How She Got Her Start with Jerri Hemsworth—Thao Truong

Announcer 0:03
And now from the Echelon Studios in Los Angeles, California, It’s the How She Got Her Start podcast. So let’s all get started with your host Jerri Hemsworth.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:17
Hi, everybody. Welcome to How She Got Her Start. This is Jerri Hemsworth as the intro noted, and today I’m sitting with a fascinating woman Thao Truong. How are you today?

Thao Truong 0:30
I am very well, thank you so much for having me today, Jerri.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:33
Oh, I’m so happy to have you because I’ve been thinking about you. And I know a bit about your story. And Thao is with Morton Wealth. And I think I actually met you, what about a year ago? And I noticed at the time that you were fairly new to LA at the time, but you came up from San Diego. How long have you been with Morton Wealth? And what do you do at Morton?

Thao Truong 1:01
Right. So I met you last year when you were receiving your award for the most influenced woman in the San Fernando Valley. Yeah. So I been with Morton for a little bit over then three years now. Gosh it’s just so fast. Yeah. Anyway, so I’ve been a fan of Morton, as I was just, you know, going to these financial planning conferences and seeing Stacey as the guest speaker. Yes. And she

Jerri Hemsworth 1:30
That’s Stacey McKinnon. She’s the

Thao Truong 1:32
She’s the COO McKinnon, COO and CMO of Morton

Jerri Hemsworth 1:35
Yes.

Thao Truong 1:36
And she is so amazing. Yes, not just as a speaker, but also, she’s such a person who thinking out of the box and doing amazing thing to the company and the people and really transforming the way of how financial planning has always been. And I was just kind of reaching out to her and just asking her for advice, you know, between like serving clients, being an advisor versus like running the firm, like, how did she choose her pathway? Right. And anyway, so long story short, like, maybe this is the firm that who I want to work with, you know, and Stacey was like, if you don’t mind moving to LA, then let’s talk about it. So, yeah, so, so before LA I was living in San Diego for five, six years. Uh huh. And then before that, San Francisco,

Jerri Hemsworth 2:31
San Francisco

Thao Truong 2:32
For a short period of time,

Jerri Hemsworth 2:33
right, right.

Thao Truong 2:34
Yeah Then before that, New Hampshire,

Jerri Hemsworth 2:37
New Hampshire

Thao Truong 2:38
For school,

Jerri Hemsworth 2:39
I went to, well that’s a little foreshadowing, but I want to back up where were you born?

Thao Truong 2:45
Vietnam. So born and raised in Vietnam, moved here when I was about 15

Jerri Hemsworth 2:50
15?

Thao Truong 2:50
Yeah, yeah. So.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:52
And did you move here with your family?

Thao Truong 2:54
No, I was all by myself. So actually, before I moved here, I lived in England for a year first. So I got a scholarship go to England when I was what 14-15. But I got a huge culture shock because I was North of England. And it’s a little cold. And I was the only Asian at my school. So kids from lower grades, I don’t know any better go to school, like a bully. You know, firstly, you being away from family, by myself and getting bullied. It wasn’t fun. So after that, I’m done with England. So maybe I could find somewhere else that is more diverse and more friendly and more welcoming to foreigners. And then so I apply for school here in the US. And then came here. Very shortly after that, my family called me up. And they were like Thao, we’ve been trying to hide this from you, because we want you to focus in school and not be so worried about our family situation. But honestly, speaking, we cannot hide it anymore. We cannot support you anymore. So it’s your choice now. You want to go home, or you want to stay and if you stay you’re on your own.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:00
Whoa, whoa,

Thao Truong 4:03
yeah. Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:04
Now, were you always an independent kid? I

Thao Truong 4:07
think I was. I think I was because, you know, honestly, when my parents say that to me, I know immediately that I cannot go home. Because if I go home, I cannot go back to the Vietnamese school system. Because I don’t know so much about Vietnamese literature. I don’t know much about Vietnamese history to go back into their exam system and schooling. So like, the only way for me to continue on is to stay here and finish up school. And I have to stay here and finish up school as soon as possible, so that I can start earning money and helping my family out.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:43
Right.So you were 1516?

Thao Truong 4:46
Yes,

Jerri Hemsworth 4:46
At this point,

Thao Truong 4:47
right.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:48
And was it a long conversation with yourself or was it just instinctual? No, I know what I’m doing and I know what I need to do.

Thao Truong 4:58
It was a long shock and

Jerri Hemsworth 5:00
Yeah,

Thao Truong 5:01
it was a long shock

Jerri Hemsworth 5:02
oh shoot

Thao Truong 5:02
The decision was fast. I know immediately that like, Heck no, I’m not gonna go home.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:06
Gotcha.

Thao Truong 5:08
And I know that my family needed help. But it was a shock and it was a lot of anger. And it was like, Why is my family hiding this from me.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:15
Right.

Thao Truong 5:16
You know, parents are not as perfect as I thought.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:19
Yeah. Welcome to being a grownup. Now, do you have siblings?

Thao Truong 5:23
I do have sibling I have three siblings.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:25
Oh wow.

Thao Truong 5:25
Yeah. And, I mean, my I was very lucky because I was already here. And it was easy for me to stay in school, you know, becoming a tutor, like being teacher assistant, and just earning money right away. And I want to have my own saving. Be ahead of time already. So it wasn’t like me getting thown into an issue.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:44
Right.

Thao Truong 5:45
I just like here, like, I thought I’d be strong up and like,

Jerri Hemsworth 5:48
Sure.

Thao Truong 5:48
really be serious here with earning money.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:50
Sure.

Thao Truong 5:51
And deciding on what I want to do for my life. So two years after my my brother also got accepted for UC Davis here.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:00
Oh, sure.

Thao Truong 6:02
With a full scholarship. Yes. But he at the time, we didn’t have money to even afford a flight ticket for him. Oh, he never come.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:12
Oh, no.

Thao Truong 6:13
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, I still consider myself as being very lucky

Jerri Hemsworth 6:17
Sure.

Thao Truong 6:18
for having the opportunity and being here and right, like making a difference for my family. So.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:24
So you were when you left England, and you were here. Were you east coast, west coast.

Thao Truong 6:31
Seattle,

Jerri Hemsworth 6:32
Seattle. You were a West Coast girl.

Thao Truong 6:35
Yes. Wow.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:37
And then fast forward, you decide. Okay, I need to go to university.

Thao Truong 6:43
Yeah, so actually, it was Community College first, because I’m like, I don’t have time to finish high school. I gotta finish as soon as possible.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:49
Sure.

Thao Truong 6:49
So Community College was the place where I can earn both high school diploma and college credits.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:58
Yeah. Concurrent. Yeah. Just running at the same time.

Thao Truong 7:01
Exactly. So yeah, graduated from community college and then applied for you know, the last two years of college and I got accepted to University of New Hampshire. And my husband at the time, we are divorced now. But my husband at a time, but he was looking for a job. Right after school as well. And New Hampshire was the only state accept both of us. And I never seen so much snow before. Seattle was kind of disappointed to me because I didn’t see as much snow as I hoped.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:29
Yes. So Seattle is very wet and rainy.

Thao Truong 7:33
Exactly. So I got to see real snow now.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:36
Let’s go and surprise New Hampshire. And what was that experience? Like?

Thao Truong 7:40
Yeah oh gosh, the first memory of New Hampshire is getting out the airport. Our car was dead.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:49
Oh,

Thao Truong 7:49
and it was parked at the airport. We have to wait for two hours for someone to come so that we can check the car. And started and my hand. I mean, I was dressed very warm. But my hand I didn’t know how cold it was, as I remember, it was all cracked up. And like, just within the two hours you already know that like, your like your skin is like

Jerri Hemsworth 8:11
Frostbite.

Thao Truong 8:12
Exactly, exactly. Wow. So yeah, it’s fun. It’s like, was so beautiful. Yes. I would love to come back and visit it. But living there again, um, like in California is definitely a better place.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:26
Not, not in the winter?

Thao Truong 8:28
No.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:29
What was your degree and major?

Thao Truong 8:33
I majored in Business Administration, with finance focus. And then I also have a minor in Economics, International Economics.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:42
Did you know at that time you wanted to go into something finance financial?

Thao Truong 8:46
No, I had always wanted to become a doctor.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:48
Doctor.

Thao Truong 8:49
Yeah. Okay. And finance was because my family situation

Jerri Hemsworth 8:54
yes.

Thao Truong 8:54
And

Jerri Hemsworth 8:55
you probably have that voice in your head.

Thao Truong 8:57
Right

Jerri Hemsworth 8:58
Money. I have to make money out

Thao Truong 8:59
Yes, exactly.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:00
Understand it. Work with.

Thao Truong 9:02
like trying to understand how to become a financial advisor. I mean, I didn’t even know what is a financial advisor. Right. Like, there’s a program for it. So I thought that I have to become a financial analyst, you know, studying companies studying stocks, and what type of companies build up my experience enough so that I can eventually become an advisor.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:22
Gotcha.

Thao Truong 9:23
Little did I know that studying company stocks versus studying people personal finance is very different. Because stock is just part of like a small, small tools that you use to help people you know, worth their money. And also back in the day, I thought that worth investing in stocks, I can quickly become a millionaire at age 18. And, you know,

Jerri Hemsworth 9:47
it sounds like we all think

Thao Truong 9:49
It was short term thinking and I thought that like, you know, stock market can be a quick fix for myself. Yeah, but the more I learned about it, the more I know that no, I gotta shift my mind. Okay, so I’ve got to shift my mindset between short term to long term, because if it’s just short term, it’s not gonna work. And I just like basically gambling out all my money all the money that I earned, I earned so hard.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:11
Yeah so and that’s a frightening situation. Yeah. So you make your way you graduate and you make your way to San Francisco.

Thao Truong 10:19
Right so it wasn’t a disappointment that I didn’t get a good job at, you know, the, one of the big Wall Street firms. And I thought it was a very lucky thing also, because instead of that, I landed a job at a well as a very well known wealth management firm in San Francisco. And I didn’t know what wealth management means at that time, like English was my second language. I didn’t really have any good mentors. And then every school like everybody in the East Coast, they are so focused, you know, in corporate finance, institutional finance, and like financial analysts, so like, hardcore number, right. It’s nothing about personal and planning for generational wealth, wealth transfer, and you know, nothing about that. Right. So I didn’t know like, I landed a job there. But I didn’t know this is exactly what I wanted to do. What my future.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:13
That was lucky.

Thao Truong 11:13
Yeah, it was, I think the courage chose me. You know.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:18
there are no mistakes. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And then you make your way down to San Diego.

Thao Truong 11:23
Right, right. So while I was living in San Francisco, my husband, and he had a job in LA, okay, in right here. So we just like commuting back and forth, back and forth a few times a month. Sure. And then we’re, like, too tired of this, he can move to San Francisco because of, you know, union. And like all the stuff that’s going on in his career at that time. And then I cannot, you know, move down to LA and we’re like, what else can we move to, and we can afford a house and finally settle down. And then we remembered that his family’s actually from San Diego, so why not move back to be closer to his family. That way, he can also take care of his family and we can buy a house and, you know, plan for kids and what so…

It’s nice down there too.

It’s beautiful.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:10
Yeah.

Thao Truong 12:10
Beautiful.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:10
Yeah.

Thao Truong 12:10
Yeah. It’s funny, because when I first come to the States, I don’t want to be associated with the Vietnamese community, because I want to be submerged in and become as Americanized as possible. But then I’m like, that’s such a mistake. Like, I would never be like, fully Americanized. And like, that’s part of me that like, I should embrace more.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:34
But doesn’t that come with with, you know, as we age, and we get with wisdom, I think as young, younger adults, we’re like, oh, break away and make my own way. And leave this behind. And this is what I want to do. And then as we age, we go, Oh, that’s not so bad over where I was with this.

Thao Truong 12:52
Yeah. So much support, like, you know, like, the community is very supportive. And like, there are so many Vietnamese people out there that need help with financial advising.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:02
I bet

Thao Truong 13:02
But, don’t have anywhere to go because they don’t speak fluent English. Or if they do, they don’t have enough knowledge about financial term to really speak to anyone. So I mean, the more that I embrace my background, Vietnamese, I mean, yes. Like, there’s so much opportunity, right, so much that I can help to the community. So

Jerri Hemsworth 13:22
That’s, I think that’s actually really brilliant. In in, as I said, there’s, there’s no mistakes as you as you mentioned, the career kind of chose you, but it’s what you found is makes your soul sing. And you focus on women in transition. Why? Why do you do that?

Thao Truong 13:41
I mean, being through bankruptcy, come here, and becoming financially independent at very young age, went through a divorce. I feel like I’ve been through so many changes in my life. And as I was going through it, the process itself, I feel very lonely. And it was very sad. I’m like this for guilt and shame and all the negative emotion. Sure. But now as I go through it, I look back and I’m, like, you know, essentially was very, very transformational for me. So for me, I had always been in love with the wealth management industry, but I didn’t feel so fulfilling until after my divorce, which is when I realized that I have so much power and I have so much that I can provide an offer to the world and helping these people who may be you know, going through the same process. You know, just the fact that people can go through these feel this feeling of guilt and shame. They feel very lonely,

Jerri Hemsworth 13:41
Of course,

Thao Truong 13:57
and emotionally chaotic, right. So if they have someone who can be there for them, guiding them through, yes, it means the world. And, you know, I want people to understand that you life changes is very inevitable. You can avoid it, it will always happen.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:04
And it’s scary as heck. And I think if you’ve got a friend that can walk through it with you,

Thao Truong 15:09
Right.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:11
I understand what you’re saying, when I was 18, my family went through a foreclosure, we lost our house. And we were literally homeless for six months.

Thao Truong 15:24
Oh, no.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:24
And we lived with our neighbor. And she was kind enough to take in my parents and my brother and I, and I was miserable at the time, I thought, how could this happen to my family? So I understand a lot of what you’re talking about. But from that moment and on, I was driven to not let that happen to me. On the flip side, I learned it doesn’t kill you.

Thao Truong 15:52
It will make you stronger.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:53
It makes you stronger.

Thao Truong 15:54
Exactly.

Jerri Hemsworth 15:55
That those are all incredible learning experiences that allow you to now walk through those situations with somebody that’s in the middle of it. And they have a friend because they know that you’ve been there. Right. And you’re that hope and keeping them afloat. You know.

Thao Truong 16:15
right.

Jerri Hemsworth 16:16
is so important.

Thao Truong 16:17
Yeah. A lot of time when they going through these changes, the shutdown a wall. Yes. between themselves and the outside world. Yes. Right. And it can be very scary,

Jerri Hemsworth 16:27
Very scary.

Thao Truong 16:27
So many friends that like after the events would even tell me that, like, I was so scared. I don’t think I will be able to make it without my husband. You know, life has shut down now like the world hate me. Yes. But honestly, speaking, like, it’s a much battle world afterwards. Yeah, you know I am not supporting divorces, that’s a personal decision for everyone. But I want people to understand that changes will happen, but you have to embrace it. So that it can because this can be a very transformational events, you learn so much more about yourself, you learn so much more about everything else, in the world around you. And then at the end of the day, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Jerri Hemsworth 17:09
Yes.

Thao Truong 17:09
So I think that’s transformational things that, like I’m looking at is something that gives me strength and motivation every day and right. And it makes me love my job so much.

Jerri Hemsworth 17:20
I can I can imagine it’s, it’s, it’s very empowering. When you know, you can help somebody that’s in that scary, scary situation. And there, you can tell when somebody’s being ruled by fear. And it’s okay to say, Hey, I, I understand what you’re going through.

Thao Truong 17:40
Right.

Jerri Hemsworth 17:41
And you’ll make this through and I’m here to help. Right? And that’s a very wonderful place to be and to be able to help like that. Yeah.

Thao Truong 17:49
Or sometimes just being there as a, you know, just to provide the ears, you know, to be a listener, and no judgement, nothing. No, that is very, very important as well.

Jerri Hemsworth 17:59
And I think also, I’ve had a number of conversations with other women. We didn’t grow up with financial literacy. Now, I think they are I think we were talking that some of the high schools in LA are including financial literacy, a class or something,

Thao Truong 18:20
Finally.

Jerri Hemsworth 18:20
But Yeah, finally, hello, welcome. 2024. You know, we didn’t grow up with I mean, we knew what a bank account was a checking account and a savings account. That was it. And we were taught specially, any of us in our 50s and 60s, we were taught Okay, marry well. Yeah, seriously, marry well, or marry somebody of means who can at least, you know, you can retire with and you can live with them. And, and I, I never bought into that,

Thao Truong 18:58
yeah, you’re such a strong woman yourself.

Jerri Hemsworth 19:00
I just, I just thought no, I can’t. What’s wrong with just being me and being able to support me and have the means or the skills? And I think that’s a I think now even as you know, the 20 Somethings and 30 Somethings, and they still don’t a lot of women don’t have financial literacy. Yeah.

Thao Truong 19:23
You know, and also because of that, I mean, the idea ideology of like a perfect marriage too. A lot of women as they go through these divorces, there’s a big sense, there’s a big loss of identity, because their whole identity is tied to the family, the kids, the husband, and then now without their husband or say, yes, so it’s heartbroken.

Jerri Hemsworth 19:47
Sure.

Thao Truong 19:48
You know.

Jerri Hemsworth 19:48
I always thought of you know, previous relationships and when I was a teenager and how my life revolved around them. The the guy I, the the other person. And I remember after my last breakup, and I thought, No, I’m not going to do that anymore. I don’t know how I thought this it 22/23 And I thought no, the next person I date. I want us to go around that together. I don’t want my life to revolve around him. And I don’t want his life to revolve around me.

Thao Truong 20:30
It gets so boring.

Jerri Hemsworth 20:32
Oh, Right!

Thao Truong 20:32
If that’s the case. Yeah.

Jerri Hemsworth 20:35
Yikes. You know, what stories do you have to tell each other. So, it just so happened that I had already met Brian. And I already knew he was a great friend at the time. And I already knew that our lives would complement each other. And neither one of us ever had a life where I revolve around him or he revolves around me. And I think there’s a lot of women out there where? Yeah, their life revolves around their partner.

Thao Truong 21:08
Right. Right.

Jerri Hemsworth 21:09
And they’ve either didn’t know that they don’t have to, or they didn’t have a choice.

Thao Truong 21:16
Yeah. So I mean, that’s why it’s so important for me, you know, in my practice, and also with other Morton advisors too, we try to involve the other spouse as much as possible. Sure, because, you know, not all women are like that. But it’s very easy that you can observe in a client meeting that, you know, the husband make most investment decision, even though the woman is the one who take care of the daily expenses, you know, cash in cash out. But she doesn’t care about a big financial planning decisions. And she’s like, whatever my husband wants.

Jerri Hemsworth 21:52
Right.

Thao Truong 21:52
And from time to time, like, the husband will walk out the room, and she’d be asking me like, hey, Tao, I have a very embarrassing question to ask, can you explain that for me again? Sure. I’m like, of course, I would love for you to understand every single details. And, you know, if you don’t understand anything, please always, always, always feel free to stop me in the middle and go through this together. And then that’s also the reason why, like, at Morton, we created Herself, and is not a service offering, it’s actually a community things that we have to bring and provide to a woman out there to help support them, you know, the money decision, anything related to money, so that they can feel more empowered and more confident in the decision making process.

Jerri Hemsworth 22:39
I I’ve been to one or two of the Herself events. And what I love about it, is you really walk into a room that is warm and welcoming. There’s, I’ve done a lot of networking. And you know, when you walk in the room, what the vibe is, and you know, whether it’s work, it’s going to be work or not. And it’s not with at the Herself events. And I always felt there’s no stupid questions. It’s it. Hey, what is a CD? What is what is this? Explain this to me. My you know, and it’s very warm and welcoming and educational. Yeah. And you have women in that room from all walks of life.

Thao Truong 23:28
Exactly.

Jerri Hemsworth 23:29
All ages, all different nationalities. It was wonderful to see.

Thao Truong 23:35
Yeah, yeah. And these women are so thriving and they want to become better. Yes, they want to learn, they want to be supporting to each other, they want to see each other grow. They are so supportive to each other. It is such a community sense out. And you know, we see some clients, they’re better, they inviting their friends, their friends, inviting other people. So it’s becoming the community that we were hoping to see.

Jerri Hemsworth 24:02
Right.

Thao Truong 24:02
So it’s evolving and really love it.

Jerri Hemsworth 24:06
Yeah. And it doesn’t always revolve around, you know, investments.

Thao Truong 24:09
No, no, no.

Jerri Hemsworth 24:11
It’s very all encompassing.

Thao Truong 24:13
Right. So the last event that we have, we had at a Four Season. And it was about self defense. It was about health balance, you know, like your wellness, right? It’s about what it was some discussion about, you know, a couple of finances like how do you communicate finance with your spouse, or loved one. but yeah, I mean, like, we talk about all kinds of things, and there was a yoga and meditation as well. So it’s really up to the woman there what they interested to see. We make it about them.

Jerri Hemsworth 24:48
I think it’s fabulous. Tao thank you so much for sitting with me today. I just love your story. And I’m really honored to have you in my world. And I really appreciate you.

Thao Truong 25:00
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me and be authentics and leaning in and share your story as well.

Jerri Hemsworth 25:07
You never know what’s gonna come out.

Announcer 25:12
You’ve been listening to the How She Got Her Start podcast. Brought to you by Echelon Business Development Network. More than just networking. Way more.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai