Ep 486: Lessons Learned from How Mega-RIAs Are Scaling Their People to Support Growth with Lisa Crafford
Release Date: 04/21/2026
Ep 487: Building The Team And Tech To Serve Thousands Of (Advice-Only) Clients Efficiently with Lori Atwood
Financial Advisor Success
Growing a client base from the hundreds into the thousands requires both tech and talent. Today’s guest discusses how she's done both in order to serve more than 3,000 advice-only clients over the past three years. Lori Atwood is the founder of Fearless Finance. In this episode, she shares why she built her own internal planning software platform to meet the needs of her ideal target clients, how her "hub-and-spoke" advisor structure helps maintain culture and consistency across her firm, and how she spends 18% of her revenue on client acquisition yet ends up with a per-client acquisition...
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Ep 486: Lessons Learned from How Mega-RIAs Are Scaling Their People to Support Growth with Lisa Crafford
Financial Advisor Success
What does it take to scale an advisory firm from a small practice into a true enterprise? Today's episode offers a deep look at what really happens as firms grow into multi-billion-dollar businesses, including hiring strategies, leadership team growth, and equity strucutres for employees. Lisa Crafford is the Head of Advisory at Constellation Wealth Capital, and she joins the show today to discuss the importance of the human resources function for growing firms, how advisory firm leaders can start to shed the many 'hats' they wear, and why adding to the executive team can be a force...
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Ep 485: Exercises to Help Clients Better Navigate the Transition to Retirement After Having Done It Yourself with Michael Kay
Financial Advisor Success
While financial advisors and their clients often focus on creating a succesful retirement income plan, a successful, meaningful retirement goes well beyond dollars and cents. In this episode, we dive into the deeper side of the retirement transition and why many high-performing professionals (including financial advisors) underestimate the psychological shift that comes with leaving a decades-long career. Michael Kay is a retired financial advisor and a current life coach and author, and joins the show today to share the personal challenges he faced transitioning from advisory firm owner to...
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Ep 484: Scaling To $1B AUM By Recognizing Your (Rainmaker) Strengths And Delegating The Rest with Jake Falcon
Financial Advisor Success
At some point, firm founders often find that their time is divided between attracting new clients and serving current ones (and running their business). This episode explores how it's possible to delegate technical work to a centralized planning team, segment clients by revenue, and leverage asynchronous communication tools to create client touchpoints while devoting significant time to closing new clients. Jake Falcon, founder of Falcon Wealth Advisors, has built a $1 billion advisory firm for nearly 900 client households in part by focusing on his strengths as a 'rainmaker' bringing...
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Ep 483: Closing (More Affluent) Clients in The First Meeting with an “Approach Talk” Method to Create Urgency with Erin Botsford
Financial Advisor Success
What does it take to close a high-net-worth client in the very first meeting? For Erin Botsford, the answer is for an advisor to position themselves as a risk expert and to create a sense of urgency to act in the prospects' minds. Erin is the founder of The Advisor Authority, and has developed a step-by-step formula for advisors to close more upmarket clients faster. She joins the show today to share how advisors can create positive first impressions by creating a "founders video", help prospects recognize their potential risk exposures in estate planning and insurance, and create...
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Ep 482: Growing To $500M AUM In 7 Years by Connecting with Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn with Justin Brownlee
Financial Advisor Success
What if just the 10 'right' people seeing your content could grow your firm faster than 10,000 random viewers? Growing an advisory firm doesn’t always require reaching the largest audience. In many cases, the right audience—clearly defined and intentionally engaged—can be far more powerful than broad visibility. Justin Brownlee has built a $500 million RIA serving just 75 households by targeting a specific niche and using LinkedIn with intention. In this episode, we break down how he created focused blog and podcast content for his ideal target client, strategically built a...
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Ep 481: Leveraging Technology To Rapidly Scale Growth Delivering Financial Planning To Next Generation Clients with Adam Dell
Financial Advisor Success
Reaching next-generation clients at scale often requires rethinking how financial planning is built, priced, and delivered. This episode explores how a tech-forward, flat-fee model can expand access to planning, create a consistent client experience, and unlock new growth channels both through direct-to-consumer marketing and partnerships with other advisory firms. Adam Dell is the founder of Domain Money, an RIA that operates virtually nationwide, serving 1,400 clients and expecting to generate approximately $10 million in revenue this year. Listen in as Adam shares how his firm built a...
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Ep 480: Growing To $660M Of AUM By Leveraging SEO (And Now AEO) To Build A Durable Pipeline Of Good-Fit Prospects with Helen Stephens
Financial Advisor Success
Search has changed—and so has the way advisory firms can earn visibility online. This episode explores how early investments in SEO can compound over time, how today’s “findability” now includes AI tools like ChatGPT, and what it takes to build a marketing engine that not only attracts the right prospects, but also supports sustainable firm growth for the long haul. Helen Stephens is the founder of Aspen Wealth Management, an RIA based in Fort Worth, Texas, that oversees $670 million in assets under management for 342 client households. Listen in as Helen shares how her SEO strategy...
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Ep 479: Maintaining Good Work/Life Balance While Adding Advisors And 4Xing The Firm To $315M with Andy Panko
Financial Advisor Success
Scaling an advisory firm is often framed as a tradeoff - more clients and complexity in exchange for less time and flexibility. This episode explores how advisors can grow in a way that protects the lifestyle they want. Andy Panko is the owner of Tenon Financial, an RIA based in Metuchen, New Jersey, that oversees $323 million in assets under management for 105 client households. He joins the show today to share why he chose to hire two additional advisors (even though his solo practice already met his lifestyle goals), as well as why he prioritized hiring mid-career professionals who could...
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Ep 478: Fixing Advisory Firm Marketing Funnels So The Phone Actually Rings With Prospects with Kendra Wright
Financial Advisor Success
Most advisory marketing doesn’t fail because advisors aren’t trying—it fails because the funnel breaks in predictable places, leaving great content and good intentions without a clear path to consistent leads. This episode explores the most common “break points” in advisor marketing funnels, as well as what it takes to build a strategy that attracts the right prospects, communicates value quickly, and makes it easy for prospects to take the next step towards becoming a client. Kendra Wright is the owner of Rebel Media Agency, a marketing firm based in Austin, Texas, that helps RIAs...
info_outlineWhat does it take to scale an advisory firm from a small practice into a true enterprise? Today's episode offers a deep look at what really happens as firms grow into multi-billion-dollar businesses, including hiring strategies, leadership team growth, and equity strucutres for employees.
Lisa Crafford is the Head of Advisory at Constellation Wealth Capital, and she joins the show today to discuss the importance of the human resources function for growing firms, how advisory firm leaders can start to shed the many 'hats' they wear, and why adding to the executive team can be a force multiplier despite the compensation they might earn. Listen in to learn why scaling an advisory firm eventually becomes less about clients and more about people, leadership, structure, and building an organization that can operate beyond the founder.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/486