From Heartbreak to Purpose with Susan Miller

Did you ever imagine a figure skater leading a wealth management firm? 
Meet Susan Miller—a CEO who’s as passionate about gliding on the ice as she is about helping clients through life’s financial transitions.
After the loss of her parents in 2009, Susan became the trustee of their estate, gaining hands-on experience that showed her how overwhelming financial matters can be. Then, eleven years ago, after her husband passed away, she found a new passion in figure skating, which has brought her joy and a community.
A few topics we discussed in this episode are finding and developing relationships with mentors and clients, and doing things that you love because you truly care about it! 
A truly insightful conversation, all coming from the heart. 
A magna cum laude graduate in Finance from Ashford University, Susan holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC®) designation and is licensed as an Enrolled Agent by the U.S. Treasury. Starting her career at Slaten Wealth with a mentor who founded the firm, she now proudly carries on the legacy as owner, focusing on making financial planning approachable and stress-free.

Get to know more about Susan Miller and the amazing work that she do at https://slatenwealth.com/ and check their services for your needs.
To learn more about myself, Michael Esposito, and find out about public speaking workshops, coaching, and keynote speaking options, and - of course - to be inspired, visit www.michaelespositoinc.com
The Michael Esposito Show is hosted by Michael Esposito and produced by iHeartMedia Hudson Valley. Be sure to subscribe on iHeart Media, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Google Play, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
Hello all, my entrepreneurs and business leaders, and welcome to
the Michael Esposito Show, where I interview titans of industry
in order to inform, educate and inspire you to be great.
Where I interview titans of industry in order to inform,
educate and inspire you to be great. My guest today
return to the financial services industry in two thousand and

(00:43):
nine after losing her parents and becoming the trustee of
their estate. After hands on estate management, she developed a
passion for helping others during difficult times of transition. She
found that working with the whole family is critical. She
has mastered tax and investment management and can explain even

(01:07):
the most complicated situation in an understandable, relatable way. When
she's not speaking at a seminar or meeting with clients,
she can be found on the ice skating rink as
an adult figure skater. In twenty thirteen, she took to
the ice for the first time and has since competed

(01:28):
at Theater on Ice Nationals and National Showcase, as well
as many local competition and holiday shows. She also volunteers
her time as a us FSA appointed music coordinator and announcer,
and she is always available for playtime with her granddaughter

(01:50):
and godsons. Please welcome President and COO of Slayton Wealth Management,
Susan Miller, welcome. Hey, hi, all right, before I forget,
because I no, I'm gonna forget.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Did you ever watch The Cutting Edge?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yes, yes, And my sister would be would be remiss
if I didn't say topic topick.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah. Those topics are dangerous. They sneak up when you
are at least expecting them.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, so you know we're going to get into the
wealth management piece of it all, and of course the
emotional side of it all with your parents and all that.
But while we're on this topic conversation, what made you
decide to get into figure skating as an adult?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It hurts?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yes, well interesting, it ends up kind of being another
sad story. Okay. I lost my husband in twenty thirteen
and as a new widow and a young widow. I
was looking around for a new hobby because all of
our hobbies had been you know, our hobbies, and it

(03:06):
was really hard trying to figure out, you know, what
to do that didn't bring up all the old memories
and looking for something new. And friends of ours, their
kids were skating in a skating competition. I got invited
to go see them at their skating competition, and I'm

(03:28):
at the rink and going, oh, it would be maybe
kind of fun to skate with the kids one day.
And I turn around and there's on the board bulletin
board saying adult figure skating lessons, And I thought, well,
it would probably be a good idea to take some lessons,
because you know how kids are. They come running up

(03:48):
to you Aunt Susie and Susie, you know, and falling
on your kids, your friends' kids, or smushing them would
not go over very well. So I thought I should
learn what I'm doing, And so I signed up and
went for my first lesson, and the coach there said, oh,

(04:09):
you're catching on. Did you know that there are adult
figure skating competitions and that there's theater on ice? And
I'm like, oh, this sounds like maybe something that would
fit into my background and give me a whole new
world to explore, and it actually ended up doing that

(04:30):
because there is a whole adult figure skating community out
there of people who maybe skated as kids and are
still skating, but a lot of people coming to it
as adults learning to skate for the first time in
their thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, even seventy year olds that

(04:52):
are taking to the ice for the first time. Not
saying it's common, but it's out there and it's a
very You can't take short cuts in skating. You can't
move ahead until you learn the foundations, and you have

(05:13):
to practice the foundations to get better. And that kind
of became you know that that goes back to life
and everything. You can't just jump ahead and expect to
have a million dollars when you're going to retire if
you don't take the steps to get there.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
I like that you bring that out and kind of
relate to two. You know, you mentioned obviously it is
heavier to speak about figure skating than one would have
imagined myself included in that one there, So your husband,
I want to just kind of acknowledge Obviously, his impact
and your partnership for the time he was around. Could

(05:55):
you share a little bit about him and then how
you were able to And I think we're going to
speak about this with your parents too, And you just
mentioned it with figure skating in that how you were
able to move on from this traumatic situation, not move
on entirely of forgetting, but move on in the way
in the sense of you know, when we're when we're

(06:16):
everybody listening right now is dealing with something and they
want to know, how do I get past this difficult situation?
And it might not be as traumatic, and we hope
for them that it's not as traumatic as losing a
loved one like your spouse, But if there's any light
at the end, silver lining to it all, can you
share with them a little bit of course acknowledging him,

(06:37):
and a little bit on how you were able to continue.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
So he and I for over twenty years did the
Renaissance Pleasure Fair, and we had booths at the fair,
and he was an actor and built props and special

(07:07):
effects and that was his industry. And over the years
we just had met so many people that had worked
with us at the Renaissance Fair and he always and
we together always had these people that would come and
volunteer to work with us, and we made them family.

(07:33):
So when I lost him, you know, we had been
together for over thirty years, but when I lost him,
you know, over two hundred people showed up at my
house that were family. And you know, he's been gone

(07:54):
now eleven years, and I still have those friends and
family coming. You know that we still talk about him.
You know, they still say, oh, I remember when Steve
did this or Steve did that, and he isn't gone.

(08:18):
And that's I guess what is keeps it from being
overwhelming because it's not a goodbye. It's not packed up
and put away forever. It's an ongoing story. And you
know he used to you know, he built different things,

(08:42):
and he built swords, little wood swords, and my godson's
got them for their first birthday. So those even these
one year olds that never met you know, even these
three and five year old who's never met him, still
know who Uncle Steve is. That Uncle Steve's a pirate

(09:03):
and he's somebody that would have been you know, that's
fun and they hear the stories.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
What I hear there is the importance of community and
how important it is to be a part of a community.
As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we think about so many
different communities that we can be a part of chambers
of commerces and business associations toast masters, and the list
goes on, and in yours, the figure skating community, and

(09:32):
the acting community, in the theater community. And I think
with what you're sharing here in that you know, it
could be something where we lose a loved one, It
could be something where our business fails. It could be
there's a number of traumas or difficulties or challenges that
you might be experiencing. But when you have a community

(09:53):
that you could lean on and that can also come
in and support you, it makes it a little bit easier.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah. And I was kind of brought up like you
don't ask for help. But you know, my you know,
the friends showed up at my house and said, no,
we're doing this. You know that we're going to take
care of whatever needs to be taken care of. And

(10:20):
it took me a while to learn to ask for help.
And that allowed me to you know, be you know,
take over this business. You know, I you know, become
a financial advisor, have my own practice. You know, I
had to finally reach out and ask for help because

(10:45):
I don't know everything. And that's okay, but you know,
especially women are expected to you know, know everything. You know,
mom wearing my shoes, you know, where's my folder?

Speaker 2 (11:02):
You know?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
What do I have to do today? And the ginger
Rogers used to have to, you know, do everything Fred
Astaire did backwards and in high heels, and it's always
a challenge. We're expected to do know everything, have the answers,

(11:23):
and look good doing it.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
So everything you said about the house, my wife does
know where the folder is and where their sneakers are.
Just just just just so we're aware here, is that, yes,
that is that is totally true. I do want to
let's talk about the word expect and expectations because that's
a big one. That's the one that I think causes
the overwhelmed, the stress, the judgment, the fear, the anxiety

(11:52):
that so many of us feel is the expectations. And
you're really addressing it, obviously from the gender point of view,
but I believe that it can be addressed in many
point of views. But I love if you could expand
on on expectations and the feelings that they drum up,
and how how maybe we can move past some of
these expectations in order to truly live as ourselves.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
That that that's deep.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I got deep, man, that's tough.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Gosh. Well, first of all, take everything with sense of humor.
Everything is funny. I'm sorry that people don't think it's funny.
It's funny that if you take yourself so seriously, then

(12:51):
you're going to be miserable. And there's no reason to
because you know, we're here now, and our grandparents were
here before us, and their parents and their parents and
their parents, and they all survived whatever happened to them,
everything that could have happened to them, which was probably

(13:13):
a million times worse than anything that could happen to us. Now,
they all survived, and we are here because of them.
So I just I don't I don't expect to disappoint them,

(13:34):
and I expect to move forward.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, And I think you know in terms of that
question too, it's I think that when we remove expectations,
and as you're nodding along with me here for our
audio listeners, as we remove expectations, life becomes a little
more fun and we can start really going into the
things that we want to do. You know, my parents
expected me to go to college, they expected me to

(13:59):
get a job, expected me to do these things. And
when I started looking at my life and going here's
what I want to do. I mean, I did go
to college, but here's what I want to do, and start,
you know, unraveling all those expectations. We start really start
being able to live in our true, true selves and
what we want to live in. The other thing you
mentioned is humor. I love this in that laugh at everything.

(14:22):
You know, it's I think that there is a certainly
a respectfulness to different things and to different people's opinions
and feelings on things, and to be respectful to it
and not disrespectful.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
But humor is a great way.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean, we're going to speak about your parents too
in this, because they're part of your journey. It's a
great way to move past things is to think of
the stories of Stephen and to laugh about those stories,
to relive those moments and to laugh at them, and
to tease him even when he's not around, and just
to kind of like share in the vulnerability here.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
I lost my cousin.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I was nineteen, he was eighteen years old, and we
were brothers. And whether I'm speaking with family members about
him or friends about him, or whatever it is, I'm
always keeping his memory alive. And I laugh at the
dumb things we did together, because we did a lot
of dumb things together. He died before we got smart,
so you can only imagine, and you know, and I

(15:20):
and you're so right like keeping their memory alive. And
when I see friends or family that knew him, we
talk about him, We talk about.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Those stories, we relive those stories.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
And just to kind of like come out of there
for a moment and go back to humor and laughing.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Laughing at ourselves.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh yeah, when we go into human when we go
into expectations and we expect so much of ourselves, of
course we're going to be met with overwhelm and pain
and anxiety. But if we could remove that expectation and
kind of just laugh at ourselves and just go, you
know what, that was so dumb?

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Why did I do that?

Speaker 1 (15:53):
You know, and just kind of be silly about it.
What's ironic about this conversation that we're kind of like
unfolding here is forever one listening Before we came on
the air, I said, Susan, never listen to my podcast.
She said no, and I said, oh great, it's about football,
and you laughed and you said, no problem, let's do
it talk about let's.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Do it football, right.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
And I love it because it's like you're you in
that moment that you didn't know me from anywhere, and
I didn't know you from anywhere for some reason, because
I don't typic I I don't think I've ever done
that where I joked with a guest about what my
show's about. For some reason, I had this feeling that
I could joke with you, and you joked back with me,
and I mean you weren't even joking. I think you
were like one hundred percent serious of like, all.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Right, let's get by the way, I don't know anything
about football.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's if you don't open yourself up for every possibility,
then how much do you miss out on?

Speaker 2 (16:47):
M I love that.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, you really do you miss You miss out on
so much by not opening yourself up to so many
different possibilities. So back to opening yourself to these possibilities
and you know, dealing with the stress and the overwhelm
and the challenging you mentioned community and leaning on people.
And then the other thing you took on was a
new sporty figure skating and something to distract. I think

(17:15):
sometimes we look at distraction as a bad thing, but
distraction could be also a good thing to move on
from things, to find something new. And for you, it's
been an outlet for you that you're even able to
tie back to this financial piece.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah. Well, my best friend when I first started, you know,
i'd been doing it for about six months or so,
and she she kind of like sat me down sex Susan,
I'm really worried about you. You seem to just be
all into this figure skating stuff, and you know, are
you okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm good. And then

(17:51):
she came and watched me skate, and she's afterwards, she goes,
I'm so sorry. I said that I can see the
joy on your face when you're skating. I see now
what you're talking about. But she thought I was like
trying to hide or bury my feelings and didn't realize

(18:11):
it was no, it's it was a new joy.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah. Yeah, and you find that.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
And so you said this part, this, this is what
kind of sparked where you started getting into the financial planning.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Well, yeah, that actually had happened. I started a little
bit before this. This probably added to it. Yeah, So
about five years before I lost my husband, my dad
was diagnosed with cancer and my mom was out of
town at the time, so I ended up going with

(18:46):
him to those first couple of appointments and trying to
figure out what's on. You know, what's going on, and
you know, everything's you know, how what treatments, what to do.
And my dad had the same sense of humor as me,
So we would sit after at these doctor's appointments or

(19:07):
he would tease the nurses it was, Yeah, we made
cancer fun. You know, it's like you can't not have it.
I mean, you wish you didn't have it, and you
wish you weren't doing all of these treatments. But if

(19:27):
we're going to do it, we're going to figure out
how to have the most fun with it. And he
went through treatments and you know, did pretty well for
a year, but then it came back, and you know,
we lost him and my mom then unexpectedly really died

(19:50):
three months later from a heart attack, and basically the
doctor said it was broken heart syndrome, which I didn't
know until then exist. And at that time I ended
up help you know, managing their trust and getting back

(20:13):
into the financial service industry. I'd been in it years before,
and I remember sitting up in the middle of the
night on Google, you know, like, you know, Mom's gone,
Now what Dad's gone? Now what?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
You know?

Speaker 3 (20:29):
What do I do?

Speaker 2 (20:30):
How?

Speaker 3 (20:31):
How do I take care of all the things that
you know, what needs to be taken care of. There's
you know, assets that need to be moved, there's tax
returns that need to be filed, all of these things
that need to happen, and I had to learn how

(20:52):
to do them, and you can do them wrong. And
in doing so, I learned a lot the right way
to do things, the wrong way to do them. And
then I was done. You know, I don't ever you know,
I won't ever have to manage my parents' trust again.

(21:15):
But I knew all these other people were out there
that have no guidance and they don't even they don't
know what to do. And so for the last several
years have been helping a special you know, we do
financial planning, complete financial planning, comprehensive financial planning, and taxes.

(21:42):
But what I really am passionate about is helping the
people with you know, their family situation. You know, I
we have a lawyer that works out of our office here,
so she and I have partnered up and really are
able to help people with the whole package of creating

(22:05):
their trust in you know, estate documents, tax optimizing that
because sometimes you can go and get a trust anywhere,
but it doesn't mean it's been done right or the
best way to save in taxes. And then we help

(22:26):
people give them guidance of how to manage maybe mom
or dad's affairs. And then when mom and dad are gone,
when we're you know, we have to file special tax
returns for that that you know, trust tax returns, and
then help people move on to set up their estate

(22:49):
the way they want it for their kids.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
When when all of this kind of happened, what were
the resources that you had?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
There were there were minimal?

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, Yeah, you remember how I was saying,
we don't like to ask for help, and we think
we have to do it all on our own, right,
That's where I started.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
And so you were just trying to figure it all
out on your own. Yeah the whole time.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, I was trying to figure it out, and then
I eventually did get some help. But it it it
was I didn't get help as soon as I should
have gotten.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Help as soon as you should have.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
And you know some of the things that you mentioned
in there, I'd like if we can just kind of
understand a little bit better, could you share with us
what a trust is?

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh? Okay? So a trust is a legal document that
allows a person to set their assets up in a
revocable in our case, usually revocable trust, so that when

(24:05):
they pass away, their assets are distributed according to the
trust document and do not have to go through probate.
The other thing is the assets inside the trust can
be managed by a separate person, So if you are

(24:27):
not capable of handling your affairs, your child or somebody
you appoint can pay your bills and take care of
your finances and take care of your property for your benefit.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
And so that's different than a will.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yes, the only thing a will does is a will
tells the government the court system who you want your
assets to go through go to. That doesn't give them
permission to do anything while you're still alive, and it's

(25:04):
a public record, meaning the court has to probate you
have to take the will to probate court to get
a judge to sign off on the will.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
And what's the probate mean?

Speaker 3 (25:23):
So probate is the court process to transfer assets, and
for us in California, probate typically takes two to three
years and costs upward of fifty thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Or more. So you can lose pretty much all the
assets while you're trying.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
To yes yes, because you have to get the court's
permission to do things where if you are the trustee,
you can immediately take control of a financial asset or
a home for.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Example, and live in it and all the live in
it or.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Put renters in it, you know, to make sure there aren't.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yep, whatever it is.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Wrong kind of people. You don't want the house sitting empty.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Right, whatever it takes to keep it going.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, So during that process is when you kind of
got back into financial literacy and financial planning. Tell us
a little bit about that and how you got into
the business.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
I came back and what working doing taxes and realized
that that could be leveraged into financial services. I had
a great mentor. It was named Cliff Slayton. He was
the you know the founder of Slatin Wealth Management, and

(26:56):
he had been my first boss when I was sixteen.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
When I was sixteen, my dad. I told my dad
that a friend said that, oh, well, you're good with math,
you should go do taxes. And I told my dad that,
So he went to his tax guy, mister Slayton's office,
walked in and said, you're going to hire my daughter,
and he did. And I worked for him for about

(27:26):
four years doing taxes back in the you know, eighty nine, eighties,
late eighties.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, that's well, you were just a kid doing them.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
I was kid of a baby. But of course, being
a baby, I didn't want to just do taxes all
my life. So I ended up leaving and doing other things.
I did purchasing, I did sales. I did computer programming.
I worked for small companies, big companies, international companies. And

(28:01):
when my parents passed away, he was still their tax
guy and I came. I was talking with him to
transfer their assets, and that's when I got laid off
for my job at that point in time, and I

(28:21):
told him I'd gotten laid off, and he's like, well,
do you want to come work for me again? And
it had been thirty five years, thirty years since I'd
worked for him, and I said, you know what, Yeah,
I was tired of working in big corporate I was
tired of being a number. I liked being able to
help people directly instead of big projects that no one

(28:46):
cared about. And I came back to work for him,
and basically he's been He was my mentor for fifteen
years until he finally retired three years ago. I was
able to purchase the practice from him.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Wow, pretty pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
It kind of came back around from being a kid
working for him and just being this young girl just
you know there just you know, clocking in, clocking out
kind of thing, to where you picked up life experience
really right, Like when you think about it, you know,
why wouldn't he hire you? So you were probably a
really great employee when you were there, and then you

(29:26):
picked up thirty years of life experience, like.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
And it was so helpful coming back in, you know,
helping people. You know, I finally understood you know what,
you know, I understood what I had been doing all
those years ago, and I had had the experience, you know,
rolling over a four oh one K do you know
self directed iras managing my finances, doing tax returns. My

(29:52):
husband was a small business owner, so I had been
you know, small business owner and the specialties in doing
and those kinds of taxes, and so I had all
this experience and then got all the estate experience and
the trust and had all that experience and started working
and mentored under him and had the opportunity to you know,

(30:17):
buy him out and continue taking care of his clients.
And then I was able to bring in some incredible
people that work with me, and we're just able to
take care of you know, people that we've been taking
care of for you know, thirty years, forty years wow.

(30:39):
And second generation, third generation, you know, the family.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yeah, because you build the trust with the parents and
then their kids. It's in the insurance business. It's very similar,
very similar. Something that comes up very often in professional
development spaces is transferable experiences, and it sounds like you.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Had a lot of those.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Did you speak to us a little bit about some
of the transferable experiences that you had from sales and
big corporate and how you were able to bring them
into this business.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Mm. Well, one of the things for many years when
we did the when I did the theatrical thing and
even now with figure skating. A lot of that is
volunteer work. And one of the things you have to

(31:29):
know about like volunteer work is the work itself has
to be a reward or you've got to figure out
perks of the job, perks of the act to get
people two you know, do the work. So in then building,

(31:57):
you know a business that I have the opportunity to
pay people to do the stuff, I'm still looking for
people and even myself, I mean that's a challenge. I
want to just do this work for free. In a sense,
I wish I could just help people and not have
to worry about getting paid. Yeah, but we have to

(32:19):
get a little bit paid or we can't keep the
lights on and we can't be here to take care
of people. But the most important thing is to have
a team and everyone working for the same goals. To
have communication. You know, I've seen both big companies where

(32:43):
they tried to silo things and they didn't share information.
You know, this department knew that and that department knew
something else, and that always caused failures. So we don't
have that.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
We have.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Open communication. Everyone's working for the same goal, and that's
to find the least taxing way to have the most
money for your lifetime and for retirement and for your legacy.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
It's I like how you kind of use the word
least taxing way. It kind of works in two ways, right,
least taxing in terms of like work and least taxing.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
In terms of taxes. Yes, yeah, as a dual meaning.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
And you're you're one hundred percent. I love how you
You really hit it with the service element. I think
about it too because I do a lot of community
service and my my, my mentor or coach asked me recently, so,
which where do you want to focus on?

Speaker 2 (33:53):
And I went, huh.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
She said, well, yeah, well you're moving into, you know,
doing more in the community and offering more to non
for profits.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
What space do you want to focus on? And I said,
I never thought of it that way.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
And she said, well, you can't just spread yourself all
over the place to every cause that comes around, because
there's a lot of causes. Which are the ones? And
it's what you just said And it really resonates with
me because you're like, which are the ones that you
really get the most enjoyment from? And I'm a basketball
coach and that's part of my service and kids and
working with kids and family, and I'm like, oh, and

(34:28):
so when you just said that, it really really hit
for me because it's something that's been on my mind
recently as to you know, what is it that that
I want to offer my services in? Like what non
for profit space do I want to offer it? And
you just said it so perfectly, So everybody listening, I mean,
just really take this.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
It's so great is.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
That you also have to receive pleasure from it. We
forget that part of giving is because we receive pleasure
from giving, and so we think it's just well, I
just want to give and give and give and give
and give to every and that's great, but eventually the
well's gonna go dry.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
And that's what we call.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
In in the corporate space or in the in the
business space, burnout. You know, in a non for profit
spaces to dry well, it's like, well, I got nothing
left to give. In the working world, it's burnout, right, yeah,
And you're speaking about it in both ways, and that
you know, with service, you really have to get something
back from it, like what do you what enjoyment, what passion?

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Do you get back from this?

Speaker 3 (35:27):
I love it and everybody has and everyone has a
different passion, So don't beat yourself up if your passion.
If your passion's basketball, my passions ice skating. You know
that I should not go and teach basketball, and you
probably don't want to, you know, come skate, That's okay.

(35:50):
I think you should skate. Skating is awesome, but.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Skating is cool. I've I've been in the skates. It
is very painful for my feet. I'm a skier and
that hurts my feet.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
But I love skiing. So but yet you're one hundred
percent right. I love that you said that.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
And moving on to the business side of things, it's
very similar. And again another conversation out with my coach,
which is when you're doing you know, we know the
old adage, right like, when you do something you love,
you never work a day in your life. Like, we
get that, but speaking to it in today's modern age,
right work in the monowar you gotta whack me well,

(36:28):
but it's so true, right like, when you're really doing
the work that you enjoy and love, it's like the
money or the salary or the profit or any of it,
it's really just a byproduct from this. And we talk
about I just talked about the dry well and it's
the same thing with burnout, is that when you're working
in a space where you're so working so hard, it

(36:49):
doesn't matter how much money is coming in, if you're
not getting anything out of the business or out of
what you're doing. That's where burnout, well, that's one of
the parts of burnout.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
There's more to burn at them.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Just what I'm speaking to here everyone, But that's one
of the parts of burnout is that you know you're
you're just giving, given, giving, given, giving, and doesn't matter
how much money you get back, it's not the same return, right.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Right, And this is and this is a very dangerous
area statistically for the oldest daughter in a family. She's
the one that's going to be stuck taking mom and
dad to their doctor's appointments. She's the one that still
maybe has kids and is stuck in the middle trying

(37:32):
to do everything backwards in high heels and has those
expectations of herself. And she's not going to ask for
help because I don't have time to ask for help.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
So so uh interesting that I brought up topic to
you because and the cutting edge as my sister and
I said, and my sister would be remiss if I
didn't say topic, because the statistic is right. The whole
time that you have been speaking to me about trusts
and will and all this stuff that we've just been at,
I'm asking you questions that I'm like, wait a second,
my parents are getting up there, and guess who is

(38:09):
two years older than me, my sister, And guess who's
the one who does take them to my sister? And
so she is the one that I'm thinking about this
whole time. I'm going, all right, I hope Marina well
knows how to do these things. You know, of course,
my brother and I will support her in it all.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
But you're you're right.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
I'm interested in this statistic if you have any more
information around it as to what is the reasoning for it,
because it's kind of weird when you think about, let's say,
cultural traditions and that usually the male, the eldest male
in the family is the one that has all of
this responsibility. But you're but with what you're saying and

(38:47):
what I see and what I experience is you're right, girl.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
There's it's a caretaking, caretaking trait where you know, I
was gonna say, or we could say that women are
better multitaskers, and so they just know that it's one
more thing they have to take care of. But sadly

(39:17):
it there's a recent study on this that showed, like
I said, typically the oldest daughter and they typically lose
over three hundred thousand dollars in lifetime earnings because of
caring for parents, because they're missing work, maybe they're missing

(39:38):
out on promotions. They end up with lower salaries, so
their social security is lower in the future.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, so it's got a dramatic effect. My mother also
the eldest daughter. There's a sibling above my uncle who's
older than her, but the eldest daughter was the one
who was my grandmother's caretaker later on and then going
to my father's family. It's the same thing my aunt was.
So like, like I said, the statistic is real in that,

(40:10):
I mean, at least in my experience. So it's interesting
and I'm glad you brought up that number because I
think it brings I think it brings shines of light
at least on this situation and where someone like you,
the services that you offer can maybe help this person.
I know that for us, my grandmother lived with us,

(40:30):
and I know for us it was really challenging. My
grandmother and I are super close. I mean we share
the same birthday. I was her baby and my daughter
is named after her, and it was really difficult for
my mother when we started to have the conversation. We
had broad in caregivers and all the rest in the home,
but when we started to have the conversation of having

(40:51):
to let her go somewhere else because it was a
burden on my mother, it no longer became the care
of my grandmother. It was the conversation was no longer
whether she's gonna get good care or not. We knew
where she was going, she was gonna get great care
and we were gonna go visit her regularly. It was
more now like we had to save my mom, right, Yeah,

(41:13):
And I think you know, we have the caregivers out there,
and if you were part of an assisted living of
some sort or a nurses on wheels, we'd be talking
about that space. But for you, it's from the financial side.
Because the other side to all of that that people
may not have seen because they see the caring, right,
they see changing the diapers, they see the moving the wheelchair.
They see all of these things that happen for the

(41:36):
elderly person, for the parent. What they don't see and
what I only recognized later on because it was shared
with me later on is the financial side. And I
kind of want to go in there with you deeper
because that's what you do, right, is the financial side
of not just managing trust, but kind of organizing everything.
Shows us a little about what that looks like.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
So some of that has to do with it depends
on what assets they have have because certain assets are
taxed certain ways, so taxing becomes important. If you have
high medical expenses, that could be a tax deduction. So

(42:17):
sometimes if you have funds, like in a retirement account,
we want to spend down the retirement account against medical expenses,
for example. If we have the opportunity to get to
them ahead of time, we can plan. You know, if

(42:38):
we can, if you come up with a plan, if
you know what. We'd rather work with people in their
forties and fifties. We don't like somebody coming to us
in their eighties.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Maybe too late.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
It might be too late.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
You speak a little bit about the forties and fifties.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
So forties and fifties you're maybe you're still working, but
you've saved up some money, and now we talk about
planning for the next forty years, including planning for long
term care. And you may have developed assets in certain
classes of assets, and you have your four oh one

(43:17):
K or IRA from work, you have a house or two,
or rentals or you know, everyone so many different ways,
so it's a challenge. So we have to come up
with a plan for that specific person. Then depending on
the state they live in, whether that state offers assistance

(43:40):
for long term care needs, and if the state does
offer assistance, what type of clawback rules and asset rules
do they have. California used to have an asset rule.
You could have so many you couldn't have you could
have like two thousand dollars in assets. You basically had

(44:01):
to get rid of everything before California would pay for anything. Well,
they just changed it this year. Now it's based off
of income. So if you have income sources that are flexible,
meaning you can turn them on or off, you might
now be able to change your income, preserve your assets,

(44:25):
and still qualify for state aid. And the only way
to kind of do all of that is to do deep,
deep dive planning, comprehensive planning, and something that might cause
taxes on one side may be opposite of what you

(44:46):
think you should do, or the same that you think
you should do. You'll do something thinking you're doing the
right thing, but it's going to end up costing you
more in taxes in the long run. Right, So working
with somebody who is a financial professional and income tax

(45:07):
professional is optimal.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Optimal.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, And you know, part of how we got onto
this conversation about all of this is we were just
talking about some of the transferable skills that you acquired
over the years. And one of the other ones that
you mentioned was communication and seeing that when you worked
for these big corporations, some of the some one department
had all of this knowledge on something and wouldn't share

(45:34):
it with this other department. And it's it's so funny
because that's like, literally what we're talking about here is
that you have a team of people.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
You have in your firm, you.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Have accounting, you have financial planning, you have a state planning,
you have all these different aspects to it, legal and everything,
and if you.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Guys are siloed, like you said, well.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Then we're not doing the best for our client, right,
and so communication is so important in everything that you're
saying here.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
Yeah, yeah, And that's why I've structured it the way
I've done here. You know, there's there are other financial
advisors out there, and I can do everything that financial
advisor can do. There are other tax professionals out there,
and I can do everything that tax professional can do.
And in California, law has to be done by a lawyer.

(46:24):
So my friend who I met through figure skating, Rebecca Summer,
is a lawyer and she is it looked like, physically
located here in our office. So when so she and
I worked together to do a comprehensive plan, you know,

(46:45):
we know when we're done at the end of the
day with that client, they are getting the optimal tax
minimized income legacy that we can get for them.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
That's awesome. I love that you matter through figure skating too.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
I think about it's so cool because there's so many
relationships that are formed through our outside hobbies, and it's like,
it's such a great thing to note right now in
that like how important hobbies are because you just really
never know who you're going to meet there. I mean,
they got to have a job somewhere, right, you know,
if you're in some sort of adult hobby group, they're

(47:23):
doing some kind of work somewhere.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Yeah. Well that was and then we you know, she
and I traveled together to go to nationals and so
we had traveled well together. And then when we start talking,
I'm like, wait, you're a lawyer. I'm a financial advisor.
I need your services. Your people need my services. Wait
a second, if we get together, that's right, How great

(47:47):
is this going to be?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
That's incredible?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
And it really has been.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
That's incredible. That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
I want to speak about collaboration for a moment here,
because that's what you're you're talking about in collaboration. And
where did you Where do you feel like you learned that?
Was that from your mentor was that where did you
learn about this collaborating mindset?

Speaker 3 (48:09):
You know, my husband like he and I just like
we and since we're opposites so very much strengths and weaknesses,
you know, and you know, we started dating when I

(48:29):
was seventeen. Yeah, and so we just and you know,
we had you know, kind of a small business from
the start, like when we first got together. So we
had to figure out how to pay the bills, had
to figure out how to you know, get the job done,

(48:57):
and just he had his skill set. I had my
skill set. But there were crossovers of course. And building trust,
you know, I guess that's another big word that we're
going to dive into. You know, finding the person you
can trust it's got your back one hundred of the

(49:19):
time is just invaluable.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
I like how you talk about complementing skills.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
It's it's something that is so important in business and
in life of of having these we we we tend
to want to find people that are just like us,
but they don't always help.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
They don't always help us.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
They're great, they're great for like, uh, you know, if
you're at a cocktail party, it's great to find somebody
that's like you because like that short, quick conversation is
going to go so quick and so easy.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Yeah, but in the long.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Term, like for it's similar to me with my spouse,
Like my wife Devin, her and I are com leat
opposites and we work so well together. I think it's
also because we acknowledge that we're opposes.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Oh yeah, yes, yeah. My my assistant here, you know,
my right hand person is opposite to me, like every
single thing opposite, it's perfect.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Yeah, I think, and when you appreciate that, and that's
where the collaboration really comes in. Of like what you
said with the attorney, with your friend, I drew a
blank on her name Rebecca Rebecca. When when when you
appreciate the qualities that they have that compensate for what
you lack.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
I mean you didn't need to go back a get
a lot degree, right, so so.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
For yeah, yeah, I have time for that, and.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
You appreciate that she can bring this service to your clients. Well,
that's where that collaboration happens. And I love that you
had like the mindset to really to just ask her.
I think the other thing you mentioned just now, which
is in trust of you kind of cultivated a trust
with her. One of having the commonality with the figure skating.
But you just said it before you said, you know
we traveled together, and we traveled well together.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah. That you know, when you're stuck in an airport
for twelve hours with children, other people's children that you're
responsible for, you really get to see everybody's personality and
you know, under stress and you know and you know

(51:28):
how they react to life and whether that works with you,
and you know, that was really defining, defining it.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
It's interesting.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
There was a podcast that I listened to and I
don't want to say the wrong name, so I'm not
going to say.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
I'm just going to leave the name out, but.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
It was the CEO of a really a publicly traded company,
and he was speaking about that. He calls it the
airport test. They were asking him, how do you know
hire people? And he said, I have the airport test
and what is that? And it's could I spend three
hours in an airport terminal with this person? And he's like,
because when you think about it, He's like, you know,
you think about it. You're taking business trips with probably

(52:10):
the people in your department or your executive team or
your leadership team, whatever it's called in your in your
industry or your company, and you're.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Taking trips together.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
And there's no way that you're going to take trips
and there's not going to be a delay or a
cancelation or just I mean when we say three hours,
that's that's actually it's going on time, right.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Yeah, that's nothing.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
So he said, it's the airport test, is can I
spend three hours with this person in a terminal and if.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I can't, then we probably this isn't going to work out.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Oh yeah, you know, so the airport that was an
official thing. But now that's basically what we do.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Mine is the podcast test if I can't interview the
person for more than an hour and.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
A half, now, just kidding.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
About football, about foot that's right about football.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
And I don't know much about football.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
I know the Chiefs won this year, and I was
rooting for them because I like Mahomes. But that's as
much as I know about football. My wife teaches me
the rest. It's you know, I'm a basketball guy.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
I do want to get back to mentorship for a
moment here, because you met Cliff when you were just
a young a young girl, just a little girl, just
a little little girl.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
I was fifteen sixteen.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Yeah, And so you met him and he took you
under his wing, taught you taxes, you learn how to
do it, you learned the business, you worked in the business,
and then you went off to see the world and
do all these other things. Later on, you came back
thirty years later and he said, hey, the job's yours, right,
come on in and you then started calling him your mentor,
and fifteen years later you were able to earn enough

(53:52):
and save enough to be able to purchase the business
from him. I'd love for you to share this mentor
mentee relationship. The reason why I asked this is this
has come up before with other people that I've met,
and I think it comes off pretty often comes up
pretty often about how do I find a mentor or

(54:12):
you know, I asked this person to be my mentor,
and I have my thoughts on how to go about
doing it and all the rest, but I'm really more
interested in yours right now as to how did this
relationship evolve into a mentorship.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
That's wonderful because then it happened naturally, right, yeah, which
is my This is my tip for people is allow
it to happen naturally.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
But please share more about that.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
No, it's just funny because you know, he was brought
up Midwest old school. If you aren't sitting at your desk,
you aren't working, which is not anything of today's work styles.

(55:06):
Would say some things. You know that HR would have you.
He would have been gone by any HR department anywhere
and it but he cared about his clients. He cared

(55:28):
about his clients, and that's what I observed, and that's
what I wanted to do. You know, he was not looking.
He was looking for clients to be clients. We call
them clients, I don't, you know, I almost want to

(55:50):
call them family. But because like I said, we have
people that we have been servicing them and their families
for over forty years. And seeing that that care for people,
genuine care, you know, like he generally cared that people,

(56:13):
you know, pay the least amount of taxes, you know,
and had the right financial service products so that they
didn't have to worry about running out of money, and.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
So there was good.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Just seeing that was just I'm you know that the philosophy,
you know, of the caring for the people the clients
just lined up with me made sense to me. If
we take care of our clients, our clients will take
care of us.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
And so he never really even knew that he was
a mentor to you. He wouldn't really know it.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
Yeah, I mean eventually, well in the last few years, yes,
but but it was ever. It wasn't like Hi, I'm hi,
I'm your mentor, right, he was you need well, he
used to say, well, you're never gonna you need to
be a business woman, you need to think like a
business woman.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
And those things stuck with you, and it goes to
what I what I was saying, and I think, and
you answered it so perfectly in that you said, well,
I don't know how it started, and it's, uh, you know,
somebody had asked me recently. He goes, you know, I
asked this guy to be my mentor and he said
no to me, making a long story short there, and
and I said.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yeah, of course he did, But what do you mean
why why?

Speaker 1 (57:47):
And and I said, well, first of all, you're putting
a lot of responsibility on somebody to be your men,
to be a mentor to you, I said, And secondly,
you know what if you just thought about it as
an exchange of ideas and information.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Which is what you just shared.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Is imagine if you just called this person up and
maybe like you did with Cliff, and just said hey,
what should I do here? And then they told you
what you should do there, and then you did it.
And then when you did it, you followed up with
them and said, hey, I did that thing that you
said I should do, and it worked out or I
did that thing that you told me I should do
and it didn't work out, What do you think I
should do next? And you start having this dialogue with

(58:23):
each other to where you don't need to say that's this.
You're my mentor and I'm your mentee. There's none of that.
There's just an exchange of ideas and information and as
you said, feelings that come about and it happens naturally.
When I shared that with that person, it was just like, oh,
that's cool. I like that, So I said, yeah, man,

(58:43):
I mean I had to learn it too. I remember
I called I called up the CEO one day and
I said, hey, I'd love for you to be my mentor.
And he goes, what does that mean? And I said,
I don't know, but I really would love for you
to be my It was somebody gave me the idea
and anyway, so he's so he was. That didn't work
out apparently, obviously, as we can tell, for obvious reasons.
But it works out when it does the way that

(59:05):
you did it, which is this like organic allowing of ideas.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
I like how you also said he cared for people.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Share a little bit more about that you did already
by the way, So so don't feel like you didn't
share enough, but I would. I would just like to
go into that because I think in businesses and in
selling of services, sometimes the care is lost because we
think so much about the service and we think so
much about like, you know, do right.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
For the customer and all that. But I love when
you talk about their family to us and you talk
about caring for yeah, because go ahead.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Yeah, you know, we're seeing the same people that come
in to do their taxes and they come in and
it's you know, they just have their one little w
two and then they get married, and then you find
out about them getting married, and then you know, then
they come in with their kids or tax right offs.

(01:00:00):
That you know, make us happy because.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
It speaks to the passion that you were talking about earlier.
Is why I brought it to God.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Is that you're saying about doing something you love, you
almost do it for free. And when you care, when
you truly care right, remove expectations, and you truly care
about your clients, it becomes fun.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Yeah, Because you know, I talk to a lot of people.
A lot of people become clients and follow our suggestions,
but not everyone does, and I it it breaks my

(01:00:44):
heart a little because you know, we've told them what
to do and they're like, no, no, no, no, I'm
going to do the opposite because I saw some guy
on TV say something and it's like, I can't lose
sleep over them. I have to let it go and

(01:01:09):
help the people that I can help.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Yeah, and you know what, and just to tie it
right back to that mentor mentee relationship, it's the same
things you know you can own. Like you said, you
could only help the people that are willing to be helped.
And that's kind of how that relationship works too. Is
you know, if you want somebody to be your mentor,
if you're if you're listening to their advice but not
taking it well, that relationship is going to die off
pretty quick because that mentor is going to be exhausted of,

(01:01:36):
you know, kind of speaking into an empty can. Yeah, yeah,
you know eventually they want to see it fill up.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
There's so much about that. I want to speak a
little bit about leadership and how you bring leadership into
your organization. You you rose through the ranks from you
know again being being the tax girl all the way
up to coo of the organization and president of the
organization and acquiring the organization. So you rose through the ranks.

(01:02:06):
You you put in your time and work. You were
working different hours when you were obviously starting out to
where you are today. And when I asked you about
your leadership style, you said to you, it's an opportunity
to share what you know. And I love this word,
uplift others with with that work.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
That I just my goal is to constantly replace me.
My goal is to take every bit of knowledge I

(01:02:50):
can come up with in my head and share that
with the next mini me. And that was actually that
also kind of ties back to my mentor Cliff. The
team would call me Cliff Junior, and my right hand

(01:03:12):
person right now is being called Susan Junior. And it
truly is especially I feel like in financial in the
work we're doing in the financial service space here, there
are insurance salespeople out there. There's people who've been taught
how to sell stuff, but you can't know what to sell.

(01:03:39):
You can't know what to do until you've had some
experiences or you know, we make decisions based off of
years of experiences. That's the trust I did my parents
trust once that was one trust experience. Since then, I've

(01:04:01):
helped hundreds of other people with their parents' trusts. So
now I've done hundreds of trusts and have all those
different experiences to share, and that informs the next decision. Yeah,
it makes the next decision of what to do for

(01:04:22):
the next person stronger, better, more correct.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
And more capable.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
I'd also like to speak about the idea of uplifting
and leadership.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
It's it's interesting because I think, you know, I've asked.
I asked a group.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
I did a speech the other day and asked a group,
you know, how do you define leadership? And the one
that stowed out to me that I want to bring
in contrast to uplift is followers. As someone said, well,
they have followers. People follow them and you know, listen
to them, and they meant it in a good way.
They meant it in a way in a sense of like,
you know, they have an influen over others, which which

(01:05:01):
leaders do. Right, Leaders have an influence and people follow leaders.
But the part that I felt that they was left
out in that commentary was the side of followers who
they uplift, followers who they enrich in their lives and
make it make their lives better. And so I'm interested
in that definition for you of uplift their lives.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Yeah, huh uh, yeah. I I just want my team to,
you know, continue what we're doing for our clients. And

(01:05:50):
that is if they don't know my thought process, if
you know, they're you know, they're getting the same education
that I've had. But giving them opportunity to see real
world experiences, real world planning and seeing the outcomes is

(01:06:18):
absolutely critical. You've got to just yeah, bring them along.
I don't I guess I never think of I guess
some people think of people as underlings or you know,
and it's just like they're just it's just the team.
We're one team.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
And supporting them throughout the process. And I think that
that's part of the whole thing of what you're sharing here,
is that you are the leader of the organization and
they are following your lead with what you said, and
I really like it is that you're giving them as
the leader. You're not doing all the heavy lifting.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
You have this team.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
You're giving them all an opportunity to learn and to
grow and to gain their own experiences. As you said before,
and you put so much emphasis in experience, and it's huge,
right because you're one hundred percent right doing one trust,
going to somebody who's only done one trust in their life,
and going to somebody who's done a thousand trusts in
their experience, You're like, it's a no brainer who I'm

(01:07:24):
going to, right, It really is a no brainer. I mean,
you know, the person who did one might say, hey,
I'll do it for free for you in my spare time.
But you know what you're going to get out of that, right,
you know, you know exactly what you're going to get
out of that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
And so by.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Being a leader, it's giving those opportunities to your team
to where they can truly be your team, as you said, right,
because they're not just your followers anymore. They become equal
with you. You're there as the leader pushing it forward
and helping them. And I think that that's the other
part to it, is being that support system for them
right to where you've done hundreds of trusts, but maybe

(01:07:59):
the person you're handing the paperwalk off to has only
done twenty. Well, they've done one hundred and twenty because
you're behind them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Right, Because like my special you know, my personal experience
is losing my parents and losing my husband. My assistance
current assistance personal experience is hands on daily care of
a grandmother with Alzheimer's. Now all those I don't have

(01:08:32):
that experience, but they do, so who knows more?

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
And you're learning too, I'm learning too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Yeah, And it's really a great loop.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
I find leadership as the more I dig into it,
the more I learn about it, the more we all
become leaders in our lives. The more we learn that
leadership is about growth and it's about learning. It's about
learning new skills, new things.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
And it's not just.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Learning from other leaders. It's learning from your team. It's
learning from the people who you are teaching and you
are leading learning from them. And it's a really great experience.
I love that you shared that with us. And as
we start to conclude, one of the things that I
always like to know about somebody is their mantra of like,

(01:09:21):
you know, what's the thing that moves you that drives
you as you continue going along? And for you, it
was and you've said it so many times already in
our in our episode, So it's not it's not new
to you, right, It's sometimes not getting what you want
is a wonderful blessing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
Yep, yep. If I hadn't gotten everything I wanted or
thought I wanted in life, I'd probably be miserable. Most
of the spectacular things and opportunities I've had have come
from the weirdest, strangest places, and the last place you

(01:09:59):
would think. Yeah, so yeah, not getting much you want
is a wonderful blessing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
It really is.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
It opens your eyes to new opportunities. You learn so
much from it all. And I'm reading a book right
now by Adam Grant, Hidden Potential, and it just speaks
to when things are hard, you learn and grow the
most from them.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
You learn and grow the most from them.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
So I love that that you said that sometimes not
getting what you want is a wonderful blessing. And man,
you've really gone through some tremendous experiences and I commend
you for really working through them all.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
You don't have a choice.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
That's right. Well, you know what, I'll say this to
that because it's been.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Said to me, and I think you'll appreciate it too,
because you do have a choice, right, And the people
and if you are one of these people that are listening, right, now,
which more than likely you're not, because you wouldn't be
turning on this kind of podcast if you are one
of these kind of people. But the people who meet
these challenges that you had to overcome that I've had
to overcome and cower in a corner and go woe

(01:11:08):
with me, and give up on everything, give up on
their dreams, give up on their work, give up on
the people around them. That's a choice. Yeah, that's a choice.
And I hope that if you are one of those
people listening, listen, I'm here for you. I know Susan's
there for you. Just give us a ring, reach out
to us, and we'll be more than happy to help

(01:11:28):
you out of that spot. But that's a choice that
you're making. And so that's why I do commend you
for the choice that you made to be resilient and
to look for new ways to be able to learn
and grow in the financial ways because of your parents,
and become a star figure skater, which I hope you
have a YouTube channel because I would love to see you.

(01:11:50):
Oh my goodness, you're going to so share that with
us because I would love to see it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
I would love to see you skating. I think it's
so so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
Were you're in California, I'm in New York and we're
not far from Lake Placid, which is where was it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
The eighty eight Olympics? What was it the nineties?

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Yeah, wherever it was it was, And so we've gone
to the ring there, to the rink there and seen
and skated on it and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
All the rest. So it is. It is really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
And I grew up with my grandmother in my home,
which I had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
She absolutely loved figure.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Skating during the Olympics, and so I grew up watching
figure skating and knowing the figure skaters of our day.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Yep, yep, that's crazy. We just got to get you
on the ice one of these days. How coming to
take you skating?

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
I love it, I love it. I would love for
you to share with all of our listeners. Of course,
this will all be in the show notes. How people
can reach out to you? How can they learn more
about your programs?

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
Probably the easiest way, of course, is go to the website.
The name of the company is Slayton Wealth Management, and
that's spelled s l A T E N and then
wealth Management. Slatonwealth dot com is the website there's a

(01:13:12):
scroll about halfway down the page. There's a place to
sign up for our monthly newsletter that has great trip,
great information, tricks and tips, and that's that'll keep you
today on whatever we're up to, whatever trouble we're up to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
I love newsletters, I really do.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
And here's why, because they end up in like my
my promotions folder.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
And so I don't see them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
So this is why I'm saying this intentionally for everybody listening,
is that like sign up for the newsletter because you
could put them in a folder to where you don't
really see them, but then when you need them, they're there.
And that's what I love about them. And I love
that you said that yours is like tips and tricks
and ideas. And in this whole podcast, we've learned so
much from you, so we could learn so much more
from your newsletter.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
So I love that you offer that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
I think it's a great service when you're sharing those
kinds of things.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
So thank you so much for coming on today. It's
been awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Thank you you took care.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Thank you for listening to The Michael Esposito Show. For
show notes, video clips, and more episodes, go to Michael
Esposito Inc. Dot Com Backslash Podcast. Thank you again to
our sponsor dan Ten Insurance Services helping businesses get the
right insurance for all their insurance needs. Visit Denten dot
io to get a quote that's d n TN dot

(01:14:34):
io and remember when you buy an insurance policy from Denten,
you're giving back on a global scale. This episode was
produced by Uncle Mike at the iHeart Studios in Poughkeepsie.
Special thanks to Lara Rodrian for the opportunity and my
team at Michael Esposito Inc.