I started my week in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Hanging out with my oldest son, Gideon. Seeing old friends. Experiencing the kindness and vitality of Middle America.

It reminded me of one of the last times I'd been in Lincoln. My wife and I walked into a hotel lobby and the young man behind the desk knew my name before I could even get to the front.

I didn't remember his.

"Are you Jud?"

"Yes. How do I know you?"

"I was in your home years ago. When I first moved to the United States. I was part of a small group at your church."

And then I remembered him. His story. His life. And as I remembered, nothing else mattered very much. I caught up with him, this person who remembered my family and me (who now live 1,084 miles away). A moment of grace that made my whole day better.

There's been a heaviness lately. Maybe you've felt it too.

I've been thinking about how easy it is—for me, certainly—to let systems, partisanship, and tribal loyalties create distance between people. How can I chase scorecards that won't matter in the end?

And I keep coming back to this: when we get to the end of our lives, most of those scorecards will have faded.

What remains is the everyday.

The interactions.

The times we opened our doors and welcomed others.

That young man in Lincoln remembered being welcomed. Years later, across a thousand miles, it still meant something to him. It meant something to me, too.

This week, I'm resharing something I wrote in 2024. It was based on something Chance the Rapper published about his experience chasing metrics.

I hope it's useful.

I hope it reminds you of moments when you've been touched by grace.

Here's this week's Rising Tide.

1. 3,333 Reasons to Make Your Own Metrics & Master Your Impact

2. The Operating System Behind Scalable Advisory Firms 🎧

3. Milemarker On the Road ✈️

A Throwback from 2024: 3,333 Reasons to Make Your Own Metrics & Master Your Impact

Chance the Rapper has become one of my favorite recording artists over the past 7+ years.

As owning your music catalog has become increasingly important, Chance began his career independently, absent from outside labels or management.

Chance’s career began with an album titled 10 Day, recorded during a 10 Day suspension from high school in 2012. With an introspective, unique delivery, listeners hear someone who openly shares insecurities, challenges, and doubts, in a mixtape style that keeps you on your toes with each new song.

Chance has never signed with a record label and has been able to release his music for free to listeners – relying on touring, streaming royalties, and uniquely branded partnerships (Kit Kat, the White Sox, and 3M) for income.

In the summer of 2024, Chance was announced as the headliner for the Minnesota State Fair. As the day of his performance approached, his brother, who manages his work, received confirmation that the fair had sold only 3,333 tickets for a venue seating 14,000.

In a world where crowd size has become more important than ever, the natural reaction to only selling 24% of your tickets is to call in sick. No one wants to be the guy with empty seats.

Chance looked at it differently and wrote a new song about it.

What Matters & Why

It’s easy for so many of us to look at the same metrics everyone else is to decide if our work or our life is worthy. It’s easy to look around and gauge our own ‘crowd size’ to decide whether to play or not.

Or we could look for the metrics that matter most to us.

We can choose to define our own metrics.

Make Your Own Metrics & Mastering Your Impact

Each day, year, month, and moment brings us an opportunity. An opportunity to be honest, refocus, and keep our eyes on our own paper.

The statement that comparing is the thief of joy has so much truth to it.

Can we learn from observing others? Absolutely.

But we shouldn’t let it define us.

How do we go about leading businesses more focused on our unique purpose?

Identifying Impact Metrics

If we go to the root of what we do, it’s important to highlight key indicators of our impact.

1. Start with How Our Clients Define Success
   The chances are that your clients couldn't care less about your AUM. They do care about how you help them and how well you understand them.
   

2. Identify Unique Market Metrics

   If you serve a niche, lean into it with the metrics that you focus on. If you serve doctors, consider the factors in their lives that can ultimately speak to your impact (e.g., helping them pay off college debt or get it written off).

   Work with small business owners and see how you can help them extend the value you provide to the people who work for them, and get focused on how many jobs you are influencing through financially solid leaders who now have the confidence to lead well and invest with clarity.
   

3. Identify Your Adoption Metrics

   Real change comes through adopting new practices and behaviors. If you look at all the things you can do for your clients, start identifying how many of them have adopted each of them. If this makes your clients' lives better, consider this as a new start for how your team works to serve the rest of your clients.

What are the metrics that matter to you?

What are the metrics that matter to those who love you?

On the Pod: The Operating System Behind Scalable Advisory Firms

Episode 127: On this week’s episode, Kyle Van Pelt sits down with Matt Regan, President at Wealthcare. With more than two decades in the financial services industry, Matt has helped build several transformative business models, including launching the retail brokerage and OpenIPO system at WR Hambrecht+Co. His work has consistently focused on scaling world-class organizations with a strong commitment to the client experience.

Kyle talks with Matt about building scalable, sustainable advisory businesses at the intersection of technology and operations. Matt shares his journey into wealth management, the evolution of Wealthcare from planning software to a full-service platform, and how standardized systems drive organic growth and enterprise value. They dive into affiliation models, M&A strategy, talent challenges, and the future of advice in an AI-driven world—especially for emerging advisors and smaller clients.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(02:44) - Matt's money moment 0.

(03:58) - Wealthcare's origin story

(06:20) - Wealthcare's affiliation model

(12:24) - Common pitfalls in M&A

(14:04) - The talent gap and finding Gen 2 successors

(15:33) - Matt's thoughts about the future of M&A

(19:34) - What it takes to build a firm from $0 to $100M in today's market

(22:47) - The role of AI in serving HENRYs (High Earners, Not Rich Yet)

(26:50) - Why soft skills are the new hard currency

(28:27) - Matt's outlook on the future of the industry

(32:37) - Matt's Milemarker Minute

Milemarker on the Road
Catch my team on the road at the following events or cities:

1. Phoenix, AZ —January 26-28

2. Charleston, SC — January 26-28

3. Tysons Corner, VA — February 3

4. Park City, UT — February 5-6

5. San Diego, CA — February 22-28

If you would like to arrange a meeting time, please reply to this email, and we’ll schedule something on the calendar.

Jud Mackrill