(EP3) How a Princeton-in-Asia fellow became an FA

[00:00:00] Antoinette Rodriguez: Hello, and welcome to the Wall Street Growth Hacks Podcast. I’m Antoinette Rodriguez, CEO of New York City- based MarFi Advisors. Today I’m thrilled to welcome our guest and my dear friend, Monique Castillo. For years we have inspired each other through work life balance, irrational happenings on Wall Street, and just a few dramatic motherhood moments.

[00:00:26] Antoinette Rodriguez: Before we begin the interview, I’d like to tell you a bit about Monique. She has been a financial advisor since 2008 and founder of Higher Ground Financial Services. Monique has conducted financial strategy workshops and webinars, including at Johns Hopkins University. The Women’s Leadership Council and New York’s ETF Global Expert Series.

[00:00:51] Antoinette Rodriguez: She’s a volunteer chapter coordinator and board member for Aspen, an advocacy organization for those whose lives are affected by [00:01:00] autism spectrum disorders. Monique graduated from Johns Hopkins University. She speaks Spanish, Mandarin, Chinese, and Portuguese, and taught English in China. As a Princeton in Asia, Fellow Hola Monique, and welcome to Wall Street Growth Hacks,

[00:01:20] Monique Castillo: Hola Antoinette.

[00:01:21] Monique Castillo: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:23] Antoinette Rodriguez: Thank you for being here. Monique, we’ll start with your amazing background. Could you tell us a little bit about your background and how and why you decided to become a financial advisor?

[00:01:34] Monique Castillo: Sure. Little funny road. Couple steps to get here. I added Mandarin Chinese to my studies in college because of a bet made with some classmates, , to see who could last the longest.

[00:01:44] Monique Castillo: I never dropped it and was thrilled by the evolving economies and international trade I witnessed while living in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I worked in a field of international business until I had my first child. Then, [00:02:00] goals got rearranged, , and then I wanted to stay close to home. And three kids later after I reached my goal then of them walking and talking.

[00:02:09] Monique Castillo: I was ready to get back out in the field. I wanted to launch my second career at night I attended this diversity career fair that was in, at that time I was in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, and this engaging woman implored me to give her 15 minutes. So gimme 15 minutes to explain how I could launch my own practice under my own business vision in the market that I want to serve.

[00:02:35] Monique Castillo: That was some creative marketing because had she said, become a financial advisor, I would’ve sped past her. That would’ve not been my choice. So I ended up joining UBS’s Financial Advisor Training program. And to this day, I’m very grateful to that woman for grabbing my attention. What she said was true. UBS had me develop a business plan and I decided that I wanted to serve the underserved target [00:03:00] market.

[00:03:00] Monique Castillo: I have to tell you, during this pandemic, the whole shelter in place, I was more grateful than ever of the independence, the firsthand direction I have, and how I serve my clients and my ability to enact initiatives and be nimble and change, to change that was very much needed.

[00:03:16] Monique Castillo: During these past couple of years, we’ve been.

[00:03:18] Antoinette Rodriguez: Yes. It’s interesting what happens with that fork in the road and depending on which side you go on, how your life turns out. So good on that woman for doing great marketing positioning. 15 minutes of your time. . Yes. It’s like the people on the streets in New York, right?

[00:03:33] Antoinette Rodriguez: It’s always just a minute, it’s never going to be just a minute, but good for you. Monique, we’ve talked many times. We were discussing that you started production in 2008, and of course, those of us in the industry know what happened in 2008. What was that like and how did it form your

[00:03:49] Monique Castillo: future?

[00:03:51] Monique Castillo: Okay just to narrow down even a little further, during a harrowing time at a launch in my second career was that my first month of production was [00:04:00] September 2008. And for those of us in the industry, we know that marked the end of Lehman Brothers. I. Was, still wet behind the ears.

[00:04:08] Monique Castillo: But these senior financial Advisors in my branch. Remember one man he was like a legend. And here he was walking around like a deer in the headlights. He just kept saying, But Lehman Brothers was triple A on Friday, bankrupt on Monday. He was like stuck in that. And for a newbie like me, it just helped me understand some serious dysfunction that happened.

[00:04:32] Monique Castillo: UBS had a very rich training program, but my entire training team was gone by October, so I quickly realized if I want to make it in this new career that I’m launching right now, I need to figure it out. Need to figure it out fast. A very full-on team that’s now poof, gone. And luckily, I would say because of all the independent travel I did, I learned to think of my feet, learned if I missed a train or a bus, what could I [00:05:00] make of that opportunity So that, that kind of always put my brain to just, scan.

[00:05:05] Monique Castillo: Where’s the opportunity? How do you come up with a new plan if something had changed from the original plan? I was able to be rather nimble during that time I started to observe, like I was in a branch of 75 financial Advisors. It’s hard to find a branch like that these days, but 75 and less than five were women

[00:05:24] Monique Castillo: I noticed for many of these. Men who could claim 20, 30 years in the industry, they were avoiding client calls when they got them. This wasn’t hide under the desk. And I said, you know what? It seems to me the main thing needed is communication. Like just communication.

[00:05:43] Monique Castillo: Pick up the phone, reassure some folks and people really don’t expect you to have all the answers and you really don’t. And I think this is one thing that some of the men I observed didn’t get communication was my strong suit. After all, having. A career in international business, speaking multiple [00:06:00] languages, connecting with people.

[00:06:01] Monique Castillo: That’s something I just love to do. They were all choices, , I put my energy into that and from there, I found that people were not asking me how long you been in the industry, Monique, that just wasn’t even coming up with prospective clients. I just focused on good communication, which then led to me explaining investment rationale behind my recommendations and.

[00:06:25] Monique Castillo: That seemed to reassure folks. Okay, where’s the opportunity from here? Oh, all right. Look for the silver lining. Where’s the light at the end of this tunnel? As I started to see this was gaining new clients for me in a world that seemed to be imploding. I then turned that just, it’s still part of my practice today because I noticed.

[00:06:45] Monique Castillo: The education that was happening in my clients. Because when you explain investment rationale means I got to talk on the economy, I got to talk on where I see the opportunities at. I got to talk why I think this particular asset class is right for this moment. [00:07:00]How long, what’s the time horizon? Am I talking this is going to be more of a short-term investment or long term investment and why?

[00:07:07] Monique Castillo: And as that became part of my practice, my clients. themselves became more, more educated and then that actually build very well for my target market, which is women and professionals of color. For many, I was their very first financial advisor. They were feeling enlightened. They were feeling part of the process.

[00:07:24] Monique Castillo: They were feeling like I understand what I own. I think that led to a stickiness so that clients as are changing world, financial industry, I’d moved from. UBS, couple other hop skips and jumps before I went independent, and that original client base followed me. I think that I became very much embedded as part of their experience in having, Understanding what they own, what’s their investment portfolio?

[00:07:48] Monique Castillo: How’s it serving them, what’s their needs? And then something was great for it cuz going independent, nobody is committed to following me I knew that and going sight unseen, nobody had even heard of my broker dealer. But I think [00:08:00] that enlightenment process was key. And that’s what I give credit to.

[00:08:03] Monique Castillo: The very beginning when I had it figured out fast.

[00:08:05] Antoinette Rodriguez: It’s interesting I lived on South End Avenue, which is the road that leads to the World Financial Center. When all of those black cars showed up with the President and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Goldman Sachs Merrill Lynch, and all of my appointments for the day at the World Financial Center, I suddenly.

[00:08:23] Antoinette Rodriguez: received all these text messages and emails from clients telling me that something big was happening, that we would have to postpone our meeting. It was very interesting to be able to judge what’s happening based on environment. It appears to me that you’re great about judging your environment.

[00:08:40] Antoinette Rodriguez: What an interesting thing about the leveling of the playing field, which I’ve heard from a number of Advisors in relation to the pandemic as well. Because when everybody was put behind a screen, then how do you differentiate yourself? You differentiated yourself through extreme listening[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] Antoinette Rodriguez: and educating, and that was the best leveler of all

[00:09:04] Monique Castillo: Yes. It certainly did level the playing field.

[00:09:06] Antoinette Rodriguez: What would you do with a business budget that is 10 times larger than what you now have?

[00:09:12] Monique Castillo: Wow. I would love that. Wishlist. I would hire a video crew to help me do touching profiles of some of my key clients who have achieved so much in their lifetime.

[00:09:24] Monique Castillo: Prevailed through incredible challenges, and have been an absolute honor to serve as a financial. . I truly believe their stories could help inspire others who may be in similar challenges. They once were and help illustrate the difference working with an advisor can make. They are also unsung heroes in my book and can be a good reminder that we do not need to wait for the mainstream media to decide who gets celebrated and who does not.

[00:09:51] Monique Castillo: I would then hire creative marketing crew like MarFi, Advisors, on how I can best deploy such videos. [00:10:00]

[00:10:01] Antoinette Rodriguez: The power of imagery. And that is why I wanted to do this podcast in a video series so that they could see us, and you could be represented on camera, also it has to do with what influences. There is quite a bit of studies on our marketing and video and particular, and how much more effective it is, but also, I know.

[00:10:21] Antoinette Rodriguez: the SEC and our compliance departments will get a little bit more friendly. I remember when we started remembering that. I’m sure you do. Remember we were trying to get your video done and we were even just challenged with where would we host it? Is it going to be allowed to be hosted? And where you don’t have the language already written out when you start

[00:10:38] Antoinette Rodriguez: Yeah. Yeah. Although and compliance is aware of this, we did script your compliance part out so that we can make sure that we’re we’re on track on that. Yeah, so don’t talk to us about that because we took care of it. , thank you very much. That’s a great answer.

[00:10:50] Antoinette Rodriguez: And thank you for the the MarFi plug.

[00:10:51] Monique Castillo: Advisors. Yeah and as you mentioned too, there has been a nice significant rule change that would allow. Such videos in the past it would be [00:11:00] automatically banned cuz of testimonial rules and stuff like that.

[00:11:03] Monique Castillo: I’m so glad the SEC and FINRA are starting to see that, with the growth of social media, people really do look for what kind of experience did you have? How was it? That’s a guiding post on deciding whether they’re going to proceed with accessing a business for a service.

[00:11:18] Antoinette Rodriguez: They’re allowing the multimedia and they’re also allowing even just the written testimonials, which for those who are not in our industry, don’t realize that wasn’t allowed.

[00:11:26] Monique Castillo: Yeah. That’s right.

[00:11:28] Antoinette Rodriguez: Monique, please tell us about your practice. What is, or who is your target market and why?

[00:11:35] Monique Castillo: My target market has been women and professionals of color since the start of my career as a financial advisor.

[00:11:42] Monique Castillo: I wanted to serve the underserved by our financial services industry. My conviction was underscored the more I met women who were incredibly accomplished in their fields but were made to feel deficient when it came to investing in financial strategies. So many professionals of color [00:12:00] have shared stories with me of being turned away in a review or realized they were sold products with the promise of ongoing guidance that never materialized.

[00:12:10] Monique Castillo: Sold one and done deals despite their eagerness for a long-lasting relationship of advice. One thing I hope to make clear is that while this is my business plan’s target market. I have always aimed to have a very diverse book of business, diverse book of clients because I must keep my skills sharp and growing if I want to serve my clients with the utmost access to excellent financial strategies.

[00:12:34] Monique Castillo: So yes, I have white male clients who have been with me for years. My focus is on generational wealth planning, and I aim to run deep within a family rather than have hundreds of clients.

[00:12:45] Antoinette Rodriguez: We’ve talked about this, right? My family is Puerto Rican, but the multi-generational aspect of wealth building and people of color are particularly challenged with this because you don’t have a mom or a dad or family member who’s had [00:13:00] wealth in the past.

[00:13:01] Antoinette Rodriguez: So when you mention the one and done, that’s particularly difficult for someone of the first generation of wealth, right? That’s. So what is the biggest compliment you’ve ever received from a client?

[00:13:14] Monique Castillo: I’ll answer that with my most recent biggest compliment just came to me within the past month,

[00:13:20] Monique Castillo: Was told with the prospective client, wow, Monique, you have to understand, I have never experienced this before. this was the comment made to me after I finished doing an asset review with the physician who was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, explaining to her what she really owned and my recommendations on next steps.

[00:13:44] Monique Castillo: She is a quintessential example of why I have the target market that I have. She has been trying to employ investment strategies, but here I was the first financial advisor in the second leg of her career to really give her feeling of enlightenment.[00:14:00]

[00:14:00] Antoinette Rodriguez: Going back to, the first generation, the people of color and why someone could be super accomplished, yet still have this feeling of insecurity based on, something that’s not their fault.

[00:14:11] Antoinette Rodriguez: This next question all of us have dealt with especially during this never-ending pandemic. How do you get yourself out of work, slumps or ruts?

[00:14:21] Monique Castillo: I look for inspirational stories of goals my clients have achieved, and we’ll reach out to them to make them aware.

[00:14:29] Monique Castillo: Our human nature could leave us focused on what we perceive to be threats and negative news. We must be reminded. To celebrate the successes and when things do go right and do go as we wished. I have found that these client reviews celebrating a good decision they made for their betterment leaves me feeling good about the work that I do, and I in turn get revitalized.

[00:14:51] Monique Castillo: Meetings like this, they’ve also fostered feelings of mutual appreciation. Good news begets good news. I would add that, seeking out those [00:15:00] open to mentoring me has been something I made a practice of keeping my antennas up for detecting. A good mentor can really help take the bumps out of the road.

[00:15:11] Monique Castillo: For us. When I was going through an unexpected and challenging divorce, I invited some key people in my life to be on my divorce committee. To help me with decisions that can have a long-term impact. Because clarity of mind is impaired when we’re going through something as emotional as divorce.

[00:15:26] Monique Castillo: I didn’t want to be subject to, Oh man, what was I thinking? , I decided that while I was in the emotions, right? One day, one of my mentors who was a woman who had founded her own business, she came to my branch and she said, Monique, you must do financial workshops for women going through what you’ve just been through.

[00:15:44] Monique Castillo: They need the guidance. You can speak firsthand, and women will feel that. I told her I do not have the budget for it at this time. I was Now suddenly single with three young kids. One still in diapers. Then she replied, when you are truly giving people information that [00:16:00] they can use, you do not need to provide a meal.

[00:16:04] Monique Castillo: It made me get creative and I ended up doing workshops like financial strategies for divorcees and for widows. At nearby local colleges, especially those that have people in transition centers, which many do. From there I developed this reputation. Of giving good informal educational workshops.

[00:16:22] Monique Castillo: My name started spreading to other educational organizations. Ended up doing, for Maritime Academy Philadelphia. I had the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia. They knew that I wasn’t trying to sell a product that I was trying to give her information.

[00:16:39] Monique Castillo: I did get prospective clients and some of those clients were at those earliest workshops are still my clients to this day.

[00:16:45] Antoinette Rodriguez: Again, the giving back that’s a really big part I see is in overarching theme in how you have become successful in how you have lived your life. And that translates over into the goodwill from people who [00:17:00] know that you care about them.

[00:17:02] Antoinette Rodriguez: That’s right. We were talking about practice management and productivity. What tools do you use have been very helpful to you in your practice?

[00:17:12] Monique Castillo: Thank God for technology, right? We’re able to do this today, thank God for, and it’s just been accelerated during this pandemic. I’m a fan , even though I’m not the most astute

[00:17:22] Monique Castillo: I use Redtail for my client relationship management software. It was highly recommended by a producer who was receiving an industry reward. He had a very successful year. He shared how much that software helped him stay in touch with his clients. I love that idea and I’m still learning the many features that this tremendous engine has.

[00:17:41] Monique Castillo: I use Money Guide Pro Elite with my blocks and Yardley? as add-ons. Money Guide Pro is my financial planning software. It’s great for running all kinds of projections and testing strength of a plan. My Blocks they rolled that out during a pandemic it’s great for helping clients build their money management [00:18:00] skills and tackle debt in a healthy, efficient way.

[00:18:02] Monique Castillo: It has this neat little tool to help clients figuring out how to pay down student loans. It makes it much easier to comprehend than me, running some sort of spreadsheet and showing them, what makes most sense with interest rates which makes people go to sleep quickly.

[00:18:18] Monique Castillo: Yardley? is a much better practice management way for clients to link outside accounts and tie it all together as opposed to these apps that purport to do that. But it really keeps people in a bean counting mindset rather than see the big picture money mindset. It also helps the financial advisor to guide a client better as they can view the outside link that counts as.

[00:18:45] Antoinette Rodriguez: Thank you for sharing that. We’ll include those links and the show notes for people who are watching, want to know more about it.

[00:18:50] Antoinette Rodriguez: Monique, what kind of investments do you do to keep yourself on the top of your game?

[00:18:57] Monique Castillo: For starters, I have kept yoga and [00:19:00] meditation as a practice in my life that have dialed up or down and frequency as needed. Times of high activity, like back in my younger day when I was tracking with a heavy backpack or high stress, like fighting off passive aggressive behavior in the workplace which you have sometimes guided me as a coach, right?

[00:19:17] Monique Castillo: So, may mean I need to tap into doing it a few times a week rather than just once a week. Those are staples. When I was transitioning from being at a wire house to becoming an independent advisor, I hired two coaches. One was to help heal my mindset from having to fend all progressors in my workplace and astutely identify threats to one.

[00:19:40] Monique Castillo: So, I can refocus my attention on a positive growth. The whole reason why I was setting myself up as an independent advisor. I wanted to make sure that I was in the right mindset to be able to create my own brand from the ground up. You must be in a really good spot to tap in that creative part of our mind.

[00:19:58] Monique Castillo: If we’re stressed and distracted, [00:20:00] we don’t get ourself in that right zone. So that was instrumental that I could get myself in that positive frame of mind. And be excited about the growth opportunities. The other coach was to help me focus on what did I want to market about my new practice.

[00:20:13] Monique Castillo: had so much now freedom and how to get in front of the opportunities that I desired for my practice so that other coaches, , So that other coach is Antoinette.

[00:20:23] Antoinette Rodriguez: Hey, a plug for me. I love you, Monique! See? This is why we’re friends. Well, one of the reasons. Yeah.

[00:20:28] Monique Castillo: So you helped me on both sides of the divide. When I was both at the wire house. And when I went independent with independent broker dealer.

[00:20:34] Monique Castillo: A little mini story. I had a colleague that left the toxic work environment around the same time I did. I offered to introduce her to my coaches. She said she could not afford it. Now, as a single mother of three I could argue I could not afford it either. We were just looking at hard dollars, but I knew I needed to make this investment in myself to increase my chances of success. I had taken a big leap and I needed to make sure this was going to pan out. So several months [00:21:00] later, she called me from the hospital, frustrated that the doctors would not release her. Her condition was all due to unabated stress.

[00:21:10] Monique Castillo: She had moved from one toxic environment to another one. A good coach could have helped her identify her real threats and how to address them. I speak firsthand. Reaching out for qualified help or asking for a mentor does not show weakness in my book. It shows strength and judgment.

[00:21:27] Antoinette Rodriguez: When you talked about the investment, I remember early on in my life. Being, the first person to graduate from high school in my family. Investing in my education and putting myself in certain environments to have the appropriate mentors.

[00:21:41] Antoinette Rodriguez: People I could look up to. There is a certain amount of humility involved in that. For people of color, I know there’s sometimes a dearth of examples. So, thank you first for being one of those examples and one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on the show and also thank you not [00:22:00] for just being an example to me, but to our children and to the future generation, to see more people that look like us, but also not be exclusionary. And not dismiss other groups, right? To truly be inclusive, you must include everyone, as you mentioned, you have white male clients. And while you have a target market, because it is underrepresented, and you do have a unique ability to be able to talk certain people through specific money and motion life events.

[00:22:28] Antoinette Rodriguez: Because of your background, it is important to keep an open mind. And make sure that you are true to your business. The needs of your business to grow and to not exclude people for the same reason you wouldn’t want to be excluded. Thank you very much for being a fantastic role model , a great mother and a business person.

[00:22:46] Antoinette Rodriguez: And yes, I remember it well. The transition from the wirehouse to the independent with you. And more importantly, your humility. Your self-development has been fantastic to watch. Obviously, your children no longer in diapers and heading off to [00:23:00] their next phase of life.

[00:23:01] Antoinette Rodriguez: They’re fantastic.

[00:23:02] Antoinette Rodriguez: Right? I know. Pray for me as I get through the college process next year. We’ll see about the proof of concept, I guess in about a year. Or for maybe 20. I don’t know. Thank you very much, darling.

[00:23:15] Monique Castillo: Oh no. Thank you for having me. This has been a wonderful opportunity.

[00:23:19] Antoinette Rodriguez: How can we find out more about you and how to get a hold of you?

[00:23:24] Monique Castillo: One, I have a little gift for your audience that have tuned in for this. I’m going to give you a downloadable tip sheet. I call it Monique’s key numbers for 2022. I do one of these each year. On that sheet, it does have my website, which is higher ground FS standing for financial services, but I don’t make you spell it all way out. Highergroundfs.com

[00:23:43] Monique Castillo: My LinkedIn link is on that tip sheet as well. I have a number of original articles that you can access through my LinkedIn profile. You can get a sense of how I am as an advisor and how I communicate. My key number sheet lets you know at a glance how and where you can maximize tax [00:24:00] deductions for the current year so you can keep more of what you earn.

[00:24:03] Monique Castillo: It lets you proactively plan so you are not just waiting for the surprise number, by your accountant for the following year, and when it is too late to take advantage of the IRS approved. Hopefully everybody will find that

[00:24:15] Antoinette Rodriguez: useful.

[00:24:16] Antoinette Rodriguez: I’m sure they will. That download will be available in the show notes, the links, and your contact information.

[00:24:21] Antoinette Rodriguez: So thank you so much for that.

[00:24:22] Monique Castillo: You’re welcome.

[00:24:23] Antoinette Rodriguez: Thanks to all of you, our audience for staying till the end of the show and our engaging guest, Monique Castillo.

[00:24:31] Antoinette Rodriguez: Please do yourself and Brooklyn Girl a favor. Make sure you like and subscribe to our Wall Street Growth Hacks podcast. And if you’re interested in sponsoring podcast episodes or submitting an educational article that will help financial Advisors grow their practices, click on the link beneath this post or in the show notes.

[00:24:53] Antoinette Rodriguez: And since I’m a proud Latina sound of music fan so long, adieu, auf [00:25:00] wiedersehen, y adios!