The Legends of WealthTech with Noreen Beaman, Lori Hardwick, and Cheryl Nash

Jack Sharry: Hello, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of WealthTech on Deck. We’ve had upwards of 90 financial services and fintech leaders as guests on our show for the past few years, and what our audience consistently tells us, they love to hear the stories about their friends and colleagues, the business, their peer leaders, especially about how they got started, how they overcame challenges, how they develop their strategy and how they ultimately succeeded. At a recent MMI conference, someone early in their career came up to me after I spoke about retirement and fintech on a panel, I had cited many examples of the history and evolution of our business. I mentioned Frank Campanelli. As one of the legends in our business and Frank, for those who may not know, if he goes away, who might be younger, Frank was an early pioneer in the advisory space, he goes back to EF Hutton, which invented managed accounts Shearson, Lehman Hutton, all the different names that went along with that, which is now the consulting group of Morgan Stanley, he headed up the consulting group when it was either Shearson or Smith Wiremu. Both. Of course, now it’s Morgan Stanley’s Consulting Group, two of the largest in the industry. And after mentioning Frank’s name, this young person looked bewildered when I said, Frank Campanelli, said, Who’s he? That’s when I decided we needed to capture the history, the stories and the legacy of our of this advisory and fintech business. So we’re starting a new semi regular feature we’re calling the Legends of WealthTech. So, for today’s inaugural session of our legends podcast, we’re talking with people who have helped create the business, and I’m very pleased to welcome our guests and my good friends in the business. Noreen Beeman, Lori Hardwick and Cheryl Nash. Noreen, Lori and Cheryl, welcome to WealthTech on Deck. Thanks, Jack. Great to be here. Thanks, Jack. Thanks for having us. All of them have been on the show before this will be an interesting experiment in four of us talking, I will only ask questions, I promise or at least I’ll try. So I’m so pleased to have the three of you kick off this Legends series. I think we’re gonna have some fun today. And I think our listeners will learn a few things and have some fun as well. So to start, I’d like to have each of you if you would introduce yourselves at a high level, you’re well known in the industry. But for those who have somehow missed it, tell us about your career leading up to what you’re doing now. So after the entrance, by the way, it will go back and ask to share about how it all got started way back when and the obstacles you had to overcome to achieve the leadership position that you enjoy and also the steam that you’re helping the industry. So Laurie, why don’t you lead off, give us your bio, and then we’ll hear from Noreen and Cheryl. So Lori, take it away.

Lori Hardwick: Of course. So most people know me as Group President and co-founder within Envestnet. I was there for 16 years, and help grow that business. Of course, with Jud Bergman, Bill Crager. And Brandon Thomas, Jim Lumberg. It was a great team. We had a great time. Then I went to purging I would see Oh, there I then tried my hand at back at entrepreneurship at AI Labs, which interestingly, Noreen invested in as part of Breaker and they were our first client. And then after we sold AI Labs, which was right before literally a week before COVID. I joined Genstar as a senior advisor to the private equity company, I now serve on five words in addition to Genstar, three of jump start companies, which are Orion, Cetera and Cerity Partners, which is relatively new investment for them, and then I’m chair of Vestwell and of documents, which is very recent. So that’s me.

Jack Sharry: Very cool. So let’s see, who do we have next is it Noreen.

Noreen Beaman: I’m up and I think most people know from my time at Brinker capital, I spent over 30 years there, started out in public accounting and then moved my way into Brinker and had the opportunity at Brinker to do. We were so small, and we started with eight of us. So I had the opportunity to really do almost every role within the organization, and super proud of the team and all that we accomplish there. And then we had the opportunity to merge with Orion. And we did that at September of 20. So I was CEO of Brinker at the time, we had the opportunity to really take the next step, which was a merger with Orion than had 18 months of an opportunity to be part of a FinTech and I leaned on my partners here, Cheryl and Lori, you know, when you live outside your comfort zone, you need to have people you know, you can count on to ask some questions. When I would call up and say Is this really how it works? And then we’d like so when you’re inside the FinTech as opposed to using the FinTech is fascinating, and had a wonderful opportunity there. You learn a lot in 18 months, and then I had always wanted to go to grad to a school so I moved on from that full time role, I still have the opportunity as vice chair of Orion and Chair of our destinations mutual funds. But I am I’m a full time graduate student at NYU right now and working very hard. And what do you study? Masters is an executive coaching and organizational consultant. Are you teaching it? You should know I’m humbled. I’m very humbled by the experience of all these smart, amazing, I keep calling them my colleagues are like my co students are like, Alright, listen, old lady stuff, but it’s been a wonderful, humbling experience. And I’m loving it, which I really am.

Jack Sharry: Great. Good for you. Cheryl, tell us your story. Tell us your story.

Cheryl Nash: Ok, sure. So similar to both Lori and Noreen started my career. Fourth hire in a little company called Security APL way back in the 80s, actually, and I’ve been in FinTech and wealth and asset management my entire career. I’ve actually just like Laurie, and Noreen had, you know, opportunities to lead and run teams. You know, I really love to focus on clients, I love to solve challenges for clients. And I think all those experiences with what I do really helped shape me, you know, both personally and professionally. But I think what’s unique about me is that I’ve been at the same firm my entire career, although it’s been acquired three times and merged one. So just like Noreen said, back in 2020, right after COVID, I was right before COVID, we got sold to a PE firm, and you know, became a one company PE firm working with motor partners, which was really exciting. And then a year later, we merged with Investcloud, where I’m now the CEO of the financial supermarket and Investcloud, which I’ll get into a little bit later what that means. But I just still love, you know, really being part of this industry really still running the core platform, which is fondly or some not so fondly known as APL. And it’s still one of the biggest and best asset manager and wealth manager platforms in our industry.

Jack Sharry: So I’m a huge fan of all three of these executives and friends, I will say they’ve done enormously good work, they’re good people. And they’re a lot of fun on top of that, and super smart to boot. So each of you has accomplished a great deal. You’ve enjoyed significant success. I’d like to hear from each of you and describe why you had to navigate because you were real, real pioneers, as women executives back when they didn’t have those. And here you are all highly accomplished a significant thing. So talk a little bit about that, how you got through it, how you succeeded. I know you do a lot of mentorship to other folks that are coming up behind you. So if you would talk about that a little bit. And Noreen, I think you’re gonna kick it off this time, right?

Noreen Beaman: Hey, yes, you know, it’s interesting as we think back of all the different career changes over almost a lifetime of this. There weren’t a lot of women when Cheryl Lori and I started and especially not in taking on different roles and responsibilities. But the one thing that I did working at Brinker capital was stepped into sales. And I went in actually kicking screaming, I’m like you haven’t a CPA with their audit bag, working with financial advisors in New York City. And I will share that had I not taken that role and not done that job. One Jack, I don’t think we would have met. But, you know, most importantly, I would never have understood the client the way that was important. I fell in love with financial advisors and that experience, but that was well outside my comfort zone. You know, public speaking, we just did a thing at school where I you know, I want the public speaking, I am shocked I am shocked amount of training that I am. I mean, these young, you know, wonderful of my co students, you know, they’re like, Noreen, that was so great. I’m like, I have had hundreds of hours of training. So I should actually be good at this. Not great, good. But that didn’t happen. Um, it happened where, you know, I’ll give John coin a little shout on this one. He told me I was a terrible public speaker. And I was very mad at him. But he was very right. And he’s like, but you can get better. He wasn’t saying it in a way to me not to do it. So again, stepping outside your comfort zone, Chuck Widger, our founder forcing that sales experience. And I think that’s what’s important to our next generation. coming along, you do need to take chances, you need to try different things. It doesn’t mean you always be successful at them. But without having those experiences, you will not be able to really move along in your career like you need to. I’m very, very thankful that I had that opportunity.

Jack Sharry: I hadn’t realized until you just said that during and just looking at Cheryl and Lori, you all have significant sales experience and acumen and on both sides of it with all of you. You’re really good at that. And I happen to be a firm believer as you might expect. I just think sales is really important to anyone’s career because you have to expose yourself you have to be vulnerable, all that kind of stuff. And if you do that you could probably do anything but show I want to talk a little bit about how you navigated through it all, especially the what five, six So many name changes.

Cheryl Nash: Sure. So I’d say my success. But I think about where I am today really was having me go outside of my comfort zone. And making sure that when I did that, I understood that I was doing that but like Noreen, you know, taking chances and kick and scream in some cases, but really take that chance. I’ll say my biggest game changing career success was back in 2011, when I was named president of Fiserv investment services. So I was part of the business for like I said, the fourth hire the business. We’ve been at Fiserv, our business unit part of a much bigger organization. And there were you know, a lot of before I became President, we had three other presidents named that lasted about a year each. And you know, at Fiserv, I held some, you know, several different roles. I was in sales, I was in service, I was relationship management, I was product, I was strategy. I think in each instance, I was on the team. And then I ran the team, which was a big, you know, helped with a big, you know, opportunity there and a more well-rounded perspective. But when I think about when I got that role in 2011, I was interim, when I first got the role. The people before me, the men before me were not as interim I had to prove myself and I had to work harder than I’ve ever worked in my life, which I did. But I would not have made it if I didn’t have sponsors, advisor of helping me along the way and championing for me that I didn’t even know in the background and saying, she can do this, she’s got this. So I will say that even if you get when you want that role, first off, go for it, fight for it, get help, and find friends like Lori and Noreen and Jack who can help you. But really, you’re not going to know what’s going to be automatically given a title, especially a woman, you’ve got to work for it. And you may have more challenges than ever, but I’m sure glad I said yes to that. And it’s really, like I said, helped me get to where I am today.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. I love it. Lori, tell us your story.

Lori Hardwick: So I have a few to point two, but I’ll share one with you where it was common theme here of kind of, you know, taking some calculated risks and jumping off at certain points. And obviously, as I mentioned, before I left in Envestnet, I was the only founder to leave still today. And it that was really hard. I think that, you know, looking back on it, you know, obviously, it was a great offer from purging and COO of the whole company, I mean, certainly a stretch for me, and they knew it was a stretch, I knew it was a stretch, you know, they were looking for a change agent to come in with a FinTech view of the business. And, you know, having that jumping off point and trusting my gut was a really, I will say, at this time brave thing to do at the time, it was a scary thing to do. Now, I look back and say, Well, I was I was brave to do that. And although that did not work out, as I expected. And as I look back and reflect, you know, we never go into anything thinking we’re not going to succeed. You know, I think that as I look at my friend, Cheryl, and Noreen, we think we can succeed at everything. And it’s a very common thread. And so when that did not work out the way I expected, you know, to be able to go back to my roots and start a new company was, again, another jumping off point that was not comfortable, something new. And even now, as I get on new boards, it’s not always comfortable, and it’s something new. But I really do believe that at this point in my career, I am getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, almost to the point of where I seek it out a little bit, maybe more than I should. You know, I do think that that’s a common theme now between the three of us.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. So what I’m hearing from each of you is step out of your comfort zone, take on challenges beyond what you think you might be able to do work like hell get smart, all of you. Some of you talked about a little more than others, but he was smart about the products and the process and the people and all that kind of stuff. It’s really knowing and learning and all that. And I’m thinking of watching our industry evolve just did a podcast yesterday with a young woman who said Hallo investing super sharp, and she’s gonna be running something someday she’s pretty close to running it now and so impressed and had the good fortune of many women on our podcast, same thing. So I love where it’s going and you guys pioneered all that you were really the originals is my mind. So what pearls of wisdom, what guidance would you offer up to these folks folks that are sort of next gen things that they should be mindful of? I do observe there’s a high degree of confidence among the people I’m describing in terms of that, but I think when they let their hair down a little bit, they say well, you know, they’re scared. too, we all are when we’re trying taking on something new. Cheryl why do you get it kicked it off this time wouldn’t pearls of wisdom with the current day crop of great young women execs, what would you say to them?  Yeah, I’d start with, find yourself a tribe. Lori, Noreen and I are so lucky because we actually have leaned on each other a lot. And we all found ourselves, I think, in different times, and we needed support. And we needed to make sure we were doing the right things. And we were leveraging each other and that has helped me personally get to where I am. I mean, there’s been many times that Lori and Noreen and I’m like, I need a call, let’s get on. And we would get a glass of wine and get on a zoom call, or we go meet somewhere and have dinner. So find your friend, right? Find that tribe who’s going to support you. And really, really, you could be honest with you can really talk what’s happening, and not worry that someone’s going to take that out of our little group. But it’s been the best thing for me personally, I also think like, you know, the industry today, we still only have about 6%, of financial institution that have women in executive positions, which is really startling, especially for us through who’ve been promoting that for our entire career. But there’s a lot of things that we could be doing right, we could help encourage gender diversity, which we do. One of the things I think that’s important is that what gets measured, really gets done. And you should ask that your firm’s are measuring diversity, just not just gender, but diversity, and that you award and reward those that really take it seriously and do the right things that they need to do to keep women and diverse candidates not just in the organization, but keep them to help them and grow them. But that’s where I would go, I’d say that we have a lot of work to do. But you need to find yourself some really good friends who you can turn to when you need to. And believe me, you’re gonna need to, because like you said, Jack, it’s not the easiest place to maneuver at all times. So that is my number one, Lori.

Lori Hardwick: Well, I would just add to that dovetail off of what Cheryl was saying, you know, I don’t want that to be perceived as it’s always a therapeutic low that we’re having. Because frequently we are just celebrating, were the one thing that achieved and it is hard sometimes to get that group of trusted advisors and friends that you can trust enough to be white, guess what I did, I’m so excited. And, you know, they know when they can, you know, we’ve all kind of you know, we’ve all been Women to Watch, we’ve all been in the media, we’ve gotten many awards, and, and been very lucky to have done so but to have someone that you can actually celebrate that with is fantastic. So as I think about my role in how, you know, new women are coming into the industry and how they’re thriving or not, is both by way of helping them with jobs. We all take calls on, you know, where do I go from here? How do I navigate this situation? And, you know, it’s a lot of, hey, I’ve heard this, you know, music before, this is exactly how it ends. And this is what you need to do. But, you know, as I think about my role now, it’s really more about trying to make sure we get more female advisors on boards. And there is a nuance to that, once you’re leaving an operating role and getting on to board work, you know, how does that happen. And a lot of females, you know, leaders who’ve been extremely successful in the C suite, just don’t know how to make that pivot. So it’s not only helping the women but also helping when I see an opening on a board or in a C suite, to really just challenge the firm to always have someone of you know, that’s been a very talented, successful female at the table for consideration, not that they would always get it, but you got to at least open that door a little bit. So I take that pretty seriously. And I think it’s worked out pretty well for where I’ve been able to be impactful there.  That’s great. That’s great. Noreen how about you?

Noreen Beaman: Dovetailing off of boats with what Lori and Cheryl  said and I think that having a group of professionals around you and now we’re friends is really around. Again that learning that you talked about earlier Jack like alright, you know, this that makes sense and thinking through how do we challenge each other and with honest conversations. And then when I think of our next generation of female leadership, it’s important you get p&l experience, because one of the commonalities with the three of us is we’ve all been responsible for a income statement, right, a profit and loss statement. And a lot of times when you think of even for a board work or leadership role, you need to understand the economics of your business. So by understanding those economics, all those other skills you need to bring to the table you need to be a good connector, you know But we know that there’s more to do. And then when you think of that top down from the board with Lori’s doing and Cheryl from inside the organization, you know, me and the board likes an opportunity to really make more room at the team. Right. And I think that’s the other thing that the three of us have in common is that we’re women that want other women and other professionals to be successful. And we celebrate that. And that is part of our celebrations as well as group.

Lori Hardwick: Yeah, one of the things that occurred to us, as we were talking last night is, you know, with COVID, having happened and allowing more remote work, it has really, I think it will see a massive difference of you know, those females who enter industry and then fall out because they just can’t manage being in the office as much as we were requiring before. In fact, Cheryl and I were like, Can you believe how much time we spent away from our families in the office for years and years and years. And it was just, that was the way it was. So I think with this new remote, ability to work, we may see more women succeed for longer periods of time, I hope so.

Cheryl Nash: One of the things too, that I learned this actually from Noreen is that when you’re in your career, there’s many different things like we talked about, we all have children, we’re very supportive spouses. But there’s always things that happen in those things that happen in a point in time. And so you’re having babies, that’s a point in time that you might need to spend more time with, at home than you do at work or not. But I think that’s important for women coming up in our industry to realize that it’s not forever, that all these things that are happening to you, personally or professionally, is a point in time. And I think that, you know, you’ll get through that, like the three of us did. And now we look back and say, How the heck did we do all that? But we did. But there really is that point in time, that you’re all going to all these women are going to experience and men too, as they go through their career.

Jack Sharry: You know, it’s interesting, one of things I find myself doing is I talked to lots of people in our industry. And because there are so many smart young women that probably half of who I talked to these days are smart, young women, whereas maybe a decade or so ago, it was probably all men. And one of the things that’s interesting, because I’m not a woman, I can’t tell them what to do or how to do it. But I do know talking to people matters. So what I what I tried to do is connect them to other women who I’ve impressed by that they should not dissimilar to what you guys found each other probably at MMI, or some other industry organization. That’s probably where you got together. And then you kept getting together and you were supporting one another. There were a few as I recall way back when women leaders, but there was few and far between. So you kind of had peers to reach out to and I think that we this next generation of women, and also men, same thing. I mean, reach out connect, talk about the business celebrate, as Lori  was talking about earlier. Yeah, talking about your issues. But when I have a problem, I say who can I call that might have some good perspective on this issue. I’m trying to figure out your thoughts on that. Does that ring a bell for y’all?

Cheryl Nash: Yeah, that resonates. Definitely. Yes.

Noreen Beaman: I mean, Jack, I think the one thing and I and I might have said this another time, he said, not appreciating the network like I have in the last 15 years, like having the ability to pick up the phone and ask a question with people that have similar opportunities or challenges, I think are important. You know what Lori and Cheryl and I have created as a lot of safe space. But there’s also we each of us have relationships that kind of broaden that out with other experiences. So again, that’s actually makes our network bigger Because I know that if there’s some question I have or trying to solve a problem that I, you know, and Lori’s like, oh, no, call this person. Cheryl’s, like, hey, think about it this way, like so that’s why the importance of you know, sometimes I used to think some of the network stuff was like, Oh my gosh, I have to go to another industry meeting. It’s not about necessarily speakers which we all do it and we all appreciate it is the people you’re meeting in the room that become your I’m gonna really date myself Rolodex. But you need to be able to call.

Jack Sharry: Well, I refer to that exercise as Hallway Conversations, that I go to industry meetings to have conversations in the hallway. Those are the always I find the most productive happenstance and stuff happens that I didn’t expect a gateway to find out what’s gonna come of it.

Lori Hardwick: So one of the funniest stories I have is when Orion acquired or not acquired, but merged with Brinker and Noreen is top of the house on both sides. And she and Cheryl and I are together. And it’s first time we’ve been together I think since COVID had started, although we did, you know, Zoom calls all the time, but she was talking and she goes, Well, I’m just trying to get used to being in FinTech. And I said, you know, is a real thing. It doesn’t need to be an air quotes. We felt like we progress by just having her say, air quotes.

Noreen Beaman: They’re like Noreen enough already, that’s what it’s about. I’m like, no, like, I’m used to getting you know, we’re getting paid by assets under management like this offers a certain like sea lice. I’m like, Oh, my goodness, it’s a lot of work. I mean, I do I have a totally different perspective of the amount of work and think of it from the other side, we always love things customize, then you’re these you were like them customized, you’re breaking the system.

Cheryl Nash: You’ll regret that later.

Jack Sharry: Yes, when you have to work at around five different ways to write. So let’s talk about where the industry goes from here where I’d love to hear your perspective on the future of our business going forward. What do you see, for the industry? What do you see for yourselves? What are you excited about? What do you may be concerned about? So Lori, why don’t you kick it off?

Lori Hardwick: So you know, from an industry ones, of course, you know, because I spend so much time in the private equity world. Now I kind of think about it broadly, I do think there’s going to be a bit of a pause here with the amount of acquisitions and consolidations we’ve seen over the last two to three years, certainly it’s been at record highs, and just given them volatility in the markets and some of the, you know, capital constraints out there, I think we’re going to see a bit of a pause, but then I do think it will come back. IPO market will come back that fuels all of that, you know, excitement around acquiring new firms. And with that, I do you think that, you know, as usual, you know, these firms that they’re doing, what they’re supposed to be doing, and listening to what client demands are out there, I think we will start to see some wealth management platforms that expand a bit into banking into not just wealth management and financial planning, but also insurance, retirement solutions, even maybe, you know, charitable options that clients can do on one platform. So I think it’s still incumbent on us, as an industry to make things easier at the point of contact for advisors and clients to really have the right conversation. And that’s where I see it going. And that’s where I hope it goes.

Jack Sharry: Great, terrific. Cheryl, how about you? What’s your crystal ball say?

Cheryl Nash: Sure, yeah. So I’m going to talk in my InvestCloud lens, because actually, when you think about being part of Fiserv where we weren’t really strategic to the overall Fiserv vision and strategy around billing, and banking and bill payment at all, I think it’s exciting to be part of a company that is really able to reimagine how financial products are bought and sold. So as the CEO, of the Supermarket, the Financial Supermarket, very focused on distribution, and focused on how we develop a marketplace, that takes products that the asset managers have, and makes it easy for advisors to find them and to give them to the investors as needed. So this has been interesting as you go through and look at how the processes today and how manual a lot of that processes. And our goal is to digitize that process and really enable you know, we’re calling it commerce opportunities are really enable a whole new way in which advisors actually can look for products and asset managers can sell their products. So that’s, you know, where I’d say that my big focus is and it’s all around personalization, which is one of the big key things around our industry. So commerce enablement is key enabling asset flows, making it easier for advisors to search for products that the investor needs. That’s what from a financial supermarket perspective and what we’re doing, it’s really digitizing that entire experience. And you know, really coming up with a new way of doing things, which is exciting.

Jack Sharry: That’s great, terrific. Noreen what about you?

Noreen Beaman: And kind of taking those two, what both Lori and Cheryl have said, in terms of, you know, here are how we’re going to put it together. And then how we’re going to digitize that how we’re going to connect that advisor to the investor. And I really see the investor is driving the changes that are going to be coming in the sense of what they’re looking for, you know, we already know demographically, it’s changing with more women controlling wealth, also the multiple generations in our marketplace, it’s kind of crazy, we try to think of the human the work environment, there’s five generations, and then you’re thinking you’re serving six generations, in terms of wealth management. And even though some of the young ones don’t have any money yet, we’re seeing our millennials, they’re emerging and their buyers, and they have a lot of influence. And so we really have an opportunity, and thinking about products and solutions that solve the problems. Essentially, that’s what we’re trying to solve the problems, whether it’s for college, it’s paying for college or retirement, taking care of parents, like there’s a lot of things when you think about money, money has a job to do. And at the end of the day, it’s the work of a financial advisor working alongside their client to deliver that. And the work that Lori and Terrell are doing are helping facilitate that. You know, I know at Orion, we’re spending a lot of time thinking about how we’re connecting our financial planning into the whole ecosystem. Everyone’s talked about doing that it hasn’t quite happened yet. You know, like, I know, check what you’re doing it, I feel like all this stuff still needs to be integrated in a way that becomes seamless for the investor. And that’s exciting to me. It’s so much fun when you think of what can happen and what is already happening behind the scenes. And negative create scale. And then I love with Charles you and in terms of access that digitization is so key, because we all live our life that way. We want to be where we want to be. And how do we get there.

Jack Sharry: Exciting times I have a whole bunch of thoughts on what you just said during but I will say that for another podcast. So I completely agree. Noreen, and Cheryl and Lori, thank you for a wonderful conversation. I had high expectations, you’ve exceeded them by far. So thanks for that. And as we look to wrap up our two final and important questions. The first one is, what’s a key takeaway? Normally, we ask for three. But since there’s three of you will ask for one each. What’s the key takeaway from our discussions today and Cheryl, when you kick it off, and then Lori, then Noreen?

Cheryl Nash: Sure, so I’ll start with which my motto is been for a long time is to surround yourself with the best people, whether it’s personal, whether it’s professional, whether it’s the team, that you’re managing the team, that you’re leading the people that your, your clients that you’re selling, to always surround yourself with the best people and people who have different experiences than you. So you can like we’ve been talking about you can lean on them, when you need to, you can celebrate with them. But I think that’s one of my, what I when I look back and think about how I’ve been able to do what I’ve been able to do. You know, that’s been really what’s worked for me.

Jack Sharry: Said another way you surround yourself with love is by? You do you do do? That’s right, and all the right ways. So what’s next is that Lori, are you next on this one?

Lori Hardwick: I can go next. So I would say, you know, the resounding message I’d like to leave behind is just be brave. You know, trust your instinct be brave. You know, I had someone tell me, just a couple months ago, they said, you know, you wrote your own story. You know, you authored your own story, you didn’t let anybody else be the author of your story. And I really appreciated that, because I think it is true. And you know, I want to make sure I encourage other women to do that as well. And men.

Jack Sharry: All the above. I just underscore it because I know three of you for many, many years and huge fan of each of you individually. And certainly, collectively, each of you is brave, you have courage. And that’s by observation on successful people. They have the perseverance, the guts, call what you will see it through and you guys demonstrate that always with a laugh and a smile. But be careful if you get in the way because it’s gonna get. Noreen, how about you?

Noreen Beaman: I was gonna say continuous learning because, you know, I’m on this education model I you know, putting myself out there being brave to go back to graduate school, but I think I would actually like to say be resilient. Um, that’s the other thing we had talked that you know, the three, again, nothing ever goes perfect. You wish it was right, but you know, it doesn’t. And so when you may get knocked down, you just pick yourself back up or things change. And that’s the benefit of being resilient. And that’s life. And I think for leaders, your resiliency helps your rest of your team and inspire other people around you. So I think that you’re humble and you’re resilient, and I think that really makes a huge difference. It’s great.

Jack Sharry: Cheryl, Lori and Noreen it’s been a real pleasure as always to spend some time with you all enjoyed our conversation very, very much. So thank you. And as we do in each of our podcasts my favorite question, you’ve answered it in other ways in past podcasts. But what is something that you do outside of work that you were excited about passionate about, that people might find interesting or surprising. So Lori, kick it off?

Lori Hardwick: Well, some people know that I spent 25-30 years in Chicago and recently moved to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. And as part of that, we now have an oyster garden. We live right on the bay. And that is what we do in our spare time, although, I will tell you that oyster gardening takes about maybe 20 minutes a month to do.

Jack Sharry: And so that’s great. But of course, you have any oyster farm bed thing. So, Lori, thanks for that primer on oyster farming. Noreen, what do you got?

Noreen Beaman: I was trying to think of something fun that I’m doing outside, but I don’t really have anything fun, like oyster farming. So Lori, I’m very impressed with. So you know, I am an avid reader. And that’s something that a lot of you might know about me. But you may not know that I like to read the end of the book. So I do not like any stress in my personal fun time. So I usually read about 50 to 100 pages get kind of hooked, then I read the end, and then I finish. But I don’t read the end to anything I’m not going to finish. Because I feel like that’s cheap.

Lori Hardwick: If you don’t mind if you didn’t.

Noreen Beaman: I know if I don’t like the book, I won’t read the end. But if I do like the book, I read the end, and then I finished the book. But I take the edge off because I’m up to like all hours of the night. So I have to manage my time. So I do love to read but I don’t like to be surprised.

Jack Sharry: That’s funny. Now what if the three of us gave you permission to find out what happened to the book that you don’t want to finish? Would you do it? It’s cheating still?  then I would let you do like even if you go to a movie, and I’m gonna go see it anyway, I’d like to know. I just do. And then I like to watch it and enjoy. That’s why I like these streaming things cuz I can go to the last one. I’m watching Jack Ryan, the new one. And I just watched the last 20 minutes ago. And so now I know. And now I don’t have to worry. I think this fully qualifies is interesting and surprising. So Cheryl, how about you?

Cheryl Nash: I think mine says interesting and surprising is that or oyster farming but I love to cook. So and I think over COVID that actually, you know I got to use those do that a lot more than I did in the past. But one of the things I did for my kids at Christmas this year was I made them each a cookbook. Of all my recipes, my grandmother’s recipes, my mom’s recipes, and they literally cried when they opened it and they take pictures of themselves using it and making things right now but I am an avid like when I get stressed out you’ll find me cooking in the kitchen. And my husband will be like oh my god, we’re gonna have a big dinner tonight. She must have had a rough day. And I literally love to cook it really is what calms me and one of my very favorite things to do and have dinner parties and have people over and all that fun stuff.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. There’s one thing you haven’t mentioned, I know it’s very important in your life. Don’t you have a new member of the family?

Cheryl Nash: I do have a new member I have a granddaughter. So the best Christmas ever this year we had Savannah Anne Nash join us on December 16. And she’s a little angel. So fun.

Jack Sharry: I my grandfather of Eleanor rose age eight just turned in the August John we call him Gus age five and they are the bomb is nothing better than that. I know that’s not for me to be raining on your parade about the podcast but I had a slip it in there.

Cheryl Nash: That’s been just phenomenal. Just a whole different experience.  Thank you, Jack. Thank you.

Jack Sharry: Yes, yes. There’s nothing better than being a grandparent I have to say so. That all said thank you my friends. This has been wonderful really enjoyed our conversation for our audience. If you’ve enjoyed our podcast, please rate review, subscribe and share what we do here at  WealthTech on Deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you again, Lori, Noreen, Cheryl. It’s been a real pleasure. Thank you.  Yes, yes. There’s nothing better than being a grandparent I have to say so. That all said thank you my friends. This has been wonderful really enjoyed our conversation for our audience. If you’ve enjoyed our podcast, please rate review, subscribe and share what we do here. Well, tech on deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you again, Lori Noreen Cheryl. It’s been a real pleasure. Thank you.

Noreen Beaman: Thank you, Jack.

Lori Hardwick: Thank you, Jack.