January 23, 2024
Episode 185 – Vince Shorb – Economic Empowerment Through Financial Education
“If we just asked ourselves, what can we teach in school to make sure these kids are protected, to make sure theses kids can live a happy, healthy life and work towards their dreams? I would say the majority of the subject matter they are teaching across borders, countries, the world would be eliminated and replaced with financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and career education.” – Vince Shorb
- Vince Shorb is one of the country’s leading advocates for promoting financial wellness and a thought leader in teaching and scaling financial education programming. After spending 15 years in financial services working one-on-one with more than 20,000 people, he founded the National Financial Educators Council – an organization dedicated to combating the financial illiteracy epidemic. He is the current CEO of the NFEC, an IACET Accredited company and a Certified B Corporation.
- Vince’s mission is to create a world where people are informed to make qualified financial decisions and confidently take effective financial action that best helps them meet their basic human needs while moving toward fulfilling their personal, family, and global community goals.
- Shorb has led the NFEC in the development of 2,500 financial education programs and more than 80 financial literacy assets and financial education standards that guide the industry. His focus is on mobilizing and developing community champions and empowering them with the resources, knowledge, and processes they need to help their communities’ citizens work toward financial self-sufficiency and security.
- Listen in to this episode as Vince and Patrick get into the topics of financial literacy, the gaps Vince sees between couples having money conversations, and the lack of relevant education and life skills that still exist in school curriculums around the globe. Vince shares what lights him up about entrepreneurialism particularly in the financial education space, peer pressure through advertising and social media, and how they are tackling and advocating for increased education, and more critical thinking in today’s world.
- Show Notes
- [00:42] Patrick introduces his next TEDM guest, Vince Shorb.
- [02:30] Vince and Patrick get the conversation started as Vince describes what he does in the world of financial education and advocacy, and who they’re serving. He shares the passion he’s had for it since he was young and when flame to the fire was lit.
- [05:32] Vince explains the way in which he and his team serve their clients with financial education, how they got started, and scaled the business to its current iteration. There is certainly more growth on the horizon as different States have unique and urgent need for the advocacy.
- [09:56] As a licensed model, Vince’s organization provides the resources their teams need to empower financial literacy in their community, but there is flexibility and recognition of the local need and brand building of the individuals providing the service. And yes, they’re across the US and Canada!
- [14:00] What are some of the gaps Vince sees in financial communication amongst couples and families? He shares a learning experience story from early days in the company about a game they had parents play to communicate with their kids about money. They identified a real challenge working with couples in this way. There are so many teachable moments they impart to parents to teach their kids and prepare with tangible financial life skills.
- [19:05] Values conversations around money. Finding alignment while not always easy, can exist within a partnership even if the values are different. The importance lies in communication and starting that literacy and education early is so beneficial. Clarity = velocity.
- [22:06] Establishing goals is also a great way to get started on a financial journey that empowers vs. discourages. Vince acknowledges that those goals will change along the way – life has a lot of variables. They are not set in stone, so we don’t need to shy away from it, simply get them down on paper to encourage progress and then re-evaluate.
- [26:44] Vince talks about educating people to help them move past their old financial hurts and decisions, move through the five stages of change to get them past the shame to move into the present and into positive action. The ideal opportunity is to reach people at an early stage to proactively help them.
- [32:15] The entrepreneurial spark was ignited early in Vince with a realization of the importance of money in people’s lives and how it affected their loved ones. He wanted to be able to take care of people. From a black-market lizard selling ring in the second grade to selling supplements and small ventures they were all learning experiences on Vince’s entrepreneurial path.
- [34:32] Two fork in the road moments. Vince describes one that took him in the wrong direction and one that he feels was so aligned with his core values of educating and empowering people through finance.
- [39:52] Vince provides guidance on the financial levels that he feels are important for people to pay attention to. He starts with the first level of fundamentals for base security and moves to the second level of risk capital and investments. He provides small action steps we can take so it’s not an overwhelming proposition.
- [44:07] Patrick shares a story of coaching a young man around finances, where the sticking point was and how a subtle shift in perspective changed his trajectory to investing possibilities vs. perpetually kicking the consumer-debt-can down the road with no light in sight.
- [46:52] Vince shares his perspective on the total lack of financial education and the outdated skills being taught within the current school curriculum which is failing kids. He describes the type of subject matter his organization is advocating for to change that. Financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and career education.
- [52:10] Dragging the future into the present with a debt-based thought process is a well-worn path in our society. Peer pressure through advertising is a real concern for our youth. Vince highlights the way they are working with parents and kids to develop critical thinking around the media onslaught.
- [57:46] The psychology and behavioural aspects are the backbone and most challenging part of financial education. Vince breaks it down to the basics and systems of personal finance.
- [62:19] Patrick shares another story to demonstrate how simple finances can truly be!
- [64:00] Get your financial house in order, to prepare for opportunity. Find the right people to support you and ask the right questions to achieve that.
- [68:52] Ok, that sounds good! So, what can we do next? Vince imparts a few nuggets to get us started: do a current financial assessment and identifying goals to discover what areas need work. What’s most important and urgent to tackle and create the capacity to take action. Some things take time. Persist and keep moving forward. You’ve got this.
- [73:35] The more you manage your money, the more money you have to manage.
- [74:34] Let’s roll! Time for some rapid fire. Android or Apple; favourite type of movie or series; favourite music genre; favourite swear word; message at the pearly gates.
- [76:34] Vince’s gratitude.
- Selected links and people mentioned from this episode:
- National Financial Educators Council
- Nancy Phillips, TEDM Episode #48
- Transtheoretical model stage
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