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Tune in to "What Works" hosted by Don Patrick where we tap into 2,500+ years of experience in running financial advisory practices. In each episode, Don sits down with an experienced financial planner, uncovering the unique insights and experiences that have shaped their careers. From navigating market fluctuations to building successful client relationships, Don and his guests share invaluable business tips and strategies for financial planners looking to thrive in the industry.
Join us every other Thursday, as we explore the wealth of knowledge accumulated from over 2500+ years of combined experience in financial planning.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to What Works. This is a show for consortium advisors
that taps into over 1,000 years of experience shared by our consortium
advisors.
I'm your host, Don Patrick, and I'm here to guide the conversation with
guest advisors and lift the hood on what works for them in business and
life. It's all about learning and growing.
So let's go.
Don Patrick: Welcome everybody to IFG's podcast, What Works, and our guests
today are Robbie Davis and Micah Valentine with Pinnacle Wealth Management
in Malden, South Carolina, which is just outside of Greenberg. Welcome guys.
Robert Davis: Thank you. Good to be here.
Micah Valentine: Good morning.
Don Patrick: Looking forward to this. So I always like to start off just
learning a little bit about you, your family, backgrounds, that sort of
thing. So, Robbie, you want to tell us a little bit about your family and
your background?
Robert Davis: Sure.
Don Patrick: Wives, kids, dogs, cats?
Robert Davis: Yep. Got everything you just named. So, wife and I have been
together 38 years.
Don Patrick: Wow, that's fabulous.
Robert Davis: Yeah, that just means I'm old. Older than Micah. So, 38 years
we met, when we were obviously much younger. Both Clemson grads. Kenzie here
with us, Clemson grad. My youngest son just graduated Clemson. My middle son
went to Georgia, University of Georgia. My youngest one just got a job, so
that's a good thing.
Born and raised in this area, so I'm a local guy, just like Micah. I'm a
little farther south. I'm down Anderson County. Micah, I think here from
Greenwood County originally, so three kids, I've got three dogs and two
cats, four of which are 16 years old, so I'm looking to pare that down soon
because I don't want any animals for a while, but yeah.
So my extended family, large family, my mother from this area was one of 14
children. So I had 35 first cousins on my mother's side and hardly any on my
dad's side, but just a local guy. My first career, this is second career for
me, my first career when I finished Clemson, I went to work for a big
trucking firm, Roadway Express, and I worked in transportation industry for
about 17 years and kind of decided at that point I'd had enough and change
careers and my only regret is I wish I'd changed careers a lot sooner.
Don Patrick: Yeah, everybody says that.
Robert Davis: So, that's kind of it in a nutshell. Now my wife and I are
empty nesters and took her a little more time to get used to it than me, but
I took to it instantly and it's been great.
Don Patrick: The golf course.
Robert Davis: Yes, golf course is great.
Don Patrick: No, Kenzie, so she works with you guys, right?
Robert Davis: Yes, Kenzie, her degree's in finance. Tried to push her to be
an advisor. She really didn't want to be an advisor. She likes doing the
more nerdy stuff. So, she works with us. She went to work with us, when she
finished Clemson. She's been with us now, I guess, four years, four years.
Don Patrick: Oh, my gosh.
Robert Davis: And just here in the last six months, has she actually said
that she loves her job? Sounds like that's a win.
Don Patrick: That is fabulous.
Robert Davis: She never told me that.
Don Patrick: Yeah. That's great. And you have a Navy SEAL.
Robert Davis: Yeah, so my oldest boy who went to Georgia, he was a swimmer
and he wanted to be a SEAL since he was 10 years old. And so he joined the
Navy when he left Georgia and is on Seal Team 3 and he loves it and is happy
and Micah sees him when he comes home, we go shoot and he's a wound, he's a
good kid.
I call him kid, he's 25 years old, but he's, yeah, he fits the mold. Yeah,
he's wound pretty tight. We got to experience a little bit of that, sadly.
Anyway, that's a different story. But yeah, men are lucky. All of them.
They're all different. It's crazy. All my kids are totally different, which
I hear that from a lot of people, their kids. But their personalities are
all totally different.
Don Patrick: You only have so much impact as a parent.
Robert Davis: Well, my, I'll say this. My Son, who's the Navy SEAL, he gets
that from his mother and I, Micah knows my wife. She's a wonderful woman,
but he gets it from her. Yeah. He gets it from her. There's no doubt about
that.
So it's funny. We say Kenzie got the best of me and my wife. Our youngest
son, a little bit of each, the good and the bad, and our son, Mr. Seal, he
literally got all the worst traits from each of us. That's, I mean, really,
that's a fact. Sadly.
Don Patrick: Well, seems like it's served him pretty well so far. Yeah.
Robert Davis: He's happy. He's doing what he always wanted to do.
Don Patrick: It doesn't get any better than that. Doing something you're
passionate about, right? Awesome. Well, Micah. How about you? Tell us a
little bit about your family.
Micah Valentine: Yeah. My wife Brittany and I have been married now for 22
years, and we met at our church at the time in Simpsonville, just the town
south of us, where I was born and raised and where we currently live.
And we have three boys and two of which were born in Louisville, Kentucky,
where I went to school. And the third was born here in Greenville. And our
boys are 20, 18, and 16. And we have Callie, our Catan d'Atelier dog, all of
nine pounds, which gets most of the attention in the Valentine House. And
more pictures of that dog than all our kids combined as well.
So, yeah. And, our boy is, Joseph is our 20 year old. He is working full
time at the local Porsche dealership as an entry level job, and renting my
basement currently, but he's going to be invited to explore other options in
May 1st. So that's his date.
Brayden, my middle one, is a knob, a freshman at the Citadel, and Tal is his
hero, so bad influence or not, so he wants to go into the Marines, and he's
gone through the MEPS, and he's doing a lot of different things down there
to kind of set him along that path, and he's a history major. So people ask
if he's having a good time and I say not right now, but come March 22nd,
when they stopped treating him like a fourth class citizen, I think he'll
enjoy it more so, but he is growing into a fine young man, which we're
really proud of.
And then Eli, our youngest is a Junior at the local charter high school down
the road from us, so he's doing great academically, and he works his, got
his first job about two months ago working at Culver's, working about 20
hours a week, so I think that's teaching him good character as well. So
that's our family kind of in a nutshell, and I'm a native of Simsville.
Don Patrick: Is he driving now?
Micah Valentine: Yes. Yes. Thank goodness. so just Brayden or Eli, see, I
always call them all the same name all the time. They always give me a hard
time. But Eli is driving now, so that insurance bill, and Robby and I were
talking about this, for all those cars and drivers is a lot of money.
Don Patrick: Yeah.
Micah Valentine: I'll be looking forward to getting some breaks down the
road, but right now we're just trying to survive. But, yeah, and that's been
a huge help.
Don Patrick: It's a blessing and yeah–
Micah Valentine: A curse.
Robert Davis: When they get to driving, it's expensive.
Don Patrick: Oh my gosh, I can't imagine. I just can't. That's motivation to
grow the business.
Micah Valentine: That's right. There you go.
Don Patrick: So, Micah, tell us a little bit how you got started in the
profession. I know this is a second career for you as well, I believe.
Correct.?
Micah Valentine: Yes. When I met my wife, we got married and moved to
Louisville, Kentucky. I was actually on the track to go to seminary
schooling. I was in seminary schooling in Louisville, Kentucky.
And that's how we wound up in Louisville. But I wound up switching back over
and finishing out at the University of Louisville with my degree. My degree
is actually in human resources and training and development. It's not even
finance at all. And at the time, while doing that, I was working for a Trane
heating and cooling company.
I did different entry level jobs here in Greenville, some inside sales
roles, and then transferred to Louisville, Kentucky while doing school. And
I wound up staying with them and then getting a job after I graduated from
college in Asheville, North Carolina as Western North Carolina sales rep for
their supply side.
And I was doing that in community from Greenville every day. So I was on the
road quite a bit. It was about an hour and 15 minutes to get to our
warehouse. And then I had to go out into all the different heating, cooling
companies and places to visit. So I was on the road for quite a bit. And my
brother, kind of a backstory here, he's been in finance, financial planning
for now 24 years.
So he's still been with another company and he's, we were out on a trip
together. I think we're on our way to Atlanta. We were in Commerce, Georgia,
and I took a call from one of our customers at the time. And he was asking
Brittany, because our wives were with us, was asking Brittany what I was
doing, and she was telling him I was helping a customer.
And I think he thought, he had the conversation or thought that if he's
doing this, he'd do really well in financial planning or something with
running a spectrum. So, he asked me if I'd be interested or look at that.
So, after some time, we looked at it, and through prayer, and we had some
conversations back and forth, a lot of conversations, after six months, and
made the decision and applied and got accepted and went to work at Edward
Jones after a 10-year career at Trane, so that's kinda what brought me into
this field, into the financial planning side of things, which has been now
15 years ago. So yeah, it was 10 years at Trane and then the last 15,
financial planning.
Don Patrick: So how scary was that? I mean, you went from getting a paycheck
to—
Micah Valentine: Yeah, no kidding. It was very scary. And we had saved, I
think we had saved, I think a total of $10,000.
And we had, at the time we just had our youngest. So, we had babies,
basically. A one year old, a three year old and a five year old. So it was,
and my wife stayed at home with our kids. So as scary as that was, it also
forced me to work that much harder cause there wasn't, not a plan B. So I
think that helped me too.
So it was a drive every day, knocking on doors and building a business
really from scratch. And we were able to get through those tough times and
still have our tough times in different ways, but I think that helped. But
yeah, it was super scary not knowing about it, going through the whole study
process.
Literally, I didn't know anything about what a 401k was or an IRA. So it was
great training to go through. I worked out of my brother's office for a bit.
Then I went and started my own office and ran that for five years before I
switched into the independent world. But yeah, it was very, very scary, but
good times as well, too.
You kind of look back and think about the good and the bad with anything,
and we definitely have plenty of those
Don Patrick: Well, if you survive and succeed, it's very rewarding for sure.
So you're, you went, it was Ed Jones, right?
Micah Valentine: Yes, that's correct. Yeah.
Don Patrick: Did you go knocking on doors like they used to?
Micah Valentine: Yeah. For quite some time, actually, that's where I've
been. Yeah, there were people home and there were people that were, there
was quite a people home. Matter of fact, I have some of my best clients
today still from those times, yeah, it was, I would never want to do it
again today, but, yeah. Matter of fact, that's where I met Robbie as well,
because he was, he came about a year after him.
He came from a previous place and I met him there, so that's where we
connected. And I used to host these call sessions at my office and then,
where the newer advisors would have to come to my office and I was speared
with like going around and making sure people were making their calls and
stuff.
And Robbie, of course, would be out in the car hiding, trying to not make
calls. So, yeah, right. We were peers. No, Robbie did this thing, but, no,
so we connected those. It was different times, but Robbie and I both talk
about how that was those foundations that helped build us.
And we look back and it was a lot of good that came from that too. Not all
bad, just for the training.
Don Patrick: Right. So Robbie, so you made the career change. What made you
make that change? How'd you get interested in this world?
Robert Davis: So in ‘08, when the financial crash happened, I was in
transportation, but I was in transportation sales at that time, and that's
all I'd ever done since college, and I literally got laid off.
They shut down the, in transportation trucking, they call it a trucking
terminal. They closed the facility here. And I'd never been laid off before.
I'd always had a job. And when I got laid off, that's when I literally,
similar story, not my brother, I don't have a brother or anything, but like
Micah with his situation with Paul, my best friend growing up from fifth
grade, my college roommate, he had went to work, we finished Clemson at
Merrill Lynch.
He'd been there, I don't know, at the time, maybe close to 20 years. And I
literally called him up and I said, “Doug, do you think I can do what you
do?” He was like, and he, at the time he was what they called it Merrill
Lynch, downtown Greenville, he was the resident director. So kind of like
the branch manager.
And he was like, “Well, yeah, if you can pass the entry test and that kind
of stuff, I'll hire you.” But he said, “Just know you're not going to make
any money.” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “No, I want to control my own
destiny.” ‘Cause at the time I was in my early forties and I was like, I
got, just like Micah, my kids were younger and I was, I can't be getting
laid off.
I want to control my own destiny. So I did and I went to work at Merrill
Lynch and they're, at the time they called it the PMD program. I think it
was Practice Management Development or something is what that stood for. But
it was, you were a new trainee, did the same thing. Did the studying for
months and yeah, man, I hadn't done studying in a long time at my age.
But just like Micah said, we've talked about this before, I didn't have a
plan B. There was, failure was not an option. So, you do what you have to do
to get through it. Do the hard work and the phone calls and the cold calling
and that kind of stuff that is just horrible, but teaches you a lot, teaches
you a ton about rejection and kind of how to just keep pushing forward for
the one success that gives you the juice to move on to the next one.
So I worked there for a couple of years. I worked there long enough to
figure out at Merrill Lynch, there was no training. It was kind of like sink
or swim, which was a good thing. It toughens you up. But I worked there long
enough to figure out that I didn't want to be there long term. So an
opportunity kind of presented itself similarly with Edward Jones.
So I took over a Edward Jones branch, left Merrill, took over everything.
That's where Mike and I met. And I think, I don't know, I think I spent a
little over, under seven years, over six years at Jones. For all of its
warts, they do have very good training and that kind of thing, put you
through a lot of stuff you really don't want to do, get you out of your
comfort zone.
So, we met there, then Micah left there, went with another firm. Down the
road with me, I've kind of reached point, I was like, “I want to kind of
have control of my own business as opposed to being an employee.” So I
reached out to Micah, another gentleman that were at the time was with us,
but has since departed and talked with him for a while and ended up leaving
Jones and coming over here and fast forward to today, we, Mike and myself,
and we've I think it built pretty good practice so far and done a lot of
good things and the good thing about like working side by side with Mike is
it works good because our personalities are similar, but we're different in
the right ways, the things that I hate, he likes just by chance and kind of
vice versa. Mike is really good with keeping up with the numbers of the
practice, the things that I could do but I hate doing. So we play off of
each other's strengths really well, and we both have perfect alignment, I
think, and how we want things to grow and the type of clients that we want.
So it's a really good relationship and everybody gets along great. So you
don't run into that a lot. So it's been a real blessing for quite a few
years now.
Don Patrick: So a couple of observations. A lot of people fail in this world
because they never had sales training and both of you guys had tons of sales
experience, which is a big, I would say a big part of your success.
And you both have grit. I mean, you just got grit. You guys ever, I don't
know if you read Nick Murray at all. I still get his newsletters. He's
awesome. And I think it was one of his first books and he was, I think he
was at Merle, actually, and where people fail is the rejection side of
things. And he just totally reversed the psychology of it because he knew
his own numbers.
So his deal was get his 50 calls in and then gave himself a treat. Could be
a candy bar, could be whatever it was, but his goal was get the calls in.
Because you know you're gonna get a client eventually, it's just all—and
that's what you guys did. So Mike, so you left Ed Jones and then what, why
did you leave Ed Jones, what attracted you to move over to the independent
side?
Micah Valentine: Like what Robbie said, kind of spot on with wanting to have
control and own my own business. I had two particular situations with higher
net worth clients where I wanted to compose or to come up with a plan for
them. And literally, I could not offer what they were doing because we were
so limited with what we could do and offer to clients at that time.
There was really no financial planning done at that time as well. And I just
knew something was missing and I really had the push to really sell product,
which that kind of was going against what I really wanted to do for folks.
So I wound up going to work for Raymond James as an independent, but I went
to an existing office with another person that I didn't really know to kind
of keep costs down and just an opportunity to make that transition.
And I committed to do three years and after getting there, I knew right away
that's not the person that I wanted to kind of share space with. I won't say
it was toxic, but it was not a good environment to where I want to be long
term. So I did, three years as the independent through Raymond James.
I was able to transition my business from Everett Jones over and dealt with
the lawsuit that went with it from Everett Jones as well. So 2014 is a year
I don't like to remember, but it was the launching pad into actually
becoming a true business owner. And after my three years was up there at
Raymond James, I was looking at some opportunity, but one of our wholesalers
at the time, Tami Bakari with Symmetra was introduced me or talked to me or
introduced me to LAND.
And that's how we connected and learned about LPL and IFG. And we had some
conversations. I don't know why Glenn kept talking to me with my small
business, but I was grateful that he did and beating you, Don, at the time
too. So yeah, that's, I feel at home here, is definitely a family and it
really gives us that camaraderie with each other and it's been a joy for
sure.
Don Patrick: Great. And I was going to ask about How you've been successful
as partners and Rob, you've already explained that and I find that to be the
common theme with successful partnerships is that, well, one, you get along,
you can communicate, you don't kill each other, but you have different skill
sets and you trust each other and because you guys are growing tremendous
business together. It's just been awesome watching you two.
Micah Valentine: And I think it's the right time too, Don,Robin would have
met the mid 20 something year old me. He would have killed me, and stuff.
Robert Davis: Yeah, me too.
Micah Valentine: As hyper as I am still, I've melted and I look back on my
career working. I was sat beside a gentleman when I was at Trane in
Louisville, Kentucky, and he was very patient with me and helped me kind of
come along and in process.
And I see how that's been a good thing with Robbie and I too. So I think
it's been great. He's kind of been like the big brother. He said he doesn't
have any brothers or no siblings, but he does.
Robert Davis: Yes, there's no doubt about that. We talk about that all the
time. Micah’s like a brother to me.
Micah Valentine: Yeah, I'm the baby brother.
Robert Davis: I'll brag on Mike a little bit here because he won't. So when
I came over here, I had no leverage to join Micah and the other gentleman at
the time that it will seem, a good fella. He's a good fella, but it just
wasn't a good fit for us. That's a different story. So I had no leverage,
but Micah was gracious and brought me in. And then when the other gentleman
left, we decided to kind of make this a partnership.
And Micah just to tell you the kind of person Micah is, he was, Micah
founded this firm. Micah owns our building, but he literally told me at the
time we were having a conversation about, just being partners in this. I was
like, “Well, you're always going to be…” And he literally was adamant, like,
“No, it's 50-50.”
And while that may sound true, I will always defer to what Micah, as far as
his leadership, because he founded the firm, and that's just the way it's
going to be whether he likes it or not. I mean, because that's the only,
that's just the right thing to do. So while he may say we're 50-50, we're
not, we're 51-49
Micah Valentine: That's exactly, and well, it's funny you say that. He jokes
with me all the time about, Don, “I wanna go ahead and retire.” I'm like,
“No, not yet. I'm not quite there yet.”
Don Patrick: Oh God. Well, it's so special that you have such a great
friendship and great business partners. I mean, life doesn't get any better
than that.
Micah Valentine: Yeah. It works good for us.
Robert Davis: Yeah. For sure.
Don Patrick: Yeah, for sure. So you've talked a little bit about meeting
land and ultimately joining the consortium and when was that? Fourteen?
Micah Valentine: No, I'm sorry. Seventeen. A rough year.
Don Patrick: Well, that's a whole other story.
Micah Valentine: Came in right after Strong, Gaddy, and Lee.
Don Patrick: Yeah, you guys went through a few transitions. We'll take that
offline. That was crazy.
Micah Valentine: Yeah, you're good.
Don Patrick: So, I think you explain a little bit about why you joined the
consortium, if you'd like, expand on that a little bit.
Micah Valentine: Sure. Well, the one thing I did like, and I think Robbie
had talked about, we liked about the Edward Jones world, there was a lot of
iron sharpening iron, camaraderie, information sharing, and everything of
that nature, and it was really, really great because while I was at my three
years at Raymond James, after leaving Edward Jones, I was literally in a
small office in the back of this office and the other guy that I was with
was never involved with talking and everything.
I felt so isolated. I was really miserable coming to work every day. There
was no interaction with other peers, really. You were kind of cut off. And
for me, that was something that I think I need or I needed and I do need.
And just talking with Land and talking about what the consortium is and what
Integrated Financial Group was and is, that was the really attractive thing.
It was a lot of like-minded folks as well that had the same values and
visions and goals, and that to me was very appealing. It felt like you could
be part of a group, but yet be kind of all together separate, if that makes
sense. We were all together, but we also had our separate independent
businesses.
So to me that was really something that was quite wonderful about being
attracted me, particularly to IFG.
Don Patrick: Yeah, we've always fought for independence. It's your business,
which is the beauty of it. That's why we got into this business. But yes,
the iron sharpening iron. I tell people so from the 30,000 foot looking
down, everybody does financial planning.
Well, the reality is everybody does financial planning very differently. But
the one thing I tell people is you're going to like everybody is great.
They're nice. You will like them as people. That's the commonality, which is
pretty cool. So Robbie, what do you love about the profession?
Robert Davis: I like the, so to speak, freedom and ability to do work how I
want to do it. That part was really attractive to me. I like building
relationships because I've never claimed to be the best money manager guy,
investment guy. But this job is, this is my opinion on what we do, it's kind
of in like a coaching role you're holding somebody's hand and keeping them
from making bad decisions and keeping them on the right track.
And I think that just attracted me to this, to have the freedom and ability
to build relationships with people long term and then build out from that
with their kids and their brother and so I've got a lot of clients that are
the entire family because one of them referred the other one to me and then
the next one, that kind of thing.
So I love the relationship part of this business and that was really
attractive to me because kind of like Micah, if I was isolated in an office
by myself, that guy, I would not like it. So the ability to talk with people
and get to know them and what they're trying to accomplish and that kind of,
that's what attracted me to this.
So the independence of it along with the camaraderie. And then with IFG, I
kind of liken our relationship as a practice with IFG. To me, it's kind of
like the church that I go to is a really big church with–it's here locally,
like a, I've gone there 20 years, but it's grown into 25,000 people, but you
have small groups.
So to me, it's kind of the similar in the way it's constituted, IFG makes it
feel instead of like this huge organization, LPL, IFG makes it feel like
small groups. like we're all part of a smaller group and you have folks you
can call and lean on and that kind of thing versus just calling the back
office at LPL, which I think is huge in the support and all is great.
So that's the part that I find makes it not feel so big. It makes it feel
small and that's a good thing.
Don Patrick: So Land is, he's so great at analogies. And early on when he
joined us, he said, “We're the Ace Hardware.” You can go to Home Depot. It's
all there, but we're the Ace Hardware.
We'll take you right there, right to the shelf. “Can we help you? Have a
good day.” And he actually bought us the red aprons we used to wear.
Micah Valentine: That’s awesome. That’s cool.
Robert Davis: Very true.
Don Patrick: So, Micah, how about you? What is it you love about the
profession?
Micah Valentine: Oh, yeah, well, right along with what Robbie's saying is
the ability to help folks and honestly walk through life with your clients
in very, veryimportant areas of life.
I always tell folks when I'm talking to them. The three most important
pieces of life for folks are going to be your faith, your family, and your
finances. And you think about your finances, it touches all those other
ones, I mean, you'll learn more about people than their own spouses or
pastors of 30 years or whatever.
And it's just, it's very humbling and I enjoy what I do, but I take it very
serious too. So the fact that we can help someone at that level to prepare
for whatever their goals are and just bring clarity because there's a lot of
great people in our profession, but there's a lot of over inflated egos that
try to over complicate things and not just, and to me, I just like to help
people.
Robbie, that's where we're very like minded. We love to help people. We feel
that our group of people is going to be your blue collar folks. Obviously,
we deal with people in the high net worth arena as well, but just really
helping folks in the area and bring clarity in an area that can touch so
many aspects of their life.
Don Patrick: Yeah, it's such a rewarding profession. I, for all my career,
I've told folks that we have more impact on people's lives than a physician
does until they get older. And it's incredibly rewarding. So, let's talk a
little bit about how each of you have grown your practices, what marketing
sales, what does that look like? Robbie?
Robert Davis: So, we've gotten better at it. So, Brittany does most of our
marketing stuff. And I think that's her degree from Clemson. And so it
probably comes much easier to her. I think we've done a pretty good job of
kind of over time, kind of chiseling down on what we want to be viewed as
brand wise and putting that to marketing pieces, whether that's digital or
hard marketing pieces that we have in our bank locations, credit local union
locations, and I think it comes back down to all of our pieces, all kind of
have a common theme too.
And it goes right back with what Michael was talking about, trying to be
that help to everybody, not just the uber wealthy folks, because I probably
the vast majority of our practices, it is the quasi blue collar guy, maybe
the Michelin or BMW, they've got 800,000, a million, million one in their
401k, those kinds of things it's rolled over.
So that's probably the core of our practice. And I think we've done a pretty
good job of over time whittling down how we want our brand to be viewed and
how we basically communicate that to the general public. I think we've done
a pretty good job of that. And we continue to get better at it, but it's not
from us. It's kind of comes from our group meetings. And then Brittany puts
all of that into reality.
Don Patrick: So we're going to get into the credit union thing a little bit,
but prior to the credit union relationship, how did you, was it networking
referrals? I mean, how did you build your clientele?
Micah Valentine: Yeah. So, honestly it was, we've had relationships from
years back and those are originally generated from different door knocking,
cold calling, warm leads, networking events, asking for referrals. So again,
continually building upon those. I did a lot of lunch and learns. I haven't
done these in years where I'd have fish bowls out in restaurants and throw
your card in for you 10 folks to get free lunch and did a lot of those for a
period of time.
We're able to pick up some great clients along the way that way. And where
we've had some 401k plans going in and doing education annually, building up
and just building relationships individually with participants inside those
plans outside of that. So it kind of is a hodgepodge. It kind of came from
all over.
Didn't have, we had a couple of centers of influences, but I never had a big
referral network from like an accountant or an attorney locally. But again,
it was just more of the hard knocks, just marketing and networking.
Don Patrick: And asking for referrals. What a concept.
Robert Davis: Yeah. I'll say looking back, the one thing and it wasn't
because I was smart because I was late to the party and catching on with
this but so kind of like Micah I'd would do the lunch and learns with
product provider and that kind of stuff and I did a few of them and it
finally dawned on me one day that my wife, you know her background was in HR
and I was doing these lunch and learns at different businesses bigger
businesses with a lot of employees and I was always dealing with the HR
person.
And then kind of like Micah, I never got any traction with CPAs or attorneys
or anything referring people to me, people would tell you that when you
start out, that just never happened for me, but it dawned on me one day. I
was like, I've got all these relationships with these HR people. Well, who
knows better who is a new employee, may have left a former employer with an
old 401k, and who knows better than everybody that's retiring than an HR
person.
So, I got in good with, I think, about four HR people, and for quite a
while, those HR people fed me two or three really good clients a year. So
that is the only real source that I had that was kind of like you say a
feeder of clients.those people, the HR people, have since retired and become
clients.
So they aren't my feeder source anymore, but primarily now we, it's either,
our institutional relationship that brings clients or referrals, primarily.
Back then, when I was growing, that feeder source was my HR people. And I
made a conscious effort after the one or two to cultivate that into a few
more. And those were the best sources of new clients that I had by far.
Don Patrick: That's fantastic. Now you also use golf a little bit. I'm going
to share this because I don't know why anybody else has not jumped on this
with your success. So we help sponsor the Angel Flight golf tournament every
year.
It's incredible. And you bring a client, a couple of guests, and you've
gotten a client every time you do that. And no other advisors doing that.
They're there.
Robert Davis: Oh, yeah. So I've got a couple of clients that are pretty
good golfers and they're, personality wise they're kind of outgoing and
affable and that kind of, but they're really good advocates so they'll sell
you.
So what I've done every year coming down playing that is like you say I'll
bring a prospective client or two along with existing client that will be
your advocate. And every year I've done it, that person that I was really
targeting is almost immediately after that become a client. So that's
literally a part of my business plan every year is that.
So, but not just that event, I look at our book of business, and I probably
have from golf, probably over 20 clients just directly from golf.
Don Patrick: That's what a great way to build a business.
Micah Valentine: Well, yeah, I mean, I love playing golf, so if you're going
to do something that's enjoyable, why not get a good client out of it.
Don Patrick: I love it. That is great. So, what are some of the challenges
you two see running your business?
Micah Valentine: Well, we have a staff of three folks within Robbie and I,
and we have roles defined. We're always tweaking and reassigning where we
see strengths. So I would say it's a work in progress, but the question was
asked is where's our challenges?
Is that correct? Organization. And again, I'm a stickler. I'm always trying
to get it better and be better with it. We have a lot of new households we
add every year, so we have a larger number of households. So, our goal, our
challenge is making sure we're streamlining everything and having everything
coded and organized.
And we've gotten significantly better. We're always tweaking it, which
again, this is another kind of coming back to the consortium and
particularly our retreats and our mastermind groups. I look for those and I
look for ideas that we're going to implement, one or two, to help
specifically in that area.
We've got another problem dealing with this struggle. There's other groups
that are dealing with it as well. So, and I'm through the networking, the
mastermind and the simplified business planning meetings, you can identify
other folks that have gone through it or doing it and just kind of lean off
of them and help.
So, getting better with our organization and our overall context is probably
one of our bigger challenges, but I feel we're making some good headway with
that.
Don Patrick: Yeah. And it's a moving target. Never, you're always tweaking
and improving and processes and procedures. We had a retreat one year, the
theme was frictionless and still within the IFG team, that is our overriding
theme constantly is making it frictionless, whether it's in with the team,
with you all, the end client, and that's processes, procedures, and it's an
ongoing deal. You never reach the holy grail, right?So you talked about your
staffing, how you're set up. So you've got three staff and what are they
doing? What kinds of roles do they have?
Micah Valentine: So Christie is our on paper, our office manager. She's our
upfront first point of contact. She's the person making the phone calls.
She's the kind of receptionist role as well. She'll get on a call in a
heartbeat, no call reluctance. And she also handles, again, we're re kind of
looking at some of these duties. She handles with all of our RMD process,
most of our move money stuff.
She does some account opening. Kenzie is very, very back office. So she does
all of our organization with scheduling with our account, most of our
account opening, helps make sure we're on–point to make sure we're, got our
CE stuff done and keeps us organized in that area and just helps with other
complex issues.
If we have to get new documents added for whatever, you know, it may need to
be, we have a sheet that's kind of got like bubbles and they overlap too,
because it's like there's certain areas that they'll both do.
Robert Davis: So Venn diagram.
Micah Valentine: Yes, correct. And actually Brittany and Kenzie and Christy
are having a meeting on Monday to discuss roles with what's happening
because as business has changed and moved and we see strengths kind of
rising up with one or the other, where we're seeing them get better, just
going to be more efficient. We're going to have a conversation to maybe
realign some of those. We're always looking to tweak it and make, again,
just like we're trying to be efficient as possible with our group.
‘Cause we brought in what 52, 53 new households this year. So we do have a
large increase of new households, but again, it sounds like a lot and it is
a lot. But again, we're managing it surprisingly well, but that's why we
have to continue to make these changes to be even more efficient to get to
where we need to go.
Don Patrick: Yeah,that's amazing. That's tough. Let's talk about your tech
stack, CRM, financial planning softwares, and RepChat. So what does your
tech stack look like?
Micah Valentine: Yes, we're obviously not technologically savvy at all. But
for a financial planning use, right? Capital. We've been very pleased with
it.
And we, and Kenzie handles, we've got a data entry form that she's created,
fillable document for clients to fill out. And we have a process of her
seeing it out and following up to make sure all the information's filled out
and teed up before the meeting. So that's something we've really, probably
about two years now, I've adapted that.
We've got Redtail for our CRM. Those are our big tech. We have a local IT
company from a tech standpoint that does some of our local stuff, hitting
brad cable with our website management and my wife being our marketing side,
does all of our content writing and she does social media stuff for us.
Actually, I will say this cause I just recently gotten back into it through
the mod, the marketing on demand through ClientWorx has gotten significantly
better. I mean, significantly better and pricing has gotten a lot better
inside of LPL. So we've been utilizing that for some print material stuff.
So I don't know if that's kind of what you're looking for, asking about–
Don Patrick: Yeah. Do you use Rep Chat or anything like that?
Micah Valentine: We don't, but again, we were looking at this, Zocks. Yes.
So that's on my list. So before the retreats, I always have like a, like
leading up to it. I jot down, I have a folder of things I want to get
answered or talk to people about. So that's actually inside of my folder for
the mastermind group before the meeting and also at the retreat. So I'm
looking to kind of dig down on that one and get some information on that.
Don Patrick: I've been using that since it first became known and it's
fabulous. Oh my gosh, it's not perfect, but it summarizes the meeting. You
can edit and tweak it, whatever you want to do with it. And even it has a
template or it's an email follow up to the client. It's amazing.
Micah Valentine: Okay, you're another confirmation. Yeah.
Don Patrick: Yeah. So. You talked a little bit about a new client. I mean,
that's a lot of new clients a year. So what is the process of onboarding a
new client? So you're actually sending out a data sheet, a fillable data
sheet, and they actually fill it out. Sounds like.
Micah Valentine: Yes. So Not all of our clients are getting an actual
financial plan.
I mean, a lot of them do, but for the folks that do, yeah, we have a
fillable word document that we kind of tweaked from Wright Capital and it's
filled out with their information and it's plugged in with the planning
piece that we use with Wright Capital for new clients. Now that's for our
planning side of people, but not everybody gets that aspect of it. But you
talk about the onboarding with new clients. We have a pretty, we're getting
better, right? You say, Robbie, with our streamlined process, with tracking
and keeping up with new folks and where things are at and the motions with
our documents.
Robert Davis: Yes. So, Kinsey primarily drives that because she opens the
vast majority of accounts and every now and then I have kind of made it a
practice. I will open an account occasionally just so I can stay on top of,
I mean, it changes, LPL, changes things. I'll open one. And I did a couple
of the last couple of weeks of–screwed one up. That's a whole different
story, but it helps us kind of stay on top of what they're doing as well.
But the document side of it is pretty much everything that's required in the
account opening and those are the things, so we kind of, our practice,
because of the volume of households now, because of our institutional side,
with what, 22, I think, locations, because of that, we kind of really, like
Micah said, our theme here is streamlining, repeatable practices and SOPs
and that kind of thing. So, we've kind of got that thing down now where it
identifies which one of us in the account is the lead advisor.
Because of different locations, Micah might be the lead in dealing with the
client versus me. So, we have that. We kind of have it simplified, not hard
line in the sand kind of thing, but our institutional folks, it's really
simplified. The vast majority of those folks is, it's not the million dollar
rollovers and that kind of thing.
The vast majority is, those accounts are the 150, $200,000. So we try to
really lean heavily on, the MWP platform, that kind of really keeping it
fairly simple unless something otherwise is warranted. So we're always
trying to streamline things and keep them kind of always evolving so that
it's repeatable no matter who is here.
If that makes sense. If I were to be out for a month or Micah were to be out
for a month or so that whoever steps in, they're not trying to figure out
what's going on. We're constantly trying to tweak and make everything
streamlined, efficient, not time consuming, that kind of thing. So, like you
said, Don, it's a moving target, but we're always trying to make it better.
And Mike is really good about driving that with his personality. He really
is always pushing it, which is a good thing.
Don Patrick: That's great. So kind of transitioned into the whole
institutional credit union. You guys have had, I mean, really been very,
very successful and not everybody's successful in that realm.
So tell us a little bit about your, why you think you've been successful
with the credit union, you mentioned 22 locations, that's great. I mean, how
do you do all this?
Micah Valentine: Well, it's team effort, right? So we started off with one
credit union and we had half of their locations and that was about three
years ago and we got connected with one of our wholesalers.
Again, folks need to utilize their wholesalers, their product partners. I
mean, they have a lot of connections out there and connect you to a lot of
folks, whether it be like new institutional relationships, book of business
purchases, or just interconnections overall. I think that was one. But we
started out with a six or what gave us a good feel for, you know, we did a
lot of stuff wrong and we learned with that.
So what really comes down to is we have now two credit unions in 22
locations, like you had mentioned, but not every credit union location is
going to be the big referral center. So we do hit them all, but we also
focus on being present where we're getting our leads and our referrals.
Thing is in the banking slash credit union side of things, you have to be
consistently present and provide, it's not a lot, just painting a picture
with, “Hey, this is what we're looking for a referral.”
They need to have at least X amount of money in assets, someone that's
retiring, relocating, just kind of painting the picture. So that way when
they're having their everyday conversations, they got busy, busy days too.
It triggers when they, “Hey, yeah, I'm getting ready to retire.” And they
say, “Oh, retire Micah or Robbie just mentioned retirement.” Say, “Hey, who
are you talking to about your financial planning stuff with that?” And then
that's how we get the leads. But Robbie and I have a clearly, we have
assigned branches based on geographic location that we each touch and see,
and we have a schedule where we get by and visit those branches.
Robert Davis: That's the key is repeated contact in person with each branch
is key. So to be successful at, if someone's looking to add that piece to
their business, you have to be present on a regular basis. And that doesn't
mean every week, but at least every three weeks or so, you need to be
visiting each location, having conversations with the people there, getting
to know them, reiterating what your ideal referral person is on a constant
basis.
And when they see over a short amount of time, you're there. It just becomes
automatic. And we see it because of different times of year, things going
on. If we haven't visited one in a little week or two longer than normal,
you can tell things drop off a little bit in referral, but after the visits,
they ramp up.
If you plotted it on a mountain chart, you could see it up and down, up and
down. So it just comes from reiterating what we're looking for and being
there constantly. Those are the key things to make it successful.
Don Patrick: Is there any kind of financial reward for referrals from the
credit union employees?
Micah Valentine: Yes, so and that we cannot provide those legally. So when
we talked with the credit unions, I asked them, we asked actually that if
they could provide a referral credit for folks where we meet with, a
qualified lead we actually sit down and meet with or have a Zoom call with
them or some of that nature.
And they both and I told them I really felt that it was going to be
beneficial to get a good boost of that business. And it has worked that way.
So each credit union offers like a $25 referral per referral to their
employees, if we sit down and meet with them. And the one credit union does
like 50 after like the second one, and it's ongoing.
So they can rack up some good extra money for leads now. We may get 10, 15,
20 referrals in a couple of weeks period of time. And we send reports over
to the credit unions each separately every month. But out of all those
referrals, we may meet with a small handful of them. So those are the ones
that are actually compensated on.
But, yeah, they do offer an incentive for that. And we take food a lot to
the places. As a matter of fact, after this call, Robbie's going out and I'm
going out to credit unions, taking cookie trays to some of the places, just
as a thank you again, being present.
Don Patrick: So I assume management is very much behind what you're doing.
They don't look at you as competition, but as actually an added value
service for their credit union.
Micah Valentine: Very much so. And that was the key. I mean, Robbie, I have
lunches with the CEOs, CFOs of these credit unions. Matter of fact, on
January 6th. I'm not going to be in Washington DC. I'm going to be down in
Charleston meeting with the CEO of the credit union.
just kind of like a start of the year kickoff. I mean, and Robby and I did
that with the other credit union and they really do. They have buy in,
right, Robbie?
Robert Davis: Oh, yeah. Well, that was big in our conversations up front
too. It was a way to add their, and they call credit unions, call folks
members.
So a way to add another service to their members. Yeah. So that it could
provide the credit union additional revenue because that asset may not be
leaving them. So they bought into it. They compensate their folks. We send
over, we track everything so we send each of them a report first week of
every month with all the referrals, who sent the referral what branch, along
all the other data that they won't track. But they're very much into pushing
and supporting what we do with them as well. So, yeah, it's a good fit.
Don Patrick: So you mentioned some branches are better referral sources than
others. What differentiates them, do you think?
Micah Valentine: I think a lot of it's local leadership, like the managers
buy in and having a good personal representative financial folks there. If
you got one or two good key people that do good referrals to you, that
actually is kind of contagious throughout the office and it works. But also
the other side is like we've got DBDUP, we just picked up six locations down
off the coast. My three are in Orangeburg, Somerville and Charleston.
Robbie's three are in Buford, Bluffton, and Port Royal. So he's in a lot
higher net worth area. So, we've already gotten some folks from there. Mine
are not as good. But again, there's still good folks in that area. So, I
mean, obviously some of that plays a factor in for sure.
Robert Davis: Yeah. Demographics, just according to where the branch is
located, the residents in that vicinity kind of thing.
So, membership, they're all a little different. And then according, you
know, maybe big employers are near one location, so a lot of payroll, that
kind of stuff. So it just over time you kind of find which half of them are
really just kind of knocking it out of the park versus the ones that do very
little.
And it kind of doesn't matter, I'm just saying, whether I'm visiting there,
it doesn't change. So, and it goes back to like Micah said, I think part of
it's demographic of the branch itself, the members there in that branch
itself. But also it comes back to the branch manager there. If they're not
pushing it on board, then it's, you're kind of swimming upstream anyway.
Don Patrick: Roughly what percent of your new business do you think comes
from Great New?
Micah Valentine: Oh man, probably like 80 percent, 75 percent.
Robert Davis: Yeah, of the new business, yes. New clients, yeah, probably
80 percent of it. But we track everything too, Don. Our average household
asset size is smaller, obviously with the credit union versus other folks
that we get through referrals and things like that.
So it's just different. And for that reason too, that goes back to what I
talked about earlier, streamlining, things that are done automatically. And
I was, it's key with that because I haven't seen lately, but the average
household size with the credit union folks is probably closer to that
200,000 mark.
So it's just a different, and a lot of those folks just mentally, a lot of
those folks view that part of their money as their quote-quote, safe money.
So you're having to do maybe a different kind of conversation with those
folks versus just somebody that's, been referred to you, they're retiring
and they're rolling over all of their 401k and moving SSD. It's just
generally a different conversation in general.
Don Patrick: Yeah, that makes sense. And clearly you have to have
streamlined process procedures or you guys will blow up.
Robert Davis: It is key. Yes. Yes. Because it, it's a volume business. So,
yeah, you really have to have it streamlined to manage it.
Micah Valentine: I'll say about 85 percent of our business within the credit
unions is in fee-based business as well—all the CDs. And when we kind of are
up front with, we're not the CD alternative. We're in this from an
investment standpoint and I think that's helped quite a bit as well.
Don Patrick: Yeah. Having that clarity. That's great.
Robert Davis: Yeah, we've made it very clear over time what really we're
looking for, what kind of threshold and asset size really makes sense.
They're always the one offs for whatever reason, but in general, we let
everybody know at the institution, the two that we deal with, it needs to be
really this amount or more or it's really not worth your time or hours. So
you just have to be up front about it and then everybody learns and that's,
it doesn't cause problems.
Don Patrick: Yeah, that's great. So very, very clear about your niche. Well,
this is fantastic. And what you guys have built. It's just amazing. I love
it. We're going to kind of wrap things up a little bit. And Micah, I'm going
to ask you to use three words to describe your talents and strengths.
Micah Valentine: Three words. Wow. Focused. Obsessive compulsive. Yeah. And
just encourage, encouraging.
Don Patrick: I love it. Robbie, how about you?
Robert Davis: Relationships, loyalty, and I'll give you a, maybe laid-back.
Don Patrick: I buy that. I love it. All right. So Robbie, tell us something
about yourself that others do not know.
Robert Davis: Wow. So…
Micah Valentine: Forbes,
Robert Davis: Oh, that's right. Yeah. My first run in with a quote quasi
celebrity for nerds. Nerds will know who it is. I was in New York City, this
is 25 years ago, and I'm in a Verizon store just killing time in the evening
and on the same little turnstile thing looking at I don't know, just
accessories for Verizon phones. I'm looking at this guy and I'm thinking to
myself, I'm like, “That's Steve Forbes.”
So I just, I said, “Aren't you Steve Forbes?” And he was very nice, said,
“Yes I am.” And I was, I had already changed, I had on a Clemson, orange
Clemson sweatshirt. It was November in New York, so it was cold. And we got
to talking. And he literally said, “Walk with me.” So we literally walked
for about five blocks in New York city, talking, him asking me all about my
family, where I was from, why I was there.
His wife comes out of Macy's. He meets her there on the sidewalk, introduces
me. They go on, go their way. I'm breaking my neck to call my wife back
home, tell her who I talked to. And I tell her, I said, “You're not going to
believe who I just spent 35 minutes with talking and everything.” And I,
she's like, “Who?” I said, “Steve Forbes.” She goes, "Who's that?” Okay.
Nevermind. So yeah, I run in with a billionaire, turned out to not really
impress her that much.
Don Patrick: That's a great story. I love it. So Micah, how about you?
Micah Valentine: I was a youth pastor of a small church in New Washington,
Indiana for a year when I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and it was literally
in the middle of a cornfield.
Robert Davis: That's hilarious.
Micah Valentine: Yes. So, that was maybe a fun fact that people may not have
known about me because I went the opposite way of that. So, too much of the
devil in me for that.
Robert Davis: That's so funny.
Don Patrick: love it. Well, guys, this has been fantastic. I know everybody
else is going to enjoy it and can't thank you enough for taking the time and
participating in this podcast.
Robert Davis: Enjoyed it.
Micah Valentine: Thank you, Don.
Well, that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening.
If you've got something to share, send an email to
dpatrick@thebraintrust.net. We want to know what works.
Until next time. See ya.