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Ep141: Be Prepared with Jackie Campbell
Today on the Book More Show, we're talking with Jackie Campbell, certified financial planner, public accountant, and author of a new book Be Prepared, a great book that helps people create a peace-of-mind plan to support their family in an emergency.
She shares her journey in the financial services industry, starting with a love for math and stumbling into a position with a CPA firm right out of high school before transitioning into being a young female business owner, owning her own practice, developing a passion for helping people create financial plans that support their goals.
Jackie also shares the thought process behind her book and how it is a valuable jumping-off point for critical conversations.
This is a great episode with lots of actionable insights.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
LINKS
Jackie Campbell
Campbell and co
Show notes & video: 90minutebooks.com/podcast/141
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TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart Bell
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Book More Show It's Stuart Bell here and today joined by Jackie Campbell. Jackie, how you doing.
Jackie Campbell
I am doing great. Thanks, Stuart, for having me.
Stuart Bell
Fantastic. So Jackie is a certified financial planner and author of Be Prepared.
Jackie Campbell
Yes, a certified financial planner and a certified public accountant. And yeah, I'm excited about the book that just came out.
Stuart Bell
I was getting confused. So I've been in the US for five years now Yeah, five years, and then back and forth three years before that. So my background is on the IT side of financial services back in the UK, not on the customer side. But whenever I'm talking to financial advisors, cpas, the accountants, i always get that I always double pressed myself, thinking I was in UK terminology or US terminology. And it's funny how you kind of switch into. I think I'm not defaulting US but I think that I'm falling back to UK. So it's like sometimes tripping over the words, picking the wrong word, but usually it's right around. So if I stumble over words partway through, it's because my mouth is getting ahead of my brain. That's good talking to me.
Jackie Campbell
That's fine. I picked up on it just a little bit. That's my clarifier.
Stuart Bell
People often say, oh, where you from? Pick it up on the accent. So I have to say, well, either Florida in the office, or Pennsylvania home, or the UK originally. So it depends how they're asking. Once your background then, have you been in this business for a number of years? Did you come to it straight out of college with something you've kind of transitioned into?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i kind of stumbled onto a position with a CPA firm a startup at public accounting firm right out of high school. So I've been doing this for quite a few years now And I have had my own practice here Campbell and company for 30 years. Celebrating our 30th year And you know I just I love math. I was on the math team. It just seemed like a natural, you know, transition, natural career for me And, you know, also becoming a certified financial planner and just kind of pulling that whole entire 360 degree view together for business owners and for individuals, just just just something that I've, you know, been passionate about. I love solving problems. I didn't, i guess I didn't realize it, but you know, when you're on the math team you kind of kind of nerdy and you like solving problems.
Stuart Bell
So I just so greatly found a career straight from school that you've enjoyed and stuck with and really kind of found that passion straight away. I think a lot of people kind of have to circle around to it a little bit before they land on the thing that they ultimately want to do, but it really sounds like it resonated right out of the gates The organizations he worked for and then transitioning into your own practice. Was that a pretty natural progression as well? Kind of as an outsider I kind of think of CPAs and accountants who has taken that path? quite often It's kind of doing the journeymen work with another organization But then ultimately a lot of people tend to go out on their own. Was that your experience as well?
Jackie Campbell
Oh, yeah, yeah, i started with a small to mid-sized firm and you know, you learn the wealth of knowledge. just learning from somebody who's got all the experience is just priceless and invaluable. And we moved when we moved to Central Florida. that's, that was part of, you know, finishing up school and I tried some private accounting as well, but I didn't, i didn't really care for that. I didn't like the part about worry about somebody else's finance and them being able to pay the bills and salaries and stuff. So, yeah, it just was a goal that came to be. And I was one of the youngest CPAs CPA firm owners right in the Tampa Bay area. Oh, fantastic.
Stuart Bell
That as a journey in itself, then that must be quite, that must be quite an interesting journey because you get recognition and that as a I don't want to say something that you would turn my so much, but my brother's a Yopo I've mentioned on the show a few times before, but he maybe not so much now, but he was pretty young in the industry as well, And the whole young person development loop around it. The fact that female young business owner, all of those elements when we're going back with some age, so when we're going back to when we were starting, those must have been some milestone moments as well. When looking at the peer group that's out there, has that changed recently And you find that that's less of an issue now? Or is it the case that being a successful female owned business is actually more of a take to hang a hat on those words?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i mean just to answer your question. I think that it has changed significantly in the past three, three decades. And you know, i just remember that when I, you know, first started, you know the clients will come in and they would, you know they're near retirement age and they would say, are you sure you're old enough to know what you're doing? And I'm like, yes, I'm older than you think I am And you know that changed somewhere right in between. That nobody asked me that anymore, but you know I kind of miss those days.
But yeah, it was definitely a bit of a challenge. You know it is a man's world. I mean still in financial services. You know my husband works with me now he retired from another career And when we go to events outside of our area together they just assume he is the financial advisor and he is the owner of a campaign company. You still follow his lead. Yes, yeah, it's interesting. It's still a challenge, you know. But you know he always says, oh no, this is. You know, my wife is the brains. You know this is her company, you know, but it's definitely changed and improved through the years. I think it's much easier for women these days.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, it's always interesting. It's kind of not one of the side trackers, too much on the tangent, but obviously why English accents approach in 50 years old the setup of the. You kind of pass through, don't really notice it. My career, before owning the business I mentioned just before we started recording, was for corporate IT back in the PDK and financial services in London And that environment. I mean it was really, i think although maybe I should go back and look but I really think it was kind of like a 50-50 split male, female. I think I always worked for female managers, so no, we noticed it so much.
But a last couple of the shows that we've done have been talking to people where it's been much more of a struggle, much more of a real issue that they've actually had to fight to overcome. So that kind of spectrum. It's been interesting talking about the books as an extra authoritative piece that anyone can do. But it maybe goes some way to seek the box that psychologically helps people get past whatever natural bias that they've got towards establishing you as the authority And I don't think that was necessarily the reason that you did it At all, but any small element that helps overcome that. it's definitely interesting to have more conversations with people where that's been more of a thing that they've been thinking about.
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i mean, you know you would think that it's really not a challenge these days, but it's still. It's still kind of is and you know, but it's at the end of the day it's just. You know, how much knowledge do you have? and I think you know, in the financial services arena and especially as a fiduciary, you know it's about building trust and once you can get that solid foundation with trust and that, you know I might not know all the answers, but I do know people and I do have the ability to research that and find out the best solution and the correct solution for you.
You know, and there's so much accuracy that is required in the CPA profession. You know the numbers need to be accurate. Nobody wants to overpay taxes by even a dime. You know those are all extra pressures. You know that come on someone. So it definitely provides a little bit extra challenge. But it's just, you know, if you're a fiduciary and you're confident in what you can do and really the ultimate goal is to help the client be the hero of their story, it makes it a little easier.
Stuart Bell
Right, and that's openness and transparency that I think all organizations have to have these days, but perhaps it comes easier to some people than others.
Again, if you look at stereotypes, the kind of bravado I'm just going to go in there and tell you what it is the kind of old, old, established career type person Going into organizations now and not even from the perspective of other things, i don't know, but coming in from the perspective of how things are changing what happened last year, what happened five years ago, the rules and the regulations and how they've interpreted all of these things are changing.
So, going in from the perspective of, hey, we're on this journey together. There are things that are always changing. We're bringing our expertise and capability around the rules and the regulations, but the interpretation and how we can maximize your individual situation is going to change by and by client Having that, being able to build that relationship with people and start the conversation from the set, from saying, hey, we're going to look at every facet, every option that we've got and really diving to make the most of it. Imagine that for clients, that's the thing that they're looking for. They're looking for that confidence and reassurance that they're in the right place and you are the person to get them to their finish line Right.
Jackie Campbell
And it's more than just about one part of your financial plan or your retirement plan or your business plan. It's just about pulling all those things together, And a lot of financial services is seen as a one-time thing, but it's really. It's being part of the journey with someone. So you build that relationship with them and, gosh, I'm so, so blessed Being able to celebrate someone having their 100th birthday and now I'm working with their children and their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren coming into the picture. It's just so rewarding. But you're right, It's so much more than just the numbers or just a product, one meeting. It's just about building that longer-term relationship.
Stuart Bell
Like I said, you know multi-generational relationships with people. I mean, at the end of the day, it's not a transactional business that we're in. Most of the people who we work with, most of the people who you're working with, i guess, as clients, are in the business of building relationships for long-term, lifetime value. It's not how many businesses around there are just transactional, kind of coming to the store by something and disappearing and never come back again. So to be able to see that journey and help people as their situation change and also know their situation. So we've been in 90-minute books. We've been in business since 2015,. So we're in our 20-23, eight years.
I'm a accountant. I mean we rely on them to know actually what the business is doing and what we're trying to achieve, not just come in and look at a number and give a view on it. It kind of transitions into the book a little bit. So the book is Be Prepared and it talks about helping people set up the Be Prepared for the worst-case scenario so they're not leaving their family with a difficult situation. When you look across the whole business and any book that you could have written, why pick that one as the starting point for conversations?
Jackie Campbell
Well, this one had a special meeting for me personally and I think, no matter what you see other people go through the experiences, the difficult times especially, it's different when you go through it personally. Having helped families and then when my own father became ill, that was like a kind of time standstill. When you're involved in it, and intimately involved in it, i just realized, wow, am I doing enough to help those that I love and care about the most and make sure that everything is all in order? We just don't see ourselves getting older. You don't see yourself in your own story and all movie, so to speak. But that was just a big wake-up call and I wanted to make sure that I was able to help others to kind of not make some of those same mistakes. That was just a personal why.
For me I did the strategic coach. Unique ability and the way that I analyzed things is to be able to look at things from a 360 degree lens and getting at your affairs in order. That's just part of an important plan Being prepared, living in Florida with the hurricanes, we're always disaster prepared, working on that, talking about it, but also being disaster prepared for your own personal life, if you think of. We all, at the end of the day, want to be as organized as we can and be as helpful to our family, our spouses, our loved ones, and there's typically one CFO to the family, and whoever that CFO is, they have their own unique filing system, and you may think it's normal, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, but it's just about making sure that whoever comes behind you, make it as easy for them as possible and give them that, those breadcrumbs, so to speak, so that they can come right behind your financial life and just fill in if and when you're not able to do that.
Stuart Bell
Like I say, it often happens in situations that either a completely out in the blue and an accident or something traumatic happens or you don't realize how quickly things are progressing. And I can imagine that there are. My grandparents have passed away now but fortunate parents are still alive, but they're certainly getting on a little bit in age. I can remember seeing it with my grandparents. The decline and the falling off was relatively quick. I mean, it probably wasn't in terms of the actual calendar years that passed, but in terms of your interaction with the family members, thinking that there's always a tomorrow or you'll get around to it, and then, at the point where you can't quite remember everything or things get missed, it does leave quite a big hole for people to try and fill in and do some detective work on the back end. So it's either not around or not able to answer the questions as clearly as perhaps you once were when you set up in the first place. It's such a we often talk, obviously being on the book side and the creation side, but we're often talking to people relatively narrowly about the creation of the book as a lead generation tool or as a tool to start the conversations, because we've got some time constraints around it. We don't necessarily always get the opportunity to dive too much into people's stories or how they get to the point of writing the book they want to write. But your example, i think, is the perfect blend of having a personal reason for writing something, clearly seeing that, having this be prepared book which highlights what you should do to make sure that there is a folder that you can pass on to someone who's there left picking up the pieces, having that personal journey into it. It marries so well with what we might well have had as a conversation of saying, okay, we're trying to achieve a kind of a marketing outcome and this is a great way of doing it because it's a small subject that's very kind of self-contained. It's easy for people to understand. There's not a huge amount of kind of prior knowledge that needs to be brought to it. You can deliver all of the value in that book.
I've been talking to people about going deep on a narrow subject rather than kind of superficial and broad. Really deliver value to that one thing because there's always a conversation to connect that conversation. The next kind of circle out. So what I really like about the book The Eurow is it's serving those two purposes. It's a great marketing tool because it is that people can resonate with it. Have that. I want that response. It's easy to consume, it's easy to get the feeling of progression and doing something and then there's a very clear logical progression to a further conversation and it's obviously that passion project. So, when it comes to what was included and what was included and what wasn't included, was that relatively straightforward? Do you have a kind of a clear view of what the table of contents was, what that kind of lands, and see what the landscape was when you started?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i think. So the table of contents was really easy. I know I had worked I believe it was with Susan that helped me with the title, because the title I had picked out. She said, no, i think you need to be a little bit more clear with this. And so we came up with the be prepared and I love that, by the way, just being intentional, being prepared, cleaning up your messes, I mean that just speaks to me. But the table of contents was pretty easy. I kind of knew what I wanted to do. Where I struggled was when I started overthinking about the personal aspect. The forward actually was the most difficult for me to write because my why?
Stuart Bell
Right, yeah, actually that's interesting, i guess. Well, make sure we can point people towards where they can find out more. Get a copy of the book before we finish, but your forward, particularly because it does have that more personal connection. Was that the challenge? Because obviously there's the connection to your dad and the journey that you went through. Was it really that personal element of it that there was the difficult thing? Was it difficult in trying to just contextualize it for other people reading it? Was it more internal or external?
Jackie Campbell
It was definitely more internal. I would say I had it 80, 90% done. And then I sat on it for a while and because I thought, well, i just have to be perfect with this because of the personal nature but I really didn't have to be perfect It just sort of one day it dawned on me. I'm like why. You know, okay, all progress begins with starting to tell the truth right, especially to yourself. And you know why is this so challenging for me? And you know it ultimately came down to.
You know, i didn't want to be the hero, because that is not the purpose of this book at all. It's not the purpose of any of the 360 degree financial planning that I do for my clients. It's to help them be the hero of their own story. And I think that once I had that, it's like I want to be able to set someone up like my own parents, my mom, my dad, to be the hero. And you know what am I giving them? enough to be able to get that foundation started. Or you know the checklist and the important aspects of it. And once I figured that out, i'm like that's it. It was just smooth sailing from there and we got it wrapped up pretty quickly, i think after that.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, it is. It's one of those things. Well, whatever the hold back is because we see it a lot of the times with I mean, let's probably say 60% of clients who we work with get to the end of the process, but it's not just bang my bang, get it knocked out and it's fine because everyone brings something to it, whether that something is a very clear approach and definitely wants to go in a direction, but struggle with time or focus, or the what's the word on the book, the affection, the procrastination, analysis, paralysis, that kind of overthinking you either before they get started or once there's the version one and thinking about how to get it finished off. So you're definitely not alone in that respect. But it's interesting that most people in fact the podcast I recorded the day before yesterday, as we would call this exactly the same situation had kind of disappeared for a year or two and then just came back and it was just one small tweak that Robert finally thought about and that kind of unlocked the rest of it.
So I think some people feel bad that this is happening. Could we talk about in terms of a 90-minute book and getting it to market quickly and kind of then responding and pivoting, potentially based on feedback. So I think people can feel bad about it, but it's definitely a forward. Progress is progress And as long as there's a prioritization there to make sure that it's not sat in the shelf forever, it's just kind of let it percolate long enough to get past whatever that hold up is and move forward.
Jackie Campbell
That's not your spot on, and that would be my encouragement to other people who have something to do. Don't let a 90-minute book take you a quietest few as many months and years as it took me to get it all finished. It really is, you know, once you have the idea. I mean you made it so simple to do. You've got a great system, a great process, and it was really me, i mean. We got the cover done really quick too, so the front and the back And so the entire system was, and the process was really easy. It's just that one little bit. So I would definitely encourage people not to get caught up in having to be perfect.
Stuart Bell
Right. I think I should go back and look at some of the shows or think about some of the future ones that we're recording in the next few months and ask people our plan is always or our anticipation, if you like, is always get the first version out there relatively quick and then pivot after that. This isn't kind of a tablet written in stone We're not publishing cows. that owns everything, and making changes is difficult. We want to get it done and get it to you as quick as possible, but I think, anecdotally at least, the majority of people get hung up before they actually get it out in front of people, as opposed to our vision of the lean model of getting it out there and then pivot, based on feedback or how it is actually out in the world.
And I think it's the benefits of a book as a marketing tool is the book has some magic to it beyond just some printed words on pieces of paper.
People have expectations of what books are, and books are kind of things that sound shells and should be revered a little bit, which obviously isn't true at all. But I think people get hung up on that a little bit and want it to be perfect before it even goes out there, as opposed to putting out something out there. that's a work in progress and bringing the audience along with them and asking for feedback and seeing if it makes sense and using it as a jumping off point for lots of any conversations. Looking back now and knowing that it took a little bit longer than perhaps you thought going into it, how comfortable are you that in an idea world or doing the next one? would you possibly get out there earlier that perhaps it isn't as polished and get your own feedback and other people's feedback but have it out there doing something, or would you still prefer to take the time to being more confident of the first version that goes out there?
Jackie Campbell
I think being more comfortable with the first version is probably going to be more accurate. I mean, obviously you do the editing there for us at 90-Minute Books And I had some other team members just proofread it just to make sure that it made sense to everyone else And I think, just doing it, the book itself, i mean the purpose is this is not going to be a national bestseller, right, it's really to get some information out to someone that you really trust and want to help and or already are working with, or you're trying to help additional people provide that service, and this not being the main part of our capabilities or what we do to help someone. It's certainly part of that 360 degree. I had the document storage system that goes along with it. I mean, that's really. You know this is the my when file And you know we all have our own black book, our box, whatever we're doing to store our important documentation. But you know what else is the book trying to support And I already had that in place.
So you know it's not like the book was my standalone, the only thing that I have. It's just there, you know, to inspire someone and just to remind them. You know that. You know. Hey, this is important for me. She's spot on with what she's recommending here. You know, and just you know, clean up your messes. I'm a real big fan of that And I think the book is just a way just to get that message across, instead of just you know, lecturing all the time.
Stuart Bell
Right, it's starting the conversation, isn't it? There's an opportunity to have a jumping off point for a bigger discussion And I think, as you have with the forms of that, the book isn't the product. You're not trying to sell the book and the book isn't the be-all and end-all. It's the starting point. It's an easy way to introduce people to an idea, but the idea is all of this rest of the world of things that's going to. Some will resonate with some people and other pieces will resonate with other people. That starting that idea, that it's the starting point of a conversation. The conversation is going elsewhere.
I often hope that's the thing that frees people up from whatever is holding them back from getting their ideas. I mean, you've been in business for 30 years. There's probably few situations that you haven't come across in the past. If you can create assets, whether it's a book or a podcast or something else, that kind of helps people start that conversation and take the first step. I mean, as business owners, there's people who are kind of passionately involved in what we're doing.
You sometimes just want to take people and shake them a little bit and say, hey, listen, this is the piece of information you need, or, hopefully, this is the piece of information you need to unlock a further journey towards something. Whatever access, we've got to have that conversation. A book obviously is a great one, but so are all the other tools. I think it takes some of the pressure off. A lot of people get caught up on this kind of school exercise of whatever your submitted report is. It needs to be perfect. If someone with a red pen is going to market and give you a passing or failing grade where this is the complete opposite of that, it's really just a start.
Jackie Campbell
Exactly. No one has to be perfect and nothing is ever going to be perfect, right? Because our financial life, our passwords, for example, they change on a daily basis almost. But just having some sort of road map so that somebody can kind of come and fill in your shoes, that was my goal here to inspire them. And if it's not a danger to you and it's not a worry to you and it doesn't bother you, then it's not a problem for you.
But for many people they just want to make sure they've gone through those bad experiences And they've seen and have some really hard one wisdom of what didn't work from another family member and how difficult it was. So it's just to give them that reassurance that, okay, i need to keep doing what I'm doing or maybe I can make this a little bit better. Jackie's right, i need to at least use a password tool or something. And even if something is simple is making sure and write down the login to your phone. I mean those have really important consequences if and when it is time and it's important. So just making sure and going through some of those things. if you have pets, what medications are there on, what is their, who is their veterinarian, all those things. if your family members don't live near you, they don't know what goes on a daily basis. So it's just some of those little things that might be easily overlooked. And, at the end of the day, what I find is most of us just want to have that happy, epic, hallmark kind of life and really do what we love, have the freedom to have the relationships with who we really want to spend time with, and once we get to retirement, freedom of time is so important, but we forget the business aspect of it. So this is just a little general, you know, tap on the shoulder and just a great way to kind of get your affairs in order if and when the time comes.
And my perfect example was you know our photographs. you know, when we grew up, you know we had the old what, the one 10s, the codex and the Polaroids, and you have the, your photos. if you think about it, you have them in scrapbooks, you have still some negatives, some of the film, and then today you have those things still most likely, but you also have things on your phone, things on a tablet, things on a computer, things in the cloud. So that is the exact way that our financial life is. It's just kind of all over the place. You know, 30 years ago, tracking behind somebody, if somebody was sick and in the hospital or unable to take care of their financial affairs or passed away, eventually things would come in the mail And you would know they have an account here, they have a safe deposit box here. you would be able to eventually put the puzzle together. Now it's electronic and there's no puzzle to really put together.
Stuart Bell
It's such a great point And actually there was something that he said in the as he started off. They're saying that some people they're happy with the situation that they're in. So it may even be the case that oftentimes we think about writing the book as someone's going to follow through step by step and start A and get to Z, but that's not necessarily the case either. There's just as much value for people just taking one snippet or even going through the whole thing and thinking, oh yes, I've got all these things checked off and it gives them peace of mind and they can move on to something else. That and combined with, like you said, the lack of an electronic trail now, particularly if you've the worst case scenario, you didn't have access to someone's email account when they passed away. I mean, that is the repository of everything these days and without that, they say, mail is very unlikely to turn up and give you an indication of where things are.
Jackie Campbell
Right and I'm getting more and more of clients.
I know here in the state of Florida we have unclaimed property and I just spoke to someone recently and they had some letters.
They were some unclaimed funds of about $6,000 that they don't know if it came from a relative or they don't know the underlying what it was, but it was money at a bank and they're like well, you know, i don't think I would just walk away and leave $6,000 sitting somewhere.
But you know, life insurance policies, things like that's ultimately where it shows up and then you know you just have to. It just costs more to actually get it to who you want it to go to. So it's just picking up one little tip to make what you have in your financial life a little bit easier. You know or you know I work with clients that you they become the successor trustee, they become the power of attorney for someone's estate and that's a real challenge. I mean, that's a real job for many and the more organized and tidy it is, the easier for that successor, you know. But putting that puzzle together they often have to hire multiple professionals to kind of figure everything out and just those little tips can save a lot of money at the end of the day.
Stuart Bell
Money and grief and heartache. I mean, you can imagine talking to or thinking of your own situation and there's no situation where someone came up to you and said hey, are you interested in creating a scenario where you're going to give pain and angst and headache to your close loved ones? you're obviously going to say no, but by not addressing this beforehand, dropping all of this or them having this dropped in their lab at a time, at a moment where obviously it's very emotionally charged and they're dealing with the actual issue of you being incapacitated or, worse, not being here anymore. I mean, it really is. There's a significant responsibility for all of us to try and make it as easy as possible for whoever is left behind.
Jackie Campbell
Oh yeah, and getting your affairs in order. If you know whatever you want your funeral arrangements to be or not to be, you know spell those out. Especially. I find a lot of complications when there's a blended family, when you know more than one marriage or more than one set of children. You know there's different ideas of what mom and dad wanted and you know, at the end of the day, you know leave your spouse, your loved ones, your children, whoever that may be, with a conscience. If you write those things out, then you know it's what mom and dad wanted and you know I don't know many people that don't want to honor what their parents would want.
Stuart Bell
Right. Yeah, it's definitely much easier. All of these conversations have to have to happen sometime. It's easier to proactively have them and deal with it now than deal with the consequences later. One question I always ask people is think about the book as a tool in the bigger business. Now some people don't think of them as very much marketing tools at the front of the funnel. Other people think of them as kind of authority building tools and other people think of it as like a referral opportunity to give trusted people to share. Going into this on, now that we're at the end of the process, did you have an idea of how you were thinking about using it? or, now it's finished, does it fit into the bigger business plan in a way that's kind of structured, leading people towards the next step, or is it still early days on that front?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, no, i think you know, it's definitely something. When we have wealth management clients, we work with them on this and we provide them some of these tools and have that conversation. That is one thing and it also enables us to give a tool to them to open up and being able to start a conversation with their family members. Giving them the book is like oh, this is great, we have a checklist, a guarding your legacy checklist. It's just a really simple five pages, just having that conversation. You know, hey, i had this conversation with Jackie, my certified financial planner and my accountant. Jackie handles everything just about dealing with money for me and my family and I thought this might be a good resource for you too, just to help them open up and start having those conversations.
Because talking with your parents about you know, hey, what's going to happen, you know when the time comes and you know, not everyone is open about the assets they have, where things are, you know how to kind of come behind and who's going to get what. So it just is a chance to actually start having those conversations before it's too late and then, even if it's just referring them to a professional, you know, i've always told my children. You know, if anything ever happens to me and your dad, you know this person is our trusted you know friend that's going to handle everything and this is the attorney that you need to talk to so they'll help you. You know, figure everything out. But not everyone is open and shares everything.
I have some clients who just have a family meeting once a year and they go through their my when file and they kind of tell them everything. Okay, if anything happens, here's where things are. They just don't want them to be surprised and caught off guard. A lot of that comes from their own experiences. But I think for that reason and just to you know, have an opportunity to continue talking to people we love. You know working with people, and now it's no longer with the internet, with zoom, and you're not restricted to just one county, one state, one community, it's pretty much worldwide and you know any little bit of impact and influence that we can have just to make somebody's life or confidence a little bit better. That's really the goal here.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, like you say, we've got knowledge and understanding of our own sphere of influence in our own realms. The most we can do is to share that with people and help making their lives easier. I know we're wrapping up a time I got. I just looked at the carpet and before we start I said we go for half an hour and I'll probably look at the carpet and realise that we're over time and exactly that's happened. But just one quick one.
You mentioned there people use the book as an opportunity for them to have conversations And I think that's a little thought of fact, particularly for financial planners, wealth management people, anyone who's dealing with that legacy conversations the opportunity now that you've given them something that they can use as a jumping off the conversations in their own family, whether it's the book or the folder. It's just having a reason for them to talk about it in a story where either they might forget or not have the confidence or the language or the comfort in raising it just at the dinner table. Now there's a reason to have that conversation, which is obviously just going to be beneficial because it gets their conversation going. I think that's a very underlooked opportunity or benefit of having the books that start that conversation. So time's gone fast. I really appreciate you telling me. Thank you for sharing your story with people. Where can people go to find out more? I want to make sure they've got opportunities to check out what you guys are doing.
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, online at MyCampbellAndCocom and we can have information there about the win file and the book and all the other services that we offer. And also the book is available on Amazoncom, so I actually got a copy in my hand this week, so thank you for that. And you know, photo credits is the most beautiful beaches in the world in the Panhandle, florida.
Stuart Bell
So that's the benefit of living there. It's lots of nice photo opportunities for things. Jackie, again thanks for your time. We really really love to catch up again in the six months and see how things are going Well. This latest season of podcasts, talking to authors more directly, has been great, and what I've said to most of them is let's check back in 65 months, because I'm sure you'll start getting stories back from people where it's actually had a real impact And it'll be really exciting to be able to share some of those stories, not just from the business perspective but how it's made a change in people's lives. So if you're up for that, it'd be really great to have you back And I'll make sure we put the links to the website and the Amazon link in the show notes. So, as people are watching and listening, just check out the show notes and we'll link directly to that. And just thanks again for your time and we'll speak soon.
Jackie Campbell
Thank you, stuart, and thank you to 90-Minute Books. Your team has been absolutely amazing through the entire process.
Stuart Bell
Fantastic. Thank you Appreciate it. Make sure to pass the message on Everyone. Thanks for listening again, As I say, check out the links to the Jackie's company and the book in the show notes and we'll catch everyone next time.
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By 90-Minute Books
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Today on the Book More Show, we're talking with Jackie Campbell, certified financial planner, public accountant, and author of a new book Be Prepared, a great book that helps people create a peace-of-mind plan to support their family in an emergency.
She shares her journey in the financial services industry, starting with a love for math and stumbling into a position with a CPA firm right out of high school before transitioning into being a young female business owner, owning her own practice, developing a passion for helping people create financial plans that support their goals.
Jackie also shares the thought process behind her book and how it is a valuable jumping-off point for critical conversations.
This is a great episode with lots of actionable insights.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
LINKS
Jackie Campbell
Campbell and co
Show notes & video: 90minutebooks.com/podcast/141
How does your book idea score against the 8 book building blocks we use here all the time: Book Blueprint Scorecard
Titles & Outline Workshops: 90MinuteBooks.com/Workshops
Ready to get started: 90MinuteBooks.com
Questions/Feedback: Send us an email
Extra Credit Listening: MoreCheeseLessWhiskers.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart Bell
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Book More Show It's Stuart Bell here and today joined by Jackie Campbell. Jackie, how you doing.
Jackie Campbell
I am doing great. Thanks, Stuart, for having me.
Stuart Bell
Fantastic. So Jackie is a certified financial planner and author of Be Prepared.
Jackie Campbell
Yes, a certified financial planner and a certified public accountant. And yeah, I'm excited about the book that just came out.
Stuart Bell
I was getting confused. So I've been in the US for five years now Yeah, five years, and then back and forth three years before that. So my background is on the IT side of financial services back in the UK, not on the customer side. But whenever I'm talking to financial advisors, cpas, the accountants, i always get that I always double pressed myself, thinking I was in UK terminology or US terminology. And it's funny how you kind of switch into. I think I'm not defaulting US but I think that I'm falling back to UK. So it's like sometimes tripping over the words, picking the wrong word, but usually it's right around. So if I stumble over words partway through, it's because my mouth is getting ahead of my brain. That's good talking to me.
Jackie Campbell
That's fine. I picked up on it just a little bit. That's my clarifier.
Stuart Bell
People often say, oh, where you from? Pick it up on the accent. So I have to say, well, either Florida in the office, or Pennsylvania home, or the UK originally. So it depends how they're asking. Once your background then, have you been in this business for a number of years? Did you come to it straight out of college with something you've kind of transitioned into?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i kind of stumbled onto a position with a CPA firm a startup at public accounting firm right out of high school. So I've been doing this for quite a few years now And I have had my own practice here Campbell and company for 30 years. Celebrating our 30th year And you know I just I love math. I was on the math team. It just seemed like a natural, you know, transition, natural career for me And, you know, also becoming a certified financial planner and just kind of pulling that whole entire 360 degree view together for business owners and for individuals, just just just something that I've, you know, been passionate about. I love solving problems. I didn't, i guess I didn't realize it, but you know, when you're on the math team you kind of kind of nerdy and you like solving problems.
Stuart Bell
So I just so greatly found a career straight from school that you've enjoyed and stuck with and really kind of found that passion straight away. I think a lot of people kind of have to circle around to it a little bit before they land on the thing that they ultimately want to do, but it really sounds like it resonated right out of the gates The organizations he worked for and then transitioning into your own practice. Was that a pretty natural progression as well? Kind of as an outsider I kind of think of CPAs and accountants who has taken that path? quite often It's kind of doing the journeymen work with another organization But then ultimately a lot of people tend to go out on their own. Was that your experience as well?
Jackie Campbell
Oh, yeah, yeah, i started with a small to mid-sized firm and you know, you learn the wealth of knowledge. just learning from somebody who's got all the experience is just priceless and invaluable. And we moved when we moved to Central Florida. that's, that was part of, you know, finishing up school and I tried some private accounting as well, but I didn't, i didn't really care for that. I didn't like the part about worry about somebody else's finance and them being able to pay the bills and salaries and stuff. So, yeah, it just was a goal that came to be. And I was one of the youngest CPAs CPA firm owners right in the Tampa Bay area. Oh, fantastic.
Stuart Bell
That as a journey in itself, then that must be quite, that must be quite an interesting journey because you get recognition and that as a I don't want to say something that you would turn my so much, but my brother's a Yopo I've mentioned on the show a few times before, but he maybe not so much now, but he was pretty young in the industry as well, And the whole young person development loop around it. The fact that female young business owner, all of those elements when we're going back with some age, so when we're going back to when we were starting, those must have been some milestone moments as well. When looking at the peer group that's out there, has that changed recently And you find that that's less of an issue now? Or is it the case that being a successful female owned business is actually more of a take to hang a hat on those words?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i mean just to answer your question. I think that it has changed significantly in the past three, three decades. And you know, i just remember that when I, you know, first started, you know the clients will come in and they would, you know they're near retirement age and they would say, are you sure you're old enough to know what you're doing? And I'm like, yes, I'm older than you think I am And you know that changed somewhere right in between. That nobody asked me that anymore, but you know I kind of miss those days.
But yeah, it was definitely a bit of a challenge. You know it is a man's world. I mean still in financial services. You know my husband works with me now he retired from another career And when we go to events outside of our area together they just assume he is the financial advisor and he is the owner of a campaign company. You still follow his lead. Yes, yeah, it's interesting. It's still a challenge, you know. But you know he always says, oh no, this is. You know, my wife is the brains. You know this is her company, you know, but it's definitely changed and improved through the years. I think it's much easier for women these days.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, it's always interesting. It's kind of not one of the side trackers, too much on the tangent, but obviously why English accents approach in 50 years old the setup of the. You kind of pass through, don't really notice it. My career, before owning the business I mentioned just before we started recording, was for corporate IT back in the PDK and financial services in London And that environment. I mean it was really, i think although maybe I should go back and look but I really think it was kind of like a 50-50 split male, female. I think I always worked for female managers, so no, we noticed it so much.
But a last couple of the shows that we've done have been talking to people where it's been much more of a struggle, much more of a real issue that they've actually had to fight to overcome. So that kind of spectrum. It's been interesting talking about the books as an extra authoritative piece that anyone can do. But it maybe goes some way to seek the box that psychologically helps people get past whatever natural bias that they've got towards establishing you as the authority And I don't think that was necessarily the reason that you did it At all, but any small element that helps overcome that. it's definitely interesting to have more conversations with people where that's been more of a thing that they've been thinking about.
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i mean, you know you would think that it's really not a challenge these days, but it's still. It's still kind of is and you know, but it's at the end of the day it's just. You know, how much knowledge do you have? and I think you know, in the financial services arena and especially as a fiduciary, you know it's about building trust and once you can get that solid foundation with trust and that, you know I might not know all the answers, but I do know people and I do have the ability to research that and find out the best solution and the correct solution for you.
You know, and there's so much accuracy that is required in the CPA profession. You know the numbers need to be accurate. Nobody wants to overpay taxes by even a dime. You know those are all extra pressures. You know that come on someone. So it definitely provides a little bit extra challenge. But it's just, you know, if you're a fiduciary and you're confident in what you can do and really the ultimate goal is to help the client be the hero of their story, it makes it a little easier.
Stuart Bell
Right, and that's openness and transparency that I think all organizations have to have these days, but perhaps it comes easier to some people than others.
Again, if you look at stereotypes, the kind of bravado I'm just going to go in there and tell you what it is the kind of old, old, established career type person Going into organizations now and not even from the perspective of other things, i don't know, but coming in from the perspective of how things are changing what happened last year, what happened five years ago, the rules and the regulations and how they've interpreted all of these things are changing.
So, going in from the perspective of, hey, we're on this journey together. There are things that are always changing. We're bringing our expertise and capability around the rules and the regulations, but the interpretation and how we can maximize your individual situation is going to change by and by client Having that, being able to build that relationship with people and start the conversation from the set, from saying, hey, we're going to look at every facet, every option that we've got and really diving to make the most of it. Imagine that for clients, that's the thing that they're looking for. They're looking for that confidence and reassurance that they're in the right place and you are the person to get them to their finish line Right.
Jackie Campbell
And it's more than just about one part of your financial plan or your retirement plan or your business plan. It's just about pulling all those things together, And a lot of financial services is seen as a one-time thing, but it's really. It's being part of the journey with someone. So you build that relationship with them and, gosh, I'm so, so blessed Being able to celebrate someone having their 100th birthday and now I'm working with their children and their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren coming into the picture. It's just so rewarding. But you're right, It's so much more than just the numbers or just a product, one meeting. It's just about building that longer-term relationship.
Stuart Bell
Like I said, you know multi-generational relationships with people. I mean, at the end of the day, it's not a transactional business that we're in. Most of the people who we work with, most of the people who you're working with, i guess, as clients, are in the business of building relationships for long-term, lifetime value. It's not how many businesses around there are just transactional, kind of coming to the store by something and disappearing and never come back again. So to be able to see that journey and help people as their situation change and also know their situation. So we've been in 90-minute books. We've been in business since 2015,. So we're in our 20-23, eight years.
I'm a accountant. I mean we rely on them to know actually what the business is doing and what we're trying to achieve, not just come in and look at a number and give a view on it. It kind of transitions into the book a little bit. So the book is Be Prepared and it talks about helping people set up the Be Prepared for the worst-case scenario so they're not leaving their family with a difficult situation. When you look across the whole business and any book that you could have written, why pick that one as the starting point for conversations?
Jackie Campbell
Well, this one had a special meeting for me personally and I think, no matter what you see other people go through the experiences, the difficult times especially, it's different when you go through it personally. Having helped families and then when my own father became ill, that was like a kind of time standstill. When you're involved in it, and intimately involved in it, i just realized, wow, am I doing enough to help those that I love and care about the most and make sure that everything is all in order? We just don't see ourselves getting older. You don't see yourself in your own story and all movie, so to speak. But that was just a big wake-up call and I wanted to make sure that I was able to help others to kind of not make some of those same mistakes. That was just a personal why.
For me I did the strategic coach. Unique ability and the way that I analyzed things is to be able to look at things from a 360 degree lens and getting at your affairs in order. That's just part of an important plan Being prepared, living in Florida with the hurricanes, we're always disaster prepared, working on that, talking about it, but also being disaster prepared for your own personal life, if you think of. We all, at the end of the day, want to be as organized as we can and be as helpful to our family, our spouses, our loved ones, and there's typically one CFO to the family, and whoever that CFO is, they have their own unique filing system, and you may think it's normal, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, but it's just about making sure that whoever comes behind you, make it as easy for them as possible and give them that, those breadcrumbs, so to speak, so that they can come right behind your financial life and just fill in if and when you're not able to do that.
Stuart Bell
Like I say, it often happens in situations that either a completely out in the blue and an accident or something traumatic happens or you don't realize how quickly things are progressing. And I can imagine that there are. My grandparents have passed away now but fortunate parents are still alive, but they're certainly getting on a little bit in age. I can remember seeing it with my grandparents. The decline and the falling off was relatively quick. I mean, it probably wasn't in terms of the actual calendar years that passed, but in terms of your interaction with the family members, thinking that there's always a tomorrow or you'll get around to it, and then, at the point where you can't quite remember everything or things get missed, it does leave quite a big hole for people to try and fill in and do some detective work on the back end. So it's either not around or not able to answer the questions as clearly as perhaps you once were when you set up in the first place. It's such a we often talk, obviously being on the book side and the creation side, but we're often talking to people relatively narrowly about the creation of the book as a lead generation tool or as a tool to start the conversations, because we've got some time constraints around it. We don't necessarily always get the opportunity to dive too much into people's stories or how they get to the point of writing the book they want to write. But your example, i think, is the perfect blend of having a personal reason for writing something, clearly seeing that, having this be prepared book which highlights what you should do to make sure that there is a folder that you can pass on to someone who's there left picking up the pieces, having that personal journey into it. It marries so well with what we might well have had as a conversation of saying, okay, we're trying to achieve a kind of a marketing outcome and this is a great way of doing it because it's a small subject that's very kind of self-contained. It's easy for people to understand. There's not a huge amount of kind of prior knowledge that needs to be brought to it. You can deliver all of the value in that book.
I've been talking to people about going deep on a narrow subject rather than kind of superficial and broad. Really deliver value to that one thing because there's always a conversation to connect that conversation. The next kind of circle out. So what I really like about the book The Eurow is it's serving those two purposes. It's a great marketing tool because it is that people can resonate with it. Have that. I want that response. It's easy to consume, it's easy to get the feeling of progression and doing something and then there's a very clear logical progression to a further conversation and it's obviously that passion project. So, when it comes to what was included and what was included and what wasn't included, was that relatively straightforward? Do you have a kind of a clear view of what the table of contents was, what that kind of lands, and see what the landscape was when you started?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, i think. So the table of contents was really easy. I know I had worked I believe it was with Susan that helped me with the title, because the title I had picked out. She said, no, i think you need to be a little bit more clear with this. And so we came up with the be prepared and I love that, by the way, just being intentional, being prepared, cleaning up your messes, I mean that just speaks to me. But the table of contents was pretty easy. I kind of knew what I wanted to do. Where I struggled was when I started overthinking about the personal aspect. The forward actually was the most difficult for me to write because my why?
Stuart Bell
Right, yeah, actually that's interesting, i guess. Well, make sure we can point people towards where they can find out more. Get a copy of the book before we finish, but your forward, particularly because it does have that more personal connection. Was that the challenge? Because obviously there's the connection to your dad and the journey that you went through. Was it really that personal element of it that there was the difficult thing? Was it difficult in trying to just contextualize it for other people reading it? Was it more internal or external?
Jackie Campbell
It was definitely more internal. I would say I had it 80, 90% done. And then I sat on it for a while and because I thought, well, i just have to be perfect with this because of the personal nature but I really didn't have to be perfect It just sort of one day it dawned on me. I'm like why. You know, okay, all progress begins with starting to tell the truth right, especially to yourself. And you know why is this so challenging for me? And you know it ultimately came down to.
You know, i didn't want to be the hero, because that is not the purpose of this book at all. It's not the purpose of any of the 360 degree financial planning that I do for my clients. It's to help them be the hero of their own story. And I think that once I had that, it's like I want to be able to set someone up like my own parents, my mom, my dad, to be the hero. And you know what am I giving them? enough to be able to get that foundation started. Or you know the checklist and the important aspects of it. And once I figured that out, i'm like that's it. It was just smooth sailing from there and we got it wrapped up pretty quickly, i think after that.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, it is. It's one of those things. Well, whatever the hold back is because we see it a lot of the times with I mean, let's probably say 60% of clients who we work with get to the end of the process, but it's not just bang my bang, get it knocked out and it's fine because everyone brings something to it, whether that something is a very clear approach and definitely wants to go in a direction, but struggle with time or focus, or the what's the word on the book, the affection, the procrastination, analysis, paralysis, that kind of overthinking you either before they get started or once there's the version one and thinking about how to get it finished off. So you're definitely not alone in that respect. But it's interesting that most people in fact the podcast I recorded the day before yesterday, as we would call this exactly the same situation had kind of disappeared for a year or two and then just came back and it was just one small tweak that Robert finally thought about and that kind of unlocked the rest of it.
So I think some people feel bad that this is happening. Could we talk about in terms of a 90-minute book and getting it to market quickly and kind of then responding and pivoting, potentially based on feedback. So I think people can feel bad about it, but it's definitely a forward. Progress is progress And as long as there's a prioritization there to make sure that it's not sat in the shelf forever, it's just kind of let it percolate long enough to get past whatever that hold up is and move forward.
Jackie Campbell
That's not your spot on, and that would be my encouragement to other people who have something to do. Don't let a 90-minute book take you a quietest few as many months and years as it took me to get it all finished. It really is, you know, once you have the idea. I mean you made it so simple to do. You've got a great system, a great process, and it was really me, i mean. We got the cover done really quick too, so the front and the back And so the entire system was, and the process was really easy. It's just that one little bit. So I would definitely encourage people not to get caught up in having to be perfect.
Stuart Bell
Right. I think I should go back and look at some of the shows or think about some of the future ones that we're recording in the next few months and ask people our plan is always or our anticipation, if you like, is always get the first version out there relatively quick and then pivot after that. This isn't kind of a tablet written in stone We're not publishing cows. that owns everything, and making changes is difficult. We want to get it done and get it to you as quick as possible, but I think, anecdotally at least, the majority of people get hung up before they actually get it out in front of people, as opposed to our vision of the lean model of getting it out there and then pivot, based on feedback or how it is actually out in the world.
And I think it's the benefits of a book as a marketing tool is the book has some magic to it beyond just some printed words on pieces of paper.
People have expectations of what books are, and books are kind of things that sound shells and should be revered a little bit, which obviously isn't true at all. But I think people get hung up on that a little bit and want it to be perfect before it even goes out there, as opposed to putting out something out there. that's a work in progress and bringing the audience along with them and asking for feedback and seeing if it makes sense and using it as a jumping off point for lots of any conversations. Looking back now and knowing that it took a little bit longer than perhaps you thought going into it, how comfortable are you that in an idea world or doing the next one? would you possibly get out there earlier that perhaps it isn't as polished and get your own feedback and other people's feedback but have it out there doing something, or would you still prefer to take the time to being more confident of the first version that goes out there?
Jackie Campbell
I think being more comfortable with the first version is probably going to be more accurate. I mean, obviously you do the editing there for us at 90-Minute Books And I had some other team members just proofread it just to make sure that it made sense to everyone else And I think, just doing it, the book itself, i mean the purpose is this is not going to be a national bestseller, right, it's really to get some information out to someone that you really trust and want to help and or already are working with, or you're trying to help additional people provide that service, and this not being the main part of our capabilities or what we do to help someone. It's certainly part of that 360 degree. I had the document storage system that goes along with it. I mean, that's really. You know this is the my when file And you know we all have our own black book, our box, whatever we're doing to store our important documentation. But you know what else is the book trying to support And I already had that in place.
So you know it's not like the book was my standalone, the only thing that I have. It's just there, you know, to inspire someone and just to remind them. You know that. You know. Hey, this is important for me. She's spot on with what she's recommending here. You know, and just you know, clean up your messes. I'm a real big fan of that And I think the book is just a way just to get that message across, instead of just you know, lecturing all the time.
Stuart Bell
Right, it's starting the conversation, isn't it? There's an opportunity to have a jumping off point for a bigger discussion And I think, as you have with the forms of that, the book isn't the product. You're not trying to sell the book and the book isn't the be-all and end-all. It's the starting point. It's an easy way to introduce people to an idea, but the idea is all of this rest of the world of things that's going to. Some will resonate with some people and other pieces will resonate with other people. That starting that idea, that it's the starting point of a conversation. The conversation is going elsewhere.
I often hope that's the thing that frees people up from whatever is holding them back from getting their ideas. I mean, you've been in business for 30 years. There's probably few situations that you haven't come across in the past. If you can create assets, whether it's a book or a podcast or something else, that kind of helps people start that conversation and take the first step. I mean, as business owners, there's people who are kind of passionately involved in what we're doing.
You sometimes just want to take people and shake them a little bit and say, hey, listen, this is the piece of information you need, or, hopefully, this is the piece of information you need to unlock a further journey towards something. Whatever access, we've got to have that conversation. A book obviously is a great one, but so are all the other tools. I think it takes some of the pressure off. A lot of people get caught up on this kind of school exercise of whatever your submitted report is. It needs to be perfect. If someone with a red pen is going to market and give you a passing or failing grade where this is the complete opposite of that, it's really just a start.
Jackie Campbell
Exactly. No one has to be perfect and nothing is ever going to be perfect, right? Because our financial life, our passwords, for example, they change on a daily basis almost. But just having some sort of road map so that somebody can kind of come and fill in your shoes, that was my goal here to inspire them. And if it's not a danger to you and it's not a worry to you and it doesn't bother you, then it's not a problem for you.
But for many people they just want to make sure they've gone through those bad experiences And they've seen and have some really hard one wisdom of what didn't work from another family member and how difficult it was. So it's just to give them that reassurance that, okay, i need to keep doing what I'm doing or maybe I can make this a little bit better. Jackie's right, i need to at least use a password tool or something. And even if something is simple is making sure and write down the login to your phone. I mean those have really important consequences if and when it is time and it's important. So just making sure and going through some of those things. if you have pets, what medications are there on, what is their, who is their veterinarian, all those things. if your family members don't live near you, they don't know what goes on a daily basis. So it's just some of those little things that might be easily overlooked. And, at the end of the day, what I find is most of us just want to have that happy, epic, hallmark kind of life and really do what we love, have the freedom to have the relationships with who we really want to spend time with, and once we get to retirement, freedom of time is so important, but we forget the business aspect of it. So this is just a little general, you know, tap on the shoulder and just a great way to kind of get your affairs in order if and when the time comes.
And my perfect example was you know our photographs. you know, when we grew up, you know we had the old what, the one 10s, the codex and the Polaroids, and you have the, your photos. if you think about it, you have them in scrapbooks, you have still some negatives, some of the film, and then today you have those things still most likely, but you also have things on your phone, things on a tablet, things on a computer, things in the cloud. So that is the exact way that our financial life is. It's just kind of all over the place. You know, 30 years ago, tracking behind somebody, if somebody was sick and in the hospital or unable to take care of their financial affairs or passed away, eventually things would come in the mail And you would know they have an account here, they have a safe deposit box here. you would be able to eventually put the puzzle together. Now it's electronic and there's no puzzle to really put together.
Stuart Bell
It's such a great point And actually there was something that he said in the as he started off. They're saying that some people they're happy with the situation that they're in. So it may even be the case that oftentimes we think about writing the book as someone's going to follow through step by step and start A and get to Z, but that's not necessarily the case either. There's just as much value for people just taking one snippet or even going through the whole thing and thinking, oh yes, I've got all these things checked off and it gives them peace of mind and they can move on to something else. That and combined with, like you said, the lack of an electronic trail now, particularly if you've the worst case scenario, you didn't have access to someone's email account when they passed away. I mean, that is the repository of everything these days and without that, they say, mail is very unlikely to turn up and give you an indication of where things are.
Jackie Campbell
Right and I'm getting more and more of clients.
I know here in the state of Florida we have unclaimed property and I just spoke to someone recently and they had some letters.
They were some unclaimed funds of about $6,000 that they don't know if it came from a relative or they don't know the underlying what it was, but it was money at a bank and they're like well, you know, i don't think I would just walk away and leave $6,000 sitting somewhere.
But you know, life insurance policies, things like that's ultimately where it shows up and then you know you just have to. It just costs more to actually get it to who you want it to go to. So it's just picking up one little tip to make what you have in your financial life a little bit easier. You know or you know I work with clients that you they become the successor trustee, they become the power of attorney for someone's estate and that's a real challenge. I mean, that's a real job for many and the more organized and tidy it is, the easier for that successor, you know. But putting that puzzle together they often have to hire multiple professionals to kind of figure everything out and just those little tips can save a lot of money at the end of the day.
Stuart Bell
Money and grief and heartache. I mean, you can imagine talking to or thinking of your own situation and there's no situation where someone came up to you and said hey, are you interested in creating a scenario where you're going to give pain and angst and headache to your close loved ones? you're obviously going to say no, but by not addressing this beforehand, dropping all of this or them having this dropped in their lab at a time, at a moment where obviously it's very emotionally charged and they're dealing with the actual issue of you being incapacitated or, worse, not being here anymore. I mean, it really is. There's a significant responsibility for all of us to try and make it as easy as possible for whoever is left behind.
Jackie Campbell
Oh yeah, and getting your affairs in order. If you know whatever you want your funeral arrangements to be or not to be, you know spell those out. Especially. I find a lot of complications when there's a blended family, when you know more than one marriage or more than one set of children. You know there's different ideas of what mom and dad wanted and you know, at the end of the day, you know leave your spouse, your loved ones, your children, whoever that may be, with a conscience. If you write those things out, then you know it's what mom and dad wanted and you know I don't know many people that don't want to honor what their parents would want.
Stuart Bell
Right. Yeah, it's definitely much easier. All of these conversations have to have to happen sometime. It's easier to proactively have them and deal with it now than deal with the consequences later. One question I always ask people is think about the book as a tool in the bigger business. Now some people don't think of them as very much marketing tools at the front of the funnel. Other people think of them as kind of authority building tools and other people think of it as like a referral opportunity to give trusted people to share. Going into this on, now that we're at the end of the process, did you have an idea of how you were thinking about using it? or, now it's finished, does it fit into the bigger business plan in a way that's kind of structured, leading people towards the next step, or is it still early days on that front?
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, no, i think you know, it's definitely something. When we have wealth management clients, we work with them on this and we provide them some of these tools and have that conversation. That is one thing and it also enables us to give a tool to them to open up and being able to start a conversation with their family members. Giving them the book is like oh, this is great, we have a checklist, a guarding your legacy checklist. It's just a really simple five pages, just having that conversation. You know, hey, i had this conversation with Jackie, my certified financial planner and my accountant. Jackie handles everything just about dealing with money for me and my family and I thought this might be a good resource for you too, just to help them open up and start having those conversations.
Because talking with your parents about you know, hey, what's going to happen, you know when the time comes and you know, not everyone is open about the assets they have, where things are, you know how to kind of come behind and who's going to get what. So it just is a chance to actually start having those conversations before it's too late and then, even if it's just referring them to a professional, you know, i've always told my children. You know, if anything ever happens to me and your dad, you know this person is our trusted you know friend that's going to handle everything and this is the attorney that you need to talk to so they'll help you. You know, figure everything out. But not everyone is open and shares everything.
I have some clients who just have a family meeting once a year and they go through their my when file and they kind of tell them everything. Okay, if anything happens, here's where things are. They just don't want them to be surprised and caught off guard. A lot of that comes from their own experiences. But I think for that reason and just to you know, have an opportunity to continue talking to people we love. You know working with people, and now it's no longer with the internet, with zoom, and you're not restricted to just one county, one state, one community, it's pretty much worldwide and you know any little bit of impact and influence that we can have just to make somebody's life or confidence a little bit better. That's really the goal here.
Stuart Bell
Yeah, like you say, we've got knowledge and understanding of our own sphere of influence in our own realms. The most we can do is to share that with people and help making their lives easier. I know we're wrapping up a time I got. I just looked at the carpet and before we start I said we go for half an hour and I'll probably look at the carpet and realise that we're over time and exactly that's happened. But just one quick one.
You mentioned there people use the book as an opportunity for them to have conversations And I think that's a little thought of fact, particularly for financial planners, wealth management people, anyone who's dealing with that legacy conversations the opportunity now that you've given them something that they can use as a jumping off the conversations in their own family, whether it's the book or the folder. It's just having a reason for them to talk about it in a story where either they might forget or not have the confidence or the language or the comfort in raising it just at the dinner table. Now there's a reason to have that conversation, which is obviously just going to be beneficial because it gets their conversation going. I think that's a very underlooked opportunity or benefit of having the books that start that conversation. So time's gone fast. I really appreciate you telling me. Thank you for sharing your story with people. Where can people go to find out more? I want to make sure they've got opportunities to check out what you guys are doing.
Jackie Campbell
Yeah, online at MyCampbellAndCocom and we can have information there about the win file and the book and all the other services that we offer. And also the book is available on Amazoncom, so I actually got a copy in my hand this week, so thank you for that. And you know, photo credits is the most beautiful beaches in the world in the Panhandle, florida.
Stuart Bell
So that's the benefit of living there. It's lots of nice photo opportunities for things. Jackie, again thanks for your time. We really really love to catch up again in the six months and see how things are going Well. This latest season of podcasts, talking to authors more directly, has been great, and what I've said to most of them is let's check back in 65 months, because I'm sure you'll start getting stories back from people where it's actually had a real impact And it'll be really exciting to be able to share some of those stories, not just from the business perspective but how it's made a change in people's lives. So if you're up for that, it'd be really great to have you back And I'll make sure we put the links to the website and the Amazon link in the show notes. So, as people are watching and listening, just check out the show notes and we'll link directly to that. And just thanks again for your time and we'll speak soon.
Jackie Campbell
Thank you, stuart, and thank you to 90-Minute Books. Your team has been absolutely amazing through the entire process.
Stuart Bell
Fantastic. Thank you Appreciate it. Make sure to pass the message on Everyone. Thanks for listening again, As I say, check out the links to the Jackie's company and the book in the show notes and we'll catch everyone next time.