Reclaiming Your Hue: A Podcast for Women Rediscovering Themselves in Motherhood & Entrepreneurship
Motherhood and entrepreneurship are powerful journeys—but they can also leave women feeling drained, unseen, or lost. Like flamingos who fade while nurturing their young, women often put everyone else first and lose their own hue. Reclaiming Your Hue is about the moment when women remember their brilliance, reclaim their vibrancy, and step into who they were always meant to be. Hosted by Kelly Kirk, this podcast shares faith-led encouragement, inspiring guest stories, and practical strategies for harmonizing life, family, and business.
Why Listen / What You’ll Gain
- Inspiring stories of women who found themselves again after seasons of loss or overwhelm
- Practical tips for building businesses without sacrificing your sense of self
- Honest conversations about the challenges and beauty of motherhood + entrepreneurship
- Encouragement rooted in faith while welcoming diverse women’s voices
Listen In For: mompreneur journeys · reclaiming identity · harmonizing life & work · authentic entrepreneurship stories
Reclaiming Your Hue: A Podcast for Women Rediscovering Themselves in Motherhood & Entrepreneurship
Ep. 68 with Robin Edgar | Founder, Wealth Progression Group
Hit the Net, Climb Back Up: Embracing Life's Valleys as Springboards
What if your biggest challenges were actually divine preparation for your greatest purpose? Join us as Robin Edgar, seasoned wealth strategist with 35+ years of experience, shares her remarkable journey from teenage motherhood to guiding clients through life-changing financial decisions.
Robin introduces her powerful "trapeze analogy" that reframes how we view life's transitions. "We can be swinging comfortably on our trapeze, but real growth happens when we let go to catch the next bar," she explains with hard-earned wisdom. "The space between—catching air—that's where transformation happens." Her framework of living at the intersection of faith, family, and finance offers a refreshing holistic approach to decision-making that transcends typical financial advice.
This conversation goes far beyond money matters. Robin reveals practical strategies for navigating major life decisions, including her two-step approach: creating a detailed pro/con list and asking "what's the worst that could happen?" She challenges listeners to examine who they're seeking advice from, noting that "don't take advice from people more messed up than you" and "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."
Perhaps most powerful is Robin's perspective on life's valleys. "Your muscles aren't built by swinging back and forth on the trapeze. They're built when you hit the net," she shares, explaining how her own challenging moments became the foundation of her strength. Her mantra to "begin with the end in mind" provides a clarifying lens for evaluating choices, whether in business, parenting, or personal growth.
Ready to rethink how you approach transitions and build strategy around the people you surround yourself with? Listen now and discover how to transform setbacks into springboards toward your greater purpose.
Resources Mentioned:
- Book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Connect with Robin:
- Personal Website: Robin Edgar
- Business Website: Wealth Progression Group
- Email:
Contact the Host, Kelly Kirk:
- Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com
Get Connected/Follow:
- The Hue Drop Newsletter: Subscribe Here
- IG: @ryh_pod & @thekelly.tanke.kirk
- Facebook: Reclaiming Your Hue Facebook Page
- CAKES Affiliate Link: KELLYKIRK
Credits:
- Editor: Joseph Kirk
- Music: Kristofer Tanke
Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue!
Welcome everybody to Reclaiming your Hue, where we are dedicated to empowering women to embrace and amplify their inherent brilliance. Our mission is to inspire mothers and entrepreneurs to unlock their full potential and radiate their true selves. I'm your host, kelly Kirk, and each week my goal is to bring to you glorious guests as well as solo episodes, so let's dive in. Good morning, robin Good morning Kelly.
Robin E.:How are you? I'm great, Great Thanks for inviting me here.
Kelly K.:I'm really looking forward to this. You're so welcome. I almost feel like we've already recorded, like I don't know, 25 minutes of a podcast with our our like off air conversation.
Robin E.:I know Sometimes I hear you talk and other people talk about that and I'm like, oh, I wanted to hear that. Um, so hopefully we'll bring some of that in too.
Kelly K.:We probably will. We probably will, especially if it, if you know impact is it's not. It normally comes up in the conversation with most of the guests just how they are impacting through their businesses and then personally. So I'm pretty sure it's a little teaser for our listeners right now. So well, let's go ahead and dive in. Yes, all right. First question how is it that we got connected? I'd love for you to share that with the listeners.
Robin E.:Yes, so you, I got introduced to you through my daughter who is Erica Ralky. You've had her on your podcast and she is just a blessing and wonderful and I really appreciated you having her on and her message is different. All of our messages are different Totally, and that's what women need to realize is the message coming from all of us around being women and how we're showing up in the community. We just don't know what other people are dealing with and going through.
Kelly K.:And.
Robin E.:I think this podcast has really helped me, even at my older age, to realize that I think all of us have a huge ability to have a positive impact on women and make them and help them in any way we can to really, you know, know that there's been people that have gone before you um have struggled with the same things you're struggling with, and that talking about it is just one of the best things we can do.
Kelly K.:A hundred percent, 100%, I think a hundred percent of the guests that have been on I don't think I know this a hundred percent of the guests that have been on Reclaiming your Hue have been just that.
Kelly K.:They have been the movers, the shakers, in one way, shape or form, you know, and doing it in different seasons and levels, so to speak, but 100% of them are positive, positively influenced and want to make some greater change and impact in the world. And it's incredible to see how, even through a medium like this with the podcast, it's a bubble, it totally is a bubble. And we were kind of like this with the podcast it's a bubble, it totally is a bubble, and we were kind of talking about this as well, like how we kind of get into our bubbles, right, but like I think it's the most amazing bubble to be in because you can go into the bubble, you can have your, your positive, little injection and then you can go out and face the rest of what feels a little bit cumbersome with the world and go how can I take this and go out and just change? Yeah, make positive change, make positive change.
Robin E.:And I think, when I look at like I was even at your Reclaiming your you event and you know the women that are around all different ages, which is great, know the women that are around all different ages, which is great. But I think mature, older, wiser, experienced women need to step in and realize that we have a, we have a place and we can be helpful and we can also learn from younger people. It's not just an age thing, but I think about the podcast I listened to and people like me. If I would have been able to hear more of what you're putting out there in the world when I was a young single mother, I think it could have had. Not that life was bad, but it could have had a much more profound impact. And so, if I'm, if I'm helping to educate, inform, um, the people that are listening to this that might be younger thinking you know what's going on. Why am I feeling this way? Um, that's my purpose for being here.
Robin E.:Um because I do think, um, and my, my daughters have affirmed to me that that, that that younger people, you know, when they were younger they don't always necessarily realize what's going on, um, and when women reach about the age of 30, you know, it's usually um, from my older age seat, looking back, that's really when I think people come into this different reality of realizing the power, um, the purpose, um, how God's playing a bigger role, because now you have more of life to look back and say, oh, that happened, and then this happened, and then that happened, and there was a purpose in all of that, and for me it's, it's a God wink is what I call them I know that, being a single mom at 17, you know it was a God wink.
Robin E.:There was a reason that happened. Um, the same as if it's not happening for people there's a reason that's happening, and it may take a number of years, our entire life or when we get to the pearly gates, to really really understand why things happened to the way they did.
Robin E.:but your belief it all starts with the belief of of just realizing that sometimes we just have to chill and relax and just realize that there's a reason and there's a season and that God's at work in us and if we just keep asking for him to help us, um, I can tell you from my almost 65 years of living that everything I do is pointing to the fact that I know from experience that he's at work in all of us every day and we just need to be more cognizant of that.
Kelly K.:Forgive me for the next thing that I'm going to say. Robin, you're just going to giggle, probably, and it's going to really speak to just the generation that I live in. But you're 65 years old and you're such a vibe and I mean that in the most positive way like you're such a vibe, you look great is probably a better way to say that. Um, but uh, it's. It's really incredible All of the different aspects that you're speaking to right now, first being the challenges. You're right. Let me take another step back. You are absolutely correct in the statement about that timeline of 30-ish give or take. You can connect the dots backwards a little bit better. You have.
Robin E.:You have a little bit more history, more history, more experience, more wisdom than you had at 20 or 15.
Kelly K.:Totally. But the other point that I think is really important for the listeners to to grasp onto is just that, no matter what season you're in peak or valley, it is a God wink. God is. He's literally messaging you, saying there's a lesson to be learned no matter what you're doing, and sometimes the tough lessons are actually learned when we're in those really dark seasons and deep valleys of life. But there's always going to be lessons that actually learned when we're in those really dark seasons and deep valleys of life. But there's always going to be lessons that are learned at the peaks too, because once you get into the valleys, you go oh, I was at this really amazing peak.
Kelly K.:However, what I should have learned in that moment, too, is I should have leaned into my faith a little bit more. I shouldn't have, let you know, taken my hands off the wheel or grasped so hard onto the wheel and thought I've got total control over this. I don't need any more help from God, or I think it's going to last. Yes, and it doesn't. And it doesn't, it does not it does not.
Robin E.:I 100% agree with you that every single good thing and great thing that's ever happened to me in my life only happened after the Valley. None of them have happened at the peak, and I think that's a lot of times where women, if they're, you know, doing well financially, if their family's great, I mean everything's great. Um, I think that sometimes we can take our eye off the ball a little bit and I just, you know, challenge women to say, you know, everything's really good, not to be negative about, oh, what's coming because, it's going to go off the cliff, but where has God elevating you to to the next level?
Robin E.:Because we can think we're at a certain level, but we need to be elevated continually to the next level and sometimes you know we just um. One of the presentations I give is about it's it's an analogy of a trapeze, and what I find a lot of times is that women are swinging on the trapeze and life is pretty good. But to really get huge momentum, um, and what people come to the circus for is not to see you just swinging back and forth on the trapeze, but you actually, what people want to see and what people need from you is that you're constantly evolving into.
Robin E.:You've got to let go of this trapeze to get to the next one. Because what I came to see was actually you going from one trapeze to the other, and I use it as an analogy because we can be swinging for a long time and life can be really good, but it's the catching air, is what I call it between the two. That is what God is calling us to do, and it's something higher. It's something bigger and we don't always know what it is. And we have to let go of something sometimes to be able to catch air, to go to that next trapeze.
Robin E.:And you know what happens sometimes is we miss and we fall into the net. But now we're climbing back up the ladder and we're like, okay, that we're not going to let that happen again. But what lesson did I learn from that and what's God trying to tell me? I climb back up, I get on the trapeze and I swing and I get back up there and the next time I'm grabbing the trapeze and then it takes me to a whole nother world, a whole nother level, with my kids, my grandkids, my business, anything I'm doing, it's now just opened a door to a whole nother world that I never would have seen if I didn't let go of that first trapeze that I'm swinging on.
Kelly K.:I want to expand off of this and ask you follow up questions, the first being maybe you've already thought about this. I just had this like thought process drop which is the net? It's a safety net, right?
Kelly K.:They call it a safety net for a reason. A lot of people to this analogy go. For some of us, we go there's no safety net speaking to entrepreneurship like going I'm going to cut the cord over here. There is no safety net, I'm going to move forward. But I think, in this circumstance, I'm curious what your thoughts are about. For us, being faith girlies, christianity is really important to us. If not the most important, correct Is the net faith, absolutely it is.
Robin E.:And my girls will tell you that when they've come to me with things that they just want my advice on, which isn't every day. They're smart, they know what they're doing, but sometimes they just need you know, wisdom or experience. Or I have clients and other people that will just come to me because they know I'm direct and they know I'm probably going to give them an honest answer.
Kelly K.:Yeah, did you notice that? This is why I appreciate you so much and a lot of people.
Robin E.:It's like I don't want to offend people or this, and I'm not trying to be offensive, but sometimes and being a wealth strategist for 35 years I've realized that people don't get beating around the bush, like maybe you could do this and maybe you could do that, and and people walk away more confused than when they even come into your office. And so I've had to I've had to have had to learn how to really make sure that I'm serving people. But serving them sometimes is telling them what they want, what they what they need to hear. Not what they want to hear. Um, and generally, when I'm getting teed up to tell someone that something, that which is very often something that they don't want to hear, I will generally say to them do you want me to tell you what you want to hear, or do you want me to tell you what you need to hear?
Robin E.:And then I stopped talking and then I stopped talking and I let that awkward silence be there and I challenge women to like like this works with spouses, it works with kids, it works with like a lot of people in life, when, when you know that you're not hitting on all cylinders in that conversation, um, to just ask people, and then they've given you permission, because if they say, um, I know that I should say I want you to tell me what I need to hear, but I'm worried about what that is and I and then you can enter that conversation very differently, whether you're speaking about God or work or family or whatever it is, because sometimes we just have to say stuff that makes people stop and think to what you're normally been thinking. But yes, the safety net is God, and the question I asked my girls when they've made transitions in life and done things is two things.
Robin E.:One is create a pro con list like write down with your spouse, with yourself, whoever it is pro, what's the pro list if I do X and what's the con list and that exercise. People can say it, but when you actually do, it totally changes your whole life, because you're you're, you're actually putting in writing in front of your eyes to be able to read, because thinking things is different than writing it down and reading it. Um, now you're understanding what's the pro, what's the con, and then sometimes that will be the answer that you need, because it really isn't a pro con thing. It's just like I should do it and not worry. Um, the second thing I always say is what? Let's? Let's look at what is the worst thing that can happen.
Robin E.:If you do X and it doesn't work out exactly the way that you think it will, what's the worst thing? And I force people in the conversation to tell me what's the worst thing. So if you're a woman sitting out there today and you're thinking, I really would like to leave my corporate job, I'd like to have more flexibility in my life, I'd like to start my own thing, I'd like to, whatever it is, just finish the sentence, do the pro con list, and then what I, what I want you to do is write down what's the worst thing that could happen if this doesn't go the way. I think and generally speaking, if it's around profession, that type of thing. It's like, uh, I remember saying to my daughter um, if this doesn't work out, what's the worst thing that could happen, and how long would it take you to go back to corporate America and find a job? Yeah.
Robin E.:And she looked at me and she said probably five days.
Kelly K.:Is this Erica?
Robin E.:No, this is Jamie, jamie, but it was the same type of thing with both of them. And the advice is just what's? What's the worst thing that could happen? Um, and if you can go out and say, probably, most of us could probably find a job, is it the job of my dreams? Is it what I want to do forever? That's not that. That's not what I'm saying.
Robin E.:I'm saying if something you're thinking about doing doesn't work out whether it's personal life or business or retirement or whatever it is that you're dealing with right now how long would it take you to go back, take another step, get up off of the net, climb back up to the top and then start swinging again? And maybe the problem is you're reaching for the wrong bar. For a lot of people, you're looking at the trapeze, and this trapeze is you're swinging towards it. But it could be that you're actually swinging towards the wrong bar, and that's what this whole exercise in life is about is having people that will kind of hit you between the eyes a little bit and say you're absolutely right, like this is not going to be the end of my world or my life, my family's not going to disown me, I'm not going to lose my house, whatever it is, and then that comes into the whole wealth strategy financial piece.
Kelly K.:Cause.
Robin E.:I'm giving people advice based on if you don't have a lot of money excuse me, enough money sitting in savings that can get you through the first six months. If you're looking at making a change probably longer than that then your goal should be let's get that saved up, because it's not going to be easy to go transition out and go do something on my own or whatever it is. But you need to have people in your corner your financial advisors, people in your life that have already done these things, that you can go sit down with, buy them a coffee, spend an hour with someone. You will gain more knowledge than you're going to get on any book or asking family, which is, you know, a whole nother thing, but most of the time which is a whole nother thing, but most of the time I'm not probably turning to family and friends. For this you need people that can be objective thinkers and the bottom line I think what's helped me be very helpful to so many people is that I always have the lens of the money, and money isn't the end all be all, it's God, it's family, it's finance, and I have this three circles that I intertwine.
Robin E.:It says faith, family, finance and where I live my life is right in the center of those three circles, and what I try to encourage women to do is live in the center of those three circles, because if any one of those three circles is out of whack, it out of whacks the other two circles circles is out of whack, it out of whacks the other two circles. And so what we need to do is think about how do I live my life right in the center of those three circles, where they come together, where faith is good, and I'm constantly looking at what is God telling me? What is he trying to teach me? Who is he? Who is he bringing into my life? And then with family you know how is that impacting my family? And then finance, because it's, as we know, not all about money, but when good people make good money, they make good decisions and they do good things, and that's what God is calling us to do. So good, robin.
Kelly K.:I could just listen to you for hours and hours and hours on end. This analogy of the trapeze, though I want to circle back to that, because the other question that I had is it sounds like you probably are speaking from experience. Yes and so with that being said, I want to kind of bring that plus this next question and combine it together. Which is what did come first for you? Was it entrepreneurship or was it motherhood?
Robin E.:Well, obviously I just, I mean, I had, um, my, my oldest daughter, jamie, at 17. So it was not a hard question for me to answer because, obviously, at the age of 17, being a high school student, I was not thinking about entrepreneurship, I could not speak in front of people, I was not confident, I was in sports and I was a good student and had a great family. But stuff happens for a reason, um. But you know, stuff happens for a reason. Um never had one thought about, you know, not having the child Um, and when I look back it wasn't conscious. But when I look back I'm like it was just never even on the radar and it and it. It was a different time, given that it was, you know, 46, 45 years ago. Um, so it was a different time, uh, but I I think that I just knew in my heart of hearts, when I look back, that God was with me the whole way, um, and there was a reason why it happened, um, and at the time you just don't understand the reasons, and at the time you just don't understand the reasons. But it's definitely shaped who I am today, because when you're walking in the halls of high school, pregnant, I continued to go to school.
Robin E.:I had her in December. I went back to school after I had her, and you know, finished out and graduated, didn't ask for permission. When I think back on all these things, I didn't ask for permission. When I think back on all these things, I didn't ask for permission to come back to school. I'm not sure what the faculty probably thought, because most girls in my generation just didn't come back to school if that happened. So I have a lot of questions in my mind, but yet I wasn't thinking about any of that when it was happening.
Robin E.:Um, it's just years later. I look back on it and say, um, I really think it, it was divine intervention for so many. So for so many things that have happened, uh, it definitely built a backbone in me. That can sometimes not always be appreciated by people around me, but when you can get through that, um, there was really nothing in life that scared me, because that was that was pretty scary, you know, at the time, um, but it built a backbone. Um, you know, the day I had her, I say, is actually the most glorious day of my life, but it was actually the scariest day of my life.
Robin E.:So, if you think about it, women, from a standpoint of some of us that have experienced things that you think might be insurmountable. You can be feeling the biggest joy and God wink that you've ever had and, at the same time, be scared, crapless, and those two things can live in the same moment. And I think that sometimes we overthink it and we're thinking how can I be so happy but so sad and so scared and so unsure? And so what's the answer? We're living that and I live that in that particular moment, and the thing is we just have to keep focusing on God, and we have to keep focusing on the fact that this happened for a reason, and it may be decades or it may be as we talked early. It may be when I get to the pearly gates that I will truly understand the reason why some things happen, but we have to be okay with that.
Kelly K.:Yeah, you are so strong in your faith, robin, and I wholeheartedly admire it as somebody who's turning 40 this year and really coming into my faith in a different way, right, because I firmly believe that everybody's paths are completely different. But I'm I am curious and this is off the beaten path, so to speak of um what I had sent over to you in preparation. Where do you feel that that faith muscle was really formulated?
Robin E.:Um, through the valleys, through the hitting the net, mm, um, I, um. I have consciously said to people a lot um in the world is that until you've hit the net in our analogy, until you've had a valley, you don't really truly understand the faith and fear and importance of that in your life. Not saying it can't happen, but all of us will hit a valley and I think part of my God muscle getting so strong and my whole life being so strong is because I hit that at 17. Yeah.
Robin E.:The biggest problem I have with kids and grandkids and all of you out there that have had a pretty okay life and you haven't had the net or the valley. Eventually you will.
Robin E.:And I always tell people it's a lot harder to fall and hit the net when you're 50 than when you're 17. You've got a lot more at risk. You've got a lot more at stake If you make the bad financial move at 50 and you haven't learned a lesson of losing money or having things not go right. You've had a divorce, you've lost a job, you've had to file bankruptcy I mean the list is long that I could go through of people that.
Robin E.:I've worked with Um. Once you have something happen where you've hit the net, that is where your muscles are all built. Your muscles aren't built by swinging back and forth on the trapeze. There is no muscle being built. There's no brain muscle being built there's no. There's no physical muscle being built. There's no brain muscle being built. There's no, there's no physical muscle being built. There's no God muscle sometimes being built because your, your life's been too good and you just think it's because of how good you are and what you're doing and everything.
Robin E.:And sometimes you have to fall off the mountain, hit the net, have something happen and when you do that, that God muscle gets so strong and if you can just lean into the God muscle, there's people listening today that are in that Valley, they've hit that net and they're like what is going on? What's the purpose? And I'm like there's something glorious coming out of this. You just have to lift your eyes up and quit lifting them down. Quit blaming, quit doing whatever it is you're doing, um, because all of us have done that. We've all been there right.
Kelly K.:We've both been there. None of us are perfect right, I mean this is these are the things that I continue to hear over and over again, whether it's just life in general or reflection into the Bible too. And even the most glorious of people have had their imperfections, even when they had been called to do something. They even fell after. You know what I mean.
Kelly K.:It's like none of us are perfect. It's just. How are you standing back up on that net and going? What am I going to learn from this? Am I going to learn? I?
Robin E.:think there's. What are you trying to teach me? Is the better question. What are you trying to teach me? Because he's probably trying to teach you something, or probably doing the setback for some reason that totally you can't see right now, the setback for some reason that that totally you can't see right now.
Robin E.:But important to have God at the top, continually praying. Put the people on my path. Number two who are you surrounding yourself with? Because, um, and it's no offense to family, uh, and I really have encouraged my girls along the way that that you're never you're. You're going to be smarter than me on a lot of things, and you are, but you're never going to be more experienced or more wise than I am, because that comes with age, and so what happens is use me for what you need me for.
Robin E.:I, I am very consciously not in day-to-day life with them, not in day-to-day decisions, not in. They need to have other people coaches, um, business partners, um, not family, and not friends, because you cannot have the same conversation. Now, this is just my opinion, but it's my 65 years of experience. Um, those are not the people that are helping me get off the net. They're the ones more likely that, in general are saying it'll be okay, just stay down on the net. You know? See what happens when you get up on the trapeze. This is what can happen, robin, so maybe you just need to stay in your little safe place. And I've had friends and family that that's exactly what happened. And the more I grow, the more I grow closer to God, the more I grow in my belief. It pulls me away from people that aren't necessarily the people I should be taking advice from. Don't take advice from people more messed up than you is what I say.
Kelly K.:I do want to talk about this more. I want to talk about this more. I want to talk about this more and, ironically so, the last interview that I had is somebody like you, creme de la creme, top. You know, they're just top in their game. They really are You're. You're that person too. The difference between the two of you is you have that wisdom and experience beyond that person. But there is something no matter where you're at in this kind of level up, where you have to do this evaluation of the people who you are surrounding yourself with and you know what's the saying Like you are the five people you surround yourself with Correct, and for you, with being on this planet for 65 years, what has that looked like for you? And I'm selfishly asking this question because I have started to recognize patterns of what you're talking about, where, if there's a fall, it's like you're okay, it's okay, you're gonna be, you're gonna be okay, just stay there. And it's a subconscious thing because I don't.
Kelly K.:I don't think friends or family, for the most part, are maliciously. No, of course they're not in life and that is that signals something for them, their mind, their mindset of I'm not doing what they're doing, but I want them. I want, I want to sit in my comfy cozy place and I want them to be kind of the same person and in this comfy cozy place with me as well.
Robin E.:Women as you move, as you grow, as you excel, as you become smarter, as you become a better parent, as your kids grow, you have to constantly be evaluating who it is that you're surrounding yourself with, Um, my girlfriend that I go and have dinner with and, you know, spend a day with or go shopping with um. It's different than the people that you need to surround yourself with If you're really trying to get to next level, whatever that is for people.
Robin E.:It could be I'm trying to get to retirement, it could be. I'm trying to quit my corporate job and and start my own thing. It could be. I'm just trying to get through having my kids in in school for the next two years and then life will change. I mean I, I've been there, done that. Um number one, I, on purpose, say I do not want to be the smartest person in the room. If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. End of sentence on that whole thing. And it's hard sometimes to do that because because sometimes we just naturally all of a sudden gravitate to being in rooms where we feel empowered but we're also not learning. So we're not, we're not reaching for that other trapeze bar, and that's when you're going to fall, because everyone in the room um doesn't really have the answers that you're searching for. If you're truly asking good questions, um, and so I tell people that I can be a dissertator, dissertation and a talker for sure, but you have to become an excellent question asker.
Robin E.:The most powerful people in the room are the people that ask the best questions, and I think that in my profession of being a wealth strategist, I'm the only woman in the room still to this day sometimes, which really aggravates me, and that's a whole nother topic, but I've been in a male dominated profession. Um, I've had to. I've had to earn it in a different way. Um, I've had to not back away from things, but the end, what my coach has taught me, is you are the best at question asker that I've ever known.
Robin E.:Robin, and what happens is, when people ask really good questions, it's not about having the answer, because I hold my phone up all the time and say with the phone and AI and the internet, you're not smarter than me, I can whatever. Whatever someone says, I can find the answer probably in 30 or 60 seconds. So what we have to realize is it's not how smart we are and how much we know. It's how are we helping the people around us move and how are we making them feel and how are we being memorable in a positive way that lets God's light shine through everything we're saying when we leave the room, and are we asking good questions that make people think with their own heads. The problem is, with all the information that we have, no one has to really think about things.
Robin E.:And if there's anything I can share with people is learn how to ask really probing, in depth, important questions that make the person that you're talking excuse me, the person you're talking to or the person you're meeting with change the way they're thinking, which gets back to the whole thing that I am is a disruptor.
Robin E.:I'm a disruptor because when people come in and meet with me, their life can change in 75 minutes. It's happened. Their whole life can change in 75 minutes because I am disrupting the pattern of what they're thinking and just going back and forth on the trapeze and I'm forcing them to think about what's the next best move, because you're comfortable over here, forth on the trapeze, and I'm forcing them to think about what's the next best move because you're comfortable over here swinging on the trapeze and I need to disrupt you because to get to that next level, to get to whatever it is that's coming, because we all need to be growing. If we're not growing, we're dying, and so what is that? And sometimes, for women especially, it is just someone that will tell them honestly what they need to hear, not what they want to hear but going back to your original point about like going hey, do you want?
Kelly K.:do you want to like actually hear what I think is the best thing for you to hear, or do you want me to just kind of give you the cushy answer? Right, and that's why I ask for permission as a disruptor.
Robin E.:I have to ask for permission because if I'm talking to someone that, um, I know doesn't really want to hear what they need to hear, um, I, I need to get permission from them to say things that probably not going to be in the most comfortable thing. But my background being a single mother at 17, you know struggling through those early years, having a mentor. Look at me as I'm getting my. I'm going to school at night, I have two kids, a husband, a full-time job and I'm going to school at night to get my BA in accounting. I took a job at a brokerage firm as a no-brainer job, as a receptionist because I was fully packed in life. So when people say they're busy, I just kind of ramble through this is what my life looked like. And then they look at me and like, oh yeah, I'm not that busy. I'm like exactly, so you know.
Robin E.:Be careful who you're complaining about, how busy you are too, because a lot of us have had it a lot, a lot heavier and and, and you have to understand that busyness is kind of um, being busy is, as I heard someone say, it's the new stupid. When you're saying you're busy, find a different word. That's my whole point is find a different word, because I don't think there's anybody listening to this that isn't busy and they're finding time to listen to this podcast because it is what they need to fill to fill them up, and that's what we're looking for is people that will take the time to fill themselves up even though they're in a busy life.
Robin E.:We make time for doing things that are important and that help us mentally get ahead and to help us really be a better version of ourselves. Well, I'll tell you, just to this point, that you're, and sometimes I make a point and then I go off the point and then I never get back to the point.
Kelly K.:So I apologize, hour and 45 minutes later and they're like that was really long and I'm like it's okay, because if I have, you come in here, robin, and I try to speed up your story. That's not doing anybody a service, certainly not doing you a service, and it's not doing the listeners a service. There is a buildup that happens in storytelling and this is a storytelling podcast. So I think you know I love that you made this point and I'm just this is my little tangential piece where I've had these thoughts of like, ooh, should I, you know, limit it to 45 minutes? I'm like, no, I'm not going to, because then it's just not doing either one of us sitting across from each other the service that actually needs to happen. That was a tangent. That was a tangent.
Kelly K.:I a hundred percent agree with that and I don't I think that there's so much advice out there around.
Robin E.:Oh, 20 minute podcast best. Oh, an hour and a half is the best. I have people telling me all the time what's the best. What's the best is that you're listening to things that add value to your life and fill your cup and help you to make the tough decisions that all of us are dealing with on a daily basis. Everybody is dealing with with a tough decision every day.
Robin E.:Yeah, Um, there's something that comes up and building the muscle to be able to deal with those tough decisions and having a way to do that and a team of people around you to do that that are going to give you some honest advice is super critical. And as a wealth strategist, I'm the person in most of my client's life that, no matter what's going on, I'm kind of the first call, I'm kind of the quarterback, because eventually every decision that is made will have a faith, a family and a finance component. And if we go in and we're just looking at the finance component, we can make some decisions that financially might seem good, but what impact is that having on my faith and my family, and the same with my family component? Yeah.
Robin E.:What decision am I making on my family life that really feels good, but if I'm not really keeping it in the circle effect of now, what is this impacting my faith and my finance? We're not giving it the true clarity and I think that's why people live in a fog. A lot is that they feel like that decision was the right one, and it probably was for that particular circle, but it wasn't for all three circles coming together. So if there's anything that people can take away, is that it's okay to feel uncertain. It's okay to feel not sure. Don't be the smartest person in the room. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to hear what you need to hear, not what you want to hear, um, and just realize that hitting the net is some of the best thing that can ever happen to you.
Robin E.:Um and if you're living in a, in a, in a space right now and listening to this, where you are, you just fell. You just hit the net. Um, you're not sure where to turn. Um, having all of those other things that the circle thing, the pro con list, the people in your life you can't wait to hit the net to find the people that you need to help you, because that's part of the problem that I see is, you know, I don't have the people, the right people surrounding me that will help me to figure out what I'm going to do the next time I'm climbing up to the trapeze Like I'm. I need to make sure that the next time I'm going towards the right trapeze to catch who do I have and you can't wait to have a financial advisor to when you have. You know you can't build that relationship with a CPA when you need tax help, or you can't build that relationship with that financial advisor because you don't have a relationship with someone.
Robin E.:Just because they're managing your money, that doesn't necessarily mean you have a relationship with them or you're going to really rely on them to help you make those super critical, strategic decisions that even sometimes you can't. You can't get that answer as a woman from your spouse, Right, you, you? I'm not saying I, I don't get my spouse's opinion, but sometimes it's just not the spouse or the mom or the dad or the brother or the sister that's going to be capable of helping you to. To figure that out.
Kelly K.:Yeah, well, especially when it comes to you know you have to have the discernment of when it comes to the business that you're looking to grow. Correct, it's one. How are you aligning with God? That's not going to resonate with everyone, I understand that, and that's okay. But just alignment in general with, like, what is the messaging you want to give to the people who are listening the husband or the wife? Sometimes they're just not going to have the full understanding or grasp of what that looks like. You can tell it to them. Obviously, more oftentimes than not, they're going to be looped in on what that decision is and what you're going to be doing with that, but they're not in it all the time, day to day either Right so, and are they a visionary or are they a tactical person?
Robin E.:I mean this comes back to the whole personality, science and understanding where people's natural strengths are. Um, and there are people in your life that are just very tactical. It's like blueprint. We run the process. This is the way we do it. We do X and then we do Y, and then we do Z, and, and if you're a business owner and what I am, I'm a visionary.
Robin E.:I'm looking at where's the world going to be in five years how do I give people advice today on where they should be investing or what they should be doing or how they should be thinking about their life, not based on what they're doing today, but where they intend to go, and a tactical blueprint person that's not a visionary or thinking about future casting is not going to be a good solution for you. So if you're hiring people to be on your team to coach you, they have to have already been able. They've already done what they're trying to help you do. Because if they if we said this earlier if my goal is to make a million dollars this year, I've got to hire someone that's already made two or 5 million or 10 million, because they're not going to be able to teach me or coach me or help me make the tough decisions I need to make to reach that level and I use that as an analogy for a lot of things. If they aren't putting their own money, as a financial advisor, into the things they're recommending, how can they expect?
Robin E.:You know that you're going to do that. Is it a CPA you're working with or the strategic people around you you know? Do they actually? Are they in the tax bracket that you're in?
Robin E.:Or should you be looking for a CPA that is more like business friendly. They own their own company Um, they're. They're actually like earning 1099 income. Um, you know, and that's where I get the 1099 versus the W2. Piece of this is that the 1099 mindset person is very different than the W2 mindset. It's not better or worse, but I can't take advice from a W2 person if they've never run a business, and that's what I'm trying to get help with.
Kelly K.:So so I'm.
Robin E.:I'm going to a granular level, but I'm helping the. You know the. The wake up call for people sometimes is in the simplicity of are you a 1099 mindset or are you a W2? Like, I'm looking to add an advisor to my team, and part of the questions that I ask people is do they truly have a 1099 mindset?
Robin E.:Because a 1099 mindset means um, I'm, I'm getting, I'm running a business, I have expenses you know, and it's a very different mindset versus if I'm a W-2 and they're taking care of paying paying my taxes, they're paying my FICA, they're giving me benefits, um, they're giving me 401k plan, they're doing all of that for me and I just have to worry about what my check is and living on my check. It's not a. It's not a negative, so please don't take it as a negative people, but the mindset's very different because when you're a 1099 person, you have to put money in savings for the rainy day. If I have staff that I have to pay, If.
Robin E.:I have my office rent I have to pay If I have quarterly taxes that I have to pay. You don't have that when you're a W-2. And so it's just an analogy I use a lot when I'm coaching people Are you truly a 1099 mindset? You're trying to quit a corporate job and move to 1099. That going from a W-2 mindset to a 1099 mindset can be that people aren't thinking of it that way right.
Robin E.:And they're not thinking about how is this going to impact my finances? Cause, yeah, it looks like I can make more per hour, but am I really making more per hour? Because I have a lot of expenses that that I'm not currently paying, if I'm working for someone else.
Kelly K.:Interesting point that you bring up too in this vein of you know, 1099 versus W2, bring up too, in this vein of you know, 1099 versus W-2,. I'm actually I'm just going to give a little bit of perspective here. So, coming from the mortgage world, we're W-2'd but we're technically, we're, entrepreneurs. We have to think like an entrepreneur, but we're paid like we're W-2. And that's, you know. That goes all the way back to everything that happened back in 2008. Correct, so, because of that, that's how a mortgage lender gets paid, primarily, and but it's full on 100% commission.
Robin E.:But if you don't wake up and go to work and make a sale, you can get. Your W-2 is going to be zero.
Kelly K.:It's going to be zero, right, okay, yeah, and you you can get a draw right, but then you're going, it's debt, you're going into a hole. And then once you hit commission, then the commission that you make, you're probably not going to get all of that because you're you've had this draw. So they're like, hey, we'll give you the money. That's fine, we understand you've got to live, but just mean that you have this just means you have to pay this back, so it's. I think the reason I'm bringing this up is because I'm thinking about the mindset that I had had.
Kelly K.:It was like you were kind of pinging back and forth like this, because if you're making a decision to change lender, like corporate companies, you're thinking, well, what's the 401k benefit out of this? How much are they taking out, how much are they not taking out? What are the true benefits that I'm going to be receiving? But then you, overhead of that, also have to think about what is my strategy as a, as a mortgage business owner. So you have the freedom to do that and there's just this pinging back and forth. That's a challenge. Making the leap that I did back in September to cut the cord and then go all right, I'm going to go into business with my husband has been like turn my world upside down in many very wonderful ways. But also I get challenged every single week how are you acting like a business owner? How are you talking like a business owner? How are you thinking like a business owner, kelly? And it's been a wonderful challenge for me because I've had I've had sort of this tiny little lead up from the mortgage world eight years of operating in this space of like, well, I've got, I can develop strategy around what this looks like, right, but I also had the W-2 and just ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping and now it's like all right, what is the future of the podcast going to look like? How can we make you know? How can we generate from that? How can we continue to build everything up with the business? How? How does that look for me? What is the hat that I'm going to wear? Am I going to get licensed? All this stuff, right, but the point I'm making is there is big time truth in that, in that there's the W2 mindset, there's the 1099 mindset and it's there, no right or wrong?
Robin E.:No, absolutely no right or wrong whatsoever.
Robin E.:But, but you better be having conversations with people that, depending on if you're making a leap from one to the other especially from W2 to 1099, you don't know what you don't know with, with, um, trusted advisors that are going to be very specific about specific areas and people that are not going to be transaction takers. Um, once again, I say, when you walk in, you know whatever it is to get your estate plan done with an attorney, to get your taxes done, to get your finances looked at, to get your real estate you know, to sell real estate. Um, are you working with people that actually you just walk in and you say here's what to sell real estate? Are you working with people that actually you just walk in and you say here's what I want to do, here's where I want to move to, here's what I want, and they're just writing notes, they're taking notes and then they're they're basically doing a transaction. Okay, this is what you said, mr and Mrs Smith, that you want, so we're giving it to you.
Robin E.:Or are you going into a room where someone's like is that really what you want? Have you thought about this? Like, did you realize there's a way we can reduce your taxes if you do X, y and Z? Yeah, no, I didn't know that. Well, no, you wouldn't know that if you're not a tax person, if you're not an attorney, if you're not a wealth strategist, if you're not a realtor, once again, how are you using those experts that you have in your life to add value in that specific area?
Robin E.:I always tell people I'm not trying to make you a financial advisor, just understand. I'm not trying to do that. What I'm trying to do is help you make better decisions by asking you disruptive questions, because you don't know what you don't know. And so did you know that there's, you know, this thing that you can do, that can reduce your taxes and that can save you enough money that you could start your own business and not have the stress that you have.
Robin E.:That is what people think they're getting a lot of times and they're not. And so, once again, going back to my question are your advisors, are the people that are smarter than you that you're relying on for helping you to make a good decision on how do I get out of this net, where am I going? Are they disrupting your thoughts? Are they asking you things that you've never even thought of? And the best thing I ever hear in my office is we just spent 45 minutes together and you just asked me things, five things I've never thought about in my entire life and I'm like high five.
Robin E.:That's exactly what I want to hear when people are leaving, and so I want to front run what we're talking about here with have God at the front. So I want to front run what we're talking about here with have God at the front, have family in line and knowing everything you're doing is for the greater purpose of both of those two things. But then you've got to have people backfilling that that are willing to say what if this dot dot dot. Wow, never thought about that, robin. Yeah, oh, that makes me think about this differently. I, I, just you gave me information, I didn't know.
Robin E.:Uh, women just just have those people in your life that aren't afraid to say things that maybe might be feel offensive, for lack of a better word. It's not offensive, it's like big picture thinking, and that's really what we need. It's what God is calling us to do is think differently, think bigger, think how we can serve the greater good of of what we're doing here on earth and in eternity, because we don't know, as we said before, we got on like somebody. Just, I was on the phone with them. Their sister, you know, just found out she's got stage four cancer.
Robin E.:Um, and their whole life is taking a different turn, um and one of my blogs is is a T moment blog and I use that analogy all the time is that we have multiple, multiple times in life, multiple times in life that we come to a T intersection. Life, multiple times in life that we come to a T intersection, we can no longer go straight ahead. Something happens in life. We get a diagnosis, we have a divorce, we have a kid. They can be happy, we have a kid. You can no longer be on that same road that you were on.
Robin E.:Good or bad thing happening to you and I try to analogize to people is who is in your corner when you come to the T intersection and you have to make a right-hand turn or a left-hand turn because the straight road is no longer there, for whatever reason. You better already have that team in place of people in your life that you can call up and say hey, I'm at a T, I need help. Should I turn right or should I turn left? And whatever the situation is it's not just negative situations I lose my job today.
Robin E.:You know I get diagnosed, my family gets diagnosed. My dad dies Um you know my kid something happens to my child and now I have to be at Mayo for the next six months. They're going to live, they're going to be fine, but how does that? That's a disruption in life. We have so many of them and the problem is we haven't built. We haven't built the muscle to have the ability to say I'm going to make a right turn or a left turn.
Kelly K.:I'm going to get off the net.
Robin E.:I'm going to climb back up. Who's in my corner to help me? Because women are trying to do it. People are. People are just trying to do it by themselves. You can't, you? You?
Kelly K.:cannot. We weren't meant to do this life solely by ourselves. And if you think about even even the, the people who perceptively look like they're doing it solely on their own, perceptively look like they're doing it solely on their own.
Robin E.:they have had help. Don't let anybody fool you. Absolutely, and I'm proud of the help I've had. I pay a lot of money for the help that I have, um to help coach me to the next level or to the next team moment or to the next intersection. What does business look like?
Robin E.:You know, as a 60, almost 65 year old person. Um, you know people are coming to me. Um, you know you can look good all you want, but people are still like, okay, well, I'm going to trust you with my money, but you're pretty old, right. Like what's, what's the game plan here? Like who's who's going to fill in if, when you're no longer?
Kelly K.:here and so.
Robin E.:I'm already front running that you know, adding people to the team, making sure they understand and get all the best of what I can give them to help them be better wealth strategists and then help my clients, which hundreds of clients know that there's a plan in place, there's a strategy in place. I have people on the team, but they're not. You, no kidding, I mean. You know, no two realtors are the same. No two advisors, you know. No, two people are the same. And so what we need to do is build that muscle by having multiple people around us that can say what do I do in this situation? Us that can say what do I do in this situation? And when you have that, you can make quicker decisions. It comes better because it's like I can pick up the phone and I can. I have two people I can call right now when I have this, and that's what I was on the phone driving here today, because I now have this opportunity to be on stage a fourth time next week at a conference for a whole different reason.
Robin E.:And so now I need somebody to help me. I mean, I have the he's like. You have all the information in your head, rob, and you know I'm like, but I just need somebody to help me, like, just synthesize it and bring it into here's, here's the purpose yeah.
Robin E.:Here's the purpose and I need a synthesizer sometimes to bring it really back into clarity for me, because I'm really bright and I have a lot of stuff in my head, but we need a synthesizer to bring it Like here's the decision we need to make, here's the road we're going to take. It's the right hand turn. We're going this way. It's going to jog a little left in a mile or two, but you're on course, this is where we're going.
Kelly K.:So what I really enjoy about all that you're continuing to talk through is strategy. How important strategy is. And even as somebody who's kind of been there, done that, gone through the hoops, fallen on the net many times, you still go. I need a strategy and even even in these moments where, um, you know it, you're in a very incredible position as a wealth strategist to be able to move the needle forward for yourself personally, right, but also for all of the clients that you're working with, and all of that speaks for itself, truly.
Kelly K.:And I've had the wonderful opportunity of going through that 75-minute presentation that you give, which is, I mean, it shook us and we weren't even going into that with this idea of, like we've got our financial advisor, you know like we were going into that advisor. You know like we were going into that as, like this is a business meeting, how can we do business together. And then also, as we're working, like working with our clients who are in that luxury field, like how can we get them directed to you? But you were like, hey, I think it's really important that I just kind of walk you through, like this is, this is how I'm having conversations with them, so then you can speak to it. Well, you were speaking to us double, Like it was like we both walked away, like what the heck?
Robin E.:Anyways, so I digress, um disruption Is that a good word for it? Disruption, for sure.
Kelly K.:it disrupted your thinking but strategy is what kind of the overarching theme I think in all of this whether it is strategy around how you're moving forward, getting out of a corporate position into entrepreneurship, strategy around who you're surrounding yourself with in that venture of entrepreneurship, strategy on who, as you are continuing to kind of ebb and flow into these different seasons of life, of motherhood, who are you surrounding yourself with. There is strategy behind that, correct, behind that, yes, and I think for some of us there's a subconscious thing that's happening within that. But I do think that you bring up some very incredible points about how important strategy is through all of what we're talking about, especially as a mompreneur.
Robin E.:And I just have to say I am so grateful there are people like you out there that will do these podcasts Um, because in our busy lives using the word that I said we shouldn't use um, we're, we need and we're searching for an answer to a question that sometimes we don't even know what the question is. And if you're listening to podcasts, which I love we already talked before about different podcasts and and and the importance that they're bringing to people, in having, um, uh, a 60 minute or a 90 minute or a two hour, depending on who you're listening to you're going to get a lot better information in your life than you are from a two minute clip on X or a two minute clip on TV. There is no way they're presenting the entire circle of what you need.
Robin E.:women in those short forms, and that's where we never feel satisfied is every podcast that you listen to. There should be something, when you walk away from it, that says that was a value add. I didn't see that coming. It hit me upside the head.
Robin E.:It disrupted my thinking. That's what we're looking for and it doesn't need to be like I'm going to go change my whole life. It needs to be like that is what I needed to hear. That's what a God wink got into my life today. It made me think about it. I, you know, I've got somebody at work that's driving me crazy. It's not going well. You know, whatever it is um road rage on the road because of the way people I mean, you know I'm I'm going to the most littlest things that can absolutely set people off for the entire day, the entire day and then they wonder why no one likes being around them.
Robin E.:And I'm like you know what. Sometimes we just have to take a deep breath, we have to pray a prayer. Give me the wisdom, Give me the strength, give me the words, give me what I need today to make a positive impact for someone else. Um, and it can be in the littlest thing as just smiling at someone as they're handing me my, my cup of caribou and saying I really appreciate that you guys are working here and that you do such a great job at making a great cup of coffee.
Kelly K.:And they were probably never anticipating that that was a remark that they were going to get. What difference did?
Robin E.:that make in that person's life and they're, yeah for sure, and I'm using. I'm using what people could call a really silly thing, but I think it's all around us every day. It's our mindset. It's just put a smile on your face. Pray that God's giving you the words that you need, and that's what I did before I got here. I said give me the words I need to hit the hearts of the person or people that need this today, right now, when they're listening to this podcast, to impact them in a positive way and see the light that you're shining through on them, god.
Kelly K.:Let's give a little insight to the listeners on what we were talking about off air entering into this interview, because it's going to tie in very well to this. What you're just speaking to. You were talking about and you've made note of this that you are going to be speaking right and you're having a conversation with your coach and your coach said to you you're not speaking to, you're not spraying and praying right, you're literally walking in and going what?
Robin E.:Yeah, so there's 500 people in the audience and he says the mistake that people make is they're trying to do a presentation, um, or a podcast for 500 people. You're not. You're speaking to five people in the room. It might be one person in your mind when you're when you're speaking. In your mind when you're when you're speaking, who is your target market? Who is your avatar? Who is the person that needs to hear what you have to say? And be very specific on what you're talking to, because he goes the best. He said this specifically to me today the best thing you can have is there are going to be a few hundred women in that room that are going to go. Ah, like, shrug a shoulder. Shrug Like, yeah, it didn't hit me. Yeah, you're not trying to hit 500. You're trying to hit five because if you're very crystal clear with your message.
Robin E.:if you're very um on who you're speaking to and and the impact you're trying to make, you're still going to impact probably more than five people for sure, yeah, but you're you're really looking for the people that want to be impacted. Because I can't I I have no power to change the way you're listening to this podcast today and the mindset you're coming to it in. It's not going to resonate with everybody that's listening. It's like a yeah, it's a shoulder shrug. Just remember, your shoulder shrug is someone else's manifestation and what they needed at this particular moment. You're, you're, you're not trying to do this podcast.
Robin E.:You're not trying to speak from stage to have a hundred percent impact on everybody in the room. There is no possible way to do that. Whether you're speaking to five people, 500 people, 5,000 people or two people, the impact will not be the same for everyone that's listening to your message.
Kelly K.:No, then we would just be robots.
Robin E.:Correct, right. So it's super important not to spray the message. It's super important to be literal enough that people that need to hear what you're saying hear it clear as day. It's like a bell is ringing in their head right now with what we're talking about and they're like that's exactly what I needed to hear today and what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do?
Kelly K.:And what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do? We've talked for just a step back into the past not not spending a whole heck of a lot of time there but I think it's important to sort of build this up for the listeners so that they understand the life of Robin and how you got to where you're at at the young age of 65. Okay, so you, you did a beautiful job of explaining like I had my, my first at the age of 17, and then I had Erica.
Robin E.:Jamie Erica um, marriage happened in there as well, and then all of these other, um, you know, professional decisions that happen alongside of that, some jobs that absolutely sucked, and even God winks through those, realizing that he had me on this earth for a bigger purpose than what I was serving and I was not thinking that during that job at age 18, 19, 20.
Robin E.:During that job at age 18, 19, 20. But when I look back once again, when I look back on it, I'm like he was preparing me. He was preparing me for, ultimately, what he needed me for was to be a guardian and a helper of people, have clarity and confidence around the moves they're making in their life, and if, financially, they're prepared for that, um, only good can come from it.
Kelly K.:Yeah, you're. The unique thing about your story is many things, and it's you had a daughter at the age of 17 and then you had another daughter and you had the JOBs in between all of that. When did entrepreneurship come to fruition for you?
Robin E.:Yeah. So I was going to school at night, as I was sharing earlier, to get my BA in accounting, because accounting always came natural to me. I really liked accounting. I had a great accounting teacher in high school. So once again, you know you've got these great teachers and then you think, well, that's what I need to do because you're attracted to it. Um, because of whatever reason. And so I took this no brainer in quotes I'm doing air quotes for people that are wondering no brainer job as a receptionist, which is a really important job. It's one of the most important positions in any company, in my opinion, because it's your first impression of people For a brokerage firm.
Robin E.:I did not know what a mutual fund was. I didn't know stocks. I was not raised in a family that had any discussions around finance, investing, saving. It just is a very blue collar family, not a whole lot. One bathroom in our house for six of us for most of my, all of my life at home, not even a bedroom. Until I was probably 12 years old slept, you know. So that whole story could be a whole nother podcast, but just let it be said that great family life, great, you know. Mom, three younger brothers, my family is just wonderful, but finances was not something that was readily available or talked about or educated about, which is pretty common, I found out over the years.
Robin E.:So about three months into being a receptionist, I think, the owner of the company and a wealth strategist came to me and said I think you should take your series seven. I think you should become a financial advisor, and it's not something that had ever been on my radar, um, ever. Uh, and my confidence was not in a position where I thought I could do that at all and, um, I kind of got a little bit offended and I remember going into his office one day after he brought this up and he said and I said to him with hands on my hips, like only someone in their 20s can do what do you mean? I'm smart enough to be an accountant and he's like Robin. You're missing the point. The point is you're smart enough to do whatever you want to do. You're just not going to be happy being an accountant. You would be really, really good at being a financial advisor and I had no concept it's.
Robin E.:It goes back to what I've been talking about this whole time as mentors and adults with kids that are paying buku bucks going to college not knowing I mean the whole thing. I could use tons of analogies of why this is so important for people to understand is, as an older person looking back, I share when I see qualities in people that are a mismatch for what they're doing in life and part of the reason they're not happy is that they picked a lane without really understanding that that lane wasn't really in alignment with where God really needed them, where their natural abilities and skills were, where their family needed them to be, depending on whatever their age is. And I listened to this person. I never would have chose this. I listened to this person.
Robin E.:I went and got my on top of all that other stuff I was doing. I then studied for the series seven. For any of you that have taken the series seven, you know that that is a beast of a test. I was doing that while being a mother of two and doing a full-time job and going to school at night, and one thing led to another. And then he hired me and had me be his admin. I got to sit in on meetings with him. I started to learn about the products. I started to learn how to overcome objections. I read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which is the number one business book in my opinion, and I've read a ton.
Kelly K.:I read a lot.
Robin E.:All my founding principles of my entire business in my life are those seven habits of highly effective people. And it was just an eye-opening experience, when I look back, that I said if he had not come to me and said I think you should take this test, all of the people's lives that would have not been positively impacted. And it's my message that God is putting things on you. God is putting words in other people's mouths to say to you that are disrupting your life, that you may take as a negative, that you may be offended by. I was offended Like I'm smart enough to be an accountant, and in the clarity of his comeback I can remember to this day I've told this story hundreds of times.
Robin E.:Is you're smart enough to be an accountant? And in the clarity of his comeback, I can remember to this day I've told this story hundreds of times. Is you're smart enough to do whatever you want? But that's not what you're being called to.
Robin E.:Do you really your personality, your go getter, your, your just natural ability to be able to communicate with people, your love of people is all reasons why and he didn't say those words, but that's what he was saying to me by saying that is not the lane that you should be in. It's super impactful to me, even to this day talking about it. It's emotional because I think that we are not being disruptive enough to younger people and other people in our lives that need to hear something different than what they're already pre-programmed or what they've been told or the vision they have for themselves, to help disrupt them and point out that they are at the T intersection and the way they're looking at their life right now really needs to change, and it needs to be a hard right or a hard left turn, to put it analogous.
Kelly K.:I was thinking about this earlier on it when we started the interview, when you were talking about, well, I've, I've been on this planet for 65 years and, um, you know, I I think what you're doing with the podcast is great and how it's. It's wonderful to have impact from a generation that's been like they've been through more than we've been through. Right, and I'm speaking to your generation, my generation, which is millennials. We've got the generate. Well, which generation are you? I'm speaking to your generation, my generation which is millennials.
Robin E.:We've got the well. Which generation are you? I'm baby boomer.
Kelly K.:I'm at the very end of baby boomer, okay, so yep, and then we've got Gen X. That's in between, right, yeah, is there another one?
Robin E.:No, I think.
Kelly K.:Gen X, and then it's millennial yeah.
Robin E.:It is, and then Y, and then whatever.
Kelly K.:And then why? And then whatever, yeah, where I'm going I can't After millennial, I'm like I don and even more important of that community and that village, to your point of surround yourself with the right people and have strategy around it. There is something I've recognized where there's a bit of gatekeeping with individuals. Sometimes gatekeeping with individuals sometimes like they, they understand they've got all of this wisdom and stuff, but they are like do I want to share that or do I gatekeep a little bit? Really yeah I've seen it.
Kelly K.:I will I will wholeheartedly say anybody who's been on this podcast is not that, but it's out there it is totally out there.
Kelly K.:But for this particular community, let's speak to the importance of you know. Sometimes it's not. It's not seeking out somebody who's right there in that same you know age range as you. I actually think the wisdom that you can learn from somebody who's you know 15, 20, 25 years past you and I also think about, like I want to tie in too, so it doesn't have to just be in business. I am in this process right now. That's going to it's going to be a forever process, frankly, of discipling. I am being discipled right now by somebody who's 80 years old Right, Awesome and it is.
Kelly K.:It is I start my date, my weeks off, with this discipling with her on a Monday and it it literally sets an incredible foundation for me. But I'm like I would have never thought that that would be a year ago, that that was where I would be and that's what I would be doing. It's incredible. All of that to be said, I want your insight into this, on mentorship and how you're mentoring and the importance of mentorship. I know that we've touched on it, but let's just dive deeper into?
Robin E.:I think it's easy. It's abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset. Is what you're describing. Yeah, if people are gatekeeping the knowledge they have in their head, it's a scarcity mindset. So all I would advise people to do is look at are you be honest with yourself? Are you abundance mindset or are you scarcity mindset in your thought process? Scarcity mindset I got to keep everything to myself. I got to keep it under wraps. I've got to, you know, not let everybody see the imperfections. I have to, you know, I have to keep something that I know that no one else knows and I, for the life of me, can't believe. You know, I'd be happy to talk to someone if they think they have something that they think that is that valuable, that not sharing it with other people is really the winning mentality. Because I really don't think it is.
Robin E.:I am an abundance mindset person which can give, person which can get me into trouble, because my mantra is give, give, give, get. For networking. One of the presentations I'm doing is on networking and how people just don't know how to network because they're takers, because they're scarcity mindset people, because they think the pie is only so big. And if I'm a financial advisor and you're a financial advisor that that that we can't both win. There's 9 billion people on the planet people, right, there's plenty to go around, Right. And so if I can learn something from someone that is doing what I'm doing and I can increase my ability to serve the people I work with, or vice versa, that's abundance mindset. There there should be no gatekeeping at all for things, um, and I think that I would describe those people they're they're probably got some hang up somewhere, um, about themselves and they're just a scarcity mindset person versus I'm a, I'm like a give, I'm going to give you something and then I should give you something else, and then I should give you something else before before I ever ask for anything, including your business.
Robin E.:So if I'm trying to build my business, it's like what am I doing for you? It's like social media. What kind of value is somebody adding on social media? I thought, try to be a thought leader in what I'm putting out there and people can think whatever they want. But I'm not trying to tell people like I'm the best wealth strategist in the entire world. It's not. It's not my MO. My MO is to ask questions and say have you thought about this? Are you a business trying to exit. I do exit planning with businesses. I'm their strategist for getting their ducks in a row and making sure that they can exit their business on purpose, um, and at the top price that they can get and create a win-win, um. So you gotta give, you gotta give, you got to give before you ever ask for something in return. And the scarcity mindset people are just takers.
Robin E.:They're just they're, they're, they're takers. You can go to, you know, Rotary or BNI or any networking group, Um, and right away you can, you can see who are the?
Robin E.:givers and who are the takers? Um, and givers will get taken advantage of, but only for a period of time, and then they will turn on you and you will probably never get business from them or referrals from them. And so, if we're talking about networking and building a business and gatekeepers, I just ask everyone to think for themselves about a long-term relationship with whoever you're dealing with. You know, is this a person that I can see myself in five years, going out to dinner with or sitting on a beach with? I use those little silly analogies not because I'm going to go on a beach with any of my clients, cause I don't but is it a person that I can see excited about five years from now? I still want to be in a room with you.
Robin E.:I still want to be having a conversation with you, I still want to know what you think, and these are people that are never going to do business with me.
Robin E.:It's not about that. It's about am I really dealing with and taking advice from people that truly have my best intentions at heart at all times? My best referral partners are not even people that do business with me. They just know who I am as a person and they've had interactions with me by serving on a board with me or by referral from their brother, who knows me because he's best friends with someone that does business with me, and I solved a tag. I helped them with an investment that helped them save money on taxes, and now they refer other people to me. Um, I just think that, from an abundance mindset, as a business owner and as a woman that's trying to live a godly life, you just have to be careful about the advice you're taking and who you're surrounding yourself with and if they're at all gatekeeping on not wanting to give up the goods. As I say, that's a scarcity mindset person and I've tried and have been successful at changing those mindsets, sometimes to abundance, because I'm not changing my ways.
Robin E.:But I might be asking them very probing questions that helps them, examine their own lives, and then they start to open up and the floodgates open up for them and all of a sudden they realize the missing link is that they just need to change their mindset to mindset to more of an abundance mindset in everything they're doing, and that can be is absolutely the winning strategy for people. So that's a long answer to you know, maybe a short question but, I, when you were asking the question, what popped into my mind immediately was abundance versus scarcity.
Kelly K.:Yeah, I think of the book the Giver I was trying to see if I had it in here.
Robin E.:I've read it multiple times.
Kelly K.:I have. We have an overabundance of books and most of them are, you know, the, the uh growth ones, the self-help ones. And I have I've actually sort of started to do this um dividing of the books that I have. The ones that are in the room with me, like in our bedroom, are the ones that I'm super serious about, like really serious about, and we'll read over and over again, and the giver is just one of those. The Alchemist is another one too.
Robin E.:Yes, fantastic, excellent books, and I think sometimes you know, I just think a variety of books all the books I read are Christian have some kind of a. Most of them will have some kind of a Christian slant to it. Like the giver, you know those things. You can see both sides of. How do I grow personally, how do I become a better person, how do I become better at what I'm doing?
Robin E.:And, at the same time, on a parallel path, on the same track on the other side, all of it comes back to how do I live a more God-centered life is the answer to everything, and so I think that the advice that I give to people sometimes is in networking, when people come up to me and they're somewhat frustrated, is you have to ask yourself the questions of what is it that I'm looking for and what is it that I really need, and then you have to open your mind up to who he's putting on your path to answer it, because that's that's what I see all the time is is is people are walking over thousand dollar bills to pick up $5 bills, right?
Robin E.:You're? You're asking a question and you're saying what's the answer, and then you go to this meeting or you go to record this podcast. Or you go to this chamber meeting, like I did this morning, and the person comes up to you and says something to you is that is the answer to the question that you just prayed about yesterday? But it's not the answer you were expecting, or the person you're expecting, or even the topic you're expecting.
Robin E.:And yet the Godwinks are all around us. He put that person in my life this morning and on my heart, and they said this to me. And that's really if I, if I go home and I think about everybody I encountered today which is what I do every night I'm like who did I encounter? And then, what was that conversation or that encounter in relation to what I asked you for guidance on? And all of a sudden, it's like this light bulb moment that comes on that says you were intended to meet this person that you don't know anything about. That's going to lead you to this other person.
Robin E.:And going back to the wisdom, the age, the experience, I have seen those puzzle pieces be fit together in a way that I could have never designed on my own, and he's designing that for us. We're just not waking up to the fact that he's answering our prayers every day, but it's not in a traditional person that we're thinking of. Here's where the if you already know the answer, why are you asking for the guidance? Right, if you already know the solution and the person that you need to talk to, I would just go talk to them. The problem is you don't.
Robin E.:You don't know what the guidance is and the puzzle piece that he's trying to put in place that will make the other six puzzle pieces all align perfectly. And they're walking right in front of you, they're giving you your caribou, they're interviewing you on a podcast, they are talking to you on the way here about being a disruptor. Every bit of that is the answer to the puzzle piece that we're looking for and we're just not focused enough and open-minded enough to understand the importance of what he's trying to teach us, because we think we know the answers and we think we're going to be able to clearly see it, when, in fact, that puzzle piece is the one that fell off the table and we think we're going to be able to clearly see it, when in fact, that puzzle piece, um, is the one that fell off the table and is underneath the rug and we and we don't even see it. And yet we're walking right over it and we're stepping on it.
Robin E.:And then we're upset tonight when we pray because we didn't get the answer we thought, when, in fact, he's like up there saying I put three people on your path today that can help you with that problem, robin, and you are discounting them and not being open-minded enough to understand that that person I put right in front of you and you're just like closed-minded because you're so worried about rushing through your day, you're not understanding that that I've given you the solutions and the answers. You might not like the answer or the outcome, but he's giving it to us every day and when I understand that every day, in every conversation, I consciously um, and yesterday was a great example of this, with a client meeting that I had. Um, that was not going the way it should and I was very like, distraught, um, and I just took a pause. The person looked at me like what are you doing? Cause I absolutely just took a pause and stopped talking.
Robin E.:There was dead silence in the room for about 20 seconds. Um, and that may not seem like a lot, but just try to do dead silence for 20 seconds. It made we're not going to do it here. It made the person think it gave me clarity. I put a smile on my face, I answered the questions and took the conversation in an entirely different direction and by the end of the meeting, I was leaning into this person, I was smiling at her and I went back to my office and I said a prayer and I said thank you for giving me the words and the silence and the pause that I needed because, this person was crying and they really needed me to help them and I knew God was in the room the whole time and it just happened yesterday and it happened this morning.
Robin E.:So I'm just imploring upon people that in the busyness of life and in all that you're doing, he's there. He's, he's there to support you. Um, there's other women and men that are here to support you. You just need to find the right tribe, um tribe for specific things in life. The girlfriends you're going away for the weekend for is great. I have a lot of relationships in my life, but when I really really need somebody to tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear, it's a very different set of people and I thank God every day that I have those people and I thank God every day that he gave me the ability to be that person for hundreds and hundreds of people.
Kelly K.:I'm going to let it settle in for just a second, because it's just so everything that you just said. It just encapsulates pretty much everything that we've talked about so far on the interview. That we've talked about so far on the interview, two thoughts that are coming to mind is what a relief to know that not only is that actually happening in real time right now for us, right, Um, but for somebody who's listening right now to go that is happening to me too, and I am also being guided and directed to to implore, like a thought, or speak words of wisdom into somebody else. I don't even like I've, I don't know why I'm having just this like epiphany right now about that, Robin, but I thought how cool is that to know that not only are you having, are you receiving that, but you are giving that to other people too. And that also prompts how you do have to be cautious and have some discernment about like, what is it that? What's the advice that you're actually giving to people?
Kelly K.:And then, are you going back? Are you praying? Are you? Are you leaning into your faith, are you leaning into positivity, are you leaning into love? Cause those are really kind of the all encompassing.
Robin E.:And the love is the important point on that, kelly, because what we have to tell our kids and the honesty that we have to have with our spouse and the honesty we have to have with our boss or our clients or whoever it is or whoever it is, um, once again, if it comes from love, all of those conversations are not necessarily positive or or fun to do. Not everything is fun. Sometimes he is telling us we need to say things that appear harsh at the time and yet I've done that multiple times and had people come back and say I really appreciate the fact that you did that, because I was not getting what you were trying to put down in the nicety tone, because people, people, people don't always understand that.
Robin E.:And so I think love is the word that comes to mind, and that everything I do comes from a loving heart. It just doesn't always sound like a loving phrase, because it's not what someone wants to hear. It's what they need to hear. It's what they want to hear, and the tone matters.
Kelly K.:But sometimes to get people to wake up, you have to change the tone of the way you're saying things. Yeah, it's, it's very true. Speaking of that, there's certainly moments where, as a mother, that's been the case, right, and I do want to.
Robin E.:Are you the parent or are you the best friend?
Kelly K.:oh, amen, and I I say that from a uh that like that's a truth bomb I find myself with, especially with Maddie, who's biologically mine, going kind of teeter, I teeter back and forth, and then I have my husband who, who kind of it's like you cannot be that for Maddie. You need to be a parent and set those boundaries for her. And so it's. You know, I kind of okay.
Robin E.:Well, I always told my girls, if you aren't mad at me at least once a week, then I'm not doing my job at least once a week. I'm not your best friend, I'm keeping you, I, I'm, I'm raising you to be an independent, thoughtful person, um, and I, just I, just I, consciously, at my age of 65, once again my wisdom and saying things directly. I look at people that are older, um, and I can tell a lot about how good of a parent they were by really what their interactions and their relationship with their grown children are. Hmm.
Kelly K.:Fascinating. I want to, I want to hear from you, robin, for you personally as a mom of two, and are you a grandma too?
Robin E.:Oh yeah, I have four grandkids, yeah, four grandkids One just graduated from Iowa State College and the youngest one just graduated from high school and is going to college. So they're all I mean. It's a whole different phase of life, um, and the memories we've made because we lived in Iowa, um, and then we moved up here 11 years ago, I sold a big portion of my business, and a hundred percent of the reason I did it is my parents were in their seventies, my grandmother was in her nineties, um, jamie had kids, um, and they were six, seven, eight years old, um, and I knew that I'm going to be doing this for a long time because I absolutely love what I do, uh, and I said I, I can't wait for retirement to go make memories. And so I totally disrupted and this is what my coach said to me 11 years ago is you will, by doing what you're doing and giving up a huge, selling off a portion of your business, moving to the cities, um, when you're really successful and you're really well known. I was in Mason city, iowa, very well known, served on numerous boards and in my church and and all of that, um, and you just like throw that all out the window to say I'm moving to Minneapolis where I don't really know anybody in business. Um, I, you just like throw that all out the window to say I'm moving to Minneapolis, where I don't really know anybody in business. Um, I'm going to take my top 20% of my clients. I'm going to work out of my house but I'm going to be close to my grandkids and my daughters.
Robin E.:Um, people thought I was stark, raving, lunatic, crazy, because I was very successful. But I'm still successful. That doesn't leave you because you make disruptive T moment decisions. Today, you know, my youngest grandson graduated from high school and it makes me tear up because I talked to my grandkids and I'm like I said to my daughter and I said to my grandkids just in the last 30 days do you think your relationship with grandpa and me would have been nearly as good had I been afar and stayed in Iowa? And they all looked at me and said absolutely not. Yeah.
Robin E.:There are memories you make with your kids and your grandkids during their formative years that you cannot get back. You cannot get back those times. I just had a mother say to me two days ago that she really it's honest, honest, god's truth she's, she loves her job, she loves what she's doing and she's got two little ones and she's being called and pulled and she's like, if I give up this job, then what's going to happen is I'm not going to be able to come back to this job and she lives in a small community and I'm not going to get this opportunity back. And the whole conversation I had with her and I'm talking to her about her money one hour of conversation we did not talk about money one minute. It's not what she needed. She did not need the money conversation.
Robin E.:I said you are not ever going to get an opportunity to look back and you will live with regret if you don't follow your heart because your kids are only small for a short period of time. I said when, when my second one was born, when Erica was born, I ended up during during the job transitions and having jobs that weren't fulfilling me, they weren't my end goal and I knew that. Um, I just ended up staying home for a couple of years and it was very hard financially to do that. But to this day we talk about going to rummage sales on Friday and having rummage sale close, um and going. We didn't have a lot of money, we didn't eat out, you know, it just wasn't those kinds of things. But we would go to Hy-Vee and we would get their maple donuts every Friday and go garage selling and if you ask Erica about that, those memories are very clear to her at
Robin E.:that age, because those are the things your kids are going to remember. They're not going to remember, um, the $150 pair of jeans you bought them. They're not going to remember the, the, the, the, the things you're buying them. What they're going to remember is the moments, the trips you take with them, the moments, the quiet moments you have with them, um, the, the, the unconscious things that you're doing with your family.
Robin E.:I said to her I'm like you are in a season right now where, if that's what God's calling on your heart, you need to listen to that you will figure out a way financially to get through, because it might only be a couple years and then your kids are at a different stage and you need to make you know you need to help your kids become independent people and not be a couple years and then your kids are at a different stage and you need to make you know you need to help your kids become independent people and not be a helicopter parent.
Robin E.:I mean all those things that I did, but you know, sometimes people just need someone in their life to say those things. And it was impactful for her because, no matter what her decision is, her decision that she's going to make is going to come from a whole different confidence level now, knowing that at least she's had that conversation with somebody that has her best interest at heart, that's been a mother that's lived through some really rough times and understanding, when you get out the other side of the tunnel that you're going through, that that that there's nothing more important than having kids that are well-adjusted, independent self thinkers, that can get up and go do a job and are not.
Robin E.:woe is me and and lifeless, because I know, if I die today driving back to my office, my girls are going to be totally fine. They're independent women that can continue on in life and, as a mother, that's what you need to be growing is people that are going to be able to continue on in life. If, for whatever reason, you're not there and it's super important it is you don't do that by letting them have their way. Your brain is not fully formed until you're 28 years old.
Robin E.:And so for any mothers out there just realize 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-olds no offense to those that might be listening they have no concept of the brain's not fully formed, and so you, as the parent, need to be the guiding light for them and to make them understand.
Robin E.:And I always, I always, when people are struggling with this and you see parents that don't make kids mind or don't understand the importance of that, I just said to someone three weeks ago um, when they were saying to me it's just so hard because they don't listen and they don't do, and I'm like here's a thought I just want to put in your head Um, when, when you're not making your kids mind and listen, think about a situation that they're in where they're in danger, like they're running out in the parking lot because they don't listen or because they're getting too far away from you and they're at danger of something, and because you always are telling them do this, do that, do this, and you're not making them mind, they're not going to listen to you when they're in a danger situation, because you have let them get away with just doing whatever they want, versus what you're telling them to do.
Robin E.:So it's not about the everyday little. Go pick up your room complaining that you're doing. It's the respect thing of when I say go pick up your room, I mean go pick up your room, or there's a consequence, because life isn't going to end if they pick up their room. Life will end when you're in a parking lot and they are running away from you and they get hit by a car because they're not listening to you. That's what we're doing as parents is we're making kids understand that we are the adult, they are the child. They do not get their way. We are controlling their life and we're controlling it for a very, very, very important reason to be a.
Robin E.:God, fearing, loving, listening, respectful person. Yeah. That someone is going to want to be around when they're 25 years old, because there's a lot of 25 year olds we don't want to be around.
Kelly K.:Well, there we have it, folks, we can just end the. No, I'm kidding. I still have a couple more questions for you. You mentioned the rough moments that you have had. Are you willing to speak more to perhaps what felt like that turning point for you, that's that rock bottom or lowest valley?
Robin E.:yeah, I think it's. I think it's a you know, I think it's you know, having an unexpected kid or things. I think it is having family members that are going through end of life issues, because everyone has that. And I think when you go through that it's important for us to understand what kind of resource we need to be for people.
Robin E.:My husband has a very, very he's very emotional. He has a very tough time with, like, sickness or or death funerals. Um, you know, and once again, um, it's not good, bad or indifferent. It's like I'm super strong in those moments, um, I am the rock that people can stand on. But I think that I have had some of those moments where it's really made me um become stronger.
Robin E.:Um, I think it's it's it's jobs where people did not appreciate me and, um, I'm not going to say that I'm the best business owner, manager, mentor for employees, cause there's days when my employees, if they're listening to this, would be like, oh my goodness, she's a pain to work for. If they're listening to this would be like, oh my goodness, she's a pain to work for. You know, cause I'm pretty demanding, um, but I I think that I think, when I look at my younger years of life, um, I think that I had some jobs where I just was not fulfilled and I was searching for what, what is the solution here? And I didn't know, because I was in my 20s, right, and.
Robin E.:I didn't necessarily have a mentor at that age and I think that it is going full cycle for me. The low points are am I giving people the right advice? Am I sending people? Because, when you're managing millions of dollars for people, I have a very big commitment to having success, because people's livelihoods and their end-of-life care is all dependent on things that I'm recommending today that will not be seen for 20 years.
Robin E.:We will not know if we're making the right decision and I think that those really heavy weights that I live under and have lived under I don't live under anymore because I just have realized and seen fully that that I am there to support that what I'm telling them is true, because I've seen.
Robin E.:I've seen the end cycles the cycles in the end and I think for young people probably, what I'm trying to say is, when you're young, you don't have enough end cycles to be able to see the decisions you're making or the recommendations you're giving to other people and who you're mentoring.
Robin E.:Is this really, is this really going to end the way that we want it to end and how is it going to be? And for me, which you and I and Joe were talking about before we came in here, it's like everything I do now is when I get to the pearly gates with the end in mind, when I'm standing next to Jesus. It's all about how many people are in heaven because of something I did. How are people talking about me that are still on earth? What is the difference that I've made for people?
Robin E.:And I think that one of the exercises that's super important is people writing their own eulogy. You've heard that kind of craziness where people say things like that. I really use that as a tool with people if they're questioning things or if it's the right moment to say writing your own eulogy is very important because I think it will help you get that. Going back to the pro con list of the early part of our conversation. Is it really helps you cement in your mind like what do I want to be remembered for and what do I want Jesus to be able to say to me when I meet him face to face, about how he's proud of what I did. Yeah.
Robin E.:Um, and how many people are running up to me saying I'm in heaven because of, because of what you did, what?
Robin E.:you gave um, who you supported, um, what you said to me, that you were the teacher of my Sunday school class. The whole thing, um is, helped me to realize that beginning with the end in mind, which that is one of my core values and one of the seven habits of highly effective people, is begin with the end in mind. My staff and my clients, my networking partners somebody else quoted me just the other day and she wrote on the board. She goes I'm going to give you the Robin Edgar statement begin with the end in mind. So when you're known for something that's what I'm known for is saying they get tired of hearing it, but it totally refocuses their whole mindset on whatever decision they're making of. Begin with the end in mind, whether it's ultimately what you're you're talking to, god, or or a project you're on or a struggle bus that you're on in your personal life, um a dealing with your kids, whatever it is.
Robin E.:Begin with the end in mind is what do you want to see the outcome of whatever you're trying to discern? What do you want that to look like? And then try to take the path that's going to that. It's going to get you to that point, and don't let the scarcity mindset people, um and uh, the people on the side of the road that are trying to cause you problems, um deter you from being heck bent on on seeing what that vision is that you have and then leaning all into it with every fiber of your being, and then leaning all into it with every fiber of your being.
Kelly K.:Well, I normally ask two sort of land-the-plane questions, which is what's a piece of advice you'd give a younger version of yourself, and what's a piece of advice you would give a woman listening right now who's nibbling on the edge of entrepreneurship? But I feel like you've you've answered those. Actually, I do want to hear, like a piece of advice you would give a younger version of yourself, knowing all that you know now.
Robin E.:Yeah. For the person that's nibbling, I would just say, um, get to the end of this and then go back and hit replay and then really listen with a different mindset. Yes, because sometimes we listen to things once we do not catch. You're not catching everything. Go back and listen. Now that you've listened to this entire podcast, go back and hit replay with a notebook in front of you and write down whatever comes to mind. Yeah, um, the a younger version of myself, um, I would be trusting God more from the very get-go. I've always been a believer. 13 years old at Bible camp is when I took Jesus into my heart, but I think, as an older, wiser woman that has really leaned into just all in like.
Robin E.:I have zero worries in my life, zero.
Robin E.:And it's not because everything's great, it's because I just know God will provide and he will give me the answers. Um, I just wish I would have been at that mindset earlier in life and and God bless to you and this podcast for what you're doing, because I think if there's anything that can come from this is that women will lean into relying on him and listening to him and watching for the signs along the way every single day, because he's with you every single day along the way. Um, and I wish I would have. I wish I would have leaned into that harder at a younger age, but no one ever talked to me like this when I was younger.
Kelly K.:What a blessing, though, to your point of even all I could think about as you were talking about. You know the cycles that we go through, whether it's economically or it's within our own lives, but how critical it is in. You know, graduating from high school, entering into you know, the workforce, or going to college or, heck, studying abroad, whatever your pathway is going to look like, it's no path is the perfect path. Right, it's like perfect path. Right, it's like it's your path. But the importance of having a mentor or or finding a podcast that's really speaking to your heart and and has, you know, love and um give like the give giver mindset. You know, like those, how important that really really is, how important that really really is. I wish I would have heeded that advice in those younger years and really taken taken strategy around what that looks like as well.
Robin E.:It really makes me feel good, like when I go to church, to see how many young people there are, and I think that that is what gives me great comfort in realizing that God is at work in a younger generation than we've seen for a long time.
Robin E.:Secondly, my advice I give to my grandkids and to high school kids if I do any kind of counseling and they're like what would you? I'm like the best advice you can do, that that I didn't do as much as I should is I'm like go to someone that's older, someone that's been very successful and success you can define however you want. It could be financial, it could be whatever, I'm just saying successful, um, and offer to buy them lunch to pick their brain. Lunch to pick their brain, it will be the best bang for your buck and they'll probably not even make you pay. Somebody goes I wouldn't even make them pay and I'm like heck no. If some young person came to me and said I'd really like an hour to pick your brain on some things I'm thinking about and get some life best practice lessons on, can I buy you lunch? I would be so like just think about that, kelly.
Robin E.:I would just be so in awe of someone at a young age saying that to me, that I would be like all in on whatever you need, because that is a person that our society, our community, that God needs as a disciple in the world. And so a simple piece of advice to you, no matter how old you are, is if you're struggling, go to someone that you really respect. That's a couple steps ahead of you that's been there, done that Um and and and ask them if you can buy them lunch and just pick their brain for an hour. Your life will be forever changed and you will change the life of that person too, because we are out there. We are out there wanting to help people. But, once again, me getting asked for my advice is very different than me, just like you know, throwing up on people and telling them what they need to hear when they're not open to it. You have to be open to it.
Robin E.:So that would be another piece of advice that I would give people that I think could move mountains for you, because God will be at work in very mysterious ways when you go to lunch with someone that you see really as someone that's out of your league. You know that whole thing, she's out of your league. You know that that whole thing and she's out of my league. Um, she's not out of your league, and 99% of the people that have been very successful are super abundance mindset people and they want to give back, and that is that's an easy give for them and so rewarding for both people in that conversation.
Kelly K.:Everyone just needs to listen to this podcast. Your episode is what I'm talking about, because the wisdom that you have dropped, by the way. Robin, can I take you out to lunch someday and pick your brain?
Robin E.:I would love that.
Kelly K.:I'm heeding the advice. I love it. Let's bring Erica along too. It's so simple.
Robin E.:It's so simple and yet so profound, and I will challenge you to say that you, you don't find someone like two steps ahead of you, and I'm saying that from a perspective of here's where I want to go. Here's two steps ahead that. I would challenge you that it would be very hard pressed for me to believe they would ever say no to that. I do. I do not think they would.
Kelly K.:I agree.
Robin E.:And they're waiting for people to ask them. We're waiting for people to ask us Um, yeah, and, and and. I just think there's there's something to be said about generationally. There's. There's just life lessons that you can learn. It's not one generation's better or worse. They're all beautiful in their own special way. We just have to respect the fact of how a baby boomer grew up was very different than how a millennial grew up, and is very different than how um alpha is growing up and there's no right or wrong, um, there's just mutual respect, and I think if we can do some of that, that that's serving God's purpose too of that, that that's serving God's purpose too.
Kelly K.:Amen, sister, amen. You have poured so much wisdom into this growing community through the podcast. How can we give back to you? What's something that Robin might need or is seeking at the current moment that we could help support you with?
Robin E.:Yeah, well, I appreciate that. You know. I think, if you have people that you know, I'm a financial guru, wealth strategist. I do a lot of tax solution planning. I help business owners with exit planning. In fact, if you're a business owner, you should run your business. If you're a business owner, um, you should run your business, whether you're in the first 10 months, 10 years or if you're at 30 years, you should run your business every day Like you're going to exit in the next 12 months, cause I had that exit planning event, um, and I really just want an opportunity to mentor or walk alongside people with how to get their strategy really refined and understand who do they need to bring on their team, because I'm not the person that's going to be the end all be all for everything.
Robin E.:I'm going to be the quarterback that really helps people to understand what are the missing pieces and who do I need to be connected to, and most people don't have a quarterback in their life that can really tell them the hard facts, truth, um, and so if you or people you know are looking for someone that really needs some tough love as I call it, um about what their next moves are, um, those are people that I love working with and I'm actually transitioning with adding people to my team. I need a couple of advisors on my team. So if you're, you know you know someone, or you're an advisor that wants to be a 1099, that truly wants to own your own business, that truly wants to work for someone that can help with tax solutions and strategy work, that's where my zone of genius is, my brilliance is, and I want to train as many advisors as I can before my days are done, because I think that most of the people out there are not being served well in the way that they think they should be or they are, and that's not me saying that, that's the world saying it to me when they come to me saying no one's ever shared this kind of in-depth, powerful information with me, and I think knowledge is power and knowledge is never a disadvantage. So I want to give people the information, because it shouldn't be relied on me to be the one to help you be financially secure. I'm trying to coach and equip and teach people to be financially confident and secure so that, no matter who is around or what happens in their life, they know how to make good financial decisions that benefit them and their family for the long term, because God wants us.
Robin E.:In the Bible it says you should not retire. It specifically talks about retirement and you shouldn't retire, that we should always be doing something in service of him and of the world. And so I think that that's also an abundance mindset, and I think that good people with good money do good things, and God is calling us to be more successful financially and in every aspect of life. Um, and that's really my message to people, so if you're an abundance mindset person, um, I'd love to have a conversation with you. Um, I might be able to help you financially. I might just be able to solve some of your just um, waning little things that are you about how to, whether to turn right or turn left and how to get back on the rope and climb back up to the trapeze as quick as you can, because now you have specific direction on on what you're reaching for when you reach for that other trapeze bar.
Kelly K.:Robin, this has just been so incredible. It really has been, and all I can think of is, for me personally, like divinely how everything is moving in this room right now as we're having conversations. I can't help believe, but believe too, that there are going to be at least one, maybe two, if not more, listeners that hear this message and go. Just what I needed to hear. It's just what I needed to hear. I needed to have a Robin, edgar, knock me up upside the head and go. You've got this. But, more importantly, what's your strategy behind it?
Robin E.:So, robin, uh, robinedgarnet is my personal branding website with you know ways that people can reach out to me, robin, at robinedgarnet. Um, I've got um some videos on there. Um, wealth progression group is my other website and I've got a lot of educational videos on finance on there. So there's just a lot of tools on the website. You can get more of me and hear me, because I'm a big person, that that it's it's. It's not for for what I do. Um, it's not in a one minute snippet or in a social media post or a radio ad. Um, I really have tried to create videos that bring a bring about. Here are the biggest questions I get from people and I'm answering it in a three or four minute video for you. Um, and I think if you want more of kind of that insight and confidence backbone builder stuff on a lot of topics that we could, you know, dive into, um, you can check out either one of those websites. Perfect.
Kelly K.:I will make sure to drop all of that stuff into the show notes. Okay, in addition to that, some of the um resources that we've mentioned, some of the books as well, because I think that that's important. Seven habits of highly, highly effective people is a game. It really is. So the emotional bank account.
Robin E.:You know you got to give to get we all have to pull out of the emotional bank account.
Robin E.:We all have to take withdrawals and if you have not put anything in that bank with that person, it's not going to end well for you. And so when I say give, give, give, get that all comes from the emotional bank account. First things first, you know all of them, I can, I can relate them and get that all comes from the emotional bank account. Um, first things first, you know all of them, I can, I can relate them and I put them all in practice. So, um, people may say it's old school. People don't even know who Stephen Covey is. It might be listening.
Robin E.:I'm just telling you um, I've I've read think and grow rich and all of these other books. There's nothing that has impacted my life more than seven habits of highly effective people, and it's a spiritual. It's a spiritual journey. It may be a business book, but it's if you read the underlying currents of what he's really trying to teach you. It's all about the spiritual side of how you need to be a better person and think about things from the get go.
Robin E.:How they want to end and I want how they end to be at the pearly gates and have people be proud of how we showed up in life.
Kelly K.:Robin, you're such a treat. Seriously, in all the right ways, I love it. Thank you. I feel very honored to have you here and share all of the incredible pieces of wisdom that you've been able to drop. So thanks for having me and thanks for what you're doing.
Robin E.:Thank you it's very important for women to have a resource of a large variety of women that have have had experiences. We've all had good and bad, but you know what? That? Those are learning experiences and what you're doing is helping women not feel alone, because they're not the only ones that have gone through what they're going. Whatever you're, going through today.
Robin E.:Other people have gone through it, um, and they've gotten stronger by it. Get off the net, get back up the rope, get back on the trapeze. Life will be good, um, and it's all about your outlook on how you're doing that and how quickly you're doing that. Get yourself out of the pity party and get back up on the trapeze.
Kelly K.:Get yourself out of the pity party, and that's how we're going to wrap, robin, thank you. I hope you have a great day, Love you. God bless, Love you. Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed this episode and know of any inspiring mamas who are powerhouse entrepreneurs, please help connect them with myself and the show. It would mean so much if you would help spread this message, mission and vision for other mompreneurs. It takes 30 seconds to rate and review. Then share this episode with your friends Until the next episode. Cheers to reclaiming your hue.
