Take control of your financial future with Heather Quinn, Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual
About this episode:
I'm so excited to have Heather Quinn, a Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual, on the show. Heather started her carrier in the entertainment industry, and at a life-changing point in her personal life, she transitions her career into financial advisory. She specializes in working alongside successful, professional women both in and outside of the entertainment industry to achieve financial peace.
Topics Discussed:
Why did she transition from an entertainment career into financial advisory
How do people have all kinds of different feelings around money and finances
What gave her the courage to make her career and life leap to join Northwestern Mutual
Her tips about how to find and live your joy
About Heather:
Heather Quinn started her career in the entertainment business working for one of the biggest agents in Hollywood and then went on to work at Warner Bros, Sony, Fox, and Overbrook Entertainment. At one life-changing point in her life, she transitions her career into financial advisory.
The financial services she offers are unique because her clients are unique. She aims to serve as a strategic partner in creating a financial plan that fits the lifestyle, timeline, and vision of the people she works with. As an expert in tax efficiency, risk management, and optimized wealth accumulation, she serves as a guide, planner, and educator not only in the beginning but throughout the lives of her clients as their needs evolve.
In addition to planning for individuals and businesses, Heather specializes in working alongside successful, professional women both in and outside of the entertainment industry to achieve financial peace. She understands the power of creating clear, aligned goals and putting a timeline in place to help her clients get there.
Heather is a mother of two boys and is married to the actor on a television show.
Resources:
Click here to read a raw, unedited transcript of this episode:
Melanie Barr: Thank you so much for joining me today, Heather. Tell us about who you are and about your early career experiences before joining Northwestern Mutual.
Heather Quinn: I started out in the entertainment business, at one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood, Creative Artists Agency. And I started working for a television agent there and ultimately ended up working for one of the partners and then ascended through the entertainment world, working at various production companies, ultimately running the TV side of Wilson's company. Then was a producer overseeing shows that they had and also selling a lot of shows. And then my own mother got really sick, and I ended up on the bad side of planning actually just not planning in general and wanted to learn more about finance just for myself so that my children would not have to go through what we went through and ended up actually making a big career change into finance. And now I am a financial adviser with a particular focus on helping to educate and empower women around finance.
Melanie Barr: I love that. How has your early career experiences influenced you as a business leader and how does that experience help your clients and your leadership style in what you do today?
Heather Quinn: In the entertainment business, you are a dime a dozen and you have to work really hard to succeed. Everybody wants your job. I remember my early twenties where a lot of people were not working as hard, working 80 hour weeks going into the office on Saturdays. So I think that's helped me today, part of the reason why I wanted to also transition into this career is the opportunity to have my own business was really attractive, especially at this stage in my life where I have children and wanted to start being the architect of what my day looked like, as opposed to being on a TV set until 10 o'clock at night. But I think you have to have a certain amount of work ethic to be able to build your own company, and I think that's transcended into what I'm doing today.
Melanie Barr: Mm-Hmm. I think a lot of women have those pivotal moments, and sometimes it's when we have children and we have to stop and think, What do I really want and what do I want now? And how can I take all of my previous career experiences and make a leap to do something completely different, but bring all those experiences with me
Heather Quinn: The other thing that I didn't mention, too, is just telling stories with something that I learned to do in that business and understanding what makes a good story and how to communicate with people. And I think a lot of that translates into it. I do now. Helping people understand the why behind what we're doing and how that's going to help them. I don't want to tell people what to do, and I think especially with women helping to just help educate around finance. I think in general, in this country, unless you seek it out, we don't learn about four one KS and retirement plans in high school or college unless you're studying finance. And it is pivotal later on.
Melanie Barr: It's so true and it can be very emotional. We're storytelling and learning someone's story is also very emotional, so helping someone people have all kinds of different feelings around money and around finances.
Heather Quinn: A hundred percent and I think a lot of what we do is behavioral. there's a quote from Nick Murray, who's a well-known adviser who writes books, it has blogs and he says: 90 percent of investment success is behavioral.
Heather Quinn: The actions that you take rate, how disciplined can you be and how early do you start the time value of the compounding of the money? All of those things
Melanie Barr: How are you teaching your kids about money? Out of curiosity?
Heather Quinn: my son's 11 starting to pay a little bit of an allowance for certain things, so he understands the value of money. Now that he's understanding multiplication and division and having him help me figure out the two I've started certain savings vehicles for him, I intend to teach him about compounding the value of that which I will give to him at some age if he's responsible enough. Yeah. So it's I've been thinking a lot about that.I want to make sure, unlike my parents, where it was something that we didn't speak about, that is a regular conversation. So it's not this unknown thing. And I'm finding that that's actually more common in general is there's a lot of families that just don't talk about money, even if they have it.
Melanie Barr: It's so true. And even couples, sometimes you get busy and you don't always have those really important conversations.
Heather Quinn: Yeah. Well, and the reality is what we know for sure is financial planning ends up typically being number 11 on the top 10 list. Everyone can see that it's important, but getting around to doing it because it digs up all of these emotions and things. You know, a lot of times when I meet with a couple. One of the main questions I ask is just What's your relationship to money? What's hers? Because I want to understand how they work as a couple, and it's oftentimes people are not on the same page.
Melanie Barr: We'd love to know about a particular career experience that is memorable to you and that you carry with you today.
Heather Quinn: The one that stands out to me just in relation to what I do today is that I did a special for ABC called ‘’Un- broke’’. What you need to know about money. And I feel like that ironical sort of forecast now today what I am doing in Mellody Hobson, who is a force of nature, came in and gave this amazing pitch about how uneducated people are around money people with the Dow means, or what a bear or bull market means.And just taking the concept was and Will Smith was actually in this, and so getting well-known personalities to be in certain segments and some of them would be funny and educational. And so we did in conjunction with ABC News, Melody really designed the content around it but got to learn from her and just started that path of how important this is for people to understand and learn.
Melanie Barr: It's so interesting how sometimes things plant the seeds in our mind, and maybe it's something we've always had an interest in, but never really acted on it on moving in that direction. So it's so interesting that you went through those experiences and that they stuck with you, and that when you made the leap, you made the leap into helping people to create a better future for themselves.
Heather Quinn: And that's what I love about what I do now. And I think in a while, it seems somewhat glamorous. oftentimes I was developing scripts that were unclear whether they were ever going to get me making their way through the studio system. Sometimes you're developing draft after draft of the script, and it's sort of nebulous as to whether you're helping anyone at all. Whereas here, even if I know I can get somebody to plan just a little bit for their future, I know for a fact that they will be in a better place. There's a real, tangible difference that we're making on a daily basis.
Melanie Barr: And it's got to be so nice to have that gratification, to move you forward to help the next client.
Heather Quinn: Absolutely. an example of that is I met with this young woman. She's 29 and actually works for one of my clients who is the president of a fashion company. She's just starting out, really. But the thing she said to me at the end of our conversations is, she said, This is so amazing. I didn't know people like you existed.
Melanie Barr: It's so great. And isn't it so wonderful that you can work with clients who have essentially made it in their careers? And then women and people who are just starting out?
Heather Quinn: Yeah, absolutely, eventually she's going to be on her way and she is somebody that my other client really believes in. That's part of wanting to help, too. And I think, you know, just as attorneys have maybe some of their pro-bono business and then they have their regular business, there's a balance of that as well. But it felt good it to hear because I could tell that she felt it would make a big impact on her.
Melanie Barr: And especially for women and families, people who want to get to know them and know their story and know their thoughts around money and know possibly a fear around money.
Heather Quinn: That's one of my first questions when I meet with somebody is what keeps you up at night as it relates to money. Melanie Barr: What gave you the courage to make your career and life leap to join Northwestern Mutual? What helped you to say, I'm going to do this?
Heather Quinn: I think it was a clue to my things that my mother getting sick. And so when I did end up on the side of planning, I wanted to just learn more about finance in general and wanted to just be more planned myself, so my kids didn't have to go through that. And I had a friend who was there for a decade doing really well. They were looking for more women, first of all, and more people of color. So I think I checked two boxes. And so they recruited me and really came after me. I think the other thing just for me personally, having been a W-2, my entire life, I was lucky to be making six figures early on in my career, and here I am and my W-2 job. So with also the desire to be a business owner and to have to be able to build the career that I wanted and on my terms. It said a few things came together.
Melanie Barr: It's so important I used to work for the Dodgers and I used to joke that my car would only drive to Dodger Stadium for three years. And sometimes we have to take a step back and think, is this bringing me joy? Because maybe if you launched one of those entertainment companies, you just kept working and maybe not had as much joy in the career that you have and in what you do today.
Heather Quinn: Yeah. I think with my mother passing and realizing that we didn't talk about money, it wasn't something we talked about. She was an immigrant from the Philippines who came here highly educated but no education around money. So she got a J.D., she got a Ph.D.. So she was a nurse who came here. And she had great handbags and a Mercedes, and she didn't have much saved. So I ended up financing her long-term care for about 8 thousand a month for the last year of her life. And I wasn't really present, I feel like because it was at a time where just things were tighter in general and everything that was happening so fast around me and realizing that this is the point of planning right to be able to have time and spend time with family and have the security financially to not have to be in a place where you can't be present.
Melanie Barr: She was so lucky to have you. And that is really good advice because you could have been spending time with her. Heather Quinn: Yeah, I'm going to really bring that into when I talk to people today. Have you thought about this? This is my experience. I can tell you firsthand why this is important
Melanie Barr: And most people have it.
Heather Quinn: Now, a lot of people have it. I mean, people who've actually been through it will right away say, yes, that's important to me, but a lot of people have it. what's nice about my career now, is in entertainment. The shelf life for an executive is 55 or 60 that there's not a ton of those executives out thereof studios, whereas no one wants their financial adviser to be 22, frankly. So having life experience under your belt is a good thing in this career.
Melanie Barr: So true. What is your strategy for management, for staying on task to accomplish what you set out to do, as well as motivating your team and those around you?
Heather Quinn: I have a team who I work with. We have systems in place. We are in growth mode. So, for example, I did, I think, 78 meetings last month, 88 meetings the month before, in 92 minutes, and before that.
Melanie Barr: Good for you.
Heather Quinn: So we have to be very systematic in our processes and our tracking processes, grids and excel sheets and regular team meetings and making sure that we're staying on top of everything. I'm also in the process of combining my business with a more senior female advisor who's a CFP and eventually will take over her business. So we're in the process of trying to figure out how to merge our teams, and that's another whole thing in and of itself.
Melanie Barr: A whole other dynamic. It's so smart to put systems in place because then if something falls out if you have to replace someone on your team, you have those systems in place for someone to easily be able to jump in.
Heather Quinn: it's funny because when I was in entertainment, I thought I was so busy and this is a whole nother level of physics. Not in a bad way, but it's all relative.
Melanie Barr: It seems like it's more busy on your terms.
Heather Quinn: Yeah.
Melanie Barr: Magic happens when 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?
Heather Quinn: I think a lot of people were surprised when I made this leap from entertainment. I think a lot of people in the entertainment world feel like there's nothing else we can do. I kind of felt like that I had to climb a hill to get the education to over here, but it's not impossible. And one of the things that one of the quotes I always loved was: if you never fail, you're only trying things that are too easy and playing far below your level. If you can't remember any time in the last six months when you failed, you aren't trying difficult enough things. And so I think in the entertainment business, I was cruising along, but I wasn't necessarily being challenged. And this has been absolutely challenging, but in the best way, and I feel way more empowered having made this transition, although it hasn't been easy in terms of building a whole new business. But I think there's something satisfying in doing that, and it harkens back to that, if you you don't know how high you can reach if you don't aim high enough I think you have one life to live, you got to go for a swing for the fences. and in the end, it doesn't matter, right, whether you succeeded to the fullest potential, but you won't know if you don't try.
Melanie Barr: Mm-Hmm. So true. It's so interesting to have these conversations a lot where a woman will leave a big name like entertainment to go do something different, and you kind of have to go, OK, who am I? Who am I now?
Heather Quinn: I think it's it's interesting too because it kind of touches on other people's pain points, right? I had friends of mine who were like. Really?
Melanie Barr: I have these conversations a lot. It's like she was probably thinking she was looking out for you. But in those moments, we just have to say, No, I'm making the leap and I'm going to go for this and this is what I truly want. And that's why I think it's so important to find our circle, our collective are people who believe in us who say, we're here, we know you can do this because it's so important to have that.
Heather Quinn: Absolutely. And I think you're right. I think the friend said that wasn't by any. She wasn't trying to be disparaging. It was just kind of like, Do you really want to do this now?
Melanie Barr: And look at where you are today.
Heather Quinn: And so, yeah, and it's so hard you just have to take those leaps, right? And that's where you go with your gut and decide that even if it doesn't work out, great, but I'm going to try it.
Melanie Barr: Yeah, and she built it's all about those leaps because it's the small ones, that lead to the big ones so does because if we're not, I think this is about failure to if we're not failing, we're not trying.
Heather Quinn: Exactly, exactly. And so, its not whether you win or fail, right, it's how you play the game. So you play it.
Melanie Barr: Thank you so much for joining us today, Heather.
Heather Quinn: My pleasure. This is fun.
Melanie Barr: Please tell our listeners how and where they can find you.
Heather Quinn: I am online: Heather Courtney Quinn at Northwestern Mutual. Free to send email heather.quinn@nm.com. I'm also on social media @hcourtquinn on Instagram, and Heather Courtney Quinn on Facebook.