Melissa Reaktenwalt Uncovers Money Stories and Creates a Hyper Growth Practice
Mar 29, 2024
Shelby Nicholl
Melissa Reakenwalt has created a financial planning practice that represents a future for the industry and especially for the chronically underserved women clients. Her practice is in a hyper-growth mode AND she’s building that through emotion-based conversations about money and wealth. As she often says, “Women can do money. We can make it. We can save it, and we can invest it.”
In this episode, Melissa shares how she has the deeper conversations with her clients, helps them overcome their money stories and traumas, and systematically ensures her personal energy so that she can better serve her clients. Melissa is helping her clients kick the door open to financial security and wealth building.
Learn more about Melissa’s Practice EViE Financial. EViE’s values are in their name: Education, Vitality, Independence and Empowerment.
You'll be entertained by:
Shelby Nicholl: She's a 25-year corporate vet who rose to SVP at LPL Finanical and Director at Edward Jones. She hosts the Kick It Open podcast. She founded Muriel Network in 2023 and launched the Muriel Network community app in Feb. 2024. If you're not part of the community yet, DM her on LinkedIn.
Stephanie McCarthy: Stephanie is a former broadcast journalist who became a marketing researcher and spent the last decade listening to investors and advisors about what they wanted in their financial services firms. She loves to talk about the future of the industry.
Melissa Reaktenwalt is Founder and leader Advisor at EViE Financial. With nearly two decades of experience, Melissa founded EViE in fall 2018 with a goal of providing accessible financial services to all. Her personal money mantra is simple: earn all you can; save and invest all you can; give all you can.
About this podcast:
If you're a woman in wealth management (or any male-dominated industry), this podcast is for you.
Muriel Siebert (first woman member of the NYSE ) said, "When a door is hard to open and nothing else works, sometimes you just have to rear back and kick it open.” After decades of sluggish progress, it’s time for us to kick the door open on women’s success.
Recorded and produced by Muriel Network. Graphic Design by John Gallagher. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll License code: EV5ON7Y3CSESDSEU
Melissa Reakenwalt has created a financial planning practice that represents a future for the industry and especially for the chronically underserved women clients. Her practice is in a hyper-growth mode AND she’s building that through emotion-based conversations about money and wealth. As she often says, “Women can do money. We can make it. We can save it, and we can invest it.”
In this episode, Melissa shares how she has the deeper conversations with her clients, helps them overcome their money stories and traumas, and systematically ensures her personal energy so that she can better serve her clients. Melissa is helping her clients kick the door open to financial security and wealth building.
Learn more about Melissa’s Practice EViE Financial. EViE’s values are in their name: Education, Vitality, Independence and Empowerment.
You'll be entertained by:
Shelby Nicholl: She's a 25-year corporate vet who rose to SVP at LPL Finanical and Director at Edward Jones. She hosts the Kick It Open podcast. She founded Muriel Network in 2023 and launched the Muriel Network community app in Feb. 2024. If you're not part of the community yet, DM her on LinkedIn.
Stephanie McCarthy: Stephanie is a former broadcast journalist who became a marketing researcher and spent the last decade listening to investors and advisors about what they wanted in their financial services firms. She loves to talk about the future of the industry.
Melissa Reaktenwalt is Founder and leader Advisor at EViE Financial. With nearly two decades of experience, Melissa founded EViE in fall 2018 with a goal of providing accessible financial services to all. Her personal money mantra is simple: earn all you can; save and invest all you can; give all you can.
About this podcast:
If you're a woman in wealth management (or any male-dominated industry), this podcast is for you.
Muriel Siebert (first woman member of the NYSE ) said, "When a door is hard to open and nothing else works, sometimes you just have to rear back and kick it open.” After decades of sluggish progress, it’s time for us to kick the door open on women’s success.
Recorded and produced by Muriel Network. Graphic Design by John Gallagher. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll License code: EV5ON7Y3CSESDSEU
Hi, I'm Shelby Nickel. I'm a 25-year corporate veteran and I spent most of my career inside of the wealth management industry. After climbing the ladder to reach top levels at two broker dealers, I often found myself as the only woman in the room. I felt and saw many corporate leaders and women advisors feeling left out, burned out and ready to have more impact. If you're a woman in wealth management, this podcast is for you. In this podcast, I'll tell the stories of women who are slaying it, doing things differently and bringing new energy to their work.
Speaker 1:
This podcast is named in honor of a Muriel Siebert quote. Muriel Siebert was the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange and she said when a door is hard to open and nothing else works, sometimes you just have to rear back and kick it open. After decades of sluggish progress, it's time for us to kick the door open on women's success. This is our second episode and it is all about money stories. Those are the memories we remember from childhood that shape our adult viewpoints on wealth, and the stories, or the one-liners, that summarize our values when it comes to money.
Speaker 1:
I am joined again by guest co-host, stephanie McCarthy. After a stint in broadcast journalism, stephanie built her career in marketing research and spent more than a decade at a broker-dealer. She spent those years listening to clients and advisors and learning what they wanted in their investment firms and also gathering tons of opinions of how the industry could change to better serve women investors. Let's dive in. Our guest today is Melissa Reichenwald, and she is a founder and financial advisor with EV Financial Group. Melissa has about 20 years of experience in the financial services investment industry and founded EV five years ago to focus on whole person financial wellness. Stephanie and I were talking about the ideal guest for today's conversation on money stories. Melissa was first to mind because I knew of this focus on whole person financial wellness and financial planning. So, melissa, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1:
We spent some time earlier digging into our personal money stories and it starts to feel like therapy really, really quickly. Does this happen when you talk to clients in your office about their money stories?
Speaker 2:
It absolutely does. I have probably every other client meeting that I have. At the end a client will say, especially if they're newer to the firm or newer to working with me. They'll say I don't know if you know this, but it feels like I'm in therapy and I don't know if it's supposed to and I. It warms my heart to hear that because it is such a, I want it to be a safe space to share some of those things. So I get that a lot from clients. Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 1:
And do you use that money story word or money memories, and do you, do you cover both in your in your conversations?
Speaker 2:
So I typically don't call out money stories specifically. Um, I will start most client meetings with tell me what prompted you to be here today, and that will open up the floodgates sometimes. So I have to redirect every once in a while, but it really does give a just a solid start to that conversation because people are thinking about the things that they are feeling that forced them or prompted them to reach out to us and kind of set this initial meeting. So I don't call it money stories, but I do ask a lot about how are you feeling about kind of your financial life overall. And that will typically get us into where did some of that come from? What are the things that we're continually telling ourselves about money and how then does that play into kind of our overall financial life?
Speaker 1:
What are the? So one of the questions you ask is kind of about what brought them in there today. Do you try to go kind of back in time if they're feeling like it's therapeutic? That always makes me think about my underlying memories and attitudes that I got from childhood. Does that? Do those come up a lot?
Speaker 2:
They do, and I think a lot of I work not only, but predominantly in the black community and a lot of my clients are black women, black professional women, and it gets there very quickly. And well, you know, I didn't have this growing up or we didn't have those discussions, whatever that specific story is, it usually comes out very quickly. So we do then have that sort of time travel moment of okay, where did some of this come from? You know, where is that narrative? What is the source of that? And then we can start to sort of break that down or rewrite that over time.
Speaker 1:
Do you find that a lot of those narratives? Are they healthy and positive, or is it things that we're trying to overcome and recover from as we get older?
Speaker 2:
I would say in, I think from a client perspective for folks coming into that process on the earlier side, it is about 97% negative. It is very rare that I hear a positive money story. It is most of those with the negative connotation of I don't know what I'm doing, I haven't been taught this, I don't feel like I can be successful in my financial life. It's a lot of that over and over. As clients go through the planning process and get some more financial empowerment and some more financial education, we start to see that shift a little bit. There is truly a way to kind of rewrite some of those stories.
Speaker 1:
But it typically starts with that negative foundation which can feel like we're digging out of a hole a little bit as we're starting to kind of get into it and just study after study, saying that we're not financially confident, and it always reminds me of some of the research around applying for jobs and women and how we won't apply for a role unless we know we meet all the criteria, and so every time I've been hearing about sort of like financial literacy, I'm like, okay, do we really need financial literacy or is it just financial confidence? What's your view on that?
Speaker 2:
I think it is always a combination, at least for me, a combination of both. I think that and it's interesting that you bring up sort of that societal narrative, because that feeds into our money stories pretty tremendously as well. It's our personal, you know, lived experiences that get us there, that help develop that story, but then also what everyone else is telling us. So if we each read, you know, in Women's History Month, for instance, 17 articles that all say the same things about how women can't do money, well, yeah, it's going to be pretty easy to take that on personally and just continue to feel that.
Speaker 3:
When I started researching money stories. It seems like women are very interested in this and it sounds like a lot of your clients are also women are very interested in this and it sounds like a lot of your clients are also women. Do you think men like, do men not have money stories? Or I'm sure you do have male clients? Like, when you bring all of this up with men, like how does that go?
Speaker 2:
Yep. So it's very interesting and also such a great question. I think women are more likely to start with how they're feeling about money, which I think ties very much into that money story. I think in my experience most men and I do have male clients and love them just the same. No, we rarely talk about, oh, I don't feel confident in my financial life, I don't know, I don't have the understanding to do these sorts of things, and so we're missing that financial confidence piece.
Speaker 2:
I don't see that among my men clients, but for women, absolutely that's where we start Just know what we feel like we have this deficit and that we have to overcome, and again, sort of that negative connotation we have to build out of that I think for a lot of men there is. They may have some of those stories, but they typically don't openly share them at least not with me and I think sometimes they're starting from a different foundation. Whether that is real or perceived, we're not sure, but I think that we're starting from a different foundation. Whether that is real or perceived, we're not sure, but I think that we're starting from a little bit of a different point there sometimes.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's interesting the data. I was doing a little research on this and the data will say that women actually know more than they realize. It's really interesting some of the academic research. When they use an unsure answer or don't know, multiple choice, abc or don't know women will hit the don't know. When they removed the don't know, women often get the answer right. We actually do know, but we don't trust that we know. One of the stories that you talk about is, or that you've already shared here today, is like I don't know how to do money, which is both that actual knowledge and the confidence side. What are some of the other stories that your clients are bringing to you?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think I hear a lot that money just generally is overwhelming. So the sort of concept of money building wealth, managing wealth, those types of things are all very overwhelming for people and I think that kind of goes back to I can't do money. It's just not how my brain works. I get that a lot too. I think these are all very similar iterations of the same thing.
Speaker 2:
But aside from that, I hear a lot of clients talk about how their upbringing is that there was some financial trauma there. Maybe I have some of that in my own upbringing and that would. That's what's burned into my brain as either the thing I'm running far away from and don't ever want to do, or the thing that that's the only thing I know how to do. So I think those stories while maybe not as succinct as I don't know how to do money, I think those stories while maybe not as succinct as I don't know how to do money I think those are very common to kind of pulling in. All right, what's happened and what have we experienced in the past that is still really influencing what we're doing with our financial life now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's amazing like how much childhood for being such a short amount of time for all of us, how much it carries over to all aspects of life.
Speaker 3:
You told us that one of the ways that you break that barriers down is often sharing your money story with clients. Would you mind sharing your money story with us here today?
Speaker 2:
Sure, absolutely so. It is on the negative side and on the financial trauma side of things. So brace yourself, it's not that bad. But my biggest and the memory that is burned into my brain about money specifically is that it can get you in a lot of trouble if you cannot manage it. I was either a junior or senior in high school and my parents sat I was there I don't know if my other two siblings were there for some reason that's not part of my memory but sat us down and told us hey, just so you know, we have filed for bankruptcy.
Speaker 3:
Did I have?
Speaker 2:
any idea what that meant when I was 17 years old. No, that meant when I was 17 years old, no, nope. But to see the look on their faces and sort of that just feeling of shame, and I think very much, they were both terrified because they didn't exactly know what that meant. I remember in that moment thinking, okay, money's not great and can lead to very bad things, and also over time that developed into if I can get myself into a position to where I'm making enough or I'm educated enough, I won't be in that position. That is my whole life.
Speaker 2:
Mission at that point was to not file for bankruptcy as an adult, and that is what I share with my clients. Like I've been through some things on that side. What I share with my clients Like I've been through some things on that side had to learn why I didn't come up with any of that either. I had to learn all of that and then somehow turned it into this pretty miraculous career, which was amazing.
Speaker 2:
Um was not on the to-do list, but here we are, um, but that's the story that I tell and just saying that like, oh, okay, like that, maybe their money story is ah, I got in bad with a credit card in college and it's been on my credit report, you know, for the last six years and I can't figure it out, or maybe it's. Yeah, I don't do well with money because I don't have that understanding, but at least that opens the door to say, yeah, I'm right there with you. It's going to look different, it's going to sound different coming out of my mouth versus your mouth, but we've all been through something on the financial front and to break that down, that's what we have to do Talk about it.
Speaker 1:
I love it, that too, that you say we've all been through something. I think that's it's almost in this. It's not polite to talk about money and we've all been through something. Those two things, they just are such equalizers. I feel like they would. If we could just embrace those as like a culture, it would, and maybe it's just within women, Maybe we can do it. It would change. Change the gender based wealth gap for sure.
Speaker 3:
You mentioned that I researched for 10 years what people want in a financial services experience, and if there's one theme that I could sum up 10 years of talking to people, you're not going to be surprised by this, melissa. I want them to care about me, not just by my money and hearing you say that story and then asking them what emotions you have about money, I can't think of another more powerful way to signal that that I care about you. It's not just about the money in your account, and every financial advisor is looking for ways to signal that right and to get to know people on a real level. So this is the thing that.
Speaker 3:
So the pushback I always got when we tried to implement things like this within my firm was well, that takes too much time. We've got, you know, 45 minutes an hour for that client to be there. If I'm going to talk to them for 30 minutes about their emotions and, like they, you know, their parents filed for bankruptcy when they were 17 and they're crying we're not going to get through the required paperwork we need and I might not have time to bring up insurance that I want to sell them and I'm. You know things like that. How did you get over that hump in your mind, or how do you make time for this in your practice?
Speaker 2:
So I have started here from the very beginning in my career because I had no idea how else to connect with folks. I didn't have a national mark that I could go out to and say, hey, now I'm doing this financial advising thing, come talk to me about that. It was just one client after another, after another and, honestly, I didn't have a ton of training coming into being a financial advisor and so didn't have that. Well, here's the 18 steps of, you know, getting client from here to closing. Like didn't go through that.
Speaker 2:
The only way I knew to do that was to talk and to say, okay, well, this is what I know about money. What do you know? That's not exactly how it started, but it sure felt like that when I was in my early twenties. But it has evolved over time to say, well, yeah, it is a slower process and maybe we won't get to the paperwork today. I'm okay with that because, just like my parents now, I'm not going to lead them into something down a financial planning road or their retirement plan without them feeling fully comfortable with that. I am okay taking a step back and taking another one, two, maybe three meetings that feel a little bit like therapy to make sure that the client and I are on the same page? The question then, of?
Speaker 2:
are we truly serving our clients the way that we want to? If we're not taking the time to have these conversations, Is it?
Speaker 1:
also part of how you are vetting clients to work with, to know if they're one a good fit for you as a person and as a as a provider, but also for your practice.
Speaker 2:
Yes, it absolutely is, Because if there is and I am, we've always had a just kind of wide open door for clients coming in. That was also a big part of starting my firm was accessibility, because that's another part of it, and so we've always been really accessible to just about anyone and that's that has meant that making sure that clients are a good fit for us has been a very interesting process. But starting that conversation the same way every time again with somebody new coming in, I can sell relatively quickly now Are they going to be, you know, kind of open and honest about where they're at with their finances or not, and are we going to be able to connect on that level? We don't always have to. We still have clients who come in and say I have this weird 401k over here, please roll over here. Okay, fine, we can take care of that too. But on that whole person financial planning, we want to have those discussions and clients, hopefully, are willing to have those discussions with us.
Speaker 1:
That's wonderful. One of the things you talked about earlier was how you create that environment from like the moment that the person has walked into the office. Can you just expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. I remember when I was putting the office space together, I kept feeling like, oh, I want it to feel like my therapist's office, not because of the therapy piece, but because it's very cozy. And I walk in and immediately feel like, oh, my shoulders have relaxed a little bit, I feel like my breathing is not hyped up, like we're in good shape now to do some work. I wanted the exact same feeling for walking into my office, and so it's set up a little bit like the living room is very cozy, you know, kind of overstuffed chairs, and the conference room feels very much like a kitchen table and it's meant to be very cozy and we only have one client in at a time and try and separate those out so there's not overlap there.
Speaker 2:
I think some of that can also be important, but sometimes an overlooked detail. But it's about that and also having the right team behind the scenes to make sure that any interaction they have with us it's not just about physically being in the office, but it's also about when we come on a Zoom meeting or when we, you know, are on the phone with a client or emailing with them. It's got to be the same throughout and they have to feel that feeling throughout the interaction with us. So it's a lot of different pieces, but it's really back to that. What is going to kind of level set us and put us in a space where we can talk about this in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1:
It feels like you're setting the stage to be able to get deep in a very different way than many offices, which is really wonderful when you think about what you've been doing, and I love hearing about your practice and the success of it, especially to you. I love hearing about your practice and the success of it, especially too, and you've just I don't say just you've added another location now as well. What are you hoping to build and how do you think the sort of money story approach is going to help you get there?
Speaker 2:
So I think it is for me. I have never really envisioned having an empire, so that's never really been my thought or kind of what I see for the future. But as I continue doing the things that I have done over the last almost two decades in serving clients this way and speaking to clients this way and having that space for them, I realized that and we've done some pretty rapid expansion because we had to. There's only one of me and there's a scalability issue there, at least for my sanity sake, so had to bring on some new folks. You know pretty quickly, but as I see the need just continue to grow, I start to think about right, how do we? Is there a way to replicate this in other locations with the same sort of EV process that we use and making sure that clients feel that way, no matter where they're at and no matter what EV person they are talking to? So it's, it is something that I think is possible for the right folks.
Speaker 2:
Not every advisor, not everyone in financial services, wants to do that sort of deep work with clients. Maybe they are truly just an asset, not just an asset manager, but an asset manager and they want to focus on the numbers and the investments and those specifics Awesome. We, of course, need folks to do that. I do that from. That is a hat that I wear from time to time, but this part is so important to me because I think it's what really gets us to creating wealth, sustaining wealth, breaking down some of those negative stories and rewriting them for positive stories. Women can do money. We can absolutely do that. We can make it, we can save it, we can invest it. This is what we're trying to get to, to where that is the norm.
Speaker 1:
Did you receive feedback early on in your career to build your business maybe a different way, and how did you have the staying power to build it in the way that you have?
Speaker 2:
Yep. So yes, I have had lots of what I will call pseudo mentors and a couple of real ones, but some pseudo mentors in the financial services space who, a lot of them, will say the exact same thing and have said the same thing to me over the years. You need to acquire a practice to grow and to gain that scalability. You need to go into a different, not individual, space, but move solely into the small business space, the retirement plan space. If you want to rapidly expand and my response has always been, even though rapid expansion is something that I've experienced twice now in my career, it's not something that I've ever aimed for, and so I'm okay being slower with clients and having a much slower sales process even though that's not the right word for it I am absolutely okay with that.
Speaker 2:
But it took a a lot of foundational work to get to that point, because in the financial services industry, a lot of it at least coming up, I think, for a lot of us was eat what you kill and good luck to you. And so that long sales process for a client and getting deep on those you know that therapy couch a little bit um doesn't work for getting paid and running a profitable business. So I have been fortunate enough to partner with some folks behind the scenes and with a previous business partner to allow me to do that and to have kind of a slower build. And then when I knew that I was able to do it on my own, then I was able to launch Evie and do that just solo.
Speaker 3:
Then I was able to launch Evie and do that just solo. What you're doing to me feels like the future of wealth management and I thought that probably five to 10 years ago and I'm so shocked, frankly, at how little adoption there is among the industry around the ideas that we're talking. You know, the three of us are kind of in a little echo chamber right here like loving on this right, but we've all been in rooms where we've tried to talk about this with a whole room of people who are just like, like, not so much and doing that over and over again. I loved how you phrased your question, shelby of like how do you have that staying power Because it can be joy killing right Of like this thing that I feel like I know is right in my gut is just not resonating and people that matter and people that are smart and people that have a lot of power in this industry are telling me that this isn't the right approach. So there's no question there.
Speaker 3:
I just admire you for this and I see what you're doing as like de-stigmatizing and demystifying finances for people that need that's like this little crack that is going to break open, how you know the future of closing the wealth gap, and that that's what me and Shelby are here for, right, and every little conversation, everything we're doing, we're trying to break a crack and kick that door open for people. So, anyway, I just, I just commend you and I, I want to acknowledge that the hard emotional work it takes to sustain something like that, and I wonder what's going to be that breaking point right where people will finally understand and the floodgates will open, right.
Speaker 1:
So Well, I think it could be soon.
Speaker 1:
Right, we have a $30 trillion wealth transfer underway to women and the data because Steph and I go back to that all the time the data would say they're really chronically underserved.
Speaker 1:
So, like Melissa's, methods are so incredibly empowering to women and so, yeah, aligned with, I think, how women want to do business and also how they need to do business in a way that sort of makes them feel like they are confident and informed and have that control of their money. Another data point, because, again, I love the data. Another data point is that Merrill I think it was in 2020, did a study that showed that women felt more confident when they were working with a female financial advisor than when they were working with a male financial advisor. So if we think about closing the wealth gap and we think about closing the financial literacy gap, then a lot of that is women to women talking about money, getting rid of that story of it's impolite to talk about money, and it's breaking down all those barriers and doing all the things, melissa, that you're doing in your office. I'm so excited about it, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Do you have any like, can you think of any particular client of course anonymously that you know, maybe you've worked with for a while, that has, you know, a particularly interesting money story that you've helped them overcome, or do you have any specific stories you can share?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely so. I think one client sticks out pretty significantly. She's been a financial planning client for the last handful of years and when she initially came to me, she is single in her twenties and the breadwinner for her entire family. She purchased the house for her family, her extended family, parents, two brothers and, I think, an aunt and uncle and two cousins all within this very large house in Maryland. She took on the full brunt of the financial responsibility for that, because we've got family coming from a different continent coming over and relying on her for all of her financial knowledge.
Speaker 2:
And so for her to come to me and within the first five minutes I also sometimes have this effect on people, not on purpose, it's just the vibes of the office but within the first five minutes of that meeting, the tears and I thought, oh no, oh no, what's going on? Um, but sharing that right. Well, they've put all of this on me and I was initially happy to do it. But I have I one don't know how I got to this closing table and two, how am I supposed to pay this mortgage? So, okay, that's a very serious work to do quickly, but we spent that first and it ended up being, I think a little over an hour.
Speaker 2:
That first discussion was just tell me how you're feeling about all these things.
Speaker 2:
I can see the tears, I can physically see the anxiety and stress on your face, but just lay it all out for me and tell me what's going on.
Speaker 2:
So we kind of got all of the background, and her big money story initially was I can't do this, I can't, not that I can't do money, but I can't be the person who does money for my entire family. And so we had to work through that and create lots of systems to help her with that, but then also have, fortunately in the last 12 months or so, been able to bring in some of the family to then also share some of that knowledge and some of that education to say, okay, this is what she is doing to manage some of these things, here's what you can also do to help with some of these pieces, and this is why we're doing it this way. All of that, so it truly comes back to write the story for the client, but also, just like you said, stephanie, breaking through those cracks, to say, okay, this is the work. So that is the most evidence, I think, at least within the last couple of years.
Speaker 1:
Where she's landed through your help is a place of sharing the load, and I think sometimes it's like we also set the story of either, or it's like either our spouse is managing the money or we are, or a different family member is or us, and it's like one person has all the responsibility and I love that. She landed at the share the load place. How do you get families to a share the load spot?
Speaker 2:
So we started a generational financial planning service to where it's not just and that started because a lot of the clients that were coming in over the last couple of years kind of that sweet spot baby boomer, retirement age, like we're talking about these things and many of them have adult children and as part of that, how are you feeling about your retirement picture discussion. It's like, oh great, but I would feel better if my adult children were, you know, financially launched and out of the house. We'd reduce some of our expenses. So a very sort of you know light comment that sparked this whole additional discussion about wait a minute, your adult children need this just as much as you.
Speaker 2:
So it's not just about securing your retirement but also making sure that, yes, they are financially launched and kind of having that. So it's bringing them into the discussion and sometimes that starts with just sharing where mom and dad are and that's it. We just leave it there and then kids will start to ask those questions. But the cool thing about that that's been happening recently is that now we've got clients who are those adult children who are now bringing in mom and dad. But gosh, can I I'll just say it's exhausting work on this side of the line.
Speaker 2:
It is so, so powerful to start seeing these sort of family discussions and broadly talking about all of these things that maybe for the last 20, 30 years no one's brought up in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1:
One of the things that we talk a lot about within Muriel Network and some of the materials that are out inside of our community is this kind of idea of maintaining your physical energy at the same time. How do you protect your energy? You gave one little tip earlier, which was space between meetings, but what are some of the techniques that you do daily to keep yourself at a healthy spot?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I did not used to do this, but I always start the morning the same way, so there's always 30 minutes. That is just a bit of a walking meditation, if you will. Sometimes that's just looking through my to-do list while I'm walking around, but it's still a just kind of center yourself and then first cup of coffee within about 30 minutes. But that first kind of very quiet period is really helpful for me to just kind of reset. The other thing is that my team knows that when the calendar is too much or there's going to be specifically someone who may need some more of my time or attention in a specific client meeting, the team schedules around that. So they'll build in some extra buffers.
Speaker 2:
So we know client X is coming in. We better set aside two hours just to be sure and then a 30 minute break for Melissa to get herself together and then move on to the next. So it is really it's taken a long time to get there. I think part of the old sort of trope of financial advising is just book all the meetings, that you can have a cram schedule and just the more people you see, the better it's going to be. That's the other part of kind of this slower process is that it can't be that I can't cram in 30 minute meetings all day long, because it doesn't serve our clients and certainly does not serve me. So it's about a combination of those things, both personally and then through the office, and scheduling I think are really helpful in maintaining a little bit of that balance.
Speaker 1:
I love this. This conversation has just been so incredible. I feel like listeners will have picked up a lot of tips right In terms of one how to have that conversation, how to create the environment for the right conversation and how to maintain their personal energy also along the way.
Speaker 2:
And I think I'll just reiterate that, that that money stories and concept. I think it is really important to continually have those conversations, conversations like this, conversations at home, you know, wherever it is. I think the more that we can share those things and have space for those things, the better off we will all be. So I'm so happy I was able to be here.
Speaker 1:
Thank you. Thank you so much, of course. Oh, stephanie, wasn't she so good? She's so good. There was so much packed into what she was saying. Right, she's been really intentional about how she's built her business, obviously, and the space that she's creating for these conversations, how they're able to open up in a different way and then how that can really drop all those barriers and create this like new world of commonality and equality inside of that room. Really incredible.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and there's also something with her about just like going with your gut and going with your instinct and and sticking with that, with you know, sticking with your guns and saying this, this is, this, makes sense, even though it may not be the normal process.
Speaker 3:
That's so inspiring to me, like hearing that Sometimes, no matter what you're doing, you could be just on a project or there's something and you're like it's kind of not going the way I thought it was going to go and your gut's telling you, hmm, I really need there's something, and you're like it's kind of not going the way I thought it was going to go. And you know, your gut's telling you, hmm, like I really need to do something differently. And just listening to her just reminds you of like, oh yeah, your gut is real. Your gut is will never lie to you. And go with your gut and even if it's different than the established way of doing things, there's a reason for that and it should be, and that's why you're at the table and you have to bring that to whatever you're doing. All right, well, I love talking with you today, shelby, have a wonderful afternoon and I can't wait till we talk again.
Speaker 1:
Can't wait. Talk to you soon. Hey friends, if you like this podcast, we have three quick things you can do to support us. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Share this podcast with your contacts and go over to Muriel Network M-U-R-I-E-L Networkcom and sign up for our free newsletter. Thanks, free newsletter, thanks. You might be wondering what Muriel Network is all about. Muriel Network is a modern digital community for women who work in wealth management, including those who are at the home offices and the broker dealers, the asset management firms and those who are advisors and wealth planners working directly with clients. With 75% men at the top and over 75% men in the advisor and planner community, we women often find ourselves overspoken, underestimated and very burned out. Muriel Network is a refuge, a safe space where we can unite, support one another, inspire each other to take the big leaps and learn how to really break through. Learn more at Muriel Network M-U-R-I-E-L Networkcom. If you and I both go, it will be incredible. See you there.