IAM2412 – Financial Planner helps Individuals Manage their Finances Better and Escape Financial Stress

Tremaine Wills

00:00 - 00:16

When we are working with clients, the objective is how do we allocate resources and assets so that you can live the life you want to live? And how do we pull retirement closer? We're helping them to identify what is a priority for them and using their money to fund those priorities.

Intro

00:18 - 00:44

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Grist values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO

Gresham Harkless

00:44 - 00:52

Podcast. Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast, and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Tremaine Wills. Tremaine, excited to have you on the show.

Tremaine Wills

00:53 - 00:56

Yes, I'm so excited to be here. It's going to be a great conversation.

Gresham Harkless

00:57 - 01:32

Yes, absolutely. I know absolutely why it's going to be a phenomenal conversation and a great conversation because Tremaine's doing great and phenomenal things. I'm super excited to jump into that conversation. But of course, before I do, I want to read a little bit more about Jermaine so you can hear about why she's doing all these great and awesome things. So Jermaine is an MBA, is a financial service agency owner, financial planner, speaker and author committed to helping individuals, entrepreneurs and organizations manage money better so that they can escape financial stress and walk in purpose. Her mission is to help one million people become accredited investors and grow their net worth to one million dollars.

Gresham Harkless

01:32 - 02:08

And she also helps employers retain top talent by improving their financial wellness. Tremena is a certified financial education instructor, accountant, and two time Investopedia top 100 advisor with multiple investment license. Tremena is passionate about building wealth in our community and providing education on how to retain the wealth that we are building. And I absolutely love her message around money. She looks at it as a resource, even a tool. I heard she mentioned in one of her videos. So I think that's one of the things that we kind of makes it hard to kind of divorce our emotional feelings and all the good and not so good things that maybe have happened around money.

Gresham Harkless

02:09 - 02:29

And one of the things I really love that she said is that many people tie our self-worth to our net worth. And I think that's so powerful. She has a background which includes working for NASA, Teach for America, and so many other places. She's been featured on Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, and even our blog sites as well too. So Tremaine, you're doing awesome work. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

Tremaine Wills

02:29 - 02:31

Yes, I'm so excited.

Gresham Harkless

02:31 - 02:38

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, let's rewind the clock, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Tremaine Wills

02:39 - 02:42

Oh man. In the womb.

Gresham Harkless

02:43 - 02:43

There we go.

Tremaine Wills

02:44 - 02:44

From the

Gresham Harkless

02:44 - 02:45

beginning,

Tremaine Wills

02:45 - 02:59

right? So I have seeds of entrepreneurship that started when I was around 12 or 13. Some of you guys that are listening have probably heard this, like you ask your parents or something and like, what do you got money for

Intro

02:59 - 02:59

that? Right. For me,

Tremaine Wills

02:59 - 03:43

it was, you know, I was asking for McDonald's and my mom was like, do you got McDonald's money? And I'm like, no, I don't got McDonald's money. Right. But I was like, huh, can I get McDonald's money? And that's when I decided I'm going to learn how to braid hair and I'm going to have McDonald's money. So that entrepreneurial, uh, journey began. My mom helped me launch my brand. She created business cards for me. And my brand was called Tame Your Mane, braids by Tremaine. And she was passing those cards out. It was like, I felt like a neighborhood celebrity because that was like my introduction to entrepreneurship.

Tremaine Wills

03:43 - 03:57

But what I quickly realized was even though I had this talent, this ability to generate income, I was not good at saving. I didn't know what investing was. Those weren't conversations that we were having. I just was like, well, if I want to make some money, I got to go braid some hair. Right.

Speaker 3

03:57 - 03:57

And

Tremaine Wills

03:59 - 04:09

I remember I was like 17, 16, 17, and I'm standing up for hours doing micro braids. And if you guys don't know what that is, they are very, very small braids, individual, and it takes as long as it sounds.

Speaker 3

04:10 - 04:10

We're

Tremaine Wills

04:11 - 04:29

talking about 8, 10, 12 hours sometimes just standing on your feet. And my back was hurting and I'm 16, 17 with back pain. I'm like, oh yeah, no. This isn't going to work. And so I started to think about, well, what are some ways to make money where I don't have to work hard? Because this

Intro

04:29 - 04:29

ain't

Tremaine Wills

04:29 - 04:42

it, right? I am not trying to do this. And that's when I started to become interested in finance and what this passive income stuff was. People making money, they got to stand on their feet. Their back don't hurt. What are

Speaker 3

04:42 - 04:43

they doing?

Tremaine Wills

04:43 - 05:13

What are they doing, right? So when I went off to school, I asked. I was like, what's the major where people make money? Because that's what I'm trying to do. And everybody said business. And so I went into business and when I finished at the greatest financial institution on the face of the earth, Hampton University, I went to work as a financial specialist at a fortune 500 company. So that's kind of how I got into this space. But man, entrepreneurship is a wild ride.

Gresham Harkless

05:14 - 05:22

Yeah, absolutely it is. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more. Let me hear about how you're solving that problem. What does that look like? How are you serving the clients?

Tremaine Wills

05:22 - 06:03

I went to go work for a fortune 500 company and I was only there about two years, but while I was there, they taught me a whole bunch of stuff. So I got a lot of my securities licenses there. I started to really understand how money worked and you know, you get your training in undergrad and in grad school, but it's nothing like the real thing in the real world. So, I was learning and understanding what people with money actually did and how it was different than what the textbook said. And I very quickly realized that many of the financial institutions are in a game of still the other financial institutions' clients.

Tremaine Wills

06:03 - 06:43

So it's just like, how can I woo you over here? Because I already know you have the assets. Because I see this money's in your bank account. you're doing automatic transfers to some other brokerage. And the name of the game was just bringing all the assets to this one place. And it didn't allow me the opportunity to develop relationships and really get to know clients and start folks who may not have had assets from zero and kind of build up with them. And I didn't like that. Um, I come from a very community oriented background where, you know, you kind of doing life with people and, I wasn't getting to do life with clients.

Tremaine Wills

06:43 - 07:17

It was very much widget based and what's your numbers for the month? And I'm like, I don't like this. You know, thank you. Thank you for teaching me what you taught me. But I think I got to go somewhere and like do life with people. And so I left. I came back home with my emergency fund and no job. And I told my parents, I was like, hey, I think I'm going to do my own thing. And my parents were like, well, I guess you're going to do your own thing. And so Mind Over Money was born.

Tremaine Wills

07:17 - 08:00

And I started out just doing financial coaching, helping people with budgets, debt payoff, some of the essential, fundamental parts of managing money, because I was a little bit intimidated. I was this 20-something, looking like a 12-year-old, and who was going to let me manage their money, right? But I quickly realized that when people can see how much you care and you are able to show your credentials and educate and, you know, when you speak, it makes sense, right? You build that trust pretty quickly. And so even though I was a 20 something year old with an independent firm, I started getting clients and I was like, Oh, well, maybe I can manage

Speaker 3

08:00 - 08:00

that.

Tremaine Wills

08:01 - 08:46

You know, that confidence started to build and, um, I got my RIA, my Registered Investment Advisory Firm, registered here in Virginia. And then we added on a few different other states as I expanded. And it was like, wow, I'm doing this thing my way. And my clients like me, and I like them. And they've been around for a while. And I was like, this is so cool, because I'm getting to do life with them. And it's not just a transaction anymore. And it's kind of just been like, cool, you know, to... think back to, I had this idea of what I wanted it to look like, well, vague, because I did not imagine this, right?

Tremaine Wills

08:48 - 09:20

But just being able to build it the way I wanted it to be and not become so paralyzed that there are these large, you know, billions under management firms, I don't have to compete with them, right? Like, we're in the same industry, but we don't have the same clients. So yeah, that's kind of how Mind Over Money was born. It was born out of wanting to have relationships with people and wanting to do life and grow with clients and not just, you know, see them as a widget or a number to hit. Because I don't like that.

Gresham Harkless

09:21 - 09:22

Yeah, absolutely.

Tremaine Wills

09:22 - 09:38

When we are working with clients, the objective is how do we allocate resources and assets so that you can live the life you want to live? And how do we pull retirement closer? We're helping them to identify what is a priority for them and using their money to fund those priorities.

Gresham Harkless

09:39 - 10:04

Nice. I absolutely love that. But let me ask you this. Do you consider that part of what I call your secret sauce? It could be for yourself, the business or a combination of both, but is it your ability to be able to kind of, of course, understand these things, understand all those, you know, maybe complex principles and things that you learned, like while you were working with the Fortune 500 and be able to kind of translate that to people so that they can not only just hear it, but actually implement it and understand it and connect on that human level.

Gresham Harkless

10:04 - 10:07

Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Tremaine Wills

10:07 - 10:07

Oh,

Gresham Harkless

10:07 - 10:08

for sure.

Tremaine Wills

10:08 - 10:25

Yeah. So, so you mentioned briefly how I was in Teach for America and I prior, well, while I was in college and my, my first job was at NASA y'all. So I don't have that, uh, you know, retail

Gresham Harkless

10:25 - 10:27

store experience.

Tremaine Wills

10:27 - 11:06

I have a few experiences that make me uniquely positioned to break concepts down and help clients then you know, compared to what other advisors might do. Right. So in addition to being a high school math teacher for four years, right. So while I was in the early years of building my business, I was teaching high school math full time and, you know, working with clients after school and on the weekends. And I also was a cheerleading coach. So I have this technical knowledge about investing in building financial plans. I was a teacher, so I can break down those concepts pretty well.

Tremaine Wills

11:06 - 11:47

And then also I'm a coach and a cheerleading coach at that. So I'm also going to hype you up and motivate you to encourage you to keep going when you don't want to. So that unique blend, I think makes me one more personable than a lot of advisors because advisors are brilliant. Okay. They can crunch the numbers. They can do all kinds of graphs and just things in Excel that you, you like, you wouldn't believe, but not all of us. can have a conversation that is easy to understand. So I think that definitely is part of the special sauce where, yes, we can talk about the quantitative analysis and all that great stuff.

Tremaine Wills

11:47 - 12:08

But also, I'm going to say, hey, I saw your budget and you were over the spending category. Can we talk about this? Right? And it did not feel like somebody is talking above you and attacking you, but it's like, really somebody is a cheerleader in your corner that wants you to win. So I do think that's the secret sauce.

Gresham Harkless

12:09 - 12:19

Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Tremaine Wills

12:20 - 12:53

My hack is my assistant, OK? And it took me a long time to get an assistant because I have trust issues. Had. I will not claim that anymore. I had trust issues. And I think it just comes from starting as a CEO early and being a bit immature. I expected people to just know what I wanted and deliver without me having to explain or what I thought was over explaining what the deliverable was. And so in the beginning, I just had a lot of bad freelance hires. So there was this level of like, people are out here doing bad work.

Tremaine Wills

12:53 - 13:26

And it's like, no, you suck as the CEO, right? But once I got better with identifying, you know, what the deliverable is, what the expectations are, I hired a really good executive assistant. I'm like, oh my gosh, I needed you like five years ago." But she's definitely the secret sauce. A good hire is paramount. It buys back time. It, you know, just, it adds a layer between you and some different things that you shouldn't be doing as a CEO. But yeah, Jackie, if you hear this, man, you're awesome.

Gresham Harkless

13:28 - 13:43

Absolutely. We definitely appreciate you, Jack. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. You might've already touched on this, but this is something you might tell your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Tremaine Wills

13:43 - 14:17

I think around those lines though is, You know, we really have to have a confidence in ourselves and our ability to figure things out. Entrepreneurship is definitely a roller coaster, but the more confident you become in your ability to problem solve and, you know, do what you say you'll do. I think that's when you start to reach higher levels of success. and more consecutive success because you're like, I'm gonna figure this out. And there's just like this confidence that comes with that, which allows you to execute at a higher level and to just, you know, do hard things.

Tremaine Wills

14:17 - 14:21

So yeah, I would tell the folks like, you're awesome. And you just got to know that.

Gresham Harkless

14:22 - 14:33

Yeah, that's such a huge thing. Now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and our goals to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Tremaine, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Tremaine Wills

14:33 - 15:12

Being a CEO to me means being a creator. You get to design, you get to create, right? One of the things I was thinking about earlier today was like, you know, what do I truly want to build? And am I in alignment with what I said I wanted to build? And so just thinking about like the lifestyle I want to live and some of the same things I go with, I do with my clients and, you know, am I in alignment? Is this, you know, what I'm building How can I pull all the elements of what I want from retirement closer to the present and really just enjoy being the CEO now?

Tremaine Wills

15:12 - 15:28

I don't have to wait until 40, 45. I can live, you know, semi-retirement now, right? So I love that as a CEO, it's like, you are a creator and you don't have to be in a creative industry, you know, to be a creative.

Gresham Harkless

15:28 - 15:42

For Mayne, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get on view, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Tremaine Wills

15:42 - 16:03

So if you would like to connect with me, my social media handles are Tremaine Wills, at Tremaine Wills, literally everywhere. I'm like Visa. Everywhere, every platform you want to be, including TikTok, because they did get rid of it. Hey. But yeah. And then if you're looking for financial planning services, my website is www.mindovermoney.net.

Gresham Harkless

16:04 - 16:16

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jermaine. Of course, to make it even easier, we'll have links and information in the show notes just to make it even easier, even easier than Visa, as well, too, so people can find you. So I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the

Tremaine Wills

16:16 - 16:17

day. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Intro

16:18 - 16:53

Thank you for listening to the IMCEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. IMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.