Chelsea Williams’ path toward financial literacy started on the school bus.
“My first money lesson was from a bus driver when I was a sophomore in high school,” says Williams. “It just seemed really weird that a bus driver was taking the time to tell me and my friend how much we were going to make and what that meant after taxes and what rent costs and internet and went through the whole slew with us. But what I later realized in my career is that no one is actually teaching us. It’s not a required course in school.”
In some ways, it was that realization that spearheaded Williams’ path toward helping people, especially women, recognize their relationship with money and how that impacts their lives.
Years after the school bus sermon, Williams has come to be known as “The Money Whisperer.” You’ll find her training other women, using courses, apps, budgets, workbooks and other materials on the how money works.
First steps in financial literacy
At age 20, Williams was pregnant, “financially alone” and in school for healthcare administration. It was during this time that she discovered accounting—and that she was really good at it.
“I really, really loved playing with the numbers,” she says. “I could not only tell a story using the numbers from the past, but I could paint a financial picture of the possible future storylines with the numbers and with the equations that I had uncovered.”
After making the move to a tax and accounting firm and rising in the ranks, Williams started to recognize that business owners often didn’t understand the numbers they were being presented or how to read the financial reports given to them. With that knowledge, Williams decided to set off on her own. And, in 2017, she began her firm, Core Solutions Group, with the goal of helping others—particularly women and mothers—succeed at their own money stories.
“My goal was to bridge the language barrier between accountant and business owner and teach them a simple way to understand their numbers and show them how they can use them as a tool towards growth and the lifestyle that they were really trying to achieve through their business vessel,” she says.
Williams soon found, though, that the issues in financial literacy weren’t limited to just number comprehension—they required mindset growth, too.
Purchasing a feeling
For Williams, a significant component of what she works to teach her clients and those who listen to her podcast, Always and Never About Money, is recognizing the psychology behind money. “Money is 90% mental,” Williams says. “To sustain any change in your money, you must create a change in how you think about it and what you allow it to believe about yourself. Untangle money, the tool, and all the feelings and values that you assign to it.”
This is a skill that Williams recognizes takes time, reflection and a lot of grace with yourself.
“All we are ever purchasing is time and experience and feelings,” she says. “So if you were to look at what you spent your money on in the last year and assign a feeling to each transaction, even the basic things like rent—we’re creating a feeling of security when we pay our rent,” she says. She has her clients ask themselves: “What are you really chasing? Money is a simple tool of trade. Everything else around it is psychology and money can be a valuable mirror in our lives.”
Empowering women to succeed
As Williams reflects on her journey, she recognizes the role that a male-dominated field of work had in helping her create a space where women can feel empowered to succeed at their own finances. It’s something that Williams says wasn’t necessarily an option for women even 50 years ago, given that most women weren’t able to get a credit card on their own until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was signed in 1974.
“When I discovered that closing a lot of these gaps is only a matter of education, I just knew I had to jump in and be a part of the shift,” she says.
She also sees that her own upbringing empowered her. She says she was raised with a lens that being a woman is irrelevant, specifically from her father. But not all women have the same opportunities for education and experience that she had, Williams says.
“[Women] are very, very new to this game. We are still dipping our toenails into the water of the financial algorithm. And anytime you’re focusing on what you don’t have, I find it’s helpful to focus on the votes in the jar that we do have. The proof that we are 100% capable of doing this thing…Women have the power to change, and change can happen very quickly,” she says. “Change is a mindset more than it is an event, so never count yourself out of opportunities.”
For Williams, seeing the financial literacy of women at work reminds her of the importance of narrowing the gap between what men and women know about investing, money and owning their space in the financial world.
Williams recalls a specific client who, to her, stands out on this topic. “She was born in a religious household, and the religion had them believe that women had no place in financial management and financial decisions. And she was raised from a very young age by the male people in her family, and literally told, ‘You don’t need to worry about money…You don’t need to be a part of it. It’s not for you to know and understand,’” she says. “Once she kind of woke up and started to design her own life and realize she wanted to start a business, she now runs a multi-million dollar business with an amazing team, and they only work four-day work weeks, and it’s amazing to watch her really step into her femininity and own her understanding around the numbers and nurture her own leadership capabilities around that role in her business.”
The future is bright
While there is still ample work to be done when it comes to financial literacy, Williams is excited to be part of the solution by helping women develop a healthy relationship with money. For her, recognizing money as a tool and not the ultimate definition of success could help make for a more compassionate world in the future.
“Money is not the creator of ‘happy,’” she says. “It is a facilitator of it.”
Photo courtesy of Chelsea Williams.
