Dana came into a family consisting of older parents and a teenage sister who had a lot to teach her. As an engineer, her Dad taught her his analytical skills while her sister shared her skills in fashion design by dressing her up and showing her off like a new doll.
Nashville has always been her home base. After earning a degree in finance from Belmont University and her CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), she moved to Atlanta to join a start-up company. Here she learned her most valuable lesson- it’s not about how smart you are but how you treat others. “You could be the smartest person in the room but it won’t make you successful. It is about people. I learned early on to view everyone as a client. When I was a rookie stock analyst, I viewed my colleagues and my boss as my clients. I would look for ways to help them excel at their jobs. As I moved through my career, I have always focused on how I can help others. Today, I get to come to work and find ways to help our clients achieve their dreams.”
At their former employer, she and her partners had the opportunity to work with some of the wealthiest people in the country. “My average client had more than $25 million in assets. People with this type of wealth have access to resources and advisors that the rest of us will never have. We realized that we could bring our years of experience and high level of expertise to the rest of us.” This prompted her and her partners to start HMS Capital Management, LLC in 2009. “We dedicated ourselves to helping our clients build portfolios that can thrive even during difficult times.”
One valuable lesson Dana has learned along the way has been to not be afraid of failure. Being an analytical type, Dana says that she was prone to problem solving by always having a Plan A, B, and C. If one did not work out, she had the others to fall back on. However, this strategy proved to be limiting because she never fully dedicated herself to success. “If you are going to be successful- then there is no Plan B. As a business owner, I have had to learn to commit myself to being successful and then do whatever it takes to make it happen. I still struggle with doubt and fear at times but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything else.”
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations