Compound Growth

Episode 02- Meet Colin

• Compound Growth • Season 1 • Episode 2

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In this episode of Compound Growth, Colin opens up about his personal journey into the world of finance, from childhood dreams of managing Bill Gates’s wealth to the real-world grind of launching his own advisory practice. We hear how early lessons in frugality shaped his money mindset and how a fascination with business and success stories propelled him toward a career in wealth management.

Colin walks us through the pivotal moments that defined his path—internships, hard-won licenses, cold calls, and even tabling at local garden shows—all in pursuit of building a client-first advisory business. From Citigroup margin calls to co-founding a firm during COVID, it’s a raw look at what it takes to build something meaningful from the ground up. Along the way, we dive into why failure is essential, what it means to find freedom in financial planning, and how passion fuels perseverance.

Whether you're a young professional navigating your own career path, an advisor building your book, or just someone interested in the human side of finance, this episode is packed with honest insights and a reminder that growth is rarely linear—but always worth it.

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Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production Assistance: Tori Rothwell
Editing and Post-Production: Steven Sims

Welcome to the Compound Growth podcast with Collin and Wheeler, where we talk all things growth. From financial growth to career growth, personal development to societal progress, we explore how each layer builds on the next, compounding over time to shape who we become. Each week, we break down complex ideas and emerging trends into clear, actionable insights. Because growth isn't just about numbers, it's about understanding the world and our place in it. The information in this material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investment advice offered through Integrated Partners, doing business as CoFi Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Integrated Partners does not provide legal, tax, mortgage advice or services. Please consult your legal tax advisor regarding your specific situation. Past performance is no guarantee for- of future results. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted, and there can be no guarantee that the strategies promoted will be successful. Welcome to the Compound Growth podcast with Collin and Wheeler. Today, we're gonna be diving a little bit into Collin's backstory- Mm-hmm. talk a little bit about how Collin got here, why Collin is here today, how did he get to the party. So, it's a very Collin-centric podcast episode. But before we do get into that, I have a fun story to share. I'm excited. All right. Please share. So, last night, we had an adult Easter egg hunt. Who ordered these eggs? That's a really good question, and what you would want to be in the eggs is not actually what was in the eggs. Okay. Inside the eggs were those little Lindt chocolate balls from the, like, local Lindt- Yeah. factory- Yeah. in, uh, Exeter or Stratham. Yep. Um, but it was hosted at the Smuttynose Brewery, right? So- No way. So all the- the kids are not there, it's all grownups. And we go to a brewery for an Easter icon, which sounds amazing, right? But- It does sound amazing. But when you go to said brewery, you are not allowed to have a beverage while you are hunting for Easter eggs. The Easter eggs are just kind of, like, tossed out into a field somewhere. What? And apparently, there's, like, little tickets, like golden tickets, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, like, where you can find these tickets inside an Easter egg and you get some sort of a prize, right? So, we're there with our friends and our friend Megan. Didn't hear the rules. The rule, one of the, like the key rule being you can only get 10 Easter eggs, like you are only entitled to- 10. 10. It doesn't matter which 10, you find 10, you get to keep those 10, you're done. Okay. Right? She didn't hear that. So, Jess and I and, and our friend Nick were running around, we're getting our 10 Easter eggs. And I'm kind of like peeking in them to see if I can see it's a ticket or something in there, but it's all just- Okay. it's all just candy. And then we catch up with Megan and she's got like, uh, none of us brought Easter baskets 'cause we're all rookies now. We haven't e- hunted for Easter eggs. Yeah, this isn't a thing. It's been, like, 3, 3 decades. We catch up with Megan and she's got her sleeve full of Easter eggs. And I'm like, "Megan, how many Easter eggs?" She's like, "Well, somebody just told me I'm only allowed to get 10." I'm like, "Yeah?" And she's like, "I have more than 10." We know. She had, like, she 40 Easter eggs that she was, like, hiding under- Did she get a ticket? No. So, the best part is she cheated and still did not win. Still lost. And we just have a bunch of Lindt candies now, which is what we need in my household is just more chocolate- Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like Lindt just, everybody has a bucket of Lindt right now- Right. around their house. Yeah. Yeah. And they, just like every holiday now it's Lindt candies, like Christmas and Valentine's Day and obviously Halloween. Talk about a monopoly. Yeah. Maybe we should invest in Lindt candy. Perhaps so. Yeah. It is not an investment recommendation. Yes. Let's talk about Collin. Okay. So- I'm excited. I'm excited because I feel, obviously, we've had some conversations like this in the past, and I, you know, I know some of your backstory and- Yep. um, I think it's, you know, it's a really good way to think about your journey through the prism of our, of our podcast, right? Like compound- Yeah. growth. How, what are the little steps that you took that kind of built upon themselves to get you where you are today? And I was gonna ask first, let's not go too deep, let's keep it shallow. You told me once- No promises. You told me once that you knew you wanted to be a financial advisor at an early age. How old were you? One of my oldest memories was, I'm a big car guy. And I remember being on my grandmother's floor in her house in Schenectady, New York, I was probably 6 or 7 years old. Bill Gates was the wealthiest man- Sure, yeah. at the time. A long time ago. And, anyway, I had all these car magazines 'cause that's what I, that's literally what I grew up on was just reading car magazines. Yeah. And I remember sitting with my grandmother and her being like, "Collin, you're really into cars." Like, "How are you going to afford all these fancy cars when you grow up? Like, what do you want to be?" And I was just like, I remember responding very clearly to be like, "Well, I think I want to manage Bill Gates's money. That seems like a good job." So, uh, that was one of my first recollections of, I'll say kind of the idea of money management. I have no idea where that came from- Huh. but that's my oldest memory of, I'll say, you know, leaning down this path. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old at the time. Yeah.So long story short, since then, um, I knew I wanted to be involved in finance because I've always had an interest in business. And I think what has interested me in business is maybe not so much the money management side of things, it is interesting to me, but also more so about how people became successful. Yeah. for sure. I mean, if you think about Bill Gates who, still not a client yet, right? No. Still working on that one. Yeah, yeah. Have a few feelers out. I think it's, it's really interesting to hear those stories and, like, what can you pull from Bill's journey, right? Right. Um, and then I feel like when you, when you look at the money management aspect of somebody like Bill Gates, right- Absolutely. and you that level of wealth, it's kinda like, is the management the point, right? What's, like, what does, what does Bill really need from somebody like you? What do you bring to the table? That's a great question. Um, you know, I'll say for someone like at that level, I'm not sure what I would bring to the table for that. But what I will say is that I'm very interested in learning more about the operations of how that foundation would work. Mm-hmm. Because I think when you get into wealth management at that level, you're not so much managing wealth so much as you are maintaining a business around that person. Because you figure the amount of wealth, let's just say he had 80 billion dollars at the time. I don't remember what it was- Yeah. in '94, '95, but if you have that much money, you have more liquidity and more net worth than most Fortune 500 companies. Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot of countries. A lot of countries as well. Yeah. So for one person to come in and say, "I'm gonna manage this money," is ridiculous- Mm-hmm. Yeah. because you can't just build a stock portfolio. You can't put a billion dollars into a small cap company because then you'll accidentally end up on the board. You own the company. You own the company by accident. So how do you diversify that? And I think when I was growing up too, um, very close with my wife's family when I was growing up, we go way back. But, um, I remember, my father-in-law now told me a story because he worked for family offices about a, uh, ultra-high-net-worth person and, uh, tech company and how they needed a big write-off. Mm-hmm. So one of the things that they did to do a write-off is he was very much into being an activist for animals. Okay. All right. So the, he needed a write-off of, like, $30 or $40 million to help him on his taxes. So what they did is they contacted the US military and they brought Reaper drones, those huge drones with like the 40-foot wingspans that fly in the sky. Okay. And then they bought an African game reserve, and they donated these drones to the reserve- Hm. as a write-off so they could fly over the reserve to monitor poaching activity. Hm. And I think when you think about money, what interests me is the fact that it can create so many jobs and opportunities and businesses and it's just like almost a compound growth effect- if you will. Hence the podcast name. Yeah. Yeah. It's, that's just like the reminder, right, that money is a tool, right? Yeah. And you can build or you can destroy with that tool. Yeah, and I mean, when you look at these family offices, I mean, some of these people, like, let's just look at boats, you know? Someone has a yacht, you know, that yacht may have 20 to 30 employees on it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So you need an entire division of this family office to manage just the boat. Yeah. And then you have the planes, you know? A lot of people have multiple planes and then you've got the pilots, you've got the staff, you've got all this, you've got multiple homes. How do you maintain 'em? I- it's endless, which to me is like creating a business and I think that that's interesting. Yeah, for sure. It's, it's, it's really just all these, like, intricacies and opportunities to explore and create and kind of- Mm-hmm. see how it all comes together. That sounds really interesting, like it sounds like- Yeah. So I think about somebody like, you know, Bill Gates or it doesn't have to be Bill Gates, right? Anybo- anybody who's of any certain level of wealth- they can lose sight of why, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What is the point? Right. Right? They, they say, I've been told, I have not experienced this, uh, but they say that you reach a certain level of wealth and, uh, and you don't really know what to do anymore, right? It's like, "What's, what's your purpose? What are you working towards?" Et cetera, Mm-hmm. And I think when you can bring that conversation to a head, if you can kinda steer that so that people will really be able to focus on finding that meaning and that purpose again, that can be a significant value add. Yeah, I think personally, to me, it's kinda down to freedom. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. Like, the more capital you have, honestly, the more options you have in a lot of ways to If there's a charity that you want, you know, to start or something like that or if, you know, you wanna fund more education for not just your kids or your grandkids or set up some sort of foundation. Yeah. If there's things you're passionate about, you could debatedly make a pretty big impact with more capital. Yeah. Well, I think you're steering into kind of, like, the value of capitalism in general, right? Totally. I know that, uh, capitalism gets a bad rap and I think it's really easy to, to focus on the negatives because any Like anything- For sure. it can be abused, right? Absolutely. You can do harm- Yeah. rather than good. Right. Right? But if you do steer the conversation towards the opportunities, the creative opportunities, right? What can you build? What can you create? How many people can you employ? Right? That's a good point. I mean, wealth can be very creative- Yeah. which I think is very fascinating to me. Like, you can really kind of go anywhere with it and, you know, there's a lot of wealthy people out there that aren't into money, but they're just in it for the growth, starting new businesses, new ventures. They're trying new things. Yeah. And there's a lot of, I'll say, cool things that can come with that. Yeah. All right. So, we're, we're talking, we're, we're far into the future here. We're, we're managing the greatest- Yeah. wealth in the world. Let's back up and get to, to where you started, right? So- Okay. you're 7 years old and you're like, "Managing money seems interesting," right? Yeah. You didn't go do that at age 8, 9, 10. Certainly not at 7. Right? Yeah. So, where, what was your entry point? How did you get into this business? Yeah. So, I was originally going to college in, um, just outside of Buffalo, New York, Saint Bonaventure, and I, uh, was in a, going to school for accounting. Mm-hmm. And, um, my dad told me, he was like, "Hey, before you fully latch onto being an accountant, you know, you should go out to lunch with a few accountants." Yeah. Talk, talk to them. See how they, they like it. Talked a few accountants. Yeah. Um, great advice. Mm-hmm. Went to lunch, decided I didn't wanna be an accountant anymore. So, uh, long story short, I went back to college and, um, I met a professor who made a pretty, pretty big impact on me. And, you know, I told him that, you know, I was kind of like, "I went to launch with accountants. Sounds maybe not for me, and I'm interested in something else." And he was just like, "Well, you know, you really like numbers. You really like finance. You know, you're always talking about money management." He was like, "Why don't you lean more into finance? Like, join our investing club?" Mm-hmm. So, I joined the investment club and then, um, I started as a low level analyst and then, you know, I worked my way up and then launched my own fund in the school. Okay. So, um, one thing I noticed really early on about our fund was we were being taxed on interest and dividends. Uh-huh. Yep. Which was kind of interesting. Yep. So, one thing I figured out, and there was a natural disaster at the time that was going on, it was Hurricane Sandy. Mm-hmm. And, uh, if we started a micro investing fund, uh, basically giving small loans to businesses and using that as kind of like a venture capitalist fund- Yeah. you know, we could kinda branch into that as a 501nonprofit, and then also do good on top of it. Mm-hmm. So, then I was like, "Well, this could be really interesting," and I was really enjoying it. And then when I graduated, I wanted to get into wealth management and keep going down this path, but there wasn't an opening for me. Mm-hmm. Um, it was relatively soon after 2008, a lot of wealth management companies weren't bringing on new people, so I got a job at Citigroup as a fixed income analyst, and that was, um, And you've, you've told me some stories about, about Citigroup and I think they're really interesting. And it's But I think just before we jump into that, I feel like that's a pretty common experience, right? Mm-hmm. In terms of not necessarily like your path to like what, what you did in school and your path to saying, "Okay, I wanna get into this business." It feels like it's a hard business to break into. It is. Well, I think something that's kinda fascinating is in the finance field, I think people think finance and they're like, "Oh, like, you just must manage money or something like that." But there's like a billion different avenues you can go in finance. Sure. Yeah. You know, you can go institutional where you're, you know, working and managing money for companies. You can go operations for a massive financial company. You could go wealth management. You can go investment banking. You could go trading. Like, there's a million ways to go. And in college, while you learn a lot about economics and finance and things like that, you don't necessarily learn about the paths- Mm-hmm. that you can go. So, when I graduated, I thought going to work for, you know, one of the largest banks in the world was going to be my ticket. Yeah. Not knowing that there are a million different divisions within this bank and they all take you down different paths. Right. So, it's one of those situations where you could maybe get into that bank and then work your way up through that bank. Totally. Right? And I still have friends that are doing that. Yeah, But your exposure was not It, it, like, like the lunch with the CPAs, just like a re- reminder that maybe that's not the right path. Right, yeah. So, when I started at Citigroup, I was a, um- basically dealing with margin on the balance sheet and, um, for those of you that don't know what margin is, it's a loan, right? Mm-hmm. So, major institutions will take out loans and, um, let say for example, the market goes down, they need to post collateral to pay that loan back. And they have a certain period of time to do that. My job was to call all those institutions to tell them that they're on margin call. And I, uh, my call wasn't often welcomed- Mm-hmm. uh, by other institutions and trading desks and things like that. So, I'd have to call the trading desk and be like, you know, "Hey, you've got these 7 clients that are on margin call today and you need to call them and have them post collateral." They would be upset with me and, uh, I would get yelled at and, um, every time though, the collateral would get posted. Because if it didn't, it would be very bad. Sure, yeah. So, I was a glorified debt collector- Yeah. for, uh, I'll say 2 years. Wow. Um, and that was, uh, you know, what I thought finance was about, is that kind of like grind. But then I met a wealth manager who told me that there's another side and he kinda like walked me through everything and was showing me, like, what it could look like in terms of a lifestyle change, how it looks working for clients, and that was immediately appealing- Yeah. to me. Yeah. So, before you jump into that, how many of those calls a day do you think you were making? So, on average, I had anywhere from 800 to 900 emails when I would come in in the morning. Okay. And I had over a thousand clients and I would have to know, basically I ran an algorithm every morning to figure out who needed to post collateral. Yeah. It was usually around 140 in any given day. Okay. That I would need to- A single day? reach out to- Every day? Every day. Yeah. And I'm not calling all of them individually, like, a lot of them are batched. Sure. like as an example, like, a trading desk. Like, you would forward the email to the trading desk and be like, "These 30 clients are on margin. Post the collateral that they're going to post and when, and make sure the wire clears." And things like that. But there were a decent amount that you needed to touch base with. Yeah, yeah. On any given day. And how many people were in your department? 12. So, 12 were like those- And the average- 11 other people doing the same thing? Pretty much, yeah. So, I was fixed income collateral. There was margins, so there was equity. There was- Mm-hmm. you know, like MBS's at the time. Mm-hmm. There was, you know, alts, like all different kinds of, uh- Wow. fields within margin. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. The average time that someone would kinda be there in change over would be anywhere from like 6 to 8 months. Yeah, yeah. I think of margin, I think if you're not used to thinking about margin and what it is, the easiest thing to compare it to is kinda like the, a loan on your house or an equity line or something like that, right? Yeah. Literally, yeah. Home equity line of credit- Yeah. is the perfect example. Yeah. And any time there's a margin call, it's kinda like your house is underwater and- Right. you need to bring that value back up so it's not underwater anymore or else you're gonna lose your house. Exactly. And these margin calls, you know, they're 80, 100 1000000, couple 100 1000000, you know- Yeah. on any given day. Yeah. Because I mean, you're talking about major banks, major institutions that have billions and billions of dollars of liquidity. Yeah. And, um, It's, yeah, pretty nuts the amount of money that floats out there on any given day. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy and it's, it's funny because like, I feel like majority of the people listening to this right now have no idea any of that's happening, right? No. And it's happening every day- Mm-hmm. on some level at multiple institutions. Yeah. And yet the system is somehow designed to support that, right? It's unbelievable. I mean, the amount of wires every day- Yeah. that go back and forth from the Fed and those people You know, what a wire is, is basically it goes from one institution, people think it goes from one institution to another. Mm-hmm. It actually goes through the Federal Reserve first. Mm-hmm. And then it gets to that final destination. So basically, you think about the amount of money that's floating in between these banks and institutions- Yeah. and wires is astronomical. It's trillions of dollars a day. Okay, All right. So, you're getting yelled at every day. Mm-hmm. You're basically- Good times, debt collector. Yeah. Sounds great. Yep. Uh, living in Buffalo. Yes. Right? Rather chilly. chilly in the winters. Those winds, I hear. Yeah. They're pretty rough. Yeah. Uh, then you find out there's another way. Yeah. So, and I'll back up because before I started at Citi, um, I actually interned at UBS Financial Services, and I had a great internship and I absolutely loved it. But, like, I didn't get a ton of exposure into the advice section of wealth management, so really what I was doing is I was helping build portfolios- Mm-hmm. for client accounts, and that was kind of my background at the time, but I saw that there was a lot of wealth management there and giving advice and learning about taxes and learning about people's businesses and families and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That sounded awesome to me. Um, and I love talking to people. This whole podcast is me- talking at the moment, so- Yeah. I'm used to it. But, um, anyway, so I, I really wanted to go down that path but there just wasn't an option for me at the time, and then lo and behold, about a year and a half to 2 years in, um, to Citigroup, I was getting really tired of it and I decided to launch my own business, at the time selling medical equipment- Mm-hmm. with one of my friends, and I just could not deal with, I'll say, the environment anymore that I was in at the current job situation. So my buddy and I launched a business, but at the same time, I was talking with another advisor who was starting off at a firm, and, um, was like, you know, "I'd love for you to come work with me." I was very interested in it, but we had just launched this, um, medical device company at the time, but it wasn't going very well. Yeah. So, long story short, I knew I wanted to be some sort of business owner, have autonomy, very interested in wealth management. I had this other thing going here on the side, but it was obvious to me about 6 months in it just didn't have the legs. So then I pivoted and accepted a job with this wealth manager as a basic staff member- Yeah. and then moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is basically where I've been since. Right. Yeah. So you can kind of see all these pieces coming together, right? Like your curiosity early on, the way you explored whether it was just like the, the actual management of assets- Mm-hmm. to, you know, being in the plumbing of the system, right? Right. Um, and then finding a better way to get exposure to the intricacies that kind of excited you in the first place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, I'll say that, you know, something that I was always interested in is, you know, learning about how successful people became successful. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And what better way to do that than to constantly have conversations with them about what their goals are? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's kind of what led me down this path. Okay. All right. So, fast forward a little bit. You go from the staff side to the advisor side. Yeah. So, I joined as a non-licensed staff, and for people that don't know, when, um, you're at a big firm, you have to get your Series 7 and 66. Mm-hmm. So, joined as a non-licensed staff. About a year in, I had gotten my 7 and 66, so then I became a licensed staff member, and at the time that meant that I could sit into client appointments and learn and do some trading and finances- Yeah. stuff like that. Yeah. Then I realized, um, I really enjoyed being in the client meetings and I really enjoyed the advice that was being given and I wanted to learn how to do that, so I kept reading and I kept studying and I asked to become a junior advisor, and I kept pushing the management on that. So- Yeah. I became a junior advisor in the Portsmouth branch. Loved that. And then I decided to, I'll say, hang up my own hat and- Shingle. shingle, not hat. Yeah, as they say. Hang up the shingle and, uh, go out there and take a stab at it. Yeah. All right, cool. So you start doing your own thing, right? Yeah. You still, still have a relationship with the advisor that brought you on, but you're- Yeah. you know, bringing your own clients, et cetera. Totally. That's around the time I joined, actually. It was. Yeah, yeah, yep. So that was shortly after I joined and we were starting to get to know each other. Right. Yes. Um, so, how did, how did you go from somebody who is employed by a large firm- Mm-hmm. as an advisor- Yep. to realizing that you needed more than that? You know, I've always been an aspirational person, and I guess I recognized pretty early on that the advisors that were giving the advice, um, I'll say that, you know, not to speak negatively about anybody, but, uh, I felt as if I could do that. Mm-hmm. And to me it's like, well, if I can get really good and spend more time around successful people, you are who you surround yourself with, you know? And I just wanted to be around these successful people as much as humanly possible. Mm-hmm. So to me, that kind of drove me to learn as much as I could about giving advice and surround myself and put myself in these meetings where it's like I'm learning about advanced trust planning or crazy insurance cases or working with some guy that started a company that, you know, was very successful at it, because I figured the more knowledge I could soak up, the happier, you know, I would be mentally. Mm-hmm.

Versus, you know, at the time, you know, when the corporate structure, you know, that was back when you still had to be in at 8:

30-

leave at 5:

00. Very structured, lot of paperwork, no DocuSign. So to me it was just kind of the monotony led me to wanting something a little bit more. Yeah.You soak up all this knowledge, right? And you hear all these stories and you talk to people about their journeys, and then you find yourself in this situation where you get You create that opportunity to go out on your own, right? Totally. There was a lot of pushback for me to start. Mm-hmm. You know, like I, I really pushed to become a junior advisor and in fact, like, the management at the time had to create a whole nother job position that didn't even exist at the company- Just for you. so I, I could do it because I was, I was gonna leave- Yeah. um, because I really, really wanted to, I'll say start in going down that path. And then, um, when I became an advisor, I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times I heard, like, "No, you shouldn't do that. That's ridiculous. It's stupid." Why? I think the reason why I was told that is because, A, it might have been inconvenient- Mm-hmm. for someone to have me leave my position. But then on top of that, it was extremely risky at the time. I mean, the average success rate for an advisor in the first 2 to 3 years I think is, like, 6 or 7% at best. Mm-hmm. Um, I don't know the exact statistics, but it's I know I started with around 90 people in my class and apart from myself, I know one other, maybe 2 Yeah. that are still around. Yeah, those attrition levels are pretty severe. Right. Yeah. So- Yeah. But, I mean, I was young and I was willing to take a risk. I had already started one company that failed. So I was like, "I learned a lot from that failure." So- You knew how to fail. Yeah. so I figured if I start this and if I fail, I'll probably learn some more stuff from that too. Yeah. And, um, I'll try something else again. But, I mean, I'm just gonna keep trying and keep failing until I get there. Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know, so often people put their limitations on you, right? Mm-hmm. Like, "Why would you take that risk?" Or, you know, "That's a really hard field to break into," and- Right. Right? Like, and, and if you let those limitations become your limitations, then you're kind of like doomed to that life that's preordained for you and decided for you by other people. Yeah. What I learned pretty early on when starting a business, um, whether it was my first medical device company orgetting going in the beginning as a financial advisor, you really have to hang your pride up at the door. Um, because if, if, like, you think very highly of yourself, you'll be humbled pretty quickly. Sure. And, um, I recognized that failure is often a good thing. Mm-hmm. And I learned a lot from a lot of failures, and if you can take those learnings and then compound positively from that- Yeah. that's ideal. Yeah. I mean, a lot of those, uh, you know, business owners or, you know, successful people that you admire would tell you that failure is a good thing, right? For sure. Yeah, I mean, I Very few people that we work with that are business owners, um, you know, now or prior, like, got it perfect their first round. Sure. Yeah. I don't know anybody- You know, I don't know a single person that started- Yeah. a business and it went really well the first time. All right, so you're out on your own- Yeah. building your own book, and then COVID hits. Yeah. So before COVID, one of the ways that we would build our book of business is we would go around and do a lot of event sponsorships. We called it tabling at the time. Mm-hmm. Because you go to, like, a convention of some sort, like a home show, and you set up a table with a booth and a banner, hand out business cards, try to network. And that was really what I was trying to do. So I think in my first 18 to 19 months, this was 20 the end of 2018, I started as an advisor and then, um, up until COVID, I did 48 tabling events, um, basically every weekend. So, I mean, that was pretty much giving up every weekend of mine for 19 to 20 months. Mm-hmm. And then I got some good clients out of that, got some other clients that, you know, maybe I shouldn't have taken at the time. But, uh, you know, you learn from all of these different things, but, you know, it's The stuff you see when you're at these tabling events, it's brutal. You know? Uh, we're talking anything from a 5K to a surgery convention, to a cooking show, to a home show. Sure, yeah. I mean, anything that had a booth available, I was going to. What was the strangest one you went to? Like, what was, like, the one where you would say, "Does a financial advisor need to be here at this table?" You know, one of them that comes to mind is a local fair. That one was a bad one. Um, but one of the events that I went to was a garden show. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I actually ended up getting 2 very qualified- great leads from that thing because people were like, "Why is a financial advisor here?" So, then I got a chance to talk to them. Yeah. And then they ended up becoming great clients that are still clients today- Yeah. actually. Yeah. So, it's funny. It's a small world. I remember one time actually I ran into you, uh, you and, and a couple of your colleagues at the time at a beer fest over the- Oh, my gosh. I forgot about this. Yeah, at the Red Hook Brewery- Yes. it was at the time. Yeah. And I was already having a strange day because- I had, um, I had walked out the door and my raincoat had been next to my mother-in-law's raincoat, and I grabbed hers by mistake. And so I was borrowing her, her raincoat. But it was raining, so Yeah, so I was walking around wearing her. I can tell you, I, I didn't notice. You didn't notice? Well, that's great. Yeah. That's good. But I noticed when I tried to zip it up and the zipper was on the wrong side and, uh- That's really funny. Um, but it was raining, so what are you gonna, what are you gonna do? But- Yeah. you know, I remember I had It wasn't long after I had joined Ameriprise. Yeah. Right? And coming from Wells Fargo, we didn't have tabling events. I was like, "What do you, what do you mean? Like, why would you do that?" So- Consider yourself lucky. And, uh, and so I was at this beer fest, um, with, with, uh, with J- uh, my wife Jess and a friend of hers. Yeah. And I was like, "Should I go talk to those guys over there? Like, I don't really know them, but I'm, like, on their team maybe? I'm not really sure." Yeah. then I was like, "Why are they at, like, a beer Like, how many drunk people are just walking over and saying, 'Ooh, financial advisor, or any one Give me a business card. Yeah. Right. Um, but it's, it's funny the things that you, you, I don't know wha- if you wanna say, put yourself through, but, like, you're willing to do early on. It's survival. Yeah, yeah. You know? And I found that, um, it's not necessarily the tabling events that kept me going, but I'll say it's that mentality of, like, anything you can do to stay alive- Yeah, yeah. will keep you going. So, it's not like those were super successful. Um, certainly had some success from them. But it was the fact that, you know, you pair that with, you know, other local marketings, you know, outreach with Natural Market, you know, trying to talk to COIs, Centers of Influences, and all those other people. Like, just anything you can possibly do. Yeah. Because I think with any business, and I think this is, you know, part of the fun with working with most business owners is the fact that they appreciate the grind. Mm-hmm. And most people that start a successful business, have to go through that. Yeah. It's almost like you, when you work personally with a business owner client, it's not a B2B relationship, but it kinda feels like that, right? Yeah.'Cause they, they get it. Like, you're, you're able to connect on a different level than somebody that, you know, might otherwise not understand why certain things are being discussed or, like, what, what your experience has been, you Yeah. It's like a fisherman always sees another fisherman from afar- Yeah. is really what it comes down to- Yeah. I think. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so we did a lot of that and then COVID rolled around and all of it stopped. Gone, yeah. All of it gone. So, the way in which that we used to market and the, my primary focus, um, completely vanished. Luckily at the time, I had built up a small enough book where I could live and have groceries and things like that and grind through. So, really what I tried to focus on then is building up that referral network, asking people, you know, "If there's anybody that you know that would benefit from a second set of eyes- Yeah, right. you know, I'm happy to help." And during that time, I started, um, cold calling advisors and asking if there was anyone that would be willing to sell books. And, you know, I ended up finding a small book of business and, you know, that flourished into a bunch of great relationships. And during that time, I kept networking and marketing and building things up and, um, it just panned together. It's, like, compounding, honestly, is exactly what it is. It's like you start off with one to 2 clients, and then those 2 clients lead to- Mm-hmm. 2 more, and then those 2 lead to four, and then those 4 lead to eight, and then before you know it, like, your small little book has blossomed over, you know, 5 years into something that's actually kinda legit. Yeah, yeah. Well, also you were, you were taking time to water, right? Yes. Like, you were, you were putting the mulch around. Like- Yeah. you making sure it got the right sunlight, you know? For sure. You were taking care of it, right? Yeah. You, you know, it's an active participation in that compound growth. Right, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, uh, but it all worked out. And, um, I'm glad that it did because it's I love our clients and I love the people we work with- Yeah. and it's panned out great. You and I partnered, was it during COVID? We started, yeah, we started exploring that- 2021? in 2020, I Well- Or 2020, technically the end of 2020. Yeah, yeah. It was 2020, and then 2021 I think we officially- Launched. launched, yeah. Yeah. Under somebody else's domain, really. Correct. Right? Yeah. Um, still kind of captive to that firm, but realizing that we were at a good fit working together, we could build something special. Totally. You know, until that hit its own limitations. Absolutely. Right? Yeah. I think a rhyme and a reason for a season. You know, we had a great platform that was really awesome for us for a long period of time. Mm-hmm. And then we had different needs. Yeah. So, then we expanded from there. And, uh, I'm glad that we did and we went the RIA route because, you know, now we have the ability to do stuff like this. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, this is a great pivot to, you know, what, what do you find exciting about what you're doing now versus what you were doing 2 years ago? Like, what, how has this job that you have changed as it became- like, a business? Yeah. So I think in the beginning, um, you don't have many clients to talk to. Mm-hmm. In the very beginning. You know, um, I'll say in the first year when you're wrapped up, you know, your- your year one, if you're still there- Mm-hmm. you know, at best maybe you have, like, 20 to 30 clients. so with that being said, you have a lot of free time in the day to go out and market, which is exactly what you should be doing. Sure. As the business grows and scales, you know, the things that we focus on now are quite different than back then because we're not looking to just survive, we're looking to thrive. Mm-hmm. And we're having more in-depth conversations using more in-depth technology, focusing on things, not just investment management but taxes and estate planning and more advanced planning. Yeah. Which is awesome. And I'll say our bench on our team has grown significantly as well. Yeah. So now as opposed to just doing planning meetings, you know, we're also doing business meetings and we're trying to scale our own operations, that way we can provide better service to our clients. Yeah. Yeah, it's that creativity coming into play. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I've seen at least. Yeah. And it's, you know, obviously that- that feels like not the culmination but a logical arrival, right? Like something that made sense to you a long time ago, something that's fascinated you and now you're able to actually take action and- and work on that. Yeah, and it's funny because there's never an end destination. Sure. You know, we always talk about, you know, well, what happens, you know, our goal is to get this amount of clients or this amount of assets, you know, under management or grow the team by this amount. But then once you've grown the team by that amount or once you've grown the business by that amount, it's not exactly as if you're done, you know? Yeah. I'll say something that's great about being in this industry and being a business owner is you have flexibility to make it as big or small as you want it to be. Sure. Right. Which obviously the latter is not what we're- No. interested in. So if we were trying to shrink it, we wouldn't be doing a podcast. Yeah, exactly. Right. Well, I mean, it's- it's the infinite horizons thing, right? Right. It's, you know, what- what can we do now? Yeah. Not what do we have to do but what are the opportunities? That's a great point. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's a great kind of like history and play-by-play of- of how you got here. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna ask a left field question. pumped. All right. So you're familiar with the concept of the money story, right? Yeah. Like, what is- what is your money story and how does it inform the way you work with your clients? So if I'm to go back through my money story, I don't think my parents will ever listen to this so I'm pretty sure I'm safe. Speak freely. Yeah. So I'll say that, um, growing up my parents were always extremely frugal, which was helpful, um, because it taught me a lot about saving money which I think is great. Uh, but I think it got to the point where a lot of decisions were made, um, I'll say may have sacrificed some things along the way that may not have been necessary. So a lot of like, "No, we can't do this. No, we can't afford that," like, you know, you go to a restaurant, you know, you wanna order one thing but it's like, "No, you can't order that. You have to order these things over here because they're within a certain price bracket." Yeah. And that was good because it taught me the importance of saving money and having these conversations of like, you know, well, if you really like to golf or if you really like cars or if you really like to travel, you have to put yourself in a position where you can afford things like that one day. Yeah. So for me that was big motivation to think of this as like, well, if I work really hard enough, if I build a successful business then I'll be able to buy things off the right side of the menu when I grow up or maybe, you know, I'll be able to travel and go to a place that I haven't been before and not have to think about it so much. So for me, I see money as being either a constrainer or I see it as being very freeing. Mm-hmm. And I think to a lot of people money is, I'll say, something that holds them down. They worry about it. And I see this often with clients, it's like a, "Do I have enough money?" Or, "Can I afford this?" Or, "Can I do this?" And, to me, I, I find that that is I appreciate, you know, those feelings because it can be stressful, but I almost want to change the mindset of like a, "I'm able to do this," type of conversation, of like a, "I've worked hard enough where it's okay that I can get these things off the menu." Or, "I've worked hard enough where it's like okay where I can finally buy a new car," or whatever it might be, or travel to this destination. So, for me, what I've set up personally, um, and I talk about this a lot with clients, it's being very specific with your goals. So, I know that I don't want to retire tomorrow, but I want to have financial independence in my late 50s, early 60s, kind of at the latest. Mm-hmm. So I know that if I save 25% to 20% of everything that I earn and set it aside, I'll be able to accomplish that. That's the main goal. Then I wanna have some sort of emergency fund so that way if something was to ever go wrong, you know, we're good, some major expenses are covered. But then the money that's remaining after that, I make sure I have an allocation for a fun money- Mm-hmm. like a fun pool, so I don't feel bad about what comes out of that. And I tell my clients that. Yeah. You know, like, "Look, I don't care what you do with your money." Like, "As long as if you're telling me your goals are to retire, have an emergency fund, and pay off your house, let's focus on that with this allocation of money. Whatever you do over here, I don't care if you buy a Lamborghini, I don't care if you fly to Italy, I don't care what you do, but let's accomplish these goals, then you have your fun bucket over here," and then you think about that as like a freeing mentality- Yeah. with your money. Yeah. And that has been, personally, my narrative because it, I became kind of resentful of the fact that, you know, we could never order these things or, you know, we could never do certain things, and that's certainly not a knock about my parents. Sure. You know, I had an awesome childhood and I grew up with it, but to me, it was always just like, "Well, I wanna work really hard so that way I can golf, or I can travel, or I can order certain things on the menu," or whatever it might be. Yeah. Um, I'll say that that's probably my narrative. And to be honest, growing up, money was a very common conversation in our household, and I don't really enjoy talking about money that much. Well, it sounds like the way that money was talked about in your household was almost as a negative, just like a, you know, money is a problem, like you pointed out, right? Mm-hmm. And, and now we have to deal with this problem. And even if there's like a win or a good thing, it's in relation to a problem. Yeah, or it's just kind of like a, "I can only afford to spend this amount- Yeah. each month." Yeah."And if it goes over by $20, this is detrimental." Yeah. Like, "We're past the budget." Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, um, it's important to have budgets and keep an eye on those things, but ultimately, at the end of the day, we're very fortunate to even be in a position- Yeah. to afford these types of things, or save money, or have any sort of excess cash flow. And that's the way that I try to frame it in my mind, that all of this is positive. Yeah. Well, I, I think that's great, and I think the, the bucketing system that you've come up with is, is the perfect way to kind of address the needs- Yeah. while creating opportunity to feel free at the same time. Yeah, I mean, and I think as I go back to the very first question, you know, Bill Gates and what appeals to me about that- Sure. it's the freedom of it, you know, the freedom to start a foundation that he's very passionate about, the freedom to start a company, the freedom for the company to explore different avenues within there. You know, I think, um, to me, money could be freedom if it's framed appropriately- Yeah. to go off and do the things that you wanna do for yourself, your family, your business, whatever it might be. Yeah, that's perfect, going from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. Perfect, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Wow, that's a great place to end. Good job, Colin. Sweet. Awesome. Uh, any final words before we sign off today? Uh, no, apart from the fact, um, I'm excited to learn more about your background- Yeah, coming up. that next time, which I'm very excited about as well. But no, I mean, I think it's good to reflect on your own personal journey because I think it does bring things back home and, um, you know, I would encourage anyone to think about their relationship with money and how it impacts their habits- Yeah. with the way that they see things and what they wanna give to their kids. Yeah. So- It's really important to take time to reflect and to look for that intentionality because, like, if you're looking to put a frugal nature into your children and then, you know, it sounds like that's pro- probably what your parents were looking to do- Yeah. like that, sure, you can absolutely succeed that way. Absolutely. Um, but there's also ways to, to expand the conversation, the money story conversation. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. All right. Awesome. We'll be back soon. Sweet. Thank you. Reflecting back on my conversation with Colin, I'm struck by how goal-oriented and hardworking he's been, which has allowed him to accomplish a lot already. Colin has built a business that plays to his strengths within the financial world. We're excited to see what he continues to build in the future given the strength of this foundation he's created. Next week, we'll dive into my story a little bit. The 2 of us took very different paths to reach this shared destination. Thank you again for tuning in and taking the time to get to know us a little better. If you've liked what you heard and found any of it useful, please like and subscribe and share with your friends. You can follow us on Insta and TikTok, Compound Growth Pod, or you can follow us on YouTube if that's your thing, Compound Growth Podcast. Thanks again. Talk to you soon.