Matthew Fizell
- Owner
- Harmony Wealth
School Information
School: University of Wisconsin-Madison
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2013 to 2014
Career Information
Working For: Harmony Wealth
Title: Owner
Industry: Finance
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Serving millennials with 6-figure incomes by being their personal financial guide through all of life’s changes. Developing comprehensive, evolving financial plans to grow with them on their way to a successful financial life.
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?Being chosen one of Investopedia.com’s Top 100 Financial Advisors in the U.S. Throwing out a first pitch at Miller Park for a Brewers game is a close second! Others!
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting gave me an environment where I could grow from my failures and become a better person for it.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting gave me the confidence to go for the opportunities I was interested in, not what others expected of me. That lesson is something I carry with me every single day.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
College Works Painting gave me the firsthand experience in taking the leap to start my own business. I will never forget how nervous I was to close a $20k project, but when I did, I learned price wasn’t the biggest factor in working with others. Trust is.
How have the friendships and networks you built during CW affected you?
They have been some of the more influential and supportive people in my life, even to this day. I still talk with a handful of them 10 years later, and they truly are “family” in a sense. My DM will still pickup the phone when I call, and let me chat about what is going on.
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
WORK HARD, PLAY HARDER!!!!
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
BE PATIENT. There will be days it sucks, but those days are what make the top of the hill feel so good.
Many college students struggle to choose between an internship specific to their target industry or doing CW. What advice would you give them on this subject if they wanted to enter your career field?
Relating to humans and understanding how things work can be applied to any field. It does not matter if it is engineering, financial planning, or painting… they all deal with working with other humans.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Be interested in the people, not the dollars. Financial decisions almost always are easy to look at “on paper”, but the real skill is understanding what the value is to the person sitting across the table from you.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
Ah man… picking a favorite is tough. That first wave of hot air in Cancun was pretty special, that was the first trip on an airplane I had ever taken.
Last words of wisdom?
There will be days you absolutely regret joining, but after you finish it, you’ll absolutely be thankful for the experience. Don’t let the short term pain impact your long term growth.