Between Now and Success

How do you build and manage a fast-growing billion-dollar RIA? What is the role of the CEO in this type of company? As the financial advice industry continues to evolve at a rapidly increasing pace, the role of the CEO becomes even more critical. Yet, as a business coach, I often see advisory firms struggle with making the shift from being an advisor-led firm to one run by professional management. Over the past few years, I've worked with and had dozens of conversations with leading advisors and CEOs of some of the industry's fastest-growing and best run companies. While the group is diverse, I discovered seven common threads in terms of how they built and run their businesses. As an advisor, if you ever hope to make the jump from several hundred million in AUM to a billion or more, either you or a hired CEO have to step in and become—in title and in practice—the CEO. If it's you as the advisor, then you're no longer an advisor. You need to become a professional manager. Listen to the show to learn the 7 characteristics shared by leading CEOs of RIA firms.

Financial education is hot and it's a great way to build your business. Investopedia generates more than 20 million monthly unique visitors to its website by offering the public (and financial advisors) educational articles, Q&As, and videos. Ric Edelman built a $16 billion RIA by educating the public through books, seminars, radio and TV shows, podcasts, and newsletters. And I'm using the same concept to build Belay Advisor by educating financial advisors through my podcast, blog, webinars, and speaking. What are the strategies and tactics behind using financial education as a way to grow your business? How can you piggyback on Investopedia's trailblazing digital marketing success to build your business? Today's guest is Investopedia CEO David Siegel. David is one of the country's leading digital media executives and has spent 18 years leading organizations through innovative product development, rapid revenue growth and traffic acceleration.

What's it like to climb Mt. Shasta with a hard-charging group of financial industry executives? What goes on behind the scenes to prepare for the climb and who made it to the top? And how do you deal with a major accident before the climb even starts? In today's episode, I take you behind the scenes in the Skip and Chip Excellent Adventure 5.0. Skip Schweiss of TD Ameritrade and Chip Roame of Tiburon Strategic Advisors organize an adventure trip each year and this year's destination was Mt. Shasta in northern California. I participated last year and completed the 27-mile, 15-hour hike through four 12,500-foot high passes in the Rocky Mountains near Aspen, Colorado. This year, well, you'll have to listen to the story...

If you want to succeed in digital marketing, you can't use yesterday's strategies. Today's most successful digital marketers take full advantage of the major digital networks and are creating content that is relevant, engaging, and share worthy. In today's episode, I chat with Mitch Joel. Mitch is President of Mirum - a global digital marketing agency with over 2000 employees. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the "Rock Star of Digital Marketing" and called him, "one of North America's leading digital visionaries." He is also an author, blogger, podcaster, and passionate speaker who shares his innovation insights on digital marketing and business transformation to audiences around the world. Mitch and I discuss the strategies used by the country's most successful digital marketers.

Note: This episode originally ran on July 18, 2016 Eli Broad is the billionaire founder of two Fortune 500 companies—Kaufman & Broad (now KB Home) and SunAmerica. You don't reach that level of success by doing things just like everybody else does. Broad said 'being unreasonable" led him to generate massive results. Listen to the podcast to learn 7 key business insights from his autobiography, The Art of Being Unreasonable, that illustrate how you can apply "being unreasonable" to jumpstart your success. Here's the first one. 1. In order to innovate, be unreasonable enough to ask fundamental questions about unexamined assumptions. Start by looking at the most fundamental operating principles of your business., what most people would call the basics. They represent the strongest, stickiest, and most unexamined kind of conventional wisdom. Broad said this conventional wisdom has often gone so long without scrutiny that they're accepted as gospel. That's what makes these core assumptions the best place to look for opportunities to innovate. Charging a fee for assets under management certainly qualifies as conventional wisdom and we are starting to see advisors innovate in this area. Podcast guest James Osborne now charges a flat annual fee of $4,500 for money management and planning services regardless of account size. Brittney Castro charges a planning fee and a monthly subscription fee. And Scott MacKillop, founder of TAMP First Ascent, is capping his asset management fee at $1,500 regardless of asset size. If you want to quickly gain visibility and new business, find a piece of conventional wisdom and be unreasonable enough to shake it up and find a new angle that appeals to a certain segment of your target audience.

Eli Broad is the billionaire founder of two Fortune 500 companies—Kaufman & Broad (now KB Home) and SunAmerica. You don't reach that level of success by doing things just like everybody else does. Broad said 'being unreasonable" led him to generate massive results. Listen to the podcast to learn 7 key business insights from his autobiography, The Art of Being Unreasonable, that illustrate how you can apply "being unreasonable" to jumpstart your success. Here's the first one. 1. In order to innovate, be unreasonable enough to ask fundamental questions about unexamined assumptions. Start by looking at the most fundamental operating principles of your business., what most people would call the basics. They represent the strongest, stickiest, and most unexamined kind of conventional wisdom. Broad said this conventional wisdom has often gone so long without scrutiny that they're accepted as gospel. That's what makes these core assumptions the best place to look for opportunities to innovate. Charging a fee for assets under management certainly qualifies as conventional wisdom and we are starting to see advisors innovate in this area. Podcast guest James Osborne now charges a flat annual fee of $4,500 for money management and planning services regardless of account size. Brittney Castro charges a planning fee and a monthly subscription fee. And Scott MacKillop, founder of TAMP First Ascent, is capping his asset management fee at $1,500 regardless of asset size. If you want to quickly gain visibility and new business, find a piece of conventional wisdom and be unreasonable enough to shake it up and find a new angle that appeals to a certain segment of your target audience.

When your clients sell their business, are you frustrated that you don't always add the resulting windfall to your AUM? There's a simple way to insert yourself in the sales process, add more value to your clients, and ensure you get your fair share of the proceeds to manage. One of the objectives of my podcast is to help advisors figure out ways to add more value to their client relationships that goes beyond money management. Today, we'll discuss how you can add tremendous value to your clients by helping them get top dollar for their company by selling to strategic investors. My guest is Rob Follows, Founding Chairman and CEO of STS Capital Partners. Rob is one of the world's leading mergers and acquisitions experts and his firm specializes in helping mid-market private businesses get maximum value for their companies by selling their business to a strategic--as opposed to financial--investor. If you have clients who own a successful private business, you'll want to listen to this podcast and read the show notes.

You could be the smartest, most technically competent financial advisor in the country but without solid leadership and a marketing plan, you'll be like the lonely Maytag repairman. Few RIAs have been as successful at building their business through good old fashioned business leadership and sophisticated marketing than Wealth Enhancement Group (WEG). This multi-billion dollar RIA has an impressive management philosophy and marketing machine that is firing on all cylinders. CEO Jeff Dekko's early career was spent working for consumer packaged goods companies such as General Mills. In 2003, he joined WEG and has guided the company through tremendous growth. He's rather unusual because he did not "grow up" in the financial industry and instead, brought a sophisticated outsider's perspective to building and managing an RIA. Listen to Wealth Enhancement Group CEO Jeff Dekko as we discuss leadership, marketing, and the future of the RIA business.

Providing great customer service is no longer good enough. Today's consumers are grading you on the "client experience" you deliver and how your client experience makes them feel. Customer service is just one aspect of the client experience and if you do not intentionally create a client experience that "wows" your clients, your business will quickly fall behind the national RIAs who are leading the way in creating national brands with consistent experiences. I recently moderated a panel at the FPA of Massachusetts annual conference and while the topic was ostensibly about Robo Advisors, it was actually about how to use Silicon Valley thinking to deliver an extraordinary client experience. This podcast is a recording of the session with Eric Roberge, Alex Benke, and Lex Sokolin that was moderated by me. By listening to this podcast, you'll gain a deep understanding of Robo Advisors, the different ways to use them, and how advisors are using technology to enhance the client experience.

The Envestnet Advisor Summit was packed with an agenda of top speakers and a multitude of sessions to choose from. And they capped it off with a closing keynote from Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer. Meyer's talk was so good and insightful that I'm now a Buckeye fan—except when they play Wisconsin and Nebraska! Here are six of my takeaways from the event plus a bonus interview with Vestorly co-founder Justing Wisz. Make sure you listen all the way to the end as I ask Justin what was the most important thing he learned when he worked for mega-RIA Ken Fisher. His answer may surprise you.