In a Nutshell: The top 20% of RIAs aren't just the biggest. They're the firms whose best practices lead to sustained growth, high valuation, and an enduring business.

Guests: Lisa Salvi, Vice President, Advisor Services, Charles Schwab and Catharine Aguilar, Chief Marketing Officer, CornerCap Wealth Advisors. 

My Key Takeaway: To prepare your firm to make a big leap in 2021:

1. Standardize your workflow, write out your plans, and strengthen your value proposition by creating a clear, definitive ideal client profile/persona. These are actionable activities that can lead to growth and low attrition.
2. Build metrics that allow you to track and manage your progress on top-line growth, customer service, and profitability--and hold your team accountable for meeting them.
3. Always be recruiting. Billion-dollar firms are always hiring the best people, even if that means poaching from another advisory firm.

Also Learn:

1. Why Lisa, Catharine, and I are such big believers in the annual planning process.
2. How hiring a diverse group of top performers from inside and outside of finance can lead to stronger culture and greater innovation.
3. What kinds of motivation and incentives the next generation of your firm's leadership will respond to.
4. How embracing authenticity can lead you to more effective social media strategies.

In a Nutshell: Computers are for number crunching. When it comes to managing people, leaders have to nurture the qualitative if they want to drive quantitative results.

Guest: Walter Booker, the Chief Operating Officer of MarketCounsel, the premier business and regulatory consulting firm focused exclusively on the RIA sector, along with its affiliate, The Hamburger Law Firm.

My Key Takeaway: To take a holistic approach to managing your team:

1. Focus on the "soft stuff." Teaching your people how to manage portfolios is easy. Helping them grow as people so that they can be more effective advisors is how you create real value for your firm.
2. Let your people be who they are. Covid-19 and WFH are changing the boundaries between our professional and personal selves. Make sure your employees know you embrace both.
3. Treat your team the same way you treat your clients. Caring that goes beyond the numbers will trickle down through the rest of your organization and across your whole client base.

Also Learn:

1. Why "who" your team members are matters more than "what" they are.
2. How to apply the same process of discovery and values-matching to potential hires that you use with potential clients.
3. How improving your cultural fluency and embracing diversity can lead you to a talent goldmine.
4. What Walter Booker learned about teamwork and diversity from working on his own "Island of Misfit Toys."