Plan for Ease & Wealth

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Tammy Trenton Nolton is the founder and CEO of family financial she works with accomplished individuals families and business owners to develop strategic financial and tax plans her skill insight and 25 years experience helps her assist her clients on navigating a full range of Life events they equip modern families and business owners with forward-thinking teams that consolidate and create innovate Solutions so they can enjoy a life of ease happiness and abundance thank you so much for joining us today Tammy she built it empowers you to experience the life and business that you crave the question I'm always asked is how give us some tips for how you have built the career in life that you crave how you've been able to do that and share with us what you do I help accomplished families and business owners navigate all things Financial in their life that includes Investment Management personal financial planning business planning strategic tax planning bookkeeping even advise on mortgages and lending and help package those so that clients have a more seamless process it seems to be quite a pain point for a lot of clients that I have and I just want to simplify their lives that's the goal and help them be financially better off using us than without the smartest way to get to where you're ready to launch is by working for other people throughout that time and for me it's been over 25 years you learn you pick up best practices I think I got to a point in my career where I didn't find that there was anything that existed that was in line with how I Envision serviceing clients and I felt like I had enough confidence where I could do it on my own I think what has held me back for so many years is that fear and got such a common feeling that everyone shares when they're taking a leap and so that took me a while to overcome but once I did it was really empowering good for you and I love that advice where if you don't see something that you know you could create or make better that you made the leap and just decided to do it yeah for so many of us at least I know for me you'll take things in take things in maybe you're not aligned and then one day you just have a switch and once that switch happens you just can't go back and all of a sudden you just take those little steps every day to get to the end goal you know because if you think about the end goal it can sometimes feel very overwhelming and so just taking it step by step and giving yourself a break and not trying to put so much pressure on yourself just by knowing that you're headed in the right direction that's great advice and you're a marathon runner and I am too and it's those little steps it's really that daily training exactly and I'm sure what you do has never been more important as we come out of covid as people buy and sell homes as companies come up or are leaving the market as people are entering work or leaving work share with us a little bit about that landscape it's been an inter ing two years hasn't it I think people are really craving connection um more than ever perhaps we took it for granted two years ago there's also so much information coming at us so much more than I've ever seen and that can be so confusing and overwhelming even in my own experience I just there's so many things I can explore I think there's a period of time where you Avail yourself to all of it and then you sort of take it in and say okay like what are my core goals what are my core strategies and what's the best way to navigate that and clients crave Simplicity and they don't want to be the person who has to handle all 25 things Financial in their life you know some of them do and then that's okay but as you go through life and you know I'm sure you can relate to this but life just gets more complicated and when it does you just get to a point where you know you need help and it's hard to find the right kind of help it's hard to find someone who really gets you and I want to feel like if I meet somebody that they're a fit for me as well as us being a fit for them but when you find that right fit it's almost like a marriage where you've got to work at it and you're always soliciting feedback what can we do better and in our industry you know there's something called a fiduciary standard and some people know about it but I think for the most part A lot of people don't and what the fiduciary standard is basically as an advisor you have a legal obligation to put your clients's interest first and I like to consider myself a Relentless advocate for clients that maybe represents less than 5% of the overall financial industry and if you go to a major bank or a wouse or any of those bigger firms they're not held to a fiduciary standard they don't have that legal obligation they're held to something called a suitability standard meaning that if two options are equal and one puts more money in your pocket it's okay to recommend that and I've always been as a certified financial planner a firm believer if you do write by your clients the success will come but I I think it's hard to really sort through the landscape of advisors and realize what can we do to make a difference in people's lives and help them be better off than they were before without that conflict of interest it's so true finding that right fit is important now more than ever because people have kind of lost patience with working with someone that's not a good fit for them yes another important component is and this is my personal belief the financial industry tends to lag in terms of innovation and being Forward Thinking adopting new technologies and one of the benefits of having a boutique firm is we can be nimble we can be forward thinking we can adopt new technologies and I know cryptocurrency has been where most financial advisers they don't really know much about it and so they'll say yeah we don't do that but I believe that that is going to be Game Changer in our future it's going to reshape our world and how we do business being Forward Thinking is what I feel that people are looking for at least that's what I'm looking for so if I'm align with a client then they want that as well you're so right about the amount of knowledge and information coming our way one of my goals for this year is to simplify you have to take in everything and then think okay these are the two or three things that I'm going to focus on that I think are the best fit and then experts coming at us but to your point you have to find that right expert that is a right fit for you yeah exactly are a number of influencers that are on Tik Tok and Instagram that are self-proclaimed Financial experts that don't have a financial background I get all the time hey this was on Tik Tok is this something we can do and sometimes there's a good nugget in there but more often than not it's a limited context what's really important animportant is whoever you rely on for advice has some life experience has been around and knows Market cycles and and knows the different options that are available and aren't just pigeon hold into one thing because that's the only thing that they can offer especially in the financial industry yeah what is one piece of advice that you can give us for how someone successfully grows and achieves wealth instilling a sense of financial literacy y that is something that we should be doing for our youth when they get to a point where they're out of high school and about to go to college nobody teaches that and as a result it's really easy to be on campus and see the credit card and think that that credit card is great until you max out your balance and you're at a 26% interest rate and that puts people behind the eightball early on student loan debt is another thing that you know I just look at from a financial perspective and I think the best question to ask is what are your goals how do you want to get there and what is the downside of not making decisions I don't think a lot of people are future thinking and and I can say this from my own experience when I was in my early 20s I didn't want it 401k I thought what a terrible deal you can't even touch this money until you're almost 60 why do I need that right now I need my money today and getting into a habit of just setting aside a little bit over time that can be so valuable and there's the power of compounding growth that maybe the first 10 years you don't even see it but once you do it takes on a life form of its own I wish that we did a better job as a nation to educate the younger people I think that would make a huge impact that would make us less reliant on government benefits and it would Empower young people and I think it needs to start there I agree with you working and making money feels good and I had a father who put the fear in me that if I didn't pay off my credit card every time that something I don't know what was going to happen but now I really am so grateful for it and I think about my twins are eight you start to think about how can you teach them these things what apps are out there that will teach them other than allowances and saving money and those kinds of things it's like what kind of tools and Technologies are available to start teaching our kids these things at a young age my son is about to turn five I think the first thing is teaching work ethic which I think is easier for people especially now with so many families that have remote jobs and they're working from home and your child is in your house and they see you working and understanding why you need to work this is the house we live in this is the food we put on the table and that it's not just this free situation there's effort and skill that needs to go into it I have a nephew who wanted to start his own investment account he was 16 years old and I said you know a great thing to do would be to just take a little bit and put it in digital currency if it goes to zero it's not the end of the world but you can afford the risk when you're that young and so teaching them about making those decisions I mean it it could also backfire I will say one of the challenges with having everything so accessible is the risk someone can go on Robin Hood and trade their own stocks and borrow and lose all their money and so I think it's all the more important to do a better job of teaching people the ramifications of those types of decisions because it's not in my mind gambling is not what we do right it's looking at probabilities finding a predictability of returns and helping people to meet the goals that are meaningful for them and if you can do that and you can achieve Financial Independence then if you want to take a little bit and speculate here and there then that's okay but don't compromise your financial Independence if you're not 100% sure what you're doing take a tiny bit that's not going to change your life what is one mistake or Pitfall that you have seen people do as it relates to managing their money and growing their wealth there's a lot of Behavioral terms in finance and the overconfidence bias is something that we are all susceptible to but often times I'll meet with a client and they'll say we really want to grow our wealth let's do the financial plan and I'll do the projections for them and they look great they just stay on track and all of a sudden their dream home pops up so they really want this house and okay let me run the numbers let me see if this can work how can we make this work for you so I'm on their side I want them to have what they want but I also want them to Think Through what's the worst thing that can happen reverse sell me on why you wouldn't do this and as long as they're okay with the worst situation it's fine to move forward with you know pushing the envelope but when the markets are good and they're making money and they're trading up into a bigger home with a bigger mortgage could someone lose their job at some point yes could the stock market crash it down by 50% at some point yes how do you handle that are you prepared to mitigate all of those risks I think my job is really just being a sounding board for them and helping them to achieve their goals but like another example I'll give is I had a client who was just dead set on buying a cabin they have this money set aside and the cabin that they liked was going for know three or $400,000 over asking and so for that person to put the down payment and have an 80% loan when it got so overbid I'm like what is the worst that can happen here if we have a A downturn in the real estate market and now we're in a second home right so it's not this urban area what happens and I think that was enough to have him think about making that decision and he ended up not moving forward with it so you get caught up in all of the exuberance and excitement part of what I see my job is is keeping you safe insulating you from that every client is different it's really a a very personal conversation that you have with clients but if that was one theme is people feeling overconfidence and not thinking about what is the worst thing that can happen with this major financial decision and you're right sometimes we do need that voice of reason yes and experience what differences do you see in the way women and men view wealth and is there any advice you can give on that as much as it pains me to say this men are Digger Risk Takers I would love to see more women taking the career leap now that I've been down this road I I know how it feels we're never going to do everything perfect right but you have to be okay with things that maybe you would have done differently because you never never learn unless you encounter those challenges and it makes you better for it as long as you're open to learning and growing from it I met with one of my girlfriends who I hadn't seen in a few years and I just could tell that she's ready and you know what is holding her back I would love to help more women Empower themselves to take that career leap when they feel ready and to face Their Fear what's the worst going to happen this doesn't work out you go back to another job there's always a way I'm really interested in helping women to identify that when they're thinking of launching and that's why she built to exist because we all crave something and most of the time it's different and I love that your focus is empowering women and men to make those leaps from a financial perspective yes we're all constantly building and creating our te teams whether you have a 5 person team or you oversee hundreds of people how do you approach managing your team as it relates to growth and what aspect or trait of leadership do you think is the most important that's a great question leadership is probably the most important component of owning your business inspiring them making them feel like they're a contributor giving them ownership and empowering them to make decisions I don't like to be micromanaged there's an art form to hiring the right people um are they aligned um is this just a job for them or is it something they're passionate about you can weed out candidates that are just there for the paycheck and if that's the case then they may not be the right fit but once you have your team Foster those relationships and invest in those relationships especially now in job market where if you're feeling underpaid and you're having to go into the office five days a week well there's a job next door that will allow you to be remote that's so true the options now for for different ways to work and why shouldn't we wake up you're right no one's perfect and no days are going to be perfect but why shouldn't we wake up and love majority of the things that we do yeah and another component of that is being humble a certain amount of humility as a leader really helps you connect to the people that you work with and having different skill sets there's things that I'm not going to be great at and so I want someone who's great at that and that allows us all to learn from each other having a team where you've got different skill sets and different strengths and weaknesses is really how you build and it can't just be for financial reasons it has to be part of a culture magic happens when we we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy whether it's in my personal life or my business life is feeling like you make a difference and that could be feeling like I get through to my son on learning how to share and give and appreciate what he has to having a client hug me because I helped them so much and they were so glad that they met me and I've they're grateful that's when you feel like you're you're making a difference and you're on the right path I am so happy for you and the leap that you have made your clients are very lucky to be with you please share with us how and where listeners can find you the name of the company is family financial you can find me on LinkedIn under Tammy Trenton Nolton if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer Community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheb built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer Sheil tip business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave material discuss is educational in nature Financial advice can vary based on a client's individual circumstances