Category Archives: Investing

Episode 14: You Need To Be 101% Committed, with Dr. Nichole Danova

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Dr. Nichole Danova attended Michigan State University where she completed her Doctoral Veterinary Medicine degree in 2000. She completed an internship with an emphasis in surgery at North Carolina State University. Dr. Danova then spent one year as a surgical research fellow in the Comparative Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, and remained to complete a three-year Small Animal Surgical Residency.

Dr. Danova was a staff surgeon in multi-specialty practices in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and the Philadelphia area before joining a referral hospital in Northeastern Pennsylvania as a surgeon, veterinary director and chief operating officer in July, 2008. In December 2009, Dr. Danova established the Veterinary Surgical Center. VSC quickly grew and was expanded into the Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center, which opened in South Abington Twp., Pennsylvania in May, 2010.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Nichole is very proud of her veterinary hospital
  • The story of how Nichole won her Porsche in a raffle (and named it Lola)
  • Why people will be there when you need them if you’re there when they need you
  • How Nichole learned as a kid that the world revolved around money and the decisions she’s made in her life because she learned that
  • Why Nichole decided to be 101% committed to becoming a surgeon
  • Why she chose to work with animals instead of humans and where the passion for surgery came from
  • Nichole’s experiences losing money on real estate and men
  • Why starting her own business was the best financial decision Nichole ever made
  • Why if you pick the right people and do good work — everything else will follow
  • How Nichole decided she needed and ultimately found the people she needed for the business side of her business
  • Situations that Nichole has run into when hiring
  • The influential women in Nichole’s life
  • Why Nichole absolutely sees retirement in her future — and what she thinks that will look like
  • What keeps Nichole busy outside the day-to-day of her hospital
  • What Nichole does to protect her future

Ways to contact Nichole:

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Episode 13: You Can’t Have It All At the Same Time, with Jennifer Maffei

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Jennifer Maffei is the Founder & President of VEA Services, LLC. Her mission is to help Executives to get their time back.

Jennifer comes from a unique perspective. She has both owned businesses, and had been an Executive Assistant at Fortune 500 Companies – overseeing and coaching multiple Assistants.

Over the years, Jennifer saw that there was a disconnect between the Executive and Assistant relationship. There were many seminars to go to, but no one was working with both the Executive and the Assistant to find out what their actual needs and styles were and then coaching both parties to work better together. Not in a generic form, but specific to their situation.

Jennifer has changed all that.

In 2014 she founded VEA Services to work with both the Executive and their Assistants. Coaching them to work better together and Maximize the Executive and Assistant Relationship. Also working with Executives who have never used an Assistant before and then helping them to identify their specific needs and coaching them on how to manage their new Assistant correctly.

In addition, Jennifer travels the country educating Executive peer groups on the need to reclaim their time back and how to work with an Assistant to maximize their effectiveness. Moving from Vancouver, Canada to the United States in 2004, Jennifer now resides with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Gaining three bonus months a year by delegating two hours of tasks a day
  • Why you shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re the best person to do everything
  • Why batching time is a fantastic strategy
  • Jennifer’s first jobs
  • How Jennifer did two years of college in nine months
  • Jennifer and her ex-husband’s decision to build their own house in their mid 20s, how they then flipped the house, and how they repeated the process over and over
  • The story of her move to the US
  • Why she decided to get back into the Executive Assistant business instead of going into real estate
  • Jennifer’s six years with Williams-Sonoma
  • How she tore — completely tore — her back and the three year recovery from that injury
  • How VEA Services was born
  • Why divorce was the most threatening thing to Jennifer’s financial security
  • Why Jennifer doesn’t want to scale too quickly yet sees a massive growth in the future
  • Why Jennifer and her husband (the love of her life — not the ex) were evicted from the home they were leasing and then bought a dream house when it was very cheap
  • Jennifer and her husband’s financial goals for the future
  • How she’s managed to maintain a healthy balance while learning at home
  • Why retirement isn’t really something Jennifer sees in her future
  • Why Jennifer’s first corporate boss was the most influential woman in her life

Ways to contact Jennifer:

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Episode 12: My Career is a Piece of Who I Am, with Dr. Marcie Beigel

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Dr. Marcie Beigel has redesigned behavior for professionals, families, schools, and businesses for close to 20 years. Her specialty is engaging with behaviors directly and giving clear and insightful directives to clients who are oftentimes business owners looking for balance at home to help create balance at work or new approaches to become better leaders. Her approach is heartfelt, but filled with tough love. You can get her weekly behavior newsletter at BehaviorAndBeyond.net. Dr. Marcie is also featured on NBCs Parenting Toolkit. Her upcoming book, “Love Your Classroom Again,” is filled with actionable strategies to manage behavior, is out this fall.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Dr. Marcie’s new book, “Love Your Classroom Again”
  • Craniosacral therapy and other things that she does for fun
  • Where Dr. Marcie’s desire to get into behavior analysis and special education came from
  • What she learned through her own challenges as a student
  • What Dr. Marcie does in her private practice where she comes into the homes of the families she serves
  • The four categories that all behavior problems fall into
  • How Dr. Marcie works with businesses on behavior
  • How she divvies up her time between families, schools, and businesses
  • Dr. Marcie’s life growing up and her first memory around money
  • The times when Dr. Marcie’s clientele vanished and how she battled through those tough times
  • The three most defining moments in her life
  • Why Dr. Marcie can’t see retirement in her future
  • Why she wants her financial future to be better than she could ever dream
  • Using what she knows from her career in her personal life
  • The relationship between Dr. Marcie and her mom
  • Why she delegates investing to her dad

Ways to contact Dr. Marcie:

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Episode 11: Contract Negotiation is a Chess Game, with Karen Davidson

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Karen Davidson is a health care attorney and the managing member of the Law Offices of Karen E. Davidson LLC. She’s been helping physicians strategically negotiate their business arrangements for over 25 years. She’s a graduate of Temple University James Beasley School of Law and licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and Maine. She represents physicians in virtually all medical specialties and helps them analyze and negotiate all manner of arrangements including employment agreements.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Karen is licensed in Maine in addition to Pennsylvania and DC
  • Why she got into the healthcare side of law
  • Issues many women have when negotiating
  • Some of the unique requests Karen has had to negotiate for her clients
  • Why she doesn’t recommend negotiating for everything someone wants in their contract
  • The differences in contract negotiation for healthcare people in major systems vs. smaller practices
  • How Karen’s clients find her
  • The complex formulas for compensation and why women shouldn’t just accept what they’re told
  • A client of Karen’s that was given a deal, decided not to take it, and why she’s happy that she made that decision
  • Why Karen’s work requires her to be respectful and courteous

Ways to contact Karen:

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Episode 10: Money is Woven Into Everything, with Anne Deeter Gallaher

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Anne Deeter Gallaher is Owner/CEO of Deeter Gallaher Group LLC, a marketing, public relations, and digital media firm with offices in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee.

Driven by measurable performance, Anne and her team create award-winning results for clients in financial services, food and retail, engineering, banking, commercial real estate development, construction, healthcare, and music entertainment.

Serving on The Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital Region advisory board and the Harrisburg Regional Chamber/CREDC board, Anne is also a member of Urban Land Institute, the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, and The Wall Street Journals Women in the Economy Task Force. She is also the founder of Harrisburg Social Media Club.

Anne is the co-author with Amy D. Howell of Students in High Gear: A Guide for Students and Aspiring Game Changers in Transition from College to Career (2015) and Women in High Gear: A Guide for Entrepreneurs, On-Rampers, and Aspiring Executives (2013). Published in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, PA Banker, Pennlive, Pennsylvania Business Central, Central Penn Business Journal, Strategy + Business, The Patriot-News, Ragan Communications, and a contributor to several blogs, Anne holds bachelor degrees in English and Communications/Journalism.

Honored as one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business, she is a frequent speaker and writer on entrepreneurship, executive positioning, women in business, social media, and PR.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What the Deeter Gallaher group does differently from other PR firms
  • Why Nashville is a great place for entrepreneurs right now
  • Anne’s two books and why she wrote them
  • What women entrepreneurs need that their male counterparts might already have
  • The critical decisions high school and college students have to make when jumping to the next level
  • The lessons about money Anne learned as a kid
  • Overcoming great financial anxiety
  • Why Anne doesn’t see retirement in her future
  • Why you should wait 24 hours before buying something

Ways to contact Anne:

Resources:

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Episode 9: Don’t Swim in the Sea of Sameness, with Lori Jones

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Lori Jones has recently started her own podcast series: Integrate and Ignite. Integrate & Ignite is a twice-weekly podcast for entrepreneurs, fast growth, movers and shakers, marketing gurus, and anyone who is motivated to grow their business and their brand.

As a marketing integration guru, Lori has knowledge and experience in all aspects of branding, marketing, advertising, PR, and digital and social programs. Where Lori truly shines, however, is her ability to bring each of those areas together. She participates in strategy development and big picture program planning with her team at Avocet Communications to bring a real-world vision that increases customer count for some of the nation’s leading brands. She is a co-author of Secrets of Ad-Agency Owners: Our Best Marketing Advice and Secrets of Ad-Agency Owners: The Biggest Mistake I’ve Ever Seen. Lori publishes the Integrate & Ignite blog and podcast, both of which focus on integrating marketing, leadership, and entrepreneurialism. She is a member of the Forbes Agency Council and serves on the board of several nonprofits.

Lori became president of Avocet Communications at age 32. She was in charge of strategic planning and new business development achieving steady growth thru 2012. Once she was able to have all of her children in school, and spend a little more time at work, explosive growth was seen throughout the agency. Under Lori’s strategic leadership, Avocet was given 2014 and 2015 Northern Colorado Fastest Growing Business accolades, as well as making her mark on Colorado’s Top 50 women owned business. The agency’s program consistently creates double-digit customer count growth for its clients.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • The “sea of sameness” that plagues businesses
  • Lori’s background and how her career led to her owning an agency
  • What Avocet Communications does differently to increase customer counts for their clients
  • The changes Lori’s seen since she joined her industry
  • Inbound vs outbound marketing: what you need to know
  • What changed in Lori’s senior year of college that led her to pursue marketing instead of her planned career of broadcasting
  • Lori’s Integrate and Ignite podcast
  • The lessons Lori learned the first time she had to worry about money after her dad’s security was no longer there
  • What Lori learned after maxing out her first credit card
  • The best and worst financial decisions Lori ever made
  • Why Lori doesn’t lend anyone money anymore
  • The wonderful story of how she met and fell in love with her husband
  • The extracurriculars that Lori is involved in with her children and what her family always does over the summer
  • What Lori teaches her kids about money

Ways to contact Lori:

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Episode 8: Treat Work as Your Distraction From Your Life, with Brenda Esopi

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Brenda J. Esopi has diverse experience in healthcare management for over 20 years. Initially, she obtained a diploma in nursing from Robert Packer Hospital School of Nursing which served as the stepping stone to further her education where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Syracuse University. Further, Brenda went on to successfully obtain an M.B.A. from Saint Joseph’s University, which solidified her educational track and assisted her in a highly successful managerial career path.

Brenda served as the Executive Director of Cardiovascular Alliance of the Delaware Valley, Executive Director of Mainline Arrhythmia and Cardiology Consultants, Executive Director and Vice President of Main Line Health Heart Center and currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Urology Health Specialists since 2007. Over the years, Brenda has made strategic decisions that have increased revenue, developed infrastructure and grown practices all while maintaining the leadership required to sustain focus and dedication.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Brenda got an M.B.A. in Finance instead of Healthcare
  • How health care has morphed into a business over time
  • Why Brenda got into nursing in the first place
  • Why Brenda decided to get a Bachelor’s degree when she did
  • The lessons of money that Brenda learned from her mother at a young age
  • Brenda’s long-term career as a babysitter before her real career
  • The uncertainty of the healthcare market, the vulnerability of her job, and what Brenda is doing about it
  • The best and worst investments Brenda has made
  • How Brenda manages distractions by changing what she sees as her distractions
  • How Brenda juggles everything in her life
  • What Brenda does for fun
  • The accountant that was a huge mentor in Brenda’s life
  • What Brenda would tell a young woman today
  • What Brenda sees herself doing in retirement

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Episode 7: Be Careful of the Stories You Tell Yourself, with Stacey Alcorn

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Stacey Alcorn is an entrepreneur, author, business owner, attorney, blogger, and mom. Stacey’s keynotes, blogs, and radio show continue to offer a compelling message about defining and achieving your dreams.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Stacey’s entrepreneurial journey coming from nothing, amassing wealth, losing it all, and what she’s done differently since then
  • How Stacey has gotten past the naysayers in her family
  • Stacey’s story of getting into real estate by flipping 20 properties while in college
  • Stacey’s book “Reach” and helping an audience who feels helplessness
  • How Stacey created an army of people who have helped her achieve her dreams
  • Lessons that Stacey has learned from being a mom
  • Stacey’s other business, Little Black Box, a subscription business for jewelry and accessories
  • Why Stacey signed up for law school on her 30th birthday and why achieving that bucket list goal made her rethink her entire list
  • Stacey’s life-changing experience volunteering in an orphanage in Haiti and why she wants to spend time making the world a better place
  • Stacey’s regimented schedule and what she needs to accomplish to win the day
  • Stacey’s system for saving money that she doesn’t touch
  • The vision board that Stacey uses

Ways to contact Stacey:

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Episode 6: You Learn Something From Every Experience, with Lee Caraher

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Lee Caraher is a CEO and acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte in 2002 to work with good people, doing great work for good companies. Her clients span well-loved Bay Area brands including Clif Bar and CamelBak, hot Silicon Valley start-ups, financial service companies and wine and spirits companies. This is not her first rodeo, and she’s learned a lot along the way that she shares freely with others in the hopes that everyone can reduce the drama in the workplace. Now her friends and colleagues call her “The Millennial Whisperer.”

After struggling with how to work well with Millennial clients and now staffers (more than half of Lee’s staff is under 35) and then working to figure out how to make that work, Lee has written a positive and practical book about the topic, “Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work.”

Lee has a reputation for building cohesive, high producing teams who get a lot done well and have fun at the same time. She is a straight talker who doesn’t hold too many punches, although she does her best to be pleasant about it. Her big laugh and sense of humor have gotten her out of a lot of trouble.

She started her career in communications in Boston and then moved to California to work with well-known PR firm The Bohle Group and then Manning, Selvage & Lee. She moved to the Bay Area in 1995 to serve as the Vice President of Corporate and Consumer Communications at the $1.6 Billion SEGA of America. She then served as Executive Vice President of The Weber Group and Founder and President of Red Whistle Communications, both Interpublic companies. Lee is active in the community and currently serves on the Board of KQED Public Media, Grace Cathedrals Board of Trustees, and on the Board of Trustees of Menlo College, Atherton. Previously Lee served on the Board of Directors of The Marine Mammal Center, was the Chair of the Board for Community Gatepath, San Mateo County’s largest organization serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities, and was the founding Chair of the Board for the St. Paul’s Choir School. She consults with other non-profits on effective board organization and Practices.

A graduate of Carleton College, with a degree in Medieval History, which she finds useful every day, Lee lives on the Peninsula with her husband, two sons, and their blind cat Al.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Lee’s Medieval History degree and how she transitioned from that into a career in PR
  • How Lee launched her company out of her garage
  • The way the kind of business Lee has taken on has changed from the beginning of her business to now
  • Why clients can’t ever hear you say no
  • Working with Millennials
  • Lessons Lee learned about money at different stages of her childhood
  • How Lee changed her life after having a special needs son
  • Why Lee plans to leave her business but never stop working
  • What Lee speaks about when speaking publicly
  • Why Lee has no regrets in her career

Ways to contact Lee:

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Episode 5: Juggling Motherhood and Entrepreneurship, with Dr. Katherine Collier

Financial Education, Investing, Women of Influence

Dr. Katherine Collier is the owner and founder of Spectrum Dental and Quest Dental. One of the benefits of her career has been that it has enabled her to give back to her community as much as she has been able to. Earlier in her career, Katherine did medical mission trips to Central America and since then she has set up scholarships at 2 colleges. She has also started programs to deal with issues, outside of dentistry like a fatherhood program and a leadership program for boys. It is very important to her to feel like she has contributed to society. She is most proud of her daughters. She raised them by herself which was the biggest challenge of her life, by far. They have turned out to be amazing, caring, accomplished, strong women.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Katherine is most proud of her daughters
  • How Katherine found what she needed to become a dentist
  • The challenges Katherine found in the early days of running her business and the strategies and resources she used to overcome them
  • Juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship
  • Learning at a young age that money is freedom and how Katherine taught that to her daughters
  • Financial lessons that Katherine learned from her father at an early age
  • The defining moments of Katherine’s life
  • How Katherine was prepared financially when her husband died suddenly
  • What retirement will look like for Katherine
  • The scholarships Katherine has set up

Ways to contact Katherine:

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