BUSINESS CHALLENGE: Can you go an entire day without talking about money?

Introducing the Finance Free Day.

What would you think about if you didn’t think about money?

Would you have more ideas?

Would you focus on your dreams? Your people? Your health?

There was a time, when I was a creative director when I would go days on end and not hear the words “revenue,” “cost,” “budget,” or “scope.”

It was an incredibly fertile time for the agency, our clients and simply me — as a writer.

When’s the last time you focused on ideas and not finances?

Here’s an idea: A Finance Free Day. An entire day when you and your organization don’t talk about money.

No discussion of money coming in.

No discussion of what things you’re spending money on.

No discussion of why you never seem to have enough.

No money talk whatsoever.

So then, what should you talk about?

Why not start with your product? How good is it, really?

How about you talk about your competition and what you can learn from them?

How ‘bout you sit in a conference room with a few teammates and answer the question: “What would we do if we knew we couldn’t fail?”

Heck, why not use a Finance Free Day to watch a TED Talk and discuss it with colleagues? Here are a few of my favorites: one on storytelling. One on how your body influences your mind. Here’s an amazing one about going blind in space.

You know what else you can do on a Finance Free Day? You can meet other people in the organization. Have a coffee. Maybe even go out and have lunch and talk about, I dunno — Netflix? Debate Beatles vs Stones or Oasis vs Blur or Kendrick vs Drake. You can literally talk about anything.

But whatever you do, don’t talk about money.

Try it this week.

I dare you.

I bounced this idea off a CEO I know and he is pondering a “Finance Free Tuesday.” (He may even schedule an “FFT Mtg” with his leadership team, including the finance director, and talk about ideas, creativity and anything and everything besides finances.)

And by the way, if the words “revenue,” “cost,” “budget,” “profit,” or “scope” come up on a Finance Free Day, there is a penalty. You have to pay. Maybe create a Venmo “Swear Jar.” And make it hurt. $50 for each infraction with the proceeds going to a charity.

Finance Free Days. Try one. See where it takes you. And let me know what happens.

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