Reinventing Your Life and Money Mindset with Diane Farber

What if the life you’re living right now… isn’t the final version?

In this episode, Penny sits down with Diane Farber — her neighbor, friend, and a woman who proves that reinvention doesn’t have an expiration date.

Diane shares her journey from social worker to financial advisor, building a career from scratch in her 40s, and then starting over again in a brand new community in her 80s. Her story is layered with courage, curiosity, and the kind of wisdom that only comes from doing the thing, even when it’s uncomfortable.

This conversation is also a gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) nudge for women to take ownership of their financial future. Because being “taken care of” isn’t the same as being informed.

In this episode:

•  What it really takes to reinvent yourself at any stage of life 
•  The courage behind changing careers later in life 
•  Why fear doesn’t mean stop; it means GO 
•  The importance of financial literacy for women 
•  What happens when you don’t understand your money 
•  How to stay curious, connected, and engaged as you age 

If you’ve been waiting for the “right time” to make a change… this might be it.

When’s the last time you did something just for YOU? 🍷✨
Wine Camp 2026 is your chance to escape, sip fabulous local wines, cruise at sunset, laugh around the fire pit, and soak up the magic of New York’s Finger Lakes.

📍 Dates: July 30–August 2, 2026
🏡 Spots are limited, so grab yours now: https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp

Bring your besties or come solo—you’ll leave with new favorites either way. Wine Camp 2026 is calling. Are you in?

Want support growing your business? Book a free Discovery Call with Penny: https://tidycal.com/pennyforyourshots/discovery-call

Wine Camp 2026: Join the list or save your spot:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/winecamp

Become an Insider for weekly updates, tips, inspiration, and episode extras:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/insider

Love cocktails + community? Join the Sipper Club:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com/sip

Explore all things Penny: coaching, podcast, events, & more:
https://www.pennyforyourshots.com

Follow Penny on Instagram: @penny4yourshots
Or on Facebook: Penny (Kuhlers) Fitzgerald

Transcript

Reinventing Your Life and Money Mindset with Diane Farber

[00:00:33] Penny Fitzgerald: There's something really special about sitting down with a woman who has lived a full life and is still evolving. My guest today, Diane Farber has done and is doing just that from social work to building a career in finance to starting over in a brand new place in her eighties. She shares the kind of wisdom that only comes from doing the thing.

Even when it's hard. And here's what I love most. This conversation doesn't introduce anything [00:01:00] brand new. It confirms something I talk about all the time. You are not stuck, you are not too late, and you're far more capable than you think. So grab your favorite drink and let's go. Here is my neighbor and friend Diane Farber. 

I'm so excited to talk to you. 

[00:01:20] Diane Farber: Well, I'm excited to talk to you too. Only, I just reread everything and you said, um, you have to pick your best drink. So when we get to that, it's okay. You know, I'm, I'm not good at picking. 

um, something mule. There was a mule. 

that comes in the very pretty container. It comes in a copper. 

[00:01:38] Penny Fitzgerald: The copper cup.

Uhhuh, 

[00:01:39] Diane Farber: yeah. Copper cup. But I've never had it. 

[00:01:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, well I know someone in your neighborhood that has those. 

[00:01:46] Diane Farber: Oh, really? I wonder who, 

[00:01:49] Penny Fitzgerald: I wonder who

We can figure that out. 

[00:01:54] Diane Farber: Okay, good, good. 

[00:01:55] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay. So for my listeners that don't know, um, [00:02:00] Diane and I are neighbors, um, in Florida. We live just around the corner from each other in the same neighborhood. But Diane, tell, tell my listeners, my friends a little about you. 

[00:02:10] Diane Farber: Okay. Um, I have moved here from, um, Michigan, where I live for over 50 years.

and the result of living in Michigan with all that cold weather when I was originally from Miami Beach, Florida, was not one that, once I retired, I wanted to stay in.

I didn't want, I, you know, I don't like the cold weather. Um, I love Midwesterners, so I had to find a place to come to that was warm and at the same time where there was a preponderance of Midwestern kind people. And that's part of how I found Sarasota. And so I've been here in Sarasota now for two and a half years.

Um, I moved here without knowing any, well, that's not true. I knew two people and I've [00:03:00] become very involved in the last two and a half years to the extent that it's too much involvement now. And now I'm, I'm begin beginning to pull back. So, uh, from all of the things I'm involved in, so I can read a book.

[00:03:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, yeah, 

[00:03:14] Diane Farber: I don't have time to read a book right now. 

[00:03:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh. Well, tell us a little bit about some of those things that you're doing. 

[00:03:21] Diane Farber: Um, one of the things that I became involved with early on through a, um, I was introduced to a woman who was interested in contemporary art glass, and I have a contemporary art glass collection that I started in, uh, the early two thousands.

Um, and it's, it's about two dozen pieces or so, but I fell in love with the medium and I really wasn't a big collector of anything before I met contemporary art glass. And when I say I fell in love, I mean I fell in love and I learned everything I could. And I became part of a core group [00:04:00] that manages a national organization that is the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

And I became not only a member, but a board member and a secretary, and a financial person on their board, anda vice president. And then I decided all 

[00:04:15] Penny Fitzgerald: the things. 

[00:04:15] Diane Farber: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of work. Right? Too much work. Mm-hmm. And so then about a year and a half ago, I stepped down, uh, from being in that position, and now I'm, I'm just a, an.

I would say that my advocation is loving glass, meeting new glass artists, finding, uh, new methods that artists are using and trying to keep contemporary art, glass, uh, in the center of, or are more fo focus, uh, for people who don't know about it because not very many people do it. It's, it's not like one of the, um, it's not like oils and it's not even like, uh, ceramics.

[00:05:00] Um, and it's part of a group that they call decorative arts. Sometimes it's a, it's a very interesting conversation about mm-hmm. Contemporary art glass. Um, so anyway, through that I came down here, uh, I met a woman who was interested in that arena and I invited her to my house and she said, you should be a docent at the, uh, Sarasota Art Museum.

It's a contemporary art museum. And I said, well. I certainly can't do that. I don't have that background. I don't know how to be a docent. And she said, well, you just told me all about your contemporary glass and who the makers are and so on. Why don't you come to our meeting and let's see what you think about that.

So I went to the meeting, which was a meeting of docents and, you know, there are no coincidences in life. There are no things that are supposed to happen. And, uh, there, one of the exhibits was a contemporary art glass exhibit. 

[00:05:51] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:05:52] Diane Farber: Uh, by, um, a woman by the name of Barbara Bhe and her husband have one of the best contemporary art glass collections [00:06:00] in the country.

Possibly in the world. 

[00:06:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:06:02] Diane Farber: Uh, and she is right here in Sarasota and she lent 30 pieces to the Sarasota Art Museum. The docents had to learn about them. They knew nothing about art glass. I came in and I sat down as a guest, and as they're talking, I am finding out that they're asking all these questions and nobody in the group can answer questions.

I'm a little bit shy, and finally I say,that's what I know. I know contemporary art glass. I don't know the rest of the stuff that you guys know. 

[00:06:29] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:06:29] Diane Farber: So it was at that point that I became very involved with the Sarasota Art Museum, docents. Um, and I was a go-to person for that, and they've been go-to people for the rest of, uh, the exhibits and, and I really have, um, fallen in, um, very deep.

Love, deep love, deep love with contemporary artwork, and, uh, some modern artwork as well. 

[00:06:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. And so how did you, I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to [00:07:00] interrupt. 

[00:07:00] Diane Farber: That's okay. 

[00:07:01] Penny Fitzgerald: How did you discover contemporary art glass in the first place? I mean, what, what drew you to it in the beginning? 

[00:07:08] Diane Farber: Well, I was living in Michigan, I was still working.

[00:07:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:07:14] Diane Farber: And, um, I was at that point a financial advisor. I had changed careers from a social worker and I changed careers at age 41. So it was late to change careers. And I needed to do a lot of makeup in building a business and building a, um, some kind of foundation of wealth so that one day I would be able to retire Social workers, unless they have, uh, they're individually wealthy, independently wealthy, they can't retire.

Not the way I have anyway here. And so, um, I'm there working, working, working, working. And finally, I mean, somehow I started in 1984 and I woke up one day in 2003 and said, that's all I'm doing is working. I'm having no fun. 

[00:07:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:07:59] Diane Farber: [00:08:00] So, um, I then ended up joining. Uh, art boards, which I, yeah, I thought, I like art.

So I ended up then I, I was working on the art boards and I thought, well, that isn't doing it. So I said to one of the women there, you know what, I'm resigning from the all my art boards and I'm just going to see what the art is here. And the greater, um, Birmingham Bloomfield Ann Arbor area. And she said, well, you're lucky you're sitting next to me.

My husband and I have been collecting art since 1972. I spent two hours every morning reading about the art scene in the country. Oh my 

[00:08:35] Penny Fitzgerald: gosh. 

[00:08:36] Diane Farber: And let us mentor you. So she then took me to different, um, studios and, we went to a studio of an iron metal maker and we, and then we ended up at a studio where they had a hot shop and somebody was blowing glass.

And I said to her, uh, this is it. This is it. I feel it. I feel it. this is where I belong. And [00:09:00] that's how it started. 

[00:09:01] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Okay. And so backing up a second, you were a social worker for many years. 

[00:09:06] Diane Farber: Yes. 

[00:09:08] Penny Fitzgerald: And then shifted to be a financial planner 

[00:09:12] Diane Farber: right 

[00:09:12] Penny Fitzgerald: in your forties? 

[00:09:13] Diane Farber: Right. 

[00:09:14] Penny Fitzgerald: And do you, are you okay talking about why you should 

[00:09:18] Diane Farber: shifted?

Oh, sure, sure. I'm very, very comfortable. Yeah. 

[00:09:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:09:20] Diane Farber: Thank you for asking. I appreciate it. Um, uh, actually, um, when I left Miami Beach, Florida, I thought I would never come back to Florida. I didn't like the vibe in Miami Beach, Miami. It was back then, which is not in too much different from now. Uh, it was very fast.

I mean, driving was fast. I mean, during the season it was inundated with visitors just like sarasota's now, but, but that's different because people are Midwesterners here anyway. Um, so, so there we go. So we, we, we, I leave [00:10:00] and at that point, I, in, I'm in high school and I'm dating my high school sweetheart, who four years later I'm married.

And our, our whole vision was we would leave the Florida area. We went to Boston to school, and then, um, we ended up having two children while he was doing his medical training. And then I started school as a social worker. And someplace in that period of time, he realized that the thing he agreed to very strongly, um, about me working was something that he did not want to entertain.

Mm. And it eventually, that difference led to our divorce because I wanted to work. I did not wanna be a full-time mom. I wanted to be a mom that had flexibility and as a, a clinical social worker, which, which is what I, my training was. Mm-hmm. I couldn't make my hours as need be. And if I worked in a [00:11:00] clinic, I would have backup.

So I had it all worked out only. Mm-hmm. It wasn't something that he was, um, really positive about. And I said, you know, it's a deal breaker. And, um, and it was 

[00:11:12] Penny Fitzgerald: uhhuh. 

[00:11:13] Diane Farber: And so we have parted many, many years ago when my children were young and I was in social work school at the time, and I became a social worker for about eight years, became a specialist in the area of, um, alcohol counseling and family systems.

Um, traveled some, doing some private consultation that way. And then I ended up going to a small satellite office where I was a supervisor of seven people in that office and a budget mm-hmm. And so on. And I realized, um, that. I really liked doing some of that business stuff. I didn't ever think I did because I liked the clinical work Uhhuh.

And then, um, a friend of mine who has very sadly passed away said [00:12:00] to me one day, you're gonna be a bag lady. 

[00:12:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

[00:12:04] Diane Farber: And I said, well, that's a really nasty thing to say. And she said, well, I finally got your attention. 

[00:12:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:12:13] Diane Farber: um, I have been talking to you now for two years about the fact that you need to do something about your finances because you are not paid.

Well, I was not compensated. Um, the, the divorce did not go well. My former spouse did not have to give me any money at all. Oh my. So that being what it was. You know, I was living very, very poorly. And she said either, you have to change careers or you have to find a rich man. And I said, well, I guess I'm gonna change careers.

And, um, which is what I then proceeded to, um, look for. I looked at what could I do where I couldn't go back, I didn't have money to go back to school. Mm-hmm. So I had to be trained on the job. And at that time, the stock markets, which had bottomed out [00:13:00] starting in 1968 were just kind of coming back up in, in the early eighties.

[00:13:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:13:06] Diane Farber: And they really did need people desperately. And, um, I could walk, I could chew gum. I was smart. I, even though I didn't know the difference from a stock and a bond, I kind of faked it initially. And they weren't sure they wanted me. And they said, well, if you pass the series seven, which is this very difficult test mm-hmm.

We will keep, if not, we're gonna fire you. Hmm. So in 1984, I then, um, passed the test, got trained and started, um, very meekly because I was still a social worker. Very meekly. Yeah. Trying to build a business, which took me three and a half years to do. 

[00:13:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, that's a totally different skillset.

[00:13:46] Diane Farber: Yeah. Totally different. But one, um, that once I got the knack of was, uh, attainable. And is attainable for anybody who wants to do it, who feels that? And people [00:14:00] who are, see, I was all right brained. I mean, I could not do anything in my left brain at all back then. So you're talking about remembering stock symbols and what stocks were costing and what a bond fund was and how it's, you know, I'm, I'm thinking what is all this stuff and, and can I do it?

Okay. Fortunately I learned it and it. Now, um, I've been retired since 2016, January, 2016. Um, and I still turn on CNBC every morning. It's kind of like my wake up music. Oh. And yeah, I know that sounds strange, but I need to find out, what's going on. 

And, and listen to some of the talking heads. And then I turn it off at about an hour later and then I go on my day. 

[00:14:48] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, it, it kind of makes sense though that, you know, it's a comfort level, first of all for starting your day with something that you know and can. Contribute to. But then, [00:15:00] thinking back to your social worker days and then shifting into this new career, that's very different.

But part of it's very similar, right? Because you're helping a lot of people in different ways now. But in creating wealth and 

[00:15:15] Diane Farber: Right, and creating, not only creating wealth, but protecting wealth, which was my goal. My goal was, um, the people that I worked with were people who made their own money. Mm-hmm.

And my job was to grow it and protect it because I was never gonna make them enough money so that they could live only off my money and not off their working. Now, of course, unless they had, tens of millions of dollars. And those were not my clients. Um, my clients were, I, I made a decision early on.

[00:15:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:15:50] Diane Farber: Again, about my criteria for my clients were a certain way and I was gonna work a certain way. And, um, we were gonna work with a financial [00:16:00] plan. And I went and I got a degree as a certified financial planner. And then I got a degree from Wharton as a certified investment management analyst. And so my job was really to take people's assets and I had a mi minimum, uh, back then of a million dollar portfolio.

I worked primarily with couples who were very serious about making sure that they were very well grounded for their retirement.

[00:16:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, what a great goal. 

[00:16:28] Diane Farber: I absolutely, it, it was, it turned out to be, um, the, the people with whom I worked were wonderful. It was, the market became so intense and, um, it, I feel like, um, the market is made up of bulls, bears, and, and pigs. Oh. And um, and so what happens is that the pendulum. When the stock market goes up, people get greedier and greedier and greedier and they continue to buy.

And the all [00:17:00] the discussion is about is this gonna, is this gonna break? Is this gonna break? Is this gonna fall? Is this gonna, well, eventually it always does. Mm-hmm. I mean, eventually it doesn't work positively. The average return for stocks going back to 1926 is a little bit more than 10% a year. But you don't make 10% a year.

You make some negative years, you make some positive years. And by the way, there is a phrase that called regression to the mean, which is a statistical phrase, which means that eventually the market will go back to that 10.2%. And if it means that we're just too high over too many years, that means it will go very low for those people who are, uh, remember 2008, I mean, we didn't have little sell offs.

We had, I call them ginormous sell offs, you know? Mm-hmm. The markets were down over two or three years, 48, 40 2%. Um, that's a lot to make up because if it comes down [00:18:00] 42%, it has to go up 84% for you to just be level. 

[00:18:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:18:06] Diane Farber: So, so asset allocation, putting certain amount that you can tolerate in that kind of position is fine, but you have to put things in different buckets in order to protect, again, protect.

[00:18:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because if your timing is off, if you're retiring in 2008 and you're all in that the risky category, then it's a problem. 

[00:18:29] Diane Farber: That's right. That's absolutely true. It is the problem. 

[00:18:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:18:33] Diane Farber: Yeah. Wow. And I could tell you stories about people who listened and didn't listen and all that stuff. Mm-hmm.

But it would be boring. The only because, um, they, people have in their mind what they want the market to do. And it is not at all, um, really with any kind of background. It's [00:19:00] just kind of like a fantasy. I want an aggressive portfolio because I think I can handle if the market sells off. Well, my question was just to a friend of mine the other day who said, well, I really need to talk to you about this because she's my age, because I have 67% in the stock market.

[00:19:17] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:19:18] Diane Farber: and I, and she was retired and she was living off this, that portfolio. Yeah. Uhhuh. Oh. And I said, 

[00:19:25] Penny Fitzgerald: seems like a lot. 

[00:19:26] Diane Farber: I said that, that's a high percentage. Well, she said, I really wanna be aggressive. And I said, well, fine. What happens if, 

[00:19:33] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:19:33] Diane Farber: So I gave her all these examples of things that had, she's very smart.

I mean, she's very smart. She knows, she knew about the sell offs, Uhhuh, but she just uhhuh didn't, she liked the idea of it going up, up, up, up, and up, and never thought about the downside protection. 

[00:19:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. The risk of it. 

[00:19:51] Diane Farber: Right. 

[00:19:52] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Diane, you mentioned she's your age. Right? Can you tell us what that is?

Do you mind? Uh, 

[00:19:59] Diane Farber: You're [00:20:00] beautiful and so, so smart. I just, I admire you for so many reasons 

Okay. 

83. And I'm very proud of all that I can do at this age. 

[00:20:09] Penny Fitzgerald: You are amazing. 

[00:20:11] Diane Farber: Yeah. 

[00:20:11] Penny Fitzgerald: And all you've done, you have shifted and you have not let fear hold you back.

You 

[00:20:20] Diane Farber: No, I've been afraid. 

[00:20:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, but you didn't stop. 

[00:20:23] Diane Farber: You didn't. Yeah. No, I didn't stop. But here's the interesting thing. The women I know who are my friends, Uhhuh, um, who are my peers, many of them have done the same thing, not exactly the same thing that I've done. Mm-hmm. But they've done similar things.

Like this woman I talked about who was aggressive, you know, she was a dental hygienist, she became a dentist. That was a big risk to go back to school and to mm-hmm. And have, her own, um, office space and hiring people and all of that. And again, she did it. 

[00:20:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, [00:21:00] 

[00:21:00] Diane Farber: so there are many of us who have done it, and for those of us who haven't, who needed to, I'm sorry, but, and for those people who can Now, Uhhuh for example, there are many, many women who are trained as CPAs.

We only have Big Five now. We used to have big eight of the CPA firms, okay? And they're only there. There's big, big five. So now what happens in many of these, the women are really kind of beginning to rise to partners. But more than 50% of the women doing the work behind the partners are women. 

[00:21:43] Penny Fitzgerald: And 

[00:21:43] Diane Farber: not all people can become partners at one of those, you know, big, big firms.

Mm-hmm. And to start a small firm, you know, it's difficult. You're competing and, it's a, a whole thing. So for many people who have that background, I wanted to do presentations [00:22:00] about looking at financial management as a potential for another career, for career change. Um, at, you know, back in when I was growing up, you stayed in the same career forever.

Now people change careers, se they say on the average of seven to times during their work life. So, but, but these, but. I can't get to these women to talk to them. I tried through a women's economics group. Um, I tried through the firm, I work with Uhhuh. Nobody wanted to support this. They said, well, you know, um, can you come up with the money to put the program together?

I said, no, no. It's not gonna benefit me. I'm doing this. I'll do the, the, the, the, the talk. But don't you wanna help these people? 

[00:22:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:22:46] Diane Farber: And then should I get on the, the, the thing that really is I find very sad is that we have not gone forward as women in our country [00:23:00] and women in business. Mm-hmm.

Um, we are now finding that it's very hard to move up the glass ceiling, um, is very much in place after. So many years. I mean, 

[00:23:15] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, 

[00:23:15] Diane Farber: we're the biggest, most developed country that hasn't had a woman president. Shame on us. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Shame on us. So, um, I really feel that women really need to support women in looking at diversifying their lives and, and incorporating a way to move up.

[00:23:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, absolutely. When women come together, collaborate, support each other, it, it creates magic. 

[00:23:42] Diane Farber: Right. It is, it is magic. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I like that. 

[00:23:45] Penny Fitzgerald: There's nothing, well, I shouldn't say there's nothing 'cause there are, but, um, it's just very sad to me when I hear someone say, I wish I would have X, Y, or Z. You know, I wish I would've done this or been that [00:24:00] or tried this or moved there or whatever.

Just, and still, and to the point where. Now you still could do those things, or you still could do something that brings you joy or lights you up. And we put ourselves on the back burner so often. 

[00:24:16] Diane Farber: Yes. 

[00:24:17] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That we've forgotten what that thing was that we wanted to do, or the thing that we wanted to try, or the impact 

[00:24:25] Diane Farber: we wanna do.

Let's talk about you. 

[00:24:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

[00:24:28] Diane Farber: How you've just changed your career and you're doing Yeah. What it is. I mean, you know, I, I am just so impressed with the fact that you just took a good paying position and something you knew, and you're creating a whole nother world for yourself. 

[00:24:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. I think it's so exciting. You, I love it.

It's 

[00:24:47] Diane Farber: exciting. 

[00:24:48] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, thank you. It's, it's in support of women and I just really want to create that atmosphere, create that culture, bring people up and support them in what they're trying to do. 

[00:24:59] Diane Farber: [00:25:00] Right, right. Yeah. 

[00:25:01] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And it's been, it's taught me so much too, like talking to all you brilliant women. 

[00:25:07] Diane Farber: Aw. Aw.

Yeah. Okay. Yes, 

[00:25:09] Penny Fitzgerald: yes. I'm grateful. We're neighbors too. It's so fun. 

[00:25:12] Diane Farber: It is so fun. Only I need a handyman. Please find me a handyman. Something. 

[00:25:17] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, well, when Jeff comes down, he'll help you with some stuff. 

[00:25:20] Diane Farber: I can't, I can't do that. I need somebody that I can give to you. Yeah. Somebody that's, that's a higher, 

[00:25:25] Penny Fitzgerald: you need an actual, 

[00:25:27] Diane Farber: yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, okay. Back, back to back to Florida. Back to, so, so one of the things I'm doing is working with the Sarasota Art Museum, and that's very fulfilling. The other thing that happened down here, which was really surprising to me, 

[00:25:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh, 

[00:25:42] Diane Farber: was that I have now become part of a temple. I am Jewish by birth. I was never a.

Follower. Um, I, I grew up with, uh, in a family where we considered being Jewish bagels, locks, and cream cheese. [00:26:00] Um, we never, we never had celebrations of Jewish holidays. We never belonged to a tempo. Um, my former husband, uh, is an atheist and he'll tell you right up front, you know, he's really not, he, he was born and he was in a family that was much more observant.

And I thought I would learn that. I was surprised. No, I'm an atheist and we're not doing that thing. And I go, okay, fine. So, wow. So as the years went by, um, I never kind of connected with any kind of Jewish organization that made me feel, feel spiritually fulfilled. They were, they were. I went, I went, I tried going, I joined, 

the rabbis were nice, but, you know, they were not what I would consider spiritually elevated and driven. And so then I come to here. Mm-hmm. I come here and one of my two friends here says to me, one night, um, we should go to Temple on a Friday night. I go, I don't go to Temple on [00:27:00] Friday night.

I don't go to Temple. And she said, oh, well come with me then.she, she doesn't wanna go to Temple alone. And, and I, I'm not doing anything on a Friday night. And so I say, okay, I'll go. So we go and I am sitting there and I'm saying to her, this is pretty cool.

[00:27:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh 

[00:27:19] Diane Farber: yeah, this really feels good in here. These good rabbis are exceptional. That was a great sermon. So she said, I'm gonna join. I'm gonna get my, my kids to join and I'm gonna join. I said, well, I I'm probably not going to 'cause I don't join temples. Yeah. Not only did I join the temple, I am part of their art touring committee, which is just a group of small group and I am the chair of the endowment board.

and so I am working hard for the Temple 

[00:27:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh, 

[00:27:51] Diane Farber: and, um, it's a little bit too hard. That's one of the things I'm pulling back on. Uh, I, you know, um, 'cause I don't have, I haven't had time to [00:28:00] read a book and, um, 

[00:28:01] Penny Fitzgerald: oh 

[00:28:02] Diane Farber: yeah. So, but, but I still go occasionally on Friday nights and I, um, and I, I'm just building the endowment board.

It needs to be billed, it needs to be secured. They, you know, um, I, it's really a full-time job and I have to figure out how to make it a part-time job. Hmm. 

[00:28:21] Penny Fitzgerald: So you're fundraising for them? Is that what your endowment 

[00:28:24] Diane Farber: committee 

[00:28:25] Penny Fitzgerald: is? 

[00:28:25] Diane Farber: I am. Okay. Um, part of it is fundraising through Legacy. Part of it is just getting everything organized so that we can fundraise getting, um, the endowment board visible.

People don't know that the Temple has a, the membership committee did not know that there was an endowment board and that Oh, wow. When I told them, they did not know how it was different from another program that they had heard about Life and Legacy. So we changed the membership information. So there are all of these little pieces mm-hmm.

That, um, [00:29:00] I will do between now and the end of my term, which is the end of 26. 

[00:29:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Um, 

[00:29:06] Diane Farber: to get it in place so that they can do more fundraising and have, because you can't do fundraising unless you're visible. 

[00:29:14] Penny Fitzgerald: Right, right. And have a plan. I mean, what, where's the money going? What do, what do you need?

[00:29:18] Diane Farber: Right, right, right, right. Yeah. And the plan was just to. Put it up on the web and just let it be on the website, 

[00:29:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. 

[00:29:26] Diane Farber: So my plan is a little bit different. Um, I am hoping to work with the Temple Sisterhood to put together a plan to just have, if I, I, I can't believe I'm the only one there that's a financial advisor, that's a female, but I could be 'cause it's, uh, 870 units of people.

Wow. So you think there would be, other people with that background? Um, 

[00:29:50] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:29:50] Diane Farber: But I would like to kind of give a, a little course on what is a stock, what is a bond? So women who very [00:30:00] often are, are left when they're widowed. They don't have any background at all. And you know, um, and they all say to me, but he's so nice.

My financial advisor's so nice. 

[00:30:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:30:14] Diane Farber: okay. And I say, I say, good. How did he do this? Oh, he, he did really well. How do you know? Well, he told me. He told me, okay, so I, I would like to change, trust 

[00:30:24] Penny Fitzgerald: and verify. 

[00:30:26] Diane Farber: Yeah. I would like to change that. Those responses from some women who say, well, I looked and, the s and p did this and he only did this, or he wants to put me in high yield bonds.

My former mother-in-law, after, uh, my former father-in-law died, I was very close with them still. So she came to me and she said, please manage my account. And I said, I don't think that's a good thing for me to do. I, I said, I think that, you know, you need to find a person that hasn't divorced your. So, and she said, are you sure?

And [00:31:00] I said, oh yeah, I'm sure. However, I'm happy to look and see how your person is doing. Mm-hmm. Well, as soon as Sam died, this guy, put her all in high yield bonds. 'cause she said, I want income. And so he said, oh, I'll get you income. And he put her in high yield bonds, Uhhuh, there she was, um, she, 92 and 50% of her portfolio was in high yield bonds.

It was terrible. 

[00:31:24] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:31:24] Diane Farber: terrible. Anyway, so, and he was such a nice man, she told 

[00:31:29] Penny Fitzgerald: me, oh, of course. Yeah. Well, baking and cookies. 

[00:31:32] Diane Farber: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So those are the kinds of things I hope to do. I hope to raise women's awareness of. Finance. Um, I'm not quite sure if it's gonna get done. I've mentioned it to one or two people who are in the art group that I'm in, uh, from the temple and they say, oh, well, I, yeah, George, this person takes care of, I don't, I don't wanna do it.

No, he takes care of that. You 

[00:31:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

[00:31:59] Diane Farber: He said, [00:32:00] you know, so I, I once said to a client of mine, um, I, there was this couple and they came in to see me and she said, I really don't wanna be here. You know, I come here, I don't understand. I said, well, you know, if you come enough, you'll understand. 'cause I explained things Uhhuh.

She said, but Dave just does the finances. Let him just do it and let me stay home. And I said to her, yeah. I said to her, well, you know, um, what happens, I hate to say this, Dave, with you sitting here, but what happens if something happens to Dave? 

[00:32:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:32:32] Diane Farber: And she said, well, 

[00:32:33] Penny Fitzgerald: heaven forbid, but heaven 

[00:32:34] Diane Farber: forbid.

Right. And she said, well, I would call my daughter. I said, but your daughter doesn't know how to manage money either. You told me her husband does it all. Yes, that's true. She said, well, I'll, I'll call you and you'll, I said, but I'm gonna retire. She said, well, I'll talk to my next door neighbor. I like him.

[00:32:54] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

[00:32:55] Diane Farber: And I said, your next door neighbor, [00:33:00] really, you would trust him? Mm-hmm. And she said, well, you know, if I had nobody else. 

[00:33:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. 

[00:33:06] Diane Farber: So she was, she would not learn. She would not learn. So there are people like that who just won't learn and they will trust. And it's not that these people are not trustworthy Uhhuh, it's that they're not trained.

They're not trained. Uh, the next door neighbor, you know, he runs his own portfolio. I don't know how old he is. I don't know his risk tolerance. Right. I don't how much money he has. Yeah. So it doesn't make sense. 

[00:33:36] Penny Fitzgerald: It, no, it's o it's okay to go to someone else for advice. It's okay to, you know, trust someone else, but just have an understanding of what you're looking at, of what's, what's happening in your own portfolio or in your own life, or, 

[00:33:50] Diane Farber: Right. It's really in your own life, because it does impact your future years of living. 

[00:33:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, 

it 

[00:33:57] Diane Farber: really does. 

[00:33:58] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:33:59] Diane Farber: Yeah. [00:34:00] I like talking about this. I haven't talked about this in a long time. Penny. 

[00:34:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Thank you. Oh my gosh, yes. No, thank you. This is, yeah. Really good stuff for women to think about and, um Right, 

[00:34:10] Diane Farber: right.

[00:34:11] Penny Fitzgerald: I should introduce you to one of my sassy sisters who is a financial planner and she's brilliant as well, she's made a mission too, to educate people, and especially women, um, you know, if you have an interest in, um, sharing what you know and helping other, get that education piece out there.

I bet she'd be all over it. 

[00:34:32] Diane Farber: Yeah. I don't wanna work hard. 

[00:34:34] Penny Fitzgerald: No, I, no, but I know you, you just jump right on in. 

[00:34:37] Diane Farber: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what I decided. Um, I just got my second cold. Which is what you're hearing in, um, in two months. And that's because 

[00:34:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh no. 

[00:34:51] Diane Farber: Well, it's because 1, 1, 1 month I was working, I worked, you know, 30 hours a week putting together an event Uhhuh.

Um, yeah. [00:35:00] I shouldn't be doing that. Not, 

[00:35:02] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:35:02] Diane Farber: I have to tell you, as good as I look, my body is still in its eighties. My body doesn't do what it did in its seventies. It really doesn't. 

[00:35:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:35:12] Diane Farber: And I know this was the biggest surprise for me this year has been the biggest surprise because this is my, since I've been here, 'cause I've been here a short time.

Mm-hmm. This is my most active year so far. 

[00:35:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. 

[00:35:28] Diane Farber: And, um, so I hearken back to my client who, um, she was 92. 

[00:35:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:35:37] Diane Farber: Uh, she had been a model, had married well, and, um, were, um. What's those, those fancy clothes all the time anyway? Oh, uh, knitwear, um, 

[00:35:50] Penny Fitzgerald: oh, St. John's. 

[00:35:51] Diane Farber: St. John's. She wore St. John's and she never had to change her St.

John's 'cause and she drove a Cadillac, whatever it was, and she's 92 and she comes to see [00:36:00] me and we review the portfolio. Now, she knew her portfolio. And um, and then one day she says to me, um, at 92, she says to me, I'm going to visit my nephew in New York. And his ne my nephew and his wife. And I said, oh, who are you going with?

And she said, I'm going by myself. And I said, Charlotte, you, you're 92 years old. And she said, well, Diane, I have learned what my body can tolerate. Oh, at this age, I'm good for six hours a day, and then the rest of the time I have to rest. 

[00:36:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:36:36] Diane Farber: And she said, so I take a flight, I sit in first class, I get off the plane, they have a wheelchair for me, that was back when, you know, this is like 20 years ago when people were not traveling like they do today, 

[00:36:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh.

[00:36:50] Diane Farber: And she said, and then my, my nephew's at the gate, um, and you know, we go and he takes me to my hotel, he checks me in, I rest, I get up, he [00:37:00] picks me up, we go for dinner, it's perfect. I'm home by eight 30. I sleep until the next day. He picks me up for lunch and we go do one little thing and then I come back and I take another nap and we go for dinner.

Um, and she said, and then the next day, uh, what happens is that he picks me up kind of early and we go for brunch and he puts me on the plane. Then that's my, that's my six hours. And back then, planes were not canceled like they are today. There were not that many people traveling. You could, you could count on more things.

So, but what I learned from Charlotte is that you have whatever hours of the day you have, um, as you get older, the good ones are less and less, so you have to make those quality hours. 

[00:37:48] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That's so interesting. And just the thought of, okay, first of all, how self-aware she was and how that's such a great lesson and learn.

[00:37:59] Diane Farber: [00:38:00] Right. 

[00:38:00] Penny Fitzgerald: And then also how she was able to make the most of those six hours and do the things she had the means to be able to do the things she wanted to do in those six hours. 

[00:38:11] Diane Farber: Right. Right. 

[00:38:13] Penny Fitzgerald: That's big. 

[00:38:14] Diane Farber: It was very big. It was very big. And I learned so much from so many of the people with whom I worked about life experiences.

Yeah. Because I was younger at the time. I was in my fifties and they were in their seventies and their eighties. 

[00:38:29] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. So much wisdom from older, older women. 

[00:38:33] Diane Farber: Yes, we do. Yes. When we get there, we can pass it on. 

[00:38:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes, exactly. I love it. Oh my gosh. What do you love to do most? 

[00:38:45] Diane Farber: Um, so that's hard for me to say.

'cause I think what I love to do most are my docent tours. 

[00:38:54] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Um, 

[00:38:55] Diane Farber: because it takes it, it's because it, there's a story that [00:39:00] goes with every piece that you show, and putting together the story, putting together what makes it unique, what makes it. What, what makes it something that makes it good art mm-hmm.

Is very satisfying to me. And, um, and I don't just, you know, it's just not like reading the placard that's next to the piece. Mm-hmm. about a, a year and a half ago there was an exhibition and one of the exhibitors was a man by the name of Sanford Biggers, and he had three pieces with us.

Uh, now he, Minnesota, Florida has a Hermitage retreat that invites artists from any area, whether it's visual or whether it is musical or whether it's plays. They, they look, they have a group of, uh, they have a board, and the board invites the [00:40:00] people throughout the country. To come and study there for three weeks.

Um, and at the end of three weeks, they can do it one week at a time or do the whole three weeks. Uhhuh, uh, they, they, they're given a place to live. They're given money for food. Oh. They're given all that. And one person from a class actually gets a $35,000, um, award for being unique in what they're doing.

So, wow. Uh, what they, and they started doing this in 2002, I think it was, and, um, yeah, 2002. And they've had 700 people go through the program, and so they decided to take the best of those people who went through the program and put an exhibition together for the Sarasota Art Museum. And one of those people's name is Sanford Biggers.

[00:40:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:40:49] Diane Farber: And Stanford Biggers has a incredible story. He's a, a man in his late forties African American man in his late forties, a father, [00:41:00] they come from California. His father was a neurosurgeon, the only one in the state of, of California that was black. And his mother was an educator and he was raised to look at, um, history.

That was going on in the schools. And his parents said, and what you don't learn there, we're going to fill in. Mm-hmm. So he has a huge understanding of, uh, the black situation in this country that was taught to him. Um, not from a bias standpoint, but from a factual, historical standpoint. Mm-hmm. 

And he started playing the piano when he was five. He was like a prodigy. Wow. But he got bored. He did not wanna become a classical pianist and do that. So he started doing all kinds of performing arts. 

[00:41:46] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:41:47] Diane Farber: And from the performing arts, he then went into doing, um, visual arts. And the visual arts were things that he would cast.

Uh, he had a piece called the Oracle, and it was, it was at Rockefeller Center. [00:42:00] Um, in New York City, and it was there for three months. Um, and it was a body of a hero of, um, Roman times. And it was the face of an African mask with Oh 

[00:42:16] Penny Fitzgerald: wow. 

[00:42:17] Diane Farber: Holding the torch saying Uhhuh that, yeah. Yeah. Very powerful. Very big.

It was 25 feet tall. 

[00:42:24] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:42:24] Diane Farber: wow. And, he had three pieces in this exhibition at Sarasota Art Museum. So, you know, I could have said, this is Sanford Biggers, but everything that I told you Uhhuh was research that I did.

I wanted to know the person that made these pieces that spoke about slavery, segregation, music. Um, I wanted to know who that person was other than here's a quilt. Okay. 

[00:42:54] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. It's so powerful when you have the story. 

[00:42:57] Diane Farber: Well, it's very powerful because the [00:43:00] quilts he used were from the G Bend group in, um, in, uh, South Carolina, right.

There's, there's an island there and there are a group of women who, in the 18 hundreds started making quilts from all old clothing in order to keep everybody warm. They were African Americans, they were like on this island. Uh, and they were brought there by a, uh, plantation owner, and they were isolated.

And, um, so they worked share they sharecropped and so on. Um, and there's a whole history of them, but they, their quilts got to be known in 1998. 

[00:43:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

And 

[00:43:37] Diane Farber: so, yeah. So these women who made these quilts, now we have generational women, and they had a wonderful exhibit in 2004, I think maybe it was 2000 and.

Six, I don't know, at the Whitney Museum in New York City of Bin Quilts. So there was also talk [00:44:00] legend that mm-hmm. The women would put the quilts out all along, but African American women would make quilts all along the underground railroad trail and they would put them in a certain direction to help people get to 

[00:44:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow.

[00:44:13] Diane Farber: And yeah. And circulate, you know, go through the underground rail 

[00:44:17] Penny Fitzgerald: uhhuh. 

[00:44:18] Diane Farber: So, um, and he in his work was using the quilts. And so, so that's what I love to do the most, put all of this together because the messages are strong, the art is fabulous and creative, and you wonder how people can. Put all, I wonder mm-hmm.

How people can take these different pieces. Um, he had a piece, um, he used a quilt, and on the quilt he painted a piano. And, um, the piano, uh, was inside side. [00:45:00] Um, the piano was inside a, um, museum. Um, and then there was a noose and there was, the name of it was, I'm trying to remember the name. It was Uhhuh a, um, it was a song that was by again, I can't remember her name.

I'm sorry. We're doing this off the cuff because I can't That's 

[00:45:20] Penny Fitzgerald: all right. 

[00:45:20] Diane Farber: Um, what's the name of that? Uh, she's a, a very, um, well-known, uh, soul singer from the thirties who died of a, over an overdose of heroin. 

[00:45:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. Um. That's not Ella Fitzgerald? 

[00:45:36] Diane Farber: No, no, no, no, no. Ella was, Ella was after, she was much earlier and she was a, she was an addict.

Um, uh, shoot, I 

[00:45:44] Penny Fitzgerald: can't remember. 

[00:45:45] Diane Farber: Yeah. Okay. But anyway, anyway, um, the words to her song with w there was a line from her song, one of her that, one of the songs that [00:46:00] had to do with, uh, men being strung up. Um, and that was the name of the piece. 

[00:46:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

[00:46:06] Diane Farber: And so then what I did was I read the whole paragraph from the, um, song that the lyrics talked to the, yeah.

The lyrics that talked to what people were looking at. 

[00:46:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. 

[00:46:20] Diane Farber: So, you know, that's my fun. 

[00:46:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. That's, it's, it creates an impact and knowing the history, the story behind the person who created this art. 

[00:46:32] Diane Farber: Right. And it's not, makes 

[00:46:33] Penny Fitzgerald: it come alive. 

[00:46:34] Diane Farber: Well, and it's not just, they were born here and they went to school here.

[00:46:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Right. 

[00:46:38] Diane Farber: That's 

[00:46:38] Penny Fitzgerald: just, 

[00:46:38] Diane Farber: it's, it's all about, um, concept. It's all concept. Why are they doing this piece? What is, what is their conception? Not that they use? I like the fact that, I know that if, if, if it's chalk or, if it's pencil, there was one woman who did this huge thing with pencil. Um, and that was interesting.

The interesting [00:47:00] part about her life was that, um, she was an engineer who was trained in Sri Lanka, came to the United States, and, um, found, uh, found out that there was a, a lot of racism here that she didn't expect to have. 'cause she was dark complected and that's what her piece was about. But if you looked at her, you, you, yeah.

You would've known that. Yeah. 

[00:47:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. It's the why behind the piece, not the what. 

[00:47:29] Diane Farber: That's right. That's 

[00:47:30] Penny Fitzgerald: right. Yeah. Very cool. I can see why it brings you joy and lights you up. 

[00:47:34] Diane Farber: It does it, it really does. 

[00:47:36] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Should do more of that. 

[00:47:38] Diane Farber: Uh, no, I do enough. Thank you. 

[00:47:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, no, no, no, not, yeah, I didn't mean it like that.

But if, if you have, you know, here's your, 

[00:47:46] Diane Farber: I'm saying no to everything now. Somebody asked me, okay, good. To help them plan a trip for a group. I went, no, thank you, you for asking me. I'm flattered no 

[00:47:54] Penny Fitzgerald: good. Yeah, that's what I mean is like you can say no to all these other things that, but what was your idea?[00:48:00] 

[00:48:00] Diane Farber: I'm sorry. 

[00:48:00] Penny Fitzgerald: No, no. So just that you keep the thing that brings you joy, you know, so that you're able to do as much of that as you want so that you Right. You know, have the time to do the thing. 

[00:48:09] Diane Farber: Right, right. 

[00:48:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Oh gosh. Okay. Can I switch gears on you now? 

[00:48:15] Diane Farber: Of course. 

[00:48:16] Penny Fitzgerald: So here's, 

[00:48:17] Diane Farber: you're, you're in charge. 

[00:48:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, okay.

You, I just, I let the, the conversation go where, where we want it to go, and then we'll, we'll circle back around eventually. But, um, so, you know, we, at the beginning you were talking about, um, uh, having a hard time. Determining what kind of beverage you would like. Yeah. Can we talk about that? What is your favorite beverage?

[00:48:41] Diane Farber: So, I usually will be a wine drinker. 

[00:48:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:48:47] Diane Farber: Um, I, uh, and I'm very like about everything in my life, which is a probably a problem. I'm very fussy. Um, and so I have my favorite wines. Just know what you 

[00:48:59] Penny Fitzgerald: like [00:49:00] 

[00:49:00] Diane Farber: said to me, but try this. You'll like the chardonnay. I'll go. I'll never like any Chardonnay. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't like that oaky buttery taste. I just, 

[00:49:12] Penny Fitzgerald: you're an A, B, C wine drinker. Anything but Chardonnay. 

[00:49:16] Diane Farber: Oh, is that it? Yeah. Okay. I didn't know that. So, so what I do, but I do, but what I do like is like, I like Sauvignon Blanc. 

[00:49:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:27] Diane Farber: Okay. So Sauvignon Blanc, I found, you know, over the years of, of my drinking from my white wine list, I have a white wine and I have a red wine.

Um, the white wine is, uh, so, so I go to restaurants. I, one of the ways I have like a social life is I go out a lot for people with people and, you get, get a glass of wine with dinner. You just do. 

[00:49:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:49:51] Diane Farber: And so I look over them, you know, by the glass. And I say, uh, I say, don't you have a, uh, sauvignon blanc?

And they say, [00:50:00] oh yeah, well this one here I go, but that's from Napa. No, I want the ones from New Zealand. Well, we don't have one, but you could look at the sincere, it might be. It's yes. Mm-hmm. And I said, no, it isn't similar. There's no citrus. No, I don't want that. That's from France. No, I want the ones from New Zealand because it has this citrus flavor.

And that's what I like in my wine. 

[00:50:24] Penny Fitzgerald: So it's very distinct. 

[00:50:26] Diane Farber: It's very distinct. And that's what I like. So when I want white wines, that's, I drink that. 

[00:50:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:50:32] Diane Farber: And when I drink a red wine, it needs to be heavy. It needs to be strong. And um, I once went into a wine shop in Michigan. I, I, I drank a lot more when I was younger than I do now.

I don't know if, I think a number of my friends said the same thing, that when you get older you just don't. Drink 

[00:50:55] Penny Fitzgerald: as 

[00:50:55] Diane Farber: much. 

[00:50:56] Penny Fitzgerald: I've heard that too. 

[00:50:57] Diane Farber: Yep. Okay. Mm-hmm. So, um, I went [00:51:00] into the store and I said, okay, I want a cab that is a combination of chocolate and blueberries. Mm. And, yeah. Doesn't that sound yummy?

Mm-hmm. And he said, oh, I have just the thing for you. And he sold it to me, and it was, and I was so happy. I never took a picture of, it was so many years ago, I didn't take a picture of the label. Yeah. I didn't even write it down, and I don't know what it was. So, um, but I don't like, um, you know, I don't like, uh, anything sweet.

Mm-hmm. Um, I, I really, and I, I used to like Malbecs, but I can't tell what they taste like anymore. I mean mm-hmm. The taste is not significant. So I do like a cab and the wine that I'm liking right now is called Quilt. 

[00:51:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, I've seen that. I've not tasted that. 

[00:51:48] Diane Farber: Well, you can come to my house. 

[00:51:50] Penny Fitzgerald: We can fix that.

[00:51:51] Diane Farber: We can fix that problem. 

[00:51:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay. Okay. So we've got, we've gotta try some mules. We've gotta try that cab. 

[00:51:58] Diane Farber: Right, right. 

[00:51:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. [00:52:00] Yep. I love a Sauvignon blanc too. Um, do you like anything spicy? 

[00:52:06] Diane Farber: I like everything spicy. Okay. But I don't know. I don't know about drinks spicy. 

[00:52:11] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, here's what I'm, where I'm going.

I, um, learned a trick at wine Camp this last year. Okay. That in a Sauvignon Blanc, very thinly sliced. Jalapeno, like three slices of jalapeno, just little section. Oh, tiny. It is magic. Wow. It tastes so good. Okay. 

[00:52:31] Diane Farber: Can I take the jalapeno to the restaurant with me? 

[00:52:36] Penny Fitzgerald: This is probably more something to do at home, but 

[00:52:39] Diane Farber: Oh, okay.

Fine. 

[00:52:39] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Unless you're at a Mexican restaurant or something, you know. Oh yeah. You can find a a jalapeno around. Yeah, that it's really yummy, um, to try. 

[00:52:47] Diane Farber: That's interesting. 

[00:52:48] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:52:49] Diane Farber: Huh? 

[00:52:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, I 

[00:52:51] Diane Farber: do. And I like spicy, so that would be, it's good. Something I would like to try. How does it change the taste? 

[00:52:56] Penny Fitzgerald: It really tames the jalapeno, the Sauvignon Blanc.

[00:53:00] Something about the acid, the acid level of a Sauvignon Blanc with the spiciness of the jalapeno really works well together. So it, you end up tasting the jalapeno and just a very slight hint of the heat, it really tames it. 

[00:53:16] Diane Farber: Okay. 

[00:53:16] Penny Fitzgerald: I tried the same thing in a Prosecco just for fun. Oh. I couldn't even get it close to my nose without coughing.

It was 

[00:53:25] Diane Farber: so, yeah. 

[00:53:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Completely different experience. 

[00:53:28] Diane Farber: So when, when I don't want, um, a red or a white and I just don't know what I want Uhhuh, I'll order a glass of Prosecco. 

[00:53:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:53:36] Diane Farber: Um, and I am never. Overwhelmed with joy, but I'm never disappointed. 

[00:53:41] Penny Fitzgerald: It's simple. Yeah. It's pretty easy. Just a, it's a porch pounder.

[00:53:47] Diane Farber: What is 

[00:53:48] Penny Fitzgerald: that? I'm not opposed, when you sit on the porch and you pound it back, you just don't, you don't even have to taste it. You can just drink it. 

[00:53:55] Diane Farber: Okay. Okay. Now, now it's too sweet. I couldn't do that. 

[00:53:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, [00:54:00] yeah. It 

[00:54:00] Diane Farber: taste to me, 

[00:54:01] Penny Fitzgerald: oh, well, Prosecco really shouldn't be sweet. But there are some that are a little bit, they 

[00:54:07] Diane Farber: have a little bit of residual Well, once, so like a glass, when you go to restaurants are sweet.

[00:54:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Really? Oh, 

[00:54:11] Diane Farber: because they're cheap. They're cheap. 

[00:54:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, yeah. 

[00:54:14] Diane Farber: You know, they're like eight $11 like that. So, 

[00:54:18] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:54:19] Diane Farber: So I don't get the champagne by the glass. No. So I don't, you know, um, if, if somebody, if I knew someplace made a good golden margarita, 

[00:54:32] Penny Fitzgerald: yes, 

[00:54:32] Diane Farber: that would be my cocktail of choice. 

[00:54:34] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:54:36] Diane Farber: But they have to be good.

If not, they're just bad. 'cause they're either good or bad. There's nothing. 

[00:54:40] Penny Fitzgerald: It's true. They're like too acidic or too sweet. They can be, right? Yeah. 

[00:54:44] Diane Farber: Or, or some of them are just mixes. 

[00:54:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. No, no, no. It has to be real. 

[00:54:49] Diane Farber: And then the other is a mojito. 

[00:54:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

[00:54:53] Diane Farber: I had the best mojito I've ever had at Gloria Estefan [00:55:00] restaurant in Miami Beach.

[00:55:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Really? 

[00:55:03] Diane Farber: Yes. They muddled the, the, the, um, mint was muddled just right. Uhhuh. It wasn't too sweet. Oh, it was? Oh, it was beautiful. 

[00:55:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, lovely. 

[00:55:14] Diane Farber: Yes. Yeah. So I mean, I remember that now I have to tell you, that was back, I was still working, so that was 10 years ago plus. So that left a big imprint on me, that drink.

[00:55:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, 

[00:55:26] Diane Farber: yeah, yeah. It was so good. And I've had other mojitos subsequently, and none of them even 

[00:55:31] Penny Fitzgerald: touch. Weren't as, yeah. Special. 

[00:55:34] Diane Farber: No. Yeah. 

[00:55:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. So what's a fun memory? Shared with friends. 

[00:55:41] Diane Farber: Fun memory. Shared with friends. 

[00:55:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe over a, a 

[00:55:45] Diane Farber: mojito or a glass of wine. Okay. 

[00:55:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. 

[00:55:47] Diane Farber: Um, well, uh, so I have this couple dear friends of mine.

Um, they rent a place, they live in Michigan full time. They rent a place in [00:56:00] Florida every winter, and they needed a place to stay for three days. On the way down. 'cause they didn't wanna be up in Michigan and they couldn't get their place earlier. So I said, well, if you come through Sarasota, and, um, they're quite a bit younger than me.

They're, they're in their sixties and they still have a, they have a company that they, um, that they work with remotely. So they brought their computer. Okay. So they were the ones who introduced me to Quilt. Okay. And that was a surprise for me. and then I let them stay four more days because we finished a number of bottles.

Yeah. It was fun. It was fun. And they are fun. 

[00:56:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Aw. 



[00:56:40] Diane Farber: when you talk about fun right now and drinks,I can't, you know, short term No, but you know, longer term is more like, I, I can tell you who I was with when we went to Gloria Estefan and then we went next door to the, to the salsa place.

Oh, [00:57:00] fun. I, yeah, I was working and I was with all men. Because there were not very many women who Oh, sure. Right. And we had a meeting and we went to Coral Gables and we took a cab because they didn't have Ubers back then. Yeah. We took a cab to Miami Beach and went to, so, I hung out with them and you know, when you hang out with a group of men, you drink more because they drink more.

[00:57:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:57:23] Diane Farber: Yeah. So I had a lot of mojitos, I think. Yeah. 

[00:57:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Well I have, um, I, I got a little ornament from one of my dear friends that says, I love the nights. I can't remember with the friends. I can't forget. 

[00:57:39] Diane Farber: Oh, that's so nice. 

[00:57:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Isn't that cute? Yeah. 

[00:57:42] Diane Farber: Very cute. Yeah. Very cute. So true. Yeah. That's really nice. Very nice.

Yeah. 

[00:57:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh. Diane, what have I not asked you that you would love to share with us? With my people? 

[00:57:56] Diane Farber: Um, I don't know. I think I've shared a lot. [00:58:00] Um, is there anything that we haven't touched on? I mean, I feel that like my move at age, at age 81 was a risk 

[00:58:12] Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

[00:58:12] Diane Farber: Um, from Michigan down here. And I think you just, what you said earlier, you, you can't look back and say, I should have.

I, the thing that I think I should have done was I should have started in the financial field much earlier than I did. 

[00:58:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:58:29] Diane Farber: So I would have, um, I. I would have a better handle and, and a better availability of funds, uh, in my older years. Uh, you know. Mm-hmm. You learn how to live very well when you're a financial advisor 'cause you make a ton of money.

[00:58:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:58:46] Diane Farber: And then once you retire and, you know, I'm a certified financial planner, so I plan, but planning is not the same as living. And markets don't do exactly what you want them to do. And, um, the costs in Sarasota [00:59:00] are way more than they were in Michigan, which really surprised me. Mm-hmm. In all of Florida.

And so, um, I, I would just urge anybody who's watching to make sure that they got good count, compounded interest from a younger age. That's all, 

[00:59:18] Penny Fitzgerald: that's really good advice. '

[00:59:20] Diane Farber: cause you know, they found out that somebody who starts a an IRA at age 18 and funds it every year until they're 26. Because of the early compounding mm-hmm.

Does better than someone who starts at 26 until they're 65. 

[00:59:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:59:40] Diane Farber: Yeah. 

[00:59:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. More years 

[00:59:43] Diane Farber: four. Yeah. Well, no more than that. Um, well, no 

[00:59:46] Penny Fitzgerald: more. Yeah. Not 

[00:59:47] Diane Farber: four, but it was 18. It was 18 to 26. So is eight years. Yeah. But those early years, the earlier you start to compound, you know, it's, it's just every time you earn money, and even if the market [01:00:00] goes down and you continue to invest in like a retirement plan, you're buying whatever you're buying cheaper, so you get to buy more of it.

And so that's why it works so well for dollar cost averaging and, funding a retirement plan. 

[01:00:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[01:00:17] Diane Farber: So that's what I would urge people to be aware of. 

[01:00:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and that's, that's really, um. Applicable not just to your investing into your funds, but to also decisions in life. Like, I would've loved to, I mean, looking back, I should have started, I wanted to start earlier doing what I'm doing now.

[01:00:36] Diane Farber: Right. 

[01:00:37] Penny Fitzgerald: But I held myself back. 

[01:00:39] Diane Farber: Yeah. 

[01:00:40] Penny Fitzgerald: But it's never too late. That's the other lesson, you know, it's never too 

[01:00:43] Diane Farber: late. No, it's never too late. And you didn't hold yourself back. All, you know, you, you, you made the decision. Okay. Now it's, it's something though about I think that we, women are taught, [01:01:00] especially women who are 50 and older, not the younger women now, 'cause they're out there playing basketball, pushing and shoving just like anybody else.

But the older women, 50 and older, we, we've learned to be, um, very accommodating and affiliative and nice and kind, 

[01:01:17] Penny Fitzgerald: small 

[01:01:18] Diane Farber: and all of that good stuff. 

[01:01:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[01:01:21] Diane Farber: And so that's very nice. 'cause we bring a certain amount of civility to our world, but on the other hand, we can't. And we did, many of us, especially women who are 70 and older, ignored the realities of what it's like to make your life in this world.

I know many people who've stayed with their spouses only because of the financial situation. And that is sad to me. 

[01:01:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, yeah, that's true. Um, yeah, there's a whole system there that supports that. 

[01:01:57] Diane Farber: Right. 

[01:01:57] Penny Fitzgerald: You know? 

[01:01:58] Diane Farber: Exactly. I. [01:02:00] 

[01:02:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. And things are changing, I feel like, but not very quickly.

[01:02:04] Diane Farber: I think it's changing. No, not very quickly. And we've regressed a little bit because, um, because the glass ceiling has been back, put back in place. But there are people who, women mm-hmm. Um, the woman who is the president of General Motors, Mary Barra, um, they chose her to be president because they needed a scapegoat.

They needed a fall person. 

[01:02:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, really? 

[01:02:31] Diane Farber: Yeah. When the, there was, um, a GM car that, um, the engineers knew had a faulty gas placement. So they, somebody hit the car. There was people died. 

[01:02:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh 

[01:02:47] Diane Farber: gosh. Okay. And they never said anything about it. They, they knew it and they, okay. So gm um, got sued and they could pay everything.

And then Maryborough was called. [01:03:00] To talk to Congress about what GM did and everybody, I mean, when she was put in place, the guy who was there recommended her. He left before he could be skewered 'cause he was the one, it was during his time that this happened. Um, and so. A lot of people in place thought she would just be run over by, you know, the committee and that she would have to resign.

And what happened was there was this man, Steve Harris, who was a communications expert who sat with her and trained her of how she should respond and so on and so forth. And, um, he had been a GM worker and he had retired and came back, especially to train her to help her. 

Mm. 

[01:03:45] Diane Farber: And she passed with flying colors.

She did all the Maya culpa stuff. Yes, we did it. We, you know, we're sorry, da da da da. But this will never happen again. So she has been president of General Motors now for, oh. So let's see. So that's 10, maybe [01:04:00] 18 years. 

[01:04:01] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow. 

[01:04:01] Diane Farber: That's great. And while she's been president, she is brought up with her women. 

[01:04:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.

[01:04:08] Diane Farber: And, um, 

[01:04:10] Penny Fitzgerald: good. 

[01:04:10] Diane Farber: Brought them through the ranks, but a number of them have gone out on their own because they say the corporate structure is too hard to fight. 

[01:04:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Let's talk about that for a second. Okay. That is one of my pain points or one of my things that just is so obvious that it's this, the corporate world, by and large, is so masculine.

It's up, it's competitive, it's set up, the system is set up to be dog, eat dog. 

[01:04:44] Diane Farber: Mm-hmm. 

[01:04:44] Penny Fitzgerald: You know, it's a pie. You'd get your piece and then you move on. Or you, you block other people from getting their piece. Women don't work in the same way. We don't work on the same cycle. It's not a day to day cycle. We work in a more fluid way, in more on a [01:05:00] 28 day cycle, you know, so to speak.

But you, you just have a different, we're more collaborative. 

[01:05:05] Diane Farber: We're, 

[01:05:05] Penny Fitzgerald: we're collaborative. Exactly. If there's not enough pie, we'll just bake another one, you know? 

[01:05:10] Diane Farber: Oh, I like that. That's very good. That's fabulous. It's, 

[01:05:13] Penny Fitzgerald: well, you know, why not there it is just so right mu it's so different. It's a different perspective.

It's not the way that we were brought up, it's not the way that we were trained. We were trained to be No, no, no. You can't be creative. Think, use your head, not your heart. Don't feel, don't have enough, all these emotions. But that's what's gotten us in trouble. All of us, the whole world. I mean, we will make better decisions.

We collaborate, we support others. The energy is different. 

[01:05:44] Diane Farber: Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. Yeah. You're saying what history has been and Yeah. It still is. Still is. 

[01:05:53] Penny Fitzgerald: It's why so many women that I work with have, have left the corporate world and are starting something for themselves and [01:06:00] they're, maybe going into, um, a direct sales position at first or into an entrepreneurial type thing.

They're teaching someone else something that they know, or they're creating a craft or a project or a, a product that changes someone's life or that help enhances someone. 

[01:06:18] Diane Farber: Right, right. Well, what have, so there's this woman, you should please look her up. 

[01:06:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. 

[01:06:24] Diane Farber: Her name is Ann Drake. D 

[01:06:27] Penny Fitzgerald: Ann Drake. Okay. 

[01:06:28] Diane Farber: Okay. Um, she.

Inherited her father's logistics company. Mm-hmm. After he passed away and during the time she went to work for him, she had been interior designer with her own company, went to work for him, realized that he wasn't running as well as he could, went and got an MBA at Northwestern at Kellogg. And um, and so she then became, uh, when he passed away, it became her company.

Mm-hmm. Now, [01:07:00] logistics companies are the companies, some of them have, uh, carriers, some trucks, and some don't. But it's how you get from the manufacturing to the store that's logistic mm-hmm. Is getting it there. And research has shown that people from that position in corporate America become president of companies.

That if women can get to that position, which Mary Borrower was an engineer but was in that position, 

[01:07:28] Penny Fitzgerald: uhhuh, 

[01:07:28] Diane Farber: she then could become president. But most women become human resource uhhuh. They become marketing and they don't go on the manufacturing and operation side. 

[01:07:39] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. That's, I, you probably didn't know this, that, that was my background in corporate.

It was logistics. 

[01:07:46] Diane Farber: Really? 

[01:07:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[01:07:47] Diane Farber: Oh my God. Well, you didn't know this. 

[01:07:50] Penny Fitzgerald: No, 

[01:07:50] Diane Farber: that once I got to be a financial advisor, I happened to do a meeting with a man who o, who owned [01:08:00] a, um. A plastics company. 

[01:08:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

[01:08:04] Diane Farber: And so he took me on the floor and I fell in love with plastics and making and the operations. And I read about it and I thought, is there any way I could cha, I mean, I was like in my fifties at this time, I said, any way I could change and do this?

I really love the operations of plastics. You know? Oh wow. They're five different kinds of plastic, um, uh, putting it together. Anyway, that was, that was so supply chain that happened. Yeah. So that would've been the more logistics kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. So, so what this Ann Drake has done is that mm-hmm.

She has done two things. She sold her company to a South Korean company and she's taken all that money 'cause she. She owned that company outright and it was hundreds of millions of dollars. 

[01:08:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[01:08:54] Diane Farber: And she has done, she put together a group called Awesome, [01:09:00] um, accelerating Women, uh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[01:09:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:09:05] Diane Farber: Awesome. And so it's for, okay. She, she does two meetings a year for women throughout the country who, um, who are in the area of logistics or who wanna move into logistics. Uhhuh, they come out and they hear other people speak, they do networking, they do all this stuff. And she pays for setting up the conference for paying for not the people who show up.

They have to pay for themselves, but for getting every, all of the speakers there for the room. And she actually has now hired an administrator who runs Awesome. 

[01:09:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[01:09:38] Diane Farber: Then she's decided that she's going to do a leadership. Building. And, um, she lives part-time in Lake Geneva. And there was a piece of land that was going to be sold to developers that were, that was on Lake Geneva.

And she said, no, no, I'll buy that land. She bought the land in order to build a [01:10:00] conference hall and some rooms, I think, for women and leadership. 

[01:10:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

[01:10:06] Diane Farber: And, and every person working on that, she tries to have a female. So she has a female architect, she has a female builder. Mm. Um, she has, um, recently, um, interacted interface with all of these women astronauts, the STEM people, in order to encourage women to go into the STEM area.

[01:10:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[01:10:28] Diane Farber: And so she is a woman in her seventies who is making a difference. Huge. 

[01:10:35] Penny Fitzgerald: I love that. 

[01:10:36] Diane Farber: Yeah. So you might wanna follow her. 

[01:10:38] Penny Fitzgerald: I am gonna go look her up. Yes, for sure. 

[01:10:40] Diane Farber: Yeah, so there are women out there who are, um, there's a woman by the name of de, so in, in Detroit, uh, there were a lot of women who, because of the auto companies at the time, and they were like the focus and they were the biggest companies.

They were the most important at the time. [01:11:00] Um, and so, uh, there were a bunch of women who did kind of feed into corporate America that I know, but I've been following them on LinkedIn and they've all stepped away from corporate stuff. They've started their own little thing, and they're little, they start their own things.

Just what you were saying. 

[01:11:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It just, it's, it's not a good fit and we can make a better impact, a greater impact when we follow our heart. 

[01:11:30] Diane Farber: Right. Well, so Ann is saying you can follow your heart and you can still, um, be who you are because look at these women astronauts. Yeah. They've done that.

[01:11:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[01:11:42] Diane Farber: And they're out speaking to schools and encouraging other women, to, to, to go in that direction. 

[01:11:48] Penny Fitzgerald: That's great. 

[01:11:49] Diane Farber: Yeah. 

[01:11:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow, Diane, I knew this would be amazing. Hey, 

[01:11:56] Diane Farber: this is amazing. This is amazing. This is so much fun. I've [01:12:00] had so much fun. Thanks 

very 

[01:12:00] Penny Fitzgerald: much. Me too. Me too. I'm so grateful for your time and all of your wisdom.

[01:12:05] Diane Farber: Thank you. And I can't wait to taste that mule thing. 

[01:12:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[01:12:10] Diane Farber: Moscow Mule. 

[01:12:11] Penny Fitzgerald: Moscow Mule. 

[01:12:12] Diane Farber: In one of those little, 

[01:12:14] Penny Fitzgerald: in the Copper cup. Yes. 

[01:12:16] Diane Farber: What's in there? 

[01:12:18] Penny Fitzgerald: In the Copper Cup? 

[01:12:19] Diane Farber: In the, in the Moscow Mule. 

[01:12:21] Penny Fitzgerald: In the, oh, in the Moscow Mule. It's just, um, it's just vodka and um, ginger beer. I like to top mine off with a little club soda because the ginger beer can be a little intense sometimes.

Okay. And a squeeze of lime is that, that's just a Moscow mule right there. I mean, it's pretty simple. 

[01:12:37] Diane Farber: Yeah. 

[01:12:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Do you like, um, pumpkin spice? 

[01:12:41] Diane Farber: No. 

[01:12:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, then nevermind. I made one for, I, I have a sipper club that I do once a month with, with, um, anyone who, you know, like female entrepreneurs mostly that want a new cocktail recipe that I curate, I come up with and Oh, nice.

This, for this month I [01:13:00] did a pumpkin spice mule and it was delicious. But not only if you like pumpkin spice. 

[01:13:05] Diane Farber: Yeah, yeah. No, no. You know. Yeah. I'm not, I know where every Starbucks is in every city I've been in and you know, they have all of these different spice things and so yeah, I try, I try them once all the time.

[01:13:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Yeah. 

[01:13:18] Diane Farber: Yeah. I'm still a pure, another 

[01:13:20] Penny Fitzgerald: thing, 

[01:13:20] Diane Farber: I'm just a pure person. 

[01:13:22] Penny Fitzgerald: That's all right. Nothing wrong with that. 

[01:13:24] Diane Farber: Good, good. So thank you Penny. This has been Thank you so much Fun. I really have just so enjoyed this. 

[01:13:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, me too. Me too. And I look forward to seeing you soon. 

[01:13:35] Diane Farber: Thanks. Bye. 

[01:13:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Bye.