Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 408th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Maddi Keegan. Maddi is a Financial Advisor and the Director of Operations of Frazier Financial Advisors, an RIA based in Columbus, Ohio that oversees $860M in assets under management for 650 client households.
What’s unique about Maddi, though, is that after building a successful solo advisory firm, she then decided to merge her business with Frazier Financial Advisors, a mid-sized RIA in her area where she negotiated for a stake in the business while stepping into both an advisor and operational role where she could really have impact in helping them to scale to the next level.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Maddi, after successfully establishing and building her own solo firm, made the decision to merge her firm with a larger (but not too large) firm and negotiated the ‘2-way’ street of sharing her knowledge while also absorbing the way of Frazier Financial, how Maddi charted the size and worth of her (solo) firm against Frazier Financial’s (multi-advisor) firm to allow for an equitable 18-month transition into Frazier, and how Maddi’s 3 non-negotiables of company culture, equity, and base compensation shaped how Maddi negotiated a package that she ‘felt’ acknowledged the full spectrum of her value, from existing clients to knowledge of large business operations, that she brought to the table.
We also talk about Maddi’s own unique journey from working at a Fortune 100 company to launching as a solo advisor to now being a director at her firm, including how, as a solo advisor, Maddi invested just $1,500 in improving her SEO strategy at her firm by leveraging better keywords and gathering Google Reviews and soon managed to get over 50% of her new prospects coming from Google instead of referrals, how Maddi’s experience of mentoring, hiring, and eventually losing her first (contractor-turned-)employee made Maddi reflect on what she really wanted out of building her own firm (and ultimately decide that she didn’t want to continue to build alone), and how Maddi explained her decision to close her business and merge with Frazier Financial to her existing clients, highlighting it as an expansion of resources and opportunities for her and her clients, ensuring that she was ultimately able to bring all but 2 of those clients along with her.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Maddi shares how Frazier Financial positions ‘at cost’ tax preparation as a value proposition (to clients who actually don’t really need a further discount, but are instead just eager to delegate), how Maddi looks to build out her firm’s tech stack to get Frazier Financial though the ‘dangerous middle’ of growing and scaling the business, and why Maddi believes that the most powerful thing an up-and-coming advisor can do is network and build good connections with those around them to open more doors, as she reflects on how being a volunteer leader in her local FPA chapter was the introduction that led her to the firm she’s at today.So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to frame big changes as opportunities for clients (who may not mind those ‘big changes’ very much anyway), how to build holistic personal and professional goals and actually make progress year over year, or how to evaluate and negotiate a broad variety of career opportunities, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Maddi Keegan.
Leave a Reply