Transcript

[00:00:00] Bill Simonet: What do you want? What we gonna be talking about? Yeah. 

[00:00:11] Stoy Hall: So, um, first obviously we’re gonna do your background, um, talk about your business, right? Your kids and whatnot, uh, to get into it. Um, and then I always allow the guests to highlight whatever, like big topic they want to discuss. And then I’ve got some, uh, some throw throw questions I throw up there, um, that I ask everybody.

[00:00:30] And then we just kind of roll. Obviously we’ll roll cuz that’s how, that’s what we do. But really those are the main things I want to hit upon, um, to get the value out of what I’m doing for this series, But, but for yourself as well. So why don’t we start there. Let’s start with your background. You said obviously you started the industry in oh eight.

[00:00:46] How did you get there? Um, and how are you, where you’re at now? Because 14 years in this, in this industry, is that, that’s an accomplishment that, that is. You did, you did a lot of things. You’ve grown a lot of things. There’s a lot of things that have happened in 14 years. So why don’t you walk us. 

[00:01:02] Bill Simonet: Yeah, sure.

[00:01:03] So I kinda, I fell into this business as backwards, right? I was, um, coming, uh, out of the Marine Corps. I was, I was coming off of a deployment and, um, my first introduction to money and the whole idea of finance was when I first deployed, I, uh, I came back and I had more money than I’d ever had, you know, young, dumb marine, just.

[00:01:26] Uh, sitting on more cash, sitting on like 30 or 40 grand. What do you do? You buy stuff, you spend it, And I was broke six, seven months later. Right? Well, um, I decided I didn’t wanna do that anymore. It was painful. I didn’t wanna have to move back home. I didn’t wanna have to go through any of those things.

[00:01:42] And I ended up having to go on another deployment, which is what was my ca, which was the catalyst. So between my first deployment, which is in 2000, Uh, uh, and then my second appointment, which is in, uh, well, so no, my first appointment was 2004 and then my second deployment was in 2007, uh, when I came back from Rock the second time.

[00:02:07] Between that time I went back to school, worked on getting my degree, um, and um, from there when I came back, I had more money and I just decided to sit down and concentrate on what was what I was going to do. And I also wanted to get a job in a space that was gonna allow me to work with other people and teach me basic business.

[00:02:24] So I got a, uh, internship at a business brokerage firm, so helping with business valuations, helping with buy, sell agreements and uh, uh, overall valuations. And that was my intro to financial services. Now, I was living in South Florida at this point in time. Uh, got a lot, got a chance to see a lot of different businesses and a lot of different people.

[00:02:46] Um, the downside with that though is this was, uh, this was pretty much coming into Florida, was going through a serious recession. Businesses were failing because the real estate market kind of, uh, had a huge falling out. And also, you know, we had the huge financial shutdown, the huge financial and the mortgage crisis, which affected Florida big time.

[00:03:04] So every, every business owner who thought that they had a be beautiful business, six, seven months prior, Was now struggling to figure out how to sell. So lesson learned, no wait until you’re failing to try to get out, right? Um, you think find with the exited mind and know where your target needs to look like, and then let’s work through that process.

[00:03:24] So that was my interest. I started working at a business brokerage firm. I worked there for, um, I worked there after I got married, and then until I moved here to, to the great state of. Um, which was in July of 2009. So a little bit over a year and a half. And then, um, from there, when I moved to Texas with that experience, I wanted to go and continue to work with business owners, but the best way of doing that really would’ve was through life insurance, right?

[00:03:50] Talking about buy, sell agreements and uh, uh, retention agreements and building handcuffs and things of that nature. So I started working at an insurance company. I got hired on at a fraternal insurance company, worked there for five years, cut my teeth on insurance, you know, dialing for dollars. Mm-hmm.

[00:04:06] getting out there to networking groups and tell him, Hey everyone, my name is Bill Simone, but, uh, my differentiator was, Hi, I’m Mr. Tall, dark and handsome, but you can call me Bill . Uh, you know, the only person, uh, the only tall person in the room. Right. So . Yeah, exactly. Uh, so, um, so I used that and it helped me grow and establish a name for myself.

[00:04:29] And I just got proficient with planning, right? So I started working with, I started working with, um, uh, regular consumers and retail client space, private client on, uh, first on their basic needs. And then I went through the CFP program. Um, once I, once I got my CFP that then it was, then it was full steam ahead, I left Modern Woodman, or I’m sorry, I left that insurance company

[00:04:53] Um, in 2013, uh, launched my ria. Um, initially, initially I contracted and partnered with a broker dealer, an independent broker dealer in, uh, in December of 2013. And then the following year I went full ria. So I had the RIA launched in 2014. But through all of that, I had every single aspect of the business, right?

[00:05:21] So I saw the alternative sales side. I’ve done the valuations, I did the dialing for dollars, the insurance. Um, I pretty much covered, I’ve pretty much covered the gamut in this business. And, um, each, each opportunity has been a learning experience. I pick something up from every single part of it, you know, and I don’t regret any of it.

[00:05:42] I’m glad I went through it all. And today, you know, here I am with, uh, with employees and growth and being able to, to make this work. 

[00:05:50] Stoy Hall: Thank you. Absolutely. And with, with your practice now, uh, what time of clientele, who do you work with? You know, what is, what do you, what do you like to do and who do you like to work with?

[00:06:02] So, 

[00:06:03] Bill Simonet: um, I recently, My business started when, as an independent, when I, when I first started as an ria, my business was primarily, um, uh, female decision makers when, uh, I worked primarily with, uh, women clients, right? It was probably 70 30, uh, male to, uh, female to male between the ages of 35 and, um, 35 and 60.

[00:06:26] Um, uh, middle class, upper middle class, not high earners, right? So teachers, um, people in the education field on, um, some consultants, you know, um, c-suite executives, things of that nature, decision makers and their households, right? Um, since, since starting, my business has kind of metamorphic, uh, has morphed into what I call, uh, high blue, high blue.

[00:06:52] So like, um, you know, hvac, plumbers, um, electrical, um, service industry, folk construction, uh, uh, owners of, uh, construction companies and, you know, things of that nature. People that are good with their hands but um, aren’t necessarily, weren’t necessarily used to working with a financial planner. And there is a wealth of opportunity in that entire space, right?

[00:07:15] I know a lot of individuals, a lot of financial planners now look for the doctors, which I have a lot of doc I like. I have a lot of medical, uh, physician clients. Uh, those are pains in the asses. Um, engineers, architects, right? Pains in the ass, All of them paid all pains in the ass. Um, and, um, they’re great clients that have, because they have, they have great income potential, but nothing makes, nothing is like working with a plumber who, you know, charge.

[00:07:44] More than you to come out and unclog a toilet on a Saturday afternoon. You know, if they go out on a Saturday afternoon, and I gotta tell you, like, um, they’re a lot more fun to talk to and work with. And when they trust you, they trust you. It’s not a going back and questioning every decision that you’re making, it’s.

[00:08:01] It is, okay, I know that you have my back and I know that you’re working with me. How do I, how do I do, What do I need to do to make this go? And with that business evaluation, business brokerage background that I’ve had, it’s been really good at helping them plan with the exit in mind, you know, because that is really what’s important there.

[00:08:19] Um, so my client base right now is, um, is a, is a good mix. So, you know, I still have my retail client base, my traditional client base there, but outside of my retail client base, which makes up maybe 40, 40%, 50% of my business, I have my professional space, which is the, um, which is those business owners. So it’s going to be, uh, blue collar, high earning, It’s gonna be the, uh, service professionals.

[00:08:44] And then it’s gonna be a, a small mix of executives. Um, average client age right now I think is 41. Um, and. Client, Average client asset is about 350,000 to start with us. And, uh, we put everyone on a retainer based model and we have a retainer based model and AUM is gonna be charged. So, um, that way those are our compensation lines.

[00:09:07] We are fee only. 

[00:09:09] Stoy Hall: There you go. And, uh, is it nationwide? Do you stay more local? Like what, how do you feel and where are your clients at? Uh, 

[00:09:18] Bill Simonet: when I started this business, I couldn’t, Well, when. When I started growing independently, my clients were coming from all over place now for sure. Right. There is no regional restriction.

[00:09:29] Sorry, Joe, stop. There is no regional restriction on this business. Right? I had, we have clients now in, uh, California. We had clients in Chicago, we have clients and Kentucky. If you can find me and you can pick up the phone and call me, I can work with you. 

[00:09:48] Stoy Hall: How important do you think that message is to, um, to prospective clients out there?

[00:09:53] Not just for you, but for all of us in the industry? How important is that message that you just said? 

[00:09:59] Bill Simonet: It’s extremely important because you gotta find the right person to work for you. Look, Michael Kitsis has a presentation that he’s done. I’ve seen it several times, and it’s one of my favorite things when he says, you know, if you have a cold, if you have a sniffle, if you need to go into your regular checkup, you know, you go to the local doctor and you do that.

[00:10:14] But if, if, um, you find out that you’re gonna always, you have a brain tumor and uh, and you need to operate it on, and there’s only so many people in the world, you are looking. If the guy is in New Zealand and the expert is in New Zealand that you need to see, that’s the person that you talk to, right?

[00:10:31] Well, in this business, Um, as an ria, as a boutique firm, right? I’m, we’re competing against all the big, we’re competing against the big four firms, uh, who everyone’s trying to be a financial advisor. Everyone calls themselves a financial advisor. We’ll get there, right? and, um, you know, anyone from, anyone from your auto and home insurance guy who now wants to sell you mutual funds to the, um, to the big institutional firm that won’t, that normally would not have talked to you unless you have 500,000.

[00:11:04] But as soon as you walk into their bank and you, you make a deposit, they’re like, Hey, let me introduce you to our brokerage system, Right? So we’re competing with all of those spaces. In order for us to be unique. We can’t be geographically restricted. I can’t just be like, Hey, look, I am the top advisor in Kyle because great, you know, there’s, there’s so many more people and there’s so many more places that we can work with.

[00:11:27] And for, from a, from an advisor’s perspective, That that doesn’t mean that, you know, we’re inundated with bad competition. Like there’s an, there’s an Edward Jones office, two doors from me, right? And we talk all the time and we’re colleagues and I meet with other advisors and we have conversations. We’re a member of the fpa.

[00:11:46] That’s not to say that, um, We can’t communicate, we can’t work locally amongst the same group. But your clients don’t have to just come from your local market. And I think for an advisor’s perspective, especially if they’re struggling in today’s day and age, that’s something to consider. Where do your client, you know, what type of client do you want to get?

[00:12:06] And do you need to see them face to face? Do they need to be a person that you sit down with day to day in order to make that work? I would hope that the pandemic has taught a lot of advisors that you don’t necessarily need to be face to face. We don’t necessarily need to shake hands in case babies and politic in order to gain trust of our clients, right?

[00:12:26] As long as we’re doing the work that we need to do and we can, we can deliver. You can find your clients all over the. Uh, a real world example is right now, um, one of my clients asked me about her sister who lives in China, and I’m doing research on would I be able to work with her sister, what the time zone difference looks like and what the requirements are in a situation like that.

[00:12:49] Because her sister, they trust each other. And her sister was like, Well, here’s my guy and I’d love for you to work with my guy. They live in China, . And, um, there’s a, uh, there’s a, uh, there’s an advisor that’s on the speaker circuit or who was on the speaker circuit who I think lives in Australia, but has clients all over the United States.

[00:13:08] So, so geographic. Uh, you know, if we, if we try to pin ourselves down to geographic restriction, then we’re doing nothing 

[00:13:15] Stoy Hall: by hurting ourselves. I think so, and I think as planners, we fight. We don’t, not me and you, but you look at Twitter and all that stuff. We fight each other on fees. We fight each other on every business model possible.

[00:13:26] And that does two things. One, It, it just disrupts the industry and we don’t start working together, which I’ll hit upon later, but it also makes clients not want to work with us because they, Oh, you guys are fighting about this. Who’s better? What’s better? And it’s not about one better or the other.

[00:13:42] Although I have thoughts on some of that. I think we should talk about 

[00:13:47] Bill Simonet: that, by the way. Yes, we will. I will say that there are, I’m gonna, I’m gonna push back on that. There are 

[00:13:52] Stoy Hall: some situations that are better than others. Yes. Yes. . But at the root of it, if they’re a good person, they’re helping and they’re doing the best of their abilities, I’m okay with it.

[00:14:01] Uh, there’s just better ways, uh, in our opinion to do it. But I think you hit upon something that a lot of, uh, clients in it and other planners don’t do. And we do it the same way as you just said, someone in China, um, we’ve got London, Europe, and New Zealand. We’re gonna do the research and we’re gonna figure out a way to help somebody.

[00:14:19] I’m not tied to Iowa boundary, I’m not tied to the Midwest. I’m not tied to the United States. None of that. Um, because we’re here to help everyone now. If we can’t, then obviously we just can’t. Um, we’ll do our best and we’ll figure out a way. But ultimately our, all of our jobs are just to help people and be here, um, and, and really hit upon and be that family planner, be that, that person that someone can go to and say, I got this situation.

[00:14:47] We’ll go figure it out. You know, we’re gonna take care of you. That’s exactly, And not trying to do, you know, shady shit and all that stuff is just, we’re here to take care of you and we’ll let you know if it’s feasible or not. That’s it. 

[00:14:59] Bill Simonet: That’s right. That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And I, it’s, it’s one of the biggest things in our industry, um, you know, to your point, The industry is changing.

[00:15:11] Do you remember, what was it? It was, uh, three years ago, um, pre pandemic. What was the big fear that advisors had? Robo advisors, right? Robo advisors gonna be coming. They’re gonna take over your business and you need to revamp and change all of your shit and your pricing structure. And if you don’t do this, you’re gonna go outta business that you in modeling going nowhere.

[00:15:30] Nowhere. Nope. Right. You know, Betterment has their client base. Oh, you have to worry about the, uh, the advisory firms. Uh, you know, your, your, um, your custodians and your mutual fund company is competing against. Vanguard offers a financial planning service for clients if they have a certain amount of assets for with them.

[00:15:46] We’re still here. Right. Um, and of course, you know, Fidelity and Schwab and TD and all these other companies, they advertise that, you know, um, one of those three actually advertises that they provide free financial planning and financial planning tools and resources on television. That’s our space. Right?

[00:16:06] Right. But there’s always constantly going to be challenges and, and that, that goes across all businesses. Right. So, you know, looking at, looking at vehicle models, Tesla’s challenging the, the perception that you have to buy vehicles through a dealership, you know, they’ve, they’re innovating in that space.

[00:16:22] Um, there’s no industry that’s not, not to buy technology. There’s no industry that’s not going, that doesn’t at some point force, um, adaption, uh, adapting to it. And our industry is no different, especially in an industry where it requires technology. Like I, I don’t know about you, but I’m not doing duration calculations in my head and on paper.

[00:16:43] Right. You know, and when I work on a financial plan, I’m not sitting there going through an Excel spreadsheet the whole time. Um, technology is a big part of that. Where we come in as advisors and as planners and partners in our, our as partners in our clients growth and in their financial future is the steady hand that helps write the ship.

[00:17:03] Right At this point in time, you know, we are looking at, you know, serious selloff since January in the markets. Um, I’ve seen it, I don’t know, I’m sure you’ve seen it as well. We’ve had clients call, I mean, it went from monthly to weekly to almost daily, where clients were like, What should I do? I’m super worried.

[00:17:25] Is this gonna come back? I’m losing money and, you know, help me find a robo or a technology partner in that capacity that’s picking up the phone and calling their clients and just calming them down and providing, providing some self guidance and reassurance through that. Being proactive and talking to their clients.

[00:17:43] Sure, they might be sending out emails. I’m not reading an email if I just see my portfolio drop 5% yesterday and then another 5% today, and then 3% the next day. Right. I need to talk to somebody. Yo, what the hell is going on? Right? And we as advisors, we can be honest and say, look, You’re not the only one in this boat.

[00:18:03] A lot of us are going through it, but what we’re doing is we’re, we’re maintaining this ship. We know what your perspective and what your projections are and what we’re trying to get you to, and we’re taking the steps to make sure that your account and your situation is protected. What I need you to do right now is just, uh, calm down and let’s work through this together.

[00:18:21] We’re gonna get there. Or if you have a long time, time horizon, well, look, this is, this is a today thing and not a forever thing. Uh, having those kinds of conversations, um, actually sitting down with a client, that’s not all, that’s not, Hey, well let’s go ahead and sell this and buy that. Let’s, let’s, um, it’s not a a, an automated email that comes back and says, We’ve just rebalanced your portfolio.

[00:18:44] Great. That’s not a solution. That doesn’t keep me calm. Right? Um, so we’ve been getting that call. I’ve been getting those calls, and we’ve been able to hold onto our clients. We’ve been able to keep them from one doing sell offs, from moving their accounts from panicking. Um, and you know, I think that’s a function of.

[00:19:02] In my case, having been through this before, but also now, now that every, every advisor that’s now been at this for five years or, or more, you know, with the exception of 2020. But 2020 was bad for two months, right, ? Yeah, it wasn’t, Yeah. You know, um, it was about for two or three months. Um, and then the market had that nice run up afterwards and it finished out positive.

[00:19:28] Right. But now this is, this is where. This is where that, um, relationship really comes into play. And it’s not just for people that have investments, it’s for those clients that are going through their financial plan that were thinking about asking for a raise, that were thinking about starting their own business, that we’re thinking about weaving a company, maybe thinking about having a family.

[00:19:50] Maybe it makes sense. I have questions as, as simple as does it still make sense for me to try to buy a car this year? I know that my car is over a hundred thousand miles, um, and our family is growing and we were talking about buying a car. Should I still try to buy a car now? Well, based on the finance, based on where we are right now, the cost of vehicles in your particular situation, your car is paid off.

[00:20:13] You probably wanna sit down and, and, and hold off on that. That’s financial advice. That’s, that’s, that affects a change in a person’s life. It is a financial decision that, that they are trusting us to make and provide or help provide them guidance on. And it speaks to their individual situation. It has absolutely nothing to do with the stock market has everything to do with what’s it gonna cost me right now to get a car, whether or not it’s safe for me to dedicate that payment to a car right now, or whatever the case may be.

[00:20:46] And 

[00:20:46] Stoy Hall: I think that’s, um, You’re highlighting differences. And we’ve been actually during this conversation using advisor and planner interchangeably. Um, and our industry does a, a piss poor job, top to bottom of what titles are, what, you know, what actually happens, what is what. Because in our industry or in society, everyone thinks of us as, Oh, we just deal with investments.

[00:21:08] And, um, I don’t know about you, but that’s, yes, we deal with them. But in terms of your overall life, it’s a very small piece. It really very, it just doesn’t, it doesn’t, should not affect you. It should not affect you that the market’s going down like this and everything. Um, because yes, it’s going down and everything, but that shouldn’t affect you emotionally day to day.

[00:21:31] Your day to day is the rest of the plan, Right? Right. Now, if you’re in retirement and living off of that asset and that is your income, that’s a different story. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about the majority of people of separating planning and investments and. What is an investment advisor compared to what is a, you know, a financial advisor, financial planner.

[00:21:51] They’re different. Majority of our day is spent speaking to people, educating people, and, and more of the, the art and relationship side. That’s planning, that’s not anything to do with investments. That’s right. And if people focus more on that by people I mean, planners and advisors, that’s where you’ll see the change.

[00:22:12] That’s why the, and we’ll get into people’s models and, you know, what we think is best or not. The AUM side will never dive because of the investment management piece. Will it change? Has it changed? Yes. Has it dwindled? Have we even thought about getting rid of it and just doing flat, plain? Yes. But it, it won’t because of that investment side.

[00:22:32] Correct. Um, whereas, you know, retainer or, um, you know, fixed monthly, whatever you want to call those, that. To me is going to start growing a lot more. That that piece will affect more people day to day than anything on the investment side will do. Um, because that’s gonna average gonna grow, you know, five, 10, 15% a year.

[00:22:56] Whereas I can effectively change your root cause with planning, whether that’s savings cost, you know, don’t buy a vehicle this year, buy it next year. How much money could that save someone? Theoretically we won’t know. But that could be a five, $10,000 difference just because of waiting. 

[00:23:13] Bill Simonet: The overall value of planning is, is three to five folds, right?

[00:23:19] Uh, you know, the opportunity cost versus the, uh, the action items that a client can take, right? Helping a client understand when and how. I’ve helped people ask for raises and figure out how much that they can, uh, how much they should ask for. That’s an ongoing cash flow scenario. You’re hit, you’re, you’re spot on, Right?

[00:23:41] Planning is, planning is the, the value planning is the long term and the deep value. Now for those, for the, um, talking about models, you know, um, when I started in this business, I didn’t know which model. I didn’t even know what the hell I was supposed to charge, what my hourly rate was gonna look like.

[00:23:57] What the hell? I dunno. Right. You know, I knew I didn’t, I I start, I knew I didn’t wanna do hourly because I didn’t wanna sit there and have people not call me and, and be afraid of getting nickled 

[00:24:07] Stoy Hall: and die. I also didn’t wanna, I didn’t wanna track ’em all. I didn’t wanna track all the hours in that. 

[00:24:11] Bill Simonet: I didn’t wanna do a pain in the ass.

[00:24:12] No, I’m not doing that. I mean, that shit sucks. Absolutely. You know? Um, and, and then project based and then from project based, I went retainer. Um, I tried AUM only and it was like, okay, only work with me. There’s originally when I named the company with seven a wealth management. Right. And you know what I found out?

[00:24:33] The word wealth terrifies people because they’re like, I don’t know what wealthy is. Right. Do I, Do I have to be wealthy to work with you? How much do I need to have to even be on your radar? Right? Like, you know, I can’t afford a financial planner, well afford a cell phone. You can probably afford us. Right?

[00:24:48] Yeah. You know, like, and it’s like, it’s, and they’re worried, Well, I don’t want you telling me that I can’t have my cup of coffee anymore. I was like, That’s not, that’s not my job. If, if somebody were to walk into my office or walk into my house and be like, Well, you need cut back on your cups of coffee and, uh, and you’ll save x amount of dollars a year, I’d, I’d tell you to get the hell outta my house.

[00:25:06] You know what I mean? Like, thank you, but no thanks. Right. That’s not, that’s not advice. That’s you. That’s you trying to dictate what my life is supposed to be. And there is a big difference there. And they, you know, they’d be like, Okay, well if you were to cut back on your coffees and put that into the market, great.

[00:25:19] There’s no guarantees there. Whereas planning and figuring out how to charge and figuring out the value of advice, what I ended up doing was breaking my planning, breaking up my services, uh, from a planner’s per, from a business perspective, right? So, take my planner’s hat off, put my business owner’s hat on.

[00:25:37] What services exactly what planning areas do I wanna work on? I took those areas and I looked at how much time did it take for me to do different things. Then from there, I broke it up into how I was seeing my clients. Right? There were those people that are just not coming out right, fresh from college, maybe coming off of a divorce, maybe, uh, just now starting out in the working world.

[00:25:57] First time being exposed to a 401k, maybe young families, whatever the case may be. That’s the fundamental package they have, uh, coordinates. They know where their net worth is and they need to make sure that they’re protected. They need some cash flow and basic budgeting in place. We, uh, we ideally wanna take a look at a retirement plan and we wanna take a look at a structured investment solution, right?

[00:26:16] Just to kind of get them started and figure that out. Okay? Boom. That’s one planning package and that’s some basic estate. Next plan. Uh, so I create a planning package there that, on average, takes me, you know, let’s, let’s call it 10 hours to build, and then that client maybe takes 15 to 20 hours in the first year to service, right?

[00:26:35] If that, because they’re, you know, that client has a lot of handholding, but really it’s phone calls, a couple of meetings, and let me keep you on track. So then I, I was like, okay, that client package, that’s gonna take a x amount hours, uh, of my time, I, on average we’re good there. Then I create from there I was like, Okay, who’s the next person?

[00:26:53] Who’s the most standard client, which is my catchall, you know, good, better, best. And from there, adding just a couple of other planning areas, right? Specific college planning, some basic estate planning stuff, um, finding good technology partners, which, uh, man, uh, if we have time, and you and I, we could probably talk all day story.

[00:27:10] I, I’d love to talk about technology in this industry and how, how, you know, you, you go down that black hole of do I need this, do I need this ? Oh my God. So, so what I did was I ended up breaking up, and then I created three planning packages. And then on top of that I added, you know, I was like, Okay, well, Investment management is not a requirement, but if you wanna do it with us, here’s what our price point was.

[00:27:36] Um, I used to call it the mc McDonald’s model because it was inspired by, uh, my son when, uh, when my son was three years old. The kid could point out and if I were to take him to McDonald’s, which we didn’t do very often, but you know, it was a special treat for him. Everybody knows McDonald’s, everyone knows a Happy Meal.

[00:27:53] He can plant a Happy meal. He knew what it was, He knew what it came with. Like that. Right, right. A number, and I’ll test you. Here’s a quiz. What’s the number one on a McDonald’s menu? 

[00:28:03] Stoy Hall: I haven’t been in McDonald’s in over a decade, so, uh, Big Mac,

[00:28:11] Bill Simonet: and 

[00:28:12] Stoy Hall: a meal. Cold with what? Oh, you got your sandwich. A meal and a, a drink. And if it’s a happy meal, that’s toy. Always got a to. 

[00:28:20] Bill Simonet: You got a toy, you know what you get, right? Absolutely. And then you have a little side menu where you can add other, other stuff. But every, it’s universal, right? Number one at McDonald’s is a, is a, is a Big Mac.

[00:28:31] Number two is a quarter pounder. Number three is a double quarter pounder with cheese. Right? Um, I think, I don’t know, I haven’t been in one of those in a while either, but 

[00:28:40] you’re 

[00:28:41] Stoy Hall: probably not wrong. It’s part, It is. I mean, that’s exactly what it is, right? And 

[00:28:44] Bill Simonet: every McDonald’s in the country has that, right?

[00:28:46] And so it makes sense. So in my case I was like, okay, let’s create packages that people can remember. So I called them wealth. I create, um, um, Wealth Builder Fundamentals, Wealth Builder, Standard Wealth Builder Premium and Wealth Builder, Premier, which just broke it down based on client needs. Mm-hmm. . And it was super easy.

[00:29:05] You can go to my website, see the price point, see which planning packages makes the most sense, and then start the conversation from there. So when they’re coming and calling into the office, guess what? I’m not fighting over price. Right? You know what, Here’s what the plan packages look like. Here’s, based on our conversation, you can walk out of here knowing what you’re gonna be paying.

[00:29:24] And it took me from scrambling and struggling and trying to figure out where my clients were going to be, trying to figure out what my price point was going to look like, how much I should charge. Um, you know, being a financial planner versus being a business owner is very different, right? Because as a financial planner, as a job, that’s one thing, but as a business owner, uh, you know, there’s , it becomes a lot more complicated.

[00:29:47] Um, it was good to be able to go through that work, uh, and then to simplify the process for both myself. And for our clients, uh, prospective clients. And it made the client development and retention process a lot smoother. You know, and it, it creates some efficiencies, uh, and it gave us some consistent income and some growth.

[00:30:08] Now what we’re running into is, um, now running into volume issues, right? Um, I’m the only advisor in my office, um, if anyone’s listen, listening. I’m looking for a virtual planner or partner or somebody that wants to hiring, hiring, you know, uh, Lord knows I need some help. Um, we we’re running into an issue.

[00:30:28] We’ve got, uh, little bit of our, I think 160 or so clients that we’re working with planning wise directly, uh, and. At first, my goal was to grow. Mm-hmm. and have, you know, the math was get 150 clients at X amount of dollars. Right? And you, you grow Nope, 75 to a hundred clients on the planning side only.

[00:30:50] That’s all you need. If you are planning per advisor, I would say that if you’re doing actual planning work on 75 to a hundred. If this investment only kind of work, then you can have, Right, who cares, right? The number is your, um, but per advisor, uh, per planner, excuse me, 75 to a hundred. And then from, uh, from that space growing upwards, uh, in my case, I’m trying to shrink that because for me it’s operating the business and servicing the clients, whereas I want to have dedicated people to do client work and planning and that kind of stuff.

[00:31:22] Uh, and then as we continue to grow and as we continue to structure, making sure that we have the right balance and the right mix. I know some advisors can, you know, some advisors can do three, 400 people. Um, and I noticed I said advisors, right? Um, If you’re coming from the insurance world, you know, once you sell a product, once you put it in place, you know that’s considered a client.

[00:31:44] That’s not, uh, that’s, that’s a customer, right? And then all you’re doing is, um, if you’re going back and the only time that you’re having conversations is when you’re going back to resell something or just do a quick policy check that’s not, that’s not planning. Um, if you’re a real planning client needs 10 to 15 hours a year, right?

[00:32:03] That’s, that’s a touch, That’s one to two meetings. That’s individual portfolio reviews, and that’s overall plan. And then each year, plan, update, that kind of stuff, takes time per individual client household. Uh, and so what we’re running into is as a challenge for the firm for me. Making sure that we can maintain the quality of our work and then adjusting for the quantity of business that we’re getting.

[00:32:33] We’re getting, I mean our, our referrals and our client base is growing pretty well. We’ve got great reviews, but now the volume is such that the volume and just overall structure is such that we need help to, to maintain that efficiency. 

[00:32:47] Stoy Hall: Yeah, absolutely. Which is a great problem to have and I’m proud to be for that one.

[00:32:52] Um, but yeah, that, that’s the, that’s the problem in the planning side. Um, and why everyone says boutique and niche, uh, is we use those words interchangeably a lot, but a lot of it comes down to the fact that we can’t take on thousand clients. Nope, I couldn’t. Buy a book or do whatever and have a thousand planning clients, The one, the onboarding would take two, three years, let alone the upkeep and everything else.

[00:33:17] And I think, I believe that a lot of people forget about that and a lot of advisors don’t know that. Yeah. Yeah. And if they did, then interesting’s a lot different. Right. There’ll be a lot more, and this is my, one of my questions I ask everybody of why do we not do more partnerships within all of our firms?

[00:33:38] Why don’t we not help each other? More so then yes, advice or Hey, check out this software, this is what I’m doing here, here’s some, you know, best practices type stuff. Why are firms not partnering even more so together to help with these offset things? And I say it that way is because if we are boutique or niche like that, we don’t have the operations room that a Fidelity or any big, giant RA will have.

[00:34:05] Yeah. However, there’s a lot of cross things that we could do to enhance that ability. Why do you believe RAs and specifically are independent niche, boutique stuff? Do not partner more, um, than they are currently? 

[00:34:21] Bill Simonet: I think it’s because it, two, it’s twofold. Fear and loss of control of the client. Um, I’ll, I’ll speak to, I can speak to both because of experience in both cases, so, So you’re spot on.

[00:34:36] And part of one of the reasons why we’re addressing this, we’ve, we’ve said that we’re not gonna take on clients, right? But then if you stop taking on clients, you’re gonna get to a point where you can’t grow and then you’re gonna have to go back and go to house and, and all those things. There’s a firm here that, um, I had, um, the advisor is a friend of mine.

[00:34:53] We’ve been going back and forth, and

[00:34:59] to your point, I want to work with him, but he’s, he’s with a captive insurance company. Right. And in partnering, in partnering with him, let’s say, you know, Hey, this client would be great with you, but we’re gonna manage this aspect of it. I know that that particular insurance company. At some point in time, he’s going to leave and he’s gonna follow this path.

[00:35:24] But when he does that, what happens to that client who takes over that, who takes over that insurance policy or that annuity or that whatever portion of that plan that I recommended to him? I’ve had clients, uh, I’ve had clients that have re referred out or, uh, work with other advisors, um, who’ve then brought on or got a license or were promoted within their companies and then they’re now challenging or taking over, uh, or providing advice as contrary to what we had recommended because.

[00:35:56] I like to follow the doctor prescribed model and then you’re the pharmacist fulfill the order kind of deal, right? In that, in that partnership and in that space. Uh, because I feel like, um, since I don’t offer products, I do wanna have partners who are, that are, I know, are trustworthy in that space.

[00:36:12] Because simply cuz you’re cell insurance doesn’t mean you’re a terrible person, right? I know a lot of really good advi insurance, uh, advisors and people in that space, right? But stay in your lane, you know, And I think that for me, that experience kind of soured me on who and how I can work with someone now finding another true RIA to work with.

[00:36:31] Now begs a question if I’m gonna work with you, If I’m gonna partner with you as an ria, this is my scope in my space, right? My scope in my space, my strength is planning, uh, uh, development and work for, uh, for some complex, complex cases working with business owners. What I’m gonna do is because we’re looking at growing in that space, let’s say our retail or consumer type clients, Uh, above or below a certain point, I’m gonna send those over to you.

[00:37:00] Now, that being said, it would be great if you have clients that are in this level of complexity in this space that you can send to me, or at least outsource some of that work to me, because that’s what I was thinking, you know, and I love that idea. Okay, Let me outsource that part of the work to you. You do that work, I compensate you directly, or I’ll have the client go to you and then, you know, you work in that space, but the relationship, the retention of the client stays with either me or stays with you based on the work, how they were referred.

[00:37:32] Until that section gets cleared out, it gets really, really difficult to send a referral to an outside advisor, ESP and including one that where there’s a lot of overlap, right? So if, um, if there’s there, if there’s another RIA here in town, uh, who, and I guess this goes back to where we started our conversation, right?

[00:37:53] Like does it have to be local? No. And this might be one of the reasons why, if there, if there is another advisor, right, that’s around the corner, I don’t know if that client, especially if somebody’s walking into the office, I don’t know if that client is gone and interviewed with that, that advisor as well, to know whether or not that’s someone that they wanna work with.

[00:38:12] So there’s a little bit of fear there in that if I, if I send a client elsewhere, uh, and maybe I have a good working relationship with that person, uh, if I send that client elsewhere, will that be reflected poorly on me if that client has a bad experience? And that’s something to be afraid of. So in both of those cases, I’ve had situations like that happen where I’ve referred a client out, or I assume to, um, someone that I thought was working well in a space and they just didn’t click well.

[00:38:43] They just didn’t meld. And I, I’m not one of those advisors that’s like, Okay, here’s three people on this list that you need to call. Right. You came to me as an expert. Who, I don’t want three people. I’m not gonna call three people. Who do I need to talk to for this? Right? Like, that’s what I want, right?

[00:38:58] Point me in a direction, say, that’s where you want me to go. This is the person that can handle it. Okay, gimme your highest and your best. I’ve done that with, uh, with some of those partners and some of those referrals. And, um, either the relationship with bad or the, the client didn’t follow up or, and follow through.

[00:39:16] Um, and, you know, that reflects poorly on me. So it was like, okay, look, I’m gonna put the contact. So now what we do is we do a direct introduction and we get, we get the appointment scheduled and we try to get it done here on our office before they walk out the door. Um, so in my opinion, the two reasons why is that one, uh, Fear of what happens to that, to that client outside and loss of client control, which may, I mean, in essence, they may be the same 

[00:39:40] Stoy Hall: thing.

[00:39:41] What are your thoughts? Um, I agree wholeheartedly. Um, that’s why our business model is more of in, we’re trying to change the word family office. In our industry, we know what it means, but in the public, no one knows what it means. No idea. Cause doesn’t have one. Right? Um, because what you just said is essentially a family office esque type situation, Right?

[00:40:02] Um, for, for example, when I, when we have a business client that needs valuation, um, aside from using a quick software, if it gets detailed, I’m gonna reach out to Bill and say, Hey, this is what we got. I need, I need help. Okay? I, client comes in, we get you on video, we knock it out. We’re one team. Right?

[00:40:22] Client knows that you’re an expert in this field, might have your own business, doesn’t matter, but it’s coming from their sole, their location of this family office, right? Black man. Is in control. They hired seminary financial group to do this aspect. Right. That, that’s a family office. That’s what they do.

[00:40:40] Yeah. Now a lot of, some of ’em will have it internal and stuff like that, but that’s, that’s what a family office is. And that’s, I believe, where the industry is going and should go because of you just said there, we can then have true partnerships and relationships because it’s your client, you are running it, and we’re just here to aid in that situation.

[00:41:02] Right. And that’s where, um, so yes, I agree. It’s the fear. It’s the, I think the third part would be a lot of newer advisors, planners, where the hell you wanna call ’em at that point, try to do everything. And we went through it. Right. I’d do everything right. And so if you, who wants, who wants to do that? ? I mean, we used to when we were young, 

[00:41:23] Bill Simonet: now I’m like, No, no, 

[00:41:25] Stoy Hall: no, no, no, no, no.

[00:41:27] Not my, not my lane. I don’t wanna do it. Um, once you can get over that. Then, then that fear, I think the fear gets dwindled. I think the control piece will always be there, but it gets dwindled because I don’t do that. That’s not my lane. I know my lane, I know what I’m an expert at, and I know my connections who are experts in that.

[00:41:46] So that, that’s my opinion on that. I, I want city grow. I want to talk about it more, um, because there’s, there’s, uh, planners like you in your, in your firm, you’re getting to capacity where you need that so you can continue to grow that capacity, which then helps the other firm, uh, grow as well. Now we’re growing firms, we’re growing each other, we’re helping each other up.

[00:42:09] We’re not doing, you know, we’re not doing the monkey and the barrel, the crab and the barrel type situation of pulling each other down. We’re actually reaching down and helping everyone grow up. If you do that, that means there’s more clients getting proper help and, you know, we can change. 

[00:42:24] Bill Simonet: They’re growing together.

[00:42:25] That’s right. You know, and more people that we can work with. Because, um, you know, like some of these presentations, uh, this is why I love conferences because you’re gonna see there are some amazing, there are some amazing speakers sometimes. And, um, Iani had Gary V one year and one of the things that he was on, you know, he, he, Gary v he’s, his language is absolutely terrible, which is great because I cuss like a sailor anyway and it’s taking everything in my power.

[00:42:53] Not to, to, to, um, 

[00:42:56] Stoy Hall: frame. But, you know, just don’t drop off bomb. That’s the only thing that we try to stay away from everything else is game cuz I can’t 

[00:43:02] Bill Simonet: help myself that one, almost that and had to catch myself. Um, but he’s on the stage and while he’s doing his presentation, um, I go to the profanity part because I, I recognize something in his presentation.

[00:43:19] He is cold and he’s calculated and he was very structured in how he was talking. Uh, and he said, he was talking about how, he was talking about how people would quit and he was like, This is bullshit. And then all of a sudden you just see everyone’s eyes. If they weren’t paying attention, they weren’t there.

[00:43:37] Yep. They were now. Right. And there was nothing magical or special about anything that came out there. It was the presentation, the structure of that. Right. And what I grabbed from that was within our industry, within structuring with young advisors, and especially with seasoned long term, So you and I, we are in this middle term, right?

[00:44:00] We are within, we are within this, uh, 10 to 14 year renaissance within our industry. Right. Uh, 10 to 15 year renaissance where it is, Well, it’s no longer. It’s definitely no longer insurance based. It’s no longer just insurance. It’s no longer just, uh, uh, aum, Right? It is, uh, it is planning, it is combined, It is, it is gig economy.

[00:44:27] How do I, how do I maximize my 10 99 income? It is complexity and structure to plan, uh, to a client’s life, right? And in that it requires, it requires partnership. Um, it requires the need to release and open up and work with other people. Um, it requires being able to work at scale, right? We have a business now.

[00:44:54] We have a model that requires scale, uh, and it requires complexity and it means that we also need to be able to communicate better with, uh, with our clients and, and, and the people that we’re working with. We need to be able to do that within ourselves. Gary V was able to grab the attention of a thousand people by using a specific phrase that, you know, everybody else, everybody else’s presentation is all pie charts and, you know, and math and statistics and all this other shit.

[00:45:22] And then here he comes, you know, t-shirt and jeans, and he grabs the attention of everyone old and young in that room, right. Uh, to, to have them listen and focus and then bring them into a point that, uh, that you want them to focus on. Our communication and our structure and the change in this industry where we’re going, to your point, like, uh, the family office model requires that we, how do we, we as advisors, need to be better at communicating amongst ourselves if we’re going to be raising the ship, if we’re gonna be figuring out how we’re gonna work together, we need to talk about what that partnership is going to look like.

[00:45:54] We need to talk to each other more often. Flat out, just straight up. This needs to happen more often amongst advisors, uh, about real things, right? We need to be doing this. And then talking about the complexities and things that we’re seeing with our clients, you know, uh, so that we can be better at figuring out our lane, figure out our space.

[00:46:15] How else are we supposed to do it? Because how, who wants, who wants to do everything for everybody? Who wants to be that 

[00:46:23] Stoy Hall: person? You don’t have time for that. And to use Gary V don’t bring me this bullshit thing of your AUMs not big enough for us to chat, right? Don’t, don’t, don’t try to dick this. Don’t do it.

[00:46:34] It’s not, it is not the space. It’s not that, that situation. Um, we had a, a situation where I was gonna be part of a conference and, um, got called for vetting to speak and he’s like, um, you know, what’s your, what’s your aum? I said, Well, on paper it’s like two and a half cuz everything else is alternative.

[00:46:53] It’s not on our paper. we manage over 175, right? Yeah. It’s all net worth base. It’s not just because it’s in our Schwab accounts. And he was like, he didn’t understand it. I said, Well, as a family office, I don’t have to account for everything on my adv like that. Like there’s ways around that. And he’s like, Oh, okay, well, well, um, and just kept doing that.

[00:47:18] I’m like, Okay, I’m not coming. I’m not coming for a multitude of reasons. One, you’re, I trouble, you’re doing some bullshit. Um, I’m probably the only black dude who’s ever been to your conference. Um, now you’re wanting me to speak, which is actually helping you in your conference cuz someone left and now you are questioning.

[00:47:35] My value, my value and expertise, because you read our adv, by the way, if you didn’t know, we’re going through the middle of an adv because I’ve gotta deal with the state of Iowa. So like you don’t know anything just because you’re reading a piece of paper with a number and that number is really irrelevant.

[00:47:51] I don’t give a shit whose AUM is where ever you are. That doesn’t give me any story. And so 

[00:47:58] Bill Simonet: this means you can gather assets. That’s all 

[00:48:00] Stoy Hall: that, that’s bullshit, right? All of that’s bullshit in our, in our industry. And everyone, not everyone, old white dudes still based upon your success on that. And that is a part of our industry that has to die.

[00:48:17] It is not dying, but it has to die because look at us. Right? Um, you know, this series is about plaque cf. And there’s maybe like 12 of us. I mean, there’s what, I don’t even know, like less than 4% of CCPs. I dunno. It’s some stupid number. Yeah. Uh, which is really, really low. And we’re all spread out everywhere.

[00:48:37] Everywhere. And absolutely not saying that we feel alone or anything, but we all have the same battle. And that battle is old white dudes in our industry and we’re creating change and disrupting. And they belittle us to people because maybe our AUM is not big enough, or, um, because he calls himself Yep.

[00:48:57] Mm-hmm. clientele base, or he calls himself called that dark and handsome. You know, whatever it is, they attack that. Um, so that’s how I feel about that bullshit. But I do have another question that I always load up, and that is how, how much of your client base is black or is a minority? Oh, 

[00:49:16] Bill Simonet: I knew this 

[00:49:16] Stoy Hall: was coming.

[00:49:17] Yeah. ab. Absolutely. . 

[00:49:20] Bill Simonet: Um, all right. Let me preface this by saying, uh, it is, it is a, it is a, it is a challenge, it’s a reward and a challenge at the same time. Not very many. Um, in terms of, uh, black people, of the clients that we work with, uh, 4, 5, 6, maybe people of color, black people, minorities, uh, we have Asians, we have Hispanics, probably 10 to 15%.

[00:50:04] Now, why is, is it because I haven’t concentrated or tried to go after that market? No. When I started this business, as I mentioned before, you know, my client base grew organically in one market. But initially when I started this business, I wanted to work with people who tell her I wanted to work with black people.

[00:50:18] There isn’t, uh, Uh, I specifically wanted to work with black people. I wanted to work with black professionals, and so I joined several organizations and, uh, and tried to focus on that, on that space. And I have found this story that it is, it is not how, unless you are in a major metropolitan area with a thriving black community like Washington, Atlanta, Miami, um, uh, la, other, there a few other communities in New York.

[00:50:48] If you and I, one of those communities with, uh, Dallas, if you’re not one of those communities with a thriving, growing black population, it is very, very difficult to grow in that space because, In general, the black community does not see us or does not see wealth advisors and financial planners in their, in the communities in which they’re growing up or in the communities in which they’re operating in the first place.

[00:51:11] The idea of trusting and turning something over to an advisor, and then if they did that, their exposure to an advisor is not of that looks like us. I have clients that hire me specifically because I’m black and at, uh, there. And so there was a time where I was, uh, a little offended by it, but now I use that as a, I use that as a benefit, right?

[00:51:32] As a strength, as a differentiator. Um, and if, you know, like if you go to our website, you’ll see that, you know, like we advertise and we look different. Our, our, our website looks more like a, uh, model portfolio than, you know, than it does a financial planner site. There’s no, there’s no white people running along the beach and we’re not screaming about retirement.

[00:51:48] That’s not the case. Right. Um, and. We specifically, we specifically went different for that reason. And while we are getting more traction and working with group like Quad A and others to bring the idea of financial planning, uh, the CFP board is doing their diversity, uh, workshop, uh, in the, uh, in the upcoming months.

[00:52:11] Uh, and I was at the Risk Lies Conference and one of the things I talked to them about was getting at HBCUs, getting onto the campus and then introducing the financial planning curriculum. And I sat down with a gentleman and he was like, We wanna hire more black people. I was like, Yeah, that’s great. Have you, do you know what an HBC was?

[00:52:29] Have you been to a historically black college university? I was like, No, I’ve never heard of that. I was like, Here’s a real world example. Texas, uh, Southern University versus, um, Texas Southern University. And Texas a and M University are about 45 minutes apart from each other if that are fairly close.

[00:52:44] They both have thriving financial planning programs. One is predominantly black, one is at a, uh, at, at an s e school, you know, like a division one school. They have their job fairs around the same time. Guess what? Guess who gets all the big names? And guess who doesn’t? Yep. Right? Uh, as an example, real world example, right?

[00:53:01] So these people, uh, you know, like, um, Texas Southern will get all the insurance companies and Texas a and m will get everybody, um, That challenge, that thing right there. One, first and foremost, uh, makes it difficult for there to be more of us, more black people in the industry. The second part of it, and I think the bigger part of it is representation within the community.

[00:53:24] Black, white. Otherwise, there needs to be, if we want to grow in terms of having more black and brown clients offices and examples and experiences need to be inside of black and brown communities. Um, because it just becomes too much sometimes from a business owner’s perspective, it becomes too much of an uphill, um, battle to try to, to make your job, to educate, uh, and form and retain a client who, who just doesn’t have the exposure or the or, or, or the know-how with not know-how is incorrect.

[00:53:58] But, um, The willingness, uh, to participate in the financial planning space, uh, like that. And we, we know that black people, we know that people of color want to, and they, they seek guidance, but only amongst people that they trust. They that they know, care and trust. And oftentimes, if I’m, if I’m working at a nine to five job, I’m, I’m barely able to survive.

[00:54:21] And the, the, the fear that I have is, if I’ve given you some extra money, how the heck am I gonna grow in this other space? Right? Which is the thing that we have to talk about with all of our clients. But within that community, I mean, cultural differences are real, right? Cultural differences have to be addressed.

[00:54:40] I can go into that community and I can have that conversation. I can, and I can spend my time there, but if I try to build my business, I, I wouldn’t be in business today. Now I have the ability to grow and saying it again, we are hiring now at this point. Having a person that’s dedicated and able to go into that space and be able to actively market and then build while, while we continue to grow now that we have that solid base is absolutely something that is important to me.

[00:55:10] And it’s a conversation that I have on a regular basis. It’s absolutely important. Uh, but no, our client base is not, I don’t have a large, um, client base with minorities and people 

[00:55:20] Stoy Hall: of color. Same. And that goes for, uh, a lot of, um, you know, black minority CCPs that I know as well. It’s just, it’s the same.

[00:55:28] Everything you said was a hundred percent spot on did not miss at all. I would allude and add a little more of one how we look usually. Um, this is our podcast, so you, but usually I’m in a. Yep. Um, I’ve been told, I’ve been 

[00:55:42] Bill Simonet: told you’re the only person that dress, you’re the only person that I feel make, uh, I can compete with in terms of, uh, style dress.

[00:55:48] Right. When we get 

[00:55:49] Stoy Hall: together, man, we, we look good. We look we’ll, we’ll shut it down, I promise you that. Um, but I’ve been told that that’s intimidating to the black people. It is. Yeah. Absolutely. They, they currently to the day, and I’m doing a lot this month of yelling and being, and this will be my second point of being loud of.

[00:56:08] We’re taking clients, we’re taking everybody. That’s what we do. We hope this is what we’re here for. Just cuz I, you know, I have a big truck and I wear a three piece suit and I have a podcast and, and it looks like, you know, we’re, we’re not taking on clients and, and we only work with wealthy people.

[00:56:21] That’s, that’s complete And other bullshit. Yeah. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Um, thank you Gary V I’m gonna start using that a lot more. Um, it works complete and utter bullshit. And that’s, that’s a big part of it too, I believe is the fact that they think we’re successful, we don’t wanna work with them or they don’t have enough assets or some something.

[00:56:39] There is a 

[00:56:39] Bill Simonet: barrier to entry, like Yeah, absolutely. And you know, like in terms of per per, you know, we have internal biases. We’re human beings. Everyone has a bias. Um, my invi, my vision of a financial planner is not what you and I look like. Like even being in this industry, you know, at this point in. While it is changing the concept of financial planning and the financial planner, and I will, uh, I will, um, I will give kudos to, um, some of the big firms now where when they’re advertising, they’re using more, uh, diverse looking people, Right?

[00:57:14] Finally. Yeah. Right. Which is nice. Um, but we don’t think, uh, the idea of a financial planner isn’t, isn’t what you and I look like, right? It’s not sitting down at the, not, not even just at the coffee shop. Sometimes it is. Look, let me meet you, not just at your office. I think this might be a conversation that we need to go have at the bar.

[00:57:35] Let me sit down with you really quickly. Let me walk you through what we’re talking about here. This is simple enough, you know, and meeting our clients where they are, meeting our clients in their space, not just in their space, but you know, uh, at, at their level of comfort, which. We have to do. And communities of color need that of 

[00:57:54] Stoy Hall: color.

[00:57:54] And they, but they also need to understand that we’re here to help them grow. And so We’ll, we’re gonna start comfortable, but we’re gonna move you down uncomfortable. Cuz if you don’t, you’re not gonna grow. Right. You’re not gonna grow. Yeah. And that’s a message that we use a lot of. Yeah. Um, our office is on a fifth floor nice office building.

[00:58:13] I’m bringing you here for a few reasons. I need you to be uncomfortable. I need you to understand where we’re at, where we’re coming from, cuz we can help you. Right. Um, and I, we don’t mean it as a deterrent, but we, we mean it to be uncomfortable cuz then you get your raw emotions into it. So, um, Yeah. No, I, I love that piece.

[00:58:31] Then you get the truth, 

[00:58:32] Bill Simonet: then you get. Uh, you, That’s what you gotta get to. You gotta get to the truth. Absolutely. Um, and, you know, planners, advisors in this space, we need the truth to do our jobs and in order to help people. Right. So that’s what you gotta do. You gotta push ’em into that. You gotta push ’em, you gotta push them.

[00:58:51] Stoy Hall: And the other point, um, that I’ll end with on that, on, you know, black clientele and whatnot, is the thing that black people are really good at is being loud. Yeah. Loud. We’re really good at being loud. Um, in our industry, we’re not good at being loud. Not loud enough. Yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re, we’re fearful of losing our careers for being loud in this space.

[00:59:14] Now, I think that goes into every professional practice, um, for black people, but specifically in our industry that we can speak upon is, we’re fearful of being loud because we’re fearful of losing clientele because the majority of our clientele is Yeah. Right. What. Yeah. Different than us. It’s not us.

[00:59:34] They’re different. It’s not us. And so, you know, my, um, focus on this series and other, our whole over podcast of Nobs Wealth is, We’re gonna be loud. I wanna be loud. Absolutely. Up to the borderline of obnoxious so that people can hear us, um, our communities can hear us, our people can hear us in five avenues to work with us.

[00:59:57] Um, that’s a big part of why we’re launching our, our DIY journey of, um, they just a conversation. The first one I’m doing is just a fireside chat with a black cfp. Legitimately five to $10 a month. Just cuz I need you to have buy-in. Mm-hmm. , you get me for now, let’s just chat, 

[01:00:14] Bill Simonet: Let’s 

[01:00:15] Stoy Hall: just, let’s just chat.

[01:00:16] Let’s have a good conversation. I’ll educate you on some things. I’ll bring you in experts and all that. But just chat, start there because if we don’t start changing and helping and reaching down and saying, Hey, let’s just talk. They gotta get, everyone’s gotta get comfortable with just talking, not getting full blown into, you know, what the hell the budget is and how to retire and what these accounts are and you know, how to avoid, you know, the tax situation.

[01:00:40] Like, all that stuff is way too complex right now. It’s just a, Hey, let’s chat and part of that chat, let’s not blow, you know, our tax refund on tattoos and cars and shoes. Like, that’s easy. Yeah. That’s just conversation. 

[01:00:53] Bill Simonet: Yeah. So let’s find out what you wanna be and what you wanna do. Let’s find out how you wanna grow.

[01:00:57] Let’s, let’s find your focus. Right. And then, and then specifically I’m thinking more along, um, an area that that gets ignored and gets missed is the black professional community. Mm-hmm. at a very large black professional community. Right. We are part of that, uh, you know, doctors, lawyers, ed people that are, you know, doing, doing very well within themselves.

[01:01:22] Uh, people that are working C-suite. That group once again, like everything, like a lot of things that involve minorities gets, gets missed and gets ignored or gets caught, cast aside. Um, I find it very interesting that almost every diversity and inclusion hire at a company is a black woman. Right? That’s, that’s one of the most entertaining things to go to see.

[01:01:44] And I, I say that because it seems to be checking off all the boxes, and I know that it’s not necessarily intentional, but , nothing streams diversity, inclusion, like . 

[01:01:56] Stoy Hall: I hate it all. I get all the checks. I’m done. I, I got, I got my buttons right. Oh, and if she’s bisexual or any of the LGBTQ Yeah. 

[01:02:04] Bill Simonet: Add any of that, that we, No, we are golden.

[01:02:07] We 

[01:02:07] Stoy Hall: don’t have hire nobody for decades. 

[01:02:10] Bill Simonet: No, we don’t. Right. And like, uh, uh, You to talk about being loud. There are two advisors that come to mind. Uh, one in particular, uh, is Tyrone, uh, Tyrone Ross, who I think is doing a really, really good job. Absolutely. Uh, of, uh, of just getting his information out there, being loud and being on the stage and pushing to, to make sure that, uh, pushing, make sure that people recognize, you know, he does the thing about literacy.

[01:02:39] And then he talks about the communities that he’s in, which phenomenal, right. And, um, there’s another one named Kathleen Boyd out in California, who, who, who has been and speaking, you know, like, um, openly, uh, openly gay black woman. Uh, I share this story sometimes and she wouldn’t mind, uh, me sharing at one of the conferences, we were literally sitting there and we were talking about black women here and then how, how we were the minority.

[01:03:05] How often people wanna come up and touch it. And I was like, you know, I guarantee someone’s gonna wanna do it. And without fail, an advisor walks up is like, I just love your hair. This naturally starts reaching for it, right? And we’re sitting there, you know, she does a natural backing, right? And we’re like, it’s it, it’s not, It’s the lack of exposure, it’s the lack of community.

[01:03:25] And here we are professionals in a setting where even still in the professional setting, Here is somebody that’s like, Oh, I’m seen as exotic or a little bit different, right? Um, the black professionals don’t get talked to as much and don’t get reached out to, you know, these are people that are in the same situation as most advisors.

[01:03:44] Uh, not most advisors, but everyone else in the people of color community, right? They are. They still need help. They still need access. They want advisors. Um, but we aren’t reaching out to ’em. We’re not, we’re not, we’re not meeting them where they are. Uh, and this is on us as advisors, and this is on us as people of color, uh, as an advisor.

[01:04:04] This is something that I wish I had spent more time on and something that I concent that I’m going to be concentrating on now is black professionals. They need, uh, they need, uh, us just as much as anybody else, but they are slipping through the cracks, right? They’re not finding advisors. They’re, they’re not finding, uh, planners that are sitting down and willing to work with them or are working with them at, at their current place and where they’re.

[01:04:30] So I think that as a focus, that group as well just needs to, uh, that group we as advisors need to be better at. Uh, one person that’s really good at this would be Renee Norris, uh, if you had a chance to talk to her, um, uh, Urban Wealth Management out in California. Uh, phenomenal woman. She’s got a, you know, black woman, got a great practice that focuses on women, and she works with a lot of black women professionals.

[01:04:55] And with her, I’m like, you know, how do you do it? She’s like, Well, I’m a black woman and they wanna talk to me, and I know how to reach out to ’em because I, I’ve been in that space and I, I’ve worked in that world. You know, she, she spent time, I think it was with Merrill, with Merrill Lynch before she went independent, and she was able to grow tremendously because of that difference, right?

[01:05:12] So the cultural differences are important. And notice the phrase is, you know, I use the word cultural. I’m, I’m Haitian American. I’m a first generation, uh, Haitian. My family is from the island. Uh, there are plenty of black professionals that are very successful. Sit out now, ask me to sit out and try to have a conversation with them on, on planning and watch how that conversation goes.

[01:05:34] Nowhere . Yeah. Right. Like it goes nowhere. So, you know, like those cultural boundaries, those, those, those cultural barriers I think are things that we need to deal with. I think it, I think it’s incumbent upon us as advisors. Um, I think we do need to teach, you know, the other side of the, uh, of the business, white people and, um, black, brown, Asian people just want advice.

[01:05:59] You know, like if, if more advisors were to go into those communities, if we spent more time working across the board and working within those groups that are underserved, this, I think, um, I think the situation would be a lot different. I think, I think overall comfort and direction of our financial health would be different.

[01:06:17] Absolutely. 

[01:06:19] Stoy Hall: I agree. I agree. Well, you know, we could chat probably all day, um, , but any, anything you wanna leave with or last things you wanna say, We’ve got a lot of good takes here and I think it’ll blow up, um, just cuz you know, that’s what we do. But, um, any final, final things you wanna say or discuss?

[01:06:36] Bill Simonet: Yeah. Um, so this is advise, this is advisory directed. I, I would say, look, this, this period is, is is this time period that we’re in this design of tester metal, right? No, it’s, we always have, We’re generally the duck on water, Right? You know, still feet moving and we’re still calm on the surface, whether it’s raining or whether the water’s choppy.

[01:07:00] Um, It’s, it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we are reaching out to our clients and that we are communicating not just our value, but reminding our clients what their intentions and what their goals were and letting them know that, Hey, look, this is gonna be okay. You, this too will pass. Like, like everything and all, we just need to make sure we give it enough time to do so.

[01:07:23] And something that I am learning and comfortable with is being way more intentional with your actions and your business and your personal, whoever the hell you want. But in your business being way more intentional with who you work with, how you work with them, and why you work with them. Because this has, this business, especially in this time period, has got to be something that you have a passion and love and, and a drive for.

[01:07:49] Without, without those things, this business gets really turned, gets really, really old quick. You know, be intentional. Uh, and the last thing that I’ll say to that is get out. If you’re not doing so already, if you’re not part of an association, you know, Quad A is a really good one. Fpa, uh, you know, Napa, whatever.

[01:08:11] Uh, just get out. Do what you need to do. But you need to be, uh, if you’re, if you’re an advisor and you’re doing this on your own, if you were in the island Islands, get washed over real quick. You better go out and start finding some friends in this industry, some colleagues, you need to be having fireside chats.

[01:08:26] You need to get together for a happy hour. Do something, find other advisors that you can sit down and you can talk to so that you are not going through this alone, because, This business can be extremely lonely. If you’re the only person in the office and you’re the only person that ever wanna share information with, and you don’t have anybody else who is in the industry that understands what you’re going through, get out there and go find a partner and go find another advisor or someone that’s in this space doesn’t have to be in the exact same space, but they need, You need to go find someone.

[01:08:52] And it is incredibly valuable and it’s incredibly useful for your time and your professional growth to have a good partner, mentor, or another advisor to talk to as you’re continuing on your journey 

[01:09:05] Stoy Hall: in this business. Absolutely. And I’ll just piggyback with Be loud. Be loud. Yeah, he’s saying that be loud and that doesn’t mean just scream.

[01:09:12] Literally that means going out and finding what he just talked about. So, um, absolutely we’ll have, we’ll have Bill’s information obviously, um, good to his website. We’ll have contact info as well. Um, subscribe to No BS Wealth. Um, this is specifically the Black CFP series. Um, follow us, like us, comment, yell at us.

[01:09:29] If you want to comment a lot on this one, Bill and I will be ready. Uh, we will, we’ll respond and you’ll absolutely get a response. Absolutely. And it, and you might wanna sit down, it might take a while cuz we’re gonna get at it, um, as well. So Bill, Hey man, love the hell out of you. Uh, I appreciate everything that you’re doing, um, and that you will continue to do, uh, and you know, we’ll continue to do this.

[01:09:52] We’ll have you on again. I know cuz I know I just. We’re gonna get some hot takes and this is gonna be really, really fun. So I appreciate you. Absolutely. 

[01:10:00] Bill Simonet: I love you, man. Thank you so much for having me. Uh, thank you guys so much. Uh, financial planning works.com as the website at Bill Simone, uh, on, uh, Instagram and Twitter or this, uh, you know, or just bill at Bill Simone.

[01:10:13] You’ll find me. Yeah, for sure. Uh, it’s right, right there.

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