The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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The Alimond Show
Cortney Heykoop Owner of Clover Leaf Wealth Strategies
Can wealth management be both a calling and a comfort? Our latest guest, the compassionate founder of Cloverleaf Wealth Strategies, doesn't just believe so—they're proof. A financial advisor with a golden heart, they've tailored their services to support families with special needs, inspired by their own child's journey with autism. Throughout the episode, we unravel the personal narrative behind the firm's creation, their steadfast navigation through the ebbs and flows of a global pandemic, and the resurgence of community connections as we emerge into a post-COVID reality.
Striking a balance between entrepreneurship and family life is no small feat, especially when your child has special needs. Our guest takes us through their evolution from the corporate realm to photography and back to finance, culminating in the conception of a firm that offers the flexibility that a parent in their situation so deeply requires. Selling a thriving photography business and weathering shifts in the finance industry, they share the profound importance of support systems, the gift of quality time, and the adjustments necessary for nurturing a special needs child, while also nurturing a burgeoning business.
Finally, we peer into the future, contemplating the longevity of a business and the legacy left behind. It's about more than just financial planning—it's about building a sustainable entity that can thrive beyond the original visionary. Our guest opens up about succession strategies, the cultivation of internal talent, and potential mergers, all while fostering a philosophy of embracing life's challenges and finding joy in the now. This episode is an exploration of perseverance, planning, and the profound gratitude that comes with creating a business that not only serves the present but is poised to support future generations.
What's in the necklace? This is a locket my husband got me on our honeymoon and it is my two grandmothers oh. That's so precious and so sweet of him too. I originally had my two kids Because we had to, and then five years later we had a surprise. So it's like I can't fit three in here anymore, so I switched it to my I.
Speaker 2:Such it to my grandmother's. Oh sweet, tell me a little bit about your business.
Speaker 1:So I own clover leaf. Well, strategies were. The easiest thing is I'm a financial advisor, so I help people do their financial plans. They're investing, college savings, retirement planning, all of that. But what my Super power is, or my my niche, is working with families with special needs. So my middle child we adopted when she was two and she's on the autism spectrum. And when I started my firm five years ago, it's working with a coach and she was like what do you need a niche? I was like I don't need to know, just need clients.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't care, you know what, what the niche is. And a little bit later I was going through, like my list of clients and contacts. And when you start, when I started my business, I was starting from scratch. I didn't own my client base at that time, so I was starting over and most of the people that I was bringing on were Families in my immediate circle my network right and those were other families like mine, with special needs, and they were coming to me because they were like our financial advisor doesn't really understand how Social security works for our child, or they don't understand the Medicaid waivers, or, you know, they say we need a special needs trust, but what really is that? And they don't have. They don't have the supports for us.
Speaker 1:And I knew all that because I live it. You know I can tell somebody how to apply for a Medicaid waiver for their child or social security for their child, because I've done that process myself. It's not I'm reading in a textbook to to do it. So you know I was sitting there looking at my client list and realized that, oh wait, I, I already have a niche. I do have a market that is unique to me. And that's kind of when I really decided this is going to be the mission of cloverleaf wealth, that we're going to primarily be in business to serve financial needs of special needs families. So that's kind of how we we started before we kind of got our, our real mission, I guess. Yeah, and it was five years ago in September.
Speaker 2:So and how's that house? How's it been going since then?
Speaker 1:Pretty good, yeah, you know COVID kind of changed everything for everybody, right. So you know, in your first two years of business you have this, you know pretty hopefully pretty Upward sloping trajectory. That was going along good and then COVID hit. And for people my profession COVID was not really a negative. People's books of businesses kept growing, took off, People were able to build on referrals, but my main book of clients wasn't big enough at that point to really have organic growth. So I plateaued for about two years and then have finally last year, really started to kick off again.
Speaker 1:So it's not like COVID was bad for me, it just slowed things down. I mean there's a lot of people in industries that were really seriously negatively impacted. Luckily I was able to keep constant, but it's nice to be moving forward and growing and having those milestones. So you know that you want to check off in those first few years of business.
Speaker 2:For sure In terms of when things started picking back up. What do you think was the biggest factors in that?
Speaker 1:For me it's being able to be out in the community. Like I said, my book wasn't big enough to kind of grow organically just from referrals inside itself. So I really need to be out in the community, networking with people and meeting new people to keep my name out there and also to bring in more clients and more people. So once restrictions were lifted and networking started again and that's when it really kind of picked back up for me. Have you done social media, seth? I do so. I have a pretty heavy presence on social media. We post daily. I'm a bit restricted in my industry. Everything I post has to be approved and we're also limited Like I can't do TikToks and like my daughter keeps telling me, mom, you should be doing these TikToks and that would be great to have, like something that pops up. You know, little financial tidbits and advice, things like that. But I'm restricted to Facebook, twitter, linkedin and Instagram which is not bad.
Speaker 2:Can you hire your daughter to like be an ambassador?
Speaker 1:Oh, all my kids work for the company. 14 years old work permit, so actually my 13 year old. She does my scanning and my shredding for me. That's the money she uses for Sephora. Oh of course.
Speaker 2:Plus, you know all the tax laws and all the how to make your money work for you, so I hope you're putting it to use yourself as well.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, oh, yes, yeah. So you know 50% of my client basis special needs families, but the other 50% are small businesses. So, yes, I advise my clients. You know of those types of strategies how to pay your kids, how to keep things that you can do to keep your taxes low, things you can do to help create wealth and generational wealth and succession of your business. So, yeah, those little tax strategies, I use them for myself too.
Speaker 2:Well, and you should Anytime anyone I've heard you know well, don't take advantage of the tax system. And I'm like, wait, no, that's why these are created. That's why these laws have been put into place. Yes, For you to take advantage of them. The problem is is most people aren't educated about them. They don't know they even exist, so they think it's wrong. For the people that do, it's like, no, no, you've seen a good education. You need a good support system around you.
Speaker 1:It's guiding you through it. Good, trusted advisors Right, I mean I never. I never advise breaking the law and I don't really like even working too far into that gray area, because I know in tax there's some gray area. You know I prefer to keep things nice and clean, but use what you can to the greatest extent that you can. Yeah Is for sure. My son's actually studying broadcast and so he had a podcast studio set up in our basement all summer long and I was like at the end of the summer he's tearing it down. I should have shot some shows in here, heck, yeah, you should have Put on my video, but I never, you know like six percent.
Speaker 2:When he's getting it set back up, you're like, yeah, so I'll take it down until I've recorded a few episodes.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you know. Or some videos that I can put up on social media throughout the year, for sure, exactly. But you know, life gets busy, gets in the way and never got around to it, so you guys get taken down.
Speaker 2:So, in talking about life getting busy, who are you outside of building and running this business?
Speaker 1:I'm a mom, you know, in kind of preparing for today, as I said to my husband, so what's my biggest success? And he laughed, he's like me. I was like, well, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:But scoring him or raising him? No, okay, raising him.
Speaker 1:Raising him yeah, not not scoring him, it's the raising him part. But I'm a mom, you know. So you know I run my business and part of the reason I went independent was so that I had the flexibility in my schedule. Especially with a special needs child there's additional doctor's appointments and therapies and all of that and being able to work my business life around my personal life. But you know, I turn off the computer at night and I get in the car and I taxi and run carpool and I'm lucky enough with my younger one that I can appreciate it much more with my first two.
Speaker 1:So I have two 19 year olds and a 13 year old and with my first two it was we were just such in the thick of it Gini pigs, yeah. And now it's like I'm running carpool, but like I'm enjoying it. I'm using that time to be like, okay, kids. So what happened in school today, you know? Like to give me all the scoop, you know, and really trying to soak up all those last few years with them home, you know. But I think being a mom is probably the biggest defining mom and an entrepreneur. But big, with big, big time. Most of my time is spent with my family.
Speaker 1:What do you guys do on the weekends we have a place up at Deep Creek. Okay, my family doesn't really like the winter, snow skiing, that type of thing, but you know, come May through and to September, as many weekends as we can get up there. Yeah, we're on the water, do you?
Speaker 2:Airbnb it like when you're not there.
Speaker 1:No, my mom is retired now, so she's there pretty much Live in life. Yes, yes, yeah, so that's her place in. She comes down here, of course, whenever we need her. There's an event that she wants to be with us, and the grandkids and my brother's family is close by, so you've got the support system, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's nice In terms of like before. So I know you said five years ago is when you started your business. Is that correct? Okay, Before that, what were you doing?
Speaker 1:So I started. I started. My most of my career has been in finance, so I worked for Chevy Chase Bank, which then became Capital One, and when I left Capital One, I actually I left them when they were Chevy Chase Bank because we adopted Lily and I thought I should be home full time, and so I left the bank and I actually started photography company. It was one of the first in Loudoun to do on location photography Really and sold sold that off five years later Because it or seven years later. At that point I had myself two other photographers, an office manager, a photography assistant. How many years ago was this 2016,?
Speaker 2:I sold it, okay so I was here, Thank you photography. Where were you at? Do you have an actual space or had it on location? Well, I said it was on location but I did.
Speaker 1:For the last year I had a studio up in Luckets and an old. It was in an old store on Luckets Road but it just had. When I started it it was great because I'd be home with kids during the day and I'd shoot in the evenings and weekends and then by the time my my daughter was in preschool, I was working all day running the business and growing the business and then I was shooting nights and weekends and I was now missing soccer and I was missing ballet and I was missing all that.
Speaker 2:Which you had a team I did. Okay so it was just that everybody was like out there we're busy and I'm doing all the events.
Speaker 1:And still I shot as much as I could because I make more money if I'm the one shooting than if I'm delegating it out. So yeah, but so I decided my husband was like calculate your, your wage, how much do you make per hour?
Speaker 2:Like three dollars an hour?
Speaker 1:Yes, so I did that for the month of May and I never gave him my answer. Yeah, some of his business. And I walked into the first of June. I walked into a branch at Chevy Chase which was now Capital One, and I said to the manager, who I was friends with. I was like, hey, what, what positions are open? And she told me and I I had had a very good history with the bank and was was a top performer when I left and so I called it was a new manager. I was like, hey, you don't know me from Adam, but trust me, you want to hire me. Yeah, here's my resume. So that was in June. I started with them in August and I was there for a year.
Speaker 1:But the banking had really changed. You know, when I was there before I was a financial advisor as well as branch manager and I had a territory of a bunch of branches, so I was out moving around. I was not stuck in a branch all the time. Plus, I had a huge staff. Now most of us bank on our phones. We don't go into the bank very often. You know, I went from doing thousands of transactions a day to hundreds a week when I went back. It was. It was not the same environment. I didn't have as much stimuli plus as a special needs mom. It was really hard trying to like I'd get the call from school, I'd get the call from the doctor. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And so it's kind of dead. Can I pop out for a minute? Yeah?
Speaker 1:So after a year I my location was closing and it was OK, do I go with financial services with them or business banking with them? I mean, I had done everything in my tenure at the bank, from the personal to lending to investing. So I had a pretty good background and at that point I was like I want to do the financial services and I went actually with New York Life instead. So I took the severance from Capital One, started with New York Life. I was there for two years and then started Cloverleaf, but I didn't need the infrastructure that was New York Life. Yeah, and I also wanted to to be independent, meaning I didn't want to have any proprietary products. That I think in a fiduciary world it is really hard to look your client in the eye and saying I'm making the best recommendation to you when I have proprietary products that I have to favor, right Like it creates some conflicts there that I personally had trouble navigating. So I started my own firm and never look back. It's been five years now.
Speaker 2:Five years since. Ok, so it sounds like your whole career has been around money, for the most part. Yes, besides that photography center, which?
Speaker 1:you know, but in starting that business, and also in starting Cloverleaf. It taught me so much about running a business and what my now clients are going through.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so it, in a way, was still around finance, because running a business is not so funny, right, right. So I think it helped when I say to my clients I can really give you a holistic, comprehensive view and be that financial sounding board to bounce ideas and thoughts off of. I feel that I can honestly say that because I have opened a credit card for a client, I've done mortgages and commercial loans and I've done 401 K's and I've done a savings account for an infant, you know so and everything in between.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no, that's great, yeah, no that's great that you have so much knowledge and background.
Speaker 1:One of those rare people that actually do what they went to school for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you went to school to be in the finance. Yeah, what's your?
Speaker 1:degree in my degrees in international economics and finance. Okay, I wanted to work for the CIA. Honestly, yeah, nothing to do with the finance part was just because that's the only way at my school I could get the international econ degree. But by the time I I graduated four years later. You know, priorities change and I Actually my first job I was in a Developmental program with Sears, so Sears had me in seven states and three in like the last year of college and the couple years right after, and then I left them to work for the bank. So pretty much most of my career has been banking, finance related.
Speaker 2:Wow, what's what's been one of the biggest struggles you've had overall when it comes to your business. Now like navigating everything.
Speaker 1:Gaining clients. You know, just getting prospects in the door and getting my name out there because you know it's that Money comes in and how much do you put back into your business through marketing and things like that versus how much do you use to live off of right. So I made the decision early on to Grow through referrals and networking and social media and not a lot of paid advertising.
Speaker 2:Which is hard.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is right, it's very hard. It's a lot more.
Speaker 2:It's a lot more boots on the ground right, yeah, unless you get like a viral hit somewhere you know.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah, it is, so my growth is probably been slower that way.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. We're not a more qualified people that way too, though.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean I don't get a lot of Junk tire kickers.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I mean people will call you know, call in, you know we're interviewing three financial advisors like that I'm 100% okay with because you know. But I don't get people who call and they're really just not interested moving forward. Right, usually people aren't connected with or wanting to do whatever. But in a lot of it I always tell people like you have to interview because you need the right fit. There needs to be good chemistry, there needs to be a good connection. You know it's. You don't want to pick a financial advisor just Because that's the first one you called. Right, you need somebody that you're talking about your money with. Right, like for a lot of people, that's a very personal topic. Yeah, so you need to have somebody you're comfortable with.
Speaker 2:And who knows what they're doing? Yes, there's a lot of people in the industry. Yes, there are a lot that are brush out of college and which don't have an experience early back how the experience.
Speaker 1:You know. But if they're with a good Like, they have a good mentor or they have a good you know group or they're with a support system, that that doesn't necessarily always turn me off right, because they're, they might have fresh ideas too, they might have different perspectives, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't want fresh ideas with my money. Like you, give me the tried and true like yes, there's different risk levels?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, there are, and it it really comes down, I think, to who you're most comfortable with, true, and who you have that relationship with, because a lot of my clients that have been with me for five years or have Followed me from New York life or from Capital One, I I've had people who found me right and I know who they are. I know they're kids, I know they're grandkids like or at least I feel like I know them because I know so much about them, right they, you have that connection, right, if I think.
Speaker 2:If you don't have that strong relationship with the person who's managing your money and Giving you that advice, it's not You're not gonna trust them when they say this thing, or you're gonna over question things when it's like you should just be able to trust your advisor they're advising you, right right or, you know, if they don't fully trust, are they not telling me the truth?
Speaker 1:You know, if we're talking about spending, we're talking about preferences, of what we want life to look like. Yeah, I'm I getting. Am I getting the true answer right, or the full picture?
Speaker 2:like they might just be giving you like a little sliver of it, because I don't want to reveal all this other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and you know it's not normal for, or it's not Unnormal for clients to have assets with Multiple people or different places.
Speaker 1:You know, usually your 401k is not with your financial advisor, you know things like that. But I at least having the trust to be able to say, okay, I have this over here and this is why, or I have. You know, I wasn't really honest with how much we spend per month, right? Usually that comes out in the wash, right? You know, after a couple of years of working with financial play and I'm like wait, we don't have as much money left at the end of the year as we think we are. But you know, just being able to have that frank, open discussion is really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it won't happen if there's no comfort or trust there.
Speaker 1:So bringing new clients in is definitely one of the biggest challenges for me but, I think, one that I wasn't expecting when I started the company was managing cash flow. Especially in my industry, not everything is consistent. What do you mean by that? So I am not 100% fee based. So the big keywords in my industry are fiduciary and fee based. I'm not fee based because I sell life insurance. Special needs families need life insurance.
Speaker 1:I'm very well versed in life insurance from my time in New York life and previously at Capital One. So I still sell life insurance, which is a commission product, and investments are usually based off of a set fee, so they're more fee based. But 529 plans are still a commission product. So there's some things that I do that are not fee based, that are commissioned. So with the commission it's not as steady. It has peaks on it.
Speaker 1:And with the fee based, you have to build right. Well, I started out the business was zero, so 1% of assets under management of zero is zero right. So in trying to kind of build that up to a sustainable level and you make sure that it's enough coming in to cover the bills and the expenses and all that, I think there's a long with running a business. I don't think I had a very good idea of how long it would take to get to that point of consistency, and maybe that was also impacted by COVID, right Like things slowed down for me, but I was hoping cash flow would be like more constant and predictable than it was.
Speaker 2:I'm finally at the point where I feel like it's predictable and I'm you know About five year mark, right, yep, and you're still here, I am, I am, yeah, no, that's amazing. So just kind of wrap things up. Thanks for sharing that, because I think that is a really big struggle. Two things that I've heard from a lot of guests here on this podcast is hiring good team members and the training and the keeping them excited, the culture piece of it, and then also, obviously, that cycle of clients.
Speaker 2:You know just whether it's keeping clients if it's a if your business is based on reoccurring you know type of where you're every month having the same clients. So either keeping those or attracting new clients if your model is based.
Speaker 1:You're still growing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's based off that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so the hiring piece right now it's just me and my office manager, and my office manager is also my best friend, so it's a great relationship. But this year I'm looking to grow. I'm hoping to bring on another advisor and potentially acquire another book of business from a retiring advisor. Yeah, and so by doing that, you know kind of escalate our growth, and so those are the things I'm looking at for 2024, you know, like how it's easy to kind of build a corporate culture when it's just me and my best friend, right, but how do I expand that? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:When it's somebody who doesn't know and love you already. Exactly, exactly, and before we extra wrap, I want to ask one question. Now. You said it's a little bit of a selfish question you said that when you closed down your photography business, you sold it. Is that correct? How did you go about for small business owners listening, how did you go about selling a service-based business?
Speaker 1:Yes, so I sold my equipment. You know, I mean I kept my favorite camera but, yeah, Most of my equipment I sold to the other photographers that were working with me and also my client base, and it wasn't really a big transactional sale, Got it? It was more of exchange. You know, like they're helping me out to, you know, wrap things up in this last year and in exchange, here's my client base Got it, got it got it.
Speaker 1:So I didn't have a brokered sale in as much as I'm hoping to have a brokered purchase this year, right, yeah, which is? I mean, I'm still in a service industry, right? Different than photography, of course, but with my book now, there's a monetary value associated with it, and that was one of the driving forces for wanting to establish my own business is that when I retire, I want to be able to either have somebody within my organization that's my preference to have grown clover leaf so that it continues on after me, but that there's somebody there that can buy me out, right, or do what I'm looking to do right now and in purchasing another firm that I can fold into mine, which is smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what all service business owners should be looking at. But it's really hard and difficult when it's just you by yourself, working for 10, 20, 30 years. It is.
Speaker 1:And there's a portion of your business that is you right and that doesn't have a tangible value. People can't really buy that Like I can sell my book now. Of this is how much revenue it generates and hopefully you're able to maintain it and keep it and grow it. But it's a little different when it's a plumber or a photographer or somebody that they're expecting you to show up.
Speaker 2:Show up Plumper or camera in hand. Yes, so if you had to give one last message to the world, what would that be?
Speaker 1:Just overall, just kind of a my favorite quote is life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain, and I try to live by that. Like, you've got to be present. You got to figure out how to make what's going on today happy and be grateful for today, because storm might not pass. So, especially with special needs families, the storm might not pass. How are we gonna live in it? Like, how are we gonna make the most of this? How are we gonna enjoy it? How are we gonna be grateful for it?
Speaker 2:That's, I'm sure, very impactful for somebody who's gone through it, as you're saying it to another family who's probably yeah, it takes on a little different vibe, I think, for families like mine.
Speaker 1:Yesterday it poured in my house. Today the sun was out. It was like wait what happened, but you just don't know and what each day is gonna bring, but you got to enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a little twisty foot in there got me thinking where you said sometimes the storm just might not pass and that's yeah, yeah, yep. Thank you so much for being on this show.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Sharing so many amazing insights and a little bit about your story. Thank you, of course.