An objective source to learn about independent business models
This is a transcript of HTGI podcast episode 23 (click HERE to check out that show) I did with Ashley Hodge. It has not been edited to a final draft quality, so please excuse any hard-to-follow passages. You can also listen to the show using the media player to the right.
Sean: Today I’m with Chad Atkins, one of my business partners. Chad had quite a remarkable move from wholesaler to advisor as we documented in Episode 2 of the podcast. So if you want to hear the whole story, go back and listen to that one. Great discussion about how he got here. Chad, thanks for joining me.
This website is called How To Go Independent. The natural question that I probably should follow that is what does that actually mean? What does it mean to “be independent?”
After six and a half years of having my own practice, and about six years before that pondering having my own practice, I have an understanding in my own head and with the people I talk to regularly what independent means. But a couple things have come up in the last week that have reminded me that anytime you're trying to communicate something that you're very familiar with, you need to do the best to start at the beginning.
Gerald had a long and distinguished career at the Kroger company, ending up as the district manager at the end of his time there when he finally decided it was time to try something different. After the stresses of holiday time and retail, the general restructuring, downsizings, and uprisings that can happen in large organizations, he decided being a financial advisor would be a good way to give himself more control, and flexibility of his time.
This is a general transcript of a recent podcast episode (listen by clicking here) where I breakdown a few tools that I find useful as an independent financial advisor. There are a lot of options out there and the freedom to find what fits your practice best is another great benefit of being independent.
This link is to a great post from last fall by Josh Brown---he of Twitter and CNBC fame. I can't add too much to the content itself, so I will just say---read it!
Below is the summary I pulled from the end of the article where Brown contrasts what should cause advisors to go independent....and what should not. It is as much about attitudes and beliefs as it is about money.