Background of Jeremy & Drew
Listen to the Podcast Here: 2. Background of Jeremy & Drew
How Drew & Jeremy Met
In the same way that most business partners typically meet, we met in college at Indiana State University through the club bass fishing team. (That was sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it. But that’s really how we met.) We both enjoy the outdoors and fishing and we both were individually recruited to join the club bass fishing team at ISU – we had no idea what we were in for. Competitive bass fishing isn’t anything like going to your grandparents’ pond and throwing a line in the water. Regardless, that’s how we met, and we have remained good friends ever since.
Jeremy’s Background
I’m from a smallish town in Northwest Indiana called Schneider, which is a population of probably 234. I grew up in an extremely modest home, and when I say modest, I’m talking a two bed, 800 square foot home for 6 of us.
When you are in a home that small you tend to get really close to the people around you and I formed a pretty tight bond with my brother. He’s 11 years older than I am, so of course I have always looked up to him since I was child. If my brother played football, I had to play football. He wrestled in high school, so I had to wrestle. He loves the outdoors, hunting, and fishing, so of course that’s where my love for those things came from as well.
When I was in 7th grade I moved in with my brother and he kept me pretty active in sports (wrestling & football) during high school, traveling around the country to various camps and competitions. I had some success with sports in high school and was dead set on playing in college but decided last minute it wasn’t for me. (My 6 surgeries in high school were a factor in this decision!)
Instead, I decided to attend Indiana State University and majored in Construction Management, which is an industry that many people in my family work in. The summer after I graduated high school, I worked as a laborer with a small mechanical contracting company, which led to an aha moment for me…working physical labor for the rest of my life was not the way I wanted to go.
During my time at Indiana State, aside from being a part of the bass fishing team, I was the President of Sigma Lamba Chi (a construction honors society), and my junior year I became a member of Kappa Alpha (a social fraternity).
The summer after my junior year at ISU, I worked as a Project Engineer Inter in Austin, Texas, which was a great experience that I feel fortunate to have had. Once I graduated from college, I worked as a Project Engineer at a large construction firm in Chicago and I worked in the industry for over 4 years until I transitioned to financial services.
Drew’s Background
As I like to say, I’m from a cornfield about 35 miles southwest of downtown Indianapolis, called Eminence. My parents’ house is in a woods and their front yard is a cornfield. I graduated high school with 36 kids…from a public school. It’s one of those small, small towns. No stoplight. One stop sign.
I grew up in a lower-middle class, blue-collar family. My mom is a teacher at the school that I went to, and my dad was a mechanic at the county highway department for 35 years until he recently retired. My maternal grandparents owned a dairy and grain farm, and my paternal grandparents owned a small farm with horses. I feel fortunate to have grown up in this type of community and in the family that I did because I learned the values of hard work, discipline, and putting others first.
In high school, I realized that my parents weren’t going to be able to afford to send me to college and that it was going to be up to me to figure it out. I spent hours upon hours filling out scholarship applications, writing essays, and editing those essays with suggestions from my mom (I’m lucky that she’s a teacher and is good at English). One day, I received a scholarship application packet in the mail for the Networks Scholarship at Indiana State University which requires that recipients are business majors.
The scholarship provides full in-state tuition, a $3,000 professional development account, professional development seminars most Thursdays for four years of college, experiential learning, creating and developing professional relationships, and personalized coaching. My mom encouraged me to apply for the scholarship although I felt that I had no chance at being selected for it.
Somehow, I convinced them to pay for my college education. I could not be more grateful for this!
Like many college students, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do entering college, but I thought that I wanted to do something in business.
I had some awesome experiences during my time at Indiana State University. The summer after my freshman year, I studied abroad in Athens, Greece. As I made my way through my freshman and sophomore years, I narrowed down my career interests to operations and supply chain management and finance. I was fortunate to have an internship at a logistics firm in Dublin, Ireland the summer after my sophomore year of college. Living in Dublin for 3 months was a fantastic experience and it helped me to realize that this was not the path that I wanted my career to head.
At the beginning of my junior year of college I learned about a new Financial Planning major at ISU which piqued my interest. I began taking classes for the major and quickly found that this is where my passion lies. Not only does financial planning allow me to help others, but it’s something that I can use to make my own life better as well.
While at ISU, I was involved in a lot of different things. I was, of course, a Scholar in the Networks Professional Development Program, a University Honors student, a Service-Learning Scholar, President of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) student chapter, Member of the Investment Club, and I worked as a Student Assistant in the MISBE department in the business school.
The summer after my junior year of college, I interned at a fee-only wealth management firm in Indianapolis. I worked 3 days per week the final semester of my senior year at the same company and started working full-time once I graduated.
I now live west of Indianapolis with my wife, Amanda, and our golden retriever puppy, Gus. I love traveling (check out my personal bio page for a few pictures), being outside, getting a lift in at the gym before work, and trying new craft beers. Reading what I just wrote, it sounds like I’m the stereotypical Millennial.
Don’t Hesitate to Reach Out!
Interested in learning more about us or having a conversation about something that you read or heard? We’d love to talk.
