To say I’m passionate about being a financial advisor is probably an understatement. I am truly thankful to have found a career that so perfectly fits my personality and drive, and I feel it’s both nature and nurture that can be credited for making it the perfect match for me.

I come from a long line of hardworking Tennessee farmers and blue-collar workers, with my parents actually being the first in their families to ever attend and graduate college. My parents raised my two siblings and me in rural communities where my father coached high school football and my mother taught English, and with their modest income as educators, budgeting was a necessity to make ends meet. Long before Dave Ramsey was advising people to use his envelope system, I can remember my mother using quart canning jars on a cupboard shelf to track our cash and expenses.

Though my parents never gave us allowances, they made sure we had everything we needed, if not always what we wanted. By the time I turned 14, however, my wants had started feeling like needs, and I decided to find work to earn my own money, eventually landing a job as a yard boy for an elderly couple in the neighborhood. It was hot, grueling work, but immensely satisfying earning my first wages, and I soon started saving what I had earned growing a little nest egg of my own.

Athletics were also an important part of my life growing up, particularly the game of football. I started as a ball boy on my father’s sidelines and eventually played for him in high school. During those years, he taught me things about winning that really apply now to my life and career. For example, I learned success comes about through teamwork and total commitment to the task at hand. It’s achieved by setting concrete goals, devising strategies for attaining those goals, and staying focused on the big picture. In particular, success requires learning how to rebound from losses— and there will be losses— however, only quitters are ever really losers.

Though I played sports year-round in high school, I continued to work when I could and save my earnings. Because of this, my nest egg was big enough when I graduated to allow me to move out on my own while I attended Tennessee Tech University as a finance major and played football for the Golden Eagles. In college as a student-athlete, I worked several part-time jobs, once five at the same time, not only to support myself and continue saving money, but to help me explore business opportunities for my future.

 I had held one particular job for more than two years, working nights as a package handler at the FedEx Cookeville hub. When I graduated with my BS degree, FedEx wasted no time asking me to be the operations manager for the same shift. Enticed by the lucrative salary and confident I could do the job, I accepted; nonetheless, a part of me questioned the decision since I had worked so hard to get my finance degree and I would probably never use it.

I finally realized that working nights for FedEx left my days free to settle this dilemma. So, I started knocking on doors at the financial institutions in Cookeville looking for an entry level position to help me decide which profession I truly wanted. When the door opened for me at Raymond James, I discovered that finance was indeed my life’s passion and, a year later, that being a financial advisor was my calling. 

I come from and have been around good people with strong work ethics my entire life; I go hard at everything I do because I don’t know any other way. Once I discovered money could work hard, too, I was hooked. As a financial advisor I have the skills to direct that work, and now every single day I help other good people grow their own nest eggs and reap the benefits of lives well-planned— what a great way to make a living.