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In the inaugural episode of Profit and Practice, host Max Holvik welcomes Angela Giombetti, the Chief Marketing Officer at Wealthspire. Angela is an award-winning marketing executive and is also the founder of ‘The In Crowd’ network. Having previously worked together at Private Ocean, Max and Angela reconnect to discuss the rapid evolution of RIA marketing over the past decade.
From the transition of printed physical newsletters to the frontier of AI-driven Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Angela breaks down how marketing strategies must adapt as a firm grows from a boutique shop into a sizable enterprise. She shares actionable advice on balancing individual advisor brands with a cohesive corporate voice, navigating the SEC’s testimonial rules, managing M&A marketing integrations, and leveraging artificial intelligence to empower, rather than replace, your human marketing team
In this episode, we cover:
· The Evolution of RIA Marketing
· The Marketing "Sweet Spot" vs. Mega-RIA Complexity
· How to Drive True Organic Growth
· Balancing Advisor Personal Brands with the Enterprise Brand
· The Crucial Role of Marketing in M&A Integrations
· Navigating the SEC Testimonial Rule
· Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
· AI: Empowering People, Not Replacing Them
Connect with Angela:
Every episode closes with the same question: what's the best piece of financial advice Angela has ever received? Listen to find out.
Connect with the Show:
Profit & Practice is hosted by Max Holvik, founder of The Advisor's CFO, a fractional CFO practice for wealth management firms.
Creators and Guests
What is Profit & Practice?
Profit & Practice explores the business decisions that determine whether a wealth management firm thrives or struggles. Hosted by Max Holvik, CFA, a fractional CFO known as The Advisor's CFO, the show features conversations with RIA owners, operations leaders, M&A advisors, and the consultants and specialists helping advisory firms grow. If you run, manage, or advise a wealth management practice, this show is built for you.
Angela Giombetti (00:00)
you market to everybody, you're not really marketing to anyone. So if you say, well, our difference is our people and we can help you with retirement, that is everyone under the sun. No one's going to find you.
I don't think advisors should be afraid of that. In fact, I don't, I feel like it's been embraced.
A lot more in 2026 than it was in 2024. We've got guidelines, it works, and your clients like working with you. If they didn't, you would hear about it.
Max Holvik (00:42)
Welcome to Profit and Practice. I'm excited to introduce today's special guest, Angela Jombetti, the chief marketing officer at Wealth Spire, an RAA behemoth with more than twelve hundred employees and almost six hundred billion dollars in assets under management or advisement. I was fortunate to work with Angela when we were both at PrivateOcean and got to see her marketing genius in action. And she's gone on to do even more impressive things since then.
Beside her busy job, she's also the founder of the In Crowd and was recognized as the Chief Marketing Officer of the Year at the twenty twenty four Wealth Management on Com Industry Awards. And I can go on and on. Thanks for being here, Ranchela. It's an honor to have you.
Angela Giombetti (01:23)
Hey Max, it's so good to see you. It's like a flash from the past, isn't it?
Max Holvik (01:27)
It is, it is. A private ocean seems like such a long time ago. It was good times.
Angela Giombetti (01:31)
I know.
I my first impression of you was intimidation. Can I can we be honest
Max Holvik (01:36)
Ooh.
Angela Giombetti (01:36)
here? Yeah. I I remember I had just started. It was my first job in within an RIA. So it's the I had done a lot of marketing around financial services, but it was the first time in an RIA. You were the f one of the first people I met. I always thought this this is the smartest guy in the room. And this is this is a building
Max Holvik (01:55)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (01:56)
of very smart people. And you just
I think what intimidated me about you was not just that you were brilliant. I'm gonna embarrass you now, not just that I I could I knew you were brilliant by the content you were putting out, but that you were so marketing forward. You were at the time very much the voice. You were putting out the content. You were you were creating the one pagers and the updates. And I remember there was even, I think, a video of you. So even before there was video content and and personal brand.
you were kind of ahead of the game. So I remember thinking, I gotta I gotta get to know this guy and then you were like, bye, I'm out, I'm off to do other things, so
Max Holvik (02:34)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (02:35)
you left me hanging, you know?
Max Holvik (02:37)
No, well well,
you you're making me blush here a little bit. It's too kind. I
Angela Giombetti (02:40)
Ha ha
Max Holvik (02:41)
I I got you fooled on being smart, I guess. But it no it it yeah, it was a pleasure to get to know you and and very impressed
Angela Giombetti (02:48)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (02:49)
with how you know you you helped take Private Ocean and and eventually also now Wellspire. So lots of stuff to uncover here and appreciate you being on here.
Angela Giombetti (02:57)
Yeah. Of course.
Max Holvik (03:00)
So I'm gonna gonna kick it off with how has marketing for RIAs evolved since you started?
Angela Giombetti (03:06)
my gosh, you could just ask me how it's evolved in the last 12 months, and I would tell you a
Max Holvik (03:11)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (03:12)
wildly different story from two years before that. I think, I mean, I know that's when I started marketing in this space was should we have a blog? Should we care about our website? Let's do a newsletter, like a physical, let's print out a newsletter and send it to our clients. That was marketing.
Then it was the let make it pretty years when we started to get access to more design tools and people realized that that kind of that website was your brand and it lent itself to branded a branded look and feel in your office and then materials and stuff like that. And then it was technology, right? It was now you have reporting tools. You can you start to see marketing isn't just for brand awareness, but it really can
Be a driver of growth and should be, right? It's an investment on the firm, and you can justify that spend with these tools that can track that. And then AI, it's just it is a completely different world now because and and what's interesting is I know all of the CMOs in this space. We've we all grew up together. Many of us are the first CMOs in our firms. There's no
Guide. There's no AI guidebook. There's no here's how you should do it. Here's the best way to do it. And just like everything else when it comes to marketing, no firms are going to be alike. What works for this firm in the Bay Area is not going to be the same for what works if you're based in New York. So that's how it's evolved. It is now trying to wrangle all of these flashy, shiny new tools that say they offer you this and realizing that you have.
a staff, a a group of marketers who are learning as you are, right?
There's no these AI marketing experts out there. We're all learning on the job.
Max Holvik (05:03)
thanks for sharing. There lots of stuff here. I'd like to dig deeper into as we
go into the various topics. And I guess you also seen two different th or or two different dimensions at the same time. On one hand, just the marketing in general changing for the REA space, but also the size of the firm that you've been in has been growing rapidly as well. And and and I'm curious to hear what what are some of your takeaways, not only from
how marketing have changed over the last decade, decade and a half, but
Angela Giombetti (05:31)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (05:32)
also what makes marketing different for a half a billion dollar RIA versus a billion dollar versus a fifty billion dollar RIA.
Angela Giombetti (05:40)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (05:41)
lots to uncover here.
Angela Giombetti (05:42)
That's a that's a great question. And I feel like maybe I just had my head in the sand, but there were a couple of these indicators where I think it was maybe the Barons list or one of these kind of ranking associations, and I remember seeing this delineation of the megafirms, the top megafirms versus RIAs or these recognition programs that are ten
billion and above in AUM versus 10 billion and both. So there's this kind of this line in the sand that you're starting to see between these megafirms and you know RIAs. there's there's pros and cons to everything. I think there's you get this, there's a s there's a freedom, I think, when we were at Private Ocean to be not obviously not renegades. It's the financial services energy. We're not rebels or anything.
Max Holvik (06:33)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (06:34)
But there is this ability when you are in this maybe sweet spot. I'm gonna say anywhere between two billion and ten. There's like this, there's a sweet spot that I call it where you have you have the money to invest in marketing. You have maybe you have a marketing leader, you have a marketing team, maybe you're outsourcing some of that SEO, AEO, digital stuff. But you do have this ability to have.
This identity that's truly yours. You get to put a line in the sand that says, I'm only going to serve tech startup executives in the Bay Area. Like that is a line, and you can say, This and this is my specialty. This is our expertise. This is where we live, and this is what we do, and we're the best at it. And there is a beauty in that. You right, you can really design.
Digital marketing strategy, ad strategy, your community outreach around that niche and that identity. But when you get bigger and your services expand, like right now, we're I'm in a firm that is is kind of encompasses everything. And as a marketer, we always say, Well, if you market to everybody, you're marketing to nobody. Well, to me, I guess that was a little bit naive because
I now have to create multiple strategies around marketing so that we're still being able to tap into that local voice, those individual voices of people and that expertise, but also represent this larger enterprise brand. It's a balancing
act and it's a ton of fun, but I I'll be honest, I've I did a podcast
for this firm in the DC area. And they just have such a fun brand. And their CEO is is got just got this great character and this voice to him. And I think that's amazing that they know exactly who they are and they're unapologetic about it because they're going to attract a very distinct kind of client. Where in my case, I have to be cautious. I have to be cautious about what we're saying as a firm that we're not
being not controversial but provocative in any way that might be taken differently with different audiences. It's I don't see it as detrimental to who we are. I I always see everything, you know, you know me, I always see everything as glass half full. And I think we do have this reach. We do have this ability to reach more people, more institutions, more plan sponsors. We have a retirement business now and we can tell a comprehensive story.
That's that's I think is the difference, right? That's the good in being larger and having the significant reach, but knowing that that's sort of the difference, that whenever you are a little bit smaller, you can be unapologetically you and and kind of draw lines about the kind of work you want to do for marketing. Does that make sense?
Max Holvik (09:25)
Thank you. I
yeah, that that does make it makes a lot of sense. And I guess if I put my investment goggles on, it sounds like you're going from a single investment with a targeted focus on that one thing to a portfolio
Angela Giombetti (09:36)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (09:37)
approach where you have to make sure that that not only are the individual pieces making sense and optimized,
Angela Giombetti (09:44)
Yes.
Max Holvik (09:45)
but it also need to work in a portfolio context.
Angela Giombetti (09:48)
I love that and I'm stealing it. Copyright Max Holvick.
Max Holvik (09:50)
You may, you certainly may. So No. But
thank you. I'm gonna throw out a a tough question here that I'm sure is easy for you to answer, but that a lot of owners of RIAs may struggle to really understand.
Where
does organic growth come from for an RIA?
Angela Giombetti (10:10)
man, that's the magic. That's the that's the magic button, right? Everybody wants to drive organic growth, and it's really easy to say it on paper. Well, this is how it's done. Well, you just ask your clients for referrals and you you're out in the in the community, you're making connections, you know how to network, you get you've got your COIs. Again, there's no one roadmap, right? What works for
An advisor that we have who's in the Delaware coast is going to be very different than somebody that's in Michigan, right? It's it's it's one of those things where organic growth has to be very personalized, if I if I can be honest. For the firm, there is understanding where our strengths lie.
For us, we know that we have, I'll just use some some examples, but we have a lot of expertise with attorney partners. We we have a lot of clients who are partners in law firms at some of the top law firms in the country.
So we've got a lot of experience understanding the life cycle of what those attorneys go through. A lot of times we we we really we've walked through their compensation structure from the time they first became a partner to right, they get deeper in their business. We know what their life is like, we know as they're having children or they're expanding their family or they're buying a second home. We know everything that goes into that. That gives us an edge. so for me, I'm looking at how can we expand on that? Where can
Can
we reach more of these people in a way that feels organic? Because we also know behaviorally that these, again, using this example, attorneys are not going to want to go to happy hours. Their time is too precious. They don't have a ton of time. In New York City, try to have a happy hour with top law firm partners they're not going to show. It's just it's not worth their time. But if we're doing webinars that are short and really packed with good content.
And they can watch them on demand and they can quickly reach out to an advisor, that's valuable, right? We also know that some of our clients are of a certain age demographic and they're gonna want to wat listen to podcasts. We know when they're on the road, we know the kind of content they want. So for me as a marketer, that's how I'm supporting organic growth. But where it comes from, it really has to start with the advisor.
It ha and
and working and you know, we're a partner in that, right? It is, I think that in fact I'm working with some of our advisors in the DC area who are they've established themselves in their region but want to expand out. And it's an area that isn't terribly covered with advertisements and maybe there's there's an in with digital and stuff. We go further that in that and say if you're trying to work with near retirees who want to buy that beach house.
Who should you be in contact with? Real estate agents, attorneys, what does your network look like for COIs? And then let's talk to your clients too. What is a good client referral approach for you? Because again, that's personal. You can't just say, here's the one way to ask for client referrals, right?
Max Holvik (13:10)
That's a good point. And and and how do you balance advice or personal brands with a consistent firm brand?
Angela Giombetti (13:16)
Love this question. It's like you just gave me a layup. When I started at Wellspire, it was four plus years ago. And the and the brand itself was still fairly new. So the brand had been in circulation, I think, since 2019. So right, a fairly new brand. They came together. the legacy brand came together during COVID.
So,
not a lot of time to create this enterprise brand. So, a lot of these legacy firms were still basically perpetuating their former names. So, like Private Ocean is a good example where they would say, well, we don't quite know what Wellsfire is. It's still a fairly new brand, but the people that I interact with know Private Ocean. So when I talk about who we are, I'm going to lean more on that private ocean brand.
For me, my first the first project that I had was I'm gonna go meet as many people as possible and see what we have in common and how do we create this enterprise brand. And if you ask me what where does it come from, what does it stand for? Well, it's corny, but it starts with our people, right? Our people represent that brand. We're lucky in that at the time, everybody I met.
You included, frankly. I never met anybody that was like, I'm just here to cash a check. I'm just, I just want to grow. I'm selling. I just want to sell. Nobody was like that. Everybody wanted to help people. Everybody's why started with a very personal story. And I thought that's the brand. That is what makes us special. And everybody shares that kind of message: that it is very much a service culture. We want to take care of people. And there's nothing wrong with.
Growth because we want to serve more people. We want to take care of more of those people that we enjoy. So that's how it started. And then last November, can't believe it's been 10 months already, when we came together as this expanded firm, which we went with Wellspire is the name.
Again, it was just meeting the same kind of people with that same mentality. And when you think about what is the enterprise brand, you're looking at it. You're looking at people who are going to go the extra mile, who are getting graduation invites, they're getting right, they notified of new babies. They're the first call that people make whenever a spouse has passed or you're going through a divorce or you're getting married.
We're there for all of those milestones. And I think that's the enterprise brand. And I can I can work with that to create the messaging that we're gonna put out there. But it's not too far off from your personal brand, right? I want
Max Holvik (15:53)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (15:54)
everybody in this firm to believe in that enterprise brand. It's not like, well.
I I'm part of this giant institution, but I'm working over here and I only work with this. No, it is I'm proud to be a part of Wellspire. I joined Wellspire because it shares the same values that I have, which is taking care of people in my community. I'm I mean, I'll I'll talk about our our mentor, Greg Friedman, who is very passionate about all things ocean, hence private
ocean. he's very involved with the Marine Mammal Center and he still is. That
becomes part of kind of this quilt of the enterprise brand, right? It's still very much about Greg and about the West Coast, but it kind of feeds into that enterprise brand.
Max Holvik (16:39)
And you you it's enterprise, but you're keeping it personal at the same time. You're able to blend it. That's that's fascinating.
Angela Giombetti (16:43)
Y you get me. Yeah.
Max Holvik (16:45)
It and you you you mentioned, you know, obviously have a very exciting journey in terms of the having seen MA both from being on the buy side as well as on the sell side. So from your perspective, how does marketing change when a firm gets acquired?
Angela Giombetti (17:01)
so I'll tell you, having grown so rapidly and especially even even since I think November we've had eight teams, eight new teams join us, it made us rethink the structure of the marketing department, right? There is the kind of
transactional piece of all right, well you're joining WealthSpire, you're gonna need a new we're gonna have to, you know, redirect your website. We're gonna have to look at your materials. We're we're gonna rebrand your office. You're gonna get new letter right all of that minutia.
But man, that we could do better than that, especially as your partner in marketing. And we feel, I think, actually, I think the entire RA industry feels the same way. When a team joins us, you've chosen to join that firm for a reason. And sure, some of it is financial, some of it is operational, but it has to be cultural too. I think that plays a very big part in why people select.
The the firm that they they join. And we play such a big role in that, right? It's not just marketing, it's communication. We start from the beginning. We do an intake of the team that's joining us, not just for how many white papers do you do or do you put out some investment updates and stuff, but
Who do you take care of? Who are your clients? What do they care about? Why have they chosen you? What makes you special? And then it is: do you use materials that really resonate? Do you put out communications? How do you stay connected to your clients? Because if we can continue that in some fashion, or we have something at Wellspire that we'll we're doing that will supplement or make better, great. We also want to know who these folks are.
Right. It isn't just we're adding you to the numbers. It is talk to me about the principles in your firm and what makes you special and where where are you interactive with your community? What about your next gen? Right. We're really big. I think a lot of MA is about talent development and recruitment. But who is that next generation of leaders that you have on your team and how can we be supporting them? We we actually have an advisor branding program specifically for next gen.
Advisors, right? So if you are a smaller firm and you've haven't been able to provide this support for these next up and coming advisors, what a great reason to join a firm to be able to have that. And then yeah, we we walk through what it is to reach out to your clients about the change, how you talk to employees, how everybody stays involved, so that when you are get to getting to the other side, it feels like a soft landing.
And you feel like you're plugged in and you're kind of motivated and clear on what your next steps are. That
that's where marketing plays, I think, the best role.
Max Holvik (19:51)
Interesting. And I I think a lot of people think mostly on marketing as marketing to clients, to get new clients
and so on, but it's just as much to talents and being able to attract talent. Is that fair to say
Angela Giombetti (20:05)
It
is for me. I mean, you know me. I am a a big culture champion and I just feel like if people like working here, they're gonna do better as performers, they're gonna do better as advisors and staff, they're gonna take better care of each other, of themselves, of their clients. there's only upside to investing there.
Max Holvik (20:26)
Particularly in the RA space where you're you're not it's not a bunch of factories that you can easily switch around and, you know, do transactions
Angela Giombetti (20:32)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (20:33)
here and there. The the value of the business is really the the advisor's value in their relationship to the clients. So yeah.
Angela Giombetti (20:41)
You're so right.
I know I'm so biased too, because I'm sure there are other industries I'm not thinking about, but it's it's still such a human business. As much as I I was just I was starting to type a LinkedIn post about how I go to AI now, like my right hand, to make me less awkward. Like, I just I make myself cringe. I'm gonna make myself sound better.
but then I thought, but what fun is that?
Right? What fun is it not being yourself? So as as much as AI has been really cool to have as a tool and really helpful and great with efficiency, this is still so much a human business, right?
Max Holvik (21:17)
Yeah.
Well on that note though, how how has AI changed marketing for RAs?
Angela Giombetti (21:22)
Now the expectations are like I will say that every job description that I now put together for the team, I'm considering, I'm factoring in AI on the front end of is am I writing something that AI could potentially replace or supplement? Andor if I'm writing this role, what knowledge of AI and AI tools should this person?
have
or be willing to invest in. And I think that's where we are. It's gonna change. It's gonna change in eight months with the these things. But if you think about it, I'm now asking people to just be willing to learn about AI, to dig in their heels and to share that knowledge. So yes, it's been it's been fun, but it's still a little Wild West. I don't know if that's your that's your experience. Yeah.
Max Holvik (22:10)
I see the same thing. I'm I'm both
fascinated and scared to death by the technology at the same time. And it's
Angela Giombetti (22:15)
R same.
Max Holvik (22:17)
I I I wouldn't been able to do as much as I do with AI, but I also
Angela Giombetti (22:21)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (22:22)
obviously as a both being in the REA space but also as a as a fractional CFO, I have to be extremely careful on first of all, there's lots of stuff I cannot ask the AI about because I don't want to share that data. But also
checking what the results come. I've I've experienced where it it has made up links.
I I switched my settings
Angela Giombetti (22:41)
Wow.
Max Holvik (22:41)
to to make sure that it is no longer polite to me and and it is it it is pointing out any faults in my in my argument
Angela Giombetti (22:46)
Of course you would.
Max Holvik (22:50)
to to make sure that I I don't have a a a yes person that that is basically just feeding my ego. But it's it's well it it's it's easy
Angela Giombetti (22:56)
That is so you, Max, so you.
Max Holvik (23:00)
to I think AI to some degree, you know, it it's providing a lot of good answers and
Angela Giombetti (23:05)
Yeah.
Max Holvik (23:06)
and s and solutions to things, but it's also becoming incredibly good at convincing you on something that is not correct. So how do we balance that, right?
Angela Giombetti (23:15)
Exactly.
You're right.
Max Holvik (23:16)
So on a a very different topic, testimonials is obviously a tricky thing in this business. how do you handle that?
Angela Giombetti (23:25)
I'm I'm immersed. I'm immersed. So as you know, we're we're going through a rebrand process, right? We're on the tail end. We're about to relaunch a website. We're so excited. I I just previewed the look and feel, the visual identity and stuff to staff last week. It went really
well and I'm so it was a lot of work. I'm so proud of it. Part of that is this website, which again is we're thinking so differently about this website from two years ago.
R
when when we did the last updates, it is optimizing this for answers, answer engine, for for AI, right? So it is thinking about that differently. And testimonials plays a role in that, right? I mean, I've been a reviewer of pizza places for many years. I will review everything. I used to be on TripAdvisor like crazy, just anytime I would travel, I would just review
Max Holvik (24:18)
Yeah.
Angela Giombetti (24:18)
everything.
I think that this is the time. This is when advisory firms should be investing in testimonials. They've come a long way. We've got now how big is that marketing rule? I think it's like 68 pages. It's like this really ginormous rule. But to me it's pretty clear on what you can and can't do. No cherry picking like you have to like justify, you have to validate
All for that. I'm all for it. And now there are these these platforms that are run by people who are compliance-based. Like these are people who are compliance proof, they know the ins and outs, they know the way to do it, and they're effective. They are right. Even if you just have embedded in your email signature, hey, leave me a review.
People will do it. They, if they are happy with your service or they're unhappy, they're going to click on that link and they will they will go through the steps to do it. We just did a client survey earlier this year where we tested the waters. We thought if you would like to leave us a review, you can click through this link. It was a two-step process. It was you can leave a right, you can leave a comment about the service that you're getting. And if you would like
To include this in a Google review, you have to click through, copy and paste, right? It's like it's multi-step. It wasn't like I can just click a button and be like, you're awesome. Thank you. Woo! No, it was. I'm willing to do this. I will take the extra 40 seconds or a minute to go through because I'm happy with the service I'm getting. I don't think advisors should be afraid of that. In fact, I don't, I feel like it's been embraced.
A lot more in 2026 than it was in 2024. We've got guidelines, it works, and your clients like working with you. If they didn't, you would hear about it. So I am all for it.
And frankly, it's necessary, especially with the way people search now, right? If they're going to ask Siri or they're going to ask ChatGPT or whatever AI.
give me the best, it's going to factor in those reviews. so I'm I'm all for them.
Max Holvik (26:27)
Thank you. Thanks thanks for sharing.
Angela Giombetti (26:28)
There's my testimonial for testimonials.
Max Holvik (26:32)
Somewhat related to that. or take the digital marketing category as a whole. What are some mistakes that you see firms often do online?
Angela Giombetti (26:44)
I mean I could get I could nitpick into the weeds about website structure. There are just things that feel like they're easier structurally to do that give you nothing from a search standpoint. I I won't get into it, but there are things like if you're for instance, bio pages, this is just a one example. They're they're one of the areas that people are gonna go to. People will go to your home page.
But likely they are searching for a person that they've gotten a referral from. You should talk to my advisor, Jennifer. She's amazing, right? What am I going to do as the consumer? Okay, that's a great strong referral from my bestie. I'm gonna call Jennifer, but first I'm gonna go online and do my sleuthing. So how does Jennifer show up? Do I see her website bio? Is it clear?
Is it validating what my friend told me that this person specializes in? Do they have the background? Does it seem like somebody I want? Is the right is the headshot from this century? Do you know what I mean? Like so there are these little things. Do they have a LinkedIn? And is that LinkedIn kind of active? I'm active, right? So there's just there's these findability things that I don't know if people are doing that well. I mean, that is just one example.
Digital is is tough. It's it's just a different strategy based on where you are and what you're trying to do. But I think one of the biggest misses or opportunities is being too general. Again, you market to everybody, you're not really marketing to anyone. So if you say, well, our difference is our people and we can help you with retirement, that is everyone under the sun. No one's going to find you.
Right. So I think that's it. It is kind of taking a stand on who I am, what my voice is, who I take care of, Being proud about where I am because I want to take care of people. So there are these things that you can do to make yourself findable and validate whenever people go looking for you.
Max Holvik (28:41)
Great, thank you. that brings me to a a sort of wider question here. if you were to start an RIA today, what would you do to make sure then you win when it comes to marketing?
Angela Giombetti (28:52)
my gosh, as soon as that'll left field. No one's ever asked me before. I would invest in the voices of our people. So I think if I were going to start one today, let's say I started small and it was 10 people, I would invest in all 10. I would inve if all 10 were advisors, for instance, I would be like, I would talk to each one of them, ask them who they're planning on serving, what do they do well, what are they passionate about, kind of.
match that passion with that expertise and then create marketing strategies for each of them.
Max Holvik (29:25)
Great. Thank you. And anything we didn't cover that you wish more advisors understood when it comes to marketing in the RIA world?
Angela Giombetti (29:34)
I think that every marketer right now, every marketing leader is rethinking their org structure. So if you're in a firm our size, even smaller, smaller firms, I think everybody's rethinking what they need for marketing. because of AI.
They're thinking, do we need this? Do we need graphic designers? well, we get we have Canva now and it could just create AI-generated images. well, do we really need writers? We can just use Claude to create fantastic, right? I think there's a little bit of a danger in relying too much on AI to be this marketing replacement, for lack of a better word. I always say that I don't think.
you can be replaced by AI. I do think you can be replaced by someone who understands AI or is willing to learn it. That is what's happening, I think, across all marketing leaders in this industry right now. It is rethinking where can we use AI, but then where do we need to double down on having people truly own parts of the of the work that we do?
Max Holvik (30:39)
So basically using AI to empower the people rather than replace them.
Angela Giombetti (30:44)
Yes, it's exactly right.
Max Holvik (30:47)
Now, be before we wrap up, I I ask every guest the same question. What is the best financial advice that you have received?
Angela Giombetti (30:56)
It's advice I gave myself. I grew up in the South, very traditional household. And my mom was Japanese, very again, very old fashioned. in this kind of society where it was as a daughter, you grow up and your father ran right, your father ran the finances.
And then the goal is to marry, and then your husband would manage the finances. I think to each their own. But for me, I would have liked to have learned about money early. And I didn't really gain financial independence until my mid-30s. And it was such an eye-opening moment. I just thought, my gosh, I can just go buy a pair of shoes and nobody had like I know I can afford them because I
balanced my account and I know it was just such a liberating moment that the advice I would give myself, my younger self, is not just financial literacy early, but it is experiencing that independence as early as possible. So that's what I I teach my kid now,
that's what the best advice is, especially as young women. it's important to be financially independent.
Max Holvik (32:13)
Thank you. That is very powerful.
where can people find find you to learn more about what you do?
Angela Giombetti (32:19)
I think the best place to find me in all my awkward glory is probably LinkedIn. I am pretty active there and I just can't shut up. I just share everything. I take people along for the journey wherever I'm traveling. and I love to meet new people. So that's where I would probably encourage people to find me.