Frank Dixson’s Blog

Tuesday was even better than Monday which I didn’t think was possible. We went to Rangers stadium and we were able to visit with the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations over lunch. He showed us the ins and outs of the Baseball business, and shared with us key management strategies. I was able to learn the aspects of press involvement with major league baseball games, which was exciting. Also, we were walked through the routine that the players go through, from suiting up to warming up, to hitting the field. It was a great experience and showed me a real life version of baseball as you see it on the TV and in the Movies and have always imagined it. We also visited the Arlington Cowboys Stadium which was huge. Massive. Very Large in Size. You could fit the Statue of Liberty inside of it, as well as the American Airlines center that we had visited. The seating ranged from three feet below, yes below, field level to three hundred and fifty feet above it. Our main contact in Dallas, Eric Sudol, was amazing and showed us the ins and outs of every corner of the stadium and shared with us as much of the business model as he could. We we able to see club rooms and locker rooms and all sorts of cool things like the private areas for press and owners. We ended the day by heading back to the Rangers ball pack to watch them face off against the Chicago Whitesox. The game was great, with the home team pulling a win out 4-2 to make the perfect end to the perfect trip. Thank you so much Berry Center for helping with our trip!

Monday was a great day, and we saw a lot. We started it pretty early, and enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop after getting ready was the American Airlines center, which is the home arena of the Texas professional Hockey and Basketball teams, the Stars and the Mavericks. The American Airlines center was really cool to see, and was set up for the playoff games the Mavericks were scheduled to play that night. We were guided around and got to talk about many of the business aspects related to the stadium, and the extra two-hundred million put into the Arena to make it so slick. We then headed to the home of the Frisco Roughriders, the Dr. Pepper ballpark. It was loaded with great feature that would make it a popular attraction for the average consumer, such as playground for smaller children and a “pool-zone” for baseball enthusiasts looking to cool off. We learned about how they can offer a different experience than the Texas Rangers by offering different aspects of the supporting context surrounding the experience. After we learned about the non-profit aspects of the Frisco Roughriders business model, we walked to the Stars center as learned about the prospects of a career is the Sporting Business. For dinner we ate with several alums present in the areas around Texas and they shared with us advice on life after college and the stories of their experiences and how they came to be who they are today.

       My internship at AG Edwards / Wachovia Securities lasted ten weeks and was the highlight of my summer. I learned much about finance and investing, as well as selling and prospecting. During the Internship I was spent time prospecting for clients through mailers and cold-calling, I attended proposals made my wholesalers and office lunches. I attended and assisted with business seminars and motivational presentations. It was a productive life experience that gave me a new perspective on the professional world.

       It also led me to further appreciate my time here at Cornell College in a new way. Courses at Cornell, even the ones not centered around finance and business prepared me for this internship in a big way. More than teach me facts, they have taught me how to learn and gave me the skills I needed to hit the ground running in a field I knew very little about.

       On July 26th I traveled to the Lenox St. Biaggio’s to help one of the brokers set up a Lunch Seminar on preparations for retirement. This particular Italian restaurant is located in a premier business district and has an entire floor set aside for private events such as business seminars like we were there to use it for. While the broker set up his powerpoint presentation, I set up the registration table and organized the room, placing a set of handouts on each chair, (as the tables had already been set). As people came upstairs for the seminar I took down their information and we were able to start the presentation promptly at our scheduled time.

       The presentation focused on steady, low-risk assets with consistent return. The broker giving the presentation had invited many of the people present there personally, having worked along side them in his previous profession. He was able to inform and layout his pitches in a very smooth, connecting manner, that really pulled in the audience. It was a big change from the different types of client prospecting that I was used to, such as mailers and cold-calling. It was very educational, and not just about Roth IRA’s and alternate portfolio arrangement, but about communication, about the benefits of knowing your audience, and knowing what’s important to them, and understanding why they are sitting in front of you in the first place.

       When I came in that day my security check had not yet come through. This meant that I couldn’t have done much around the office because I was not authorized to deal with any privileged information. So they started me with some client prospecting tasks. I was supplied with a registry list of prospective clients and constructed some informational mailers which I then sent out. I transitioned between prospecting for clients through these mailers and “cold-calling” them. “Cold-calling”, is the process of calling up people out of the blue, and striking up a conversation with the hopes of unearthing their investment situation and determine whether or not they are looking to improve it. If they are looking for an investment broker to help them out then you either send them something through the mail, or try to bring them in for a consultation.

       I will admit that it was difficult, calling up random people and inquiring as to their financial situation, and sometimes the work could be very disheartening. Usually the people I wound up talking to were secretaries who were screening for calls just like mine, and given all the time I spent “cold-calling” I would say that I actually talked to maybe 1 out of every five people i called. Of those approximate twenty percent of people who I was able to reach, I encountered only three different responses. About half of the people were willing to talk and see what was what, while the other half was either busy-friendly or busy-rude, which is to say they were too busy to talk and weren’t always polite about it. I didn’t really blame them, and I don’t think they were bad people. Afterall, it made sense to assume that if I could get ahold of their number, as well as a brief informational rundown as to what line of work they were in, other prospectors could too. All of those secretaries weren’t screening for ex-wives or con-artists, but for people just like me, who needed clients for their business. Over the next three months, I came to “cold-call” often, and while I became rather comfortable with it over time, to say that I enjoyed that aspect of the internship might be toeing the line that separates truth from untruth.

       Today I walked into the AG Edwards firm first thing in the morning. Tibby DeJulio, my supervisor was not there yet, so I took a seat in the lobby and waited for him. This we when I realized that in my determination not to be late for my first day I had gotten there pretty early. When Tibby came in he led me to his office and ran though a lot of initial procedures. I remember that he came across as a little intimidating and at first, and I was already pretty nervous. He told me that he had set me up to shadow one of his younger advisors, and that his assistant would hook me up with a place to work and get me started on some introductory stuff for the week until my authorization came through.

       As part of my internship was going to involve handling sensitive information, (client account numbers and such) I would have to get drug-tested and finger-printed as well as have my background checked and approved by the firm and that i would have to get that approval. I had worn my best, and only, suit that day, hoping to make a good impression and make up for the fact that I had been a little underdressed when I had interviewed with him over the winter break. (all up my dress clothes were at still at school due to poor planning on my part). At the end of the meeting he told me that the suit jacket would stand out as it was summer time, and quite hot out and that a button-down shirt and tie would be sufficient.

         I took a tour around the office and then drove downtown to get take my drug test and get finger-printed, processes that finished up my work day.