The Conversations We're Not Having: Wendy De La Rosa

PodcastMay 10, 2021
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Literally every company in the world is hiring experts to figure out how to get you to spend faster. You are going up against, not just one company, two companies, but millions of companies who are trying to optimize every single part of their marketing, every single part of their user experience, their sign up flows, their purchase flows to get you to spend your money faster.

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Intro

In this episode of the Decision Lab, Brooke speaks with Wendy De La Rosa, incoming professor at the Wharton School, co-founder of the Common Cents Lab, and host and creator of the new TED series; Your Money and Your Mind. Wendy was a founding member of Google’s behavioral economics unit, helping over 30 teams to optimize product strategy and design, customer engagement, and retention, as well as revenue. In their discussion, Brooke and Wendy discuss the changes in the economy caused by the pandemic, as well as strategies and techniques that businesses and individuals can use to help improve their financial standing. Some of the topics include:

  • The way we make financial decisions, and why more education is not necessarily the best solution to our financial difficulties.
  • How to ensure your environment is set up for success.
  • Removing the shame surrounding financial failure, and the benefits of having more open conversations about our finances.
  • How employers can help support their teams’ productivity by taking some of the stress out of their financial situations through initiatives like Financial Health Days.
  • The importance of discussing finances in our personal relationships.

About the Guest

Wendy De La Rosa

Wendy De La Rosa

Wendy De La Rosa is co-founder of Common Cents Lab, an organisation that seeks to improve financial well-being for low-to-moderate income individuals. Prior to this role, she worked at Google, helping to establish the company’s behavioral economics unit which drove behavioural innovation across more than 30 internal teams. She has extensive research experience, and as a post-doc researcher at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Wendy focused on topics related to organizational behavior, employee motivation and burnout. She also worked as a private equity investor at Goldman Sachs.

Wendy was named a Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ honoree in 2018, and her work has been widely published in publications such as Scientific American, PBS Newshour, Forbes, and Tech Crunch. She holds an M.Phil and a PhD (both in consumer behaviour) from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and is a Daisy and Paul Soros scholar.

About the Interviewer

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Dr. Brooke Struck

Dr. Brooke Struck is the Research Director at The Decision Lab. He is an internationally recognized voice in applied behavioural science, representing TDL’s work in outlets such as Forbes, Vox, Huffington Post and Bloomberg, as well as Canadian venues such as the Globe & Mail, CBC and Global Media. Dr. Struck hosts TDL’s podcast “The Decision Corner” and speaks regularly to practicing professionals in industries from finance to health & wellbeing to tech & AI.

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