LKN Financial Advisors

Transcript:

Speaker 1
Welcome to the Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week, we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the show.

Jeff
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Best of LKN podcast where we feature conversations with the owners of the most exceptional small businesses in the Lake Norman area of North Carolina. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to our email newsletter. It’s free to join and a great way to support the work we’re doing here at the podcast. Just go to our website www.thebestoflkn.com, scroll down to the email newsletter form, and enter your first name and email address. It’s that easy. In this episode, we’re featuring the Northwestern Mutual, Lake Norman office. The office is led by Lynn Bowser, who joins us along with her associate Cara Cremeans. Lynn shares the story of her entrepreneurial journey, why she chose to partner with Northwestern Mutual, and some insights into the financial services industry as a whole. We talk a lot about values, women in business, and the satisfaction that comes with being able to provide products and services that have a positive impact on the lives of her clients. Lynn also shares a story behind what she calls a financial advisor’s superpower. It’s Episode 60 of the Best of LKN podcast, and we’re glad you’re joining us, friends. Let’s lean in and get to know Lynn Bowser and Cara Cremeans with Northwestern Mutual, Lake Norman.

Jeff
Today, we’re joined by Lynn Bowser, the Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor at Northwestern Mutual. Lynn, welcome to the podcast.

Lynn
Thank you, so excited to be here.

Jeff
Very excited to have you. Thank you. And, also joining us is Cara Cremeans, Financial Representative here at Northwestern Mutual. Cara, welcome.

Cara
Thank you, Jeff, how are you?

Jeff
Yeah, good. So glad to have you guys here. And actually, I’m at your office. So, I’m a guest at your office, really appreciate it. It’s been over 12 months since my last in-person conversations. So, this is really exciting. After 12 months of physical distancing, and finally being vaccinated, I feel like, obviously, I’m not naive, there’s always risk. But I think it’s just a great relief to finally be able to meet people in person and have these conversations in person. So, thanks for having me. Your office is beautiful, and really, really impressive.

Lynn
Thank you. We’re so excited to have anyone in our office, we just opened in January. So, we moved in January 15th, and we had our ribbon cutting the end of March. But you know now, almost everyone that works here is vaccinated and we can freely have people come in, have client meetings, have community events, and meet awesome people like yourself.

Jeff
Thank you very much. Yeah, you’re too kind. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying awesome but thank you. I appreciate that. Cara and I actually connected on LinkedIn. And Cara overcame an objection of mine, and she overcame it so well. I was like so impressed. I go, okay, well, let’s see if we can work this out. So, Cara, thank you so much for your kind note and for being persistent.

Cara
You’re welcome. We call it being professionally persistent, so thank you for accepting, it’s great to meet you.

Jeff
Very, very nice job. I think I’m not alone when I say that I’m spammed a bit on LinkedIn, and Facebook and so forth, then not so much for me personally, but for the production. So, I’m always a little cautious when I first received a message, but I’m glad we had our back and forth and it went really well. And so, this is awesome. Lynn, you also decorated this office from what I understand.

Lynn
I did, I have never opened a space before like this, and so it was a journey. And when I was looking at all the different options, you know, we worked with the builder and the landlord to build out our space. But for decorating it, I was totally overwhelmed by all the different options and all the different people and the prices. And I was like, you know what, I can do this. And so, I looked at magazines and one of my friends, Bree is really good in interior design and so she helped me and we found pieces on Wayfair and we splurged on a couple on West Elm and I think it looks really great.

Jeff
It does look really great, yeah. So, are you available? Are you moonlighting as in interior decorator?

Lynn
Nope! it was really, really hard work.

Jeff
We love Wayfair at our house. Yeah, we discovered it, maybe my wife may have discovered them sooner, but we discovered them. We’ve done a lot of shopping on Wayfair over the last 12 months. Let me put it that way. So yeah.

Lynn
Yeah, you become a good furniture installer, whatever, puter-together. It’s very difficult sometimes. But I have to say like all the ladies showed up, Cara came and helped, and our Recruiter, our Director of Development, we were all putting furniture together, we were moving things around. One of the guys who owns a construction company, was like, I have a whole new respect for the women in finance, man, you guys are workers!

Jeff
Furniture assembly is no easy task. I give you a lot of credit for that. We struggle with that in our place. Well, let’s talk a little bit, Lynn, you’re the Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor here at Northwestern Mutual, Lake Norman, and you’re the Principal, and I would love to get a little bit of your background, a little bio on you and what led you to having your own business.

Cara
So, it’s kind of a weird and wild story. I started out my college career as a concert pianist, and so I spent most of my childhood and young adulthood playing the piano. And I grew up in upstate New York and I attended Syracuse University. So, you know, stayed close to home, and just discovered that there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for concert pianists, like really anywhere. So, one of my good friends that I’d followed up through, he had gone Juilliard, and then I was watching him, and he was playing on a cruise ship, and he was much better than I was. So, I was like, okay, well, now what? So, I worked in admissions at SU for a little while, I met my husband, Ryan, and we got married, and I had kids right away. Ryan is a physician assistant in orthopedics. So, it was great, because music gave me the ability to stay home and teach some piano lessons, you know, play for church, for weddings, funerals, youth choirs. But I still got to stay home and raise the kids, I have three kids, I had them in four years. So, there was a lot of kid-raising going on. And so, when my youngest was two, my grandma, I also took care of my grandma, and she had passed away. And I was used to doing a lot, like I was always highly trained. I was a runner, I played piano, I did things at very high levels, and so I always needed a challenge. And my older two were in school, and my grandma had passed away, and it was just Emily and I, and I was like, goodness, what am I gonna do with my time, so I decided to go back to school. And I studied management and economics, and so, still no finance. And I wanted to do something that had an impact. And I saw the impact my husband had on his patients. But I don’t do blood and guts and ugh, bodily fluids, not my thing. So, I was trying to figure out how I can impact people in a positive way. So, I thought, oh, maybe I will be an office manager for a medical practice. And then I will help the doctors who help the patients. So that was kind of my goal. And as I was wrapping up school, and I was starting to poke around at different jobs and opportunities, Ryan said, hey, we’re going to, I’m going to go meet with our financial advisor. And I was like, Who’s that? He was like, you know, Tim, and I was like, no, I don’t, do I? I don’t know. Anyway, I’m going, because I want his opinion on these different things that are coming my way. And by the end of the conversation, Tim in Syracuse, New York had the same title as I do down here. And he was like, I think you’d be great at doing what I do. And I was like, Oh, my God, no, I do not want to sell life insurance. That’s a terrible idea. Like, ugh. So, Ryan and I went to dinner and he’s like, you should take the interview, because it’s good. You don’t want the job. It’s good practice, you know, go and take the interview. So I did. And in the interview, the recruiter said to me, you know, what is the most important thing that you’re looking for out of a career. And I said, it has to be something impactful enough that I am willing to leave the kids, you know, with a babysitter or in daycare, I have to feel like I’m giving back. And so she looked at me and she said, if Ryan didn’t make it home tomorrow night, and Tim came to your house with $1.5 million for you and your kids to stay in your house, and help educate them, and be there for them, would that impact you? And it was at that moment that I went from, oh my gosh, I’m never gonna do that, to, holy cow, that would save me.

Jeff
Powerful, isn’t it?

Lynn
Yeah. So, then I looked at, oh, hey, like women and finance, because there were no women career advisors in that office. And I realized that there were no women advisors in any offices. It was a really, really male-dominated career path still. And, you know, I felt kind of like, I’d gone back to the 1950s, or 60s. And all the women were support staff for the guys who were the boss men. And, you know, one of the statistics I looked up at the time said that by 2030 70% of the wealth in America is going to be held by women. And if our current ratio of male to female advisors doesn’t change, 85% of that wealth is going to be managed by men. And that just seemed really wrong to me. And no, I like guys, like, I’m not like anti-guys whatsoever. But as a woman, being able to come into a financial firm and be able to work with a man or a woman is super powerful.

Jeff
Yeah, absolutely. And to be able to share perspectives, and what a bizarre trend that is, that so much of the wealth is held by women and controlled by women in America. And so many of the professionals in the industry are men. So yeah, well, welcome, you’re the boss now. That’s really cool. Before we get into some of the wonderful things about Northwestern Mutual, and this office in particular, I want to invite Cara to jump in. And I want to get a little bit of a background for the listeners, Cara, on your career. One part of your background that stood out to me when we connected on LinkedIn was you’re a runner, and you have worked for a running brand here in Charlotte in the past. And so that stood out for me, because I happen to know the people that you used to work for at one time, and yeah, and I love that company. And so anyway, that was another reason why I really was looking forward to moving forward with this conversation. But Cara, share a little bit with the listeners on your background. And what led you to this career.

Cara
Wonderful. Well, yes, running has been part of my life since I was 13 years old. And I was a student athlete at Western Michigan University, and ran track and cross country. And then I worked in the wine industry with Constellation Brands for four years out of college, with wine and sales analytics, and in my free time, weekends, I would volunteer coach in track and cross and so depending on where I was living with Constellation, it was Chicago at the time, I volunteered with the Loyola Ramblers track team and kind of had this inkling to teach and coach, didn’t really know exactly how it was going to play into the future, and then took a leap of faith and moved to Charlotte to coach at UNC Charlotte. And simultaneously worked at Run For Your Life with Chris Elkins and team, and that is what kind of wrapped me into the running scene in and around Charlotte, which is strong and wonderful. If you are even thinking about joining the sport, go to your local running store and they will be happy to introduce you to the beginnings of it. And while I was working with Chris at that store, I had the opportunity I saw with Brooks Running to kind of blend that love of business with the passion for running and got to work as a rep in the Carolina territory. And through this I was also volunteering with a foundation, it’s a foundation here in Charlotte called Foundation For Girls, and we host classes that teach life skills, and one of those is financial well-being. So I started teaching some financial well-being classes, I just had always grown up with parents who taught to be responsible about money. And this foundation works with young ladies who are single mothers, young, probably don’t have parents to ask what to do with their money, and they don’t have those resources. And I found I could be a teacher and coach in that sense for something that I think is very important. And through the years I’ve spent with Foundation For Girls, I grew more inclined to help people talk about money and wealth and how to protect it and grow it. And then I was introduced to Lynn, through a mutual friend, and here we are making an impact one person at a time.

Jeff
I love it. I love it. You were on that path for a long time. You didn’t know it, but it makes so much sense that it led you to where you are now. Nearly a lifelong runner, you’ve run how many marathons?

Cara
Five.

Jeff
Five marathons.

Cara
About to be six and seven. Chicago in October, and then Charlotte marathon in November.

Jeff
So Lynn was a concert musician, and Cara, you’re a lifelong runner and marathoner, talk about two activities, I guess I would say, that require a ton of patience and dedication and self-discipline.

Lynn
Hugely, yeah. And failure, lots of failure. Yeah, delayed gratification.

Jeff
A lot of respect for that, that’s awesome. You worked in the wine industry right out of college too. Well, kudos there, I missed that in the background on LinkedIn, I would have wanted to talk to you a little bit about that as well. We certainly are wine enthusiasts at our house. And I’m wearing, one more thing, I’m wearing my Brooks Ghost Thirteen’s today, as I usually am wearing a pair of Brooks.

Cara
Number one running shoe in the country.

Lynn
She introduced me to them as well.

Jeff
Love Brooks, biig fan, been wearing Brooks since 2009 I think, and I have stuck with him every year. So Foundation For Girls, awesome, that sounds like a wonderful organization, I’ll have to do some more looking into that. And Chris Elkins was on, I had a conversation with him, Run For Your Life was featured on the Best of Charlotte podcast, our sister podcast, you might say, and I’ll have a link in the show notes to that. And we’re gonna probably give a shout out to another running company, local, so, but I’ll save that for the shout outs later. Lynn, let’s circle back to you and share with the listeners, if you can, I know it’s a broad question, but what are some of the qualities, and what is it about the Northwestern Mutual culture and the brand that drew you to this company?

Cara
So, you know, I am never one to just take the first option presented to me. So, when I decided I was going to pursue finance, I interviewed with some other firms up north as well. And so, I had gone through all of their processes, and one of the things that stood out to me from the beginning is that we don’t have like an interview process that is quick, we are helping people make a career decision. This isn’t like see how many people we can throw against the wall and see it stick. So obviously, Northwestern was the first interview I had, it was also the last offer I got. So, you know, they really took the time to get to know me, to tell me what it was going to be like, to kind of push me and challenge me during that process. To have me go through some different exercises to see if it was something I would even feel passionate about, or be able to do, right? Because calling people and talking to them about finance is probably one of the hardest things you can do. Right? Jacqueline Fish from our South Park office says it’s like a superpower. So, but they really took the time to get to know me, they spoke, you know, they offered to have Ryan come in, my husband, and learn about how hard this was going to be and the support that I would need at home. And so that process really stood out to me from the process that everyone else took me through. And during that process, I started to feel at home in the office, like I’d come in and the receptionist knew who I was, and I had met other advisors and they were checking in on me, and it was just a really cool feeling. And one of the other wirehouse financial places, because it’s easier to call and talk about, like wealth management assets under management than it is like any sort of insurance. So, you know, you’re talking to them and the Vice President there was the only woman I had interviewed with and she said you have to go where it feels like home. And through that process, Northwestern Mutual and, you know, it’s support of their advisors, they, you know, support us in any continuing education that we want. Our Charlotte office has more CFPs is than any other financial firm, like our Ballantine, Charlotte and like Norman offices combined. And the Charlotte Business Journal published that I mean so, and we do not have the most advisors by any stretch of the imagination, but Northwestern Mutual is so committed to growing their advisors, to supporting them, to having continuing education. It was just, it blew the competition out of the water in my eyes. So that’s how I ended up at northwestern.

Jeff
The choice became pretty easy, yeah. I love the fact that you took a lot of, there was a lot of due diligence involved and a lot of soul searching, I’m sure a lot of discussion with your spouse, you know, to make sure that you were going to make the commitment that it was going to be the right fit.

Cara
And I googled, like, right, so you Google Northwestern Mutual, you will see like, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, they all have really awesome things to say about the company. And if you know sales, anyone who becomes your client is really choosing you.

Jeff
Yeah.

Lynn
And it’s you who’s choosing who to represent. And so, I wanted to make sure if I was going to people to talk to them about their, you know, their money, and one of the most important things, financial security, that I knew I would never have to apologize for the company that I represented.

Jeff
Absolutely. And you really nailed it when you said that in sales, your client, your customer, they’re choosing you when they make a purchase. So yeah, that’s really well said I love that. Did I also notice in the Charlotte Business Journal, were you recognized in the 40 Under 40?

Cara
So, there was a Northwestern Mutual 40 Under 40 that I was on, it’s actually hanging in our lobby, and I also present the Women in Business Awards. So, I’ve done that the last two years, and we’re going to do that moving forward as well. And so, you know, women, doing big things is like, really exciting. And so, I’m really excited to be able to partner with them. And then in 2020, I was also one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Charlotte, which was quite an honor and a total surprise. I’ve only been here a couple years. So I was really, really taken aback at that. And so it was pretty cool.

Jeff
That’s very cool. Yeah, that’s really impressive. I love that. Cara, what made you choose Northwestern Mutual?

Cara
Well, certainly the conversation with Lynn. And then, as I’ve experienced a few months now, with Northwestern Mutual, there are a few things that I’ve really, I think that this company stands out among others for, and one of them in particular is the number of military vets who work with us and the respect that we show towards them and people of service. Each month, we host a network meeting, and we stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. And I’m like, I haven’t done this since high school. And this feels so good to still like honor and, you know, be grateful for the freedoms that we have and to be able, like the freedom to do this job. I think one of the other things that has kept me really engaged is that at the beginning, we were required to write our own vision and mission statement. And that’s a big piece of what we do, because wealth management might sound glamorous, but there are pieces to this that really hit home. And when people are going through the hard times, that’s when you come back through those missions and those visions, and you say, I’m here to help them, sure when times are great, but when it’s tough, that’s what we need to plan for too. And even those conversations you mentioned like those are the tough ones to have. And I would say the last piece that is really made me proud to work at NM is the fact that when I speak to people who are investment bankers or work on wealth teams at some of the bigger banks around town, they will say they work with clients who have Northwestern Mutual policies or contracts and they never surrender those policies because they are so good and the company is so strong, referring to Northwestern Mutual, and that is one of the highest forms of compliment that I I feel very proud of when I hear others in the industry speak really highly.

Jeff
Yeah, any time you’re recognized and complimented by your peers, right, or in the same industry, is so special. It really speaks volumes for the organization.

Cara
Certainly.

Jeff
Lynn, can you share some of the products and services that Northwestern Mutual offers? And that you offer here at the Lake Norman office?

Cara
Yeah. So, you will find that financial advisors in general, not just us, work in different niche markets, right? So Northwestern Mutual is predominantly personal financial planning. So that’s anything from your risk management side, so your life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, to wealth accumulation vehicles, such as you know, IRAs, and you know, brokerage accounts, and all of that good stuff. And then the thing that I think we do uniquely here is that we look at distribution planning. So we always begin with the end in mind. So, one of the things I love about our platform, is that we are talking about the exciting and the sexy side of financial planning, but we’re also talking about like, okay, so what is Plan B? And that’s that superpower, right? Like, that’s that brave conversation, because no one wants to talk about it, and no one wants to think about it. But if, you know, we’re doing a really good job planning for a client, and you know, everything’s on track, and they get diagnosed with cancer, and they’re out of work for a year, and they’re part-time for a year, and we have to pull funds out of that, you know, retirement account, and we have to, you know, take a loan against the house, or whatever it would be, if I had to ask them if they protected their income with disability insurance, and that’s on me, right? Like if I hadn’t explained the importance of that to them, that’s on me. And so that is, you know, one of the reasons that comprehensive financial planning is at the core of what we do. And if you study for the CFP, that’s the core of all financial planning is having a good solid foundation to protect against what we can’t control. So here at The Lake, we have, you know, I specialize in the medical market, so I work with a lot of surgeons, physicians, PAs, medical device people, like about 80% of my clientele is medically based, and then we also work with a lot of small business owners, and that can be any sort of small business. I really started working with, you know, dermatology practices, and dental offices, and it is expanded to, you know, I have a lot of logistic company owners now, which is a really cool field and just other things. I love to help and support small businesses, and we can do everything from SIMPLEs, SAPs, 401k plans, group benefits, keyman benefits, like the golden handcuffs, succession planning. So that’s really, really fun, and to kind of tie in someone’s small business with a succession plan, and the retirement plan on the personal side, and be able to help them put all those pieces together is, is great. So, and we have a lot, we have a couple other advisors here that specialize in small business, and, you know, medical market and families. And so, it’s really cool because you can find who’s going to connect with you and your industry. And we are all in abundance mentality, so if we stumble upon someone that we’re like, oh, my gosh, you have to work with Sean Williams, because he is just amazing, and he would be the best solution for you, we’ll make that introduction and work together. So, it’s not like every man for themselves, we do a lot of partnering and collaboration because two brains is better than one and five is better than two.

Cara
I had that experience the other day with the NASCAR garage. Somebody from there is like, you’ve got to meet this guy I work with, he works especially in that industry. And it turns out, you know, to be a great partnership.

Lynn
It’s so much fun to work together.

Jeff
Yeah, the collaboration and bringing different perspectives and different strengths, right, complimentary skillsets. So, not one person can be an expert at everything, right. So, we all have our strengths. So that’s really cool that you have those resources here at the office. So, we’re coming into one of my favorite topics for my conversations. And of course, I’ll have links to the Northwestern Mutual office, Lake Norman, here for listeners that they can go to and check out and we’ll go into a little bit of detail about how they can reach out to you and connect with you and Cara as well. But this is one of my favorite topics and that would be shoutouts to local Lake Norman businesses, I always love this part of our conversations. And I know you guys have prepared a couple of things for me. Who wants to go first? Alright, we’ll go Lynn first.

Cara
So, one of my favorites, and mind you, I’ve only been here a couple years, so I appreciate The Lake taking me in and in our office, but is Lake Norman Esthetics with Dr. Rich, is what we call him, and he is a PA who owns a medi-spa. And he is super cool, you know, medical professional, business owner, and he makes myself and my girlfriends feel beautiful. And you know, we can go and have a girls night have some wine and you know, some upgrades.

Cara
I’m joining next time.

Lynn
I know, so fun.

Cara
Did you have another one?

Lynn
We can go back and forth.

Cara
Well, one I’ve mentioned already with Run For Your Life, they have a University location off of Exit 46 on 77. And hand-in-hand with my other favorite Charlotte running store, is the Charlotte Running Company. Both Jamie and Beth, they are wonderful people, will help you get fit for the right shoe. And the best thing I can say is don’t be intimidated. I think we’ve done studies where people are intimidated to walk into the running store because they don’t feel like they fit the runner mindset or physique or history, but it’s one, literally one step at a time. And the best thing you can do is go talk to your local running store.

Jeff
I couldn’t agree more. I think you can get so much, such a higher level of service at your local running store and Run For Your Life, as we mentioned, were featured on the Charlotte podcast. Charlotte Running Company, Jamie Lewis, joined me for a conversation about the Lake Norman stores and Charlotte Running Company in general on this podcast a while back and he was a lot of fun, we really enjoyed that conversation. I love both companies, great choices. Thank you.

Cara
That reminded me of how people feel about working with a financial advisor. So, another local business is Sodoma Law North. Sodoma, Nicole Sodoma, started Sodoma Law and their main office is in the Fourth Ward in Charlotte, but go and meet with Sarah Bennett, who runs their North office, just wonderful people, David Dufault is their estate planning specialist in real estate and he has you know, helped me with the purchase of my house and they’re just awesome. And anytime they’ve worked with my clients, I’ve never had to, you know, apologize, they have just extended the service that is so important to myself and my team, with our clients that just extends seamlessly when I refer them over to Sodoma Law. So, I would highly recommend, you know, stopping in, talking to Sarah, she specializes in, you know, Family Law. And then David for your real estate and estate planning needs.

Jeff
Yeah, Sodoma Law, featured recently on the Lake Norman podcast and Nicole Sodoma was kind enough to join us, to join Sarah Bennett and I for that conversation to give a little bit more deeper history on Sodoma Law and a really, really great conversation. We had a lot of fun and are both awesome. I pass the Sodoma Law North office in Cornelius almost every day. And another great choice. Thank you for that.

Cara
My last choice would be Lake Norman Patio & Game Rooms. The owner is Brad Doane, he’s a guy full of energy, caring. He’ll get your outdoor patio outfitted for summer so you enjoy it as best you can.

Jeff
Brad is his name?

Cara
Great guy, yes.

Jeff
Okay, cool. Yeah, good choice, Lake Norman Patio, and as we’re coming into June and summer and we are all tired of physical distancing, we’re ready to do, we’re ready to start doing some parting on the patio.

Cara
He’ll hook you up with some Adirondack chairs.

Cara
A game of cornhole?

Lynn
We still need to get some for the office.

Jeff
Yeah, there you go.

Cara
Yeah, we have a really fun office. We have like a putting green and a basketball hoop. So, some cornhole, it’ll be fun.

Lynn
And the last one I have is, making us feel like at home, has been the Famous Toastery. I know that you recently interviewed the Founder and CEO, and someone I would love to just connect with because he has a music background. What? What are the odds, you know, but my family loves, we live at the bottom of the lake. And so, we go to the Huntersville location, but every time we tell our kids like, Where do you want to go? They’re like, we want to go to the Famous Toastery. So, everything from family outings to like a really good mimosa on a Sunday morning. Yeah, it’s a great place. And it is, it does have a very New York vibe, so it’s been one of the more comforting locations for us to go to.

Jeff
Yeah, Robert Maynard, that was a really cool conversation. And you know, we had a little bit of a talk before I hit record, about his music background, we went a little deeper into his music background, and how difficult and challenging that is to make it as a professional musician. Like next level talent and luck required. He realized really quickly that that wasn’t going to be the career, ended up in banking, go figure, on Wall Street.

Cara
A lot of musicians go that way, actually. The colleague I was telling you about who was Juilliard-stupendous, also ended up in finance.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Lynn
So, the mathematical side and the side that reads music of your brain goes together well.

Jeff
Yeah, the left-brain stuff, the analytical. Yeah, absolutely, makes a lot of sense. I love, obviously, I love Famous Toastery, I went, I think I went overboard with my praise in my conversation with Robert, but I seriously can’t say it enough, it’s one of my favorite restaurants. And the famous hash is one of my biggest weaknesses, for sure,

Cara
I haven’t tried that. I’m gonna have to try it.

Jeff
It’s amazing

Lynn
I like it because I can always stay in my healthy eating kick when I’m there. But the kids can all eat what they want.

Jeff
Yeah, you can. They do have some really healthy, clean-eating options as well. And it’s all obviously fresh and really great ingredients. But occasionally I’ll get the runner’s omelet. But I get the famous hash probably a bit too often. So how about another topic would be books recommended reading or podcasts or online resources? Do you guys have a couple of recommendations as far as books go?

Cara
I have two books I’ll mention here. One is kind of a heavy book, but it’s outstanding. It’s by Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Jeff
Oh, yeah.

Cara
Anytime you think you’re having a bad day, or a rough patch, read that and you quickly realize to be grateful for everything you have. And that you can survive just about anything if you have a will and a deep desire. And the other book, which I’ve shared with you, Lynn now, is Melinda Gates, The Moment of Lift, she records her journey, you know, being married to Bill, how they were, you know, introduced and being married, and even with incorporating Bill into helping the kids at home, helping out with the kids at home, and then her being one of the biggest advocates for women and all lives. And just being an advocate for gender equality, and that being the lever that lifts everything, essentially that if we can get everyone to a point where we are elevating one another, it lifts the entire society and some of the research and stories she tells through that are awesome, eye opening from around the world too.

Jeff
I haven’t read that book, but I do know Melinda Gates as not only being just supremely smart, but so giving and so generous and the work she has done through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is really impressive, regardless of your politics, I think that you would have to agree that their work has been outstanding. And that’s the first time that book surprisingly has been recommended on my podcast, I’ll definitely have a link to both of those actually, Man’s Search for Meaning, wow, that is a deep one. That’s a big one, but, again, an excellent choice. Lynn…

Lynn
So, I’m sure that these have been recommended, but they’re so good. So, Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins is so inspirational and motivational, again, the same lines of the things that people can accomplish if they just don’t quit. Right? And that it’s that Seal mentality, you know, when you think you’re done, you still have 40% left. And the story of David going from, you know, he was an exterminator like working nights, way overweight, to fighting his way back into the Seals, going through their training three times and just a story of what he’s overcome, is just grit, right? And it’s so, he’s so inspirational. If you Google him, just don’t be offended by the F word, he drops it a lot. But the New Yorker in me does not mind. But down south, there seems to be a little bit of a different level of acceptance. And then Atomic Habits by James Clear. You know, I think that a struggle, especially for entrepreneurs, is follow-through. I am an entrepreneur so no judgment, I have a team behind me, I always say I am the promise maker, they are in fact, the promise keepers, because they keep everything moving, I would die without Paige. And so, but really, it sets you up for success. And I think one of the things that we do if we’re looking at becoming an entrepreneur, or changing our finances, or to start running, or anything that we feel we aren’t capable of, and we have that imposter syndrome, is taking little steps, right? Instead of being like, oh, my gosh, I am all in on all the things, which is what I tend to do, like looking at small, sustainable change, that can really move you forward. And for a podcast, I love The Burn by Ben Newman. Ben Newman actually started out as a financial guy at Northwestern, he hit the very top tier, which is forum in our world, and he transitioned out to be like a motivational speaker. And he now is one of the top motivational speakers, like speaks like Tony Robbins, he’s got this great podcast, he’s written a ton of books, he is super accessible. And he is just, he’s a really cool guy, following him on Instagram. And, you know, because of the Northwestern connection, I’ve been able to talk to him, and he’ll like answer my call, which is cool. But he works with some of the top NFL teams in the country. And he has this really great content that is like under half an hour. So you can get every kind of inspiration that you need to start your day like during your commute.

Jeff
Yeah, I have quite a few podcasts in my library that I listened to on a consistent basis. The ones that you can consume in a 20- or 30-minute span is really great. Listeners are probably shaking their heads going yeah, but yours last an hour, but ours are a little bit different, we have conversations with entrepreneurs and small business owners. So, Can’t Hurt Me hasn’t been recommended, and I’m not familiar with that. And that’s one that I’ll be checking out for sure, that sounds like an amazing story, an amazing journey for David Goggins. Atomic Habits, James Clear, huge fan of that book. I’ve featured it on the podcast, we’ve had conversations about it, for sure. And yeah, that concept of a 1% improvement every day, you know, stop trying to achieve those huge gains in a short amount of time, just a 1%. I forget the statistic that he shared in that book, like 1% improvement daily, in a year you’ll be like, 37 times better than you are now at whatever it is you’re improving. So, it really puts it into perspective. But yeah, I love, love that book highly recommended, and The Burn podcast, one I’m not familiar with, I’ll check that out for sure. I’ll throw a link in the show notes. And a couple of things we talked about before we hit record, How I Built This with Guy Raz, another great podcast that we talk about a lot on this podcast, and as far as a local business or a franchise, but Blow Dry Bar has a location and Cornelius and is a concept that’s a hit and a really cool concept. So, I’ll have a link to the Lake Norman, the Cornelius shop in the show notes. One other question. I wanted to ask you, business networking, are there some business networking groups locally that you can recommend?

Lynn
Actually, there’s a new one, it’s for Lake Norman women, it’s actually held here every other Tuesday. And it’s in the format kind of like a BNI is run, where there’s one woman per industry. But it’s been really cool to connect with some, you know, local women business owners, and it’s anything from, you know, more of the MLM type businesses to you know, we have someone who does mortgages and relocation and a realtor and a salon owner and like, it is run by Tonya Perry and I just volunteered our space to host her group. And so, Cara and I are both a part of that. So, if there’s any women entrepreneurs that are interested in networking, we would love to have them. And you can reach out to me, and I can connect you to Tonya. You know, just to kind of make that connection, see if we don’t have someone that’s representing that spot right then, we are welcoming. So, but you know, we’re involved in the Chamber, the Lake Norman Chamber or the Huntersville Chamber. You know, I am on the Executive Leadership Committee for the Heart Association Heart Ball, so if there are any local businesses that want to get involved with the Heart Ball, the American Heart Association is great. They’re an awesome organization. And they are really focused on giving back to the local community, in food and education, and it’s just awesome to see all of the things they’re doing behind the scenes to make improvements to our everyday life, especially with COVID and the unknown heart relation that it’s going to have or impact on people’s health. And the ball will be in person again this year, which is exciting, it’s actually going to be on February 12th, which is my 40th birthday. It’ll be my birthday party.

Jeff
You’re not gonna qualify for 40 Under 40 anymore.

Lynn
No, sadly. So sad.

Jeff
Welcome to the club. Very cool. What’s the name of that organization, Lake Norman Womens?

Lynn
So, it’s LN (Lake Norman) Women’s Power Networking, so the Women’s Power Networking,

Jeff
Okay, I’ll have a link. And also, listeners can just reach out to you directly to find out more information on that if there’s some entrepreneurial or small business or professional services folks listening who might be interested.

Lynn
But there are so many good networking opportunities here. The Women’s Business Sorority is another good one. They have a chapter, a Lake Norman chapter, you know, I just I find that people here want to help each other. So, if you think, if you’re feeling stuck with networking, just reach out or show up to one of the things that you see posted on the Chamber, and you’ll find people willing to talk to you.

Jeff
Absolutely. Yeah, the small business community, the professional community in Lake Norman is really awesome. And this podcast is actually proof of how generous people are with their time and their willingness to connect with others in the area. So that’s awesome, I will have links to everything possible that I can, that I can put in the show notes. Before we close, I just want to say thanks again, so much, for inviting me to your office, it’s a beautiful office, and taking time out of your day. As usual, as is often the case, I’ve gone past time, I’ve asked you for a lot less time than you’ve given me today, so thank you very much for that. What’s the best way for listeners to connect with you to reach out to you and find out more information?

Lynn
So really, our website is great. So, it’s just LynnBowser.NM.com. So, they make it pretty simple, and on there you’ll find everything from email address to business line, to cell phone number, we’re very accessible. We don’t often get people volunteering to come in because unlike a toothache, you don’t really get a, you know, an urge to save suddenly, but we would love to talk to anyone. And I think the biggest barrier we’re trying to break is there is no shame. Like we are here to be a resource. We’re not here to judge you. We want to explain your options. We want to help create a vision for your financial future, and how to spend life living today, you know, in five to 10 years and in retirement and help you create a plan that is going to connect with what is important to you and your family. Just like running, don’t think you don’t fit the mold. Or you don’t have enough money, or you know, you have to have a million dollars to invest to speak with an advisor, that just isn’t the case. And we really just want to be a resource.

Jeff
Well said, well said. Lynn Bowser, Managing Director and Wealth Management Advisor here at Northwestern Mutual in Lake Norman and Cara Cremeans, Financial Representative at Northwestern Mutual, Lake Norman. Cara and Lynn, thank you again so much for your time. This has been great.

Lynn
This is awesome. Thank you so much. And thanks for coming to our office.

Cara
Thanks, Jeff.

Jeff
Well done. Thanks again to Lynn and Cara for joining the podcast. Friends, you can connect with Lynn and her team at LynnBowser.NM.com. I’ll have the link in the show notes along with links to the other local businesses that Lynn and Cara recommended in this episode. As always, the complete Show Notes for this episode and all of our episodes can be found at the home for Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast, www.thebestoflkn.com. While you’re there, please consider subscribing to our email newsletter. Signing up is free, easy, and means the world to us. Don’t worry, we’ll never spam you. And we’ll never share your email address with anyone else. Also on the website, our latest blog article features a list of our five favorite fine dining spots around Lake Norman. Check it out and see if your favorite made the list. Friends, that’ll do it for this episode. As always, keep supporting your favorite local small businesses. We’ll be back next week with another episode. So until then, cheers Lake Norman. Bye for now.

Speaker 1
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our featured businesses, please visit www.thebestoflkn.com we publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time, cheers Lake Norman.