Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
The Financial Advisor Success podcast brings you real success stories and insights from the most successful financial advisors, and leading industry consultants, about how to take your advisory business to the next level. Get a glimpse of what it's like behind the scenes building a successful advisory business, and how entrepreneurial advisors navigate the inevitable highs, and lows, of growing a firm. Whether you're a new financial advisor trying to get started on the right foot, or an experienced advisor who's hit a wall, we're here to give you the insights and inspiration you need to break through and reach the level of success you want to achieve. Subscribe to the show, and get even more at the leading industry blog Nerd's Eye View at www.Kitces.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 18, 2020 • 1h 39min
Ep 164: Making The Hard Transition From Financial Advisor To Business Owner Of Your Advisory Firm with Julia Carlson
Julia Carlson, founder and CEO of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group, built a hybrid RIA while shifting from hands-on advisor to business owner. She talks about a family crisis that forced change, recruiting a complementary operator to run operations, letting go of client relationships, and using digital tools and delegation to scale and protect her time.
Feb 11, 2020 • 1h 41min
Ep 163: Building A Fast-Growth Practice Without Prospecting By Working Under A Credit Union with Michael Gennawey
Michael Gennawey, a program manager and advisor who built SoCal Wealth Management inside Credit Union of Southern California. He explains why credit unions drive trust and steady referrals. Hear how they screen members, onboard three new clients weekly with a two-meeting planning process, run hybrid advisory models and segment service tiers to scale growth.
Feb 4, 2020 • 1h 52min
Ep 162: Efficiently Expanding In-Depth Financial Planning Services To Move Beyond The AUM-Only Model with Tim Bickmore
Tim Bickmore, co-founder and director of financial planning at LBW Wealth Management, discusses evolving an advisory firm past AUM-only models. He covers switching to subscription-based planning, pricing and onboarding changes, a cash-flow centered planning process, time-tracking and unit economics, and the shift to agile, project-based financial planning.
Jan 28, 2020 • 1h 48min
Ep 161: Cultivating The Right Firm Culture With A Reality-Based Leadership Approach with Tessa Felix
Tessa Felix, HR and operations lead at PWL Capital who built her firm’s culture using reality-based leadership. She discusses cutting workplace drama and boosting accountability. Short routines like weekly CultureCast updates, monthly GIG one-on-ones, and tools for feedback keep teams aligned. She also shares her shift from peer to manager and how growth creates new career paths.
4 snips
Jan 21, 2020 • 2h 2min
Ep 160: Accelerating Growth By Spending More Than 10% Of Revenue On Marketing (That Works) with Gabriel Shahin
Gabriel Shahin, founder of Falcon Wealth who grew a fee-only, tax-focused RIA to about $200M AUM, shares how aggressive marketing fueled rapid growth. He discusses allocating 10–25% of revenue to channels like classes, Google ads, SEO, and radio. Topics include a two-meeting sales process, a dedicated BD associate, quick lead response, class-driven acquisition, and the trade-offs of scaling fast.
Jan 14, 2020 • 1h 30min
Ep 159: Navigating Financial Advisor Career Opportunities Under The Employee Model with Kelly Shikany
Kelly Shikany, Director of Wealth Management at Lakeside Wealth who oversees nearly $90M and specializes in client-focused planning, shares her career journey across trust companies, wire-houses, and an RIA. She discusses building clients through women's circles, navigating a salaried employee model, handling practice transitions and client repapering, and structuring her week for maximum productivity.
Jan 7, 2020 • 1h 39min
Ep 158: Leveraging Outsourcers To Go From Employee To Independent Without Building It All Yourself with Steph Bruno
Steph Bruno, founder of Sea to Peak Financial Advisors who moved from a 15-year employee role to run an independent RIA overseeing ~$70M AUM. She talks about why she left employment, hiring a coach to survive the early grind, outsourcing back-office operations instead of building them, rebooting marketing toward niche writing and ebooks, and making life planning central to onboarding.
Dec 31, 2019 • 1h 52min
Ep 157: Building Your Own Personal Brand To Complement And Not Compete With Your Advisory Firm with Peter Lazaroff
Peter Lazaroff, Co‑CIO and shareholder at Plancorp, built a personal brand through blogging, newsletters, and a book to grow his practice and speaking calendar. He explains niching content for the right clientele. He covers negotiating brand ownership within a firm, compliance-ready publishing routines, measuring lead ROI, and the discipline and tradeoffs of sustained content creation.
Dec 24, 2019 • 1h 54min
Ep 156: Establishing Next Generation Career Tracks And Business Development Training For Long-Term Sustainability with DeLynn Zell
DeLynn Zell, founder and CEO of Bridgeworth Financial who built a hybrid RIA overseeing ~$1.6B, discusses creating a firm that outlasts its founders. She describes four-tier career tracks, partner compensation and equity, and intensive business development training. Conversations cover building niche practices, team-oriented referral crediting, and cultivating next-generation leaders for long-term sustainability.
Dec 17, 2019 • 1h 48min
Ep 155: Eschewing A Bricks-And-Mortar Office For Reduced Overhead And (Virtual) Flexibility with Derek Notman
Derek Notman, founder of Intrepid Wealth Partners and New York Life agent who turned a traditional practice into a virtual, location-independent firm. He discusses ditching a bricks-and-mortar office, building a remote team and digital marketing, narrowing his niche to CEOs and founders, and reducing client count to boost income and work-life balance.
