Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join NABR in partnership with Corp! Magazine for our CEO & Executive Thought Leadership Series, where Jennifer Kluge sits down with C-Suite Leaders to get their insight and expertise.
NABR is a service organization igniting greatness in companies and their people.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:16:21
Jennifer
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of CEO Thought Leadership. I am your host, Jennifer Kluge, and today we have two very special guests. We have Michael Berkemeier and Aaron Veldheer from Innovia Wealth welcome gentlemen.
00:00:16:23 - 00:00:18:07
Aaron
Thanks for having us.
00:00:18:09 - 00:00:58:14
Jennifer
Yeah. Thank you. So for those of you that don't know, let me just give a little 3 second overview of your organization. And Michael founded actually strategic, strategies wealth advisors. Forgive me as the predecessor to a no deal wealth in 2007, with Aaron joining the team as managing director in 2020. And your boutique wealth management use a team based approached with their wide ranging expertise to help clients with wealth management, retirement plans, estate planning and business succession, amongst other services.
00:00:58:16 - 00:01:02:01
Jennifer
It's a pleasure to have you both on the program, Jennifer.
00:01:02:01 - 00:01:02:22
Aaron
Thanks for having us.
00:01:03:00 - 00:01:22:24
Jennifer
All right. So, Michael, you started the organization and I mean, as we mentioned, what led you to a partnership with the two of you? We have very few partnerships on the show. It's it's a tricky thing to be in a partnership. So tell us the story, the formation story.
00:01:23:01 - 00:01:44:22
Michael
The formation story goes back to 2018. Here. And I have a joint friend, close friend of ours still to this day, who set us up on a meeting. And prior to that meeting, I have heard of Aaron and his team up, up and coming. We would run into each other. I'm quite a few engagements. If you weren't competing for a business.
00:01:44:24 - 00:02:09:00
Michael
So one afternoon in the spring, we play nine holes of golf. Yeah, nine holes change the future. When I originally met Aaron, I was trying to get him to join, you know, strategies. Well, for the tie and time, you know, the space is growing. It's it's new. We can do a lot of cool things that you know, why your houses can't do.
00:02:09:01 - 00:02:35:23
Michael
Well, Aaron was trying to get my team to join him. And throughout the round, back and forth. The golf game was not great. By the way. That day it was it was back and forth on his dreams and his thoughts on what the right space could be. And I'm like, Holy smokes, he's spot on. He was Tommy. Things that I even think of and towards the end of it, I realized one thing.
00:02:35:23 - 00:02:57:24
Michael
He was passionate about multiple things about his career, about this space, about his family, about his faith. And I left there thinking, Holy smokes, there's something here. And that started 18 months of back and forth in a coffee shop early in the morning at 6 a.m. where nobody could see us. Planning the future and what is today and no.
00:02:58:04 - 00:03:18:16
Michael
Wow, a lot of great conversations and it's kind of funny. It's happened way faster than we had originally thought. We had goals to accomplish what we've already have, you know, and a 7 to 10 year period of time. And we've been blessed with an amazing team and and a supporting cast with our families to, to do so well.
00:03:18:16 - 00:03:31:11
Jennifer
It's definitely a risk. But you saw the opportunity and the collaboration more so than the risk of bringing someone on the team. Aaron, what's your perspective on that story and if you can add to it?
00:03:31:13 - 00:03:55:04
Aaron
No, I it is it's spot on. I, I'd say, you know, there were there is a little bit of the head and a little bit of the heart that was involved. If you, if you get to know Michael, you know, he's just a great guy to be around. Fun, funny, witty, sharp, big thinker, optimistic, energetic. And so it really started with a friendship.
00:03:55:07 - 00:04:22:16
Aaron
You know, if we had not consummated the merger, we still would be we we would still be best friends. And so, like just because we didn't have every t cross and I dotted because of that trust that we developed through our friendship over a period of at 18 to 24 months, there was a lot of there was a lot of confidence and it became more of an intelligent risk taking activity, you know?
00:04:22:21 - 00:04:52:23
Aaron
And then there's the, the, the kind of the reason and logic and head oriented side, which was definitely, you know, as we kind of fought to say which model was better, you know, should he join the brokerage or should I join the fiduciary, the independent. All right. You know, he he painted a picture of the future in his vision for what could be with fewer restrictions around how we could plan for our clients and do that independently.
00:04:52:23 - 00:05:14:02
Aaron
And at the same time, with this legal obligation, this fiduciary obligation to put our clients first, it was yeah, it became like, you know, there were so many hurdles that were set up at the outset, and they all just kind of went by the wayside because we knew it was it was our destiny.
00:05:14:04 - 00:05:38:07
Jennifer
Yeah. Well, you both mentioned the heart of it, the gut instinct of it, the collaboration, the friendship. So many times you hear that that's not something to weigh a business deal on. But so many times, CEOs and leaders do lean on their gut instinct and in this situation, it panned out for both of you. You focused on the whole person.
00:05:38:09 - 00:06:02:04
Jennifer
Just like we focus on the whole person as as part of our team, you both focused on the whole person for your partnership. Partnerships are not easy. You all know that because you're in the succession planning business and transfer well. So I can only imagine some of the discussions that you were having. This is almost like two lawyers trying to start a law firm together.
00:06:02:06 - 00:06:26:05
Jennifer
You know, you're both experts in the field. So walk us through the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, the ugly of partnerships. Because statistically, partnerships are the least favorable business arrangement. You all are making it work. But, you know, there's other partnerships listening right now. Some of them might be struggling. What advice do you have for them, Michael?
00:06:26:05 - 00:06:27:15
Jennifer
Do you want to tackle it first?
00:06:27:15 - 00:06:49:22
Michael
Sure, sure. Well, in 2021, Anovia wallet was ranked as the fastest one of the fastest growing areas in the country. And with that comes, you know, it's own issues. We were growing, we were having fun. We were moving. And it led here and I both to divide and conquer. We both couldn't do the same thing like we were doing before.
00:06:49:22 - 00:07:30:20
Michael
We had to be strategic about where we spent and intentional where we spent our time, which which grew. But we realized quickly, just like any marriage, you have to spend time on it to have it be successful. And that's what we did. We hired a consultant who focused working with partnerships. Joe De Haidara was instrumental not only then, but also continues to be today in our company, and we really dedicated the time to focus on each other, focus on our business marriage to make it success and there is a few things that came about it and right away we call pieces.
00:07:30:20 - 00:07:59:21
Michael
Professional courtesy is one of the one of two major pivotal changes in our thought process and a day to day work of anything, you know, heavier than a paperweight. We needed to give the professional courtesy of this is what I'm thinking. Any reason why I should not do it to each other? And so, you know, daily, usually first thing in the morning, we would connect for 15 to 20 minutes and just give a high level thinking of what we're doing when it's not.
00:07:59:21 - 00:08:26:03
Michael
The fact that I didn't trust Aaron on what he's doing or he didn't trust me, but it was really dedicating and giving our teammates thoughts on what we're doing. What is Michael doing today? And if Aaron didn't have a good idea of like, I'm not really sure. Well create, you know, fractures in that relationship in the organization. People just sit on our hands and not really know what's going on.
00:08:26:05 - 00:08:51:05
Michael
And the other big one was assume positive intent. Going into a conversation. We assume positive intent on the actions. And we're not perfect will never will be. But if those two things carry on, it's an easier road and we grow closer together. Alignment, etc.. I we've taught our team several of those isms, if you would.
00:08:51:07 - 00:08:52:04
Jennifer
Yeah.
00:08:52:06 - 00:08:53:00
Michael
What did I miss?
00:08:53:00 - 00:09:16:14
Aaron
Aaron I'm sorry. No, I think I would say we we had to we realized, you know, this is a business marriage. If you don't treat it with the same investment that you do, your real marriage, you know, ultimately, Michael and I spend as much or more time together than we do with our wives. And so we need to continue to be friends.
00:09:16:14 - 00:09:37:05
Aaron
We need to, you know, not forget about the fact that what we do where is a true blessing. We need to make sure it continues to be fun. And, and and so we had these microcosm isms are really our values. I mean, they are the essence of our culture. And and they existed long before we put that label on them.
00:09:37:07 - 00:10:02:23
Aaron
But we would use we would use these terms. And then finally we just said, hey, why don't we practice these isms and why don't we practice them on each other? So if I'm going to if I'm thinking about making this major decision, I'm going to involve you up front. We're going to talk about the impact it could have, because sometimes it's hard to understand the impact of your decisions across the broader company or even six months or a year from now.
00:10:03:00 - 00:10:35:00
Aaron
So we started practicing those isms as we as we did that, we found that like being the message and being able to speak to working on a relationship and in having a tangible positive impact cascaded across the firm. So bringing in other owners and leadership to show them the benefits of actually utilizing these, these values that we had always talked about and putting them in practice, actually, you know, it it wasn't just good for us.
00:10:35:00 - 00:10:40:09
Aaron
It actually ended up being really good for our next level of leadership. And then beyond.
00:10:40:11 - 00:11:08:05
Jennifer
I want to pause here because there's so many good practices. I want to reiterate them for our audience because if there's any takeaways from this discussion and our first five minutes here, there's there's quite a few. The first is is your is the some companies call them fundamentals I know my organization. We call them our beliefs and how those are part of it's for the definition of the personality of the company.
00:11:08:07 - 00:11:39:07
Jennifer
And it's almost a guidebook before making decisions. Right. But you're both humble leaders and hiring a consultant is is a humbling thing, right? So hiring a consultant to make sure or a coach, a business coach to coach you both through the partnership was probably a pretty critical move, especially in the beginning. And the you know, Michael, you said this before I could even highlight it with any leadership teams.
00:11:39:07 - 00:11:56:17
Jennifer
And it's not just partnerships assuming the positive intent. So many people are suspicious instead of trusting in those 15 minute huddles, and professional courtesy. So I just wanted to pause there for a second, because there's some good stuff here.
00:11:56:19 - 00:12:27:03
Aaron
What can I add one thing to the to assuming positive intent, what we realized as the as that played out, all it did was open up a dialog and a discussion. So if I got left out of a meeting that that I don't really understand why I was left out of it. My as a human, my immediate assumption is going to be, well, you know, they don't appreciate my work or I'm not important enough to be a part of that meeting, and I'm going to shut down and I'm never going to have the conversation, but I'm going to bury it somewhere in my subconscious.
00:12:27:05 - 00:12:45:06
Aaron
If I say I'm positive in intent now, I'm going to go and say, hey, I'm I'm sure you were busy. I'm sure you have a really good reason. But I'd love to understand why. You know, why I didn't participate in that meeting. And it has, you know, we've seen a dramatic impact from that.
00:12:45:08 - 00:13:18:02
Jennifer
Oh, I'm stealing number one here. When it is, my team's going to be like, what meeting did you go to? Like. Yeah. So let's let's talk about what's going on in the world. There is a lot of change. Markets are not as stable as they used to be. The uncertainty is concern for leaders, the inability for leaders to make decisions right now based off of possible executive orders or possible tear ups, market conditions, you name it.
00:13:18:04 - 00:13:26:02
Jennifer
Could you give us a feel for how you're advising your clients right now related to market conditions? Aaron, let's start with you on this one.
00:13:26:04 - 00:14:05:21
Aaron
Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. We've seen it over the last couple of decades where it firm wealth management firms like ours, they kind of they they they earn a lot of their value in times like these. So this is a time where you work and you put in the extra time, not only because there's really valuable services you can provide to your clients at these times, but also because they just they want to be able to sleep well at night knowing that you're not, you know, you're taking their problems on for them and you should be experiencing experiencing a few sleepless nights.
00:14:05:21 - 00:14:28:17
Aaron
So I would say where we're at right now, there's a saying markets don't. Markets hate uncertainty. They don't mind risk. But yes, but they hate uncertainty. And right now it's not that we're we're able to measure the risk that's out there. There's just a lot of uncertainty I think you know like you said around tariffs. That's definitely the hot topic right now.
00:14:28:17 - 00:15:01:21
Aaron
I don't think it's insignificant. But then you still have things like inflation and how tariffs might impact inflation. If we have inflation. Plus we have, you know, signs of a recession which really comes from increasing unemployment. Then where does that leave the fed when it makes decisions on interest rates. Right. We had this these couple of lost decades through the mid 60s through the mid 80s where we had high unemployment with high inflation, you know, for 40 years that was unimaginable.
00:15:01:23 - 00:15:23:09
Aaron
Like, how does that even make sense? And now we're at a place where we could see something like that on the horizon. So I do think the benefit of where we're at right now is I think we will start to get some, some certainty. We'll start to understand the impact, the longevity of the tariffs, as well as the impact of the tariffs.
00:15:23:11 - 00:15:50:11
Aaron
And at that point, the market's going to move. And usually just because this is the way it works, the market moves so fast. You're still trying to fit. You're still caught in kind of this uncertain realm. That's where your thoughts and emotions are especially as clients. And before you know it the market's moved. And you said well, and so rather than you know, we are we are tactical when it comes to investments.
00:15:50:11 - 00:16:15:18
Aaron
But we are far more than that. We're strategic. And so the way we set up a portfolio is to be resilient. It's based on a client's plan. And we stress test that even in good times. So as long as their goals haven't changed, it should be that some, you know, events out of their control don't impact their ability to execute on their plans and therefore achieve their goals.
00:16:15:23 - 00:16:21:15
Aaron
So we're constantly checking in on the plan at times like these. Hey, you know, do you still Australian?
00:16:21:15 - 00:16:24:08
Jennifer
Are you looking at everything daily I would imagine.
00:16:24:12 - 00:16:52:00
Aaron
Well, you know, there was a nice study done at the University of Chicago in in not saying whether this is good or bad, but just the correlation, a high correlation between looking at your portfolio every day and making changes. Sometimes the best action you can take is no action. Now. Right now there are so many things we can do in terms of creating tax offsets through harvesting, you know, while staying in the market.
00:16:52:02 - 00:17:23:22
Aaron
We have clients with cash on the sidelines now. Maybe depending on their goals, now may be a great time to advance some of that into the market. So we are having these conversations daily both internally and externally. Yeah. But but but sometimes, you know I have a friend who says, you know, don't just do something. Stand there, which is a play on, you know, the, the old adage, but it's like sometimes you really just need somebody to explain to you why now is not the time to take a drastic action.
00:17:24:00 - 00:17:59:08
Aaron
And in and so it really it definitely comes down to how well we understand our clients, how well we've explored their goals, what the quality of the plan is that we put in place for them. Because if that's robust, then whatever happens out there. I also had a mentor and, who was in this space and he would say, look, yes, these these might be uncertain times, but let's and he actually could reflect upon decades past where we had, you know, one decade where we had a Vietnam War, a presidential assassination and race riots happening consistently.
00:17:59:10 - 00:18:01:24
Aaron
And it's like, okay, you know, there's.
00:18:02:01 - 00:18:02:21
Jennifer
Always something.
00:18:02:21 - 00:18:03:07
Aaron
Right?
00:18:03:09 - 00:18:35:08
Jennifer
Is what you're saying. There's always something that will impact the markets, whether it's what we're dealing with now and from our perspective of, you know, it's new and fresh. But generations ago, there you go. Yeah. We've been through stuff before too. Well, let's let's talk a little bit more about leadership, you know, on that golf course, you were having some very interesting discussions, but not everyone chooses to lead an organization.
00:18:35:10 - 00:18:55:06
Jennifer
You both are co-leading yours. Why lead? What's the advantage? What what motivates you? And for anybody listening that is on their career path moving up or they're just starting their career and they have high ambitions. You know what? Why lead? Let's go with you, Michael okay.
00:18:55:08 - 00:19:16:03
Michael
You know, I think leadership is something that finds you for me. That's how it happened. You know, choosing to be a leader. I think that's whether you want to be or not. I think leadership finds you. And it's not just at the office, but it's, you know, married to a beautiful woman and a wonderful family. And it starts at home, right?
00:19:16:03 - 00:19:39:01
Michael
As a spouse and as a father and translates into friends. One thing that I think keeps me like, focused and continuing to try to do better is like, you're not perfect, nobody's perfect. And hearing your wife or your kids knowing that you're disappointed, you can learn from that. And one of the things we say around here is we either or you win or you learn.
00:19:39:03 - 00:20:03:24
Michael
And we do a lot of both around the office. And I think a true leader is open and wants feedback, right. How can they improve in the true leaders that are great are the ones who actually take that advice and apply it to their daily lives and to make them better. And so, you know, you can talk to the teammates around here of how I have improved.
00:20:04:01 - 00:20:15:14
Michael
You know, since we started, there's been drastic things I've improved on, things I'm still improving on. And I think a true leader is open to that and is willing to work at it to improve.
00:20:15:16 - 00:20:19:02
Jennifer
Yeah. You're not the king of the room, right?
00:20:19:04 - 00:20:21:16
Michael
Correct. Yeah. You never are.
00:20:21:18 - 00:20:28:14
Jennifer
You're always you're in your thoughts on why leading? Why did you choose to lead your organization?
00:20:28:17 - 00:20:40:00
Aaron
Yeah. Okay. I'll get there. I just want to echo the kind of the humility that comes with. And it's not like you actively going go in intending to be humble. You are just made humble every day.
00:20:40:05 - 00:20:47:12
Jennifer
And that's, you know, I think I'll just stop there for a second. Yeah. Can you say that again, Aaron?
00:20:47:14 - 00:21:07:23
Aaron
Yeah. I, you know, some people are just naturally humble people. If you're in a leadership role and you're doing it right, you will be humbled every day. And yeah, the key is to recognize that and see it. And and that's where if you can lean into that, that's where all the good stuff comes from, because that's where growth, that's where growth comes from is just kind of setting that ego aside.
00:21:07:23 - 00:21:30:19
Aaron
It's very difficult. You know, Michael and I have and other people around here have just experienced numerous successes. We've been differentiated from many of our peers in the industry, other other firms, you know, trying their best. And it'd be really easy to get full of ourselves. I think that's another, you know, kind of going back to the partnership.
00:21:30:21 - 00:21:55:23
Aaron
We would never let we would never let each other do that. And we have good accountability around here as well. You know, I was I had good leaders around me growing up. My, my grandfathers were entrepreneurs. You know, my dad and my mom had been really good examples of of how to operate as a leader. But, you know, it's also and I've learned this from my partner here is, you know, leadership is unique to the person.
00:21:55:23 - 00:22:36:00
Aaron
It's experienced very difficult to understand the benefits of leadership in a book might give you a roadmap, but the wisdom comes from applying that knowledge. And, you know, I think the blessings that you get from leadership are unparalleled if you do it right. I love nothing more than having a vision of something, being able to coalesce and and move people in a direction to achieve that vision, and then watch them thrive, you know, like not only create this wonderful career where they grow, but also, yeah, put food on the table, put their kids through college.
00:22:36:00 - 00:22:53:02
Aaron
Like it's just really cool when it's done. Right. How many? Oh, one of our isms is entrepreneurship. It's the best form of charity. And so just the kind of the ways in which it filters through our team in the community is, is an amazing thing.
00:22:53:04 - 00:23:22:16
Jennifer
That's great. Thank you. Gentlemen. Michael, monumental moments in your career. And there's there's good ones and there's bad ones sometimes we learn the most from the bad things that happen. Sometimes there's some sort of decision or choice made that allows us to thrive despite ourselves. Outside of the decision to partner with Aaron, what were some of your monumental moments in your career so far?
00:23:22:18 - 00:23:39:14
Michael
Yeah, this was an easy one. This is asked quite a bit to me. You know, it was when my first son was born. My wife was like, okay, I'm staying home now. This is what our goal was. I was like, Holy smokes, that's an income for us. Lost. What am I going to do? And I remember leaving the hospital.
00:23:39:14 - 00:24:02:14
Michael
I was like, oh, this is real today. And this is knowing, you know, it's falling on your shoulders, right? Versus versus not before. And it's not just you and your your wife. You have somebody that you have to take care of and, you know, mouths to feed. And and I think that was the moment, a pivotal, pivotal moment in my life where, you know, I just started getting really intentional.
00:24:02:14 - 00:24:23:15
Michael
The things I started doing, what I was doing, previous weeks of more selfish behavior, really every yes and no doing more things and trying to have my hands and more cookie jars to try to figure it out. Where now I wasn't, I couldn't, I couldn't do the same behaviors I was doing before. And so I got really intentional.
00:24:23:15 - 00:24:34:08
Michael
And that's really what started my career of being a lot more successful and a lot more intentional on where I was going, who I was seeing, and how I was going to grow the company.
00:24:34:10 - 00:24:58:15
Jennifer
That's a fantastic reminder for leaders and executives out there that are the sole income providers, and they're the owner of the company, or they're driving the company forward. If the company has a bad day and the family has a bad day, you know that weight is always sitting on your shoulders. And I guess that's one thing with the assume positive intention.
00:24:58:17 - 00:25:17:14
Jennifer
Maybe sometimes our teams don't understand that, and quite honestly, they shouldn't or they don't care. It's like that. Okay, that's what you signed up for. Deal with it. Right? So it is a moment of skin in the game and it's like, I got to make this work. I got to make this work.
00:25:17:16 - 00:25:36:21
Aaron
Yeah, we definitely just I just want to echo what you said, Jennifer. It's you know, we we are taking the risk. You know, every day we're taking the risk. And there's many people on our team who, you know, have great lives. And we're the buffer to that. Right? They don't want to have that to wake up to that every single day.
00:25:36:21 - 00:25:52:12
Aaron
And and so to be that go between to, to take that risk every day is, you know, if there's a good understanding of it, I think there's a respect for it. But there's also not everybody wants to be in that role. Right? Yeah.
00:25:52:14 - 00:26:08:03
Jennifer
It's a privilege we had we had another CEO on the program and they talked about the privilege of the responsibility and the privilege of the risk. So that that sticks with us a little bit. Aaron, what monumental moments have you had thus far?
00:26:08:05 - 00:26:35:24
Aaron
I would just briefly touch on my side of the the, you know, leaving the large wire house where everything was going pretty darn well, having built a team there and taking that leap of faith, it was not easy in the moment. I had a a guy who was, you know, fully supported, supportive and in a, in a team that was and but, you know, there was a lot of speaking of uncertainty, you know, how is this thing going to play out?
00:26:35:24 - 00:26:40:20
Aaron
It was three months prior to the world shutting down for.
00:26:40:21 - 00:26:44:08
Jennifer
Congress and fighting for you, Aaron.
00:26:44:10 - 00:27:10:13
Aaron
It was there were some difficult times in there, but, you know, my takeaway really, there was and I think the rest of the team that came with me would say intelligent risk taking leads to huge growth no matter what. Whether you win or you or you fail. Which, as Michael said, our ism is win or learn. But but we got for I won't call it luck, but, it worked out very well in the moment.
00:27:10:13 - 00:27:13:08
Aaron
You don't always see how it's going to play out, though. Yeah.
00:27:13:10 - 00:27:30:07
Jennifer
Yeah. Have faith in yourself. Right? Have faith in your leadership. Let's say we are in the study hall of 500 business students that are the best in class. What advice would you give them to Michael?
00:27:30:09 - 00:27:50:21
Michael
Wow. You know a couple things. One, you have to be hungry. You can be the smartest. You can be in the best industry. You have to be hungry. And if you are hungry and you're strategic about what the moves you're going to make are guys element. But it starts with hunger. You have to be.
00:27:50:21 - 00:28:10:09
Jennifer
Hungry saying that, Michael, because I think it's a generational definition of what it takes to be successful and what some of our young folks are hearing they need to do and what actually needs to happen. At least I feel there's a disconnect there. Sometimes to find hunger. What does hunger mean?
00:28:10:14 - 00:28:31:06
Michael
Yeah, it's in your soul. It's, you know, you can't read it in a book. You can't pass it class, you can't get a certificate or a degree that says you're hungry. It's the work that you do when nobody's around. It's the belief that you have in yourself or your team that you're willing to do and put in the extra time and effort to make it happen.
00:28:31:08 - 00:28:45:10
Michael
And it's day in and day out. It's not an 8 to 5 thing. It's you're willing to go the extra mile and you have to be hungry in order to do it. You can't do it just because you signed up for it. There has to be more than that.
00:28:45:11 - 00:28:55:16
Aaron
I guess maybe I'll echo. Right now we're doing some hiring for our summer internships, and the quality of candidates we have this year is just incredible.
00:28:55:18 - 00:28:56:14
Jennifer
I agree.
00:28:56:16 - 00:29:04:19
Aaron
Resumes are unbelievable. What these people have have been able to do in their short lives. I'm so impressed I'd never be able to get an internship nowadays.
00:29:04:22 - 00:29:11:24
Jennifer
Totally I agree, I we, we just hired our interns too. I was wow, just blown away. Yes.
00:29:12:01 - 00:29:32:01
Aaron
So I think when I was on that side of the table, I thought there was some kind of formula. You know, I would submit my resume, I would do my best in an interview to kind of show my true colors and let the chips fall where they may. I don't I think the advice I would give, and this echoes what Michael is saying is, is, hey, be real.
00:29:32:06 - 00:29:57:18
Aaron
You just you just applied for this job. If you really want it, it's yours to go get, you know, think outside of that traditional interview process. What can you do to be differentiated, even sitting in the interview, if anyone had asked, you know, we end up talking about, well, what could I learn this summer? And and, you know, how could I grow in finance or in wealth management?
00:29:57:18 - 00:30:18:20
Aaron
And what might my prospects be at the end of the summer? And it's like, just ask me how you can help my firm this summer. I know we all think that you don't know anything quite yet. That's real world applicable, but just you asking the question gives us the sense that you have the perspective of how a company operates, right?
00:30:18:22 - 00:30:30:14
Aaron
Hey, how can I help you? What? Here are some things that I think I could do for you this summer that would actually have an impact on your business. Come in prepared to talk about that. Is business a monumental differentiator?
00:30:30:17 - 00:30:41:12
Jennifer
Yeah, yeah. You're an asset to the firm. How can you help versus what can you learn from the firm. Assume that that's implied. That's that's going to have.
00:30:41:13 - 00:31:10:02
Aaron
Yes. That's the that's the win win. That's the relationship that's implied. You're inevitably you're going to get some on the ground on the job training that you couldn't get in school. We're also going to pay you. So there's another win. But ultimately, if you really want to have a career, not just a job, and you can empathize and start to think how the boss thinks, how the leaders think, how the owners think, you're going to just leapfrog everyone.
00:31:10:04 - 00:31:33:22
Jennifer
Yeah, well, your company, it exudes from you both. By the way, your company is the best and brightest company to work for just by talking to you. I've, I've known over the years on which leaders are our leaders, the best and brightest companies and which are not, and it just exudes from you both treating the human like a human and not like an employee.
00:31:33:22 - 00:31:44:13
Jennifer
And the isms and what have you. Is there anything else you want to add about your culture and what your role is for driving the culture? Michael, let's have you tackle this one.
00:31:44:15 - 00:32:03:22
Michael
Yeah, Aaron alluded to it earlier and I'll touch on it. And then he can kind of jump in further. But we have values. We have 16 values. Call them isms that we are the message. And it started with us when we, you know, signed up several years back, more than several years back with this consulting of we got to live it first.
00:32:03:24 - 00:32:24:24
Michael
People have to see us living it and being the message for them to buy into it. And then we got our other leadership, other owners involved and the management involved. And so it's trickled down from there, which has been a it's been a cool process. It didn't happen overnight. And now we're reaping the rewards. I mean, how people treat each other around here.
00:32:25:01 - 00:32:57:11
Michael
Professional courtesy assuming positive. These conversations are a lot different than they were before in context of situations. One thing that I would say is we're all pretty young here and very family based, and we like to have fun and we do a lot of joking around and and light humor is something that you can see. We recently had a march madness madness event where we had the families come afterwards and you know, we are privileged to be able to lead these people and they're growing their families.
00:32:57:11 - 00:33:15:08
Michael
And there's I don't know how many little babies that were there. But just seeing everybody getting along. And I know Aaron, I took a step back and John was there as well. And just looking around to see, you know, the growth that's happened in a short period of time. And everybody smiling and having fun and that thank you.
00:33:15:10 - 00:33:17:13
Michael
We got after that was was pretty cool.
00:33:17:16 - 00:33:22:23
Jennifer
It's great. Aaron, you want to add anything about working there and with the cultures like.
00:33:23:00 - 00:33:47:17
Aaron
You know if you're the right person I think, if you're kind of a, if that your career is important to you and both personal and professional growth, one of our isms is pay it forward, which is this kind of contract that people create with others here. And, you know, so the more we grow, the more room there is at the top, the more opportunity for advancement and the more we need to keep in mind.
00:33:47:19 - 00:34:14:03
Aaron
You know, it's not it's not a matter of, you know, continuing to go upward, but shutting the door behind us. Right. There's we are trying everyone who has become successful here has done it on the shoulders of somebody else. And they need to think that way when it comes to our more junior people. And so that that pay it forward ism is really our way to continue to grow, creating room for more people to come up through the ranks.
00:34:14:05 - 00:34:30:20
Aaron
And and so it's not a place to stagnate. It's not a place to stagnate is not a status quo. If you're not growing, you're dying. And and that can be scary for some people. But if you have the if you've got the right perspective on that, you're going to be a great fit here.
00:34:30:22 - 00:34:33:13
Jennifer
Yeah. Their success is your success. Right.
00:34:33:15 - 00:34:33:23
Michael
What's that.
00:34:33:23 - 00:34:34:11
Aaron
Spot on.
00:34:34:11 - 00:34:53:04
Jennifer
So we have a few minutes left here and I'm going to close with a pretty profound question. You know us leaders, we get beat up but we have joys that others don't have. How would you both define happiness? Aaron, let's start with you, and we'll we'll end with Michael.
00:34:53:08 - 00:35:16:13
Aaron
Well, just coming off a recent trip with the family, I did have some time to think differently. You know, I find myself, I think, like, happiness is not necessarily leisure or pleasure or, you know, happiness is something deeper. And I think of it as being more and more true to myself, more and more genuine, more and more real every day.
00:35:16:15 - 00:35:44:19
Aaron
And that comes with a lot of work. But it also can be can be so fulfilling. Yeah. So, so it's it's a heavy dose of self-awareness which again comes with humility and learning and applying all those principles. But yeah, happiness to me is figuring out who I was called to be each day in each situation and trying to not, you know, clear out all the noise from that.
00:35:44:21 - 00:35:46:09
Jennifer
Well said Michael.
00:35:46:11 - 00:35:47:05
Aaron
Yeah.
00:35:47:07 - 00:36:15:20
Michael
Gratitude each day, you know, if you wake up with gratitude, we all been put on this earth for for greatness in different ways. And the simple things, you know, healthy family, an awesome partnership, great teammates, just small things. And if you really can relish in that and actually spend some time just thinking about that every day. And if you can do it twice, twice a day, you're going to be twice as happy.
00:36:15:22 - 00:36:19:06
Aaron
It's hard to be unhappy when you think of all the blessings.
00:36:19:08 - 00:36:21:03
Jennifer
Yeah, and.
00:36:21:04 - 00:36:21:23
Aaron
I said, Michael.
00:36:22:02 - 00:36:42:04
Jennifer
Well, the the culture exudes from both of you. Congratulations on your impressive journey and success. We know more greatness is in front of you, and the ripple out of your leadership is going to impact many. Thank you both for being on the program and keep shining bright.
00:36:42:05 - 00:36:44:14
Aaron
Jennifer, it's been a delight. Thank you.
00:36:44:16 - 00:36:45:04
Jennifer
Thank you both.