In this episode of In the Suite podcast, Tina interviews Deborah Fox, CEO and Founder of AdvisorTouch in San Diego. Deborah is a recipient of 2020 InvestmentNew's Icons & Innovators Award and has a three-decade long career as a financial advisor, founder, and leader. During the episode, Tina and Deborah explore Deborah's origin story and how she started her career in financial services. It also contains Deborah's best advice for women including how to find a mentor, techniques and strategies to build confidence, and stay on the cutting edge of innovation.
🤩 Thanks for listening, we appreciate your support and 5-star reviews of our show!!!
❤️ Please follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/inthesuitepod/
📧 Want to get in touch? Email me at tina@growintentionally.com
In this episode of In the Suite podcast, Tina interviews Deborah Fox, CEO and Founder of AdvisorTouch in San Diego. Deborah is a recipient of 2020 InvestmentNew's Icons & Innovators Award and has a three-decade long career as a financial advisor, founder, and leader. During the episode, Tina and Deborah explore Deborah's origin story and how she started her career in financial services. It also contains Deborah's best advice for women including how to find a mentor, techniques and strategies to build confidence, and stay on the cutting edge of innovation.
🤩 Thanks for listening, we appreciate your support and 5-star reviews of our show!!!
❤️ Please follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/inthesuitepod/
📧 Want to get in touch? Email me at tina@growintentionally.com
Tina Powell 0:08
Hi, this is Tina Powell hosted in the suite where I sit down with top women leaders and some of the biggest names in the financial services and the wealth management industry. we'll discover some of their best secrets and top strategies to grow a great business, build a strong brand and lead teams in the 21st century. I hope you'll enjoy hearing their amazing personal stories of triumph, trepidation and transformation in hopes of becoming better leaders ourselves. The time for you to lead is now and you're in the sweet
it's 8:15 and I hear a knock on my door from one of the most accomplished women in the era industry. It's Deborah Fox, CEO and founder
Advisor Touch formally Fox Financial Planning network. I've invited Deborah to the 16th floor of the Marriott Marquis in beautiful San Diego to record the first episode of in this sweet podcast. She's glowing with enthusiasm and she's got this big beautiful smile. And I know why. Just this week she formally launched Advisor Touch having had the domain name set aside for years now and helping advisors for the last 20 years by providing them with consulting services and a comprehensive set of technology and practice management resources. She's also a financial advisor herself for the last 30 years, and she owes it all to meeting the right person at the right time and a very lucky break. Deborah is a household name. She's a speaker at conferences for NAPFA, FPA, TD and most recently she's been recognized by InvestmentNews.
And chosen to receive one of its 10 innovator awards for 2020. And that's from a pool of over 200 nominees. Deborah has also been featured on the cover of Financial Planning Magazine, and she's been regularly interviewed by everyone and such publications such as Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Businessweek, Newsweek, Forbes, the list goes on and on. Sara and her company Advisor Touches based here in San Diego, and whenever I'm in town, you can find us catching up over a glass of wine and laughing like were college roommates. Truth is Deborah's origin story is about a very smart woman who received great advice and did the work. I invite you to join us for this episode of in the suite.
Deborah Fox 2:52
I first got involved in the business when you went into business it You opened a practice
Not a business that was the moniker was practice. And now people treat it as opening a business. There's a big difference of saying I want to be helping people with their money and doing planning and not putting a business plan together. No official business plan together and just say this is these are the this is the type of advice that I want to give or
into to do it in a way where it's a viable business is a lot different than just following a passion that you have. It's it's really interesting to see that whole transformation where now there's so many resources for younger people out of college out of graduate school. I think what happened is some of the membership organizations and most notably NAPFA, National Association
Personal Financial Advisors, were the ones that kick started the process of helping others start and build a business that they came together as a group of advisors that just had to tinker around to figure out how to do it and succeeded, right. And they came together and others learn how to do it, I think and so I know NAPFA was one early resource that that help devices get started and then that I think that spread out to others to the head figured it out. The previous I know when I got in the business in '84, there were a lot of very large companies that were providing financial advice and more institutional type of companies.
The personal financial advisor was Coming of Age, you know, just starting to come of age and, and the the selflessness of individual people that had a passion for building this industry. Really were the ones in my opinion that helped me and others to get started and get perspective and choose choose a model and so it's been fascinating to watch how that has just mushroomed with
others paying it back to newer people that got helped originally. Yeah. And also just the resources that are now available for people to build a firm and the CFP program obviously got very shored up in that area. So there's lots of resources now, initially, the insurance companies were providing a lot of training. It was
In I started selling term life insurance and mutual funds and things of that nature, I had a passion for doing the right thing on that side. And the training that I got in sales was so important. It was learning, consultative selling, and the insurance companies are, are excellent at training in sales and teaching product and all of that. And so even though I went 180 degrees from that model, that was my substrate, you know, that was my foundation that made me a much better business person, that some of those skill sets and so some of that is is lacking today that even though the insurance companies are still doing their thing, there's a lot because the only movement has become way more popular there. There are a lot of advisors that don't get that foundation.
consultative selling, which is way different than pressure selling. It's a key component of being successful in any business, you have to be able to convince someone that what you have is right for them, right. And obviously, you do the right thing. But if you can't convince someone, if you can't leave that case and identify what their needs and wants are, it's not happening and you're going to people are going to struggle. Now. We're talking about women in business here too. And women have natural abilities to left and the right brain abilities that are superior to men, in many cases, for this type of profession. But there are many people that are not getting the skill sets that to be on their own to start a business and whatnot. So so there are other pathways right? They can go join a firm and not even be in a sales capacity.
Tina Powell 8:02
Right? So I think that
one of the things that I love to ask you and you just started actually the ball in motion is talking about how you became how you came into the industry in the beginning. Was there someone in the family that was in financial services was- Did you just have like a natural aptitude? You talked about being an insurance? How did you how did you get here?
Deborah Fox 8:32
It was very accidental. I talked to someone, a friend of mine that was thinking about getting into the profession, and after contemplating that, I thought I check into it and back then it was you basically went to sell something. So proud of you give advice but faithfully, I
did learn, I had some excellent mentors and learned the right way to do it. I feel extremely blessed. I literally used to drive up every Monday morning to Pasadena to be able to meet with my mentor. And I did this for a number of years. So that and the best thing I got out of that commitment is I did learn sales extremely well. But the most important aspect of being successful is working on your head. Working on how your brain works and and how you get yourself up in the morning and having clarity as to what you're trying to achieve. And he was just a master at this. He was a very sharp business person, and he was someone that literally transformed my life.
I was really, really fortunate to have someone that was there for me. And
Tina Powell 10:06
Is that person still alive today?
Deborah Fox 10:08
Yes, yeah,
Tina Powell 10:09
It is incredible. How did you find that person? I, I can relate to the story that you're telling because, yes, this is a podcast about women over 40. But I wouldn't honestly be here if it weren't for my male sponsors, ambassadors, mentors, teachers helpers in and support system in every way, shape, or form. And I think a lot of women want that same lifeline. How do you what is your advice for those women who want a sponsor one and advocate one a mentor who really takes the time to invest and tell them the things that gives them that that that mindset coaching that you were so fortunate to have so early in your career?
How do you find those people?
Deborah Fox 10:56
I the best way to find someone is to talk to others and get recommendations of who is one of the best people you know, in this particular area or in sales or whatever it is that you're you're trying to get better at. And then you have to get lucky, you have to get lucky where someone is willing to invest their time with you. I got very lucky that this individual literally took me under his wing and let me meet with him once a week like that. And, and the majority of the benefit that I received was from him was the brain part. How to get up every day and be thinking, right, no and focus and never ending improvement, and becoming all that you can be and not to do something unless you're very passionate about it. There were so many life lessons that I learned
from him and others, there were more than just him that that really helped me along. But he was probably the that had the biggest impact on me and, and I look back and the commitment that I made to myself to go drive them in that to LA
Tina Powell 12:16
Exactly.
Deborah Fox 12:17
My gosh, just being in the car, think about it, you know, that helped right? At time for myself to think it's so important to set aside time in your business for just you to plan to think to look at how things are going to recognize when thing something isn't going as well as it should be and to problem solve, you know, to Okay, how do I change that? How do I turn that around, and to have these people that you can go to that are bigger thinkers than you that literally can change your life with sometimes one sentence there are certain think back on some of these people
In my life that they've said, a couple sentences, that change definitely changed the way that I think and made me better.
Tina Powell 13:09
What do you think is is one of the most powerful statements, affirmations, they're sometimes called, What's that message that we need to be repeating in our mind to help us stay on course, and have that focus and have that resolve and and make sure that we're doing the right thing, because sometimes it gets so tough and you feel like quitting.
Deborah Fox 13:38
One of them is basically all you can do is enough meaning that if you're giving it your all, that's all you can do at any given time. And so that's the standard. However, alongside of that is, you always have to keep learning. You always have to push yourself. So that all you can do is enough becomes more. Because you're, it's, it's constant and never ending improvement. That was a phrase that I just always think about still constant and never ending improvement. You if you are in business, if you stand still, you go backwards, you slide backwards, totally, totally agree, people will pass you up, right times change, you won't be relevant. So you just always have to keep have a have a commitment to improving. And
so all you can do is enough at the time, but then you always have to keep moving so that you can do more of it. Keep doing more.
Tina Powell 14:45
I love that all you can do is enough. And so I'm sure that it goes back to just making sure that you're constantly improving, which is reason which is a perfect time to segue into the fact that we're here at t-three, and you have made some major announcements here, which is also great. And another little, little gem here is that you are you have been received the 20 investment news 20 icons and innovators list. And that is a not an easy list to get on.
Deborah Fox 15:25
All I can say is I was completely shocked and so humbled and I mean, I still cannot believe it, honestly, because I was told that first of all, you had to be nominated, and I would I was one out of 10 of over 200 people that were nominated. So it was it was incredible. And it's so gratifying because on the consulting side, I've been at it for over 10 years. And so to get an award like this, it just, it's it's amazing and I am still in complete disbelief.
Tina Powell 16:08
I not actually because all of us who know Deborah Fox know that she's an icon. I mean, it's how we first met. You're one of the women who I really looked up to in the industry. You had multiple business at the time, you were mastering the fine art of technology and advice and college planning and workflows. And I said, and family, and I said, Wow, this is an incredible woman. It's why you're the first guest here on on the podcast because you have been, you've had a brilliant career. And now again, we're here at t three and I feel like you're just starting again. So you always seem to be on the cutting edge of tell us what you're doing now. What's the latest on Deborah Fox?
Deborah Fox 16:57
Oh my goodness. Well, ah from are planning firm it's we're always trying to innovate, continue to innovate. And one of the things that I'll share to help other advisors that works so well for us that we've, I think now perfected, we wanted to as well as you know, Dena. workflows and systems are are extremely important. And that was when when I formed my own advisory firm, I knew that I needed to be organized. And so we did put workflows in place and have systems in place. So I wanted to be systematized but I didn't want to be cookie cutter for everyone because that that doesn't work right. Every client is different. Every client needs their their own custom advice, customized advice and learning experience by me Experience planning issues that they have need to be addressed individually. So what I learned is that it's one of the most powerful concepts that has driven how we run our advisory firm, which is to systematize yet customize, oh, wow, that's powerful systematize and customize that the same thing because they seem like two opposing forces. How do you do that? So you have the systems in place that can apply to everyone. And then on top of that, you layer the custom advice that is that we need to give to the individual clients. And so the bulk of it, maybe 80% of the client work can be systematized, certainly the back office, and then even the front client facing activities, right the onboarding for onboarding and now we do holistic planning. So So we're touching at pretty much every area of financial planning with them. And so how do you systematize that? Well, we module modular lies new
Tina Powell 19:12
word word like.
It is the morning and it is the last day. And it's the last day of t-three
Deborah Fox 19:23
the week created modules. That's not to say that so that we could interchange them, the order that we deliver them would be customized for each client and obviously only utilizing the modules that that were specific to each client. And so this is how we were able to systematize and customize. The client receives a very custom experience by receiving the planning modules that are specific to them in the right order. Right. And that was really right for us.
Tina Powell 20:02
Right. You had just that is magic right there in the right order. That is profound.
Deborah Fox 20:09
Mm hmm. So that was a huge piece of getting processes in place in our firm.
Tina Powell 20:19
You were willing to share this information and not everybody is willing to share their efficiencies, their trade secrets, what has made their practice and incredible one so I, I thought that was that that that takes a lot of confidence. And I think that it does take a passion to to create something more than than you is your advice for for advisors and firms still on the sidelines. I mean, it's 2020 people are still on the sidelines about implementing tech, but CRM sounds like at the very basic if you're going to implement one piece of technology CRM would probably be it.
Deborah Fox 21:02
Oh, absolutely, that I believe that CRM should be the center point of the firm because that is where all of the client information should lie. It needs to be the place that anyone can in the firm at anytime can bring up a client and see exactly what's going on at any time and what's going to be coming up in the future. And I mean, I don't know what we would do without our CRM, if that is one of the probably the one piece of technology that that enables a firm to build those efficiencies. So there are others that other satellite technologies that pick up some of the heavy lifting beyond that, but that CRM, good CRM, which doesn't mean to be have to be the most expensive CRM with all the bells and whistles and founded you don't want all the bells and whistles because then you don't get adoption. All right. Team so it's the three little bears umbrage with the porridge, you know, one's too hot.
Tina Powell 22:05
Right, one's just right.
Deborah Fox 22:07
And so I'll give a shout out to red tail. That's why we've adopted them because they're not the fanciest CRM but they have all the components that we need to work efficiently and to be able to easily do our work each day within it and and those components are easily easily learned.
Tina Powell 22:25
Is your company going through a rebrand?
Deborah Fox 22:27
Yes, we just rebranded from Fox Financial Planning network to Advisor Touch
Tina Powell 22:31
Okay, Advisor Touch I like that name a lot.
Deborah Fox 22:34
Yes, the the network name really became outdated because now there are all these different networks out there that are doing business under a certain model or trying to attract a certain type of individual in the industry. And that wasn't who Fox Financial Planning network is was because we don't teach one type of business model. We don't work with just one type of firm size of firm or type of firm we serve any firm that's in the industry that wants to get processes in place. And
Tina Powell 23:18
I love that.
Deborah Fox 23:19
No, it's it's that we start with people that are just getting in the industry that trying to set up their business to. It's the institutions and everything in between. So our job is to help firms work more efficiently and deliver the best client experience possible. That was a couple years to document all our processes because we had no idea what we were doing. We had to learn all this the hard way start testing and trying things out. And so that is how now Advisor Touch actually started is because we had a firms coming to us knowing that we had built these workflows for our own firm and had built all we have over are close to 500 document templates
that are associated with various workflow steps so that they're all it's for efficiency, obviously, that you don't have to reinvent the wheel, you haven't used a template and then customize a set systematized and customized concept. And so firms started contacting us, Hey, can you share your workflows with us? And like, Well, no, no, that doesn't help. Because it's how we do everything. Yeah. And so that got me thinking, I thought, Oh, my gosh, what if we could genericized all this template it template it and help them get workflows, at least we can give them some generic workflows so they don't have to start from scratch. And that's how the Fox Financial Planning network got, got started. And, for me, it was it's just it's just as much fun as serving clients on the planet. excited because I just love to help other people succeed. So, it I can't even tell you which one I like best because it's just so fun. And I've always kind of been that way to try to be the innovator and try to figure out how can we get better and and how can we systematize and so that's in a nutshell what what we do at advisors touch, we share all of our stuff and help them do consulting if they want and just help them serve their clients better have a better back office experience for their the team and where they can enjoy their lives a little bit more.
Tina Powell 25:41
What I love is how you yourself have been such a powerful example of taking a risk and making a change and evolving it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. And that it's it's you you have to evolve as a as a business. That might even mean changing your name. And look, your name is your last name was in your name of your business. So for you to make that change, I've seen that with many advisors where there has been trepidation and resistance to changing their name, because the last name of the name of the founder has been in there. So I think that it's an incredible example of change, change for good and change that needs to happen. Because we're all we all need to change.
Deborah Fox 26:33
Exactly. And and maybe it's easier to change on the consulting side, if we're changing our planning firms name that might be a little more painful. Right? But yes, and we'll see what happens maybe people might have it's either going to be good or bad. People are going to say what's this Advisor Touch on? Want to check it out? Yeah. Or they're gonna say, Vijay, never heard of it and not pay attention. We are going to have to get some messaging.
Tina Powell 26:57
I know is it custodial? Is it is it CRM specific I should ask that question. Are the workflows CRM specific? Or can they plug into a Salesforce and juncture as well?
Deborah Fox 27:07
Good question. So we have the templates for red that are that can be built in or actually pushed in directly to red tail. And to well, just recently, wolf wolf substitute. Yep. And anybody else, any other CRM, they just get the templates in a Word document. So the right and put them in the way that
right, Salesforce, is a whole different animal to get in.
Tina Powell 27:32
Exactly.
Deborah Fox 27:33
But so anyone can use them. It's just we're able to between Redtail and Wealthbox, they the companies can actually push the app, the actual workload into
Tina Powell 27:46
that is really in the library. They are-
Deborah Fox 27:48
-in their library
Tina Powell 27:49
that is very, very cool.
Deborah Fox 27:50
Go and do some customizing. Now. Obviously, red tail is the largest CRM and most widely used CRM in the industry. So that's where we started. I mean, they're a great Teams also for very, they're talking about a company that innovates all the time. They do that that was an industry have next gen workflows now to which there's so many mature firms that they are, we don't want to have, we don't want to serve Next Gen Z, it can't be profitable. It's just outside of our wheelhouse. And I think they're missing a huge opportunity. If nothing else, they should be serving the children of their clients and maybe even the grandchildren of some of them to get those that next generation and so that they they stay with the firm that the assets to the firm to. I mean, they're it's surprising to me that a lot of firms aren't thinking in those terms. Those are the next gen clients that we have now. Some of them are making six figure Inc like we have. We have like three or four. They're making over 200,000 a year.
These are not that
Tina Powell 29:00
Yeah, I know, shallow thinking and, you know, we are we are a knowledge economy now. And the nature of work has changed significantly. I think that millennials have gotten a bad wrap. But yet, when it comes down to when you look at the statistics, that they've done a better job managing their financial affairs, I think my kids have done a better job. I know they have than than I did in my 20s.
Deborah Fox 29:27
And probably due to some good education on your part to that I think all of us are keenly aware how important it is to pass down some of these values in the education. And then the other thing is that this the next gen demographic is I just read the other day that it's the largest demographic now. So I'll give a tip of the way that firms can be profitable with this. I mean, obviously, they're like the the ones that are doing really well. Already, they can almost be served in similar ways to the the baby boomers in the matures, you know, a white version of that. But the key is to create service tiers. And so you can have, we have three tiers, basically, we have that the traditional type of clients that most firms want that that baby boomer or mature generations, clients, and then we have our next gen clients. And then we have a what we would call project basis. So there's some project clients where we'll get a referral that of someone that maybe isn't right for one of those two tiers, or they're just not looking for a longer term relationship. And they have an immediate need planning me that they just need to get taken care of. Maybe it's allocating their 401k at work or whatever the case but they were friend of someone that is a client, oh, you called Nicole, Deborah Fox and and so we recognized If we can build good will by doing a project-
Tina Powell 31:04
Right
Deborah Fox 31:04
-that there's a good chance that they'll be interested in looking at our,
Tina Powell 31:10
the rest of
Deborah Fox 31:10
the rest of our services, you know,
longer term engagement. And that that's a little tip, like I said that we tried and, and has worked quite well for us.
Tina Powell 31:20
What has been your experience? Because we're talking about women here, specifically women over over 40? And what would your advice be? Have you had to tailor your own service offering to meet the needs of women over 40? So I was wondering if you could talk and if we could explore that?
Deborah Fox 31:41
Sure.
So the answer to your question Have we have we had to tailor our services for specifically for that demographic? And so I would say yes and no, no, is it's back to that systematize and customized concept, right? So the women over 40 The women under 40 the women over 70 the women over. Yeah, they there's always a foundational pathway that needs to be addressed, no matter what the age is of the person or the
Tina Powell 32:16
Right, at age as a person as a person as a person.
Deborah Fox 32:20
Right
Tina Powell 32:21
You're right. Yes, exactly. I'm certain crime boarding
Deborah Fox 32:27
every meeting, you know, yeah, you're going to ask pretty much the same questions. Now. Yes, there are going to be some differences. But there's the foundational questions are going to be similar. And then you now layer on the advice of where someone is in their lifecycle. So in this case, females over 40 they have specific issues that don't mean to say negative issues, but positive and negative is Yeah, that they're that they deal with at that life stage and a lot of it career oriented, family oriented in the 40s. A lot of women are trying to bet they've probably had children in many cases and now they're trying to figure out how do they build their careers there. They don't need to be around or their their children all the time. So those specific planning areas are is that custom layer that goes on on top and women will female advisors serving these women. It's a special relationship, I believe, because the the women that we serve, they recognize right away that we get what they're going through, right. That is not just understanding from a male from a male advisor. It's not that they can't serve women. Well, they can, but it's just going to take a little bit more time. For it typically for a woman to Understand that, Oh, this is a male advisor that gets women but they're not going to assume that that advisor gets women at her ID level necessarily. In now I have a male advisor, that's the second advisor on our team. And I specifically wanted to hire a male advisor, I felt it was extremely important to have both. And because the brains work differently,
Tina Powell 34:27
Yes, exactly. And that's been scientifically proven.
Deborah Fox 34:29
It has been scientifically proven. And it when you have a male and a female that has synergy, work together, the hole is bigger than the sum of the parts.
Tina Powell 34:43
Absolutely.
Deborah Fox 34:44
And our clients talk about it all the time because when we're problem solving, and we're getting a little bit away from the women's side of the conversation because this is just across the board but it is very important for the for the women also That they get that male perspective. And for the male has to be trained on how to work with women and how they're different. But when they're trained and know how to create that synergy, it is just powerful. And I think that is fantastic because there's an it creates a huge opportunity for women who do want to become financial advisors. It's a completely male dominated dominated industry, obviously, and if some of these firms that have male principles will understand this concept of, they bring on a sharp one female to their team, and do they will they will be shocked at the value add of that. And now some women should be in a support position, they don't want to be in advisor position, and that's fine too, because having someone in their support position with the right attitude and and perspective Also from the backend make that service sing. And this is my frustration. There's not enough of that happening right now. But the fact that for So Andrew has been with me for just over about 10 years.
Tina Powell 36:16
Wow.
Deborah Fox 36:17
And I hired him as an intern purposely to be able to mold him along the way so that he could learn this process and learn how to work with
Tina Powell 36:30
I love how you are not only gender, differentiated, right here, gender and generationally diversifies in your own practice,
Deborah Fox 36:40
thank you for recognizing that because this generation is important also, one from a succession standpoint, but to that they think differently, you know, they're going to think differently. And sometimes, we both just laugh when we're working on problem solving, and we're just You know, both contributing to the conversation. And then it just goes.
It's just awesome
Tina Powell 37:07
It is. What about that, that that female person, that female professional right now listening to this podcast, whether or not that she is a financial adviser whether or not that she's working in ops marketing, biz development, trading. She's an analyst and she wants to go, she's in her 30s. And she wants to get exactly where you just described. She wants to become part of the management team. She wants to be offered those stretch assignments, she wants to prove what she can do.
How do you get there?
Deborah Fox 37:42
You ask for it. You sit down with principle or principles, and you and you.
Carefully think about think out how you want to communicate and what it is that you want. And you logically present that and say Here's what I really like to do. Here's why. And here's why I think it would be great for the firm. It has to be a win win. And a good leadership team. We'll see if they can make that happen at some point. I mean, maybe there isn't room for that to happen. But if there is they're going to try to make that happen. And if there is room and they aren't willing to make that happen, I'm sorry to say you've got to go find another firm. You can't just know that's what's the definition of
Tina Powell 38:35
insanity is doing the same thing over and over.
Deborah Fox 38:39
How many people are doing that because it just so comfortable. It's scary to go make a change like that. But change is never easy. Big changes are never easy, and you have to get those butterflies you have to feel uncomfortable. That's the only way you can grow. Know you look at the animals that you know shed their skin.
Tina Powell 38:58
Yeah
Deborah Fox 38:59
There's a you know, it's amazing. comfortable to be, you know, in too tight.
Tina Powell 39:03
Exactly right.
Deborah Fox 39:05
Like be able to breathe again. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, same thing with a career and, and depending on the culture of the firm. women know whether the culture is right for them or not. And some of the women are just too afraid to upset the applecart. They know like, if you were I sat down and said, What are the chances of this happening for you? And they'll say 10% or 1%, or you know, they're not, it's just not going to happen because they're not in the right place. Others are absolutely in the right place. They just have to advocate for themselves. They have to prove themselves, you're no one's going to be given another a better opportunity, unless they've earned it. I mean, that's just how life works. And it's not a matter of how long you've been at a firm or how awesome you are, even if it's with certain skill sets. How are you applying it? How are you helping a firm or helping a team evolve and succeed more in whatever capacity?
Tina Powell 40:09
So I think there's different ways of looking at it. How do you look at it?
Deborah Fox 40:13
I think the answer is it depends. I think we could look at it. I think there's certain areas of the country that would be harder for women to advance. And then I think the again, the culture of individual firms will either be a great substrate to advance and others probably hit a brick wall. So I think women need to go to go into positions with their eyes wide open that they need to be thinking about the next one to two steps in their career before they accept a job offer big Wow. And I think a lot of people don't do that they're just focused on I need to know get this next job or it may not even be a financial And it might just be I just need to, I need to change or I am not happy where I am, I need to get a job, I just need to move and they're not thinking, you know, a couple steps ahead. And anything in life, if you don't build it first, it's not going to happen. So building it first, in this case is envisioning Where do you want to be eventually? Like, what are the next steps of how do you want your career to progress? What kind of experience do you want on a daily basis? What type of firm large small, what are your day to day activities? And here's one thing that we haven't discussed yet that is one of the most important things. No one should be doing work in a position unless they have two components. So that one, the first one is that they have the natural skill sets to do it, like their brain is wired for it. And the reason that's so important, and I'm not saying that means you don't learn new things you do. But the the base component of, of any job will you know, have it use a certain skill sets. And so whatever your job is you want to you want it to come easily to you, right? And when those things come easily it's much it there's a much higher chance that you're, that one's going to enjoy what they do. So it's what they're naturally good at married and I put my usually take my hands and lace my fingers together to
Tina Powell 42:35
I'm doing that right now you all can see that so take your-
Deborah Fox 42:38
every winter.
Tina Powell 42:40
Yes, we're gonna marry your hands right now. So as you're listening to this, this, this, put your hands together and close them the way about literally married them, which I'm doing right now.
Deborah Fox 42:50
So it's the one hand is what you're naturally good at. Okay? And the other one is what you love. And when you marry what you're naturally good at What you love, there are very few days that you work in your life. And I can authoritatively say that because I have had that for many years. I'm not saying I don't have bad days, but they are so few and far between. I wake up, excited to go to work. Now I inherited my, my father's entrepreneurial spirit. I started in this industry and went solo on my own, you know, trying to give advice so I never worked for another firm. I just, it's just not in my DNA. I didn't even know what I didn't know. I mean, I just went and did it.
Tina Powell 43:36
Wow.
Deborah Fox 43:36
Because it was those two things married for me. I mean, I thought this was the most interesting profession. And it is just the most incredible feeling to have that you do wake up with purpose and passion and course we're in this business of helping people so you know, you get layer that on top of doing what you writing down what you're naturally good at and helping people. Right. And whether you whether it for these women, whether it whether you're wanting to have your own business or you do have your own business, or you don't you're working on it with a team as an employee, it doesn't matter if it still applies. You still have to evolve, you still have to get better. But if you have that foundation of doing what you're good at and what you love, it is just it makes life a party. It really does. add one more thing, yeah, to this. So even when you're working in area, an area or areas that you're you have those two components. There are days where you're going to have to do the things that really don't bring that feeling and sometimes they're very hard because they're not There's things that you have to do that aren't naturally easily easy for you. And I have learned over the years that in when I'm in that type of process, I'm not happy per se, but I have self talk is very important. And I talk to myself because every time I do a project that I'm not passionate about, I get insights about something else, or myself or some other perspective outside of myself. That adds to my toolkit, and it has made me even stronger in certain skill sets, you know, I might never want to do that project again, but I still learn something from it. And it adds to that whole substrate of either skill sets or perspective or I relationships, new relationships that were formed and so I it's not that you should turn down everything that doesn't qualify for, you know, with the two
Tina Powell 46:04
Right
Deborah Fox 46:04
it's just Is it something temporary that will challenge you that will help you move to even higher level and position you for even better, better greatness going for it, whether it for these women, whether it whether you're wanting to have your own business or you do have your own business, or you don't you're working on it with a team as an employee, it doesn't matter. It still applies. You still have to evolve you still have to get better. But if you have that foundation of doing what you're good at and what you love, is just it makes life a party.
Tina Powell 46:43
So I do think that that's self actualization that that having that really deep knowledge, knowing knowing it all comes back to just fundamentally knowing your self and life is just too magnificent to magnifique. Listen, and this profession included, to be in a spot that you don't feel like you want to go out and do your best work every day.
Deborah Fox 47:08
Absolutely.
Tina Powell 47:10
What What qualities do you think are necessary and and specific to women over 42? You know, make those leaps of faith and, and and be willing to take a micro risk?
Deborah Fox 47:28
That's a really great question.
I think that
most importantly, women need to be strong, they have to have a combination of strength and, and principles and and the passion and compassion. Wow, those four items are in combination will get you through anything. Basically, if you have that those characteristics at your core You can tackle anything that comes your way. And you can also recognize when you're on the right path or not. talked a little bit about this earlier, if you can have those characteristics and then have that attitude of never stop learning, you're always challenging yourself to improve that workout self improvement. You automatically evolve and become a better person with the focus, because as we talked about, whatever you focus on expands in your life. And then the other. Maybe three things that that I thought about is always stay humble. No matter how much success that you achieve, that you always have to be humble because that is the only way that you stay open, and that people will relate to you and that you have the opportunity to see things that you wouldn't have would normally see if you're very egocentric or just focused on yourself and think outside the box. They try to figure out how can you do things differently and better than how they've been done? Which is what we've done in our firm. We challenge our
Tina Powell 49:18
advisor judge There you go. I mean, that's that's big. That was a bold move that was years and years in the making, but it's still foundationally core to your purpose.
Deborah Fox 49:30
Oh, yes. And then I was referring more to our planning for, but we've done that on Advisor Touch on the consulting side two, on how to deliver efficiently and keep our fees way lower than the typical consulting firm so that it was open to other than just for large firms. That that was, you know, a well thought out process but thinking outside the box for when when you're when you're working with clients, You're thinking outside the box for solutions for them, which is one of the most fun things when you have that synergy with, you know, a team or a couple advisors putting their thoughts together, you come up with these planning solutions that you like, even
Tina Powell 50:14
Wow
Deborah Fox 50:15
where did that come from? And the clients just are thrilled. Right? And it's the same thing when you're with your family, you know, solve problems, problem solving, with family, you try to not it's so many parents, it's either a it's a it's a win lose type of thing, you know, like it's one side is winning and one side is losing. No, it doesn't always have to be that way. So whether it's personally or whether it's with a firm, if you can think outside the box for solutions and also better ways of doing things. I think it's incredibly important, and then something that has been very key to me I think being the person who I am the good parts of me is I've always tried to mentor others at any given time, whether they're younger people coming up in the profession or it's people outside the profession. I mentor all of the part of our engagement with our clients with the on the planning side is we do bring those those children into the fold. And because we have our late stage college planning as a niche, which we do on as project work, we counsel those children on how to successfully make the transition from high school to college. It has nothing to do with the finances. It's about their perspective on their lives and how to leverage those four years of college and then how to be thinking about their lives of designing a happy and fulfilling life. And I'll tell you, that is one of the most fun aspects of working in my planning firm working with those young people. Who out there are just in high school and they're thinking I gotta graduate, and now I
get to go to college
Tina Powell 52:05
for those years. Yeah.
Deborah Fox 52:06
And they're not even they're not thinking of designing that pathway in life, yes. And what an opportunity we have for those next generation. Individuals can think of how the parents love that.
Tina Powell 52:21
It's incredible. And not only that, it's a great, it's a way to stay humble. I mean, whether or not that you're doing it, you're just doing it out of love. I mean, I think about how the industry and how our thinking has transformed that it's not about them. It's not about whether or not that person is going to how much they have, but what you're doing is you're bringing value, you're delivering exponential value, the fact that you would sit down with a high school student, again, someone at your, at your level, Deborah, that you're sitting down with those and what a powerful example, what away if that's my advisor, Never, ever, ever leaving my advisor,
Deborah Fox 53:04
pretty much and guess what the parents
of that child get the benefit of because that counseling gets them 99% of the time to graduate within four years, we're now there's over a half that are taking five and six years to graduate. If we can get them focused from the beginning, they'll graduate they'll choose the right major, they have the skills now to leverage their their college career. Now I'm just using that as an example. There are so many ways that that advisors can counsel the children of their clients to lead a successful life. It doesn't have to be college planning per se. But I bring this up because women are so good at this. This is a tremendous opportunity for female advisors. It doesn't even have to be an advisor could be even support staff that just On stage or to enjoy this type of coaching. And it's a wonderful role that women can play.
Tina Powell 54:06
I mean, you're empowering. And in that example, we're using support staff and you're bringing into them into the into the fold. It's a dual benefit, because you're not empowering that you're empowering your team. And then you're it's just this paid forward and it's multiplying again and again, that we are placed in situations that we might look like we're comfortable, but internally, we might be having a harder time then while we look on the outside. And I think that the net message here is that whatever whether or not that it's an icon or a piece of paper or something that somebody wrote, put those things were those things, especially if you're in a position where it really matters, and channel that energy and those feelings and and that becomes part of that just it becomes part of who you are. And where you are.
Deborah Fox 55:02
Something to add to that I have this one box where I have this just this collection of special things, just memories and just it's a memory. It's a big Memory Box under the bed, you know?
Tina Powell 55:20
Yeah
Deborah Fox 55:20
I didn't know. And whenever I opened that I purposely did this. There's this beautiful photo of my grandmother and my grandfather, when they revive obviously, that that's the first thing I see is just this beautiful photo and it just makes me realize, you know how important family is and how much they made an impact on my life. And I think about all the things they taught me and so in addition to the jewelry, for getting that feeling, I get it just with my little memory collection every time
Tina Powell 55:56
I open it and you're reminded how much quicker grandparents loved you. And that is really when you go out in business, and you are in these positions that might feel uncomfortable and you're taking chances, knowing that you're loved, that you are unconditionally loved by family. That is the part that we all need a Deborah Fox Memory Box with a picture to remind us that we are loved.
Deborah Fox 56:24
Do you keep to have keepsakes of like events that you go to that are special, like tickets of concerts or
Tina Powell 56:32
yeah to say, I have all my playbills. I bought my playbills and I love I'm a big avid New York City Broadway theater fan. I have been for almost my whole entire life was one of the true luxurious experiences that our mother who was a single parent brought us she wanted to make sure that the arts were part of our life. And she's a docent, now at a an outdoor sculpture garden. And she volunteers in theatres as as an usher. So it's always been part of my life. I have all my playbills there, I
Deborah Fox 57:07
don't have all of them, but the ones that were where I were took my breath away or just that, you know, evoked the emotions and all that because otherwise they would have been to, to to mention it stuff for me but, but recently, I the Russian ballet came to the San Diego civic theater. And I had to go because like, how often do you get to see the Russian ballet and I got like with the fifth row or something like that, wow, it was stunning. I mean, like jaw dropping. Like I've been to the San Diego City Ballet and you know, San Diego ballet, which is great, but the Russian ballet, and it's so that I just gave you that as an example. I kept that ticket because even it's been a couple months, but I when I've opened that box and you see that tickle I think right back of what I I can see it so the experiences are they are lifelong because they they're ingrained
Tina Powell 58:06
Yeah, yeah they're so vivid
Deborah Fox 58:08
and that I've never seen athleticism like that in ballet and so no I think the the lesson is is that go put yourself in the spot to experience the best in life like that doesn't mean spending a lot of money I mean sometimes it's taking a walk in you know when the in San Diego we have so many beautiful places to walk in the babble park the the lily pads are blooming and the all the goldfish are there. You know, there's Butoh the Botanical Garden is blooming.
Tina Powell 58:42
Yeah,
Deborah Fox 58:43
like this, that's some of the best things in life are free. But do these things that take your breath away, to to never take for granted that the word I'm looking for the the honor that we've had to To be born into to live in this life, and to experience this as a human, it's just, it's unbelievable, right?
Tina Powell 59:10
I feel such honor right now to have had this discussion right now with both of us, and that this will go out in the universe because I know that it will give good and I know that someone will do something different as a result of hearing this conversation and perhaps even just make a gentle shift in mindset, even if the decision is you know, what, everybody usually goes to lunch and I'm part of that team. I think today I'm going to take a walk. And I think maybe I'm going to go see a show where I'm going to listen to music or I'm going to do something different and I'm going to get out of my own head.
Deborah Fox 59:47
Well, I am so honored that you chose me to be your first guest and you know, I love you and you are just a force to be reckoned with in this area. You're doing such wonderful things. And so I am so happy to support anything that you're doing. And obviously, whatever you can come up with to further help women in this industry, I'm there with a girl. So I'm here to do it with you. So
Tina Powell 1:00:18
thank you.
Deborah Fox 1:00:18
You are You are awesome. And a very, very special person and this industry is really fortunate to have you as a voice. Thank you.
Tina Powell 1:00:35
You're listening to in the suite, a podcast that shares amazing stories of women in business in the financial services in the wealth management industry. This podcast is proudly sponsored by C suite social media, a digital marketing and social media consultancy. For C suite leaders in finance and technology. You can visit WWW dot C suite social media.com to learn more, also If you would like to share the name of a successful woman in business, we should interview on a future episode. Please send it to me at Tina at C suite social media.com and thank you so much for listening. I hope you found this episode with Deborah Fox. as amazing as I did.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai