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Jacque James is the Founder & President of ARA Fraud & Forensic Services. As a former law enforcement officer, she found her passion in helping to prevent and mitigate employee fraud. She also lends her forensic accounting skills to settle domestic disputes where one spouse might be hiding assets from the other.
She talks to Cynthia about her career path which started by walking the beat on Florida beaches to her current role in investigating cases of potential fraud. At ARA she’s uncovered millions of dollars of fraud, theft, and embezzlement. She shares war stories from these investigations, offers tips to prevent fraud, and details her philosophy on living a fulfilling life.
1 – Introduction 00:24
2 – What you’re doing today 02:16
3 – What do you love about this work? 05:29
4 – Ethics of your work 08:01
5 – Early Career 09:00
6 – Loss prevention in retail 13:55
7 – Lessons learned from your wine business 18:10
8 – Who are key advisors for new businesses 20:19
9 – Surprising that people have had such success without key advisors in place 23:38
10 – Who do you help? 26:07
11 – Cases that stand out from the past 28:58
12 – Natural for you to help others 32:47
12a – Who do you work with 33:30
12b – Divorce case that stands out 35:10
12c – Getting caught 39:17
13 – Not going to get money back, might as well spend on prevention 42:29
14 – You want to believe you made a good hire 47:43
15 – FTX Fraud 49:58
16 – how long a case takes 51:57
17 – What are some of the challenges you faced to get here. 53:05
18 – How do you remind yourself to take care of yourself? 57:04
19 – How do you shift your mindset? 58:56
20 – How do you phrase the mindset?\ 1:01:50
21 – Giving yourself permission to be human 1:03:35
22 – What are some strategies to be more intentional? 1:04:29
23 – What you put out comes back to you tenfold 1:06:17
24 – Importance of love 1:07:25
25 – How to let go 1:09:12
26 – Living outside your comfort zone 1:12:25
27 – Letting go versus forcing outcomes 1:14:06
28 – How do we find you? 1:15:02
29 – What are other services you offer companies 1:16:45
30 – Spending to prevent is a lot cheaper than paying to prosecute 1:18:51
31 – Final takeaway 1:19:18
Content Notice
This podcast and all She Lift Project content represents the opinions of Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her guests. The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice – financial, legal, medical, or otherwise.
Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and across all She Lift Project media channels are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
“Young Shannon became an overachiever because she was a people pleaser. She needed to please others. And so that really developed in my adulthood as well. “
“They say, I’m still working 60, 80 hours a week. I got into this so I could pick my kids up from school and so I could attend their soccer games that are after school and I haven’t been able to attend one. I got into this so that we could go on great family vacations. And I haven’t been on a vacation now in five years. More people are coming to us for those reasons…it’s the lifestyle sacrifices that are causing people more pain than taking home a paycheck that isn’t what they thought it would be.”
It’s not about me selling and, you know, me making money. It’s about you being satisfied and happy with what you want and what you need. And I’ve always had that kind of philosophy, and my dad had that, too. And people recognize you’re not in it for yourself, you’re in it for them. And you’re sincere, and it really goes a long way.
Leadership is not about the leader. And I equate this back to basketball. When you have coach or coaches, they can’t go out on the court and shoot the ball and dribble the ball and pass the ball. But coaches have to be really good at getting work done through others. And so from a leadership perspective, that’s how I see it. As a leader, I have to be really good at getting work done through others.
“Gallup just got done with their survey for 2022. They found 25% better profitability in companies that have great employee cultures. Because when you have happy employees, happy employees make your customers happy. Happy employees want to invite other people to come work at their company. Happy employees want to share their ideas to make the company better. All of a sudden, you’ve created this culture where people want to contribute, and that’s the reason we do what we do.”
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