Podcasts

Hustle and Hard Work

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Episode 68: Hustle and Hard Work
Guest: Winnie Sun

Women Rocking Wall Street is back and better than ever! Our first guest is a woman who’s done it all. A hustler who has reinvented herself time after time. Winnie Sun started her career in Hollywood, owning a television audience production company that brought in audiences for shows like “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, and “Wheel of Fortune”. This was her first successful business. Despite its success, Winnie’s Chinese immigrant parents didn’t delight in her chosen profession. Winnie decided to take night classes at UCLA, getting her certificate in financial planning. Shortly after, she received an offer from Smith Barney. That’s when everything changed. While cold calling at Smith Barney, Winnie sought out a more strategic way to solicit new business. She stayed after hours and made her cold calls while all her colleagues went home. She left voicemails, getting callbacks from individuals who actually wanted to talk to her. A few firms and years later, Winnie now leads a group of practitioners at her Sun Group Wealth Partners, a financial advisory firm in Southern California. She writes for Forbes, is on CNBC’s advisory council, and is a mother and a heartfelt advisor. Winnie’s focused on reshaping the image of advisors and inspiring the next generation of investors and audiences.

    • Winnie Sun: Twitter
    • Winnie Sun: Facebook
    • Winnie Sun: Instagram
    • The Icarus Deception
    • Coffee for Badass Segment: Leslie Fram, Tracy Gershon, and Beverly Keel are three successful music executives who started Change the Conversation. Change the Conversation was started to bridge the gap of gender inequality in the country music industry. Country radio stations were playing very few female artists songs. They created change with their dedication to improving the environment for women in music and their goal to become obsolete and “to never have this conversation again”. 
    • Lily Trager: MAKERS
    • Lily Trager: LinkedIn
    • Morgan Stanley: Diversity & Inclusion

 

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Diversity & Inclusion

This podcast has been sponsored by Morgan Stanley, a Firm where diversity is an opportunity – for both clients and employees. By valuing diverse perspectives, Morgan Stanley believes it can better serve its clients while also helping employees achieve their professional objectives. Morgan Stanley’s corporate culture is one that is open and inclusive, which is fundamental to its role as a global leader.

The guest speakers are neither employees nor affiliated with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. (“Morgan Stanley”). The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Morgan Stanley. The information and figures contained herein has been obtained from sources outside of Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley makes no representations or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of information or data from sources outside of Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is not responsible for the information or data contained in this podcast.

This podcast does not provide individually tailored investment advice and is not a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any security or other financial instrument or to participate in any trading strategy. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it.

MAKERS@ Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Since 2013, Morgan Stanley was one of a select group of companies, and the first financial services firm, invited to participate in the organization’s MAKERS@ corporate initiative to annually recognize women across Wealth Management who serve as groundbreakers, innovators and advocates along with the men who sponsor and champion women’s advancement. To date, Morgan Stanley has recognized 95 women and two men.

CRC# 2450415  03/06

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.

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.

 

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.

The Truth About Your Finances

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Episode 50: The Truth About Your Finances
Guest: Tammy Johnston

Tammy Johnston has broken the rules within the financial services by doing things differently. Rather than speaking in acronyms and industry jargon, she has created a new way of doing things to educate people about their finances.

While temping at Investor’s Group, Tammy was drawn into the financial side of things and that’s how her journey began. Over the past 9 years, she has worked in regional offices, for independent agents and has managed two different MGA’s. Eventually, she decided that she wanted to do more than just sales, so she started The Financial Guides. Her purpose is to provide accurate and unbiased information in a way that is easy for her clients to understand. In addition to working with clients, Tammy created several seminars including “Sandwich Safaris”, “Business Builder Nights”, and “Small Business Class”.

Not only does Tammy work to create comprehensive financial plans for her clients, she digs deep into their emotional well-being to determine the reason behind their financial decisions. See sees herself as a financial counsellor, to help move her clients forward and increase the success of her financial plans. She also lives by the rules that if her clients aren’t going to listen to her advice, then they are not the right clients for her.

If you’re interested in learning more about finances, Tammy has written several books, geared towards educating even the most novice person about how finances work, including children. You can also reach out to her through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or through email at tammyjohnston@thefinancialguides.com.

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.

 

Becoming the CEO of Your Life

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Episode 46: Becoming the CEO of Your Life.

Happy February. It’s beginning to get lighter here in Portland, Oregon and I am finally able to get out the door and walking again. The Daphne are beginning to bloom and it’s such a beautiful, hopeful sign of spring.

This week is another interview where the microphone is turned around (metaphorically speaking) and I am the one being asked questions by Kristin Mountain, co-founder of Podcast SMARTER. This episode is around career growth and planning and how you can become the CEO of your life.

I recall when I started thinking about this specifically, it was during the 2008 recession. A lot of people were coming to meet with me to network, in the hopes to get a job. I thought to myself that I didn’t want to be in a position to scramble to build my network when I needed it, but to build it when I didn’t need it at the moment.

When thinking about your career and where you are now versus where you want to be, you should ask yourself how big you can go. Begin thinking about what’s in your heart and how does that match up with your expertise and talents. Then determine where you want to be in 10 years. Not only should you be thinking of your career, but also what your day looks like and what do you want your surroundings to look like. The more you can put a vision to it, the more you can plan for it.

It takes time to get to where you want to go and sometimes we end up feeling stalled or under-appreciated. I always recommend volunteering your time, and skills, to an outside organization. This not only helps you experience new things, but you’re growing your skills, meeting new people and experiencing the appreciation that you may not be feeling at work.

Once you’ve determined where you want to go, the best thing to do is network. Getting involved in associations and creating a LinkedIn account are two simple ways to start getting yourself out there. By committing to attending a networking event one day a month, you can start building some great relationships. Then, once you have found some people that you connect with, help solidify that by following up with an email or phone call. If networking is out of your comfort zone, be sure to read “The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know” by Bob Beaudine and listen to these previous WRW episodes: Confidence is Contagious and How to Work a Room.

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

Don’t Tell Yourself No. Let Other People Tell You No.

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Episode 45: Don’t Tell Yourself No, Let Others Do It for You
Guest: Kim Shaw Elliott and Anne Elliot

This week’s episode of The Women Rocking Wall Street Show is special because we have a mother and daughter duo. Both women are in financial services, each with interesting personal stories. Kim Shaw Elliott began her career as a litigator and eventually decided to combine her knowledge of the law with a Master of Business Administration. She now serves as President and in-house ERISA Counsel of Independent Financial Partners (IFP) Plan Advisors, a division of financial partners located in Tampa, Florida. IFP Plan Advisors works with 150 specialists in the retirement plan arena and provide services to around 1700 retirement plans.

Anne Elliott graduated from the University of Missouri 4 years ago and she has been working with Edward Jones for over 6 years. Anne began her career at Edward Jones as an on-call Branch Office Administrator while still in school, thanks to advice from Kim. After training with an Advisor over spring break, Anne knew she wanted to gain more experience. She picked up the phone and began calling various Edward Jones branches to see if she could fill any openings. She was successful in her search and has been with Edward Jones ever since. Anne is currently in the Client Strategies Group and has been in that position for 6 months.

There were two things that helped Anne secure her first position with Edwards Jones – networking and rejection. Through the networking Kim had done in her career, Anne was able to connect with the right people. Once she had some experience, Anne wasn’t afraid of rejection when she picked up the phone and began calling. She had learned in graduate school not to tell yourself no but rather to let others do it for you. She knew that rejection promoted personal and professional growth, and while it was hard if she hadn’t taken the chance, she would not have started with Edwards Jones at such an early stage of her career.

Both Kim and Anne work in a male dominated industry. For example, while Kim was a litigator, she had an instance where a judge thought she was a secretary. Anne has seen the male dominance within the industry but she is also seeing it slowly changing. Her career advice is to always do what’s right for the client, and that should be at the base of every decision. Anne also recommends honing your networking skills, because this industry is all about relationships.

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.

Moving from Gender Diversity to Gender Balance

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Episode 44: Moving from Gender Diversity to Gender Balance
Guest: Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Welcome back and thank you for joining me again for this week’s episode of Women Rocking Wall Street. I have really been looking forward to this chat, ever since I read my guest’s content in the Harvard Business Review.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is a prolific speaker and writer. As CEO of 20-first, Avivah works with top management teams from international companies to identify opportunities to create more balance within their organization, primarily around gender and culture. Having active, strategic debates with the executive team is a constant occurrence for Avivah. This helps the teams understand what the gender topic is and how best to lead a more “gender bilingual” organization.

If gender balance isn’t established within an organization from the start, it’s not usually going to happen naturally. It takes three things to create balance: leadership, culture shift, and systems that are supportive and adaptive to the 21st century. Changing the balance within an organization is fairly simple. Most companies become frustrated with their lack of success when trying to create gender balance. Therefore, the executive team is open to suggestions and advice on where and how to move forward – which is where 20-first comes in.

Avivah recommends we stop using the phrase ‘gender diversity’ because it frames the females as one diversity among many. By using the term ‘gender balance’, we’re helping create a movement that has been occurring throughout the 21st century. It’s now gaining some strong momentum which will positively impact businesses and relationships.

To learn more about Avivah and to find resources on how to promote gender balance, visit 20-first.com.

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

What I’ve Learned From Podcasting

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Episode 43: What I’ve Learned From Podcasting

Hello again! I have been on a slight hiatus because I’ve been reflecting on 2015 and am looking at what I want for 2016. What I’ve found is that I want ShoeFitts, my marketing firm, to work with the right people and on the right projects. That means turning my business into a small batch, artisan marketing firm that does highly crafted work for my clients. Regarding Women Rocking Wall Street, I’ve been wondering how I can continue to give you high quality, relevant content that can provoke thoughts and motivate. So, in February and March, you’ll see several episodes where I’ll be the one interviewed. My goal for Women Rocking Wall Street is to have meaningful conversations with guests as well as you.

Having released podcast episodes for the past year, I’ve overcome the fear of the microphone, have had great conversations with amazing and talented guests, and I’ve run into challenges along the way. Kristin Mountain, co-founder of Podcast SMARTER wanted to pick my brain on what the last year has been like and what I’ve learned.

After identifying the vision for my podcast, even though I do a lot of public speaking, I found that I was initially intimidated by the microphone. Other challenges that I’ve found is consistency and finding the guests that I feel will spark that valuable conversation. While I’ve had challenges, I’ve also had a lot of successes. I’ve reflected on some of my favorite episodes, which include: Finding Your Inner Rockstar, Toughing it Out, Ski Like a Girl, The Evolution of Women in Finance, and the list goes on. Having a great team has helped keep Women Rocking Wall Street going.

If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, my best advice is to sit at your computer, turn on the microphone and hit record. Also, offer yourself up to other podcasts. If you want to be on the Women Rocking Wall Street, email me with your idea.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Women Rocking Wall Street! If you liked this episode, be certain to subscribe and share it with others.