Stories With Traction
The Stories With Traction Podcast was created to empower leaders to elevate their businesses through the art of strategic storytelling. By engaging clients and inspiring team members, leaders can significantly impact the world around them. Each episode offers insights into storytelling, marketing, sales, company culture, and leadership, providing practical tools to drive growth and influence positive change. Tune in to transform your approach and lead with purpose.
Stories With Traction
#203: The Hidden Psychology of Money
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SHOW NOTES:
In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with DonJay Rice for a thoughtful and practical conversation about money behaviors, identity, fear, family, and emotional health.
DonJay explains that unhealthy money behaviors are rarely just about dollars and cents. They often reveal something deeper: fear, grief, control, guilt, or a misplaced sense of safety and identity. Together, Matt and DonJay unpack how money can quietly become a coping mechanism, how success can mask deeper emotional struggles, and why some of the most “financially responsible” habits can actually be destructive.
They also explore retirement, over-saving, workaholism, financial enabling of children, and how unresolved childhood experiences can shape adult money patterns. DonJay shares pieces of his own story growing up in poverty, losing his mother at age 12, and becoming intensely driven by fear, and explains how that shaped his relationship with work, success, and security.
This episode is a powerful reminder that money is never just about money. It is often tied to identity, safety, relationships, grief, and purpose.