Leadership is about integrity, giving valuable insights, and the ability to inspire, influence, and guide people along the way to bring about an impactful change.
Meet Nita Menezes – Co-Founder & CEO at Money Prastha and Founder & Mentor at Financially Smart.
Nita is a Certified Financial Planner and a Fellowship in Life Insurance. She is a member of the Financial Planning Standard Board of India. She is passionate about financial literacy and her aim is to make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of people globally.
Nita brings in almost 3 decades of experience in consulting 20,000+ professionals like Surgeons, Celebrities, Media & Entertainment Industry Professionals, Corporates, CAs, Lawyers, and Business owners. She has helped them make smart and informed decisions about their money. Many women and teenagers have also been beneficiaries of her financial wisdom.
She has created an online course “My Financial Freedom Blueprint”. She has written many articles and is a regular speaker at various forums on financial freedom and will be soon publishing her book on Personal Finance, based on her experiences in the industry.
Through her Mentoring and Coaching, she always aims to make the complex simple, equips her clients and students with the necessary tools to help them become Financially Smart so that they can make Smart Life Choices and lead a healthy, wealthy and prosperous stress-free lifestyle.
When she is not running financial plans through her clients, she runs marathons or just sets off for long drives with her family. She strongly believes in and propagates the concept of Health and Wealth.
Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Nita Menezes: I have been working in the Financial Planning industry for almost 3 decades, consulting Entrepreneurs, Celebrities, Surgeons, and Corporates. I realized that there is a great need for financial literacy. Due to a lack of financial knowledge and an advisor that they can trust, a lot of people end up making costly mistakes, get lured into Ponzi schemes, buy products without understanding how it would impact their overall financial decisions, and don’t plan their financial life well. Fear and greed take over most of the time and they end up losing money. The other myth is that earning more or having more money is not a solution, whereas the fact is, it is important to manage what you have and develop healthy and wealthy habits. Being very passionate about financial literacy, I founded Financially Smart which aims to make the complex …simple.This is an education platform that helps make smart and informed decisions about your money. I impart this knowledge through my social media channels- youtube, Linkedin, Instagram, Podcasts, etc., my courses, and my masterclasses/workshops. While consulting many families, I also realized that most of the women shy away from handling their own money and depend on their male counterparts. The only time they take over the reins, is in the case of an unfortunate and sudden event like a death, incapacitation of the male counterparts, or if they are faced with divorce. That’s when they are most vulnerable and end up making costly financial mistakes. Being a mother of a teenager, I also realized the need of having money conversations from a very early age so that our children are well equipped with the tools and the knowledge, adopt responsible spending, and allow the powerful magical law of compounding to work in their favor. I strongly believe and advocate that Financial Literacy should be a part of the curriculum in schools from a very early age as the students need to understand the importance of time and money and make their money work for them from an early age. I have been successfully conducting a couple of workshops for teenagers, women, and all those who are serious about their money and want to take charge of their financial lives. Being a woman, I am confident if more women are empowered they can impart the knowledge to their kids and also be instrumental to spread more awareness and help create a society that is financially free. Knowledge is important, but doing is more important. There was still a gap as once the knowledge and the importance of financial literacy was understood, my audience needed a platform to execute their knowledge with proper hand-holding. The fintech platform was the most important piece that could complete the puzzle. That led me to co-found the firm MoneyPrastha – a platform for your money along with an awesome team of experts that shared my dream and vision. MoneyPrastha is a digital platform that is user-friendly, paperless, and can help clients from any corner of the world to invest in any asset class of their choice. It is the go-to platform for savvy investors, new investors, Do-it-yourselfers, advisors, and HNI’s who want to streamline their financial life and have the convenience of buying or selling, having a birds-eye-view of their portfolio, making goal-based investments, and much more. It’s not just a tech platform, but it is your Personal CFO – your smart assistant and comes with a human touch as we are our client’s sounding board when they need it most.Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Nita Menezes: Having started my career in Life Insurance, I had purchased a couple of traditional life insurance policies and investment products myself. But having completed my Fellowship in Life Insurance & Certified Financial Planning, I realized the importance of having a Financial Strategy – a blueprint that can help one achieve Financial Freedom. I realized the costly mistake of mixing investment with insurance and not investing in equity to generate wealth. Life Insurance is a very important Risk Management tool and is important for all those who are the breadwinners of the family and who have dependents. Similarly, Health insurance is the most important tool, and all family members irrespective of age need to be covered when possible. Having realized the fact that if I want to be the Trusted Advisor of my clients and help them generate wealth and be Financially free, I need to work on their behalf. It was clear that if one wants to generate wealth, you need 2 important ingredients other than money – Investment in Equity and Time for your money to Grow. That’s when I decided to use my knowledge and experience to work on behalf of my clients and in spite of a pay cut, I joined a start-up Financial Planning firm and consulted HNI clients including Surgeons, Corporates, Entrepreneurs, and Celebrities for almost a decade. Realizing that Financial Literacy should not be restricted only to the HNI’s and that we need to share this knowledge across, I decided to take the plunge into Entrepreneurship. Some of my clients and friends stood with me in these tough times and helped me stay afloat. I never gave up and always believed I am capable of much greater things. Giving up was never an option. I had secured a kitty for the initial period of set-up so that I could work on my dream to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people and help them to be Financially Smart. Started doing a lot of research, updated my knowledge, worked on my social media, writing, and technology skills. Edutech is important and fintech is necessary for the implementation of the acquired knowledge. Always wanted to disrupt the financial planning industry and reach out to help people make smart and informed decisions and smart choices. Simultaneously, I created a business plan, made calls, and met friends, existing contacts, relatives, and their references. I invested in technology rather than an office and staff. Worked with interns. As the lockdown set in I realized the importance of technology and adopted the same. Always knew that collaboration is the key to success and if we want to scale up, we need to get in more hands. That’s how MoneyPrastha was born with a vision to reach out to all those who are serious about their money. I drive the vision of Money Prastha to become one of the leading enablers of financial planning solutions in the country.What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Nita Menezes: Entrepreneurship is an exciting and challenging journey too. There will be ups and downs, but if you continue to strive hard and focus on your goal you will surely achieve success. Moving from the luxury of having a fixed salary to a fluctuating income often comes in the way of many if they have not planned their finances well. I have always been motivated by the desire for fulfillment and the power of choice. Money is just a by-product if you are passionate, dedicated, want to excel in your field, and are able to provide a solution that can help make a meaningful difference in the lives of people. Reading books and meeting and talking to Entrepreneurs who had taken the plunge and understanding their challenges helped me plan my strategy and kept me focused on my goals. My Mantra is – Stay Focused, Have a Flexible Plan, and be ready to tweak it if need be, but don’t keep changing the Goal.Has the pandemic and transitioning into mostly online shopping affected your company positively or negatively?
Nita Menezes: The pandemic came as a blow as all of a sudden I was stranded at home with my family and had to do a lot of chores with no house help. But thanks to my supportive and encouraging family, things fell in place. My investment in technology helped me and I could continue my meetings on zoom and google meet. Clients got adjusted to meeting online. The platform was a result of this change and the need for a paperless office that is more convenient and easily accessible. I decided to work on creating a course and conducting workshops on zoom. Initially, the turnout was not much, but thanks to social media especially Linkedin, I could reach out to so many people including influencers who appreciated my work and gave me the needed boost to move ahead. Money Prastha was born as we realized the need for a fintech company that has a human touch and can cater to a client’s needs of information, helps make smart and informed decisions, and most of all convenience.In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Nita Menezes: We are our own Competition and we would want to strive by making things simple in the jargon-free world of finance and by providing our clients the best service, convenience, and handholding when they require it. We are their sounding board and want to create a community of happy advisors and clients who are financially free, have control over their financial lives, and are able to make smart choices in their life. We are focused to help our clients lead a healthy, wealthy, and stress-free lifestyle. The passion and experience we share and our coming together to add value to our client’s life is the most important ingredient.You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Nita Menezes: Definitely these three:- ‘Never Give Up’ attitude – I always strive for the best and want to be the best at what I do. I believe in focusing on my strengths and use them to my advantage. It’s important not to give up in testing times as you may be just 1 step away from achieving success. Just be there and you will see the way. This too shall pass – Good times as well as bad …is what you need to keep reminding yourself.
- Perseverance – I always persevere to be the best and add value to my community and my clients. Knowledge and skills along with regular practice are most effective when they serve as amplifiers for your natural talents. Keep your focus on your goal and provide a solution to your clients and you will achieve great success.
- Adaptability – This is a very important trait that is needed for a leader. When plans go awry, you need to ensure that you and your team need to adjust to the circumstances and try to make progress as a team. Stay laser-focused on your Goal. Change the Plan if need be as you may need course correction from time to time …but not the Goal.
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his own brand?
Nita Menezes: Brand value resonates with the person. A leader has to lead by example… sometimes from the front, at times get their hands dirty in the day-to-day activities, keeping up the morale of the team members and keeping them focussed on the ultimate goal. You need to live the Brand and it should reflect in the culture of the organization. You and the team represent the brand and the team members should resonate and imbibe those values. This makes the brand become stronger. Credibility and brand value increase with the right culture and environment among the team members and that in turn is felt by the clients.How would you define “leadership”?
Nita Menezes: Leadership is about integrity, giving valuable insights, and the ability to inspire, influence, and guide people along the way to bring about an impactful change. A true leader is one who stays focused, gets his team aligned to the goals of the Company, and drives them to achieve the common vision.What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Nita Menezes: The key thing that you need to work on is yourself. You need to have the drive and the passion, fundamentals of leadership, time management, and the ability to adapt and bring the best out in situations. You also need to have the knack of identifying and bringing people on board who share your vision. When you start off as an Entrepreneur, you need to be versatile and be ready to do all the jobs. Important to keep aside an amount ( a kitty) for your monthly personal expenses and for your business expenses so that you can sail through the initial months. Entrepreneurship comes with its glory and challenges. You need to be ready to face the challenges with a smile and keep focused on your ultimate goal and keep adding value to your customers.What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Nita Menezes: “Ask & you shall receive, Seek & you shall find, Knock & it shall be opened unto you” – I love this quote and I say it every day. There is an abundance of love, work, and everything you want. All you have to do is ask, seek and knock. Always seek the best, always expect the best, and never at any time be content with second best. It may be difficult for you, especially at times when you think you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. That’s when you have to raise your consciousness, and never for one second think lack, but think abundance. Take nothing for granted, but realize how blessed you are.
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