Justin Espenson, Financial Consultant & Conference Qualifier, shares insights into his career and how attending a CAPS™ skills workshop is making a difference.

Q: What is your current situation? – The time you have been in the business, the kind of business you do and your productivity levels; that type of thing.

A: I’ve been with Thrivent just a little over seven years. I’ve been a conference qualifier the last three years. Production wise, I’m doing fairly well. I have a pretty decent mix of investment clients as well as insurance.

Q: What can you tell me about your family?

A: I’ve got three little boys (9, 6, 3), my wife and I have been married almost 11 years now. Two of our little boys play hockey and our family is very involved in hockey, we have a great time just being together; they are quiet the little crew.

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Q: What did you do before you joined Thrivent?

A: I worked at an asphalt maintenance company as a sales person and also had my own business. Ever since I graduated from High School and College I have been in the sales industry or somehow working with people to either sell something or estimate for them.

Q: What was it that attracted you to the business?

A: I had always wanted to be in the financial industry and then I had interviewed with Thrivent while I was still at my old employer and things just didn't line up, the timing wasn't right. I just see a lot of people making a lot of mistakes and getting poor advice, I felt like I could do something different and give people an honest take, instead of just what product I was trying to sell.

(A year had past between the first interview and actually making the change to Thrivent)

Q: If you had an ideal client, what would their profile be like?

A: I primarily work with a lot of farmers; the farming has been very good in our local community for the last five years. So, our clients are significantly high net worth, in many cases not a ton of investable access but doing a lot of estate planning, that type of thing and tying to help those clients manage risk.

On the other side, where my investment clients are coming from, we have a couple of factory type companies here in town, so there is a lot of 401K rollovers, that type of thing.

Q: You've been in the business for seven years and a conference qualifier the past last three years, what changed at that fourth year to get you up to that conference level?

A: Well, we were making steady progression every year, increasing productivity but at the same point, just getting confidence in myself in how I ask questions and how I portray myself to my clients. That’s how I have been able to turn the corner; you do a same amount of work to write a small app as a big one. It’s just getting in front of the right type of people so that when you are spending the time to write an app, it’s a little bit bigger.

Q: What surprised you as far as your expectations were concerned about what it takes to be a successful advisor?

A: In the beginning, I did not believe or put enough stock into having staff around me; you can spend all day doing nothing but you’re working hard. I have an associate rep. underneath me and in the past we weren’t working together and we didn't have office staff. Just having people to make sure that they are making the calls and getting me in front of people, as-well-as having an associate with me that can help me take care of some of the smaller details. For example, instead of going and visiting with somebody to change a beneficiary statement, I can go ahead and send someone else to take care of some of that and I can meet with people that are maybe going do some things.

Q: Tell me about when you were invited to go to the CAPS™ workshops, how did you feel about getting invited?

A: At first I had no idea what it was. I was relatively neutral, but once I got there and we started going though the curriculum, it makes a lot of sense. Number one what I knew I needed to do and two the things I need to get better at.

Q: Once the class got going, what was the impression of the course work itself?

A: We did a lot of role playing in our group and to me that was the best way to learn. It gave us a chance to see some of the ideas in action and see how they would work in front of a client. 

Q: After having a chance to go through the CAPS™ workshop, what was your experience once you started implementing the skills in live conversations with prospects and clients?

A: The main thing that I have done and I’m positive that I learned at this training was just to leave an open ended question at the end, “Is there anything else?” and try to tie some things together. To make sure the client or whoever is sitting across from me, understands that they are not the only person who feels this way. 

I remember one of the skills we were learning, was to bring things together with what “most people want” or “most people feel” instead of “that’s interesting”.

Q: When you came into the workshop, you said you came in with a pretty neutral and open mindset; did you have any concerns when the workshop was over?

I guess the concern would be, how do I make sure I do all of this? Even if all you do is tweak your presentation so that you get just a piece of something as appose to nothing at all, it makes a big difference.

I'm just making sure that I understand what my client is looking for because that's why I am asking these questions, it's not just to sell them something, it's to make sure I understand what their issues are and then find ways to supply a solution for that need.

Q: What do you consider the most important outcome that you had as a result of attending the workshop?

A: I would have to say its making sure I ask questions to truly understand what my client's issue are instead of when then come in the door having a preconceived notion of what they are going to have a problem with. 

Q: Taking that mind set into the conversation with people, what difference is it making in those particular conversations?

A: It seems that barriers come down, when you actually take the time to engage them in a conversation and find out exactly where they’re at and what their concern is. A lot of time the objections come from not really understanding what they are looking for and then once somebody feels like they are being sold, the process becomes difficult, nobody wants to be sold but everyone wants to be heard, once they feel like they are being heard it’s an easy process.

Q: Overall, what’s your opinion of CAPS™ and what would you say to somebody if they asked you about the CAPS™ workshop and the follow up coaching we provide?

A: I would tell them, “It’s definitely worth it!” Like I said, I didn't have any real preconceived notions going in, but I think it’s very useful in the ways you took us through the 6 or 7 different areas. If nothing else, just knowing those areas exist and understanding the natural progression of the process.

Like I said, you’re not going to hit every one of them and you aren't going to get every one of them right, but just knowing how the cycle works, it was a real eye opener for me and making sure that I asked better questions.

If I’m thinking back right, we were using closing skills early on in the process, which makes sense, because you don’t close when you are closing, you are closing when you are listening, is what it amounted to. I already knew that but it reinforced some of the things I already knew and made me more aware of what I was doing while I was talking with somebody. I would definitely encourage anybody to take the course; I felt that it was a real eye opener.

Q: Do you have any feedback for how we could improve the CAPS™ course or follow up coaching?:

A: It would be good to have a refresher, now. (two years since partaking in CAPS™)

• • Time evolved for refresher? – an afternoon (3/4 hour session)
  • Any components that would be beneficial for a refresher? – Role play would be key
  • Amount of agents in a refresher course? – Keep refresher @ 10 people

Q: What are your goals/aspirations for this year?

A: I would like to reach the next level of conference; so level four conference. I want to continue down the same path and keep growing my practice.

Q: Any future plans of taking on a Partner role?

A: I think for right now, I enjoy this part of the business a lot and I don’t know in the near future if that would be right for me, but someday it would probably be a possibility.

Q: If somebody was considering a career as a Financial Representative with Thrivent Financial, what would you say to them?

A: It is going to be very difficult three years, but you stay at it; you keep plugging and take advantage of every opportunity that Thrivent gives us for training and it will be worth it. We work for a pretty neat organization that we can share with our clients our beliefs and what’s important to us and not a lot of companies can do that. That’s where I feel we are really different.

Q: When you think about the career, sharing your beliefs and being able to help people with their finance's… at the end of the day what does it mean to you, to be able to do that?

A: It just means to me that I can help people with a lot of things that they don’t understand and a lot of things that are intimidating to them. I can make it a little simpler for them and also being able to share my beliefs and Thrivent’s beliefs (not that should ever be used as a selling point) but it helps people to relax and be able to trust us, as an organization.