I just got a message today from Lynnette Khalfani, a former collaborator on an article I wrote for Startup Nation called 3 Steps to Financially Prepare for Starting Your Own Business. She is going to be on Oprah tomorrow, in a segment on dealing with financial windfalls.
Lynnette found me through my blog right before I was going to write the Startup Nation article, and I jumped on the opportunity to work with someone with so much experience and expertise. A former Wall Street Journal reporter and financial reporter for CNBC, she wrote a New York Times bestseller called Zero Debt . She has gone on to write her latest book, The Money Coach’s Guide to Your First Million.
But besides all that impressive professional background, the thing that excites me the most is that she is a truly humble, kind and nice person. She is a working Mom with small kids at home and is very down-to-earth. Not once during our conversations did I sense any ego, superiority complex or condescension. She was excited, passionate and helpful.
At the time we talked, Oprah was just launching a season-long segment on reducing debt and she featured 3 financial coaches on the show who worked with couples throughout the season to improve their financial situation. I told Lynnette "You should be on the show!" She agreed, but said it was a difficult thing to do.
Fast forward a couple of months, and here she is on Oprah! Besides that, she just taped a show today for Rachel Ray, and will be featured on Tyra as well.
It is hard to put into words, but I am just so excited for her and feel so inspired that we can ALL think bigger and more expansively about the possibilities in our work. I know she worked her behind off to get where she is today, and probably spent many many long hours at the computer when she was tired and overwhelmed. But she kept going and made it happen.
Good for you Lynnette – I can’t wait to check you out tomorrow (Wednesday, December 1 – check your local station for listings.)
The next person I plan to see on Oprah discussing the very needed topic of financial education for college students and recent grads is my young pal Ramit Sethi from the very well-written, funny and educational blog I Will Teach You to Be Rich. Ramit is a 20-something Stanford grad who is taking the world by storm, all with an infectious enthusiasm and sharp wit. He just closed a book deal to write, not surprisingly, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. The title is a bit tongue in cheek, for it is not a "get rich quick" scheme, but rather practical, useful financial advice for those that need it most, impressionable college students.
I met Ramit when he interviewed me on his blog awhile ago, and now one of my other very enthusiastic young blog readers Cody McKibben just interviewed Ramit on his blog. I guarantee you will be inspired by all the things Ramit is working on.
What I love about people like Lynnette and Ramit is that they are smart, funny and talented, but also genuinely nice human beings. In my perfect world, these are the kinds of people who should get astronomical exposure so that they can make some big, lasting changes.
Oprah’s producers, if you are reading this, (ha ha, talk about fantasies!) you heard me suggest Ramit as a guest first.
I saw part of the Oprah episode last Friday and I though Lynnette did an awesome job!
She seemed just a tad nervous at first (gosh, who wouldn’t be :), but then settled down and got all her points accross very well.
She also did a great job presenting herself as a smart, articulate, friendly and likeable financial expert. I hope she really enjoys the “Oprah effect” 🙂
Toward the end of the show, they featured a “social experiment” that I found sad and somewhat disturbing.
A film-maker decided to give $100,000 dollars to a homeless person he had been profiling for a few weeks and see what happens.
Well, the homeless person spent all the money and, in the end, went back to being homeless. In fact, he actually ended up in credit card debt, worse off than when he started.
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Hi Roger:
I’m glad you caught the episode! Thanks for watching!
I saw the last part too … I also found it disturbing. The filmmaker seemed disgusted by the subject he filmed … and acted surprised that a windfall of money didn’t solve all his problems.
The “human experiment” part of it kind of creeped me out. I hope no one does a similar thing to me, and plants a whole case of Swiss chocolate bars on my doorstep, then secretly films me as I eat them one after the other.
🙂
-Pam
Hey Pam!
Yes, thank you SO much for the mention! I only hope all your readers enjoy my interview with Ramit Sethi, and get as much inspiration out of it as I did.
Pamela is upcoming on the list of successful individuals I’d like to interview! 🙂
Take care everyone,
-Cody
In a few months, I will excitedly write a similar post about my talents and motivating friend Pam Slim!
Seven…habits… Seems I’ve heard this before.
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Hey David:
I know, I know, pretty cliche. I will say that most traditional publishers are terrified of anything new and push for book titles with a past historyof success. I don’t hold it against Lynnette, since it seems par for the course for mainstream titles these days.
As I said in the post, what excites me about her success is her down-to-earthness (if that is a term I can make up) which is really refreshing in a circle of sometimes pompous media figures.
Have a great weekend!
-Pam
Wow–this is just about the nicest post I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Pam.
And to everyone else, Pam was too modest to mention that when I interviewed her, it was one of the most popular Friday Entrepreneurs interviews ever:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/archives/2006/10/friday_entrepreneurs_pamela_sl.html
Thanks again, Pam.
Hi Pam! As you know, I was actually brought to your site through Ramit’s “I will teach you to be rich” blog.
I have to agree with you – Ramit’s blog provides practical financial advice in an almost light-hearted manner. I’d recommend that all of your readers should check out his blog.