Financial Advisor Success Podcast - Full Episode Archives

#FASuccess Ep 196: Partnering With A Center Of Influence To Rapidly Grow In A Focused Niche, With Daniel Hannoush

September 29, 2020 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 196th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Daniel Hannoush. Daniel is the co-founder of One & Done Financial, a virtual independent RIA that oversees nearly 70 million of assets under management for almost 350 client households. What's unique about Daniel though, is his firm's niche focus on Chick-fil-A operators, and how by partnering with a key center of influence in the Chick-fil-A community, Daniel's firm has been able to consistently add five to ten new clients per month to get them to those 350 client households in barely four years since launching.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Daniel's path to the Chick-fil-A niche, how he started out, like so many advisors, as a generalist serving anyone and everyone he could meet, the way a fateful introduction by a recruiter to another advisor seeking to build a business with similar values led to Daniel meeting his business partner, the way they formed an advisory firm partnership with the delineation of roles where Daniel would focus on building the business internally, while his partner used his existing Chick-fil-A relationships to grow the clientele, and why when you find traction in a niche, it's so crucial to take the time to build the internal systems and processes, because as Daniel puts it, if your visibility exceeds your ability, it destroys your credibility.

We also talk about how Daniel's firm is actually building in the Chick-fil-A niche, how they separate out the advice services that One & Done provides from the home office support that Chick-fil-A itself gives its franchise operators, the unique modular approach to financial planning their firm takes, why services are split into monthly financial planning fees, investment management for standalone portfolios, and a separate retirement planning service offering with its own pricing structure, and how Chick-fil-A's robust business model and their own franchise vetting process effectively ensures that virtually every Chick-fil-A operator will be a good fit for Daniel's advisory firm.

And be sure to listen to the end, where Daniel shares why they've decided to build their fast-growing advisory firm entirely virtually, the reason they decided to invest heavily into Salesforce as their CRM system, and the power of not being everything to everyone, and finding the one thing you can be the best at, and using that as the core to grow and scale your advisory business.

So whether you’re interested in learning about the journey that led Daniel to finding his Chick-fil-A niche, how his modular financial planning system works, or why he built a virtual firm, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.
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#FASuccess Ep 195: Own Your Future By Continuously Reinvesting In Yourself To Build The Advisory Career You Want, With Echo Huang

September 22, 2020 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 195th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Echo Huang. Echo is the founder of Echo Wealth Management, an independent RIA based in Minneapolis that oversees nearly $120 million of assets under management for 76 client households. What's unique about Echo, though, is the way she's built a niche serving corporate executives and has managed to grow the firm almost entirely by word of mouth by building her reputation within her niche.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Echo built her career starting out in the industry from scratch as an immigrant to the U.S. with just $800 in her pocket. How she started studying finance as an undergraduate, then decided that it would help her career to get a CPA license, so she joined a public accounting firm to get the requisite two years of audit experience. Then, transitioned to the personal financial planning division of a regional accounting firm and earned her CFP certification to build her professional credibility and help overcome the fact that she looked young when sitting across from older clients. Why Echo ultimately went out on her own at a cost of losing two-thirds of her AUM to rebuild the vision of the advisory firm she wanted to build. And why, as an already successful advisor in her 40s, she still decided to go back and get her CFA certification on top of juggling the challenges of growing the business and being a parent to her daughter Nina.

We also talk about how Echo actually built her independent advisory firm to serve the clients she wanted to serve. Why she chose TD Ameritrade as her custodian. The reason she selected Salesforce as her CRM of choice despite Redtail and Wealthbox being more popular for solo advisors. Why eMoney Advisor became the hub of her financial planning services for clients. And how Echo structures her fees for clients with an AUM fee that starts at 1% on their first $1 million for portfolio management. And a separate fee of up to $5,000 for the first years' financial planning.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Echo shares the unique challenges of being what she terms a triple minority of being Asian, female, and a new immigrant coming into the financial planning profession. The unique way that Echo views career and business risk to have made some of the key transitions she's made to advance her career. And why she views the key to success as building the confidence to believe in yourself, and your own advisor value. And getting the education, study group peer support, and whatever else it takes to build that confidence in yourself.

So whether you’re interested in learning about the journey that led Echo to starting her own firm, how she created her niche working with Fortune 500 executives, or how she built her tech stack from scratch, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

#FASuccess Ep 194: Aligning Values To Clients With Sustainable Investing And Becoming B Corp Certified, With Lisa Cooper

September 15, 2020 07:08 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 194th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Lisa Cooper. Lisa is the founder of Figure 8 Investment Strategies, an independent RIA based in Boise, Idaho that oversees nearly 90 million of assets under management for 85 affluent clients.

What's unique about Lisa, though, is that her firm operates as a B Corporation and it's focused on what Lisa calls, 'sustainability-focused equity management', a form of sustainable and responsible investing by building a thematic portfolio of 50 to 60 individual stocks that has helped Lisa to effectively differentiate herself and grow to 90 million of assets under management in just 4 years since launching.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Lisa crafted her unique investment approach for clients, the way the firm crafts sustainable investing themes to identify segments of the market to invest in, the screening tools they use to determine what stocks to avoid in their investment approach, how shareholder engagement through proxy voting is a key part of Lisa's investment process, and why and how Lisa's firm uses direct impact investing not to expand its equity reach, but to garner its fixed-income bond exposure instead. We also talk about Lisa's decision to become a certified B Corporation with her RIA, the five key areas of governance, customers and products, environment, team, and community that firms must improve to meet the B Corp requirements, the new processes and procedures that Lisa implemented in her firm to meet the standards, and why she thought it was worth the B Corporation cost and trouble to demonstrate how her business is acting to be a force for good and positive change.

And be certain to listen to the end where Lisa shares the unique types of clients that her firm has been able to attract with this differentiated focus, the challenges that she faced in trying to grow her team and expand her reach as her business grew rapidly, and how the mindset of doing more for more people all the time can be a great way to launch an advisory firm, but ultimately may end up limiting to its growth.

So whether you’re interested in learning about the process of B Corp certification, how Lisa created her business as a force for good, or how to integrate ESG and impact across portfolios, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

#FA Success Ep 193: Turning Operations Experience Into A Virtual Assistant Outsourcing Solution, with Michelle Wong

September 8, 2020 07:04 am 8 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 193rd episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Michelle Wong. Michelle is the founder of Nifty Advisor Support, a virtual assistant outsourcing solution serving more than two dozen independent advisory firms across the country. What's unique about Michelle, though, is the way that she's been able to capitalize on the dual trends of outsourcing and virtual teams by pivoting her own career in operations and as a client service administrator into an entrepreneurial venture.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about the rise of virtual assistant solutions for financial advisors. The kinds of advisory firms that choose to hire virtual assistants to help with everything from marketing to client servicing to paraplanning, the typical tasks that especially solo advisory firm owners can outsource to make themselves more efficient, and how Michelle's firm structures its solution to provide support across all three areas.

We also talk about the practical mechanics of how it works when taking on a virtual assistant as a financial advisor. How the typical cost of a virtual assistant is a higher hourly rate than hiring a full-time staff member but may be a fraction of the total cost when firms only have to pay for the productive hours they actually need. The benefits of using an external firm to avoid the responsibility of training staff members on key systems as a busy advisor, how virtual assistants typically work with firms through a combination of task and workflow systems within an advisor CRM and separate communication tools like Slack, and the way that cybersecurity with a virtual assistant can now be managed using third-party solutions like LastPass.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michelle shares her frustration that so few advisory firms have a clear career track for operations team members the way they often do for their advisors. Why the flexibility and work-life balance of virtual work is just as relevant to operations team members as the rest of the advisory firm team, and the way Michelle has been able to scale her business by finding others in the industry with similar operations and client service experience who want career opportunities with greater work-life flexibility.

So whether you’re interested in learning about hiring a virtual assistant, how Michelle created a career path for operations team members, or how outsourcing can make your firm more efficient, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

#FA Success Ep 192: Breaking Away From A Wirehouse To Build A True Fiduciary Multi-Family Office, with Paul Pagnato

September 1, 2020 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 192nd episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Paul Pagnato. Paul is the co-chairman and chief visionary officer of Cresset Capital, a multi-family office with nearly $9.5 billion of assets under management for just over 600 ultra-high-net-worth clients. What's unique about Paul, though, is the journey he's had as an advisory firm owner, from a nearly 20-year career at Merrill Lynch to breaking away to work with HighTower Advisors as a partner, deciding to go out entirely on his own as an independent RIA to build his own vision, and then deciding to merge his multibillion-dollar advisory firm into Cresset and give up control in order to further expand the reach of that vision.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Paul's entrepreneurial journey through the industry. How the stresses of the financial crisis on the brokerage industry created a unique conflict that led him to leave the wirehouse world after 20 years there, the challenging learning curve than an advisory firm faces when first breaking away, the unique stresses that emerge in the client relationship when the Broker Protocol and wirehouse employment agreements require that clients not be informed about the plan to leave until surprising them with it after the fact, and why it's so important to have a strong support structure in place with experienced vendors when making the decision to break away as a large team.

We also talk about the unique multi-family office that Paul built once he was finally able to go fully independent. The $90,000 a year flat fee structure the firm uses to serve its ultra-affluent clientele, why and how Paul's firm weaves together tax services, legal support, and even concierge travel assistance into their high-net-worth offering, the unique approach of quarterly experiments that Paul's firm conducts on an ongoing basis to come up with new ways to serve clients more efficiently, and how Paul has been able to scale efficiently with a philosophy of always trying to outsource as much as he can.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Paul shares the journey of deciding to merge his multibillion-dollar multi-family office into an even larger one. The investment banker he used to explore the options, why he ultimately decided to sell instead of raising capital from a private equity firm, and how he got comfortable with the decision to no longer have full control with the decision to merge.

#FASuccess Ep 191: Carving Your Own Career Path To Create A Role That Fits Your Unique Strengths, with Tiffany Charles

August 25, 2020 07:14 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 191st episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Tiffany Charles. Tiffany is the chief growth officer for Destiny Capital, a hybrid advisory firm based near Denver, Colorado that oversees $260 million in assets under management for nearly 200 households. What's unique about Tiffany, though, is the way she's crafted a unique role for herself as the chief growth officer for an independent advisory firm with a focus not simply on personally prospecting for new business, but building more scalable marketing systems to power the growth of the entire firm.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Tiffany forged her own career path through the industry. Starting out first as an executive assistant and then taking on roles in compliance and marketing before climbing the ladder from an associate advisor to a lead, the challenges in building a book of clients by the traditional industry approach that may not be authentic to one's natural style of marketing, the way Tiffany restructured her own personal focus to move away from business outcomes and towards measuring her activity instead, and how Tiffany ultimately created her own unique chief growth officer role with the focus on the firm's revenue, client experience, brand identity, and culture.

We also talk about how Tiffany took on her chief growth officer role with her firm as a tie-in to a next-generation succession plan for the firm. Why it was so appealing to join a firm that was already in the midst of transitioning to the next generation of leadership, how she negotiated her role to become a new partner with the firm, and the way she co-created a new vision with the firm and her new partner to pursue a new niche of working with entrepreneurs.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tiffany shares the challenges in transitioning an advisory firm from a lifestyle focus to a path of growth. Why even if you have an aspirational vision of someday leading an advisory firm, often the key experiences that shape you come from those early entry-level roles that are still so valuable in the early stages of our own careers, and the power of finding a mentor and investing into a coach to help get perspective on how to navigate the key steps of your career along the way.

#FASuccess Ep 190: Scaling An Advisory Firm By Finding New Talent Outside The Financial Services Industry, with Stacey McKinnon

August 18, 2020 07:12 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 190th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Stacey McKinnon. Stacey is the chief operating officer for Morton Capital, an independent RIA based in the suburbs of Los Angeles that oversees nearly $2 billion of assets under management for almost 1,000 client households. What's unique about Stacey, though, is the firm's non-traditional approach to hiring talent from outside the financial services industry to grow and scale, a path that Stacey herself has followed having previously been a wedding coordinator and operated a Pilates studio before career changing into the financial services industry and successfully climbing the ladder to become Morton Capital's chief operating officer.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Stacey has developed hiring practices to spot talent from outside the industry. Why she's pursued everyone from teachers, who have a demonstrated ability to educate and give of themselves, to someone who's previously worked in a rehab center, with a demonstrated ability to show empathy for people in difficult situations, to the manager of a coffee house who had shown through his own work experience that he really knew how to care for his team. The in-depth interview process that Stacey's firm uses to evaluate both prospective job skills and culture fit over a series of five to six meetings, and the career track that Morton has created to give everyone in the firm upward mobility to grow their careers over time.

We also talk about the growth and evolution of Morton itself as a multibillion-dollar RIA. The way the firm restructured its compensation away from traditional revenue-based approach to better align everyone on the team, the way Stacey helped the firm reduce the tendency to micromanage as the business grew by helping everyone across the firm build stronger relationships and what they dubbed a year-long culture of trust initiative, and how the Morton team now structures its weekly firm-wide education sessions every Thursday morning.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Stacey shares the challenge she faced in her own career journey when she had to decide whether to pursue an advisory or operations path, why the word "because" is so crucial in leadership conversations, and why Stacey believes the key to future success for advisors isn't simply about finding a niche or specialization, but immersing yourself into a community of people that you can serve and with whom you have shared beliefs.

#FASuccess Ep 189: Experimenting With Advisor Marketing To Find The (Digital) Formula That Works For You, with Taylor Schulte

August 11, 2020 07:05 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 189th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Taylor Schulte. Taylor is the founder of Define Financial, an independent RIA based in San Diego, CA that oversees $76 million of assets under management for 60 families in or approaching retirement. What's unique about Taylor, though, is the way he's grown his practice by proactively spending on marketing, from hiring a branding and website design agency to a PR firm to running ongoing advisor marketing experiments, and everything from local SEO to email marketing automation.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about both the hits and the misses in marketing that Taylor has experienced along the way. From the initial $12,000 he invested into his original website that, in retrospect, wasn't focused enough to succeed, to the $24,000 he spent on a PR firm that was deemed valuable but not something he continued, how Taylor figured out how to turn podcast listeners into clients (but only after 3 years of trying), and the way all his marketing results accelerated once he decided to narrow to a more focused target clientele to pursue, even though it meant firing his mother and his grandfather from being clients, such that today, 75% of all of Taylor's new clients first reach out to him through his well-targeted website that speaks to his niche clientele.

We also talk about Taylor's own evolution within the business. How he hit the wall at $250,000 of revenue and got stuck, unable to grow further, not because of his marketing, but his operations limitations, the way he got through the blocking point by hiring an office manager to take over and focus on those operational aspects, the unique hiring process that Taylor used to find the ideal office manager, and the journal that Taylor now keeps to monitor what he should be doing and what he needs to start delegating.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Taylor shares how working with business coaches have helped him break through the key blocking points in his business, how he has come to rely on CRM workflows, even though Taylor in his own words is not operations-minded, and why Taylor's biggest regret is that he didn't focus on his niche clientele earlier, even as he recognizes that struggling without a niche focus for several years may have been the only way he could eventually accept why getting more focused would help the way that it has.

#FASuccess Ep 188: Leading With Directly-Held Real Estate Advice To Differentiate Traditional Wealth Management, with Rich Arzaga

August 4, 2020 07:26 am 6 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 188th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Rich Arzaga. Rich is the founder of Cornerstone Wealth Management, a hybrid advisory firm based in Northern California that oversees nearly $70 million of assets under management for 65 affluent clients. What's unique about Rich, though, is that he's one of just a handful of advisors across the country who in addition to being a CFP certificant, also holds the CCIM designation to advise clients on commercial real estate, and in practice has been able to turn his ability to advise on directly held real estate investments into opportunities to gain clients for his traditional wealth management services as well.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Rich incorporates advice on directly held real estate into his practice. The APOD, short for Annual Property Operating Data analysis he prepares to clients as part of their financial plan, the tools that Rich uses, from eMoney Advisor to separate Excel spreadsheets, to track and analyze directly held real estate for clients, and why Rich charges an upfront but not an ongoing financial planning fee for his real estate analysis.

We also talk about how Rich was able to turn his directly held real estate advice into a growth engine for his advisory business. The unique networking opportunities he was able to develop through the CCIM organization as a holder of their designation, why Rich used but now stays away from advising clients on REITs as an alternative to directly held real estate, and why Rich views advising on directly held real estate as a great way to open the door for clients, but traditional wealth management is a better approach for generating ongoing revenue as an advisor.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Rich shares how he turbocharged his advisory firm in the early years as a career changer coming into the financial advisor world. Why he pursued the education for both his CFP and CCIM designations before he launched his firm, even though he didn't have the experience to actually use either of the marks, how Rich became an adjunct professor teaching financial planning early in his career as a way to further establish his credibility, and why the financial advisory business can be challenging for career-changing entrepreneurs because in the end, even for successful advisors, the path to growth is rarely a good sprint and more commonly a very long marathon.

#FASuccess Ep 187: Adopting Alternative Fee Models To Expand Your Clientele And Change The Complexion Of Wealth, with Emlen Miles-Mattingly

July 28, 2020 07:03 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 187th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Emlen Miles-Mattingly. Emlen is the founder of Gen Next Wealth, an independent RIA based in Madera, California, that provides wealth management for 70 client households. What's unique about Emlen, though, is the way he's decided to focus his advisory firm on working with underserved communities of color, as an advisor of color himself, and in the process is moving his advisory firm business model away from assets under management and toward a monthly subscription model that allows him to expand who he serves, all in pursuit of Emlen's goal to change the complexion of wealth.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Emlen structures his monthly subscription business model. How he started out charging $100 a month but quickly raised it to $300 a month, how he developed bronze, silver, and gold tiers that all provide a baseline of advice but vary in the depth of their tax, insurance, and estate implementation support, why Emlen decided to include filing annual tax returns for clients in his ongoing advice fee but then outsourced the tax preparation work itself, and how the change in business model is now accelerating his growth path.

We also talk about Emlen's actual financial planning process itself. The key question he asks at the beginning of every introductory meeting to support his sales process, the technology he uses to automate his new client onboarding process, and the outsourcing provider he hired to help build it, why his initial planning process starts not with retirement projections but analysis of the client's monthly household cash flow and budget, and the ongoing client service calendar that Emlen is developing to support clients year-round and earn the ongoing monthly fees he charges.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Emlen shares the real-world challenges of trying to succeed as an advisor of color serving communities of color. The ups and downs of trying to build your career in the early years and find the personal confidence to charge what you're really worth, and the importance of finding a support network of advisor peers to get through the inevitable ups and downs of building your firm, and in particular, where to look as an advisor of color.

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#FASuccess Ep 196: Partnering With A Center Of Influence To Rapidly Grow In A Focused Niche, With Daniel Hannoush

#FASuccess Ep 195: Own Your Future By Continuously Reinvesting In Yourself To Build The Advisory Career You Want, With Echo Huang

#FASuccess Ep 194: Aligning Values To Clients With Sustainable Investing And Becoming B Corp Certified, With Lisa Cooper

#FA Success Ep 193: Turning Operations Experience Into A Virtual Assistant Outsourcing Solution, with Michelle Wong

#FA Success Ep 192: Breaking Away From A Wirehouse To Build A True Fiduciary Multi-Family Office, with Paul Pagnato

#FASuccess Ep 191: Carving Your Own Career Path To Create A Role That Fits Your Unique Strengths, with Tiffany Charles

#FASuccess Ep 190: Scaling An Advisory Firm By Finding New Talent Outside The Financial Services Industry, with Stacey McKinnon

#FASuccess Ep 189: Experimenting With Advisor Marketing To Find The (Digital) Formula That Works For You, with Taylor Schulte

#FASuccess Ep 188: Leading With Directly-Held Real Estate Advice To Differentiate Traditional Wealth Management, with Rich Arzaga

#FASuccess Ep 187: Adopting Alternative Fee Models To Expand Your Clientele And Change The Complexion Of Wealth, with Emlen Miles-Mattingly

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