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#65 - Scaling a Financial Planning Firm to an Enterprise Level - James Conole · Only Fee-Only

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: How's it going everyone?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the only feel only podcast and, as always, thank you so much for being here.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: This was a great episode.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: We got the chance to talk to James Cannell from Root Financial Planning, and if there's one word that I could use to describe the way that I feel about this conversation, it would be impressed.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: We've talked to a lot of people and obviously, in this journey of people in the feel only community, there are a few different routes that you can take right Solarpreneur, boutique and enterprise and Michael Kitzest has a talk over that kind of a keynote over that and we've talked to a lot of people that are doing the solarpreneur and the boutique thing, which I think is awesome.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: With that being said, this is the very first time that we've ever talked to anybody that really has ambitions to grow to that enterprise level, which is super cool.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: He started a firm and it has grown to many employees at this point and over 250 million, I believe, of AUM, and that's up from being in the 100 million range last year, so pretty impressive.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, here is James Cannell on the only fee only podcast.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: What's up everyone.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of the only fee only podcast.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm Peter Travelo.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I'm here with my co-host, brock Buckles.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: How's it going today, brock?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: It's better than ever, Pete, I have to tell you it's better than ever.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Love to hear it Fresh off Labor Day weekend, and today we have James Cannell on from Root Financial, who we're really excited to have on.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: So thanks, welcome to the show.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, peter, you bet.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: So, for those who don't know who you are and don't know Root Financial, you want to get a quick 30, 60 second overview of who you are and who you're currently serving.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm James Cannell.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Started Root Financial almost exactly six years ago, so Root Financial is the second place.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I've been in the industry, started right out of college at another independent at least hybrid firm for the first six or so years, then started Root and I am the founder of Root.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I'm married to my wonderful wife and we have an 18 month old daughter and I think between a young daughter right now and work, that's kind of a lot of my life.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So all in these things.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: That is who I am right now.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, man, I'm getting into it.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Talk to me about that, because you said that you started at a different firm right.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But how did you decide that you wanted to be in the fee only world and how did you kind of get into that first role?
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And then how did that ultimately lead you to where you are and what you're doing today?
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: It was never really like an intention to get into the fee only world.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I think that's just something that evolved over time.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: You don't really know the different parts of the industry when you first get started.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I just remember so backstory when I was younger just family, just money, stuff couldn't figure it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Like dad was doing multiple different things, figuring stuff out with work and it was just like money was really stressful.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: And it wasn't until my parents went through I don't know if they went through the course or read one of Dave Ramsey's books just like a very simple I think is told in money makeover Very simple, whether you like it or not, like here's what you should do with your money.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: And for us, for my family, like that, okay, just knowing what to do with your money, I remember transformed not just financial side of things but even just the overall well-being and stress levels in the family.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: So I think from a young age I knew there was something really different about good financial planning and just seeing the transformative effect that it can have.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: And in college I was studying finance and had a chance to intern with a group out of Merrill Lynch and had a chance to intern with an independent group and it was just night and day difference.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: I think Merrill Lynch, you know, big company, successful company, but just very much a sales culture.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: It didn't have what you hoped it would have.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: If this is actually helping to guide people towards their goals, I guess I can't say that for Merrill Lynch as a whole, as much as I have one very unique experience there.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: But it just wasn't what I was looking for versus the independent firm.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: It was awesome and it was a chance to actually get to know people, understand what they're looking for and then guide them to their desired future using finances as the means to that end.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: So there was nothing about fee, only that connected with me.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: As much as this just seems like a better approach and did that for the first six years, never really had any desire to start my own company, like it was never even a thought in my mind until things just didn't work out at the last company, and so much that I made a big decision to go launch.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: As much as that decision, at least partially, was made for me and so it was, in retrospect, maybe the best thing ever.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: It's okay, like a push into this industry, and then at that point you start thinking through.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Okay, if I'm going to go start my own thing, what are my options?
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Do I go to a major bank like Merrill Lynch, or do I go to another firm that's maybe with a broker dealer or a hybrid or a just straight RIA and ultimately decided to start my own with the RIA fee only approach.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome man.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: So you know, like, how did you start it?
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: You know, like, are you a member of XYPN?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Or like, how have you built this thing?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, joined XYPN.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: It just made a lot of sense.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was still a member of XYPN, but I remember at the beginning it's like, okay, there's compliance help I don't know anything about that there's technology discounts, there's these support groups, like there's just a lot of tools and resources to get started.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: It's not the only way to do it, but I just like because it hadn't been something I was actually planning on for a long time and it was just kind of literally, within a matter of a couple of days, oh geez, I'm going to go and you need to go start something.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: It just seemed like this is kind of just a package I can step into and get things done.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: So I was just trying to get something set up as soon as possible, and they really helped me do that, so that by the time I left my previous firm, I think it took three months, maybe four months, to fully get everything set up and open up my doors.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, at the previous firm, was it more business development or were you servicing a book?
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: And then what was that transition like as far as starting your own firm and then, very much so, being responsible for business development?
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: It started in.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: There wasn't a technical name for it, I don't think, because it was just myself and the advisor there and there were some partners at the time.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: But the queue is in the process of buying partners out.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: So one of the things was James just come on board and kind of do a little bit of everything.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: But it was almost all operation stuff in the beginning, like fill out paperwork, fill out transfer forms, be the person that's answering phones and greeting people as they come in.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: So it's literally like operations, associate slash, even receptionist type thing at the beginning because it's just a two of us, and then it just evolved more organically from there.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: I was terrified to even think about managing someone's money when they first got into the industry.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I remember in college we had to do one of these reports of hey, go, I don't know, interview someone who's in business doing whatever and like come back and do a report on what they do to the class.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: And one of my friends he interviewed one of his family friends who happened to be own an RIA and it was like, I think, $100 million RIA, so a good size, and I remember during his report just like my stomach was sinking for this guy, this RIA owner, like, oh my gosh, you have $100 million you're responsible for.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Like how do you even sleep at night knowing that?
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: That is like that burden is on you.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: To me so it was.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: There's nothing about it that was even attractive to me in terms of the management of money.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: It just seemed really overwhelming and even kind of stressful.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: So when I got into the industry it was, it was just like hey, what, what's not client facing that I can do?
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: I'm smart enough, I can go to pay application, I can do some basic stuff.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: And then it started evolving more and to okay, sit in on some meetings.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Okay, start taking some of the smaller clients.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, start taking some of the larger clients.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: So I'd say by the time I left my old firm I was still in kind of a hybrid rule like part lead advisor to some clients, associate advisor to other clients and then even some just back office support for the firm as a whole.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: But it wasn't like a clear set Start here and then go here and then go here, as much as my old boss is kind of, thankfully, like pushing me into higher rules as I went to get more and more comfortable.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where you have to be able to do both right, but it's a lot more comfortable when you're able to kind of focus on.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: You know what you're good at and obviously your role has transitioned over the years, man.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: But how did you know your mindset on money and your upbringing and all the things that you kind of thought about it in the Dave Ramsey story that you just told affect the way that you talk to your clients, like, because obviously your mindset with money has a lot to do with your philosophy of money, what you're telling people.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: So how did all, how do you kind of tie all that into how you talk to your clients and how you kind of evolved and made that switch?
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that it's nice that the industry somewhat seems to be going this way in general, at least the bubble of the industry that we exist in, which maybe is into reflection of everything, obviously.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: But you know, to go back to my specific experience at Merrill Lynch, it's very much a money management role of it's give us your money, we're going to out perform.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: But like the portfolio is the thing.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Like we have a review meeting, we're talking about your portfolio, I'm calling you.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: It's because I have a recommendation with your portfolio.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: So it was treating money like the ultimate be all, end, all thing in versus.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: I think the approach we try to take with clients is money is not the thing.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Like just accumulating forever is not the goal.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: The goal is how do we live full, fulfilling lives, which is the hard part.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: It's like what do we actually want to do with our lives?
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Who do we actually want to be?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: How do we want to spend our days in retirement and even before retirement?
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: And so I think our general philosophy is like a financial plan without a life plan is kind of incomplete, Because it's like what are we even planning for if we don't know what it is we want to do with the ultimate scarce resource, which is our time.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: So I think that there's very much that we call it the human first planning.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: There's that human first element before we.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: You know, I think a lot of planners say hey, before we talk about your money, we're going to talk about your goals.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: But it's even deeper than just goals, like goals broadly are hey, I want to retire, I want to buy a home, I want to send kids to college, which is which is good.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: But if we don't know what does a fulfilling life actually look like?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: And most people don't actually know what that is.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So how do we partner with you to kind of help you understand what that is?
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: That's what we're leading with, and then we're using your finances as a way to help create that.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: That's an awesome message.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about how you've marketed and built this business.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I know one thing that has led to some success is your YouTube, which is an interesting marketing piece that a lot of advisors they haven't even touched.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: They might be doing other types of content and marketing, but let's dive right into what your marketing plan is and what it started and how it has evolved into what it is today.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: When I started it was very much, I need clients very fast.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: What can I do immediately to get clients?
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: At my previous firm we were a Dave Ramsey endorsed local provider, then called Dave Ramsey Smart Vestor.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: So it was like great, I'm just going to reach out and see can I be a Smart Vestor in my area, because it's just a volume of potential leads.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I think you probably know how the system works.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: You pay to get leads, leads come to you and a few other advisors and you compete to see who can get this client.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: So it's just a way maybe not to grow your business forever, at least in my opinion but it's just a great way right out the bat to say can I get some of that bats?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Can I get people to talk to?
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Just to start getting some revenue coming in.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: And then I don't remember when it struck I don't know if it was when I started my firm or previously, but it was like Dave Ramsey isn't actually giving any specific financial advice to anyone other than whoever might happen to call during his three hour radio program, but he is, for better or worse.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I know there's not a huge admiration for Dave Ramsey amongst a lot of people.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: He, more than anyone else, his message is getting out more so than anyone else's, and it's just because I think he's a genius at marketing and leveraging his platform and simplifying things and creating a message that resonates with people.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: And so I kind of thought like, wow, what if I, instead of being a Dave Ramsey smart, best or Dave Ramsey endorsed local provider, why don't I just become the Dave Ramsey?
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Not to get his size, not to have all his followers?
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But if you can become the person that the in-clients ultimately attracted to, then you build a platform that's based upon attraction as opposed to how can I go and convince all these people to work with me?
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So that thought struck me and that led to the long story short of starting a podcast with another advisor, scott Frank.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: This was maybe four years ago five years ago, even that we initially started it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: We recently wrapped that one up, but after that one started another podcast that led to YouTube.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Youtube led to other things.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: It just was kind of a evolution of try something, see what works, see what doesn't work, double down on what's working, expand what's working, keep improving what's working, and so it's gotten to the point today where we just have an amazing inflow of awesome people that say we want to work with you and we're just trying our best to see how can we build a team that is in a position to service all these people, because our biggest struggle right now is actually handling some of the inbound prospects.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get to that.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's start from square one, right?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Let's start from you and then the next person that came in, and then where you guys are trying to go, because I think that's a fascinating story and a lot of people they don't understand that when you're just trying to get off the ground, you don't understand that there's a lot of places you can go with this thing.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about that and then where you guys are headed.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, where do you want me to start?
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Do you want me to start from the beginning?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Let's say you're right, because you just went into how you're kind of building and what you've been doing, so let's assume that.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's just start from when you brought the first person on other than you.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when did you know you could hire and sustain it?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: When were there and how many leads were there when you were like, hey, you know what?
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: This is overwhelming as just doing it myself.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I did and even as we talk, I'm trying to pull up metrics to see where were we when we made the first hire.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: It was just me for the first three years, so November of 2017 until November of 2020 and I'm looking right now we were at in November of 2020, we were at about 34 million in AUM.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: So first three years added about 34 million.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Of that, probably three or four was money that kind of followed me from my previous run but like it trickled in over maybe 12 to 24 months.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: So like some of that followed, but a majority, that was just, I guess, almost all of the excess above and beyond that was just through the Dave Ramsey program.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: I connected with Ari Taublieb, who's the VP now at Root, right when I started Root Financial.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: He actually just called me one day and said, hey, met someone, told him I want to get in this industry, I'm just out of college, would love to connect with you.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: He said we should talk and we talk and I was impressed by him.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: But I was like, hey, I can't even pay myself right now.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I definitely can't bring on like staff yet we don't have any assets.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: So let's stay in touch and let's see where this goes.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: So we stayed in touch and he just impressed me and he was very proactive, about every month, every couple months, sending me stuff letting me know what he was learning.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: He went and actually worked as an internal wholesaler at Nuvine for a while.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: So he was getting experience kind of experience, you know, at least on the mutual fund side not necessarily planning experience but it became very clear that, yeah, this would be a great person to join when the time is right.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And so November of 2020, he was like, hey, I'm thinking about leaving Nuvine.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: You're my top choice if I go somewhere, but I just need to know what.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Does that work for you?
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Because if not, I'm going somewhere else.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: And so I said, yeah, we'll make it work.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: So I think anytime you hire your first person, you're never fully ready for it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: It's kind of like anything get married, having kids, hiring your first person and they wouldn't put on that level, but like it's just something that's a little scary always, but it worked out awesome.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: So we're at 34 million.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Then, a year after, we hired Chris, who's a lead advisor, and then after that we've since hired four more people, seven total.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Today we're looking to hire eight.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Today we're a little over 250 million in AUM and looking to just keep growing and bringing on the right people to support that as we keep growing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good problem to have James growing right in what you guys are doing.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I love that and the fact that you know you guys have grown to what you are now is unbelievable.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: But there are, realistically, a lot of people that listen to this podcast that are trying to get into the industry or they're not happy where they're at.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: So what are those and who are those people that you're looking for and what are kind of the slots that you're trying to fill right now?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: The lame answer is anything and everything like truly just the right people.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: And we're a virtual team, so we've got some people in California, nebraska, virginia.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: We're looking to hire in a couple other states right now, so everyone's virtual.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: But we just had our like an annual team get together in San Diego a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like we truly enjoy not just working together but hanging out together and getting to spend time with these people was so fun and so fulfilling.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: And so, as we're growing, it's like the first thing I look at when we're talking to someone is this someone that I'd want to just hang out with for two or three days and not have it be work related.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: And everyone says culture is important and teams important, but truly we love getting to work together when we only want to bring people on that, yes, are competent, amazing planners or operations or whatever their skill set is, but like, do they fit what we enjoy doing?
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: And then, above and beyond that, I like what role do we look for?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: We're like we're looking for associate advisors, lead advisors, operations people.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: I think we had, in the last 30 days, over 100 people reach out to us saying we want to work with you and we just don't have bandwidth for that.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Maybe you can bring on eight to 10 of those people, 12 of those people, with a team right now of a few advisors maybe, but that's really pushing it.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: And so we're having to say no to a lot of amazing prospective clients which, like you said, it is a nice problem.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: I'd rather that than the alternative, but it's still kind of a bummer Like, hey, these are people that have been listening to the podcast for a while, watching YouTube, really excited, saying your message resonates with us.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Can we work together?
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: And then having to say sorry, we just don't have the bandwidth to do so.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: So how do we create more bandwidth?
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: How do we enhance team culture and what we can provide in the service levels, what we can offer?
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Because our mission is how do we help the most money?
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: People get the most out of life with their money, and so it's not about, hey, we want to keep raising minimums and like that's fine, that's a model a lot of people have, but it's not great, let's just be more and more exclusive.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: It's ideally.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: How can we bring this message that we have to more and more people?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Ideally, lower those minimums over time, but we just don't have the ability to handle that right now.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great, so many really phenomenal problems to have.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just so interesting and maybe this is a really good marketing point for whoever's listening is.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: You know, when you build content, it continues to build and build and build and as a solo person you can get a huge, huge audience.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: And then it's about fulfillment right, but it's incredible just as far as marketing Like you know it doesn't.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, sure you have some editing costs now I'm sure that you've got, you know have had logos redone and things like that but as far as, like, really spending, you know, marketing dollars and things like that you don't really need to.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: You know, building an audience being relatable, I mean it's awesome to see and then from there the leads just come in right and now it's just an absolute snowball effect.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the thing that I think that most yes, yes, yes and no, I would say the yes is look, you create content and you build a relationship with people and by the time they actually reach out to you, you're like it sounds weird to say like a mini celebrity in their mind and they're so excited to talk to them and work with you, and they already know you.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: And they already know.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: You, the, the, the no part to that that we learned and we worked through and we're continue to work through is you create content in it.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: This is goes back to what you trying to build like.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: If you're trying to build a shop where it's you and you're the advisor and you support staff, awesome.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: But if you're trying to build more of an enterprise Company where there's multiple visors, service in his people, you're not actually At least they explicitly involved.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: You're not handling those meetings, you're not on the back end.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: The challenge was always people reach out To root and they've been listening to James podcast or James videos or whatever, and say I want to meet with James and so what?
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: You're meeting with so and so.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: So it's just as good of an advisor, if not better, than I am, but it's like they have a built that relationship with you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: So that's where we have invested a lot of money in the marketing and building a brand.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Brand becomes attractive to as opposed to James like.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: So how do we name our process?
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: How do we create this feeling in this brand and this promise that buy into?
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: So it makes it much easier like they reach out to route.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Okay, I, maybe.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I know I'm not working with James, but if I'm working with Peter or Brock the next person I'm just thrilled to be able to get to work with route, as opposed to wanting that person if you develop relationship with.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a really good point because you know, back to what you said, to the right, like we have to be able to buy, we have to be able to mesh.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I have to like you if you're going to work here, right, and so that's a really powerful message because what you're doing is creating a community and a culture and that's really, at the end of the day, what what people are signing up for.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: But what I do is, is that spark that you have you had other, you know, advisors or lead planners or anything.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Come on the podcast and talk about subjects with them or what.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: What is kind of been your approach to building that brand rather than you know, it being the James show, if you will.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, one other advisor already has a podcast in YouTube.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: But I think, like you know, we're actually looking to hire right now.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: We've been having some interviews in a couple of people that say is it, is it an expectation that if I work at route, I have to start a podcast in YouTube channel and part part of the know?
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: I almost had a prefer that you don't do that, because we want you to be fully Open to take on all these awesome leads coming in and, just right, service them to really high level and take great care of them.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: So it's not like everyone now has to create their own mini personal brand within route as much as the first thing that we went through is yeah, brad Johnson's a guy who used to have the lead advisor blueprint podcast.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Now he has a do business, do live podcast and I'm sure other people have talked about this, but he, I remember years ago he talked about you have to name your system, you have to name your process.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: His was the lead advisor blueprint and in the time I was just so I don't know why I have to name it like what's that going to do to actually help me?
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: And, as a solo person, like maybe it helps a little bit.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: But if you're going to again try to build more of an enterprise as you name your system and I'll just give it a name hey, you're really cool.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Retirement plan.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: The name doesn't do is like what can you build around it?
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: What's the promise you're making when you tell people about the system?
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: So for us, for example, we call it Sequoia system on brand with route.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: So anytime we're talking to someone or they're asking about our process, it's not oh, you're gonna meet with James or Peter or Brock and they're gonna be really cool.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: It's.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: You're gonna go through our Sequoia system and your dedicated advisor is gonna walk you through that and here's exactly what you can expect that each step away.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: And so all the sudden it's not diminishing the advisor as much as it's elevating the experience and that the expectation of services to come and that's been really helpful, so that there's there's less of a let down of I thought I was working with James and now it's Can amazing advisor.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: But just it's not James.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Now it's working with route and I'm gonna Sequoia system and whoever I'm working with has been trained by route.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: Route is uniquely qualified to be able to take me through this, to Help me get the most out of life with my money, which is our promise to our clients.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Man, that makes me so excited.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I got fired up about the Sequoia system as you're sitting there talking about it.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, I mean it is cool and I think that some people would call you crazy for building this because it's like you know, some people can imagine doing anything outside, like the solopreneur, and then some are like, once I reach the boutique level, I'm gonna be really happy.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: But you said, build an enterprise, was that?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Is that actually what you're trying to do?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Do you want it to be A massive company or do you want to say the boutique size or what is that?
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Because if you do decide to go the enterprise route, he might be the first one Peter ever on the show.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: That's like I'm doing the enterprise route, so it's, it's fascinating to me, but is that?
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Is that the right or the path you're going down?
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: The way I think about it is it's less about we want to hit a billion in a U M or ten billion or a hundred billion, and it's more about we love, I love growth, we love growth and the more we grow, the more lives we can touch and a really positive, impactful, transformational way.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: But you know we talk about guardrails a lot in terms of planning and investments and how we implement that.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: The guardrails we have on our growth is number one.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Like I want every single team member at root To wake up and kind of a forget who said it first.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: I heard someone say like beyond the balls, their feet, like I can't wait to come to work, I can't wait to do this, I can't wait to be able to do the work.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I do, like everyone, love what they get to do.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Number two, regardless of we have a hundred clients, five hundred clients, ten thousand clients is every single client feel like they're one of twenty five people.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: That works because the intimacy of the experience they get, because the person eyes, attention they get If we can control for those two things is guardrail, since I want to grow as much as we possibly can Without ever sacrificing one and two, so maybe that's Twenty percent a year.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Maybe that's eighty percent per year.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Obviously it's gonna be different some years over the others, but this year I think we've been able to do that really well.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: We started the year with Hundred and seventy ish million and assets were up above two fifty now.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: So it's it's it's working now.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: But they get creating these challenges, the challenges of okay, how do we keep doing this?
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Because the faster you grow, the more the weaknesses in the system are revealed.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: So it's Pat and refining and rebuild some foundation as you go.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the never ending game.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I mean I absolutely love hearing All the little tidbits here in your business acumen.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I mean who you know like, who are you listening to?
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: You know like, maybe, who are some mentors or like what's a good lesson that you've had?
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: That's kinda guiding you along this journey of building route.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no-transcript.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: A lot, I would say, aren't necessarily.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: There's some in the industry for sure, like off top of my head okay, if you wanted planning stuff, who better than Michael Kitzitz to learn from, obviously, but that's not necessarily you could be the best planner in the world.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: That's not going to grow a business for you.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I think Jason Wink and Al Trist is obviously someone that just thinks way differently than anyone else in the industry and I think just listening to him has taught me a ton about how to think about business and entrepreneurship and scaling and even building and team culture and all that stuff.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: And this isn't knock against the industry as much as Maybe it is.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Our industry is not that forward thinking in terms of how we market, how we grow businesses, how we think about team building.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: The reality of our industry is you could be a very average person, average advisor, make a lot of money and not do very much work.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: So the incentive to drive and build and create excellence maybe isn't super high in some cases because I can just get here and coast and so it's.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: There's not a lot of industries that can happen, but I think it doesn't lead to a huge amount of innovation because it's man, I got my 100 clients.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: I got my 150 clients.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: I'm making crazy.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Why would I try to work harder, grind more, deal with the frustrations and the things that aren't working how I want them to Other industries, other people, other thought leaders?
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I think you have just a lot to glean from, even if it's not specific to financial advice, so I don't know any of the top of my head.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: I listen a lot to.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: It's everything from the Tim Ferriss's to the Michael Hyatt's to Gosh shoot.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: There's not one single person as much, as I'm just always looking at what's out there, other people who are being interviewed and what lessons can be learned and can we apply those to our business.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I think that's a fair point and I think you got to get outside your comfort.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Peter challenged me one time we had been reading a few books.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: You're going back and forth.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: We got to do the lean startup and then we realized a lot of those ideas in there and things that we were learning about were things that we were actively doing for like, okay, that's cool, and then it applies to different things and then, on top of that there's a label for it.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Right, there's a label for it.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: You know what they call it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: And, on top of that, like I like mindfulness books, think like a monk, jay Shetty, essentialism, greg McCann.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: It's not necessarily in the insurance industry or the finance industry, but it challenges the way that you think and it helps you grow in different ways.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: And I mean I think that's one of the true key things when it comes to a successful person or a person that's going to keep growing, is your ability and your willingness and your wanting to learn from other people, other industries and other things.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: So I think that's cool.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Man, is there anything before you came on here other than, if you're looking for a place to be and call home, root could be a great place?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that you want to make sure that we touched on when you were coming on the show, man?
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: I mean I just wanted to add value in whatever way I could.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: I know you guys are doing an awesome service with what you're doing on the insurance and supporting advisors with this podcast.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: I think podcasts in general are hugely like.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: I listen to a ton.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I know your listeners obviously listen to podcasts, otherwise they wouldn't be hearing this.
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: But yeah, just whatever you think your listeners would find value in my piece was yeah, if you want to go start a firm, do these awesome.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Like there's a lot of cool resources out there and I think that's a wonderful thing to want to do.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: It's also hard thing to do and I think that doesn't get touched upon enough.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: If you're at a firm where you feel underappreciated or your career path is stagnant or you just don't enjoy it or you feel like there's more than this, check out Root, you know, dm me, shoot me a message.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: We're hiring and we're more interested in the right people and the best people, like if you're an awesome planner, have an awesome skill set or whatever.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: It is just awesome things you could contribute.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: Let's chat.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, and we'll make sure to put that in the show notes too.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: So we'll put links to.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: I'll put your social media up, your LinkedIn.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: You tell me what you're comfortable to share when we're not on air, but we'll make sure that people have access.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you Awesome.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Well, James, thanks so much for coming on and sharing.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it and wish you much success.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Thank you both for having me.