We often hear our clients describe SWC as a team as well as a part of their family, and to tell the truth, that’s how our staff feels about the arrangement. Our clients are made up of entrepreneurs and small business owners, real estate investors, and high-net-worth individuals who place a lot of trust in the SWC team/family.

In order to build on that atmosphere, we’re introducing a new series of posts on our blog that spotlights one of our staff members. We’re calling the series “Meet the Team,” and each post appearing under that heading will delve into the qualifications, experience, and perhaps a few personal details about our professional family members.

And we thought the perfect place to start off would be to introduce Adela Galeano, who has been our client relations manager and marketing assistant since 2019.

Adela Galeano

Adela is highly skilled at managing client relationships and overseeing a number of marketing and administrative functions that keep SWC top of mind. Among these are creating contract-winning proposals for current and prospective clients and working with in-house team members to onboard new clients. On the marketing side of that equation, Adela coordinates our marketing calendars, editorial calendars, and content assignments, as well as updates our client relationship management system that allows us to keep everything well organized and highly responsive.

Adela was instrumental in holding down our San Diego offices during the nearly two-year health pandemic, serving as our office manager when we went remote. She helped our clients by answering the phones and providing a majority of the admin support. Following the pandemic, at a time when many businesses were struggling, Adela took over a multitude of important tasks, enabling our CPAs to concentrate more on our clients.

We sat Adela down for a Q&A session in order to dig deeper into her professional background as well as some pertinent personal queries, and here’s what we discovered:

SWC: What do you want people to know about our tax planning and financial strategy firm?

Adela: I’m impressed at how much our co-founders, Laura and Marni, care about our clients. They give ourclients their entire focus for every email and on every call. They both want to focus on you and you alone, which is why scheduling time on their calendar is so important

SWC: Where were you born and raised, and what did you want to do when you grew up?

Adela: I was born in San Diego, and when I graduated from high school, all I wanted to do was work in the music industry. So, I took every music business and recording art class offered at MiraCosta Community College and discovered that my favorite course in that program was a marketing class where we were instructed to build a marketing plan for a dummy company. That project, plus my experience in merchandising, led me to pursue a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Tiffin University (Ohio).

SWC: What positions did you hold prior to joining SWC?

Adela: I was a retail media merchandiser and retail team lead for nine store locations in San Diego County.

SMC: What are some of your hobbies or activities that you enjoy participating in?

Adela: I’m a bit of a nerd, so watching all of the Marvel/DC/Star Wars movies on opening day is my thing. I recently took up gardening, but it seems a gopher keeps eating the literal fruits of my labor before I can harvest anything. I’m a fan of dinosaurs, in case you couldn’t tell from the multiple figurines on my desk or my dinosaur tattoos.

SWC: Who is someone you admire, and why do you admire that person?

Adela: I’d have to say I’d admire Robin Williams — not for how he died and not for the drugs or addictions but for the mark he left on the world. Robin Williams didn’t let his mental health issues define him. He didn’t let himself suck others into his dark place. Instead, he made the world laugh.

SWC: What’s your favorite restaurant in town? And what dish do you continue to order, even though there’s a whole menu of suggestions?

Adele: The Green Frog at the Corvette Diner in San Diego’s Liberty Station. It’s a root beer float but with lemon-lime soda and it’s amazing. The Rory Burger is also a favorite of mine – it features peanut butter and bacon. Need I say more?

SWC: What is your favorite quote?

Adela: I have two favorites. Anything from Bill Watterson or Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka, Dr. Suess) are classics.

  • “Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria.” ~ Bill Watterson
  • “Today, you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive that is youer than you!” ~ Dr. Suess

SWC: What’s something most people would be surprised to know about you?

Adela: Most people are shocked when I tell them I’m shy. People assume I’m outgoing because I’m personable and usually in a good mood, but talking to new people can sometimes be a challenge. When I first got this job, I dreaded calling people on the phone or picking up because I’m terrible at small talk. In retail, I found that, for the most part, you help a customer, and the conversation is over. However, here at SWC, I need to talk to them to figure out the issue, help them if I can, or transfer them if I can’t. But eventually, I got better at hiding or ignoring my anxiety.