I came across an ad that Madison Investment Advisors had put in .

WSJ: What prompted you to go into business for yourself?

Holt-Smith: Kristin, my partner, and I decided that if we were going to try making it on our own that we wanted to do it while we were young enough to recover from any mistakes.

WSJ: How is your business different from that of other investment advisers?

Holt-Smith: What we do is called a concentrated approach to the large cap growth management. .

When you say, 'high growth,' some people are like, 'Oh it's going to be a tech company' .

What we do is run a concentrated portfolio that limits us to about 25 stocks, and we're really picky about what we buy in there.

One of the characteristics that is unusual about us is that we have such a low turnover rate in our portfolio.

We're holding onto companies on average five to six years .

The other characteristic .

WSJ: What kind of products or services do you offer?

Holt-Smith: We do individually managed portfolios, which means that's there's no co-mingled funds. We do sub-advise for one mutual fund out of Connecticut. .

WSJ: Are there any Wisconsin-based stocks that you own?

Holt-Smith: We do own Fiserv out of Milwaukee. It's a stock that we've held at least 10 years.

WSJ: How is business these days?

Holt-Smith: This year so far we're doing really well .

WSJ: What advice would you give someone on choosing a stock portfolio?

Holt-Smith: If you're going to do it for yourself, get educated .

During the technology boom .

WSJ: But I guess you got the last laugh.

Holt-Smith: The last laugh isn't quite it because it's been very painful for everybody. I mean, this adjustment that's been happening in the market, the first year itself it was more focused on the high growth and high technology type companies, but a bear market goes three years, so you're going to get hit no matter what.

WSJ: When will the market turn around?

Holt-Smith: Well, we've already gotten some, which is good. The market .

We've been seeing good corporate earnings reports, but most of that is from cost-cutting .

WSJ: If you weren't an investment adviser, what would you do instead?

Holt-Smith: I'd have to work? (laughs) I think I'd like to run a non-profit, and I envision that as being something directly to help people.

I mean, I think that what we're doing is helping people, but it's a little removed from some of those day-to-day urgent needs..

WSJ: What advice would you give to young women on choosing a career path?

Holt-Smith: I would tell them to be very serious about their education .