Welcome, Conor. Good to see you again. Conor Delaney (00:11) Good to see you too, man. Forgot to introduce yourself. Nick Lepresti, Chief of Staff. each other’s left hand. Or, I’m the left and you’re the right. One of those two. Nick LoPresti (00:20) Yeah, that sounds about right. Yes, Nick Lepresti, Chief of Staff for Good Life. So Conor and I work hand in hand every day on all things good life. And so, you know, there’s a question I have for you that transcends seasons. It transcends weather patterns. If you could be any character for Halloween, what would you be? Conor Delaney (00:46) Oh man, know, harkens me back to, I think the best one that I’ve done of late is my fourth son, Boston, or my fourth child, Boston, was so clingy when he was one, he’s now four, that we did the, and Trolls was a big thing back then, so I was the dad from Trolls, I forget his name, Pebbles or something, and he was tiny. Tiny Dancer or whatever, he was like the little version and he was just strapped to me all night. So we have some good pictures of that. Generally, and you and I have talked about this, we are not the costume type of guys. But I think every once in a while when there’s kids involved, you make the exception or please the kids. Nick LoPresti (01:33) That’s right. Well, when you were taking that and knowing that your little one was attached to you, I was thinking, oh my gosh, is he going to say like Mrs. Doubtfire? Is that where he’s going with this? Nope, not so much. Well, today what we want to talk a little bit about is the idea of advisors moving into a mindset of being more CEO driven. Conor Delaney (01:42) Nope. Nope. Nick LoPresti (02:02) thinking about when we start these businesses and you’ve started a financial advising practice, I started a financial advising practice, you know, it’s really easy to only focus on how do I become a financial advisor? We do continuing ed, there’s all kinds of stuff that we get into to enhance our skills, but as you grow, then there starts to be this skill that a lot of people don’t have inherently, which is to start to think like, a real business owner, a CEO, for instance. So for you, like when did that shift start to happen for you personally, when you went from, hey, I’m a financial advisor out roaming the countryside, meeting with prospects, meeting with clients, and then starting to think like, hmm, this is an actual business that I’ve built. Conor Delaney (02:55) ⁓ So ⁓ I’m stuck on when you said continuing education because ⁓ that’s been the season as you know that I’ve been in lately. And so you said, I think you said continuing education enhances our learning. And I would actually admit that it is enhancing my lack of sleep because there’s so much of it now. But nonetheless, know, the experience as a business owner for me, ⁓ it started at almost right away. I remember I was passionate about being a great financial advisor and to helping all the people that reminded me of my dad that, you know, wasn’t really aspiring or didn’t really have the ability to be that top Merrill Lynch client or the top Morgan Stanley client, but ⁓ still needed help. still needed to understand the core tenets of financial planning and whatnot. so for me, was this cool sort of two trains coming to the station at the same time. This passion to help other people aligned with the desire to own a business. And for me, that was really the, even the beginning chapters. That said, you get into this. to become an advisor, I need to be licensed, learn how to prospect, understand the business, understand the technology, get good at financial planning, be creative and allow creativity to take over in your recommendations of what a certain client’s situation looks like versus the next guy that’s gonna walk in the door. And you lose sight sometimes of that initial passion that I also had to build a business. ⁓ going back and becoming a truly independent advisor was that sort of reset that I needed to think like, okay, we have this base of a client service model that is going to allow people to engage with us in a way that’s different than what the experience might be if they were at a large firm. But how do I do that in a way now that’s gonna create the right business value going forward for me and for those stakeholders that were involved? Nick LoPresti (04:50) Sure. And do you remember when you had to hire your first employee? Conor Delaney (04:55) I do. ⁓ It was probably my second year in the business where I started to realize that the administrative help was, administrative need was requiring me to go in and hire somebody. Nick LoPresti (05:07) And how did you find them? How did you screen them? Like what skill did you have at that point in bringing another person into your business? Conor Delaney (05:16) I mean, what skill did I have at all? I I passed a couple of tests. That was the extent of the skills back then ⁓ to do anything. I often wake up and be like, can’t believe people are actually assuming I can help them. But ⁓ down that road, there was a couple of advisors in our office that hadn’t found success. They were able to pass the test, but they weren’t. ⁓ successful as an advisor. They just didn’t like the prospect and element or something like that. It really got me to one of my early conclusions in my career, which is that you have those analyzers and the socializers. The analyzers are the ones that can pass the test the first go around. ⁓ And they’re great at the financial planning process. They’re gonna have alphabet soup after their name because they’re incredibly smart and able to get the test passed. The socializers, the guy that ⁓ struggles to take the test and took a little bit of extra time to take the test, but can take complex market things and actually whether it’s product or strategies or ideas and bring that down to a level that the average person’s gonna be able to relate to, which affords them the ability to get the clients, right? So for me, I always had no problem bringing the next client in the door, but I had a big problem with when you have 30 clients and you’re not that administrative focused person that wants to dive deep on every subject matter inside of the core tenants of financial planning, I had to go and find that help. So initially that was where I went to go and seek that individual. Nick LoPresti (06:44) And would it be fair to say that the administrative support you need today is different than the administrative support you needed when your practice was brand new? Conor Delaney (06:55) Well yeah, mean, you know, inside of a growing practice, like the first maybe $30 million as an advisor, you’re kind of putting some of the foundational things together. If you’re smart, you are. I wasn’t, by the way. was, what do they say, building the plane as you’re flying it. And so ⁓ my first need was like, I just can’t get to the follow-up phone calls, the organization of the quarterly reviews, and the financial plans while I have four new clients, a client event to get to, and 10 phone calls to return. So I am just in triage mode, who can give me more runway space? That’s completely different now where we can define a specific body of work and then find the right body to do that. Nick LoPresti (07:42) Sure. And so fair to say that as your practice as an advisor grew, there may have been some ⁓ gaps in your skill set in terms of identifying great talent, identifying and creating job descriptions. It’s amazing, and you and I have both had conversations with ⁓ advisors over the years where they’ve had somebody in the same seat for a long time, and when you ask them what’s their job description, they have no… earthly clue what we’re talking about. Right? And that’s where I think that business owner mindset starts to become more important is do I have the right people in the right seats doing the right thing? Conor Delaney (08:25) It’s this weird reverse to go forward, if you can. Especially when you are looking at an advisor that might leave a large organization that has a culture of sales versus a culture of service, and that sales north star changes every year to a place where now they don’t have that sales manager changing the rules on them. And so they’re in a position where they are trying to develop a model that they can service their clients well, while at the same time, if they hit the mark, great. If they miss the mark, it doesn’t matter. A lot of times that trickles down to the folks that, like the culture that becomes, because of permissive culture inside of their business, where they might have a staff member that, if they do what needs to get done, great. If they miss the mark, we still have a good business. And I really think that’s the difference between the businesses that can put the right constructs in place to define winning and then take that winning mentality to the office every day versus the person that says, well, you know what, I didn’t win, I didn’t even compete, but I still got a good business. It becomes this sort of, ⁓ not something that is going to be a multi-generational business or built to last business, but it’s a business that fits the need maybe for the advisor, maybe for the employee, but. it’s the reverse of what it should be. Can we build a business that serves the client first and then meets that advisors needs third with the employees needs, development, skill sets, and able to create the right environment for them being that thing between those two. Nick LoPresti (10:08) Yeah, that’s right. And we know, mean, if you took a basic business course, that the CEO’s top priority is always shareholder value. And if I’m an independent financial advisor, I might be a shareholder of one, right? If I’m a sole proprietor, maybe I’m a shareholder of two, or I have a business who’s got two shareholders, me and my spouse or whatever. But there is a difference between looking at my sales pipeline today and looking at my P &L for the business tomorrow. Two different skill sets, two different sets of eyes, right? And I think that’s one of the things that GoodLife has really created that environment to help independent advisors do both extremely successfully. Conor Delaney (11:00) think you hit the nail on the head. I think a lot of times advisors are beholden to their cash flow instead of beholden to a strategy. And the cash flow dictates the behavior. And really the… leniency towards a reduction in cash flow, you kind of hit that point where you say, okay, now it’s starting to hurt a little bit. Well, the markets are down last month. A client left last month. Circumstances changed. So guess I will have cash flow dictate what I’m going to do next. Instead of having a strategy dictate what you’re gonna do next, they’re having a plan dictate what you’re gonna do next. And ironically, we’re financial advisors by nature, but oftentimes lack our own business plan on where we’re heading next. And if you have employees, that’s one of the dangerous traps, is that if you haven’t defined where you’re going next, they don’t know where they’re going either. And that creates a scenario a lot of times that doesn’t always yield the best outcomes, because if we’re not leading, as advisors, therefore moving more towards that business ownership and that CEO mentality, then our employees are going to be just as confused as we are or just as ⁓ tolerable to mediocrity as we might be. Put those constraints together. build that strategy, and then take your employees along for a ride they’re gonna enjoy, instead of something that they might look back six months or a year later and just be confused or be kind of sitting in that lane of mediocrity. Nick LoPresti (12:31) And I think one of the favorite questions that we get to engage with advisors on from time to time, and I would ask any independent advisor who’s out listening to this podcast at the moment to consider this question. If an investor were to come to your business and want to put capital to work for you, here’s 50,000, here’s 100,000, here’s $500,000 for you to utilize in your business, do you have a game plan? Do you know where you would want to? put those dollars to help you grow the business further or create some efficiencies for your business. And again, I think that’s where Good Life has really, really accelerated a lot of advisors practices is helping them think about those scenarios, be able to assess where the business is today, where they’ve got gaps, where they would want to spend resources to help grow the practice further. and all of those to speak of why do it? To protect the time, protect your time. Creating efficiencies is about protecting time for the chief executive. So how important do you think it is for advisors to have a real good sense of their priority management skills, their time management skills? How important is that? Conor Delaney (13:56) You know, the question is, does the business run you or do you run the business? You know, and I think a lot of people, the idea is like, ⁓ man, I don’t have to punch a clock. That’s awesome. I don’t have sales goals. That’s awesome. But that doesn’t mean that you have freedom. If you haven’t put the right frameworks in place to give you the freedom by actually creating structure, then… you might find yourself working more and inefficiencies ⁓ kind of permeate through your business. One of the better pieces of advice somebody reminded me of one time is this idea that not all people are like you. Not all people are gonna think like you. Not all people are gonna act like you. And that can either be a good comment or that can be a bad comment. And for me, I look at some of the behaviors of advisors where they have underperforming ⁓ assets in terms of the way that they’re performing relative. market in terms of whether they’re performing in a way that’s a profitable client, ⁓ for example. And I think about what that trickle down might look like. If I take over that business, I’m immediately gonna look like, how do I modernize it? How do I reimagine it? How do I redesign it? How do I create the right efficiencies that yields the best results? Starting with the client first, is it a better relationship for them? Then with the employee experience and then finally with me as the stakeholder of the business. And a lot of times that’s not being done. And so a lot of people will say, we hear it all the time. Well, man, I can’t charge the client more. Okay, well if the client’s not generating a return for you, then how willing, capable, and desirable is it to answer that phone call? And some of us, all of us, I think have the right heart, many of us, I won’t say all, people have the right heart to take the call, but there comes a point in time where it’s just human nature. If you’re not generating some sort of return on that, and that person’s inside of your business, and you have them inside of your business, look, if you wanna help them, they need somebody to donate a pint of blood, that’s fine, leave that over here. But when it comes to am I driving a profitable relationship inside of my business, it’s amazing how long it takes advisors sometimes to get to that conclusion of I am going to allocate a certain amount of time. and it’s better for the client if I’m being paid for that time because if I’m not, one of two things is gonna happen. I’m either gonna get irritated and frustrated and therefore not wanna engage with them long term or I’m not gonna take their phone call, leaving them out to dry. And so if you set up the right relationship where it’s profitable for the client, it’s profitable for the business and therefore it’s profitable for you, everybody starts to win and it creates the most healthy, dynamic ⁓ ecosystem that’s gonna give you the ability to have that relationship long term. Nick LoPresti (16:41) And what sort of advice might you offer up to an independent advisor who is continuing to try and do it all themselves? You know, I’m gonna do it in-house. I’m gonna handle everything myself. Every report I generate is from me. Every plan I do, I’m gonna generate. ⁓ What advice would you give those advisors? Conor Delaney (17:07) Well, first of all, kudos to them because… that takes a lot of discipline across many different ways that you’re capable of thinking and acting to be able to even do that. And it’s very rare that somebody can do everything from the activity of diagnosing what’s happening inside of a client’s portfolio to the organization of the strategy to creatively creating that strategy. That takes a unique brain to be able to do all those different things because it’s left mind, right mind, left mind, right mind. So kudos to the person that can do that. The watch out I would give them is that your ability to optimize your capabilities as what some might argue is a genius, because you can do both that left-minded and right-minded thing, that limitation is going to set in. Because there’s only so many hours in a day for you to do that. And so if you are skilled and capable enough to do everything across the disciplines in your business, awesome. But just know that in a better way, in a better model, if you allow for a little bit less control that you might have on something and a little bit better delegation that you might be able to do to some sort of downline support system, you actually might be able to help more people. And if you can help more people and extend your wisdom and advice and guidance to them, it’s gonna create a more profitable outcome for you. And again, I think arguably a more profitable outcome for the end client. Nick LoPresti (18:32) Yeah, that’s right. And you know, there’s a really tough word, I’m not even sure we’re allowed to use it on air, but you and I have had this conversation that the toughest word sometimes for a chief executive is the word no. Being able to say no, how important is that in terms of protecting your time? Conor Delaney (18:59) Well, I’m really bad at it. So it’s not an area where, especially when it comes to management of time and calendar specifically. And I think it’s because, you know, anybody that is ascending from any position. I don’t care if you’re starting off bagging groceries and you eventually become the guy that manages the grocery store or you’re somebody that starts off as ⁓ somebody organizing data for a financial advisor and then all of a you become the advisor and become the manager of the office and maybe you have the privilege and the good fortune to steward the whole firm one day. Your ability to do that is because you have… ⁓ heart to want to take on more and you have the brain to be able to want to take on more. And there is definitely a point on that runway that you’re running out of space and you know that the desire to say yes is still there, but the ability to say yes is not. And I think that that for me was one of those places where when we were a firm that was doing, you know, ⁓ six or seven hundred thousand dollars in revenue, ⁓ I was running out of space. And it was really only when we started to think differently about organizational design, time management, and how we could create the right leverage points to tell the good life story to a broader marketplace that we were able to go from not 700,000 to a million, but from 700,000 to a hundred million. And the way to get there was seeing in that OD how the advisors that we serve play a role in taking our desire to say yes to their clients, right? And our desire to say yes to help them develop the right ecosystem that they would be successful in. And then on the other side of it, to have all the employees that were there to create the right leverage points for their advisors so that their advisors could say yes more often. So I think that the question isn’t, can we figure out how to guard our time by getting the courage to say no. I think it’s saying, How do we develop the right frameworks that we can say yes more often in a way that’s gonna be scalable and not have the advisor be beholden to his business, but have his business be beholden to the effect and the positive change it can have for the people that he’s serving. Nick LoPresti (21:12) Yeah, insightful, extremely insightful. ⁓ And lastly, today, let’s talk a little bit about the importance that vision, mission, values play for an advisor in their business. How important are those things to an advisor? If you go out to an advisor’s website, most of them you can identify a mission statement relatively easily, but Why are those things so important and not just a check the box experience? Conor Delaney (21:45) It’s a reflection of your personality. so mission values purpose is going to be the culmination of who you are and what you represent. And that’s not a right thing or a wrong thing, but it’s going to attract the types of people that you desire to be those that you’re in the trenches with and or those that you’re serving. And so you can come up with something that is pithy and sits on a wall. ⁓ or you can have that be the thing that becomes that North Star in your business. you know, for us, especially in this crazy world that we’re in, we have to find that balance, but not at the cost of… compromising the character and the DNA of the firm. And so, you know, that might mean that along the way, you know, people are, people might get offended with the notion of a servant’s heart. You push it too far, Conor. Saying servant’s heart means that you’re leaning too far to this or too far to that. Well, that’s who we are. And that’s how we do things. Or when we talk about bringing a blue collar work ethic to a white collar job, or we talk about giving 110 % of what we’re able to give every day and leaving it all in the field. Or we talk about operating with integrity. man, that’s a high bar to meet. It is. And if you want to work in a place that doesn’t have that high bar, then go work there. There’s plenty of them. But if you leave that on the shelf because you say that, it’s too big of ⁓ an object that might draw attention to us. then long term, you’re probably gonna miss a big part of what your ultimate mission is, which is hopefully to serve others. Who you define the others to be, that’s on you. And how you create the personality around that, that’s on you. But have the courage to stand in and say, this is who we are, this is what we stand for. And then let the market dictate whether or not that’s a good idea. Nick LoPresti (23:33) Yeah, excellent. I think that’s a easily overlooked opportunity when advisors are reimagining their business or thinking about making a change. And that’s one of the things I feel like our team at Good Life has done extremely well is helping advisors create those ⁓ mission, vision, those value conversations, and then figure out a way to take that out to the broader marketplace to get. Conor Delaney (24:04) Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, a big part of the reason why advisors leave where they’re at to come to where they’re going is because they see that. They get fed up with it. I’ve had to keep who I am in a box for too long, and I want to go to a place that I can actually be the advisor that stands behind the principles that I want to stand for. Again, doesn’t matter what they are. There’s a shop out there for everybody. But what we’re seeing is that those that have been kind of left to kind of leave their personality and their values and their vision and everything that they are at the door when they walk into their office, those are the advisors that saying, hang on a second, there’s a way for me to tell my story different, there’s a way for me to express how I want to serve my clients different than what I’ve been doing thus far and it’s created this really cool place for us to say, yes, who is it that you want your clients to know that you are? Not to think that you are. Not to think what you’re hiding behind, but who do you want your clients to know you are? And then let’s have our marketing team build that brand for you and give you that thing that you can stand alongside of and be proud of, you know? Nick LoPresti (25:14) Yeah, agreed. Well, I this has been a really helpful conversation ⁓ this afternoon, this morning. I think this has been a really helpful conversation for advisors. Hopefully they feel the same way. And we’ll pick it up next time with this sort of continued idea around when you look in the mirror as an advisor, what do you see? Do you see Nick, the financial advisor who’s worried about you know, my clients needs and preparing financial plans and giving great investment advice. Or do I see Nick, the business owner, who in addition to all that is really worried about maximizing shareholder value. So. ⁓ Conor Delaney (25:57) Interesting to talk about man, and there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just a matter of who is it that you want to be and how can you align with companies like ours to help you get there. Nick LoPresti (26:10) That’s right. All right. Well, good seeing you, and we’ll catch up again soon. Conor Delaney (26:14) Yes, sir. Go Bears. Nick LoPresti (26:16) Go bears.