Health and Wealth: How Two Sisters Combined Forces to Help Women Take Charge of Their Lives

Narrator: Welcome to Great Aspirations, Wealthspire Advisors’ podcast series on life, wellness, and financial advice. Each episode shares the experiences of extraordinary people whose stories inspire others to think big, find balance, and explore the possibilities of achieving health, wealth, and happiness. And now here’s your host, the CEO of Wealthspire Advisors, Michael LaMena. 

Mike LaMena: Welcome to season two of Wealthspire’s podcast, Great Aspirations. This season, we’re highlighting the people behind the innovative ideas and concepts that continue to level up our industry and elevate the client experience. For episode seven of season two, I have the distinct pleasure of having two guests, Amanda Campbell and Michelle Riley. Michelle and Amanda, welcome to the podcast. 

Amanda Campbell: Oh, thank you. It’s exciting to be here. 

Mike LaMena: So, Amanda is a senior vice president and financial advisor with Wealthspire Advisors. She’s been in the financial services industry since 2010, joining Wealthspire through the acquisition of StratWealth in 2020. She’s a certified financial planner, certified divorce financial analyst, CDFA in our industry terms. Amanda has made it her life’s mission to ensure that every woman in any walk of life understands her wealth in a real and meaningful way. And I’m excited to dig into that, what that means with Amanda throughout the podcast. 

Michelle is a certified personal trainer, AFAA, and nutrition coach, NASM. She is also owner and founder of the online fitness and nutrition company, Fierce & Fit. I love that title. Fierce & Fit is a women’s online training and nutrition coaching service, promoting holistic approaches to optimal physical and mental health through exercise, mindful nutrition, and effective daily habits. As your personal coach and trainer, Michelle will take you by the hand and show you how to put yourself first in your own health journey. Strengthen, empower, inspire, train to be fierce and fit. 

Michelle and Amanda, so excited for this conversation. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t share that you’re sisters, right? So, not only do you have those distinguished backgrounds and are having a meaningful impact in the topic of season two, which is the client experience, you also happen to be sisters.

So, let’s start this amazing story. You’re sisters, best friends, you’ve both purposely chosen careers that really focus on helping women be confident, feel empowered, whether that’s through wealth management, financial wellness, or physical wellness, emotional wellness. At some point, with these kind of passions that are in parallel but certainly connected, you both decided to write a book together, “The Health and Wealth Sisters: A 360 Degree Action Plan – Total Self Care for the Modern Woman’s Physical and Emotional Wellbeing.” What ultimately led the two of you to come together to operate in this space, write a book together? Give me some of the background that led to this mission you’re on. 

Amanda Campbell: Yeah, I mean, I’ll take it, Michelle. It was Michelle’s idea, to be honest. We were so…

Mike LaMena: Who’s the older sibling?

Amanda Campbell: I am by two years.

Mike LaMena: Okay, so you deferred, letting the little sister lead. 

Amanda Campbell: It was funny. We, you know, Michelle has… How long ago did you have Body Oasis, Michelle? You’re very first studio. 

Michelle Riley: I was 26, no I was 24. And I’m 32. So, that was like eight years ago when I had Body Oasis in Eldersburg, Maryland. And then… Yeah.

Amanda Campbell: And then, so, Michelle had this gym and I was starting to build my client book. And we’d often get on the phone as we did every evening and kind of debrief about our days, the challenges of building a business from the ground up. You know, because in wealth management, you, you’re, yes, you’re part of a bigger business, but you have your own little business. 

Mike LaMena: Absolutely entrepreneurial, building client by client, right? 

Amanda Campbell: Exactly. So, Michelle and I would often get on the phone and just debrief about “What worked for you today? What didn’t work for you today? What are you struggling with?” And Michelle kept saying, “We serve the same type of women. Like, why aren’t we working together? Why aren’t we helping each other?” And Michelle, I think it was like one random day. I remember it must have been in the winter because it was dark and I was driving home from work and you’re like, “We’re the health and wealth sisters.”

Michelle Riley: Yes, I did. I was like, “We are the health and wealth sisters for the modern woman.”

Amanda Campbell: And then it just kind of, I mean, it was slow, right? It seems like an idea you have in your head. And it was 2020, the pandemic. Michelle’s husband had gotten deployed for the army, you know, had gotten deployed and Michelle was then like, well, I’m not going to live by myself in Georgia. That’s where they were living at the time. So, she came to live at my house because she was like, we’re all locked in. I don’t want to be alone. So, we just kind of all that time together decided it’s time to write the book. It’s time to make the health and wealth sisters a real thing. And it turned into all of this. So, it’s incredibly exciting. And I don’t know if we thought it was going to get here, if we thought we’d actually have a book on our hands, but here we are and we couldn’t be more thrilled. 

Mike LaMena: Well, I mean, one thing before we get into some of the, you know, the deep content and the mission of what you’re doing. I imagine there’s a lot of people that have that spark of, “Oh, we should do something,” but you guys actually put it into action. You did the real work. You took this idea, which was a spark, right? And one of the things that I’m interested in as I’ve gone on my own professional journey is there’s all these sparks, but how do you actually turn that into a sustained flame that propels you forward? So, talk to me a little bit about that. You have the idea, pandemic, you come together. What was that process of actually translating your thoughts into a book that absolutely shows your passion for this space? But it’s also deeply personal.

Michelle Riley: I guess I can take this one away. It’s that we really sat down and again, we kept having those conversations and it’s like, “Okay, well, this woman needs this in her daily life in regards to health, but she is concerned about how she’s going to make that investment because of her wealth or her budget.” And then Amanda would be like, “You need to tell her this.” And then just all these things again started kind of like coming together. And then Amanda and I, when the pandemic, you know, happened, we were just basically stuck in her office and we’re like, “All right, we have this book idea. Let’s start laying out the groundwork.” And we would talk about, “So what does your client have to say about this? What does your client have to say about this?” And then chapter by chapter, we started building and we had like this big cork board and then we just started doing idea to idea. And then we were just like, “All right, it’s going, it’s happening. Let’s keep this engine going.” Because sometimes, you know, different days, I’d be like, “All right, well, what do we do now? I feel like I’m stuck.” And Amanda would be like, “Boom, light bulb.” And then some days Amanda would be like, “All right, well, what about this?” And I’d be like, “Boom, light bulb.” So, it was just so helpful to have each other and have that shared mission, that shared spark to keep that engine, to keep that train going. And that’s where we are today. 

Amanda Campbell: So, I think too, people are always like, “Oh my gosh, you wrote a book.” And I’m like, “I can’t take all that.” Like it’s so much easier when you have somebody sitting across the table from you being like, “This also stinks today.” Like, it’s gonna hit you and you’re just both staring at each other in front of your keyboard. And also the idea, the health and wealth sisters, we pitched it to a bunch of editors and no one would bite. Like everyone was kind of like, this is not… The concern was “How are you going to sell this thing?” You can’t put it in the health section of a bookstore. You can’t put it in the wealth section of a bookstore. Self-help is too broad of a category. There’s also a significant component of memoir in the beginning of our book where we talk about our entire trajectory, you know, from being raised by a single mother due to my father’s passing, and there’s some tough memories in there that were cathartic to get out. So, there was just when we’d pitch it to editors, they were like, “This seems cool. I don’t want it.”

Mike LaMena: Well, I think that’s a problem, right? Like everybody wants to compartmentalize, and it’s got to fit into this narrow vertical. And when I think about season two of our podcast, Great Aspirations, I think one of the things that we’re trying to tap into is that the client experience is holistic. You can’t compartmentalize it. If someone gets their financial house in order, but they’re sacrificing all their health, physical wellness, and mental wellness, they’re not going to be in a good place. If they have mental health, mental wellness, and physical wellness, but their financial side is in disorder, again, it’s going to be problematic. So, I feel like sometimes we get in our own way because everybody wants stuff to fit in a nice little box, but we’re human and we don’t. So, you know, I’d love to hear your thoughts as you go through that. I mean, even that process of pitching the book, like ultimately you guys said, “All right, well, if somebody else can’t get their arms around this because it’s touching on too many verticals, we actually believe that holistic approach matters.” And it’s part of the fundamental message of you guys coming together for a book that is, you know, overlapping in terms of verticals, right? Maybe talk to me about, you know, that holistic approach and how you both came together to say, “Look, if we really want to empower women, it needs to be a broader view. It can’t be siloed.”

Michelle Riley: I was just thinking back to my clients and as a trainer, you get to know so many things about their personal life. I’m like, wait, am I a trainer or a therapist? Yes, sometimes I’m both. So, they would just be telling me about, you know, all these issues in their life, a lot of things, you know, about their money and things like that. And I’d be like, huh, but then, hey, but I still need to put myself first this way through my physical health because if I don’t do that, then I go home and it’s just crazy. All these things piling up, all these things piling up. So, I feel like when we pitch this book, we’re like, we need to encompass all of this again for the modern woman who is just at her wit’s end balancing family, balancing her work, balancing all these things. But it can’t just be in one compartment of, all right, you just need to make sure you’re putting yourself first through your fitness. You need to be doing all of these other things in a very holistic way that isn’t just going to fit into this little square right here. So, that’s kind of where this one is, I don’t know if Amanda wants to kind of tap into that as well. 

Amanda Campbell: Yeah, I think for me, it was also I needed this book. I remember talking to my friend over margaritas and tacos one night, and I was so frustrated with my husband because he can focus on one thing at a time. Like that is it. Whereas I have like, it is just a 500 to-do list upstairs. And she said to me, she was like, “You know, I heard once that men’s brains are like waffles. Like when one compartment is filled up with syrup, that’s enough. And then the next compartment will eventually fill up. Whereas women’s brains are like a tangled ball of spaghetti.” And I’m hearing that mean like, oh, okay. So number one, take a step back. And number two, women’s brains are like a tangled ball of spaghetti. We are by nature just biologically tangled. We are not vertical. We intersect at every point of our lives, right? You know, even work. Like there are days where, you know, sometimes I have to be the wealth sister and be doing finance for people. And also I’m kind of running a tally of like, okay, after Riley gets off the school bus, this is going to happen. And have to fit in my workout? Have I taken care of myself? So, if we know intrinsically women are thinking of 7,000 different things, how could we ever write a book that just tackles one of the 7,000? That’s insane. And to Michelle’s point, health and wealth, it encompasses everything, right? I mean, and for women, because we have these 7,000 things tumbling around, we often put ourselves on the back burner. We want to make sure everyone in our life is taken care of first. The kids got fed. There’s, you know, groceries and blah, blah, blah. And then when is there time for us to get our work out and do our movement, make sure all the emails are answered? Make sure that we’ve sat down and we understand our wealth? And there was no platform to make that accessible that we had found for women. So our message really became, “If you don’t understand your health and your wealth in a real and meaningful way, and you don’t invest in putting yourself first, finding time for yourself to understand those things.” When it comes to health, if you’re not investing yourself, you’re going to be using your wealth to take care of yourself later in life. And is that what you want? The answer is no. The answer is obviously no. And it is obviously no. But then how do you, how do you get there? Right? There was no guide from, okay, if I know I need to take care of myself, if I know I need to put my health first, if I know I want to start figuring all this out for myself, how do I get from point A to point Z? And Michelle and I just couldn’t find a guide for that. So we made one.

Mike LaMena: Well, I think that’s what I love about the book. Like you take on this idea that we can’t look at these things in isolation. We need to view it holistically. We need to be thinking about it in an integrated way because that’s the way life is. But you also in the book provide actionable, meaningful, tangible steps, right? Because we can all say, “Yeah we’re about the end of the year, New Year’s resolutions. I’m going to get my fitness in order. I’m going to get my financial life in order.” And then the best of intentions fall away because you don’t have an actionable plan. You don’t have folks like yourself that will be your guide. So, maybe you could both share some of the things that jump out to you and your personal journeys helping women, the guidance you provide in the book around tangible things that you want people to take away as examples of how you really embrace empowerment and start to take control of your financial, physical, and emotional wellness. 

Michelle Riley: I guess the big part in the book when it comes to the actionable kind of chapter is baby steps. Stop trying to tackle the whole thing. It’s not “Alright, I’m going to wake up tomorrow and do an ultramarathon.” Whoa, let’s take a step back and let’s really take that goal. Take your why. Take your why do you want to do this for yourself? Why do you want to put yourself first? Have that in the back of your mind and make those small actionable daily steps. So, that’s why I’m really big on my custom habits coaching because it’s all about those small changes. So, if you could maybe just set an alarm a little bit earlier in the day so that you could maybe have your workout first. If that doesn’t work with your schedule and with the kids, that’s fine. But set these little appointments for yourself like doctor’s appointments, like dentist appointments. Sometimes you don’t want to do them. Sometimes you just get it over with, but it’s also giving yourself the opportunity to say, “I get to do this.” So, slight little changes changing your mindset, changing your thought pattern. Again, having that small appointment set for yourself, not anybody else, your “me time” to really take the time for movement. Maybe pack yourself just like you do the kids. Pack yourself a little healthy, more mindful lunch versus, you know, just being the mom and “Hey, I’m going to make this wonderful meal for my kids.” But what about yourself? Take that extra time to also do that for yourself. And if it’s something even just walking around the work building or taking the dogs out for a walk to some kind of daily movement, daily practice that you are doing again for yourself. 

Mike LaMena: I mean, that makes sense to me. You have these big, hairy objectives, goals, and it’s easy for it to become the excuse. Oh, it’s just too big, right? You know, incremental steps, achievable things build tremendous momentum. One of the other things that struck me in your description was, and I’m interested in how you do this, how do you get people that are so focused on serving others, right? Taking care of the family, being that provider. How do you get them to embrace prioritizing themselves? It’s easy to say, it’s harder to do, right? So what are some of the things you’ve done to be able to really help people recognize it’s okay? I mean, the image I always have is, you know, when you’re on a plane and they talk about the masks falling down and, you know, say to put your mask on first. And it’s such a simple thing. But if you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re not going to be optimal for the people you care about most. But how do you help people get that breakthrough to be able to prioritize themselves?

Michelle Riley: So, that’s exactly what I tell, because a lot of these women are moms, but they’re also working moms. So I’m like, okay, Diane, I’ll just put in a name. How are you running your whole entire circus if you’re not filling your cup first before filling others? And she’d be like, you’re right, you know, I’m gaining this weight, I’m doing all these things, I’m running around doing sports practice. Like, I just need the time to put myself first. And I’m like, okay, so you get that, right? Yes. Okay, so how are we going to do that? And then going back to those actionable steps, but really just kind of again, asking her the “why”. How are you running this entire circus on E if you’re not putting yourself first, getting that energy back through your, your fitness as a health sister, through your fitness, through your nutrition, through some kind of sleep routine. I know sleep sounds crazy when you’re running all these things, but it’s true. And it’s really important. I know Amanda can kind of add into this too, about, I mean, she has three kids now. 

Amanda Campbell: I mean, I think, so does Mike, by the way. 

Mike LaMena: My wife is actually away for a couple of days, so I’m working remotely today. So, I actually know no matter how hard and intense my job is, the stuff that my wife is dealing with exponentially more. But just the added element of I’ve got to get my youngest daughter off to school, I’ve got to pick her up, she’s got to get to this appointment. I can tangibly today sympathize with the added stress that, you know, typically, no judgment, typically a greater level of that burden falls on women in households. So, I’m very sympathetic, especially today. But, you know, Amanda, I’d love, you know, your thoughts on how you really help women come up with actionable, tangible plans and feel okay doing it, right? Because I think that’s part of it. I hear you both tapping into like, it’s not going to sustain itself. If they’re not invested in a real “why”, why am I doing this for me to make myself better for all the people that I care about? So, Amanda, your thoughts? 

Amanda Campbell: Amen. Yeah. I mean, and Mike, you’re so right about that invisible labor. We carry so much of it. And I love that. I love that the podcast falls on a day when you’re like, I feel it. But I think giving women, and I know this sounds like a crazy thing to say, but sometimes looking at a fellow sister in this world and being like, I give you permission to use some of your own hard-earned money to invest it into your health. Because as women…

Mike LaMena: I love that word invest. It’s not spending. I love that whether it’s financial, mental, physical – invest – dig deeper on that.

Amanda Campbell: Amen. Because I think as women, and that is terminology that I shifted to because I used to put getting a personal trainer or getting a gym membership into an expense category. And actually with my clients, I move it to just like savings and 401k actually move it into that category, an asset. What are you building? Because again, sometimes women need that permission to say, “Okay, this isn’t an expense. If I can think of this holistically long term, I’m investing in a way that I will maintain my health.” And what do I always hear from women when I sit down with them either after a divorce or if they’re going through widowhood, the number one thing I hear is “I don’t want to be a burden to my children. I don’t want to be a burden to my children now that I’m alone, I want to take care of myself.” And that’s really great from a financial standpoint. And that’s what I do. That’s what I love. I want to make sure that you feel completely empowered in your next chapter. I do not have the tools to make sure that you don’t become a burden from a health perspective. And that’s where Michelle comes in.

Mike LaMena: But they’re interconnected, right? Like the financial consequences of failing to take care of yourself, you know, physically and mentally show up. Right. Yeah. We’ve seen the projections of the cost of healthcare later in life. Like I think that’s what I get so excited about around how our industry is evolving. Like we’re opening up these real human conversations that say it’s just not about a number on a financial statement that says you’ve hit some financial planning hurdle. It’s actually marrying that with like, look, you’re not taking care of yourself and your health costs in the out years and the implications for your family. You don’t want to be a burden, but you’re actually not taking care of yourself. I love that this is starting to come together and we’re having real human conversations. And I think that elevates the client experience and it elevates our ability to impact people’s lives.

Amanda Campbell: And I know, you know, sometimes I’ll talk to other advisors and you talk to your clients about their health. Like, oh, taboo. And I’m like…

Mike LaMena: They’re afraid. I get that.

Amanda Campbell: How could I not? Because if I don’t, I’m actively looking at this person and saying, all right, well, I hope your money lasts long enough. I haven’t, you know, I hope we have enough money saved up for if you need round-the-clock healthcare or you need a double knee replacement with somebody to come in and take care of you. My stance is how could I not talk to my clients about their health? And again, making that investment because I can’t stress it enough. If you don’t use your money now to invest in your health, to invest into taking care of yourself, to your point, Mike, you will use it later. And we’re going to use it in not a fun way, right? You’re not going to be going to Disney with the grandkids walking around eight miles a day, right? And those are the things you want to do. So, let’s start working on that now. And health is one of those things you can’t put off to a later date, neither is wealth, right? And I think that’s a big conversation too of tomorrow is always there in your mind, right? I’ll work on my health and wealth tomorrow. I’ll work on my health and wealth tomorrow. Life happens, right? I mean, and Michelle and I certainly learned that lesson at a very young age, you know, our father was with us and then he wasn’t, you know, just in the blink of an eye after he passed. And I think that’s what our mom gave to us, is that you need to prepare, you need to have your ducks in a row because life can change so quickly. And I think there’s real beauty in that, in saying “I want to be an active participant in my life from a health and wealth perspective. I want to be an active participant in my life for many, many, many years.” And I think, again, I just think it’s such a disservice if we can’t have those holistic conversations with our clients. 

Mike LaMena: Yeah. And I mean, we talk about, you know, helping people in our world historically financially, but it is about living a life of fulfillment, purpose, meaning. And if you aren’t physically and mentally in the right place, I don’t care how much money you have, you’re not going to achieve those other things. So, I love the holistic approach. I love that you two came together, you know, and wrote this book. What’s been the reaction to the book? I mean, talk to me a little bit more. I mean, you kind of hit some walls in terms of people buying into this concept, but it really resonates with us. What’s been the reaction to the book and, you know, talk to me about that.

Michelle Riley: I know for a bunch of my clients, because they had been training with me, and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I read this book and I was like, what in the world? What am I doing?” Okay, I need to also put this wealth aspect into my practice as well. Not that they weren’t doing it before, but now they’re just more invested in what it means to have both of them together. Because Amanda is really big on, okay, you know, you might have your, your spouse, your husband doing all the finances, but how are you taking a seat at the table? So, that’s what a lot of, you know, a lot of my clients who are females are like, “Oh my goodness, I was just letting Mike do everything.” Sorry, Mike, just throwing your name in there. “I was letting my husband do all these things. And now I realize that I also need to do these things for myself so that I can be more empowered in my daily practice, not only with my fitness and my health, my nutrition, but now with my wealth as well.” So, it’s just, it was a wonderful way for them to have their kind of “whoa” experience, just like Amanda and I had in the very beginning, they’re like, “Oh, light bulb, I need to also be in control of this.” Not that you’re taking away from your partner, but that you all, we all have that equal kind of integrated teamwork. And they’re giving themselves that power and that self efficacy to also have that conversation and have that in their lives as well.

Mike LaMena: I love that the book gives people that opening, that permission to engage. I mean, I know one of the things with the advisors that I work with, I’m CEO of the business, so everybody’s like, “Oh, well, you just do stuff yourself.” No, I’m trying to run the business every day. But it was purposeful for me to make sure that my wife, Michelle, was absolutely engaged in that process. Because I think what happens sometimes in partnerships is you naturally gravitate to certain things, right? She’s paying all the bills, I’m dealing with the finances, and you’ve got to cross-pollinate and share. And I feel so much better. And I think she does as well that she’s fully engaged in the process. So I know God forbid something happens to me, I get hit by a bus tomorrow, she is up to speed, she’s fully engaged. And I think it also gives her a level of empowerment. Now, if I can just figure out how to pay all the bills, we’ll be okay. But I haven’t made that progress that she’s had. But Amanda, your thoughts, I mean, I hear the book, with people that are engaged with Michelle on the physical and emotional wellness side, saying, “Wait a minute, I’ve got to take care of my financial side.” Have you had, you know, similar exposures where you’re working on the financial side and the book has helped people open their eyes to a more holistic aspect of looking at areas of their life? 

Amanda Campbell: Absolutely. I think, you know, I deal with people and I love it, but it’s emotional work. I deal with people going through some of the toughest times of their lives. And sometimes it is easier for those women to… I’ll give them a copy of my book, and I’m like, just, you know, take your time with it, just curl up with it. It is sometimes easier to sit by yourself with your dog or your cat and a hot cup of tea when you’re going through a big life transition and read quietly to yourself about, “Okay, these are the changes I need to make.” And I think that’s been impactful, right? Because women, when they come to me, again, they’re in, they’re in rough places, right? They’ve stopped taking care of themselves. You know, I hear all the time, “I’ve gained so much weight. I feel terrible about myself. I am not the beautiful, vibrant woman I once was. No one will love me again.” All these things, right, that naturally creep in your head, you’re going through divorce or gosh, your spouse of 30, 40 years just passed away. Like, where am I supposed to go, right? And it’s beautiful when these women will read the book and they don’t always tell me that they do. But sometimes they’ll just come and be like, “So I went for a longer walk than usual today. And I think I’m going to try again tomorrow.” And I’m like, “You can do it. Baby steps, right?” Right, baby steps. But it’s also intermingled with “I’m coming to your office and I’m doing this wealth plan,” and “Okay, if I can keep this up, can I join the yoga studio?” Like, it’s just about kind of taking a step back and letting those real moments soak in for you when you’re going through a tough time. And I think that’s been so rewarding seeing these women be like, “Alright, like now that I have you for my wealth, and I’m feeling better about that, how can I start to feel better about me? Because I don’t feel great about that yet.”

Mike LaMena: You know, that’s the impact, right? I mean, it’s real, it’s human. A lot of people talk about technology, continuing to create, you know, automation within the financial services industry. Our business is human, you know, to your point, it’s like, you have to help somebody in all aspects. So, I love the partnership you guys have created and how you’re breaking down the barriers between these components. In many ways, the book is in some ways about, you know, empowerment, relative to a modern woman, dealing with some of the unique challenges that women face today that they didn’t maybe face, you know, generations ago. Is there an element of what you’re doing that’s really focused on the unique challenges of the modern woman going forward? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that. 

Amanda Campbell: Yeah, I think it doesn’t stop, Mike, I’m sure you can appreciate that, like, it does not stop like between like, work, again, you can love your work, you can also want the emails to stop when you’re eating dinner, right? And that’s the thing about this new world. And for modern women, we always have email, we always have like the amount of school emails that come through a little and working, like, oh my gosh. And you know, I just got an email this morning, next week, it’s candy cane grinch day, like, what? Like back in the day we just used to go to school. And I talked about it with my mom, she’s like, “Yeah, it was nothing like this.” And not saying that we have it hard, or I’m sure our parents face their own challenges. But technology has made it so our brains can’t rest. And there’s so much research on this, blah, blah, blah, I don’t need to go into all of that. But at the end of the day, life doesn’t stop. So, if we know in this new world and kind of the world we’re living in, technology is not going to stop, there’s always going to be an onslaught of information, you’re always going to feel overstimulated, you’re always going to feel like there’s a million things going on. How can you focus on the important things and prioritize? Because that’s what I think women inherently struggle with too, is prioritizing themselves, right? And that’s what this book is about. So taking time to say, “Okay, I need to go for my 30 minute workout. I don’t care if there are 13 emails that I have to answer today. I don’t care if I forgot to do X, Y, or Z for the kids, I will get to it later. I need to go take my 30 minutes,” right? Likewise, it’s just not an option to turn a blind eye to the finances anymore. It’s just not. I mean, again, life is so fast, everything’s moving a million miles an hour. Women are, I think the new stat is 40% of women are out-earning their husbands now, but only 60% of women feel like they can make a really solid educated financial decision. Wow. That’s a huge juxtapose, right? So, it’s just women can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to themselves, period. And I think especially with the wealth transfer we’re going to see, right? Trillions of dollars are headed into women’s hands over the next, you know, I think I forget the stat, but several decades, just trillions of dollars of wealth is going to transfer, right? We need to be our best selves to accept that. We need to make sure that we have the information we need to accept that wealth. And again, we just need to, we just need to put ourselves first and realize that it is the most selfless thing we can do. I think there’s a lot of jargon around that being selfish. It’s incredibly selfless for us to put ourselves first and start prioritizing the knowledge we need and just the overall health that we need.

Mike LaMena: You have to prioritize being selfish around some critical things for you so you can be selfless, right? I love it. So the book is having an impact. You guys are breaking down the barriers. You’re holistically engaging with, you know, modern women, you know, women across generations to help empower them. What’s next? You know, I hear the passion and I see the energy. Where do you guys want to take this? What’s on the horizon for each of you individually and collectively as you look to positively impact women going forward? 

Michelle Riley: So, we have a few things in mind. Definitely writing more books now that my sister and I, and myself, I have my five-month-old, I’m actually a prenatal and postnatal fitness specialist as well. So we want to take this into, hey, you know, after you’ve had the kids and after you’ve done all the things or how do you take care of your body now that, you know, you know, Hollywood and all these things, social media, you have to do pre-baby body. No, no, no, we’re taking this in a different way. How are you still going to make sure you’re feeling confident and wonderful in your body but also again using or investing in different ways for the future of your children as well as yourself? And then I’ll let Amanda kind of take away the Sisterhood Summit. 

Amanda Campbell: Oh yeah. And then in February of 2024, so February 23rd, 2024, we are hosting our first annual sisterhood summit backed by Lawson. We were so excited about it. And it’s just going to be a beautiful day. So, Michelle and I are speaking and we have two attorneys speaking. One’s a life coach and one about protecting your assets as a modern woman. And it’s just going to be a really safe space for women to come and learn. No sales pitch. Just come, be around like-minded women, understand, really get actionable items from four women on putting yourself first, making key changes in your life, and kind of focusing on these really big areas that are sometimes ignored. So, that’s kind of the big, big thing. And then kind of in Michelle’s vein, we are working on a children’s book series as well. Just to start educating.

Mike LaMena: Start early, right? Yes. 

Amanda Campbell: Start to talk to young girls about money because we’re not doing it enough. Just stereotypically, it’s been left to the man. So, start talking to their young girls about money. You have three girls, right?

Mike LaMena: Three daughters, yep. 

Amanda Campbell: Yeah, as do I. And I just, I have those conversations with them now. Like they get birthday money and I’m like, “Okay, half is going into your account, half you can spend,” and they’re so used to it now.

Mike LaMena: I just did the same thing. Roth IRAs. They had summer jobs. I’m like, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to start saving now. My oldest daughter is in a deep STEM program, Colorado School of Mines doing geophysical engineering. I mean, these are, this is real because like a decade ago, they wouldn’t have had, or decades ago, generations ago, they wouldn’t have had the same opportunities, right? Athletically, academically. So, you know, as a father of three daughters, like what you’re doing and to know you’re starting early, love it, right?

Amanda Campbell: I love it too. And I have three daughters too. You all know, and I just, I see it already, right? Like I see it already that these young girls, they’re so smart and they’re sponges. They want to learn. They want to understand. And if you can start messaging this now, like, wow, you’re really smart with money. You make really good money decisions. Imagine being 30, 40, 50 with that in your brain. Because I’ll tell you right now, the 40, 50, 60 year-olds I work with that come into my office post-divorce, post-widowhood, they have the exact opposite in their brains.

Mike LaMena: It was messaging that started when they were kids, right? So, you know, I love that, the empowerment that you need to take control of all aspects of your life. And you should be in these conversations. You should be asking these questions. I love it. Excited for the Summit. I love the work you’re doing. It’s been an absolute pleasure to start this conversation. I think we’re going to have to have you both back for a future season because I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of the great work you’re doing. So, thank you so much. You truly are elevating the client experience by making it holistic, right? In a way that is accessible, actionable, and impactful for women. So, kudos to you for the great work you’re doing and excited to see where this journey continues to take you. Thank you.

Amanda Campbell: Thank you. This was a blast. 

Michelle Riley: It was awesome. Thank you. 

Narrator: Thanks for listening to this episode of Great Aspirations, presented by Wealthspire Advisors, a registered investment advisor and subsidiary company of NFP Corp. If you have feedback, including suggestions for future topics and guests, contact us at clientrelations@wealthspire.com.