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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.
“These are brilliant people. But they’ve been so hyper focused on their career path that they don’t have the greatest life skills. They don’t know how to manage their finances, they don’t know how to buy a house, they don’t know what to budget for.”
“What we’re really trying to create here is generational change. And when the kids are in our facility, seeing their moms doing this work, it shows them a completely different path. That, and to no fault of their moms. It just, it never seemed possible. So we’re possibility creators.”
“You can only lead as far as you’ve healed, because until you start to recognize that, you will perpetuate the same mistakes that got you there before, either yourself or the leader that you were under. And that’s why the healing part is so important, because it comes up again and you’re like, okay, wait, this is what this is.”
During COVID we realized that people wanted to have certain services and things basically in their home, but you couldn’t find an avenue where you could find a one stop shop that had everything offered and these people would actually show up.
“All of a sudden, it’s cold. I’m cold and I’m wet and. But my windows weren’t open. I’m like, oh, my gosh, this is not a drill.”
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