Mastering Your Finances: Insights from an Expert | Monica Szakos | Ep 113

Monica Szakos  00:00

Just being able to talk to somebody who knows what I’m going through or has been there, and a lot of times you when it’s your situation, it’s really hard to see the forest from the trees. And it’s not clear. But just having someone as a sounding board, sometimes will give you a lot more clarity a lot more quickly. So it’s, it’s led me to find my sense of purpose solutions to problems and overall, more gratitude. I think I think I’m, I was surprised by how many people have said, Oh, how can I help?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:45

So Hi, and welcome to another episode of Better Business Better Life. Today, I am joined by Monica Szakos, who is the president of the asset preservation strategies to company. And Monica has been referred to me by my good friend, Scott Rusnak, who you’ve heard me talk about before on this podcast, because he’s actually been working with Scott now through EOS for around about three years. And we just had a quick chat before we come on the show. So welcome to the show. First of all, Monica, great to have you here.

Monica Szakos  01:11

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:14

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to talking to you today, because we had a quick chat just beforehand to find out a bit of your story. And you’ve got an amazing story in terms of not only building a very successful business, but also in terms of having to deal with some health issues on the way and how you’ve actually dealt with that. So I would love you to start by sharing a bit of your story. Because when you started in the business, you are an assistant or doing the paperwork and the admin, and now you’re the president. So tell us a little bit about that story, and what you’ve been able to do in that time?

Monica Szakos  01:45

Sure. So I started in the financial services industry about 12 years ago, and I was hired on just to fill out client paperwork, help with servicing requests and maintenance. And I have always been an investor, since, gosh, probably my teens, late teens, and personally, and so I already had a lot of questions for the advisors about, well, why are we choosing this investment over another investment? And can we do it better? Can we do it differently? And so they have, and about five years timeframe, I went from assistant to advisor to overseeing operations as president of the firm. So I’ve been in pretty much every position at our firm, and I’m very familiar with the roles, the specifics of each of the positions and what’s needed for to be successful. And yeah, so it took about maybe less than seven years for me to be a partner in the firm. So I guess they loved me enough to want to make me a partner.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:05

That’s pretty awesome. That is a very, very short timeframe, which is fantastic. And so how many overall, how many staff do you have? I know you do some outsourcing. You’ve got some people who actually work in the business, how many staff do you have overall?

Monica Szakos  03:18

So overall, counting everyone who’s out sourced for about 10.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:22

Excellent. Okay. And I always ask my guests this because I always think it’s quite fascinating. What are you personally and professionally, most proud of in your life so far?

Monica Szakos  03:32

So personally, I’m proud of being married for almost 10 years now to my best friend. And we also recently completed a home remodel and customizing the home exactly the way we wanted it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  03:50

That’s fantastic.

Monica Szakos  03:52

And then professionally, I would just say I’m proud of the professional journey that I’ve had on the way to being an owner of the firm, and then also of the success that the firm has had and the difference we’ve really made in our clients lives.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:10

That’s great. And so you started working through EOS with Scott, say about three years ago. Can you share with us a little bit of that journey? Like what was life like before that? And then How has life changed since you’ve bought EOS into the practice?

Monica Szakos  04:26

So prior to EOS, we had a lot of projects, we had a list of maybe call it 20 projects a year we wanted to work on and get done. And as you know, when there’s that many very little get done, and there’s not really a prioritization done to really well what’s going to have the most impact for the business that year. That gets lost when there’s competing, many projects. And so we all also underwent increasing our efficiency and streamlining workflows and processes and also going to more of a hybrid remote work environment as well. So some roles got outsourced, some processes that didn’t produce much value got streamlined, got redone. And so that was a big change in our firm, that not only increased our efficiency, but also helped with the bottom line on our profit and loss, because we were able to leverage technology, outsource, and really make it a lot more efficient and profitable.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  05:53

Okay, that’s great. And so this was, how did you recognize, you know, the things that need to be worked on?

Monica Szakos  05:59

How did I’m sorry, can you repeat the question? Yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:01

How did you recognize that the things that needed to be worked on? Um, it’s great to have systems and processes and, and efficiencies, but where did you start in terms of going, Hey, this is where we’re perhaps losing efficiency or having because focus is really, really important, I guess, wanted to understand how you got to that focus?

Monica Szakos  06:18

Yeah. So the first thing that we started looking at was technology was coming out, that was, when we first started, our industry was a little slower to implement things like Docusign. And signing electronically, but when that first came out, that was one of we were doing a lot of things by paper. And paper works when you’re all in the office. Paper doesn’t work when you have remote or distributed teams. And so that was what where we first started is okay, if we, if we move from paper, and we start streamlining to electronically, how much time does that save us? What efficiencies do we gain? And then we actually looked at every single process that we had. And then we looked at how do we make this more efficient? How do we add more value? So it took probably over the course of a year to really dig deep, and look at all of these processes and find where we had opportunities for improvement or refinement?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  07:40

That’s one that’s really great. And so the working remotely did that. Was that forced? Or was that a choice that you made as a company?

Monica Szakos  07:49

So it started in 2020, when the world shut down? We had, we had everything set up to where for us fortunately, it was pretty seamless. We could just take our equipment home and we were up and running. But what changed is it’s it’s a different to manage a team that’s in the office. And it’s very different to manage a distributed teams. So how do you keep people engaged? How do you manage the culture? How do you make sure that the work is getting done. And so it’s all of those things are different when people are working remotely versus in it all together in the office. And so some things that worked for us was that we did every second week, our team all gets together in the office together, and we have lunch and we have the ability to talk to each other get to know each other. We also do some events with the team, either holiday party or appreciation days where it’s an off-site event and the team gets to get together and get to talk on a personal level versus it all being about work. So we find they have the they build camaraderie that way and it’s really worked out well for us. And we’ve also done Colbys on each of our team members. Oh yes. So we know kind of where what they were the strengths are, what they like to do not like to do. And the roles are kind of they’re put in those kinds of roles where it’s more in line with what their strengths are.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:58

Which is part of the EOS way isn’t it? about doing things that you love. And I think that’s, that’s for those who don’t know, the Colby profile, the Colby profile is a profile that helps people to understand their way of working their natural way of working, and what they enjoy doing, what they don’t enjoy doing so that we can ensure that they’re being used to their best ability. Yep.

Monica Szakos  10:18

 Yes.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:20

And so that is part of the EOS may tell me a little bit about you know, so what, what fundamental differences has EOS made to your business?

Monica Szakos  10:29

So EOS has really helped us to clarify and focus on what our objectives are for both the one year, three, five ten  year, and to drill down on a quarterly basis and say, Well, this is wonderful that you want to do all these things this year, let’s pick three, for example. Three rocks are three things to focus on for the quarter, and actually make an effort to work on those every single week. And we found that once we drilled down and picked so we went from, like a list of 20 things that we wanted to work on. And once we picked, okay, we’re gonna do five this year. And of that we’re gonna focus on these two first, and these are the, the smaller steps that need to happen in the quarter to to get going on that we found that we were able to execute consistently. And actually, we found that traction that moved our process and projects forward.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  11:44

Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it, because you need that laser sharp focus to really make a difference. But often as entrepreneurs, we are easily distracted by various different things. And, and as you said, we think that we’ll do 2030 things in a year, which is kind of physically impossible. And if everything is important, nothing is important. So generally, the more things you have, the less you actually get done.

Monica Szakos  12:08

Yes, I think you tend, there’s a tendency to overestimate the amount of time that you’re going to have to work on something, and you underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  12:23

I think you’re absolutely spot on there. And I think also, we forget that we still have business as usual as well, right? We’ve still got to actually run the machine to keep the clients coming and keep the client satisfied. I’m really interested because I, you know, you shared with me a little bit of your personal story. And that, you know, you got to a point where you were doing what I think probably many of us do, at some point where we’re working really long hours, we’re doing everything in the business, even the things we don’t necessarily like, but we’re doing them because we feel that we have to because we can’t let go. Um, tell us a little bit about your journey in that and what has changed for you.

Monica Szakos  13:01

Yeah, so I started out I taking on a lot, I think, I mean, I’m a type A so I, I take on a lot and I feel like you know sometimes it’s hard to say no because simple can you do this? Can you do this? Well, yes, I can give me an hour and then you end up with you’ve taken on way too much. And then it’s it’s having to prioritize what gets done and so what it led to for me is longer hours and I was just feeling really burned out I didn’t have energy at the end of the day or even going into the weekends it was I sat around I ate I watched TV I didn’t really feel like doing anything I was tired all the time. And that’s when I we started more so having this conversation with Scott about well, let’s do this exercise where you You take everything that you’re doing and you’re putting it in in four different sections. You know, things you love to do and are great at things you like to do and are good at things you what you don’t like to do but are good at and then things you don’t like to do and are not good at. So I did this exercise and I did it actually several times. And I was finding that I was spending a lot of my time in the bottom half of that. So things that I don’t like to do but I’m great at or things that I don’t like to do and I’m not good at just out of necessity just out of I felt like I could couldn’t choose or didn’t have the option to choose what I wanted to do. And part of that just goes back to I think, you know how I was raised it was we didn’t get to pick, you know, the the chores we wanted to do or not wanted, it was everything that had to be done had to get done. So didn’t matter if you liked it or not, you had to do it. So I kind of had this mindset with me, you know, going into business as well. And so then I started noticing that when I started taking things off of my plate and started delegating the things that I didn’t like to do, and wasn’t good at that I started to have a little more energy. At the end of the day, I wasn’t as drained. And then I challenged myself.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:58

To question that, because I think that this is probably something that most of us don’t realize, we keep doing this stuff, because we think it has to be done and nobody else can do it. We don’t necessarily recognize the negative effect it has on us, in terms of you know, when you’re doing that stuff you don’t like, it actually makes you feel awful. And it does zap your energy, which means that at the end of the day, you are exhausted, you are tired. And it’s not actually about the hours you’ve worked, it’s about the work that you have been doing that does not energize you, and does not make you, you know, give you the positive vibes if you like.

Monica Szakos  16:33

Yeah, because I found that the days where I got to spend more time on the things that I liked or loved doing and was either good or great at, I wasn’t that tired. At the end of the other day, I came home with more energy. So I started to make this correlation between the things that I love and that I should be doing more of what I love to do and are great at or like and I’m good at versus the things that I’m good at doing. But I don’t really like it. And so it was It wasn’t as difficult for me to delegate the things that I didn’t like doing and wasn’t good at. But it’s easy stuff. Yeah, but then I was getting stuck in the things that I don’t like to do, but I’m great at. And I don’t know if that’s how it is for for most business owners, but I think it’s it was harder for me to to give that up. Because it was already things that came really naturally you’re easy to meet. And so I started challenging myself to even start, you know, delegating that little by little. And then as I was doing that I was starting to see, okay, I’m I’m ending the day with a higher energy level. And overall, I’m feeling better about my contribution to the firm and the business that day. So I just started to see this, this pattern. And then I started to look at, well, what’s let’s look at health-wise, what can I be doing better, because I still had the fatigue, I still, you know, to some extent, I still had, I was still taking prescription medications. And I started working with a trainer and a nutritionist to really start improving and making time for my health and starting to prioritize that because I was going down the path of insulin resistance to type two diabetes. And that was very scared to to be that close. So and I found that I had to get rid of some of these things and delegate to make time. Because you can’t do it all. You can’t I mean, you could try to do it all but I don’t think you can do it all well.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  19:23

I think that’s a really, really good point. And I think also, you’ve hit on something that I’ve recognized in myself and I think probably lots of Taipei’s will be like this. We know we get the discipline, accountability for the business from the US. But we need the discipline, accountability in our personal lives as well which is why having a personal trainer having a nutritionist, having those people who are going to hold you accountable, and set you the same kind of things, your rocks, your little mini things you need to do each week, I think can be really important. I know it certainly works for me.

Monica Szakos  19:51

Yes. And I also learned that week I can’t become an expert in fitness and health and nutrition. Oh Overnight, I could try but you’re not in a short amount of time, you can’t replace people who have decades of experience and that that’s their area of expertise.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:16

That’s a really, really good point. I hadn’t really thought of that. But it’s absolutely true. And it’s also how you can outsource things from your business too, isn’t it? Because if you’re looking for people who’ve got that those decades of years of experience of expertise, they’re going to be able to do the task a whole lot better than you will do as somebody who’s trying to do everything.

Monica Szakos  20:34

Yes, exactly.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:37

Yeah. And we talk, I’m going to switch on and switch track completely, because when we talked in the beginning, you mentioned the fact that you have actually outsource some of the key functions in your business based around a similar kind of philosophy. So you were talking about the fact that you’ve actually outsourced your marketing person, we want to give us a little bit of insight into how you came to that decision and what benefits you get from that.

Monica Szakos  20:59

Yeah, so we looked at how much time we were spending or allocating to marketing. And we also looked at who on our team was qualified to try to do or to do marketing. And you know, none of us had marketing degrees, or, you know, that wasn’t our area of expertise. But we also found that it wasn’t a full time, 40 hour a week position, some weeks, it wasn’t even 20 hours. So we didn’t want to bring somebody on board and not be able to fill the time, when that’s their area of expertise. So we started looking into outsourcing it. And we were able to find a firm that had great experience. And it’s really, I could say, we’ve seen a big difference when we look at our return on investment over what this company’s been able to do for us versus when we were trying to do it on our own.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:11

That’s great. And so I’m interested. So from an EOS process point of view, you have somebody who sits on the sales and marketing accountability chart, does that person still sit internally? Or is that your outsourced?

Monica Szakos  22:23

That’s outsourced?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:26

So they attend the level 10 meetings and take full control of that accountability?

Monica Szakos  22:32

So they Yeah, we have our separate, they’re not part of a level 10 Like with the team, but they’re separate meeting with all of the partners each month.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:44

Okay, that’s awesome. And so it’s interesting, because I know, I’ve certainly got some clients who, who feel like they have to do everything in all those main functions in the business. But as you said, it’s like, what is your real core competency? I mean, for you guys, it’s about strategic asset management. So you know, it’s not necessary about marketing, I think we’ve got to recognize that and saying, Hey, look, we’d better to get an expert to help us is something that’s really, really key. A lot of businesses can can learn from.

Monica Szakos  23:11

Hard to do, you know, because you give up control, or it’s something different than what you’ve done before.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  23:22

And it’s that whole letting go and I we talk about this a lot, right? It’s like, if you are, if you’re an entrepreneur, and you’re an owner of the business or founder of the business, you know, it’s your baby. And it’s really, really hard to let go of your baby, and let somebody else look after it. But we actually have to if we want to grow, and if we want to grow sustainably, etc, etc. So the whole delegating elevate tool is a really important tool to recognize that, which is what you were talking about, you know, what do you what do you love, and you’re great at what you like you’re good at. And if we can work almost exclusively in that period, in that you know, that area, that’s when we add the most value to the business. So in the business, you have to do that for every single person, don’t you? You got to work out, you know, from their Colby test from from from engaging with them, talk with them, what are their real, real strengths and real unique abilities and have them working in that zone of genius, if you like as much as possible? Yes. And you’ve done that yourself, which is fantastic. And of course that enabled you to really get back into your health and make sure you’re looking after yourself, which I guess must have had some kind of on flow into the business as well. So how has that changed the business with you being in a fitter, healthier, more happy state.

Monica Szakos  24:37

It’s also improved focus in the business. Because when you’re tired and when you’re not sleeping well, there it’s the there’s less of a it’s harder to focus on those those strategic goals that you have, like I call it deep work. The thing is that, you know, we’re probably going to spend two to four hours just sitting and in quiet and working through. Yeah, it’s harder to have the focus for that, when you don’t have the energy and aren’t sleeping as well and, and have the health problems coming into play.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  25:23

Yeah, that’s true. Because in order to get your rocks and things done, you do need to dedicate good time to work on the business. And also, you need to have downtime as well. So, you know, we talk about clarity breaks, is that something you use now in your weekly monthly practice?

Monica Szakos  25:42

It’s something Yes, that I use. Now, I didn’t use before. And so the difference has been some times all it takes is 10-15 minutes for me to walk away, take a walk. And then I’ll come back more clear on what it is exactly that the strategy will the solution will be or how we want to implement the strategy. So it allows me to, to reset, because sometimes you can’t see the forest from the trees, you’re sitting there and every everything’s, it looks the same, I can’t see it. And then you just have to walk away and come back.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  26:26

Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, when we talk about clarity breaks, I mean, that’s just for people who don’t know what they mean. But what we mean by that, it’s about really taking yourself away from all the distractions, all the noise that’s going on the business, putting yourself somewhere where you can be comfortable being away from all that. And sitting there just with your thoughts. And I use a remarkable but it could be just a blank piece of paper and a pen. And asking yourself some of those difficult questions to kind of see where the answers come to. A lot of people really struggle with that, because it does require you to switch off from everything in the business to get away from it. So you know, you can do it to short, short chunks of time, like even 15 minutes, an hour, half an hour can be really helpful. Sometimes you can have for longer, how do you make the time to do that?

Monica Szakos  27:12

I block it out on the calendar? Because I find that if I don’t, then I either I’m very good at filling up the time or somebody else will do it for me. So unless I it’s blocked out on the calendar, and then I’m committed to it. So I live by my calendar. So if it’s on the calendar, I’m going to do it. If it’s not on the calendar, then I mean, oh, well, I have an extra block of time here. Let me let me go over here and take care of this. So

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:46

Yeah, like I said, blocking it out your calendar, I’m going to share a little secret with you. And don’t tell anybody apart from the listeners. But I do sometimes block it out, I still managed to sort of you know, not necessarily take that time. Because I can fight as you said, I can find other things that will actually if I take that time, I did a really great clarity break in the last couple of days, he went away to somewhere where there was no distractions was no power, there was no Internet, there was no, there’s nothing that could distract me. And I have to say, I’ve come back from that feeling completely refreshed, and very much focused on what needs to be done. But I am struggling a wee bit with you know, really keeping that block of time for doing that. So you’ve got any tips you can share on that.

Monica Szakos  28:28

Um, I would just say, when you block it out, just commit to it, and just make sure no matter what, yeah, I would I personally treat it like I would if it’s a client appointment, you know, I don’t move it. It’s just as important. And I just, you have to, I think force yourself sometimes to do it. You know, even if, because there’s all the noise and the work, it’s always gonna be there. I found that out that no matter you know, how many hours I worked, there was still new things coming in. And something is still gonna be there.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  29:10

Yeah, I think that’s a really valid point, I’m going to place priority on it. And I think also you can use, I know, I’ve started to ask my assistant to actually make sure that I do take that time out so that you’ve got somebody else holding you accountable for it as well. We’ve actually put it in our scorecard just this last week, because after having taken the time out, I’ve kind of got actually, this is something that I do believe is really important. It’s now on our scorecard each week, which means I’m going to be held accountable for having taken some time out in the business.

Monica Szakos  29:38

That’s great. Yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor  29:40

Yeah, no, thank you. Okay, cool. So we’ve talked about you know, so the EOS has given you some real clarity, some real focus, that’s our decimal accountability. We’ve talked about the delegating elevate tool, which has obviously been very important for you on a personal level, to get you back to doing that stuff that you love, which then, you know, increases your energy gives you trying to focus on your health etc. Are there any other tools in EOS that you have been real game changers for you?

Monica Szakos  30:07

So the vision traction organizer has been a game changer, not only just for the business, but also on the personal side. So the EOS life book that recently came out, so I read that and have been, you know, Scott gave me some great clarity on, on how to prioritize that as well. And so we did one actually, for our family on the personal side. And we’ve set our own rocks and scorecard metrics and bucket list goals on there. Because what was happening is, is I was spending so much time in the business and working in the business, the family life, like kind of went by the wayside where we weren’t doing much as a family, we weren’t getting out and, and doing anything that we liked to do. We were kind of home all the time. And it was hard to it was kind of like you’re in a rut, because you don’t really have the energy to do anything, it’s easier to stay home. And so we sat down, and we actually just went through and said, Okay, well, if we think of our lives, or what’s on our bucket list, what do we want to do? And then start picking two, three things from there every year to actually cross off. And so yeah, yeah. And so that’s been a real game changer there because I don’t think we’ve ever sat down and, and did core values for the family are talked about, well, in the next 135 10 years. What do you want to see? So it got my husband and I more aligned, and on the same page, which I felt was really, really important.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:10

And that’s really interesting, because, you know, obviously, with congratulates over 10 years, but you know, 10 years together, we do start to get into a rut. Just like with business, we start to get into a rut, we’re sort of we’re not, we’re not getting out, we’re not doing the things that we’re really passionate about, and perhaps haven’t even had the conversation about, you know, what is important to us? And how do we actually create a good family life as well as good business life. And I think that VTOL is a great tool. So the VTR in the business is a two page plan that really gets you laser sharp focus on where the business is headed, long term, medium term and short term. And then the family version of that is a similar thing. It’s a two page plan where you talk about your core values, you talk about your bucket list, you talk about what you’re going to do each year with your goals, and then your your 90 day rocks as well. So, so lovely to hear. You’re using it not only in the business, but to create a better relationship with the family as well. Yeah. Okay, cool. So um, now, we’ve learned such a lot in such a short period of time in terms of you know, how you’ve improved your health, how you’ve improved your personal life with your, with your family, how they’ve improved the business, and clarity of focus, I always ask the guest to give us three tips, because we love people to be able to go away and do something from what we’ve discussed today. So would you mind sharing with me your kind of three top tips for the people who are listening in? Sure.

Monica Szakos  33:25

So my first one would be to identify what you really want to do, and develop a realistic roadmap to get there. So the vision traction organizer is a great way to kind of map that out. And it’s also going to hold you accountable. And once you decide what you want to do, and plan, then make sure to execute on that. Because it’s not enough just to write it down, but then and then put it away on the bookshelf and leave it there. It’s, you know, sometimes it’s going to feel uncomfortable to try something different. But I mean, someone told me if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing. So don’t be afraid to once you’ve mapped out the journey that you’d like to just take that that first step. And right, and then the second I would say is pay close attention to your overall health. I mean, if there are, you know, like in my case, if I wasn’t sleeping, I was anxious, then it’s probably your body telling you that something isn’t right. And I think the sooner that you address it, the less issues there are I mean, I let it go for years and so I had a list of of issues to fix. So, so the sooner the better on that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:06

I think that’s a great, great thing. And I think you’re absolutely right. I think sleep is one of the first things to actually go. When you’re starting to feel stressed, you’ll start to have disruptive sleep and waking up at two or 3am in the morning, and I think that that is there warning bells there like this, because without decent sleep, the body actually just can’t function properly. So it’s, it’s the beginning of that downward spiral.

Monica Szakos  35:27

Yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  35:29

Okay. And then the last one.

Monica Szakos  35:31

Lastly, I would say, don’t be afraid to leverage or lean on others, you know, whether it’s team members, peers, other trusted professionals, family members, because a lot of times, that’s led to more clarity in my life, just being able to talk to somebody who knows what I’m going through, or has been there. And a lot of times you when it’s your situation, it’s really hard to see the forest from the trees, and it’s not clear. But just having someone as a sounding board, sometimes will give you a lot more clarity a lot more quickly. So it’s, it’s led me to find my sense of purpose solutions to problems and overall, more gratitude. I think, I think I’m, I was surprised by how many people have said, Oh, how can I help? So that was always been great.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  36:39

And I think I’ve said this a lot. But I actually think that we, I’m sure you you do as well, we really enjoy helping people, right? And so asking for help see it, turn it on its head, don’t think about asking for help. Just think that you’re actually enabling enabling somebody else to feel good about helping you. And when you start thinking about like that, it makes asking for help a whole lot easier. Because you know, the person that’s going to be helping you will actually get a buzz out of helping you.

Monica Szakos  37:03

Yeah, that’s a good point. Yeah. Okay, cool.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  37:07

So we’ve got a lot of stuff in there, which is really, really great. I just want to ask you a bit about your actual business. So you know, tell us a bit about what your business does, and what kind of people you work with, and what you enjoy, because you obviously enjoy helping people as well. So tell us a little about that.

Monica Szakos  37:21

Yes, so we are a financial planning and wealth management firm. So we help our clients and we have clients from all walks of life. We have business owner clients as well, who we work with to integrate their financial and business planning together. And so we help them plan we help manage assets. And then we also have some consulting services and insurance where there is a need. But basically, we help our clients with how do we how do they steward their financial assets, and really enhance their financial well being. So money is a tool, you know, to really use for the life that you want to build for yourself. So our job is to partner with our clients, educate them, and then help them navigate this financial journey.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  38:32

That’s also the ideal client for you. What do they look like?

Monica Szakos  38:36

So, our ideal clients, they typically have, I would say, you know, we really don’t have a specific so ideal clients are people who want to start planning their financial futures, and really want the education and the advice.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  39:03

They want to work in partnership with somebody rather than sort of just doing it on their own. Yeah, correct. Yes. That is awesome. Okay, so if people want to get in contact with you, either because they would love to have to get some wealth advice, or perhaps ask a bit more about your journey, how would they get in contact with you, Monica?

Monica Szakos  39:20

So the best place would be our website, and that’s www.asset- preservation.com. So on there, there’s a Contact Us so I would recommend starting there.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  39:39

That is fantastic. I look, you have been really open and honest about your journey. And I think that it is a journey that I suspect a lot of people actually go through. So I want to thank you so much for for being very open and honest with with how that’s worked for you. I want to congratulate you not only on creating, you know, a much more efficient and beautiful business that you’re enjoying, but also for your 10 years of marriage and the fact you’ve now got a life plan with your partner as well. And just congratulations on Yeah, on really sudden to live the EOS life which is you know planning your life before somebody else does. Doing what you love with people you love making a huge difference in the world being compensated appropriately and of course having time to pursue other passions. It’s, it’s a, it’s, it’s a great way of life and I want to hear I’m gonna say well done on achieving that and thank you for your sharing. Yeah,

Monica Szakos  40:31

Thank you very much.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  40:33

My absolute pleasure.