Listen in for a dynamic live discussion on enhancing your RIA’s operational efficiency. Featuring experts Angel Williams of Beck Bode, Charesse Spiller of Get Level Best, and Saundra Davis, MSFP of Sage Financial Solutions, this episode delves into practical strategies for optimizing processes, automation, and boosting client satisfaction. Discover actionable insights to streamline your operations and achieve excellence in your advisory practice. ABOUT ALTRUIST: We’re on a mission to make financial advice better, more affordable, and more accessible to everyone. Altruist is an all-in-one platform built exclusively to help RIAs start, run, and grow their practices. Our platform saves you time and reduces your costs: You can manage your entire book of business, get performance reporting, and bill your clients with ease and efficiency. Want to find out how Altruist can help you grow? See more at www.altruist.com/podcasts STAY CONNECTED: Instagram ► https://www.instpagram.com/altruistcorp/ Twitter ► https://twitter.com/altruist Linkedin ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/altruistcorp/
Listen in for a dynamic live discussion on enhancing your RIA’s operational efficiency. Featuring experts Angel Williams of Beck Bode, Charesse Spiller of Get Level Best, and Saundra Davis, MSFP of Sage Financial Solutions, this episode delves into practical strategies for optimizing processes, automation, and boosting client satisfaction. Discover actionable insights to streamline your operations and achieve excellence in your advisory practice.
ABOUT ALTRUIST:
We’re on a mission to make financial advice better, more affordable, and more accessible to everyone. Altruist is an all-in-one platform built exclusively to help RIAs start, run, and grow their practices. Our platform saves you time and reduces your costs: You can manage your entire book of business, get performance reporting, and bill your clients with ease and efficiency.
Want to find out how Altruist can help you grow? See more at www.altruist.com/podcasts
STAY CONNECTED:
Instagram ► https://www.instpagram.com/altruistcorp/
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/altruist
Linkedin ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/altruistcorp/
RESOURCES IN EPISODE:
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Dasarte: Altruist helps independent advisors manage their business with efficiency and ease. With performance reporting, trading, account opening and billing in a single digital experience, you'll have more time to focus on the part of your business that matters most, your clients. Learn more about Altruist by visiting www.altruist.com/podcasts. Altruist Financial LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.
Jason: Welcome to The Advisor Journey, a podcast by Altruist dedicated to giving advisors the edge they need with proven RIA growth strategies. Each week, Dasarte Yarnway and I will have hard hitting conversations about the topics that matter most to the modern RIA, how to scale, how to maximize efficiency, and how to effectively reach your goals. It's real advice from people who've really done it, and we're so glad you're here.
Dasarte: Welcome back to The Advisor Journey. I'm your co-host, Dasarte Yarnway. My partner in wealth, Jason Wenk, is not here today, but he's somewhere around the 1 hotel. This is a live podcast interview. Today I am privileged to be on stage with incredible experts and to me this is a first for The Advisor Journey, all women on a panel. And I'm so honored to be on stage with you. So Saundra Davis, Charesse Spiller, Angel Williams, thank you so much for joining me. All right. Now let's just get into it. Let's do some brief introductions. Saundra, we'll start with you. We'll go down the line and then we'll get into our conversation. And Saundra, let me do an introduction of you first.
Saundra: Oh, goodness.
Dasarte: She is the godmother of finance if you don't know. She runs Sage Financial Solutions. She helps with financial coaching. And I've been knowing you for what, the last seven --
Saundra: We were on stage together.
Dasarte: A long time. So --
Saundra: When Young Money came out.
Dasarte: Young money. That's the book that I wrote. Charesse Spiller, Operational genius and you're going to see that today. If you haven't listened to our episode, go and do it. Because when I talk about technology taking over 70% of your onboarding process, that came from her. I'll let her talk about that. And you've been on stage already, and you're pretty much the chief everything officer at Beck Bode. We'll give you the credit there. So I'll let you introduce yourselves and then we'll get into the conversation.
Saundra: It's good to be with you again, as always. Good to be with all of you. I'm a bit disruptive, so be prepared for that. They gave me permission to bring my full self, so that's what you're going to get. I am a Navy Veteran. I came to financial planning after making every financial mistake possible. I became a financial planner at 44 because I had messed up money and didn't know any better. And I figured that if I knew a lot about money, I would be able to change not only my behavior, but what other people were doing as well. Very quickly, I learned that people don't do what you tell them to do. How many know that? And that's how I got into coaching. So I have a master's degree in financial planning. I am the program director at Golden Gate University. I'm a certified mindfulness teacher, a master certified coach, and I'm learning pickleball. And so yeah, so that. So I'm learning, I'm learning. First on my VR headset because I'm actually techno glamour is my name.
Dasarte: Techno glam on the headset?
Saundra: Yeah.
Dasarte: Okay.
Saundra: Yeah.
Dasarte: I have a pickleball court by my house. And sometimes I go look like, should I go out there and rock their world real quick?
Saundra: But don't mess with the old people. They'll hurt you.
Dasarte: But I haven't done it just yet. But I might have to take some lessons from you. Charesse, introduce yourself.
Charesse: Thank you all for joining me today. My name is Charesse Spiller, founder of Level Best. I'm based in Houston. Originally from Pittsburgh. I'm still a Steelers fan. I started Level Best in 2016. Before that, I was a planner at an RIA in the Pittsburgh area. My career path isn't traditional in the industry, so I started freelancing early on in my career just because I was struggling to find a good fit when I lived in Pittsburgh. At the time, I saw XY Planning Network and literally emailed everyone, websites that I was interested in and basically shot my shot. And since then, I've partnered with advisors across the country, empowering them, empowering their teams to scale their business through operations. It's a privilege for me to be able to do this. I've lived in multiple cities, traveled across the world. I really love traveling, all working on my laptop. So I really hope that I can continue to empower others in the space.
Dasarte: Yeah, I feel like you can host a masterclass with all the information that you gave us on the podcast. So looking forward to having you all listen to that episode, because I don't know if we can fit it all into 35 minutes. And I like how you said I'm still a Steelers fan, but I can feel the pain there when you said I'm still a Steelers fan. How about you introduce yourself?
Angel: Hi everyone. My name is Angel Williams. Now, Costanza. I grew up wanting to be the CEO of an RIA. Like, didn't everyone else know? I actually got into this business by accident. I applied to a bad job posting on Craigslist while I was in college, and moved to a new city, and somehow started working at an RIA and have found a passion and a love for what I do.
Dasarte: That's awesome. So I have some questions that I thought of previously before getting on stage. All right. But before we kind of dive into those questions, I just want to ask simply like from your view, what are your thoughts on what advisors can be doing better? Because in this space we are like, how can we be more efficient? How can we scale? How can we make more money and please our clients do good while doing well? But I know as a coach there are certain things that you see that perhaps we don't see as advisors. As an operational expert, you see things that we might not see as practitioners that are trying to scale. Right? So before we get into sort of, hey, how can we be more efficient? The same conversations that we always have from your vantage point, because, you know, if we're on a team, we're on a field, I keep referring to football. Everyone sees the game differently. So I want to know how you see the game. Saundra.
Saundra: Yeah. So what I notice first is that advisors look first at what they do. And so what I'm encouraging you to do and what you're going to hear from me over and over again in our time together today is who are you being? Who are you being? You're always hearing start with your why and all that. I understand that. I don't think that that's wrong. I just think it's premature. And so if you have a master plan, who's in charge? Who's mastering the plan? Does the plan run you or do you run the plan? And so when I think of when I coach executives, when I coach financial planners, what I'm inviting them to explore is, what are you believing about yourself? When you think about what you chose, when you think about what you do, what do you believe about you? Because what you believe about you is how you will respond with your clients. So how many of you came into this field because you wanted to do this operational stuff?
Okay, so that tells us something. So what is pulling you? When your shoulders back and your chest is out, what is pulling you? Because that's where you can begin. You're going to hear about all of the psychological stuff about financial planning. I'm a founding member of the Financial Therapy Association. It's one thing to know these things. It's another to do your own work. It's another to know the places where you don't feel good enough, the places where you feel like, yeah, you know, I'm not really great at that operational thing. Okay, that's a part of you. That's not all of you. Who else does what you all do? Who else has the capacity to heal the pains of family legacy and set a new generation for going forward? Set a new trajectory? Who does that? I'm not a financial planner anymore. I teach them, but that's not what I do. But what I think you all miss is that nobody does what you do.
Nobody takes the pain of the past, shifts it around, and gives the opportunity for families to heal generation after generation after generation.
Dasarte: I bet you didn't know you were going to be in therapy today everyone. You know, one of my favorite quotes saying is, "If you are such a person, why worry about such things?" So whenever I embark on a new endeavor, a new project, or a new business idea, I always kind of repeat that quote to myself. Because if I can make myself the type of person that can do the work and be disciplined in my daily activities, it's nothing for me to run a business, right? I'm not going to be worried about the outcome of such business because I know that I'm that type of person. I can lead a company, I can identify talent, I can project plan, right? I can motivate and inspire people. Right? So I think you hit it on the head. Advisors do have to be introspective first, so they can project their best selves to their clients and the world around them.
Saundra: May I add something?
Dasarte: Please.
Saundra: Look at you with compassion. I suspect everyone in here has no problem judging yourself. I suspect you have no problem looking at all of the things that you don't do quite right. And I'm encouraging you to look first with deep compassion. Right? Not everybody is an operational guru, right? I was in the Navy, and I had a chief that used to say, Davis, if I asked you what time it is, don't tell me how to make a clock. He didn't want the details, and that's how I am. So I'm lousy at the actual operation stuff. Lousy at it. But as you can see, I'm pretty awesome at this part, right? And so you get to recognize those parts of you that maybe struggle with the operations, but do so with compassion, because I believe that that's the way forward to be able to do the excellence that they're going to share with you.
Dasarte: Awesome, awesome. Charesse, how do you see the game? What have you noticed through working with advisors?
Charesse: That was amazing. And I think I'm going to build off of it here with the operations hat. What I see is that business owners, I'm a business owner too. We get it confused with like what operations management is, what it means to grow your business and what it means to be an advisor. So I think that's the biggest piece is really like figuring out what are all the hats and starting to take your hats off as your business scales.
Dasarte: Can you expound on that a little bit? I know we're kind of going to shift into heavy operations thinking, but you just outlined three buckets. And I think it's hard for many practitioners, especially when they go independent to put on the other hats, right? Because they're good at doing this. Like I can do investment planning in my sleep, right? I can do portfolio management in my sleep. Or, you know, I know how to build a financial plan, but now you have to worry about PNL and other things, right? So talk to me about those different hats.
Charesse: Ooh. Okay. So I would start off with, I don't know how many advisors in here manage a team, but like the management hat, people management is a pain point for a lot of advisors. Then you have the operations management. So not operations support actually managing your systems and processes and people process technologies how I can break it down. And then you have the advice and expertise. So that's the advisory role where you're giving advice. So like when you think of managing your firm like those are the areas that I look for. But what I find with advisors is that like I have an advisor right now, it's just him and six support staff. How did we get here? You know. So, like, really figuring out which, like Angel is a testament to this. What does that management look like besides advisors? Or if you have partners who are really rainmakers, but they're not necessarily helping with growing the firm. So those are the areas that I see.
Dasarte: Awesome, awesome. Angel, how do you see the game?
Angel: This has been so enlightening from these two that I'm like, what was the question again? No, I think it's a combination. It's being ready to let go, to be in order to really grow, to scale, to get bigger. The advisor has to be at that point where they're ready to let go and to move forward. Because for them to be super successful, to get the company where they have to go, they have to become a master at shedding things, letting things go, and then also trusting someone else. So there's a lot.
Saundra: That's the "What got you here won't get you there" quote.
Angel: Yeah.
Dasarte: I love that. Let's expound on just operations. So you work obviously with Beck Bode. What are some big challenges that you have from the operational side?
Angel: We have four locations. I think that from the operational side, most people aren't dealing with that at a firm our size. A lot of people have one location, maybe two. That means you have to have extra support staff. Your technology has to work seamlessly, and those integrations that you use have to really work well. And getting everyone on the same page to do things the same way in every location can be really challenging.
Dasarte: That's awesome. I can imagine that's very difficult. What do you think has helped you become successful? Because obviously you're growing. Is there a technology stack you can share? Do you think there's like a silver bullet that we can take?
Angel: Well, we're really hoping that we found the silver bullet. For us, we had been on Junxure AdvisorEngine for a million years. We have all of our workflows, but user interface is not updating. Things are going slow. They're losing market share as you can see through the T3 survey. It's just not growing. And so we are also on Black Diamond, which everybody knows is used to be the product, super expensive. And that's just not working for us. So we're making the move right now this year to advise on because we need less technology and also technology that works well with all the things that we're doing. We're trying to make our tech stack smaller. I think during Covid, everyone was adding a little bit to the tech stack, you know, trying to solve a solution. You see the map of, you know, the 400 technologies that are out there, and it's really about simplifying and making it work well together for you and your business.
Dasarte: I love that. And that goes back to my notes from Alex and Rosa's presentation. Less is more or less does more. And I think a lot of advisors need to kind of assess or audit their tech stack to figure out what they need versus what they don't need.
Saundra: I also want to say, I think what happens, and I'm a small business owner. I've been a small business owner for 40 years. Before this, I had another business. I think one of the mistakes that I've made is that I identify a new problem, and I don't start with some existing solutions to figure it out. So I'll notice something. And then, you know, I'm a tech nerd. It's ridiculous. I'll find an external solution thinking that, well, if I have the problem once, I'll have it multiple times. So instead of looking back or getting some help that's beyond what I'm capable of to look at, what do you already have that can deal with this topic? I'll go and find a new thing. I found out yesterday I've been paying for TripIt for four years and I haven't been on a plane. But you know, I'll get into a tech thing and I'll try to find a solution and then not recognize when I'm chasing a solution rather than doing what these women here are talking about.
Dasarte: That's awesome. Speaking of getting help, I think it's important for advisors to get help to clean up their operational circumstance. I want to turn that over to you, Charesse. What are some strategies that advisors can lean into to make their firms operationally excellent?
Charesse: Reinvent your existing tech stack. I think that's a big area where advisors miss the mark. Technology is something that you want to use as a tool, but it's not the end all, be all. I'm always getting asked like, what's your favorite tools and things like that? Everything starts with a process. Even if you're a solopreneur, you want to systematize, standardize everything that you do. You never know what's going to happen. You may get a wave of clients in, and then you need to hire someone, and that's a cost. That's an investment. And so by having your processes documented, you can easily plug people into that. When you have processes, you can delegate easier and then you have the opportunity to automate more too. So I think when you're strategizing document your processes, I know that it's tedious. For my firm we actually hired like four interns one summer, and we just worked with them and documented everything. And then of course, where technology comes in, put it into your CRM.
Alex and Rosa, I was like, nerding out, like listening to their presentation. But from there, it's nice because you look at your workflows and do you delegate it or do you automate it? And then whatever's left, you do. And so I think it's really empowering when I work with advisors to look at the process because, you know, wow. Like we're actually providing a lot of value to our clients. Your team can see where they're impacting the client journey. That's another piece. So when you're leading the client relationship and you have people supporting you, sometimes they don't feel as valued because they're not in the client meetings and they're behind the scenes. So showing them where they add value is really helpful too.
Saundra: Some of those interns are at the colleges. I was a 40-year-old intern before Robert De Niro was, right? And so there are people at universities right now that are coming into this field who have operational excellence. They have marketing excellence. They might be green as financial professionals, but they're career changers. You know, I had gray hair when I came in this field already. And so there are places that you can find folks if you're running lean financially. Check out the universities that have master's degrees and undergrad degrees in financial planning. Talk to the program directors and let them know that you have a job for an intern. Some people can use virtual. Some people have to be in person. So you can decide all of that. But there are people who are already have professional skills, and they're going to be looking for you to teach them about the new career they're coming into, but they have some things that they can support you with.
And if you get somebody that knows what they're doing on how to train them, then you know you're ahead of the game.
Dasarte: I love that. Piggybacking off of that, Charesse, how would you recommend advisors take all of their thoughts and put it on paper, right? Because I know a lot of, especially old school advisors, they're like, yeah, do it this way and then I got it all up here. Do you know what I mean? It's all right here. I do this in my sleep. But in order to create SOPs, you have to put that on paper. You have to document it. I mean, interns is one thing, but I'm sure you've worked with advisors to get those thoughts out on paper. Can you share that experience with us?
Charesse: Yeah. And let me be clear. So when you're giving advice, it's very hard to document that. Like I help with the logistics of delivering service. I want to make that clear. So there's a tech tool. I said tech's not the end all be all. But when you think about all the back-office things, there's a tool called Scribe where you can literally click through and it will document everything for you. Also, I recommend partnering up with someone. So if you're explaining your process to someone on your team, I think that's helpful. I am a consultant, so this is like what I do for a living and just sitting with advisors, hearing what they do, because I am trying to look at the overview of the vision of your firm, the clients that you're trying to attract. But we also have an analyst on my team who drills into the details and covers process A, B, C, D, you know.
So I think the easiest way is to partner with someone because you're good at what you do. And so sometimes you may miss something that's really important. So finding that balance with someone who can really catch the details.
Saundra: And from a coaching perspective, right, it's not always that you're not good at it. It's just that in the same way that you serve as an objective observer for your clients, having a consultant or a colleague work with you that can see things that you're blind to, they can see your blind spots in the areas that you might be missing. I was talking with Dom Henderson. He just joined y'all, and he read one of Ben Hardy's books and he says, "Don't try to optimize what should be eliminated." And that was impactful for me as a business owner because I'm always trying to fix stuff, you know? And sometimes it's just got to go. And my process might have to go and my people might have to go.
And so I think the thing that it sounds like that you do is help people take a step back from sometimes the emotional connection to the software that you use or the process that you use, and that's what you all do for the people you serve. And so you get to work with people who can help you do that very thing for your businesses.
Dasarte: Can you just say that line again? Please, because I think that was a gem.
Saundra: I'm sorry. What did I say?
Dasarte: Don't try to optimize what should be eliminated.
Saundra: Yeah. So that's not my quote. That's Ben Hardy.
Dasarte: I'm going to give it to you.
Saundra: Okay.
Dasarte: I'm going to give it to you because it's the first time that I heard it. And I just think that's so true. Right? Some of the things need to go. It aligns with that less is more when less does more. But for some reason we have such a hard time letting go of the technology that we quote unquote should have.
Saundra: And that gets to the coaching piece, right? That gets to and I made myself a note. Do you have a business that honors who you are, the life that you want, the people that you serve and the future that you want to see? And so sometimes you might be attached to something that's harming you more than it's helping you. And you get to step back. You get to change your mind. You get to say, you know, these clients are not the right clients for me anymore. This process is not the right process for me anymore. None of you are getting younger. I know it's hard, but the fact is, are you doing what makes your heart beat fast? And the more you can align what they're experts in, the more space you have to do work that makes your heart beat fast.
Dasarte: Okay. Angel, I have a question for you about operations. Oh, you look like you're in therapy right now.
Angel: I know. This is so good and wonderful.
Dasarte: Okay, but I have a question for you. I want to just drill down really quickly. So, attachments. It's hard to detach from what you've always known to do. Some people in this room might be considering detaching from their custodian and switching to a new one. Some people in this room might be using technology that they don't need. Some people in this room might be just going through the same operations flow that they've been doing for the last five, ten, 15 years, right? Take us through a step-by-step process of how to make change, because change is not comfortable.
Saundra: I'm going to ask you to say that again differently without a limiting belief.
Dasarte: Okay. Welcome to the (indiscernible) therapy session. I'm going through the exercise without --
Saundra: So you said --
Dasarte: Okay.
Saundra: -- change is uncomfortable.
Dasarte: Yeah.
Saundra: Change that.
Dasarte: Change is inevitable.
Saundra: It is. And?
Dasarte: And I'm fearful of change.
Saundra: Okay, so that's different.
Dasarte: Okay.
Saundra: Right? Because that's a perspective you hold.
Dasarte: Mhm.
Saundra: You get to separate the perspective from the possibilities.
Dasarte: Okay.
Saundra: Right? Change can be difficult.
Dasarte: Correct.
Saundra: And we can decide to recognize the comfort zone, move into the learning zone and recognize when we're bumping up against our panic zone.
Dasarte: Right.
Saundra: So we don't have to panic. We can recognize and choose. So even in the discomfort that is possible with change, we can decide what we're willing to do at this point in time. So everybody here today can pick one area that they're saying, I am ready, willing and able to try something new. They don't have to change everything. So you don't have to be afraid of it.
Dasarte: Right.
Saundra: Change is going to happen whether you like it or not. Do you want to navigate the change or do you want it to run you?
Dasarte: Beautiful. I want to take this moment to have everybody subscribe to the podcast, because this is what you get it on a podcast on a week-to-week basis. So I want to do that shameless plug. All right. And I love just the nature and the authenticity on the podcast. This is why I love to do this. Angel, right, get some people have brick and mortar offices. A lot of people are depending on technology. How do you keep client retention together operationally just having four offices? Largely, especially older clients, used to depend on being able to walk into their advisor's office. You know, I have an aunt that lives in New Orleans, and she's like, I need to see the whites of your eyes. You know, like, I need to look you in the eye. And I'm like, okay. I don't have an office, though, you know? So talk to us about, like, managing operationally just clients everywhere.
Angel: So all of our clients, I would say, do have a home base when it comes to that. We do have four locations. Everyone can come into an office if they choose. Our other locations do have that the clients do come. But I think, you know, Covid was a time that gave us that reason to look differently. Every grandma and grandpa can zoom these days and so we have that available for them. They can do it, but we've really been able to meet clients where they need to be met now in really how it affects their lives. And so I think that's a really positive kind of benefit to keeping clients where they want to be. They don't feel the need that they have to, but if they are, we're there for them. If they want to come in, we're there meeting them in their place.
Dasarte: I love it. Charesse, I got a question for you. I know you work with a lot of tools. You see a lot of things. The first question is what tools would you recommend advisors look into to streamline or like, if you want to run a practice that's efficient, look at these tools first. Right? The second question is what are some glaring red flags, and you can chime in on that part, Angel, operationally when you're looking at an advisor's business and you're like, okay, I can already see what you're doing wrong. Sort of like a diagnostic check, right? Like, okay, you need to change your oil here and do this. So the first question is, what tools do you like for advisors to be very efficient? And then what are some like common red flags that you see when you're looking at advisory businesses?
Charesse: These are two loaded questions.
Dasarte: Okay.
Charesse: Okay. So I'm going to talk about the stage you're at in your business. So for solos scheduling software, I hope everyone's using one, but the workflows and scheduling software. Like I surveyed our clients for the past two years, that was the biggest thing where they found value. The second piece for solos, and I think for people with team, are AI tools to have your meetings recorded. So the value that advisors are seeing is like, oh, I used to pay someone to sit in the meeting with me and take the notes. So that's great. And then also you can just be more present. So I think those are the two tools I would recommend for solos. For those with teams, it's all about training your staff. So like I'm working with a firm right now. They have 50 employees and it is crazy like nothing's standardized. So having a place to store SOPs. I really like Trainual. It's expensive, but it's really good. One that's not as expensive is called SweetProcess. If I had to pick tools, that would be it.
Glaring red flags, I see. I work with a lot of partnerships and leadership is really important to me. I find that leadership isn't on the same page and it impacts the entire firm. That's a red flag. When people say they have a bespoke process, that's a red flag to me, because that's not a process. People who have like shiny object syndrome on technology. So like, I can just tell like an advisor is just purchasing all these tools and then their team is just like a deer in headlights, like Charesse, you're coming to our firm to create more change. Are we going to follow through with it? So like that mindset shift in leading your team to greatness. I'm a change agent and I'm an innovator. I am a creative in my process design where I feel like with Angel, you like manage systems, you build the systems. But for me, like I set them up and I move on, you know, and then handed off to someone like yourself.
Saundra: Shiny objects are so nice.
Angel: So I think that shiny object syndrome could be like everywhere, though. It's not in just technology. It can be like how you're running your meetings, like how you're doing things, processes within your firm. It can --
Saundra: Do so nice.
Angel: Okay.
Charesse: And I would say like throwing money at your problems because like as business owners you have time or money. And so it's like what do you have more of? And it's just costly mistakes. So a lot of these things just take so much time.
Dasarte: First, I just want to comment on a part of your answer. And you said I'm a change agent. I'm a creator. You know what I mean? I think those positive affirmations are things that I would love advisors to say more often about themselves. It sounded like something you say in the morning to yourself, right? So I just like, took note of that mentally, the way that your point, how you talk about yourself and feel about yourself gets projected out onto the world. So I really love that.
Charesse: Just to add, I do not manage my operations because I am an innovator, so I have someone else managing the operations after they're established. So I think for advisors, give yourself that permission to do the same. And there's a lot of outsourced options out there to plug someone in. It doesn't have to be like a full-time hire.
Dasarte: Awesome. Saundra, I have a question for you before we get into our rapid-fire questions, which is a tradition that we have on The Advisor Journey podcast. So the question is about leadership. I really want to know when you're thinking about cultivating a culture of leadership in a firm, what are the one, two, three things that advisors should really take notice of if they want to have a strong culture, firm culture in their business?
Saundra: Yeah. So I was trying to figure out how I was going to get this in. So thank you. Excellent question. Psychological safety for yourself and the people who you work with. And what that allows you to do is recognize when things are not headed in the direction that you want them to go in and have the courage to change it. It makes a safe place for the people who work for you to be wrong. People get to be wrong. They get to figure out the best ways. And sometimes you only learn that by having an innovative idea, even if the idea isn't going to work. So I think that the psychological safety is my answer for one, two and three.
Dasarte: Wow. Can you just expound on that? What does psychological safety look like in real time, right? I think managers aspire to have that but then --
Saundra: I think they don't always know it's a real thing, right? When we think about, do you feel able to look at yourself, your situation and your systems and take risk? Can you say, you know, I'm using this custodian and they're not really working for me? It feels like change might be hard and I'm going to trust myself, right? And so in coaching we say there's the three trust. Trusting yourself, trusting the client and trusting the process. And I think that every business owner has to focus on those things as well. Because if I trust me, but I don't trust my process, I need help. If I trust me and I trust my process, but I don't trust my client, I have to look at my technique with my client rather than just say, I'm going to fire this non-compliant client. Am I listening so that they will talk? So that's what psychological safety allows us to do that it is okay to be imperfect.
We have parts. We have our perfectionist parts, and we have our judgmental parts. So the psychological safety allows all of us to show up in any situation that we're in, particularly in the workplace.
Dasarte: I love that. I'm glad I asked you that question, because that helped me a lot.
Saundra: You, too. Well, I wasn't sure how I would get that in there.
Dasarte: Let's get to our rapid-fire questions. So this is the part of the podcast where I ask you a question, just to see what's inside of your mind and what you've been up to lately. So we'll start from you, Angel, and we'll work our way this way. Question number one. What's the most interesting thing that you've read this week?
Angel: I'm reading a book called "Deep Work". It was actually suggested during the Altruist summit by one of the keynotes, and I am not focused enough on being deep enough on the work that I'm doing and getting outside my head, getting everybody kind of shutting them down, focusing on what I do well because I'm operations professional. I'm being pulled in a million directions. And so really focusing on going deep within my work and what I'm doing and carving out that time has been really important.
Dasarte: Awesome.
Charesse: Not interesting, but insightful "Ideal Team Player" by Patrick Lencioni. So if you're looking to build a strong company culture, understand the type of people you want on your team, I would check it out.
Saundra: I was ready for this one. The healer also needs healing. The planner also needs surprises. The giver also needs to receive the thoughtful also need to be thought of. The considerate also need to be considered. The most interesting thing I've read.
Dasarte: Oh, nice. I love it. Next question. We'll start this way and we'll go back down. So we'll start with you. Saundra. What personal habits have contributed most to your success?
Saundra: I am unstoppable.
Dasarte: Okay.
Saundra: There is nothing sufficient to keep me from getting what I want. I might have to pivot, but nothing can keep me from getting what I want.
Dasarte: I look a lot of grit.
Charesse: Resilience is always gone. Keeping my head down and staying in my own lane.
Angel: I keep pushing forwards, but I also really, really like I'm laser focused when I want to get something done.
Dasarte: Awesome. All right. Last question. Ready? What new hobby have you recently started?
Angel: My husband and I started boating. So if we are still married next year, you know, we'll say it went well.
Dasarte: Nice.
Charesse: New hobby. Surviving the Houston summer right now. So trying to find everything indoors. Art museums, theater, everything I can do to stay cool.
Saundra: Tunisian crochet.
Dasarte: Tunisian crochet. You're incredible. So, like, what are we talking about here? Tunisian crochet. Reading poems. Oh, man. Well, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Advisor Journey. It's a live one. I really appreciate it. Again, I'm honored to just be on the stage with each of you. I have five sisters. I'm the only boy and the youngest. So all my life I felt like I've been crafted by the hands of queens. And it just takes me back to, like, my upbringing, just being able to sit next to you. So thanks again and thank you all for listening to this live podcast. Give them a round of applause.
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