I sat in a conference room filled with the best female financial advisors in the country. Speaker after speaker gave us new energy and excitement for our work, until we heard the cold hard facts like a gut punch. Yes we all need a strong gut bunch or reality check to really get us off our assets and do something. Here’s the thing, women financial advisors make up only 18% of advisors. And this hasn’t changed in 20 years! Two decades of no growth, which means no momentum, no movement, just pure frustration for someone like me trying to move that needle. Receiving this gut punch left me feeling exhausted, after spending over a decade in this industry nothing has changed. Was I part of the problem, what were we doing wrong? But then I realized how much God will tee up a problem for us to be able to solve. I wasn’t part of the problem, I was part of the solution. I approach everything obstacle, problem, or issue with rose colored glasses…every problem gives me the opportunity to fix it, AND to profit from it.
I’m Jessica Weaver, and I’ve been a financial advisor for over a decade. I joined my father’s financial firm in 2010 and quickly learned how isolating the financial industry is for women. There were no other female advisors in his firm, and the few successful female advisors in our industry did not have the time of day for someone like me. They saw me as a threat, I saw them as part of the problem. The few women who join the financial industry every year are left in the dark and alienated by even the other women. The women who had early success in the financial industry had to work like men to survive, which means they took on that masculine energy. They hustled, they cold called, they went on the golf course even though they didn’t like to golf. Their only mentors were men, so they adapted to fit in and succeed. But during this process, they lost themselves, they lost their femininity. I know this because I did the same thing! I wore little makeup, hair pulled back, in a black business suit everyday. I didn’t even recognize myself at the end of the day because my light inside of me had been diminished. I lost myself just like these other women. Something had to change, I just didn’t realize I was going to be that change until God unraveled everything in my life. God will close doors if we don’t step up and close them first. That bad relationship you’ve been in, yes God will end it if you don’t. The dead end job will be exactly that until you decide to step up and ask for something more. Or God will end it for you.
In 2020 I joined a new broker dealer with my father’s firm and quickly learned how God will move mountains to get you where you need to be. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t the right fit, but I was too scared to do anything about it. I stuck with what was familiar and stayed with my father’s firm until God took matters into His own hands. Have you ever been stuck in a bad relationship, a bad position, or at a deadend job? Did you ever have things ripped from you?
My programs were dismantled, my books were frozen, and I decided to camp out in my rock bottom basement for a bit. It’s easier to write about this time in my life because after hitting rock bottom and then the basement of rock bottom, my life took the biggest evolution I’ve ever witnessed. It took me all of 2021 to begin to pick up the pieces, but first I had to start with God. I took time and stopped planning! As a financial advisor, it goes against everything I teach and do to stop planning and just be. The money began to flow in, and I realized I had tapped into something special. Planning and goal setting isn’t the problem, the problem comes when you get so bogged down by the stress of making sure everything happens exactly how you planned and exactly when you want it to happen. This is when God laughs while He eagerly waits for us to hand it back over to Him. I had become blinded by overplanning! Instead of planning, I let things happen for me. I received 15 PR opportunities within 4 weeks, my income began to double until I hit six figure months, and I wasn’t planning a darn thing! God then started to send me female financial advisors to talk with, at the time I had no idea why! I had signed up for a marketing campaign, and told the company my ideal clients are corporate women. Somehow they kept sending me female advisors, even after countless emails, calls, texts to them stating I cannot help these advisors! I am so grateful for these advisors as one advisor told me she left her father’s financial firm and a lightbulb went off! I could amicably leave my father’s firm and our relationship would still be intact! The very next day I spoke with an advisor who plainly stated you have to change your framework, and yes another lightbulb went off! As women, we tend to get stuck in what is familiar and what seems secure. But part of that means we don’t explore what other options are available to us. So I began to explore and put together my NEW framework.
Now we are ending 2022, and I have my very own all female financial firm. We’ve created a home for all the women who felt alienated like I had for so many years. In 9 months we’ve experienced 200 percent growth, we’ve onboarded 5 female advisors with a waiting list of another 5 advisors for 2023. We secured financing so we can build out our infrastructure for our platform, we hosted 20 events, did over 100 speaking engagements and press and media interviews. God doesn’t just bless us, He rains blessings on us. This firm, The Women’s Wealth Boutique, is a tribute to that!
Our advisors say it best:
“It’s an entire community of women willing to share and support you, that just screams success!” Donna Cates, WWB advisor.
“When God closes a door, He opens a window. In this case with the Women’s Wealth Boutique, it happened to be a mansion because it is limitless in opportunities!” Caroline Tanis, WWB advisor.
I’m often asked what my vision is for our firm, the Women’s Wealth Boutique, and my response is always the same. This isn’t mine, it’s God’s! It always has been and always will be, it’s His vision and I have no clue what He has in store for us all! What I do know is we are and always will be an exclusive club, you need a sponsor to bring you in so we can help ensure our positive, spiritual abundance remains intact!
