What was childhood like for you? Were you a bit of an entrepreneur growing up or did that come later in life?
Pam Buchanan
You know, I think I was always a little bit different, but I think it really came later because I'm a child of the 60s. So you grow up in a traditional household and girls weren't given those opportunities. You know, you were supposed to be a good girl, sit there, just be quiet. I pushed the envelope a little bit because again, I had a dad that was very curious. So I say I was born of love and curiosity and that has got me to where I am today. So I'm grounded in love and fueled by and elevated by curiosity. And I think that is the essential traits that someone does need to have, one, to be grounded and whatever that childhood was, whether it was more conservative, whether it was adventuresome, you still have to ground yourself in who you are and then have that curious mind to explore. But if you don't ground first, then you're all over the map, right? So grounding is important. So grounded in love and elevated in curiosity and definitely I was, you know my dad is in his 90s and he's go go go go go reading the Wall Street Journal on his iPad, doing the lawn doing this.
He’s very interested, he calls me with news items and news flashes. Did you hear about this? Can you believe this? And tell me more about AI, and how do work that? So, you know, he just bought himself a new good old pickup truck. Like, okay, Dad, you go, you go, you go get that pickup truck. And his mom was very entrepreneurial. and very strong-willed and had a career as a librarian in the 1920s. And then she got married and had to quit her job. And she was very upset about it, my dad said, because women should be able to work. She had an aunt that had never married and had run a lumber company out of Wisconsin, with a man. But she basically ran the company. So it kind of runs in your blood when you hear stories like that, you become passionate. Again, that grounds me in my being, if you will, and my lineage.
So it's almost, some of me doesn't want to disappoint, great, great, great Aunt Lil. She's the one who put my grandmother and her two sisters through college.
I am an identical twin and we're very different. So I'm definitely the risk taker and she's more conservative. So that is interesting as well that when you grow up and you're compared to someone every single day, because we physically look alike, but yet our minds are so different, even though we grew up in the same family, there's similarities, but I'm definitely the go-getter, yeah let's go out to Silicon Valley. Let's explore - versus she took the traditional route of getting married and didn't have children, but the typical traditional 1980s woman, if you will.
So that was different for me being a career woman in the 80s. You know, a lot of my friends were like, aren't you going to stop and get married? And I'm like, no, I enjoy my career. This is my career. You know, I had a boyfriend once tell me, “well, you can cancel your trip”. “No, no, I really can't cancel my trip. I'm responsible. I'm the salesperson.” “No, aren't you just the assistant?” And this is how it was back in the 80s, right? Versus we've come a long way and now men respect and it's fine that the girl has a career. And of course, would never ask for them to change their plans for their schedule. So I was always a little bit on the edge and the curve and had to learn to be strong within yourself when 90% of others in your generation aren't like you. Right. And I had a business career. It wasn't like a nurse or a teacher, which I believe are wonderful professions, but those are more traditional women professions. I was in the business world with all men and I felt empowered maybe because my dad believed in me, my mom believed in me and that was fine. You go have a career, so that's what I did.
I had a 20-year career in the asset management business so I did that and back in the 80s that was kind of on the cutting edge mutual funds annuities. So I've always taken jobs where I'm on the cutting edge of things. That's definitely something that has run through my business life. I'm always taking on something that people may not have heard of, or it's brand, brand new. So I was able to grow with that and then ran a division and we got acquired multiple times and ended up being Deutsche Bank, I ran a division selling mutual funds and annuities to broker dealers and independent brokers and banks. So that was the start of my career.
Vicki
And then you went also to Silicon Valley, Pam.
Pam Buchanan
And then I went to Silicon Valley. I had, it was so good, I had a very good job, I was running a division of a major corporation, making good money and I quit. And people were like, you're in your 40s and you quit. Why are you doing this? In fact, I even had a headhunter call me and say, my God, you're available. The XYZ company wants you to run their division. Like, no thank you. And she basically hung up on me because she thought for sure, because they were offering me a lot of money and she just did not understand. I said, I just need to take a break. I want to go out and see what else is out there. I've had a wonderful career but there has to be more. I want to be on the cutting edge and it feels stale if you will, and so I remember that distinctly that she literally hung up on me because I'm sure she had told the hiring business that she for sure could get me.
Vicki
That's one disappointed recruiter.
Pam Buchanan
Yes, it was one disappointed recruiter. So I took some time off, but that takes a lot of risk and guts. You have to face your fear. Like nobody else would have done that, nobody else. And even my father was like, really? Cause again, back then you had the job until you retired, right? So I said, yeah, there's something else out there for me. I'm not sure, but I want to do something a bit different. So here I was in financial services, finance. So I started exploring. I wanted to live in California. I was in Chicago. I travelled to every city. I basically had a travelling job where I did present to people. I got burnt out on travel. I travelled millions and millions of miles. And NASDAQ came calling and knocked on my door. And they said, we'd love to have you join our team here in the Midwest. And I'm like, wow, it's taking companies public and it's kind of a fintech deal because technology is the backbone of obviously a trading exchange. I said, this sounds wonderful. And I said, let me think about it. I came back and I said, you know, as wonderful as it sounds, I'm going to have to pass because I'm moving to California.
And if I don't, then I'll always regret what if I just stayed in the Midwest, not that I'd done a majority of my business was done in New York and in California. So I was very familiar with both the East and West coast. So they, they also got a little upset and I had to hold strong. Again, you're like, did I make a mistake? And you're like, no, you've to ground yourself. And they called me back. Literally a week later, and they said, ok, we understand you want to move to California. We will create a position for you in California. And you can take companies public in San Francisco, in LA, in Denver, Arizona, Seattle. I mean, what a territory, right? I'm like, hmm, I was gonna head to LA and they said, well, you have to live in San Francisco, that's where our office is. I'm like, okay, okay, let's do it.
So that's how it happened. I literally said no, but I always go with my intuition, right? But it doesn't mean it's easy. So that's why people have, I believe they should get comfortable with uncomfortable, right? When they know in their gut, something doesn't feel right. And that's where the universe will then reward you at a higher level, right? Because I was truly going out of my passion, like I want to experience a different lifestyle. I did not ask them to move me to California. I was quite surprised. And obviously when I got out there, again, primarily males and they were like, what in the hell are you doing out here? Who are you? What are you doing? You know, so it wasn't an easy road. Let's just say they did not roll out the red carpet for me when I got out there, because why were we adding another person? Did we have enough business to have another person out here?
So I had to tread very lightly with that and work with my male partner, which I respected and admired. And he had to get to know me and understand that I wasn't here to take from him. We were here to expand the business. Believe me many, many days and nights you're like, should I just go running back to Chicago? Can I stick this out? But again, I think that's that fortitude and maybe the Midwest grit of like ok, I'm going to stand my ground and I'm taking a risk and it's OK. It's OK. And I knew what was to come. I was going to meet these amazing people creating amazing products, widgets, technologies, whatever and even though I didn't know what they were making, I was going to learn, right? So that was in the early 2000s. So that was incredible and I did that for 15 years at NASDAQ. So I actually came back to the Midwest for about eight of that. I guess I did half and half because my mom became ill. Again, great company, moved me back and created a position for me here. So I guess I have something that attracts people to want to work with me. And I think it's my grounding and my ability to speak up and speak my mind and not waiver and not answer questions the way they want them to be answered. Right. So I can disagree or expand on something and get respect for that, right? So they want a strong individual. So I think I get that again from my childhood being compared maybe to my sister as an identical twin. And again, just from that lineage of strong women and not wanting to disappoint them. Right? Like I can't quit now, you know having Godchildren, I'm going to pave the path, I may be all bloodied, but I'm gonna cross that finish line.
And I used to always say, taking companies public so the part of that was, I competed with the New York Stock Exchange. So they had a choice. But when you go public, you must choose an exchange. Now, most people would think, tech goes on NASDAQ and traditional business goes on New York. But there is a competition there. We want that business. So I would say every day was the Superbowl. And I competed every single day with one competitor. That's it. And in my asset management days, I got market share, right? So I competed with 20 people and we were friendly, okay, I'll take 10%, you take 10%. Here, it's all or nothing.
So you can imagine the stakes and the news when, well, it really wasn't as much Tesla, although it got more competitive, but Facebook, which was the largest IPO at the time in history that went public.
Yes, yours truly, not that I individually did it, but I was the leader of that team that won that Facebook IPO and I was going to stay in Silicon Valley or at my job, no matter how beaten down or I was going to do that. So it's not like you're, I guess to tell people you're not always feeling good or happy all the time, right? It's a balance. You know, you have to have some good come out of it, but you have to have that long term, when I say long term, it is long term goal because it's not like I walk in and knock on the door and say, Hey, do you want to go public with us? It was three and five years that I’m working with these companies to go public. So, Tesla and Facebook, obviously better known ones, right?
So yeah, I got to sit in rooms with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and discuss how they started their company. So that's why I feel like I can start my own company as well. And really anyone can because yes, are they brilliant? Absolutely. There's no question about it. But what they really have is that grit and that endurance. I'm going to do something different and I'm going to keep going. And that's what they did. That is what they did. That's what separates them from the people that stand on the sidelines who say, I wish I could have done that. You've got to jump in, literally jump in both feet. And whether you're treading water at first or whether you're really swimming laps around the pool, you've just got to jump in and you've got to pivot and you've got to be able to be flexible. And again, the belief in yourself is so important, so, so important, because half the people may not know what you're doing. I went to Silicon Valley in 2005, and at that time, Mark had maybe he'd just gotten there. I don't know. I can't remember now. But I think it was Microsoft. Bill Gates offered him a billion dollars. And I'm like, why didn’t he take a billion dollars. I mean, come on, it's an address book thing. I don't, you know, come on, what's going on? But little did I know, he had a bigger vision, right? And then he brings on the right people to expand that vision, such as the Sheryl Sandbergs. So there's a lot that goes into entrepreneurship. You can't just have the product. You have to have the people around you, the structure, and again, just the fortitude to keep going.
Laura
And the vision, you mentioned the vision there too. And I think the people you just mentioned are visionaries in their field.
Pam Buchanan
Absolutely. And I know I'm at a different level, right? So I know, you know what Elon Musk went through to start his company. And you meet these people. And again, I think I am comfortable whether I was talking to Elon, just like I'm talking to you, right? He doesn't know about the stock market. I'm educating him on the stock market. He can educate me on where they are and what their goals are to go public. Sometimes companies didn't make it public, but I was still working with them and I was always learning something, right? So it wasn't my choice whether they were going to go public or not. It was my choice to be a part of their team. And that's what the team that takes a company public, again, is your banker, is your accountant, is your legal team, is your exchange team. So we all work together. So I was exposed to all the legal entities and the investment entities and all of that. Bu they surround themselves with a team that believes in them. Now that team could be five people, but they need that team to believe in them and keep going. So many, many times, sometimes you'll see companies go public and you don't know how many times they were that close to shutting down, right? And I think more and more people should hear, and maybe you have stories from entrepreneurs like that where we had to take a step back. And you also have to be realistic. If you're selling a product in the market, is the market ready for your product?
So you could be 10 years ahead.
I met Elon when he started SpaceX so if Elon had been let's say in the Midwest they probably would have said really? I don't think so, you know, but being in California, you want to be in an environment that supports that, right? I mean, yes, you can do it without some of that support, but boy, is it harder. It's really hard because even with all that support, it's hard.
So to be a visionary, I think you're born with certain visionary qualities and that's where your background comes in. Whether your family, they allowed you to run with ideas, big or small, and then you come at it and you say, wow, I'm going to develop a spaceship. Okay, that's big. Go for it. You know, and he did. And he developed an electrical vehicle. Did that, right? And then why not throw in solar panels? So I also took Solar City public, which is one of his companies and yeah, so work with that.
But you just sit in the room and you listen and you engage. Again, I want to say they're normal people just with brilliant minds. But the one thing that makes them different is they put one foot in front of the other and they didn't quit.
Vicki
Yeah, Pam, you've mentioned the word grounded a lot. So help us understand. I love that word. I'm certain it means different things to different people. Can we just get some clarity around what you mean by grounded?
Pam Buchanan
Yeah. So when I say that, and I think I've always used the grounding with my feet, especially to ground yourself into another entity, if you will, the earth, it could be your home, the sidewalk, whatever. But whenever you get anxious, ground yourself, let's say you're sitting in front of Elon Musk, are you going to get anxious? You're a human being. So ground yourself in your humanness and what I do is you take in all the environment around you, which is through your senses. So my company talks about sense to soul. And I have a program that I roll out and the first step is being grounded. Because unless you're grounded, you cannot fly. Right? So grounded, whether it's in your skill set, grounded in whether it's your belief in yourself, grounded in your environment that is supporting you, and I talk a lot about that and I've talked a lot about that whether that's your home. How is your home created? What are the colours? What are the sensory items in your home? What is the smell? What is the sound? Sound is becoming more and more talked about as being so important to your wellbeing. So it's really about your wellbeing and we have a body. It's important to our human being so we have a body, we have a mind and we have a soul. But where do most people stick? They stick with your body and your mind. So let's say that you, okay, your mind is intelligent, it overrides certain things let's say you say, I think this is the direction I'm going to go. What you're doing is you're using your mind, your intellect, which is part of you. But if you say, I know this is the direction you're using your soul. So let's start using all parts of our being, your body, mind, and soul.
And your body, we've studied it for centuries now. If, unfortunately, if I had a heart attack right now, chances are in any city, I could get a doctor to do heart surgery. It's more common, right? So they focused on that.
We're exercising our bodies. We know more about our muscles. We know more about nutrition. And then your mind, again, we're exposed through Google and the internet and we have information overload, right? So our minds are absorbing all of this. And then our mental wellbeing, part of that mind or nervous system, they're studying that more. So companies yes, we'll give you a membership to the gym, that's important for your body. We'll give you nutrition classes, that's important for your body, mental health days, now that's important, right? And how your mental health is and let's start talking about that. But is anyone talking about your soul and your soul health? So that's where I'm coming to corporations and saying we're missing the leg of the stool and it's about soul health. I firmly believe we're going to be in a new paradigm where soul health is going to be more and more important.
Vicki
So how do you combine, and thank you for that really detailed answer, it really helps to ground my understanding of what you mean by that. So how do you connect something that seems so ethereal, so understated in the corporate world and bring it into the boardroom and have them all go, yes we want that.
Pam Buchanan
I will say just in the last couple of years, because I've been at this now for four years in the first couple of years when you say soul, people say religion and that's not the case, because soul is a part of your being, but religion again all these man-made constructs may have taken parts of it and said this is religious. So that probably is the number one thing I have to overcome and obviously religion is not talked about in corporate America. So I view it as, you have organ health, which is your body. You have brain health, which is your mind.
And then your passion and your knowingness and your what's inside of you. And especially in the entrepreneurial world, they understand this a little bit better. That's your soul. So what are you doing for your soul? It doesn't have anything to do with religion.
Everyone has a soul, just like everyone has a heart, kidney, lungs. Everyone has a brain. Everyone has a soul. So let's start talking about it and make it more of a normal part of our conversation. Because back in the 80s, yes, let's go work out. Everybody, are you working out at the gym? How are those muscles doing? Have you done this sit up? Or how about that? Or, there's this new dance class. Let's get into the groove there. And then mental health days, Prozac came out in the 80s. That opened up the door for mental health. So nowadays, you hear it all the time, yeah, I'm on antidepressants, I'm on anti-anxieties. People are willing to talk about it. Back in the day, people weren't willing to talk about it or let's say that they got overwhelmed and needed a mental health day. They weren't talking about that. Now they are. You know, they even said it, let's have a mental health day.
So what are you doing to take care of your soul? And if you're soul driven, you're gonna be more productive, more energised, and then I get into the energy. So we're energy beings.
So it is very deep, deeper than what we have time to do. But let's talk about energy, which is the elevating part. So after you ground, you elevate your being. And that's through your energy being. And how are you taking care of your energy? Not just your muscles, not your sleep energy, let's say, but your internal energy. What exhausts you? What makes you wake up and feel energised? Is it the types of food you eat? Is it again back to your environment? I'm very much into this neuro aesthetics, which is a newer field now that people and businesses are talking. And again, when I talk about neuro aesthetics, it kind of combines everything too, because again, it's your nervous system. So the whole body has to, or the whole being has to work together to really elevate for every person to be productive.
Because why if corporations are already, here's a health membership, here's mental health days, if they're already doing all that but yet productivity is still not where they want it to be or people are still unsatisfied at work, what's missing? The soul. You're not talking to the soul. We need to start talking to the soul and people need to identify.
Again, is it fear or love? Only two emotions we live through, truly. Fear or love? You can't do it both at the same time. So let's say that you have a fear of, I don't know, jumping out of an airplane and you want to conquer that fear. You go to the, if you want to say positive love side and then you overcome that fear, right? Or are you fear-driven your whole life? Like you're saying, your parents grew up in the depression or, your parents were poor me or, my God, we don't have enough money for this. And it got into your brain. So we need to reprogram, decondition what we heard because we are literally going into a new paradigm.
So I talk to people too, what's in the past is in the past because people have talked to me about the stock market and know how, well, that doesn't make sense. If interest rates go up, then the stock market should go down or you know, the economy's not working the way it used to. That's right. We're entering into a new paradigm. Forget, I don't want to say forget totally what you learned. Use it as a base for where you want to go. But if you find yourself saying, my God, am I going to have enough money to do all of this? Oh no. We barely had enough money to buy food for the table. I can't take that risk. You say, nope, that's fear. I'm going to go on this side and I'm going to do it out of positivity because I believe in myself and I know I can make this happen. Now, it may not happen tomorrow, but I'm taking huge risks, right? In terms of starting I want to start a whole new category, if you will, soul health, that doctors will be talking about just like they do, how is your body, how's your mind, and how is your soul? It's got to start being commonplace when we talk about it. Not, oh I found my soulmate, but it's more, it's bigger than that. But if you want to start at where you found your soulmate, how did you feel? Right? And how you get there is sense to soul. So then I interweave the science of energetics in between there.
Vicki
You know, my mind instantly goes to, well, aren't you the perfect person to be working with Silicon Valley geniuses who may need that soul connection? And then I'm hearing you say you want to take this to a more mainstream level where doctors are talking about soul health. And I love your vision for that. I love it. So have you launched this per se or is there a soft launch in the last four years?
Pam Buchanan
So I want this to be big. And since whenever you're ahead of the curve, you're not going to be, it's not going to be grabbed on immediately. That's exactly what I learned in Silicon Valley. I mean, Elon Musk was the first car company, Tesla was the first car company to go public in a hundred years. You know how many people were betting against him versus betting for him? So even that, that had been explored, I mean electric vehicles weren't new, but he was taking it mainstream and he knew he could do it in his way. And he surrounded himself with the best of the best to do that. And he never quit, right? He never quit believing, no matter how down or out of money or just brain depleted, right? He kept going. And that's how you have to be when you believe so strongly in something. Look, SpaceX, rocket company? To watch and build that is, yeah, it's a blessing.
Vicki
What is your why Pam? What keeps you going? What's gonna be the one thing that slays this dragon for you?
Pam Buchanan
I believe that it is the future and I believe that we will all then be presenting ourselves out of that love vibration and the world will be a better place.
So it truly is a world vision because if you come at it from your soul, your soul does not see gender. Your soul does not see culture, colour. It doesn't see any of that. It's an energy that you feel. So if you walk into a room, I don't, and people would always tell me this, Pam, you have the ability just not to see whether it's old, young, male, female. I treat everyone the same, right, despite, and it doesn't make me fearful if I walk into a room and let's say I'm the only woman of this colour or age group, right? So if you do that, you're working through your soul because at that point we're all equal.
Vicki
And why is that important to you?
Pam Buchanan
Because I think that will put all of us on an equal playing field so that we can live our life passion and contribute to society in the way that we were meant to contribute. And that we can all live harmoniously together and all the wars and fighting over land or, you know. I was born into this body and this gender, so I'm more powerful than you. It will break down all those barriers, right? I mean, could you imagine a world where we're all just equal, but contributing something so different? And I finally figured out why I was born a twin. I was born an identical twin, right? So you get compared all your life, which is it wears you down a little bit. And especially when you want to be an individual like myself. Well, I finally figured it out. It's like I was born an identical twin because my body is exactly, exactly the same as somebody else's. But our souls are so different.
So I know how it is to live in a body that is female, this age bracket, whatever, and even be compared. Well, you go over here because you're this age bracket. This is what you should be doing. No, no, no, no, no, no. My soul's over here. It wants to be doing this kind of stuff. So put me with the young kids. Okay. Put me with the young kids. And in fact, I work with millennials and they're like, Pam, you're really a millennial. You're not a baby boomer. You're a millennial. And, I'm like, you're right. Probably my group is more millennial if you're going to categorise, but wouldn't it be wonderful to not categorise or not judge if you will. So it takes some of that judgement away. I look at you as a human being that is made up of body, mind and soul. And again, the soul is a pure essence of energy that does have a purpose for us to all be here. And I have a knowing, you know people are like, how do you know that? I'm like...I'm tapped into my soul being. I just know. Like I can stand very convicted. I can stand in front of a thousand people and they could say, no, it's not gonna happen. I'm like, it's gonna happen. It will happen. So I have that conviction and I think that's what people, if you tap into your soul and your soul is pure goodness of love versus the fear vibration, then you're going to succeed in all aspects of life.
Vicki
That's beautiful. Yeah
Pam Buchanan
Look at the children that are being born today. They're programmed completely differently. So we're going from survival mode to thrive mode. You and I, all of us, we're born into survival mode and a 3D world, a tangible world. So we carry that through us, right? But yet we're not really surviving. We have a roof over our head. We can go out and rent an apartment. We can build a house at any income level. Food, do we have to go out and hunt? Am I sitting here worried right now going, gosh what am I gonna kill today to eat and provide for myself or my family? Nope. There's food abundance so we should not be living in survival mode. We should all be living out of thrive mode.
Vicki
Great distinction. We like to frame the conversation around the hero's journey, which you'd be familiar with, who did you meet along the way as a mentor that helped you discover the right path?
Pam Buchanan
Yeah, you I think one, you really have to have an internal barometer for yourself first and foremost. Nobody can do the job for you, right? And no one can constantly be there for you. So it is a daily minute by minute, hour by hour, almost self-talk. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, whatever is presented to me. But I was very blessed to have managers that believed in me.
So I think too, I was never given a chance to say no
I do think given those opportunities to speak in large groups all the time and those people believing in me was huge for me to present myself or the story or say you have the knowledge to communicate that to this group.
Vicki
Yeah, and I'm seeing a common thread in what you've been saying today about that, and that is to surround yourself with people who believe in you more than you may believe in yourself at the time.
Pam Buchanan
Absolutely. Yes.
Vicki
I see a book in your future if there isn't one already.
Pam Buchanan
Well, yes, I'm contemplating and working through that. So thank you. Sometimes you don't think your journey is as interesting until you start talking to people about it. And then they're like, that's fascinating. And you're like, really? Because you know how when you live it, you're like, that was nothing. I just did that.
Laura
It was your normal, but to other people, it's just extraordinary. And I would say you do have an extraordinary life and career to talk about. I'm excited just to be here sitting talking to you with like two degrees of separation to Elon Musk. That's kind of a little mind blowing to me right now.
That's hard to even fathom, you know, sitting here in little Bermuda and then so close to someone who's known someone on a first name basis like that.
Very exciting that you've had that career. And I can only imagine now the help and inspiration you can give to others who are in maybe the early stages of their career, whether they're an entrepreneur or within a bigger corporation. We all need that inspiration. We all need that grounding. I love having that conversation with you about that because I think we often live in our heads and in our stress and in all these external things. And like you said, fear and all these negative emotions. How do we ground back to ourselves and who we are and just be a normal person because we are at the end of the day, normal people who just live sometimes extraordinary lives like you have. So thank you so much for talking to us. It's been an honour.
Pam Buchanan
Yeah. Well, thank you for having me, Laura and Vicki. It really has been a pleasure and, you know, look forward to maybe meeting you in person someday. So let's keep the dialogue going. I would love to, especially in the winter and Australia as well. Yeah.
Laura
Come on over to Bermuda, I invite everybody to my island. Yeah, especially when it's nice and cold in Chicago. Come on over to Bermuda, it's lovely here. Definitely anytime, just let me know. We'd love to have you.
