Useful...

A year ago, in a lunch meeting with a business executive whom I deeply respect, while recounting the disconnect between my activities and professional success, I was hit with a question that changed the course of my professional life. I'd been a successful Financial Advisor years before, and after having been whipsawed between the Great Financial Crisis and my own career and personal longings, I'd found a kind of stasis. I traded challenge for comfort, and familiarity over what was once aspirational, and I had developed a sense that my best days may well be in the rear view mirror. It was a bit like sitting in a lukewarm jacuzzi. Don't feel too bad for me - so many people have it so much worse. My clients were happy-ish, my firm was disappointed but supportive, and my family loves me. I mean really LOVES me. I'm blessed. In fact that was part of the problem - I was experiencing what Brene Brown calls "Foreboding Joy".

So back to me and my pal the Guru. I'd been telling Alan (the Guru) that Founder/CEOs were continually referred to me for my help in thinking through what was next for their business; should they buy another business, sell this business, and if the latter, should they sell to their management or employees, to an outside buyer, and if it was an outside buyer, should it be a private equity firm or a strategic buyer more closely aligned with their own industry. And I'm not talking about be called or emailed every once in a while. It was as if that was my business and business was good! Except it wasn't. My business was managing people's money and helping them retire well, meet their legacy and giving objectives, and optimize their investment choices. In fact that's the only thing I was paid to do for clients. None of my advice related to their business choices would compensate me directly and that's where I spent 60%-80% of my time. The meta idea was that they'd reinvest their proceeds with me after successful sales, and I'd continue to be their trusted advisor as they moved from direct ownership of a business to the management of their financial assets. And that plan could have worked. At least in theory. So when Alan asked, "Is all of that activity making you successful?", I had to honestly (and frustratedly) tell him the truth, and the answer was NO. That was tough, but the follow up question was even tougher. He asked, "Well whose fault is that?". And that's what changed my trajectory.

I'm 57 years old. Society (and financial advisors like I used to be) would say I should be thinking about retirement. Or maybe thinking about semi-retirement (not sure what that is), non-profit involvement (check - already on that one), or some glide path to an easy finish to the work part of life. That's just not how I'm wired. And lest you think this is a humble brag about my relentless desire to strive, or my insatiable work-ethic, let me stop you right there. I NEED to work. For all of the reasons people work. And frankly, though I know plenty of people who could stop, the only people I've met in 35+ years or working with wealthy investors, are people who; a) have enough, b) just don't want to continue working. That's a really small subset of my personal and professional realm of acquaintance. Most people, like me, either can't stop or still want to do more. I'm in both of those camps.

Since I recently read a an excerpt from Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, I'll come to the point. Here's what happened next, and what continues to happen daily. None of this is conclusive - it's all in process.

1. I read. A lot! Sometimes because I wanted answers and sometimes because I needed to escape the intensity of the work. From James Clear's Atomic Habits I linked to Brene Brown's Dare to Lead Hub and cut down a list of ~ 100 possibilities to my two Core Values (it's a tough exercise - I challenge you to do it thoughtfully and well). From there I was clear - Authenticity & Integrity were it for me. Period. Full stop.
2. I explored options for; a) starting my own firm from scratch, and doing what I was already doing advising clients about their money, b) merging into a similar firm or platform with my existing clients (or some subset of them), or c) taking up-front money to join a large firm and convincing my clients (or a subset of them) that moving with me, or joining me in any of those options would be better for them. In the final analysis, and for a variety of moral, legal, practical, and even existential reasons, I did none of those things. My business wasn't large, at $1.4mm in revenue and $175mm in AUM, but the clients are meaningful to me and making sure everyone was well taken care of is important and USEFUL work. Instead I made the right decision for me. And probably for them. I talked to my partners, worked through some logistics, and developed a pathway out of my firm that allowed for my clients to be in on the process and well taken care of, and for me to have some control over the timing and story.
3. Then I developed what I've loosely starting calling the "Digging Out" framework, which includes, but certainly doesn't have to be limited to;
4. Develop a Project Plan that includes discrete tasks like updating my LinkedIn profile and continuing on to significant life goals like Financial Security through owning my Personal Brand, and important lists of contacts who could help, companies I could help, a personal advisory board who believes in me, and projects or jobs that would bring in $ in the short and long term, then moving to the execution of the plan,
5. Update my LinkedIn profile, Resume(s), and any Social/Public presence
6. Develop a matrix of cohorts and experiences where my judgment and guidance can be USEFUL (this is a really empowering exercise - I'll write more on this later)
7. Considered the likelihood that I'd spend the rest my career doing projects rather than having a job. THAT proved to be accidentally insightful, and then paradoxically led to a great job.

I'm old enough to have gone through Franklin Covey training when both Hyrum Smith, Franklin's founder, and Steven Covey, the creator of The Seven Habits were still doing the lectures personally. It's a dorkier version of the t-shirts that pop up daily in my Instagram feed that say, "I may be old, but I got to see all the cool bands". So I pulled from the deep recesses and went to Habit #2 - Begin with the End in Mind. Specifically I mapped out my financial resources as a timeline, prioritized the Project Plan mentioned in #4 above, worked with my firm to establish our internal plan, and got to work as if the money would run out in two weeks. This last bit proved vital to staying daily on task, work the plan and process daily, and not allowing myself to bask in my newfound freedom to hang out at Philz, though truth be told I drank lots of coffee and the Baristas all know me by name...so "I've got that goin for me, which is cool" (credit to Carl Spackler in Caddyshack).

I'll write more about my experiences in this process, including the specifics of Digging Out, and importantly, what I learned about myself and my USEFULness in this work. For today though, I'll focus on what came from the work in terms of projects and opportunities:

1. CEO/Consultant to a large private fitness manufacturing firm looking for an exit or capital partner. Compelling, but tricky dynamics with misaligned stakeholder interests.
2. CFO/Consultant to public software and solar energy companies, and consultant, advisor, or board member for multiple private companies. Not sure I'm the right guy for those roles, but they all had interest in continuing the discussion.
3. Managing Director at three traditional middle-market investment banks. Compelling, but not quite right...a little bit of a Goldilocks phenomenon on my side.
4. Advisor to the CEO of an significant Impact Investment platform. Really LOVED this one. The investors in that one didn't quite see the fit. IMHO, their loss.
5. A few Family Office advisory roles, though none robust of definitive enough to be compelling, and more geographically dependent than I had the latitude to consider.
6. At least six financial advisory firms interested in me joining in some capacity, but ultimately I kept coming back to #2 above. In the absence of a large client base, most of those firms weren't interested in getting my maximum USEFULness. Just my book of clients. Can't really blame them. More on that dynamic in future posts as it turns out there was a way to help them...
7. Finally, the opportunity I'm beginning soon! Not surprisingly, it began with networking/brainstorming conversation with a friend that led to a fantastic opportunity to use 90%+ of my USEFULness, connect to an established platform, build on important work they're doing, and add broader and deeper capabilities in work I'll do with them. The financial rewards are enough, and they can scale up with my USEFULness. Those were table stakes. But even more so, the potential to build on the things I enjoy, the areas where I add the most value, and the ability to learn and grow with a committed group are all present. That drove the decision to conclude the plan, and go all-in with them. The announcement of my next role is coming soon and it's not 100% my story to tell, so I'll leave that to a future post. This part, however IS my story to tell, and I hope it resonates.