Her Story
About Samantha
I've spent about a decade in finance after working for years in the telecommunications space with corporations. Today, my main focus is helping individuals and families navigate their financial futures. My day-to-day responsibilities are very client-based - I structure policies and accounts for clients, do a lot of research, and stay on top of continuing education, which is huge. I'm constantly keeping up with compliances and regulations and any changes that come through. I develop customized strategies for my clients, but I'm also recruiting for my own agency and training and developing other people to do what I do. Right now, I'm in the process of building my own agency while working for a different agency currently. A major part of what I do is getting people out of these holes that they get into, especially with student loans and different forgiveness routes. I also build tax advantage strategies for retirement growth and protection of assets. What really inspired me to shift into this field was seeing how financial education and literacy is so lacking for individuals and professionals. I realized that these strategies and opportunities are available for every person, but unless you sit at the round table of head honchos, you don't get access to it. I was on board helping executives and big corporations make money, and I thought, why can't this be done at a smaller level? So I started digging into it, partnered up with several people, and became part of this huge agency and organization where our whole mission is spreading financial literacy and giving that opportunity to the average person. Everybody deserves a chance and an opportunity - it's up to them to take it, but the least we can do is educate.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Samantha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being coachable and approachable. I've learned to have the humility to drop the ego and be a student, but I also know when to flex that ego when needed to advocate for the right things. I think having a strong moral and ethical compass is crucial - you need to know when to stand up for what's right. Running with transparency and integrity has been huge for me. Those two values allow you to truly be successful, and they make success easier to maintain. Granted, doing those two things isn't always easy - sometimes it's hard to deliver bad news or be straightforward with somebody, or even receive something that you might not want to hear. But if you can lead with integrity and transparency, everything is so much easier. You have less chaos, easier transitions, and nothing snowballs. It just keeps propelling forward.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Honestly, the best career advice I've ever received is to be coachable. It's such a big aspect of everything. Of course, you have to be careful who's coaching you and what advice you take. But I think always learning and always doing the personal and professional development on yourself creates a foundation of knowledge that helps you know who you can trust, who you want to mentor you and learn from. It breeds kind of an awareness and a safety net, if you will, to where you don't fail as often. Fail fast, fail forward, as I always say. But just being coachable and being a student, and most importantly, always developing yourself and being very highly aware of who you are as a person, where you can be, and what you stand for - and moving about life that way while advocating for other people. That's been the most valuable advice I've received.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women coming into this industry is to be coachable. That's a huge, huge factor. There's so much to learn, and it's ever-changing. You can never learn enough to one, develop yourself and other people, but also be the biggest advocate and the best person you can be for your clients. If you remain coachable and you keep wanting to learn, and you just accept the fact that you'll never learn everything but that you want to learn as much as you can, and you just keep going - you will be successful in whatever you do. The key is staying humble, staying curious, and never stopping your education. This field changes constantly, and the only way to truly serve your clients well is to commit to being a lifelong student.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Transparency and integrity are the most important values to me in both my work and personal life. I feel like you have to have both of those to truly be successful, but also to have success be easier. Granted, doing those two things is not always easy. It's sometimes hard to deliver bad news or be straightforward with somebody, or even receive something that you might not want to hear. But I think having integrity and leading with transparency are two of the biggest factors that you can have in personal and work life. If you can lead with those two things, everything is so much easier. You have less chaos, easier transitions, and nothing snowballs. It just keeps propelling forward. Those values create a foundation where you can build trust, maintain relationships, and move through challenges without creating unnecessary complications.
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