hi i'm mandy pryor and welcome to spotlight on pittsburgh spotlight on pittsburgh as a crow graham about pittsburgh's most fascinating people and what they do to make pittsburgh an amazing place to live and work when we come back i'll introduce you to our first guest patricia is here to share with you the secrets of reaching financial success in two thousand and eighteen family was drifting apart you have the power to change your child's life the boys to national hotline can help hi patricia and thank you so much for coming on how are you good me and the thanks for having me of course so can you tell me a little bit about what you do well i'm a financial advisor with half until it's and we do a very comprehensive financial planning for our clients to help them reach their financial goals and so what do you like about your job what do you like about doing what you do well well i love what i do because i like being able to help people and i like being able to bring understanding and clarity to financial problems and questions and futures for our clients and so if i came through the door and i said oh my goodness my finances are out of whack i don't know what to do can you help me what would be kind of the first step  would you would tell me to do or what would you help me with you know that's interesting i like to think that you can really know where you're going to you know where you are so the first thing we would do is help you get control of where you are right now some of the things that we think are important you know in usually the beginning of a year is a good time to start this do your budget most people don't have a budget i think the statistic is only about thirty five percent of people actually get here to a budget and when i say that to people lot of people say oh i'm not going to do that so if you can't do a budget at least make sure you have everything all of your spending all  expenses how that on on a paper on a document so that you know what you are putting out every month look at a budget look at your insurance look at any investments that you might have now make sure that you're properly allocated all of these things are good to take a look at at the beginning of the year so we can look at all of that and then we can move forward and see what makes the most sense for you as an individual and do you what do you think holds people back from getting in control of their finances people are very intimidated by it some people are very intimidated by what they have or overwhelmed you know recently we met with a client who said i don't know what i have shed mounds of paper she didn't think that she was prepared what she found out was she was far more prepared than she thought she was but because everything was in a different place in a different drawer and she didn't know what she had so it's kind of like going through the process of just writing everything down no you haven't and you can kind of you for her to move forward move forward get some clarity and we help with that and then we put everything into together in what we call our master plan where you can take one plan and see what your net worth is what your insurance plan is what your investment planning estate planning we put it all together and we help you use that as a guide book for your future and we work through that with you year after year and so with heffron like who are your typical clients is it more you know families and friends or is it more businesses and corporations we have for and we manage money for anyone for lots of different people my team and i manage we have business owners we have friends we have people who we like to say that we work best with people who we like and who like us and who need our help and want to have a collaborative relationship with us so whether that someone who owns a business or someone who maybe is a widow or  just one someone to help them and we like to work with those people and you also give good advice on insurance too we do work with insurance and we do comprehensive insurance evaluation and then we look at what your insurance needs might or not be and so overall are you helping people more with investments or just getting a hold of their day to day or is it kind of a we do in advance in terms but we use the our master plan as the guideline for that so once we have everything in line and we know what you have a you know what you have and we know where you want to be what your risk tolerance is what your timelines are what kind of expenses you have and what your financial needs are then we put your investments in place and we monitor those investments and make sure that they are right for you and we stay with you throughout the course of your future with that's good i think i think a big big part of people going to a financial advisor a firm like heifer in is that they're afraid to do it they're afraid not only to just have somebody go through their finances but they're also a little intimidated with putting people you know kind of exposing people  maybe that they haven't paid enough attention or that they you know just kind of overlook it for other reasons so that's true that's very true not everyone is like that but there are a lot of people who think i don't have enough money to talk to a financial adviser or cheese they're going to see that i have papers here and there and i'm not really sure what i have well that's part of our job is to make sure you're comfortable with what you have and that's what we do we want our clients to be comfortable we want them to understand what they have and where they're going and that's part of our process and you know i like we walk along the way with you and what would you say is the number one bad habit that you wish everyone would break like what is the you know everybody comes in they have a habit that maybe kind of goes across the board you hear it a lot you're like i just wish they would just you know do this instead that's just that's that's a tough question maybe relax a little bit about and i don't mean relax in that you don't see what you have but know that you can and have clarity with what you are doing a lot of people are just so nervous about their financial finances still don't know if that's a bad but it's a tough question and i know that some some of the businesses that you work with you work with different sized businesses as forth and there's going to be big tax changes this year correct yes yes there are some tax changes and you know the tax changes have affected some corporations already so that they are talking about giving back to the employees they are giving bonuses to employees they're giving pay raises to employees and some of those tax changes are going to be go back to the investors in the form of higher dividends so it's there soon be some changes with with tax returns but that's something that's pretty specific to each individual and you know we'll see what happens with that but already it's affected that's had a positive effect on a lot of corporate earnings sheets well that's good to know i mean everybody wants to have positives when it comes to tax so is there anything else that you would want to share with businesses in terms of even small business medium sized businesses that will help them get a better hold of their finances and look to the future well you know every year we say what should we do this year what should we do this year and i think one of the things that's important to remember that investing is a long term so sometimes what happens in that one year is not the most significant doesn't have the most significant impact on a person or a business is portfolio so we need to look out to the future three five seven twenty years and make sure that we are constantly looking at what we have where we're going making sure that we have our investments structured properly for our tax situation and you know i've talked to an advisor who can help guide you on those things and so is there anything else that i haven't really touched base on that you know you would give advice or a tip or something that has helped you along the way especially when it comes to maybe household finances well i think you know start this january start this year by pulling everything together and again as i said in the beginning we can't know where we're going to we know where we are right i think that makes sense but especially in your financial future so use january to pull all of your information together make you've looked at your insurance policies because a lot of times we're not sure what we have pulled that together put them all in a file together pull together all of your bank accounts your your investment accounts see what you have consolidate if you should consolidate can look at your bank statements credit cards you know you people a lot of people we see have credit card debt that they didn't realize they had interest rates they're paying interest rates that they didn't even know bring it all together and take a look at what you really have we can help with that we have a lot of tools that we can help guide our clients most important again make sure you know what you have and where you're going with it or where you want to go and that way you pave a very clear path for your future thank you so much for coming on i'm going to bring you out in a little bit with ron thanks for having me mandy of course to get additional financial support please contact heffron at the cannon's burg location to set up a consultation when we return our very own associate producer rob to stanza the growth coach three rivers will give you his success strategy for two thousand and eighteen you don't want to miss an interview sometimes it's hard to see where you're going but you have the power to change your problems all it takes your life your voice  hi rob welcome back to the show thank you for having me we say vashon because it's kind of partly your show actually mostly my show but that's ok yes being associate producer now yes so what's new i mean it's been a while since you've been on  you know you're a you're a business coach so i'm sure you're dealing with a lot of different businesses and helping them yes two thousand and eighteen a big year yes it is so what can you share with us well my business has evolved which is great we want all businesses to evolve right so it's evolved because i'm finding a better depth of what people really wanting and understanding and what is the clue in the key to being successful but it all is a common thread and that's what's the journey that i've been on being a growth coach has been fantastic because i've been able to understand more and more what really motivates people and so that i'm excited to continue to work on those skills to help people grow to that one thing that's most important to them i could tell you now but then i'd have to kill you so exactly what is very very very successful actually the one thing is clarity and patti was actually speaking about it previously about how it's so important to have clarity in where you're going because yes you need to understand where you are today that's where it starts and so when i work with my clients whether it be an individual client or companies that i work with you have to have clarity of where you are today you have to face the reality of where things are so you can put in craft a destination which is your vision and that's where we want to go so that's really the most important quintessential tool that most business owners entrepreneurs and people really have and so what is a typical client for you to go quiet really it's a nice range it's a nice range i can work with the small business owner of the individual business owner but works what works really well is the small to midsize company that wants to create that vision for the company because it work in all aspects of the business i can work with the business owner i can work with the person who's charge to think more strategically about their business but what's nice i get has collateral facts on each layer of the business for example i can work with their management team making sure that their management team has a good cohesive structure on the company's vision and then i can work with the sales team for example so that they're out there and they're there what they're portraying to the customers and to the clients is also in alignment with their vision of what you have invested back on in sales as well i do i do most of my most of my background is actually in sales even though i had extensive background in training and development there was always a subset of all the positions that i had in my corporate life so to speak and that was in sales yes i started most of my career and spent about twenty years in sales and sales management and then they kind of always drifted into a training and development piece with that but yes i'm a hardcore sales guy there's nothing wrong with that i think it's a pretty important aspect of business is sales absolutely you hit the nail on the head because you know if you look i did some as i did my reflecting  over the holidays i took about ten days to reflect because i couldn't go outside and just wasn't a good not good for a week it could have been but it was really too cold to go outside and do anything so i just i took some time to reflect and it always comes down to sales when you think when you hear and you talk about business owners and hear it talk about entrepreneurs you know there's people management issues there's all these different issues that are very very important to companies and to businesses but it always comes back down to revenue and growth and driving sales in your business in fact you know who kevin harrington is course we don't carry him here you can recreate the original shark tank guy of course yes kevin says that there's one skill one skill that an entrepreneur or the business owner should have it's the ability to sell because it's about influence influencing the customer to make a decision so selling is the quintessential number one skill for every business i mean it's very rough for a minute right now yes so if you had any invention that you would like to present on the shark what would be that do small team workshops individual sessions and then i know that you've been seen in around pittsburgh correct yes in disguise no i think you're pretty much on the main stage aren't you trying to be yes yes and so hot topics and some different things that are going on i do have a workshop coming up oh yes for that workshop is going to be on what invest now i have sales perfect timing right beginning of the year you want to give your your sales team or your sales your company a boost of energy a shot in the arm well that's what this workshop is going to focus on is called the seven secrets of sales success say that five times real facts can i neither can i but that's ok seven secrets of sales success right there it's going to focus on how you're going to grow your business how you can agree customer base how are you going to inject life into your sales so you can gain revenue and prosper as a company and as a business and i've taken pretty much my twenty plus years of sales experience and all the sales coaching and training that i've done in all my sort of occasions and i've kind of condensed it down to the seven secrets so it's going to great are the seven secret once again if i tell you i'd have to kill you so when we don't  see some suspense for the workshop yeah but is going to be great and it's i'm having it one of my usual locations at the chrome federal credit union don't restrict road that beautiful conference room there nine am on february twenty first ok good i encourage anyone anyone whether it be a business owner whether it be a sales manager or whether just be a sales rep or sales team come together collectively as a team and come there and learn and seven secrets and you can apply them start growing your business and cultivating customers closing business and all the fun things that sales brings and so it gets a sales workshop and you will be having these people come in they'll learn something i believe i've heard there's some networking going on as well  are going to expand their leads maybe they can practice a little bit while they're there were a absolutely well you know that's all my workshops are structured with the networking component because it's always great to network the more that we can build our sphere of people that we know the better it's going to be so rather than just have people come there and listen to me for two hours which i know they'd really love to do i kind of cut it off at about an hour to an hour and a half because i want to give people a chance to network and to practice their thirty second commercials their value proposition statements which is equally important for what they do so it gives an opportunity for learning for growth for networking and maybe finding some new leads and in addition to your your workshops here also a keynote speaker presenter yes that's sort of a passion of mine i love to be in front of groups ever since i was in corporate america always taking the opportunity to speak in front of our national sales team or a national organisation so i'd love to get up in front of groups and talk about that's the hard way for a lot of people to do it is especially with you know a good message that's yet getting out to them and effective it is it's it's something to overcome sometimes for a lot of people but there's ways to overcome if you're really passionate about something that you're doing it in a purpose that you serve it makes it a lot easier and just for an example where else have you spoken i have been a pittsburgh business show guest speaker at the pittsburgh business show last year the first annual one and i'll be a guest speaker again this year at the second annual pittsburgh business show i've spoken have you heard of the impacts convention sounds really familiar the impacts convention is the convention where all of the inventions that you see on t v they all come together from all over the world and they present their inventions you know the george foreman grill and all that stuff yeah that's where that all starts all those little things you see on t v those inventions they all come to this convention and i've been a key speaker at their last two conventions i mean i think i only they say about only ten percent of all maybe even five percent of all the inventions are there in that convention actually make it to two to market well we had we had somebody who did an invention on the show before if you can   the big things so what else what it what are the tips that you can share with our audience today on having a successful two thousand and eighteen well i think it's what i what i mentioned before and even what patty was mentioned previously is really come to terms with what you want where you are today and come to terms with facing the reality of what your current situation is and look within yourself and look in the mirror and ask yourself the tough questions once you do that then you can really clearly define where you want to go they were you want two thousand and eighteen to end up or to the to in one thousand to start that's really where it begins so as long as you have the reality of today and the vision of tomorrow it makes it so much easier to craft your goals you can craft your goals and you put your goals in the place because that's really what or how you get moving forward is creating those two and connecting the dog with the goals so i would say that would be the most important easy to without getting into a lot of details but that really is quintessentially the art of the strategic mind the strategic mind is basically facing the reality and being up with creating your vision and goals and is there anything i didn't touch on that you would like to discuss or talk about it but when you think about it the very best of everything the very best business people the very best athletes the very best of everything if there's one common thread that all of them have it's they have coaches they have people that are holding them accountable helping them cultivate their goals helping them be their quote unquote g p s to reach their dreams and that's what i do as a coach that's what i love what i do because there to help them realize their dreams and be there every step of the way to hold them accountable so when they get to those goals it's just a great great great feeling well thank you so much rob i will be bringing you back out momentarily thank you rob as always for coming on contact rob to get your own custom strategic works out for you or your team or tack out his upcoming workshop are heading into a commercial when we come back we'll have patricia and rob return to give their final tips on how to make two thousand and eighteen your best year yet here's something we bet you didn't know nearly half of all cancers can be prevented mostly by making changes in your diet controlling your weight and of course by not smoking does it prevent fifty dot org and get a free thirty day planner filled with tips recipes and more well christian rob i have you back out here because you are leading everyone who's watching into success this year to you too so no pressure i wanted to see basically how somebody in more of a financial mindset i mean you work with sales you work with business is how that can come together and work together i mean what do you think it is about finances that helps with you or your clients be successful as well well it's very important that part of this treaty when you're being strategic about your business you have to know the numbers you have to know all those strategy components of revenue and growth a number is part of the component i always tell my clients that the more that they know their numbers and the more that they're in touch with that the better their business they can document is going to be so obviously finances is a huge part in fact i touch upon that in some of my workshops i go into a whole financial implications component where they have to have those are some of the core competencies of just being a good business owner yes having a great mindset is one thing but also being able to apply that mindset to the core competencies of your business your marketing strategy your selling strategy your people management strategy your financial strategy and things like that so somebody like preachers you could you know potentially take off a lot of the stress in the worries i think that a lot of the businesses have when it comes to finances that they aren't addressing absolutely and what do you think  somebody who's teaching the skills of organizing and getting mindset and strategy and could help you with you know being a financial advisor and i think that's a very important skill organization structure even sales and i think you mentioned earlier remember what we do sales are involved no matter what we do the bartender is a sales person you know your newspaper delivery person is a sales person but the organizational skills are very helpful to us his advisors because of who are organized it's better for our clients to you know we can we can help more clearly and it's good for our clients as well so helping us as advisors have clarity in our lives you know if we don't have that how does that help our clients and it's true i mean for the person that i am i'm definitely more of a creative person and you know i'd love to spend way more time doing a design than i would love sitting there and doing my finances i've got much better but how do you get somebody like myself who's more creative who kind of pushes it you know it's never as high up on the priority list to behave take hold pay attention and get organized i think i think that's a hard thing to do i think that's i think that's really interesting because people always say well you know you either have a math brain or a creative brain i don't think that's really true because i am more creative and i segue into this so when i see my clients and that might be a lot of my friends too because they have that more creative personality that when they have clarity around their finances then it gives them a lot more freedom to be creative sometimes it takes a little tugging let's get this together so that we can move clearly on that path that i mentioned before but people who  creative are at their most creative when they don't have all kinds of other clutter milanov in there and their heads both thank you both so much once again for coming on and i think everybody out there is going to think a little bit more about getting organized and setting a plan into action for two