Podcasts

Being a Modernist in Finance

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Episode 67: Being A Modernist in Finance
Guest: Georgia Lee Hussey

With training in instillation sculpture and creative writing, Georgia Lee Hussey was focused on becoming a professional artist. However, after 12 years, Georgia decided it was time to try something new. At the time she was living in Portland, Oregon during the sub-prime mortgages phase and Georgia found herself with two mortgages: the first had a 7.5% interest rate and the second had 11.5% interest, and both were variable. She had never been taught about money or budgeting and found herself in a difficult, unstable position. Georgia began reading everything she could about financing and budgeting and found that she loved it. She became inspired to become a financial planner and went back to school to get her CFP.

By the time Georgia successfully passed her CFP exam, she already had some clients, which meant that she needed a home for her business. She looked to a brokerage firm to help and was extremely grateful for all the support that they provided. However, she felt out of place because it was very male-dominated and there was a general sense of inequality. She also quickly came to realize that the institutionalized structures of the industry weren’t going to support her vision. As a result, Georgia started Modernist Financial, which was built on a foundation of creativity and collaboration.

Today, Georgia is working with Jennifer Armbrust, with Armbrust & Co. to create a feminist business model. The basic core of the model is equity and inclusion, and flattening inequalities. Modernist Financial is built on values of inviting and including, investing in people, innovating and iterating, and doing good work well. Georgia is striving to create a sense of partnership and empowerment between her advisors and clients and ensuring her staff can support the innovative advice that they are providing to clients.

If you’d like to learn more about Georgia, visit modernistfinancial.com. 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.

Hustle and Resilience

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Episode 51: Success through Hustling and Resiliency
Guest: Jilliene Helman

Hello and happy spring! I am so excited to welcome my guest this week. She is a young entrepreneur who has been a game-changer in the real estate and finance industries. At 28, she made the Forbes magazine 2015 list of 30 Under 30 Rising Stars of Enterprise Technology and has underwritten over $5 billion of real estate.

Jilliene Helmen, the former Vice President of Union Bank quit her job to start RealtyMogul.com in 2013. Her team’s mission is to simplify real estate investment through crowdfunding, allowing entrepreneurs and investors to get in the game. Sitting on the RealtyMogul.com board, Jilliene is responsible for the company’s strategic direction and operations. Today, her company is a leading online real estate capital marketplace with over 73,000 members and 65 employees.

Working in financial services as well as technology, Jilliene is no stranger to the male-dominated industries. Having grown up in an entrepreneurial and real estate savvy family, she found that she had a passion for both. After working in the banking circle for several years, Jilliene found it was stifling and decided as a result to become an entrepreneur. Knowing that her company needed investment to be successful, Jilliene went through the process of securing venture capital (VC). She had to work extremely hard, and hold plenty of meetings but as a result was successful in raising $45 million in capital across the company.

Jilliene attributes hustle and resilience as the keys to being a successful entrepreneur, especially in male-dominated industries. Even if she doesn’t know the path, she knows her destination and works towards that every day. Through hustling, Jilliene has built a strong network that she can reach out to and leverage to her company’s advantage.

An avid reader, Jilliene has found that she reads books based on the life stage of her company. If you’re starting a company, Jilliene recommends reading “Topgrading: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method that Turbocharges Company Performance” by Bradford D. Smart and “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter” by Michael Watkins. Several other books that she recommends include “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” by Brad Stone, “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal” by Nick Bilton, and “Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel” by Russell Moore.

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

How Caring Leads to Success

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Episode 49: How Caring Leads to Success
Guest: Anne McCabe Triana

My guest this week truly cares about her clients and is an advocate for women in the financial industry. Anne McCabe Triana is a graduate of George Mason University and has been working in the financial industry since 2001. She has worked with organizations like American Express Financial Advisors and UBC and is an independent advisor (owning her own company). Her current venture, Curo Private Wealth is focused on caring and engaging with clients. Anne’s team strive to learn what the concerns are of their client and then move forward from there to create a trusting relationship.

Anne is also a huge advocate for women in the financial industry. She feels that women are great financial advisors because they can be innovative in finding clients and then are able to foster strong, nurturing relationships. There is also a lot of flexibility later in the profession so that women with families can manage their own time around their family’s needs.

One thing that Anne was told early on in her career was to learn to golf if she wanted to close deals. Very early on, she took golf lessons but at a certain point, she found herself being inauthentic. Even the way she was dressing felt wrong for her. If she could go back and change things, she wouldn’t try to be a “man”. Anne recommends embracing our female qualities because those are strengths as well.

For those starting in the profession, Anne recommends finding and becoming committed to a niche and know absolutely everything about it. Anne’s success came from networking, building relationships, referrals and servicing clients as much as possible.

Some great books were mentioned in this episode including “The Consultant with Pink Hair” by Carl Harrison, “Win Without Pitching Manifesto” by Blair Enns, “From Fear to Fearlessness” by Pema Chodron, “Double Double” by Cameron Herold,  “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, and “Mastery” by Robert Greene. Also, be sure to check out my interview with Kathleen Burns, a woman who has been instrumental in growing the number of women with their CFP designation.

 If you’d like to get in touch with Anne, you can do so through Twitter and Facebook. Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the Women Rocking Wall Street show! If you liked this episode, be sure to hit subscribe, share it with others and write us a quick review on iTunes.

 

Powering Your Business

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Episode 48: Powering Your Business
Guest: Jessica Ballin

Jessica Ballin has always been interested in finances. Even back in high school, she started as a bank teller and eventually was accepted into the Carlson School of Management, through the University of Minnesota. When she got there and was asked what she wanted to do, she chose finance, because of her previous experience. When she did her internship, she had the opportunity to learn a lot more about 401Ks. She became hooked and has been doing that ever since. In 2006, Jessica decided to try something on her own and started her own business, 401(k) Plan Professionals. She has worked hard to be where she is and has recently made the NAPA’s Top Women Advisors.

Being a female in the industry, she quickly noticed that it was male-dominated. She found that by really knowing her stuff, she was able to be competitive in the market.  Jessica was able to gain respect by talking, listening and showcasing her knowledge rather than just trying to sell, sell, sell. She really focused on teaching her clients and found that she approached worked. Jessica admits that it doesn’t work all the time but it has worked for the most part. Over the last few years, she has refined her process of rehearsing, taking notes and being prepared.

Jessica has a very busy life. Between owning her business and raising three boys, she has found that taking care of herself was crucial in maintaining a great balance. She has made the decision to put her family first and to encourage work-life balance within her business. She also has a great team that are able to pick up her workload if there is something that Jessica needs to handle at home.

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

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!

Playing a Bigger Game

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Episode 27: Playing a Bigger Game
Guest: Sheri Fitts featured on the podcast The Startup Sessions

Welcome back! I hope you’re having a great summer and enjoying the warm weather. I wanted to switch things up this week and provide you with some insight into who I am as a person, business owner, and woman rocking Wall Street.

Several weeks ago, I had the privilege of being a guest on my dear friend Michael Knouse’s podcast, The Startup Sessions. Michael is a business coach, unconventional startup strategist and entrepreneur who not so long ago was selling software solutions to corporate clients. Knowing that he hand-selects his show guests based on their experience creating their own meaningful businesses, I was honored that he approached me to share my experience with ShoeFitts Marketing.

On this episode, Michael and I dig into some of the challenges that hold many women entrepreneurs back, including setting appropriate rates for services. Are you afraid to raise your rates because you believe it will hurt your chances of successfully getting clients? If so, you’re not alone! Unfortunately, this misconception could be harming your business by undervaluing your services. It’s important to remember that what you’re providing is valuable, and your clients want to pay for quality! My advice to Michael’s listeners, and to you during this episode is simple – don’t over-complicate it, just raise your rates.

If your entrepreneurial spirit is strong, but you’re struggling to propel your business forward, I hope this episode will provide insight into managing your numbers and helping your business play a bigger game.

For more information about Michael and The Startup Sessions, visit thestartupsessions.com, or find him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+.

And remember, if you like the episode, please be sure to share it with your colleagues, friends, and other connections. Let’s continue the Women Rocking Wall Street movement!