Stay-at-Home Mom to Financial Advisor: How to Start a Business and Reinvent Your Career

Transcription:
Second Act Success Podcast
Season 1 – Stay-at-Home Mom to Financial Advisor: How to Start a Business and Reinvent Your Career
Episode - #251
Host: Shannon Russell
Guest: Lorie Jones
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

Speaker 2: [00:00:00] Are you ready to quit your nine to five job and start a business of your own? Well, you're in the right place, my friend. Welcome to the second Act Success podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell, and my mission is to help you produce your best life. This podcast will teach you how to get from where you are now to where you want to be and how to build a business that fits your life and lights you up.
Let's get started.
Shannon Russell: Welcome back to Second Act Success. I'm your host, Shannon Russell. Today we're chatting all about how you can go from being a stay at home parent to actually getting a job and then launching a business.
My guest today is Lori Jones. Lori is a mom of five who decided she needed to bring in a little bit extra money into her family, so she got a secretarial job, and in doing so, she found that she loved the financial industry she was working in and decided to go all in, become a [00:01:00] financial advisor, and now she runs her own business.
This is my conversation with Lori Jones.

Shannon Russell: Lori Jones, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to be chatting with you. Thank you so much for having me. I love being here. Thank you. We had a great conversation when I joined you on the Fearless Female Podcast, so I wanted to continue the conversation here. Let's talk about your career journey, 'cause you've. Had some shifts and turns. You now have a business, you have a podcast. But where did it all begin?
So about 15 years ago, . I had five kids and I stayed at home with my kids because I don't know anyone who can afford daycare. Like you have to be a multimillionaire to afford daycare on five kids. Mm-hmm. So, I got the first, you know, 10 or so years where I was a stay at home mom. And when my youngest went to kindergarten, first grade, my oldest three were boys.
And I don't know if you have any experience with [00:02:00] preteen boys, but they basically eat you out of house and home. I mean, like there is not an amount of food you can keep in those kids' bodies to keep them full. And I am like, holy heck, we're gonna have to find a job. Somebody needs to go back to work here.
Just for the food? Just for the food alone? Yes. food alone. I'm like, I will work to pay groceries. You know? I actually got my degree in history, so I was trained for nothing. Basically. I was like, what do you do with a history degree? And it took me a little while to figure that out,
I was kind of looking for a job more than a career when I started out. I just wanted something interesting that would pay a paycheck and keep my kids' bellies full. So I got hired as a secretary at a small financial services firm in South Denver, and it took me about three days to figure out like, oh my gosh, this is the best thing I have ever done.
This is so much fun. . I was raised in a, a household where, boys did money and, and girls took care [00:03:00] of the kids and had the babies and stuff like that. We weren't really. Encouraged to take that financial role. And so I didn't even know finance was a thing.
I didn't know. you know, When I started out as a secretary in that firm, I, I didn't know the difference between an IRA and a regular, you know, investment account. , But I knew that I loved it. And so I started my education. I got all my trading licenses, all my insurance licenses, , and I didn't stop there.
I went and got the MBA, I got my , CFP, which is a certified financial planner designation. And then I started working on all the other letters of the alphabet that you can possibly put behind your name, because I thought that would be super fun. In the meantime, I also kind of started working with clients.
, I started having conversations and we started talking about how they invest. And I found that, you know, in those 15 years, like [00:04:00] going from not knowing even what type of accounts were available to really understanding in depth what you could do to, to be successful and to have a successful financial life, I do think that your finances sort of underpinned just everything you do.
It was a second career, I would say. My first career was mom. . And I think my second career, I would sometimes, , I have to call myself a financial engineer because my entire family is full of engineers, so I have to get in there. , Or you can kind of think of me as a, you know, a.
A mom that does finance. I found that teaching my own kids the ins and outs of finance and how to be successful really does make a difference, , in their lives. And so I've used some of those same tactics in my clients' lives. Yeah, teaching them what you weren't taught, what I wasn't taught growing up as well.
Um, I was very financially illiterate until I became an [00:05:00] adult and had to teach myself. so I love that you're teaching your kids and others about this as well, but I just have to think about the fact that you just wanted a job, you wanted a paycheck, you just needed to bring that extra money into your household, and you found this opening.
You took the secretarial position. What are the chances that it was at a place and in a field that you would end up loving? Like that is meant to be, don't you think? Yeah, I do think I loved it so much from the very beginning. It was so, there's so, so much complexity in it and there's so much you can do to help, , I think finance gets a bad rap as a,
don't introduce me to a financial advisor. I don't wanna, you know, they're, they're after.
Being able to sit down and talk with. I work, , primarily with women and primarily with women who are going through some sort [00:06:00] of, change where they need to sort of take control of their financial future, say a divorce or they've lost Their spouse or their partner who was kind of in charge of most of the finances.
And so they are for the first time finding themselves a lot of times taking charge of the finance I had one woman who was just in tears after a, you know, at 30. 30 year marriage kind of broke up and she's like, do you think I can even do this? And, and it just, it, it typed in my heartstrings.
This is so important and, and I feel like I'm the best friend. I'm the cheerleader. I am the one who. Who has your back and wants you to succeed and knows that you can, like I know that you can. well, Lori, you're proof of it, you went into this job and decided you were interested and you went on to learn and teach yourself at your age with five kids.
So if you can do it, then that's proof right there that others can as well. [00:07:00] Yeah, exactly. And, and I think that, , the other reason finance gets kind of a bad rap is, is not only is it considered boring, which I, I, I think is so fascinating and so much fun, just spend a few minutes with me and I'll have you convinced.
But they also think it's hard, , it's complex. I don't understand it. There's too much jargon, there's too many words. And I think that comes really Shannon from like. Having a whole bunch of men in finance because, because if they don't understand something I've noticed through the years, if they don't understand something, they start using bigger words and larger concepts and kind of talking over you and around you.
Whereas I'm like, oh, this isn't, this is simple. Let me explain it in a way that. That makes it simple for you to understand. , And when I get done, they're like, oh, okay. And, and I'm a mom, so like asking me the same question five times, I'm gonna answer it for you five times. . Exactly. If it takes five times, that's okay. Yeah. I just have to ask [00:08:00] because I, there's probably listeners who are thinking about getting a job and trying to bring those finances in, especially if they are in a place of transition. And so would you recommend, just because it worked out for you, for someone who's maybe thinking about starting a business in.
Whatever it might be, finance for them to find a job that is in that industry as well, just so that they can learn while they're earning that paycheck. Yeah. When I went into it, you know, like I, I didn't know what I wanted to be. I, I just, I luckily my life path took me to the exact right place.
But if you do have some interest, and, and I. You know, tell this to my daughters all the time. I am, I've got one who's interested in, in being a counselor. And I said, go work in that spot. I'm like, if you wanna, she wants to work with children. I'm like, , do daycare, do, once you're, you're 21, there are lots of different volunteer organizations, you can have some [00:09:00] exposure to that sort of thing that you might want to do.
So I think the volunteer is a really, if you can't, if you're having a hard time finding an in, volunteering in that space, , and to spend time around those people, like, I have, I do a lot of, um, internships, because I do think more women need to have a voice in finance.
I think there needs to be more women as clients. I also think there needs to be more women financial advisors, so. I will, I will take an intern in and, and kind of teach and help and grow while they get used to the different areas of finance. It's really big. So they get used to kind of the different things that they could do and decide where their passion lies.
and then they've saved. In my mind, they've saved themselves like, two years of waste schooling on things that they weren't, you know, they, they're like, I like finance, but I don't know whether I wanna be in the compliance side of finance, or whether I wanna be [00:10:00] in the financial advisory or whether I wanna be in the investment side.
, You give them a little bit of an overview of all the different things, a taste of the different things. And then they, they, focus their career in on those things that I had one, um, young lady who came to us one summer and, , she didn't know whether she wanted to kind of go down the investment route or whether she wanted to be the financial advisor.
I had her do some projects on, Research on investments and things like that. And I also put her in meetings with clients to take notes and, and, you know, just get a, an overview of that. And she came out of like the, the first meeting and she's like, oh, I don't wanna do that. She liked the analytical side of things, but she didn't like the relationship side of things.
Right. Hey. Better to know now than later. I know. So she saved herself like, like two years of going down the financial advising route and getting the, the courses and degrees that she would need in order to be a financial advisor when she knew right away that wasn't her thing. [00:11:00] So yes. The answer is yes, Shannon, do try the things.
Yes. And internships are the best. Even if we think back to college for an example I knew I wanted to be in television. I interned in news at CBS News in New York City and I said, oh, this is too depressing. I can't work in news. And I switched and worked in entertainment and all that, but, but the internships save you that time.
And on another note, I think a lot of women our age. Especially feel like, oh, internships are for college students, but it's not. It really isn't. It's a way of saying, you know, I'll almost volunteer my time to learn from you. Mm-hmm. Call it a mentorship, call it volunteering, whatever you want. But those opportunities at our age, not in college, are out there.
They are. And, and I find that, you know, something, a theme that comes over and over again that comes up on my Fearless Females podcast is that idea of mentorship, that idea of, of [00:12:00] kind of spending your time around women who are doing things that, that you want to do , and they pass on. , That knowledge and that growth and, and it's not just women, but I will say that women have a really special knack, I think for nurturing and growing, young people or, or even those on their second act, their second career act like they just, like I said, I'm kind of a mom by profession too. You know, like they want to mentor and grow you and Absolutely. And help you succeed. Yeah. And as a coach, I feel the same way. It's like you just want to take what you've been able to accomplish or. Pivot in your life and say, yes, come over to the side, you can do it too.
And I think that's fantastic. And I, A question that popped up was the company that you began working as a secretary for, were they open to that? It sounds like you were able to do a lot while you were in that job. Were they Very mentoring in that sense as [00:13:00] well? No, they didn't ever tell me I couldn't do something, so they were very open to letting me do it, but there was no, , there was no sense of, uh.
you know, here are all the avenues open to you. , I never got the impression I could be a financial advisor from that company. , There was no good example of a woman doing my job. It was like 15, 20 years ago.
I wasn't offered to go to many of the, the industry events or any of the conferences or any of any of those things. But when I did manage to find my way to one of those things, um, I was probably one of two women in the room , and all of the men at that, At that particular RIA, that particular company, all of them were financial advisors. All of the women were support staff. There was not a single female financial advisor there. I would say that I didn't have a really good mentor. She was in compliance and she, she kind of helped me to, , navigate a really male [00:14:00] dominated culture , and a male dominated company.
she, she was one of my biggest cheerleaders. Mm-hmm. Um, and really, really a good, , support and is still one of my best friends. You know, so, so I, so there was someone there who was encouraging me and growing me, but she couldn't. She couldn't help me be a financial advisor 'cause she wasn't one and she didn't know how really you got to be that.
So they didn't stand in my way., And that's great, but you know, I, I went and found my series seven. Course I took the class, I signed up for the test. I signed up for my MBA. And in fact, when I went in, , and told one of the principals at that company, I said, I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna go.
Do an MBA. Could you write a letter of recommendation for me? He said, well, why would you wanna do that? Oh no. He said, maybe you just wanna get your CFP, because you know, I don't think you need an [00:15:00] MBA. He probably didn't have one either. That's why. Keep you in your place and good for you. Oh my gosh.
Just good for you for taking the reins and just. Doing it. You didn't need that support from them. You got the paycheck from them to enable you to take these. Yeah. And I, you know, and I didn't, I don't wanna make it sound like they were awful people because they weren't. Of course they were. They were great.
It was a great company to work for, and they were, , great people. They just didn't, which is why I spend so much of my time trying to mentor young women in this space because. This space is not set up for that. I think I would've had a very similar experience no matter what company I was at at that point.
True. Women just weren't financial advisors. and, And absolutely. And I think that's, it's just a still a testament of if you're met with that lack of support in any role or industry and you know in your heart that this is what you want to learn more about and move into you, it's okay to [00:16:00] do it by yourself.
It's okay to take maybe a little bit longer of a road to get there, but you're doing it on your terms and you're not letting someone else. stop you. So yeah, I give you such props for doing that on top of having five kids and working this job. And so when you finally were like, okay, I'm ready to take on my own clients and start my own business here, um, what did that look like for you?
And did you feel ready at that point? No, I was scared to death. So I'll tell you, Shannon, that, fast forward I had kind of gone through, I, I moved to a 401k company for a year and then, , spun up a small RIA with another one of the. Previous company had an advisor that went out on his own, asked if I wanted to help out, and I said, yeah, that sounds, sounds good.
I figured the worst that could happen is I'd have to go find another job, right? So, we took that company from about 30 million assets under management to about, it was, I [00:17:00] think 230, 250 million in assets under management over about seven, seven years. but. I had my MBA, I had my CFP, I had all the designations.
I always considered myself operations I was credentials as advisor. I, was an advisor for several clients. I brought them in. I talked to them. We did their financial plan. I was doing all their, all their maintenance and upkeep., I was working as a financial advisor, and I still didn't see myself as a financial advisor.
Right. I still didn't, To this day, I dunno what the disconnect was, but I was like, I am the support and this other person, he's the financial advisor. I'm just being supportive even though he had never talked to some of these clients even one time in the five what happened is I started my Fearless Females podcast and I started listening to stories of very successful [00:18:00] professional women , who were doing really amazing things. And I started hearing this story over and over again about how they tried new things and sometimes they failed and they got up and they tried again, and sometimes they succeeded and.
, As they were filling me up with these stories, I started thinking, well, if they can do it, what if I could do it? What if I could open and start my own financial advisory practice? What if I'm already a financial advisor? What, what if that, you know, and, and that kind of what, what if, what if I could, rather than telling myself, oh no, I am, I'm just the support.
I can't do that. That's for other people. Smarter people, better people than me. And so after a year worth of. Listening to their, their stories. I started Fearless Financial Advisors. I moved [00:19:00] my clients and, I think I just claimed my title. you know, you did, I already was a financial advisor.
I haven't looked back since. I am so, so happy to be doing that. Mm. Congratulations. It's claiming your space and saying, no, I can do it. I've, I've done the work, I've proven myself.
And then it's just taking that step to be like, I am going to create this for myself. There's no more working for someone else. Yeah. And now do you have a team? I believe you have a team of people that work for you. Yeah, , I have a. administrative assistant and we're working on kind of growing it so that I can bring on those, , people that I can mentor and stuff like that.
But I work in a group, an NRAA that has a group of like five advisors. So there's a really deep bench of knowledge and they're so, so supportive. they always tell me. how grateful they are that I am there, [00:20:00] that I do have that distinct female perspective. You know, they're like, they're like, yeah, we want to know what you think.
We want you to, weigh in and help us out with some of these, these. Trickier. 'cause girls, women have a different experience during retirement than men do. We've got things that are very unique to us and even in a, a partnership, you know, a marriage like women have different concerns in different ideas and a lot of times.
They get spoken down to or spoken over in, in these meetings. The group that I work with, tandem Financial is, is my RIA, my overarching body. Amazing. They like, they have probably more women clients than they do. Man, buy And it's because of you, right? They. Women wanna work with women. Yeah, they do.
They, they just are, they're really a good group of people and, , I found a, a [00:21:00] really nice place to land. And being able to help other women too, because, especially to take it back to the beginning where you were raised to. Be financially sound. And then you go into your marriage and you're a stay at home mom you're not necessarily handling the finances, I'm sure.
And then you get into this place where you wanna learn about it. Now you can advise these other women how to really be able to step up in these conversations, whether it's with a partner or on their own. Yes. And what are you finding in. Working day to day with other women and seeing them become more empowered about their finances, I love that piece. As they come in and they're like, I'm, I dunno what I'm doing. I don't even know what this is. Some of 'em are like, I'm not sure I want to, and I'm like, that's okay. You know, we can take it at your pace. Like, I'll give you as much information as you want. But I do think that women, number one, women are taking more of you know, the breadwinner role. They are, [00:22:00] a lot of times they make more than their husbands. And I think it's interesting to note too that, that men aren't born with a gene that helps them understand finance. Like, you know, I got married and yeah, I wasn't taking care of the finances as far as like I was doing the budgeting and stuff like that.
. But I wasn't investing. I didn't even really know what investing was, but neither did my husband. And that is a situation that I would definitely say is, is more common, like I work with in a couple situation. I work a lot of times with a woman who wants to take the investing role.
She and her husband doesn't have any interest in it, just because there. Born as a guy doesn't mean that they want to take the financial reigns of the family. , So that's something I think that's important is giving you the tools that you need, , as a breadwinner, as an earner to, to, to look through and, [00:23:00] Take control of your financial future to take that driver's seat. And the second thing that I've noticed too is that, this is sad thing, but there's a lot more gray divorce, a lot more women who have been married for 30, 35 years, they've always let somebody else handle their, finances. And they are finding that the person that they trusted, , didn't do a great job.
Of handling them. They didn't, you know, they've, they've made a few messes and, and now, right at the time when they're going through the hardest thing that they have to go through, they're also finding out that they're maybe not as financially secure. And I, I really, that it makes my heart sad to see women in that position.
I would say even if you have a really great partner who is an excellent investor, please don't let one [00:24:00] person be in charge of, of the, of the finances. Like both of you need to have an idea of what your money, where your money's at, what it's doing, what you're invested in.
Mm-hmm. And, and I, and that kind of goes for the guys too, like if you've got mm-hmm. A lady in your life who wants to take control of the financial future and wants to be investment, you also need to know where things are. you do, because divorce is a possibility. You know, knock on wood, death is a possibility you want.
You don't wanna wake up in one of those situations and feel like you are completely lost and locked out of your own life, not knowing. What's set up and what is there to protect you Then
So I agree with you. I think that's an important and very valuable, um, work that you are doing to help women in these situations and educate them now before it's too late.
And I think also the idea if there's any stay at home, women listening who are thinking about starting a [00:25:00] business or going back into their workforce.
You're another great example of someone who did that. And look where it took you. So I guess my question would be as we start to wrap up here, is what advice would you give to someone who is a stay at home parent who is thinking about either going back into the workforce or going to the workforce for the first time or starting a business?
What advice would you give to her? The one thing that I wish I would've done, as a stay at home mom was start learning a little bit earlier. , If I had any idea of where I wanted to be, getting some of those credentials while your kids have nap time.
I was working full time with five kids and, doing an MBA right at the same time, I had a pretty good system where I was pretty organized in most of my life and I, and cut off some like school activities to, to, I'm like, you can have one sport, one extracurricular activity.
Right? I [00:26:00] cannot be a taxi driver all day long. I've got homework to do. Yeah. Right. But I would say that If I had had some of that, if I'd started the MBA while, my kids were younger, if I had gotten the insurance licenses or done some sort of volunteering, so I knew what I wanted to do, like I just, I think that it would've not only helped me.
Be a little further ahead when I did go back into the workforce, but it also would've given me that sense that it's hard as a stay at home mom to feel like, of course you feel a lot of fulfillment, but nobody's giving you raises or telling you you're doing a good job. So it would've been really nice to have that other piece of myself that I could have.
Grown while I was, while I was working as a stay at home mom. And do not get me wrong. You work as a stay at home mom. Yes, absolutely. , But I think you said it perfectly. Finding that little piece of yourself and building on that, [00:27:00] and you're allowed to have that too and be a stay at home mom. You can have both.
Start with one client, like. Yeah. What's the worst that's gonna happen? That's what you have to ask yourself. What's the worst that's gonna happen? I'm gonna fall flat on my face. I'm gonna have to get up and I'll try again. Yep. Listen to some of my Fearless Female podcasts. They really helped me.
And tell everyone where can they find you? The podcast, your business, all the places to connect. if you go to fearless financial advisors.com, it's uh, my website and I've got a blog on there that I actually am kind of proud of. I've got all my Fearless Female podcasts and links to those and there is a hundred million ways to connect with me.
Get started, start here. You can set up an appointment. There's scheduling links. , Emailing links, all sorts of things I'm pretty active on LinkedIn as well, so you can reach out to me via LinkedIn. Perfect. I'll link to everything in the show notes as well to make it easy. [00:28:00] And Lori, thank you.
Thank you for all the advice you shared so much your story, advice, everything today, and I really am so grateful. Shannon, thank you so much for having me. This has been so much fun. I hope that someone will get a little nugget of a gem out of it, and hopefully they'll be just a little bit more fearless.
Yes, I know they will.
Speaker: Thank you for joining me for another episode of the second Act Success podcast. If this episode has you thinking about starting a business or growing the one that you already have, I offer free second ACT strategy calls. This is where we map out what makes sense for your business and your life. You can book yours now at second act success.co/strategy, or grab the link in the show notes below.
As always, thank you for being here. Until next time, I'm your host Shannon Russell wishing you the best day ahead as you plan your second act. I'll see you on the next episode.