Anita Knotts: Yes, institutions have to change. Structures have to change. But if we sit around waiting for systems, structures, and institutions to change, we will all be dead. So we have to actually take accountability, throw our hat in the ring. And start looking at professions where maybe we never envisioned ourselves before, right? And that means, yeah, taking a kind of a risk because we don't see a lot of people who look like us. How do we know we're going to succeed? Well, how do you know you're not going to succeed if you don't step into it in the first place? So I always talk about it as follow the breadcrumbs, right? Every day the universe is telling you something, it's kind of pulling you towards something, and you just need to follow that. So that for me was where can I use my voice where it makes a difference, where it makes an impact. What are the things that are really bothering me about this field? And so oftentimes I would land on two things. One One was that a lot of the women that I was working with as an advisor, a lot of the women clients, really were not taking ownership of their longer-term financial health. So that was one observation. The second was that I didn't see a lot of individuals within the field who looked like me, specifically women and people of color.
Iyassu Essayas: Welcome everybody to Inside the Flows episode nineteen. I'm your host, Iyassu Essayas and I'm with special guest Anita Knotts. Welcome,
Anita Knotts: Great to be here.
Iyassu Essayas: it's it's fantastic to have you on this show. And I'm really excited for our audience members to to get to know you. This is this is one of those episodes that kinda I it builds up for me in the week and we we have a great topic that I think our audience members are gonna resonate with. And it's it's you know, thank you for your time and and and carving this out to to be able to, you know, listen and learn and just hear what's what's on your on your mind.
Anita Knotts: I'm just grateful for this conversation and have been looking forward to it actually.
Iyassu Essayas: Awesome. So episode 19, you know, just to want to kick it off with our our typical disclaimer, you know, what we talk about on the show is is purely for education. Don't take this as an investment advice. I've told the audience members many, many times, if you need some investment advice, just go hire a financial advisor. They're they're really good at what they do and you know they're there to help you out. And you know, they're they're the the best ones to put you on the on the right path. So hire a financial advisor. Anita, can you just introduce yourself to the audience members and help them get to know you a little bit better?
Anita Knotts: Yeah, absolutely. So I'd like to say that I wear several hats in my life as we all do, right? normally when we're asked to introduce ourselves, we always start with our profession. And
Iyassu Essayas: Sure.
Anita Knotts: I think what I would normally say is that I'm a founder, I'm this, I'm that, I'm a former advisor, and we'll get to all of that. right now, I think one of the things that makes me bound out of bed is I view myself as a change maker because of everything I've seen in my life. because I'm an immigrant, because I'm an American, because I am a former advisor, because I did decide at the age of 51 to take a huge risk and launch a company. And I'm all of those things. I am also a wife and a mother, and got a twenty-one-year-old son, twenty-four-year-old daughter, and I live in the Chicago area and Those are just a few facets of who I am.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, as you're also the founder, as you you mentioned, of your own your own firm, the Lotus Women's Institute. Can you just kind of give us an intro to that?
Anita Knotts: Absolutely. so I I was in the corporate world for about three decades, and most of those years in that specific sandbox were spent in wealth management and I was an advisor for many of those years. I had a wonderful career, loved working with clients. But before I would say probably about five years before I actually left the corporate world, I knew that there was something else out there for me. And so many people that I talk to now who are north of the age of 50 can actually relate to this feeling. They're like, you know, I there's an inside voice that's like this is not kind Of the long-term place for you, but you're doing good right now. So I always talk about it as follow the breadcrumbs, right? Every day the universe is telling you something, it's kind of pulling you towards something, and you just need to follow that. So that for me was where can I use my voice where it makes a difference, where it makes an impact. What are the things that are really bothering me about this field? And so oftentimes I would land on two things. One One was that a lot of the women that I was working with as an advisor, a lot of the women clients, really were not taking ownership of their longer-term financial health. So that was one observation. The second was that I didn't see a lot of individuals within the field who looked like me, specifically women and people of color. So I didn't know what I was gonna do with all of that, but the pandemic came and went. And I think what happened with a lot of people during the pandemic is that we all had this crisis, almost existential crisis. What do we put on this planet to do? You know, this disease can come by and wipe out a bunch of people, and what are we left with, right? What is our legacy? And so I thought maybe the things that were bothering me, the things that I felt I could make a an impact on maybe I could do something with that. So in early 2021 I made the decision to take the biggest professional risk of my life, left the stability of a corporate paycheck, and I launched Lotus Women's Institute. I decided I didn't want to be an advisor any longer. That was a wonderful career, but that's not necessarily what I saw for myself going forward. And what I really wanted to do was to bring more people who look like this into the field. And so the largest part of what Lotus does is recruit and place women in minorities within the wealth management industry. And then the interesting thing that happened is as I was becoming successful making these placements, another aspect popped up. And that is that the hiring wasn't the most important part. It was how do you keep these people? How do you keep the talent once they Get there. So Lotus then began to expand because I saw the need for a lot of these companies who are doing the right thing hiring different types of talent, but they didn't know how to retain that talent. And so now it's I think I view myself less as a recruiter and more as a consultant looking at helping these firms, mostly RIAs, boutique RIAs, who are interested in aligning themselves with my. mission quite honestly, which is to attract, develop, and advance women and minorities within this industry. So that's what Lotus is set up to do.
Iyassu Essayas: Is there something that is there like a common thread that you find with firms that haven't prepared to advance women or minorities in their own workforce that you can kind of point to? Like is there something that's just you walk into a new client's office and you say, I've heard this story before. Here's how, here's how to solve this issue that you're dealing with. Is there like a common thread that they all have that you've you know noticed since since you started this?
Anita Knotts: I think a lot of it is just a lack of strategy around it, right? So oftentimes I will hear things, in fact I heard this from the CEO that I used to work for. you know, there's just no pipeline of Nita. There's no pipeline of women, there's no pipeline of people of color. To me, that's a cop-out. Right? That's a cop-out. So, what I encourage these firms to do is the same way you put a strategy around every other initiative that you have that focuses on your growth over the next three, five, seven, ten years, you've got to put a proactive business strategy around hiring differently. So now the good thing is that the firms that I work with, that you know, they always say the first step to addressing a problem is to acknowledge that there Is a problem. So many firms out there, unfortunately, are still operating under the guise of there's no pipeline. Not my problem. They have to throw their hat in the ring. It's not my problem. They're not there. The best firms out there are like, no, it's our problem. It's our problem. We just need help on what to do. How do we do it? Well, then they look at somebody like me and they're like, wait, she is that person that we're trying to get on board, right? So she knows how to attract that person. She knows how to develop that person because she's played this role before. She's been in client service. She's been an advisor. She's been a leader. All of those things. So the best firms out there, I guess the common threat is that depending on which side you land, they either don't view it as their issue or they say, no, no, this is our issue. We just don't know how to strategically address it, and that's where we need help.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, it it's i a hundred percent agree with you. I think the lack of taking that extra step is is really where firms kind of fall. I remember back in my old firm, we used to have a an internship program and for for many, many years, even before I got to it, and we we were always getting, you know, kind of Harvard like Ivy League school candidates, and we started to realize that we were falling into the trap of groupthink. And and all the can yeah, all the like the outputs that were coming out were exactly the same. And that that kind of scared us because we were like, yeah,
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: we you know, in in the asset management world, you need to be have some contrarians or else, you know, you you get stuck in the whole groupthink issue. So we looked at to where we were recruiting our interns and we decided to diversify. And we wanted to pay attention to just kind of like the you know, the minorities, of of the pipeline. And what we found was that we would go to these, you know, historically black colleges and and you know universities like Georgetown, just like non-Ivy League schools. And what we found was the folks that that we wanted were already being captured by the big banks. So like JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank These big banks were capturing them at their like freshman year in college. And
Anita Knotts: Yeah, yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: and so what that turned into was, you know, it was a a a market discovery that then turned into a you know pain. We we were pretty we we didn't really know how to like address that, which then turned into a strategy, right? And then once we had a strategy in place, then we started to see the numbers. a change. But to your point, you you do need to plan for this. You can't just say, it's not my problem or you can't
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: just, you know, accept the world as the way it is. You have to you have to plan for the change that you want to make.
Anita Knotts: Well, you make a really good point, and I will tell you that one of my biggest sources of frustration, and one of the things that I'm trying to bluntly address is that I will work with a firm and they will say, yeah, we've got entry-level opportunities, and this is specific to wealth management. We've got entry-level opportunities. Well, guess what? Their definition of entry level is two years of industry experience. Would be great
Iyassu Essayas: Ha ha.
Anita Knotts: if they had a license, you know, if they since when was that entry level? The whole concept of entry level is that you're taking raw clay and you get to mold it into what you want, right, as a firm. And so one of the things that I'm trying to, it it's fantastic. I agree with you, the big banks, the warehouses even, some of these larger institutions, and I think part of it is that they can afford to, right? Whereas when you're working with middle of the road, these boutique, investment advisory firms, they need somebody who can come in and hit the ground running. And so it's a harder conversation, but I'm trying to chip away at it to say you can't afford to overlook this. This is top talent. This is top talent years from now, but this is you get to have this opportunity to bring in a really sharp mind that just hasn't been molded yet. And you've got to be willing to invest in that talent. So that's it's a difficult conversation, but I think it's a worthwhile conversation. So I'm glad you brought that up.
Iyassu Essayas: I'm really glad that you know we we get to talk about female leadership and and just you know change and and and also just you know minority leadership as well. but we're gonna transition over to our weekly recap. right now and and what what a week it was. you know, the markets definitely had some interesting stories with Monday kicking off. on the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece about how private credit is you know, an issue you should be watching or paying close attention to. So there's some structural cracks happening now in the private credit market. And for folks that are not familiar with the private credit markets, it's essentially there's somebody giving a loan out to know, companies and then they take the loan and then package it and sell it to investors. And those investors hold on to those loans. And those loans are starting to see some companies within those funds starting to to default. And that that gets scary when they do. And some of the biggest players in the space are starting to see defaults, but they're they're saying that, you know, that's just a you know, it's a cycle. Don't worry about it. That's that's what they are saying. But for me, you know, you should keep paying attention to that, especially if you're in a private credit fund. lot of wealth managers last year were pushed to include private credit exposure for their clients. And yeah, the the times aren't always great. Sometimes you have to go through a cycle and this might be the start of one cycle. Who knows? We'll find out. But pay attention to those funds, especially if you have clients in them because they're starting to see see cracks. And I don't know about you, Anita, but I I get emails all the time from somebody saying, Hey, we got a loan for inflows, Iyassu five hundred thousand dollars, you know, no credit check. And it just reminds me of, you know, the financial crisis, or I should
Anita Knotts: Yep.
Iyassu Essayas: say the housing crisis, whether it's like no they weren't no one was checking income, state your ch your income. They were just giving you home loans. I'm like, Okay, here we go again.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm, mm hmm. Yep, yep. Anytime there's this concept of easy money, when anything appears to be too easy, you've got to kind of raise your eyebrows at it. And I think that that might be the phase that we're at with private credit. It's sometimes as simple as how often do I hear this phrase? How often is everybody saying that they have a piece of it? And then you have to start getting a little, I don't want to use the word suspicious, but just you just have to turn over the rocks a bit bit more. And I think that's what you're saying as well. That's sort of the phase that we find ourselves in, is just doing a little bit more due diligence.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I'm just saying, man. I yeah, I've I have an early startup and if I'm getting offers for private credit, it's like something something's going on, man.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, yeah. So agreed.
Iyassu Essayas: So so Wednesday midweek Wednesday, there was another Wall Street Journal report CPI and the report c the July report came out with you know three point four percent and I think the expected was three point five. So it was a little little less than than expected and core prices was at two point five percent and I think it was expected to be two point six. So, you know, these these inflation numbers are they're tough because it puts the Federal Reserves, the new chairman Walsh in a really, really tricky position on making sure that inflation's coming down, making sure that we have full employment, but also kind of like not pissing off his boss who wants interest rates dropped. it's so I I you know I I worry for him because of that that tricky position. And he's a he's a very powerful person in in the economy, not just the stock market. And so, you know, the the other thing that I think folks who are not so in tune with the Federal Reserve are are feeling is that just everything's more expensive. I mean, you go to the grocery store, it's more expensive. You go to the gas station, it's more expensive. I mean, you're seeing six dollar gallon gas in some places in California, sometimes even seven, depending on the day. But then you see this like never-ending conflict in Iran that's driving up. energy prices, which makes everything expensive.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: So, you know, I I I have a lot of sympathy for folks, especially the ones who, you know, they work at your single mom, you know, with two kids working at Target, just, you know, trying to make ends meet meet. And everything just got more expensive over the past, you know, year or two. So yeah. Inflation not great. It's not rising as fast as it was before, but still we're at a level that's still pretty high up there. And I think a lot of households are feeling that pain right now. And I don't know, Anita, have you been to the grocery store lately? Have you have you seen how much a cloves c garlic costs?
Anita Knotts: You know, I I saw the numbers. Yes, cloves of garlic, eggs. I love my eggs. I love my eggs, but
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah.
Anita Knotts: good God. I just I mean, these numbers and stats that come out on a monthly basis, they can say whatever they want, right? The average American is still like, how does this affect me? And my gas bill is not going lower when I go fill up my car, and my grocery bill is not going lower when I go to the grocery store. So the stats are what they are, right? It's data and yes, we can keep an eye towards it, and maybe it bought us a little bit more time, maybe it bought the the Walsh a little bit more time with his boss but right now the people that I speak with right are those that are just they're not focused on the data they're focused on the day-to-day of their lives and we are still not where we need to be or want to be
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I have a lot of friends that are not in finance and even the things that they're doing, you know, whether they're working in Invet Productions or they're working at at a like a software company, you know, everything f even from an enterprise perspective is is getting more expensive and yeah, I think at some point folks are just gonna need relief or or else, you know, you're gonna have some some serious social consequences that that hapor happen, whether it's policy changes, you know, new administrations, new, you know, congresses or whatnot, there is gonna be a reaction if these prices don't get under control and and go down. But then every economist, at least when I was taught, you know, what you don't wanna have is deflation, 'cause that's even worse than inflation. And I don't know, need a I feel I feel like we're headed towards that deflation route for for relief. so
Anita Knotts: Could be, could be. I pretty much forgot everything I learned in economics like forty years ago, thirty-five years ago. Maybe I'm dating myself, but yes, that's a that's a great point.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. and then at the end of the week, this is just a recurring theme. and I just talked about it earlier. But yeah, it's the conflict in Iran. It's it's driving energy prices up and there doesn't seem to be an end in it. no real social commentary on it. We all know what's going on. but energy prices again, they affect everything. They affect the cost of making goods and the cost of shipping goods. Not not it's not just gasoline. and as as the conflict and no deal you know continues to drag the economy, you know, there unless the solution is is put forth by this administration, you're gonna see wider conflicts happening in the Middle East. And you know, there's gonna be an asymmetric kind of response from the Iran side to keep the conflict at least to leave the conflict as best in their favor as possible.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, agreed. And I think I mean, I'm stating the obvious, but right now there just seems to be a lot of uncertainty. There's not a whole lot of consistency in messaging. And I think anytime you've got that uncertainty, you're gonna have the level of volatility that we've seen. So we just have to you know, I hate to sound like a typical broken broken advisor message because that's that's what advisors always say. Focus on the long term, focus on the long term. But it's It's it's very much the case. It's making sure that you've got your ducks in a row and making sure that you're not necessarily making decisions based on day-to-day gyrations of any other markets.
Iyassu Essayas: Hundred percent agree with you. see, I mean, even though you left your wealth management role, you still got it in you.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, I'm I'm actually one of the most boring investors out there, I have to tell you. I I just I I'm married to a guy who looks at it on an hourly basis and and I'm like, you know what? I've got what I've got, I'm really happy with what I've got, I don't need to look at it, and I know what I'm shooting for in the long term, and that's all that matters to me. So it takes it takes all perspectives to make the world go round.
Iyassu Essayas: I I agree with you. Well, that's that's our weekly recap. and I think audience members, you know, st keep like stay in tune. You know, read the Wall Street Journal or CNBC if you don't have that subscription. just just keep and if you have your financial advisor, give them a call and just ask them, you know, what's going on? What do I need to prepare with? you know, we're we're past the halfway point in the year and you got portfolio. This is a good time to check in on your portfolios and You know, see what's going on and kick kick the tires, you know, for this part of the year. But moving on to the special topic here. I'm
Anita Knotts: Mm.
Iyassu Essayas: real I'm really excited to talk to about this, Anita, and that yeah, I shared with Anita a fast company article, and it was a really interesting one. it was called Stop Acting Like Women Just Discovered Investing. This fast money article is an excerpt from a book called How to Get Rich in American History. And What was really interesting about this article was that it it touched on something that is happening right now that the the general media is and research providers are really excited about. And it's it's this great wealth transfer. And so we have about a $144 trillion that's going to be transferred from the baby boober generation to the millennials and younger generations. But before and that's gonna be by twenty it's like twenty forty or twenty fifty, twenty forty fo twenty forty five or twenty fifty, one of the two, depending on which report you look at. But before that 144 trillion reaches the next generation, 44 to 54 trillion of those dollars are gonna hit women first. And why is that? It's because women tend to live longer than men and they're gonna be the you know, head of the household, once the men, you know, pass away or once their partner passes away. And so there's all this interest, you know, 40 like, you know, trillions and trillions of dollars going to be moved. And so where's that money going to go to? How is it going to get there? What's what's the impact going to be? So everyone's clamoring over and it's like it's like wolves to some juicy, you know, meat, right?
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: but but with that comes, you know, the the kind of media narratives that that that go along with it that sometimes aren't necessarily true. And this this fast company article that I shared was basically pulling apart this kind of notion that hey, you know, women don't know how to invest. Cause that I I feel in the I mean correct me if I'm wrong, Anita, but I feel like that was that that's kind of like the vibe that's going on is like women need help. They don't know what they're doing. And you know, here comes, you know, somebody to save them, right? A white knight in shining armor. You know, the typical story.
Anita Knotts: Right. Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: And this article kind of said, no, that's not the case. If we look at the, you know, the early 20th century, late 19th century, you know, women were the they were the centerfold of of the household making financial decisions. And we just forgot about that. so it's just kind of general like thoughts about the article. yeah, what would you what did you think about Yeah, the story there and and then we can get into the the nitty gritty of of of the questions.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, I thought the story was fascinating. I'm Statistics geeks. So some of the things that they were throwing about in the article, what was it, 40% of women or 40% of securities after World War I were held by women? Just something obscene. I had no idea. so I thought it was fascinating. I think what we have to do is separate the notion of financial like capability versus financial agency. Okay, and here's what I mean by that. Of course, we know women are capable. We give human life. Like, what can't we do?
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. Yeah.
Anita Knotts: We birth humans, right? Investing, that ain't nothing, right? Like we can think about it from that perspective. But here's what I've seen, honestly, in my career as an advisor, and still to this day, looking in my own community, looking online, everywhere. It is not that the capability is not there, but I can tell you that I speak to women who are. professionally successful. They are wealthy by any definition. They are wealthy. They do a lot. They manage the household budgets, household finances, all of that. But they still don't have agency. And when I say agency, I'm talking about ultimate confidence in where they're going to be in the long run. They've still outsourced their financial future to somebody else. It could be a male spouse in a heterosexual marriage. It could be Their adult son, it could be their father, it could be their brother. you know, from an investing perspective, even just let's just look at investments, right? Do you know how much of your household assets are in tax-deferred accounts or taxable accounts? How much is assigned here? What is your overall risk posture in your investments? Those are the types of questions that many of these women are like, you know what, Anita, I've got enough going on on my plate. I don't got the time for that. He can do this part. And my argument is, no, you don't have that luxury. You don't have that luxury, particularly for because of the statistics you just quoted, right? we tend to outlive our male spouses at some point in our lives. Nine out of ten women are going to become the sole financial decision makers in their household. Do you want to learn your investments when you're hanging out over the casket of your husband? When you are served
Iyassu Essayas: No.
Anita Knotts: your divorce papers, I know I can be kind of morbid, but when you're served the divorce papers, no. We are so good at planning for everything else in our lives. Everything we are awesome at planning. This is the one aspect. That I think we have to get way better in terms of planning for our financial futures, our own financial livelihood. So I think we have to decipher between that. No one is saying, least of all, me, that women are not capable. I think we could do a better job towards gaining more of that confidence from and investing and taking full agency, full control of it. I think we can do better in that standpoint.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I think I think the stat you were talking about was almost forty percent of post World War One securities were held or controlled by women. Like that's all I mean, that's a lot of wealth right there. Right. And it's
Anita Knotts: Yes, yes.
Iyassu Essayas: you shouldn't, you know, if if you forget your this that saying, if you forget your history, you're bound to make the the same mistakes. And I
Anita Knotts: Right.
Iyassu Essayas: think I think the media's forgotten that. and so And just generally speaking, the media has a very loud megaphone. So everyone starts to forget that. And it's just not
Anita Knotts: Yeah. Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: the you're you're right. You're the women are com absolutely capable. This isn't
Anita Knotts: Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: r you know, rocket science, right? Where you need to have a PhD to, you know, maybe push the needle just a little bit. Now this is, you know, basic finance, basic taking care of your future planning. I mean, those those things, you know, yes, they're absolutely capable of.
Anita Knotts: Well, you you just hit on a hot button for me with the comment you just made. I I I forget exactly already how you stated it, but something about maybe we've been told that, right? And so I come from within the industry. Within, I'm an insider and I am saying we have done we've done a number on women. We've really pulled the wool over their eyes, right? Whether it's using jargon, certain images, we've created this perception that it is this, you know, vast unknown that is only for a chosen few, that look very homogeneous, at a specific demographic, right? This little girl is not for you, you know. Let him take care of it. There's kind of been that aura around the aspect of wealth, access to wealth, wealth management, just the word wealth, right? And so while we've had that capability, of course, all along, we oftentimes become what we are told we can be. And oftentimes we're not told that you can be all of this. We're not told that you can be good with money. We're not told that you have access to the same level of wealth. That this person over here has. We're not told all of these things. So my messaging nowadays is twofold. It is talking to the industry, the institutions, the structures, but it's also talking to the women. Don't wait for someone to give this to you. Take it. Take it, right? It's there for the taking. No one else is going to hand you something. You have to be standing at the forefront being your own advocate and saying, look, this is important. It goes right back to what we're talking a couple of minutes ago. We're not taking ownership of this. We have to get better at that because no one is going to save us or give it to us. We are the ones who are going to save ourselves. So sorry, I had to, you said something in there that I was like, that's such a great point. This is this is where we have to be.
Iyassu Essayas: Well, can can you can you give like a concrete example of what what you just said? like the so so for example, I remember you know, I was in my twenties and I was dating this this lovely lady and you know she was she said to me, like, you're you're investing, even though I was in asset management, she's You're an investing, you know, I have a financial advisor and I don't know what what this stuff's all about. And I said, Well, didn't he explain it you? She's like, Yeah, I don't think so. It's all over my head. I was All right, well.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: look at your let's look at your portfolio, like whip it up. And you know, we were both in our early 20s and she was in a like a it was almost like a 60 40 bond to equity. So like she was in more bonds than she was in equities. And I was like, what is this? Like even I knew like this was, you know,
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: the wrong, you know, strategy for someone that young. And so we went to, you know, I said, let's let's have a meeting, right? Let's for person to person, we're gonna meet your financial advisor, right? And
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: we get there, and it's this, you know, kind of old guy. And you know, he's just trying to say he knows he messed up. He knows it because he's like, man, this is you know, this asset manager in the room, like like crap, you know, this
Anita Knotts: Yeah. Yeah. Oops.
Iyassu Essayas: yeah, oops. And he says, you know, something to the point of, well, you know, hey man, there's just there's you know, I'm doing this as a favor for her. You know, there's not that much money in in this, you know, in this account for me. So in front of her, right? It's and it's kinda going over her
Anita Knotts: He said this in front of her? dear God.
Iyassu Essayas: it's kinda going over her head. She doesn't un grasp like the severity of this, but for someone like me, you know, I'm like, you know, see I got my series licenses, like I I know like where all the ethical decisions that need to be made in this situation and that they're not being made properly and all that stuff. So like that's to me, that's an example of, you know. women getting taken advantage of in the financial, you know, in the f wealth management world. So for what you just said about about the point that yeah, you you honed in on from what I said. Like what's what's a good example of of of taking it that that you want to convey to the audience members?
Anita Knotts: from the women's side you're saying, or from the institution?
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, yeah, for not just from from the women's side, you know, it's just taking taking back that financial power that they already have.
Anita Knotts: yeah. Yeah. Well the first step is just acknowledging the problem, right? Remember we I I led off by saying like the first step to addressing a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. The second is viewing How I want say this? Viewing the aspect of financial health as a piece of overall wellness. I think what a lot of women do, and I don't want to generalize, but for the sake of this conversation, women will look at physical health, they will look at mental health. Spiritual health and they will forget that financial health is a piece of it, right? What good is it to exercise, to eat well, to pray to whatever God you pray to, to go to go to see your therapist, right? Focusing on mental health, so that you live to this ripe old age of 81, which is our life expectancy in this country, by the way. Seems a little low to me, but that's what it says. 81 and beyond, let's say, okay, but you don't have two nickels to rub together. Not so that you can go book a cruise. But guess what? We live in a pretty expensive country when it comes to healthcare. Let's just start there, right? So, what good is living long and living well when you can't afford to live that way? So, for no other reason than to protect your quality of life in your twilight years, to say, what do I need to be doing now? Okay, where do I bank? What is the extra money that I could be taking from my paycheck? and assigning it to future me, to future Anita. And what does that look like? Is a portion of that in savings, is a portion of that in investing. Let's say you're a woman who says, Well, I don't know the first thing about investing. Okay, I want to invest. Where do I start? I no financial advisor is gonna want to talk to me, which by the way, you and I both know that's true, based on the example you just said, right? Most of these advisors think they're doing somebody a favor who's got a few thousand dollars to their name. They don't want to bother with that. So what do you do? Right? So a lot of it is this is what women are really good at, talking to one another. Engaging with community, engaging with people that you trust in and saying, Hey, what are you doing about it? You know, I don't want to be gross, but women talk more about their sex life and their OBGYN appointments than they do about their financial health. There is something wrong with that picture. So when I say understand, take ownership of it, it is starting with yourself. There is zero excuse in this day and age to say you don't have access to. Information. Everywhere you turn, you have access to information. You have brilliant podcasts like this. You've got newsletters. You've got news shows. You've got any number of of you've got books, right? Information is everywhere. So taking ownership means going out and finding it. Find what works for you and then act on it. Baby steps, baby steps. So I don't know if that answers the question, but that's that's where I would. Let's start.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, I think it leads me to another question, which is basically the our industry, the wealth management industry is probably asleep at this. and so
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: w when you think about female leadership development, the impending wealth transfer, you know, it seems like that's like a a dangerous mix for for the space and that there could be disruption that that Even though we're in a regulated industry, there could be disruption that that comes about it. Yeah. What do you think that what do you think if if if an advisory firm is at asleep at the wheel and there's this wealth transfer and like a but like a lot of women are gonna be, you know, in control of the the you know, the wealth in their households, where do you think they can get things wrong? And what do you think they can do to like today, what can they do to prepare themselves to, you know, Not just acknowledge but deal with this impending wealth transfer that's coming where where women are in charge.
Anita Knotts: I'm so glad you asked this question because I give entire keynote presentations on this topic. So you threw out
Iyassu Essayas: there we go.
Anita Knotts: you threw out a a few trillion dollar statistics which are just powerful when somebody hears that. Let me narrow it down even more from a timeline perspective. 2030, that's just four years from now. Women in the United States are going to control $34 trillion in private wealth in just four short years. And what I am encouraging my clients to do, my corporate clients, do not wait for 2030 to start staffing up accordingly, to start developing your talent, to start addressing your female clients with the right approach. You need to be doing that now. Okay? So the easiest way to look at it is you have to be focused on, yes, the client of the future who is woman, who is next generation, who is a person of color. But in order to address that person, you need to focus on the advisor of the future. What does she look like? And it better be she. And then to get to the advisor of the future, you need a firm of the future. So it's it's a triangle: client of the future, advisor of the future, firm of the future are. Are all influencing one another, right? And the cost of ignoring that is you become irrelevant. Competitively, you become irrelevant. That should frighten anybody into doing the right things. Okay, so that's the strategic aspect. The tactical part of it, which is I think what you're asking me, okay, so what do they do? Okay, I want you to think of another triangle. Okay. I have been three, all three of these. Okay, I've been the woman investor, I've been the woman advisor, and I've been the woman leader. And all of these firms right now are probably scratching their heads saying, well, what do we do to attract and retain the woman investor? But they're ignoring the other two parts of that triangle. Okay. That woman investor, and I'm not going to go as far as saying that all women clients and women investors only want women advisors. I actually don't know that that's true. I don't think that that's borne out in any real data, okay? But they do want to see someone who can relate to them sitting on the other side of that table. If that woman investor was recently widowed and she's overwhelmed and she has not met that advisor, she's looking for somebody sitting across the table from her that can hear her, that can Hear her cry, that can hear her be overwhelmed, that can listen to her, that can take down the notes and say, I got you, here's where we're gonna go from here. That's who she wants. And oftentimes that is a woman. Okay, but guess what? Hiring more women is a better possibility when you've got women in leadership at your firm. What do you think I did when I was in a leadership role? When I had the platform to hire and develop, who do you think I focused on when I was out in the marketplace looking for talent? It's not that I didn't hire men, of course I did, right? But I had a special lens towards finding other Anitas that was meaningful for me, right? The whole reason I left the corporate world is because it wasn't moving fast enough for me. That's why I'm doing the work that I'm doing now. So bringing on and developing women leaders in your organization is so critical to this issue that you and I are tr discussing right here. Because those women leaders have a bit more of a personal stake in finding more people, more women advisors. And then turn that around. On the flip side, you're going to find more women to come into this industry when they can see more people who look like that. You cannot become which you cannot see. And those two forces combined are going to help your firm attract and retain women investors. I just said a lot, I know, but that's it's why I wake up every morning.
Iyassu Essayas: I remember speaking with a CEO of a large pharmaceutical Chairman was also in the on the call and we were focusing on diversity in the workplace. And one of the things that was this very memorable that ties into what you just said, Anita, is that the CEO said we we put in effort to make sure that we are looking through a diversity lens because the next generation of employees, they're gonna look up to look to leadership and they're gonna say. Do I have a chance here? And if they can't relate to the leadership, they're gonna go you know, find another job. and
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: that's that's essentially it. If you can't relate, then you tend to look elsewhere to where you can humans are are social beings. That's just how we work. and so
Anita Knotts: Yes. Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: you you make a very, very, very good point. And I hope folks understand that, you know, the the the relation part is really important. for a success. If folks can't relate, then they look elsewhere to find someone else that they can relate to or with.
Anita Knotts: It's It's critical. I see, you know, firms are salivating over, gee, you know, the the great wealth transfer, how do we retain that money? How do we attract those assets? Yet they're ignoring the development of the people within their firm or attracting next gen minority talent, which is so clearly where the assets are flowing, right? You've got the horizontal transfer that's going from husband to wife, but then you've got the vertical transfer that's gonna be going To next generation. So when we speak of diversity, it's not just diversity for checking a box sake, right? It's literally as a competitive advantage. You want to be there. One of the fun exercises that I do because I like to torture myself is anytime I'm looking at firms and I'm curious about a particular firm, I will go to their website and I will go to the you know drop down that says our team. What do you think I see? I see the top, you know, executive management advisor. Whatever, all looking pretty homogeneous, same suits, same colored tie, same everything, right? And then you go to the sales support people, and there are all the women. And so again, I'm not I'm not in a position of blame nowadays. I don't like to blame one structure or entity versus another. I think both need to take ownership. Here's what I mean by that. This is a the statement I make often. And I say this to women: yes, systems have to change. Yes, institutions have to change. Structures have to change. But if we sit around waiting for systems, structures, and institutions to change, we will all be dead. So we have to actually take accountability, throw our hat in the ring. And start looking at professions where maybe we never envisioned ourselves before, right? And that means, yeah, taking a kind of a risk because we don't see a lot of people who look like us. How do we know we're going to succeed? Well, how do you know you're not going to succeed if you don't step into it in the first place? So my point is both things need to take place. It's both and.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, 100% agree with you. I think a good example, another good example is the religious investors. So when I was talking about, you know, like attracts like, if you look at just wealth managers that are focused on faith based investing, you know, the fact that the advisor themselves has a particular faith that they, you know, use as a kind of a branding and marketing, it attracts
Anita Knotts: Sure.
Iyassu Essayas: other faith-based investors like the end clients and moms and pops. And that is a a massive growing sub-industry within wealth management. I mean, the the Kingdom Advisors has probably one of the largest
Anita Knotts: Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: wealth management conferences in the United States. And it just goes back to the point that you're you're also making is you know, you have to be able to relate. If you if you cannot relate to your client or their client can't relate to you, You're losing a a huge business opportunity. you're basically losing the future, if you if you can't relate to your clients. And that isn't rocket science.
Anita Knotts: Well, and think about it, this is I some people don't want to admit this, but this is a relationship business, right? That's that's that's what it is. It's relational. And when I talk to younger women about exploring career paths within this field, oftentimes these women don't see themselves right doing this. and if they do, by the way, if they do come into this industry, oftentimes they go into HR, marketing, compliance, operations, they never want to be in that client. Facing role or controlling a PL leadership role. So oftentimes it's it's getting them to understand that listen, this isn't about knowing sharp and beta and trainer ratios. This is about understanding the human sitting across the table from you and saying, Hey, what's keeping you up at night? Let's talk. What's happening? And how can I help you get to where you need to be? Right? And this is what women have been known for historically: is that empathy. It's the compassion. It's the relational skills. So once I start explaining it to them that way, they're like, okay. Well, I mean, the technical stuff, it can be learned. I'm a big believer in that. You can learn that. It's the, I hate it when they say this these are the soft skills, because I feel like the soft skills are the hardest to develop for so many people. Yet many women are wired that way naturally. So it's really getting them to see that there is a place for them in this field.
Iyassu Essayas: Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because it's it's actually the this is anecdotal. I don't have you know a big study to prove this, but from the conferences and the advice tons of advisors that I met, it's actually the soft skills that are getting more valuable. So finding an asset manager is not like advisors treat advisors, wealth managers, family offices, the whole like advisory, a big umbrella. They treat asset managers these days as as commodities. So it's like you're you
Anita Knotts: Mm.
Iyassu Essayas: can't really differentiate yourself by having like a asset manager, you know, in your wheelhouse anymore or construct
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: a portfolio for your own client. It's actually the planning side. The planning side is becoming
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: more and more valuable. So like those soft skills, like yeah, they actually matter.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, and I'm gonna take that a step further. Investment management is commoditized, you're absolutely right. I would actually say even planning is becoming the price of admission. So where does that leave you? How do you differentiate yourself from the RIA next to you? Right? How do you differentiate yourself? It has to be through you, the people, who comprises your firm? And what is their what is your claim to fame? What are you good at? How do you show that you truly have this person's best interests, right? What are the questions you're asking that person? And it can't just be, what's your risk tolerance? You know, and it's in this black box, right? You give them five questions, they score it one to five. No, it's truly like what what does risk mean to you, right? When I was an advisor, I would talk to a husband and a wife, same room, and both of them would be giving me totally opposite answers on just the risk. Question alone. And oftentimes she wouldn't even say anything until after the meeting. Right? She'd poke around and can I talk to you? You know, I'm not really comfortable with this. She didn't want to talk in front of him. The best advisors nowadays is not about the investments. You're absolutely right. I would even argue it's not about the planning. Those are there and those are absolutely necessary, but before that, you have to understand the human that's sitting in front of you. So that would be my my perspective.
Iyassu Essayas: We get to my favorite question to ask my guests, Anita. What are you looking forward to next week?
Anita Knotts: next week? Well, next week I'm gonna go visit my daughter in Seattle. So that's that's a big aspect of that is is seeing the great Pacific Northwest with her. but I also have some really interesting conversations with male allies that I'm very much looking forward to. It's one of the most pleasant surprises I will say after launching it since being a founder and entrepreneur for the past five years is the number of men who are completely in tune and aligned with the with the mission of what I'm trying to accomplish, changing the Of this industry and speaking to not that every single one of them becomes a client, but it's just you know, having somebody who doesn't look like me or someone who didn't have the same lived experience I did in this industry, be open to having that dialogue. Those are the types of conversations that I look forward to, and I've got a few lined up, so looking forward to that.
Iyassu Essayas: That's awesome. Well, I want to thank Anita for being our special guest this this week for episode 19 of Inside the Flows. Anita, if folks want to follow you, if they want to check out your website, do do you wanna give just some some information where they can you know, again, follow you and and and figure out what you're doing and keep keep up to date with you and and the work that the that your your firm is doing. where where can they where can they find that information?
Anita Knotts: Absolutely, absolutely. So you know, look me up on LinkedIn. That's the best place. I'm on it all day and all night, quite frankly. So look up Anita Knotts and you'll find me there. website lotuswomen's institute dot com. If you scroll down to the very bottom of that homepage, I would love it if you could sign up for my newsletter. goes out every Tuesday morning. It'll take you sixty seconds to read, and I love getting feedback. and I write about a lot of the things that you and I just spent time talking about and I've absolutely loved this dialogue. This has been a lot of fun.
Iyassu Essayas: Thank you. I'll I'll put all of Anita's information in the description for for you folks to to easily find. Please check out her website, sign up for a newsletter. you know, this is a great, powerful conversation we just had. Again, I want to thank you, Anita, for being our special guest. If you are an advisor, wealth manager, planner, family office asset manager, service provider, and you want to keep the conversation going, please join Inflows. It's free to join, free to use. And we will catch you all next week. Thank you very much.
Iyassu Essayas: Welcome everybody to Inside the Flows episode nineteen. I'm your host, Iyassu Essayas and I'm with special guest Anita Knotts. Welcome,
Anita Knotts: Great to be here.
Iyassu Essayas: it's it's fantastic to have you on this show. And I'm really excited for our audience members to to get to know you. This is this is one of those episodes that kinda I it builds up for me in the week and we we have a great topic that I think our audience members are gonna resonate with. And it's it's you know, thank you for your time and and and carving this out to to be able to, you know, listen and learn and just hear what's what's on your on your mind.
Anita Knotts: I'm just grateful for this conversation and have been looking forward to it actually.
Iyassu Essayas: Awesome. So episode 19, you know, just to want to kick it off with our our typical disclaimer, you know, what we talk about on the show is is purely for education. Don't take this as an investment advice. I've told the audience members many, many times, if you need some investment advice, just go hire a financial advisor. They're they're really good at what they do and you know they're there to help you out. And you know, they're they're the the best ones to put you on the on the right path. So hire a financial advisor. Anita, can you just introduce yourself to the audience members and help them get to know you a little bit better?
Anita Knotts: Yeah, absolutely. So I'd like to say that I wear several hats in my life as we all do, right? normally when we're asked to introduce ourselves, we always start with our profession. And
Iyassu Essayas: Sure.
Anita Knotts: I think what I would normally say is that I'm a founder, I'm this, I'm that, I'm a former advisor, and we'll get to all of that. right now, I think one of the things that makes me bound out of bed is I view myself as a change maker because of everything I've seen in my life. because I'm an immigrant, because I'm an American, because I am a former advisor, because I did decide at the age of 51 to take a huge risk and launch a company. And I'm all of those things. I am also a wife and a mother, and got a twenty-one-year-old son, twenty-four-year-old daughter, and I live in the Chicago area and Those are just a few facets of who I am.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, as you're also the founder, as you you mentioned, of your own your own firm, the Lotus Women's Institute. Can you just kind of give us an intro to that?
Anita Knotts: Absolutely. so I I was in the corporate world for about three decades, and most of those years in that specific sandbox were spent in wealth management and I was an advisor for many of those years. I had a wonderful career, loved working with clients. But before I would say probably about five years before I actually left the corporate world, I knew that there was something else out there for me. And so many people that I talk to now who are north of the age of 50 can actually relate to this feeling. They're like, you know, I there's an inside voice that's like this is not kind Of the long-term place for you, but you're doing good right now. So I always talk about it as follow the breadcrumbs, right? Every day the universe is telling you something, it's kind of pulling you towards something, and you just need to follow that. So that for me was where can I use my voice where it makes a difference, where it makes an impact. What are the things that are really bothering me about this field? And so oftentimes I would land on two things. One One was that a lot of the women that I was working with as an advisor, a lot of the women clients, really were not taking ownership of their longer-term financial health. So that was one observation. The second was that I didn't see a lot of individuals within the field who looked like me, specifically women and people of color. So I didn't know what I was gonna do with all of that, but the pandemic came and went. And I think what happened with a lot of people during the pandemic is that we all had this crisis, almost existential crisis. What do we put on this planet to do? You know, this disease can come by and wipe out a bunch of people, and what are we left with, right? What is our legacy? And so I thought maybe the things that were bothering me, the things that I felt I could make a an impact on maybe I could do something with that. So in early 2021 I made the decision to take the biggest professional risk of my life, left the stability of a corporate paycheck, and I launched Lotus Women's Institute. I decided I didn't want to be an advisor any longer. That was a wonderful career, but that's not necessarily what I saw for myself going forward. And what I really wanted to do was to bring more people who look like this into the field. And so the largest part of what Lotus does is recruit and place women in minorities within the wealth management industry. And then the interesting thing that happened is as I was becoming successful making these placements, another aspect popped up. And that is that the hiring wasn't the most important part. It was how do you keep these people? How do you keep the talent once they Get there. So Lotus then began to expand because I saw the need for a lot of these companies who are doing the right thing hiring different types of talent, but they didn't know how to retain that talent. And so now it's I think I view myself less as a recruiter and more as a consultant looking at helping these firms, mostly RIAs, boutique RIAs, who are interested in aligning themselves with my. mission quite honestly, which is to attract, develop, and advance women and minorities within this industry. So that's what Lotus is set up to do.
Iyassu Essayas: Is there something that is there like a common thread that you find with firms that haven't prepared to advance women or minorities in their own workforce that you can kind of point to? Like is there something that's just you walk into a new client's office and you say, I've heard this story before. Here's how, here's how to solve this issue that you're dealing with. Is there like a common thread that they all have that you've you know noticed since since you started this?
Anita Knotts: I think a lot of it is just a lack of strategy around it, right? So oftentimes I will hear things, in fact I heard this from the CEO that I used to work for. you know, there's just no pipeline of Nita. There's no pipeline of women, there's no pipeline of people of color. To me, that's a cop-out. Right? That's a cop-out. So, what I encourage these firms to do is the same way you put a strategy around every other initiative that you have that focuses on your growth over the next three, five, seven, ten years, you've got to put a proactive business strategy around hiring differently. So now the good thing is that the firms that I work with, that you know, they always say the first step to addressing a problem is to acknowledge that there Is a problem. So many firms out there, unfortunately, are still operating under the guise of there's no pipeline. Not my problem. They have to throw their hat in the ring. It's not my problem. They're not there. The best firms out there are like, no, it's our problem. It's our problem. We just need help on what to do. How do we do it? Well, then they look at somebody like me and they're like, wait, she is that person that we're trying to get on board, right? So she knows how to attract that person. She knows how to develop that person because she's played this role before. She's been in client service. She's been an advisor. She's been a leader. All of those things. So the best firms out there, I guess the common threat is that depending on which side you land, they either don't view it as their issue or they say, no, no, this is our issue. We just don't know how to strategically address it, and that's where we need help.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, it it's i a hundred percent agree with you. I think the lack of taking that extra step is is really where firms kind of fall. I remember back in my old firm, we used to have a an internship program and for for many, many years, even before I got to it, and we we were always getting, you know, kind of Harvard like Ivy League school candidates, and we started to realize that we were falling into the trap of groupthink. And and all the can yeah, all the like the outputs that were coming out were exactly the same. And that that kind of scared us because we were like, yeah,
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: we you know, in in the asset management world, you need to be have some contrarians or else, you know, you you get stuck in the whole groupthink issue. So we looked at to where we were recruiting our interns and we decided to diversify. And we wanted to pay attention to just kind of like the you know, the minorities, of of the pipeline. And what we found was that we would go to these, you know, historically black colleges and and you know universities like Georgetown, just like non-Ivy League schools. And what we found was the folks that that we wanted were already being captured by the big banks. So like JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank These big banks were capturing them at their like freshman year in college. And
Anita Knotts: Yeah, yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: and so what that turned into was, you know, it was a a a market discovery that then turned into a you know pain. We we were pretty we we didn't really know how to like address that, which then turned into a strategy, right? And then once we had a strategy in place, then we started to see the numbers. a change. But to your point, you you do need to plan for this. You can't just say, it's not my problem or you can't
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: just, you know, accept the world as the way it is. You have to you have to plan for the change that you want to make.
Anita Knotts: Well, you make a really good point, and I will tell you that one of my biggest sources of frustration, and one of the things that I'm trying to bluntly address is that I will work with a firm and they will say, yeah, we've got entry-level opportunities, and this is specific to wealth management. We've got entry-level opportunities. Well, guess what? Their definition of entry level is two years of industry experience. Would be great
Iyassu Essayas: Ha ha.
Anita Knotts: if they had a license, you know, if they since when was that entry level? The whole concept of entry level is that you're taking raw clay and you get to mold it into what you want, right, as a firm. And so one of the things that I'm trying to, it it's fantastic. I agree with you, the big banks, the warehouses even, some of these larger institutions, and I think part of it is that they can afford to, right? Whereas when you're working with middle of the road, these boutique, investment advisory firms, they need somebody who can come in and hit the ground running. And so it's a harder conversation, but I'm trying to chip away at it to say you can't afford to overlook this. This is top talent. This is top talent years from now, but this is you get to have this opportunity to bring in a really sharp mind that just hasn't been molded yet. And you've got to be willing to invest in that talent. So that's it's a difficult conversation, but I think it's a worthwhile conversation. So I'm glad you brought that up.
Iyassu Essayas: I'm really glad that you know we we get to talk about female leadership and and just you know change and and and also just you know minority leadership as well. but we're gonna transition over to our weekly recap. right now and and what what a week it was. you know, the markets definitely had some interesting stories with Monday kicking off. on the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece about how private credit is you know, an issue you should be watching or paying close attention to. So there's some structural cracks happening now in the private credit market. And for folks that are not familiar with the private credit markets, it's essentially there's somebody giving a loan out to know, companies and then they take the loan and then package it and sell it to investors. And those investors hold on to those loans. And those loans are starting to see some companies within those funds starting to to default. And that that gets scary when they do. And some of the biggest players in the space are starting to see defaults, but they're they're saying that, you know, that's just a you know, it's a cycle. Don't worry about it. That's that's what they are saying. But for me, you know, you should keep paying attention to that, especially if you're in a private credit fund. lot of wealth managers last year were pushed to include private credit exposure for their clients. And yeah, the the times aren't always great. Sometimes you have to go through a cycle and this might be the start of one cycle. Who knows? We'll find out. But pay attention to those funds, especially if you have clients in them because they're starting to see see cracks. And I don't know about you, Anita, but I I get emails all the time from somebody saying, Hey, we got a loan for inflows, Iyassu five hundred thousand dollars, you know, no credit check. And it just reminds me of, you know, the financial crisis, or I should
Anita Knotts: Yep.
Iyassu Essayas: say the housing crisis, whether it's like no they weren't no one was checking income, state your ch your income. They were just giving you home loans. I'm like, Okay, here we go again.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm, mm hmm. Yep, yep. Anytime there's this concept of easy money, when anything appears to be too easy, you've got to kind of raise your eyebrows at it. And I think that that might be the phase that we're at with private credit. It's sometimes as simple as how often do I hear this phrase? How often is everybody saying that they have a piece of it? And then you have to start getting a little, I don't want to use the word suspicious, but just you just have to turn over the rocks a bit bit more. And I think that's what you're saying as well. That's sort of the phase that we find ourselves in, is just doing a little bit more due diligence.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I'm just saying, man. I yeah, I've I have an early startup and if I'm getting offers for private credit, it's like something something's going on, man.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, yeah. So agreed.
Iyassu Essayas: So so Wednesday midweek Wednesday, there was another Wall Street Journal report CPI and the report c the July report came out with you know three point four percent and I think the expected was three point five. So it was a little little less than than expected and core prices was at two point five percent and I think it was expected to be two point six. So, you know, these these inflation numbers are they're tough because it puts the Federal Reserves, the new chairman Walsh in a really, really tricky position on making sure that inflation's coming down, making sure that we have full employment, but also kind of like not pissing off his boss who wants interest rates dropped. it's so I I you know I I worry for him because of that that tricky position. And he's a he's a very powerful person in in the economy, not just the stock market. And so, you know, the the other thing that I think folks who are not so in tune with the Federal Reserve are are feeling is that just everything's more expensive. I mean, you go to the grocery store, it's more expensive. You go to the gas station, it's more expensive. I mean, you're seeing six dollar gallon gas in some places in California, sometimes even seven, depending on the day. But then you see this like never-ending conflict in Iran that's driving up. energy prices, which makes everything expensive.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: So, you know, I I I have a lot of sympathy for folks, especially the ones who, you know, they work at your single mom, you know, with two kids working at Target, just, you know, trying to make ends meet meet. And everything just got more expensive over the past, you know, year or two. So yeah. Inflation not great. It's not rising as fast as it was before, but still we're at a level that's still pretty high up there. And I think a lot of households are feeling that pain right now. And I don't know, Anita, have you been to the grocery store lately? Have you have you seen how much a cloves c garlic costs?
Anita Knotts: You know, I I saw the numbers. Yes, cloves of garlic, eggs. I love my eggs. I love my eggs, but
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah.
Anita Knotts: good God. I just I mean, these numbers and stats that come out on a monthly basis, they can say whatever they want, right? The average American is still like, how does this affect me? And my gas bill is not going lower when I go fill up my car, and my grocery bill is not going lower when I go to the grocery store. So the stats are what they are, right? It's data and yes, we can keep an eye towards it, and maybe it bought us a little bit more time, maybe it bought the the Walsh a little bit more time with his boss but right now the people that I speak with right are those that are just they're not focused on the data they're focused on the day-to-day of their lives and we are still not where we need to be or want to be
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I have a lot of friends that are not in finance and even the things that they're doing, you know, whether they're working in Invet Productions or they're working at at a like a software company, you know, everything f even from an enterprise perspective is is getting more expensive and yeah, I think at some point folks are just gonna need relief or or else, you know, you're gonna have some some serious social consequences that that hapor happen, whether it's policy changes, you know, new administrations, new, you know, congresses or whatnot, there is gonna be a reaction if these prices don't get under control and and go down. But then every economist, at least when I was taught, you know, what you don't wanna have is deflation, 'cause that's even worse than inflation. And I don't know, need a I feel I feel like we're headed towards that deflation route for for relief. so
Anita Knotts: Could be, could be. I pretty much forgot everything I learned in economics like forty years ago, thirty-five years ago. Maybe I'm dating myself, but yes, that's a that's a great point.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. and then at the end of the week, this is just a recurring theme. and I just talked about it earlier. But yeah, it's the conflict in Iran. It's it's driving energy prices up and there doesn't seem to be an end in it. no real social commentary on it. We all know what's going on. but energy prices again, they affect everything. They affect the cost of making goods and the cost of shipping goods. Not not it's not just gasoline. and as as the conflict and no deal you know continues to drag the economy, you know, there unless the solution is is put forth by this administration, you're gonna see wider conflicts happening in the Middle East. And you know, there's gonna be an asymmetric kind of response from the Iran side to keep the conflict at least to leave the conflict as best in their favor as possible.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, agreed. And I think I mean, I'm stating the obvious, but right now there just seems to be a lot of uncertainty. There's not a whole lot of consistency in messaging. And I think anytime you've got that uncertainty, you're gonna have the level of volatility that we've seen. So we just have to you know, I hate to sound like a typical broken broken advisor message because that's that's what advisors always say. Focus on the long term, focus on the long term. But it's It's it's very much the case. It's making sure that you've got your ducks in a row and making sure that you're not necessarily making decisions based on day-to-day gyrations of any other markets.
Iyassu Essayas: Hundred percent agree with you. see, I mean, even though you left your wealth management role, you still got it in you.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, I'm I'm actually one of the most boring investors out there, I have to tell you. I I just I I'm married to a guy who looks at it on an hourly basis and and I'm like, you know what? I've got what I've got, I'm really happy with what I've got, I don't need to look at it, and I know what I'm shooting for in the long term, and that's all that matters to me. So it takes it takes all perspectives to make the world go round.
Iyassu Essayas: I I agree with you. Well, that's that's our weekly recap. and I think audience members, you know, st keep like stay in tune. You know, read the Wall Street Journal or CNBC if you don't have that subscription. just just keep and if you have your financial advisor, give them a call and just ask them, you know, what's going on? What do I need to prepare with? you know, we're we're past the halfway point in the year and you got portfolio. This is a good time to check in on your portfolios and You know, see what's going on and kick kick the tires, you know, for this part of the year. But moving on to the special topic here. I'm
Anita Knotts: Mm.
Iyassu Essayas: real I'm really excited to talk to about this, Anita, and that yeah, I shared with Anita a fast company article, and it was a really interesting one. it was called Stop Acting Like Women Just Discovered Investing. This fast money article is an excerpt from a book called How to Get Rich in American History. And What was really interesting about this article was that it it touched on something that is happening right now that the the general media is and research providers are really excited about. And it's it's this great wealth transfer. And so we have about a $144 trillion that's going to be transferred from the baby boober generation to the millennials and younger generations. But before and that's gonna be by twenty it's like twenty forty or twenty fifty, twenty forty fo twenty forty five or twenty fifty, one of the two, depending on which report you look at. But before that 144 trillion reaches the next generation, 44 to 54 trillion of those dollars are gonna hit women first. And why is that? It's because women tend to live longer than men and they're gonna be the you know, head of the household, once the men, you know, pass away or once their partner passes away. And so there's all this interest, you know, 40 like, you know, trillions and trillions of dollars going to be moved. And so where's that money going to go to? How is it going to get there? What's what's the impact going to be? So everyone's clamoring over and it's like it's like wolves to some juicy, you know, meat, right?
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: but but with that comes, you know, the the kind of media narratives that that that go along with it that sometimes aren't necessarily true. And this this fast company article that I shared was basically pulling apart this kind of notion that hey, you know, women don't know how to invest. Cause that I I feel in the I mean correct me if I'm wrong, Anita, but I feel like that was that that's kind of like the vibe that's going on is like women need help. They don't know what they're doing. And you know, here comes, you know, somebody to save them, right? A white knight in shining armor. You know, the typical story.
Anita Knotts: Right. Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: And this article kind of said, no, that's not the case. If we look at the, you know, the early 20th century, late 19th century, you know, women were the they were the centerfold of of the household making financial decisions. And we just forgot about that. so it's just kind of general like thoughts about the article. yeah, what would you what did you think about Yeah, the story there and and then we can get into the the nitty gritty of of of the questions.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, I thought the story was fascinating. I'm Statistics geeks. So some of the things that they were throwing about in the article, what was it, 40% of women or 40% of securities after World War I were held by women? Just something obscene. I had no idea. so I thought it was fascinating. I think what we have to do is separate the notion of financial like capability versus financial agency. Okay, and here's what I mean by that. Of course, we know women are capable. We give human life. Like, what can't we do?
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. Yeah.
Anita Knotts: We birth humans, right? Investing, that ain't nothing, right? Like we can think about it from that perspective. But here's what I've seen, honestly, in my career as an advisor, and still to this day, looking in my own community, looking online, everywhere. It is not that the capability is not there, but I can tell you that I speak to women who are. professionally successful. They are wealthy by any definition. They are wealthy. They do a lot. They manage the household budgets, household finances, all of that. But they still don't have agency. And when I say agency, I'm talking about ultimate confidence in where they're going to be in the long run. They've still outsourced their financial future to somebody else. It could be a male spouse in a heterosexual marriage. It could be Their adult son, it could be their father, it could be their brother. you know, from an investing perspective, even just let's just look at investments, right? Do you know how much of your household assets are in tax-deferred accounts or taxable accounts? How much is assigned here? What is your overall risk posture in your investments? Those are the types of questions that many of these women are like, you know what, Anita, I've got enough going on on my plate. I don't got the time for that. He can do this part. And my argument is, no, you don't have that luxury. You don't have that luxury, particularly for because of the statistics you just quoted, right? we tend to outlive our male spouses at some point in our lives. Nine out of ten women are going to become the sole financial decision makers in their household. Do you want to learn your investments when you're hanging out over the casket of your husband? When you are served
Iyassu Essayas: No.
Anita Knotts: your divorce papers, I know I can be kind of morbid, but when you're served the divorce papers, no. We are so good at planning for everything else in our lives. Everything we are awesome at planning. This is the one aspect. That I think we have to get way better in terms of planning for our financial futures, our own financial livelihood. So I think we have to decipher between that. No one is saying, least of all, me, that women are not capable. I think we could do a better job towards gaining more of that confidence from and investing and taking full agency, full control of it. I think we can do better in that standpoint.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah. I think I think the stat you were talking about was almost forty percent of post World War One securities were held or controlled by women. Like that's all I mean, that's a lot of wealth right there. Right. And it's
Anita Knotts: Yes, yes.
Iyassu Essayas: you shouldn't, you know, if if you forget your this that saying, if you forget your history, you're bound to make the the same mistakes. And I
Anita Knotts: Right.
Iyassu Essayas: think I think the media's forgotten that. and so And just generally speaking, the media has a very loud megaphone. So everyone starts to forget that. And it's just not
Anita Knotts: Yeah. Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: the you're you're right. You're the women are com absolutely capable. This isn't
Anita Knotts: Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: r you know, rocket science, right? Where you need to have a PhD to, you know, maybe push the needle just a little bit. Now this is, you know, basic finance, basic taking care of your future planning. I mean, those those things, you know, yes, they're absolutely capable of.
Anita Knotts: Well, you you just hit on a hot button for me with the comment you just made. I I I forget exactly already how you stated it, but something about maybe we've been told that, right? And so I come from within the industry. Within, I'm an insider and I am saying we have done we've done a number on women. We've really pulled the wool over their eyes, right? Whether it's using jargon, certain images, we've created this perception that it is this, you know, vast unknown that is only for a chosen few, that look very homogeneous, at a specific demographic, right? This little girl is not for you, you know. Let him take care of it. There's kind of been that aura around the aspect of wealth, access to wealth, wealth management, just the word wealth, right? And so while we've had that capability, of course, all along, we oftentimes become what we are told we can be. And oftentimes we're not told that you can be all of this. We're not told that you can be good with money. We're not told that you have access to the same level of wealth. That this person over here has. We're not told all of these things. So my messaging nowadays is twofold. It is talking to the industry, the institutions, the structures, but it's also talking to the women. Don't wait for someone to give this to you. Take it. Take it, right? It's there for the taking. No one else is going to hand you something. You have to be standing at the forefront being your own advocate and saying, look, this is important. It goes right back to what we're talking a couple of minutes ago. We're not taking ownership of this. We have to get better at that because no one is going to save us or give it to us. We are the ones who are going to save ourselves. So sorry, I had to, you said something in there that I was like, that's such a great point. This is this is where we have to be.
Iyassu Essayas: Well, can can you can you give like a concrete example of what what you just said? like the so so for example, I remember you know, I was in my twenties and I was dating this this lovely lady and you know she was she said to me, like, you're you're investing, even though I was in asset management, she's You're an investing, you know, I have a financial advisor and I don't know what what this stuff's all about. And I said, Well, didn't he explain it you? She's like, Yeah, I don't think so. It's all over my head. I was All right, well.
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: look at your let's look at your portfolio, like whip it up. And you know, we were both in our early 20s and she was in a like a it was almost like a 60 40 bond to equity. So like she was in more bonds than she was in equities. And I was like, what is this? Like even I knew like this was, you know,
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: the wrong, you know, strategy for someone that young. And so we went to, you know, I said, let's let's have a meeting, right? Let's for person to person, we're gonna meet your financial advisor, right? And
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: we get there, and it's this, you know, kind of old guy. And you know, he's just trying to say he knows he messed up. He knows it because he's like, man, this is you know, this asset manager in the room, like like crap, you know, this
Anita Knotts: Yeah. Yeah. Oops.
Iyassu Essayas: yeah, oops. And he says, you know, something to the point of, well, you know, hey man, there's just there's you know, I'm doing this as a favor for her. You know, there's not that much money in in this, you know, in this account for me. So in front of her, right? It's and it's kinda going over her
Anita Knotts: He said this in front of her? dear God.
Iyassu Essayas: it's kinda going over her head. She doesn't un grasp like the severity of this, but for someone like me, you know, I'm like, you know, see I got my series licenses, like I I know like where all the ethical decisions that need to be made in this situation and that they're not being made properly and all that stuff. So like that's to me, that's an example of, you know. women getting taken advantage of in the financial, you know, in the f wealth management world. So for what you just said about about the point that yeah, you you honed in on from what I said. Like what's what's a good example of of of taking it that that you want to convey to the audience members?
Anita Knotts: from the women's side you're saying, or from the institution?
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, yeah, for not just from from the women's side, you know, it's just taking taking back that financial power that they already have.
Anita Knotts: yeah. Yeah. Well the first step is just acknowledging the problem, right? Remember we I I led off by saying like the first step to addressing a problem is acknowledging that there is a problem. The second is viewing How I want say this? Viewing the aspect of financial health as a piece of overall wellness. I think what a lot of women do, and I don't want to generalize, but for the sake of this conversation, women will look at physical health, they will look at mental health. Spiritual health and they will forget that financial health is a piece of it, right? What good is it to exercise, to eat well, to pray to whatever God you pray to, to go to go to see your therapist, right? Focusing on mental health, so that you live to this ripe old age of 81, which is our life expectancy in this country, by the way. Seems a little low to me, but that's what it says. 81 and beyond, let's say, okay, but you don't have two nickels to rub together. Not so that you can go book a cruise. But guess what? We live in a pretty expensive country when it comes to healthcare. Let's just start there, right? So, what good is living long and living well when you can't afford to live that way? So, for no other reason than to protect your quality of life in your twilight years, to say, what do I need to be doing now? Okay, where do I bank? What is the extra money that I could be taking from my paycheck? and assigning it to future me, to future Anita. And what does that look like? Is a portion of that in savings, is a portion of that in investing. Let's say you're a woman who says, Well, I don't know the first thing about investing. Okay, I want to invest. Where do I start? I no financial advisor is gonna want to talk to me, which by the way, you and I both know that's true, based on the example you just said, right? Most of these advisors think they're doing somebody a favor who's got a few thousand dollars to their name. They don't want to bother with that. So what do you do? Right? So a lot of it is this is what women are really good at, talking to one another. Engaging with community, engaging with people that you trust in and saying, Hey, what are you doing about it? You know, I don't want to be gross, but women talk more about their sex life and their OBGYN appointments than they do about their financial health. There is something wrong with that picture. So when I say understand, take ownership of it, it is starting with yourself. There is zero excuse in this day and age to say you don't have access to. Information. Everywhere you turn, you have access to information. You have brilliant podcasts like this. You've got newsletters. You've got news shows. You've got any number of of you've got books, right? Information is everywhere. So taking ownership means going out and finding it. Find what works for you and then act on it. Baby steps, baby steps. So I don't know if that answers the question, but that's that's where I would. Let's start.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, I think it leads me to another question, which is basically the our industry, the wealth management industry is probably asleep at this. and so
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: w when you think about female leadership development, the impending wealth transfer, you know, it seems like that's like a a dangerous mix for for the space and that there could be disruption that that Even though we're in a regulated industry, there could be disruption that that comes about it. Yeah. What do you think that what do you think if if if an advisory firm is at asleep at the wheel and there's this wealth transfer and like a but like a lot of women are gonna be, you know, in control of the the you know, the wealth in their households, where do you think they can get things wrong? And what do you think they can do to like today, what can they do to prepare themselves to, you know, Not just acknowledge but deal with this impending wealth transfer that's coming where where women are in charge.
Anita Knotts: I'm so glad you asked this question because I give entire keynote presentations on this topic. So you threw out
Iyassu Essayas: there we go.
Anita Knotts: you threw out a a few trillion dollar statistics which are just powerful when somebody hears that. Let me narrow it down even more from a timeline perspective. 2030, that's just four years from now. Women in the United States are going to control $34 trillion in private wealth in just four short years. And what I am encouraging my clients to do, my corporate clients, do not wait for 2030 to start staffing up accordingly, to start developing your talent, to start addressing your female clients with the right approach. You need to be doing that now. Okay? So the easiest way to look at it is you have to be focused on, yes, the client of the future who is woman, who is next generation, who is a person of color. But in order to address that person, you need to focus on the advisor of the future. What does she look like? And it better be she. And then to get to the advisor of the future, you need a firm of the future. So it's it's a triangle: client of the future, advisor of the future, firm of the future are. Are all influencing one another, right? And the cost of ignoring that is you become irrelevant. Competitively, you become irrelevant. That should frighten anybody into doing the right things. Okay, so that's the strategic aspect. The tactical part of it, which is I think what you're asking me, okay, so what do they do? Okay, I want you to think of another triangle. Okay. I have been three, all three of these. Okay, I've been the woman investor, I've been the woman advisor, and I've been the woman leader. And all of these firms right now are probably scratching their heads saying, well, what do we do to attract and retain the woman investor? But they're ignoring the other two parts of that triangle. Okay. That woman investor, and I'm not going to go as far as saying that all women clients and women investors only want women advisors. I actually don't know that that's true. I don't think that that's borne out in any real data, okay? But they do want to see someone who can relate to them sitting on the other side of that table. If that woman investor was recently widowed and she's overwhelmed and she has not met that advisor, she's looking for somebody sitting across the table from her that can hear her, that can Hear her cry, that can hear her be overwhelmed, that can listen to her, that can take down the notes and say, I got you, here's where we're gonna go from here. That's who she wants. And oftentimes that is a woman. Okay, but guess what? Hiring more women is a better possibility when you've got women in leadership at your firm. What do you think I did when I was in a leadership role? When I had the platform to hire and develop, who do you think I focused on when I was out in the marketplace looking for talent? It's not that I didn't hire men, of course I did, right? But I had a special lens towards finding other Anitas that was meaningful for me, right? The whole reason I left the corporate world is because it wasn't moving fast enough for me. That's why I'm doing the work that I'm doing now. So bringing on and developing women leaders in your organization is so critical to this issue that you and I are tr discussing right here. Because those women leaders have a bit more of a personal stake in finding more people, more women advisors. And then turn that around. On the flip side, you're going to find more women to come into this industry when they can see more people who look like that. You cannot become which you cannot see. And those two forces combined are going to help your firm attract and retain women investors. I just said a lot, I know, but that's it's why I wake up every morning.
Iyassu Essayas: I remember speaking with a CEO of a large pharmaceutical Chairman was also in the on the call and we were focusing on diversity in the workplace. And one of the things that was this very memorable that ties into what you just said, Anita, is that the CEO said we we put in effort to make sure that we are looking through a diversity lens because the next generation of employees, they're gonna look up to look to leadership and they're gonna say. Do I have a chance here? And if they can't relate to the leadership, they're gonna go you know, find another job. and
Anita Knotts: Yeah.
Iyassu Essayas: that's that's essentially it. If you can't relate, then you tend to look elsewhere to where you can humans are are social beings. That's just how we work. and so
Anita Knotts: Yes. Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: you you make a very, very, very good point. And I hope folks understand that, you know, the the the relation part is really important. for a success. If folks can't relate, then they look elsewhere to find someone else that they can relate to or with.
Anita Knotts: It's It's critical. I see, you know, firms are salivating over, gee, you know, the the great wealth transfer, how do we retain that money? How do we attract those assets? Yet they're ignoring the development of the people within their firm or attracting next gen minority talent, which is so clearly where the assets are flowing, right? You've got the horizontal transfer that's going from husband to wife, but then you've got the vertical transfer that's gonna be going To next generation. So when we speak of diversity, it's not just diversity for checking a box sake, right? It's literally as a competitive advantage. You want to be there. One of the fun exercises that I do because I like to torture myself is anytime I'm looking at firms and I'm curious about a particular firm, I will go to their website and I will go to the you know drop down that says our team. What do you think I see? I see the top, you know, executive management advisor. Whatever, all looking pretty homogeneous, same suits, same colored tie, same everything, right? And then you go to the sales support people, and there are all the women. And so again, I'm not I'm not in a position of blame nowadays. I don't like to blame one structure or entity versus another. I think both need to take ownership. Here's what I mean by that. This is a the statement I make often. And I say this to women: yes, systems have to change. Yes, institutions have to change. Structures have to change. But if we sit around waiting for systems, structures, and institutions to change, we will all be dead. So we have to actually take accountability, throw our hat in the ring. And start looking at professions where maybe we never envisioned ourselves before, right? And that means, yeah, taking a kind of a risk because we don't see a lot of people who look like us. How do we know we're going to succeed? Well, how do you know you're not going to succeed if you don't step into it in the first place? So my point is both things need to take place. It's both and.
Iyassu Essayas: Yeah, 100% agree with you. I think a good example, another good example is the religious investors. So when I was talking about, you know, like attracts like, if you look at just wealth managers that are focused on faith based investing, you know, the fact that the advisor themselves has a particular faith that they, you know, use as a kind of a branding and marketing, it attracts
Anita Knotts: Sure.
Iyassu Essayas: other faith-based investors like the end clients and moms and pops. And that is a a massive growing sub-industry within wealth management. I mean, the the Kingdom Advisors has probably one of the largest
Anita Knotts: Yes.
Iyassu Essayas: wealth management conferences in the United States. And it just goes back to the point that you're you're also making is you know, you have to be able to relate. If you if you cannot relate to your client or their client can't relate to you, You're losing a a huge business opportunity. you're basically losing the future, if you if you can't relate to your clients. And that isn't rocket science.
Anita Knotts: Well, and think about it, this is I some people don't want to admit this, but this is a relationship business, right? That's that's that's what it is. It's relational. And when I talk to younger women about exploring career paths within this field, oftentimes these women don't see themselves right doing this. and if they do, by the way, if they do come into this industry, oftentimes they go into HR, marketing, compliance, operations, they never want to be in that client. Facing role or controlling a PL leadership role. So oftentimes it's it's getting them to understand that listen, this isn't about knowing sharp and beta and trainer ratios. This is about understanding the human sitting across the table from you and saying, Hey, what's keeping you up at night? Let's talk. What's happening? And how can I help you get to where you need to be? Right? And this is what women have been known for historically: is that empathy. It's the compassion. It's the relational skills. So once I start explaining it to them that way, they're like, okay. Well, I mean, the technical stuff, it can be learned. I'm a big believer in that. You can learn that. It's the, I hate it when they say this these are the soft skills, because I feel like the soft skills are the hardest to develop for so many people. Yet many women are wired that way naturally. So it's really getting them to see that there is a place for them in this field.
Iyassu Essayas: Well, it's funny that you mentioned that because it's it's actually the this is anecdotal. I don't have you know a big study to prove this, but from the conferences and the advice tons of advisors that I met, it's actually the soft skills that are getting more valuable. So finding an asset manager is not like advisors treat advisors, wealth managers, family offices, the whole like advisory, a big umbrella. They treat asset managers these days as as commodities. So it's like you're you
Anita Knotts: Mm.
Iyassu Essayas: can't really differentiate yourself by having like a asset manager, you know, in your wheelhouse anymore or construct
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: a portfolio for your own client. It's actually the planning side. The planning side is becoming
Anita Knotts: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Iyassu Essayas: more and more valuable. So like those soft skills, like yeah, they actually matter.
Anita Knotts: Yeah, and I'm gonna take that a step further. Investment management is commoditized, you're absolutely right. I would actually say even planning is becoming the price of admission. So where does that leave you? How do you differentiate yourself from the RIA next to you? Right? How do you differentiate yourself? It has to be through you, the people, who comprises your firm? And what is their what is your claim to fame? What are you good at? How do you show that you truly have this person's best interests, right? What are the questions you're asking that person? And it can't just be, what's your risk tolerance? You know, and it's in this black box, right? You give them five questions, they score it one to five. No, it's truly like what what does risk mean to you, right? When I was an advisor, I would talk to a husband and a wife, same room, and both of them would be giving me totally opposite answers on just the risk. Question alone. And oftentimes she wouldn't even say anything until after the meeting. Right? She'd poke around and can I talk to you? You know, I'm not really comfortable with this. She didn't want to talk in front of him. The best advisors nowadays is not about the investments. You're absolutely right. I would even argue it's not about the planning. Those are there and those are absolutely necessary, but before that, you have to understand the human that's sitting in front of you. So that would be my my perspective.
Iyassu Essayas: We get to my favorite question to ask my guests, Anita. What are you looking forward to next week?
Anita Knotts: next week? Well, next week I'm gonna go visit my daughter in Seattle. So that's that's a big aspect of that is is seeing the great Pacific Northwest with her. but I also have some really interesting conversations with male allies that I'm very much looking forward to. It's one of the most pleasant surprises I will say after launching it since being a founder and entrepreneur for the past five years is the number of men who are completely in tune and aligned with the with the mission of what I'm trying to accomplish, changing the Of this industry and speaking to not that every single one of them becomes a client, but it's just you know, having somebody who doesn't look like me or someone who didn't have the same lived experience I did in this industry, be open to having that dialogue. Those are the types of conversations that I look forward to, and I've got a few lined up, so looking forward to that.
Iyassu Essayas: That's awesome. Well, I want to thank Anita for being our special guest this this week for episode 19 of Inside the Flows. Anita, if folks want to follow you, if they want to check out your website, do do you wanna give just some some information where they can you know, again, follow you and and and figure out what you're doing and keep keep up to date with you and and the work that the that your your firm is doing. where where can they where can they find that information?
Anita Knotts: Absolutely, absolutely. So you know, look me up on LinkedIn. That's the best place. I'm on it all day and all night, quite frankly. So look up Anita Knotts and you'll find me there. website lotuswomen's institute dot com. If you scroll down to the very bottom of that homepage, I would love it if you could sign up for my newsletter. goes out every Tuesday morning. It'll take you sixty seconds to read, and I love getting feedback. and I write about a lot of the things that you and I just spent time talking about and I've absolutely loved this dialogue. This has been a lot of fun.
Iyassu Essayas: Thank you. I'll I'll put all of Anita's information in the description for for you folks to to easily find. Please check out her website, sign up for a newsletter. you know, this is a great, powerful conversation we just had. Again, I want to thank you, Anita, for being our special guest. If you are an advisor, wealth manager, planner, family office asset manager, service provider, and you want to keep the conversation going, please join Inflows. It's free to join, free to use. And we will catch you all next week. Thank you very much.
