Business Blasphemy
Sarah Khan, Business Advisor and Leadership Consultant, is calling B.S. on the hustle-focused status quo of business and entrepreneurship, and getting real about what it takes to grow a business or career and NOT become a statistic. In each episode, Sarah helps navigate the rampant B.S. that permeates business strategy, marketing, operations, and mindset that has business owners hustling and pivoting themselves into burnout. She cuts through the noise and gives you guidance on how to view the status quo with a more discerning eye. If you're ready for success without the B.S., buckle up for hard truths, fun rants, terrible puns and (more than) the occasional curse word.
Business Blasphemy
EP93: From Misconceptions to Millions: A Woman’s Guide to Investing with Myrna Laine-Hyppolite
What if women could harness their innate investment prowess to close the earnings gap and secure their financial futures? This week, Myrna Laine-Hyppolite, financial wellness coach and wealth strategist, debunks myths that have long held women back from the stock market. Myrna reveals why women are often natural investors, bettering their male counterparts, and shares her expert strategies for empowering women to confidently dive into the world of investing. Learn how investing can be tailored to fit your lifestyle, whether you're a busy professional or managing family commitments, and discover the importance of finding a financial advisor who truly understands and respects women's unique financial goals.
Throughout this episode, we explore the transformative power of time, consistency, and understanding your investor persona to support investment success. Myrna sheds light on the common pitfalls to avoid and emphasizes the importance of diversification to mitigate risks. She shares her personal journey of overcoming financial struggles and highlights the critical role of multiple income streams, especially for women seeking financial independence. This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice for women ready to take control of their financial wellness and use money management as a form of self-care.
Guest Bio:
Myrna Laine-Hyppolite is the Founder and Chief Financial Empowerment Partner at Empower Financial Wellness. She is a financial wellness coach and wealth strategist who helps powerhouse women executives turn their amazing income into their first million in net worth, even if they are new to investing in the stock market and are not financial pros. Myrna is an ivy-league graduate with over 30 years of experience in the finance arena.
Coming out of her investing coaching program, her clients end up with a solid and automated investment game plan that allows them to fast track their money growth. She dispels investing myths, simplifies jargon and provides them with an organized and simple way to manage and grow their wealth with the stock market.
Connect with Myrna:
Website URL: https://www.empowerfinancialwellness.com
Linktr.ee page: https://linktr.ee/empowerfinancialwellness
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myrna-laine-hyppolite/
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/myrna.lainehyppolite/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empowerfinancialwellness
Financial Empowerment Community for Women Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/finance4women
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Hello, hello, blasphemers, welcome back. This week we've got a treat for you because I know y'all love money, so we're going to talk money investing and all things that way intended with my guest, myrna Lane Hippolite. She is here, I'm going to let her introduce herself and we're going to dive right the crack in. So hi.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, I am so happy to be here. I'm Erna Lane Hippolite and I am a financial wellness coach. I call myself a wealth strategist and I work with powerhouse women essentially to really help them build wealth by investing in the stock market. I firmly believe that managing your money is a form of wellness. Right, it's something that will make you feel well, and if your money house is not in order, house is not going to be in order. I don't care what you tell me, it's just not going to happen.
Speaker 2:So enhancing your financial wellness and investing is really important. Investing is one of the ways where you can enhance your financial wellness and take is really important. Investing is one of the ways where you can enhance your financial wellness and take your money from here to here, and so for me, it's really important to get the message out there to women that don't necessarily always take advantage of that opportunity to invest in the stock market. To get the message out there that, one, as women, we're better investors and that research has shown we're better investors than men. And two, because there is such an inequality when it comes to earnings gap with men and women, that's a way for us to kind of at least put a dent in that gap.
Speaker 1:I love that and I have not heard money management equated to wellness before, but when you say it it makes absolute sense. I mean, so many of us are in particularly entrepreneurship for that financial security, that financial freedom, that financial agency and the freedom that you know money affords us. And yet the vast majority of people are working themselves into the ground. You know they leave the nine to five to start a 24-7. Basically, it's probably one of the biggest factors of stress, not only personally, but in relationships and marriages, that kind of thing. I want to dive right in, then. What should? Because when you talk about investing one of the things that I've known people who have been investors or they've dabbled in the stock market 100% of the time it's a dude right, like my dad, my uncles, my husband, like why is it still such an intimidating topic or area for women particularly?
Speaker 2:There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to the stock market. One people think, oh, I need to have a whole bunch of money, I need to have thousands of thousands of dollars in order to start investing, which is not true. You can start with as little as $5 a day. The important thing is to actually get started. Number two to be that person, and I used to be that person. They used to pay me money to pour over financial statements, right, and pick stocks for institutions. People feel like you have to be that person, that you have to understand all the financial statements in order to pick a stock to invest. That's also false. That's also false. And then number three a lot of times, my clients they tend to think, well, I'm going to lose all my money if I put it in the stock market. I already work hard for my money, I can't be losing, I can't afford to lose anyway, which is not true. You have the right strategy, the right support, your money can only grow, and so it's getting rid of those misconceptions.
Speaker 2:It's some of those misconceptions that stop us from actually starting as women. And then, four a lot of times my clients are busy. Right, we're busy women, we have businesses, we have families. You know we can be caregivers to our parents, we are busy, so sometimes they feel that it's a big, you know lift to be able to say, hey, I'm going to go learn about investing in the stock market, and it's complicated, whereas it's not. You can invest in the stock market in so many different ways, ways that are comfortable for you, and so that's kind of what I share with my clients that hey, whichever way is comfortable for you, if you don't want to be picking stocks, you don't have to, you can use another strategy way is comfortable for you If you don't want to be picking stocks, you don't have to, you can use another strategy.
Speaker 1:So how do you find, like, what are some red flags to be aware of when you're looking for? Because I mean, personally, I don't have the capacity, the mental capacity to to numbers are not my friend, basically. So if I was to start investing, I would want someone who knows what they're doing to help. So what are some red flags around finding the right advisor, Like how do you find someone that is trustworthy, that has your best interests at heart, that knows what they're doing?
Speaker 2:It all depends on what you need, right? So, for example, if you're somebody who says I don't want to do it, kind of like you, if I want somebody to totally help me, you know, hold my hand, I don't even want to know about how to invest then finding you know a financial advisor is a good thing, right, find a financial advisor you know, see what their credentials are, the companies that they work for. But at the end of the day, it's also that feeling of no like and trust, right? As women, we have that certain sense of intuition, right? If you're working with someone you know, do you want to work with that person? Do you not want to work with that person? How does that person talk to you? Is that person taking into consideration your needs as a woman?
Speaker 2:Because as women, we have different needs and we look at different things. We care about our children, we care about our parents. Is that person that's working with you understanding for you as a woman, that your life expectancy, for example, may be longer than a man's? Right? The average life expectancy for a woman in the United States, for example? The average life expectancy for a woman in the United States, for example, is 81 years old. So does that person working with you understand that, as a woman, you have certain things that you may want to see in your investments. You may not want to invest in certain things like, I don't know, defense companies or companies that are not healthy for the environment. So there are certain things as women that we take into consideration that it not healthy for the environment. So there are certain things as women that we take into consideration that it's important for a financial advisor to be able to look at you, to work with you and talk with you and see you as a woman. So when you're looking for a financial advisor, that's important.
Speaker 1:That's actually. That's something I didn't even consider. You know the fact that our needs are different because, yeah, when you're investing as a woman, particularly if you're a mom, you know that is something that you consider like what's going to be left behind for my children, is there going to be an education fund? Is there going to be something to take care of them? You know, when I'm in my old age and they need to take care of me, or whatever that looks like, what do you feel? Because I know you talked about some of the misconceptions, but is there something or are there things that women particularly misunderstand about investing and the stock market? So, not so much a misconception, but where they may misunderstand how it works or like when clients are coming to you, what do you find their most common questions are Most common question is am I going to lose my money?
Speaker 2:And two, can I do it? So that's what I work with my clients with to show them that they can actually do it and they can devise a strategy and put together a portfolio that makes them what I call successful investors. And it doesn't take a lot to put that formula together. For me, the magic formula for success when you are investing and want to be successful, consists of three key things. One time Time is a natural accelerant to your money. Right, the more time you have, the more opportunities you have for your money to grow and the more opportunity for your money to double at a faster clip. Two is consistency. So you don't want to be investing and say, okay, one day I'm going to put a hundred dollars over here and then maybe next six months I'll put another couple hundred dollars. You want to be consistent. So what I work with my clients. I say, okay, what are you going to commit to investing every single month so that when the market goes down, you're actually buying more shares, when it goes up, you're buying less. But you want to be able to do it consistently, month after month after month, no matter what is happening in the market, because that's where you're going to build wealth. And then number three is a rate of return. So you want to be able to invest in something that allows your money to double over time. So if you're investing in something that's generating 1% return, it's going to take you a very, very long time for that money to grow Very long Okay, more time than any of us have right now in this call and so you want to be cognizant of those things.
Speaker 2:But the other thing that sometimes people aren't aware of is what I call your investor persona. So investing in the stock market is kind of like food preferences right, some of us like seafood, some of us are vegan, some of us like real spicy food. You got to know what your preferences are, because what I invest in is not what you're going to invest in, sarah, based on your preferences. Because you could be that type of person where I say, ok, sarah, the market's down 10% in a day and you're looking at it and you take to the bed because you're so depressed. If that's the case, you can't invest in what I'm investing in, because I'm going to go guns a blazing and say, okay, I know, it's for the long-term. I want my money to grow, I want to be able to say it's going to double in a factor of time five, six, seven years, really quickly and I'm going to be more aggressive. And so you have to be aware of your investor persona, what your preferences are, so that you invest in the right things.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, because I think it depends on like risk tolerance, like how people, how risk tolerant people are. Like I know me, I'm not, I'm risk aware, I'm not very risk tolerant. I know that about my personality, right, and I got to ask this question and it may be a dumb question, but I'm sure there are people listening.
Speaker 2:There are no dumb questions.
Speaker 1:Oh, there are, there are. I know for a fact, I was a teacher for a very long time. How often do people actually lose in the stock market, like when they're investing and I'm not talking about you know people whacking a whole load on you know a trendy star. I've known a lot of people who have lost investments but, like, how common is it to lose the farm when you're investing and sort of what leads to that? What mistakes are people making?
Speaker 2:a long-term buy and hold strategy and you pick your investments with the right support, the right guidance and you pick quality companies, then your chance of losing the farm greatly diminishes. But when you actually are in those situations or when people don't necessarily do the research, right, I might have my Uncle Joey. My Uncle Joey calls me with a hot talk. Right, I might have my Uncle Joey. My Uncle Joey calls me with a hot talk. Oh my God, this stock is going to go up. And then, lo and behold, I put ten thousand dollars in there on the thought that Uncle Joey knows what he's talking about and Uncle Joey has contacts. And, lo and behold, I lose my money because one, the company wasn't proven, the company didn't have solid leadership, didn't have solid financials, wasn't growing. You really didn't know anything about the company, but you took a chance because Joey told you so. So a lot of times people lose money because they don't do the basic research to understand what's happening with the company and a lot of times stock marks, stocks move right Based on what's happening with the company.
Speaker 2:If a company is growing, it has good financials and the expectations and outlook for that company are good, then most likely that company is going to be going up, but if there are factors that affect it. So let's say, for example, I'm a company where most of my sales come from China. We know the Chinese market was depressed recently and so my stock may have gone down, but now we're seeing an uptick in the Chinese economy, then that may be an opportunity for the stock to go back up. So you've got to kind of be familiar with what's happening when we're looking at individual stocks, and then you lose money when you're just concentrated and you don't diversify.
Speaker 2:So if I say I'm going to put all my money in a company I like right now NVIDIA stock, which is a chip maker and playing in the AI space, if I say I'm going to put all my money in there if anything happens with semiconductor space, then that's going to cause me to lose a lot more money. As if I said okay, I'm going to put some money in an exchange traded fund which is essentially a basket of stocks where I can invest a little bit in Amazon, a little bit in Apple, a little bit in Google, microsoft, costco, you name it. At least, there my money's kind of spread out and there's less of a risk, is kind of spread out and there's less of a risk. So what I tell newbie investors, or even if you're not a newbie investor, you need to have investments in vehicles like exchange traded funds that may mirror the market index funds, things where you have a breadth and allows you to mitigate your risk. You're not just putting all your money in one basket.
Speaker 1:So very similar to business that you know cause I've worked in the operations space for a very long time and the number of business owners I see who don't understand the basics. They don't understand the fundamentals of business. They hire people to solve problems and make decisions on their behalf and then, when things go wrong, blame the person they hired, versus the fact that they didn't do their own due diligence. And so I mean it's obvious now that, like when you are investing, whether you are financially savvy or not, whether you are good with numbers or not, there is a research aspect that you have to undertake so that you can also make an informed decision when you're looking at a company. So, for example, if you're looking at any company that you want to invest in just very, very high level, what are some of the things you should be looking at to determine whether a company is a good investment? So you're not having to listen to Uncle Joey.
Speaker 2:Well, you know you need to determine one. Is it a company that you feel that could be around for the next 20 years? There's a certain sense of longevity. It's not like, oh here, I'm new on the market. So if you have a company let us just take a Walmart, for example. So Walmart established company. One has good leadership, has been able to pivot given market conditions we had COVID, we had inflation rising They've been able to pivot and really exhibit a sense of leadership within the overall market.
Speaker 2:So a company like that you want to take a look at. What are they doing? Are they going to survive? Are they going to be around in 20 years? That's usually a good indicator. Do they have a good management team, good leadership? Are they showing innovation? So those are kind of the first few things that you look at and then after that you might want to look at some numbers you look at. Are their sales growing? Are they profitable? Are they paying dividends, which means they're sharing in the profits of their companies with the people that hold their shares. So once you look at your overall factors in terms of high level, is the company going to be on the growth path? Do you feel this company is going to be around, then you look at okay, let's look at some numbers to see if they're actually making money.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, I have a I don't know, is it a somewhat cheeky question. How do you feel about Bitcoin as an investment?
Speaker 2:Well, bitcoin is very risky, very risky investment, you know, very volatile. So I mean, if you're that type of person that's risk averse, bitcoin is not for you. I don't claim to be an expert in Bitcoin. I invest in Bitcoin through a fund which mitigates a little bit of the risk, but still it's a very risky play. So I do not claim to be a Bitcoin expert. I stay in my lane.
Speaker 1:I only ask because I know people who are like oh, bitcoin, it put everything into Bitcoin. I'm like, well, no, I don't. Yeah. So tell me, how has it been for you to be in a traditionally male dominated space?
Speaker 2:traditionally male-dominated space Well.
Speaker 2:I think, you kind of find your room and you find your voice right when you're in a, you know, being in finance. It is traditionally male-dominated space, there's no doubt about that. So being able to find your own voice and speak up for yourself and be heard is something that's so important when you work in that space and some of the things that you do is to be yourself, no matter what, right. And sometimes it could be a little bit of a shocker because if you're the only one in the room, you know that's a woman. You know, in my case, that's a Black woman.
Speaker 2:It can be a little bit intimidating for you to just be in that room, but it comes with, you know, experience and time and building your self-confidence and knowing your worth and knowing your value. That's really where you make a dent, because you know, in the beginning of my career it was, it was intimidating, but now you know I am a financial coach but I also have, you know, responsibilities. I am the chief financial officer for a pretty large organization and it is, you know, pretty male dominated field. But you have to let your voice be heard and be yourself, no matter what, and keep your authenticity.
Speaker 1:I love that and that's a really big big thing we talk about a lot on the show. So this is perfect and actually it leads me into my next question, which I ask all of my guests. Tell me your villain origin story. Like how did you come to be an entrepreneur? Because I'm looking at your, your bio, and like you're balancing full-time work with a successful business and you're a mom. Like how, first of all, why entrepreneurship? And then second, how do you balance it all?
Speaker 2:Well, why entrepreneurship? Because I firmly believe that you need to have multiple streams of income. As a woman, it's very important for you to have multiple streams of income. You don't just rely on one source for your income. That's a no-no. I don't care how much a company is in love with you and I don't care how many beautiful clients you have out there generating revenue. You need to have multiple sources of income, stock market being one in terms of passive income.
Speaker 2:But a business was important to me, right, because, one, I need to have additional source of income than just my day job. But two, really why I started my business is because I saw people like my mom, for example, is because I saw people like my mom, for example, and I had friends and other family members that, let's say, you're in a union and you're building assets and then you know, 20, 25 years later, the love of your life becomes your worst nemesis and you've got nothing to show for it coming out the other end and you're rebuilding after divorce, or sometimes you're so paralyzed because you can't believe this actually happened, that you can't rebuild. And so I saw my mother. I saw friends and family that weren't necessarily paying attention to their money, didn't know how to invest and then were helpless when they came out of the union. So I wanted to do something to help, to help educate and to make sure that, whether you're in that union and your partner, you end up spending 15 years together that's great, but that you're looking at and that you are participating in those money decisions and that you know where the assets are, because, if God forbid, something happens to your companion and he's the one or she's the one who's actually going out there and making the money and managing the money and you don't know it leaves you in a bad place.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to be able to educate women, to help them understand that, okay, managing your money doesn't have to be a headache, it doesn't have to be a stressful thing. It can be something that's a form of self-care. Because it is a form of self-care, you need to be able to look at your money and look at it outside of the context of paying those bills, so that you become familiar with it, because one of the things I like to say is to know your money is to grow your money. That's very important. So I wanted to establish this business to help women primarily understand what's happening with their money, but understand that the stock market is an avenue to build wealth, where we can build passive income and have our money work hard for us.
Speaker 1:That's fun. I love that. That is fantastic. So how do you balance it all? How do you make sure that you're serving your clients, you're working your job, you're there for your family, Well?
Speaker 2:balance is important, but one you got to be able to ask for help. Understand that you can't do it all by yourself. Look, I have two kids One is 20, one is 15, soon to be 16, girl, then boy. And asking for help has enabled me to grow my career, grow my business and take care of these kids, because I know that I can't do it by myself. So support can take on different forms. Support can take on the form of the lady who goes to pick up my kid after school. When I'm sitting at work and he has an afterschool activity and can't get home, I have somebody who helps me. Support is in the form of the person who can come help clean my house so that, instead of cleaning my house, I could spend time with my kids. So you have to see that support is necessary in order for us to be able to reach certain heights. We can't be super women. We need help, and so support takes on different forms, but it's very important to be able to balance things.
Speaker 2:And the second thing, outside of support, is self-care. Taking that time out for you it's not selfish. Spending time on yourself makes you a better mom, makes you a better wife or partner. I do that every Sunday night, every Sunday afternoon. I believe in Sunday dinner, right, because we don't spend a lot of time as a family together. So Sunday dinner we're all at the table and I decide I'm going to cook that nice meal for everybody so that we can sit and catch up on the week's events and figure out what's happening next week.
Speaker 2:But then, after that Sunday dinner is done, I'm going to tell you, sarah, I'm going to retire to my room for at least a couple hours. Don't anybody bother me. I'm going to catch up on some Netflix shows, do something, but that's mom time, yeah.
Speaker 1:So self-care is critical Absolutely. I love that so much and now I'm thinking of all the Netflix shows that I have lined up on my list that I could, if I implemented a Sunday moratorium on mom time, you know I could get through.
Speaker 2:You could at least a couple hours. That helps you get replenished.
Speaker 1:Tell me one small step or some first step that women can take if they are interested in investing, considering investing. They're making this money in their workplace or through their business. How do they get started?
Speaker 2:Well, number one, I'm going to say you want to work with a coach like me. That's going to get you on the fast track. But an even smaller step is to talk to your bank or talk to your brokerage account, and there are what we call robo advisors, which essentially is what it means A financial advisor. That's a robot. They will ask you a series of questions. They say, okay, the question I said Sarah, are you going to take to the bed if the market goes down 10%? Are you going to cry if you lose $5? And then, based on how you answer the questions, they'll say okay, sarah, put your money in this particular fund and that's it. And usually those have more conservative returns right, because they don't want to mess you up if you're not that aggressive or you didn't answer the questions exactly as the way you really felt, but the returns are a little bit more conservative.
Speaker 2:But the fact is that you get to be in the game. You participate in the stock market and you're able to make some returns. Now, once you get more comfortable, then you can hire a coach like me or you can, you know, invest in other vehicles. But the importance is to get in the game. And if you work with a robo-advisor, you don't necessarily need to know anything, right, but I tell my clients hey, you drive a car every single day. Do you know how the inner workings of the car operates? I don't, but I drive a car every single day, so you can be involved in the stock market without necessarily knowing everything that there is to know about investing.
Speaker 1:You just need to know where the gas goes and what to do when a light comes on right Exactly.
Speaker 2:That is fantastic.
Speaker 1:It and it can be simple, and I love that you've broken it down and made it accessible and simple. So, for those people who are interested in working with you, where can we find you?
Speaker 2:Okay, I am on Facebook under my name and I also have a website for my company, which is empowerfinancialwellnesscom, and I'm also on Instagram. Empower Financial Wellness is my handle, and then LinkedIn, of course, under my name.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So we will have all of those links in the show notes, myrna. Thank you so much. This has been very interesting, very educational and informational and I appreciate your time, thank you. Thanks for having me, sarah, and, like we say every week, you can have success without the BS. Sometimes you just got to be willing to take a little risk. Talk to you next week.