Dear Diary,
I did it. I took the plunge. I sent the text that said, “I think I’m ready to go independent.”
Now, did I expect leaving my current career to have a little more fanfare than a late-night, not-at-all-thought-out text message to the CEO of my company? Yeah, a little bit. But here we are.
So, why did I send the text? I’ve been asking myself that for a few weeks now. I’ve had regrets, anxiety attacks, deep feelings of relief, and overwhelming feelings of self doubt. And yet, I still think it was the right thing to do.
I’ve spent the past three years working in the financial planning world. I have learned more about retirement accounts than I ever thought I’d know, made a bigger impact on the industry than I’ve yet grasped, and found a passion for personal finance at 25 that 20-year-old me never saw coming.
But despite all I’ve learned–even in becoming an Accredited Financial Counselor–one of the biggest realizations I’ve had is that I am not a financial professional.
Don’t get me wrong, I can teach you about paying yourself first, hacking your HSA, and leaving a financial legacy until I’m blue in the face and you kindly remind me that you never asked, but that doesn’t make me a financial professional. It makes me a money nerd, sure. But not a financial professional.
In an industry full of khakis and tucked-in neutral-toned polo shirts for casual Friday, I live my life with far more color. I collect tattoos as souvenirs because this body took me on such wonderful adventures, it feels right to etch them on my skin. I dye my hair pink sometimes because I get tired of looking at plain blonde, but learned not to dye it blue because it will quickly fade to a sickly green and refuse to wash out. I find it hard not to cuss in inappropriate moments and would rather wear jeans and sundresses than pantsuits and pinstripes.
I probably should’ve figured this part out long ago. It would’ve saved my coworkers a lot of frustration as they realized for the 84th time that no, I did not log that email into Salesforce because no, I do not know what that means.
My brain doesn’t work in Salesforce. I’d be happy to design a presentation that explains how my brain does work, but it would be several very pretty slides that all say, “I don’t know.” I have a creator’s brain, and does any creator really know what that means?
So, after realizing far too late that my inability to follow dishearteningly dull orders of operation was causing my coworkers additional stress, I decided to take myself out of the equation (see, finance puns are fun).
Thankfully, I had options.
In 2021, my CEO, a gem of a coworker, and I joined forces to launch a consultancy that was meant to allow the CEO to pass on his years of wisdom as a business owner and advisor to others in similar positions. I was to play a small role helping those clients improve their marketing as well.
Turns out, far more advisors wanted to work with me than him. Not because he isn’t great (I mean, I didn’t realize so many financial designations existed), but because it is much easier to admit that you need help with a task that is not your speciality than one that is. At least, that’s my perspective. I could be wrong.
I started working with other firms, either coaching their teams or becoming their marketing person, and was able to make an impact on not only my company but others as well.
So, when I decided it was time to go independent, I was able to do it while bringing my job with me.
By some miracle, I had built enough trust and proven my skills so that the company that employed me offered me a contract to become my client. I worked out an agreement that any financial entity that wished to work with me could do so under the brand of the consulting firm that I helped to grow.
Could anything be more perfect? I could step away from the administrative tasks that haunted me and focus on the marketing and creation that brought me so much joy.
But still, it was all financial. I love finance. I made that clear. But there still felt like I could be doing more with my messy creator brain if I wasn’t tied to such a buttoned-up and regulated industry. I wanted to build my own brand that could work on projects that let me use more puns and silly words and laugh at myself and laugh with others.
I launched Favorite Daughter as my creative outlet because after years of using just a smidgen of my creativity to help financial brands thrive, I wanted to see what I could do if I was set loose and allowed to truly be myself. So it’s time to find some clients who will believe in me as much as my (former) CEO does. If you want to be that client, reach out. I can’t wait to see what we can create together.