[00:17] Tara Bansal: Welcome to her life, her practice, her way.

[00:21] A podcast for and about female financial advisors.

[00:26] Tara I’m Tara Conti Bansal. I’ve been a financial planner and life coach for over 20 years,

[00:32] and I believe that when women thrive in this profession, we all win.

[00:37] This show is about sharing our journeys, our struggles, our breakthroughs, and the many ways we build a life and practice that feels true to us.

[00:48] And now I’m extending that mission. Beyond the podcast,

[00:52] I coach female advisors who want to grow a fulfilling practice and a beautiful life that they love,

[00:59] one filled with meaning, freedom, connection, and joy.

[01:04] Whether you’re just starting out, reinventing yourself, or dreaming of what’s next, you’re in the right place.

[01:11] Let’s build this together.

[01:13] Hello. Hello. This is Tara Conti Bansal, and I am here with Larissa Costello. I’m thrilled to have her on.

[01:23] We met through Brett Shaver, who is the president at Princeton Global,

[01:30] and Larissa met Brett at a conference, and she was talking to him about possibly joining Princeton Global.

[01:40] She decided not to, but Brett knew that we would both connect and like each other, and we have, even though we don’t work together.

[01:51] But I reached out to her because I’ve seen some of the things Larissa does, and I like her marketing, and I just wanted to hear more about her journey and where she is and where she’s going.

[02:05] Larissa, what’s your story? Like, Brene Brown, where did you grow up? How.

[02:11] Where did you go to school,

[02:12] about your family,

[02:14] and how did you get into doing this?

[02:18] Larissa Costello: Well, hello, and thank you so much for having me on. And it’s absolute pleasure to have been watching your journey. Tara,

[02:25] I think we met a couple of years ago, and I know, I still remember when you told me you were going to start this podcast, and I’m like, okay, that’s a brain to step.

[02:33] And you’ve just done it. So super impressive, and I am absolutely honored to be here today.

[02:40] So that’s a big question.

[02:41] My story.

[02:44] So I was born, actually, in case the accent doesn’t give me away, I was born in South Africa,

[02:50] and I grew up in South Africa. And at the age of 16, which was in 1987, so you can do the math to figure out how old I am. Definitely middle age or maybe getting up there a little bit.

[03:01] My family immigrated to Australia,

[03:04] so I completed my last two years of high school in Australia and then went on to university,

[03:10] graduating. And at the point of graduation,

[03:14] Australia had about 18% unemployment,

[03:17] and I was finding it increasingly difficult to find a Job coming fresh out of college with very little experience. I mean, I’ve worked obviously retail. I was always a go getter.

[03:27] From the time I’d arrived in Australia, I was working, always looking for summer jobs and was just not able to find work in the area of my degree, which at that time was a Bachelor of Commerce, which is kind of,

[03:42] I think I majored in marketing.

[03:45] Never really wanted to go the accounting route, but that’s the way I was kind of pulled because everybody, as my dad used to say, needs be encounters in the world.

[03:54] But I was just really struggling to find my place. And my dad or my family in general had always traveled.

[04:02] Aside from my family moving or immigrating,

[04:06] my parents had always traveled all over the place and it was always doing trips. And it was something that really was a value system for us as far as you need to go out into the world and venture out beyond your boundaries to really understand people.

[04:20] And so my dad had said to us and had always given us. He’d always come back from his travels with stories of people he had met and he had always said, you know,

[04:31] these young kids that would go out and backpack and if you ever want to do something like that, you can.

[04:37] And Australia actually has a culture like that.

[04:40] Australia being part of the Commonwealth permits you to get a work visa for the United Kingdom.

[04:47] So following my inability to find a job along with my brother who was also struggling,

[04:54] we got what is called around the world ticket fa. So it allowed you to travel for one year and I think it was like three different continents.

[05:05] So my brother and I got our backpacks and we were going to go do this amazing adventure around the world backpacking.

[05:13] And I think our route was going to take us to South Africa and then to Europe and then to America and then back home to Australia. And we had to complete this, this, you know, circumference of the world in one year.

[05:24] And how we were going to get there or what we’re going to do when we landed was never really figured out. I think we thought we were going to bartend.

[05:31] Well, needless to say, we got to South Africa as our first stop, which was kind of a little bit like going home. After being gone for 10 years.

[05:40] My brother realized that there was tremendous opportunity for him as an engineer and he decided to stay.

[05:46] And so now I was in a position of having to continue this journey around the world as a 22 year old solo and. But I was, it was never even a question that I was going to continue.

[05:58] So I did so even Though I was traveling on my own, I was never really alone. I met up with people from all places and it was just again, a very,

[06:10] it really opened me up, especially having had a very sheltered upbringing in South Africa. With everything that was going on in South Africa during the time of my childhood,

[06:20] it really, really opened and opened my mind and broadened my outlook about people.

[06:25] And I could just tell, you know, I just as one random story,

[06:30] I remember having meeting somebody who had, from eastern Germany who had lived behind the wall,

[06:37] and going to this farmhouse and meeting the parents of this person. And I was just, I think there’s pictures of me.

[06:45] Uh, they didn’t speak a word of English, I didn’t speak a word of German. But we had this, you know, the, the sun was translating.

[06:51] And I remember arriving and I, they, they thought I was like this exotic creature and they wanted to give up their bed. And this is all, you know, some old, you know, old people and I, with not much means.

[07:04] And I remember just being so tremendously humbled and you know, highlights like that, just with the kinds of people that you meet.

[07:12] But I met my husband essentially. I’d met somebody when I was in Europe, when I was traveling around Europe, who was from New York.

[07:22] And he said to me, oh, when you get to New York, here’s my number, look me up. And so after some months of traveling around Europe and it was time to make my way to the United States, I was like, oh, I remember that guy.

[07:34] I’ve got his contact.

[07:36] And so I made,

[07:38] you know, contact with him and I made friends with the woman on the plane with me. And it was like, this is just how I met people.

[07:44] And he knew I was going to go on to D.C. area. And he’s like, oh, I know a guy from D.C. i went to college with him. And so he introduced me to my husband, like poured him, caught my husband John up and I was like, oh, there’s this girl,

[07:57] she’s from South Africa, she’s traveling around, doesn’t know anybody’s coming to your area.

[08:02] And so my husband landed up, taking me out for dinner, picking me up at the youth Hostel in Washington D.C. we went out for dinner, had a very nice evening.

[08:10] At the end of the evening, I kissed him on the cheek, I thanked him for the evening, and I said, oh, if you ever come to Australia, he has my number.

[08:17] And not only did I know that eventually that would lead to us being married 26 years with three boys, but it took several years, but it was mostly a long distance communication Because I think it was a year later.

[08:31] I didn’t respond.

[08:32] We had a nice dinner,

[08:34] didn’t speak or hear from him for another year. Then he wrote me a letter, and then I didn’t respond to the letter, and there was another year. So it was two years later from our first initial meeting,

[08:44] and I was back in Australia after this grand travel adventure, and I was going through all my things, and I found this letter from this guy John. And I was like, oh, yeah, I remember him.

[08:53] We had dinner in D.C. we had a nice evening.

[08:56] And so just randomly,

[08:58] I went through international directory assistance and I called the number on the letter or, you know, the name on the letter and found his number.

[09:06] And I called the number and I said. And he picked up. This is so random, but true story.

[09:13] And I said, oh, you gonna have no idea who this is. It’s two years later. And he goes, larissa. And I tease him. I’m like, you were just sitting by that phone for two years waiting for me to call.

[09:22] And so that started like, it’s another year or two, long distance phoning and emailing and.

[09:28] And then finally, about three or half years after we had met, he’s, you know, we’re kind of. The relationship took on this romantic tone.

[09:36] And he said, larissa, you know, we’ve always had this flirtation. Then I’m going to come to. To Australia to see you and see what this is.

[09:44] And so he took a flight and flew to Australia to see me,

[09:48] and we spent about a week together. And more or less, he proposed.

[09:53] Wow.

[09:54] Yeah.

[09:55] And then the way things worked was for me to come to America, he had to sponsor me as his fiance. So that’s a K1 visa, and you have 90 days.

[10:04] It’s a little bit that movie Green card. You have 90 days to complete the visa requirements. So it was very, very whirlwind.

[10:14] I mean, it took four years, but we were only in each other’s physical presence for a very short period before I made that colossal decision to move my whole life to America.

[10:24] So, yeah, crazy story.

[10:27] Yeah.

[10:29] So, yeah, that’s kind of my background a lot. You know, I get asked every day, where are you from? Where’s your accent? It doesn’t matter which. I just got back from Australia from seeing mom recently, and I was asked there, well, where are you from?

[10:40] Your accent. So I. I feel like a little bit of displaced.

[10:46] I always tell my husband I have options because I have three passports.

[10:52] That’s nice.

[10:53] But America does feel like home. I have been here 26 years. It’s, it’s, you know, I feel very, I love America. I love the people I relate to Americans.

[11:04] Australia I love too, but very different kind of way of life.

[11:09] So it’s interesting, it’s interesting to see just again, having had the, the wonderful opportunity to travel.

[11:17] I love people and hearing much like you, their stories.

[11:20] Tara Bansal: Yeah. How much older or younger is your brother?

[11:25] Larissa Costello: So I am actually the youngest of the three.

[11:28] Okay. I actually have a sister as well, and she’s the oldest. And then my brother’s about a year and a half to two years older and then I’m the baby.

[11:36] Tara Bansal: Were you upset when your brother bailed on you and stayed?

[11:40] Larissa Costello: And so I don’t really recall being upset because I knew he was making the best decisions for him. You know, he was,

[11:47] I don’t recall. I remember, no, I don’t really remember being upset with him at all. I just remember thinking, okay, I have a decision to make. And the decision, there was never a decision for me to go home.

[11:58] It was always, I’m going to complete this.

[12:00] And actually I think it worked out for the best because I think by being, if I maybe traveled with my brother,

[12:07] I would have had a bolt in friend.

[12:09] Whereas because I was on my own, I was forced to put myself out there more. And I think that’s really helped me just develop that skill set to talk to anybody.

[12:21] I’m very comfortable meeting strangers. And again,

[12:26] mostly because I’m curious. I’m curious about people and their stories.

[12:31] Tara Bansal: So how did you become a financial advisor?

[12:36] Larissa Costello: So I kind of, I really say it found me or I fell into it. It wasn’t like a decision that I’m going to go out and become a financial advisor. I had always had this financial background and I was always interested in numbers.

[12:49] And honestly, money used to kind of stress me out. I was always worrying about money.

[12:55] And I’ve, I’ve started to get a little bit more into the theory of that. And I think what it is, is that I was always coming from a scarcity mindset,

[13:03] you know, fear, fear based, that there’s not enough, we don’t have enough.

[13:07] And I, I, it’s kind of interesting when you start to get into that,

[13:12] you know,

[13:13] your financial DNA. Right. I’m saying somebody right now. Yeah.

[13:17] So what it was was I always had this background in accounting and finance,

[13:22] but when I became a mother,

[13:25] I actually gave up working. I decided I wanted to be home with my children and raise them in the home. And I was fortunate enough that my husband at that time was able to support that.

[13:36] And he was on board with me being home. So I stayed home with my children for about 10 years. I was out of the workforce. I still did things like I was in a mom’s club and I went and I was randomly got my real estate license.

[13:51] And I was always trying to, like,

[13:54] I was always curious about education and, you know, there was things I was doing during that period aside from raising my boys.

[14:03] And then when my youngest started kindergarten, I was like, okay, I’m going to go back to work. And it’s kind of careful what you wish for, right?

[14:11] And I still remember applying for maybe two accounting jobs just on online. And as I was closing my computer,

[14:18] something caught my eye that said, wealth management. I’m like, I don’t even know what that is.

[14:22] But I applied for it and very quickly got the job. Like a week later I had the job,

[14:27] and about 10, nine, 10 months, I was hired as a client service associate to a fairly successful advisor.

[14:37] And that really just meant the admin. I was kind of an admin, doing the paperwork. And I was doing the paperwork,

[14:43] answering the phone, all of that, you know, appointment setting, very. And I was only working part time because, again, I wanted to be there for my children. I dropped them at school, I picked them up.

[14:53] So I was working about 20 hours a week, and it fitted perfectly for my, you know, for what I was trying to do.

[14:59] Um, but about nine, ten months into the job,

[15:03] you know, just being exposed to this world, I said to my boss,

[15:06] well, what do I need to do to do what you’re doing?

[15:10] And he told me, we have to get these licenses. So I pretty much went and did just that. Um, so I was a fully licensed advisor within, I think I don’t want to tell a lie here on,

[15:20] you know, record,

[15:22] but I’d say within the two years, I was fully licensed.

[15:27] But I kind of pigeonholed held, you know,

[15:31] without getting too much into the specifics,

[15:33] I didn’t really start working as an advisor. I was still. I had all these licenses. I didn’t really know what it meant exactly.

[15:42] And then I switched gears.

[15:45] Probably after about five years, I realized I wasn’t really advancing in my role. And at that point I was ready to really do what I was trained to do, which was to become an advisor.

[15:55] So I changed firms. And I still remember one of the first times my boss,

[16:01] again, at a small. A small firm, she said, well, go out there and do it. I’m like, do what? She’s like, well, you’re an advisor, you Got to go and do this.

[16:08] I’m like, I don’t know how to do it. And she goes, yes, you do.

[16:11] And so that was kind of when I started to go out and put myself out in, you know, organizations and started to meet people in various ways is to slowly started to bring in clients.

[16:23] And then Covid had.

[16:26] So when Covid happened,

[16:29] I’d been in this job for about a year and a half and had started to realize that I was not really representing me, and I was not really doing the job that I believed it should be done.

[16:42] It was more about the numbers. It was like, bring in the next account. Bring in the next account. Bring in the next account. You’re not. You’re not performing. Where’s the next account?

[16:50] And it’s not being about the relationship and the people. And that’s really where my true love lies, is building those relationships.

[16:58] So I resigned. And just as Covid was shutting down the world, I resigned. And that’s when I became independent as an advisor.

[17:07] And, yeah, pretty much haven’t looked back since then. Just kind of been building.

[17:12] Tara Bansal: Did you quit because of COVID or you didn’t know? That was just pure.

[17:18] Larissa Costello: There was a. You know,

[17:20] I’d been in the job for about a year and a half, and I didn’t really feel like it was a good culture fit for me at that time.

[17:28] For the. For the very reason that it was just about the numbers for them. It was,

[17:32] where’s the next account? Or so you’re not. You’re not bringing in another account. And I would bring in the account,

[17:37] and then, you know, the client would become my clients,

[17:42] and then they would be moved to operations, and there would be that separation. And I didn’t really like that.

[17:48] And so for me, I like to keep my.

[17:51] I pride myself in my. In my practice. Now that I am fully available to my clients, you know, they have my.

[17:59] I’m very responsive.

[18:01] They don’t have to go through a gatekeeper to get to me. I am right here serving their needs to the best of my ability every day.

[18:09] Tara Bansal: How was it opening your own shop? And kind of very scary.

[18:17] Larissa Costello: Very scary.

[18:19] I mean, I. I still remember taking a bike ride with my husband.

[18:23] Calculating,

[18:25] you know,

[18:26] not. Not even about making money or paycheck, but just by covering the costs of being in business, because the cost to do this job are tremendous.

[18:34] And I still keep it as kind of a little souvenir that. My very first paycheck.

[18:40] The very first. Well, the first paycheck. I don’t know if it’s the very first month, but the first paycheck I got was a whole $500.

[18:48] Yeah.

[18:49] And I was so proud of that $500, because I wasn’t negative. I was like, oh, I have. I have a business now because I have $500.

[18:58] So it’s kind of a reminder for me when I had those days, that, well, that’s where you started from. And, you know, it’s my checks a bit more than 500 now, but I kind of want to pin it on the wall because it’s a reminder of, you know, humble beginnings.

[19:13] And I’ve organically grown, which is. I’m very, very proud of.

[19:18] Yeah.

[19:19] Tara Bansal: So tell us more about that. Like, who are your clients and how have you grown?

[19:25] Larissa Costello: So I should probably just backtrack. So when I first went independent, I joined up,

[19:32] not legally or financially, but I was introduced to a gentleman who’s been in the industry for some time.

[19:38] And so he and I kind of worked together under a brand called Ad Astral Wealth Management.

[19:45] And I was with him for a couple years,

[19:49] probably three years, I think. What are we, 25?

[19:53] But I still wasn’t really feeling like I was doing things the way I wanted to do it, and. And I didn’t know why, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I changed firms about a year and a half ago,

[20:06] and I rebranded under the name Protea Wealth Management.

[20:11] And Protea is the national flower of South Africa, going back to my roots.

[20:16] And the flower is this kind of badass flower.

[20:21] It’s a very resilient, beautiful flower that you can scorch the earth and, you know, start a wildfire, and this.

[20:30] This flower will still take root and. And grow and thrive.

[20:33] And it is one of the oldest flowers in. On. On the planet Earth.

[20:38] And that really became a symbolism for me of the type of client that I naturally attract, which is a lot of the time, women,

[20:45] because we both know that women are very underrepresented in this industry.

[20:51] And so with my background and just how I kind of came into this industry,

[20:58] I realized that women.

[21:01] It’s a different language.

[21:03] Right. What I like to say is, you know, I have three boys. I’ve been married 26 years. I understand how men think, at least I think I do for the most part.

[21:12] But I intuitively understand how women feel.

[21:16] And so, you know, how we make our decisions and how we view information and how we receive information,

[21:24] and the communication is very key. And I think a lot of the time not to speak negatively about my male Colleagues in the industry who I have a lot of respect for, just in general when we speak, when I find, when I speak to a woman,

[21:41] they thank me. They thank me because they feel seen and heard. Often for the very first time I’ve had women, you know, they’ll ask questions and apologize profusely over and over for not knowing things and understand things and these stupid questions.

[21:55] And I,

[21:57] it happens a lot.

[21:58] And I realized that, you know, I was one of those woman ones. I was in my 40s and I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t understand the stock market or the difference between a stock and a bond.

[22:09] And who wants to ask those questions in their 40s and admit.

[22:13] But it’s very prevalent that most people not working in this industry every day or,

[22:19] you know,

[22:21] very smart, educated people,

[22:24] you know,

[22:25] just, it’s not their world. And I don’t think they should be spoken down to or made to feel that they can’t ask those questions just because they haven’t had the education that you and I have had in this industry.

[22:40] Tara Bansal: I agree. So who, who are your ideal clients? Who do you want to work with?

[22:49] Larissa Costello: You know, I don’t have,

[22:51] I mean, I don’t have like a little box that says, this is my ideal clients.

[22:56] But what I have found that is, as I go out and just live a life that is quote, unquote, authentic to me,

[23:05] I naturally attract the kind of client that I want to serve.

[23:09] So I, I am drawn personally to strong women. Like, I love working strong women. Opinionated woman,

[23:18] ambitious woman.

[23:20] I use the word high achieving and they may explain what I mean by that. It’s not that you have to have a certain paycheck or anything like that.

[23:30] I actually read this on LinkedIn once where somebody was describing, are you, are you stressed? Are you busy? Are you this? Are you that? Are you overwhelmed? You know, an average day for most women.

[23:41] And he, he said, well, I’ve got news for you, you’re not crazy, you’re just high achieving.

[23:47] And I love, I love that change in mindset because there’s so many women out there that are doing all of these things every day, right? They raising children, they running homes, maybe they’re working,

[24:00] but they’re keeping all these balls in the air and they juggling every day.

[24:04] And then they go to bed exhausted. They’re like, oh, I didn’t get anything done today. I didn’t get anything done. Oh, I didn’t do that thing. Right. We do that all the time.

[24:13] Well, those are my, those, those are my Clients.

[24:16] Yeah. These women that don’t,

[24:20] you know, that don’t always feel seen and it’s like, yeah, I get it because I am one of those women. Not that I don’t feel seen or appreciated. I have a wonderful husband and all that.

[24:29] It’s not about anti men message or anything like that. It’s just that we have such unique temperaments as women.

[24:37] And then it’s nice sometimes just to speak to somebody who gets it.

[24:42] Yeah.

[24:43] Tara Bansal: Because I mean, I feel like a common theme is women take care of everyone around them and tell me where I’m wrong. But for you, it’s like you want to help take care of these women around their finances so they feel more comfortable today.

[25:00] Larissa Costello: Exactly. Yeah. And one of the time, it’s one of those things I, you know, one of the things I say is,

[25:06] I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but this is what I was like before I got into this industry. I’d lie in bed at night and worry and I would like the what if scenario.

[25:15] What would happen if and how vulnerable I felt if.

[25:20] Tara Bansal: And I think many women feel that way.

[25:23] Larissa Costello: Yeah. And then I would wake up and then there would be another round of having to get breakfast and take, you know, Jack, Riley Finn, wherever they needed to be and clean the house and do the shopping and da, da, da.

[25:32] And those fears would get pushed down, but they were still there.

[25:36] And you know, we, my husband and I got, had a financial advisor when we first got married because I realized that we weren’t quite on the same page with some of the,

[25:45] you know, some of the ways we approached money. So I really wanted impartial third party that would just tell us what to do.

[25:52] But to be honest, I don’t know that they best they served us because I think they weren’t always hearing what we were trying to accomplish because at that time, like most young couples, it was all about the children and college savings and the this and the that.

[26:06] As an example, he never said, well, is your husband contributing to an IRA for you as a non working spouse? No, that subject never came up.

[26:14] So a lot of things like that,

[26:17] you know, life insurance where we adequately covered and things like that and just having a plan that I could really see, okay, we are going to be okay or we working to be okay.

[26:27] So I think right now, just in general,

[26:30] one of the things I see a lot with most, well, the people, the clients that I serve and the people I talk to is fear.

[26:37] You know, everybody’s afraid and maybe it’s part of my yoga journey. But I really try to not live in feelings.

[26:44] I don’t. I try to not be governed by me, my emotions, and I really try to ground myself. So it’s like every day, we having a lot of emotions and feelings and reactions to different things that are happening.

[26:56] Right. Maybe to us or around us.

[26:59] And I think, especially when it comes to our money,

[27:02] you know, we all know, you know, you don’t react to market conditions just because. So we don’t react to the idea that, oh, the market’s going to crash or this is going to happen.

[27:12] Really, it comes down to what is your journey and what are the things that you control.

[27:16] Right.

[27:17] And I think that’s applicable across our lives.

[27:21] One of the things that we really, really control. And that to me, the things that we really, really control is our internal journey.

[27:28] And so I’ve been doing a lot of work just through my yoga practice,

[27:31] and I think it makes me a better advisor is to, you know, when life is getting crazy, take it to the yoga mat and release that and to really ground yourself so that I can show up, you know, for my clients,

[27:44] it’s no good if I’m losing my, you know,

[27:47] if I’m panicking. Right.

[27:49] That doesn’t serve anybody. So just as recently as yesterday, I was having a conversation with a client who’s afraid, you know, and she just needs reassurance. And we had this dialogue of,

[28:00] okay, what is your situation? What are the things we need to do for you that’s applicable to your situation,

[28:06] but not what can she control?

[28:08] Tara Bansal: Yeah, getting back to what’s within her control.

[28:10] Larissa Costello: Exactly, exactly. And she thanked me. And it’s a lot of the time I feel like. And I know you know this as well,

[28:19] you know, the term advisor carries so many.

[28:24] It’s so broad, Right?

[28:26] So broad.

[28:27] And it’s an honor every day to. To have that, you know, window into people’s lives and to hopefully try to counsel them through some tough situations.

[28:39] Tara Bansal: No, I agree. So why. Why do you do what you do? You know, what is your why?

[28:48] Larissa Costello: My why?

[28:50] I think very much the education part is huge.

[28:55] I think, you know, when we. Making decisions, you want to make educated decisions. And that sounds just like a line,

[29:01] but how many times in your life have you,

[29:05] you know, we can’t always know everything, right? We can’t. We make. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made big financial. To say mistakes. And, you know, the idea is you make the best decisions you can with the information that you have.

[29:16] Right. And you don’t Always know what you don’t know. Right.

[29:20] But I think that for me, what really my passion is to know when somebody comes to me and they struggling and that usually is what brings them to me. You know, it’s either that irritant, like should do something or it’s some advance that has happened often divorce or some,

[29:39] some event that has resulted in them really seeking counsel.

[29:44] So whatever the situation may be, somebody’s coming, some, something has caused action for somebody to finally come to me.

[29:51] Whether they’ve worked with an advisor before, they’re coming to me specifically because it’s time. Right.

[29:58] And so that’s an honor right there. It’s such a privilege to have that trust. And you know, that’s one of our fiduciary responsibilities.

[30:07] And for me,

[30:11] I can’t really explain it, but it almost feels like a calling.

[30:15] And I think recently when I started to do some of my marketing,

[30:20] I actually write my posts, I go for a walk and I, I, I just kind of write what comes to me and then I do have a marketing person that makes it look pretty on, on social media.

[30:29] But it’s all my words, it’s all what I feel. And, and the feedback has been quite wonderful because I don’t write about,

[30:37] ah, well, let’s talk about what the S and P is doing or you know, how to roll, you know, do a backdoor Roth or whatever because I don’t. I used to lead with what I, I guess ego,

[30:50] where I felt like I had to prove why I belonged in the room. Well, let me tell you why you should. I should be your what? I know, right? Yeah.

[30:58] And I realized, and I don’t know when this happened, but I realized I don’t do that anymore.

[31:05] And really I think it’s because I feel so authentic in my journey and what I’m about that I just attract it more. Right. I attract the people. I had a client event back in December.

[31:19] November. December.

[31:21] And when I looked around the room of my clients that were there,

[31:24] every one of them represented a part of my journey and my story. And so it was so natural. These people are my friends. These are people that I, I enjoy talking to.

[31:33] These are people that I value and I care about. That’s, that is real.

[31:38] And so that’s my why these amazing relationships that I have where people are coming to me and hopefully I’ve made a difference in some small way. And that’s,

[31:51] that’s my why it’s a privilege.

[31:53] That’s great.

[31:54] Tara Bansal: And I love your marketing.

[31:58] Like I get your Newsletter. And I have to say,

[32:01] I, like,

[32:03] kind of. It’s usually one idea. It’s not complicated, but it is. I feel like it pertains to all of us.

[32:12] And.

[32:13] And I like,

[32:15] I don’t know, just.

[32:16] It’s digestible in both, you know, the.

[32:21] The simplicity and the one idea that I think everyone can relate to. So I feel like you do an excellent job with that.

[32:29] Larissa Costello: Well, thank you.

[32:29] Tara Bansal: Really? Yeah.

[32:30] Larissa Costello: Yeah. I have. I have a term with some clients with. I call it the too hard basket. Right. So you think about.

[32:38] Tara Bansal: What does that mean?

[32:39] Larissa Costello: Well,

[32:40] I don’t know. I just came up with it, but I. I. Sometimes it’s that thing that you.

[32:46] You put off because it feels too hard.

[32:48] Right. It’s the procrastination of the. The thing that, you know, you have to do,

[32:53] but it’s too hard, so you put it off.

[32:55] Well, the idea is to tackle it. I’m trying to do this right now because I’m supposed to get some information to my tax guy, and,

[33:02] yeah, I’m supposed to give him my business expense expenses. And it’s in the too hard basket because it just feels like, oh, my gosh, I need a better system for this next year.

[33:10] Yeah. But the idea is, I think many.

[33:13] Tara Bansal: Of us can relate to that.

[33:14] Larissa Costello: So,

[33:15] like, I. I found every way today to avoid doing what I need to do, but really what it comes down to is breaking it up into digestible amounts.

[33:24] So,

[33:25] you know, one of the things I see very often people putting off as estate planning. Right. They. They don’t want to.

[33:33] These are hard conversations. Yes. Right. Or they don’t want. Everyone’s gonna die. And I’m very comfortable having those conversations.

[33:40] I have actually a folder on my computer cord in the event of death so that everyone knows where to find the information. But I think a lot of people put things off that feel difficult, and that’s just natural.

[33:51] Right.

[33:52] And so I call it the too hard basket. In other words, it’s too hard because then put it in the corner in that basket. But I think what’s very empowering is when you and I had this with a client recently, she had one of those,

[34:03] and we started to just chip away at it.

[34:06] And then one day I said to her, do you realize what you’ve just done? You’ve just dealt with this wasn’t that big in the end. She had made it big in her mind, but it wasn’t that big.

[34:15] And so that’s also very, very empowering, is once you start something, the hardest part is starting and we see that in all aspects of our lives.

[34:24] And you can’t rely on discipline. You can’t. Like, some days I want to get up and I want to go for a walk, and I. Some days I don’t. But if I have the discipline, it’s not even a decision.

[34:34] Once it becomes a decision,

[34:36] you’re lost.

[34:37] So you have to have things in place in your life where it’s not even the decision. It’s habit. Or, you know, had a habit creating habit created from systems.

[34:46] Tara Bansal: Yes, I agree. Very nice. How are you getting clients? How are you building your practice?

[34:54] Larissa Costello: Well, I say organically, but I mean, obviously I’m doing marketing.

[34:59] You know, I’m putting myself out there. It’s not always comfortable. And some things I’m. I’m like.

[35:04] That didn’t quite work.

[35:07] So I’ve. I’ve definitely been putting myself out there through LinkedIn,

[35:14] social media,

[35:16] but really just living my life. I mean, I.

[35:18] I’ve got a few clients from my yoga studio as an example, and. And right now I’m in yoga training, so I’m immersed in yoga.

[35:26] And you just now I was talking to somebody in my yoga class.

[35:30] I’m starting to like, be like 500 hours certified in yoga, right?

[35:34] Tara Bansal: Yep.

[35:35] Larissa Costello: And I was in class the other day, and there’s like 15 women in the class, and one of the women said to me, yeah, it’s just so nice to be in this space with you, because we all just naturally.

[35:44] Are we. We on the same platform, we all care for the same reason,

[35:49] and it’s just so easy. And I’m not saying that this person’s going to become my clients,

[35:54] but when you put yourself in a situation like that where you’re just around the people that see you and understand who you are and what you’re about,

[36:02] that is helpful. Yeah, that’s. Yes.

[36:07] But, you know, referrals.

[36:09] I mean, I’m at a point now where I’m very honored that clients refer their friends,

[36:15] the RIA that I’m working under,

[36:18] they’ve been amazing support.

[36:20] Orden Investment Group, they’ve been an amazing support to me.

[36:24] Really what they’ve done is taken over.

[36:27] Not taken over. They support me with my operation. So all the paperwork that I used to do,

[36:33] I now have a team to help me with that.

[36:35] So that really, really frees me up to work on my business and grow it.

[36:41] I don’t want to give too much away right now, but I’m working on a project right now that I’m hoping to unveil in the next few months,

[36:50] that’s going to kind of expand beyond finance because again,

[36:55] just combining all the aspects of my own journey and bringing it to the people, and then that will attract who it attracts. So as an example, I had a Vision board event earlier this year.

[37:08] And, you know, it’s a vision Board event, right. It’s about creating a vision board. But it was more than that for me. It was about.

[37:16] Tara Bansal: Was that only for clients or did you clients invite anyone?

[37:19] Larissa Costello: Yeah, yeah, it was open to every, you know, whoever. Anyone. I can’t remember. We had about 15, 20, I think it was about 20 women showed up.

[37:27] But the people that I collaborated on, collaborated with to create this event.

[37:34] One of them I got from yoga. Everything goes back to yoga.

[37:37] And she’s just a powerhouse woman. And I think she and I are going to be working on some stuff together that goes beyond just finances. Right. Because we’re not just numbers.

[37:46] Right?

[37:47] Yeah.

[37:48] Tara Bansal: I don’t know if it’s more common for women, but I know that’s true for me that I, you know, I always want more like, than the numbers. It’s about your whole life and what it.

[37:59] What do you want?

[38:01] Larissa Costello: Right.

[38:02] Tara Bansal: I feel like with the life coaching, that’s where I get more excited.

[38:06] Larissa Costello: Yeah, yeah, I know you. I mean, you and I have talked about this in the past as far as,

[38:11] you know, you create the financial plan and it’s like, can I retire? And what that’s going to look like, etc. Etc. But life is not a piece of. Life is much more messy than.

[38:20] Well, I think.

[38:20] Tara Bansal: Yes.

[38:21] Larissa Costello: Right. Yeah. Messy essence or what’s. Yeah, I mean, it says it all right. Life is. Life is not.

[38:29] Tara Bansal: Life is messy. And it’s unpro. It’s.

[38:32] It’s uncertain, it’s unpredictable. Like the one. When I do a plan, I always say, the one thing we know is it’s not going to be exactly like this.

[38:42] So.

[38:43] Larissa Costello: Because nothing. And that means you get comfortable with that.

[38:48] It’s the same thing with,

[38:50] you know, the growth. Right.

[38:52] A lot if you really want personal growth, it’s going to be uncomfortable.

[38:56] It’s going to be uncomfortable, and you have to be okay with that.

[39:00] And my, My business coach that I had used to talk about what he called the terror barrier.

[39:06] And it’s the idea that as you,

[39:08] you know, as you’re growing in whatever way. Right. It doesn’t have to be financial or professional. It can be any, Any kind of journey.

[39:17] And as you go towards,

[39:19] you know, visualize a wall that represents all your fears and all the reasons why you can’t and you shouldn’t and da, da, da. And as you approach that,

[39:27] because you’re about to kind of evolve into this next part of yourself,

[39:32] it becomes scary. And so you retreat, you retreat back to what’s familiar and uncomfortable. Maybe it’s a relationship or maybe it’s a this or maybe it’s a job or,

[39:40] you know, all these things that we, we go back to what’s familiar, even if it’s not always the best thing for us.

[39:47] And the amazing thing is when you finally,

[39:49] you’re not gonna not feel the fear. Right.

[39:52] I mean, when I changed firms and I kind of,

[39:55] it seemed like this big, massive decision and seemed like all my clients gonna follow me. It felt very difficult for me because I hadn’t done it before.

[40:04] And then the day I finally pulled the trigger, I was like,

[40:07] maybe that’s a bad terminology, but bad concept these days. But I finally made the decision.

[40:13] It was like jumping off the cliff. And I was like, is my parachute going to deploy? Right. And then it did. And I was like, that wasn’t that scary. What was the big deal?

[40:21] Tara Bansal: Once you do it, it doesn’t bother.

[40:23] Larissa Costello: But I remember feeling that fear and putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. And I mean that’s. We, we see that in so many aspects of our lives and our clients lives and our clients lives.

[40:34] Absolutely.

[40:36] You know,

[40:38] again, the too hard basket. I’m not going to do this thing because it’s scary or it’s overwhelming.

[40:44] And a lot of the time it’s just taking the decision to get organized.

[40:49] You know, people that come to me and they’ve got accounts here, there, and they, they think they’ve got a strategy, but this account’s doing this. They don’t really know the balance.

[40:57] And I used to have something over there, but I don’t know how to log in, fund the statement.

[41:03] You know, we see that all the time. Yeah. And it’s not that hard to just consolidate, get into one place, understand, and have easy quick access or an advisor that can tell you, yep, it’s doing this, it’s doing that, it’s changed this,

[41:17] but it’s just making that decision.

[41:21] Tara Bansal: Do you have a business coach now?

[41:23] Larissa Costello: So it’s funny that you asked that.

[41:25] I did have a business coach. He was very good and it wasn’t anything that he did or didn’t do. But I elected to stop after I think I was with him for about a year.

[41:35] And it was more just the time commitment that I, I was I was busy. I am busy.

[41:40] But I’ve been following this group of women for some time now, this female coach.

[41:48] I actually have a coaching call with her on Monday or two weeks from now,

[41:52] and I’m kind of curious to see what she’s about, because I think it’s valuable. I think having coaches is very valuable because sometimes we don’t see our own blind spots.

[42:02] Tara Bansal: How did you find that group or get exposed to it?

[42:05] Larissa Costello: The first one or the second?

[42:07] Tara Bansal: The second. The one you’re talking to.

[42:09] Larissa Costello: On Monday, this woman started a.

[42:12] I think, just really a Facebook group.

[42:14] And then it started to grow like women entrepreneurs. And I don’t even think it’s local to the area. I think it extends across the United States,

[42:22] and I don’t know how many are in a group, but she’s interesting to me,

[42:26] and.

[42:27] Yeah, we’ll see.

[42:29] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[42:30] Larissa Costello: But I mean, I think when you see somebody doing. So my other coach was mostly just a coach, whereas this woman’s a business owner, and, like, she’s got a.

[42:38] I find her to be interesting because she’s.

[42:42] She’s feel like I’ve watched her journey and I see how she’s evolved. She’s written a book,

[42:47] and I have some of this. I have some similar aspirations, and I’m like, okay, I have these ideas. I have a lot of energy,

[42:54] but I don’t know how to. I feel like a mad professor some days. I need somebody to help me organize my thoughts and this energy into a concise.

[43:04] Yeah,

[43:05] yeah.

[43:06] Tara Bansal: What is. What do you feel like are the biggest obstacles that you’re facing or working on right now?

[43:14] Larissa Costello: Oh, that’s a big one.

[43:18] Well, I mean, things are crazy, right? We. I mean, the world.

[43:22] I have clients again. There’s a lot of fear. I think there’s a fear index out there that’s like, people are very afraid of every, you know, the market and then the uncertainty.

[43:33] And I remind my clients, I mean, I am not a. I don’t have a crystal ball, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. Right. Nobody. That.

[43:40] And I would. I would not serve them to say, well, you’re going to be fine, or everything’s. I mean.

[43:46] Right. We don’t exactly know what the future holds. But what I do have is historical perspective. Effective.

[43:52] And to remind clients, we have been here before.

[43:55] Right. Like, how far back do you want to go? Right.

[43:59] I mean, just as recently as Covid, you know, we saw what the market conditions were around Covid, and we.

[44:04] It seems so long ago, and yet just Yesterday that we were all affected by this world shutting down and the unpredictable unpredictability and the uncertainty and we’re not going to be see our loved ones and oh my gosh, we all going to die.

[44:17] And it was scary,

[44:19] right? And now we threw it and it’s like, oh, no big deal, was fine. I mean, I’m not saying, I’m not being, I’m not being, I’m being facetious, right? I’m not underplaying it.

[44:27] But I’m saying that fear was real.

[44:30] And now that we’re through it and on the other side, we almost forget how that felt scary and what decisions we were taking based on that fear.

[44:38] So we have a lot of things going on. It doesn’t even matter what government you is in place. Not political,

[44:44] right. Because I think this is universal.

[44:47] Regardless of who’s,

[44:49] you know, making the power decisions, that there’s uncertainty. That’s the thing that we learn to live with is there’s always going to be uncertainty.

[44:58] And so how do you operate in your life with fear and uncertainty?

[45:05] And that to me is where the real coaching begins.

[45:08] These are not necessarily financial conversations, although they, they stem from that because it comes down to,

[45:15] well, what’s our money doing?

[45:16] You know, people are struggling right now. We’re seeing inflation. We hadn’t seen it, we haven’t seen inflation since the 70s, but it’s a real thing. And now it’s like,

[45:25] oh my gosh, I haven’t seen inflation before. Well, it is, there’s. It’s inflation.

[45:30] So what do we do about that and what decisions can we take and how,

[45:34] you know, how do I ensure as an advisor to steer match my, my clients through,

[45:41] you know, how do we navigate through this and when will it be over?

[45:45] Well,

[45:47] may never be over.

[45:48] Tara Bansal: Right. It’s just a new challenge.

[45:50] Larissa Costello: So we have to get comfort. Unless you want to live your life,

[45:54] you know, just in fear,

[45:56] you have to take action and you have to be comfortable with those decisions.

[46:04] Tara Bansal: Where do you hook to?

[46:05] Larissa Costello: I don’t know if I answered your question because it’s a very complex, It’s a very complex thing.

[46:09] Tara Bansal: Well, I was, I mean, I was thinking actually with your business, what do you feel like you’re struggling with or.

[46:17] Larissa Costello: Is an obstacle what I am personally struggling with in my business,

[46:23] you know, the balance between growing my business,

[46:27] you know,

[46:29] obviously we all like to grow,

[46:33] but making sure that I have the systems in place that I can do the job effectively. Right. So one of the big things that for me has happened that’s been allowed me is having the team that I have behind me.

[46:51] Right. So that I’m not.

[46:53] I’m not. I always.

[46:54] My value system is to be available to my clients. I don’t ever want to be.

[46:59] Well, you.

[47:01] Right. We have to be available.

[47:03] And so for me, it’s about having structure and systems in place and knowing that that’s not always my strong point because I’m more people, I’m more out there.

[47:14] I’m really working to have that support behind me. So, for example, the marketing, like, I don’t like marketing. I don’t know how to do it effectively. I tried that for a little while.

[47:24] It didn’t work.

[47:25] Now I just have somebody that helps guide me with how to put myself out there.

[47:29] That’s an example.

[47:31] Tara Bansal: And so I’d love to hear more about that. How much do you pay and what do they help you do?

[47:38] Larissa Costello: So I’m not going to get into the specifics of what I pay because I don’t really between that. That’s her business. Right.

[47:47] She found me on LinkedIn and really I knew that I wanted to have my message out there and my brand is very important to me about what I represent and who I am.

[48:00] Right. And then she’s just helped me kind of focus that in. So you asked me about my ideal clients and I said, well, I don’t really know, but the truth is my ideal client is typically a woman similar to myself.

[48:16] Right. Similar to.

[48:17] And that’s not because, oh, I want to talk to myself. It’s that who would I be friends with?

[48:23] Who are the kinds of people that I would naturally want to talk to? Because those are my clients and they have to find me. So that’s me putting my voice out.

[48:33] This is who I am and this is how I do it. If this resonates with you, then, hey, let’s chat.

[48:40] And so she’s helped me with that as an example. And then that’s just kind of evolved and growing into itself because I do. I have a lot of ideas that take.

[48:49] Extend beyond. It’s more.

[48:51] It’s.

[48:53] Yeah. The financial planning, but everything that goes into that discussion.

[48:59] Tara Bansal: You talked about doing a client event in December. Was that your idea and how successful?

[49:08] Larissa Costello: Yeah.

[49:09] Tara Bansal: So that wasn’t through the marketing person.

[49:11] Larissa Costello: No, I mean, I’m not new to this industry, so I’ve been doing this for a little while.

[49:15] So I’ve seen other practices and I. I know, like, certain things that I think, okay, yeah, that’s what I want to be able to bring to my Clients,

[49:25] so, you know, more. More advanced, just more opportunities to show that I appreciate them.

[49:31] But I don’t want to get lost in that as far as that’s all that I’m about. Because at the end of the day, my job is to look at the accounts and make sure things are being rebalanced and all of those things.

[49:43] So I think if you ask me what is my struggle, it’s the day to day being an advisor, showing up for my clients, meeting with my clients,

[49:53] being an advisor and all that goes on with that. You know, I’ve been starting working with some of my clients on their financial plans and trying to get that information and, you know, get it into the system.

[50:04] That’s a whole job.

[50:05] And then along with that, saying, okay, I want to give them also an experience or put myself out there to attract new clients, to show this is what it, this is what it’s.

[50:15] This is what it looks like. If you work with Larissa Costello from Protea Wealth Management, this is the kind of experience you can expect.

[50:22] And I do try to hold myself to a very high level of excellence.

[50:27] You know, it’s interesting to me.

[50:30] I have to kind of be careful here, but just in terms of how I’ve seen this job done and also just some of the other professionals that I’ve at times worked with,

[50:39] the lack of.

[50:41] I don’t want to use the word diligence, but I think sometimes it can be very challenging to find other people that I want to bring in.

[50:52] Like, I’m talking about other professionals, not, not advisors or anything like that, but like a CPA finding a good account.

[50:58] Right.

[50:59] If I’m going to refer a client to a cpa,

[51:02] I hold, I hold the people that I. I’m putting my name behind that referral and finding people in the right and professionals that have the same value, standards and yeah, can be hard.

[51:15] Can be hard.

[51:17] Yeah, just even responsiveness. Like I’m giving you a client, can you respond to the email like in the same day? Is that asking too much these days? I don’t know.

[51:26] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[51:26] Larissa Costello: So that’s, that’s kind of. I wouldn’t put it as a challenge per se, but these are some of the things that I see. Right, right.

[51:37] Tara Bansal: How much do you want to be working each week?

[51:41] Larissa Costello: I don’t have a set amount of time. I don’t.

[51:44] Yeah, I work out of my home. I’m very lucky in that I can just stay.

[51:49] I think Covid really introduced that, that I don’t have a fancy office and I used to Feel like I had to explain that. And now I see it as an advantage because with these fancy offices comes overhead come, the expenses come,

[52:04] you know, secretaries, and then it’s three layers of people before you speak to the person who’s making decisions about your money.

[52:11] But,

[52:11] you know, I wouldn’t want to get too big as far as my practice because I think balance is important. Not because I don’t want to work hard,

[52:22] but because I think it’s about me being able to show up for every client in the way that I expect,

[52:30] you know,

[52:30] that I’d like to show up for them.

[52:32] And so not being stretched too thin. So I don’t really set myself to a certain number of hours.

[52:38] The beauty of my job is I can do it anyway. So I don’t ever feel,

[52:42] oh, I have to be at this desk 9 to 5.

[52:45] I work a lot from my phone. I mean, I have.

[52:49] I work a lot from my phone.

[52:52] Yeah, I’m on the run sometimes working from my phone. Laptop in the back.

[52:58] And it’s effective.

[53:00] Yeah.

[53:02] Tara Bansal: Where do you want to be in 10 years?

[53:06] Larissa Costello: You know, I think I’d still want to be doing what I’m doing. I don’t have any grandiose ideas and I want to retire and go live on an island. I think I would be bored.

[53:15] I love the engagement of people. People. I really, really, really enjoy people.

[53:20] And so what am I, 54, 55 this year? So 65. I don’t know. I mean,

[53:27] as long as I’m healthy,

[53:29] I, I would like to continue having my, my business with flexibility.

[53:35] So maybe, you know, having some staff that help carry the load,

[53:39] I could potentially see that. But I don’t.

[53:42] Ironically,

[53:43] I don’t have this great big financial plan that I will be retired at X number of years with so much money. I.

[53:51] It’s ironic, right?

[53:53] I’ve done. I mean, I generally know my calculations, but there’s not a financial goal post for me that I would be retired in a certain number of years with so much money.

[54:03] It’s more.

[54:04] As long as I enjoy doing what I’m doing, I’m going to continue doing it. If something else comes along that I want to do more, then okay, I’ll out figure that, definitely.

[54:12] Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[54:14] Tara Bansal: I mean, you’re doing.

[54:15] Larissa Costello: I mean, I think there comes a point where you have to know it’s time to go.

[54:19] I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be. So,

[54:22] you know, if I’m at a point where my mental faculties are being challenged and I’m still giving people advice, then somebody needs to show me the door. But as long as that’s not the case,

[54:33] I see myself probably still doing this business in 10 years. I started late, so I’m just getting started.

[54:40] Tara Bansal: Well, and I want people to know that like you did not start until, I mean, your youngest started kindergarten.

[54:49] Larissa Costello: And,

[54:50] and I think that’s the beauty is that you can at any time reinvent yourself.

[54:56] You know, you see a lot of the time women,

[55:00] you know, being forced sometimes into the workforce after taking a hiatus because they’ve raised children and now,

[55:06] you know, life throws them, you know, something that they’re not prepared for.

[55:10] And I’ve seen it repeatedly with a lot of women that they, or now, you know, you asked me before we started, am I an anti nester?

[55:17] Well, not quite.

[55:19] But you know, I see this a lot with women that are,

[55:22] their children are grown and in college and now they’re looking around, they’re like, okay, what, what, what now? What what’s next?

[55:30] And it doesn’t have to be a job, but I think you have to find the thing that your. Why, as you asked.

[55:36] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[55:36] Larissa Costello: Now what?

[55:37] I, I truly love what I do. It doesn’t feel like a,

[55:42] these times, it’s stressful. You know, you’re carrying a, it’s a big responsibility.

[55:48] I don’t find it to be a particularly hard job, but it’s a, it’s a lot of response. There’s a weight of responsibility that it can sometimes be challenging. Right.

[55:58] But I love.

[55:59] Tara Bansal: How do you deal with that?

[56:05] Larissa Costello: I don’t know that there’s a way to really deal with it. I mean, I,

[56:09] I, I, I can get stressed like anybody sometimes, but I remind myself what I control and what my responsibilities are. And as long as I’m doing the things that I am needing to be doing and doing everything that I can,

[56:23] I remind myself that I, these certain things that I don’t control.

[56:28] So,

[56:30] and then I, and then I look at the historical market and I’m like, oh, it’s going to be okay. This is,

[56:36] this too shall pass.

[56:38] Right.

[56:39] So I,

[56:40] I take it very, very seriously. I don’t mean to sound flippant,

[56:45] but my, you know, it’s my job.

[56:49] My job is to take the stress of my clients so that they don’t have, so that they can sleep at night.

[56:54] And that’s my job. So I think you just, I don’t know, I don’t really have an answer for that. I just, you just do. I talk to other advisors,

[57:04] I talk to other people in the industry and see kind of their temperaments, what they’re feeling, how they’re reacting. And sometimes misery loves company.

[57:14] It’s like, okay,

[57:17] how are you feeling about things? I don’t know, how are you feeling? And then, you know, you set you up.

[57:22] That’s very helpful too. Just to kind of talk it out with other professionals to see what they saying and thinking and what they doing and,

[57:29] and kind of just compare notes. I, I, I do do that.

[57:33] Tara Bansal: And do you feel by yourself like with your own. No. How do you.

[57:39] Larissa Costello: I’m very supported.

[57:40] Again, my, my broker is amazing. Great group of people.

[57:45] I really shopped around, as you know. I really shopped around when I changed firms and these guys are based out in Pennsylvania and they’re fairly young as far as how long they’ve been doing it, but the technology is outstanding and it makes my job so much easier than it was previously.

[58:07] We have great systems.

[58:09] Yeah, I don’t, I, I don’t because I talk to clients. So when you, Yeah, I guess I.

[58:15] Tara Bansal: Meant more on not like sharing the knowledge and having people to discuss, you know, situations or cases with or learning.

[58:27] Larissa Costello: If you called me more often, I could talk to you.

[58:30] Tara Bansal: Well, that’s what I’m just wondering for you because I, I’m part of a mastermind group.

[58:36] What,

[58:37] what other ways are you interacting with other advisors that you feel is helpful?

[58:43] Larissa Costello: Well, in my firm, in my group.

[58:45] Yeah. So this, so in that way you’re not by yourself. You have, you are part of the firm. You don’t share the same book,

[58:52] so you’re operating independently.

[58:55] But I do speak to them,

[58:59] other industry professionals. I’ve gone to conferences.

[59:02] In fact, I’m going to a conference next week in D.C. which conference are you going to? I knew you were going to ask me that.

[59:09] It’s what I’ve gone to several times. And it’s so funny because the first year I went it was,

[59:14] you know, they, they talk about a lot of alternative investments and the first year I went I was like,

[59:22] it was kind of, some of it was somewhat foreign to me.

[59:25] And over the years I’ve go, I understand more and more and more and more.

[59:29] Tara Bansal: On that note, like what conferences or podcasts or people do you follow? But I wondered like any yoga or meditation or self growth.

[59:45] Larissa Costello: I was listening to a podcast by Jim Fortin and I think I actually talked about that in one of my social media things where he talked about if you want to change your life, start from the inside out.

[01:00:04] And so again for me with my yoga journey. And in terms of how I approach my business and the relationships I have,

[01:00:12] it’s very much about how we react to things, how you can ground yourself and how you can change the pathways of your brain, the patterns that you’ve.

[01:00:21] Like relationships, right? You’re the narrative that you have about somebody or some situation that’s formed from way back when.

[01:00:30] And so the example I give,

[01:00:32] right, is that I was trying to give up having sugar in my coffee. And every morning I was waking up and I would go downstairs and I was like, okay, I’ve made a decision.

[01:00:42] I’m not gonna have sugar in my coffee. Today is the day I’m not gonna have sugar. And then I would resist and not have that sugar.

[01:00:48] And this continued.

[01:00:50] And eventually. Cause it tastes better and I like sweet things. I would have the sugar in my coffee.

[01:00:57] Then I listened to this podcast by Jim Fortin,

[01:01:00] and he really,

[01:01:01] this is true story.

[01:01:03] He kind of explained how when you’re doing that, when I just described, I’m not going to have sugar, I’m going to have sugar.

[01:01:10] You. You’re doing. It’s executive thinking, right? That’s where we’re making our decisions. It’s like the choices of, do I want the red thing or do I want the blue thing?

[01:01:20] He said, really, the way you change behavior is you have to tap into the reptilian side of our brain where you wake up in the morning. I don’t know your morning habits, but I wake up in the morning, and my morning routine is pretty standard.

[01:01:33] I brush my teeth, I go downstairs, I make my coffee, I feed the cats. It’s a pretty standard pattern of behavior. And I don’t think about it. This is just what I do every morning.

[01:01:43] And that is where habits are.

[01:01:46] And so when you want to really change something, it has to become a habit.

[01:01:51] And you can’t make the decision. It can’t be a either or decision.

[01:01:55] Once you’re there, you’ve already lost the decision, right? You can’t rely on motivation or discipline.

[01:02:01] So with the sugar thing,

[01:02:03] what I did was I really just changed.

[01:02:06] I became the person that I wanted to be, which is a person who does not have sugar in their coffee.

[01:02:12] And so I came downstairs and instead of thinking about a person trying to give up sugar and make coffee,

[01:02:17] I simply became an am from that day.

[01:02:21] A person who does not have sugar in their coffee. I don’t. I seriously do not have sugar in my coffee ever since that day,

[01:02:28] because I stopped thinking of myself as a person trying to give up sugar.

[01:02:32] And so you can apply that to just about anything in your life when you’re trying to change behavior. And I see it a lot with money.

[01:02:39] People coming to me and, like, I’m not good with money.

[01:02:42] Okay, well,

[01:02:44] where did a. Where did that.

[01:02:46] Tara Bansal: Where did that come from?

[01:02:46] Larissa Costello: Yes.

[01:02:48] Right.

[01:02:49] Because you’re. The more you’re saying that you’re entrenching and behaving as a person who’s not good with money because you’ve decided that’s who you are.

[01:02:56] If you really want to change and have a different result,

[01:03:00] then what would a person who is good with money be doing?

[01:03:03] And that’s what you have to become.

[01:03:06] It’s very powerful. It’s very, very powerful.

[01:03:09] So that was a Jim Fortin podcast, and he’s got a whole lot of things in.

[01:03:13] In that area.

[01:03:14] Um,

[01:03:16] but I’m very, very big on. So right now I’m studying to do the 300 hour. I’m doing 300 hours. So that does a deep dive into a whole lot of philosophy that is very interesting to me.

[01:03:28] So, for example, we talked about, you know, Buddhism,

[01:03:32] and one of the things that really struck me was this concept of dukkha, which is really a translation of suffering and how sometimes we suffer needlessly. So you think about going back to the financial thing, right?

[01:03:48] We sit there and we suffer our decisions relating to money,

[01:03:52] or we suffer our decisions relating to the what if this thing might happen.

[01:03:57] And those are choices we’re making.

[01:04:00] That suffering in that regard is in some ways a choice.

[01:04:05] Right.

[01:04:06] And so when we suffer, we sometimes just become paralyzed in.

[01:04:10] In our suffering, and we think there’s no way out. And really,

[01:04:15] up here is your doorway to something different. And I’m not saying that it’s not true suffering in the world. That’s not what I’m saying at all. We all experience that as humans.

[01:04:24] It’s part of the human condition is suffering.

[01:04:28] But there can be true meaning and value and enlightenment through suffering.

[01:04:36] Right. If you know where to look.

[01:04:38] Tara Bansal: Right, Yeah, I agree.

[01:04:40] Larissa Costello: But too many people avoid it because it’s not comfortable. Right.

[01:04:45] Tara Bansal: I think that is true.

[01:04:47] Larissa Costello: Right?

[01:04:48] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Last question, and then I’ll let you go. If you don’t have time, that’s fine, too. What do you love to do?

[01:05:00] Larissa Costello: So family is very important to me.

[01:05:02] You know,

[01:05:04] I’ve got one child still at home.

[01:05:07] But when my kids were, like, little, you know, my husband was always big on family movie night. Every Friday, would make popcorn, and those are wonderful memories.

[01:05:17] I love yoga, the practice of yoga has become a passion for me.

[01:05:22] I love to take trips.

[01:05:23] I’ve recently found a group of friends and we take trips here and there and travel, so that’s still something that’s important to me.

[01:05:31] I like to take morning walks with my dog, Rumor and yeah, just spend time with friends and meet new people and put myself out there.

[01:05:40] I’m open to opportunity and new experiences always and I feel like that’s full.

[01:05:45] Tara Bansal: Circle of going back to your trip around the world and you know, traveling and meeting new people and relationships are sounds like high values for you in.

[01:06:01] Larissa Costello: The life you live. Yeah.

[01:06:03] Tara Bansal: Well, this was very fun. I feel like I could talk to you forever. I feel like we say that all the time, but thank you for joining me. Thank you and I hope to talk to you again soon.

[01:06:15] Larissa Costello: Sounds good. Thanks for having me. It’s so fun to talk to you.

[01:06:19] Tara Bansal: Larissa’s episode is such a powerful example of one of the core themes of this podcast that when we show up authentically bringing who we are and what we love into our work,

[01:06:32] we can build a practice that feels good and fun and truly flourishes.

[01:06:37] Larissa isn’t trying to follow someone else’s blueprint.

[01:06:41] She’s building her business in a way that reflects her whole true self.

[01:06:46] Whether that’s connecting with clients through yoga, hosting the kind of appreciation events she actually enjoys,

[01:06:53] or sharing marketing messages that resonate with her heart and she feels like will help and serve other people.

[01:07:00] And as a result, she’s attracting the right people for her practice. The clients she works with are aligned, appreciative,

[01:07:08] and connected to her and her story.

[01:07:10] It’s a beautiful reminder for all of us when we trust ourself,

[01:07:15] our own voice and lead with what feels true for us,

[01:07:20] our practice doesn’t just grow.

[01:07:22] It feels really good and fun to grow.

[01:07:26] Thank you for listening to her life, her practice, her Way.

[01:07:30] A podcast for and about Female Financial advisors.

[01:07:34] I truly hope you found something valuable and encouraging in today’s episode.

[01:07:39] If you did, I’d be so grateful if you’d take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[01:07:47] It helps other phenomenal women in our field find this space.

[01:07:51] And if you know another advisor who would benefit from these conversations or from the kind of support I offer through coaching,

[01:08:00] please send this episode to her.

[01:08:02] If you’re curious about working with me as your coach or interested in being on the podcast, I’d love to hear from you.

[01:08:10] You can find more details and reach out to me on the contact page of my website herlifeherpracticeherway.com no spaces, no underlines, just the words straight in a row.

[01:08:25] Until next time. Keep building a life and practice you truly love.

Jim Fortin Podcast – Transform Your Life from the Inside Out
https://www.jimfortin.com/podcast

Yoga Alliance – https://yogaalliance.org/

Larissa Costello has worked as a financial advisor for a decade and founded Protea Wealth Management with a mission to empower women to take control of their finances. The Protea flower symbolizes strength, courage and resilience and is a metaphor for the kind of clients Larissa naturally attracts.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Newcastle, Australia and has the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® (CRPC) designation awarded by the College for Financial Planning. She also holds the FINRA licenses Series 7, 65 and 66 and has her Life and Health Insurance license.

Before wealth management, Larissa worked overseas in Australia, UK, and Hungary for over 20 years in corporate finance and accounting. She leverages this background to help clients achieve their financial goals. Larissa takes great pride in helping clients who are intimidated by conversations about money and investing and who have previously procrastinated about taking ownership of their finances.

She is a fierce advocate for women and believes that sound financial advice should be available to everyone. She volunteers with Savvy Women and currently serves on the board of the Economic Development Commission of Queen Anne’s County.

Larissa resides on the Eastern Shore and is married with three sons. She is a yoga enthusiast and holds her 500-hour Yoga Teachers Certificate through Yoga Alliance.

Larissa is active on Social media and can be found on the following platforms: (See links)

https://www.facebook.com/ProteaWealth

https://www.instagram.com/larissacostello/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larissa-costello/

Her website is: https://aldeninvestmentgroup.com/protea/

[00:17] Tara Bansal: Welcome to her life, her practice, her way.

[00:21] A podcast for and about female financial advisors.

[00:26] Tara I’m Tara Conti Bansal. I’ve been a financial planner and life coach for over 20 years,

[00:32] and I believe that when women thrive in this profession, we all win.

[00:37] This show is about sharing our journeys, our struggles, our breakthroughs, and the many ways we build a life and practice that feels true to us.

[00:48] And now I’m extending that mission. Beyond the podcast,

[00:52] I coach female advisors who want to grow a fulfilling practice and a beautiful life that they love,

[00:59] one filled with meaning, freedom, connection, and joy.

[01:04] Whether you’re just starting out, reinventing yourself, or dreaming of what’s next, you’re in the right place.

[01:11] Let’s build this together.

[01:13] Hello. Hello. This is Tara Conti Bansal, and I am here with Larissa Costello. I’m thrilled to have her on.

[01:23] We met through Brett Shaver, who is the president at Princeton Global,

[01:30] and Larissa met Brett at a conference, and she was talking to him about possibly joining Princeton Global.

[01:40] She decided not to, but Brett knew that we would both connect and like each other, and we have, even though we don’t work together.

[01:51] But I reached out to her because I’ve seen some of the things Larissa does, and I like her marketing, and I just wanted to hear more about her journey and where she is and where she’s going.

[02:05] Larissa, what’s your story? Like, Brene Brown, where did you grow up? How.

[02:11] Where did you go to school,

[02:12] about your family,

[02:14] and how did you get into doing this?

[02:18] Larissa Costello: Well, hello, and thank you so much for having me on. And it’s absolute pleasure to have been watching your journey. Tara,

[02:25] I think we met a couple of years ago, and I know, I still remember when you told me you were going to start this podcast, and I’m like, okay, that’s a brain to step.

[02:33] And you’ve just done it. So super impressive, and I am absolutely honored to be here today.

[02:40] So that’s a big question.

[02:41] My story.

[02:44] So I was born, actually, in case the accent doesn’t give me away, I was born in South Africa,

[02:50] and I grew up in South Africa. And at the age of 16, which was in 1987, so you can do the math to figure out how old I am. Definitely middle age or maybe getting up there a little bit.

[03:01] My family immigrated to Australia,

[03:04] so I completed my last two years of high school in Australia and then went on to university,

[03:10] graduating. And at the point of graduation,

[03:14] Australia had about 18% unemployment,

[03:17] and I was finding it increasingly difficult to find a Job coming fresh out of college with very little experience. I mean, I’ve worked obviously retail. I was always a go getter.

[03:27] From the time I’d arrived in Australia, I was working, always looking for summer jobs and was just not able to find work in the area of my degree, which at that time was a Bachelor of Commerce, which is kind of,

[03:42] I think I majored in marketing.

[03:45] Never really wanted to go the accounting route, but that’s the way I was kind of pulled because everybody, as my dad used to say, needs be encounters in the world.

[03:54] But I was just really struggling to find my place. And my dad or my family in general had always traveled.

[04:02] Aside from my family moving or immigrating,

[04:06] my parents had always traveled all over the place and it was always doing trips. And it was something that really was a value system for us as far as you need to go out into the world and venture out beyond your boundaries to really understand people.

[04:20] And so my dad had said to us and had always given us. He’d always come back from his travels with stories of people he had met and he had always said, you know,

[04:31] these young kids that would go out and backpack and if you ever want to do something like that, you can.

[04:37] And Australia actually has a culture like that.

[04:40] Australia being part of the Commonwealth permits you to get a work visa for the United Kingdom.

[04:47] So following my inability to find a job along with my brother who was also struggling,

[04:54] we got what is called around the world ticket fa. So it allowed you to travel for one year and I think it was like three different continents.

[05:05] So my brother and I got our backpacks and we were going to go do this amazing adventure around the world backpacking.

[05:13] And I think our route was going to take us to South Africa and then to Europe and then to America and then back home to Australia. And we had to complete this, this, you know, circumference of the world in one year.

[05:24] And how we were going to get there or what we’re going to do when we landed was never really figured out. I think we thought we were going to bartend.

[05:31] Well, needless to say, we got to South Africa as our first stop, which was kind of a little bit like going home. After being gone for 10 years.

[05:40] My brother realized that there was tremendous opportunity for him as an engineer and he decided to stay.

[05:46] And so now I was in a position of having to continue this journey around the world as a 22 year old solo and. But I was, it was never even a question that I was going to continue.

[05:58] So I did so even Though I was traveling on my own, I was never really alone. I met up with people from all places and it was just again, a very,

[06:10] it really opened me up, especially having had a very sheltered upbringing in South Africa. With everything that was going on in South Africa during the time of my childhood,

[06:20] it really, really opened and opened my mind and broadened my outlook about people.

[06:25] And I could just tell, you know, I just as one random story,

[06:30] I remember having meeting somebody who had, from eastern Germany who had lived behind the wall,

[06:37] and going to this farmhouse and meeting the parents of this person. And I was just, I think there’s pictures of me.

[06:45] Uh, they didn’t speak a word of English, I didn’t speak a word of German. But we had this, you know, the, the sun was translating.

[06:51] And I remember arriving and I, they, they thought I was like this exotic creature and they wanted to give up their bed. And this is all, you know, some old, you know, old people and I, with not much means.

[07:04] And I remember just being so tremendously humbled and you know, highlights like that, just with the kinds of people that you meet.

[07:12] But I met my husband essentially. I’d met somebody when I was in Europe, when I was traveling around Europe, who was from New York.

[07:22] And he said to me, oh, when you get to New York, here’s my number, look me up. And so after some months of traveling around Europe and it was time to make my way to the United States, I was like, oh, I remember that guy.

[07:34] I’ve got his contact.

[07:36] And so I made,

[07:38] you know, contact with him and I made friends with the woman on the plane with me. And it was like, this is just how I met people.

[07:44] And he knew I was going to go on to D.C. area. And he’s like, oh, I know a guy from D.C. i went to college with him. And so he introduced me to my husband, like poured him, caught my husband John up and I was like, oh, there’s this girl,

[07:57] she’s from South Africa, she’s traveling around, doesn’t know anybody’s coming to your area.

[08:02] And so my husband landed up, taking me out for dinner, picking me up at the youth Hostel in Washington D.C. we went out for dinner, had a very nice evening.

[08:10] At the end of the evening, I kissed him on the cheek, I thanked him for the evening, and I said, oh, if you ever come to Australia, he has my number.

[08:17] And not only did I know that eventually that would lead to us being married 26 years with three boys, but it took several years, but it was mostly a long distance communication Because I think it was a year later.

[08:31] I didn’t respond.

[08:32] We had a nice dinner,

[08:34] didn’t speak or hear from him for another year. Then he wrote me a letter, and then I didn’t respond to the letter, and there was another year. So it was two years later from our first initial meeting,

[08:44] and I was back in Australia after this grand travel adventure, and I was going through all my things, and I found this letter from this guy John. And I was like, oh, yeah, I remember him.

[08:53] We had dinner in D.C. we had a nice evening.

[08:56] And so just randomly,

[08:58] I went through international directory assistance and I called the number on the letter or, you know, the name on the letter and found his number.

[09:06] And I called the number and I said. And he picked up. This is so random, but true story.

[09:13] And I said, oh, you gonna have no idea who this is. It’s two years later. And he goes, larissa. And I tease him. I’m like, you were just sitting by that phone for two years waiting for me to call.

[09:22] And so that started like, it’s another year or two, long distance phoning and emailing and.

[09:28] And then finally, about three or half years after we had met, he’s, you know, we’re kind of. The relationship took on this romantic tone.

[09:36] And he said, larissa, you know, we’ve always had this flirtation. Then I’m going to come to. To Australia to see you and see what this is.

[09:44] And so he took a flight and flew to Australia to see me,

[09:48] and we spent about a week together. And more or less, he proposed.

[09:53] Wow.

[09:54] Yeah.

[09:55] And then the way things worked was for me to come to America, he had to sponsor me as his fiance. So that’s a K1 visa, and you have 90 days.

[10:04] It’s a little bit that movie Green card. You have 90 days to complete the visa requirements. So it was very, very whirlwind.

[10:14] I mean, it took four years, but we were only in each other’s physical presence for a very short period before I made that colossal decision to move my whole life to America.

[10:24] So, yeah, crazy story.

[10:27] Yeah.

[10:29] So, yeah, that’s kind of my background a lot. You know, I get asked every day, where are you from? Where’s your accent? It doesn’t matter which. I just got back from Australia from seeing mom recently, and I was asked there, well, where are you from?

[10:40] Your accent. So I. I feel like a little bit of displaced.

[10:46] I always tell my husband I have options because I have three passports.

[10:52] That’s nice.

[10:53] But America does feel like home. I have been here 26 years. It’s, it’s, you know, I feel very, I love America. I love the people I relate to Americans.

[11:04] Australia I love too, but very different kind of way of life.

[11:09] So it’s interesting, it’s interesting to see just again, having had the, the wonderful opportunity to travel.

[11:17] I love people and hearing much like you, their stories.

[11:20] Tara Bansal: Yeah. How much older or younger is your brother?

[11:25] Larissa Costello: So I am actually the youngest of the three.

[11:28] Okay. I actually have a sister as well, and she’s the oldest. And then my brother’s about a year and a half to two years older and then I’m the baby.

[11:36] Tara Bansal: Were you upset when your brother bailed on you and stayed?

[11:40] Larissa Costello: And so I don’t really recall being upset because I knew he was making the best decisions for him. You know, he was,

[11:47] I don’t recall. I remember, no, I don’t really remember being upset with him at all. I just remember thinking, okay, I have a decision to make. And the decision, there was never a decision for me to go home.

[11:58] It was always, I’m going to complete this.

[12:00] And actually I think it worked out for the best because I think by being, if I maybe traveled with my brother,

[12:07] I would have had a bolt in friend.

[12:09] Whereas because I was on my own, I was forced to put myself out there more. And I think that’s really helped me just develop that skill set to talk to anybody.

[12:21] I’m very comfortable meeting strangers. And again,

[12:26] mostly because I’m curious. I’m curious about people and their stories.

[12:31] Tara Bansal: So how did you become a financial advisor?

[12:36] Larissa Costello: So I kind of, I really say it found me or I fell into it. It wasn’t like a decision that I’m going to go out and become a financial advisor. I had always had this financial background and I was always interested in numbers.

[12:49] And honestly, money used to kind of stress me out. I was always worrying about money.

[12:55] And I’ve, I’ve started to get a little bit more into the theory of that. And I think what it is, is that I was always coming from a scarcity mindset,

[13:03] you know, fear, fear based, that there’s not enough, we don’t have enough.

[13:07] And I, I, it’s kind of interesting when you start to get into that,

[13:12] you know,

[13:13] your financial DNA. Right. I’m saying somebody right now. Yeah.

[13:17] So what it was was I always had this background in accounting and finance,

[13:22] but when I became a mother,

[13:25] I actually gave up working. I decided I wanted to be home with my children and raise them in the home. And I was fortunate enough that my husband at that time was able to support that.

[13:36] And he was on board with me being home. So I stayed home with my children for about 10 years. I was out of the workforce. I still did things like I was in a mom’s club and I went and I was randomly got my real estate license.

[13:51] And I was always trying to, like,

[13:54] I was always curious about education and, you know, there was things I was doing during that period aside from raising my boys.

[14:03] And then when my youngest started kindergarten, I was like, okay, I’m going to go back to work. And it’s kind of careful what you wish for, right?

[14:11] And I still remember applying for maybe two accounting jobs just on online. And as I was closing my computer,

[14:18] something caught my eye that said, wealth management. I’m like, I don’t even know what that is.

[14:22] But I applied for it and very quickly got the job. Like a week later I had the job,

[14:27] and about 10, nine, 10 months, I was hired as a client service associate to a fairly successful advisor.

[14:37] And that really just meant the admin. I was kind of an admin, doing the paperwork. And I was doing the paperwork,

[14:43] answering the phone, all of that, you know, appointment setting, very. And I was only working part time because, again, I wanted to be there for my children. I dropped them at school, I picked them up.

[14:53] So I was working about 20 hours a week, and it fitted perfectly for my, you know, for what I was trying to do.

[14:59] Um, but about nine, ten months into the job,

[15:03] you know, just being exposed to this world, I said to my boss,

[15:06] well, what do I need to do to do what you’re doing?

[15:10] And he told me, we have to get these licenses. So I pretty much went and did just that. Um, so I was a fully licensed advisor within, I think I don’t want to tell a lie here on,

[15:20] you know, record,

[15:22] but I’d say within the two years, I was fully licensed.

[15:27] But I kind of pigeonholed held, you know,

[15:31] without getting too much into the specifics,

[15:33] I didn’t really start working as an advisor. I was still. I had all these licenses. I didn’t really know what it meant exactly.

[15:42] And then I switched gears.

[15:45] Probably after about five years, I realized I wasn’t really advancing in my role. And at that point I was ready to really do what I was trained to do, which was to become an advisor.

[15:55] So I changed firms. And I still remember one of the first times my boss,

[16:01] again, at a small. A small firm, she said, well, go out there and do it. I’m like, do what? She’s like, well, you’re an advisor, you Got to go and do this.

[16:08] I’m like, I don’t know how to do it. And she goes, yes, you do.

[16:11] And so that was kind of when I started to go out and put myself out in, you know, organizations and started to meet people in various ways is to slowly started to bring in clients.

[16:23] And then Covid had.

[16:26] So when Covid happened,

[16:29] I’d been in this job for about a year and a half and had started to realize that I was not really representing me, and I was not really doing the job that I believed it should be done.

[16:42] It was more about the numbers. It was like, bring in the next account. Bring in the next account. Bring in the next account. You’re not. You’re not performing. Where’s the next account?

[16:50] And it’s not being about the relationship and the people. And that’s really where my true love lies, is building those relationships.

[16:58] So I resigned. And just as Covid was shutting down the world, I resigned. And that’s when I became independent as an advisor.

[17:07] And, yeah, pretty much haven’t looked back since then. Just kind of been building.

[17:12] Tara Bansal: Did you quit because of COVID or you didn’t know? That was just pure.

[17:18] Larissa Costello: There was a. You know,

[17:20] I’d been in the job for about a year and a half, and I didn’t really feel like it was a good culture fit for me at that time.

[17:28] For the. For the very reason that it was just about the numbers for them. It was,

[17:32] where’s the next account? Or so you’re not. You’re not bringing in another account. And I would bring in the account,

[17:37] and then, you know, the client would become my clients,

[17:42] and then they would be moved to operations, and there would be that separation. And I didn’t really like that.

[17:48] And so for me, I like to keep my.

[17:51] I pride myself in my. In my practice. Now that I am fully available to my clients, you know, they have my.

[17:59] I’m very responsive.

[18:01] They don’t have to go through a gatekeeper to get to me. I am right here serving their needs to the best of my ability every day.

[18:09] Tara Bansal: How was it opening your own shop? And kind of very scary.

[18:17] Larissa Costello: Very scary.

[18:19] I mean, I. I still remember taking a bike ride with my husband.

[18:23] Calculating,

[18:25] you know,

[18:26] not. Not even about making money or paycheck, but just by covering the costs of being in business, because the cost to do this job are tremendous.

[18:34] And I still keep it as kind of a little souvenir that. My very first paycheck.

[18:40] The very first. Well, the first paycheck. I don’t know if it’s the very first month, but the first paycheck I got was a whole $500.

[18:48] Yeah.

[18:49] And I was so proud of that $500, because I wasn’t negative. I was like, oh, I have. I have a business now because I have $500.

[18:58] So it’s kind of a reminder for me when I had those days, that, well, that’s where you started from. And, you know, it’s my checks a bit more than 500 now, but I kind of want to pin it on the wall because it’s a reminder of, you know, humble beginnings.

[19:13] And I’ve organically grown, which is. I’m very, very proud of.

[19:18] Yeah.

[19:19] Tara Bansal: So tell us more about that. Like, who are your clients and how have you grown?

[19:25] Larissa Costello: So I should probably just backtrack. So when I first went independent, I joined up,

[19:32] not legally or financially, but I was introduced to a gentleman who’s been in the industry for some time.

[19:38] And so he and I kind of worked together under a brand called Ad Astral Wealth Management.

[19:45] And I was with him for a couple years,

[19:49] probably three years, I think. What are we, 25?

[19:53] But I still wasn’t really feeling like I was doing things the way I wanted to do it, and. And I didn’t know why, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I changed firms about a year and a half ago,

[20:06] and I rebranded under the name Protea Wealth Management.

[20:11] And Protea is the national flower of South Africa, going back to my roots.

[20:16] And the flower is this kind of badass flower.

[20:21] It’s a very resilient, beautiful flower that you can scorch the earth and, you know, start a wildfire, and this.

[20:30] This flower will still take root and. And grow and thrive.

[20:33] And it is one of the oldest flowers in. On. On the planet Earth.

[20:38] And that really became a symbolism for me of the type of client that I naturally attract, which is a lot of the time, women,

[20:45] because we both know that women are very underrepresented in this industry.

[20:51] And so with my background and just how I kind of came into this industry,

[20:58] I realized that women.

[21:01] It’s a different language.

[21:03] Right. What I like to say is, you know, I have three boys. I’ve been married 26 years. I understand how men think, at least I think I do for the most part.

[21:12] But I intuitively understand how women feel.

[21:16] And so, you know, how we make our decisions and how we view information and how we receive information,

[21:24] and the communication is very key. And I think a lot of the time not to speak negatively about my male Colleagues in the industry who I have a lot of respect for, just in general when we speak, when I find, when I speak to a woman,

[21:41] they thank me. They thank me because they feel seen and heard. Often for the very first time I’ve had women, you know, they’ll ask questions and apologize profusely over and over for not knowing things and understand things and these stupid questions.

[21:55] And I,

[21:57] it happens a lot.

[21:58] And I realized that, you know, I was one of those woman ones. I was in my 40s and I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t understand the stock market or the difference between a stock and a bond.

[22:09] And who wants to ask those questions in their 40s and admit.

[22:13] But it’s very prevalent that most people not working in this industry every day or,

[22:19] you know,

[22:21] very smart, educated people,

[22:24] you know,

[22:25] just, it’s not their world. And I don’t think they should be spoken down to or made to feel that they can’t ask those questions just because they haven’t had the education that you and I have had in this industry.

[22:40] Tara Bansal: I agree. So who, who are your ideal clients? Who do you want to work with?

[22:49] Larissa Costello: You know, I don’t have,

[22:51] I mean, I don’t have like a little box that says, this is my ideal clients.

[22:56] But what I have found that is, as I go out and just live a life that is quote, unquote, authentic to me,

[23:05] I naturally attract the kind of client that I want to serve.

[23:09] So I, I am drawn personally to strong women. Like, I love working strong women. Opinionated woman,

[23:18] ambitious woman.

[23:20] I use the word high achieving and they may explain what I mean by that. It’s not that you have to have a certain paycheck or anything like that.

[23:30] I actually read this on LinkedIn once where somebody was describing, are you, are you stressed? Are you busy? Are you this? Are you that? Are you overwhelmed? You know, an average day for most women.

[23:41] And he, he said, well, I’ve got news for you, you’re not crazy, you’re just high achieving.

[23:47] And I love, I love that change in mindset because there’s so many women out there that are doing all of these things every day, right? They raising children, they running homes, maybe they’re working,

[24:00] but they’re keeping all these balls in the air and they juggling every day.

[24:04] And then they go to bed exhausted. They’re like, oh, I didn’t get anything done today. I didn’t get anything done. Oh, I didn’t do that thing. Right. We do that all the time.

[24:13] Well, those are my, those, those are my Clients.

[24:16] Yeah. These women that don’t,

[24:20] you know, that don’t always feel seen and it’s like, yeah, I get it because I am one of those women. Not that I don’t feel seen or appreciated. I have a wonderful husband and all that.

[24:29] It’s not about anti men message or anything like that. It’s just that we have such unique temperaments as women.

[24:37] And then it’s nice sometimes just to speak to somebody who gets it.

[24:42] Yeah.

[24:43] Tara Bansal: Because I mean, I feel like a common theme is women take care of everyone around them and tell me where I’m wrong. But for you, it’s like you want to help take care of these women around their finances so they feel more comfortable today.

[25:00] Larissa Costello: Exactly. Yeah. And one of the time, it’s one of those things I, you know, one of the things I say is,

[25:06] I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but this is what I was like before I got into this industry. I’d lie in bed at night and worry and I would like the what if scenario.

[25:15] What would happen if and how vulnerable I felt if.

[25:20] Tara Bansal: And I think many women feel that way.

[25:23] Larissa Costello: Yeah. And then I would wake up and then there would be another round of having to get breakfast and take, you know, Jack, Riley Finn, wherever they needed to be and clean the house and do the shopping and da, da, da.

[25:32] And those fears would get pushed down, but they were still there.

[25:36] And you know, we, my husband and I got, had a financial advisor when we first got married because I realized that we weren’t quite on the same page with some of the,

[25:45] you know, some of the ways we approached money. So I really wanted impartial third party that would just tell us what to do.

[25:52] But to be honest, I don’t know that they best they served us because I think they weren’t always hearing what we were trying to accomplish because at that time, like most young couples, it was all about the children and college savings and the this and the that.

[26:06] As an example, he never said, well, is your husband contributing to an IRA for you as a non working spouse? No, that subject never came up.

[26:14] So a lot of things like that,

[26:17] you know, life insurance where we adequately covered and things like that and just having a plan that I could really see, okay, we are going to be okay or we working to be okay.

[26:27] So I think right now, just in general,

[26:30] one of the things I see a lot with most, well, the people, the clients that I serve and the people I talk to is fear.

[26:37] You know, everybody’s afraid and maybe it’s part of my yoga journey. But I really try to not live in feelings.

[26:44] I don’t. I try to not be governed by me, my emotions, and I really try to ground myself. So it’s like every day, we having a lot of emotions and feelings and reactions to different things that are happening.

[26:56] Right. Maybe to us or around us.

[26:59] And I think, especially when it comes to our money,

[27:02] you know, we all know, you know, you don’t react to market conditions just because. So we don’t react to the idea that, oh, the market’s going to crash or this is going to happen.

[27:12] Really, it comes down to what is your journey and what are the things that you control.

[27:16] Right.

[27:17] And I think that’s applicable across our lives.

[27:21] One of the things that we really, really control. And that to me, the things that we really, really control is our internal journey.

[27:28] And so I’ve been doing a lot of work just through my yoga practice,

[27:31] and I think it makes me a better advisor is to, you know, when life is getting crazy, take it to the yoga mat and release that and to really ground yourself so that I can show up, you know, for my clients,

[27:44] it’s no good if I’m losing my, you know,

[27:47] if I’m panicking. Right.

[27:49] That doesn’t serve anybody. So just as recently as yesterday, I was having a conversation with a client who’s afraid, you know, and she just needs reassurance. And we had this dialogue of,

[28:00] okay, what is your situation? What are the things we need to do for you that’s applicable to your situation,

[28:06] but not what can she control?

[28:08] Tara Bansal: Yeah, getting back to what’s within her control.

[28:10] Larissa Costello: Exactly, exactly. And she thanked me. And it’s a lot of the time I feel like. And I know you know this as well,

[28:19] you know, the term advisor carries so many.

[28:24] It’s so broad, Right?

[28:26] So broad.

[28:27] And it’s an honor every day to. To have that, you know, window into people’s lives and to hopefully try to counsel them through some tough situations.

[28:39] Tara Bansal: No, I agree. So why. Why do you do what you do? You know, what is your why?

[28:48] Larissa Costello: My why?

[28:50] I think very much the education part is huge.

[28:55] I think, you know, when we. Making decisions, you want to make educated decisions. And that sounds just like a line,

[29:01] but how many times in your life have you,

[29:05] you know, we can’t always know everything, right? We can’t. We make. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made big financial. To say mistakes. And, you know, the idea is you make the best decisions you can with the information that you have.

[29:16] Right. And you don’t Always know what you don’t know. Right.

[29:20] But I think that for me, what really my passion is to know when somebody comes to me and they struggling and that usually is what brings them to me. You know, it’s either that irritant, like should do something or it’s some advance that has happened often divorce or some,

[29:39] some event that has resulted in them really seeking counsel.

[29:44] So whatever the situation may be, somebody’s coming, some, something has caused action for somebody to finally come to me.

[29:51] Whether they’ve worked with an advisor before, they’re coming to me specifically because it’s time. Right.

[29:58] And so that’s an honor right there. It’s such a privilege to have that trust. And you know, that’s one of our fiduciary responsibilities.

[30:07] And for me,

[30:11] I can’t really explain it, but it almost feels like a calling.

[30:15] And I think recently when I started to do some of my marketing,

[30:20] I actually write my posts, I go for a walk and I, I, I just kind of write what comes to me and then I do have a marketing person that makes it look pretty on, on social media.

[30:29] But it’s all my words, it’s all what I feel. And, and the feedback has been quite wonderful because I don’t write about,

[30:37] ah, well, let’s talk about what the S and P is doing or you know, how to roll, you know, do a backdoor Roth or whatever because I don’t. I used to lead with what I, I guess ego,

[30:50] where I felt like I had to prove why I belonged in the room. Well, let me tell you why you should. I should be your what? I know, right? Yeah.

[30:58] And I realized, and I don’t know when this happened, but I realized I don’t do that anymore.

[31:05] And really I think it’s because I feel so authentic in my journey and what I’m about that I just attract it more. Right. I attract the people. I had a client event back in December.

[31:19] November. December.

[31:21] And when I looked around the room of my clients that were there,

[31:24] every one of them represented a part of my journey and my story. And so it was so natural. These people are my friends. These are people that I, I enjoy talking to.

[31:33] These are people that I value and I care about. That’s, that is real.

[31:38] And so that’s my why these amazing relationships that I have where people are coming to me and hopefully I’ve made a difference in some small way. And that’s,

[31:51] that’s my why it’s a privilege.

[31:53] That’s great.

[31:54] Tara Bansal: And I love your marketing.

[31:58] Like I get your Newsletter. And I have to say,

[32:01] I, like,

[32:03] kind of. It’s usually one idea. It’s not complicated, but it is. I feel like it pertains to all of us.

[32:12] And.

[32:13] And I like,

[32:15] I don’t know, just.

[32:16] It’s digestible in both, you know, the.

[32:21] The simplicity and the one idea that I think everyone can relate to. So I feel like you do an excellent job with that.

[32:29] Larissa Costello: Well, thank you.

[32:29] Tara Bansal: Really? Yeah.

[32:30] Larissa Costello: Yeah. I have. I have a term with some clients with. I call it the too hard basket. Right. So you think about.

[32:38] Tara Bansal: What does that mean?

[32:39] Larissa Costello: Well,

[32:40] I don’t know. I just came up with it, but I. I. Sometimes it’s that thing that you.

[32:46] You put off because it feels too hard.

[32:48] Right. It’s the procrastination of the. The thing that, you know, you have to do,

[32:53] but it’s too hard, so you put it off.

[32:55] Well, the idea is to tackle it. I’m trying to do this right now because I’m supposed to get some information to my tax guy, and,

[33:02] yeah, I’m supposed to give him my business expense expenses. And it’s in the too hard basket because it just feels like, oh, my gosh, I need a better system for this next year.

[33:10] Yeah. But the idea is, I think many.

[33:13] Tara Bansal: Of us can relate to that.

[33:14] Larissa Costello: So,

[33:15] like, I. I found every way today to avoid doing what I need to do, but really what it comes down to is breaking it up into digestible amounts.

[33:24] So,

[33:25] you know, one of the things I see very often people putting off as estate planning. Right. They. They don’t want to.

[33:33] These are hard conversations. Yes. Right. Or they don’t want. Everyone’s gonna die. And I’m very comfortable having those conversations.

[33:40] I have actually a folder on my computer cord in the event of death so that everyone knows where to find the information. But I think a lot of people put things off that feel difficult, and that’s just natural.

[33:51] Right.

[33:52] And so I call it the too hard basket. In other words, it’s too hard because then put it in the corner in that basket. But I think what’s very empowering is when you and I had this with a client recently, she had one of those,

[34:03] and we started to just chip away at it.

[34:06] And then one day I said to her, do you realize what you’ve just done? You’ve just dealt with this wasn’t that big in the end. She had made it big in her mind, but it wasn’t that big.

[34:15] And so that’s also very, very empowering, is once you start something, the hardest part is starting and we see that in all aspects of our lives.

[34:24] And you can’t rely on discipline. You can’t. Like, some days I want to get up and I want to go for a walk, and I. Some days I don’t. But if I have the discipline, it’s not even a decision.

[34:34] Once it becomes a decision,

[34:36] you’re lost.

[34:37] So you have to have things in place in your life where it’s not even the decision. It’s habit. Or, you know, had a habit creating habit created from systems.

[34:46] Tara Bansal: Yes, I agree. Very nice. How are you getting clients? How are you building your practice?

[34:54] Larissa Costello: Well, I say organically, but I mean, obviously I’m doing marketing.

[34:59] You know, I’m putting myself out there. It’s not always comfortable. And some things I’m. I’m like.

[35:04] That didn’t quite work.

[35:07] So I’ve. I’ve definitely been putting myself out there through LinkedIn,

[35:14] social media,

[35:16] but really just living my life. I mean, I.

[35:18] I’ve got a few clients from my yoga studio as an example, and. And right now I’m in yoga training, so I’m immersed in yoga.

[35:26] And you just now I was talking to somebody in my yoga class.

[35:30] I’m starting to like, be like 500 hours certified in yoga, right?

[35:34] Tara Bansal: Yep.

[35:35] Larissa Costello: And I was in class the other day, and there’s like 15 women in the class, and one of the women said to me, yeah, it’s just so nice to be in this space with you, because we all just naturally.

[35:44] Are we. We on the same platform, we all care for the same reason,

[35:49] and it’s just so easy. And I’m not saying that this person’s going to become my clients,

[35:54] but when you put yourself in a situation like that where you’re just around the people that see you and understand who you are and what you’re about,

[36:02] that is helpful. Yeah, that’s. Yes.

[36:07] But, you know, referrals.

[36:09] I mean, I’m at a point now where I’m very honored that clients refer their friends,

[36:15] the RIA that I’m working under,

[36:18] they’ve been amazing support.

[36:20] Orden Investment Group, they’ve been an amazing support to me.

[36:24] Really what they’ve done is taken over.

[36:27] Not taken over. They support me with my operation. So all the paperwork that I used to do,

[36:33] I now have a team to help me with that.

[36:35] So that really, really frees me up to work on my business and grow it.

[36:41] I don’t want to give too much away right now, but I’m working on a project right now that I’m hoping to unveil in the next few months,

[36:50] that’s going to kind of expand beyond finance because again,

[36:55] just combining all the aspects of my own journey and bringing it to the people, and then that will attract who it attracts. So as an example, I had a Vision board event earlier this year.

[37:08] And, you know, it’s a vision Board event, right. It’s about creating a vision board. But it was more than that for me. It was about.

[37:16] Tara Bansal: Was that only for clients or did you clients invite anyone?

[37:19] Larissa Costello: Yeah, yeah, it was open to every, you know, whoever. Anyone. I can’t remember. We had about 15, 20, I think it was about 20 women showed up.

[37:27] But the people that I collaborated on, collaborated with to create this event.

[37:34] One of them I got from yoga. Everything goes back to yoga.

[37:37] And she’s just a powerhouse woman. And I think she and I are going to be working on some stuff together that goes beyond just finances. Right. Because we’re not just numbers.

[37:46] Right?

[37:47] Yeah.

[37:48] Tara Bansal: I don’t know if it’s more common for women, but I know that’s true for me that I, you know, I always want more like, than the numbers. It’s about your whole life and what it.

[37:59] What do you want?

[38:01] Larissa Costello: Right.

[38:02] Tara Bansal: I feel like with the life coaching, that’s where I get more excited.

[38:06] Larissa Costello: Yeah, yeah, I know you. I mean, you and I have talked about this in the past as far as,

[38:11] you know, you create the financial plan and it’s like, can I retire? And what that’s going to look like, etc. Etc. But life is not a piece of. Life is much more messy than.

[38:20] Well, I think.

[38:20] Tara Bansal: Yes.

[38:21] Larissa Costello: Right. Yeah. Messy essence or what’s. Yeah, I mean, it says it all right. Life is. Life is not.

[38:29] Tara Bansal: Life is messy. And it’s unpro. It’s.

[38:32] It’s uncertain, it’s unpredictable. Like the one. When I do a plan, I always say, the one thing we know is it’s not going to be exactly like this.

[38:42] So.

[38:43] Larissa Costello: Because nothing. And that means you get comfortable with that.

[38:48] It’s the same thing with,

[38:50] you know, the growth. Right.

[38:52] A lot if you really want personal growth, it’s going to be uncomfortable.

[38:56] It’s going to be uncomfortable, and you have to be okay with that.

[39:00] And my, My business coach that I had used to talk about what he called the terror barrier.

[39:06] And it’s the idea that as you,

[39:08] you know, as you’re growing in whatever way. Right. It doesn’t have to be financial or professional. It can be any, Any kind of journey.

[39:17] And as you go towards,

[39:19] you know, visualize a wall that represents all your fears and all the reasons why you can’t and you shouldn’t and da, da, da. And as you approach that,

[39:27] because you’re about to kind of evolve into this next part of yourself,

[39:32] it becomes scary. And so you retreat, you retreat back to what’s familiar and uncomfortable. Maybe it’s a relationship or maybe it’s a this or maybe it’s a job or,

[39:40] you know, all these things that we, we go back to what’s familiar, even if it’s not always the best thing for us.

[39:47] And the amazing thing is when you finally,

[39:49] you’re not gonna not feel the fear. Right.

[39:52] I mean, when I changed firms and I kind of,

[39:55] it seemed like this big, massive decision and seemed like all my clients gonna follow me. It felt very difficult for me because I hadn’t done it before.

[40:04] And then the day I finally pulled the trigger, I was like,

[40:07] maybe that’s a bad terminology, but bad concept these days. But I finally made the decision.

[40:13] It was like jumping off the cliff. And I was like, is my parachute going to deploy? Right. And then it did. And I was like, that wasn’t that scary. What was the big deal?

[40:21] Tara Bansal: Once you do it, it doesn’t bother.

[40:23] Larissa Costello: But I remember feeling that fear and putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. And I mean that’s. We, we see that in so many aspects of our lives and our clients lives and our clients lives.

[40:34] Absolutely.

[40:36] You know,

[40:38] again, the too hard basket. I’m not going to do this thing because it’s scary or it’s overwhelming.

[40:44] And a lot of the time it’s just taking the decision to get organized.

[40:49] You know, people that come to me and they’ve got accounts here, there, and they, they think they’ve got a strategy, but this account’s doing this. They don’t really know the balance.

[40:57] And I used to have something over there, but I don’t know how to log in, fund the statement.

[41:03] You know, we see that all the time. Yeah. And it’s not that hard to just consolidate, get into one place, understand, and have easy quick access or an advisor that can tell you, yep, it’s doing this, it’s doing that, it’s changed this,

[41:17] but it’s just making that decision.

[41:21] Tara Bansal: Do you have a business coach now?

[41:23] Larissa Costello: So it’s funny that you asked that.

[41:25] I did have a business coach. He was very good and it wasn’t anything that he did or didn’t do. But I elected to stop after I think I was with him for about a year.

[41:35] And it was more just the time commitment that I, I was I was busy. I am busy.

[41:40] But I’ve been following this group of women for some time now, this female coach.

[41:48] I actually have a coaching call with her on Monday or two weeks from now,

[41:52] and I’m kind of curious to see what she’s about, because I think it’s valuable. I think having coaches is very valuable because sometimes we don’t see our own blind spots.

[42:02] Tara Bansal: How did you find that group or get exposed to it?

[42:05] Larissa Costello: The first one or the second?

[42:07] Tara Bansal: The second. The one you’re talking to.

[42:09] Larissa Costello: On Monday, this woman started a.

[42:12] I think, just really a Facebook group.

[42:14] And then it started to grow like women entrepreneurs. And I don’t even think it’s local to the area. I think it extends across the United States,

[42:22] and I don’t know how many are in a group, but she’s interesting to me,

[42:26] and.

[42:27] Yeah, we’ll see.

[42:29] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[42:30] Larissa Costello: But I mean, I think when you see somebody doing. So my other coach was mostly just a coach, whereas this woman’s a business owner, and, like, she’s got a.

[42:38] I find her to be interesting because she’s.

[42:42] She’s feel like I’ve watched her journey and I see how she’s evolved. She’s written a book,

[42:47] and I have some of this. I have some similar aspirations, and I’m like, okay, I have these ideas. I have a lot of energy,

[42:54] but I don’t know how to. I feel like a mad professor some days. I need somebody to help me organize my thoughts and this energy into a concise.

[43:04] Yeah,

[43:05] yeah.

[43:06] Tara Bansal: What is. What do you feel like are the biggest obstacles that you’re facing or working on right now?

[43:14] Larissa Costello: Oh, that’s a big one.

[43:18] Well, I mean, things are crazy, right? We. I mean, the world.

[43:22] I have clients again. There’s a lot of fear. I think there’s a fear index out there that’s like, people are very afraid of every, you know, the market and then the uncertainty.

[43:33] And I remind my clients, I mean, I am not a. I don’t have a crystal ball, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. Right. Nobody. That.

[43:40] And I would. I would not serve them to say, well, you’re going to be fine, or everything’s. I mean.

[43:46] Right. We don’t exactly know what the future holds. But what I do have is historical perspective. Effective.

[43:52] And to remind clients, we have been here before.

[43:55] Right. Like, how far back do you want to go? Right.

[43:59] I mean, just as recently as Covid, you know, we saw what the market conditions were around Covid, and we.

[44:04] It seems so long ago, and yet just Yesterday that we were all affected by this world shutting down and the unpredictable unpredictability and the uncertainty and we’re not going to be see our loved ones and oh my gosh, we all going to die.

[44:17] And it was scary,

[44:19] right? And now we threw it and it’s like, oh, no big deal, was fine. I mean, I’m not saying, I’m not being, I’m not being, I’m being facetious, right? I’m not underplaying it.

[44:27] But I’m saying that fear was real.

[44:30] And now that we’re through it and on the other side, we almost forget how that felt scary and what decisions we were taking based on that fear.

[44:38] So we have a lot of things going on. It doesn’t even matter what government you is in place. Not political,

[44:44] right. Because I think this is universal.

[44:47] Regardless of who’s,

[44:49] you know, making the power decisions, that there’s uncertainty. That’s the thing that we learn to live with is there’s always going to be uncertainty.

[44:58] And so how do you operate in your life with fear and uncertainty?

[45:05] And that to me is where the real coaching begins.

[45:08] These are not necessarily financial conversations, although they, they stem from that because it comes down to,

[45:15] well, what’s our money doing?

[45:16] You know, people are struggling right now. We’re seeing inflation. We hadn’t seen it, we haven’t seen inflation since the 70s, but it’s a real thing. And now it’s like,

[45:25] oh my gosh, I haven’t seen inflation before. Well, it is, there’s. It’s inflation.

[45:30] So what do we do about that and what decisions can we take and how,

[45:34] you know, how do I ensure as an advisor to steer match my, my clients through,

[45:41] you know, how do we navigate through this and when will it be over?

[45:45] Well,

[45:47] may never be over.

[45:48] Tara Bansal: Right. It’s just a new challenge.

[45:50] Larissa Costello: So we have to get comfort. Unless you want to live your life,

[45:54] you know, just in fear,

[45:56] you have to take action and you have to be comfortable with those decisions.

[46:04] Tara Bansal: Where do you hook to?

[46:05] Larissa Costello: I don’t know if I answered your question because it’s a very complex, It’s a very complex thing.

[46:09] Tara Bansal: Well, I was, I mean, I was thinking actually with your business, what do you feel like you’re struggling with or.

[46:17] Larissa Costello: Is an obstacle what I am personally struggling with in my business,

[46:23] you know, the balance between growing my business,

[46:27] you know,

[46:29] obviously we all like to grow,

[46:33] but making sure that I have the systems in place that I can do the job effectively. Right. So one of the big things that for me has happened that’s been allowed me is having the team that I have behind me.

[46:51] Right. So that I’m not.

[46:53] I’m not. I always.

[46:54] My value system is to be available to my clients. I don’t ever want to be.

[46:59] Well, you.

[47:01] Right. We have to be available.

[47:03] And so for me, it’s about having structure and systems in place and knowing that that’s not always my strong point because I’m more people, I’m more out there.

[47:14] I’m really working to have that support behind me. So, for example, the marketing, like, I don’t like marketing. I don’t know how to do it effectively. I tried that for a little while.

[47:24] It didn’t work.

[47:25] Now I just have somebody that helps guide me with how to put myself out there.

[47:29] That’s an example.

[47:31] Tara Bansal: And so I’d love to hear more about that. How much do you pay and what do they help you do?

[47:38] Larissa Costello: So I’m not going to get into the specifics of what I pay because I don’t really between that. That’s her business. Right.

[47:47] She found me on LinkedIn and really I knew that I wanted to have my message out there and my brand is very important to me about what I represent and who I am.

[48:00] Right. And then she’s just helped me kind of focus that in. So you asked me about my ideal clients and I said, well, I don’t really know, but the truth is my ideal client is typically a woman similar to myself.

[48:16] Right. Similar to.

[48:17] And that’s not because, oh, I want to talk to myself. It’s that who would I be friends with?

[48:23] Who are the kinds of people that I would naturally want to talk to? Because those are my clients and they have to find me. So that’s me putting my voice out.

[48:33] This is who I am and this is how I do it. If this resonates with you, then, hey, let’s chat.

[48:40] And so she’s helped me with that as an example. And then that’s just kind of evolved and growing into itself because I do. I have a lot of ideas that take.

[48:49] Extend beyond. It’s more.

[48:51] It’s.

[48:53] Yeah. The financial planning, but everything that goes into that discussion.

[48:59] Tara Bansal: You talked about doing a client event in December. Was that your idea and how successful?

[49:08] Larissa Costello: Yeah.

[49:09] Tara Bansal: So that wasn’t through the marketing person.

[49:11] Larissa Costello: No, I mean, I’m not new to this industry, so I’ve been doing this for a little while.

[49:15] So I’ve seen other practices and I. I know, like, certain things that I think, okay, yeah, that’s what I want to be able to bring to my Clients,

[49:25] so, you know, more. More advanced, just more opportunities to show that I appreciate them.

[49:31] But I don’t want to get lost in that as far as that’s all that I’m about. Because at the end of the day, my job is to look at the accounts and make sure things are being rebalanced and all of those things.

[49:43] So I think if you ask me what is my struggle, it’s the day to day being an advisor, showing up for my clients, meeting with my clients,

[49:53] being an advisor and all that goes on with that. You know, I’ve been starting working with some of my clients on their financial plans and trying to get that information and, you know, get it into the system.

[50:04] That’s a whole job.

[50:05] And then along with that, saying, okay, I want to give them also an experience or put myself out there to attract new clients, to show this is what it, this is what it’s.

[50:15] This is what it looks like. If you work with Larissa Costello from Protea Wealth Management, this is the kind of experience you can expect.

[50:22] And I do try to hold myself to a very high level of excellence.

[50:27] You know, it’s interesting to me.

[50:30] I have to kind of be careful here, but just in terms of how I’ve seen this job done and also just some of the other professionals that I’ve at times worked with,

[50:39] the lack of.

[50:41] I don’t want to use the word diligence, but I think sometimes it can be very challenging to find other people that I want to bring in.

[50:52] Like, I’m talking about other professionals, not, not advisors or anything like that, but like a CPA finding a good account.

[50:58] Right.

[50:59] If I’m going to refer a client to a cpa,

[51:02] I hold, I hold the people that I. I’m putting my name behind that referral and finding people in the right and professionals that have the same value, standards and yeah, can be hard.

[51:15] Can be hard.

[51:17] Yeah, just even responsiveness. Like I’m giving you a client, can you respond to the email like in the same day? Is that asking too much these days? I don’t know.

[51:26] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[51:26] Larissa Costello: So that’s, that’s kind of. I wouldn’t put it as a challenge per se, but these are some of the things that I see. Right, right.

[51:37] Tara Bansal: How much do you want to be working each week?

[51:41] Larissa Costello: I don’t have a set amount of time. I don’t.

[51:44] Yeah, I work out of my home. I’m very lucky in that I can just stay.

[51:49] I think Covid really introduced that, that I don’t have a fancy office and I used to Feel like I had to explain that. And now I see it as an advantage because with these fancy offices comes overhead come, the expenses come,

[52:04] you know, secretaries, and then it’s three layers of people before you speak to the person who’s making decisions about your money.

[52:11] But,

[52:11] you know, I wouldn’t want to get too big as far as my practice because I think balance is important. Not because I don’t want to work hard,

[52:22] but because I think it’s about me being able to show up for every client in the way that I expect,

[52:30] you know,

[52:30] that I’d like to show up for them.

[52:32] And so not being stretched too thin. So I don’t really set myself to a certain number of hours.

[52:38] The beauty of my job is I can do it anyway. So I don’t ever feel,

[52:42] oh, I have to be at this desk 9 to 5.

[52:45] I work a lot from my phone. I mean, I have.

[52:49] I work a lot from my phone.

[52:52] Yeah, I’m on the run sometimes working from my phone. Laptop in the back.

[52:58] And it’s effective.

[53:00] Yeah.

[53:02] Tara Bansal: Where do you want to be in 10 years?

[53:06] Larissa Costello: You know, I think I’d still want to be doing what I’m doing. I don’t have any grandiose ideas and I want to retire and go live on an island. I think I would be bored.

[53:15] I love the engagement of people. People. I really, really, really enjoy people.

[53:20] And so what am I, 54, 55 this year? So 65. I don’t know. I mean,

[53:27] as long as I’m healthy,

[53:29] I, I would like to continue having my, my business with flexibility.

[53:35] So maybe, you know, having some staff that help carry the load,

[53:39] I could potentially see that. But I don’t.

[53:42] Ironically,

[53:43] I don’t have this great big financial plan that I will be retired at X number of years with so much money. I.

[53:51] It’s ironic, right?

[53:53] I’ve done. I mean, I generally know my calculations, but there’s not a financial goal post for me that I would be retired in a certain number of years with so much money.

[54:03] It’s more.

[54:04] As long as I enjoy doing what I’m doing, I’m going to continue doing it. If something else comes along that I want to do more, then okay, I’ll out figure that, definitely.

[54:12] Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[54:14] Tara Bansal: I mean, you’re doing.

[54:15] Larissa Costello: I mean, I think there comes a point where you have to know it’s time to go.

[54:19] I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be. So,

[54:22] you know, if I’m at a point where my mental faculties are being challenged and I’m still giving people advice, then somebody needs to show me the door. But as long as that’s not the case,

[54:33] I see myself probably still doing this business in 10 years. I started late, so I’m just getting started.

[54:40] Tara Bansal: Well, and I want people to know that like you did not start until, I mean, your youngest started kindergarten.

[54:49] Larissa Costello: And,

[54:50] and I think that’s the beauty is that you can at any time reinvent yourself.

[54:56] You know, you see a lot of the time women,

[55:00] you know, being forced sometimes into the workforce after taking a hiatus because they’ve raised children and now,

[55:06] you know, life throws them, you know, something that they’re not prepared for.

[55:10] And I’ve seen it repeatedly with a lot of women that they, or now, you know, you asked me before we started, am I an anti nester?

[55:17] Well, not quite.

[55:19] But you know, I see this a lot with women that are,

[55:22] their children are grown and in college and now they’re looking around, they’re like, okay, what, what, what now? What what’s next?

[55:30] And it doesn’t have to be a job, but I think you have to find the thing that your. Why, as you asked.

[55:36] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[55:36] Larissa Costello: Now what?

[55:37] I, I truly love what I do. It doesn’t feel like a,

[55:42] these times, it’s stressful. You know, you’re carrying a, it’s a big responsibility.

[55:48] I don’t find it to be a particularly hard job, but it’s a, it’s a lot of response. There’s a weight of responsibility that it can sometimes be challenging. Right.

[55:58] But I love.

[55:59] Tara Bansal: How do you deal with that?

[56:05] Larissa Costello: I don’t know that there’s a way to really deal with it. I mean, I,

[56:09] I, I, I can get stressed like anybody sometimes, but I remind myself what I control and what my responsibilities are. And as long as I’m doing the things that I am needing to be doing and doing everything that I can,

[56:23] I remind myself that I, these certain things that I don’t control.

[56:28] So,

[56:30] and then I, and then I look at the historical market and I’m like, oh, it’s going to be okay. This is,

[56:36] this too shall pass.

[56:38] Right.

[56:39] So I,

[56:40] I take it very, very seriously. I don’t mean to sound flippant,

[56:45] but my, you know, it’s my job.

[56:49] My job is to take the stress of my clients so that they don’t have, so that they can sleep at night.

[56:54] And that’s my job. So I think you just, I don’t know, I don’t really have an answer for that. I just, you just do. I talk to other advisors,

[57:04] I talk to other people in the industry and see kind of their temperaments, what they’re feeling, how they’re reacting. And sometimes misery loves company.

[57:14] It’s like, okay,

[57:17] how are you feeling about things? I don’t know, how are you feeling? And then, you know, you set you up.

[57:22] That’s very helpful too. Just to kind of talk it out with other professionals to see what they saying and thinking and what they doing and,

[57:29] and kind of just compare notes. I, I, I do do that.

[57:33] Tara Bansal: And do you feel by yourself like with your own. No. How do you.

[57:39] Larissa Costello: I’m very supported.

[57:40] Again, my, my broker is amazing. Great group of people.

[57:45] I really shopped around, as you know. I really shopped around when I changed firms and these guys are based out in Pennsylvania and they’re fairly young as far as how long they’ve been doing it, but the technology is outstanding and it makes my job so much easier than it was previously.

[58:07] We have great systems.

[58:09] Yeah, I don’t, I, I don’t because I talk to clients. So when you, Yeah, I guess I.

[58:15] Tara Bansal: Meant more on not like sharing the knowledge and having people to discuss, you know, situations or cases with or learning.

[58:27] Larissa Costello: If you called me more often, I could talk to you.

[58:30] Tara Bansal: Well, that’s what I’m just wondering for you because I, I’m part of a mastermind group.

[58:36] What,

[58:37] what other ways are you interacting with other advisors that you feel is helpful?

[58:43] Larissa Costello: Well, in my firm, in my group.

[58:45] Yeah. So this, so in that way you’re not by yourself. You have, you are part of the firm. You don’t share the same book,

[58:52] so you’re operating independently.

[58:55] But I do speak to them,

[58:59] other industry professionals. I’ve gone to conferences.

[59:02] In fact, I’m going to a conference next week in D.C. which conference are you going to? I knew you were going to ask me that.

[59:09] It’s what I’ve gone to several times. And it’s so funny because the first year I went it was,

[59:14] you know, they, they talk about a lot of alternative investments and the first year I went I was like,

[59:22] it was kind of, some of it was somewhat foreign to me.

[59:25] And over the years I’ve go, I understand more and more and more and more.

[59:29] Tara Bansal: On that note, like what conferences or podcasts or people do you follow? But I wondered like any yoga or meditation or self growth.

[59:45] Larissa Costello: I was listening to a podcast by Jim Fortin and I think I actually talked about that in one of my social media things where he talked about if you want to change your life, start from the inside out.

[01:00:04] And so again for me with my yoga journey. And in terms of how I approach my business and the relationships I have,

[01:00:12] it’s very much about how we react to things, how you can ground yourself and how you can change the pathways of your brain, the patterns that you’ve.

[01:00:21] Like relationships, right? You’re the narrative that you have about somebody or some situation that’s formed from way back when.

[01:00:30] And so the example I give,

[01:00:32] right, is that I was trying to give up having sugar in my coffee. And every morning I was waking up and I would go downstairs and I was like, okay, I’ve made a decision.

[01:00:42] I’m not gonna have sugar in my coffee. Today is the day I’m not gonna have sugar. And then I would resist and not have that sugar.

[01:00:48] And this continued.

[01:00:50] And eventually. Cause it tastes better and I like sweet things. I would have the sugar in my coffee.

[01:00:57] Then I listened to this podcast by Jim Fortin,

[01:01:00] and he really,

[01:01:01] this is true story.

[01:01:03] He kind of explained how when you’re doing that, when I just described, I’m not going to have sugar, I’m going to have sugar.

[01:01:10] You. You’re doing. It’s executive thinking, right? That’s where we’re making our decisions. It’s like the choices of, do I want the red thing or do I want the blue thing?

[01:01:20] He said, really, the way you change behavior is you have to tap into the reptilian side of our brain where you wake up in the morning. I don’t know your morning habits, but I wake up in the morning, and my morning routine is pretty standard.

[01:01:33] I brush my teeth, I go downstairs, I make my coffee, I feed the cats. It’s a pretty standard pattern of behavior. And I don’t think about it. This is just what I do every morning.

[01:01:43] And that is where habits are.

[01:01:46] And so when you want to really change something, it has to become a habit.

[01:01:51] And you can’t make the decision. It can’t be a either or decision.

[01:01:55] Once you’re there, you’ve already lost the decision, right? You can’t rely on motivation or discipline.

[01:02:01] So with the sugar thing,

[01:02:03] what I did was I really just changed.

[01:02:06] I became the person that I wanted to be, which is a person who does not have sugar in their coffee.

[01:02:12] And so I came downstairs and instead of thinking about a person trying to give up sugar and make coffee,

[01:02:17] I simply became an am from that day.

[01:02:21] A person who does not have sugar in their coffee. I don’t. I seriously do not have sugar in my coffee ever since that day,

[01:02:28] because I stopped thinking of myself as a person trying to give up sugar.

[01:02:32] And so you can apply that to just about anything in your life when you’re trying to change behavior. And I see it a lot with money.

[01:02:39] People coming to me and, like, I’m not good with money.

[01:02:42] Okay, well,

[01:02:44] where did a. Where did that.

[01:02:46] Tara Bansal: Where did that come from?

[01:02:46] Larissa Costello: Yes.

[01:02:48] Right.

[01:02:49] Because you’re. The more you’re saying that you’re entrenching and behaving as a person who’s not good with money because you’ve decided that’s who you are.

[01:02:56] If you really want to change and have a different result,

[01:03:00] then what would a person who is good with money be doing?

[01:03:03] And that’s what you have to become.

[01:03:06] It’s very powerful. It’s very, very powerful.

[01:03:09] So that was a Jim Fortin podcast, and he’s got a whole lot of things in.

[01:03:13] In that area.

[01:03:14] Um,

[01:03:16] but I’m very, very big on. So right now I’m studying to do the 300 hour. I’m doing 300 hours. So that does a deep dive into a whole lot of philosophy that is very interesting to me.

[01:03:28] So, for example, we talked about, you know, Buddhism,

[01:03:32] and one of the things that really struck me was this concept of dukkha, which is really a translation of suffering and how sometimes we suffer needlessly. So you think about going back to the financial thing, right?

[01:03:48] We sit there and we suffer our decisions relating to money,

[01:03:52] or we suffer our decisions relating to the what if this thing might happen.

[01:03:57] And those are choices we’re making.

[01:04:00] That suffering in that regard is in some ways a choice.

[01:04:05] Right.

[01:04:06] And so when we suffer, we sometimes just become paralyzed in.

[01:04:10] In our suffering, and we think there’s no way out. And really,

[01:04:15] up here is your doorway to something different. And I’m not saying that it’s not true suffering in the world. That’s not what I’m saying at all. We all experience that as humans.

[01:04:24] It’s part of the human condition is suffering.

[01:04:28] But there can be true meaning and value and enlightenment through suffering.

[01:04:36] Right. If you know where to look.

[01:04:38] Tara Bansal: Right, Yeah, I agree.

[01:04:40] Larissa Costello: But too many people avoid it because it’s not comfortable. Right.

[01:04:45] Tara Bansal: I think that is true.

[01:04:47] Larissa Costello: Right?

[01:04:48] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Last question, and then I’ll let you go. If you don’t have time, that’s fine, too. What do you love to do?

[01:05:00] Larissa Costello: So family is very important to me.

[01:05:02] You know,

[01:05:04] I’ve got one child still at home.

[01:05:07] But when my kids were, like, little, you know, my husband was always big on family movie night. Every Friday, would make popcorn, and those are wonderful memories.

[01:05:17] I love yoga, the practice of yoga has become a passion for me.

[01:05:22] I love to take trips.

[01:05:23] I’ve recently found a group of friends and we take trips here and there and travel, so that’s still something that’s important to me.

[01:05:31] I like to take morning walks with my dog, Rumor and yeah, just spend time with friends and meet new people and put myself out there.

[01:05:40] I’m open to opportunity and new experiences always and I feel like that’s full.

[01:05:45] Tara Bansal: Circle of going back to your trip around the world and you know, traveling and meeting new people and relationships are sounds like high values for you in.

[01:06:01] Larissa Costello: The life you live. Yeah.

[01:06:03] Tara Bansal: Well, this was very fun. I feel like I could talk to you forever. I feel like we say that all the time, but thank you for joining me. Thank you and I hope to talk to you again soon.

[01:06:15] Larissa Costello: Sounds good. Thanks for having me. It’s so fun to talk to you.

[01:06:19] Tara Bansal: Larissa’s episode is such a powerful example of one of the core themes of this podcast that when we show up authentically bringing who we are and what we love into our work,

[01:06:32] we can build a practice that feels good and fun and truly flourishes.

[01:06:37] Larissa isn’t trying to follow someone else’s blueprint.

[01:06:41] She’s building her business in a way that reflects her whole true self.

[01:06:46] Whether that’s connecting with clients through yoga, hosting the kind of appreciation events she actually enjoys,

[01:06:53] or sharing marketing messages that resonate with her heart and she feels like will help and serve other people.

[01:07:00] And as a result, she’s attracting the right people for her practice. The clients she works with are aligned, appreciative,

[01:07:08] and connected to her and her story.

[01:07:10] It’s a beautiful reminder for all of us when we trust ourself,

[01:07:15] our own voice and lead with what feels true for us,

[01:07:20] our practice doesn’t just grow.

[01:07:22] It feels really good and fun to grow.

[01:07:26] Thank you for listening to her life, her practice, her Way.

[01:07:30] A podcast for and about Female Financial advisors.

[01:07:34] I truly hope you found something valuable and encouraging in today’s episode.

[01:07:39] If you did, I’d be so grateful if you’d take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[01:07:47] It helps other phenomenal women in our field find this space.

[01:07:51] And if you know another advisor who would benefit from these conversations or from the kind of support I offer through coaching,

[01:08:00] please send this episode to her.

[01:08:02] If you’re curious about working with me as your coach or interested in being on the podcast, I’d love to hear from you.

[01:08:10] You can find more details and reach out to me on the contact page of my website herlifeherpracticeherway.com no spaces, no underlines, just the words straight in a row.

[01:08:25] Until next time. Keep building a life and practice you truly love.

Jim Fortin Podcast – Transform Your Life from the Inside Out
https://www.jimfortin.com/podcast

Yoga Alliance – https://yogaalliance.org/

Larissa Costello has worked as a financial advisor for a decade and founded Protea Wealth Management with a mission to empower women to take control of their finances. The Protea flower symbolizes strength, courage and resilience and is a metaphor for the kind of clients Larissa naturally attracts.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Newcastle, Australia and has the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® (CRPC) designation awarded by the College for Financial Planning. She also holds the FINRA licenses Series 7, 65 and 66 and has her Life and Health Insurance license.

Before wealth management, Larissa worked overseas in Australia, UK, and Hungary for over 20 years in corporate finance and accounting. She leverages this background to help clients achieve their financial goals. Larissa takes great pride in helping clients who are intimidated by conversations about money and investing and who have previously procrastinated about taking ownership of their finances.

She is a fierce advocate for women and believes that sound financial advice should be available to everyone. She volunteers with Savvy Women and currently serves on the board of the Economic Development Commission of Queen Anne’s County.

Larissa resides on the Eastern Shore and is married with three sons. She is a yoga enthusiast and holds her 500-hour Yoga Teachers Certificate through Yoga Alliance.

Larissa is active on Social media and can be found on the following platforms: (See links)

https://www.facebook.com/ProteaWealth

https://www.instagram.com/larissacostello/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larissa-costello/

Her website is: https://aldeninvestmentgroup.com/protea/