Welcome back to the 262nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Melanie Milam. Melanie is the founder of Gateway Financial Partners, a hybrid financial advisory firm based in Midland, Texas, that oversees $150 million of assets for 110 client households.
What’s unique about Melanie, though, is her approach to connecting with clients, mostly in the oil and gas industry, through a tried-and-true list of 34 questions she’s built specifically geared toward maximizing the amount of time clients talk about themselves, to not only gain a better perspective on their goals, but to create deeper, longer-lasting relationships.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Melanie and her husband began her firm by leveraging her knowledge as a CPA and his managerial experience and personal connections in the oil and gas industry (which lead them to find her niche market), the way Melanie’s firm segments clients into tiers to align their services and provide specialized gifts and experiences for her top clients, and how Melanie’s faith drove her to obtain her Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA) designation so that she can connect with her faith-based clients and give back to her community.
We also talk about how Melanie managed to begin her firm while homeschooling 6 children, why Melanie believes it’s so important to create stability in your own financial life before launching a business to help advise clients in theirs, and how it was the realization that Melanie does her best work when she’s in front of her clients that helped her build the courage to begin hiring a team that helps ensure she’s maximizing her time in front of her clients.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Melanie shares her “can have it all” (just not all at the same time) mindset about the women in the financial services industry, the way Melanie weaves her faith into her advice and her own life and business decisions, how Melanie’s passion for helping others inspired her sons to join the firm and further built client trust.
So whether you’re interested in learning about Melanie’s unique CKA designation and how she translates faith into financial advice, what inspires Melanie to create deeper relationships with her clients, or how she built her firm as a busy but attentive mother of 6, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Melanie Milam.
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