We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karen Schmidt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Perhaps the hardest part of working in the financial services industry is establishing trust with your clientele so you are trustworthy. And that requires time. This is why you don’t see 25-year old “established” advisors – they simply didn’t have enough time on the earth to become trustworthy. Being trustworthy means you’ve weathered chaos – you have gone to the depths of being wrong, being right, not knowing the answer, finding out the answer, and then boldly advising against the grain. And then – by the grace of God – been shown through your decisions that your clients prevailed, were made better, were made whole.
The level of “gumption” this takes is profound. And you have to do all this tumult with a fiduciary perspective. No decision or plan making or recommendations can be made if it is not truly in the best interest of the client. How do we know what is in the best interest? That process is fact-finding. Not just the easy facts of what is in a retirement account, but the hard facts. Where did the client learn their perspective about how money is made? What education do they have as to how money earns interest? Do they have specific goals? Attainable goals? Most of the fact-finding I have to do is deep, way below periscope level, into dark depths of their ocean souls. Because the more I know about what makes them feel like they’re drowning, or what it takes for them to get above the water line that makes them feel safe, I can’t do my job to be relevant or of value. This is where I become trustworthy.
So to answer in rather a profound way, folks know my “brand” when the see my process of gathering information, when I present a financial plan, and when we begin to execute that plan. Northwestern Mutual has a beautiful program that is proprietary that provides us an excellent tool to take the numbers and goals, place them into a program, and then be able to see where their goals will be met, where they need to be reviewed and options how to make their financial dreams come to fruition.
What I love about what I do is seeing the relief of clients as you work with them. I love to see their shoulders relax, their breathing get deeper. Instead of being perched on the tip of their chair, they sit back and will keep their hands in their laps. That tells me so much, like they’ve just checked a box on that life’s list. Seems a little altruistic even as I write this. Sometimes getting the satisfaction of the job comes even if a client leaves for some reason or another – and they do leave. Hearing regrets that someone wished they haven’t left is sad, but I have learned from each one and gotten better.
The goal with any company is expansion and that can mean different things in the financial services industry. For me, it is reaching clientele that truly values the work we do. Individuals that know being on this planet for 63 years has merit and value through tried and true processes and experience. I do believe my best years as an advisor are just beginning. To expand into markets that will benefit from this experience has been the key to what my daughter and partner of our newly formed company: Mater Filia Financial & Insurance Services. (Mater Filia means “mother-daughter” in Latin.). I want to leave a legacy for my daughter as my succession partner, already registered through my personal trust and the Northwestern Mutual. This succession plan includes bringing on more 35-50 yr old families in their best accumulation phases of their income years. It’s a fun market to be a part of – they’re hard working, building their families, their businesses, their careers. So many obstacles placed in front of them in today’s tax and economic landscapes that having a trustworthy financial team will help them be better, more assured, and safer in their financial decisions.
Having launched Mater Filia through Social Media platforms was a nice start as that generation does respond well with consistent communication that allows them to see how Nicole and I work as a team. It also provides good referrals. Referrals come from being trustworthy for a long time and there is NO better compliment than a referral from a client.
Northwestern Mutual doesn’t “do new products” – it is 167 years old built on the most solid ground of ANY financial institution in the world. The highest ranked company of its kind and it’s a privilege to be a part of this firm. A client needs to know that there is a HUGE difference with NM – it’s harder to be accepted with this company. The regulations and compliance that NM requires is 3x what is required by any other State advising platform. Only three of 100 advisors make it as a career advisor. Only one in 100 at NM make it past 5 years. The amount of trustworthiness that a NM rep should evoke for clients is unsurpassed, and that alone should let clients know they’re in good hands. .
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I am one of those women that was literally “chased” around a desk. I am one of those women’s liberation stories you’ve read about or used as parables in the narrative of the women’s movement. I have one story that was life changing…. I was working in the engineering department of a start-up in the Silicon Valley. I worked harder and smarter than my five male counterparts. These were in the days that your paycheck was dumped on your desk – no personal banking auto-deposit available back then. Your every-other-Friday lunch was spent waiting an hour in a bank line to deposit your paycheck. When that payday check was thrown on my desk and I immediately open it. It wasn’t my check! It was my male counterpart’s sitting two cubicles behind me. He started with <span style=”background-color: rgb(178, 214, 243);”>the</span> company just one month after me.. I had more education than he did. Worked more hours. And….yes, hopefully you;ve guessed it – my paycheck was almost half of his! When asked to my superiors why…. He had a young family to support and was paid accordingly, even after I had this particular superior confirm my work, my time, my contribution, etc. I was a woman and was told I was lucky I had the job in the first place!
I was simply stunned.
So I marched (and I mean anger-walked) to the office of the president of the company. Much to my surprise, we sat down and talked about this. He was patient and understanding and then offered me a position in the sales department versus in the engineering department. You see, being in sales is the ultimate equalizer. You work. You close a sale, You get paid. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman. And that is where Karen became Karen. I out-sold all 6 salesmen in the department collectively that year! I not only beat one of them, I beat them all and was paid a lot of money, so much so that same company president asked me to “slow down” as production couldn’t keep up with my sales orders.
I had two lucky things that day – I had a belief in myself that I was worth more and I had a president of a company that was willing to take a shot on me. I went from a guaranteed paycheck to no paycheck, but ultimately had the biggest paycheck. I actually made more than the president’s salary in my 2nd year with this company.
All I know – and the one piece of advice I give to anyone young – learn how to work with people. Understand how they tick, how they fear, how they want (not what they want!). Being a people purveyor and knowing that not one dime in this country is made unless a salesperson sold something is perhaps the most important lesson ever. If every engineer knows what it takes for the company to sell one of the items they’re designing, they perhaps would be more amenable to why the company survives. If another person doesn’t want to buy something, if a need for their family is not met with the item they need to purchase, they won’t buy it. Selling and understanding the people that are buying is where I believe the key is to making money. If a family therapist cannot understand that outlining their client’s differences and uniqueness will make them a better therapist – if they cannot sell what they do well – then they will have no clients, and they will not make money.
I learned very early on in my life – if you can’t sell, or at least honor what it takes to make a sale, then you cannot be successful nor can you help anyone else be successful.
So how do you get better at being your own salesperson? Practice. I love to take new recruits to Nordstroms and show them how I can get a salesperson that is supposedly selling me a pair of shoes but I sell them on needing financial wellbeing, and before I ring up my pair of shoes, I have made this salesperson a client. I think young individuals in my profession don’t understand how vast our market is. So many financial service professionals are really not good at their job. There are plenty of people that need our help, and need good help. But you need to understand how people tick. So read books – read a lot of them. You need language skills. You need to practice. Good sales skills will get you in front of a good client. A good client will sign with you. A good client will make you trustworthy. Your trustworthiness will make you easy to refer.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I look for organizations that want to promote education in their training of their constituents. Allow me to elaborate. One of my favorite ways to get new clients is more of a “fish in a barrel” concept….meaning getting as many individuals in my audience at one time where my message can resonate quicker. I teach this class called “There is No Prince Charming”. It is a presentation that can be over a lunch or main stage. I am a staunch believer that if a woman has education about her money, if she can have money, save money, and make money, she won’t feel imprisoned to stay in a bad relationship or under a bad employment situation. If she has the money to walk, no one can “own” her. It still astounds me how many women shy away from learning about budgets, mutual funds, retirement income, how social security works, how disability is paid, etc. This “No Prince Charming” seminar I teach illustrates with real take aways as to how to make themselves more financially secure and savvy. Understanding how money works and is made, grows and <span style=”background-color: rgb(178, 214, 243);”>is saved</span>, is key to making women truly autonomous.
My goal is to be introduced to many organizations that want me to reach as many women as we can to teach how to be financially safe, better, richer. I believe women are key to a better economy as we do most of the shopping, most of the buying. decisions in this country. But so many I have encounter still defer to their partners to make financial decisions.
I have one client I met at a seminar I taught to a standing-only room – almost 1,000people! She came up to me afterwards and said she and her husband need help getting financially organized. It was a fun client meeting and we slowly over the past 10 years became a good team building their financial wealth. One item her husband reluctantly agreed to was more life insurance placement, as he truly didn’t want to spend a lot of money for this risk management and instead buy more real estate. He went with my recommendation – again reluctantly – but I stuck to my guns because it was imperative he had the right insurance inforce to protect his business and family. Fast forward to the present – he is 56 years old and he won’t see 2026. He has a brain tumor and we’re losing him. All the planning and real estate purchases we’ve done won’t be as poignant as the life insurance policy he originally did not want but was placed. I will financially take care of his widow and family when he’s gone with that money and he has said countless times to me that he was so happy we had met. Not an easy way to hear thank you. I wish I didn’t even have to think of him being gone soon. But I know I did my job well – and his family will be OK because of a simple little presentation I gave years ago that got his wife to say “we need help.”.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.materfilia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karendryscmidt2313?igsh=MzRIODBiNWFIZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18SrEhVTnr/
Image Credits
Photographers – 1. Emily Hafele (black & white headshot) 2. Michael Segal (Karen standing) 3. Nicole Scher (mother daughter photo)
