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#173 - The Personal CFO Approach: Financial Planning for Business Owners with Seth Shepherd · Only Fee-Only

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: How's it going, everyone?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the OnlyFeoling podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: And as always, thanks for being here.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're joined by Seth Shepard of Pillar Wealth in Franklin, Indiana.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Seth shares his journey from Charles Schwab to building a fee-only firm focused on business owners.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about his team's approach to serving as a personal CFO, building strong referral relationships, and growing intentionally while keeping client service at the center.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Hope you enjoyed this conversation.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: We sure did.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Here is Seth Shepherd on the OnlyFe-only Podcast.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, how's it going, everyone?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only Podcast.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Peter Chiravolo.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here with my co-host, Brock Buckles.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are so excited to have Seth Shepherd on, joining us here today from Pillar Wealth.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he's based out of Indiana.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Really excited to have him on and share how he is serving his clients.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, Seth, welcome to the show, man.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for having me on, guys.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh congratulations on six years, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, man.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a little over, which is unbelievable to think about.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, another Indiana business shining through.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Go Hoosiers.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Go Hoosiers.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Go Hoosiers.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so for those who don't know who you are, Seth, you want to give a quick kind of elevator spiel before we dive into things?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Peter.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Yep, Seth Shepherd, married to my wife Alyssa.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have two kids.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Rose is five, Elias is two, and then we have our third, a little girl on the way, literally any day now.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, could be could be any hour now.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we're excited to meet her soon.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's fantastic, man.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were talking just for everybody listening.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this may or may not be the final recording because if he gets two calls in a row from his wife, it is go time and we are ending the recording quickly.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is, yeah.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So congratulations, man.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's fantastic.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I'm sure it's gonna everything's gonna be great.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: So wish you guys the best with that.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um so so getting into it, man, like how did you even like figure out what you want to do?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like a little bit of background, like where you're from growing up.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Did you know you wanted to be a financial planner?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's uh that's a great question.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: My um, I'm from Florida and moved to Indiana to finish up school at the Kelly School at IU.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I got married really young.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was 21, and my wife was starting grad school as a as a physician assistant, so I needed to make some money and put food on the table after I graduated.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so out of college, I I knew I wanted to be in the people business, but I was really open, open to ideas.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a friend of mine was at Schwab and said, hey, they'll hire anybody with a pulse right now.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I had a pulse.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I applied and and got a job and uh worked there as a high net worth broker for a year and a half.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I supported clients in New York, which was a great way to cut my teeth, uh, working with New York-based clients, you know, million plus, um, had a lot of favor with bosses, worked really hard and worked my way into the downtown Indianapolis branch where I became an associate and then a financial consultant.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I did that for five or six years.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I managed a book of about 300 households and counting.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, great way to learn.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Schwab is a great place to kind of understand the industry to get licensed up.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, so I'm I'm thrilled, thrilled that I had that experience.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Were you on you say the high net worth brokerage?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what's referred to as the uh pinnacle team over there?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I think they've changed the name, but that's uh I was on the pinnacle team for a year and a half.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool, man.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: I had to ask because I had a I had a buddy, like seemingly everybody from my college left and was like, we're gonna all go work at Charles Schwab together.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, all 11 of you?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: They were like, uh-huh.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um they all had pulses, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: They all had pulses.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I remember, yeah, one of one of my really good friends, he was on the pinnacle team.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: So when you say that, I was like, I had to check.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so anyway, you're there, you do the you do the associate advisor, you do the FC thing.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: What is like that moment where you're like, I think I want to go do my own thing?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's something to this.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of advisors have like a tipping point where they listen to like a kits episode, or they're just like, eh, I don't really like how things are going around here.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe not like it's necessarily bad.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's just more of a corporate structure.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, what was that like aha moment, if you will?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it was it was a few things.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I mentioned I had 300 households at Schwab.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the model.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: I call it a lot.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not, it's not wrong, but it's it's I call it the target kind of target or Walmart of financial services.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is is to scale your practice and vector clients to the appropriate party.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I had 300 households, if a client had an in-depth planning question, and it could be something like Roth Conversions, uh, which is something that we do, you know, in our sleep now at Pillar.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if a client had a Roth conversion question, I would refer them to a fee-only uh registered investment advisor on the Schwab Advisor Network.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I would sit in with those meetings, in those meetings with with my clients, and I'd say, man, there's so much more to financial advice than than product sales or than just managing a relationship and being a relationship manager.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's a lot of exciting and um compelling and challenging work that can be done for clients.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that was where I first got a taste of the other side of the industry, which is fee-only wealth management.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's that's what kind of teased me.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, you know, it really, really was spiritual.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I prayed a lot about the decision to kind of start my own firm.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I live in Franklin, Indiana, and really had a desire to work here as well.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so after seeking counsel from a number of people who have started businesses, one of them is actually my my current business partner, Kevin.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I decided, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start this firm, but I'm also gonna need help with it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why Kevin, Kevin is a partner in Wyatt as well.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about that.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: How did you find your founding team, your other partners?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Kevin, Kevin uh is a is a real good friend of mine.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I met him when I moved to Indiana um about 11 years ago.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he's one of one of three trusted friends that I approached when I was thinking about starting just a solo lifestyle practice in Franklin.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Franklin doesn't have, or it does now because of Pillar, but at the time didn't have a fee-only wealth management firm.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was a there's a market for it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had a I had a desire to to start a more boutique firm for a small group of households.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I approached Kevin about the idea.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and funny, quick aside, we were on our way to an IU basketball game, and it was the game that Kurt Signetti came out on the floor and said Purdue sucks.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So does Ohio State.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's so cool.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's so cool that we were there for that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But uh looking back, it's funny that we kind of birthed the idea for the team at Pillar when the IU dynasty got birthed.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But all that to say, um, yeah, I approached him about it.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, hey, I think I think this will work, but you're gonna need help from someone like me.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin's an entrepreneur, he's a real estate investor, he started and sold a handful of successful businesses.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you you can be a really good financial advisor, Seth, or wealth advisor, but you don't know how to run a business.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he's right, I don't.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um Kevin really came on board initially to help me get the business off the ground.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Wyatt joined shortly thereafter, and we realized that we had a really unique team in place.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I understand, I'm a CFP, Wyatt's a CFP.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We understand tax planning and strategy for business owners and estate planning and investment management and wealth management.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin is kind of the anti-advisor, right?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's the entrepreneur and the real estate investor.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: He had to get it, he had to get a 65 when we when we launched the firm.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So he he adds a really unique perspective that allows us to work with business owners exclusively.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So clients get the whole team when they work with us.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's kind of how the team came together and why we carved out a niche working with high, high-performing, complex business owners.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now you've mentioned Franklin, Indiana, and you're passionate about it.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And for those who don't know, I mean, what is the population of Franklin?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it's like 20,000.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's a smaller town.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Small town.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, what's your marketing strategy?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, you continue to say high income earners.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: So are you finding people in that area?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or kind of what's been your go-to-market strategy the last few years if you've as you've been building Pillar?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we'd love, we'd love to work with business owners in Franklin, but um, but it is a smaller market.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we've we work with clients all over the state.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have a client, you know, in out of state as well.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um we're not, we're not um, you know, we're we're location agnostic.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that said, our go-to-market strategy, because we're so niche and because we're we're so unique, really not just in Franklin, but also I'd say, you know, our model is unique in central Indiana and across the state.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: We we feel like it allows us to go to individuals or business owners who might be a good fit and just say, hey, here's uh here's what we're building.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: We think you could be a good fit.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's have a conversation.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: At best, there's a mutual fit.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be the right fit for us, we're gonna be the right fit for you.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: At worst, we have a conversation and you leave knowing about us, and we're also gonna be able to speak into your situation.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a win-win to have that conversation.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, because of who we are and how we market and how um kind of unashamed we are in in our marketing strategy with who we work with, it it gives us a seat at the table more often than not with those, with those individuals.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then we did we did the COI approach, right?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Center of influence.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we, you know, if a CPA or an estate attorney or a real estate or or business advisor has the ear of our clients, we we invested in those relationships just to um to form a partnership there.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then early on as well, you asked how we how we kind of went to market.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Early on, all you have is time when you're working with clients because you're growing your firm and you're growing your practice.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we over-delivered for those, for those initial clients so that they became kind of raving fans of the firm and and word of mouth starts to spread.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And when you say overdeliver, like what are maybe some things where looking back, you're like, holy cow, you know, we really overextended, or hey, you know, we can't recreate that every time.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's that's that's an interesting way, because I would say we still overdeliver.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're at you know around 50 clients now.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're halfway to our halfway to our goal.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think that's that's kind of a cop-out answer.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But because of how, because of it's a team of three serving one client, we're really able to be ultra high touch, ultra white glove.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um to put some meat on the bones.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we do we do quarterly, quarterly reviews for those clients.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: We do annual reviews.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: When they call, we get back to them well within 24 hours.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's typically within an hour or two.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, there it's just, you know, we want to make sure that our clients know they can reach us.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I feel like that's you guys are at a huge advantage there because, like, like you said, I like that you guys are reaching out and being proactive and having COIs and having those conversations, first and foremost.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't want to skip over that because there are so many advisors out there listening.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, what do I do to get more clients?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do I need to, like, how do I have these conversations?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you just you need to reach out and you need to start having conversations, right?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, that is step number one.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Peter and I always talk about like you can sit there in your chair working on your website, doing all of these different things, and if and have all this knowledge in your head, but if you're never meeting with anybody, none of it even matters, right?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I love the conviction that you have behind that and to be able to say, hey, we're really confident in our service offering and what we do.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And best case scenario, it's a mutual fit.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Worst case scenario, like, we're gonna have something for you, right?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then like sitting down and having that conversation, then you guys take that a step further by being able to deliver because you've got three people that are all high touch experts at what they do, talking to one person.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I would imagine a lot of people get up from meeting with you guys and are like, ah, I feel like my shoulders are a little lighter.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like that was really good.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin has a cheesy analogy uh that we've that we've really embraced, but he he calls our team the band, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: When when a potential client or a client meets with us, there's so much synergy happening.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: We all know our roles, you know, we know what to pick up and when to start, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's that band feel.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I might be playing, playing lead one day and Kevin's playing drums or vice versa, right?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, I think I think it's it's contagious when when a client comes into a meeting and there's you know, there's two or three of us at the table, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a big advantage that we have that I'm super, super thankful for because it's so much bigger than bigger than I imagined it would be when I when I decided to leave Schwab.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, you know, having a few uh different sets of eyes on something is always like nice or you know, peace of mind too, right?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because like, you know, you might get this double ring here at any point, right?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's nice to know that you have a team that you can, you know, that you and your clients can rely upon as well, too.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the double ring why it, you know, why it's upstairs, he can come down and finish out the podcast for us here.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Tap them in.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: I love them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: So when you bring people kind of like when you bring people into your uh like ecosystem, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like, welcome to Pillar Wealth, right?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: What are what is kind of the first obviously you got to make sure it's a right fit.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I would imagine you're having like a discovery call or meeting with them at the office or whatever it might be.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but walk us through what that process is because we've kind of found with different firms it can be it can be really different.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's typically for us, it can be anywhere from two to three conversations with a potential client before before they sign and before they become a client.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we we like to have an initial, typically it's they've reached out, it's a phone call or on the website, or we've reached out to them, just a five, 10 minute outreach.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then we'll have them and and if they have a spouse, they're spouse in for what we call a purpose meeting.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's the discovery meeting.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's where we're we're trying to zoom out to really 30,000 feet and not just ask about financial goals, but what is your purpose?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you tick?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: What brings you joy and energy?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because we can't give good advice until we understand what brings our clients joy and what they're what they want to get out of their money.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because money's ultimately just a tool, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that we can leverage to accomplish that.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the the second meeting or second interaction.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: The third is we gather, we gather a handful of documents.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is not too dissimilar from what I'm sure a lot of your your guests do, but we gather and collect documents and we we put that into our into our ecosystem and into our software, and we were able to find you know gaps that the client might have on their tax return or their investments or their PL or their balance sheet or cash flow statement.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um once there, then they become then they become clients, right?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's then it's collecting even more information from the client, you know, additional documents.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um once they're fully onboarded, then I mentioned the quarterly, quarterly reviews, right?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: They get a quarterly, we're doing what are called quarterly audits, and audits kind of has a negative connotation in financial services, but we're auditing, we're auditing their net worth for them every quarter without them having to be a part of that conversation, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our business owners are busy by nature, entrepreneurs are busy.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we don't ask them to meet with us quarterly, we can, but we want them to know hey, we're we're going to do a deep dive of your financial situation and your net worth every quarter, and we're going to summarize it for you and let you know.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's a that's a promise that they get.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um they can reach out to us at any point in time.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we'll we'll call back typically within an hour or two if we don't pick up the phone.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we do we do kind of an in-depth annual review with them where we're looking at tax planning strategies, business exit strategies, estate planning insurance, right?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Insurance planning.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um then finally we're we're um we're kind of engaging with their tax advisors and with their state attorneys and coordinating that for them.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so they don't have to be at the table.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: If they've given us permission to have that relationship with their tax advisor or with their attorney, um, we're able to go to bat for them and kind of be the be be the client in the room for those for those specialists.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Did I answer your question?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think thoroughly.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was really good.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that was fantastic.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and you guys, are you guys exclusively to market?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Are you is it basically like COIs people that you know?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how are you guys using social media?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like how how has that all looked for you all?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we we're you mentioned COIs.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we definitely hit the local, you know, CPA and a state attorney market pretty hard early on.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we have relationships with with tax advisors and estate attorneys all over the state.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um we also did and have used social media quite a bit.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um it hasn't been a massive, you know, client or revenue generator for us, but but it's added credibility and it's added exposure.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we have we do videos every week that we that we post to to LinkedIn called Question of the Week.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we can send those videos off to clients or potential clients if they have questions about one of the questions that we've answered.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we use it as a as a marketing tool and as a credibility and exposure piece.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um the idea is just to let to let clients know that hey, Pillar, Pillar is a lot bigger than just than just Seth.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's bigger than Wyatt, it's bigger than Kevin, right?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's an ecosystem and a brand that you get to become a part of um if you if you work with us.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, the social, I'll tell you, it only works more the longer you're in business.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Brock and I joke around.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, I hate to say the sales cycle, but there's some people we just came back from XY Planning Network, and there's some people like, hey man, you're the reason why I went fee only.
• 18:06
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we're like, holy cow.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you were at Northwestern Mutual when you listened to us, listened to this podcast, got lost in some kits article, you know, you know, ran down some rabbit hole, fine, you know, got your stuff together, left your job, now you started your firm, and somehow three, four years later, we were now meeting you in person.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's crazy sometimes.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: So the social media does really work.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: It really does.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the combo work.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, piggyback off that.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was blown away.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody came up and was like, hey man, I went fee only because of the only fee only podcast.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Well, you can thank Peter for that.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because in the beginning, I was like, I don't know if we should do a podcast, and then we are 70 episodes later or whatever, and it's just been a great decision.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: So kudos to the code.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about the such a cool impact though that you guys have on encouraging someone like that to to make the leap to fee only.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty sweet.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's been cool.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like obviously, you know our background, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like coming from a big insurance company where we were like, ooh, this feels gross.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we don't really want to be doing this anymore.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so yeah, it's it's so cool to be at conferences like that and talk to people like you and um be able to have those conversations.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: So um what it's looking forward, man, that with this podcast is about you, Seth.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we got to get back to you.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so like looking forward and what you guys are building and what you're trying to do, what is the goal?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is the goal eventually?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: I know you said you're like halfway to the clients that you want, but are you guys gonna keep it at, you know, kind of three?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Do you plan to expand?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Are we gonna go, you know, nationwide and try to do the crazy SEC registration thing one day?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like what do you guys want to do eventually with it?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, another, another good question.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Kevin, Kevin leads kind of the vision casting for the firm, which again, I'm thankful for.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: That allows me to focus on being being a CFP and a and a wealth manager.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I think we we will, whatever we do, regardless of what we do, we will not sacrifice the work that we're doing for our initial clients.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if we make a hire, which we will in the next six to 24 months, we'll hire someone.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're excited about that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But if we do, it'll be through the lens of um, you know, how how will this hire help us support and fulfill the existing clients that we have and the other clients that we bring on.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so Brock, you meant you mentioned, I mentioned we're about halfway there.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we our goal is to have 111 clients.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's what we feel like as a team of three, we can support at the personal CFO level.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I I don't I don't think that we can do what we're doing at the national level.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're our team is our team is too unique.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't hire three of us again.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: If if we if we did, it'd be really, really tough.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna have to stay boutique.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know exactly what it'll look like, but it'll stay boutique and we won't sacrifice um growth for for client service.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: I love that because the culture, not to interrupt you, Pete, but I the I I love that because culture is so important.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is one of the things that Peter and I have talked about a million times.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like no matter how big the team gets, how many advisors we're working with, what we're doing, we can never sacrifice the culture and the intentionality and the way that people feel when they work with BC Brokerage, which I hope is really good.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I I love that I love that you said that because I think that should be such an important thing to focus on.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's easy to it's easy to um to chase growth for the sake of growth and forget why you why you started in the industry or why you started the firm in the first place.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, for sure.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: And with growth, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you don't just have to have bodies for growth, right?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, you have bodies, now you have more mouths to feed.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, was it worth adding that person?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Are you any more profitable?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, there are a lot of considerations that occur.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um when trying to expand.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and growth, yeah, sorry to interrupt, but growth growth can also look like expanding, you know, the services that you offer for your for your current clients.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be adding another client.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It can look like adding kind of a tertiary service, which we're which we've we've we've been doing over the last year.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: But can you can you make your current offer um even more valuable to your existing clients?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be just as challenging and just as exciting as adding another team of advisors and more fulfilling potentially.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: More services, you know, and then just upgrading your product, right?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you congratulated us for the you know six, seven years in business in the beginning, right?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, you know, I feel like we're going through phase three or four of the business, you know, just of you know, upgraded website or another upgrade in the CRM or you know, whatever it might be.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: And to the advisor, they might not even see or care about it, right?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: But on the back end, you know, we feel like you know, we just moved mountains.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're turning out back here to buy the CRM stuff going on.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we we feel it.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, your portal's great.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're you know, we we feel it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: So no, stay tuned on that because it comes out, it's probably gonna be better.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um no.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: My question, one of my last questions was kind of was like, you know, as a firm owner and in 2026, like maybe, you know, what are some shiny objects or technology or AI that like you're using to maybe be more efficient or to you know to make sure that you're staying front of mind with your client?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's uh we we are we're always looking to push the envelope with with uh with technology.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um but at the same time, we don't want to add something to our tech stack or our technology offered just because it's shiny, right?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: We want it to add value for for our client.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so AI has been a really powerful tool that we that we've started to use um just in analysis.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a great, it's a great thought partner.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um about a year ago, this is it's been a little while now, but we were using a traditional CRM for our clients, and there was nothing wrong with it.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's what I used when I was at Schwab, and I think it's probably what 90, 90% plus of advisors use for their clients.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: But we made the switch to a project management software.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So our clients had enough going on that a that a you know, a traditional CRM just wasn't going to cut it.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: We weren't able to manage the client the way that we felt like we needed to.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we switched to a project management software so that if a client has five, six, maybe 10 different open items happening at once, we're able to see it all and coordinate it for them and implement it and execute it for them within with that software.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um AI, project management software as our CRM.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um those are the two, those are the two big things.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I think leveraging AI has been a great way to streamline the the existing tech stack that we have and actually simplify.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd kind of reverse engineer your question.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great question, but I'm like, what can we get rid of now?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like can we uh can we make things even easier and even even more simple?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: Don't let people overthink it, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, because it can get to be too much.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like if if you're the you're the jack of all trades, master of none, that starts to feel the clients like, okay, but what are we focusing on?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I thought we were gonna talk about, but you know, it's like, all right, we need to actually get somewhere with this, right?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, the other one also is like with AI, like somebody is recently was like, oh, like, are you scared AI is gonna take over your business?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, it's the same question for everybody, but I'm like, yeah, like it can answer your questions for insurance.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, you should see how dangerous it is when I'm using it for insurance.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's no different, right?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, you can like use it as your financial planner, but like you should see how dangerous it is, you know, when you have somebody with years of experience across multiple different lines, and they're using it too, you know.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not going anywhere anytime soon.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, and the the it's it's been said ad nauseum, but the human element, it it just will not go away.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't I don't care what people say.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: You still want someone to check it.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you want someone to check it, but even even just face to face, you know, people want to talk to to a human.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: They want they want that expert um guidance in the room and that thought partnership.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we sit with we're super blessed that we don't just help with you know everything our client, every every dollar that excuse me, we don't just help with um our clients' money, we also help with some of their you know biggest life, life um I lost my parent of thought.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are gonna have to edit this one out.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you're good, man.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, we we we don't just help with money issues, we also get to sit in the room with clients through some of the heaviest moments in life, like widows who have lost their husbands or you know, people who've lost who've lost children or you know, having marital issues, then that that is something that AI cannot do, right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: So people at the end of the day still want to talk to people.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's just a fact, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And there will always be that.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, does AI make me feel like the Terminator movies are a little bit more realistic?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, but uh we're not gonna no.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: I I think it'll be a good thing, and I think that people that are using it for the right reasons um are gonna be in a good spot, and people that are integrating it into what they're doing are gonna continue to succeed.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Do I think it's an inevitability that like it's gonna become more and more a part of our lives 100%?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do I think it's gonna replace us?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: No, and I certainly hope not.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so no, good good advice there, man.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, last question, like for anybody out there that is like, man, if I could learn one thing from Seth, what would it be?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: What would you what would you say to him?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: One thing, I could give him like 15 things.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll I'll I'll say I'll say two things.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've I've talked a lot about the team that that we have.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even if even if you're starting a a solo or a lifestyle practice, make sure that you have resources that you can lean on, like like insurance experts at BC, or find, find a tax advisor or an estate advisor that you have a really good relationship with so that when something comes up, you can go to them.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So have have a team that's at your disposal that you can go to.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second, the second piece of advice I would give, which is something that I really struggled with early on and still do at times, is don't be afraid to say no.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time you say yes, you're saying no to something else, right?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Time is a limited resource.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so don't be afraid to say no.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Seth, thank you so much for your time today.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for those who might want to reach out or learn more about Pillar Wealth, what's the best way to?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're on we're on LinkedIn quite a bit.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can find me there at Seth Shepard.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a we have a company LinkedIn as well, Pillar Wealth.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then our website is pillarw.com, P-I-L-L-A-R-W.com.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can find myself, Kevin Wyatt, there as well.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Seth, thank you so much for your time today.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh congratulations on number three coming very shortly.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I didn't get the two calls from my wife.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we made it.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: All right, 42 minutes.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: We made it smoothly.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: We made it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 29:39
  unknown: Thanks.