Ashley Micciche is the CEO of True North Retirement Advisors, a firm she founded with her father. Today she joins the show to discuss how she achieved work-life satisfaction while growing a business and starting a family. Ashley will delve deep into the arrangement she made with her father to be the backup advisor for her clients and how she communicated the news to her clients that she was going to take time off for maternity leave.
Listen in to learn how Ashley built her career in the early years, going from cold-calling to cold-knocking to build up a client base, as well as how she opened up the conversation with small business owners to quickly get their interest for a follow-up meeting. If you are looking to start a family while running a business or start a new firm (or both), this is the episode for you.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/130
Donna Skeels Cygan, the President of Sage Future Financial, joins the show to discuss how she runs a firm overseeing nearly $90 million in assets under management and still maintains a work-life balance. After building her first successful firm, Donna decided to sell it and come back three years later to start over again, this time building a much more deliberately-crafted schedule that’s intended to only ever have 40 affluent clients.
In this episode, Donna shares her journey in building her first and second advisory firms, as well as how she decided which clients she wanted to bring to her second firm when starting up again. You’ll learn about her process and the tools she uses, how she employs a virtual assistant to maximize her time with her clients, and why she has no concerns about her ability to remain competitive as a stand-alone solo advisor.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/129
After starting his first of five businesses at the age of 15, there aren’t many business activities Justin Goodbread hasn’t experienced. In 2009, he founded Heritage Investors, an independent RIA based in Knoxville, Tennessee, in hopes of helping individuals, business owners, and retirees attain their financial goals. Today, Justin joins the show to discuss how his firm has crafted a niche in working with small business owners and how they track how each owner’s net worth increases over time.
In this episode, we talk about why Justin finds it more effective to break his advisory fee—which can sometimes be as much as $20,000 a year—into a more cash flow friendly monthly subscription fee. Listen in to learn how he has focused his marketing toward these small business owners and how doing so has ironically brought him more prospects outside his niche. You’ll also hear which five business books he reads every year to run his own advisory business more efficiently.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/128
Jania Stout is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Fiduciary Plan Advisors at HighTower Advisors, an advisory firm that is focused on 401(k) planning. Her team is responsible for nearly $4 billion in assets across almost 120 businesses. In this episode, we discuss how Jania was able to rapidly grow her business entirely from scratch over the past 5 years, as well as how she built her own personal brand and reputation as a trusted fiduciary advisor.
Listen in to hear Jania share what it takes to service and support mid to large size 401(k) plans and detail the fee structure for her business. You’ll learn why she built and automated a report in her CRM that shows her clients all of the behind-the-scenes work that the firm does on their behalf, how she used LinkedIn to help her business grow, and the challenges she faced when going independent.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/127