This week’s 10 Things is from a special member of our team, Melanie Davis. Melanie is the head copywriter for BatesMeron Sweet Design. She’s been instrumental in giving our brand a voice, and she’s a great teacher and sounding board for our creative department.
10 Things I Know to Be True:
1) The secret to being creative is being curious. There’s something interesting about everything, even if you need to pore through a 75-page technical manual to find it.
2) Don’t take yourself too seriously. You’ll miss out on all of life’s great opportunities to laugh until you cry, have silly adventures or dance like you’ve lost control of your limbs.
3) You’re never as busy as you think. Make time for your family (and the friends who are so close they’re like family).
4) To write well, write like yourself. It’s 100 times more compelling to read a piece written in the author’s authentic voice than a piece where the author is trying to sound professional or intellectual or cool. When I get writer’s block, I sometimes pretend like I’m being interviewed for a magazine article. This may also be a sign that I’m super narcissistic, who knows?
5) Running is a cheaper form of therapy.
6) Having a variety of experiences makes you more interesting and makes you better at your job. Put down the laptop and read a book. Try a new hobby. Travel.
7) Embrace your inner nerdiness, but not to the point where you bring War and Peace on vacation because your friends will never stop making fun of you for it.
8) Volunteering is the most selfish unselfish thing you can do. Share your time and talents, and you’ll be rewarded with fulfillment and warm fuzzies.
9) Market in the way you’d want to be marketed to. Educate, entertain, assist—don’t annoy.
10) Sleep is the best. Life is too short to go through it feeling like death warmed over.
10 Things We Know to Be True is a series of posts sharing the accumulated wisdom of our partners, peers and colleagues, as well as members of the Investment Answers team.
Growth within Investment Answers has always been a very organic, natural evolution. We realized expanding our headquarters was inevitable, and we had patiently saved and searched for quite a few years, looking for the right location, time and supporting team before we moved into our new office in Bailey Office Park at 4205 Springhurst Blvd.
Change is never easy, so having a strong supporting team is important during times of change. When we serve our clients, we strive to provide Quality in Service, Goods and Staff, and that’s how we measure success in our team. We don’t expect perfection from our internal and external teams—we expect integrity, dependable quality and service in times of need.
One of our partners who strongly lives out our core values is Louisville Geek. They were certainly the first vendor that we contacted when we foresaw our expansion and upcoming move.
We knew Bobby Bailey, one of the Louisville Geek’s founders, from college. We started our professional relationship with Louisville Geek several year ago, when it came time to upgrade our Information Technology (IT) department. We called Bobby because Louisville Geek is a locally-owned IT company and we knew they would have the resources available to support us as we continued to thrive and grow.
Bob and Katie Bailey
Bobby referred us to another of the company’s founders, Erik Eckel, to serve as our lead Project Manager. Erik is a great guy who knows everyone, and he’s a fantastic storyteller, usually including some type of a flight metaphor.
Erik Eckel, MCSE, our Project Manager
It would be difficult to propose a situation to Erik in the IT field that he hasn’t encountered before. He’s an insightful member of our team, and we’re blessed to be able to rely on his expertise. Erik developed the IT systems for our original office and our new headquarters. His professional writings were also the foundation for our IT Best Practices policies while we were building our own Team Training Manuals.
Jack Wallen
One of the things that we really appreciate about Louisville Geek was that they prioritized being available if and when we have any technology challenges—or if we had goals for growth in our Technology and Security departments. Jack Wallen is the tech that usually remotes into our computer during such challenges.
I remember a few years back we were on the road and found ourselves with a new PowerPoint presentation and a broken USB port. Jack was able to remote into our computers and find a timely solution before a large presentation. When the presentation went off without a hitch, we certainly were grateful we had chosen Louisville Geek as our IT support.
Of course, Jack isn’t the only tech that has worked with us. There have been many long days over the years, with one of their techs lobbying on the phone for hours with phone and cable vendors. We’ve had the two Joes of Louisville Geek, Joe Conrad and Joe Sloan, each smooshed in our old, tiny filing/tech room, getting us back up and running after horrible storms had knocked out the power.
Christopher Niçaise
Chris Niçaise, our System Administrator, was also hazed into Investment Answers after a bad storm a few years back, when he rescued us from Internet purgatory while wedged between two filing cabinets. When you think about the ice storms and tornadoes our region has suffered in the past five years, you can see why having a top-notch IT department is so important.
In fact, one of the major pieces of advice I give as an Operations leader in our industry is to have a great IT department—and to treat them well. Your IT team is an enormous front-line defense for your company. They’re also a force that moves your company forward. It has always been very easy for me, as Chief Operations Officer, to introduce new tech systems because Louisville Geek prioritizes finding solutions and teaching the proper usage of equipment. For example, they’ve helped us build a virtual, mobile office so we’re always accessible to our clients, even if we’re on the road.
Our technology needs have grown over the years, from a relatively straightforward network to a much more sophisticated system. Louisville Geek has been with us every step of the way, from minor fixes to major projects like our new phone system install.
As we moved into the new office, I was surprised to find that Louisville Geek would be a huge part of the install for our cabling, pre-drywall. It never occurred to me how intricately phones are tied into technology systems now.
Jeff Emonz
Another Louisville Geek founder, Jeff Emonz, is our lead Systems Engineer. Jeff was an integral part of our phone planning process and pre-drywall installation. Jeff and Erik helped me find another fantastic, locally-owned vendor, Unified Technologies, to get us high-quality, dependable phone equipment with ongoing, high-quality service. (Read our Unified Technologies blog post here to hear more about how Jeff and Erik used networking and referrals to help us find a phone system solution.)
Derek Warfield
Derek Warfield, our Infrastructure Engineer, installed all of the cabling for internet and phones for the entire 2,200-sq-ft office.
Selecting a phone system and planning the installation was a huge project which is part of the foundation for all of our future satellite offices. I think anyone who is familiar with how I run Operations knows that I tend to be overly analytical, tedious in my research, thorough in my questions and analyses and trusting when my team moves forward.
That’s why having a strong team is so important to me as a team leader. Once I make a final decision for our infrastructure, I find that I don’t have to second guess my team because I am absolutely confident in the plan we have chosen and in the quality of its implementation. I think that in the planning stages, it’s also important to have realistic expectations for the end result and the longevity of the technology—and to be flexible enough to learn the technology and allow it to work for you.
Throughout our growth and expansion over the years, we have used Louisville Geek as an asset for our company. We appreciate the advances they have made for us and the opportunities they will bring us in the future through new technologies and their quality of support. We feel extremely confident that we have a strong infrastructure and supporting team which we can rely on as we continue to grow.
We highly recommend them for your company. You’re building a long-term relationship with your IT department, so choose wisely and treat them well.
Matt Rettick is our featured 10 Things columnist this month! Matt is well-known in the financial services industry as a forward-thinking businessperson, having worked in the insurance and financial advising industry for over 20 years. You may know him as the founder and host of Check and Balances TV on YouTube or through his work on Checks and Balances Financial Radio. Matt is an inspirational mentor and friend. We value him because he is an advocate for the consumer and for independent financial advisors.
10 Things I Know To Be True:
1) Your wealth is in your time, not your money.
2) On my tombstone I want it to read: “He looked for the best in others and gave the best he had!”
3) Reality is not what you wish it to be, reality is what it really is.
4) We all know that life is not fair. What makes it fair is that it is not fair to everyone.
5) The fastest way to double your money – is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
6) Delayed gratification is never fun, until you arrive in the future.
7) We all hate to pay for any kind of insurance, until we need it.
8) Owe no man anything but to love him (Romans 13:8). This is the surest way to have peace of mind.
9) The time spent with your child is not a distraction from the main event; the time spent with your child is the main event.
10) You have two choices in life… you can carry the pain of discipline which weighs ounces or the pain of regret which weighs tons.
10 Things We Know to Be True is a series of posts sharing the accumulated wisdom of our partners, peers and colleagues, as well as members of the Investment Answers team.
In hindsight, one of the funniest success stories from our expansion into Investment Answers’ new home office is the story about our phone system. The phone system that kept me up at night. I had countless nightmares about Voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems!
Actually, this isn’t a complaint about VoIP. It’s a story about the power of local businesses using great communication: a story of teams working together for the benefit of our Investment Answers clients.
Two of our teams—Louisville Geek, our information technology (IT) team, and Unified Technologies, our telecommunications team—worked to end my phone system nightmares, by networking each other’s available skill sets and services. Teams that work together can accomplish great things. And frankly, we needed both of their help. If they hadn’t networked and referred each other, we would still be stuck in phone purgatory.
In December 2012, Investment Answers was set to move into our new headquarters at 4205 Springhurst Blvd. in Bailey Park. It was a completely empty space, so when we started the expansion process in early 2012, we started from scratch (except for the exterior walls and concrete base flooring).The process of creating a space for our team had been relatively smooth, by construction standards. However, one challenge had begun early in our planning, and lingered through most of the process, festering until the very last weeks: the phone system.
New construction meant that before the drywall went up, we had to decide what communication technologies we would be embracing in our new space so that the office could be properly wired and so the correct equipment could be pre-ordered from all vendors.
Over the year, the more I learned about phone technology from our networks and from my research, the more challenging these choices became. One would think that if you want this classic style of communication to be high in quality, easy to use, reliable and affordable that you should have classic phone wiring installed, pre-drywall, buy some good quality, basic telephones and “voilà!” You’re done.
It is so not like that.
The more I looked and listened, the more stories I found about horrible call quality, poor customer service support and conflicts between different utilities and vendors. None of which are OK with me.
Poor call quality is unacceptable when we’re on the phone with our clients. Our time with them is too valuable.
Frankly, there are few things I want less than one of my IT guys- highly qualified to resolve important issues- stuck on hold with a major phone vendor for hours, getting the run around and then getting hung up on, multiple times.
And it’s just not good business to have poor communication between my vendors whose actions affect each other. The utility industry, as a whole, wants to you think it has to be that way, and it’s up to your project manager to find a bridge to those gaps of IT and telecommunications.
I’m happy to report that our teams were able to install a phone system that works well and didn’t distract my Investment Answers team from our core mission: serving our clients.
Meet the people who made it possible: our partners at Louisville Geek and Unified Technologies.
This is Jeff Emonz, our Systems Engineer, and one of Louisville Geek’s founding partners. Jeff had to answer round after round of questions and concerns that I had about VoIP. (Look for a future blog post on Louisville Geek to learn more about how that partnership worked.) He was incredibly patient, even when he didn’t want to be.
Jeff and Erik Eckel, another founding partner of Louisville Geek, knew they needed to find someone on the phone services side of things to help alleviate my ever-present concerns about VoIP. The Geeks know me pretty well, and so they knew they had to introduce us to someone who was well-versed in the industry and whose success was tied to our success.
Erik Eckel, MCSE, founding partner of Louisville Geek and our IT Project Manager since 2009.
Erik was the one who put the pieces together since he knew I was struggling with committing to VoIP. Erik said, “I’ve got this guy, Mike, I want to introduce you to. He’ll take good care of you. Don’t worry.” Whenever Erik says something like that, I listen. Erik knows everyone, and he can articulate complex technology systems in a way that you can understand.
Having Louisville Geek introduce us to Unified Technologies was fantastic. Louisville is a small big city, and turns out we have known Mike Avery, one of their business development guys, since the late 90s when we were all in college.
Meet Melissa Johnston, our Project Manager and Mike Avery, Business Development, from Unified Technologies, two members of our telecommunications team.
I am a customer for many of the companies that Unified Technologies services, and I am familiar with the quality of their calls. I was impressed right away since I had experience with UT already without realizing it.
What a riot it was meeting with Mike for the first time to discuss the phone system options! Before I had even asked about whether they offered analog and VoIP phones, I went into a 20-minute rant about my VoIP paranoia. I still chuckle about his response. “VoIP is a great product, for the right company.”
Unified Technologies actually does offer an analog option for those looking for the classic phone system. But Mike and Erik both asked me, “If you’re willing to embrace technology for the benefits it can provide in all other areas of your business, why not embrace the new technologies for your phone system?” And they were right. It was time to trust that these two companies would work together to take good care of us. I became more willing to embrace the advantages that VoIP had to offer our clients and I abandoned my hope for a classic phone system.
At that first meeting, I also learned quite a bit about Unified Technologies, which helped me feel confident that our success and their success were dependent on each other. I could rely on that interdependent nature of our companies for the success of our phone system.
Unified Technologies is an employee-owned company. They were founded in June 2009 by 27 employee-owners. Everyone bought in at the level they could afford…some used second mortgages, some IRAs, some borrowed from family. All of the original founders had worked together previously, some only for a few years, some for 20 to 30 years. When they started, they calculated that they had 400 years of combined industry experience!
Meet Helen Clasby, our Service Coordinator -and- Melissa’s mom. She’s been in the telecommunications industry for 36 years. She’s the reason that Melissa is such a powerful force as a Project Manager—Melissa was raised in this industry. Those two know this industry inside and out.
Since 2009, Unified Technologies continued to grow based on their founding ideals. Mike told me, “We have always focused on hiring good people who have a passion for customer service. We know that we can teach them the technical side of our business, but we can’t teach passion.” Isn’t that an awesome way to approach business, and life in general?
Unified Technologies’ team is an ideal example of who Investment Answers strives to have supporting us as we serve our clients. Our goal for our firm is for the experience to be enjoyable—welcoming. We strive for our technology to be so intuitive and useful that it disappears into the background—our clients shouldn’t even notice it’s there. I feel confident that with Unified Technologies on our team, our phone systems can do just that—be reliable, helpful and invisible.
Our turnaround time from the day that Mike and I first met to discuss my concerns to final install was very quick. They even squeezed us in during the year-end holiday season because the only landline phones we had since our move into the office were “the best” that Office Depot had to offer, and we couldn’t even successfully order pizza on them, the sound quality was so terrible. We needed the phones installed as soon as it was feasible, so that we could share with our client’s our new contact information, and welcome in the new year.
Meet Richard Millea, our System Engineer, at UT’s home office.
There were some very minor install challenges. True to their word, Louisville Geek and Unified Technologies worked together extremely well. They were able to resolve our initial install issues quickly and symbiotically, and I didn’t have any additional service bills because UT was able to resolve the minor issues under our service contract.
Through the power of local business and solid business referrals, I can come to you today and say that we LOVE our phone systems and our team has a lot of confidence in them! No more nightmares.
Where to find Unified Technologies:
9822 Bluegrass Parkway Louisville, KY, 40299 502.459.9141 Read this link for more client reviews of UT: http://unified-team.com/blog/
Ever wonder why Annuities have stood the test of time? Learn how Captain Annuity can help you achieve you retirement goals as he bypasses the probate process, overcomes a deluge of tax forms and helps to establish a steady income stream.
Ever wonder how ETFs are different than mutual funds? Watch Super ETF face off against Mutual Fund Man and learn how these two investment tools can combine forces to build a powerful portfolio.
One of the most important parts of being an entrepreneur is taking time to build your business. As our coaches say, “Take the time to work on your business and not always in your business.”
We place a high value on our Client Experience so we expect the best performance of ourselves on behalf of them. That requires us as a business and as business owners to constantly strive to improve. So with Amy at the helm back at the office, Travis, our CEO, and Kelly, our COO, flew to Denver to attend a business building forum sponsored by one of our affiliates.
Dave Needham, a great friend of ours from college, picked us up at the airport. He is a Leadership Consultant and a former wilderness survival instructor.
Dave wanted us to stretch our legs right after we landed, so after lunch, we went for a hike at the Red Rocks Ampitheatre.
The ampitheatre steps are a workout and we knew that we’d be out of breath pretty quickly. Dave was very gracious, though an avid climber himself. We were surrounded by people running the steps, some doing calisthenics up the bleachers. Many appeared to be preparing for triathlons.
Dave even climbed up a tree to pick fresh-grown wild apples. 🙂
We climbed up a few thousand feet up where we rested, enjoyed the scenery and listened to some incredible stories of wilderness trails and fast-approaching storms.
Being enveloped inside of the massive boulders, resting in the fresh air, and reconnecting as friends, was a wonderful experience. Food for the soul.
As we headed back, surrounded by beautiful scenery, we looked forward to a great evening, including the honor of meeting Dave’s lovely wife, two incredible kids and their yellow lab.
We stayed for the next few days for our business conference at a beautiful resort in Denver, Colorado called the Omni Interlocken Resort.
Once we got to the resort, it was all business for the next few days. We reconnected with our “brothers/sisters in business” and enjoyed some fantastic meals.
The portions there were enormous. This is only half of a blue cheese crumble wedge salad! It was so good that we ordered it two days in a row.
The flatbread with mushrooms, artichokes, goat cheese and arugula was a huge hit. At one lunch meeting, we had two orders circulating the table, everyone talking with their mouths full.
Our colleagues are an incredible resource of support, knowledge and camaraderie. It was fantastic breaking bread with them.
In addition to our Investment Answers team attending the conference, Becka Bates, the principal of our marketing agency, flew out to spend some time working with us on business development.
Business building and problem solving are not always fun or easy. That’s why our goal is to remain proactive and well-organized. Our early prep work comes in handy when there are bumps in the road.
Having Becka with us on this trip was an incredible opportunity to take feedback that we get from our clients and turn it into realities in our 2013 planning. Her team supports us as we ensure our vendors meet the level of service we expect of them.
Our vendors come through for us because we try to surround ourselves with the highest caliber of teams. Then we take the extra step to nurture those relationships. We want our vendors to understand what our goals are. There’s no better way to ensure success than to work with amazing teams.
The Omni Interlocken Resort is beautiful and filled with very healthy-minded, active people. We overheard that Denver is the 5th happiest city in the US.
Travis was certainly happy at how much work was getting done on the golf course!
It was a wonderful experience reconnecting with others in our field that we love and trust—discussing our challenges, goals and the many opportunities that are available.
Investment Answers was truly blessed with a great opportunity to take over the Finish Line Suites at Churchill Downs Racetrack on May 18th. We were able to invite a small group of veterans and their spouses from our Investment Answers family to celebrate Armed Forces Day. What an unforgettable day at this American landmark!
It couldn’t have been a nicer Spring Day, with a nicely flowing southern breeze to bring it all together. It was a day of food and fellowship. Our view was incredible.
We have many veterans and loved ones of veterans in our Investment Answers family. The veterans at this event were only a small fraction of our clients who have sacrificed so much for the independence and freedom of our beloved country. We feel so privileged to have so many heroes among our clients, and it was truly a pleasure to spend the day with some of them.
Churchill Downs’ Armed Forces Day was one day before the Preakness, the second race in the ever-elusive Triple Crown. May is really the perfect time to be at the races in Louisville because the season is fully underway and the track is vibrant with possibility and hope.
Our race day was about two weeks after the famed Kentucky Derby, so the spirits were certainly high. Incidentally, I’ll Have Another was victor at both big races, the Derby and the Preakness. This year proves to be an exciting one for our region of racing. Even at a non-Triple Crown race, there’s so much excitement in the air. We had a great time cheering on the horses with our wonderful clients.
Just having the time to sit and talk with our clients was wonderful.
In addition, we celebrated our Founder and CEO, Travis Terlau, who recently passed the Certified Financial Planners (CFP™) test and is in the final phase of receiving his accreditation.
The Investment Answers team members stayed after the races for an outdoor concert at the Downs. The artist was Citizen Cope. Our team loves to spend time with each other, which is part of the reason our office is so cohesive. Hard work certainly is a lifestyle, and one we heartily prescribe to. However, this day of fellowship, racing and good music was good for the soul.
Thank you to all our clients who were able to make this day such a memorable one. We look forward to many outings to come!
In January 2012, Travis Terlau, CEO of Investment Answers, spoke with Checks & Balances TV about how we reach out to our clients and to those in our communities. How does Investment Answers keep in-touch? We thought we’d share this video to give you a better idea of what it’s like to start working with us. The process of finding and selecting a new Investment Advisor can be a little nerve-wracking, so it’s often nice to know ahead of time, what to expect.
1. Make new friends.
We meet most of our new clients through introductions from our existing clients. This is our favorite way to get introduced to new people because there’s a level of trust right from the very beginning. We also meet new clients through our public educational workshops and other community events. We don’t want to “sell” people on working with us- our goal is to be in-service to those who can truly benefit from our knowledge- for those who are excited about working to secure their financial future.
2. No-pressure meetings.
Your initial meeting with us is for fellowship and information gathering. We want you to be comfortable enough to openly talk about your long-term goals and your plans for retirement. To help you be at ease during our first few meetings, we’ll meet wherever you feel best, whether that’s in our office or in your home. We’re here to really listen to your thoughts and provide answers to your questions.
3. Staying in touch.
One of the worst feelings is signing on the dotted line and then…crickets. We know what it feels like to have a disengaged financial advisor. We want our clients to know that they are our priority, so we reach out to our clients on a regular basis. With Investment Answers as part of your team, you can count on hearing from us. We may be simply sending a quick note, inviting you to an exciting event, or perhaps we’re just checking in because you’ve been in our thoughts- we want you to know we’re there for you when you need us.
Have questions about what else you can expect as a new member of the Investment Answers family? Write us a quick note, and we’ll give you all the information you need.
