We were lucky to catch up with Vanessa N Martinez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Vanessa N, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
In my family, giving has always felt better than receiving. It was ingrained in us to enjoy the process. My mother was born in Guatemala and promised to return to her hometown when she had enough money to have a big party for all the kids in the village she was from. I didn’t fully understand her until the day finally occurred. We traveled to Guatemala as a family; my three sisters, my mom, and my dad had to work and couldn’t take the time off. We arrived and started ordering food, booking clowns, buying toys, and ordering cake. You get the idea; it was a full-blown carnival party. We had to wake up super early on the day of, which didn’t make us very happy, but we did and started getting everything set up. It was one of the best days I have experienced, and I will remember it forever!
All the kids called my mom Aunt Alicia; we were now all their cousins! My mom made us serve the food, organize the games, and line up the kids for the pinatas. The happiness on their faces and hugs filled us with so much joy it was overwhelming. Most kids lived in the streets, we were 17, 10, and 8. I am the middle child, I had a good balance of knowledge by then to understand what was happening and know that someday I would do this as well.
There are many ways to be generous; I feel bad about not being able to give more of my time to volunteer projects, but I also understand that it takes money to make these activities happen. I give with a full heart for others to bring these activities to fruition, but I am planning to make time to live this experience with my two daughters soon. In the meantime, I give funds to support kids in foreign countries (Children International) and have my daughters write letters to our sponsored child, Mia, in Guatemala. I also give time to my church congregation to teach about financial stewardship of money. I serve as a mentor to 2 wonderful women and will continue to look for ways to find that joy in being generous.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Education is very important to me personally and professionally! Making sure we learn something new each day; this could be a new emotion, new skills, deepening an understanding about something. This is one of the reasons why being a part of the creation of SER Summits was so important. Not everyone has the same opportunities and if I can be one of the steps for someone or at least direct them to the proper steps, that is success.
My focus is intentional communication; creating Expressive Wealth was to provide a human-centered, values-driven practice structure to reach clients’ goals. As we help support families in growing their monetary wealth we want to make sure you remember to share all the stories that landed you where you are today. The more we understand how monetary wealth was created, the better we can manage it, share it, and invest it.
In Q1 of 2025, I will complete my second co-authored book; this second book is more meaningful because I wrote it with my younger sister, Dr. Patricia M. Villarreal. The book’s title is Emotional Heirloom; we focus so much on the inheritance of physical assets that we forget about the intellectual and emotional ones. We developed a guide to help families create this “Emotional Heirloom” to pass their legacy to the next generations. There is no way I can talk to every person; by writing a book, I am hopeful that the message can reach more individuals and we can all see how wealthy we really are!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. <b>Risk Taker: </b> I am a natural risk taker; not knowing how to read or write in Spanish, I still decided to travel to Guatemala for my undergrad for 6 years. That was the best experience of my life. 2. <b>Kindness:</b> Facing situations with a kind heart allows you to place yourself in others’ shoes. This has helped me center myself with the guiding light of being fair once I understand where the other person is coming from.
3. <b>Motivated: </b> I always try to look for a day, a person, a moment, or anything that I can assign as my “Why” for the day to keep me motivated. I like to have a plan and check pieces off the list. That makes me HAPPY!
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
There is a recent challenge that has fallen on my family’s lap. The “sandwich era”! This is where we are taking care of your kids and your elderly parents simultaneously. In the past, due to older generations having younger children, when they were in the sandwich era, their kids were older, soon to leave the house, go away to college, or start their own lives. What is happening today is different because some of us waited until we were a little older to have children, and now we have young teens in the home and still have to take care of elderly parents. This is not only happening to me it is happening to many. All these are real-life situations; sometimes, we forget in our industry that we are managing families’ monetary wealth and supporting all decisions that affect their long-term goals. Whether they pay for weddings or not, do they put parents in an assisted living home? Should they launch a new business or sell their current company? We need to know and understand their way of guiding them to the answer that best suits their family. When you are in this situation, your priorities change; as wealth advisors, we must be there to take some pressure away. There is not only one right answer, but once you dig a little deeper and listen you can properly recommend.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://expressivewealth.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessa.n.martinez/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-n-martinez/
- Other: Co- Author Book, Title: Family Value at Risk Inclusive Communication to pass on Your Legacy Family’s Wealth and Legacy Do you want a list of publications or TV appearances
Image Credits
www.lilaphoto.com (this credit is only for the last picture at the Barrons event with the peach suit)
