From Zero to Seven Figures: What 33 Years Taught This Advisor with Chris Strivieri

[00:00:00] Chris: when I was recruiting people and in the interview process, I always said, you can't put in what God left out. Right? I can't get somebody up in the morning. I just can't, I can't do it. I mean, I could be their alarm, but you can very easily snooze me as your manager and go back to bed.

[00:00:16] Nick: Chris Riviere, welcome to the seven Figure Advisor podcast. I'm very excited to have you here. I consider myself, , privileged to have known you and work with you for a good amount of time, , at this point. , so there's so much stuff that I'm excited about you, you to share with the audience here.

[00:00:31] Nick: I'd like to kick off if I may, and ask you about when you started in the business. Not necessarily why you started in the business, but what kept you in the business, right? Because I hear a lot of advisors like the, it's obviously the hardest is the first part, right? There's certain hurdles to get over that, you know, get you through licensing, you're getting going and just really, that's just the starting point, right?

[00:00:53] Nick: But like, what's the thing that actually keeps people in the game? And I took with. , Managers are helping advisors go through and get going, , and obviously the longer they stay in the game, the more likely there are to succeed. So what was it for you, if you don't mind sharing, like, what was that, kind of the hook?

[00:01:08] Nick: if you will, and tell us a bit about that.

[00:01:10] Chris: well, first off, thank you Nick for having me. I would say, you know, I started right outta college, so I started 33 years ago, right outta school. Really didn't have a market to go into. My dad worked in construction. My mom's a nurse. , But what attracted me to the business was the unlimited earning potential.

[00:01:32] Chris: I always felt that I wanted to get into something that, rewarded me both financially as well as emotionally. The more work I put in, right? So I was, I was always that person that in high school, worked multiple jobs. , You know, I was a pretty good kid, pretty good student, but I realized that.

[00:01:53] Chris: I needed to get into some sort of position when I graduated from Villanova. , That rewarded me for all the hard work. So obviously a sales position, , does that. But I didn't want to sell, cell phones. I wanted to sell something that really helped make a difference in people's lives, protected them.

[00:02:13] Chris: From an insurance standpoint, you know, help them accumulate a goal or achieve a goal by accumulating wealth, , from a retirement standpoint. So, that's what kept me in the business, was trying to see, you know, big picture here, that it's a grind. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And, , that's really what kept me not only in the business, but also here at Equitable for my whole career.

[00:02:39] Nick: That's so cool. 'cause yeah, if, if you're listening to this and you are a three to five year advisor or something like that, like, what you said Chris was so cool is it's knowing from the outset that it's a long-term play. I can see that there's a lot of impact I can have here. I can leverage what I'm good at, which is.

[00:02:55] Nick: Always doing that extra bit, looking for that extra piece of work, working hard, but being, tying something I can have long-term reward for as well. Right. So that, that's, that's super powerful. , And then what would you say was one of the first things that you noticed as you were going through your journey that led you to feel like it's working right or you've been successful?

[00:03:13] Nick: Like was there a point? Well that one of the first points that you went, okay, now this feels like. , This is real for me. Like I'm really am doing it and I can really see some of those things I believe in.

[00:03:24] Chris: Yeah, I mean I think that the, , certainly financially, You know, it was very rewarding. But also more importantly, from a, .

[00:03:32] Chris: You know, a client standpoint, when the first client said to me, you know, Hey, thanks for helping me retire. Or you know, if a client said, they called me and unfortunately somebody passed away and we had insurance in place for them, and, and that's gonna allow them to still send their children to college or, keep them comfortable financially.

[00:03:54] Chris: Those are really what kept you in the business. But again, you gotta have that, that long-term vision here that, it is something that, I was always taught, the more nos you get, the closer you get to a yes. So to me it's a really, it's a numbers game, right?

[00:04:10] Chris: , I've spent 20 years of my career in management. Hiring and training and, working with younger advisors. And I always told them, you know, what solves most problems is just see more people, right? You gotta see more people. The reason people fail in this business is they just don't see enough people.

[00:04:28] Chris: whether that's natural market or a, a targeted market like the retirement benefits group that I was lucky to be part of, . That's really what makes the difference is, having that vision, , you know, working hard and going that extra mile and, , you know, sometimes it clicks. I, I always told people when I was recruiting them that if in the first two or three years you don't feel like quitting, you're probably not working hard enough. you can get very, very comfortable.

[00:04:57] Chris: All right, so, so, so if I got it, I wrote some of these things down in terms of these, key points, right? So the first is the vision to see that what's possible. there's no limit on the upside here. I can win this financially and emotionally. Right. It gives you that playback as you're going along.

[00:05:10] Nick: And then the second thing was like, gotta work hard. it's such a right thing to say, but it's so important 'cause it's so true, right? You gotta work hard. Now. I'm a big believer that working hard changes because what it means to work hard changes and essentially, you it flips on itself a little bit depending on where you are.

[00:05:26] Nick: But it's, it's going, the news also said going in the extra mile and then. You gotta see more people. See more people. Solves, the problem. Like, oh, I should bit more about that. And then the last thing you said, super important, right? If you don't feel like you wanna quit, you're probably not working hard enough.

[00:05:40] Nick: I love that. Right. I would, I would say to that as well, that it's part of, , looking at yourself. as a person, and a business person, even if it's outside of this industry, everyone's gonna be watching this is, is, is mostly likely inside the industry, but either way, it's gonna be true outside of it.

[00:05:54] Nick: If you're looking at yourself and you're going, I, I feel like I'm not doing quite as much as I could be doing. Like I'm leaving something on the table. Yeah. I'm not getting the results I want and I'm kind of looking at other things. But what could I do better? What could I do more of? You kind of have to go over the line to know where the line is sometimes. Right. I think that's, that's such a cool thing.

[00:06:10] Chris: Well, you know me. I mean, I'm, very uncomfortable when I'm not

[00:06:14] Chris: almost overworked, right? It's just one of those things that's embedded in me that the busier I am, the, more comfortable I feel, the happier I am. , and more people I can really help.

[00:06:26] Nick: Absolutely. What do you think that there's the kind of inbuilt need to do that? Like what's that drive?

[00:06:31] Chris: , that's a good question. , I would say, you know, number one, you want to be able to provide for your family, right? , That's most important to me is to be able to, you know, be able to take a vacation with, the family, with my wife and my two kids, and be able to provide for them, you know, not only here, but you know. Leaving a legacy. Right. number one. Number two, you know, it's really helping others. Right. I always wanted to get into something, as I said earlier, about helping others. So that's what keeps driving you. So and it's a game right now. I got a, a firm, there's 10 of us.

[00:07:05] Chris: I got a, you know, somebody that I work very, very closely with that I want him to succeed. That makes me feel good that. better he does, , the happier I am. , So it's where that all stemmed from. I'll credit my parents, I guess. , , But it's just something that's always been sort of my nature.

[00:07:23] Chris: I've always tried to, sometimes maybe to my detriment, I put others first before me, and I guess it's just, you know, keep working, keep grinding. before we started, I just got a, I got a text from somebody that said, Hey, you know, I got a spot open for golf next Tuesday, , this course, Nick, you can't get on.

[00:07:43] Chris: It's impossible to get on, but I can't do it because I got things already booked.

[00:07:47] Chris: it's like you said, it's the consistency, right? what is a necessity at the start. Then becomes like a deeper value down the line because you could get away with that, as it were, right? Like no harm, no foul, but it talks to your integrity and what's deeply valuable for you. and that's, really just what dawned on me is that, you can have that value as a starting value and say, this is what I'm doing until a certain point, right. This value is only good until a certain point where I don't need it anymore. Right. What you are saying is the value's, the value.

[00:08:17] Nick: that's my integrity and I'm gonna commit to it no matter what, whether I have to or not. Whether there's a necessity around what impact it means in terms of how can I look it off my family? To your earlier point or not, I think that's a great observation for anyone listening. So cool. Right, because it comes back down to the, basics on.

[00:08:33] Nick: Aren't low level, they're just the basics.

[00:08:36] Chris: It's amazing to me that the young advisors now, you know, I know a lot in our, ballet office that they're, taking vacations right? Early on, you never took a vacation. You just worked you had that mindset that the more you worked.

[00:08:53] Chris: Now, 33 years later, I'm able to do the things that I dreamt of doing and been able to do. It's a catcher, but you've earned the right, right. You've earned the right to be away with your family. You've earned the right to, if my son needs me in Raleigh, I'm on a plane tomorrow. I don't have to think about it.

[00:09:11] Chris: Right. My daughter needs me up in New York. Boom, I'm on a train or in the car. Hey, I'll be up there in a couple hours. you've earned the right to do that. I think too many people early on in their career get very comfortable, very quickly, because you have freedom, right? It's similar to freshman year of college, you, you go to a, from a structured environment of high school. To freshman year of college and you have two classes Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and you have two classes Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday, and you're like. Holy cow, what do I do the rest of my time? And it's similar to this, right? You don't come in and somebody tells you, all right, Nick, here are the appointments you have today.

[00:09:54] Chris: You've gotta create the appointments you have today. And if you wanna slack off and play video games all day, you can. Now, your manager may get on your butt about it, but you have the ability to do that. Some people like that. That's not the way I was. I wanted to be able to. Work hard early on to take advantage of some of the things I'm able to do now.

[00:10:17] Nick: that's so wonderful. I, I found that my observation of it and how it was for me going through my journey was that I didn't realize I was doing it, but there was a part of me that was in the, let's see what I can get away with. Kinda what you're talking about, right? Like I'll do the minimum to get

[00:10:32] Nick: through. And then there was, I started to realize and something happened and the flick and then the, and the switch got flick to, it's never, what can I get away with? It's what can I contribute or what can I create? that's What you're saying. I think that either you've got it from the start like you had it, or there's a realization from it.

[00:10:48] Nick: Sometimes never at all. Right. But I think it's, , the lesson there is for people listening to this is to think about where in your life, in your business, are you still going down the road of can I get away with subconsciously? For sure. Right. It's not, there gonna be many people that are intentionally doing that.

[00:11:03] Nick: Right. It's the, it's stuff that we don't see that gets us, but that's very cool. I wanna go back to what you said about the, , more activity. , What solves problems is, booking more meanings. I think that's a fairly clear thing to know. Right. So numbers game. Right. Intellectually it makes sense. what do you think that prevents advisors from actually using that advice on a consistent basis?

[00:11:24] Nick: Yeah.

[00:11:25] Chris: , I think it goes back to some of its work ethic, when I was recruiting people and in the interview process, I always said, you can't put in what God left out. Right? I can't get somebody up in the morning. I just can't, I can't do it. I mean, I could be their alarm, but you can very easily snooze me as your manager and go back to bed.

[00:11:45] Chris: a lot of it comes down to work ethic, I think. where there's a will, there's a way you're gonna find an opportunity. So anybody listening that doesn't have a, A natural market opportunity, find something unique. We found the retirement benefits group model. We're working with educators, , and helping them plan for their retirement was a great, , door opener into their household.

[00:12:08] Chris: You know, educators are, clearly well educated. , If they're married, they're married to other successful people. So it was a, an entree into their household to help them do all the comprehensive planning that we're able to do. , So I think those are just a couple thoughts there. With regards to, how to set more meetings or why people are not setting enough meetings.

[00:12:32] Nick: For me, there's always two things, Chris, like, there's the mindset around if I'm committed, I'll find a way. Where mine entire tends to go is, oh, how do I do that? Oh, well, yeah, I'm committed, but how do I do that? If you're not really committed, you ask the how. Right? And so I think giving people more ways to go, look, there's plenty of hows here.

[00:12:51] Nick: the first question is, are you committed to doing the things that God left out as you put it right, otherwise, right. Just 'cause. 'cause you still get a choice just to get a choice to step up and do those things

[00:13:01] Nick: regardless.

[00:13:02] Chris: in my, there's nothing wrong with the person that wants to be that middle that middle 60%.

[00:13:10] Chris: Right? Right.

[00:13:11] Chris: You know, there's nothing wrong with that. It's no one's being critical with those people. That's just not my makeup. You know, I wanna be in that top percentile.

[00:13:20] Chris: I wanna. impact people's lives, and if you do the right thing, the result of that is, financial freedom, let's call it. Right? So it's not being critical of anybody, it's just not the way I want it to be. And you gotta figure out ¡ Where do you fit in, in that model?

[00:13:36] Nick: Yeah, absolutely. It the, it's the awareness of. What have I got? Is that the thing that I really want? And then if not, what am I prepared to do to change it? Right. If my default is that 60%, well, let me ask you, do you believe that if that's your default, right? So you know what your default was and is, and that that served you well, and as you said, has the challenges as also, but if you're in that big 60% chunk, what do you believe about being able to move to that top 20%? Should you so wish. Is it.

[00:14:08] Chris: my opinion, I would say. Partner up with somebody that's in that top 20%. I think that's probably the biggest opportunity that's out there. , Where you can, not only learn from them, but also have the opportunity to, to work with some of their clients. Right. I think that's where. In this case, Ryan and I work very closely together.

[00:14:32] Chris: He's been a huge help for me in my business practice. , Same with John. I have a hundred percent confidence in both of them that I'm able to give them my best client and they'll continue to work with my clients the way that I currently do. But the beauty of that is you can uncover other opportunities that I haven't seen. it goes back to the, you know, 50% of something's better than a hundred percent enough. So I think to try to get that person that's in that middle 60 that's doing well, or, you know, just sort of mulling, you know, ploting along, get them talked to someone that's in that top 10 or top 20%.

[00:15:11] Chris: See if you can work with them. 'cause that's gonna, that's gonna move you, Towards that, top tier of advisors,

[00:15:20] Nick: Proximity is power that's awesome. you mentioned being in management for a long time. , It's on my mind right now. So I'm, I'm working on a big piece to make a distinction of the, what leadership really is, and part of that distinction is making the firstly distinction between management and leadership.

[00:15:37] Nick: So I'd love to hear your thoughts about how you define management versus how you define leadership. And then I want to hear, How that served you in your practice as you came out of that, but what do you think about the difference between management and leadership?

[00:15:49] Nick: what's useful for you to define that as?

[00:15:51] Chris: I would say that I think, you know, management is, . For lack of a better term, more of like a desk type of a job, right? You come in and there's certain tasks that you need to accomplish every day. As a manager, keep an eye on your team leaders. I think they have to lead by example, so I was always a firm believer in anybody that I brought into management or leadership.

[00:16:12] Chris: Uh,, I always made sure that they were also a producing advisor. So in our model, I always wanted to have, let's call it the two sides of the business. My, my management leadership team side, as well as my personal production side. , So I think the best leaders are the ones that lead by example. And you could see that in sports as well, right?

[00:16:36] Chris: You know, a lot of coaches, , are really successful, they lead by example. that would be sort of my comments with regards to the difference between management and, and leadership.

[00:16:46] Nick: I love that. Right, because, , what I've observed that is that there's a lot, a lot of great advisors out there. There's not necessarily lot of great, or there's a lot less great advisors that are also great business people, and I've found that that leadership distinction plays a big role in that, that advisors that have gone through some sort of place where they've lead another advisors earlier on, or they think about their firm a different way because of that, going through that overall. And so I love what you said about that the best managers are the ones that actually think like a leader and because they've got a business that they're growing and leading that, as well as just doing the desk job piece that you said as well.

[00:17:26] Nick: So I think that's a huge distinction. it's a big thing that I've started to really see because it can be. You can be good as a producer, but after a certain point you hit some limitations because rather than just being you and the clients, it needs to be you and your team. You and your team, plus other advisors that you need to lead as well in order to get that next level

[00:17:45] Nick: up.

[00:17:45] Chris: Yeah. There's especially in, in our business, like, when I was in the leadership role, I was a manager, you know, I would. Be the person that wanted to be next to my advisors in a meeting.

[00:17:58] Chris: And show them. I was always taught, you know, the first five meetings or so, you go on, I'm gonna say everything.

[00:18:05] Chris: You don't speak. The next five meetings you go on with me. You know, we both kind of talk and then the last five meetings we go on together, you know, I don't say anything and you do all the talking, Nick. And that way you're gonna learn from me. You're gonna sit there and not say something stupid. I mean, you'd always wanna sit next to the advisor so you could kick them under the table, Right. Like, why in the world did you say that? And that was sort of the way I taught some of my advisors, you know? But you have to be in the field with them. You can't be like, Hey Nick, good luck on that meeting. Call me when it's done. And this is the second meeting you've ever gone on.

[00:18:43] Chris: The chances of you succeeding in, in financial services or even in that, just alone in that meeting, are very, very slim if you have no idea what you're talking about,

[00:18:52] Nick: Yeah. And it goes back to your earlier point around the consistency and doing the more right. If you can, if you can optimize for keeping playing the game, eventually you're gonna get good at it no matter what your starting point is or much further along. I always ask this question on a podcast about referrals or introductions as I like to call them as well, because I find that is, or it can be polarizing among advisors.

[00:19:16] Nick: what's your philosophy around introductions in your business or referrals in your business? If you prefer that,

[00:19:23] Chris: I mean, my philosophy is it's, critical to. The success of, of our business or really any business. , I'm a believer of you constantly drip with the client to remind them, there's anybody else that I can help. Please keep me in mind. , But I think if you continually drip and you continue to let people know Hey, exciting news. I'm growing my practice, but I'm really just working off of referrals. If there's anybody that you know, Nick, that you think could benefit from my services, please keep me in mind. And then you get that random, you know, email from some, oh, Nick Davies referred me to you and I could use your help. Chris or So and so referred me to you. And again, I think , it goes back to my earlier comment. I'm a firm believer if you do all the right things, it's gonna come back to you one way or the other.

[00:20:15] Chris: May not happen right away. one of the best. Referrals I got was this year from somebody that I worked with for a long, long, long, long period of time, and she finally referred me to somebody. It was somebody that's got, you know, sizable assets. We've done a ton of planning for her and her family, and the person to refer her had never given me a referral, but anytime I saw her, just remind her, Hey, I know you're retiring if there's anybody else here at the firm that I can help.

[00:20:43] Chris: And she referred me to someone that was retiring right around that same time she did. , you know, it just took some time. It took, 10 years for something like that.

[00:20:50] Nick: It's so cool for people to listen to that because as you said, 33 years in, you can look at the first year, the first 10 years, the first 20 years, You can look back on the patterns that you've created over that time, and it's a good enough time to see those things happening. But if you are just a few years in a business, you have your own patterns.

[00:21:08] Nick: And so it's so important to be able to listen to this and go like, okay. The same things are gonna happen. I just haven't got my own proof yet. But I can use other people's evidence. And as long as you're using those principles, it's right point. And you said like out of the blue, but of course like it seems out of the blue, but it's not.

[00:21:22] Nick: It's because you're doing the thing, right? It's like, it's just, you can't tie it directly. 'cause the timelines are off. But yeah, it's, it's so powerful to hear. As we close things up, Chris, we covered a whole lot of stuff, which has been awesome. what would you say in terms of. Looking back over that trajectory, right?

[00:21:39] Nick: A year, 10, year, 20 year, 30. Now, year 33, any of those versions of yourself, what would you go back and tell? Is there any piece of advice that you would give yourself back from those, times? Is there anything that you, you know, now that man you really wish you'd known earlier? Anything you wanna share on that?

[00:21:56] Chris: I think that the one thing I would say, and it's still, I could tell you exactly where I was, exactly who the client was that said it was, I think it's important for people to communicate to their prospects and their clients all the things that they can do, I remember. Where I was when a client had just purchased a very large life insurance policy and I was working with them with doing some minor investment stuff, and the client said, I never knew you did that.

[00:22:29] Chris: I would've done it with you, but you never told me you did that. And it was early on, it was, you know, one of those meetings where, you know, you get into the meeting, you do what you need to do and you put your stuff back in your briefcase back in the day and you're ran out of there. 'cause you were afraid the client's gonna tackle you and change their mind and be like, no, no, no, I don't want to do that $5,000 IRA with you anymore.

[00:22:51] Chris: So you just forgot to tell people. In that case, that individual, he was a doctor, I forgot to tell him that, Hey, I can, not only can I do the investments for you, I can do your insurance planning, college funding. So make sure you communicate to anybody you speak to all the areas. Don't be afraid to tell 'em that you can implement some life insurance planning to protect their family.

[00:23:15] Chris: You know, again, 50% of something is better than a hundred percent of nothing.

[00:23:19] Nick: This ties back to your start, really Chris, about okay, I wanna do something where I can

[00:23:23] Nick: help others and having that commitment deep is like it compels you to say those things, right? Even if you dunno in that moment how you can deliver it, it's like, I'm gonna help you. Right? So I know you can see that there's that out there.

[00:23:35] Nick: if people watching this, listening to this wanna get in touch with you, Chris, how might they do that?

[00:23:39] Chris: They can certainly send me an email. They're more than welcome to reach out, gimme a phone call.

[00:23:44] Nick: We'll put that in the show notes so people can grab onto it afterwards. , Awesome stuff. , Thank you so much, Chris. I appreciate you. Thank you for sharing

[00:23:51] Chris: Thank you. I appreciate, , trying to, you know, help and if I could help in any way, you know, you can always lean on me and, and reach out. I'm here to help

[00:23:58] Nick: Awesome. Plenty of gold there. I'm sure everyone's gonna be Really appreciate it and, take away some of those things. All

[00:24:03] Nick: right.