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#96 - Heartfelt Insights into Financial Advisory - Brenna Baucum · Only Fee-Only

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Only Fee Only podcast.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: We have Brenna Bauckham today on the show and she is such an awesome, genuine human being.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Her idea for collective wealth was inspired by values instilled by family members and she just has such a cool story and a cool way of looking at life and her practice and her purpose and what it all means and the way that she puts it all together and it was a really, really great conversation.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I thoroughly enjoyed and I know Pete did as well listening to it and how, you know, these different things from childhood and these memories inspired her to start her practice and really be a part of that.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: And she also talks about the behavioral side, as she was the director of education and communication at Money Quotient.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So absolutely phenomenal conversation.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Enjoy this episode of the Only Fee Only podcast with Brenna Bauckham.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Phenomenal conversation.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Enjoy this episode of the Only Fee Only podcast with Brenna Bauckham.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: What's up everyone?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I'm Peter Travalo.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I'm here with my co-host, Brock Buckles.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: How's it going today, Brock?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It's good man.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I'm excited for this one.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I'm pumped, it's a good day.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Likewise Very excited as we are inching near episode 100 for the podcast series.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So very excited.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: But today we have Brenna Baukaman from Collective Wealth Planning Very excited to have her on and share her story today.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: So, Brenna, welcome to the show.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I've been looking forward to this all week.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Awesome, we have too.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: So for those who don't know who you are, you want to give a quick overview of who you are and who you're currently helping.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, sure, I have been in this industry for over a decade now, which is kind of wild and hard to believe.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I founded my practice, collective Wealth Planning, and launched in January of 2023.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: And I'm here in Salem, oregon.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: This is such a beautiful city and we happen to be the state capitol, and so part of being here in the state capitol means there's a lot of public employees here in this city, and I chose that as my niche, so I serve Oregon public employees.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: We have one of the most complicated, the second most complicated retirement system in the United States pension system and so we only have one for our entire state.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: So usually states have one for teachers, one for firefighters, police, those kind of things.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: We just have one big melting pot, and so that to me felt like a really great focus to have and create resources really specific to that niche.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So I serve Oregon public employees and retirees.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I am I love working with an older demographic, which I think puts me at on the outside of most of my colleagues who are in their early 40s, like I am, but what I've found is that I have enough gray hairs to be trusted by some of the individuals in my target demographic, but they don't have to worry about me retiring anytime soon.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: So a lot of them are losing their doctors and their dentists and other people they've been with forever because they're retiring.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: It's of great benefit to have a little bit of youth on my side and working with this demographic, because they know there's going to be continuity there.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: So, and I think the other thing I would add is just being a part of Salem and then being a part of this community is a huge part of my life.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: It's how I show up in the world and it's also how I practice.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: So being involved in Salem, giving back to Salem and receiving from Salem is a big piece for me.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Probably going to be a theme I bet through this conversation is community generally.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm glad you brought that up, because one of the things I thought was so cool is the story of how you founded your practice and the fact that today would have been your grandma's 95th birthday, right, and that was a huge part of the reason behind your practice and the collective wealth and the idea.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: So go into that, because I watched the video before we got on here and I just thought, man, what a cool story and what an amazing inspiration and how appropriate that you get to tell it on the day that she would have been 95 years old.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: I know it's so meaningful to be here and to share that today.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, my grandmother, barbara and I always called her Grams it was my nickname for her she and my grandfather were such wonderful examples of how to align your resources not just money, but time and energy too with what you care about.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: And for them, what they cared about was family, full stop.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: It was family, and the way that they lived their lives, the way that they spent those resources, all helped to support that value.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: And I knew that as a child.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I knew that growing up and then, when I was with my grandmother at her passing five years ago, I got to be with her in her dying, which lived her life and the way my grandfather did, and my job and seeing there is connection here.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: There is, at its best, money as a tool to support the things we care about, and they did a great job of doing that and I thought there's got to be a way I can get better at helping my client families lead lives like that, and then I want to lead a life like that too, right?
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, all of those things kind of came together to support what I identify as the collective wealth of each other, of our families, of us as human beings.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: The more that we are supporting our resources in a way that aligns with who we are and what we care about, the better we're all going to be.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: So, like what were some of those examples of alignment with you know money and supporting family?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Like what were some actions that you saw that were like wow, you know, really stood out?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: It was small things from being very thoughtful and fair about.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I'm remembering some Christmases where we all got the same number of gifts and there was some fairness to it, right.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was traveling.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Our family grew up in Southern California and when we moved up to Southern Oregon, they're coming up to see us or having us come down.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: My grandfather this is a cool story.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: He was really.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: He did a, he was a woodworker and he had each one of his grandkids come down for a summer and build a big project, and so I got to spend a whole summer when I was 13 or 14 with my grandfather building a hope chest that I still have to this day.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: It's in the other room over here Wow.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: So things like that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: And then from when I think from a financial perspective, on their 50th wedding anniversary they took our whole family on a seven day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands yeah, which is a very privileged and wonderful gift that we had, and part of that was all of the girl cousins get to stay together in a room, all the boy cousins it was.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: They were utilizing their funds to help us stay connected and get more deeply connected.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: So yeah, just really special people.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that's such a powerful thing.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Like, when I think about it, I've had that conversation with my parents and you know, there's always the leave money behind and we want to do this for you.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I'm like, please enjoy your retirement and like, bring the family together and let's do things, let's do trips, like let's enjoy that, because I want to enjoy it while you're here, while we're all together, Right, and so that's such an important thing and what a cool experience that you guys all were able to do that.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I think having a purpose like you have, and having a story behind it and truly having that conviction and belief around why you do what you do has to be an integral part of just how you feel about the work that you do on a daily basis.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: You have to feel that strongly every day, right?
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I think most of the advisors I know who love what they do have a strong drive to stay authentic and to be intentional, and one of the beautiful things about running your own practice is you can do that in the way that feels best right, and so that I think is has been such a big piece and a driver for me in in this journey on on my own, certainly.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's well said.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: So you had all these experiences growing up and seeing money, but like when did you kind of start seeing, getting into the financial services space and how did you find your path?
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: You know the fee only landscape and eventually your own firm.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, lots of questions in there.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: So I started my first I.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: My first career first eight years or so of my professional career was in video production.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: I went to school for journalism and electronic media and so in that time I was putting together a lot of nonprofit videos for fundraisers, fundraising events, for people to kind of share their story, and one of those videos had a board of directors that was chaired by someone who owned an independent RIA here in Salem.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: His name was Ron Kellerman and he just he and I just connected in that project and stayed connected.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: He serves as a mentor for a lot of individuals here in Salem still does and over the years he was so generous to throw my name into the hat for various opportunities and one of those was to go to India for a month through Rotary, through a group study exchange, yeah, and I was very fortunate to be selected for that along with four other individuals.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: So Ron was kind of our group leader and there's no better way to get to know somebody than traveling abroad with them for a month and you get to know every part of of someone's personality in that way.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: For better or worse right, yeah, and especially in a country like India I love India and it is I joke that it's an assault on all your senses, like your sight, what you're seeing, what you're smelling, what you're hearing everything is so, so different.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: So it was beautiful.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Anyway, after that trip, a couple of years later, he said hey, brenna, we're our firm's looking to hire a new advisor.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: We're looking for somebody kind of like you, but you know, who's interested in finances?
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: And and I said I gave him a few names and I said, well, do you have to have a finance degree?
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: And he said I didn't know why.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: And we kind of went from there.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: So, um, he, I was so fortunate to be brought in from the beginning into a fee only firm.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: They put me through my series 65.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: I was with clients on day one in that firm and actually when I launched my own practice, one of the very first clients I had was that first meeting.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: She and her husband came to that first meeting and so when I first launched my practice they came over.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: It was such an affirming gift to have that happen and sort of this full circle feeling.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: But anyway, they were generous, putting me through my series 65, putting me through my CFP, I had a wonderful mentor, their advisor, named Mary way, and she was eternally generous with her time in sharing everything she knew with me and and it was wonderful.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine an organization, an industry, that's a better fit for my core values, which are growth and connection.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: This job gives me an opportunity to exercise those core values every single day, so it's been a really wonderful, wonderful path.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: So you made a brief stop at money quotient right After after you were at that firm and then eventually started your own.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: So what was that kind of journey like?
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And obviously you know we had Amy on and got to learn about what money quotient does, what their goal is, how to kind of empower advisors.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So what, what was that like?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: What'd you kind of learn along the way there before you kind of started your own firm?
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, in in 2020, I was with that other firm and I sat for the money quotient training, their fundamentals training, and it complete and this was shortly after grandma died and it completely opened my eyes to like, oh, this is the thing, this is what I was talking about, trying to connect those values with the money and my job, and even just talking about it right now, I'm getting kind of goosebumps of remembering how aha yeah yeah, it was incredible.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: So, um, so, and amy and I hit it off right away.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: She money quotient is based in portland, which is just 45 minutes away from me.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Uh, we stayed connected and in touch and then in the by the end of 2020.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Um, she was looking for some consulting work, so some stuff on the side, so I started working with them on a consulting basis while I was still at that former RIA, and that work got deeper and deeper, and once that fire's lit in what you're interested in, it just keeps going, and there were signs that it was time for me to move along from the RIA, and so I started moving full time into working with Money Quotient for a couple of years and really helping build some capacity there and do some process improvements things that were living in Amy's brain for a long time, but she didn't have the time to do.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Got to come in and partner with her on creating some of those things, which was wonderful.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: And that was my first time away from working with clients, though.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Right, I got to meet a ton of amazing advisors doing really cool things, which absolutely helped to inform my decisions when I started my own practice but I didn't know what it was going to be like to be away from clients and I missed it.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: I missed it a lot.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: I missed being able to use the technical problem solving skills and all of that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: So that was part of what drove me back to client facing work in this industry.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: So in that journey, when did you learn about XY Planning Network?
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah well, I'd been listening to your podcast and XY radio for years, even before I had left that RIA, and there was kind of an inkling in my mind of like, wow, the people are doing.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: People are doing things the way they want to do them.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: This is so neat, this is so great.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: And during my time at Money Quotient, I was meeting a lot of advisors who were running solo practices or small-ish practices, and almost all of them used XY to launch.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: And so when it came, when I had made the decision, kind of in early 2022, that I was going to start my own practice, I knew it was no doubt I was going to use XY to do that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just made sense, right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things where when we talk about x, y, I'm like just feels right, like even as a sponsor and like an exhibitor and someone that's not a feeling planner, but when you're there you just feel like everybody's together in this, everybody's encouraging.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, we've been to different conferences but we always talk about how x, y is our favorite conference because it just in a way feels like everybody's kind of coming home and hanging out for a week, you know, or like four days or whatever it is.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: So that's, that's really neat On top of the tech stack and all of that right is the sense of community that you get there and and how much everybody's encouraging to each other.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: And I always tell Peter this story.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: We've talked about it a million times.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I always tell Peter this story.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: We've talked about it a million times.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: But the first time I saw somebody in the XYPN Facebook group refer a client to someone else, especially coming from like the other side of the industry, I was like this exists, this is out there.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: People are giving each other clients that aren't the right fit for them.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, crazy Um yeah, it's like a belief in enough.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: Right, there's this.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: I think that's part of finding the right community within financial planning.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: It means believing in enough and knowing, oh, you're going to be a great client for somebody and I know right who to send you to.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: That, I think, is another really great benefit Amazing.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: So when you started your firm right, obviously you had been with another firm.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: There's already existing infrastructure.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: They were bringing somebody on, so you got to kind of plug into that and XY obviously does a fantastic job of equipping advisors with the tools that they need to get up and running and the compliance support and a sense of community.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: But you're still on your own.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: So what was that like to kind of get that up and running and talking to clients that you'd had before, like what was kind of going through your head and what were you feeling as you were starting that process?
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think there were a couple of smart decisions that I made early that really helped to lay the foundation, and one of those was hiring a financial advisor for myself.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: So I knew I wanted to do this.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: I really wanted it to work.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: I also know from having done this for as long as I have I can tweak the numbers and make it look doable.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: But I also had a bias, an internal bias, of how I wanted the results to show.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: So my husband and I worked with a financial advisor to walk us through what does it look like?
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: To leave that independent RIA was sort of the first decision.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: But then when we came back to talk again of, okay, if I go out on my own and I leave W-2 employment for the first time, this is a very nerve wracking feeling.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: So, um, so that that was a wonderful first decision.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: And then, once I decided I was going to start my practice in 22, I sought out the small business development center here in Salem and so America's small business development center.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: There are centers all over, probably in every town, and that was that is such a hidden gem.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: I was paired with a business advisor who helped me put together my business plan.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: So, despite having done this work for a very long time and being a great advisor, I didn't know how to run a business.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: So having somebody walk me through the essentials of what you need to create for a business plan, creating projections, creating all of those pieces I loved that experience and the side benefit that I didn't go into it expecting but what came from it was when it came time to sort of get closer and closer to again moving away from that W-2 employment.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I had had some money saved up.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I was planning to buy into the practice I was with previously.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: So I had that money already kind of set aside and I'd been there for a while and I was pretty darn comfortable seeing that number and the idea of not only leaving W-2, but then turning on the faucet of taking draws from that.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: I was talking with my business advisor about that and I said I just am really uncomfortable with that, I don't want to do that.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: And she said why don't you apply for a business loan?
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And I said that has never crossed my mind.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: And she said and it was just such a great distillation of what I talk with my clients about all the time Just because something makes sense on paper, hey, you have this money in savings, spend it on your first year or two of business.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: It doesn't mean it's right for you, right?
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: You got to also check in with your body and your how you're feeling about.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: It's not just a logical decision.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, so I did take out a business loan and she said, oh, you're the perfect person that they want to loan to because you have the money to pay it off right away.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: And what that's done in this first 18 months of my practice is it's allowed me to bifurcate those expenses.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: So when I'm making decisions around a new soft do I want to get Holista plan?
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Do I want to get whatever the new software is?
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: That's one decision that's somewhat separated.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: And then the other is when I want to start paying myself.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: That money is just coming in.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: It's not repaying me for something.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: There's a different mental accounting to that, I think, for all of us, particularly for me.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: So those are probably the top two smart things I felt like I sort of stumbled into at the beginning, in addition to picking a niche which we all know is important and can lead to just a smoother track.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It's also a perfect example of how things can be going on in your head, and sometimes it helps to have somebody else that's like have you thought about a business loan?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Right, it's like, it seems like, and I'm sure later on you were like, well, why am I not there?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Why did I not think about that?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Right, but it just, it's a thing, and and and I'm so debt averse.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: It doesn't surprise me that I wasn't so debt averse.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: It doesn't surprise me that I wasn't registering that.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: But I also I don't know just it turned out to be a perfect fit.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely an interesting concept.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: You know, I feel like it's something that's not taking advantage of as much as it should be.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean when you look at like like any business, right, and then in the services, like what we kind of do right, I mean it's a little bit easier to get up and running.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: You know it's not a capital intensive business.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: But when you look at the X, y, p and benchmark, you know one of the barriers to entry is that first year or two you know the bridge, you know and having the mental like fortitude or you know, really understanding what it's going to take to do it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: so yeah that's, uh, that's very interesting.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: We haven't heard it before, so congrats yeah, highly highly recommend yeah, so how has, like your xypn, like launch group, helped you um, you know, and kind of get into marketing and how you've built this thing- the XY Launcher Group that I was placed in.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: It just wasn't a cohesive fit.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: It felt like we were all kind of running in different directions and in different areas and I've heard some people just connect with them and love it and some don't.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: So what I did was reach out to a dear friend, rachel Lawrence, who was launching around the same time, and I said, rachel, my launcher group isn't quite a fit or we aren't staying connected.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I know you're launching on the same time.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Can we create something?
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: And we did so.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: We put together one, and so I have a mastermind group that I meet with biweekly through that Many of them are XY members.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: And then I also have another mastermind group that I meet with bi-weekly through through that, many of them are XY members.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: And then I also have another mastermind group that I meet with here locally.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: We do a once a year retreat with some of the, I think, people that you know and love, with Danica Waddell, and yeah, yeah.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: It's funny how many people you get to know Like it's so funny when we first started the company we were like.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I remember the first time that we showed up to an XYPN live and I was like we don't know anybody here, do you?
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Just?
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: We were excited to be there.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: We did know some people.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't like we didn't know anybody.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: But now it's so cool Cause you walk into the room and you're like what's up?
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: People Like you know, we know, like not I'd say a good, a good portion of it.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: So it is back to that thing where it's just such a cool community.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Um, so, like when you're in your practice, obviously there are things that you know, maybe you're good at, maybe you enjoy doing, maybe you don't enjoy doing it.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Like, are there things in the practice that you really love and then other things that you're like.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I really wish I could hand that off or not be doing it Like things that you enjoy less.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: It seems like you're a very, um, communication and relationship focused person.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Obviously.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: What are the parts that maybe you don't like as much?
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have a lit.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: I grabbed this.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: I my list of the things I'm trying to outsource eventually and and I'll, and when I look at what has the most on it, it's there's some.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: You know, I was really intentional at the beginning about creating processes, creating systems, knowing I would.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: And then it was kind of in my first six months before I officially launched I registered my business and then I launched in December or January, so I registered my business in like June.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: So I had six months there to just kind of fiddle and tweak and create, and part of that was was processes that work and now some of them need refining.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Refining Some of the things I know need to be refined and I know how to tweak them.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Some of them I don't right I you can only be an expert in so many things and so part of what's on my list is outsourcing some project based stuff like refining workflows, hooking up Zapier, like I don't know all of those things Right, like those kind of things that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: So that piece I want to operate more smoothly and take a little bit less time.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: And then the other piece is marketing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: So I know that the most effective marketing is going to be what's authentic and what comes from me, and that takes a lot of time.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: So trying to figure out how to streamline and maximize the time I'm spending doing those things and then outsource the stuff.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: That doesn't matter whether it's me or somebody obviously more well-equipped to do that.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: So I think those are the pieces.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: I like every advisor almost.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: I love meeting with clients.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: That's where I would love to spend most of my time.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: That's why I started a practice.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: But I also really like reconciling my books.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I think I really like it's the pulse of my business.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: It gives me information.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: So there's some things that I don't know that I would want to outsource because it keeps me really informed on what's going on in a way that I don't think it would be the same if I gave it to somebody else.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: If you weren't as involved.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, love it.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: So, with how you've built the firm and also just being in Salem like how have you been marketing to public employees and how have you found and grown within this niche?
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I had a real gift in having been a part of this community for many years, even before I got into financial services.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: So, like I said, I worked with a lot of organizations helping to make their videos very early on in my career.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: So I got to know a lot of movers and shakers, executive directors of various places, that kind of thing.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: I've been in Rotary forever and been served on nonprofit boards and kind of giving back in that way.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: So there's definitely something to that was part of what made me feel confident about being able to launch my own practice is knowing I had a community of people that I that knew me and knew.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: When you say, when you're signed up for some volunteer thing and you show up and you do what you say you're going to do, people think, oh wow, she probably does that with her work too.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Right, she probably does, she's probably good at that, and so the time when they're thinking I need an advisor, ideally my name comes to mind.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: So that's been relatively organic in that way and was part of the foundation of confidence.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: The other piece is just giving stuff away giving away information, being a resource for people, creating community events that are free, creating YouTube videos where I'm walking people through how to fill out an Oregon PERS retirement application, or here's how you make sense of all those survivorship pension benefit options that you have.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: That has never.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: I've never heard somebody who's done that and felt like, oh man, that never really work out because you're putting out good things, good energy and it eventually, if it's right, it'll come back, and so those, I think those have been the two big things, and the other piece was being very intentional about COI relationships.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: So I know there's a lot of advisors who struggle with this, and one of the just gifts that I had from having worked at that RIA for eight years was people knew how I worked with clients.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: People knew I was going to the estate planning meeting with my clients sitting there taking notes.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: I was having the CPA come into our meeting together to talk through proactive strategies of what we were going to do, and so when I launched my practice, I made a commitment that I was going to try to, once a month and I've been relatively successful at this once a month, have lunch with somebody, not necessarily because business will come from it, it might, but I also like getting to know people.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: I like to have a good referral base for my clients when they ask me who should I go to?
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: So I think those three elements were probably big pieces of connecting with my niche and making sure that I'm just out there.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things that you just said that's so relatable that I love so much is the giving stuff away for free and the doing things to kind of get out there.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: One of the craziest things and obviously it's happened more and more over the years but when I get on a Zoom call with an advisor or something and I might never have met them before and maybe they follow LinkedIn or they've been listening to the podcast and they say I feel like I've already known you, I've learned so much from your post and I'm like what and it's the craziest thing when it finally comes around full circle, because it's like you know, as an entrepreneur, as someone that spends time doing things, you're like is this even working?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Do people even care, especially in the beginning, and then you get that affirmation or that confirmation where it's like yeah, it is working and people do care and people are paying attention and people appreciate when you're intentional and you genuinely come from a place of wanting to help, and then you know they, they learn that's not just what you're doing that day, but that's actually who you are Right, which is a completely different thing.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Right, it's not.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: It's not a one-time thing.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: It reflects in all different aspects of your life.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: So I really I like that.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: You said that.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: I think the last part of what you said is especially important too is it has to be authentic.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: And it goes back to what we said earlier right, you can't, you know, don't, don't go out and join a bunch of social organizations or serve on boards because you think it's going to be good for business.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: That's so transparent, people see right through it and it's a turnoff.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: And so you know finding, I think, for any you know advisors who are considering or new to this industry, finding what's authentic to you.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: That's the ticket, not necessarily rotary or whatever, you know, whatever some of the things specifically, Hint, the person that is sitting at the table at your board meetings or volunteer organizations, that's only on their phone every time and never has an idea about what's going on, is the guy that's there to network and try to get business from you.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: So yeah, and that you would be like, oh, he kind of sucks as a job, I bet, because he's not paying attention to this thing Exactly.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Last question I have for you, brenna, is you know you have so many great things that you've said, but what is if you could go back, uh to, and talk to yourself at the very beginning, so right as you were about to launch, or say that you're talking to somebody that's thinking about getting into this industry?
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: What is advice that you have now, looking back, that you might've told yourself?
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: I say, yes, you, you are always building your personal brand.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Everything you do is building your personal brand and as do is building your personal brand.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: And, as we just said, if you show up, you do what you said you're going to do.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: That reflects well.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: If you sign up for something and you don't show up, that does not reflect well.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: I think one of the experiences I had early specifically to the industry and just what we talked about earlier is getting to know this corner of the industry we're in and fee only is small and you get to know everybody.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: And so part of my experience was I remember I was at a, an FPA midwinter conference here in Portland and very early in my career, like six months in, and I was sitting in the front row, you know, diligently taking notes, and and somebody came up and said hey, can you, will you be the five minute timer for this?
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: Like, hold up the five minute sign when the speaker has five minutes left.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: I said Sure and I did it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: And then they came up to me after and said you did a great job with that five minute sign.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Do you want to join the committee, the planning committee for next year?
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: I said sure, and so I did that and got to meet some of the speakers.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I got to meet Dick Wagner, who is a big inspiration for me, and he invited me into Nasrudin, the Nasrudin project, which is kind of an underground life planning community thing.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: And there I got to meet Carol Anderson and Amy Mullen and all Susan Bradley, rick Kaler all of these people doing incredible life planning type of work.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: And I found my path of what I wanted to explore and follow and what lit me up specifically in this industry.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: And it started with a five minute timer sign and saying yes to that, so it you know, and that led me to money quotient, which led me to it just all, all connected.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I think, if you're just starting out in this industry, say yes to finding your people and you will.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: You know, those green lights will continue to come up when it's right.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: As the great Matthew McConaughey says green light, yeah, I love it.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: That was my goal.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: This whole podcast was to quote Matthew McConaughey, matthew McConaughey, matthew McConaughey the whole time.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been waiting.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: That's one of Brock's favorites too.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: He's got a great impression for it that he can do off camera.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: But, brenna, such a great conversation this afternoon For those who want to follow along, see your journey, see your content, see how you grow.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: What's the best way to follow along?
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I, probably my website's a good place to start collectivewealthplanningcom and I I identify as a geriatric millennial, so I can only figure out two of the social medias.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: So there's, uh, I'm on LinkedIn and I'm on Facebook and I thought, well, I better do those two things well rather than trying to figure out other things that I don't remember the names of.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, so those are probably the best places.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this was so fun.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it and I want to thank you too for your generosity and putting this podcast together and everything you do with BC Brokerage.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: You've been such great partners for me in terms of being a resource for my client families and I just I appreciate you very much.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Brenna.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: That means a lot.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: We look forward to working with you for years to come.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, we'll take it easy, thank you.