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by Stephanie Struyck Elgin
She’s driven, motivating and successful. She’s the epitome of overcoming the odds, not letting anyone get in the way of her pursuit of happiness and success in the financial world. “My career has been pushed more by people who told me I couldn’t do it…it only pushed me more and more to show them I could,” states Patricia.
For over 25 years, Patricia Mendez-Hall has held high profile positions with banks, and more recently, managed her own financial planning and investment firm alongside her husband.
Patricia began her career at a bank working in various departments. “I learned a lot about lending,” states Patricia. “Landing in the brokerage firm was an accident. A friend of mine worked at E.F. Hutton and said I should work there as a stockbroker.”
“Back in the ‘80’s, it was a ‘man’s world’”, states Patricia. “Being a woman and Hispanic, the odds were against me. My manager told me I would never become a stockbroker.”
Well that was just fuel to add to the fire of an already driven woman.
“That’s all he had to tell me. I got hired as a sales assistant at E.F. Hutton. Shortly after, I got my license in insurance, and after my stockbroker license.” A smiling Patricia did return to her previous manager, making sure he had her new business card.
“When I first started in the business, I was a softie. I was mellow and quiet, but I always kept my ears open.”
Patricia was hired to start the financial planning business for a bank in Arizona. With an office right next to the President of the bank, she had big shoes to fill, but Patricia met those expectations with grace. She had 22 branches under her belt and was named top salesperson for the entire state of Arizona. “I was an investment representative. I had to train all the branches about investments at the time.”
Patricia has held high profile positions with banks such as: Home Federal Savings & Loan, Home Savings of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Bank Of America, etc. Currently, she is an investment consultant, financial advisor and part-owner of Berthel Fisher Financial Services in the State of Iowa. In addition, for the past 10 years, she and her husband have owned and managed Hall Hodges & Associates, Inc., a financial planning and investment firm in Glendale, California.
Throughout her career, Patricia has helped many ballplayers, primarily Latin baseball players with their finances. “Working with the ballplayers, I saw so many horrible things happen to them,” states Patricia. “They literally came from playing in Mexico or Central America, having made only a few hundred dollars a month to making well over 100 thousand a month (and even more now). I noticed people coming to the stadium having them sign things they weren’t even aware of, loans with 20 to 30 percent interest rates, and home loans they shouldn’t be getting into. Unfortunately some of the players had no idea.”
Patricia began helping many well-known ballplayers. “It’s the reason I wrote the book,” states Patricia. “I wanted to help.”
Running the Bases in America is a comprehensive 11 short chapters about lifestyle and Money Management, including a series of tips essentially directed to help the Latino ballplayers recruited to play in America. Most of them have very little knowledge to none, of finances. In fact, most athletes who all of a sudden get large contracts become the life support of many.
Patricia’s passion and drive to help others is remarkable. Her role model as a Latina woman in the financial world is nonetheless outstanding. “I took what I knew and wanted to help others and wrote the book. You have to believe in yourself,” states Patricia, “believe in yourself and know if you put your mind to it, it can happen.”
For more information, visit http://www.patriciahallbooks.com/wordpress/
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