March 25, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode of Media Rebel Unplugged, host Janice Becker sits down with Chelsea Hussey, a senior wealth advisor at Return on Life Wealth Partners, to dive into the realities of financial planning—especially for women. Chelsea shares her powerful journey into wealth management, shaped by personal adversity, and reveals why financial education is the key to independence.
They discuss the unique barriers women face in financial decision-making, the importance of building trusted relationships with advisors, and how the industry is evolving to better support female investors. Chelsea also highlights the role of personal motivation—like setting an example for the next generation—and why a multidisciplinary approach to financial planning is essential for long-term success.
Whether you're navigating financial decisions yourself or looking to empower others, this episode is packed with insights that will challenge the status quo and inspire action. Tune in for an honest, insightful conversation on building wealth, breaking barriers, and taking control of your financial future.
Takeaways
- Chelsea's journey into wealth management began with personal adversity.
- Financial education is crucial for women to take charge of their finances.
- Building a relationship with a financial advisor is key to effective planning.
- Women often face barriers in financial decision-making due to societal norms.
- Understanding one's financial goals is essential before seeking advice.
- The financial planning industry is evolving to include more women.
- Personal referrals are important when choosing a financial planner.
- Women are increasingly becoming the primary decision-makers in financial matters.
- It's important to have a multidisciplinary team for comprehensive financial planning.
- Motivation often comes from family and the desire to set a good example.
Chapters
00:00 Chelsea Hussey's Inspiring Journey into Wealth Management
03:26 The Importance of Financial Education for Women
06:23 Navigating Financial Planning: Building Relationships
09:16 Overcoming Barriers: Working with Financial Advisors
12:26 The Evolving Role of Women in Finance
15:02 Empowerment Through Knowledge and Support
18:20 Finding Balance: Personal and Professional Life
21:27 The Impact of Motherhood on Professional Growth
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Media Rebel Unplugged where real women after the grind share theirconversations with us about their wins, failures, and their wild stories about surviving,
rebelling, and sometimes just keeping it together with lip gloss and a whole lot ofcaffeine.
Welcome back to Media Rebel Unplugged.
I'm your host, Janice Becker, also CEO and founder.
Media Rebel, a digital marketing agency in Northeast Ohio.
(00:23):
Joining me today is my special guest, Chelsea Hussey.
She is with Return on Life Wealth Partners and a senior wealth advisor, also recentlyrecognized as a Forbes Best in State, which is quite an achievement.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
So your journey into wealth is such an inspiring story.
(00:44):
Would you care to share with everybody?
So let's see here.
When I graduated high school, I actually didn't go to college right away.
had a lot of family members who are from Denmark and we had gone to visit them a fewtimes.
As I was approaching my senior year, was saying, I'd love to get back over there.
I love languages.
I love learning.
So one of our family members said, I'll sponsor you to come over here and you can go tothis kind of like a, almost a community college equivalent.
(01:12):
And in Denmark, you'll be with other international students and your job will be to
learn Danish and decide where you want to take things from there.
And I did that for about a semester in a sort of random twist of fate.
The school ended up closing just about halfway through the semester, so I spent the lastcouple months in a one-bedroom apartment with a girl from Iceland, girl from China, two
(01:36):
Danish girls in a one-bedroom apartment in Copenhagen.
And so it was a wild ride.
During that time, I found out that my dad was
And I thought, all right, my dream was to go to New York or California.
I got into NYU.
That was going to be the next step.
But I thought I'll, go to the university of Akron because it's close and I'll be close tohim.
(01:57):
I grew up doing dance.
I love that their dance program.
And so I, went there with the intention to major in international business and for it tobe sort of a stop along the way.
Short story long, I meet the guy who I'm now married to.
as I was.
progressing through my courses at Akron, I took an accounting course and then a corporatefinance course.
(02:17):
said, whoa, this is really interesting.
I'm kind of enjoying this puzzle piece and putting everything together.
And for me, I did not grow up in a financially savvy family at all.
I think that's really the case for a lot of people.
If you don't get any formal training in it, you don't really end up learning it.
(02:37):
And through my
He was my boyfriend at the time, but through his encouragement, he says, why don't youlook into some internships and things like that.
I ended up getting an internship in financial planning at Northwest Mutual.
And this was in 2008, right as the economy started crashing.
But I thought there's, and there were a couple of things that drew me to it.
(02:59):
One is I thought there's, clearly some bad people in this industry of taking advantage ofpeople that brain aid off controversy was just kicking off.
I thought there's probably people who haven't heard from their advisor in a while.
So there's definitely a need for new blood in this.
But my dad passed away and he really didn't have much of anything set up.
There was no advisor to carry on that relationship or say, hey, you shouldn't buy that carbecause that's actually the lemon.
(03:24):
It's great that you want to give some money to a family friend to invest, but do they knowwhat they're doing?
And things like, you know, there wasn't anyone to say, here's how we could help you planthis out.
And so as I was starting that journey, I realized
The math and the numbers that I enjoyed from accounting to take on a much more impactfulpersonal touch.
If I shifted that into personal financial planning and I thought that's, that would be mycatalyst.
(03:49):
My, my drive there is to get into this industry and see it bit by bit.
And it sounds corny, but I can help people reverse whatever, whatever that, thatgenerational issue is that's keeping them from accomplishing their financial goals.
personal or professional goals.
That's amazing.
feel like if it wasn't for adversity, we wouldn't have any growth in any way, personallyand professionally speaking.
(04:12):
And to go through something like that, I mean, you really have two challenges at the sametime.
I your dad passing had to be just absolutely traumatic.
And then you turn around and it's this horrible crash.
But I think in those times, it's when we really learn the absolute most about ourselvesand what it is that we want to do.
So what would you say was
(04:33):
your biggest takeaway from that situation?
A couple of things.
think one, I believe that knowledge is power and uniquely, I think for women, we tend tobe a little bit more hesitant when it gets, when it comes to taking charge of our own
financial situation.
In general, a barrier I find that as women we have to overcome is we want a little bitmore certainty before we do something.
(04:54):
We want to feel like I've got this.
It takes a lot of courage to jump in.
I'm fortunate to work with a of lot of female business owners who
have to and wants to, but we have to embody that courage every single day.
Yeah.
But we try to minimize risk in other areas.
And so the more information we know, if you're working with an advisor, like my lovelanguage in a way is teaching.
(05:16):
I like teaching people, just here's what we're setting up for you.
Here's how we're going to help you build this financial plan, but here's the why behindit.
Here's a bit of how it works.
And my hope is that each of my clients, then each of these families as they're out in themarketplace, they're hearing messages from
everywhere from social media, from the news, that they start to learn a little bit of thatdiscernment of like, well, here's why that might not be so bad, or here's how that might
(05:41):
directly impact me.
And so by being armed with that information, and every time we review, we deepen thatknowledge further.
I think that's, that's what prevents people from falling into, you know, whatever the nextBernie Madoff might be.
And so knowledge is power being one.
I my second big takeaway is that
A financial plan really shouldn't be a collection of products, it really should be arelationship.
(06:05):
That's the most important.
With my clients, there are things I know about them that probably them and their therapistare like the next most knowledgeable.
Because it's not just about money, but it's all of the dynamics that go into it, how theywere raised, their culture, what they value, what matters to them.
That's having a relationship with that person and understanding them really well.
(06:26):
That's how we can do the most impactful work.
Well, that I agree completely with that education in itself is power.
And I think we do.
There's a pro and con in today's world of where we can over educate ourselves because itcould be of the wrong content.
Like you said, social media is very powerful.
There's a lot of TikToks on there about wealth being that I'm very familiar with you all.
(06:50):
I've heard some things in the past that were kind of red flags that are being set onTikTok or, you know, bad advice.
So what would you advise for?
Women looking to educate themselves, where should they go to educate themselves on how tobe financially savvy?
A good starting point is actually knowing themselves really well.
And what I mean by that is anytime you're going to sit down with a financial advisor,they'll want to know what are some of your goals.
(07:16):
And let's draw this out.
Let's put a number to it.
So the better you know and articulate your goals, the better you can figure out exactlywhat will help you get there.
There are some people like...
buyer movement is really important right now, like financial independence, retire early.
But there's some people who say like, I love what I do.
I want to step into retirement on my own terms at 65.
(07:37):
I want to retire part-time and be with my kids and get back into the workforce.
Whatever that is, think the first step is knowing your net worth, not just as a person,but all the numbers and how that breaks down.
And then I recommend a couple of financial planning books.
The number one money book that I really enjoyed is The Millionaire Next Door.
(07:58):
And that's kind of an older book, but I think it becomes increasingly relevant for ustoday because The Millionaire Next Door is essentially about the fact that some of the
most financially set people you know, you would have almost no idea looking at them.
They might not have a lot of designer stuff.
They might not belong to the country of love.
(08:19):
but they've set themselves up really well.
And for me, that's a bit of a mindset because if you think about what we see in thefuture, we'll have to parse through what's AI and what's not.
Even if like you're watching with the real housewives, you got all their homes beautiful.
And then you realize they're renting their house like, or they're renting like half theirdesigner stuff to promote a designer or for whatever reason.
(08:41):
But you can discern that and really own where you want to be financially.
It makes it easier.
to deal with the comparisons, because especially with social media, we're always seeingthe highlight reels.
And so you could be like, man, they're on 20 grand each.
Like, what are they doing?
And sometimes it might look that way.
Sometimes those people might be terribly in debt or they might have completely differentgoals or different resources.
(09:04):
So it goes back to knowing and being able to articulate your vision and your goals andthen defining what those values are and adopting the mindset of I'm going to do what I
need to do to accomplish.
my objectives and that might look different from someone else.
Being able to do that will prepare you to talk with a financial planner because you're atgoing to be able to articulate and a good financial planner is going to ask you all of
(09:28):
those questions and get the bills turning anyways.
that's going to give you a good foundation of making sure that you create a plan thataligns with what your intentions are.
What would you say for those who are afraid to work with a financial planner, giving thestigma or even like you said, the burning Madoff situation scared a lot of people?
(09:49):
Well, I think it is important to do a little bit of research.
I am a firm believer in personal referrals or personal introductions.
Working with people that you know, your friends or family or whoever you work with, youmight feel pretty comfortable.
The worst thing that will happen is you might
interview a financial planner and you're like, this is not a fit, this is not my team.
(10:14):
And that's totally okay.
As a planner, the step that really is most important is that discovery meeting.
So if you do get into a situation where if you're talking with a financial planner, thereare a good number of resources online to what you should ask them, understanding their
(10:35):
team and their team's makeup.
Are they a fiduciary?
A lot of those lines got blurred, especially leading up to the financial crisis, but evenafter where there are people who might title wise be able to call themselves a financial
advisor, but they may be, they may have more of a title or relationship where they'rereally only obligated to act in your best interests in the moment, not for the lifetime of
(10:57):
that relationship.
And so don't be afraid to ask those questions.
credentials does help a bit too.
In initially getting into financial planning, the barrier to entry isn't so much of adegree, but it's all of the complex tests we have to take.
While you don't have to find somebody with the alphabet soup after their name.
Do you point an alphabet after your name?
(11:18):
It does help because there is a good degree of seriousness.
Now, I would never hold this against a new advisor because I was once a new advisor.
Candidly, the industry does have a bit of high turnover.
somebody who's been around for a little while, I think helps.
But think of somebody who will also grow with you.
So with a lot of the clients that I've worked with, many of them, know, their parents werelike, why don't you work with my guy?
(11:43):
But their parents are retired and their guy is also on the golf course half the time.
You're about to retire yourself.
Exactly.
So if you call him and you're like, NVIDIA just dropped, I want to buy them because it'slong-term, what should I do?
Yeah, he might not get back to you for a couple of days.
or something.
So you want to be able to have that person who you know will be there with you and growwith you.
(12:05):
But a multidisciplinary team is important too, because it's hard to find an expert inevery single area.
So a person who understands taxes or alternative investments or state planning, thosedisciplines will definitely help you because you'll know that, I'm working with people
where there's a think tank approach to helping me.
(12:26):
That's good advice because I know I've heard some people are like, why do I need afinancial planner?
I'm so afraid they're going to charge me so many fees.
I'm going to be upside down.
And I think that is important to get rid of that stigma.
Definitely.
But that being said, I mean, it's probably not the best fit for everybody.
So what would you say is the ideal person to work with a financial planner or a wealthadvisor?
(12:51):
Well, I can start maybe with the counter of somebody who might not
need to work with somebody yet or might not be ready.
I would say that the number one step you should take as an individual or as a family is tomake sure you're maximizing any possible benefit that you have through work.
And not that your financial advisor can't help you do that, but knowing like, all right, Iat least getting my match, my phone case?
(13:16):
Am I on track?
Do I want to max that out?
I would say people, yeah, so maybe people who aren't initially that would be, if theydon't have
clearly articulated goals, it's hard to hire somebody to help you accomplish those.
Depending on the situation, there might be not a ton of complex needs.
It's sort of hard for me to say because the way that I work, and maybe if I were a bettersalesperson, I'd be this way, but I've had calls with people where they were referred by
(13:44):
their friend and I'll tell them like, you could probably actually, if you just go onlineand set that up, that'll be more of what you're looking for.
So it really does, it depends on, I think, who you're
who you're talking to, if if you'll end up getting that, that answer, that's where they'llsay, don't need me.
Any, I would say at least sitting down with an advisor because it's not synced and thisshould be right.
advisor should charge you for meeting with them initially.
(14:06):
So I would say the more information you can get out of that meeting, the two of you shouldbe able to come together mutually and determine is there something you can, this, person
can help me with.
I do know for, and this is especially for women, but we, we wear a ton of hats, a lot ofthem.
And I would say that while I do have, I have run into people where they're like, I want todo it all myself, partnering with an advisor that think of them using compound interest
(14:33):
like your crop plot, basically.
I'm going to help you try to get there faster or get this working for you while you're noteven thinking about it.
I feel like it's almost the theme of our show where we always talk about, we do as womenwear too many hats.
And then if you're a woman with ADHD, it's even crazier for us.
But it's great to point out that it's always.
a good recommendation to turn to somebody else to help you.
(14:56):
It's kind of like what we say even in the digital marketing space.
I like to use the example of when you go to the doctor because you're sick, you trust themto give you a prescription.
You wouldn't go to your barber and ask your barber to give you a prescription.
And believe it or not, they did used to do this a long time ago, but we've smartened upsince then.
So it's the same thing.
(15:17):
And when you have a specialty, you've spent years becoming an expert in your field.
And that is so useful for women to be more empowered to also understand that sometimesit's more empowering to turn to somebody else that has more knowledge than you do.
exactly.
It's like a division of labor kind of thing.
(15:38):
And I think it's important to note too is sometimes hiring somebody to run your financialplans.
It's a matter of timing.
meet with somebody, I have clients where I first engage with them
years ago, the timing wasn't right.
we stay in touch, you know, and all of that, but eventually we reach a point where, hey,it does make more sense now.
(16:01):
And since I'm already familiar with you and what you do.
Yeah, I think I, now I know that I'm ready, but now I know what I'm looking for.
I would say, would say to you, think somebody who might struggle initially working with afinancial planner to make sure I answer your question.
think sometimes I, I'll hear all my
Yeah, I know somebody who's terrible with money.
They definitely need a financial planner.
(16:22):
It's hard to plan around a resource that isn't there because that actually is, this iswhat I teach my daughter and what I'll teach my son as he gets older is the fun part with
money is that if you view it as this limited resource, you then start getting creativewith it.
You start thinking, how can I extend this?
How can I this work?
(16:44):
And figure out how to get what I want with what I have.
So that the people that I can probably help the most are people in a good financialposition.
really, there's also a lot of people will tell me, this person, I know they do reallywell.
They're probably all set.
As the wealth accumulates, things get way more complicated.
(17:05):
And this isn't just on the financial planning side with investments, but this is withtaxes.
This is with state planning, which really your advisor should
be able to coordinate with your CPA, with your estate planning attorney.
Over time, you really want a team around you.
so that's, so that's also really important.
I hope that kind of answered.
I jumped around a little bit, hopefully that answered your questions.
(17:28):
Yes, I think you totally did.
So Ari, you've been in this field for 15 years, correct?
Being, it's a very male dominated field.
How has that evolved in 15 years?
It's evolving slowly, but surely.
there it's, boy, where, like where, where I
before, I think at the time I was maybe the second woman to ever go on maternity leave andthen come back.
(17:50):
And at that time, the maternity leave policy was brand new.
So I was kind of a guinea pig for it.
And that's kind of tricky too when you're an employee or when you're running your ownbusinesses, you're a little bit supported, a little bit not.
And I do think that there have been improvements in recent years.
One thing about the financial planning career that I do want more women to
(18:14):
to know and understand is there is a great deal of flexibility and freedom in it.
And it makes for great, maybe not initially, a great long-term work-life balance inbalancing being a mom, taking care of your clients and things like that.
So I do feel like some of those barriers are breaking down a little bit.
(18:38):
I'm really grateful to work for a firm that we're actually majority book advisors.
We only have two male advisors and everybody else is female there.
Love it.
Yeah.
It's really nice because at least from what I've found, this isn't a knock against maleadvisors, but the primary people that I work with are families.
(18:58):
What I would observe often in meetings is one spouse is usually dominating theconversation, dominating the questions, and the other one is silent.
The majority of the time, the husband's asking the questions, the wife is not.
so I like that my experience and my level of empathy has taught me, make sure you'repulling as much out of her as him.
(19:21):
Because something that demographically, people in my profession need to be aware of isthat women outlive men.
And now 40 % of business owners are female.
We're a growing demographic.
We're in charge of a lot more.
And so what often happens at some of these firms is you'll have this retired couple, thehusband passes away and the wife has no relationship with the advisor because she was
(19:43):
never invited to go golfing with them.
So she goes, well, I'm going to have find somebody new.
And that's actually who I found myself working with very often, not just through theexperience of losing my dad and not really having a relationship with an advisor to help,
but I found that a lot of the people I work with either
Maybe they've come into money, suddenly they have no idea how to not screw it up and theywant to make sure that they hold on to it.
(20:08):
But women have been through divorce or been widowed where they say, I feel a little bitalone in this.
I wasn't the household CFO.
I've got a good idea of what's going on.
But if I'm divorced, I certainly don't want to work with my ex-sign planner.
But I found sort of just by happenstance where I've come to specialize a little bit inthat.
(20:30):
I'm finding that I'm working with a lot of those women and then for a lot of my retiredclients, many of them are widows where we're making sure that especially for these
different generations, many of them were raised where they knew they were shut out fromevery financial decision.
Yeah.
I had to remind myself recently of this, staff, women weren't allowed to have their ownbank accounts or their own credit cards until like the 70s.
(20:53):
Isn't that crazy?
I think I also saw.
Business loans, like women weren't allowed to have a business loan without a man signingon it until the eighties.
Yes.
And I was born in the eighties.
So I was like, wow, really?
It's incredible.
And then my grandmother was an entrepreneur.
She owned a hotel and she left me her diaries when she passed away.
(21:14):
And it's so interesting to go through and read her entire journey of, she was a single momin the fifties and then becoming a business owner and having to have that.
port of men and I didn't really realize at first as I was reading it why did she need tohave a man backing her or whatever was happening at the time.
it's very enlightening and
I'm glad that we are evolving.
(21:36):
Even digital marketing agencies are a very male dominated field still.
Then, you know, there's a lot of women doing it freelance, but not so much owning a fullsize agency like we are here.
And I think that's really empowering that the podcast has kind of evolved into and notintentionally a lot of male dominated fields that women are C-suite executives in these
high profile positions now that it's just so inspirational as I look at my daughter who's10 years old and go.
(22:03):
what a difference the world will be when she is graduating college.
Definitely.
So one question that we always ask on the show is what gets you through your day to daywhen you're just overwhelmed and you just have had enough, what keeps you going?
The biggest one is definitely my kids.
You have to think about who's watching you, what they're seeing, and that set right thereis the biggest why, for sure.
(22:26):
Yeah, I love that.
I saw a quote the other day.
It was,
little different.
A woman was struggling with depression and she said, only my kids knew how many times theysaved my life.
You know, and it's kind of, think, anything, right?
It got me too, right?
There are days I haven't been able to keep going.
I'm a single mom and they have nobody else to depend on if anything happens to me.
(22:48):
So I can completely relate to that.
It's like what keeps me going?
It's, yeah, I have these kids depending on me.
We got to do this today.
And also coffee.
Yes, big time.
I try to read
biographies if I can just to get a sense of how did this person do to that person?
There are a lot of stories of some of these men, Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie, wherethese men who accomplished this tremendous thing, it was because of my mom or like how she
(23:15):
taught me or led me.
And so, you know, even if you're for those moments where you feel so small or, you know,this place feels, this world feels overwhelmed by the direction of men reading about like,
Behind every successful man, there's a mother there and a successful woman.
don't think you can ever underestimate the impact of what we have on our kids.
(23:38):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Go mothers.
Not that we're against dads or men in general, but we definitely have grown, I think, justas a society.
When you look back over the centuries of women work,
either behind men or at times really taking the reins and saying, I'm a woman, hear meroar.
(23:58):
I'm here and I won't be silenced.
I absolutely love that.
Well, thank you for being on today.
Thank you for having me.
If somebody is looking to get a hold of you, where should they go?
You could, so I'm with Return on Life Wealth Partners.
You can reach me at Chelsea at returnonlifewealth.com via email.
Very easy.
My number there is also 440-740-01.
(24:23):
or you can just look up our company, Return on Life, World Partners.
Thank you for tuning in.
If you are interested in being a guest, there is a link in the description.
If you know another woman who would be a great guest on the show, can't be in person, wedo in video as well.
If you want to learn more about MediaRebel, you can go to media-rebel.net.
And don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss another episode with anotheramazing woman like Chelsea.
(24:49):
Thanks for tuning in to Media Rebel Unplugged.
Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the rebellion.
Welcome to Media Rebel Unplugged where real women after the grind share theirconversations with us about their wins, failures, and their wild stories about surviving,
rebelling, and sometimes just keeping it together with lip gloss and a whole lot ofcaffeine.
Welcome back to Media Rebel Unplugged.
I'm your host, Janice Becker, also CEO and founder.
Media Rebel, a digital marketing agency in Northeast Ohio.
(00:23):
Joining me today is my special guest, Chelsea Hussey.
She is with Return on Life Wealth Partners and a senior wealth advisor, also recentlyrecognized as a Forbes Best in State, which is quite an achievement.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
So your journey into wealth is such an inspiring story.
(00:44):
Would you care to share with everybody?
So let's see here.
When I graduated high school, I actually didn't go to college right away.
had a lot of family members who are from Denmark and we had gone to visit them a fewtimes.
As I was approaching my senior year, was saying, I'd love to get back over there.
I love languages.
I love learning.
So one of our family members said, I'll sponsor you to come over here and you can go tothis kind of like a, almost a community college equivalent.
(01:12):
And in Denmark, you'll be with other international students and your job will be to
learn Danish and decide where you want to take things from there.
And I did that for about a semester in a sort of random twist of fate.
The school ended up closing just about halfway through the semester, so I spent the lastcouple months in a one-bedroom apartment with a girl from Iceland, girl from China, two
(01:36):
Danish girls in a one-bedroom apartment in Copenhagen.
And so it was a wild ride.
During that time, I found out that my dad was
And I thought, all right, my dream was to go to New York or California.
I got into NYU.
That was going to be the next step.
But I thought I'll, go to the university of Akron because it's close and I'll be close tohim.
(01:57):
I grew up doing dance.
I love that their dance program.
And so I, went there with the intention to major in international business and for it tobe sort of a stop along the way.
Short story long, I meet the guy who I'm now married to.
as I was.
progressing through my courses at Akron, I took an accounting course and then a corporatefinance course.
(02:17):
said, whoa, this is really interesting.
I'm kind of enjoying this puzzle piece and putting everything together.
And for me, I did not grow up in a financially savvy family at all.
I think that's really the case for a lot of people.
If you don't get any formal training in it, you don't really end up learning it.
(02:37):
And through my
He was my boyfriend at the time, but through his encouragement, he says, why don't youlook into some internships and things like that.
I ended up getting an internship in financial planning at Northwest Mutual.
And this was in 2008, right as the economy started crashing.
But I thought there's, and there were a couple of things that drew me to it.
(02:59):
One is I thought there's, clearly some bad people in this industry of taking advantage ofpeople that brain aid off controversy was just kicking off.
I thought there's probably people who haven't heard from their advisor in a while.
So there's definitely a need for new blood in this.
But my dad passed away and he really didn't have much of anything set up.
There was no advisor to carry on that relationship or say, hey, you shouldn't buy that carbecause that's actually the lemon.
(03:24):
It's great that you want to give some money to a family friend to invest, but do they knowwhat they're doing?
And things like, you know, there wasn't anyone to say, here's how we could help you planthis out.
And so as I was starting that journey, I realized
The math and the numbers that I enjoyed from accounting to take on a much more impactfulpersonal touch.
If I shifted that into personal financial planning and I thought that's, that would be mycatalyst.
(03:49):
My, my drive there is to get into this industry and see it bit by bit.
And it sounds corny, but I can help people reverse whatever, whatever that, thatgenerational issue is that's keeping them from accomplishing their financial goals.
personal or professional goals.
That's amazing.
feel like if it wasn't for adversity, we wouldn't have any growth in any way, personallyand professionally speaking.
(04:12):
And to go through something like that, I mean, you really have two challenges at the sametime.
I your dad passing had to be just absolutely traumatic.
And then you turn around and it's this horrible crash.
But I think in those times, it's when we really learn the absolute most about ourselvesand what it is that we want to do.
So what would you say was
(04:33):
your biggest takeaway from that situation?
A couple of things.
think one, I believe that knowledge is power and uniquely, I think for women, we tend tobe a little bit more hesitant when it gets, when it comes to taking charge of our own
financial situation.
In general, a barrier I find that as women we have to overcome is we want a little bitmore certainty before we do something.
(04:54):
We want to feel like I've got this.
It takes a lot of courage to jump in.
I'm fortunate to work with a of lot of female business owners who
have to and wants to, but we have to embody that courage every single day.
Yeah.
But we try to minimize risk in other areas.
And so the more information we know, if you're working with an advisor, like my lovelanguage in a way is teaching.
(05:16):
I like teaching people, just here's what we're setting up for you.
Here's how we're going to help you build this financial plan, but here's the why behindit.
Here's a bit of how it works.
And my hope is that each of my clients, then each of these families as they're out in themarketplace, they're hearing messages from
everywhere from social media, from the news, that they start to learn a little bit of thatdiscernment of like, well, here's why that might not be so bad, or here's how that might
(05:41):
directly impact me.
And so by being armed with that information, and every time we review, we deepen thatknowledge further.
I think that's, that's what prevents people from falling into, you know, whatever the nextBernie Madoff might be.
And so knowledge is power being one.
I my second big takeaway is that
A financial plan really shouldn't be a collection of products, it really should be arelationship.
(06:05):
That's the most important.
With my clients, there are things I know about them that probably them and their therapistare like the next most knowledgeable.
Because it's not just about money, but it's all of the dynamics that go into it, how theywere raised, their culture, what they value, what matters to them.
That's having a relationship with that person and understanding them really well.
(06:26):
That's how we can do the most impactful work.
Well, that I agree completely with that education in itself is power.
And I think we do.
There's a pro and con in today's world of where we can over educate ourselves because itcould be of the wrong content.
Like you said, social media is very powerful.
There's a lot of TikToks on there about wealth being that I'm very familiar with you all.
(06:50):
I've heard some things in the past that were kind of red flags that are being set onTikTok or, you know, bad advice.
So what would you advise for?
Women looking to educate themselves, where should they go to educate themselves on how tobe financially savvy?
A good starting point is actually knowing themselves really well.
And what I mean by that is anytime you're going to sit down with a financial advisor,they'll want to know what are some of your goals.
(07:16):
And let's draw this out.
Let's put a number to it.
So the better you know and articulate your goals, the better you can figure out exactlywhat will help you get there.
There are some people like...
buyer movement is really important right now, like financial independence, retire early.
But there's some people who say like, I love what I do.
I want to step into retirement on my own terms at 65.
(07:37):
I want to retire part-time and be with my kids and get back into the workforce.
Whatever that is, think the first step is knowing your net worth, not just as a person,but all the numbers and how that breaks down.
And then I recommend a couple of financial planning books.
The number one money book that I really enjoyed is The Millionaire Next Door.
(07:58):
And that's kind of an older book, but I think it becomes increasingly relevant for ustoday because The Millionaire Next Door is essentially about the fact that some of the
most financially set people you know, you would have almost no idea looking at them.
They might not have a lot of designer stuff.
They might not belong to the country of love.
(08:19):
but they've set themselves up really well.
And for me, that's a bit of a mindset because if you think about what we see in thefuture, we'll have to parse through what's AI and what's not.
Even if like you're watching with the real housewives, you got all their homes beautiful.
And then you realize they're renting their house like, or they're renting like half theirdesigner stuff to promote a designer or for whatever reason.
(08:41):
But you can discern that and really own where you want to be financially.
It makes it easier.
to deal with the comparisons, because especially with social media, we're always seeingthe highlight reels.
And so you could be like, man, they're on 20 grand each.
Like, what are they doing?
And sometimes it might look that way.
Sometimes those people might be terribly in debt or they might have completely differentgoals or different resources.
(09:04):
So it goes back to knowing and being able to articulate your vision and your goals andthen defining what those values are and adopting the mindset of I'm going to do what I
need to do to accomplish.
my objectives and that might look different from someone else.
Being able to do that will prepare you to talk with a financial planner because you're atgoing to be able to articulate and a good financial planner is going to ask you all of
(09:28):
those questions and get the bills turning anyways.
that's going to give you a good foundation of making sure that you create a plan thataligns with what your intentions are.
What would you say for those who are afraid to work with a financial planner, giving thestigma or even like you said, the burning Madoff situation scared a lot of people?
(09:49):
Well, I think it is important to do a little bit of research.
I am a firm believer in personal referrals or personal introductions.
Working with people that you know, your friends or family or whoever you work with, youmight feel pretty comfortable.
The worst thing that will happen is you might
interview a financial planner and you're like, this is not a fit, this is not my team.
(10:14):
And that's totally okay.
As a planner, the step that really is most important is that discovery meeting.
So if you do get into a situation where if you're talking with a financial planner, thereare a good number of resources online to what you should ask them, understanding their
(10:35):
team and their team's makeup.
Are they a fiduciary?
A lot of those lines got blurred, especially leading up to the financial crisis, but evenafter where there are people who might title wise be able to call themselves a financial
advisor, but they may be, they may have more of a title or relationship where they'rereally only obligated to act in your best interests in the moment, not for the lifetime of
(10:57):
that relationship.
And so don't be afraid to ask those questions.
credentials does help a bit too.
In initially getting into financial planning, the barrier to entry isn't so much of adegree, but it's all of the complex tests we have to take.
While you don't have to find somebody with the alphabet soup after their name.
Do you point an alphabet after your name?
(11:18):
It does help because there is a good degree of seriousness.
Now, I would never hold this against a new advisor because I was once a new advisor.
Candidly, the industry does have a bit of high turnover.
somebody who's been around for a little while, I think helps.
But think of somebody who will also grow with you.
So with a lot of the clients that I've worked with, many of them, know, their parents werelike, why don't you work with my guy?
(11:43):
But their parents are retired and their guy is also on the golf course half the time.
You're about to retire yourself.
Exactly.
So if you call him and you're like, NVIDIA just dropped, I want to buy them because it'slong-term, what should I do?
Yeah, he might not get back to you for a couple of days.
or something.
So you want to be able to have that person who you know will be there with you and growwith you.
(12:05):
But a multidisciplinary team is important too, because it's hard to find an expert inevery single area.
So a person who understands taxes or alternative investments or state planning, thosedisciplines will definitely help you because you'll know that, I'm working with people
where there's a think tank approach to helping me.
(12:26):
That's good advice because I know I've heard some people are like, why do I need afinancial planner?
I'm so afraid they're going to charge me so many fees.
I'm going to be upside down.
And I think that is important to get rid of that stigma.
Definitely.
But that being said, I mean, it's probably not the best fit for everybody.
So what would you say is the ideal person to work with a financial planner or a wealthadvisor?
(12:51):
Well, I can start maybe with the counter of somebody who might not
need to work with somebody yet or might not be ready.
I would say that the number one step you should take as an individual or as a family is tomake sure you're maximizing any possible benefit that you have through work.
And not that your financial advisor can't help you do that, but knowing like, all right, Iat least getting my match, my phone case?
(13:16):
Am I on track?
Do I want to max that out?
I would say people, yeah, so maybe people who aren't initially that would be, if theydon't have
clearly articulated goals, it's hard to hire somebody to help you accomplish those.
Depending on the situation, there might be not a ton of complex needs.
It's sort of hard for me to say because the way that I work, and maybe if I were a bettersalesperson, I'd be this way, but I've had calls with people where they were referred by
(13:44):
their friend and I'll tell them like, you could probably actually, if you just go onlineand set that up, that'll be more of what you're looking for.
So it really does, it depends on, I think, who you're
who you're talking to, if if you'll end up getting that, that answer, that's where they'llsay, don't need me.
Any, I would say at least sitting down with an advisor because it's not synced and thisshould be right.
advisor should charge you for meeting with them initially.
(14:06):
So I would say the more information you can get out of that meeting, the two of you shouldbe able to come together mutually and determine is there something you can, this, person
can help me with.
I do know for, and this is especially for women, but we, we wear a ton of hats, a lot ofthem.
And I would say that while I do have, I have run into people where they're like, I want todo it all myself, partnering with an advisor that think of them using compound interest
(14:33):
like your crop plot, basically.
I'm going to help you try to get there faster or get this working for you while you're noteven thinking about it.
I feel like it's almost the theme of our show where we always talk about, we do as womenwear too many hats.
And then if you're a woman with ADHD, it's even crazier for us.
But it's great to point out that it's always.
a good recommendation to turn to somebody else to help you.
(14:56):
It's kind of like what we say even in the digital marketing space.
I like to use the example of when you go to the doctor because you're sick, you trust themto give you a prescription.
You wouldn't go to your barber and ask your barber to give you a prescription.
And believe it or not, they did used to do this a long time ago, but we've smartened upsince then.
So it's the same thing.
(15:17):
And when you have a specialty, you've spent years becoming an expert in your field.
And that is so useful for women to be more empowered to also understand that sometimesit's more empowering to turn to somebody else that has more knowledge than you do.
exactly.
It's like a division of labor kind of thing.
(15:38):
And I think it's important to note too is sometimes hiring somebody to run your financialplans.
It's a matter of timing.
meet with somebody, I have clients where I first engage with them
years ago, the timing wasn't right.
we stay in touch, you know, and all of that, but eventually we reach a point where, hey,it does make more sense now.
(16:01):
And since I'm already familiar with you and what you do.
Yeah, I think I, now I know that I'm ready, but now I know what I'm looking for.
I would say, would say to you, think somebody who might struggle initially working with afinancial planner to make sure I answer your question.
think sometimes I, I'll hear all my
Yeah, I know somebody who's terrible with money.
They definitely need a financial planner.
(16:22):
It's hard to plan around a resource that isn't there because that actually is, this iswhat I teach my daughter and what I'll teach my son as he gets older is the fun part with
money is that if you view it as this limited resource, you then start getting creativewith it.
You start thinking, how can I extend this?
How can I this work?
(16:44):
And figure out how to get what I want with what I have.
So that the people that I can probably help the most are people in a good financialposition.
really, there's also a lot of people will tell me, this person, I know they do reallywell.
They're probably all set.
As the wealth accumulates, things get way more complicated.
(17:05):
And this isn't just on the financial planning side with investments, but this is withtaxes.
This is with state planning, which really your advisor should
be able to coordinate with your CPA, with your estate planning attorney.
Over time, you really want a team around you.
so that's, so that's also really important.
I hope that kind of answered.
I jumped around a little bit, hopefully that answered your questions.
(17:28):
Yes, I think you totally did.
So Ari, you've been in this field for 15 years, correct?
Being, it's a very male dominated field.
How has that evolved in 15 years?
It's evolving slowly, but surely.
there it's, boy, where, like where, where I
before, I think at the time I was maybe the second woman to ever go on maternity leave andthen come back.
(17:50):
And at that time, the maternity leave policy was brand new.
So I was kind of a guinea pig for it.
And that's kind of tricky too when you're an employee or when you're running your ownbusinesses, you're a little bit supported, a little bit not.
And I do think that there have been improvements in recent years.
One thing about the financial planning career that I do want more women to
(18:14):
to know and understand is there is a great deal of flexibility and freedom in it.
And it makes for great, maybe not initially, a great long-term work-life balance inbalancing being a mom, taking care of your clients and things like that.
So I do feel like some of those barriers are breaking down a little bit.
(18:38):
I'm really grateful to work for a firm that we're actually majority book advisors.
We only have two male advisors and everybody else is female there.
Love it.
Yeah.
It's really nice because at least from what I've found, this isn't a knock against maleadvisors, but the primary people that I work with are families.
(18:58):
What I would observe often in meetings is one spouse is usually dominating theconversation, dominating the questions, and the other one is silent.
The majority of the time, the husband's asking the questions, the wife is not.
so I like that my experience and my level of empathy has taught me, make sure you'repulling as much out of her as him.
(19:21):
Because something that demographically, people in my profession need to be aware of isthat women outlive men.
And now 40 % of business owners are female.
We're a growing demographic.
We're in charge of a lot more.
And so what often happens at some of these firms is you'll have this retired couple, thehusband passes away and the wife has no relationship with the advisor because she was
(19:43):
never invited to go golfing with them.
So she goes, well, I'm going to have find somebody new.
And that's actually who I found myself working with very often, not just through theexperience of losing my dad and not really having a relationship with an advisor to help,
but I found that a lot of the people I work with either
Maybe they've come into money, suddenly they have no idea how to not screw it up and theywant to make sure that they hold on to it.
(20:08):
But women have been through divorce or been widowed where they say, I feel a little bitalone in this.
I wasn't the household CFO.
I've got a good idea of what's going on.
But if I'm divorced, I certainly don't want to work with my ex-sign planner.
But I found sort of just by happenstance where I've come to specialize a little bit inthat.
(20:30):
I'm finding that I'm working with a lot of those women and then for a lot of my retiredclients, many of them are widows where we're making sure that especially for these
different generations, many of them were raised where they knew they were shut out fromevery financial decision.
Yeah.
I had to remind myself recently of this, staff, women weren't allowed to have their ownbank accounts or their own credit cards until like the 70s.
(20:53):
Isn't that crazy?
I think I also saw.
Business loans, like women weren't allowed to have a business loan without a man signingon it until the eighties.
Yes.
And I was born in the eighties.
So I was like, wow, really?
It's incredible.
And then my grandmother was an entrepreneur.
She owned a hotel and she left me her diaries when she passed away.
(21:14):
And it's so interesting to go through and read her entire journey of, she was a single momin the fifties and then becoming a business owner and having to have that.
port of men and I didn't really realize at first as I was reading it why did she need tohave a man backing her or whatever was happening at the time.
it's very enlightening and
I'm glad that we are evolving.
(21:36):
Even digital marketing agencies are a very male dominated field still.
Then, you know, there's a lot of women doing it freelance, but not so much owning a fullsize agency like we are here.
And I think that's really empowering that the podcast has kind of evolved into and notintentionally a lot of male dominated fields that women are C-suite executives in these
high profile positions now that it's just so inspirational as I look at my daughter who's10 years old and go.
(22:03):
what a difference the world will be when she is graduating college.
Definitely.
So one question that we always ask on the show is what gets you through your day to daywhen you're just overwhelmed and you just have had enough, what keeps you going?
The biggest one is definitely my kids.
You have to think about who's watching you, what they're seeing, and that set right thereis the biggest why, for sure.
(22:26):
Yeah, I love that.
I saw a quote the other day.
It was,
little different.
A woman was struggling with depression and she said, only my kids knew how many times theysaved my life.
You know, and it's kind of, think, anything, right?
It got me too, right?
There are days I haven't been able to keep going.
I'm a single mom and they have nobody else to depend on if anything happens to me.
(22:48):
So I can completely relate to that.
It's like what keeps me going?
It's, yeah, I have these kids depending on me.
We got to do this today.
And also coffee.
Yes, big time.
I try to read
biographies if I can just to get a sense of how did this person do to that person?
There are a lot of stories of some of these men, Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie, wherethese men who accomplished this tremendous thing, it was because of my mom or like how she
(23:15):
taught me or led me.
And so, you know, even if you're for those moments where you feel so small or, you know,this place feels, this world feels overwhelmed by the direction of men reading about like,
Behind every successful man, there's a mother there and a successful woman.
don't think you can ever underestimate the impact of what we have on our kids.
(23:38):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Go mothers.
Not that we're against dads or men in general, but we definitely have grown, I think, justas a society.
When you look back over the centuries of women work,
either behind men or at times really taking the reins and saying, I'm a woman, hear meroar.
(23:58):
I'm here and I won't be silenced.
I absolutely love that.
Well, thank you for being on today.
Thank you for having me.
If somebody is looking to get a hold of you, where should they go?
You could, so I'm with Return on Life Wealth Partners.
You can reach me at Chelsea at returnonlifewealth.com via email.
Very easy.
My number there is also 440-740-01.
(24:23):
or you can just look up our company, Return on Life, World Partners.
Thank you for tuning in.
If you are interested in being a guest, there is a link in the description.
If you know another woman who would be a great guest on the show, can't be in person, wedo in video as well.
If you want to learn more about MediaRebel, you can go to media-rebel.net.
And don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss another episode with anotheramazing woman like Chelsea.
(24:49):
Thanks for tuning in to Media Rebel Unplugged.
Don't forget to subscribe, share, and join the rebellion.
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.