Building Financial Confidence and Authentic Connections with Christina Hill (Ep. 28)

Today on the Ideas by Mike podcast, I want to introduce you to Christina Hill, a mother, uh, someone who has a green thumb, a great karaoke singer, but most importantly, the backbone of our efforts with market sensitivity here at Ideas by Mike, the financial planning firm. You'll get to know her and more next.

Welcome to Ideas by Mike, the podcast with Mike Milligan, where you will find one-of-a-kind financial planning advice for your one-of-a-kind life. With over With over 22 years of experience as a certified financial planner, Mike shares experiences and advice on crafting simple, easy-to-understand financial plans based on your values and priorities. He believes that taking a personalized approach is the best way to prepare for the future and give meaning to your finances. So follow along as Mike, and from time to time his guests, explore different strategies and tools that could help you secure your financial future in retirement. Now on to the show. Hello and Welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast with your host, Mike Milligan. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hey, Mike, how you doing?

I'm great, Wendy. I'm— it's full-on spring now.

Yes.

Where we are. And it is— it's actually amazing to be past the shortened days of winter and to be looking forward to what's coming up this summer. And we have a lot that's happening at Ideas by Mike right now. But Wendy, I'm excited to bring Christina Hill on the podcast today. Christina, welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast. I'd love for you, Christina, to kind of share in your own words a little bit about yourself for the listeners to get to know you.

Okay, great. I'm Christina Hill. I am the client service specialist I work directly with Fidelity and American Funds in collaboration with our investment partner Advisory Alpha to service clients and their accounts from opening to investments and everything in between.

And our listeners will have— will remember Advisory Alpha because back on episode 13 Steve Oesternick joined us. He was the Chief Investment— he is the Chief Investment Officer at Advisory Alpha. He came on to talk about the investment part of the one-of-a-kind financial plan, and we had some engaging conversation about tools that can be used, performance. And so Advisory Alpha is a key partner with what we do, and so your work in helping our clients is instrumental there. On a personal side, one of the most interesting things about you, Christina, is that you're a mom of 6. Talk about what that's like on, like, the day-to-day life being with 6 really young adults.

Yes, they are ages 16 to 26, all girls. 3 of them are biological, 3 of them are bonus, and they're all amazing women. They are awesome. But the 4 that live with me, they're the ones that make my house chaos, but I thrive in chaos. So that works out really well for me. And my husband is wildly tolerant of that chaos. And so we managed to make this household run pretty well overall.

Frank, Frank is, Frank is an angel living on earth, if we must be true, if we must say the truth, right? He's a, he's a, he's an avid lover of cigars and fine whiskeys, right?

Yes, for sure. He loves bourbon. Tinkering with watches, stuff like that.

Yeah. One of the things I noticed he also loves to do, and this is kind of an interesting part of you, is that he loves hearing you sing. And you love anything karaoke, correct?

That is correct. That started when I was 18 years old and hasn't stopped since.

Right. And so when you, when you go into a karaoke bar or an experience like that, What are some of the, uh, some of your favorite songs to sing?

Um, well, that's evolved over the years. There was definitely a time when, uh, when I first started out that country music was the go-to. I would always sing country songs, whatever was popular at the time. So things like the, the Chicks or Jodi Messina or whatever, like those kinds of songs. Now what I like to sing are either power ballads like Adele or something like that if I'm really wanting to challenge myself or something fun like Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, which is always a crowd favorite, you know, gets everybody out singing. And yeah, that's always fun.

Christina, you and I were on a business trip in Nashville last— in 2024, and we had 6 members of our team there at the time. Marcus, Joseph, Nicole, you and I, and, and Liana was there. So the 6 members of our team, and we went deep in the belly of Nashville, downtown Nashville, and we ended up, and you and Nicole sang a showstopping event that you were providing all the lyrics. Nicole was doing all the getting the crowd involved.

I was prepping, yeah.

And it was an exciting time to be there on a, I think it was a Thursday night crowd in Nashville. So I've obviously experienced your singing firsthand many times, I think it'd be good to kind of tell people how we met, you know, because— and then I want to get into your, like, your background of, like, customer service and your evolution of your career. But do you want to share with people how we met?

Mike is my cousin's husband. We met before that, before that was a thing. We were in adjacent spaces. And at the time, I was a real estate transaction coordinator and My cousin, Liana, his wife, was working at that same real estate firm. So we would cross paths often. And that's how we met.

And so you— I mean, we— so we're family, in essence. And one of the things that's interesting, that I found very intriguing, and this is one of the things that I absolutely love about Liana, is her connection to her people. And you and Allison are her people. You guys have a running dialogue with each other on Facebook Messenger for about how many years now?

Lots of years, maybe since 2018. Now it's like a group chat. We've actually had to start it over because I think at one time it went away or stopped working. And so we had to start it over in Facebook Messenger.

And you guys have found a way to— I mean, we live in the same town now. But you guys have found a way to live daily with each other by passing on memes and working through, you know, social elements of things that are going on out there. And but you guys live life daily through a communication, like through that communication tool, correct?

We do.

It is pretty much it. Yeah, I would say every day because I see it like I see her every morning when she wakes up, she looks and see what you guys are talking about. And then the comedy that comes through there is absolutely magical. It's something that me and Frank and then Allison's husband, Sean, gets to see on the outskirts. So, so you were— before you came over into the financial services world, you, you were a real estate transaction coordinator. But what, what else have you done in your, in your career journey before now?

Before transaction coordination for real estate, I was a restaurant manager. Uh, before that, I was food service in general. So I've worked at a bakery and helped run that. I have obviously waited tables and worked at like what's— what are called fast casual places, like something like Little Caesars, you know, where it's a quick meal, or Subway, which is a down-the-line restaurant. I've also prepared taxes and been a machinist at the shipyard in Newport News.

Right.

So like, so, so like here in Norfolk, like one of the biggest One of the biggest shipyards on the East Coast, if not the world, is located here. And so you— so, I mean, you've literally tinkered professionally with food, with like nuclear subs.

Yes.

Right. With helping people get into the American dream that there's home. And now you— now you're working with people like on their investments from a standpoint of like You know, the daily servicing, the, you know, making sure that our relationships with Fidelity American Funds are sound. What have you learned over the last year and a half about people and their money?

All of, almost all of those positions that I've held throughout the years are client-centric. They are all client-facing where you have to talk to people from all walks of life. You have to learn about people and understand them to know how to service them. And that is the same in this position as a client service specialist. The difference here is that it feels less performative. When I connect with a client through, you know, this particular channel, it feels a lot more like I'm getting to know them and I end up making a friend by the end of that call because servicing people around their financial assets is not— I don't want to just say more important. It is more important. But there's just a lot more at stake than like whether or not they like the way their steak is cooked. You know, it's a lot more to it.

No, I agree with you. Right. It's, it's a personal relationship that transforms like performance of the money. Right. People, people trust you more because you're dealing with one of the biggest things in their life, their money. And I, you know, I think it— I think it's in your situation, everything that's from Working in restaurants to being a machinist to doing tax returns to doing real estate transactions brought you to this point of like of growth in your career. But one of the things I want to relate that to is you are leading a household with Frank of six girls, and you guys are trying to break through to help your girls understand what it means to to live well and invest. early in life. What are some of those conversations like with your girls?

It varies from child to child. Some are more receptive than others. We definitely have some spenders in the family that if they have money in their pocket, they need to immediately spend it. So we obviously, we try to impart wisdom on saving, you know, but also try— I tend to try to Pull a conversation into assets or how you can achieve the dreams, right? Like if one of my kids is talking about wanting to move to Japan, you know, in the next five years, then we talk about financially what she would need to do. How much do you need to work? How much do you need to save? What do you need to plan for? We talk about all of that, all hypothetical. Never, you know, me saying you have to do these things, but here's. some ways that you can really achieve that goal with a lot less difficulty.

Yeah, and I mean, isn't that really the goal of a parent or a financial professional, is to help people do something so that it's not as difficult? Isn't that really the role? I mean, I love the fact that you, that you put it like that, right? One of your other, one of your other personal, um, the things that our listeners probably don't know about you is that you love plants.

That's true.

Talk to us. Talk to us a little bit about what that is. I mean, I have a brown thumb. I can, I can kill any healthy plant at any point, at any time. But what is it? What is like working with plants mean to you? Because you guys are not only doing it in your house, but you're also doing outside with a bigger than average garden.

I guess for a city dweller.

Yeah.

I will say that when it comes to my thumb, I think it's somewhere between black and green, and I think it's all dependent on whether it's in a pot or in the ground, because our plants inside the house do not thrive as well as our plants outside. Our vegetable garden, we tend to make really flourish and thrive. I do struggle with my indoor plants, but the vegetable garden has been fun. It started as 2 little beds and has turned into 4. And now we do tomatoes and we, we do cucumbers and we do fruits and vegetables of all kinds. It's, it's a good time.

When you say we, who is we?

It's only Frank and myself, my husband and myself. Yeah, the children don't really get involved in it.

All right. So, so like, it's not you doing it or him doing it. You guys are actually out doing it together.

We are doing it together. We're just one of us. Yeah, yeah.

So, uh, so let's talk a little bit more about, like, uh, so we got to know you. Let's talk a little bit more about how, like, you support clients, right? So can you walk through, like, what, uh, if somebody says, hey, I want to, you know, I want to now implement the one-of-a-kind financial plan with you guys that we build for them, uh, what does onboarding and support look like for them?

Generally, from the beginning, I like to meet them and talk to them either on the phone or via Zoom call to kind of get a feel for what they're really hoping to achieve. You know, they've had several meetings with Mike by this time, but I want to get a feel for them myself and understand how best to service them. So if they're— some people are no-nonsense and very businesslike, others are more friendly and personable and You know, they, they want to feel more connected than feeling like it's just a transaction. So it'll start with that kind of meeting, assess the needs, and then we— I just like to support them through the entire process of opening or transferring an account, implementing the investment strategy, and then servicing them afterwards to make sure that they're happy with how everything is performing, make sure that they're informed and not confused. about all of the background stuff that has to happen to make those financial aspirations come to light. Yeah.

One of the things that, you know, like you and Frank are partners in the garden, right, to see tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers come out. You and I are kind of that, that partnership when it comes to people's money. That's, that's market-sensitive money that can go up and down in, in 2025. Right. We've already seen some, some crazy rides, some roller coaster rides that have been insane. Talk about how you, you help people in during those times, like from a communication standpoint or ongoing support.

Late. My, one of my favorite self-helpy type sayings is nothing is forever. This can be applied In positive times, happy times, sad times, horrible times. Like, it can be applied no matter what, no matter where you are in life. Nothing is forever. That includes market fluctuation. It's not going to be down forever. It's not going to be up forever. The goal is to be supported through those ups and downs to make sure that you're making the right moves in those moments and not panic or do too much. You know, when things are performing exceptionally well, you don't want to, you know, make too many moves to mess that up for the future possibility of it going back down, right? So nothing is forever.

Yeah, I mean, that's a great way of saying it. And like, on my side, like, when you're saying nothing is forever, one of the things is I'm saying is 100% of the time in the past, the market has recovered, and it's recovered to new highs. There will also be a point in time Where we hit a spot in the market that we'll never see again. So like, for instance, when the stock market during COVID uh, on March 26th, 2020, when the S&P 500 closed that day, we have never seen that point on the S&P ever again. It hit an all-time low, never to— that we'll ever revisit again. And there in these times that we're in right now, where there's chaos and uncertainty, mostly caused by the political side, I mean, let's— the shift that's happening in politics to where it's controlling our market is there's going to be a day, if we haven't already hit it, where we hit a low in the market that we will never see again. And it will never come back to this level. During our lifetime.

Right.

Unless there's something, something extraordinary like a Great Depression or something like that. But 100% of the time it's recovered. I, you know, I find the way you, the way you and I tag team our clients to be very— to just bring calm to them and peace. Just recently we were on with a client and their daughter. Right. And the client was worried about— he wasn't worried about— he said something in the call, you know, I had to come out of this position when the market was down. And it was all just a perception, right? The media had led him to believe that the market was down much more than it was actually down. But we, through calm communication, let him— showed him that. It's not as down as much as it was, and we're able to actually refill his savings account to a level he wanted because of the tax bill he had to pay without ever going below the amount that he originally invested with us. I just found it to be a conversation with that family that was very impactful for them. And one of the things that they did is they opened up about the sale of a home that was coming up that was going to generate 7 figures for them. I mean, those are the conversations we get to have on a daily basis. And where we get to be the calm in the storm. Do you have any client experiences you've had that have been really impactful to you that, you know, could bring peace and comfort to other people who listen to this?

I have, you know, you, you spoke about him, that recent client being really upset or suspicious in a way about the moves that were made and whether or not it really was in his best interest. Previously, we had a prospective client that was in the process of reading through and ultimately signing the client agreement with us, and he ended up calling me at dinner time, you know, and I took that call and he came at me with rapid-fire questions, just a lot of questions calling Mike's integrity into question, just All kinds of details that I had never had to answer about our business before. And ultimately, it took my answering with honesty and humility and just truth. I mean, it's just truth. I did not lie to him. I didn't make us sound any better than we are. Just honesty. And it, it helped him realize that we are not trying to exploit him. We're trying to empower him. And at the end of that phone call, we gave him— I gave him, you know, some time to think about his decision and read through everything in its entirety. And he ultimately signed that same night the client agreement. And so that felt like a big win. I felt like I was able to really advocate for us and also ease his fears about being scammed, which is 100% understandable to be worried about.

Yeah, I mean, we definitely Always want to make our clients feel like they know us on a personal level, but also know us on a value of integrity. One of the things— and I, you know, Christina, I know that client you're talking about. He and I have had multiple calls, and he, he was making a major decision to go from a firm that was significantly better— not better, bigger.

Bigger.

significantly bigger than us. And, uh, coming into a firm like ours where he knew he was, uh, still not the biggest fish in our pond, but knew that he was going to get the level of detail that he wanted because he wanted the one-of-a-kind financial plan, understanding that taxes are the biggest expense you'll ever have. I, um, I'm going to say this for the first time on our podcast because I've always talked about expenses, the biggest expense you'll ever have in your life. Being taxes. But one of the things I realize is, uh, that's the expense you can control. There's an expense that people, uh, want to control that I think could be a bigger expense— a bigger expense than taxes. And that's the decision-making processes they have. When someone takes like a stock market downturn like we had in March and April, And they, through fear, lock in a 20% or a 30% loss in the market, that's an expense. And, uh, and not having a clear and confident team behind them to help them bring comfort and bring guidance, to bring your personality, my personality to the table, is— that could be a bigger expense than even taxes long term. And it could generationally change people if you lock in a return, stay more conservative than you need to be, and don't get the recovery. That's something that actually can be tragic to their portfolio. I, I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask you this: what's the favorite part of your job when working with clients?

My favorite part of my job is And we've talked about this on this podcast already. My favorite job is connecting, or part of the job is connecting with the clients.

Of course.

Connecting with them in an authentic way that doesn't feel forced. It doesn't feel salesy. It doesn't feel practiced. It is me learning about these people, understanding them, and learning how best to service them through our conversations together. I leave phone calls having made friends. And I love that. And I— my goal is to make sure that people feel heard and seen and understood and validated so that they understand that they are not just a transaction to us. They are people and they are important. Every single client is important to us.

If, um, if Christina— I mean, that's a fantastic answer, and that's one of the things that is like the theme of this podcast with you is that you are a calming voice in a part of our business that is really the most tumultuous. Because anytime people put money into the stock market, you know, they could find value in their life based off the value of a company or an investment that they have no control over, right? People's worth is not really valued in what the price of Nvidia or Facebook or Amazon is. People, people are valued. The value of people is when— the true value is when they're heard, they're listened to, and they know they've got people on their side who know exactly what their life goals are. We purposely say all the time that people are one of a kind.

Right.

So I— we've talked about you as a singer, you as a mom, you as a wife, you as a plant lover. We've talked about your role in our business with Advisory Alpha and helping people with clients. If you could— if you could leave a taste of who you are in somebody, right, who was just hearing you for the first time, and they're using this to kind of say, do I want to work with Mike and Christina. What would you, what would you tell them about, about you and the future of our business?

I, if somebody's thinking about coming on with us as a client, I think what I would want people to understand is kind of what I've already spoken to, that in this space they are not a transaction.

Right.

They are a person that we care about, that we want to help holistically. Like, you know, their financial plan. I only deal with, like you said, market-sensitive investments. But the way that Ideas by Mike services people is very well-rounded. It's not just about one part of your portfolio. It is the entire thing. And we tailor that to every single person and what their aspirations are. So if what you want is hands-on, personalized service and a tailored financial plan, then this is the place that you want to be.

Yeah, and if you ever want to hear Christina sing, we will get you her travel schedule on a major cruise line very soon. And I will tell you, her singing a power ballad Is worth it for all you guys. So, I mean, if you want to get in touch with us, uh, if you want to, if you want to experience what we've talked about, this tag team effort on the market-sensitive side, the money at risk, if you're not finding value in your investment manager, because there's a lot of investment managers out there who don't want to deal with things like taxes, retirement income planning, long-term care, legacy. See, we'll deal with those 4 plus the investments. But Christina is our go-to. She's our expert on the side of dealing with client services, onboarding, and being your friend, as she mentioned. Connect with us at ideasbymike.com. There's a lot of, there's a lot of other ways you can connect with us too, on Instagram, Ideas by Mike, YouTube at Ideas by Mike. And, you know, when you, when you reach out to Talk to us. When, when we onboard you, Christina will be right there, not only from the point of, of being your friend, she will listen to you and she will help you feel at ease in the good times and the bad times. So, Wendy, you know, Christina is another one of the jewels of Ideas by Mike. And as we continue to show the strength of our team, Christina Hill is one of the best in the business for us.

Well, it sounds to me like you have a tiara filled with jewels, and we're going to have to just maybe work on that theme a little bit because you've got so many and the tiara is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Heavy, no doubt.

It is.

All right. Thank you so much to both of you. And thank you for listening today. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell. Thank you for tuning into Ideas by Mike, the podcast, the show where ideas turn into money. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to click the follow button to stay up to date on future releases. For additional information on becoming a part of the Ideas by Mike community, check out our website at ideasbymike.com. Don't forget to take a look at the show notes, and for more financial insights, subscribe to the Ideas by Mike YouTube channel or visit the website To find one of the upcoming webinars. Also connect on Instagram or Facebook @IdeasByMike. Ideas By Mike is an LLC headquartered in Virginia with offices in 42 cities. The company owns an insurance agency registered in all states directly or through affiliate companies. Mike is an investment advisor representative with JB Wealth Advisors. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Ideas by Mike. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investment advice. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website.