Business: Financial Advisor
Business
Financial Advisor:
Jodi Nozoe
by Mike Yoshiura
"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but rising every time we fall."
-Yoshitsugu Yoshiaki Yamashita, the world's first tenth degree black belt and one of the Four Guardians of Kokodan Judo.
Practice Makes Persistance
Jodi Nozoe, 30, is a second-degree black belt, who correlates the philosophy of Judo with her career as a financial advisor. Jodi is a second vice president of investments with Smith Barney Citigroup, incorporating Judo with her daily life since the age of 14. "The way to get better in Judo is you keep taking falls. You've got to keep getting thrown…it's an interesting concept because it applies to everything in life," said Jodi Nozoe, who's been a financial advisor for five years now. "My sensei told me, 'Jodi, you don't have the best technique, but you have a lot of persistence. You get thrown, but you keep standing back up'. I think that's what helped me in this business."
A Firm Believer
"For all those who encouraged me, there were those who also discouraged me. They said, 'you're young, you're female, and you don't know anybody. Being young who do you know that has money to invest? Do your friends have money?' The Judo background kept me quiet, saying to myself that I'm going to prove them wrong. I knew I had to work really hard, but more importantly, I had to prove to myself that I could do it. You can't always be 100 percent confident in your decision, but you have to at least put your all into it."
The Cream of The Crop
"It's a challenge to work here, they don't just hire anybody." Investment advisors cater to a lot of high net worth people, closing multi-million dollar deals. This is not the job for someone who buckles under pressure. At 22, Jodi started working as an assistant at Smith Barney Citigroup, and she described breaking into the business world as an "uphill battle". "They would never hire an advisor out of college at Smith Barney because as an advisor you must have clients, make them money over time, and in the end you need to meet their financial goals. There are a lot of people who fall out, and don't make it in this business."
A Stockbroker? Financial Advisor? OR Entrepreneur?
In the past financial advisors were labeled as stockbrokers, but these days they're more like entrepreneurs starting a business. "How am I supposed to invest someone's money if I don't understand what their goals are first? When a client comes into my office, I have to decide where they are, where they want to go, and I plan their investments last, based on where they want to go." A financial advisor has to develop a certain level of trust with clients to get them to invest their money. "As a financial advisor you start off on a salary, but that phases out after a period of time. They give you a salary to start your business up, and what business owner gets that? Usually you just get money for your business through a loan, but in this case you get a salary for 18 months and in that time you have to get yourself up to speed. After that they put you strictly on commissions so you either make it or break it."
I'd say she's a Stockadvisorpreneur.
The Best Things In Life Are Free
Nozoe graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1998, double majoring in finance and international business. In her senior year of college, she decided to look for an internship to gain experience in the field. "In high school, I got my first taste of the business world through the DECA program (An Association of Marketing Students). In high school it (DECA) was such an important thing to do, I thought…I'm in college, and I guess I have to decide what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, I should probably work for free somewhere. Folks don't want to pay you, but if you say, can I work for free? They're like sure!" Smith Barney Citigroup liked that she was eager to learn, and they decided to invest in her skills. Eight years later, she's climbed the corporate ladder to second vice president of investments.