Advisor Freedom

“We kept more than 98% of our clients through the transition.” (14:19) “I started at Hilltop… and just never left.” (0:32) “Most advisors jump around, but I built my career in one place.” (0:35) “Sitting in client meetings is where I realized I loved this career.” (4:26) “Saying ‘I don’t know’ builds more trust than guessing.” (9:34) “Mentorship and learning came before anything else.” (7:40) “I d...

 “Delivering good financial advice is really just table stakes.” (20:24) “I grew up around money… but I was never interested in money at all. I was interested in people.” (1:28) “They don’t teach therapists how to navigate couples arguing about money.” (5:02) “So I typed into Google: how do you help couples who are fighting about money? … Financial therapy came up… and I just followed that breadcr...

“For me, like I grew up in a very different world, 80s in China, we didn’t have private bathroom making apartments.” (13:27) “I wasn’t too inspired by the financial engineering of finance, but more on the human impact of finance.” (0:59) “Money is just one aspect of happiness. Happiness is so much broader.” (02:52) “I wanted to build my life and build a business around my life—not the other way ar...

“All my money is invested in the same portfolio as my clients.” (26:56) “In order for me to invest well, I needed control over my income, and ultimately control over my time.” (3:18) “For me, it’s always been about freedom. Living off the beaten path and having flexibility.” (11:00) “A big part of the change was honestly just confidence.” (16:49) “If I can help you make more money, that’s way easi...

“People start their own RIA not because they want to be a firm owner, but because they want to work with clients using a model they feel good about.” (20:13) “Even with zero clients, zero experience, and zero safety net, I decided to figure it out anyway.” (03:22) “Starting my own firm wasn’t about ego. It was about skipping the middleman and serving clients better.” (03:52) “I spent way too much...

“I moved to Los Angeles in 2009 as a teenager, right in the Great Recession. No guarantees. No stability. Just uncertainty.” (1:01) “That pressure pushed me into personal finance—not as a product, but as survival, as security.” (1:30) “Mistakes will negatively affect you in the moment, but they’re the learning opportunities you’ll never forget.” (7:48) “I don’t want to be on my deathbed and say I...

"I was a homeschool kid — an awkward homeschool kid. Chick-fil-A was basically where I learned how to talk to people." (00:32) "I didn’t have a big network to lean on… so I just went out and knocked on doors." (02:55) "Some of my absolute best clients today came from knocking on doors." (03:30) “We don’t really need a physical office to do this long term. So that’s ki...

"I printed a massive advisor tech map, taped it to the wall, and decided I was going to figure it all out." (04:50) “Fire half your tech stack. You're not using it anyway. Save all the money, save all the time, spend half your day actually marketing and prospecting and the other half like working with your current clients. And you can have a lot freer life basically.” (06:25) "C...

“I met him the night I won that award in high school… seven years later we ended up starting Opulous.” (02:27) “We didn’t want to push products. We wanted to give advice.” (7:10) “It wasn’t one viral post. It was just showing up every day.” (14:50) “We stopped trying to sound smart and just started trying to be clear.” (15:10) “What we've learned is it is relatively predictable. What we put in...

“I had 175 wealth management clients and couldn’t get a CPA to email me back. That’s when I knew something was broken.” (01:58) “My clients didn’t need to pay $2,000 for a tax return, but I also wasn’t sending them to H&R Block. There was no middle ground.” (03:20) “We intentionally avoid half the tax code so we can serve the right clients really, really well.” (10:40) “Most firms grow too fas...

“They’re not better than me. They’re not smarter than me. What do they have that I don’t? It really was just confidence and some courage." (02:22 – 02:32) “I literally spent all of high school and college being told I was smart… but no one could tell me what to do.” (03:05) “For every three nerdy posts about points, I’ll post something about my family or life. I just try to be a human.” (25:3...

“The biggest issue people run into in life is they just don’t take action.” (05:58) “If I’m going to take a big risk and build something, this was the time to do it.” (04:04) “The biggest cost you’re going to have as an entrepreneur is your own sanity.” (14:11 – 14:41) “I sold my house to fund the business. That was part of the game plan.” (06:26) “People think starting an RIA costs way more than...

“Launching a firm in January? No clients. No income. That was scary. But I knew I’d regret not trying.” “I didn’t want to take a single client with me when I left. It was a clean break, a true reset.” (03:35) “I passed all three CFA exams while dealing with back pain and lockdowns. I needed to prove I could still do hard things.” (06:58) “The traditional model didn’t make sense anymore. It felt br...

"Everyone is just dumping everything into ChatGPT and these AI platforms and it all turns into this AI slop." (09:11) "If you try to be perfect on social media you will never post. The messy stuff is what actually works." (10:32) "I realized pretty quickly that people did not want another assets under management pitch. They wanted real planning they could understand."...

“I’m a helper by nature, but I also have a strategic brain. Advising was where those two things finally came together.” (1:10) “The biggest question I asked myself was: where would I want my own parents to be served?” (5:45) “There are two customers in this business, the client and the advisor. If your tech doesn’t feel like magic for both, you’re missing it.” (8:40) “The right technology today ca...

"I was making 300 calls a day. The guy next to me was bragging about selling Home Depot. I was just trying to set an appointment." (13:05) "They launched a fund based on my strategy… but didn’t make me the manager. That’s when I knew it was time to go." (20:00) "Mutual funds are the worst thing ever created. They're tax-inefficient and full of hidden costs." (27:3...

“If you try it and fail, that’s fine. But not trying it is way worse.” Clark Jeffries started his own RIA at 27 years old (love others doing this) Just vision, courage, and a bet on himself. He had a front-row seat to the entire advisory ecosystem during his time at Hidden Levers, the FinTech that ended up selling for nine figures without ever raising a dime. Clark watched from inside as the compa...

“Don't waste your time on people intentionally ignoring you." We had the absolute privilege speaking with Brad Johnson with Triad Partners. Brad started in the insurance brokerage world in 2007, cold calling nonstop. But he quickly realized that selling product was a commodity. The real opportunity was helping advisors become better business owners. He and his friend Sean became coaches....

Mendim Gecaj didn’t grow up around wealth. Quite the opposite. His parents immigrated from Kosovo with very little, and his father arrived in the U.S. with a negative net worth. Mendim saw early on just how hard money was to earn and how even harder it could be to manage. Those experiences shaped his view of financial planning not as a career, but as a calling. Today, he built a practice managing...

“I left a corporate accounting career, five months before my first child was born… with no clients, no salary, and no backup plan. Just belief that I was meant to be a financial advisor.” I talked to Ed Wildermuth , co-founder of Mosaic Wealth Advisors. His start as a financial advisor is much more different than almost everyone, taking a huge leap of faith right before having his first kid. From...

“I just felt like the long-term impact of financial planning outweighed the short-term impact I had as a nurse.” That line stuck with me. Because when you hear someone say it out loud, you realize how rare it is for people to change careers based on impact. I sat down with Shane Galante , Partner at CSG Financial. But not long ago, he was wearing scrubs. Shane worked as a nurse through the worst o...

“I saw a Doug Boneparth post on Twitter and he was looking to hire his first associate. I had no idea what I was getting into.” I talked to Cliff Cornell , Associate Advisor at Boneparth Wealth. He didn’t land his job through a recruiter or a formal application. He got it from a tweet. He saw Doug Boneparth post on Twitter that he was hiring his first associate. Cliff had just finished college, to...

“If you ask most women who inherited or earned their wealth, their biggest fear isn’t losing money, it’s being misunderstood.” Susan Jones didn’t come from wealth management. She came from tax law & estate planning. Years of helping clients build charitable vehicles, pass on their wealth, and navigate the IRS. But what she noticed over time was simple: People didn’t just need technical plannin...

Today's Guest: Jonathan Mitchell Senior Wealth Advisor, Mercer Advisors What we covered • Jonathan’s journey from construction work at 12 years old… to being top 10 in revenue at Mercer • The power of direct candor in financial advising • How his referral engine works (and why he tracks every ask) • Why “being polite” is not kindness in this profession • How he landed a $14M single referral fr...

“Because as a woman, I know you have had to work way harder than a man to get where you are in this business, in finance. And it helped me sell our firm.” If you're a woman in financial advising, you have to listen to this story. I talked to Megan Miller and Elise Foster. Mother & daughter / Business partners. And two of the most client-focused advisors I’ve met. But this wasn’t the plan....