EP05 - When the business runs you

There's a moment in the life of a growing practice where the advisor realizes the business is running them, not the other way around.

In this episode, Steven Watts and Founders Financial President and CIO Peter Murphy explore why so many independent advisors hit a wall as their practices mature. The conversation traces the cathartic moment when an advisor realizes they're done running a bootstrap startup, the operational drift that pulls them away from the relationships they love, and the time-reallocation choices that separate stagnation from scale. Pete reframes "peace" as harmony — a living, intentional discipline of leading rather than doing — and shares how Founders' platform was built by and for Member Partners walking through exactly this terrain.

More from Founders Financial: 

TRU Enterprise OS (the integrated platform Pete references): https://foundersfinancial.com/tru-enterprise-os/ 

Strategic Enterprise Program: https://foundersfinancial.com/strategic-enterprise-program/ 

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/founders-financial

© 2014-2026 Founders Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC and Registered Investment Adviser. All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From Founders Financial, this is the Built By and For podcast. Partner-to-partner conversations for independent financial advisors. Today, host Steven Watts, Chief Growth Officer at Founders Financial, sits down with Peter Murphy, president and CIO at Founders Financial to discuss the cathartic moment growing advisors hit and what harmony in a practice looks like. There's a moment in the life of a growing practice where the advisor realizes the business is running them, not the other way around. Here's the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

All right, I'm joined by our president and chief investment officer, Peter Murphy. Pete, thanks for joining us today. We're having an interesting conversation around complexity and the things that advisors face as their businesses start to mature over time, and the more things start start piling on top of them and how they navigate through those waters. So excited to have you for this part of the conversation today.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Yeah, appreciate you having me, Steve, and looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah. So, you know, advisors start their practice, right? Um, and they they maybe have some instant success. They start getting new clients, um, their business is growing. And inevitably, there always reaches a point, and we've seen this time and time again, where things start to slow down. They start to plateau, things start to feel a little bit heavy. And so talk about this idea of hitting a ceiling of complexity, a term that that we've heard you know, thrown around a bunch. We've we've seen it, we've used it, there's books written about it. Uh talk about it from your perspective, the idea of hitting this ceiling of complexity that advisors so often face.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Yeah, it's it's a great question. And it it really goes beyond just advisors, right? So advisors are a microcosm of this, but it really comes down to entrepreneurs and small business owners, right? So independent advisors, while they're financial advisors in terms of what they practice, they're also a business owner because they own a practice. And so every entrepreneur, every business owner, as the business starts to grow, inevitably gets more complicated. It's just a natural progression. There's there's more clients that you're serving. You may start to hire a team. So then you've got to oversee a team, you've got to hire that team, you've got to train that team. And then once you get enough people, you need systems and processes. And then you got to start building systems and processes to make things, make sure things are done consistently as you grow. And all of those things take time. All of those things take resources. And an independent advisor is just a microcosm of a small business owner, an entrepreneur who is going through the natural progression of building and growing a business.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Do you think advisors have this light bulb moment where they they it's hit the things have gotten way too complicated, way too complex, or is it more like a subtle feeling starts to happen? They, they, they, the pressure starts to build. Is it something they really notice, or is it more subtle and underlying?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Yeah, I think the answer is both, right? So they're probably feeling it consistently over time, right? They're feeling more stretched for time. They can't get everything done in the day. They have a full inbox to tend to at night because they've been so busy in meetings with prospective relationships, current relationships, stakeholders on their team over the course of the day. So they just can't get enough done. And it feels like they're always short on time and need another day in the week or another few hours in the day. So they're feeling that. So that's the pressure build. But then most of the time, there's a cathartic moment. There's a, this is not sustainable, and I need to act. I need to do something about it. And that's when they get resolved about going beyond just running this kind of bootstrap startup business to getting serious about building and growing an enterprise, which is a significant shift. Most advisors don't have experience doing that. They're advisors in terms of what their experience is, not business owners. So they're learning to be a business owner. So they don't have the toolkit, they don't have the experience, but it's that cathartic moment where they realize, like every business owner, hey, I've got to do something if I'm going to continue to grow this business. Otherwise, I'm going to get burnt out. And what happens when I get burnt out is this business stagnates, decays, and eventually goes away.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah, I would think that um one of the early symptoms is the passion starts to wane, right? Yeah. Like you're just not, it's when you start a business, you're it's exciting, right? It's you know, you're you're energized about it. You want to do all these things. Um, and over time, as that complexity starts to build, I again, I would imagine one of the first symptoms that shows up is that passion starts to wane and sometimes wane considerably.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, it's a it's a great point. And it and it's absolutely spot on. Because if you think about the the role of a financial advisor, what do most advisors love to do?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Serve relationships.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

They love to serve relationships, right? They love to see people, they love to find new new relationships or new clients to serve, they love to grow the business. Well, the more complexity that gets introduced into their practice, the more people that are on their team, the more workflows that they have to build, the less of their time is going towards seeing their people and growing the business, and more is going into operating the business. And most advisors do not want to be business operators. They may want to be business owners, but they don't really love being business operators. So there's a gap, and they've got to figure out how to solve that. And there's different ways to do it, right? You can outsource a whole lot of stuff so that you don't have to do it and pay for it, or you can invest in people and resources that do that stuff for you within the business. And both are viable paths. But every advisor, inevitably, if they want to grow a business of purpose, is gonna hit this point. And it's that cathartic moment when they say, Man, this is not what I started and not what I signed up for. What am I gonna do about it?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah. And that can go different couple different ways. They can fix the problem or they can be consumed by the problem, right? And this that's where stagnation comes in. That's where you hit a lot of uh pitfalls start to rear their ugly head.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

That's right. There's there's many advisors you come across where when they started, they saw the business grow rapidly, right? They might have started with a few client relationships, and then all of a sudden that that just snowballs, and then they hit a point and they start to wonder my business isn't really growing anymore. Yeah, right? Why not? I'm not doing anything different, it doesn't feel like. But what if they really did is step back and took an audit of their time, they would realize that the stuff they were doing in the early days was just out seeing people. Now they're doing a whole lot more operating the business, which is reducing their time seeing people, which is making it harder to grow. And once something scales up and gets bigger, you have a bigger base from which to grow. So it's harder to grow off that, right? It's easier to go from two to four than it is to go from 16 to 32, right? It's it scales exponentially, right? So you need a whole lot more resource invested in growth as you get bigger, not less.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, think about all you just look at it, your your time usage, it's just dramatically different, is uh if you do that, do that audit. Um is there a particular phase? Is it is it always the same or is it different? Um, a phase in an advisor's career where this starts to rear its ugly head and this complexity starts to become overwhelming or very visible.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I wouldn't say it's a a phase in their career per se. It's more around once they get to a level of number of relationships they're serving. Yeah. Right. And so that's gonna be different for everybody depending on the type of work they do, right? If they're real deep, comprehensive, working with very high net worth investors, it's gonna be a smaller group. If it's more simplified, basic planning, investment management focused, that's more mass affluent focus, and maybe a larger number, but there's a certain number of households where every advisor is gonna get to and say, I can't do this all on my own anymore. I either need to hire some resources to take off some of the service and operational burden of serving all of these households, or I need to outsource more. And so it really comes down to that household point. And it's gonna be different for every advisor based on the type of practice, but they're gonna feel it because what they're gonna say is I've been at a hundred households and I've been I've been at a hundred million in assets now for three years and I can't grow. What is going on? And you know, five years ago I was only at 20 million in assets and and and 20 households, right? And so that's what they start to see is it starts to stagnate. And then if they don't do anything and it continues to stagnate, stagnation becomes decay, and they actually will start to see the business decline. And we see that happen more often than anyone would like to see.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, we we uh we've talked a lot about how the business starts reacting to complexity. The thing that comes to my mind is the the mental stress or the the per at the personal for the for the advisor or the business owner, as you said, it's not just advisors. Like the energy, the stress, the fulfillment, I would imagine that starts to wane pretty considerably. Um, and and that can't be fun. That can't get you motivated to then fix the business problems because you're now just in a less, you know, uh mental position to want to do all those changes and make all those corrections. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yeah, no, it's spot on, right? So it comes down to what are you passionate about, what do you love, right? If you if you really turn inward and and and really ask that question, most advisors went independent, started their own practice because they wanted a more effective way to serve their people and to and to and to build a business. And what they probably didn't realize oftentimes is there's a whole lot more that goes on than just serving people as a financial planner or financial advisor to actually run the business. And as that time gets out of harmony and out of balance, and as they're spending less and less of their time on the passionate part of what they love to do, and more and more time on what needs to be done to keep the business running, they feel like they're just on this hamster wheel. They're moving faster and faster and not going anywhere. And so that is very draining. That is very exhausting. And the other thing that happens a lot is when you start a business, it can be lonely, right? There's not necessarily a community of business owners who are doing what you do around you. And so, who do you talk to about these more strategic or some of these more intimately personal things that you're feeling, who's actually experienced it too and can offer some valued advice? It gets harder because you're on your own. You're on an you're on an island, you started this own business, you kind of went out on your own, but it can also be lonely, which also it also compounds what you're talking about, some of these feelings.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yeah, I I I think that's just got to be such a, as you said, a kind of lonely place. Um, so if if advisors are reaching that point, and and and hopefully at this point they've recognized it, they've hit that that point where they understand there's a problem. Um how are how have you seen advisors kind of start breaking through that that metaphorical ceiling?

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah, no, it's a great question. And so you're spot on. The the first thing is to see it and recognize it. Because if you don't see it and recognize it, you don't have a shot.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Let me stop you for a second. Yeah, how do you analyze like what are great practices, great advisors do to constantly try to recognize those those things in their practice?

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, the the biggest thing is do you have intentional time set aside to work on your business, not just in your business, right? Are you just operating inside your business all the time, never taking a step back and assessing what am I doing? Why am I doing it? Can I do it better? Am I focused on the right things? If you don't actually have a system and a process or a ritual around working on your business, that's just not in your business, you really don't have a chance. You're not gonna see it, you're gonna get consumed by it. And all the things we just talked about around passion, energy, hamter wheel alone, you're just not gonna see it. But if you step back and look at it, you're actually gonna see the problems begin to build and emerge. And that's gonna give you an opportunity to solve for them, right? That's where that's the moment where you say, okay, I see this and I got to do something about it. And as a business owner, you're in a great position to do it, right? You are in control, that's why you went independent. And so the question becomes, what do you do about it? How do you do it about it? And that's where you got to spend the time first to actually reflect on where is the business? And it's not a one-time thing, it's not a once-a-year thing, it's a multiple times a year thing so that you can make sure that this business as a whole, this enterprise is staying on track and it's and and you are leading it, it's not running you.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah, that's a great point. So now so now I'll getting into you've you've made that recognition, you put that time aside, you recognize there's a problem. So, how do you break through that metaphorical ceiling?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Yeah, it's it starts with an assessment of for you, what's the most important thing? So you need to set the trajectory for the business and not let it set it for you. So you identify what's most important for me here. Do I want to free up my time to spend more time on doing what I love? Most advisors would say absolutely yes to that. Then it gets down to okay, what are the paths for doing so? So one is I could hire people who can take on a lot of the operative roles within the business so that I don't have to focus on those. The other path is, okay, well, I can go find a partner to outsource many of these functions that I don't love to do. So I can trust that partner to handle that and free my time up. Both are viable paths, but it starts with what do you want to do? The outsource path, you lose a degree of control, right? You're introducing a third party, but you're probably introducing a lot of scale and experience in that as well. In the other path, you have control because you're in charge of who you're hiring, but you also still own the responsibility of training those people. You replace those people if they leave. You've got to make sure that the systems and workflows that they're building are operating right and they work. They may not be tried and test true and true and tested yet. So there's different paths. They both can work. Um, but either way, there's one, there's one resource that you have that is finite.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

I know where you're going with this.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

And that resource is time. And so, how can you more effectively scale your time? And that is likely going to be the answer to your question because if you can maximize the efficiency of your time to focus your res your re your efforts and your heart on what you love to do the most amount of time possible, you will find harmony, you will find peace, and you will see your enterprise grow.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, it's a reallocation of that time, right? To to where it's going to most both uh both benefit the business and yourself, right? So as you said early on, most advisors like to serve clients and work with clients and speak to clients and grow those relationships, right? So that's where the time is best served, not only for what you personally like to do, but also that has a direct effect to the business, right? You help those clients um, you know, in in what their pursuits are and focus on marketing or growth and adding more clients into the mix, and that helps the business grow, obviously. So it's that reallocation of time that um seems to be the central point there.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

It it's huge. And the other the other aspect of it is getting focused. So so many independent advisors that I've come across over the years are they're they're beholden to what I call shiny object syndrome. So they see the next great technology, they see the next great. We're all a bit guilty of that. Of course. With next great marketing program, right? And they're like, this is gonna change everything. Yeah. So what do they do? They go take a look at it, they may buy a subscription to it, then they never take the time to learn it, understand it, integrated it, and build workflow and process around it. So, what does it become? Completely wasted resources, energy, time.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

More complex.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

And so it requires so much focus and I mean intentional laser focus on what is most important to you, and then maximizing the time you spend on that thing, that one thing will answer all of these questions. It will take all the distractions, melt them away, and that is how you grow with purpose, that is how you grow with harmony.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yeah, I want to go back to something you said earlier about, you know, we were talking about how do you recognize when you've hit this metaphorical ceiling. And you mentioned putting time aside. And one thing that I've heard um from just other thought leaders and people I've I've tuned into is this concept of, hey, disrupt your own business. Be the person that breaks your business, not let it be broken by someone else or something else, right? And I love that concept here and the way you're describing this is be the architect of what that future is. Don't stay just on the hamster wheel, right? And be the one to disrupt your best business for the better. And if you think like that, you put that process in place, not only will you avoid the scene like complexity, but if you do hit them, you'll be more uh prepared and armed to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, there's no question. It's the right mindset. But the other corollary I would say to that is the disruptor is not the one that's got to go build and do all the change that happens within it, right? So if you get consumed by the operational elements that are driven by the disruptive mindset, you're not really gonna get anywhere. So you need to be able to step away from the fray and to be that leader, to be that decision maker, and then to allow the operative execution of that disruption to be done through others that you trust, whether that's people you have stakeholders on your team, whether that's an outsource partner that you trust that can get the work done, but you lead the strategic direction, you drive it, you're the catalyst behind it, but you're not necessarily the one doing it all because again, that's huge, a huge time commitment. So it's both sides that's the right mindset and setting aside time for it. But then how do you actually execute on that? And that's where you've got to find the right resources and partners. It can't all be you. It can't all be you.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, that's it's so true. Um, so you if you're an advisor, you you've recognized the issue, you've dealt with the issues, and you're coming out the other side, right? And and you're you're you're in a place that is is moving forward, you're growing. Um, what does peace look like in a healthy advisory practice? There's advisor of come out there. What does that peace feel like?

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, and I would I would use more the term harmony than peace. And um, and so I'm good with that. So what does a harmonious wealth management practice feel right? Uh feel like and so there's a there's so many elements to that. So the first is it's mission-centered, right? You are clear on why you do what you do, you're not just consumed by the business, you set intentionally what you're doing and the purpose behind it, and that guides all of your decision making. So it starts with why, it starts with purpose. So if you start there, you're in a really great place, and you're very likely to be on the on the path to harmony. And then the next thing you are you're gonna need to do is you're not just gonna hit one ceiling of complexity and it's gonna be done, right? This is this is a living process. So you're gonna go from A to B, and then you're gonna go from B to C and then C to D. And each one of these is gonna pretend present a unique challenge of complexity that you're gonna have to deal with. And so, what is your process for prosecuting within your enterprise the change needed to break through ceilings of complexity proactively? How do you see in it, see, see the field ahead before the ball gets there, right? And that's about setting intentional time, about focusing on the business, being the leader, not the doer. So those are all the things that start to happen as you become more of an enterpriser and you start thinking about this as a leave living, breathing business with you as the lead, and then you're orchestrating the various resources around you, and it's not a static set of resources, right? It's dynamic, and what you're putting in place might be new people, it might be new partners. And so it's a living thing. So a harmonious business isn't like you've arrived and then you just sit back and kick your feet up. Yeah, like that's when you know your business is about to crash again. So, what that means is you're still pushing, you're still you've still got that edge about you, you're still challenging things, you're still disrupting things as you talked about earlier, but you're doing it in an intentional, prepared, and measured way, as opposed to a reactive and urgent. It's always ongoing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, we we spent a lot of time with our members on this. I agree, I mean, I know you do, I know other members of founders do. Um we worked a lot of advisors on this very thing, how to avoid these complexity um ceilings that exist, how they move past them. Um how do firms uh like like founders or any firm out there, how do they unintentionally add complexity to advisors sometimes? I said that wrong. Let's just redo that. I don't like that I came across it.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Um really fits, but um I mean you want me you are you basically wanting me to talk about seven years.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Yeah, I well not necessarily seven, yeah. I I I want to get into uh how founders and can actually support this and how firms can actually support this.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

You want to talk about our experience and how we can do it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so why don't you just why don't you just ask it directly?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah, okay. All right. So Pete, you know, we we work a lot of our members on this very thing. How of helping them move past these ceilings of complexity, helping get them to the right, the right path forward. Can you talk a little bit about kind of the experience you've seen about how we do things to support members um in this in in this process?

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah, this this is the the heart of what we do. It's it's the spirit of partnership that we share with the member partner community of founders. And so we are very invested in our member partners growing purpose-rich enterprises. And it benefits them, it benefits us, it benefits the relationships they serve. So it's it's a really powerful combination. And so over the last 30 years now, as a firm, we've really deepened our understanding of independent advisors and the practices that they build and how we can support them more effectively. And we've talked about this a lot today, so I won't spend much time on it. But the biggest thing is making sure that the advisor is liberated to spend as much time as possible focused on growing and serving relationships. We are in a relationship business, and every moment that an advisor is in a relationship enhancing activity is a growth activity for that relationship and for the enterprise more. Broadly. So, how do we do that? So, we've developed tools and solutions to make it easier for the advisors, the member partners that we serve to take away a lot of the operative elements of what they do. So you've got the standard ones, right? So you've got compliance and you've got service and all those types of things that we as an RIA and broker dealer need to do to support. The basics you got to do. It's just the basics, right? The blocking and tackling, but we've extended way beyond that. We've built a comprehensive investment management platform that can be white-labeled to the advisory practice and can liberate massive time from an investment management standpoint. We've built outsourced administrative services to support them so that they can outsource some of the day-to-day work of processing the business, serving the relationships, preparing the review matings, preparing the financial plans. We've put resources in place so they can outsource that very effectively and efficiently. On top of that, we've we've built programs and resources to help them be better business owners. Our strategic enterprise program has been around for 30 years now, and it's been tried and true and tested, started by our founder, Michael Brooks. And we've shared that wisdom and knowledge with our member partners so they understand what it actually means to build and grow a business of purpose, to start with a mission statement and a value proposition, start with why, and then go build the business, not the other way around. And so all of these tools are things that we have brought to bear to make it easier for all of these independent advisors we serve, these business owners, to find the resources and the tools to break through these ceilings of complexity, to grow and scale with purpose, and to find harmony in their enterprise.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

And we do this because we we've recognized early on that the advisor's time is best spent growing and enhancing those relationships.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Without a question.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

We get all that stuff as much off their plate, and other firms do this as well. Get all that stuff off of their plate as much as possible. Can't do everything, but get as much off as possible. And then just give them the opportunity and the clarity to go focus on the things that really matter.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

That's exactly right. And there's two taglines we've had at founders since our very founding. Um, the first is built by and for. So we really are an enterprise built by our member partners and for our member partners. So all the solutions that we've developed that I just referenced have been developed in collaboration and partnership with our member partners. So they're the tools that they're asking for and they need. And so that's how we've we've understood the need and responded to it. The other is shared resources and shared values. So we've got a common community, a shared heart across this community and trusted partnership and relationship, which allows us to have an influence that goes deeper than just a transactional client-based relationship. And that's allowed us to have a very strong influential impact on the member partners that we serve. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, perfect. Um we're gonna wrap up here a couple of rapid fire questions. Uh so um complexity often sneaks in when blank.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

When you stop focusing on your business and are consumed by running your business.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Um advisors usually wait too long to address complexity because it's hard. It's hard. It's uncomfortable. It's recognized, yeah, they recognize that there is a problem. Right. Yeah. Um peace in her practice comes from what? And not something else.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Intimately understanding your why and your purpose.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Um What is one thing if you get recon if you get the televisors one thing that should stop doing right now? What would that be? Day one, stop doing this right at the moment. It's not helping you.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Stop reacting to every urgency that comes across your plate in a given day.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Take more time to think about it and be intentional and measure with your time. Yeah. Um and what is one thing they should start doing sooner than they probably are.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Start focusing on your business, start focusing on your why, and making sure that your enterprise represents your why in everything that you do.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

That's perfect. I think that's a great place to leave it. Um, Pete, thanks for joining me today and have this great conversation. Uh, appreciate all the insights and wisdom you provide, and uh hope to have you back soon. Thanks, Steve. All right, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Thanks for spending time with us on the Built By and For podcast. If this conversation resonated, follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and share it with an advisor in your circle who's thinking about what comes next. To learn more about Founders Financial and our solutions for independent advisors, visit Foundersfinancial.com. The Built Buy and For Podcast is produced by Founders Financial. The opinions expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Founders Financial. Content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment, legal, or tax advice. Securities offered through Founders Financial Securities LLC, member FINRA, and SIPC, registered investment advisor. Copyright Founders Financial, all rights reserved.