C.C.

the firm’s flywheel is not designed to make you money, it is designed to make the firm money. If you want to be a high performing Advisor you must re-invent the wheel. open.substack.com/pub/thechairma…

If I were starting today as a new financial advisor, here’s exactly what I’d do: • Get your CFP, practical and the designation spends money marketing to the public. • Avoid the CFA (I have mine), it’s a grind and zero retail clients know what it is • Build a real investment philosophy (not just active vs passive, that’s lazy) – Know what you believe – Why you believe it – Who else believes it • Be able to answer the top 20 common client questions cold. First, know the questions. They’re timeless. And less tethered to current market dynamics than you think. • Find 1-3 mentors — meet at least monthly (good mentors are CRITICAL. It’s the equivalent of time travel. Vastly more important than your first job) • Attach yourself to a rainmaker and beg to help on their biggest clients (for free if necessary). The experience you will parlay for a lifetime. And new clients will trust you more. • Master retirement plans. All of them. Consider becoming a 401k/457/403b enrollment expert. They are a treasure chest of wealth clients. • Decide exactly what type of client you want to serve. Be specific. Very specific. Be where those people are — constantly Advanced items: • OWN YOUR CLIENTS. If not legally, emotionally. This is where the big money is. • At an RIA? What’s the path to firm equity? Meaningful equity. Is it granted and do you buy in? What are the terms? Valuation? If fuzzy → pause • At a wirehouse? Be cautious • At a bank? Don’t just earn client trust — earn affection • If you can’t own relationships early, be prepared to inevitably switch firms. Final truth: If you deliver more value than clients thought possible, they’ll love you forever. They’ll follow you to your next firm. They’ll follow you when you start your own firm. But there’s no shortcut. It takes ~10 years. Be excellent — and you will succeed

@blakeaburge Underrated advice. This is the way.

Major cheat code for life: Be patient with yourself when you’re trying to become someone you’ve never been. You’ll feel lost, unsure, and tempted to quit. Don't. Change feels chaotic because your old self is fighting for survival. Expect it to be a battle. But also expect to win.

Portfolio construction matters, but far less than we'd like to believe. The advisor who prevents a panic sale during a 40% drawdown creates more value than a decade of factor tilts. Competence isn't complexity. Often it's the opposite.

These aren't sexy. They don't require proprietary strategies. The real career risk isn't being "too simple." It's building a practice dependent on complexity that doesn't reliably deliver.

Most advisors emphasizing portfolio sophistication are solving for their own value proposition, not client outcomes.

Private Wealth Advisors, often employed by major banks or specialized wealth firms, manage massive amounts of AUM. Their payout % is usually lower than a fully independent advisor (e.g., 40-55%), they generate the highest overall compensation in the industry due to AUM volumes.

The top 10% of personal financial advisors typically earn an annual compensation of over $208,000, with the elite producers' take-home pay quickly escalating into the millions.

The distribution of revenue for Advisors across the industry (IARs, RRs, Private Wealth Advisors) is fascinating. In reality most Advisors are clustered at the lower-to-middle end, and a small percentage of top producers earn the most.

The question is: What would your business look like if you only served clients worthy of your best work?

Your time is the only truly finite resource in your practice. Your minimums determine how you spend it. Most advisors plateau because they've optimized for client count instead of client quality.

Raising your minimums doesn't shrink your business. It explodes it. I know an advisor who went from $340K revenue to $1.2M in 18 months. Not through better marketing. Not through new services. He simply stopped accepting clients under $500K.