You’ve likely experienced a power outage for any number of reasons – a tropical storm, a blizzard or too many people being on the power grid.
“When your power goes out, it can be a very daunting feeling,” said Lazetta Rainey Braxton, MBA, CFP, CEO and President of The Real Wealth Coterie, at her Excell Represent 2023 session. “You’re thinking, ‘How am I going to cook? How am I going to take care of the things that I need to and do the things that I enjoy doing?’”
Then there’s the uncertainty of how long the outage will last. You might wonder whether you need to toss everything out of the freezer.
When power outages happened when Rainey Braxton was a kid, her parents were always prepared – either with kerosene lamps or a generator.
“Those situations taught me that when you lose power – or you don’t even have power – that you need to be resourceful enough to make sure you have the necessities in life to exist,” Rainey Braxton said.
Women in financial services are still underrepresented, and that could be construed as meaning we might not have as much power as we know we have. How long will this power outage last, and how can we embrace generating our own power in the industry?
Rainey Braxton said we need to do both internal and external work to do that.
When it comes to the internal work, Rainey Braxton encourages women in the industry to explore their why, find their path in the industry and turn struggles into progress.
As for the external work, she recommends we band together – even those in non-advisor roles – to move the needle and turn our struggles into progress.
The External Work
Financial services is our house, Rainey Braxton said. And we’re acutely aware of what’s going on in our house. For example, Carson’s 2023 State of Women in Wealth Management research found that women are still underrepresented in the financial services industry. Despite making up just over 50% of the U.S. population, women represent just under 24% of CFP professionals.
And for Black women CFPs? Rainey Braxton said that demographic likely represents just 1% of the nearly 100,000 CFP professionals.
Rainey Braxton said that despite these grim statistics, we can find power “regardless of what situation we may find ourselves in.”
“We have so much power within,” Rainey Braxton said. “Even if it feels like the light – the fire – doesn’t exist in your office, doesn’t exist in your firm … each of us are our own powerhouses.”
The external ways to generate our own power are:
Knowing your industry and business model. Part of being a powerhouse is being at the top of your game by continually sharpening your knowledge and skills. Keep on top of your continuing education and trends in the industry.
“We have to know what’s going on in our industry,” Rainey Braxton said.
Plus, find the business model that works for you and know it inside and out. For example, Rainey Braxton embraced a retainer model, and even though she got frustrated when reporters were constantly asking about her AUM, she knew the intricacies of her own business model and helped others understand it.
Building community to find power in numbers. Financial services is more than just advisors.
“There are other ways of being involved in financial services, and I celebrate each of them,” Rainey Braxton said. There are marketing professionals, operations professionals and copywriters who are also part of the industry.
It’s important to recognize these different roles and build community together, because there is power in numbers. It helps us feel like we are not minorities in the industry.
“We all have a role that is so important,” Rainey Braxton said. “We all have the energy and power to come together and make sure financial services is delivering the best that we can.”
Building communities to foster a sense of belonging and purpose in the industry can lead to higher retention of women in the industry. Harvard Business Review reported that when people become part of a community, they are likely to: (1) recruit new members – in our case, bring more people into our industry; (2) are likely to stay in the industry because they don’t want to “abandon” their community; and (3) support one another.
Now more than ever, there are numerous organizations and events to build community with other women in the industry. Females and Finance, headed up by Sheryl Hickerson, is one organization that specifically focuses on building community for women and allies. And there are numerous women’s events throughout the year, including our Excell Represent, InvestmentNews’ Women Advisor Summit, Financial Planning’s Invest in Women and Quad-A’s Women’s Impact Initiative Network, among others.
By tapping into our individual gifts and coming together in community, we can collectively move the needle.
The Internal Work
Coming from rural South Hill, Virginia, Rainey Braxton didn’t see many Black professionals. She saw how her parents, Melvin and Dorothy Rainey, gave all they had to their employers and sacrificed so the three Rainey children could have the necessities.
“My power comes from my parents who, despite all the odds, still gave of themselves and still loved me and my siblings,” Rainey Braxton said.
The internal work Rainey Braxton recommends we do includes:
Knowing your why. Rainey Braxton’s parents, her ancestors and her roots are part of her why, Rainey Braxton said. But the other part is her daughter, Karis Braxton, who is a student at Yale University. And lastly, a part of Rainey Braxton’s why is making sure certain things that happened to her parents and to herself don’t happen to anybody again.
“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anybody I work with – client-wise or advisors – treat my parents, or even me, less than,” she said.
This means addressing sexism and racism because “they don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve it. None of you deserve … to be feeling less than you are because we are all powerhouses,” Rainey Braxton told the crowd at Excell Represent 2023. Also, she doesn’t want her daughter to inherit these isms.
Developing your PES. Rainey Braxton’s personal existence statement (PES) is, “Relentlessly believing in the power of God, the universe, in our ancestors, in unleashing love, joy, equity and wealth through you and me.”
She offered another example from the late Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.”
Finding your voice. Raney Braxton recalls an InvestmentNews event where she approached leadership at IN and asked why there weren’t more diverse speakers and attendees. She was invited to then write about it, something she was initially uncomfortable with.
She composed her first piece on the lack of diversity in the industry using modern portfolio theory.
“If we are practitioners, we believe in diversification and starting early,” she said, adding that the composition of the industry wasn’t diversified at all. “Something is not in alignment here.”
She’s published numerous pieces on the topic since and has become a fierce advocate for and top voice on increasing diversity in the industry.
“I took a risk. I said yes,” to writing, Rainey Braxton said. “I spoke up in another form that actually helped me find another part of my voice.”
Turn pain into progress. Tapping into our own power as women also means exploring our own stories – even if they’re painful.
“You can’t escape doing the work,” Rainey Braxton said. “You cannot escape feeling – and that’s doing the work.”
Rainey Braxton likened exploring our painful stories to the pain after surgery. Yes, it hurts now, but soon the pain will go away, we’ll have healed and all that will be left is a scar.
She noted that it’s painful to receive a negative evaluation or to hear your colleagues use racial slurs. And you might not like that pain, but “you’ve got to feel it so that you can alchemize that pain and turn it into your passion.”
We all have these painful moments in our careers in this industry. And we all likely have trauma that has happened in our lives that we wish didn’t happen. Rainey Braxton has used those things as part of her healing and has made it her mission to “do the work” to make things better for others.
She also noted that therapy can be a useful tool to help turn your painful experiences into progress and healing.
“We can all figure out ways to allow our power to help us heal,” Rainey Braxton said.
Tapping Into Our Power
We are all capable of creating meaningful change in our industry. By doing both the internal and external work, we can overcome any challenges we face and turn our struggles into progress.
Doing this external and internal work can help women tap into our power, realize we are our own biggest assets and give us the confidence to ask for the pay and benefits we are worth.
We are powerhouses, Rainey Braxton said. And we can drive the industry forward. But we must, as she says, choose joy and “Do the work.”
And always remember to “go deep within yourself to feel that power,” Rainey Braxton said. “Even if it feels like you’re powerless.”
