What do you want to do when you grow up? As I get older, I’m beginning to think this is a question that many of us never answer. As long as there’s a tomorrow, there’s an opportunity to do something new, whether it be a career move, a promotion, seeking new friendships, or getting involved locally. Sometimes I imagine this vague future moment, when I’m a “grownup” – and all those pieces are fit together perfectly, with just enough time for everything I care about.
One day, right?
So today I’m speaking with a guest who’s reached her “one day.” Maybe not all the way – I’m sure she’s got more that she wants to do, but Diana Ferner is well on her way. I found Diana through her work at the St Louis Professional Women’s Association. Diana works at Edward Jones – a national financial services firm who is a sponsor of the St Louis PWA, as well as thousands more local organizations across the US.
See.. we’ve been busy with data at ZipSprout lately. Specifically, we’ve been looking at patterns among sponsor thank-you pages – you know, those pages that list everyone who gave money? We used a tool to look at those pages in aggregate, to record the domains that were linked to from those pages, and to count those domains.
Edward Jones is number nine on that list.
Today, Diana and I will talk about Edward Jones’ philosophy when it comes to local sponsorships. Why this company, around 380 on the fortune 500 list, is number NINE when it comes to hyperlocal philanthropy. Over the next few months, I hope to speak with more people like Diana, from companies like Edward Jones, on what local involvement means to them.
But for now, welcome to The Zip.
Megan Hannay:
To start, can you tell me a bit about your own career history? How long have you been with Edward Jones and what attracted you to this company?
Diana Ferner:
I’ve been with Edward Jones approximately five years. I started out as a contractor, and then was hired full-time and have progressively moved through the company, working first as an admin. Now I’m an LMS administrator over in HR. What attracted me to Edward Jones was the fact that I really didn’t know a lot about the company, but once I got in here and started getting into the nitty-gritty part of the company, I found out that they really, truly put their clients first. Every day, I hear about someone talking about how we can better serve, better help our clients reach their long-term financial goals. You don’t really see that a lot nowadays. I was also attracted by the fact that we have a lot of support in our community, because you will see an Edward Jones dedicated branch every three or four blocks, maybe. They really care about their community, because they live where they work.
Megan Hannay:
Yeah, that’s true, because you really are all over the place in small branches. I didn’t even realize how many were in my local area, in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, until I looked into it.
I found you due to your work with the St. Louis Professional Women’s Alliance. Can you tell me a bit about this organization and your own interest in them? Then, are there other local organizations that you work with as well?
Diana Ferner:
The Professional Women’s Alliance is more than just a networking group. You think you get a bunch of women together and you’re just going to be talking, talking, talking, but they’re not. They provide a meeting ground for professional women from all organizations and all walks of life. You could be a CEO. You can be an admin. You can be a masseuse. You can have any type of profession, but you can meaningfully connect and become a really, really good resource to help each other with the community and through your personal and professional development.
That is where I was at my career. I had been an admin all my life and didn’t really have the comfort zone to step out of that, because I knew that backwards and forwards and was comfortable with it, but I wanted to do more. I wanted to be more and I wanted to provide more. They really gave me the resources to help me find inside myself the ability to reach out to my own company and try something different.
Megan Hannay:
That’s awesome. In some ways, it’s like a mentorship program, where maybe now that there are more women that are trying to make steps in their career, and you can mentor them along the way.
Diana Ferner:
Absolutely.
Megan Hannay:
That’s awesome. When my company, ZipSprout, we looked across the U.S. at local organizations that were saying thank you to their sponsors and saw who they were mentioning on those pages. We found that Edward Jones was number nine in rank in terms of businesses listed on those pages. That’s obviously, of all the companies out there, that’s pretty high. You were right behind, in our research, Cliff Bar, and actually just ahead of Walmart. It definitely doesn’t feel like an accident that so many Edward Jones advisors are involved in their communities. How does community work fit into the corporate strategy at Edward Jones?
Diana Ferner:
At Edward Jones, we really want to understand what’s important to our clients. That’s the most important thing that we can do when it comes to helping them reach their long-term financial goals. To better understand and connect with our clients, we encourage all of our associates, not only our financial advisors, but our home office associates as well to be active members in the community. We always try to tell people that if you’re an active part of your community that you serve, that you really mean what you’re saying. Charitable organizations such as the United Way and the Susan G. Komen for the cure and the American Heart Association are just many of the other organizations that will benefit from Edward Jones’s generosity from our associates year after year. We donate. We walk. We ride. We sponsor associates and clients and family members, and that helps us give a better understanding of what our clients’ needs and wants are. That’s how we help to serve them.
Megan Hannay:
Yeah, that’s amazing. It definitely seems like it’s just a great way to encourage employees to get out into their communities, because I think sometimes, if someone has a full-time job, they get so wrapped in their job that they might forget about extracurriculars. It’s awesome to see companies that are encouraging extracurriculars as well. How do you see these sponsorships fitting back into the big picture for Edward Jones? Do you and your colleagues often earn client relationships via community work?
Diana Ferner:
Being active in our community is not necessarily about earning clients. That’s not why they do it. We at Edward Jones value the communities where we work, because that’s where we live. You will see a financial advisor that lives right around the corner from his office. That commitment goes a long way for more than 12,000-plus branch offices around the country to help the firms’ management group. That’s why sponsorships fit into the big picture for Edward Jones, because we are passionate about the communities where we live and work, and we’re committed to making them better. Our mission is always to help clients have a better life now and in retirement. That is absolutely at the core of what we do, not about necessarily earning clients. That’s a plus, but it’s not why we do it.
Megan Hannay:
Typically, if you’re running your own Edward Jones office, is it based on your location? Do they build offices specifically for people who want to have them? How do they decide where to create offices in different neighborhoods?
Diana Ferner:
I guess it would go based on how many households are there within that community, what the needs are of that community. You will never see more than one financial officer in an Edward Jones office, because that’s not our model. We would rather have an Edward Jones office every single block, because it’s helping that demographic in that area than have more than one that are trying to step on each other’s toes.
Megan Hannay:
Okay, that helps explain it, because I know, I was reading on your website that each advisor does have their own office. I wasn’t sure if it was something like, if someone goes through training and decides to become an advisor, it’s like, okay, you get an office hear where you live. Or if they’re like, oh, we’ll plug you into this area that we found that there’s a need.
Diana Ferner:
Yeah. You’ll only see an Edward Jones office that may have two, only because it is a retiring Edward Jones associate, so this person is being grandfathered, this office or this book of business. It’s like a good night program, we call it. They’re in training to learn the ropes after they’ve gone through the extensive Edward Jones training in the home office.
Megan Hannay:
Okay. That’s very cool. They can really help people get off their feet and in some ways, help them get clientele right away as they’re moving into retirement.
Diana Ferner:
Absolutely.
Megan Hannay:
In my research, I found Edward Jones advisors were sponsoring everything from professional association like your work to little league teams to LGBT alliances. It really seems to run the gamut of whatever a particular team member is interested in or passionate about. How do you and your colleagues work to find local organizations to partner with?
Diana Ferner:
It is true. We do support the organizations as diverse as the communities that we live and work. We have a committee of associates and general partners who evaluate and decide how to spend the firm’s corporate dollars when it comes to sponsorships, because we are a partnership. We all own a piece of the company. I would argue that equality as impactful as the partnerships with the local organizations are, they’re formed organically through the passions of the local financial advisors and their clients. It’s twofold. For example, a client may invite their FA to an event for a local organization in the community. Then, that financial advisor is moved by that cause, and the next thing you know, they’re getting involved themselves. They’re bringing to maybe the home office and saying, what can we do to help?
Megan Hannay:
Then, there’s a group, I know you’re in the St. Louis area. There’s a group in the St. Louis area that decides with your funding that you have to sponsor local organizations, which ones you want to contribute to?
Diana Ferner:
Correct, and a lot of our financial advisors are involved in their chamber of commerce. They can also utilize that resource when it comes to helping find sponsorships. You’ll find that a lot of financial advisors are part of their chamber of commerce.
Megan Hannay:
Wow, that’s cool. Are there any regulations to follow from the brand in terms of brand approval of certain types of sponsorships or things that you might not want to associate with the brand?
Diana Ferner:
That’s a really good question, and I’m sure there’s probably a few, but to be honest, I’m not involved in that side of the business or the organization. What stands out to me is how open those regulations must be, because as you mentioned, we really do cover a large number of very diverse causes all across the country. To give you an exact answer, I’m not involved in that part of it.
Megan Hannay:
You haven’t hit that barrier yet in your area?
Diana Ferner:
No. I haven’t moved into that group.
Megan Hannay:
For you and maybe for some of your colleagues, was Edward Jones’s orientation towards community a factor in your decision to join this company versus other investment advisor firms, or financial advisor firms?
Diana Ferner:
I guess for me to answer that question honestly, I would have to say, you need to do something that you’re passionate about, because if you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, your passion will show through and people will realize that and they’ll really appreciate the sincerity with which you’re doing it.
Megan Hannay:
Yeah. I feel like that dovetails into our next question, too. If you were having coffee or lunch with a new Edward Jones advisor, how would you advise him or her to get involved in their community?
Diana Ferner:
I would say, reach out to your chamber of commerce. Google. The modern age of technology. Google everything that’s in your community, and find something that you do love and find something that you might be passionate about. Or maybe even step out of your comfort zone. We all are the same. We all come from different walks of life, but we’re all the same. We’re people. We’re humans. You just have to maybe step out of your comfort zone and reach out to somebody else, and you might find that that’s your new passion and that that’s something you really want to help do. That’s what I did. I had no interest in doing anything else, but I stepped back and said, what am I doing? What am I going to do with the rest of my life? What do I want to be when I grow up? I’m more toward the end of my career and I thought, I don’t need to do anything else, but I did. I stepped out of my comfort zone and reached out to the PWA, which helped me achieve a better me, which in the long run, achieved a better me for my family and everything.
Megan Hannay:
That’s really cool, and I like that question. What am I going to do when I grow up? Because I feel like that’s a question that I never want to stop asking. I don’t think that needs to be stopped at a certain age like, oh, no, I’m a grownup. I think there’s always a new thing that you can do. Also, Edward Jones, obviously, there’s other companies out there that do similar things. Do you have peers within those companies, and do you know if Edward Jones differs, just in your anecdotal experience, in how much you’re encouraged to get involved in your community? Or do you think it’s something that you see your colleagues from other companies doing as well?
Diana Ferner:
I do, especially with the Professional Women’s Alliance, because we have people from every walk of life. We have CEOs. We have partners from accounting firms. We have people from other financial companies. We have people who own their own companies. I think you can always learn and you can always pick something up. The way we handle our meetings is, we have a meeting. We have a women of distinction luncheon. You go, you network with the people. Then, you sit down and you have a nice lunch. You’re sitting at a table and as a board member of PWA, I try to sit at a different table all the time, not sit with the exact same people I always sit with. I try to learn about each of them and about each their organizations. Then, we have a speaker that comes and speaks to us about anything that’s going on. You learn. You can pick up one thing at every single meeting you attend. One thing, and you can take that with you.
Megan Hannay:
That’s cool. I’ve been very inspired by this conversation. I feel like I need to look into my local Professional Women’s Alliance, because it sounds like you’ve gotten a lot out of it. Finally, since this is a podcast focused on local and community, I’d love to hear about the community that you’re local to. I believe you live in the St. Louis area. What’s it like to be a local there, and what’s unique about the area and the people who live there?
Diana Ferner:
We’re a very philanthropic community. We have many museums and attractions, like the world-class zoo, which is still a free place to take your kids and adults. I love it, too. We have the art museum. We have the history museum. These are all free attractions. We have Grant’s Farm. That’s free. We have so many different places that are still free and don’t cost you anything to go and learn and enjoy the culture of our city. There’s also a lot of civic groups, which look to help people in the businesses. It’s a great sports town. We’re very passionate about our Cardinals, and we’re very passionate about our St. Louis blues. It’s really a fun place to live. As a matter of fact, we have The Muny. We have outdoor Muny in the summer. We have the Broadway series at the Fox. We’ll drive. It doesn’t matter how long it takes for you to get there. You’ll drive to go to these events. It’s a good town.
Megan Hannay:
Yeah, that’s awesome. I was in St. Louis a few months ago, actually. One other really neat thing that I’m not sure if you mentioned is the city museum, if you’ve been there. It’s a museum with all sorts of structures that you can climb all over and everything. That was a really fun thing, too. It does seem like there’s a lot of really cool stuff going on there.
Diana Ferner:
It is. St. Louis has the attraction of a big city within a small-town feel. We have everything from A to Z, which coincidentally mirrors Edward Jones, in where we have our branch offices in the community so that they can focus on the clients, but they can also rely on their home office, which is in the St. Louis area to do all the research and manage all the regulatory issues and everything else so that our financial advisors can truly focus on the clients.
Megan Hannay:
That’s awesome. That’s a good dovetail back into Edward Jones. Diana, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and talk about your work with Edward Jones and your community.
Diana Ferner:
Thank you so much for having me, Megan. I enjoyed it.
Megan Hannay:
Absolutely.