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
#126 - Planning, Building, and Putting Yourself Out There with Taylor Stewart
Taylor Stewart didn’t set out to build software. He created a simple spreadsheet to help with his own planning, and it quickly caught the attention of other advisors. When one offered to buy it, he named a price that felt too high—and they said yes without hesitation. That moment sparked the creation of Income Mapper, and later, the tools that would become the foundation of Partheon, where Taylor now leads financial advice. He also runs his own fee-only firm, Adaroke Wealth.
As a second-generation advisor, Taylor grew up watching his father build a traditional AUM practice. His experience taught him something many advisors miss: we tend to undervalue our own ideas. It also taught him that waiting for clients to show up doesn’t work. After a year of slow growth, he realized the problem was fear—of showing up, of being seen, of failing. So he started sharing. Through podcasts, writing, and social media, he began to attract the right people by leading with value.
Taylor doesn’t measure success by revenue. In his words, “I don’t even know how much my firm makes.” He focuses on the impact—helping people make better financial decisions. Whether through planning or software, that mission drives everything he does. His advice to advisors who feel stuck is simple: “Just go create the problem. You’ll fix it.”
Listen now to learn how authentic positioning, value-based pricing, and showing up with purpose can reshape your advisory business.''
Taylor's Social and Websites:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-stewart/
x: @oTaylorStewart
https://www.parthean.com/
https://www.ataroke.com/
How's it going everyone? Welcome back to the Only Fee Only podcast and, as always, thanks for being here. In this episode we're talking to Taylor Stewart, who is the founder of Adderoak Wealth and the head of financial advice at Partheon. This was an awesome conversation. He's a second generation financial planner and started on a different side of the industry before founding his own company and just has amazing perspective. I got the chance to go on his podcast and we had an awesome conversation and we couldn't wait to have him on the Only Fee Only podcast. So, without further ado, here is Taylor Stewart on the Only Fee Only podcast.
Speaker 2:What's up everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast. I am Peter Travelo. I'm here with my co-host, Brock Buckles, and today we're so excited to have Taylor Stewart on. He is a financial planner, but he is also building a financial planning software, so really excited to have him on both as a financial planner and also building out a tech software. So, Taylor, welcome to the show man. Appreciate it guys. Good to see y'all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely man.
Speaker 2:Likewise. So for those who don't know who you are, do you want to give a quick overview of who you are and a little bit about your different businesses?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, so I'm a second generation financial planner, so this has been basically all I've wanted to do my whole life and it's been an interesting journey from what you think it is to what it actually is, and that explains a lot of what I'm doing now. But so, yeah, I grew up around it, always wanted to be an advisor, been a full-time advisor for coming up on nine years now. I actually worked with my dad's firm for the first six and a half years and then he's traditional AUM and insurance and there's a place for all that. I was in my early 30s and felt like there was probably a better fit for what I was wanting to do and then ended up launching my own firm two and a half years ago and the software thing was totally accidental, that it just kind of stumbled into. That we can talk about a little bit more, but it all started with a spreadsheet that solved a problem for myself that a couple of other friends wanted, and that's happened twice now. So it's fun, that's cool, man.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, we're talking about it, let's just get into it. So like, and I feel like a lot of times, man, ideas that we have and things just come from like we do it. Once we mentioned we have it, somebody else says, oh, that'd be cool. And or somebody's saying like I wish you guys have this. And then you go to create it and then it's like becomes bigger than what you thought was possible or what you were planning on it being initially. So walk us through like a little bit more slowly, like how that kind of worked and the evolution and how designing it and and what kind of sets you guys apart on that side? I'm curious On the software side, yeah, so okay.
Speaker 3:So my dad's business is traditional AUM and insurance. He's working with a lot of retired folks and we did when I was there you know it was there was investments, there was long-term care insurance planning. There was also we did some annuities when it was the right fit. And when I joined the industry I didn't really know anything. I saw all these fancy planning softwares. I was like, okay, I've got to figure out how to use all this because I don't know anything. I've got to wow clients with complexity.
Speaker 3:It was an FMO that we're a part of which you guys know what FMOs are. Basically a distribution Ag agents work with FMOs to get access to product, and they had this old software that was horrible to use but it had an incredibly simple output, basically like columns for sources, rows for years to show income, and it taught me something that like, basically, you don't need fancy, complex projections to be able to communicate with clients. So that was a huge lesson, like right out of the gate. But the interface was terrible. It didn't really do hardly anything besides, like just linear math, and so I just was like, OK, I'm going to build something else in Excel. I did some macros and whatnot and was super happy with it. I was just using it internally Showed a couple of my fellow advisor friends. Mind you, these are my dad's friends, so they're all a little bit older, less tech savvy, sure, um? And didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 1:This is like 2018, 2019 they come from the world of paper applications yeah, they're just excited about like you, cloud-based software, you know anything, right.
Speaker 3:So so that was like that. That was like, yeah, so that was like 2019. Then, like so much life happens, I end up starting my own firm and all this stuff uh, 2023. I got a call in the summer from like four of these older advisors, out of the blue, not even coordinated, they just all started calling me at the same time like, hey, do you still have that software, you, that spreadsheet you built? Um, we've tried a handful of the you know predominant income planning tools and we can't find anything that does it this way. Do you think we could buy it from you? And that was really interesting. I told them a price that felt uncomfortable and they didn't bat an eye at it, and so I was like, oh, that was cool, all right. And then like it's like, all right, back to being an advisor now.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, for sure, and a friend of mine was like you know, hey, that's kind of a product market fit. You should develop this into software. No, no, no. So I mean there's more that went into it. But when I like, basically I had some personal stuff happen in my life where it's with my daughter and I it's with my daughter and I was like, okay, yeah, you know, being able to um, software would be a nice way to help people without having to meet with them one-on-one. And so, um, that was kind of the like the beginning of that one where, um, I asked the guys who bought the software like, hey, uh, but basically no, they came to me and said like there's a lot of other advisors who would like to use this. If it wasn't an Excel-based thing, because I literally just sold them the Excel spreadsheet and so that started. That tool is called Income Mapper. That became a retirement income planning tool. It's still available, incomemappercom.
Speaker 3:And then that experience of developing that software when I was at Adderoak now and so Adderoak is just flat fee, fee-only financial planning. I'm working now with mostly like 30 to 50 non-retired folks it was like, literally I don't even use Income Mapper in the Adderoog stuff and so I was using your typical tools that we all are familiar with, or the tech stack that we get given if you're an XYPN, and it was just like, wow, this is like a really cool calculator, but this isn't really financial planning. So same thing, basically like, what does financial planning mean to me? Built, it, started as a spreadsheet, developed that used the same guy who built Income App or developed that into a software. It was 100% internal, was just going to be for myself. I thought nobody else in the world would want this. And then, at XYPN Live, actually a couple of other advisors saw it and was like, hey, I would really like this. And then, to tie all the pieces together, I had actually become.
Speaker 3:There's a platform called Parthian that I became a customer of, first no-transcript, complex calculators that are hard to use. So it was like we needed to meld those two worlds. And so Parthian was building really cool tech but it wasn't really solving a problem. Sure, I was building a good planning tool that was bad tech and we married those two together and so, uh, yeah, parthian is now like the combination of everything we just talked about. So it's, uh, my planning software, um, wise income mapper. We're kind of it's kind of like serves a different advisor, but like it's all included in that same thing and so, yeah, just trying to. Uh, it's, it's all just so. It starts with solving a problem for yourself and he comes to find out hey, a lot of other people have the same issue.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, and the thing that I liked that you said there too, is that, like I gave them a price that felt uncomfortable, and they didn't bat an eye right. Like how many times? Seriously and I've thought about that too Like how many, how many times do we, as entrepreneurs or people that are doing stuff or creating things or selling things, like don't, you, don't understand what your value is or what you're doing?
Speaker 1:And then you like show somebody else, or like yeah of course, and you're like wait what, Like it almost catches you off guard. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's that, that value pricing discussion, cause I kind of have like three businesses now the software business, the advice business and another thing that is not relevant here, like learning how to price services is so hard, and I'll tell you like the biggest light bulb for me was that value is relative to the consumer, that there is not an absolute price for everybody, sure, and so like on the advice side, I tell everybody like our advice comes from, our value comes from four places. Number one we hopefully will get you more money I'm talking to clients now as an advisor. We hopefully will get you more money, not through picking stocks but through, like improved behavior, some efficiencies, you know, just the typical stuff. The problem is there's no reliable way to measure that in the moment, so like we can't know. Like I always tell people, it'd be so great if I sold a $29 air filter, they got you three miles per gallon better on gas. It'd be so much easier. So, number one, we want to get you more money but we can't measure it. Number two there's an education component. Number three, there's a time savings piece that, like you know, you're not having to do all this. And the fourth piece is like a quiet of mind, peace of mind from knowing that somebody is looking over all this stuff for you. Number one we can't measure. And number two, three and four, everybody's going to value differently. So stop pretending that like there's one price that's going to connect with every single person. You've got to price your services in a way that you feel fairly compensated and excited to do the work.
Speaker 3:So that's on the advice side, that's on the advice side, and then on the software, there's just so many different types of advisors. Where call it? I mean the value of income mapper. To, like a typical, probably listener of this podcast is like I don't know, 50 to a hundred bucks a month, maybe. But to the guys and gals who were buying it in that in a different business model, I asked them all. I said like if I tried to take this away, this away from you, what would you pay me? They're like 10 grand, easy, it's just wildly different.
Speaker 2:So like, yeah, pricing value is a fascinating thing no doubt and that's an interesting conversation on both being a financial advisor and the software side, right? So I mean, what are maybe some overlays that you've seen between being a business owner and wearing hats on both sides software and advising practice that you need to make sure that you're staying true to when you're building your business? You know, like I think that, like I see a lot on LinkedIn, I see engaging a lot with other advisors you know, like in your experience now, how would you start an RIA knowing what you know now and with the financial planning software that's out there? But there's a lot.
Speaker 3:There's like handful of things there Like what, what would I do now? Um, I think the biggest from an RIA perspective like there's no rules on how you have to do these things. I think it's Carl Richards always talks about him, calls himself the king of permission graining. You can do it that way. It's your business, like that's been so.
Speaker 3:I've said that to myself so many times like from I didn't niche to like the way I designed my website to what I'm wearing in my photo. Like do it be authentic? Wearing in my photo. I'm like do it be authentic? It's just so like that.
Speaker 3:There's that like if you're not, your ability to repel is directly proportional to your ability to attract. So it's like okay if you're turning some people off, if you're trying to please everybody at all times, you're not going to please anybody and that's good luck. Yeah. So just like you got to like be unique and stand out in some way. So that's yeah. If I was starting today, I mean I would just like really keep that front of mind and I think the overlays with all of this from the software side to the advice side, it's really easy to just like forget that you are a business and you do have to like work with people and have users, because they'll be so easy to just tinker and perfect and like when it's perfect, the world will see it. But like you know, that's we're that's playing business at that point.
Speaker 1:Well and honestly, I don't know how many times literally this exact topic has come up, and that means a lot of people are dealing with it, but it's like you can tinker things to death right. You can know whether it's financial planning, insurance, whatever it is, you can know everything that there is to know about it. And if you don't have anybody that you're working with or that knows who you are or that is interested in what you have to say, all that stuff just stays in your head and then you go find another job. It doesn't matter. So, like you, you have to find a way to do it as you were building man, and as you are building like. What are some of the things that you've seen? Success as far as, like meeting new people, getting in front of new people, you know, meeting potential prospects and clients yeah, so it's all related um the first year.
Speaker 3:So I always I, I wanted to be like the guy in the background that nobody knew. Yeah, my dad, my dad always brags about how he never spent a dollar in marketing in his life and like, like that worked. But like different world, like you saw 200 people a week in person. So like started my firm, just sat there. It's like, huh, nobody's coming in. So like what's this about?
Speaker 3:And I was like, okay, cause I, we, a lot of us advisors were like I don't want to be salesy, but like gosh, dang it. Like people got to know you exist and work with you. So like I was like okay, people have to be aware that I work, that I, that I exist. Where are most of my people at? Most of my friends that I wanted to know were on Instagram. So I did like I don't know 20 posts on Instagram. People knew I existed. A couple of people come in that way.
Speaker 3:And then, honestly, there was, like after like a year, a flux of just like the different finder and advisor websites, like NAPFA, xypn, cfp, like some random ones, started trickling in there. But then it was about a year ago. Last January, I sat in this chair over in the corner. I was like, why am I not where I want to be in life? And I realized it was like it's a totally different conversation. Everything stems from an insecurity of like not wanting to put yourself out there and fail and I was like, just freaking, go for it, who cares?
Speaker 1:And honestly.
Speaker 3:I'm not just saying this, but like Brock, you're one of those Like I was a lurker for the longest time. I was like that was a Brock Buckles guy you had like the cartoon profile picture or something at the time. I like he's just out here blabbering away and like people know him. I'm 100 serious. There's a handful of people like that. So I was like I'll just start putting myself out there, yeah, and like that it freaking works.
Speaker 3:Like we, we have our own silly little podcast that you've come on yeah that like we my co-host and I, we just did it for ourselves like it's not perfect at all, but the last like eight or ten people who've come to attaroke my planning firm have all been like, yeah, listen to your podcast. Like so it's just like you've got to put yourself out there, like the world's not going to just find you and so is as much all the episodes I thought were stupid and I didn't know if they created any value.
Speaker 1:And then people listen to them. They're like man, those were great. I learned so much from them. You're like wait what? Okay, that's good, I like that. You know it's huge man yeah yeah, blah, blah, blabbering into the.
Speaker 1:that's what I felt like when I first started. I felt like I was just blabbering into the void, like, especially when we were early on, pete and I were like working out of a laundry room together like sitting in desks across from each other. I'm like I don't know man. He's like, well, I'm gonna make lists of people that we can reach out to and I was like I'm going to create cringy videos. I guess today, like now, I look back at him, I'm like, oh my gosh, but people, it was like little bit, like the little bit at a time and there's always room for improvement, man, but the biggest thing that stops people is just like not starting. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3:I really I I want a massive lesson. For me was looking at a handful, a whole bunch of just what I would consider successful people across different industries and, with like very few exceptions and with all the respect in the world to them, there's almost nothing special about them other than they put themselves out there Like literally, there's, that's it. They just ask that question, shake that hand, post that whatever. It's like. Huh, there's like got all the same raw material, just freaking. Put yourself out there and that's where, like you know, I think we all hold ourselves back with some insecurity of something and you're just like, sorry, screw it, just go for it.
Speaker 1:People don't care, man. Like I stumbled over a word, I said something right, I didn't use the right tense. Like you know, it was like. At the end of the day, it's like yeah, do you understand that when people are recording their own videos, they're like it's actually probably more relatable not to try to make it exactly perfect, because everybody knows nothing actually happens like that. So, no, I love that. You said that, man. It's like, yeah, the insecurity part is like absolutely huge, because you're like am I coming across? Like I make sense? Is this educational? Is it actually helping people? Are people going to watch this video and be like, yeah, obviously idiot. You know what I mean, Like you know. So I just always thought that, man, like the biggest thing that I've always harped on and always believed it was so important is just consistency. Like have something to say, try to do the best that you can with it, put it out there, and if it can help one person, fantastic.
Speaker 3:And at the end of the day, like if somebody doesn't like it, they just scroll past it. Exactly. You know, we all think like, oh my God, all these people are going to be ha ha. Taylor made a terrible post. I'm like dude, not my favorite, you're just going to scroll by it. The same way that you consume stuff, people are consuming yours Like People are consuming yours Like they don't really care. If it's valuable, they'll connect and like. So just just get out of your own head.
Speaker 1:Unless they love IUL, in which case they just go all and get all their. They get all their battle mates. So they come back and they're like we're going to comment and hate this guy. But yeah no it is true, worst case scenario.
Speaker 2:Someone just like. I've liked the way that you phrase your answers. I'd say you're like, hey, just go try it. You know, because I feel like you hear a lot of people that they're like hey, you just. This is the only way you know. If you said at first like hey, I just posted on Instagram and I tried over here on a different platform, it at first like hey, I just posted on instagram and I tried over here on a different platform, because one thing that brock and I talk about, like sure, our market.
Speaker 2:This podcast is literally called only fee, only planners, but it's interesting to watch all these other planners who, it seems like all they network with are other planners, right? Um, it's like you need to market towards your niche. You know, don't think that you're like working against one another. So I guess where I'm getting at with this for like content and question would be like you know, what do you see? Or maybe like five or six, you have to try these methods in the beginning and then test and test and test, because I'm sure, as a software and building stuff out, that you're like testing different things, measuring and then seeing what works.
Speaker 3:So the five or six things for either business or that you would test or that you've tried. Well, I mean, I think I think you you've got to understand yourself and your personality too. Like I enjoy talking and I have a lot of things on my mind, so like the podcast was kind of a natural fit. If you're like my co-host on the podcast, colin Page, I drug him into doing that. Like he's not going to naturally. Like I would love to talk in front of a camera and microphone. It's uncomfortable for him, but he's an incredible writer and his blog was all he did.
Speaker 3:He just started writing blog articles and that flywheel is often off the rails. So I mean, just try creating a video, see how painful or enjoyable that was. Try writing a blog. See how like all of them are out there and like there's no cost, only your time for if it doesn't go well. But like, but to that point you can't just do it once and be like, oh, it didn't work. So I'm probably not going to say anything too original on that front, but just other than, where are your people that you're trying to target? What do they consume? What are you comfortable and good at doing? And try to make it something that you really enjoy doing. Don't freaking, stop doing it that something that you really enjoy doing.
Speaker 1:Don't freaking, stop doing it like that's the thing is. Keep doing it like you're, you might not get traction and the thing is, uh, one of the things that, like, um nate hosk and nick meyer always talk about, like the videos and that's the most relatable for me because I really like those is like nick has like tiktok right, and he's got like a million followers on there and he's got videos that have millions of views. And then he's got videos that he's done on like LinkedIn or Instagram where it's like a couple thousand views and he'll get like two, three clients off of those because the exact right people are seeing those. But he doesn't stop trying, he doesn't stop testing and eventually it works out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And that's where, like it's quality over quantity, uh yeah, it does not need to be 2 million of the wrong person seeing your stuff like that, so you should really great for the ego. Terrible, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, taylor, where do you see your firm going? I mean, are you a solopreneur and I bring on a couple of young bucks to a little boutique and try to blow this thing up and have your name on a building? It's definitely not going to be my name.
Speaker 3:Because trajectory of your firm. It won't be my name because I didn't put my name on the firm. So my dad at one point had 14 advisors working for him and he called it running an adult daycare and basically like stripped it down to just him and his assistant again. Then he brought me on. So I kind of had that voice in my head of like, oh, scaling, it can be messy. And then, with all the love in the world to our XYPN friends, there's like solo, solo, solo hire is bad.
Speaker 3:I've like totally started rethinking that here recently, kind of like why? Like, honestly, part of it is like software. We got a team and I love working in a team and like the complimentary skill sets like this is awesome. Like I'm like why would I do all the crap I'm really bad at if I can join, you know complimentary skill set? So I have like in the last month or so really started exploring it up, partly because I'm split, my client base is essentially full and I can't really handle much more at this point. But I think from a methodology and a process standpoint we could absolutely plug somebody in. So I'm definitely open to scaling it from here. Even though I'm a financial planner. I like don't plan anything in my life because of just what I mean. Everything that I've tried to plan for has not happened. So like I'm very much like the next step would be I'll work with, add one more person. Yeah, like we'll adjust from there and it's like if it's the right person, why not?
Speaker 1:As long as the right person, man. That's what it comes down to. Like that that's what I think it comes down to, because, like, if you have the idea and listen not a slight to anybody listening to the podcast, who's like trying to do this, like you're, you're, I admire it, right, but at the same time, the way I've always looked at it is like if you're just growing, growing, growing revenue, like inject vc, grow, grow, grow, and then it's like, okay, now our heads are spinning, we're kind of out of control a little bit. I don't know if the quality is there, I don't know if we're serving people the way we want to. We're just going for maximum profitability. But then it's like what you said the reasons that I started this business or the reasons that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, the freedom that I wanted to have, all of that goes out the window. So then you might be making a ton of money, you might be doing all the things, but you might not be happy at all.
Speaker 3:It really depends on what you're optimizing for, because there can be a point where, like, you're completely fine, but like for me, like what? Like I'm not. This isn't lip service, like there's a whole backstory of where this comes from. But like, my purpose in life literally in life is to help people make better financial decisions. That drives everything I do, from wake up to go to bed. So my number one outlet for that was working with people one-on-one at Adderall. The software thing was like a way to work with other advisors who work with more clients. So that was an easy math. Like, of course, why would I not continue to I? Can I measure my value not in dollars? I don't even know how much my firm makes, which is a crazy thing to say.
Speaker 1:That is a crazy thing to say, like households and lives. For sure.
Speaker 3:So that's where, like what I bring somebody else on, that means more people that I can add to that list, Absolutely. So that's what I'm optimizing for. Not everybody's going to do that, but I think even what you said you don't need to just chase growth for the sake of growth if that's not what you want either. So just being clear on what you're optimizing for is super, super important. I don't know how else you make decisions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, dude, I think there's something to that. Like, when you're focused on, like, traditional metrics, I don't think there's anything wrong with knowing your numbers. As a matter of fact, like, I think it's a good thing to know Peter and I get together, we do it right, whatever but at the same time, it's like how are we growing? What are we doing to be better? Like, how are we helping people? Are we putting out stuff that's actually doing good for the people that are supposed to see it? Like, are we creating an environment that people want to be a part of? When you focus on some of those intangibles like you, like I just want to help people, I want to be a resource, the rest really does follow right, and I think there's just different ways to do it. Man, I don't think there's anything wrong with not necessarily knowing that a lot of people would look at you be like, what do you mean? Like, because some people are just so hyper focused on numbers they can't even fathom what you just said.
Speaker 3:But yeah, but I'm also a former accountant. I can get you within probably like 500 bucks what the actual answer is. So like I just don't I just don't try to care that much.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like we just just not this and it's also like the last thing I'd say.
Speaker 3:They're like the time frame, like I I'm not super, I don't really care, as long as we're like working towards the bigger picture over the long term. I'm not freaking out like I don't expect life to be a straight line, like we got to hit our monthly numbers, like it's just not how the world works because like up and down general trajectory is right, doing the things, getting feedback from the other, from the things I'm checking on, like yeah, we're good.
Speaker 1:No doubt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the numbers are important, but you know, outside of the office too is very important. Um, I think everyone likes to have the accolades about work and conferences and stuff, but then I don't see anything about their family or what actually matters. So pretty interesting, just throwing it out there. So, taylor, before we let you go, any other golden nuggets or anything else out there that you wanted to shout out there for the fee-only community.
Speaker 3:No, just this is a great resource. Thank you all for putting this together. I'm a relatively newer listener myself, and just get out of your own way. Go create the problem. Don't expect every software and process to be perfect. Just go create the problem, you'll fix it For sure.
Speaker 1:And also I just want to make a point of it you put out really good content, so I really enjoy a lot of your posts on LinkedIn. I interact with a lot of them. But if you guys check out the show notes, go follow and connect with Taylor on LinkedIn. I interact with a lot of them, but if you guys check out the show notes, go follow and connect with Taylor on LinkedIn, check out what he's doing. But thanks so much, man. It's always great to get the chance to talk to you and hopefully there's another episode coming down the road.
Speaker 3:Yeah, likewise, we got to have you back on ours too, so we can revisit that Awesome man.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, appreciate it, guys. Thank you for your time.