Friday, July 15, 2011

Dialoguing to create a-ha money moments

Ideally, a "money moment" is going to be an "a-ha" moment. What's an a-ha moment? According the World English Dictionary, an a-ha moment is "an instant in which the solution to a problem becomes clear." Am I going to be able to create a-ah moments for my money moments? I hope so but I don't think I can do it alone.

Creating 10 a-ha moments
Now that my stint of teaching youth writing camps and guest blogging for the Vancouver Sun are almost behind me (today is my last day of teaching a week-long short story camp), I can turn my attention to the pre-production work that needs to be done for my new 10-episode TV show. The show is called Money Moment with Laura Thomas and it's entirely up to me to create the a-ha moments that I believe should be central to each episode.

No pressure right? We start filming in two weeks and I'm already losing sleep.

Earlier this year when I sat down with one of the producers at Delta TV (a community arm of Eastlink in Delta, British Columbia) and made my pitch for a series of short fillers that would boost the financial literacy of viewers in my community, I was blissfully unaware that months later I would be setting the bar really high for myself by feeling the need to deliver an a-ha moment to as many viewers as possible in every episode. I knew that I wanted to educate, but I hadn't fully envisioned what it would mean to not just educate but help viewers actually figure out how to solve at least some of their money problems. That's a big goal and I've decided that I can't achieve it alone.

It's a synergy thing
This blog is not even a year old yet, but in the course of the interviews I've done--even with celebrities like Arlene Dickinson and Robert Herjavec--the biggest insights have come organically out of the conversations, not purely out of the questions I have asked or the answers that my interviewees have given me. Synergy is what I'd call it: the working together of two or more entities to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects. Which is why I've been on the phone this week looking for people in my community to co-star with me in each Money Moment. Rather than deliver a monologue, I am going to set up a dialogue for each episode.

In the episode on realistic budgeting, I'm going to be in conversation with Rob Wright of Cap's South Shore Cycle. In the episode about the theory of financial bubbles and how to get ahead on your mortgage, I'll have realtor and entrepreneur Fraser Elliot on the show.  And Delta City Councillor Heather King has agreed to hit the streets with me so that we can talk to people about the their financial successes and failures. Financial blogger and finance guru Preet Banerjee will also drop in for an episode, if he's in town at the right time.

I'm still looking for a few more chatty folks to come on the show and dialogue with me about new mobile banking technologies, credit cards, the gender gap in financial literacy and other money topics. I'd also like to do a budget-wise home makeover for two single dads and need some help with that.

So if you know someone from the Delta area (or who can get to Delta during the first week of August) who loves to explore ideas, talk about money and be in front of the camera, have him or her contact me as soon as possible. Or if you or your company would like to sponsor this community-based financial literacy project please email me for a rate sheet.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme at telus dot net.

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