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#FA Success Ep 369: Breaking Through To New Growth By Changing Your Mindset Around Hiring (Complementary) Team Members, With Michelle Ogden

January 23, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Michelle Ogden Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome back to the 369th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Michelle Ogden. Michelle is the founder of Ogden Wealth, an RIA based in Maitland, Florida, that oversees $50M in assets under management for almost 120 client households.

What's unique about Michelle, though, is that after seeing the challenges that come with too-fast growth in her husband's business, she decided to be very slow and methodical in her own growth and limit her need to rely on any staff for more than a decade… only to eventually hit a wall when the whole business relied on her, leading her to eventually decide to partner with a TAMP, and then quickly more-than-double her business in the subsequent few years by finally getting to just focus on what she does best!

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Michelle's journey from vowing to avoid the Financial Advisor industry after a negative internship experience as a woman in a male-dominated wirehouse in the 1990s to eventually coming into the industry with a positive experience at Charles Schwab and ultimately forming her own successful RIA, how a wariness of trusting others led Michelle to slow the growth of her own firm and the way partnering with third-party platforms including Edelman Financial and then Carson Partners ultimately allowed her to unlock the next level of growth and better leverage her own skills, and how word of mouth through Kingdom Advisors and her strategy of simply passing along financial information she found that she thought might be helpful to others on Social Media gave Michelle the reputation of being the person to connect with for any questions surrounding anything with a dollar sign and eventually grew her client base.

We also talk about Michelle's experience with Charles Schwab and Edelman Financial and how to support of those relationships, combined with her husband's travails in running his own business, led Michelle to structure her work in a way that brings her joy rather than just money, how Michelle overcome the challenges that arose when she was forced to learn how to manage the team that she had hired despite not having any prior experience managing people , and the realization, once Michelle decided she had to begin charging a fee to clients who had previously been handled pro-bono, that nobody actually expected her to work for free, and that her fee increase led to an increase in revenue without an increase in workload.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michelle shares insight on how she wishes she had been more persuasive in convincing clients to do certain things for themselves and how that built her confidence to be more persistent in following up with clients and prospects (and if she was unsure, to just ask them when they felt it would be OK for her to follow up!), how Michelle finds it energizing and recharging for her to make deep and meaningful connections with clients and prospects (which has helped to carry her through the inevitable business challenges that come along the way), and how Michelle has developed her confidence that, through faith and diligent work, everything will work out, even (and perhaps especially) in situations in which Michelle had no control .

So, whether you're interested in learning about how to purposefully control your growth in order to maximize your own skillsets, how to increase your firm's revenue without increasing its workload, or how overcoming an aversion to hiring and trusting your team can allow you to focus on the elements of work that actually bring you joy, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Michelle Ogden.
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Designing “Custom GPTs” With Advanced ChatGPT Features To Enhance Advisor Capabilities With AI

January 17, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

In late 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven, natural-language processing tool that offered the public the ability to conduct seemingly human conversations with a chatbot and generate a seemingly endless array of sophisticated content, including essays, emails, computer code, meal plans, fictional stories, and song lyrics, to name just a few. ChatGPT's introduction set off a wide-ranging public debate around both the transformative power of AI as well as the potential (and largely unpredictable) threats it may pose. While it could be decades before we know those answers, at the moment, professionals across every industry, including financial advice, are working to learn how they can leverage this new and remarkable tool to make their practices more efficient.

In this guest post, David Ortiz, the Managing Partner at the Financial Chef, shares his personal journey around how he gained a practical understanding of some advanced ChatGPT features, how he customized it to generate responses specifically tailored to the needs of financial advisors, and how he's implemented those and other AI-driven tools in his business.

With a background as a software executive, David was drawn to the potential of ChatGPT, prompting him to learn how he could use it to enhance his capabilities as an advisor. After delving into instructional content on YouTube University, he decided that the ideal use for AI in his practice was to improve the processes around client meetings, including generating summaries, extracting pertinent data, creating action items, and staying compliant.

By learning to design "custom GPTs" to create individual bots that could perform specific tasks, David created (and has made publicly available) an advisor-focused tool he calls the "Client Meeting Summarizer", which processes advisor/client meeting transcripts to gather, summarize, and organize key information from any meeting or call through various AI prompts. One of his most used prompts processes discovery meeting transcripts and allows users to gather, summarize, and organize key information, including demographic data, topics discussed, key points, action items, and next steps. Another is designed to extract information from data gathering and financial planning meeting transcripts for easy entry into financial planning software and also to summarize key points and action steps. A 3rd prompt reviews annual review meeting transcripts, capturing client quotes from key review areas, which can then be fed to a CRM. Finally, a 4th prompt reviews transcripts from the perspective of a compliance officer to ensure that David and his team adhere to regulatory standards and their own internal policies.

Additionally, AI tools have allowed David to transform what were once monologue-based planning meetings into interactive, engaging dialogues. By using a mindmap plugin, David and his team create high-level visuals that give clients a clear understanding of how their financial plans were constructed, how their specific issues are being addressed, and the value that David is delivering on an ongoing basis.

Ultimately, David has found that integrating AI into his practice has not only helped him become more efficient, but has also allowed him to ask better questions, gain a deeper understanding of his clients' needs, and hone his own listening skills. The net result has been higher client satisfaction and engagement, better-tailored plans that address each client's unique goals, and greater overall efficiency in his team's planning process. For David, the real promise of AI is in allowing financial advicers to foster deeper and more meaningful relationships with their clients, helping them be better (and more successful) at their craft!

AI-Generated Financial Advice And The Fiduciary Catch-22

December 27, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Regulation & Compliance

Financial advisors have a fiduciary obligation to act in their clients' best interests, and at the same time are prohibited by state and SEC rules from making misleading statements or omissions about their advisory business. These responsibilities also extend to the use of any technology used in the process of giving advice: A recommendation made with the aid of technology still needs to be in the client's best interests, while the technology also needs to carry out any function as it's described in the advisor's marketing materials and client communications.

In order to adhere to these regulatory standards of conduct while using technology, however, advisors need to have at least a baseline knowledge of how the technology works. Because on the one hand, it's necessary to understand how technology processes and analyzes client information to produce its output to have a reasonable basis to rely on that output to make a recommendation in the client's best interest. On the other hand, the advisor needs to understand what process the technology uses to begin with to ensure that their processes are being followed as described in their advertising and communications.

The recent rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities embedded within advisor technology throws a wrinkle into how advisors adhere to their fiduciary and compliance obligations when using technology. Because while some AI tools (such as ChatGPT, which produces text responses to an advisor's prompt in a chat box) can be used simply to summarize or restate the advisor's pre-determined recommendations in a client-friendly way, other tools are used to digest the client's data and output their own observations and insights. Given the 'black box' nature of most AI tools, this raises questions about whether advisors are even capable of acting as a fiduciary when giving recommendations generated by an AI tool, since there's no way of vetting the tool's output to ensure it's in the client's best interests.Which also gives rise to the "Catch-22" of using AI as a fiduciary, since even if an AI tool did provide the calculations it used to generate its output, it would likely involve far more data than the advisor could possibly review anyway!

Thankfully, some software tools provide a middle ground between AI used 'just' to communicate the advisor's pre-existing recommendations to clients, and AI used to generate recommendations on its own. An increasing number of tools rely on AI to process client data, but instead of generating and delivering recommendations directly, they produce lists of suggested strategies, which the advisor can then vet and analyze themselves for appropriateness for the client. In essence, such tools can be used as a 'digital analyst' that can review data and scan for planning opportunities faster than the advisor can, leaving the final decision of whether or not to recommend any specific strategy to the advisor themselves.

The key point is that while technology (including AI) can be used to support advisors in many parts of the financial planning process, the obligation of advisors to act in their clients' best interests (and from a regulatory perspective, to 'show their work' in doing so) makes AI tools unlikely to replace the advisor's role in giving financial recommendations. Because ultimately, even as technology becomes ever more sophisticated, the clients who advisors work with remain human beings – which means it takes another human to truly take their best interests to heart!

2023 Highlights – The Top 22 Nerd’s Eye View Blog Posts You Might Have Missed

December 18, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

As 2023 comes to a close, I am once again so thankful to all of you, the ever-growing number of readers who continue to regularly visit this Nerd's Eye View Blog (and share the content with your friends and colleagues, which we greatly appreciate!).

We recognize (and appreciate!) that this blog – its articles and podcasts – is a regular habit for tens of thousands of advisors, but that not everyone has the time or opportunity to read every blog post or listen to every podcast that is released from Nerd's Eye View throughout the year. As many of you noted in response to our Reader Surveys, most of you choose which content to read or listen to based on headlines and topics that are of interest (and skip the rest). Yet in practice, this means that an article once missed is often never seen again, 'overwritten' (or at least bumped out of your Inbox!) by the next day's, week's, and month's worth of content that comes along.

Accordingly, just as I did last year, and in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, I've compiled for you this Highlights List of our top 22 articles in 2023 that you might have missed, along with a few of our most popular episodes of "Kitces & Carl" and the "Financial Advisor Success" podcasts. So whether you're new to the blog and #FASuccess (and Kitces & Carl) podcasts and haven't searched through the Archives yet, or simply haven't had the time to keep up with everything, I hope that some of these will (still) be useful for you! And as always, I hope you'll take a moment to share podcast episodes and articles of interest with your friends and colleagues as well!

Don't miss our Annual Guides as well – including our list of the "10 Best Financial Advisor Conferences To Attend in 2024", the ever-popular annual "2023 Reading List of Best Books For Financial Advisors", and our increasingly popular Financial Advisor "FinTech" Solutions Map and AdvisorTech Directory!

In the meantime, I hope you're having a safe and happy holiday season. Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you in 2023, and I hope you enjoy all the new features and resources we'll be rolling out in 2024 (and beyond!), too!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (November 18-19)

November 17, 2023 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that legislative efforts to prevent the enforcement of the Department of Labor's newly proposed "retirement security rule" have a cloudy future, as both Democrats and President Biden are opposing such efforts. Which suggests that, if enacted, the ultimate fate of the proposed regulation, like its similar predecessors, will likely be decided in the courts.

Also in industry news this week:

CFP Board has expanded the details it provides regarding disciplinary actions, expanding transparency around the disciplinary process for both CFP professionals and the broader public
A recent study suggests that advisory firms that hire specialists are able to offer more planning services and increase the amount of time advisors spend with clients, though doing so comes at a cost

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Why higher interest rates and lower inflation have led to an increased initial safe withdrawal rate for retirees, according to one analysis
A group of retirement 'supernerds' critiques a recent claim that retirees can confidently use an 8% safe withdrawal rate
Why retirees might consider gifting while they are alive rather than waiting until their deaths to leave money to loved ones and charities

We also have a number of articles on tax planning:

How financial advisors can add value for clients by helping them make Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) correctly
The range of tax-savings opportunities advisors can uncover when reviewing a client's tax return
A year-end tax planning checklist advisors and clients can use to ensure there will be no surprises when it comes time to file their 2023 tax returns

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about managing wealth:

Why having significant wealth does not immunize an individual from worrying about money
How advisors can support clients who are entering a relationship with unequal wealth
Budgeting and account management tools consumers (and their advisors) can consider using following the upcoming shutdown of Mint

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (November 2023)

November 6, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the November 2023 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that Practice Intel has launched a new "growth platform" centered around quantifying the quality of an advisor's client relationships with an all-in "Relationship Quality Index" (RQI) – which while potentially valuable in helping advisors understand and improve their client experience (and subsequently improve client retention and boost the lifetime value of each client), also raises questions about whether advisors will be willing to invest in tools to improve their client experience given their already-high average client retention rates, as well as what really is the 'best' metric for measuring satisfaction in the first place, since other platforms also purport to quantify customer satisfaction (some of which are notably less costly than Practice Intel's suite of practice management tools).

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

FinanceHQ has launched as a new digital lead generation platform for financial advisors, which takes a more niche-focused approach to matching prospective clients with advisors – representing a bet that capturing prospects seeking help for specific problems (whom it can then refer to an advisor specializing in that problem) will reduce the costs of bringing on new clients and help it grow and scale among a crowded market for lead generation services
Technology-focused RIA startup Farther has announced a $31 million Series B funding round at a whopping $131 million valuation – which while reflective of its rapid growth in assets and revenue in recent years, also raises questions about whether its innovative technology offering will really create enough value to fulfill its investors' expectations, or if it will need to instead focus on simply bringing in more advisors to justify its valuation
Fidelity has stopped giving 'screen-scraping' data aggregators access to its client information, requiring them instead to go through its sanctioned direct data feed – which, while done in the name of ensuring more stable data connections and better account security, also highlights the business opportunity for data platforms and institutions that own and provide access to client data

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:

2 new AI-driven compliance technology solutions, Avery and Hadrius, have launched – which, on the one hand could represent a significant step forward in automating and streamlining the time-consuming, repeatable processes of following compliance procedures; but on the other, raises questions about whether AI technology itself is really ready yet for the highly technical, low-margin-for-error domain of compliance
Morgan Stanley has introduced a new AI tool for its 16,000 wealth management advisors, which notably doesn't give financial advice – but does create the potential to streamline advisor processes from investment research to meeting follow-ups and even possibly generating potential planning ideas.

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular "Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map" (and also added the changes to our AdvisorTech Directory) as well!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

#FA Success Ep 357: Building A High-Tech High-Touch Advisory Firm With The Modern Advisor Tech Stack, With Jon Henderson

October 31, 2023 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Jon Henderson Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome back to the 357th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Jon Henderson. Jon is the Founder and CIO for Echo45 Advisors, an independent RIA based in Walnut Creek, California, that oversees $163 million in assets under management for more than 180 client households.

What's unique about Jon, though, is how he has carefully vetted and curated his advisor tech stack of third-party software to provide a strong "high-tech" client experience… and has paired the technology with what he calls a "Client Concierge" staff member who leverages a series of internal checklists they've developed to ensure that every client is receiving a high-touch service as well.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Jon evolved his "high tech and high touch" mindset to serving clients by regularly iterating upon and updating his advisor tech stack while also elevating his long-time client service administrator into a more holistic client concierge (because the future isn't about tech or human service, it's tech and human service, each doing what they're best at), why Jon pursued a Certificate in Blockchain and Digital Assets from the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and now uses a digital TAMP, Eaglebrook Advisors, to hold a 1% allocation to cryptocurrencies for his clients, and why after 19 years at Merrill Lynch, Jon left his more-than-$1 billion AUM team serving 420 clients so that he could launch his own firm the way he saw fit which meant including cryptocurrency investing and tax and estate planning, and to work with a more manageable number of clients to prevent his own possible burn-out.

We also talk about the tools and services that Jon has incorporated into his own modern advisor tech stack, including why Jon utilizes a service called Advisor Referral Boost to gain better vetted introductory meetings with Centers of Influence like CPAs and estate planning attorneys to develop a steady flow of referrals, why Jon uses Asset-Map to help clients visualize their finances (and even has prospects fill out their financial information so that their own Asset-Map can be populated prior to an initial discovery meeting), and how Jon has integrated an annual tax review into every client's service offering (and then completes the tax reviews efficiently by leveraging Holistiplan).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Jon shares how he went through the breakaway process to launch his firm just as the pandemic hit and had to deal with the pressures of paying employees and having invested a lot of money into an office space and tools even as the stock market plummeted, why Jon credits listening to podcasts about financial advisors and the struggles they faced as they were launching their firms as a major source of education and inspiration for him to launch his own firm (because it's easier to gain perspective on what's really possible by hearing the journeys that others have taken), and how Jon's own definition of success has evolved as his career has evolved, from what was initially about simply bringing in clients and generating revenue but now increasingly is about being a job creator who's providing opportunities for his team to be growing and expanding as more and more clients are served.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how Jon built a truly collaborative team of experts, how he balances crowded meetings with work demands, and why Jon believes that leveraging technology to connect teams and educate people can help everyone make the most of their talents, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Jon Henderson.

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (October 21-22)

October 20, 2023 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent study from Fidelity Institutional highlights the growing popularity of the RIA model and the success advisors have had after going independent. The study found that 1 in 6 advisors have moved firms in the past 5 years, with the majority opting for the independent channel. Notably, this decision has provided both qualitative and quantitative benefits for these advisors, as 85% said they now have more control over their future and 80% saw their assets under management subsequently grow, with a median increase of 42%.

Also in industry news this week:

The latest update on the status of the Department of Labor's proposed regulation related to fiduciary advice on retirement accounts and why the agency is referring to it as a "retirement security rule" rather than a "fiduciary rule"
A report suggests that RIA M&A surged in the 3rd quarter, as large acquirers resumed their brisk pace of purchases

From there, we have several articles on employee benefits:

Why high-deductible health plans with paired HSAs could be the most cost-effective and tax-efficient health insurance option for many clients
How financial advisors can help clients better understand their employer-sponsored healthcare options and make the best decision for their needs
How advisors can potentially save clients thousands of dollars by reviewing their elections for disability insurance, workplace retirement plans, and other benefits during the annual open enrollment period

We also have a number of articles on advisor marketing:

How to follow up with a prospect who 'ghosts' an advisor after the initial discovery meeting
Questions that advisors can ask prospects before and during discovery meetings to reduce the chances that the prospect will fall out of contact
A 2-part discovery meeting 'close' that can encourage prospects to take the next step to becoming a client

We wrap up with three final articles, all about technology and security:

While the increasing use of facial recognition technology could increase security and reduce wait times in a variety of areas, it also comes with potential privacy concerns
How the shift from passwords to passkeys could make logging into accounts more secure and convenient
Why encouraging consumers to focus on getting the 'big' things right, rather than trying to address every potential threat, could be a valuable practice for both cybersecurity and financial advice professionals

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

#FA Success Ep 353: Driving Growth By Setting A Clear Vision Of What You Do Best In Your Business(es), With Brett Danko

October 3, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 353rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Brett Danko. Brett is the Founder of Brett Danko Educational Center, a CFP Board Education and Exam Prep provider, and the CEO and Managing Partner for Main Street Financial Solutions, an independent RIA based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, that oversees almost $2 billion in assets under management for nearly 1,700 client households.

What's unique about Brett, though, is how he has leveraged his passion for teaching to build one of the most popular CFP exam prep programs in the country, while also growing his own RIA to $2 billion in AUM… by focusing on just his unique financial planning strengths, and learning to delegate the rest by hiring a President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, who focus on the day-to-day management of the firm itself.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Brett teaches industry professionals seeking their Certified Financial Planner certification by providing comprehensive fast-track courses that span just 7 months and end with a live virtual or in-person exam prep review, how Brett iterated on and evolved his exam prep programs with a recognition that as he puts it, there is no “CFP cum laude”, and consequently keeps the focus very directly on what it takes to pass the exam (because you have a lifetime as a practitioner to keep improving and deepening your knowledge afterwards anyway), and why Brett jokingly refuses to acknowledge when his students humor the thought of failing because he believes that planning for failure is just giving yourself permission to fail and that an important part of passing the CFP Board exam (and achieving goals in life) is believing in one’s self and visualizing success.

We also talk about why Brett personally only offers financial planning on an hourly basis and leaves asset management to the other advisors of his RIA (so that he can have the flexibility to teach his courses while still gaining experience and knowledge as a practicing advisor), why Brett structures his firm as almost a platform for advisors, where, even though the advisors are technically W-2 employees and the firm pays for their staff, overhead, and technology, they own their own clients, and design their own fee schedules and portfolio models so that they can focus more on serving their clients to the best of their ability, and how Brett manages his time and obligations as a Founder of two businesses that each have their own management teams (his advisory firm Main Street Financial Solutions, and the Brett Danko Education Center) by recognizing that he’s a “macro” person and has to surround himself with “micro” people who are good at all the micro-details to make sure everything actually gets done.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Brett shares what it took to get comfortable with delegating so much responsibility for his businesses to key team members, how, after losing a job in his early 30s, Brett suffered from severe depression, but through therapy, found the confidence he needed to reinvigorate his passions and ultimately decided to outline a ‘manifesto’ of goals he wanted to achieve which included launching the advisory firm and educational courses that he spent the past 20 years building, and why Brett suggests that advisors in their 20s should seek out mentors not just to learn but also to help them recognize in themselves their strengths and their weaknesses because it's that self-awareness that makes it easier to find the work and kind of firm you’ll truly enjoy for the rest of your career as an advisor.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Brett structures his CFP exam prep courses and his fast-track programs, how Brett differentiates his programs from other CFP educational programs, or why Brett believes strongly in developing firm culture to grow a successful business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Brett Danko.

#FA Success Ep 352: Finding Personal Scale By Leveraging Yourself Through Outsourced Delegation, With Bridget Venus Grimes

September 26, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Bridget Venus Grimes Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome back to the 352nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Bridget Venus Grimes. Bridget is the President of WealthChoice, a virtual independent RIA that oversees nearly $80 million in assets under management for 68 client families, and Co-Founder of Equita Financial Network, an advisor platform that helps advisors plug in and share resources.

What's unique about Bridget, though, is how, as a solo advisor, she found herself overwhelmed with the pressures of having to manage different aspects of her business while also providing great service to her clients as she quickly grew to $77M of AUM in 7 years, and has decided to not to "scale" her firm by hiring more advisors but instead leverage herself personally by delegating more and more of her non-financial-planning tasks to virtual outsourced contractors she doesn't have to manage on a day-to-day basis.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Bridget went about outsourcing compliance, operations, trading, investment research, and even her client scheduling to build a trusted team of virtual professionals so that she can focus more on the financial planning work with clients she enjoys most, why Bridget and an advisor friend of hers decided to work together to vet a long list of trusted outsourced service providers in the hopes of purchasing services together to negotiate better rates and then ultimately launched Equita Financial Network to give other advisors a chance to plug-in to their negotiated outsourced rates as well, and why Bridget decided to focus on a niche of female executives because she felt she could relate to them the most (having spent a career as a female executive herself) and that focused on one ideal type of clientele would allow her to streamline her processes better (as they share so many of the same financial issues).

We also talk about why, after working for an RIA as an employee advisor, Bridget became frustrated with how she was compensated and a lack of freedom to serve her niche of female executives in the way she saw fit which inspired to launch her own firm where she could have more control over client service, her own destiny, and her paycheck, how Bridget spent $30,000 to get support in writing a book that focuses on the 4 common financial planning derailers women executives face without any expectation that she'd even generate enough book sales to cover that cost because she thought the credibility of being author itself made it more than worthwhile, and how, even though Bridget has long been adamant about not hiring W-2 employees, she has ultimately decided to bring on her daughter as an advisor because even though she doesn't have any plans to retire or sell her practice anytime soon, she wants to ensure the future of her business by creating a succession plan with another advisor she's confident will maintain her approach to financial planning with her clients.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Bridget shares why she feels one of the best moves she made for her business and herself was engaging with Limitless Coaching because, in the same way she delegates business responsibilities, she was able to leverage the expertise of a professional who could help elevate her and outline better metrics to guide towards the next level of success, how Bridget learned the importance of not second-guessing yourself and only working with clients that are really a good fit after one of her biggest clients became difficult to work with and despite compromising her fee (against her better judgment) to try to retain him the client still left (costing her a lot of money and time anyway), and why Bridget encourages other advisors looking to start their own practice to invest in themselves by engaging in business coaching so that they can get clear on how they want to shape their business and career before launching (just as Bridget has been intentional about what types of clients she wanted to work with, and how she wanted to leverage herself but not have to manage anyone, to live her ideal practice).

So, whether you're interested in learning about the specific vendors (and people) that Bridget delegated portions of her business to, how she navigated decisions about not just what to delegate, but how and to whom, building an infrastructure of trusted vendors along the way, and why she wishes she had 'taken the leap' to start her business years ago, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Bridget Venus Grimes.