Author: Brandon Jones

In this episode, I’m chatting with my friend and colleague, Andi Wrenn. She has been involved at the intersection of personal finance and military life for many years now. Andi is an AFC as well as having a masters in marriage and family therapy that helps inform her work with clients. It might surprise you to know that Andi is a career changer having previously been a coach. owning gymnastic clubs, and being a math teacher. After becoming a military spouse, Andi found herself heavily involved in helping other military families with money which led her to the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) and officially becoming a personal financial counselor. We also chat about her work helping other people gain experience hours, meet their CE requirements through a program she developed which won the Outstanding Education Program of the year for AFCPE in 2021, and how her work with the AFCPE Board has profoundly shaped her career. Andi is the president elect of AFCPE and shares her excitement and vision for what’s next in that role. Be sure to listen to the end where Andi shares some career mentorship tips! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andiwrenn/

https://www.afcpe.org/about/board-of-directors/andi-wrenn/

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I’m excited to welcome Adam Scherer on the podcast. He is a CFP and EA as well as having two masters degrees including in personal financial planning. In addition to running his own RIA, Adam has been a professor teaching CFP curriculum for many years. One of his primary current roles is as Vice President of Product Development and Innovation at The Boston Institute of Finance or BIF, Bryant University CFP program. As we discuss, Adam is a career changer himself so he shares some lessons learned along his career path. You will find his exam and coursework tips helpful as well as busting some myths about the exam. We close out by talking about scholarship programs and the significant military discount that BIF offers so be sure to check it out!

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I’m excited to welcome Adrienne Ross on the podcast. She is a CFP, ChFC, and AFC as well as the founder of Clear Insight Financial Planning based in Washington state. Adrienne shares her personal journey as a young military spouse discovering personal finance to de-mystify the whole process. As she learned she shared her knowledge with other military families as they navigated an endless series of significant life changes. There’s an adage, “A rising tide floats all boats.” She believes this to be true when it comes to financial planning.  Over the past fifteen years, service to others became a passion, a mission, and a profession. Adrienne shares about her growth, personally and professionally, as well as how she deepened her technical expertise in student loan and special needs planning along with her love of life planning. There are lots of career nuggets of advice throughout that I know will be helpful! 

https://mycifp.com/

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Nancy Bleeke joins the podcast to talk all about the power of sales in one of my favorite recent conversations! While she’s always been entrepreneurial, finding a passion in sales was never the plan. Who would ever want to be “in sales”? she thought. Yet, she found her calling helping people who also never saw themselves in sales, succeed in selling!

With a focus on making conversations productive for everyone involved, her Genuine® branded training modules guide professionals to fill their funnel, convert prospects efficiently, and retain loyal clients with a comfortable, collaborative approach.

Sales Pro Insider has guided many relationship-driven people in their selling efforts while encouraging them to remain genuine and service focused. She especially enjoys working alongside the “smaller guys” to ensure they receive a healthy ROI on their investment in equipping their businesses to succeed.

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Today on the podcast we welcome Brian O’Neill; CFP, and founder of Winged Wealth Management and Financial Planning. Brian launched his firm in early 2021 after retiring from the Air Force with a specific focus on working with military pilots. Brian flew F-16s and F-35s while on active duty, served as Weapons School instructor, and commanded in various roles before finishing his career at Eglin AFB, FL. Winged Wealth Management and Financial Planning began many years ago with an idea that Brian had: In order to get sound financial advice, pilots and the military community shouldn’t have to use a giant financial services company that sells high-priced, high-commission, and often inappropriate financial products. Instead, they deserve sound, fiduciary advice and they should be able to choose how they get it.

I love how his website and marketing are specifically designed to nurture and attract in this sub-niche. Be sure to listen as he shares how his content creation has become a powerful machine through consistency, technical expertise, and speaking the same language as his clients. Brian also talks about the head trash and confidence gap he overcame on both the entrepreneurial journey and household finances side as well as becoming the technical expert in the planning sides. I know you will learn from and be inspired by his story.

https://www.wingedwealth.com/

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Today on the podcast we welcome Stacy Livingstone-Hoyte; personal finance counselor, coach and founder of Financial Care Today. Over her financial life and career she’s had a variety of experiences including understanding money as an immigrant to the US, working in a variety of wirehouses, broker dealers, and insurance companies. There was a lot to absorb and figure out as she started from scratch, with zero assets or savings, credit standing, insurance, inheritance or knowledge of how things worked.. On the family front, she is part of a military connected community so she shares how those challenges impacted her. She ultimately found her way to financial counseling and financial coaching. Stacy has her AFC and FFC certifications which we discuss how she uses that training in working with clients by providing guidance, support, accountability, tools and resources to improve her clients’ financial well-being. I loved the advice and encouragement that Stacy shares for our listeners about pursuing a career and working as a financial coach and counselor. I know you will be inspired to hear Stacy’s story!

https://financialcaretoday.com/about/

https://sagefinancialsolutions.org/ffc/

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This is the second part picking up from our last episode with Sean Gillespie of Redeployment Wealth Strategies so if you haven’t listened to that episode first, stop and go ahead to do that first. For everyone else, I love hearing Sean’s passion in this episode as he and Paul Allen decided to join forces, the evolution and growth in both clients and staff that their firm has had, and the broader vision for the profession that helped give birth to the Military Financial Advisors Association or MFAA. There are a lot of career ideas and advice about serving, the power of relationships and networking, and perspectives on what kind of firm you might want to build yourself. We are both looking forward to the feedback and ideas that will come from you after his episode!

https://www.redeploymentwealth.com/

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In this first part of a two-part episode, I am talking with Sean Gillespie who is the co-founder and partner at Redeployment Wealth Strategies, an RIA based in VA Beach that specializes in serving military families. In this episode Sean shares his journey how he in many ways stumbled into the profession of financial planning and what his early experiences were like in the broker dealer and hybrid RIA world. I appreciated Sean’s candor in how hard the first years were and the valuable lessons learned along the way. Be sure to catch the books and resources that he mentions to help you along your career journey as well. 

https://www.redeploymentwealth.com/

Nick Murray: https://www.nickmurray.com/

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David Kakish is the President and CEO of RIA Workspace. He is an author, successful entrepreneur, and an advocate for better, more secure IT. It’s his belief that small and midsize Registered Investment Advisors and Financial Advisors are different than other businesses. He likes to think of these RIAs as the Small Giants in the financial services industry.

David is committed to higher standards and easier access to enterprise-level IT and cyber security for small and midsize RIAs. He believes that an off-the-shelf IT setup doesn’t meet the unique needs of the industry and encourages RIAs to seek out better, enterprise-level solutions to protect their business and their clients. Under his leadership, the RIA WorkSpace team developed cloud and managed IT platforms specifically for RIA and Financial Service firms. They’re keenly focused on creating leading edge security and headache-free environments for their clients.

https://www.riaworkspace.com/podcast/

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