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ALEX ROCA: Hello, and thank you for joining a very special Women Talk Money. My name is Alex Roca, and I'm going to be your host for today. We are thrilled to welcome you to the kickoff of our annual Women's History Month series. This is just the first of three special events we will be hosting throughout the month celebrating our shared stories with real talk about what's top of mind for you all today, from navigating change and planning for the future, to understanding health care costs, and how to keep growing in our careers while making sure that our money keeps growing for us and our goals. We look forward to seeing you all month long. Today's conversation is about navigating life's pivots, reinventing yourself, and seizing opportunities. We know that so many of you with us here today are juggling so much. We also have so many priorities at work, at home, as caregivers, even as part of our communities. We also know that all those things get a little bit easier when we have the right financial plan in place. I have three fabulous women with me today to share their experiences and the best tips to help set ourselves up for success. with me today to share their experiences and their best tips are three incredible women. First, my Fidelity colleague, Sangeeta Moorjani, is a seasoned executive at Fidelity, with a deep passion for helping women achieve financial wellness, and Gina Gillespie, Vice President and financial consultant in the Boston area. She's fantastic. Both are joining us from the Boston area. And I'm thrilled to welcome a special guest, Bobbi Brown. She needs no introduction, but I'm going to do my best to do her justice. She's a beauty industry icon, a world-renowned makeup artist, entrepreneur extraordinaire, bestselling author, and so much more. Bobbi's is a story of innovation, resilience, and even, at times, reinvention. She founded, grew, and sold one of the most globally recognized brands. And then, fast forward to 2020, Bobbi stepped back into the spotlight as the founder for Jones Road Beauty, a collection of clean beauty products for all ages, skin types, and skin tones. Along the way, she launched numerous businesses and creative endeavors. She's been a mentor and an inspiration to so many. As if that wasn't enough, on top of all of that, she's authored nine books and counting. In fact, her 10th, a memoir titled, Still Bobbi, is on this way this fall. Congratulations, Bobbi, and thank you all for joining us.
GINA GILLESPIE: Thanks, Alex.
ALEX ROCA: Absolutely, absolutely. And in fact, we're going to jump right into it because we have so much to talk about. So Bobbi, I'm actually going to start with you. We're here to talk about how to set ourselves up for success, especially with new opportunities. And you're no stranger to reinvention. You have founded not just one, but multiple successful businesses. After having accomplished so much, what inspired you to launch Jones Road?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, I certainly didn't set out to create another beauty brand. When I left my first brand, I did a few other things, and then I honestly just missed the industry. I missed being able to talk to women. I missed making women beautiful and I really had an idea to do things differently. So at 59.9 years old, I left Bobbi Brown Cosmetics without knowing what I was going to do. And when my very long non-compete was up, I launched Jones Road. I believe I was 62 years old, and that was 5 years ago. So since you guys are all very good at math, you know that I'm still 67 until my birthday next month.
ALEX ROCA: We're going to hold on to that. Absolutely. Sangeeta, why does this topic resonate with you?
SANGEETA MOORJANI: This is such an important topic. And one of the things I remind myself is that women, for women, we have age on our side, right? And women live longer, which means we have more opportunities to reinvent ourselves. And so it's so important that we really think about what works for us and what doesn't, and how can we continue to evolve? I love what, Bobbi, you said, which is you didn't know you were going to reinvent yourself. But keeping that door open is so important. And that's why this really resonates for me and the work I do about serving women and helping them make the very best of their money throughout their lives.
GINA GILLESPIE: I'd love to jump in here, because when I think about all of the aspects that you were talking about, Bobbi, the first thing that comes to mind is the money part. And women tend to come into our offices and they'll ask, I want to make sure before I take the next leap that I've done all the things to prepare myself. And so that's my favorite part of my job, is to sit down and listen to goals and dreams, and make sure I can help people accomplish those things. Oftentimes we'll see, I want to do a career change later in life. Have I set myself up properly to be able to do those things? What if I don't make as much money as I was before right off the bat? Am I doing anything that would really detriment my long-term plan? Is it time for me to do that side hustle that I've always dreamed of? And I think a big part that we'll talk about today is more of the tools that we can use, recommendations that I've done with individuals, scenario planning. And I'll talk more about that piece in my role here today, so thank you so much.
ALEX ROCA: I love that. And we are so looking forward to hearing more about these tips. Gina, something I'm always curious about when I talk to clients is where they got their financial education from, when they started that first job, that first financial tip that they got. Bobbi, I heard that when you started out as a makeup artist, your dad gave you some budgeting advice. What was it, and how did it light a fire for you?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, it was my first year out of college, and I was really lucky. My father gave me, as a graduation gift, he would pay for my rent for a year. And then he soon realized that I needed a little bit of spending money. So he gave me a credit card of his and he said, all right, you have $500 a month on this card. And I just kept going over it. I didn't understand at the time that you have to pay all this extra money and interest. And one day I called my dad and I said, help, you've got to teach me how to budget my money. And he stopped and he said, no, I'm not going to teach you that. And I'm like, uh-oh. And he said, I want to teach you, instead of that, think about how you can earn more money. And I remember I thought, OK. And I started just putting ads in the local newspaper as a makeup artist, and I started getting calls. But it made me rethink and almost take back what was possible, and gave me ideas of what I could do to make more money. And I still haven't learned how to budget.
ALEX ROCA: I think a lot of people feel that way about budgeting, and I love that advice. Just keep making more money. Until that happens, though, we do need that budget. So, Gina, what do you tell clients who just don't like budgeting?
GINA GILLESPIE: I actually don't love-- the term budgeting can feel really restrictive. So if someone's approaching retirement and they say, I ask them what's their cash flow needs, or let's talk through spending, when I use that term budget, I feel like it tends to be so restrictive. And depending on times in your life, you tend to budget more when, like Bobbi, you mentioned, I have $500. When you have more free cash flow, we find that's when people sometimes don't budget as much as they do, when maybe they're earlier in their careers, or they have a tighter cash flow. So one thing that I always try to do is make sure that we start with the basics, so I'll start there. And that gives you a roadmap to build a little bit of confidence. I think one of the pieces that we can talk through is just being really intentional of how we spend. So you've heard us talk about this at Fidelity and with Women Talk Money before. We have a slide that we'll put up that's just a really simple way to think about the cash flow that you bring in. 50% should go towards your essential expenses. So I love for individuals to know what they spend on those essential things, mortgage, property taxes, utilities. I even put essential things, though, as things that are really important to me. So it could be things like self-care, or time that I need to do certain things that are really important. And that's 50% of what I put in essential budget, things you need to do. Then, if you look, the other piece is 15% towards long-term savings, retirement savings, or longer term goals, and then 5% towards your emergency savings. So our goal while you're working is that you have 3 to 6 months set aside in an emergency account. If you haven't gotten that yet, put that 5% of your income towards that goal. While you're retired, our goal is to have more like 12 to 18 months of an emergency account set aside. So if you're approaching retirement, sometimes we try to beef that up a little bit. The goal with that, so again, good with numbers, that 20%, there's still 30% left over for other goals. And I sit down and talk about goal planning all the time with clients because I think it's really important to be intentional. Sometimes we have goals in mind in life, but we never put pen to paper. We never talk about them. It's harder to even think about those things. Sometimes I'll open a separate account with a client and I'll say, what are the other things you have in mind? I really want to retire earlier. I'd love to pivot in my career and do something that I love. I'd love to start a business. So that other 30%, it could be whatever you had in mind for any other longer term goals, buy a second home. When we talk about that and we're more intentional, we end up reaching those pieces because you see that the money is going to something. So I think there's a lot of truth in what, Bobbi, your dad had said is that you could try to trim spending or do certain things, or think outside the box. More income that you bring in, you might have a little bit more flexibility to do those things you'd love to do.
ALEX ROCA: I love that. I think that's a fantastic tip. And then, Bobbi, I actually want to come back to you. When you first launched Bobbi Brown Cosmetics back in 1990, there weren't a lot of women or even makeup artists in the founder seat. And you had a vision for a very different makeup line. This couldn't have been easy. How did you stay motivated? How did you break through that?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, truthfully, I never thought of myself as someone that wanted to create a big brand. It was about a product. And I always tell people, when you're going to start a new company, it's about the product. It's not the beautiful sizzle reel. It's not the beautiful PowerPoint. It's about, what is the product? And so I had an idea for a lipstick that looked like lips that wasn't greasy, that didn't smell. And I met a chemist who was able to make it for me. And I was lucky because I'm also someone very practical. I don't know a lot about money, but I know a lot about practicality. I knew not to spend more money than I had. And my initial deal with this chemist, this was when I had one lipstick, was that he was going to give me the lipstick. We would split it 50/50, and then I would sell it, market it, and mail it, and he would make it and send it to me. So that was the original deal. And then that morphed into 10 colors, but it was always very practical. What's the best way that we could package this so it doesn't cost money? We put it in an envelope. So even when I launched Jones Road, I took a lot of those early tips saying, how can I do this without spending too much money? And my husband and I funded Jones Road because we were able to. But I didn't want to waste money. I don't like to waste time or money, and I like to do things really practically. So if someone out there happens to make really good granola or dog biscuits and wants to know where to start, you make them, and you put it in a bag and see if people like them. It's those simple things that become businesses.
ALEX ROCA: I love that. And sometimes it's hard to overcome nos. And it sounds like maybe you overcame them your entire career. You're known for your confidence. In fact, I would say you're also known for instilling confidence in women through the products that you make. Can you talk a little bit about what your confidence as a founder was like, and more specifically, how it's evolved over time? What wisdom would you share with women who maybe want to channel that into their own careers?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, first of all, let's just talk about what confidence is. People think, how are you confident? Is it because you know so much, because you're cocky, because you're so smart? No, I figured out long ago the simple answer to being confident is being comfortable with who you are. And being comfortable within your skin, not trying to be like other people, and just realizing what's special about you is your own superpower. And if you just channel that into whatever you're doing, it works. And so that's what confidence is. So yes, I have empowered women to really feel that in their bodies and their faces, whether it's just put a little bit of miracle balm on or concealer, put an outfit on that makes you feel like you. When you feel like you, you become your best self. And that's what confidence is.
ALEX ROCA: Oh, I love that. And Sangeeta, what about you? What would you like to add about building confidence, specifically within the workplace?
SANGEETA MOORJANI: Well, first, I'm soaking up every word you're saying, Bobbi. And like you, I had a dad who shared a lot of wisdom. And so one of the first things I'll say about building confidence in the workplace would be an advice my dad gave me, which is attitude is everything. And I think just starting with a place of confidence, feeling comfortable in your own skin, and having the right attitude is the starting point. I'll share two other aspects. Second, be an advocate. And if you want to be an advocate for yourself, let's go back to what Bobbi just said, which is focus on the product, not the brand. You are the product. Focus on the skills that are naturally you, that are intuitively you, that you want to keep and grow. And what are the things that you want to learn? And once you know that, you've gone through that, then you're better able to advocate for yourself. What kind of a role do you want? Where do you want to stretch assignment? Where can you push yourself, and where will you hold yourself back? And the third thing I would say is build a community around you. Because that community helps you validate, talk to people, be vulnerable, share with others. And also, not only that helps you uncover your full potential, but you can take pride in other people's growth. So start with the right attitude. Be an advocate for yourself by knowing who you are, and then build the right community around you and be part of that community.
ALEX ROCA: That's fantastic, and so many great points there, Sangeeta. Now, Gina, I want to come to you. What do you tell clients who may want to try something new so that they have the financial foundation in place that gives them the flexibility to either pivot or even take a new leap into a new career?
GINA GILLESPIE: It's such a big, big part of someone's individual lives when they come to you and they tell you all these things, and then they hope that you can help them to get there financially. So I've been at Fidelity for 13 years and working with individuals. And my favorite part is when we get to see the success happen. So I spend a lot of time, and you have to have these really good relationships with people where you can have these really open conversations. Oftentimes they'll tell you about the good and the bad in their lives and what they're hoping to maybe change, or some of the biggest things that they want to accomplish. It's not always the financial part. But then they'll come back in, and that's where I can come in. So I always try to make sure that before we take some bigger leaps is to make sure that we have the fundamentals down and we start with a really good foundation. Because I think the building blocks to anything are just making sure we can check off these things to make sure that we're doing all the right things before we try to pivot. And sometimes we don't have an option. Life throws us a curveball. We have all the right intentions, and who knows, there could be something that changes that. We see that all the time. A spouse passes away, you lose a job, you come into life where expenses come up that you don't expect. So I try to do these three things with clients. We'll tick them off together, and then that gives them that confidence to take the next leap. So I spend a lot of time around setting goals, managing spending and debt for individuals, building up the emergency fund, and optimizing their retirement savings. That's always that number one piece. I do get the privilege of working with many people who've done this already. So sometimes they come to me and they've gotten all the foundational things right, and then they say, what else do we do? So I love to build scenario planning, where I'll walk through, how much have I saved thus far for long term? What if I don't save another dollar? Can I still get to where I want to be? So we'll walk through many different scenarios. We also talk about diversification of types of accounts you save in. Really easy, that for savings tends to be in a 401(k), or a workplace plan, or a retirement account. But oftentimes I always urge people to look at the next place to save, which could be a brokerage account or other individual accounts where you have access to it before certain ages, a lot more flexibility. And that can be an account that they can use for anything. And when we put a goal in mind on something, I feel like clients, individuals get so much more intentional with what we do. So I try to really bring it to life. If we save x, or if we do y, or if we invest it in a certain capacity, we may be able to get to those places that you've always dreamed about. And then I always think about the worst-case scenarios. What if we lose a job? Do we have life insurance or health insurance outside of the workplace? Would your family be able to survive if our income wasn't there? And then let's make sure we have the proper estate plan in place that if something happened to us yesterday that the money that we've worked really hard to earn goes to the right places. So when I think about these building blocks, they're really the part of our financial building blocks. Doesn't matter where you come. I always say that's where I can come in to help as an advisor, and sitting down with clients, and working with them, just making sure we can give good advice, maybe helping anywhere along the way.
ALEX ROCA: Thank you for that, Gina. I can't help but think about what all it takes to create a good plan. And that also includes talking about being on the same page with your partner. So if you're planning with somebody, making sure that you're on the same page with them. Bobbi, you've said before in other interviews that you're not necessarily a numbers person. But your husband, who's both your business partner and your life partner, is. Was that always an easy conversation to have? How did that start, and how do you today make sure that you plan to stay on the same page?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, I'm really lucky because my husband has always understood what I'm good at and what I need a little bit of help with. And he's always explained to me what was happening with our finances, when we didn't have any money, by the way, in the beginning, when he went back to law school till now. So I get a lot of information from him and he explains it to me. Sometimes he has to explain it to me more than once. And as I've gotten older, I don't feel bad saying I still don't understand. Could you please, could you please show me? And I was very lucky I had a CFO at my first company that would come in and explain to me why and what was happening with different launches, and what an EBITDA is. I still don't really understand what an EBITDA is, but I know ours is good right now. But I'm not embarrassed and I'm not afraid of what I don't know. So for anyone out there, if you don't understand it, it's OK to ask.
SANGEETA MOORJANI: Bobbi, I want to add here two things. One is just being ready to ask for help. Just because you don't know EBITDA doesn't mean that you're not a successful founder and a celebrity. You absolutely are. But you asked for help. When Gina was talking, I gained so much confidence listening to her. And so don't be afraid to ask for help. I've been in financial services for 30 years now, but guess what? I just don't have time to manage my own finances. So I had to convince my husband that we both need help. And we actually now have an advisor, have had an advisor now for a long time, who helps us. And we talk to this individual and she helps us plan. The other thing is so important to plan with your partner, whether that is your life partner, your planning partner, who you're living with, or business partner. It's really important to be aligned on the goals so then you can get the right help.
GINA GILLESPIE: I love how you said that because I think the biggest thing, sometimes when I meet with one person, I always feel like there's something missing. I always explain, everyone's plan is almost like this puzzle we try to put together. And I don't have enough clarity sometimes if there's not both people there to share. I always try to make it so that these conversations, we don't have to focus on jargon, or all the things that you mentioned, Bobbi, that, I can tell, I'll read someone's body language right away and say, ooh, can I explain this in a different way, or I always try to share these, or tell me if it doesn't make sense. My goal is that you can leave the office saying, I know what I own. I know what I have. I know what's happening. Maybe I'm not doing it myself, but I understand it as an individual. And I think you get a lot more confidence in anything that you do if you can leave saying, I feel like I understand it a little bit better. And that's why I started to do what I do with clients years ago was because I found that it was something I was really interested in. Most people aren't, and that's OK. If you find something that you love and you can find that you can teach it to someone else in a really basic way, it just makes me feel like I'm obviously bringing something to the table, but that's something that I have a lot of energy about. And it doesn't mean that everybody does.
ALEX ROCA: I told you, she's great. Isn't she fantastic? I want to pivot here, though, for a moment because we've been talking about building up our financial foundation. We've talked about fine tuning our skills and even pivoting when we need to. But sometimes the unexpected means that things didn't go the way that we wanted them. In life, we have wins or we have losses, or we can look at it as wins or lessons. Bobbi, as someone who has had so much success as an entrepreneur, you must have had some lessons along the way. What have those experiences taught you?
BOBBI BROWN: How much time do we have? What they've all taught me is that I am capable to make a change. It's my attitude. It's knowing that, uh-oh, this didn't work. And I don't look at things as failure. I just look at things as, all right, I should have done it differently. And this is my opportunity to make a shift. Sometimes things don't work and that's just the way it is. And you've got to be open and you've got to be a little scrappy. It's so much about common sense. A lot of people forget about their simple common sense to help them get to the next thing. And if you want an example, I know everyone loves an example. I had a wellness brand. When I left the makeup company, I still had a 25-year non-compete. I had 4 and 1/2 years left, so I started a supplement company based on how what you put in your body will help your face. There were these different supplements. I thought it was so interesting, so cool, so different. And guess what? It didn't work. It didn't work, but it just gave me this opportunity to try something. I learned a lot about having a direct-to-consumer business, but then I realized it wasn't where my passion was. So I look at it as an education, not a failure.
ALEX ROCA: Exactly. It's about those lessons.
SANGEETA MOORJANI: Yeah, Bobbi. And I'll just add there, one thing I think we can say with confidence is roadblocks will happen. They will come. And I love the word pivot. It reminds me of going out on long drives with my parents when-- this is when we had maps, right, not GPS systems. And we would always plan the route, and inevitably something would be there, a roadblock where we'd have to pivot. And I think the more ready you are to pivot, it becomes less of a burden and less of a failure. Health event, life event, divorce, job, things happen to everyone. And I think that's where one of the things that I talk about is it's so important, when you're starting out, to have that emergency fund so you can step back and not let your finances hold you back, and be able to pivot where you need to go.
ALEX ROCA: I love that. And then, Gina, I actually wanted to hear a little bit from you. What do you tell clients when they feel like they've hit a roadblock on their money goals?
GINA GILLESPIE: It's interesting because I think women will come into our office and they'll share all the things they haven't done well before they ever talk about any of the good things that we do. And I'm like, hold on a second. I love to hear those things. But I also say, we can't change that. We can't change the things that we haven't done. I didn't save enough here. I didn't do this, I didn't do that. And I listen, but then I also say, we have to give ourselves credit for the things we have done well, too. I think we do that in life in so many aspects. I can think of many that a client will come in and they'll say, I wish I did this x, y, and z. So I try to focus on, we can't change what we haven't done. We can only focus on what we can do now going forward. Maybe we have to work one more year. It's OK. It's not the end of the world. And I teach that to my kids all the time. It's a small problem or a big problem, and some of the things we can adapt to. Bobbi, I loved when you talked about something that you didn't do well, because oftentimes we hear about all the successes. And we see all those things, but we think as individuals that you've only had the successes. And knowing that when something doesn't work, what we do in our attitude, I think it's the same thing when it comes to people with their money. So I think it also happens, I end up working. So females, and as an advisor, I end up working sometimes with clients who hit really challenging times in their life, and they want to work with someone that can listen to them. And it tends to be maybe an unexpected situation, divorce, death, like we talked about before. And Sangeeta, you brought it up that you never can plan for those things. So I talk about all the boring things with clients. And I'll always say to them, it's always good to have a plan A, and it's really good to have a plan B. Because our plan A doesn't always work. I've never worked with a client that nothing unexpected has ever happened throughout the time that they need funds and money. So I always try to bring up the boring things to do because I think investing through volatility, investing through different life things that have happened. I'll always bring up, do you have a will in place with guardianship for your young children? Do you have an emergency account? Do you have enough in some other type of an investment that you can fall back on? And it kind of falls into this category of, what do we do as advisors? I think there's a difference always that we think about. And when I think about financial planning, I always bring this up. These are free services we offer here at Fidelity. I'm just very, very passionate about it because it's a big part of what we do for clients to come in, talk about your goals, make sure we can budget, invest, get to those places. We also help with the investment management part, where we'll talk through, what's the vehicle that gets us to point A to point B? And how can we do those things? And those aspects may have costs associated with them, but the financial planning part, come and sit and talk to somebody, because I think we all feel more comfortable to take risks sometimes if we know we've checked off all the boxes that maybe we've got a backup plan in place, too.
ALEX ROCA:. Now I want to switch gears, Bobbi, because you've talked a lot about the importance of relationship building and what that has done for your career. We try to do that right here with the Women Talk Money group. We want to bring women together and help them feel more empowered with their money. Have there been women in your life that have had motivated you and mentored you, and how do you pay it forward? BOBBI BROWN: Well, there's been plenty of women and there's been plenty of men, too. I'm someone that it's all about relationships. And I love meeting people, hearing what they're doing, hearing what I'm doing. And I just have this way of saying, oh, that would be so interesting. And so I've pitched a lot of things that way. But it's not that I need to pay back, but I do spend a lot of time talking to other women who have founded companies. And it's all pretty the same. I think a lot of people are just in a giant rush, and a lot of young founders just think they need success right away. So a lot of the advice I give to a lot of the founders is, slow down, take it easy, look at everything. Don't be in a mad rush and just be different than everyone else. So I don't think there was any founders that helped me on my journey, but there sure were a lot of people.
ALEX ROCA: I like that. And it really has been so inspiring even just hearing you today share what the timeline was for launching Jones Road Beauty. What advice would you give somebody who's wanting to say yes to that second, or I'm going to say, for you, next act, whatever that may look like?
BOBBI BROWN: Well, you will never look back and say, I shouldn't have done that. You will probably always, even if it doesn't work out, be happy you did it. But you will, I guarantee, you'll always wonder, what would have happened if? So I would say, don't jump in 100%. Just take little baby steps and just do it. So don't be afraid to do it. You're not going to fail. You're just going to learn and you're going to grow.
ALEX ROCA: Sangeeta, would you like to add anything to that?
SANGEETA MOORJANI: I would echo what Bobbi said. I would say, start with a plan. And it doesn't have to be a fully borne out plan. Write down what's important to you and think about the financial aspect. Where do you want to put some controls in place or boundaries in place? And then, have a plan B. If this doesn't work, think about the optionality. It may not be the exact option you use, but it's good to know that there are options. And then, gather the right team. Share the ideas. Talk to advocates. Talk to mentors. Talk to planners. Talk to other people who have a similar path. Talk to people who have a dissimilar path because you will learn. And I think the biggest thing, Bobbi, you said, which is jump in. Life and action teaches like no one else. Have faith and confidence in yourself, and start taking steps, and things will unfold, and you will continue to learn.
ALEX ROCA: I love it. We're going to finish up. We're going to wrap up with one last question I want each one of you to answer. But Bobbi, we're going to start with you. If you could go back and give your younger self any advice, what would it be?
BOBBI BROWN: It would be to breathe, which I'm still working on. It would be to do weight-bearing exercises over aerobics, and I'm not even kidding. And it would be to don't be anxious about what has to be done, and realize you're doing what is part of the process. So appreciate where you are now and really just breathe.
ALEX ROCA: I love that answer. And Sangeeta, what would your advice to your younger self be?
SANGEETA MOORJANI: Well, I'm taking the advice that Bobbi gave.
ALEX ROCA: Me too.
SANGEETA MOORJANI: But I would say, believe in yourself. Be comfortable in your skin, and that takes practice. And the only way to practice that is to start to march ahead And so trust in yourself and then start taking those steps. Too often I waited too long. And that is a lesson that, once you start, you learn and you can do better.
ALEX ROCA: I love that. And Gina, what would you say?
GINA GILLESPIE: So I studied finance and business, and when I went into finance classes, I was one of the only females in there. And I remember thinking, ooh, I wonder if I'm in the wrong career, or if I'm interested in the wrong thing. And I remember, I wish I could look back and tell myself, no, this is the right thing because you love it. My mom was a high school math teacher. I got my love of numbers from her. Numbers are not something that comes to everyone. You might walk into a situation, and today, I know, having a daughter who's 10 years old, I spend a lot of time with her trying to help give her confidence that I wish I always had as a younger person. I think over time, Bobbi, you said this today and I couldn't believe it more, that being comfortable in your own skin, giving yourself that confidence. Sometimes people say, especially women, we always feel like we have to be an expert in something before we have confidence in it. And I'm not saying men don't, but oftentimes even an expert in anything before we say we feel ready to go forward or we want to do that next thing. And I wish that I took a little bit more leaps, I wish, in my career, even. I always never applied for the next job until I felt 100% I could do it. And I will say, when I joined Women Talk Money, it was because I had this ability to touch more women and talk to more people, the things I love. And I still get to do my day job. Yeah, I wish those were the things that I knew. But we can always try to tell other people. And I think that's important in mentorship, telling people what we wish we did differently before in hopes that the next generations can do it better than we are.
ALEX ROCA: That's fantastic, Gina. And I'm actually going to add my two cents here as well. I went through a lot of different jobs throughout my life. And I remember in some of those jobs, I would think, this is such a waste of time. I'm never going to do this. Remember going through school and saying, well, I'm never going to use this class or this material. And if you think that way, then it's going to be true. But if you think about stacking your learning, every experience, every job, every opportunity is teaching you something. It may not be the final destination in your journey, but it is definitely a part of it. And if you use it as a lesson and you learn from every single experience, it's never an experience lost, and it's never a loss. To Bobbi's point, it's a lesson. I do, since we have a little bit more time, Bobbi, I fibbed. I'm going to ask you one last question. I'm going to pull it from the chat. What inspires you right now?
BOBBI BROWN: Besides my grandchildren, which I now have two, and all the women that I'm meeting through this new journey of Jones Road, what really inspires me, I'm someone that always wants. I'm very curious and I'm always someone that wants to do better and just solve problems. So it inspires me to figure out if there's things out there that can help people do their makeup better, feel better, look better. And I'm just constantly curious.
ALEX ROCA: That's so good. I want you to know that you're an inspiration. Sometimes we feel like if we get to a certain age and we haven't accomplished what we've wanted to accomplish, it's too late. And you are the example that that is absolutely not the case. So I've been inspired, and I'm sure all of our listeners today are inspired. I'm going to pull one last question. But Gina, this one is actually for you. I know there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of noise around that uncertainty in the market. What words of wisdom would you share about financial planning in this kind of environment?
GINA GILLESPIE: Yeah, I would be remiss to say that there's not so many headlines today that make you concerned as an individual that might be coming up and how you feel about the volatility of the market. You look at the money that you've saved and that can be very challenging. I will tell you that there's two things that I think that always help individuals. Having someone to talk to, having an advisor. Sangeeta, you brought it up before that you're in the industry, but still, having someone to talk to with your spouse is nice and it's important. So have someone to talk to. If you don't have an advisor or you don't have someone to talk to, I know I keep talking about the green button, but click on that. There'll be someone that you can talk to here. I think it's very challenging to distinguish between the noise that we hear on-- and again, I always say this, news is meant to be sensationalized. It's not going to give you the boring things that we want to know. So make sure you can talk to someone where you can distinguish between what's happening that you might hear, and then really what could be happening in your portfolio or your investments. And so I said I was going to say two things. So first, have someone to talk to, and then number two, have a plan. And I keep bringing that up because financially we end up just trying to do things. We throw things at a wall, and we hope it all sticks, and it's just all working out. But if we know, hey, these are the things I have to do and I'm going to be on track, you're much more apt to stay invested and stay better, or stay invested, but feel better-- not stay better, feel better. If you have a plan in place, someone can show you as an individual, as a planner myself. So I know there's a lot of market volatility out there. If you're hearing that, make sure you do the fundamentals. We get our emergency account in place. Make sure that we have the right types of investments. Go talk to somebody. I think it would be so helpful. Oftentimes I sit with my clients, they don't necessarily do a lot after our appointments. It's just that they feel more comfort to know that they're still doing the right things.
SANGEETA MOORJANI: And, Gina, I'll add two things to what you said, which is, number one, what Gina does and you can take advantage of is absolutely free. So please make sure you reach out to Fidelity and get the help you want. And we so fundamentally believe in helping people through financial wellness achieve financial wellness that it's free. Two, too often I talk to women who say, well, I don't know, if I'm in front of Gina, what question to ask. What is the plan? What are my goals? I'm going to be embarrassed. Guess what? Start from where you are. Start with, hey, Gina, I actually don't know where to get started. But I heard this podcast or I had someone tell me I should care more about my finances. Can you tell me where to get started? So please do not put pressure on yourselves to know all the answers. Just get started.
ALEX ROCA: That's fantastic. And Bobbi, before I wrap up, I want to ask you one last question. What would you say is your one takeaway for everybody tuning in today?
BOBBI BROWN: You've got this. Wherever you are, you've got this. You've got this. You have no other option, guys. Failure is not an option. You got this.
ALEX ROCA: You got this. We've all got this. Bobbi Brown said it herself, we got this. Now, Bobbi, Sangeeta, Gina, I want to thank you all so much for all the great information and the experiences that you shared today.. We're also putting a slide that gives you access to all upcoming events, and to remind you how you can get help. . Now that's a wrap. Bobbi, Sangeeta, Gina, thank you so much again. To all of you watching, thank you for joining. Thank you for being a part of our community.
SANGEETA MOORJANI: Thank you.