JW Rayhons had an interesting upbringing, moving frequently between Arizona and Iowa with his father and brothers. His dad was a carpenter and worked in construction—which explains all the different moves. There were a lot of different jobs and job sites. All the while, JW dreamed of being in the NBA even though he excelled in baseball.
While professional sports weren’t in the life cards for JW, something much better emerged. Fresh out of MCC and armed with an associate’s degree, JW decided to pursue business ownership. He saw his hardworking father go from job to job in construction and the lack of company loyalty really stood out to him. “I saw hard work with small financial payouts,” he says.
Rayhon’s Financial started in the early 2000’s when JW was only twenty years old. After watching his dad, the moves, the constantly changing job, he started thinking about what it takes to create a lifestyle that you want. That’s what made JW go into financial advising. It wasn’t about the money or becoming the money expert, it was about helping people.
“Ignorance was my greatest asset,” he says, which has become sort of a catchphrase for JW. When he was starting out, he didn’t know all the different “should be-s” of the financial industry. To JW, money wasn’t a motivator. For him, his experience was his motivator, the desire to change what he saw growing up and create a different path. Most of us recognize that money is a tool but to JW, money was the tool that creates the freedom to have the lifestyle you want. At Rayhon’s Financial, the conversation doesn’t start with your financial portfolio, it starts with you.
The lack of loyalty that convinced JW to forge his own path has created a company that starts off with loyalty to his employees. It’s loyalty upfront and hoping for the best. It almost sounds too perfect, but JW invests in his employees through professional development and mentorship, helping others find where their skills, talents, and passions are and connecting them to where they can best utilize them. For JW, relationships are the priority— “relationships are the most important thing.” His favorite thing to do is create the “someday” opportunities for others. It’s the best part of his day to day, creating significant experiences for someone else along with seeing things happen in people’s lives that they didn’t expect or see. “I want more people to know how valuable they really are,” he says. In fact, he plans on sharing these things that make up his favorite parts of his day in a collection of stories in his first book that he is starting to work on.
How does JW avoid burn-out? His faith and his health are what give him strength. Taking time to ride his motorcycle, go to church, making sure to get the workout in, it helps keep him going so he can pour himself out to others.