Q: Could you share with the audience a little bit of your background before you became a financial representative?
A: I went to Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where I earned my degrees in Finance and Economics. I did a few different internships before I came to Thrivent. One was a third party money manager where we were trading twice a day and also did a short stint at Merrill Lynch.
Q: Can you bring everybody up to speed on your family?
A: My wife Lindsey and I and son Gracen currently reside in Everett, Washington and we have been living here for the past four years. We are actually looking to move a little further south to Mill Creek where our office is actually going to be moving. So, we are experiencing some good changes all at once, both business and personally.
Q: You mentioned your education and internships before you joined Thrivent, was Thrivent your first full time employment after you completed college?
A: Yes, it was. I knew I wanted to help people in finance and I wanted to use my educational background of finance and economics. The reason I personally chose Thrivent was I really enjoyed the company, the mission and helping people be wise with money and helping them live generously.
Q: Was there any other companies that you would have even considered or was there anything else that attracted you to the business in general and specifically to Thrivent?
A: From the business side, I had a lot of different jobs going through college and I did not enjoy the idea of having to get up every morning at seven AM and having to be somewhere right at nine AM and having to stay there until five o’clock in the afternoon. I really enjoy the opportunity to essentially be my own boss, set my own schedule, spend time with family or friends whenever I wanted to, whether on a Tuesday afternoon or Thursday morning and this career really allowed me to do that.
In regards to what attracted me to Thrivent, I had some experience with Thrivent just having a couple family members working at Thrivent and I was able to experience a little bit of the culture. I was looking at a couple of other companies while I was interning with the money manager where we had a lot of interactions with other financial advisors, majority all independent from all over the northwest, Oregon, Washington , Idaho, even Chicago and California. I even had a couple offers to come over and work with them, but I really wanted to stay close to home and be around where I grew up. You can’t beat Washington summer anywhere in the world.
Q: After you got on board, you are pursing your dream, what you really wanted to do, what surprised you as far as your expectation were concerned about what it takes to be successful?
A: I would say for me the dedication that it takes, when you think about essential being your own business owner, if you’re not working you’re not making money. Even if you just show up to work, it doesn’t mean you are getting a pay check. The work that it took in the first two years was definitely a sacrifice for me. I knew I was going to have to work more than 40 hours a week but when you are putting in 60 or 70 hours a week especially those first 12 months it can be a real struggle. Dealing with the up’s and down’s and the emotional swings was a bit of a surprise.
Q: How many years do you have in total?
A: In total, I am up to six years with Thrivent.
Q: Tell me about your practice, what does it look like currently, what kind of relationship do you have with your clients, what kind of cliental are you trying to build or do you have an ideal client you are drawn to?
A: My focal point or target market is, the pre-retiree and retired market, ages 50-70 and helping people figure out how to make the switch from working and earning a pay check to not earning a pay check. While recreating that income to do all the things they wanted to do, but were putting off till retirement.
For me on a personal note, I have noticed a real struggle for younger people, in their later twenties, early thirties who are getting into that first, maybe second career already but don’t have a handle on the basics of their own financial plan, understanding the benefits, making sure they have disability insurance, life insurance and taking full advantage of employee benefits. I think a lot of folks don’t understand or can’t understand that benefits can add up to 20/30% of their income. They don’t see it on their W-2 or in the direct deposit going into their back account every two weeks because it’s not something tangible that they can spend. So, I guess a long term strategy for me is to pick up those younger clients that are in the professional type careers.
Q: How do you feel about your productivity levels now, as far as where you would like to be, the business you are doing, income, club level?
A: My business as far as this year has really increased. I am actually looking at increasing my business over the course of the last year by about 75%!
Q: How did you feel about getting invited to the CAPS™ workshop?
A: I spoke to fellow advisors here at Thrivent who had gone through it and learning that this program does help the business, it really helps out in meetings with clients, learning those intangible skills like tempo and flow between an advisor and client and overall focusing on listening. I realized that this makes perfect sense and that I need to work on it, everybody needs to work on it. After talking, I was really excited to come to the CAPS™ training.
Q: Once it got going, what was the impression of the course work itself while you were in the workshop?
A: Once I was in the workshop, the course work itself seemed really easy but once you started getting into it, it’s really difficult… but in a good way because you are trying to re-train your brain. You might be doing things a little differently and maybe it is working for you but you could also see the value of CAPS™ that if I do this differently, the client is going to act this way and here is what I need to do next.
Q: What, if any concerns did you have at the conclusion of the workshop?
A: With any kind of training like this, it’s what can I take back and implement consistently. I know I have struggled with this in the past, I hear a bunch of great ideas, learn a bunch of new things then I get back to my office, put the course work on a self and stuff it away. My concern was implementing it, revisiting it and keeping it fresh. Reminding myself to go into each appointment and focus on a specific skill or get better at this and really keeping the tools sharp in the shed, so to speak.
Q: What was your experience when you made the effort to go out and do that? What did you discover when you got in front of real life clients?
A: At first like any new thing, you’re going to stumble but you have to keep with it. I would say after the first fifty appointments, maybe even 100 appointments, after I completed the training and was actively implementing the skills to go back after every meeting and evaluate my performance. Seeing where I could do better. What I noticed at the end of that fifty appointment range was my skills getting better and my responses, not quicker but prompt. I noticed the skills becoming second nature and my clients really appreciated the responses that I gave back. Using the right verbage and changing some of the verbage I was using before I could tell clients responded much more positively.
Q: What do you consider the most important outcomes or results that you experienced as a result of attending the workshop?
A: The most important result that I noticed, clients won’t always tell you the truth, or they think they are telling you the truth but you are not quite hearing it correctly. CAPS™ is a good way to dig deeper and peal back the layers of the onion to get to that core and identifying what is really important to the client or what they care about and are trying to accomplish. At the end of the day, that is what we are called to do, to help people plan for their goals and also achieve those goals.
Dave: I would say that without that conversation with you, they might never figure that out, wouldn’t you agree?
A: I would 100% agree, it’s interesting when you start to peel back those layers and dig deeper, especially with a couple for example, I have had some really interesting conversations that start out between the client and myself then eventually spur an entire new conversation where one spouse might turn to the other and say, “Well, I never knew you wanted to do that!” and they start having a conversation. I just sit back and listening and in the end they quite possibly may have never had that conversation.
Q: Overall, what is your opinion of CAPS and what would you say to somebody if they asked you about the workshop and the follow up that we provide?
A: My experience with CAPS™ is that it is a great program to go through; I think it definitely adds value to your practice. It doesn’t matter if you have been in the industry for six months or 16 years. There is something to learn for everyone.
As far as the program goes, my advice to someone would be, it’s like any kind of training or workshop you go to. You can go through it and learn all these great things but if you don’t go back to your office or practice and really intentionally implement those skills, whether it is one piece at a time or all at once the training is not going to help you. I think the follow-up is helpful with a lot of the opportunities to do some of the online videos and audio to go back and refresh.
Q: When you think about your career, sharing your beliefs and the help you are providing people with their financial lives, at the end of the day, what does it mean to you to be able to do that?
A: I guess you could kind of sum it up like this, it gives me the best feeling when we are working with someone who is getting close to retirement and they come to us scared, with this look of a complete deer caught in the headlights. Then after going through the process and they realize, they can retire when they didn’t think they could. We can feel that stress just melt away as they feel secure knowing they are going to be able to retire and do the things that they want to do. That gives me great pleasure.
Q: One last question for you, if someone was considering a career as a financial representative with Thrivent Financial what advice would you give them?
A: I would say… if you really want to help people, Thrivent is the place to do it because we come at it with a bit of a different perspective. Helping people be wise with money, make wise financial decisions and help them identify where they want to be generous. If you want to help people be at a place where they could be generous and really support that, Thrivent is a company that will and always has offered support and supporting the things that they want to do, not just helping them plan for their financial future.
