There are numerous WFG women like Kathryn Wang who have challenged the idea of a glass ceiling and built very successful businesses within this unique insurance and financial services company. And Kathryn Wang, like several other women in the company, has also made it a family business. She and her husband, Daning Wu, have focused on each other’s strengths to build a business together. They couldn’t have done it so successfully if Kathryn wasn’t such a strong businesswoman herself.

When Kathryn Wang and Daning Wu met more than two decades ago in China, they didn’t seem like a likely couple. He was an academic, studying geology in graduate school. She was a former athlete studying French at Beijing University after training in martial arts for nine years. Kathryn has risen through the ranks at World Financial Group, and is now a Senior Vice Chairman. With many WFG women in such high positions within the organization, she is in good company. She credits all her success to her and her husband’s ability to work together, and the skills he brings in terms of compliance, licensing, infrastructure, paperwork and training new associates. Kathryn, on the other hand, excels at marketing, recruiting, meeting with clients, building the business, and leading the team.

It wasn’t always so easy, though. Kathryn recalls having little time to spend alone with her husband, let alone time for herself, during the early days of their business. Presentations, appointments and meetings took up all their time. But once they grew their business and had a team they could rely on, things balanced out. She was driven to succeed by a strong desire to be a business owner, but at first she had no experience, money or connections. After working in public schools for many years, she sold computers for two years, which wasn’t the job of her dreams but did teach her a lot about sales and marketing. And it was at that job that she learned about World Financial Group from a co-worker, which was perfect timing, since her husband was about to be laid off.

Now, like many other WFG women, Kathryn is able to balance being a wife, mother and business owner, thanks to the flexibility that her career has offered her. Things may have been tough in the beginning, but after many years of hard work and dedication, she has built up a successful family business.