Mission Trip Turns Into Mentoring and Job Offer

Back in 2007, Jonathan Henkels and John Bever met on a mission trip to Juarez, Mexico. Henkels was just beginning his career as a teacher and Bever was a well-established business owner.

Fast forward to 2019, and Henkels had shifted careers from teaching to consumer finance. Bever not only knew about his friend’s career change, he encouraged and mentored him through the shift. And in 2019, when a position opened up at Phase 3 Advisory Services, which Bever owns, Henkels was a natural choice.
“I had actually been meeting with him when he was going through his career change. I think it was a good career change for him,” Bever CFP® said. “I had been meeting with him through that process, kind of giving him some ideas on how to advance through this process.”
Phase 3 celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2019 and Henkels attended the firm’s celebration.
“We had our 35th anniversary last year and I got to meet a lot of the clients,” Henkels said. “It was really amazing to see the impact that John had on their lives. That was something that I really appreciated seeing, for people to think of me in that way, the way they think of John.”
Bever and Henkels ended up on the same mission trip in 2007 because at the time, they both attended the same church. The trip, to Juarez, Mexico involved a lot of giving back to a community that was not their own. It was not the first mission trip for either of them.
“We were doing several things, interaction with the kids, physical work around the orphanage, exchanging electrical service,” Bever said. “They routinely would have mission teams in to help the orphanage.”
The trip, organized through the organization Emmanuel Ministries, strives to raise the next generation of ethical leaders in Mexico. That idea was right in alignment with the values of the men and with Phase 3. In fact, ethics and value are what drove Bever to found Phase 3. Bever wanted to create a firm that not only ran ethically, but also employed what Stephen Covey quotes as “Begin with the end in mind.”
That means that Bever and Henkels see clients with dreams that cannot be fulfilled the next day necessarily, but if the clients and planners “Begin with the end in mind,” they can achieve the big dreams.
Henkels is not the only person that Bever has mentored through a career change.
“It’s nothing formal, just a series of meetings to help them along,” Bever said. “It was just natural for me to sit down with him and give him the steps to what I would do if starting out now instead of 35 years ago,” Bever said, clarifying that he started 40 years ago in the field. “I’ve talked to probably a couple of dozen.”
In addition to casual one-on-one meetings, Bever also provides opportunities for college students.
“I like to do a career day for college graduates, college students thinking about going into the field,” he said. “(I) offer students to come in for half day and shadow.”
Henkels and Bever are also working together to make financial coaching an independent offering at the firm. Bever said that Phase 3 has been offering financial coaching to its clients and family members, but will now offer it as an independent product.
To learn more about Phase 3 Advisory Services, visit their website.