I’m super excited for our Fireside Chat tonight!
As a planner, I couldn’t not do a little prep for it, and it turns out to make for pretty good content, I think. A little expansion on our backstory.
QUESTION 1: You started your financial planning career in 2008 when the market was in freefall. Most people would’ve run the other direction. What did starting in a crisis teach you about building something from scratch?
“So actually — I didn’t start my business in the freefall, I started my career in it. And thankfully so, because it meant I got a front-row seat without any skin in the game. I didn’t have a single client of my own since I was just studying for my licenses.
But back then, the headlines were getting worse by the day, the markets were in freefall, and public panic was deafening. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns had gone under, which, for context, would be like if Amazon and Google disappeared overnight. It was complete pandemonium.
But when I looked around the office, I didn’t see advisors hiding under their desks. I saw them pounding the phone, calling client after client after client, doing the incredible heavy emotional lifting of calming people down, saving them from making catastrophic irreversible mistakes, and most importantly giving them the security that someone had their back through all of it.
And that’s when it registered that as a financial planner, I was in a position to have the opportunity to directly and deeply impact other people’s lives. That is meaningful beyond compare. That is worth sacrificing for. That is worth all the sleepless nights that would follow.
I knew then that this was what I was put on earth to do.
And that would carry me through some very dark days.
So I’d say — whether you’re starting a lifestyle business or setting up for world domination like Financial Zen is, make sure it’s something that has real meaning for you.
Because when you inevitably hit that wall, building something bigger than yourself is what helps you scale it — literally and figuratively.”
📍 Pillar Cowork, Lafayette
🗓 Tuesday, July 7
🕕 6:00–8:00 PM
🎟 $15