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.

Slowing Down to Speed Things Up

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Episode 66: Slowing Down to Speed Things Up
Guest: Laura Moore

Welcome back to the Women Rocking Wall Street Show! This week’s show is all about how slowing down can actually help you speed things up.

Laura Moore has a very interesting business story. Having moved to Australia from the UK several years ago, she fell into the health and wellness industry. Starting as a personal trainer she found that she loved it and therefore threw herself into her work. With several years under her belt, Laura started her own gym, which became her pride and joy. Eight months into the business, and just as it was starting to become profitable, Laura received a call that changed everything. Unfortunately her gym had caught fire and she was faced with a whole host of challenges. She was able to relocate her gym to another location but at that point she had come to the realization that it wasn’t working for her anymore. She also found some changes were happening with her body that put her on a new journey. Eventually she came to the realization that her mind was causing her health issues. This forced her to learn where the problems were stemming from and how to change her behaviour. Today, Laura is the founder of Uppy, a performance and health coaching program that aims to help professional and driven women to make changes in their life to achieve what they want.

When we’re busy and on the go all the time, our body thinks that we’re in danger, and releases adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones release energy so that we can fight or run. The problem is, if we’re not actually running or fighting, these hormones don’t get used and are left cycling through our system, which results in the extra fat in our hips and belly (known as a cortisol belly). Unfortunately, this fat likes to attract more fat. There are other side effects, including erratic energy, causing extreme exhaustion and moments of high energy, especially at night. Our body can also stop anything that isn’t necessary to function, including digestion, which is what leads to bloating.

If these symptoms resonate with you, perhaps it’s your body telling you to slow down. There are several things that Laura recommends that you can do to make subtle changes. The biggest thing is becoming aware again with your body and how it responds to different situations. Second, allow your brain to take a break, sometime in the day, so that your body knows that you’re not in danger. You can do this by breathing deeply for several minutes. Third, determine what is important to you and identifying your real, deep level goals and values. Finally, she suggests setting boundaries that create more space for you to do the things that meet your goals and values.

If you would like to learn more about Laura and Uppy, visit Uppy.com.au. 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.

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.

Finding Energy to Recharge Your Battery

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Episode 64: Finding Energy to Recharge Your Battery
Guest: Debbie Pokornik

Welcome back to the Women Rocking Wall Street Show. This week’s show is all about reconnecting with our feminine energy and to empower ourselves to live a vibrant and powerful life.

My guest this week is Debbie Pokornik, a women of many talents. She is a mother, natural health nut, dedicated dog owner, award-winning author and a passionate social worker. Debbie is also the Chief Empowerment Officer for her company Empowering NRG, which helps proactive moms create the vibrant and powerful life that they crave by guiding them to stand in their own power while at home, work or at play.

Debbie’s began her career working for school districts and helping them create programs for kids, parents, teachers and the community, with the purpose of bringing out the best in everyone. Debbie left in 2010 to write her first book, Break Free of Parenting Pressures: Embrace Your Natural Guidance and from there she wrote another book, Standing in Your Power: A Guide for Living Your Life Fully Awake.

Today, Debbie focuses on helping moms learn to recharge their batteries, which is necessary to live a vibrant and powerful life. When talking about a balanced person, Debbie highlights two types of energy that exist in everyone – divine masculine and divine feminine energy. While most of us associate each with a specific gender, Debbie say to think of them as an operating system, both pieces are equally important to both genders. When society perceives the feminine energy as weak, it actually weakens society as a whole because according to Debbie, the feminine energy is what recharges our batteries.

The key to success is finding time to reconnect with your divine feminine energy. Even if you think that you don’t have the time, it’s identifying those pleasurable moments that we experience each day and really focusing on that moment. The more you focus on them, the easier it becomes to notice those little moments rather than focusing on the difficult times. Also, make the time to get out in nature, which is a great way to reconnect with your feminine energy.

If you would like to learn more about Debbie, be sure to check out her podcast, Vibrant, Powerful Moms. 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.

Battling Inequality Through Words

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Episode 63: Battling Inequality Through Words
Guest: Kelly Shikany

Welcome back to the Women Rocking Wall Street Show! This week’s guest was spurred to contact me when she heard the Women Rocking Wall Street episode where I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathleen Burns Kingsbury about embracing being a female and not being afraid to ‘ski like a girl.’ As someone who has held different positions in the financial industry, Kelly Shikany is familiar with being the only female at the table and is now working to change public perceptions around women and finance.

Kelly’s first experience with gender inequality occurred while she was working at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Although she loved her job (in the late 80’s) it was not a female friendly workplace. Treated differently by colleagues as well as clients (some weren’t even interested in hearing a women’s voice), Kelly accepted both at the time because of the experience she was gaining. Kelly was aware what was going to happen and accepted it because she wanted the experience. However, today Kelly is glad to see that there has been substantial progress when it comes to women’s rights and has made it her mission to help mentor the next generation.

As a Financial Advisor at Lakeside Wealth Management, Kelly now has the pleasure of working with clients from across the United States. She spends her time building women’s confidence on their financial investments while battling the conception that women aren’t able to understand money. There have been many times where she has been sitting in a boardroom where complex concepts are being discussed and the presenter has said, “I’ll make it so easy that your mom will understand.” Whenever this happens, Kelly takes the time to speak to the presenter about not singling out women or using gender pronouns. It’s important to raise awareness so that the next generation has more confidence and doesn’t have to battle the gender issues.

For any women looking at getting into the financial industry, Kelly recommends joining the CFP mentorship program, known as WIN-to-WIN, which strives to build up female advisors. Also, don’t be afraid to share your knowledge and network so that there can be more females in the industry. If you would like to learn more about the work being done for women within the CFP program, tune into the Women Rocking Wall Street episode with Eleanor Blayney. If you would like to learn more about Kelly, you can connect through Lakeside Wealth Management’s Facebook and Twitter account.

Thank you for listening. If you liked what you heard, please write us a quick review on iTunes and share this with others whom you think might find it interesting or valuable.

Financial Freedom Through Intention

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Episode 62: Financial Freedom Through Intention
Guest: Julia Carlson

Welcome back to the Women Rocking Wall Street Show. This week’s episode is all about the power of intention and setting your mind to achieving your goals.

My guest this week is Julia Carlson, founder of Financial Freedom Wealth Management. She was one of the 40 Under 40 in InvestmentNews and won the 2015 Women’s Choice Award for Financial Advisors. In 2000, Julia started her company in Newport, Oregon and has now grown her business to include 4 locations. Fortunately for Julie, in 2008, Financial Freedom was endorsed as a local provider, which brought in 20 to 30 referrals per month.

Julia is an extremely entrepreneurial person and she has always been a go-getter. Here she was in her 20’s trying to build her business. Like all of us at that age, she had to work hard to prove herself and now she has the established confidence that is driving her dream big. Her drive comes from her passion for her work and attributes some of her success to the goals that she has set throughout the years. Rather than being reactive, Julie focuses on always being in a state of intention and strives to be proactive when it comes to problem solving.

Through education, Julia works to help women embrace their wealth. One such example is their Women Wealth and Wisdom seminar which encourages women to discuss the values that are put on money and how to take charge of their financial future. She also makes her own personal learning a priority so that she can better help her clients.

One final thing that Julia that she attributes to her success is visualizing what the end result looks like while meditating. A book that Julie recommends, which illustrates the power of the mind is You Are The Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter by Dr. Joe Dispenza.

If you’d like to reach out to Julia, you can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you for listening. If you liked what you heard, please write us a quick review on iTunes and share this with others whom you think might find it interesting or valuable.

Influencing the Masses

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Episode 59: Influencing The Masses
Guest: Teresa de Grosbois

Teresa de Grosbois is a mass influencer, international speaker, author and leader the Evolutionary Business Council, an international organization of thought leaders. This is a collaborative entity of people who are committed to creating positive change in the world. As mentioned earlier, Teresa is an influencer, and teaches the skill of mass influencing to others. Many don’t realize that influence is a skill that can be learned and that there are many different levels of influence.

Initially, Teresa worked in the Canadian oil and gas sector, which was male dominant. She was fortunate to have a lot of great mentors and was a change agent from the very beginning. Teresa was leading a lot of change initiatives in the industry and found it difficult until a mentor provided her with insight into influencing. He gave her an analogy of pushing a rope in the middle, and the ends would follow rather than trying to pull the rope at one end. By this, he meant that Teresa should find those who are change leaders and bring them on board, and eventually the others would follow. This is one of the key principles of mass influence – find the innovators and early adopters and the rest will follow.

There are several other key principles to influence that Teresa discusses in detail. One is that you can’t make yourself influential – if you want influence, you have to give others influence through endorsing, connecting and praising in an authentic way. One barrier that Teresa identifies that stops people from mass influence is internal dialogue. Your self-limiting beliefs can hold your back from achieving your dreams. Journaling about your inner dialogue can help you change how it’s limiting you and learn more about those messages that are holding you back.

Teresa recommends taking the 30 Day Influence Challenge. Find someone every day for the next 30 days and publicly praise or endorse them. For more information around Teresa’s book, Mass Influence, or to get in contact with her, visit her website. You can also check out her blog for more tips on gaining influence. Lastly, if you’d like to learn more around mass influence movements, visit the Evolutionary Business Council’s website.

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.

Financial Power

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Episode 58: Financial Power
Guest: Rosemary Frank

I have been looking forward to speaking with this week’s guest of the Women Rocking Wall Street Show. Rosemary Frank, Financial Advisor, had a 30-year career in the corporate sector. She was always deeply immersed in financial issues and eventually decided that she wanted to transition to a personal approach, specifically personal finance. When she began transitioning, she realized that she had a lot to learn. She studied and worked her way up to where she is today.

Throughout her entire career, Rosemary found that it was a lonely road, mainly because she was a woman.  As a result, when she started her practice, she spent a lot of time listening, sympathizing and educating her clients, rather than just telling them what she thought they should do. As a result, she has a successful practice that has a majority of female clients. Also, through her processing of listening, she was led into the specialization of divorce finances.

When she started her divorce work, she was finding clients who would come to her fearing their financial future. Rosemary would then have to contact the attorney and explain how she was helping in the process, especially with settlement options. This is definitely not an easy part of Rosemary’s job because traditionally they run the show. However, more and more attorneys are becoming more educated on the financial processes that are crucial during the divorce process.

It seems that Rosemary tripped into her niche but now owns it and uses it to her advantage. She received specialized training to handle divorce situations and was eventually the only person in the country to have three certifications. Not only was she the most educated person in the country, but she also wrote a course, Avoid The Potential Pitfalls of Divorce Cases, which  was approved for continuing legal education in her state. This changed the dynamic between her and attorneys because they were paying her to learn more about finances and divorce proceedings.

Rosemary has some great advice for her female clients. She implores you to be knowledgeable about their household finances – don’t give up your financial power to someone else. Also, keep your retirement in mind. Determine what the challenges are and meet them head on. If that means changing one’s lifestyle, it’s within your power to do so.

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.

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.

Thriving in Business

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Episode 56: Thriving in Business
Guest: Martine Lellis

Happy May! I have been enjoying the outdoors recently since the weather has been so gorgeous and I hope you’ve had the opportunity to do the same.

My guest this week is Martine Lellis has a passion for learning. She grew up in a small town in South Carolina and was fortunate to gain admissions into Duke University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Upon graduation, Martine began working within the IT industry building systems for banks and insurance companies. While this was her first exposure to the financial industry, her real awakening came when she realized a gap in knowledge within general concepts around money that occur in primary as well as post-secondary schooling. When she looked at the gap in her knowledge and paired it with what drove her, she found a match in financial planning.

For the past 14 years, Martine has been Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney (SBSB) where she has worked her way up to Chief Operating Officer. Considering herself a life-long student, Martine has not only her MBA from Georgetown University, but she also has become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Financial Planning (CFP). Her passion for learning and knowledge seeking has led her to her career today. Her learning today comes from taking different projects, gaining knowledge through application and experience.

As someone who is the COO of a company that manages nearly $3 billion in client assets, Martine was initially surprised when she was asked if she wanted the position. Knowing her limits and skill sets, believing in herself and her ability to think critically about any situation, Martine had the self-confidence to take it on and be successful. She partnered with others in the company so that she could ask for assistance when she needed it. She feels that this is key to succeeding in any position. Martine surrounds herself with team members, mentors, and advisors who have different skills sets than her. They are not only there to help her solve problems but to also jolt her out of your current opinion, or tunnel vision, to see the potential in a situation.

Recently, Martine and several of her partners decided to purchase back the Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney from their bank parent and start a new endeavor as a private company once again. Through her relationships over the years, Martine has been able to bring together external resources to ensure a successful transition.

Martine in thriving in her role and has some great advice for anyone who may be feeling stagnant in their role. She recommends never saying no to various situations and to be open-minded about opportunities because everything is an open door to learning. If you are stuck in a position, look around and ask yourself how you can continue to learn and to grow. If you’re not happy with the way things are going, talk to others and gain some different insight.

If you’d like to reach out to Martine, you can do so through her company website. 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.