Adam Torres and Marguerita Cheng discuss Marguerita’s new book.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify / Stitcher / RSS
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
New book alert! In this episode, Adam Torres and Marguerita Cheng, CEO at Blue Ocean Global Wealth, explore the new book Marguerita will be launching with Woman Connect4Good and Mission Matters.
Watch Full Interview:
About Marguerita Cheng
Marguerita “Rita” M. Cheng is the Chief Executive Officer at Blue Ocean Global Wealth. Prior to founding Blue Ocean Global Wealth, she was a Financial Advisor at Ameriprise Financial and an Analyst and Editor at Towa Securities in Tokyo, Japan. She is a Certified Financial Planner® (CFP), a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® (CRPC), a Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP) and a Chartered SRI Counselor (CSRIC®). An in-demand financial writer and speaker, Rita has contributed her expertise to numerous media outlets including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Reuters, Kiplinger, Investopedia, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Time, Yahoo! Finance, NerdWallet, Financial Advisor, Be Inkandescent, and more.
About Blue Ocean Global Wealth
Blue Ocean Global Wealth is an investment advisory firm that strives to be a trusted partner and educational resource. We provide corporations and institutions with portfolio construction, investment due diligence, and risk management consulting. We deliver comprehensive financial planning and wealth management solutions to families, entrepreneurs, and executives. We embrace global diversity and steward the protection, growth, and distribution of our clients’ wealth.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode. We are welcoming back to the show.
Margarita Chang, also known as Rita, who’s CEO over at Blue Ocean Global Wealth. Rita, welcome back to the show. Well, thank you so much for having me. Oh my gosh. So this is fun. I feel like at this point, maybe you’ve been on the show at least two, three times, maybe. So I feel like, I feel like you’re, you’re my co host over here.
I’m so happy to reconnect. Absolutely. It’s so much fun. So we got a lot to talk about today. So we got, we got a, another book. That we’re launching together along with women connect for good, which I’m really excited to get into. I also want to talk about, I know you’ve been doing some speaking lately.
I seen some amazing pictures of you on LinkedIn. So I want to get into some of the speaking you’ve been doing as well. And just your business overall, as we catch up. But before we do that, we’ll start this episode, the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So Rita at Mission Matters, as you know we’re all about amplifying stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts.
So that’s what we do. Rita, what mission matters to you? What mission matters to me is helping people become more confident about personal finance. So helping clients gain clarity, confidence, and control over their financial lives. Love it. I love it. Love it. And for my long term listeners, they know that you know, I was in finance for, for quite a bit of time.
So this is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart, and I especially appreciate and admire the approach that you take to finance and working with your clients. So maybe just to get us started and kicked off for, I mean, it’s been at least maybe a year since you’ve been on the show. So let’s get lots of new listeners.
We’ve been very fortunate in the growth. So let’s just go into your background and really how you got started in finance and let’s start there. Well, sure. So I studied East Asian language and literature in finance, and that’s very important because my first job in finance was actually in Tokyo, Japan. My job was to write a newsletter for English speaking investors.
So what I had to do is I had to read a lot of accounting and financial statements. Statements, read the summaries of the analyst. They wrote in Japanese. My spoken Japanese was really not that good, but that’s not why I was there. I could read Kanji and I also knew financial statements. And so from that, I was supposed to write summaries in English.
I had to write in a clear, concise and compliant manner. This job paid well. It was a job where I was working in my field, but I didn’t feel. Fulfilled. That’s when I learned about personal financial planning. But I said to myself, who in the world is going to take me seriously? I’m in my twenties. How can I advise and people about retirement?
So that’s when I said, it’s time for me to come stateside because I was born here and I, Earned my business degree and that’s when I decided to help my husband get his financial house in order to pay down a credit card, student loans. We bought a house, two kids, and then the age of 32, I’m like, that’s it.
I feel like I have street credibility. I’m going to join a financial advice profession. So that’s where it all began. What, what do you think, like, drew you back to it? Obviously you’re talented. You could have done a lot of things, but when you’re, you know, you’re getting at that age, I think you said 32 and you’re like, you know what, I want to start helping others.
Like, what do you think drew you back to it? Like to be like, okay, like this is it. Well, I think what drew me back to it is I started to realize that, you know, everybody. Deserves the opportunity to become financially resilient, right? But there was an issue we got to remember. This is like the late nineties, early 2000 where the world was different.
It was before smartphones. That’s a major difference. And sometimes the only way people could get advice was if they turned over their portfolio and got professional money management. There’s nothing wrong with that business model, but if you are in your 20s or 30s, and it’s your first job, you may not have those minimums or a portfolio to turn over to somebody for professional management.
So then what do you do? Yeah, that’s true. And I think access to information technology, all this has changed things. And I know, I know I take it for granted when you say that I’m like, Oh yeah, you’re right. Like now we couldn’t just. Pull out our smartphone and use it to do all this, like how quickly things change.
So, so now just kind of going further down the line of the story. So now you enter the industry, you start like, how did that work for you? Like, well, I would talk about maybe your first firm or like, how did that piece of it work for you? So. So I first worked as an employee advisor at a large firm.
And then I worked as independent contractor for 11 years at a large firm. So fast forward from late 99 to early 2000 to 2013. I spent 14 years at the same firm. It wasn’t bad, but I wanted to do more for the profession. And so I tell people, you know, I’m very goal oriented. I didn’t want to just build a practice or serve clients for myself.
I truly want to improve financial inclusion and financial resilience for all. So I thought, what better way to do this than to be an entrepreneur. Yeah. What was it like going into the, the, the side of entrepreneurship? Because when you’re working with it and I asked this, not just in finance, but in general, you’ve been working with a large, you know, company for a long time, the corporate structure, then you start out as an entrepreneur.
Now you’re maybe wearing more hats than you did in the past. Like, what was that like making that leap? Well, sure. It definitely takes a lot of discipline. Like I, I know some people are like Rita, there’s no way I can do that. I just don’t have focused on discipline. I’m like, you’d be surprised what you can do when you have two small kids.
Right. And then by then I had my third child. I was like, you just learned to be very organized and focused. And even if you have every intent to accomplish everything, that’s when agility. Comes into play. You know what? I have to be agile. I have to adapt. In some ways the technology at a large firm is very comforting.
They do everything for you. But sometimes that can hold you back too, because you’re thinking that someone is always going to take care of it for you. I will tell you I am the oldest of three girls and my dad was very strict with me. I had to know about personal finance. Wow. I had to know about cars and I had to know about technology.
That’s pretty forward thinking of your father, by the way. Like that’s not, yeah, that’s pretty forward thinking. It is. We, I joke around, we didn’t get to home improvement, but we got those three. Good. And so, you know, at the large firm, sometimes people be frustrated because they’d have to call the tech support desk.
I had to call the tech support desk too, but a lot of times I figured stuff out on my own and it, sometimes I, my, my dad actually would make me mad. I was like, dad, can you help me with this? And he’d say, no. And I was like, why not? He’s like, because someday I’m not going to be here and you got to learn how to do it.
And he’s right because my dad became really sick with Parkinson’s and he wasn’t able to help me. So that is what you call tough love. He’s like, you need to know about tech cars and personal finance, but personal finance first, tech second.
I’m guessing that you had your own trifecta for your own kids to where the whether they were in that order or otherwise, I don’t know, but I’m guessing that that love pass its way down. Yeah. Yeah, we do have our own trifecta to you’re not doing anything until you know, X, but absolutely. I mean, there is support and structure into corporate environment.
But then when you take an entrepreneurial path, it can be really easy to be distracted. How did you stay focused in the beginning? Would you say? I would say I stayed focused because my North star, why am I doing this? It didn’t matter if I worked in a corporate structure or independent entrepreneurial venture.
I wanted to be a financial planner to be able to take concepts to transform lives. And sure, there were times when I hit roadblocks but I just kept going because I would always go back to my wife. Why are you doing this? And what I enjoy most is helping people. So even if someone told me no or it was just something horrible that happens.
I learned to always go back to my why. The other thing that I also found to be very helpful. I am a very serious person, but I don’t take myself too seriously. And we have to think I joined the profession June and 99. There were four crises that happened in like less than 10 years, bubble burst, nine 11 and one and the global financial crisis.
So one time someone was just trying to size me up at the conference. Like how long have you in the business? Why are you here? You someone’s assistant. And this is what I told this individual in the business 20 years. He’s like, really, when did you start? When you were like eight, I said, no, but what you don’t understand, there’s been four crises in 10 years.
So I feel like I get double credit for every year I was in the business. I got him to warm up to me and like laugh. So I just, I always tried to make sure I had a good head on my shoulders. Did right by others and always went back to my, why, why am I doing this? So one of the big themes of this book that we’re working on together, along with women connect for good is really Women helping women.
And can you maybe speak a little bit about being a woman in the financial field and just representation there? And what I’m hoping is that maybe this inspires others to be attracted as well, because there’s just not enough. No, absolutely. And thank you for that. I think that sometimes people would say, well, why would you help somebody else in the profession?
Like, aren’t they a competitor? And that is the scarcity mentality. Abundance mentality. There’s two ways we can go about this. You know what? I had to struggle. Like I didn’t see anybody who looked like me. I had to deal with a lot of nonsense. So the next generation or people who come after me need to deal with that.
I don’t think that serves anybody. Well, the other way of dealing with it is like, you know what? Like I had to deal with this. It wasn’t pleasant. I got through it. Having said that let’s make the journey Easier for those who come after us. And so that’s always been my mindset. What would I say to a woman or someone from an underrepresented community who’s considering this?
I would say our profession needs you. We need you. Because personal finance is just that it’s personal and everybody’s journey is different. If you are really good with people, you genuinely care. You can’t fake empathy. That’s what I would tell people. What do you find rewarding out of what you do?
Like you’ve been doing this for a while. And as many times as we’ve spoken in the past, like you’re always fired up. You’re always telling me something amazing about a client or something else you’re doing, like what, what gives you fulfillment in this? I would say what gives me fulfillment is the relationships, helping people, even if it’s something more challenging.
You know, I met with somebody today, she’s an existing client. She went through a very difficult divorce and Just knowing that you’re there for people during challenging times, it’s incredibly rewarding, but also knowing that you’re there for clients during life’s most beautiful, precious moments. I would say what I enjoy most is the relationships, the conversations.
I also love that. We’re always learning, like things are changing, which is good. You don’t get bored. You’re not in a rut. You can’t tell me, you know what? I hate being up. The certified financial planner, because it’s just boring. It’s seen it the same thing every day. That’s not the case. So I feel like I’m always learning.
We talked about how it’s emotionally gratifying and then I just think that it has such a positive impact on, on society. And so. That’s why I just love the profession. I want, I want to jump around a bit here. So let’s get a little bit into the book and just for everybody watching to see, no, we’re not going to go too far because because we will be bringing Rita back on the show when the book is actually live and out there.
So you can, of course, grab a copy, of course for all the listeners. But that being said like talk, talk high level, maybe about some of the concepts and ideas you plan to present in the upcoming book. Well, I’m really excited about this book. As you know, I’ve participated in other projects, but why this one?
This is women connecting for good. The power of connections and collaborations. I’m going to be talking about timeless advice that can help everyone in their entrepreneurial journey, not just women, but everyone. So confidence, resilience, and the importance of collaborating with others. I want, if there’s anything people take away from this conversation Is there’s power and collaborating with others.
Yeah, I agree with that. And that’s why when, when I found out that you were going to be participating as well, I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be, cause we have just an amazing, amazing, great group of authors. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, we’re just going to fit in so well with everyone. And it’s just going to be, it’s just going to be a great collaboration.
And speaking of collaboration, I’ve been, I mean, I’ve been following you on LinkedIn and some other areas, and I’ve been, as we’ve been catching up, you’ve been doing a lot of. I saw some amazing, beautiful pictures of you on there in front of the podium. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, Rita’s out there just doing amazing things.
Maybe talk to us a little bit about like what some of the concepts are you’ve been speaking or where you’ve been speaking or give me a little bit of the lowdown there. Let’s catch up. Sure. So last week I was in Nashville and I participated in a 90 minutes round table discussion with three other financial advisors.
It’s interesting. There’s one woman women do represent 23. 1 percent of the financial advice profession. So I was representing we were talking about this was at the insured retirement Institute conference. Our panel was To talk about from the lens of financial advisors, what types of clients, what types of clients are interested in certain types of products and what what clients are wanting from certain products and what their vision is for a secure retirement.
Does that mean that they just want to retire and the takeaway here is it depends. It’s once again, it’s personal finance. Retirement means different things to different people. Some people when they retire, they retire other times. It’s a time to try new things. So that is what we spoke about last week for the panel discussion this week.
This is my Signature program. I know it can sound a little bit dry, but I talked about ethics. We all face ethical dilemmas. I know that we want to do what’s in the best interest of our clients, but what if that’s not what your client wants? Yeah. And so this was a That does not sound dry to me.
That sounds really interesting. I’m sorry. Well, good. I’m so glad you say that. And during our presentation, we make it interactive. There’s polling questions. There’s games, audience participation. So those are the type of things we talk about. You have a duty to do Duty of loyalty to your client. Whenever I go to an industry event, or even when I was in finance, when I go to those types of events, and I’m in that surrounding of either my peers or clients, potential clients, or otherwise, I always come back with like these new learnings or these new things.
And these kind of like aha moments or things that are like, Oh, either surprised me. I wasn’t really realizing that was going on in the industry overall, or it affirmed some things that I was missing. Already kind of suspected. I’m just curious, just high level on either of the conferences or otherwise, were there any kind of like takeaways or aha moments you had, like, as you were kind of in the environment of your peers and otherwise, well, absolutely.
I think we talked a lot about technology, right? AI, AI is going to make us more efficient, right? Of course it is. It’s technology. However, that doesn’t replace conversations. The other thing that’s also interesting. We learned about how we’re all on our phones, right? And I just want to say for anybody who is in compliance, who is listening, I don’t text my clients.
Sometimes clients will text me that they’re running late and that’s fine. They’re saying they’re running late, but if someone has a question, I’ll call them back. A lot of people say, Oh, well, you should text your clients. You should market to them via texting. What’s interesting and what I learned is, People actually want you to pick up the phone and talk to them.
They want to see you. They love video conferencing. It’s true. People might be zoomed out but they’re, but they like good old fashion conversations, whether that’s in person Virtual or on the phone. So don’t just text people. Yeah, I agree with that one. I agree with that completely. And I feel like it for to build that like broader relationship or that deeper relationship over time.
I feel like those things add to it, right? Like using all different communication channels as you as you see appropriate. So that’s good stuff. And I think that also goes beyond obviously finance like that’s in anything like I like I like picking up the phone. Phone and it’s, it, people are pretty shocked actually when I, when I do just a random phone call, like, wait, wait a minute, Adam, or what?
Especially you’ve been texting them for a while. I agree with you completely. Now that I think about it, like, pick up the phone and you’ll, you’ll be shocked at some of the responses. No, absolutely. That, I mean, it, it even today, like I called this guy that I, I got his paperwork when I was gone. Mm-Hmm. . And I was gone and I called him and he’s actually 38 years old and I told him, I was like, I know that.
It may be more appropriate for you to respond to people via text. Thank you so much for taking my call. If you’re busy, he’s like, if I were busy, I wouldn’t have taken your call. And thank you so much for calling me. I really appreciate it. So here’s the guy who’s 38 years old. Yeah. Well, Rita as always, this has been fun.
I look forward to continue to work with you on the book and also we’re, I’m going to, we’re bringing you back on the show, but that being said what’s next? I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for a blue ocean global wealth. Well, I would say I, we talked about the ethics presentation. I mentioned that I’m really passionate about financial education, financial resilience for all.
I would say next is really taking the time with the new tax law changes to educate business owners and entrepreneurs on how they can save money in taxes, build wealth for themselves, and spend more money. Retain and reward their employees. Love it. If somebody wants to follow up and learn more about blue ocean global wealth, how do they do that?
So they can go to blue ocean, global wealth. com or find me on LinkedIn. Margarita Chang. Amazing. And for everybody watching and listening to this, just so you know, we’ll put all that information in the show notes, so you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters or listening to an episode, this is a daily show each and every day, we’re bringing you new episodes, new entrepreneurs, new founders, and new content.
So if that sounds interesting, hit that subscribe button because we don’t want you to miss any of the upcoming episodes and Rita, thank you so much. And I look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you so much.
