Only Fee-Only
This podcast interviews fee-only financial planners to learn about how they are helping their clients and serving their specific niches.
Only Fee-Only
#105 - Growth Insights and Strategies for Solopreneurs with Erik Baskin
Erik Baskin returns to share his journey from active duty military service to building a thriving financial planning business. He reveals how he’s grown Baskin Financial Planning to serve 40 households, with a strong focus on providing top-tier client service. Erik also opens up about the early challenges he faced and how patience and persistence have been key to his success. His recent move to Colorado Springs marks an exciting new chapter, both personally and professionally.
As a solopreneur, Erik shares how he balances business growth with efficiency, managing a growing client base while keeping things streamlined. He emphasizes the importance of family time and delivering quality service over chasing aggressive expansion. By leveraging tools like Zapier, Wealthcom, and BC Brokerage, Erik has found smart ways to automate and outsource, giving him more time for what matters most. Tune in to hear Erik’s insights and learn how staying clear on your priorities can drive both business success and personal fulfillment.
Erik's Social:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikbaskin/
X: @ErikMBaskin
How's it going? Everyone, welcome back. This is the only feel only podcast, but you probably already knew that because you're listening to it. Um, thanks so much for being here. If you came to our mixer at X, y, p and live, thank you so much for coming. That was way better than we could have even imagined. We had over a hundred advisors there hanging out, having some drinks, relaxing, talking, dancing, dancing, and we had a lot of fun. We're already planning on doing it again next year. So thank you all for coming, and for those of you that didn't, we're sorry. We missed you, but we will see you in the future.
Speaker 1:Today's guest is Eric Baskin with Baskin Financial Planning. He has been on the podcast before, but one of my favorite things is to have people back on the podcast and see how they're doing, what they've learned, and I got the chance to actually meet up with Eric in Paris, france, during the Olympics, and got to talk about how everything was going, and he's absolutely killing it. So enjoy this episode with Eric Baskin, version number two on the Only Fee Only podcast.
Speaker 2:What's up everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast. I'm Peter Travlo. I'm here with my co-host, brock Buckles. How's it going today, brock? Oh it's great to be here with you, peter. It's a great day, yes, always a great day, and today we're very excited to have Eric Baskin on from Baskin Financial Planning. Really excited to have him back on the show and share his growth. So, eric, welcome to the show, man.
Speaker 3:Hey Brock, hey PD, Thanks for having me on. Guys Really really excited to be back. Can't believe it's been almost a year and a half since I was been on last time. So time flies.
Speaker 2:Crazy. We love it. And I know the first time you ever spoke to Brock you were still in school.
Speaker 3:right, I was still in the military. Yeah, I was in my military uniform in my car. Facetime and Brock Just launched the firm not too long before that and I was trying to figure out what you guys are doing and how I can use you guys and grow with you guys. So, yeah, it's crazy how long we've come since then.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So for those who don't know who you are, you want to give a quick overview of your firm and who you are as a person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I started a firm while I was active duty military. I went to the Air Force Academy, played hockey there and then did five and a half years as a hospital administrator, started my firm during that career and then went full time last October. So I guess when I was talking to you guys last summer I was still on active duty but I was on my way out. My firm virtual solo, I think. Like a lot of the listeners, a lot of folks you guys work with work with a lot of military and veteran folks, as well as a lot of business owners or people that have maybe a side business. They're in a W-2 job still trying to grow into that. Got 40 households right now. Have grown pretty quickly in the last year specifically, it was definitely a slower start I think everybody is at first, but it's been really good the last year, especially since last October. Really, the last 12 months has been wild for me and then moving to Colorado Springs next week, so I'm excited about that. Lots going on in my life right now.
Speaker 1:Crazy man. Yeah, you're on a wild ride, but it's been awesome to watch your growth. And for everybody that's listening, if want to hear about where eric was and what it was and compare and contrast the episode, check out episode number 58, which is titled skating into the air force and finding financial planning. Um, but, uh, eric, I mean, man, it's crazy. We got to catch up in paris a little bit randomly. We were in paris at the same time, which was really cool. Um, but I mean, what would be the thing? Let's just start at what have you learned? I mean, what do you think is the biggest thing that you've learned, going from those first couple of years into where you are now? Because the growth has been insane. When we were talking in Paris, you were telling me it's like 40 households now, absolutely unbelievable. So what's going on, man?
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, what I've learned is is, I think, what I thought would happen eventually give it enough time and things work. Everything works when given enough time in this business. I tell folks I talked to a lot of planners trying to get into the business um, especially those that are coming from the military, um, reaching out just just. They've seen what I've done and I I tell them, like anything works, you give it a long enough period of time, you're you will not fail. Your family will need an income and your firm will not be able to provide it. That's the only way you fail.
Speaker 3:Um, you know these, these businesses. Some of them get off the ground in two years. Some of them take more, like five or six or seven, Right? So, um, that's kind of what I learned is just like sticking with it and staying disciplined to.
Speaker 3:You know the key activities that you know you think will drive growth for the firm and just trusting in that and, at the end of the day, I think, focusing on client service and you know whether that's a client referral strategy that you're ultimately driving or just delivering clients good service to retain them. I've always felt like that's at the core of my business and always will be going forward. Certainly, I have a podcast, Sure, I started that last summer. I do some other marketing activities to try to grow, but at the same time all that comes second to client service. If I'm ever doing a marketing activity and not servicing a client at the level that they deserve to be serviced at and maybe I lose that client or something like that that you know that's the kind of thing I lose sleep over. I never want to sacrifice that, that standard, for you know more, more, more growth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's such like good knowledge there. I mean, so what have been some of those activities that you've done, that you know? You've said, you know, just stick with it, play the long game, like, what are some of those core activities that you've been doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So for me, honestly, some of that growth has been tough to put a finger on. Like it's like almost like natural network People that I knew, like I worked with in the military, like five, like five years ago, reaching out, that kind of thing. Um, there's only so much. You can michael kids that says this like it just takes three years. That's what he says. So there's only so much of that that you can speed up. Um, people are honestly like waiting for you to see if you're still going to be in business this first couple years, um, and then when you're still around in year three and you're still doing it, that's when they're reaching out and there's a lot of people watching and lurking. I've learned that as well. So some of that's hard to put a finger on. But I've been posting on social media for I don't know 24 months or so probably.
Speaker 3:I've had a podcast for maybe a year and a half, so it certainly has a niche focus to it with being that military veteran community. Um, I find that, like those, I've got clients that listen to that. Um, I've got uh, that show that say they're showing it to their parents, like pretty kind of powerful stuff there, like yeah, wow, they're bringing this up in a meeting. Like hey, I heard this on an episode. Like how does this apply to me? I'm like, wow, I can't believe you guys listen to this. Like I thought I don't know. Like I know it has some listeners, like not not a crazy number, but like, um, I was shocked when I heard how many clients listened into it. But, um, just the fact that it's niche focused and like it gives it's just like putting something out there that says that I'm in business, like it doesn't have to be the best thing in the world, whether it's a podcast or a blog, it's's just like hey, I'm alive, I'm in business, this is who I'm working with.
Speaker 3:I find that when I get people through that, through the podcast, through posting of some sort, it's a pretty easy conversation because they already know what you're talking about, know what you do. They're not just cold off the internet. So I would do a weekly newsletter. I've been doing that for probably two years. I use a lot of stuff from Ashby Daniels' Money Visuals that a lot of advisors probably use, as well as some homewritten, homegrown stuff. I'm happy to share that with anyone. If you send me an email. I share that with several people. But what are those key top, middle and bottom of funnel metrics? How many newsletter subscribers am I getting? How many people are listening to the podcast? How many intro calls am I getting per month? How many of those am I closing? How many of those are qualified Right? So I I track all this stuff and and see kind of where those numbers are trending.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I like that man, yeah, and I like that because I think one of the things that you said there was like just consistency, like letting people know that you're still in business, because there are so many people that put such an emphasis on like what's that quick hit, big, viral thing that I'm going to do that's going to get so many people coming my way? And it's really not about that Right. Like I can't remember who said it, but it was like. It's like the breadcrumb strategy, like sometimes I'll put out a post, and it's like I thought that was really good and no one cares about that post, right.
Speaker 1:But then sometimes I'll put out stuff that it's like I didn't really think that was a great post. But then people are like, oh, I really liked when you did this video and I'm sure you've experienced this. But I think one of the coolest things is staying consistent and then getting on an intro call with someone and they're like this happened to me yesterday. They're like I feel like I already know you because I've been following along with your stuff.
Speaker 3:And it's kind of interesting to talk to you in person or, you know, via zoom, whatever. So, like, has that kind of been your experience as well? Yeah, for sure, when they come through especially like I've had a few air force Academy graduates this year come through that like knew me at school and then they follow my. They've been like oh yeah, they listened to the podcast for a while, like got married, got kid. Like we're making a few hundred thousand, like figured I'd reach out. It's like they're just like where do I sign? Like there's no like sale, like I'm not selling anything, which is just a really good feeling for me to not have to sit there and feel like I'm I'm begging for business or like trying to like sound smart and sell myself. Um, it's more so. Here's what I do, here's you know what I've been doing for a while. Um, you know if that's a fit for you like, like would love to help more. So, coming from that, that angle of like a helping instead of selling, yeah, love it.
Speaker 2:So 40 households, um. I'm sure you're very busy with the 40 households, um, but where do you see the firm going? I mean, do you want to keep it as a lifestyle? You think you're going to add on another advisor one day, or an admin? What's the future of Baskin financial planning? Look like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's something I think about. I've kind of thought about since day one quite a bit. But for me, I think my North Star has always been like family time and it's honestly why I got into the business is like, hey, how do I make a business, how do I, where can I create a business that I love, like super into personal finance and have a ton of flexibility to spend with my future wife at the time, girlfriend, now wife and future kids someday, and that is financial planning like solo shop. So I have to say that's still my North Star. I really do enjoy being solo, enjoy being lean and efficient, outsourcing or eliminating things I don't need to be doing and certainly keeping that client household number at a reasonable level. So I don't know, I don't know what that number is. For me it's 40 right now, certainly busy, but like onboarded 10-ish this summer. So that's like super busy when that's all happening. So I think it's really hard to properly assess how busy you are when you're onboarding so many, because that takes up the greatest amount of time. Um, but you know, that number is probably in the 75 to a hundred range somewhere in there.
Speaker 3:Um, I think probably getting a little bit, uh, a little bit pickier with with prospects going forward, um, making sure, like you know, over the next five to 10 years, um, I I do have maybe some room for those bigger prospects that are inevitably probably going to come my way in years four, five, six, seven, eight of the firm, kind of those higher fee prospects that you're probably not getting in year one. So I don't know. Something I think about quite a bit is like where am I going to end up? But at the end of the day, as long as my firm revenue and eventually income that my family's getting is above our expenses, which it is, it's kind of just like at this point it's almost my sandbox. What do I want to build?
Speaker 3:And I just look at it differently now. At first it was like revenue, revenue, and now it's like all right, how much time am I spending per client? I started tracking all my time per client this last month. Super interesting data. Yeah, because when you say yes to a new client, it's like, okay, I'm saying no to an hour with my wife. If I'm going to spend that with this client, okay, that's great. And I love helping people and I love what I do. But what is that trade-off, because eventually that's kind of what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's so interesting because I feel like and it doesn't matter what the business is like, some people just want to be like a solopreneur.
Speaker 1:Like you said, that's your North star, but there, so I'm glad to hear you say that's still the North star, because I feel like a lot of people somewhere along the way they kind of lose sight of where they started, especially people that are like they have an inclination to grow, like it's just going to happen. They attract people, naturally, people like what they had to say, they're good communicators, they're good financial planners, and then all of a sudden it's like, all right, like I have all these people knocking at my door. Now, there, I mean, regardless of you know how you started, there is some temptation there, right, to be like oh, we could really turn this thing into an enterprise or a boutique, like how big can I grow these things? And I feel like if you have that entrepreneurial spirit, there's always going to be like kind of that push to maybe want to jump in there. So have you felt that, even though you are staying pretty consistent with that North Star idea of solopreneur?
Speaker 3:I felt that a little bit earlier this year. Yeah, uh, you know, there's there was there's a couple months where I double digit prospect calls like uh, which is just crazy, because like my whole first year I think I had 10 uh, so it's like I've had more this year than I have the first three combined. Um, so, like a couple of those months I was like, wow, like what can I do? I can do you, I could do you too. I could be like james canole, right, um, right, I don't know.
Speaker 3:Like for me, when I just like, do I do a lot of walking? I do a lot of thinking by myself and I don't know I keep coming back to this picture of why I got into this. Why did I start this? And it certainly wasn't to grow and exit a firm. I think in my perfect world I'd just hand this firm off to one or more of my kids someday. That would be cool to me for free. I'm not trying to grow and retire on this thing. So I don't know, I've definitely felt that a little bit. But when I step away, get away from social media, go on a walk, I come back to all. Right, this is really what I want to be doing, spending time with family, certainly doing a good job for clients. I love what I do Don't get me wrong, but I think family time is always going to be the North Star for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so important. I love that. You know how important it is for you. So, to make sure that you're maximizing your time, I mean, what are some of these tasks that you've been outsourcing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, outsourcing, so editing of my, of my podcast, have certainly outsourced that. Um, let's see here what else I you know, when I, when I say, and when I say outsourcing, I've more so been using tech. I use like a ton of technology. I use zapier, uh, to automate, uh, in between my systems. Um, you know, I'll certainly use pretty much every piece of tech I can get my hands on for planning. Um, so, right, we're going to, I'm going to do estate planning through wealthcom and I'll do debt optimization through Sora. I'll do, you know, I'll, I'll make sure that I'm out. I'm not going to do my own insurance policies, right, I use BC brokerage. Um, so, any. So, anything I can do to outsource some of those analysis or tasks to outside providers, I'll certainly do that.
Speaker 3:I don't have an admin on my staff or anything like that, so I don't have. I compose all my own emails, all that stuff. I think Jarvis would probably say I'm doing $20 an hour work, but I don't know, at some point maybe that becomes more of a priority to get somebody like Carmen on staff that can do some of that heavy admin work for me. Maybe, when I'm at that 100 client mark, I do see myself maybe doing that. I think where I don't see myself is bringing on that junior advisor and pushing lower revenue clients to that advisor. I don't love that because now we're scaling the business.
Speaker 1:Now we're scaling. Now we're doing what we said we weren't doing.
Speaker 3:And we're getting away from. My thing is, with that too, in this AI world, this AI heavy tech world, is like we're getting away from that human one-to-one. They hired me, they hired Eric. They didn't hire a junior advisor five years from now that I'm pushing them to. They hired me right for sure, and so when we start getting from away from that one to one and now they're talking with my ai chatbot or my admin, um, they can just go do that at vanguard for for free, right? So I, the personal touch, and it's something that you guys do really well. It's like how many? How advisors do you guys work with? I feel like every time I talk to you guys, whether it's this or whether it's over email, I feel like it's like oh, this is Brock and Peter, they're not having some bot do all this stuff for them. It's that personal relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's always been a big thing for us and something that we always want to maintain, because it's like we always said from the beginning, right, regardless of how big we get, and we're growing, and we love that we're growing but we always want to maintain that feel of like. People understand why they're getting into it and a lot of times, advisors will ask us the question like, why should we work with you instead of X, y and Z? And it's like well, you have to like us. So, at the end of the day, like you have to like the feel, and that's the same for any business, right?
Speaker 1:Um, but, man, one thing I'm curious about is my this is my last question for you because, um, I want to keep these action packed, like I said, but a lot of people struggle with the idea of like, how am I going to decide what type of content that I put out? Right, and I know you do different types of content, but one thing that I've seen and one thing I think you do really well is video, and I know you're doing podcasting as well, but it seems like you kind of like that live interaction, whereas other people like to do copywriting or whatever that might be. How did you decide? This is the way I want to attack this, this is the way I want to market and this is what feels most natural to me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good question. A couple things. I'd say one I started really broad with everything in terms of like, I tried everything and I'm still even whittling that down. So you'll probably see me do less and less video because I really ultimately want to focus on. I think my ideal client is mostly listening to a podcast and not necessarily scrolling TikTok. So I, you, so I think you'll get more focused as time goes. But starting broad like that and trying a bunch of different things and seeing what you resonate with, I enjoy video.
Speaker 3:I think there's not a lot of advisors, I think. Why did I do that at first too? I looked around and it's like there's very few advisors doing video for a number of reasons. One, it's hard. Two, a lot of advisors are older. Maybe they don't want to be on camera, maybe they don't feel comfortable in front of a camera. I feel fine. So I looked at that as like, hmm, if I'm trying to appeal to this 30, 40 something, maybe video is a good place to go. So that's kind of how I thought about doing that. The podcast too. I just looked at myself. I'm kind of my ideal avatar in a sense, for my firm.
Speaker 3:So what do I do? How do I consume news? How do I consume information? It certainly isn't the cable news networks, it certainly isn't TikTok, it's not YouTube, it's podcasting. That's how I get all of my info. So if I'm trying to attract myself, uh, I should probably have a podcast. So I think that's going forward. Like for me is like the core and what I'm, you know, sneak peek preview I'm really going to focus on. I've done, uh, every other week episodes now, instead of weekly, um, I'm probably going to cut out a lot of the video and just focus on really really good audio, um, and and really focus on the quality of those episodes, um, and not worrying so much about making sure I got two reels a week and two.
Speaker 2:You know this and that it's like I don't know, focus, focus, focus on quality, quality, quality yeah, yeah, I mean cranking them out weekly, you can definitely put a lot oh, man brock and I we do our best but, um, you know we're we're batting like three out of four weeks a month. You know I mean vacations come up, or you know there's a reschedule and we try to have a bank. But yeah, that is so, uh, that's okay. That's like life, like I don't like.
Speaker 3:That's how I look at my firm and my podcast going forward is like is like, hey, if I'm busy, like we're moving to Colorado Springs the next couple of weeks because that's what I'm not doing, probably podcasting or probably like a ton of client work other than keeping the wheels on the bus, right. So I think that's the beauty of having again a solo firm is like I don't need to worry about 200 clients. Uh, call somebody needing something. It's like oh, I know my clients pretty well. They know how I operate. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:No, it's so funny. When Peter told me he's like we're doing bi-weekly, he's like I think we should do weekly and I was like, should we do weekly? But it turned out to be great. I mean, we've had that many more conversations and it keeps us talking to good advisors. So it's been awesome, man. But no, we love what you do, we love being able to work with you and it's been absolutely awesome to see the growth that your firm and that you've had For people that want to follow along, because I think you're a really good example of what a lot of advisors are trying to achieve and get to. Where can people follow along with you and listen to your podcast?
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure, along with you and listen to your podcast? Yeah for sure. So biggest social media, again, again. Another thing I'm trying to do about social media. I might not even be posting that much going forward, trying to focus on that podcast audio, but the biggest media platform I'm probably on is LinkedIn. Eric, with a K Baskin. The podcast is the Bluff Veteran Finance Podcast. It might even have the Bluff name dropped by the time you listen to this. Another change we're considering. But yeah, those two spots, If you want to shoot me an email, erik, E-R-I-K at baskinfpcom. I love chatting with other planners, advisors, those behind me, ahead of me, whatever it may be, those just starting. I talk to quite a few planners, usually on Fridays, so I really enjoy those conversations. Love it, Eric.
Speaker 2:Thank you to quite a few planners usually on Fridays, so I really enjoy those conversations. Love it, eric. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Peter and Brock, Really appreciate it guys.
Speaker 2:Thanks, man.