I believe each of us is on a unique journey, and we usually don’t realize what we are destined to do with our lives until we have stumbled and fallen, often numerous times, along the path to our true calling.

My professional life to this point has been a journey along a rather circuitous road, with stops in a number of careers - some more fulfilling and successful than others. Perhaps the greatest benefit of enduring the thrills and spills along the way is the wisdom I have attained as a consequence of these “life lessons.” Certainly the most valuable and generous thing I can do with that wisdom is pass it along to others.

While attending a charitable event in Los Angeles, I met a woman who owned a women’s clothing company that produced custom-fit upscale knitwear. The clothing business was completely foreign to me, and I loved the idea of taking on the challenge of learning a new industry. When she offered me a job as Vice President of National Sales, I gladly accepted. The company’s business model was unique; it was owned by a woman, an all-female staff manufactured the garments, and all the members of the national sales team were women. Since the clothing was also designed only for women, the entire client base was also female. It was during my time in this environment that I began to understand the unique intricacies of how women communicate, grow, and interact with other women. It was a truly intimate, eye-opening experience for me.

I witnessed many women spending money they didn’t have, on things they really didn’t need, and began to recognize the value of my past business experiences. I was now armed with the knowledge and skills that would allow me to fulfill my true professional purpose - preventing women from falling over the financial edge. As it turned out, it was not just the customers who needed my help. The company’s finances had been sorely mismanaged, and the owner was in serious trouble; unfortunately, it was too late for me to catch her before she went over the cliff. After 27 years the company declared bankruptcy, which proved financially and personally devastating to hundreds of loyal employees.

I have always possessed a remarkable ability to connect with people, and my husband, who had built a successful career for himself in real estate, suggested I might do well as a mortgage broker - a position in which the relationship with clients is rooted in trust. I began on the foreclosure side, and once again, was amazed at the ways in which so many women had mismanaged their finances. The trusting relationships I developed with these women also afforded me much deeper insight into the intimate details of their lives, and I learned that many of them were coming out of abusive relationships. They were burdened with house payments they couldn’t afford, and had children to feed, but were not receiving any financial support from their estranged husbands. The stories and the struggles of my clients inspired me to develop the concept for a business, Home Loans For Women. The company strived to help those women keep their homes and repair their finances, and 5% of the net profit went to support organizations that helped victims of domestic abuse.

From that understanding to what was really going on with women and their finances, I started THE FINANCIAL WHISPERER concept with the mission to help women separate their emotions from money.

In the workshops I now lead in Los Angeles, I teach women how to become financially literate, and encourage them to recognize and understand how and why they confuse love and money, and why they have such difficulty demanding what they deserve. They receive tools that are life changing.

I have spent an enormous amount of time communicating with thousands of women during the past four years, and my experience has shown me that all women possess an inherent drive and desire to nurture, help and protect one another. It is only when each of us acknowledges and embraces this commonality and support other women as a community, that we are able to live as our true, authentic self and enjoy our best possible life.