Joseph Moore: Why Timeless Financial Advice Eventually Breaks
Between Now and Success
Sometimes you have to write the book you want to read. As the 2008 financial crisis was beginning to drag millions of homeowners underwater, Joseph Moore took a personal finance class at his church. He realized that conventional wisdom about renting versus owning had put his family in a dangerous spot. "We sold our house on a Saturday," Joseph remembers. "Our neighbor put her house on the market the next Saturday. It never sold. We were the last two people off the Financial Titanic in 2008." Then a light went on in Joseph's historian brain. He wasn't the only person who followed advice like...
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John Bowen on A Strategic Blueprint to Achieve 100x Growth
Between Now and Success
Financial advisors are standing at the intersection of several historic, tectonic shifts. Over the next decade, we are poised to witness a staggering $124 trillion transfer of wealth. Simultaneously, the industry could be facing an unprecedented talent shortage, due in large part to aging boomers stepping away from their companies. And then there's the rise of AI, whose rapid advances are rocking the markets and advisors' value. Many folks I talk to believe this convergence of variables has put the whole industry on shaky ground. But today's guest shares my view that while this might be a bad...
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Duncan MacPherson on How Advisors Can Thrive in the AI Era
Between Now and Success
To borrow a phrase from recent podcast guest Alan Smith, financial advisors are facing "a Spotify moment." Just as streaming upended the traditional music business of selling records and put a premium on the live concert experience, AI is commoditizing traditional money management and raising the value of ... Well, what exactly? What is the financial advisor's equivalent of a live concert? What is that high-end experience that your prospects and clients will want to keep paying for? And how can you reframe your business around that experience so that it's replicable and scalable? On today's...
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John Scianna on Building an Authentic Enterprise-Grade RIA Brand
Between Now and Success
In the early 1980s, Al Ries and Jack Trout published the seminal marketing book Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. They argued that marketing wasn't simply about products or services; it was about capturing a specific space in the consumer's mind. Think of Volvo and you immediately think of "safety." Think of Walmart and you think, "Low prices." If you want "fast food" you'll probably start looking for the nearest McDonald's. These principles of brand positioning still endure. For most people, Google is "search," Amazon is "shopping," and Apple is "cool tech." And these "spaces" can be...
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"Both/And" Thinking: Kelly Lewis on Navigating Polarities to Deepen Client Conversations
Between Now and Success
Are you sure? And, perhaps more importantly, are your clients? In an increasingly polarized world, folks are becoming more and more dug-in about what they believe to be true. But an "either/or" mentality can lock out important data when we're weighing complex, real-life challenges. And when we value being "right" above all else, we may fail to recognize that not every challenge is a problem we can solve. Often, what we're really confronting are polarities: a pair of opposing, interdependent values, wants, or priorities that are in a constant tug-of-war for our attention and resources. On...
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Jamie Hopkins on Exit Planning, Training New Advisors, and "Your Retirement Sketchbook"
Between Now and Success
Organic growth has been stalling for years. AI is compressing basic money management into a commodity. And in this uncertain economic environment, where even the reliability of the 60/40 portfolio is in flux, advisors can't just count on long bull runs to keep their bottom lines up and their clients happy. To blast off this plateau, advisors must fundamentally rethink how they train their teams, whom they target as clients, and how they actually deliver advice. On today's show, I talk to Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC and Chief Wealth Officer of Bryn Mawr Trust, about how...
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Dan Haylett and Alan Smith: AI Is Compressing Technical Advice to Zero
Between Now and Success
The launch of advanced AI models capable of writing code and executing complex tasks has coincided with a sharp drop in the share prices of some large financial service companies. The market is reflecting the reality that the traditional, technical, number-crunching value proposition of a financial advisor is rapidly being commoditized. But what does this mean for the individual human advisor and the RIA CEO? On today's show, I discuss the future of financial advisory with Dan Haylett, Marketing Director & Financial Planner at TFP Financial Planning, and Alan Smith, Founder and CEO of...
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Lisa Salvi: Why AI Is Forcing Advisors to Redefine Their Value
Between Now and Success
According to a recent study from Schwab Advisor Services, 63% of advisors are now using AI in some capacity. However, the RIA AI landscape remains highly experimental: only about 10% of firms report having fully integrated AI into their core strategy, while 30% say they are still just experimenting. So, if 2025 was the year of the AI notetakers, how can firms take the next step and truly harness this massive technological shift through the rest of 2026? On today's show, I welcome back Lisa Salvi, Managing Director of Business Consulting and Education at Schwab Advisor Services. We discuss the...
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Zoo-Fed Bears Don’t Get Equity. Andy Schwartz on Building a Performance Culture That Wins
Between Now and Success
In 1984, Andy Schwartz and his twin brother Scott joined a startup Northwestern Mutual district agency in New Jersey. Four decades later, their firm, OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, manages approximately $15 billion in assets. Andy, now CEO and Managing Partner, describes their early days as operating like a "band of pirates" sharing resources and reinvesting heavily in building capacity. His firm’s trajectory accelerated significantly when they left Northwestern Mutual in 2015 to become independent, and in 2024, Andy and Scott took an investment from Joe Duran’s Rise Growth Partners to fuel...
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From Advisor to Owner to Investor: How Firms Really Scale
Between Now and Success
I recently had the pleasure of joining Dave Zoller on his YouTube channel, Streamline My Practice, to discuss something I've been thinking deeply about lately: the difference between owning a business and being owned by your business. If you're a financial advisor wondering whether you've built a thriving enterprise or just created a demanding job for yourself, this conversation is for you. Dave and I discuss: The Four Levels of Advisory Business Evolution The Identity Shift That Changes Everything The Power of a Compelling Three-to-Five-Year Vision Two Real-World Examples of Extreme...
info_outlineI discuss how well I executed on my 3 words from 2024 and then reveal why and how I’m changing the exercise for 2025.
For 2025, I'm going to explore polarities—pairs of words that represent the tension and harmony between opposing yet complementary concepts.
This shift feels like a natural evolution.
Just as life is a balance of contrasts—action and rest, growth and reflection, giving and receiving—polarities allow for a more nuanced exploration of the rhythms that shape us.
It’s not about choosing one over the other, but about navigating the balance between the two, finding wisdom in their interplay, and allowing them to guide me in a more holistic way. This approach reflects where I am now—a stage of growth that seeks to integrate opposites and embrace the richness of life’s cycles.
My 3 Polarities for 2025
- Horizon – Hearth: Pursuing dreams while not losing sight of what’s amazing in my current day-to-day life.
- Slack – Flood: Adjusting my pace to optimize my energy.
- Control – Flow: Blending detailed planning with tapping into the universe’s current.
There’s an old quote from Richard Branson that has stuck with me for many years. He said, “I don’t think of work as work and play as play, it’s all living.”
Similarly, in recent years, My 3 Words, and now My 3 Polarities, make little distinction between the personal and professional. I view them as a guide for living. That way, I don’t have to ask myself, “Does this apply to work or to my personal life?’ And if I do, the answer is, “Yes.”
Here are some practical tips for creating a “My 3 Polarities” exercise:
- Identify Key Tensions: Reflect on areas of your life where you feel pulled between two opposing but complementary forces (e.g., fear vs. courage, ambition vs. contentment, chart vs. explore, journey vs. destination, reinvention vs. continuity).
- Choose Meaningful Pairs: Select three polarities that resonate deeply with your values and current life stage. Ensure each pair addresses a distinct aspect of your life, such as goals, energy, or mindset.
- Define Each Side: Clearly articulate what each side of the polarity represents for you, including the values and behaviors they inspire.
- Create Guiding Questions: Develop a key question for each polarity to guide your decisions and self-reflection (e.g., “If I wasn’t fearful, what decision would I make?”).
- Track Progress: Use a journal or weekly reflection to assess how well you’re honoring both sides of each polarity.
- Integrate Into Daily Life: Regularly remind yourself of the polarities and apply them to real-life choices, whether at work, home, or in personal growth. Print them or have them on your computer screen and see them daily.
Now it’s your turn. Take a first pass at your My 3 Polarities exercise for 2025 and then set it aside. Revisit what you wrote the next day and see if they still feel good.