Unlocking Your Potential: How Women Business Owners Can Achieve Success

Leah Alter [00:00:10]:

Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Leah Alter, and I'm Joanna Ehresman. And And this is Women Share, a marketing guide for women in financial services. And on today's episode, we are joined by Stacey Bartelson, a financial advisor who's found success in growing her practice by working with business owners. Stacey has built her Career over 15 years at Edward Jones, she holds both her certified financial planner and chartered chartered financial consultant certifications. But she's not only sharp technically, she brings the EQ to her practice as well.

Joanna Ehresman [00:00:44]:

She's passionate about helping her clients find meaning in their financial journey and connect their wealth with their purpose. Stacey's been recognized in the industry for her leadership as well. She's was selected to join the 2022 Barron's Women's Advisor Summit and is a member of the Edward Jones Women's Conference, which recognizes the top female advisers in the firm. Outside of the office, she's active in her community, both through her children's schools and community organizations. On a personal note, Stacy and I go way back To our college days. We've enjoyed talking shop about the industry throughout our careers. But as we launched this podcast, she came to mind as a perfect guest, as a Successful advisor who values connecting with others, specifically advancing women in the industry. So, Stacey, we are so happy to have you here on the show today.

Leah Alter [00:01:35]:

Thank you for joining us on Women's Share.

Stacey Bartelson [00:01:38]:

Thank you so much, ladies. I'm very honored to be a part of this podcast that you guys are starting. I think it's gonna be life changing for many women in this industry to just connect, share ideas. And I've already listened to everything you guys have done so far, And I can't wait for many more podcasts. So definitely, we'll be sharing it, and thank you so much for asking me to be a part of it and help with your journey to create this podcast for women.

Leah Alter [00:02:01]:

Thank you so much, Stacy. Those are such kind words, and we're just so excited that you're here. So to start out, let's We always like to start, kinda, with an overview of your practice, what kind of clients you serve, your assets, The niches that you focus on, that sort of thing.

Stacey Bartelson [00:02:18]:

Well, I can go back because it's been almost 15 years. It's been a long journey, and I can tell anybody in this industry and anybody that's Done this podcast that you start with taking anybody and so didn't really have a niche when I started 15 years ago at 27 years old, so I'm that much older. And I just worked with anybody I could. I knocked on doors. I knocked on business on our doors. And so my clients have grown through just doing that, over 15 years. But as time goes on and you get busier and your business builds by referrals because you take care of your clients, You're digging deep with them. You get all their family, their friends coming your way.

Stacey Bartelson [00:02:56]:

You kinda have to get more into different types of niches that you work with. So it's evolved over time, but our practice here does work with individuals, families, and business owners. I think business owners are kind of the lost Cheap that people are like, oh, you know, they're not gonna sell their business for a long time. They just work in their business. All their money's in their business. And I've realized over the last couple years, the business owners I've had, I've just worked with them more personally and individually, and kinda Push their business aside. Like, somebody they'll sell it, and they'll invest that money for them. But, really, you have to look at it a little differently.

Stacey Bartelson [00:03:31]:

And so Changing my business over time as we grow out our team. And so we do in our office, if you wanna know a little bit about, Like, the size of our office and what we do, it's been at Edward Jones, it's 1 adviser and 1 assistant, and you can grow those assistants over time as you need help to serve your clients. And that worked. That's fine. It's a small business owner that I was, but I just kinda looked at myself as I'm an adviser and I have my support staff. And now as time's going on and I've built out my business and Ever Jones is looking more at, we can have teams, we can have More advisers working with us and have more capacity to take on more when you have more people on your team to work together. And so now it's grown to where I have 2 assistants. I have a partner, Molly, in the business.

Stacey Bartelson [00:04:18]:

And now we're serving more and more clients because of that, and we're bringing in an associate advisor. And so that's kinda where we're at right now is continuing to just build. We have 350 to 400 families we work with, so sometimes that can be more just because we work with their kids, their grandkids. And I've grown the business on my own before to around 200 to 250,000,000 in assets. And now that I've brought in a part, We're just growing. And so now our goal is to create a team and help more people and someday maybe be that $1,000,000,000 business as looking more as we're a business, not

Leah Alter [00:04:53]:

just me as one financial adviser. Man, I love that. I also I'm curious. When you brought on another advisor in terms of, like, sharing ideas and being able to bounce things off of one another, did you see For you, an opportunity to kind of try different things and and think outside of the box of what you normally do?

Stacey Bartelson [00:05:19]:

That's a great question, Leah. So, yes, you know, what I think happens is as a business owner, and like I said, I never thought of myself as a true business owner. I was just I'm running a business, And how do I then start working more on my business? And so as always because it's been me, I'll reach out to mentors, and that's what I think this podcast can be great for and listen to other people that have done successful things in this industry, don't recreate the wheel. And so I always went to mentors in my business, and then I would I worked out of an office when I started, and so that's how I really got my partner. She came in, and I was training her and mentoring her, and I was like, Wow. You'd be a great partner. You share so many things with me. We both work better together.

Stacey Bartelson [00:05:58]:

We're gonna be able to help more people and change More lives in the communities we serve together versus as 1 person. And I think that's in any business, and we have to get our business owners to see that as well as You can do more to get you're better together. You're better sharing ideas and bouncing things off each other. And what I've learned over time, and I think I've even shared this Which went over time, but I I've looked at it more as, like, I'm a visionary, and I'll talk more about that if you guys want to, down the road with this podcast. But being a visionary, all of us in life are born with dreams and visions, but a lot of times it's just having leaders that help you Have that vision and dream come true. And we're all leaders in what we do every day, whether we're a parent to our kids, we're leading them, and our kids have dreams and visions or being in a business. So you can relate it both ways. But when Molly came in, I just realized, like, okay.

Stacey Bartelson [00:06:52]:

I'm more of the CEO. Like, I'm a vision. I know what I wanna do, but I need the implementation people, the integrators. And she came from a marketing background. I was like, wow. She's a financial advisor, but no marketing background, so she can be the marketing person. So it is really developing out those things that you're not as great at, that you can share and bounce things off of each other versus being just a 1 man show that I think I can figure it all out. I really can't.

Leah Alter [00:07:17]:

Well and it just so happens, Stacey, and I don't know that this was by design, but It's all women in your practice. Right?

Stacey Bartelson [00:07:23]:

Yes. So far, that's how our business is. We are hiring, another woman adviser who come in who is an estate planning attorney and wants to change direction just because we've connected with her. She sees our purpose, our vision, and how we work as a team. And she's very organized. We're like, oh, you could be a COO of our business. And so we're all gonna be advisers, but you all wear different hats. You need that advisory board In any business, not just a financial advisor business.

Stacey Bartelson [00:07:50]:

And I think that's what helps us work with families and business owners too is Everybody is a business that you're running, whether it's your household you run a business, it's your business at work. We all are different roles in what we do, And so then I, you know, I'm hiring an associate advisor, and the goal is that that's a female as well with a couple years in the industry, that can come help us. And I'm not saying we won't bring men in. Nothing against men. It's just this is what's worked out for our vision and our passion to create more purpose around money and have fun As we have a lot of fun in this office, and I do have boys. And so having an 8 and 10 year old boy and also a blended family with a 13 year old girl on a 16 year old boy. Who knows who who will wanna come and be a part of our awesome team sometimes? So men can come in. Just it's been an all win Team is so far and we're rocking it.

Stacey Bartelson [00:08:38]:

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, part of

Leah Alter [00:08:41]:

the impetus for this discussion today was the fact that, You know, I think building out an advisory practice you're not exclusively working with business owners, but you found success in that niche. Right? And so Kind of the spirit of the show is just sharing what's worked for you, best practices, that sort of thing. And you hit on this earlier, but I wanna 1st, talk about the fact that, at least in my experience, in my career, some advisers are, like, business owners. That's an interesting niche. They see the future Potential. Right? But it seems like you're really working that relationship for the long term for that future sale of the business versus the short term, you know, advice and guidance. So just tell me about how you think about that in relation to your practice of you you're working with Business owners, you said, before they're even they have a date certain that they're hoping to exit. So how are you thinking about that, and what would you encourage other advisers to think about maybe Think differently about working with business owners.

Stacey Bartelson [00:09:39]:

You know, business owners are their own animal for sure because as I'm a business owner, we all get Really, really busy, and you don't focus on planning for the next thing or planning for exit. And so as I've grown over 15 years, I've worked with business owners, and I'm always like, okay, they're a business owner. That's great. And I'll try to get their four zero one k plan. But that's really not Helping the business owner figure out this is your baby, and someday, you're not gonna wanna do that anymore. What's that look like to you and your life, your family's life? It's your identity. What's what's the next day gonna look like when you're not running your business anymore? And and so I think it's Paying it forward. And when you're working with these people, they're individuals even if they're a business owner.

Stacey Bartelson [00:10:23]:

So a lot of times the financial advisor is like, oh, I work with their individual Finances. I work with their family, and they might have some money to invest. Some don't, though, and then it's they just push it down the road. Like, I'll work with you when you have you sell your business or you wanna do a four one k plan with me. And in life, in general, I've always told myself when I start this business is you pay it forward. You never know When that person is going to sell or have a change in their life, inherit money, need your help, lose a loved one, and have insurance policies to deal with an estate, We can always help these people, and so if you pay it forward and you give them advice now, you never know when it's gonna come back tenfold. And so what I'd share with everybody is sometimes just helping one they go tell the next person. The next business owner that is selling comes and says, I hear you could help me with this.

Stacey Bartelson [00:11:09]:

And so it's really I've always just said, pay it forward in life and anything you do, it will come back tenfold. And so with the whole business owner, what I decided and I wanted to mention that is newer is Our firm has started to say we could get other designations. And I what they brought up is, SEPA, certified exit planning adviser. I'm like, what does that really mean? And so I looked into it because I love learning. We all gotta be curious in life and continue to learn, and so it's like, what's the next thing I could learn and help people with? And so I went and took this week long course. I'd highly recommend every adviser to look into it. It's growing significantly. It's been around about 12, 15 years.

Stacey Bartelson [00:11:46]:

It's through the Exit Planning Institute. The book they have you read is called Walking to Destiny, the Schneider the dad and the son that created this. The book Everybody should read even if you don't do the destination. It's called Walking to Destiny, and it changed my mindset around my own business, but also helping business owners. And it's helping them, like, discover where they're at, where they wanna be, how to grow value in their company today to be prepared for the future when they sell. And so that has really put a fire under me because I was like, I have all these business owners. Now over 15 years, I've worked with them. They have a little bit of money, but they now wanna sell.

Stacey Bartelson [00:12:21]:

And it was a family owned business for years, and they're in their sixties. And they're like, I just wanna be done. I wanna sell my business. I'm like, okay. Do you know the value of it? They're like, I think so. I don't know. Okay. Well, that doesn't really help when we wanna go up to the market.

Stacey Bartelson [00:12:34]:

And who we're gonna go to the market to? And do your kids want it? No. They don't. I thought they would. That's what I plan on all my life. It's the kids to take over. Well, these younger generations don't wanna take over that family owned business. And so then I just felt like I am not doing my job When my clients come to me and they're like, I wanna sell, but I don't know what to do. And now it's 5 years down there or 10 years down there that I've worked with them or didn't really work that much With them, I just kinda managed a little bit of investments that they had with their family.

Stacey Bartelson [00:13:04]:

And so this has been a whole new change over the last year Working with business owners, and I would just say it's a it's a market that is underutilized for advisers and not helped like it should be. And so now there is a whole exit planning institute. There's chapters around the US. They're growing the number of CPAs, certified exit planning advisers is the name, All over the place now. And Edward Jones has said, this is something that has been missing. We wanna be a part of it. And I've taken upon doing that in my own business because are our own little businesses outside of Edward Jones. But Edward Jones home office is creating a whole department for our Business owners that we can utilize with tax advisers, the state money attorneys.

Stacey Bartelson [00:13:46]:

And so I think every business should look at that and look at getting the SEPA and Helping business owners grow their business, dream it, and then be able to help them when they sell it for the

Leah Alter [00:13:57]:

future with their family and pass it on. Oh, man. I I love that, and it's so relatable for yourself. Right? Like, working with both business owners, you can Relate that to your own experience as a business owner and an adviser, and it makes for, like, a common ground where it's not just You're doing your thing over here, and I'm doing my thing over here. But, like, we're doing the same thing, and I can help you. It it makes for such a great conversation. Okay. So I have a question that's kind of like a 2 separate, but kind of together.

Leah Alter [00:14:32]:

I'm curious of your business owners. How many of your business owners are women business owners? I know that's kind of a curveball. It wasn't on our list of questions, but what you were talking about, I just kind of pinged in my in my head. And then, also, would love to just I know you are passionate about women in the industry you've talked about being in at at this point, an all women firm. So Where did that come from? How did that kind of develop throughout your career?

Stacey Bartelson [00:15:02]:

So your first question just so I remember both questions. The first question Was

Leah Alter [00:15:09]:

say it again? Oh, of your business owner Oh, how many Yeah. Are are do you have a good amount of women business owners that you're serving?

Stacey Bartelson [00:15:17]:

So that's interesting you asked that now that you even asked, and I'm looking back at it, is a lot of the business owners, I guess, they started with, from back 15 years ago, we're manufacturing all men, and they've been in the family and just passed on generations in generations. And now I've started to work with more women business owners. I had one, that I've worked with in the past, but it's been that industrial, construction, going in and helping them with 4 one k's. But I have a passion for helping women create businesses and create a business plan, Helping coach them along the way. And so I have women business owners now that I've helped start their own and And helping out and coaching them being like, life is too short to hate what you do every single day. And I think that's so important as women in this financial services industry. I came into this saying no way. I was recruited by my Edward Jones adviser saying, like, you'd be really good at this.

Stacey Bartelson [00:16:16]:

I'm like, I'm 27. I'm a female in a financial industry. I've already been in a male the industry. I was in plastics. That was industrial construction before this. And I always knew as a woman, I could do whatever I wanted to do. But When he said that, I was like, oh, no. That's another male dominated industry.

Stacey Bartelson [00:16:33]:

And he said, you can set your mind to whatever you want to. You're your own business owner. And I just think I woulda just kept doing what I was doing, trying to climb the corporate ladder, proven myself as a female, but I am trying to even change the mindset of Younger generations and then also women saying you can start your own business and get the right people on your bus to be very successful and grow a team. And so I have gotten more and more business women either starting or already started and helping them grow to the next level. And I've also started it's just it came from women can help women and connect women to be bigger and better in anything they do. And I started a women's mastermind group just out of not a financial services yet that's coming, I think, but a women's mastermind group, which is Business owners and women in leadership looking to excel. Because as women, we need to be more vulnerable with each other, open, share The good and the bad of personal, professional, what's going on? And what has happened is this group started with, like, 10 of us, and it's now up to 20. And it's women just saying, I wanna be a part of that, and we all go around and share, like, what we can help each other with, inspire each other.

Stacey Bartelson [00:17:43]:

And after our last one, one of the ladies is like, I just had my biggest thing happen in my banking career the next day. And she goes, I just believe it's from getting confidence from all you and having faith in what I'm doing. So I just think women There's not as many women business owners that I connect with, and I think it's a huge potential in helping them create more. So that was your first question. It's growing, And I'm trying to help women grow and be, more entrepreneurial and do what they love versus what they think they need to do for their family to just Make a paycheck. Yeah. Your other question is, you know, me and my business and how it's grown as All Women?

Leah Alter [00:18:22]:

Oh, well, no. Just I mean, I I think you've answered actually both. Oh, thank you, sir. You answered both questions because the other question is around your passion around helping women. Yeah. So that's why it it kind of went Yeah. It does really. So I think you, I think you nailed it.

Leah Alter [00:18:37]:

And, you know, you're talking both that Joanne and I are just, like, nodding our heads the whole time because you share such a passion that we share, around Just in general, helping women advance in this industry. Right? And, you know, One of the things of why we even started this podcast and went on this journey is because we are both just so passionate about Women having an influential fee at the table, and that can only bring good for the whole of the industry.

Stacey Bartelson [00:19:14]:

Mhmm. And I think it's us as women. We need to take ownership of supporting and lifting and helping each other, and that's what this podcast can do in the women's mastermind group I just created and wanna create 1 in the financial services industry as well because we all get stuck being Women and caretakers, whether you have children or not, you're still caring for family and friends and clients. If you have them, like, we just Feel we have to help and care, and that's why I love doing what I do so much is we truly get to make a difference every single day in someone's life, and it might be taking them a basket because They fell and they got home from a hospital as male. Their clients are getting older or being there alongside them when they're losing their loved one. It's just That's what we do, and that's hard. You get home and then you have your kids if you have them or in your home life, and we just take things a little bit more to heart than Men do, and nothing against men. It's just we were created to be moms and caretakers whether it's to family or kids.

Stacey Bartelson [00:20:15]:

And So we do that, and I think as he we sometimes put each other down based on roles we have or things we're doing. And as women, We can't do that. We have to encourage and support and connect and be like, how can I help you? How can I help you? And it all just continues to grow. So you're right. You guys are doing the right things with creating this. I really truly love it, and I'm really excited for you guys and how you're doing with this. Oh, thank you. And it yeah.

Stacey Bartelson [00:20:43]:

We believe in the power of lifting each other up for sure, and we're uniquely equipped, right, as women to

Leah Alter [00:20:48]:

to be able to do that. So along those lines, we talked about this as you were coming on the show. I'm like, okay. What's what's something you've done? Or what have you done to grow your business, Specifically, like, from a marketing standpoint or a new client acquisition standpoint, or I would say also in retaining, you know, your current clients. But What what's some of the secret sauce? What's something that you would share where you found success that you think another person listening to this podcast could apply it in their own business?

Stacey Bartelson [00:21:14]:

I guess the first thing I would say, you know, with even just getting clients or retaining clients is you really have to be you have to build trust and be genuine. You have to be Who you are. I always tell people be yourself. Don't try to be anybody else in who you are because people see that. They read through it. They know if you care or not. And so with our clients, what we do here, our clients become family. And, you know, I have an amazing team, Heidi, Jennifer, and now Molly, and we're growing.

Stacey Bartelson [00:21:42]:

And the reason we need to continue to grow, it's not that we're like, oh, we need to make more money. It's nothing about money. It's about we can help more people and dig deeper And work with business owners and dig deep into their families and work with their kids and grandkids and do that generational planning If you have enough people to do that. Otherwise, you get so you you don't have enough time. You just get so over Concentrate on too many things and too many clients that you can't give them that service. And so in our practice, it's always we're gonna bring on more people. It's one thing, David Geller, which Anna introduced me to, was a great financial adviser in the industry. He said a lot sometimes you have to look at expenses before revenue, that's one thing we've always had in our practice is if we need to bring on more support to take care of our clients as deeply and as much as we want to and do everything for them.

Stacey Bartelson [00:22:34]:

Go visit them if needed. Be there for their families. It can't be 1 person. It can't be 2 people, and sometimes it takes Adding some more people to help you be able to do that. And so that's kind of what is happening, why we retain clients as we truly do go above and beyond. Every single one of us do in our office, every single one of us know our clients and work with them as needed. And so that's why we're trying to bring on more specialties and stuff because Clients have a lot of needs, and sometimes as advisers, we just do the surface level like, oh, they need help retiring. Oh, that's great, But there's so much more in people's lives that they need help with.

Stacey Bartelson [00:23:09]:

We're truly a life financial coach. We want them to call us for everything. Like, If they have a financial issue, we're your financial 911. Call us. It doesn't matter when. Or if you need just information on finances, you call 411. Just get the information. Right? So We wanna be those people that they call, and so that's helped us retain, get referrals because our clients truly feel like they can trust us.

Stacey Bartelson [00:23:32]:

They believe in us. We've helped them create passion around their money and have fun with it and all that type of stuff. So it's not like it's going to the dentist and pulling a tooth when they Come to see us or talk with us. That's You know? Because that's what people say. Going to a financial advisor is like the 2nd worst thing after a dentist. And I'm like, what? I don't want people to feel bad about me. And when I tell people I'm a financial adviser and they look at me like, oh, another one of you. Right? Yeah.

Stacey Bartelson [00:23:56]:

No. I want them to think differently. Like, We want to work with you, and that's what we're doing. You talked about marketing. It's worth trying to be able to rebrand more, and That's my vision, that's my passion. You know, Edward Jones has had our name and our we're well known. We're a very big company in the industry. We manage a lot of money, and we take care of our clients, and we care about our clients, and the firm does too.

Stacey Bartelson [00:24:19]:

But individually in our office, we are working on changing our marketing To do more things in the community, to run our settlement, us do a fundraiser, to be more present in the community, help our clients And people that we know get together to give back to communities. We can help them grow their money all they want, but what's that need? Let's Now to have purpose around our finances, give it back, and then gather people together and have fun. So that's really what we're trying to do is get people to feel like I wanna work with that tea. And

Leah Alter [00:24:48]:

that's what I think is any atmosphere. Yeah.

Stacey Bartelson [00:24:51]:

Yeah. Should do. So that's what we're doing for changing up and maybe podcast someday. Who knows who knows what, but maybe use your guys' help to figure this out.

Leah Alter [00:25:00]:

Quick hot take question. Do you actually ask your clients for referrals, or do you wait for them to come to you naturally? We found this is kind of a polarizing

Stacey Bartelson [00:25:09]:

topic. It's the worst thing in our industry. No one wants to ask for referrals. No one wants to ask for business Even though we are salespeople, but we don't wanna be called salespeople. Right? I always say we're trying to provide solutions, to people's problems versus try to solve something, which is truly what we should be doing. Referral side, you know, I've taken it a little bit different way. Like, I have a really hard time being like, hey. Who can you refer me or you know, you have to be careful how you ask for it and what you do.

Stacey Bartelson [00:25:36]:

I always feel if you prove yourself and take care of the people you're working with, They're gonna refer people to you just because you've made a difference in their life. They're gonna talk about that. Like, I have a client that he was on his on the hospital bed, and he gave my card to the nurse saying, you need to call my adviser. Like, she does everything for me. And so that you need those advocates. You know, those people are very loyal to you and advocate for you, but not everybody's comfortable with that. So, like, when I do events, though, I'll do fun events for clients. I'm like, just bring a friend with you.

Stacey Bartelson [00:26:04]:

I'm not gonna talk about investments. You can tell them I'm your friend, financial advice, whatever you want. But it just gets them knowing who I am and knowing that I'm trustworthy and I truly care about people I work with, and they're part of our family. But the other side of it is clients don't always think that we're taking on more people. Right? Like, Oh, you're busy. Right. We know you're busy. And so I found over the years, sometimes people, like, why didn't know you're taking on people? Or they'll call me and be like, hey.

Stacey Bartelson [00:26:28]:

Would you help a friend? I don't know if you're helping any more people. Like, I know you're busy. So we have to be careful as advisers too not to show, like, we're too busy Because that comes off to your clients as well that I better not refer anybody else. Their service will go down to me. And so with growing our team, we really do sit down and we have What our expectations are of clients, what their saying we are taking new clients, and you're the type of clients we work with because we will grow our team to help your family, your friends, and you get all of us. And so it's helped.

Leah Alter [00:27:04]:

What a good approach. That's a great approach. Yeah. And good facts. Yeah. And you've got the the proof of your team growing, that that is what you're doing. Alright. So we ask Every guest who comes on, what the best career advice you've gotten along the way.

Stacey Bartelson [00:27:24]:

Oh, man. It depends when. When did this advice come from? Because back when I started, you know, I was told that if I didn't wanna quit every single day, That I wasn't doing my job because, you know, I think I've heard you guys in the podcast that I've listened to so far as, you know, it's A hard it's not an easy career. Like, everybody thinks you can come in as a financial adviser, and you can make a lot of money because you deal with people's money. Like, people will say that to me. They'll be like, oh, you're so lucky you get to earn, Trips is part of your income, and I'm like, well, you can come do this with me and you can and they're like, oh, I don't wanna work as hard as you do because they see how hard you work. But you don't work a day in your life if you truly love what you do and you're passionate about what you do. And so this is the advice I give other people is, If you really don't love what you're doing every single day, talk with your financial adviser or if you're a financial adviser.

Stacey Bartelson [00:28:15]:

Maybe that's not the right part or thing, Right job for you at this point, because you have to truly love what you're doing every single day, and that could be for all sites. I know you guys are focused on not just advisers, but just women in the financial services industry. You might be in corporate finance, like the last podcast, if anybody goes back to that, and realize, like, this isn't for me and to come be a financial adviser or maybe it's the other way. And so that's really, I guess, what my advice would be is if you Truly don't love what you're doing. You won't be passionate about it. You won't have joy in everything you're doing in life, and life's too short. We get one day at a time, and so have Find joy in everything you do every single day or make a change and take that risk. Like, it was a huge risk when I took this.

Stacey Bartelson [00:29:01]:

I started in the financial crisis, And so that was a wait. Everybody's like, you're quitting your corporate job. You're climbing the corporate ladder and kicking butt. Like, why would you go do something new in the financial industry In a financial crisis, you're crazy. And now people look back that told me that, and they're like, you did the right thing. That is so what you were supposed to do. And so that's, You know?

Leah Alter [00:29:23]:

Well and we talk we talk about how women have this unique and amazing ability for this intuition. And sometimes we get we receive messages that don't make logical sense, but we just know that's The next step we're supposed to take Oh. Without knowing where it's gonna lead us. And For most people, when they actually listen to what is being told to them or or, you know, this vision, However it comes to you, it sets them on the path to the thing even though they don't know necessarily in the moment what the thing is. Mhmm. Right? And I think that really is unique to us women to be able to have that, that that That voice, that intuition that is so loud. It well, I mean, it only gets louder when I ignore it.

Stacey Bartelson [00:30:19]:

Yeah. And it's just like how you guys connected and created this from hearing your story is a lot of times we get stuck at our own way and we just state what we're doing. And as women, We think we have to know a 100% of something before we can do it, and, you know, studies show that. Well, I was in a financial background. I knew marketing. I knew I loved connecting and getting out and helping people and creating women's in not women's investment clubs at that point, but I was like, women in business. I would just join anything I could to meet people. And my adviser was like, you just love helping people.

Stacey Bartelson [00:30:50]:

You love to meet people. You love to connect. You'd be good at this. And sometimes You look at that and you're like, I I can. I don't know how to do that. That's finances. I have you. And sometimes we have to just look through that and be like, if I have mentors, Another piece of advice is just always be curious and try to learn and ask questions and figure out what is the next step.

Stacey Bartelson [00:31:11]:

I do have one other thing that I would highly recommend that has been super awesome in my life is I talked about at the beginning, the vision. Like, they all have vision, well, of dreams. And to write those down and have, like, strategies to get there and mentors that you tell it to and are along the way because I do that I put, like, a 1 year and then a 5 year. And I've looked back and I look at my notes because I do it on airplanes when I take trips, and then I'll be like, did I hit my goal like, my stretch goal? Did I hit my vision for that Your and what I wanna have on your assets or the type of clients or where my business should be, and it's always happened. It's always happened. So I think That's something too is we just we look at something, it's too big. But if you take the time to take write it down and take little steps to get there And have the support, the encouragement, the coaches, the mentors that you need around you. You can achieve anything you wanna achieve.

Stacey Bartelson [00:32:03]:

You gotta set your mind to it.

Leah Alter [00:32:05]:

I love it, and go for it. Don't hold yourself back. Don't get in your own way. Right.

Stacey Bartelson [00:32:10]:

I mean, do you think I thought I could run 3 marathons in a year? I never thought I'd run a marathon and Did it for someone that passed away, and it's like, I set my mind to it. I did it. So I just tell people, like, you can always just put your mind to something. Is it fun to run for 4 hours, three and a half hours? No. But sometimes putting the work in and just setting your mind to it, crazy things happen, and you do more and more of Good things towards it. What's the best way if someone wants to connect with you? So you are saying you want to, more women in the industry there, just connect with

Leah Alter [00:32:40]:

them and learn from each other. What's the best way for someone to find you?

Stacey Bartelson [00:32:43]:

Well and what, Joanna, with you saying that, I guess, any women on this podcast cast that listens, that wants to connect with other women in this industry. What I found is I was very honored to go to Barron's and Women's Forbes conferences last year going to Barings, and hopefully Forbes again this coming year. It's in November. Is these women are so powerful, in this industry, and what they say is, Women are gonna take over the financial industry over time, and the money's transferring to Whitman. And so I learned so much from people side of Edward Jones. We have a great culture. We all connect. But when I went to these conferences, I'm like, there is amazing woman outside of our company, and I wanna connect them, and I wanna get together and share Stories and we're all there's enough money to go around for everybody, and we can all help each other thrive and be women that take over the financial industry.

Stacey Bartelson [00:33:28]:

And so if you wanna reach out and be a part of, I wanna create a women's mastermind group, of women all over. And so far, I've met someone in Texas, Colorado. I'm in the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Minnesota. So if you wanna reach out LinkedIn, you can connect with me through email, Through my web page, it's just Stacy Bartelson, at Everett Jones, and so love to have you reach out, connect. I'd love to help in any way that I can. And if you're just starting out, if you've been out for a really long time, everybody's welcome in this type of community. And I hope you keep listening to these podcasts because Lee and Joanna are gonna have many, many more great guests, and I feel very honored. And it's a pleasure that I've been able to do this and hopefully connect with lots of women through it because We have had way to change the world.

Leah Alter [00:34:13]:

Stacy, this has been such an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story, sharing your Best practices, how you work with business owners, I think that there's so many good takeaways from today, And that is our show for today. If ours is a mission that you want to share in, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast. And with that, I'm Leah Alter.

Leah Alter [00:34:40]:

And I'm Joanna Erisman, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Women's