Tiffany Tranghese

I would say my mom. My mom was a really hard worker. She taught us to work really hard and to sacrifice, and she was a great mom. She was able to raise 3 kids as a single mom and work full-time and come home and cook a meal. So she really taught me how to do it all. She set me on the right course and showed me what it means to balance everything while still being present and working hard.

The best career advice I ever received came from a former colleague who was a mentor to me. They told me that the only way to be better is to actually be better. There are a lot of people who have imposter syndrome or are competitive in the workplace and think they're better than other people, but really, no one's better than anybody. If you want to be better, you've got to better yourself and do better. You can't just expect it, you have to actually do the work.

Don't feel like you're not good enough. Imposter syndrome is the biggest thing that will hold you back. Coming into this industry, I had a lot of that myself. I always felt like I'm not smart enough, I'm not good enough, there's somebody that's smarter than me. But as long as you are able to work hard, you don't have to be the smartest person in the room, you just have to be the hardest working person in the room. You can learn the skill set, but if you walk in with confidence and articulate yourself well, that carries so much weight and will get your foot through the door.

I would say the financial services industry is a tough industry to get into. Part of what we do as financial advisors is helping our clients meet their financial goals through investment and insurance. Some people don't find the value in that, and a lot of the newer advisors coming into the business are using their own markets, so people are hesitant to work with them. They either already have advisors, or there's AI that's taking over. A lot of times, this stuff really comes into play, especially insurance, only when you pass away, and people don't really think about that. So one of the biggest challenges in the financial services industry is how are we going to continue to grow as advisors and have more advisors on board if the industry is seeing such a lag in the ability to recruit and develop these advisors. People have a hard time investing in something that's not tangible.

Honesty is really important to me. I feel like if you're not being honest with yourself and with everyone in your life, it will hold you back. Being truthful and authentic in all your relationships and in your work is fundamental to success and personal fulfillment.