Jenevieve Lenz is a professional Entrepreneur Support & Wealth Advisor who wears many hats. She is a third-generation entrepreneur from a family of German, Scottish, and Eastern European immigrants. First Financial Group is based in Bethesda, MD and she works out of the Reston Office.

• CEO Hack: Delegating to other people in the company
• CEO Nugget: Think outside the box and find those people who exude confidence in what you're doing
• CEO Defined: Being the chief idea generator and demonstrating care

Website: https://www.ffgadvisors.com/jenevieve-lenz

https://asaransom.com/

https://jenevievelenz.ffgadvisors.com/events/replay-retirement-concerns-uncommon-planning-must-knows

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenevieve-j-lenz-mba-1a36a3b/

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jenevieve Lenz of First Financial Group. Jenevieve, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:53 – Jenevieve Lenz

Thanks for having me Gresh, glad to be here.

00:55 – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on as well too. And before we jumped in, I want to read a little bit more about Jenevieve so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Jenevieve Arjanviev, because I know you speak multiple languages, is a professional entrepreneur, support, and wealth advisor who wears many hats. She is the third generation entrepreneur from a family of German, Scottish, and Eastern Europe immigrants. First financial group is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and she works out of the rest rest in office. Jenevieve or John V. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:21 – Jenevieve Lenz

Yes, sir, I am. Let's get it going.

01:23 – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your background or your CEO story and we'll let you to get started with all that work you're doing.

01:32 – Jenevieve Lenz

That's a long story. I love to tell the history of my grandfather who came to the United States with his 3 brothers. So 4 German brothers landed in New York and they all started their own business. And my grandfather Herman Lenz started not only his own restaurant with his brother, they actually had another brother who wanted to go into home building. So started some restaurants, started building some homes up there in Pine Ledge, which is the Rochester Buffalo side of the state. And lo and behold, my dad was born into this family. He had 2 siblings and it didn't take him long to realize that he didn't wanna be involved with all the businesses that his father had built. So he set off on his own to start his own business, as did my aunt.

My dad looked and looked for a place to start a business and he ended up buying a structure that dates back to 1853. It's historic property. Back in the days of like the late 1700s, the Holland Land Company offered 10 acre plots of land who would, whoever would own and operate a property on it. So this gentleman named Acer Ransom bought this property, built a small tavern on it, and my dad actually bought the historic property and he named it the Acer Ransom house after the founder and the settler. So it's great. I grew up there. They actually built the business when I was a kid.

I was involved in every aspect of this business from front desk management to waitressing to house cleaning management skills I went off to college and even wrote some of my thesis on how to build and operate a business how to how to maintain staff how to put a staff manual together, how to do marketing. So it evolved as my college years evolved. And then, fast forward many years later, my grandfather passed away. And there was just a lot of repercussions as to how the family was affected by his death, the things that he had done during his lifetime building businesses and the assets there. So that's the short and sweet of how I got started. Everyone in my family was an entrepreneur, so I didn't know anything different.

03:30 – Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. And I know when we connected and spoke initially and then even offline in preparation of this, that was something that really resonated with me of you having quote unquote entrepreneurship in your blood and also being able to obviously help and support business owners, entrepreneurs, and so many different people in that aspect, but really be able to call on your roots for lack of a better time to be able to kind of do that and understand the mindset and the things that entrepreneurs and CEOs and business owners might be going through.

03:54 – Jenevieve Lenz

Yeah, because it's so far reaching, right? Your CEO, especially if you've built your own company from scratch, you wear many, many hats. I mean, and you have to be a jack of all trades, or you have to get really good at finding other people that you can delegate some of these things to if you're not. Not everybody's great at internet marketing. Most CEOs I speak to and support today, they have a great internet person, right? They have some people that even write their content for LinkedIn and Facebook. That's only one aspect. As their company grows, finding key teammates, employees, and retaining them is huge.

We've seen how important that is through COVID and what the world's dishing out today. So there's just so many areas of support that that's needed. Obviously, one big one is financial. So yeah, my role as a financial person, I find myself wearing multiple hats as well because I'm on the board of my dad's company. So when I'm not doing my primary financial role, There I am behind the scenes at midnight helping with content that creates marketing for still the family business that's running up in New York State.

04:52 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Love that. And I know that as we kind of spoke to and you referenced, there's so many different kinds of things and hats that entrepreneurs and business owners wear and have to kind of manage and understand in order to get to the goals that they have. And I know obviously as you do finances is a big part of that. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you support the clients that you work with and what exactly that process looks like?

05:16 – Jenevieve Lenz

So it looks a little bit different for everyone, but there's a lot of it that's the same, right? So it starts with meeting them where they are, right? Every business is either in a thriving situation right now, their business, I've seen some business owners, COVID's been really, really good to them, others not so much, right? They're in a major pain point. Revenue is behind, you know, maybe it's cash flow management, maybe it's just that their business is stagnant. It's not growing in this environment that we're seeing currently. So meeting them where they are, figuring out what the most important thing to them is today, right?

Every business owners, it's gonna be different. Working with some clients now who actually lost a partner. So the structure of the business is important. And when you have a partner that's lost death, disease, things that are happening within your firm, how do you manage that, right? Was there a buy-sell agreement in place? How do you retain the employees if that's a key partner, right? They're afraid that something's gonna happen to the business. Making sure that every one of my clients has the key partnerships in place has been the one thing that kind of rises to the top, right? You asked me what's the main thing. It's making sure they have an integrated approach, right?

And I think when I speak to other organizations, this always becomes a thing because a lot of people have their professionals, right? They have a financial person, they have a CPA, or an accountant that does work for them. They probably have a business attorney, estate planning attorneys, different bankers, and so forth. But are all those people integrated? Are they speaking to one another at least once a year, twice a year, at least bare minimally, the financial and the CPA? I mean, there should be meetings that are held with all your professionals for your best interest. Because if you don't have that, things are falling through the cracks, right? Maybe it's revenue, maybe tax optimization hasn't been addressed.

Maybe it's employee benefits, right? If you're in the growth phase and you want to not only retain your employees, but grow your firm and you know that you're going to be adding you know 3 6 you know more workforce next year what does that look like how can you work with your financial professionals and your accountants to make sure that the growth is happening and it's optimized as it's happening I think that I've seen I actually don't think I know I've seen some really strange pitfalls when clients don't have a plan in place. And we're trying to get to them and educate them and say, hey, these are things you need to think about. It's okay, it's okay if you don't have that today. It's okay if something's broken.

Talk to people, you know, kick the tires on talking with several advisors, make sure that they're willing and able to work with each other, right? I think that's, it goes without saying, you're going to have a better time. The business is going to be in a better stronghold. You're going to have less stress and sleep better if those things are optimized around you.

07:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And you know, as you spoke to in reference, you know, having those people, those key people around you, it's so important to be able to understand that and have a plan in place. And I love how you are able to use that word integrate and kind of be that glue to all those different pieces because I think so many times we may not have all those things aligned and even not even know where to turn to, but it's great to hear that you've been able to kind of do that. You help support clients in terms of not figuring out what somebody else is doing, but what they can do in order for them to reach their goals and see their dreams and aspirations come to fruition. And so, would you consider that to be your secret sauce that ability to be able to, I guess, see the different pieces and be able to bring them all together? Is that what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:34 – Jenevieve Lenz

I would say that is. I think that a lot of people are looking in the financial world or the trade, they're looking with kind of like blinders on, right? They think revenue first, they think, you know, I need to do X, Y, and Z to make money for myself. But if you have an expanded awareness and you realize that doing the right thing for these people might not be an immediate financial impact for you, right? I've met some medical clients specifically and the main thing for them was, that they had a recent death in the family and they wanted to make sure their estate planning was buttoned up, right? From the business side, and from the personal side. And they had another, one of them had never done it, one of them hadn't done it in years.

And so walking through that, connecting them with a trusted advisor or attorney that could do the estate plan and set the proper agreements in place for their business. That was number one. It didn't put money in my pocket, but that was the right step to do. And then, of course, you know, back end and coming back to the planning aspect. I think especially now for business owners, I've seen it, and I've seen it several times in 2020, those that have brought on new advisors, or at least advisors that are integrating with some of their current advisors, they're more likely to see an entire impact that's positive on their enterprise value, on both their personal and business lives, right?

So that's key. Something might not be in place that they don't even know is missing until they start interviewing and talking to other people and saying, well, gee, I don't have that integration. Maybe I should talk to a few more people and see if I can integrate that for better business and personal success. I think that answers your question, right?

10:03 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:14 – Jenevieve Lenz

Well, I could say there's a couple things that make me more efficient. Number one is delegation. I think there's not a person I know who's risen to the top that wasn't able to be a more efficient delegator. So that's, I mean, that, and I say delegate, it doesn't just mean to your assistant, right? I mean, a lot of people have an assistant and that's the first person you go to. I think delegation to other people within your company and finding out, I think Steve Jobs even said it, right? You hire people that have a skill set that you don't and then you give them that work and you trust them to do it.

Right? We said that earlier with hiring somebody to do your social media. I'm not great with paperwork, right? So I have some people on my team and I can just call them and say, look, here's all the data, here's the stuff. You make it look pretty, please compile it, please fill out these applications and then shoot it back to me. And it's great because you have a couple of sets of eyes, not only is it done for me, but it's a couple of sets of eyes to review it and proofread it. So delegation is cues. I would say a couple hacks are also good reading material, right? I'm always grabbing snippets of articles.

I'm looking to basically surround myself with bits of information, whether it's financial, personal, you know, a mindset is huge. There's a book out there called Mindset, The New Psychology of Success. Because if you don't have the right mindset, you're not going to get anywhere, right? We all know that. There's another book that I've been reading, and I read it at the beach this last year, And it's called Love Does. It's a personal read by Bob Goff, but it's a mindset expander talking about, going forth into the world and doing everything you do from your personal to your business, to how you treat your employees, to even how you treat the person down the street that maybe was involved in a car accident with love, like looking at it through a different lens.

That was a game changer for me. It made me feel like I wanted to go out into the world and treat everybody with more love. And it's hard. It's hard to do that because there's a lot of negativity and the news is there and we're being bombarded with stuff day in and day out. I turn off the TV now more than I ever have. I dial into the financial channels, I dial into what I need to know, you know, and then it's off. I turn it off. I don't want the noise. So turning off the noise helps you to be in your mind and think a little bit more clearly as well.

12:17 – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate those hacks. And I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:28 – Jenevieve Lenz

Ooh, that's a good one. Hop into a time machine and tell my younger business self. I would say to find those people who exude confidence and that you can see a positive trend, right? The people that are not the naysayers that say that it won't work, right? There's plenty of them out there. I think people that I talked to that start their own companies, some of the worst people to get advice from are family members, right? They don't have confidence that it's going to work out. They don't want to see you get hurt. I think that's an issue, right? So think outside the box. Don't talk to family members.

I know you're going to want to and they're going to want to know what you're doing. But if you have an interest in an industry like I did when I was a kid, and I knew I wanted to be involved with business owners, but I didn't necessarily want to run a restaurant or country end even though I loved cooking and baking and I love the whole hospitality aspect, but that wasn't for me. I didn't see myself. So I went and I actually found the top advisor at Merrill Lynch at the time and his name is Bob. And I said, Bob, I need to talk to you. I think some things are going wrong with my family.

There's an inherited assets that aren't, there's something wrong. I can just feel it in my bones. And he became the best advocate and best partner that I had. So I wish I knew that earlier. I wish I knew that, you know, 5, 10 years earlier than when I found it. I think every high school kid or college kid that might be listening to this or a parent that's listening to it that has kids of that age, find a mentor, find a good mentor in the space that your child or yourself is interested in. Just grab hold to their coattails and let it fly.

13:56 – Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So Jenevieve, what does this being a CEO mean to you?

14:05 – Jenevieve Lenz

CEO means chief executive officer. I know that. But to me, CEO means being chief in your own mind, right? Chief idea generator, chief hospitality. I feel, because that's my background, right? I was waiting tables when I was 9 years old, you know, people don't need to know that you have all the answers and you don't, right, none of us have all the answers. They just need to know that you care. That's that's that They need to know that you care, and the rest will take care of itself.

14:34 – Gresham Harkless

That's extremely powerful. And my favorite, One of my favorite quotes I say is, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think that speaks directly to what you just said as being an understanding that you'll find a way because you have a person's best interest at heart. Whether like you said, you're waiting tables or you're running a company or you're anything in between showing that you're caring and having people's best interest at heart is so huge.

So I love that you mentioned that as your definition. I love that you embody that and do that with your clients as well. And I truly appreciate that and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:14 – Jenevieve Lenz

Thanks, Gresh. Well thanks again everyone for joining us today. It was a pleasure to be interviewed by you, Gresh. I love your energy. I think that's one of the things that we first attracted to each other wanting to have a conversation. I do look forward to doing a run in the snow with a hot cocoa or something, if that's up in the air. No, how to get ahold of me? I'm in the Ruston, Virginia area, but I'm licensed in 8 states. So you can either call me at 375-8040. So that's area code 7 of 3, of course, 703-375-8040. My email address, I'm sure Gresh will share it after the show. But if you need to, you can just go to the first financial group. And I'm one of the advisors that's listed there under the rest in office. I welcome questions, I welcome emails, and I'm on LinkedIn as well. So link in with me. And that's probably the best way for us to connect and find some time to spend together.

16:03 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you so much, Jenevieve We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes, and I'm definitely looking forward to that run with Hot Coco, and maybe lots and lots of bundles of clothes as well too. So I appreciate you again so much, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:17 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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