About Scott
I’ve been told that a biography page is where you highlight things in your life that will allow you to appear accomplished, exceptional and commendable. Essentially a precursor to Facebook where people can create an impression of an existence of pure perfection which then helps them feel as if they are somehow better people than the rest of us. Let’s try to avoid all that here, shall we?
One of my favorite quotes is from Ernest Hemingway when he said “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” After all, if we truly are the harshest judges or ourselves then shouldn’t we also strive to constantly improve ourselves from our off-the-shelf model?
I was born and raised in Nebraska and grew up wanting at different times to be a cowboy, the heavy weight boxing champion of the world, a soldier, a doctor, a lawyer and a veterinarian. So naturally I’ve spent my whole life in sales. No matter what I’ve done for a living, I’ve always been involved in the selling function of the business. I started out 18 months after graduate school starting my own commercial art studio with 4 other colleagues where I handled the photography, videography, multi-media programming and of course – sales. We were all young, talented and knew absolutely nothing about running a business.
After getting married and starting a family I left that profession to go into financial services. Initially it was a way to make more income for my family, but I’ve never regretted the decision and I’ve never looked back. I’ve been fortunate over my career to be with companies where I was granted latitude to perform a variety of functions outside of my actual job description. I spent a decade in private practice working with hundreds of individual clients before I was hired to perform business development for a corporate registered investment advisor. From there I’ve been able to expand my roles across a few different companies and have worked with thousands of advisors around the nation and hundreds of financial firms as sponsors and partners.
Personally I’m not fancy or complex. I love the mountains, camping and hiking, photography of course, my motorcycle and I’ve never seen a microbrew I didn’t want to explore. So that’s it; today I’m trying to be better than I was yesterday and if I can’t be then I know there’s a tomorrow where I can start again.