![Episode 001 Rick Kahler](https://www.kitces.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Episode-001_Rick-Kahler-150x150.jpg)
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My mission with #FASuccess is to help you be more successful as a financial advisor - whatever "success" means to you. In this new weekly podcast, we'll feature interviews with successful financial planners who share their stories about what it took for them to succeed, along with consultants who work with advisors and help them get to the next level.
In particular, it's my goal to highlight the "Iceberg Illusion" of success - that what little we see outwardly of other people's success is, like the tip of an iceberg, just a small part of what it really took to be successful. On the podcast, it's my goal to dig deeper, and help reveal the real struggles that every financial advisor will face from time to time in a business or career... and what it takes to persist and push through.
In this first episode, I talk with Rick Kahler, a financial planner in Rapid City, South Dakota, who by any classic industry measure has been very successful. He's built a practice up to 100 clients and $200M in assets under management, supported by 7 staff, and taking home more than $350,000 of income from the firm. Yet the reality is that it hasn't always been this way for him. For most of his early career, Rick worked as a mortgage and real estate broker, where financial planning was just a "side job" that built slowly over time... and as a result, when he decided to focus fully on the firm, he took a major step back in his income that took years to recover.
Rick’s story is truly humbling as he openly shares the events and decisions that brought him to where he is today. You’ll hear about his decisions that worked well in growing his practice, and quite frankly the sheer persistence in Rick’s professional career that allowed him to consistently and repeatedly overcome roadblocks and challenges. Between at one point losing 5 out of 6 employees in under 60 days, to facing insolvency and near bankruptcy 6 times, and failing on multiple other businesses before focusing on his advisory practice, Rick’s ability to persist when times are uncomfortable is truly inspirational.
I hope you enjoy this first episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast! And please share your comments once you listen, and let me know what you think and how we can improve from here!