[Fan Favorite] A New Money Mindset: Saundra Davis on Financial Strategy & Well-Being
In Good CompaniesShow Notes
According to recent polls, nearly 50% of small business owners feel stressed about their finances. But in 2025, we are determined to change that statistic. So this January, we revisit a favorite episode that will help us learn about our money feelings. Where do they come from? Are they serving us well? And how can we gain confidence in our potential, to build a healthier relationship with our finances? To answer these questions: we welcome back Saundra Davis.
Saundra is a Financial Planner and Coach, the Director of Financial Programmes at Golden Gate University, and the founder of Sage Financial Solutions, a non-profit offering support and education to people from all backgrounds. And in today’s episode, she joins Ari for an honest, vulnerable and insightful conversation on financial well-being.
Together, they recall how Saundra launched her career after having made every mistake possible in her first business. They spell out the link between trauma and behavior and explain why a good financial plan starts with understanding our needs and values. Working through Saundra’s “Continuum of Financial Well-being”, they also cover what professional support looks like in practice; how to avoid some typical budgetary mistakes when launching a new venture; and how to assess if you’re coping well with your current financial situation.
Join them to hit reset and align your dollars, your cents and your values with your business vision.
Highlights: “There's no aspect of our lives that money doesn't touch” (3:01) The impact of money feelings on business decisions (4:36) How to recognize an unhealthy financial mindset (6:04) Understanding the "Continuum of Financial Well-being" (8:03) Financial wellness: a subjective question (10:37) Typical financial challenges when launching a new venture (13:50) Financial stress: how we can look out for each other (16:23) Why building trust with your Financial Planner matters (18:28) Financial support starts with your needs (21:25) Money wellness as an investment into the future (23:12) Saundra’s go-to resources for financial support (25:08) “Know where you are; know you're going; build a plan to get there “ (26:39) No Shame Zone: Saundra’s new money mindset (28:18)
Links: Cadence Bank Website Cadence Bank X (Twitter) Cadence Bank LinkedIn Saundra Davis LinkedIn Saundra Davis Golden Gate University Sage Financial Solutions Website Sage Financial Solutions Instagram Article - “Half of Small Business Owners Experience Poor Mental Health” Resource - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Well-being Questionnaire Resource - Financial Therapy Association Resource - Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards
Feedback: If you have questions about the show or topics you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producers, [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].
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Before In Good Companies returns next week, we'd like to help you finish January on a high note; so we're bringing back one of our favorite episodes on joy. Recent research by Oxford University found that workers are 13% more productive when they’re happy. And yet, another study by BCG found that most company leaders aren’t building their strategies around how their employees feel at work. So joy? It’s a real business question. In this episode, we are joined by designer and joy specialist Ingrid Fetell Lee, to find out how to make our workplaces, our jobs, and ourselves more joyful. A former design director for IDEO, Ingrid is a self-starter with a decade’s worth of research into the science of joy. Her findings made it into a book: Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. Today, she helps us answer the hard questions: how do we get to feel joyful? Our surroundings, the objects in our homes, the things and people we interact with every day… Why do they influence our emotions? And crucially: what does that mean for our companies? Together, we discuss how to make our workplaces more enjoyable and productive, and what joy means for leadership, teamwork and our business philosophy. Join Ingrid and Ari to spread joy today and make it an integral function of your organization. Highlights: When Ingrid first stumbled upon Joy (2:45) Universal joyful patterns (4:54) The evolutionary explanation for joy (7:32) The difference between joy and happiness (9:33) The Aesthetics of Joy in the Workplace (10:29) How physical space can impact our mental health (13:32) The branded environment: “No one wants to work inside the corporate logo” (15:30) The case of joy contagion at Coca-Cola (16:34) Adopting a new joyful leadership (18:56) “The biggest mistake that I've seen employers make is inconsistency” (20:56) Undoing the corporate bias against joy (22:03) Signs that we have changed our team for the better (23:23) Finding joy while working remotely (25:57) Embracing joy in the present (27:46) Gen Z: a new philosophy of joy (29:27)
This January, In Good Companies revisits some favorite episodes to relax, reset, and dive right back into business.
Happy New Year! We always like to kick start the year with a reset - and today's guest will help us get the fresh start we all strive for.