How Paul Wood Built One of Raymond James’ Largest Independent Branches

For advisors considering independence, this episode is full of real-world perspective.

Evan J. Mayer sits down with Paul Wood of Agility Wealth Management to talk about why advisors leave wirehouses, what holds them back, and how the right independent platform can create room for growth. They also discuss recruiting, succession, private equity, RIA models, and what it takes to support advisors across multiple locations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

This is four advisors, divide visors. I'm your host, Evan J. Mayer, and today we have a very special guest, Mr. Paul. Hello, hello. How are you, Paul?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I'm great. So I've known Paul now for a few years, but really known for the last year. We've worked side by side on the advisory council, which has been an absolute blast. But just to give a little background on Paul, Paul is a branch owner for on the Raymond James Independent platform. He's the CEO of Agility Wealth Management. And he's also one of Raymond James' top producers. What number did you finish last year?

SPEAKER_02 1:06

11, 12, I don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Like you don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, uh Chairman's Council, Baron's top 1500 advisor, been informed multiple, multiple times. And again, a fellow membership on the uh ICD channel advisory board, which has been been a blast to have Paul by my side. We agree on most things. Uh we rarely disagree, but occasionally when we we disagree, people know about it. So uh welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Thank you, buddy. Glad to be here. Excited to be on your uh podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

We're excited to have you. So we we had your uh he likes to call you um or him your manager, uh Mr. Scott Brown.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Uh very unfamiliar with what you're talking about. I don't have a manager, I own a big, a big firm myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

And so he wanted to know what like what it was like working with him, but we'll get to that question later. Let's talk about your practice. You have a ton of growth. Um you're one of the largest, if not the largest. I think you're like in the top three largest branches in RJFS. You've grown to something like 70 advisors. Tell us a little bit about your history with the firm, when you got started, uh, when did you start recruitment? When did like the role of a lot of advisors come along, and what's happened over the last like two or three years?

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Well, that would cover all 30 minutes of our of our conversation there, Evan, if I answer all those things. So uh, you know, I started in the industry in the early 90s. Uh Scott and I became partners. You're talking about Scott Brown, my business partner. We became partners of the, you know, within a year of me being in the industry. Uh, we've been together for a very long time and we built out this firm. We have two separate individual practices, but we share a building that we own together and we share a few key employees. Um started building our own books. We have you know independent practices within those practices. Um, I don't know, 15 years ago I started doing some acquisition and some recruiting. So the business has kind of exploded since that point. Uh we now between Scott and I have 14 different locations, of which 13 are mine, a couple are Scott's. Uh we have well over a hundred employees on the payroll between advisors and support staff, you know, just shy or just over, depending on the day, six billion dollars under management. So it's a large practice now. Um and we uh we have a great time doing it. And more importantly, we're we're good friends, and it's it's a pleasure to go through this with good friends at your side, you know, building this together. It's a great opportunity for both of us.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

That's awesome. Yeah, he's a he's a great guy. You guys are very different personalities, which is what makes it work so well, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yeah, there's a yin and a yang, and just like a marriage or any other marriage, you know, you can't both be the same person and you kill each other. So and we've tried to kill each other multiple times. So you know, we try to avoid that.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Now, with six billion dollars under management, um, you and Scott are both uh, you know, uh we'll we'll call it um, you know, at least at least past the middle stage of your career. Uh you know, we're six year olds. Yeah, a little bit. Uh you know, what is the succession thought? Is the succession thought, you know, I obviously you brought your daughter, I believe, into the practice. Uh yeah, can you talk a little bit about that? Did you, you know, uh Scott, Scott's belief was it's better to bring somebody aboard through a different firm and then bring them onto your practice once they have a little experience? I hear that a lot from advisors. I fundamentally disagree if the practice is already strong and you could teach them a lot. I believe you're more under on under my page. Uh, can you explain a little bit about your thoughts there?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, so I have two daughters in the practice. Both started with me when they were 16 in high school, working as interns here in the practice. Uh, one of them went on and got her master's degree, got a finance degree, got her master's degree. She now runs two very large practices for me in different parts of the country, managing well over half a billion dollars of other people's money. Uh, my younger daughter, same thing, started at 16 in the practice, uh, went on to graduate with her finance degree, um, wanted to go get her master's, and I was just growing so rapidly and told her, no, I need you in the practice now. She has all her principal's licenses, and she is actually the operations manager, OSJ, for really for the entire complex that Scott and I both run.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

So one is producing and one is more more uh ops.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Ops operations, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And did you know did you know that when they were growing up? Were you like one of them would be?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

No, not at all. No, not at all. It's just kind of a role that they both fell into. Um they both, you know, in my even the one that does operations, she's on my team and she handles a lot of clients. And, you know, if I'm out of the office or if I'm not in, she does a lot of phone calls, not as much face-to-face meetings, but she handles a lot of clients. So she fully involved in the asset management and the financial planning side. But her focus for Scott and I is much more on the operation side from a OSJ standpoint, principal's license, and you know, all the all the branch manager stuff. Um, but from a succession plan, I have two other junior we'll call equity partners in my practice. So um those two partners plus my daughters are the succession of this firm. I'll be 60 here in a couple of months, and you know, God willing, I plan on going um a few more years to say another seven, eight, ten years, who knows? Uh Scott has Bratcher, who is his son, who is uh his succession plan. Um it it just took a different path in the sense that both my daughters came in and started in the practice and learned from me, whereas you know, Scott's son went outside, had some other uh avenues, and then came into the practice at a little later period of time. So I'm with you. I think um I have the capacity and the energy and the uh the people around me to train my daughters, and I did it here. Um Scott chose a different path, but Bratcher's turned out to be an incredible advisor and uh fantastic with clients and like Scott, very visionary on his beliefs of where the practice is going. And you know, they both pass turned out, you know, even though they were different paths, both turned out fantastic for you know each of our respective practices.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And and Bratcher won the uh won the uh golf tournament, the RJFS golf tournament with me, which is a problem with you guys that are good golfers.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

You can't be working as hard as I am if you're if you're able to golf that much.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

So I I I I don't have six billion under management just yet, so we're we're we're we're working on that. Um that's a whole different story. Yeah, absolutely. Talk about the last like few years was it, you know, you said 15 years you've been recruiting. Was it kind of a slow build to kind of like build it to they come and that and now it's just been you know explosive? Is it slowed down recently in the last two or three years? Is it still explosive?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, it's like anything else. The more you do it, the more your name gets out there, the more energy you build, the more momentum you build. Um, so from a recruiting standpoint, that really didn't get going until really the last five or six years, 20, 21, 22 through 26. When I say recruiting, that's bringing other teams over from Merrill, Morgan, UBS, whatever, bringing them to the independent channel of Raymond James underneath my OSJ. The acquisition of practices started back in 2015-ish. So that was five years prior to when I started recruiting advisors over. I I recruited here and there when I had an open office. And to me, that's the average branch manager at a firm. He's trying to recruit somebody within a five-mile radius of his branch that wants to work in one office at his branch. That's recruiting, and that's what most people consider recruiting. You and I, because of our conversations over the past year, you and I have done completely different of that. I have branches that are you know 100 miles away from me, and we go open up a branch and build out a suite and put a couple of hundred thousand dollars into furniture and decorations and technology, and we'll bring a practice from a Merrill or a Morgan or whatever, and we'll bring over a three, four hundred million dollar team and open them up a branch where they're not just joining one of my existing branches, they're going a completely independent, they own their own practice. We're just supplying uh kind of that one-stop shop for them to place their their tile.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Are are they branding under agility or are they branding on their own?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah, so most of them brand on their own. I I don't have a big name that I'm trying to build out my name, but I don't care. I don't have the eagle that big. Um, if they want to build out their own firm, then they build out their own firm. If they don't have a name and they want to choose agility, I have a couple of branches that are agility. The ones that I physically own because of acquisition, they're all agility. But the ones that we've recruited these teams over, you know, they can be anything they want. They can come up with their own name and you know, they're just underneath the umbrella of agility, but it's their own firm.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Do you uh the on the agility website are all these advisors, even if they're they're naming themselves a separate office, are they under the agility uh banner or flag?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah, I mean, there are two locations currently that are not under the agility banner. Um we clear, we're the OSJ, we handle everything, we pay all the expenses, they're you know their staff as employees of ours, um, but they are not associated in the namesake of agility. They've they're independent.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

They've kept it be very independent. And and uh are are most people W 2 or most 1099? Do you give them the option? Uh what is more favorable to you and what is more favorable to them?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Uh makes zero difference to me. If they want to come in as W 2, then that's perfectly fine. You know, it's a spreadsheet, you're paying FICA, you're paying, you know, your your 401k contribution.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

You're just adding that into your the whatever the payout would be if you're gonna if you're gonna W2.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

You know, we start at this and we deduct for rent. I have a famous saying, you know, if you want to be in the downtown high-rise in the penthouse suite and you want Italian leather chairs, I could care less. I'll build it out that way. It's gonna come off the spreadsheet and it's gonna come down to your your base payout. If you want to be in a normal class A building and a normal suite with normal furniture and sharp, all A-level great stuff, then your payout might be two or three percent higher than a guy that wants Italian leather and the penthouse suite on the on the 32nd floor of the downtown building.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Have you um you've been with Raymond James for how how long as as uh Scott and I both came over in 2020 to RJA? Okay 2000.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

I'm sorry, 2000, not 2020. Uh so we came to RJA in 2000 uh in a local the local branch here in town uh in Orlando, and then in 2006 I left and went RJFS and Scott stuck around for a few more years, and then in 2011, I think it was, he came RJFS and we put it back together as a as a single group.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

What what do you think took you quicker to make that decision and Scott not to? And what do you think creates people to not make that jump quicker in their career? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

So I mean, and again, this is Scott's story to tell. Uh, I know the story. Um, he had opportunity by staying at the RJA branch with some retiring advisors. Um, so he made a conscious decision to stick around. Um, Scott is the ultimate entrepreneur, if you ask me. He you know, he's a very visionary guy that he's always meant to be independent and always meant to be an entrepreneur. Um, but there was a strategic reason for him to stick around, which was very well known in my eyes. And then, you know, a while before he decided to leave, we started having a conversation about putting it back together. So um yeah, uh it's it wasn't a case of he didn't see the light. Um I think he saw some opportunities in other areas that he decided to stick around for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Why do you think people people don't make that move more often?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

It's a it's a it seems Yeah, I can tell you I talk to you know I I don't know how many teams a year. I'm talking large producing teams that I that I recruit over. Um you know, fear, you know, they've been brainwashed their whole career, you know, W-2 wirehouse employee that we all work in our underwear and work out of our garage, and you know, we're we're all gonna starve and be out of business in six months. And you know, I think when we left the RJA office, that was kind of the solution. I know Paul and Scott will be you know waiting tables here in a few months because they're gonna be out of business. And we've grown this incredibly, yeah, as you put it, I think we're the second largest branch in all of RJFS at this point. Um and I think the fear for most advisors is making that leap. Um it's terrifying to them, and it's foolish because not only the payouts, just the independence and the ability to to be an entrepreneur. You know, I could have never grown out a team of a hundred people sitting in an RJA or in a corporate office.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, you just wouldn't uh number one, you wouldn't have the flexibility that you would need to have to the resources, the energy, the time, the the payout, whatever it is, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

It's you can't if you have a true entrepreneur spirit and you want to be independent and you want to not worry about paying the copy machine bill and worrying about phone leases, I get that. But there are guys like you and I that can handle all that for you and create these incredible practices. And and in my experience, these Wirehouse advisors, they grow significantly once they come independent. Uh, you and I have had this conversation offline many times that the growth trajectory of a practice underneath me or underneath you with the things that we've established is a phenomenal. And um, I it you can talk about this stuff to your blue in the face, and these advisors are so brainwashed that they won't listen. But uh, I urge them to pick up the phone and call you or call me and have a conversation. And I got you know 23, 24 advisors I've recruited over, and I'll give you the facts and you can talk to every one of them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

So it's we actually me and you discuss this a lot uh as far as the potential growth rate of an advisor joining an existing office versus creating their own office and such a such a benefit to operate under somebody like you. You've been in the business for a long time, you've been on the independent side for a long time, you've watched businesses come in, you've probably seen some become ultra successful, you've probably seen some that that didn't. Uh and that yeah, and stopped growing. So it's uh it's an interesting thing for them to not have that conversation. I just want to segue this into you know, most people, I I say most, I mean I nowadays it's probably you know, people could start anywhere, but people either start in a bank or a warehouse or an insurance company, eventually make their way, go independent. A lot end up going RIA, some don't. You did not. Did you ever look at going RIA? Did you ever do the math? Was it was it ever an interest to you, or were you always like, hey, why even make that leap? What's the point?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah, if you're asking at the beginning, Scott and I did not look RIA when we left RJA. We came to RJFS. We're very, you know, very fond of RJA as a as a company, and that wasn't even a decision. Plus, it was you know, 25 years ago or 20 years ago at this point, it wasn't as popular as what you hear now. Uh, to say my phone doesn't ring, we're an extremely large branch. You know, we've both built extremely large practices, to say our phone doesn't ring you know once a month with an offer is is would be lying. But you know, we've done the math, we've done the under the hood checks, and I'm happy. And I have a great niche, we have a great niche within Raymond James. Um not saying that you know it's perfect, but you know, there are many Wirehouse guys, you take Merrill guys or whatever, that are uh they don't want to jump to RIA. They would rather jump to the the platform that we offer, meaning my firm, where we're paying all the expenses, we're signing a lease, we're doing everything for them, and they still have 100% independence, they own their own practice, and their payout went from 40 plus to 70 without the headaches, or without the SEC coming in and shutting them down, without the risk of being an RIA. So I I still feel that there's a great opportunity for many advisors in the the Wirehouse setting, or even LPL advisors that want to come over, you know, leave LPL because of the the ridiculous growth that they've had and and join a firm like Raymond James. So I I feel that I'm in the middle of a great niche and I have a great opportunity that you know you go become RIA and now you compete with some really, really, really deep pockets and some guys that are convinced that their practices are worth probably more than they really are.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah, and the the interesting thing about that is I even did just did the math because we you know we're we're pretty much 100% manage money, at least me personally, not not all not all my advisors. And I've I've done the math of going RIA, and it's it's a it's a difference of about 10% uh growth before before other expenses that come into play. And so when you look at the ability to to co-brand with an affiliate such as Raymond James, uh the the ability to recruit, the the ability to uh just the namesake alone is worth something, right? Like uh completely.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah. But again, nobody likes compliance and it's a pain, but their job is to keep us out of trouble, and and that that's worth some cost to me, whether it's a two, three, four, five percent, whatever that delta is that you would maybe get on the RIA side, not counting like you just said, the name. And you know, you and I both and Scott have the same opportunity. We have great relationships with senior management, where large practices that are well thought of that you know, uh there's value in that to me, and and I and I've been pretty vocal that I have zero intention of leaving. Now, somebody wants to write me a check with you know 20 zeros behind it, maybe I would, but you know, that hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

20 zeros would be great, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um let's talk about private equity. There's been a lot of that MA uh in our business, uh companies coming in like merchant, coming in and buying up uh RAAs, buying up you know, practices.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

I've looked at a percentage into you know 20% of revenue or yeah, yeah, well, which is what I see.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

And and and and for growing advisors, it makes zero sense. Um and and and the golden carrot or the golden, you know, uh Apple. Yeah, that's that's the look the liquidity event that never happens. Correct. Uh, you know, and it keeps being promised. Uh we're seeing that, and it's still to this day, like we're I'm on I'm on LinkedIn and I'm still seeing advisors that are buying into this crap. Um why did you not buy into this crap?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

So I I think you summed it up a second ago when you said the a growing practice. So let's just say I did this in 22 or 23 when it was, you know, interest rates were zero, Ps looking for a place to get their money. We're you know, I think out of our our total firm of you know, we're 97.9% fee-based, you know what I mean? So incredible recurring revenue starting January 1st, right? So private equity is looking for a place to park money. Oh, we'll we'll give we'll we'll buy 20 for 20% tranche, we'll do another one two years now at a higher valuation. What would I have given up? Well, you can look at my revenue or my just personal production, not counting our branch revenue. You know, in 2022, I think our branch was half of what it is now, which was still a ridiculous number, but we would have given up 20, 30, 40 percent of our revenue on a very, very, very large number of you know, multiple millions, you know, you know, a very large number. So, yeah, a growing practice, I think it would make no sense to give up 20, 30 percent of your revenue.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

So, really, the the the theory is is if if that golden ticket was to ever happen, great, but if you're a growing practice, stay away from it, keep growing, get your valuation when you're when you're not giving up 25% of my revenue for the you know, it growing the way we're growing, bringing in the net new assets we bring in, plus the firms and the assets that I'm talking to as far as acquisition and recruiting, it would have been a foolish move for Scott or I, either one of us.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Um, surely 10 years ago, five years ago, and even last year. Um and that's and and this isn't gonna stop as we discussed. There's so much momentum in the recruiting markets in the MA with individual look at the look at me. I'm an old gray-haired guy, you know what I mean? Um what half the industry looks like me. They don't look like you, they're not in their 40s.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Oh, I think you just call me young. I love that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

That's true. So again, there's so much opportunity over the next 10 15 years through acquisition, through recruiting, that uh I think it'd be a foolish move for me to sell to private equity or sell a percentage of assets or revenue.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Especially when that golden carrot might not have. happen. Uh you know, I still I still have friends that that that bought in five years ago and they were told that the liquidity event was going to be in two or three years and they're still waiting.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

So let's face it, we're and we're in how many year bull market run now since 2010?

unknown 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah. It's not gonna it hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

We're much closer to you know a couple years of stress if you ask me than we are to uh uh uh some golden monetization event that's everybody's been waiting for talk to me about um you're a big practice so I you know just for comparison purposes you know we got about 1.5 billion so we're about 25% of your size and all my advisors are 1099 so for on a financial standpoint it makes my life very easy and they cover their own expense of their own office and their payouts a lot of a lot higher and I don't have to deal with that um but but I do obviously have employees and and we're growing and and nowadays I got to keep somewhere between 400 and 600 000 which sounds very small to you but 400 to 600 000 a quarter available for payroll expenses things along those lines that's pretty much my cost your cost is significantly more than that how are you how are you running your cash management as you as you scale is it all really on you is is there a team that I eat you know each controls portions of that I mean we have obviously our own payroll company and a lot of things are ACH and on automatic so it doesn't make things much more difficult I wouldn't think as I expand but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

I'll tell you that you know there's growing pains at certain levels. Obviously you reach $10 million of revenue that's a different scenario than when you have $5 million of revenue you reach $25 million in revenue you reach 40 million in revenue you you hit definite expansion points where you have to change things um you know what used to be hey we got you know three four hundred grand in the checking account for the quarter we're good that number has to be significantly higher you know with a hundred people on payroll you know you're your your our health insurance bill alone to have health insurance for that size group you know so yeah there's a but it's like anything else it's a spreadsheet it's um you know my daughter Shay handles all that for us the one that does the OSJ work so you know it's it's a process we know it we Scott and I review it it's very well documented uh I know Scott personally his situation just like he knows mine we both keep tremendous amounts of cash on hand we're never gonna get to a point uh you know Scott Brown is classic for saying there were times and you know without mentioning dates or years when markets were really struggling and we were young in the business that we were taking money out of our 401k to make payroll. That will never happen again but you you've got to have that ready day. So you're talking about like cash management you're keeping millions of dollars when your payroll and your health insurance cost and you know just the you know I have personally I've signed for 13 leases.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

So I personally have signature guaranteed 13 different class A buildings in different cities um you know my rents alone are hundred thousand dollars plus a year a month I'm sorry just rent that doesn't count payroll and everything else and I'm not bragging in any sense do you use do you use like a brokerage account like where you're your your your you got money and money market accounts for your reserve cash and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Got it you have to you it's a business it's I like I say when the I bring these barrel teams over it's a full blown business.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

We have full blown benefit package you know we you know it's it's run like let's not scale let's not scare advisors by the way um again as you start you can scale this um I used to keep I needed to keep about fifty thousand dollars in my account extra now I got to keep a few hundred thousand Paul's got to keep a few million um i you know it's it's all to scale it's it's not harder uh it's yeah and for most guys Evan they're not gonna do what you and I've done yep they're a Merrill team coming over and they got three partners and two assistants and a paraplanner and they run you know 400 million dollars they don't want to deal with any of this yep they want to come over leave on Friday morning be licensed at Raymond James by 930 on Friday morning start the transition and not worry about the phone bill or the coffee machine or anything else they don't have to worry about any of this they get a 70% payout every 70 cents of every dollar they make goes to their account they have no other cost or expenses on my scenario on yours they have to worry but their bills are fixed and they only have to worry about their individual operation yeah worrying about the operation of five different locations about the operation of you know 13 different locations. So it's yeah it's a look it it it it's a process and it's it's it it's a scale um it's it's it's it's funny though as I see that money sitting in my uh my my my money market account I'm going I gotta get a better higher rate on this I before I didn't care when it was 5000 and then all of a sudden you got you know a few hundred thousand sitting there you're going you know I so I I FNSX is a pretty good opportunity you got to get we're not naming we're not naming actual symbols here this is fucking letters here just letters here just just letters let's talk about the advisory council briefly me and you are both members of it I found it to be phenomenal because not only in the past you've had the ability to speak with the higher ups you've had the ability to get them on the phone you're a big enough practice so am I we can do that but to get out of a room on a Sunday morning at 8 a.m which I thought I would hate but but actually talk things out and tell the executives what we need what is important to advisors what is important to branches really try not to focus on our specific situations really to look at the advisor pool in general I found that to be extremely rewarding how are you feeling about a year into this advisory council yeah I completely agree with you.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Now I've had you know with the council that I'm in with the traveling that we've done I've I've traveled a lot with you know the executive team at Raven James I I feel like I know them pretty well obviously you and I both have access to that whenever we wanted but the insight into some of the things that we've been discussing over the last year has been eye-opening to me. I've enjoyed every minute of it I love the I love the comments and listening to the other advisors in the room because there are advisors from all walks of life on this council as you well know that's how you and I got to know each other. There are different size advisors there are guys that have been with Merrill for 30 years and only been with Raymond James for two. There's guys like me that have built extremely large practices but I've been with Raymond James for 26 years. So it's all different walks of life and I enjoy listening and hearing the comments and the perspectives from other people but I also like you said sitting there with the executive staff that we're that they're listening to us and having that really in-depth not unfiltered conversation I find it amazing. I love it. I think it's arguably one of the coolest things I've done within Raymond James from a corporate setting if you will and I've spoken many conferences and done on many panels and that's all exciting and fun but this is really insightful I think as far as the insight that we're getting onto the running of the business and what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

And what I love what I love about it most too is you know I've been on an advisory council my my prior firm at Sun Trust and it was more hey we're going to tell you the stuff that's going to scare advisors that we're going to do and we're gonna see how you react so we can decide on how we're going to explain how we're going to explain it to the advisors baby more or less and this this is uh about half of it was just open ideas like what what what do we need to do better and that was that was refreshing it was it wasn't for them to tell us the changes and there there is some of that don't get me wrong there's there's stuff there's changes coming next year that you know they're running by us to see how the field is going to react but but literally the ability to just sit back and listen to us I thought was was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yeah I think it's a great concept um when Shannon came to me well whatever a year ago and and broached the idea with me I thought it was fantastic and I was excited to to have the opportunity to be on the council. I've been involved in some AMS things and different things too that I find very interesting. But this is really unique in the setting of who you're talking who you're in the room with and the direct access you have to kind of what's going on and then you know getting our opinions. And I think again a great group of people all from different walks of life and all from different types of practices and you can hear it when you're in the room you know you can hear conversations and even though you know get together at dinner and you you know your wife Lauren and Kathy and I sit there have a conversation it's it's a it's an interesting um it's good stories and good opportunity to get to hear other practices. I think the coolest thing that I do with this recruiting is I brought over all these you know large teams from Merrill or UBS or whatever and to hear how they run their practice and the things that they do and I've recruited or I've um done acquisition with you know a $70 million guy and I've done acquisitions of a $400 million guy. And when you go in and take over their practices and you hear how their sales assistants do things or the way they handle prudent process or the way they run their portfolios you get you gain so much information and you gain so much growth in your own practice because you're sharing ideas with so many different people. That's what I love about excited to have this conversation with you love every time Scott and I go to breakfast every time we have lunch together because you got two guys who are very successful but yet the conversation back and forth about what he's doing, what I'm doing we're still after 30 plus years together still learning from each other. Yeah and that's what this is about and you know that leadership advisory board is another way to get to know new advisors that you know getting to know you. You run a practice kind of like mine but where it's you know it's it's great to hear how you're doing things and what you know what opportunities I can glean from what you're doing and put into my practice. So 100% it's invaluable information.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

With your big team um do you do you schedule calls like once a month once a week like uh you know operational calls where where your op your your you know your lead ops are talking um do you it's funny I was so anti-conference calls when I was at the bank because it was always about like you know rah-rah crap yeah and now I'm finding like my team kind of wants these and so because they're learning something and and so we try to bring like a new idea or new concept to talk about you know once a month how are you running that well I'd love to tell you that I do it we have a Monday morning 8 30 meeting every Monday but we don't yeah um I am you know I'm uh unfortunately I just work I do I I'm not a guy that plays a lot of golf or goes fishing every day so I talk to I have like I said the three four equity partners in my practice and I talk to them daily virtually every day they then run different divisions for me you know the North Florida division St.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Augustine Jacksonville Pontavich area guy that runs Daytono Cal area my daughter who runs out west and uh you know uh so therefore we talk all the time the four of us get together and communicate a lot but I'm not breaking it down to the you know $400 million Merrill team that runs their own practice and is running discretion models and running their own individual equities.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

We have much higher level conversations you know the the lead advisors there and myself but we're not having you know hey I want to make sure everybody's talking about long-term care this time oh no no no no I didn't yeah I didn't I didn't mean that and and we don't do that either by the way we're we're we're doing like like tomorrow we're doing one on how we're using AI uh with clients uh and and and and how we're using the CRM systems because we have a lot of newer advisors so kind of teaching them uh you know ways to do things like today we just found out how to block CRM note for whatever clients we want to choose in a very easy way to get those notes in the CRM system. I thought that I can't wait for tomorrow uh the they're gonna show me how to do it. Uh so you know that's exactly what we'll do.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

We'll send an email to all hundred plus and say hey uh you know we learned the AI Academy at Elevator at the Sunday morning that we that first week I got back I'm like hey I want to put together anybody wants to be involved in this AI academy let's go through it together. I'm 60 for God's sakes I need to know everything I can about it. But I got you know seven or eight people including from Scott's team that are going to join and that way we'll go through this together and seven out of a hundred is not great but it beats the hell out of going through it yourself. So those are things that we'll do. We'll send out an email hey we're gonna do an update on CRM or hey we're gonna learn on you know Pick Desk is doing this and we want to make sure that we have you know everybody's aware of all what's out there you know so we'll do stuff like that but we're not like you said we're not doing the rah-rah meetings of every Monday morning at 8 30 let's get on and you know go around the room and see what everybody has going on that would drive me crazy I can't stand it.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Yeah yeah absolutely let's talk about the goals of the company and not the goals of us as individual advisors right like uh yeah that that that those were always the fun ones Paul it's been a pleasure um advisors if they want to get a hold of you what's the best way to get a hold of you uh agility wealth dot the agilitywealthmanagement.com excellent and they can reach directly out to you yep awesome looking us again buddy and seeing you soon yeah man it's been a pleasure uh for for those of you that have not subscribed subscribe it's good to know I'm not looking to make any money on this nor do we try to but to know who's watching is always a value add like I said we were off the air for a while and now we're back uh so excited to be back on and and and I did not know we did not have Paul on a prior seasons I was sitting on a panel with them and I'm like yeah we had you on maybe we'll have you on again those who never had me on so I uh I'm glad we finally glad we finally got you on awesome talk to you soon today we can go whatever real business no filters no flavors what really works when you have no real compensation