173: The Road to Success: Josh Robb’s Career Journey (Ft. The Maddy Miller Show)

Welcome to The Invested Dads Podcast, simplifying financial topics so that you can take action and make your financial situation better. Helping you to understand the current world of financial planning and investments, here are your hosts, Josh Robb and Austin Wilson.

Austin Wilson:

All right. Hey. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to The Invested Dads Podcast, a podcast where we take you on a journey to better your financial future. I am Austin Wilson, research analyst at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.

Josh Robb:

And I’m Josh Robb, Director of Wealth Management at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.

Maddy Miller:

And I’m Maddy Miller from The Maddy Miller Show. And today we are doing a collaborative podcast, which is so exciting.

All right, so this is the Josh Robb portion of this podcast collaboration. Josh, thank you for joining me. I’m so excited to hear more about your story, your experience, and honestly mostly, your fun fact, which I have all of my guests do.

[0:57] – Josh’s Fun Fact

 Josh Robb:

All right. Yeah, I’m excited to be here. It is fun to share about how I got to where I’m at and the experiences I’ve had and talk to some people out there that may be interested in finance and being a financial advisor. So I’m happy to be here. I always struggle with the fun fact. I feel like I’m a pretty boring person, and so I think around and I’m like, “Man, I don’t know what is fun about me.” And I think it’s because I take this for granted is I am left-handed and-

Maddy Miller:

Wow.

Josh Robb:

That’s… You may have known that, having worked with me.

Maddy Miller:

That is fun.

Josh Robb:

But it is a fun fact in that you’re a part of a smaller group of people that have something different, which is fine. And what’s more interesting is a couple things. One, because I’m one of five kids in my family, so growing up, I’m one of five kids, you know that. You know some of my family. Four of the five of us are left-handed.

Maddy Miller:

Wow.

Josh Robb:

Which from a statistic standpoint, it’s just weird.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Uncommon.

Josh Robb:

And the fact that neither of my parents are left-handed, just to me, seems crazy that-

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that’s interesting.

Josh Robb:

How it worked out that… Yeah. So that’s something I always grew up around. So again, it just didn’t seem unusual to me because everybody around me was left-handed from my siblings standpoint, pretty much besides the one outlier.

And it’s rare that it really impacts me, but there are instances, and one of the biggest instances is Christmas.

Maddy Miller:

Oh, Christmas.

Josh Robb:

It is hard being a left-handed person during Christmas, and here’s why. You do a lot of wrapping, and more often than not, when you pick up a pair of scissors, they are not left-handed scissors.

Maddy Miller:

Yep.

Josh Robb:

And if you’ve ever tried, and this is a true fact, because I have a pair of left-handed scissors now, and every once in a while, my wife, who’s will pick them up to cut and she complains within three minutes.

Maddy Miller:

Oh. And does it make you feel good?

Josh Robb:

Oh, it hurts. You hurt your hand. Yeah, because the shape, the way your finger rests in there, it’s pushes against the bottom of your thumb. And so as you’re cutting paper, wrapping paper over and over and over, and over, it starts to really bug me if I don’t have left-handed scissors. So that’s when I noticed the most that being left-handed is different.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Well, I’m glad you have your own scissors. I remember being in school and our teachers asking, “Is anyone left-handed? We have special scissors for you.” And as a child, I totally was like, “Wait, why?”

Josh Robb:

Why? Yeah.

Maddy Miller:

That makes no sense. But now it makes sense.

Josh Robb:

Sometime, try a pair of left-handed scissors and just see what we deal with on a everyday basis.

Maddy Miller:

Okay, I will. That’s a good action step that’s coming from this podcast already.

Josh Robb:

There you go.

[3:29] – Where Josh Grew Up & What He Did for Fun

 Maddy Miller:

Okay. Well I’m super excited to just hear more of your story. So the first question I almost always ask people is, where did you grow up and what did you do for fun in school and during your teenage years? And this is especially fun for me to even ask because one fun thing about Josh and I is we were actually neighbors growing up. So…

Josh Robb:

Where did I grow up? Down the street from you, that’s…

Maddy Miller:

Literally down the street. So that was a fun connection to have before I even worked at Hixson Zuercher, but yeah, let’s hear it.

Josh Robb:

All right. So yes, I grew up in Findlay, Ohio. What you may not know is I was actually born in Savannah, Georgia.

Maddy Miller:

Wow. I didn’t-

Josh Robb:

So I was born down in Georgia, but I moved up. I moved… I mean, I was a baby. My family moved up to Ohio when I was a year old. I’ve really spent my life growing up in Ohio, so that’s what I call home. So what I do for fun, growing up, I did a lot of sports. I enjoyed sports so I played baseball and soccer. Just about anything. Basketball, football, anything we could play outside. We were outside all the time playing. So that was what I did for fun most of my young age, and I still do to today. I don’t do as much of some of those sports, but I still am involved now that I’m older in more adult sports. But that was the big thing for me growing up. Having a bunch of siblings helps. And I was homeschooled for a while, so I’m, from fourth grade through 11th grade, I was homeschooled, and so I enjoyed that.

I look back, I’m glad I did that, but I had four other people that were homeschooled as well, so it wasn’t lonely. Sometimes when people think about homeschool, they’re like, “Oh, you’re just there.” Well, I had my siblings, which is great, but we also were involved in a network, and so we did a lot of things together. And so there actually was a bowling alley in town that let us bowl a couple of times a month as a group so there was probably 30 or 40 kids that were homeschooled in the area that would get together. The YMCA had a gym class that we got together for. There was a drama teacher that did drama. There was a band teacher that did orchestra and band. So in all, I didn’t feel like I missed out in any of that socialization stuff. And then again, being involved in sports was another aspect to be connected. So, when I think back as a kid, what I did for fun, it was just hanging out and enjoying that time with people.

[5:45] – Josh’s Transition to Huntington University

 Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that’s awesome to hear. That is so fun. So, transitioning into after your childhood, you went to a Huntington University, which is actually just down, not too far from where I went to college, Taylor University, but I’m curious to know-

Josh Robb:

They’re semi rivals in certain things.

Maddy Miller:

Yes. In sports and whatnot, but yes, and I actually was considering Huntington on my college search. But I’m curious on your end, how did you pick going to Huntington first and then how did you decide on a major during that time to go to college?

Josh Robb:

Great questions. I’m trying to remember how I picked Huntington. I knew I wanted to find a Christian school to attend, and so I did start, and I think I just toured. I think I went to Taylor and Indiana Wesleyan and Huntington. Those are some of the schools close in that area, and just looked at those different options. There were some people I knew that had gone to Huntington that really enjoyed it, had a great experience, and so that helped too. There were some people from our church that I just knew had had a good experience there. So that’s what drove me there. And when I visited, one of the things that really stuck out, even to this day that I remember when you do your campus tour at Huntington in particular, I remembered that as we were walking, people said hi, not just to us, but to the student that was leading us.

And it stuck out to me how friendly everybody was. And that’s probably true on a lot of smaller campuses, they know most people, it was one of the things that just as I was thinking through all my visits that stuck out. It was one of those where it was very open and friendly and that drew me there.

Maddy Miller:

That’s awesome.

Josh Robb:

And so when I went my freshman year, I was actually an education major. I was planning on being a teacher. Midway through my freshman year, I had a change and plans decided that maybe it wasn’t what I wanted to do. As I started talking with some of the older kids in that major, and even some adults, the politics that sometimes shows up in teaching when it comes to schools within structure of teachers, there was just a lot of movement between hierarchies and just stuff that… I just heard a lot of complaints about it.

And I thought, “I don’t know. That seems maybe not as ideal as I was picturing.” And so I switched to be a business major. It was business management was my major, and then I had a minor in small business entrepreneurial and also a minor in accounting. I enjoyed it. It was great education experience. No matter what you end up going into, I think there’s certain aspects of that that everybody should have. And I took some of it for granted, and when I moved back from Indiana to Ohio, I was talking with the university and they were looking for help on resumes. I’m like, “Don’t they learn that in their class?” And I didn’t realize that unless you’re a business major, you may not have a class on interviews and resumes and all that. And so that’s something I think certain majors maybe could add into their curriculum as I took for granted some of the things I was learning in my classes from a business standpoint that maybe everybody might need or use.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that’s awesome. I feel the same way. I was really blessed to go to Taylor and I went to… Taylor’s a liberal arts school, which means that you had to take a lot of gen ed classes that were in other majors. And I always found, of course, at the time I was like, that’s so annoying. But I actually found it really helpful because there are a lot of aspects of different fields that are important just for, I don’t know how to better say, the average person, so…

Josh Robb:

Oh yeah, I’m the same. Huntington’s the same way. And there was a lot of classes that it was like, I have to do that. And then you look back and thought, well, that was actually helpful. I see why they do that.

[9:28] – What Made the Biggest Impact on Josh in College?

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Awesome. I was actually going to ask you as a next question, when you think back on your college days, what projects you did or organizations you were involved in that really made one of the biggest impacts on you? And this doesn’t even have to be within your major, just stuff you did.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, I would say one of the biggest ones was I was an RA for a little while, so I was in charge of a floor of guys. And so that would’ve been my junior year. And I didn’t start the year actually as an RA. I was on that floor and there were some things in that RA had to leave that happened and so there was an opening. The resident director, who’s in charge of all the Ras, reached out to me and was like, “Hey, would you be interested or consider this?” So I went and we did an interview and we talked, and it turned out I worked out and I did, and I really appreciate that. It was… The floor I was on, there was quite a few international students that were there. And that just ended up being, they all picked to be on the same floor and I was on that floor with them.

And so I had got to know them real well. We had been playing soccer together and they were friends of ours from the last couple of years. And so my roommate and I, we already knew him, but I was like, “What’s this going to do if I’m now become the person in charge? What if I have to punish them, do all these things, is that going to affect my friendship with them?” So that was something I had to learn how to navigate between having authority and being in charge and also having a relationship. And so that’s carried over to now when I have coworkers and people that I’m responsible or supervisor for, how do I maintain a good relationship with them, but also maintain that sense of supervision? And so that was something, looking back on, I loved that time, I enjoyed that experience, but I also feel like I learned a lot from it.

[11:15] – Josh’s First Job Out of College

Maddy Miller:

What a great thing to carry on to even just so many years later, still applying those leadership lessons. That’s awesome. In preparation for this episode, I was doing a little LinkedIn stalking, just looking at-

Josh Robb:

That’s probably really bad.

Maddy Miller:

But yours was great. I liked looking at all your different experiences and stuff. I thought what was interesting is right now you mentioned you’re a financial advisor, but right after college, you did not go right into financial advising. So what did those first few years out of college look like?

Josh Robb:

Yeah, so like I mentioned, I was a business major and I remember talking to one of my professors as we were getting close to graduating, and he was like, “Well, what are you thinking of doing? Because business is pretty wide. There’s a lot of things you can do.” And I said, “I’ve always wanted to help people with their money. And that was what I was looking at doing.” And he’s like, “Great.” And we walked through what the different careers look like and those type of things. And then a little while after that, I got a letter from a friend of mine who had graduated before me, a year before me, and he said, “Hey, I’m working for this nonprofit that’s called Youth for Christ, and we’re going to probably be hiring close to when you’re graduating. Is that something you would consider?”

Because him and I had done some student ministry stuff together while we were at Huntington. We had volunteered together at a church youth group and so he had known some of the things that I’d done and enjoyed doing so he’d reached out to me and said, “Hey, would that be something you’d be interested in doing?” Heading into my senior year, my wife and I had just gotten engaged at the time. She is younger than me, so she still had two years left to finish school. And so we were talking about whether we’d stay in the area. She also was at Huntington or move if I got a job somewhere working through that. And this happened to be just a little bit away from Huntington, so it was close enough where we could be in the area and she could finish up school. And so we’d talked through that and I just felt really called in to do that ministry.

It was something that I had been a part of as a kid. I had been in that ministry myself through the programs in Ohio, and so I was familiar with it. I knew they did a great job, and I went there, did some interviews, and they ended up offering me a job. So for about nine years, I was with Youth for Christ and enjoyed it, loved it. It was a great organization. Still is. In fact, I’m now serve on the board here locally for it. So I’m still involved, but just in a different aspect than I had been. But it was an adjustment. You have to raise support for it. So it’s similar to a missionary type of thing, depending on where you’re at, how much you raised, each place is a little different, but that was part of coming out of college and then trying to get funding for getting into that ministry was a new challenging thing to do. But it all worked out. And like I said, I really enjoyed that.

It also, when it comes to what I do now, you see a lot of the impact of good or poor financial decisions because some of the families that we worked with were families that have struggled, and you could see that generational decisions causing some of those impacts. I distinctly remember a kid, we were talking afterwards and he was saying, “I don’t know if I can get ahold of my mom because I don’t know if our phones are active this month or not, because she may have had to pay the heat bill this month, so we may not have phones.” And the decisions on what utilities they pay versus what they have and some of those things, and it just broke my heart because here’s a middle schooler having to deal with some of these things as ramifications of decisions the parents were making.

Or another one, a high school student, she had a worker job so that she could pay for the utilities at her home because her mom just wasn’t doing what needed to be done. And so you think at the maturity level that that person had to jump to and miss some of that stuff you do growing up because you had to be more responsible. So some of that drove me into, now what I do is helping families make those decisions. Having seen that motivates me to help people make the right decisions and build that legacy for their generations to teach them how to manage money and to make the right decisions.

[15:16] – How Josh Made His Way into Financial Advising

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Well, that’s awesome to hear. I love when people talk about their career paths as not leaving a job and then going into a different run rather than seeing how their job grew them into the position that they’re now in, which that’s such a cool connection. So you’d mentioned your job right now, which you work at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management, and you’ve worked there for over nine years, right?

Josh Robb:

Yep. I started in 2013, so I’m in my 10th year now. And yeah, it’s been great. When I first started there, I did financial advising, which is helping people create a plan for their investing and their whole financial life. I also spent a lot of time doing research, so picking the investments, and so when you are talking with Austin, that’s his role. And so-

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, I was just going to say.

Josh Robb:

So when I first started, we were a lot smaller firm. I was, Adam and Tony are the Hixon Zuercher, they’re the ones that started the firm. I was their first full-time hire. And so there was the two of them, myself, two other part-time people, and now we’re a team of 12 plus an intern. It’s growing, and so I did two different roles for a while as we were growing. And then as we got bigger, they said at one point, “Okay, Josh, you can choose. Do you want to be a full-time research analyst or a full-time financial planner? Either one. Your choice, you’ve done both.”

And I took some time to think through it and look back and forth. And the more I thought about it, I enjoy helping people make those decisions and come up with a plan. And so that was what drew me that direction. And so Austin will be able to share how he went that other route. And they’re both great and they’re both a lot of fun, but for me, that was the interaction with people I think was the piece that I was really drawn towards and helping people that way.

[17:00] – Josh’s Favorite & Least Favorite Part of Financial Planning

 Maddy Miller:

Well, that’s awesome to hear. And I know, just from being an intern and knowing people, that you’re a great financial advisor, which is just always needed and really special to have. I’m curious, financial advising, what is your favorite part and your least favorite part?

Josh Robb:

So when it comes to the financial advising, my favorite part I think is the retirement planning because it helps people get a dream. What do I want? What is the ideal? And then helping them make a plan to get there. So I think I really like that. The thing that’s probably my least favorite, and it probably has just more to do with my comfort level, is estate planning. I’m not an attorney. We help people with their estate plan, help work through that with them, but the attorneys are the ones that are the experts in that and they draft it. So of all those pieces that I’m comfortable with, I think that’s the one that I always defer to the attorney to say, “Hey, you know what? They’re the experts on that one.” But it’s something that’s essential needs done, and I always want to make sure that people are doing the right thing. But that’s probably the one where, from a comfort level, that’s where I defer to the experts.

[18:00] – The Process of Getting Licenses & Certifications

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Great. Well, I know nothing about either one of those, so that sounds hard, but also awesome. So I saw that you have your certified financial planner license, which you got in 2019. That’s something when I was an intern that I didn’t know that people have to get these certifications and licenses in order to give financial advice. So I’m just curious, overall, what was the process like? What was your approach to studying for that license? And then I’m also curious how you celebrated when you passed.

Josh Robb:

So yeah, in this industry, depending on how your firm is structured, you first need some sort of license. And so there’s a series six, the series seven, series 65, series… There’re all these different series, which is an exam you have to take. When you get that, when you pass, whatever that criteria is that you need for your industry, so we are a fee only planner. We don’t charge commission so I needed a series 65. That was the one for our industry that is required. And so I did that when I joined the firm. That was the first thing I actually did when I joined the firm.

Once I had that, I was able to give advice and give recommendations and help clients with their money. That’s the minimum certification that you need, and that’s an actual license that government has. And then from there, as you grow and expand, one of the things that we do here is we’re always trying to learn and always trying to grow the CFP, the certified Financial Planner designation. That is, it encompasses all those different aspects of the financial plan. And so you have to go through courses similar to college course. In fact, some colleges can actually have their courses count as credit for the education part of it. And then once you go through the courses, you can then sit for an exam, and then if you pass the exam, then you have to have a certain amount of hours of experience before you’re qualified to have this designation. And so I completed all that in what’d you say, 2019? Is that right?

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, I think that’s what I saw from my LinkedIn stalking.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, it’s probably right. Seems like a long time ago. What that does is it just helps me have a better, more well-rounded education on all the different financial planning aspects. So I mentioned estate planning, that’s part of that. So that’s where I got the basis and it’s great, but there’s dipping your toe into a big pool of knowledge that is estate planning. Same with tax planning. I have a minor in accounting and I’ve familiar with how accounting works, but I don’t know all the ins and outs. So again, that’s where an accountant can be very helpful. But this designation’s designed to help me ask the right questions and make sure we’re at least looking for the best way to help solve those problems with the client. So that designation for me was the way of really showing my knowledge and expertise by being able to pass the exam and the classes and all that.

Maddy Miller:

That’s awesome. And then how did you celebrate passing?

Josh Robb:

I know we had a donut cake, which I am a huge fan of donuts, in general, but here in our town, there’s a donut shop that can do giant donuts. So when I say donut cake, have you had one of these. Maddy?

Maddy Miller:

No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Josh Robb:

Okay, so Fort Findlay Donuts is the place.

Maddy Miller:

I know the place.

Josh Robb:

If you’re familiar with that, best place, best donut place in town.

Maddy Miller:

Yep.

Josh Robb:

If you’ve had one of their normal used donuts, picture that, but the size of a cake, or actually bigger than that, I’d probably-

Maddy Miller:

Oh my gosh.

Josh Robb:

Yes, it feeds probably 15 to 20 people and it tastes exactly like a donut, but giant.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. So is it in the shape of a donut too?

Josh Robb:

It can be shaped any way you want. So for instance, the other day there was one in… Oh, for my birthday, I just turned 40 a little while ago, and they had a big four zero donut cake.

Maddy Miller:

Oh my God.

Josh Robb:

So they can shape it just any way you want. The other thing, they can fill it with any filling that they have and they can top it with any toppings they have. So it is incredible.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds like an appropriate way to celebrate.

Josh Robb:

It was. And you can tell how passionate I am about donuts.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, Fort Findlay truly is the best. I can agree with that one.

Josh Robb:

It is, yes.

[22:16] – What Are Some of Josh’s Goals Moving Forward?

Maddy Miller:

So I wanted to ask a question about goal setting. So I think to me, goal setting in all areas of life are a huge part of continuing to stay motivated and feel purposeful. But when I always think about goals, I think growing up I always just thought about in my personal life, but I feel like recently I’ve been really challenged to make goals for my career too in my professional life too. So I was curious, what is one goal you have in your career going forward still to come?

Josh Robb:

Yeah, so the one goal I had, I was able to achieve last year in 2022. I became a partner of the firm. And so that was a awesome experience. I’m so thankful for Adam and Tony for giving me that opportunity. And so that was what I’ve been working for for the first eight years of my career is to get to that point where I had that opportunity. And so I think now what I’m targeting is as a result, I’ve taken on two roles. So now I’m the chief compliance officer. So if you want to put your listeners to sleep, because I avoid this conversation a lot on our podcast is when you talk compliance, no one really likes talking compliance. Now I am a person who’s a rule follower, so to me, some of this stuff is enjoyable to learn and do, but that’s one role I do.

But the other one is I’m the director of our wealth management team. And so that’s a fun title. All it means is of the five advisors, my job, my role is to make sure that that we’re constantly growing and understanding any new laws or changes that happen. And so it’s my job to oversee that team of advisors and make sure they’re all equipped to be the best they can be. And so what I look forward is I want to, in the next three, five years, be able to have a team that is looked at as experts. I want the advisors here, when people are online or wherever they look, we’re considered a go-to for that. And we have some great advisors here and they do awesome stuff. So I just really have to get out of their way and let them do that. But anything I can do to provide them with that support or help is what my next handful of years is for.

And coming up with processes, because a lot of what we do, if you can have a process, it speeds things up. You don’t have to reinvent everything every time you do it because every client is unique, but some of the things you do, if you’ve done it once, you already have a framework to help you. It saves time, especially for the new advisors coming in. They don’t have to spend all this time rethinking the things that work. And so if I can help them come up with those processes and give a nice structure, it’ll give them more time to spend with clients and do the things that they like to do.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah. Well that’s great. I feel like I can even give a little testimony. Jess, who works in your office, is my financial advisor, and I feel so confident working with her. She gives me such great advice and really practical stuff to do. Me being young in my career, and I am very thankful for her. So you guys at Hixon Zuercher do a great job.

Josh Robb:

Well, thank you. She does a great job.

[25:17] – The Biggest Challenge of Josh’s Career

Maddy Miller:

Yes. So I have two more questions for you. So second to last is when you look back at your career, what is one of the biggest challenges you faced and what got you through it?

Josh Robb:

I don’t know if I’ll call it challenge, but one of the biggest changes was that career change from being at that nonprofit and then moving to Hixon Zuercher. I loved what I was doing there and it wasn’t that I was looking to leave because I was tired or there was something that happened or wrong or anything like that. You hear some people switch because this company is not what it was before, I don’t want to be there. That wasn’t it. But I just felt a calling that there was some skills and talents that I had that maybe I wasn’t using all of them to the full extent that I could or should be doing. And from my faith background, it was challenging to me that if I was given these gifts, maybe I need to make sure I’m utilizing some of those things. And again, you go back to when you’re good at something, sometimes you take it for granted that maybe not everybody can do that.

And so to think, well, that’s fine, somebody else can do that, but if I have those skills, maybe I should be making sure I’m utilizing those to the best of my ability. And so it was coming with terms with that of not leaving that ministry but switching to something new that will also provide value and help people, but just from a different standpoint. So I think it was just a hard transition as I was making that, because that was something I was again, very passionate about and still am to not say that I’m leaving that, but I’m just entering a new phase of helping people in a different way. It was a struggle for a little while on getting comfortable with that. And then I got the opportunity a couple of years down the road to join the board here locally, help me then reconnect and do still be involved in it, but just in a different way. So it’s been good.

[27:06] – Josh’s Advice for Aspiring Financial Planners

 Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that’s a cool connection. And I’m sure you learn so much from that, and even people maybe going through a transition can feel encouraged by that story. My final question is actually a question I end all of my interviews with. I almost want to say selfishly, but I know that it helps other people too because I love hearing people’s advice coming from where they are. So I’m curious what your advice is for someone wanting to pursue a career that is similar to yours or just pursue their career in such a way that you did. What is just your advice for people?

Josh Robb:

So if people are looking to be a financial advisor, and I know Austin will talk about the other end from a financial analyst standpoint, but from a financial advisor standpoint, there’s a couple different things. What you major in, it could be business, could be accounting, there’s all the different aspects of business that work, because you do a lot of different things as an advisor, but there are some schools that actually are accredited for that certified financial planner, the CFP, that your classes give you that education requirement already fulfilled.

So if you’re looking and you know want to be an advisor and you know you may want to pursue that degree down the road, looking for a university that has that accreditation already would be helpful. But in general, the thing you need to do, and this is true across whatever, I don’t care what you’re going into is find the opportunity to shadow or observe that career so that you really know if that’s something you’d be interested in, because you may think this is what the job is, but when you go and watch and observe, there’s maybe other aspects that you didn’t know about that aren’t as appealing to you, and it may cause you to choose a different career and you’ll be happier by not having to have wasted all that time preparing for something that you may not really enjoy.

So internships, shadowing, all those things are great to learn exactly what it is you would be doing in that full-time and then help you decide if that’s actually what you really like to do. I think you should do that, but I also think do some internships on things around that career because there may be something that you didn’t actually know about that is even better. So from Austin and I, research versus financial planning, if you would’ve asked me, I wouldn’t have known what the difference were, but if I would’ve been able to intern and seen both of those, it would’ve helped me decide, oh, this is the one I actually liked better than the other one. So don’t just intern on the one thing you like, but look at some internships around that type of career you want to do and see what all it entails.

Maddy Miller:

Yeah, that’s great advice. And I feel like you were almost shouting me out because I feel that way while when I interned with you guys. I knew nothing about podcasting. And through my internship at Hixon Zuercher, I just fell in love with podcasting. And so that’s gotten me to today, I have my own podcast and I do a podcast that work and I’m like freelance editing and stuff, and I never would’ve thought that if I didn’t have the opportunity to do that through my internship. So that’s really great advice.

Josh Robb:

Well, you’re welcome.

Maddy Miller:

Yes. So thank you. But thank you so much, Josh, for getting to share your story and your career path and your advice, because those are valuable things that people can learn from.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, thank you. There’s a couple ways you connect with both of us. Austin, why don’t you tell everybody how they can connect with Maddy?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, absolutely. We would love it if they went to maddymiller.co and maybe in the future, maddymiller.com. I mean, we were just talking about the domain. It could be available.

Maddy Miller:

We were.

Austin Wilson:

We’ll see. But maddymiller.co. Check out her website, follow her on Instagram at The Maddy Miller Show and like and subscribe, leave a positive view because I’m sure that you loved these episodes. She just is a gem and we love working with her.

Maddy Miller:

Wow, that was so nice. Thank you so much for that shout out. And I of course, want to shout out my very own favorite podcast because it is truly the roots of all of my podcast skills. The Invested Dads Podcast. So you can visit theinvesteddads.com, where you’ll find all of their episodes plus a really helpful transcript and show notes to accommodate each episode. Plus, you should follow and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you enjoy their episodes, which most people do, you should leave them a review. Plus, if you like timely updates on all their episodes, follow them on social media and subscribe to their weekly newsletter, which all of this that we just mentioned will be linked in the description below, so you’ll be able to find it there. But thank you guys so much for having me join The Invested Dads.

Josh Robb:

Yeah, thank you.

Austin Wilson:

Yes, thank you so much. And until next Thursday…

Maddy Miller:

We’ll see you there.

Austin Wilson:

Adios.

Thank you for listening to The Invested Dads Podcast. This episode has ended, but your journey towards a better financial future doesn’t have to. Head over to theinvesteddads.com to access all the links and resources mentioned in today’s show. If you enjoyed this episode and we had a positive impact on your life, leave us a review, click subscribe and don’t miss the next episode.

Josh Robb and Austin Wilson Work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by Josh, Austin, or any podcast guest are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions, or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses which would reduce returns. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.