How It Started

As my career ended in professional football, my eyes focused on the next chapter in my life.  I also got married to my beautiful wife, a 1st round 1st pick draft wife.  After searching for 11 months to turn the page to the next section, I had been recommended to meet with an Individual financial planning firm on the westside of Indianapolis.  My wife and I started attending College Park and were excited about what the Lord had in store for us.  I made the call and had scheduled an appointment to meet the following week. I had done a little research on the company and learned they were Christians.  My interview went very well that I was hired on the spot to begin work next week.  In this agency model, it is a straight commission and no base salary.  I was not afraid of that structure because I could set my schedule and run it how I want.  I worked in this model for close to 4 years, and things were going ok. It was hard to make money in that structure when the firm takes about 60% of your commission right off the top.  At the firm, several things happened in my life that had increased my relationship with the Lord.  I began to mentor young boys at the local elementary school who needed a positive male figure in their lives.  I took a mission trip through my church to Budapest for ten days.  But the most critical thing that happened was me getting baptized and reaffirming my commitment to Jesus.  My eyes began to see differently than ever before in my life.  I started to change in a way that the firm's president questioned me about why was I mentoring kids during my lunch break?  I told him this is what you are supposed to do when you love the Lord.  If you see a need, you fill it.  Once I returned from the mission trip, I put in my two-week notice to the firm.  The owner came up to me and asked, what was I going to do?  I said I was going to start my firm.  They escorted me out of the building that day. 

The starter of Chaney Financial Group, LLC, in 2004.   The Lord had gotten the wheels moving on the birth of CFG while I was on the mission trip.  He allowed me to meet a person from another church who supported independent agents.  God provided the infrastructure that I would need to be successful.  He also supplied office space in my home to work out of during my transition.  Lastly, he provided my first customer. I got referred to a bank in southern Indiana that a good friend of mine referred me to this customer.  My friend is a former Indy 500 driver who recently retired a few years ago.  The bank was an old sponsor of his in the racing industry.

When I had scheduled the appointment to go and meet with them, I was still on high from sharing the gospel and seeing the Lord work tangibly with the students in Hungary.  I met with the head of the human resource personnel, and she was very polite and friendly.  She said, can you tell me about CFG?  I said sure, and I went on to mention here about our Christian principles and how we honor the Lord in how we treat customers.  I shared with her about the mission trip that I returned from just a few days ago.  She said I have been working for this bank for over 17 years, and that is the second time anyone has openly admitted they are a Christian.  She smiled and said quietly. I'm one too.  The Lord helped me gain a great client to begin the start of CFG.  I want to mention one other thing about this client and what God can do.  The bank had a division in the bank that did the same job I do; they decided to work with CFG.  I was praising Jesus for bringing in that account that was the opportunity we needed to get started.  Lack of participation in retirement was a real issue for the bank.  We felt that visibility and education would help increase the engagement of each of the bank's locations between Indiana and Illinois.  We educated the tellers and executives on their retirement plans and we increased the participation by 25%.  The bank was very pleased with our work and happy about the staff education on their retirement.

The playbook was a critical part of my life while playing sports.  That served a purpose for learning plays and references to help understand concepts.  I created a Chaney Playbook to serve as a tool to gather information and help put together a budget.  I use that vehicle for Business owners and young families to collect data.  It has been an excellent tool for ministries to help get their spending habits under control.