Emma Isaak wants to make an impact

by Scott Hunter

Emma Isaak is looking forward to a lifelong learning curve, so she's picked a good profession in financial management.

The last year hasn't let her down.

That's when she moved to Coulee City after growing up in Spokane, graduating high school at Northwest Christian, and getting her master's degree in business administration at Gonzaga following a bachelor's in psychology at Wheaton College, in Illinois.

Quite a jump from psychology to financial management?

"You know, you would think so, but it's honestly the perfect mix," she says.

Understanding the history of a person's background can help her see how they see their own relationship with money. If they grew up without much, they might tend to learn toward a conservative approach, for example. Also, understanding different learning styles comes in handy when guiding people in a complex subject of personal finances and investments.

Psychology - and likely just a likeable personality - probably comes in handy for Isaak in talking "people off the ledge" when markets turn down and they want to bail on their investments.

"Everyone loves when the market is performing well and their accounts are going up, but I think my job is most important in the times when the markets aren't doing well."

By that time, she, and her employer, Edward Jones, the financial management firm, would have them protected in "well diversified" long-term investments, she says.

Isaak is married to Maguire Isaak, of Coulee City, a farmer and rancher.

So part of her learning curve in the last year has been adjusting to life in the small town. That hasn't been hard.

"I definitely love it. I don't think I'd want to live in a big community or a big city," she says. "I think the small-town deal is exactly what I was built for and enjoy ... so you can have better relationships with your neighbors and other community members."

She has her office in Ephrata, but she also now is building a business advising people in the Grand Coulee area and has been getting "a lot of attraction" in all three communities, she says.

And speaking of a long-term outlook, Isaak says she goes by that philosophy not only in finance, but in her own life, too.

"You never know what's going to happen in the next 40 years," she says, "but I always do like to tell people I'm married to a farmer ... We can't move the farm somewhere else, and I love this community, so I plan on serving it until I do retire. I absolutely love my job and ... don't plan on making any change even when kids do become a part of the picture."

"I think really the main thing I just want to tell the community is I'm here to serve them and not necessarily to make my pocketbook more full," she says. "I think money isn't my driver in this business ... but my main purpose and joy comes from just having relationships with people and being able to make an impact."