Every good show has someone you never see on stage. On late-night television it is the producer standing just off stage, deciding when the bit has landed and when it is time to move on. On Fiscal Fridays, that person is Hayes Clement, and he is the reason our advisors now answer questions with a buzzer hanging over their heads.
Who is Hayes Clement?
Hayes is the executive producer of Fiscal Fridays. We brought him in this summer to revamp our online presence, and it did not take long for the show to become his.
What did he change?
The show you will see on October 23 is his. When I wrote about the September show, the first one he ran start to finish, I put it this way: "Director and producer. The cameras, the lights, the run of show, the pace of the room, when to let a moment breathe and when to move on. His call, start to finish."
He built the show around a few simple pieces. A cold open to start fast. The lightning round, where David reads a real family's situation off a card and an advisor gets thirty seconds on David's 1878 pocket watch, with a buzzer and a red spray bottle for anyone who runs long. A sit-down with a guest. And a ten-second closing question for everyone on stage. When he edited the September show for YouTube, he opened it on the spray bottle, before David had said a word. That tells you most of what you need to know about his instincts.
Why does a money show need a producer?
Because good information is not enough. Our advisors know their material cold. What they did not always have was someone deciding how long a story should run, which question goes first, and when the room needs to laugh before it can listen. That is a producer's job, and it is the difference between a show people come back to and a seminar people sit through.
It also shows up outside the studio. Hayes has been turning pieces of David's world into short videos, like David's collection of American railroad watches and the difference between a Bic answer and a Montblanc answer. If you have seen David on Facebook lately holding up a watch, that was Hayes's work.
What does he want the room to feel like?
In his own invitation this month, he called it "Johnny Carson meets Dave Ramsey: a talk show with special guests and quirky games." He also wrote something I liked even more: "Be someone who can say they were with us at the beginning of a culture movement." October 23 is the first Fiscal Fridays open to the public, so the people in those twenty seats will be able to say exactly that.
The show is Friday, October 23, at 10:30 AM Arizona time, in our studio in Scottsdale. Doors open at 10:00 for coffee, and there is a secret guest this month, a Medicare health plan executive. Tomorrow, we will find out whether an advisor can really answer in thirty seconds.
Save your seat here, or call (602) 281-3898 and we will hold one for you.
Fiscal Fridays is an educational show. Educational content, not tax or legal advice. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the federal government or the federal Medicare program.