Today’s conversation highlights the role leadership plays in shaping the financial services industry through the lens of Izumi’s journey. Drawing from decades of experience, she shares how leading with authenticity and a strong sense of community creates space for growth, learning, and innovation.

Throughout the discussion, it becomes clear that strong leadership is rooted in aligning personal values with professional responsibility. Izumi reflects on how meaningful relationships are built over time and why mentorship matters just as much to the mentor as it does to the mentee.

At its core, this conversation is a reminder that leadership comes with a responsibility to support others, share knowledge, and help develop the next generation, leaving an impact that extends well beyond individual careers.

Takeaways:

• The financial services industry in Canada has been significantly influenced by leaders who prioritize community and authenticity, showcasing the importance of personal connections in business.
• Navigating a male-dominated industry can shape one's career trajectory, but support from mentors can create opportunities for success regardless of gender dynamics.
• Effective leadership is characterized by the ability to facilitate growth and remove barriers for team members, allowing for an environment where everyone can thrive.
• Cultivating relationships is essential in leadership; it is not merely about networking but forming genuine connections that can yield long-term benefits for all parties involved.
• The importance of emotional intelligence in leadership cannot be overstated, as it fosters an environment where individuals feel valued and are more likely to contribute positively.
• Legacy is built through consistent actions and genuine care for others, emphasizing the need for leaders to be present and engaged in their communities.

Welcome back to the Eh List. My name is Brandon Chapman. I'm a financial advisor in Vancouver, bc.

Today we're joined by someone who really has shaped the financial services industry in Canada over the last three decades. And I've had the great pleasure of knowing since I joined the industry.

From her early days at London Life to her leadership with Canada Life and Freedom 55 Financial, she's built incredible presence in the greater Vancouver area and across Canada. And really someone I've known to be very authentic, caring and ultimately a community builder. Hence why I wanted to welcome her today.

So, Zumi, thank you for being here with us.

Oh, Brandon, thank you for having me here today. It's a real privilege, but more importantly, it is a real pleasure to be sitting across from you.

Somebody who I've seen grow from a little tiny chicken to, to a giant hen's probably not the appropriate word, but somebody who has created so much good in the community and this would be an example. So it really is my pleasure to be here.

Well, they say you stand on the shoulders of giants, and so Izumi is one of those giants that I've had the pleasure of being a part of her community.

And today I'm hoping to just glean some of that insight to share with clients, friends and colleagues who are leaders or aspiring to be leaders in their respective communities. So first of all, Zumi, you're in probably one of the most male dominated industries here in Canada, which is financial services.

So I'm curious how that shaped your first few years in the industry and if that played a role in your success at all and if not, why.

You know, that's a really good question and I thought you would ask me that one, so I pondered it because honestly, I'm a little, it's very complicated for me.

So I think the simplest way to define it, and I just mentioned this last week in something that I was sharing with people that for sure it is a male dominated industry. It very much so was when I began. So, for example, there was even no maternity leave policy when my daughter was born.

But there's something that I always say to myself and it's just a little bit of a joke. It's a Monty Python skit.

Now if you've ever seen the Four Yorkshiremen and I don't even know if that's appropriate to share anymore, but it's just about how life, if you think you had it bad, somebody else thought they had it bad. And I never honestly thought there was anything happening.

So I always feel a little bit Apologetic when I think about it, because I know there's lots of women that are listening to this that are thinking, is there a pathway through? But honestly, I have been a very blunt instrument to my shame. And I think what has defined me though is that I was born the year of the fire horse.

So something completely out there in the Chinese astrological calendar. But it is a. I don't know if you know the story of what a fire horse is, but it's really the daughter that you dread.

You try to avoid that year of pregnancy because you don't want your daughter to be born the year of the fire horse. Because they're stubborn, they're fierce, they're difficult. And so I actually think that I didn't notice.

I just love that there was no bathroom lineups. It's the little things in life, right?

So, I mean, I half jest, but at the end of the day, you know, I knew that you would probably ask this, so I tried to think of something that would be helpful and constructive to the audience.

And what I realized is that it did shape me coming into an industry that was male dominated because I clearly the reason why I can have this banter is because I was surrounded by individuals and leaders probably my whole life through music, through my fierce summer job. You know, I always worked two full time jobs in the summer. I worked almost full time in university at the Pit Pub as a head bar.

But every one of the people that I worked with, I believe that they cherished me for who I was and my unique abilities and gender was never put on there.

I was, you know, typically in male dominated environments, but most of them were performance based, they were meritocracies and this business was no different. So was it me? I don't think so. Yes, I was blunt and I was a fire horse and just didn't notice a lot of things.

But what I do believe is I've been surrounded by extraordinary people who have cultivated and created space for me to be able to give that unique piece. And they would often say it's a very eccentric piece.

So, you know, as an example, if you came into the bar, you know, student pub, very heavy drinking at that time, back in, back in my day.

And you know, my big, my, my big thing was that if you came on and you worked a night that I was head bar, we would be done when the bar closed 30 minutes later.

So in my experience working as a, as a young bartender in the Pit Pub, in the beginning, we'd end up, you know, being there till 2 2:30, 3 o' clock in the morning.

So when it was my head bar shift, and that's probably where I learned some of the rest, really key takeaways, ironically, about leadership and that leading by example, it's about removing barriers to success. I probably spent my whole time as a headbar doing little bits of everybody's job so that they could do what they did best.

So if a waiter was really great in the floor, I would bus. And then people, you know, would say, they're not busing. You know, how come they get to do that? But I would say, you know what?

They're doing really great at what they do. I have time. I'm going to do this. I would do garbage. I would shut down the Zoms, clean them.

So if you're ordering a beer 15 minutes before close, you would have to suffer the dignity of probably being sprayed a little bit by water. But I had leaders who just went, oh, that's Izumi.

It was a benefit to them because Everybody knew at 1:30 we'd sit and have a beer and everything was done. And everybody's a volunteer there. Everybody was. I mean, they were working, but they went on to be lawyers, doctors, you know, all kinds of things.

So it's not like you could necessarily build culture. You had to build culture in a hot pot very quickly. But it had to have the flavor, the depth, the piece that you wanted a shift to go really well.

And really it was about the experience. How do you make it so that everybody has fun and that includes the people you work with.

So that carried on into this career in that I had a tremendous leader who once again cherished my eccentricity. So when he was, you know, I went through my 42 interviews. Probably they were vetting very carefully as. As they should.

And what he said was, for example, do you have a car? So back then, everybody did appointments in people's homes. It made perfect sense. And not having really a filter and not knowing.

When he said that, it was a very innocent question. I said, I hate driving. What is this? Are we like taxi drivers? I thought it was a profession that we were helping people with money.

And he, you know what? Without missing a beat, he goes, I hate driving, too. And that was it.

And then the next weekend when I started, I just said, you know, I'm going to do all my appointments in my office. Office, which once again, wasn't heard of. I wasn't trying to reinvent or be innovative. It just never occurred to me. I didn't understand.

Well, I didn't like driving number one. But why wouldn't we do all the appointments in the office? So I said, can I decorate?

And so, you know, you have this wonderful, beautiful space and you what it's like to sign your, your covenant for your lease. I said to them, is it okay if I just decorate a bit? They came in the next, you know, over the course of the weekend.

And I had painted my broom closet. Actually, it was a broom closet. I think they just shoved like it was the only space available. I, I painted it burgundy.

It was small, so I put tile mirror up one side. It, it, you know, I feel badly they did not get their damage deposit back. But Mark, you know, once again, never said, oh, why did you do that?

He just went, oh, I, I, that's okay. And so it might seem like I was indulged, but really it was not. They just appreciated initiative.

And I think that they understood that in order to create a diverse space where there was lots of different people giving advice, that wouldn't have been their motivation at the time. You know, me being female, it was, I was the right person for the role because I really wanted to run and own my own business.

So, sorry, Zimmy, what role did you start and then how did that evolve?

Financial advisor. My apologies. Yeah, I was hired at a university.

And where was that?

It was in Vancouver, in what you would know, Brandon, as Vancouver, Georgia. The original Vancouver, Georgia. And it was. I was next door to one of your colleagues, Kirk Wakefield.

He was my person who was that steady, and you know him as a human. So if you multiply him by everybody that was there, Sure. I was surrounded by men, boys, however you define it, but they were all supported.

We were all doing our own thing. And I think what it was was whether, whether deliberately or not, everybody created the space where I could be authentically me.

And, you know, if you're productive, you accomplish it, you make a difference, you're. You earn the right to keep moving in that way, you know, with, with, with thought, with guidance.

But I am so grateful to have found the people that I found so early in life who taught me all the way through. Whether it was Mark or whether it was the pit pub, whether it was.

Which Mark is this right?

Mark Neal? So, yeah, and he was iconic in industry as well, but I think he just, he listened, he cared, and he never judged.

He was always there to guide good, good guide rails. You know, we're running a business. There's a purpose and an endpoint and there's process, but he really did. It was my business.

So he allowed me to, to own it. And that was even at a time when we didn't really own our own business. If I had read the fine print.

So once again, a little bit of a blunt instrument. But sometimes that's helpful, certainly.

And it's interesting your, your experience because you, you taught, you touched on a few things there. You touched first based on the leaders that you were able to be connected with early on in the male dominated industry.

I have noticed in this industry there are interesting personalities. Obviously some, some boisterous ones, maybe some ego. However, your leadership style, as I've seen it, has been.

You're almost like a transition transistor between corporate requirements and then on the ground realities.

And you do a really fantastic job of translating what are corporate decisions, but making them more reasonable so that folks under your care feel like they're under your care and they're not being directed from like a corporate entity. So how did you manage some of the egos that may have existed in our industry as you rose up as a leader?

And how do you turn sort of corporate decisions into, I would say, a more real office experience among cordial friends?

You know, that's a really good question.

You know, if I was to find one of the roles of a leader and you know, once again, there are many great leaders out there and I was actually in their story path, but what I learned from them was that as a leader, you set the narrative. You know, everybody needs to accomplish anything. It is not mutually exclusive.

What corporately needs to be accomplished and what might have been, what I was responsible for in terms of creating results. But, but at the end of the day, my job was to remove barriers to success and to amplify the compelling part of the message to move it forward.

There's a very fine line too. Like, I find that if one was cynical, they could say it was spin. Spin doesn't work right. Spin is very shallow. It lives on the surface. It dies.

What it was was to take the time. And it did. I've been through many iterations of the organization. We zig and we zag.

But what I've understood as a fundamental truth, and it was set deep inside me in the very beginning of my career, is certainly in our industry, clients really are at the center of everything.

So despite how things can radically change, and, you know, leaders always change, you know, we live in a culture too right now where it's, you know, return to shareholders. We hear that all the time. But you know, once again, if you're a product or service industry. The client is at the center of everything.

And so I, I do think that, you know, I'll talk about my, my, my team in, in particular, my job was to keep them safe, to get us to where we're going to.

We always wanted to see the advisors you worked with be extremely successful, to innovate in the industry, to make a difference that never changed through every single iteration. And somebody, you know, could they say to me, well, that's not actually profitable. Like nobody really could. So it was always a little bit of a dance.

But my job, okay, what is the goal? What are we trying to accomplish?

You know, who is the most important person to put the covenant, the values covenant around how we'll operate and to be relentless in that strategical, strategic, practical, tactical piece to give them the safe space to be in, to keep things fun, you know, because sometimes my team, they would get messages like, and I totally appreciate that it's about, you know, sometimes decisions are made, they're about efficiency, not about effectiveness. Effectiveness is the long term vision. We were all on the same page organizationally and micro, organizationally.

But it gets a little bit messy because there's a lot of people, people turn over. But I think I can say, and that's thanks to the leaders that I had, even internally they gave me the autonomy to stay.

I'd have to, with each other, change, you know, revisit and step back. And I'm pretty sure in the last evolution, last two evolutions ago, we brought on some new team members.

So I've had, I had had the pleasure of really, you know, growing up with. It was, it was family around me, it was people that we brought into the business. We did all succession internally.

It's not that we weren't open to, not external, that wasn't the point.

It's just, you know, there were people that were talented and they were the right fit and they understood the culture because culture is absolutely everything and culture is community. And community as we know, when it becomes big enough, becomes a movement and that changes the world. So that's the macro.

But the micro I think is just really understanding. My role was to help them to be successful and be respectful, but to really shape the story and say, you know, things are never as they seem either.

There's a reason for everything. So to spend a lot of time on the why and then, and then to understand, which I think is really important. It's been a theme that's resonated.

You know, we all know the importance of the why, but that you know, once again can switch. That can be different than vision. Why is a deeply personal thing. And then if you have alignment with your team, that makes a huge difference.

That would be your values covenant. But it was to always say, why not like let's, let's, let's be on the cutting edge. Let's, let's be, you know, difficult but respectful and difficult.

What I mean is just innovative and somebody like you, you know, you're very, I admire you, you know, you're an entrepreneur's entrepreneur and that is how all great change in the world happens. Something, you know, the flat Earth theory was not very popular. It's come back into popularity. So that's a very exciting thing.

Maybe people weren't wrong, but it's, you know, I, I do think you have to stay steady and help your team to stay steady and make sure the messaging is clear and keep them safe, which Simon Sinek says. But it is so true when people are safe, they will, you know, their true potential becomes unleashed for sure.

And you've, you've been clearly someone that's led with that intention throughout your career. And I like there's a few threads I want to pull on there. It's going to be one.

You spoke about efficiency versus effectiveness and I think that, I think a lot of leaders can take something away from that because oftentimes companies will think in quarters, but leaders will think in decades with the relationship deposits that they make with their team and perhaps their colleagues.

You've clearly been someone that has made many of relationship deposits over the years with the people that you've worked with or have been associated with you. And that's why you have such a community.

Like when I attended your retirement party and the room was packed, absolutely packed, no room for anyone to, to walk almost like that. It says so much, a testament to yourself.

And I think it was meant to be a small party when people heard oh man, Izumi's retiring, people show up for you. So you have been known to say that privilege comes with responsibility. And how would you say that that mantra has played out in, in your career?

In particular, how you lead with your team members and then of course the advisors that they have supported.

Yeah, privilege.

I mean I didn't mean to take that from Spider man, but it's a very good, very good, I think tenant to live by mainly because on a very simple level, we live in Canada.

It is not perfect, but my goodness, you know, and this is not, this is not everybody, obviously, but certainly if you wake up, you have Shelter over your head and you have a meal and you are supported, you have people that love you.

It behooves you not to recognize the position of strength and privilege that you are at relative to the majority of the world in different places and spaces at different times and to really exert yourself and take advantage of that, that extra bandwidth that you have, that's not about survival and to take that and make a difference on behalf of others.

Yeah, we're very fortunate to be able to sit down and have this conversation and talk about something as perhaps abstract as leadership.

But I do think in a world where everything is hyper sensationalized online, people are looking for authentic leaders who care and who care about their success. So you, you've been that in my life and many others in sort of the financial advisor community.

But now as you're through all these rebrands and changes, how has your, I guess upbringing before you got into the industry influenced the type of leader that you became? And are there some people that you would like to attribute, some of who Izumi is today that you can share?

You know there is. When we talk about this industry, I'm assuming that's what you're talking about.

We're not gonna go back in, in time that far back because I'd be very far back in time.

I would be curious. But whatever you're comfortable sharing.

You know, I think it began with my, with my parents. And it surprises me because I was, you know, my mother and father. Like all parents, opposites attract. They're very different people.

My mom, she has a certain intensity to her. I actually didn't read the room properly. So once again, sometimes it's good.

You know, I appreciate that we have access to all kinds of information, but it's important to access experiences, not information. It's important to access insight, not just information. And so you know that that's been a tenant.

If you ask me a little bit about mentoring and those pieces I'll talk about. I talked to that. But somebody in our neighborhood got a piano. I was nine years old. So very late, too late to be a Suzuki wonder child.

It never occurred to me that my mom did music. You know, she was a concert Mr. The Naimo Symphony for 25 years. She went to UCLA for music. I should have known. She was fierce.

She received the American Field Scholarship to attend university in the US Post war and she was a female. You know, there was many different things. There's many pieces to that story that tell a lot about who she is. So very interesting.

So my dad didn't grow up really with music or fluffy, what he would call fluffy fancy. But he loved music and he loved to fall asleep to it. That was probably the extent of his music. But he was always very supportive.

But he was a biologist, a salmon biologist, so he spent a lot of time away.

So my mother was the primary caregiver for many years as my dad was working in, you know, in that field where they'd be up in Babine Lake and, you know, for. For months at a time and then come home.

My mom, I just said, you know, I'd really like to play piano, but all I really liked was the mechanics, right? You press a key. I didn't like somebody at a piano. I just wanted one. I guess it'd be the equivalent of somebody saying, oh, somebody has a Nintendo.

I'd like that Nintendo, right? If people even play Nintendo now. And I. She just said, sure, as long as you practice. And I went, sure, yeah, of course. Right.

I didn't know that was two hours a day. Nobody gave me the memo. Made sense. She was a musician. My sister is actually a professional musician. Never occurred to me.

But, you know, she never said, you need to do a musical instrument, you need to do this or that. She never exerted her will, but I chose that. And then there was a deal that said that when you get your arctic, you can quit.

So my whole life was a run. I loved performing. I just did not like practicing.

And I think the difference between a musician, like a true musician, like my sister, she likes performing, but she loves practicing. Like, I was a terrible kid. I hope my mom's not listening, but I would literally, you know, press a recording of me playing when they were gardening.

And then I would sit on the couch, read a magazine, and I would play so they would hear me practicing. Like all kind. I call that my innovative. My innovative state. Doesn't say much for my integrity as a child. But, you know, I love to perform.

So the bottom line is you, you had to practice. So that would just be like a little 15 minute distraction if there was an opportunity.

But the one thing that my parents made a deal with me, and it was mostly my mom, she said, you have to practice two hours a day, but if you get that done, then you're done for the day. So what I would do later on in my teen years, and, you know, I was practicing Five hours before a competition, but the two hours I could manage.

So on a Friday night, sorry, on a Thursday night I would practice from 6 to 8 o', clock, which makes sense. And then I would get up at 12 and practice till 2. And if I was a parent, I don't think I would be very happy that the piano's clanking.

They never said anything, they never complained. That was my practicing for the Friday.

And then I would go out all night, right, Because I'd practice for the next day because it's a bit of a barrier when you have to come home from school, you can't hang out with your friends.

How old are you here there?

I'd probably be about 15, 16. Okay. But my parents, they always, they always honored what they said. They did what they said.

I don't think, I don't know if it was even that conscious for them. Maybe they just never even heard me practice, I don't know. But I look back and it reminds me of that piece of deliver on your promises, right?

Like it's very important. Sometimes it's difficult, but that is the most important thing because that is brand, that is consistency.

And certainly in leadership it is the most important thing because people can know how they can count on you.

And then you know further around that you learn to operationalize it and to put processes and systems in place so that once again the baseline, the table stakes, things are taken care of so you can actually focus on the people, the relationships and delivering on your promises. So that was very beginning. I learned that a word was a word. And that's kind of, you know, what, what Mark said, you can paint your office.

He never came in and said, what did you do right? Not at all. Nothing as a matter of fact, to my retirement part. I think he talked about that and he was just smiling, he just thought it was funny.

And you know, I think that funniness, that humor too. When people are in a safe place, you can find humor even when there's danger or challenge.

And if you're together because you've cultivated like minded people, they're headed in the same direction as the leader. You keep the compass safe and you find out ways to, you know, to see everybody's unique fit.

At that time, when you asked me about, you know, that, that leader who might have cultivated something a little bit different back then, we would call it, I think diversity. But it was not, I know it was not intentional. What he was doing was just finding people.

Mark was looking for people that were entrepreneurial, that wanted to Make a difference that were passionate. Right. You know, we always talk about his sparkle. And I was very blessed that he saw that in me.

I didn't have a pedigree that looked like I didn't graduate in commerce, which you know, was in my mind it was an Achilles, it was a barrier really. It turns out now it doesn't. You know, it's about the learning, your ability to manage deductive reasoning.

What did you study?

English Literature.

English, okay.

Yeah. But you know, in the end life is about communication. So that was really great. But that's.

I think that was a very long winded way around your question. But I think that I did learn and Mark would have been in those people. And Noel, who has lived a life unimagined.

He was an individual before for the audience.

Noel.

Oh, Noel Villard was the regional director at the time I started. And Mark and Noel, they both qualified for the Ironman together. That was their team building exercise.

So you can, you know, you can kind of read in a little bit to, you know, their discipline, their drive, their goal orange, the business side of it, the accountability. But as humans they were extraordinary. And so Noel, when he.

I guess this was many years in and they actually the organization sent him to counseling but they, but they would not.

He was so productive that they were trying to help to understand him because he would be up at 4 o' clock in the morning when calling head office, leaving messages because he was a very much an early bird, went to bed early. But he was so passionate what he did, so passionate that he actually moved up to Whistler. So this was before we had flexible days.

He was the regional director of a very traditional office. But he worked well. He worked in the office Monday through Thursday and on Friday through to Sunday. That was family time for him.

But nobody worked as hard as Noel and anybody around us was. We all knew that, you know, we wanted Noel to be up there. We worked the Dan Sullivan, the focus days.

We put in a process, another process, Wayne Cotton, that talked about how to manage focus. They built the processes and systems around life, around life balance. We didn't realize it at the time. I didn't even know it.

But I've lived in that legacy of just, you know, you don't. Not one thing is more important than the other. They're all important. So how do you have the bandwidth to optimize all those pieces?

It requires planning, but it also requires a steady hand. Because I don't know anybody that time that would say I work a four day week when they Work for an organization. Yeah.

And I think, Zumi, you've been known to build good processes, but then have flexibility in order to support those in your career. I think back to like the Georgia office where when clients would first walk in, there was Naj there at the front offering a beverage.

And then clients come into the nice boardroom. And that experience, I think, taught me a few things.

Early days about the importance of the client experience from the moment they first connect with you. But let's switch gears a bit and talk a little bit about mentorship.

Okay.

So you have been a mentor to so many, not only in our industry, but some students as well. What's something that you wish you knew before you started mentoring others?

It wasn't something that was, you know, death defying. It's what we all intuitively know, depending on how you were brought up. But, but the key importance of, of language. Words matter.

It's about building trust, relationships. That's all life is. Life is communication. Right. And I was reminded yesterday by a mentee who is now incredibly successful.

So I'm always, I'm always, you know, I'm humbled whenever he calls me and says it's time for us to meet. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I should be calling you. Wait, I'm afraid to call you because you're so successful.

But, but I mentioned that I was going to be chatting with you today, and I said, you know, I'm just curious, is there something very, you know, very early on in my relationship, he was referred to me by somebody else who just said, you know, can you meet with him? He doesn't know a lot of people. He's an international student and he's great. And, you know, this individual is very special.

And I just, you know, at the very beginning, I just gave him a book as a gift. It was how to win friends and influence people.

Which doesn't sound, you know, it sounds a little Machiavellian when you think of it today, but it really, it's Dale Carnegie just talking about people. And so he said to me, izumi, in university, I took commerce. We never ever got anything like that.

The importance of soc facts, the importance of being human. It's that connectivity, that touch point that is so critical to all success, all opportunity, all fulfillment.

And, you know, it wasn't the book, but it was the idea that, you know, I was coming to see you. And really what we focused on was not anything what I thought at the time was tactical or practical. It was more about human connection.

But that was the thing that I wish was cultivated more in university. And I think of myself, you know, would I have gotten even further if somebody had given me that? I think some things have to be learned, right?

And those. And then you own them and they're exciting, but. But I do wish that that was hard baked into the curriculum.

Yeah, I totally agree. I think the soft skills and what people learn outside the classroom has perhaps been more important than what they learn in the classroom.

I've got a few interns that work here with us, and the things I try to stress is the relationships that they build and the things that they do in the work is far more important than perhaps maybe the grades. Unless, of course, you want to become a doctor or post grad, etc.

Because if you know how to have good conversations with people, care about people, and you can build authentic relationships, that can compound over the many years in which obviously we've seen that in your career.

I mean, there's one thing I'm just gonna add in there that I believe. There are a couple of universities. I believe UBC is one of them.

So when I retired, thought went through my head, you know, should I brush up my chemistry and go be a doctor? But one of the things are beginning to value is that obviously grades are important. Like, you know, you. You need them.

But there has been a movement to, to really, particularly in med schools, from my understanding. This was a couple years ago because I was very excited thinking, oh, I get, you know, should I. Here's an opportunity for me.

But it was about what they're looking for. People are looking for people with experience. Because once again, medicine is, you know, you need to know your science perfectly.

But at the same time, if it has no human connection, it's just applied research on humans. And, you know, we know the efficacy of most treatments. A big part of it is something that we can't really tell.

It's how dopamine, serotonins, all those things, they, they run.

And a good doctor who is reassuring, you know, those are the happy stories that people actually have really positive recoveries, or even when they don't, they're given thoughtful pause. It's the kindness, right? That's the.

Well, then you've led with kindness throughout your career. Right? People will forget what you said, but they won't forget how you made them feel.

And I think most people who have interacted with you over the years have felt that Izumi cares and she's thoughtful, and you have that emotional intelligence with every interaction that you have and that I think is something that most people who are listening could really apply to their own leadership capability. Now you have been mentoring students from BCIT as well as UBC for decades. What are some things that you've learned from your mentees over the years?

I've learned so much. Like, it's, it's, it's extraordinary, particularly when people have very fresh minds.

So maybe I should have used a better euphemism was I had a fresh mind versus I was a blunt instrument. But I, you know, it's just, it's to be open to the world. Right.

And today, through the Internet, through travel, through ability to experience many different things if somebody has that heart.

And I, you know, I've had some extraordinary mentees and, and what has made them all that way is that they're courageous, they're passionate and they move quickly through the world. They're very agile.

So it's almost like it allows me to sit because they bring so much to me through their experiences, even though their timeline is short.

And all I really do is I have the opportunity to be introspective and frame and help them to be able to translate that experience into something tangible. That's like on a rock climbing wall. It's your next hold.

Totally. Yeah.

Like, I think of like on my side, Eileen coming into the industry, she was able to get some support from Greg Taylor and John Panago before she eventually joined our firm. And being able to have that ground level set after having her experience with Advisor Flow really helped put her in a really good place.

But even now, you know, she sees things from a different perspective. So when working on a joint client, I'm teaching her things and she's teaching me.

But ultimately we get to a better outcome provided that both sides are, I think, open minded and respectful.

Yeah, I think everything really is, it's a, it's a collaboration. Right. I mean, it's bringing the best to yourself. I always said too that, you know, the goal is to get to the caramel secret.

Everybody has a caramel secret, a super skill.

And so, you know, throughout my lifetime, even though I might, might know somebody for years and years and years, I'm always digging, I'm always curious because once again, I mean, you've heard me say this a million times. It's not original, but it's the books you read and the people you meet.

And so it's, it's interesting that I find that students, or you know, students on the surface, when you meet them, they're so open to the world that their Caramel Secret is. It tends to float on the surface. I think we begin to protect it over time.

But everybody has a thing and if they know what that is and if they can identify it quickly, it is a life of fulfillment because it's more a matter of being creative and having the courageous, the courage of your convictions to really pursue that special thing and find that place, that home, so that you can make your ultimate contribution. And students do that. The other thing about the mentoring and the reason why it's so important was to be able to bring that back to my team.

So something like the BCIT program that was very innovative. When Larry Stubbs began that program at BCIT and I was very lucky that he asked would you be one of those mentors that comes.

It was a very time intensive, but only because it was care intensive from my perspective. But I was able to engage the rest of my team.

But what that allowed us to do once again, and it's the ambient collateral benefit of giving, you always get back more.

It allowed us to benchmark our processes and systems and our financial planning standard because the students would present and there'd be other firms there. So we could always know. It's one thing to develop your training in isolation, but how do you know you don't want to experiment?

So that was, you know, not only was it giving back, it was leading by example. It was engaging and creating fulfillment. Because once again in my team, it's caramilk secret.

We had people with very unique talents that if they were hired for their role, what they did once they were on the team didn't meet the job description. And I think that's very important.

So as a result, you have to have lots of different projects and things that are all tied to the same epicenter, but allow people to show different parts of their, of their talent, their career. And so it was a win win on so many levels.

But for me personally, I have learned so much from my mentees and coming into retirement, like making that decision to cross over. What I've realized is that you never lose relationships.

And as long as you're curious, I'm always worried that my brain, like I'm going to stale date and eventually I won't have a question to ask. But now I'm convinced that when I think I know someone, it just means their Caramel Secret is really, really deep.

And I have to, you know, I'm curious. I want to find it because I want to find out, I want to figure out how I can connect with It.

And maybe connect others, because how powerful to link all of those things together, that makes, as you know, better community, better world. That is world peace in its perfect form.

Beautiful. Yeah.

That caramel secret, it's really figuring out what drives people, what gives them that spark, that passion, and how do you bring that out to elevate the experience for everyone with the organization or project or task that you're collectively working on?

Now, for some of our perhaps younger listeners, who perhaps are just getting started on their leadership journey, what advice would you have for them in order to perhaps set them off on the right foot?

Well, I guess two things. Number one, reach out. I know that people are always. It's about confidence, right? And I. And I think that everybody is.

You should have the confidence that you are you. Right? And it's Dr. Seuss. Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Every single person that I know that is successful, they were helped by somebody. They know that they need to ask for help. They know that they would need to receive help graciously, and they know that they need to give help.

So a lot of times I find that, you know, when people are younger, they're. They're. They can get awestruck by people.

But I always say to them that in my experience, the most successful, the people that I think are the scariest, they actually are the kindest, the easiest, and the first ones to take a coffee because they remember, right? So, and that is communication is 85 visual.

So once again, if your person that you're reaching out to is halfway around the world, of course, you know, I love that technology makes that easy. But if it's at all possible, it even says something about you. You know, your mentor is in Mexico City.

You actually fly down and sit outside their door for five hours, they will remember you for the rest of your life. I heard a really interesting story about somebody who was getting. They. They. They were getting a fellowship.

And so they reached out to the person that was creating the body of work and said, hey, I think that this might be happening, but can I. Will you mentor me for the next two years? Big ask for the CEO of a company. And surprisingly, the person said, yes, I'd be delighted.

Well, to the person's chagrin that it asked, they didn't actually receive the fellowship from the foundation. And they called rather sheepishly and said, you know, I'm really. I'm really sorry.

And right away, without skipping a beat, that CEO said, well, that's unfortunate, but that's okay, we'll still, you know, we'll still do this. So I think it's. Remember that good people are good people and to never be afraid because that's how you're going to learn and grow.

That's how you connect. It's not about, you know, you hear about you need to network, yes, you do, but that you need to connect with people. Right? It's very important.

I say that to my daughter all the time. I force her to connect. She's a natural connector.

But even, you know, she just said to me the other day, because I was introducing to somebody that really I just like that had been introduced to me by somebody else on because people know they can refer me to people and I will just meet them to just learn and inevitably there is some piece of connectivity there that I can reach into that is helpful to somebody else. So if nothing else, I want to have that. You know, I have that want to have that in my compendium.

She said, well mom, it's easy for you to, to do that. And she, my daughter is a very accomplished individual. And I just went, what are you talking about? People, they love you when they meet you.

They're connected. She goes, no, no, no, you, you know, you do this or that. I said, no, I just ask and I have an open heart and I sit.

It's not what somebody can give you, it's what you can learn from them. That in order to move forward. If you want to build any kind of business, I would suggest life as a business family.

Building a family, a good, you know, not building a good family. Building. Building a family is. Is a business. Building a volunteer. Life is a business. Faith is. Is an enterprise, right? It's a journey.

They're all journeys. You need good people around you, so reach out. I think is the very is. Is one of the most important pieces.

The tenacity to actually reach out and push for more.

Right.

Like it's easy to sit in a place and wait for tasks to come to you. But if you can find someone who you think you can learn from, ask.

And if you ask, a lot of people are very willing to share wisdom and time with those that are respectful and are doing things for the purposes of relationship building.

So that I guess my follow on question to that Azumi, for you would be what would you say is the difference between networking and relationship building?

I think networking is just a way to put a tactical layer on it.

So maybe you can look at it from a business analytics level quantitatively and quantitatively, like you would do anything, analyze it to see how you can do better. But it is about connection. It is about relationship. Just like I know that a lot of times people say, I want to do marketing.

I don't want to do sales, right? And, you know, I always say I don't. People can, you know, whatever makes them comfortable.

But I always found that distinction a little interesting because people's biases inherently are in that word, and it affects them. The language affects them.

But I think if you just step back and you look at it, you know, we are all in the business of sales, which is effective communication to help people to make good decisions for themselves, to support them, to be a good friend, and to help them to find their success, regardless of, you know, what your relationship might be with them. And then I think when we talk about networking, I think that's the scientific methodology around it. It's. It's. You know, it. It's.

There's quantitative data that's attached to it. But the bottom line is, is really, it's about connecting, and everybody has the ability to connect.

So I think when we call it networking, it becomes scary for people, particularly if you're younger and you've never done networking. It's like, I have to go to a networking event. But, you know, my simple advice is just, you know, stand up, dress up, show up, and then stand up.

Be your authentic self. And like Velcro. I use this analogy before in leadership, but in life, you want to be like Velcro with lots of sticky pieces. And it's true.

When you, like, leave Velcro out, all of a sudden there's, like, dog hair, there's lint, dust bunnies. All kinds of things are on there. But the bottom line is you become something that people can stick to because it's. It's real. It's.

It's a handhold that's solid. And they. They know you, and that's safety because it's consistency. It all ties together.

So when you go out there and you're worried, there's nothing to worry about. You are you. Are you. You know, you better than anybody else. And networking is just about. Sorry. Is about connecting, and that's it.

It's interesting. I like the Velcro analogy. My wife dawn, she talks about you get more bees with honey. And I think you.

You're definitely someone that probably follows that same mantra in that in a leadership role, the better you. You treat those in your care, the more likely they are to want to proactively do things as opposed to Being told to do things by their boss.

So I think that difference between boss and leader is so crucial, particularly for younger people who perhaps haven't had those leadership opportunities yet.

When you meet young people and when you're mentoring them, what are some of the, I guess, problems that they've seen in their leadership experiences that perhaps they've shared with you? And then how has that shaped some of the ways that you lead within your community?

Perspective is everything, right? So it's hard to know, you know, there's two sides, there's 10 sides, there's 50 sides.

So I think one of the things as a leader that one must be mindful of in my own lesson to myself is to always be self reflective, which allows you to be self regulated and self disciplined and mostly self aware. And that includes checks and feedback. So you want to make sure that you're not just.

I'm not suggesting that anybody imagines, but there's a law of attraction. What you think will, will, will likely happen, especially if you are a talented person. So you really need to have that self awareness.

And you know, I, I think the world is what you make of it. So it's true, you might be just like a tiny garden if the garden is worthy in a, in a field of nothingness. And you're those little flowers.

But if you've ever seen a forest grow after a fire, it's incredible, right?

And even though we mourn the loss of the big beautiful trees, all of a sudden life that we could never have imagined comes, flowers that haven't been there for 2,000 years, all of a sudden come out something we would think is of an invasive species. All of a sudden we cherish our perspective moves.

So I always say, and this is not very popular because everybody wants to be comfortable, they want to be happy. But there is a saying, and it's like the Monty Python skit. I relish the harsh conditions and I know that with that comes humor.

So, you know, the worse it is, the more I go, I'm determined because you're going to get through everything.

Because once again, you know, we live in a world where the final outcome, if you're loved, you're probably still going home on Friday saying, you know, I'm really, I had a really tough week. And then somebody says, okay, we'll sit down and have dinner, right? Like, we don't fall very far. So therefore we need to do research.

We need to be self aware when we, when we make that. Now what you need, what you need to do is to Control what you can control, because that's all you can do.

And it's an interesting question you asked me. It was the second part of the answer that I just rambled there on this. The past New Year's I did something and it'll be a tradition.

So we just actually sent out our new note to the Tiki Cats, which is. It's a group of very successful 26 year olds and my daughter's at the center of it.

But last year, all of a sudden, I thought, everybody is moving on, like they are being promoted. They are. They're so successful. But I realize I'm going to be around them for the next 50 years. So it's not that I'm right or wrong.

So I would always say to my team, just because you read a book doesn't mean. Doesn't mean that what they're saying is right. The point is that it's a dialogue. So I always encourage people. The thing you control is reading.

It's that, is that peace.

It's that reaching out and getting support to make sure that you're really seeing it correctly and that somebody can give you feedback that's real so you can know how to position yourself to move forward. But what we did was we. I signed a book because I just said, oh, are you coming to dinner? And they said, yes. And I said, oh, it's trust and inspired.

Stephen Covey. And I'm pretty sure half of them didn't believe it was happening. And then they realized it was.

And on New Year's Day, if you're in Waikiki beach, you could see a whole pile of people reading books. And then if you went to Roy's for dinner, New Year's, everybody's celebrating.

You know, we have tons of, you know, wine, we're having fun, but we have a book club going on. So I think that it's. Because what I realized was that people can be successful. There's many different definitions.

There's many different leadership styles as well. You need different leaders for different times. But the fundamentals, the core part of it, and I'm a Covey person, I'm a Max Dupree person.

So I just thought, if they're going to be successful, I need to at least bring in this thought leadership so we can discuss it so that later on down the road somebody doesn't say to me, and they're super, super successful by whatever definition, I did it this way. And I do it by, you know, like, it's that efficient leadership now that effective leadership we downsize, we're profitable.

Our return was really great because we just laid off a who pile of people and it's okay. We help them. We have like, I just, I can't bear that, that conversation when I could have made a difference.

So what that goes back to is I realize that some of them have really great leaders around them, some of them don't. It doesn't really matter.

What we need to do is to talk about all the good things, move them forward, and to share the hardships and the challenges like you might be feeling at work within the context of the book so that we can stretch out stratum capability. Because life is very long. And once again, I think that people want immediate gratification, immediate fix, immediate.

And I get that, like I, you know, we, we live in a world that's like that. And if you were born in the age of Amazon, like you're used to wanting something and you can get it the next day, you know, if I.

Wanted to eat from the comfort of your own home.

Yeah. So I, I get that it's nobody like it makes sense that life should work at that stage speed.

But you know, if you're young and you've come into the workforce, you know, you learn very quickly that, you know, it doesn't quite work at the speed. It can be very frustrating. So that's where the self check is really important too. But it's also important to push out your timeline.

So I would always say, you know, to people coming into our career, they would say, well, I'm going to just try it for a year. And I would say don't, you know, don't bother, don't bother.

Because if you can't push out your ability to see out at least 10 years, you're going to get tumbled by the waves and not come back up. But if you can push out your timeline to 10 years in anything you do, it doesn't mean you, you can't reserve the right to change your mind.

You totally can. But what that allows you to do is to recognize that, you know, three bad years in 10, that's not bad at all.

Three bad months in one year, that is unbearable.

So you know, I think once again, anything that can extend your wisdom, your timeline, give you patience and give you knowledge and experience so that you can, with good humor, good presence of mind, good self awareness, look at your situation and feel in control and build that garden. So you might even be in a place where you are first growth, like really it is a disaster around you for sure.

But there is beauty in that and there's opportunity. So always, always look at the opportunity and be willing to lead that. That change and that opportunity.

Yeah, that's what I try to do anyway, so thank you for that. There was two that I took away for the younger people. One is to connect and build relationships with those that are perhaps further ahead than you.

Oftentimes they'll say yes and provide you that time of day. Two is to read.

The more you learn, the more interesting you're going to be and the more ability to be interested in those around you because you'll be able to have pieces you can share or insights that will make the conversation more mutually beneficial. And you talked a lot about pressure and how change can create opportunity. Diamonds don't get created from just sitting there.

They get created from immense amounts of pressure. And those that go through some of the hardest times, that have some of the crazy stories, generally become the most interesting people.

It's always the questions you ask. And unless you read, your questions can be very narrow. Right. You don't have to have the experience.

You can borrow the experience, but it's the quality of a conversation. Your ability to connect is in the quality of your questions and the sincerity in which you ask them because you're genuinely curious.

And the only way you can do that is just by. Is by stretching and realizing you're part of, you know, there's connectiveness to us and to reach out for that.

Totally.

Well, we're coming close to the end here as you, but there's a couple final questions that you want to touch on before we do, before we dive into that, is there any pieces from your notes that you want to review that we haven't talked about that you want me to tie into these last couple questions?

Oh, no, no.

But I think the thing is, is just, you know, once again, if anybody's listening and they want to chat further, my, you know, I. I would love to hear you share your story so we can see what we can learn from each other. And that is from my perspective. Perspective. I don't know the difference between a mentor and a mentee.

What I do know is that life is about meaningful relationships. So that's the vernacular that everybody understands when I say that. But I. But I mean that sincerely because I want to learn and grow.

I've got 30 years ahead of me at least. I know I can live 120 years in my bag of skin, and I'm sure they'll figure that out. And I'm okay Leave being a brain in a box.

Like, I can do that, but in order to do that, I, you know, it's, it, it's that constant. How do I, how do I keep. How do I keep learning? How do I keep growing? How do I make. How do I make a difference?

Because there's a saying that, you know, if you're not. If your tomorrow is the same as today and you're okay with it because you do nothing different, why do you need tomorrow?

And, you know, for anybody that looks forward to tomorrow, you. You have to give that really simple saying some thought. Because we are here to make a difference. Otherwise, you know, why would you be here?

Yeah. If you're not growing, you're shrinking. But I certainly know, every conversation I have with you and interaction, I feel like I'm growing.

So I do appreciate the time that you, you spend with me and those associated with our company. Now, you volunteer quite a lot as well as umi. So in addition to being a mentor, you volunteer with Kiwanis as well as with Abacus.

Why would you say that industry volunteering as well as community volunteering are important?

Well, because, you know, it's contributing. You know, it's giving back. I mean, I think that's a simple answer. And you really do want to be that change in the world you want to see.

So it's easy to be a grumbly, bumbly but. And it still might not turn out the way that you like.

But I think that if you exert some effort, at least you understand the why and it helps you to navigate. And I think that's very important.

You can't always get what you want, but you can understand and understand how once again, if Your want is 20 years out. For me, it was. It was the profession.

So, you know, since the beginning of time, I never understood why being a financial advisor was not a profession like being a lawyer. And obviously, 35 years later, it's moved in a huge direction.

But, you know, the professional association advocates, there's many organizations out there, fpsc, they are all moving in that direction, and everybody is the table.

You know, we're at a point of convergence from a regulatory, a legislative and a technology perspective, and that moves the agenda forward even quicker. But once again, we're all in the same vision statement, how do we help? How do we help people? You know, how do we help people?

Just coming here, there was some united way.

They did a research project on finances and stress, which I know FPSC has done that as well, that it said that 42% of people worry about money on the stress index. But this was interesting. It was fresh off the press from a different perspective. And it was that 55% of people like money is their like.

It creates so much worry. And 41% of what concerns them, you know, really creates health issues.

And I apologize if I got the 41 and 42 mix, but it actually causes literally physical health issues. And 42% of people, you know, they admit that they can't. They don't have more than a month that they could survive if they didn't have income.

Those are such scary, scary stats.

So what I do know is everybody that is my cohort, beyond what my organization was, beyond what my professional association was, beyond what, you know, the mp, the MLA that we put in place, we all want to make the world a better place. And so you have to participate in the process.

And my number one thing is if you don't vote, which I'm not meaning to treat this like an Emmy award and throw something at the end of my talk, but it is so important. I've seen people be indifferent. And the world's not perfect. It is perfectly imperfect so that you can make your mark.

But when you have the privilege of, in a very simple way of being part of that conversation, you need to participate. And if you don't like it, then volunteer and build something that you think that would be compelling to others. If your heart is good, certainly.

Well, we need a lot more of that type of perspective among leaders, I would say. A lot of times the. If you're not earning from it or it's not growing a career, some people think, well, why would I bother?

But if it's the people who are not active in the industry leading, and it's perhaps people that don't have a view into what's actually happening, that can be a huge issue now when we think about, you know, your own legacy, Izumi, so you still, as you said, probably have at least 30 years of impact left on this world, hopefully longer. What's the legacy that you would like to leave to for future generations in our industry and beyond?

I think it's just, you know, legacy is a big word and I haven't earned it yet. And, you know, it might happen tomorrow. So just is a funny thing I was thinking at my retirement party, people have to say nice things about you.

And when you die, people have to say nice things about you. So I'm actually putting together a list, it's my little fun project right now, of adjectives that people can't use.

So they have to use behavioral examples that show that I led by example. So you can't say she had integrity or she cared.

So that way, it forces me to really be impactful through my actions, because I know that it could actually be a very quiet, quiet funeral, which would be very depressing. And I don't want it to be depressing. But, you know, we talk about legacy. That's what I think about.

But, you know, legacy is also when you're living, legacy is when you're working. That's the brand of who you are. It's a thing that people can consistently depend on. That leaves a mark, and it's a. It's a ripple point.

So for me, I would like to believe that, you know, anybody that's come in contact with me knows that I really do cherish their uniqueness. And I'm always awed by potential.

And so I would like to think that I have built relationships and taken the time to identify and to help people to find their space, to find their voice and to do that for others, you know, which many people have done before. It's not unique to me, but in my own. In my own way, you know, people sometimes say, you're kind of crazy. I can't do that. That's not my potential.

But I think it's to challenge people. And I. And I think, you know, a few minutes ago, we were talking about potential and trust relationships.

The reason why trust and relationships are important, it's because you can also have the difficult conversations. It's not. It's not for when things are going well. It's because you really care. You want to have influence and opportunity. People still choose.

But to really be genuinely helpful and to genuinely care, to not be fair weather and not to do what it takes to be fair weather, or to move like Teflon so quickly and not like Velcro, right? That it's like, oh, it's done. And I'm in my new. I've got a whole new thing that's happening, so it's not even relevant.

Like, everything comes full circle. And so legacy is something that I watch all the time. And I know that I'm always perfectly imperfect.

And I've said to everybody around me and to my team, they'll laugh if they're listening to this or to my previous team that I always say, you know, we. We strive for perfectly imperfect because then we cannot be replaced by AI.

We're kind of that weird thing that they turn upside down going, I Just don't understand this thing. We can't make it perfect, but it's more because we're all like that.

So how do we find that unique piece that sticks to the Teflon, that I can connect in a meaningful way and that we can have a relationship and the joy that comes with it and the celebration. I always keep a bottle of Moet because of Killer Queen, the celebration song.

But also because if you came to my house, I'm always looking for a reason to celebrate. But you can't do that unless you know what is important to people or how significant things that might seem insignificant are in their path.

That is a long path. But if you can lock that hold in like rock climbing, that is the hold that will make maybe all the difference.

When they go through challenges, they can hold their vision straight. Because what you're saying is, I'm cheering for you.

You put effort into every opportunity.

And so thank you for the little relationship deposits that have grown into being, the great deal of respect that I have for you and I'm so appreciative of you coming down and sharing some time and some of your leadership lessons that we can share with the broader business community.

I think like you said, just be kind, be curious, listen and understand that what people think is really complex in that body of research. It's just about being a good human.

And then if we put a business lens over it, obviously when you have that opportunity to be a good human and you have influence, the opportunity to shape people, that comes with tremendous responsibility. And not everybody, you know, it's to be a manager. I think there's books, you could even just follow the, you know, the roles and responsibilities.

Nobody would fault you. But to be a leader is everybody's responsibility. You become a leader. You know what, when you're a parent, you're a leader.

When you, you know, you do a volunteer thing, you are. The ultimate way is to be the ultimate volunteer and just be open minded and always looking for ways to, to make a difference.

And that requires that curiosity and that kindness.

Well, Zumi, thank you for being curious and kind and sharing your time with us today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to like or share it with someone who would benefit from the information.

Zumi, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Thank you.