Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the Order KERNI Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast the Millennials who want financial Freedom. Welcome back to another episode that is actually a little bit rogue. Today, Miss Jessicarci and I are sitting here with Vince Scully and Queenie from invest With Queenie.
Hi, guys, Hello, Hello, thank you so much for having me on the pod.
Thank you, It's great to be here.
Jess and I are so excited to have this chat because after the influencer blow up last year, there is just a lot to decipher, but before we get there, Jess, you said before guys, I have a really important question that I want to get you at the start of the episode.
What was it For those of us who are not so much in the financial space, Can someone please explain to me what a licensee Eve it is.
Everybody who provides financial services needs to have a license which is issued by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ASSE which fourthoughwise known as ESSEN not the shoe, not to be confused with the shoes. And there are two types of license. There's an Australian Financial Services license, which deals with all the traditional financial products like super bank deposits, investments, insurance.
And there's a thing called an Australian Credit license, which deals with credit cards, home loans, personal loans.
I've got both, and.
Most people who operate industry work under somebody else's license, So you didn't have a license yourself, or you can work as a representative of someone who does have a license.
And it's a really nice segue to the fact that what do you do.
I run a business called Life Shopper, which is a online financial advice service focused on the needs of younger Australians. And we have a financial services license and a credit license, both held by a sister company called money Shepper, And we operate our advice business under the Life Shopper brand, which is a representative of money Shepper.
And do you license anyone interesting faci?
We do?
We did you ask Jessica?
That was a good segue? I could ride that segue all the way to the restaurant, and yes, so we as well as licensing our own business, we license a number of influences, including Victoria Devine and she's on the money and.
So exciting.
Queenie, you're new around here, I am.
I am really happy to be here. It took a while to get it all down, pat, but we're here now and I'm just so happy because, honestly, Vince, Victoria, it's just so nice to have this community and we all do different things, but I think we all have the same mission, which is so lovely.
The thing I want to talk about with you guys today is really about.
Who do we trust in this industry, Who do we talk to?
Who do we look at when we want to talk about financial literacy and creating wealth and what investing is and how that works. Because there's so many different conflicting opinions that fly around. I mean, the media has made it out to be the scariest thing in the end higher world, but I feel like it's not scary. We just need clarity, and what provides clarity is often licensing.
I feel like the media really catastrophizes this and it's like the rise of the influencer and then it's the fall of the influencer, when in reality, I genuinely believe that everyone in this space should be and usually is here because they just want people to be financially literate, right, And so I guess that's why we should start the conversation not around who usually trust, but like why are we here?
What are we passionate about? Queenie, how did you get into this finance space?
Ohly said, it's so well.
I love it.
I love that.
Thank you so much for having me. How did I get involved? So it was locked out? And I think we can all remember those times I was working from home. I was working for a fintech startup. Decided this new job and we started working from home, and I was really really scared because I felt in the company it's a startup, we were spending more money than we were making us startups do, and we kind of knew there could be some layoffs and I just thought, oh my gosh, it's.
Going to be me.
Yeah exactly.
I was like, Oh God, that's what they say, right, so that makes you really scared.
I was so scared.
And then we did this meeting, and in the meeting we found out that yeah, twenty percent of our company got let go, but I wasn't one of them. Oh I kind of wish I was, because it was awful.
I would have kept you to so good.
But I felt awful, you know, like just that feeling like pretty much everyone that I met on that day that I was working with a job, yeah, we're not there. And I was like wow, And I felt really lucky because I even though I was able to keep my job during that period, I knew that even if I did get let go, like, I wouldn't have needed that job because I had emergency savings and queens.
Maybe that's why I call you queeny things.
And I also had, you know, just purchase the apartment that I was living in. And I was like, Wow, how lucky am I to have this financial stability when just a couple of years ago, I had nothing, and that little Queenie back then would have been feeling so bad about herself, you know, if this happened and if
she lost her job. So I just wanted to create videos to little Queenie back then or anyone that's going through a rough time, just to give people hope and say, even if you're in a bad situation, now, it's not forever and you can get through it.
Yeah, oh my gosh, that is literally so wholesome. But what was your pivot point into you know, you said you bought your first apartment. You said that, you know, you were financially secure. Most of my community would be listening to this going what do you mean, how did you get into that? What was that change for you from you know, not having what you said, not having anything, to you know, having an apartment, having emergency savings, being in a financially secure position.
I think the tipping point was reading The Barefoot Investor, And I think.
A lot of people such a good stuff for such.
A good starting point, and it kind of it opened my eyes to the possibility of having stability and not being at a job and real thinking that you need that job and you know, just kind of like living to survive, you could actually live and thrive with money, and that was a good mindset. Then I started on my snowball of personal finance.
FeAs there's literally snowballs right.
Exactly, there are so many, and I was just consuming all the content and little by little the savings started to grow, you know, festivals five dollars and then eventually one thousand dollars, five thousand dollars started investing and I was like, oh my gosh, I've never had this much money in my life, Like it's amazing, And yeah, I really think that it starts small, but it can it can build up.
You guys are so transparent on your platform, so you and your fiance create a lot of content together, and I've seen a lot of your videos where you're like, this is how much we earn, this is how we spend it, this is where we generate our revenue. How did you become comfortable to share such intimate information.
Well, it's a bit awkward at the beginning because I'm scared people will judge, and you know, people don't really like talking about money. But I think slowly I have started to I want to talk about it more because I think that genuinely pay transparency talking about how much people get paid. That's how it's just going to be more fair for everyone. And I'm prepared to be that person.
To maybe, you know, take one for the team.
Yeah, because if you're not talking about your pay, or if people don't know how much anyone's getting paid, I think it's way more likely that some people can be underpaid for what they're doing. So I think it's important those hide exactly exactly.
It is very instick, is that what you're up to? Vince over there in the blue.
Chair, in the blue chair, the sheppert Teel chair.
The sherpet Teal chair.
Sorry, sorry, I think it's interesting because obviously we've got content creators on this side of the table, and then we've got Vince, who big dog.
Vince is our license we do.
We do content too.
You do content too, but you're like the big dog license.
See.
I was about to say, what's your experience in content creation?
Because you're the legit one in the room at the moment.
I mean just because I've got the certificate.
Yeah, yeah, you're you're currently really legit legit.
I mean that's really interesting. I mean we have a as a country the benefit of having some laws that protect people from rogue.
Content, which is amazing.
I mean, you and I have been to conference in the US, which is a bit of a wild West when it comes to content. Anyone who says I paid off fifty thousand dollars in consuming it, therefore I'm a financial expert.
Actually that was wild We can talk about that in a hot second.
We can lots of hot seconds here, and so we have regulations that seek to protects as consumers from rogue content. And just today there was an influence or finl and soon or content creator whatever you want to call him, got sent to.
Jail for first one in Australia.
Yeah, so that's all good, and it should help people make an assessment of the quality of the content that they're seeing and whether they should pay attention to it. But of course, you know, I think we can difference it between entertainment, which should be fun, and content that we're going to treat as advice. I mean, you know Dave Ramsey, I could listen to him all day as entertainment, but I'd never take financial advice from him. Yeah, and
he's the US's was highly paid radio personality. So it's really about how do we know what content is good and what's entertainment and we should be able to differentiate between the two.
Yeah, and I think everyone's heart is in the right place, right, Like if you pay off fifty thousand dollars worth of personal to your example, and then you want to empower other people to do it, like, that's beautiful, that's so nice. I want you to do that. But just because as certain circumstance worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for someone else. And that's where I think we
end up running into trouble. Jess, you're hanging out here. Hello, You're not a finance content creator, but you happen to work for a finance podcast, and you're also a content creator in your own right. You have your own platform, you're on Instagram, you're a YouTube channel where you talk about like fashion and beauty, and you've like dabbled in savings. But it's not really I would say the pillar of the content that you create. How do you feel when
it comes to money versus content creation? And where that line exists for someone who's maybe not in the same sphere as the other three of us.
I think that for me, as someone who before I worked for Shes and the Money, I was consuming money content. That's how I was listening to Shees on the Money. That's how I got out of debt. So I was consuming a lot of content from a lot of people at the time. I think the line for me is that there's a big deal friends between saying to someone, here's some tips on how you can be better with your money. Here taken save money at the grocery store.
Here's how I find the best deals online, versus when we're talking about investing, when we're talking about insurances, when we're talking about superannuation, those things.
If you consume the wrong.
Advice and you take it to heart and you implicate, it has the potential to derail your financial future if you take advice that is really poor or even just partially poor, or if you don't understand what you're doing, you know, I think I saw a lot of people at one point talking about self managed super funds and how you know.
At one point I just love self managed super funds.
So I used to make a very good living.
A don't have to shut mine dow for people talking about how oh I have you know ermes bags in my self managed super fund, or you know, I put my house in my and it sounds great and dear, I love and that I could pay for like fantastic. However, if you're making those two and an uneducated person is making those choices and they do it incorrectly, you could end up in a position where you have no money
to retire on. And that is a huge difference between point A and point B, which I think really separates that kind of quote unquote advice from you know, the things that once in a while myself or other people have dabbled in being like, oh he's had to get a good bargain and a sale. I think that's the
real line in the sand for me. And last year we saw a lot of uproar, and the three of us included, and I think maybe Queenie, this was the push for you when ASIK, which is this as Securities and Investments Commission, that's the one thank you.
Not to be confused with the shoes of the same note.
I don't want our own a pair of assets and
I love them. But they came out with some clarifications around existing laws and the reason there was so much uproar in the industry was because those laws existed before social media existed in the way that it does and before people were making a living off social and so it really again kind of highlighted that line in the sand between people who were licensed and were qualified, so to speak, to talk about those kinds of products and people who have baby taught themselves or figured it out
on their own, which is fantastic, but they're not necessarily educated. More broadly, and potentially we're putting people in a harmful position.
I feel like with the rise of social media, like if we go back twenty years, getting information and getting advice from people who were not educated in the space.
Wasn't easy to do.
Like finding people on social media obviously becomes this transactional And I would argue pseudo relationship where I feel like I know Queenie, like we've met before in person a number of times, but I feel like I deeply know Queenie because I absorb all of her content. I think I know her, but that's only the content that she puts online, So I don't actually have a clue what queene is like behind the scenes, right, And I think that that's where we're running into try trouble because Queen
is so nice, she's the best person. Have you seen her tips? Oh my gosh, I keep up with all of them. So all of a sudden, I feel like I'm falling down a rabbit hole where I've trusted everything you've ever said to me. So if you came to me with a cryptocurrency investment scheme, I'd be like, well, Queen's doing it, and.
Queen's really would.
You would never, But like, that's the power that people in these positions hold, and as we've seen abuse.
And that's the difference between pre social media when you saw you read Porklithrow or Peter Thornhill in the paper, in the Sunday Paper, and you didn't have that apparent insight into who they are, whereas if you see someone on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube, it feels much more intimate. So it's so much easier to build this sense of trust which can get abused. And we've seen that in
the US with all those crypto things. You know, when FTX fell over, all the big names were implemented from Graham stepping down.
Not Taylor Swift. Yeah, the queen was smart, Yeah, she was, and.
So that how do you make sure that that trust doesn't get abu used and broken?
And that's what those regulations were trying to manage, and arguably they did it very poorly because they were written by people who simply don't really understand how the space works. But it potentially is leading to more regulation, which is a positive thing if it doesn't lock people out. It's such a hard line, isn't it.
It's a hard line to I guess toe because as somebody who at the time that that uproar was happening, I was a licensed personal financial advisor, and I looked at it and said, great, all these influences that I have been looking at for so long and now going to be held to exactly the same standards that I'm being held to when it comes to content creation. And from my perspective, I was like, that makes sense, because that's putting our community.
In the best possible position to not be abused.
But I think it was the first time influencers or people who create finance content had really considered the impact of what they were doing, because the impacts of you know, giving bad financial advice, and you know, as someone who was licensed if I breached my license, it's five years in jail and a million dollar fine.
It's not little.
It's a very, very big thing that if you're a financial advisor you take really seriously. You don't study for as long as you study and go through all of the exams and go through all the headaches so that you can write sooas because you love them. You do it because you want people to be in the best
possible position. So you do want to uphold the ethics of that education platform, right, But I don't think that going back to that person you made an example of before, who said I got out of fifty thousand dollars worth of debt, you can too, they haven't thought about those implications that are a part of, you know, the code of ethics as a financial advisor, because why would you
have thought of that. Who's put the code of ethics in front of you, Who's taught you about all the different strategies that could exist to get out of that fifty thousand dollars worth of debt?
Have they looked at the bigger picture?
Have they taken into consideration all the other options that that person has on the table. So I think it's one of those things where it was such an uproar because people didn't actually realize how significant the ramifications were if you were in breach of a license, because.
They weren't new rules.
There were the rules that I'd been held to for my entire career twenty two years.
Exactly.
How did you feel the into someone who licenses other people but also carries a license creates content yourself.
How did you feel when that was interesting?
Yes, I'm sure I'd been with mentioned other podcast. You can mention other podcast, the My Millennial Money.
Oh, we talk about them all the times we had.
I've been working with Glenn for a couple of years, so he's been a representative of lature for a couple of years now.
Now it's us clean and.
You've glowed up, glowed up.
That was partly the result of an Eseic inquiry of it.
I think I can say that, Oh, he's talked about that.
We work together to work out, well, how do we actually make this work in a social context because traditional license holders just don't necessarily understand the differences between the traditional sitting one on one in a room or at best, sitting in a seminar room.
With three D four new platform.
This is all new and it's much more dynamics. So you can't run a post by a committee over two weeks. I mean not only doesn't lose its time in this, but it also loses its spark of originality. So if you start designing posts by committee, you're going to lose the essence of what makes they cut it back, what makes v DVD or what makes Queenie Queenie. And so that was an experience that we hold that over those
two years. So we've been doing that before the whole ACIC thing blew up, and that was where people stopped going yeah, sure, lying sure things, Yes I know I need a license, sure short short and now acid went well, now everyone believed, well, actually you do, and so some people pulled out completely coming. There's a few very high profile anonymous bloggers who stopped blogging shut down their Facebook groups when this all blew up rather than embrace the
discipline of licensing, and others have embraced it. So it's only a growing cohort. We a Life Shop are very keen on growing that because we see it as an opportunity to deliver money, skills, education to more people in a much more enjoyable, friendly, relatable way then the traditional you must do this. You must not drink your last ache if you down, you must stop eating spash taper character.
Well, you could afford a house if you stopped doing those things, so maybe you should you could.
Yeah, well that's where we're falling short.
Honestly, Queenie, I guess that pivots the conversation back to you, because when all of this happened, I guess I was really excited about it because I was a licensed financial advisor and I felt like these changes were the best thing for the community to put them in the best possible position, and now everyone's going to be held to the same standards I was.
So I was very excited.
But you were in the position where you had to consider getting a license, and there were a lot of influencers who, as Vince said, left the market. There were a lot of people who I know are still kind of in that limbo stage where they're like, I will, but I won't. What prompted you to get a license? And furthermore, why was it with Vince.
Of all the people.
I say about my own licensee who I know and love, Yeah.
Oh I love it, and great question.
I think that Well, for one, I am super passionate about it, and I think it was the first thing that I've actually done in my life where I just felt like it was the right thing, Because when I started creating content on social media, it wasn't to make a huge amount.
Of money, although in the back of my mind I thought that would.
Be pretty cool if I did, But it was really just because I wanted to help people and help people be more hopeful about their finances. So yeah, I just felt like I was actually doing it for the right reason, So that's why I wanted to continue. Obviously, it was a really scary time and I was like, oh my gosh, like, what's going to happen. I don't know what's happening?
Terrifying, Right, Were you involved in that webinar that Asi Karan?
That was one of the scariest times.
I mean, I thought they were going to come for me after that because I was relatively vocal. Were But it was interesting, But I think that put the fear of God into everybody, which.
Seems like their intention really didn't that.
But unless you didn't turn up to it with a picture Warren Buffett.
Or did did you see the recording. Somebody who was told not to record.
I was there, but somebody she would remain nameless, turned up with a picture Warren Buffett on their wall behind their camera. I'm not an influencer.
I die.
I know exactly who we're talking about, Vince.
You license people like Queenie and myself, and obviously we are very different in the types of content that we create. I mean, we exist in the same sphere. I think we connect really really well. However, it's a risk for somebody like you to go, do you know what, I'm gonna put myself out there as a licensee because it is a risk because essentially, when you enable somebody else to operate under your license, you're responsible us.
I'm responsible for every word that you say exactly. That does make very nomicus.
Yeah, I would be some of it exactly.
But what does your I guess, thought process look like when it comes to licensing people like Queenie and I And what about the people that I know have potentially approached you and you've been like, look, this is the type of content I support, and this is the type of content that maybe isn't the right fit for my brand.
Yes, So there's I mean, if you look at the group so far, obviously got Queenie, she's on the money Manel and your Money and film Muscatella and shares for beginners. Very different. I mean she feels got very much a holder audience. Yeah, absolutely, a probably a wealthier audience. So wide variety of content and audience, and that's really a
bad saying. Can we identify a group of people who are anxious of their obligations, are aware of who their audience is and how can they can be best looked out to, and are broadly aligned in messaging, So we wouldn't license someone a cryptospooker for example, of course, and of course there are some limits on our license, so we don't have a license for derivatives. So if you're spooking running an options trading podcast, we can't do that.
Cancel it.
But it's really about having a network of creators who together make up more than we do individually. And so it's a combination of content collaboration and aligned message and a sense that the creator has a sense of their obligations. So we don't really want to be in the business of reviewing every post goes out because that doesn't work
for anybody. No, we need confidence that that person doing it is aware of what they need to do, which we can obviously help with and doing some post facto review. But by bringing the onboarding properly and knowing who the right people are, we can manage that risk. But it's not for everybody, and we do get approached well maybe not every week, but certainly more than once a month. But we really want to try and build up a
small network like minded, not necessarily precisely alike. Glenn and I argue about carlines all the time, but that we have the same sense of realism and values aligned.
Because that's a.
Really interesting thing. Is someone who's observing external to all of you guys, you know, not qualified in the way that you are, not interested in being qualified in the way you are. When those acic things came in, you know the people who went, okay, well.
If the only way that I can keep doing these is if I get a license.
I wonder what that experience was like for them finding someone to license them, Because, as you've said, you're taking on.
All this responsibility.
If Victory does something wrong, you are culpable on some level for that, and that is a lot to take on with the extremely large finds and the jail and all of the other scary things.
Vince will go to jail now, not be oh yeah.
Sucks for you, Vince, but you know we'll go together.
But all of these people who maybe were creating finance content and they're like, Okay, well, if the only way for me to keep going is get license like what Queen's done.
I wonder how.
Many people did approach licensees and how hard was that process for you, Queen? And I guess on your own vents being the person who's giving a yes or no no?
What was that like?
I mean from an industry perspective, I don't think many people understand social also, And so if you're sitting around the compliance committee at AMP or the Commandal bank, this is just not something you want to go anywhere near because it's relatively small compared to the overall business. So why am I going to bet my business on something which isn't going to change my revenue if I'm a big player And they just don't understand it and don't really have that time or inclination to get into it.
And I've sort of lived and breathe this stuff for eight years at Loveshop, and so you get a feel for why people do what they do and where the boundaries need to lie. And so we just felt that it was an important part of our role at Liveshop about bringing financial advice to everyone. That one other ways of doing that was through a process of education through entertainment.
Not everyone's going to read at X book and it's probably not very helpfully there because most of finance is actually about trade offs and understanding yourself is far more important than understanding the market. But that did bring me. We did have to build in how do we go from taking a former financial advice and managing that process, how do we broaden that into dealing with people who
haven't had a decade in that environment. And that was the big challenge and so Queeney was our guinea pig in that space for his non ex advisor and it was quite a lengthy process to go from erecting nothing to get there. And we get people hating on the we get comments on the website of a band. You know, how can you possibly Yeah, we have in fact, we have a complaint right now.
It's about.
It's about as somebody who's not Victoria Devinell. How would they call to do this? I go on.
That makes me really angry, because do you know who hard it is to give a license?
If she's got one, I promise there's reason, and.
You're one of the few people who has committed to that process, which from what I understand, is quite lengthy, and I want to hear more about what that was like.
So I do some courses with no training.
Yeah, I had to do some courses I've done too so far, so general advice and general knowledge that was one of them, like generic knowledge, and then the other one was about securities and managed investments.
So yeah, it does.
Take time to do this, and I'm looking to get licensed in the other areas too and knock off those other courses like insurance and super because it is so interesting and I really do love it.
But it was challenging at.
The beginning because I don't come from this industry and I didn't know the steps involved to get a license.
But thankfully met Vince, and it's so good because I feel like our visions are aligned, and even though we do different things, I feel like our mission and our values are the same, and we do want to help people and I think that, you know, with the way that I create content, which is just to educate people and just give, like, you know, daily tips about little things that they can do to make their life a little bit easier.
Or you know, if you're still not going to get me to.
Give it a go and that coat is lit, we're going, yeah, so much.
But I haven't quite got to cost.
From this platform. We adore Aldi El Toro.
Have you tried their wines? Yeah?
Absolutely.
Le Mule Rose is the best rose I've had in my life.
Quote me on it. That's a good deal.
I'm the one, the one of the awartch because it's a ninety plus point winner and it's four ninety nine a bottle.
That's a money win.
This is a weeknight drinking.
Read a weeknight drinking red, just for those of us who consistently drink red on a weeknight like me.
I will be checking that out.
But it's a long way to Costco from here.
Yeah it is. It's not like an everyday trip. It's like a once you run out of toilet paper trip.
Okay, okay, let's pivot back to the conversation.
I guess about finance. Look I do, but I got over it during COVID.
Yeah.
Yeah, like it's no longer a good investment because there's heaps of it now. But pivoting back to the.
Conversation I guess about finance content creation, and I guess the people listening to our podcast are probably like, Oh, this is getting deep, this is getting hard, And we're not usually a fireside chat kind of podcast like Glens, But I think it's so interesting to kind of like look under the hood and have these conversations about, well, what do people who create finance content actually have to go through to create that content make sure that the
community is always in the best possible position.
And I think that's.
Really pervy, Like I would be really interested in this type of chat about any other industry. But additionally, there's this layer of like, obviously, you've had to work your butt off to do what you're doing today and you've really committed to it, which is really commendable. But there's this juxtaposition of if you get licensed, it's really expensive.
So it's a cost that that creator has to wear and has to commit to, and obviously that cost it could range from anywhere what like ten thousand dollars up to.
One hundred thousand dollars plus.
When I was a fully licensed personal financial advisor, I was paying more than one hundred thousand dollars a year for my license, and then when I had people working for.
Me, it was plus plus plus. It depended on your revenue.
At one point in my career, I was paying that feet plus five percent of my business revenue. It it got ludicrous, and I don't think people understand how much that process costs for smaller finance content creators though, that that's obscene. Like if you are a small time finance content creator and you're just doing it for the passion, it's not comprehensible that you would go and pay for
a license. And a lot of them have either as you said, Vince left and decided to pack up shop and not do what they're doing anymore, or they're just like, you know what, I'm just going to keep doing it. It's not that bad. It's not this, it's not that. How do we know who to trust and who not to trust? And I guess where is the line of content creation? Because I follow a lot of people in the finance industry who are and aren't licensed, and I love watching them all but how do I know. I
guess as a general consumer where the line is. And maybe if Vince is talking about this, I can trust him on all of these things. But if you cross this line, I probably should be a bit wary it.
Don't take beauty tips from me.
Okay, all right, I was about to ask, but we'll just stick to finance.
And I think that's you've got to start with. Is this entertainment or am I actually trying to learn something here? And if you treated as pure entertainment and you're not going to rely on financial but go anywhere you want, go for the fun. One of my favorite podcasts American podcasts, you know, Joe Salcy High from Stacking Benjamins.
He met him at FINCLN.
I'm going to be at a conference with him in Balley in September.
Fancy excuse me. I have not been invited to that one.
Weird. We'll talk about this after.
And so his motto is, you're not going to learn anything. If you learn something on my podcast, you west your time. It's a bit of a joke. A bit of a joke, takee but and he is actually an ex financializer.
He knows what he's talking and he does know what he's.
Talking about, but it's such fun. Dave Ramsey. As I said before, he just sounds great. I could just listen to that voice all, would you.
It's like nails.
I've currently got days jumping down my throat because they commented on one of his TikTok videos and I shouldn't have done that.
I should not have done that because they're now coming for me.
But if you want, if you're actually looking for advice that you want to apply this to your your life, how do I know that this person is a qualified and b doesn't have an ulterior motive? So looking how they make money is a really good start. So if you're creators making their money by links to buy what they're wearing, that's pretty cool. But if they're making money by putting you into some crypto scheme, which we saw fall apart in the US recently, that's a reflex. So
looking at what their model is. You know, if it's just a platform to host ads, sense ads or YouTube ads, that's probably pretty harmless and all their interest really then is eyeballs. But if they're taking money from investment and other products based on how much of it you buy, that should be not necessarily a dead stop, but it should raise questions in your mind and go, well, what I'm hearing genuinely in my interests and does it actually
apply to me? And the challenge with financial content is how do I make it short, snappy, click worthy, and yet get across the nuance in that the right answer for you is not the right answer for you, even though mathematically that statement could be true. Everyone agrees that you've got to save some of your lifetime income to pay for retirement. How much, Well, many commentators will go fifteen percent is the answer, But is that the right answer for you? Do you want to live better in
retirement than you want to live during your life. That's a personal trade off, and I don't think anyone can say for everyone the answer is fifteen percent. But how do I get that nuance even to thirty seconds? Really hard? So that's I think the challenge we all face is content cre is making it simple, memorable, actionable, insightful and also nuanced. If the person doesn't have the skills to understand those nuances, it's really hard to deliver all of that.
I agree, and I find it I guess looping back to the conversation we're having. At the start, we mentioned that last year we went to FINCN, which is, I guess, the world's biggest finance Content Creators and mediaet where.
Money and media meta.
That is correct.
But we went to this conference last year. It was my first year, it was not your first radio and my mind was blown.
I already knew that there were very.
Large differences between the way we could create content in Australia versus the way that we could create content in America, right, and in America, the responsibility of finding the right advice is actually on the consumer, whereas in Australia the responsibility is on person creating that content to look after their
community and look after their consumer. And I found it so interesting just the way that played out because I've known that, I've known that my entire career, but seeing that play out on stage, seeing that play out when people are having conversations about the podcast content they write, talking to them about you know, how they make revenue,
it was mind blowing. But how do we know that content creators have the consumer in mind when we are, you know, consuming their content because you don't know what you don't know, Like we talk to that she's on the money community all the time, like you come to me because I know what I'm talking about. Like when it comes to finance, I'm wildly passionate about it, but I'm also legitimate in the space, like I've worked in it for years, Like I owned my own practice, I
had financial advice clients. So I'm not fluffing around when I'm saying, oh, this is how you budget. I've budgeted for hundreds of people. So I think it's how do we know that the consumer is being taken into consideration license or not, or maybe if it's a bit more driven by the bottom line.
Yeah, that's a real challenge, and I think we see this a lot in the what I call hustle porn, where a lot of hustle culture. Hustle culture that you know, so much of finance content is all about.
Waking up for five am and having your bullet.
Coffee and getting having your side.
Hustle just does it all the time, much of.
Which is really driven by well, if I can make an affiliate link for getting you to sign up for Uber, of course I'm going to suggests that you should do it. So following the money is really important because everyone's got to make a living, and so transparency is important. I don't think anyone expects that the content is entirely free.
You're paying with something like you're paying with something, whether you're handing over money, or you're handing over your view, or you're handing over your email address. There's usually some type of value exchange for content creators because, honestly, to create Sheese on the money adored it was a passion project didn't exist so that I could create income. But to make it sustainable, I had to find a way to create income because just doesn't work for free.
And it's exped you do not.
She knows her worth.
By the time you buy equipment, you pay for it an editor. There's a whole bunch of costs involved in producers. So no they expects it to be free. But a question is identifying what the payment you're making. Is Is it your view so that there's ads roll before it or during it? Is it because when you click on
this link, they get a share of it. Your beauty products in particular and fashion are really good for that because of really healthy affiliate margins in lots of videos where you go click on this link to buy what I'm wearing in this video really profitable. You can't quite do that in finance.
And it's not as transparent in finance right. And this is something that has really, I guess grinded my gears historically because we do in the Shees on the Money community. You guys know that there are always discount codes or sign up codes, but in our community, those sign up codes aren't linked to us making a pay per click like those sign up codes. Let's use our Chaz's code for example, or the upcode that I think still exists just so, both of those.
Are very popular in our community.
Both of those give the consumer a nominal money amount that you know, for chais's if you use the code SotM, you get ten bucks in your account. We'll sign up for a lot of finance content creators historically, because you know, when there was the influencer uproar, I feel like that came to a grinding holt because it wasn't transparent for a lot of finance content creators. That link actually pays them as well. It has never paid She's on the money,
and it will never pay She's on the money. All we do is except straight advertising revenue, like if you would like to sponsor our podcast, it's X amount, full stop.
End of story. If you make a million dollars from clicks.
Which imagine if my clients were making a million dollars from clicks, I'd be charging a whole lot more, I promise, but they could make a million dollar or they could make four dollars, but I'm not promising conversion, whereas if I am motivated by the fact that I'll learn an additional five dollars for every single click that happens. That's where from my perspective, especially around financial services products, things
get murky. Things become maybe a little bit more promoted than they should be and not well balanced in conversations because there's that motivator to go. One of these products is paying me consistently, one is not. They might be absolutely equal, but I'm going to make it look like ones better than the other, so you always go with the one that pays me. And that's where my gears get a little bit grindy, because I just don't think that's putting your consumer in the best possible position.
And that's another advantage of dealing with someone who is licensed. Because the law allowed to do this is taking what's called conflicted remuneration. So if we're getting money that would influence the content, then that's prohibited, Whereas if you're not life, you can take as much money as you want for providing a slanted view.
Un licensed or not.
You should be able to ask any in my opinion, any creator who's promoting pretty much anything, and say how are you making your money?
Yeah, transparently it.
Is, because I mean theoretically it should be disclosed in line with the law. However, it is again a new media and it is a little bit of gray, and you know, some things are enforced and some things are not. But I think if you're ever unsure about how someone is making money, you should be able to ask them and they, if they respect you and respect a community to respect their career in that space, they should tell you very.
Clearly exactly and if their license, like Queenie or I, you can head to our websites and have a look at our financial services guide. It will tell you how we get paid and often what we get paid. So I find it really transparent. I really like that because I think that you guys then know that I'm putting you in the best possible position where if I'm talking about a product, it doesn't mean I'm not going to talk about another, but I can feel like the conversation is a little bit more balanced.
Now.
I'm really aware that we've been going on and on, and I have been loving this conversation, but I feel like we should wrap it up relatively soon. So I think to wrap it up really nicely, how about we give our listeners a few tips and tricks of things that we could look out for that might be red flags in the industry, or might be things that you go, oh, maybe maybe don't do that. Because recently, Just and I have been dealing with an influx of people asking questions
about Oh my gosh. One of them recently was I got called by a financial services company and they said they can fix my super. They're going to just charge it out of Super. No FSG was sent, no advisor profile was sent, no product disclosure statement was sent. But it'll just cost you four thousand dollars out.
Of your superinnuation. Lots of red flags, lots of red flags there.
I can show you after exactly what it is, because you best believe I had them email it to me, so I could do a little cheeky deep dive.
Are ways that can be structured legally, but it's certainly not in anyone's interest. So yeah, that's a big red flag. A suggest that one solution is the answer for everybody is another big red flag is the best. And I mean some of those things you know, which which share broker are use. It's sort of a decision at the margins. The bigger difference is how much do you save? So rather than trying to save a dollar on your brokerage, if you maybe save ten dollars more every week, you'll
be way better off. So being able to understand what the decisions that matter are and where you really should be taking professional advice and if someone is good, more isn't always better.
That is true.
That is true, Quinny, what would you say is a red flag to look out for when it comes to absorbing finance content.
I think that when you're absorbing any kind of content, especially finance content, you kind of do need to take it with a grain of salt because just because one person has taken this part of a man and it's right for you, like Vince has said, and yeah, I just think it's really important to just try and look at what's right for your personal situation and if you need help with that always you know their financial advisors Lovely Vince has a great business and it's also very
affordable if you are looking for that kind of advice. So that's a good place that you can, you know, have a look at lots of resources.
It's not I was about to like the next question will be like we've dropped it a few times. What the heck is money, Sirpard, But I'm not asking you that yet because I want to know.
What Jess is. Red flag is Jess.
I feel like you see a lot of red flags because you manage my inbox just.
To see you in there.
I feel like anything that is promising you the world, like the saying if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Like I know that we've all grown up with our parents saying that to us, but I feel like, particularly in the.
Finance space, it really rings true. Like if someone is saying.
To you, I can fix your super and make you a millionaire and all it's going to cost you is four thousand dollar. But I'm not going to send you a document like red flag.
Red Flag, Red Flag, crazy is multiple.
If someone on Twitter is saying, oh my god, everybody this, you want to get on this stock It's incredible, this with the moon. Yeah to the like, get on it. It's going to go quick like you got to get in now, like la la. And I think that's probably my other. So I'm gonna share two red flag.
I was going to do that to.
Anyone who puts a pressure or a sense of urgency.
Okay, that was my second red flag, but.
That's fine, I can share it.
I think you know, anyone who's trying to get you to make a quick choice, I would be questioning that because anything, particularly finance, should be a considered choice from you as a consumer. I think it has power to make such a big impact on your life that you should be weighing your pros and your cons You should be doing your own research. Even anything that we talk about, we always say, make sure it's the right fit for you.
Like in my opinion, all Wei or Queenie or Vince or any other creator can do is showcase something to you and say here the pros, here are the colons, or here are the things that you might want to consider, and then you, as an individual, should be going away and then going do these pros and cons and things that I'm considering suit my specific needs because there are billions of people on this planet and we all have different needs and we all have different things, and a
platform that's perfect for me might suck for VD because she's way more advanced than me.
But it might be true, you know, but there are all these.
Different things to consider. There's never going to be one thing, and we would never say that there's one thing that's
perfect for everybody. And I think if someone's trying to convince you that that's the case, or if they're trying to get you to make a decision really quickly because the opportunity is just going to be gone, that is a red fla and one that I would be going, I just need a minute, because they're trying to psych you out and put pressure on you so that you sign up or commit to something that you then can't take back.
Yeah, it's scary, it's scary, but it's also just it's not true. So I guess that's what I used to say to clients, like, there's abs lutely no pressure here. Any good financial services person would never want you to feel pressured. They actually want you to feel completely educated and one hundred percent on board with the plan before
you sign on the dotted line. And if you are not committed to it, well we need to have a conversation about why and when and where and Vince, why aren't you feeling competent?
Like what haven't I taught you yet?
Because ultimately, a good financial services professional is putting you in a better position, and they don't mind if it's now or next week, and it's you know, I've spoken about inheritance on the podcast, and my number one tip for you know, coming into a really large sum of money is don't do anything, because every single person when you come into a large sum of money, has an opinion.
And your uncle Greg might have worked in car dealerships for his entire life, but that doesn't mean he knows what you should be doing with the.
Money you got from your grandma.
So I think it's really important to one look for professional advice, but two, you're right, Jess, no sense of urgency, but there's always going to be another opportunity, and if there's not, that was not the opportunity for you. I genuinely believe that what is meant for you is never going to miss you, and what misses you was never meant for you. But then on the other side of that, I guess my other red flag is really who is creating the content. Doesn't mean it's a red flag, it's
just something to take into consideration. Let's use Queenie for example. She's relatively independent. I don't know how that works when I talk about independent license, but we're not using the independent word. But Queen's not owned by a product. Queenee doesn't work for a bank, Queenee doesn't work for an investing platform. She's just an individual who generates her revenue from working with a variety of different brands and different
sponsorship deals on different platforms. And that to me goes all right, Well, she's got lots of balance there. Whereas if that information is coming from one direction, like Queene had partnered for an entire product on an entire platform, like her whole YouTube, for example, was partnered with XYZ Bank, That's where I'd go, Oh, like, that information might be really only coming from one direction or that one bank. Because Queen's entire platform is owned by that bank or
that YouTube. It doesn't mean that they don't stand alone in their other circumstances. But that YouTube channel that is
completely sponsored, which is not. It's just an example that to me would be a bit of a red flag to make sure that you're wary of balance when it comes to those conversations, because you could be doing a whole series, Queeny, like ten whole videos and you go, wow, ten videos, But if all ten videos are sponsored by exactly the same bank, that's where you've kind of got to go, Oh, is that like, is it well rounded information or is it product pushing because some you know,
let's say some banks might do a really good educational series and they just want to put some money behind Queen need to get it done?
Fantastic.
Didn't you get your Dolomites moneyboxes? Yeah?
But do you know Dolomites had absolutely no impact on the financial literacies of Australian children.
Wild We're not surprised though.
So I think it's it's interesting to look at the way content is created because it could then be underlying sponsorship to get more sign ups, right, So I think it's just about understanding where it's coming from and what's going on. And I guess that's why she's on the money, will never have a one She's on the money sponsor.
It's not that she's on the money partner. We might have a partner for an event, or we might have a partner for a podcast, or a partner for this, but we'd never take on someone who goes, you know what, we want to buy out everything on She's on the money, because I just don't think that's in the best interest of our community. No matter how much money was behind.
It, you're not going to have the crypto season.
I don't want to end up in jail because I can't wear my shoes there.
Before we head off, shall we give Vince little minute because obviously you're licensing these two fabulous people.
Can you tell people a little bit about.
Money to share a few times? Why should we trust Vin Scully and money Shurpa?
Do you see my hair?
Here's fabulous hair.
That's say, great hair.
Yeah, but it's a very full head of hair.
And you have the little quiff going. I love it.
Fancy boy hair.
All natural, no product, no color. The answer you question is our own Love Shopper, which is Australia's most affordable financial advice service. I had been in financial services for thirty five years.
And what was that?
Are we taking advice right now on the She's on the Money podcast from a medio commutle Age white Man?
Is that what we're doing.
No, we're taking advice from a fantastic milion.
I'm not sure sixty qualifies as middle aged anymore? Does it middle aged to take year old run with their And having done that, I'd spend a lot of time helping a lot of very wealthy people manage their money and thought, you know, there's got to be a way we can make this available to everybody, and so we created business to deliver advice for five hundred and forty seven dollars a year.
That's a money win.
That's the money we use the.
Money win, and we do it all online. We use technology to keep the costs down, and we focus on the needs of younger people, which generally means people who are in the workforce. They're going through life's three big changes, which I call coupling, nesting, and parenting, so they're getting used to dealing with money is a couple. They're dealing with all the costs and budget pressures of buying a
home and raising kids. And we're here to help. I like that birdlike, yeah, well you're about to nest.
Hopefully listen to the property Playbook to hear how that goes some plug.
For me, just as like I'm on that one more so go over to that one so you.
Can find us a life sure of it dot com that are you.
Well, we'll obviously put all of your information in the show notes because I think it's it's a really good platform, and that honestly was not a very good sale of it, because I just feel like it does exactly what it says on the box, right, and that that's what a community like She's on the money and a community like yours Queenie is looking for. We want financial advice, but
we also want it to be affordable. And it goes back to that, you know conversation we were having with one of our members earlier today literally about.
How somebody called her on the phone and said.
Hey, we're going to sort out your super and she's like, oh my gosh, I've been meaning to do that.
I've been putting it off.
That's so wild, and they were like, don't worry, like we've got it. You know, how much do you have in super? What's you remember now, but they just ask these questions that She was so excited to have this conversation because it was something she'd been putting off. And then they said, look, we can do it through your super don't worry. It doesn't have to come out of your back pocket now. And she said, oh, that's brilliant,
that's so great. And they messaged us before they signed and said, hey, you just like something's off about this, like they seem legit. I looked them up. They do have a license. But the pressure got to her. She said, look, they just really pressuring me to get back this signed document and I just you said that I should be worried about that, and I said, yeah, you absolutely should be, and I have a look at it. Four thousand dollars will be taken out of her superranuation to set it up,
and it's only super advice. It's not holistic advice. It doesn't take into account any of her other circumstances. It was purely superranuation. When I could go to a platform like life Shurpa, pay a very nominal fee for basically full service financial advice that is going to put me in the best possible position, and it's not going to put me out. It's actually going to put me ahead.
And I think that it's one of those things that having worked in the industry and knowing what good advice looks like and what not so good advice looks like, you just.
Go, how did you do it? Vince?
Like, that's wild to think that I could go get my super organized, you know, maybe get my insurances done at the same time, maybe organize my investing plan and have it worked exactly. It's a full service offering that you know, some people don't want a full service offering, and that's cool. You can work out what you need. And it's not saying that this is the absolute product. You need to talk to Vince or you're going to die.
But it's more well, if that works for you, then that makes sense, and it's coming from a place that we trust. But it's also coming from a place where you're like, look, I've made a lot of rich people richer. I know how to do that. I've done this for years thirty five to remind you. But it's one of those things that I think a lot of people are just looking for. I guess that answer, how do I get that advice? How do I get connected and what
do I do? So we'll put all your information in the show notes and make sure that you know if you're interested in.
Hanging out with Vince a bit more on the internet, you can.
We've all given ourselves a not so subtle plug that someone's sitting here very humbly that hasn't taken that chance yet. Queen, where can people find you if they want to keep up with your stuff as well?
I post content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, You can find me in all the platforms, and yeah, invest with Queen.
In obviously put your information in the show notes as well. But Queene's content is so fun, like I don't know how you do it, and pump out so much that is every day, every single day, Like we cannot keep up with even posting one Instagram story a day, let alone how much content you create.
So I am very impressed.
Oh, thank you appreciate it.
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
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