In today’s episode of the “The Runway Decade Podcast”, hosts Bill Bush and Pete Bush, advisors at Horizon Financial Group are talking with Angela Decoteau, a mom, and a great family person. who had a transformation in her 50s. Angela talks about her close family in South Louisiana, how she got interested in going to law school, then how she transitioned to being a lawyer in trust and estate planning. Angela also talks about her family story, which gave her the incentive to go into this profession and follow down that path.
Episode Highlights
- 02:30 – Bill introduces Angela and tells her to talk a bit about herself and her story.
- 05:00 – Angela says that while growing up she went to East Ascension High School.
- 07:20 – Angela really invested hard in her kids and told them to do whatever they want to. She told them to be adventurous when they grow up, and do wonderful things in the world.
- 09:10 – Bill enquires from Angela and wants her to talk about the inflection point where a big event took place in her life.
- 13:30 - Angela decided to do something that no one in her family had ever done. Not only did she blast her cultural lid, but exploded it by deciding to go to college at the age of 50.
- 15:35 – After finishing school, Angela decided to do her Real Estate business and started doing that. Besides, she also got herself certified in the John Maxwell coaching program to become a coach.
- 16:50 - We don't show people who we really are, but a coach will reveal who you really are and how you really think.
- 20:45 – During Angela’s time in Law School, finally she realized that it had been ingrained so far deep into her mind that she can't achieve it. Her brain was saying no while her body was saying yes.
- 23:00 – Angela reveals how she got into estate planning.
- 25:10 – The right to the property is like a three-layer cake and Louisiana is Usus, Fructus, and Abusus.
- 27:30 – Angela says that her grandfather passed, her grandmother got older, and with age became feeble. She didn't have a lot of money, they didn't have a big retirement plan, a small pitch, and a little bit of Social Security.
- 30:00 – Referring to her ancestral property in Louisiana, Angela suggests that at the time somebody passes you have to make sure to get a good estate plan. So, you need to have a good attorney because there are a lot out there who do not care for the family.
- 32:00 – Angela mentions that she has a business coach that's helping her to create the best firms where she can service her clients and he keeps asking if she needs some time off.
- 34:00 – Bill asks Angela about her favorite TV show as a kid.
- 35:55 – Another question Bill asks Angela about her favorite go-to restaurant.
- 36:45 – Angela understands a lot about business, and not so much about attorneys, but she has realized that people don't go to attorneys because of various barriers.
Three Key Points
- Angela reveals that of all the women in her family including her grandmother, and mom, no one even graduated high school. So when she graduated high school was a big deal. Her family was proud; they all came to the graduation ceremony and everyone celebrated as the whole family was excited because she graduated high school. Later Angela got married and raised her family comprising three kids and 14 grandkids. She loved raising her kids, partially even raising her grandkids and after that, they just got a little quiet.
- At 50, Angela had a great 30-year marriage, she had her nonprofit, and it was going to be her next life after the kids were going to go out into debt sounds great. She was into the real estate investment business and was living her best life with a real estate investment deal. That’s when she hit a snag that took their money with it, and they as a family were shaking and on the verge of bankruptcy. Her nonprofit had hit a snare and wiped out. Thousands of people who were following Angela around the world went away overnight. Besides, her marriage was seemingly over which left her completely devastated. But in this situation, Angela remembered what her mom had said --” You got to get up, you got to keep going, and you got to keep moving.” Thereby, she started to really dig down and try to find out different lids in her life.
- After completing law school, Angela was stepping forth into the new world where she wanted to be. Her mind was trying to stop her by making her physically ill and by creating these roadblocks. There was a tension between her mind and her body that was causing the problem but as soon as they discovered that it went away, and she never had it again. At 55, she felt great and she still has great energy.
Tweetable Quotes
- “Character was the main issue of the day if you had a good character you were liked.” - Angela Decoteau
- “Thank God for Google Calendars and Facebook, whose birthday is today, let me check please?” - Angela Decoteau
- “About the age of 50, that's when everything kind of changed for me. Children were getting older, and I had a nonprofit” - Angela Decoteau
- “I realized there were different lids in my life and one of the lids was a cultural lid.” - Angela Decoteau
- “The other thing that I worked on is my business lid with real estate. By the time I graduated, I had already built up our real estate to a million-dollar business.” - Angela Decoteau
- “The thing about a coaching environment is that you become relaxed, and you begin to think on a different level than you do in front of everybody else.” - Angela Decoteau
- “We've talked about it in our book about how a good coach can hold the mirror up and show you parts of yourself.” – Pete Bush
- “I was absolutely fascinated by the law, and it's an area that everyone needs that.” - Angela Decoteau
- “We'd all get together and hang out and I have great memories. But when my grandfather died that’s when the estate plan kicked in and there was a lot of confusion.” - Angela Decoteau
- “My grandfather’s attorney took the Louisiana law and wrote it in my grandfather's estate plan.” - Angela Decoteau
- “This property in Louisiana that has a lot of heirs in it is never going to get sold, no one's ever going to love it like we did when we were kids.” - Angela Decoteau
- “We wrote a book called ‘The Runway Decade’ where we talk to people in their 50s about leading up to retirement. What does the word retirement mean to you?” – Bill Bush
- “I've run businesses, and I'm also a coach for the state for the Small Business Association.” - Angela Decoteau
- “I wanted to remove these barriers for people so that they can get the things that they need to get done.” - Angela Decoteau
Resources Mentioned
