Advisor Freedom

"I was the only advisor now at a firm with $300M in assets..." 😳

What do you do when your boss gets suspended by the SEC and you just started financial advising?

I talked to Adam Harding, founder of Harding Wealth, who got his start in the financial advising industry from a Craigslist ad.

It was 2008. Phoenix housing market was collapsing. And Adam was making twelve bucks an hour shredding documents.

Two years ...

“I told them I was leaving P&G to become a financial advisor. They looked at me sideways.”

Brad Morgan had the job most people dream about.

Engineer at Procter & Gamble.Six years in.Great salary. Total stability.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling: This isn’t it.

So he walked away.

No CFP.No financial background.Just a hunch that planning was where he was supposed to be.

That bet paid off. Brad built his book from scratch & le...

“Over 80% of my revenue comes from LinkedIn.”

That’s what Mondo told me.He meets most of these clients virtually. 

But this wasn’t always the plan.

Mondo Salavanti didn’t come from finance.He was a football guy.Med school was the dream.

One phone call with his dad’s financial advisor changed the direction of everything.

He got licensed.Started cold calling.Studied for his CFP at night.Built his book from zero.

No connections.No leads.Jus...

“When I moved to Knoxville 10 years ago, I literally knew nobody.”

That’s how it started.

Skee Orr didn’t just move cities.He left behind his network, his job, and his comfort zone.

No clients. No warm leads.Just a CFP designation and a golf scramble invite.

He said yes.

That one yes turned into Rotary Club.Rotary turned into volunteer work.Then community boards. Then lunch invites. Then real relationships.

By the time most people notice...

What do you do if you're a CFP who gets fired?

That's what happened to Colton Etherton.

Former advisor. Now the founder of Slices Design.
He built a financial planning firm from scratch.
Then burned it all down.
And pivoted into web design for advisors.

No roadmap. No safety net. Just a sharp left turn.

And it worked.

Today, Colton’s brand stands out as the best in the industry.
His designs get shared at conferences....

Should you marry your business partner?

That's what Dave & Lauren Fischer did.

Their love story turned business partners is almost as good as a certain Avril Lavigne song from the early 2000s. 

Dave started in tech. Lauren started in hedge funds. Neither thought financial advising was in their future.

But after late-night talks, big career shifts, and a lot of “are you sure about this?” from friends… 

They teamed...

Every advisor has to start somewhere, but what do you do when you move to a new city and have no personal market?

That's what happened with Collin Osbahr from Beck Capital Management.
He started his career straight out of college, building a financial practice from scratch.
No safety net.
No big book of clients.
Just pure hustle.

And he made it work.
Today, he works with a mix of high-net-worth clients and younger ...

I talked to Chris Haigh, co-founder of Iconoclastic Capital.

He started at Northwestern Mutual fresh out of college.

Selling life insurance to anyone who would take a meeting.

No safety net. No rich uncle. Just a mechanic’s son grinding his way through a broken system.

He hit the top 10 producers in the country. Then spent years stuck in the captive model.

Hidden fees. Moving goalposts. Compliance headaches.

Un...

I talked to Patrick Shaw, co-founder of Fortitude Financial Partners.

Unlike most financial advisors, he didn’t come from money.

Not even close.

He grew up with a scarcity mindset and finding meals at

churches & food banks.

He was the first in his family to go to college.

And what did he study?

"Basketball and teaching."

But during his junior year, something clicked.

He got a job writing grants for nonprofits.

It sparke...

Janitor turned CFP & CPA like he's 'Good Will Hunting'

I sat down with Tom Corley (LinkedIn), bestselling author of Rich Habits and one of the rare professionals who is both a CPA and CFP.
He started his career as a janitor in community college.

Twenty hours a week just to pay for tuition.
That grind became the foundation for a career helping hundreds of business owners build real wealth.
Tom now runs a s...

INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT!

I talked to Ryan Henderson (@CCM_Ryan ), co-host of one of the fastest-growing investing podcasts in the U.S: Chit Chat Stocks

The best part?
He is not a licensed financial advisor.
No CFA. No CFP. No Wall Street pedigree.

Just a love for researching stocks.

And that obsession turned into a show ranked #3 on the U.S. investing charts.

Ryan and his co-host Brett met as backup kickers on their college football te...

What happens when your first client account crashes during Black Monday... and your client threatens to "blow you out of the water"?

You learn fast.

And that’s exactly what Steve Manuel did.

This week’s guest has seen every market cycle since 1975. His first mentor started in 1926 and watched the ticker tape in person during the 1929 crash.

Steve became a financial planner before most people even knew what a CFP was.

And his a...

What happens when a college intern never leaves and ends up becoming a partner?

That’s Matt Gotchall’s (@matt_gottshall) story.

He started as a student at Ohio State, shadowing financial advisors. Now he’s helping lead a 12-person advisory team that’s reshaping what the client experience looks like.

One firm. Whole career. He earned trust from the inside and built a book that now spans 90+ client relationships.

Matt com...

Thomas Kopelman (@TKopelman) has one of the fastest growing RIA firms today. And he built all of it off of doing what he does best: teaching people.

Thomas ran into roadblocks in the BD world where he was limited on what he could say or post, so he left. And within 3 years had a massive social media following, a collab partnership with one of the industry's biggest vendors and an RIA firm with dozens of great clients.

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Today's podcast is with Doug Boneparth ⁠(@dougboneparth)⁠ and how he started his financial advising career in the fall of 2008 in New York City. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. His stories of that time are incredible.

Doug now works with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and has built his practice and brand into serving people that everyone used to overlook: Millennials.

He has built one of the best organi...

Today's podcast is with Zach Ashburn ⁠(@zachary_ashburn)⁠ and how he started his own RIA and then partnered with someone who 10x the business.

We also cover his recent 'fame' status creating viral tweets using Gemini and Veo videos to get hundreds of thousands of people to see his profile and website. One of the top entrepreneurs in this field that I loved talking to.

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Today's podcast is with Mark Cecchini (@markcecchini) and how he built one of the fastest growing social media followings on Twitter/X and LinkedIn walking through complex financial planning strategies.

We also dive deep into how he just crossed $100M AUM in personal clients and how a large piece of that just came over the last few years as he developed his own voice and brand for new clients to find him online.

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Advisor Freedom is the podcast for financial advisors who want to learn what it really takes to build a thriving advisory career & what wealthy clients are actually doing with their money.

Hosted by Conner Young, who launched his own independent RIA firm in 2021, the show shares real stories from advisors who’ve broken away, built their books from scratch, and refined their client service models through experience.

Each e...