Money Tales

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest, Paula B. Pretlow, tells us about her beginnings as a poor black girl in Oklahoma City. Her mom made a huge decision to place Paula and her siblings in a desegregated school with the edict that they will excel. And that is exactly what Paula did. She grew from a poor girl to a very financially successful woman.

During the conversation, Paula shares what her relationship with money has been like over the course of her life, including her experience as the breadwinner of the family and ultimately, as a single mom. Among other things, during our conversation, Paula talks about her divorce. This inspired the financial insight at the end of the episode, where we explore an overview of the divorce process.

Paula spent her entire career in finance and investment management. She retired from the field in 2011, following 11 years as a senior vice president with The Capital Group. While at Capital, she led the public fund team and managed her own client base, representing $700B+ in combined assets.

Paula began her career at Wells Fargo Bank, before moving to GATX Capital, where she played a pioneering role in the creation of a secondary market in capital equipment leases and lease portfolios. She then transitioned to Wall Street, working on the bond desk at Credit Suisse and later moved into investment management with AXA Rosenberg and subsequently, BlackRock. She holds an MBA in finance and economics from Kellogg School of Management and a BA in political science from Northwestern University, and is a 2017 Fellow of Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute.

Paula currently serves as a director and trustee on corporate and philanthropic boards, including Bitwise Industries, CION Ares Diversified Credit Fund, Northwestern University, The Kresge Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and her synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El. She co-teaches design thinking at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”).

Paula has been recognized with The Women’s Legal Defense & Education Fund’s Aiming High Award, the National Council of Jewish Women’s Outstanding Humanitarian Award and The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools’ Wall of Fame Humanitarian Award. Her speaking appearances include Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences convocation and Groundbreakers: Women in Leadership Summit, where she shared the stage with Gloria Steinem and Ali Wentworth. Paula is currently writing stories about her life and has discovered a hidden talent: improv!

During this episode of Money Tales, Sandi and Cammie spoke with Vincent Valerie. Vincent thought his destiny was to take over the family enterprise that his father founded. Since his path was paved, Vincent had the flexibility to live a party lifestyle and enjoy the fruits of what his father created. That is until he learned in his 20s that his dad was selling the company. With that sale went Vincent’s future as the successor CEO. Our discussion with Vincent inspired this week’s financial insight at the end of the interview, where we discuss succession considerations for family businesses.

Being born into a family business can feel like one’s life path is already laid out. To some, that feeling is a great burden of responsibility and to others, it feels like a cushioned set-up and leads to a sense of entitlement. Vincent got to know both of these feelings throughout his life and career.

As the son of a successful Italian Canadian tech entrepreneur in the 1980s and 90s, Vincent embraced everything about the “rich-kid” lifestyle. He had a sports car at 16, the most expensive clothes and traveled all over the world. He came to realize a few years later just how ill-prepared for life he was, outside that bubble of entitlement. So when his father decided to sell the family business, Vincent was faced with redefining his life’s dream.

Vincent’s new journey led him to work in wealth management for one of the largest Canadian banks. He focused on managing financial affairs of family enterprises and generational wealth transfer. Working in wealth management, Vincent witnessed a significant gap in how a family’s wealth and business was being managed, in relation to the management of familial relationships and dynamics.

Vincent is a Certified Family Legacy Coach and Executive Leadership Coach. He works as a trusted advisor and coach with family members, both collectively and individually in developing family legacy continuity strategies, conflict resolution and alignment of the family’s values and vision for their wealth and relationships.

It is obvious that money conversations are filled with words. In this interview, we talk with Tina Lovejoy, who shares her thoughts on choosing the right words and clarifying the meaning of those words to have productive discussions. All of this is driven by Tina’s fascinating background and her current career responsibilities.

Tina is a trained opera singer and has extensive freelance writing experience. She is clearly someone who lives by the motto, “every word matters.” Today, Tina focuses her career on helping high-capacity families discover their values to guide their intentions with their wealth, charity work and passions. Building on this discussion, this episode’s financial insight provides some tips on how to start a money conversation. First, here is the interview with Tina Lovejoy.

Steve Demaray is a passionate money coach who lives and breathes what he stands for. He shares the arch of his personal financial experience and the insights he picked up along the way that support our goal for the Money Tales podcast of helping listeners have honest, values-based, productive money conversations.

With 30+ years in financial services and financial planning, one question has perplexed Steve, “with abundant information available, why do so many people struggle with money?” Here is what he has learned: When it comes to money, people don not need more books and videos - they need greater self-understanding. Less info, more insight.

This led Steve to launch the Personal Money Coach in 2008, founded on the creation of a fresh approach to understanding money. Employing a coaching approach, Steve draws on proven human growth and change techniques to assist people in making positive change in their money lives.

In our financial insight at the end of the interview, we pick up on Steve’s emphasis on the importance of keeping a cash reserve and discuss different approaches for building a cash reserve that best meets your needs.

You know those feelings you get that guide you to make a money decision. Regardless of how strong that gut feeling is, you may put it aside in order to analyze the situation and convince yourself that your gut is wrong. Jill Willard, a globally known and gifted intuitive and a leader in meditation practice, discusses why we need to embrace our intuition during this Money Tales conversation. The tools of her trade are having an extraordinary understanding of the different parts of our brains and how they integrate with the systems of the body.

Acclaimed author of, “Intuitive Being” (Harpers Elixir 2016), Jill has been working with children and families for over 25 years. Jill is well trained in multiple healing, wellness and listening modalities. Her wisdom and expertise focus mainly on the connection between the brain, our body and our choices. Through Jill's book and programs, Intuitive Meditation and The Present Program, she shares simple tools for shifting old patterning behaviors and how they affect our current life experience — often without our knowing.

Jill's empowering message and her teachings have created a large global following. It is in the caring, compassionate and wise-minded environment that Jill practices what she teaches, honoring and exemplifying the golden rule in her everyday life: as a mother, wife, friend, colleague, businesswoman and beloved community member. Through kindness, all can be healed.

As a speaker, meditator and teacher, Jill is incredibly wise and kind. Her grace and gentle ways deeply assist many — from families to CEOs, Creatives to Digital Tech Leaders, Professional Athletes and Community Philanthropists. Her guidance has been praised on Goop, Vogue Nederlands, Well+Good, Refinery 29, TED Talks, Mindbodygreen, Omega Institute, Cosmopolitan and various podcasts including Dr. Taz, Almost 30, That’s So Retrograde, Style Rituals, Elevate The Globe, Elissa Goodman and Well Damn. Jill has her own podcast called “I Be,” which can be found on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms.

In the financial insight at the end of our Money Tales conversation with Jill Willard, we cover the technicalities involved with making gifts to family and friends. In addition, money conversations can often cause emotional and physical reactions. As you listen to the interview be sure to flag the centering exercise that Jill leads us through. This is a great takeaway practice and we recommend following it whenever you find yourself in a challenging money conversation or situation.

In today’s episode of Money Tales, we talk with Louis Roden about his midwestern steel town values, to flirtations with bright shiny objects and back to the values that drive him. Louis is an honest storyteller and you will enjoy the tales he tells, including one about him buying a ridiculously expensive watch that he did not need, but was certain would become a treasured family heirloom. As you will hear, life unfolded a little differently than that…

Louis has over 20 years of international Organizational Development, Human Capital and Brand Communication experience. His transformational roles include serving in leadership positions in government, global transportation and logistics, finance and technology. His most recent corporate role was with Starwood Hotels & Resorts as Director of Organizational Capability, responsible for Starwood’s signature global leadership programs as well as the enterprise-wide team building and leadership retreat practice.

In 2008, Louis founded Inspire Consulting Group, an international consultancy dedicated to practical, reality-based leadership development programs, brand development and communication strategies and exemplary service culture curriculums. ICG has worked with global hotel companies such as Wyndham, Starwood/Marriott, Hilton, Intercontinental and many other established and growing hospitality organizations. They have also worked with professional sports teams such as the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, LA Lakers and others.

Amanda Koplin, LPC, CEO at Koplin Consulting, is a wise 34-year-old who has already experienced some of life’s highest highs and lowest lows. She grew up in poverty and rather than letting that hold her back, she brushed off all the excuses and did something about it. Along the way, she struggled with a serious eating disorder and other challenges that strengthened her drive to make a successful life for herself and to help others wade through their own dark waters.

Amanda is a mental health counselor, entrepreneur and thought leader who creates innovative solutions to fill gaps in the mental healthcare system. In 2016, she sold her first business, a mental health urgent care clinic, to create Koplin Consulting, a nationwide concierge behavioral health treatment team service.

Amanda frequently speaks to trusted advisors such as estate planners, trustees, family business offices and wealth advisors to educate and support them in understanding how addiction, mental illness and eating disorders impact the creation and implementation of estate plans. She is passionate about helping people achieve mental wellness and creating sustainable support systems and solutions which integrate seamlessly into real life.

Amanda is a speaker and a nationally sought-after consultant, who specializes in creating unique treatment plans and recommendations for individuals struggling with psychological concerns such as addictions, eating disorders, lack of motivation and other issues impacting mental wellness. She is particularly adept at involving trusted advisors and family members in order to create the greatest impact.

During our conversation, Amanda shares how she budgeted the small amounts of money she had in college. This inspired today’s financial insight at the end of this podcast, where we discuss how budgeting is a valuable tool for taking control for your personal finances.

During this episode of Money Tales, we speak with Rowland Savage who is an entrepreneur, Corporate Development professional and now a published author. Rowland shares stories of growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the times of “The Troubles” and how his background and upbringing have influenced his life up to this point.

Rowland has focused on the startup arena on “both sides of the fence.” He has taken two startups from concept through to paid deployment, has held roles in Venture Capital and most recently, focused on Corporate Development. As a leader in the Corp Dev team at Atlassian, Rowland successfully executed six deals and was part of the team that acquired Trello. Seeing both sides of the fence has inspired Rowland to publish his first book on the topic of Corporate Development titled, “How to Stick the Landing, the M&A Handbook for Startups.”

Rowland is a software guy, who has had the good fortune to work on projects on four different continents. Hailing from Belfast, Northern Ireland originally, he now calls the Bay Area home, along with his wife and two children. Rowland came to the US via the Chicago Booth MBA program, which he has found a useful compliment to his undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

At the end of this Money Tales podcast we provide a quick personal financial insight on taxation, the good, the bad, the ugly of how taxes come into play when you are selling a home.

Our guest, Lindsay Fletcher Hardie, PhD started her path to the wedding aisle with a great book about how to develop prenuptial agreements. The book described blissful ways for the prenup to be a foundational pillar to the marriage. Unfortunately, the book was no match for the family attorney who was very focused on protecting her soon-to-be husband’s family resources. She shares this important story and many others over the course of our conversation. We invite you to stick around after the interview to hear our financial insight about premarital financial conversations and agreements.

Lindsay received a doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 2010. Her mentor, Dr. Steven Hayes, developed a therapeutic approach that combines behavioral science and mindfulness practices, called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This therapy model identifies the processes that she has found so helpful from mindfulness traditions and defined them in a way that can be easily taught and studied. She continues to rely on ACT as a psychotherapist and coach. Lindsay is honored to use her unique gifts to guide her clients on a journey to greater fulfillment, family harmony and connection with others. She has been practicing meditation and mindfulness for over 20 years and psychotherapy for 12.

During her time as a graduate student, she met her future husband Kirk. As their relationship progressed and they were married in 2010, she was introduced to his family and the family business. As they say in family business, when you marry into the family, you marry the family. She became part of a family system that offered new opportunities and responsibilities. She saw that she could offer a unique perspective to others going through similar transitions and created Sierra Legacy Consulting, LLC.

Lindsay and Kirk have been blessed with two young children. After taking a few years to focus on being a mom and serve on a local non-profit board, Lindsay launched a private psychology practice and a coaching business for individuals and couples with wealth. She is honored to be able to support and guide others who experience the joys and challenges of living with wealth through her business, Sierra Legacy Consulting, LLC.

Some people are born to be entrepreneurs and they are energized by building new businesses. Our guest Dan Allison is an entrepreneur writ large. He has made it to the top of the mountain a couple of times and realized that for him, it is the view of the peak from the valley that really charges him up. Dan shares his remarkable story of striking it big with his first business early in life. He talks about what he has learned about money along the way and what happened when he found himself deviating from his values.

Dan is a Partner and Chief Growth Officer at Model FA, and he is not your typical consultant. He sold his first company for millions while still in his twenties and has dedicated his career to showing professionals how gaining a better understanding of their clients can lead to incredible, life-long referral relationships. Dan has served as a consultant to some of the most successful people in the country. He has developed his easy-to-implement yet profound referral strategies through the Model FA to help individuals and businesses serve their best clients. The result is a simple process that is founded in strengthening relationships which then lead to more referrals.

During our conversation with Dan on Money Tales, one of the topics we covered was compounding returns. We explore it further in the financial insight that we included for you after the interview.