Tag: Financial Planning

The Healthy Advisor: Getting Financially Sober With Matthew Grishman

The Healthy Advisor: Getting Financially Sober With Matthew Grishman

Early in his career in financial services, Matthew Grishman was working as a wholesaler, making a lot of money, and on the outside, he looked as though he was living his best life, with the Rolex watch, the shiny Allen Edmonds shoes, the Hickey Freeman suits. But on the inside, he was empty and trying to fill a hole with money, alcohol and other things. 

But one day his money addiction got so out of control that he was broke. He had hit rock bottom and was faced with a critical decision: make massive changes to how he was living his life, or die broke and alone. He chose change. 

In this episode, Diana Britton is joined by Matthew Grishman, principal and wealth advisor at Gebhardt Group in Roseville, Calif. Matthew opens up about how his money addiction—and later on, an alcohol addiction—almost cost him everything. He shares his journey getting to a place of financial sobriety,  including the pivotal role a financial advisor (and now business partner) played in his healing. 

Today, through his book, “Financial Sobriety: Rebuilding Your Relationship With Money One Step at a Time,” and podcast, Matthew is dedicated to helping others become more intentional with three complex and interconnected relationships: money, people, and self.

Matthew discusses: 

  •   The events that led to his out-of-control money addiction
  •   How he responded initially when he hit that first critical bottom
  •   The realization he had after meeting with an advisor for support
  •   What happened to him when he reached a second critical bottom in life, and how overcame an alcohol addiction
  •   What prompted him to start sharing his deeply personal experiences with others

Resources:

Connect With Matthew Grishman:

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About Our Guest:

Matthew Grishman began his career in financial services in 1995 with A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. and became fully licensed as an Investment Broker in 1996. He spent 17 years as a national spokesperson for large mutual fund and insurance companies (Lord, Abbett & Co, Putnam, and MetLife). 

Matthew left corporate America in 2011 to devote his time and experience in financial services to his family, friends, and neighbors. 

In 2014, Matthew joined Gebhardt Group, Inc., an independent Registered Investment Advisor. He became an owner of the firm in 2015. 

As a Principal and Wealth Advisor of Gebhardt Group, Inc., Matthew provides wealth management services for families experiencing major life transitions (inheritance, sale of a business, death or divorce of a spouse, planning for retirement, career change, or sudden loss of a job).

The Healthy Advisor: Finding Healing in the Gym With Deadlifter Jess Bost

The Healthy Advisor: Finding Healing in the Gym With Deadlifter Jess Bost

Jess Bost found CrossFit during a traumatic time in her life. About her workouts, she says, “I went to the darkest place I could, and I fought my demons in that place.” 

CrossFit, which stands for cross-discipline fitness, became her bridge to healing. 

In this episode, Diana Britton is joined by Jess Bost, the vice president of brand partnerships at Alpha Architect and part-time CrossFit Coach. Here, she opens up about how her experience with intense workouts and a supportive community gave her the outlet she needed during a time of profound grief. She also shares how exercise and community have shaped how she views the role of financial advisors.

Jess discusses: 

  • How she applied the concepts she learned from psychology and working with children with autism to CrossFit and also financial services 
  • How she got into CrossFit and how it keeps her healthy from a physical/spiritual/emotional standpoint
  • How CrossFit helped her heal from trauma
  • Why and how she’s become an advocate for fitness in the financial services industry
  • Where she sees the intersection of fitness and finance 

Connect With Jess Bost:

Connect With Wealth Management & NREI:

About Our Guest:

Jess Bost is the vice president of brand partnerships at Alpha Architect, and she also runs her own financial planning practice under the firm’s ADV. She’s also host of “The Breakthrough Factor” Podcast. 

Jess has been in the wealth management industry for about four years. Prior to that, she was a CrossFit coach and a personal trainer. Jess still coaches CrossFit part-time and plans to take the CrossFit Level 3 Certification in the near future. In 2017, she won a national title in Olympic weightlifting and qualified for the 2018 Pan Am Masters Weightlifting Championships. 



Transparency With Diana B.: The Glass Ceiling and Financial Independence With Julia Carlson

Transparency With Diana B.: The Glass Ceiling and Financial Independence With Julia Carlson

A Note to Transparency Listeners: In 2022, the podcast is going to be changing its name to “The Healthy Advisor,” to give a clearer idea of what the podcast is about. Transparency with Diana B. was not quite as transparent a title as we thought. 

Julia Carlson got married at age 19, and right out of high school took a job at a local bank. She learned that the glass ceiling in the financial services industry comes quickly, so she left the bank after just four years and launched Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group, taking on an entrepreneurial challenge at a time in her life when most financial services professionals are just finishing up their secondary educations.

Now she’s one of LPL’s top advisors. But the journey to where she is today was not easy. She overcame problems in her marriage. And in 2012, her then 9-year-old daughter was in a bad car accident and ended up in the ICU. 

In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor of WealthManagement.com, speaks with Julia Carlson, founder and CEO of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group in Newport, Ore. Julia shares her story, including the challenges she’s faced along the way and what has shaped her and the work she does today. 

Julia discusses: 

  • What led her into financial services, and her experience early in her career
  • The struggles she has faced as a female advisor in a male-dominated industry
  • The lessons she learned while trying to build her business
  • How her firm struggled in the early years to reach profitability
  • How her daughter’s accident changed her perspective on the business and led her to give up some control of her firm 
  • Her advice for other entrepreneurs and female advisors

Connect With Julia Carlson:

Connect With WealthManagement.com:

About Our Guest:

Julia Carlson is the founder and CEO of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group. She’s been practicing financial planning for more than 20 years and specializes in helping people who
are either retired or close to retirement. She’s been recognized as being especially knowledgeable
on topics relating to tax strategies for retirement, distribution and business exit planning.

Julia loves educating and empowering others to take control of their financial future. As a wealth advisor, she has helped individuals, families and business owners create financial strategies guiding them along the journey to financial freedom. In 2017, Julia wrote Fit Money, a guide to personal finance from a woman’s perspective.

As a successful entrepreneur, she enjoys working with other entrepreneurs who want to gain control of their financial future, build wealth inside and outside their company and create a powerful exit strategy whether they are ready to exit now or 20 years down the road.

Transparency With Diana B.: Coming Back From Failure with Eric Arnold

Transparency With Diana B.: Coming Back From Failure with Eric Arnold

Eric Arnold is no stranger to failure. In fact, he failed out of college, got fired from two companies, failed at nine different startup ventures and lost everything on a bad investment. 

In this episode, Diana Britton speaks with Eric Arnold, CEO of Planswell, about how he has learned from those failures and has been given a second chance with Planswell. 

Toronto-based Planswell, which was founded in 2015, was humming by late 2019 and was in the middle of another funding round. Then accusations of sexual harassment within the company ranks surfaced, and investors pulled out of that funding round. Arnold had to fold up shop, with some 60 employees losing their jobs. 

But in 2020, he had the opportunity to buy the Planswell brand, and he retooled the software to work with retail financial advisors.  

In this episode, Arnold opens up about the ordeal, which turned into a social media storm about how he and his firm reacted to the accusations. 

Eric discusses: 

  • How his early experiences in life shaped his entrepreneurial drive
  • How a car accident that occurred when he was 17 years old, killing his father, grandmother and family dog, impacted his life and family
  • The journey that led him to start Planswell
  • How the allegations of sexual harassment at Planswell impacted the company and its funding
  • How he would have approached the situation differently 
  • How he is doing things differently at Planswell today
  • And more

Connect With Eric Arnold:

Connect With Wealth Management:

About Our Guest:

Eric Arnold dropped out of college, was fired from two companies and failed nine startups. Yet he is still an entrepreneur. He discovered how to make money from a young age and has been working hard ever since.

Transparency with Diana B.: The Road to Recovery

Transparency with Diana B.: The Road to Recovery

Advisor Gary Schwartz was always able to make money; at the young age of 12, he started delivering newspapers in the Bronx. That’s also when he discovered drugs and alcohol, which became a way for him to self-medicate and cope with his self-esteem issues. From there, the addiction progressed; cocaine and speed were his drugs of choice. 

In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor of WealthManagement.com, is joined by Schwartz, president and CEO of Madison Planning Group in White Plains, N.Y., who’s been clean for 32 years. Gary shares about how he eventually got on the road to recovery. But once he got clean, he felt the need to overcompensate for his addiction and his past by buying things for his family and sending his kids to the best schools. But that eventually caught up to him as well, and he nearly had to file for bankruptcy. 

He discusses his journey of overcoming those struggles to build his own advisory business, which is now thriving. 

Gary discusses: 

  • The experiences that shaped him early on in life;
  • What led him to become addicted to drugs and alcohol;
  • What his career looked like while he was struggling with addiction and how it has changed throughout recovery;
  • How family and friends played a role in getting help;
  • How his desire to overcompensate eventually led him to near-bankruptcy; and 
  • How Gary’s experiences shaped his career in financial services.

Connect With Gary Schwartz:

Connect With Wealth Management & NREI:

About Our Guest:

Gary Schwartz opened the doors to Madison Planning Group in White Plains, N.Y. in 1997, followed by the Syracuse office in 2007, Long Island office in 2013 and Lake Worth, Fla. office in 2017. He attributes the firm’s success to the fact they are focused on one thing: managing the success of every single client. As part of his personal commitment to financial education, Madison Planning Group provides worksite educational seminars for employees of state agencies, unions, as well as financial workshops for employees of private and public corporations.

 

Transparency with Diana B.: Empowering Women to Take Control of Their Finances

Transparency with Diana B.: Empowering Women to Take Control of Their Finances

Advisor Robert Schein’s father worked hard his adult life to provide for his family, and just four months into retirement, at the age of 70, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer. After about three years battling the disease, his father ultimately passed, thrusting his mother into having to take over the family finances. 

Luckily, Schein and his brother stepped in to help and set her on a positive financial path. But many women aren’t as lucky. The experience inspired Schein to launch The Society of Financially Empowered Women, a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating a community and forum where independent women may acquire the confidence to take control of their financial lives, in 2011. 

In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor of WealthManagement.com, speaks to Schein, managing director and partner of Blanke Schein Wealth Management, a Hightower firm, in Palm Desert, Calif. about why he decided to dedicate his life to helping women better understand their personal finances.  

In this episode, you will learn:

  • About his father’s journey to America and the values his father taught him growing up;
  • How his father’s stage four cancer diagnosis changed his life;
  • How Robert helped his mother navigate her finances after his father’s death;
  • Robert’s impression on how Wall Street treats women;
  • What inspired him to create the Society of Financially Empowered Women (Society of the FEW) and the Confidence Summit;
  • About the mission of the Society of the FEW, and how its efforts are expanding

Connect with Robert: 

Connect with Diana:

About Our Guest

Robert L. Schein, is Managing Director, Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of Hightower/Blanke Schein Wealth Management. With more than 25 years of experience as a financial professional, Robert demonstrates a strong commitment to both his clients and community.

Robert leads the asset allocation, design, and implementation of the investment portfolio review process for Hightower/Blanke Schein Wealth Management. He specializes in developing and supporting investment strategies for high-net-worth individuals and families with complex estates, as well as philanthropic and retirement planning needs.

 

Robert also specializes in the leadership of a community and forum where independent women can acquire the confidence to be leaders in their financial lives. As Founder of The Society of Financially Empowered Women Inc. (www.thesofew.com), he has vowed to empower women with education, support, and community. Recognized for his leadership in this area, Robert has been featured in various publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC.com, Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, On Wall Street, Investment News, The Desert Sun, and Palm Springs Life. Robert is a national speaker on the topic of financial education for women and was recently asked to speak at the Desert Woman’s Show and P.E.O. International.