The Award-Winning Around the Table Series

Denika Tokunaga: Hi. My name is Denika Tokunaga. I am a financial advisor, Certified Financial Planner, and chartered retirement planning counselor. I am based in the DMV region in Maryland, and I've been in the industry for about 15 years. I became a financial advisor because even as a child, I was always interested with learning how money worked. I remember starting college. I had a major of medicine and then I changed my major to law. And I thought one day, why don't I just do what I enjoy. Growing up I always enjoyed helping my family members by solving the problems. Even the adults in my family would come to me for advice and they would actually take the advice I gave them. And I was just a kid. Secondarily, I was always good with numbers, and I enjoyed managing my allowance and managing money. So after going through several years of undergraduate school and realizing that I just didn't feel fulfilled studying medicine or studying law, I thought I would go and follow my passion.

Terry Colen: My name is Terry Colen. I'm a wealth manager, registered investment advisor representative. I'm in my 31st year and in the industry, and I'm working out of the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Growing up, I didn't really notice the difference between the haves and have nots because I always felt that I was rich with family and friends, and we were a big family. Well, then my dad started creating his own business opportunity, and all of a sudden, sixth grade, we left Los Angeles and moved to Palos Verdes, California. And in Palos Verdes, literally, there were three African Americans in my class. Out of 400. I started realizing that even though I was in Palos Verdes, my mom still had a very good business sense with money, and she still was living like we were poor. I noticed very quickly the gaps between the haves and have not. And at the time I also realized that being an African American was not an impediment. I was in class with folks who I assumed were smarter, whether they were Asian or Black or Hispanic or whatever. I always assumed that certain individuals just had it had better opportunities than I did. Until I got an A in class and they got a D, and they were asking me for advice. So I learned very quickly whether I was in poor areas or wealthy areas, I was a leader. And I was able to communicate with people. As I looked at turning that into a career, one of my classes started looking about at in marketing class, started looking at the growth in the Baby Boomers and that they were gonna be needing financial services, that I wanted to go into some type of field with money and in the retirement in particular. But to make a long story short, my journey over the last 30 years has really been one of first of all, I study where the trends are, and I make sure that I'm an expert and become a resource for all folks in that industry, and I can work with all groups of individuals. The one thing I found most important was the color was not black or white, the color was green. And everybody needs to know how to get green and improve their lives. And I focused on helping everybody that came in front of me as being that resource to help them improve their lives.

Karen Holmes: My name is Karen Holmes. Like Denika, I am in the DMV, the District, Maryland, and Virginia area. I'm actually celebrating my 20th year this month, and I am also a CFP. I am also a CPA. And so we really run two firms. My journey, it was very different. I had no intention of getting into this industry. I was actually 20 years into my professional career. Undergrad I was accounting major and then worked in corporations for 20 years. I was with IBM and also with Lockheed Martin. And what happened with me is, you know, 13, 14 years into my career with IBM, they decided to sell our division. That did not sit well with me at all. And I said, you know, there a corporation should not have that much control over my destiny. I had never taken the CPA exam. I kept putting it off. And so I decided to go ahead and take the CPA exam. And then I started doing taxes on the side just to build up another revenue source. And then I just stumbled across someone who was in the financial services industry. And as soon as I started to learn and look at the industry, I was hooked. And the main thing, the main thing that hooked me to the industry, was simply I felt that it was one of the very few things you could do for a living that was totally focused on helping other people. And so that is my why, my why is I just want to help people achieve their dreams and live their purpose.

Wesley Burns: My name is Wesley Burns. I'm a financial planner. I'm out of Seattle, Washington. And, I've been in the industry for about 13 years. I fell into this career. I grew up middle class, lower middle class. And you know, everybody has these interpretations of how they view money and then their household. And for me as a kid, I could tell that I wanted a lot of things and I wanted things in particular that my parents couldn't afford. That made me want what we're terming as financial independence. And I don't know what field it was gonna be in, I didn't know what you know industry. But I knew that I wanted to be able to provide. Then fast forward to college. I had an internship in a corporate environment and after my freshman year, and then again after my sophomore year. But there was an epiphany that if I wanted to get where I was going, there's got to be something that has upward mobility. And so I really fell into it, not knowing what I was getting myself into. However, as I started meeting with people, I became passionate around helping them and filling a gap in whatever that gap may be. You notice in looking around that maybe you have a skill set or a gift to communicate effectively with individuals and families. And not everybody has, or has the bedside manner or things of that nature. And from there, I just loved it. I loved everything that we did. I loved working with families, being a resource, being a guide. And on the professional side, you know, you can take it as far as you want to take it. You can add different services. You can specialize in different arenas. And so it was really the best of both worlds. And then lastly, you know, as you build a business you build from a practice of business, you realize the legacy that you could leave in your own families. And, you know, maybe your kids want to take it over. Maybe not. But you have the ability to grow something that they can take over. And so, you know, those are the three things that I'm passion around my family, my own professional development, and then serving our communities.