Suze Orman
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A Woman's Work
Between taping episodes of her TV show at CNBC studios in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Orman reclined on the couch in the green room, her teeth glowing white. Her sunglasses were slipping down her nose, and she was made up with a powdery orange tan and zipped tight into a butterscotch leather motorcycle jacket. "A woman's nature is to nurture. A woman gives birth," Orman said. "Men have it right when it comes to earning money and asking for a raise," she continued. "But how many women do you see at the track?"
After you watch a few episodes of her program, it becomes clear why Orman believes that men are responsible for most of the economic carnage rippling across the globe. One of the viewers who called in--Nancy from Sacramento--had just related a sad tale: she and her husband had taken out a $100,000 equity line of credit on their house and invested all of it in shares of one company. It was now worth $700. (See the 100 best TV shows of all time.)
"So who was more gung-ho, you or your husband?" Orman asked knowingly. "You had a bottle of wine and got tipsy? Did you go to bed that night and have fun?" Her producers groaned in the control booth.
"Suze, I'm in dire straits ..." began another call, from Shirley in New Jersey. Others followed from people trying to renegotiate their mortgages or struggling to take care of aging parents. Eventually, Orman started getting antsy. "We should call this show Get Aggravated with Suze Orman," she said after a rant about the mortgage companies. "Can you hear my tummy growling? I'm sitting here fantasizing about a McDouble cheeseburger with onions!" (See nine kid foods to avoid.)
Considering the human suffering around her, Orman's demeanor remains perky and optimistic. She believes that people can sense that she wants what's in their best interests. As she waited to be called to the CNBC set, a woman in a uniform rolled a cart of food into the green room. "Hi, Suze," the woman said, bursting into a huge smile. She carefully laid out bowls of yogurt and muesli, and vegetables with dip. When the woman started arranging cans of soda on the table, Orman shooed her back. "Take that away," Orman said. "People don't need that crap. If it's there, people will eat that crap. Yuck." The woman replaced the cans with bottles of water.
"I think people can feel my passion, that I want to help them," Orman said a few minutes later. "When the woman who serves food lights up when she sees me--ask her if she lights up when she sees the other talent."
The Limits of Prudence
Orman's personal story is an important part of the product she's selling. She grew up in a modest household on the South Side of Chicago, where her father ran a deli. She dropped out of the University of Illinois (she later finished her degree) and spent six years waitressing in Berkeley, Calif. After losing $50,000 she had been lent to a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch, she became a Merrill broker herself. She launched her own financial-planning company in 1987 and then wrote her first book, You've Earned It, Don't Lose It, which became a best seller. She has made her mark offering commonsense advice tailored to people, especially women, who aren't financially sophisticated. (See the top 10 financial-crisis buzzwords.)
Many years later, Orman is the most recognizable personal-finance expert in the world, but she didn't get there on her own. The individual she refers to as "my K.T.," a.k.a. Kathy Travis, a 56-year-old former advertising executive and Orman's life partner, was key to her transformation into a financial self-help juggernaut. The two met when Travis moved to California after working for Ogilvy & Mather in Hong Kong. When they were introduced at a dinner party eight years ago, Travis explained that her expertise was in building brands, and Orman asked, "What can you do for mine?"
"I didn't know who she was, and I said, 'Well, how old are you?'" Travis recalled. Orman was 49 at the time, and Travis told her she had only five years left before she'd be too old to do much of anything, especially on television. "She got so taken aback that I think that is what intrigued Suze about me," Travis said. "That's kind of how it all started."