Producer Spotlight Interview with Luke Ficken, CFP®, FIC – Lead Financial Consultant
Q: Can you start off by telling me about your background and what it was that you were doing before you joined Thrivent Financial?
A: I started at Thrivent right out of college. I had known for quite a good time that financial services was what I wanted to do after school. My dad had been at Thrivent for fifteen years or so and I had been at an internship with another company while I was in college and that was valuable from a number of different angles. The biggest ones being that if I was going to be in the industry I wanted to work for a company that shared the same value system that I do.
Q: What is it that attracted you to this business at such an early age?
A: The opportunity to serve people from the front lines, I like that you’re building intimate relationships with folks sitting at their kitchen tables.
If the thought ever enters my mind of doing something else or choosing a different career the first thing that pops back into my mind, is my clients and being away from those relationships… and it’s not a good thought.
Q: What surprised you as far as your expectations were concerned about what it takes to be successful in this field?
A: I am trying to think back to that first year or so, although I probably had a better idea of what the business looks like going into it because of my Dad.
I would say the most profound thing is the amount of things you have to do that are uncomfortable. I can’t think of specifics but I would define it as: Optional activities, things that you don’t have to do but those I see succeeding are the ones doing those things they don’t necessarily have to be doing. For example, making the extra phone calls, taking the clients out to dinner, writing the thank you letters and preparing diligently before meetings.
Q: Could you tell us a little more about what your current situation is right now?
A: I live about 30 minutes outside of Nashville, which I enjoy because I grew up on a small farm and I like the rural life. I’ve been with Thrivent almost five years. Part of my responsibility now is helping new advisors launch their career.
Q: What’s that been like for you?
It’s been very fulfilling because I am not that far removed from the uncomfortable process of being a new advisor and it’s also challenging balancing both the roles of committing time to other people and still running my practice like it needs to be done.
Q: So, how many people would you work with at any one time?
A: Well, I have two right now and we would like to bring on one or two new people a year.
Q: When you think about the relationship and finding that balance between being a mentor and personal production, how are you managing that?
A: It’s a learn as you go process right now, I have a few mentors at Thrivent that have been a big help.
Q: I forgot to ask you about your family life are you single or married?
A: I am married to my wife Junae, we got married two days after I passed the series 7 so that part of my life aligns very well with Thrivent and we have two wonderful daughters, Jennaleigh and Gracie.
Q: When you think about your personal life and getting your business launched, what has been your biggest challenge to balance your time between family and business?
A: That statement in and of itself is the challenge. One of the good ways that I have addressed that came when my father was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago and he was out of the office for a period of a year, which added to the challenge of balancing everything. So my wife and I decided that we needed to set the limit of evening appointments to Mondays, Tuesday’s and Wednesdays, to make sure that the other evenings I am home and it’s been a huge blessing.
We have somewhat of a regimented calendar and the expectation is there that Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s we have evening appointments and the office staff understands and supports that, so that helps.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your staff, how do you organize your business as far as support?
A: We have two staff people and one of them is life licensed. We ask them to do as much as they can do that we don’t need to be doing. One of the good words of advice I received from Dan Hesse in Memphis, he told us once, “Not to ask what else we need to be doing but ask what do we not need to be doing.”
Q: How long into your career did you decide to surround yourself with a staff team; is it something you did right away or has that evolved over the past five years?
A: It has evolved, definitely. When I started my Dad had two staff members but they were not working full time. The two employees we have now are working full time and adding the life license part of that helped as well to increase the amount of activities that one person can do.
Q: When you think about the kind of business you are doing, you mentioned that you are living in a rural area, about 30 minutes outside of Nashville, tell me a little bit about the kind of business that you do on a routine basis?
A: I would say that the type of business and the people that we are working with is across the board. We probably do have an ideal client defined within our practice that if everybody we worked with was like this person we would be happy. But from the same missional angle that Thrivent approaches the business, if anybody has needs, regardless of their income, networth or age we would like to be able to help them if we can.
So, anywhere from helping young families determine how much life insurance they will need, getting Roth and college funds started as well as helping folks either approaching or during retirement plan their retirement income, their distribution strategy and estate plans.
Q: As far as the kinds of needs, is there anything you focus on in particular, some financial advisors are drawn to risk management others to planning and investments, what is your balance like between those parts of the business?
A: The balance is quite spread out, there is not one area that I prefer to concentrate on, I would rather approach it from what the needs of the client are.
I do have a passion around risk planning for younger families, mainly because I can relate to that as well as seeing some personal stories of the good that life insurance can bring. I probably enjoy doing the retirement income planning piece more than anything else, because it is fun from the numbers and analytical side and it is extremely crucial to the client because they have one shot at retirement. I enjoy helping the client understand all the different options and routes to help them build that knowledge base to allow them make the right decisions.
Q: You mentioned that you had some personal experience with the risk side especially for young families and you really have a passion around that, would you mind sharing one of those stories with us?
A: I can share a few if you want me to; the first one that comes to mind is the most impactful story around premature death. When I started in the business, it was a younger man probably around 30 I had met at church one night and he told me that we needed to get together to do 401K rollovers, so I told him I would give him a call. I called him a couple weeks later, he did the same thing a lot of people do, he procrastinated and said there were more important things going on, so I didn’t want to push him but I made sure that we agreed that I would follow up with him.
I followed up in about a month and he had a child in that time period, I said, “I’m following up on the 401K rollovers and know you guys just had a child, I would also like to talk to you about life insurance.” He agreed, yeah we need to do that but things are busy call me back in a month. We played that game a couple more times than after one of those times I find out he was killed in a car accident. I believe his wife had to move back home, out of state and she and the child are on the complete other end of the spectrum then where we would rather see them as far as their finances are concerned.
Q: When you think about that experience and the fact that he just kept procrastinating and stalling you, has it caused you to think about anything differently or actually do anything differently?
A: Well, it makes me think of two things; one, realizing how important it is that we be persistent, maybe not to the point of pushing people away and completely ruin the relationship but we do have to stay on them. Two, I feel glad that I at least asked and that I asked more than once, we put the ball in their court.
On the other end of the time line, one of the most recent stories I have with people is one of the newer Reps that have joined our office, his father passed away last year of a completely unexpected heart attack. He did have some life insurance through work but I think Andrew, that’s the guy I am working with, would agree if he would have started in the business six months sooner and sat down to have the conversation with his parents about the need for supplemental life insurance outside of work the steps his mom has had to take since his dad has passed away would have looked different.
Insert from Dave – You know one of the things I hear in your voice as you describe that story, first of all, is the genuine sense that you care about people and the other thing that is conveying to me is that it is two great examples of how many needs are out there that have yet to be fulfilled for people.
Q: I’m curious, Luke about your productivity levels have you reached any club or recognition levels?
A: I have, Thrivent has different definitions for those levels, I have qualified for what Thrivent calls, Summit Club for the last three years.
Q: And what would be the next level you could get to?
A: Pinnacle is the level above Summit.
Q: Alright, is that the highest level?
A: Yes
Q: Well, congratulations on that, how do you feel about your level of production for the last few years?
A: I am very satisfied with it, this is a career that I feel very blessed to be in and I have all the flexibility of the job and the ability to help people as well as earn a great income.
Q: I’m going to ask you a few questions specifically about your experience with learning the CAPS™ - Communication, Awareness and Persuasion Skills, thinking back, can you recall when you were first invited to attend the workshop how you felt about attending?
A: I felt excited to attend because I am always excited to learn, I didn’t know what to expect but I have always been intrigued to learn everything I can about what you guys call Ethical Persuasion Skills.
Q: So, once the workshop started, what was your impression of the course work itself?
A: The course work was extremely engaging. I remember thinking, this feels like school did because your mind is going at 100% the entire time. That’s a good thing, that’s the way it needs to be.
Q: When the workshop was over, did you have any concerns when you were thinking about going back into the field and actually applying what you learned?
A: My biggest concern was staying committed to continuing to build upon what we had learned. Like attending many other conferences or motivational speakers, you kind of have that high and then once you get back to the real world all the day to day stuff creeps up and its harder stay engaged and continuing to build upon what you have learned.
Q: How did you manage that?
A: Honestly, not as good as I could have or should have. The emails that were being sent out were helpful as a reminder every now and then. I use the CD and I still have it in my truck, I put that on every now and again.
Q: When you put that in, what does it do for you to listen to them?
A: That CD is awesome, not only does it get you back on track with some of the specific language that CAPS™ encourages but it starts spurring a lot of memories of course work and other parts of CAPS™.
Q: Do you recall, have you done any of the online skill reviews?
A: No, I haven’t done any of those.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your experience once you were out of the workshop and you began implementing the skills in live conversations with prospects and clients.
A: It helps you communicate your thoughts better to the client and it helps the conversation be more transparent.
Q: What difference is that making in your business, the time that you are spending in conversations or the results that you are getting?
A: It definitely makes a positive difference. A part of the question was the time that you are spending, I think that is a good way to look at it because if you can use proper communication skills to get you and the client on the same page sooner rather than later, that’s going to do a lot of good things for you. It’s going to save time as far as the close process takes but it also eliminates the opportunity for misunderstandings or other objections to arise.
Q: What do you consider the most important benefit personally that you’re experiencing as a result of learning and using the CAPS™ skills?
A: I would say me being able to relay the CAPS™ skills to other advisors as a personal benefit. I think our RFO is planning on doing another CAPS training at some point and they have asked me to attend as part of the, quote “management team”. I’m excited two fold for me to learn more and be able to take after the program to help people stay accountable while continuing to learn the skills.
Insert from Dave – That’s a great way to do it, the thing that we know from experience the skills are always easier to learn together and when I think back on my career and the tremendous amount of field training that I did once learning the skills I can echo what you just said. That having a common language adds another dimension to the training that really enhances all the other training that you are doing with the people that don’t really understand, “Why does this product fit in this situation? or that situation?” but it helps them really to communicate in a way to understand the reasons why particular approaches make since to individual prospects. It really personalizes the advice process as a result.
Q: Overall, what is your opinion of CAPS™ and what would you say to somebody thinking about attending the workshop?
A: I’ll answer that with a thought when Don, my Managing Partner, asked me if I thought it would be valuable to attend another CAPS™ session for the RFO and if I wanted to go. I told him that I believe in it so much that I would pay my way to go, even though obviously he was offering to pay for me.
Q: If you would improve the workshop, do you have any specific advice or insights that you would like to share with me, either around the workshop experience itself or follow-up coaching after going through the workshop?
A: I know the workshop was great in terms of the amount of information that we covered and learned within a two day period. Maybe some sort of debriefing period, I don’t know what this would look like, but given that there is so much information in a little period of time it almost felt like after the workshop you wanted to let the mind unwind a little bit. Some sort of intimate check in period after a week or two weeks with a dedicated time of at least two hours to dive back into the material, more than just a manager or someone from CAPS™ calling and saying, “How are you doing?” but an actually dedicated period of time where you get back into the course work where you review and do more role playing.
Q: If someone was considering a career with Thrivent Financial, what would you say to them?
A: I would say, “Let’s talk more!” I would tell them how rewarding the career can be from the aspect of being able to intimately getting to know your clients and be of a very valuable service to them. I would tell them how rewarding it is from the flexibility of the job, the income potential and also how hard it is. A one liner I have heard about the industry, “You sell them in and you sell them out and you see if they come back.”
I think that selling out is just as important as the selling in, because everybody knows the retention rates and statics about the industry. I take that pretty serious because these are people’s lives we are talking about and you don’t want to waste a year of their lives. They do need to understand the challenges along the way and the things they are going to have to give up and the commitment to make the career work.
Q: Do you have any future plans of taking on a Partner role with the company some day?
A: I’ll consider all options and I’ll put that all forward in prayer and see what somebody has planned for me.
