First Friday Feedback: July 2025

Phil is joined by Cannon Financial Institute’s summer interns: Annabel McCarthy, Kiran Abbott, Reese Oliver, and Zach Zimmerman, for a special edition of First Friday Feedback that celebrates curiosity, growth, and the power of mentorship. From first impressions of working in a professional environment to the creative and personal insights shared in Phil's “Teach Me Something” challenge, this episode highlights how hands-on experience and intentional communication shape the next generation of leaders. Tune in to hear how beaded embroidery, restaurant service, hair styling, and Ryder Cup strategy became unexpected lessons in confidence, connection, and presentation, and why investing in young talent is a win for everyone.

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Transcript

 Hi, I am Phil Buchanan with Cannon Financial Institute. We produce the podcast series Monday Morning Mojo, the Cannon Curve, and Cannon Connect. Each of these podcasts invites listeners to email or text their feedback, comments and questions. They are all answered right here on First Friday feedback. If you're new to our podcast, go ahead and subscribe to all four and get engaged by sharing your perspective. Life is about the journey, so let's go for the ride.

Greetings Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with First Friday feedback for July, 2025, and yes, I am fully aware that today is not Friday. Today is Wednesday, July the second. What a great deal that July 4th constitutes for the entire country. A nice long weekend and I hope that you get out and enjoy your time.

Today is a a, a treasured opportunity for me as the guests on first variety feedback are our summer interns. We have with us today, Kieran Abbott. We've got Annabelle McCarthy, we've got Reese Oliver, and we've got. Zach Zimmerman, these are all students at the University of Georgia. They are dynamic young people, and I think that you're going to see why my confidence in the rising generation is so high when you hear from them.

In just a few minutes, we begin our conversation with Annabel McCarthy. Annabel, welcome to First Friday Feedback. Thank you. So, the, the big question goes out and we know who you are. How old are you, where are you from, and what are you majoring in at Georgia? I am from Atlanta, Georgia, Sandy Springs area.

I'm 22 years old and I'm majoring in advertising. Okay. So how did you wind up coming to us at Cannon? What was the, what was the deal on the internship? How'd you, how'd you learn about it and what was your whole interview process like?

Well, I know a family friend here. Mm-hmm. And they told me about the marketing internship and so I decided to apply and thought it would be beneficial for me to gain some knowledge in the marketing scene and just, you know, at a company in general, it's good to go in and learn about what it's like to work at an office.

So had you done internships before? No. No. It was the first one. So this is the first one.

So this being your first one, what were your expectations and what has the reality been either matching up to those expectations or a tad bit different?

Well, I did think that I would be doing somewhat of busy work, but that was not the case. We jumped right in and I've been working on emails. And then designing things like stationary name tags for the teleconferences. So I guess just jumped right in and I've been learning about. What Cannon's all about.

Well, you've got a lot of our listeners out there right now that are going to say that if you've been working on emails, you have been doing busy work, but these are a lot of our campaigns that that go out. Well, Annabel, it's awesome to have you here. We'll, we'll chat again in just a couple of moments. So let's now bring up Kiran Abbott.

So Kiran Abbott, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you and what are you majoring in at Georgia?

I'm from Coal Mountain, Georgia. I am 22 and I'm majoring in public relations.

Okay, so PR, so what does that look like from an academic standpoint? What was, when you first started out down that journey, what was the dream? What was the vision?

Starting with public relations, I kind of just wanted something that was open-ended and really could take me anywhere I wanted to. ‘Cause I really didn't know what I wanted when I started with it, which is why I am now that I am interning at Cannon. I'm glad that I did public relations because public relations has taught me. A lot of things, but I think the main thing it's honed in on is communication skills. And now that I am working at Canon, working in an office, I think I've really been able to use those skills that I've learned in my major classes and just sharpen them.

Okay. I'm gonna bring up the question to you that I did to, to Annabel: How did you, how did you come to intern with us? How, how did you find out about this? How was the interview process and have expectations match reality? So, honestly. I had never heard of Cannon, and then I came across the job on LinkedIn, applied to it, really didn't think much of it. And then a few weeks later, Rosi called me and I went into the interview being like, I'm so underqualified for this job. Like why would I be working at a financial institute? This is just great interview practice. But then I went in for the interview and it went really well, and Rosi made it sound like, basically the job was mine, and so now here I am.

Okay, so again, the expectations versus reality. What were you expecting, had you done an internship before?

I had never done an internship, and obviously a financial institute sounds very intimidating, especially as someone who is in a more communications-based major. I'm like, I know nothing about finances, so. I was expecting to be it to be a very serious office where no one really laughs, jokes around and just where I would like kind of be directed, what to do. And kind of like Annabel said, doing a lot of busy work. But what I found is that we have a lot of freedom and Sarah and Rosi really wanna cater to what we're interested in. So I found that I've. I learned about a lot about what I am interested in and also just been able to explore things that I hadn't even considered before, like working with podcasts or just more in the financial industry.

Okay, so. Just for our listeners, you have referred to Rosi on a couple of occasions and also to Sarah. Rosi is Rosi Bandy, she's our director of marketing, and Sarah Jones is on our marketing team, but she is the coordinator of all of the, all the internships and they both do a fantastic job. Well, very good. We'll, we'll have some more comments in just a few minutes, Kiran, but let's now hear from Reese Oliver.

Alright, so Reese, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? What are you majoring in at Georgia?

I am from Buford, Georgia. I'm 21 years old and I'm majoring in finance.

Ooh, finance. Okay. So we've, we've had advertising, we've had pr and now we've got, got a number cruncher on our hands. Is that, how did you come to to major in finance?

Well, in high school I always knew that math was my strong suit, and I enjoyed studying for exams by working out problems and problem solving rather than memorization of history or facts. So that's kind of where I landed on finance. My dad's in Finance and does banking, which helped me narrow down that decision.

Got it. Okay. So a lot of influences going on there. How did you, how did you wind up at Cannon? How did, how'd you hear about the internship and how was your interview process?

I. I heard about Cannon through a family friend, and I applied because I'm, you know, looking into a career in the financial services industry, and I just felt like interning here would be a great opportunity to gain more of a hands-on experience and to develop and my professional skills.

So, okay. Well, well cool. So reality versus expectations. Had you done internships before?

Yes, I had interned. Last semester, spring semester of my junior year of college, and I interned at Morgan Stanley. But when I came to Cannon, I knew that this internship was a marketing internship. Mm-hmm. So I felt like more of the stuff I would be doing was marketing, which is not a strong suit of mine, but Sarah had been super helpful throughout the whole internship so far and has really catered to my interest in looking into data and research and doing Excel work, which has been really awesome.

All right. Well, good deal.

Well, again, I've got questions for each of you in the, in the group in just a couple of minutes, but let's bring up Zach Zimmerman.

All right, Phil. Thanks for having me on.

Yes, sir. So Zach, where are you from? How old are you? And you know, what's the major?

Yeah, I'm from Austin, Texas. I'm 19 years old and I'm a finance major.

He's also intending on getting his master's in accounting. Okay. All right. So you're a little bit further away from home than our other three interns coming out of Austin. I'm gonna guess this is probably your first internship company-wide. Yeah, it is. This is my first internship. I'm just coming outta my freshman year of college.

So. Okay, so you're doing something, and you and I have talked about this, that, that I think is very important and that is to use your time when you're not in academic environment to to do internships. Why'd you choose to do an internship between your, your freshman and sophomore year? What was the drive?

I think it's really important to look for things that excite you, but also see ways that you can grow over the summer when you have free time, especially not doing school. I know most people. See the junior to senior year, summer is the most important summer to get an internship, but getting your feet wet was really important to me and will hopefully allow me to build off that for the years going forward.

Well, good deal. So did you have any expectations coming in, and if so, have those been met or has it been totally different what you were anticipating?

Yeah, absolutely. I had some expectations. I knew this was a marketing internship, but in my interview I was told that I'd be able to work with the skills that I had, especially on the financial side, and that they were gonna tailor it to me in that way. So I figured I'd be doing some Excel work and something similar to what I'm doing, but definitely some of the expectations I've had have been. It's definitely different.

Okay. Well, good deal. So I want each of you to participate a bit in this, this next piece as I've shared with, with all of you. And it's something that's, that's really important to me. I was given some great opportunities very early on in my career that. In hindsight, I never should have gotten those opportunities, but I had older people that saw something in me or were just blind to my lack of skills and talent at that point, and they helped propel me, mentor me, coach me, do things along that line.

And so it's important to me from an organizational standpoint that, that we as a company give back, and I would encourage all of you that are listeners out there to ensure that your organizations are engaged in internships. Yes, interns do provide some very valuable hands and eyes and ears and, and. Time and talent that adds to the nature of your organization.

I love the fact you're all very energetic individuals. That's great. But there's also the giving back of the experience. All of us that are in business today, somebody has helped us along the way and that's, that's one of the things that, that we want to do. And for me. Communication is one of the most important things that we can help you develop.

And so I began something with you all this year called Teach Me Something. So Kiran, you were the first to experience teach me something. When I walked into your office and I said, Hey, I'm, I'm a consummate learner. I want you to teach me something. I will never forget the look on your face. It was a combination of a bit of, maybe you were perplexed, maybe a little frightened I have, I have no idea what was going on when I asked you to do that.

So it was literally the second day I had met you, and it was still the first week of my internship, so I'm still figuring everything out. And then like I'm just trying to get an understanding of the basic work I'm doing, and then the executive chairman of the company comes in and is like, teach me something. No, no other guidelines. 18 hour notice. It was a lot to take in. Definitely had to think on it a little bit. When you first came and asked me that. I was trying to think of something that you wouldn't know because being an intern. Being, you know, you being kind of the big boss. I'm like, what does, what do I, what knowledge do I have that he might not know?

Yeah. I, I, I did give you a, a, a limited amount of time to prep. You did something very good. You went and utilized your resources. You went and asked for advice from others within the company, and you put together a, a very dynamic, a very engaging presentation on work that you had done, you know, over the, over the course of your college work before coming here. How did you actually come to the topic and share with us what the topic was and what we talked about?

So the topic was why I think everyone should be a server at least once in their life, and I chose that because I know you're a guy who knows a lot, but I wanted. To speak on something that I knew I could talk passionately about because I am passionate about serving as a job and I wanted to teach on something that I truly believed in. So it did take me a little bit to actually decide on that one, but I just knew that the most important part of teaching you something was being able to be confident in the words that I was saying and mean it.

Okay. Now, as you look back on our time together, when you did teach me something. You taught me a lot and it was, it, it, it was, it was a fascinating insight into your view and how those experiences actually influenced you to this day. And you know, it was, it was not as you found out 'cause you were doing the breakfast cycle and all that kind of stuff. So it's early mornings and you know, all the fun that goes with that. But it is. Through some of the struggles and through some of the hard work that we, we learn a lot, and I think you took a lot of, a lot from that.

How about the presentation? What was your biggest takeaway of the debrief that we did and just the, the conversations after the meeting. What are, what are some key things that you took away from that?

I think. Obviously just with the presentation, I think the biggest thing I need to take away, or I took away was making better eye contact and that's just like a little thing, but you know when I'm making a point, making eye contact and then I can kinda, wander off, but I think the biggest thing I learned is that I was overcomplicating it and I was overthinking it. And I probably, I know I do still do that, but conversations don't have to be complicated, like two, just because you're in a position of power. And I'm an intern. We were just, at the end of the day, two people getting to know each other. And now because of that conversation, we do have a better understanding of who we are.

Well, I grew a tremendous amount from that, so I thank you. You did a, did a wonderful job on that. Thanks. Let's talk next with Reese Oliver. You were the second one that I tapped to teach me something. Now, you had a bit of an advantage over Kiran in that you could go talk to Kiran and say, what was that like? Did she assuage any of your concerns or did she heighten your anxiety? Because I could see Kiran going either way with, with that since she had to go first.

Honestly, I would say both. She did heighten my anxiety in a way and freak me out a little bit. But she also made me feel more comfortable about it because she had already done it and told me kind of how she did it and she made a Canva, and I was like, well, that's a good thing for me to go off of, which helped me feel better about the whole presentation and yeah.

Kiran, Kiran strikes me as that that naughty big sister that every once in a while just wants to poke the bear. All, all good right there. So you had, what for your anticipation was gonna be a topic that I would know just absolutely zero about because number one, I'm a guy. Number two, I've got less hair today than I've ever had in my life. So it wouldn't have made sense that I would know anything. So tell tell the group about the topic that you picked.

I. I chose to teach Phil how to achieve a perfect blowout.

Now, first off, I had to learn what a blowout actually was, just a little bit. Now, um, so you, you did help me through that, but why, why did you pick that topic?

I chose to teach on that subject because I really enjoy blowing out my hair before an event, and it's kind of a way to have a little bit of a self-care moment for myself, and people ask me a lot of often how I do my hair. So I was like, well, I might as well teach Phil how to, and also he has daughters, so.

Well that was the, that was the thing that I hated, is that somebody with your knowledge and experience was not around when both of my girls were young and little, because invariably after bath time, dad was tasked with, you know, blowing out the hair and invariably there were tangles and there were tears and you know, it just, it was not always a happy moment. So you, you gave me a lot of things. So at some point down the line, if I, uh, am fortunate enough to have granddaughters, maybe I'll, I'll know a little bit more about, about what to do. But, you know, I compliment you on the passion that you showed. All, all of you had tremendous passion on your, your subjects and the, the task at hand. Any takeaways that came from our debrief after the presentation and kind of the conversation after the conversation? Any, any takeaways that you would share?

The big key takeaway that I got from our conversation and from my presentation was that at the beginning I needed to capture my audience and you know, I kind of missed that whole point of connecting, you know, the hair blow out to, you have daughters and I'm sure you've had to blow out their hair when they were younger and I missed that, which Phil really talked to me about how important that is before presenting how it is to connect to your audience and kind of reel them in for the rest of the presentation.

Yeah, the subject is. Never actually the most important thing, connecting your audience to the subject is, is the important key. And you know, once we debriefed on that and you said, well, I could do this and I could do this, it, it, it was very, very clear to me that you had it. So, super, super nice job there.

Zach Zimmerman. Y-you know, your presentation actually took me by surprise, and I was thinking, well, you know, he, he obviously is not thinking too much because I know a lot about the subject and you actually blew me away with some of the dynamics that we talked about. So tell the audience what we talked about.

Yeah, absolutely. So for my presentation I talked about how the European team and the Ryder Cup has found ways to give themselves the statistical and just competitive advantage and where the US is falling behind, especially whether that be home team advantage and just the usage of stats and core setup.

Yeah, so for any of our listeners that don't know, the Ryder Cup is a biannual match that is played between golfers from the European continent against golfers from the us and Zach clearly demonstrated the the statistical advantages that. The European team has enjoyed since the early 1990s, and the fact that that is exacerbated to a tremendous degree anytime that that match is played on the European continent.

Luckily, this year's Ryder Cup is going to be played at Bethpage Black in New York, so perhaps the US is gonna learn a little bit. Why did, why'd you actually pick that topic?

Yeah, so when I was tasked with finding something to teach. Phil, my initial thought was, what's something that I know a lot about? I feel like anytime you give a presentation, you want to be a master of your material. Someone who's knowledgeable about the topic, not just to give the presentation, but to be able to answer questions about it after. And given that one of my favorite things, not just to do but in life, is golf. Whether that be to play, to talk about it, to think about it, it's kinda always on my mind. So this topic is something that I’d known a little bit about going in and was able to do some more research to present to Phil and really enjoyed presenting on it.

Well, you know, some people would argue that you take a risk when you take a topic that is, you know, broad awareness. And the game of golf, certainly in the US is, has, has broad awareness. But there's also the advantage that comes when you're passionate about a topic and you're talking to other people that are passionate about a topic. You're very likely to have high levels of engagement. That's an advantage.

Anything that you learned about the presentation that you take away for the future?

Yeah, there's definitely some things that I learned that I can use when giving presentations in the future. Similar to what Reese was talking about, engaging your audience is something that's super important because if you don't have an engaged audience, they're not really willing to listen to you or think about what you have to say.

And then connecting with your audience at the beginning allows you to continue building off that momentum throughout the presentation, taking breaks for people to think about it, posing questions, and then lastly, when you finish off your presentation, leaving them with something to think about so that your presentation, they're leaving, not just thinking about the presentation itself, but about the presenter.

Awesome. Awesome job, Zach. Let's. Hear from Annabel McCarthy. Annabel, you and I spent a little bit of time and had you told me the subject before I walked in, I might not have shown up for the lesson. Okay, now that's just that, that, that's me. That's my ADD. But you did something for me that was incredibly important and that was to remind me and I've, I've said this to our listeners time and time again, you can learn something from.

Anybody, as long as you approach it with an open mind. And our, our lesson was something that, you know, I, I. Again, if you had said, Hey, this is what we're gonna talk about. I'm like, what could I possibly learn? Because I didn't have that and I walked in and the way everything was set up, I was absolutely intrigued.

So tell the audience what we talked about.

Okay, so I taught Phil how to do beaded embroidery.

Okay, so stop right there and explain to the world what beaded embroidery is all about. We, we can understand being a server, okay. Whereas most of us has been waiters or waitresses along the way. We can, we can grasp the, this concept of, of hair and blowing out hair and things like that, and it. Again, most folks know about golf. Beaded embroidery. Very nichey, little area of the world. Tell us about it.

We’ll keep it simple. You have, you can create designs with beads and a needle and thread on your clothing. So that's my like creative outlet. And you know, I knew you probably had no idea what it was, so.

Well it's, it's funny that you mentioned that because I heard a Wall Street Journal daily podcast about three weeks ago, and it was talking about the fact that particularly Gen Zs, the generation that you're a part of are into their own personalization, in many instances, couture clothing. Not just, you know, the, the, the sweatshirts, the t-shirts we, you and I may have hanging around, but doing a lot of customization, if you will, to couture items and so. I had actually heard a little something about that, and I had not intentionally filed it away, but e evidently there's, there's some space left in there.

And so when you started talking about it, I was like, wait a minute. I've, I've heard a little bit about this. How did you get introduced to the topic?

Well, so my minors fashion merchandising, and I had just seen videos about it. I go on Pinterest all the time and I would see a beaded starfish on a shirt and was like, oh, that's kind of cool. I don't, and then I just looked up how to do it and I bought all the supplies and I started doing it, and I loved it.

Well, as, as, as I want to point out to our listeners the, the task of it. It does not appear difficult, but it is tedious. It, it, it, it requires a little bit of attention to detail and the beads that you are working with don't work well in my fingers. They get, they get lost and again, my, my readers were not helping me to stitch as you had me do. She actually had me do some beads, which hands-on practice is always good. What a, a, again, from, from your standpoint, what does that, that, that beating, what does that do for you psychologically, mentally? You, you talked about losing yourself at one point in the, in, in the art of, of actually doing it.

You said a couple of hours can go by and I'm, I'm, I'm still at it. What is it? Is it therapeutic to you? How does that-

It's therapeutic. Yeah. I mean, I can sit down and I'll put a show on and I'll just start beating. And, you know, you don't really notice that you're doing it anymore. Yeah. You're just kind of going with the, the motion of it.

But sometimes, I mean, you can mess up and then you get frustrated and I, I stopped doing it for a little bit and then I'll go back to it.

But I, I, I, I can certainly understand that. So again, I, I guess you were betting on the fact that you were definitely gonna teach me something I knew very little about. Is that, is that it? But also I wanna point out something you are. The fourth of our four interns to comment on this is something you believe strongly and you're passionate about. You're very, very interested in, and I think that's what made all of your presentations so good is you knew your subject, you were a master of the subject.

And I have, I have repeated this time and time again. If you really want to master a subject, you wanna master a task or anything like that. Teach someone else about that subject, teach that to someone else. And so that's really the purpose behind Teach Me Something. It was an opportunity for each of you to work on presentation skills, which I believe is absolutely critical in the business world, but at the same time to, to create that outlet where you take what you already know about the subject and, and a actually accelerate it.

So kind of closing words from, from each of you right here, and Annabel, we’ll. Just, just keep going with you. So talk to us a little bit about where you want to be professionally, the type of engagement that you want to have going on. Not, not necessarily specific jobs, but what are the, what are the types of things that you need professionally that are gonna feed your soul and keep you intellectually, emotionally, mentally engaged?

I love to be creative clearly with my bead and embroidery as well as collaboration. I think having a good workplace dynamic with your peers is important, especially for me. I like talking to people. I don't wanna be, you know, in my little cubicle all day, but I would just say having a creative outlet and just being able to express something other than like, you know, sitting and working at a desk. So I would say that I would just like to be able to talk to people and just have a creative outlet. In my job, in my future.

Well, that's important. You've certainly got the skill sets for that. Let's go next to Kiran Abbott. Kiran, same, same basic question. You know, when you think out of, of where you are now and the types of things, again, not job specific, but the, the types of things that need to be going on in a career for you, what are the things that are important again, that feed the soul, feed you intellectually, mentally, emotionally?

I think the main thing that feeds my soul and keeps me passionate is just interacting with people. The biggest thing for me, especially here so far, has just been connecting with my fellow interns, and that's what keeps me excited to come back to the job. So definitely I just see myself working in a client facing role, and I see that that's possible in any industry.

I'm just happiest when I am having strong connections and good interactions with people. So. Whatever profession I'm in, I just, I think I want it to be about keeping. The customer and whoever I'm working with, happy and just really connecting with other people.

Good deal. Zach Zimmerman, same question. You've got a, you've got a little bit more runway to deal with than your three counterparts. You've got a, a few more years to build this, but you know, for you, you know, what, what do you think you, you're gonna need in a professional environment that will feed the soul and keep you mentally, emotionally, intellectually engaged?

Yeah, absolutely. It's a, it's a privilege that I still have a lot of time to figure out what I'm gonna end up doing professionally. But I think what feeds feeds my soul specifically is interacting with people, getting up in front of people, getting up, moving around, spending time, getting to know others and what, what makes them happy, learning about others, seeing what things in my life I can do, not just to benefit myself, but to bring those around me up. And in addition to that, I'd just like to. Be put in a role where I enjoy the work that I do and the, that I can see the work that I'm doing, benefiting whatever place that may end up being.

Good deal. Good deal. Reese Oliver, how about for you? You know, what's the, what's the thing that's gonna feed the soul that's gonna keep you intellectually, emotionally, mentally engaged?

Pretty similar to what Annabel, Kiran, and Zach said. I am very social and I think I would thrive in a work environment where I'm client facing and I'm also working in a team collaborating with my coworkers. Another thing that's important to me in a career is being able to have a nice work life balance where I can, you know, go to work, but then also come home and find other ways to be involved in my community and organizations. And I think that's where I would thrive the most.

Got it. Very cool. Well, I wanna, I wanna challenge all of our listeners out there. You know, you don't have to go far to hear criticisms of, of millennials. We don't have to go far to hear criticisms of Gen Zs. Their work ethic is not this, or their expectations are too high or their at, at, at best. They are too engaged in technology, only living their life via TikTok and, uh, Snapchat. I can tell you something I, I know.

All four of these individuals are on their social medias. I, I, I, I absolutely know and understand that, but I want you to, to bear in mind that each of them talked about the importance of a collaborative, engaging, uh. Work environment where communication and, you know, client facing perspectives are so important and maybe our team here just chooses exceptionally well.

I like to think so, but I think that these four individuals represent the very best among the rising generations of professionals. I've had a lot of conversations with. A lot of, a lot of leaders in the wealth management space in recent weeks and months about succession and the rising generation and what we look for in that next group of leaders.

And, you know, the, the group of leaders that are gonna be behind that next group may actually come from, from this, this Gen Z community. And if more and more of the young people out there represent the ideals that you all do, our industry. And truly our country is going to be just fine. I wanna thank each of the four of you for all the great work that you're doing this summer.

I know that three of you, Kiran, Annabel, and Reese, will be at our schools at Notre Dame in the month of July. So any of you that are gonna be attending July, seek these individuals out that. They’re neat, neat people in their own right and just very passionate about, about their work and, and what's important to them.

And so with that, I wanna wish each of you a very happy Independence Day. Happy Birthday America. Hope you enjoy the 4th of July, and we look forward to seeing you down the road. First Friday feedback is the production of Canon Financial Institute, executive producer of First Friday. Feedback is Sarah Jones.

Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. So until next month, I'm Phil Buchanan thanking you for being part of the Cannon community.