The Money Script

Between Two Advisors - A Conversation with Sheri Fitts

• Yohance Harrison • Season 5 • Episode 21

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In this episode of The Money Script Podcast, host Yohance Harrison welcomes Sherri Fitts, a pioneer in behavioral finance and financial services marketing, to explore the fascinating psychology behind our financial decisions. Together, they discuss the impact of financial stress, anchoring biases, and inertia on our money habits. Sherri shares practical tips to overcome these challenges, along with stories from her journey as the first woman podcast host in financial services. Learn how to break free from decision paralysis, align your financial behaviors with your goals, and take actionable steps toward financial clarity. Tune in for thought-provoking insights and tools to enhance your financial literacy!

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Sherri Fitts 0:00

I also somehow came across a report that was out of someplace,

Sherri Fitts 0:09

I think Idaho. I'm not sure, but it was a research paper done at a university around the issues associated with financial stress and how they cause personal issues, not just financial issues. And I thought that was really interesting. Those two things came together for me. And ever since then, I've just been very curious about how do we make decisions about money and frankly, how do we make decisions about anything?

Seth Harrison 0:47

You are tuned in to the Money Script podcast. Today, we will share strategies to help you grow your financial literacy and improve your money Script. I'll be back with some important announcements. Until then, enjoy the show.

Yohance Harrison 1:05

Welcome to the Money Script podcast. It's your host, Johans Harrison. So happy to be with each and every one of you today. I am joined today by Sherry Fitts. Sherry and I met in Austin. I think it was in Austin. We were both at a mutual conference, soaking in, taking in all of the great energy from the room and learning from everyone there. We struck up a conversation and I said, would you like to be on my podcast? And she said, of course. And here she is. Sharon, how are you today?

Sherri Fitts 1:33

I am swell. I'm swell. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we're in Portland, Oregon, coming to you live from Portland, Oregon. And I, you know, I know that you're going to be shocked, but it's raining today, so.

Yohance Harrison 1:45

It's raining. Well, you know what? You're doing better than our folks out in Florida. I was supposed to have. I was supposed to have the Dr. Crosby on our show today, but apparently he is in the hurricane's way. So I guess I was gonna record two and one. I had a two for today. It was going to be a behavioral finance day. Well, speaking of behavioral finance, Sherry and I, we are going to be talking and discussing behavioral finance and just a lot of the thoughts and the emotions that are centered around financial decision making. What Sherry doesn't know is that I'm going to bring her some real situations so I can pick her brain.

Yohance Harrison 2:27

And just so we can have the general conversation, because as most of you know, if this is your. Or some of you maybe don't, this is your first time tuning in again. I'm Johan Sarris and I'm a financial advisor with Money Script Wealth Management. As a financial advisor, my role is through giving advice is to help individuals. To help individuals bring clarity and bring alignment with their goals, their values, and their behaviors, specifically the financial behaviors, because we know money affects a lot of the things that we do. So I want to be there as a resource to help people make better financial decisions. And the purpose for this podcast is to get you thinking about your money. It's not so that. Just so you can come work with me, because I cannot work with all of you. There's too many of you. There's thousands upon thousands of you. But I know that. That I can give you a few tools that maybe you can go out and find someone that fits with your personality and can help you start making better financial decisions. So with that, let's talk about Sheri being the first woman

Yohance Harrison 3:29

podcast in the financial services industry. Yeah, but tell us the year, Sheri, while we all fall out. What was the year?

Sherri Fitts 3:37

I know it was 2015.

Yohance Harrison 3:40

Y'all thought she was gonna say 19 something. No, you thought she was gonna say 2005. No, she said 2015. That was just. That was eight years ago. Nine.

Sherri Fitts 3:50

Yeah. Yeah. I talked to a woman on my podcast who was in sales and financial services, and in 1998. 1998, the sales division was questioning whether a woman could be a salesperson in that specific organization. 1998.

Yohance Harrison 4:13

Okay.

Sherri Fitts 4:14

Okay. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 4:16

1998.

Sherri Fitts 4:18

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 4:20

Yeah. You think that that's like, you know. Yeah, that's like the first Blade Runner was even before that. Right, right.

Yohance Harrison 4:28

I think I was like, the first bead, you know, or one of those. Yeah. Wow. Well, look how far we have come, right? At least that. Well, we're working on it. How far we're going. Look. Look at where we're going. Let's not look at where we are. Let's look at where we're going.

Sherri Fitts 4:32

Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 4:47

Yeah, so.

Yohance Harrison 4:48

So let's. Let's. Let's just. And, well, on that same note, behavioral finance is finally making it into the. The everyday nomenclature of financial planning. When our emotions have been tied to our money since money existed, and we're just now kind of figuring that out. Like, oh, wait, maybe. Maybe I'm predisposed to these behaviors. Maybe I'm acting on biases. Maybe I'm acting on previous money scripts that don't even really define me anymore. Yeah. Maybe I'm human. Maybe. You know, I tease my clients and anyone that I'm talking to a lot. I tease them by saying, you know, you're. You're a really smart individual. Smart enough to know that doing mental math with your finances, it doesn't make sense. Like, you are smart enough to know that you should not be trying to balance your checkbook in your head. You should not be trying to figure out. No, no. That it. That it actually it doesn't, actually. That might work better. Okay. Than what we try to do. It's. It's. We have technology, we have tools, we need to use them, and we also have resources that we need to dig into. So can you just share with us a little bit about your journey into behavior finance and what it means to you?

Sherri Fitts 5:54

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 6:08

Well, I will tell you that. So I started in the financial services industry as a graphic designer, creating education materials for 401k plans. So hold onto your seat. That was 1994. Okay, so in.

Yohance Harrison 6:25

Pause, pause. The 401k had already been around for 20 years. Okay, go ahead.

Sherri Fitts 6:30

Right. Since 1974. Right, exactly. Ted Benna. Anyway, so it took a while, and. And anyway, 1998, I ended up being the de facto head of that department. And I was just really fascinated by how people make financial decisions because, frankly, selfishly, I wanted to kind of figure out my, you know, my journey with finances. Of course, I was a single mom, and so I came across crazy. We did not have a TV when my son was growing up. He managed to survive, and he knows all the cultural references, so he's fine. But we would listen to National Public Radio, npr. Npr. And NPR had a show on called Marketplace Money. You may have heard of it. It's on Saturdays in my local area. It's a great show. It's frankly. And Marketplace Money had these. This geek on who was talking about this research paper that they did, Shlomo Bernardi and Richard Thaler, now Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler. So they were on Marketplace Money, and they were talking about this research study that they did about what's broken with 401k plans and what they were doing to fix it. Now, this was like, in 2000. I get it mixed up. I think it was 2003

Sherri Fitts 7:54

that they wrote that paper. 2003 is when they wrote the paper that really started my journey in behavioral economics. And I've been speaking about it ever since because I'm like, why don't we tell people about this? Why is it something that's just kind of kept in, like, the universities it took. To your point, here we are 2025, and. And we're working as an industry to really thoroughly understand the ideas behind behavioral economics and behavioral finance. But it was fascinating for me. I was. I was like, stopped in my tracks. In 2003, I called up National Public Radio and I said, I would like a transcript of that show. And then I had to fax facts, facts. I don't know if you guys know what a Fax is. But I had to. It was this thing where you fax in your credit card and then they faxed me back the transcript. It was before PODC existed.

Yohance Harrison 8:50

Facsillamine, to be exact.

Sherri Fitts 8:52

Yeah, exactly. So that's when I started. I was really curious about it. I also somehow came across a report that was out of someplace.

Sherri Fitts 9:06

I think Idaho, I'm not sure, but it was a research paper done at a university around the issues associated with financial stress and how they cause personal issues, not just financial issues. And I thought that was really interesting. Those two things came together for me. And ever since then, I've just been very curious about how do we make decisions about money and frankly, how do we make decisions about anything. Right. So that's how I kind of got into this behavioral economics geek kind of place. Yeah. And, you know, the emotions of decision making, beautiful journey.

Yohance Harrison 9:52

And I'm sure if your journey was anything like mine, being that you are also human, it was very eye opening as some of those. Those concepts were just hitting you directly in the heart. And you're like, oh, my goodness, I'm biased. Oh, my goodness. I am emotionally tied to something that I probably should not be. And I'm sure it was. It was a journey of relearning yourself, relearning your own connection to your emotions and the memories you like to associate with certain emotions that then drive your decision making. Because let's. Let's face it, we are habitual creatures. We want habits so that we don't have to think. Our brain is trying to conserve as much energy as possible. Our brains take up so much energy. We are trying. Yes. We are seeking cognitive.

Sherri Fitts 10:54

Cognitive ease. I love that word.

Yohance Harrison 10:57

Oh, my God. Okay. Cognitive ease. I'm gonna say that. Yeah, I need a break. I was like, I need a cognitive ease.

Sherri Fitts 11:06

Well, so that's what our brain is trying to do. So it's essentially what you're saying. Our brain

Sherri Fitts 11:14

is built to conserve calories,

Sherri Fitts 11:19

and our prefrontal cortex uses the. The, you know, there's the thinking part of our brain, the feeling part of our brain, and the react. This part of our brain kind of you break, you know, But. But. So the prefrontal cortex consumes a ton of energy. Right. And so what we. Yeah, we. We have to have shortcuts, and we look for places where there are shortcuts, good or good or bad.

Yohance Harrison 11:52

So to your point, we look for familiarity. Familiarity and the shortcut. Because we also want to do what's familiar. We don't want to do anything New. Okay.

Sherri Fitts 11:57

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 12:02

Yeah, Yep, yep. Totally. Indeed. The other one, that, for me, really, like, I'll tell you that I'm still working on, you know.

Yohance Harrison 12:13

Oh, you're. Oh, you're here.

Sherri Fitts 12:15

Yeah, yeah. Human. And I'm still trying to crack that code of my relationship with money. You know, I teach what I need to learn. Right. But. But I will tell you that the one thing that I became very aware of is how powerful inertia is.

Sherri Fitts 12:34

That

Sherri Fitts 12:36

familiarity, what we have been doing,

Sherri Fitts 12:42

it is easier for us to continue doing. Hence the subscription model that everybody loves so much these days. Right. Where you go. Yeah, sure. I'll sign up for $12 a month and I use it for one week and then don't use it, but I keep paying for it because it's because inertia, that inertia of, you know, Amazon's doing subscriptions, that inertia

Sherri Fitts 13:06

is, you know, it can work for us and against us. So. Yeah, that's a big one that I started to notice a lot in my life.

Yohance Harrison 13:16

Yeah. As I said earlier, I want to pick your brain on something just so we can have a conversation, because I. I had a. What some would refer to as a come to Jesus moment with the client.

Sherri Fitts 13:31

Okay, good.

Yohance Harrison 13:33

In helping them try to break through inertia. Yeah. And it's not just that client in particular. This is something that happens often with clients. And so I want to bring this up because I know it's. It's. It will continue to be an issue, but have you ever met anyone that anchored themselves in the value of their home? And when the home values change, they think they're entitled to the value that it once was versus understanding that the value is whatever someone's willing to pay you for it.

Sherri Fitts 13:38

So.

Sherri Fitts 14:13

Yeah, yeah.

Yohance Harrison 14:14

You know, it's. And it's kind of contradictory to the thought of, oh, if I believe it, it will come. Or if I. If I believe my house is worth 500,000, it will be worth 500,000. Okay, true. But there's also a time aspect here. I don't. According to the offers you're receiving, it's not worth 500,000.

Sherri Fitts 14:33

Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 14:34

Offers, it's worth 475. And so what I've seen, I've seen that create inertia where clients won't do something they know they need to do because they're attacked. And this, it's not actually. It's not just homes. It. It happens. Box as well. You know, a stock will go to a certain price or their 401k will go to I, I remember working with a client that where they, this was in 2007. Ish. 2007.

Sherri Fitts 14:48

Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 15:05

And their portfolio had reached a million dollars. And they had always told themselves, okay, when my portfolio reaches a million dollars, I'm going to leave this job and I'm going to go do what I really love.

Sherri Fitts 15:09

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 15:16

Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 15:18

So their portfolio touched this million dollar price point. But then subsequently in 2008, due to the inertia, they didn't get up and go, 2008, 2009, all of a sudden the portfolio value was back down to 800. And now at that point they felt they weren't worth that dream that they had. And the making the decision was tied to the million. It was like, wait, you're not the $1 million. $1 million is a product of what you were. It's an extension of you. It isn't you. But again, now they were tied to that. Oh well, I can't do it till I get back to a million. It's like so, so can you share with me some of your insights on, on, on anchoring? Because that's really what I'm, what I'm asking about is when people anchor themselves, what are some ideas or some strategies to help them kind of think through this? Because as soon as we finish recording, I'm going to send this to someone.

Sherri Fitts 16:14

Well, let's talk about anchoring first. Right, let's talk about this idea of anchoring. So in fact, I use it quite a bit in my consulting business where I work to anchor somebody. And so what I do is I do a kind of like a, you know, a small, medium and large price. Right. So I do it a small price like the thing that they just ask for. Boom, small price. The medium price maybe is twice as much, but then I give them twice as much. Cool stuff. And then the third price is frankly the holy shirtsky price where it is like four times as much, but it has all this stuff in there. And what I am doing is anchoring in a way. I am using this idea to anchor them to like the holy shirtsky price is really high and really expensive. And so the low price doesn't look so bad because it's not sitting up against, standing by itself. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, so they, they, they do this, you know.

Yohance Harrison 17:25

Oh, they do this with everything. They do this with, with the, the, the, the, the consumer industry has been doing it for years with making things 7.99. They anchor you to the seven. Versus the eight and they put them and they. So they're in there. Oh, it's. It's 7.99. It's not. It's 99. It's not a hundred. They love doing it, especially when it's. When it's adding a column, a. What do you call it? A numbers column. So it's $999. Oh, it's below a thousand, really?

Sherri Fitts 17:39

Right.

Sherri Fitts 17:57

Right. Huh. Yes, I know. I do that with my conference. Right. The tickets are 9.97. Somebody's like, what's the reason for the 997? I said, because it's not a thousand. Exactly that. Right. People like, it's anchored to the lower amount. So. So. So you. You have a client who. Tell me, like, I gotta know a little bit. Like, tell me, like, so. So specifically, they're anchored to the value of their house.

Yohance Harrison 18:07

It's not that.

Yohance Harrison 18:23

They're anchored. They are in a position where they need to sell their home.

Sherri Fitts 18:28

Ah, okay.

Yohance Harrison 18:29

And the offers are not coming in as high as they want them to be.

Sherri Fitts 18:34

Okay.

Yohance Harrison 18:36

But for every month that they hold onto this home, they're paying two mortgages.

Sherri Fitts 18:42

Oh, golly. Oh, ouchy. Okay. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 18:45

And I'm trying. I was trying to get this client to understand that you're caught over time. You're eating into that profit that you talk. Your house should have been sold four months ago, but now you've already paid, you know, Four months of $5,000. That's $20,000. Or. Excuse me. Four months of $4,000, that's $16,000. That's gone out of your pocket to go to the mortgage. And not all of it is reducing the value of the mortgage. A very small percentage of it is. Most of it's going to taxes. Another big portion is going to insurance. Another big portion is going to interest. But yet you've anchored yourself to this $500,000 price point. It's. I'm sorry, honey. Your house isn't worth 500,000. Why are you so attached to 500,000?

Sherri Fitts 19:01

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 19:18

Yeah, totally.

Sherri Fitts 19:32

Yeah, maybe they, you know, maybe they may. Well, perhaps they've got some credit card debt that's tied up.

Yohance Harrison 19:39

Oh, no, absolutely no. There's. There's a spread that they're looking for, but no, there's profit there too. There's profit.

Sherri Fitts 19:48

Awesome. So I'll tell you that I've actually been in this situation. I wasn't the one kind of navigating it. My husband was. And so he was the one navigating. We had two mortgages at the time, and actually he ended up losing 30 pounds because the dude was freaking out about it. Right. And this was in 2008,

Sherri Fitts 20:10

right? Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 20:12

I just lost £2 thinking about that.

Sherri Fitts 20:14

I know, right. So. So I think we were in a little bit of a different position because we did get an offer, like, hallelujah. Right. And it was completely. We really had no idea, you know, the value of our house, although we saw it as, you know, something that is. Was kind of coming down. So we had the. We certainly had the focus of selling it as fast as possible to maintain the, you know, maintain the cost of the house as high as possible. So I think the thing that. What I heard you say is that the market is clearly communicating to this individual that their house has a particular price range that they. That they've received offers. And I think, you know, the biggest thing that I would probably say to this individual is that you have a realtor, you have a financial advisor, you have people who do these things for a living. And

Sherri Fitts 21:21

you know what. What you're essentially doing is arguing with the surgeon on where they should cut.

Sherri Fitts 21:31

Right. That's what they're doing. Right. Hang on, doctor. No, no, you're not going to cut there. I'll tell you where to cut. So that's the challenging part, is having them kind of trust

Sherri Fitts 21:48

the, you know, the expertise of the individuals that they've called in for guidance. So I think, you know, that would be kind of the first thing that I would try to, like, rattle their page a little bit, is that, first off, your realtor is kind of telling you these things. Second off, your financial advisor is telling you these things. Help me understand

Sherri Fitts 22:18

where there's a lack of trust in our expertise,

Sherri Fitts 22:24

I might. That might be the avenue that I might go down, because obviously this individual is professional. You know, if they've got another house that they can afford this kind of house. Right. The only other thing that I would try to do is. And you've probably done this. Is run the numbers for them. You've done the whole cost benefit analysis thing. So,

Yohance Harrison 22:42

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Sherri Fitts 22:48

you know, that would be probably the other thing that.

Yohance Harrison 22:51

Yeah. At the end of the day, we would. What she's. At the end of the day, we were talking about somewhere between $9,000 and $15,000.

Sherri Fitts 23:03

Got you.

Yohance Harrison 23:04

If she got the price she wanted versus the price being offered.

Sherri Fitts 23:10

And every month that she continues to.

Yohance Harrison 23:13

Pay on that $4,000.

Sherri Fitts 23:15

Right. On that second mortgage is a month she's eating away at the nine grand.

Yohance Harrison 23:21

But in her mind, if I get the number I want or better It'll all work out. And I just. And I'm saying, look, there is. That is the certainty of uncertainty right there.

Yohance Harrison 23:34

The story I like to tell is, have you ever caught a bird? One that flies? Sherry, have you ever caught a bird?

Sherri Fitts 23:42

No, my dog has, though it was very fast.

Yohance Harrison 23:47

Siri. Thought I said Siri. I said Siri.

Sherri Fitts 23:49

Siri does that all the time. My Siri is also saying hello now. Oh, gosh. See?

Yohance Harrison 23:56

So, yeah. You've never caught a bird?

Sherri Fitts 23:59

No, my dog has, but not.

Yohance Harrison 24:00

Okay. My dog hasn't caught a bird either. My dog previously did, but this dog, no, she's a little too lazy for that. But anyways, I just. She's over there in the corner being lazy. If you manage to catch a bird in your hand.

Sherri Fitts 24:15

Okay.

Yohance Harrison 24:18

But then to your left. No. You saw there were two in the bush. Are you going to sacrifice the bird in hand to try to catch the two in the bush? Because I don't know about you. Catching a bird is hard. So that's the message I try to relay to individuals. The price you have today is your bird in hand.

Sherri Fitts 24:23

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 24:40

Sunk cost. Isn't that what it is? You know more about that than me, right?

Yohance Harrison 24:41

Exactly.

Yohance Harrison 24:45

Yes. You can go after that bush if you want, but you might end up with nothing.

Sherri Fitts 24:50

Exactly. Yeah. Now, so essentially, the other thing that's happening from a behavioral finance perspective is there's this anchoring thing, but in her mind, she's feeling loss. Right. The fear of loss is greater than the. I don't. The fear of loss is the thing that she's saying. She.

Yohance Harrison 25:13

The fear of potential loss is actually. The fear of potential loss will eat up more brain cells and energy than the actual feeling of loss itself.

Sherri Fitts 25:25

Right. It just is like, crazy.

Yohance Harrison 25:27

It's like the anticipation of death is worse than death itself. They say, right.

Sherri Fitts 25:31

You feel it two times. You feel lost two times more than gain. So what. The other thing that she's dealing with here, besides, you know, the anchoring in a price that is. Is not any longer, you know, substantiated by the market. Not feeling as if, you know, she is really trusting the advice of the experts that she's hired and paid. The. The other part that she's feeling is she's feeling this loss, Right. She's feeling this loss between the 5,000 and the 9,000.

Yohance Harrison 25:35

Exactly.

Sherri Fitts 26:10

So, you know, the only. The only thing I can say is that

Sherri Fitts 26:18

it's cool she delayed a little bit because at least from the buyer's perspective, they may be getting a lower interest rate on Their loan.

Yohance Harrison 26:30

I did mention that. She said one of the buyers that didn't work out came back. I said, oh, yeah, their interest rate went down, of course.

Sherri Fitts 26:31

Yeah, that's actually.

Sherri Fitts 26:38

Yep, yep, they're back. So maybe she's thinking that now that the interest rates have gone down, buyers might be able to offer a little bit more.

Yohance Harrison 26:45

So, interestingly enough, what I have seen that she's not the first, because, you know, having dozens upon dozens of clients, there's lots of things happening at once. I'm seeing buyers right now get better deals

Sherri Fitts 26:55

Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 27:01

because the inventory. Because inventory sat on the market longer over this later part of the summer because interest rates were so high. So it's. I'm not saying it is a buyer's market, but the buyers have had a little bit more luck because some people are like, yes, I need to get off this home. I'm glad you're interested. Yes, I'll. Whatever you got here, you can have. So. So who knows how long that lasts? So, yeah, I want to spend just a couple more minutes on one other behavioral finance concept

Yohance Harrison 27:35

that is also near and dear to my heart. And you mentioned it earlier, and that's inertia

Yohance Harrison 27:42

interest. Because we mentioned interest rates. Interest rates over the last, say, 24 months have been at the highest that they've been in over a decade, yet there's still dozens of you. And you know who you are. I'm talking to you, and I know you listen to the podcast and I'm going to talk to you later today, but there are dozens of you, and you're not alone. There's also that. That have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in bank accounts that are still paying them nothing. When there's alternatives out there that will pay. And it doesn't have to be through me. I'll even. I'll even call up my competitors because I. I personally, my clients, we work with Ultras Cash, and I just started working with another company called Flourish Cash. Oh, look. Hey, see, I. I'll do this. I know I should have worn my shirt today. Oh, my goodness. I pulled the shirt out too, and I was like, ah, I don't want to wear this one. I want to wear this one anyways. So Ultra Cash, Flourish Cash, our clients are getting 4.6% interest on their cash and FDIC insured, and it's up to a million. And with Flourish on the business accounts, I think they go up to, I don't know, 2 million. Don't quote me on that. It's a lot of FDIC insurance. And I brought you these opportunities. You see the commercials on tv, you see the billboards everywhere that say we'll pay you more for your cash. So shout out to Goldman Sachs, American Express, Ally Bank. What's the other? I don't know, there's. There's a list of them. Yet your money is sitting in bank of America, Wells Fargo Chase in the credit union and they're paying you zero point something.

Sherri Fitts 29:25

Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 29:35

They're using, they're using your.

Yohance Harrison 29:37

Absolutely using. Loaning it to me. Thank you.

Sherri Fitts 29:42

Right. To buy houses.

Sherri Fitts 29:44

They're using your money. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 29:48

Yes. I don't get the inert. What is so painful about opening a new account and transferring the money?

Sherri Fitts 29:57

Well, I think it's because, you know, the biggest thing, my biggest gripe right. With the world of financial services is that it's just so

Sherri Fitts 30:07

overwhelming to do anything. So maybe. And, and you know, the thing about it is it's that so much easier to open an account than it used to be. It's so much.

Yohance Harrison 30:17

We could have already had an alters account funded, opened and like you don't.

Sherri Fitts 30:22

Even have like a notary anymore. Right?

Yohance Harrison 30:27

Guess what? And women can open accounts without their husband signing for them.

Sherri Fitts 30:31

There's that shocking, I think 70s.

Yohance Harrison 30:34

Imagine that.

Sherri Fitts 30:36

Right. So here's what I would maybe do with those particular clients is go, how's about we just do like, what is the. So for me, when I'm thinking about overcoming this inertia thing and what, what, what I do is think about what can I do for whomever myself or the other individuals, how can I break it down into smaller things so that it's just so ridiculous that I laugh at myself and then make do the thing. So if, if even what it is is that you can say we're not going to do this whole paperwork thing today. We're not gonna. All we're gonna do is I'm gonna set up a zoom call with you and we're just gonna click on the thing and get your login and a story, right? So that this is what I do with my va because I have, you know, accounts here and accounts there and accounts there. So for my bookkeeper, they need me to download all the statements. It literally takes me maybe like five minutes to do it all, but I put it off all the time.

Yohance Harrison 31:46

Oh yeah, I do too. I get it.

Sherri Fitts 31:48

Right, I know, but so what I do is I make an appointment with. Her name's Stephanie. And she just sits. Yeah, exactly. She just sits there and I say this is you holding me accountable for downloading my stuff. And she's like, you're sure this is all you want me to do? And I said, yeah, this is all I want you to do. So what, what I might do, right, is just say, no, we're going to do a zoom thing. And, you know, we'll just. Let's just, you know, let's just do it together. I know it seems overwhelming, so I'm just going to be here by your side instead of, like, pushing it off on them. Try to, like. And then just go. All we're going to do today is you're going to log in, you're going to create, you know, a password. They're going to identify you. Done. We're done for the day. Like. Like, really? So that might be helpful.

Yohance Harrison 31:53

Hey, Stephanie.

Yohance Harrison 32:38

Well, you know, you know what's going to happen. She'll say, while we're here, why don't we just go ahead and fund it? And I'm saying, no, no, no, no, no. Let's not do

Yohance Harrison 32:47

exactly. Sherry, thank you. I'm going to try that in about 45 minutes.

Sherri Fitts 32:52

Sweet. Good. I want to hear back, so message me back. It's something called just for the people on the, you know, on the line. It's something that I like to talk about. It's called. I don't have it written down because this was. I learned about this a couple weeks ago, but something called self efficacy, which is that in the world of inertia. Right. And all of those kind of things, if I look at something that seems overwhelming to me and I try to do something as simple as possible, like crazy ridiculous, like floss one tooth, right? What it does is if all I do is every day, floss one tooth every day, right? After a while, my belief in my ability to floss my whole, you know, my whole mouth starts to increase. It's the same with. If you're thinking about, I need to go to the gym, don't go to the gym. All I want you to do is take your workout, find your workout flows. Find them, put them in a bag. That's all. Drive. Drive your ass to the gym. That's all. Don't even go in. Just figure out how you're going to do. Wake up, start to build the skill around the. Because there are actually a lot of skills in that whole thing. And then, you know, walk in the door to the gym and say, hi, I'm new here, and get over that new feeling and go, I'm not working out today because this is enough new for me. I'm going back home. But the fact of the matter is is that by breaking it down into those smaller skills, you're going to build yourself efficacy and you'll be able to do it. So that's what we're working on with that, just FYI.

Yohance Harrison 32:56

Oh, I will.

Yohance Harrison 34:18

So Elmo, the phrase for today is self efficacy.

Sherri Fitts 34:22

Self efficacy, then cognitive ease.

Yohance Harrison 34:26

You do that very well. Don't let me find the GPT before.

Sherri Fitts 34:32

That, before there was Tickle Me Elmo. I. I was an Elmo fan from way back.

Yohance Harrison 34:38

I am one that grew up on Sesame Street. I. Little known fact about me, I learned a lot of Chinese from Big Bird Goes to China. I memorized all those songs. The Wahai Knee Tai Jin all. I learned it all from Big Burger Goes. I used to love Big Bird Goes to China. I don't know why, but.

Sherri Fitts 35:01

Wow. That's awesome. Wow. Very cool.

Yohance Harrison 35:05

Yeah. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 35:08

Well, Sherry, with all of our guests on the show, we like to conclude with asking you a simple question. Would you please share with our listeners your first memory of money?

Sherri Fitts 35:26

I think the first memory I have of working to get money was I took the empty baby food jars. They were, they were used to coming glass.

Yohance Harrison 35:42

Yeah. Best baby food in a little jar. The Gerber.

Sherri Fitts 35:45

Exactly. And I took those Gerber's baby food jars and I would go around and pick rose petal leaves and then put them in the jars with water. And then I would go, I think I was four or five and I would go door to door with my little red wagon selling perfume.

Sherri Fitts 36:07

Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think I, I can't remember like the first landing, moon landing or whatever. I don't know. I mean, you know, I was born in 61. I mean I'm 62 so I can't remember exactly. But that, that's when I was first 68.

Yohance Harrison 36:24

Something. Yeah. Somewhere around there.

Sherri Fitts 36:26

Yeah, I think I remember I was.

Yohance Harrison 36:30

All that it was JFK was still alive, so it had to be 67. I don't, yeah. I don't know a lot about the moon landing but JFK was the one did the small step for man thing. So.

Sherri Fitts 36:39

Yep, yep, yep. I, I remember all the grown ups were watching some moon thing and I snuck out the door with my wagon and my rose petal.

Yohance Harrison 36:48

That's beautiful. I love it. And, and look at this. Still today, helping people entrepreneur better.

Sherri Fitts 36:50

Yeah. Yeah.

Sherri Fitts 36:55

Exactly.

Sherri Fitts 36:58

Interestingly, I wear rose petal perfume and I never put the two together until like maybe like four years ago I went that is really ironic.

Yohance Harrison 37:08

Wow. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, beautiful story. Well, Sherry, thank you so much for spending some time with us on the Money Script podcast. We got some new vocabulary today, people. We have the first one. What was it? Cognitive.

Sherri Fitts 37:23

Cognitive ease.

Yohance Harrison 37:24

Cognitive ease.

Sherri Fitts 37:26

Your brain needs simpler things.

Yohance Harrison 37:29

Cognitive ease and self efficacy.

Sherri Fitts 37:34

Yeah. Yep. Self efficacy is pretty much almost the same thing. The smaller you can break something down, the easier it is to get over inertia.

Yohance Harrison 37:43

Yeah, indeed. Because we, our brains want to do what is familiar and what takes the the least path of resistance. Yes, indeed. Indeed. Sherry, we appreciate you listeners. Do yourself and the friend a favor. Just one small thing before you click over to the next podcast or move on to the next task, hit the share button and share this with one person. One person that you know that maybe has a little bit of an inertia. One person that you know that maybe needs a bit of cognitive ease. Let them know that you're thinking of them. Let them know that you care about them. And we will see you next time on the Money Script podcast, everybody. Take care.

Sherri Fitts 37:53

True.

Sherri Fitts 38:28

Bye.

Seth Harrison 38:40

I'm back. Wasn't that a great show? I hope you learned something. I know I did. Now before you go trying anything you heard today, remember it is not intended to be specific tax or legal advice. If you need that, go see a CPA or an attorney. If you would like any complimentary consultation with a knowledgeable advisor, visit moneyscript.com and schedule a 15 minute consultation. Want Johans to come speak at your next event? Go to the MoneyScript website for that too. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to like, comment, subscribe and click the bell for notifications. MoneyScript Wealth Management is a registered financial advisory service in multiple states. Want to learn more? Get the full disclosure on our website moneyscript.com.