TORRANCE TRIBUNE October 9, 2014 Page 3 Calendar Cristiane Tomasi Uses Knowledge and Experience to Enhance Business Practices By Laura Sorensen The top of the office tower is a mysterious place. A long elevator ride; big wooden doors; you know it’s a place of serious business, because those doors are heavy. When you finally force them open, you see airy spaces, tall office doorways, and huge panes of glass showcasing the view, which in this case happens to be the Port of Long Beach. It’s an experience, being up on the top, unless you are the one whose office it is: the one who goes there every day. Christiane Tomasi of CS Tomasi Wealth Management. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Magazine and provided by Christiane Tomasi. What does it take, to become the person on the top floor, the person with the acre-sized desk that takes advantage of the long look over the water? Is it just passion and drive? I don’t think so. Lots of people have passion and drive: concert pianists, small business owners, police and fire officers, teachers. Intelligence? It can’t just be that either. But one element that other people might not possess, that Cristiane Tomasi of CS Tomasi Wealth Management does have, is knowledge and experience. Specifically, knowledge of, and experience in, that arcane, torturous, twisted system known as “securities.” Even the name sounds magical. What are they? What do they do? What makes them secure? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. Most people don’t. If you do know, you have the power to assist those who don’t. And you work with money. Lots and lots of money. Cristiane Tomasi is the whole top-floor package. She does have drive and passion and intelligence: an abundance of all of those. She is friendly, and laughs like a girl, and loves to talk about the fashion line she’s going to start someday. And she knows what to do with money. She has spent years learning how to wrestle with it, where to let it sit, when to take it out of the market. But, as she will be the first to say, she didn’t start out on the top floor. She started her business in her own home in the mid-90s. And the story doesn’t even start there. It starts in Lebanon, where she was born. When Tomasi was in elementary school, her parents moved halfway around the world to Huntington Beach. Coming from Lebanon to California, she had to learn English from scratch in order to succeed in school and make friends, a venture which succeeded after a subsequent move to the Bay Area. In her twenties Tomasi and her brother started a family business selling high-end European clothes, while she was still going to college for an accounting degree. Her brother dropped out of the business and she stayed to run the store, then expanded to a second store. She attended college at night, but spent her days doing most of the work at her retail locations, which were very successful. “I had employees but I was my own window-dresser. I did all my own displays, all my own buying, all my own accounting . . . I just felt like I could do better, and it was too much trouble to train anyone else.” Soon she was supporting her parents with the retail revenue, and the pressure intensified to succeed. Eventually the stress got to her, and she sold both stores and went to Europe as a sort of sabbatical. She then completed her degree, a master’s in taxation at USC. Her graduate work, which involved reading up on current tax law, refined her outlook even further: “You realize that there are so many sides to [court cases], that nothing is that clear-cut … by the time I finished the program, the best thing I got out of it … is that I became a much more openminded person; more objective; nothing was black-and-white anymore, I understood that.” Tomasi finished school as she traveled back and forth to Italy, where she eventually relocated with her husband, for three years. When she returned to California, Tomasi began her own business doing tax work out of her home. She said she did only one direct mail flyer, and all her business since then has been word of mouth. “It just fed on itself,” she said: more and more clients came to her, and they wanted her to provide other services besides just taxes. She began to experiment with wealth management, getting licensed for securities series 7 and learning how to manage the stock market. Tomasi is partly in it for the challenge and partly for the joy of it: she told me how she began to get into stocks and securities “for fun.” Encouraged by a client, she began to work as an independent financial advisor. Because of her honest way of doing business, she never wants for clients. “I would never have the business that I have if my clients didn’t completely trust me.” She is proud to say that some of her first clients are still with her today. Tomasi works very coolly under pressure. She says, “I’m tough, and I don’t mess around, and I get the job done.” She has been through three national financial crises and never had a hysterical client. Her strategies, though they are successful, are not risky or panicked. She trusts her intuition and her experience, and her clients trust her to take care of their business. “They say, ‘I know you’ll do the best that you can for me.’” Tomasi manages each client’s account herself, and her clients appreciate her personal touch. Through her long years of experience, she has created a business that See Women at Work, page 9 It’s Time. Equal Pay for Equal Work. This is the personal opinion of Heidi Maerker There is a limited word count of 20 words and fees will apply. Email to calendar@ heraldpublications.com. Deadline for submissions is Thursday at 9 a.m. Friday, October 10 • iVet Career and Networking Conference at Toyota USA Automobile Museum, 19600 Van Ness Ave., Torrance. For more information call 310-792-2339. Saturday, October 11 The Torrance Historical Society & Museum is hosting the Original Fall Tour of Historic Homes in Old Torrance (the original footprint of the City) Saturday and Sunday, October 11th - 12th, 2014, from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, both days. This biennial event is open to the general public. The Home Tour is generously sponsored by the Rotary Club of Del Amo (http://delamorotary. org/). If you have any questions or would like additional information, please call the Museum at 310.328.5392 or visit: www. TorranceHistoricalSociety.org Sunday, October 12 • The Depot’s 19th Annual Halloween Ball hosted by Chef Michael Shafer of The Depot and Buffalo Fire Department restaurants benefiting Pediatric Therapy Network will be held on Sunday, October 12, 2014 from 4 to 9:00 pm in front of the Depot Restaurant at 1250 Cabrillo Ave in Torrance under a ghostly white tent. This “spooktacular” evening sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. is attended by over 700 costumed guests and features Chef Shafer¹s dinner buffet, hosted martini bar, live music, a costume contest, both live and silent auctions and pure fun! All proceeds go to support Pediatric Therapy Network¹s programs and services for children with special needs and developmental concerns. Tickets are $125 per person or become a table host for $1500.For tickets, sponsorships or more information call 310-328-0276 ext. 202 or visit www.PediatricTherapyNetwork.org Wednesday, October 15 • 10/15 FREE WORKSHOP From 11:30am-1:30pm on how to Power Up Your Pinterest! Social Media Marketing + Pinterest Sells. Learn the latest best practices to leverage social media to grow your business or non-profit & how your strategy affects your success. At the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce - 3400 Torrance Blvd., Torrance CA 90503 Lunch & Learn Attendees must bring own lunch. For more information and to register, visit: http://bit.ly/torrancepin or call 310-791-6300. Friday, October 17 • Torrance Library Book Sale October 17 and 18. Used Book Sale - Hardbacks. Sponsored by the Friends of the Torrance Library. The sale is at Katy Geissert Civic Center Library, 3301 Torrance Blvd., Torrance The sale will be open to members on Friday, October 17, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with $5 Memberships sold at door starting at 1 p.m. and to the public on Saturday, October 18, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 310-781-7595. Proceeds support live homework help and other library programs. Saturday, October 18 • Murder, Mystery and Dessert! Put your sleuth hat on and join in the fun at First United Methodist Church of Torrance¹s presentation of “Suspect Hollywood” from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Will you solve the crime? Come and find out! Pie, coffee and beverages will be served. Childcare is available if reserved in advance. Admission is free; donations welcome. Bring your friends and family! The church is located at 1551 El Prado, Torrance. For more information please call 310-328-3242. Upcoming • Black Women’s Network Presents 35th Annual Breakfast Forum. Meet those who may relate to your career or business. There will be raffles, prizes, vendor booths. The breakfast will be held on Saturday, October 25, 2014, 9:00 a.m., Torrance Marriott Hotel, 3635 Fashion Way, Torrance, CA 90503. Call for reservations and ticket information at (323) 964-4003 or visit BWN at www. BlackWomensNetwork.net. Ongoing • Downtown Torrance Marketplace. Every Thursday, 3-8 p.m., on El Prado Street, from Sartori to the Buffalo Fire Department. • “Happy Hats for Kids In Hospitals” hosts workshops to decorate or sew hats for hospitalized children every Tuesday, 12:30- 2:30 p.m., 923 Van Ness Avenue. For more information call (310) 787-0970. • Visit us online: www.heraldpublications.com
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