Podcast specialist, Shannon, joins this episode to interview your podcast hosts to get to know them in a fun and personal way.

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Read the Full Transcription:

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Intro: Welcome to The Financial Call. We are financial advisors on a mission to guide you through the financial planning everyone should have. Whether you're doing it yourself or working with a financial advisor, these episodes will help you break down complicated financial topics to practical, actionable steps. Our mission is to guide motivated people to become financially successful. 

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Zacc: This is Zacc Call. We're excited to be here today. Welcome to The Financial Call. This is different for all of us, today we have Shannon with us. Shannon is one of our Capita team members. Come to find out, Shannon is famous. And Shannon is famous on TikTok. And I feel like the main - is it the main video that came out that first got hundreds of thousands of views, was the one where you described what you would talk about if ever kidnapped? And what was the title of that? 

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Shannon: It was “If you were kidnapped, they would release you because you wouldn't stop talking about what?” 

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Zacc: And what was it?

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Shannon: Mine was Disneyland strategy. 

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Zacc: The best part is - so my family and I, we've been to Disneyland two or three or four times I can't remember. And by the third or fourth time, we figured out quite a few of the things that you mentioned, but the first couple, no. And it was funny to hear you talk about it. For those of you to get a mental image here, she's like handcuffed herself and she's videoed and it's hilarious. But anyway, you just explained it so well. And I remember nodding my head like, “She's right she's right. That's how you do Disneyland.”

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Shannon: I have a system. I have it down. If you have questions, give me a call. 

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Zacc: So this is Shannon. And then most of you either know Laura already, or you will get to know Laura, especially through this episode. So today we've already given you an intro into The Guided Path. Laura and I are co-hosts and I really brought Laura into The Financial Call as a co-host to help deliver this Guided Path. Laura is a practicing wealth advisor with Capita. She delivers The Guided Path to clients daily in personalized wealth and financial planning.  So today what we thought would be fun is to get Shannon - this is Shannon's first time on mic I think. Is this the first time ever on a podcast? 

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Shannon: No, actually I've been on another podcast. Disney questionnaire.

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Zacc:That's awesome. You'll have to send that to us so we can listen to that.

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Shannon: So it's a take two though. Second time. 

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Zacc: And now you're in charge. So Shannon will be interviewing Laura today. And I will do my best to not talk too much. But I'm excited to learn what I don't know about Laura. The goal here is we want you to know who you'll be on this journey with through The Guided Path. Laura and I will do this and then we'll flip the roles and Shannon and I will do an interview next time. Let's get after it. Shannon this is your show today. Take it away. 

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Shannon: Here we go.

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Laura: Can I just say, I'm way more nervous for this episode than any of our other financial topic episodes. 

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Zacc: That’s why we made you go first. 

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Laura: Oh no!

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Zacc: I didn’t want to do it!

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Laura: I said, “Zacc do you want to be interviewed first?” And he said, “Yeah, you got it. You start it out.” 

Awesome… 

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Shannon: We're going to get real personal, get comfortable.

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Laura: Okay. 

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Shannon: So Laura I want to know, how did you first come to Capita? How did you get here? 

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Shannon: My story is very unique. A lot of people go through a personal finance program. They've worked in the industry for years, and then they come over, become a wealth advisor. 

I actually started, I always say I started at Capita at the very bottom. I was stuffing Christmas cards we send out to our clients. That's how I started. And me and my friend, we were in college just stuffing some Christmas cards and that was it. And then a few months later, one of the managers here texted me and said, “Hey we need a temporary receptionist. Would you be interested?” And it was the day that my summer class for school had ended and so I needed a job, so it was perfect. And I said, “Yeah, great. I'll come work as the receptionist.” So I started working here. I was starting school in the Fall and they asked if I could work part-time. And I was the first part-time employee at Capita. They said, “Yeah, I think we can make that work.” So I started working part-time here as I was going to school. And I started learning the different operations of Capita. I moved from receptionist to our onboarding team. Helping open up the accounts, moving money over. And then I worked on client services team, helping clients with withdrawals or service needs that they had. And then I started learning the advisor path. I really found it interesting. 

I had always loved math and numbers, but I had no background in finance. But I really liked working with people. And I liked the value that you could add to people to help them be able to retire and get that fear and stress out of finance. I started learning more of the advisory roles, got my licenses, started working with clients one-on-one and I really liked it. So I just continued down that path. And then here I am working as a wealth advisor. Never pictured myself here. If you go back and look at my elementary school questions of what you want to be when you grow up, I don't think I ever once put a wealth advisor down there. But I love it. I love being able to work with people, working with numbers and figuring out plans for people. So that they can have success in retirement. 

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Zacc: I feel a little bit guilty because during that process, she was going to nursing school and she would have been a fantastic nurse. I think she's a better wealth advisor. But so the guilt only lasts for just a moment. It's just a fleeting moment. But there were a couple of conversations when she was in those operational roles where I talked with her manager and said, “We need to talk to Laura about the advisor path, because she would do a fantastic job at it.” And then she figured out how to get there.  You can lead the horse to water, but you can't make them drink is what they say, but she figured it all out after that. But anyway again, just I feel a little bit of guilt, but it only lasts for a moment.

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Laura: No I'm grateful for it. And I did love nursing while I was doing my clinicals. A lot of times it's hard, especially during the pandemic and Covid. Nurses work super hard. It's a hard industry to be in. And I remember a lot of nurses were going through a hard time and at the same time I was working at Capita thinking, “I really like my job. I really like going to work every day.” And so that was part of the reason too. I liked working at Capita. I liked the people here. And I think one thing about nursing that I really liked was being able to help people. And I was nervous about giving that up. But I realized in finance the relief that you can give people, telling them “You're going to be okay. You can retire and you can have that freedom.” That financial freedom that they wanted, that satisfaction to me, that was that personal help that we are giving to people. 

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Shannon: So with that life change of going from starting in nursing and ending up in finance - if you could go back to like your eighteen year old self and give a piece of advice, what would you tell yourself? 

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Laura: Oh, that's a good question. I would say, just be open to any experience or opportunities that you may have. Don't be set on one thing. I think I had my plan, my goal set on nursing. And so it took me some time to open my mind to other possibilities. So I'd probably go back to my eighteen year old self and just say, “Keep an open mind about all opportunities that you have.” Luckily I still ended up here. I wasn't too stubborn. Didn't have my blinders on too much. But I think it took longer than it needed to. 

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Zacc: How old were you when you started with us? 

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Laura: Let's see, twenty-one. 

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Zacc: Okay. I actually thought for a minute there Shannon, “I think she was eighteen when she started.”

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Shannon: Well, there you go. Tell yourself to keep on going cause you're doing great. 

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Laura: Oh thank you. 

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Shannon: Well because I am a big travel buff, I love traveling, what was your favorite trip you've ever taken or where’s somewhere you would love to go to? 

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Laura: Oh yeah I like this question. I have a couple of well, there are two trips in particular that stand out to me. One of them was a road trip to Banff. My family, we rented an RV. You can do that, it's like Airbnbs for RVs. So we rented an RV. We drove up through Yellowstone. We ended up going all the way up to Banff in Canada. And beautiful. I loved it there. The lakes are incredible. They have some pretty hikes. We went up to Banff and then we came down through Glacier. Went up, going to the Sun Road and came back down back to Utah. And it was awesome. We had tons of issues along the way. We had lots of issues with our RV. Things breaking down, beds breaking. Could have been a very stressful vacation, but ended up being really fun actually. It was a lot of hours on the road, a lot of family togetherness, but it was one of my favorite trips. I would highly recommend it to anybody. So that was one that stuck out. 

We recently went to Costa Rica, which is…that's my ideal place. I love the heat, I love summer, I love water. So I would definitely recommend going there. Beautiful beaches, beautiful water, fun culture as well. 

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Shannon: With your Banff road trip - I just think sometimes the vacations that have the most issues are the ones that turn out to be the best memories. 

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Laura: True, one hundred percent. 

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Shannon: Do you have a, “This is my number one place I would love to travel to?”

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Laura: Oh, I would love to go to Europe. Never been. I feel like I would need to take a month to visit everywhere there so I wouldn't feel like I'm missing out. But I would love to go to Europe.

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Shannon: It's a fun place. 

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Laura: Yeah? You can be my travel guide. Disney and Europe, right? 

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Shannon: I have been to Disneyland Paris, it's great. It’s fantastic. 

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Laura: Oh my gosh.

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Zacc: I didn't know there was one in Disneyland or sorry in Paris. 

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Shannon: Yeah, there's a Disneyland Paris, there's one in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. My goal is to try and hit them all. 

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Zacc: Nice.

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Laura: That's great. That's awesome. 

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Shannon: We’ll see if we get there. 

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Zacc: I was looking over these questions. Laura found a bunch of questions here, some of these are hard. I’ve got to know, I want to know Laura what does your morning routine look like? That's what one of these questions is.

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Laura: Pressing snooze like ten times, which my husband hates. He's a light sleeper and I'm a good sleeper, so I can press snooze and in the eight minutes that it gives you in between the time I will be back out in a minute. And then my alarm will wake me up again. Like I take advantage of that full eight minute snooze. So I'll hit it multiple times and my husband over there, he's awake the whole time. So he'll just tell me finally, “Get up! It's time to get up.” So there's some snooze involved. I'll get up, get ready for the day. I feel like I'm not that person that has the big routine - like get up, walk the dog, go exercise. Sometimes. I tried to exercise in the mornings, but then when I would get home at night I was exhausted. So I feel like I tend to work out at night instead. So get up, get ready, grab a bite to eat as I'm headed out the door and usually eat it in the car. Not very exciting.

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Shannon: Well you mentioned your husband. So what's your husband's name and how did you guys meet? 

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Laura: My husband's name is Ty. We met in high school in our adult roles class. 

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Zacc: Holy cow. 

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Shannon: Adult roles class?

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Laura: Yeah, adult roles. It's not required but it was one of the most helpful classes that I took in high school. We joke all the time that they should have more finance classes. So that's what this class was, it was all about balancing a checkbook, which nobody does these days. But figuring out what insurance you need, how to buy a car, how to buy a house, how to manage relationships. It was super helpful. And it was kind of ironic because my husband, well, my friend at the time - we had started to get to know each other. But they paired people up in the class randomly to get married and plan a life together. And so my husband and I randomly got selected to be together and do an assignment.

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Zacc: No!

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Laura: Yeah. The odds of that are crazy. 

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Shannon: It was fate.

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Laura: I know. So I looked through, I found the assignment the other day. We got a good score. We planned our whole life together and so it worked out. So kind of fun. We dated in high school, he went on a mission. I went to college and then I went on a mission. We kind of wrote to each other.

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Zacc: Just so, because some of our listeners might not be local here - mission is a religious mission, two years approximately. But at that time girls went later, is that right? 

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Laura: No, I was young. I went at 19.

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Zacc: Oh, that change happened a long time ago? 

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Laura: Yeah, it was a while ago. So my husband lived in Mexico for two years. I lived in El Salvador and Balise. It'd been like three years between us seeing each other. We kind of wrote emails, but didn't talk a ton.

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Zacc: Did you guys commit to each other? Were you going to try to stick around for each other? 

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Laura: Yeah no, not at all. I was like, okay, you go on your mission, I'm going to go to college and date people and then when you get home, you date people. And then we'll go on a date when we get home. We'll see how it goes. That's all it was. 

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Zacc: When you guys got back was it weird? 

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Laura: Yeah, I was super awkward. 

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Zacc: Oh, because you were awkward. I thought you were going to say because he was awkward. 

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Laura: No, he had been home for a while and then I got home. 

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Zacc: Oh and then he had gotten acclimated. 

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Laura: Yeah, I was not acclimated. I was the super awkward person. Just like our first date - I was like, “This is weird, we're listening to music in a car, we're alone. And like, this is wrong.” I was super awkward. We ended up dating for a year and then got married a year later. So it worked out. 

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Shannon: Aw cute. Alright financial expert, if you won $10 million tomorrow, how would you spend it? 

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Laura: That's a great question. I would try and buy a house. If you can afford one for $10 million in Utah these days.

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Zacc: So Laura and her husband are building a house right now. And if this just tells you anything about Laura and her husband, they're doing it themselves. I just have to give a couple examples because I feel like Laura won't tell about herself. But we were on a company trip in California and Laura and Ty are just so adventurous. And we all look up, and the both of them are like - they haven't surfed before ever, and they're both making it in like standing up on the boards, doing fine. 

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Laura: They were the smallest of waves. Thanks for making us look good, Zacc. 

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Zacc: All I know is that I've tried with an instructor and not been able to perform as well as you two did without an instructor. They just rented a couple boards randomly and went for it. And so I feel like they just have this attitude of, “Ah we’ll just figure it out.” And so that's how it's working out. 

I asked Laura I think yesterday, “How's the house coming?” And you guys said something like, “Well we cleaned this out. We took care of this.” And she was talking like a general contractor would. Whereas when I built a house I was like, “I don't know, Ben and so-and-so that are working on my house are not doing the things they're supposed to or whatever.” Right? 

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Shannon: Super impressive. 

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Zacc: Actually, my builders did a great job. I shouldn't throw them under the bus like that. 

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Laura: Thanks Zacc. We're building which we're excited about. It's expensive these days so we're trying to figure out as much as we can. I always say you can figure it out on YouTube. If you don't know how to do something, just look it up on YouTube. 

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Zacc: Which is how you passed the Series 65 exam? 

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Laura: Yes.

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Zacc: So this is an exam you have to take in order to be licensed as an investment advisor representative in our industry. And this just tells you something about the next generation of advisors and people coming through. We hand them a book, a two hundred page textbook and Laura says, “Yeah I passed that test. That wasn't too bad. I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos.”

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Laura: Well I had a problem. I have a really long commute to work and I realized I don't have time to read it. I mean, I can't read while I'm driving. So I turned on some YouTube videos and

listened to them. I tried to look up the textbook to see if there's an audio book, but you had to pay for it. So I was like, “Well YouTube is free. Let's see what we can find on there.” And it helped. It was the most helpful in my studying for that test. 

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Shannon: That is awesome. Well done. 

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Laura: You can find it on YouTube. 

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Shannon: You can find anything on YouTube. 

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Zacc: Except for us. No, I'm just joking. But well no, these will be up on YouTube. I'm just joking. It's just not very great. How's that? We stopped recording video because we don't feel comfortable on camera bottom line.

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Shannon: Laura, what's your biggest pet peeve? 

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Laura: Oh, my biggest pet peeve. So I was thinking about this and I realized it might make some people look bad. But I wouldn't say I'm a clean freak, but I hate when I clean up a room and then there's one cup left out or one blanket thrown on the floor. Just one thing. Let's either have it be a mess or let's have it be clean. Let's not have it be cleaned with one cup put out. I think that's one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me crazy. 

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Shannon: If you have one cup after Laura's cleaned up the room…

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Laura: You better put it away!

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Shannon: Or make a mess. Just don't put down one cup, put down a whole dishwasher’s worth of dishes. 

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Laura: It's better because…then you just have dishes, not just the one cup. 

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Zacc: How does Ty fit into that? Does he feel the same way or is this a marriage battle? I want to know the details Laura. 

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Laura: Ty's clean. Ty picks up after himself, but…

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Zacc: You can tell she's at the stage of marriage where she still feels like she can't be honest about her husband, right? So we have to really work to get this information out. 

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Laura: No he's not sloppy, he's clean. But he will leave the one cup out after I clean. Drives me crazy. So Ty, if you're listening, put away your cup. 

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Shannon: Pick up the one cup.

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Zacc: You think he will listen? 

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Laura: I don't know, actually. I’m not sure. 

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Shannon: What are some of the most influential people in your life and how have they impacted you?

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Laura: Oh, this is a great question. Some of the most influential people…I have to say my mom. I know that's kind of the typical answer. Ty always teases me that I idolize my mom but I do. I just think she's one of the most humble, selfless people that I know. So she's been very influential. Just living her life in a way that I think she wanted me to learn rather than just telling me what to do all of my childhood she actually lived those principles. That's someone that's been very influential. There are so many people, it's hard to choose some. 

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Zacc: Real quick though. I feel like you and your mom are pretty similar. Do you think that's true? 

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Laura: I would say so. 

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Zacc: I knew your mom before I knew you. And I just, I mean, you two seem like not the same person because you each are different a little bit. But you both are hardworking people, smart people, driven people. Not super I would assume like, not huge risk takers.

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Laura: That's true. She actually went back to nursing school when I was in high school. She hadn't gone to school for years and then she goes back in her forties and she does great. She did amazing and just excelled at it. So I've always admired that about her. She is very selfless and very hardworking. 

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Zacc: And your dad's pretty different. He's a risk taker to a certain degree right?

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Laura: Yeah more so in some ways he's very conservative as well. My dad's the do it yourself-er. I think that's where I got it a little bit from. He's always fixing his own cars. Or my dad's built a couple of homes so he's been helping us with this project. So both my parents together I mean, they've had a big influence in my life. 

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Shannon: What did your parents think of your career change from nursing to finance?

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Laura: They were actually excited about it. My mom works as a nurse, and so she sees the hard side of nursing as well. There was one day I got to go for my clinicals, I got to go into work with her. And that was awesome, that was really fun. But they're happy for me. They're clients here so they see a little bit more of what we do than I think the average person. So they see how helpful it can be to people. So for me they've always been very supportive. 

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Shannon: Well Laura it has been great getting to know you. Thanks for answering my questions. But I want to end with one thing: how do you and Capita differ from our competitors?

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Laura: Oh yeah this is a great question. We've talked a lot about this recently. I think something that's unique and special to Capita is the detail that we will go into to help a client.  We really take each step by step and hold people's hand and walk them through every step of it. We're really familiar with a lot of the employers in the state. And so we know their benefits, we know their pension very well. So we'll really…we'll file their pension for them. We'll help them file for Social Security for them. We'll tell them, “Okay, this is exactly how much money you have to spend in retirement.” We focus on their goals. So I feel like we are very client oriented. We're very personalized with our clients and we'll help them every step of the way which I think is something that's unique as opposed to other advisory firms. They'll do the basics of tax planning, investment planning but they won't go that extra step, that extra mile to really make it easy for people. Me being in my shoes, I've seen the other side and what it's like outside of the finance world. I know what it's like to not be as financially literate. And so I can see how overwhelming that is. So it's helpful. Like I can see the benefit of being able to walk people through each step and make it easy for them. 

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Shannon: Thanks, Laura.

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Laura: Yeah thank you Shannon.

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Zacc: So here we go. Laura will be along the ride for the entire Guided Path. Laura and I will interview some of our other experts here at Capita as well. And then sometimes it will just be Laura and me, and we'll dive deeper into topics that way. But we're really excited to have you. As you guys can tell, Laura knows what she's talking about. Super clear communicator. I think you're going to learn a lot from her perspective as we work through the Guided Path on this podcast. Thanks for joining today. 

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Laura: Thank you. 

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Disclosure: This podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for personal advice from Capita. This is not a recommendation, offer, or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Past performance is not indicative of future results. There can be no assurance that investment objectives will be achieved. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, including the loss of money invested. Therefore it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, including the investments or investment strategies recommended or proposed by Capita will be profitable. Further, Capita does provide legal or tax advice. Please consult with your legal or tax professional for advice prior to implementing any strategies discussed during this podcast. Certain information discussed during this podcast is based upon forward-looking statements, information and opinions, including descriptions of anticipated market changes and expectations of future activity. Capita believes that such statements, information and opinions are based upon reasonable estimates and assumptions. However forward-looking statements, information and opinion are inherently uncertain and actual events or results may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statement information and opinions. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training.

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