What if your employer could offer you a personal financial assistant at zero cost to you? Not a webinar. A real human being who sits with you in the mess and helps you find a way out. That's exactly what Brightside does, and this week's guest is here to break it all down.

Kristy Talorico spent over 15 years leading enterprise sales at companies like Apple and Microsoft before a personal wake-up call redirected her toward something with a lot more meaning. Today she's part of the team at Brightside, a company delivering personalized, human-led financial care as an employer-paid benefit, at no cost to employees.

In this episode, Kristy and Chris dig into what it really means to be financially ill, why 67% of Americans are either financially vulnerable or just barely coping, and how Brightside's model of meeting people where they are is doing what simple budgeting apps and financial literacy webinars simply cannot.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why financial stress is classified as a form of illness and what that looks like for working Americans
• How Brightside's Financial Assistants, who often come from social work and therapeutic backgrounds, build real trust with employees in crisis
• The story of a Memphis warehouse worker who asked for an Xbox and a big screen TV, and what her Financial Assistant discovered underneath that request
• Why employee privacy is fully protected and what data employers actually receive
• The hard ROI case for employers, covering healthcare costs, absenteeism, turnover, and workplace safety
• How the Mayo Clinic connected financial stress to the same heart health risk as smoking
• What employees can do right now if their company doesn't yet offer Brightside
• Why Brightside considers itself competition-free in a market with 113 other financial wellness vendors

Whether you're an employee grinding through a rough stretch or an HR leader wondering why your workforce outcomes aren't improving, this episode has something for you.

Contact Chris:

https://heavymetal.money

https://www.facebook.com/MoneyHeavyMetal

https://x.com/MoneyHeavyMetal

https://www.instagram.com/chrisluger

https://www.tiktok.com/@heavymetalmoney

email: chris at heavymetal.money

Connect with Kristy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristytalorico/

Resources and Links:

https://www.gobrightside.com

Contact Chris:
https://heavymetal.money

https://www.instagram.com/heavy_metal_money/

https://www.youtube.com/@heavymetalmoney

https://www.facebook.com/chrisluger

email: chris at heavymetal.money