The last few months have been a strangely existential experience as I reflect on the journey that influenced the editorial direction of this blog. Welcome to Million More Stories.
I joined the Singleton Foundation because my mission aligned with theirs: empower a generation to gain the skills they need to manage their financial futures with confidence.
It is why I became a Certified Financial Planner™, but my career path was not planned. I entered the financial services industry in 2011 with almost zero financial knowledge. I’ve come a long way since then but the most valuable lesson I walked away with during my years helping millennials reach their financial goals is that financial decision-making is more than a fiscal, logical, or rational calculation.
You can give people all the financial facts and figures in the world but until you help them find the intrinsic motivation to change their behavior, financial education alone will not work. This is why, even in an age of free information, only 44% of millennials are financially competent. I’ve carried this lesson with me and when I watched Cary Singleton’s TEDx Talk, I saw the potential for a new solution. (Cary is the co-founder of Million Stories and the Foundation behind it.)
So, how do we plan on getting people to care about their financial competence, and to do something about getting better at it? In a way rarely done when it comes to finances: Through powerful storytelling. Stories involve us in personal, emotional ways, which is far from how we respond to data, facts, and figures, and it is this emotional power that is the key to igniting action.
Million Stories
This past June, we launched a first of its kind entertainment channel, Million Stories. Season One was the culmination of two years of hard work by some of the top directors, writers, and other creatives from the entertainment industry. Our critically-acclaimed content ranges from dramas to comedies, documentaries to reality. And we’re just getting started.
Why Million More Stories
We created this blog to connect with you. Throughout, you will find news about our programming, behind-the-scenes glimpses, carefully curated, relevant, and actionable articles about money, and a new video series called Making Lemonade about entrepreneurship, pivoting, and growth – hosted by yours truly. And while my background is not in entertainment, I have the honor of working with some of the most talented veterans from Dreamworks, the BBC, Disney, Apple, and Live Nation.
We believe everyone deserves financial freedom, and we’re going to do everything we can to help make that possible. Stay tuned!
Sign up for our newsletter to get regular updates about new content, follow us on Instagram, and head over to millionstories.com to binge our Season One shows!
A Million Thanks!
Noa Rodriguez-Hoffman, CFP®
Director of Editorial & Community Engagement
[email protected]
