How EmVision Capital Advisors Transformed Their Brand w/ Front Burner Marketing

In this special edition of The Spark, we’re flipping the mic and showcasing a client success story from the inside out. Join host Kendra Morvillo and guest Jim Artale of EmVision Capital Advisors, recently recognized by Forbes as a 2025 Best-in-State Wealth Management team.

Together, we dive deep into:

• EmVision’s transformation from Embrescia Wealth to EmVision Capital Advisors
• How marketing strategy helped scale both brand and business
• Lessons learned from 7 acquisitions in just 6 years
• Building trust, process, and client-centric growth in a regulated industry
• Why working with an external marketing partner made all the difference

💡 Whether you're a financial advisor, small business owner, or scaling entrepreneur, this episode is packed with practical insights on leadership, branding, and business development.

🔗 Learn more: https://emvisioncapital.com/
🔗 Agency partner: https://frontburnermarketing.com

👉 Subscribe for more stories that fuel growth and creativity.
📩 Got questions or want to be featured? Reach out!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Most episodes were talking shop, agency growing pains and all things marketing. But today we're going to flip the mic and highlight a client's successful journey from their POV. It's our first case story. Welcome to this part. I'm Kendra Morvilla. Today I'm joined by Jim Martelli of Envision Capital Advisors, recently named a 2025 Best in State wealth management team by Forbes, which is awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. Who's going to chat with us about the story of the Envisioned Business Transformation and the role marketing and our partnership played in it?

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. It's good to be in a see a friendly face again.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Yeah, it's delightful. We did go through a lot of adventures for a couple of years. That's right. Yeah. A lot of changes. Yeah.

unknown 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

All right. Well, let's start at the beginning. Perfect. Okay. Can you briefly describe your business and who you serve today?

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Yeah. So we're a wealth management firm. We do anything from financial planning to uh, you know, estate advising, tax advising, not a CPA, not an attorney. That's for compliance purposes. Um, but yeah, we do full-fledged um financial services from anywhere individuals, business owners, uh, family wealth, stuff like that. Um, we kind of have two growth models, one of them being the individual who has gotten us to where we are today. We're very thankful of that in terms of the individual wealth management. Um, and then more recently, starting in 2019, we started our MA Path, um, which we've gone out and acquired seven practices.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Initially, when we met, you guys were affiliated with a larger advisory um and you got some back office support essentially from them, but you were still pursuing separate marketing. And that's when we first came in. And if I recall, we did some website work and some content generation, social media, very standard stuff, but you guys really had a pretty buttoned-up vision of what you wanted marketing to look like. Is that does that come from Michael? Does that come from all of you?

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Um, I think it starts with Michael and Jonathan, because Jonathan's been with Michael for almost that's I believe it's 10 years this year. Um, when I look at the way that that has been formulated, is it's been formulated from remembering, and I'll say this a lot today, where we came from and the clients that got us to where we are. Sure. Right. We are super thankful for that. I mean, we have multi-generations of clients, which is amazing. Like to to not only keep the business, but help clients understand that the way that we function is to help that wealth transfer and enhance it and make it more effective. Um, but from a from a branding standpoint, we've built it a lot around, you know, our clients are family.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Um, and you'll hear that from you know, just about every financial advisor. So I know it it might sound cliche, but it it, you know, we treat it that way. We want clients to feel that way. We want them to feel like there's no stupid questions, like we are there to ask anything.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Um, and that's super important to us. So I think that comes full circle to the brand. And we say, how do we build it to where clients are understanding and you know, trust is built over time. I could onboard a new client tomorrow that has $10 million and they're not gonna trust me. They're gonna work with us because we have a great track record and because we are really, really good at educating and staying in front of individuals.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

And you guys also really always focused on, I think you came in with 26 touch points in a year.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

If I'm if I'm recalling that correctly. Um, and it's you know, it's just showing the importance of the client, and I think that really shines through in your brand. And so let's talk about the brand because that was that was when we worked together. That was really fun. So in 2021 or 2022, um, you guys came to us and we spent all day talking about the new brand when we were moving away from Umbrella Wealth Management. Um, what do you think? I mean, I I was very impressed by how much you guys really had strong feelings about because everything everything that you're saying came through in that. And I think there was that family focus, there was that um experts without being, what was the term? It was without being like dark wood offices. Um, you guys were like, you felt a little more casual.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

Yeah, we're not gonna, we're not gonna throw any of the warehouses under the bus by any means, but we want it to be an inviting environment, right? And we look at that and say, okay, the the call to action from a branding change comes from quite frankly, taking Michael's name off the door. Yes. You know, I give him a lot of props for doing that. I give him a lot of props for understanding that this is a step that has to happen for us to continue to move forward in the MA space.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

And it was a little bit of Michael's succession planning on his own as well, was trying to separate just him.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

So all of you guys could kind of grow underneath him.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

That's right. Yeah. The team approach in our office is really, really important. We don't have one client that speaks to just one person, which is amazing because God forbid any of it, we use it in all the time in our office. We some of one of us gets hit by that proverbial beer truck or whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Um I'm not allowed to say that anymore. I have to say they win the lottery. Okay. So I had to put a positive spin on that, but I totally agree with you. Like you need that consistency, you need people involved. It's leadership. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

Right. And and quite frankly, accountability as well.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

So but yeah, I mean, the brand, the way that we had functioned previously and the exercise that we went through for us was super, super exciting.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah. Um, you guys got to have a voice in the future of the business, which was really cool.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Mission, vision, values. Yeah, that's super important to us, even because a lot of people talk about mission, vision, and values, but it doesn't reflect in the way that they operate. Yeah. Right. And we wanted that to be very evident and you guys helped us get there, which is great.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

I I actually was reading through them last night and I was like, those were really cool. I really like this. And I also love the rock and roll because we also tied in the rock and roll theme, which was very key to Michael. And I, and if you go to your offices, which are beautiful, yeah, they're full of rock and roll.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

We give him 100% credit for that. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

I think it's a great hook. I think it's it's authentic. It's different. It is, and it's just a little bit cool, you know. All right. Um, so can you describe how our agency supported your growth through that branding transition and then how we move forward after that?

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Yeah. So um the branding transition for us is we had a website. Um, Jonathan, you know, as a small business, a lot of us wear a lot of hats. Jonathan was the CTO, COO, um, technology support person. That's right. He was doing the website, which he uh is not a huge fan of, and we've kind of offloaded or freed him of that, which is great. Um, I mean, the website, the way that we were able to come to uh something different that showed our character rather than just here's the people on our team, here's the services we provide.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah. Financial services websites can be very boring.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

They're boring. Yeah. They're boring. Yeah. So we made it fun, obviously, from our standpoint, it was super exciting to do that. Yeah. Um, being able to create the microsite as well, which we'll talk about a little bit from the MA standpoint and kind of having two separate avenues for those individuals is really great. Um we'll talk a lot today about retention.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Because when you go and purchase, partner, merge with firms, there's a lot of capital, human, and dollars, right? Um our main goal for those things is to retain those clients, obviously, retain the advisor, but also enhance the client experience. Right. Bring them into your experience. And being able to do that and have not only branding surrounded by that transition for those individuals, because that can be scary.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

What's happening to my advisor now? Is he leaving? Is he walking out the door tomorrow? Right. Yeah. And having content for that, but also just retention and continuous touch points. Yeah. Was really, really important to us. And we have all these, you know, as multiple hat owners, we have all these ideas floating around in our head. Sure. And putting them into sustainable content that not necessarily can be reused, but we can look back at at any time for clients when they have specific questions and say, we're always here, but use this as a resource as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah, I remember you guys putting a lot of effort into describing the process so that people had it very clear. And there's whether they're an individual investor or they were uh an advisor looking to a succession plan, like you onboard them with great care. Yeah. And and to do that kind of thing, it does take a lot of, it takes a lot of content. It's not just conversations, like them having something to hold on to and read and refer back to, I think it's probably pretty helpful.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Right. Rather than, hey, you know, we're gonna pay you a great number for your practice and you can walk out the door in 24 months, right? Like those are things that we look at and say, you know, we talk to individuals all the time and say we die on the hill of flexibility because we know that the success of that acquisition falls with that person and and their team, right? If they have staff members as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

So yeah. And they want to, if if the more they know about you guys, the more they're gonna drink the Kool-Aid.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

You guys are a very authentic brand. And so I think that was that's that's always been a fun thing. Yeah. Um, about about your everything that we've gotten to do with you. And you've had multiple team members that have worked with you over time, but um, it's always been very much you guys, and it's we're not ever making it up. Like you guys really, you guys you practice what we preach. You really do. Um were there any other standout moments or deliverables that helped accelerate your brand visibility or business development? For me, obviously, I always pick the branding session because that was a really fun.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

No, it it was a lot of fun. Um, we look back at it and say, this is a, you know, you talk about building a house, you talk about the foundation, right? And Michael's been in the industry for 30 years. Um, I think this year is 31 for him. I'm not sure. He's getting old. Um, no, but you know, we look at that foundation and say, this is something that we want to continue to build off of and be evident that we have a track record. Yeah. Because people are familiar with the large banks and the large warehouses and are sometimes scared of working with a so-called independent.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

So that's something that we want individuals to understand. But I mean, the deliverables, it it's all retention for us. Yeah. I mean, obviously, we had structured later in our relationship a lot of stuff focused on MA. But again, you don't get there without retention and enhancing that client relationship.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Yeah, if you're gonna trash those acquisitions, that's no good. And that's that's when the microsite came up, right? So we spun out a secondary site that came off of your main site that just focused on that audience.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Yeah, we we have a lot of yeah, we have a lot of great content centered around that that we work together on, um, especially considering there's so many different avenues that you can go. So that is a big piece for us as well. And helping individuals understand those multiple avenues. Again, we're about education.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

I'm not here just to you know sell a client a product or or sell our process to somebody. It is strictly about education. And if the if they feel as though that they have a good relationship with us and want to continue the conversation, then great.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

But your process is so critical to some of that as well. Like knowing that you have this repeatable process and you're communicating it with them, I think is probably what's really helped. Content can do a lot for that.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

You help them understand. I mean, you know, we've done testaments, we've done some awesome things, and you know, for for purposes of those advisors that we're talking to, we're referring them to that content. And quite frankly, those advisors.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

The ones that have been with us for three, four years, and they're like, hey, I wish I would have done this sooner, and I wish I would have stayed longer. Sure. Right. So that's really a testament to our process and our team and our onboarding. Um, but yeah, I mean, when I go back to deliverables, the the retention of those individuals and just helping those individuals understand when we talk about these things, we do it every day. So it's really difficult for us to I don't want to say dumb it down, but simplify.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Right. And having some of that educational content that is not me spewing to a client for 45 minutes and going back to it and helping them understand. Oh, I remember when Jim and Michael and Jonathan talked about this.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

So all right. So, how do you think having an external marketing partner helped you navigate the growth of the business?

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Um our offices, uh, you know, when me, Michael, and Jonathan get together, it's spew all at once. You guys can you guys can attest to that. Um so helping spend time on determining what takes priority and what takes a backseat. Not necessarily backseat, but where is our time best focused and helping understand and taking that vision of, oh yeah, we want to do X, Y, and Z. Um compared to let's do this for a little while, do it. Yeah, you can get really sidetracked really quick in the marketing sector, right? You can. So for us and having that guidance and saying, okay, let's work on this and see how effective that it is, marketing is not something that happens overnight. No, right? And I'm sure you guys tell all your clients that whether it's they don't always listen to that. Well, they should. Um the whether it's a campaign, whether it's you know, um touch points, like you know, us starting to get into a little bit more strategized marketing with some of the videos that Michael's been doing and stuff like that. That's super exciting for us. Yeah, because it's different ways to enhance client experience.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Well, people when when people meet you guys and see you and experience you, like Michael's really fun to meet. Yeah, he's excited, like he means it.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

We uh you know, it's our business has a negative connotation to a certain extent, just the same way that most sales relationships do, because people are like, oh, well, they're here to to make a buck. Right. I mean, yeah, everybody has to make a living, sure, right? But we care about our clients. Yes, I mean, we really do, and we talk about the way that our and you can you can see that in our content, and having someone take a little bit of this, a little bit of this, and a little bit of this, and help create avenues for growth from that content, yeah, is really, really important because we wouldn't we can't do it on our own.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Well, and it's and it's definitely there's a there's that very clear brand thread through everything that you guys do, um, whether it's on social or events that you're part of or you know, your emails and and your touch points, like you see it all. Yeah, and I I do encourage everyone to go see your site because it's envisioncapital.com. Um, and it's look at the look at the about us page because it's so you guys, and I think it's I think it's still very cool.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

Um we have some um stuff that people probably look at and like, oh the this is a joke, right? Like, you know, we're we have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Uh no, I think it's I think none of it is silly though. I think that's what I think it came off as very it describes the team. It's very authentic, it's very cool. Yeah, uh what advice would you give to other businesses considering outside marketing help?

SPEAKER_04 15:16

This gets tied into the question before, right? And we look at considering outside marketing help is something that just the same way that you wouldn't want to work with a solo advisor with nobody else helping them. It's a team, it's a team sport, yeah, right? Um the turning ideas into reality and reasonable deliverables regardless of industry, is really, really powerful. And I just don't think that that gets done when you're trying to grow a business. Especially, I mean again, you know, I look at we think of ourselves as a small business, right? Um, and I think of it as I know and understand the growth that we've done and look at the overall expectation of that growth, and our number one priority being serving our clients and making sure that they get the best service possible. You have to stick to your core business growth.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 16:20

And it's not marketing.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

You can't do all the things, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:23

You can't wear all the hats. Everyone on our team is good at a couple things, and we stay in our lane and we're really good at that.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

But none of it's marketing.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

Right?

SPEAKER_03 16:32

So, what made you decide to come to Front Burner?

SPEAKER_04 16:36

I think that culture played a big part in what we had, you know. Again, for a small business, and again, you know, it doesn't have to be, but for us to say this is someone that we want to work with, we see a lot of similarities in brand and culture. Um with Frontburner, I look at it as again, everybody's good at a couple things, and you guys have a person for each one of those. And that's super exciting to anyone that should be looking at an outside marketing firm because one person is not the jack of all trades, right? And just the same way in our industry, it's it's the same concept. So I look at the process and time that was put into the branding session, and to a small business owner, someone that can offload some responsibility anytime you can do that, that's a way for them. And we were going through all this transition and all at the same time and moving broker dealers and all that stuff. And you guys put a concise step-by-step process into how we went from one brand to another, the deliverables that came with it, and how we grow from there.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

And then and how has your experience overall been with Frontburner? You know, all the all the different parts, because there were a lot of spreadsheets involved, if you recall.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

No, it was um we were really excited about working with you guys and the work that we have done, right? Um when I think about how the brand changed, it was finding opportunities for us to reach clients in a different way. Stuff that is not just a monthly newsletter, right? Everybody does a monthly newsletter, everybody does a quarterly newsletter, but putting something, putting some character behind it and putting something together in any industry into something that may excite a client or help them understand what that person is trying to accomplish is really, really important. Um, you know, and then also in our industry, compliance plays a big role. So being on time and timely with some of those things and being able to deliver them in a timely manner for us, market changes in a second. Yeah. Right. So having the opportunity to say, hey, this is what we want to talk about, and you guys taking all this jumbled email that I sent that's this long and putting it into something that not only is uh simplified, but clients can understand. Right. Right. Because that's half the battle thing, okay, here's how we're gonna reach out to these people, these people, and these people and create different messaging for all of them is really, really important to us.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Right. And and you guys are saying the same thing, but you have to tell them differently.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And creating systematically a process to get to that message is not something that we could do on our own.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

And I I I do in a kind of a self-serving way about the agency, I do think we try and work very hard to hear what you guys are saying, take your goals, but also suggest that best possible execution, which I think you've also talked to a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

I think a lot of, you know, we talk about it in our industry all the time. Someone comes to us for advice, right? They're not coming to us for, or if they come to us for a question, for example, we're not like, oh, don't do that because that doesn't we're educating them. Right. The same way you guys did for us. It was one of those things where we come to you and say, hey, this is what we're trying to accomplish with this specific messaging. And you guys are able to take it and say, well, that doesn't work, right? That's not the relationship that we had. It was, it went both ways. It was a two-way street. Yep. And the messaging ultimately in a relationship with Frontburner is gonna benefit us, the client, much more because it's a two-way street. And you guys are listening to what we're trying to accomplish rather than here's the SEO, here's the things that we want to talk about, and here's how we've done it for other people. So we're gonna do the exact same for you because no industry is the same.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

Absolutely. And I think that we've tried to build that same thing that you've done, and it's the trust that like we're not just out trying to make a buck, we're actually trying to help your business grow.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

Right. Yeah. I mean, everybody benefits from from the concept of of the growth in the company, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

And as we, you know, some of the things that's really, really important to us is I'll go back to this because the messaging that we talked about with different acquisitions and helping those clients understand what's happening and creating a different voice. So you guys spent a lot of time talking to some of the advisors that we purchased, whether it was Steve or Dennis or um, you know, Burt Covell or whatever it might be, all of them have a different story.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

And they all have a different journey, but not only, you know, their end goal is all different. So helping those clients understand that end goal and taking their voice and applying it to some of the content that was created, but also, you know, not showing off, but helping others understand and building content that we could show that again, I go back to track record. Not everybody has the capability to do what we do. But you guys putting a specific voice to each one of those individuals and helping us create messaging that fits that client base.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

but also will fit an advisor considering a bunch of different succession options is gonna be more successful than hey this person joined our team here's their bio call us with any questions right like that's not it's it's efficient marketing yeah right it's it is not oh one size fits all right yeah and I think you guys really because you'd already understood marketing so well you really had a good appreciation for the brand and how important that was and and not only do you look buttoned up with all of your materials but it also actually displays your expertise which consistency yeah right I mean when I look at the way that that material was created and I look at the way that a lot of people come I would imagine clients come to you and say here's our vision help us establish a well-rounded marketing plan that helps us tell a story because there's not a lot of businesses out there that are doing internal marketing that have that framework to just not just go out and say oh we're gonna talk about this for a couple months and this couple months and stuff like that. We're gonna put up a couple social posts.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

Yeah exactly I mean like having well for me um having you guys as a team and saying here's what we want to talk about it it goes back to the two way street of we trust each other. Run with it. Right? Like this is the messaging that we want and this is what we want to get out of this but it doesn't have to be this this and this. Right. Right and I think that's one of the powerful things that you can give to your team as a client and say you guys know better than we do. Just like we would say the same way to someone that's managing assets on their own.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

This is your area of expertise.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Yeah and we appreciate that trust for sure well well we're grateful that we got that opportunity to help with that so uh that's a wrap cool on this thank you so much for coming and talking to us thanks for having us um check out envision capital advisors for your financial future uh and that's all thanks a lot thanks and look at that I'm here back in my seat that wasn't AI that was that was truly Jim and it was great to hear um as somebody who isn't familiar with the accounts and didn't work with him for years uh that was really uh a lot that um that we worked with uh envision on and they they allowed us to do a lot of work which is great they were um really they understood marketing going in and they knew what they didn't know and they knew what they were hoping to get out of it but we got to do a lot of really big and good work like big campaigns with all the parts and not just kind of the smaller ones that sometimes we can do and that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

But when you really get to do all the big big show it's really uh it's really rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

So so a couple of notes that I had written down uh while watching the two of you um it I feel like what I heard was there was a lot of tactical and tech that we were able to take off their plate. Um outside of that uh did you have was that were you surprised by anything that he shared with you today?

SPEAKER_03 25:17

No, not at all. Um the relationship has always been very open um and like I said they were very clear with what they already had 26 touch points in their in their right I have a note 26. Yeah they came to us with that concept and so when you've got someone that thinks that thoroughly about their marketing which not all clients are capable of doing um and I think you know ultimately why they ended up trusting in uh us as a partner because we could help them achieve those very specific things they wanted but also guide how they did that. And I think he referred to that a couple of times which I think is a really good testament to how we work with our clients is is being able to understand their needs, but also being able to say this is how you should probably do this because this is a better way and then being willing to trust us and listen. Right. I don't know that answered the question though.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I think you did a couple different ways okay a couple words uh that I have written down here um that talk about the relationship what what I heard was education, onboarding, foundation, process, relationships, equal growth and alignment. That sounds like us. Right? So when we look at uh who we work with we've talked about this in past episodes we're looking for folks who understand that they want to grow but have the resources to grow, understand there's a cost to growth, understand trust partnership relationship they from an outsider looking at it, it seems like they were a perfect fit.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Yeah I I think that we always kind of understood the other and you know me I've said I'm a process girl I've heard at a time or two. Yeah and they and their biggest thing is that they have developed this process and they want all the human connection of it but they also really know how to like stick to the plan. Um and and so much of marketing is like you really have to keep doing it. You have to keep going you can't just just not just one-offs you have to keep trying which can be very frustrating for some people but care and feeding yeah but it's but they understood it and that allowed us to help them grow.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Our first case story many more to come yeah how are you feeling you you seemed a little stressed out before you feeling better now I I like I like the idea of it.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Case studies are boring like I get it but case stories are more fun I like the idea of talking to people and hearing their experience because really the results obviously are critical but like your experience along the way is really important as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah the relationship is huge. But with that being said let's sign off you want to go or you want me to do it do it. Thank you for tuning in for the Spark. Thank you for listening to our first case story. Catch you next time don't forget like subscribe share follow maybe not in that order. You got them all