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Ep. 17: Tim Whitney: A CEO’s Take on Building a Firm for the Future
10 Plays4 months ago
Thanks to people like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, we now expect to get what we want, when we want it, and the way we want it. That’s the new bar. And it’s redefining how we thinkabout personalization in the delivery of financial advice and guidance. So, what could changes like these to the industry landscape mean for RIAs seeking to grow?
In this episode, Tim Whitney, CEO of TradeWinds, joins hosts Bill Coppel, Chief Client Growth Officer at TradePMR, and Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at TradePMR, to share a bit about his evolution as a financial professional and some of the insights he’s gained along the way.
Listen as they explore:
• Ways advisors may want to shift their thinking to help them build sustainable businesses
• How the creative use of data may help firms drive value for clients and occupy a unique market position
• Why taking both the evolving needs of clients and the next generation of advisors into account may help advisors grow enterprise value
Subscribe now, and connect with us on social media:
• YouTube
Get the transcript for this episode, with sources, at https://synergizepodcast.com/.
About Tim Whitney, CFP®
Tim is the CEO of TradeWinds, an RIA based in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He began his career with Wachovia Securities in 2003. Before opening TradeWinds, Tim served as a Managing Director and private portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Advisors in Raleigh, NC.
He obtained his CFP® certification in 2011 and received certifications in Family Wealth Advising and Family Business Advising from the FFI Global Education Network, as well as Blockchain and Digital Assets certification from DACFP.
Tradewinds is a client of TradePMR. No compensation was paid to client for participating in this podcast. This podcast reflects this client's experience. Your experience may vary. Wachovia Securities and Wells Fargo are not affiliates of TradePMR.
More About Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwhitney/
Website: https://tradewinds.global/about-us/tim-whitney/
If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at
synergizepodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only. The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TradePMR or its affiliates. TradePMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by TradePMR. TradePMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice or legal advice. TradePMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. TradePMR, Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). TradePMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing. First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.
Copyright 2025.TradePMR, Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit
Recommended
Transcript
AI in Financial Advisory: Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Synergize, unscripted conversations where we explore the evolving role of the financial advisor in an emerging AI-driven world.
00:00:11
Speaker
Join us as we bring together thought leaders across a range of disciplines and industry experts, sharing insights designed to help RIAs thrive in the industry of tomorrow.
Journey to Independence: From Wire House to RIA
00:00:22
Speaker
Hi, I'm Bill Capell, Chief Client Growth Officer at TradePMR.
00:00:26
Speaker
And I'm Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at Trade PMR, and you are listening to the Synergize Podcast.
00:00:32
Speaker
So Ryan, today we're talking to a financial advisor who's had an interesting journey from the wire house world to starting an RIA.
00:00:40
Speaker
His story is one that I believe other financial advisors considering their growth options for the future can learn from.
00:00:48
Speaker
That's right, Bill.
00:00:49
Speaker
It's an experience that a lot of our audience is probably familiar with, right?
00:00:52
Speaker
But what we're going to be talking about today is really building a firm for the future and what it takes to meet the evolving needs of clients and the next generation of advisors.
Evolving Client Expectations in the Digital Age
00:01:03
Speaker
So we'll be hearing from an advisor who has described going from a running away from the wire house mentality and the restraints that that brings to more of a running towards business growth mindset with the freedom that independence allows.
00:01:18
Speaker
So I'm really excited to talk about this shift in his thinking and what it's enabled him to build and grow to better serve his clients and boost that enterprise value of his firm.
Insights from a Financial Advisor: Tim Whitney
00:01:29
Speaker
I'm with you, Ryan.
00:01:30
Speaker
You know, the world's changed and client expectations have changed along with it.
00:01:34
Speaker
But as an industry, we tend to do things the way we've always done them.
00:01:38
Speaker
Thanks to people like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, we now expect to get what we want, when we want it, and the way we want it.
00:01:46
Speaker
And that's really the new bar.
00:01:49
Speaker
It's redefining how we might want to be thinking about personalization and where it fits into the delivery of financial advice and guidance.
00:01:58
Speaker
Our guest, Tim Whitney, is here to share a bit about his evolution as a financial advisor and some of the insights he's gleaned along the way.
00:02:08
Speaker
Especially as a leader, you better be prepared to wear all hats and find which ones that you don't do very well and be able to hand that hat to somebody else.
00:02:16
Speaker
Because the best thing I ever did was give up the keys of the finance.
00:02:20
Speaker
We're knocking it out of the park, but it's only because I had to humble myself and give over some responsibility and experience to somebody much more gifted than I. So you're bought to wear all hats, and I would say don't.
00:02:33
Speaker
So Ryan, tell us a little bit about Tim's background.
00:02:36
Speaker
So Tim is the CEO of Tradewinds, an RIA based in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina.
00:02:41
Speaker
And I first met Tim in working with him on an article where he talked about his experience as a second generation advisor, working for his father's firm, eventually taking over that firm as part of a succession plan, and then making the move towards independence.
00:02:57
Speaker
But we're excited to have Tim on the podcast today to talk more about what he's been able to do since he made that shift, what independence allowed him to build,
00:03:06
Speaker
So Tim, thank you for joining
Founding Tradewinds: A New Approach
00:03:08
Speaker
us.
00:03:08
Speaker
Really excited to have you here.
00:03:09
Speaker
Absolutely, Ryan.
00:03:10
Speaker
Thank you for having me, Bill.
00:03:11
Speaker
Thanks for having me.
00:03:12
Speaker
It's a pleasure.
00:03:13
Speaker
Well, it's great to have you, Tim.
00:03:15
Speaker
I want to start with this question.
00:03:17
Speaker
You have had an interesting origin story, as they say.
00:03:21
Speaker
Tell us a bit about your journey to becoming an RIA and how that's helped enable you to grow your business.
00:03:30
Speaker
Sure, happy to.
00:03:31
Speaker
I was a second generation, right?
00:03:33
Speaker
I grew up with a father who made phone calls and sold stocks in the back bedroom as a kid.
00:03:39
Speaker
And that's what I knew growing up.
00:03:40
Speaker
We never talked baseball or football.
00:03:43
Speaker
We talked stocks and economy.
00:03:44
Speaker
So that was how I related to my father, Fred.
00:03:47
Speaker
So I was really happy to learn the business from him.
00:03:50
Speaker
But I learned it in the wire house, right?
00:03:52
Speaker
We learned it from the big banks in Wachovia is where I came in in 2003.
00:03:57
Speaker
And then I took over the business once Wells Fargo had acquired Wachovia Securities.
00:04:03
Speaker
And I knew that I had more of an entrepreneurial spirit in hand, but I knew nothing more than just the warehouse side.
00:04:09
Speaker
Out of respect for my father, of course, I was going to stay in there until he was gone.
00:04:13
Speaker
He was never going to leave that spot.
00:04:16
Speaker
I was having jump independent.
00:04:17
Speaker
Wells Fargo had an interesting option for us to go as a channel, and we jumped all over it.
00:04:24
Speaker
And it took about a year for us to realize as a team, because I left with a group of five to six, oh my gosh, we're on our own here.
00:04:31
Speaker
That's awesome.
Opportunities in Independence: Self-Regulation and Freedom
00:04:33
Speaker
And we realized we were actually running a business and we were just workhorse of financial advisors inside of a wire house.
00:04:38
Speaker
So we can kind of discuss a little bit more on how I grew and why I grew, but that was a great origin part of it.
00:04:44
Speaker
I came out of the wire house side, kind of a foot soldier, second gen alerted.
00:04:49
Speaker
And then all of a sudden the world opened up.
00:04:51
Speaker
And when we mean open up, we mean you have to pay for your lamps and your health insurance as well as advise clients.
00:04:57
Speaker
Well, so as we mentioned in the intro, the name of your firm now is Tradewinds.
00:05:01
Speaker
So I thought, can we talk about is there significance there?
00:05:04
Speaker
What does that mean and how did you land on that?
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, actually, my wife named it Kate.
00:05:09
Speaker
So we were sitting around thinking on what we were going to do.
00:05:13
Speaker
And most important to me is I did not want to have all the buzzwords.
00:05:17
Speaker
I did not want wealth management or advisors or have a lighthouse or a fortress or something like that.
00:05:24
Speaker
It just seemed to play out.
00:05:26
Speaker
We wanted something elemental, something unique that was its own purpose.
00:05:29
Speaker
It also didn't have my name in it, Whitney Wealth Management.
00:05:32
Speaker
We wanted something completely distant from that.
00:05:36
Speaker
So the trade winds are based upon, actually the Easterlings and the trade winds are a force that is consistent within the earth and they are consistent in their force and direction.
00:05:48
Speaker
And that's where the trade winds actually derive from, right?
00:05:51
Speaker
That ships would use that as they're navigating trade routes.
00:05:54
Speaker
That fit perfectly with us, right?
00:05:56
Speaker
Wind happened to be my favorite element as well.
00:06:00
Speaker
But it was something we could really grasp onto clients needs to be consistent They need us direction They need to be able to know that this is their ship and our job is to power them and the trade winds are really stuck and we love to have a few looked at our even our emblem It's something really cool.
00:06:18
Speaker
It's unique.
00:06:19
Speaker
It doesn't have anything that says hey give us your money it just shows its own breath and we really love that vision that way it
00:06:27
Speaker
my people with me can own it.
00:06:29
Speaker
It's not Tim Whitney's trade wins.
00:06:31
Speaker
It's trade wins.
00:06:32
Speaker
Now T and W is in there.
00:06:34
Speaker
So there's something cute
Aligning Services with Client Needs: Marketing and Events
00:06:36
Speaker
about that.
00:06:37
Speaker
So my ego got just enough with the DW, but really it's, it's, it's a great name.
00:06:43
Speaker
I think it fits perfectly.
00:06:45
Speaker
Tim, that's a great story.
00:06:48
Speaker
Obviously, over the years, I've met and worked with many, many financial advisors and RIAs.
00:06:54
Speaker
I've often asked the question, where did you come up with the name?
00:06:58
Speaker
I've got to be honest with you, I've not heard anyone as thoughtful as you around this, which leads me to my next question.
00:07:05
Speaker
And it's really around sort of this notion of growth.
00:07:08
Speaker
You left the wire house world for freedom or independence, as you said, being very familiar with the wire house world.
00:07:16
Speaker
They do a wonderful job often of constraining what we're able to do.
00:07:21
Speaker
And, you know, when, as I mentioned in my intro that, you know, the world's changed and people are looking for a different experience as it relates to financial advice and guidance.
00:07:32
Speaker
Talk to us a little bit about some of the things that you're doing that have really helped new relationships become a part of your business and things that you're doing to help grow the business with existing relationships.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:07:48
Speaker
And let me first give a shout out to the over overarching compliance from the wire houses.
00:07:56
Speaker
They have their place.
00:07:58
Speaker
It was really nice to be self-regulated when we stepped in the independent space.
00:08:03
Speaker
Nothing is more dangerous than somebody brand new coming into independence without self-regulation.
00:08:07
Speaker
So as much as we hated it, we really did love the fact that once we were able to govern ourselves in the independent space appropriately.
00:08:16
Speaker
So yeah,
00:08:17
Speaker
When we did jump, when we realized we had a lot of these constraints outside of FINRA and an institution, and we were regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, we realized, oh my gosh, we can market in new ways.
00:08:30
Speaker
We can say what we need to say as long as it's not promissory, as long as we weren't being egregious.
00:08:35
Speaker
And we had a lot of that self-regulation.
00:08:37
Speaker
already it allowed us to explore the things like blockchain and cryptocurrencies marijuana stocks the unique outliers even if we weren't to sell them we could discuss them when when we felt like in the inside our hands were clamped we were able to raise money when
00:08:55
Speaker
The hurricane strikes, you know, when we have Helene hitting Western North Carolina, we didn't have to ask anybody.
00:09:02
Speaker
We just started collecting goods and getting them out to the fire departments and the municipalities.
00:09:08
Speaker
Those kind of actions should happen immediately.
00:09:11
Speaker
And a lot of times when you go in the independent space, you have that ability.
00:09:16
Speaker
Clients loved that bill.
00:09:18
Speaker
They love the fact that they wanted to do something.
00:09:20
Speaker
We could be a conduit for them and we could act.
Authenticity in Business Decisions
00:09:23
Speaker
They have a question about what the heck is Bitcoin and Ethereum and we can discuss it.
00:09:28
Speaker
We're not there to sell it.
00:09:29
Speaker
We're not crypto bros, but we could actually have a sit down conversation about it.
00:09:33
Speaker
I can create a podcast myself about it or a one page piece and send it out as long as our compliance group, Keybridge, shout out to Keybridge, right?
00:09:41
Speaker
As long as they see it and sign off on it, we're okay.
00:09:45
Speaker
It allows clients to come in and literally sit down that first year and go,
00:09:51
Speaker
I didn't realize that you had the ability to do this and we got to laughingly come back to them and said neither did we we didn't realize that we could we could actually Own a little bit more of what we're doing so we create our own financial planning process our own investment style And clients have really enjoyed our ability to be free because they see that we now enjoy what we're doing we had a new guy come over and
00:10:13
Speaker
And it's fun to see for Todd, one of my new FAs, the same thing has fallen to him, that fate has dropped off from his shoulders and there's some freedom behind it.
00:10:21
Speaker
So I really love the independent space.
00:10:24
Speaker
Well, that flexibility that you've picked up really has allowed you to begin to tailor what you do on a per client basis.
00:10:34
Speaker
And you're not following a cookie cutter path.
00:10:37
Speaker
That's correct.
00:10:39
Speaker
I would say the big thing we did was we focused on marketing early.
00:10:41
Speaker
We wanted to get our message out early.
00:10:44
Speaker
We wanted to broadcast LinkedIn or host things.
00:10:47
Speaker
We wanted to host parties and events as long as they were appropriate.
00:10:50
Speaker
And again, we were self-regulated.
00:10:53
Speaker
um that is something that i believe a lot of the enterprises need to control and i could only imagine is as we scale that my will change faces and i know maybe i'll be out of business at that point if i have to shift into an enterprise corporate role in this space now i don't i'd get a lot of wonderful freedom what's important is we also created a client advisory board because we didn't want to just
00:11:16
Speaker
turn the message from we're going to broadcast what trade wins is if it wasn't appropriate for them right if if if it was corporate led not client led it was a fail so we ended up having a really good subset of clients we created a board we make sure we present everything to them we meet once a quarter and they get a lot of voice and say into that and then we execute it's a lot of fun
00:11:40
Speaker
Well, Tim, so I want to turn the conversation a bit to what other advisors and firm leaders out there can learn from how you've approached things.
00:11:48
Speaker
But one thing that really stands out to me in your story is being honest with yourself, right?
00:11:55
Speaker
Knowing that you had this entrepreneurial desire, that it's who you were, it's who you were wired to be, as well as the people that came with you.
00:12:02
Speaker
It's just really what you want to do and being honest with yourself.
00:12:04
Speaker
And on the flip side, I had an interesting conversation with a woman yesterday at Advisor Hub, the Advisors to Watch Summit,
00:12:11
Speaker
a long time, uh, Morgan Stanley advisor.
00:12:15
Speaker
Um, and we were talking about that and she was like, you know, everyone's going independent these days.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I just, I just don't want to, the idea of having to figure out, as you said, uh, insurance and an office space and, and lights and, um, all the various things that come with running a business.
00:12:30
Speaker
She's like, I just, I absolutely don't want to do that.
00:12:33
Speaker
It sounds horrible to me.
00:12:34
Speaker
I love being at a firm.
00:12:35
Speaker
And I thought that was great too, right?
00:12:37
Speaker
Is being honest with yourself.
00:12:38
Speaker
It's not, it doesn't have to be for everybody.
00:12:40
Speaker
So anyway, I just thought that was kind of stood out to me was knowing who you are, knowing what your strengths were, capitalizing on those and then looking for help where you need it.
00:12:50
Speaker
But anything else you'd add to that?
00:12:51
Speaker
Like what else can advisors learn from you?
00:12:54
Speaker
I applaud her answer, quite honestly.
00:12:56
Speaker
I think that's wonderful.
00:12:57
Speaker
She knows that she didn't want to do it.
00:12:59
Speaker
I think that's great.
00:13:01
Speaker
If that's the way she felt, good.
00:13:03
Speaker
That would be my reaction to you, Ryan, is be your truest self.
00:13:07
Speaker
Whoever is listening to this, either if you've been in the business for 20 years and you're wondering how the landscape has shifted and what do I change over to, or you're just starting, I think the most important thing is to be true to self.
00:13:19
Speaker
Whether that is you want to focus on a certain subset or group of population for me I love wanting to be data driven.
00:13:26
Speaker
I love being a chief executive officer of a firm I find myself being less and less of a financial advisor I love the people and clients I've worked with but more and more of a chief executive officer because you really do have to wear a lot of hats I love to get the letter from the Secures Exchange Commission because that's my job right so my my employees don't have to I would say again
00:13:48
Speaker
Be your truest self, be your purest form, because one, clients can smell mad.
00:13:52
Speaker
If they know you're trying to be something you're not because you read it in a book, you're going to get sniffed out.
00:13:58
Speaker
The other side of that is if you do become really pure and true to what you love to do, you know, an investment manager or a full financial planner, or you just like to sit around and talk politics, and that's what brings clients in.
00:14:11
Speaker
That's who you'll attract.
00:14:12
Speaker
You'll attract those clients.
00:14:14
Speaker
You'll attract those employees that want to work with you.
00:14:17
Speaker
You're going to be happier in the long run.
00:14:19
Speaker
There's nothing worse than getting a phone call from somebody, be it a client or an employee, and go, oh, I don't know if I want to pick this up.
00:14:26
Speaker
And similarly, if you're calling a client and you don't have a good relationship, they're probably looking at the phone going, I don't want to pick this phone call up.
00:14:34
Speaker
But if you like what you're doing because you're true to yourself and people can see it, you know, you've created some great magic there.
Data Control and Hybrid Approach
00:14:41
Speaker
And I would say that's a beautiful advice.
00:14:43
Speaker
So I applaud her just staying in the business.
00:14:46
Speaker
I agree with you, Tim.
00:14:48
Speaker
I think that's fundamentally the most important decision you make, right?
00:14:53
Speaker
And it's not easy to do what you did.
00:14:56
Speaker
There are tremendous rewards in doing that.
00:14:58
Speaker
But at the same time, you've got to understand what your strengths and weaknesses are.
00:15:02
Speaker
I want to go back to something you just mentioned in your last answer, which was around data and this desire to control your data.
00:15:11
Speaker
How do you creatively use the data that you're capturing to create value for your clients?
00:15:22
Speaker
And how is that contributing to your ability to sustain a unique market position?
00:15:27
Speaker
Oh, I love it, Bill.
00:15:28
Speaker
We could be here all day talking because I really do enjoy that.
00:15:31
Speaker
And I came out of a computer science background.
00:15:33
Speaker
I have a degree in international business, but before then I was a coder and a computer science major.
00:15:39
Speaker
So I'm able to already speak in that language and I can draw to that language in software development.
00:15:45
Speaker
For that reason, we realize there is a big movement here.
00:15:50
Speaker
that used to be on-premises server farms now to the cloud and it tends to go up and down on-prem and into the cloud.
00:15:58
Speaker
Right now, there's a huge push with Microsoft and Google and Amazon, the AWS space to go
00:16:04
Speaker
into the cloud, we're going the opposite way, we are coming into a hybrid approach.
00:16:08
Speaker
So we actually have our own server on house with battery backups, we have our own switches, you know, we're controlling everything in house, while working with Microsoft Azure's just happened who we're using.
00:16:20
Speaker
I love controlling our data so we can get a direct feed from Trade PMR, First Clearing Corporation.
00:16:27
Speaker
I mean, it's our data.
00:16:28
Speaker
It's kind of all of our data, right?
00:16:31
Speaker
It's beamed out there.
00:16:32
Speaker
So I think a lot of RIAs and leaders need to understand you control this stuff.
00:16:37
Speaker
And there's an expectation that you've got just as much responsibility for the data.
00:16:42
Speaker
Because of that...
00:16:43
Speaker
We build on top of it, too.
00:16:45
Speaker
So now we can go in and start to catalyze what our data is.
00:16:49
Speaker
What is it saying?
00:16:50
Speaker
What is it able to what is it able to read for us?
00:16:53
Speaker
If something happens in the cloud level, like CrowdStrike shuts down, we still get to operate.
00:16:59
Speaker
That's a beautiful that's a beautiful thing that we have.
00:17:03
Speaker
For REAs that don't want to do it, here's Tregwinds, right?
00:17:07
Speaker
I'm able to do that for you.
00:17:08
Speaker
So I offer something unique above and beyond just a culture and, you know, my personal group and the people we work with.
00:17:15
Speaker
I actually offer an on-premises data center.
00:17:19
Speaker
We can help compile that.
00:17:21
Speaker
I'm the nerd in the group.
00:17:22
Speaker
So I'm the capitalist CEO and the data crunching nerd.
00:17:26
Speaker
That's a pretty unique opportunity I can give to people.
Planning for Continuity and Sustainability
00:17:30
Speaker
Clients don't understand it as much, and they shouldn't, I don't think.
00:17:34
Speaker
I don't think clients need to understand the fact that they're giving away data at every moment.
00:17:38
Speaker
But rest assured, you better be able to answer the question of who is in control of your data, Tim, an REA leader and financial advisor.
00:17:46
Speaker
Do you have any say or control in that?
00:17:48
Speaker
And you better be able to answer it, I think, is a good problem or good solution.
00:17:52
Speaker
Tim, that's incredibly important.
00:17:55
Speaker
Data is a big topic today, both from the security perspective, but also as it relates to this ability to create a better personalized outcome or experience for our clients.
00:18:06
Speaker
I know that that's becoming a much bigger component of it.
00:18:10
Speaker
And when you think about that in terms of building a firm for the future and growth,
00:18:16
Speaker
data becomes a very important component of it.
00:18:18
Speaker
But also, as a leader, as a founder, as a CEO of the firm, how are you thinking about sustainability and succession?
00:18:26
Speaker
And how are you preparing your firm for that reality?
00:18:29
Speaker
At some point, you're a young guy, you can be around for a long time, but I think it takes time to really build a foundation that creates a sustainable business.
00:18:39
Speaker
Talk to us a little bit about how you're thinking and approaching that.
00:18:43
Speaker
Bill, it's a great question.
00:18:44
Speaker
And I think we owe it to ourselves to put everything on the line for the good of our firms.
00:18:51
Speaker
I just, again, the reason Tradewinds came to pass and my name's not tethered to it is because if I died, it should not wither on the vine.
00:19:00
Speaker
So we've done a lot of the work for continuity planning.
00:19:03
Speaker
We have a leadership team.
00:19:06
Speaker
You know, heads of departments.
00:19:07
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I've got a fail safe.
00:19:09
Speaker
If something were to happen to me, Stephanie Williams is my president.
00:19:12
Speaker
She works right underneath me.
00:19:13
Speaker
She's she's she is the in-house leader.
00:19:17
Speaker
And we've got the ability to say, all right, you all, if any one of us move, how does this thing continue to go?
00:19:23
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I could be removed.
00:19:24
Speaker
They lose me.
00:19:25
Speaker
They lose who I am.
00:19:27
Speaker
But that doesn't mean trade wins as an organization falls and fails.
00:19:30
Speaker
So what I would say to anyone listening to this is you have to do continuity planning now.
00:19:36
Speaker
You've got to have a plan in place even though I'm only 46 and I may be doing this for a decade and a half or so You need to have any kind of plans drawn out in place clients should even know that And we did it because I was willing to put it all on the line I literally had to stand in front of my team and say any one of you are replaceable and that Pointed back at me too if I was destructive to trade wins because I was making bad business plays or saying something egregious I had to go
00:20:06
Speaker
And we all put ourselves on the line for the good of the firm.
00:20:10
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And once the management team bought into that, that the firm was important and then we supported that, we were driving forward.
00:20:18
Speaker
It gave us a value system and a reason to create.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker
So and then to the other side of that, for the continuity side, when we're talking about succession, then you need the legal documents in place.
00:20:29
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Sit down.
00:20:30
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You know, you have to have your LLC set up correctly.
00:20:33
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You have to have the accounting in place.
00:20:35
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You have to have the legal affairs in place with your capital markets attorney.
00:20:38
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Make sure people know it.
00:20:41
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that's a brand get a big insurance policy in case one of you dies.
00:20:46
Speaker
I would say, you're, you're, you're, you're spot on, Tim, because you know, it isn't just about getting real estate in office, furniture and equipment and technology.
00:20:57
Speaker
to build a business.
00:20:58
Speaker
And I think your approach to it, and that's really the reason I wanted to ask that question is fundamentally, and you said it right from the top, which is, you know, you've got to be structured correctly, if you're building a sustainable business.
00:21:11
Speaker
And I guess my question is, why wouldn't you build a sustainable business?
00:21:15
Speaker
So I appreciate your insight and thinking around that.
00:21:19
Speaker
Absolutely.
Symbolism in Business: The Element of Wind
00:21:20
Speaker
Well, so as we wrap up our conversation, you know, one thing I want to, I had my notes I want to bring up that I strong disagree with here is that wind being your favorite element.
00:21:28
Speaker
I mean, you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but come on, wind can ruin a perfectly nice day at the beach or on a ski slope.
00:21:34
Speaker
You got, you got water and fire right there.
00:21:37
Speaker
Come on, man.
00:21:38
Speaker
It's a special.
00:21:40
Speaker
I mean, when when when hits wind can really destruct but I do love it.
00:21:45
Speaker
There's something beautiful and powerful, but also call me as terrible as it can be to can also cool you on a day at the beach to right
00:21:53
Speaker
That's true, that's true.
00:21:54
Speaker
But I love the story of the name of the firm and everything you shared.
00:21:59
Speaker
So as we kind of wrap it up, I guess, what we'd like to do here on the podcast is share three
Future-Proofing: Automation, Blockchain, Delegation
00:22:04
Speaker
actionable items.
00:22:04
Speaker
So anyone that listens to us can take home or take you on the way to the office and enact right away to help drive growth and build their enterprise value.
00:22:13
Speaker
What would be your three recommendations?
00:22:15
Speaker
I had to think about this for a little while here, you know, because I've been asked these questions before, but I would say be prepared to automate.
00:22:24
Speaker
That's the biggest thing that if you're doing manual processes, whether it's Excel spreadsheets and tax coding, you need to stress test those.
00:22:33
Speaker
And if you grow at scale, you go from 100 clients to 1,000 clients, they're going to break.
00:22:39
Speaker
So you need to be able to stress test and automate any manual processes.
00:22:43
Speaker
That's a big, big thing, especially in today's changing environment.
00:22:46
Speaker
The landscape, everybody says the landscape is shifting.
00:22:49
Speaker
Nope, it's already shifted, right?
00:22:50
Speaker
The landscape has shifted.
00:22:53
Speaker
The other thing is that you really need to embrace the fact that there is a defining technology that has hit the world, and that is blockchain technology.
00:23:02
Speaker
And digital assets and cryptocurrency, again, we're not worrying about the actual currency, but you need to be quite aware that this is going to shift how the world interacts with each other and advisors need to be knowledgeable of that.
00:23:16
Speaker
You have to be.
00:23:18
Speaker
The last thing I would say is, especially as a leader, you better be prepared to wear all hats and find which ones that you don't do very well and be able to hand that hat to somebody else.
00:23:27
Speaker
Because the best thing I ever did was give up the keys of the finance
00:23:32
Speaker
to Tracy Nobles, who is much more gifted than I. And we just had our quarterly meeting yesterday and she reported on that.
00:23:40
Speaker
And, you know, we were knocking it out of the park, but it's only because I had to humble myself and give over some responsibility and experience to somebody much more gifted than I. So you're bought to wear all hats?
00:23:53
Speaker
And I would say don't.
00:23:54
Speaker
Well, that's great, Tim.
00:23:55
Speaker
Thank you so much again for joining us on the podcast.
00:23:58
Speaker
And thanks.
00:23:58
Speaker
I think we had a dog guest star at the end there somewhere.
00:24:00
Speaker
So shout out to the puppy.
00:24:02
Speaker
We love our pets here on the podcast.
00:24:04
Speaker
So Tim, thanks again.
00:24:06
Speaker
Thank you, gentlemen, for having me.
00:24:08
Speaker
It was much appreciated.
Conclusion and Recap
00:24:09
Speaker
Thank you very much.
00:24:10
Speaker
So as a brief recap of the three action items that Tim shared, one is to be prepared to automate.
00:24:17
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Number two, be aware of the blockchain.
00:24:20
Speaker
Even if you're not recommending cryptocurrencies, at least know how that technology is impacting the financial systems of the world.
00:24:27
Speaker
And three, as a CEO, you're going to wear a lot of hats.
00:24:30
Speaker
So find which ones fit you and the ones that don't, be ready to hand them off to someone that can maybe do it better than you can.
00:24:36
Speaker
So...
00:24:37
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed today's conversation.
00:24:39
Speaker
If you like what you heard, please take a moment to like and subscribe, follow us on social media, and thanks again for listening.
00:24:46
Speaker
And Tim, I'd like to share my thanks with you as well for joining us.
00:24:49
Speaker
And to our listeners, thanks for listening.
00:24:52
Speaker
And watch out for our next episode where we'll bring you even more insight and actionable ideas to help you grow your business.
00:24:59
Speaker
And remember, the challenge is yours to capitalize on what the future offers.
00:25:06
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If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at SynergizePodcast.com.
00:25:12
Speaker
This content is provided for general information purposes only.
00:25:16
Speaker
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00:25:24
Speaker
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00:25:33
Speaker
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00:25:36
Speaker
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00:25:40
Speaker
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00:25:43
Speaker
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00:25:45
Speaker
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00:25:51
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:25:59
Speaker
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00:26:03
Speaker
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00:26:09
Speaker
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00:26:11
Speaker
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00:26:12
Speaker
For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit SynergizedPodcast.com.