In today’s episode of the “The Runway Decade Podcast”, hosts Bill Bush and Pete Bush, advisors at Horizon Financial Group, talk with guest Erinn Ford, Executive Vice President of Advisory Engagement at Advisor Group, Seattle, Washington. Erinn is a big leader and she has a passion for helping advisors, clients, and young people, especially young women, being the mother of two young women herself. Bill and Pete also talked to her about life in her 50s and the mindset changes she's going through.

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Episode Highlights

• 01:00 – Bill mentions that recently Erinn was named amongst the 21 people who will change Wealth Management in 2021, so she is a leader.
• 03:10 – Erinn says in school she wasn’t like the top student but she was always pretty good.
• 05:00 – Bill asks as Erinn graduated in Speech Communications, how does that serve her throughout her career?
• 07:00 – The Speech Communication degree has helped Erinn effectively translate or convey emotion and logic.
• 09:20 – Erinn reveals that in 1999, within six months, both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer and that was the point of a challenge, because of the family business, working with family you have the emotion because this is your mom and dad and you don't know the outcome.
• 11:15 – Erinn thinks that it is so important to create space for hard conversations in business because it's a lot easier to not have the conversation.
• 14:10 - It was the combination of two things doubling down on and being confident in, just who Erinn is inherently, and then combining with a few individuals who helped her along the way.
• 16:40 – Bill enquires if any drastic changes happened when Erinn turned 50 or if she noticed any changes in her mindset in her 50s.
• 18:40 – As Erinn turned 50, she just wants to think about how she can continue to be engaged. She wants to travel by starting to explore new places more proactively and also wants to live a life where she is continually growing.
• 21:00 – Bill asks Erinn about her children and says that it's so cool in this decade to see your young ones do their thing.
• 23:00 – Talking about her daughters Erinn says that it is so important to follow some core principles of having conversations because in her perspective seeing the girls continue to grow and thrive has been one of life's biggest choices.
• 25:50 – Erinn’s bucket list has a list of areas to visit and experience, so if she maps it out to 110, she needs to be doing it at a pace of five per year, whether it's new places to tour.
• 28:15 – Bill asks Erinn one of the rapid-fire questions, “if somebody could pay you a year’s salary and you could take off well what would you do in that year?”
• 29:40 – Bill asks another rapid-fire question, “Wine, Whiskey, Beer, or none of the above.”
  
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Three Key Points

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1. Erinn talks about some stumbling blocks she ran into along the way that she had to overcome things along with her career while she joined the family business. She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1990 and was unsuccessful in finding any job. As Erinn’s parent’s owned a Financial Services Company which had both a broker-dealer and a Real Estate Arm, they said they have a position open for a receptionist and she can interview for it. So, she joined as a Receptionist, did paperwork processing, then went into operations, and later became the Head Trainer.
2. Erinn talks about how helping advisors by mentoring them was fostered in her and how that became a charge for her. Erinn says that her passion is waking up every day to empower financial advisors to fulfill client dreams as well as build amazing businesses. There were several times in her career trajectory that she was the only woman in the boardroom. She also mentions that there were around four or five influential individuals along her career journey who identified her unique strengths.
3. Erinn says by 65 she sees herself traveling a lot more, she wants to have a bucket list of areas she wants to travel with and have the freedom of time. She also wants to focus on health and sees herself doing something like speaking or reading a book, or getting into school.

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Tweetable Quotes

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• “So good to see if everybody's going to be listening to this but if they could just see your smile.” – Pete Bush
• “I can remember the downturn of the mid-80s, and I can remember some of the high times.” - Erinn Ford
• “The reason I ended up in speech communication was that I was weeded out of business school.” - Erinn Ford
• “The most fulfilling thing is sitting down with these young, very deserving talented women and just talking about their dreams.” - Erinn Ford
• “I mean, I turned 50 in COVID, I had always hoped for a 50th birthday celebration instead it was a red light.” - Erinn Ford
• “I am looking forward to a little more leisure and not working for money or doing anything, and then you run into an entrepreneur like Erinn.” - Pete Bush
• “I have two daughters, they are 19 and 21, so they're two years apart in school one year apart in age.” - Erinn Ford
• “In 15 years I'm living a life where I'm not as tied right now. I'm pretty still tied to the luck of say eight-hour day, it's more of a 10-hours day.” - Erinn Ford
• “When I think about a bigger future, I think that one thing was Seattle we have incredible summer months.” - Erinn Ford
• “For this next one I want to specifically say what was your favorite Saturday morning TV show?” – Bill Bush

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Resources Mentioned

• Horizon Financial Group  Website
• Contact Information        Bill Bush           Pete Bush
• Erinn Ford                   Website                       Email: erinn.ford@advisorgroup.com
• Podcast Editing

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