Money Wounds: What If Commerce Is Really About Human Value

What if our relationship with money is shaped by stories that began long before we ever earned our first paycheck?On this episode of Elsplend Realities, Connie Davis, a payments and fintech professional and founder of Maiden Explorations, invites us to look at money and commerce through a deeply human lens. After 25 years in the payments industry and six years immersed in conversations around trauma, abuse, human trafficking, financial distress, and grief, Connie began exploring the connection between money wounds, trust, human value, and the systems through which we exchange value.We discuss how financial experiences can shape identity, how emotional and cognitive labor are valued, the relationship between financial vulnerability and exploitation, and what it could mean to create more trauma-informed, trust-based, human-centered financial systems.At its heart, this conversation asks a powerful question:What if commerce isn't simply about exchanging money—but about recognizing and exchanging human value?