Money Matters: Part Two! A Powerful Illusion

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Like it or not, people still perceive differences between men and women that often have no basis in reality. At Money Matters, we discussed how this is a symptom of the different messages and values that society sends men and women, as well as the stereotypically “male” traits that are valued in the workplace.

While the effects are difficult to detect, they’re even harder to combat because they are often subconscious (as has been repeatedly demonstrated in social/psychological studies like the Heidi/Howard study.)

How do you fight the subconscious? We can influence our impressions by emulating some of the traits associated with power and mimicking certain behaviours:

  1. Pausing is power. Nodding is not. Refrain from nodding throughout a conversation, as it can be misinterpreted as being in agreement or subservience.
  2. Slow your voice cadence. Lower your pitch. Women have higher pitches by nature, but a high-pitched, rushed voice from a man suggests nervousness and is generally viewed that way.
  3. Old girls’ clubs. You may not have experienced it yourself, but women can feel unwelcome at certain gatherings organized by “the boys”. Women have taken matters into their own hands and are hosting similar events with an objective to network and hash out business. Join one or start your own!
  4. Power poses. A little bit of "fake it til you make it" can go a long way. Amy Cuddy's TED Talk demonstrates some proven poses that produce real physiological and psychological effects.

As more women lead in powerful positions, the associations between “feminine” traits and power will strengthen, and we will no longer need to accentuate or adopt more “male” attributes to get ahead.

Tracy, thank you so much for all the great advice and stimulating conversation. These two posts cover only a portion of everything we learned.

Tracy holds pro bono finance sessions at Sophia Financial Group (see their event schedule under the News & Events tab). Bring your goals, questions, or just pop in to introduce yourself. It’s something you won’t regret!

Calling all Toronto Social Media & Online Marketers!

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By Amanda Ainsworth To effectively employ social media and search marketing, a fast-paced and ever-changing realm, you can’t afford to be outdated or out-of-touch with new developments in the industry. There are new pins, likes, pages, and other features emerging everyday that you can use, but it is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, these new tools can improve the impact of your social media/online strategy, and on the other hand, this means constantly learning how to use them and understanding how they fit and might be leveraged for your company! It can take a lot of effort to be on top of these things.

Our friends at YWCA Toronto are offering an incredible event TOMORROW, where you can find out how to use the latest tools and most effective practices in social media, SEO, and search engine marketing from the ones who invented and revolutionized it.

A minimum donation of $20 to the YWCA Girls’ Center will give you access to hear from experts representing three of the industry’s leading players: Google Canada, Green Lotus, and ABC News.

Donate & Learn – Search & Social Marketing Tuesday, May 28, 2013 6pm – 9pm YWCA Toronto Headquarters (87 Elm Street, Toronto)

This workshop will provide you with invaluable tips for:

  • Creating more successful online marketing strategy,
  • Leveraging Google AdWords’ social/mobile/local tools and Google+ to boost your social media strategy,
  • Enhancing online visibility and brand awareness with better SEO, and
  • Everything in between!

If you’re a social media/marketing professional, a small or medium business, non-profit or charity organization, PR/Communications specialist or website designer, don’t pass up the opportunity to strengthen your marketing efforts, improve your bottom line and schmooze with these high-caliber marketing gurus. I recommend reserving a spot now. You can do this by making a quick (tax-deductible) donation to the YWCA Girls’ Center, at http://greenlotus.ca/workshop! Don’t forget to pass this info along to any of your Toronto friends who might be interested – they’ll thank you. 

*This workshop is being generously sponsored by Go Daddy, Toronto Star’s NewInHomes.com, Epic Cruises, and Big3 Video Agency.

What are you saving for?

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By Amanda Ainsworth If you couldn’t make it to our most recent event, Money Matters, I hate to tell you but you truly missed out! An evening with Tracy Theemes was all I needed to get my money-saving, ladder-climbing butt in gear!

For me, the most valuable takeaways came in two parts: Tracy’s methodical approach to identifying your goals and achieving financial freedom and her behavioural tips to help every women work their way to the top of their careers.

Below you’ll find Part I: Tracy’s 5-Question Technique for Financial Decision Making. I hope you find these as valuable as I did; stay tuned for Part II: Tracy’s Behavioural Tips next week!

Tracy’s 5-Question Technique for Financial Decision Making

Q1. Where am I now?

How do you know what financial position you’re in once all the smoke and dust clears? Here are two things to calculate and track:

  1. Net Worth— Calculate it every six months: Net worth = your Assets – your Liabilities
  2. Cash Flow — Track your spending pattern over a 90-day or six month period. Use your online debit and credit statements or the plethora of online apps/websites (such as Mint.com) that will do it all for you.

Q2. Do I have reserve?

Reserve is simply a liquid “backup”, preferably kept in a high rate savings account, meaning you can take it out as cash in under 24 hours. Keep cash (or cash equivalents) in your reserve.

The amount of reserve money you should have will depend on things like occupation, for example someone in the film industry might need more than someone with a predictable and dependable income, and your other spending patterns.

When should you start building this reserve? Umm, right now! A good base is to calculate how much money you need to cover your costs of living for three months.

Being your own bank is not only cheaper, it creates financial freedom, confidence and happiness.

Q3. Where am I headed/What do I want?

Pick the 2-3 most important things to you right now (hint: one of these should be your reserve from Q2, if you haven’t already reached your margin)

Then ask yourself, how much does it cost?

And, when do you want it by?

Q4. How am I going to get there?

 These are the years to learn (and practice) positive new behaviours. So skip that latte, pick up an extra job if you need to and attend one of Tracy’s investment classes – they’re free! Contact us if you want to hear about upcoming sessions.

Q5. How am I going to monitor my progress?

Fluent with Excel? Even if you aren’t, it’s a great tool for tracking your budget and financial goals, Use it!

Define what would be “success” for your financial goals and remember to track your progress!

So, what are you saving for? Share with us in the comments below and stay tuned for Part II next week!

Empowering Reads - "Lean in: Women, Work & the Will to Lead"

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After last week's amazing Money Matters session with Tracy Theemes, we rushed to buy "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead" by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Any "YWiB-er" would benefit from reading Sheryl's take on setbacks women face in the workplace, strategies to overcome them and her keys to a successful career. The book has been called thought provoking AND controversial, we love it!

Check out what others had to say and after you read it please share your thoughts with us! http://bit.ly/15LMPs7

Money Matters is Soon!

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Money Matters is just around the corner!  This coming Wednesday, Tracy Theemes will be at our disposal to answer all your burning questions about anything and everything finance.  It’s a casual and conversational evening, and because of that, feel free to send us topics or questions that you have an interest in hearing about (or bring them to the event!) on Wednesday. Make sure to sign upsoon before registration ends! E-mail us at info@ywib.ca , tweet at us @YWiB, or post on our facebook page to make sure Tracy will cover what you’re most interested in!

Tracy Theemes is down-to-earth and great at boiling down the complexities of money matters into easy-to-grasp concepts.

Some topics she has on her list:

  • How to save money effectively and general good money habits to adopt
  • What is “asset allocation” and why should we know about it?
  • What are registered versus non-registered accounts?
  • Investing – The various investment vehicles out there and which ones are “the best”
  • Fees & Commissions – how much of your money is actually being invested?
  • How do you assess your acceptable investment “risk” level?
  • Mutual funds – What are they!?
  • RRSPs – When is the right time to start?
  • Filing your tax returns – Best practices for separating your taxes owed and making sure you don’t spend that money that isn’t yours!
  • What do landlord/property management companies take advantage of renters?
  • What to look out for the first time renter/buyer
  • Fixed versus variable rate mortgage
  • Staying out of the “red” with your credit

If, at the end of the evening, you feel you want further explanation or guidance, you’re welcome to have a quick chat with her.  But, while she can’t come home with you, you can definitely pick up her book,The Financially Empowered Woman: Everything You Really Want to Know About Your Money.

We hope to see you there!

Female Entrepreneur Spotlight: Victoria from ReFashion Vancouver

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Leading up to the highly anticipated Refashion Vancouver event, we had a chance to catch up with Victoria, the event's founder and female entrepreneur extraordinaire. In between finalizing vendors, marketing and those last minute event details, Victoria was kind enough to share her story and advice with YWiB and for other budding female entrepreneurs.

the path your career has taken hasn’t necessarily been linear – you tried a variety of different roles and industries, and ultimately wound up working for yourself. what would you say was the biggest challenge you overcame, and how did you do it?

The biggest challenge was realizing that I didn’t have to follow the conventional path of working for someone else if it didn’t make me feel happy or fulfilled. I tried working in different industries and in different-sized companies hoping that I’d eventually find a job that I loved– I wanted to be excited from the beginning of my day to the end of it. But no matter what I tried or where I went, that happiness and sense of pride in my work was never 100%, and I didn’t like feeling trapped in a cubicle. It took a me a long time to realize that you can do what you love and what makes you happy for a living. I thought I had to work the standard 9-5 – but when I realized that the only person imposing that rule on myself was me, it became easier to recognize that it was just something that was keeping me from taking a leap of faith and following my dreams. Whenever I have a mini crisis of faith about whether or not I’m doing the right thing by trying to take everything I love and monetizing it, I look at other entrepreneurs for inspiration. There are so many amazing entrepreneurs who have paved the road that I’m currently walking down.

besides running your own company, you’re also ____- (fill in the blank w/ your other activities).  how do you find balance between all the balls you juggle?

a rock climber, a book-reader, a sunny-day-admirer, a photographer, a lover of cooking, a sci-fi nerd and so much more. I’m not going to lie: it’s hard. Very hard. When you’re doing what you love, it’s difficult to make yourself stop, even for a moment, because you’re so excited by the work you’re enveloped in... it doesn’t even feel like work. But I recognize that I need to make time for the other things I enjoy that aren’t work-related, so I make myself take self-imposed breaks. I absolutely will always make time to cook dinner –  I love finding new recipes (thank goodness for Pinterest!) and trying them out de-stresses me. When the weather is beautiful I will bump my schedule down by a couple of hours so that I can enjoy the sunshine. It mean’s I’ll be working in the evening as the trade off, but the sheer fact that I can do that makes me so happy. I love that I can choose when and where I work, and I don’t have to ask permission to go out on a sunny day and have a coffee.

what do you find the most challenging & most rewarding about being a young female entrepreneur?

The most challenging is finding a way to turn what you love into a thriving business. You can read a ton of books to save you from making some common mistakes along the way, but sooner or later you’re going to face set backs that make you question what you’re doing, and whether or not you should be doing it. The most rewarding is the other side of that coin – being able to take a passion and make your living from it is an incredible thing. I can’t even begin to describe the feeling I get when someone purchases something from me – they’re putting their trust and faith in your product, when there were literally a million other ones they could have chosen.

why do you think YWiB and the YWiB philosophy is important for young women in the community?

I think YWiB offers something absolutely essential to young women entrepreneurs, and it’s something most women probably don’t realise they’re missing until they stop and think about it – a sense of community.When you’re an entrepreneur it’s easy to become a bit of a hermit – getting so wrapped up in your business that you forget that there are other people who can help you through the challenges. Friends are fantastic, but if they aren’t entrepreneurs themselves they likely won’t understand the things that you consider to be major victories and major set backs. Having a supportive community that regularly offers you the chance to learn from successful women makes a huge difference in the mindset you have when tackling problems. Being around a ton of creative women helps foster your own creativity when you might be facing a challenge that you haven’t quite figured out how to overcome.

Refashion Vancouver takes place THIS SATURDAY (April 20) at Yaletown Roundhouse. Thanks so much to Victoria for her insight and we wish her all the luck in the world, even thought we know she won't need it. ;)

If you're interested in helping out, YWiB's Ladies in Pink Volunteer Group will be onsight lending a hand. Email Harveen@ywib.ca for more information. See you there!