Leading With Heart: Jania Stout’s Journey to Empower Women in Financial Services

Jania Stout : A lot of organizations wanna hire women. They just aren't getting as many applicants for it. So I think that what we have to do then is pull them in in some cases, and I've done a lot of that over the years. One of my best hires, I reached out to the University of Maryland's head women's lacrosse coach and said, hey.

Let me talk to your seniors. So I hired this girl who was a premed, no finance background, and she was a rock star. Joanna Ehresman : Hi there. Thanks for joining us.

I'm Joanna Ehresman. Leah Alter : And I'm Leah Alter. Joanna Ehresman : And this is Women Share, a celebration of women in financial services. Today, we wanna thank our presenting sponsor, Acctella, the home for financial professionals who believe that people make the biggest difference.

Leah Alter : So if you're looking for a network of firms that elevates every experience for their professionals and their clients, check out Xtella today at go.Axtella.com/womenshare. That's go.

axtella.com/womenshare. Well, today, we are very excited for this episode. We are joined by Jania Stout, president of Prime Capital Retirement and Prime Capital Wellness.

With nearly three decades on the retirement plan side of the business, Jania brings her proven leadership and experience dedicated to supporting plan sponsors and their employees. Building on the company's strong foundation of delivering innovative retirement and wellness solutions, Jania is committed to enhancing a firm's impact by driving initiatives that empower organizations and their workforces. We are so excited that you are our first retirement plan adviser to have on the show, and we just can't wait to dig in.

Welcome to WomenShare. Jania Stout : Well, thank you, Leah. And Joanna, I'm excited to be here, and I'm glad I'm the first, but hopefully not the last. Right?

Joanna Ehresman : Yes. Leah Alter : Yes. That's great. Joanna Ehresman : We're saying we 40 plus episodes in.

It's about darn time. So Yes. Well, we're let's jump right in, Genia. You said you told us that leaving your company to start Prime Capital was the biggest decision of your life.

So would love to hear what led you to make that decision, and how has leading the team at Prime fulfilled some or all of your career aspirations so far? Jania Stout : Yeah. No. It's a it's a great question.

If I look back at, you know, my last almost thirty years, making the move to Prime Capital was the biggest decision I've ever made because, you know, I had built a team, probably fifteen years ago of advisers, and we built it up, over the last fifteen years, working with plan sponsors up to 13,000,000,000 in retirement assets. And who goes and leaves that? It's like the mom the family. So it was a really big decision for me.

But I really you know, I I sat there and thought about, like, what's left in me. Right? Like, I knew that there was so much more in me that I didn't want to kind of sit and not take advantage of this opportunity that Prime Capital put in front of me. Jania Stout : So, you know, it was a it was a hard decision.

It took about seven to eight months of them courting me. And at first, my answer was like, absolutely not. You're crazy. I would never leave my clients, my team, my employees.

But I will say, like, my husband was a a big, part of the decision because he was in my ear constantly saying, you know what, Jania? This is, like, perfect for you to help build a national footprint to, like, help use all your innovative thoughts and, you know, really help lift a a larger organization versus just doing it in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area that I had been kind of where my footprint print had been for the last few decades. So I did it. It was kind of like an out of body experience, in the sense that, like, my mouth was talking, but I didn't really, like, put my brain to it.

Jania Stout : It was, following my heart and and not necessarily my head. But I've been now at Prime Capital for almost five months and six months, and it is the best decision I've ever made. And I can share more about that as we continue to talk about it. So was that Leah Alter : was that, like, tipping point, that conversation with your husband where you went, you know what?

You're right. Like, I need to take this leap. Jania Stout : Yeah. And, usually, like, when I look at every decision I've made in my career, I normally don't ever get nervous or scared.

I I always say every decision I've made has always been, like, following my heart, not my head. It's not about the math. It's never been about how much money I make. It's really about, is this, like, speaking to me?

And the biggest thing that was stopping me was my clients and my team. A lot of these women I had hired a lot of women. I'm a big proponent of hiring women in financial services. Jania Stout : And, you know, I had been their mentor for years, and I didn't wanna let them down.

I I I didn't know how I would tell them that I was leaving them. But, you know, my husband said, you know, they're gonna be fine. And the way I kind of got to a place where I could do it was I recognized that, you know, sometimes these things happen in our lives that helps somebody else grow even faster. So, you know, when I told my team, you know, one by one that I was leaving, you know, I shared with them all, and and we had a going away party for me and everything.

And I said, look, guys and gals, I believe in you. You all don't need me anymore. Like, you can do this without me, and I believe in you. Jania Stout : And I think that knowing that maybe I was helping them by walking away, made me feel better.

So it was definitely my husband in my ear kinda being my cheerleader and saying you can do this. You can be strong. You deserve this. You deserve to be on a bigger stage, like, helping build kind of a national footprint.

And then I became comfortable with it knowing that maybe I was still helping my team even by walking away. Yeah. Leah Alter : So you you you give them the opportunity to, like, do the things that you had taught them. Right?

Jania Stout : Exactly. Yeah. Many of them, you know, are very senior retirement plan advisors, and they know the answers. I think that looking back, you know, in some ways, I was a little bit of a crutch to them.

Right? Like Right. They had their voice, and I was always trying to push them and help them grow. But they would always, like, second guess their thoughts because they'd say, let me call Jania.

Let me see what Jania would do. Jania Stout : And now, like, it's that whole thing, like, you've been trained. You've got this, and you don't need me anymore. So I think, you know, that helped me feel good about it.

And nobody's guaranteed to have the same boss or manager or supervisor. Right? Like Yes. I really needed to try to put myself a little bit in in first place in the sense, like, what is best for me?

And I think that, ultimately, I made a decision that was good for me, but, was also gonna be good for them. Joanna Ehresman : Yeah. And what talk about setting a great example too. I just your story resonates with me personally.

Like, I found in retrospect, you know, in some roles I've had, I'm like, woah. I was way too, like, emotionally invested, you know, in this company. Like, it was genuine and authentic. But it also shows that you can have this deep care and passion for the people and the company, but also have this boundary where it's like, great.

Now it's time to move on, and it doesn't mean my personal care for you has changed. Joanna Ehresman : Right? This is an opportunity. We could like, it's just a nice, I think, example for these women to look at and see how you gracefully make that transition.

So Jania Stout : congratulations. Thank you. Leah Alter : That is yeah. Modeling behavior like that is the probably one of the most powerful things that we can do for each other.

Joanna Ehresman : Yes. Leah Alter : So most like most things in life, right, starting Prime Capital wasn't without some bumps on the road. So how did you overcome some of those bumps, and what lessons did you learn, you know, from that experience along the way? Jania Stout : So, I mean, I look at like, as I mentioned, you know, I've made a lot of decisions.

Almost all my decisions have been more emotionally heart, you know, fronted versus using your brain and the math. If I go back early in my career, I started on the record keeping side. So I worked for, Fidelity and, on their institutional side. And that's where four one k salespeople go, like, the biggest brand in the industry.

And I, you know, I was doing very well there, and I decided that I wanted to take a leap and become a adviser in the sense, like, growing a book and things like that. So, yeah, you know, when I look at my decisions, if you had a time line, just, you know, not to make this about compensation, but from where I was at Fidelity, I was one of the top reps in the country, and I took a step or three or four steps backwards from a comp perspective when I jumped off that cliff to become an adviser.

And I, you know, went to a regional firm where I built the retirement practice there, under somebody else's ownership. Jania Stout : And then I decided, again, I had that little tug in my heart saying, you know what? You were built for more, and I, started my own company. And I went to, you know, the CEO of that organization and told him, like, I'm leaving.

He was really proud of me at first, and, you know, he cried. I cried. He was kind of like a father figure in a way, but then it got really ugly. And it, you know, turned into a two year lawsuit, millions of dollars of legal fees, and I had done nothing wrong.

Like, I didn't take a piece of paper. You know? I didn't take any clients. Jania Stout : I literally you know?

Because before I did that, like, I sought legal counsel, and they kinda showed me Of course. This is what your, employment contract says. This is what you can do and what you can't do. So we, like, followed the rules exactly, and it still turned out into this really ugly, lawsuit.

And that's where, like, people's egos get in the way sometimes from doing, you know, the right thing. And, so that that was probably my biggest bump that I ever had, Leah. But what's amazing about it is when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, it's a it's crazy how, not to get too hippie ish, but the universe helps you. Right?

Like, here I was in the middle of a lawsuit, and out of the blue, on Facebook, out of all places, a girl that I had coached in women's lacrosse right out of college because I coached for, like, two or three years. Jania Stout : She reached out to me, and she was like, Jania, you're a retirement plan adviser, and our company needs one. And, like, I got hired within a week. So, like, things like that started happening that never had happened before.

Like, usually, you had to work hard to find the opportunities. Like, people were following in my lap. People were referring business to me without me asking. And that's why I do believe that when you are really following your path that you're supposed to be following, and in my opinion, it's following your heart and listening to that, good things happen.

So lo and behold, the lawsuit was over, and I built up my business, which is the team that I am talking about, who I ultimately left. Jania Stout : But over that course of seven, eight years, we built it up to about $1,213,000,000,000. And that's when I decided that I wanted to go be in a leadership position to help other advisers across the country. And that's when I joined Prime Capital to run their retirement and financial wellness divisions.

Leah Alter : It's such a beautiful journey, I think, that you've been on. And we had someone on a few, episodes ago who's, she's an HR specialist that talks about how important it is to follow your own path even if it doesn't make sense to other people, right, or even us in the moment. Right. And, yeah, we you saw Joanna and I start to giggle when you you said it was, like, a little hippie, but that, I mean, that for me has been the biggest and most impactful things that have happened in my own career is when I stopped relying on my brain to come up with the answers.

And when I did follow what I knew was the next right step for me, to your point, that's when the opportunities came. That's when the work that really fired me up and got me excited and challenged me and may made me think more creatively. All of those things happened. So that's not too hippie for us over here at WomenShare at all.

Joanna Ehresman : I was gonna say this is such a pleasant surprise in this conversation. Like, welcome to the woo woo. I love it. Jania Stout : Yeah.

Well and, you know, it's funny. Like, you know, women, I think that's one of our biggest strengths is we're not afraid to talk about, you know, the emotional fluffy stuff, the hippiest stuff, but, like and I'm here to and I've always been like that. I'm like I tell every female that I work with, like, don't be afraid to be you. Like, use it as your strength.

We don't just because we work in a very male dominated industry, doesn't mean that that that we have to be like them. I mean and by the way, I had my best mentors were men. And mainly because there weren't any women, there weren't any women, so I had no choice. Jania Stout : But I've I've been very fortunate to have amazing men mentor me, and help me.

And I think we all bring something good to the table. You know? Like, having Absolutely. I had men on my team.

I work now with men who are fantastic. And I think having both, you know, on a relationship, whether it's a plan retirement plan or in a wealth lead, a wealth opportunity if you have a kind of a team approach, you know, it really it just goes down to being more diversified, whether it's in gender, race, whatever it is. It's it just creates a more cohesive, realistic, type of service model. So Leah Alter : Before we get into our next question, we just wanna say that we are so proud to be partnering with Xtela where exceptional service is the standard.

Joanna Ehresman : Xtela elevates and empowers financial professionals to build a stellar practice and leave a lasting impact for their clients. Explore how Accela goes above and beyond for their professionals by visiting go.eAxtella.com/womenshare.

That's go.aAxtella.com/womenshare. Alright.

So, Jania, back to you. We share a passion about ushering more women into this industry as you mentioned, and we'd love to hear a little bit more about your perspective. Specifically, like, how have you seen the industry, you know, evolve for women since you entered it almost, you know, thirty years ago as you mentioned? Jania Stout : Yeah.

Well, I can I can tell you, lots about that? On the retirement plan side, there definitely are more women nowadays than there ever were. I am very involved in NAPA, which is National Association of Plan Advisors. I'm a past president, and, we have this big event every year, and it used to be there would be, you know, a handful of women.

Now, I'm very happy to say it's about 30% and growing. So I don't know if it's just more in the plan advisory space, but I think that we have done a good job of bringing women into the retirement plan space. But, what's kind of funny about it, my youngest daughter my dream in is to get both my girls in the business with me. My oldest daughter went to West Point, and she's serving in the army, but I she she has to do her five years, and then she probably is gonna get out.

Jania Stout : But my youngest just started a job. She was a poli sci major and had no idea really what she wanted to do, And she trusts her mom, which is great to have her trust me, but she now is working in Charlotte at Naveen, as a internal consultant. So and she Leah Alter : loves it. Jania Stout : But Good.

She had said to me, mom, why are there not many women here? Like, why aren't firms hiring more women? And I'm like, Sophie, like, they want to hire women. They just women aren't raising their hand and applying for these jobs.

Like, I really do believe that a lot of organizations wanna hire women. They just aren't getting as many applicants for it. So I think that what we have to do then is pull them in in some cases, and I've done a lot of that over the years. One of my best hires, I reached out to the University of Maryland's head women's lacrosse coach and said, hey.

Let me talk to your seniors. Jania Stout : So I hired this girl who was a premed, no finance background, and she was a rock star. She ended up moving to San Francisco, and I lost her off my team, but and she loved it, and she's in financial services still. And she never planned on going into financial services.

So, like, I think we have to just be proactive instead of sitting there. So anyone listening, like, how do I get more women on my team or what have you? Now, again, we prob you all probably have a lot of female listeners, but, hopefully, you've got some male listeners that are saying, how do I get women? Oh, good.

Good. And let me tell you, you don't just sit on your laurels and wait for them to show up. You have to go out there and find them. Jania Stout : You know?

Joanna Ehresman : Invite them. Yes. Yeah. Leah Alter : Well and I think it's starting much earlier in their education too knowing that this is a a great career path, and there's a lot of different opportunities throughout the industry.

Yeah. I think that's part of it too. I, you know, I think back of when I was a kid, and it was like, oh, you just assumed that everyone just worked in a bank, and that was, like, your option. You know what Joanna Ehresman : I mean?

A stock broker shouting Yeah. Leah Alter : Yeah. Exactly. So I think that part of that too is, you know, from an early age, right, when you're talking junior high or middle school and high school, before they get into college, getting them at least a little bit interested so that they can understand really how much opportunity and choice there is within the industry.

I love that 30% because that is a higher percentage than the rest of the industry. Right? So because we're looking you know, the last time we looked, it was, you know, kind of in that 23 to 25% range across the whole industry. So 30% is significant.

Jania Stout : Yeah. Well and I think that the women that I've brought in that weren't planning on going in this business, they thought that all we do is sit around and talk about, you know, the stock market and the S and P and that it's so boring, especially like, I would say even on the wealth side, but it's a relationship business. And I think that on the surface, it looks like a very financial, industry. You know?

You've seen Joanna Ehresman : Like analytical and technical. Yeah. Jania Stout : Yeah. But it's you know, there are components to it that are but the industry itself, like, you could there's so many different roles you could play.

And And especially on the wealth side, like, you might have an internal team that's all the analytical folks, but you need somebody like, in the retirement plan space, you know, we do a lot on financial education, and I'm always pushing our team to think of creative ways to engage working America. And, like, I think that that resonates really well with some of the younger generation to use their creative minds. Right? Love that.

Joanna Ehresman : Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Motivating too.

They're, like, break break the mold. Don't just do things the way they've always been done. Right? Because and they can relate.

You know, they their peers are also working America. Joanna Ehresman : Right? And so they can probably quickly identify. Here is why I would never attend that brown big presentation with that's 30 slides long on some, you know, boring topic.

Let's shake things up a little bit. Jania Stout : Exactly. Yeah. Leah Alter : Well, on that same vein, let's talk a little bit I know you have shared that you have a real passion around mentoring women and helping them kind of step into their next role, those leadership roles.

So can we talk a little bit about where that passion came from and and kind of how you're applying it, you know, now? Jania Stout : Yeah. Well, I think, you know, I was fortunate. My mother back in the her generation I mean, moms of that generation, a lot of them didn't work, but my mom did.

She wasn't in financial services, but she worked in retail, but she worked like, managed the Northeast. So she'd get on a plane on a Monday, come home on a Wednesday. And that modeling of, like, seeing a woman do work like that, I think, was really, impactful in my career. But over time, I my friends, what what the mentoring side, one of my passions is helping women that took time off to raise children to get them back into the working world.

Because my friends on a personal basis that I saw do this, they, you know, were rock star women, but they were insecure when their kids, you know, graduated high school. Jania Stout : They're like, even though many of them have college degrees and maybe worked for five or ten years of their first, working career, but then took time off. And so what I have done, like, one girl that used to work for me many years ago before I started my company, my prior company, I was Facebook friends with her.

Here I am with this should be an ad for Facebook. But, I reached out to her. I was like, Susan, you need to come back and work for me. And she was like, I haven't been in the business in fifteen years.

I'm like, it's like riding a bike. Don't worry. Jania Stout : And I, like, cheerleader her on, and she's now one of she's still on my past team and, you know, just helping her, like, believe in herself. Another example, I recently hired somebody who had taken time off to raise kids.

She joined my team now at Prime Capital, and, you know, the some of the role she's playing is doing kind of some administrative support, but I will not let her take that title. And I am like, you are much more than that. We just need to get you to feel comfortable. So I made her manager of strategic accounts.

But, really, I'm her strategic account right now. But and every time she tries to kinda, like, fall back on, like, oh, no. Jania Stout : I I I'm it's okay. You can call me your, you know, executive assistant.

I'm like, no. Because that's not what you are. You're going to, you know, shoot higher. So I think, for me, that's where I get a lot of gratification in this period of my career is, like, now kind of shooting, like, lots of confidence into women that I know can do it and not letting them, you know, take the the easy way out and just, like, continuously putting them in front, giving them roles that they don't feel comfortable on.

Like, on my old team, I'd bring women in. I'd make them do the webinars. Jania Stout : I would give them jobs that they didn't feel they were qualified for, but I knew they could do it. So that's really the best way that I've been able to mentor women is to, like, elevate them and believe in them as much as I could.

Joanna Ehresman : And it's like exposure therapy. Like, you're doing the webinar. Now that you've done it, you can say, oh, yeah. You know?

Yeah. I got this. Leah Alter : Yeah. We all need a Janya in our lives.

Joanna Ehresman : Yes. Yes. Leah Alter : Yeah. A little a little shot of confidence Yeah.

Goes goes a long way. That's wonderful. Joanna Ehresman : Yeah. Absolutely.

So we're curious to hear this is a a question we ask of everyone who comes on the show. What's the best career advice you've received? Jania Stout : I would say, do it scared, kind of along the lines of, you know, what some of these stories because it was a a a manager who hired me when I was in my early twenties, and he was very similar in the ways, like, he'd put me out in front when I didn't I was, like, 24 years old. I'm like, I I remember I was doing some presentations to a bunch of CPAs, and I'm, like, 24 years old.

Like, how am I gonna talk to all these older men that are CPAs? And he said, you just do it scared. And I remember those early years. Like, I was scared to death.

Like, I remember sleep the night before. But, you know, like, that whole thing just helped me grow. And, that's the advice I give everybody is, like, don't stay in your comfort zone. Jania Stout : You got you know, I'm not saying you dive headfirst.

Maybe just go around the edges. You know? Not everyone can do it like me. Like, I'll just dive head first, but some people might not feel comfortable.

But just go out a little further than you think you'd you'd normally would go, and it'll be amazing how much you'll grow. Joanna Ehresman : Well and I can imagine the the trust to know that you've got you and the universe has got you and all the woo woo things. Right? The more you do it, the more you experience that of, like, oh, yeah.

This is great. That'd be okay. Leah Alter : Yeah. And, Dania, we always like to celebrate something with our guests.

So outside of your amazing career and all that you are doing there, what can we celebrate with you today? Jania Stout : Oh my goodness. Well, my second year anniversary, wedding anniversary is coming up. So I married, the love of my life.

It was a second marriage, but, you know, I think, you know, it's okay if it didn't happen the first time around, but, we got married two years ago, about a in a month. It'll be our two year anniversary. So that's the first thing I could think of to celebrate. Leah Alter : That's a big celebration.

Congratulations. Joanna Ehresman : Yes. Thank you. Love.

Yay for love as my friend Heidi says. Well, this has been such a fantastic conversation. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you, Jania, for being here and sharing your story. Joanna Ehresman : If people wanna connect with you or work with you, what's the best way for them to find you? Jania Stout : Yeah. They can, send me they can find me either on LinkedIn, a big LinkedIn user, or jstout,st0ut,@primefinancial.

com. And I'm always happy to help anybody in our especially whether it's somebody that wants to get into our industry or someone that's in. I can't tell you how many people email me on LinkedIn and ask, like, my opinion. I'm like, let's set up a Zoom call.

And they're like, you have time for me? And I was like, yeah. Like, sure. It's twenty minutes of my day.

Jania Stout : I could do this. You know? So don't be shy. I'm I'm always here to help anyone that needs it.

It. Joanna Ehresman : Love that. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

Jania Stout : Yes. My pleasure. Leah Alter : And thanks again to our sponsor as well, Axtella, a network of firms that elevates every experience for their financial professionals. Visit go.

axtella.com/womenshare. That's go.axtella.

com/womenshare. And, Jania, thank you so much for joining us. Jania Stout : Thank you both. I appreciate it, all that you're Joanna Ehresman : doing.

Oh, thank you. Well, that is our show for today. If ours is Leah Alter : a mission that you wanna share in, subscribe to Women Share on your favorite podcast platform. With that, I'm Joanna Ehresman.

And I'm Leah Alter, and we'll catch you on the next episode of WomenShare.