host, Maggie Germano, and I’m a feminist and a financial writer, speaker, educator, and coach for women. I’m passionate about making personal finance less scary and more approachable so that women can improve their relationship with money and take control of their finances. Every other week, I will interview an amazing, inspiring woman to talk about the issues that impact our money, our health, our independence, and more. We will touch on the societal and structural issues that we need to work together to change and the actions that we each have the power to take in our own lives. If you’d like to learn more about me and the work that I do, visit my website at Maggie germano.com or follow me on Instagram at Maggie Germano. Thanks again for listening and I hope you enjoy. Hey there, and thanks for listening. I’m your host Maggie Germano. And this week, I’m chatting with tiara abou, the founder and CEO of she can work. She is a career educator, leadership coach and entrepreneur who has committed her life to the pursuit of justice for marginalized communities, and developing leaders of the focus on people oriented leadership. In this episode, we talk about why intersectional financial education is so important for women, and how tiara is building a community to do just that. Enjoy.
Maggie Germano 1:33
Okay, welcome here. Thanks so much for being here today.
Tiara Abu 1:37
Thank you for having me. I’m super excited.
Maggie Germano 1:41
Me too. So why don’t we start off by just having you tell people who you are and what you do?
Tiara Abu 1:47
Well, I’m Tiara Abu. I am the CEO and founder of she can work school for women. We are a Financial Education School, really helping women to build legacy focused wealth management and wealth building strategies for themselves, specifically targeted addressing their long and short term financial goals.
Maggie Germano 2:12
That’s wonderful. And as you know, that’s right up my alley. So I’m also very excited about it. Um, what inspired you to start, she can work, you know, what is kind of the winding road that brought you hear?
Tiara Abu 2:25
Yeah, it is a very, I have a very interesting story, because I’m not actually someone who is a financial professional at all. I’m an educator. So my background is an all k 12 or pre K through 12 education. And really can’t became really heavily passionate at the beginning of the pandemic about women in finance, because one of the other companies that I lead is a coaching company and my coaching clients right at the beginning of the pandemic, were really finding themselves struggling with finances, and really bringing to our conversations, a lot of stress around whether or not they would have enough medical insurance or whether or not they would have enough money if they lost their jobs due to the pandemic in any kind of way. And so it just took over, like financial conversations took over some of the leadership conversations I was used to having, and got me really thinking like, this wasn’t actually happening in any of my male clients, coaching sessions, it was really only happening with the women that I was coaching at the time. And so that got me curious about just like, what’s up with women and money. So I kind of started to do some we all go to Google, I went to Google, I started to do some research around just the history of women and money and some of the mindsets around women and money and really started to get in touch with my own mindset around my money. And what was so burdensome about that for women. And so in that I learned things like, you know, women couldn’t get lines of credit. And until the 70s. You know, we couldn’t, there were just so many things that weren’t afforded to us, in the same way that it was afforded to men as it pertains to finances. And so I came to this revelation, like, actually, women are carrying this burden of being either bad with their money or feeling as if they were ill equipped. But women aren’t bad at money, they actually are new to me. It was something that just had never dawned on me before. And so that got me fired up about them like eradicating what I like felt like now is an injustice. So I’m like, wait a minute, we’re expected to be able to manage our money, accomplish goals, we actually are starting more businesses, we are getting higher paying jobs. Still not enough high, high enough paying jobs. But we’re still considering to see these small gains with women in their money, but we don’t have the education or experience to really help us to do really realize our goals and dreams in the way that I want us to. And so the educator in me was like, how do you solve this problem? You start a school. And so that was kind of the birth of she can work. And really, for me, it became this the, like a passion inside of me to learn more and more and more. So I spoke with lots of financial professionals like you, who helped me really understand what were the problems that women were seeing, as it pertained to finances? And what space could we really feel a problem. So we really saw by creating an educational experience for them. And so here we are, she can work is going to launch January of 2022. And we’re going to educate women around their money so that we’re not just starting the business, but the business is thriving. We’re not just invested in the stock market, but we’re very well versed in what’s available to us, and how to kind of strategize around that. We’re not just buying homes, but we really understand that that is an investment that could continually compound dividends for us if we invested our money in the right properties. And so that’s what I’m up to. And that is how I got here, it is still forming for me. But we are going after an injustice. And one of our mantras is we are urgent about matters of injustice. And I’m feeling very urgent about this and can’t wait until January 2022.
Maggie Germano 6:23
Yeah, I love that. And I can’t wait either as a future instructor for she can work, I’m really excited to be part of your new school and your mission. Because I’m obviously right on board with you on why this is so important. And just bringing so much of that education and accessibility to women so that they have that confidence to make their own decisions and do their own things. And so what is the your like, ultimate kind of vision with she can work like what do you see as this really bringing to the community of women that are going to be part of she can work?
Tiara Abu 7:02
Yeah, I think one of the things you named is absolutely something we talked about, which is access, there’s just this lack of access. Like if we looked at the history of limited money, there have been all these kind of points in history where we’ve kind of gotten an opportunity to honor property, but then the property was taken away, or we had to fight for it, you know, going all the way back to like Biddy Mason, who was like one of the wealthiest black women in the 1800s. And really how she had to fight for kind of the right or the the ability to keep that wealth and really like, take charge and command that or like opportunities where we entered the workforce in World War One and World War Two, and then we became like, essential. However, it was just for that moment of time. And women then were once it was kind of over it was like Okay, now you go back to the kitchen. And we got this from a man’s perspective. And so one of the things that represents for me, is this this limitation, and is this x this, like lack of access that I think is absolutely not okay, it’s like we have the intelligence, clearly, we are a value add to society. And yet, the information is not always given to us for the ability to continue to be a part of the conversation is not always afforded. And so I think that’s one of the things, I’m just generally if I had to think like super big picture, but ultimately, we’re really going after three things. So one, I really do want to go after this education because I do you know, I really do believe education is freedom, I really do believe that once we know we can do like once we know better, we do better. And so we will focus on women having as much access to as many topics as we can, under the broad strategy mean not strategy, but umbrella of wealth, building and management as possible, because I want women to come to our school hungry for information and really find what they need. And then the second thing we’re going after is, you know, women are starting businesses in record numbers. But those businesses are not thriving in record numbers. And so a lot of our instructors similar to you are entrepreneurs, they have their own business, or they have a side business that they may be doing alongside a career with another company. But what I really want to do is seeing women thrive in their businesses by creating sustainable sources of income, like creating courses that live in a course library like ours, and we offer live classes, but it’s a six week class so you really can can determine like our points of the year do six week classes or me teaching these six week classes fit my financial goals. And so we call that we all when we create a revenue share model around it, but we’re trying to go after helping women not feel like they have to show up every day to a nine to five, but to really create sustainable sources of income for them. themselves so that we all win in our businesses. And then the third thing is really this generational impact that we hope to have. So with our site, for every subscription, someone purchases will gift a subscription to a High School, graduating high school senior or college senior. And that’s really a bad than leaving the legacy. And I like to tell people like, this is like a linear progression of things for women like we’ve, we are not in a cycle, we can actually disrupt this, we continue to get more and more access, we’re continuing to make more money, but the generations behind us need the education even faster than we’re able to get it. And so that legacy focus for us is, is really about having generational impact. So I think if I, if I had to sum it up, it is really about I want to, as a matter of justice, give access to women, to educational information. And like, I want to make sure that as we open businesses, we don’t feel like we have to they use our bodies and time all the time in those businesses, but we can create sustainable revenue sources, I want to have an impact on generations after us. And then I also want to just ensure that education is just at the foundation of kind of how we see ourselves in a different light or get to a better place for women in money.
Maggie Germano 11:22
Yeah, I love that. I mean, I love all of that. And I, we’ve talked about this before, but I just love how conscious and thoughtful you are about not only providing the education and information and access to the women who are going to be like signing up for the community and signing up for the classes. But you’re also really thoughtful about the people who are actually going to be teaching and bringing the education to the community where you’re like, I want to I want to support your business, I want to help you, you know, do this work in whichever way makes sense, whether it’s, you know, doing those live courses, however many times you can do a year or, or recording classes for the platform otherwise, it just it always strikes me the way you talk about, you know, balancing the support for the the customers that are going to be coming, but also the support for the instructors and the people that are going to be on your team. I just I always loved the way you talk about it.
Tiara Abu 12:18
I’m glad that resonates. Because it’s one of the things that I think is oftentimes missing like I like, I want people to know, you actually can start a business that makes money, and you can have an impact. Like you can do both of those things at the same time. And if we’re going to go after this, what I consider to be an injustice, I think we have to do it all together. And so my instructors are, like, so important to me. I mean, you know, I’m kind of obsessed with my instructors. But you all success is just so important to me, because how will we create a movement? If not all of us are equipped and ready to go?
Maggie Germano 12:55
Right? Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. I love that. So you’ve talked a little bit about how historically, you know, it’s not about women not being good with money, it’s about being new with money and new to money, and how historically there hasn’t been that access and women that they’ve had to have, you know, men be the ones to sign up for credit for them, or whatever the case may be. And you did you mentioned something about how it’s not always about, you know what, you know, it’s, it’s also about who you are. And so that reminded me about how, you know, whenever we’ve talked and whenever you’re talking about what’s important to you for this platform is you bring up intersectionality and how every person has different facets of their identity that influence their history influence, how they’re treated influence, you know, what they’re allowed to have access to, or you know, what kind of privileges they have. And that’s not always something that’s talked about when it comes to money. You know, a lot of people talk about, oh, well, you know, if you just educate yourself and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, like, you’ll be just like me, it’s like, well, if you’re a white guy that was born in wealth, like obviously, you’re starting from a completely different place, and you’re getting access to doors that other people do not have. So I wanted to just ask you, you know, what does intersectionality in finance kind of mean to you? And how are you trying to make sure to incorporate that into she can work?
Tiara Abu 14:27
Yeah, thank you for asking that. intersectionality is so important. Because I think just like you said, I think there are there are what there are biases that exist for all parts of our identities, like none of us are showing up into spaces without somebody having a bias of some sort, I think but what is true particularly in America is we have to remember that there were actually systems created to keep people out. So it is important man to address. Not just acknowledge those, but also to make sure that as we are planning for the impact we want to have, we remember that not everybody is coming from the same starting place. And so I think it obviously sits with me cuz I’m a black woman in America. And so my experiences, both growing up and continuously, I continue to be faced with challenges as a black woman in fundraising and in the way people receive me and my ability to even be talking about money, and really, to be starting a company even at all. And so I just I faced both blatantly some, some of those, both macro and micro aggressions. And I also watched that in my surroundings. And so I think, for me why intersectionality in this conversation is so important is because everybody is like, all women are new to money. But we have to remember that there are like immigrant women, black women, other women that have are not just not earning sight that are not just new to money, they actually still don’t have access in some ways. And so I always want us to just acknowledge that, I think that’s why it’s kind of sitting with me. I think more concretely, though, the way I want us to address it, and the way I think it has to be addressed is, I never want us to assume that everybody’s situation is such that they are not able to access money, because there are black women, trans women, you know, there are all kinds of people who are able to access money and who have privileges that have been afforded to them, because of how they grew up how their parents handle money, etc. So I don’t want us to assume things either, right? There’s, there’s like this, nobody should be victimized. But then also, we shouldn’t forget that some people are saying that. And I think the other thing I’ll say about intersectionality is I, I want our courses to educate women on money, but I want to, I want our courses even more. So to really focus in on not just the kind of tactical skills of managing your money, but the understanding of yourself and your position in society in relation to your money. And I’m hoping I’m being as clear as possible, I think this is like it sits in my heart and soul. So I have to make sure I’m communicating it well.
Tiara Abu 17:31
And so I want for example, for women like me, who grew up in a home where there was distrust of banks. I grew up in a family where, you know, my grandmother she worked on, on cotton fields, like she picked cotton on a plantation in Arkansas. And when she was able to acquire any money, that money went in a coffee can. And that is where it stayed, that money went under a mattress, and that is where it stayed because to put your money somewhere else meant somebody else might control it meant someone else might take it. And so growing up, I watched her kind of manage money out of the coffee can, which then for me meant I didn’t have a relationship with a bank in the way that I maybe should have. I didn’t understand what it meant to walk into a bank and talk to the teller about the different options for savings accounts. And I didn’t understand what it would it meant to talk to a loan officer about alone, because so many things that our family were dealt with through cash dealings. And so when we teach courses, we have to remember that someone like me, who may have grown up with distressed is still grappling with may still be grappling with that in some ways. So there’s barriers I have to overcome mindset wise, even in some of my habits, and some of my own biases. And some of the ways that I may be perceiving myself are assuming that others are perceiving me all of that is like playing into my relationship with money. And I don’t want my instructors to forget that I don’t want my instructors to forget that white women have rights before black women in our country. I don’t want them to forget that there are women who are in black who are either the daughters of immigrants for immigrants themselves and they don’t they literally can’t put money into banks or can’t apply for certain things and so we have to remember all of that and really ensure that we’re attending to both the mindset work the habit work, the empowerment work, the self perception work right alongside how you create a budget. So I hope that answers your question. I think again, this is like one of those ones where I I can rehearse that quote I could rehearse that question all day and I think I was still answered differently every time because this is like this sits in my soul and in my my experience so heavily that I think there is no framework protocol or process I can put in place for it. And just like you said, I talk about it. A lot. Because I’m just trying to make sure it stays front of mind because I don’t actually know the best, quote unquote strategy to deal with it. I just know that the acknowledgement of intersectionality, the attending to it, and then also being very conscious about how we act as a result. That’s what sits as front and center really important to me.
Maggie Germano 20:21
Yeah, no, I, everything you said, I think is so important. And I think exactly what you were saying, like just being as conscious as possible. And thinking about, even like some of the language we use, or the ways that we talk about certain things like someone like me, and the way that I grew up, and the people that I was raised by, like, I never heard about a distrust for banks, that was just not part of my experience or my upbringing. So if I was unaware that that is something that some people struggle with, and, and there’s so much validity around that, like, obviously, there’s a lot of issues of banks still. But if I was like, completely unaware of that are completely ignorant to that I might be talking about, you know, how to, you know, open a bank account, or like, save this way, or do this or set up your direct deposit like this, and if one of my students, you know, kind of raised their hand and was like, talking about how they, oh, I’ve never had a bank account, what do I do, if I was completely ignorant or naive about that issue, I might be flippant or, or dismissive in my response, which then in turn, could turn off that person and make them decide not to seek financial education and then you know, stay where they were, instead of moving forward or learning more or making different decisions. So I think that not only is there that acknowledgement, but there’s also you know, the way that we’re talking to people can either welcome people in or push people away continuously. And, and obviously, I’m not going to be the one who’s educating everybody, there’s gonna there’s other people who have so much more experience are different types of experience who are going to resonate more with other people. But if I can at least be as informed as possible, so that I’m able to kind of be kind and supportive in response to people even if I have different a different kind of upbringing or experience. That’s That, to me, that’s a big part of the intersectionality conversation.
Tiara Abu 22:28
I also think there’s like, the other part of it is there’s like, also duality, and I don’t know, try reality is aware, but there’s people who have a multiple, there’s a multitude of parts and pieces to someone’s story. So even as I like, grew up, like, I knew there was a distrust for banks, we all have bank accounts, do we manage them? Well, maybe not. Did my mom navigate things like my mom is like super smart, super savvy, like she, she just I don’t know, we call her Jesus, because she can do anything. Um, but she also was someone who she just figured stuff out, you know, there’s this like scrappiness around figuring it out, that’s also a part of my story. And so we have to remember that that just as there’s hardships, there’s also celebrations. And just as there’s kind of this lack of things, there’s also a like, figuring it out, and maybe some abundance of things. And that’s, that’s humanity, right? Like that is us thinking about each other as more complex man, kind of our identity markers that are visible to us and or shared. And so I think that’s the other part of it that I would add is, we have to remember that the women coming to our school have just a rich story that is multiple parts. And to your point, we don’t want anyone to feel like they can’t show up here as themselves and learn and get what they need. So they can move forward.
Maggie Germano 23:54
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s not like, you know, you can separate your gender, from your race, from your socioeconomic status to you know, whatever kinds of experiences you’ve had growing up, it’s you I feel like in either in the news or the way people kind of simplifier over simplify identities, they kind of talk about it that way. And it’s just, you can’t just leave your race at home while you bring your gender somewhere, like all of those things come together at the same time. And they inform like you were saying kind of how people treat you the kinds of opportunities that you have, the way that you trust or don’t trust other people and whether you do or don’t have access to money and some of that, that education and access to so yeah, I think just constantly talking about that and making that clear that you’re allowed to bring your whole self and you’re going to be accepted and and supported regardless.
Tiara Abu 24:56
For sure. Yeah.
Maggie Germano 24:58
So what are Some of the classes and courses that you’re envisioning, you know, whether you already have it kind of like confirmed by their construction or instructors or other kinds of classes that you’re hoping to bring to people. So like the different types of topics people can possibly learn about.
Tiara Abu 25:19
So we’re going from things that like, are really passionate and near and dear to me to things that are literally like me so excited, and bubbly, which is the content that we get to offer. So we have already started to upload content to the platform as we prepare. And so there’s kind of our intention is to start out with a broad range of topics, but really at the foundational level of topics. So that are the foundational level of learning so that women can kind of grow with us. We want we want women to come to the platform as we are new and experienced kind of the one on one version of things. But then also we’ll get deeper and more complex as we go as in as we grow. But things that are coming up. So we have topics like one of our instructors is doing a course on retirement one on one, right? That’s like, do you know the types of retirement available accounts available to you? And do you know how to access those, it’s really simple. But then we also have an instructor who is teaching a course on how to get business credit, because again, so many women are starting businesses, but there’s all of these resources that you you may need to help your business to grow them. So that’s one of our courses, we also have a course, where we have an instructor whose approach to budgeting is very unique. And so she doesn’t think about budgeting kind of like long term budgeting or kind of creating this backwards plan from for the month. But where she really emphasizes is paycheck to paycheck budgets, which is how most Americans live right now anyway. And so for her, she’s not only doing a budgeting course, but the, the approach that she’s taking to that is really thinking about your energy, and really thinking about what kind of brings you joy, or motivates you and your spending, and then being thoughtful about the must haves, like kind of what I want to have, and then bill your budget that way. We also have someone who is doing a course, who’s doing a course just around emotional intelligence. And so this has she, I mean, she’s talking about it through the lens of perspective of your money, but it also is about how do you understand your emotional triggers, and things that either have you to feel depleted, or things that also like drive you to make decisions that may not be the best decisions according to the goals you’ve set for yourself. Um, I’m doing a course and offering a course really around money mindset. And so that’ll be it’s really about women, not just accepting kind of where you’ve been with your money, but just knowing that you actually can take some really strategic steps to do what you want to do with your money and become the type of person with money that you want to be the kind of regardless of your, your background, and then just what I say. So those are some of the courses. But what I’ll say generally is, I want us to have a platform of courses, I tell people, I want us to become the Netflix of finance for women. So I want women to come to our platform, and know that whatever your dream is, I think you should also spend money based on your dreams. Whatever your goal is, you can find an educational opportunity that aligns to that. So if you want to buy a new home, you can find a course on she can work if you want to invest in real estate, you can find that course so she can work. If you are looking to start a business, you can find a course or you’re looking to be more strategic in your decision making budgeting books, etc. With your business, you should be able to find a course, which is why I kind of categorized under wealth building and wealth management because anything that you can do any class, you get paid to make more money, save more money or invest more money, we, we want to offer it on our platform.
Maggie Germano 29:12
That’s great. I love how broad the range is going to be how it’s not like obviously each instructor will have their own niche, but the platform itself is not going to be niche down it’s going to be so open to the point where like anyone can probably find something that they’re looking for, regardless of kind of what their goals are.
Tiara Abu 29:35
Yep, that’s the goal. I think what I tell my instructors is you should each of my instructors has an area of expertise and already has because they’re predominantly business women, a target audience or a group of clients that they work with. And what I say is they actually asked us kind of when I’m like reaching out to people in network, what problems are you seeing in your niche or in your area or industry that we should be solving for what And then when people are making choices, or instructors are making choices about what courses then to offer, I want them to create that course based on their expertise, but also create the course based on your literal experience with the women in which you’re working with already, because then we know already that there’s someone who has that problem that we can then be helping to solve. And so we’re trying to, I’m trying to at least, be intentional about being broad without being reckless, careless, and unintentional. But also being broad enough, though, so that our instructors really come in comfortable in their level of expertise around a topic, and also able to really solve problems that they’re actually seeing in the world for real, as opposed to us creating kind of generic topics and content.
Maggie Germano 30:45
Yeah, I think that’s really important. I think that will resonate with people for sure. So related to that, who, I mean, it sounds like you know, this, so that means that this platform could kind of be for anybody, but who do you kind of have in mind as your dream client, your dream customer who will be coming to the school and taking classes and sticking around.
Tiara Abu 31:08
So individuals that identifies women, who also you know, we are, I’ve said this, this platform is really for millennials, Millennials right now are like, between the ages of like 26, and 40, you know, years old, I’m like, an old millennial. And I think we’re, we represent a generation that kind of is in that in that space, where you are like, looking for a home, maybe you maybe are thinking about having kids or getting married all the way up to like you have kids like me, and you’re kind of you purchased a home or you kind of you’re like setting your career, etc. And so millennial women is kind of our target, or something our platform really is for women who I tell people, this is like not a real niche or target audience. But we women who are like angry about the state of women and money should come to our platform. And we’re looking for women who are really moved by matters of injustice. Because those are the women who are going to get on that platform and not just fight for the education and kind of feel themselves, but they’re going to take it back out into society and start to make a difference, and have an impact on other women. And so really in our messaging, and in our target our women who are like this stuff about the state of women in money. And then just more like directly, I think, for women who come to our platform will likely be women who either have a college education or who are seeking one. I think women who are kind of in a career, a steady career, we are really about at a fast paced in the moment learning you should be able to access this learning that bite size, digestible way because this is for a woman on the go. This is where a woman who is like I have several responsibilities as a part of my daily life. But learning is really important to me. And so I need to be able to digest content and find it to be rich and valuable for me in a shorter amount of time. And then the last thing I’ll say is I think our platform is for the women who at the end of the day are looking for looking for the education that’s going to help them to accomplish a goal. As I talked about fitness, it’s like the same thing as exercising, you know, you go to the gym, because you ultimately have a goal, you you stop going to the gym, when you don’t actually have a goal. Or when you haven’t really thought about aligning that exercise to the goal that you’re trying to accomplish. And for us, I think that’s the thing that I want to stress is we will stretch that as soon as we move into our platforms, like what do you want to do? What is your goal, and it doesn’t have to be like a SMART goal. But it does need to be an outcome you’re trying to get to, because that’s what gets you hungry and thirsty for more knowledge. And again, because you’re UK pissed off, you’re pissed off and you’re hungry, you’re going to eat and you’re going to want to feed others so that I’m going after.
Maggie Germano 34:08
I love that. That’s fantastic. I think that’s a great combination. And so what kind of financial investment will this platform kind of require, like if someone wants to just sign up for a class one time or if they want to become a member and get access to everything that’s available? What kind of investment are they looking at?
Tiara Abu 34:27
Yeah, so we, we try to think about how do we keep our keep this investment both realistic for women who are working women, and how do we make sure that there’s some options, and so it’s a subscription based School, which means women would pay $59 a month to access all of the content on our site. And there’s two ways that women can access content. There is an on demand library like I mentioned before, I want us to be the Netflix of finance for women’s I want According to the platform and have access to all of the courses that are available to them in real time, the entire course and they can kind of take classes stop classes start at their leisure. But then also women who come to our platform and who subscribe to our site will also have access to live courses. So four times a year will offer six week long courses, where they actually meet face to face with an instructor face to face, face to face via zoom. So it’s a virtual, but face to face with an instructor one time per week to really get a more intimate and deeper dive into content across a six week course. But all of that is available to users on our platform for $59 a month, which I like to remind people is like three Starbucks drinks a week, I’m just saying, I moved away from Starbucks recently, but three coffee drinks a week. The other way they could invest is women may say, you know I don’t I’m not ready to take like a month to month commitment right now, I really am interested in achieving a specific targeted goal for myself. And so the other option that will offer is the ability to just pay for the course, one course at a time, which is $197 flat fee. For any course on the site, if they want to just take that course, I would, of course, encourage a subscription because it’s just like getting more bang for your buck. I won’t say it’s a bad investment, because that’s your business. But you don’t get more bang for your buck when you get a subscription. But we do want to create options so that women have access at different points.
Maggie Germano 36:38
That’s great. Yeah, I think providing those options so that people are able to make their decisions and and join when they can or just do one offs. I think that’s great, because again, you’ve talked about that accessibility piece, like keeping it available to people as needed. Um, anything else that you want folks to know about, she can work or yourself or, you know, your, your goals for improving the world?
Tiara Abu 37:05
I do you want to change the world. Um, I think one thing that I want people to know is, especially if they’re a woman listening to this, I want women to know that the stories we sometimes tell ourselves are not always true, particularly those negative stories that we tell ourselves as it pertains to our money. And there is a societal belief, it is not even just in America, it’s actually worldwide, there’s a global belief that women are less. And there’s a global belief that women aren’t able, right like this, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s ridiculous. And I want us to know that we can actually change our money situation, we can change it for the better, we can do more, we can actually do whatever we want to do with our money. There’s just choices that we have to make for ourselves. And there’s also education that we have to get for ourselves. So we know how to navigate it. And I encourage women listening to this to a Now listen to the lies that we are less than, or that we don’t know how, or that we cannot manage our money, make more money, etc. But I also want us to know that education is available to us. And to the extent that we consume that, and it doesn’t mean it’s going to change our entire life overnight. But it does mean that we begin to be equipped in a way that we haven’t historically men equipped to really start to solve some of our financial, personal financial concerns. I think the other thing is, I want women to know that, while I’m talking a lot about personal finance and education, there’s, there’s something about women knowing things that actually just change the world changes the world fundamentally anyway. And so I don’t think this is just about us learning about our money. I think this is us really being like learning about our money and getting critical about choices. Getting critical about or critically thinking about the things that are available to us in different ways, I think is our platform will be an opportunity for women to learn more about their money, but also to explore things I never knew existed. Like, I didn’t know what an annuity was, I just didn’t even know what it was until I started to talk to women about finance. And that knowledge now that we thirsty for more knowledge and got me asking questions now when I show up in spaces, talking about my finances that I would have never asked before because I’m just equipped with that little bit of information. And so I also just want to just express that we learn about our money and learning in general just changes the world because women will we know better we know more. We just are built that way to then take that out into the world and start to change things. And the last thing I’ll say is not about women, it’s just like really to anybody who’s listening. I think it’s what we talked about. Earlier, you cannot bootstrap your way to success. That’s not real. And when people say that it’s annoying, but it also is just like not real unless you’re a white man in America, it’s not real. And so what we have to know is there is decision making strategy. And there’s like specific education you need to be able to navigate the situation that is sometimes impressed upon you by society. And I think that is, it’s a lie or myth to believe that we can just work harder, we cannot just work harder, we have to understand things better so that we can navigate better It doesn’t mean we’ll change everything about our situation, but it does mean we’ll get closer to an ideal state for each of us so that has nothing to do with she can work that’s just like if I could say something to the people who are listening. Those are some of the things that I would share.
Maggie Germano 40:53
No, I love that and I it’s so important to take away those kinds of lessons and I think that’s a great way to kind of wrap up our conversation about she can work and what your mission is and why that intersectionality piece is so important to you. How can folks get in touch with you follow she can work Yeah, get more information?
Tiara Abu 41:14
Yes, they can. If you want to follow she can work which you absolutely should, you can find us on Instagram at she can work. And you also could go to www that she can work that board. Not com she can work that org that’s us. And then also I’m to your booth so you can find me on LinkedIn and message me so we can check.
Maggie Germano 41:39
Wonderful and I will link to all of that in the show notes too. So folks have easy access. But I wanted to thank you again for taking the time to chat today about education for women and that financial education piece because obviously near and dear to my heart near and dear to your heart and I’m excited to be part of it with you.
Tiara Abu 42:00
Say I am I fell in love with you the first day we talked I was happy you’re one of my instructor. I think I have absolutely change the world together. So I’m really excited.
Maggie Germano 42:10
I’m excited to thank you so much. Thanks again for listening to the money circle podcast. If you want to learn more about my financial coaching services, my speaking and workshop offerings, or just to read my blog visit Maggiegermano.com. To get in touch with me directly email me at [email protected]. You can also follow me on instagram and twitter @MaggieGermano. I look forward to hearing from you. Bye bye.
