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Mental health and wellness is an integral part of everyone’s lives. In this episode of Stocks In Translation, Yahoo Finance markets and data editor Jared Blikre and producer Sydnee Fried sit down with Dr. Trillion Small, founder of the Trillion Institute, as they discuss mental health, behavioral finance, and her career journey.
“Since COVID, it has honestly been a whirlwind of people becoming more aware that mental health issues is a real thing and we need to become more intentional about focusing on it. I don’t care what industry you are in, people are realizing we must do something about the mental wellness of our individuals,” Dr. Small explains.
Dr. Small goes on to define what exactly behavioral finance is: “It’s what happens in the inside of my mind and what happens in my heart when I think about money. One of the biggest things that I like to talk about when talking about behavioral finance is your identity with money… Essentially it’s what’s happening in the inside of me internally based on my previous history that impacts what I’m willing to do with my dollar today.”
Dr. Small talks a bit about how adaptive behaviors can sometimes become maladaptive, identifying those who have struggled and face hardships early on in their lives to be some of the strongest entrepreneurs she knows:
“Because you understand resilience, you understand grit, and you understand what it means to just… do best with what you have. And so that mindset has served me very well, but now it doesn’t serve you very well as an adult. If you continue what was once adaptive, great. Because you don’t have money, so you can’t go and be frivolous. But today, when you have money in the account and you’re still denying yourself basic needs or the simple pleasures of life, then it becomes maladaptive.”
Dr. Small coaches people in all facets of live and in different career fields, including athletes, professionals, and entrepreneurs. She finds that no matter where people come from or what they excel at, “we’re all the same. We have a goal that we want. And for most of us… we want happiness, we want peace of mind. And what better way to do that then to have finance, to have income. Money is just… a representative of things.”
Dr. Small explains, “for those who are athletes or entrepreneurs… they’re in pursuit of something. And it’s normally freedom… Entrepreneurs as well or executives and athletes, they’re also high achievers. And so they set this high mark, and normally it’s finance. Most people, not all, most people have their identity tied to the number in their bank account. And then for them, that serves as a representative of my quality of life and who I am and how I’ve impacted the world to this point.”