Lead. Empower. Grow. Podcast

April is financial literacy month, and Lead. Empower. Grow. has partnered with the Real Secrets of Money program to highlight the importance of financial educators. We have so many great clips of past guests talking about financial literacy and the great work they do as financial educators, so we gathered some of their best pieces of wisdom and advice over the years and put them all in this insightful episode.

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Today's guest is a swerve from last week: our host spoke to a young agent on the rise, Regional Marketing Director Thuan Bui. We had a great talk about how important good leaders and mentors are to an entrepreneur's success — not least because they in turn teach you how to lead and mentor your future teams.

Listen to Thuan's energetic story and hear his great "bow and arrow" metaphor for overcoming...

Today's guest is a very experienced business builder, National Marketing Director Tou Vang, who has been an entrepreneur since shortly after he came to America from Laos in 1980. When he finished up his schooling, he started gaining experience opening businesses, everything from a grocery store to a used car dealership. For the last 13 years, Tou has been helping people secure their futures and protect their families with life...

For today's episode, we had the honor of speaking to Dah Htoo, a Field Vice President who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Myanmar (or Burma, as it was known until 1989) 15 years ago and started dedicating his life to helping refugees adjust to American life.

After working his way through various jobs, he landed as a caseworker for Lutheran Family Services, aiding families who were new to the country. Since then, Dah has tran...

In this captivating episode of Lead. Empower. Grow., we sit down with Cindy Rivera, who shares her insights on perseverance, the importance of financial preparedness and how she navigated personal and professional challenges to achieve success. Her story is a profound reminder of the power of courage and the impact one can have when you dedicate yourself to helping people without fear. Join us for an episode filled with inspiration...

It's a new season and a new year for the Lead. Empower. Grow. Podcast, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer guest to get 2024 off to a good start than Choua Yang. One thing becomes clear when talking to this National Marketing Director from FFS: she has a lot of determination and she represents the power of believing in yourself in the face of many challenges. Today, we'll dive into the lessons Choua learned throug...

To celebrate Thanksgiving this week, we put together a special montage episode of Lead. Empower. Grow. to feature stories of gratitude that have been shared by our past guests on the podcast over the years.

Gratitude is part of our industry by its very nature — whether it's a death benefit that eases stress at an already painful time, living benefits that save a client from crushing medical debt or simply securing a h...

Today's guest entrepreneur is Area Marketing Director Julie Lor, who was an emcee for one of our General Sessions at this year's Leaders Convention 2023. Julie talked to our host about her life serving her community as a health worker before she built her business, what it means to be a people person and what it means to "learn to dance in the storm," which gave us some new vocabulary for overcoming adversity. F...

Youa Khang, a Senior Marketing Director from Sacramento, is the 2023 winner of First Financial Security's Give Back Visionary of the Year Award, which is given to honor entrepreneurs who impact their community through charity, volunteer work, financial education and other efforts that go above and beyond their duty to help other people.

Youa does her charity work through the Saving Angels, a nonprofit that's focu...

Today's episode departs from our usual interview format to present a highlight reel of some of the entrepreneurs who spoke at Leaders Convention 2023, First Financial Security's annual summer event where business builders from all over the country come to together to learn from each other and network with other leaders to reinvigorate their businesses.

Some of these voices will be familiar as former guests of the...

Hispanic Heritage Month falls between September 15 and October 15 every year in honor of many Central and Latin American countries who gained their independence in this span of time, and our guest today, Regional Marketing Director Rina Ramos, is making it her mission to bring financial security and peace of mind to the Hispanic community. Rina was the perfect guest to honor this important time, sitting down with our host to talk a...

This brand new season of Lead. Empower. Grow. comes right in the middle of a record-breaking year for First Financial Security, Inc. — and a lot of those records were broken by today's guest. Leyna Nguyen, one of our newest Executive Field Chairman, kicks off our season with a lively discussion about the 11 diamonds she reached in one short year, her years of helping people through her non-profit work and how the FFS mission t...

For today's episode, I spoke to National Marketing Director and social media expert Michael Henry, who — as one half of the business team M&M Wealth Associates with former guest Matthew Wu — touched on the importance of having what he calls a "running mate." A running mate is an accountability partner: someone who picks you up when you're down and pats you on the back when you succeed, balancing out your str...

In perfect timing with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, our host of the Lead. Empower. Grow. Podcast sat down with Field Vice President Yvonne Nguyen for a lively talk about the importance of shared language when teaching about finance and the undeniable power of diversity in a sales force. Listen to our enlightening discussion about the importance of seeing results, how the best sales are made through telling a ...

On this special episode, our guest is not only an incredible FFS entrepreneur but also one of the truest testaments to the power of living benefits. National Marketing Director Karen Baker sat down with our host to talk about surviving cancer amidst a global pandemic — and clued us in to how her business did not even skip a beat. Find out how on this great episode of the Lead. Empower. Grow. Podcast.

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It's the first episode of Lead. Empower. Grow.'s 2023 season! Today we talk to the one and only Javier Rodriguez, Executive Field Chairman out of Southern California and one of FFS' greatest business builders. Listen as Javier shares his peerless advice, insight and strategies for success — which include the importance of policy renewals and becoming a personal example of the power of the product.

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On this week's episode of Sales Edition with Andy Cowan, our Director of Sales interviewed Senior Marketing Director Chi Luu from Southern California about how she optimized her referral process to launch her business to the Top 15 in Personal Points.

Chi walked Andy through her sales process step-by-step and explained her she manages to close 80% of her sales after the first meeting. Don't miss this insightful ...

On this inspirational episode of Lead. Empower. Grow., Regional Marketing Director Shenita Jones — you might know her better as "S.J." — came on the show to talk to me about her beginnings in financial services: from her life as a serial entrepreneur to 20 years in the insurance industry to finally finding the right products that can be used to build generational wealth for the people in her community. Enjoy this great di...

On today's episode, Regional Marketing Director Vicki Diep of Team Resilience in California sat down for a great conversation about bringing life insurance to the Asian community and changing the face of insurance in the process. Vicki is dedicated to helping families for the sake of helping them and brings an inspiring energy to our talk about everything from the stigma around life insurance to the difficulty of selling finan...