Joy Ohayia

I attribute my success to my focus and determination. Many people at the age of 63 are retired, but I said when I was in my 20s that I would probably never retire, even when I was in corporate. People thought I was kidding when someone just got a gold watch for 40 years of service, but I knew there's gotta be something better and bigger and more purposeful that I could do when I reach that time frame. That's exactly where I'm at now.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't give up and stay focused. Run your own race and stay in your own lane. I used to run track at Stony Brook, and I tell people the same thing I learned then: don't look to the side, don't look behind, just run your own race. Don't pay attention to what your other friends are doing. There's going to be naysayers, there's going to be people that are going to tell you that you can't do it, but don't listen to them. If it's something that you want to do, something you want to achieve, then go after it and keep after it. And keep your plans to yourself. When I was in the beginning stages of having a TV show, I had naysayers saying 'I don't know if that's gonna work,' and that was pretty hurtful because it was new to me. But once you get in a rhythm and you are on your own schedule, you don't have to go back and say 'I told you.' Just keep going. We have one mouth and two ears, so it's better to listen than to talk.

They have to focus and be disciplined. If they want to join my enterprise, they're gonna need to focus and be disciplined to not only go through the training to get their life license, but if they have a desire to be full service, then they're gonna have to go down a securities path. That's not an easy path to go through, but you can do it. You don't have to have a college degree. You could even be shy and don't want to talk to people, but I will work with them to get them out of their shell. I will coach them. But they're gonna have to be focused. And it's not a quick get-rich-quick type of industry, because you have to build relationships.

The biggest challenge right now is to get in front of people on an ongoing basis to show them how money works and also to get them to trust me. When you're in finances and people tell you that you should work with your warm market, your friends and family, a lot of times your friends and family don't want you to see where they really are. They don't trust you. I would say that that's a challenge, but I overcame it because I'm not looking at my friends and family anymore. I'm talking to people that I don't know, that I meet every day. Another challenge is juggling information, though at this point our children are grown, so we don't have the challenge of juggling family and career. But when they were younger, that was a challenge. If you want to parent correctly, you want to make sure that you spend adequate time with your children, quality time.

The most important values to me are telling the truth, having a purpose, and character. Character is big for me. One's character will help propel you in this business. If you want to do right by your client, you show them that you're doing right by them, and you're putting their needs and wants ahead of yours.