Latest / Only Fee-Only / #79 - Shaping the Future of Finance with Behavioral Insights - Ashley Quamme

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#79 - Shaping the Future of Finance with Behavioral Insights - Ashley Quamme · Only Fee-Only

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: How's it going everyone?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the only fee only podcast and, as always, we appreciate you being here.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: In this episode, we got to talk to Ashley Kwame, who is the fractional financial behavioral officer, and that is a mouthful.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: She owns her own firm and it's called beyond the plan.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: She does consulting, training and CE for financial planners and firms, and what that really means is she's trying to make sure that financial planners and their clients understand each other and that the communication is effective, so much so that she actually sometimes goes into the meetings with the advisors and talks to the clients and, hey, you know what's the barrier here, what are the things that we need to agree upon to be able to move forward?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: So I think it's a really interesting niche as we continue to see a lot of these fractional roles pop up in the financial planning space, and I believe she's really trailblazing this.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So I'm so excited for you guys to listen to this episode.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Here is Ashley Kwame on the only fee only podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: What's up everyone.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of the only fee only podcast.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm Peter Travelo.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I'm here with two co-hosts today.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Brock, how's it going today?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Good man, how are you?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Doing well, and we also have the fin artist, josh Passler himself.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: What's up, josh?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: What's up guys?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Glad to be here, and today we have one of Josh's connections on Ashley Kwame.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: We've actually had the privilege of working with her husband too, who's also in the financial industry too, so it's got a run in the household over there for you guys.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely does, although he started first, so I'll give him the credit.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: So I'm just following behind in his footsteps.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I love it, but you're most likely the better half, as they always say.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: I like to think so, but debatable.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: That's definitely debatable, I love it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So you're a fractional financial behavior officer at your own company, your own firm.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: For those who don't know who currently are serving and who your business is, you want to give a quick overview before we dive into the conversation.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I provide more or less consulting services to advisory firms and as a therapist turned financial behavior specialist, there's a unique skill set and overlap there Coupling with financial planners, financial advisors, helping them really do the relational, psychological, emotional, mental side of financial planning better, hopefully at least, so I really help them kind of go more or less beyond the plan to understand how their clients think, feel and do.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Money is probably the simplest way of explaining it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I mean you've got a really cool background.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I was looking back through your LinkedIn and everything from social services assistant for the US Army to, like you said, kind of couples financial therapist to what you're doing now.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: But like the culmination of all of that and all of our experiences in life kind of lead to where we are today and make us good at what we're doing today.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So how did some of those things that you've done in the past kind of affect the way that you see things with what you're doing now?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I think, like most, for most of us it's just been an evolution.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: So I always knew that I wanted to do couples therapy, at least starting in college more or less.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Didn't quite know what that looked like.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Got out of grad school knew I wanted to work for myself, so started my own practice shortly there, shortly thereafter and then that just evolved into really furthering my specialty within kind of the couples realm.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Obviously, finances come up, my mostly better half, you know, in the financial services.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of conversation there that he and I would have.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: And then that really just kind of led to a moment I had with a client where her financial advisor more or less inadvertently kind of put his foot in his mouth and created just kind of this tension there between the client that you know, being married to a financial planner.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: I knew that he had her best interest at heart.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, maybe due to lack of training, education, understanding, didn't know how to convey or how to interact with her in a way that helped her to see that he did care and have her best interest.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: So that really kind of sparked a moment for me of I think I can help planners.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I think I can help them like, do this relational side better.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I can bring the skill set that I know as far as how relationships work, personal and professional, to this space and maybe hopefully do some good there for them.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Nice, josh, you had something.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know it's.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: It's funny that I mean after getting to know Ashley and in her practice, it's funny how, if you people are scared to go to the doctor, to the dentist and see their financial advisor, they're just scared Because the conversation might be heavy.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: It it's.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: You know, there's there.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: The fear of the unknown is the biggest thing, right, but with Ashley in the room and actually in the conversation, I think it's really it's.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: It's helping the industry and it's helping to climb more than anything, just to feel comfortable and understand like she gets it.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: She can understand like and how they feel based on their language, their, their body language, so many more.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: It's kind of like when you you have to go to the family dinner you know a big family dinner you really don't want to go but you're like you know that cool uncle's there, so this it's gonna be better.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: You know they're definitely gonna make you know this base very comfortable, funny, happy and and in very inviting, and I think Ashley's like the cool, cool aunt in the room.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: You know Terrible analogy, but you guys get what I'm saying hey look, I like to think of myself as a cool aunt.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: I am one, nice, and nephews they call me Auntie Bam, which I feel like is pretty cool.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: So I'm, I'm vibing with you here, josh, I'll be the cool aunt of the planning industry.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: So, like, where do you meet, like in the intersection between, like, the advisor and the client and I'm sure that maybe some of these financial advisors themselves need some therapy you know, like kind of, where are you really matching like your skills and like what the market is kind of asking for, you know doesn't have yet?
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: So that's a great question.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I think one of the things that I've found where that's been maybe most impactful is in case consultation, so usually either post pre or post meeting Preparation or follow-up, again specific mostly to like the behavior side.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: So, for example, you have a couple who is Maybe perhaps under spending they're not spending enough in retirement or, on the flip side, maybe you have a younger couple who's over spending and, despite the fact that you've shown them projections and multiple scenarios, it's just not clicking.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: And so I may help the advisor Develop strategies or the team develop strategies for how to work with them from a relational behavioral standpoint.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Another way might be that I sit in on the meeting on On, co-facilitate that with with the advisors, or solo, maybe by myself too.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: But it's a different conversation and similar to kind of what Josh is saying.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: You know, my skillset really lies in asking different questions.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Being somebody that you know most of the clients, I give them my background so they know what I'm coming to the table with and you know Whether it's this like implicit kind of trust around.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Okay, this person's a clinician, she does this all day, she knows how to ask questions, she knows when she's talking about.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: I find that I can establish that rapport and trust really, really quickly and help to kind of Get in there and suss through maybe the stuff that's getting in the way, conversationally between just the advisor and client, and really hone in on what matters.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: And then what do we need to do, like game plan, what actions do we need to take?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: All of those things, so, just to be clear, like you're not, because I guess when we were getting on the call and and given we haven't had much of a Chance to talk I was thinking help financial advisors with the conversations.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: But you're going as far as hopping on the conversations with the client and the advisor, sometimes like because technically, the financial Advisors your client and then you kind of serve their clients by virtue of that right.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So so now you got my, you got my head spinning a little bit.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So how do you?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So there has to be obviously a problem or a lack of communication or understanding between an advisor and a client For you to be needed correct.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So how do you?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Well, potentially right, but how do you bring, how do you bridge that gap and actually get that visor, advisor or coach them to say to their client hey, I think there's somebody that could help us kind of understand each other a little bit more?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: You know, introduce Ashley into the scenario.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: What's that typically look like for you?
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, normally, like I kind of coach them on, first you have to be confident.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: You can't introduce anything to your client if you're not confident about whether it's that person, whether it's that service.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: So if you don't believe in the work that we are doing or can do, or just who I am, the client's gonna feel that and they're gonna be uneasy.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: You know, if you don't believe in it, you're probably gonna be kind of awkward.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: And I know that most of the time we think that we're Maybe a little bit better than what we actually are conversationally.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: But if you don't believe in something, it's gonna come across to the client and so, first and foremost, you got to be confident in delivering it, you know.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Second piece to is you just say it like, just come out with it.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I've got this team member.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: She's a part of our firm, her role is really in helping us as the advisor, but also clients understand the mental, emotional component as it relates to money, and I'd like her to sit in on this meeting and maybe offer a different perspective.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I say it's kind of as simple as that, but to some extent it kind of is, and if the client likely they do already have an established trusting relationship with you, they're going to go along with you.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: For the most part, I've not had I'm saying this and I might be kicking myself, but I cannot recall, at least off the top of my head, a client that's been like nah, like really don't want her sitting in.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: That sounds weird.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I'm not for it.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: So so far so good.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Maybe now, kind of after this, call my next one.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: That won't go so well, but for the most part I think if advisors or firms are bringing me on, they already believe in the work and capability that we can do, how we can serve and best help clients.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Now what type of advisors are like, where are they at in their own career and practice?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Because I know you said the word confidence and I'm just thinking, like you know, like advisors in the first few years, I mean they're so busy just trying to figure out their tech stack and like, try to prove their value and they feel the need to like, regurgitate a lot and they talk a lot during meetings and not listening as well.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: So you know, and I feel like once when advisors get to like year four, five, six and onwards, they start listening more to behavioral and you know the Kinder Institute starts getting introduced Like what type of advisors are starting to use your services and where are you starting to see the growth?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: And like their practices too.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so typically it's been small, small kind of midsize firms, so where there really is like a team approach there, so just from a size standpoint that's about how big.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: And these are advisors or owners who might have team members with as little as, like you know, kind of five years experience as the ones usually reaching out, because, just like you said, peter, like they've not mastered maybe the technical kind of side of things, but they're feeling more confident in it.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: They're looking for other ways to grow professionally or how to diversify maybe their service offerings to their clients, so anywhere kind of.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: You know, that five, 10 year mark seems to be where people are reaching out.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I do have some that maybe are outside of that, who have been in the industry for a lot longer than that.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: But you know, age range, experience range, that's kind of what we're looking at.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Personality, though.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: These are advisors or firms that are a little bit more progressive, Like they recognize the value in the psychological aspect of financial planning and they're wanting to differentiate themselves or their firm really from all the other firms out there.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: They're wanting to provide a unique service and experience to their clients.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: So they are a bit more progressive, just kind of in that way, not your super traditional, maybe firm or advisor.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now that makes a lot of sense.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And like, how much like training would you say these advisors need for them to like know when you need to be introduced, or do they just introduce you and you're part of every single financial planning process and meeting?
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Like where does that?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: And I'm sure it's a little bit different for advisors, so I'm just curious what that looks like.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, first some it's.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: You know we talk about it maybe in turn, like from a preparation standpoint.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Some meetings are coming up, they're on the agenda or they're on the docket and there's ones that it's like, hey, the last couple meetings haven't gone really well, would you be willing to sit in on this one?
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Or we've not made much progress in this area.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: There's a state planning meetings, right, if clients are like, hey, it's been a long time we've been trying to get them to fill out their estate docs and they just can't seem to make a decision or fill it out, would you mind meeting with them?
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Usually there's been some kind of already like ongoing struggle there of trying to help their clients make progress in some area.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: So you know, I'm aware of it I might kind of sit in on it from a kind of training standpoint, like with the advisors.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is my opinion and it's probably gonna maybe run some people away.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: I'm okay with that.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: But I really find that the advisors I'm working with have a lot of skills already and their emotional intelligence and EQ is already a lot higher.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: They just need a little bit of confidence and maybe validation around.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: They are kind of on the right path or they are going in the right direction.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: So not to say that my services can't be helpful, but I do find that a lot of these advisors really do have a pretty high level of EQ already.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that makes sense.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's one of the biggest things and assets that you can have right Is a high EQ and the ability to understand people and then just going about your life and refining that as you kind of go, but it's a huge thing for sure, and when you're building a business, that's something you have to have too.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So when you already came from building a business the couple's therapy business or the marriage counseling business right, having that background and then going and starting beyond the plan just under two years ago, I mean, what was that kind of like?
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Having already had the skillset to build a business but also hopping in kind of a different sector, how did you kind of balance and adapt with that?
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I've officially balanced and adapted just yet.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: I'll be honest, it's a totally different ball game.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: It feels like it, at least for me.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: So whether that's my own narrative that I'm creating or reality, I don't know, it's probably somewhere in the middle.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: But it's been a huge learning curve.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Some of it is just the going out and getting like prospect clients.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Unlike in mental health clients are already seeking out somebody for a very acute issue and there's a pain point kind of attached to that and so they're wanting that remedy and marriage counseling is really that for them.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So they're ready to go ahead and sign up and start working with you, whereas prospecting with like firms, like man, like business owners just take a lot longer.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: They're a lot more thoughtful, and I should have known that, because that's how my husband is with every financial decision that we make.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: So I shouldn't be surprised.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: But that's been a learning curve, just kind of adjusting on top of, like some of the jargon learning, learning kind of how to speak more, speak more advisor.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: But really the biggest part too and I think Josh, you and I've kind of talked about this early on.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I'll share that.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Josh just did my rebranding and so Josh and I had some conversations and one of the hardest parts is really figuring out what this role looks like.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: It's new.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Some people have said that I'm trailblazing a new path.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: That feels a little uncomfortable maybe for me to own that.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: But some of the hardest part has really been figuring out what does this look like?
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: What can I do?
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: What do I wanna do?
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: So those are more kind of my own internal maybe struggles there.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: But Josh was helpful and I've got a lot of just colleagues around me that have been immensely helpful in helping me craft and kind of fine tune that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: So I mean let's dive a little bit about, like into the marketing and maybe Josh, and segue in here too, like I mean, where have you kind of found that product fit?
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I mean you know, saying that trailblazing kind of a new path.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: So I mean I guess you got a lot of experiments going on at once.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Then, right, like, what's kind of working?
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: What were some of maybe those initial experiments?
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Which ones are still going?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Which ones stopped?
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Like you know, how are you kind of building this out and making it your own?
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, social media has been the biggest for so far LinkedIn and Twitter X.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I still call it Twitter, sorry.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if that'll ever change.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: You know those two platforms probably have been where I've seen the most feedback.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: They've certainly been where, I think, of the four firms that I'm currently Working with, they've all found me through social media as best as I can remember.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: But, yeah, you know, through kind of some friends too and, as you said, peter, thrown stuff against the wall, finding what sticks, realizing I also need a better plan.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: It's one thing to have a great idea, but if nobody knows about it and if you don't have a strategy for putting it out there, then you know it really doesn't matter.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously good graphics to Josh.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Let me shout you out yeah, thank you.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, josh, go into that man.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: What was the strategy?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: When you were kind of looking at, because we love the way your brain works, obviously we're working together, but what was your strategy?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: And kind of helping Ashley develop, you know what was gonna be the right look and, by the way, by the time this is coming out is not a spoiler Okay, you can go to Asher's website and check it out.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: It's awesome, um, but what was that kind of like for you, josh, helping her design that?
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really just.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, understanding her business was the biggest thing.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Figuring out the personality, her mission and what she's trying to achieve was is a big thing and you know, knowing, knowing a little bit more about her background and you know how she's working with the clients is huge too.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: So but I, what I did, was like take a few of those elements and tried my best to combine them into Into like what, when it came from like the colors to the logo, to Like the visual style language.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: All that was like encompassing, like what she has already done and what she's wanting to do in the future.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: So when this comes out, everyone's gonna be able to see that her logo I mean her brand colors we just we pretty much kept her brand colors but we just added a few more To just I mean it was already great, like her colors are already great, but we just kind of expanded the colors palette a little bit more.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: Her logos really is is like a diamond with Like with two hearts that are flipped In a way right, so there's a heart on top and there's a heart that's flipped.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: There's the diamond in the diamond, pretty much surrounding, is the best way to explain it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: And what we did is we went for a look that was still professional, not too boutique.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: We had a.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: We had a different direction that was a little bit too boutique, but with what this one is, it's really professional and it's really just to make the clients feel comfortable when they see it.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: You know it's not something that.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: It's not something that word there's like a serif font.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: That's very how do I say it?
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: And, visor, like you know, there's a lot of advisors that are, like you know, 40, 50 years.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: In practice, they have like this gold look to their brand, they, they have these serif fonts that are very like cutthroat.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: And we went the exact opposite there.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: We wanted the advisors and the firms to see her brand and just be very welcoming and just bring them in, have the colors be warm and really just kind of draw to her personality.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: And I think I believe we achieved that and I'm excited for her to release, release it.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: I'm excited because we have a Like kind of, kind of like a like an announcement photo for her, a few of them.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: So I think it's really gonna pop.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: And and when it comes to social media, I think building in public is huge and Like for me, like building public, showing my, showing, my designs, my art, everything online is great and it works.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: And with Ashley, you know, like yesterday, for instance, you, you you posted about like you know what you're trying to achieve in the year 2024, like your goals and and showing that vulnerability and and being yourself is huge too and I think that you know, brought in a lot of people and I think you had a great engagement.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: And In that post, too, I will say this here's a little tip, and I've done this for like the past three weeks and it has worked amazing on social media to get leads.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Whenever someone follows you or or connects with you, I Send them a short message and this message should just simply say, let's say, the person's name is David, like hey, david, I just saw that you followed my profile.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: Thanks for checking it out.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: I really appreciate it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Out of curiosity, what did you find interesting in my profile?
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: And that has led to five calls for me in the past three weeks?
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Very simple, straightforward and it's not like you're pitching anything, but it opens the conversation and gets the ball rolling.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Sorry, I know that's not what the podcast is about, but I mean, if any advisor, anyone else to take that tip.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Go for it.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: I believe it works, because it's worked for me.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: No, I think that's a great addition, man.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, it is super important and crucial to be able to make sure that you're following up and being a part of your brand and making sure all of that sticks for sure.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: So, ashley, as you're kind of thinking about and obviously I know you're saying you're figuring out what works still, but you love it.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: You're not super comfortable with the term trailblazer, but I think you should own that because there's people like you and Diana Cabrises out there doing things and building roles that have not been well known in the community or very likely you guys are the first or one of the first to be doing it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: So I think that's really cool.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: But in an ideal world I mean, if you're talking to yourself in five years what really has to happen for Ashley, you'd be like I feel like I really knocked this thing out of the park.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: So I've recently here this week, been wrapping up some goal-planning but vision kind of crafting too.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: So that's my year-end process.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: It has been personally I'm just started it professionally and so one of the things that really is kind of resonating with me is that I love being in the work, I love doing the work.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: I would also love to create something bigger really than just what I'm doing.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: And so, from like a bold vision standpoint maybe this will be five years, I don't know is really being able to place other financial behavior specialists or financial therapists into advisory firms, like that just being one of those, like a client service team member or even like a marketing kind of person, but that's a role within firms that is just accepted and known.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: So, bold vision.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: I know we may not be on the five year track, but that's what I'd love to build and create.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: That's incredible.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Gotta have a big, shiny goal.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: And just out of curiosity, being fractional, so are you taking firms on as like retainer, you know, because I know with the therapy side there's, sometimes they can be covered by insurance or cash.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: But if it's retainer, like how's that kind of looking?
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: And are advisors charging extra when you are brought in?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Like what's your service offering?
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it is different than like on the true mental health side, because you're correct for like one-to-one services in mental health.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: If a provider is partnered or credentialed with an insurance company, then insurance can be used.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Here's also a tip that insurance only covers mental health diagnoses or things that they deem medically necessary.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: So not all therapy is actually covered under insurance.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Many people don't know.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: So that's my side tip.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: But from a fractional standpoint it is kind of like a retainer model.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: So you know there's a certain price per month for X number of hours really a quarter and so it's a little bit different kind of funky maybe to wrap your head around.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: But I've created kind of a package where, for example, it's 15 hours a quarter for a monthly set price.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: So I keep track of all that, and some of that is because you may not need me for five hours a month, right, if certain times of the year client meetings are heavier, you may want me in more at that time of year.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: So it's a way to try to provide an offer, flexibility, but in a system that can kind of work for both of us.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: So-.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm picturing you as like a superhero, actually like an advisor sitting at their desk, like I don't know what we're gonna do about this, like we've been asking this client to get this done for three years now.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: There's like a red button on the death that they fresh you like show up in a cape.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: That's the way that I'm picturing this service model.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I love it.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Look, brock, I'm here for it.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Josh, if you would like to design me as a superhero, like I, will incorporate that in.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: I'm loving it so it's a little cape.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: My son used to call me Wonder Woman, so maybe that was him like manifesting something out there to the world.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Oh my God.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: The lasso of truth.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Is this thing really cool?
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Like to throw it on a client to have a stupid truth.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: The cape idea I want in on that, okay, I want in on that?
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: No, I'm kidding, let's go.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: No, that's super cool.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Well, this has been a blast, ashley.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think you're doing something tremendous for the community really.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's awesome what you're doing.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I think people should definitely be intentional about falling along with your journey, so where can people follow along with what you're doing?
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: I'm on LinkedIn, ashley Kwame, also on Twitter X at BAM Consults.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: You can check me out on my website at beyondthefpcom.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know of a lot of Ashley Kwame's, so if you type me into your good old fashioned Google search engine, likely my picture is probably gonna come up with some contact details.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for Ashley for coming on and sharing your story.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it today.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Thanks guys for having me.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Mix.