EPISODE 134 INTERVIEW WITH TAMMY TRENTA: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SERVING YOUR CLIENTS

Erin Marcus:

Hi! I’m Erin Marcus, former corporate executive turned entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Conquer Your Business. Welcome to the Ready Yet?! Podcast. We’re excited to bring you more than a hundred episodes of interviews and insights designed to help entrepreneurs get the financial and emotional freedom they need in order to build a business and a life they’re proud of. 

Welcome. I am excited to introduce you to my guest today, Tammy Trenta of Family Financial. We had an amazing conversation some time ago. I love me, a woman in finance, so we’ll get into all the things, but before we go into your story and what you have to share, why don’t you give people a little bit more formal introduction to who you are and what you do?

Tammy Trenta:

Sure. So, my name is Tammy Trenta. I’m the Founder and CEO of Family Financial, which is an integrative wealth management firm.

Erin Marcus:

And so, for those folks, not with the crazy backgrounds we have, what does integrated mean to you?

Tammy Trenta:

So, to me, integrative means that we take a holistic approach. We don’t only look at someone’s investments. We don’t only look at somebody’s taxes. We don’t only look at someone’s insurance. We look at everything. We look at their business, we look at their personal stuff, and we believe that that helps clients make better financial decisions when it’s viewed holistically.

Erin Marcus:

Absolutely. I think whether it’s money, whether it’s health, anytime you’re in a position where either A, you have to go find four different subject matter experts and then take what they’re each giving you and put it together yourself, there’s an inherent loss of opportunity in that process. Let alone an inherent gain of stress, right?

Tammy Trenta:

Yes, that is true. That is definitely true. In fact, I, I have an integrative doctor. I mean, the holistic approach I think makes so much sense to me on so many levels. It doesn’t only apply to finance, but so many other aspects of life.

Erin Marcus:

Absolutely. It goes back to years, years, years ago when I was in the financial world. A gentleman that I knew and worked with a lot, what he said, and I absolutely agreed with him and see what your thoughts are that environment has gotten so complex that no one can any longer be an expert in all the things. What you want is that quarterback that can then get you all the pieces that you need and advocate on your behalf.

Tammy Trenta:

Yeah, I think that’s a great way of looking at it. I like to call ourselves relentless advocates for our clients. And so we try to synthesize the information because there is so much coming at us today more than ever. I mean, people are coming to me with TikTok videos.

Erin Marcus:

About their money. Right.

Tammy Trenta:

Little tidbits of advice. Look, I do it too. I’m looking and hey, I just bought a pair of boots on Facebook yesterday. 

Erin Marcus:

The shoes I currently own that get the most compliments were a Facebook app. So, I hear you. 

Tammy Trenta:

You’re curious about things and I welcome people sharing that because I think putting it into context with someone who really knows you and your situation can help you determine whether you know that’s something you should explore or not.

Erin Marcus:

The truth is, the way our brains work, the things that we’re surrounded by, we tend to believe because they normalize themselves because we’re surrounded by them.

Tammy Trenta:

Yes. It’s also the same with what we believe is what our phones reinforce to us through articles and maybe I said something and all of a sudden, I’m getting an ad. 

Erin Marcus:

That just happened to my boyfriend and a coworker. They were on a Zoom call and he suggested something to her. I know what it was. One of the gifts that he got me last year for the holidays and we’re buying them, I don’t think my nieces watched my or maybe this will come out after Christmas. But there’s these bracelets and they have like sea turtles on them or elephants and basically it’s through a charity that the money then goes to wildlife funds and things like that. And it’s fun because it comes with a phone tracker like you can get information on the actual animal in the tracker and it’s really cool. It’s very cute. It’s really cool. It does come with something tangible that the kids will like. But at the same time, it’s got a conservation aspect to it. So, he was just telling her this while they were on Zoom and the next time she went online, she had never heard of this thing. It has a really weird name, an ad for it popped up. So, yes, they’re listening in ways that we don’t even know. 

So, aside from that, you know, a little crazy sidetrack because that just freaked me out yesterday. How did you get to the holistic approach? I know from our conversation, you’re very experienced, past your experience with wealth management and the financial services, but usually there’s an impetus, right? When somebody goes out on their own, there’s usually a reason. Like for me, I got older, I was bored. I’m like, ‘Okay. There’s something more to the world that I’m not seeing. Let me go do my own thing.’ So, tell everybody a little bit about it, becauseI think people can learn just from even that journey. What was going on in your world that caused you want to leave and do this instead?

Tammy Trenta:

Yes. So, I mean, there were two really defining moments for me that led me to where I am today. The first was in college, my parents both went bankrupt and they were going through divorce. They lost all their money. And I had planned to go to law school after college and I didn’t have any money. I was going to have to take out student loans. I had to go get a job. It was this time in my life where like many, you are just going on your own for the first time. And then I realized that I have no safety net. And that aspect of feeling financially insecure really scared me. So, when it came time to pursue an advanced degree, I went out and I worked first to figure out what I wanted to do. And one of the jobs that I had originally was in a financial services firm.

The whole concept of learning about money really resonated with me. I thought, ‘Well, if nothing else, I’ll learn how to do this for me so what happened to my parents doesn’t happen to me.’ And then ended up pursuing an MBA in Finance and pursuing the CFP and that really forced me in the direction. Then during that journey, I loved the financial planning aspect of it. It made so much more sense to me than what the majority of our industry does, where there’s really no planning. It’s what’s your risk tolerance and here’s the–

Erin Marcus:

How much money do you have and what are you willing to risk? And then, here, I’ll just plug it into my computer and give you a piece of advice.

Tammy Trenta:

Yeah. There’s two simple questions that end up and there’s just so much more to it than that. And so, the idea of just throwing a dart at the dartboard scared me. Right? Risk, not really knowing if it’s going to go up or down. And so, in my second year of business school, I pursued the CFP and I really liked that there was a methodology to the process, and the outcome was better. So, I became a financial planner and I did that for a long time. And then through your career, you work at different firms, you see what you like, what could be improved, you feel the inherent limitations. For the majority of my career, I was I guess I would consider it working at a broker, which meant that the firm had their investments and they recommended them to clients. I never really felt like I could be as objective as I wanted to be because, we’re responsible for shareholders, profits and all these other things. 

Erin Marcus:

One of the things though about, just to point this out, I love the way you’re saying that because it doesn’t make any of those things wrong or bad. They don’t have to be wrong or bad to be not the right fit for us.

Tammy Trenta:

Correct. And I don’t think that our industry is bad. I mean, sometimes you see stuff on the news where the subprime mortgage crisis and all those types of things where greed really gets the better of people who were leading those publicly traded firms, but you know, at an individual–

Erin Marcus:

People who are bad, not industries.

Tammy Trenta:

There you go. Yeah. Those decisions are made by people. And I think because I just felt so strongly about doing the right thing and not feeling any conflict of interest. I moved into the independent space of market. For people who don’t know, 90% of the industry are publicly traded firms. They act in a broker capacity meaning that they can recommend two things and it’s okay for them to recommend something that maybe pays them more if they’re similar. And when you become an independent advisor, you’re held to a legal standard. We call it a fiduciary standard to put clients’ interests above our own interests. And the only way you can do it effectively is to not be compensated differently on different financial products. So, it led me into that field. 

As a planner, it does become, you mentioned earlier you’ve got four people you’re trying to manage. Well, as a financial planner, as the quarterback, I’m calling estate planning attorneys, I may or may not get a call back. I’m calling the accountant, they’re unavailable. And so the collaboration becomes overwhelming. And I thought to myself, this is great.

Erin Marcus:

This is not working, right.

Tammy Trenta:

Very altruistic that this is the way it should be and can this be created on my own. And so, that’s what my goal was, to create like a one stop shop to where we’re all collaborating internally: tax and legal and all those things, but the client doesn’t have to up to five different people.

Erin Marcus:

Love what you’re learning here and interested in more? Check out conqueryourbusiness.com to get immediate access to all sorts of additional resources and stay updated on our upcoming training events. 

You see that in so many, I don’t know why this popped into my mind probably because I’m in massive planning mode. But you see that in a lot of different fields, like this idea of all in one to make your life easier.

Tammy Trenta:

Yeah, because life is but more complicated than it’s ever been.

Erin Marcus:

I mean, there’s a reason. The other piece of this from a marketing perspective, and as I’m talking to you, people can really not just listen to what you have to offer in terms of advice, but look at your own businesses and where are you forcing your client to walk out your door and get help that’s adjacent to what you do. And how could you actually help them better?

It doesn’t mean that you don’t have your specialty, but if you want and it just so happens that we’re going into 2023 and things are getting–I want to say last year, the 2022 is unsettling. This ‘23 is not unsettling. We know there’s a problem. Like the confusion is gone because we know there’s a problem, which is kind of oddly nice because things settle once we’ve got a decision whether that decision be good or bad. 

But where are you led? Like it’s more important now more than ever, where are you not serving somebody where you could be and how could that change? Here’s the thing, if they’re listening to us, because this is who I attract, they’re in a relationship management. I don’t do transactional businesses. So, what you’ve done is really from a client focus, how can I do what I love and make it better for them? Like how hard is this, right? Win-win.

Tammy Trenta:

Yeah. I think when you see the pain points, there’s the pain points that the client has and then there’s the pain points that the advisor has. I can tell you that when we do it all, it is so much better. It’s like an aha moment where you’re like, ‘This is why we exist. This is why.’ Everyone on the team, we all have that same why. I don’t know if you listen to Simon’s, what is your why? We’ve seen it, we’ve experienced it and we believe that this is.

Erin Marcus:

So, when you’re cultivating your helpers, when you’re cultivating your advisors from that standpoint, it makes sense to find somebody who, if you’re going to hire them, whether it’s again with a doctor, a lawyer, financial planner, a tax rep, are they in alignment? Not just do they check the box, but are they in alignment with what you are trying to do?

Tammy Trenta:

It’s the biggest variable, and you can’t even have a conversation unless they are philosophically aligned. So, that’s number one. What I look for more than anything is the passion and the belief. Sometimes if you are meeting those that are maybe just entering the industry or younger and looking for a mentoring type of relationship, if they have the passion for it, I will invest in them because I see what their potential could be. And if you’re looking to punch a time clock or just kill the time, to me, it’s not a sustainable relationship. And so, relationships, like you said, the relationships with clients that we have, like I look at them as marriages, they require effort. There’s things to do on both sides, and it’s the same with employees. Like, you’re married to these people, you’re with them for most of the day. And so, it’s a lot of responsibility but I would take that any day over having someone else be telling me the way that I should do things.

Erin Marcus:

Absolutely. So, let’s switch gears here while we have a little bit of time left because not only can people learn from your journey, but your subject matter expertise is kind of right on par for the audience here. So, as we wrap up 2022, people hear this in the beginning of ‘23, what are, you know, let’s start with the mistakes that you see people make or what do you want, if you’re a business owner, what would be some great advice that you would give these solopreneurs who are looking to become entrepreneurs and grow? Like my first one is do this sooner rather than later. You don’t have to wait for this and then I’ll let you take it from there.

Tammy Trenta:

I mean, I think you’re never going to feel ready. For me, it was just a big enough pain point to where I didn’t see another alternative. It sort of forced me. And then yes, you do it, you’re like, ‘Man, I should have done it earlier.’ 

I think every team should have three components to it. That’s having the entrepreneur, you need the artist and you need the manager. So, you can be multiple things, but there might be one thing that you are not good at. And if you’re not, then you need to find somebody who is. So, I like to use the 80% rule. If I can outsource something and they can do an 80% as good as I can, it’s worth outsourcing. 

Erin Marcus:

Absolutely. I have the same rule. My other version of that is don’t spend a long time to do a bad job. It’s something someone else can spend a short time doing a good job at doing.

Tammy Trenta:

I like it. Yes, it’s exactly right.

Erin Marcus:

And then what about for their finances? What do you see some of the big mistakes that your clients make that you can kind of head off for some folks that are listening?

Tammy Trenta:

Well, I think it’s really important to be deliberate and proactive. And so, when someone starts a business, you make a lot of mistakes just inherently. So, if you are getting into a business that is not what you’ve been doing, it’s not a bad idea to go and learn on someone else’s dime first. See what the pros and cons are, and it will help you to make fewer mistakes when you finally do launch. 

From a financial perspective, I mean, there’s a lot of things every year I try to improve and things that maybe I spent money on that I shouldn’t have. But getting on top of your taxes, doing a year-end projection, having a strong bookkeeping team, a lot of accountants will not do a projection for you at the end of the year if you’re small and there’s enough tax planners out there that do. So, I am right now in the middle of tax projection season where I’m meeting with my clients and saying, ‘Here’s what you’re going to owe. Here’s what we can do to try to get that down.’ Coming up with those solutions because once the year passes, there’s a lot more limitations on what you’re able to do. And then you don’t get the surprise tax bill because let’s say you are a Schedule C like sole proprietor, some of them, they’re like, ‘Gosh, my tax is so high.’ Yeah, because you’re paying federal tax, state tax and both sides of the payroll. 

Erin Marcus:

Both sides of the payroll. That was a big shocker to me is that if you don’t do the S Corp Election, you end up with self-employment taxes.

Tammy Trenta:

That’s right. Those are things you want to do before the end of the year and I don’t know when this is airing, but maybe it’s too late, but–

Erin Marcus:

Sooner rather than later. Absolutely. So, if people want to reach out and continue this conversation with you and I highly, highly recommend. I’m a big fan of the holistic approach. I’ve seen too many horror stories of gaps where the person you hired checked the boxes and did a good job, but they didn’t assume it was part of their role to fill in your gaps and the holistic approach just inherently prevents that.

Tammy Trenta:

Yes. I mean, one of our core values is yes, it is our job and another one is a path to yes. So, we don’t do that. It’s like, how can we do this? And it is sort of a different way of thinking, but it’s also empowering to think outside of those lines or the box and really try to come up with solutions for clients. It might not have anything to do with investments sometimes. It’s buying a house or a car, but they’re still financial decisions. Having someone to bounce those ideas off of really helps prevent people from making impulsive or decisions that are not well thought out.

Erin Marcus:

Yeah. More data driven decisions, hundred million percent. So, how does someone get in touch with you? How do they find you? I’m sure you’re not hiding but what’s the best way to do that?

Tammy Trenta: 

Our website is familyfinancial.biz, B-I-Z. We can be contacted through there. Also, I would say my biggest presence is probably on LinkedIn. So, that’s Tammy Trenta, so you can go there and find me there too.

Erin Marcus:

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing your story. There was a lot of big nuggets in there for people who are considering making changes, setting up their businesses, doing all the things and an overall approach to making sure that how do they do it best for them and best for the client. I love the fact that it’s so front and center for you that those two things are actually in alignment. This is not an either/or that these things go together.

Tammy Trenta:

Yeah, totally agree. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Erin.

Erin Marcus:

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ready Yet?! podcast. I truly enjoy bringing these stories of success and inspiration to you. Please join us in our mission to empower entrepreneurs to be in charge of their businesses and in charge of their lives by sharing this with anyone you know who would benefit from our tactical and motivating advice, leaving us a review and letting us know if there are any particular topics you would really appreciate hearing about. See you next time.