Ceci Helps A Student Be Generous Without Going Broke

Challenge: Ceci is preparing for a guest financial presentation to students where her #1 goal is to get students to book a financial counseling appointment with her.

Result: Even though the QR code malfunctioned, Ceci got 8 appointment sign-ups in that class, and has already completed the first several. She sent a quick followup to the others, saying “First session went great, and the student remarked how helpful this was. Can’t wait to see you!”

To achieve this result, we created two specific pieces of content, or assets:

  1. An opening story to help them feel comfortable with her and signing up a smart decision.
  2. A closing exercise to make signing up incredibly convenient.

Ceci’s Opening Story (to create comfort and trust):

I’m Ceci, I’m the Financial Literacy Specialist here at __________. I want to tell you about a student I was working with. Let’s call him Mike. Mike came into my office because somehow his $700 had turned into $0. He was worried about his finances. 

I said, “No problem, let’s dive in. Where did that $700 go?”

He laughs, a bit embarrassed, and said, “I’m not sure. My mom always says ‘spend it while you have it.”

And I say, “That’s funny, I like that. Can you think of anything specific you spent the $700 on?”

He goes, “I like to spend money on other people. I took everyone in my family to dinner. And I bought my sister art supplies at Target for her birthday.”

I said, “Mike, that’s awesome. Wow, you’re a generous person! I’m so glad you’re generous. It also sounds like in this case it had a downside. Would it be okay for us to talk about ways we can help out your generous side so it doesn’t add stress to your life?” And that’s what we did!

Working with Mike reminded me that sometimes we make unconscious decisions with money that support our values but don’t also support us. I want to help you tap into your values without adding stress to your life. And believe it or not, personal finance is one of the best ways to live your values.

(The delivery time for this story is under 2 minutes, and launches into her talk by creating a relaxed and engaged feeling in the room. From there, she can dive into teaching her audience….

“Ok, so today I want to share with you 3 misconceptions people have about financial literacy.

 But first, what is something important to you that you want to make room for in your life?

 (Now she gives her presentation 2 or 3 points.)


Ceci’s Closing exercise (to get appointments booked):

End your talk 2 or 3 minutes before time is up, and say, “I have a final thought for you, but before I share that, I want to take out your phones. Got em? Ok, take a photo of this QR code. Got it? Ok, now you’ll see that you’re at our appointment booking page. If you don’t want an appointment, no problem at all. But if at any point today you thought, “Yeah, this would be helpful for me” then all you have to do is pick a time. I’m making it really easy because I want this to be easy for you!”

 Now pause and smile and wait for at least one minute, no talking unless you’re answering a question, so they can focus and do it.

Then say, “Ok, last thing I want to share with you is a great question I saw recently: ‘Are you living the kind of story you would want to read?’ Personal finance is definitely a way to help you live a great story with your life, and if I can help you in any way to have less stress and more happiness around money, I’m here to help!