Empowering Women to Take Control of Their Financial Future
Episode 3
In this episode, I sat down with Erika from Lakeshore Group Wealth Management to talk about financial empowerment for women.
I shared my journey as a young entrepreneur, and Erika offered empowering advice on finding a financial advisor who truly educates you. We covered essentials like planning for long-term care, managing investment risks, and the importance of keeping finances separate.
Erika’s mission is to help women shift their mindset, build confidence, and set achievable financial goals. We also discussed having a team of specialists—budgeting pros, CPAs, and legal advisors—to get a solid grip on your financial landscape.
Erika’s passion for empowering women shines in this episode. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and join us for this inspiring chat!
Connect with Erika
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Welcome to Untethered Momentum, the podcast where we dive into the inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers, overcoming fears and stepping into their full potential.
I'm Leah, your host and fellow entrepreneur.
Whether you're just starting out, you're making a change or taking your business to new heights, this podcast is for you.
In each episode, we'll share raw authentic conversations with some amazing women who have faced pivotal moments in their lives and businesses.
You'll hear stories of courage, resilience and the messy imperfect actions that led to incredible successes.
Our goal is to create a supportive and uplifting space where we can learn from each other, embrace our vulnerabilities and find the courage to move forward, untethered and unstoppable.
So come sit down, stay a while and let's become business besties.
Today, I am joined by Erika from Lakeshore Group.
And with a passion for empowering women to take control of their finances, she shares her personal story from a family crisis to then becoming a dedicated financial advisor.
We'll dive into our mission to bridge the gender gap in financial literacy and how she's helping women build wealth and secure their futures.
So get ready for an inspiring conversation that's all about taking charge of your financial life.
All right.
Welcome, Erika.
We are so excited to have you here.
How's your heart today?
It's good.
Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
I'm super excited.
Yeah, we're very excited for you to be here.
So let's just start from the beginning.
Take me back to the start of your journey.
In 2021, after returning to work, after a pandemic and then I was a stay-at-home mom with two younger kids for a while, my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia.
So from there, I had to shift gears.
I kind of faced the prospect of having to miss potentially two years of work due to that.
And I just wasn't financially prepared at that time to do something like that, nor do I think most people are.
So, you know, control what you can control.
I decided to go into financial services to make sure I knew everything so that this could never happen to my family again.
So in short, that kind of just made my mission, helping women in particular.
I'm a female-focused advisor.
So helping women that have been through personal crisis, whether that be divorce, being widowed, a serious illness of themselves, their spouse, a child, sometimes even a parent, it really changes your perspective on the importance of those things.
What inspired you to focus on helping women succeed?
Was there a defining moment that solidified your passion for women?
Obviously not to downplay what everyone in my family went through when this time happened to us, but women often carry the emotional load.
And I find that true in my day-to-day job as well.
Often the daughter is the one that is taking care of the aging parents, and the mom is usually the one that's scheduling the appointments if something like that happens.
Sometimes, in some cases, even for themselves, if it's them that's going through it, just because they've always been the one who's handled all of those things until they can't anymore.
So that's, you know, what's important to me is just really empowering and letting women know that those nurturing and caring strengths that you naturally carry can help you be successful in managing your own finances.
It just takes a little bit of confidence in those natural born abilities.
Walk us through, if you will, when you were going through this incredibly hard situation with your daughter, what was it about the financial aspect in your world that caused you to reflect in something needs to change, if you don't mind sharing?
We didn't have a disability policy or anything on my daughter.
Not that I don't think most parents do, nor is it something that is super pertinent.
But there is options out there, and even just having emergency savings, having a backup plan for in case something like that happens to you, is extremely crucial to the success of your life as a whole.
And you really don't think about the importance of that, or it's hard to put yourself in a place where you really understand that until you've actually experienced it.
Yeah.
I could not imagine just the pure shock of everything, not only just with your daughter, but then the financial burden that that probably put on your life for sure.
Why do you think or why do you believe that financial success is particularly important for women?
You know, whether you're married, you're single, you're going into retirement.
Like, why do you believe that women need this?
There's just a financial education gap that exists.
Men are more than welcome to and more than happy to talk about money, finances, things that they're doing with their investments.
Actually, this all stemmed from a book that I read.
And in that book, essentially, it just says, like, if you Google women or like finance for women, it's always like a budget for a grocery list or saving money or not spending money on a bag or a pair of shoes.
And I think we've been shamed in a lot of ways to think that we can't have all of those things and be financially successful.
So I just think it's important to change the mindset and the rhetoric around that and change the gap in the financial literacy.
And a lot of that was created far before my time because women weren't able to open a bank account by themselves until the 1970s, which not that long ago.
And then from there, being able to extend lines of credit and things like that came along.
But it's just it's newer to us, even if that 50 years seems like a long time, it is still there, especially with the older generations.
I tend to see a lot of my husband takes care of that.
But then, you know, always posing the question of, well, what happened?
What happens if your husband passes away?
What happens if he's no longer able to handle it?
Just statistically, what we've seen as a market, and it's become especially important nowadays.
Women tend to leave their financial professional within the first year after losing their spouse.
So then they have to go out into the marketplace, make sure they can find someone they can trust.
And there's people that in this industry don't have, you know, the same ideations of what's a good fit for your client.
And differentiating between those two things should be the last thing you have to worry about when you're bearing a spouse or going through one of those hard times.
Yeah.
Let's talk a little bit more about the mindset piece, because I know you have a passion for helping women shift their mindset.
So whether it's coming from a place of shame or guilt or scarcity, like how can women shift away from those negative mindsets into one of abundance and opportunity?
I mean, it starts as simple as just believing in yourself and setting very small goals.
So where some people come to me and they're like, hey, I'm not ready yet, but I just want to know, like, where do you start?
So for that, I'm like, start with $10, put $10 aside each month, do that consistently for maybe three months.
Maybe you look at it, did you even notice you were missing that $10?
That's less than you pay for a Netflix subscription.
So then you can look at, okay, well, what can I afford from there?
If you bump that up to $50, and then for the next three months, you're looking at it as like, is that drastically changing my budget?
Do I notice that going in and out?
That's probably the cost of like, maybe a water bill.
So like, people just are, we want to be comfortable.
And it's slightly uncomfortable sometimes to save.
And I always say that's the perfect place you should be, is slightly uncomfortable.
Where you're like, I don't need that Starbucks coffee.
I don't need, like, I have goals that I'm setting for myself.
And always kind of having that inside of you.
And everyone's goals look different.
So for me, differentiating between what's a luxury and what's a lifestyle.
If you have family that lives in Arizona, you know, to one person, a trip to Arizona might be a luxury.
And to you, that might be a lifestyle because that's important to you.
And those are people that you need to see and spend time with.
That's a great way to think about that.
I think for me personally, and we've talked about this before, is, you know, starting as an entrepreneur, you know, in my early twenties, I didn't have a lot of, like, financial education before that.
Even, like, up until I hit, like, 30, I started understanding the importance of it.
And so my mindset has always been, like, I don't have enough to, you know, invest or save, or because my entrepreneurial journey has been, like, an absolute roller coaster.
Like, I didn't feel safe in putting away, you know, the $10, $15, $20.
Not that it wasn't there because I was spending money on myself and doing things.
I guess, can you speak to that of, like, you know, those small little investments or things, how they can build over time?
I think that's a very normal way to feel.
And I think, you know, financial education as a whole, even just for the day-to-day person, I'm unsure still why we don't really have that education in school.
At least a base of information on how to do most things that have to do with your finances.
Heck, I would have taken a course on taxes if I could have.
That would have helped me along the way.
But especially with being an entrepreneur, it's just making sure you find the right fit.
So that person that understands where you're at, and they're looking at, okay, well, maybe we're not going to make those small drops in a bucket throughout the year because you're just not sure where you're going to end up.
Maybe I give you that call in April and we see what your year has looked like, what your taxes look like, and then we make that choice.
But that's why it's super, super important to find someone, not only that you trust that you can build a genuine relationship with, so you can be honest with them and not feel ashamed by saying that's not going to work for me.
Because maybe that works for someone else, but that might not be best for you.
Tell me about how you go about educating.
I know that we have a scheduled strategy session on the books here coming up at some point.
So what do you walk through women with to be able to look at their financial situation?
Can you explain a little bit more of that piece?
It's actually exactly the same as far as the strategy session for men and women.
It's just general information.
It's like an investing 101.
So I'm going to show you what all the buckets are that you can put things into and how all of those buckets work.
Good to have that base of information.
And then from there, we can plug in like, what are your goals?
What's important to you?
And then find the things that fit well within that, that may not just be those buckets.
There's additional products and things out there that financial professionals have access to and are, you know, should be educated in.
So they work with you to explain those things at a level that you can understand and make sure that that makes the most sense for where you're trying to go.
And it's a long game.
That's what I always say.
Like if I know one thing about the stock market, it's going to go up and it's going to go down.
So it's not tomorrow, you know, get rich.
It's a long-term planning situation.
And those that are closer to retirement, there's some different options for them.
It's not the same as someone who's coming in at 30, 40 years old trying to open an account and get their financial journey started.
But there's always room for everyone.
It's just finding the right thing.
So speaking of finding the right person, what would you say is like a red flag for someone to look at, you know, when they're looking at different financial planners or advisors?
I think it's kind of an outdated mindset that I've ran into in the industry as a whole.
It's just like if you came and sat down with me, you're automatically trying to buy something.
That might not always be the case.
So always starting from an education first basis.
If your financial professional is automatically first meeting saying, hey, let's set up an account right now with no base of information, not asking, what's your experience behind investing, what kind of investments might you have out there, whether that be 401K plans, old savings accounts you have at other financial institutions that you're not currently using anymore.
Those are all intricate, important pieces to that planning process.
So for me, never on the first meeting are we going to be talking about immediately setting up an account.
It's approaching it as, let me educate you on what we should be looking at.
And then from there, if you decide that I'm the person you trust and you want to work with me, that's wonderful.
But I want to make sure you understand the reasons behind what we're doing and how it all works, at least at a base level, so that you have something to work off of, whether you were to work with me or someone else.
Yeah, that's really important.
And I remember you telling the group that you spoke at recently, talking about communication and how that's also really important, because I know that things can change and shift in your life.
So if you want to talk a little bit about what that looks like for your clients when it comes to your communication.
I'm kind of the first line of defense when it comes to clients.
A lot of the women I work with are entrepreneurs.
So whether that's expanding their business, selling their business, they're changing their contributions because they're going to put more money in a different bucket.
They're moving houses because they want to upgrade or downgrade or get a smaller space, whatever that looks like for them.
All of those are important times to kind of have a touch face and just say, what does that change look like for you so that I can facilitate on my end, whatever you're trying to, whatever your goal is, let me help you work through that, rather than kind of leaving you in the dark.
But it's also my job to reach out to you.
You shouldn't be reaching out to your financial professional and feeling like that's not a reciprocal relationship.
I hadn't heard from my life insurance agent for like three years.
Not that that needs to be changed, but maybe it does.
Maybe I wanted to look at investing and they totally dropped the ball on that.
So, communication I can feel is really important, especially as things shift and change in people's lives.
Can you share a story where you saw impact of financial empowerment in one woman's life?
Gosh, there's so many times that I've just really loved this job that I'm like, how do I pick one?
I think it's just honestly, the first time investor is one of my favorite things.
Because you can see the light bulbs turning on and they're like, okay, this is tangible for me.
Maybe before they came to that meeting, they had a lot of apprehension, nerves, anxiety, and then they're sitting down and they're like, oh, this is just a conversation.
There's no like, I'm not being pushed to do anything.
No one's trying to sell me something.
I'm just taking what I can get from here, and then we're going to move forward.
But even if it's not necessarily setting something up, they have tangible steps for what they can do next in their life.
Watching something like that is just an extreme good feeling.
That sounds really rewarding.
I can attest to that.
I don't have a lot of knowledge, but even just during the financial meeting that you had with us, I had lightbulb moments going off and I just felt like, okay, this is at my fingertips.
This is something that I don't need to be making over a certain dollar amount to start investing in my future.
And coming from, like I said, like the roller coaster entrepreneurial journey, I felt really unsafe and not able to invest properly.
And I'm just so excited to get our strategy session under the book so that I can start seeing those things happen for me too.
So thank you for having that as an option as well.
What would you say is another rewarding part of your work?
I know you said the lightbulb moment, but is there-
Yeah.
You know, something else in particular that stands out to you.
So just about the strategy session and one more thing on that last piece of it.
So it's completely free to sit down with me.
And I think that would also, I would say, be a red flag for me if a financial professional is charging you to sit down with them.
It's very important for you to be educated in this because it's a lifelong journey.
So that mindset part kind of fits into there as well, because some people are like, well, how much is it gonna cost for me to sit down with you?
Or I don't have enough money to work with a financial advisor.
That's not the case.
Any good financial advisor worth their time is going to sit down with you and have a conversation.
That's the very least that we could do.
So and then another like light bulb moment or something that is really, really rewarding to me.
I'm a huge component for long term care for a lot of reasons.
But when you see someone's life trembling and they realize that they have that insurance protection, whether that be increasing their income or covering those expenses in full.
It's something that is so invaluable.
I don't think you even realize the impact of it until it comes into play.
But long term care, especially in this environment, I mean, any intensive care nursing home can be anywhere from $12,000 to $14,000 a month.
So it's just, it's not realistic for most of the general public to pay that.
And not only that, if you spent your whole life savings on that, is that what you did all of that work for, is to just give it to a nursing home?
Because I don't think that that's most people's objective when they're trying to set goals.
I guess I didn't even know it was that expensive.
I've heard it's expensive, but that's wild.
Yeah.
What are some other financial challenges that you see women in particular facing today?
Sure.
So obviously you can speak from that side of being a stay at home parent, but also just having a lot of friends that have a spouse that works out of the home and they work a part time position as well.
It's really, really important for you to have your own financial setup.
If you are a stay at home parent, I would recommend saying, I'm willing to stay home with the kids, but in return for that, we have to have some sort of savings setup for myself.
I will speak from my personal experience.
I did not do that.
I wish that I would have.
It's just very important in abusive situations, in a divorce situation, in a spouse passing situation, to have separate finances.
I ran into situations with some of my widows where they weren't on the bank account, and they have nothing.
So it's weeks and weeks of spending on credit cards until or if one of their family members is kind enough to help them in that time until they can go through the probate process, which can be very long for you.
Yeah, I actually had that happen.
My uncle had passed away and his wife could not touch his money because her name was not on a bank account.
So I saw that happen in real life, and thankfully she had family that stepped in, but I just could not imagine, especially as a single mom or someone that does not have that financial security saved and all of those things, just what kind of like you're already dealing with the loss, but then to also have that financial burden on top of that, like I just could not imagine going through that.
So that's really great advice.
Is there anything in particular, you know, besides a savings account?
So in this situation, speaking to the stay-at-home mom or someone that doesn't, isn't the breadwinner of the family, is there anything else in particular that they should be, you know, whether it's the savings account or maybe they start their own investment?
I don't really know if you can speak to any of that.
Absolutely, investing is always something that obviously I strongly encourage, but it's understanding what the risks of that are as well.
So if it's something that you're, you know, I just want this amount of money put aside, there is strategies for that, that we can make sure that that's just, you put it in, there's no fluctuations, it's exactly what you put in and take out.
But if you are comfortable and your spouse is able to, you know, facilitate having a little bit more of a flow of income into an account like that, that's definitely something I would recommend long term.
Because once your kids go to school, even if, you know, you stay home until your kids go to college, at some point you might want to return to the workplace, or you, you know, might have an apparent past, and then you're inheriting funds.
There's so many situations where it's just good to have that base of knowledge that it is something I would suggest at least educating yourself on.
Great.
Let's shift gears a little bit and talk more about the woman entrepreneur and specifically how to build sustainable businesses around their finances.
Can you speak to that?
Knowing your finances is the first part.
Whether you use an app, whether you use a spreadsheet, whether you have a bookkeeper, all of those things to make sure that your business is actually profitable and that you're not just spinning your wheels.
I think, you know, ignorance is bliss sometimes.
It's like if I don't look at it, it's not there.
So for me, that's my biggest thing is, what's your disposable income after all of your expenses for your business?
What's your actual income you're bringing in?
And that doesn't have to be recorded month to month for an entrepreneur.
That can be over a year.
Sometimes that's the conversation is, let's just watch for this year and see where we end up.
Then we can set goals for next year, but at least we know where we are.
Now, is that a part of your offering as well as when you're sitting down to help them strategize year over year of being able to project?
Because I know that's often a hard thing when it comes to entrepreneurship is, the projection piece of it is, the growth and like, hey, if you add someone to this team, this is going to be your salary, but then your income also raises so we can invest you, help women strategize that piece as well of making that next move?
I base it mostly off of tax returns.
The tangible business deductibles, the tangible investment deductions, those things, but I do also work with CPAs and bookkeepers, business attorneys.
I keep a circle of people that if we really need more one-on-one attention, I also work with someone who strictly does business budget.
Just being able to have that extra set of hands because sometimes, it's just analysis paralysis and people are like, I could do that, but I don't even know where to start, and it's too much for me to put my energy into that when I'm also growing my business.
So just having someone who has those resources is extremely valuable to an entrepreneur.
That's kind of how I positioned my business.
Having those connections that you have in your circle to be able to refer someone, I think that's a huge piece of trust.
So if we trust you already, and this is who you trust, it's a lot easier to then say, okay, let's get a meeting on the books.
And I know you had mentioned before too in our previous session, just getting you guys in the same room together at the same time.
So can you speak to that experience as well of like what that can do for someone, having that CPA there or that attorney?
I think with people who need to see things on paper, sometimes it's easier to bring in, like I've brought in someone who budgets quite a bit, just so that she can kind of explain on her level what it looks like to have a profitable business.
And those are hard conversations sometimes to be like, hey, you're working towards something, but let's make sure it counts and pay yourself first.
So those are where I really see the value for business owners is bringing in someone who can really break that down and then answer those questions like, what if I want to expand and bring on an employee, and can I afford that and how does that all work?
But that's a great way to kind of make it approachable if you already have a relationship with your financial professional and they have a professional relationship with someone else that they trust and know has your best interests in mind.
Yeah, that's great.
So what would you say like the first steps that you would recommend for women who want to take control of their financial future, but don't really know where to start?
There's a couple of different things.
If you have had jobs in the past where there may have been some kind of retirement benefit, definitely reaching out to those old employers and just being like, hey, what's the situation with this particular account?
Rolling it into your current account if there's an option to do so.
Just making sure you're aware of where all of your pieces are.
And then there's different things in this interest rate environment, like high-yield savings accounts.
Those are always something I recommend.
There's a couple of different institutions that offer them, mostly online for smaller dollar amounts.
Those bigger institutions are going to want a larger upfront commitment in order to give you a higher interest rate in most situations.
But credit unions are also a great one for that, and you can always ask.
I mean, there's no harm in asking if there's anything available to you through your current financial institution as well.
Okay.
And what would you recommend for tracking?
Like if there's a way for us to easily be able to track, what we're spending, what's coming in.
Typically, I recommend Monarch.
It's an app that you can download on your phone.
It is about $95 a year, so it's a small commitment.
But at that time, you can literally go in and categorize each of your expenses.
So if you're a business owner, you can have all your business expenses go into the business portion and then your personal go into a personal account.
And I see a lot of businesses that don't separate those two things.
So I think that's especially helpful in mind frame of knowing where everything is going out and in.
So that's one thing I do recommend to a lot of my buying.
And then what about like the ratios?
Like how much should I be putting away?
How much should I be saving or spending?
I mostly abide by the 50-30-20 rule.
So 50 percent of that should just be your basic needs.
So mortgage, phone, insurance, car, all of those things, groceries, gas.
There's a lot of things in that bucket.
And then 30 percent of it is going to be your want, because we can't minimize our budget.
I think where people fail most is like, oh, we're going to start saving money.
We're going to really restrict ourselves and pull back.
And that's just not realistic and it's not sustainable.
So 30 percent of your income should go towards things that you want to buy, whether that's, you know, or even just need, but it's like, I need, but I also want, kind of situation, like a new pair of work pants, like maybe I don't need them, but like they're cute.
So those types of things, you got to still make room in the budget for that.
And then 20 percent of it should be savings.
So whether that's investing, whether that's a savings account, whether it's a mix of things, 20 percent of your income is a good place to start.
And if you're not quite there, again, it's just starting with small steps.
Sometimes we start at 5 percent and then go up to 10, and then to 15, and then to 20.
So it doesn't all have to be at one time.
Going through the moments of uncertainty and that hardship, what would you say to yourself now that you're on the other side of it if you were looking back?
Oh, gosh.
I think just you're going to make it.
It's going to be okay.
And I think I have to tell people that a lot, and I have to tell myself that sometimes too in different situations in life and it doesn't start, it doesn't start big, it starts small.
So when I was a single mom way back nine years ago, I remember buying my first car with a 530 credit score and I was so embarrassed and I couldn't believe that.
And they told me what the interest was going to be and it was just astronomical for that time.
And I was like, I'm already a single mom, this is already really hard to afford and now I've put myself in this position.
So over the next three years, my like big commitment was opening credit cards, paying them off in full.
And then by year three, I was in the 700s range and I felt much better about my opportunities.
And even now it just provides so many more opportunities to me and credit coaching is something I also really enjoy talking about with my clients.
Yeah, that's really important because I myself also went through a situation where my income wasn't great.
And so I had to use my partner at the time's credit and his credit score was crap.
And so I also had an interest rate on a car that was 21 percent.
And I was told I was not allowed to refinance, which was absolutely not true.
I should have been able to refinance right away, but I did not.
And so I carried that over for the five years and it actually was affecting me for eight years after that, because I carried that debt over and over and over again in each car that I owned.
And so being able to hear that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, I'm not the only one that's gone through this.
I'm other people that whether or not they lost their job or their partnership dissolved, and then they're left scrambling.
They had to put things on credit cards.
It feels like it's never going to end.
It feels like you can never get out of it.
But just knowing that you can eventually see the light of day, like that's very, very, it brings hope.
Yeah.
And just leading on people and asking questions.
I mean, I'm always the first to run to the smartest person in the room and ask questions and be curious.
Because that's the only way you can really learn those things.
And, you know, sometimes it's uncomfortable questions, but it makes a big difference just being curious.
What did you learn about yourself through all of that?
I think I'm still learning.
I think it's just I realized how resilient moms are.
I think that's not just me.
I think in general, the things that we think we can't get through, we really can.
And there's so much better things on the other side if we just keep the mindset of what can I do better?
What can I do next to make this situation the best it can be for my family?
And that's something I knew I possessed in some ways, but not to the level that I had to rise to in that time.
That's so good.
What legacy do you hope to leave through your work in helping women achieve their financial success?
Confidence.
It's like my number one thing.
I just want all women to know that we are worth so much more than we even know.
And we make so many life altering crucial decisions every single day for our families.
And that is a huge strength that can be utilized towards building wealth for yourself, and really supporting yourself in that journey.
It's just, it takes a little bit of that mindset change, that confidence.
I'm really big into manifesting.
So that's a huge thing that I talk to my clients about.
It's just important.
Every little piece that you think is just a small something you're doing can make such a big difference over time.
I love the mindset piece of it especially.
I feel like that a lot of people look at finances as strategic.
But it really like coming from a background, for example, of a mom who had loads of credit cards that still does.
It took a long time for me to rewire my brain and my thinking to know that A, I'm worth it and that I do deserve to have financial success just because my story, I, you know, she was a single mom, she raised four kids and we didn't have a lot of money.
And I feel like I had a lot of guilt around me making money.
Or if I made more money than my family, would I feel shameful in that I didn't have to go through the experiences that my mom did growing up.
And it's definitely been a big shift for me.
And it's still a shift because I find myself like, I don't know if it's self-sabotage.
When I do start having money come in, I'm like, oh, I got to spend it really fast because it's not going to be there anymore.
Or I guess that's a lack of abundance too, of not believing that it's going to come back.
And so I started teaching myself different things or catching myself saying, can't afford that, I stopped saying that.
And so putting better things into my brain of those self-limiting beliefs and thoughts around money especially.
So yeah, do you have any thoughts around that?
What kind of practices you put into place yourself or for your clients?
Gosh, I think we're very similar in that way.
I also grew up with a single mom.
We barely scraped by.
So the shame, guilt, those kind of feelings around money and just feeling like, what if I am negatively affecting the people around me by being successful?
I think that is something women don't say out loud, but I think a lot of us feel the same way sometimes in that, right?
But just more thinking of the possibilities of what your money can do for you.
Because I know for me, my mom's not going to be set up for retirement.
She just, due to some mental health issues, she had to quit working and it's just not where she's going to be.
So I am fully prepared to build out a mother-in-law suite in my basement.
And knowing that I can afford that gives me such a peace of mind.
Knowing that I can help her live the rest of her life comfortably, and give back to her so much of what she gave to me when I was younger.
I think even that little mindset shift of like, what could the possibility be?
What could I do?
Imagine the things you could help with if you had the resources.
I love that.
Is there any last thoughts that you want to leave our listeners with?
Anyone can do it.
I think that's the biggest part.
It doesn't matter where you are today.
Every day that you start prioritizing this, is a day you were better than yesterday.
So I always say that's just wherever you start is where you are, it's not where you're going to go.
I want people to understand that working with a financial professional is not a luxury, it's just a basic thing that everyone should do, even if you're not at a place to start right that day, at least educating yourself and sitting down with someone like myself or another financial professional that's credible, and that you trust and you feel like you could have a good relationship with, and that's going to continue that communication going forward.
They're just, it's invaluable for making sure you're successful with your goals.
So where can women find you and connect with you the best?
I'm on LinkedIn, Erika Greene, and then on Facebook as well as Erika Greene, limited on the amount of platforms due to compliance.
And then one other thing in the cities, I'll be launching a seminar series called Stab the Women Invest on Purpose.
And then spin off of that is Life by Design.
So there's a couple of different things I will be doing within that marketplace.
All of those will be found on my LinkedIn, or Facebook.
Well, thank you again for being on here and sharing your heart and the passion for what you do right now is so important.
And I can see the shift changing in women, and I'm just really excited to see it grow even more, especially with people like you that support women in this adventure.
So thank you again for being here, number one, and then also doing what you're doing.
So keep it up.
Thank you for joining us on Untethered Momentum.
I hope you found today's episode as inspiring and empowering as I did.
Remember, every step that you take, no matter how small or how messy, brings you closer to your goals.
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