Sponsor And Welcome

SPEAKER_01 0:22

This episode is brought to you by the Landis Team, your go-to real estate family in East Tennessee. If you are looking to buy or sell, we are the ones you should call. Give us a call at 865-660-1186 or check out our website at yavonka salesrealestate.com. That's yavonka y v-o n c a salesrealestate.com.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Welcome back to Talking Tennessee with Yavonka. I'm your host, and I am here with a dear friend that is a powerhouse, a trailblazer, and my new friend, and it's Sharon Price from the Trust Company. Welcome to Talking Tennessee. Yavonka, it's great to be here. Thank you very much. I'm flattered that you reached out to me. Most definitely, most definitely. Well, I have to tell you, several people have mentioned your name to me. And I have always um known your name and known things about you, but I didn't know as much as you have done. And I when I started reading, I was blown away. So I want you to know publicly, thank you for paving the way for me and so many other people and giving them a chance. So that's why you're on this podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Thank you very much. Knoxville's been great to me, and it's been my pleasure to give back to the community. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Most definitely.

Moving To Knoxville And Finding Fit

SPEAKER_02 1:51

So who is Sharon Price?

SPEAKER_03 1:55

I'm a native Atlanton who is so happy to live in Knoxville. Knoxville is a tremendous community, welcoming. We have four seasons of the year and great people. And literally the river runs through it. We've got the river in our backyard in the Smoky Mountain National Park. And I enjoy all of those aspects of East Tennessee. So how did you get here? I went to UT. Okay. I babysat for a family that at the time you just said had a mental and retarded child. Okay. And I wanted to teach special ed because with their little girl, I crawled on the ground and helped pattern her crawl. And so I decided I wanted to be a special ed teacher. Okay. At UT, you could get into special ed classes as an under undergraduate. You didn't have to wait for graduate school. So I started as a special ed major at UT. I had never been to Knoxville until I registered for school. Okay for a campus visit, any of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Never came through on vacation.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

None of that stuff. I thought if I went to Georgia, I'd be, it's too close. I would be home every weekend. But my freshman year, they wouldn't let me take the math I wanted to take. So I was taking teacher math, whatever that stuff that I'd had in eighth grade. Oh, wow. And in sophomore year, I was taking art education using my parents' money to learn how to cut out circles and squares. And I went, this just not for me. So I changed from education to business at the end of my sophomore year. Okay. And I still was able to graduate in four years, however. So I had lots of classes.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

So you moved from Atlanta, knew nothing about Knoxville. What was it like when you got here outside of just going to school? What made you at an early age start loving Knoxville?

SPEAKER_03 4:09

I started loving Knoxville more after I graduated from college. Okay. Because in college, I was uh I went through Rush. I didn't get a bid.

unknown 4:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Um I I my first college roommate night did not get along great. I mean, I had some rocky times of finding the right way to fit in at college. Okay. I I did. I mean I but my first year so wasn't it was not this affirming, welcoming, oh yes, I found my niche. I had not took me a while to find my niche.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

And you're find your way. Yeah. It just especially when you have a ringmate that you don't get along with.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Felt like once you drop bobby pins on the floor, it's always to make me mad, you know? Really? So but but you know how reality is your perception of what's happened. And I definitely got over that. And I think for the most part, I get along with most everybody, and I am a polyam. I think the best is gonna happen. And I must admit my perception of what's happened has been the best, with exception of my freshman year in college.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

She said, except the freshman year. But it probably taught you a lot of uh values of what you wanted to be and what you didn't want to be when it comes to how to treat people. Do you think so? Probably. So one of your greatest passions of Knoxville is the people. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

Well, everybody, like I said, I'm from Atlanta. Probably if you met somebody here now, they would assume that I'm a native Knoxville. Because I've been involved in so many different things. I assumed you were from Knoxville. Because I like so many different things. So it's, you know, as I said, Knoxville's been good to me, and I'm happy to be able to give back to the community and be in a position that I can give back to the community. And I've done lots of different kinds of things that exposes you to people that you would not have met otherwise. So that's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Well, tell me about becoming a clerk.

Leaving Insurance After An Ethical Line

SPEAKER_03 6:34

So at the Valley Bank Fidelity Bank. What what's really even more important is my experience before that because I sold life insurance.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Tell us about it. I sold life insurance for a company out of Decatur, Alabama. It was a debit-oriented company. Working the debit meant that the salesman actually went to the workplace once a week and collected cash. I mean, it was I was selling in the ordinary market to college seniors. I could talk them into buying this product that was not very good. Okay. Um, the same company that owned the insurance company owned a bank, and they would finance your deposit. And it just was not a great situation. And when and I was making straight commission, making what I thought was a lot of money. And we were making two car payments every month to pay pay the car off early. I mean, I we weren't behind. We were we're not. You were making enough money to be able to do that. It was it was great money. But when I saw my general agent forge someone's name on a app, it's like life is too short to work with a company that you don't respect to start with. And now here your general agent is doing something immoral, illegal, wrong, all of the above. Um I had a first unfortunate marriage, but my first husband even said, you need to get out of there. Okay. So back then, if you went to an employment agency at my level, entry level, you paid the employment. I didn't have any money to pay an employment agency to help me find a job. So I went to the state employment office, not unemployment, but the state employment office, because lots of employers posted their jobs at the state employment office. Okay. And the lady I've met at the state employment office is the one that sent me to Valley Fidelity Bank for a clerk position. And by the way, she ended up becoming a client of the trust company. Really? That's amazing. I still see her to this day. And that was 50 years. That was over 50 years.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

But that speaks volume of what she saw in you before you even saw in yourself. Because the younger Sharon probably was trying to find her way, especially when you're at a job that you're seeing an illegal act, you want to get out, but you're still pigeonholed because you don't know where to get a job. And the thing someone had to help you.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

As I had interviewed with every bank in town and nobody gave me a job, I wouldn't have either had I been in their situation. The odds of me staying in Knoxhole were slim deni. So, yes, I've got a degree in finance, but I didn't begrudge the fact that Park Bank or First Tennessee or Volunteer, that none of the banks gave me any kind of job. Um, so yeah, I accepted a clerk job at $325 a month. And I was $325 a month. I was a Xerox clerk and the dividend clerk. So the dividend clerks, if you own IBM, you get a dividend every quarter. So this is before computers. So the check would come in the mail. I would go to the mail room and open the dividend checks and match them up to my index cards that I'd already multiplied out what that dividend was supposed to be for Yovanka's account versus for Susie's account and make sure that it matched those up and then make the deposit ticket out and deposit it into their accounts.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Was that your start of loving the industry of finance? Do you think?

SPEAKER_03 10:37

I was a I mean, I was a finance major. I liked investments. So at least now I'm working with people I respect. They're honorable. Um and I get promoted along the way pretty quickly. Um, so it was not a long time that I was, I'd say, just a dividend clerk and became. I did valuations and I did tax returns.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

And um did you ever have during that time early on? Um I know you got promoted, but did you ever have the time that it was a woman that they looked at you as a man should be in that position?

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Or was or did you I never had a female chip on my shoulder. I recognized the reality that I was told there wasn't a training program, but on the phone bank there was a trainee phone line. They just at that point had never had a female trainee. But I didn't let that consume me. If I was gonna be the Xerox clerk, we only had one copy machine at the bank and it was downstairs. I didn't even know what a collater was, but I was the collateral I put chairs up down the hall. If you were making 14 copies, I had 14 chairs, so I was putting things together. It's like if I'm gonna be a copy girl, I'm gonna be the best copy. That's what I was about to say. So one of the I I ended up getting uh some promotions along early on. Okay. So, you know, you talk to your siblings. So my younger brother had graduated from law school, and we start talking about what he makes versus what I made. Okay. And I got mad. I got mad at my parents.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

How come they didn't push me harder? So that was your first time of seeing the difference between what a woman gets paid versus a man.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

To me, it was a this is my little brother. It wasn't male or female. It's my little brother. Uh-huh. And then I go, well, I'm the eldest, but I never had the pressures on me that my brother had. Richard was a boarding student at Macaulay.

unknown 13:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Richard went to UVA undergraduate school. Richie Richard went to Emory Law School. Richard was the top man in his Emory Law School class. Oh, wow. What I will always tease him about, he was number three. The first two in his Emory Law School class were women. So he was the top man in his class. Okay. But he was not the top in his class. I got, I want to get mad at my boss. I want, and then I put that mirror up to myself. So I'm maybe 25 years old. Oh. And I go, you know, I was making more money when I was selling life insurance. But I didn't like what I was doing. I didn't respect the people I worked with. I'm in a good place now. I see a career path that's going to be good for me. And longevity. And if I had wanted to go to law school, my parents would have paid for it. I didn't want to go to law school. That wasn't your good dog here. So putting the mirror up and accepting responsibility for your own decisions, and I am where I am because I made the decisions. And you know what? I'm actually in a pretty good place because I can see a good career path and I respect the people I work with and I like what I do.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

So you didn't feel sorry for yourself. You really held yourself accountable for the my own decisions. For your own decisions. And viewers, I want to go back on a little bit because I think through life I have seen myself, others, that sometimes can't look in the mirror. It's easy to blame why you're not somewhere or why something wasn't uh offered to you. Now, off-camera viewers, I'll tell you this. I was saying to Miss Sharon, I never, I never looked at myself like, okay, race, I never allowed any of that throughout my life to be an obstacle for me. It was more of, okay, if I didn't make it, it was something I did not do. You know, I didn't blame uh, you know, anything like that. It would you get what I'm saying? So when you sit and say you looked in the mirror and you said, okay, I know what I want to be, but you knew what you didn't want to be. You didn't want to be a lawyer, you didn't want to do illegal stuff, you had a finance degree and you wanted to build from it. That's what I took from that. That's right. Is that what it was?

SPEAKER_03 15:44

That's exactly.

Owning Your Choices And Advancing

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Okay. And so from there, where where did the the grind come from? Because the more I read about you, that's what I saw. That you just put your head down, not down like, oh, I'm not good enough. You went to work. You went to work and you grind to to get the stepping stones to each place that you went. What how'd you get there?

SPEAKER_03 16:15

I said I had a first unfortunate marriage. Um someone who would not accept responsibility for his own decisions. And everything was always somebody else's fault. And I knew I didn't want to be like that. So and like our everything for him wasn't good enough. I was so tickled that at age uh 25 or 26 we actually bought a house. It wasn't that's big, it was not in those times. It was not the house that he it wasn't a big expensive pre pre. It was a new house. We had a dishwasher, we had air conditioning. I mean, I was so pleased with what we did have. Pollyanna here, I'm a glass not only half full, my glass is three-quarters full all the time. And that perspective led me to help make right decisions and seen the right answers that were right for might not have been right for everybody else, but they were the right answers for me. And I liked what I was doing. I liked the people I was working with, I was setting up retirement plans. I knew about that. The fact that I was not from Knoxville, young and female. Yes. But I could talk about investments in a way that people understood. I could talk about the technical terms of ways to help doctors set up a retirement plan that they'd never they'd never known about before. And so I could be a problem solver. I wasn't a salesman, I was a problem solver.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And that's what a lot of people don't realize. You have to be able to solve problems in any form, I think, any form of uh business because there's going to be problems that come. But I think what people saw from you at a young age up to now is the passion of what you were doing that it poured over into their cup. It filled up their cup into their investments, and it made them rise because they knew they had someone behind them that truly be believed in them. You know, and so let's go back to what you bought your house and in in your 20s. You know, that in itself is an accomplishment because think about back then that wasn't always happening. So tell me, as a young woman in the finance field, you know, what was your goal? What was your goal to do before the trust before the trust company?

SPEAKER_03 19:04

So I just kept working hard. Um, I ended up being responsible for the retirement plan area of Valley Fidelity. My boss, either you really liked him or you didn't, I was on the really likes sale. Okay. But he didn't necessarily get along great with senior management of the bank. Okay. So I always ran interference for him. So I was on a lot of the bank committees to keep him calm down. He and the bank examiners never got along because he just didn't feel like anybody should be looking over his shoulder. And I go, they make the rules, I'll figure it out. I made all of the budgets for our trust department. You know, I was I was I really I obviously was a rising star. Um my boss had a heart attack. I was the acting head of the department while he was out over people male and female older than I. And I don't really think any of them begrudge that because none of them have been in the trenches working on the budget stuff. Right. I did all the dirty work, but I didn't mind it. I mean, I I learned when I'm doing the budgets for the whole department what it takes to make things work. I I didn't ask for anything that we couldn't afford. I made the budgets, but it didn't mean that I got everything I wanted. I got the stuff that we could afford. And what was I do to play play it legit? Um just because I'm making the budgets doesn't mean that I get what I want. We've all got to work together on making this budget work.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Then um Well, I'll tell you this. We have something in common. Because I started my career in mortgages. There was a little bitty ad, uh, Miss Sharon, that was in the paper. I was looking for a job. At the time, I thought I wanted to work for Verizon. Uh well, it wasn't Verizon then, it was U.S. Cellular. And I thought that was my dream job. I wanted to go to U.S. Cellular. Well, they didn't call. So there was a little bitty ad my mom read off to me because my mom uh was uh working in Oak Ridge at the time, and she had a newspaper. And I said, Is there any jobs in there? It was this little bitty ad that said, loan officers, uh looking for loan officers, call Chuck. So I call, I get an interview. The day I go, my boss forgot about me coming in and wasn't there. So I said, Well, that's a sign. I do not, I don't need to go in to mortgages because I don't know nothing about it. Well, there was a guy there that told me to come back. He was like, I promise you this is a job for you. So I that coming back to that interview a few days later, I started. My career in mortgages. The reason why I'm telling you that is because I kept, you know, getting moved up. I was, I did processing, I did uh loans and all that kind of stuff. And so there was a time there was a business that my company did knew they had to do business with, but my boss and the boss of that company didn't get along. And so I was the right hand to my boss. My husband was the right hand to the other one. And so they would talk so I could understand what you're talking about because they would talk between us and we would keep it peaceful. And we would figure out how they could do business without even talking to each other. So I could totally understand with you and your boss, that type thing. But I did mortgages for 18 years before I became a realtor. And to this day, I loved doing more mortgages. I love finances, I love uh working numbers to this day. So it helped me, the mortgage side helped me to be the best realtor because I know both sides of it. So at 35 years old, what made you decide to step out on faith and start the trust company?

Two Weeks To Start A Company

SPEAKER_03 23:18

By the way, it was 40 years ago, right now. My late husband's birthday was July the 19th. The weekend after his birthday in 1986, we went to the mountains in North Carolina and talked about what would it look like if I left Valley. My birthday's August the 8th, which became my last day. So we're talking about two and a half weeks, not months of deliberation. You know, what is it, the phrase that um for I do not suffer from the paralysis of analysis. I just, you know, I make a decision and let's just go for it. So Valley's largest shareholder was a bank holding company in DC. And I was going to Washington four or five times a year about ways to merge the trust departments together. I've been on, I was on a great career path. I was the youngest senior vice president Valley ever had, not to mention female. So just plain old youngest, not just um, but I'm going to DC, and it looks like my management job might very well over the years move to Washington. Now I'm happily remarried. My husband's a professional, a physician here in Knoxville. We weren't gonna move something. And your life was already in my life building. Yes, and real active in my church. And um so it was like, well, I started the retirement plan area for Valley. I could probably do that over again. So starting the trust company wasn't because I felt like an entrepreneur. My boss at Valley made me feel like an entrepreneur. It wasn't about the money at that point. Now I realize I'm comparing myself back to my brother. Yes. Realize that in reality, lawyers make more than junior bankers do. Sharon, that's your career path. You chose that to just be happy. Just you might not be happy with it, but you just have to accept it that way. Don't compare yourself. Right. Um so I'm happy with what I'm doing. I'm very happy with the senior management of the bank. I I know I can see my trajectory. And you wasn't looking to be an entrepreneur. But I was concerned about what the future was going to look like. And I really feel like at that time the president of the bank and the chairman of the board of the bank saw some handwriting on the wall. If they could have raised the capital to have started a bank, I think they would have. Okay. So I don't think anybody, they didn't want me to take business, but I don't think people were shooting darts at me. Now they might have been. It might have just been Pollyanna and me not seeing it. But but I don't think they were shooting darts at me. So that was 40 years ago. Wow, this summer, um, that I left that and started the started the trust company. So tell my viewers, what is the trust company?

What Wealth Management Without A Bank Means

SPEAKER_03 26:30

So we're like the trust department of a bank without a bank.

unknown 26:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

So what do we do? We're the wealth management business, we we manage money. We manage money for individuals. Okay. We manage money for businesses. So we manage retirement plans. We manage money now that people have put into trust. Even though our name is the trust company, for the longest time, the majority of our clients, customers, were people who are alive and well and creating wealth and walk through the door and fire us tomorrow. Now we have one line of business really is the traditional trust business that granddaddy dies and sets up trust for all of the grandchildren that and you need to do X, Y, and Z and that kind of stuff. So traditional trust is now part of our business as well. So again, even though our name is the trust company, it took a while for the trust side of the business to develop. And we have almost seven billion dollars of assets. Say that one more time. Seven billion. Seven billion of assets under management.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

So my Knoxville. So my next question is thinking back to when you were 35 years old, you of what I'm hearing from you, the reason why you opened the trust company is because you didn't know what the future holds. And stay in Knoxville. Stay in Knoxville and not uproot your family, that type thing. But did you ever see, when did you see that that your company was really on that path to what it is today?

SPEAKER_03 28:17

I remember somebody talking about getting to $500 million. And I'm going, that's for the next generation to worry about, not me. Never dreaming that we would be at $500 million and then a billion and then two billion and then three million.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

So you never saw it? I never specialized. You just kept your head down.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

And surrounded myself with really smart, good people who have always been well-intentioned.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

So let me ask you this. So you surrounded yourself with people that can help you, probably mentored you. Um, is there someone from the past that you would say, this person came in my life and made a mark and taught me a lot?

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Is there any certain one person? Well, let's go back to I'm a clerk at Valley Fidelity Bank. Okay. I give my boss, a lady who's just recently died, her name was Betty Bacon, a ride to work every day. She and her husband only had one car, and I live fairly close to where she lived. And she asked if I would mind going to work early because she wanted to go to weekday services at the Episcopal Church downtown, St. John's. I grew up Methodist. I did tell you. I started going to church with her on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7 a.m. It took me six months before I had the nerve to go on a Sunday. Because this standing up and kneeling down and crossing yourself, I was totally. She's I was tired. I didn't know about that. Um I started teaching three and four-year-old Sunday school class. The rector at St. John's at the time, his name was Dan Matthews. And so now, so I started, you know, when I'm 22 or 23, so now saying I'm 25. I've gotten a tiny promotion. I'm I'm in I'm in I'm in a good place at Valley, seeing a good career path. I'm not making much money, but I see a good career. And you are enjoying it, and I'm enjoying it. Father Dan, and I'm reliable, teaching three and four-year-olds Sunday school class, and I set up for coffee minute every Sunday, and I'm reliable. Father Dan asked me to come to a meeting in this office, and I go to a meeting in Father Dan's office, and here are these other men. Of course, I'm by far the youngest person, not to mention female. So the men who were in that room were Bud Seymour. Bud Seymour was a lawyer with France McConnell and Seymour. His son was Arthur Seymour, and Arthur died a few years ago. Tommy Tucker. Tommy Tucker and his family owned power equipment company out on, it used to be out on Alcohol Highway. And this other guy that you've heard of named Jim Haslell were in the room. They all talked about what they gave in dollars. They gave to the church more than I made. The whole year, probably, yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

The whole year.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Yes. I I was given my whatever $3 a week in my weekly envelope. That's when I made a commitment to strive to tithe. I did not get there immediately, but I did over the next short two or three years. So I'm a tither. And the men in that room all became mentors. So if you've read my resume, you know that I am chair of Friends of the Smokies. Yes, Father Dan is the immediate pastor chair of Friends of the Smokies. Father Dan left Knoxville in 1979 or 80, went to St. Luke's in Atlanta. Then he went to Trinity Wall Street, which is the wealthiest Episcopal Church in the country. But he and his wife also, before they were at St. John's, started a place on the mountain called the Swag, which is in Waynesville, North Carolina, which is a kind of started more or less as a retreat center. But now it's a lovely, lovely inn that Father Dan and Deaner continued to own and manage, Deaner physically managing until about seven or eight years. Father Dan is 93 or 94. Okay. Deaner is 96 or 97. She's a couple of years older than Father Dan. And they continued to own the swag until I'll say a few years ago. Okay. And a few years ago, a couple who had honeymooned there ended up buying the swag. That couple would be Annie and David Colquitt, whom I guess you are also Annie Haslum's daughter, Jim Haslum's granddaughter. Okay. And so they now own the swag and the adjoining property called Catalucci Ranch.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

I did not know that connection. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

So all those men in that room became mentors to me. Uh-huh. Jim Haslum is on my trust company of Tennessee board.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Okay. And I are having dinner tonight. Okay. Um, you have to be sure to tell him I say hello. I just saw him a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Um, Tommy Tucker's wife, Molly, is the first person who asked me to go on a not-for-profit board. Okay. Molly was the treasurer of Blunt Mansion Board, and she asked me to join her as assistant treasurer. So that's how some of my board involvement started was with those people in that room. And Bun Seymour was a guy. His offices were in the Valley Fidelity Bank building at the time. And he was a man that wrote two handwritten notes. Okay. Both positive and negative. Okay, she said positive and negative. I would get feedback both about maybe what I had on, or that he'd heard me say something. Because I went to the same church, so he kind of kept up with me, and I got feedback, positive and negative, and written notes from Bud Seymour.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

And so all those men basically became my mentors. And helped to groom you up to where you are today.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

Including Hasel's still there for me every day.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yes. So that was an article that was published some years back.

Mentors, Reputation, And The Doorway

SPEAKER_02 34:58

And it was called Uh The Twelve White Men.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

The old Knox will turn.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Which was, for those of you who don't know, was that with that was the morning newspaper. We had two newspapers at the time. So the journal was the morning paper, and the sentinel was the afternoon paper.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

So this article, viewers, I uh I start reading, and I'm looking, and I'm like, it's the title says the 12 white men. But then I see your picture and everything about you, and I was like, am I missing something? And then I just kept reading. Tell me how that came about. And wow.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Well, I'll I'll say as I've said to you on numerous of your questions when you asked me about being a female. I've never focused on being a female. So I grew up with brothers. Um I'd never I was the oldest one. So I cut the grass first. Okay. We all took turns washing and drying the dishes. So I was just a person doing my share of the chores that needed to be done. Not women do this. Matter of fact, my parents divorced when I was in high school, and my which by the way, the divorce was my mother's fault because my mother was this cute thing, and my dad worked all the time. And I think mom thought that she would find some mother never remarried, and dad did, but it was not it was not dad's idea to get the divorce. Of course, it was the mom. Dad um rema did. Did she think it was greener on the other side? Mother did say we thought it was greener on the other side and it wasn't. But um, when dad dad remarried, I'm in college. We had a lake house on Lake Lanier, and the water goes up and down, and I'm in the water help pushing the boat dock either in or out. And dad's wife at the time said, What are you doing? I said, I'm helping push the dock. And she goes, Don't you know that's what the guys do? I'm in college. No one had ever told me that's what guys do. You just did. I just did. I mean, I killed my first deer when I was nine years old. I mean, I went hunting and fishing, and I grew up, I just did all the things that everybody did. So there was not women do this and guys do that. So you just I grew up comfortable in my own skin around guys, and the whole guy's comment, I went hunting out west with my father. Okay. We're in the the guide's living room. And he believed, he said, you guys come on. I sit there. And he comes back and says, Sharon, aren't you coming? And I go, I'm not a guy. I'd never but they've treated you. I'd never heard the phrase you guys. I'd heard y'all. Yeah. Oh. He meant as y'all come on. Yes. But he didn't say y'all come on. He said you guys come on. So I think I'm supposed to wait until he tells me it's time for me to come too. So the whole guy's comment, I never think of any. But but in that situation, I really thought, well, he just means the guys are gonna go out and do whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

But you do realize that I know you don't look at it as being a woman and a man. You don't separate it that way. You just look at, okay, I'm just that person. But you do have realize that that article shows strength. It shows that that door, you're opening that door for so many women. I'm glad it happened that way. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

But it was not, I wish you said it was. It wasn't intended, it was not intended.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

You were it, but you've opened that door, and I just reading about you, and then I read the article and different things that you've done in your mind.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

When the article was written, it might have been written before, it might have been written before I started the trust company. Because when I think back on it as a 35-year-old, I left Valley, and the next week I met with the president andor CEO of every bank in Knoxville, and every and the president andor CEO of every bank in Knoxville knew who I was because I was already involved in the community. Did that room help facilitate that?

SPEAKER_02 39:54

People giving you a chance?

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Perhaps did, but you know, people who weren't, I mean, the Jimmy Smiths or Thad Cox or the people who weren't in that room that I went to meet with had just known me because I was a chamber ambassador. Or I was I was one of those people that if I was assigned something to do on Friday, I'd try to have it done on Wednesday night. If I was given three cards, I made sure I called on all three. And that's something I say to young people today. Don't take five cards to make five calls. If you're only going to make three, because I want you to say that one more time. Only take on what you know you're going to do, because in the not-for-profit world or any world, if you say you're going to make three calls, you need to make those three calls. Don't take on five calls because it's going to look good to others in the room when you raised your hand to make five calls. They're going to also remember if you only make three of those five calls and somebody else had to clean up after you. So make sure that you don't say more than you can chew and do what you say you're going to do on a timely basis. And that then becomes your reputation. So I'm 35, so my reputation on whatever not-for-profit, whether I was on the board or just a volunteer working, I followed through with what I said I was going to do. It's not rocket science.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

It's really not. Is that how you became a community leader? Outside of your job? I think so. Because you've done so much for the community, you've given back. What made you go down the path of just giving back? Just like for United Way, I've enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

I've gotten to know so many people. So this year's United Way campaign chairs are uh Mike Keith and Jim Atchley. And they made their call on me this last week about a business owner participating. The Trust Company was the 11th largest employer dollar-wise in last year's campaign. And I'm pretty proud. I mean we only have 120 employees, so you compared a lot of others. But when I was campaign chair, to go meet with business owners or group chairman or whoever and just learn about their businesses, I would have never met a lot of people had I not been United Way campaign chair that put me in their corner suites asking them to personally participate and their business to participate. So United Way gave me the intro because they were interested in United Way, but then I got to meet them and it was fun. Yes. And learn about different and it and it wasn't I guess it's ended up being good for the trust company, but it wasn't about being good for the trust company. It was about being good for the community.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

So another thing Because all that will come when it needs to come.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Get involved in things that you like. I agree. Don't get involved in things because you think it's gonna be good for your resume. It stinks if you're doing it for your resume. It shows through that for your resume. And if you're doing it because you like, you're enthusiastic, you're gonna follow through. It's not drudgery. You're doing it because you like to.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

I have to have passion about it. I'm not a person that just the checklist. I'm not a checklist person. Oh, I have to make sure I'm on this board and this board and this board. That's not me. I have to know I believe in the cause. I have passion to fulfill it, and then agree with the mission. You know, I think a lot of people uh miss that part, and I agree with you. Do it because you really want to make a difference, not okay, this is what I should do, or my friends are doing it, because that's really not giving.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

And if you look at my not-for-profit, I mean I'm in kind of different areas, but I like the environment. My dad was an environmentalist, but I like the outdoors. So yeah, I've been on Tremont Board, Garden Conservancy Board, Nature Conservancy Board. I mean because you love it. Because I like it. It's not because I want a career as a cons conservationist. It's because I believe in conservation, but I think it's just fun to be involved in outdoor activities.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

I agree with you. So tell me this.

Networking Through Real Interests

SPEAKER_02 44:50

When you surround yourself, to me, surrounding yourself with positive people, surrounding yourself with people that are doers, not complainers, that's a really good key to success to me. What would you tell my viewers about so surrounding themselves, connecting themselves to good-minded, like-minded people? What would you tell them how to get started in just connecting?

SPEAKER_03 45:27

I know it's a long time. Go to the things that interest you and ask somebody if they want to go have a drink or go to have lunch. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

You know, and and that's how you build even outside of giving back to your community and doing charity work. I think it no matter what business that you're in, if you're trying to build a business, you have to be able to connect with good people. And it sounds like that you at a very young age connected, especially that room that you were in. A lot of people can't make it to that room because they not because of their circumstances. A lot of a lot of times people will not look at, did you work to make it in that room? So you earn that room. Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Father Dan picked me up out of a crowd. I'm so lucky that he knows that. I mean, he I've been able to tell him that. We talk regularly. I mean, I love him, he loves me. But he lifted me up in a way that I don't know that the clerk at Valley Fidelity Bank would have had the self-esteem that he best he bestowed self-esteem upon me.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I I can see that because your old boss, he had his own situation that he he couldn't get out of his way for once.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Oh. My boss at Valley was great. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

But the one that my first boss that one should have never been forged into someone's name. So that's where they're at.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Well, so his now ex-wife is a friend of mine now. Really? Um, and all this is public, so I'll be I'll call names. Um, so Cotty Blaylock, so Blaylock Construction Company.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

So Jim Blaylock is Cottie's husband. Correct. And Cottie's daughter's wedding, and I had not seen Cotty's daughter in years and years, go to the wedding, I'd introduce myself, and I said, by the way, my first job was for your father. She went, Oh, I'm so sorry. Really? But Jim Blaylock was so gracious at her wedding, and her dad was there. I mean, and they have a decent relationship now, but you he's he doesn't live in Knoxville any longer. I definitely have moved on from there to put it possibly.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

So you've served in leadership on so many different levels. Can you speak on some that you may not be on the boards now, but they made a mark of your life while you were there?

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Is there any probably more of the people that I have met serving on boards rather than the board itself? I mean, you could I certainly all of these missions are so I mean Second Harvest. I mean, where would any of us be? I mean, they are the food pantry for East Tennessee. I love that. So everybody's mission is just but it's it's really, you know, I met Rick Johnson originally through the Second Harvest. So so now I'm serving with Rick Johnson on Emerald Board. I mean, so you know, you you end up serving with like-minded people who have the same passions. And we all talk about the six degrees of separation, but your interest is the first degree. If you I'm into flowers and wine and travel. Okay. If I was into stock car racing, I would be going to different locations than I am if I'm interested in going to see gardens. So I going to see a garden, and lo and behold, I'll find somebody that knows somebody who knows somebody that I know. Because we both are in gardens. The same thing would be true if I was a if I'm a stock car enthusiast. Yes. We would be meeting people that we knew that we knew. Exactly. I just kind of realize when I say what's your place, I say that as a very positive thing. Find the place that you're comfortable in, what you like doing. Exactly. And it'll be fun. It'll be fine. It'll be around people that you like because they like the stuff you like. Don't I am not, God bless you, of rich engineers. I am not an engineer. Oh, not even. I cannot tell you, I don't have the patience to tell you how to build the clock. So I'm not going to be going to engineering circles. That's just not viewers. I love her. I love her. Because she's so honest. She's but don't I don't put myself in a situation that I have to build the clock for somebody and do something that I really don't want to do.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

You know, and I do think that comes with age. So you graduated from the University of Tennessee, but you've stayed active and you've held active positions up

Serving UT And Planning The Future

SPEAKER_02 50:49

at UT. Can you speak on what you've done up at UT since graduation and throughout your life?

SPEAKER_03 50:55

Probably I was not as involved in UT right after I graduated. But when I started the trust company in 1986, I don't know how I got. Okay. One of the earliest leadership Knoxville class. And I think the year after I did Leadership Knoxville, I did Chancellor's Associates at to do Chancellor's Associates. I really enjoyed it. Okay. And it was, I guess, the year after I'd done Chancellor's Associates or somewhere, and I was had just started the trust company. Um Harold Black and Jim Wandsley. Okay. Harold was head of the finance department at the time, and Jim Wandsley was an instructor. They called on me and they were starting a finance advisory committee. And they're the ones who really, after Chancellor's Associates, they're the ones who really got me more involved with UT. And then it I evolved from the Finance Advisory Committee, and then through the years I've ended up with a fundraiser hat on. So I was on the development committee, and then I was on another development committee, and then I was on the business school dean's advisory board. And then I was lucky enough to get a phone call from Bill Haswell asking if I would consider going on UT Board of Trustees. And I was to say honored, flattered, through.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

That's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

Um so And when I get I mean I knew Bill because I knew his father. Okay. Let's get realize I have to exactly I I have to. I never have asked Bill, did his dad recommend me? But I knew Bill. I mean, I had supported him as governor.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

But he obviously he was gonna be. But his dad probably did because I'm guessing his dad probably. Yes, but I don't know. And I know you truly um honor that friendship of Mr. Hassel. Yes, you know, and cherish that relationship. Uh he's done so much, you know, in his life. So tell me this. What's next? I meant for Sharon Price and the trust company, and even outside of trust company. What do you see for the future?

SPEAKER_03 53:21

Well, you know, I certainly don't work anywhere near as hard as I once did. Um we have a house in western North Carolina. My husband's totally retired. He's a golfer. I'm not. Um we have a weekend marriage in the summer, and it works great. I go Thursday night, and I come home either Sunday or early Monday morning when I'm gone. He plays golf all the time. When I'm there, he plays golf one day. Um we have people over, we cook out. Um he likes to cook. I like to cook. We both like wine. Um, so we eat, drink, and make merry. In the non-golf season, I can get him to travel. Okay. Um, so and then I'm sort I like to scuba dive. Um so we go places for me to go scuba dive. He likes gardens too. Um, he's gone with me on some garden tours. Yeah. There are other garden tours that I've gone on. The garden conservancy does fabulous, fabulous conservation work, but they also have some really wonderful trips and trips that I feel comfortable going on as a single female. That you're you're with like-minded people, but it's a safe environment. And you truly see a gorgeous, gorgeous garden to eat pretty good food and drink pretty good wine.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

There you

Grace, Action, And Final Words

SPEAKER_02 54:41

go. So if you could name one thing that you would say to women, make sure you do this in life. Name one thing that you would say you would do that you think women should do, and one thing you would say w women shouldn't do. And the reason why I'm asking that because you have broken down barriers for so many women. Help us to make this future better.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

I guess easier for me is going to be what you shouldn't do is second guess yourself. I think women people, you know, I'm not one to just always talk about women. That's fine. Are so critical of themselves. Give yourself some grace and don't second guess everything. And as I've already said, I do not suffer from the paralysis of analysis. So I just shoot from the hip, and it doesn't always work out, and you don't beat yourself up over it. And it's okay. Just try it and do it again. So maybe that's the other part of just try it. And if it doesn't work, do it over again.

SPEAKER_02 55:55

And not look at it as a failure. I've I've learned that you can fail at things, but it doesn't mean it's a failure. You know, it may just learn from something. You learn from it, and then you can grow and go do something else and not beat yourself down. Okay, it just didn't work. But there's so many other things that will work. So I want you to know it's been a pleasure talking to you. The door is always open for you to come back on this podcast. Anything you would like to share as we finish this out? Um, but it's been an honor to interview you.

SPEAKER_03 56:31

Thank you. Well, I guess I should close with Halloran's tagline. Go ahead. Of anything is possible.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

Anything is possible. Tune in this Friday. Bye, guys.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

Thanks for listening to Talking Tennessee with Yovanka. Watch out for our weekly episode from the first family of real estate. And check us out on the web, www.yovanka styleestate.com. See our videos on Yovanka's YouTube channel or find us on Facebook under Yovanka Landed Landwind. YovankaLanded forget the free panelists, and Yovanka Standing.