Episode Transcription 

This is the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful, and scalable practice. Each week we’ll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets and create the advising practice that you’ve dreamed up, you’ll be joined by your hosts Bryan Sweet, who is moving fast towards a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire improve their operations and company culture, and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let’s jump into another amazing episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. 

Brittany Anderson:

Welcome back to your ultimate advisor Podcast. Today I have with me an extra special guest you are going to be surprised and delighted. I want to give a formal introduction before we hit the ground running. today. I have with me Matt Reiner. Matt is both a CFA and CFP and a partner of capital investment advisors. A $2.8 billion. Yes, you heard that right. $2.8 billion RIA in Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, Matt is the managing partner of Willis strategies and RIA that deals with the investment needs of the mass affluent. After spending years as both a financial manager for individuals and helping to lead these two RAs, Matt founded Benjamin, an AI fin tech company that serves the financial advisory industry, and experienced thought leader and sought after industry speaker Matt has been a featured guest at top financial industry events like fin con, and as a frequently quoted source for outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, entrepreneur, financial advisor, magazine, medium think advisor and advisor perspectives. Matt is dedicated to helping the industry grow and evolve, he has a very simple goal in mind. He wants the wealth management industry, specifically the RA vertical to become one of the most innovative forward thinking industries on Earth. Matt believes that with true innovation, Ras will attract top tier talent, create practices that are efficient and scalable, and offer higher quality personal service to clients at all levels of wealth. Matt Reiner wants to help you become the advisor of the future. Matt, holy smokes, welcome. I’m so excited to have you.’

Well, thank you. That’s too kind. I don’t know who wrote that. But that was much more over the top than needed to be i i appreciate the good words and the kind interest. So thank you so much. I’m really happy to be here. I love talking about the industry and excited to get into it with you.

Well, I personally think your bio was wonderful. And I think it’s just a testament to the passion that you have for the work that is needed in this industry. And I think where it needs to evolve to So, Matt, I’d love for you to share some of the information that maybe wasn’t included in your bio. You know, where’d you get started? Where do you come from? What led you to this point that you’re at now?

Yeah, you know, I, this is an industry that I grew up in, right. I’m so passionate about it. Because I grew up around it. I’ve been one of the I’ve been very fortunate in my life to have opportunities to go and not only learn and excel and try and fail and all that, but I have an awesome mentor who was my father who started a wealth management firm or large wealth management firm capital investment advisors founded about 26 years ago now. And I grew up around that firm. I used to go and work there in the summers I would you know, go and help file I’d be around doing ETFs and looking at closed end funds, premium discounts like this was the industry that I knew and I watched my dad start other businesses but this was ultimately the one that made the greatest impact, and gave him the greatest satisfaction of helping helping people helping humans reach financial potentials that they never imagined possible. And so I was fortunate to grow up in the industry. I learned from someone that founded a firm and he gave me an opportunity and so I started I graduated college I always tell people my you know my joke was as a kid, my cartoon was was CNBC while I was watching cartoons because that was always on right. We knew knew about that. And when I went to school, I knew what I wanted to do, right? It was either I was going to play. When I was a 13 year old I was either going to play pro baseball or go work in wealth management and pro baseball was done pretty quickly, because of my skill set and sitting on the bench and wealth manager was what I wanted. So I did that right out, that was my kind of goal right away. And I started enjoying my dad’s firm right out of college, it was a tough time, you know, the great recession was happening and is in the thick of it. And I had an opportunity while a lot of my peers didn’t. And so I took that and ran with it. And it’s a family business, my brothers, my business partner, we have another business partner, and my dad is my mentor and has been a leader. And I started as an advisor started helping on the Investment Committee, I got my CFA thinking, I wanted to start a fund and within the organization, but then I started helping with Operations and Technology. And that’s when I started transitioning to starting a technology firm, we had built two ra firms, the one that my dad started with me and my brother and our other business partners started a another wealth management firm focused on the mass affluent. And so, you know, my my passion is like, how can we serve more people, right? If you think about the mission, and you’d mentioned it in the intro is not only to make firms more innovative and forward thinking, but how can I believe that and I’ve seen the impact of it, that we all that everybody in the country needs, and heck, the world needs a human financial advisor, despite robo advisors, despite technology, innovation, et cetera. And so my passion in whatever we do, whether it’s an RA firm, a technology company, like we started, like, Benjamin, is to help advisors be able to serve more individuals, because every person needs access to human financial advisor, and will we ever get there? I don’t know. But can we get further every year? I think we can. And that’s what our my mission and our missions and our companies is, is how do we serve more people and give them that, that, that, that gift of having a human financial advisor, because it is a gift because of the help that they can provide?

You know, I think that’s such a great story. And it shows to, I mean, you can just tell when somebody steps into the industry for the right reasons. And you know, just in how you’re talking about it, and your journey, and your passion for creating this innovation, opening doors, opening the ability for everybody to have access to an advisor of some sort, I think that’s, it’s such a differentiator for you guys, and what you’re trying to create, but I think it’s something advisors need to pay attention to. So I want to go back a little bit. So you’re talking you, we’ve talked about Benjamin, you just mentioned it a minute ago, it was in your bio, I want you to talk a little bit more about what that does, where the value lies, and how advisors can use that.

Yeah. So in 2014, we had a vision to start our own technology business. And at that point, it was all around, how do we build a kind of a mint.com Personal Capital type of app to allow our massive fluent ra to build a product spec tool and help serve more people and, and we built that and we learned a lot, right? We grew that business, it was a really fun experience, learned a ton just couldn’t compete. We didn’t raise enough money, we couldn’t compete against some of the bigger firms. But what we found is that now we had an understanding of technologies, we had an understanding of how technologies work together. And we ran into some challenges within our own ra firms of scale and capacity. And we had time consuming menial tasks that were happening, because none of our technologies were really working well together. And so we said, well, we now have an understanding of how these technologies work together, we’ve now spent, you know, three or four years building technology. Let’s go, you know, solve this problem that other RAs are facing, let’s go solve it for our own firms see if it’s a value, and then if it is, then we can take it to other firms. And that was the beginning of Benjamin was taking our lessons from our other technology firm, helping to solve some challenges that we had with scaling capacity. And what Benjamin has evolved into is what we call the category that we created as a business support system. But in simple terms, it’s a Workflow Automation Engine. And what that means is that it’s meant to be the connective tissue between all of our technologies and processes to help eliminate a lot of the menial mundane tasks that are necessary in our industry, but don’t necessarily need to be done by human humans are really great at building bonds and building relationships. And that’s what separates or a firm’s processing paperwork is necessary scheduling meetings is necessary, but it’s not the highest and best use of time for human capital, especially when it’s very difficult. And so Benjamin is meant to help with that. And the example that I use that a lot of people tend to resonate with is, let’s think about when we used to pay bills before the internet, right, we would get a bill in the mail, we then would open it, we’d go get our checkbook, we write the check, address, the envelope, stamp it, walk it back up to the the mailbox and lift up the side thing and the mailman would take it. But then the Internet came in a lot of those steps were automated and were taken away and removed. And if you think about the efficiency you added was amazing would never want to go back to writing checks all the time. But if you think about the core of what online bill pay is, is it’s an engine that connects your service provider, your bill and your bank, your payment provider to execute on Sending the cheque. And that’s a really great example because that’s what we’re doing at Benjamin, we are connecting your workflows and processes, we’re not replacing your CRM, we’re connecting your workflows and processes with all of your technologies together to execute on those menial, mundane tasks. And so we work in hand, or in coordination with the technologies. And it’s not a technology everybody else has asked to learn. But the biggest thing is, is, in order for us to reach our mission of allowing more firms to serve more people, no matter their size of wealth, we’ve got to create time, that is our fixed variable in this entire equation. And the only way to do that is you got to look at what we’re doing in our day, and figure out how to automate some of that. And technology in API’s and an open architecture has advanced so much that we never would have been able to do this 10 years ago. But now we can. And now we have an opportunity to create time, and capacity, efficiency and standardization to create consistent client experience and serve more people. And that’s really what truly is exciting about what our team is doing at Benjamin. Hmm.

You know, it’s interesting, because, you know, Matt, we were introduced by a mutual connection. And we started talking, and we’ve looked at Benjamin in the past. And that was what was so crazy about this connection is we’re like, wow, like, what they’re trying to do here. And what they’re doing here is absolutely amazing. So when you think about, you know, bringing all of this together, and I kind of was chuckling in my head, as you’re talking about software’s and how our biggest struggle is they’re not talking to each other. I can tell you right now, like in our advisor community, be it when somebody sends a note in as a comment on a podcast, or, you know, we’re in our mastermind groups, and we’re talking and we’re riffing on some of the hot button issues. I will tell you that technology comes up almost every single time. People want better integration, they want better connection, they want to be able to scale their time. So I think you’ve kind of already answered this. But by your definition, what is true innovation for our industry?

Yeah, I think that I think that’s so it’s such a such a great question, right is what is true innovation, and you’re alluding to technology, right? Digital transformation. And when we think about innovation, we think we just go straight to technology. And I actually have a different perspective of it. Despite building a technology firm. I think that that true innovation ism is a mindset, it’s not necessarily a an adoption of technology, it’s not an it’s not going and finding the hottest new thing is not using virtual reality, or AI or any of that, that is part of the mindset. But the mindset of my side is that I think to have a digitally transformative, innovative firm, you have to lean on three pillars. And they have to go in this order, which is a mindset order. In the third pillar, the bottom pillar is actually technology. But the first two are all mindset culture ideas. And I think to be truly innovative, you first have to start with understanding what your firm y is, right? I think it’s Simon Sinek start with Y is a huge influence for me and for a lot of people. But if you don’t understand what your firm y is, then it doesn’t matter what you adopt in technology. And when I say your firm y it’s not to serve people, it’s not to create people’s grow their wealth. It’s like, why do you sit in traffic to get to the office? Or why do you work late at night? Why do you still respond to emails on the weekend, why, and you know, for one of our firms is to help families families find happiness and retirement that is like a specific why. And we can do that in multiple ways. One of our tools is investment management, but there’s a lot of other tools in that toolbox. So understanding your why and ensuring that the whole firm, the whole firm, every single person believes in that, or it doesn’t stick. The second is is an acceptance of failure, right and acceptance of failure. Because what I mean by that is that you’re not going in and intentionally failing and doing wrong by your clients, right? Trading too much, you know, doing anything illegal. It’s an acceptance of failure of understanding that, hey, things are not status quo.

Whether we’re one year old, firm, or 30 year old, firm, or 50 year old firm, we are going to push the limits. And we’re always going to challenge the way that we have done things just because they’re working, just we’re not going to live by the saying if it ain’t broke, why fix it, we’re actually going to always look to fix and enhance. And you know what, sometimes it’s going to work sometimes it’s not, sometimes we’re actually going to lose a client. Sometimes we won’t. But we have to provide that mentality. That’s a mentality. It’s a cultural shift. That has to be there in order to have true innovation inside of a firm. And the reason that that’s so important is because no innovation happens perfectly or seamlessly. Every innovation has failure along the way. And if you’re going to be innovative, you’re going to have to have that mindset. And then the third pillar is adoption of technology. And the reason you have to have those first two, before you adopt any technology is because without them, you’re you’re going aimlessly in adopting technology. And you’re never going to fully bring it all together. Why are you adopting this technology? How does it help you reach your why, and then with every technology, no matter how big or how much funding or how many clients they have, is always going to be a challenge, there’s going to be things that work, there’s gonna be things that don’t, it’s going to break. That’s just technology. And so if you don’t have that culture of learning and culture of failure, then you’re not going to accept it. And once you have one hiccup, you’re going to dismiss it, and you’re never going to fully understand and adopt it. So in my mind, true innovation is a mindset, it’s a cultural shift. And then it’s technology. And I think too many firms think that innovation is, well I’ve got the coolest, hippest technology, well, that doesn’t matter if you don’t have the first two.
You know, I think that is quite possibly one of the best definitions of innovation that I’ve heard. And, you know, I’ll just give this example for our listeners. And, you know, we have a good track of a lot of listeners who have listened to us for a really long time. And, you know, one of the things we talk about all the time within suite financial partners, so within our wealth planning firm, you know, we have a massive mission to help people realize possibility and create the retirement of their dreams. So when you talk about that, why, and you know, us getting up every morning and helping people pursue that possibility and open doors, open windows, put resources in front of them, it’s really hard to even know what type of technology, human capital, additional resources you even need, if you don’t have that defined on the front end. So from my perspective, I think that’s where we tend to see a lot of advisors get stuck is when they don’t have that greater purpose. So I’d love to know, Matt, from your perspective, because you do have some great industry experience, you know, you’ve got a multi generational effect in in your office, and then how you’ve built your businesses. Where do you see advisors getting stuck the most?
Yeah, I mean, that advisors getting stuck, I think really happens that this is a business and I’ve said it for a while is that I think we get complacent. Right? I think that that’s where advisors get stuck. This is an industry that is super unique, the value in the impact is great, I am an advocate for it. I will, I will be the person that’s on the top of the mountain yelling for financial advisors forever. And the ones that do it the right way, of course, but the thing that we get complacent, because we are an industry that we we can sit and do nothing, we could change, nothing, and our incomes can continue to go up. And so the motivation has to be deeper than what the monetary impact or value that we receive is. And I think that advisors get complacent, because they build their book they put in the time, and then they just want to sit and let it let marinate and just earn off of that. And if you don’t continue to push the envelope, you’re gonna get passed by and that’s okay for many advisors, because they may just be okay with the with the firm of you know, whatever it is, and they don’t want to grow. That’s fine. But I think that that’s a challenge. I think that’s also a I think that’s a challenge for the clients as well. And I think it’s a it’s a detriment to them, because there are a lot of innovations happening that can better clients lives. And if we just get complacent, because we’re doing it this way, and we’ve done it this way forever. And we’re, we’re fine and happy and hogs on hogs fine, whatever, then your clients are going to suffer over time. And you may not believe that because you’re like, I know my clients, but they will because they’re getting more innovative, fewer forward thinking experiences in other aspects of their lives, whether they’re 20 years old, or 95 years old, it doesn’t matter. And they should be getting it as an advisor. And whether you want to be a lifestyle firm or a growth oriented firm, you’ve got I believe, to continue to push the envelope and be innovative. And those that are non complacent or innovative and those that are complacent tend to just stay in and they get passed because Moore’s Law says that innovation continues to grow even more rapidly every year. It’s going to just pass everybody by and so you’re going to be in a rat wheel trying to catch up. So I think that complacency is actually the biggest blocker to advisors, growth and advisors impact that they can have on individuals.

You know, I couldn’t agree more with with what you’re saying there. And it’s interesting because, you know, I think the last few years to the, you know, through the big C word that we don’t like to talk about, but through COVID through the pandemic through everything that’s happened. I’ve seen some incredibly resilient advisors kind of fall a little bit into that stuck rut right where they become a little complacent, but they don’t want to be and there’s this interesting kind of push pull that I don’t know if I’ve seen as much in our industry, as what I’ve seen in the last few years with, again, very talented people, people who are normally driven. So I’d be curious to know, have you seen that? Have you experienced it? What’s some of your commentary there?

You know, I think that it’s an interesting perspective or an interesting kind of viewpoint, because I do see that right. I haven’t talked to many people about that. But I think that there’s a, there’s an element of, of burnout, mental burnout, not just from the job, but from just the the draining consistency, right. Our psychology, our brains can only take so much our human psychology can only take so much. And we’re getting so much thrown at us from the world environment from the pandemic, right, we were stuck in the house and we weren’t able to interact and there isn’t impact the longer term there’s been I mean, I’m not the I’m this isn’t breaking news hot take this is there a study after study that has shown that the impact of COVID on our mental well being is tough, and I am a huge, firm believer of mental wellness and helping with that, I think that there’s been an impact there. And I think the draining impact has led people to be like, I just need a break. And it’s not because of the work or it’s not because of their boss, it’s just because of the world and the consumption of everything. And, and so I believe that that in order for us to overcome that, right, we have to start investing in ourselves. And I think that in as an industry, we have been an industry that is like, we are strong, we have all the answers, we know what to do you come to us, we’re the smartest men and women in the room. And that’s okay. But I think that’s very, very detrimental to us on a personal level. And I think that as advisors, we need to become more vulnerable and understanding of ourselves. And we’ve got to raise our hand and say, We need help, I need help. I need to I need time for myself, I’m not weak, because I need to take a week off for my mental break. That does not make me weak, I am not weak, because I have to work from home for a week, because I am just like, completely drained. That does not make us weak or lesser, we are still valuable to our clients. And I think that as an industry, we have to get over that stigma that we have to be so strong. And I think that that was the stigma that we’ve always had. And when we ended up COVID, we had a show, we were strong, we’re gonna get through this. And it just burned us. And I think that putting time into mental health and your own personal mental wellness and personal being, whether it’s exercise, whether it’s meditation, whether it’s walking, whatever it may be for you, I think we have to put it in there and be open to talking about it. Because there’s a lot of people out there that are struggling with it. I talked to many advisors about it all the time. And they never open up to anybody else about it. And it’s a real thing. And so I do see that as well, that there has been some this kind of like complacency. And I think it’s because we’re afraid of what our perception will be by other how others will perceive us by saying like, hey, I need some time. I just need some time. And that’s a shame.

Yeah, you know, I think back to a couple of months ago, I was in a conversation with one of our mastermind members. And this gentleman, very successful advisor, super sharp guy very resilient by nature. And he was talking about how he goes into his appointments. And he’s like, every day I’m having to show up and put this brief face. He’s like, the bottom line is, I don’t have all the answers. He’s like, but I’m trying to give my clients this peace of mind, this comfort, the best logic that I can, can provide. And I’m almost like fearful on the inside of what the heck is happening in the world. But I can’t show that. So I think Matt, you hit the nail on the head. And it brings me to my next question kind of around fear. I would love for you to give an example of a time where you strategically overcame fear and didn’t let it stop you from you know, a moment of growth a moment of learning a moment of opportunity.

Yeah, that’s such a good question. And, you know, to your prior comment about, you know, there’s many people out there that say, Well, I feel fearful inside. And I think that the the way for us all to overcome that is that we just gotta be vulnerable with our clients. Yeah, I’m fearful. I tell all my clients when the markets are going down, like, I have investments too. And I have a family to feed as well. And I’m fearful. Like, I don’t know, we’re in this together. And it’s like, okay, wow, are together. Yeah, I think for me personally, though, you know, when I think about that, where I’ve had fear is, I’ve always been a firm believer that things will work themselves out. And that you just got to you’ve got to you are defined in the present moment, right. The present moment is your definition. And we’re fortunate to have a new moment every time that we can define ourselves and so just keep focusing on the present moment. That there is but you know, I think back to COVID when COVID hit in March of 2020. You know, our our firm Benjamin was you know, we were still young firm, and there was no firm that was looking to buy tech Naji at that time and we had to, we had to shift our mentality of what we were doing as a company because we had to help to support our advisory clients as opposed to sell the sell them more technology or sell anybody technology. And at that time, we were also doing a fundraise. And we, we had a signed loi of a venture capital firm to put money in and they backed out right at the kind of the height of COVID. And that was our we were dependent on that to grow the firm. And at that point, in time, when they backed out, I didn’t know what the hell we were going to do, right? We were like, we had about three months worth of runway and what are we going to figure out how we’re going to do it? And, you know, at that point in time, I called people that were close to me that and I was vulnerable with them. And I was like, I don’t know, do we close up shop? Do we? How do I get through this. And I remember sitting in this office, like I sit in that chair, and I just sat there in silence, staring at the wall, figuring out what to do. And I did figure out what to do, right, we got funding, we actually made our firm better because of that. And the way that that happened was, instead of worrying about what the future held, I took into what I can control, and what I could control was our p&l, I can control our people, I can control myself and my my thoughts. And I invested a ton of effort into my network and sharing with them. And we took that time to stop selling the technology, and we rebuilt the entire technology. And I told the team, this is a moment in time for us, that’s going to be integral to our future growth. And we’ve rebuilt the platform, and we then re launched it in 2021. And we are now growing, you know, by triple digits toward year over year. And we have a better product, we have a stronger team, we have a stronger vision. And you know, with that fear, it can consume you. But I was fortunate to have people around me and a lot of kind of prior decisions that I made with my mental health to be able to think through it. And but it was a scary time. I mean, I can remember multiple times building our technology company that remember sitting in the garage of a parking deck once for for 30 minutes, because I didn’t, I didn’t want to walk in the office. Because I didn’t know because I was a bad manager. And I didn’t know who’s going to quit on me. And this was all going to fall to pieces. So you learn a lot and but the matter is, is just focus on what you can control, take it step by step and focus on the present moment, because that’s what’s going to define you. And that’s what people are going to remember.

You know, I think there’s so much to unpack in what you just said there, you know, you’re touching on fear, and really resiliency and grit to get through and trust in a future that’s maybe even better than the present circumstance. So that’s something and I believe that they’re just some of us that that’s just like born into us. I don’t know what it is. I’d like to relate it to how we were raised. But then you see so many instances where you might have siblings raised in the exact same household and one of them is incredibly resilient, and the other is not. So I don’t know what that is or where that’s bread from. But it’s not in everybody is my point. So when you’re thinking about your own, I use the term like mental wellness multiple times through our conversation up to this point, if you are feeling down and discouraged, which I am one of the most positive kind of future forward people that you’ll meet, but I still get down and discouraged as I’m sure you do, too. So what are some of the things that you do to really help pull yourself out of those ruts to maybe keep that forward thinking and to kind of stay positive during maybe some tough times?

You know, that. That is a it’s such a deep and kind of loaded question, which I love. I think that’s so that’s so great. And I think that, you know, people feel guilty for feeling down. I know I have and I think that, you know, to your point about what drives you and I think that for me, it’s like I have an impostor syndrome big time, and I don’t feel, I feel that someone’s going to expose me of not being you know, as, you know, positive or as intellectually stimulating as I think I am or whatever it may be. And so that drives me to always be better, I have a core value of learning, because I always feel that I can learn more. That is what drives me right of my eight core values learning is one of them. And I think for me, what’s really been helpful is, you know, I’m, I am huge into meditation, I’m huge into journaling, and it’s not for everybody at all, you know, and I, I think, and I believe that people need to have someone to talk to at all times, and I’ve been seeing a therapist for heck, nine years now. And the reason is, is because I need someone outside of my sphere. That doesn’t work with me every day that I can just talk to and sometimes I go into those conversations, all I do is talk and I’m like, What the hell did I talk about? But it just helps to get the mind get it out of the mind because what happens to all of us when we are in the dumps is that we build this story inside of our own head. And there’s the I think it was, Benjamin Franklin made the quote of like, you know, we all if we spent as much time all the things that we worry about happening, how small or infrequent they happen is unbelievable, we always think the worst is going to happen in the worst doesn’t tend to really happen that often. But we let this story build in our head. And when we’re down in the dumps, it just, it just accelerates. And it’s hard if you don’t get it out either on paper, or talking with someone about it that you can’t get out of it. And I’ve spent a ton of time I’m a perfectionist at heart. And I know that I’ll never be perfect, but my one of my own personal visions or goals is like I want to have, I want to be the perfect person I want to be that have lived the perfect life. And you know, meaning like the perfect balance between family and work and all that. And I know I’ll never reach it, but like, that keeps me going because I want to continue to get better. And when I’m in those dark times, I tend to turn to what I what I need out of my life. And I put it on paper and I talk to people. And then I get back to controlling what I can control. And I focus on that present moment. I think that having that mentality, I read a lot of books on it as well. Having that mentality is so key. Because if you think about the times, we’re in our dumps in the you know, the route in the dumps of our of our minds, it’s all about building the story into the future. And it doesn’t have anything to do about what we can control now. And when you change your mindset and your perspective to focusing on what you can control today, a lot of that other stuff falls off to the course because it never happens one and two, you don’t have enough time to think about the story that you want to build up. So just focus on what you can control right now. What’s that next step you can take towards your goals. And if you don’t know your goals, that’s a first start and knowing your values and letting all of your actions be driven by those values. And putting time into it. That’s that’s how I’ve done it. But hell, I mean, I don’t have it figured out. It sounds like I do, but I’m in the I’m in my own head 99% of the time, and I’m just trying to get to 98 next time and 97 next year and and be as present as I can.

Yeah, you don’t. There’s so many golden nuggets in what you just talked about. And there’s a couple of things that stick out immediately. You know, one of one of my partners in this. So we’ve got Brian sweet who has been in the industry for over 40 years. And then Draye Redfern. He’s the founder of Redfern media and Draye. And I have had a lot of conversations around how you know, both of us have this drive to almost be embarrassed by who we were last year. Right? So it’s like you have so much growth that you’re like, Wow, I can’t even believe that like where I was at a year ago or where I was at six months ago. Because that lifelong learning that forward focus that constant movement is such an important value. And we’re finding that people who do embody, like what you talked about with having learning be that essential value and having that be an area of focus. It keeps you going it keeps you going during the tough times. I’m trying to think about I think I just lost my train of thought on the other thing. Oh, you know, and then I think too, you know, you’re talking about the imposter syndrome. And I think this is this is something that’s important to pull out because so many advisors that we talked to, and honestly entrepreneurs, business owners across the board, this is a real thing. I was in a conversation recently with a gentleman and we’re building out this platform, and I made a comment about having a little bit of impostor syndrome. At this point. I’m like, Well, who am I? Who am I to be the one teaching on this? Or who am I to create something like this? What are these people going to get from me? And he said something that I think it was it just was so it resonated so much. And he’s like, here’s the thing, Brittany, he’s like, people don’t really care about who you are or not, or what you can do or what you cannot do, what they care about is that you can create shortcuts for them. And for me, I thought, Man that is so important for our industry to totally embrace and embody, because that’s what we’re doing for clients, right? We’re cutting the work out for them. We’re allowing them to delegate some of the things that you’re doing for the industry as a whole, you’re creating shortcuts for advisors. And I think that’s something that if each of us sat and thought about the shortcuts we create for the people in our lives, that impostor syndrome, it may not go away completely, but I think it would become greatly minimized.

You know, I think that you’re spot on. I love that idea of creating shortcuts and not to cut you off, but I think I think back to a, an advisor in our office and, you know, he was a he was a amazing baseball pitcher. He was an awesome pitcher mentality and everything and you know, I had a conversation with him because he was nervous about a meeting and I just I asked him just questions about like, how did you feel when you’re on the mound? Why did you feel you’re better than them? Like they all prepared you prepared? Why did you feel you’re going to win every at bat? And it’s because he’s like, I just had confidence I just knew I was going to do it and and I told him and I said, You know what, you have to have that comp that confidence when you’re going up against clients and you know, if you haven’t posture and that’s fine, but you know that that client across They came to see you for a reason. And they want they want peace of mind is what they want. And so whether you know why the Feds doing, what they’re doing, or what the what all the underlying basket items of CPR, or what the future of anything is gonna be, it doesn’t matter. Just figure out how to get them peace of mind and have the confidence that you not to downplay them have more information and insight than they do in this specific realm. Can they be better at you know, building buildings or houses or doing surgery? Hell yeah. And that’s why you go to them, but they came to you for a reason. And you gotta have confidence that you can go do it. And even if you have to fake it till you make it, like everybody says that, but I was 24 years old, when I closed my first client, the client was like, 70 years old, I was like, What the hell am I doing, telling them how to retire and live their life like, I’m still like a, you know, a bachelor, just living my life. I was just out at the bars last Friday, and I’m talking to them Monday morning. They didn’t care because as long as I showed them confidence that I’m helping them get peace of mind. And if I don’t know the answers, I have the team around me, but I’m showing confidence that I’m able to help them. And that’s what it’s about. It’s shortcuts, right? Think of it as a shortcut to their financial freedom and peace of mind. We used to call it Swan sleep well at night, like if you can help them Swan, no matter what you know, about the market doesn’t matter. That’s the skill set. And you can do that with anybody. If you’re in this business.

I love that so much. And I think I need to borrow that Swan acronym sometime, because that’s really good. So now I’d love to know, what are you working on right now? That’s got you super excited? I’m sure it’s a few things.

Yeah, I, you know, I’ve got a few things, I’m really fortunate to have amazing, amazing teams around around me because they allow me to go and kind of be in my happy place of being a visionary and thinking of what ways we can better impact the industry. You know, our team, Benjamin is doing some incredible things, I’m really stoked about some of the integrations that they’re doing some of the advancements that we’re making, around bringing data and technologies together to create action on that not just to create presentation, which is showing the data but to create action. And I’m really excited about where the industry is going about opening up architectures, API’s. And I think that our team at Benjamin is really leading the charge on that side. And then, you know, on our thought leadership side, you know, our team over there is just doing some incredible work of pushing the industry forward, have different perspectives. And, you know, we’re doing a lot around, you know, just leadership, etc. But we’re doing a lot around what we call the inner circle, which I’m really excited about doing small mastermind groups, bringing in speakers bringing insights to these individuals that they may not get elsewhere, bringing the Connect community together. I think that there’s a lot of people out there doing some great things with community, as you mentioned, with masterminds. But you know, the coaching the insight, the consulting aspect of it really excites me, because I think there’s such a need out there that firms are asking and starving for, like workflows and processes, and you know, how to keep encouraging employees, etc. And I’m really excited about what we’re doing. And we’ve got two more books launching next year. And, you know, we’ve got a lot on the docket that side. So I’m really excited on the two things that we’re doing on those funds.

Awesome. And I am personally excited to continue to see what you guys are doing. The innovation that’s coming out of your work. I mean, it’s it’s so exciting. And I see it impacting the industry in a massive, massive way. So, Matt, before I ask my last question, how can people get a hold of you follow you kind of keep pulse on some of the things that you’re doing?

Yeah, thank you. That’s very kind to ask. I mean, I’m all around on social media. So at Matt Ryan, you’re on Twitter, Matt Reiner. Er, ein er, on LinkedIn, you can go to Matt reiner.com, as well, to see some of the videos and the podcasts and the the posts that we’re putting out. And then of course, our team over at get Benjamin or at Benjamin, it’s get benjamin.com. You can check them out. And they’re also on LinkedIn as well posting a lot of great content about workflows, automations and connective tissue. So reach out, we’d love to chat, anything we can do to help out the industry. We are, we’re all about.

Awesome. Well, Matt, my final question for you is, what haven’t I asked you that I should have?

What haven’t you asked me that you should have? Um, I think that you’ve asked me all the questions. I think that you know what I would I always if I were to turn this around as a host of a podcast in which we’re excited to have you on our podcast, as well, is, you know, I always ask, you know, what’s one piece of actual advice that someone can take away? And I think that what I hope people take away from this podcast is that vulnerability and weakness or vulnerability and weakness, don’t earn synonymous. And I think that being present in the moment and being self aware of yourself, is not only going to make you a better person, a better spouse, a better husband, father, wife, mother, whatever it may be, but it’s going to make you a better adviser and I think you’re going to see that your client As you’re gonna relate and be attracted to you even more so, I would say focus on presence and focus on vulnerability. And I think you’re gonna get a lot more joy and happiness and impact out of your job.
That is golden advice. Matt, thank you so much for sharing your time. As you know, it is the only commodity we can’t make more of or get back. So we truly value you spending your time here with us today.
Thanks so much for having me on. I really enjoyed it. Appreciate it.
Awesome. That wraps up today’s episode of your ultimate advisor podcast. We will catch you right back here next week for our next episode.

Brittany Anderson:

Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you’re hearing on our Ultimate Advisor podcast, don’t keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is to simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor community, and we look forward to a continued relationship.