EPISODE ANDREA BOBKOWICZ – The stressful life of a wealth advisor

Hello, my name is Linda Leclerc, the founder of the Canadian School of Laughter Yoga and of the HAHA sisterhood. Welcome in the Joy Element. The Feelgood podcast that it will inspire you today will explore the joy element of a fascinating woman, Andrea Bobkowicz. I met her through a mutual friend who has now transit.

Andrea was taking care of her investments and I have to say, she has been a key person helping me with the estate. We physically met for the first time at my friend’s funeral and I fell in love with her wit and sense of humor. She has a job I certainly am not able to do. I. She is a wealth advisor. Yes.

That must be a stressful job. , meet Andrea’s Joy element. Hello, Andrea, Bob Kovitz. Hello. How are you, Linda? I’m very good. And you? Very well. We’re sitting in her office right now in Montreal, downtown Montreal. In Westmount actually. Yes. And it’s a lovely Friday afternoon. Yes. And she has no clue of the questions that I’m going to ask her.

No clue at all. . That’s what I love. Andrea, you’re doing like, you have a very, what I would describe as a very stressful job and, uh, you’re doing a great job at it. And, um, um, my question for the joy element mm-hmm. , the first one is when you’re dealing with stress and I know that you’re dealing with lots of stress, what do you do to relax and to just to chill a bit?

I think the most important thing for me to do, Have a pet . Oh, I have a couple of pets. I’ve had pets since the beginning of my career. Mm. And I just love them because I can hug them, I can pet them, and they calm me right down. They’re fun and they’re fun. And the most important thing is they get me out.

And I do walks in the morning every single morning because if you don’t. You’re on your hands and knees cleaning up a mess in your house. Yeah. So you don’t want that. So , who does no one. So I’m up and I’m out walking the dogs every morning. So it really changes your whole atmosphere. And when you come home, uh, the first thing I do is take the dogs for a walk to see you.

They love me. They can’t wait to see me. And if I’m there all day long, they. Are we going up midday, let’s do a midday walk. And they just sort of, they’re sort of like, uh, silent partners in keeping you mind, uh, grounded, you know, with, with, uh, keeping walking and stuff. So, yeah. Um, I’m so impressed with them that I actually, my previous dog and now my current dog, I’ve had them trained to be therapy dogs.

Good. Yeah. So I hope to go out to elder care facilities and actually bring them to give comfort to other people. Oh. Because I find them so relaxing. They are so calming. Mm-hmm. . And they’re fun to be with. Like, I remember when, when we had a dog like this was actually, I keep saying that when I went through a very difficult period at some point and my dog kept me sane.

Mm-hmm. , because you have to go, you have to go out with them.  to take care of them. So, and their expectations are very low. Yeah. You know the mark and they love you. They love, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, the stressful environment I’m in, it’s, it’s interesting because they put everything in a different perspective.

Mm-hmm.  and I become more stress manager than someone who actually absorbs the stress or is the stress. I see other people around me that I’m working with clients, other people that are very stressful, uh, or stressed out. And I try and keep it balanced to where I can and say, okay, let’s bring it back.

Calm, let’s bring it back to, uh, um, a more, a more contented place if we can. The best we can and just, you know, um, be proactive. Yeah. Wow. That’s very good. Yeah. You’re the first one mentioning that, uh, your pet is helping, your pets are helping you to, to relax when you’re experiencing stress, number one, they’re, they’re, they’re with me everywhere.

I, I wonder why? No. That there, because, because I know that what you do , I could probably not cope with all that stress. So when you have a day where things are not going so well, not that you’re stressed, but if your mood is like, eh, a bit nostalgic, or if you’re feeling sad, what do you do to tear up? To cheer yourself up, sit on the floor and have a puppy fist, ah, you know, get, get down to the, get down to the fun stuff.

The other day I gave the both of them a bath outside in the, in the little kitty pool because I didn’t feel like bending down on the bathtub and washing them. It’s like it’s beautiful out. So just hose it up. And they had a great time. They were running around looking like, you know, , some sort of shampoo freaks,

It was a lot of fun. . That’s right. No, that’s something else. Like I remember that my dog made me laugh. Yeah. A lot. Now my cat makes me laugh. Yeah, and I think it changes, it changes the focus because when work. , no matter what work it is. I actually, I came here and you know, I’ll be honest, I’m at a bank branch and I just went down the hallway to take a photocopy and there was someone there in charge of mortgages and she said, are you scared of dogs?

And I thought, why? And around the corner came her huge chocolate lab. Whoa, beautiful dog. But she now takes it to work with her. , it’s her full-time companion here in the office, in a bank branch. And I’m like, wow, that’s great. It’s funny. I went to have a pedicure. Yes, I did have a pedicure. And the owner of that place, like she had her dog mm-hmm.

waiting for her and mm-hmm. , the dog was there waiting for her Mama . Yeah. Uh, and it’s like the, the, the, the sequel, um,  I, I, I can’t remember the name. You know when you have, um, it’s not  Mascot. Mascot, yeah. That’s the same word. Mm-hmm.  mascot. Same word. And you know, although I’ve been doing this for, since I’m more than 20 years mm-hmm.

20. I’ve gone through, I, I, I hate and I don’t like the word going through, I’ve lived many lives with different dogs. Yes. Um, but, um, it seems to be, uh, one of. . Most sad and most positive things coming from Covid is the amount of new dog owners, and I really hope that the new dog owners really take the joy that they’ve brought into their homes.

Yes, it’s a privilege. It is a privilege that they really, you know, hold onto that. And it could be cats, it could be rabbits, could be anything. But for me, it’s definitely dogs because they just seem to have an inert sense of understanding if you’re not.  a hundred percent. They’re gonna just go nuzzle up against you.

Yeah. Whether you want them there or not. Yeah. Whether you’re interested in them or not. , you know, and they’re just sort of, sort of leaning up against you saying, how you doing? Yeah. You haven’t pet me enough today. Yeah. I’m just letting you know we’re not at our quota. What’s going on? Yeah. And or you’re, you’ve.

You feel, it feels like you’re not feeling so good. Mm-hmm. . So how about we play? Yes. It’ll help you. Yes. Or you know, walk time, walk time. Walk time. You could just hear it come out of their ears and eyes and their little paws on the ground. Walk time. Yeah. And you cannot, you cannot stay depressed. When you’re walking with your dog and you see that they’re just enjoying, there are some depressing days.

I will give you that pouring. Rain, hail, snow, February. There are some very unhappy walk days. Thank rain in the winter. Yeah. Ugh. The dogs also feel the rain and the wet, so they’re pretty quick at doing their business, so that’s good. Yeah, my dog was the opposite actually. Like it was like, are you precious?

Come on, do it. Do it so we can go back. No, it’s not the perfect weather. I’m not sure. I didn’t like that. . Adding to your stress, compounding your stress, all you think. Will the business come in half an hour? In 20 minutes? In 45 minutes? If that’s the only thing you’re thinking about, boy, you got minimal stress.

Yes. Yes. Uh, yes. Uh,  put things into perspective. That’s it. That’s it. Mm-hmm. . Well, thank you so much, Andrea. It’s my pleasure. So you’re like, I’m sure that some people are going to be very, very inspired by the idea of having a pet is helping you to cheer up and to release some of your stress and to see things differently.

Yeah. And be in a better mood and keep you real. Yeah. You know, the world can get crazy around you, you think, and just escalate to levels that you wouldn’t think they would escalate to. And the dogs tell us to go out. They still need their food and they still need their belly scrubbed. Yep. And so you just give ’em a little scratch and that just keeps things real.

It really does. And they give it back to you with their own. They all tenfold. Yeah. 10. Thank you so much, dear. Pleasure. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you,

Thank you for listening. If you’d like to know more about our programs, services, retreats, trainings, and all sorts of tools to bring more laughter, joy in your life, visit us at. www.yoga.com and for the women’s laughing@hahasisterhood.com. Until next time, keep smiling and laughing.

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