9 months of job interviews. 27 “No’s” from top advisory firms. 33,000 cold calls. That’s all it took for Erin Scannell to open up his independent office and land his first client back in 1999. Few people would have powered through that long, but as Erin Scannell explains on today’s podcast, he learned some hard lessons in perseverance and resilience growing up that continue to motivate him to this day. Erin is the founder and CEO of Heritage Wealth Advisors in the Seattle area, where he directs 50 team members, 18 advisors, and about $2 billion in assets under management. Erin is also a regular on Barron’s list of the top advisors and an inspiration to anyone who thinks the next hurdle in your business’ growth is insurmountable – even if that hurdle is a global pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced financial advisors to shift the way you market your services. In person marketing and networking is severely restricted for the near future and if you want to succeed in this new world, you have to adapt to the new virtual reality. Even before the pandemic, our industry was already making a shift towards digital marketing combined with digital events. Things like pay-per-click advertising, newsletters, podcasts, video, and virtual events like webinars, panels, and summits have been gaining steam for years. But now, the pandemic has accelerated that trend to light speed. The most successful firms have jumped all over the virtual marketing trend and are crushing those firms who haven’t. To help you succeed in virtual marketing, I hosted a virtual panel with two experts. Bill Keen is the founder and CEO of Keen Wealth Advisors, which is an RIA in the greater Kansas City area with half a billion dollars in assets under management. Lisa Salvi is Vice President, Business Consulting and Field Experience at Charles Schwab, where she oversees the advisor consulting group and produces the industry’s gold standard annual benchmarking report.

In a Nutshell: There's no "silver bullet" marketing strategy that's going to turn your blogs and tweets into clients. But if you identify a niche and develop a consistent media presence that's appealing and engaging, you can reach your ideal clients where they're more likely to see and hear you. Guest: Wes Moss, the chief investment strategist of Capital Investment Advisors, which is a multibillion-dollar RIA in Atlanta. Wes has been ranked as a top 100 independent advisor by Barron's. He's also the host of Money Matters, which is Atlanta's longest running live call-in radio show on investment and personal finance, a regular contributor to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the author of three books. My Key Takeaway: To build your media presence: Get writing. Wes and I both believe that writing is the key to finding your voice and starting to create stellar content. Re-purpose. Break down a good newsletter into a week's worth of social media posts. Turn audio from your webinar into a podcast. Use the intro from your last blog as a script for a 2-3 minute YouTube video. Automate and delegate. If you can use AI or a team of assistants to handle basic communication tasks you'll have more time to write, record, and get personal with clients. Also Learn: Why the ability to self-publish media gives independent advisors an advantage over larger firms when trying to reach people. What advisors should know about trying to break into radio versus trying to start a podcast. How Wes answers the question, "I'm your client. What is the value that you provide to me?" What Wes' experience as a contestant on "The Apprentice" (back when President Trump was the host) taught him about succeeding in marketing and media.

In a Nutshell: It's human nature to want to be part of a community. Hosting and participating in live events is essential to maintaining a connection with your client and prospect base and to furthering your own personal development -- even during quarantine. Guest: Alison Rooney, Global Managing Director, Wealth Management, Barron's Group. Alison's team oversees the underwriting, membership, and content development for all of Barron's live events, including over 20 conferences geared towards elite practitioners. My Key Takeaway: To create memorable events that will benefit and grow your community: Delegate responsibility. A Barron's-sized event requires a team of pros focused on specific details, but even your next webinar will have many moving parts to coordinate. Diversify your content. The broader your range of perspectives, topics, and speakers, the more likely you are to surprise, engage, and delight your audience. Never run out of coffee. Your attendees are going to remember whom they saw and what they learned, but it's the little hospitality touches that will determine how they feel about your event. For virtual events, "coffee" might be a friendly thank you email or an exclusive offer. Also Learn: How Alison moves from "ideas by committee" to one lone decision maker when designing consistent and cohesive conferences. What the big three reasons are that attendees go to conferences and how to appeal to each. How the content that's most interesting to advisors, clients, and prospects has evolved in recent years. Why Alison always zeroes in on three or four people she wants to meet ahead of any conference she's attending.

In a Nutshell: Growing your business -- especially during a crisis -- depends less on your ability to manage money that it does on your ability to become an important part of your client's story. Guests: Arthur Ambarik CFP® is the CEO of  Perigon Wealth Management, which currently has $1.8 billion in AUM. Rachel Elson has recently transitioned from a career as a personal finance journalist to working as a Financial Planning Associate at Perigon. My Key Takeaway: In order to make you and your services major players in your client's financial narrative: Do what other advisors don't. Find those pain points like helping family members or advising on a potential career change that fall through the cracks of old-fashioned advisory. Be your client's friend. And remember: friends do things for each other because they genuinely want to help, not because they expect something in return. Look outside the box when you're searching for talent. Money managers are a dime a dozen. Caring, curious, motivated people who are excited to learn the ropes are gold. Also Learn: 1. Why Arthur and Rachel replaced traditional discovery summary letters with personalized financial narratives. 2. How your quality of service trumps your asset management when it comes to getting referrals and winning new business. 3. What Arthur has learned about balancing CEO-level responsibilities with client service responsibilities.

Recently I was a guest on the Better Conversations, Better Outcomes podcast presented by BMO Global Asset Management. Host Ben Jones and I discussed my 5-point framework for effective communication with clients during a crisis. I developed this framework based on the mistakes I saw some advisors make back in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). These advisors got hit with a double whammy of market declines and lost clients as they failed to effectively communicate with their clients as the GFC unfolded.

In a Nutshell: Silicon Valley unicorns make the billion-dollar headlines, but the true measure of an entrepreneur's success is how you align your business with your goals, your lifestyle, your values, and the impact you make in people's lives. Guest: Author, journalist, and speaker David Sax. His new book, The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth, approaches entrepreneurship from a broader, more personal, and more realistic perspective. My Key Takeaway: To define success for yourself as an entrepreneur: Accept that your business isn't Amazon or Facebook. You don't have to become a billionaire to be successful. Be yourself. The misfit eccentric who dropped out of high school and skateboards to the boardroom in a hoodie is the exception. Successful bakeries, salons, restaurants, and, yes, financial advisory firms are run by hardworking people like you who have a dream and put a plan in place to achieve it. Set purposeful but personal business targets. Don't try to grow like everyone else is. Build the business that you want to run. Also Learn: How to "get over the hump" of not seeing yourself as a real entrepreneur. Why taking on loans or third-party investments to accelerate your growth might hurt your business more than it helps. What seeing Heidi Klum on the cover of Maxim taught David about the unrealistic expectations our country sets for entrepreneurs. The process David uses to write his books.

Seth Streeter is the CEO and founder of Mission Wealth, a leading wealth management company with more than $2.5 billion in assets under management. Seth was an early proponent of our industry's shift into Life-Centered Planning, and I could listen to him talk all day about how advisors can help folks redefine what wealth and happiness really mean. Recently I heard an episode of the Wellness Revolutionaries podcast in which Mindbody co-founder Blake Beltram talked with Seth about this concept of redefining wealth. Their discussion was so insightful that I reached out to Blake, and he's been kind enough to let me share this episode here. Some of the topics Blake and Seth cover include: Why Seth believes money counts for only 10% of a person's wealth. Seth's 10 Dimensions of Wealth and 7 Dimensions of Wellness. How the values of a new generation of workers are reshaping the classic American Dream. How to help retirees develop a "Life 3.0 Vision" based around the freedom to pursue passions, strengthen relationships, and build their legacies. Preparing your business for the paradigm shift Seth sees in how our culture views money and defines wealth. Thank you Blake and Seth for letting me post this episode.

In a Nutshell: Hard work, a deep love for his clients, and a niche working with retirees of a particular company led this advisor to the pinnacle of the profession. Guest: Barron’s Hall of Famer Scott Tiras, President of Tiras Wealth Management, which is a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services. Scott has more than 30 years of experience as an advisor. Currently he manages around 700 family relationships and more than $1.5 billion in assets. My Key Takeaway: To create an experience that makes clients feel like they’re your only client: Identify your “bread and butter client,” meaning the people to whom you can bring the most value over time. Focus your pitch and your value proposition on what Scott calls “the soft side of retirement” — the things clients and prospects will be retiring to, not just their raw numbers. Challenge yourself and your team to excel. Scott channels his competitive energy into running a world-class business. You need to find a similar motivation and drive to deliver “hall of fame” service and keep growing. Also Learn: 1. How Scott targets a local company niche with on-site workshops that demonstrate his expertise and lay the foundations for strong relationships. 2. How Scott leverages his team of 16 to support him and personalize the relationship building touches that keep his clients connected to the business. 3. What Scott does to build his brand and play an active role in his community so that he has a noticeable, positive presence.

In a Nutshell: A "wow" customer service experience meets clients needs, engages customers on terms that gel with their lifestyle, and creates genuine human connection. Hitting those check marks is what separates Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks, Zappos, and the best financial advisory firms from the rest of the pack. Guest: Joseph Michelli, a bestselling author, an international speaker, an organizational consultant, and one of the world's leading authorities on how to develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the customer experience. My Key Takeaway: To give your clients a "Ritz-Carlton" advisory experience they'll be sure to tell their friends about: 1. Don't strive for excellent customer service. Seek perfection. The companies that try to deliver better service tomorrow than they did today are the ones that build the priceless brand loyalty that sets them apart from their competition. 2. Focus your client experience around addressing "peaks and pains." Find small ways to celebrate big wins with clients that your planning helped them achieve. Use your financial expertise and your human empathy to mitigate painful moments -- like, say, a sudden market downturn after a global virus outbreak. 3. Make the most out of every face-to-face interaction you have with a client. Your most effective marketing doesn't happen in Facebook ads or on a billboard. It happens when a client is in your office getting five-star treatment from the moment they walk in the door. You won't have to ask your clients for referrals -- you'll be earning them. Also Learn: 1. Why you wouldn't take a first date to McDonald's and what that says about good service vs. great hospitality. 2. How to integrate your tech stack with your advisory team to create elevated customer experiences on a consistent basis. 3. What Joseph Michelli learned about world-class customer service and team leadership from Howard Schultz, Airbnb, and Mercedes-Benz.

On this special bonus podcast episode, I'm doing something I've never done before: republishing someone else's podcast. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode of the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, hosted by Matt Halloran and featuring guest Mitch Anthony. This was a really fun listen for me because I go back a long way with both of these guys. Matt was one of the best coaches we had when I was running Peak Advisor Alliance. And Mitch is my business partner in ROL Advisor, our online platform that's helping advisors refocus the planning conversation on people's lives, not just their money. And that idea is at the heart of Mitch's conversation with Matt. They do a real deep dive into how advisors can use the discovery process to reveal the client's story and understand how significant life experiences have shaped the client's relationship to money. In addition to discussing how ROL Advisor builds out that initial storytelling into an engaging client experience, Mitch and Matt also talk about: How to guide clients towards an empowering decision-making mindset that makes them feel more in control of their planning. What kinds of questions you can ask to help clients connect their means to a sense of meaning. Why dialogue is more powerful than monologue. What the true purpose of money is. How to get more comfortable and more adept at helping clients manage the emotional side of financial life transitions. How to pull all of the above together to create a value proposition that's truly valuable to clients and prospects. A big thanks to Matt Halloran and the team at Top Advisor Marketing for letting me share this insightful conversation.

Where does the drive come from for top achievers who keep knocking it out of the park long past the point that many of us would have kicked up our feet and called it a career? That question has fascinated me for decades and today's podcast guest, Laila Pence, CFP®, shared with me one of the most compelling stories I've ever heard about overcoming early life challenges to become one of the country's most successful and respected financial advisors. As we talked at the Barron’s Teams Summit in Las Vegas, Laila also explained how her approach to overcoming some incredible personal hardships informed how she built her billion-dollar advisory firm with an intense focus on creating true, lasting relationships with her clients. Laila Pence is the President of Pence Wealth Management, one of the nation’s leading private wealth management firms with over $1.0 billion in AUM. She’s currently ranked in the top 1% of female financial advisors nationwide and, in 2019, she was named among the top 6 female financial advisors in the country by Forbes, and the #38 top independent financial advisor nationally by Barron’s Magazine. Forbes also ranked Laila #1 on their Best-in-State Wealth Advisors List for Southern California in 2019.

In a Nutshell: All financial advisors deliver services and advice. The ones who are growing their businesses find creative ways to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace and attract a niche of clients they can offer the most value to. Guest: Steve Wershing. Steve is the President of The Client Driven Practice and the author of Stop Asking for Referrals. He's also the cohost of a great podcast called Becoming Referable. My Key Takeaway: To differentiate both your firm and your prospective client base: 1. Discover, design, develop, and declare your niche. 2. Craft a unique client experience that will cater to your ideal client. 3. Remember: a niche is a need that sets your clients apart, and a need that you are able to service in a unique way. Also Learn: 1. Why separating "target" from "niche" is essential to transforming your business. 2. How simple tweaks to things like your meeting calendar can have a big impact on your niche client experience and drive up your value to clients. 3. What kinds of dialogues you can have with clients that will lead to referrals ... without you having to ask for them.

In a Nutshell: Delivering great service is table stakes. Drive toward extraordinary by creating a unique, emotionally engaging experience for each individual client. Guest: Julie Littlechild. Julie is a leading expert on the drivers of client engagement. She's also the cohost of the Becoming Referable podcast and the author of the book The Pursuit of Absolute Engagement. My Key Takeaway: To create an engaging client experience that becomes a magnet for new ideal clients: Be intentional about designing a discovery and planning process that engages your clients emotions and makes them feel more connected to you. Focus less on a prospect's assets and more on how they view themselves, then deliver an experience that is tailor made for who they are. Draw a distinction between service and hospitality ... and excel at both. Also Learn: 1. Why creating a client journey map should be an essential early step in thinking about your systems and services. 2. How to put your firm and its ideal clients to an "Authenticity Test" that will make you think about what you're really trying to accomplish as an advisor and as a business owner. 3. What it means for advisors and their clients to "co-create" a financial planning experience together.

In a Nutshell: In 2020, the most successful advisors have moved past worrying about "competing" with technology. Instead, they're finding ways to automate the 30 - 40% of the mundane tasks that are necessary for relationships but don't enhance them, so that they can focus on the human conversations that create real lasting value -- and more business. Guest: Matt Reiner, CFP® CFA®, the cofounder and CEO of Benjamin, "the world’s first A.I. assistant created for advisors by advisors." My Key Takeaway: Used properly, AI can do things human advisors don't need to be doing so that we can focus on things AI can't do, like: Build better relationships with our clients. Coach our clients on financial matters so that they make better decisions and feel more in control of their futures. Help clients clarify what their money is for and live their best life possible today, not just in retirement. Also Learn: 1. Why you need to start thinking about technology -- and AI in particular -- as your partner, not your enemy. 2. How an AI platform can help keep your margins and expenses under control during a burst of high growth. 3. What nuts and bolts integration and training looks like when you decide to add an AI component to your tech stack.

A single word or a short phrase could permanently change your life. When you were young, a teacher may have said something to you that forever altered how you viewed yourself—good or bad. Maybe a parent said something that still sticks with you today. Or perhaps a former boss made a comment that drives you nuts to this day—I’m in that boat! In a similar way, this “My 3 Words” exercise I learned from Chris Brogan is designed to empower you with 3 words that drive your actions and keep you on track to make this your best year ever. This is the sixth year now where I’ve begun the year by identifying 3 words that will set the course, give me direction, and totally excite me as I move through the year. I write these words at the top of my Daily Outcomes sheet and look at them daily throughout the year. The premise is simple. Pick 3 words that motivate you, remind you, and guide you on your road to making 2020 your best year ever. I encourage all my clients to do this and I encourage you to do this same exercise as it will help you stay focused on the most important outcomes for the year.

In a Nutshell: The largest financial advisory firms have developed consistent marketing programs that deliver a predictable stream of ideal clients...and there's just a handful of different ways to do it. Guest: Brad Johnson. Brad is the Vice President of Advisor Development for Advisors Excel. He's also the host of a great podcast for financial advisors called The Elite Advisor Blueprint. My Key Takeaway: To get your marketing machine humming: - Understand that marketing is NOT optional. Referral marketing is not enough. Choose from a list of five broad marketing buckets (with an infinite number of tactical ways to execute), and implement aggressively and consistently. - Marketing is math. Don't let your emotions distract you from the key numbers that will determine how and when a particular marketing initiative will pay off.  - Make practicing a practice. Once you identify the most effective marketing strategy for your ideal client pool, practice and pursue mastery of it.  Also Learn: 1. Why strong marketing that keeps your business growing double digits each year is one of the most effective ways of retaining top talent. 2. How one well-produced piece of content (like a book) can be repurposed, sliced and diced, and become an evergreen source of more content (like blog posts, short videos, and social media posts). 3. What sets apart a valuable proprietary process from a generic commodity that prospects can get from any advisor.

In a Nutshell: Shifting from being a financial advisor to being a financial coach could be the next evolution of how financial guidance is delivered and enable independent human advisors to remain profitable and relevant. Guest: Todd Tresidder. Todd is a former hedge fund manager who transitioned into a successful financial coaching career. Recently, he has adapted his coaching into a series of premium online courses on wealth building at Financial Mentor.  My Key Takeaway: In order to keep adding to your value proposition: -  Spend more time empowering clients and less on enabling them. - Help your clients find the path to the next step, help them always be taking that next step, and help them avoid the missteps that are in their path. - Consider getting formal training in how to coach people, from organizations like Coaches Training Institute. Also Learn: 1. How the act of gaining financial freedom doubles as a path to personal growth. 2. How a financial coach's services differ from a traditional financial advisor's.  3. What separates most people from setting their wealth goals and actually achieving them. 

In a Nutshell: Clear career paths and offering a path to partnership and equity ownership are key ways to attract and retain next generation advisors and advisory firm leaders. Guests: Lisa Salvi is Vice President of Advisor Services at Charles Schwab, where she oversees business consulting and education offerings, including their one-on-one consulting engagements, the annual RIA Benchmarking Study, and other programs that support the development of advisor talent. Yonhee Gordon is a principal and Chief Operating Officer of JMG Financial Group just outside of Chicago, which has more than $3.0 billion in assets under management.

In a Nutshell: Whether you're writing website copy, sending email newsletters, social media posts, physical mailers, or a combination, you have to master the psychology of engagement to turn your prospects into clients and keep your business growing.  Guest: Adam Bensman. Adam is one of the top direct response copywriters and consultants in the country, and he has a particular expertise in helping financial advisors improve their marketing. My Key Takeaway: If you want win more business from your copywriting, you need to craft a compelling offer that: Differentiates your firm. Reaches your ideal client right where they are. Addresses the questions that are going in their mind. Provides a high level of perceived value.  Also Learn 1.  Why you should delete your glossy headshot from the top of your emails, open with an ellipsis (...),  and always end with a PS. 2. How to address your prospect's pain by appealing to the "search trigger" that brought them to you in the first place.  3. What 4 quadrants Adam says your marketing needs to hit in order to set yourself apart and demonstrate your value to your audience. 

The growth of United Capital is a fascinating case study in how being early on a trend, M&A, technology, financial life planning, and a charismatic leader all came together to create one of the industry’s biggest and most innovative RIA firms. Today, we’ll take a deep dive on this story through one of firm’s longest tenured employees, Matt Brinker. Starting at $0 in 2005, Joe Duran founded United Capital, and one of his early hires was Matt Brinker. Matt joined the firm when it had about $300 million in AUM and rode it all the way to $24 billion in AUM. He left after 13 years when the company was sold to Goldman Sachs in mid-2019. Most recently, Matt was the chief business development officer and head of acquisitions for the firm.

If you’re not learning faster than the world is changing, then you are going to fall behind very quickly. And businesses that fall too far behind usually don’t get a second chance to catch up. A big challenge for financial advisors is, how do you stay on top of everything that’s required to run a successful advisory business? As Josh Brown put it at the recent Wealth/Stack Conference, “A good advisor is both coach and quarterback, on-demand psychologist and personal friend, historian and futurist.” That’s an awful lot of ground for us to cover in our personal and professional learning. Plus, we have to track technological advances that are impacting our industry, while also adapting to best practices that help our businesses stay ahead of the competition. If you haven’t made a commitment to learning one of your top responsibilities as a CEO advisor, today’s episode will help you get with the program. My guest today is financial planner, author, podcast host, and speaker Taylor Schulte. Taylor is the founder of Define Financial, a financial planning firm headquartered in San Diego, CA. He’s also the co-founder of Advisor Growth Community, a place for financial advisors to connect with and learn from each other, and the host of two excellent podcasts, Stay Wealthy and Experiments in Advisor Marketing. Taylor and I talked about why all financial advisors need to be lifelong learners, our sources for learning, and we share a few marketing ideas too.

When was the last time you talked to a Netflix employee about your account? How about an Amazon employee? I’m guessing for most of you the answer is: never. Netflix automatically charges my credit card every month and uses its algorithms to push content it thinks I’ll enjoy to my home screen. A shipping problem or return request with Amazon is usually resolved with a couple swipes or clicks. It’s efficient customer service, but it’s all faceless, online, impersonal. Now, when was the last time you stayed at a Ritz-Carlton or Four Season? How did that experience make you feel? Pretty darn good I bet! The key to your success as an advisor is to marry the tech efficiency of an Amazon with the deluxe service of a Ritz-Carlton and underpin it with high technical competence. It’s really a three-legged stool—tech efficiency + deluxe service + technical competence. I sometimes worry that our industry has become so obsessed with the tech efficiency leg of the stool that we are losing sight of what clients are really paying us for—helping them make better financial decisions so they can live their best life possible. I couldn’t attend this year Wealth/Stack Conference, so I invited two of my favorite past guests who did attend to recap some of the key themes that emerged from the conference. My guests today are Dennis Morton and Matt Wilson. Dennis is the co-founder of Morton Brown Family Wealth along with his partner, Kathryn Brown. Matt is the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of Keen Wealth Advisors along with his partner, Bill Keen. Here are four major themes from the conference and our thoughts about each.

Email Marketing is one of the most effective, least expensive, and underutilized marketing strategies available to you right now. I’m on the record as saying a person’s inbox in the most valuable piece of marketing real estate you can own. When a person gives you permission to show up in their inbox on a regular basis, you can develop a personalized relationship that leads to new business and long-term loyalty. Now, you might be thinking, "Steve, have you lost your rocker here? Email is so 1990s. Why are you talking about email marketing? Email is dead. We've got Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, texting, Instagram, webinars and much more, so why are you talking about a dinosaur like email?" Because it works! Just like I was early to the podcasting space five years ago when I started Between Now and Success, the next big marketing and education platform is a resurrection of an old one—email. I started using “electronic mail” back in the 1980s when I worked for corporate giants Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard. In those pre-commercial internet days, it was a closed loop and I could send mail only to other employees. I thought it was really cool back then and today, it’s even cooler now that your “email” is as unique and ubiquitous as your thumbprint. To explore email marketing, I invited one of the country’s leading authorities on email marketing, Dan Oshinsky, to my podcast. Dan is the founder of Inbox Collective, an email consultancy that helps brands grow audiences, build relationships, and get results via email. Previously, Dan was the Director of Newsletters at The New Yorker, where he helped launch new newsletters, optimize their suite of products, and drive paid subscriber growth through email. Dan was also the Director of Newsletters at BuzzFeed, where he built a team that grew newsletters into one of the biggest referrers of traffic to the site and drove 250 million clicks to BuzzFeed. Dan also wrote more than 200 posts for BuzzFeed, including one that hit 1 million views.

A top-notch tech stack is table stakes. And you won’t “out tech the tech titans” so you can’t win on technology. So what can a financial advisor do to remain relevant and thrive in the years ahead? You can double-down on your ability to humanize the advisor-client relationship, to understand and deliver on exactly what your clients really need, and you should do it in a technologically-enhanced way. “You're not competing on your toolkit or the software that you deploy in your office,” says podcast guest Lex Sokolin. “You're competing on the core need, which is that most people don't have enough money. They don't know how to retire. They're super anxious. I think the smart financial advisor will shade the constructs of how they work and move towards what the human need is in this evolving world.” Lex Sokolin is the Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. Lex is also a futurist and entrepreneur whose newsletter, Future of Finance, should be on your must-read list every week if you want to stay ahead of the curve (I read it each week). In today’s conversation, we discuss the sweeping changes in the fintech landscape and what new skills advisors will need to thrive in an industry that’s getting more digital and more automated every day.

“You’re either growing or dying.” How many times have you heard that chestnut? Too many! But what if you decided you didn’t want to grow? What if you decided you’d be happy at the current size of your business and just add new clients when an existing client leaves or passes away? Does the thought of that idea make you vomit or is it liberating? If you decide it’s all about growth, what are you willing to sacrifice to scale? My guest today, Carolyn McClanahan recently decided her practice was “big enough” with 100 families and she has now closed her firm to new clients. Carolyn is the Director of Financial Planning at Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, FL and she has a fascinating background. She's actually a M.D. who decided to become a CFP® after she and her husband couldn't find a financial planner who provided the kind of life-planning advice that they really wanted. After she opened her own firm in 2004, Carolyn split her time between advising some of her doctor buddies and treating patients as an emergency room doctor. In our conversation, we discuss how Carolyn replaced the old “big book” financial plans we all remember with a more personal, goals-based narrative approach. She also talks about her unique fee structure of pricing based on complexity, and we discuss how she concluded that 100 families was the optimal size for her practice.

The classic educational seminar still works if you spend the time, and yes, the money to do it right. My podcast guest today, Matt Gulbransen, has mastered the science—and art—of delivering seminars that convert.  Matt is the President of Pine Grove Financial Group, which is an RIA operating in the St. Paul, Minnesota area. In our conversation, Matt discusses what attracted him to seminars, what works for him, a few things that don't, the kinds of events he hosts, the formula he uses to calculate his ROI, and, maybe most importantly, the emphasis that he and his team place on rehearsing your presentations until not even a power outage is going to throw you off your game.

Today I’m going to share 3 maxims used by Navy SEALs that drive their elite performance. These maxims have been used by SEALs for decades and have proven their worth in thousands of Special Operations missions in every corner of the world. The good news is, they’ll work for you too. Apply them to your business and to your personal performance and watch your results soar. My guest today is Commander David Sears of the United States Navy. David retired after serving for 20 years in the Navy SEALs. He's a decorated veteran who planned, led, and executed hundreds of Special Operations missions in more than 40 countries on five continents. In our conversation we talk in-depth about three maxims that guide how Navy SEALs operate. Each maxim is so nuanced that once you dig into the surface-level truth, you’ll find deeper levels of insight that can apply to any kind of business – including, of course, financial advisory. I really love making these kinds of connections. I firmly believe that to be successful in any business, you need to diversify your inputs and learn as much as you can from whomever you can. You might not think that advisors and Navy SEALs have a whole lot in common. But more often than not, I’ve found that strategies that the absolute best of the best use to excel in one field have lessons for folks in other businesses as well.

Imagine for a moment if you could build a highly profitable practice that served a total of just 10 families and individuals. And through your personalized, indispensable service you could create clients for life, and perhaps even for a generation or two. That’s exactly what David Dunn is doing at Kingsbridge Wealth Management. David describes Kingsbridge as a family office featuring a “full stack financial infrastructure” that provides high-net-worth families and individuals with everything they need to manage their wealth. That means a thorough understanding of how each client thinks about their money, offering specialized services, and incorporating some outside-the-box thinking on asset allocation (hint: it’s definitely NOT modern portfolio theory). Even if your typical client’s net worth is in the 7-figures, as opposed to 8, 9 or 10 that David works with, you’ll gain a great appreciation of the psychological and service needs of all investors and how to apply that understanding to better meeting your client’s needs.

You’re not going to reach the top of this profession without having a competitive streak in you. And when you channel that competitiveness into “winning” for your clients and “winning” in the growth of your business, that’s a dynamite combo. Today’s guest, Michael Bapis, is a competitor who played golf for the University of Utah, then collegiate-level basketball while studying abroad in Greece for two years. After finishing school, he moved to Phoenix and ran Jim Flick's Golf School at Desert Mountain. Once he decided to follow his father into finance, Michael kept learning and achieving at a very high level, first at Morgan Stanley, then at HighTower. In 2018, he opened Vios Advisors under the umbrella of Rockefeller Capital Management, working with high-net worth individuals, pro athletes, and entertainers. We connected in person at the 2019 SALT Conference and discussed a wide range of topics including two key lessons he learned from his early mentor Jim Flick. These lessons became foundational cornerstones for how he built his advisory firm to more than $1 billion in AUM.

I'm convinced that one of the keys to success is to have extreme clarity. But clarity can be difficult to define, and even harder to achieve. In our business, many advisors don’t do a thorough enough job defining themselves to an ever-more-crowded marketplace. “We help you achieve your financial goals” might fit well on your website’s masthead. But does a phrase like that really say anything meaningful about who you are as an advisor, what kind of value you bring to the planning process, and who your ideal clients are? To help us all achieve some … well, clarity on these important issues, I sat down with the “King of Clarity.” My guest today is Steve Woodruff, who is in the business of helping people discover their fit and then craft the words that become their verbal business card. He's also the author of a great book called “Clarity Wins: Get Heard, Get Referred.” In our conversation, Steve discusses the five questions he believes all business owners need to ask themselves about their branding and messaging, especially when it comes to your website. And make sure you listen to the whole episode, because at the end we hold some advisor websites up to the King’s clarity standards. Steve’s feedback on the good, the bad, and the ugly of clarity will make you look at your own marketing in a whole new way. (Don’t worry. Names have been disguised to protect the innocent. And the guilty.)

If I only knew then what I know now … As advisors and business owners, we all think about this from time to time. But how often do you actually put what you’ve learned into action? Right now, you’re probably sitting on a lesson or idea you could use to transform your business. In fact, you might have enough “A-ha!” moments stored up to do something really exciting, like starting your dream RIA from scratch. My guests today did just that. Dennis Morton and Katie Brown are the co-founders of Morton Brown Family Wealth in Allentown, PA. They used lessons learned during their previous 10-year working relationship at another firm to grow Morton Brown from $0 to over $100 million in AUM in just 12 months. In today's show, we discuss the specific ways they designed their firm from Day 1 to be an enduring business with no regrets and no more “if onlys.”

A master class from Sterling Shea on how to revamp your business and thrive as a world-class financial advisor, taught by someone who literally writes the book on where our industry is going and how the best of the best stay at the top.

How can financial advisors build an enduring business with sustainable value? Contrary to what we often hear and read, it's not all about tech. It's about being indispensable in your clients' lives. Today's guest, Brie Williams, says there are four areas we should focus on to create sustainable value. Be authentic to what you represent. Set, manage, and deliver on client expectations. Remember that perception is reality. Optimize to realize your long-term vision. These four areas can form the core of your client-centric approach to business. Brie is Vice President of State Street Global Advisors and Head of Practice Management for the Global SPDR Business. Before she entered financial services, Brie had a great career in advertising and research where she managed big brands like Frito-Lay, McDonald's, and Target. In our conversation, we explored some of the key drivers you need to put in place to build a sustainable business in our fast-paced world. In particular, Brie talked about the lessons she learned on Madison Ave. that have translated into helping advisors build better practices, and how you can use technology combined with human empathy and curiosity to help clients understand how to engage with you and your team when their money needs and life needs intersect.

Capitalism is taking a beating right now. Rising wealth inequality and low social mobility have been festering for decades. The median income of Americans hasn’t budged in 30 years. The overall share of GDP accruing to capital has risen significantly relative to labor. And I could go on. So is capitalism the problem? No. We don’t need to ditch capitalism, we just need to evolve it so more people can benefit from it. But how do we do that? For some answers, I reached out to Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci. You may know him as the short-lived communications director in the White House. But he’s also the founder of a multi-billion dollar alternative fund, organizer of the SALT Forum (BTW, I'll be podcasting from the SALT Forum so register to attend and I'll see you there), and a fun guy to talk to. In today’s show, we talk about capitalism. We discuss what works, what’s not working, and what would it take for our country to evolve capitalism so it helps all Americans live the American dream.I hope you enjoy today’s show.

Seminars work. I’ve had multiple advisors on my podcast in recent months who are all killing it with seminars. In fact, today's podcast guest, Bill Keen, raised $90 million in AUM last year from seminars. Sure, it seems old school in the age of Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom, but people still value human to human live contact. You can only Google, click, and swipe so much before you just want to hear an actual person give you some good, solid information about how to live the best life possible with your money. If you’re behind the curve on seminars and you aren’t sure how to start, my guest today, Bill Keen, is going to help you catch up. Bill’s firm, Keen Wealth, has almost half a billion dollars in AUM, and seminars have been pivotal to Bill’s success. On this episode, Bill details the 5-step process he used to perfect his seminar process and it could help you get on track to raise tens of millions in new AUM. Yes, there’s more to it than just slapping together a good PowerPoint. But if you commit to Bill’s process and throw in some personal touches, you’ll be on your way to grabbing an audience and growing your client base.

A growing financial advisory firm needs lots of top talent. What are you doing to deepen your roster of advisors? Do your brightest employees see a path for themselves from, say, a business or marketing degree to CFP® certification? And if so, what can both the employee and the employer expect during that process? Well, confession time: it's been a couple years (actually decades) since I got my CFP®, so I don't think I'm the best person to answer those questions. I decided to go to a better-qualified source. Andrew Jones is a representative in the high-net-worth area at one of the country's leading investment management firms. Andrew recently completed the CFP® program and will soon meet the work requirements to become, officially, a CFP®. Andrew told me that one of the reasons he decided to pursue his CFP® rather than an MBA is that he saw himself as more of a people person. Your firm needs to attract and cultivate millennials like Andrew who recognize that there's more to advisory than just managing money. Advisors who are skilled communicators and who are empathetic with an ability to connect with your clients as people are vital to the future of your business. On today's show, Andrew shares his best advice for studying and passing the CFP® exam. He also talks about the resources his company made available to him and how studying with other aspiring CFP®s created a sense of camaraderie and accountability that was critical to his success. We also hear from a special guest who was particularly instrumental in helping Andrew earn his CFP®. As you're listening to Andrew discuss this process, ask yourself what your firm could be doing to encourage young employees to pursue CFP® certification and how you could foster a workplace culture that would improve their chances of success.

David Bach is one of the most well-known names in personal finance and the RIA space. In 2018, AE Wealth Management ranked as the second-fastest-growing RIA in America according to Investment News and Financial Advisor Magazine. David is also an 11-time best-selling author, including 9 New York Times best-selling books that have sold over 7 million copies and been translated into 19 languages. His latest, “The Latte Factor,” is also a huge hit. And on top of all that, David’s massively popular “Smart Women, Smart Retirement” seminars are currently being taught coast to coast by his licensed advisors. On today's show, we do a deep dive on marketing, with a focus on seminars and the kind of storytelling David uses to connect with prospects and grow great businesses.

Rohit Bhargava is the founder and chief trend curator of the Non-Obvious Company, which helps companies and leaders win by learning to see what others miss. He’s also the founder of three successful companies, and advisor to multiple startups, and a bestselling author of five books on a wide variety of topics, including the future of business, how to build a brand with personality, and why leaders always eat left-handed. We talked about some key trends from the 2019 edition of “Non-Obvious” that financial advisors are going to want to pay special attention to. The rapid advances in technology, media, and marketing have put our business in an “accelerating present” for more than a decade now. Rohit’s observations will help you stay ahead of the curve.

As technology automates much of the “mechanics” of money, advisors need to evolve to the more emotional aspects of money. After all, simply helping rich people get richer isn’t usually a driving motivator for advisors—or clients. In my conversation with Doug Lennick, the co-founder of Think2Perform, an author, and former EVP of Advice and Retail Distribution for American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise Financial), he shared four words that he believes underlie the real value financial advisors deliver.

Today's guest is Brent Kessel. Brent is founder of Abacus Wealth Partners, which has more than 50 employees and more than $2 billion in assets under management. About ten years ago I was reading a Buddhist magazine and did a double-take when I saw an ad for a financial advisory firm on its back cover. Abacus Wealth has been on my radar ever since. "I have been a student of different kinds of Eastern traditions, mostly yoga and mindfulness meditation, for over 25 years," Brent says. "As your listeners probably know, the abacus is a Chinese mathematical computational instrument. What I liked about that name is that it felt like it brought in Eastern tradition and history along with computational dexterity, just the ability to really think, figure things out precisely." Brent's unique path through life and personal passions have had a big influence on how he runs his firm. We discussed how that confluence has helped to make Abacus stand out from the crowd while also offering its clients a mind-opening perspective on what the wealth they're building is really for.

Today's guest is Dan Moisand. Dan is a Principal and Financial Advisor at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo. He’s also a past national president of the Financial Planning Association and has been featured as one of America's top financial planners by at least 10 financial planning publications. Dan’s perspective on how the industry has changed during his long career led our conversation to some strong insights on steps advisors can take to improve their value in 2019 and beyond. “I've done a little bit of just about everything that you can imagine,” Dan Moisand told me as he reflected on his 30 years as a financial services industry leader. "I don't know if the next 30 will be more dramatic, but I sure as hell wouldn't bet on it being less. The pace of change generally does seem to be quicker. So, I think that the financial planning profession will continue to evolve." And we discuss how your role as a financial advisor needs to evolve right along with it.

If you could come up with 3 words for this year, 3 words that would drive your actions and keep you on track to make this your best year ever, what would those 3 words be? This is the fifth year now where I’ve begun the year by identifying 3 words that will set the course, give me direction, and totally excite me as I move through the year. I write these words at the top of my Daily Focus sheet and look at them daily throughout the year. Prior Years 3 Words 2018: Spark, Community, Savor  2017: Discipline, Deliver, Score 2016: Launch, Leverage, Connect 2015: Implement, Energy, Relationships The premise is simple. Pick 3 words that motivate you, remind you, and guide you on your road to making 2019 your best year ever. I encourage all my clients to do this and I encourage you to do this same exercise as it will help you stay focused on the most important outcomes for the year. In today’s podcast, I discuss my 3 words for 2019 as well as review my 3 words for 2018 and discuss how well I executed on them.

Life-centered planning, improving client behavior, the client experience, positive psychology, marketing, and technology are some of the hot topics I got to discuss with finance industry leaders and thinkers on my Between Now and Success podcast during 2018. I think some of these topics, like a renewed emphasis on your human touch as an advisor, will continue to have a huge influence on where advisory goes in 2019. And others, like, say, cryptocurrency ... Hmm ... Maybe not quite so much. Let's take a look back at some key learnings from my 10 most popular podcasts of 2018.

What are the top firms doing to outperform the rest? How are they growing? What’s the silver bullet that’s going to help my firm hit that 16% five-year growth CAGR I’m seeing from the best of the best? These were hot topics at last month’s Charles Schwab IMPACT Conference in Washington, D.C. And of course, the very reason that so many of our industry’s best and brightest were gathered there to speak, learn, and network is that there isn’t one “silver bullet” that’s going to transform your practice in 2019. But some guiding principles for advisors looking to grow did emerge at the conference, which I discussed with Lisa Salvi, Vice President of Business Consulting and Field Experience at Charles Schwab. Lisa and I were joined by Mitch Reiner, Chief Operating Officer, Managing Partner, and Senior Investment Advisor of Capital Investment Advisors, who is a graduate of Schwab’s Executive Leadership Program.

For advisors who want to grow their audience – and hopefully, their client base – content and distribution is King, Queen, and Jack. But how do you build your audience? What is going to set you apart from the crowd and make your blog post or newsletter a must-read, your video channel a must-watch, your next podcast a must-listen? Caleb Silver, the editor-in-chief of Investopedia, discussed these hot topics at the recent FPA Annual Conference in Chicago. After his presentation, “Building an Audience: Top Strategies for Exponential Audience Growth,” Caleb sat down with me to discuss the 10 ways he believes advisors can improve their online presence and create content followers won’t swipe past.

What do you need to be a successful financial advisor? An Ivy League degree in finance? A family practice that you can inherit? A group of wealthy connections that you can network? An "in" at one of the major firms? Well, Rebecca Rothstein doesn't check off any of those boxes, and she's currently managing over $4.5 billion in AUM. Without even a high school degree, Rebecca left home at age 17. She bounced through a series of odd jobs -- including walking racehorses after they'd finished running -- and by the late 1980s she was slogging through an unfulfilling sales position. She jumped to finance and earned her Series 7 just weeks before Black Monday. Anxious investors looking to take their portfolios in a new direction responded to Rebecca's curiosity and tenacity, two traits that she credits with helping her build her business brick by brick, one phone call at a time. Today, from her office in Beverly Hills, California, Rebecca's client list includes celebrities, athletes, musicians, and top CEOs and entrepreneurs. Rebecca has appeared numerous times on Barron's List of the top financial advisors, and according to Forbes, is currently the #1 woman advisor in the United States. In our conversation, Rebecca Rothstein and I discussed how drive and perseverance helped her to overcome the obstacles she faced early in her life and build a multi-billion-dollar AUM business.

If you want to be a better financial advisor, learn how to land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit … But I really do believe that the top advisors of the future will be those who are open to a wide variety of insights that come from a wide variety of experiences you and I might never have. Talking to and learning from people outside of our field can really get our gears turning. Suddenly you’re approaching challenges and opportunities from different angles and finding creative ways to deal with the stresses of running a business. You’re also equipping yourself with new ways of thinking that will help you make long-lasting, indispensable relationships with clients. That’s why I was excited to talk to Lieutenant James Licata on a recent podcast. James is a Naval test pilot who’s often in high-pressure, high-stakes, life-or-death situations. I wanted to discuss how he handles those environments, and how those of us with two feet firmly on the ground can adapt similar strategies to perform under the pressures we face running our businesses.