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.

Inspiring Women to Be Women

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Episode 33: Inspiring Women to Be Women
Guest: Bri Seeley

Do you recall the power suits in the ‘80s? The shoulder pads, unfitted suit jackets – anything to hide the feminine figure. While the corporate dress code has improved and has slightly embraced the feminine figure, there is still plenty of room for change. This episode’s guest, Bri Seeley, is working to inspire women to be women by re-embracing their femininity and their feminine energy.

Working in the fashion industry, Bri found that women were not buying her clothing because her brand consisted of flowing, feminine pieces. Women would try on her pieces and would tell her that they couldn’t wear the clothing in the “real world.” Bri was shocked that these women were telling her that if they were to dress as women, they would be able to achieve success in business. As a result, she had an epiphany and wanted to impact women on a deeper level. Bri is now a mentor, leader and author of the Inspirational Women Project Book.

Her mission is to inspire women to be women; to help them re-embrace femininity and their feminine energy to be successful in the world and to stop relying on the more masculine traits to get them to where we want to go. By not using our feminine energy, Bri says that we are not aligned with our true selves and our true gifts.

To learn more about Bri, her work and to read inspirational stories of other women, visit www.briseeley.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of Women Rocking Wall Street. Be sure to share this podcast with your friends and colleagues. Also, head over to iTunes and write a quick review if you liked what you heard. Increased reviews help increase the visibility of this podcast, which means more listeners (more listeners, more impact!)