In this episode, host Colleen Bowler sits down with Colleen Bowler, co-founder of C&J Innovations and a trailblazer in the world of financial planning, to talk about the often-overlooked human side of finance and how financial plans should accurately reflect your unique life, dreams, and values, not just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Colleen opens up about her personal journey from a challenging childhood to building her career as a single mom, growing a thriving business focused on empowering clients and advisors. She discusses her habits for success, the importance of mentorship and collaboration, and how pushing past outdated norms can create not only financial but personal freedom.
Whether you’re at the start of a career in a male-dominated field or want inspiration to lead with authenticity and courage, this conversation offers wisdom, actionable advice, and feel-good moments. Get fearless!
Show Highlights:
- Impactful books on business and habits to add to your list. [04:06]
- The importance of financial preparedness in families. [06:14]
- How human-centered fintech advisory tools help tailor plans. [09:44]
- Insights on female clients in finance and widows’ retention. [11:57]
- “Living, breathing” fintech and relationship value in advisory. [13:51]
- Why investing in continued learning is crucial for growth. [16:54]
- What are you “feasting on” with your power of agency? [19:22]
- Making a career in finance work as a woman. [20:59]
- Life lessons on snap decisions, financial responsibility and rewards. [25:26]
- “January depression” in business and having a readiness fund. [30:33]
- Advice for young women entering finance. [38:21]
To connect with Colleen Bowler, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-bowler-cfp%C2%AE-09576796/ on LinkedIn.
Find C&J Innovations, LLC, on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/candjinnovations/.
For a 15-minute discovery call with C&J Innovations, please visit https://calendly.com/candj_colleen/discover.
Check out The Passport Package™ at https://thepassportpackage.com/.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Colleen Bowler, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:02.46
Colleen Bowler
okay Okay. then I would say the second part of the journey finds me in the middle of a divorce, something none of us think we’re going to have happen, a sick three-year-old and ending up with full custody buried under a pile of debt that wasn’t mine.
00:20.45
Colleen Bowler
And I ended up realizing I needed a new job, right? I needed a lot of flexibility. And someone said, Hey, Colleen, you’re really good at math. Why don’t you do this thing called financial planning?
00:32.35
Colleen Bowler
I’ve never really heard of. um What I realized in the first couple of years, math matters, absolutely math matters in our in our job. But I quickly realized that it wasn’t just about the numbers.
00:47.43
Colleen Bowler
It was really about the questions that you asked and the relationships that you build. So curiosity became You know, we were talking earlier about superpowers.
00:59.14
Colleen Bowler
I think that became my superpowers or I call it my magic or my gift.
01:02.89
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
01:03.75
Colleen Bowler
Just asking powerful questions, not having to have the answers, right? Just really trying to find out where someone and wanted to go in their future and then overlapping planning into that.
01:19.22
Colleen Bowler
So I started that first year, $14,000 in income. fourteen thousand dollars in income Qualified for earned income credit. Nothing that I’m proud of, but I wouldn’t suggest that’s how you start now because I started independently.
01:35.78
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
01:35.99
Colleen Bowler
And I built my firm. I sold it in 2020 to a half a billion of a u m We did full financial planning. We were in the top 1%.
01:48.29
Colleen Bowler
And probably the last 10 years, I worked maybe 50% of the time. So i was really able so to leverage and to learn from those clients, from team, from everyone around me.
02:04.12
Colleen Bowler
And then I think the third part of the journey, um as I’m going along and listening to these stories and having, you know, here’s the plan, I realized the industry had a lot of tools on the financial planning and the resources for the financial side, but little to nothing on the human side.
02:30.92
Colleen Bowler
You know, and I was seeing that the human side was really what drove actually every financial decision, any big decision a client was making was that human side.
02:42.10
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
02:45.14
Colleen Bowler
So while my own process took years, it took hours, took years of listening and learning, um I decided that I had done a lot of speaking with advisors. I decided to sell my firm and co-founded CNJ to create ah human side process, a way to scale easily and repeatable and repeatedly the curious part, the connection part.
03:17.68
Colleen Bowler
So advisors can get to the heart of what clients really, what really matters to them and what’s important to them in five minutes or less creating impact that lasts generations.
03:31.73
Lorie Jones
Oh yeah. yeah And I see that with like my own clients, like I, I am so involved in, in getting understanding what they want and, and how they, you know, how to help them get there because, because it, it, a lot of times you can feel, feel unseen and unheard in a financial situation.
03:43.03
Colleen Bowler
and
03:54.07
Lorie Jones
And I, you know, I come from a place of like helping empower women and and ah women, a lot of times do feel like they are unseen and unheard in those offices and giving them a chance to,
04:09.36
Lorie Jones
um
04:10.68
Colleen Bowler
Be heard.
04:10.68
Lorie Jones
to feel like what their voice matters and what they’re saying matters. I love that. And how do you do that?
04:17.52
Colleen Bowler
Well, through our quick five-minute assessments and both the husband and the wife take it, or partners,
04:24.32
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
04:24.38
Colleen Bowler
um And no matter what, the two people, um i always say there is a quieter voice in the conversation. And yes, do we know that probably 80% of the time it is the woman that’s the quieter voice, but sometimes it’s the man.
04:41.62
Colleen Bowler
And so having the assessments that they both take on it’s on mindsets, what’s most important to them the advisor is able to quickly and easily say oh, Lori, you know, you’re a six on where you are right now, but, you know, he says he’s a 12.
05:02.98
Colleen Bowler
well And it’s the same, you know, help me understand this, right? um So it is an easy way to let the quieter voice in the conversation come forward.
05:15.73
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that. And yeah, to your point, I work with women whose husbands are like, yeah, I’m not so interested in all that finance googly goo that you’re talking about.
05:26.74
Colleen Bowler
Right.
05:27.12
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
05:28.52
Colleen Bowler
We know it’s usually divide and conquer, right? But in a plan, even if you divide and conquer, we need to weave each other into the plan or else the current stat is 70% of widows leave their current advisor.
05:49.02
Lorie Jones
Oh,
05:49.68
Colleen Bowler
um I just went through that with one of my best friends. It is a horrible time. And to not feel the support of your financial advisor,
05:56.46
Lorie Jones
it’s so hard.
06:02.61
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
06:03.70
Colleen Bowler
it I just couldn’t believe it. And she had four different, they said they were financial advisors. They were investment guys. a
06:11.57
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
06:12.91
Colleen Bowler
just ah So I think it’s really important that we as advisors pay attention on both sides.
06:21.64
Lorie Jones
Yeah. So did you have to learn like out a whole new skill set? Did you, did you come to, is this like a tech, like you had to program things? Tell me about this.
06:30.82
Colleen Bowler
It is tech, Lori. And um interesting thing about me, I managed to have a billion of assets. We did all these incredible plans. We had all these incredible clients and families under management, and I don’t know how to do Excel.
06:45.22
Colleen Bowler
And if you said, Colleen, I’ll give you a million dollars to put the e-money thing. I have no idea. Right. It is my way of staying on my side of the line. So our co-founder, Jeannie Hurlburt, is a PhD and her specialty is in creating assessments that live and breathe and are not, I don’t even know all the words, negative this or, but you know, I don’t i don’t even know.
07:11.70
Colleen Bowler
But what I do know is when they take the assessments, like I said, it’s five minutes, There’s actions. I don’t know about you. Have you ever been taking an assessment and they’re like, okay, just wait and you’ll get it. And you know, and I’m like, no, I want it I want to see it.
07:28.00
Colleen Bowler
So they get, huh?
07:28.05
Lorie Jones
Yeah, now.
07:29.54
Colleen Bowler
Yeah. Like right now.
07:31.04
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
07:32.11
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
07:32.21
Lorie Jones
Oh.
07:32.29
Colleen Bowler
So they get to see it on the screen and they get to see actions and things. So anyway, it’s all created so that the advisor can be, it’s white labeled for them on their, on their website. It’s all created. So the advisor’s the hero.
07:47.74
Colleen Bowler
um
07:47.81
Lorie Jones
ah
07:48.48
Colleen Bowler
because that’s truly who the advisor is in most real financial planning. I mean, I had to, there’s a time in my career that I had to ask some of my best clients why they weren’t referring anybody.
08:02.21
Colleen Bowler
And they’re like, oh, we tell everybody about you all the time. You’re our friend. I’m like, yeah, it’s true.
08:09.61
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
08:10.12
Colleen Bowler
I am, but I’m also, yeah. So it is, um yeah, it is.
08:12.59
Lorie Jones
yeah
08:16.41
Colleen Bowler
It is that part that advisors um do so well. The numbers, when people talk about AI in this industry, I’m not worried about it because what you do so well, what good advisors do so well is be in the middle of conversations like blended families, like widows, like do we put money for college or do we put it into retirement? to AI is never going to replace that.
08:43.25
Colleen Bowler
And it’s going to help advisors right now supposedly spend 60% of their time doing um company work, office work, right?
08:56.23
Colleen Bowler
Just think if you could free up 20% more to talk to people, right?
08:59.99
Lorie Jones
Oh yeah.
09:00.59
Colleen Bowler
Build relationships. So that’s my goal.
09:02.77
Lorie Jones
Connections.
09:04.11
Colleen Bowler
That’s my goal is to get advisors away from all the office and into the relationships.
09:11.68
Lorie Jones
love that. um Colleen, what is the best investment along this road that that you’ve made in yourself? you say like Very few people.
09:23.81
Lorie Jones
i haven’t met one yet that is like at you know five years old is like, gosh, I want to grow up and be a financial advisor.
09:31.54
Colleen Bowler
Yeah, neither am I. Yeah, yeah.
09:33.09
Lorie Jones
and So so but what’s the best investment you’ve made over this journey? Is there something that you can say that, oh my gosh, I’m so glad I did that. It got me where I’m at today.
09:44.26
Colleen Bowler
Well, I think the best investment in a big scale is learning. I think learning and for me originally it was the cfp um i saw that that was something that would give me credibility that would increase my knowledge exp but exponentially i mean i spent a lot of time with my son playing in the balls at mcdonald’s and chuck e cheese while i studied for my cfp and then it’s we have so much wonderful continuing ed
10:16.34
Colleen Bowler
um information in the industry. I didn’t want to become an expert in advanced estate planning, but I needed to know enough to open more questions.
10:26.98
Colleen Bowler
um I think now in this industry, podcasts like this are fabulous. I think reading is fabulous. I think, um you know, we talked about tiny habits when I was about 15 years in the industry, I joined an organization called Strategic Coach, a coaching program for entrepreneurs because I had reached a level of complexity in the business that I kept trying to do it all myself.
10:56.16
Colleen Bowler
And so you have to write a big check for that. So when I think about investments, I think it’s really about investments in me. Team members are some of the best investments I’ve made, freeing up my time to do more things that I love to do.
11:05.70
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
11:13.15
Colleen Bowler
So I think it’s i think learning all over and yeah resources.
11:16.86
Lorie Jones
yeah
11:19.75
Lorie Jones
I think that’s really interesting that you um you couch that learning in with like learning the business, um you know, a strategic coach, learning how to do entrepreneurialism and how to do a business, learning um maybe how to lead people.
11:36.72
Colleen Bowler
Yes.
11:36.67
Lorie Jones
Um, in the HR sense, you know, like, I think that those things you you think that investing in yourself just means like, well, you know, I’ve got my certified financial planner designation, you know, and I’ve got all these letters behind my name, but, but really you also need to understand like how to, how to work with people better, how to guide, how to lead.
12:04.85
Colleen Bowler
And some of my best conversations with clients that were the stickiest were conversations about health, were conversations about kids, were things that I wove in from the learning that I had.
12:19.28
Colleen Bowler
um There is a great, a really good talk show host, ah talk show, podcaster that has a NPR thing. Her name is Kelly Corrigan. And on one of the podcasts, just a little mic drop was ah maybe our greatest sense of agency is deciding what,
12:39.83
Colleen Bowler
to feast on. Our greatest sense of agency is deciding what to feast on. So in my firm, what was I feasting on? Right. Was I feasting on building a leadership team, reading, podcasts, food? What am I doing for food? What am I doing for ex exercise? Right. We have a lot of agency. It’s what are how are we doing that?
13:03.78
Colleen Bowler
So I think those investments in learning those things
13:03.81
Lorie Jones
him
13:09.11
Colleen Bowler
um You know, from where I came from, I didn’t really understand agency to now.
13:17.38
Lorie Jones
I like that idea of agency. And I think I use the word freedom a lot to say, you got like a freedom of, of choice and freedom time.
13:21.89
Colleen Bowler
ah Yes, yeah, freedom.
13:28.46
Lorie Jones
time time freedom sometimes to choose to focus on different things. I like that idea.
13:34.66
Colleen Bowler
Yes, and freedom to let go of clients that aren’t good right fits.
13:34.92
Lorie Jones
What?
13:39.08
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
13:39.29
Colleen Bowler
Right? Yeah.
13:40.06
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
13:40.78
Colleen Bowler
home
13:40.84
Lorie Jones
Best for you and for them. Yeah.
13:43.50
Colleen Bowler
Right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, Lori.
13:45.01
Lorie Jones
What, um, What is the worst advice you’ve gotten? Like, have you, can you think of some time along your journey where you’ve just gotten some really bad advice? And I’m always curious, not only like what’s the bad advice, but did you take it or did you not take it? Did you learn from it?
14:02.22
Colleen Bowler
You know, I had so many times where men in my career said I should just go take care of my child, which A, was stupid because I needed to have an income. um But B, um the other thing that they would say is, you know, you just need to bucket up and play the game.
14:22.28
Colleen Bowler
At that time, when I started, there were 15% women. So especially as I got higher and higher and and was more and more successful, I might be in a room of 100 people with four women.
14:35.54
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
14:35.79
Colleen Bowler
So the bucket up and play the game. ah You know, and just put my head down and worked and went to my son’s school during the middle of the day. That 24 seven um thing just was not how I chose to create my business.
14:56.42
Colleen Bowler
So i didn’t listen. And I think the other thing is ah had to choose those who played the game
14:59.55
Lorie Jones
yeah
15:06.65
Colleen Bowler
got to go and do these events or, you know, go to the masters or do it. I didn’t get that. um And I just had to, I could either be sad once again, agency about it, feel left out or just put my head down and ask more client questions and, and be happy where I was.
15:24.95
Colleen Bowler
So yeah.
15:26.28
Lorie Jones
Well, and it sounds like if you were, ah you said a half a billion dollar industry, right? You were really successful.
15:32.75
Colleen Bowler
Yeah. Yeah. I was very successful. Yeah. And The last 10 years working 50 percent time. So I was really able to build a fabulous team.
15:43.41
Lorie Jones
yeah
15:43.49
Colleen Bowler
When people hear that, they’re like, oh, you didn’t take care of your client. No, we took great care of our clients. It just didn’t have to be me.
15:52.10
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that makes sense.
15:54.04
Colleen Bowler
yeah
15:55.16
Lorie Jones
What about maybe not a regret, but a situation that you would have handled differently? If you could go back and do you know replay a situation knowing what you know now, is there something that you would go back and do differently?
16:07.57
Colleen Bowler
ah
16:11.57
Colleen Bowler
You know, Laurie, I really try not to replay. I i have this motto. We all make mistakes, right?
16:22.32
Colleen Bowler
Especially when we’re learning and it’s miss with a hyphen takes mistakes.
16:28.67
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
16:29.37
Colleen Bowler
My team made mistakes. I made mistakes. Clients made mistakes. If we do it repeatedly, we have a problem. But It’s that learning and it is all those mistakes along the way that have gotten me here.
16:46.25
Colleen Bowler
um So I really, i don’t know that there’s anything I would have done differently. yeah I would have loved to have done it faster. I would have loved, but interesting as a single parent, my beginning years were slower because I chose to spend more time with Boy Scouts, with,
17:01.61
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
17:07.08
Colleen Bowler
um Yeah, the moms had to get involved. I thought the guys would do it all. um With reading at school, things like that. So my career trajectory was not as fast as some of my colleagues.
17:22.93
Colleen Bowler
But that’s part of what I love about the industry for women is we can do it differently. and And there’s nobody that can say I wasn’t really successful. It just took longer.
17:34.55
Colleen Bowler
So I don’t regret it i
17:34.50
Lorie Jones
yeah
17:38.07
Colleen Bowler
I just think but it’s where I am now. Yeah.
17:42.33
Lorie Jones
maybe Maybe that’s the way things happen because that’s the way they were supposed to happen for you.
17:47.80
Colleen Bowler
Yeah. yeah yeah
17:49.51
Lorie Jones
ah I like that idea. yeah
17:51.06
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
17:51.09
Lorie Jones
And I…
17:51.47
Colleen Bowler
Go ahead. I’m sorry.
17:52.70
Lorie Jones
go ahead.
17:53.44
Colleen Bowler
No.
17:53.75
Lorie Jones
Oh, I was just going to say, i too have spent my share of time making those Pinewood Derby cars. Yeah.
18:02.23
Colleen Bowler
Oh, really? Oh, my gosh.
18:06.69
Colleen Bowler
i I said, my idea of camping is a hotel that doesn’t have room service. What am i doing here? Anyway. But one of my um team members who I’ve had for 26 years was somebody I met camping in the dirt with the boys.
18:25.38
Colleen Bowler
You know, if somebody will camp in the dirt with their kids, you know, they’re pretty cool.
18:30.44
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
18:31.39
Colleen Bowler
So, yeah.
18:31.40
Lorie Jones
Yeah. yeah
18:33.30
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
18:34.27
Lorie Jones
If you could high five yourself, go back, Colleen, and high five yourself for one financial decision. Good job. What would that be?
18:47.17
Colleen Bowler
And this is an interesting one. I had made some money and I was in Neiman Marcus, which is our Dallas flagship store.
18:57.65
Colleen Bowler
And I saw this bracelet and I’m like, I deserve it. I’ve earned it. But I hadn’t put it in the plan in my plan. um But I bought it.
19:09.42
Colleen Bowler
But I never felt really good about buying it. And A week later, I gave it back. i took it back to the store. It was really, really hard.
19:23.46
Colleen Bowler
um My pride was really wounded. i knew the salesperson was going to lose their commission. I’m in this beautiful store and I’m taking it back. But I did it and i was really proud of myself for doing it.
19:40.07
Colleen Bowler
I think we all you know make snap decisions. I was able to take that one back. And I put the money where it was supposed to be in the plan to my son’s college fund.
19:52.11
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
19:53.17
Colleen Bowler
Here’s an interesting thing about that, because I think when we do really hard things at some point in time, whether it’s universe, whatever you you call higher spirit, whatever.
20:06.42
Colleen Bowler
um I started dating my husband when my son was in college, his wife had passed away. we We need to make sure everybody has life insurance.
20:20.62
Colleen Bowler
um Average age of a widow is like 56 in the US and Canada.
20:25.93
Lorie Jones
I know.
20:26.77
Colleen Bowler
We’ve got to remember that’s a big important part of the plan. Anyway, um side note, side note of one of my passions. um But like a year into the relationship, he bought me a present and I opened it and I just started sobbing. And he was like, you know, what is your problem?
20:47.75
Colleen Bowler
and And thought you like this gift.
20:48.00
Lorie Jones
Oh, no, I thought you would like this gift, right? You can imagine what’s going through this.
20:51.77
Colleen Bowler
And it is the exact bracelet that I took back double the size.
20:52.14
Lorie Jones
Yeah. um
21:01.00
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
21:03.27
Colleen Bowler
How is that for Wilde?
21:05.55
Lorie Jones
yeah
21:06.08
Colleen Bowler
i just knew that he had heard the story or he’s like, I have, what are you talking about? You know? So I do think, you know, um that high five for doing something really hard.
21:20.80
Colleen Bowler
um And I know it’s usually about investing in something or doing something, but I think also running with your plan is it it a good high five, whether it’s just a regular, you know, consistency, like you said, sometimes we don’t give ourselves the high five for consistency.
21:41.01
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
21:41.86
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
21:41.92
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Like, like I, I saved this month and last month and the month before and the month before that, like that we should be throwing parties like little mini parties in our brain.
21:47.67
Colleen Bowler
Yes.
21:52.54
Lorie Jones
Yay.
21:53.64
Colleen Bowler
yeah and Yeah, and we should be throwing those parties with our clients for doing that, right?
21:53.93
Lorie Jones
You stayed on track.
21:59.42
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah.
22:00.35
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
22:00.42
Lorie Jones
It’s hard, isn’t it?
22:01.96
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
22:02.03
Lorie Jones
It’s hard for us. It’s hard for them. It’s making those consistently good decisions, especially when the payoff or the the reward is like you know retirement.
22:12.80
Lorie Jones
like so
22:13.06
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
22:13.61
Lorie Jones
Some of our clients have like 20, 30 years before they’re going to you know look back and say, oh, I’m so glad I did that. that’s It’s hard it’s to do that day in and day out. and And I agree, there should be more parties in finance.
22:27.67
Lorie Jones
up
22:27.88
Colleen Bowler
There should be more parties. um We had a page in our plan that said benefits realized from our work together. And some of those things were added in.
22:37.81
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
22:38.02
Colleen Bowler
Like, you know, out of the last year, 11 months, you hit your target on this. We, you know, for your wellness goal you did this. For travel, you did it.
22:49.31
Colleen Bowler
those things are i mean i know people talk about return on investment but it’s really return on involvement return on involvement with the human side yeah so
22:59.47
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. And some of those, some, I was just talking to someone today where I said, you know, I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve heard retired and my spouse died, you know, we retired and i got cancer. We retired and, you know, and, and I just think there is a place in, in those financial plans for living,
23:24.23
Lorie Jones
a well-lived, happy life and still meeting your goals. So, yeah.
23:29.25
Colleen Bowler
Absolutely. It is enjoying, you know, every day with my dad dying when I was 16, my husband’s wife passing away in her early 40s, which was how old he was. um I’ve lived a lot of being joyful in the day because we just don’t know.
23:50.71
Lorie Jones
Yeah, we don’t know exactly.
23:51.00
Colleen Bowler
Yeah. Yeah. So lovely. Great idea. it in the program.
23:57.34
Lorie Jones
What? I know exactly. What’s, what scared you the most? Did anything scare you when you started on this journey?
24:04.48
Colleen Bowler
Oh, gosh.
24:04.46
Lorie Jones
And does it still scare you?
24:04.84
Colleen Bowler
dr ah You know what? I think the biggest biggest scariness, A, I didn’t really realize I was going into business for myself, so that was kind of
24:14.97
Lorie Jones
Hmm.
24:15.54
Colleen Bowler
um But I think the biggest scariness happened when I hired people and each time I hired people because I realized I had another investment in myself and in the firm.
24:31.01
Colleen Bowler
But every January, there’s this thing called January depression with entrepreneurs because we start all over again. Right. We have these families lives on our team that we have payroll for, you know, the building, the whatever.
24:44.42
Colleen Bowler
Most of that though is to me is the people’s lives. Um, so it’s, that’s, that was really scary. That was really scary. And if anybody says it’s not, I don’t, I don’t know how, how they do it.
24:58.73
Colleen Bowler
But what I did learn, um, September 11, when i was in the business and everybody, there was no business being done, you know, it was like, just get out from under your desk and go talk to people.
25:13.55
Colleen Bowler
Um, I learned then that the people who had the most competence were ones who had cash for ones that had the expenses for their business for the year.
25:26.32
Colleen Bowler
And I started saving and I saved expenses for my business for the year and expenses for personal for the year.
25:26.41
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
25:34.55
Colleen Bowler
And I keep 18 months to two years and I keep it in places that are accessible, not stupid. But I’ve had a lot of financial advisors say that’s just stupid.
25:45.57
Colleen Bowler
And I’m like, yeah, but I went through 2000 to through September 11th and I went through 2008, 2009, 2008, 2009. We doubled, triple, quadruple those because we had confidence. We had cash in the bank.
26:01.24
Colleen Bowler
I, everybody was going to get paid where there was other financial planning practices where they were laying people off other people that weren’t able to pay their own expenses. we were able to go add value to people who were really scared.
26:15.92
Colleen Bowler
And I think that was a big thing.
26:15.94
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
26:18.51
Colleen Bowler
So I definitely keep it now. So no, definites I’m not worried about it anymore. But I was very afraid for a good four or five years.
26:29.82
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that makes sense.
26:30.47
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
26:31.07
Lorie Jones
That makes sense where you’re like looking at like, how are we going I’m responsible for people’s lives and livelihoods. I want to make sure that I’m im you know I’m not putting myself or my business in a situation where that could come into question.
26:48.26
Colleen Bowler
Right, right.
26:48.42
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that. i’ve I actually think way more people should love that.
26:51.22
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
26:55.73
Colleen Bowler
Well, it is, know, we call it an emergency fund, but I also call it a readiness fund. and We call it readiness mindset in our assessments because it is ready for the proverbial, sorry, I should to hit the fan, but it’s also an opportunity fund that, you know, when, when,
27:14.71
Colleen Bowler
the proverbial shit hits the fan. There are opportunities to buy. There are opportunities to bring really good people on board your team. There are opportunities to onboard new clients, which makes new, you gotta have this or that, or there’s opportunities to buy businesses or, you know, whatever.
27:21.95
Lorie Jones
and
27:29.63
Colleen Bowler
So it’s not just an emergency fund. It’s really a readiness fund.
27:35.06
Lorie Jones
Oh, I love that idea. An opportunity fund. I’m going to steal that. I actually am.
27:39.67
Colleen Bowler
please pe Please do, please do, Lori.
27:42.65
Lorie Jones
I love that idea. So this is a question I always ask everyone. And if you were working in finance on September 11th, what, 2000, was that 2001?
27:53.12
Colleen Bowler
nothing one
27:54.33
Lorie Jones
Yeah. ah Then you are on the old guard. You are on, you,
27:58.87
Colleen Bowler
Yeah, 30 years I’ve been in the industry since 1991.
27:59.59
Lorie Jones
you you will, yeah, you will probably answer this question than the affirmative, but did you face any unique challenges because you were a woman?
28:09.48
Colleen Bowler
Yeah, and you know, we don’t need to discuss that. We kind of already did. A single mom, 15% women, now only 20. But I really want everybody to hear. it is such an incredible…
28:23.60
Colleen Bowler
industry for women. I had a colleague of mine that had two sons that worked 15 hours a week and then came back after they were in maybe fifth and sixth grade and then put it really into gear and had learned so much all that time.
28:41.16
Colleen Bowler
i mean, we all can do things differently. So, you know, I just don’t want to stay there with the challenges women face because there are a lot
28:51.76
Lorie Jones
yeah
28:52.49
Colleen Bowler
But um there’s a lot of opportunity as well.
28:55.90
Lorie Jones
There is for sure. What, um, maybe a a different question or a better question that I kind of want the answer to is how did you, you know, after going through those, those years of 15% women in the business, like how did you run your business or change your life so that you could make women feel kind of more inclusive or, or, um, make it a better environment for them?
29:20.57
Colleen Bowler
I would answer any email, answer any phone call. I would meet with people. i would mentor people. I still do. I still do.
29:28.08
Lorie Jones
hu
29:28.54
Colleen Bowler
So anybody listening, they want to talk to me, just get on my calendar. um I do think it’s a great industry for women. I’ve done you know college events and things like that.
29:39.44
Colleen Bowler
But I think my greatest impact has been talking with people one-on-one.
29:44.06
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I love that. And I love that you highlight it because it’s one of my big things too, is I feel like there should be more women in finance. I think that we’ve got a voice.
29:54.29
Lorie Jones
I think that more women as clients um are finding their voice financially. And I think that women, like you mentioned, like it’s flexible. Financial services is a little bit flexible. So you can make the kids important events and still be a kick-ass financial planner, right?
30:13.38
Colleen Bowler
Oh, absolutely. Especially with all the technology we have now. I did it and it and I didn’t have half this technology. you know I’d be bringing client files home I didn’t need weights. i had client files.
30:27.33
Lorie Jones
So you’re like doing your weightlifting with it with paper.
30:28.63
Colleen Bowler
it’s got yeah The two after my son went to bed or in the morning before he woke up, right?
30:30.33
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
30:33.86
Colleen Bowler
Now we have a whole bunch. Now sometimes moms are too connected. That’s usually my.
30:40.15
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah, we do.
30:40.89
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
30:41.60
Lorie Jones
There is a hard time to find that balance for sure.
30:45.14
Colleen Bowler
Yeah. yeah
30:46.83
Lorie Jones
Colleen, what is the thing you are most proud of?
30:51.14
Colleen Bowler
Raising my son. ah You know, I think that Easy. And second would be building the businesses where we employed people, we impacted lives there, we impacted lives with our clients.
30:56.19
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
31:05.27
Colleen Bowler
um ah You know, so many things just like you have. I mean, the stories and the, the you know, the little gifts or the books or the pictures, whatever, all the things that they would share with us.
31:18.57
Colleen Bowler
um When one of my clients got breast cancer, I get flowers that says, it’s because of you, I’m not worried about the money.
31:28.54
Lorie Jones
Oh,
31:28.62
Colleen Bowler
Thanks. It took one big thing off my plate. I mean, those kind of things can’t, you can’t.
31:34.75
Lorie Jones
they’re priceless, aren’t they?
31:35.88
Colleen Bowler
Yeah, they are priceless.
31:36.23
Lorie Jones
Yeah. just and And watching that um that like that money mindset, that um planning and watching how they
31:38.63
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
31:50.01
Lorie Jones
how they have the fruits of that plan, how they live. And then watching them pass that down to their kids and their grandkids, honestly, is priceless. Don’t you think?
31:59.27
Colleen Bowler
It is. It is living legacy. That’s what we do. We do living legacy.
32:02.47
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
32:03.95
Colleen Bowler
If we do our job well, it’s a living legacy. And I have just like so many stories, but
32:10.26
Lorie Jones
I know, I know. Don’t get us started, huh?
32:12.26
Colleen Bowler
we will. Yeah.
32:13.62
Lorie Jones
um Any advice for a young lady who’s kind of just starting out on her journey that you’re already so successful at? Is there any advice that you would give her?
32:23.27
Colleen Bowler
I would probably say as soon as you can, um Don’t do it all yourself. And that’s probably sooner than we think. you know Hire a part-time virtual assistant.
32:37.16
Colleen Bowler
Hire somebody to help clean at the house. Hire somebody. you know I was still mowing my own yard. when you know So that was some of the housekeeping and yard stuff were some of the first things that I hired out.
32:49.88
Colleen Bowler
um
32:52.63
Colleen Bowler
Don’t do it yourself. When you start in the industry, you don’t have the knowledge to to really. I mean, I started with people’s two thousand dollar IRAs. Right. As soon as I started collaborating with other advisors, I would say, Laurie, you know, you are an expert in insurance, whatever.
33:10.10
Colleen Bowler
um Will you come meet with this client with me? I’ll give you 50 percent of the case or however it is. I learned so much by partnering with people. And what I learned was i was really good at asking questions and knowing generally i was a great quarterback.
33:29.86
Colleen Bowler
And there were people who are just fabulous on the investment that you can’t ask the questions. So they would bring me in I would bring that them in it So that would be the other thing is um collaborate.
33:46.52
Colleen Bowler
Delegate number one as soon as you can collaborate number two, find a mentor and enjoy the journey because it’s going to be you’re putting in the time you might as well have fun with it and enjoy the clients and the teams and the industry and all the learning.
33:46.82
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
34:07.07
Lorie Jones
Oh, yeah. I love that’s the thing I love the most about this industry is just how much you can how how much you can learn and how many how many different people you can learn it from.
34:19.22
Lorie Jones
Like there’s always you’re always going to find somebody who’s smarter or doing it better than you.
34:20.10
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
34:24.77
Lorie Jones
Like absorb that. Right.
34:27.50
Colleen Bowler
Absorb it.
34:28.30
Lorie Jones
I love that. Thank you.
34:30.09
Colleen Bowler
Yeah.
34:30.77
Lorie Jones
Oh, go ahead.
34:31.83
Colleen Bowler
No, absorb it, learn from it, um share. I mean, 50% of something or whatever, however it goes is much better than nothing. and
34:42.38
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
34:42.81
Colleen Bowler
and And do your clients the service of bringing in the wisdom. I could sell all day around somebody that says, I have an advisor that does everything.
34:48.86
Lorie Jones
oh yeah
34:52.00
Colleen Bowler
They do life insurance. They do advanced estate planning. They do long-term care. They don’t do disability. They do my investment. I’m like, can’t. What happens if they get hit by a truck?
35:05.17
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
35:06.42
Colleen Bowler
They got a lot of business that way.
35:08.04
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
35:08.28
Colleen Bowler
Yep.
35:10.15
Lorie Jones
Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us, Colleen.
35:10.82
Colleen Bowler
yeah Anyway.
35:13.35
Lorie Jones
I really appreciated hearing your story and your journey. if i If I do have a young lady who’s like, ooh, I want to know more, how do they get in touch with you?
35:23.39
Colleen Bowler
Well, if any of it resonates, I’d love to talk with anyone. A quick 15-minute conversation. I can give it to you in the show notes. You can um you can have that information.
35:34.02
Colleen Bowler
You can meet up with me on LinkedIn. It’s just Colleen Bowler. ah Or send me an email or go to our website, thepassportpackage.com. Anyway.
35:45.17
Colleen Bowler
Happy, happy, happy.
35:47.24
Lorie Jones
Oh, perfect. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. And I appreciate that. I just feel like there’s a lot of synergy between the two of us, like wanting to bring more women into finance and kind of just having this experience where our clients feel seen and heard and and i and wanting to ask questions, be curious. I love that. I love that I found a like-minded person. It’s so exciting for me.
36:12.57
Colleen Bowler
Yes, yes, yes, yes. It’s very, very exciting.
36:15.91
Lorie Jones
so
36:16.00
Colleen Bowler
Thanks, Lori, so much.
36:17.94
Lorie Jones
Thank you. Thank you for doing this.