Women Rocking Wall Street - A Podcast Dedicated To Women In Financial Services

Episode 52: Challenging the Gender GapGuest: 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

Episode 51: Success through Hustling and ResiliencyGuest: 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

Episode 50: The Truth About Your FinancesGuest: 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

Episode 49: How Caring Leads to SuccessGuest: 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

Episode 48: Powering Your BusinessGuest: Jessica Ballin Jessica Ballin has always been interested in finances. Even back in high school, she started as a bank teller and eventually was accepted into the Carlson School of Management, through the University of Minnesota. When she got there and was asked what she wanted to do, she chose finance, because of her previous experience. When she did her internship, she had the opportunity to learn a lot more about 401Ks. She became hooked and has been doing that ever since. In 2006, Jessica decided to try something on her own and started her own business, 401(k) Plan Professionals. She has worked hard to be where she is and has recently made the NAPA’s Top Women Advisors. Being a female in the industry, she quickly noticed that it was male-dominated. She found that by really knowing her stuff, she was able to be competitive in the market.  Jessica was able to gain respect by talking, listening and showcasing her knowledge rather than just trying to sell, sell, sell. S

Episode 47: Navigating SocialGuest: Sheryl Brown LinkedIn can be a challenging tool but is so valuable when it comes to networking, building connections and your personal brand. This week’s guest is a Sheryl Brown, a social media maven who is skillful in navigating the social media world. She is by trade an Insurance Advisor and has been in the industry for over 20 years. Today, she has a social media consulting business, not to mention she is in charge of the social media strategy for one of the largest private insurance brokerage office in the U.S. Sheryl has also started a social media non-profit, Social Samaritans. This international organization consists of social media professionals that focus on teaching their communities about social media and how to use it to their advantage. Sheryl, although now she is a social media genius, admits that she became involved thanks to her kids. She was curious about what they were doing online all the time, and then one night her son explained to her how social media

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 think

Episode 45: Don’t Tell Yourself No, Let Others Do It for YouGuest: 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 Advis

Episode 44: Moving from Gender Diversity to Gender BalanceGuest: 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 cent

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 b

Episode 42: The Power Pose  It’s been a great first year of the Women Rocking Wall Street, and I’ve had the pleasure of following up with Tracy Bagli Hooper, who was my very first guest when I first launched WRW. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to episode two, Confidence is Contagious, Tracy is the creator of The Confidence Project, an organization dedicated to help others build confidence in their lives. As she likes to say, “the Confidence Project is an equal opportunity endeavor.” According to Tracy, confidence may have a genetic component, and even though some people may have a slight genetic advantage, it’s possible to build confidence through training our brain for a confidence mindset.  Have you ever heard of the Power Pose? It’s a technique for building confidence for a meeting, interview or any event where you want to build and demonstrate your best self.  It changes the hormones in your brain and help you reduce Cortisol and increase Testosterone.  It’ll not only affect how you feel, but how o

Episode 41: Permission to Take Up Space  Now that it’s the time of year when we're stuck in crowded lines at the mall, we are very aware of the physical space that we take up. Our natural instinct is to make ourselves as small as possible. But our guest, Rachel Beohm has a lot to say about our body language and the way to inhabit the space around us to portray the authentic and strong people we are. Curious by nature, and with an unquenchable thirst for learning (especially when it comes to nonverbal communication and the mind-body connection), Rachel loves researching topics for FORTE, brainstorming and making connections. Rachel is passionately interested in the connection between authenticity and how we inhabit our physical space. Part of what makes our daily lives so hard is that our mental lives often don’t line up with the way we feel about the space around us. It’s time that we stop retreating from the world and take up the space we know is ours. When we give ourselves permission to fill the space arou

Episode 40: Plan It! Do It! Love It! Brrr! Dare I say happy winter? Now that the cold has come and the days are shorter, perhaps some of us are noticing that we’re not feeling as happy these days. Since we spend a lot of time at work, this probably seeps into our work life, especially with the Christmas holiday countdown on our minds. Perhaps you’ve even found that on Sunday, you’re dreading Monday and have come to the realization that you’ve fallen out of love with your job. Fear not! My guest this week has a formula that will help you fall back in love with your work. Sherry Jordan has been coaching high-performance executives, small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and teams for over 20 years to help them realize their goals and increase their results. She is an expert in the field of change and change management and specializes in working with individuals and organizations who are ready to embrace transition and experience a higher level of personal and professional satisfaction. Sherry has released a

Episode 39: Getting Generational   Welcome back and happy November! This week’s episode of the Women Rocking Wall Street show is a little unique. Last year, I had the pleasure of speaking at an event about the differences within various generations and how to talk to each of them about money in an effective way. Did you know that there are currently four generations that shape our workforce today?  There is the Traditionalist (born 1925 – 1945), which in 2014 made up eight percent of the workforce. This generation is conservative in their actions, and they prefer their communication in the form of the written word (memos). Compare that to the Millennials (born 1981 – 2000), who were raised with technology, prefer to communicate through text messages, are used to having adult-like conversations and want a level playing field right out of college, rather than putting in the time (as the Traditionalists would typically prefer to see). In between those two are the Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964), who are the opti

Episode 38: Launching Fearlessly Guest: Anne Samoilov Happy Halloween! This week’s episode is a perfect fit to the Halloween theme around fear and the fun, excitement and joy that it can bring. This week’s guest, Anne Samoilov helps entrepreneurs, small business owners and consultants through the process of fearlessly launching a product or business, or another type of business launch. Anne says that it’s not about fear, it’s about that moment of committing to the decision to doing something new and taking that leap. Coming up with an idea is the easy part of creating a new business or product but when you haven’t done it before, launching can be a scary and often daunting task. For Anne, she sees it as a production, with particular steps that need to happen for the business or product launch to be successful. The most important thing that anyone should do, according to Anne, is determine who “they” are and start the conversation. Find out who your target audience is and reach out. Do this before you launch y

Episode 37: Giving Yourself Permission to Say “No” Guest: Lane Kennedy  Welcome back! My guest this week has done it all. She is a woman who has many talents – especially when it comes to being an entrepreneur. Lane Kennedy has turned a startup into a million dollar business in less than 18 months, has built a lingerie company and has even worked for a non-profit company in Bangkok. She is a mom, fiction writer, podcaster, and business coach to women who are looking to start a business in the online market. Lane is one busy woman and she has a lot of demands on her time. Throughout her experiences, she has had to learn to say “no,” which is difficult for many of us. The nagging guilt of letting someone down, or hurting their feelings tends to leave us stretched thin on time and feeling strained and sometimes even resentful. However, a lot of us keep finding ourselves in the same situation time and time again – we want to say “no” but we hear ourselves saying “yes.” Many of us have a hard time setting boundari

Episode 35: Rocking An Interview Guest: Margot DeMore Listen via iTunes It’s officially fall and it is absolutely beautiful outside! I hope you’re enjoying the leaves, and all the pumpkin mania, as much as I am. We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve had butterflies in our stomach when getting ready for an interview. The stress of preparing for the interview is only half the battle. This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Margot DeMore, founding partner of Broad Street Consulting Group, a search firm specializing in retained executive search and consulting services for the traditional and alternative investment community and insurance industry. Her whole career has been playing matchmaker between companies and potential team members. Margo lives and breathes interviews, and has some great tips and tricks to make sure we rock them. According to her, many of us are great at researching and understanding the organization when preparing for an interview, but tend to fall short on how to share our story

Episode 35: Negotiating Salaries 101 Guest: Jim Hopkinson   Listen via iTunes   We’ve all felt like we’ve rocked an interview and then dreaded question comes up, and we freeze – “what is your current salary?” Or even worse, “what are your salary expectations for this position?” It’s common for us to hesitate in answering that awful question because on one hand we don’t want to throw out a number that is too high (and risk losing our chance at the position) and, on the other hand, we don’t want to lowball ourselves.   My guest this week is Jim Hopkinson, and he has come to our rescue! A speaker, writer, and teacher, he helps ambitious professionals overcome their fear of negotiating salary. Jim has helped a lot of people push past the discomfort of asking for what their worth, and his number one advice is research. Understanding what your worth is the key to being able to ask for more. One way to determine what the market value is for your position and experience is by visiting salary.com, payscale.com, and gl

WRW034: Funding Research for Change with Michelle Clayman I can’t express how excited I am to share this week’s episode with you. My guest, Michelle Clayman is a CFA, Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of New Amsterdam Partners LLC, an institutional money management firm in New York. She has been published in the Financial Analysis Journal, the Journal of Investing and NYSSA Financial Professionals’ Post. She is also a frequent commentator on Bloomberg and other financial media. Having gone to an all girl's school, Michelle was encouraged to set her aspirations high. She attended Oxford University and eventually attended the business school at Stanford University. She began her financial career with the Bank of America in London and eventually found her way to Wall Street. Through her experience, she found that there was a gap between quantitative research and money investment. Being bold, she decided to start her own business, along with several other partners and New Amsterdam Partners LL

Episode 33: Inspiring Women to Be Women Guest: Bri Seeley   Do you recall the power suits in the ‘80s? The shoulder pads, unfitted suit jackets – anything to hide the feminine figure. While the corporate dress code has improved and has slightly embraced the feminine figure, there is still plenty of room for change. This episode’s guest, Bri Seeley, is working to inspire women to be women by re-embracing their femininity and their feminine energy.   Working in the fashion industry, Bri found that women were not buying her clothing because her brand consisted of flowing, feminine pieces. Women would try on her pieces and would tell her that they couldn’t wear the clothing in the “real world.” Bri was shocked that these women were telling her that if they were to dress as women, they would be able to achieve success in business. As a result, she had an epiphany that it was a mindset that she could impact women on a deeper level. As a result, Bri is now a mentor, leader and author of the Inspirational Women Proje