GM Jane
Welcome (or welcome back)
Twelve years ago, I set out to become a freelance writer. I started a blog (imported here), a Twitter and Instagram account. I checked out actual books from the Austin library. I forced my friends to read my blog and then bugged them about what they thought. I applied for a cocktail waitressing job. And then, in a twist even I didn’t see coming, I became a life insurance agent for the next six years.
It’s hard to see your bigger picture when you’re in the middle of living it, but I trusted my internal compass. I moved back to New Mexico because of that job. My current career as a financial advisor is because of that job. It gave me an introduction to both sales and the insurance industry.
I worked with employers and traveled to small New Mexico towns year after year for annual enrollments — Silver City, Carrizozo, Ruidoso, Mora, Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Las Vegas, Deming, Raton and Truth or Consequences. Eventually my territory grew to include El Paso. I never said yes to acquiring those clients, but one day they simply appeared in my accounts tab, and I grew to love and respect El Paso. It’s an amazing amalgamation of cultures with genuinely welcoming people. Most importantly, in Silver City I met an Airbnb host whom I befriended and who inspired my first novel. More on that later.
The insurance job taught me about the importance of both knowing and adhering to my own moral code. I committed to being one of the good guys because I saw how shady a lot of insurance agents could be and how confused people were by the entire subject. I saw growth strategies that turned my stomach — all recruiting, no retention, all promises, no real picture of the hustle.
I bulldogged my way through that first year and eventually became successful, mostly because I inherited 76 existing clients in New Mexico and later about 20 more in El Paso. I worked independently and rarely went to the Austin office. I qualified for the annual convention four of the six years and took two different friends on an all-expense paid vacation as my plus one to Punta Cana and San Francisco.
The job served me well and I still receive occasional renewal checks. In February of 2020, I tore my ACL and meniscus skiing and had surgery on April 1st to repair it, right at the start of COVID. I was in a locked knee brace for 6 weeks and couldn’t drive, and at that same time the New Mexico governor told us to stay home, so I did.
Once I stopped traveling, I realized how tired I was. Texas and New Mexico had very different approaches to handling the pandemic — I was caught between two worlds with no clear path forward. Eventually, I stopped producing. It was a contract job and after 12 weeks of no sales, my contract was simply terminated.
I never quit. I just faded away.
Fast forward to April 2021, when I decided to pursue financial advising and began studying for the SIE, Series 7 and Series 66 exams. I also went back to waiting tables at a fine dining restaurant that same month. My career in hospitality began at 15 and I have spent most of my life in the restaurant industry, ending my last chapter as an area manager for a Houston-based restaurant company before getting into life insurance in 2014.
I was crispy fried after that last management gig and wanted out of restaurants something fierce. When I started waiting tables again at 46, I was bitter for sure. The induction was rough, but the money was good and being able to clock out and be done with it all until the next shift felt like the golden ticket.
I passed my last exam, the Series 7, on my first try in Fall 2022 and dropped a shift that first winter. I became a financial advisor with a large firm, working remotely with the leadership team, and grew my practice locally, starting in the restaurant where I worked. I opened IRAs and Roths for co-workers, sold life insurance policies and opened 529s. My focus is on helping my people — hospitality people — with basic financial services, and I don’t have asset minimums. Santa Fe has great restaurants, but most are small and independent. No benefits.
In July 2023, I joined a friend’s existing advisory practice and became truly independent as a financial advisor. The big company didn’t like me helping the small fish and kept pushing me to go for high-net-worth individuals instead. Now I control my business entirely and help those who need it most.
As of this week, I’m down to one shift at the restaurant — Saturdays. I’ve come full circle from jaded and bitter to genuinely grateful to be somewhere that allows me to work a single shift. I have a restaurant family that may be the most tight-knit group I’ve encountered in 35 years in hospitality. It certainly didn’t start out that way, but five years in, I love the people I work with, most of the time. I enjoy the actual work — talking about food and wine and helping people have a great experience.
It’s taken its toll on my knees, though. That 2020 ACL and meniscus repair didn’t hold, and both knees are now arthritic. One shift keeps me in it a little longer without too much physical fallout.
Somewhere along the way I realized I’m not just drawn to restaurant work.
I may be addicted to it.
Which brings me to the present. I’ve had this project germinating for years. In the past few months, it’s become clearer what I want to create, and this is the first post of many to come.
This is my platform — GM Jane — and it’s filled with all the things that interest me. It’s personal history. It’s my writing, both old and new. It’s about restaurants and hospitality. It’s filled with stories, mine and other people’s. It’s a place for collaboration and connection.
Welcome, or if you are one of my 5 loyal readers who have been waiting a decade for my next post, welcome back and thanks for your patience.