Tuesdays with Corey interview with Lisa Fey, Patricia Friedman, Malory Atkinson, and Angie Rehkop

Lisa Fey is a global business growth speaker and founder of Lisa Fey Speaks, as well as a Virtuoso luxury and adventure Travel Agent. Lisa began her corporate career in 1985 when she was recruited off the campus of The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill as a sales associate for the Coca Cola Company. During her 30 year tenure, she held leadership roles within customer management, marketing and capability building. Her career path took her all over the world seeding key technologies. This broad experience enabled her to shape her thought ware around driving performance. Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.

Patricia Friedman is a Shareholder of The Bowden Spratt Law Firm, P.C. For almost 30 years, she has represented clients with respect to their estate planning needs, including estate and gift tax planning, charitable planning and estate administration. She has practiced with large and mid-size firms and currently practices with an estate planning boutique firm. Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn.

Malory Atkinson is the co-founder and managing partner of Shear Structural. In her role as partner, Malory is currently responsible for business development, marketing, finance, and operations. It was the combination of traditional professional services and high energy startup experience that led her to co- found Shear Structural, Atlanta’s newest 100% women-owned and women-managed structural engineering firm. Connect with Malory on LinkedIn.

Angie Rehkop's practice, Financial Care Providers, was founded with one simple, yet essential goal in mind: Design financial plans that take care of the wealth and well-being of her clients. She speaks succinctly about investment strategy, risk measures and complex business and family issues. Grounded by two decades of financial planning expertise, she carefully tends to the financial future of individuals, families and business owners. Connect with Angie on LinkedIn.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It's time for Atlanta Business Radio, spotlighting the city's best businesses and the people who lead them.

Katy Galli: Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Atlanta Business Radio's Tuesdays with Corey. Hey, Corey, what's going on?

Corey Rieck: Hey, Katy. Another great show today.

Katy Galli: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: Today on Tuesdays with Corey, of course, the premise of the show is that we talk to successful female business owners and C-suite executives and learn about their contributions to their communities, industries, companies, and organizations. And today, we've outdone ourselves unquestionably. We have Lisa Fey, who has experience as a 30-year veteran of Coca-Cola and also does a lot of keynote speeches. Lisa, welcome.

Lisa Fey: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Corey Rieck:Thank you. Glad to have you. Patricia Friedman, who has a 30-year experience as an estate planning attorney with the Bowden Spratt Law Firm. Patricia, welcome.

Patricia Friedman: Thank you. Bowden.

Corey Rieck: Sorry. We have Malory Atkinson, who is a Managing Partner and Co-owner of Shear Structural.

Malory Atkinson: Thanks for having me.

Corey Rieck: Malory, welcome.

Malory Atkinson: Thank you.

Corey Rieck: And we have Angie Rehkop, who is a CFP, a certified financial planner, and has 25 years of business experience.

Angie Rehkop: Yes. Thank you for having me, Corey.

Corey Rieck: Very good. Well, today we'll start off with Lisa. And Lisa, you have a ton of experience. I'm not exactly sure where to start, but I think the Coca-Cola experience is worth talking about.

Lisa Fey: Absolutely. I am probably one of the last few of a dying breed, if you will. I was actually recruited off my college campus through the little Heinz Hall, where they come and have all the companies come in and talk to you. I didn't actually get a interview with Coke. I talked my way into the opportunity to talk, but-

Corey Rieck: I find that impossible to believe, you talked your way into something.

Lisa Fey: I know, I know. I can't help myself. But nobody is going to come ask you if you don't ask them. So, I talked my way into an interview, became one of a hiring class of 10, and I spent 30 years at the same company, and retired several years ago. So, it was an amazing experience that took me living all over the US and, literally, all over the world.

Corey Rieck: Well, you held a number of positions when you're with Coca-Cola.

Lisa Fey: Yeah. As I sat back and looked, I spent about 10 years in sales, and 10 years in marketing, and then 10 years in training and development, but not as blocked is that. I kind of kept going back and forth, which gave me kind of a unique perspective to look at things from, how do we create things, how do they move through the entire supply chain, and how did they ultimately impact the customer and the consumer?

Corey Rieck: What did you like best about your tenure there?

Lisa Fey: There's nothing like working for a big, bodacious, fabulous brand. You feel like you are kind of in the center of the CPG universe. Everybody's got a feeling about Coke. Everybody's got a story about Coke. And with our involvement with the Olympics, with everything that you see in here, you really are in the fabric of America and the fabric of the world. And that's a pretty neat place to be.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, they've had certainly a profound effect with their advertising, their products. I mean, I know I like the Powerade product. And, just, you must have gotten some tremendous experience to put you where you are now.

Lisa Fey: Absolutely. And also, forward looking at what the changing landscape in beverages is today and being able to have products that meet consumers' needs, not just in carbonated soft drinks.

Corey Rieck: Yes, certainly, the Powerade product, certainly, probably, has impact on that.

Lisa Fey: Absolutely. And the water, and our juices with simply orange juice. We are in the milk business now. I mean, it's pretty amazing. And then, if you travel internationally, seeing our products that make a difference there as well and the jobs we create, I think that's one of the things that makes me proud is as I look at our global expansion is we can really change the economies by having our products available.

Corey Rieck: Well, certainly, I'm a fan of the Diet Coke and the Coke Zero. And one of the things that was fascinating to me was one of the first times I went over to Europe, I tried the Diet Coke over there, and it tasted completely different. It actually tasted very good. I remember thinking this can't be Diet Coke, and it's welted in a recipe. I wasn't aware that different companies had different recipes for their products.

Lisa Fey: Oftentimes, depending on the country that you're doing business in, it is the change in the sweetener. So, for example, if you go to Mexico, our products, they are made with cane sugar because it's such a staple of the economy there. So, a Mexican Coke does taste different than a US Coke. And the different formulations of, especially, the diet sweeteners will have an impact on the taste.

Corey Rieck: So, you made the decision after 30 years to retire. Was that hard?

Lisa Fey: In some ways, it was, As business continues to change, there's lots of restructures going on. Coke is no different than that. I was impacted in a restructure, and I looked around, and I did not see work that was going to use my passions. And I met with several of the senior leaders, and I decided it was a great opportunity. I had started speaking about two years earlier, and it was a great time for me to be able to shift my focus, and invest in me and a passion I have, and to take the pivot. So, it was just a great opportunity.

Corey Rieck: Was there any fear, or any unrest, or anxiety associated with the transition in sort of hanging out your own shingle?

Lisa Fey: No. No, I'm just kidding. There's always-.

Corey Rieck: Kind of a loaded question, I suppose.

Lisa Fey: There's always fear with that, especially when you've had the words the Coca-Cola Company behind your name. But it is also because I had all that experience behind me. When I went to business school, I didn't realize how much I had learned by working at Coca-Cola until I went to business school and found some of the professors talking about things. And I was like, "Well, we did that, and we did that, and we did that." You forget how much you have learned and how much you can share, but I do miss being associated with big brand. I also miss being associated with big brains. The level of people that I worked with at the Coca-Cola Company were topnotch. And I miss just being able to walk down the hall, and brainstorm, and have that connectivity with so many really smart people.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, there's no shortage of mental horsepower there, that's for sure.

Lisa Fey: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: You made the decision to get an MBA.

Lisa Fey: I did.

Corey Rieck: Tell us about that. Walk us through why you did that.

Lisa Fey: Well, I was a Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures major at the University of North Carolina. And so, it really wasn't the basic business degree that most people had. I got to a point in my career that I really wanted to be more well-rounded and had an opportunity to take a job in Atlanta where I understood why the leader wanted me to do the work. I didn't really understand why I wanted to do the work. And they said, "Figure out what would make you want to do this." And I said, "I want to go to MBA school," and he he said, "Get in."

Lisa Fey: So, I took the plunge, did a 16-month program because I wanted to invest in myself, and round out my skills, and get competent areas I did not have confidence in. So, The marketing, I found out, I really knew a lot of the textbook stuff from working at the Coca-Cola Company. However, the broader areas of business, it gave me the ability to compete in often male-dominated scenarios, in areas that I didn't previously have background in, but it gave me the oomph I needed to be at the C-suite tables on some bigger topics.

Corey Rieck: When you went out on your own, you started to do keynote speaker.

Lisa Fey: Yes.

Corey Rieck: Tell us, how does one get into that? And tell us about that.

Lisa Fey: Well, I believe the universe kind of directs you. I helped found the Women's Network at the Coca-Cola Company. I brought a speaker in. I got the opportunity to introduce her for mainstage. And also, after the meeting, she said, "You're really good on stage." And I said, "Well, thank you." And she said, "Now, you're-"

Corey Rieck: That's not really a surprise, by the way.

Lisa Fey: Well, thank you. And she said, "No, you're really good." And I said, "Thank you very much." And she said, "I don't think you understand what I'm trying to tell you." And I said, "Well then, let me buy you lunch." And she said, "I think you should consider being a speaker." We met, we talked about it. She told me the good, and the bad, and the ugly about speaking business. I joined the National Speakers Association in the State of Georgia. I took a one year class on the Business of Speaking. And I created my first keynote, did it, had it reviewed, and then changed everything I did to get better. And my career was born from that.

Corey Rieck: Well, I think you've, obviously, had a lot of success and a lot of experience. I know that one of the things that had a huge impact on me when I first was introduced to you was the TED Talk you did that was posted on your website. And the concept really has to do with ... to me, what I took from that video was persistence, don't let anyone tell you you can't do something in one more call. Tell us about that video.

Lisa Fey: Well, the one TED talk you're referring to is the Dialing for a Dream. And it literally is how I talked myself into a job at NBC Sports. And then, ultimately, talked my way into the interview at Coca-Cola. I was from a small town of 800 people. The whole idea of being in radio and television wasn't something that people grew up to do. And I also believed that nobody's going to give you the opportunities. And I wasn't fortunate enough to have school paid for, so I had to figure out how to pay for it myself. I knew I was in a major that I needed to get some experience in. And literally, in those days, you just picked up the phone and called information for New York City, for NBC Sports, and kept talking to every secretary in the building till I found the woman that would hire me.

And then, I called her. I figured out she was at her desk every day at 2:00. So, I called her every day at 2:00. And she finally said, "If I hire you, will you quit calling me?" And I said, "Yes. And if you hire me once, you'll hire me forever." I spent about 10 years doing some freelance work for NBC Sports. But it showed me that you have to be able to pick up the phone to get to the people that can do what you need them to do because they're not going to run into you randomly. So, as you see people, meet people, have opportunities, it really is incumbent on you to make a lot of your own breaks.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. Closed mouth doesn't get fed, right?

Lisa Fey: Absolutely.

Corey Rieck: That, I thought, was very impactful because you just decided, "Hey, I want to work at the North Carolina Basketball game. I want to get some experience with NBC Sports." And to me, the video was, I think, very well done. But also telling about how your persistence and it paid off. And I think it laid a lot of groundwork for for where you are today not taking no for an answer.

Lisa Fey: Yes. And I think the other piece of that too is being willing to take feedback. I mean, sometimes, you want to do things that maybe aren't up your alley. You can aspire to be ... I'd love to be a great singer too, but that whole skill thing gets in the way for me. But being able to take feedback to continue to improve your performance, to put yourself in the position to be ready for the next level, I think is the other thing that I learned along the way.

Corey Rieck: So, with your experience working for the Coca-Cola Company and being a keynote speaker, which do you like the best and why?

Lisa Fey: I love being able to inspire people to next-level performance, whether it's as an individual or as a company. I think that's the one great thing about working at Coke is I spent most of my career in food service working with restaurant operators, and I was only successful if I helped make their business more successful because if they had a successful restaurant, a successful convenience store, or successful movie theater, my business would naturally grow as a piece of that. So, I think I learned a lot at Coke through experience with a lot of businesses that, really, in a lot of ways, I'm doing the same thing. It's all about growth.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. You have another business?

Lisa Fey: I do.

Corey Rieck: That's travel related.

Lisa Fey: Yeah, I do luxury and adventure travel.

Corey Rieck: And how did you get into that?

Lisa Fey: Well, I was married for a while, and we tried to have kids, and it unfortunately did not work out for us.

Corey Rieck: I'm sorry to hear that.

Lisa Fey: [Thank you. That's one of my greatest misses, I think, was not having the opportunity to be a mom. So, now, I just try to be a really great aunt. But when we realize that we didn't have to save our money to educate our children, we decided to educate ourselves. So, we started traveling all over the world. And by the time I was 50, I'd been to all seven continents. And there was a man that I used to work with. It actually was a retired Coke friend that owned a travel agency and I used to do some stuff with him. And he said anybody that travels as much as you do needs to help other people see the world. When you retire, you're going to come work for me. And I said, "No, I'm not." And then, again, the universe kind of opened itself up, and I started helping other people travel.

And I really struggled with how much I would enjoy helping other people travel versus just me traveling. And one of my favorite stories was a friend of my parents, she wanted to go to Paris. She's in her early 80s, and that had been her dream. And I was able to help her get to Paris, which literally meant a car to pick her up at her house, wheelchairs at the airport, a wheelchair on the river cruise ship. And she came back home, her and her husband, and they took me out to their favorite restaurant where we had to eat at 5:30. And as I watched her eyes and listened to her words tell me the story of what that meant to her, it said that doing the travel business and helping when people have these experiences was amazingly rewarding. And for me, I just got back from a three-week trip to India. And my most-

Corey Rieck: Wait a minute. I must have been away from the phone when it rang. I don't see any missed calls on my phone. Surely, you called to invite me to that, right?

Lisa Fey: Hey, you're always invited.

Corey Rieck: Careful.

Lisa Fey: You're always invited. The best moment I had there, I mean, the Taj Mahal was amazing, Varanasi was stunning, but the coolest moment was in a local villagers house where they actually invited us to walk through and our guide said that's the first time they'd invited anybody into the house. And in their den, I saw a little board and it had, "best student," and it had the little athletic awards. And it is always a great reminder that no matter where you are in the world, people are maybe more alike than they are different. Everybody wants their kids to have a good education, and a good childhood, and to play, and to achieve. And if we could just figure out a way to show everybody that we're so much more alike and focus on our commonalities, it'd be much better place to be most of the time.

Corey Rieck: Well, you've had a great deal of experience and success. And congratulations and all that. And one of the things that we like to ask our guests is, if there were some advice that you would give, I'm not going to say younger, the less experienced version of Lisa, what would you tell her?

Lisa Fey: I would tell her to be open to feedback earlier, and to assume good intent by the people that deliver it.

Corey Rieck: Great advice. If there was a young lady that wanted to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give her?

Lisa Fey: I would say the first thing to do is to know yourself, know your strengths and what you're good at, to pay attention to your life for those things that bring you the greatest joy. And when you're really in your zone, and if you don't know, ask other people around you to tell you, and then to go see and figure out what you can do with that because today, careers exist today that never ever have existed in the past, and more could exist in the future. And never stop learning.

Corey Rieck: Well, Lisa, you've had a great run. You've been a tremendous guest and continued success. Thank you for being on the show today.

Lisa Fey: Thank you very much for having me.

Corey Rieck: Next, we're going to talk to Patricia Friedman, who is an estate planning attorney. Patricia, welcome.

Patricia Friedman: Thank you. I am a little bit intimidated to have to follow a motivational speaker on here.

Corey Rieck: Oh, no, you're just fine. Remember how I know you, Patricia. We've sweated for years and years on Saturdays running with team in training.

Patricia Friedman: Thank goodness there are no pictures.

Corey Rieck: Well, I mean, if they could touch him up, I would look like something there, aren't I? That's not funny. So, Patricia, you have a wealth of experience as an estate planning attorney.

Patricia Friedman: Yes.

Corey Rieck: And prior to that, you graduated from Vanderbilt. You did your law. You did law school and graduated from Vanderbilt also.

Patricia Friedman: Double door.

Corey Rieck: What made you decide to go to Vanderbilt?

Patricia Friedman: Oh, that's a good question. You know, I-

Corey Rieck: Well, at least, there's one.

Patricia Friedman: Yeah. I think I went to Vanderbilt initially because I couldn't ... like Lisa, I'm from a small town, and I was actually the first person in my family to graduate from college.

Corey Rieck: Where is the small town?

Patricia Friedman: Fayetteville, Tennessee. Middle Tennessee.

Corey Rieck: I know exactly where it is.

Patricia Friedman: Tobacco country. Right. And I wanted to go to a good school, but at the same time, I couldn't conceive of going away too far. So, Vanderbilt was about an hour and a half from my family home, and it seemed like a good place to go get a good education and still be able to go home if I wanted. Of course, I never went home once I got up there, but I thought I might. So, that's why I went there initially.

Corey Rieck: That isn't really hard for me to believe that you didn't go home once you got away.

Patricia Friedman: Oh, no. I stayed up there every summer, got a job, found an apartment, never went. I mean, I go home to visit, but I never lived at home since I left for college.

Corey Rieck: Well, Nashville is a great city. So, it's understandable that-

Patricia Friedman: And that's why I stayed for law school because Nashville is such a great city.

Corey Rieck: It is a great city. I think you were growing up in the north of Minnesota, I don't miss the brutal cold that's up there. And I moved. I escaped there. I tell people I escaped there in April of '97 just because it's too cold. And what you get here is the brutal heat and humidity. And I despise that less than I despise the brutal cold that's out there in the north. But I think what Nashville, you get sort of a taste of all the seasons.

Patricia Friedman: It's like here.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, but it's a great city. So, how did you decide that you wanted to go to law school?

Patricia Friedman: Oh, well, that's an easy one. When you graduate from undergrad with a major in Political Science and English Literature, what else are you going to do? I thought about being an engineer my freshman year until calculus really sort of kicked me in the tail, and then I decided that wasn't gonna be the way to go. So, I majored in two things I loved - English and Political Science. Then, I realized I needed to do something else because there wasn't much you could do. So, I went to law school.

Corey Rieck: So, I think I'm gonna need some verification on the kick in the tail thing because that, I've never seen it knowing you as long as I have over the years. How did you pick estate planning to focus on?

Patricia Friedman: I actually didn't. I primarily focused on corporate tax and corporate law, and I went to New York straight out of law school. My thought was I was going to practice big firm corporate taxation, but New York firms, being what they are, when I was there working as a summer associate, I was from Tennessee, they introduced me to the young up-and-coming partner in the estate planning group, basically, by saying, "Patricia, you're from Tennessee. Dan is from Alabama. I bet you guys know a lot of people in common." Right. I said yes, and we both wear shoes too. It's kind of amazing, isn't it?

So, I got to know this guy and he started calling me and said, "Why don't you come to my department instead?" And I said, "That's not what I want to do." And then, he said, "How about if I tell you you can change your mind after a year if you don't like it?" And I was always a big fan of putting off permanent decisions, so I said okay, but he was actually smarter than I was on that one. He knew that once you've been in a firm practicing in an area for a year, there was no way you were gonna go back and go back to an area where you weren't familiar with the terms and everything. ,So he knew I would never leave once I got in.

Corey Rieck: And you worked with big clients, and small clients, large firms, smalls, small firms.

Patricia Friedman: Well, my clients are all people. When you do estate planning, your clients are always people. And that was one thing I learned once I started practicing law. And I'm not in any way denigrating other people and their clients. I just feel like I find it much more rewarding to have people as clients. They, usually, are happy when the process is done. They feel like you've accomplished something, whether it's setting up a foundation, whether it's avoiding a huge tax bill, whether it's ensuring that their family business remains in the family. And I've done that at big firms and small firms. So, yes, always people but different sized law firms.

Corey Rieck: The estate planning matters aren't widely known with some of the issues, what are the levels of estate tax planning, and what are the - trying to find the word I'm looking for - the amount that is not taxed.

Patricia Friedman: Well, when I first started practicing law, the exemption was $600,000 per person. So, that's 1.2 million you could have passed down to your family. And if you think about it, if you're a young couple with a house and some life insurance, all of a sudden, you were deemed wealthy by the IRS and would pay an estate tax. So, there was a lot more we did sort of planning around that. But now, the exemption is ... The inflation adjusted numbers just came out, it's $11.18 million per person. So, a married couple with over $22 million, and that's indexed inflation going forward, so they will never have to pay estate taxes until the law changes again, which I'm sure it will at some point.

But planning for today, I would say most Americans don't have to worry about the estate tax. And so, you switch to other things that are more important. And we still have clients who have to worry about the estate tax, and we still do planning for that. But now, perhaps, we're thinking more about capital gains tax and how we can reduce that when the family assets are sold. We're thinking more about things like who is going to take over my family business, or I have a child with a substance abuse problem, and how do I keep my wealth from ruining that child further? So, there are more of this. Actually, we call them the softer issues that have sort of risen to the forefront lately.

Corey Rieck: How do you coach your clients to avoid - not avoid, but to limit the capital gains that they pay?

Patricia Friedman: Well, one of the things that is sort of a misconception that I hear from a lot of people is we'll just give it away while you're alive, and then you won't own it when you die. And then, they can't tax it. Well, yeah. Well, you probably don't have $22 million, so you weren't gonna pay an estate tax anyways. But if you have an old family home that your parents paid or your grandparents had $30,000 for back in the '40s, and it's now worth a couple of million bucks, and you transfer it during lifetime, you get what's called carryover basis, which means you get that million dollar home, you sell it, you've got a $970,000; whereas, if you'd held onto it, transferred it at death, total step up in basis, you can sell it with no capital gains at all.

Corey Rieck: Is there a particular part of what you do that resonates more with you than another?

Patricia Friedman: Yes, there really is. So, I've been doing this, like you said, for almost 30 years. And one of the things that I've noticed is a big change in my practice really, the tone of the practice has changed from how do I squirrel every penny away from my family and not give the IRS any money? It's changed to, how much is too much to give these kids? How much is too much? And how much should I give to charity instead? And I actually love that discussion. That's my favorite part of my practice right there.

Corey Rieck: That's an interesting thing because even in my business, we run into that where families, they're inclined to maybe leave some behind, but they don't want to ruin their kids. And it seems like, knowing you, that you probably are in many ways like a counselor to them-

Patricia Friedman: Yes. ...

Corey Rieck: to sort of coach them.

Patricia Friedman: A very expensive psychologist is the way we, sometimes, describe ourselves.

Corey Rieck: But it is so important to for people to ... I mean, I know from no one you that you create that air of consultative engagement where people can speak openly and not feel like they're going to get judgment or something in return. And that's crucial. But there has to be a big part of what you do that is counseling and kind of being able to have somebody bounce ideas off you. And, "Gee, I have this money, and I don't want to ruin my kids by giving them too much." And so, how do you handle all that?

Patricia Friedman: Well, one of the things that I have ... and this is one of the reasons I think I do very well with female clients is a lot of times - and I don't mean to denigrate men, Corey, please, I will have a couple come in, and I'll see a plan that was structured by another lawyer who was probably a 70-year-old guy, and everything that the wife gets is trust, and everything that the husband gets is not. And when I ask them why, because the wife happens to be vice president of the bank or something like that. They have no idea why it was ever set up that way.

So, one of the things I've always done is discuss with the clients what their goals are and how we're going to get there. And I always make it clear that while I may have some opinions on better ways to do things, the decision is really theirs. It's not mine. And I don't know that that was typically how people were advised in the past. I think they were sometimes ... and again, not all lawyers, but there were some lawyers who felt the need was, "Well, I think you need to do it this way because this is the way you need to do it." And I sort of feel like, "Well, you could do all this if you wanted to."

I had this couple come to me, and they had some family land, which was about to be very, very valuable because an interstate was going by it. And they had been advised by all these different people about all these different things they could do, all involving lifetime exchanges, that sort of thing to avoid taxes. And I said, "Well, here's something you could do." I said, "You could pay the, then, low capital gains tax, and you could just keep the money, and you could retire." And they said, "How come no one ever told us that?" We are trained to minimize taxes. That's our first tag, but that doesn't mean that's your goal, because they were getting so stressed out about the process of maintaining all these different structures that people were giving to them when, really, all they really wanted to do was quit their jobs, and retire, and travel, and visit their grandkids.

Corey Rieck: Well, the law, like a lot of other businesses, has so many different angles. And I think the fact that you're a sharpshooter, and you focus on, really, largely one area has to be incredibly useful for your clients because you're able to give them advice like that because you're touching these things every day.

Patricia Friedman: Well, yeah. And we don't do anything else. I mean, if someone calls me and says, "Look, my child's getting a divorce. How do I..." I give them another name because that is not what I do. Believe or not, this actually happens relatively regularly either. The grandma got a DUI, she had one too many cocktails out at dinner the other night, or my kid got a DUI. And we don't do those. So, we send them out to someone who does. So, we really do make sure we stay focused on what we do.

Corey Rieck: You have a number of things that resonate with you personally. And I know you from team in training and raising money for the Leukemia Society. What are the things that you do personally to give back?

Patricia Friedman: Well, I've been really very involved in my kids' schools to the level of serving on the board of trustees of each of those schools. I was on the board of the children's school for several years and took that through a very difficult transition actually. It was the the transition from a head who'd been there for almost 30 years to a new head, and that was a very difficult time to be on the board, but it was something I felt very strongly about. And now, I'm on the board at the Paideia School, where my son is about to graduate. And I feel like those two institutions have given my children a really good headstart on their lives as sort of independent thinking individuals. and I feel like it's important to me to give back.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, there's no question that you do all that. And it's interesting to me, hearing about your son on all the runs and stuff. And now, he's gonna graduate from high school. There's a big part of me that says, "When did all this happen?" And I can brag a little bit. Patricia's son, Jack, is going to Georgia Tech on a baseball scholarship, which is 5 or 10 minutes from my house. And I'm probably gonna start watching baseball again. So, that is-

Patricia Friedman: And I can actually see the field from my office.

Corey Rieck: That's going to be outstanding. He's going to have a great run with that. And Patricia, you've been a great guest. If you could give the less experienced version of you some advice, knowing what you know now, what would that advice be?

Patricia Friedman:I think, what I would tell myself is to do a better job of drawing a line between where the workday ended and where my family life began. I will admit that I did not do a very good job of that because I think you are ... and I may be generalizing, but as a woman, in a very male dominated field, you're trying to show that you are just as available as they are. And it sort of hit home when my daughter's preschool teacher told me that she sure had a lot of meetings. It's kind of sad.

Corey Rieck: If there was a young lady that wanted to follow in your footsteps, and I'm sure there are a lot of them who are going to do, what would you tell them?

Patricia Friedman: I'll tell them what I told my daughter recently. Find a passion, find a mentor, and dream big.

Corey Rieck: Right on. I mean, Patricia, you've been a great guest. You've had great success. Thank you for being on the show. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you, how would they do so? Maybe you could give them an email address or a phone number.

Patricia Friedman It's my full name. patriciafriedman@bowdenspratt.com. And the number is 404-523-8337.

Corey Rieck And Lisa Fey, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you, how would they do that?

Lisa Fey:] Remember my name. First of all, it's spelled Lisa Fey like Tina Fey, F-E-Y. You can find me, my website is lisafey.com. My email is lisa@lisafey.com. And my phone number is 404-951-8401.

Corey Rieck: Thank you. Malory Atkinson. Malory, how are you this morning?

Malory Atkinson: Good. How are you doing?

Corey Rieck: I'm great. Malory is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Shear Structural. And in her role as partner, she's currently responsible for business development, marketing, finance, and operations. I have a question already.

Malory Atkinson: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: When do you sleep?

Malory Atkinson: Sometimes, between the hours of midnight and 4:00. Typically, it's about my schedule. No, I'm just kidding. I try to get a good amount of sleep, but I work a lot on the weekends, which is part of the nature of the business.

Corey Rieck: How did you get the idea to start your company?

Malory Atkinson: Oh, man. I think as an entrepreneur, that sort of bug was planted in me. I don't know. I feel like I've always-

Corey Rieck: Gee, I never would've picked up on it.

Malory Atkinson: I think it probably started when I was nine years old and had a lemonade stand as all good 9-year-old girls have lemonade stands. And I was on the road, and I remember cars would go by, and they would stop, and they would just come out, and be like, "Oh, you're so cute here. Here's a dollar," but they would never buy any lemonade. They never ever wanted it. They just wanted to give me money. And I would get really frustrated about that. And so, finally, I was like asking them, I was like, "Well, what would you buy?" And they were like, "Sweet tea." I mean, I grew up here in Atlanta. And so, I started selling sweet tea, and I would sell out at in like an hour. And so, I think, just like that sort of has always been instilled in me to like how to serve others, and asking people for what they want, and trying to give it to them.

Corey Rieck: So, did you patent your sweet tea stand concept now?

Malory Atkinson: No. I should have done that. Darn it.

Corey Rieck: So, your firm is 100% women-owned, right?

Malory Atkinson: Yes. Yeah, and women-managed, which is an important thing to note too.

Corey Rieck: And how many employees are in your firm?

Malory Atkinson: Right now, we have eight in just seven months.

Corey Rieck: And give the listenership an overview of what your firm does.

Malory Atkinson: Sure. So, I get asked this a lot because a lot of people don't know what structural engineering actually is. We work primarily with architects. And people know what architecture is. So, an architect designs a building. And if you think of a building as a human body, so an architect would design what it looks like, what color of hair, short, tall. And a structural engineer would design the skeleton. That's what we do. We design a building skeleton. And we primarily work in the commercial sector.

Corey Rieck: Which part of your job do you like the best? I know that you had mentioned that your business development, marketing, finance and operation. Is it one of those that you like better or that resonates better more than the other?

Malory Atkinson:Yeah, definitely people. I love everything that has to do with people. So, hiring-

Corey Rieck:That's a shock.

Malory Atkinson: Hiring, recruiting, culture development, relationship development, that's what I love, dealing with people.

Corey Rieck: You mentioned the word culture. How would you describe the culture in your company?

Malory Atkinson: I think, actually, a good representation of that is how we have our office set up. So, we're all in a 20-by-20 space, and it's all open. So, there's three partners, and we have three full-time employees, two part-time. We're all open in the exact same space at the exact same size desks. And we're just really open, transparent. We constantly communicate with our people all the time, every day.

Corey Rieck: Is it difficult to concentrate with everybody right there?

Malory Atkinson: I think it can be sometimes. But at the same time, that's just our culture. That's what works for us. I mean, again, with everything that we do is so collaborative, and we want our young engineers to learn from our senior engineers. And so, they could just kind of need to hear those conversations. And of course, there's always earphones. So, if you really need to focus, just put some earphones on.

Corey Rieck: How did you decide to become an engineer?

Malory Atkinson: So, I am actually not an engineer. My background is in construction. So, I went to Georgia Tech, originally, for industrial design to work on the product side, and then realized that you really can't get a job in industrial design. And me, I, just, am too realistic for that. So, I went into construction because in the early 2000s, the construction industry is booming. And I graduated right before the recession and got a number of job offers in construction, and then got a job offer for a place where I was interning to help them start a marketing department. And I didn't know anything about marketing. And so, started doing that. I was there for almost 10 years. And in there, it was an engineering firm. And so, I really got to love engineering, got love dealing with the people, amazingly smart, talented people, a lot from Georgia Tech. And then, I always wanted more. So, went back to school and got my MBA. And-

Corey Rieck: How was that experience?

Malory Atkinson: It was great. I love getting my MBA. It gave me that foundation. Again, with my degree in construction, I didn't have the, sort of, fundamentals of the business. Yet, I was working directly under the CEO and working with him every day. And so, I really needed to get this sort of baseline of business knowledge that was very helpful in my career.

Corey Rieck: It is unique to see females in construction. Do you think that that gives you an advantage?

Malory Atkinson:I do. I really think we just have, at our company, this, sort of, like amazing ability to kind of see the broad picture of a project. It's very interesting to me. We're actually the only all women-owned and managed social engineering company in Metro Atlanta. I hope we're not the last. I think, women bring a lot to this industry. I mean, you look at the numbers, they're like 6% more profitable when you have women in leadership, 35% greater return on equity when you have women in leadership roles. So, it's really more higher, 20% higher innovation. So, it's really great. So, I hope more women are in leadership roles in the industry. It would be great.

Corey Rieck: Well, they certainly know how to get things done in my experiences. And they don't suffer any fools, and there's very little gray area.

Malory Atkinson: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: That, I find refreshing.

Malory Atkinson: Yeah.

Corey Rieck: How does Shear Structural get its clients?

Malory Atkinson: Primarily relationships. I mean, the three of us, the three business partners, we have amazing relationships and different networks throughout the industry and outside the industry, and it's all word of mouth.

Corey Rieck: So, you already have an existing network - architects, people that you've done business with in the past.

Malory Atkinson: Yes.

Corey Rieck: What other marketing? You mentioned marketing. What other marketing do you do to get the word out?

Malory Atkinson: I do a lot of things like this, talking about the business. I try not to market only inside the industry, because I think that there's so ... I mean, like, you guys could all know architects that could work with us. So, I think there's a lot of things that we need to do to kind of look outside of that construction industry to get work. I do a lot on social media. I think that's a really fun place. And also, recruiting through our people. I once heard that everybody knows 200 people, like 200 people that would stop, and like wave to you, and talk to you on the street. And so, when I think about just like little less than 10 people, just our little less than 10 people we know, like 2000 people. So, if all those people knew what we did, then we could do great work.

Corey Rieck: You mentioned social media. How do you use that? And what mediums are most effective for helping forward your company's agenda?

Malory Atkinson: Right now, we're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Obviously, LinkedIn is a great platform professionally just to talk about what's going on with the company, I find Instagram is this really fun place to sort of engage in a different way. We've actually gotten work off of Instagram, which is-

Corey Rieck: Really?

Malory Atkinson:] Yeah, I've gotten a project off Instagram. So, that's really fun. You kind of use different tags, and we had somebody that was trying to do a specific project in Atlanta and had clicked on the tag and reached out to me for a proposal.

Corey Rieck: That is interesting. So, is one of those four mediums more successful for you in building relationships and getting business than another?

Malory Atkinson: I think it's really more integrated. And again, I'm not ... I mean, social was great, but it does not knock like a face-to-face interaction. I mean, it is just that's sort of a helpful tool. I can learn a little bit more about someone, or maybe I look at a client, and say, "Oh, my gosh. They've just won this amazing award that they talked about." That gives me another excuse to reach out and talk to them, but it's a great tool for that.

Corey Rieck: I imagine you would probably have information out there that would help shift the business to you. And to me, it seems like you have a very big advantage with your experience and who you are that you would have a ... it seems to me you have a very good advantage being in the construction industry because you have the marketing experience, you have the schmoozing, the people, and then you have the technical experience. That's me, I think is very good for you.

Malory Atkinson: Yeah, it's amazing to me how in this industry - and I talk about the industry being mainly like the building design industry - most people on the ownership level are technical professionals. Like that's what they do. They were great architects, they were great engineers, great contractors. And then, they moved their way up, or they start their own firms, but there are very few people who are business savvy. So, a lot of it, it takes that time for them to really understand how a business operates. They're like, "Oh, I'm a great project manager, so, of course, I'd be a great business owner." And that doesn't always translate. So, I really hope in our industry that more people come through the business channel than just the technical channel.

Corey Rieck: What kinds of clients are you searching for? I mean, is there a certain industry? Is there a certain revenue number? A certain number of employees? I mean, people always want to know, "Okay, what are you looking for?"

Malory Atkinson: Yeah, I think for us, being so new, we just founded the company back in August, we're not really trying to limit ourselves, but we do want sustainable growth on the project side. We love working on adaptive reuse projects. So, taking like an old warehouse and converting it into an office or to retail. We actually do a lot of work at Ponce City Market. We're doing some work at Krog Street Market. So, that's kind of fun. They're sort of messy and interesting. And the buildings are beautiful. And sustainable design, that's always really fun products.

Corey Rieck: Yes. So, to say it differently, you want to build a relationship, it seems like, and you take the perspective that if it's the right person, maybe a business that is growing, well, at some point, be a much larger business.

Malory Atkinson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Corey Rieck: I mean, I can't even imagine that you're away from Shear Structural. But when you have free time, how do you spend it?

Malory Atkinson: I really like to be involved with the community. I do a lot of work with the Atlanta Bike Coalition, the Atlanta Beltline. I live in the city. And so, that's just really fun for me. It's things that I'm passionate about. So, that's why. And of course, with Angie working with Call for the Kids, really fun.

Corey Rieck: The Beltline. Tell me, do you like that? I mean, do you ride your bike on it? You run on it?

Malory Atkinson: Yeah, I live right off of it. So, really, a it's a great connector of the city. It's a great way to see different communities and can't wait for it to be complete.

Corey Rieck: It's been a pleasure knowing you. You're very unique in that you're really good with people. You, obviously, a firm understanding of your business. I think one word that strikes me when I interact with you is that you're unique. You're able to sort of do all of these things. How do you decide each day what to do? Because it seems like a good at a lot of different things.

Malory Atkinson: Yeah, I have an amazing to-do list and I have a rigorous calendar.

Corey Rieck: Does it ever get shorter?

Malory Atkinson: No, it only gets longer. And then, I maintain everything on my calendar. But also, I try to set goals for myself. And whether it's like what I want to accomplish that day, or that week, or before we do X, Y, Z, now, I try to have small goals for myself, and that keeps me motivated.

Corey Rieck: Yes, small goals can become big goals.

Malory Atkinson: Definitely.

Corey Rieck: And then, Malory, if you needed to ... You're probably, what, 25?

Malory Atkinson: I wish.

Corey Rieck: If you needed to do yourself, a younger version of yourself, advice 5 to 10 years ago, knowing what you know now, what would you tell her?

Malory Atkinson: I'd say to slow down and enjoy the ride.

Corey Rieck: Did you just say slow down?

Malory Atkinson: Yeah, I did say slow down.

Corey Rieck:Okay. I thought that's what you said.

Malory Atkinson: I always, especially early on, earlier on in my career, wanted everything faster and as quickly as possible. And I think, sometimes, I might have made too quick of decision. And so, really ... and I'm a runner too, so I know we've talked about running. And so, I'm in it for the long haul. This is an endurance race. You can't maintain a sprint. And so, really just slow down and enjoy it.

Corey Rieck: Well, you've done a lot of things very, very well. If there was a young lady that wanted to follow in your footsteps, what would you tell her?

Malory Atkinson: Find that support network. And it doesn't necessarily have to be, again, insider industry. I had a wonderful opportunity to work for a couple of years in the tech startup world, and found and met a lot of amazing people who are just so supportive and collaborative. And I have relied on them throughout this transition into entrepreneurship. And of course, my family. And I have an amazing life partner with my husband. So, really, just get that support network because that's how I'm able to do all these things is through them.

Corey Rieck: Well, you've had tremendous success. And certainly, I see no reason for that not to continue to ascend. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you and learn more about Shear Structural, how would they get a hold of you, phone number or email, Malory?

Malory Atkinson: Sure. All of our information, including my email address, is on our website at shearstructural.com. And our phone number is 678-664-8051.

Corey Rieck: Well, Malory, you've been a great guest, continued success, and we appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you.

Malory Atkinson: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Corey Rieck: Angie Rehkop, how are you this morning?

Angie Rehkop: I'm excellent. Thank you, Corey.

Corey Rieck: Angie is a 25-year veteran with the CFP. She's a financial planner, and she has a company called Financial Care Providers.

Angie Rehkop: Right.

Corey Rieck: You've got a ton of experience helping people with their money.

Angie Rehkop: Thanks. You make me feel old, Corey.

Corey Rieck: I'm a lot older than you. So, the only one feeling old in this room is me. But how did you get into financial planning, Angie?

Angie Rehkop: I love numbers. I majored in Finance in college, and I have a degree in Finance with a on Analysis and a minor in Statistics. But as a child, I grew up in a home of entrepreneurs. My daddy had a heating and air conditioning business. And when I was eight years old, I was just left out of everything that was going on. So, they need-.

Corey Rieck: That's impossible for me to believe that you get left out in anything.

Angie Rehkop: Left out, and 8 years old. And so, they went to find a job for me. So, I used to sit at the table with the big checkbook open with the rings, and you would go through, and I would take all the invoices, and I would write all the checks, and I would go to this tag on the left side, and subtract them out of the checkbook, and then take the paperclip, and put it onto the invoice, and have it all stack and ready for dad to sign the paperwork. And it was really important that I did it all right. And at that age, I didn't realize I was taken three times amount of time to get it done that they could, and they could check it easily, but I did an amazing job.

Angie Rehkop: And what I learned is that's who I was. That's how I took care of people. That's how I was the functioning support in the family unit. I've always loved math. And it was a toss up for me, whether to major in finance.

Corey Rieck: Did you just say you love math?

Angie Rehkop: Love math.

Corey Rieck: I thought that's what you said.

Angie Rehkop: And it was a toss up whether I was going to major in Finance or Physics. But I got recruited by UGA into the business school and decided that if I didn't like it, I could move into the science school. But it would be harder to move from science to business. So, that's why I chose France.

Corey Rieck: Sounds like it made a significant impact on you helping your dad with his books, and his business, and writing the checks. And obviously, it seems like it was a good training for you to do what you're doing now.

Angie Rehkop: Excellent training. I not only was just adding, and subtracting, and learning to deal with the pressure and stress of doing it right at a young age. I mean, because that was really on me. What I learned was all the functioning around it. Of course, it made sense that you had a job, and you had these expenses, and you had these profits, and this is what happened. And this is who I need to talk to at the bank, and this is who I need to do this. So, I grew into being ... it wasn't just so I could do them. I was doing it with math, but taking care of people, taking care of those clients, taking care of those customers, making sure that the workers that we had were scheduled correctly. We were a family business. And so, it fell to all of us to learn about things. And I learned about functioning as a whole, and I learned about the importance of money in holding it altogether, and the checks and balances that provides.

Corey Rieck: So, at some point, were you taking money to the bank? And were you writing the checks? Did you sort of grow into that or you were just sort of putting it all together?

Angie Rehkop: I was just sort of putting it all together. And that would be because I left. I was raised in a small town as well, and left at the age of 18.

Corey Rieck: How small?

Angie Rehkop: Eastman, Georgia. It's in Dodge County. It's actually middle Georgia. I don't know what the population is today, but we did boast, we did have two red lights.

Corey Rieck: Good stuff. So, you're a certified financial planner. That's a big deal. Tell us about that.

Angie Rehkop: That was an incredibly hard journey. Being a certified financial planner, you actually study six different avocations, whether it's tax, estate planning, the investment side of it, pensions, and profit sharing plans. There's six different aspects. And you study it in six different pieces. When they test you, they combine all the pieces. That's not what they do in the study part of it, but that's what they do on the test. At the time in the early 2000s, when I passed the CFP, it had like a 48% pass ratio. The test was just amazingly difficult, and the CFP board had made it that way to increase the value of the certification.

Corey Rieck: Well, having all of that knowledge, I'm sure, is useful for you to guide clients and to get them to wherever they need to be financially.

Angie Rehkop: It's invaluable. And you may not know what you need to know, but you know there's something out there, and I can research and find the right answers because things have evolved and changed so much. But you definitely know that there's something out there, and where to go and research, and find more information for your clients.

Corey Rieck: I think the other side of this too is that with having so much experience in financial planning, and yet with you having the discipline and the experience with all of the aspects of it, putting it all together and telling someone it's a financial planning client, "Okay. We need some focus over here on this aspect or here on that aspect," that, to me, seems like it would be very useful.

Angie Rehkop: I think the most useful piece of it is drawing out a map of what today is like, and looking at tomorrow, and determining, is what you're doing today going to result in the outcome you would like to have? Money isn't everything, but it really does come right behind oxygen. And if you don't have the money to do the things you need, and take care of the people around you, and you don't have the ability to support and take care of yourself, and you've left yourself open to risks, whether it be an insurance-based risk or different life consequences, having things handled and having that security is very important to the well-being of a person.

Corey Rieck: Yeah. You started Financial Care Providers about eight years ago.

Angie Rehkop: Correct. I had trademarked that name.

Corey Rieck: How did you come up with that name? And how does that help your clients?

Angie Rehkop: I actually came up with that name brainstorming with my business coach. And as we were bringing up stuff, it always came back to taking care of people. I mean, I'm a southern female, and I always came down to taking care of others. And how did I take care of them was in the financial sense. And we start looking at different things. And as I did, I was on GoDaddy, and I was just typing in the words as we went through, and found that Financial Care Providers was not taken. And I said, "It's mine. I'm taking it."

Corey Rieck:That's a great name. And you're part of sort of a bigger ... Financial care providers, certainly. that's a great name, and I think it's important because it demonstrates and says exactly what you're doing.

Angie Rehkop: Correct. The strongest piece I think I have in my practice is transparency. I'm really open. I'm really honest. And I want people to be as open and honest with me as I am open and honest with them. And by going through and laying out their finances really openly, really honestly, none of us need to be perfect, but we all need to get. And by getting the true slant on it and what they want to do with their money, I can tailor their financial plan to really suit them and their family and their needs.

Corey Rieck: Do you ever get clients that don't do what you ask them to do?

Angie Rehkop: Oh, yes. And if they're putting themselves in danger or taking more risks than what they should be doing, I feel like there are consequences. I tell them that very openly. I also write a letter and let them find that we have to have this very open conversation about what I feel about the risks and how it could impact them and their financial situation.

Corey Rieck: What are some of the most asked questions that you get with clients, new clients that come in?

Angie Rehkop: Wow. There's so many of them. Most of the clients want to know about what type of process that they're going to be involved in, and how is their ongoing experience with me going to be. In today's environment, many times, when they have called in to their investment provider, they no longer speak to the advisor. They're always speaking to somebody on staff, and being moved, and pushed around. Or now, they work with the team and no one's accountable for what they do. I think what they really need to know is that their relationship is gonna be with me.

Angie Rehkop: I've got clients that are remarkably similar. If they called me on the phone with the same question, it would be a different answer because they may be similar on paper, but not similar in their situation or what they have going on in their life. They're not similar in their health or differing children, those kinds of things. So, I really have to know my client from a 3D standpoint, and understand what they're doing, and assure them that I'm going to be here, and I'm gonna be the one taking responsibility, and I'm going to be the one that can be available to you on the phone. And then, I'm always gonna be responsive.

Corey Rieck: Yeah, responsiveness is definitely a word I would use to describe you. What's the most rewarding thing that you do on a day-to-day basis?

Angie Rehkop: The most rewarding thing I do is spend time with my clients. And especially at this point, I've got some clients that have been with me for many years. And I go and I do an annual review. And they sit down, and you actually have people. I've seen my older clients that come to tears and said, "Angie, thank goodness we have you. Thank goodness I have you here. I don't know what I would do." A lot of the couples, husbands are becoming less able, and the financial choices are falling on the wives, and they question their competency on the technical issues. And I'm happy to stop, and take the time, and explain things thoroughly to them, so they understand what they're doing. And I'm happy to interface with them and their CPA to get their taxes done and their estate planner to get documents set up and to explain to them clearly now and ongoing what they have and how life is going to be for them.

Corey Rieck: A couple of words that come to mind from my interaction with you would be advocate, resource. And I think with financial planning, it's such a deeply personal thing. And to have someone that's able to, sort of, get all of the ingredients, and sort of blend them together, and set you down a path, and give you the outcome you want, that's that's incredibly powerful.

Angie Rehkop: It is incredibly powerful. And finding out how your behavior today can affect your future results is, I think, the most impact.

Corey Rieck: You have another thing that you contribute heavily to. Tell us about that.

Angie Rehkop: Malory is one of my amazing advisory board members who does not have the choice to come back each year. She is coming back each year.

Corey Rieck: She's voluntold?

Angie Rehkop: There you go. It's called Golf for the Kids. And you can go see about our tournament online at golfforthekids.com. But this year will be our 12th annual event. Golf for the Kids is an invitation-only. It's a tournament that benefits Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We support the research of the Winthrop Cancer Center. And each year, the first about $15,000 that we raised is used to fund one more service dog on the floors of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We've got three cancer centers. We've got 13 dogs at the time and one's about to retire. And each year, what we're committed to doing is putting four more paws on the floor, and supporting the handlers and these animals, so they can continue to help bring more wellness and joy to the kids while they're at Children.

Corey Rieck: What a great thing you've started there. How did you get the idea to do that?

Angie Rehkop: Actually, the program started out with St. Jude, and we were benefiting St. Jude. And then, in your 10, we brought it home to Atlanta by changing our benefactor to CHOA. But a friend and client of mine called me up one morning, Saturday morning, and he said, "Hey." He said, "Hey." He said, "Do you ride horses?" And I said, "Well, yeah. I don't ride fancy, I don't ride dressage or anything, but I ride on top. I've tried other ways, and it didn't work out so well. So, staying on top is good for me." He said, "I've got this opportunity. We've got all these children that have come down, and we've got a horseback riding event going on at Chastain Horse Park. And we need volunteers." And I said, "Great. When do you need a volunteer?" He said, "About an hour ago."

Angie Rehkop: So, I made phone calls. I changed my clothes, and I went out. And what I realized was how amazing these children are. I have a background as a Boy Scout leader, but how amazing these children are. After dealing with lots of healthy children, I was dealing with kids facing the fight of their life. And I was looking at just how much this really meant to them was to be on a horse. It wasn't just another Saturday fun day. It was they were soaking in every drop they could get. They needed to be happy, and they needed to enjoy themselves so much more. They just need to be children. And they are faced with something bigger than I can even conceive.

Angie Rehkop: And they decided, they said about everybody doing fund raising. And I had just started playing golf and they said, "Why don't you do a golf tournament?" And I was like, "I'm only playing executive courses. I'm not even playing full sized courses yet. No, there's no way I can do a golf tournament." And just that ugly feeling of having to say no really stuck with me. And within about nine months later, I was doing a golf tournament.

Corey Rieck: Well, you've had tremendous success in financial planning, you've obviously made a significant contribution with the initiative you spoke about with the kids golf. If you were going to give the younger version of Angie some advice, what would that be?

Angie Rehkop: Just move forward, don't be so tentative, and don't don't place so much value on what other people think because they really don't think about you. Just get out there and do your thing. And there are going to be people that just love you and support you, and that's your tribe. Worry about them. Don't worry about the people that are not.

Corey Rieck: Great advice. If there was a young lady that wanted to follow in your footsteps, what would you tell her?

Angie Rehkop: You are not going to get where you want to go if you throw stones at every dog that barks at you. You don't need to convert people, you don't need to fix people, you need to just do your thing, and be your expression in this world, and keep moving forward. Really think seriously about what you're doing, and make sure that what you're doing glorifies God in every way. And that when you're moving forward, you're moving forward with a positive attitude and the intention of a positive outcome for everyone that you touch, and go do it.

Corey Rieck: Angie, if the listenership out here wanted to get a hold of you or Financial Care Providers, how would they do that?

Angie Rehkop: You can reach me easy by email, Angie@financialcareproviders.com or my phone is 770-353-6333.

Corey Rieck: Angie, you've had tremendous success. Thank you for being on the show. You've been a great guest. It's been another great show with Tuesdays with Corey. Lisa Fey. Thank you again.

Lisa Fey: Thank you.

Corey Rieck: Patricia Friedman, thank you.

Patricia Friedman:Thanks, Malory.

Corey Rieck: Malory Atkinson, thank you.

Malory Atkinson: Thanks.

Corey Rieck: And Angie, thank you.

Angie Rehkop: Thank you very much.

Katy Galli: And thank you, Corey. And we all know that Tuesdays with Corey would not be possible without The Long Term Care Planning Group. So, thanks for coming in here every Tuesday of the month. We love having you guys.

Corey Rieck: Thank you so much.

Katy Galli: All right. We'll see you guys all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.