CSTMR Fintech Marketing

A while back, my son Trace and I were on a road trip for a motocross race (he’s a professional racer, and I’m a proud parent). We were driving across Texas and stopped at a Chick-fil-A Restaurants in southwest Austin for a sandwich and a break from the road. As we walked toward the door, I noticed a family in a van. The father was holding a sign saying that they were driving to Tennessee and needed help. Whatever your opinions about panhandling, please put them aside for a moment. I believe in acknowledging the humanity of everyone and withholding judgement. I don’t help everyone who asks, but this time, an inner voice told me to ask questions. Working through a language barrier — my Spanish isn’t great — I discovered that the father worked in construction, and the family was leaving their home in Texas to pursue a new job in Tennessee. As any parent will tell you, the weight of providing for your family is an honor and a burden. I could only imagine what that man was feeling – obviously capable and competent but dependent on the generosity of strangers. I took the $100 bill I had planned to use for the race from my wallet and handed it over with a prayer and blessing for the rest of his journey. Trace and I walked inside and ordered our food. A Chick-fil-A manager came by and asked me about my interaction with the family. I told him what I had learned, and the next thing I knew, the manager donated a bunch of food for the family’s trip. The family was beyond grateful. And I was blown away. $100 isn’t pocket-change to me, but that interaction was a priceless reminder of what it means to be “well-off.” Again, here’s my humanity: I see other entrepreneurs, and I’m envious of how put together they seem. My envy is totally ego-driven. Compared to that family in the van, I am wealthy. It was easy for me to give $100 compared to how massively that money would affect their next few days of travel. In retrospect, I feel overwhelming gratitude for what I have been given and the opportunities in front of me. And that gratitude is the real change agent when it comes to financial well-being. Yes, I am aware that we’re all about to be buried under an avalanche of gratitude-themed posts. That doesn’t make the message any less important. Gratitude is one of the intangible skills of successful financial decision-making. It doesn’t make you better at math, but according to some recent studies (source: Benchmark Wealth Mgmt), it reduces impulsive buying and improves long-term decisions. Whatever your station in life, let me encourage you to look for examples of people who have less and more than you. Not to inflate or crush your sense of accomplishment but to orient you toward gratitude. Wealth isn’t the source of happiness. Gratitude is.

Let’s talk about squirrels. 🐿 When I watch squirrels, I marvel at their behavior. It’s easy for a creature so familiar to fade into the background. Squirrels are unbelievably resilient, brave, and resourceful. Skeptical? Watch this video from YouTube creator and former NASA engineer Mark Rober: https://bit.ly/3Ys5uIi. But squirrels can also teach us about finances, specifically saving money. First, let me say I’m on a journey with my finances, just like you. I’m not where I want to be, and I still make mistakes. It’s easy to feel like everybody else has their finances in a better place than you do. But when I talk to my friends and colleagues about this issue, nearly EVERYONE nods in agreement. Do some napkin math on that: if everyone feels behind, maybe it’s just a feeling and not reality. You and I are not the only people struggling to make wise financial decisions. It bothers me when financial advice comes across as preachy, hypocritical, and judgmental. Maybe worse still is when the advice seems completely out of reach. For example: the suggestion that you have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up. That amounts to a minimum of $20k for three months at the median (not average) American’s income. For anyone living paycheck to paycheck, that number might as well be $100k or $200k. I’m not going to bore you by running the budget numbers on how a person making $80k a year might sock away $20k. It’s a tall order from every angle. According to Bankrate’s annual survey (https://bit.ly/4dT8h1N), if you’re like 60% of Americans, you’re uncomfortable with your current level of savings. If you’re like 25% of Americans, you have no emergency fund at all. The deeper issue here is not mathematical. It’s psychological. If you’re carrying credit card debt (as half of Americans do, according to this article from LendingTree - (https://bit.ly/48duCFO) then your prospects for saving are even farther out of reach. It’s tempting to just give up. What do squirrels have to do with this? Squirrels start small and they NEVER give up. And that’s my recommendation for anyone struggling to save money and pay off debt. Start small. Can you automate a tiny direct deposit to your savings account? Again, $5 is a good start. Ideally, pick a number that makes you a little uncomfortable. You never see a squirrel hauling a bucket of nuts to its nest. They move one or two at a time. You’re proving to yourself that it’s possible. Because that confidence is what you need to make the next step, which might be selling some stuff on Facebook Marketplace or eBay. Look for ways to create “squirrel funds” and automate the money going into them. Saving money can feel emotionally painful; technology lets you “set it and forget it.” I really can’t overstate how powerful this idea is as long as you keep it simple and refuse to give up. You’re after progress, not perfection. I might be a CEO, but I’m still taking lessons from the squirrels.