June 2, 2025 • 36 mins
Denise Maple shares her journey, starting from her early interest in business and finance, her 25-year career in banking, and her eventual move into entrepreneurship and spiritual coaching. Learn about the valuable transferable skills she picked up along the way, the challenges and rewards of her diverse career path, and her current endeavors in helping others find balance and fulfillment.
▬▬▬▬▬ Resources ▬▬▬▬▬
- Denise Maple: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisemaple/
- Dr. Robert Rubin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsrubin/
- LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/denisemaple_nationalretroday-throwback-wellnessatwork-activity-7300877343923834881-Ub6l/
- Live Life: https://livelifespiritual.com/
- Columbia College Chicago: https://www.colum.edu/
- U of I Gies College of Business: https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/
- Reiki: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/308772#definition
- Community Reinvestment Act: https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/cra_about.htm
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cacklemedia/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cacklemedia
- X: https://x.com/CackleMediaLLC
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CackleMedia
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cacklemedia/
- Support the pod when signing up for Descript / SquadCast: https://get.descript.com/transferableskill
▬▬▬▬▬ Timestamps ▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:24 Denise Maple's Early Career and Motivation
01:25 Insights into Commercial Banking
07:00 Transition to Teaching and Entrepreneurship
25:54 Spiritual Coaching and Business Consulting
32:05 Balancing Spirituality and Professional Life
36:27 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Transferable skills, skills, skills, skills from Cackle
Media. This is transferable skills.
I'm Noah, Michigan. Today's guest is Denise Maple,
who shares her skills journey from commercial banking into
success and Wellness coaching. I hope you enjoy Denise Maple.
Welcome to the show. Great to have you here.
(00:20):
Thank you so much, Noah. I am thrilled to be here.
Tell me a little bit about aboutyour background.
You don't fit in a box. I knew in high school I wanted
to go into business. I wanted to go to the University
of Illinois. Why?
Why did you know you wanted to do that?
Partly it was relying on my intuition.
I was good at math. I liked making money.
(00:42):
I started babysitting for money as early as 10 years old.
This was back in the day when when you could.
Leave a 10 year. Old.
A 10 year old babysitter would do.
Yeah. And I, I think that the summer
before I went to college, I had three jobs and I loved them all.
Three jobs at that early age, soyou're clearly somebody that is
(01:07):
very motivated and driven and have a strong work ethic.
Where did that come from? When I was young, we didn't have
a lot of money and so I think part of it was wanting to be
able to do what I wanted to do. I think my parents also just had
amazing work ethics. What did you study in college?
Finance. Finance into business and out of
(01:30):
college. What were you doing?
I was a banker, so I went into an entry level credit training
program. I was a commercial lender and I
actually worked in banking for 25 years in total, but that was
like the first piece of it. And so I like the analytical
piece. I love digging into the
financial statements and runningthe numbers.
(01:52):
But also being a lender also hadit had the people side.
So it had a really nice balance that it wasn't all sitting at my
desk. I was going out to clients, you
know, we were going to ball games and I even learn to golf.
I like to say I stopped playing golf when they stop paying me,
when I stopped having clients totake.
(02:13):
Maybe it's left brain, right brain, or the analytical work,
but also the the personal touch.I think we all have an idea of
what a bank is. What are you doing on a
day-to-day basis? What are you in charge of?
Yeah, I had a lot of different roles in banking, but the the
one that I was always tied to insome way was this idea of
(02:35):
commercial lending, lending money to businesses.
We also of course were cross selling our other products and
and helping them manage their money.
But a really big part of it was determining how to give the make
this loan to this company if if it was a tough one, you know,
sometimes there was creativity in trying to figure out how to
(02:57):
make it work either with a guarantor or collateral or
whatever it is. So there's a lot of regulations
in banking. It was very detail oriented and
I can be very detail oriented. So I think it that fit well.
Did you feel a emotional burden or pressure being the bearer to
(03:18):
some degree of helping somebody with their loan, with their for
their small business? It's got to be a balance
between, like you say, getting creative to figure out ways that
you can satisfy their needs and and give them that opportunity.
But at the same time, there's it's risk management and you're
sort of balancing like what is responsible versus helping
someone fulfill their dreams? Yeah.
(03:38):
And that's a, that's a great question because I had small
clients all the way to large corporate depending on where I
was in the bank. So there was different stages of
it. So if it's a new startup, you
are really wanting to help that person, but you also understand
that businesses don't always make it.
So you also have this fiduciary responsibility to the bank as
(04:01):
well. So getting creative, there was
an incentive there. And then as the company started
to grow and I was working with middle market or large corporate
businesses, I could see how not only helping them was helping
the owners or, or the people I was working with, but creating
jobs. You know, if you help a company
(04:22):
grow, you're creating jobs that.Must have been really
fulfilling. Yeah, I it, it really was.
It really was. I appreciate and I have
gratitude for my my time and thinking for sure.
Was there any kind of standing relationship that you have after
the loan is approved? Yeah, not only are we making
(04:43):
sure that the clients are satisfied and seeing if they
have any other needs we can helpthem with, we have to monitor
the loan. So we don't just make the loan
and forget it. Especially at the middle market
or large corporate level, you really do have to stay in touch
with the client. And I did develop some really
meaningful relationships with clients from a business
(05:06):
perspective and and some of themI still talk to you today.
That's wonderful. What about the hard
conversations? What are those sound like?
Yeah, that's that. There are some hard
conversations. If you have to call alone, if
you have to deny a loan, if you have to ask for more collateral,
(05:26):
it doesn't feel good. You know what, Everyone feels
better when everything's going well.
But it really taught me that, you know, you can have those
hard conversations and still be OK and you can you can handle
them in a way that in most circumstances you can retain the
relationship because I everybodyknows what the deal is going
(05:47):
into a loan agreement, for example, you know, everyone
knows that if you can't pay. Yeah, problematic.
Yeah, exactly. How do you train for those kinds
of hard conversations? Do do you go through any kind of
training at the bank or outside of the bank as far as how to
have honest, transparent conversations that can be
difficult and and conflict resolution?
(06:09):
At the time, no overtime. We did take things like
negotiations was a class that I think was really helpful.
Not only did I take it through the bank, but I also took a
class like that while I was getting my MBA.
But really the classes are greatand I'm, I teach and I'm all for
(06:30):
that kind of learning, but it's the application.
So there's also a lot of mentoring going on.
So whatever level you are in banking, you're usually,
especially if you're young, you know, early on you're, you're
shadowing someone who's more senior, you have someone you can
go to to help coach you through those conversations and that's
(06:50):
always really helpful. Yeah, real, real world
experience always is going to isgoing to win out your experience
and you're going through it is the only way to really get
better at it. Let's talk about your skills
within the banking world. You talked about math and and
being analytical. What would you say is the skills
that you possess that helped yousucceed in that role?
(07:13):
I didn't realize when I took thejob that it was also a sales
job, and maybe I did on some level, but the people skills and
the relationship building skillsis probably the biggest one.
How do you maintain and build relationships that are mutually
beneficial? Right, Because in this world,
(07:35):
nobody feels good about a lopsided relationship,
especially if you're you're on the lower end of the teeter
totter. Yeah, totally.
Yeah, It's got to be mutually beneficial.
When I moved into teaching and training, teaching people how to
be bankers, my analytical skills, all of my skills got
raised because when you have to teach something, you have to
(07:57):
understand it on a deeper level because you have to be able to
explain it to someone else. Totally, Yeah.
And what I learned over time andI learned pretty quickly is AI
don't have to know everything. It's perfectly OK to say.
Let me give me some time to think about that or let me
research for that for you and get back to you.
(08:20):
We don't have to know everything, but we can.
We can figure it out. With this many years of
experience, both practical as well as teaching, it's almost
like you, you are hoping someonewill ask a question, question
you've never heard before about something that you don't know.
Because it's a moment for you tocontinue learning and and be
open to learning something new, something that surprises you.
(08:42):
It's kind of refreshing. Absolutely.
I mean, I'm still learning all the time.
I think we all are, yeah. I think that if you're someone
that's fixed minded, it's just adifferent version of operating
system. It's just the difference between
fixed and growth mind. Yeah, yeah.
And I I just gave a talk on thatcalled the success mindset and I
(09:03):
talked about fixed versus growthmindset.
What's your process for planningfor preparing for a lecture on a
on a big topic like that? First, it starts with just the
ideation and the goals. You know, what are, what are my
teaching objectives? What, what do I want the end
product to be? So you start with the end and
(09:26):
then I try to let it simmer for a little bit.
This course that I'm working on is on the, the spiritual side of
my, my business, live life spiritual direction.
And so I just let it simmer and I've actually been thinking
about it for months and haven't had time to work on it.
And so I got a flip chart on thewall and I just started putting
(09:50):
ideas and outlines on it. And, and then I realized, OK,
I've got enough, I can get started and I've blocked off
time. Actually, this is perfect timing
for this question. I blocked off time this month to
work on it. And I use two parts of it, you
(10:10):
know, well, three parts of it. Part is just like, what do I
know based on experience? And I start scoping it out.
I usually type it out and start writing it out.
What does the research say on, on this topic?
And what is my intuition tellingme?
You know, our intuition is oftendiscounted.
(10:31):
It's funny, 'cause I remember the last bank I worked for, I, I
went into my boss's office and Iwas like, we need to do this,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's like, show me the data.
And I was like, Oh yeah, that's right.
I'm like, but I just know. But I had to go back and build,
build my case, which I get it, you know, you, you want both,
(10:55):
but you know that that trust andthat intuition, you know, is
also there to help move us alongwith the process.
So when you came back with an upupdated maybe formalized
proposal for it, did you also include amongst the data that
you had researched and gathered?Did you also include any soft
data that was your intuition into that presentation, formally
(11:17):
speaking? I think I think what I probably
added along those lines was my observations.
Yeah, that's, you know, I guess that's, that's exactly what I I
would expect. Yeah.
Yeah, you look for the data thatwill give you evidence to either
support or disprove your theory and intuition.
(11:39):
Your observation say I, I'm seeing this and I believe this
is truth and reality. Let me go find out if that is
accurate or not and valid. So you go out, you gather that
data and at the end result is supporting data in one way or
another. And but but it always has to
start I guess with intuition. Well, it, it's our drive, right?
(12:01):
Like, why am I even doing this class to begin with?
Why is it even an idea? Well, that that idea is a spark
of intuition. That's, you know, that's, that's
the seed that maybe we can't completely explain.
And thankfully for the lot of things I do on the spiritual
(12:22):
side of my business is science is starting to come together and
support a lot of the spiritual practices that have been going
on for. Does that, do you feel that when
you see that there is research and scientific evidence that
(12:42):
supports the stuff that you havebeen already involved and
invested in in, in there's an intuition that you have as well
as a practice. Does it empower you or is it
irrelevant because you didn't have the you didn't have the
data before, you didn't, you didn't need that validation.
And so you're going off of what you believe to be true and feel
(13:03):
right. But when there is data to
support this in research and evidence to support the notions
that you had before, is that is that necessary?
Is that needed in validating or does it not matter at all?
No, that it matters to me personally, but it matters to
many of my clients. So for many of my clients to
(13:25):
have that, it's very helpful forthem because we, our, our belief
system really informs our life experience.
So you know, think about it, a placebo works for a reason,
right? Because you think it's working.
So you know, adding that is really helpful not only for my
(13:46):
individual clients, if we're working on life coaching type
things or with my corporate clients, you know, if I want to,
if I'm, if I'm coming in to teach meditation, for example,
that's one area where there is aton of, of supporting research
for the benefits of meditation. So going into, for example, a
(14:09):
corporate setting, that is really, really helpful.
Yeah, they're already used to exactly what you went through.
Show me the data. I want to know the.
I want to know the evidence to support this.
And so maybe it's context and might be important who you're
talking to and what their needs are, what they need, the
information to help them understand or better relate to
(14:30):
the service that you're trying to offer.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like putting it all
together. And I guess what's what's
important to your clients is therefore by way in important to
you too. Exactly.
Yeah. And I and I guess really, if I
think about it, the data helps me too.
You know, we, we could all use some help with our faith in
(14:53):
whatever we're pursuing. So mindset is so important to to
success. Well, I'll tell you something
that I firmly believe in. If it feels good, then it must
be. And if they're positive results,
therefore it is a good science. And if it doesn't have any risk
of negative adverse results, then there is no harm.
(15:19):
You can, you can't always say the same thing about Western
medicine. And this is not a knock on
Western medicine. Like I'm very much a patient of
it and and a recipient of treatment.
I don't have a problem at all orcriticism about it.
I, I do from standpoint of business economics and
(15:41):
profitability, capitalism from that standpoint, I I'm firm
believer in capitalism. But not to get too deep into all
this sort of economic philosophy, but.
We could go down the rabbit. Hole on that one.
Well, we certainly could and that would be an interesting
other conversation. But, but, but what I'm trying to
get at is that while I am a supporter of Western medicine,
(16:02):
I'm very much also an advocate and a supporter of Eastern
philosophy, Eastern medicine, spirituality, because those
rarely ever tend to lead to any adverse reactions, but they
ultimately provide a lot of calmand, and order in one's life.
(16:23):
It's it's such a wonderful, meaningful practice.
Yeah, and, and actually right before our recording of this
podcast, I had a busy day. And so I took 5 minutes before
we were about to go on and I dida short meditation to just bring
(16:43):
me to this present moment so I could be here with you Noah and
and be very present. I appreciate that.
I'm I'm happy that you got that chance.
You made that that time for yourself.
And with the conversation that we're having right now in mind,
everyone should take your class.And we're not going to give away
all the secrets here. But if if there's something that
could help me and therefore maybe the entire audience, a
(17:05):
skill that I could work on that would help me kind of feed my
soul in a way that that is non judgmental.
Yeah. One of the the biggest skills
that I'm going to talk about andteach in this course is setting
boundaries. So setting boundaries with
(17:25):
people, with work with the outside world, we have a, like I
said, a lot of distractions. So phone in the other room,
maybe for a certain period of time all the other pages of your
browser tabs on your browser closed, just working on that one
(17:48):
thing. So setting boundaries, learning
to say no, we unconsciously often say yes without really
thinking about what we want. Well, this person needs me, you
know, or they say they need me. It's like OK, but at some point
if you over give you deplete yourself so much that you're no
(18:10):
good to anyone else. One thing I started doing is to
bring in some of that rest, but also it was not even rest but
just joy and bringing in more joy and lightness.
Is I at 5:00 I have a a reminderthat says, did you dance today?
(18:35):
So if I hadn't been listening tomusic and got a little dancing
in, the music goes on while I'm making dinner and get some of
that in, 'cause that's just a reminder, You know, when we
bring our body into it, it's a reminder that we are free, that
we can move, You know, that we have this other side of us other
(18:58):
than just a work machine. That's amazing.
What do you do when the reminderpops up and you're in a bad
mood? I still put on the music.
Does it help you get it? It can, yeah.
And, and, and I call it a win, even if I sway a little bit, you
(19:20):
know it again, it's all about having more self compassion and
like, this is the best I can do today.
This is the best I can do today.And sometimes it does you.
You can get into it and it can, you know it.
It at least lifts you a little bit to help you find just a
(19:44):
little bit easier place for yourself.
That's a lovely, that's a lovelyidea.
I'm, I'm focused on all the wrong things.
I'm focused on how the irony of needing your technology to
remind you to take a break from technology.
But that's the world we live in.How did you decide to get out of
(20:06):
banking? Yeah, You know, I think just my
nature is I need, I need change,you know, when I get to a point
where I feel like I've learned the bulk of what I can learn or
are ready for something else. So I, I had started riding a
motorcycle and there was not a lot for women in the market and
(20:30):
it was just hard to find anything that fit that looked
right. And so I started putting these
ideas together. I figured out how to get what I
wanted to do manufactured and I got myself a show February of O
7 and said, OK, let's just try it and see what happens.
Well, in that, in about a two-month period, maybe around
(20:54):
that time at the bank, I was in the group that was trying to
figure out how to downsize. And I realized, you know, I, I
didn't get the promotion to leadthe group that I wanted.
And I realized that my ego wanted the job.
I didn't want the job so. That that must have been a
(21:15):
realization for you, that that self discovery.
Yeah, completely. I mean, it was really freeing
'cause I was disappointed that Ididn't get it, but the more I
thought about it, I'm like, there's a lot of parts of this
job that quite frankly are a bighassle, you know?
So because I knew what was available, I went to my new boss
(21:36):
and I said, you know, I'll stay as long as you need me to to
help you transition. But I really like one of those
packages and I had a lot of runway from that package.
You know, severance packages were much, I think much more
generous back then. And I had a lot of runway to see
(21:57):
what I could do with my business.
So I I did my business selling women's motorcycle apparel full
time for five years and. Did you look for a for for a
bank loan? No, I self financed that's.
Awesome, How'd it go? Yeah, great.
I'm really proud of what I built.
(22:19):
I had great relationships with my customers.
I sold into motorcycle and scooter shops.
I sold online. I was doing shows, I was riding
my motorcycle across the countryto do these shows.
It was a complete blast. And after about five years, I
realized I was going to have to put a lot more money in it to
take it to the next level. And I also realized that as fun
(22:46):
as it was in many ways, it wasn't the kind of business I
wanted to stay in. I went from commercial banking,
which was very conservative, to the motorcycle industry was the
absolute opposite of that. And I really wanted something
more in between. And also I realized I'm more of
(23:07):
a service person, you know, so Iwas selling product, which can
be viewed as a service, But really what I wanted to offer
was, you know, my skills. So I, I started looking into
teaching 'cause I missed the, the training that I was doing,
(23:27):
the teaching and training. And I taught entrepreneurship at
Columbia College in Chicago, which was so fun 'cause I was
teaching art students versus business students.
So that was a nice neat change of pace.
Yeah. Well, what was that like?
How would you, how would you characterize the differences
between those two environments? Yeah, great, great question.
(23:51):
For the most part, you know, there's a lot more type A's in
banking as you can imagine. So it was a little more laid
back and for for the class, the students had to put together
their own mini business over thecourse and and practice selling
and and see what they could do with it.
And the creativity of their businesses were really
(24:14):
phenomenal. That's awesome.
Their presentations probably look pretty good too.
Yeah, yeah. And they were really fun.
Really fun. How long did you teach at
Columbia College? Just two semesters, because this
is just how life works sometimes.
I had one of my former colleagues come speak to my
(24:35):
students about financing a business.
And afterwards he said we're looking for someone to start
this credit training program. Do you know anyone?
And I just paused and he said, oh, wait, you should do this.
And I was, I was ready for that next challenge, for that next
(24:57):
opportunity. So I that's when I went back
into banking and I did start a training program for the
commercial bank there. And that was another great
banking adventure. That's pretty exciting.
What a way to find yourself suddenly back into that world
when you weren't expecting it. Yes, exactly.
Was not expecting it whatsoever and it it just came at the at
(25:21):
the perfect time. Yeah, leveraging both your
banking background as well as like your experience now
teaching you left that role to go do what after.
So I left banking to teach finance at the University of
Illinois at the College of Business there, the Geese
College of Business. I was getting to the point where
I was looking what is the next thing for me?
(25:44):
You were there, I know for for alittle bit, but I want to, I
want to actually focus now on what you do today because it's
quite a bit different from banking.
Yeah, my business is Live Life LLC and it has 2 brand names
underneath it. So I I first started Live Life
spiritual direction in 2021. I'd been informally had been a,
(26:09):
a spiritual coach, spiritual practitioner since 2018.
That was very informal. But through creating the
business, my website, I was ableto offer sessions to people,
spiritual life coaching sessionsto people remotely, and I
started getting inbound calls from companies to do meditation
(26:33):
workshops and things like that. So I thought, well, you know, a
lot of companies don't want the spiritual aspect because that
could turn some people off. And the truth is there's all
this research that backs up whatI would be teaching anyway.
So I created Live Life Business consulting as well.
(26:53):
I not only do one-on-one coaching with professionals, but
I have a blast going in and teaching stress management,
meditation. I've even gone into companies
and done Reiki and meditation. And Reiki is an energy healing
that also has a bunch of research and data to back it up.
It's done as integrative care and progressive hospitals and
(27:17):
can be help be really effective.So it's really exciting for me
to be able to bring these concepts almost subversively,
but not really into a corporation, and help people
just find more meaning in what they're doing, better balance,
and expect more for themselves. Yeah, sounds wonderful.
(27:40):
Sounds like a great service thatnobody couldn't use.
If you have somebody who approaches you and says, I, I, I
like what you're doing, I'd loveto benefit from the services.
That's one thing They're buying into it and they, they're like,
I want this and I need this for myself.
What's it like to go into a group setting?
So a company and an individual or a group of people have made a
decision that this is something that they're going to do for a
(28:03):
whole bunch of other people. Not all of them have just made
this decision. What's it like going into that
kind of a setting and having a whole bunch of different
opinions and people participating in something
whether they agree to it or not?Yeah, that's a, that's a great
question, 'cause that that has happened and I was, I was
invited to a leadership meeting and you know, there are some
(28:25):
people in the back with their arms crossed and and not really
engaging that much, but they're still picking up the
information. It's still running in the
background and I think it can still be helpful even if someone
is a little resistant to it. And, and I always have people
(28:46):
who are enthusiastic and are already doing some of this.
So, you know, knock on wood so far, you know, it's, it's, it's
gone really well. But sometimes people just need
to let it ruminate. And they're of course they're
going to people, it be people that it's not for them and
they're not going to consider it.
And that's absolutely OK. But for some people, it's the
(29:09):
spark. It's it's the spark that starts
and maybe ignited later. When you're in a room and you
see the people in the back of the room with their arms folded,
do you go and try to engage themor is the move to ignore them?
Oh, that's a great question. It depends on how much time I
have. If it's a short amount of time,
(29:33):
I'm I'm going to keep the energyup and I'm going to keep it
moving. Inspiring, I think, is a better
way to push people than otherwise it's.
Not your responsibility to convince everyone.
Yeah, if if a handful of people walk away with some really good
tools and make improvements in their life, that that is very
(29:54):
meaningful. And I remember I was in a small
group setting. Not many people showed up.
It was actually for ecstatic dance, if you know what that.
Is I do not. It's free flow dance.
Anybody can do whatever they want.
No judgement zone. But there was only a handful of
us. And this is someone who has this
(30:14):
is a DJ that has done this for 1000.
And you know, his, his thought was whether it's one or 1000, as
long as you touch someone and help someone, that's all that
matters. Yeah, great goal, great insight
and wisdom. Are there things from your
background in finance and banking that you have found to
(30:36):
be instrumental, the skills thatyou have leveraged from that to
help you in this journey, this part of your career path of
helping others in Wellness and success?
Yeah, in two ways. One, it helps my business.
You know what, it helps me that I have some business sense and I
don't know everything. And, and I get, I get a lot of
help. I do a little bit of spiritual
(30:59):
business coaching. So helping other healers that
are trying to get their businessoff the ground.
There's, there's a false belief that if you're doing spiritual
work, you shouldn't be making money at it.
And I think that's an old idea based on a principle that gets
misinterpreted from the Bible. Money is the root of all evil.
(31:22):
What it actually says is something like money is the root
of all kinds of evil, you know, meaning it can be corrupted.
But money is just energy, just like a lot of different things.
So they're, you know, helping people correct or heal those
false beliefs. There are people that are very
in touch with their spiritual side and have a business outside
(31:45):
of spirituality and I can reallygive them some basic tools or or
more advanced tools to help themwith their business as well.
Can I ask you a sensitive question?
Sure. You have this mindset, you have
this deep belief system. If you always had that and if it
(32:06):
was always part of you, how did you feel while you were working
at a bank? I know I can look at it in one
way. First of all, I will say one
thing as a as a disclaimer specifically to what you were
doing. You were helping people.
And I think that there's a lot of people out there that will
judge a book by its cover unfairly and say, OK, this is a
(32:30):
bank. Bank is all about making money.
Maybe what I'm really getting atis how do you reconcile the
optics of working at a bank while still having this
spiritual human first approach to your whole entire lifestyle?
Yeah, that, that's a great question.
And and I will say over time, myspirituality has deepened,
(32:51):
right. So it hasn't always been what it
is today. So that's part of it.
The other part is I think service has been always very
important to me. And in some way, we talked about
helping businesses grow, provides jobs.
We did a lot of volunteering in banking.
(33:13):
The the Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to give back
to the community in different ways.
And while that is federally driven and, and rules driven, it
does give us the opportunity to do giving back.
So, you know, teaching financialliteracy to folks who don't know
(33:35):
it, kids or underserved areas, working at a soup kitchen,
whatever it might be, you know, it's, it's still matters, even
though it's being driven in a large part, not always by, you
know, the requirements of the law.
Yeah. I think that's why I I, I
curated or maybe adjusted my question to the optics,
(33:58):
addressing it from the optics because they are businesses,
their bottom line and top line revenue is important, but I
think the optics from outside are often unfair.
Yeah, and I think the other thing to, to, to mention is it's
not the people, it's the system,right?
(34:21):
Our, our systems can, can be very hard, you know, and they
don't always work for people. So we're trying to do the best
we can based on where we're at. So we're, we're in a society,
especially if you're publicly traded, that you've got to be
posting results every quarter, you know, so you're being pushed
(34:44):
from a lot of different sides. Boy, do I know what that's like.
One of the things that started the the conversation off you
don't fit in a box because you don't often see this kind of a
leap through the different things that you have done.
And it's extremely commendable that you truly are living your
(35:08):
truth and your own philosophy. And even in the banking world,
you were doing it then you're serving others and you're
helping and advocating seeing what we can do.
How? How creative can we get?
Yeah, and I think the overarching thread that brings
it all together that I think is so important for all of us that
it's so easy to lose sight of isbeing in touch with our own
(35:31):
authenticity and who we are. Because who we are matters.
And we live in a world that wants us to be something else.
I saw a quote recently that was like, to be yourself in a world
that is trying to push you to besomething else is an act of
defiance. We can get a lot of judgments
from other people if we don't fit into a box.
(35:51):
I've said before like I'm not here to meet your expectations.
I'm here to live my life, you know?
So when we come from a place of authenticity, we breakthrough
that barrier of worrying so muchabout what other people think.
That's where the success, the joy, more love is on the other
(36:11):
side of that when you breakthrough it and get to be
who you are. And my my tagline for my
spiritual direction business is live the song of your soul.
And that is my guiding force around my mission and vision.
Denise, this has been fantastic.This has been spiritual,
insightful and enjoyable, so thank you for sharing your
(36:34):
background, your skills, your experience and your story with
us here. My pleasure, Noah.
I want to thank Doctor Robert Rubin for recommending Denise as
today's guest and to you, our listeners, for joining us on
this episode of Transferable Skills.
Remember, the skills you've gained can take you anywhere.
Until next time, keep exploring those transferable skills.
Transferable skills, skills, skills, skills from Cackle
Media. This is transferable skills.
I'm Noah, Michigan. Today's guest is Denise Maple,
who shares her skills journey from commercial banking into
success and Wellness coaching. I hope you enjoy Denise Maple.
Welcome to the show. Great to have you here.
(00:20):
Thank you so much, Noah. I am thrilled to be here.
Tell me a little bit about aboutyour background.
You don't fit in a box. I knew in high school I wanted
to go into business. I wanted to go to the University
of Illinois. Why?
Why did you know you wanted to do that?
Partly it was relying on my intuition.
I was good at math. I liked making money.
(00:42):
I started babysitting for money as early as 10 years old.
This was back in the day when when you could.
Leave a 10 year. Old.
A 10 year old babysitter would do.
Yeah. And I, I think that the summer
before I went to college, I had three jobs and I loved them all.
Three jobs at that early age, soyou're clearly somebody that is
(01:07):
very motivated and driven and have a strong work ethic.
Where did that come from? When I was young, we didn't have
a lot of money and so I think part of it was wanting to be
able to do what I wanted to do. I think my parents also just had
amazing work ethics. What did you study in college?
Finance. Finance into business and out of
(01:30):
college. What were you doing?
I was a banker, so I went into an entry level credit training
program. I was a commercial lender and I
actually worked in banking for 25 years in total, but that was
like the first piece of it. And so I like the analytical
piece. I love digging into the
financial statements and runningthe numbers.
(01:52):
But also being a lender also hadit had the people side.
So it had a really nice balance that it wasn't all sitting at my
desk. I was going out to clients, you
know, we were going to ball games and I even learn to golf.
I like to say I stopped playing golf when they stop paying me,
when I stopped having clients totake.
(02:13):
Maybe it's left brain, right brain, or the analytical work,
but also the the personal touch.I think we all have an idea of
what a bank is. What are you doing on a
day-to-day basis? What are you in charge of?
Yeah, I had a lot of different roles in banking, but the the
one that I was always tied to insome way was this idea of
(02:35):
commercial lending, lending money to businesses.
We also of course were cross selling our other products and
and helping them manage their money.
But a really big part of it was determining how to give the make
this loan to this company if if it was a tough one, you know,
sometimes there was creativity in trying to figure out how to
(02:57):
make it work either with a guarantor or collateral or
whatever it is. So there's a lot of regulations
in banking. It was very detail oriented and
I can be very detail oriented. So I think it that fit well.
Did you feel a emotional burden or pressure being the bearer to
(03:18):
some degree of helping somebody with their loan, with their for
their small business? It's got to be a balance
between, like you say, getting creative to figure out ways that
you can satisfy their needs and and give them that opportunity.
But at the same time, there's it's risk management and you're
sort of balancing like what is responsible versus helping
someone fulfill their dreams? Yeah.
(03:38):
And that's a, that's a great question because I had small
clients all the way to large corporate depending on where I
was in the bank. So there was different stages of
it. So if it's a new startup, you
are really wanting to help that person, but you also understand
that businesses don't always make it.
So you also have this fiduciary responsibility to the bank as
(04:01):
well. So getting creative, there was
an incentive there. And then as the company started
to grow and I was working with middle market or large corporate
businesses, I could see how not only helping them was helping
the owners or, or the people I was working with, but creating
jobs. You know, if you help a company
(04:22):
grow, you're creating jobs that.Must have been really
fulfilling. Yeah, I it, it really was.
It really was. I appreciate and I have
gratitude for my my time and thinking for sure.
Was there any kind of standing relationship that you have after
the loan is approved? Yeah, not only are we making
(04:43):
sure that the clients are satisfied and seeing if they
have any other needs we can helpthem with, we have to monitor
the loan. So we don't just make the loan
and forget it. Especially at the middle market
or large corporate level, you really do have to stay in touch
with the client. And I did develop some really
meaningful relationships with clients from a business
(05:06):
perspective and and some of themI still talk to you today.
That's wonderful. What about the hard
conversations? What are those sound like?
Yeah, that's that. There are some hard
conversations. If you have to call alone, if
you have to deny a loan, if you have to ask for more collateral,
(05:26):
it doesn't feel good. You know what, Everyone feels
better when everything's going well.
But it really taught me that, you know, you can have those
hard conversations and still be OK and you can you can handle
them in a way that in most circumstances you can retain the
relationship because I everybodyknows what the deal is going
(05:47):
into a loan agreement, for example, you know, everyone
knows that if you can't pay. Yeah, problematic.
Yeah, exactly. How do you train for those kinds
of hard conversations? Do do you go through any kind of
training at the bank or outside of the bank as far as how to
have honest, transparent conversations that can be
difficult and and conflict resolution?
(06:09):
At the time, no overtime. We did take things like
negotiations was a class that I think was really helpful.
Not only did I take it through the bank, but I also took a
class like that while I was getting my MBA.
But really the classes are greatand I'm, I teach and I'm all for
(06:30):
that kind of learning, but it's the application.
So there's also a lot of mentoring going on.
So whatever level you are in banking, you're usually,
especially if you're young, you know, early on you're, you're
shadowing someone who's more senior, you have someone you can
go to to help coach you through those conversations and that's
(06:50):
always really helpful. Yeah, real, real world
experience always is going to isgoing to win out your experience
and you're going through it is the only way to really get
better at it. Let's talk about your skills
within the banking world. You talked about math and and
being analytical. What would you say is the skills
that you possess that helped yousucceed in that role?
(07:13):
I didn't realize when I took thejob that it was also a sales
job, and maybe I did on some level, but the people skills and
the relationship building skillsis probably the biggest one.
How do you maintain and build relationships that are mutually
beneficial? Right, Because in this world,
(07:35):
nobody feels good about a lopsided relationship,
especially if you're you're on the lower end of the teeter
totter. Yeah, totally.
Yeah, It's got to be mutually beneficial.
When I moved into teaching and training, teaching people how to
be bankers, my analytical skills, all of my skills got
raised because when you have to teach something, you have to
(07:57):
understand it on a deeper level because you have to be able to
explain it to someone else. Totally, Yeah.
And what I learned over time andI learned pretty quickly is AI
don't have to know everything. It's perfectly OK to say.
Let me give me some time to think about that or let me
research for that for you and get back to you.
(08:20):
We don't have to know everything, but we can.
We can figure it out. With this many years of
experience, both practical as well as teaching, it's almost
like you, you are hoping someonewill ask a question, question
you've never heard before about something that you don't know.
Because it's a moment for you tocontinue learning and and be
open to learning something new, something that surprises you.
(08:42):
It's kind of refreshing. Absolutely.
I mean, I'm still learning all the time.
I think we all are, yeah. I think that if you're someone
that's fixed minded, it's just adifferent version of operating
system. It's just the difference between
fixed and growth mind. Yeah, yeah.
And I I just gave a talk on thatcalled the success mindset and I
(09:03):
talked about fixed versus growthmindset.
What's your process for planningfor preparing for a lecture on a
on a big topic like that? First, it starts with just the
ideation and the goals. You know, what are, what are my
teaching objectives? What, what do I want the end
product to be? So you start with the end and
(09:26):
then I try to let it simmer for a little bit.
This course that I'm working on is on the, the spiritual side of
my, my business, live life spiritual direction.
And so I just let it simmer and I've actually been thinking
about it for months and haven't had time to work on it.
And so I got a flip chart on thewall and I just started putting
(09:50):
ideas and outlines on it. And, and then I realized, OK,
I've got enough, I can get started and I've blocked off
time. Actually, this is perfect timing
for this question. I blocked off time this month to
work on it. And I use two parts of it, you
(10:10):
know, well, three parts of it. Part is just like, what do I
know based on experience? And I start scoping it out.
I usually type it out and start writing it out.
What does the research say on, on this topic?
And what is my intuition tellingme?
You know, our intuition is oftendiscounted.
(10:31):
It's funny, 'cause I remember the last bank I worked for, I, I
went into my boss's office and Iwas like, we need to do this,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's like, show me the data.
And I was like, Oh yeah, that's right.
I'm like, but I just know. But I had to go back and build,
build my case, which I get it, you know, you, you want both,
(10:55):
but you know that that trust andthat intuition, you know, is
also there to help move us alongwith the process.
So when you came back with an upupdated maybe formalized
proposal for it, did you also include amongst the data that
you had researched and gathered?Did you also include any soft
data that was your intuition into that presentation, formally
(11:17):
speaking? I think I think what I probably
added along those lines was my observations.
Yeah, that's, you know, I guess that's, that's exactly what I I
would expect. Yeah.
Yeah, you look for the data thatwill give you evidence to either
support or disprove your theory and intuition.
(11:39):
Your observation say I, I'm seeing this and I believe this
is truth and reality. Let me go find out if that is
accurate or not and valid. So you go out, you gather that
data and at the end result is supporting data in one way or
another. And but but it always has to
start I guess with intuition. Well, it, it's our drive, right?
(12:01):
Like, why am I even doing this class to begin with?
Why is it even an idea? Well, that that idea is a spark
of intuition. That's, you know, that's, that's
the seed that maybe we can't completely explain.
And thankfully for the lot of things I do on the spiritual
(12:22):
side of my business is science is starting to come together and
support a lot of the spiritual practices that have been going
on for. Does that, do you feel that when
you see that there is research and scientific evidence that
(12:42):
supports the stuff that you havebeen already involved and
invested in in, in there's an intuition that you have as well
as a practice. Does it empower you or is it
irrelevant because you didn't have the you didn't have the
data before, you didn't, you didn't need that validation.
And so you're going off of what you believe to be true and feel
(13:03):
right. But when there is data to
support this in research and evidence to support the notions
that you had before, is that is that necessary?
Is that needed in validating or does it not matter at all?
No, that it matters to me personally, but it matters to
many of my clients. So for many of my clients to
(13:25):
have that, it's very helpful forthem because we, our, our belief
system really informs our life experience.
So you know, think about it, a placebo works for a reason,
right? Because you think it's working.
So you know, adding that is really helpful not only for my
(13:46):
individual clients, if we're working on life coaching type
things or with my corporate clients, you know, if I want to,
if I'm, if I'm coming in to teach meditation, for example,
that's one area where there is aton of, of supporting research
for the benefits of meditation. So going into, for example, a
(14:09):
corporate setting, that is really, really helpful.
Yeah, they're already used to exactly what you went through.
Show me the data. I want to know the.
I want to know the evidence to support this.
And so maybe it's context and might be important who you're
talking to and what their needs are, what they need, the
information to help them understand or better relate to
(14:30):
the service that you're trying to offer.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like putting it all
together. And I guess what's what's
important to your clients is therefore by way in important to
you too. Exactly.
Yeah. And I and I guess really, if I
think about it, the data helps me too.
You know, we, we could all use some help with our faith in
(14:53):
whatever we're pursuing. So mindset is so important to to
success. Well, I'll tell you something
that I firmly believe in. If it feels good, then it must
be. And if they're positive results,
therefore it is a good science. And if it doesn't have any risk
of negative adverse results, then there is no harm.
(15:19):
You can, you can't always say the same thing about Western
medicine. And this is not a knock on
Western medicine. Like I'm very much a patient of
it and and a recipient of treatment.
I don't have a problem at all orcriticism about it.
I, I do from standpoint of business economics and
(15:41):
profitability, capitalism from that standpoint, I I'm firm
believer in capitalism. But not to get too deep into all
this sort of economic philosophy, but.
We could go down the rabbit. Hole on that one.
Well, we certainly could and that would be an interesting
other conversation. But, but, but what I'm trying to
get at is that while I am a supporter of Western medicine,
(16:02):
I'm very much also an advocate and a supporter of Eastern
philosophy, Eastern medicine, spirituality, because those
rarely ever tend to lead to any adverse reactions, but they
ultimately provide a lot of calmand, and order in one's life.
(16:23):
It's it's such a wonderful, meaningful practice.
Yeah, and, and actually right before our recording of this
podcast, I had a busy day. And so I took 5 minutes before
we were about to go on and I dida short meditation to just bring
(16:43):
me to this present moment so I could be here with you Noah and
and be very present. I appreciate that.
I'm I'm happy that you got that chance.
You made that that time for yourself.
And with the conversation that we're having right now in mind,
everyone should take your class.And we're not going to give away
all the secrets here. But if if there's something that
could help me and therefore maybe the entire audience, a
(17:05):
skill that I could work on that would help me kind of feed my
soul in a way that that is non judgmental.
Yeah. One of the the biggest skills
that I'm going to talk about andteach in this course is setting
boundaries. So setting boundaries with
(17:25):
people, with work with the outside world, we have a, like I
said, a lot of distractions. So phone in the other room,
maybe for a certain period of time all the other pages of your
browser tabs on your browser closed, just working on that one
(17:48):
thing. So setting boundaries, learning
to say no, we unconsciously often say yes without really
thinking about what we want. Well, this person needs me, you
know, or they say they need me. It's like OK, but at some point
if you over give you deplete yourself so much that you're no
(18:10):
good to anyone else. One thing I started doing is to
bring in some of that rest, but also it was not even rest but
just joy and bringing in more joy and lightness.
Is I at 5:00 I have a a reminderthat says, did you dance today?
(18:35):
So if I hadn't been listening tomusic and got a little dancing
in, the music goes on while I'm making dinner and get some of
that in, 'cause that's just a reminder, You know, when we
bring our body into it, it's a reminder that we are free, that
we can move, You know, that we have this other side of us other
(18:58):
than just a work machine. That's amazing.
What do you do when the reminderpops up and you're in a bad
mood? I still put on the music.
Does it help you get it? It can, yeah.
And, and, and I call it a win, even if I sway a little bit, you
(19:20):
know it again, it's all about having more self compassion and
like, this is the best I can do today.
This is the best I can do today.And sometimes it does you.
You can get into it and it can, you know it.
It at least lifts you a little bit to help you find just a
(19:44):
little bit easier place for yourself.
That's a lovely, that's a lovelyidea.
I'm, I'm focused on all the wrong things.
I'm focused on how the irony of needing your technology to
remind you to take a break from technology.
But that's the world we live in.How did you decide to get out of
(20:06):
banking? Yeah, You know, I think just my
nature is I need, I need change,you know, when I get to a point
where I feel like I've learned the bulk of what I can learn or
are ready for something else. So I, I had started riding a
motorcycle and there was not a lot for women in the market and
(20:30):
it was just hard to find anything that fit that looked
right. And so I started putting these
ideas together. I figured out how to get what I
wanted to do manufactured and I got myself a show February of O
7 and said, OK, let's just try it and see what happens.
Well, in that, in about a two-month period, maybe around
(20:54):
that time at the bank, I was in the group that was trying to
figure out how to downsize. And I realized, you know, I, I
didn't get the promotion to leadthe group that I wanted.
And I realized that my ego wanted the job.
I didn't want the job so. That that must have been a
(21:15):
realization for you, that that self discovery.
Yeah, completely. I mean, it was really freeing
'cause I was disappointed that Ididn't get it, but the more I
thought about it, I'm like, there's a lot of parts of this
job that quite frankly are a bighassle, you know?
So because I knew what was available, I went to my new boss
(21:36):
and I said, you know, I'll stay as long as you need me to to
help you transition. But I really like one of those
packages and I had a lot of runway from that package.
You know, severance packages were much, I think much more
generous back then. And I had a lot of runway to see
(21:57):
what I could do with my business.
So I I did my business selling women's motorcycle apparel full
time for five years and. Did you look for a for for a
bank loan? No, I self financed that's.
Awesome, How'd it go? Yeah, great.
I'm really proud of what I built.
(22:19):
I had great relationships with my customers.
I sold into motorcycle and scooter shops.
I sold online. I was doing shows, I was riding
my motorcycle across the countryto do these shows.
It was a complete blast. And after about five years, I
realized I was going to have to put a lot more money in it to
take it to the next level. And I also realized that as fun
(22:46):
as it was in many ways, it wasn't the kind of business I
wanted to stay in. I went from commercial banking,
which was very conservative, to the motorcycle industry was the
absolute opposite of that. And I really wanted something
more in between. And also I realized I'm more of
(23:07):
a service person, you know, so Iwas selling product, which can
be viewed as a service, But really what I wanted to offer
was, you know, my skills. So I, I started looking into
teaching 'cause I missed the, the training that I was doing,
(23:27):
the teaching and training. And I taught entrepreneurship at
Columbia College in Chicago, which was so fun 'cause I was
teaching art students versus business students.
So that was a nice neat change of pace.
Yeah. Well, what was that like?
How would you, how would you characterize the differences
between those two environments? Yeah, great, great question.
(23:51):
For the most part, you know, there's a lot more type A's in
banking as you can imagine. So it was a little more laid
back and for for the class, the students had to put together
their own mini business over thecourse and and practice selling
and and see what they could do with it.
And the creativity of their businesses were really
(24:14):
phenomenal. That's awesome.
Their presentations probably look pretty good too.
Yeah, yeah. And they were really fun.
Really fun. How long did you teach at
Columbia College? Just two semesters, because this
is just how life works sometimes.
I had one of my former colleagues come speak to my
(24:35):
students about financing a business.
And afterwards he said we're looking for someone to start
this credit training program. Do you know anyone?
And I just paused and he said, oh, wait, you should do this.
And I was, I was ready for that next challenge, for that next
(24:57):
opportunity. So I that's when I went back
into banking and I did start a training program for the
commercial bank there. And that was another great
banking adventure. That's pretty exciting.
What a way to find yourself suddenly back into that world
when you weren't expecting it. Yes, exactly.
Was not expecting it whatsoever and it it just came at the at
(25:21):
the perfect time. Yeah, leveraging both your
banking background as well as like your experience now
teaching you left that role to go do what after.
So I left banking to teach finance at the University of
Illinois at the College of Business there, the Geese
College of Business. I was getting to the point where
I was looking what is the next thing for me?
(25:44):
You were there, I know for for alittle bit, but I want to, I
want to actually focus now on what you do today because it's
quite a bit different from banking.
Yeah, my business is Live Life LLC and it has 2 brand names
underneath it. So I I first started Live Life
spiritual direction in 2021. I'd been informally had been a,
(26:09):
a spiritual coach, spiritual practitioner since 2018.
That was very informal. But through creating the
business, my website, I was ableto offer sessions to people,
spiritual life coaching sessionsto people remotely, and I
started getting inbound calls from companies to do meditation
(26:33):
workshops and things like that. So I thought, well, you know, a
lot of companies don't want the spiritual aspect because that
could turn some people off. And the truth is there's all
this research that backs up whatI would be teaching anyway.
So I created Live Life Business consulting as well.
(26:53):
I not only do one-on-one coaching with professionals, but
I have a blast going in and teaching stress management,
meditation. I've even gone into companies
and done Reiki and meditation. And Reiki is an energy healing
that also has a bunch of research and data to back it up.
It's done as integrative care and progressive hospitals and
(27:17):
can be help be really effective.So it's really exciting for me
to be able to bring these concepts almost subversively,
but not really into a corporation, and help people
just find more meaning in what they're doing, better balance,
and expect more for themselves. Yeah, sounds wonderful.
(27:40):
Sounds like a great service thatnobody couldn't use.
If you have somebody who approaches you and says, I, I, I
like what you're doing, I'd loveto benefit from the services.
That's one thing They're buying into it and they, they're like,
I want this and I need this for myself.
What's it like to go into a group setting?
So a company and an individual or a group of people have made a
decision that this is something that they're going to do for a
(28:03):
whole bunch of other people. Not all of them have just made
this decision. What's it like going into that
kind of a setting and having a whole bunch of different
opinions and people participating in something
whether they agree to it or not?Yeah, that's a, that's a great
question, 'cause that that has happened and I was, I was
invited to a leadership meeting and you know, there are some
(28:25):
people in the back with their arms crossed and and not really
engaging that much, but they're still picking up the
information. It's still running in the
background and I think it can still be helpful even if someone
is a little resistant to it. And, and I always have people
(28:46):
who are enthusiastic and are already doing some of this.
So, you know, knock on wood so far, you know, it's, it's, it's
gone really well. But sometimes people just need
to let it ruminate. And they're of course they're
going to people, it be people that it's not for them and
they're not going to consider it.
And that's absolutely OK. But for some people, it's the
(29:09):
spark. It's it's the spark that starts
and maybe ignited later. When you're in a room and you
see the people in the back of the room with their arms folded,
do you go and try to engage themor is the move to ignore them?
Oh, that's a great question. It depends on how much time I
have. If it's a short amount of time,
(29:33):
I'm I'm going to keep the energyup and I'm going to keep it
moving. Inspiring, I think, is a better
way to push people than otherwise it's.
Not your responsibility to convince everyone.
Yeah, if if a handful of people walk away with some really good
tools and make improvements in their life, that that is very
(29:54):
meaningful. And I remember I was in a small
group setting. Not many people showed up.
It was actually for ecstatic dance, if you know what that.
Is I do not. It's free flow dance.
Anybody can do whatever they want.
No judgement zone. But there was only a handful of
us. And this is someone who has this
(30:14):
is a DJ that has done this for 1000.
And you know, his, his thought was whether it's one or 1000, as
long as you touch someone and help someone, that's all that
matters. Yeah, great goal, great insight
and wisdom. Are there things from your
background in finance and banking that you have found to
(30:36):
be instrumental, the skills thatyou have leveraged from that to
help you in this journey, this part of your career path of
helping others in Wellness and success?
Yeah, in two ways. One, it helps my business.
You know what, it helps me that I have some business sense and I
don't know everything. And, and I get, I get a lot of
help. I do a little bit of spiritual
(30:59):
business coaching. So helping other healers that
are trying to get their businessoff the ground.
There's, there's a false belief that if you're doing spiritual
work, you shouldn't be making money at it.
And I think that's an old idea based on a principle that gets
misinterpreted from the Bible. Money is the root of all evil.
(31:22):
What it actually says is something like money is the root
of all kinds of evil, you know, meaning it can be corrupted.
But money is just energy, just like a lot of different things.
So they're, you know, helping people correct or heal those
false beliefs. There are people that are very
in touch with their spiritual side and have a business outside
(31:45):
of spirituality and I can reallygive them some basic tools or or
more advanced tools to help themwith their business as well.
Can I ask you a sensitive question?
Sure. You have this mindset, you have
this deep belief system. If you always had that and if it
(32:06):
was always part of you, how did you feel while you were working
at a bank? I know I can look at it in one
way. First of all, I will say one
thing as a as a disclaimer specifically to what you were
doing. You were helping people.
And I think that there's a lot of people out there that will
judge a book by its cover unfairly and say, OK, this is a
(32:30):
bank. Bank is all about making money.
Maybe what I'm really getting atis how do you reconcile the
optics of working at a bank while still having this
spiritual human first approach to your whole entire lifestyle?
Yeah, that, that's a great question.
And and I will say over time, myspirituality has deepened,
(32:51):
right. So it hasn't always been what it
is today. So that's part of it.
The other part is I think service has been always very
important to me. And in some way, we talked about
helping businesses grow, provides jobs.
We did a lot of volunteering in banking.
(33:13):
The the Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to give back
to the community in different ways.
And while that is federally driven and, and rules driven, it
does give us the opportunity to do giving back.
So, you know, teaching financialliteracy to folks who don't know
(33:35):
it, kids or underserved areas, working at a soup kitchen,
whatever it might be, you know, it's, it's still matters, even
though it's being driven in a large part, not always by, you
know, the requirements of the law.
Yeah. I think that's why I I, I
curated or maybe adjusted my question to the optics,
(33:58):
addressing it from the optics because they are businesses,
their bottom line and top line revenue is important, but I
think the optics from outside are often unfair.
Yeah, and I think the other thing to, to, to mention is it's
not the people, it's the system,right?
(34:21):
Our, our systems can, can be very hard, you know, and they
don't always work for people. So we're trying to do the best
we can based on where we're at. So we're, we're in a society,
especially if you're publicly traded, that you've got to be
posting results every quarter, you know, so you're being pushed
(34:44):
from a lot of different sides. Boy, do I know what that's like.
One of the things that started the the conversation off you
don't fit in a box because you don't often see this kind of a
leap through the different things that you have done.
And it's extremely commendable that you truly are living your
(35:08):
truth and your own philosophy. And even in the banking world,
you were doing it then you're serving others and you're
helping and advocating seeing what we can do.
How? How creative can we get?
Yeah, and I think the overarching thread that brings
it all together that I think is so important for all of us that
it's so easy to lose sight of isbeing in touch with our own
(35:31):
authenticity and who we are. Because who we are matters.
And we live in a world that wants us to be something else.
I saw a quote recently that was like, to be yourself in a world
that is trying to push you to besomething else is an act of
defiance. We can get a lot of judgments
from other people if we don't fit into a box.
(35:51):
I've said before like I'm not here to meet your expectations.
I'm here to live my life, you know?
So when we come from a place of authenticity, we breakthrough
that barrier of worrying so muchabout what other people think.
That's where the success, the joy, more love is on the other
(36:11):
side of that when you breakthrough it and get to be
who you are. And my my tagline for my
spiritual direction business is live the song of your soul.
And that is my guiding force around my mission and vision.
Denise, this has been fantastic.This has been spiritual,
insightful and enjoyable, so thank you for sharing your
(36:34):
background, your skills, your experience and your story with
us here. My pleasure, Noah.
I want to thank Doctor Robert Rubin for recommending Denise as
today's guest and to you, our listeners, for joining us on
this episode of Transferable Skills.
Remember, the skills you've gained can take you anywhere.
Until next time, keep exploring those transferable skills.
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