Growing up amid the chaos and excitement of the stock car circuit turned out to be excellent preparation for Winch Financial Client Services Director Sandy Shultz.
Christina Winch hired Shultz, whose father Bob Abitz raced on the NASCAR circuit from 1962 – 83, as a full-time marketing representative in 2004.
But what was supposed to be a temporary stint as a front desk client service representative became a full time position and today Shultz, a licensed insurance agent, handles just about everything.
Her specific responsibilities include client meeting follow-up, incoming/outgoing correspondence, appointment scheduling, 401(k) rollovers, 72T calculations, coordination of corporate travel and the organization and scheduling of the firm’s investment classes.
Meanwhile, she continues to do some marketing and PR work for NASCAR.
“I started working at the race track just as a way to hang out with my dad when I was 12,” Shultz said. “That evolved into me working four nights a week.”
When NASCAR bought out the Autozone Midwest Series in 1998, both Sandy and her dad left the local circuit and began working for NASCAR.
“I started out doing marketing and PR,” she said. “I wrote a weekly newspaper column and I did lots of race car safety inspections.”
The circuit not only provided Shultz a steady source of income, it also introduced her to her future husband, Jason.
“He worked on a pit crew for a local team in Kansas City,” Shultz said. “When he graduated from college he moved out here.”
They married in 2004 and, today, they are the parents of a beautiful three-year old daughter. In addition to his part-time work on the circuit, Jason works as a full-time auto and home adjuster.
“He’s also their on call adjuster, which means we get lots of interesting phone calls in the middle of the night,” Shultz said.
While the Shultz family continues to enjoy its work on the stock car circuit, Sandy said she remains fond of her job at Winch.
“I like it because you never get bored,” she said. “This business changes so much that there’s always something new to learn. I love working with the clients and I enjoy working with Christina.”
And just like on the race track, each day at Winch brings new adventures.
“For each client we work on something new. We research insurance quotes—yesterday I worked on researching travel insurance quotes—and some days I might research a charity a client wants to invest in,” Shultz said.
A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Sandy received her Bachelors Degree in Journalism and minor in Communication in May 2002. While marketing and public relations remained her focus for many years, Shultz maintains that the broader scope of her job today keeps her interested.
“In seventh grade I wanted be a stock broker so I guess it turns out okay,” she said.