Curiosity as a Superpower: Cheri Belski on Leading with Vision in a Changing Industry

In this episode of The Nine, Sarah Walter welcomes Cheri Belski, Head of Investment Management Solutions at LPL Financial, for a dynamic conversation on leadership, adaptability, and the evolving future of asset and wealth management.

Cheri shares how an unconventional path—from politics to portfolio strategy—fueled her growth and helped her develop a mosaic view of the industry. From betting on herself in pivotal career moments to leveraging curiosity as a strategic tool, her story is a masterclass in career agility. She also offers powerful insights on how firms can blend technology and human connection to create client experiences that truly stand out.

More at nicsa.org/podcasts

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;24;02
Speaker 1
Welcome back to the Nine, Nicsa's podcast, connecting the asset and wealth management industry in nine minutes or less. I'm your host, Sarah Walter, and today I'm thrilled to be joined by Cheri Belski, LPL's head of investment management solutions.  Cheri is an industry veteran who has exemplified the power of curiosity, thinking outside the box and staying ahead of our constantly shifting industry.

00;00;24;06 - 00;00;27;00
Speaker 1
Sheree, thanks so much for joining us.

00;00;27;02 - 00;00;28;27
Speaker 2
It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

00;00;28;29 - 00;00;40;13
Speaker 1
Absolutely. So with every episode, Cheri, we like to start with what we call our nine second challenge. So describe what you love most about the industry in nine seconds or less.

00;00;40;15 - 00;00;49;03
Speaker 2
Two reasons I get the chance to help millions of Americans achieve their financial goals. And it's helped to educate me on how to do the same for myself and those that I care most about.

00;00;49;06 - 00;01;01;13
Speaker 1
I love that so powerful answer. So how did you enter the industry, Sheree? I mean, did your background take a unique path compared to what maybe some people think of as the typical career trajectory?

00;01;01;16 - 00;01;36;23
Speaker 2
Well, if you consider a background in politics and Latin American studies. Typical. Sure. So. But I think in all seriousness, I think I'm not alone and having an atypical pathway into this industry. I've met plenty of people that don't have what you would say, as it is a typical pathway in. For me it was. I did two quick stints in a state and federal political realm before I realize I didn't really enjoy the politics of politics as much as I thought I might, and made a pivot really, by happenstance, into this industry at a time when my former firm, Tyro Price, was doing a lot of hiring, and I had a friend who was in

00;01;36;23 - 00;02;02;13
Speaker 2
the Baltimore area and made a connection for me, and I started there thinking, I'll just go do this. Never even heard of the firm and and see what happens. And what happened was a lot of things ended up moving quite a bit around the firm, taking on different types of roles and about maybe a third of the way through my career, I had this recognition of I had some skills that reportable to to each new role I had taken at that point and was learning more.

00;02;02;13 - 00;02;21;11
Speaker 2
So it's kind of building my repertoire of knowledge, access to certain clients or certain regions or certain parts of the organization. And once I had that intentional recognition, I actually started leveraging that as how I chose to move around my career and how the roles that I took on. So I looked at it as, what can I take with me and what can I gain by taking this next step?

00;02;21;15 - 00;02;42;13
Speaker 2
And as a result, what it really did was expand my skills, obviously, and it got me more attuned to what's happening across different parts of the organization itself, different types of leaderships, different networks of people and clients. But it also helped give me a really great mosaic of how all those sub units across a firm come together to have one united strategy as a firm.

00;02;42;13 - 00;02;48;27
Speaker 2
And so it really helped with the way I saw the world and saw a 360 view of the clients that we serve.

00;02;48;29 - 00;03;06;26
Speaker 1
And what I just took away from that as a united strategy. And I think that's a really impactful statement. And I'm sure your background also helped, you know, set you up for success, too. And I'm sure you learned a lot from your roles in politics that you could then apply to your, you know, more current roles in our industry as well.

00;03;07;03 - 00;03;23;09
Speaker 2
Certainly, the amount of influence you do in politics is really no different than the corporate influence that is necessary. So there was a lot of things about how to influence, how to negotiate, how to challenge norms, all of those things, I would say ported into roles in places that I've been since.

00;03;23;11 - 00;03;32;02
Speaker 1
Excellent. So tell us about a pivotal moment in your leadership journey, whether it was overcoming a challenge or maybe a turning point for your career.

00;03;32;05 - 00;03;49;16
Speaker 2
One comes to mind. I've certainly had a few watershed moments over my career, but one stands apart for me from the others. I took a bet on myself. At the time. There was a new role that was entirely new to me, and at the time was new to the firm I was with. Where we were entering into direct to advisor space, and we were standing up.

00;03;49;16 - 00;04;10;27
Speaker 2
An intermediary channel that would serve direct to advisors had never been done before at the firm. And again, it was a space I was not familiar with, but there was enough there that was intriguing to me that they were looking for leadership, looking for a different thinker. There thought maybe there's something there I can contribute. So I connected with the leader they had hired to form the strategy for that overall, to discuss what he was looking for and a little bit of of his vision.

00;04;11;04 - 00;04;34;11
Speaker 2
And I was fortunate enough that he was someone who thought outside of the box and didn't necessarily want to go the traditional route with what he was looking for, go down like a very pedigreed path of of what other firms might have done ten years prior to get into that space. And that worked to my advantage. So the more I asked him about his vision and asked some questions, the more I realized my own value and how I could bring something.

00;04;34;11 - 00;04;53;27
Speaker 2
Day one, but also tap into his mind to learn the spaces that I didn't. And it was the first time that it really forced me to leverage curiosity as a superpower in that transition. And I've always been a bit of a curious person ask questions and seeking to understand. But I had until that point, I had never really leveraged it as like a professional tool, I would say.

00;04;54;04 - 00;05;10;17
Speaker 2
And this position really forced me to do that, because I literally was in a space where I had not heard the word wireless before. For instance, I was like, what is that? What does that mean? And so I was able to challenge norms. I was able to push that, to differentiate. And I wasn't wedded to anything that might have been done in the past.

00;05;10;17 - 00;05;33;09
Speaker 2
And part of his vision was that catch up, because we were entering it from behind about 20 years late to many of the competitors and to leapfrog and to do that, it doesn't always work to to seek the same path that others had taken 20 years ago. Sometimes you have to think differently and disrupt it. And I saw that I could possibly help do that by leveraging my curiosity and asking questions, and just bringing some different thinking to the table, knowing that that works.

00;05;33;09 - 00;05;44;28
Speaker 2
And I saw that work. How could I apply that again? And how could I also seek that at the right time and as appropriate, and talent that I want on my team and how I think about my strategy and how I drive results?

00;05;45;00 - 00;05;59;10
Speaker 1
Yeah. With our industry always changing, curiosity, I would say, is key to staying ahead. And I love that you mentioned the hiring manager is also someone that thought outside the box. Now where do you see the industry heading? If we look out, let's say the next five years.

00;05;59;13 - 00;06;22;15
Speaker 2
I mean, there's a lot changing, a lot changing very quickly. We certainly live in a world where clients have access to more information than they ever had in the past, and I don't think that's new, but I do think that is accelerating to a tremendous degree. And certainly the rise of really sophisticated technology. Now, overlaying that with AI, there's a lot that's at clients fingertips that just wasn't so readily there in the past.

00;06;22;15 - 00;06;41;12
Speaker 2
And so they're already coming to us with a lot of information not always applied the right way. Right. But they're also coming to us with a lot of expected experiences that they live outside of this industry. So, you know, the example that a lot of people use is Amazon. We've all become so used to the Amazon experience. It's very easy.

00;06;41;14 - 00;07;09;13
Speaker 2
It makes recommendations as a bit of profiling to almost forecast what I might buy next or suggest. And they deliver same day or next day. So there's almost this expectation that that experience gets relayed and everything we do. So for us as an industry, I really think that piece of seamless digital experiences married with the human interaction to help deal with those more complex moments in time when they're needed by a human and not by a digital experience are going to really, really matter.

00;07;09;13 - 00;07;33;20
Speaker 2
And the wedding of those two things for future of wealth management, I think, is going to be really, really critical. And that ability to make it frictionless and deliver enable clients have access to the information they need when they need it, make it easy for them to do the transactions they want to do on their own, but equally easy to engage with in this example and advisor when they need to, in the way they need to, in a very easy manner, I think is going to be incredibly critical.

00;07;33;20 - 00;07;54;29
Speaker 2
And so for firms, that investment is going to need to be heavy in the tech infrastructure that we think about. And then how you weave that with an experience, there's just so much changing so often that I think right now what I'm seeing is people either index to AI is going to solve everything for us and take over the world, or people fighting it and saying, AI is going to take me out of a job, so I have to find value.

00;07;54;29 - 00;08;12;08
Speaker 2
I think there's actually space for both to coexist. And I think the future of asset and wealth management in this industry is going to be those that stand apart, that figure out how those two things actually integrate and not live separately and distinctly, but actually come together and deliver a uniform, really differentiated experience for clients in the future.

00;08;12;15 - 00;08;36;05
Speaker 1
I love that you brought back human interaction, because I think in the last couple of years, all we're hearing about is technology, AI, what can technology and I do for me, for my business. But bringing that human element back is so important. Now, if you could give yourself one piece of advice to, let's say, 10 or 15 year old Sheree, what would it be?

00;08;36;07 - 00;08;55;09
Speaker 2
It would be two things. It would be to realize that self doubt is not self truth. So take a risk on yourself. Place a bet on yourself. The other thing would be get really good at the basic portable skills. Kind of to my point earlier listening, being curious, communicating your ideas and short and long firm. Being able to be agile on how you do that.

00;08;55;12 - 00;09;10;10
Speaker 2
Those three things are relatively simple tools that, when done well, you will stand apart and you will not only stand apart for those that are receiving you, but you'll gain confidence in yourself to be able to do point number one, right. Take a bet, take a risk on yourself and take a bet.

00;09;10;12 - 00;09;22;01
Speaker 1
Yeah, self doubt is not self true. It's something I'm sure many of our listeners can agree with. So Cheri, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a great conversation. Thank you so much Sherry.

00;09;22;03 - 00;09;23;08
Speaker 2
Thanks again for having me.