Bill Cates [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Top Advisor podcast, brought to you by Proudmouth’s Pod Rocket Academy. I’m your host, Bill Cates, creator of the Cates Academy for Relationship Marketing. In each episode, I interview one of our industry’s top performers, getting them to pass on their secrets to success to you so that you can impact more lives and generate more income. Now onto the show. Welcome, welcome. You’ve heard the numbers. By 2030, women are expected to control over $30 trillion in wealth. We’ve known this has been coming for quite a long time and yet many financial advisors are still missing the mark when it comes to attracting and serving female clients.

Bill Cates [00:00:45]:
In today’s episode, I sit down with Kerry Carbonaro, award winning CFP author and nationally recognized advocate for women and wealth. We dig into the mistakes advisors make and how you can better connect with this growing market. If you want to future proof your practice, this is one conversation you don’t want to miss. But before we get going to that, I want to let you know about some free resources that I invite you to retrieve. After you’ve listened to today’s interview, you find checklists, guides, videos, other tools. Simply go to referralcoach.com resources now write this down unless you’re driving referralcoach.com resources while you’re there, make sure you sign up for our free weekly tips. We’re always sharing best practices and we’ll notify you our newest podcast interviews as they go live. And while these are free to you, I think you’ll find them quite valuable.

Bill Cates [00:01:34]:
The Top Advisor podcast is sponsored by the folks at Proudmouth who help advisers increase client engagement and attract more ideal clients. And this episode is sponsored by Ironclad Family who brings you Ivault X, a financial advisor enablement tool focused on upping your game as a holistic financial advisor. Now on with today’s show. As I mentioned, my featured guest today is Carrie Carbonaro. Carrie is an award winning certified financial planner with over 25 years of experience. She is the managing wealth advisor and women and wealth ambassador at her firm Ashton Thomas where she leads a multi million dollar financial planning practice focused on empowering women. Carrie is the best selling author of the Money Queen’s Guide and her newest book is Women and Wealth A playbook to empower clients and unlock their fortune. And for those of you watching the video, you can see I’m holding this beautiful book up.

Bill Cates [00:02:30]:
Beautiful cover. Good book too. She’s a respected industry voice. She’s been named to Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors list six times. And get this is the first female member of the 2024 NASDAQ Advisor Council. Through speaking, media appearances and advocacy, Carrie champions financial literacy and female empowerment. Boy, that’s a long build up. Carrie Carbonaro, zooming in from Winter Garden, Florida.

Bill Cates [00:02:58]:
Welcome to Top Advisor podcast.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:03:00]:
Thank you, Bill, for having me. I am in the happiest place on earth, Orlando.

Bill Cates [00:03:05]:
Yes, you are. And Winter Garden’s nice little community, too. Very. It’s, I’ve been there a few times. Beautiful. Let’s get to the topic right at hand. Right, let’s get right to it. You know, with projections indicating that women will control 2/3 of the nation’s wealth by 2030 to.

Bill Cates [00:03:19]:
That’s not that far away. What are the primary challenges that you see financial advisors face in effectively serving this demographic?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:03:29]:
Well, unfortunately, I always say, you know, the industry was created by men, for men, and women have always been an afterthought, not, certainly not a focus. You know, women have only been looked in two categories in wealth management as widowed or divorced, and that’s it. Nothing else. You know, and women are a lot more than just those two things. But they have not been traditional clients of wealth management firms. They’ve only been traditional clients if they were widowed, divorced, or part of a couple. And when they’re part of a couple, they’re usually the second class citizen in that couple when it comes to wealth management. And it’s, again, it’s not even on purpose.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:04:11]:
It’s, it’s more of the fact that the industry doesn’t speak to them, doesn’t communicate with them, uses jargon, leaves them out. You know, the, the, the male financial Advisor, which is 80% of advisors are male and 20% are women. Out of those 80%, the men are bonding with the men because they’re the same and they are, you know, speaking the same language and talking the same analogies. And so it’s just what’s been happening over the past, let’s say since, since the existence of this industry. Right. And you know, CFPs are about 55 years old, so we’re not that old. It’s not an old profession. However, the future client is going to change, which means everything if you, you know, you’ve always done it the way you’ve always done it, and it’s worked.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:05:04]:
It may not work in the future because everything’s going to change if the, if the client is going to change. So the INIT initial study by McKinsey, which was done saying that women are going to control 2/3 of the nation’s wealth by 20, 30, 30 trillion dollars, which is the same GDP as the United States, has actually been around for over a decade. So 10 years ago, I was actually having the same conversation talking about it. However, now we are five years away from it happening and the industry is still not ready.

Bill Cates [00:05:37]:
Why do you think that is? Any. I mean, is it just habit? Is it just inertia? Have they not been stung by the next statistic I’m going to share about women not staying with their advisor? We’ll get to that in a minute. But just, you know, what do you think is causing. When everybody knows it’s coming and yet so many people are not. I mean, some advisors are doing a really good job. I’ve interviewed some of them. Men and women.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:06:01]:
Yes.

Bill Cates [00:06:01]:
So it’s not everybody, for sure. But anyway, just back to the original question. What do you think’s caused that? Is it inertia? Is it? Yeah. What do you think?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:06:11]:
I’m not even really sure the absolute answer. I think it’s a combination of so many different things. I think it’s the fact that you have to change everything. You have to change the client experience. You have to change how you speak, you have to change how you write, you have to change how you market, you have to change how you sell. You have to change pretty much the entire experience. That’s a big lift to accommodate this future client. And I think it’s, you know, some people are doing it a little bit at a time, some people are doing it piecemeal again, some.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:06:44]:
Some companies are. Are doing it great, but most are not.

Bill Cates [00:06:49]:
Yeah.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:06:50]:
Which is why I really wanted to write this book, because I really wanted to change the industry to make it female friendly and to make this experience better for women and for everybody involved, actually.

Bill Cates [00:07:01]:
Well, yeah, and I think you nailed it. It’s a heavy lift because everything needs to change and someone’s going to have to really take a slow, hard look at what they’re doing and maybe even get a little help in the messaging, which is something I like to do. And I know you help in the book. All right, so let’s get to that next statistic. Everyone knows it probably by now. 70% of widows change their financial advisor within a year of their spouse’s death.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:07:30]:
Actually, I believe it or not, it’s actually higher than that. They say it’s between 70 and 90, depending on who you ask, but let’s just go with 80.

Bill Cates [00:07:39]:
A lot too many. The majority, without question. So what factors contribute to this trend? You’ve kind of Touched on that a little bit. And also then this is kind of following up on the first question, but why are so many advisors seem oblivious to this? I know I was interviewing someone recently. She thought it was just they haven’t been stung yet. Right. Once they get stung, once they lose a client, then it’s a wake up call.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:08:09]:
Right.

Bill Cates [00:08:10]:
But what do you see around this?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:08:12]:
So. Well, it’s interesting because for me, I’m usually the beneficiary of that trend and so I’m the one getting the clients. So I’m good with it. However, it’s not right, it’s not fair. We need to do a better job. Women should not feel alienated. And obviously all the reasons why they’re leaving are they weren’t brought into the conversation, they weren’t heard, they weren’t listened to, they were ignored. I get stories all the time.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:08:40]:
People tell me stories all the time about what’s happened to women clients and how they’ve lost them and why they’ve lost them and what they think that they did wrong and what they, what they know that they did wrong. So I get these stories all the time coming to me. And what’s so interesting is, you know, women are, by the time some, the spouse dies, it’s too late. You’ve already lost that client.

Bill Cates [00:09:05]:
Yeah.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:09:05]:
You know, there’s nothing you can do or say at that moment in time to change the trajectory of if that woman is leaving or not. So one of the things I talk about a lot and I actually just did a presentation on this at Invest in Women. I guess it was a month or so ago and we had why women leave their advisors. And there’s just, I mean, there is dozens and dozens of reasons why, but let’s figure out what to do so that it doesn’t happen. And one of the things I always talk about, two things actually. One is how female friendly is your practice. And I have a quiz in my book where you can take, it’s a 20 question quiz on to see what am I doing wrong? What are the blind spots that I don’t even know that I’m doing. And then part of that which comes out of that is are you holding separate meetings or offering separate meetings for the female spouse? And most people when I say that, they’re like, I never even thought to do that.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:10:05]:
And I’m like, well, guess what, it’s a great, it’s a great opportunity because you’re going to build the relationship with just her. You’re going to be listening to just her the spouse isn’t going to be there. You’re going to be able to connect with her on a, on a different level and you’re going to be able to forge a relationship right there if you’re, if you’re holding the separate meetings.

Bill Cates [00:10:24]:
So I got two follow ups of this. I’m putting myself in the listener’s shoes. You said there are like a dozen reasons why advisors lose their female clients or women clients. Give us two at least. What are the two big ones? That’s the big ones.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:10:42]:
Is she. The big ones is she’s not seen and heard.

Bill Cates [00:10:45]:
Okay. Right.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:10:46]:
So I mean just, you know, and then number two is the communication language. Doesn’t speak her language. So she’s, you know, you’re using jargon, you’re using sports analogies. You know, you’re not, you’re definitely not communicating in a way that resonates with her. I like to talk about different analogies because I know guys all use the sports analogies and they don’t really resonate at all with women. And you know, beating The S&P 500 doesn’t resonate with women. You know, it’s not something that interests women don’t care about beating the S&P 500. Women care about am I going to, you know, be a bad lady or am I going to be homeless or am I going to run out of money or, you know, those are kind of the things that women keep, keep them up at night, not am I beating the S&P 500? So I like to, you know, change the language.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:11:32]:
And so one thing that I did was I put together an article on and it actually went viral when it came out on comparing shoes to asset class.

Bill Cates [00:11:43]:
Okay.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:11:45]:
And women went crazy over it and they told me I never understood asset classes before and guys told me I never understood shoes. So it’s very funny, but it’s true. And then my other girlfriend, who another cfp, she talks about comparing asset classes to spices and or recipes. Again, female friendly.

Bill Cates [00:12:12]:
Interesting. So I want to move to separate second follow up question to that is this separate meeting concept. Now, I was working with an advisor in Kansas City, happened to be a female advisor, her, her client with the client couple. The man lived close to the or worked close to her office. So it was convenient for him to be the guy going in. Right. Never brought his wife. But they had an agreement that after they met, the advisor would call the wife and they would have a conversation.

Bill Cates [00:12:45]:
Kind of that separate meeting. You know, it made me think about, you know, couples therapy. Some of the meetings are together, some of them are separate. Uh, tell us just a little bit more about these separate meetings. How do the clients, the couples, react to that? And, and, and what is different? Or is it really different? Is it really just getting to know them a little deeper without the other person there?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:13:06]:
Yeah, so it’s interesting. So I, it’s funny, in my situation, I don’t actually need them because my clients are female.

Bill Cates [00:13:13]:
Okay.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:13:13]:
So I have the complete flip flop of what a normal advisor has. My clients are 80% female and 20% couples. And out of those couples, most of the couples are. The female is the breadwinner in almost every case, but not every case. So in most of my situations it’s a little bit different. But when I’m counseling other advisors to have this meeting, they want to. I believe that they should get to know a woman on a deeper level. And so that’s another thing that I talk about in my book.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:13:44]:
I talk about behavioral finance, using behavioral finance tools with women because they really respond well to that and you can get to know them on a deeper level. For example, money quotients has a bunch of stuff and Know Me has a bunch of stuff and Money Habitudes has a bunch of stuff. They’re all in the book, but all of them will get to know your client on a much deeper level. And it’s easy, simple quiz stuff. I mean, when I was at United Capital and we had money minds and honest conversations and we had the whole very female friendly client experience at United Capital, we were already ahead of the curve using all those tools. And I just feel like it’s almost non negotiable that you should be doing that with your female clients today.

Bill Cates [00:14:30]:
Carrie, we’re just getting warmed up here. In a minute I want to talk to you about the emotional aspects of financial decision making, which I know comes into play here. But first I want to take a quick break for one of the sponsors of this podcast, the great folks at Ironclad Family who bring you ivault X. I want to take about a minute to talk about one of the big trends in our industry and that is holistic financial planning. As you may know, holistic planning is not just about investments or insurance. Holistic planning is about creating a master plan where everything works together. Investments, insurance, taxes, estate planning, even your clients personal goals and values come into play. Many clients are loving this approach where their advisor connects all the dots for them.

Bill Cates [00:15:12]:
And this more comprehensive approach leads to clients gaining greater clarity, confidence and peace of mind. Now there’s a platform that makes it easier for advisors to engage in true holistic planning. It’s called the IVAultX from the folks at Ironclad Family. IVAult X is a one stop digital vault for all your clients financial documents, personal records and even legacy plans. You help your clients get organized and secure for which they will love you. Financial advisor Mikkel Thorp said, as a trusted advisor, I offer the IVAultX service to my clients to protect their investments and build a relationship between myself and their family. And financial advisor Salvatore Sofia wrote, I enrolled a couple with ivault X and during our holistic conversation I uncovered a dormant 401k. I handled the transfer earning a $5,500 commission.

Bill Cates [00:16:08]:
And this couple referred their son to me to store shared assets, which made me his advisor too, before we even met. Your next step is to grab your free guide on how to make becoming a more holistic advisor easier for you and your team. Simply go to holisticadvisorguide.com to access this free guide. That’s holisticadvisorguide.Com this link is also in the show notes. After you receive your free guide, you’ll have the opportunity for a complimentary strategy session to discuss holistic advising and IVAult X. IVAultX just may be your key to bringing integrated financial guidance and the resulting peace of mind to your clients and their families. And we’re back. Carrie, in your newest book, Women and Wealth, you delve into the emotional aspects of financial decision making.

Bill Cates [00:17:02]:
How can advisors incorporate behavioral finance principles to better connect and serve their female clients?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:17:10]:
So women really want you to get to know them beyond numbers. It’s not just about the numbers or transaction. It’s not transactional for women. It’s relational. Right? So I think a woman will never forget how you make her feel. And a woman really trusts her gut and her intuition. And if you can connect with a woman on a deeper level than just here’s my, here’s my, my spreadsheet you need. She is way beyond a spreadsheet.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:17:44]:
A woman is not a spreadsheet. A woman is, you know, an emotional being. And the deeper you get to know your clients, the more they’re going to be with you forever. And also, let me just tell you a little bit about some women, okay? Women are better clients than men. Okay. And I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why. Because first.

Bill Cates [00:18:06]:
Want to bet?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:18:07]:
Yes. Yes. They’re, they’re more loyal because if you. Again, if you know them on a deep level, they’re going to be with you no matter what. And I’ll share a little bit about my story, which is in my chapter one of my book. But I have moved my clients. It’s, it’s a little bit embarrassing, but there is a reason for it. I moved all my clients with 100% retention four times in five years.

Bill Cates [00:18:35]:
Wow. Four times in five years. Yes. You a millennial. Changing jobs. What’s going on here?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:18:41]:
It is crazy. And I’m not a Jamagen X. So yeah, it’s a crazy story. Obviously there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances to that incredible move. You know, I was at United Capital. I was a partner there. I was very happy, everything was great. And then we got sold to Goldman Sachs, which was an absolute nightmare for me.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:19:01]:
I had to get out of Goldman Sachs. I had to quit, run out my non compete. And unfortunately nobody wanted me on the other side of that transaction because everybody thought I was getting sued by Goldman Sachs. So I wound up at the wrong firm because only one firm wanted me. And it was the wrong firm. And I knew it before I even walked in the door. And so then I spent a year and a half looking for another firm and I found it and I moved again. And I said to my clients, look, I can either retire or we can do new paperwork and we’re moving again.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:19:33]:
And they said, we’ll do new paperwork. And I said, you got it. And that’s what we did. And also I didn’t want, if I was to retire at a young age, I was thinking that Goldman Sachs would have won and then I wouldn’t have even been there for the great wealth transfer. So I’m like, there’s no way they’re winning and there’s no way I’m getting out of this game. I love what I do. It’s not a game. I mean, I love it more than anything in the world.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:19:56]:
It’s my life’s work and my life’s calling. So I didn’t want to give up. And so I had to keep moving till I found the right spot.

Bill Cates [00:20:05]:
So what do you think you can you attribute to keeping all your clients through all that craziness?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:20:10]:
Well, complete transparency and honesty with them on everything that was going on and why and what and where and how and you know, I mean, I’m, I’m probably an oversharer, but it’s okay. Like, I don’t know if you know this about me also, but like, I will share my portfolio with my clients. I will share my tax return with my Clients. I will share my income with my clients if they want to know. I mean, I don’t hold anything back because I feel like if they’re showing me theirs, I show them mine. All they have to do is ask me.

Bill Cates [00:20:44]:
Interesting approach. And I’m also thinking all the paperwork that clients usually have to sign every time an advisor moves firms, was that, like, a logistical nightmare?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:20:55]:
Yes, it was. Absolutely. However, the one good thing. I’ll give you one good thing is I’ve kept my clients account numbers the same for all these years. We’ve always kept the same custodian at Fidelity Institutional. So we’ve never changed. We’ve never changed account numbers.

Bill Cates [00:21:12]:
That helps. Very good.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:21:13]:
It does.

Bill Cates [00:21:14]:
All right, so I think you’ve. You’ve. I believe you describe your approach as being a teacher, therapist, and cheerleader. I think we can already kind of hear all of those coming out, but, you know, all wrapped in one. Can. Can you elaborate on this multifaceted role? Sure, sure. The client relationship.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:21:33]:
Well, it’s funny because when people look at me, they’re like, she’s definitely a cheerleader. And I’m like, yes, I am. I was head cheerleader growing up. So, yeah, I am definitely a cheerleader. Yeah, Exactly. I am 100% a cheerleader. But you know what? I’m here to cheer them on, to get them through the bad times, to get them to the other side. One thing I call that is when I go through horrible experiences with my clients, because a lot of times, clients come to me during very difficult times.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:22:06]:
Deaths, divorce, disability, job loss. Like, usually something always negative. Right. Clients don’t wake up. Women. Female clients don’t wake up and say, I’m just gonna. While the sun is shining, I’m gonna hire a financial. No, they hire me when it’s raining and when it’s, you know, difficult time.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:22:25]:
So what I do is I get them through from. From one side to the other side. I used to call it trauma bonding. And that is the wrong word, because that is a negative word. It’s actually called resilience bonding. So I get them from this horrible place to where the sun is shining on the other side, and they never. They will never forget it, and they will. They always say that they feel like they, you know, owe me.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:22:51]:
And I don’t mean in an negative way, but, like, in a positive way. Like, I got them from one side to the other side, and I got them through the rain. So I feel like that is so rewarding and incredible. And again, always being a cheerleader for them and always being an advocate for them. And as far as a teacher, I’m also teacher by trade as well. I was undergraduate, got my degree in teaching, thought I, you know, went to school, thought I was going to be a professor, thought I went, got my MBA in teaching. I thought I was going to be a professor, like, going to be teaching for the rest of my life. And I actually do teach for the rest of my life, but now I teach money.

Bill Cates [00:23:26]:
Sure.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:23:28]:
So I am 100% a teacher by trade. And as far as therapists, this is the only one that I’m not an official therapist.

Bill Cates [00:23:37]:
Yeah, but money’s involved, so everyone’s a therapist when money is involved.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:23:41]:
Well, and you know what it is? I. What I do is I create a safe space for women to process their emotions related to everything related to money and their life. So that is where I come in as a therapist, albeit not trained.

Bill Cates [00:23:57]:
Well, makes sense. You know, I’ve got several big questions I want to ask you that I think the listeners are going to appreciate. But first, let’s take another quick break from the folks that make this show possible and help other advisors get started with their own podcast, the folks at Proudmouth. I have coached and interviewed many advisors who report significant success with their podcast. A podcast can create deeper engagement with your clients and attract more right fit clients to your practice. I’ve been working with the folks at proudmouse since the inception of this show. Not only do they take care of the nuts and bolts of producing and hosting the episodes, but they’ve shown me how to increase my influence and attract more business. Proudmouth has a tool they call the Managed Influence Accelerator that creates a powerful content ecosystem that amplifies your voice, builds your influence, and drives real growth.

Bill Cates [00:24:52]:
And their sonic boom coaching program with podcast pro Matt Halloran will guide you through the entire process. They’ll make sure you have the right strategies in place and then employ the exact right tactics for you. Podcasting isn’t for everyone. And with that said, I think you owe yourself a look at how having a podcast can help you play bigger and build a better business. To book your free strategy session, go to proudmouth.comates that’s proudmouth.com Cates. So I want to talk to you about the stereotype of focusing solely. I see this a lot. Focusing on widows and divorcees.

Bill Cates [00:25:33]:
Right. And. And there’s a lot of that. And. And that’s. That’s kind of that it’s raining. Right. So that makes sense.

Bill Cates [00:25:41]:
But that overlooks a significant portion of female clients. So how can advisors broaden their perspective to effectively serve, you know, a more diverse, more range of female demographic, including even primary breadwinners, entrepreneurs, et cetera?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:25:57]:
Yep. It’s so perfect because I actually have, in my book, I actually have a circle, and that two, there’s like seven or eight in that circle, and two of them are divorced and widowed, but there’s a whole range of circle. And what’s interesting is the primary breadwinners and female breadwinners are a huge force in this, in the United States right now. Something that we’ve not seen. I mean, if you go back to the 1950s and you look at the history in my book, you can see that women were not even working outside of the home in the 50s. So here we are, 2025, and by 2030, women are going to be primary breadwinners in the United States for the first time in history. That has never happened before. It is going to shift a lot of things.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:26:51]:
So you’ve got that going on, which is incredible. Then you’ve got women starting businesses faster than men, so you’ve got that going on. So these two incredible powerhouse segments are not even thought of in a lot of wealth management firms as somebody to target. And they’re incredible segments, and they need a lot of help. Because I remember one of my high, like, million plus breadwinner women, and I’ve got a lot of them, and people are like, I didn’t even know they existed. And I’m like, oh, yes, they do. And so I remember her saying to me, carrie, just because I know how to make money doesn’t mean I know what to do with money. Perfect.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:27:33]:
Perfect segue to help them.

Bill Cates [00:27:36]:
Right? Here’s something that I’ve observed and been told. I’m just curious what you’ve seen in this area. The, you know, the, the generalization. And I know we’re. We’re making some generalizations here. Some women love talking about sports, Right. But generally speaking. All right, generally speaking, women tend to be a little more relational than men, which draws me to my, you know, topic that’s near and dear to my heart, which is referrals, introductions.

Bill Cates [00:28:08]:
I wonder if you’ve seen this too. It. The observation is that women tend to. To provide more referrals and introductions than men. Have you seen that to be true?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:28:20]:
Yep. It’s also in my book Seven Times More.

Bill Cates [00:28:23]:
Oh, seven Times more. Okay.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:28:24]:
Seven Times more. Women are fantastic referral sources. Again, because you know them, they know you. They know that you’re their advocate. They know that you’re, you’re standing up for them in whatever that means. And they’re going to refer you so they’re more loyal. They’re going to refer you. It’s interesting because a lot of times I don’t talk about this that much because people don’t ask me, but I’ve built my entire practice on referrals and just holding myself out as an advisor who helps women and doing what I do and speaking and writing and all that stuff.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:29:04]:
In my entire career, I have not spent a penny on marketing. I’ve never cold called. I’ve never, you know, spent money on, I don’t know, those direct mail campaigns or anything that like normal people do. I’ve never done any of it, none of it. I’ve never spent a penny to market my business. And so I think that’s kind of unique. And I have a, you know, incredibly thriving practice where I usually have to turn people away.

Bill Cates [00:29:30]:
So we’ll call successful, thriving and profitable practice.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:29:36]:
Yeah, very profitable.

Bill Cates [00:29:38]:
I want to turn a little bit here to a couple things more kind of industry related. As the only female member of the NASDAQ Advisor Council, I’m curious, what initiatives are you champion championing, I should say, to make financial services industry more inclusive and responsive to women’s needs. What’s happening with that council membership of yours?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:29:58]:
So it’s interesting. So believe it or not, the first thing I did was say we need a second woman on the, on the council. So because I, I didn’t want to be the only woman. And I felt, I mean, not, not strange because I’m always usually one of the only women in the room. So it wasn’t weird for me. But I literally said to the woman who, the woman who runs the NASDAQ Council is a woman and she works for nasdaq. She’s very high level at nasdaq. And so I said to her, we need another woman.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:30:26]:
And she said, who do you recommend? And I recommended a friend from California. And now she’s the second woman on the, on the now. Not the only woman officially. She, she, but she didn’t get on till this year, so. But still, it’s great. So what we’re doing is we’re, we’re looking at new products to bring to market for that NASDAQ is bringing to market. And then they bring us in at least once a year in person where we come in and we see, you know, we talk about like IPOs and bringing things to market and just in general different things. But we also do like Webinars.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:31:02]:
And we do. We do trade talks. We do internal webinars for them. So we do a lot of different things. And I’m always focusing it on, let’s figure out how we do this for women.

Bill Cates [00:31:15]:
Yeah, makes sense. Let’s not leave this part out that’s been left out in the past. It might change what they do. It might not. Might be influenced a little. I get it. You’ve also been a vocal advocate for increasing the number of women in financial advisory roles. What steps do you think? You know, firms, we have a lot of successful advisors listening to this, have firms, they have multiple advisors.

Bill Cates [00:31:38]:
How do you think they can attract, retain, promote female talent in our field?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:31:44]:
So it’s a hard one, let me just tell you, because this is like a problem that’s very difficult to solve. There is no right or wrong answer. There is no one way. There’s not one magic bullet. There’s no immediate solution. I mean, we’ve got very smart people working on this problem, and we have not really moved the needle that much. You know, on the CFP side, we’re at 23.9%. And, you know, we’ve moved from, you know, 20% maybe three decades ago.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:32:16]:
So we’ve moved this much. And so it is a very difficult problem to solve. And really, it’s a matter of meeting, I believe, meeting women at a younger age. So, you know, before college, maybe in high school or even younger, one of the things I did with the CFP board was we went to the Girl Scout national convention, and I met about 2,000 girls aged 5 through 18, and we talked about what a CFP is and, you know, hold up signs future CFP and gave them future CFP tax tattoos and all this other stuff. They didn’t even know what a CFP was. They know what an attorney is. They know what an accountant is. They don’t know what a CFP is.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:33:04]:
They don’t even know what it is. So that is where we really have to get in. And also then. Then teaching girls that it’s not just about math because girls are already turned off by math. That’s another whole story with, you know, teachers and. And thinking that, you know, if I’m not strong enough in math, I can’t do this. And math is for boys and the whole STEM thing. So, I mean, it’s.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:33:25]:
It’s a huge thing. I just believe that we’re eventually going to move in the right direction. We’re just moving really slow. And that’s the other problem is meeting the Needs of. If the. If the population is 51% female, then we should be 51% female advisors.

Bill Cates [00:33:43]:
And bingo. That’s. You know, I think it starts with the awareness that folks who lead the firm. Right. And then, I mean, so, for instance, I know a lot of advisors are bringing in younger client. Younger client. Younger advisors. Sorry.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:33:57]:
Right.

Bill Cates [00:33:58]:
To help them, you know, with the transition to the. To the younger generation. But this is the same thing. And, yeah, I think we all have biases, prejudices, whatever. Sometimes we’re not even aware of them and how we might choose a male over a female or whatever, almost unconsciously. Right. So we just got to be more aware of that stuff.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:34:20]:
Bill. I literally have a chapter on that in my book. It’s called Unconscious and Implicit bias.

Bill Cates [00:34:25]:
I should have known that. Sorry.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:34:28]:
It is. It is a real thing. And it. And it is hurting financial services, it’s hurting female clients, and it’s hurting females coming into the profession.

Bill Cates [00:34:36]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so I want to put a bow on this conversation. Let’s get real. Kind of practical, almost tactical here, I suppose. So advisors, they want to build stronger relationships with females clients. What would you say are the top three actionable things that they can do?

Carrie Carbonaro [00:34:54]:
Well, the first thing I would tell them to do is to read my.

Bill Cates [00:34:56]:
Book, which is I will hold up.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:34:59]:
To the cut, literally action packed with thousands of suggestions for you to be able to do that. So that’s number one. Number two, take that quiz. See where you are on the Are you female friendly? Are you not female friendly? You don’t even know what you don’t know. It will uncover some things. Change your language on how you speak to women. You don’t. Again, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:35:23]:
There’s also an implicit bias quiz in there, which is not my quiz. It’s Harvard’s quiz. But you could take it and see where your blind spots are. And then the last thing is with women, do not measure your success in aum. Measure your success in your strength of your relationships. It’s a big one.

Bill Cates [00:35:49]:
Yeah, I get it. Wow. My featured guest on today’s show has been Carrie Carbonaro, managing wealth advisor at Ashton Thomas and women and wealth ambassador at her firm. She’s the author of I’m holding the book up Again, Women and Wealth, a playbook to empower clients and unlock their fortune. Carrie, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with our listeners and for the great work you’re also doing for the industry. Thank you.

Carrie Carbonaro [00:36:15]:
Thank you, Bill, for having me.

Bill Cates [00:36:17]:
Yeah. You bet. I’ve been looking forward to this. To you, the listener of the podcast, may I ask for two small favors? If you like this episode or like the podcast in general, please leave a five star review on the platform you’re listening to the show. Not all platforms have a place for reviews, but if yours does, like Apple Podcast certainly does, I’d be grateful. Thank you. What other advisors in your orbit do you think should listen to this episode or to the podcast in general? Please don’t keep it a secret now. Top Advisor Podcast is sponsored by the folks at Proudmouth who help advisors increase client engagement and attract more ideal clients.

Bill Cates [00:36:53]:
And I should add, produce this podcast for me. Just go to proudmouth.com forward/Kate’s proudmouth.com forward/cage and this episode is sponsored by Ironclad Family who brings you Ivault X, a financial advisor enablement tool focused on upping your game as a holistic advisor. I invite you to Visit me@coachcates.com that’s coachkates.com and if you or anyone in your organization you’re affiliated brings in speakers, I’d love to see if I can be a resource for you. Love to speak to groups. You can learn more about my virtual and in person presentations by going to Bill katespeaking.com until next time, stay relevant, keep learning and believe that your value is worth sharing. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you for listening to the Top Advisor Podcast brought to you by Proud Mouse Pot Rocket Academy. I encourage you to Visit my website referralcoach.com for links to my books, online courses and direct register for the Katz Academy.