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Clu® Julie Pinkerton
CEO - Entrepreneur - Award-Winning Insurance Executive - Writer - Puzzle Builder - Travel Photographer - Dog Lover - Brake for Turtles
Julie Pinkerton is the CEO and Managing Member of Evozen LLC, a company she founded in March 2017.24 She is a seasoned financial services professional with over 35 years of industry experience, holding the designations of Certified Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), and Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF).34
Pinkerton's career in the financial industry began in 1986, and she has since worked in various roles, including as an insurance agent at MetLife, Brokerage Director at Transamerica, and Regional Sales Director at AIG.4 Her expertise lies in risk management, and she has experience in working with the public, corporate leadership, and as a personal consumer.3
In 2017, Pinkerton launched Evozen LLC and its ClientFirst technology platform, which aims to address three major industry issues: succession challenges, effectively scaling practices, and enabling women and minorities to achieve success in the industry.3 The ClientFirst platform is described as the only national, fully-diverse network of Money Flow Professionals, designed to connect various financial, legal, and tax professionals.4
Pinkerton is also a contributing writer for U.S. News & World Report, covering topics related to financial planning, risk management, and advisor selection.14 She is currently working on a book titled "BLINK: Because Life Isn't Neat & Clean".3
Outside of her professional life, Pinkerton is an avid artist and photographer who enjoys traveling with her husband, David. She is also passionate about giving back to her community, with Evozen donating 15% of all net profits to One Generation Away, a charity focused on addressing hunger in America.3
Highlights
Yesterday, Mario Veraldo posted this fantastic Forbes article. I am grateful that he did.
Kumar Mehta, Ph.D., starts out, “For most people, the image of a successful entrepreneur is an unshackled, young, brilliant visionary, setting out to change the world, unafraid to work hard and either a college dropout or a recent graduate from an elite university.
The only thing that Mehta left out is that it is also usually a man.
Mehta continues saying that research is showing that "the likelihood of success as a founder increases with age until the age of 60.”
I still remember every single person who has told me:
- If the problem is so important, why hasn’t it been solved already?
- You will never get investor money because you are a 50+ woman in a boring industry.
- You don’t seem like a risk-taker to me.
The real world is showing that it is exactly people like me that are getting the job done.
- We see problems differently and understand exactly why they haven’t gotten solved yet. That’s why we have strong differentiators in our approach.
- We understand investor risk. We provide the ability for greater diversification and the opportunity to take bigger overall risks in the portfolio.
- We approach risk differently. I bring to the table a 100% debt-free, revenue-generating business with working capital for 15 months. Investor money goes to actual growth, not infrastructure, plus I'll spend your your money as judiciously as I have spent my own.
I have also been repeatedly told, “You do realize that, if you were a man ...”
This is the conundrum of who receives investor money. In Jan, Bloomberg reported that women's average VC funding shank to just 2%, the lowest since 2016. But that 2% gets sliced to -0- quickly, especially for men and women of color. Yet, I also know amazing people like Shani Dowell and Aireka Harvell defying those odds right along with me.
Most importantly, I have experienced every single solution that ClientFirst brings to the table personally or through the top advisors I've known across the nation. A comment from Veraldo’s post … it’s hard to get 30 years of experience from a 30 yo. Older founders do bring a unique perspective to building a business that our younger peers do not; but, I know that I am constantly learning from them, too. The late Native American War Chief, Joseph Medicine Crow once said, “Take the best from all.”
For me, I love being an older female entrepreneur! And … the world IS noticing more founders like me.
Evozen, LLC has been selected for one of the leading national accelerators in the country, representing over 6,000 venture funds, angel investors and family offices. Significant investor funding is now within reach.
“The difficult can be done immediately … the impossible takes a little longer."
#perseverance #entrepreneurmindset #success #clientfirst #evozenllc
I started working out again. You know, the free weights, lunges and squats kind of working out.
Now, why the [h***] would I do this? My trainer, Courtney, asked me this, albeit far more tactfully.
My first reaction was, I’m old, I’m fat and my hips hurt? Now, some of that is true and some hyperbole. I’ll let you decide which is which. Be kind.
But, my real reason is that I have a BHAG goal. One that requires strong legs.
In 2023, my husband and I are hiking the Camino Portugues.
I learned of the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St James) from a friend. It's a medieval European pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Some do it for spiritual growth; others simply like the challenge.
For her, it was a 515 mile route spanning 4 weeks. I was enthralled.
The journey had fallen out of favor by the 80’s with only a few hundred pilgrims. Now, over 200K make their way across a network of well defined routes. Legend says the dust raised in walking the road formed the great Milky Way galaxy.
We’ve chosen to journey the 2nd most popular route - the Camino Portugues - a mere 390 miles starting in Lisbon. Portugal is our favorite European county and the Atlantic will offer cool breezes. The coastline will be stunning. The porto will certainly be enjoyed.
For me, the Camino is a chance to intentionally slow down and move purposefully down an established path toward a goal bigger than myself. In walking it, one is welcomed into a new community with a common shared purpose. In completing it, one joins the ranks of legendary souls who have passed before while serving as an inspiration for those who follow.
Gonna need to get the legs in fine working order. Hence, hiring a trainer. Burning 3,000 extra calories a day will take care of anything else.
Now, I have worked out with a trainer before and still retain good form. Courtney was plenty surprised to find this chick could still do leg lifts without touching the ground.
I told him that, I KNOW what to do. But, too much corporate travel, a few home relocations and well, normal life, took all the air out of actually doing it. Courtney was my renewed structure to keep me on track, improve my form, hold me accountable.
It still was up to me, but we cannot walk all journeys alone. We still need a good walking stick.
Evozen, LLC's ClientFirst platform is like this for financial folks.
- Most advisors know what to do; they have done it before.
- Things got busy, life got in the way. Over time, they have become a bit frumpy in their practice.
- They have a big goal in their future - transitioning out at the highest possible valuation.
- They won’t get there at the rate most are going, especially in this market.
At ClientFirst, it's still your journey. But, we are the trekking poles that allow you to become lean and financially fit in your practice. In the right shape, you can then set goals that few others could contemplate and will stand out among your peers.
Tomorrow, we do it again. 🏋️♀️
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.