Her Story
About Ida
My journey in finance began in high school when I fell in love with economics after my economics professor inspired me to get Wall Street Journal subscriptions for the entire class. I was so excited about what he was doing and reading the Wall Street Journal that I said 'my God, this stuff is so great!' It led me to my affinity for math, numbers, and how things work in the economy, outcomes, and projections. As a young child, I always wanted to be a lawyer because I was like the judge in the family and neighborhood, a role I took very early on. But I didn't just want to be a lawyer - I actually wanted to be an economist with a law degree, and that's kind of where my career took me. Over the past 29 years, I've worked across both financial and non-financial sectors. I've been in insurance, life, health, annuities, and disabilities. I was a commodity trading advisor for Merrill Lynch and Cargill years ago, but it's still relevant and applicable. I also taught pre-law courses at the University of Cincinnati. I've done non-profit things and profit things - it's a different way of looking at things. Currently, I'm listed with Symmetry Financial Advisors where I'm building agencies to teach people how to be entrepreneurs, bringing all my entrepreneur experience to select people who could go through an agency-oriented program and become their own boss. This year I spun off into a new LLC, putting my recruiting and training separately, because when you've been in the business as long as I have and been through different wars, people call on you for different things. I also do private equity deals - the last one I was involved with during COVID was the first tester to test, identify, and trace COVID. I worked on that project as part of the team that put the whole offering together, came in as a due diligence person, and served as an investor director to pull the investors in, working with high-end investors like family offices and venture capitalists. Right now, we're putting together an educational consortium with a new company and LLC, bringing together women partners who have had a lot of experience like I do in the private and public sectors. We believe that in this environment right now, we're not fit for what's coming and a reset has to be changed. We're looking at being a disruptor, countering what AI is trying to do - the difference between evil AI versus humanitarian AI. I've been an independent insurance broker for 29 years and 7 months, an independent business consultant with GLC for years, and I was Senior Director for a legal organization for 8 years leading peace, justice, and unity events. I ran a talk show for 14 years and I'm an author. I've been on LinkedIn for 19 years where I constantly write articles and serve as a thought leader. My focus now is really about training young people with a new mindset - not the old 'get a job, go to work for somebody else, make them rich' mentality, but teaching them how to control the process and become their own bosses.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ida
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from one of the last Lazarus when I first came out of law school. He told me to have money on the side. He said that during the Depression, he just started buying because he had cash available. I'm telling people the same thing now - don't put all your money away, keep some money loose, real dollars, because the dollar is not gonna go away. When things crash or shift, you need to have real dollars in your pocket on the sideline so you can take advantage of opportunities.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, it's a terrible time in many ways. They're buying up practices, forcing professionals into hospitals, so people aren't going to make the kind of money they would make in private practice. A lot of people are having to spin off into other specialties - ophthalmologists are now doing facials and Botox, and everyone's had to spin off. They're trying to eliminate all these people. Even an engineering degree is not worth as much as it used to be. But this is also why I'm excited about our new project and educational consortium. We believe that in this environment right now, we're not fit for what's coming and a reset has to be changed. The old mindset was 'get a job, go to work for somebody else, make them rich,' but young people aren't doing that so much anymore. They're asking 'How do I control the process?' and that's what we're building. We're bringing wisdom into the next future, teaching people to be their own bankers because banks are quite corrupt right now. The biggest opportunity is in training and teaching young people with a new mindset, helping them think like leaders and become entrepreneurs who control their own destiny.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Some things are greater than money - that's what I want people to understand. I pray first before making decisions. My legacy is really about using my knowledge to help others, not about being featured or getting recognition. I aspire to be like the Pope who works quietly in the periphery, not because he wants to be featured, but because he wants to do the right thing. I want to be the one that can see things in totality and not get caught up in the quagmire of it. Right now, I'm settling in more on how can I really pass knowledge and clarify things a little bit more. I operate with anonymity because I believe it's better to stay quiet sometimes - good work happens better when it's behind the curve. I write things that are truthful and I don't get involved in political stuff. I don't want to run for politics - I help people get in politics, but I don't sit in that. I want my legacy to really be about using my knowledge to help others. The good is going to prevail, and it's women's time now to take our rightful place.
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