Meet Leah Williams, a Confident Woman Campaign participant
“The CONFIDENT WOMAN campaign” is a photography project aimed to boost confidence through self-acceptance and self-love, to create a platform to inspire and support women in achieving the life they want.
Join us at the campaign Grand Finale Event that will take place on May 3rd at 6pm! Meet outstanding women, get empowered, network and much more! To learn more about event and to register click the button below.
“It was hard life things that put me on a path that I was supposed to be on.” - meet
Leah Williams, the owner of Savvy Financial, a financial planning firm.
In her interview Leah shares how after loss of her brother she found courage to leave abusive marriage and embarked on the journey of self-discovery and financial independence that ultimately led to starting her own financial planning company.
Read her detailed interview below. You would not want to miss a word!
And check out Savvy Financial
Can you please introduce yourself?
First of all, thank you so much for having me here! My name is Leah Williams, and I'm a mom of a 21 month old, a wife and the owner of Savvy Financial, which is a financial planning firm. We focus on women and the men they love.
I have been so passionate about empowering women, encouraging them in their journey just because I've had incredible women in my life do that for me. So I'm so thrilled to be a part of this Confident Woman campaign and just want to support this movement however I can.
What was your journey towards starting your own financial planning firm?
You know, we all go through different things in life that make us into the person that we are today. And sometimes those negative things that in the moment felt like almost the end of the world, you know, how could this happen? They sometimes put us on this path that we are really supposed to be on. So for me, that was back in 2014. I just moved here from the Midwest and moved with my then husband and decided that after being in a really abusive, terrible marriage for over seven years, it was okay to walk away. And what pushed me to do that was realizing that life is short.
And I'm very grateful that I had a couple of years when I moved here to be with my older brother. I'm the youngest of six kids, and there's five girls that my brother was the oldest and in 2014 he was diagnosed with cancer. And you know, this is the man that did everything right. You know, he was active, ate organic, married, had five little girls. No reason for something like this to happen. And by the end of that year, he passed away. And so, of course, that makes you rethink a lot of things in your life. And for me, it was, you know, like life is precious and the people that you are around are important. And it's okay to not stay in a really abusive space just to show face or to try to avoid going through something hard like a divorce.
So for me, that was a big choice and really a turning point in my life. That's when I changed careers. That's when I realized that I knew nothing about money, finance. I was the wife that said: “well, my husband takes care of that.” And while that may be okay sometimes, I was now in a position where, you know, I had nothing. So this almost obsession to learn just for myself, that is where it began. I saw my brother do incredible planning so that his wife and the girls financially were perfectly fine. I saw the power of someone doing good planning and then something unexpected happening and then I saw myself that had no plan. It was in this hard place, but you know what? I can change this. I can change what the future looks like. So that's what started the journey, all of the licensing and designations. And ultimately, you know, this business that I have been cultivating and growing for almost nine years, that was the inception, the passion behind it. So it was hard life things that put me on a path that I was supposed to be on.
What were the main challenges that you faced during building your business ?
There was a lot, but I think one of the biggest ones ties into mindset and how we see ourselves.
I'm still on this journey of loving, respecting yourself. So there was a lot of imposter syndrome, you know, especially when you have a business and you're showing up and you're at these meetings and you know, you want people to think, Well, I've been doing this for 20 years and, you know, I'm the best of the best.
When inside you are constantly feeling like: “Am I good enough and am I the best?” So I think it's working through that. That one helps you get to the next level in business. But it's a journey and for any, any woman that's gone through something that has maybe torn down some of her own respect for herself or maybe just never really learned how to love herself, I think that becomes a big challenge in business.
But getting on the other side of that, that's when you see massive growth. And looking back, that's what happened for me. Once I was able to get past all of these negative thoughts and not believing in myself, all of a sudden I looked around and things were flowing.
So that was probably one of the biggest challenges. I'm still on the growth journey. It's not over, but definitely I see the benefit as I am starting to get on the other side of that.
What is a confident woman for you?
I meet with a lot of different women and I feel like they all have confidence in different areas of their life. If they excel in their business or career, that's really the source of confidence. But maybe there's not as much, especially on the money side.
There is a lot of sometimes shame and insecurity when we start talking about that. So I think all of us have different areas that we feel really confident in that can sometimes make up for some of those areas that we are not so confident in. When I envision a confident woman, she loves herself fully. And because she has so much love for herself, she doesn't get offended. She is strong and courageous. She believes in love. She believes in values. She holds to them at her core. She is incredibly strong, but she is very feminine.
And so to me, when I think about a confident woman, I see like Wonder Woman, that's kind of what I think of. So, you know, it's a lot of different things. But it's so much love, confidence and goodness that it's almost like you have a ripple effect so that when you are around a confident woman, you feel it and you feel more confident.
What do you feel was the turnkey point which really helped you to start loving yourself, accept yourself and build this inner confidence?
A lot of things tie into that for me. I'm a big advocate for therapy and things that help you not only recognize challenges that you have but some of those hidden belief systems that we are just so used to thinking. We don't even recognize that we are telling ourselves certain things. So for me, the change for sure was not immediate. It is years and years. And like I said, I'm still on the journey, but I feel like there was a huge turning point when I felt like I could let those things go. I am almost like being in a cage of shame and guilt and not good enough and all these subconscious beliefs. Once I could let those go that's when I felt like in life and in business I started to enjoy life more, be more confident and not have all these things holding me down. That I didn't even realize until I addressed them and knew where they came from. But it's still a journey. So I feel like as long as we see progress along the way, that's all that matters because the journey is long.
What would be one advice you could give to women who go through any sort of challenges in life in this moment?
I truly believe the people you are around make all the difference. If you are surrounded by somewhat small minded and or negative or, you know, this is where you come from. So this is probably all you are going to accomplish. I mean, you will only get so far. So that might mean and it meant for me, I had to do what I call life surgery where there were some people that you can still love them, but it doesn't mean that you have to be around them because the impact that their energy and mentality has just kind of suppresses you.
So sometimes I think it's reevaluating who are my people around me. And sometimes that's really hard because some of those people are close to you. They could be family or friends that you've had for 15 years, and it might mean you need to make a change. People that are going to push you encourage you breathe life into you.
I think that's one of the biggest components. You just have to evaluate “who are my people and do I need to change my circle?”
Could you give a feedback to our photo session?
When you see the pictures and the moments that you've captured it, it's somewhat surreal because you're seeing yourself objectively and you realize like, my gosh, that is me! And you can see things in yourself that maybe you don't ordinarily.
Some of the different types of pictures I would have never seen myself doing. And then to see them and realize part of that is in me and it's okay to have these different sides. So it absolutely boosted confidence and also just self-acceptance, being comfortable with who you are. And I'm like, okay, when can we do it again?
It's so needed for women. And while, you know, we want to be confident from the inside out the outside matters and how you see yourself. So you were able to capture so many of us in ways that we just, you know, never thought possible.
Schedule your free consultation
OUR SERVICES:
