Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Roberts.
Hi Bill, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
For 20 years I owned a small business, a “body shop on wheels”. I would service car dealerships and make on-location repairs to cars that they took as trades. Though I was good at what I did, the job’s physical toll was beginning to wear on me.
Speaking to a close friend about my predicament, he told me about a new career he has started in with Dragon Financial Services: helping public school employees understand their retirement benefits from the state, showing the strengths and limitations of these plans, and then helping them use retirement tools made available through their employer.
Switching from a hands-on repair business, to learning the ins and outs of the financial and pension world, seemed overwhelming at first glance. But after talking more with Dragon Financial Services, and learning how they educate agents, so they in turn can educate educators about their retirement, I became excited at the prospect. I began to study and went to school to acquire my financial license.
Once I was licensed, I “burned the boats”: selling my business and leaving hard-won accounts, to try something in a field I had no prior experience. I soon found out that though this was an entirely new line of work, the work ethic I had developed in my previous career would serve me well. I also knew how hard you had to work to provide for your family and take care of your responsibilities. I brought those memories and experiences with me when I started meeting with schoolteachers and other school employees.
School teachers are GREATLY underappreciated – they spend thousands of dollars of their own money on their students. And they take their work home with them, both physically and emotionally. This was especially true during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. I find that many of these hard-working public service workers are so busy taking care of their kids year after year, that they find it challenging to carve out time to go over their financial goals.
Over the past several years I am happy to say that I now work with nearly 700 school district employees. It has been a privilege to not only help them achieve their financial goals but to also be there when they go through high and low points in their life. I can’t talk to someone about their finances and not learn about the challenges and triumphs of their personal life.
I’m rooting for them: hearing how they take care of a sick relative, a new marriage, a new baby in the family, a job promotion, recognition at work, and yes, retirement! It’s a wonderful business to be in. Also to be able to partner with the amazing principals I meet who are always looking for ways to take care of their staff. Being a resource for them and the staff is a humbling privilege. And though I’m grateful for the years I spent in my old career, this one is the most rewarding and the most fun.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Going from being a repair technician to a financial advisor was a big change. I walked away from good accounts, putting down my hand tools and picking up financial tools. Instead of repairing something inanimate and never seeing it again, I was now working with people – hundreds of people – who would reach out to me with questions, who I would reach out to check in on, going through ups and downs, with me right there with them
It was mentally and emotionally demanding, I’d come home from work exhausted with my brain processing all of these moving parts. Often when you’re giving financial help, you also become a life coach of sorts. People’s finances are connected deeply to their personal lives. I had to learn to be a sounding board and know when to weigh in and know when to be modest and recognize my limitations.
Now I can’t wait to get back in touch with them. I love helping with and troubleshooting problems. Retirement planning especially is like solving a puzzle, once it’s solved it leaves me with a great feeling of satisfaction.
We’ve been impressed with Dragon Financial Services, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our agency specializes in helping school and federal employees learn about their retirement benefits. Most public service employees do not fully understand the benefits they have. The local school districts and the federal and state governments don’t have the time or resources to meet individually to go over these plans. We are trained to make the benefits understandable and easy to navigate.
Nothing is more intimidating and frustrating than having a retirement specialist talk down to you or over your head when you’re trying to understand a system that you only get one shot at using. We specialize in explaining what the government is going to provide at retirement along with its limitations. It shines a light on the financial toolbox we make available, so we can construct something together that’s going to complete the picture.
This involves strategies that focus on cash growth, lifetime income as well as insurance designed to protect families and assets while accumulating wealth. The greatest compliment anyone can pay me professionally is after I’m done meeting with a client, and they tell me that they’ve met with other financial advisors in the past, but no one has ever explained as clearly as this before.
Now my radius is expanding outside of public service employees and clients are asking me to meet with their family members. I’m especially honored when someone asks me if I can meet with their mother. It tells me I’m doing something right.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Pat Dragon, founded the agency. He’s a tremendous leader who made it his mission to educate some of the most under-appreciated workers in our neighborhoods and at the same time create an exciting and thriving business for the agents that take care of them.
I still own my own business, but now I’m partnered with like-minded business owners and leaders, accomplishing much more than I could ever do on my own. On my first day in the field, Pat flew up from Florida and accompanied me while I visited schools in the district. Who does that?!! Hands-on training from day one.
The agency has a real family atmosphere, and Pat is responsible for that. There’s friendly competition among the agents, but everyone is willing to drop what they’re doing to help someone else be successful. We especially want our clients to succeed in achieving their financial goals. Our motto is “treat them like they’re your mother.’ That has served us well.
Our agency director Tony D’Abondanza is amazing too. Over the years he’s helped me to see the value of always accentuating the positive and not giving a voice to the negative. Tony emphasizes constantly that negative thoughts create negative emotions, it’s a fact. At the same time, positive thoughts feed positive emotions. There’s enough negativity in the world without me adding to it. When we focus on the positive, there are fewer red lights in our path and more green lights. That’s good life coaching!
Now I’m privileged to follow this same blueprint and train other people in how to be successful business owners and effective financial coaches. I understand their challenges, I’ve been there, and I’m excited to see people succeed at making their careers a success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dragon-financial.com/join-our-team-lp/
- Instagram: @billrobertsfinancial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myretirementplans
