Ep. 61: Shelley Nadel: What Happens When You Stop Trying to Out-Man the Room
What does power actually look like when you stop trying to out-man the room? Shelley Nadel, CFP, author, and founder of Food and Finance with Shelley, has spent decades building wealth on her own terms inside one of the most male-dominated industries in the world, and she is just getting started.
Shelley Nadel did not take the traditional path into financial advising. After 19 years in government and nonprofit work, she walked into an insurance company in her mid-40s and immediately knew she was not like the others. No conservative suits. No interest in intimidating jargon. No desire to pretend that getting to the office by 6:30 AM was a measure of anyone's worth, especially not for the women in the room who did not have a wife at home handling everything else. Instead of forcing herself into a mold that was never built for her, she did something quieter and far more powerful: she started teaching money the way she actually thinks. Through stories, humor, and eventually, food.
That rebellion gave birth to Food and Finance with Shelley, a concept so original that when Shelley pitches it, people still go blank. The idea is simple: financial concepts taught through the lens of cooking. Ghost peppers for crypto. A grocery basket for mutual funds. And a blueberry pie crust that became a full-on lesson about facing the fears that keep women from building real wealth. Shelley's book, The Wealth Recipe, and her appearances on CW39's H-Town Live grew out of the same conviction that has driven her entire career: you cannot have self-autonomy unless you have financial autonomy.
This conversation also gets honest about the internal work behind the persona. Shelley shares the moment she stood at a podium in the LBJ Presidential Library, with Lady Bird Johnson seated behind her, while her right leg shook violently from nerves underneath the podium. Nobody in the audience had any idea. The lesson is not fake it till you make it. It is that the version of someone you see from the outside almost never tells you the full story, and that matters every time you catch yourself thinking you could never be that bold.
What You'll Hear
- Shelley's exact thought when a young finance bro bragged about his 5 AM mornings, and why she did not raise her hand but should have.
- Why pie crust knows your fear, and what that has to do with your 401k sitting untouched in a target date fund.
- The moment a stranger at an airport bathroom asked Shelley why she was famous, because a 10-year-old on the plane had told everyone.
- How "I can teach you money, I cannot teach you people" became the most validating thing a manager ever said to Shelley about why she was hired.
"Pie crust knows your fear."
- Shelley Nadel
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Links and Resources
The Wealth Recipe: A Culinary Guide to Financial Power by Shelley Nadel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHGKB6GN?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
See Shelley on CW39 H-Town Live: https://cw39.com/?submit=&s=Shelley+Nadel
Food and Finance with Shelley on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shelleynadel964
Connect with Shelley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleynadel/
Follow Shelley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelley.nadel/?hl=en
Shelley on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581288862784
The Pivot Point Podcast: https://www.leadintact.com/the-pivot-point-podcast
Lead Intact on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leadintact
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You made the move, or maybe you're about to, or maybe you're still in it, showing up, performing, delivering, while something quiet in the background keeps saying, "This is not it." Either way, something has shifted, and you can't unknow it. Here's what nobody tells you. The landing strip is a little rocky once you come down from the high of accomplishment.
There are moments of real excitement, real clarity, like, "Yes, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be." And then night comes, and the anxiety rolls in, the what ifs, the what am I actually doing? Not because you made the wrong choice, by the way, but because you're standing in the space between who you were and who you're becoming.
Done pretending this is enough, done pushing through, done ignoring the thing that keeps pulling at you. That's exactly where this podcast lives. I'm Laura [00:01:00] Dionisio, founder of Lead Intact, and I've been exactly where you are. The corporate success that stopped feeling like success, the leap that was equal parts terrifying and necessary, the messy, non-linear process of building something that actually fits, and learning to trust yourself through all of it.
This is The Pivot Point. Real conversations about what's actually happening beneath the surface, and what it takes to build a life that feels as good as it looks. Not just the wins, the attempts, too. Because I'm not here to romanticize the journey. I'm here to show you what it's really like. Let's get into it.
Shelley, welcome. Thank you for being here on the Pivot Point Podcast. Like I said in take one of this recording ... This is a year and a half in the making, Well- ... for me. I mean, [00:02:00] you may not have realized it, but listeners, the moment I met Shelley, I was just like, "Who is this vivacious, amazing woman?
I must have her on. I must spread her cheer and joy and just, just oomph to the world in a way that I can." Mm. So thank you so much, Shelley, for being here. Well, I'm excited to be here as well, so look forward to the conversation. I have the privilege of actually knowing you, but the listeners do not yet.
A CFP professional, author, and speaker. Shelley leads the Houston office of Radian Partners LLC, and is the founder of Food and Finance with Shelley, as seen on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, television, and in her book, The Wealth Recipe: A Culinary Guide to Financial Power.
Shelley's teaching style is unmistakable, warm, plainspoken, and free of the financial jargon designed to intimidate. Thank God. Sprinkled with humor and personal stories, Shelley has educated audiences ranging from 20 to 200 plus. Prior to [00:03:00] finance, Shelley had a 19-year career in government and not-for-profit management, and has a BA from Dartmouth.
I probably mispronounced that college. Dartmouth. That's okay. Dartmouth College. We're keeping that in. And a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas. She's a native Houstonian. Why are you giving me these words, Shelley? I didn't know, sorry. It wasn't for a purpose. Married for 34 years and counting, mother to Leia, Samantha, and Daniel, and new grandmother, Baba, to Elliot.
In her downtime, Shelley loves watching crime shows and the Astros on TV, cooking, jigsaw puzzles, and singing in her synagogue. Welcome, Shelley, to the Pivot Point Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much. Ah. Amazing. Amazing. And I just wanted to share with the listeners why I specifically wanted to have you on the show.
I shared it with you before the recording. Mm-hmm. It was the first time that you heard it, so I'm gonna go ahead and read it for the listeners, [00:04:00] because listeners, I'm telling you, this is gonna be a powerful conversation. I knew that a year and a half ago, and I know it now. That's why our, our earlier recording didn't work.
It was, like, too much greatness in the same place.
All right. What? It's true. I don't know why you're laughing. Well, I don't know. So why this episode? Most conversations about power and finance lead with numbers, assets under management, revenue, titles, seats at the table. But when I think about what Shelley has built over decades in an industry that has never made it easy for women to lead, I see something else.
I have goosebumps again. I see someone who has spent a career defining what power looks like on her own terms in a room that came with its own definition already built in. I want this episode to show you, my listeners, that power isn't something you earn once and then keep. It shifts as you do. Shelley has built serious credibility and reach her way, and I have a feeling that story is still [00:05:00] moving.
The real question I want to answer for my listener is this What does Shelley believe about power now that she didn't believe when she started, and what changed her mind? Because that answer is the pivot. So as I say that, I read that to you, Shelley, what comes up for you? The first thing that came up for me is the idea when I was younger is that being powerful meant being loud, being pushy, being controlling, dominating a room.
And that is definitely part of what power in leadership is. You have to be able to control the environment, you have to be able to manage outcomes. I mean, you've got to lead. That's what people are looking to you for. But but what, what is not in that image is the idea of soft power, of subtle power, of allowing people to learn and grow and make their own mistakes.
So one of the things I've learned as a manager over the [00:06:00] years is that it's really easy, and we do it in our families, I freely confess I did it with my kids and my husband for years, just joking with someone about that today telling them what to do, telling them how to do things. And that doesn't work, right?
It d- it, it just doesn't work. It doesn't work in business, it certainly doesn't work within a relationship with my husband and I. You realize. I, why I thought I could tell him what to do and he would do it, I have no idea. It's taken me 34 years to figure this out. Still working on it. You know, that soft power that, that quiet power.
Power doesn't have to be loud. Now, I am a naturally extroverted pers- I'm what they call an extroverted introvert. Like, I like being by myself, but I also like being in people and socializing and talking and l- and expressing opinions and I always wore lots of bright colors all the time, right? I never...
I always felt like I had to do that to stand out. And what I've evol- am, am evolving into, I still love color and all that, but I'm now evolving into letting, watching people grow and watching them learn and kn- knowing that it's not just being me, and that even transfers, like my wardrobe is changing. You know, it's becoming much [00:07:00] more balanced and not just all, you know, brightness.
And so I think, I feel like from a psychological standpoint, th- it's really about how I express myself now as a leader, and the confidence I have. When I was the former self, didn't feel confident leading, so I felt like I had to push all the time and drive and go, go, go. Now I'm confident enough in myself and my abilities and my strengths and y- you know, and my skill set, that I can sit back and actually appreciate it and use it in a more controlled way, in a more quiet way, but still get the results I want.
So that, that's what it makes me think of. Mm. I would love if you would walk us through, because you just said something that I think a lot of our listeners can relate to, and I can certainly relate to. You mentioned that a previous version of you didn't feel confident, so you felt like you had to drive, you had to wear the bold colors, and maybe you still wear them today, but for a totally different reason.
Can you share with us kind of like your journey? What was happening in your life at that point when you thought you had to be that way, and then- How did you start evolving? Like, [00:08:00] what led to you being like, "Oh power can be soft. There is such a thing as soft power"? So thinking back, I'm thinking back in my 30s, which was, a while ago.
I was, I ha- I was having my children, my three kids. by the way, pronouncing my daughter's name right, Lei instead of Leah, was very impressive, very... Almost nobody ever does that. Very impressed. Makes up for Eustonian earlier, right? I pronounced the important thing correctly. You did. That's right, that's right.
The mother of my grandson, you pronounced it right. When I was having my children, I had three in four and a half years and I had three little kids, my husband was traveling quite a bit for work, his work as an engineer, so I was on my own a lot of the time. And there's just never enough time in the day, right?
There was never enough time in the day. And so I felt like if I didn't push and drive and get it done, it either wouldn't get done or wouldn't get done the way I wanted it to. There's that entire, there was that perfectionism streak, and that dates way back to when I was a kid and my late father, you know, decent man, not criticizing him, but he was, you know, when I [00:09:00] got an A he said, "Why didn't you get an A+?"
That's a quote. And that was that kind of mentality, always had to be perfect. And so that extended into the workplace, right? And so I, so therefore I couldn't delegate something to somebody else. Even if I had staff, I couldn't delegate it because, well, they're not gonna do it as well as I can. They're never gonna write it as well as I can grammatically.
They're never gonna do it like I do. It has to be perfect. And when you have that as your ideal and as a parent, anyone who's a parent out there knows you can't... Perfection isn't, is, I mean, it's not even an illusion, it's a vapor, right? It j- just does not exist. But that doesn't mean you translate that lesson to your workplace when you're in that situation.
So as a parent, I was feeling fail- like I was failing and making mistakes along the way. So at work, can't make those mistakes, right? Gotta do. So there's all that pressure and so when you feel like you have to perform like that, then you have to control everything, and that, that goes into that really heavy oppressive power.
Mm-hmm. and then when I moved into the financial world, so I changed my... I mean, I had like three careers before I went [00:10:00] into finance. I've ha- had multiple careers. And when I went into finance in my mid-40s, I initially was kinda surprised, 'cause I had been in nonprofit technical, so I'd been in areas where there were a lot of women, and I entered this world where it was almost all men, and men in dark suits and men that, you know, and, and talking about how they were at the office at 6:30 in the morning and they stayed there till 7:00.
And I remember thinking one time I was in an audience, I was the only woman in the audience of a group of advisors, and there was a, a guy on stage, a young guy saying, "Well, you know, I, I get there and I read all the papers before 7:00." And all this stuff. And all I could, I wanted to raise my hand. I didn't.
I wanted to raise it. "Yeah, excuse me. I don't have a wife to bring my kids to school." Like I have... Seriously, that was exactly what I thought. I was like, "I could do that too- Mm-hmm ... if I didn't have to bring my kids to school, take them to the doctor, get home, make dinner, clean, you know, do laundry," that kind of stuff.
So it was that whole attitude of, of- I couldn't control that piece of it, so I had to assert myself as much as I could in this very, very, very male-dominated world. And what I realized in there, I very quickly figured out that the language that advisors use, the language [00:11:00] of power in the financial sector, was antithetical to how I think, how I talk, how, and how I c- my passion for helping women, which has been there since I was a little kid- Yeah
couldn't express itself. Everything is about perfor- like you said before, it's about performance, it's about numbers, it's... And often the woman is overlooked. And so I felt that power shift, and I was like, "How can I do this differently?" So that's, I think, probably the start of when I started to feel more of a soft power.
Because I had power... When I would meet with a client, usually a woman and her spouse or just a woman who was alone, and she's like, "God, nobody's ever told me this before. Nobody's ever explained this to me before." You know? And I started explaining mutual funds as a shopping basket at the grocery store.
I mean, I started using analogies that worked into people. So this was like a precursor to Food and Finance, long before Food and Finance came out. So I think that was when I probably... I never really thought until now- Mm-hmm ... but I think that's probably where it started, and then just evolved over time, over time.
Went independent and was able to... And then when Food and Finance happened, it just... i've just seen, I've seen [00:12:00] that piece of me. And also honestly, just getting older. My kids are grown. There's, you know, they're set in their lives and have great spouses and, and so I'm able to really focus on myself and say, "There's gotta be something more."
Mm-hmm. And that's when I've identified this more softer side, I wanna go back to something you said. Because I think it's really important, and I feel like in, like, the .5 seconds that you said it- ... I feel like there were a lot of women who were like, "Wait, what did she say?" What, one time. The moment where you said, uh, you were, I think you said you were at a meeting and like- Some man, some bro from some finance bro Some bro, yep.
I know that, yep Nothing against finance bros, maybe a little Nothing? No. Maybe a little. Let's just be real. Hey, I've, I've, I've let the guys in my, the advisors in my life- ... know what I think of the industry. Right. They know. They know. So when a finance bro was like, "Oh yeah, I read the papers by 7:00 AM," and you had the thought of, "Well, I don't have a, a wife to take care of the household things, otherwise I'd be able to do it too," I wanna zoom into that moment because- Uh-huh
Shelley, I could tell that it bec- [00:13:00] it, it was so natural to you, and this is why I was like, "I must have her on a show." I also feel so strongly about women empowerment, and the thing is, I think there are a lot of listeners out there, women particularly, it wouldn't even occur to them to look at something a man said and say...
They would say probably to themselves, "Oh, I, I'm not doing enough." So can you talk us through like for the listener who's like, "Oh my God, Shelley, the courage just to even have the thought," like for the listener out there who is just stop listening 'cause they were like, "Oh my God, I can think that way?"
Like what, what would you say to- that woman who may be feeling less than or lesser than because they feel like they can't keep up to their male colleagues? That's a, that's a great question. 'Cause I've always been a little out there, a little, sharp around the edges shall we say. And so, uh, but what occurs to me is, you know, Laura, you know this about me, my focus in everything I do is on self-autonomy, particularly [00:14:00] for women.
That, that's really what drives me, what motivates me, what I wanna spend the rest of my life in between time with my grandchildren, obviously, and then what am I doing? And showing them the example of how women should have self-autonomy. And there's lots of pieces to that, and I'm not gonna go down a lot of the rabbit holes there, but, but in my case, it's the financial autonomy.
And if you have the financial autonomy, you can afford to say, "Well, gosh, y- that doesn't work for me." And so how did I... My... W- it was funny 'cause it was a young kid, he was probably 15 years younger than I was, brand new advisor, and that whole brand new out of school finance degree, just I'm so good, and look at me, and, and all this stuff, just always rubbed me the wrong way.
It just always just felt like nails on chalkboard to me. So I was probably a little bit predisposed to be annoyed, but let's just be face it. And I also think that, I mean, his, his point was, uh, it was valid. You know, if you can spend all the time... That the work you need to do to get ahead in this business, and a lot of people make a lot of money in this business, you have to be able to [00:15:00] do that kind of stuff.
Well, at least in the past. That was the traditional model. And what I was saying to myself is, "Well, no, I can't... You know, most of the women I know can't do that," right? And, and this was 30 years ago, like 25 years ago. The world has changed a lot. Women's roles have evolved a lot. You know, men are contributing more in the family situation.
So I think that For the women out there that can't imagine responding that way, I wanna say your autonomy over your body, your thoughts, your actions, you should never give that away. And even if you're in a situation where you feel like you don't have choices, you always have a choice.
Um, I can't remember who it was that said that your response or your attitude is what you can... Oh, Elie Wiesel, what am I talking about? From the Holocaust. He, that was- he said you can- the only thing you can completely control is your attitude and your response. And that's a paraphrase. So I would say, if I can say this on a podcast- You can
kick a little ass. Kick a little ass. Yeah, that's true. I know. I'm sorry, what am I talking about? I have you on record. I have you on record. What am I talking about? Give my compliance officer a heart [00:16:00] attack. Um, anyway next time you hear a man say something like that, and you catch yourself going...
and trust me, I have wallowed in the I'm not good enough, I'm not important. You know, I, I've always felt, I have fought my entire life the demons of I'm supposed to be accomplishing more. Why aren't I? I'm supposed to be earning more. You know, the guy, advisors are making all this money. Why am I not making as much as they are?
All of these things, right? I, I can torture myself with the best of them. But I would encourage your listeners to s- to stop. When that voice starts, just put a hard no. Kick it. Feel like physically you're kicking it in whatever part of the body you choose to kick them in. Um, I can recommend a few, but, you know.
Again, we're on a podcast. Just imagine yourself physically doing that. Nobody has the right to tell you that, and you don't... And your, that voice in your head, it doesn't have to be there. You can just say, "Get the freak out of here," you don't belong anymore. I don't belong. This doesn't belong to me.
So I think it's more of a naked power grab on your listeners' parts. To just say, "Enough. [00:17:00] I just won't tolerate this anymore." And including the most powerful word, which are the ones in our heads. The most powerful critic are none. I will tell you a funny story. I was mentoring a group of, uh, women in energy space, and I was talking to them about this voice in their heads.
And I said, you know, "There's a tape playing in your head." And this was, again... And I looked at them and they had this blank stare on their face. They didn't know what a cassette tape was. I was like, "Oh, okay, a CD." At that point, CD rom. It was so funny. I was like, "The tape's in your head, right?" Anyway. Now I say the voice is in your head because you never know what technology people are listening to.
Anyway, yeah, I'm older. I know what a cassette is, don't worry. You do know, okay. That's why I'm laughing. They like, no, they complete blank stares at me. They had no idea what I was talking about. Yeah. Anyway, it was funny, so did that make sense? Does that w- does that answer what you meant? Yeah.
And, and you know what I'm getting from what you said, for the listener out there who's like, "I don't know. I don't have Shelley's toughness or her, um, her fierceness." One, borrow [00:18:00] Shelley's fierceness. Absolutely. Just imagine, imagine Shelley- What would Shelley do, right? She would say, "Well, I don't have a, I don't have a wife at home that allows me to do it." Like, what would Shelley say? So one, you can borrow it. Two, the thing that I heard you say is that you acknowledge the truth in what that man said. You said, "That's true." To get ahead with the traditional way of doing so- Mm-hmm
you have to push and do these things by 7:00 AM, but you didn't accept it as your truth. This is what I want the listeners to hear. You listened. You said, "Oh, must be nice," you know, in a sarcastic way. And then you said, "I acknowledge that that's true for you," and then you started to talk about, " But it's not true for me, so how else can I make this work?"
So- ... walk us through that because you, you then you mentioned that you realized that it, it wasn't just, like, that one young man at the time who, who said that. You're like, actually the entire culture is, you said, antithetical to, to, like, how you beli- like, to what you believe. [00:19:00] Mm-hmm. So walk us, walk us through, like, if you were to slow down that, that moment when you were just like, "Oh, no, not this," what happened then?
A couple things. If I, b- before I answer that, let me go back to one, I wanna give an example. So, so when you talk about st- you know, taking, you know, Shelley's acting like a badass, I wanna act like her. Let me give you an example of how you don't know what's really going on in someone's head. Okay?
You, we talk about faking it till you make it. We're always, there's always a, a public persona and a private. And so I w- I was, uh, at my graduate, my master's program, I was the commencement speaker and I was on stage, big auditorium, it's in the LBJ School of Lib- LBJ Presidential Library in Austin. And behind me, among others, was Lady Bird Johnson.
Sweet, you know, the First Lady of the United States. And I had to do a eulogy. A professor, a dear professor had died the week before and I was asked to- ... do the eulogy. A- and so I got up there and I'm doing it, and there's a podium and, you know, I had my words and it was emotional, but I'm sitting here talking and giving my, reading my speech, and all of a sudden my right leg starts to spasm.
And I'm not talking about a [00:20:00] soft tap. I am literally talking about a shaking violently. And I'm behind the podium so nobody can see it, and I'm literally stomping my foot behind me going like, "Stop, stop, stop." And it would, I mean, the whole time and again, the First Lady's behind me, the dean's behind me, all those people.
So I get through that. I mean, it was vi- it was like, I remember- Wow ... it was so a violent shaking. I get, and I wasn't sick, I was just nervous. And I get finished and all my friends came up to me and they're like, "Oh my God, you were so calm. How were you so calm? That was so emotional." And I'm looking at them like, "Are you on drugs?"
"Are you kidding me?" So here's the thing to remember, you're like, "Man, she's a badass. She can do anything. I can't be her." I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." It's all how you present yourself. And I don't mean being fake. Be yourself, but you also, you know, can project a persona. Nobody- Mm-hmm ... nobody hears what's inside of you, nobody, you, it's you- Mm-hmm
that's you. And you'll be stunned at how people have no idea when you're nervous, no idea when you're scared. It's amazing. So I just wanted to- Mm-hmm ... kind of even say that. Okay, so going [00:21:00] back to, okay, now to I'm sorry. I was going back to the moment- No, it's all good ... but I can't remember the question.
I wanted to make sure that- Yeah ... people know, so. I, s- just to reflect back on what you said, I think it's worth noting that anytime you see someone who's like a badass, and if you start to think to yourself, "I can never be her," don't do that. 'Cause to your point- Right ... you don't know what led them to become that person.
You don't know what they're going through. Maybe their right leg is shaking. So thank you for, for sharing that. That's quite- Mm ... vulnerable to be like "And I was on stage," you know? Important- In front of hundreds of people and yeah, I know. Yes. Yeah. It was crazy. Yes. It was crazy. Um- I love that. Yeah, the question- Okay, so going back to the moment and- Yeah
how did how did I- Yeah, like- Go on ... like what happened? You had that, you, you ha- I don't know if it was a thought or if it was like a thought that kept coming up or you were just like it's not just this one person or this one guy or this other guy, it's actually the whole culture in- Ah ... finance is like antithetical to how to, how I think.
So like walk us through that and then- Sure ... what did you do next? Sure. I mean, from the first moment I walked into my job, I [00:22:00] started at an insurance company, a big insurance company, I could tell that I was not, I was not like the others. Okay? The who, who was not like the others, you know, in the book.
And how I dressed, I've never owned a conservative suit. I don't own blacks. I've never owned a conservative suit in my life. And so I could tell already that I was already kinda a little bit of a fish out of water. But I was also really open. I've always been open. This is something that I encourage people to do, is open to opportunities.
Life will throw you opportunities when you least expect them, and the way that I have managed to grow in my career and become the person I am is that I've always been open to those opportunities. I've never said, "Oh, my God, I could never do that." Now, I was never offered, you know, a NASA position or something, okay?
I mean, so let's be clear. But all the opportunities I've had, I've seen and I've jumped for them. And so I think when I walked into those offices and I s- and I quickly figured out the conservative nature. I had started, I s- I decided to come in this industry because the recruiter, [00:23:00] the sales manager who recruited me, was looking, was talking about long-term care planning, and that happened to be what I was going through with my father.
It was his long-term care year, 2007, and I had done that kind of work in healthcare and long-term care on Capitol Hill and with the federal government back in the 1980s after my graduate program. So I was very intimately familiar with the subject. And he immediately said, "You could just focus on that." So I took that, which was not a typical financial advisory topic.
It's not investing money. Mm-hmm. And there's a whole, most, a lot of advisors are, think insurance is just ridiculous and, "I can make more money in the market," and they don't understand that whole risk paradigm. And I've always loved solving jigsaw puzzles, always, and partly 'cause my daughter Samantha loved it, and it was something we did together.
And so to me, immediately there was long-term care and nobody was focusing on it. And they asked me what your warm market is. Um, I I don't have any rich friends. My family has no money. I said, "Women." I literally said professional women. And it, that was consistent with my message throughout my life, but I- Mm-hmm
and I've been that way [00:24:00] for, I've had that market for 20 years now. Mm-hmm. And I said, because I knew women- Sorry, um, real quick. Oh, I'm s- Who, who was it that you were speaking with? Oh, my manager at the insurance company. So when I- Okay. Your manager ... it was, yeah, is it, I would, you know, 'cause they want you to g- this is what happens when you start in, in financial advising.
You, what is your warm market? They want you to call everybody and bring an account. That's how you do it. Okay. In this case, it was selling insurance. This is a topic because I immediately, and because I started in the insurance space, I immediately realized when I would sit down with someone how important it was to not just talk about their investments.
And so I, from the beginning, because I was fortunate enough to start in the insurance space, okay, which n- very few financial people do. I quickly was able to understand and utilize that awareness, particularly when you're sitting down with women, and I, and I focused on women in the energy space.
I'm in Houston and, it's kind of natural. And these are women, very smart, bright, accomplished women, who had never had someone explain to them How their 401k worked, how their, you know, what insurance they needed, how to protect their [00:25:00] kids, how to, what document. They had never... And I, uh, because I like solving puzzles, I love putting those pieces together.
Mm-hmm. And because I knew I was, I'm a visionary. I've, I've had I don't know how many personality tests over the years. I lose track of all of them. And they've all basically said the same thing. They used to say I was basically a commander in chief. And, uh, you know, I do take charge, but most of them are like visionary.
I, I'm able to see things in the future, and this is the first time anybody had talked to these women. So when I was able to get someone in front of me, you know, in the beginning it's hard. When I was able to have those conversations, they're like, "Wow, man, I had no idea that this is what financial management and guidance could be like."
Mm-hmm. "And I didn't know I was supposed to be worried about this, you know, or thinking about it, or taking care of it." And so I think from the beginning, I rebelled almost immediately against the atmosphere. I grabbed onto that long-term care and disability were connected. Actually became a specialist in that area, and that was, I was already able to distinguish myself as a different type of advisor.
And then I went more the, I went to an investment a [00:26:00] wire house uh, and I'm not saying names to protect the innocent kind of thing. And so I went to a wire house, and they're all investment focused, but I carried that with me, and when I would talk to the women, again, and their partners, and men, you know, worked with a lot of men too, I was always the first advisor to talk to them this way.
To ask them about their families, to talk about their personal lives. How are their kids? And, uh, they're just, they just weren't used to that. And so that was my way of saying, "No, there's a better way to do this." The other thing is I've always hated when people try to use fancy language to intimidate me.
You know, I'm a really smart person. I've got a, you know, elite degree and all these things, okay? So I'm, I can keep up with a lot of in- smart people. But you don't have to, to pretend to me that you're smarter than I am, and I don't, never wanted to pretend to my clients or my prospects that I was smarter than they were, 'cause I wasn't.
They just know different things than I do, right? Mm-hmm. My husband's an engineer, my son's an ad- I've got science people all in my family. I don't have any freaking idea what they're talking about. Like, it is just mishmash [00:27:00] in my ears. But that's okay. And so I don't need to impress someone- Mm-hmm ... with my intellect.
Now, that's a growth, by the way. When you're young, you don't always realize that. As I grew older, I realized it's not just about how smart you are. It doesn't matter. One more point I would make is a communication style. So, there's so many industries, so many women listening are like, you know, "Well, I'm in an industry, there's a lot of guys.
You know, the guy next to me who doesn't do as good work as I do got promoted," and all those things, right? We can have the most powerful message there is. I use the Gettysburg Address as an example. I think everybody pretty much would agree on all sides, Gettysburg Address was a pretty important speech.
If I'm saying the Gettysburg Address and you, Laura, are not tuned into what I'm saying... I used to use radio channels as an example in this, and obviously we- nobody listens to radio anymore. But I used to say, if your radio is tuned to a different channel, that's, that's- ... so if you're on a different streaming platform, whatever you wanna say now, it doesn't matter what I'm saying.
If you're, if I'm not saying it in a way that matters to you and is relevant to you. And so I think that's how I, I had my little quiet rebellion, right? I [00:28:00] never went with the flow. And, frankly, did it mean I didn't make as much money as some of my colleagues? Yeah, it did, but that's okay. That's all right.
I was doing it the way I could be true to myself. So it's, I wish I could go back in a time capsule in my 30s and tell my Cherie in my 30s or her 30s that, you know, really, you have so much more power than you know. You have so much more control and autonomy than you know. Uh, I had to learn, I had to learn and go through a lot, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. For the listener who is in their 30s, what would you tell them? Who is maybe in a male-dominated field- Mm-hmm ... who feels like they don't belong, who feels like, I don't know, but I'm trying to do the quote, unquote smart thing," like- Right ... and they're feeling this conflict, what would you have to say to them?
I'd say a couple things. First of all, remember what I said about perfection. You can't do it perfectly. There is no possibility if you're, whether you're dealing with kids, whether you're dealing with older parents, whatever it is, you can't y- you can't do it all right. Uh, so don't torture yourself on that.
The second thing I would say is that, like I said, I walked [00:29:00] into this insurance company and immediately knew I was different. I knew, right? Mm-hmm. How I looked at life and everything. I would say look at your environment, whatever work environment you're in, and realize that you have a different lens You have a different lens 'cause you're a woman, you have a different lens because you're more self-aware, you have a different lens because of the stage you're in life.
And look at that lens. I mean, you can't completely turn the world upside down. There's structure and there's process, but look at what's going on around you and figure out, "How can I add my own little flair to it? How can I add my own little value add, and distinguish myself that way?" And, you know, some large companies may or may not recognize that, may or may not reward you for that, and then you have to make decisions.
But don't compromise and try to become them. That's the thing. If you're truly into yourself, and you wanna be who you're supposed to be, or who you're meant to be, I should say, and I ... For me, it, I mean that in a spiritual sense, but it can mean however you want to take it. Don't try to copy them.
Don't try to be them. Because y- you [00:30:00] can't to be really blunt, you can't out-man them. You just can't, right? You can't, you just can't do it. And you shouldn't wanna do it. Um, if you if you're lucky and if you're focused, you're gonna find people that are gonna appreciate that.
Chances are there's someone else in the company. I a- Mm-hmm ... when I moved to the Wire House and I was surrounded by investment people, the word insurance was almost a dirty word. Like, nobody would talk about it. And I'm like, "But you gotta do both," right? And I asked my manager one day, I said, "Why did you hire me?"
Like I really, just flat out. And he goes, "Shelley, I can teach you money. I can't teach you people." And I would wager that your, your listeners out there, honestly because they're women and we have a higher emotional IQ, you know people better. So leverage that skill, right? And don't get mired in the finance or whatever technical stuff is around.
So anyway, that, does that answer your question? Love that. Love that. And I do wanna acknowledge I do have men who are listeners , so- Of course. No, no, no, of course. And I'm not mean, but I swear, I have, I love a husband, I have a son I adore, I now have a grandson who I worship, I have two great [00:31:00] son-in-laws, I've got two male cats.
I, I really, I promise you, I am not a man-hater . Yes. It- I have plenty enough clients . Yeah. Well, but what we're talking about more is kind of like I g- really, the patriarchy and, like, the- Correct ... the male-oriented systems because- Correct ... there are probably men out there, like listeners, who are also feeling like they don't belong- Correct
w- like the same thing. So just know that this is also- Correct ... for you. No, I know. I always say I- And this is also for you ... I am not a man-hater. It's, I, I would go through the litany of all the men in my life, but anyway. Yeah. And I just wanna reflect back- Yeah ... because w- what I think the listeners can gain even from just this example that you gave is- Mm-hmm
okay, so here are the steps as I saw them, based on your story. One, you acknowledged, you, you acknowledged what was true One of these things is not like the other Mm-hmm ... and that is me. Mm-hmm. Yes, and that's okay. And you don't, you didn't... It's not, listener, it's not like she suddenly was like, "Oh no, what do I do?
How do I fit myself in a box?" You just acknowledged it, and then from there you started [00:32:00] from the heart. You didn't do what was, quote-unquote, the good thing or the smart thing or, you know, that kinda thing. And instead you asked yourself, "Okay, I already... Because, step one, I already acknowledged that I'm different.
How do I value add? I'm not gonna compromise who I am- Yeah ... and I'm not gonna force myself on this culture here. How can I add value to what's existing?" So that's two, and then three, you noticed a pattern. You were curious. You noticed a pattern. Four, you said, "There's gotta be a better way to do it," and you started exploring, sounds like.
Five, you simplified, right? You simplified. You didn't try to use really technical jargon because you were coming from the heart. You're like, "I really wanna help this woman in front of me." You weren't coming from, "I want this woman to see that I'm really smart." You're like, "No. Service-based." Yeah. And then the last part is that you communicated in a way that you met your client where they were.
Yes. Is that about- Yeah, and I, and I, listen, you're, uh, you... That was great. I would say, and I would say when you start off in the beginning, you don't, like you [00:33:00] said, you don't have to trash everything, okay? You still have, you have to work within a system, a process. You have to work within it, and then like you said, make it a value add.
Add just a little piece, a little bit more, a little bit more. And gradually there's, people will evolve without even realizing they're evolving, right? I mean- ... it's, uh, yeah. I should say also I have great male friends who are advisors, including my business partner. Yeah, so I should be really careful.
They're used to me, though. They're yeah, like, "We know you're not male, but we know, Chalfant." I get it. Yeah. I get it. Yeah, yeah. But, but for my male listeners I'm like, "No, no." Please don't run. Yeah. No, no. We're real, I promise you, we don't hate men, and I work with a lot of men. I promise you, so. Yeah. I wanna pivot a little bit- Sure
Because I wanna hear more about Food for Finances. Food Finances. I, because I remember when I first heard it, I was like, "Wait, what?" What? Wait, what? Yeah. So yes, tell us about- It is kind of a what. It's a what, yeah. Yeah. So- How did that, how did that come to be? What is it? So yeah, so no, no, thanks for asking.
So I will say, remember when I made a, made a comment a minute ago that opportunities come to you and, and I always, I grab them. Mm-hmm. I don't [00:34:00] hesitate a lot and, you know, and there can be downsides to that. You know, some things should be maybe thought out better, but it's just how I, I'm wired. And, um, back in '21, remember we were all still in our homes, right?
Pretty much locked down, and I did a, uh, virtual cooking class for the women in my sisterhood at my synagogue. Mm-hmm. And I made, uh, on my iPad, nothing professional, y- you know, and we had Hollywood squares, about 20 of us, and I made kosher chicken pot pie, which by the way is delicious. Um, and so and it was really a lot of fun.
And, and I'd always been told I should be on camera and on film, but I was like, "Okay, fine, whatever." I pooh-poohed it. I didn't listen. I didn't listen. I was like, "No, no, no, no, that's not me." So I brought it up the next Tuesday. I was in a meeting with a LinkedIn, I had a LinkedIn, uh, coaching group I was in.
And I mentioned, I said, "Oh man, it was so fun doing this class." I said, "But you know, I gotta focus on making money. Yep, can't get distracted, gotta focus, you know, gotta ra- gotta make money, gotta help my family." And the woman who runs it, Brynne Tillman said, "Food and finance." Just came out of her mouth, out of nowhere.
And I was like, "Well, that's [00:35:00] genius." And then everyone who I said it to, and even my b- best friend who knew me, and said, "Food and finance," and their mouth, literally they had the same physical reaction. I mean, if you're listening and you don't know, my- I'm dropping my jaw. Like it was speechless when I told everyone who knew me that, oh my God.
And it le- to use a pun, it fed into my desire to explain money in a different way. Mm-hmm. Um, and also my happy place is the kitchen, which I'm getting more and more aware of as this is going on. So this was in '21. However, I was still not quite ready, 'cause the financial, I didn't know what to do. I, again, no one's ever done this, and still no one but us is doing it.
And I have a, a dear friend, a dear sorority sister who's a marketing person, and she is a, as I tease her gently, she's a dog with a bone, man. And she heard this, she goes, "Oh my God, I wanna help you do this." My, her daughter's a videographer. I had all this talent around her, and she goes, "I wanna do this." And I was like, "Okay, whatever."
Anyway, she wouldn't, she wore me down. She literally wore me down. And I'm like, "Okay." Wait, hold on. Shout, shout out to your sorority sister- Yes ... because we all could use a sor- like somebody in our life like that. Terri, they're all named Terri. Terri, it's hard to guarantee. Terri. She, she is Terri Heath.
There you go. Yeah, she's in Winnetka. [00:36:00] Yeah, like she would not let it go. And to this day, she's the one who keeps me going on doing it. I'm like, "Oh, I don't wanna do that. Oh, that's too much trouble." She goes, "No, no, no." So, I formed the name. I, I, you know, got an account with the name and, and I, in August, her daughter, who's a professional filmmaker and vidi- and photographer, came down to my kitchen and we filmed the first season of, of Food and Finance.
And we've done five seasons now. Wrote a, I've got a book out that came out last year, The Wealth Recipe. And, uh, we're doing, we've got a heavy loaded YouTube channel. Um, I'm on Facebook, on LinkedIn, Instagram, all that stuff. Also the last six months I was on, uh, channel 39, CW 39, which is, uh, a Nexstar Media local station in Houston.
And we did, uh, six months of Food and Finance episodes during their H-Town Live, which is kind of like their more social, fun, you know, and, and every Monday was Food and Finance Monday. And so that, I mean, so we're on TV and, and we're just, you know, we're starting to really, I mean, it's, we're, you know, trademarking it.
And and what's funny about two things. First [00:37:00] of all, nobody has any idea when I say Food and Finance. They, the same blank stare, and I get it, 'cause no, literally nobody in the world's ever done it. Yeah, unless they're not on, unless they're not on inter- on online. That's why I always give that caveat.
There may be some random person in some distant place, but if they're online, th- they've never come up with it. And, um, and then the second thing is so I get that blank stare and I try to explain, and finally I'm like, I, I realize instead of explaining it I'm like, "Just go to YouTube and watch one of the videos."
Mm-hmm. Or watch, you know, like really just watch one video and you'll get it, you'll understand, right? Mm-hmm. And of course I'll say buy the book and whatever. But you know, it's, it's, you know, just it, it's such a fun way and it's all about disarming money. So getting back to that communication, that lack of using trying to show off how smart I am, right?
That communication channel, that, that issue I said. We learn, everyone learns differently and, you know, I bring it up to people how we used to learn like on Sesame Street. We learned our letters and numbers through comics and cartoons and puppets. We didn't have books in front of us and lectures. We learned it doing something fun.
Well, food, [00:38:00] Lord help us, is like dominates everything. Everybody loves food, they love to eat, right? And the kitchen shows do great and the cooking shows, and all those things people love to hear about it, love to watch it. And so when I compare, uh, one of my favorites was I did a s- I did a live session for a local corporation for their employee group, and I did it on the different types of, uh, investments.
And I went from the least aggressive, which is like cash and mutual funds, all the way up to crypto. And that whole- Mm-hmm ... like 10 different types of investments. And then I had a plate with all different kinds of peppers, from bell peppers to ghost pepper, and everything in between. And, um, you're like, "Oh, my God."
So they may not remember exactly what I said about crypto or about anything else, but they're kinda like, "Oh, yeah, there's different levels of spiciness," right? I mean, it just disarms. M- food is fun, and it's about making money fun. And when money is fun, it's not threatening- Mm-hmm ... it's not intimidating, and you open your mind to learn about it.
And going back to that self-autonomy message that I've been preaching the whole time, you cannot have self-autonomy [00:39:00] unless you have financial autonomy. You have to have personal financial autonomy. And as someone who didn't and who delegated it to all kinds of people, my husband, my father, all the people, I did it, I did it that way until my mid-30s, until I started getting smart about it or smarter about it.
So I know what it's like to make financial mistakes, to make the, make the wrong decision. I know what it's like, um- Y- y- you can't you just have to have financial power over yourself. You can't control anything else in your life unless you have financial power. And so that's, that's how Food and Finance...
So we're just taking off. I mean, we're, we're doing, we, you were doing speaking and I'm doing a- Mm-hmm ... a program in Houston called Fork and Fem where they patronize women-owned businesses and I'm doing te- I mean, it's just like it's opened up because it's so new and different even though it's five years old.
It's, to everyone who sees it, it's new and different. And so yeah, I, yeah, I, I... it's really fun. I had a kid on the airplane coming back from a business trip the other day. He's like, "Are you famous? You're a famous person." I, I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. 10-year-old kid, and he's telling people, and I go to the restroom.
I, I [00:40:00] forgot off the plane, I go to the restroom, and there was a woman next to me washing her hands and she goes, "Excuse me. Can I ask you something embarrassing?" I said, "What?" She goes, "Why are you famous?" "He told us you're famous." It was great. It was great. So it's, yeah it's fun. I get to do something completely unique that no one else is doing.
And, and I get to- Oh, I love it ... and I get to open people's minds to fi- men and women to learning about money and not being frightened about it, I love it so much. And for the listener who was like, "I'm intrigued, I must watch it," don't worry. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna put all this in the show notes. Yeah.
Yeah. They're like, "Okay, but where do I watch it?" Where do I find it? Right. Yeah. Where do I find it? Yeah. And, and one last question on Food and, and Finance. Sure. Sure. Why... I mean, okay, so you talked about like how it came to be and food is fun for you, et cetera and it makes it, let's see, it disarms money and it makes it simple and fun, right?
And it's- And memorable ... I mean- And memorable ... and memorable You can remember it. You can remember it. Memorable. I mean, men and women, but really particularly women, right? Let, let's just- Yeah ... let's, let's just be honest statistically. [00:41:00] So for the listener out there who's just like Uh, what's wrong with me just letting somebody do it?
Why is it important to be financially autonomous? I'll give you a perfect example. I have a, a prospect couple. They're, they were referred by a really good client, a married couple. And they came in, and he's always done all, everything about money. And she knew nothing about the money, and she's fine. She raised four, four kids.
You know, did n- I'm not criticizing that at all. But I said, he's ... I said, "What if something happens to him? What do you do?" And she looked at me with this blank stare, and I flashed back to my mom. So my dad was a CPA and attorney. My mother was an attorney, educated, you know, smart people. And my father was very traditional, a New Englander, and he never helped my mother understand money.
And nor did she push, by the way. She never wanted to understand money. So when he died, she was lost. And luckily, I was around. I just [00:42:00] started in finance actually. And um, and he, uh, and my brother, who's a CPA, okay, an MBA, came in. She knew- she didn't even know how to balance a checkbook.
She didn't know anything. No woman ... I mean, we live longer. It- no woman should be like that. My mother was fortunate she had people around her. What if she didn't? There were scam artists coming out the window. We need we just ... So this, that and that, that client reminded me of my mother's situation.
And women, we ... Why? Because we need ... What if something happens? Even if you're married, I mean, I'm happily married, right? But if something happens to my husband, I know where all our money is. You know? I mean, and I'm the advisor. So it's, if you don't, you are leaving yourself at the mercy. I've talked to widows who have no idea what to do, and divorcees have no clue what to do.
And so I've always said I'll manage your money. You don't have to understand everything I'm doing," 'cause like your doctor, you don't understand everything your doctor knows, or your lawyer. But you gotta know the basics. You don't get to walk away from me and not understand [00:43:00] anything I'm doing, 'cause the worst thing in that is when a woman says, or a man, I suppose, "Well, it's okay.
I just trust you. Do whatever you think is right." From a compliance standpoint, that's a tough one. But it's also from a personal and moral standpoint, what if I'm not around? Mm-hmm. What do they do, right? Just to be pur- purely blunt about it, they need to understand the basics. So I'm very committed. That's why I like educating young people.
I've gone into high schools. I, I, you know, I'm, I'm really foc- trying to, make sure that kids start off as adults knowing about the basics of money. Um- Mm-hmm ... and don't lose that decade and a half that I did. So. Mm-hmm. Oh, so, so compelling. And I lied, I have one more question related to f- to food and finance.
It's fine. Can you, can you give us, Maybe like your favorite analogy ... food analogy or cooking analogy that you tell your clients who are just like, "Oh my God, I'm so intimidated. I don't even know where to start." What's your analogy? This gets back to my favorite, uh, chapter in the book.
Um, it's on, it's called On [00:44:00] Risk, Redefining Risk. It's one of the topics I love to talk about because men and women, but especially women, have a very distorted view of what's risky when it comes to money. And you have to reposition, just your whole paradigm about risk needs to change in order to grow wealth, okay?
Mm-hmm. That you deserve. And the analogy is I I love pie. I just, I love pie. Mm-hmm. It's one of my favorite desserts. And I, but I would never make a pie crust. I, because I was scared of pie crust. I was literally scared of it. And I love a good pie crust, a flaky, I mean, it's like one of my favorite parts of the pie.
But I would never make it 'cause I was always afraid, you know, it had to be just right and you could mess it up. And literally, I was intimidated by this dish. And so I'd buy the frozen ones and everything. And then when we started Food and Finance, I was like, "Huh," like I need to start... And I was talking to a friend, my, one of my dear friends, her son, who I've known since he was a child, and he loves to cook.
And he said, "Mrs. Nadel," very, looked at me straight in the eye, very stern, he goes, he goes, " Pie crust knows your fear." He said, that's what he said. And I'm like, I was like... I don't know, we're sitting on their patio. And he [00:45:00] goes, "You gotta do this. You gotta do this." And so we ended up doing a video.
One of my favorite videos is the blueberry pie one. You'll see the little, like, the little thumbprint. And because I faced my fear. And, you just have to face it. You just have... And take a small step. Just take a small step. And that's honestly why we wrote the book. One of the reasons is because, and we wrote it in very, it's not childish language, okay?
But in simple terms, with client stories and humor. And, you know, it's just, you know, short chapters, so you don't have to like, "Oh, God," it's like War and Peace, right? You know, learn about my money. And so you can pick it up and put it down. It's paired with videos. And so we wrote that because we wanna disarm it.
You, you have to deal with this. Mm-hmm. And as someone who avoided money subjects and budgeting and everything for so many years- ... it doesn't make it better. Mm-hmm. It doesn't help, and so that's you know, y- that's one of my favorites. I have- Mm-hmm
lots of favorites. And honestly, I've made so many recipes. I have to look at my, my, uh, spreadsheet of which one was which food point, right? That [00:46:00] one I remember because it was my favorite, but there's so many. I mean... yeah. And how, how did you feel after you made your first pie crust? Oh, I was so proud.
Oh my God. It w- and, you know, did it look perfect? No. Did it look appetizing? Absolutely. Was it amazing? And yet, here's... Okay, so here's a behind the scene secret. When you do any kind of food show, right? And you gotta take that bite. The first thing you gotta... Something I didn't learn early on, which don't take a big bite.
I'm like, "Oh, I eat a big bite, I'm hungry, right?" No. Yeah, and then you're like trying... It's, anyway. I learned little by little. Take small bites, right? And so I took a bite, and you go, oh, you know, you're always making, you know, you're always acting- mm-hmm ... like Hattie McCellen. So I'm doing that- I did not have to, I mean, I, my food's pretty good.
I'm a pretty good cook and getting better and better. My, even my brother acknowledges that, and that's a big thing for my brother. But I didn't have to, I mean, that first bite was just like, "Oh my God, I did this." And it sounds like something really silly, but it's the same thing as a woman having a whole bunch of cash or her 401, which could be her biggest asset, having no idea what to invest in.
Picked the [00:47:00] target day fund and walked away. Do you have any idea how expensive those are and how badly they perform most of the time? Do you have any... No. It... You have to look at that stuff, and I'm saying that as someone who didn't do it for- Mm-hmm ... a long time. So I freely admit this is a journey, and you don't have to be perfect at it.
You don't have to conquer it. In fact, if you try, you'll probably fail doing that. Take it a little bite at a time, to use a food analogy. You know, little bites at a time. And, um, so yeah, no, it was, it was a great feeling. Oh my God, it was such a good feeling. Mm. And yeah. Yeah. It was really, really good. I, I love it.
I love it. It was really great. So listeners, choose your pie crust. Yeah, that's right. Choose- Choose your pie crust. Cho- choose your pie crust. And for those who are listening, they're like, "Oh crap, that's me. I picked the target fund..." Actually, listener, that really is me. Sorry. I pi- No, no, it's okay. I, I picked the, I picked the target fund, and I just kind of set it and ignore it.
So for listeners who are like, "Okay, I must talk to Shelley because I want to work on my pie crust and I don't wanna do it alone"- It's apple ... how can they maybe book- Oh, I love that ... may- maybe an actual pie crust [00:48:00] too while they're at it. Yeah way. Yeah. How can they get ahold of you? Sure. So it's, uh, pretty simple.
So it's, it's you can just Google Shelley Nadell. There's nothing too racy there. You know, I'm pretty- She's famous ... long wa- Yeah, I've gotten famous. I know. " I'm famous. Are you famous?" That, that was... Yeah. Yeah. You have to do, like, the whisper, the conspiratorial whisper. She's famous. She's famous. So funny.
10-year-old was, like, my fan, fan guy. So it's S-H-E-L-L-E-Y. That's a... And Nadell, N-A-D-E-L-L, not A-L, as I tell people I'm not married to a retired tennis star. And so it's... Anyway. And we're on... We have foodandfinancewithShelley.com, so you can really can just look up food and finance. If you do food and finance, you're gonna get Food and Finance High School, which is of no connection, they're teaching people to be chefs. That, that's... I figured that out finally. Uh, but if you put food and finance and Shelley, you'll get it. Um, we are on we... I'm on LinkedIn, been there for a long time. Would love to connect with you. Reach out. Let me know where you heard it. Let me know you heard me on Laura D.,
and I will definitely connect and, um, we do a lot of posting there, a lot of the videos and that kind of stuff, a lot of information. Um, I'm on Facebook. Don't do a lot on Facebook, but [00:49:00] now we're on Instagram, which is... And it's Shelley.nadell on Instagram. I had to, I... 'Cause anyway. And, uh, and we're on...
And if you go to, if you Google CW39, uh, which is the channel, the TV channel, and then look up eight- go to their H Town Live link, and then look for my name, and you will find all the stuff that we did. We did some fun stuff. Our last one was cryptocurrency and a simple bourbon sauce, and the value of using a unique, an ingredient, a, an exotic ingredient.
Don't use a lot of it. Just a little bit of it will go a long way, and that's, so that was, yeah, that's, I love that one. I love that episode. I love it. So listeners, all of the links will be in the show notes. Okay. You can watch Food and Finance and be hungry for both the food- Mm-hmm ... that she makes, and also for information.
Oh. And- I forgot, I'm sorry ... go ahead And of course, the book is on Amazon in paperback and hardback, and e-book. Eh, I'm sorry, not e-book, we're working on the e- we're, yeah, e-book, and we're working on the audiobook right now, love it. Shelley's famous, and all- That's ... of these links are [00:50:00] Did I get it? Are- You got it
very good? Very good. The cons- conspiracy was right there. I love it. I love it. So all of this is gonna be in the show notes. I have one last question that I ask all my guests. Okay. Uh, and the question is, if your life was a book, what chapter would you be on, and what would be the title of the chapter?
The title would be Just Getting Started, and the chapter would be, I would be chapter 6 out of 12 maybe. So kind of the middle, yeah. Ooh, kind of the middle. Yeah. Oh, I'm not nearly ready. I, yeah, I, I intend to torture my children, my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren for a long time. I intend to be really...
I have lots to do. I love that. And lots of w- lots of women and men to impact, and I, you know, going back to that I'm a person of faith, and I believe very strongly I'm here for a reason, and I don't have the right not to carry that out. It, it's my obligation to have that impact, and what I love, Shelley, is that you have had such a great career [00:51:00] already, many pivots I wouldn't even cover in this one episode.
Yes, oh my. And the, the chapter is called Just Getting Started. So listener, if you are hearing yourself say, "I'm too old to start this"- Oh ... nope. Nope. Exit that. Nope. Nope. I'm almost on Medicare, ladies and gents. Social Security not far behind, so don't, nope, doesn't mean anything. Love it. Shelley, thank you so much.
Oh. This hour, this hour flew by. It did. It did, and I can't believe, yeah, it's, it was wonderful. This was so good. Thank you so much. Well, and I, you know I idolize you, by the way. It, your pumpitude. You know, listeners, you don't know this, but she inspired me in my strength training, and I'm now deadlifting over 100 pounds, and it really was Laura and our friend Amy who inspired me.
So I just wanna- Aw ... point that out. Yeah, you are- Thank you ... and I've watched you grow, and you know, get so much more, build so much already, and it's been really fun to watch. Thank you, thank you. I receive. And also, yeah, when you shared that you did over 100 pounds, I was just like, "Let's go. Let's [00:52:00] go."
That's right. Anyway. Well, thanks so much. I, I really appreciate it. And listeners, fe- please feel free to reach out. I'm always available as a resource,
Big thanks to Shelly Nadell for being so open and so real in this conversation. This is exactly the kind of story I created this podcast for. Because when you hear someone else say the thing you've been feeling but couldn't quite name, something shifts. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it.
You probably already know exactly who that is. And if you're sitting with something after this conversation, that feeling that good enough stopped being good enough a long time ago, I want to talk. Book a free 20-minute clarity call at leadintact.com/booking. That's where we figure out together what's actually going on and what your next step looks like.
All of Shelly's details are in the show notes. Go show them some love. [00:53:00] And with that, I'll see you next time