Intention.ly + Friends Book Club | Cary Carbonaro "Women and Wealth"

All right, let's go. Welcome, welcome everyone today to the intentionally book club with friends. We have our special guest here, Carrie Carbonero, author of Women and Wealth, which is available on Amazon. I have my copy here in Audible as well. Today, before I do a big jump in, we're just going to make sure that we have all of our friends who are filing in have enough time to get acclimated while I go over the housekeeping items, but I'm so excited to have you here today and review Women in Wealth with the lovely Carrie.

So, just a few things. Introduction. My name is Ashley Taylor. I'm a director of client account strategy here at Intentionally and today's host. A big shout out as always to intentionally CEO Kelly Walrich and Tina Pal who we all know and love who conceived this idea of the book club to shine a light on transformative thinkers and authors like Carrie in financial services and fintech space.

Please ensure to subscribe to the intentionally website to get the latest and greatest updates on all book club meetings and guests. I'm also going to drop a few links in the chat so you have these available to you for all of Car's information. So, if you don't follow her, you can follow her on social media. You can check out her website and then you can also go purchase her book now because I guarantee by time this is done, you're going to have it in your cart and delivered in your door within two business days.

Um, a few other things before we get started today is that this book club meeting is being recorded. So if you are not in attendance today, know that if you registered or want to share this with other people that this will be sent out at the completion of our webinar. Um it's also available to all participants shared on YouTube as well. So don't forget to subscribe to intentionally on YouTube as well as subscribe to our newsletter so you can stay updated on upcoming book clubs. Lastly, if you are an author or have anyone else that you would want to recommend for our book club here, uh book clubgrowintentionally.com is the best way to reach out to us. And lastly, we appreciate your time and attention today. Understand that this program is educational and offers no financial advice specific to your circumstances. Please consult with your registered financial advisor.

And without further introduction, I'm so excited to read this amazing woman's bio. Carrie Commonro is an award-winning certified financial planner with over 25 years of experience. She is a managing wealth advisor and woman wealth um ambassador at Ashen Thomas where she leads a multi-million dollar financial planning practice focused on empowering women. Carrie is the best-selling author of The Money Queens Guide. If you don't have it, you need to get it. We can do this on another book club and read it together. And the book that we will be reviewing today, Women in Wealth, a playbook to empower clients and unlock their Fortune, which offers actionable strategies for better serving women in financial services. Note this, it was number one new release in wealth management and number one in business, finance, and economics. a respected industry voice. She's been named as Investopedia's top 100 financial advisors list six times and is the first female of the 2024 NASDAQ Advisory Council. She has been a CFP board ambassador for over a decade through speaking media appearances and advocacy. Carrie champions financial literacy and female empowerment. Welcome today, Carrie. I'm so excited to have you here today.

Thank you so much, Ashley, for having me. You've been amazing just in already on this whole experience of being on this book club with you.

Oh, I I'm just blessed to have you here today. Let me tell you, reading your book was just so insightful for so many levels. Not being a financial adviser, it gave me insights on what as I look for a financial adviser, what I would be looking for, what I hope for, and how I hope people do see me when it comes to my legacy and building out my life. But enough about me. Let's start with reviewing again. Woman in wealth, shameless promotion. And if you're like me, you put a bunch of postits in your book. So, sorry if I if I've made too many notes, but let's start with the why. What inspired you to write women in wealth and why now?

So, as I well, I don't know how many of you know, but it's all it's it's the it's the main basis for my book, but women are going to inherit 2thirds of the nation's wealth by 2030, which is now four and a half short years away. 30 trillion is the same amount as the GDP of the United States. So, we're going from onethird controlling onethird of the wealth to twothirds of the wealth. And then if you go out even further like beyond Cerulei says by 2048 it's going to be 57 trillion. So the numbers just keep growing and growing and growing. So I wrote this book as a playbook meaning literally to teach all other advisors how to work with women and as a rallying cry. Guess what guys? We might not be doing it the best way. And I'm going to I'm going to literally give you the keys to the kingdom of why you should be changing your playbook because what worked in the past is not going to work in the future because you're going to have a new client and it's going to be a woman.

Exactly. So, we talked a little bit about this before we got on the call. So, I'm excited to share this with our audience because we do have men and women here today. So, I think it's important to address both demographics because I think this is what this book is essentially about, right? So, who were we writing this book for? Was there a specific woman, client, or moment that you realized that this book is needed for the masses?

So, uh, I've known this book is needed for quite a while. I've been talking about the great wealth transfer for over a decade and we are now four and a half short years away and we have still have not changed. The industry has not changed. We're still only um 80% men, 20% women advisors and most clients of wealth management are men right currently as we speak. So I knew that this great shift was happening and we have to get ready for it. So I said I'm I'm writing this book. I have to write this book. Like there's this is my life's work and I need to share it and change change the industry with this book. So when I thought what I thought about was I really want to write this book for the male advisors. What but what's interesting is the original title of the book was compel her don't sell her a playbook to empower clients and unlock their fortune which I think more men would be very interested in. Every time I say that to a man they're like oh I like that title. So unfortunately WY my publisher changed the title to women in wealth a playbook to empower clients and unlock their fortune. And because of the the shift of the change in the title more women are interested now in the book than men. However it is for both 100% for both. It's for women um who also exactly like you who are not adviserss but who want to know what does a relationship look like with an adviser? What should I be asking? what should it feel like and and what are the questions I should be asking. So I have all of that in the in the book itself and so it's for people who don't who are not advisers and people who are advisers male and female.

Yeah. And just the note that for the people who are adviserss on this call when you're reading through the book at the end of each chapter there's a recap but then there's also additional information around questions that you can be asking yourself as well as the clients to better yourself when you're building out your practice. So that's a important note because I started to answer these questions to myself and I'm like wait I'm not managing clients but I want to understand them right. Um so when you first start the book one of the biggest things that you do talk about is your past marriage and I want to say thank you for being vulnerable. Thank you for being honest. And you talk about the challenges that and through the path through divorce that you faced and then of course you fell in love and that was my favorite part. I was like yes the redemption moment. Um but you also noted it took you four years to get out of this divorce. So one of the things that me and my friends always say is that your life partner is one of your biggest investments for women who are picking their life partner. What is the highest risk financial decision or what is um when you're choosing a life partner as one of the highest risk financial decisions that a woman can make? What do you do as advisors that you do? What do you do as adviserss to protect your clients against the potential downfall of marriages or relationships or when you're seeing clients for example when you pick your one client up at the impound lot? What do you do in those situations to ensure that there's continued protection for them?

Yeah, it's it first of all the what I always say is it's a very difficult discussion and you have to have it in the beginning before before the marriage or you know I can honestly 100% of the time when I'm sitting with a couple I can tell if their relationship is going to make it or not. So um I you know believe in prenups and I believe in having the difficult conversations in advance. I talk about, you know, getting financially naked with your with your potential spouse before you get married. So, you know, what the skeletons in the closet are, you know, because you're not just marrying them. You're marrying their money, their debt, their skeletons, their financial personality. If one's a spender and one's a saver, you're already going to have issues uh because you're going to be on two different pages. But the, you know, it's a financial planning decision who you marry. So, you know, choose wisely because if you don't, you're going to pay. And I am a perfect example of paying dearly. I paid for years and years and years of my life by because of making the wrong decision and marrying Mr. Wrong.

Yeah. But we found Mr. Ray. So, let's let's believe is his name Steve. I believe.

It is Stephen. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was checking out, you know, your socials. I could see that big smile together on all of your adventures and it just brought me so much joy. I love love.

Thank you. We love too.

Exactly. Um, okay. So as we're discussing, we talked about that this book is for men as well, but we're discussing women when we go through like how we need to handle the tra the wealth transfer, but also women as not just clients, not just as leaders, but as advisers, decision makers, and as we noted as the largest group po inherit generational wealth. What do you see as the biggest untapped strength women bring to wealth management as advisers and as clients as well for both their financial success and making the industry itself more inclusive and forward thinking?

So women think holistically about their money and their lives and they care more about what it's going to do for them and they want to change the world. you know, I me being one of them, you know, I I want to use my money for good. So, you know, women in general, when you meet with a woman, you can literally change the world with her, and you can lay out these incredible strategies. And women care more about, you know, how is this going to affect me personally, my family, my life, you know, how is this money going to what is it going to do for me? versus, you know, beating the S&P 500 or caring about the, you know, tying tying like they don't care as much about um I guess the stats that men do in the sense of, you know, we don't I don't talk about performance um numbers with I mean, of course, I talk about performance, but they don't care about it as much. They care about how is this going to affect me and am I going to run out of money and am I going to be okay and can I live the lifestyle I want? Can I can I donate to charity? Can I have a second home? Can my kids be okay? Can my are my kids going to go to the college that they want? All those types of things. So the money is tied to a purpose rather than um just you know growing money for the sake of growing money. Right. Exactly. So it's a it's a little bit different and it's a different mindset. Um so I believe that you know women in general you know are more I don't know if you know this also I I have a whole chapter on it but the women in charity women are much more charitably inclined than men. So you know tying money to altruism and what women can do to change the world is just a win-winwin.

I agree. There was a recent article because the Bezos Mary um wedding where they talked about his ex-wife and how she's I believe donated a m not a majority yet but her goal is to donate a majority of her wealth by the time her time on this earth is done instead of just accumulating it and just sitting on it. There was another article they're talking about Bill Gates kind of doing the same thing in the sense of he wants he doesn't want to die rich. His goal is by the time that he dies is to have like a 99% negative net worth because what is the purpose of dying rich if you can't you can't spend the money. So it is interesting when you think of just the climate of like men and women in finances and like even what's projected out into the media, how we view uh accumulated wealth, right? You even talked about like cash hoarding a little bit as well, like how women are more inclined to do that opposed to men. So, it's all these different like nuances which I'm going to skip around a little bit on my questions, but um one of the things that you brought up that I really really loved and I feel like I started to really see myself a little bit further. Um and actually before I post that question or go over that question, I'm going to send out a poll question live for everyone. Um launching it now. What are your finance what area of your financial life do you most want to feel more confident about? investing in growth wealth, retirement planning, estate and legacy planning, and budgeting and cash flow. While you answer that, I'm going to go over one of the another uh concept that Carrie talks about in her book for advisors who want to serve women. Um we talk about or just people in general, the four money beliefs. Money mind is another way that we can focus on it, but how they shape relationships with wealth. And so just to go over the four core money beliefs, what money worship, belief that money brings happiness, money status, equating self-worth with net worth, money vigilance, controlling spending and living cruy, and then money avoidance, rejecting the concept of money due to emotional distress. So with all of those stages, how do you believe that the um these beliefs influence the way that people choose to save, spend, invest, and how exploring that these can help clients better understand their why and their financial decisions?

Sure. So if you really when you think about it, a lot of our reactions and how we react to money is subconscious, right? We don't even think about it. We just make those decisions, right? And so we um when I was at United Capital, we had we we actually called these uh we had it called money mind. And so we equated these to um these money beliefs to money money mind. And that was a quiz that we used to tell people to we was a seven question quiz and they would figure out what is their unconscious response to money. And you know people would be in different buckets like fear, happiness, commitment and then why people do the things that they do right. So for example if I am um money mind happiness or I think that money spending gives me happiness right then everything I'm going to do is related to probably overspending and I don't care because guess what I'm not thinking about tomorrow. I'm thinking about right now. And most people who are in that bucket tend to struggle with having enough money for retirement or because they're living in the moment and they're living for the now rather than for the future. Now, the complete opposite of that is the fear money mind, which is very protective and I'm never going to have enough and I need to feather and nest my egg. I mean, make my make my my feather my nest, make it bigger, make my nest egg bigger, and, you know, save as much as I can, invest as much as I can, almost never spend. And so, that's the complete extreme opposite of that. Whereas, then you're going to wind up with too much at the end, and you're not going to have to have lived or experienced life. And you know, those clients are usually more of the clients that I'm working with because they're coming to me because they have so much and they have they also have a lot of fear around those decisions. And so I'm supposed to be there to counsel them. It's okay to spend. It's okay to buy this. It's okay to go first class. You know, when they're at the situation where they are where they have enough. And then once you get to the enough, how do you then turn on the spot of spending, which is another whole story.

Yeah, this is true. So, I was listening to a podcast you were on and I believe you said you save 50% of what you make. Is that.

Yes.

That's amazing.

Yeah. I'm a fear money mind if you can't tell.

I was listening to that. I was like, "Okay, where does she fall in this?"

Yes. Well, and I'm trying to turn the spot on and it's it's very very difficult. But I'm I'm actually at the stage where I'm really really working on it. I'm really working on turning that spot on.

Yeah. Well, I think you are turning this speaker on because then we proceed to talk about like the charities and the foundations and the scholarships that you set up at your alma m. So, I think you're doing a great job.

Thank you.

Yeah, I I was like going through the book, I was learning so much about, you know, finance and wealth management, but then also learning a lot about you and ways that like I can build my profile to be more like you. So, definitely appreciate the stories. Um, all right. So, talking about men, let's take a step back. when it comes to toxic masculine bro culture which we're all familiar with we've all experienced to an extent um still it still shows up in the financial services today and I think it does impact some of the mindset and behaviors that not only it exhibits to the female counterparts who are advisers as well and what they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis but also how they go about finding their clients which is something that we're really talking about like not seeing women for who they are. What do you think is the key step for the industry to move in the right direction to not miss out on this opportunity over the next four to five years with a great wealth transfer? What do you think need to disrupt the bro culture?

So, well, first of all, we have to acknowledge that it exists and that it might not be female friendly. So, that's like step one is just admitting that there's a problem, right? And a lot of industries and and firms don't even see that there is anything like for example you know I remember when I was at United Capital and we had um our annual managing director conferences there would only be golfing events and that's it. And I'm like I don't play golf. I don't want to play golf. I you know that's like it's a male thing and it's okay. I mean some women play it. I just don't. I'm not one of them. And I'm like you need to add a spa option. And they're like what? And I'm like, you need to add a spa option. And they did. And then they added a spa option. And then, you know, I also petitioned them with a with a um I did a a white paper on the great wealth transfer and said, "We need to have a whole women's leadership um division and I told them the dollars and cents of why." And then I actually got it. And so we we we had it. We were we were moving the needle. We were doing all these great things. We were changing the client experience. We were making it more female friendly. It was already female friendly to begin with because it was very behavioral finance focused and really um you know a ahead of its time at the time.

And so it's interesting because so I guess just first acknowledging that there's a problem. Second, um having the management know that, you know, they're going to put dollars and resources behind this initiative, whatever that means. If it means having a women's leadership division, having a women's initiative, having a women and wealth ambassador to, you know, focus the attention of the firm in that direction. You know, having a de andi, even though that, of course, that word is totally out of favor right now. Um, I just won de andi trailblazer of the year and I told them it needs a new name because it's obviously out of the name is out of favor. But anyway, um, and so there's a lot of things that need to be done. Um, and also just in general the, you know, young girls coming in, you know, are, you know, uncomfortable in if they have to go to meetings late at night at at a conference, you know, where everybody's drinking and it's super uncomfortable. Like so I always say like I don't even go I wouldn't go to a like everyone's like we're meeting at the bar afterwards. I don't go.

I don't go I don't put myself in situations where people are drinking and it's late at night and it's unc you know something's something's not great's going to happen and it's really an uncomfortable situation for women and guys don't even realize that it's a thing.

They don't. And it's interesting that you say that because I always like make the joke like, "Oh yeah, I'll go a happy hour for two drinks and I'm on my way home because past that point and past a certain time, there's no reason for me to be there because of how things can escalate." And not saying that they do in every situation, but it's good to have these protections. But I do think that this is something that women have to take into consideration when they are in male-dominated spaces that men don't necessarily like think about, right? They're not thinking if they're working for all women company that I shouldn't be out drinking at happy hour with all of these women. Like what's the worst that could really happen to that man in that situation, right? So, it is important for the bro culture to be disrupted in order for change to happen because another thing that people see also is when the husband's no longer there and you are working with the woman, how many women lead the financial advisor, right? It's 70%. And so.

it's actually it's they say 70 to 90. So, let's split the difference and say 80%. 80. So 80% which is like.

right.

it's crazy when you think of the majority of people who are just not seizing this opportunity and essentially bro culture in my opinion is associated with ego.

Well and in my in the book by the way the chapter is actually called bro culture and lawsuits. So, I actually call out every lawsuit that has happened um in this industry related to gender and it's greater than you think. Let's just put it that way.

Yeah. When I was starting to I actually calculated the millions that turned into trillions that people have had to pay out based off these lawsuits. It's just all very avoidable. Um so just to shared our first poll of the day again it says what area of your of your financial life do you most want to feel more confident about investigating and uh growing wealth retirement planning estate and legacy planning and budgeting and cash flow. I see majority of you are in state and legacy planning and budgeting and cash flow. So my next question for you today, Miss Carrie, is in chapter 21, you discussed the power of life changes and transitions, and this is more of a specific advisor question like divorce, career shifts, or caregiving. You use those as opportunities to have deeper financial conversations with your clients. How can advisors turn these moments into opportunities to build trust and truly align planning with what matters most to their clients?

Okay. Well, first I'm going to take the first part of that which is divorce and widowed. So in my chapter I talk about all the women's life events and I have like a circle of life events for women. Unfortunately our industry for the past however long the industry's been around 50 60 70 years. We've only looked at women in two categories divorced or widowed. Women are more than divorced and widowed. we are a whole host of other things. So there's all these different life stages for women and if you are not addressing them you're missing entire stages of life for women. You know women are and I one of the things I always talk about is menopause which is a huge stage of life for women where women sometimes you know quit their jobs you know change their life changes in a lot of different ways. There's a lot of things going on physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all of the above, you know, and so are you talking about menopause with your clients? And when I say that men freak out, but even women freak out because I'm they're like, "What?" And I'm like, "No, no, it's it's it's a life event you should be discussing."

It's super important. But there's all these other different stages that you should be helping your female clients with, like, you know, women who are trying to get pregnant and freezing eggs. And you could do a whole thing on, you know, the whole generation of women in in their 30s and 40s, you know, freezing eggs, even 20s. Some some are even doing it in their 20s. But so like that's like a whole a whole segment. But anyway, the whole point of this is that women are not just divorced and widowed. There's all these different life events for women. Um, and guess what? The more the deeper you go with your clients, the more loyal they're going to be with you and they're they're going to be with you for the rest of their lives because the women make the best clients. That's the other thing I I'm convinced women and you know my practice is 80% women, 20% couples and out of those couples, most of the couples are the women is the primary bread winner. So, I have, you know, very strong women in my practice. And what's interesting is I I I don't know, we're not really talking about this on this call, but I moved my practice four times in five years with 100% retention. And when people hear that, they flip out. And it's because of me talking about all these life events with my clients and and getting that deep. Do you ever have um so not to put my sister's life out there, but my sister is she's in her early 40s and she's actually going through experiencing premenopause symptoms. Is this something that also comes up for your clients? Because I feel like there's definitely more research around premenopause and how it does affect women's behaviors and emotions and all the things that menopause kind of kicks off. But there's this pre-stage that we also experience too. Is this when these conversations are happening around.

Oh, yeah. You could start them. you could start them now. I mean, as a matter of fact, there's um a new book that just came out called How to Menopause uh by Tamson Fidal and it it addresses there's a whole chapter there's multiple chapters on pmenopause as well.

Yeah, it's like it's crazy to even think about and just like women are starting to experience in their late 30s, early 40s. So, definitely something to keep our eyes on um when it does come to just like the changes in women. I find that so interesting. Again, I work with financial advisors every day. So, there's so many things in this book that brought to light that I'm like gonna share, you know, wordsmiths for my clients and share with them. Um, so we're talking about it now from the front end on the client side, but on the back end as a CFP, you have decades of experience in this industry. You are forced in every which way that you step on the stage. For my question for you is like there still is this persistent wealth gap that women are being faced with. Um although there have been strides in other countries which you do note as well in the book different organizations in different places specifically London you had mentioned about their change and inquiring um laws around ensuring that women are paid adequately. What do you think needs to be the first step for not only just women but women of color to be paid what they're worth?

So the first thing which we don't have which is which we really need is pay transparency and you know other countries have it we don't. So you know it's so interesting because as a financial adviser who you know is a rain maker I eat what I kill. And so I always thought I don't I'm not subject to pay discrimination at all because I you know get my own clients and I do my own thing. And so and then it was so interesting because there was a thing there was a a a survey. It was called motto and it was how much would I make if I was a man a man in this in this field and so I did it and it said I would make 90% more if I was a man. And I was like what how is that even possible? But it's unconscious bias, implicit bias, and just things that are, you know, keeping people from working working with me for whatever reason that, you know, as an adviser, you know, I had I had a client once who uh we were doing a promotion where we were giving out um an hour of my time with like a and it was when I was at United Capital back in the day. And um I had a client of mine who said, "Oh, I gave it to my girlfriend." And she said, "I will never work with her because she's a woman and a man can take care of my money better." So there you go.

That's like it's always your own that gets you like that's just so crazy to me to say just because I know for me like even seeking like doctors, I'm I I want a a woman dermatologist. I want a woman. And you know, no shade to men on in these professions, but there's a level of comfort that I feel when I walk into a room and I see someone who represents or looks like me. So that's so interesting to hear a woman say that. And obviously that's something that like we hear and we know, but this brings me to my next question. I'm actually going to also push our next polling question through. What motivates you most to take action for your finances? Um Carrie mentioned that a lot of her clients sometimes are coming to her not I don't want to say necessarily in distress but they're going through something or experience something. So this question I thought would be really good. I'm going to launch it over to you. Gaining independence and peace of mind providing for your family and future generations which goes again with legacy planning achieving specific life goals and then overcoming past financial decisions. Why that question goes? I want to come back to the idea of community because within your book you also note several charities. You also note several women who are forces within this industry including Dorothy Henclap, um Jerry Lynn Klein, Katherine Kingsberry, uh Susan Syracuse, and even before our call, we talked about our love and how spectacular Tina Pow is. So again, shout out. I love you, Tina. Um but I want to talk about how this.

but how did this community shape your journey and what advice would you give women who are looking to build a meaningful professional relationship in this industry?

Well, first of all, you need you need other women. Like women need women. We all need each other. We are you need to find your tribe, right? You just like period. Like you need to find a tribe. So I have always been my entire life, my one thread in my life has always been helping women. Like I look back like there's a book called The One Thing and I look back on the the thread of my life and it has always been helping women. Uh when I was in college, I started a sorority because I wanted I was founding president of a sorority because I wanted women to feel safe at college and there wasn't a good sorarity when when I got it wasn't a national sorority when I got there. So I did that. Then when I was in when I started working right out of college, I was I wanted to work specifically with women because I was like, wait a minute, women are not getting women are not talking about money. They're not learning about money. You know, it's not something that women talk about. it's just not something that we, you know, talk about with our friends. And so I wanted to change that and then that's been and now I want to change the industry for women. So like it's my it's my driving force in my life. But the whole point of this is that we need to show up to help each other to share to support each other's strengths and and um share each other's successes. And we are 1 + 1 equals 11 when when you're talking about women because we are so much stronger together and we can help lift each other up and it is what I completely believe in and I support and s I support all these women in my life and I'm you know I'm like I'm one of those people that like are still friends with some with like my friends from like elementary school from like kindergarten. So like they're still like once you're a friend you're a friend. So like this is what I believe in and you need your friends in this industry. So start your tribe now.

I agree with you and I feel like I'm so fortunate. I see so many like spectacular women and I work for spectacular women here at intentionally who just drive the boat forward. And I always say that like you can work for a small company and that company can have 10 people, but if nine of them are women, you're doing the job of a hundred because we just the way that we think, the way that we move, the way we talk in our execution is just it's just top tier. So moral of the story, you're a girls girl and always have been.

Yes. Exactly. Exactly.

I agree with that. Um, so when it comes to advisors, I mentioned the questions that you're asking the adviserss throughout the book and in each different section, but when it comes to adviserss and it comes to self-reflection, what do you think is is the toughest thing that we can say men or women um have to do when it comes to asking themselves the hard questions and to make shift with their advisory practice or even own clients?

Um, the hard Can you I'm sorry. Yeah, like the No, no, no, it's okay. Like the hard shift. So, like what questions do you think are important for advisors to ask themselves like it could be specifically men or women?

Yeah.

So, so the I I would say that you know do I treat women differently and and how how how do I even know that I'm doing that? Right? So, for example, one of the things in the book is there's a quiz. It's Kathleen Kingsbury, my friend. um who I who I borrowed with permission and it's um how female friendly is your practice and it's a 20 question quiz to look to see are there blind spots then there's also am I using implicit or unconscious bias and there's also a quiz in the book from Harvard from Harvard it's not mine um where you can go and click and take the quiz to see where are your blind spots so what am I doing like what do What do I I don't I might not know what I don't know. And am I turning off that woman? Am I is that woman going to leave me when when when the spouse dies? And you know, has that happened to you in the past? And if so, then guess what? You you should definitely examine this now and do you know one or a hundred things that that are in my book because I'm going to give you I'm going to tell you all these different steps to take so that you can change your experience for women.

Agreed. Um, do you think this is random but like do you think that people are willing to make this change like from the industry individuals that you know?

So I think everybody who's reading the book the answer is yes. Um, it's the people that are not reading the book that the answer is they don't think they need it or maybe they, you know, haven't lost clients yet or maybe their business is, you know, not contracting yet or maybe they are going to wait till 2030 when things completely shift or, you know, I mean, I would say we should start doing it now. I mean, I'm saying it's a trillion dollar opportunity. I'm handing you the keys to the kingdom of a trillion dollar opportunity. All you have to do is take it. I got to change just a little bit. Look inward. Um, so just to push the results from our last polling question, we see a majority of people are looking to gain independence and peace of mind when it comes to their finances. I think I definitely agree with that for sure. I'm always trying to move in direction of my own independence financially and that take comes over time, but also what we're learning it comes from like your advisor seeing you and working with the right person. Um, all right. So my final question for you today, Carrie, is if readers, adviserss, or women could walk away with one urgent call to action from your book to truly serve and empower women, but also themselves financially, what would it be?

So this is kind of a a twofold because I have two two answers based on you the the audiences. So, if I'm a woman or a man who's not an adviser and I want to be financially secure, um, you need to be 100% ownership of your own financial future, especially as a woman because 90% of the cases you're going to be responsible anyway if you want to be or not, either by being a widowed or divorced. So, you know, not somebody else is not going to take care of it for you. I want you to own it. I want you to own your own financial future. And I want you to either if you can't do it yourself, I want you to get with a CFP that you can work with, that you trust, that you feel comfortable with, that you, you know, trust in your gut. And, you know, you take the book, ask the questions, read the book to see what questions I should be asking my advisor. What should this relationship look like? You know, um, and then because guess what? They're going to be your advocate and your coach and they're going to get you to where you need to be so that you are financially free. And um somebody said to me recently, "What is financial freedom to you?" And I said, "Financial freedom to me is making more money from my passive income and investments than my day job. That's financial freedom." And that's what I want for everyone where where every where you don't have to work unless you want to work. it's your choice, you know, and then that's the greatest greatest place to be. Now, as far as advisors go, what I would like them to take away is just acknowledge that women are different than men and you are going to need a different playbook. And if you're using the same playbook for the men, look at just read the book and see there's 150 maybe 250 things in the book to do to change change the way you're speaking, writing, whatever, marketing. Um, there's a lot of there's a lot of incredible information in there to help you achieve this goal and work with this incredible next population which is women.

The first part I feel like we were having a private conversation that is so important. Um, I just want to like give you all one last look of the book, Women and Wealth. If you don't have it, definitely check it out on Amazon and it's also on Audible as well. I also want to say thank you, Carrie, for taking the time to not only go over your your story, but also sharing it with the world and making your life's work something that's enjoyable and something that we all need because at the end of the day, like the the voice of the woman wants to be heard. And the more content, the more people we have advocating for us, the more likely we will see change and growth in this industry and the world in general and how we are supported and nurtured and care for. I want to say thank you to everyone here. As always, I appreciate you joining our book club. It is always a pleasure to connect with all of you and have you here to hear the amazing stories of those who are joining and publishing some thought leader content that really is changing the industry. Look out for the next book club. Information will come soon for September's. I hope everyone has a really great summer and have a great day. Thank you so much, Carrie.

You're welcome. Bye, everyone.

Bye.