Financial Advisors Carey (Nostrant) Yukich and Hawley Woods first met at a Women in Financial Services conference in Chicago in 2016, but it was their sports background that drew them together.
They both played Division I volleyball and had trained at club and collegiate level.
“The springboard was volleyball,” Yukich said.
The first meeting, then another reconnection in 2019 at a conference in Louisville, led them to write a book called “Push Through, Your Ultimate Success Playbook.”
The decision to proceed with the book was made in early 2020, just before COVID-19.
“We found a publicist and ghostwriter, and so ‘Push Through’ was born,” Yukich said.
The book was published on December 10, 2021.
“We wanted to give our readers concrete strategies to overcome adversity and achieve higher levels of success in their personal and professional lives,” Yukich said.
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In addition to “Push Through”, there is also the Daily Push companion journal available, which allows readers to keep their own diaries, record things such as commitments and what they are grateful for.
Yukich and her husband, John, founded the TrueWealth Advising Group based in Crown Point, which is also their hometown.
Woods, who lives in Las Vegas, is the executive vice president of Appreciation Financial along with her husband, Bobby Gray, and co-founder of Women of Wealth.
Key chapters in the book have a title that is sports related and tells about their principles of success.
“Each chapter has a story that we share,” Yukich said. “We try to parallel experiences with principles that helped us become successful off and on the field.”
Yukich went to high school in a small town in Michigan. She continued to play volleyball at Northwestern from 1989-91 and has coached players ever since.
“It was my ticket and the key to it all – against all the things that were stacked against me,” Yukich said.
“As women, we could learn to be assertive and aggressive, and that was okay … I know I would not be the person I am today and have the success I have if I did not have the experience of cultivating sport.” said Yukich.
The women share their seven proven principles to help the reader map out and design their ultimate playbook for success. The point of the book for readers is that they do not have to be an athlete to experience success.
Tribute is also given, in a chapter called Paving the Way, to the development of Title IX, which was adopted in 1972 when both women were toddlers.
At the heart of the change is this statement: “No person in the United States shall be sexually excluded from, denied the benefits of, or discriminated against under any educational program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.”
The women write in the book: “Sport changed us, mind, body and soul, to become stronger and more confident. It gave us the tools we needed to live a better life and succeed in ways that would not be happened without them. “
The book also includes interviews with major sports such as Kelsey Plum, number 1 in the 2017 WNBA Draft; Sandra Yancey, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning entrepreneur and founder and CEO of the eWomen Network; and Mehran Assadi, Chairman of the Board, CEO and President of the National Life Group.
A local book signing is being planned sometime later this year at the Old Lake County Courthouse. The proceeds go to St. Jude House in Crown Point.
Both the book and the e-book are available through Amazon.