One of the most important, frequent pieces of advice I share with founders and business people wanting to grow their career:

TALK ABOUT MONEY!

I grew up, like many folks, understanding it was rude to ask people how much they make, how much their house or car cost, or their bank account balance.

Then I became an investor.

And I learned that all the great business people — founders, investors, executives — talk about money all the time!

• What are the margins on that?

• What’s the business model?

• What do you pay in taxes?

• How much did you make last month?

• What’s the net income for the business?

• What’s your comp package?

• What deal terms did you get?

• How much are you charging?

Professional, personal, casual. All topics are fair game. Everyone is asking questions, sharing information, and then doing back-of-the-napkin math to analyze the financial situation.

If you want to make more money, improve your startup, or accelerate your career, the simplest place to start is:

TALK ABOUT MONEY.

5 Reasons You Should Talk About Money

Here’s 5 specific ways talking about money helps you personally and professionally.

1. Creates friendly competition.

THAT founder did $500k in quarterly revenue?!? But I am smarter and better at sales than them. I will do $600k!!

Just an example. That I bet 99% of you have thought before!

I know lots of founders who want to “beat” their other founder friends.

It’s why there are “teams” for individual sports and head-to-head races result in world record times.

Competing makes you better. It’s fun. It pushes you.

But you can’t compete if you don’t know the scoreboard.

Talking about money gives you a scoreboard!

2. Helps you get better deals.

When you talk about term sheets, contracts, salaries, vendor pricing, or anything else related to money or business…you have information.

You know what is normal. You have data points to bring to the table.

Use it to your advantage in negotiations and ask for better terms or more money!

3. Inspires you to break the 4:00 mile.

Stick with me on this one.

No one thought it was possible to break the 4 minute mile. Then Roger Bannister did it. The next year, at least 24 more people went sub-4.

Because they knew it was possible.

Many (money) things seem out of reach.

No way that you can charge $5000/hr, be a billionaire in your 20s, or make $10M on one deal — until you meet someone who did it!

Talking about money opens your eyes to possibilities and inspires you to set more ambitious goals.

4. Improves credibility.

As an investor, I LOVE it when someone knows the metrics of their business inside and out.

I LOVE it when they lead with revenue.

I LOVE it when they know the ROI of a marketing campaign, run through the latest won deals, know the salaries of every employee and last month’s burn, ask about the financials of other businesses, and any other money thing!

It tells me they know and care about money (which is really just a proxy for business value), and that they are constantly learning and collecting information to improve their business thinking.

5. Accelerates learning.

You can read 100 blogs about fundraising. (At least 20 from the O’Daily 😂)

Or have 3 conversations with founders who successfully raised and learn just as much.

I recommend both!

When you regularly have conversations about money, you expedite your business learnings 10x.

You also pick up industry lingo, insider info, lessons learned, additional context, and — best of all — you can ask real-time follow up questions!

Any advice for talking about money? Do you talk about money with friends or other founders? Have you always talked about money or did you get more comfortable over time?