At Vance Wealth, we’ve been spending the summer months refining some of our internal systems, so we can continue to grow and build a company culture that everyone feels invested in.

We kicked off the summer by switching up a few aspects of our internship program, in order to make it more successful for our interns and our firm. One of things we identified, after a few years of running the program, was how much of an impact we could make as we help these young people shape the beginnings of their careers.

That’s why we chose to expand the program and allow our interns to work a full-time summer schedule with pay to increase their exposure to the field while saving up some money. We also decided to have the interns work together on projects instead of working independently, encouraging them to collaborate to solve problems. With these small changes, we felt our interns had a more valuable experience, and it allowed us the opportunity to identify some potential future employees for the Vance Wealth team. We also decided to host our annual retreat a little differently this year, giving us a little more time to work and have fun. Each year, our leadership team meets to reset the firm’s 3-year goals and update our 1-year plan, which we then strategically break down into quarterly goals. It’s a process that keeps our growth on track and our team working together. In past years, we’ve held this two day planning session in the conference room, but this year, we took our annual retreat to a house in Indio. We had a chef come cook for us on Friday night, and on Saturday, we opened up the house to the entire Vance Wealth team for a day of swimming and socializing.

We got a lot done, and we were able to mix hard work with a little bit of fun. It comes back to one of our most important core values – to inspire balance in life – and it was great to share that with the team. While we’ve accomplished a lot during the summer, I also enjoyed some special time with my family at home. All the kids were home for the summer, so the whole family was together again, which we took full advantage of by having dinner at home together once a week; this led to some entertaining and exciting conversations about things happening in the world today. We also took the family for a getaway to Virginia Beach to spend time with Carmen’s parents and sisters. We rented a beachside cabin and spent our days floating on rafts and enjoying the water. It was a great way to spend the summer, striking that perfect balance between working hard and playing hard. As we look ahead at the next quarter, we’re feeling well rested and prepared to wrap up the year by continuing to achieve more.

Posted in Market Commentary, Team Update