My Story

At a young age I knew I wanted to be a business man. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew an accounting degree would give me a great education and understanding of how businesses work.

So, in 1995, I decided to go to The University of Toledo (UT) and study accounting. Four years later I decided to start my career in public accounting. I was anxious to start working and putting my education to use. After receiving offers from several accounting firms I chose a local firm that was close to my hometown.

May of 1999 was a big month for me. I graduated from UT, sat for the CPA exam, and started my career as an auditor at the Findlay, Ohio CPA firm Pry CPA Services.

Two months later I married Amy, my high school sweetheart. In August I finally got the letter I had been waiting for all summer long. It was the letter with the results from the CPA exam.

I was shocked to find out that I passed the CPA exam on my first try! That was the moment I realized that discipline and hard work really does pay off.

Graduating from college was a big accomplishment, but passing the CPA exam on the first try was by far the biggest accomplishment of my career at that point. I spent many nights and weekends preparing for that moment. All while going to school and working as an accounting intern.

So, my career in auditing had begun and was well underway. Not long after I got my CPA test results, I started to realize that I really didn’t like auditing. I couldn’t quite figure out why, and I began to wonder if my accounting degree was wasted, or if I had made the wrong career choice.

I remember coming home Friday nights and telling Amy that I had thoughts about selling cars and dreaming of owning my own dealership (that’s the entrepreneur in me). Growing up I was around cars a lot. I spent many summer vacations at car shows with my dad. I learned a lot about cars and could tell you anything about them. Cars were part of my DNA, so why not sell them? Certainly that would be more fun than accounting, right?

Well, I wasn’t quite ready to give up, so I kept my auditing job.

One day towards the end of 1999, Nik Pry, the owner of the CPA firm invited me to lunch. He began to tell me about personal financial planning. As Nik explained exactly what that was I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do. I resonated with the idea of helping someone identify their most important life goals and then create a plan to help them achieve them.

Nik and his partner, Chuck Stumpp, would soon give me the opportunity to work with them to start a financial planning firm within the CPA firm. At the end of 1999 we began this new venture, and I transitioned out of auditing and into financial planning. I obtained my  CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification in 2002.

I will forever be grateful for Nik and Chuck. They gave me an opportunity that I would later discover was the seed for my life’s passion. They opened the door to a career that I now love. They taught me a lot about business as well as the technical side of financial planning.

The Entrepreneurial Bug

While I was at the CPA firm I had the opportunity to manage a few accounts, but I could see that it was going to be a long time before I could manage money at the scale that I wanted.

I can understand why. I was 25 years old with 3 years of experience. The partners at the CPA firm had spent years building a strong reputation in the community. Why would they want to put that at risk by taking a chance on a 25 year old?

If I made a big mistake, not only would it affect the financial planning business, but our clients were also clients of the CPA firm. There could be many unintended consequences if something went wrong.

In 2002, I was hit with the entrepreneurial bug. I discovered that I was really interested in the asset management side of financial planning.

At the time we were partnering with other firms who were managing our clients’ money. Investment management was the most fascinating part of the business to me, and I was ready to give it a shot.

In August of 2002 I decided it was time to venture out on my own.

So, I started Freedom Financial Solutions, now known as Hixon Zuercher Capital Mananagement, out of a bedroom in our house.

In April of 2003 my business partner, Tony Hixon, joined me. We continued to work out of my house until November of 2003 when we opened our offices in Findlay, Ohio.

Today, our team serves over 300 families and we manage around $300 million of client assets.

Futuristic Strength

I’ve learned a lot over the past 20 years. Most importantly, I’ve discovered that helping people win with their money is a big motivator for me. I love showing people how to get from where they are today to where they want to be in their ideal future.

It didn’t take me long to discover why I wasn’t happy as an auditor. I wasn’t leveraging my strengths.

One of the Top 5 themes from my StrengthsFinder assessment is being Futuristic. According to StrengthsFinder:

People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

They also say this about someone like me:

The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow…You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions…In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future…People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.

And that is precisely why I do what I do.

I am energized by, and love thinking about, the future.

I am inspired by what could be, and like to imagine how to make things better.

I am motivated by a big vision, and I naturally get excited when I’m around other visionary thinkers.

I have the ability to dream big and imagine the future in remarkable detail.

I love to show people how to intentionally strive to transform possibilities into reality so that the future is always better than the past.

Finding my “why”

 My “why” is to inspire others to live with intention and achieve more than they ever thought possible.

I do this by:

• Helping you see a vision for your future that is bigger and better than your past.
• Sharing the knowledge I’ve gained through my own experience.
• Showing you solutions to the problems that are holding you back from your best financial life.

My family

I have been married to my wife, Amy, for 23 years. We have two daughters, Avery and Nyla, and one son, Jax. We live in Findlay, Ohio.

I love spending time with my family, especially if it’s hanging out on the beach, boating, or just enjoying good food together. I enjoy reading business, leadership, and investing books. I am committed to a healthy lifestyle and love being outdoors. On the weekends, we attend CedarCreek Church.

Let’s Connect on Social Media

If you’re on any of the following social media platforms, please connect with me there: