In 2004, Johnny Deas (pronounced Dees) was a few weeks away from completing his MBA at Washington University in St Louis, when he sat in on a series of financial planning classes. The classes were taught free of charge, by a Certified Financial Planner (CFP©). Although Johnny loved the subject, like most students in attendance, he was nearly bored to tears by the way it was being presented.

Johnny attended the classes hoping to gain a new perspective on teaching. Personal finance had been his hobby and he had taught on the subject for years. Johnny served with the Marines from 1992-2002 and would often volunteer to teach the basics of personal finance to young Marines. From that experience, he got a first-hand account of the dire state of personal finance knowledge with today’s youth. However, he was a bit surprised to discover that young, high school educated troops and soon-to-be MBAs had many of the same questions.

As Johnny continued to sit in on the classes, he noticed a familiar enemy – attrition. By the time the final class of the 5-part series was taught, less than 50% of the students remained. Johnny had faced similar results when he taught the material in a traditional format. He came to the conclusion that while most students can learn the basics of this admittedly dry material, many are simply not willing to. Johnny figured a different approach would be necessary for younger people to “get it”. During one of the classes, he had an epiphany; he would educate people on a level they could relate by using hip entertainment to make the material relevant.

Over the next few years, he went about developing an innovative instruction technique. The goal was to create a teaching style that would immediately capture and hold the student’s interest. To make financial literacy more relevant, Johnny figured he would need to go beyond the typical 3-ringed binder and lecture. Ultimately, he thought it would be a great idea to teach in way that also entertains, and the concept of GREAT iDEAS EDUTAINMENT was born.

Johnny would make his hobby of teaching personal finance official by adding a Certificate in Financial Planning to his MBA and BBA degrees. He spent years developing and fine-tuning a series of songs that covered the major topics of personal finance. He entitled the series, Financial Literacy Music™ and partnered with non-profit organizations to test market his product with high school and college aged students. Student response to the concept was quite favorable which solidified the decision to launch GREAT iDEAS EDUTAINMENT LLC™.

Johnny’s teaching methods have been called hip and inspirational. He marries his ability to simplify complex information with his lyrical skills to create Financial Literacy Music™; the music is available at FinancialLiteracyMusic.com. The vision of GREAT iDEAS EDUTAINMENT is to provide the masses with Knowledge Through Music.