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Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast

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series for financial advisors.

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Today's episode is playing the long game, while

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a former warehouse advisor built in sold a

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billion and a half dollar independent firm. It's

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a conversation with Jeff Brown, president of Strat

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private wealth sold I'm Mindy Diamond, and this

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is the Diamond podcast for financial advisors.

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This podcast is designed for advisors like you,

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who are interested in learning more about the

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evolving wealth management industry through candid dialogue with

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break way advisors,

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those from the C suite and industry thought

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leaders. It's available on our website, diamond dash

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consultants dot com, as well as Apple podcasts

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and other major podcast platforms.

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So be sure to subscribe and share it

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with your colleagues

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At Diamond consultants, our mission is to help

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advisors live their best business life.

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We want every elite adviser to find exactly

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the right place for their business and their

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clients to thrive,

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whether it's at a wire, or regional, boutique

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or independent firm. As the industry's leading recruiters

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and consultants,

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we've transitioned more than a quarter of a

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trillion dollars in assets under management in the

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past decade.

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And each year, 25

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percent of transitioning advisors who manage a billion

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dollars or more are our clients.

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Curious about where why and how advisors like

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you are moving,

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download the latest advisor transition report to learn

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more.

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Including intel on recruiting deals and our insight

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and analysis on the latest trends in the

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wealth management space.

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You'll find it, at diamond dash consultants dot

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com

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forward slash transition report, or if you'd like

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to talk, feel free to give us a

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call at 09:08

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at 8791002.

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Some advisor spend their entire career with 1

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firm. Others will choose to make 1 well

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timed move and other still have experienced many

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different corners of the industry landscape.

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It's these latter who often make the most

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compelling guests on our show because they've truly

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seen it all.

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Jeff Brown is 1 such adviser.

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He started his path in Wealth Management at

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the likes of American Express Morgan Stanley and

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Wells Fargo advisors.

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Then Jeff left the Wire world to start

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Brown Wealth Management with the support of Strat

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Wealth Partners,

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which after a subsequent merger became B

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financial.

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He built a strong practice, always looking at

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ways to grow and serve his clients.

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But here's where the story gets really interesting.

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A coaching session with Ray Gl,

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got him thinking about the future and an

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eventual exit strategy.

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Not even 50 years old at the time?

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He figured he had a good runway ahead,

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but what if linger in his head.

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That is what if something happened and he

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didn't have a clear plan for his firm.

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His clients is livelihood and his family.

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So after a round of due diligence,

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Jeff decided to further cement his relationship with

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Strat by selling them a minority

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position in his business, in 2020.

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But the story doesn't end there. Just last

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year, he sold a majority of stake des

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strat to take the firm national and in

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doing so is now the president of a

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much larger entity, Strat private wealth.

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In this episode, Jeff shares a candid narrative

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with my partner, Jason Diamond, talking about each

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step he took along the way with advice

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on both what went well and pit pitfalls

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to watch for. He shares what it's like

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to have worn so many hats in such

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a short career time span, his expectations for

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the future and much more It's a great

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story with lots to learn from, so let's

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get to it.

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Jeff, thanks so much for joining us today.

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Thrilled you're here. Jason, thank you so much

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for having me. Absolutely. Let dive right in.

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So to start off? Can you tell us

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a little bit about yourself and your background?

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Sure. I am currently president of Strat, private

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wealth. I've been in our industry in the

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financial services industry wealth management

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since 19 96.

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So more or less, I started right out

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of, a amassed degree and started in the

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briefly at a at a independent firm and

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then move to the wire side of things,

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and live in San Diego,

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to... Where I've lived since I graduated college

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with my wife and 4 kids. I don't

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know why you'd live there. You're the where...

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Weather's terrible. But... Yeah. It's terrible. It is

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you're right. I think most people are familiar

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with Strat, but maybe remind us to start

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what your firm is about the quick value

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prop types of clients you serve, we'll start

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there.

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Yes. It's a little bit of a a

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unique story, So Strat Wealth Partners is an

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Ra that is a national Ra that started

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many years ago. Many years before I joined.

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With their initial value prop was helping advisors

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break away from an employee model. So that

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is the firm that I went and joined,

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And and then I left the wire in

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order to do that and started Brown Wealth

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Management. Over the years, we you talk more

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about it, Brown wealth management became B

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Financial, and then most recently, we decided to

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launch a national brand inside of Strat

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called Strat Private Wealth. So you could think

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of it this way. Strat helped people like

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myself, Brown wealth management, Diamond Wealth management. Everyone

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has their own flag in the ground. And

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what we've done starting last year is take

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that's all those flags and start bringing some

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together to create what Joe ran, effectively is

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called the Navy. In inside of inside of

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a single firm. I love it. So... Yes.

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And so what well, my firm originally was

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just here in San Diego, and we worked

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primarily with people with liquidity event We have

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a very deep process.

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We view ourselves as financial guides, helping people.

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With all the things that they need to

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do, but not looking at it like a

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financial plan. It's more of a planning

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ship, helping people pivot make decisions as their

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life changes because it does. And that process

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that works so well for us to help

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us grow. Yep we decided to take that

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process and then repeat it across other firms

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nationwide.

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Now it makes complete sense. So let's rewind

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a little bit. You mentioned Ceo and founder

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of B

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Financial? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I

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believe ultimately you made the decision to sell

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equity to Strat. Can you talk a little

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bit about that trust, Us and why you

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decided. I mean, it's obviously, a pretty crowded

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landscape of potential buyers. And even if you

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didn't wanna sell support partners and platforms. I

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mean, there seems like there's new ones popping

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up Every day. Can you talk a little

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bit about why strat and what that process

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was like... Yeah. There's... Actually... Yeah. There's no

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shortage of buyers in our industry these days,

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which I... Every Unless I was uneducated. It

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seems to have dramatically changed in the last

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5 or 6 years. So I'll tell a

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little story. I think this might be helpful

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to some of your listeners as well as

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you consider this. So I get coaching from

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race it client wise, and he helps we

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do these what we call mastermind groups. Once

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a quarter, we all get... Together, and and

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they... What he does is he pairs similar

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firms of size. So I was in a

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room, and we were with all the different

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founders Ceos, what have you, about 10 of

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us to and we go through an exercise

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where you're more or less looking at pieces

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of your business or your strategy and then

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grading yourself, 1 to 5 how you're doing

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on it. 1 is you're doing. Terrible. And

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5 is you are crushing it. And then

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how important it to this for you? 1

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is it's not important. And 5 is... It's

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very important. And the last question was around,

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I have a clearly defined exit strategy.

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And I answered 1 on both of those.

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Not important to me and it's not urgent,

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and I'm not gonna deal with the right.

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So, Ray, in this meeting, he basically sees

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this over my shoulder and as what are

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you doing Don't you help people with liquidity

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events? Yes. I do. Well, what about yourself?

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And at the time, I was 49, and

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I said, I'm not interested in, like, retiring.

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Anytime soon. He's like, that's not what I

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meant. He said everybody is going to have

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an exit. It's just is it gonna be

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planned or not?

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And

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we had a little bit of bit of

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conversation during that meeting and then afterwards.

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And I tend to consider myself pretty coach.

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So I actually spent... A plain ride home

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and the next several weeks, taking a look

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at what he suggested idea, which is what

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is my business really worth at that time.

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The what if something really did happen to

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me? And it's an unplanned exit? Well, what

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does that mean for my family and the

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rest of the firm? And while I've given

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this some consideration in our operating agreement like

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many of us do, I hadn't really thought

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it through because I thought myself somewhat invincible.

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Right? So

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what that allowed me to do is to

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realize how much my business was actually worth

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at the time.

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And to really think through things. And then

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I took the x your added step, and

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I went around to some of those firms

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that you're talking about. Think of it, like

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the dynasties of the world's, the focus. I

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mean, all these firms that can help do

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minority stakes and businesses.

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To solve my succession problem because I own

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most of the business at that time, and

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my partners at that time were pretty young,

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And so if something were to happen to

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me, the operating agreement read that they were

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gonna buy me out over 10 years.

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But that's pretty undefined on that valuation. And

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leaves my family a little bit hanging. So

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effectively, I went through and I interviewed a

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lot of these firms and saw what their

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value proposition was saw would it meant to

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get a minority stake saw actually the benefits

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of what that would mean to me in

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terms of growth, taking some chips off the

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table, succession planning, etcetera.

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So

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Then after having collected all that data over

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a course of about 6 months and sharing

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financials with a lot of these companies, I

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approach Strat and Luke Cam, who runs Strat

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Wealth enterprises and and Nancy And, who's the

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Cfo

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and spoke with them about hey, would you

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be open to taking a minority stick? I

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already was part of their their firm. I

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liked them. We got a along well. I

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knew they had invested in a couple of

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other firms at the time. And so we

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crafted a deal at that point. It actually

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closed at the very beginning of Covid, which

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was timely, I would say based on what

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was going on back then. So that was

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the beginning of a relationship where we started

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with something and then it ultimately

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moved into a majority stake last year. When

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we came up with the business plan to

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grow the firm nationally. They didn't want me

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00:10:39,052 --> 00:10:40,798
to take an offer or take this business

267
00:10:40,798 --> 00:10:43,431
somewhere else after growing it, So they they

268
00:10:43,431 --> 00:10:45,335
took a... They upped the stake to a

269
00:10:45,335 --> 00:10:47,397
controlling interest effective last year to help me

270
00:10:47,397 --> 00:10:48,746
do the thing that I really have wanted

271
00:10:48,746 --> 00:10:51,066
to do, which is help change the industry

272
00:10:51,066 --> 00:10:53,611
and build a brand that gives people a

273
00:10:53,611 --> 00:10:55,759
unique way to affiliate without having to sell

274
00:10:55,759 --> 00:10:56,236
everything,

275
00:10:56,649 --> 00:10:57,925
which is what a lot of those other

276
00:10:57,925 --> 00:10:59,839
large firms that have all the services that

277
00:10:59,839 --> 00:11:02,231
we want force people to do. Yeah. You

278
00:11:02,231 --> 00:11:03,746
said a whole lot. First of all, Ray

279
00:11:03,746 --> 00:11:05,660
is a longtime friend of the show so

280
00:11:05,660 --> 00:11:07,189
that... Name will sound familiar to a lot

281
00:11:07,189 --> 00:11:09,101
of our audience. But the first thing I

282
00:11:09,101 --> 00:11:12,071
wanna say is the importance of thinking about

283
00:11:12,128 --> 00:11:14,996
glide path, succession planning, retirement. Whatever you wanna

284
00:11:14,996 --> 00:11:17,000
call it and but sooner rather than later,

285
00:11:17,398 --> 00:11:19,703
I can't tell you how much easier and

286
00:11:19,703 --> 00:11:22,009
more enjoyable the process is to try and

287
00:11:22,009 --> 00:11:24,014
solve for when you are not. In a

288
00:11:24,014 --> 00:11:26,727
fire drill situation, meaning, I'm 68 years old

289
00:11:26,727 --> 00:11:28,483
and I wanna retire tomorrow. What do I

290
00:11:28,483 --> 00:11:30,399
do? I would argue that if you're 23

291
00:11:30,399 --> 00:11:32,210
years old, you should start thinking about this

292
00:11:32,329 --> 00:11:33,528
And I'm not saying that means you have

293
00:11:33,528 --> 00:11:35,206
to sell a stake in your business, but

294
00:11:35,206 --> 00:11:36,644
you should at least have a sense of

295
00:11:36,644 --> 00:11:37,922
what do I want this to look like

296
00:11:38,002 --> 00:11:39,520
And, ultimately, what's my plan?

297
00:11:40,173 --> 00:11:42,322
Either for the affectionately what we call I

298
00:11:42,322 --> 00:11:44,232
get hit by a bus scenario or even

299
00:11:44,232 --> 00:11:46,858
just... It's good business practice and good hygiene

300
00:11:46,858 --> 00:11:48,689
to know what your business worth and ultimately

301
00:11:48,689 --> 00:11:50,299
what's your glide path. But I wanna dive

302
00:11:50,299 --> 00:11:51,980
in a little bit. Obviously, to your point,

303
00:11:52,139 --> 00:11:53,360
there are many businesses,

304
00:11:53,820 --> 00:11:55,980
platforms in the like now more than ever

305
00:11:55,980 --> 00:11:58,954
that will buy minority or majority stakes. In

306
00:11:58,954 --> 00:12:01,751
independent practices. It's a crowded field. You have

307
00:12:01,751 --> 00:12:04,228
now seen a few different iterations or a

308
00:12:04,228 --> 00:12:06,545
few different relationships, I should say with Strat

309
00:12:06,545 --> 00:12:08,469
where first You were just on their platform.

310
00:12:08,707 --> 00:12:10,611
Sounds like then into a minority stake which

311
00:12:10,611 --> 00:12:11,985
ultimately became a minority

312
00:12:12,358 --> 00:12:13,548
acquisition. And I think 1 of the things

313
00:12:13,548 --> 00:12:16,419
people worry about. When selling even just a

314
00:12:16,419 --> 00:12:18,243
portion of their business is the idea that

315
00:12:18,243 --> 00:12:20,860
they're losing or ce control. So can you

316
00:12:20,860 --> 00:12:23,420
talk about how your relationship with Strat has

317
00:12:23,420 --> 00:12:25,420
changed through the years as you have gone

318
00:12:25,420 --> 00:12:26,379
through that cascade.

319
00:12:27,100 --> 00:12:28,460
Yes. And I think this is 1 of

320
00:12:28,460 --> 00:12:31,120
the reasons why after looking at some really

321
00:12:31,259 --> 00:12:31,980
fantastic firms.

322
00:12:32,873 --> 00:12:35,268
About taking that initial majority or minority stake,

323
00:12:35,667 --> 00:12:37,583
then I ultimately went back to Strat? Is

324
00:12:37,583 --> 00:12:39,658
the culture of that firm that makes them

325
00:12:39,658 --> 00:12:42,706
very unique. They were built 4 advisors.

326
00:12:43,264 --> 00:12:45,418
While they do have a a capital partner

327
00:12:45,418 --> 00:12:47,810
to some degree pretty low key capital partner

328
00:12:47,810 --> 00:12:51,182
today, they really have approached things with flexibility.

329
00:12:52,050 --> 00:12:53,796
And it's maintained that way. So when I

330
00:12:53,796 --> 00:12:54,907
looked at some of the other firms and

331
00:12:54,907 --> 00:12:56,574
what they were wanting me to do in

332
00:12:56,574 --> 00:12:58,321
order to take a minority stake or a

333
00:12:58,321 --> 00:13:00,146
larger stake. It was pretty disruptive.

334
00:13:00,797 --> 00:13:02,703
Strat when they came in with a minority

335
00:13:02,703 --> 00:13:04,610
stake. They were just buying cash flow. And

336
00:13:04,610 --> 00:13:06,835
it was more just like, continue to run

337
00:13:06,835 --> 00:13:08,821
the business that you're already running.

338
00:13:09,394 --> 00:13:11,152
And do a good job, and we're here

339
00:13:11,152 --> 00:13:12,991
if you need us. So we're gonna bring

340
00:13:12,991 --> 00:13:14,589
additional things to the table that you don't

341
00:13:14,589 --> 00:13:16,987
currently have such as a legal team, and

342
00:13:16,987 --> 00:13:19,480
at the finance department, if you will. Which

343
00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:21,240
would help... Which ultimately helped me do a

344
00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:23,720
deal. After closing the minority stake, I literally

345
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:25,799
did a tuck in or a merger right

346
00:13:25,799 --> 00:13:28,929
after that, with another internal strat partner. Awesome.

347
00:13:29,089 --> 00:13:30,845
So yeah. It was fantastic. It was great

348
00:13:30,845 --> 00:13:32,043
timing. And I don't think it would happened.

349
00:13:32,202 --> 00:13:33,980
I think it gave me sort of credibility

350
00:13:34,278 --> 00:13:36,009
inside the organization at that time

351
00:13:36,525 --> 00:13:38,508
So when we drafted the documents,

352
00:13:38,984 --> 00:13:40,967
and it still works this way where I

353
00:13:40,967 --> 00:13:42,791
am the manager of the firm and for

354
00:13:42,791 --> 00:13:45,668
those folks out there that know how Llc

355
00:13:45,668 --> 00:13:47,181
operate. We still make the decisions.

356
00:13:47,898 --> 00:13:50,049
Strat now, first is a minority state that

357
00:13:50,049 --> 00:13:52,279
obviously had protections. You can't spend over x

358
00:13:52,279 --> 00:13:55,160
amount of dollars without out approval, but not

359
00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,660
once over the entire time frame that they

360
00:13:58,660 --> 00:14:00,570
had been a partner of ours. The... Not

361
00:14:00,570 --> 00:14:02,422
once said they stopped this from doing anything

362
00:14:02,574 --> 00:14:04,325
And really, the only thing they ever called

363
00:14:04,325 --> 00:14:06,633
into question was we were looking to grow

364
00:14:06,633 --> 00:14:08,623
our office and then right at the beginning

365
00:14:08,623 --> 00:14:10,789
of the deal by the first deal. And

366
00:14:10,950 --> 00:14:12,710
Covid happened. And I said, hey, well, we

367
00:14:12,710 --> 00:14:14,309
still plan on getting the extra space and

368
00:14:14,470 --> 00:14:16,070
Jeff c, Jeff Conception. Was like, you know

369
00:14:16,070 --> 00:14:18,389
what? Based on my experience, you just might

370
00:14:18,389 --> 00:14:20,549
wanna wait. And just see how this thing

371
00:14:20,549 --> 00:14:22,372
plays out, and it was good advice. I,

372
00:14:22,451 --> 00:14:24,036
we got the same space for a cheaper

373
00:14:24,036 --> 00:14:25,620
price. So that was the 1 and only

374
00:14:25,620 --> 00:14:26,120
thing

375
00:14:26,428 --> 00:14:28,018
that he ever called into question or they

376
00:14:28,018 --> 00:14:29,925
ever called into question. And I think that's

377
00:14:29,925 --> 00:14:32,230
the key with getting a minority partner. And

378
00:14:32,230 --> 00:14:33,820
eventually, even if you're gonna get have you

379
00:14:33,820 --> 00:14:35,982
have someone take a controlling stake is to

380
00:14:35,982 --> 00:14:38,771
really understand what types of protections that they're

381
00:14:38,771 --> 00:14:41,320
gonna want in place and what their endgame

382
00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:41,559
is.

383
00:14:42,196 --> 00:14:44,436
Because If they're buying cash flow, they don't

384
00:14:44,436 --> 00:14:46,978
wanna disrupt anything. They just wanna let you

385
00:14:46,978 --> 00:14:49,067
continue to grow the business like you have

386
00:14:49,123 --> 00:14:50,871
and just collect their coupon along the way.

387
00:14:51,365 --> 00:14:53,865
I think that's very valid and smart commentary.

388
00:14:54,085 --> 00:14:55,684
And maybe what I would add on to

389
00:14:55,684 --> 00:14:57,925
that is, there's not necessarily a right answer.

390
00:14:58,165 --> 00:15:00,097
To your point, It sounds like when you

391
00:15:00,097 --> 00:15:02,730
sold the minority stake in the business, your

392
00:15:02,730 --> 00:15:05,385
goal and what you wanted was to maintain

393
00:15:05,604 --> 00:15:07,855
control over the day to day operations. But

394
00:15:07,855 --> 00:15:09,934
on the other hand, that obviously doesn't solve

395
00:15:09,934 --> 00:15:11,695
for what some people might need it to

396
00:15:11,695 --> 00:15:13,934
solve for. And to me, that's what's exciting

397
00:15:13,934 --> 00:15:14,710
about the

398
00:15:15,147 --> 00:15:18,488
acquire or partial acquire a landscape today is

399
00:15:18,488 --> 00:15:20,477
that there are capital partners that run the

400
00:15:20,477 --> 00:15:23,352
gamut. Some say, We wanna controlling interest. We

401
00:15:23,352 --> 00:15:25,416
wanna choose who you hire and your investment

402
00:15:25,416 --> 00:15:27,639
process, and others are much more passive and

403
00:15:27,639 --> 00:15:29,624
they say, we're basically gonna leave you alone

404
00:15:29,624 --> 00:15:31,703
and we wanna clip a coupon. Depending upon

405
00:15:31,703 --> 00:15:33,291
what you're looking to solve for, there is

406
00:15:33,291 --> 00:15:35,197
probably a buyer out there. Yes. I agree.

407
00:15:35,356 --> 00:15:38,215
And I, Jason, something for your audience is

408
00:15:38,215 --> 00:15:40,703
to... So is clear as somebody can get

409
00:15:40,703 --> 00:15:43,260
about what they want before they start looking?

410
00:15:43,660 --> 00:15:45,338
I think that's the best thing. What is

411
00:15:45,338 --> 00:15:47,096
the why? What do you want to have

412
00:15:47,096 --> 00:15:49,109
5 and 10 years down the road? And

413
00:15:49,109 --> 00:15:51,104
then back into the... Because there is a

414
00:15:51,104 --> 00:15:52,939
lot more... Even a lot more options today

415
00:15:52,939 --> 00:15:55,254
than when I started that original hunt, call

416
00:15:55,254 --> 00:15:56,770
it in 2019.

417
00:15:57,104 --> 00:15:59,564
Yeah. Absolutely. And beginning with your why is

418
00:15:59,564 --> 00:16:00,913
a line we use around here a lot.

419
00:16:01,072 --> 00:16:02,977
So Shameless was plug. I appreciate that for,

420
00:16:03,294 --> 00:16:05,610
getting some expert guidance. Let's shift gears here

421
00:16:05,610 --> 00:16:06,958
a little bit. 1 of the first thing

422
00:16:06,958 --> 00:16:08,861
that comes to mind personally when I thought,

423
00:16:09,020 --> 00:16:11,637
think or talk about Strat is the relationship

424
00:16:11,637 --> 00:16:13,322
with Lp p. And that may be a

425
00:16:13,322 --> 00:16:15,797
little bit of a misguided, a conception on

426
00:16:15,797 --> 00:16:16,914
my part. Can you talk a little bit

427
00:16:16,914 --> 00:16:18,510
about what that relationship is like? What does

428
00:16:18,510 --> 00:16:20,346
it enable you to do or their drawbacks

429
00:16:20,346 --> 00:16:20,665
to it?

430
00:16:21,317 --> 00:16:24,495
Yes. Well I can't speak as much from

431
00:16:24,495 --> 00:16:25,312
the corporate

432
00:16:25,687 --> 00:16:27,673
level on this. I can speak to my

433
00:16:27,673 --> 00:16:28,944
own experience. When...

434
00:16:29,754 --> 00:16:31,186
And a lot of the your clients might

435
00:16:31,186 --> 00:16:33,096
be folks that are either gonna move from

436
00:16:33,096 --> 00:16:35,722
1 warehouse to another or from a warehouse

437
00:16:35,722 --> 00:16:36,836
to potentially break away,

438
00:16:37,487 --> 00:16:40,605
And what's interesting is how a tad uneducated

439
00:16:41,057 --> 00:16:43,200
I was back then in terms of how

440
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:44,231
it all worked.

441
00:16:44,804 --> 00:16:46,884
Because I just thought, hey, I was always

442
00:16:46,884 --> 00:16:49,285
recruited by other warehouses with big checks.

443
00:16:50,004 --> 00:16:52,325
But then when going independent in the financial

444
00:16:52,325 --> 00:16:54,657
crisis I looked at going directly to a

445
00:16:54,657 --> 00:16:54,977
custodian.

446
00:16:55,536 --> 00:16:57,374
Just because I was unsure, I well, at

447
00:16:57,374 --> 00:16:59,692
that time, it was W, and we all

448
00:16:59,692 --> 00:17:01,450
know how that all was going down. So

449
00:17:01,624 --> 00:17:02,817
I was looking for, I wanted to land

450
00:17:02,817 --> 00:17:04,408
in a safe place, and I interviewed a

451
00:17:04,408 --> 00:17:06,158
custodian directly, and I realized like, oh my

452
00:17:06,158 --> 00:17:08,147
gosh. There is so much to do here.

453
00:17:08,639 --> 00:17:10,238
And if I want to, I've to also

454
00:17:10,238 --> 00:17:11,996
drop my Series 7 to be able to

455
00:17:11,996 --> 00:17:13,834
deal with the brokerage assets because I didn't

456
00:17:13,834 --> 00:17:15,592
know that at some of those firms, you

457
00:17:15,592 --> 00:17:17,270
don't have the option and some investments are

458
00:17:17,270 --> 00:17:19,598
only gonna be broker. There's no advisory option

459
00:17:19,598 --> 00:17:22,546
there. So even though we were mostly advisory,

460
00:17:22,944 --> 00:17:25,175
we needed to have a brokerage landing placed,

461
00:17:25,508 --> 00:17:28,761
we decided to ultimately move in in 2016.

462
00:17:29,158 --> 00:17:31,300
So we didn't wanna have to completely change

463
00:17:31,300 --> 00:17:33,462
everything while we remove. That was a decision

464
00:17:33,462 --> 00:17:34,818
we made. 1 of the reasons we chose

465
00:17:34,818 --> 00:17:36,971
supported independence instead of just going and doing

466
00:17:36,971 --> 00:17:38,886
it on our own. And the... And Lp

467
00:17:38,886 --> 00:17:41,677
nlp was in our opinion, the best place

468
00:17:41,677 --> 00:17:42,156
to land.

469
00:17:42,808 --> 00:17:44,497
Were completely upgrading their technology.

470
00:17:44,869 --> 00:17:46,375
We knew to had a lot of options,

471
00:17:46,772 --> 00:17:49,705
everything mapped over very clearly from 1 to

472
00:17:49,705 --> 00:17:51,949
the other. They they did provide some small

473
00:17:51,949 --> 00:17:54,182
amount of transition assistance which helped us get

474
00:17:54,182 --> 00:17:56,414
the business going from 0, and it was

475
00:17:56,414 --> 00:17:57,690
a good partner with us. And it and

476
00:17:57,690 --> 00:17:59,697
it gave us a good landing spot. To

477
00:17:59,697 --> 00:18:02,402
be able to make decisions about what's best

478
00:18:02,402 --> 00:18:04,709
for our clients going forward. And 1 of

479
00:18:04,709 --> 00:18:06,714
the reasons we chose Strat is because their

480
00:18:06,714 --> 00:18:09,351
multi custodian. So if Lp p turned out

481
00:18:09,351 --> 00:18:10,869
to not be the best partner long term,

482
00:18:11,109 --> 00:18:12,787
we could eventually make a change and we

483
00:18:12,787 --> 00:18:14,465
still owned the data, which was something that

484
00:18:14,465 --> 00:18:16,634
was unique to us on the independent side.

485
00:18:17,192 --> 00:18:18,409
So ultimately,

486
00:18:18,945 --> 00:18:21,494
many... But several years later, we did drop

487
00:18:21,494 --> 00:18:24,699
our series 7 and we'd completely remove ourselves

488
00:18:24,699 --> 00:18:27,650
from Ci and continue to use Lp as

489
00:18:27,650 --> 00:18:30,042
a platform as a custodian, but then also

490
00:18:30,042 --> 00:18:32,435
had the flexibility to begin using other custodian

491
00:18:32,435 --> 00:18:34,514
like fidelity, where it made sense for the

492
00:18:34,514 --> 00:18:36,893
clients. Yeah, Smart. I'm sure you miss Finra

493
00:18:36,893 --> 00:18:39,115
tremendously, And don't don't answer that.

494
00:18:46,839 --> 00:18:48,429
So I wanted to just hone in a

495
00:18:48,429 --> 00:18:50,596
little bit I think what you're alluding to

496
00:18:50,596 --> 00:18:50,755
is,

497
00:18:51,553 --> 00:18:54,186
especially in the independence space, your partners, and

498
00:18:54,266 --> 00:18:55,543
I don't mean your business partners. I mean,

499
00:18:55,702 --> 00:18:57,945
the firms or the... Because resources you choose

500
00:18:57,945 --> 00:19:00,482
to associate or affiliate with. They really matter.

501
00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:02,226
Like, if you're moving to a wire,

502
00:19:02,622 --> 00:19:05,259
your partner is Morgan Stanley. And you're using

503
00:19:05,339 --> 00:19:08,220
Morgan Stanley technology, their asset custody, their investment

504
00:19:08,220 --> 00:19:10,539
program, their home office, etcetera, and just using

505
00:19:10,619 --> 00:19:13,193
Morgan as an example. When you're independent, though,

506
00:19:13,672 --> 00:19:16,569
each decision you make, I think gets amplified

507
00:19:16,789 --> 00:19:19,266
because the relationship matter for a couple reasons.

508
00:19:19,426 --> 00:19:21,035
Like, on the 1 hand, they need to

509
00:19:21,035 --> 00:19:22,306
do what they say they do. So in

510
00:19:22,306 --> 00:19:23,815
the case of the asset custodian, they need

511
00:19:23,815 --> 00:19:25,959
to keep the asset safe. But then there's

512
00:19:25,959 --> 00:19:29,072
oftentimes also other kind of ancillary benefits, or

513
00:19:29,072 --> 00:19:31,376
reasons to choose a partner. In this case,

514
00:19:31,535 --> 00:19:33,204
it sounds like it support a little bit

515
00:19:33,204 --> 00:19:35,428
of dollar, some know how. I mean, similar

516
00:19:35,428 --> 00:19:37,279
comment you made to the minority investor

517
00:19:37,669 --> 00:19:40,067
And minority investor, on paper, their goal was

518
00:19:40,067 --> 00:19:41,985
to provide you with some liquidity, but it

519
00:19:41,985 --> 00:19:43,263
sounds like they did much more than that

520
00:19:43,263 --> 00:19:44,861
for you. They actually enabled you to go

521
00:19:44,861 --> 00:19:46,220
out and do M and A and they

522
00:19:46,220 --> 00:19:48,391
provided you with support and resources. So I

523
00:19:48,391 --> 00:19:50,227
just wanna highlight that that in the independence

524
00:19:50,227 --> 00:19:52,701
space in particular, I think it's critical each

525
00:19:52,701 --> 00:19:54,936
of those decisions you make because that's ultimately

526
00:19:54,936 --> 00:19:56,627
what makes up the sum total of your

527
00:19:56,627 --> 00:19:58,304
firm. Would you agree with that? I would.

528
00:19:58,623 --> 00:20:00,001
It's something I learned

529
00:20:00,380 --> 00:20:02,695
after the fact is I joined this firm

530
00:20:02,695 --> 00:20:04,930
at Lp p because of a relationship that...

531
00:20:05,344 --> 00:20:07,657
Was introduced to Charles Shapiro through a mutual

532
00:20:07,657 --> 00:20:09,731
friend. I had already looked at going independent

533
00:20:09,731 --> 00:20:11,804
directly with a custodian multi years prior, so

534
00:20:11,884 --> 00:20:13,559
I knew that wasn't the route, but I

535
00:20:13,559 --> 00:20:14,995
didn't do the same type of homework.

536
00:20:15,727 --> 00:20:17,000
That I did when I was looking for

537
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:18,592
the minority thing. I just said, hey, This

538
00:20:18,592 --> 00:20:20,343
seems like a good fit. I like the

539
00:20:20,343 --> 00:20:22,333
people at Strat. The worst thing that would

540
00:20:22,333 --> 00:20:22,811
have happened,

541
00:20:23,304 --> 00:20:24,822
if I were to leave them, was I

542
00:20:24,822 --> 00:20:26,660
signed a contract, More or less said, hey.

543
00:20:26,899 --> 00:20:29,855
I give them 6 months notice effectively, something

544
00:20:29,855 --> 00:20:32,028
like that. So it wasn't a huge risk

545
00:20:32,028 --> 00:20:34,904
on our decision. And I think going back

546
00:20:34,904 --> 00:20:36,901
in time, like, what would I do differently?

547
00:20:37,141 --> 00:20:38,592
You know, what maybe a shit was plug

548
00:20:38,592 --> 00:20:40,841
for again for a, a firm like yours

549
00:20:41,215 --> 00:20:44,156
is knowing, like, having a better understanding of

550
00:20:44,156 --> 00:20:46,382
what exactly the all the options would be.

551
00:20:46,621 --> 00:20:48,465
I am very fork that I ended up

552
00:20:48,465 --> 00:20:50,056
where I ended up, but I would put

553
00:20:50,056 --> 00:20:51,487
that on part as just the relationship of

554
00:20:51,487 --> 00:20:52,999
getting to know those folks and the luck

555
00:20:52,999 --> 00:20:55,082
of having being introduced to them. Kenneth had

556
00:20:55,162 --> 00:20:56,834
I... There's a lot of other places that

557
00:20:56,834 --> 00:20:59,245
exist today that I've had colleagues work at

558
00:20:59,303 --> 00:21:01,373
that weren't so good or weren't as good

559
00:21:01,373 --> 00:21:03,380
for what I was looking for. So I

560
00:21:03,380 --> 00:21:05,220
think looking at it, it's spending some serious

561
00:21:05,220 --> 00:21:07,059
time on it, but I will say the

562
00:21:07,059 --> 00:21:09,140
standard thing that you hear a lot from

563
00:21:09,140 --> 00:21:11,867
folks that go independent. Is that the 1

564
00:21:11,867 --> 00:21:13,855
thing... What would you have done differently? It's

565
00:21:13,855 --> 00:21:15,526
always, I wish I would have done it

566
00:21:15,526 --> 00:21:17,927
sooner. Is typically the response. Yep absolutely It

567
00:21:17,927 --> 00:21:20,472
is. We've asked just about every breakaway adviser

568
00:21:20,472 --> 00:21:22,142
on our show that question and that is

569
00:21:22,142 --> 00:21:24,448
almost always the answer. You're exactly right. But

570
00:21:24,448 --> 00:21:26,450
let's play devil's advocate here. Absolutely I love

571
00:21:26,450 --> 00:21:28,672
when our guests have started their careers at

572
00:21:28,672 --> 00:21:30,736
a wire or a big firm, which in

573
00:21:30,736 --> 00:21:32,323
fairness, it feels like it's the case a

574
00:21:32,323 --> 00:21:34,248
lot because I think It's probably a little

575
00:21:34,248 --> 00:21:35,445
bit of a gap and we can probably

576
00:21:35,445 --> 00:21:37,520
spend more time talking about this later, but

577
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,473
the wire training programs certainly seem like they're

578
00:21:40,473 --> 00:21:42,242
still the best in the industry. So it's

579
00:21:42,242 --> 00:21:44,231
not uncommon for people to go the route

580
00:21:44,231 --> 00:21:46,062
that you went. Started my career at a

581
00:21:46,062 --> 00:21:48,847
big firm before ultimately realizing some of the

582
00:21:48,847 --> 00:21:51,007
limitations. And we can talk about what those

583
00:21:51,007 --> 00:21:52,991
limitations are and the things you can do

584
00:21:52,991 --> 00:21:55,294
better now. But I'd like to talk about

585
00:21:55,294 --> 00:21:56,723
the opposite side of that coin for a

586
00:21:56,723 --> 00:21:58,804
minute. Is there anything that you miss? About

587
00:21:58,804 --> 00:22:00,904
the wires, There's anything that you think that

588
00:22:01,284 --> 00:22:03,944
traditional big w 2 firms do really well

589
00:22:04,005 --> 00:22:06,817
that an independent firm can't necessarily do. Yeah.

590
00:22:07,214 --> 00:22:08,882
I do. I think that there are some

591
00:22:08,882 --> 00:22:10,390
things. And when you can compare the 2,

592
00:22:10,708 --> 00:22:12,137
I do a a little bit of coaching

593
00:22:12,137 --> 00:22:14,360
for client wise, and I kinda... And we'll

594
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:16,703
be folks in my group that are independent

595
00:22:16,761 --> 00:22:18,436
and the work in a warehouse.

596
00:22:18,834 --> 00:22:20,828
And while independent sounds great because that's what

597
00:22:20,908 --> 00:22:23,699
I chose to do, it's really... It's definitely

598
00:22:23,699 --> 00:22:26,262
not for everybody, but and I think that

599
00:22:26,262 --> 00:22:28,171
the the wire what they have is they

600
00:22:28,171 --> 00:22:29,284
make it very turnkey.

601
00:22:29,761 --> 00:22:31,511
It is fantastic to be able to have

602
00:22:31,511 --> 00:22:33,913
all of the options that you have. As

603
00:22:33,913 --> 00:22:34,789
an up independent,

604
00:22:35,426 --> 00:22:37,735
but it's also a lot of work to

605
00:22:37,735 --> 00:22:39,486
have all of the options that you have.

606
00:22:39,884 --> 00:22:42,688
The shiny object syndrome is real when new

607
00:22:42,688 --> 00:22:44,522
tech comes out and new things happen and

608
00:22:44,522 --> 00:22:46,198
which planning software do we get? Do we

609
00:22:46,198 --> 00:22:47,634
go to Salesforce? I mean, that... Those are

610
00:22:47,634 --> 00:22:48,134
all

611
00:22:48,511 --> 00:22:49,011
massive

612
00:22:49,482 --> 00:22:51,544
changes that you can make at an instant

613
00:22:51,544 --> 00:22:54,002
that can completely disrupt your organization.

614
00:22:54,636 --> 00:22:55,136
So

615
00:22:55,509 --> 00:22:57,150
knowing out of the gate what to pick

616
00:22:57,269 --> 00:22:58,619
and to be good at it. That is

617
00:22:58,619 --> 00:23:00,764
not for every single person. In addition to

618
00:23:00,764 --> 00:23:02,909
dealing with all of the stuff like Hr

619
00:23:02,909 --> 00:23:04,656
and payroll, and how do you set up

620
00:23:04,656 --> 00:23:06,483
your business? And what type of lease do

621
00:23:06,483 --> 00:23:09,552
you get? All those decisions become cumulative

622
00:23:09,932 --> 00:23:11,530
thing well, I would say a waste of

623
00:23:11,530 --> 00:23:14,886
time, just cumulative time consumption that you didn't

624
00:23:14,886 --> 00:23:17,613
spend before that takes you away from servicing

625
00:23:17,613 --> 00:23:18,169
your clients.

626
00:23:18,805 --> 00:23:20,473
They make it very easy for you, and

627
00:23:20,473 --> 00:23:22,935
they pay pretty reasonably well. And I would

628
00:23:22,935 --> 00:23:24,763
say that is the 1 thing that I've

629
00:23:24,763 --> 00:23:27,561
noticed a lot is that when talking with

630
00:23:27,561 --> 00:23:30,028
folks at the wire houses and the thought

631
00:23:30,028 --> 00:23:30,983
to go independent.

632
00:23:31,619 --> 00:23:32,437
It's this

633
00:23:32,829 --> 00:23:34,827
I can make more money or it's the

634
00:23:34,827 --> 00:23:36,825
taxes I can save because I can write

635
00:23:36,825 --> 00:23:39,462
off more. And it's funny because at the

636
00:23:39,462 --> 00:23:42,100
end of the day, that's not necessarily free.

637
00:23:42,594 --> 00:23:44,672
But there's... You are doing things. So I

638
00:23:44,672 --> 00:23:46,430
would argue that it's not about the payout.

639
00:23:46,670 --> 00:23:48,668
I would take that decision off the table

640
00:23:48,668 --> 00:23:50,266
in terms of I can make more money

641
00:23:50,266 --> 00:23:51,945
because you're gonna probably have to hire more

642
00:23:51,945 --> 00:23:54,105
people. Too. So... Or you're gonna do more

643
00:23:54,105 --> 00:23:56,012
for that amount of money. I think the

644
00:23:56,012 --> 00:23:57,998
wire offers... I mean, I look at Wells

645
00:23:58,077 --> 00:23:59,244
Fargo where I left

646
00:23:59,601 --> 00:24:02,534
And Wells Fargo, they have access to banking.

647
00:24:03,009 --> 00:24:05,149
They have access to Ultra high net worth

648
00:24:05,149 --> 00:24:07,549
services through the private bank. They had access

649
00:24:07,549 --> 00:24:10,109
to incredible lending for their clients. They have

650
00:24:10,109 --> 00:24:12,589
different ways to affiliate with them anywhere from

651
00:24:12,589 --> 00:24:14,269
just being an employee to now all the...

652
00:24:14,509 --> 00:24:16,920
Now recently, like an Ra division. So there's

653
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:18,426
a lot of good things to say about

654
00:24:18,426 --> 00:24:20,565
the wire. I'm I'm not... By any means

655
00:24:20,565 --> 00:24:22,783
anti. I think it's just for the true

656
00:24:22,783 --> 00:24:23,283
entrepreneur.

657
00:24:23,655 --> 00:24:25,907
So Or most importantly, for the person that

658
00:24:25,907 --> 00:24:28,784
wants to build true enterprise value. And I

659
00:24:28,784 --> 00:24:30,622
think that last piece is the the big

660
00:24:30,622 --> 00:24:32,380
difference, what you get on the independent side,

661
00:24:32,874 --> 00:24:33,833
I think that's what what do you do.

662
00:24:33,993 --> 00:24:35,431
So you really have to have that mindset

663
00:24:35,431 --> 00:24:37,848
of, yes. I want to be the business

664
00:24:37,908 --> 00:24:38,408
owner

665
00:24:38,946 --> 00:24:39,825
instead of just the...

666
00:24:40,478 --> 00:24:43,182
Senior adviser in the business. You totally agree

667
00:24:43,262 --> 00:24:44,535
And the other I would add to your

668
00:24:44,535 --> 00:24:45,512
list of Wire

669
00:24:46,046 --> 00:24:49,003
benefits his brand, There's some advisers, and we

670
00:24:49,003 --> 00:24:51,150
could probably politely poke holes in this or

671
00:24:51,150 --> 00:24:51,650
disagree,

672
00:24:52,104 --> 00:24:54,808
the extent to which brand actually matters to

673
00:24:54,808 --> 00:24:56,966
clients. But there are certainly advisors out there

674
00:24:56,966 --> 00:24:59,109
who perceive that brand matters a great deal.

675
00:24:59,426 --> 00:25:00,934
And there's no question the wires are the

676
00:25:00,934 --> 00:25:02,283
best brands on Wall Street and some of

677
00:25:02,283 --> 00:25:03,712
the best brands in the world. And and

678
00:25:03,712 --> 00:25:05,799
that's... Obviously, they've had some tarnish through the

679
00:25:05,799 --> 00:25:07,016
years due to various

680
00:25:07,473 --> 00:25:09,785
scandals which we won't rehash, but still, I

681
00:25:09,785 --> 00:25:12,097
think safe big brands versus a firm like

682
00:25:12,257 --> 00:25:12,736
Strat.

683
00:25:13,149 --> 00:25:14,505
Probably a little bit more of an unknown.

684
00:25:14,824 --> 00:25:16,680
The other thing I wanted to mention is

685
00:25:16,738 --> 00:25:20,247
when we think about independence, I completely agree,

686
00:25:20,964 --> 00:25:22,001
a better payout,

687
00:25:23,134 --> 00:25:24,971
should not be reason 1234

688
00:25:24,971 --> 00:25:27,448
or 5 for why you're considering independence. I

689
00:25:27,448 --> 00:25:28,646
mean, when I think through... And I have

690
00:25:28,646 --> 00:25:31,450
this conversation a lot, especially with Tap W

691
00:25:31,450 --> 00:25:33,836
2 advisors who are considering independence. To me,

692
00:25:33,996 --> 00:25:36,143
the 2 biggest drivers are the 2 biggest

693
00:25:36,143 --> 00:25:39,191
reasons you might favor opt independence are number

694
00:25:39,191 --> 00:25:41,827
1, the creation of long term enterprise value

695
00:25:41,827 --> 00:25:44,556
that you can monetize. And number 2, more

696
00:25:44,556 --> 00:25:46,706
control and or quality of life. Like, you

697
00:25:46,706 --> 00:25:48,219
just will like your work more and be

698
00:25:48,219 --> 00:25:51,006
a happier adviser in the independence space. I

699
00:25:51,006 --> 00:25:52,041
agree with you completely,

700
00:25:52,533 --> 00:25:55,472
that payout, maybe you'll pick up 05:10 percent

701
00:25:55,472 --> 00:25:58,354
of additional payout, but the delta is probably

702
00:25:58,410 --> 00:26:00,872
not great enough in 99 percent of cases

703
00:26:00,872 --> 00:26:02,956
to justify the extra effort and the extra

704
00:26:02,956 --> 00:26:04,471
work. Is that fair to say? You think

705
00:26:04,471 --> 00:26:06,225
that was a a decent summary of of

706
00:26:06,225 --> 00:26:08,696
your thought there? That's exactly correct. And the

707
00:26:08,696 --> 00:26:10,371
only thing I would add to the list.

708
00:26:10,610 --> 00:26:12,381
Your that is 1 of the reasons that

709
00:26:12,381 --> 00:26:14,216
we actually did leave,

710
00:26:15,094 --> 00:26:16,871
which is the ability to

711
00:26:17,488 --> 00:26:18,526
transition ownership,

712
00:26:19,339 --> 00:26:23,325
to someone outside of the main adviser or

713
00:26:23,325 --> 00:26:23,825
advisors

714
00:26:24,521 --> 00:26:26,434
because it could be totally different now. But

715
00:26:26,434 --> 00:26:27,333
when I was there

716
00:26:27,963 --> 00:26:30,030
it's a... You're splitting a rep rep code.

717
00:26:30,268 --> 00:26:32,176
And if something happens in that partnership, like

718
00:26:32,176 --> 00:26:33,925
it actually did to me early in my

719
00:26:33,925 --> 00:26:35,833
career with a junior partner that decided that

720
00:26:35,833 --> 00:26:38,396
he wanted to go... Work somewhere else and

721
00:26:38,396 --> 00:26:40,788
take his cut. He owned x percent of

722
00:26:40,788 --> 00:26:43,181
those clients, and I could do nothing about

723
00:26:43,181 --> 00:26:45,175
it. So that was the only way to

724
00:26:45,175 --> 00:26:46,531
give ownership in a book.

725
00:26:47,183 --> 00:26:49,169
Now with an operating agreement, you could spell

726
00:26:49,169 --> 00:26:51,075
it all out legally. If somebody does something

727
00:26:51,075 --> 00:26:52,584
like that if they take the client. There's

728
00:26:52,584 --> 00:26:55,047
a lot of different ways to create value

729
00:26:55,047 --> 00:26:58,400
and equity and compensation, for the non founder

730
00:26:58,400 --> 00:26:59,673
of the firm. And I think that... In

731
00:26:59,673 --> 00:27:01,741
my opinion that's the other reason to really

732
00:27:01,741 --> 00:27:04,143
consider it. Absolutely. Unless that existed at the

733
00:27:04,143 --> 00:27:05,739
wire system. No. There's no question. I mean,

734
00:27:05,818 --> 00:27:07,276
the flexibility of

735
00:27:08,132 --> 00:27:11,423
monetization and or succession and or liquidity is

736
00:27:11,481 --> 00:27:14,047
infinitely greater in the independent space. Mean, we've

737
00:27:14,047 --> 00:27:15,951
even seen advisors in the independence space go

738
00:27:15,951 --> 00:27:17,935
so far as to essentially give the business

739
00:27:17,935 --> 00:27:20,078
away to a next gen. The reality is

740
00:27:20,078 --> 00:27:21,602
the world is your oyster. If you can

741
00:27:21,602 --> 00:27:23,113
dream it up then it's legal, you can

742
00:27:23,113 --> 00:27:25,261
do it in the independent space. So I

743
00:27:25,261 --> 00:27:26,692
would say we consider... And this is a

744
00:27:26,692 --> 00:27:28,219
little bit of a gear shift away. From

745
00:27:28,299 --> 00:27:30,214
Wire World, but I wanna talk more about

746
00:27:30,214 --> 00:27:33,007
your experience with independence. We would consider a

747
00:27:33,007 --> 00:27:36,292
firm like Strat as supported independent and it

748
00:27:36,292 --> 00:27:38,122
that seems to jive with how you're describing

749
00:27:38,122 --> 00:27:40,589
it as well. But there are now probably

750
00:27:40,589 --> 00:27:42,499
even more definitely even more so than when

751
00:27:42,499 --> 00:27:44,273
you look. There are a lot of different

752
00:27:44,409 --> 00:27:47,530
versions of... And supported independence? I think you've

753
00:27:47,530 --> 00:27:49,044
touched a little bit upon why you chose

754
00:27:49,283 --> 00:27:50,557
Strat and some of it may have been

755
00:27:50,557 --> 00:27:52,469
just lock and happens dance. But what are

756
00:27:52,469 --> 00:27:53,744
your thoughts on the model as a whole?

757
00:27:53,983 --> 00:27:56,474
Talk about How does somebody reconcile... Do I

758
00:27:56,474 --> 00:27:58,394
opt for a supported version of independence like

759
00:27:58,555 --> 00:28:00,154
Strat or do I just go call up

760
00:28:00,154 --> 00:28:02,075
fidelity and do this myself? That is a...

761
00:28:02,234 --> 00:28:04,083
An exercise that I... Spent a lot of

762
00:28:04,083 --> 00:28:06,384
time on. So remember up upfront, I said

763
00:28:06,384 --> 00:28:08,050
the there was a low risk of joining

764
00:28:08,209 --> 00:28:10,351
Strat. They were fantastic people. And that was

765
00:28:10,351 --> 00:28:12,190
the number 1 thing that just spent Jeff

766
00:28:12,269 --> 00:28:14,329
Con Charles, all the folks that I met

767
00:28:14,329 --> 00:28:16,390
at the beginning, there were really good human

768
00:28:16,390 --> 00:28:18,212
beings, and that's to me that that means

769
00:28:18,212 --> 00:28:21,170
a lot. So the fact that... Okay. I'm

770
00:28:21,170 --> 00:28:22,763
joining this great group, they have what we

771
00:28:22,763 --> 00:28:25,153
need. And if it doesn't work out, I

772
00:28:25,153 --> 00:28:26,348
just have to give them 6 months of

773
00:28:26,348 --> 00:28:28,021
notice. That seemed very reasonable.

774
00:28:28,594 --> 00:28:30,827
So when I did after we moved, but

775
00:28:30,827 --> 00:28:32,662
was very successful and told the folks out

776
00:28:32,662 --> 00:28:34,337
there that move. It it is always another

777
00:28:34,337 --> 00:28:36,331
standard answer, you're gonna get 95 percent of

778
00:28:36,331 --> 00:28:38,245
your clients pretty easily. So that's... We have

779
00:28:38,245 --> 00:28:40,085
the same success within, of a short amount

780
00:28:40,085 --> 00:28:43,099
of time. And then I spent really each

781
00:28:43,099 --> 00:28:44,210
year at the end of the year when

782
00:28:44,289 --> 00:28:45,893
I ran my P and L, same I

783
00:28:45,893 --> 00:28:47,649
looked at the amount of money that we

784
00:28:47,649 --> 00:28:49,426
gave Des strat and the services

785
00:28:49,884 --> 00:28:52,438
that they provided for that money.

786
00:28:53,077 --> 00:28:55,401
So in other words, I could evaluate, hey,

787
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,149
this was what I was paying. And as

788
00:28:57,229 --> 00:28:59,056
I learned more and learned what I didn't

789
00:28:59,056 --> 00:29:01,202
know before, if I was to go do

790
00:29:01,202 --> 00:29:02,791
this on my own, for example,

791
00:29:03,283 --> 00:29:05,270
hire my own chief compliance officer,

792
00:29:05,986 --> 00:29:07,598
you get my own technology

793
00:29:08,052 --> 00:29:10,698
support, which is actually a big thing and

794
00:29:11,407 --> 00:29:14,438
cybersecurity, what would that cost, monitoring everything, billing

795
00:29:14,438 --> 00:29:14,938
everything,

796
00:29:15,395 --> 00:29:17,868
The Hr component, I could put that in

797
00:29:17,868 --> 00:29:21,151
together in either bodies or outsourced solutions, and

798
00:29:21,151 --> 00:29:22,500
come up with how much it would cost

799
00:29:22,500 --> 00:29:24,961
me to do it. And in my calculations,

800
00:29:25,199 --> 00:29:27,263
at the revenue that I was at and

801
00:29:27,263 --> 00:29:28,953
would my... What strat charges

802
00:29:29,818 --> 00:29:31,826
I figure I was giving them about

803
00:29:32,438 --> 00:29:35,637
20 percent profit margin on that stuff

804
00:29:36,249 --> 00:29:38,472
in my pocket. I could save about 20

805
00:29:38,472 --> 00:29:40,559
percent. That is not a lot of money

806
00:29:40,559 --> 00:29:43,053
to have them worry about all of it

807
00:29:43,111 --> 00:29:44,627
and to have them stay on the cutting

808
00:29:44,627 --> 00:29:46,382
edge because and they've done that. As they've

809
00:29:46,382 --> 00:29:48,615
grown. I mean, the cybersecurity alone just I

810
00:29:48,615 --> 00:29:50,785
could see the upgrades over the years, they

811
00:29:50,785 --> 00:29:52,701
are worrying about that. They are worrying about

812
00:29:52,701 --> 00:29:55,197
the new compliance issues that are coming down

813
00:29:55,256 --> 00:29:56,933
and telling us what to do. Instead of

814
00:29:56,933 --> 00:29:58,864
me having to worry about it. Do And

815
00:29:58,943 --> 00:30:00,538
I've seen this as an area as I've

816
00:30:00,538 --> 00:30:01,755
been in the industry longer

817
00:30:02,132 --> 00:30:03,647
that going and doing it on your own.

818
00:30:04,125 --> 00:30:05,321
I have folks that have I've I've done

819
00:30:05,321 --> 00:30:06,916
on their own, they're smaller in size.

820
00:30:07,569 --> 00:30:10,210
But they seem to sometimes cut corners on

821
00:30:10,210 --> 00:30:11,809
some of those things to save some money.

822
00:30:12,210 --> 00:30:13,410
And those are big things.

823
00:30:14,130 --> 00:30:15,980
I mean, Scc comes in and takes a

824
00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:17,255
look at you and then you get on

825
00:30:17,255 --> 00:30:19,089
their watch list or what have you or

826
00:30:19,089 --> 00:30:21,082
there's a breach of your client data. Some

827
00:30:21,082 --> 00:30:22,916
of those things you cannot come back from.

828
00:30:23,569 --> 00:30:26,280
So to me, I think supported independence makes

829
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:28,115
a lot of sense. And with more and

830
00:30:28,115 --> 00:30:29,710
more options out there, people can take a

831
00:30:29,710 --> 00:30:31,465
look at, hey, what am I getting for

832
00:30:31,465 --> 00:30:33,553
the money that I'm spending out there. And

833
00:30:33,553 --> 00:30:34,987
a lot of firms. Like, even Strat, since

834
00:30:35,067 --> 00:30:36,580
I joined they do things today that they

835
00:30:36,580 --> 00:30:38,174
didn't even come close to doing before. Like,

836
00:30:38,253 --> 00:30:39,767
they will screen my applicants for a job.

837
00:30:39,926 --> 00:30:41,537
They'll put the... Job posting out there. They

838
00:30:41,537 --> 00:30:43,531
have an internal investment management team that we

839
00:30:43,531 --> 00:30:45,366
can get... So there's a lot of good

840
00:30:45,366 --> 00:30:47,042
options, I think. I think at at a

841
00:30:47,042 --> 00:30:47,941
certain size

842
00:30:48,253 --> 00:30:49,919
it makes sense to really consider doing it

843
00:30:49,919 --> 00:30:51,426
all on your own. If you're big enough

844
00:30:51,426 --> 00:30:53,647
because 20 percent on a very large number,

845
00:30:53,806 --> 00:30:55,646
could be a decent size number. But we

846
00:30:55,646 --> 00:30:57,237
grew with them. So we started at a

847
00:30:57,237 --> 00:30:58,271
at a level where it made a lot

848
00:30:58,271 --> 00:30:59,623
of sense. And now as we've morph in,

849
00:30:59,942 --> 00:31:01,612
we've used more and more of their services

850
00:31:01,612 --> 00:31:03,282
to where it still makes sense financially for

851
00:31:03,282 --> 00:31:05,283
us. Yeah. I love everything you just said

852
00:31:05,442 --> 00:31:06,713
I really do. I mean, it's exactly how

853
00:31:06,793 --> 00:31:09,255
I tell the story. It's purely a matter

854
00:31:09,255 --> 00:31:09,755
of

855
00:31:10,367 --> 00:31:12,194
appetite for doing it yourself. Some people are

856
00:31:12,194 --> 00:31:12,933
just maximally

857
00:31:13,307 --> 00:31:15,542
entrepreneurial. And they want control over everything. But

858
00:31:15,542 --> 00:31:16,890
to me, it almost reminds me. I think

859
00:31:16,890 --> 00:31:18,792
it's a buffet quote of, like, there's no

860
00:31:18,792 --> 00:31:20,536
such thing as a bad stock only a

861
00:31:20,536 --> 00:31:22,701
bad price, oh, It's very similar here. Right?

862
00:31:22,860 --> 00:31:24,297
The the platform it's itself... It's like, when

863
00:31:24,297 --> 00:31:26,472
somebody asks the question of is the platform

864
00:31:26,610 --> 00:31:28,525
expensive or is that firm expensive?

865
00:31:29,256 --> 00:31:31,400
Expensive is not really a fair assessment in

866
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,623
a nutshell? It's are they expensive or are

867
00:31:33,623 --> 00:31:36,958
they fair value relative commensurate with what they're

868
00:31:36,958 --> 00:31:39,122
providing for you? And it sounds like in

869
00:31:39,122 --> 00:31:41,275
your case, the answer was certainly yes. I

870
00:31:41,275 --> 00:31:44,226
would agree that as firms grow or as

871
00:31:44,226 --> 00:31:46,140
you get larger, and even when we talk

872
00:31:46,140 --> 00:31:47,736
to some of the biggest firms in the

873
00:31:47,736 --> 00:31:50,390
industry, 5 or 10000000000 in assets, that does

874
00:31:50,390 --> 00:31:52,549
seem to be the space where the scale

875
00:31:52,549 --> 00:31:54,630
just affords you more margin to be able

876
00:31:54,630 --> 00:31:56,150
to do it yourself. Right? You could probably

877
00:31:56,150 --> 00:31:58,003
hire people, to fill a lot of those

878
00:31:58,003 --> 00:32:00,160
seats, but no question. I think the feedback

879
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:01,518
we get from most of our clients who

880
00:32:01,518 --> 00:32:04,964
have walked this path is during the initial

881
00:32:04,964 --> 00:32:06,874
transition and certainly for the first few years,

882
00:32:07,272 --> 00:32:09,898
the support partner is overwhelmingly when we work

883
00:32:09,898 --> 00:32:12,140
the cost. Because to your point, In addition

884
00:32:12,140 --> 00:32:14,363
to just transitioning client assets and helping you

885
00:32:14,363 --> 00:32:15,078
get off the ground,

886
00:32:15,793 --> 00:32:17,858
mitigating some of those risk is a big

887
00:32:17,858 --> 00:32:20,161
deal. Right? You've been in a world presumably

888
00:32:20,161 --> 00:32:21,849
if you're a breakaway of Adviser your whole

889
00:32:21,849 --> 00:32:24,490
life where mother mer or Morgan Stanley is

890
00:32:24,490 --> 00:32:26,329
telling you exactly what you can and cannot

891
00:32:26,329 --> 00:32:28,089
do. And those guard rails while they may

892
00:32:28,089 --> 00:32:30,178
be annoying, They also are there to protect

893
00:32:30,178 --> 00:32:32,405
you and they go away in some cases

894
00:32:32,405 --> 00:32:34,315
in the independent space, and the right support

895
00:32:34,315 --> 00:32:36,715
partner can help a lot with that. Go

896
00:32:36,715 --> 00:32:38,300
ahead, please. No I no Agree. And I

897
00:32:38,300 --> 00:32:39,885
think it makes it easier. I I just

898
00:32:39,885 --> 00:32:41,470
see so many folks that I've talked to

899
00:32:41,470 --> 00:32:42,976
over the years that want to make a

900
00:32:42,976 --> 00:32:43,293
move.

901
00:32:44,183 --> 00:32:46,578
And they've talked about it for so long.

902
00:32:47,376 --> 00:32:49,291
And the reason they're not doing it is

903
00:32:49,291 --> 00:32:51,207
because of all of the stuff that needs

904
00:32:51,207 --> 00:32:51,765
to be done.

905
00:32:52,739 --> 00:32:54,497
And you can whittle away a lot of

906
00:32:54,497 --> 00:32:56,893
that stuff by choosing a good support partner

907
00:32:56,893 --> 00:32:58,571
and then make the move sooner. So I

908
00:32:58,571 --> 00:32:59,370
would argue that, hey,

909
00:33:00,104 --> 00:33:02,896
Pick a partner, make the move, learn more

910
00:33:02,896 --> 00:33:05,050
about everything. And then if you pick the

911
00:33:05,050 --> 00:33:06,646
wrong partner or you wanna go it on

912
00:33:06,646 --> 00:33:08,492
your own, most of these firms you can

913
00:33:08,492 --> 00:33:09,924
make a change. You're not. You're not in

914
00:33:09,924 --> 00:33:12,311
the same situation that you were before and

915
00:33:12,311 --> 00:33:14,538
you've learned. And I think that's... I think

916
00:33:14,538 --> 00:33:16,105
that would be something I would really encourage

917
00:33:16,224 --> 00:33:17,902
people to do that says, I wanna go

918
00:33:17,902 --> 00:33:19,181
independent, but I'm not sure how to do

919
00:33:19,181 --> 00:33:21,498
it. We'll interview the main support partners, go

920
00:33:21,498 --> 00:33:23,815
that route, make a decision and then just

921
00:33:23,815 --> 00:33:25,666
learn and and and then learn about every

922
00:33:25,666 --> 00:33:27,502
other partner out there, learn about every little

923
00:33:27,502 --> 00:33:29,019
piece of the business that you did know

924
00:33:29,019 --> 00:33:29,578
about before.

925
00:33:30,296 --> 00:33:32,292
And then you can continue to say, hey,

926
00:33:32,372 --> 00:33:34,775
am I still... Doing the right thing for

927
00:33:34,775 --> 00:33:36,919
my firm and my clients. Yeah. I think

928
00:33:36,919 --> 00:33:39,063
that's spot on. Because by then, also, I

929
00:33:39,063 --> 00:33:41,127
mean, just logistically, it's a heck of a

930
00:33:41,127 --> 00:33:42,739
lot easier to go from

931
00:33:43,048 --> 00:33:44,184
a 10 99

932
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,466
adviser on a platform who owns their equity

933
00:33:46,466 --> 00:33:48,692
and who's multi custody to launching your own

934
00:33:48,771 --> 00:33:50,440
R, than it is to go from Wells

935
00:33:50,519 --> 00:33:52,364
Fargo to launching your own R. So I

936
00:33:52,364 --> 00:33:53,002
told her yes.

937
00:33:57,309 --> 00:33:59,223
I might have stolen this next question a

938
00:33:59,223 --> 00:34:00,818
little bit from a press release around the

939
00:34:00,818 --> 00:34:03,222
time. You sold the business. To Strat. You

940
00:34:03,222 --> 00:34:04,573
sold the equity in the business to Strat.

941
00:34:04,732 --> 00:34:06,877
But I love the way it was articulated.

942
00:34:07,036 --> 00:34:09,500
And I think your quote was, your vision

943
00:34:09,500 --> 00:34:10,874
is to offer a more holistic

944
00:34:11,344 --> 00:34:13,416
complete and high touch offering inside of the

945
00:34:13,416 --> 00:34:15,649
broader firm, And that would include things like

946
00:34:15,649 --> 00:34:18,758
tax advice, systematically lead generation and a variety

947
00:34:18,758 --> 00:34:19,635
of other services,

948
00:34:19,970 --> 00:34:21,650
And we're seeing this more and more. And

949
00:34:21,650 --> 00:34:23,570
my term is, I call them ancillary services.

950
00:34:23,730 --> 00:34:25,890
In other words, everybody does planning and investments.

951
00:34:26,210 --> 00:34:27,570
What else can you do for me? Right?

952
00:34:27,730 --> 00:34:29,661
Those things are table stakes. So tell me

953
00:34:29,661 --> 00:34:31,252
a little bit more about your vision and

954
00:34:31,252 --> 00:34:33,878
how you solve for... It's an incredibly crowded

955
00:34:33,878 --> 00:34:36,186
landscape? How do you stand out? Yeah. So

956
00:34:36,186 --> 00:34:37,618
that this actually goes back to...

957
00:34:38,349 --> 00:34:39,543
A few years back. So 1 of the

958
00:34:39,543 --> 00:34:41,611
things that I've been working with Strat on

959
00:34:41,611 --> 00:34:45,112
is getting on the Fidelity custodial referral program.

960
00:34:45,351 --> 00:34:46,784
And that is a... It's a long process.

961
00:34:47,022 --> 00:34:48,552
We spent a a few years doing it.

962
00:34:49,031 --> 00:34:50,388
I was leading the charge as 1 of

963
00:34:50,388 --> 00:34:51,047
the larger

964
00:34:51,425 --> 00:34:54,139
organizations inside with a process and a niche

965
00:34:54,139 --> 00:34:55,916
market, etcetera. So

966
00:34:56,227 --> 00:34:58,870
as we got closer and closer to getting

967
00:34:58,926 --> 00:35:00,910
the program, we're getting making it... Oh, wow,

968
00:35:00,989 --> 00:35:02,735
we're checking the boxes, this is likely going

969
00:35:02,735 --> 00:35:03,212
to happen.

970
00:35:03,704 --> 00:35:05,458
That's when we sat down and crafted what

971
00:35:05,458 --> 00:35:06,097
this looked like.

972
00:35:06,815 --> 00:35:08,649
And I had already talked to a number

973
00:35:08,649 --> 00:35:10,403
of other firms that compete in the space.

974
00:35:10,882 --> 00:35:13,115
And many of them have those services. However,

975
00:35:13,849 --> 00:35:16,666
in order to get access to their platforms,

976
00:35:17,206 --> 00:35:18,564
at least the ones that I talk to,

977
00:35:19,043 --> 00:35:19,863
the advisors

978
00:35:20,242 --> 00:35:22,260
or the firms had to sell

979
00:35:23,213 --> 00:35:26,246
everything to be part of that larger organization.

980
00:35:26,646 --> 00:35:28,742
They needed to to really completely

981
00:35:29,359 --> 00:35:31,766
transform what they look and feel like, to

982
00:35:31,766 --> 00:35:33,829
to look and feel like that organization. 1

983
00:35:33,829 --> 00:35:34,941
of the large... You can look on the

984
00:35:34,941 --> 00:35:36,369
list of top Ra firms, you'll see them

985
00:35:36,369 --> 00:35:37,187
there. So

986
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:39,482
which is not not about it I thought

987
00:35:39,482 --> 00:35:41,712
it's something different. Look, I believe, like, what

988
00:35:41,712 --> 00:35:42,190
you said,

989
00:35:42,907 --> 00:35:45,455
Jason is that it's all table stakes. What

990
00:35:45,455 --> 00:35:47,367
when I started this business, I I quote

991
00:35:47,367 --> 00:35:49,057
unquote, like, went out there in cold called

992
00:35:49,057 --> 00:35:50,653
on financial planning, and no 1 did that

993
00:35:50,653 --> 00:35:52,729
in the nineties. It was all stocks. So

994
00:35:52,729 --> 00:35:54,725
we were differentiated, and that was new, and

995
00:35:54,725 --> 00:35:56,242
we were able to stay with that for

996
00:35:56,242 --> 00:35:56,880
a long time.

997
00:35:57,454 --> 00:35:59,527
And then Robo advisors came out, and there's

998
00:35:59,527 --> 00:36:01,521
this big discussion around oh, our fees are

999
00:36:01,521 --> 00:36:03,914
gonna have to go down. That's not obviously

1000
00:36:03,914 --> 00:36:05,988
not what happened. What actually happened was the

1001
00:36:05,988 --> 00:36:06,786
services increased.

1002
00:36:07,359 --> 00:36:09,271
And I think that's gonna continue to happen.

1003
00:36:09,430 --> 00:36:11,023
We just did it. We did a very

1004
00:36:11,023 --> 00:36:14,311
large survey with our clients using absolute engagement

1005
00:36:14,369 --> 00:36:16,360
and must them a lot of different questions.

1006
00:36:16,932 --> 00:36:18,284
And what they wanted? What do they want?

1007
00:36:18,443 --> 00:36:20,271
Well they wanted? They want tax? They want

1008
00:36:20,271 --> 00:36:23,474
better estate planning options. They want more differentiated

1009
00:36:23,530 --> 00:36:26,488
investments. So that's the clients want. They want

1010
00:36:26,488 --> 00:36:28,241
a 1 stop shop or they want to

1011
00:36:28,241 --> 00:36:29,037
be more integrated.

1012
00:36:29,834 --> 00:36:31,587
The problem is if you're out there, even

1013
00:36:31,587 --> 00:36:33,818
us at a billion 5, to be able

1014
00:36:33,818 --> 00:36:36,860
to put those pieces into place, is pretty

1015
00:36:36,860 --> 00:36:37,259
expensive.

1016
00:36:37,817 --> 00:36:39,967
Like a Cpa, and especially if we're gonna

1017
00:36:39,967 --> 00:36:40,605
do taxes,

1018
00:36:41,163 --> 00:36:42,756
and then it that becomes expensive.

1019
00:36:43,570 --> 00:36:45,969
So do you sell to a larger firm

1020
00:36:45,969 --> 00:36:47,010
to get those services?

1021
00:36:47,570 --> 00:36:48,849
Or do you crush your P and L?

1022
00:36:49,170 --> 00:36:50,929
What if there's another option? And our option

1023
00:36:50,929 --> 00:36:52,943
is really saying, okay, How about we do

1024
00:36:52,943 --> 00:36:55,338
this? How about we go outside what first

1025
00:36:55,338 --> 00:36:57,254
in, we started inside a strat to our

1026
00:36:57,254 --> 00:36:59,170
partner firms already and said, who wants to

1027
00:36:59,170 --> 00:37:00,686
raise their hand? Here's what it's gonna look

1028
00:37:00,686 --> 00:37:02,778
like. You're going to... Sell a stake in

1029
00:37:02,778 --> 00:37:05,255
your business des strat, but you're not going

1030
00:37:05,255 --> 00:37:07,333
to sell everything. You're gonna still be able

1031
00:37:07,333 --> 00:37:10,224
to maintain your own P and L, and

1032
00:37:10,224 --> 00:37:12,782
own a piece of that business and continue

1033
00:37:12,782 --> 00:37:14,060
to own that a piece of that business.

1034
00:37:14,380 --> 00:37:16,378
And you'll be able to maintain the culture

1035
00:37:16,378 --> 00:37:18,296
of the firm that you love and your

1036
00:37:18,296 --> 00:37:20,545
clients love because what most clients want at

1037
00:37:20,545 --> 00:37:23,409
these firms, they want that boutique feel, but

1038
00:37:23,409 --> 00:37:24,864
they still want the services.

1039
00:37:25,398 --> 00:37:28,047
So... But if we can effectively get scale

1040
00:37:28,263 --> 00:37:30,981
that way. Through a rebranding and a common

1041
00:37:30,981 --> 00:37:33,071
process for new clients going forward

1042
00:37:33,525 --> 00:37:36,489
and allow people to control their own local

1043
00:37:36,799 --> 00:37:39,906
office and presence. It's unique. And so that's

1044
00:37:39,906 --> 00:37:41,579
what the programs is to try to have

1045
00:37:41,579 --> 00:37:44,784
the scale of these larger organizations, but without

1046
00:37:44,784 --> 00:37:47,661
having all of, like, the employee feel to

1047
00:37:47,661 --> 00:37:49,339
it, if you will. And so that's what

1048
00:37:49,339 --> 00:37:51,257
we've been doing. We started with... So first

1049
00:37:51,257 --> 00:37:53,907
off, we started by building everything, which Everything

1050
00:37:53,907 --> 00:37:55,974
takes longer than you expect. So we've rebranded.

1051
00:37:56,372 --> 00:37:58,122
We got everything set up from training from

1052
00:37:58,122 --> 00:38:01,001
changing from B to Strat Private well. We

1053
00:38:01,001 --> 00:38:02,911
made sure all of our processes and everything.

1054
00:38:03,071 --> 00:38:05,299
We're clearly articulated. We could train on it.

1055
00:38:05,458 --> 00:38:07,289
We put it all into technology. So other

1056
00:38:07,289 --> 00:38:08,896
firms can train on it. And then we

1057
00:38:08,896 --> 00:38:11,526
started talking to our internal firms. We've had

1058
00:38:11,526 --> 00:38:13,199
2 joined so far. We have 2 on

1059
00:38:13,199 --> 00:38:15,190
the docket to potentially join thereafter,

1060
00:38:15,683 --> 00:38:18,865
And then beginning in q 3 or QQ4

1061
00:38:18,865 --> 00:38:20,853
of this year, we're gonna really start going

1062
00:38:20,853 --> 00:38:23,001
to the broader public to say, hey, if

1063
00:38:23,001 --> 00:38:25,328
you're at... If whether a wire or another

1064
00:38:25,488 --> 00:38:28,444
Ra or another advisor at a hybrid. Is

1065
00:38:28,444 --> 00:38:30,362
this something of interest to you where you

1066
00:38:30,362 --> 00:38:32,614
can have that potential liquidity upsides, solve for

1067
00:38:32,614 --> 00:38:34,846
your succession plan and get these services, get

1068
00:38:34,846 --> 00:38:37,557
lead generation. And what we want to do

1069
00:38:37,557 --> 00:38:38,992
is to be able to offer what I

1070
00:38:38,992 --> 00:38:41,119
offered my friend, Robert Meyer, who we

1071
00:38:41,557 --> 00:38:43,546
merged with back in 20 20 as part

1072
00:38:43,546 --> 00:38:45,773
of Strat says, you're wearing all these hats.

1073
00:38:46,171 --> 00:38:47,682
You're trying to solve all these problems.

1074
00:38:48,334 --> 00:38:49,849
All these advisors are trying to solve these.

1075
00:38:50,009 --> 00:38:51,445
And that's a 1 part about going independent.

1076
00:38:51,604 --> 00:38:53,199
If you left a wire to do that.

1077
00:38:53,438 --> 00:38:55,672
You're dealing with marketing, you're dealing with career

1078
00:38:55,672 --> 00:38:57,347
paths. You're doing with all of these things.

1079
00:38:58,319 --> 00:38:59,994
So is everybody else. So how about we

1080
00:38:59,994 --> 00:39:00,494
take

1081
00:39:00,952 --> 00:39:02,547
the things that we have all agreed upon

1082
00:39:02,547 --> 00:39:04,383
that we can solve together or that I

1083
00:39:04,383 --> 00:39:06,631
might have already solved, but We mix those

1084
00:39:06,631 --> 00:39:08,626
down, you get rid of 3 or 4

1085
00:39:08,626 --> 00:39:10,780
of your hats. Now you become a really

1086
00:39:10,780 --> 00:39:12,455
good adviser. Again,

1087
00:39:13,028 --> 00:39:15,580
about... And you're now you're crafting you're bringing

1088
00:39:15,580 --> 00:39:17,414
in clients, you're servicing your clients more you...

1089
00:39:17,574 --> 00:39:19,646
You have Au coming to you through referral

1090
00:39:19,646 --> 00:39:21,321
channels. You can offer the tax. You can

1091
00:39:21,321 --> 00:39:23,486
offer this date, all of these things, but

1092
00:39:23,486 --> 00:39:24,760
you still own a piece of your firm,

1093
00:39:24,919 --> 00:39:26,192
and you still have a seat at the

1094
00:39:26,192 --> 00:39:28,421
table, and you help make decisions on strategy,

1095
00:39:28,739 --> 00:39:30,744
but you have someone like myself and an

1096
00:39:30,744 --> 00:39:32,891
executive team to go execute that strategy for

1097
00:39:32,891 --> 00:39:35,516
you. That's the vision. Super super interesting and

1098
00:39:35,596 --> 00:39:37,584
I think it's incredibly smart and and time

1099
00:39:37,584 --> 00:39:39,114
way. I mean, it's... It makes a lot

1100
00:39:39,114 --> 00:39:40,474
of sense in the face of what we're

1101
00:39:40,474 --> 00:39:42,875
seeing in the independence space and what advisers

1102
00:39:42,875 --> 00:39:44,394
need to deliver on. You brought up the

1103
00:39:44,394 --> 00:39:46,715
concept of hats and wearing many different hats

1104
00:39:46,715 --> 00:39:48,476
and to me, you're the poster child for

1105
00:39:48,476 --> 00:39:49,905
wearing a lot of different hats. And you've

1106
00:39:49,905 --> 00:39:51,809
been a coach. You've been a wire house

1107
00:39:51,809 --> 00:39:53,475
advisor. You've been a a business that's sold

1108
00:39:53,475 --> 00:39:55,870
a minority stake, a majority stake. To I

1109
00:39:55,870 --> 00:39:58,012
believe you have now transitioned a little bit

1110
00:39:58,012 --> 00:40:00,154
away from being an adviser to more of

1111
00:40:00,154 --> 00:40:02,295
a Ceo and coach. A, is that correct?

1112
00:40:02,549 --> 00:40:05,427
And b, even for the most entrepreneurial advisors.

1113
00:40:05,666 --> 00:40:06,945
I think that's probably a little bit of

1114
00:40:06,945 --> 00:40:07,605
a difficult

1115
00:40:07,984 --> 00:40:09,662
prospect for people to think about. I mean,

1116
00:40:09,742 --> 00:40:11,980
you've spent your career as an advisor gathering

1117
00:40:11,980 --> 00:40:13,990
asset and talking to clients. And to step

1118
00:40:13,990 --> 00:40:15,745
away from that, I could imagine people struggling

1119
00:40:15,745 --> 00:40:17,341
with that. What has that been like for

1120
00:40:17,341 --> 00:40:19,789
you? Yeah. It was a very unique than

1121
00:40:20,390 --> 00:40:23,110
situation. Over over the years, I had as

1122
00:40:23,269 --> 00:40:24,630
I grew. I had this team where it

1123
00:40:24,630 --> 00:40:25,910
was more about me at the beginning. Right?

1124
00:40:26,230 --> 00:40:27,349
Those a lot of us do have that.

1125
00:40:27,524 --> 00:40:29,115
And then as we grew, I couldn't manage

1126
00:40:29,115 --> 00:40:30,865
all the clients. So I was having other

1127
00:40:30,865 --> 00:40:32,774
advisors begin to help with the relationships, but

1128
00:40:32,853 --> 00:40:34,697
I still have my fingers in them. And

1129
00:40:34,697 --> 00:40:36,206
once again getting back to what to client

1130
00:40:36,206 --> 00:40:38,429
wise again, in my group, john named Rick

1131
00:40:38,588 --> 00:40:41,288
Kent who runs merit financial now. Many years

1132
00:40:41,288 --> 00:40:43,194
ago, we were in a breakout session in

1133
00:40:43,194 --> 00:40:45,518
that group. And talking through, growing the firm,

1134
00:40:45,677 --> 00:40:47,191
and it's, like, I talked wearing all these

1135
00:40:47,191 --> 00:40:49,262
hats and rick's like, look. You gotta get

1136
00:40:49,262 --> 00:40:51,015
rid of all your clients. And I said,

1137
00:40:51,175 --> 00:40:53,405
what? All of them he's said, welcome them.

1138
00:40:54,137 --> 00:40:55,249
He that was the best thing I ever

1139
00:40:55,249 --> 00:40:57,475
did because Rick was growing like a weed

1140
00:40:57,475 --> 00:40:58,826
and, hey, this is what you need to

1141
00:40:58,826 --> 00:41:00,018
do. It's the best thing for the clients.

1142
00:41:00,177 --> 00:41:01,847
And, you know, they're not gonna complain. Or

1143
00:41:01,847 --> 00:41:03,852
at least most of them won't. And sure

1144
00:41:03,852 --> 00:41:06,086
enough. Like, I I promised him that, okay.

1145
00:41:06,326 --> 00:41:07,523
I'm gonna do it over the next year.

1146
00:41:07,762 --> 00:41:08,799
And then once I started,

1147
00:41:09,358 --> 00:41:10,576
the clients did cry

1148
00:41:10,887 --> 00:41:13,028
They, unfortunately for me. I I guess, they

1149
00:41:13,028 --> 00:41:15,090
they found, oh, Pat, but is an example

1150
00:41:15,090 --> 00:41:17,390
another, adviser and partner on the team. Oh,

1151
00:41:17,548 --> 00:41:19,311
yeah. Pat talked so much. Slower. He's not

1152
00:41:19,311 --> 00:41:21,462
as confusing. It's like, wait a second. So

1153
00:41:21,462 --> 00:41:22,976
so as it turns out, the clients got

1154
00:41:22,976 --> 00:41:25,659
an upgrade, and we've had some clients transition

1155
00:41:25,938 --> 00:41:28,491
I mean, between 3 or 4 advisors over

1156
00:41:28,491 --> 00:41:31,623
the years. And I think while it sounds

1157
00:41:31,841 --> 00:41:34,313
scary, there's obviously a process to doing it.

1158
00:41:34,712 --> 00:41:37,842
If you aren't truly built as an ensemble

1159
00:41:37,842 --> 00:41:40,398
firm, and you're serving the clients as a

1160
00:41:40,398 --> 00:41:41,777
firm instead of in these

1161
00:41:42,156 --> 00:41:44,484
adviser solo, The setups where a bunch of

1162
00:41:44,484 --> 00:41:45,918
advisors just come together and call it a

1163
00:41:45,918 --> 00:41:47,989
firm. The experience is the same. And in

1164
00:41:47,989 --> 00:41:49,821
every case, when we're bringing in a new

1165
00:41:49,821 --> 00:41:52,148
adviser, they have a specialty above and beyond

1166
00:41:52,148 --> 00:41:54,061
what the other adviser didn't have. What you

1167
00:41:54,061 --> 00:41:56,532
talk about today, like, planning stable stakes. Right?

1168
00:41:56,771 --> 00:41:58,286
But for, you know, we use things like,

1169
00:41:58,778 --> 00:42:00,444
holistic plan for tax planning, which a lot

1170
00:42:00,444 --> 00:42:01,951
of advisors and and people are gonna know

1171
00:42:01,951 --> 00:42:03,855
on this podcast or income lab for distribution

1172
00:42:03,855 --> 00:42:05,283
planning. Is your new technology tools,

1173
00:42:05,855 --> 00:42:07,375
Sometimes to the advisors that have been doing

1174
00:42:07,375 --> 00:42:08,574
it for a long time. They don't wanna

1175
00:42:08,574 --> 00:42:09,695
learn the new thing, but you know who

1176
00:42:09,695 --> 00:42:12,255
can is the associated adviser. The next adviser

1177
00:42:12,255 --> 00:42:13,869
that can come up. So we've built a

1178
00:42:13,869 --> 00:42:15,789
process for to be able to have clients

1179
00:42:15,789 --> 00:42:17,710
get experience from more than 1 adviser at

1180
00:42:17,710 --> 00:42:19,789
the firm and built that into our culture

1181
00:42:19,789 --> 00:42:21,562
here it. Worked out very well. And, honestly,

1182
00:42:21,801 --> 00:42:23,557
being a Ceo is a full time job.

1183
00:42:24,117 --> 00:42:26,751
And it's... You realize how much you really

1184
00:42:26,751 --> 00:42:27,869
have to do if you do it right,

1185
00:42:28,028 --> 00:42:29,785
but also how much you can get done.

1186
00:42:29,945 --> 00:42:31,315
We're How many things when you were an

1187
00:42:31,315 --> 00:42:33,626
advisor are just sitting on your desk or

1188
00:42:33,626 --> 00:42:35,619
in a pile of ideas that were there

1189
00:42:35,619 --> 00:42:37,532
last year because you just didn't have the

1190
00:42:37,532 --> 00:42:39,218
time to do it. Now you can make

1191
00:42:39,218 --> 00:42:40,568
those things happen. So that was going gonna

1192
00:42:40,568 --> 00:42:42,157
be my follow. Is you just spoke about

1193
00:42:42,157 --> 00:42:43,983
this from the perspective of your clients and

1194
00:42:43,983 --> 00:42:45,492
your team, which I I think is probably

1195
00:42:45,492 --> 00:42:47,637
the right place to start. But selfish officially,

1196
00:42:48,049 --> 00:42:49,884
what has this enabled you to do? Now

1197
00:42:49,884 --> 00:42:52,276
that you've handed off the responsibilities of being

1198
00:42:52,276 --> 00:42:54,031
adviser. And I'm sure that was to some

1199
00:42:54,031 --> 00:42:55,786
extent bitter sweet for you because that's probably

1200
00:42:55,786 --> 00:42:56,982
why you fell in love with the business

1201
00:42:56,982 --> 00:42:58,673
to begin with, but are the types of

1202
00:42:58,673 --> 00:42:59,951
things you can do now that you just

1203
00:42:59,951 --> 00:43:01,946
didn't have the time appetite bandwidth to do

1204
00:43:01,946 --> 00:43:04,182
prior? Yeah. I mean, so, like, let's just

1205
00:43:04,182 --> 00:43:05,539
took... Take a look at what I'm doing

1206
00:43:05,539 --> 00:43:08,425
right this moment. So right this moment, I'm

1207
00:43:08,425 --> 00:43:11,766
building a strategic plan for the firm starting

1208
00:43:11,766 --> 00:43:14,550
in 20 25, and it's June. So it's

1209
00:43:14,550 --> 00:43:17,028
not... December of 20 24, so which is

1210
00:43:17,028 --> 00:43:18,935
how it might have worked. So building the

1211
00:43:18,935 --> 00:43:20,706
plan for next year for Sp

1212
00:43:21,159 --> 00:43:23,899
very detailed oriented. So having a really clear

1213
00:43:23,956 --> 00:43:26,665
idea about that, building out workforce planning, How

1214
00:43:26,665 --> 00:43:28,019
many people do we need to hire in

1215
00:43:28,019 --> 00:43:30,329
various positions to do this. We're building out

1216
00:43:30,329 --> 00:43:32,454
a marketing strategy for a new webinar that

1217
00:43:32,654 --> 00:43:34,492
gonna be doing and launching a paid strategy.

1218
00:43:34,891 --> 00:43:37,150
I'm hiring a marketing team to do Seo

1219
00:43:37,369 --> 00:43:39,126
optimization and some other things on the website.

1220
00:43:39,446 --> 00:43:41,853
I've been interviewing we're Cpa to add to

1221
00:43:41,853 --> 00:43:43,845
our... To build out the tax practice that

1222
00:43:43,845 --> 00:43:47,054
we have today. These are very large initiatives

1223
00:43:47,430 --> 00:43:49,103
that take a lot of time that there's

1224
00:43:49,103 --> 00:43:50,787
no way. That I would've have been able

1225
00:43:50,787 --> 00:43:53,429
to do maybe more than 1 of them

1226
00:43:53,564 --> 00:43:54,913
if I was still an advisor to the

1227
00:43:54,913 --> 00:43:57,769
clients. And joining your favorite industry podcast as

1228
00:43:57,769 --> 00:43:58,007
well,

1229
00:43:58,978 --> 00:43:59,297
exactly.

1230
00:44:05,682 --> 00:44:07,293
We're running up on time. Here, but let's

1231
00:44:07,293 --> 00:44:09,129
just wrap as I always like to wrap

1232
00:44:09,129 --> 00:44:12,402
with any final wisdom or advice. From any

1233
00:44:12,402 --> 00:44:14,078
of those hats that you've worn in your

1234
00:44:14,078 --> 00:44:15,809
career that you think would be helpful here

1235
00:44:16,009 --> 00:44:18,003
Maybe let's pretend you're talking to your younger

1236
00:44:18,003 --> 00:44:20,077
self. What would you share? This is the

1237
00:44:20,077 --> 00:44:21,672
advice I've been giving to folks. I've been...

1238
00:44:21,831 --> 00:44:23,108
I've been fortunate to get on a couple

1239
00:44:23,108 --> 00:44:25,181
of podcasts and Had people reach out to

1240
00:44:25,181 --> 00:44:26,875
me and I've this has been a question

1241
00:44:26,875 --> 00:44:28,315
that folks have asked. Like, what advice would

1242
00:44:28,315 --> 00:44:29,275
you give to me? I I happen to

1243
00:44:29,275 --> 00:44:30,315
have, like, I meant, I went to San

1244
00:44:30,315 --> 00:44:32,474
diego state. I speak to their finance department.

1245
00:44:32,954 --> 00:44:34,635
It is so interesting to me.

1246
00:44:35,369 --> 00:44:37,764
How much opportunity that we have in this

1247
00:44:37,764 --> 00:44:38,163
business.

1248
00:44:38,881 --> 00:44:41,835
It is still a business that I believe

1249
00:44:41,835 --> 00:44:43,751
is just going to grow in terms of

1250
00:44:43,751 --> 00:44:45,994
the amount of people that it can serve

1251
00:44:45,994 --> 00:44:48,697
in the United States. So our... The amount

1252
00:44:48,697 --> 00:44:50,389
of supply of clients

1253
00:44:50,843 --> 00:44:51,661
is great

1254
00:44:52,447 --> 00:44:54,933
And there's so few people entering the business

1255
00:44:55,386 --> 00:44:57,849
to accomplish that. So we have a unique

1256
00:44:57,849 --> 00:45:01,026
dynamic on a supply demand where we control

1257
00:45:01,026 --> 00:45:01,661
our destiny.

1258
00:45:02,233 --> 00:45:04,066
So the advice I would give to people

1259
00:45:04,066 --> 00:45:05,442
is to think big

1260
00:45:05,818 --> 00:45:07,889
to really think like what do you want

1261
00:45:07,889 --> 00:45:09,801
to do? I mean, and and maybe it

1262
00:45:09,801 --> 00:45:12,126
was my good friend Carl Richards. Says, he

1263
00:45:12,126 --> 00:45:14,196
likes having a... He believes in the life

1264
00:45:14,196 --> 00:45:15,709
he's a very big believer in the lifestyle

1265
00:45:15,709 --> 00:45:17,540
practice. Very low headache, get to live the

1266
00:45:17,540 --> 00:45:18,894
life you want. And if that's the goal,

1267
00:45:19,053 --> 00:45:20,736
that's the goal. But if the goal is

1268
00:45:20,736 --> 00:45:23,114
to really affect as many lives as possible,

1269
00:45:23,511 --> 00:45:25,810
whether that's the... Not just the clients, but

1270
00:45:25,810 --> 00:45:27,889
the people that work at your firm, And

1271
00:45:27,889 --> 00:45:29,807
to be able to enhance their lives and

1272
00:45:29,807 --> 00:45:31,246
more and more of them as time goes

1273
00:45:31,246 --> 00:45:34,063
on, really think how big you can get

1274
00:45:34,123 --> 00:45:35,961
and how you can get there and continue

1275
00:45:35,961 --> 00:45:38,128
to have that mindset, and just get fired

1276
00:45:38,128 --> 00:45:39,319
up to come to work every day because

1277
00:45:39,398 --> 00:45:41,304
I think that... There there'll be a change

1278
00:45:41,304 --> 00:45:43,130
in our industry at some point where the

1279
00:45:43,130 --> 00:45:44,322
opportunity may not be as great as it

1280
00:45:44,322 --> 00:45:45,751
is today. But for those of us that

1281
00:45:45,751 --> 00:45:47,998
are in it today, Wow. It's pretty amazing

1282
00:45:47,998 --> 00:45:49,756
what we have to look forward to. I

1283
00:45:49,756 --> 00:45:51,354
couldn't said it better myself. Well, thank you

1284
00:45:51,354 --> 00:45:53,592
so much, Jeff. This was fantastic. I'm so

1285
00:45:53,592 --> 00:45:55,110
excited to see what the next chapter holds.

1286
00:45:55,444 --> 00:45:57,043
For Strat Was private. We'll have to have

1287
00:45:57,043 --> 00:45:58,321
you back in a couple years, and you

1288
00:45:58,321 --> 00:45:59,919
can give us the update of your doubling

1289
00:45:59,919 --> 00:46:02,157
and tripling of growth. But we really appreciate

1290
00:46:02,157 --> 00:46:03,994
your time. And thanks again for joining us.

1291
00:46:04,248 --> 00:46:05,914
Jason, thanks so much, rob. It's been fun.

1292
00:46:13,152 --> 00:46:16,091
Curious about where why and how advisors like

1293
00:46:16,091 --> 00:46:16,726
you are moving,

1294
00:46:17,362 --> 00:46:20,619
download the latest advisor transition report to learn

1295
00:46:20,619 --> 00:46:20,857
more.

1296
00:46:21,586 --> 00:46:25,154
Including intel on recruiting deals and our insight

1297
00:46:25,154 --> 00:46:27,532
and analysis on the latest trends in the

1298
00:46:27,532 --> 00:46:28,642
wealth management space,

1299
00:46:29,375 --> 00:46:31,934
You'll find it at diamond dash consultants dot

1300
00:46:31,934 --> 00:46:35,535
com forward slash transition report, or if you'd

1301
00:46:35,535 --> 00:46:37,469
like to talk, fill free to give us

1302
00:46:37,469 --> 00:46:39,730
a call at 09:08

1303
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8791002.