Podcasts

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.

 

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.