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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.
“You have to be cautious and mindful of the board of directors you invite into your head. And we as women especially listen terribly to that board of directors. And if you have one bad seat on there, one bad teacher, one bad classmate, one whatever from your history that you are listening to, it can really sabotage you.”
“You just have to do it, come back and face what is new and different and learn and grow. You can’t stop thinking. You have to keep thinking, how can I go forward with this. Nothing has to be the way it is. It isn’t going to be a straight line, it’s going to take its own path, and you have to be ready to follow that path and move forward.”
“Everybody has a light inside of them, and you have a choice. You can either use lighter fluid or an extinguisher. Same thing goes with everything. Same with people’s talents. You can either light it up or you can extinguish it.”
“If you follow this methodology, if you follow the pattern, the outcome is inevitable. You cannot mess it up because it’s just calculated moves that are in writing.”
One of the things I love to do if the opportunity presents itself as coach people, because I feel like that is the most, wow, fun, enriching thing that you can do for people. Because what happens is I believe that people behave for reasons, and you got to figure out what’s the root cause. So if someone reacts in a certain way, whether it’s anger, emotion, or whatever, there’s a reason why they’re reacting that way. And so I don’t think that people really want to react that way. They want to be their best self.
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