It’s Monday night, I’m wheels up from Anchorage Alaska on Delta 377 doing the red eye back to Minneapolis.

From there, I travel to Dallas to attend meetings at the T3 Technology Conference—an event that feels more like summer camp for those of us who build tech businesses for wealth management.

My AirPods are playing Hot Rod Circuit’s Sorry About Tomorrow album all the way through. I’m trying to knock out a few more to do’s before I close my eyes or I touch down back in the contiguous states.

Being 6’5” and sleeping on a plane has never really worked that well for me, so I thought I’d check in with you all.

This week, my focus is on a principle of Everybody, Always (Don’t skip that link. You should really check out that book).

Here’s this week’s I’m-probably-not-going-to-get-much-sleep on this flight edition of the Connected Advisor.

1. Everybody Always. Why Advising Financial Advisors is the Best Job in the World.

2. On the Pod: Building a Championship RIA with Nate Lenz 🎧

3. Bookmarks

   1. Showing Your Future - a Revolutionary Way to Sell Investments

   2. Event: From Data to Dollars: Maximizing Scale & Enterprise Value

4. Milemarker On the Road ✈️

Everybody Always. Why Advising Financial Advisors is the Best Job in the World.

I’ll cut to the chase. I have the best job in the world.

I get to work with really successful wealth management firms all over the world — helping them get better, do better and gain deeper control along the way.

Everyone has a different vibe, different focus and unique opportunity to do deeply meaningful work for the people they serve.

This particular trip to Alaska to meet a fantastic firm there gave me some time to think about my dad and grandfather on the flight up. Both of the found a deep love of the ruggedness of Alaska. The unbridled nature of all of it spoke to them. Neither of them are still here on earth now. When I was younger, I dreamed of the three of us going to Alaska together, even if I have always been the urbanist of my family. I thought of how short life is and how we should make the most of what we are given.

As I flew north, I thought about how different my dad and grandfather were from each other, how different I am from them, and how different my clients are from each other. I marveled at each person’s importance to their family, work, and community. I thought about the idea that no person matters more than any other person.

Although our contributions to this gigantic, evolving world are very different from one another, we all have this wonderful opportunity to take what’s in front of us and make it into more.

This is where being an advisor is so important. Advisors get to help people make more with what they have. Whether they are old or young, confident or full of doubt. A great advisor is that confidant and partner who gets to roll with you through the messy middle, the sad times and hopefully gives you that kick in the butt to spend some of it here and there (thanks Matt).

While there are many things that tug at hearts for concern, most people today have a good deal of anxiety about money. Their perspective on money can make our break how they relate to everything around them. If they are out of whack, money thoughts don’t stay confined to balance sheet reviews or investment selections. Advisors get to be the trusted guide who can help clients think through their assumptions, unpack their disfunction and get clear with what their future can and should look like.

It’s powerful, or at least it can be.

The more transactional the relationship an advisor has with a client, the less likely they are to keep the relationship, making scale a difficult task.

On my flight to Anchorage I threw out a tweet around my doubt about surge meetings — the concept that you batch all your client meetings into a flurry of activity and focus. In my opinion, it makes sense to do this if we’re only thinking about our own schedules.

Of course, our businesses are fundamentally about others.

They decide to make you their advisor because they want your guidance about the future and you sign on to be with them - when the house gets too small, when college looms, when weddings arrive, when grandkids futures are in play, when they’re thinking about their legacy, when someone passes, when the next generation takes over. You’re there.

If attention to our clients is the most important thing, we have continual work to do to reorient ourselves toward their need. We can’t let side quests steal our time and energy.

The process that has us spending two hours to do basic blocking and tackling in meeting prep? That needs to get automated. The meeting follow up process that used to take a lot of time to parse out to the right team members with data and manual workflows? Time to move to Zocks or Zeplyn (both of which can connect to your data powered by Milemarker, btw).

Your time and focus with your clients is primary and you need to give it a rightful place in your business and client experience. Don’t let your time or your team’s time get mired in what can be simple.

Advisors - If you are still busy being the chief everything officer, director of first, last and in between impressions, it’s time to change.

Providers - If advisors are your ultimate client, you need to be the offensive coordinator making sure that there is nothing detracting them from the focus they need to place on their clients.

If it’s true that every human matters equally, than, I believe, we owe it to show up fully for every client.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Jud

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On the Pod: Building a Championship RIA

Episode 083: In this episode of The Connected Advisor, Kyle Van Pelt talks with with Nate Lenz, Co-Founder and CEO of Concurrent, about building a championship RIA.

Nate has over a decade of experience in the financial industry. He shares Concurrent’s key initiatives on building a robust investment team, enhancing technology integrations to make data actionable, and addressing the talent gap in the RIA industry through a centralized wealth advisory services team. Nate also explores the trend of RIAs seeking strategic partnerships while maintaining independence and brand autonomy.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(02:28) - Nate's money moment

(07:05) - How playing football influenced Nate's leadership abilities

(13:08) - Rebuilding a successful RIA platform

(18:54) - What winning a championship means in the RIA space

(21:51) - The talent gap in the RIA industry

(27:41) - The best use of Nate's time and effort as CEO

(34:41) - Concurrent's goals for the future

(40:29) - The evolving dynamics of RIA partnerships

(43:44) - Nate’s Milemarker Minute

⚡️Bookmarks

Event: From Data to Dollars: Maximizing Scale & Enterprise Value

Join Orion’s Adam Palmer, Milemarker’s Jessica Perez, and myself for a workshop where we break down how firms are able to turn the ownership of their data into a true increase in the value of their firm.

Save your spot by clicking the link below.

Showing Your Future - a Revolutionary Way to Sell Investments

Raising a fund is always challenging, but this approach takes it to another level.

Instead of pitching investors, they sent their future selves from 2050 to do it.

This thread breaks it down:

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

1. March 10 - Charleston, SC, Closed Lecture at College of Charleston

2. March 11 - West Palm, FL, RFG Growth Summit

3. March 16-19 - Miami Beach, FL, Future Proof Citywide

4. March 18-20 - New York, NY

5. March 19 - Nashville, TN

6. March 24-26 - Denver, CO

7. March 28 - Omaha, NE

8. April 1-2 - Nashville, TN, RIA Edge

9. April 3-4 - Charleston, SC

10. April 9-10 - Las Vegas, NV, Envestnet Elevate

If you’re in any of those cities and want to arrange a meeting time, reply to this email, and we’ll get something on the calendar.

Jud Mackrill