There's a saying as old as the markets themselves. Sell in May and go away.

It goes back to old London. Bankers and aristocrats would sell their positions in May, leave the city behind, and not bother coming back to work until after the St. Leger horse race in late September. The summer was for the races. The market could wait.

That instinct never really left our industry. Every year around this time, the out-of-office replies switch on. Focus gets a little soft. The calendar thins out. We all silently agree to coast until late August.

This year feels different.

Things really aren't slowing down. The pace hasn't broken for summer. If anything, it picked up. A year ago, the industry's big advisor software survey tracked exactly one AI notetaker product. This year it tracks fourteen. That's the speed we're moving at now. Not a category maturing over a decade. A category exploding over a single trip around the sun.

Earlier this month, Ryan Deiss snapped a photo of some graffiti on a wall in France. One line, sprayed across it:

That line has been rattling around my head ever since.

Because "dreamer" is supposed to land as an insult. It's the word people use when they think you're soft. Off in the clouds. They say it with a smile that means bless your heart.

But that wall has it right.

This moment has our industry dialed in at a different level. At least for the firms that are wide awake and can see the opportunity sitting right in front of them. The dreamers in this business aren't the soft ones. They're the ones who never went away. The ones still building while everyone else is out at the races.

So here's the challenge. Be wide awake this summer. And still have a great one.

Here's how.

1. Be curious.

Attack each day asking what you can improve, develop, or change. What's actually in your control, and where do you need a partner? Curiosity is the whole engine right now. The firms pulling ahead aren't smarter than everyone else. They're just asking better questions, more often, and refusing to assume last year's answers still hold.

2. Be assertive.

This is the moment a lot of us have waited a long time for. The tech providers are finally waking up and racing to give you more value than ever. Don't sit back and wait to be served. Push. Ask for more. Demand that the tools earn their keep. The leverage has swung toward the firms willing to reach for it, and it won't sit there forever.

3. Be inspired to be inspiring.

Inspiration is contagious. If you're not fired up, it's very unlikely the people you lead will carry any fire either. It starts with you. This is a genuinely exciting time to be building a business, and if you're ever running low on inspiration, just give me a call. I've got plenty to go around.

This is a great time to be building. Bright eyes, a lot of ambition. Because the path to changing the way this world works has never been more clear. The ability to provide deeper value and serve more people has never been as present as it is today.

The industry can sell in May and go away if it wants to.

We're staying awake for this one.

Episode 150: On this week’s episode, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Kathy Longo, President & Founder at Flourish Wealth Management. Kathy has a remarkable talent for distilling complex financial concepts into simple, easily digestible concepts. She built Flourish Wealth Management out of a passion for making financial management more enjoyable. 

Kathy talks with Kyle about how building a strong operational foundation early paves the way for sustainable growth. She shares how her early experiences at large firms shaped her approach to leadership, operations, and long-term growth. From implementing enterprise-level systems as a solo founder to navigating the tension between visionary thinking and operational execution, Kathy offers an inside look at building a firm from the ground up, leadership growth, and team development.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(02:09) - Kathy's money moment and career journey

(05:34) - Key operational lessons Kathy learned from big firms

(07:36) - Bringing generational planning and philanthropy into client relationships  

(10:55) - Managing the natural tension between the visionary and integrator seats

(15:37) - Flourish's hiring matrix

(18:36) - Flourish's growth strategy 

(20:18) - How Kathy uses technology and AI to improve client experience

(22:39) - Kathy's outlook on the future of the financial services industry

(26:16) - Kathy's Milemarker Minute

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Jud Mackrill