About this episode

Vivian Tu shares her journey from a young analyst at JP Morgan to a successful financial educator and author, emphasizing the importance of believing in oneself and breaking societal norms.

Before Vivian Tu became a multimillionaire financial educator with 6.5 million followers, two New York Times bestselling books, and a chart-topping podcast, she was a 22-year-old analyst sitting on a filing cabinet at JP Morgan while senior traders commanded the room. Then Jean Ma, her first manager and the first rich Asian woman she had ever met, told her: You deserve a seat at the table. Don't sit on a filing cabinet like you are some lackey. In this deeply personal conversation, the creator of Your Rich BFF tells David Begnaud how Jean, who walked into the office in limited-edition Chanel and Gucci stilettos, taught her that life isn't a meritocracy and showed her at a meatpacking-district dive bar that the rules she thought she had to play by weren't the rules everyone else played by. Vivian also gets real about the manager who reassigned her, told her she was "too girly for finance," and mocked her cardigan as a kimono — and why she's thankful he was such a jerk, because it's exactly what pushed her out of JP Morgan and into the life she has now. She talks about walking away from a $600,000 job at BuzzFeed to bet on herself full time, the $100,000 safety net she built just…

People in this episode

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Vivian Tu

Topics covered

• financial education
• personal growth
• career transitions
• immigrant experience
• women in finance

Keywords

• financial educator
• multimillionaire
• New York Times bestselling
• career advice
• immigrant story

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: JP Morgan, BuzzFeed

Places: New York, China

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