F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance
A Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors Podcast.
Content here is for illustrative purposes and general information only. It is not legal, tax, or individualized financial advice; nor is it a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any specific security, or engage in anyspecific trading strategy. Results will vary. Past performance is no indication of future results or success. Market conditions change continuously. This commentary reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, andanalyses of the speakers. It does not necessarily represent those of Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, Private Client Services, their clients, or their employees. This commentary should not be regarded as a descriptionof advisory services provided by or Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, or performance returns of any client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Securities offeredby Registered Representatives through Private Client Services. Member FINRA / SIPC. Advisory services offered by Investment Advisory Representatives of Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, a registered investmentadvisor. Private Client Services and Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors are unaffiliated entities. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors and itsrepresentatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advisory services may be rendered by Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors unless a client agreement is in place.
F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance
Leah Anne Brooks | Episode 4 | The Weave of Wealth, Wisdom, and the Wonders of Life
As I sat across from Leah Anne Brooks, a sensation of awe struck me—not just because of her status as a senior partner at Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, but because of the intricate tapestry of her journey that she was about to unfold. Prepare to be captivated by Leah Anne's candid stories of navigating the complexities of a firm merger, her disciplined tennis background shaping her business mindset, and the peculiar yet intriguing intersection of wealth management with the world of pickleball.
This conversation isn't just about balance sheets and asset management; it's a heartfelt narrative where we explore the essence of personal evolution, discussing the profound impact of family dynamics, career pivots, and the relentless current of technological innovation that keeps us on our toes in the financial realm. It's the story of two professionals who found harmony in the confluence of personal passions and professional pursuits.
But it's also a dialogue that transcends the cut-and-dry aspects of finance, delving into the soulful connection between faith, business ethics, and the redemptive power of philanthropy. Leah Anne and I illuminate how hobbies like quilting weave through the fabric of our lives, strengthening bonds with clients and colleagues alike. So, join us for this inspiring episode where business acumen meets personal growth, and where the boardroom and quilt room can surprisingly share common ground.
Content here is for illustrative purposes and general information only. It is not legal, tax, or individualized financial advice; nor is it a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any specific security, or engage in any specific trading strategy. Results will vary. Past performance is no indication of future results or success. Market conditions change continuously. This commentary reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of the speakers. It does not necessarily represent those of Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, Private Client Services, their clients, or their employees. This commentary should not be regarded as a description of advisory services provided by or Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, or performance returns of any client. The views reflected in the commentary are subject to change at any time without notice. Securities offered by Registered Representatives through Private Client Services. Member FINRA / SIPC. Advisory services offered by Investment Advisory Representatives of Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Private Client Services and Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors are unaffiliated entities. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advisory services may be rendered by Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors unless a client agreement is in place.
The most interesting one. Once was a girl, that, and then this was in the 80s, so it was like $25,000, which would have been a lot of money in the 80s.
Speaker 1:And so and she was already over that balance in three months and so way before cell phones, so we had to send her a letter. She never contacted us. We finally just turned the card off. She quickly called us right back and she said, hey, my card's not working. And I said, well, cause, the bill needs to be paid. And so she had this real Valley girl, you know accent. Well, her story was she was spending the summer following the Grateful Dead.
Speaker 1:And he would use that credit card wherever they landed to buy, like bologna and bread to feed all the other people following the Grateful Dead. So she said, well, my dad can send that payment in. And I said, well, as soon as he does, we'll turn that card back on. And lo and behold, the next day he paid the whole thing off.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:So the kid could follow the Grateful Dead also.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, good afternoon. My name is Derek Hines, and with me I have Leanne Brooks, and we are both partners here at Gattus Premier Wealth Advisors. We hope you enjoy our podcast. All right, leanne? Well, here we are, yay.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 2:How are you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm doing well. How about yourself?
Speaker 2:I'm very well. I'm very well. So tell us a little bit about yourself. If you were to introduce yourself to our clients or our listeners, how would you do it?
Speaker 1:Well, my name is Leanne Brooks. As you said, I'm a senior partner here at Gattus Premier Wealth Management. I just recently merged my business in with this business after being out of my own for a while, spent seven years in a bank environment as a financial advisor, started at Edward Jones, so I've kind of seen this business at several different venues, which is interesting. I love it and I really love what I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how would you say the merger has gone so far?
Speaker 1:Well, really it's a bunch of paperwork, but other than that it's really been pretty good, so my clients have been great about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how has it been a challenge to get all the paperwork signed, or has it been fairly easy?
Speaker 1:It's a challenge just because it's so much paperwork and we're very heavily regulated, as you well know. So, really only a government organization could create paperwork like we have to have signed. That's right and we will have.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to watch the last slide. We'll make sure and have all the disclaimers. Yes, absolutely To correct everything that we've said, that is incorrect. Well, awesome, well. So give us a quick description of your role in the company. You said you're a partner senior wealth advisor. You manage the Durant office. So what does your day-to-day look like?
Speaker 1:Well, my day-to-day mostly is meeting with clients, so I have more of an insurance background as well. So I anticipate being used here in the Durant office to meet with clients that maybe have some sort of annuity or long-term care needs with the other advisors, but still working on my clients' retirement plans for the most part making sure that we have a good plan in place for their retirement needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, so you mentioned you have an insurance background. I'm sure we'll go into more depth on that later, but there's a lot of things. We asked you questions before the podcast to kind of get your brain turning, and there's a lot of things on your background that I found very intriguing, that I didn't know. So you went to college in Lawton I did. And you played on their tennis team. Yes, so do you still play tennis, or?
Speaker 1:Not very often, sometimes just for fun, not competitively, but I will say that, have you ever been to Lawton?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have.
Speaker 1:And the wind always blows there. So if you can play tennis in Lawton, you can play tennis anywhere.
Speaker 2:You can play tennis anywhere, yes, so when did you start playing tennis?
Speaker 1:Oh, as a small child, so probably four or five. Yeah, here in Durant.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Clarence Dyer was the coach at the college at the time, so some people may recognize that name, and so my dad was a college professor, so we just were lucky that he was our coach. So, and we lived right by the tennis courts here in town. So I think it was easy for my mother to just send you to the tennis courts, was it, carl Albert? No, the Rockett Park we lived right across the street. So we just played a lot of tennis. So we played in the Missouri Valley tournament circle growing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fun. That's fun. Yeah, tennis. My hometown. I don't even think we started to have tennis like my junior senior year of high school, and I don't know if they have tennis anymore.
Speaker 1:Well, southeastern's always had a good tennis program. You know that, and they do now too. So yeah we're lucky in that aspect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting, that's intriguing.
Speaker 1:Now I need to take a pickleball because I think that's you know, becoming the thing it is. It is becoming the thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pickleball is definitely becoming the thing. Um, yes, right in, right, out of college, uh, you went to work in Germany. So, how did you you know, how did you come in contact with the company or, you know go to Germany?
Speaker 1:So I had the bad sense to get a finance degree in Oklahoma, as all the banks were failing back in square and all that kind of stuff. So so I had to kind of do something else. So I, my dad was um In the military and just my brother was a career army officer, so I knew that American Express had the contracts overseas for the banks on our military posts.
Speaker 1:Yeah so I just applied with him and got a job and I was their trainer so I just covered all the military American Express banks, you know, in Germany. It was fun.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, yes, so you weren't. You weren't, you know, like you weren't working with German individuals or German nationals. You were working on a military base.
Speaker 1:So most of the people I worked with were German nationals, but our clients were army, you know well. Service.
Speaker 2:Yeah, service people. So, yeah, yeah, that's that's. That's a pretty unique experience.
Speaker 1:It was way well I guess it was right at the beginning too of atm. So Most of our branches had an atm affiliated, but it didn't connect to anything. So everybody could take 300 dollars out a weekend. So that that made for some pretty interesting Mondays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm sure that. I'm sure they took out their 300. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so did you learn to speak German while you were over there?
Speaker 1:I, I could do conversational German and I rented from a German national, you know, but I lived in Gurp again, which is like southern Bavaria, so that. So they had a very fast version of German that they spoke. So I did pretty good to read German and I could sort of converse, but if they really got going I was lost. Yeah, yeah as long as you tried to speak German with them, though they would, they would come back in English. They almost all know English. Yeah, they would know that you didn't know German.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so my, my mom's family is German and they move, they, they're. They're not very far removed from Germany, and my great grandmother, her first language language was still German and when she got mad.
Speaker 1:Life, you got to. You got to German, you got to German, that's interesting she was.
Speaker 2:She was who knows what she was saying, but she was saying it really fast and it was not in english.
Speaker 1:She started yelling you in German. You knew you were in trouble. You knew you were in trouble.
Speaker 2:That's funny. So after Germany. So you came back, you moved to Tulsa and you worked in credit card collections. I did so tells about that.
Speaker 1:So anybody that knows me probably knows that I would have not been very effective in credit card collections, so yeah. I luckily I did the. I actually took the cards that were above their credit limit like real fast into it. So so most of the people I talked to you know hadn't had the card more than a few months and were already you know already credit limit and hadn't paid their bills.
Speaker 1:So I talked to some very interesting people, but the most interesting one once was a girl, that, and then this was in the 80s, so it was like 25 000 dollars, which would have been a lot of money in the 80s.
Speaker 1:And so, and she was already over that balance in three months and so Way before cell phones, so we had to send her a letter. She never contacted us. We finally just turned the card off. She quickly called us right back and she said, hey, my card's not working. And I said, well, because the bill needs to be paid. And so she had this real valley girl, you know accent, while her story was she was spending the summer following the Grateful Dead.
Speaker 1:And he would use that credit card wherever they landed to buy, like bologna and bread to feed all the other people following the Grateful Dead. So she said, well, my dad can send that payment in. And I said, well, as soon as he does, I'll turn that card back on and Lo and behold, the next day he paid the whole thing off. Oh, my goodness yeah so the kid could follow the Grateful Dead also. Yeah, so you know, I heard some really interesting stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet, I bet. So what was like the? What was the? What was the best Excuse that you heard or that you can remember for not?
Speaker 1:paying. Oh gosh, you know, it was usually some sad, sad story, you know, but um, and I was usually pretty sympathetic to sad stories, so I don't know if I can remember a best excuse. It got to be the same thing over and over, though.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, yeah, I'm sure people's, I'm sure they have all kinds of excuses. So then you went, you, you Transition into healthcare administration, so you moved to southern california, got married. So what? Yeah, what's the order? I may have got the order wrong there got married.
Speaker 1:Until well, we got married here, I'll go how my then my. My husband is already working in california, so I was like I don't know about california, so I said five years maybe, but we wound up being there 15. So yeah, and we did enjoy california, it just was really crowded and really expensive.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I can imagine. So how'd you, how'd you and your husband meet?
Speaker 1:We've known each other since high school, so we've known each other a long time. We just kind of reconnected back in Tulsa.
Speaker 2:So through a mutual friend of ours. So what took him to Tulsa?
Speaker 1:He just came to Tulsa to see me.
Speaker 2:He wasn't living in Tulsa at the time you took him to Tulsa. Yeah, yeah, nice. Tell us about your family.
Speaker 1:My immediate family or my family now Family now, so like kids. Yep, husband is Alan. And then I have a daughter who's married and is a pediatrician in Shawnee, ok, and she has two children which are kind of the light of my life. And then I have a son, alex, who lives here in town and is a sales manager for the Studeville Chevrolet.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:Nice, and I'm still hoping that he will get married and have grandchildren.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, alex, if you're watching this, Well, we'll make sure he gets a link to this, ok, good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So how old are they?
Speaker 1:Alicia is 32 and Alex is 28.
Speaker 2:OK, and were they born in California?
Speaker 1:Both of them were yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did they, and you guys moved back to Oklahoma at some point. We did.
Speaker 1:When Alicia was in the sixth grade, so her middle school in Orange County, California would have had almost 3,200 kids in just two grades and I just I never could wrap my head around that. It was too big. So, she would have been fine, but we just decided we wanted to get them back here, where life was a little bit slower and a little bit more normal.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, I don't blame you. I mean, that's what my wife and I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We lived in New Mexico started having kids and it's like we really need to move back closer to home Kind of changes things.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of lovely friends and we had a great church in California. We hated to leave all that, but it was a good move for both of them. So, even if they didn't really think so at the time- yeah, yeah, I'm sure they appreciate it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe not, who knows?
Speaker 1:I think Alex has always loved it here because he likes to hunt and fish and all that kind of stuff. But Alicia, she kind of missed this urban lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pace of the big city.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you move back to Oklahoma, but before that did you do the church planning for the nonprofit before or after moving back?
Speaker 1:I did in California oh in California. So I worked in health care administration for about 10 years and in that 10-year period we got bought by five companies. So I was direct of operation, so I was always merging a group into another group, and so the last year I did that I've laid off hundreds of people personally and I thought, huh, there's got to be a better way to earn a living than this.
Speaker 1:So I had a real good friend whose dad was head of the Southern California Evangelistic Association and he knew me well from church and said come over and be my director of operations. So that was really a lot of fun. I did that for the last three years we were in California. Yeah, and we're all did plant churches, so in California, so San Diego, orange County, that whole way up to LA, so it was fun. In all those years we only had one church. That didn't make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, awesome. So you've been back in Durant for about 20 years now. You started working at Southeastern.
Speaker 1:I did. When we first came back, I started to work at Southeastern and I did several things, but usually in grand administration Several different roles there, and I was working on my MBA. So about the time I was done with the MBA I thought what am I going to do now? And so I'd always had that finance degree and I really liked finance. And about that time my grandmother had lived in Texas with my uncle and she wanted to come back to Durant because this is where she was from.
Speaker 1:So, she said, well, if Lee ends there, I can go there too. So she moved back here and lived in an assisted living. But my uncle said, well, if you get grandma, you've got to take care of her funds too. And I thought, well, how bad can that be? But she had had pretty complicated finances. They were just good investment. My grandfather was a good investor, and so, as I was getting her stuff worked out, I thought oh, I like this, I enjoy this and I like the outcome of doing that for her so that kind of led me down to the path that I'm on now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, and you said while you were at Southeastern, you got an MBA. What did you get? Your?
Speaker 1:MBA in Master's in Business Administration, but with a specialty towards finance.
Speaker 2:OK, yeah All right. Awesome. So Edward Jones, she started with Edward Jones.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:And then you went to the bank, so Landmark Bank, and now you're with us. So what are?
Speaker 1:like Well, I had my own business in there for five years.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, you left Landmark, had your own business and then merged with us. So what are some of the big changes that you've seen in the industry during your career?
Speaker 1:It all comes down to technology. I think this is a fairly simple business, but it now requires a lot of technology to do it. Well, I think, and so, and that's ever evolving, and so I think that's what I realized out on my own. It was hard to be efficient and have the appropriate level of technology. So I'm happy to be affiliated with Gattus Premier, where, as a group, we have a little bit more purchasing power, and I think our tech stack can be a little bit better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we have put a lot of time and effort into our tech stack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, more than probably any of us really want to.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate you saying that. Yeah, definitely more than any of us want to. So what are the things we talk about on the podcast? Is faith. So how would you say your faith has impacted how you conduct business.
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of people worry about their money, right, because you wouldn't want to have anybody managing your money if you didn't have a lot of trust in them, and I take that to heart, and so I have been blessed to grow up in a Christian family. So my whole life it's never been anything I didn't know, which is a blessing, I think. So I just have a real firm foundation there, and so this can be a stressful business sometimes.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean when I first got started, I just worried all the time about making decisions, because you want to make sure you make the best decision for every client, and so you do have to have that faith, I think, to fall back on and know that there's somebody guiding your path there. So I think that helps me a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so tell us about your church background. How were you? What type of church were you raised in?
Speaker 1:I was raised in First Baptist, right here in Durant, with my grandfather, had been an elder forever, you know so but now, my husband and I have always been affiliated with Disciples Across Church and so he came from that side, so he likes to have communion every Sunday and that's really the biggest different fundamentally. So now we go to Community Christian Church here in Durant, which isn't a Disciples Across, but it's along those lines, very similar, yeah, and nice.
Speaker 2:and that's where the J-1 27 launched out of that church. Yeah, so I know you're on the board of J-1 27,. Right, so tell us a little bit about J-1 27.
Speaker 1:It's a great program. So J-1 27 is an organization that was founded for girls that have aged out of the foster care system, and so we provide a home and we provide just a lot of education a whole learning environment, a good, safe place for them, so that they can kind of get some skills they've never probably had the opportunity to obtain so that's the whole purpose.
Speaker 1:They usually stay anywhere from a year to, you know, up to three years with us, as they're going through either FOTEC or maybe some of them are still finishing high school, you know whatever their needs are so yeah, so tell me about, like, aging out of the foster care system.
Speaker 2:So what does that mean?
Speaker 1:You know, if you grow up in the foster care system when you turn 18, that's it, you're out. You're out, no more funds for you. So if you were never adopted, you know, by anyone, then a lot of times that's you know. Just you're out on the street and so think about that, where you were when you were 18, you know I was still living with my mother. So you know I wouldn't have wanted to be out on the street.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I moved out, but I had a strong support system and I was in college.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, that's right, you're in college, yeah, and if you needed to go back, you could have that's right, yes, so it's interesting because a lot of the young ladies that come to us just they come from really traumatic backgrounds and lots of times they don't have faith. You know they don't have any system or religion that they've ever had before. So you know we're not, we're not 100% religious based. But you know there's a lot of it there, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So tell us about. So what are some of the, what are some of the positive things you've seen, you know, while you've been serving on the board?
Speaker 1:Oh goodness, I've just seen so many, so many wonderful things. You know girls that just come in with no hope whatsoever, that you know a lot of times they've been abused and they don't have any. They don't have any concept of what a loving relationship could be or what a loving family could be. You know what's a support system could be and so that the program just wraps our arms around them and really, you know, helps them get through some really tough times.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, that's good, yeah, no, I know Jordan, one of our other advisors here. He did a. He taught a financial peace course or sort of like a financial literacy course to the, to the girls, over a period of time last year yeah A lot of times they come in with no skills whatsoever.
Speaker 1:You know along those lines. So we have it. You know they either have to be going to school or they have to work. After about three months of being there we kind of have a breaking period. But yeah so. But any money that they make, we help them, you know, get a bank account and develop some skills, but they also pay a little bit of rent to live there, but then we put that rent back into an account.
Speaker 1:So if they graduate the program we get to write them a check on the way out, you know, so they can get started somewhere else.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so sort of an incentive to get through the program, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and for a lot of them it's the first time they've ever had any funds of their own.
Speaker 2:So, so it's pretty neat. Yeah, that's incredible. How long are they usually there, or how long is the program?
Speaker 1:Well, it just depends when they. Sometimes they don't come to us until they're, you know, 2021. And then they don't stay as long, but a lot of times they come to us at 18 and they they can stay until they've, you know, gone all the way through the program, which the program can be a 24 month period.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's tailored for every young lady. So, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Would you say so? You know, we, we do our best to operate our business in a in a godly manner. Would you say that that's difficult to do? Why, or why not?
Speaker 1:You know I don't see that as difficult to do. I just try to always, you know, use the golden rule as one of my founding. You know decision making tools, but I don't. I mean, I guess it might be difficult for some people, but I don't think I find that difficult, so good good and we asked you some of your core core values or core beliefs that you live your life by.
Speaker 2:you know you answered honesty, integrity, but also probably the one that I found the most just intriguing is is kindness. Yeah, I think, I really think that's a, that's a wonderful core value to have. It's just, it's just to be kind. So can you tell us some of the things that you do in your life, like, why did you settle on those three core values?
Speaker 1:Well, don't, don't you run into somebody every day that you think, gosh, that person's kind of mean you know, and I think that is just because they haven't had it?
Speaker 2:I hope it's not me.
Speaker 1:No, but I think sometimes kindness needs to be reflected back off of you. So I try my best and of course I do lose my mind sometimes in the Walmart self checkout line. But I try my best to just always have a kind spirit, because you never know where that person came from today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so good. I know on our on our first podcast. You know I answered these questions as well and some of them were a little different. But there's a book called oh man, what's it called? It's like the boy, the mole, the horse and the fox or something along those lines, but have I ever told you about this book? But so it's. It's basically this this boy is having a conversation with these animals and it's almost like Christopher.
Speaker 1:Robbins type, one of the type story.
Speaker 2:And so he's going, he's going through through this journey and he's meeting these animals, and then they're coming with him and he's having a conversation with the boy. The mole is having a conversation with the boy and the mole says well, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 1:and the boy says kind, oh, that's sweet and he's just written in more poetic and was just kind as the boy.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think that's so good. You know, we get so busy and so rushed and hurried in our day-to-day life that we forget to be kind.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah, I really try to focus on that because, like you said, it's easy to get yourself all frustrated over something that really wouldn't worth being frustrated over.
Speaker 2:Especially at Walmart. Yeah exactly, especially at Walmart. So your next five years, you know, next five, 10 years. So when you, you know, setting in your seat today, looking off into the future, what are your goals for the next five or 10 years?
Speaker 1:I will never change firms again, because the paperwork is too hard.
Speaker 2:I'd like to hear that.
Speaker 1:I'll be right here.
Speaker 2:Derek Good, good.
Speaker 1:No, I am real happy to be part of a group again, so I just, you know, I do want to spend a little bit more of time with the causes that are important to me, like J-127.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep.
Speaker 1:I'm a big Rotarian, so I like to do things there, and I like to be involved at my church. So you know, this gives me a little bit more time to do those things too.
Speaker 2:I'm a grandma, so yeah, yeah, you have to. That's the important stuff.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So what do you? So, on being a grandma, like what's your most favorite thing to do with your grandchildren.
Speaker 1:Well, just, I just like to be around them anyway, because they're funny, you know. So I like it. I'm lucky because my daughter will frequently trust me to have them for my, you know, with just my husband now for the weekend, and then you really get to see their little personalities a little bit more than you know. So we enjoy that. It's exhausting, but we enjoy that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have three children with big personalities yes. Yeah, they really are funny, Like what. So what's one of the funniest things they've done? Or said, done, or said, or.
Speaker 1:You know so Isabel is she's six, I'm a seven. She'll be seven next month and she is very dramatic. So you know just, it's always something with Isabel. So you know she's very intelligent, she's a lot like her mama. She's very smart but very dramatic. So we just always get a kick out of her. But her brother is gonna be her opposite, I think. I think he's smart enough, but and how busy he's.
Speaker 2:two. So, oh goodness, and he's so busy.
Speaker 1:So it's just fun to watch the two of them interact with each other, you know, because their little personalities are so different.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, I'm sure she'll have him figured out, if she hasn't already.
Speaker 1:He loves her. He loves her more than life itself. I'll tell you that. But you know, she's already kind of seeing where a little brother can be pesky sometimes. Yes, yes, they can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, my oldest daughter, she has one of those as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we asked you about like books you would recommend to any of our listeners. You know one of your answers was Dust Bowl Girls.
Speaker 1:I just finished that book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds interesting.
Speaker 1:It's a great book for anybody that lives in this area because it was about a basketball team a woman's basketball team in the 20s from Southeastern. So at the time it was Southeastern Normal School but and they were, you know, they won championships and so it was fun to listen. I actually listened to that one on an Audible, but it was fun to hear the places and durants that they referenced and the people that they referenced. So it was a really interesting book, if you have a chance to get a copy of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I misread that actually. You know, you said Southeastern Normal School. I thought I said Southeastern Norman School, so I was really confused on. Well, how was that?
Speaker 1:That was, I think, the first name of. Southeastern was Southeastern Normal School. And it was a teacher's college and I guess that was the name for teachers, colleges.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, I think I've told you. You know both. Both of my wife's parents went to Southeastern and they were both teachers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my grandfather would have been in school shortly after that book was written, and so and he would always tell you that the only reason he even got to go to college was because he played basketball for Bloomer Sullivan, who the gym is named after you know, and so so he was always a big believer in sports because it got him through college, and he was a professor at Southeastern for his most of his career.
Speaker 2:So Okay, yeah, interesting. So if you were to tell your future self, you know, 10 years from now, looking back on this, what's something you would like to tell your future self?
Speaker 1:Well, I would guess I would tell myself to you know, not take everything too seriously, just give myself a little bit more grace, probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're gonna gray I would agree with that. Not really, I'll never will yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll always be blonde.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right yeah.
Speaker 2:You know one of the things. I knew we were gonna get to this point and I was going I was gonna forget to mention it, but you have a hobby that you are really into? I do have a hobby, so tell us about your hobby. I am a quilter, so I you know that's what I do in my spare time is, I make quilts, yeah yeah, you kind of even underplaying it, like so you've been on trips, oh yeah, where the whole intention is quilting.
Speaker 1:I've got a quilt cruise scheduled for later next year, so yeah. I take it pretty serious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how like, how'd you get into quilting?
Speaker 1:Well, when my daughter was pregnant with my first grandchild, I thought, oh, I want to make this baby a quilt, and it just kind of escalated from there. So I've always known how to sew, but quilting is really a whole different thing, so so you know, now I'm part of a guild and you know I spend a lot of time quilting.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it. I just kind of escalated from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do your, do your kids like? Is it a like? What do they think about you quilting?
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure they both think I'm pretty crazy for the quilting that I do, but I'm also. I know that they're concerned about when I die. They're gonna have to clean out all that fabric.
Speaker 2:So, yeah. I think it's also, you know, my daughter really loves to kind of crochet and knit and so recently I've hired her to replace some of the buttons Nice.
Speaker 1:Good, good life skills there.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right, that's right we're. I think she may put herself out for for selling something.
Speaker 1:There you go. It's a lost skill. So many people know how to do that anymore.
Speaker 2:So it is yeah, she, she really enjoys it.
Speaker 1:You just have her come over and spend a weekend with me. I'll get her down that quilting rabbit hole.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, my you know my grandmother was a big quilter and then my great grandmother. You know, it really is a lost kind of lost art.
Speaker 1:My grandmother was a quilter too, but that was hand quilting you know, yeah, I think. I often think how much easier it is now with the machines.
Speaker 2:We have today Big arms and yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fun, okay, so let's see, if you so one takeaway, if you you know, if you want, if you want our listeners to remember, remember one thing about this podcast, what would it be oh, derek that is hard. One thing, one thing, drum roll.
Speaker 1:Drum roll. Well, just that I. I love what I do. You know, I like my clients. Luckily, over all the years I've been doing this, most of my clients are friends now, you know, and so I take that to heart and that's the way I like it, you know. I like them to all feel comfortable to come into my office and talk about anything. And so I think that makes me a little bit more valued member to their financial team, I guess you know, because they can talk to me about anything.
Speaker 1:And that's just. That is a relationship I like to have, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, good, good. Well, I know I know from the short time you've been here. You know we didn't have any relationship before you started. I just kind of knew you peripherally through Dave, one of our other partners, and I have. I can honestly say I have really enjoyed getting to know you Well, thank you, that's sweet Nice Before you came on, you know you don't just don't know somebody and there's sort of some reservation. But you know you really bring some good life to our office and candy which you can.
Speaker 1:And Christmas decorations and Christmas decorations yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I really appreciate your help oh thank you, you're welcome, it's been fun.
