Podcasts

Changing Your Filter

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Episode 65: Changing Your Filter
Guest: Andrea Leda Wilborn

This week’s guest on the Women Rocking Wall Street Show is Andrea Leda Wilborn. She is a coach, intuitive and behind-the-scene’s worker in Portland, Oregon. Andrea began her journey through social work and counselling, and eventually moved to creative arts, consulting, and fitness. Today, she has taken her experiences in all fields and turned them into a business, helping entrepreneurs offer their gifts to the world in real and powerful ways.

One area of expertise for Andrea is Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), which refers to how one can speak to the brain and how we can use language to shift how we store data. There is no way that our brain can process all the information that we encounter on a daily bases. By using our central nervous system (5 senses), our brain reads our environment. We also use our stories and experiences to filter information, determining what we see and what we don’t. Andrea works with clients to help ensure they have the right filters in place to help them focus on their goals and achievements.

Andrea’s hope is to get everyone to look in the mirror and realize that they are the only solution to any perceived problem that they can see outside of themselves. Through asking the right questions, she strives to shift limits and therefore changes the experience for each of her clients. This not only empowers others, but also creates accountability for achieving goals.

For anyone who is looking for a shift in their career, Andrea challenges you to ask yourself a powerful question – if I knew I could not fail. It puts fear and failure aside and provides you with access to information and data that is available inside you that was previously hidden by negative emotions. Also, she tells us all to stop pretending that something isn’t accessible.

If you would like to learn more about Andrea, be sure to check out her website, andrealeda.com. She also has a powerful weekend coming up in September called Awaken Your Practice, a 3-day immersion into the soul of your business.

Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

Women in Securities Law

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Episode 57: Women in Securities Law
Guest: Linda Riefberg

My guest this week was recently acknowledged as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Securities Law. Linda Riefberg started out as a general commercial litigator in a large Wall Street firm where she was an associate working part time with two young children. When asked to increase her hours to full time, Linda decided it was time for a change. While job searching, she stumbled upon a position at the New York Stock Exchange and immediately loved the subject matter as well as the work environment. Collaboration and team work fit well with Linda, in addition to her ability to specialize in one particular business sector of the stock market.

After working in that position for 18 years, Linda decided to venture into private practice. She is now a member of the Cozen O’Connor’s Commercial Litigation department, where she represents clients in securities enforcement investigations.

Throughout Linda’s career, she has seen that the business side of the financial industry is mainly men. In contrast to that, there are many women who have made their careers as regulators and attorneys on Wall Street. Linda believes that the collaborative environment that regulators work within is why there is a higher female presence.

Now that Linda is in private practice, she has been struck by the struggles that women face. For example, she has seen the small percentage of women in upper management. She also sees the misconception that women can’t be as aggressive as men or as good at developing business. Linda feels that women make great lawyers because they’re good communicators and are great at thinking analytically. She believes that women are good at counseling clients as well but that they aren’t as direct at taking credit for achievements, like bringing in business.

To achieve success in your work, Linda recommends maintaining a happy career, which sometimes means making changes. Also, she advises not to take things personally. Often, if you’re having a difficult time with someone, it’s their behavior that is causing the conflict. Lastly, Linda recommends focusing on your skill sets because your achievements come from the investment that you put into your own work.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Women Rocking Wall Street! If you liked this episode, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

Challenging the Gender Gap

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Episode 52: Challenging the Gender Gap
Guest: Emily Viner

I am so excited that it’s April and winter is finally past us. I hope that you’re enjoying the weather and being outdoors as much as I am.

My guest this week has been making a difference in gender balance in the financial industry and sales, and she is calling on others to help. Emily Viner, Vice President of Agency Management & Leadership at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America has found her passion and is hoping to help other women find theirs too.

After graduating  with a degree in Marketing and Economics, Emily spent some time applying for marketing positions. During one interview she was asked to do a typing test. Concerned that she would be seen more as a secretary, she knew that there was more purpose in her life and turned down the job. Eventually, she came across an ad for sales in finance. Not knowing what that meant, she went and spoke with people at the company. After learning more, she became fascinated, especially by the fact that she could help others while making a comfortable living.

Knowing that women make great advisors and that women tend to buy from other women, the Guardian conducted research on why there was such a gender gap in the financial industry. After surveying several thousand women, they found that it was the sales portion of the industry that wasn’t appealing. They also found that women spent most of their time being competent and less time being confident, which has also been validated through brain science. This results in women not being comfortable with taking risks.

If this sounds like you, Emily recommends being authentic but to also learn how to say “yes” even when you don’t know how. The pressure to always be perfect and to avoid risks is holding you back. Also, we all need to get better at helping other women gain more confidence and to pull each other up.

Emily took her research and presented it to the industry through a conference with over 26,000 attendees. After her presentation, Emily challenged the industry to form a coalition to help encourage change towards gender imbalance. Over 400 people came together to look at several pieces that needed to change, and to encourage the sales aspect of the industry. During a 90 minute session, there was a huge response, which included companies from 8 different countries. At the end of the conference, 150 people signed up to take part in the coalition, with a goal to make an impact by March of 2017.

I’ve provided the executive summary and infographic to provide more context to what was discussed today. To find out more or to get involved, reach out to Emily at EViner@glic.com.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Women Rocking Wall Street show! If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

 

Permission to Take Up Space

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Episode 41: Permission to Take Up Space

Now that it’s the time of year when we’re stuck in crowded lines at the mall, we are very aware of the physical space that we take up. Our natural instinct is to make ourselves as small as possible. But our guest, Rachel Beohm has a lot to say about our body language and the way to inhabit the space around us to portray the authentic and strong people we are.

Curious by nature, and with an unquenchable thirst for learning (especially when it comes to nonverbal communication and the mind-body connection), Rachel loves researching topics for FORTE, brainstorming and making connections. Rachel is passionately interested in the connection between authenticity and how we inhabit our physical space.

Part of what makes our daily lives so hard is that our mental lives often don’t line up with the way we feel about the space around us. It’s time that we stop retreating from the world and take up the space we know is ours. When we give ourselves permission to fill the space around us, people pick up on that and read it as confidence.

Rachel provides sound, thoughtful advice for anybody who struggles with communicating boldly. The three things she says to keep in mind are voice (making sure we avoid up ward inflection especially when giving important information), breathing (focusing on breathing invites an audience in and makes you calmer), and being willing to take up the space that’s yours (your stance and body language speak volumes). Expanding the space you take up in your mind communicates the confidence that so many of us are searching for.

For more information on the work Rachel is doing visit nonverbalforte.com. Also be sure to sign up for their amazing newsletter, The F Word. And if nothing else make sure you read her insightful and practical article The Authenticity vs Confidence Conundrum. You won’t be disappointed.

If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Plan It! Do It! Love It!

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Episode 40: Plan It! Do It! Love It!

Brrr! Dare I say happy winter?

Now that the cold has come and the days are shorter, perhaps some of us are noticing that we’re not feeling as happy these days. Since we spend a lot of time at work, this probably seeps into our work life, especially with the Christmas holiday countdown on our minds. Perhaps you’ve even found that on Sunday, you’re dreading Monday and have come to the realization that you’ve fallen out of love with your job.

Fear not! My guest this week has a formula that will help you fall back in love with your work. Sherry Jordan has been coaching high-performance executives, small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and teams for over 20 years to help them realize their goals and increase their results. She is an expert in the field of change and change management and specializes in working with individuals and organizations who are ready to embrace transition and experience a higher level of personal and professional satisfaction.

Sherry has released a new book, Plan It! Do It! Love It! where she outlines how to get back to the basics so that you can move from feeling overwhelmed to living your small business lifestyle. Sherry says that it’s as simple as getting back to the basics and getting in touch with your life priorities. Sherry also highlights five tips to successfully falling back in love with your job. These include: making a plan for the year; examine the role that you’re playing; establish healthy boundaries; surround yourself with positive people, and; remember that your attitude is everything. If you have a positive attitude, great things can happen. Episode eight of The “Women Rocking Wall Street” Show (Nothing Can Stop Her) highlights the power of attitude. Also, if you’re looking for a great read, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is the perfect example of how one’s attitude can push you through anything.

Sherry has some great resources so be sure to visit her website, SherryJordanCoach.com, and register for a free e-book that will help you with 10 top leadership tips. Also, she is giving away 25 free Plan It! Do It! Love It! books. To get one, all you have to do is go to planitdoitloveit.com and use the code WRW. Lastly, you can connect with Sherry on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or see some additional resources on her YouTube channel.

If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Launching Fearlessly

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Episode 38: Launching Fearlessly
Guest: Anne Samoilov

Happy Halloween! This week’s episode is a perfect fit to the Halloween theme around fear and the fun, excitement and joy that it can bring. This week’s guest, Anne Samoilov helps entrepreneurs, small business owners and consultants through the process of fearlessly launching a product or business, or another type of business launch. Anne says that it’s not about fear, it’s about that moment of committing to the decision to doing something new and taking that leap.

Coming up with an idea is the easy part of creating a new business or product but when you haven’t done it before, launching can be a scary and often daunting task. For Anne, she sees it as a production, with particular steps that need to happen for the business or product launch to be successful. The most important thing that anyone should do, according to Anne, is determine who “they” are and start the conversation. Find out who your target audience is and reach out. Do this before you launch your business and get their input (both the good and the difficult to hear). You can also search online and see what people are saying about a particular topic that relates to your business or product idea.

While launching a business or product can be intimidating, it is also an exciting time. Once off the ground, it allows you to control your schedule and provides flexibility to accommodate family situations. Don’t let the fear of launching a great idea hold you back because there are people like Anne, who are there to help you.

For more information about Anne Samoilov, you can visit her website at www.fearlesslaunching.com, or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Giving Yourself Permission to Say “No”

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Episode 37: Giving Yourself Permission to Say “No”
Guest: Lane Kennedy

Welcome back! My guest this week has done it all. She is a woman who has many talents – especially when it comes to being an entrepreneur. Lane Kennedy has turned a startup into a million dollar business in less than 18 months, has built a lingerie company and has even worked for a non-profit company in Bangkok. She is a mom, fiction writer, podcaster, and business coach to women who are looking to start a business in the online market.

Lane is one busy woman and she has a lot of demands on her time. Throughout her experiences, she has had to learn to say “no,” which is difficult for many of us. The nagging guilt of letting someone down, or hurting their feelings tends to leave us stretched thin on time and feeling strained and sometimes even resentful. However, a lot of us keep finding ourselves in the same situation time and time again – we want to say “no” but we hear ourselves saying “yes.”

Many of us have a hard time setting boundaries and determining when it’s okay to say “yes” and when it’s okay to say “no.” The key is to ask yourself: is this going to serve my family or me? If you’re uncomfortable saying “no,” an alternative is “not right now,” or “no, but thanks for the opportunity.” However you choose to say it, the most important thing is that you start protecting your time and prioritizing.

For more information about Lane Kennedy, you can visit her website www.lanekennedy.com, or connect with her on Twitter. Also, be sure to check out her podcast The Game Changer.

If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Rocking an Interview

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Episode 36: Rocking an Interview
Guest: Margot DeMore

It’s officially fall and it is absolutely beautiful outside! I hope you’re enjoying the leaves, and all the pumpkin mania, as much as I am.

We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve had butterflies in our stomach when getting ready for an interview. The stress of preparing for the interview is only half the battle. This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Margot DeMore, founding partner of Broad Street Consulting Group, a search firm specializing in retained executive search and consulting services for the traditional and alternative investment community and insurance industry. Her whole career has been playing matchmaker between companies and potential team members.

Margo lives and breathes interviews, and has some great tips and tricks to make sure we rock them. According to her, many of us are great at researching and understanding the organization when preparing for an interview, but tend to fall short on how to share our story in a way that highlights our strengths and attributes.

Margot recommends writing down all the adjectives that describe your strengths and think about how it fits with the position and organization you’re interviewing with. Next, brainstorm stories that highlight each adjective. The last step is to practice, practice, practice! Tell you stories to you partner, colleagues or even the mirror.

There are plenty of things that you can do to increase your chances of a successful interview. Be sure to check out Margo’s cheat sheet for more tips. For more information on Margot, visit broadstreetconsulting.com, or find her on LinkedIn.

This is a great episode for everyone so be sure to share it with your friends, colleagues, college graduates, and even high school students. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Negotiating Salaries 101

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Episode 35: Negotiating Salaries 101
Guest: Jim Hopkinson

We’ve all been there where we’ve felt like we’ve rocked an interview and then dreaded question comes up. “What is your current salary?” Or even worse, “what are your salary expectations for this position?” It’s common for us to hesitate in answering that awful question because on one hand we don’t want to throw out a number that is too high (and risk losing our chance at the position) and, on the other hand, we don’t want to low-ball ourselves.

My guest this week is Jim Hopkinson, and he has come to our rescue! A speaker, writer, and teacher, he helps ambitious professionals overcome their fear of negotiating their salary. Jim has helped a lot of people push past the discomfort of asking for what their worth, and his number one advice is research. Understanding what your worth is the key to being able to ask for more. One way to determine what the market value is for your position and experience is visiting websites like salary.com, payscale.com, and glassdoor.com. He also recommends talking to your internal network. Once you have all your research, you can put it into a report and provide it to the company looking to hire you or presenting it to your current boss. The more research you do, the stronger your case.

To jump back to the dreaded interview question, Jim recommends countering with: “Oh I’m sorry, my current employment contract doesn’t allow me to reveal that information. It’s private company information. What kind of range did you have in mind?” By turning it around, you’re opening up the conversation and allowing room for negotiation!

If you want to learn more after this episode, visit salarytutor.com/fastclass for a 7-day free email class that will teach you how to negotiate your salary. If you liked this episode be sure to share it with those you think might find this valuable. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Lastly, thanks for listening!

Planning to Be a CFP

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Episode 30: Planning to Be a CFP
Guest: Eleanor Blayney

Hello there, and welcome back to Women Rocking Wall Street. A couple weeks ago, I spoke with Renee Amochaev about her fight for gender equality on Wall Street. And this week, I’m continuing the theme and encouraging women out there to research the opportunities that a career in financial planning can bring. Well, who better to speak about this topic than Eleanor Blayney, author of “Women’s Worth: Finding Your Financial Confidence.” In addition to being an author, Eleanor is a CFP and consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

In 2013, the CFP Board launched Women’s Initiative (WIN). Under the leadership of Nancy Kistner, then chair of CFP Board’s board of directors, WIN conducted research about why there are so few women in financial planning—the number has remained flat at 23% for several years. Based on the research, the WIN Advisory Panel released a white paper called “Making More Room for Women In the Financial Planning Profession.” The research found that, compared with men, women are much less familiar with the financial planning profession and the requirements for CFP certification. And when it comes to financial advisers who do not have CFP certification, 39% of men said they would “definitely or probably” pursue it, compared with 23% of women.

If you’re a CFP who wants to tell women more about this exciting career, consider becoming a WIN Advocate and spreading the word. By sharing your story with your community, you can make the profession more attractive to women. Please visit this link for more information about becoming a WIN Advocate. Every action we take like this can help close the gender gap!

If you have a passion for helping others, I would encourage you to explore a career in financial planning. As Eleanor says, it’s not all numbers, sales and production—it’s a career that calls for creativity, relationship skills, communication and an interesting in helping people achieve their goals. Sounds pretty nice, right?

Thanks for listening, and as always, please head to iTunes and tell us what you think about the episode. And share this podcast with friends and family! Until next time.