Growing a client base from the hundreds into the thousands requires both tech and talent. Today’s guest discusses how she's done both in order to serve more than 3,000 advice-only clients over the past three years.

Lori Atwood is the founder of Fearless Finance. In this episode, she shares why she built her own internal planning software platform to meet the needs of her ideal target clients, how her "hub-and-spoke" advisor structure helps maintain culture and consistency across her firm, and how she spends 18% of her revenue on client acquisition yet ends up with a per-client acquisition cost that's lower than the industry average. Lori also discusses how prospects (who sometimes use AI tools to answer personal finance questions) often come to her for "confirmation, not information" on their financial situations and how she's found it gratifying to be the first call her (largely working-age) clients make when they face an unexpected financial contingency and to be able to provide them with meaningful solutions.

While financial advisors and their clients often focus on creating a succesful retirement income plan, a successful, meaningful retirement goes well beyond dollars and cents. In this episode, we dive into the deeper side of the retirement transition and why many high-performing professionals (including financial advisors) underestimate the psychological shift that comes with leaving a decades-long career.

Michael Kay is a retired financial advisor and a current life coach and author, and joins the show today to share the personal challenges he faced transitioning from advisory firm owner to retiree. Listen in to learn practical exercises and questions that financial advisors can use to help clients prepare for life beyond their careers. You’ll hear how to help retirees design what their weeks will actually look like, how to think through changes in social structures after leaving the workplace, and how finding new ways to make a meaningful impact can create purpose in retirement. 

At some point, firm founders often find that their time is divided between attracting new clients and serving current ones (and running their business). This episode explores how it's possible to delegate technical work to a centralized planning team, segment clients by revenue, and leverage asynchronous communication tools to create client touchpoints while devoting significant time to closing new clients. 

Jake Falcon, founder of Falcon Wealth Advisors, has built a $1 billion advisory firm for nearly 900 client households in part by focusing on his strengths as a 'rainmaker' bringing in new clients while stepping back from day-to-day planning analyses and regular client meetings. In this episode, Jake shares how abandoning scripts and prioritizing authentic connections transformed his business development. He also discusses how he's using Instagram to meet potential clients 'where they are' and demonstrate his authentic personality, why he invests client assets directly into stocks and bonds instead of mutual funds and ETFs, and how he hopes that bringing in direct business development hires will help his firm grow well into the future.