Cheryl Canzanella is the incoming president of NAIFA-Florida, boasting over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She holds several designations, including CLU, ChSNC, LUTCF, and CAP. With a background that spans annuities, brokerage, and a recent pivot to the mortgage sector, Cheryl brings a wealth of knowledge and a diverse perspective to her leadership role. She is passionate about leveraging financial tools like reverse mortgages, advocating for industry professionals, and enhancing community engagement within NAIFA. As a dedicated NAIFA member for 15 years, Cheryl aims to inspire, support, and mentor others in the industry while focusing on the importance of building relationships and personal development.
Have you ever wondered what the future of financial advising could look like? What if it involved more than just crunching numbers and forecasting returns? Could there be an untapped power in forming deeper connections — not just with clients, but among industry peers and communities?
Cheryl Canzanella, a financial services industry expert, paints a compelling picture of what lies ahead for financial advisors. She discusses her multifaceted career journey, how the industry has evolved, and how financial products like reverse mortgages can be essential tools in retirement planning. She emphasizes the significance of volunteerism and how it has fostered her growth as a professional and an advocate for the industry and NAIFA. With a look toward the future, Cheryl shares her goals for her presidency, focusing on member engagement, bolstering local chapters, and ensuring NAIFA remains a beacon for financial professionals nationwide.
In this episode of Advisor Today, co-hosts Chris Gandy and Suzanne Carawan sit down with Cheryl Canzanella, the incoming president of NAIFA-Florida, to discuss leveraging creativity and leadership in financial services. Cheryl shares her recognition and achievements within NAIFA and the significance of back-to-back female leadership, how to keep NAIFA membership exciting and engaging, how the financial services industry has evolved, and her focus as the incoming president of NAIFA-Florida and vision for its future.
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Intro 0:02
Welcome to NAIFA's Advisor Today, a podcast series where we focus on how financial advisors work, live, and give to their local communities and our greater financial services industry. Now let's get started with the show.
Chris Gandy 0:20
Welcome to Advisor Today's podcast. NAIFA zone. We created it some years ago, and we're super excited to bring you another wonderful episode right here with my wonderful superstar co-host, who many of you know, Suzanne Carawan. Suzanne, how are you?
Suzanne Carawan 0:36
I'm good Chris. Good to be here.
Chris Gandy 0:38
So good to see you. We have a wonderful guest today, a one of a kind. So Suzanne, before we get going on having a conversation with our wonderful guest, would you please share about our sponsor program and who's sponsoring us in this podcast today?
Suzanne Carawan 0:55
Sure, today's podcast is sponsored by NAIFA's Lifetime Healthcare Center. We have a new upcoming virtual event that we typically do every year around Halloween. This year we're going to do a little bit later. It's going to be November 19, and we're going to look at all the things that actually impact lifetime health care. As you know, many of the intersection of health and wealth, and now it's being called wealth care is coming to fruition. So we're on top of that at NAIFA, and we're going to deliver great amount of thought leadership, all in one day, Ted Talk type style events. And so November 19, you'll see more information, but the Lifetime Health Care Center is at lhc.nafa.org
Chris Gandy 1:32
Awesome, awesome. So Suzanne, with no further ado, we have a one of a kind guest today. So let's introduce the one and only Cheryl, if you would.
Suzanne Carawan 1:47
So we're happy to have Cheryl Canzanella Lewis with us today. Cheryl's been a long term member. She's the incoming just got sworn in becoming the incoming president of NAIFA, Florida. She's from the Jacksonville area, and she's going to has a lot to share with us today, a lot of personal stories, and she's had an interesting career, has done quite a few things, just like many of our NAIFA members have, just like kind of Jason foster we just had on the show. And Cheryl now is working for movement mortgage. So Cheryl, welcome to the program.
Cheryl Canzanella 2:16
Thanks for having me.
Chris Gandy 2:18
Cheryl, a long time no See, I've known you for a period of time, at least from a business perspective. So interesting opportunity you're lined up to be the president of Florida is that the first time we've had a woman lead us along that path.
Cheryl Canzanella 2:37
No, we've actually had women before, but this is actually the first time we're going to have back to back to back women leaders in the state. Currently, Maureen Kershafer is our president, and the next incoming president after myself will be Grace Dayton. So that's pretty exciting.
Chris Gandy 2:59
So Florida, if I go to our stat, stop here, Suzanne Carawan and her team, the word is that you guys are the champs. You guys are the big school, right? You guys are the largest contingency and membership in the Nathan nation. So share with us a little bit about Florida, why that's so such a part of your culture, right? Is that you guys are able to build and grow membership, not only today, but historically. So share with us some of the super secrets that you guys are doing in Florida that has allowed for you guys to not only grow membership, but sustain it.
Cheryl Canzanella 3:38
Well, I think first and foremost, I mean, we like to have fun in Florida, so it's always nice to have dedicated members that are not only sharing a like-minded organization and industry, but we also have fun. And we've had a lot of dedicated members throughout the years, and those that have gone on through and have participated on the national board as well. And I think most of the times that I think the majority of the time that I've been a member here, we have always had someone from the state involved on the national board. And it's nice to see we've had back to back NAIFA, Florida, previous presidents as National Presidents. So that always helps build that excitement as well.
Suzanne Carawan 4:26
Yeah, Florida is an enclave of past presidents.
Chris Gandy 4:29
Yeah, but they're doing some stuff. Suzanne, let's call the Fun Police. Cheryl, tell us some of the unique things that you guys are doing. You guys are doing cruises, barbecue. You guys are doing some stuff everybody else is not doing. In Chicago we're not going out on boats and stuff. It's different. So, the creativity, so where does the creativity part of it come from? Because it's not just something that naturally just come.
Cheryl Canzanella 4:56
Well, I mean, I think it's just trying to find we all like to do. And in Florida here, we like to cruise. I'm sure if we could build a port somewhere in Chicago, we could probably get a cruise to you guys as well. But I mean, we're very lucky that we have several options for ports here. So that's something that we're going to try to revive the excitement and get people interested, and get a lot of people who haven't really participated in the past. It was funny, when I was making some phone calls for the laps members, there was one of my calls she didn't know she had lapsed, and the credit card changed, but I had asked her if I had ever met her and had an opportunity to meet she had ever attended one of our meetings, because I don't recall her name, and she said, No, she hasn't really had a chance. And so I told her about the upcoming cruise, and she immediately, I mean, the tone changed, and she said that that was something that might interest her, because she could bring the family. We've always encouraged family members to come. But I think with this upcoming cruise in July of next year, we're going to kind of change the dynamics of how we provide educational meetings. I mean, you're kind of stuck on a cruise for four days with people, so you really do get to know everyone and have an opportunity to dive further than just a couple days of meetings and everybody scatters at night, you have events and activities and dinners that we're all going to be in front of each other, where we've gotten a chance to maybe get to know someone you don't typically get to sit down and share a beach chair with and get to know them.
Chris Gandy 6:38
So Cheryl, let's rewind the tape. You're a volunteer now with NAIFA, but share with us a little bit about how did you get in the industry, and how long have you been in?
Cheryl Canzanella 6:50
About 25 years now. I fell into the industry like I think a lot of people did. I had no idea what a stalker Bond was. I worked for a company called Merrill Lynch, and I had opportunity to focus specifically on annuities and get to know and work with advisors throughout the state of Florida that were with Merrill Lynch at the time, and had an opportunity to see people firsthand coming into this industry. What it took. How do you get licensed? How do you build a book of business? How do you make recommendations? I mean, it was all very new to me, but I had some really great mentors in the business that kind of took me under their wing and helped show me the ropes.
Chris Gandy 7:39
You mentioned mentors. How important have mentors been in real life, and what are some of the key things that you've learned from some of your mentors?
Cheryl Canzanella 7:47
I mean, there's several people that I specifically think of when I think of my mentors and importance, I don't think I would be where I am today if I didn't have a mentor guiding me and giving me opportunities. I had several people that were specifically helpful to me, personally as well as professionally, and that means a lot more to me than anything but the time that it took for them to guide me and kind of share with me either my direction for questions on what am I going to do with my career to kind of pointing me, telling me, okay, this might be a great area for you to focus on. And just like anything else, you fail, you learn and you do better. And that was probably one of the biggest things is learning to accept that I'm not always going to be perfecting everything I do, and that gave me an opportunity to learn how to overcome a lot of challenges and build back and come back as a better person.
Chris Gandy 8:58
25 years, the industry has changed. You know, industry, you know, is a little different than it used to be. Can you highlight some of the differences that you say the industry go through? And then A, I want you to approach it from also second question, Part B is as a thought leader, woman in this industry, right? How has the industry changed? So if you could tackle those two, I think you could give insight, because many of us don't know what's different, and if we do know it's different, it's even more different for others who will never walk in your feet.
Cheryl Canzanella 9:47
Well, I can share that. I mean, when I started in the business, I saw, and I came from a world of maybe selling product sales, seeing Financial advisors. They weren't making it in the business unless you knew people that had, at least, you know, $250,000 in assets, and you had to have a household of generating people. Otherwise, you weren't going to get paid on commissions. And I saw them go out the door. They were a revolving door, as many people as they would bring in, very few stuck, and very many were just kind of going right back out the door. So over the years, I think what I have seen now, and what I feel I've personally involved, is more of like the behavioral side of financial planning. It's not necessarily just transactional. It's actually bringing it to a whole other level, to where I think today you have to be more in tune with your clients personal life. They're involved with them and understanding what their goals are, but that kind of the behavioral side of financial planning. So you have to go even deeper, I think, now than when I started 25 years ago. And when it comes to females and women in this business, I think one of the best things about this industry is that commissions don't discriminate between male or female. When you're or fees and then and the amount of money that you can make, there's no limitation. So I think as a woman coming into this business, there's a lot of opportunity. There's a lot of opportunity to go beyond what you would think, the typical woman makes it per dollar, versus a male, commissions and fees and being able to provide planning holistically, I think, is an enormous opportunity, especially for those that have families.
Chris Gandy 11:39
So what I'm hearing is that the commissions aren't as disproportionate as it might be in some corporate jobs, corporate America, or whatever it may be, because statistics show that it's somewhat disproportionate from leadership and the role that they have in comparable to some men, right? And so let's take that even a little bit further. The opportunity for you to leave Florida, how are you now paying that forward? Right? Is that, you three consecutive the trifecta. How are you guys influencing other women to come into the business? Because now you guys are in leadership roles. And also, how are you guys influencing women being involved and engaged with NAIFA?
Cheryl Canzanella 12:38
Well, I think kind of going back to the women I feel like we tend to have be a little bit more emotional and maybe more in tune with emotions. And you have to admit, this industry, it's an emotional business. I mean, financial planning, finances, it all involves emotions. So I think just in general, with women in this industry, we generally just naturally have an ability to really connect with other individuals. So that's why I think this industry is just an enormous opportunity for women. When it comes to NAIFA and having, I've had mentors, and I feel very lucky I would call, Maureen, who is our current president, she's been one of my, I guess, my NAIFA, whatever called My NAIFA Rumi, or my NAIFA mom, since I've been a member of NAIFA since 15 years ago, and having people like her that have been very dedicated to attending events and volunteering, I think, helped pave the way for other people to join, whether or not you're woman or male, but I think by at least volunteering and helping, help lifting other people up and getting involved definitely helps.
Chris Gandy 13:49
Yeah, I think you have a unique perspective. So, what are some of the ways in which you're sharing that perspective? I just think if more women are able to hear that, it's okay to struggle a little bit, but you got to get off the sideline and get involved and get engaged. It creates a unique community for empowerment, opportunity execution and just creates a unique platform that exists, right? And so let's talk about your membership chairs and some of the chairs that you have. And let me ask something of one to take what made you want to be in leadership seriously. Why bring that heat to yourself, just do your thing and raise a family. Why leadership? Come on.
Cheryl Canzanella 14:49
Listen, I'm 46 years old. I have a two year old son. Yeah, I don't need anything more on my plate, that's for sure. But, I've been involved in NAIFA for. Long that it was about time, and there was an opportunity that opened up. And I mean, I think we're in a time where we need our membership now more than ever, and an opportunity to join side by side with some of the other dedicated volunteers, whether or not it's at the state level or national level, I think is a unique time to be in this. I mean, it doesn't come without its challenges. We know that, and it's no other, you know, every other organization is having some challenges, but I think the volunteers make the organization, the members make the organization, and we've got a tremendous opportunity right now to really turn things around. And, like you said before, it's like that, the Fun Police, it's getting people excited again about joining and participating.
Chris Gandy 15:51
Cheryl, you said something pretty, pretty monumental. And if we can go back. Suzanne, put that up, though, is that we have an enormous we have an amazing opportunity. Now, opportunities are squandered all the time. We have an amazing opportunity to create a catalyst of change, and obviously they're doing it in Florida in unique ways. If everybody's listening to this, if they could start to replicate some of the behaviors, and I was always told that in sports, if you replicate the behaviors of the starters, you one day would be a starter, right? You replicate the behaviors, yeah, yeah. If you replicate the behaviors, you have an opportunity to replicate some of their success. And Florida, obviously is having success, which is great. So, Cheryl, your role now sounds like you've been in a couple different world. You've been in a producer role. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, you were kind of in a, like a wholesaler kind of role, cool, brokerage, brokerage role, and I'm sure recruiting and development along the way, somebody talked you into a little bit of that. So tell me, tell us about your practice now. And how do you balance family, NAIFA and your practice? How do you balance all that out?
Cheryl Canzanella 16:17
Everybody talks about this work life balance. I don't know that. I've yet to find that balance, but you certainly try, and you certainly have support from every area, and that means everything. So I couldn't do what I do without involving family or being involved with my family. So having the ability to have the support of my family, to do things like work full time, to be able to volunteer, which will be a full time job, essentially with NAIFA and being president. But I feel like there's, it's, it's important to have the support of those around you, and that makes all the difference.
Chris Gandy 17:56
So talk to me about, Cheryl, what do you hope to accomplish the president? Here it is, Suzanne, so give us your State of the Union speech, if you would please, in a shortened version. But what do you hope to accomplish with quota in the next 12 months that would be monumental for your or success in your eyes, for your President?
Cheryl Canzanella 18:22
Well, I'll say that one of the biggest things that I was a cheerleader for, bringing back that excitement piece, I was a cheerleader for when I was the president of Northeast Florida. At the time, Jacksonville, Florida was when QME was coming around the corner, and that was, I was a big proponent and supporter of the fact that even if you don't have logistically a chapter with having meeting minutes and having a quorum and having to go through the whole logistics, there's no reason why we still can't meet and get together. So I feel like, right now, there's an enormous opportunity to work with those chapters, the previous chapters that may have been feeling a little left out because they are no longer meeting together, they don't have the title of president and secretary and treasurer, but I think we can still get them excited. And that's the biggest thing, is having the ability to meet and have camaraderie and have accountability to want to come back to another event. So I think our focus is going to be really supporting the affiliates and our local members, and supporting them and getting them excited about getting back together, that's going to be a huge opportunity for us this year.
Chris Gandy 19:43
So, I mean, I would say that just an observation that we lost momentum. Everybody lost momentum during COVID, right? And people, once we came out of COVID, some things are still coming out of COVID. Once we came out of COVID, people's natural behavior was, well, I was just able to be as productive during COVID, even more productive for some people and their go to I was having a conversation with one of my clients about this, about the inability to engage and that the default becomes by virtual and that lack of community is a real thing. And so how are you engaging people? Cheryl, how are you guys engaging people to show up in person? Because, I mean, the default is, you know, I can get the same thing online, why not do that?
Cheryl Canzanella 20:45
One of the biggest things that I took away from Apex, just a thought that or a message that someone shared, was that they were being consistent about getting together, even if it was just a couple people. Because guess what? Over time, even though it's a couple people this month, it might be a couple more people next month, it might be a couple more people next quarter. If we can be consistent and show up, even if it's just a couple people don't get discouraged, there's still that opportunity. I think, as more and more people start to get together, they have that accountability towards each other, oh, I'll see you at the next event. And that's not happening right now. So there's none, but we have to kind of build that back with baby steps, which, everyone thinks, okay, unless we have a 50 member turnout or 20 people turn out for the event, it's not successful. And I disagree with that. I think it could be. It can be very successful, because it only means that meaningful relationship turns into four meaningful relationships, six meaningful relationships. It multiplies, and I think we're missing that opportunity right now.
Suzanne Carawan 21:53
Yeah, I think the opportunity, what incredible leadership opportunity this is because there's so many people that just don't know that they could just raise their hand and say, Let's get together, right? And NAIFA can support you and embrace you to get that going, but I think everybody's kind of waiting for somebody else to do it and then kind of complaining about it. So I think if people, more people knew how accessible that was to just say, hey, let's get together and there's no formal chapter in my town, that's okay, that's okay. You don't have to wait for that, right? You don't have to wait. You can just raise your hand and say, hey, I want to talk to the state president and figure out what that looks like.
Cheryl Canzanella 22:29
Wait and bring up a good point, because people have been discouraged because they did raise their hand, and all of a sudden you're voluntold to do everything, and you're just bogged down by everything, and now all of a sudden you don't even want to be a member next year, or you don't want to participate at that level or volunteer. So rightfully so. I mean, we needed someone to step in, but now we can do this collectively and we can support them. There's not much you have to really do when you say, hey, let's just get together. We don't have to make it formal. You're not going to have to worry about all of the other logistics that comes along with that. And the meeting, to have a meeting, to have a meeting. I mean, let's just, you know, get together, grab some appetizers.
Suzanne Carawan 23:11
That's right, yeah, yeah. And it's such an important point, because I think you bring up a true generational difference, which is, there are the baby boomer generation tends to value and always has quantity, because they're the biggest generation. But then you have the millennials, who are actually bigger, and they actually value quality, is everything you say. So your point of, if you have two, three great relationships and build from there, that's a different mentality, and it's got to start somewhere. But this is a leadership opportunity dream right now and NAIFA.
Chris Gandy 23:48
You guys going back and forth talking about this, this inspires me to want to be better by listening to you. And you guys are talking about the good stuff, but let's talk about the not so good stuff, shall we? So, what are the challenges? So let's talk organically. What are the challenges to membership that we see out there, and what are some of the ones we don't even see? We don't see right? They always say, there's the things that you know, the things you don't know, and the things you know you don't right. Those are the three things. So what are some of the challenges that we know, and what are some of the challenges that maybe we haven't even thought about that could be stopping people from joining? Because I would think that, you roll this out to an agency, why doesn't everybody join NAIFA, like, if they understand what it is, how it works, and the role it plays in their life, in their career, everybody's going to join. So what are some of the hiccups with this goes across the country. I'm just asking the biggest chapter here, what are the biggest hang ups? Why aren't people drawing NAIFA and grow?
Cheryl Canzanella 24:55
Gosh, when it comes to challenges, I feel like one, now we've got so many different ways to obtain information. So as a resource, what is NAIFA providing that I can't go online and find myself, so I feel like that's probably one of the bigger challenges. And like you said before, with COVID and we made more and more things accessible online, which is great, but understanding, how do we communicate that there's so much more value that is coming through NAIFA than simply finding something online, you know? And how are you going to find it online? I mean, you can go down that rabbit hole and get lost when we've already got an outlined program for you, we've got designations that you can take advantage of, and you don't have to try to piece everything, we've already created it. You don't have to recreate the wheel. But it's easy to say, Hey, YouTube is out there and I can find all I have, all I need on that from that source.
Chris Gandy 26:02
Yeah, it's difficult, right? There's so much information out there to discern them. Of information, let's fast forward the tape. You've had a relationship. So tell us a little bit about the mortgage business, because you're a unique role, not necessarily, maybe managing money, but now also recruiting or developing people on the financial service. I mean, you've got a unique role. Tell us a little bit about how mortgages play into the role of financial services, because it is such an important piece, because it is one of the largest I'm listening to your words, right? Signature. It's one of the largest investment that people will make during their lifetime. So I am aware of that. But why is it so powerful when it deals with planning for people?
Cheryl Canzanella 26:54
Well, I'll tell you how I got into the role I am after being 25 years in the financial industry. Why in the world would I change complete industries, what you would think complete industries? And it was actually NAIFA, and I'll tell you why NAIFA brought in a speaker that was talking about reverse mortgages, and a seed was planted. I remember sitting there realizing that everything that he was saying was very similar to the same things that I was saying. And I was in brokerage, and I was working with advisors throughout the US, talking about long term care, life insurance, disability insurance, annuities, income planning. I was talking about taxes, cash flow, non-taxable, non-correlated assets. Everything he was saying just kind of triggered this. This is exactly the same conversation I'm having with my advisors every single day. It was just a different product. And so fast forward, I met George Verben, who is a member of NAIFA here in Jacksonville, and we got to talking, and I realized, there's an enormous opportunity here in our industry, and most people aren't taking advantage of it. So I saw an opportunity to be a part of that. We know that half of Americans aren't saving enough money right now for retirement, and they're concerned. And what are typically our responses? Well, find another source of income or spend less. And this is another source of income that could be utilized as income. It could be utilized as just another last resort, a line of credit when you need it, but it's another opportunity as a source that is underutilized and most people aren't taking advantage of it. So I feel like I'm in a really unique position right now to bring to light an opportunity that the financial industry really is just starting to understand and just starting to open up to.
Chris Gandy 29:01
Well, in our world where, we were taught that mortgages is a bad thing, right? So reverse mortgages has the same connotation, or even worse than annuities. For a lot of people, they're like, oh, they're funny. We're going away. So demystifying, even having conversations with you and one of your previous colleagues having conversations with you, yes, I was like, oh, wait a minute. So the seeds that have been planted in my head about it's so bad, it's so bad, it's so bad. Was not the real seed.
Cheryl Canzanella 29:35
Yeah, you mentioned annuities, annuities when I first got in this industry. That's exactly what I did at Merrill Lynch annuities have had a bad rap. And it's kind of a four letter word, and that's kind of a picture reverse mortgages, it's a four letter word. You just — it's a bad word, and that's because of what has been taught to us. It's not that the product has been bad, it's maybe the people were selling it unethically, the same thing for annuities, they were churning them. They were high fees. They weren't liquid. It's not that the product was a bad thing. It was the people selling them or it was the people purchasing them that didn't quite understand. One of the great things about our industry is we do have some regulations in place. And if you do sell annuities, you know you've got to jump through a lot of hoops in order to make sure suitability and compliance and you're doing the right thing. It's ethical for the client. It's going to achieve a goal. The same thing, we have to jump through probably one of the most scrutinized products out there, because seniors are a protected class. So this is a product that is just misunderstood, and most people don't realize how they can actually, their clients can actually take advantage of it to put them in a better position.
Chris Gandy 30:47
You said something very important. One of my mentors told me, he said, hey, every movie has a couple bad actors. Because every movie, rather, he goes, even the Emmys, there's a couple bad actors in those movies. And he goes, he goes, but did you throw the movie out? Because within any level, oh, good movie overall. And so the same thing in our industry is that there's a lot of products that are either miss, sold, oversold or misplaced for the purpose of one reason or another, but you're saying something that makes sense, so we have to go back and reeducate people on the fundamentals right of how to use one of their largest assets, and if it makes sense to make it a part of their financial plan. And every decision is a retirement decision, you're either moving one step closer, one step further away. So at the end of the day, that becomes another asset for us to talk about. Talk to us a little bit about Cheryl, the future, right? I know you can't see you on a crystal ball. You can't, but the time is now, and we know that everybody's job is recruiting and bringing new members aboard. But let's talk about the future. Where do you see the future of what do you see NAIFA as 10 years from now? If you could fast forward the team in your ideal world, where do you see NAIFA?
Cheryl Canzanella 32:15
Where do I see Nathan 10 years from now? Well, I'd like to see us have double the members, triple the members. I'd like to see us having more interaction at the local level. I'd like to see us getting back to that camaraderie and to that personal accountability for seeing friends and building friendships as well as mentorships and interaction, but doing it more at the local level. I mean, we definitely have built a very strong national organization, and now it's time to take all of those benefits and all of that work that has put in nationally and to start getting that to come down and trickle down to local members, and allow them to take advantage of that.
Chris Gandy 33:07
You guys, Suzanne, I'm gonna say that I'm glad we're on virtual zoom slash our podcast. But do you realize that in the financial services industry, there's what we call financial jargon, right? And there's words that we use. We know the answer to it, like a premium, like dividend, like we know those words like the back of our hand. We had an underwriting. We understand APS is and all those fun fuel words. But do you realize that we use words that a lot of our members don't know? Like, I'll give you an example. I was having a conversation with about six or seven NAIFA members the other day, and I said, do you know what QME was? They literally go, like, is that like a like an education thing we can get, or what? I was like, no, right? So I think part of also educating people in general, we forget that people didn't go through the history with us. So like new people have no idea of what GME is, normally when it stands right and they're like, okay, so I think part of our challenge is the bridging of the gap, is getting out of our own way, right, and making sure that we get back to fun, we get back to membership, and we try to figure out how we can continuously grow and support our leaders like Cheryl and others in state positions, so that they can have all the resources they need to be successful. That is our, that's where I see NAIFA going in the future. Suzanne, do you have some insight on that?
Suzanne Carawan 34:53
Yeah, I mean, it's a great point and, and I think you're right. I think let's not focus. Saying on you always have to take the good part of the past and bring it forward. But it's all about the future and building, and it's really opening up that opportunity. There's so much we could do now, and there's no reason we can't, right? That's how I look at it. Every day, there's no reason we can't have all these great get togethers and be able to do these things and be hybrid and virtual and in person, the whole bit and have these conversations, right? So I think the word that keeps coming to mind when Cheryl's talking, especially about reverse mortgages, it's the word leverage, right? We have so much we can leverage. So we can leverage our talent of the people. We can leverage our generational strength that we have. We can leverage our locations that we have. We can leverage all the different areas that people have a product knowledge and different service areas in which they practice. And to me, that's the whole thing, is, how do we leverage it in unique, you know, fun ways, right? Like we were just talking we have this confluence coming between health and wealth. And these two fields are coming together, right? And you can see in the reverse mortgage world. It's one of the big things that happens. You have a life event in long term care, and the reverse mortgage can be a lifesaver for that family, right? So how do we put all these things together and talk about that's exciting stuff? It's a really evolving world that we're in, that we're all practicing in. And so to me, it's never been more exciting, but it's, how do we create that? And it's different than it's ever been. And I think that's where everybody gets. I think everybody gets like, am I going to be involved? Am I going to be left behind? It's like, no, everybody, come on, let's go. It's an exciting thing. I love it.
Cheryl Canzanella 36:34
You guys do a great job of that with the podcast, I mean, and sharing the personal stories. Because, like you said, Chris, I mean we use language that people, we don't, we don't when we're sitting now with clients, we don't sell product. We never sell the product. Your clients would get up and walk away if we did. But we're selling the concerns and the needs and their goals, and we're addressing that product may be part of that conversation, but we're not talking to that, we're creating stories, and we share stories on why it's important for them to consider this direction or that direction. And I think that you guys are doing a great job with these podcasts, sharing those stories, so the more we can share those stories. And I think just recently, Suzanne, you've been doing the campaign with the personal lives of our NAIFA members. I mean, that's a great way to show that, hey, these are real people. They do like to run marathons. They do like to get involved in their community. They do like to volunteer and give back and make change outside of the organization. So you guys are doing a great job with that.
Chris Gandy 37:40
Thank you. Thank you. That is Suzanne.
Suzanne Carawan 37:49
He has not sent me pictures. I asked specifically for Chris's. We all have pictures of him playing basketball. I want to see him coaching basketball, and you still owe me those pictures. That's right, Cheryl, you owe me some pictures. You sent me some stuff too. So yeah, that's great, yeah, but yes, we NAIFA members are so fun. Renaissance people, all of you, a lot of fun, fun people.
Chris Gandy 38:11
So Cheryl, last question for you before we go to lightning round, talk to us a little bit about getting involved, right? Getting involved at the state level, showing up for when you guys have Day on the Hill coming to DC. What's been your experience? And you've had a pretty unique experience with getting involved and changing the culture, even changing some policy. Can you give us a little bit of insight on that and why you've chosen to just raise your hand and get involved on a federal and state level?
Cheryl Canzanella 38:50
Well, I mean, I kind of fell into it, just like I did the industry. I just happened to attend one of the day on the hills and in Tallahassee, here in Florida. And, man, I mean, I didn't quite understand what advocacy meant until I went there in person. And I know you guys hear this all the time, and more people need to hear this. But everyone was talking about all the great things that NAIFA was doing from an advocacy level. I didn't understand that until I actually went, and it was eye opening, and I'm like, wow, I could actually participate. I can actually meet these people and shake hands. And I think the second thing that was just eye opening to me was when someone remembered my name, and they remembered who I was, and one of the representatives in Tallahassee. And to be able to go to DC and to see it on the federal level, was just an amazing experience that I didn't want to stop. A lot of what I did as an independent contractor, I don't have funding from a company that will support me to attend these. Meetings. A lot of us, personally, travel and pay for our travel to attend these events. And I thought it was an enormous investment personally, but it was a tremendous return to be able to attend and to be able to actually connect the NAIFA and the advocacy and the level that we're doing with our representatives, either, at the state and federal level, but also to connect that, to be able to take that up to a personal level, and to actually get to know some of our representatives that actually on a personal level, that are involved in other things that are going within, going on within our community, was truly helpful.
Chris Gandy 40:41
Good. Suzanne, do you have anything else before we go to the lightning round.
Suzanne Carawan 40:46
It is time for the lightning round.
Chris Gandy 40:47
All right. Cheryl, so lightning round is, I don't know if you watch the other podcast, so that should be one of the requirements. All right, so we're going to take you through the lightning round. Cheryl, hopefully you've just be yourself. I know you're charismatic. So with that being said, let's go, okay, so Cheryl, what's your favorite food?
Cheryl Canzanella 41:08
Pizza, pizza?
Chris Gandy 41:10
What kind of pizza?
Cheryl Canzanella 41:12
Onions and tomato.
Chris Gandy 41:14
Okay, so I have to ask you a question, Chicago-style pizza, or New York pizza?
Cheryl Canzanella 41:18
New York?
Chris Gandy 41:21
I live in Chicago, and I would say the same thing, which is kind of interesting. It's floppy and just all over your hand. Great. Hold on, all right, Cheryl, your favorite quote?
Cheryl Canzanella 41:37
I would say, my favorite quote, I'm I just, I'm constantly saying “no worries, no worries.” And kind of lifts up the ease between two of us when in a conversation, when someone might be apologizing for something, or making sure that you know that there's some reason. Look, no worries. It's all good. We've all been there.
Chris Gandy 41:59
Your proudest moment in, sorry, your proudest moment in your financial service career.
Cheryl Canzanella 42:06
Proudest moment in my financial career, I would have to say, right now, doing what I'm doing, it was a huge change to change industries, and I am beyond excited about what's going to happen in the future and the changes that are going on. So I would say my proudest moment is making the decision to not necessarily change industries, but still focus on retirement planning. Is probably one of my proudest moments.
Chris Gandy 42:37
Your favorite movie.
Cheryl Canzanella 42:39
Favorite movie, Sandlot.
Chris Gandy 42:43
Why The Sandlot?
Cheryl Canzanella 42:45
The Sandlot? I grew up following baseball and I played softball since I was a kid, and Sandlot just spoke to me and love how the images of life is louder and bigger than what you actually reality is, and that's the imagination of a kid, is bringing all of these big, big ideas that are actually huge ideas or big problems that might be minuscule to us, but they mean everything to these kids. And a lot of people don't realize, it's a Stephen King movie or a book that it was based on.
Chris Gandy 43:30
If you could go back and have dinner with anybody in history, whether they're alive today or they passed away. Who would it be and why?
Cheryl Canzanella 43:42
Who would it be, and why? I mean, I would say my grandfather, because when I will tell you, I've done an exercise after losing my husband, where you have to go through a timeline of your grief. And grief isn't always losing a person you love. It could be losing a job, it could be losing your house, it could be any type of loss. And one of them we have to figure out when our first memory is. And my first memory that I recall was of my grandfather, which is really, you would think it would be your parents, but so I know that there's a connection there for some reason, and I'm not sure exactly what that is, so I would absolutely look to get to know on why that is, like the first image that comes to my mind as my first memory.
Chris Gandy 44:39
That's pretty powerful. All right, Cheryl, NAIFA nation is listening. Is there anything you want to share? From the stage to NAIFA nation, the stage is yours.
Cheryl Canzanella 44:52
Nothing. I'm excited. I've been a part of a member for NAIFA for 15 years. NAIFA has opened up doors. For me, and I'm excited to continue to participate, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to lead the way and for the state of Florida, and to continue on and build membership for leading Florida as continuing to be number one in NAIFA for membership.
Suzanne Carawan 45:23
All right, I'm sure California and Texas heard that.
Chris Gandy 45:26
Doug Massey is saying that Texas is coming for you guys, but that's okay. That'll be fun. So Cheryl, thank you so much for your insight, your knowledge. And NAIFA thanks you for your volunteerism, even if you were told at birth now it's you're leading others to the promised land. So thank you for being on our show. Suzanne. Do you have anything before I close up?
Suzanne Carawan 45:51
Yes. Same, ditto. Thank you, Cheryl, all you're doing.
Cheryl Canzanella 45:55
Thank you guys.
Chris Gandy 45:58
We want to say a special thanks to the incoming president of Florida, and Suzanne Carawan. And thanks NAIFA, for putting on this podcast. You had a choice. We twisted your arm, we volunteered you that we got to get on these platforms, and you followed our lead here. So thanks everyone for tuning into Advisor Today, a podcast where we uplift the voice of you, the advisor, to make the world a better place in the communities in which we serve for financial services. So thank all of you. We'll see you soon. Thanks for tuning in.
Outro 46:29
Thanks for joining us for NAIFA Advisor Today podcast series, make sure to subscribe to get future episodes, and if you're interested in coming on the show, let us know.