What It Really Takes to Build a Seven Figure Advisory Practice

[00:00:00] Nick: Man, sorry about the, uh, the technical situations today.

[00:00:04] Josh: Yeah, no worries. It w- it was the weirdest thing, like I could join and then it would just immediately boot me out within like two seconds.

[00:00:11] Nick: Yeah, it was doing the exact same thing for me. Um, we've been using this one for a while, but, uh, yeah, I called, I called the, I called the tech guy and he's like, "Yeah, I don't know what's going on."

[00:00:19] Nick: He said it's been fine, but that's the world we live in, I guess. But, um, I'm excited, excited to dive in today. Oh, we have 45 minutes scheduled. The idea really is to only, only record for 25, 30 minutes anyway, so we've got a bit of space, so we should be good.

[00:00:34] Josh: Okay. Okay.

[00:00:35] Nick: How you been?

[00:00:36] Josh: I've been good, just busy.

[00:00:37] Josh: It, uh, decided to snow six inches last yesterday here in Montana, so it was a, uh, wonderful weekend.

[00:00:45] Nick: Man, it's just... That's bizarre. Like, I was in Denver last week for a e- an equitable conference thing. Uh, it was like 85 degrees there, and I'm back in North Carolina, it's like 90 today. So that's just, that's bonkers to hear that.

[00:00:57] Josh: Yeah, I was actually in Denver Thursday and Friday as well visiting our local office out there. So yeah, I experienced that as well. I got off the plane, I'm like, "Why is it so hot?"

[00:01:06] Nick: What is going on? That's wild, man. That's wild. Um, I know, I know you're-- Well, I think you're, like, pretty used to doing, to doing these recordings.

[00:01:15] Nick: Um, any questions before we get going?

[00:01:18] Josh: No, I- I'm good. Just fire away and I'll, I'll try to be an engaging guest.

[00:01:23] Nick: No, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm excited, man. Uh, I mean, the, the whole point here, of course, is just to advise listeners, to advise them their journey. And it's-- You've got a great story, of course, and I think there's gonna be tons of value.

[00:01:34] Nick: And I think the, the biggest part of that is just people really love to hear people's journeys and, like, the challenges they've gone through as well, because they really see themselves in those stories. You know, it just gives people that next level up and, um, yeah. So let- lets, uh.... Let me ... Guess we're, we're already recording with the Fathom anyway, so, um, we'll just get it going and then we've got...

[00:01:54] Nick: Yeah, we're s- we're scheduled till the bottom of the hour, so we'll make sure we're done by then as well.

[00:01:58] Josh: Okay, perfect.

[00:02:01] Nick: Uh, Josh, welcome to the Seven Figure Advisor podcast. I'm super pumped to have you here. Um, excited to dive into it today.

[00:02:09] Josh: Yeah, me too, and thanks for having me on. I'm, I'm looking forward to talking with you.

[00:02:13] Nick: We only met relatively recently but it was really cool to- for you to share your story with me, and of course this whole podcast is about advisors and, uh, and, and sharing their journeys o- of, of ups and downs and ins and outs and all of that around as well. Uh, I, I gotta start, you know, re- relatively at the beginning.

[00:02:31] Nick: And, um, what would you say w- was the catalyst to, to getting you in, into the business? 'Cause i- it's ... It's always interesting to, to start at that, at that point.

[00:02:40] Josh: Yeah. I would say two things. One, growing up my dad, um, came out of the insurance world so he was doing a lot of estate planning, insurance work, started to get investments and, you know, he was running his own business so I was involved helping with like doing, you know, educational workshops or cutting the lawn at the office.

[00:02:59] Josh: So like I was just always around the business growing up. And then I always loved math and numbers so it, it was just like I'm, I'm gonna go to college for finance, figure it out from there, and it very quickly became apparent that I, I'm good with people, I like h- you know, helping people solve problems and give them solutions.

[00:03:17] Josh: And the finance industry was just a natural step, you know, once I saw the opportunity there and how much I could help people

[00:03:26] Nick: Yeah, I lo- I love the threading the needle there with the aptitude for num- for numbers but then the application for people. I mean that's, that's, that's where it all comes together.

[00:03:35] Nick: So fast forward to now, to now just so everyone can... Everyone watching and hearing can get an idea of what exactly you're doing now.

[00:03:41] Josh: Yeah, so if you fast-forward today not quite four years ago my brother and I merged our hybrid RIA into Merit Financial Advisors which is a nationwide um RI- hybrid RIA. Um, when we merged our firm in we were running about $1.3 billion of fee based assets mostly in Wisconsin but, you know after COVID times spread across the US.

[00:04:03] Josh: At the time Merit was about a six billion dollar firm. Um, fast-forward to today we're somewhere around 30 to 31 billion of assets under management and I still work a lot with high net worth and ultra high net worth households but my role has really transitioned with Merit to where uh, uh, my title is now called Managing Principal.

[00:04:24] Josh: I'm one of four of them across the nation along with my brother and are ... My job now when I'm not advising clients is to help the advisors in my region grow faster organically but then also be on the front lines of the M&A activity in my region of helping to bring other firms over to Merit.

[00:04:43] Nick: Yeah, that's a super exciting space to be in uh, I'm sure and it's so cool because you can take all the leverage you've got coming over to Merit and w- we'll hear more about that and, and, and th- that opportunity and why you did that in the first place I'm sure but take that and then utilize your skill and what you really like to better help those advisers have more impact uh, all in one go and that must be really exciting for you.

[00:05:07] Josh: Yeah, I mean It's really, really fun and i- it's been a really fun paradigm shift 'cause you know-

[00:05:11] Nick: Mm.

[00:05:11] Josh: I wore an advisor hat for almost 20 years and I loved my clients but you know at some point you get to a, a, a step in your career where you're like "You know it would be great to shift and do something else," but still be very involved so it's, it's been very refreshing and I've been doing this for...

[00:05:27] Josh: The new role for about two years and it was just -- Not that I don't love meeting with clients but at some point you start to get worn down with review meetings and things that always seem the same and so being able to still do that but then shift a lot of my responsibilities elsewhere has just been a, a breath of fresh air and kind of reinvigorating

[00:05:47] Nick: A- and ultimately, I'd suggest probably make sh- makes

[00:05:49] Nick: There's more of you, you're creating more, and if you ever wanted to go back to that direction in any way, way it's, um, more impactful, right? 'Cause there's more depth to who you are.

[00:05:57] Josh: 100%, a- and I'm still really involved with helping advisors close clients if they need it. But the f- really fun thing is I get to do all the fun part of it now, which is bringing that new client on board, creating the plan, you know, seeing the, the impacts, and then I hand off all the service work to another advisor.

[00:06:14] Nick: There you go. That's it. That's it. Um, it's, um, it's interesting, right? Because I, I often tell m- my clients that they've got to think about their team as, as really their most important clients. And not to take away the impact of their actual clients, but just that they know how to do that. Like, they know how to do that.

[00:06:31] Nick: And so what th- their journey comes from thinking about leveraging through leadership in other ways, and not just serving s- servicing their clients, because that ultimately gives them better ways to serve those clients, because they have, gonna have more space in order to do that and think about things a different way.

[00:06:45] Josh: Oh, 100%. I mean, I think that's one of the funnest things about being an advisor or being a part of a firm like Merit is building the team, seeing the growth of the team, and just where they end up getting to. Um, that's, I think, one of the most rewarding things for me on this side

[00:07:00] Nick: Very cool. You shared a little bit with me on, on this before last time we met, but I'd love you to tell the story about how you got to that point before you decided- Sure

[00:07:09] Nick: to go with Merit Make A Change. Uh, and, and talk to us some of the specifics in terms of the impact of your life and the, the amount that you were putting in to the business at that point.

[00:07:19] Josh: Yeah. So i- if I kind of start at the beginning, you know, I was ... I started college back in 2004. Um, after two years when I decided for sure I was gonna do finance, my dad said to me, "Hey, I, I need help."

[00:07:32] Josh: Like, "Would you be willing to come back and intern in the summers and the winter and help me build this business?" And so did that in '07 and '08. Graduated college in May of 2008. Awesome timing, right before, uh, The Great Recession. Mm-hmm. So I call it my trial by fire. Uh, I had been in the industry for four months when Lehman Brothers went down, so that was really good times.

[00:07:51] Josh: Um, but if you go back to where my dad was, um, he was, you know, a, a registered rep of a broker dealer. He had one and a half staff people managing $60 to $70 million, but it was all American Funds A shares, front loaded annuities or whole life insurance. So he had no recurring revenue other than a very small amount.

[00:08:12] Josh: And so, you know, I came in and joined him. My brother was a year behind me in college. He also has a finance degree. Um, and so we both went to my dad and said, "If you want us to join you, w- two conditions. One, we're going to slowly transition you to a hybrid RIA. We know we can't do it overnight because you have no recurring revenue and everyone's going to starve, but slow transition.

[00:08:33] Josh: And then two, like, Dad, you're amazing at dealing with clients, but you're terrible at everything else." And to my dad's credit, he's like, "Yep, and I don't like doing any of that stuff anyway. So you guys take it over, build the company, and just tell me what to do." So fast forward from '09 into 2014, we had kind of pivoted the entire company.

[00:08:53] Josh: No longer any frontend commissions. We had about 100-

[00:08:56] Nick: And Josh, b- sorry to interrupt, but I just gotta come back to that part, 'cause for me- Yeah ... it's so fascinating how You and your brother relatively, like new in had that foresight to be able to give those conditions to your dad. Uh, what was the ... Like how, how did, how were you able to see that in that moment?

[00:09:15] Josh: Yeah. So we both went to... So I grew up in Wisconsin. Um, and we both went to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which is not Madison. You know, the one with UC football teams, basketball teams. It's a smaller college of about 10,000 people attending at a time. But the really interesting thing is their finance department is entirely staffed by CFAs and CFPs.

[00:09:36] Josh: And so those professors were very upfront, like if you're thinking about getting into wealth management, you gotta go fee based only because that's where the entire industry's transitioning. So we kind of had that, I'll call it beaten into our heads in college.

[00:09:51] Nick: Ah, okay.

[00:09:51] Josh: And that was also the time that my dad's broker dealer was just starting to talk about like wrap accounts, fee based annuities.

[00:09:59] Josh: So he was starting to hear this but he didn't really see what it was transitioning to, so it was like a perfect combination

[00:10:06] Nick: S- okay, so you, you and your brother saw it 'cause that's what was getting beaten into you, and your dad was starting to see it as well. 'Cause that's gonna be... What was going to be my follow-up question is like one thing that you guys said that, another thing he said yes, right?

[00:10:16] Nick: It's like-

[00:10:17] Josh: Yeah ...

[00:10:17] Nick: I love, I love the, the father-son or the father-daughter or, like, the brothers and all the f- the family working together scenario is so cool, and I always think that the biggest gift that the person, outgoing person gives is getting out of the way -- Yep .... to accept those conditions. So, uh, thanks, thanks for sharing that because I think it's in these transitions that really makes a difference, right?

[00:10:36] Nick: Because it's so easy to go along and do what you do, uh, and be okay with it, right? But it has to, it has to be some sort of catalyst or push for that to ma- really make the difference, and so thanks for diving into that. Yep. So y- you were saying that 2014?

[00:10:51] Josh: Yeah. And s- and so if I go back when we started doing, you know, fee-based money management, we were just outsourcing to third parties because we didn't have the time, nor did my brother and I feel we had the ability to run our own clients' money.

[00:11:03] Josh: Um, you know, we're not God's gift to money management, so we just outsourced it. But fast-forward to 2014, we had grown the firm to about $160 million of fee-based assets. And I, I should mention the firm is in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin which has like 8,000 people in it, so it's a tiny little town. Um, but long story short, w- we bought 51% of the company from my dad.

[00:11:25] Josh: Um, and it was, you know, gonna be a staggered transaction over time, but immediately had control and started taking all of the call it profits or revenue that we were getting and poured it back in to start building a team. So what we did was we said, "We, we've got to bring money management in-house because it's too expensive for our clients with third parties.

[00:11:42] Josh: We've gotta build out the planning team, the wealth management team, the ops team, marketing," all of that fun stuff. So started doing that um, for the next call it seven years and if you fast-forward to 2021, we had grown to a team of about 23, maybe 24, um, five CFAs running our, our clients' money, six CFPs that were the advisors, a marketing department, ops department.

[00:12:07] Josh: But basically had grown into like a smaller regional player and were having a ton of fun but we realized a couple of things. One, we saw the trend in the industry of private equity or ca-... You know, lots of capital coming in and starting to create these giant hundred, 200, $300 billion firms and we were starting to compete with them, um, which was great, but we didn't have anywhere near the scale of resources they had to win these high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients And then the second part of it was my brother and I had hit what we call the ceiling of complexity.

[00:12:41] Josh: You know, we were running the business but we were still the rainmakers of bringing all these clients in. So you know, in an average week we were working 70, 80, 90 hours, but we really weren't making any more money. Um, and so it was kind of like why are we killing ourselves to do this? Like, it's great, we have an awesome company, an awesome business, we've got great lives.

[00:12:59] Josh: But like if I look out five years in the future nothing's gonna change. So we had the realization of we either need to hire a bunch of really good C-suite talent to have a chief operations officer, a CIO, you know, CFO, all these roles that my brother now are filling, and very quickly realized like there is no way we're going to be able to hire these people in small town Wisconsin.

[00:13:20] Josh: Like it ... They just, they don't exist or they're not gonna wanna move here. So then we pivoted it to, of okay, we're at a spot where we're doing great, let's see if we can find a partner to merge with that has all these things in place and we can kind of time travel like four or five years into the future, like if we were building it on our own.

[00:13:39] Josh: So we went through a, a very extensive search. We did not retain an investment banker, but we talked to every large player. So your creatives, your, you know, wealth enhancement group, everybody. We, we went through and very quickly figured out that most of the big players just wanted to buy us, fire some of our staff and just plug us in and we would have no decision-making ability, and that wasn't fun because I'm, you know, I'm 33, or I was 35, my brother was 33, so we're like, "It's too early in our career to do this."

[00:14:09] Nick: Yeah.

[00:14:09] Josh: And so as we were kinda spinning our wheels we actually got a cold phone call from Merit Financial a- asking if we'd be interested in a merger. Um, so you know, we started talking to them. Very quickly figured out they had most of the stuff in place that we needed. They had an amazing leadership team and an amazing culture.

[00:14:27] Josh: And so after about a year of going back and forth with Merit, in August of 2022 we merged our firm into Merit in an all equity transaction, then brought the entire team over

[00:14:41] Nick: Amazing. Uh, it's a great story and, uh, clearly the time was right overall. There's a lot, there's a like three of stories here, like how the timing is right, but it takes so much more to see that and then to be able to execute on it in the moment 'cause- in the moment because I imagine that there was a lot of, like, trepidation for you and your brother as well thinking about what you just built and...

[00:14:57] Nick: But probably a lot of leverage as well, right? Because you were working 70 hours a week. It's, ah, like a this, this isn't sustainable. And again, like the, the core realization that if you were to make the significant change, how much more you'd have to lean into what you need in order to create that. But seeing opportunity elsewhere.

[00:15:17] Nick: Yeah,

[00:15:17] Josh: it, yeah, no, I think the other thing that really shone- Yeah … a light on, on it for us was, you know, Merit, Rick and Caitlin, who I've become very, very good friends with. You know, Rick's the founder, Caitlin's the president.

[00:15:28] Nick: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:28] Josh: Um, they gave us a vision of where Merit wanted to get to, and one of the things that we realized was twofold.

[00:15:35] Josh: One was it's gonna bring so many more resources to our clients that will not cost them anything. They just have to come along with us and trust us.

[00:15:44] Nick: Yeah. But

[00:15:44] Josh: the bigger part of it was for our team, the opportunities they would have to grow on their career paths at Merit were things that we would never be able to offer them if we didn't partner with a larger firm.

[00:15:56] Josh: So I mean, we've had multiple team members that have doubled their compensation in the less than four years we've been at Merit because they've been able to grow into a role that Merit needed, and as a result they're, you know, getting compensated well for that

[00:16:09] Nick: It's a beautiful story. You know, people often think about, you know, that, that silly old saying, um, have your cake and eat it too?

[00:16:16] Nick: You know, I actually think that's the only way you can be successful, right? Or another way to say is like a, you know, the win-win as popularized by Stephen Covey many years ago, but I think it should be four wins, Josh, right? So it would be win for me, win for you, win for our immediate impact of clients, but a win for the greater good.

[00:16:32] Nick: And so a great description of what you just laid out, right? Because got to think of it like how can we be sustainably suce-, uh, successful, right? What's the thing that allows for playing long term games here? And I think that's a great example there where everyone around w- wins.

[00:16:45] Josh: Yeah. Our other fear too was, you know, so our team that...

[00:16:49] Josh: Our legacy pre-Marot team, and continues to be this way, but the vast majority of our team members, we actu-... Were college interns for us, that we then brought on board, trained them, and moved them into new roles. But what we were starting to see was, like, we weren't just... We were not gonna be able to compensate them where they needed to be compensated, and keep our profit margins where they should be.

[00:17:09] Josh: So that was one of our fears, like we built this awesome team, but pretty soon we're going to start losing team members because they just, they don't have any- anywhere to grow into. Like, "We have a role for you. You're awesome at it. You get a 5% salary increase every year plus some bonus," but, like, there just isn't that next level and there probably was never going to be that next level.

[00:17:27] Nick: What, what do you think per- ... I mean, you shared a couple of things already, but just to dig into it a little bit more personally, what, what is it you think that kind of s- sticks you out that perhaps you're proud of some of your traits, uh, as to how you've been able to take advantage of these things and create them over the years?

[00:17:44] Josh: Yeah. I, I would say probably the one thing that sticks out the most is my brother and I have a very, very close re- working relationship. Like, we always joke, we've been business partners now for 18 years, and we've never had a disagreement in business. Plenty in our personal lives- Okay .... um, but, you know, a- as business partners, like, we very quickly get aligned beside each other and like, "This is where we need to get to.

[00:18:07] Josh: Here's how we're going to do it." Mm-hmm. So I think on the business side, that's been really good. But, but if I go to the client side and how we build the business, I think we're both really, really good at education, and free education of, you know, whether it's a first client meeting or we're going into a company to do employee education, whatever it may be, we're just really good at delivering value through education, and then people start to see that of like, "Hey, they're not here to sell us a product.

[00:18:33] Josh: They're not pitching anything. This is pure education. Like, I wanna talk to these guys more." And if you can put myself or my brother in front of a prospect, like 95 times out of 100 they will become a client

[00:18:46] Nick: A- and that, and that comes from the fact that your focus when you're in that place is like how can I help you?

[00:18:51] Nick: How can I, how can I educate you? How can I just continue- Yeah ... to bring value?

[00:18:55] Josh: Yeah. And I mean, and the funny thing too is there's been plenty of times where I've met with, I'll call it a vanguard do it yourself-er, and looked at the portfolio they've built and basically said like, "This is honestly really good.

[00:19:06] Josh: I'd make one or two tweaks but you're not paying for this right now." Like if you're gonna come work with me I'm going to charge you 50 basis points, 100 basis points whatever it is so if you see value in that feel free to come work with us we'd love to work with you but you're gonna be fine on your own, like with what you have set up.

[00:19:23] Josh: And the number of referrals we've gotten from client ... people who never became clients are like "Hey my friend Jim over here could really use your help" Just because we ... They've seen the value in that education and just the honestness. Like If, if I can't build a better portfolio than what you're doing and you've got financial planning piece down then I'm not gonna hard sell you.

[00:19:42] Josh: I'm gonna be very open and honest with you.

[00:19:44] Nick: For me that really talks to your uh, might seem obvious but deep understanding of creating leverage wherever you looking, right? You were thinking about the secondary tertiary course of action rather than immediate thinkin'. It's like ha-, had I ... Where's it gonna lead if I provide value and be honest about where things are.

[00:20:03] Nick: I thinks that's a beautiful thing to share. Uh, go back to I guess when you started to really build up with your brother you, you're in a place where obviously you could see what was coming. And wonder as well why the small town you talked about. I wondered if that any within tha-... even though less people provided more focus in some ways made it easier.

[00:20:21] Nick: I'd love to talk through that for second if you would.

[00:20:24] Josh: I don't know if it made it easier but m-my dad took his credit has always been really good at marketing and so hired a young girl her name Leslie Clark she's been with us having 11 years now So she was our original head of Marketing She n-. She now is Vice President of Marketing at Merit and runs all essential time zone marketing for Merit But What we got really really good at Was My Brother and I With my Dad’s Help Very quickly figured out Nobody In Our local Market Was advertising them fee ba- themselves As Fee Based Fiduciaries So We Flooded The Radio Newspapers Billboards Of This Is Are Value Proposition We are Fee Based Fiduciaries We are acting in Your Best Interest And it Kind off Took Off Even To day Day Week Tip In an Average week In Our Cheboygan Falls Office Will Have Four Five Either Referrals Or People Calling That Want Meet Somebody

[00:21:18] Nick: Love that.

[00:21:19] Nick: Yeah, and I should, uh, uh, not, not to in-not to intimate that it was easy for you to do that, but just l- love for that focus, I suppose. Yeah. There's a... I think about, um, another... A guy I work with who again in a smaller town is like it's- there's a- it's that focus and then just the flood in that area as you said that's super intriguing, intriguing to me.

[00:21:38] Nick: What, what does, what does most advisors miss to get to that next level up and keep pushing through like, like you have been able to do?

[00:21:47] Josh: Yeah. Uh, I think it's two things. Like-

[00:21:49] Nick: Yeah ...

[00:21:50] Josh: I talk to a ton of advisers both on the Merit team and, you know, that we're trying to bring over to Merit, and a lot of them aren't actually running a business, they're running a practice.

[00:22:01] Nick: Okay. Yep.

[00:22:02] Josh: So they're, they're not looking at profitability, they're not thinking about when do I need to add the next team member or whatever it may be, but they're very much just servicing a book of revenue and they're not actually running a business. So that's a huge thing that I see. And then I think the other part of it is, is we've always str- really strived to have that connection with our clients.

[00:22:24] Josh: Mm-hmm. So we do a birthday lunch every month for all of our clients that are retired, and it's ... We're not selling anything. It's literally a two-hour lunch with 70 clients and their spouses, and we might give a five-minute market update and that's about it. The rest of it is just like hanging out with clients.

[00:22:38] Josh: You know, we show up at funerals for all of our clients. We'll randomly show up at a graduation party for a niece or nephew of a big client. Like it's- Mm-hmm ... all of these like just really, really small touches to make that client experience above and beyond.

[00:22:51] Nick: Oh, I love that man. Yeah. One of the things I always say is, yeah, there's a lot of great advisors out there.

[00:22:56] Nick: There's a lot, a lot less with great businesses, and I think that's the case. Yes. I mean, ju-just from a identity point of view or thought process where you're thinking about the practice, how do I run the practice, how do I run it, how do I run like just in what's in front of me versus how do I serve the business.

[00:23:10] Nick: Just that alone changes the perspective of how, what you're trying to create.

[00:23:14] Josh: Yeah. And I think the other thing my brother and I were really good at from the start was we just empower our team. So we-we're not micromanagers. Like once somebody proves themselves, like we kind of let 'em run. Like come to us if you have an issue or you have a question, but I don't need to talk to my ops person every day.

[00:23:30] Josh: I don't need to talk to our marketing person every day. Like if they're reaching out to me, I know they need me, but like we don't have scheduled meetings or any of that stuff. It's very much like you're good at what you do, do your job and come to us if you need help.

[00:23:44] Nick: That's awesome. Man, that talks to the, the vision stuff as well that-

[00:23:47] Nick: y-that was attractive for you, uh, at, at Merit as well, right? Because it's like if you, if you... That's what leadership is. If you've got a great vision, you attract the right people, will they prove themselves out? You can just let them go. I mean, that's the, that's the power of leadership.

[00:24:00] Josh: 100%. A-and you think about it like how much time you save for yourself as well as for your team by not micromanaging, um, and all these like, I'll call it needless meetings or emails that just could cut out.

[00:24:11] Josh: Like it, it, it's unbelievable once you actually do it

[00:24:16] Nick: So where's things going? Uh, what... I know you're- you're- you're still running really fast as the l- lots of like great things that you're doing at Merit. Like w- what's next?

[00:24:24] Josh: Yeah, so I mean, what's next for me is helping Merit, um, execute on our vision which we call Merit 3.0.

[00:24:31] Josh: So Merit 2.0 was to get to 25 billion, which we hit last year. Merit 3.0 is to go from 25 billion at the end of 2025 and, um, grow to 70 billion of assets under management by the end of 2028. And we're both through acquisitions, um, with pa- potential partners as well as organic growth, and we're well on our way to get there.

[00:24:54] Josh: Um, but yeah, I mean, our goal this year, we wanna do a minimum of 15 transactions with new partners that are coming into the firm. And the other thing that I, I kind of focus on when we talk about, you know, acquisitions and partnerships is we are super selective about who we bring onboard.

[00:25:09] Nick: Mm. Mm-hmm.

[00:25:10] Josh: Um, we, we will not buy just anyone off the street to add assets under management.

[00:25:16] Josh: They've got to fit the c- fit the culture, they have to have a growing business. Like, we will do succession deals if there's a team in place an- with G- G2 advisors, but that is ... We try to do anywhere from two to four succession deals a year. That's it. Everything else we want established businesses, established teams, proo- you know, proof that they've been growing over the last couple of years because when you bring those types of leaders in, it just helps the company grow even faster

[00:25:42] Nick: Yeah, a- and it's got be to a point where it's gonna be easier and easier for Merit to attract more and more and more people.

[00:25:47] Nick: And so like to discern that standard that you're talking about here, like I, I imagine that's like probably the most important thing in, about your job is you're making that distinction bringing, bringing, uh, bringing those people in.

[00:25:58] Josh: Yeah, 100%. And, you know, to kind of shed a little bit of light on it- Mm-hmm

[00:26:01] Josh: at any given time we probably have 50 to 80 active deal conversations going on. Mm-hmm. We typically end up going all the way through to a partnership with less than 10% of those deal conversations.

[00:26:14] Nick: That's amazing. That's beautiful. Yeah, I mean, that ... thinking about the sustainability of that, that's exciting.

[00:26:19] Josh: Yeah.

[00:26:20] Nick: Uh, can take a, a, an adjacent view to this, uh, uh, a second if, if it's okay, Josh? Just ask you about personally, personally ... Uh, 'cause, you know, we take ourselves wherever we go, and I think it's important that as we're building businesses and certainly thinking like that rather than practices, we think about, like how do we make it sustainable for ourselves as well?

[00:26:37] Nick: And, you know, part of the, the move initially was that working a lot, uh, as well. But like h- what do you do to look after yourself? Like, h- how important is, is family to you? H- how much of impact does that have? And how do you m- how do you, how do you get the right, um, equilibrium, uh, in those pla- other places of your life?

[00:26:54] Josh: Yeah. So family's super important to me. I've been married to my wife for nine years. We've got two beautiful daughters that are seven and three. Um, so, you know, I think the biggest thing is setting boundaries. Like, you know, every morning I get up, I work out, I'm up with my girls, I do breakfast with them before they head off to school.

[00:27:12] Josh: Typically, I'm the one picking them up, um, you know, at 3:00 mountain time from school. I might have to j- hop on a call later that afternoon, but to me, like, that family time is really, really important. And then, uh, you know, I think myself as well as my brother, we've gotten really, really good at running really hard when we're working, but then also taking the time with family to decompress.

[00:27:32] Josh: So taking a week or a two-week vacation with kids where, yeah, I'm still monitoring emails, like I'll call people back, but I'm working a couple of hours a day when, you know, the family's sleeping or doing something. Um, so I think that's, to me, the biggest change is I still have a lotta responsibilities, but a lot of what I always had to do to keep the company running, that disappeared when we went to Merit 'cause the HR, the compliance, the accounting, like all these things my brother and I had to do every day, we were able to offload to a centralized team.

[00:28:02] Josh: So yes, I still have responsibilities, but it's not things that, "Hey, if I don't get to this today," like people aren't getting paid

[00:28:09] Nick: Right, a- and, and you've created a situation, uh, and via Merit that if you're gonna sp- if you're gonna spend time it's, it's really th-... It's Josh required time, right? Something that you actually do have to do and it's appropriate for the role that you've got rather than just like because it, it's not systemized or the right person's doing it.

[00:28:26] Nick: I think that's a huge distinction to make as well. Uh, that's really cool. And, and look, a- and I think that in, in my experience here as well that the more time at... The level that you're playing at, the more time you can be away means the more impact you can have when you're there, right? 'Cause it's not about that time in the seat obviously.

[00:28:40] Nick: But, um, yeah- Yep ... I think it's great, great to hear.

[00:28:43] Josh: And, and I've also got great people on my team that I work with every day. Yeah. Right. So that's the other missing is not that we didn't have an amazing team pre-Merit, but now, you know, there's 500 plus employees at Merit and a bunch of them that I work directly with.

[00:28:55] Josh: So, like if, if I'm out of the office because we're on a vacation in Europe or whatever it might be, like a lot of this stuff I can just kick to team members and say, "Hey, please help me with this."

[00:29:03] Nick: Yeah. That's awesome. And, and you think about like that security that gives the, the rest of the team advisors and those, that security they can pass on to their clients as well and just makes the, makes everything better because of it.

[00:29:15] Nick: It's very cool.

[00:29:16] Josh: Yeah, I mean, and, and I just think about, you know, what it looked like 10 years ago. It was my brother and I having to deal with everything, and now we have this amazing team around us where we can say, "Danielle, you know, you're on the op side. Help me with this." Um, even when I'm in the office, like a lot of these stuff I will just delegate elsewhere because they're better at it than me.

[00:29:34] Nick: Yeah. That's a huge distinction to make. Like a, a lot of advisers thinking about it's difficult, they find it difficult to think about from a business perspective 'cause they go, "Well, if there's something I don't want to do then I give it to someone else. Like, I feel bad about giving it to them" but the realization is actually that they, there's people that love to do the things that you don't wanna do, and they're damn good at it, right?

[00:29:52] Nick: Yep. And that, like that's the, that's the next level up thinking. Well, I mean, we covered a lot of stuff here, Josh, and I really appreciate what you shared. Uh, a- and um, I'm sure we could keep on going for for a long time. I'd love to catch back up with you, bring you back on like in a year's time or so and see where things have got and how close you get into that, uh, 3.0 goal.

[00:30:10] Nick: I'm sure you'll be a little way there. But what might you want to leave the audience with? Anything you'd want to share, uh, y- about anything else- Yeah ... for Merit or anything else that you'd like to share any words of wisdom?

[00:30:20] Josh: I think my only words of wisdom would be is, you know, this industry is changing very rapidly.

[00:30:25] Josh: If you look at- Mm .... where it was five years ago to where it is today, and it's gonna continue to change. So, uh, the biggest thing I would say is I'm not saying Merit Financial is the right spot for every single advisor and everybody needs to come Mer- become Merit advisors because we're the best in the world.

[00:30:38] Josh: But I think you've really gotta sit back and look at like where do I want to be in three years, five years, 10 years just because, you know I, I view this industry as similar to the banking industry. So if you go back to like the early 2000s we had all these bank mergers that created mega banks and now you've got an industry where you've got 10 to 15 mega banks.

[00:31:00] Josh: There's a very hollowed out middle and then you have small regional players. And I, I think that's where the financial advice industry is headed to. You're gonna have 15 to 20 mega RIAs and then there's going to be this gap in the middle and a bunch of small regional players. And so I'm not saying any direction is the right direction but just think about where you want to be because things are changing rapidly.

[00:31:22] Nick: Love it man. Like I think first thing's first, it's always about what are you trying to create as an individual, as a business owner, uh, as a parent, as a, as a, as a spouse? Like what are you trying to create in your life and I think that's, that's part of the conversation to really think about how y- how do you wanna have the biggest impact possible so I, I really appreciate you sharing what you shared today Josh.

[00:31:42] Nick: Uh, was really cool to spend some s- more time and uh, have a great rest of your day.

[00:31:47] Josh: Yeah you too Nick. I, I really appreciate you having me on and yes I'd be happy to come back in year or so and update you on where we're at.

[00:31:54] Nick: Awesome thanks Josh. Uh, well um, I'll, uh ... Yeah w- they'll be able to cut it from that point but thanks very much for hanging out.

[00:32:01] Nick: Did you uh, did you have fun? Was that good?

[00:32:03] Josh: Oh, I love doing these things, like it's super fun. I mean and honestly like what you're talking about is kind of like my day job when I'm talking to prospective firms- Yeah, yeah. I bet, yeah ...of like who were you? Why did you go to Merit? Yeah. Like what was your life like?

[00:32:15] Josh: But no I really enjoy doing this stuff.

[00:32:17] Nick: Yeah cool man. It, it's fascinating for me. I just love like the little inferences and things that happen and how you pick out the stuff and yeah you're just a great example of like h- How ... Well like you said e- everyone's got a different journey and how-- the way they go to decide whether they, where they go to i- is, is different n- necessarily but like just th- you're a g- g- good example of like helping you can make it work in the best level so - Yes ...you're a pretty -- That's really cool man.

[00:32:41] Nick: Um, I, I know ... So m- mine, the podcast guys will work on getting it altogether and everything and you'll be able to have uh, we'll give you information about when it's ready and uh, uh, you'd better have all the stuff to go and do whatever with marketing team want to go do with it.

[00:32:54] Josh: Yeah that would be great 'cause I know our marketing team will promote it on LinkedIn- Yep ...YouTube, all the fun social media stuff and probably blast it out to merit wide clients as well.

[00:33:03] Nick: Awesome man. Very cool. All right well I appreciate you. Hopefully we can connect again soon and uh, and if there's anything else we can ... Oh it's just fun, fun connecting anyway 'cause I, it's like n- and I ... My, our, my girls are about the same age as yours as well as you might remember actually head off to go and um, pick up my five-year-old from guitar practice in a minute.

[00:33:22] Josh: Too funny. I, I'm heading out in 90 minutes or so to get mine from school so.

[00:33:26] Nick: Okay.All right man speak to you soon. All right take care