Derek Merkler joins us today to talk about his career journey. After his initial 8 years in Army aviation, Derek started out in financial planning working for a firm where he cut his teeth in the profession. He realized that there aren’t many financial advisors who work primarily with veterans to put together comprehensive and holistic plans and build long-term wealth. Rather, companies large and small have advisors whose job is to sell their own products, often with commissions and sales targets. For them, a veteran can become merely a number.
Ultimately, Derek wanted some more control over the business model so he decided to launch his own firm, Trophy Point Financial Planning in late 2020. In our conversation, Derek talks about the challenges of starting from zero, what’s worked and hasn’t in his marketing and sales efforts, and the financial considerations for how long it can take to gain traction. I loved his career advice about planning for things to take time. In addition to his work in financial planning, we talk about the most interesting other business activity, or OBA, with his role in thoroughbred horse breeding that has some parallels to the work of financial planning.
https://www.trophypointfp.com/